Week 52 | In the End, We Win

 LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

2 Timothy; 2 Peter; 1-3 John; Jude; Revelation

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Hope At the End of Peter and Paul's Lives (2 Peter and 2 Timothy). These two letters clearly reflect Peter and Paul -the central figures of the book of Acts- at what they know to be the ends of their lives. Reliable church tradition as early as the 100's AD suggests that both were executed in Rome under the Emperor Nero, and that setting is reflected in both of these letters as they both appear to write from prison. And yet, there is real hope in both letters. In 2 Timothy 4:18, Paul writes: "The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever." In 2 Peter 1:10-14, Peter writes: "There will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ... think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon." When our hope is found where no tyrant on earth could touch it, then our strength and our joy will be firmly founded on something that no one can ever take away.

Hope in the Ministry Challenges of John and Jude (1-3 John and Jude). The Apostle John and the brother of Jesus named Jude both faced significant ministry challenges. In Jude, there is a movement within the church to divert them from the Gospel, and he opposes it in the strongest terms. In 3 John, John has to deal with a man named Diotrephes who has decided that he is a better authority on following Jesus Christ than the apostles themselves. 1 John reflects a number of false teachings that were working their way into the church. Those who work in church ministry and want to see the church shaped by the Gospel never have any shortage of challenges within or without. But there is hope here too. Some of the most amazing passages about Christ's love can be found in, for example 1 John 3-4. Or Jude 1:24-25. How can we be without hope? Through Jesus, we win in the end.

Hope Because in the End, Jesus Wins (Revelation). There are many different understandings of the book of Revelation, which I will mostly not get into here. Other than to say that I think this is truly a book about what will happen in the future, in the same vein as the visions of Daniel 2, 7-12, for which we already have historical fulfillments. With that understanding, there are many things here that are hard to interpret. It looks like there will be difficult days ahead. But also many wonderful opportunities to make Jesus known. And in the end, Revelation 20-22 give us this message: in the end, Jesus wins. He is coming back. All tyrants will be deposed. All sickness will be cured. Every tear will be wiped away. All the proud will be brought low, and all the lowly and humble shall be raised up. When Jesus descends from the clouds to sit on his throne, the saints will rise up to bow down before it. Death will be swallowed up in life, and the nations will rejoice, and every knee will bow down and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. He wins! That's not a prediction: it's a spoiler. We who have trusted in Christ are on the winning team. We know where our home is. And we're just recruiting so that we can bring people there with us, to enjoy it together.

DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?

How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? I won't lay out exact responses in this space because the possibilities are often endless. But it is worth it to think about application in the categories of worship, attitude, and actions. Does this reading direct me to God in worship and thanksgiving and praise, or does it direct me towards a change that I need to make here and now? If it's about a change that I need to make, is this something inward in my attitude, or outward in my actions? This helps to rescue application from just being a series of how-to tips, or one-size-fits-all instructions that go beyond what the Bible actually states. Sometimes, the most helpful application we can make is to get a different perspective on what's the most important thing, or about how we should respond inwardly to the things going on around us.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?

Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.

-Sean

Week #51 | A New and Better Hope

LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

Hebrews; Titus; 1 Timothy; 1 Peter

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Jesus Is Greater (Hebrews). Although I find it odd for Steinmann's chronological plan to place the letter to the Hebrews before the end of Paul's life, I am still happy to read through Hebrews any chance I get. The entire theme of the book is that Jesus is Greater. Jesus is greater than the angels (Hebrews 1-2). He is greater than Moses (Hebrews 3) and Joshua (Hebrews 4). He is a greater High Priest (Hebrews 5-7). He brings us a greater covenant (Hebrews 8). He is greater than all of the Temple worship of the Old Covenant (Hebrews 9). He is a greater sacrifice (Hebrews 10). He is the greater, perfect foundation for our ultimate example (Hebrews 11-12). And he is the great unchanging Lord in whom we find our rest, and to whom we direct our sincere worship (Hebrews 13).

Letter to a Church Revitalizer (Titus and 1 Timothy). Paul's letter to Titus was not to a church planter--the congregation at Crete had already been in existence for some time. But the church was in need of revitalization. So Paul sent Titus there to raise up leaders, to equip the church to be a witness to the surrounding community, to instruct the believers there, and to help bring it into cooperation with the wider mission of the surrounding churches. Timothy, though he got a tough time from his congregation for his youth, also received a similar charge in the letter of 1 Timothy. Each of these letters is surprisingly rich and worthy of careful reading, not just by those who are interested in church leadership but by all Christians. These letters together might constitute what we would call God's Blueprint for a Healthy Church. These are the first letters that we go to when we try to understand: what is the church supposed to do? How should it be organized? What is God's intention for us as a community that bears his name?

The Gospel-Driven Life (1 Peter). The thing I love about Peter's first letter is that everything flows out of the truth of the Gospel. No sooner is Peter done marveling at what Jesus has done for us, than he immediately reflects on how this should be reflected in our lives. When he's done reflecting on the practical applications, he moves back to how the applications move us right back to the heart of the Gospel. Then back to transformation. Then to the Gospel. Over and over. What Jesus has done is transformational. And we are transformed because of what Jesus has done. The Gospel does not leave us the same; it invites us into The Gospel-Driven Life.

DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?

How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? I won't lay out exact responses in this space because the possibilities are often endless. But it is worth it to think about application in the categories of worship, attitude, and actions. Does this reading direct me to God in worship and thanksgiving and praise, or does it direct me towards a change that I need to make here and now? If it's about a change that I need to make, is this something inward in my attitude, or outward in my actions? This helps to rescue application from just being a series of how-to tips, or one-size-fits-all instructions that go beyond what the Bible actually states. Sometimes, the most helpful application we can make is to get a different perspective on what's the most important thing, or about how we should respond inwardly to the things going on around us.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?

Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.

-Sean

Week #50 | Short Handbooks for the Christian Faith

LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

Acts 20-28; Ephesians; Philippians; Colossians; Philemon; James

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

God is the Gospel (Acts 20-28). The life of Paul illustrates that the ultimate reward of following God is: we get God. The man who began his life as a persecutor of the church did not get wealth, or power, or fame, or comfort from his new life as a follower of Jesus--but he got Jesus. That was more than enough. And much like the narrative in the Gospels slows down for Jesus' journey to Jerusalem and the final week of his life, the book of Acts slows down for Paul's final journey to Rome. Paul ends his role in the telling of the book of Acts by mirroring the journey of his savior. (However, Paul would actually be released and serve for one more missionary journey as the letters to the Philippians and Philemon anticipate, and 1-2 Timothy and Titus attest, before finally being executed upon returning to Rome.) I don't think Paul would have asked for anything different. God himself is the reward of the Gospel. The Good News is that the Creator of the universe has given us communion with himself.

A Handbook on the Christian Faith (Ephesians 1-6). From his imprisonment in Rome, Paul continued to write letters to encourage the churches that he had founded. Remembering his long stay in Ephesus in Asia, he wrote them a handbook on the implications of the Gospel. He also wrote to the church of the nearby city of Colossae, also in Asia, which he sent out together with his letter to Philemon. Remembering his time in Macedonia, he wrote to Philippi. The letter to the Ephesians is a short and punchy handbook to the Christian faith. It contains a tightly-packed instruction in the Christian faith in chapters 1-3, and then details the practical life applications of that message in chapter 4-6. A short but detailed letter like this would have been, and still is, an incredibly useful discipleship tool for the local Elders to use to educate the new Christians in that area as they accepted the Gospel and began to grow in their understanding of it. It is worth reading through slowly and reflectively, drawing out the riches of the wisdom that God gave to Paul.

A Reason for Joy (Philippians 1-4). The book of Philippians was written to a church that had experienced significant difficulties. So Paul wrote to them from prison as one who could empathize with their struggling, to encourage them to find joy in the Lord. Several times over every chapter of the letter, he tells the Philippian Christians to "rejoice!" (Philippians 1:18; 2:17-18; 2:28; 3:1; 4:4). Paul writes to them -and through Paul's letter to them, God says to us- that is is possible to rejoice in the midst of suffering (Philippians 1), to rejoice in humility (Philippians 2), to rejoice in the mission before us (Philippians 3), and rejoice in the community of faith (Philippians 4).

An Encouragement to Gospel Simplicity (Colossians 1-4 and Philemon). So often, we try to add things to the simple message of the Gospel in order to seem more spiritual than others. The irony is that these things make us less spiritual. Paul wrote to the church at Colossae to counter a sort of anti-body asceticism that had creeped in (Colossians 2:16-23). He points out that the type of false piety that focuses overly on who can deny themselves the most is, in the end, not less focused on material things but more focused on material things. Asceticism takes the message of Christ, sent from heaven, and instead focuses your mind on extensive rules and regulations here on earth. Ultimately the real transformation that we seek comes from drawing near to Christ.

The Kind of Faith That Saves (James). The letter of James sometimes gets unfairly passed over in the church. It contains a message that denies that we are saved by faith alone (James 2:24). And yet, James is talking about the problem of only holding to an intellectual faith--not the heartfelt trust in God which Paul writes about, but instead a merely mental assent to the truth that God exists. We need the message that James presents us with: that kind of faith won't save us. Instead, it is the kind of faith -heartfelt trust- that results in works which saves us (James 2:18-22). Many of us have been given a faith which is more the result of simple slogans, sappy moralism, and loud shouting than any real or honest interaction with the details of the New Testament. So, sadly, very few Christians today have honestly spent any time wrestling with the letter of James. But we should. Because this letter is vital for showing us the kind of faith that really, truly draws us into relationship with Jesus Christ.

DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?

How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? I won't lay out exact responses in this space because the possibilities are often endless. But it is worth it to think about application in the categories of worship, attitude, and actions. Does this reading direct me to God in worship and thanksgiving and praise, or does it direct me towards a change that I need to make here and now? If it's about a change that I need to make, is this something inward in my attitude, or outward in my actions? This helps to rescue application from just being a series of how-to tips, or one-size-fits-all instructions that go beyond what the Bible actually states. Sometimes, the most helpful application we can make is to get a different perspective on what's the most important thing, or about how we should respond inwardly to the things going on around us.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?

Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.

-Sean

Week #49 | The Ministry of Mutual Encouragement

LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

Acts 20:1-6; 2 Corinthians 1-13; Romans 1-16

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Spending Time With Good Friends (Acts 20:1-6). In our shortest reading from Week #49, Paul travels back to Corinth ("Greece," in Acts 20:2) and then back through Philippi (Acts 20:5-6), and also meets with representatives from the Gospel-centered work that was still occurring in the previously reached regions of Galatia and Asia (Acts 20:4). As Paul pointed out in his letter to the Romans, he desired these types of gatherings so that he and those with him "may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith" (Romans 1:12). If the greatest missionary in the history of the Christian faith needed to spend time with other believers so that he might be encouraged by their company, so do we. It might be worthwhile to call up some Christian friends from previous seasons of your life so that you and they might be mutually encouraged by each other.

Gospel-Driven Ministry (2 Corinthians). In the letter of 2 Corinthians, written from Macedonia (around Acts 20:1), Paul continued to write to and guide the church in Corinth. This is pretty incredible if you think about it. Here is Paul, having gone out to further regions, still having a concern for the churches that he has served in the past, and still pastoring them from afar through his network of co-laborers and the communication tools available to him in that day. In fact, this letter is written in preparation of a visit that he intends to make to them. In the letter of 2 Corinthians he defends his Gospel (2 Corinthians 1-6) and his ministry (2 Corinthians 7-13). Everything he does is based on the message that he proclaims. Which should lead us to ask: if we had to write a letter proving to a hostile group that everything we have done is based on the Gospel that we proclaim, could we write that letter convincingly? What would we have to change in our lives in order to be able to write such a letter?

A Defense of the Gospel (Romans). Internal evidence strongly suggests that this letter was written from Corinth, and reflected Paul's desire to travel to the largest city in the country to make the biggest impact for the sake of the Gospel. This is impressive if you think about it, and it's a window into what made Paul such an effective evangelist: here Paul was dealing with a significant issue in the church of Corinth which was worthy of significant amounts of his time, attention, and which demanded his physical presence. He made sure that it received all those things. And yet while he was there, he was already setting his sights on the next frontier and sending a letter ahead of him! We need more forward thinkers in the church like this today. Romans reads like a detailed argument for the Gospel to which Paul holds (Romans 1-11) and to the practical implications of that Gospel in the lives of believers (Romans 12-16). It is worth reading carefully, and slowly, and prayerfully. For its thoroughness and clarity about the message of the greatest missionary who ever lived, it has often been called The Greatest Letter Ever Written.

DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?

How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? I won't lay out exact responses in this space because the possibilities are often endless. But it is worth it to think about application in the categories of worship, attitude, and actions. Does this reading direct me to God in worship and thanksgiving and praise, or does it direct me towards a change that I need to make here and now? If it's about a change that I need to make, is this something inward in my attitude, or outward in my actions? This helps to rescue application from just being a series of how-to tips, or one-size-fits-all instructions that go beyond what the Bible actually states. Sometimes, the most helpful application we can make is to get a different perspective on what's the most important thing, or about how we should respond inwardly to the things going on around us.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?

Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.

-Sean

Week #48 | A Wide-Scale Blueprint for Reaching the Lost

LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

Acts 13-19; Galatians 1-6; 1 Thessalonians 1-5; 2 Thessalonians 1-3; 1 Corinthians 1-16

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Mission to Galatia and the Battle for the Gospel (Acts 13:1-15:5 and Galatians). The first sponsored, funded missions trip in history was led by a former persecutor of the church, and it resulted in a major council to sort out what God was doing in the Gentile frontier.  The church had first heard about the opening for the Gospel among non-Jews back in Acts 10-11, but here in Acts 13 the church in Syrian Antioch becomes the sending base for an official, wider mission to the Gentiles. First they went into the region of Galatia, reaching Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe (Acts 13-14). There are some missions and church planting principles evident in these chapters which are worth going back to look at. They experienced encouraging success, but also violent opposition from the Jewish community who followed and opposed them (13:50; 14:2; 14:19). Still, they made a return trip before they finished up, circling back through the places that they had reached and strengthening the fledgling communities there. The process for these early missions seems to have been to preach the Gospel in as broad a region as possible, then circle back to strengthen any groups that actually took hold, and then send back more organized support and instructions afterwards. Upon coming back to their sending church at Syrian Antioch, another group of Christians came from Judea and accused Paul and Barnabas of having preached the wrong Gospel. They insisted that these Gentiles should have had to accept the marks of Judaism to be saved (15:1-2). So they went down to Jerusalem to sort out the matter. This was a high-stakes meeting: the church was being called on to define the Gospel right as it had just started being proclaimed among the nations. Some time after initial discussions with the leaders in Jerusalem, but before an official decision was reached at the Jerusalem Council, Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians, sending it back to the churches he had just founded to defend the Gospel that he had preached to them. Soon afterwards the Jerusalem Council decided in his favor.

Mission to Macedonia, Athens, and Achaia, and Letters to the Thessalonians (Acts 15:6-18:11 and 1-2 Thessalonians). After the Jerusalem council and some initial visits, the Spirit directed Paul into the unreached region of Macedonia (16:6-10). Among the cities that he and his team reach, two are notable for most Christians: the cities of Philippi (Acts 16) and Thessalonica (Acts 17), both of which have biblical letters addressed to them. Unfortunately, while there was good opportunity for the Gospel in those places, the opposition made it impossible for the team to stay there. So they moved on to Athens (Acts 17), and then went to Corinth (Acts 18), where an unusual openness to the Gospel made it possible for Paul to stay there for "a year and six months" (Acts 18:11). This made it possible for Paul to organize the work that had begun, and this is likely when he wrote his letters to the Thessalonians with the input of his helpers Silas and Timothy. It's interesting that although Paul experienced a specific call to Macedonia (Acts 16:6-10), both cities in the area were full of opposition. Just because God calls us to do something, and just because he opens the hearts of people to the Gospel, doesn't mean the work will be easy. Anyone looking for a balanced, stable, gradual, and safe advance of the Gospel is not going to find it. God calls us to hard places to do difficult things.

Ministry in Corinth and Ephesus, and First Letter to the Corinthians (Acts 18:12-19:10 and 1 Corinthians). The two cities of Corinth (in the province of Achaia) and Ephesus (in the province of Asia) were unusually stable and fruitful frontiers for Gospel ministry. However they both had their problems. In the affluent and diverse city of Corinth, Paul seems -as his letters show- to have had to battle nearly every conceivable niche take or distortion of the Gospel that one could imagine, and more. The people were used to the best speakers, the flashiest presentations, and the most well-put together parties. Paul apparently had none of these things. But as his letter shows, he went in as a simple man with a simple message, and the contrast of that approach combined with the power of the Gospel was enough to make people in Corinth pay attention. Afterwards he traveled to Ephesus, which opened up a whole new regional ministry all throughout the province of Asia (Acts 19:10). Through his co-labourers and his letters, though, he continued to battle the divisions that infected the Corinthian church. As the early non-biblical letter of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians shows, even decades later the church at Corinth was a difficult group. It is hard to take hold of the Gospel when you are still hanging on to worldly standards of wisdom, success, and stability, as the Corinthians were doing.

Riot in Ephesus and Departure to Macedonia (Philippi?) in Acts 19:11-20:1. If Paul would not have been willing to move beyond one particular local ministry and on to further regions, then you and I would still be bowing down today at the pagan altar of Odin or Jupiter or of some druidic deity. It is tempting for us to be very invested in our own thing, and to tend to what we already have going. There is safety and stability in that. But as long as there were new regions where Christ had not been named, Paul was ready to move on as long as he could still support the work that had begun through sending helpers, writing letters, and making return visits. Paul moved on from Philippi in Acts 16, but when the time was right he circled back. He moved on from Thessalonica in Acts 17, but he sent Timothy back and gave them direction through his letters. He moved on from Corinth but continued to provide guidance and support there through writing to them and through the ministry of Titus. Here, he moves on from Ephesus, but we will see later in Acts 20 that he continued to provide guidance to the Elders who he had raised up in that region. This is still relevant for us today. While we should still be concerned to faithfully reach our surrounding neighborhoods, we should also be asking how God might be opening up opportunities in other under-reached areas, and how we could help to reach them. In the last 20 years, Canada has gone from 19% down to only 6.5% Evangelical Christian. How might we see that number change in the next few years if we enabled visionary missions works, and adopted the expansionist, large-scale missionary methods of Paul in our own regions and beyond?

DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?

How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? I won't lay out exact responses in this space because the possibilities are often endless. But it is worth it to think about application in the categories of worship, attitude, and actions. Does this reading direct me to God in worship and thanksgiving and praise, or does it direct me towards a change that I need to make here and now? If it's about a change that I need to make, is this something inward in my attitude, or outward in my actions? This helps to rescue application from just being a series of how-to tips, or one-size-fits-all instructions that go beyond what the Bible actually states. Sometimes, the most helpful application we can make is to get a different perspective on what's the most important thing, or about how we should respond inwardly to the things going on around us.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?

Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.

-Sean

Week #47 | The Death That Leads to Life and Proclamation

LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

Matthew 27:1-28:20; Mark 15:1-16:8; Luke 22:66-24:53; John 18:28-20:25; Acts 1-12

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Jesus (Unlike Barabbas) Conquers by His Death. There is a moment in Matthew, Mark, and Luke's Gospels that sticks out to me. It's the part where Pilate offers the crowd the choice to either free Jesus or Barabbas (Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23). Jesus looks like a loser. He looks physically beat up. He looks tired from having been run around from place to place all night. His closest followers are nowhere to be seen. Jesus hasn't done anything to solve the problem of Roman occupation since he arrived in Jerusalem. Momentum is not on his side. But Barabbas has a track record of getting things done. He's an insurrectionist who's killed for his country (Luke 23:19). He's shown his willingness to roll up his sleeves. He's committed to solving -the crowd believes- the real problems. Whatever the excitement over Jesus was during the Triumphal Entry, he hasn't done anything since getting to Jerusalem (or so the crowds believe). He's gotten everyone excited over nothing, and he's let people down. Jesus is weak. Barabbas is strong. The crowd chooses Barabbas. But Jesus is not weak. He's not ignoring the important issues. The people want instant results, and they think the problem is something external. They want a leader who will deal with the problem over there. But Jesus comes to deal with the problem inside of us. Jesus conquers, not by the death of others, but by his own death. Our problem is not some external thing outside of us. Our problem is within. Jesus came to take that away. He came not to give us a kingdom, but to welcome us into his kingdom. If we are willing to accept that, then not only will we be ready to follow Jesus, but our entire approach to life will be entirely and radically transfigured--we will be equipped to live in such a way that heaven touches earth.

The Reliable Witness of the Resurrection Appearances. It's important here to recap the appearances of Jesus--I just want to give you a picture of what it was like for those who first encountered him after his resurrection. FIRST, The Gospels of Matthew (28:10) and Mark (16:7) both record how Jesus sent word, through angels, to the women who came to his tomb on Sunday morning, to go to his disciples and tell them to meet with him in Galilee after his resurrection. But instead we find the disciples distracted with fear, and confusion, and disbelief. Luke 24:10-12 and John 20:1-10 actually tell us how the disciples did not believe the women who reported to them that Jesus had risen—Luke 24:11 says the disciples thought that the women’s words, quote, “seemed… like an idle tale, [so] they did not believe them.” Then we see that the disciples go and check out the tomb and find it empty, and they’re amazed, but they still don’t believe. (Though in his gospel, John says he believed—Jn. 20:8-9.) Then, SECOND, in John 20:11-18 Jesus appeared that day to one of the women who he had sent to his disciples, maybe to reassure her because at this point she’s starting to question herself. And at first she doesn’t recognize him, but then she does after he speaks to her. THIRD, later that same Easter Sunday, Luke 24:13-32 records that Jesus met and walked with two of the disciples on the road to a town called Emmaus, and they don’t recognize him, but then they invite him to dinner, and while he’s breaking the bread and blessing it at the dinner table they recognize him, and he instantly disappears. So FOURTH, now they’re starting to believe, and they’re freaking out, and they go to Jerusalem that night, still on Easter Sunday, to meet with the other disciples and tell them what they saw when, according to Luke 24:33-49 and John 20:19-23, “with the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jewish authorities'' (Jn.) Jesus appeared standing in the midst of them and said “Peace to you!” (Lk.) which sounds to me like Jesus is doing a jump scare. And there in that locked room in Jerusalem on Easter Sunday night, appearing to his disciples gathered together for the first time since the resurrection, Jesus tells them that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations (Lk. 24:47-48) and tells them “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (Jn. 20:21). And then, FIFTH, Jesus appears one week later still in Jerusalem to the apostle Thomas who was missing from that last meeting and had refused to believe the other disciples (John 20:24-29). Jesus appears and convinces him and Thomas believes in Jesus and calls him “my Lord and my God” (Jn. 20:28). Why did I walk you through that? Well, partly to show you why the disciples came to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. And, partly, to show you that the accounts in the different Gospels all tell one story. And just like any story where there are multiple witnesses, details in each of the accounts help to make sense of details in the other accounts, so together, they start to tell one coherent story. That is one of the marks of a story that’s genuine. And so we can trust this story.

The Proclamation of the Early Church. Imagine what it must have been like, 50 days after the Passover, for those remaining in Jerusalem to have witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Imagine seeing the disciples of Jesus show up and proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus in every language simultaneously, accompanied by signs and wonders. But here are some of the things that the early church needed to proclaim the message of the Gospel, which we also need today: (1) They needed the equipping of the Holy Spirit. This doesn't have to take the form of signs and wonders, as it did in Acts 2, but without the Holy Spirit transforming hearts and minds all of our ministry techniques are worthless. (2) They needed courage to proclaim the message. It must have been very difficult to preach in the same city, and in Acts 4 before the same council, that only a little earlier had condemned Jesus to death. As we see in Acts 7, some of them actually were put to death. The disciples had to seek God's kingdom rather than their own comfort. (3) They needed to raise up leaders and think about scale. The growth of the church forced them to organize in ways that caused them to raise up leaders and specialize certain leaders on certain activities. The apostles couldn't be involved in everything anymore or visiting everyone's home; they had to focus specifically on prayer, vision, and proclamation (Acts 6:1-4). Previously unknown people had to be recognized and moved into positions of influence (Acts 6:5-7). As we go into the second part of Acts after chapter 12, the focus of the book actually rests on the activity of an outsider, Paul, who had previously been a persecutor of the church. God used him more powerfully than he used any individual apostle who had actually been present with Jesus during his ministry. We don't get anywhere if we make it hard for new leaders to be raised up. (4) They needed to be forced to move outwards. At some point, the early church was almost a victim of their own success. Things started to seem like they were moving along smoothly (6:7-8). There wasn't any major push to move outwards; maybe the disciples thought they would, eventually, slowly, in a balanced way, move outwards when it made sense and they felt ready. The stoning of Stephen in Acts 7 was the event that took that sense of familiarity away. That event, more than any other since the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, set up the early church to move outwards and proclaim the Gospel with power and boldness. In Acts 8:4-8, it's the reason that the Gospel spread out to Samaria. In Acts 11:19-30, it's the reason that the Gospel spreads all the way out to Antioch and even begins to reach the Gentiles. If we will not move outwards on our own, God will make it uncomfortable for us to stay where we are. The Gospel will go out; but experiencing God's blessing on our obedience is better than having to be moved by his discipline.

DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?

How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? I won't lay out exact responses in this space because the possibilities are often endless. But it is worth it to think about application in the categories of worship, attitude, and actions. Does this reading direct me to God in worship and thanksgiving and praise, or does it direct me towards a change that I need to make here and now? If it's about a change that I need to make, is this something inward in my attitude, or outward in my actions? This helps to rescue application from just being a series of how-to tips, or one-size-fits-all instructions that go beyond what the Bible actually states. Sometimes, the most helpful application we can make is to get a different perspective on what's the most important thing, or about how we should respond inwardly to the things going on around us.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?

Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.

-Sean

Week #46 | The Last Teachings, Last Supper, and Capture of Jesus

 LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

(314) Matthew 23:37-24:31; Mark 12:41-13:27; Luke 21:1-27

(315) Matthew 24:32-25:46; Mark 13:28-27; Luke 21:28-38

(316) Matthew 26:1-16; Mark 14:1-11; Luke 22:1-6; John 12:2-8

(317) Matthew 26:17-25; Mark 14:12-21; Luke 22:7-30; John 13:1-30

(318) Matthew 26:26-35; Mark 14:22-31; Luke 22:17-38; John 13:31-16:4

(319) Matthew 26:36-56; Mark 14:32-52; Luke 22:39-53; John 16:5-18:12

(320) Matthew 26:57-75; Mark 14:53-72; Luke 22:54-65; John 18:13-27

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Reading #314: When the Man Comes Around. The majority of this reading is the first section of Jesus' sermon on the future appearance of the Son of Man. It appears in all of the Gospels except for John--and some think that's because John had already written on Jesus' fuller revelation about this point (if Revelation was written before John).

Reading #315: The Olivet Discourse. Between reading #314 and #315, we see Jesus' teaching on future things. (There must have been even more that he taught on this, since 1 John 3 and 1 Thessalonians 5, among other passages, reflect additional teaching that must go back to Jesus). Interestingly this teaching doesn't center on figuring out the exact time of the end. It gives a little bit of that, but mostly it teaches on how to handle some of the deceptions ahead, as well as teaching the disciples how to live now with the end in mind. It won't matter what your social standing is on the day the Son returns; it will only matter if he says to you, "inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34).

Reading #316: Judas Decides to Betray Jesus. After having been in Jerusalem for a little while, the enthusiasm that was seen at the Triumphal Entry must have slowly died off. As the acknowledged Christ, the expectation of the people would have been that Jesus would rise up and drive out the Romans. Instead, Jesus had spent the better part of the week bumming around town and had just spoken about how he would do all of the things expected of the Christ on some day far off in the future. Judas -himself named after a famous revolutionary who had won independence for Israel from the Greeks- had enough. With his disappointment, and personal self-interest at stake, he agrees to betray Jesus. I wonder if in his place you or I would have done the same. How often have we turned away from what God was doing in the world because it didn't look the way that we expected it should?

Reading #317: Judas Goes Out of the Last Supper. There is something really haunting about this reading. Judas was one of the disciples. He had his feet washed by Jesus. He broke bread with him. He saw the miracles done by him. And yet, Judas could not see Jesus for who he truly was. He left the fellowship of the other disciples and was not present for the rest of the supper.

Reading #318: The Last Supper and the Last Teaching. In all of the Gospels, it strikes me that this is the section worth paying the most attention to. Jesus knew that he was about to be betrayed. He knew that this would be his last meal with his disciples before his crucifixion. He knew this was the last teaching that he would give them before his resurrection--whatever teaching he gave after he was raised, we are either mostly not told about or the Gospel writers have woven it into sections of his earlier teaching. So he invited them to partake of the life that is in him: "He broke the bread and gave it to the disciples, and said, 'Take, eat; this is my body.' And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins'" (Matthew 26:26-28). Then he taught them about how to navigate the days ahead and about why he must go to the Father (John 14:1-16:4).

Reading #319: Last Teachings and Prayers, and Betrayal. Pay special attention to the material in John here. Jesus continues his last teachings from the previous day, and he prepares his disciples for what is about to happen. For Jesus, his betrayal isn't a setback: instead he declares, "take heart, for I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). In his prayers recorded in the other Gospels he resolutely sets his face towards the cross. When he is faced with those who have come to ambush him, he declares himself to them. In the Kingdom of God, things that look like setbacks here are victories there.

Reading #320: Jesus Before the Sanhedrin. It's incredible what those who think that they are acting on God's behalf feel justified in doing. The establishment has tried to trick Jesus, then smear Jesus, then bribe someone from his close circle into betraying him, and now they are holding a secret trial by night where they are beating the subject and incentivizing false witnesses against him. They feel completely justified in doing all of this. The blindness on display here is why it is so important that when we feel we know what God's will is, we should be committed to doing God's will in God's way.

DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?

How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? I won't lay out exact responses in this space because the possibilities are often endless. But it is worth it to think about application in the categories of worship, attitude, and actions. Does this reading direct me to God in worship and thanksgiving and praise, or does it direct me towards a change that I need to make here and now? If it's about a change that I need to make, is this something inward in my attitude, or outward in my actions? This helps to rescue application from just being a series of how-to tips, or one-size-fits-all instructions that go beyond what the Bible actually states. Sometimes, the most helpful application we can make is to get a different perspective on what's the most important thing, or about how we should respond inwardly to the things going on around us.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?

Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.

-Sean

Week #45 | A Great Entrance and a Long Week

 LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

(307) Luke 13:1-15:32

(308) Luke 16:1-17:37; John 11:1-57

(309) Matthew 19:1-30; Mark 10:1-31; Luke 18:1-30

(310) Matthew 20:1-34; Mark 10:32-52; Luke 18:31-19:28

(311) Matthew 21:1-22; Mark 11:1-25; Luke 19:29-48; John 12:1, 12:9-50

(312) Matthew 21:23-22:22; Mark 11:27-12:17; Luke 20:1-26

(313) Matthew 22:23-23:36; Mark 12:18-40; Luke 20:27-47

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Reading #307: Jesus Did Not Come to Be Liked. As Jesus continues his journey towards Jerusalem, we see here in Luke's Gospel the different ways that the establishment tried to deal with Jesus. They tried to get close to him, but insincerely. They pretended to be concerned about his safety and warn him not to come to Jerusalem, but probably only so that they could brand Jesus a coward if he failed to show up. (As a side note: when those who are trying to trip you up start to suddenly be very nice and try to get close to you, and they are trying to get you to do or not do things, always go in the exact opposite direction of where they are trying to steer you. If they're worried about you talking to someone, or showing up somewhere, or making a decision, it's for a reason--so go ahead and do it.) When criticizing Jesus directly didn't work, they tried to connect him to the faults of those that he associated with. But Jesus did not come to be well-liked by the religious establishment. He came to call sinners to himself, and to die in their place.

Reading #308: Jesus Did Not Come Without the Testimony of the Spirit. All along the journey to Jerusalem, we see the wisdom with which Jesus taught and the miracles that he did. Imagine how inconvenient it was for the narrative that the establishment was trying to build when, shortly before the Passover, Jesus even raised Lazarus from the dead! There was no explaining that away.

Reading #309: Jesus Teaches on the Road. Jesus got all sorts of questions from all sorts of people. Some were trying to trap him in his words. Some wanted to follow him, but were still weighing it out. Some were genuinely seeking. Throughout, Jesus pointed them to a promise of a better world to come in the Kingdom of God. This is why Jesus didn't try to get the rich young ruler to give Jesus his money; instead he told him to give the poor his money, and to come and follow him. Jesus' words are not the words of a cult leader. A cult leader is always trying to gain money, or prestige, or followers, or satisfaction of personal desires--and a cult leader usually presents some kind of spiritual teaching about communal possessions or free love or political action which will gain him access to what he's really after. But Jesus is totally unlike this. He holds a strong stance on the permanence of marriage between one man and one woman. He rejects many would-be followers. He tells people to give money to other people, and not to him. He says that his Kingdom is not of this world and thus can't be gained through political action. He is completely who he says he is. The only way that he ever self-aggrandizes is through his testimony that he is God's presence on earth--a claim which, it turns out, is true.

Reading #310: Stop Trying to Get Ahead of Others. In this reading, Jesus teaches against the competitive desire to want to be more significant than others. In his parable, he says that the one who works for the landowner all day and the one who works for an hour get the same wage at the end because of the landowner's grace. The workers who had been there all day object, but the landowner insists that the wage is his to give. Jesus' followers are not supposed to try to figure out how they can consider themselves more important than others due to amount of time served, but to think of themselves as those who have received God's grace. A little while later, Jesus has to deal with a request from the mother of John and James to sit beside him in his kingdom as the most important followers of Jesus. They had, in fact, been among the earliest of Jesus' followers. But Jesus teaches again patiently that "getting ahead" is not what his kingdom is about.

Reading #311: The Triumphal Entry and Cleansing of the Temple. The Gospels all slow way down as Jesus begins to make his final trip to Jerusalem. Usually, about half of each Gospel is devoted to Jesus' final trip to Jerusalem and to the last week of Jesus' earthly life. But here we see the amazing entrance that awaited him when he arrived: between the 72 witnesses who had been sent out before Jesus according to Luke, and the famous raising of Lazarus according to John, the people who were at Jerusalem had been prepared and were ready to receive Jesus. This time Jesus causes a disturbance in the Temple again and claims it as his house (in every Gospel except John, who allows Jesus' appearance in the Temple on Hanukkah to be Jesus' definitive Temple appearance), but the establishment can do nothing because "the people were hanging upon his words" (Luke 19:48). Do you and I hang on the words of Jesus in this way? Would we follow him readily into situations that others around us might not understand?

Reading #312: Leading Questions by Hostile People. During this particular week in Jerusalem, it seems as if the establishment is on a full-time quest to undermine Jesus. (As it turns out, they will succeed, and in only a few days the crowd will call out for Jesus' crucifixion.) Here they question Jesus' authority and then try to trap him with a question that is designed to either make him unpopular with the crowds, or seen as a threat to the Romans. Jesus handles both, but the pressure is on. How would you handle that kind of pressure? Hebrews 12:2 says about Jesus that "for the joy set before him, he endured the cross." Is your trust in God such a part of your life that "for the joy set before you" you could also handle the pressure of whatever comes your way?

Reading #313: Jesus Puts An End to the Questioning, and Looks to the Cross. As the week pushes on, the various leaders from different groups keep trying to trap Jesus, or trip him up, or show him to be not as great of a teacher as people think he is. The Sadducees ask about the resurrection, and a teacher of the law asks Jesus about the greatest commandment. After answering both, Jesus finally asks them his own leading question. It's a question designed, as the establishment types realize, to either cause them to affirm Jesus or to make them unpopular with the crowds. Instead of having a clever answer like Jesus tends to have, they awkwardly decline. From this point they ask no further questions. But Jesus has exposed them now. He pronounces judgments against them. He takes the great weakness of very successful and self-assured people -their pride in their standing, and their anger at anything that might threaten that standing- and goads them into pursuing his crucifixion by publicly shaming them and pronouncing woes against them. He knows that their sinful pride will not let them do anything other than try to eliminate him as the social threat that they believe -must believe, for the sake of their standing- that he truly is. Which should make us wonder, do we have any attachment to our own standing at work, in our family, at church, or in the community that might feel protective over? How might we begin to practice letting go of that attachment in order to allow for what God might do in and through someone else? For the establishment leaders, they could not stand the idea of being overshadowed by some miracle working Galilean who spoke out of turn and didn't do things the proper way. They held onto their standing--and lost a much greater reward.

DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?

How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? I won't lay out exact responses in this space because the possibilities are often endless. But it is worth it to think about application in the categories of worship, attitude, and actions. Does this reading direct me to God in worship and thanksgiving and praise, or does it direct me towards a change that I need to make here and now? If it's about a change that I need to make, is this something inward in my attitude, or outward in my actions? This helps to rescue application from just being a series of how-to tips, or one-size-fits-all instructions that go beyond what the Bible actually states. Sometimes, the most helpful application we can make is to get a different perspective on what's the most important thing, or about how we should respond inwardly to the things going on around us.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?

Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.

-Sean

Week #44 | The Journey Towards the Cross

LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

(300) Matthew 10:1-11:1, 14:1-12; Mark 6:7-30; Luke 9:1-9

(301) Matthew 14:13-36; Mark 6:31-56; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-71

(302) Matthew 15:1-16:28; Mark 7:1-9:1; Luke 9:18-27

(303) Matthew 17:1-18:35; Mark 9:2-50; Luke 9:28-50

(304) Matthew 8:19-22; Luke 9:51-62; John 7:1-52 [additional: John 7:53-8:11]

(305) John 8:12-10:42

(306) Luke 10:1-12:59

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Reading #300: Being Sent Out by Jesus. The readings for Day #300 cover the commissioning of the Twelve, the sermon about the Harvest, and the fate of John the Baptist. Keep in mind that this material is still relevant for us--there is a team that does effective evangelism at Mohawk College and McMaster University which still uses Jesus' material from Matthew 10 (and Luke 10) today. Here's 3 quick takeaways: (1) Jesus sends us out to share the Good News. We're not meant to sit on this life-changing news that we've been given. It's meant to be shared with others. (2) There are instructions on how to do this well: between  Matthew 10 and a later passage in Luke 10, we are instructed to look for a "person of peace" who will be receptive, to do evangelism as a team, to be attentive to the equipping of the Holy Spirit, and to expect opposition. (3) Telling people about another world won't necessarily make our lives easier in this world. It's important to remember that at the end of this reading, John the Baptist is executed for calling on a powerful man like Herod to repent and acknowledge a higher authority. Christianity is not a recipe for worldly success; it's a message that, if true, makes worldly success seem irrelevant and small.

Reading #301: The Feeding of the 5000 During Passover, and Jesus Speaking of Himself as the True Bread Come Down From Heaven. The story of the Feeding of the 5000 occurs in all four Gospels, but only John adds the detail that this took place during the time of the Passover (John 6:4). Jesus had caused a disturbance in the Temple the previous year during Passover (John 2), and then during Purim he had come to the Temple again, where he caused an uproar by claiming to be uniquely the Son of God (John 5). Here Jesus does not travel to Jerusalem for Passover, but instead hosts his own gathering up north in Galilee. It will only be a year after this feeding of the 5000 in Galilee -an event that all of those present skipped out on Passover in Jerusalem to celebrate- where Jesus will again appear in Jerusalem for Passover in order to be betrayed, crucified, and soon afterwards resurrected. The timing and the context of this episode in the life of Jesus adds some important shades of meaning to the details recorded here.

Reading #302: The Kingdom of God Comes Not to the Proper, Nor the Powerful, Nor the Wise--But Only to Those Who Hunger. What stuck during this reading is those who don't grasp what Jesus is showing them, and those who do. The knowledgeable religious people are so stuck in their own traditions that Jesus can only refer to them as "the blind leading the blind" (Matthew 15:14). But the humble, Gentile woman whose daughter is demon-possessed, and the crowds of the crippled, the blind, the paralyzed, and the mute, come to Jesus because they know themselves to be in need. And to these, to those who know themselves to be needy, that Jesus responds, and they are given wisdom from the Father to see Jesus as he really is (Matthew 16:16-17).

Reading #303: The Transfiguration of Jesus and a Place in His Kingdom. After Jesus is revealed for the first time as the Christ (the Messiah) in the previous reading, he shows the disciples his glory. For that moment, a little piece of heaven touches down on earth. Something about their experience of this world is transformed. Decades later, the Apostle Peter will still remember it as his standout experience from his time with Jesus (2 Peter 1:16-18). Everything afterwards is transformed: Jesus descends the mountain and casts out a demon with great power, he teaches on the smallness of chasing the things in this world compared to the greatness of the life to come, and the disciples begin to think (though misguidedly at first) about what it means to be great, not merely in this world, but in Jesus' Kingdom.

Reading #304: Jesus' First Appearance at a Major Feast in a Year and a Half. From reading John's Gospel, which is mostly built around the activities of Jesus during various Jewish Feasts, we see a major pattern. First Jesus causes a major disturbance at the Temple during Passover (John 2). Then he apparently does not attend the Feast of Tabernacles the next Fall. He does however show up to a minor celebration, most likely Purim, almost a year later in spring where he heals a paralyzed man and causes a disturbance again by claiming to be the Son of God (John 5). As we've seen above, for the next major feast -Passover- he skips out and hosts his own gathering up north in Galilee. This makes Jesus' appearance during the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7-8 his first major appearance at a Jewish Festival in nearly a year and a half. Even a casual reading shows that this is a hostile environment. He is a divisive figure at this point. But Jesus appears on the final day of the Feast, announcing: "If any man is thirsty, let him come to me to drink" (John 7:37). At the end of this speech of Jesus (the story of the woman caught in adultery, found in the middle, was added in later and is apocryphal), Jesus will conclude by announcing that "Before Abraham was, I AM" and will exit before those present can attempt to stone him to death (John 8:58). This is an explicit claim to be God. For me, putting all of this together helps me to get a feel for how dangerous, and exciting, and controversial  being a follower of Jesus would have been during these days. To many, it may have even have seemed dangerously misguided. But the people in authority, or on the outside criticizing, couldn't make heads or tails of Jesus' miracles or his transfiguration or of his teachings. They weren't the words and actions of a crazy person or a dangerous revolutionary. But those same people criticizing Jesus also weren't close enough to see or hear those things. Only the crowds, who knew themselves to be in need of what Jesus was providing, ever came close enough to know what Jesus was really all about.

Reading #305: Jesus is the Fulfillment of Hanukkah. I wrote about John chapter 8 in the reading above, so here I'll focus on John 9-10. This is the healing of the man born blind, which took place "at the time" of the Feast of Dedication, better known as Hanukkah (John 10:22). An interesting thing to know is that Hanukkah was not a pilgrimage feast, so Jesus did not need to make the trip down from Galilee for this one. It would not have been nearly as busy or as full of people as the Feast of Tabernacles had been just a few short months before. But it was important for Jesus to attend this feast. From the apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees which tells the origin of Hanukkah, we see that the Temple had been desecrated by the ruling Syrian Greeks, and that the people of Israel had to rise up to take the Temple back and to re-dedicate it. The focus of the feast of Hanukkah was the Temple. But the Temple, ever since it had been built after the exile in Ezra 6, had lacked the tangible presence of God. The rededicated Temple lacked this presence too. However, Malachi 3:1 promised the the Lord would suddenly return to his Temple and fill it with his presence. Over the course of the Feasts recounted in John's Gospel, Jesus had progressively shown up at the Temple to announce himself as God's presence in its midst. And here, during the celebration of Hanukkah which was about the Temple being rededicated, Jesus made a special trip to show that he was the ultimate fulfillment of that celebration and of Malachi 3:1. He was presence of the Lord, suddenly returned to the Temple. He is the presence of God in the midst of his people. He can say this, because for him, the statement is true: "I and the Father are one... the Father is in me, and I am in the Father" (John 10:30, 38). It's a dangerous statement to make. But as the kids sometimes say today, it is "big if true." (To underscore this Hanukkah appearance as Jesus' definitive fulfillment of Malachi 3:1, John does not refer to any of Jesus' activity in the Temple during the following Passover as the other Gospels do. He allows this to stand alone as the culmination of all of Jesus' Temple appearances.)

Reading #306: The Journey Towards Jerusalem. This reading, exclusively from Luke's Gospel, details the journey of Jesus down from Galilee to Jerusalem maybe 4-5 months after his Hanukkah appearance. We see his interactions with those close to him, and how he sends 72 witnesses out to proclaim the Good News ahead of him. This may be part of the background for the expectation and excitement that led up to the Triumphal Entry as Jesus entered Jerusalem some time after this. But there was also difficulty and opposition. The teachers of the law had begun to explain Jesus' miracles -the subject of so much discussion during the Feast of Tabernacles the previous Fall- by accusing Jesus of acting by the power of Satan. However Jesus easily dismissed this argument (Luke 11:14-36). Whatever the excitement or danger of the journey to Jerusalem represented, Jesus traveled down, willingly knowing what faced him there.

DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?

How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? I won't lay out exact responses in this space because the possibilities are often endless. But it is worth it to think about application in the categories of worship, attitude, and actions. Does this reading direct me to God in worship and thanksgiving and praise, or does it direct me towards a change that I need to make here and now? If it's about a change that I need to make, is this something inward in my attitude, or outward in my actions? This helps to rescue application from just being a series of how-to tips, or one-size-fits-all instructions that go beyond what the Bible actually states. Sometimes, the most helpful application we can make is to get a different perspective on what's the most important thing, or about how we should respond inwardly to the things going on around us.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?

Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.

-Sean

Week #43 | "Who Do You Say That I Am?"

 LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

(293) Matthew 8:2-4, 9:1-17; Mark 1:40-2:22; Luke 5:12-39; John 5:1-47

(294) Matthew 12:1-21; Mark 2:23-3:19; Luke 6:1-16

(295) Matthew 5:1-8:1; Luke 6:17-49

(296) Matthew 8:5-13, 11:2-30; Luke 7:1-50

(297) Matthew 9:27-34; 12:22-50; Mark 3:20-35; Luke 8:1-3, 8:19-21

(298) Mathew 13:1-53; Mark 4:1-34; Luke 8:4-18

(299) Matthew 8:18, 23-34, 9:18-26, 9:9:35-38, 13:54-58; Mark 4:35-41, 5:1-43, 6:1-6; Luke 8:22-56

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Reading #293: Signs of the Kingdom, Call of the Kingdom, and the Identity of Jesus. For those who expect that Jesus is merely some sort of prophet (as in Islam) or one of many enlightened spiritual teachers (as in esoteric mysticism), the Jesus of the Gospels does not give us those options. He does not show up simply with a message from God, but with the message that he is God--and the miracles that he performs demonstrate the truth of his claims. We see this when Jesus cleanses a leper in his own name ("I am willing, be clean," Matt 8:3; Mark 1:41; Luke 5:13). We see it when Jesus forgives sins that have been done against God (Matt. 9:3-6; Mark 2:6-12; Luke 5:21-25). We see it when Jesus says to Levi/Matthew, "Follow Me" (Matt. 9:9; Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27). Jesus casts himself in the role of bridegroom of God's people, a role traditionally understood to be God's (see this dramatically played out in Hosea 1-2; Matt. 9:14-15; Mark 2:18-20; Luke 5:33-36). Then, in John, Jesus' healing of a man on the Sabbath becomes the occasion for him where he makes astonishing claims about himself, of which I will quote only two: (1) "You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me, and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life." -John 5:39-40; (2) This one is easy to lose sight of, except that John points out the implication: "[Jesus]... was calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God." -John 5:18. We are left to ask, who is Jesus, and how do these signs that he performs, and the things he says about himself, call us to respond to him?

Reading #294: The Lord of the Sabbath, and the Master of the Twelve. The readings for Day #294 in Steinmann's chronological Bible reading plan all revolve around Jesus' claim to be above the commandment to keep the Sabbath. Not that Jesus really breaks the sabbath--in fact, the Pharisees, understandably alarmed by Jesus' popularity with the crowds and with his increasingly clear suggestions that he is in fact God, are clearly looking for a way to trap him. But where Jesus could just point out how far they are reaching, he instead goes farther and calls himself "the Lord of the Sabbath" (Matt. 12:8; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5). Given this escalation of his claims about himself -only God is Lord of the Sabbath- and Jesus' increasingly public demonstrations in defiance of the Jewish religious authorities, the Pharisees decide that Jesus is a spiritual danger, the Herodians decide that he is a political danger, and they both join forces to stop him. But Jesus, though driven out to the margins, does not stop doing his work. On a mount by the Sea of Galilee, he calls twelve men to himself -a number that symbolizes the twelve tribes of Israel- and meaningfully takes his place at their head, symbolizing himself as the head of God's people. The average people might not understand the symbolism of what Jesus is doing, but the religious teachers understand very well--and are furious. Still, we are forced to ask the question, "What do we think of the claims Jesus is making?"

Reading #295: The Sermon on the Mount/Plain. This sermon is present in both Matthew and Luke, though it's clear that Matthew has assembled a little more of Jesus' material, spoken elsewhere on the same topic, into the message as presented in his Gospel. For Matthew, this is the first of the Five Discourses, a sort of discipleship manual made up out of the words of Jesus, which is embedded into the structure of Matthew's Gospel.

Reading #296: Jesus' love for the Gentiles, the widows, the prisoners, and the prostitutes. This reading demonstrates that Jesus loves and cares for those who are not seen as respectable or religious. And, in a surprising reversal, these outsiders -because of their position as outsiders- are actually more dependent on, more responsive to, more passionate about, and more full of faith, than those who appear to have it all together from the start. What the religious person does by tradition, as the result of a series of rewards and familiar comforts that accompany their walk with God, the outsider does through a passionate embrace of Jesus as their only source of comfort in life or death. Following Jesus doesn't elevate their social standing or give them a better view of themselves. Instead, in following Jesus, they get Jesus, and in arriving at the point where that's all they want, that is the faith that saves.

Reading #297: Jesus, What Is the Secret of Your Power? The debate in this reading is about where Jesus' power comes from. If it is from God, then that means that we need to take Jesus' claims about himself seriously. But if Jesus' power is not from God, that means that he is an agent of Satan. And yet that can't be. Look at the fruit of Jesus' teaching--more good has been done in the name of Jesus, more lives affected for the better, more rights have been won, more education has been given, more freedom has been extended, more sacrificial care for the poor has been offered, in Jesus' name than for any system of instruction handed down by any religious teacher in the history of the world. Additionally, Jesus is the reason why the Scriptures of Israel have now made their way into the households of every nation on the earth. More people claim for themselves the title of a follower of the God of Abraham than would have ever been imaginable before Jesus. To any honest perspective, Gentile or Jewish, it would be hard to make the case that Jesus must be sent from Satan. That only leaves one other alternative--and if Jesus is from God, then we must take his words seriously.

Reading #298: The Sermon of Parables. In Matthew, this is the second of Jesus' Five Discourses, and it centers on the theme of "What Is the Kingdom?" Careful study of this sermon will show us who truly belongs to the kingdom, what its nature is, and what is the value of the kingdom.

Reading # 299: Adventures With Jesus. There is a lot that we could unpack from these passages, and maybe one day I will get the opportunity to preach from them. But for now, just go and read these and imagine what it would have been like to walk along with Jesus during this time. Would it have seemed boring? Would it have seemed quiet, and stifling, and studious? No! Aside from times of intentional reflection, Jesus is always doing something, always moving, always going somewhere, or stopping in the middle of doing something else to address the situation he finds himself in the middle of, always making time for and responding to the leading of the Spirit. I believe this is the life that Jesus calls us to still. Why should following Jesus be any less adventurous today than it was back then? Perhaps if we feel that our walk with Jesus is safe, and structured, and stale, and stifling--we're doing it wrong.

DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?

How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? I won't lay out exact responses in this space because the possibilities are often endless. But it is worth it to think about application in the categories of worship, attitude, and actions. Does this reading direct me to God in worship and thanksgiving and praise, or does it direct me towards a change that I need to make here and now? If it's about a change that I need to make, is this something inward in my attitude, or outward in my actions? This helps to rescue application from just being a series of how-to tips, or one-size-fits-all instructions that go beyond what the Bible actually states. Sometimes, the most helpful application we can make is to get a different perspective on what's the most important thing, or about how we should respond inwardly to the things going on around us.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?

Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.

-Sean

Week #42 | The Beginning of Jesus' Ministry

LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

(286) Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23b-38; John 1-18; Luke 1:1-25

(287) Luke 1:26-80; Matthew 1:18-25

(288) Luke 2:1-38; Matthew 2:1-23; Luke 2:39-52

(289) Matthew 3:1-17; Mark 1:1-11; Luke 3:1-23a

(290) Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13; John 1:19-2:25

(291) John 3:1-36; Matthew 4:12-17; Mark 1:14-15; Luke 4:14-30; John 4:1-54

(292) Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-28; Luke 5:1-11; 4:31-37 | Matthew 8:14-17; Mark 1:29-34; Luke 4:38-41 | Matthew 4:23-25; Mark 1:35-39; Luke 4:42-44

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Reading #286: The Genealogies of Jesus, His Beginnings, and His History. Jesus is more than just a man, and John 1 opens by revealing who he really is--the Word, God, the only begotten Son (Greek: monogenes), who became flesh and dwelt among us for our sakes to reveal the grace of God. That is his divine origin. As for his earthly origin, Matthew gives a highly stylized genealogy of the legal succession of rulership of Israel--through Abraham and David and Joseph to Jesus. At the same time, Luke likely gives the physical descent of David's line through his son Nathan, all the way to Heli, and through Mary to Jesus. There are a lot of ins and outs about how this works, but the long and short of it is that Jesus is physically and legally the descendant of David and the rightful heir to his throne. The final section of Reading #286 shows the care that Luke gave to provide historical places, names, rulers, and events in his writing of his Gospel--this is no non-historical account, and so Luke works hard to verify: this is when these things happened; here is where these things occurred; these are the names of the rulers and the years of their reigns at the time. This is what really happened.

Reading #287: The Scandalous Birth of the Messiah. According to the readings above, this section covers the appearance of the angel to Mary, Mary's trip to Judah to spend three months with her relative Elizabeth, and her return to Nazareth where -now visibly pregnant- she is nearly divorced by Joseph before he is told in a dream to take Mary as his wife. The chronological reading really adds to our trip through the Gospels here, as we're given a sense of the anticipation and anxiety and danger that Mary and Joseph experienced, which is not clear in any one of the Gospels but which becomes immediately clear when they are put together.

Reading #288: The Birth and Childhood of Jesus. Again, the two accounts of Jesus' birth and childhood in Matthew and Luke fit together perfectly, even though in important ways they show no knowledge of each other. Putting them together, we see that Jesus' parents were from Nazareth originally, that they traveled to Bethlehem because of the census, and that Mary gave birth to Jesus there in order to fulfill the prophecy of Micah 5. While there, they dedicated Jesus at the Temple. Evidently they must have concluded that they were supposed to stay in Bethlehem, because by the time the Wise Men in Matthew's Gospel arrive, they are now living in their own house in the area. But they are forced to flee from Herod's wrath -Herod had been given kingship over Israel by Rome, and was paranoid about threats to his throne- and flee to Egypt, and then return to their previous home in small-town Nazareth in Galilee. By the time he is 13, though, Jesus' parents are making trips down to Jerusalem for feast days, and the boy Jesus is found debating the law with teachers in the temple and calling God his own father--something that he will pick up on again 20 years later.

Reading #289: The Baptism of John and Arrival of Jesus. All these Gospels start the ministry of Jesus with the ministry of John the Baptist. John is the one who comes in the spirit and power of Elijah to announce the arrival of God--and then Jesus shows up. Jesus, though sinless, is baptized by John, marking both the beginning and the end of Jesus' ministry with Jesus putting himself in the place of sinners. We see the Trinity in picture at this point, as the Spirit descends on the Son, and the voice of the Father glorifies him as the one in whom he delights.

Reading #290: Jesus' Temptation in the Wilderness and Return to John the Baptist. I had never realized, before I first started reading a harmony of the Gospels, that Jesus returned to John the Baptist after his time in the wilderness. Here, Matthew and Luke recount Jesus' temptation, and while they follow Mark by not acknowledging any of Jesus' ministry in Judea after this point, John fills in the details by describing all that Jesus did in the area during his earthly ministry. The result is that we have the details on Jesus' return to the area around the Jordan in John 1:19, his first interactions with his disciples (and now, it makes sense why they will later drop their nets to follow him, because they already knew him), his first miracle, and his first cleansing of the Temple.

Reading #291: Jesus Moves to Galilee. This section, combined together, shows that Jesus initially had a vibrant ministry in and around Jerusalem, before the persecution of John the Baptist by a different Herod led to Jesus going back to Galilee--there's a certain symmetry there with his birth account. According to John, while passing through Judea to go to Galilee, he encounters the Samaritan Woman, and announces to her that he is the Messiah, and all the inhabitants of the town of Samaria subsequently believe in him. Then he goes to Capernaum, does something there, goes back to Cana, and is then rejected at Nazareth -because no prophet is honored in his home town- and makes his new home in Capernaum. This begins a complicated narrative of Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, being accepted by the least likely while simultaneously being rejected by those who would be the most likely to receive him.

Reading #292: Jesus' Call of the Disciples and Ministry at Capernaum. This reading details Jesus' initial ministry in and around Capernaum, as people come to him as soon as the Sabbath is over and he begins healing and doing miracles. Afterwards he prays during the night and is called to go to the other towns of Galilee--and his followers are called to leave their nets, where they could have previously practiced their profession while following Jesus in Capernaum and on the rare occasion outside of town, but now they will leave those nets behind in order to follow Jesus throughout Galilee full-time.

DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?

How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? I won't lay out exact responses in this space because the possibilities are often endless. But it is worth it to think about application in the categories of worship, attitude, and actions. Does this reading direct me to God in worship and thanksgiving and praise, or does it direct me towards a change that I need to make here and now? If it's about a change that I need to make, is this something inward in my attitude, or outward in my actions? This helps to rescue application from just being a series of how-to tips, or one-size-fits-all instructions that go beyond what the Bible actually states. Sometimes, the most helpful application we can make is to get a different perspective on what's the most important thing, or about how we should respond inwardly to the things going on around us.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?

Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.

-Sean

Week #41 | The Old Testament: "To Be Continued..."

LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

Read Ezra 9-10; Nehemiah 1-13

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

A Cliffhanger in Every Way. The Old Testament has a sense of incompleteness about it. If you end the way the Christian Bible does, with the Prophets, then you are left with predictions of a coming Messiah followed by a period of silence which will last for another 400 years. If you end chronologically, you end with a less-than-ideal description of the people of Israel in the Book of Nehemiah, and a frustrated leader's wish that God would at least remember him for the trouble that he's had to put up with. Then, once again, hundreds of years of silence. A greater rescue is needed, and the return from exile has not brought about the restoration that the prophets have predicted--the fulfillment of those promises must be further in the future. If you end the way that the Jewish Bible -the Tanakh- does, you would actually go back to 1-2 Chronicles after reading Ezra and Nehemiah, and end with the capture and burning of Jerusalem, and a small note on Cyrus' decree allowing Israel to return to the land. Either way you end, reading the Old Testament on its own has the frustrating incompleteness of a book series or TV show that was really good, only to be stopped suddenly and never added on to. Getting to the end, you have a sense of thinking, "What? That can't be the end. I want to know how this ends!" And that's where, after a 400 year silence between Malachi and Matthew, the New Testament picks things up.

Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament. The story of Nehemiah is actually fascinating for many of the details that it doesn't share. The Samaritan Temple was being built at the same time that Nehemiah was building his wall, and Sanballat was attempting to set up a rival center of worship to God which had references to Jerusalem and to David's throne -and thus to all of the Old Testament aside from the first five books of the Bible- cut out, as that would have taken away from his own center of power which was at Samaria. Nehemiah's struggle was to preserve the revelation given to Judah through David and the Histories and the Prophets against a collection of false versions of Yahweh-worship led by Sanballat's coalition. Eventually, Sanballat's innovations turned into the Samaritan religion, which still lasts up to today as a tiny remnant (though in Nehemiah's day, it would have been by far the bigger group). In addition, Nehemiah's Wall is still visible through archaeology, which shows that it was constructed hastily and in sections, with some sections being put together more roughly, and others having a little more care put into them. The Elephantine Letters in Egypt also act as a sort of follow-up to the Book of Nehemiah 20 years later, and they reveal that by that time Jerusalem had been sending teachers out to the exiles to instruct them in Jewish law, meanwhile at home Jehohanan had become the High Priest and Sanballat was still governor of Samaria alongside his two sons (Nehemiah, by then, is no longer present in Jerusalem). Nehemiah's Reforms became vitally important for preserving the witness of the Histories and the Prophets, which testify to the hope of the Messiah, though he likely did not understand how important his role would be during his lifetime.

The Next 400 Years. Over the next 400 years, Israel would pass from the Persians to the Greeks during the time of Alexander the Great. After Alexander died, his kingdom was split four ways to his generals, and Israel kept changing hands from the Ptolemies centered in Egypt, to the Seleucids centered in Syria. One of the Seleucid kings, Antiochus Epiphanes IV, was particularly despicable, and violently persecuted the Jews in an attempt to wipe out their religion and turn them into Greeks. This didn't work, and as the apocryphal -but still valuable- book of 1 Maccabees recounts, the Jewish people were miraculously able to drive out the Seleucid Syrian Greeks, and win back not only Jerusalem and the Temple, but also their own independent kingdom of Israel. To celebrate this event they brought in a new Feast of Dedication, known today as Hannukah (the Hebrew word for "dedication"), which Jesus himself celebrated in John 10:22-23. This kingdom of Israel enjoyed its own independence for over 100 years, eventually gaining more territory than the kingdom had even under David and Solomon, until the Romans under Julius Caesar subjugated it again in 63 BC. The Jewish people, at the time when the New Testament opens, are therefore resentful of the Romans and still harboring visions of rebelling against them as they did against the Syrian Greeks, to get their kingdom back. They are hoping that the promised Messiah will be the one to drive out the Romans and bring the kingdom back to Israel. That audience is going to be highly interested, then, when Jesus arrives doing signs and miracles, and speaking about the Kingdom of God. But his kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. And his purpose will be more than just the restoration of one nation...

DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?

How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? I won't lay out exact responses in this space because the possibilities are often endless. But it is worth it to think about application in the categories of worship, attitude, and actions. Does this reading direct me to God in worship and thanksgiving and praise, or does it direct me towards a change that I need to make here and now? If it's about a change that I need to make, is this something inward in my attitude, or outward in my actions? This helps to rescue application from just being a series of how-to tips, or one-size-fits-all instructions that go beyond what the Bible actually states. Sometimes, the most helpful application we can make is to get a different perspective on what's the most important thing, or about how we should respond inwardly to the things going on around us.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?

Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.

-Sean