Resurrection Focus

Our reading this week is in Acts 1 through 4. I pray you will read along with me as we begin the
second part of Luke's account of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

After reading these chapters, my mind kept going back to something that Peter said in Acts 1. He is talking about filling the "office" of Judas Iscariot who "turned aside" from the way of truth. What interested me most about Peter's speech is his qualifications for the position and his understanding of the responsibilities of the position.

As to the qualifications, the person must have been a follower of Jesus from the beginning of Jesus' public ministry (the baptism by John). As to the responsibilities, the person "must become a witness with us of His resurrection." (1:22)

I think what amazed me most about this verse is what is not included in the responsibilities. Peter does not understand apostleship to be an organizer of any institution, a ministry of service or helps or healing, the leader of a worship service, the composer of songs, or the solver of the world's problems. His focus is clearly upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This person must be a witness of the resurrection!

The resurrection changes everything!

It is the key to everything!

The Apostle Paul will say in 1 Corinthians 15 that if Christ has not been raised, then our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins, we are enemies of God, and we are of all men most be to be pitied. But Christ has been raised, and that changes everything!

Twice in last week I have had conversations with people about how to share their faith with friends who prefer to be "spiritual but not religious." These friends admire the morality of Jesus, but they have no interest in giving him their allegiance. "How do I help my friends?" I answered, focus on the resurrection. That's the key. We can get bogged down in moral dilemmas. We can get lost in comparative religious studies. But the resurrection is a very clear historical event. If it did not happen, then the Christian faith is worthless. The Bible says so! But if it did happen, then it doesn't matter what you or I think about Jesus' morality. This is no longer a matter of personal preference or opinion. If the resurrection has happened, then Jesus has a historical claim that no one else can make. If Christ has been raised, then "he has been declared the Son of God with power." (Romans 1:4) And if he has been declared the Son of God, then he demands our allegiance, our loyalty, and our obedience.

As we draw closer to Resurrection Sunday, keep your eyes on he resurrected Jesus!

Preparations We Do Not Know

This week I am reading Luke 21 to 24. I hope you will join me in reading slowly and prayerfully.

It was a portion of Luke 22 that caught my eye this morning as I was reading. The Feast of the Passover is near, and Jesus and his disciples will be in Jerusalem for the Feast. His disciples ask about where Jesus wants to eat the Seder meal. Not surprisingly, Jesus has a plan. The disciples don't know it, yet, but Jesus has already thought about it. Even more, he has put events in motion that will make the meal possible for the whole group of them.

Both Matthew and Mark also report this seemingly simple event (Matt 26; Mark 14). The instructions are clear:

When you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house he enters. And you shall say to the owner of the house, 'The Teacher says to you, "Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?"' And he will show you a large, furnished upper room. . . (Luke 22:10 - 12) 

Luke implies that Jesus has already made an arrangement with the owner of this house. The disciples do not know it. It has not been reported when or where Jesus made these arrangements. But Jesus clearly has a plan. He has done work that his disciples do not know or see. Jesus had made preparations that his disciples do not appreciate until just the right moment.

And I find this to be a comforting thought. Jesus is at work in ways that I do not see. I do not know or appreciate all that he is doing. But he is making preparations for me (and you). He is making arrangements to meet my needs and to further his work. And when the right time comes, he will reveal all that he has done.

My prayer this morning is that I will trust in the Providence of Jesus this week. I pray that I will trust in his preparations and his arrangements. And I pray that I will have eyes to see those preparations at the appropriate time. Christ is up to something! And that fills me with a sense of anticipation!

Ready to Receive

This week, I'm reading in the Gospel of Luke chapters 17 to 20, and I'd invite you to read along with me.

Reading through these chapters yesterday, there was so much that jumped out at me that I didn't know where to dig in! Eventually, though I settled on the first eight verses of chapter 20. It is a curious exchange with Jesus. I say "curious" because we see a case where Jesus refuses to answer a question - a very straightforward question that had a very straightforward answer, and yet Jesus refused to answer it.

A little while after reading this passage, it occurred to me that God has refused to answer some of my questions. And then I wondered if Luke 20:1 - 8 might give me some insight into why that was. After all, I thought, some of my questions were pretty straightforward and relatively simple. Why did no answer come?

In Luke 20, Jesus meets the question about his authority (verse 2) with a question for his questioners (verse 4). Jesus wants to know about John the Baptizer - was his baptism from heaven or from men? In other words, who authorized John?

We then get to see the chief priests, scribes, and elders reason among themselves. Like their own question to Jesus, this question is straightforward with a simple answer. But they worry over it. They look at it from all of its angles. "If we say. . . then he will say. . ."

And so we receive a profound insight into the minds and hearts of these men. They are not interested in the truth. They have a preconceived outcome for this encounter. They are willing to play loosely with the facts as long as their answers produce the outcome they desire.

Jesus' question reveals this about them. His question to them lays bare their hearts. They will say "I don't know" to a question that the rest of the population had already answered (verse 6), and in their unwillingness to commit to the truth and their further unwillingness to submit to the revealed will of God, they will reveal their own selfishness.

Jesus refuses to answer their question because they have already proved that they will not respond with either faith or obedience.

And I have to wonder if the times God has refused to answer my questions was it because he already knew that in my heart I would not respond with faith? Perhaps my mind was already made up. Perhaps my intentions were already fixed. Perhaps I was asking more out of curiosity than out of any real desire to be more faithful in my service.

God is not interested in answering our curiosity. Nor does God waste his time giving more information or counsel to those whose hearts are hardened. If we would know the will and way of God, we must come in humility and with every intention of honoring his authority rather than seeking to judge him and his ways. We've got to be ready to receive direction!

As you come to God today, are you ready to receive - or are you more interested in telling God how he should conduct himself? The position of our heart before him will make an enormous difference!