Year 4, Day 250: Acts 17

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

This is a difficult chapter for Paul’s ministry.  He has been booted from Philippi.  He moves on to Thessalonica and has success before being removed from that city.  Then he goes on to Berea where he has tremendous spiritual success until people from Thessalonica come and cause trouble.  It’s a cycle of success and defeat.  It’s a rollercoaster of joy and turmoil.

In all of this, Paul must rely upon the Lord for protection.  Everywhere that Paul went, trouble followed.  Everywhere that Paul preached, he was on the defensive.  It is a sad state of affairs, but it is nonetheless a true statement for Paul.  If the Lord didn’t protect him, the world would have eaten him alive!

But Paul does survive.  He does manage.  He does continue in his ministry.  He does continue to step out in faith time and time again.  He does open his mouth again and again and again.  He finds himself going to jail over and over.  He finds himself in battles with magistrates and synagogue leaders and yet he still is protected by the Lord and moving ahead with the calling of God.  The Lord protects Paul and allows Paul to follow the calling of the Lord.

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Year 4, Day 249: Acts 16

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Chemistry

• Chemistry asks whether the person in question can work with the other people that God has called.

What an absolutely great chapter to have a look at chemistry!  We begin looking at Paul and Timothy.  Outside of Jesus and His three closest disciples – Peter, James, and John – Paul and Timothy are one of the greatest mentor/disciple relationships to which we can look.  Timothy watches as Paul is nearly stoned to death.  Paul comes back and encourages the church in Lystra at least twice after nearly dying at the hands of the people in the town.  Timothy looks to Paul as a great hero, someone to follow and imitate.  Timothy follows Paul and learns at his feet.  Clearly Paul and Timothy have chemistry together with respect to mentoring and discipling.

Paul and Lydia are another great example.  The Holy Spirit leads Paul to Philippi.  Within Philippi, Paul is led to a river, where there is a place of prayer.  Paul meet Lydia and some other women.  Paul preaches to them, tells them about what God has done through the Holy Spirit, and Lydia listens intently.  In fact, Lydia invites Paul and his followers into her home and shares in his ministry.  Clearly Paul and Lydia have chemistry with respect to mentoring and discipling.

One of the most unique examples of chemistry is Paul and the jailor.  Clearly they have chemistry as at the end of the story we hear the jailor being accepted into the Christian community that Paul had begun in Philippi.  What is neat about this story is that it takes a moment of sacrifice for the chemistry to be discovered.  Paul demonstrated that he has respect for the jailor’s life by not running away when he has the chance to leave.  Paul demonstrates his openness to chemistry with the jailor and the jailor responds in like kind. 

Come to think about it, there was a display of sacrifice with respect to Timothy.  Certainly there was a display of vulnerability with respect to Lydia as well.  Chemistry seems to be often forged and tested in times of trial and vulnerability.

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Year 4, Day 248: Acts 15

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Calling

• Calling asks whether or not God has called the person to the particular work at this point in their life.

Acts 15 is a great negative example of calling.  What I mean by that is that Acts 15 contains example after example of the failure of people discerning God’s call for them in their lives.  Acts 15 is filled with story after story about people who get calling wrong.

Take a look at the first story.  Some people come down from Jerusalem and hear about what Paul and Barnabas had seen happen in their mission experience.  But here’s the thing.  Rather than coming down and rejoicing in where God is at work, they argue about what happened.  They argue about the fact that Paul and Barnabas weren’t “doing it right!”  Rather than being called to support God at work, they argued about how God couldn’t have possibly worked in that manner.

Then there is the Jerusalem Council.  Again we see the same thing.  Rather than these leaders encouraging people to celebrate what God is doing through Paul and Barnabas, the Jerusalem Council worries that God’s methodology among the Gentiles might offend the Jews.  So they tell Paul and Barnabas to tell the Gentile followers how to act.  Rather than encourage people to celebrate what God is doing, they take the people in whom God is at work and quench their spirit.  Another case of missed calling.

This leads us to the split between Paul and Barnabas.  I’m not going to argue that Paul and Barnabas should have stayed together forever.  But I am going to suggest that arguing over how to use a follower of God is a very silly reason.  If they had been called by God to different areas of the world that would have been a marvelous reason to split up the team!  But they split up over the worry that John Mark might not have what it takes to complete the journey.  I can’t help but wonder if they miss their calling and instead focus on their own desires.

Calling is absolutely important.  We should seek God’s hand at work in the world.  We should seek to join wherever we see God’s hand at work.  We should be willing to follow God’s calling rather than assert our own will.

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Year 4, Day 247: Acts 14

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: People of Peace

• People of Peace: A person of peace is someone whom God has prepared to hear God’s message through you.  God does all the work of preparing that person for your presence in their life. Because of this preparation, these people will like you.  They will listen to you.  They will serve with you as you live out God’s calling for your life.

The people of peace concept is always very appropriate to study within the missionary journeys of Paul.  There is something that is absolutely true about Paul.  Paul polarizes people.  There are always some people in the towns into which Paul goes that are absolutely drawn to him and beg him to stay with them and teach them more.  However, there are always also people who want to stone Paul, or arrest Paul, or follow to whatever town he goes to next and make trouble for him there.  Acts seems to tell us that when a person met Paul they either really liked him or really despised him.  Where Paul was, it became very clear very quickly who was a person of peace and who was not.

I wonder if this is a bad thing.  After all, it happened everywhere Paul went.  As we talked about yesterday, Paul was always challenging people.  It would only be natural for Paul to challenge people into desiring to listen or desiring to get rid of him.

I can’t also help but wonder how much of this dynamic we see today.  Are the spiritual leaders in our midst challenging people into greater faith?  Or are the spiritual leaders in our midst about pleasing people and making them happy?  When you go to be among the believers, are you welcomed into a cozy culture of acceptance or are you invited into a challenging culture where growth is expected?  Are the people of faith around you looking for people of peace that they can help to shape and grow or are they simply interested in warm bodies to sit in the pews?

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Year 4, Day 246: Acts 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Challenge

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

One of the things I have always loved about Paul is that he knows how to bring the challenge.  First of all, he is quick to recognize that Elymas (Bar-Jesus) isn’t speaking truth.  Rather, Elymas is only speaking what his proconsul wants to hear.  Paul brings the challenge against Elymas and puts him in his place.

However, there is a much defter example of the use of challenge.  As Paul unfolds the Hebrew history, he turns to the Jews and the Gentiles who are gathered around him and challenges them to rise above what the Hebrew Scriptures say will happen in the face of justification through the cross.  In Acts 13:40 Paul specifically tells the people to beware.  He doesn’t sugar coat things.  He tells them flat out to beware that the Hebrew Scriptures aren’t talking about them.

That takes guts.  It also doesn’t work for everyone.  Even as we read this story we hear some interesting things.  The first thing that we hear is that the regular people want to hear more.  They are intrigued.  In fact, they beg Paul to come back.  They want the challenge.  They want to hear more.

However, we also hear that the religious elite in Psidian Antioch stir up trouble against Paul.  They think they know best, and they rile the people up against him.  They see the effect of challenge in the lives of the people and step in to destroy what Paul and Barnabas have been able to do through the Spirit.

That’s the funny thing about challenge.  Some people hear the challenge and respond in incredible moments of growth.  Other people hear the challenge and retaliate.  But challenge is the only way to growth and transformation.

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Year 4, Day 245: Acts 12

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Guidance

• Guidance: God grants us His guidance.  Sometimes this guidance is God leading us away from temptation.  Sometimes this guidance is helping us to follow in a direction for which He has chosen.  Our default position should be to wait for God’s guidance and then follow when it comes.

What a great chapter through which we can see guidance at play.  This is primarily through the lens of Peter and his miraculous escape from prison.

First, make sure that you see what exactly God does in this story.  God wakes Peter up and makes Peter’s chains fall off.  God makes sure that the doors open.  I don’t mean this to sound like judgment against God, but that’s all that He does.  This is plenty, of course!  But it isn’t like God miraculously teleported Peter to a new place or sent an army of angels to battle Peter’s captives.  God works in a very subtle manner.

However, God puts Peter in a great position to succeed.  God places Peter where he needs to be.  God guides Peter in the path to walk.  But notice that Peter does have to follow God’s leading.  Peter has to do something for himself.  He has to get up.  He has to trust God.  He has to obey.

This is often how God works with us.  God wants us to succeed.  He wants us to step forth in obedience to Him.  But He’s not going to do it all.  He will provide guidance and He will except us to listen, obey, and trust.  Like Peter, we will need to follow God when He gives us direction.

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Year 4, Day 244: Acts 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

Acts 11 has always been a sad chapter for me.  The reason that it is a sad chapter is because it truly shows the human flaw that we bring to Christ’s church.  In Acts 11 we hear Peter come back to Jerusalem.  He is all excited about what God had done in his life.  The Jerusalem church sucks the very life out of his excitement.  Peter gets “shushed” in Jerusalem when he tries to talk about the movement of God’s hand.

The Christians in Jerusalem criticize Peter for eating with Gentiles.  In other words, they criticize Peter for going out into the world.  They criticize Peter for following God’s directive to go with the people Cornelius sent.  Rather than hearing Peter and listening to his testimony, they are critical of him because his actions don’t fit into the proper box.  Where Peter thinks outside the box, the Jerusalem Christians rebuke Peter for doing so.  Granted, we are told that they are silenced and God wins the day.  But that doesn’t change the fact that we see very little character in them in the first place.  Instead of being interested in God’s hand at work, these Jerusalem Christians are interested in supporting their own preconceived notions of how God can be at work in the world.  They lack the divine character.

The church in Antioch does not lack character, however!  They embrace Barnabas.  They even embrace Paul, who has a huge black spot upon his reputation.  When it is heard that people are turning to Christ in the Gentile world they send out support rather than criticize the evangelists who are doing the work and following the Lord!  This is Christian character on display.  Christian character follows God’s hand.  Christian character rejoices when it sees God’s hand at work.  Christian character willingly rejects the “stay-in-the-box” thinking of humanity and follows God wherever God should desire to lead.

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Year 4, Day 243: Acts 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from Father.

In my theological commentary to which I link above, I do a fair bit of picking on Peter.  We need to realize that Acts 10 happens about a decade after Pentecost.  It takes Peter 10 years to be open to the possibility that Gentiles might be acceptable to God without them converting to Judaism first!  It takes a decade for Peter to change that thought process!

However, the greater point is that Peter does change.  Peter is obedient.  Peter does learn the lesson that God desires for him to learn.  Peter is open to God’s new work.

Think about it.  Peter could have looked at God and said, “No, Lord.  I’m not going to that Gentile’s house.  After all, not only is he a Gentile, he’s a roman soldier!”  Peter could have dug in his heels and refused to go outside the proverbial “Jewish-box.”  But Peter is willing to think outside of that box.

What is the result of Peter’s obedience?  Peter gets an opportunity to proclaim Christ to Gentiles.  He gets to watch as the Holy Spirit descends upon the Gentiles.  He gets to watch as the Holy Spirit precedes their baptism in water and open their eyes to truth.  Peter gets to see God at work in an incredible new way.  All of this happens to Peter because he is willing to be obedient and follow God outside of the box.

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Year 4, Day 242: Acts 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Grace

• Grace: Grace comes to us when we make mistakes and have a failing of character.  Grace comes to us when we have a typical D₂ moment.  Grace comes to us when we need space to recognize a mistake, repent of it, and allow God to redeem it while calling us back into His will.  Grace is partnered by Time and Vision.

Do you know what we call it when God looks upon a person who seeks to persecute His people and turns that person into an incredible evangelist?  Grace.  Paul has a moment of failure.  Paul has a crisis of character.  Paul starts persecuting Jesus Himself – note Jesus’ introduction to Paul in Acts 9:4.  What does Paul get when he deserves a good smiting?  He gets grace instead.

That’s such a cool point.  Paul gets grace.  For the record he also gets time and vision.  He gets time to think about what happens to him.  He also gets new vision – literally and figuratively!  But he gets grace most of all.  Considering how much fervor he employed in persecuting Christ and His followers, Paul should have been struck by lightning or had a meteor crash into his head or perhaps some other divine judgment.  But Paul doesn’t get divine judgment.  He gets grace.

You don’t fall into too many bigger pits of despair in a lifetime than Paul gets here.  You don’t have many moments of crisis in faith like Paul has here.  But God is with Paul.  After all he’s done, Paul is still open to God.  Grace takes over and Paul finds himself able to crawl out of that great pit of despair.  If Paul can do it, so can you!

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Year 4, Day 241: Acts 8

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Chemistry

• Chemistry asks whether the person in question can work with the other people that God has called.

You might be surprised to see me pull out the topic of chemistry when Acts 8 is such a huge chapter with respect to the spreading of the church.  I could have gone with Philip’s obedience.  I could have gone with Simon’s approval.  I could have even gone with the discipleship square and the persecution the disciples received.  But today I want to stop and focus on Philip through the lens of chemistry.

Philip goes out into the world when persecution comes.  Persecution drives him out, but he quickly finds himself paired up with people who will listen.  Philip has a clear chemistry with the Samaritans!  As he goes out into the world, he is capable of working with the people that God places in his life.

Furthermore, look at Philip as he leaves Samaria.  He finds the eunuch.  Again we can see the chemistry that happens between Philip and the eunuch.  The eunuch wants to learn and Philip is willing to teach.  Philip isn’t shy, nor is he heavy-handed.  Philip is able to communicate the message of the gospel to the eunuch.  There is a clear chemistry between Philip and the people God is putting into Philip’s life.  It’s one of the reasons that Philip knows to whom God is calling him to speak.

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Year 4, Day 240: Acts 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Obedience, Provision

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from Father.
• Provision: God gives us what we truly need.  God knows our needs better than we can know them.  We learn to trust God to provide for us.

This chapter is a very high challenge chapter.  Here we have a story of a person who stepped up to do the work of God and dies for it.  It is actually a reminder that all but two of Jesus’ own disciples died as a direct consequence of proclaiming their faith.  Judas, who hanged himself, and John, who was exiled to Patmos because of his faith, are the only two who did not directly die in martyrdom for Jesus.

This is fundamentally a question of obedience.  Stephen is willing to speak the truth and not just lose his livelihood but his whole life!  He is willing to give up everything to gain his eternal life.  He is obedient even when everyone around him rejects his message.

In the theological commentary to which I linked above, I actually drawn a neat conclusion that I’d like to reflect here.  The comments between Tom and I are also quite insightful.  Recognizing just how high challenge this chapter is, I can’t help but wonder why I don’t speak truth more often as Stephen does.  I wonder how much obedience is tied to the idea of provision.  If I truly believed in God’s ability to provide for me what I truly need, would I be more willing to sacrifice more in my life?  Or, as it is stated in the comments on the theological commentary, what does it mean that I would give up my whole life easily but struggle with giving up my comfort while continuing to live?  How much does my ability to obey connect with my faith in God’s ability to provide?

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Year 4, Day 239: Acts 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Power

• Power: This is the natural outcome when we truly get our authority from the king.  When our authority is from God, we are equipped with His power to accomplish His will.  We act on His behalf in a world that He desperately loves.

As I started to type this post, the song “Burning in My Soul” by Matt Maher came over my computer.  I can’t help but marvel at the timing.  The first words of this song are these: “There is power - power here in this hour, this hour.  We’re all together - together waiting here as one.”  I have no doubt that as Matt Maher composed this song that he thought of these first few chapters of Acts.

What do we see as Stephen comes on the scene?  This man rises up out of nowhere and is filled with power for teaching and preaching.  People who have been trained in Judaism cannot stand against his wisdom.  The Holy Spirit works through him to empower his teaching.  God gives Stephen the words to say.

Let’s get something straight, though.  So often we think of this story of Stephen as a victory.  We hear that the people could not stand against his wisdom and think he won.  And from a spiritual perspective he absolutely did win.  But as we’ll see in the next chapter he is dragged before the Sanhedrin and killed.  We typically think of this story as a glorious story where Stephen got the last word and got it with profound emphasis.  But that’s just not true.  Stephen spoke in truth and the Sanhedrin eventually killed him.

When we talk about power, this is an important dynamic to remember.  Power does not always equate to victory.  Power does not always equate to people having no rebuttal.  Power does not always equate to getting the last word.  Power equates to being able to speak truth in the midst of persecution.  Power means being able to speak truth and sometimes die for it.  That’s the power that comes only from the King.

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Year 4, Day 238: Acts 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

Up represents our spiritual origin.  It also represents our spiritual destination.  God is the source of our identity, the focus of our obedience, the foundation of our authority, and the basis for our power.  Up should be where we find God.

I can’t help but wonder what was Up for Ananias and Sapphira.  On one level, I genuinely believe that they loved God.  After all, why would they sell land and bring it to the apostles if they didn’t love God in the first place?  But on the other hand, why would they imply they sold the land for one amount while keeping some of the money back for themselves?  Why would they lie if they genuinely were worshipping God?  Why wouldn’t they give what they can, be honest about what they are doing, and allow God’s name to be praised?  The truth is that while I do believe they were in a relationship with God on one level, they were still worshipping the money in their life, too.

On the other hand, what about Gamaliel?  Sure, he was a wise member of the Sanhedrin.  Sure, he found himself on the opposite side of the fence as Jesus’ disciples.  But he does seem to be a man who pursued God’s truth.  He tells the rest of the Sanhedrin to not persecute the disciples for two significant reasons.  First, if Jesus’ disciples are right, then the Sanhedrin will find themselves struggling against God and that is no place to be.  Second, if the disciples aren’t of God then they’ll eventually fade away like a bad fad among the people.  Here is a man who is focused on seeking out God and God’s wisdom – even if he didn’t get it all perfectly right.  But then again, who does, right?

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Year 4, Day 237: Acts 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Authority, Power

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.
• Power: This is the natural outcome when we truly get our authority from the king.  When our authority is from God, we are equipped with His power to accomplish His will.  We act on His behalf in a world that He desperately loves.

When we look at Acts 4, we really do see an empowered Peter and John in the scriptures.  Don’t forget, these are the same people who weeks before – perhaps months at the most – had sentenced Jesus to be crucified.  Peter and John had every reason to be afraid when they are brought before the Sanhedrin.  They had every reason to expect that their life might come to the same unfortunate ending as Jesus’ life.  Of course, they would have every reason to also believe God would resurrect them at Jesus’ return, too.

In spite of whatever fear they might have had, Peter and John speak without fear.  They speak with the authority of God.  They speak the boldness of truth.  There is power in their words!

How do we know that there is power in their words?  They are let off with a warning because the name of God is being praised.  God is glorified, and because God is glorified the Sanhedrin cannot touch Peter and John.  The power in their speech reaches into the people in a deep and meaningful way.

Furthermore, look at the way that the community responds.  The persecution of the Sanhedrin only serves to bind the Christian community closer together.  The believers continue to gather together.  They continue to draw upon God and each other for strength.  They continue to display God’s ways through themselves!  The authority and power through which Peter and John speak only serves to bring God’s people closer together.

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Year 4, Day 236: Acts 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Power

• Power: This is the natural outcome when we truly get our authority from the king.  When our authority is from God, we are equipped with His power to accomplish His will.  We act on His behalf in a world that He desperately loves.

What happens when we recognize that God is indeed the king of the universe?  When God is king of our life, we gain His authority.  When we gain His authority, we gain His power.  But this doesn’t mean that that we will have our way with the world.  We have the power to bring about the kingdom of God.  But we do not have the power to force people to recognize it.

Look here at Peter and John.  These were two of Jesus’ closest disciples.  They are filled with the power of God.  The lame walk.  A miracle is performed.  It seems like a glorious day.  For Peter, John, the lame man, and a few others I’m sure that it is!

However, we’ll also get to look at the reaction of the people – and we’ll get an especially close look tomorrow.  But today we hear how the people were filled.  But with what were they filled?  They were filled with awe and wonder and amazement.  But when we look at Peter’s reaction we can tell that they weren’t inherently filled with belief.

When they gather around Peter, he begins to talk to them about their need for repentance.  He tells them about their need to put their trust in God and believe in Jesus the Messiah.  Peter chastises them, proclaiming faith boldly.  We would imagine that the power of God would lead to greatness and faith.  But that is not always so – especially in the masses.  As we shall see all throughout Acts, the power of God actually leads to proclamation of the need for repentance and the rejection of the world.

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Year 4, Day 235: Acts 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Bear Fruit

• Bear Fruit: We bear fruit after we grow.  Bearing fruit is ultimately the goal of abiding and the goal of being called into the Kingdom of God.  However, while bearing fruit is our calling, it is not the end.  We bear fruit so that we can then prune, abide, grow, and bear more fruit in another season.  Bearing fruit is not the end, but rather only a portion of the whole rhythm of life into which God has called us.

What topic would be better in a study after focusing on abiding than bearing fruit?  After all, we abide so that we might draw close to God and be prepared to bear fruit for His kingdom!  Granted, we also bear fruit so that we can abide and grow closer to God.  It is a cyclical rhythm, not a linear progression!

So yesterday we focused on the disciples and their calling to abide and wait for the Holy Spirit.  Now we see them growing and bearing fruit.  The Holy Spirit comes upon them and a powerful demonstration of God’s power is manifested.  People from all over the world hear the disciples speaking in languages that in all reality they couldn’t have known.  Remember, these are fisherman and people like them.  They are scholars who would be world travelers speaking many different languages.  God’s power is put on display indeed!

In the rest of the chapter we also see a very specific example of bearing fruit done through a single man: Peter.  Remember who Peter is.  He is the guy who jumped out of the boat and began to sink.  He is the guy to whom Jesus said, “Get behind me Satan.”  He is the guy who asked all the questions, often had the wrong perspective, and while genuinely desiring to follow Christ he got an awful lot wrong.

But look at what Peter does here.  In this story Peter stands up and takes charge.  He begins to explain things.  He begins to be the person who teaches others.  He is rising up in power and bearing fruit in a new and incredible way.  It is awesome to see.  Peter has taken time to abide and grow, and now he bears great fruit.

But notice something.  Having born fruit, what do we see the disciples doing at the end?  They pause.  The prune.  They go back into their community.  They share among one another.  They abide.  While the focus of this chapter is indeed on the fruit, we do see the full completion of the cycle from bearing fruit back to abiding.

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Year 4, Day 234: Acts 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Abide

• Abide: This is a moment, day, or even a season when we focus on God.  It is a time when we are rejuvenated by God.  It is the time for us to gather up what we will need for the coming growth after a season of pruning.  However, abiding is not the end.  We abide so that we can grow, bear fruit, prune, and abide again.

Acts chapter one is akin to the deep breath before God’s story really picks up momentum.  Jesus came.  Jesus made disciples.  Jesus died.  Jesus rose.  Jesus ascended.  Now Jesus is gone and the Holy Spirit is coming to really get things going.  But there is a pause here.  There is time for the disciples to abide.

What do we see the disciples doing in this time?  We see the disciples begin an incredibly healthy tradition.  They get together and fellowship.  They get together and support one another.  They spend time around one another.

When Jesus’ disciples need to recuperate, abide, recover strength, rest, plan, or anything else we see them coming together.  It’s a great lesson.  I think it is also a very important lesson.  It is, after all, the first lesson in the whole of the book of Acts.

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Year 4, Day 233: Luke 24

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: D2, Time, Vision, Grace

• D₂ is the step in the discipleship process where God builds character as we begin to help in God's work.  Often it involves us taking a good long look at ourselves and seeing what needs to be cut away.  Affectionately, this process is referred to as “the pit of despair” because when we see ourselves for who we really are it is easy to despair and feel like we’ll never get it right, we’ll never be right, and we’ll never be useful to God.  The disciple needs time, vision, and grace to come out of the pit of despair.

I’m not sure that there are many pits of despair deeper than watching your Lord and Savior die on the cross and be buried in a tomb.  After all, human beings have a saying: Dead is dead.  It had to be pretty hard to imagine how God was going to make Jesus His Messiah from the tomb.  I feel for those disciples.  How impossible that pit must have felt!

Then God does the unthinkable.  Jesus is raised!  Hallelujah!

Jesus comes to the women and gives them grace just by coming to them in the midst of their doubts.  He gives them vision by telling them to go and proclaim.  He gives them time by not expecting them to already have it figured out.

The same is true about those disciples on the road to Emmaus.  They didn’t have it all figured out.  They didn’t know what was going on.  Jesus comes among them to help them out.  He gives them vision by explaining the scriptures to them.  He gives them grace when He reveals Himself to them in the breaking of the bread.  He gives them time by not laying upon them the expectation of having to have it already figured out.

The same is also true about the disciples back in Jerusalem.  Jesus doesn’t expect them to have it all perfectly figured out.  In fact, He encourages them to take their time in figuring it all out until the Holy Spirit comes upon them.  He gives them grace by coming among them and not abandoning them to their doubt.  He gives them vision by showing them His body so they can know that He is who they say that He is.

Jesus knows the way out of the pit of despair.  When the pit of despair comes, we need time, vision, and grace.  We need it from God.  This means we need it through the spiritual people around us through whom God speaks.  When we’re in the pit, draw close to those spiritual people and allow them to mentor you through God’s hand at work in your life.

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Year 4, Day 232: Luke 23

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Yesterday I spent all of my space talking about obedience.  Today we see the effect of that obedience.  Jesus dies on the cross.  That’s obedience.

It’s also forgiveness.  He dies so that we might live.  He dies so that our sins might be forgiven.  He dies so that we can be in a relationship with God that we do not deserve.  He dies so that we may reap the benefit.

Look at how many places we can find forgiveness in this chapter.  Jesus forgives the thief on the cross who humbles himself before Jesus.  Jesus forgives the people gathered around Him as He is hung on the cross.  Again and again Jesus could have lashed out in divine power and demonstrated His superiority.  But instead, He forgives.

The world seems to win.  Jesus is dead.  God dies upon that cross.  Rebellion seems to succeed.  But God’s hand is at work bringing true forgiveness into the world.

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Year 4, Day 231: Luke 22

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from Father.

I don’t think that there can really be any better topic to focus upon with respect to the crucifixion than obedience.  It is at this moment in time that Jesus’ obedience is on its greatest display.  I can’t imagine for a second that Jesus’ fully human side wants to go forward at all.  But I can’t imagine that Jesus’ fully divine side wants anything except to fulfill His identity from His Father.

Look at Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.  “Take this cup away, but not my will be done.”  That’s obedience.

Look at Jesus at His arrest.  Jesus has disciples ready to come to His aid.  Yet what does He yell?  “Enough.”  He could have commanded His disciples to do their worst and they would have done so.  But Jesus orders them to stand down.  That’s obedience.

When Jesus is before the Council He is mocked.  He is cornered.  How does He respond?  He tells the truth even though He knows it will be used against Him in order to crucify Him.  That’s obedience.

There is nobody greater at obedience than Jesus.  His example should astound us.  He gave up His life knowing that it would happen to Him just because the Father asked.

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