Daily Devotional 4-22-21

Relax, It’s Me: How Jesus Saves Us From Doubt and Despair

One of the finest sinners who ever lived was Thomas, the doubting one. The risen Jesus breaks in on him and his fellow disciples shaking in their boots, wondering if the religious leaders’ goons would get them like they did their crucified rabbi. Our Lord, on that day and today, has to deal with the first two moves of a sinful heart: doubt and despair.

These guys had spent the past three years with Jesus. They were witnesses to the signs and wonders that John relates in his gospel. They’d seen the signs, but they couldn’t read ‘em very well. Not even Mary Magdalene’s first sermon to them about Christ’s resurrection did them much good. They just couldn’t see it. “Okay, fine; he’s not dead. That’s not going to help us when we have the same folks breathing down our necks who killed him.”

Scared spitless was what these guys were. It’s fairly typical for us sinners. Martin Luther said the first commandment bids us to fear, love, and trust our God. But even with a history of watching Jesus at work, the disciples despaired of any hope whatsoever. They could have just dipped their toes into the pool of sin by seeking help from somewhere, from their own bigger goons, from thicker doors or heavier hinges. At least they would have been looking to something in God’s creation for help. But they didn’t even go there. They succumbed to despair, thinking there was no hope, no future. They were paralyzed by fear.

If Jesus simply knocked on their door, there would have been a load of underwear to toss in the wash, so he appeared in their midst at the same time that he spoke a fear-quelling word: “Relax, it’s me.” On the surface, that sounds like a command. But when you get a demand from your beloved, from the one who’s so outright bodacious in your eyes that you can’t turn away, even the most significant demand begins to sound like an invitation and promise.

For those of us who recognize the disciples’ despair in ourselves, Jesus comes with the same word: “Relax, it’s me. Peace be with you.”

When it comes from Jesus’ lips, “Peace be with you” is pure gospel for the fearful (John 20:19). All the world’s demands come at some cost. They require that you give something up of yourself: your time, your energy, your money, your safety, your future. Whether those demands come from your work, your family, or even your play, a demand’s fulfillment depends solely on what you do.

But Jesus came to a group of people who were hanging on to the knot at the end of their rope. They had nothing left that they could pull together to do for themselves. That’s sweet news for us sinners all these centuries later who know how little we can do about our futures. For those of us who recognize the disciples’ despair in ourselves, Jesus comes with the same word: “Relax, it’s me. Peace be with you.”

Whenever Jesus showed up after the resurrection in the Gospels, it was always to people who were wandering around in despair: Mary Magdalene at the tomb, Cleopas and his friend on the road to Emmaus, the disciples out in the boat catching a total of zero fish. Jesus came searching out those who hadn’t an ounce left to give, and his first word was “Peace. I’m in control now, just as I was at the first moment of creation. I took what was formless and void and made something good out of it. Just so, I’m taking your chaos and turning it into the kingdom of God. Relax already!”

No sooner did Jesus quell the disciples’ fear and despair than he had to do it again. For as soon as Jesus begins creating his people anew, he also sends them out into the world they’re so scared of. He sets the disciples (and us) to the very task God sent him for. Jesus pushes them out into the world to do his work, the same exact stuff that got him nailed hand and foot to a couple of eight-by-eights. He had the audacity to claim that he could do what by rights belonged to God alone: forgive and retain sins. The religious leaders called it blasphemy, and the world will claim the same thing when Jesus’ followers announce real forgiveness to sinners. That’s something worth being scared of.

Thus, Jesus had to do it all over again. He said, “Peace. Remember me? I’m the one who made you and claimed you. It’s me who’s sending you. Can there be any doubt that if I’m crucified and risen, that you won’t be, too? I will care for you in your disasters and raise you to new life. Get busy. You have one single bold and impudent job. Open your eyes and find those who have nothing left and give them the one something who can give them everything. Give me to them. Forgive their sins. And tell those who haven’t hit bottom that they’re not there yet. But tell them that once they experience they having nothing more to give, you’ll have a word for them, God’s Word, God’s Son, that is, for them full and free.”

The one guy who missed out on all this promising, commissioning, and peace-giving was Thomas. He was no doubt off occupying himself in the only things left he thought he could count on. Maybe he was slouched in front of his computer screen, managing his finances. Maybe he was texting a pretty girl he’d met in Jericho back before he’d encountered Jesus. Maybe he’d gone to the library to study the Scriptures to wring some reason for this disaster out of it.

Isn’t it just like a sinner to demand more than what God offers in his promise? It’s not enough that Jesus declares it so – we want to have proof.

Wherever he was in his search for a way to put the chaos of Jesus’ failure to rights, he never expected what he got when he slipped through the door where his friends were hiding. He showed up hours later, and the disciples bombarded him with what happened. They gave him a world premiere; they tried out their new song of Jesus and forgiveness on him. They declared these promises of the risen Jesus to their friend, but it wasn’t enough for Thomas. And there we have the second move of the sinful heart. Isn’t it just like a sinner to demand more than what God offers in his promise? It’s not enough that Jesus declares it so – we want to have proof.

Luther called this move we sinners make “enthusiasm,” or God-within-ism. We don’t accept either God or his son Jesus Christ at their word. Proof is what we want and think we need. Some want to take God’s forgiving Word and add worldly success and prosperity as final proof of God’s good intentions. Others want the emotional kick of a spiritual gift like speaking in tongues. Still others think God’s Word isn’t really real unless they get an emotional kick in worship. Some won’t believe until there’s world peace or their kids listen to them, whichever comes first.

For Thomas, it was visual proof that he thought would do the trick: actually seeing Jesus standing in front of him with holes in his right hand and left, in his feet, and in his side. But when Jesus showed up so that Thomas could poke his finger into the spear wound in his side, it was no longer a matter of proof. Those wounds and Christ’s beating heart and breathing lungs tell the story.

“Proof-schmoof,” Jesus says, “I’ve already taken care of that. What’s been proven is that you and every other sinner will cling to your unbelief and doubt until it kills me. But I’m risen above all your doubts and despair. I’ve bundled them up and tucked them into the holes in my flesh. Poke around in there all you like. You’ll find your past with all its disasters, your present inability to conjure up something out of your life. It’s all death. But now look at the pulsing veins next to those holes and see your future.”

Once you’ve used your own index finger to probe the death and life encased in Jesus, the only thing that’ll do for sinners is to be slathered in the forgiveness and eternal life he brings. Jesus told Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Jesus didn’t let Thomas waste much time on the picking and poking. All that was left was for Thomas, the rest of the disciples, and those feisty women who followed with them to bring it, to preach it.

In believing, we are sprung free from doubt and despair, from our own death.

If doubt and despair are what spring from the sinner’s heart, then just as Christ promised to Thomas, people like us who have not seen are bound to believe. Andin believing, we are sprung free from doubt and despair, from our own death. Just as Jesus’ disciples were sent out with his death and resurrection on their lips, so have the countless generations following them been sent out to proclaim the good news that draws us to him. They were sent that we might believe.

The task for the baptized is to deliver the goods so that doubt and despair are not the last word on our identity. On account of Jesus’ forgiveness, we are called to pass on the same soul-slaking announcement of mercy in Christ in this parched world. Those for whom the disciples’ despair or Thomas’ doubt is still deeply entrenched are waiting to hear it: “Because of Christ’s death for you, there is nothing more for you to do for God. There’s no sin for you to clean up anymore. Jesus has it stored inside him until the end of time and into eternity itself.” Now, instead of doubt, faith rises up at the sight of our Lord again, offering up his wounded, risen body in Word and Sacrament, so we never need proof.

We can’t poke a finger into a slit in his side like Thomas did, but the Lord wants us to grab him nonetheless, knowing that the death that seasons every molecule is claimed by our risen Lord as his own. “Peace be with you,” Jesus says. “Here I am, broken and poured not for just anyone, but for you, for your forgiveness, for your faith. Peace. Peace be with you.”

From: https://www.1517.org/articles/relax-its-me-how-jesus-saves-us-from-doubt-and-despair

Daily Devotional 4-21-21

Life to the Full…

Elections and the resulting political discourse remind us how much most people long for a leader who will bring us justice and peace, protection and prosperity. However, on every occasion our aspirations are dashed as leaders reveal their flaws and failures and self-interest. No one proves to be the ideal leader.

Let me suggest the one exception: Jesus who said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

Many today view shepherds through rose-tinted lenses, imagining them with their faithful dogs, caring for their sheep on grassy hillsides. The reality is that the shepherds of ancient Israel lived dangerous lives. And because sheep were the equivalent of money in the bank today, shepherds had to contend, not only with marauding animals, but also with thieves and armed robbers.

Every village had their ‘banks’ – sheepfolds – with their door and security guard. In John 10 Jesus twins the images of Door (or Gate) and Good Shepherd when he says: ‘…He who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out (John 10:2-3). And in verse 7 he says, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep’, and in verse 10, ‘I am the good shepherd’.

Shepherds. Though poor and often treated as outcasts, shepherds played an important part in the life of Israel. Israel’s kings were described as shepherds. King David, the greatest of the Old Testament kings had been brought from shepherding sheep to shepherd God’s people Israel. But it was not only the kings who were called shepherds, but also the religious leaders. In Ezekiel 34 we read that when they abused their position and failed their spiritual duty, God declared that he himself would shepherd his people. Ezekiel 34:1-31 echoes Psalm 23 as it speaks of God himself as the shepherd of his people.

A millennium after David, Jesus says that he is the door and the good shepherd. As the good shepherd he brings together shepherd as a metaphor for the Messiah and the theme of death. False messiahs took the lives of men and women. The true Messiah gives life to men and women. And the life he gives, is life to the full (10:10). But it comes only at the cost of his own life ‘…Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep’, Jesus says (10:15).

We begin to see what Jesus means when he says he is the good shepherd. He is not a do-gooder, for they tend to be more interested in themselves and what others think of them. Jesus is good in the very best sense of the word. He is genuinely concerned about the interests of others and, no matter the cost to himself, he is committed to provide life in all its fullness for his people.

Furthermore, eternal life in biblical terms is not an existence that goes on and on. Rather it is the expansion and intensification of the very best experiences we enjoy in life now. Jesus is not interested in the quantity of life but in the quality.

An underlying theme we often miss in John chapter 10 is the distinction that Jesus makes concerning his goal and his method compared with those who went before him – and would come after him. Jesus was not a political Messiah.

In John 10:8 Jesus says: ‘All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, they will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly’.

The thieves and robbers were the false-messiahs, the political activists of Jesus’ day. In their endeavors to free Israel from Roman rule, they used violence in various forms. But Jesus charts a very different path in the cause of true life and real freedom. As the door, he is the only one who has the right to open the gate of heaven and have the title Messiah. As the good shepherd he has given his life to open the way to the freedom and joy of God’s long-promised kingdom.

When we consider Jesus’ words here, we discern their application for our 21st century world. The only real hope of freedom and life the progressive materialist has to offer is some kind of embodiment of Karl Marx’s classless society. According to Marx people could only find real happiness if they freed themselves from the imperialism of economic oppression and exploitation. Only then would the former hostilities between races and nations be resolved and humanity be able to develop its full potential.

‘Don’t be misled,’ Jesus is saying. ‘These people have come to steal – they have no respect for personal property or enterprise. They have come to kill – they don’t value human life.’

Think of the millions who died under the 20th century revolutionary movements – led by Lenin and Stalin, Hitler and Mao, Pol Pot and Idi Amin. And for what? No perfect peaceful and just society has emerged.

‘I am the door; I am the good shepherd’, Jesus says. Only those who turn to him will find true life and liberty. They alone find true deliverance – they are saved. They alone find true fulfillment – they find satisfying pasture. If we want to find true freedom, deep satisfaction and real life, we need to turn to Jesus Christ – who carried, not a gun, but a cross.

From: https://anglicanconnection.com/life-to-the-full/

Daily Devotional 4-20-21

Emulating the Supreme Model

God has given great men and women to the church. The biblical giants serve as valuable models—despite their imperfections. Were we to elevate Paul, Abraham, or David above Christ, we would be guilty of idolatry. The same would be true if we exalted Martin Luther, John Calvin, Thomas Aquinas, and others above Christ. We respect these saints, but only insofar as they are faithful to Christ and point beyond themselves to Christ. This was certainly the style of the apostle Paul, who labored tirelessly for the cause of Christ. We love and honor him for that labor. Likewise, we honor the giants of church history. But even the theological “giants” are sub-apostolic, never speaking or writing with an authority equal to an apostle.

At the same time, we recognize that a vast gulf separates Augustine from Jim Jones. People like Augustine and Luther have contributed theological insights of such magnitude that their names are representative of key thoughts. Few in church history are worthy of such recognition. The suffixes “ian,” “ist,” or “ite,” (e.g., “Calvinist”) are valuable to identify truth but have little positive and much negative value when applied to personalities. We know that Augustine, Luther, and Calvin were not crucified for us.

Coram Deo

Thank God for role models who have influenced your life; then thank Him for the Supreme Model who died for you.

Passages for Further Study

2 Thessalonians 3:9

1 Corinthians 10:11

1 Thessalonians 1:7

From: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/emulating-supreme-model/

Daily Devotional 4-19-21

Following Jesus Christ

Jesus said to those of His day, “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Christ freely offers Himself to people like you and me. He says, “Come, follow Me” (Mark 10:21). Jesus also commanded those following him to “make disciples” (Matthew 28:19) by calling others to follow him.

Following Christ and being a disciple means you believe certain facts in the Bible about Christ. You believe he is the eternal Son of God. You believe he was born of a virgin. You believe he died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin. You believe He was raised again from the grave and is now King of kings and Lord of Lords.

Discipleship, however, involves more than a mere belief of these facts. Discipleship means commitment to Christ. Discipleship means trusting in the person called Christ and what he has done. You can believe all there is to know about Christ and still not be a disciple. The Bible says, “The demons believe, and shudder” (James 2:19). You must trust Christ himself and rely upon him to save you from sin and its consequences.

Because it is my desire to follow Christ and to make disciples, I urge you to come to Christ. I call upon you to commit your life to Christ.

Click here and listen to a lesson called: “Following Jesus.”

From: http://dennyprutow.com/daily-devotions/

Daily Devotional 4-16-21

Precious Blood

Standing at the foot of the cross, we see hands and feet and side all distilling crimson streams of “precious blood.” It is “precious” because of its redeeming and atoning efficacy. By it the sins of Christ’s people are atoned for; they are redeemed from under the law; they are reconciled to God, made one with Him.

Christ’s blood is also “precious” in its cleansing power; it cleanses from all sin. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”1 Through Jesus’ blood there is not a spot left upon any believer; no wrinkle nor any such thing remains. O precious blood that makes us clean, removing the stains of our iniquity and permitting us to stand accepted in the Beloved despite the many ways in which we have rebelled against our God.

The blood of Christ is also “precious” in its preserving power. We are safe from the destroying angel under the sprinkled blood. Remember, it is God’s seeing the blood that is the true reason for our being spared. Here is comfort for us when the eye of faith is dim, for God’s eye is still the same. The blood of Christ is “precious” also in its sanctifying influence.

The same blood that justifies by taking away sin also quickens the new nature and leads it onward to subdue sin and to obey the commands of God. There is no greater motive for holiness than that which streams from the veins of Jesus. And “precious,” unspeakably precious, is this blood because it has an overcoming power. It is written, “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb.”2 How could they do otherwise? He who fights with the precious blood of Jesus fights with a weapon that cannot know defeat.

The blood of Jesus! Sin dies at its presence; death ceases to be death: Heaven’s gates are opened. The blood of Jesus! We shall march on, conquering and to conquer, so long as we can trust its power!

1) Isaiah 1:18

2) Revelation 12:11

From: https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/daily-devotionals/latest/?gclid=CjwKCAjwnK36BRBVEiwAsMT8WCR8UteIwaWlAyP4o9ZIuAWio8l7qmAM1nDcB3pFiYr-jOUNkgMsShoC68IQAvD_BwE

Daily Devotional 4-15-21

Psalm 23 and the Apostles’ Creed

In John 10, Jesus tells us he has come to shepherd us and to be our good shepherd. He is good because he lays down his life for the sheep, that is for us, of his own accord. He lays down his life for the sheep because the sheep belong to him; he knows them; they are his own, and they know his voice.

But, from where to where has Christ come to shepherd us sinful sheep? He guides us from death to life. He knows the way because he has been there before.

Psalm 23 and Martin Luther’s explanations of the Apostles’ Creed found in his Small Catechism pair well to show us how God shepherds us. Out of his fatherly, divine goodness, and mercy, he makes us his own through his Son. Through his Holy Spirit, calls us by the gospel that he may daily and richly forgive our sins and on the last day raise us from the dead and give us eternal life.

Psalm 23 begins, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.” We see the Psalmist’s beautiful and comforting images enfleshed in Luther’s down-to-earth explanation of what it means to believe in God as our Father.

While a god by definition is mightily above all things and even numerous non-Christians recognize a creative intent to the heavens and the earth, to believe in God as Father goes beyond such descriptions. The Almighty Creator is our true and dear Father who gifts us with life itself. He bestows our body and soul, reason and senses. He works through parents and siblings, spouses and children, friends and neighbors to richly and daily provide us with all we need for this body and life. As Timothy Wengert comments, “God’s care for us goes right down to our shoes!”

And far from a set-it-and-forget-it-God, he still takes care of us and his gifts. He defends, guards, and protects us. He works through those in government and other authorities to provide and preserve peace and order that our daily needs may be met and kept. With God as our Father, we shall not be in want. He shepherds us to green pastures and brings us beside still waters.

The Creed and Luther’s explanations of it could have described God in high and lofty terms hard to grasp; instead, they describe him in the concrete terms of fatherhood and gift. Here we see that God our Father gifts himself to us in the material goods of this life including our very lives themselves and the lives of our neighbors through whom he delivers these goods and sustains our lives.

And, “All this he does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in [us].” Thanks be to God, our Father.

Psalm 23 continues, “He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” We see the Psalmist’s words brought to life in Luther’s explanation of what it means to believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord.

In the first article, we saw how God the Father shepherds us through our everyday physical needs without our merit or worthiness. Now, in Jesus, God’s own Son, we see how he goes above and beyond, how completely he pours himself out for us and holds nothing back from us.

The depths of God’s fatherly, divine goodness and mercy displayed in Jesus’ person and work are found in the word “Lord.” This tiny term encompasses all Christ has done for us, all he did to make himself our redeemer and Lord. The eternal Son of God took on mortal human flesh and entered the valley where we walk to purchase and win us from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil. Not with monetary gifts or animal sacrifices, but with his own death. His body and blood beat them off like a rod and pull us to safety like a staff that we may be his own and live under him in his kingdom with him as our Lord.

By his death and resurrection, Jesus, our Lord shepherds us, his sheep through the valley of the shadow of death to eternal life and restores our souls. Just as he is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity, he leads us in the path of his everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness which he freely gives to us.

He gives all this to us, even himself, so that he is with us, and so we fear no evil.

Psalm 23 closes, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” We see the Psalmist’s departing descriptions reflected in Luther’s explanation of what it means to believe in the Holy Spirit.

In the first article, we saw how the Father shepherds us through our everyday needs. In the second article, we saw how Jesus shepherds us through the valley of death to make us his own and become our Lord. Now, in the third article, we see how the Holy Spirit shepherds us through this life and daily delivers to us what Christ won for us.

The Holy Spirit does what his name implies. He makes us holy. We believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord, and come to him only by the Holy Spirit who calls us with the gospel. Our own reason and strength are not enough. But how is our faith delivered and Christ’s gifts given that we may be made holy?

The Holy Spirit does so through the holy catholic church, the communion of sinner/saints who gather around the table he prepares before us in the presence of our enemies: sin, death, and the devil. At the table, we receive Jesus’ body and blood under bread and wine. He also anoints our heads with the water and word of Baptism, by which he unites us to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Here in the church, he makes us holy by the forgiveness of our sins – sins daily and richly forgiven freely on account of Christ.

This goodness and mercy, this gospel pursues us all the days of our lives until the last day. Then, he will resurrect our bodies and grant us life everlasting, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This is most certainly true.

From: https://www.1517.org/articles/psalm-23-and-the-apostles-creed

An Interview with David Day from Montgomery, AL

Chief evangelist Bill Adams recently interviewed SFOI Evangelist David Day and talked to him about his Christian testimony and conversion to evangelism. David explained that he grew up in a religious household although it wasn’t particularly Christian. He and his family would attend church and pray a couple of times a week before meals, but other than that, his only exposure to Christ was from hearing about Jesus simply by living in the South.

David remembers there being a big family bible being in the house, but that it was never read together as a family. Being kind to one another and being a good person was mainly what David learned about God. As David got older he started to wonder why Jesus died, it made no sense to him that if God was so powerful, He couldn’t simply snap his fingers and make things right. At the same time David found himself asking this question, he heard the Sermon ‘Hell’s Best Kept Secret’ for the first time. David explained that he didn’t have a light-bulb moment until the second time he heard the sermon, and realized that he wasn’t the good person he thought he was, that it took more than simply being ‘good’.

David learned to understand his sin, and, in that moment, everything made sense to him. He understands that Jesus needed to die to pay for our sins, that none of us are righteous and that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. At that point, around 15 years ago, David realized in needed to share the Gospel. He understood that if God had chosen him to understand sin, he needed to do something with that knowledge. 

You can watch the whole interview with David by clicking the link below. 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=231324915404837

Daily Devotional 4-14-21

Silenced…?

I’m told that the golden arches of McDonald’s and the swirling script of Coca Cola’s logo are more widely recognized throughout the world today than the Christian cross. Millions around the world have never heard of Jesus Christ. Is the cancel culture that is keen to silence any talk of Jesus, succeeding?

Indeed, there seems to a lack of urgency amongst God’s people about reaching others with God’s gospel. If they do speak up, they fear what others will think. They also fear they won’t have the right words. I’ll come back to this later.

Promise. But first, come with me to Luke 24. Luke’s ‘resurrection chapter’ sets out three scenes – Scene 1: Angels remind the women who visited Jesus’ tomb early on the Sunday morning following his crucifixion of what he had said: “… and on the third day (I will) rise again” (24:7). In Scene 2, Jesus walked as a stranger with two of his followers on the road to Emmaus and explained what the Scriptures had predicted and promised about the Messiah. In Scene 3 Jesus spoke in person to his disciples of the promises and the fulfillment of the Scriptures concerning his death and resurrection.

Moses had foreshadowed the need for a perfect sacrifice (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22). Isaiah had spoken about God’s servant who would suffer for the people, bearing our guilt, dying for our sins (Isaiah 52:13-53:12). Jesus wanted his perplexed, grief-stricken followers to understand they were to interpret all that had happened to him in the light of the Scriptures. He is saying, ‘The Bible says…’

Five words express the essence of what he was saying: He (the Christ) died for our sins. It’s a simple statement. The first two words have to do with facts – history: Christ died. Without explanation the event could mean almost anything – one thing for the Christian and another for the Muslim. The meaning is provided with three further words: … for our sins.

Christ died is not good news. Whereas Christ died for our sins is.

When people ask, ‘How does Christ’s death benefit me?’ our response should be, ‘We need to go to the Scriptures, for they give us the interpretation’. The Scriptures provide the meaning: the New Testament interprets the Old Testament and the Old interprets the New. The idea that both Testaments interpret one another may seem strange, but that is the nature of the unity of the Scriptures. Indeed, a passage such as Isaiah 52:13-53:12 in providing us with a clear interpretation, also reveals God’s masterplan of rescue.

Fulfillment. Jesus’ words in Luke 24:46 are electrifying for in telling us that Christ had to suffer and die, and rise again, they reveal the depths of God’s love for us: “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day,…”

Jesus’ death and resurrection is not the story of a dead man who came back to life, nor the story of a dying and rising god. Nor is it a romantic story that tells us that death is not the end. It is the story of Messiah’s shameful death by crucifixion, suffering the pains of God-forsakenness on behalf of men and women who had broken God’s good and perfect law.

Jesus’ resurrection is God’s answer to the innocent man who had cried out, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Without his death, Jesus’ resurrection has no significance for fallen men and women. Unless sin has first been dealt with, resurrection cannot point to forgiveness and new life. The resurrection is now a glorious message because it has made sense of Jesus’ death. Jesus, for his part, would be crowned with the highest honours and given the greatest glory.

But there is much more – that involves you and me today! In verse 47 we read: “…and repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations… You are witnesses of these things.”

Repentance translates a Greek word which speaks of ‘a change of mind and lifestyle’. Unless we have a change of mind and heart towards Jesus Christ, asking for his forgiveness and committing to a new attitude and lifestyle, there is no forgiveness.

These truths are to be proclaimed to the nations! Jesus commissioned his first disciples – not just one or two – as his witnesses. And, as God’s good news must be taken to all nations, we are caught up in this partnership today. We can’t be witnesses in the strict sense, but we can introduce others to the God of love and compassion.

One way we can do this is to turn the pages of ‘The Word One-to-One’ with friends over coffee. ‘The Word One-to-One’ has the text of John’s Gospel with helpful explanatory notes. You can find out more at: www.theword121.com. Furthermore, the February Anglican Connection Online Conference included talks from Dr. John Lennox and Richard Borgonon. Both spoke of the advantages of this ministry. For US$30.00 you can access this conference at www.anglicanconnection.com.

Not Alone… Jesus knew that even his close followers who had seen him risen from the dead didn’t have the inner resources to go out and tell the nations God’s good news. They needed the Holy Spirit, to clothe them (24:49). They needed then, as we do today, a clear understanding of the truth, wisdom and inner resolve to talk with others – especially when faced with opposing voices. The encouraging news is that the regenerative power of God’s Spirit is now actively at work in us and in the world.

Because people’s eternal lives are at stake, let’s not be silenced by the voices around us. Rather, let’s pray that God’s Spirit will so fill our lives that our faith spills over into our conversations enabling others to find life and joy in all its fullness in Christ forever.

From: https://anglicanconnection.com/silenced-2/

Daily Devotional 4-13-21

Facing a Crisis of History

In Luke 12:49–57, Jesus told His disciples that He had not come to bring peace, but division. He told them that He was bringing a baptism of fire to the earth, warning the crowd to flee the wrath to come.

This was the great moment of crisis in history. It was a time of urgency that swept the earth with the appearance of Jesus. Jesus’ coming to this planet in the fullness of time was a time of division, judgment, and separation.

It was a time of personal choosing, when eternal destinies were at stake. Everyone who encountered Jesus had to make a choice, to stand with Him or against Him. Thus, since the time of Jesus’ first appearance, the world has been gripped in a kind of crisis that will continue until the last great crisis, the last judgment.

How do men encounter Jesus today, thus facing their own crisis of history? Jesus is in heaven, but men and women encounter Him through His people, the church. The church is His body and His herald. The fiery baptism Jesus came to bring fell in one sense at Pentecost to ignite the tongues of His people so that they might bring the crisis of decision to all men.

Knowing these things should make us urgent in our proclamation of His name and make us insistent that the generation of our day be exposed to the Lord of lords.

Coram Deo

What are you doing to proclaim His name to this generation? Pray about the role God would have you fill.

Passages for Further Study

Luke 12:49-53

From: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/facing-crisis-history/

NHL Outreach April 8th 

Mark Seward attended the Bluejackets game in Columbus, OH on the 8th April recently only to be met with a poor turnout. The weather wasn’t in Mark’s favour but not to be deterred, Mark filmed this great video explaining why laborers are so important, and how you can make a difference not just by preaching, but by doing other things too. 

Perhaps you could hand out tracts? Maybe you’re great at one on one witnessing? If your best skill is filming with your smart phone, we need you!

Take a look at Mark’s video invitation here: https://www.facebook.com/mark.seward.169/videos/1379482149117856