Category: God’s Word

… [Paul] reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ (Acts 17.2b-3).

This week in Acts our passage turns on that message from Paul, especially the truth that Jesus suffered—before being raised, before being glorified. The unbelievers in Thessalonica won’t like that one bit, because a Messiah who suffered for them means that they’re not all that good. In fact, they’re far from God and will need to change to embrace this Jesus who suffered. That’s the “jealous” response of the Thessalonian unbelievers Luke describes for us (:5).

We struggle in the same way, don’t we? If we embrace Jesus who suffered, then Jesus might expect us to suffer in following Him, then following Him will cost us, in leisure time, personal peace, and affluence. Do we really want that?

That all depends on whether we really want Jesus. The  Thessalonians’ neighbors to the south, the Bereans, will be more “noble” (a word having the idea of generosity). The Beareans will “receive” the word, examine the Scriptures daily, and finally believe in this Jesus who suffered.

In the end, JESUS is worth embracing, because in embracing JESUS who suffered we get to embrace JESUS. That makes all the difference in our own times of trouble. Knowing that JESUS suffered means we’re on the right path when we experience trouble in following Him. Knowing that JESUS suffered means we’re raised with Him in newness of life now and will be raised in every sense at His return.

Knowing that JESUS suffered means we can eagerly embrace Him in our times of trouble.

Here’s a few questions for discussion with others. We’ll see you this Sunday at Woodland!

1. What about the idea of a suffering Christ would have been offensive to the Jews, then to the Greeks?
2. What about this same idea is most offensive to Americans, and then (gulp!) to you?
3. How did the Bereans respond differently than the Thessalonians? And what difference did it make in receiving Paul and Silas?
4. How does knowing that Jesus suffered before being raised invite me to think about my own trouble?
5. How does knowing that Jesus suffered before being raised invite me to think and feel about Jesus?

This week we’re going to see what happens when God works and we respond: God’s people get attacked!

We’ll see it in Acts 16, and we’ll recognize the reality in our own lives. Paul and Silas have just seen the church of Jesus planted in Philippi, on the new continent that today is Europe. And, you know what, God’s enemy doesn’t like it. God’s enemy tried to distort the gospel and discredit the messengers.

But, you know what else? God protects His Word and leads His messengers through: When in the place of spiritual attack, know that God will lead you out!

Here’s a few questions to consider with others as we get ready to meet tomorrow at Woodland. See you here:

1. Why is it helpful to think about the difference between natural evil and spiritual attack?
2. What are some ways that the gospel gets confused in our response to evil? (:16-24)
3. Where do your thoughts go in the “midnight hour” when you are under attack? (:25-26)
4. What is your typical pattern of response to people who have hurt you when you are under attack? (:27-34)
5. How can we promote the reputation of God’s people when we’ve sustained an attack? (:35-40)

This week we’re thinking about decisions. We make them more than ever, right? Decisions about scheduling and technology, rides and healthcare. Decisions about machines we can’t live without, but suddenly can’t use. More than ever, routine decisions are complicated and make us tired, don’t they?

In Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas (then Silas) take off on what we’ve come to call their Second Missionary Journey. They’ll revisit places like Derby, Lystra and Iconium where they’d introduced Gentiles to Jesus, the Savior of the world. Only this time, they’ll carry with them the verdict of the Jerusalem Council, reached earlier in Acts 15: JESUS is enough! You don’t need to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved.

But, as clear as that message might be, there’s more questions that arise from the doing of their trip. They involve those bedeviling details about whether to trust their young, but unreliable companion, John Mark. They involve how to present their new, half-Jewish companion Timothy, in their ministry to the Jews. They involve where to go when the Spirit tells them not to go where they’d planned on going.

Who to trust? … What to do? … Where to go?

Any of this sound familiar? Do you think there’s something we can learn for our own decision-making as we consider this passage?

Yes, there is. And, as we prepare to gather together at Woodland this Sunday, here’s some other questions we might consider together.

Questions for discussion:

1. What do we learn from the decision about John Mark? What was the process that Paul and Barnabas went through in arriving at their decision? How did God work this out? (15.36-41)
2. Do you have a story about a time when you had to make a decision only to find later that you “couldn’t have made a bad decision,” because you were trusting the results to the Lord?
3. What principles do we see worked out in Timothy’s decision to become circumcised? (16.1-5)
4. Have you ever had an experience where God refined your mission? Maybe, He told you to stop doing something He’d previously told you to do; or He told you to do something He’d previously not allowed you to do? What did that experience teach you about time and place and the timing of God’s work?
5. What does the account of Lydia show us about the end toward which the Spirit reveals God’s will and guides us?

We’ll see you this Sunday, at Woodland!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; the good news about Jesus had been accepted by those who didn’t even know the God of the Jewish Scriptures, the good news about Jesus had been rejected by most of those who did know the God of the Jewish Scriptures; Paul and Barnabas continued to teach new believers in Antioch that faith in Jesus is enough to know God, some claiming to know Christ continued to add requirements to faith in Christ; Paul and Barnabas wanted to make it simple to come to Jesus, some claiming to know Christ wanted to make it hard to come to Jesus. 

In short, it was an age like every other age God’s people have seen, in which we must ask the simple question: Is Jesus enough?

That’s the picture we find in Acts 15.1-35. There’s a threat! And it comes, not from outside the people of God, but from inside the church. And, as we see God’s people work toward resolution,  we’ll see them identify an issue that is just too big and important for compromise—call it a Truth Issue. We’ll also see them unify around less important matters—call them Unity Issues.

And, as we gather at Woodland this Sunday (and perhaps in small groups early next week) we’ll get to help each other with the truth and unity issues in our own cultural situation, all while we remember the one, big idea from Acts 15: JESUS IS ENOUGH.

Here’s some questions that, once we’ve read the passage, will help us do just that:

What is really being discussed in this passage? Why can’t they just “agree to disagree”? 

How are the “unity issues” of verse 19-20 different from the major “truth issue” (salvation by faith in Christ, not law-keeping)? 

What are some “truth issues” we encounter in our cultural situation? What are some “unity issues”? 

What are some takeaways from the way the apostles and elders handled this dispute? How might they become important for us? 

Have a great week. See you Sunday, at Woodland!

Have you ever found yourself in a new situation? Starting a new school, maybe? Or a new job? Or a new city? What’s everybody’s idea of “the good life” here? you might have asked.

This week, in Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas continue their mission to the Galatian cities of Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. And, like Dorothy in Oz said, they just as well might have said, “We’re not in Kansas anymore”.

Paul and Barnabas’s journey—there and back again—gives us insight in just how we’re to respond to cultural situations where we find ourselves among a people who don’t share the same assumptions about reality that we do. How do you serve God in that place? 

To serve in a new cultural situation … persist in the truth of Jesus (:1-7), help people question assumptions about reality (:8-20), and strengthen the gathered people of Jesus (:21-28). 

As we consider Acts 14 together, here’s some questions that can be considered—alone or with friends or family:

What is the truth about Jesus? Who is He, and what has He done? (:1-7)

When we find that we’re in the minority as a follower of Jesus, what obstacles do we encounter? (Consider, again, Acts 14.1-7 for some ideas.).

What assumptions about reality do people in our own culture hold without even thinking? (:8-20)

How might we help our friends in our own culture question these assumptions, and in a way that would have them consider the truth of who Jesus is? 

How does your view of the local church gathered change after reading about how Paul and Barnabas revisited those places where people had trusted Jesus, appointed leaders, and then celebrated with their sending church in Antioch? How central are local churches to God’s plan for this age? 

I’m so looking forward to seeing each of you this Sunday. See you at Woodland!

This week begins a new season in the life of our church in the great Northwoods of Wisconsin. We’re one week away from the beginning of the process that will lead to regathering.

For reasons that everybody can imagine by now, that’s a big deal. And it’s because of the immensity of the project that I’m super happy we’re beginning a summer study in the Book of James.

James is about faith producing spiritual fruit. In the keynote verses that we’ll look at tomorrow (1.1-4), we’ll see that TESTING of our faith can result in either fruit or failure. A consistent pattern of ENDURANCE results in MATURITY that leads to JOY in trials. The whole book is about individual case studies of what that spiritual fruit leading to maturity and joy looks like.

James is just the place for us to be for our present test at Woodland Community Church!

Right along with our study, we’ll be doing what I call the James Projekt. Below is a sample of what that project will look like. We’ll see a great many of you on the stream tomorrow.

Have a blessed week in the Lord!

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I love the last chapter of the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24. It’s like a great movie, a masterful symphony, a finely crafted novel. It depicts its original participants traveling through all the stages of despondency, disbelief, wonder and euphoria.

The chapter is really about God’s plan. How does God accomplish His plan? … How does God restore people to His purpose? … How does God put people back in the place He’s designed them for?

We join Jesus in the latter half of the chapter, 24.36-49. The two men from the Emmaus Road have rejoined the disciples, and Jesus appears. The passage deals with the reality of the resurrection and the results of Jesus having been raised.

Reality of Jesus’ Resurrection (:36-43). Peace to you! Jesus begins. And He means it, but the disciples are dismayed. To their fallen minds Jesus has blurred the distinction between the living and the dead. But Jesus isn’t either fallen pre-resurrection flesh or a disembodied spirit. He’s resurrected, and He offers them proofs.

See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. I’m body and soul, undivided, Jesus is showing them. Resurrection is a new category for the disciples. Jesus’ body isn’t a different body. There’s continuity between this life and the next. And Jesus shows this by the scars in His hands and feet.

And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” And then He ate. Jesus is really asking them to measure Him against the material substance of the fish they hand Him. Believe that fish is real? He’s saying. Well, watch me eat it. Either the fish isn’t real, or you’re all seeing things together, or I’m resurrected and real.

Something has happened, and it changes everything. That’s what the resurrection is all about.

Results of Jesus’ Resurrection (:44-49). These amazing verses are about God’s plan and what the resurrection has to do with that plan … everything, in fact!

1. 1. 1. Scripture is fulfilled (:44). The word used here means “something anticipated in God’s plan that has come to pass”. This includes everything pointing to Jesus in the “Law” (first five books of the Bible), “prophets” (including all the books we’d consider “histories”, like 1 and 2 Kings), and Psalms (the “writings” or wisdom books). The Old Testament. It all points to Jesus.
      2. The minds of Jesus’ followers are opened (:45). Jesus did this while in the Scriptures with His followers.
      3. God’s plan is made clear (:47-48). Jesus was to suffer … to be raised … and to be preached. This would be a message of repentance and forgiveness (Acts 2.38). And Jesus would be preached to the nations (Is 49.6; Acts 13.47).
      4. Finally, God’s Spirit will be sent to help (:48-49). The disciples’ job won’t be to serve as organizers, but as witnesses. Tell people what you’ve seen me do, Jesus is saying. Notice, we’ve just gotten a preview to the Book of Acts.

So, how does God accomplish His plan?

The way God accomplishes His plan is through the resurrection of Jesus. 

We today are much like those in this passage. For starters, we’re in quarantine. (Maybe not important, but it’s a curious point.) We’re despondent because our plans haven’t worked out. And, we need to recognize that something has happened … the resurrection of Jesus!

And that great work of God changes everything. Now we have a place in God’s plan. We’re witnesses to what Jesus has done. And, if you’ve trusted Jesus by faith, you have the Spirit of God who helps us.

First Corinthians 15.20-28 is Paul’s recasting of Luke 24. He begins in verses 20-22: But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead …

So, if you’ve trusted in Jesus, keep trusting in Jesus. A million years from now we won’t be talking about the Coronavirus, but we will be talking about Jesus’ work of redemption punctuated by His resurrection.

And, if you’ve not trusted Jesus, do it. Receive that message of repentance and forgiveness. Enter God’s plan that is all held together by the fact that Jesus is alive!

Really finally, if you have interest in what we’re talking about here, why don’t you join us tomorrow at 9:00 on the Woodland livestream? We’ll look at this passage more in depth, and with a thought to where we are in our present situation as a nation and a people.

Have a great week in the Lord! …

While the turning seasons and longer days do much to lighten the mood, we have a long way to go before we emerge from our Coronavirus crisis. And, as I talk with different ones of you, I feel your strain from social isolation, your struggle for purpose in life, and your stress from financial burdens.

All this makes for a great time to return to our study of Luke where—after our Easter Sunday study in 24.1-12—Jesus is alive! Even so, in our gospel account, nobody has seen Jesus. Luke is crafting a cliffhanger, and by verse 12 of chapter 24, we’re left to wonder what difference resurrection makes, how Jesus will reveal Himself, and even how Jesus’ new life will affect our present purpose and place with God some millennia later.

Luke 24.13-35 finds two men walking to an unimportant village named Emmaus. On the surface the passage is about a walk, a conversation, a meal, and a community. But it’s about far more than that. We’re about to rediscover our present purpose and place with God. We’re about to trace the different stages in which we become acquainted with resurrection life.

Jesus unrecognized (:13-16). The passage opens with two men walking the three and a-half miles to Emmaus (the distance taken as a round number). They’re in intense discussion about Jesus. Suddenly, Jesus joins them. Only they don’t recognize Him. There’s something about resurrection life that we in our fallen state can’t grasp without help. (So Mary in John 20, the disciples in John 21). Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable (1 Cor 15.50).

Even so, none of us starts out recognizing Jesus. We have our notions of Jesus, don’t we? He’s an historical or religious figure, an idea, or a real person whom others have used to manipulate or shame us. But He’s anything but the risen Savior … when we start out.

Jesus revealed in Scripture (:17-27). Next follows the conversation. Jesus, unrecognized in His resurrection state, draws the men out. He wants to know what they’re discussing. At first they “stood still, looking sad”. They’re crestfallen, disappointed in their purpose, disillusioned about God’s plan and their proper place with Him.

Then one of the men, Cleopas by name, wants to know how his new companion couldn’t know about Jesus. Jesus draws the men out further. And Cleopas unloads with his account of recent events. In this description we see  Jesus described as a great leader on par (it was hoped) with Moses. Jesus was thought to be a prophet “mighty in word and deed”. It was hoped He would redeem Israel. But Jesus was killed, and now confounds everyone in the disappearance of His body, as reported by otherwise trustworthy women known to the two men.

And it’s in Jesus’ response to the men in verses 15-17 that we learn what the men (and us, if we’re honest) are missing. There’s suffering before glory. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? (:26). And then Jesus starts from the beginning of what we’d call the Old Testament, and he interprets the entire Bible, showing the men how all of it pointed to Him, and can’t be made sense of without His work on the cross.

Like the two men, many of us grow in our understanding of Jesus but then somehow miss the cross. This won’t work. We’ll be disappointed in Jesus. We’ll blame Him for not being the Savior we’d expected. So it was with the men. And—crazy thing, even after hearing this first preaching of the gospel from Jesus Himself—they still haven’t recognized Jesus!

Jesus recognized in relationship (:28-32). Now the men invite Jesus home to lodge. They share a meal. And it’s in the act of being served by Jesus that they’re no longer “kept from” recognizing Jesus. They suddenly know Him in His resurrection body, just before Jesus vanishes. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him (:31a). The same language of “opening” is used twice more in the passage (verses 32 and 45) to describe Jesus revealing Himself to others in the Scriptures.

What do we gather from this about seeing Jesus? About resurrection life? The lesson is complex and profound. We know we can’t recognize Jesus without help. And, apparently, the bare facts of the gospel as recorded in Scripture don’t change us. There’s a work of God that needs to take place for our eyes to be “opened”. For the men, this work took place face-to-face with Jesus. But Jesus had talked about the Spirit’s future work (Jn 14.26, among other places). And Paul would later describe how God’s Spirit would interpret the Scriptures for us: Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given to us by God … (1 Cor 2.12a).

To really “recognize” Jesus we need the calling of God through His Spirit. This will take place entirely by God’s grace as we hear the gospel through God’s Word. And, when we respond by faith, we understand spiritual things—who Jesus is, the importance of the cross, our purpose in life, our place with God, and God’s purpose in the suffering of Jesus, as well as God’s purpose in our suffering.

Jesus revered by others (:33-35). It might seem at this point that the passage is over. But the men return to Jerusalem, and they join others who are celebrating the risen Lord. And, before they can tell their own story, they learn that Peter has seen Jesus too! God has provided a community for the men. They’ll share their experience of the risen Lord. They’ll proclaim the gospel together. They’ll study Scripture together. And they’ll be transformed by the Spirit and share resurrection life together. Even more, they now have a renewed purpose as they understand God’s plan for them. And they’ll share suffering with one another before entering into glory, even as Jesus did.

In the same way, we receive a new community when we trust Jesus. We’ll share resurrection life with others. This new life starts spiritually when we trust in Jesus and will be completed when we’re with Him at His return. As we go we’ll remember that Jesus is finished with His suffering, but we aren’t quite finished with ours. We’ll have opportunity to contend for the faith along with our new community, even as Paul did: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church (Col 1.24).

So, here we are in our final month of the “sheltered in place” directive. I would venture that we struggle because we don’t really understand the place of suffering in resurrection life. Like the men on the road, we need to “recognize” Jesus and understand the place of suffering in relation to glory. With this comes a new appreciation for God’s purpose in our own suffering. Rather than view our present crisis as something to be gotten through, we need to see the Coronavirus as something God is using to prepare His church for Jesus. Cross first, then glory. Spiritual life with Jesus now, glory at Jesus’ return.

When we meet Jesus in the Scriptures and receive the promised help of the Spirit we have our eyes opened in this way. We recognize Jesus in all His past suffering and present glory. And, in our present situation, we see—along with Jesus’ companions in Luke 24— that resurrection life restores our purpose and place in Jesus. 

How’s that for some encouragement as you shelter in place a little while longer?

Now, have a great week in the Lord, and we’ll “be seen by you” tomorrow.

Coronavirus … COVID 19 … That’s pretty much all we’re hearing right now. That and all the messaging (true, false, and changing) that we’re receiving.

In such times we need to know God’s will. And then we need strength for the doing of God’s will … strength for the Doing of It. 

In Luke 22.39-46, Jesus has just led His disciples out to the Mount of Olives where He is residing during Passover (:39). They’ve celebrated Passover. Even as He prepares to BE the Passover lamb of God, Jesus has fulfilled that observance and transformed the meal into the observance of His own death, now only hours away. Judas has failed the test of discipleship; he’s abandoned Jesus. What about the others? How will the other disciples find strength for the doing of God’s will?

Now, in the garden, Jesus instructs His followers to pray (:40). He’s told Peter (representing all the others too) that he’d be “sifted like wheat” (:32).  Pray that you may not enter into temptation, Jesus commands. Dependance on God will protect them in the test ahead.

Jesus prays and receives God’s strengthening (:41-44). With dramatic tension, Jesus withdraws “about a stone’s throw” from the disciples. He kneels in prayer. Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Remember Luke 4? Satan didn’t want Jesus to go to the cross (and accomplish redemption). Jesus, in His full humanity) doesn’t want to go to the cross. Why the cross? Because only through the cross will redemption be accomplished. Only through the obedience of Jesus will the holiness of God be demonstrated. And only through the cross will the love of God in saving those dependent on Jesus be shown.

An angel appears to strengthen Jesus for the doing of God’s will. Note what Jesus does after the encounter. He returns to prayer. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Interesting to me is that the Father strengthened Jesus not just for the ordeal ahead but that Jesus might be strong to keep on depending on God in prayer.

Jesus warns His followers again to pray for strength (:45-46). Now Jesus returns from prayer and finds His disciples … sleeping. Their response is understandable, human. I’d probably do the same thing. But, they’ve not grasped the moment. They don’t understand what God is doing. They don’t understand the weakness of the flesh.

This is where we find an important lesson. We don’t fully grasp the spiritual tests we find ourselves in, do we? These tests of faith certainly involve whether or not we’ll follow or abandon Jesus in the moment. Many tests, however, involve our willingness to carry the burdens and look after the wellbeing of others. In Colossians 1.24, Paul says, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. 

Jesus’ disciples are failing in that kind of test. In the days ahead, they’ll need His strength to lead and serve others. Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation, He tells them.

That last verse of the teaching unit includes an important spiritual lesson. Did you get it? God strengthens those who depend on Him for the doing of His will. That strength is available in Jesus, in prayer, right now! We don’t have to fall to temptation. We don’t have to be clueless about what God is doing. We really can follow Jesus in the midst of tests, trials and fearful times.

Depend on God in prayer for the strength to do His will. 

For Jesus, doing God’s will looked like going to the cross. For us, doing God’s will looks like faith in the One who went to the cross, expressed in all our different circumstances and in prayer …

So, as we prepare for what I’m calling our “Coronacation” this week, we might be …

1. Tempted to despair because of opportunities lost (solo ensemble, forensics, boy’s basketball) … Talk to God. Tell Him honestly your disappointment, but ask Him to show you His will for the next couple of weeks.
2. Tempted to fear the virus? … Find ways to pray with people, over the phone, online or in smaller groups.
3. Tempted to fear the collateral damage from our planet-wide response … remember Jesus’ words from Luke 21.28: … Now when these things take place [pandemics, and such] straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

Depend on God in prayer for strength to do His will …!

Here’s some questions to keep us going:

1. What else? What are your tests this week that would keep you from pursuing God’s will above all else? Can you list them? Are you willing to pray about them?
2. Who else can you be praying with this week? What might it look like to meet with others for encouragement (Hebrews 10.24-25) and in the midst of a society shut down?
3. Why do you think gathering with God’s people is just so terribly important in the next few weeks, even if we don’t get to meet in our normal, big group?
4. What about Jesus are you thankful for?

Now, depend on God in prayer for strength to do His will this week! God bless you …!