Grow. Pray. Study. Daily Guide from the United Methodist Church
of the Resurrection - Thursday, 9 January 2014 – "We are witnesses of
everything he did"
Daily Scripture: Acts 10: Gentiles Hear the Good News
34 Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that
God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does
what is right is acceptable to him. 36 You know the message he sent to the
people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. 37 That
message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that
John announced: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and
with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by
the devil, for God was with him. 39 We are witnesses to all that he did both in
Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40 but
God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41 not to all the
people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank
with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the
people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living
and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes
in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Reflection Questions:
The apostle Peter was invited to tell a Roman centurion and his
staff about his faith in Jesus. These people, due to their military rank and
access, could easily confirm (or contradict) any factual claims Peter made.
Luke recorded that Peter made one verifiable claim after another: "You
know… you know…we are witnesses." The early Christians would be startled
and dismayed if they knew that some later scholars would routinely assume that
they were "mythmaking," or just plain lying.
One important way Rome demanded that citizens in its empire show
their allegiance was to say, formally, "Caesar is Lord." Picture the
scene as Peter declared to this group of Roman soldiers, "This is the
message of peace he sent to the Israelites by proclaiming the good news through
Jesus Christ: He is Lord of all!" (verse 36) What "lords" has
Jesus challenged and dethroned in your life?
Some believers criticized Peter for sharing the faith with a
foreigner who was serving in the occupying Roman army (cf. Acts 11:3). But
Peter was confident that he was doing what God wanted him to do. What leads you
to believe that God still calls Christ followers to reach out to non-religious
and nominally religious people? What gifts and contacts can you employ to be a
part of that God-given work?
Today's Prayer:
Lord God, I'm 2,000 years too late to witness firsthand the
events of Jesus' earthly life. But I see what you are doing in my life, and in
the lives of others—and those are facts, too. Give me courage to be a faithful
witness to your work. Amen.
Thursday, 9 January 2014 – Insight from Rev. Glen Shoup
Rev. Glen Shoup is the Executive Pastor of Worship and
Congregational Care pastor for those who have last names beginning with J – L.
I find Peter’s confession in the opening line of today’s reading
very confronting: I’m learning that God doesn’t show partiality. Frankly, if I (or you) got nothing more out
of today’s scripture than that God doesn’t prefer me over that person I don’t
like; God doesn’t prefer my preferences and biases over someone else’s
preferences and biases; God doesn’t love devoted Christians more than He loves
devoted atheists—if we took away nothing more than an honest encounter with Peter’s
opening confession—I’m learning that God doesn’t show partiality—we’d probably
have more truth than we’d know how to incorporate into our daily lives and
perspective! …But that’s just the
opening line.
The real crux of whether Jesus is a myth, madman or messiah
triangulates on what comes a few lines later—at the end of verse 36…Jesus
Christ: He is Lord of all! This was
actually the very first Christian credo or confession—Jesus is Lord. 2-300 years before the organized Christian
Church put together what we call the Apostles Creed, the first followers of
Jesus in the years after Christ’s death and resurrection confessed their faith
with three words: Jesus is Lord. And as
pointed out in the some of the context helpfully offered in today’s GPS, the
reason for this being the earliest confession of faith (which is the crux of
whether or not Jesus was the real deal) has strong cultural tie-in. For you see the Romans did a masterful job of
establishing their empire, in part, not because they tried to eradicate any
vestiges of their subjects’ previous culture or religion. No, Rome didn’t care if the Jews stayed Jews
or the Samaritans stayed Samaritans.
Rome cared about two things and these were the glue that held the empire
together: pay your Roman taxes and, whatever other gods you might have, when
push comes to shove—your first allegiance is to Rome. Hence, the way your pledge of allegiance was
most commonly verbalized was by simply confessing Caesar is Lord.
So when these earliest followers of Jesus come along and are not
only willing to challenge the empire’s sovereignty and pledge of allegiance but
are willing to blatantly reject the empire’s sovereignty and rewrite the pledge
of allegiance…replacing Caesar with Jesus…well as you might imagine, this was
met harshly with vintage Roman ruthlessness.
Death was often the result of challenging Roman sovereignty by
confessing Jesus as Lord. Nero didn’t
burn Christians as human torches at his garden parties simply because he was a
depraved psychopath; Nero targeted his depraved psychopathology towards
Christians because they were the ones who were convincingly naming that someone
other than the empire was sovereign.
And what was it that convinced this previously unconvinced group
of people—comprised of both Jews and Gentiles—that Jesus…not Caesar was
Lord? Well, starting with the last half
of verse 38 in today’s passage we find what Jesus did that convinced those
earliest followers…Jesus traveled around doing good and healing everyone
oppressed by the devil because God was with him. We are witnesses of everything he did, both
in Judea and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God
raised him up on the third day and allowed him to be seen, not by everyone but
by us. We are witnesses whom God chose beforehand, who ate and drank with him
after God raised him from the dead. He
commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God
appointed as judge of the living and the dead.
All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him
receives forgiveness of sins through his name (Acts 38b-43).
Myth, Madman or Messiah?
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United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, KS 66224 United States
(913)897-0120
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