Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Friday, 31 October 2014 "Paul's house arrest and resurrection message"

Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Friday, 31 October 2014 "Paul's house arrest and resurrection message"
Daily Scripture:  Acts 28:17-20 Three days later, Paul called the Jewish leaders together for a meeting at his house. He said, “The Jews in Jerusalem arrested me on trumped-up charges, and I was taken into custody by the Romans. I assure you that I did absolutely nothing against Jewish laws or Jewish customs. After the Romans investigated the charges and found there was nothing to them, they wanted to set me free, but the Jews objected so fiercely that I was forced to appeal to Caesar. I did this not to accuse them of any wrongdoing or to get our people in trouble with Rome. We’ve had enough trouble through the years that way. I did it for Israel. I asked you to come and listen to me today to make it clear that I’m on Israel’s side, not against her. I’m a hostage here for hope, not doom.”
21-22 They said, “Nobody wrote warning us about you. And no one has shown up saying anything bad about you. But we would like very much to hear more. The only thing we know about this Christian sect is that nobody seems to have anything good to say about it.”
23 They agreed on a time. When the day arrived, they came back to his home with a number of their friends. Paul talked to them all day, from morning to evening, explaining everything involved in the kingdom of God, and trying to persuade them all about Jesus by pointing out what Moses and the prophets had written about him.
24-27 Some of them were persuaded by what he said, but others refused to believe a word of it. When the unbelievers got cantankerous and started bickering with each other, Paul interrupted: “I have just one more thing to say to you. The Holy Spirit sure knew what he was talking about when he addressed our ancestors through Isaiah the prophet:
Go to this people and tell them this:
“You’re going to listen with your ears,
    but you won’t hear a word;
You’re going to stare with your eyes,
    but you won’t see a thing.
These people are blockheads!
They stick their fingers in their ears
    so they won’t have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut
    so they won’t have to look,
    so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face
    and let me heal them.”
28 “You’ve had your chance. The non-Jewish outsiders are next on the list. And believe me, they’re going to receive it with open arms!”
30-31 Paul lived for two years in his rented house. He welcomed everyone who came to visit. He urgently presented all matters of the kingdom of God. He explained everything about Jesus Christ. His door was always open.
1 Corinthians 15: Resurrection
1-2 Friends, let me go over the Message with you one final time— this Message that I proclaimed and that you made your own; this Message on which you took your stand and by which your life has been saved. (I’m assuming, now, that your belief was the real thing and not a passing fancy, that you’re in this for good and holding fast.)
3-9 The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says; that he presented himself alive to Peter, then to his closest followers, and later to more than five hundred of his followers all at the same time, most of them still around (although a few have since died); that he then spent time with James and the rest of those he commissioned to represent him; and that he finally presented himself alive to me. It was fitting that I bring up the rear. I don’t deserve to be included in that inner circle, as you well know, having spent all those early years trying my best to stamp God’s church right out of existence.
10-11 But because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am. And I’m not about to let his grace go to waste. Haven’t I worked hard trying to do more than any of the others? Even then, my work didn’t amount to all that much. It was God giving me the work to do, God giving me the energy to do it. So whether you heard it from me or from those others, it’s all the same: We spoke God’s truth and you entrusted your lives.
12-15 Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If there’s no resurrection, there’s no living Christ. And face it—if there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that God raised up Christ—sheer fabrications, if there’s no resurrection.
16-20 If corpses can’t be raised, then Christ wasn’t, because he was indeed dead. And if Christ weren’t raised, then all you’re doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever. It’s even worse for those who died hoping in Christ and resurrection, because they’re already in their graves. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.
Reflection Questions:
Paul reached out to the Jewish leaders in Rome. As in most other places, he got at best a mixed reaction. He quoted Isaiah 6:9-10, and told them that salvation was also going to the Gentiles. Based on Acts 28:20, and Paul's earlier embrace of the Pharisees' belief in the idea of resurrection, Jesus' resurrection must have been central to his appeal. He probably used language much like that in chapter 15 of his letter to Christians in Corinth.
Why did Paul speak to the Jewish leaders in Rome? Hadn't he learned by now that that wasn't likely to work? For Paul, this was personal. In his letter to Rome (written before he ever got to that city), Paul wrote, "My heart's desire is for Israel's salvation. That's my prayer to God for them" (Romans 10:1). Are there people you care about that you're tempted to give up on, who just aren't going to share your faith? How can Paul's example encourage you to keep seeking loving ways to share?
Review Paul's list of eyewitnesses to the risen Jesus in 1 Corinthians 15:5-8. For Paul (and, ultimately, for all of us) the resurrection's reality was a matter of life and death. Rome would have loved to disprove the apostles' claim. But they couldn't produce Jesus' corpse, and their deadliest threats couldn't stop the witnesses from insisting, "It's real—I saw him risen with my own eyes." How close or far away are you from being able to join Paul in affirming, "IN FACT Christ has been raised from the dead"?
Today's Prayer:
O Jesus, you walked into the darkest, deepest place we face—into death itself—and then you emerged, alive and victorious. Thank you for winning that victory, which I could never have won for myself, and then sharing it with me. Amen.
Insight from Chris Folmsbee
Chris Folmsbee is Resurrection’s Director of Discipleship Ministries.  He is the author of several books, with an extensive background in applying principles of spiritual growth to real life. He, his wife Gina and their family have been attending Resurrection since 2008.
What’s worse than having a conversation with someone who shares a different perspective on a particular issue, and realizing they are not really listening to you? I’ll tell you what’s worse…having a conversation with someone and discovering that they are merely pretending to listen to your views, convictions or beliefs. Discovering that they have already made up their mind that you are wrong and they are right.
This is what Paul faces in our reading today from Acts 28:17-31. The Jewish leaders in Rome are not willing to listen to Paul’s gospel—a gospel of salvation, declaring that the hope of Israel has been fulfilled in Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-20). The Jewish leaders Paul assembled in Rome indicated that they were ready to hear his views, but in reality they were not. They were not open-minded, as they tried to appear. As a result, Paul was able to convince a few people that Jesus was the Messiah, but most of the Jewish leaders would not believe. They came into the conversation with their minds already made up, and they would not accept Jesus as the Messiah.
As the adage goes, there are things we know, things we don’t know and things we don’t know we don’t know. Every day I learn how much I don’t know about life and faith. This realization produces a curiosity within me that compels me to seek answers to my questions. For me, many of the meaningful times of learning and discovery come in the context of a conversation where listening is more than a mere idea—it is a practiced virtue.
I pray that each of us would stretch beyond a closed mind. I pray that we will learn to listen well—opening our hearts, minds and hands to new ideas and practices that allow us to more faithfully live out the mission of God in the world around us.
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