Daily devotionals are a good introduction, helping to explain the main of ideas of the text without getting overly technical. As devotionals, they aim to enrich our relationship with God rather than turn us into academics!
We are participating in a very big story. The New Testament is clear that Jesus is the climax of the narrative of Scripture. But after his ascension, the story doesn’t end— Jesus’ followers (including us!) now have a role to play. The book of Acts tells the story of all that Jesus began to do through his apostles in order to spread the gospel of God’s kingdom established through Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection and ascension.
As the narrative develops, the ministries of two apostles are particularly highlighted: first Peter and then Paul, as churches are established from Jerusalem around to Rome. The collected letters of Paul to several of these churches then follow in the New Testament canon.
Through this spread of the Christian gospel we learn that the Church is the people of God who now carry on the mission of God in the world, through the power of God’s Spirit. We are part of the same story that Israel was called to be a part of, and the same mission that Adam and Eve were originally given: to live as God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule.
Jesus’ promise that he will send the Holy Spirit is fulfilled. Peter and th other disciples are praying together in Jerusalem when tongues of fire hover over them, and they are all filled with the Spirit. As this takes place, it seems we’re supposed to remember the Spirit of God hovering in Genesis 1, the pillar of fire in the Exodus, and the sound of the rushing wind as God entered Solomon’s Temple.
As the disciples spill out into the streets talking about Jesus, the curse of Babel is lifted, and people from many nations hear the Christian Gospel, fulfilling that old promise to Abraham.
For your consideration: What do we learn about God’s purposes for the Christian community from Acts 1-2?
The early days of the Christian community in Jerusalem were marked by the Apostles’ teaching, prayer, rich fellowship, and common purpose (see Acts 2:42-47). But this early life was also framed by persecution from without and controversy within.
This community was clearly a new expression of the holy people of God, marked by the presence of God among them— not unlike the people of God leaving Egypt in Exodus.
For your consideration: What picture of Jesus does the Christian Church portray to the people of Jerusalem in these early days?
Peter’s vision challenged all the important categories of his Jewish cultural upbringing. Clean and unclean, Jew and Gentile, were immutable categories for contemporary Jews, yet the Holy Spirit filled ‘unclean’ Gentiles. Here it is clearly demonstrated that the good news of Jesus is good news for all humanity.
For your consideration: What barriers do you we tend to hold up against the work of the Spirit today?
Jesus authorised a group of respected ‘delegates’ whom he sent out to declare the message of salvation through his crucifixion and resurrection. These men were called Apostles and the book of Acts records their courageous work of planting churches from Jerusalem around to Rome, and many other places beside.
Paul’s letters to the church he planted in the Greek city of Corinth provide us with rich insights into the gospel message being proclaimed by the apostles, as well as the sometime fractious relationship between the apostle and the local churches.
For your consideration: From the evidence embedded in this passage, how might we describe the methods used by Jesus’ apostles as they spread the gospel message? What do you think might be the issue underlying the various conflicts at Corinth?
As Paul continues to address the challenges at the Church in Corinth, the life and practices of the local church require reform. The Corinthians are all given gifts that are to be used on behalf of the people of God. The best way to express this is through the active expression of love. The Corinthians would have been familiar with the the idea of gifts, but culturally these were understood to be for the benefit of the gifted person, not others. Similarly, the metaphor of the body was common throughout the Roman world, but always to emphasise the some parts of the body were honourable and indispensable, while others were not.
For your consideration: In what ways does Paul call the Corinthians to reframe their views and practices of being Church together?
As the gospel message travelled from Jerusalem to all corners of the known world, the tensions of Christian freedom within a the legal framework of Judaism was like new wine in old wineskins— something had to break. The old practices and categories were challenged by the heart of Jesus’ teaching, and by the gospel itself.
For your consideration: What went wrong in the Galatian churches? What was Paul’s solution?
In Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, he paints a wonderful picture of their part in the unfolding story of God’s work in his world. The church is ‘with Christ’ and ‘in Christ’ with a purpose and impact in this world, as well as in worlds and realms unseen. For your consideration: What do we learn for this passage about the identity and calling of the church?
Growth Exercises are practical exercises we can try to help us grow as disciples of Christ. They are split into exercises to focus on for the coming week.
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” [Mark 10:45]. As far as invitations to practice selflessness go, they don’t come much stronger than that! Indeed, if you thought Christianity was going to be your ticket to a life of comfort and renown, you’re going to be disappointed (at first!). We follow in the footsteps of a cross-carrying, foot-washing Christ. If we are honest, most of us have a bigger problem with the latter action than the former. Carrying my cross is one thing: washing your feet is quite another!
As Richard Foster writes, “In some ways we would prefer to hear Jesus call to deny our father and mother, houses and land, for the sake of the gospel, than his word to wash your feet. Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure. If we forsake all, we even have a chance of glorious martyrdom. But in service we are banished to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial.” Serving necessarily places others ahead of ourselves, because it is about meeting their needs, not our own. And that does not come easily or happily. As any track athlete will tell you, falling short of your personal best time in a race you won feels a whole lot better than doing so in a race you didn’t. Position is everything.
This brings us right to the heart of the gospel, which demands a radical change to our perceptions of position. The gospel is unapologetic and unwavering in its assault on traditional concepts of winning and losing. It tells quite a different story about who is first and who is last, at the final reckoning. It’s also adamant that the way we serve God is actually through serving other people.
Leslie Newbigin writes to those who would seek to dispense all of their service on a holy God, rather than waste any of it on unholy people, “The debt which we owe to him is to be discharged by our subjection to our neighbour in loving service. Our neighbour is the appointed agent authorised to receive what we owe to the master.” As Philippians 2 so beautifully [and in someways, shockingly,] expresses, Jesus was most God-like when he served others.
The implication being: we are most in his image, and therefore most human, when we do the same. No wonder service is one of the disciplines that Christians down through the ages have used to realign themselves to a gospel way of living. The practice of service goes right to the heart of our identity. It attacks many of our cultural defaults and assumptions, and keeps us in step with Christ’s example. As we begin to do likewise, one of the things we will notice is a temptation to serve in ways that are actually more about bringing glory to us than meeting the needs of others.
This is why humility and service go together. We won’t always be given the luxury of choosing the timing, the recipient, the publicity, or the magnitude of the service. When we insist on doing so, we run the risk of invalidating the very thing we are seeking to exhibit. Those four characteristics, which we will examine in the exercises each week of this month, revealed to us how often we attempt to serve on our own terms. Ironically, humility can prove elusive when it comes to service.
Yet, this should not stop us from looking for ways to serve. For all it’s openness to manipulation and misuse, service remains the most effective means of acquiring that much-needed humility. We do not need to go through life faintly hoping that someday humility may fall upon our heads. Of all the classical spiritual disciplines, service is the most conducive to the growth of humility. When we set out on a consciously chosen course of action that accents the good of others and is, for the most part, a hidden work, a deep change occurs in our spirit.
This month, consciously choose to engage in the hidden, holy work or service.
How rewarding— even fun— it can feel to pause for a period of serving when everything is well in our lives. How how incredibly difficult it is to do the same when all is not well. Anyone can play the part of the magnanimous altruist in fair weather but very few of us can consistently manage it in the foul. Busyness, tiredness, distraction, and a host of other minor irritations all have the potential to derail our best intentions. Properly practiced, service exhibits no such inconsistency.
This week, start a written inventory in your journal of the ‘opportunities to serve’ that you typically encounter, and more importantly, your reaction to them. When is it easiest? When is it most difficult? Look for the patterns and think about how you might change them. Take this week to ponder the timing of your service.
Some people are ‘easier’ to serve than others. Perhaps they ‘give back’, or they make us feel good, or they are ‘no fuss’. Others, however, are not so easy. This week, continuing your written inventory in your journal of the ‘opportunities to serve’ that you typically encounter, ask yourself who you have served recently.
Why did you choose to give yourself to that person? Are they easier to serve than others? Who else might you serve sacrificially? Prayerfully, and creatively, consider whom you will serve. For further reflection, read Matthew 25:31-46.
Self-righteous service requires external rewards. It needs to know that people see and appreciate the effort. It seeks human applause – with proper religious modesty of course! True service rests contented in hiddenness. The Divine ‘nod of approval’ is completely sufficient.
Is the Divine ‘nod of approval’ sufficient for you? This week, write some notes alongside your ‘service inventory’ on your motivations for serving. But as honest as you can: Why do you really serve in various situations? Which features more: publicity or hiddenness?
We can all find it in ourselves to volunteer if the Cause is significant or ‘sexy’ enough. And even if the task is to be carried out in anonymity, most of us can rise to the occasion if it is accompanied by a sense that it was worthy of our precious time and consideration. Again, this turns service into a subtle form of self interest. But what about the service of ‘small things’?
Running an errand for a friend, guarding the reputation of another, common courtesy, hospitality, or simply listening. Many of us live waiting for our one shot at martyrdom— our ‘big moment’ to serve others on such a scale as to earn our place in history. Meanwhile dozens of less spectacular opportunities to serve pass by us every day.
Not only do we miss the opportunities themselves, we miss the fact that it’s those smaller actions that shape us over a lifetime to make us capable of great act of selflessness. Still waiting for your big shot? How are you going on the small things? This week add some of those ‘small things’ to your service inventory.
This month we are partnering with Ridley College Melbourne to pray for a better Youth Ministry Future across Australian Churches. We are invited to consider what things might be like if there was a shift in the youth ministry system prevalent in many churches across Australia: from part-time, short-term, untrained leaders, to instead create a community of leaders supported and released to serve as full-time, long-term, well-trained vocational youth ministers.
Throughout the month of November we are invited to pray that the Spirit would be at work in local youth ministries around Australia so that many young people would hear the good news of Jesus, turn to him in repentance and faith, and take their part in the ministry of the church and the mission of God. We can prayerfully join in this endeavour.
Simply click on this link to receive prayer prompts from Ridley College throughout November.