Acts 2, Scene 2

At the end of the passage we looked at last night, Luke casually drops in that, as a result of Peter's testimony, "about three thousand" were saved. 3000! Any churches fancy hosting a baptism service of that size?


When first looking at the passage, someone pointed out that we in fact should have carried it on a little longer, as we'd missed some of the best verses of the chapter. I thought I'd give it a read, and when I did I found some really quite uplifting and challenging words.


Acts 2 continues suchly:
⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.


We're shown here several ways in which those who were baptised kept firm to what they had learnt - they devote them selves to way they're taught about Jesus, they pray regularly, and they spend plenty of time in the company of other believers. Through their steadfastness God enables them to perform miraculous signs, and this allows yet more people to know and come to faith in Jesus. One verse leapt out at me though - verse 44.


"All the believers... had everything in common." Bear in mind this comes directly after Peter's speech - a speech heard by a crowd containing representative of at least ten different countries! These were a very diverse bunch of people - what is this "everything" they have in common? It can only be their new faith in Jesus.

Peter's words of "Repent and be baptised" in v38 aren't words to be taken lightly. These are game-changing words. Repent means to turn 180, completely change the focus of your life away from serving oneself, and onto serving Jesus. Being baptised today means various things to various people, but in Luke's time it's a clear picture of people accepting Jesus' forgiveness.


The challenge for us is firstly is to make sure we treat Jesus as our "everything". The believers in Acts clearly did - their time, their money, and their energy were all motivated by a desire to know Jesus better, and also to make him better known.


This is the second part of our challenge. As we embark on a term where we reach out to people and give them the opportunity to know the Jesus we know, we must make sure they can see that Jesus is our number one. If we can begin to do that then perhaps the second half of verse 47 can be as true for us in Wolves as it was for them in Jerusalem.

Looking forward...

If Christmas Eve is anything for you like it is me, it's the naffest day of the Christmas Holidays. The day is spent cleaning, washing, mopping, and being sent to the shops to buy last-minute items with the rest of the forgetfuls.


But this year something struck me. Something that's plainly obvious, but has helped me find Christmas Eve less of a chore.

The whole of Advent comes to an end tonight, the wait will be over - the planning, the buying, it all comes to and end because the event we've been waiting for is here. For Christians, the event is Jesus' birthday... He's finally here!


It was as I was realising that the mopping, shopping and cleaning were all things we do as a prelude to welcoming a guest that I was reminded of this, and it made the chores more bearable. I was working (in a sense) for Jesus. Not that tomorrow is really any more special than any other day, but because working to make our house tidier for the day helped me become more aware of God's future plans for me.


Advent is a twofold thing. We remember Jesus' first coming, and we're reminded of the first wait for Jesus through the story told in the Bible. We also have the privilege to look forward to Jesus' second coming, and so our preparations in looking forward to Christmas Day help show us that we're looking forward to "the Day", when Jesus will come back and collect his people "and we will be with Him forever." (1 Thessalonians 5:17)


It's easy to spend Christmas just celebrating Jesus' first coming - we're challenged to live looking forward to this sort of second Christmas. This makes our Christmas activities all the more exciting; we can look forward as well as looking back.


I'll end it there, because there's still plenty to do. Happy Christmas!

Prayer and Praise

Sometimes it's the strangest verses which strike us - no more so than this verse which I was reminded of during last night's "Prayer and Praise" event (although perhaps "Pizza and Poker" might be a more accurate description).


Jesus is having a final meal with his friends. He knows he's about to die, but he takes time out to explain one or two more things to his disciples before he goes to the cross. They share the Passover together, and you can practically hear the sound of the twelve choking on their unleavened bread as Jesus says "one of you will betray me - one who is eating with me." He goes on to explain that the person who is to betray him would be better of having "not been born". Bit of a mood-killer, eh?


It's not these verses which have caught my eye though - it's at the end of Mark's description of the event, in chapter 14 and verse 26: "When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives."


After such a serious conversation, and at such a key moment in his mission, Jesus still fits in some time for a bit of a sing-song. Despite approaching the very end of the work he came to do, he and his friends still have time to praise God through a hymn.


When we do our P&P evenings, it's great to see that even Jesus wasn't beyond giving praise to his Father, and worshipping him through the medium of song. Last night we prayed for a couple of our CU members who are heading home to Germany and Holland over Christmas, and us singing songs and praying together - whilst to people on the outside it may look odd - it's a fantastic way for us to remind each other about the real reason we were all in the same room. Nothing could have united the diverse bunch of people there other than Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

We have a God who had individuals in mind when he went to the cross, and to share life with people who have accepted Jesus sacrifice for themselves is a privilege, and a constant reminder of a God who reconciles people to himself, and to each other.




For me personally, singing Christian songs at social events is still quite a new thing, and it's not everyone's cup of tea, which is fine. I guess what struck me about the above verse is how normal it was to be singing together, and encouraging one another with truth about God. Paul re-iterates: Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Why? Because it helps us keep going. I've been challenged by the fact that even Jesus wasn't above wanting that kind of motivation.

Lost?

We've seen a lot lately, in Luke especially, about people being lost. A few things have struck me about the way in which this impacts us.

If you've ever been lost, you'll know it's not great. Recently I foolishly trusted my brother's navigational skills around Blackburn town centre - it didn't go well. I was happy to let him drive on - up until the point he turned to me and asked "do you know where we are?". Ah. Oh dear.

It's only when we realised that neither of us knew what way we were heading that we got the map out and were able to navigate our way to where we were supposed to be going. With the aid of a map, there was no problem - we arrived at the right place, albeit at the wrong time.

It's a bit like that with the people we've looked at in Luke. Whilst Dan and I assumed we knew where we were going there was no need for the map. Various people Jesus encounters are showing all the signs of being lost, but plenty of them don't realise how much they need to be shown the way.

It's only when we realise we're lost that we look for help, and in Luke's gospel the people we've seen Jesus save are those who have recognised the error of their ways, and know they need someone to offer them a way out. It's only when we realise we're lost that we can be found - found by a God who "came to seek and save what was lost".

There's another beautiful aspect to this. The word "lost" implies that the thing which has gone missing belonged to someone in the first place. When we lose something, we go looking for it - because it's ours, and because we quite like having it in our lives. God seeks us for much the same reasons. Our amazing God dies for his runaway children at the time they are most lost, all because he longs to make them found, and bring them home. 

Lock-in

On Friday night, Wolves CU spent the night in a local church building - the Church on Broad Street, and what a great time we had! Our purpose was for "fun and fellowship", or, in more accessible terms, we played games, chatted, prayed, and thought about God. A fantastic balance.

Overall we spent 18 hours there - arriving at 6 on Friday evening armed with sleeping bags (some of which would be rendered redundant), teabags, nerf guns, and Bibles. The lock-in kicked off with what we could call a service, for want of a better word, led brilliantly by our friends Jake, Nathanael, and Catherine. We sang, listened to God's word, and reflected on what it meant to be truly "free".


The challenge of being "free" is what we make of it. What good is it to be set free from prison, but still hang around in your cell? Equally what good is it to be set free from prison, and spend time being indifferent about it, or moping about. Jesus saved us from certain death - celebrate! Where Christians gather there should always be smiles and laughter.

God certainly spoke to people through this time of listening to him - proved by chats with each other, tears, smiles, dances, and the fact that the pizza we'd ordered sat there for at least 45 minutes before we actually got around to eating it!

Through the rest of the night we further bonded friendships which are becoming more and more precious with every week. We played ridiculously childish games, ate sweets, and acted half our age. We then slept for about 3 hours each. The morning after, we sleepily slumped into sofas and chatted about things going on at the time which need prayer - spending more time chatting to God, and ear-bashing him with our requests. 


It struck me that not only was our lock-in great for fun and fellowship purposes, but it was practice for heaven! If heaven is anything like that, then I'm sure that will help us all get excited about what we've been freed for. Roll on the next lock-in!

A closer Luke

"Two men were in debt to a banker. One owed five hundred silver pieces, the other fifty. Neither of them could pay up, and so the banker canceled both debts. Which of the two would be more grateful?"


The above is taken from Luke 7, and the passage we studied last night. But what exactly is Jesus saying here? The obvious answer to his question is the man who owed more, but we can take more from this with a closer look.

Our Uncover notes say this:
"Jesus often taught in parables - stories cleverly designed to uncover a truth. In this parable, he is trying to help Simon see that the woman has been forgiven because she recognised her sin and received God's message of grace. But Simon's self-righteousness and spiritual pride makes him blind to his own sin. Simon doesn't grasp that God loves sinners (himself included!), and that forgiveness is offered to all who sincerely repent."


In the story, the difference between Simon and the sinful woman isn't that one is more sinful than the other - both have rejected God's rule, just as every other person who's ever lived has. The difference between the two is that only the sinful woman has grasped how serious her sin problem is.


Simon thinks he's sorted. As a Pharisee, he would have made use of rituals and practices which enabled God's people to become right with him. The problem with the Pharisees was that whilst their attention to detail was brilliant, they'd lost sight of the reason behind their religious practices - God, and his promise of deliverance. They'd replaced God's promise with their own practice.


The sinful woman? She throws herself on Jesus' mercy and gives him the most expensive thing she owns. What a picture! She is more grateful for Jesus' forgiveness because she knows what it means to have the slate wiped clean. Simon cannot be as grateful because he cannot see past his pride to see that his own sinful heart needs cleaning.


My living for Jesus needs to be motivated by what he's done, rather than by what I fail to do. Getting this wrong turns the gospel on its head - it becomes all about us working our way up. His sacrifice is of far greater significance than any sin we could ever commit - and thank God for that!


So the challenge to us is two-fold: Firstly we need to be aware of how sinful we are, and secondly we need to be aware of how far Jesus' forgiveness stretches. Once we grasp these two, the message of the cross looks all the more awesome.

Halloween: a challenge and an encouragement

It's a really Halloween-y night out there isn't it? Just the right amount of gloom, purple-tinted clouds, and long shadows, to create an atmosphere of dark creepiness...


This isn't an opinionated piece on the rights and wrongs of Halloween, more so a couple of things which I've felt God showing me over the last few days. Specifically - how we should be challenged by this festival, and how we should be encouraged by it too.

Halloween offers us the chance to study exactly how we as Christians can relate to ideas of "light" and "dark" in the world. These verses from the Message translation of John's gospel sum up brilliantly  - "This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God." (Read more).


It's an idea most of us will be fairly familiar with - in the Bible, dark represents evil, stuff God hates, the place we are found in when Jesus reaches out to rescue us. Light, on the other hand, is stuff God craves from us, the good ways in which we obey God. 
Jesus is our perfect picture of light, as he came into a dark world, and lit up the way for us to escape the darkness and enter the brightness of our Father's kingdom.


So how does Halloween challenge us? We are called to be like Jesus - and that means to shine in dark places. Regardless of our practical stance on Halloween we can do this. For those who boycott - what an opportunity to share our views on Jesus' light! For those involved in Halloween activities, the challenge to shine is the same. In the darkness of a festival which primarily celebrates darkness, we as Christians must light up the room with our words and actions.


And how does Halloween encourage us? Whilst the actual celebration of All Saints' Day is largely forgotten it is a day on which we traditionally remember all those Christians who have died. All Saint's Day, then, is a celebration of the promise of heaven.

How brilliant that this comes after the celebration of darkness. Halloween offers Christians the chance to look forward to Jesus coming again, when darkness will be defeated once and for all in triumphant light.


I have certainly felt challenged and encouraged in equal measures this Halloween. Not only does God call us to action in terms of us being lights in the darkness, he gently reminds us that day follows night. Though tonight is dark, scary, and full of all kinds of darkness - Jesus' death allows us to look forward to the morning, when our deliverance from darkness to light will be completed.