Wednesday devotion: "Jesus's Resurrection"

Sorry for the delay but I would like to take this last minute stand in as an opportunity to share a little on Wednesday's devotional. Please feel free to contribute your own thoughts and comments.
Wednesday:
Today's devotional focuses on Peter acting as a witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Stott points to the Biblical references Peter employs to support his testimony. Though I lack the appreciation Stott has towards the "written predictions of the prophets...", I am drawn to the person Peter has become as a witness to Jesus Christ.

We all know that Peter was the disciple who had denied knowing Jesus but eventually, as it is recorded in the book of Acts, Peter became a powerful witness for Jesus Christ. Not only that, Jesus approached Peter on an intimate level to reinstate Peter and to personally charge Peter to take care of His sheep. And so for me, more than the verses Stott points to in Peter's testimony, knowing the background of Peter puts weight on the credibility of his testimony. I am glad for people like Pastor James and John Stott to explain the significance of the Old testament. For like Peter, I too am a commoner with such little knowledge of Scripture but I am in awe of Peter's ability to wield the holy texts as a powerful tool to witness...to evangelize. It reveals the presence and empowering of the Holy Spirit to use Peter's words and actions which testifies to the "facts" he has witnessed of Christ-even of His resurrection.
Stott points out that the disciples came to read the Old Testament Christologically. It seems that once they realized that Jesus is the Christ, they recognized Him mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. Their eyes were able to see and perceive what they could not before knowing Christ. More importantly, their lives also converged to the "character and purpose" of the Old testament- to bear witness "to Christ, especially to His death, resurrection, and world wide mission."
In Peter's case, he bore witness to Christ even by the kind of death which he glorified God. I'm can't say that we too are called to follow Christ just like the way Peter did but there is much to learn from Peter as to the kind of disciple and witness he was for Jesus Christ.

Jesus's Death

I thought this reflection was a good opportunity to think of the origins of the doctrines that we all believe in and stand on. This is something that I have personally found myself really immersed in over the past year.

I thought it was really neat, to say the least, that the first fathers of the church preached not only on what they witnessed through the life of Jesus but also with an unshaking faith in God's plan for salvation after the ascension of Jesus.

Another really blessing point was when John Stott went over how God is able to "forward his purposes even through the wickedness of men."

It reminded me of how sovereign God is in all of our lives and much more beyond.

Jesus's Life and Ministry

By reading the devotional book, it caused me to think about different ministries that I am being involved and reflect upon what my true motives and attitude are when it comes to doing work for God.
The core of the gospel is Jesus. Apart from the name of Jesus in the context, it's a dead message no power nor meaning. Stott mentioned that 'the wise evangelist keeps bringing the conversation back to the person and work of Jesus Christ.' Many pastors preach so called "feel good" messages on Sundays. Jesus is not the main ingredient of their message but nothing but a supplement. For many Christians are interested in God's blessings rather than knowing and having a relationship with Him.
I do afraid and exam constantly about my attitude and motives. Even we often involve of lots of ministries and activities supposedly for God and His glory, perhaps our true motives and agenda are nothing but based on selfish or prideful to gain benefits for ourselves. We push Jesus to the side to be on the spotlight whether we consciously know or not.
I think when we serve Jesus with right attitude and motives, it will bring joy.
Someone said once to me JOY stands for
J: Jesus
O: Others
Y: You

Peter's Quotation from Joel

What struck me most about this passage were these verses:

"I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams. "

I recall the testimonies of both Ravi Zacharias and a missionary who recently visited us sharing that a predominant reason of former Muslims converting to Christianity is a result of receiving a vision from Jesus while sleeping. Initially I was skeptical, but after obsessively researching this I have encountered numerous accounts all testifying to the same thing.

Too often we assume Jesus is far off in a distant place and will return someday and that we need to hold down the fort till then. But I'm beginning to believe that he's a lot closer than we think - and that is both exciting, and terrifying.

"They say Aslan is on the move - perhaps has already landed."

waiting and praying

"they all joined together constantly in prayer."

i love this picture of the early church. we are told that the 120 believers "all joined together constantly in prayer". mr. stott states that they prayed because a) Jesus had commanded them to pray and b) Jesus had promised the Holy Spirit.

the interesting thing is that Jesus promises the gift of the Holy Spirit, then commands the believers to pray for the gift. the promise is essentially given before the command to pray.

i suppose herein lies the secret of the power of prayer: the command to pray and the promise.

Jesus knows exactly what is going to happen to us; He knows all the difficulties and sorrows that we will go through in our lives. consider this most amazing verse from psalm 139:16: "all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to pass".

before (sometimes years before) He delivers us from these evils, He gives us the faith and the inclination to pray--that's the command to pray.

when rescue and deliverance comes--that's the promise fulfilled.

whenever you have been given the inclination, the desire, and the faith to pray--it is the prelude, the assurance of the promise fulfilled.

i suppose the lesson is that we are never to give up praying--the answer is on its way.

waiting and praying is the story of the early church, and it is the description of the lives of faithful believers in Christ.

The Promise of the Spirit

Today's reading comes rather timely when our country is knee deep in the presidential election season. I think the 3 errors that Stott points out in the apostles' question is something that we can all relate to on some level.


It is easy to submerge ourselves into worldly issues (politics, cultural issues of the day etc.) and fight these mini-battles as Christians and forget that God has charged us with a higher calling to further his kingdom. This is not to say that Christians should not have a voice and that we SHOULD do our part to vote responsibly---we should.


However, this is a great leveling and perspective changing passage that reminds us of what God has charged us to do and that he has equipped us with the power of his Spirit to carry out his great commission. Spread his word and his love to the ends of the earth.

The significance of the book of Acts

As John Stott alludes in the introduction to the post-resurrection events... the book of Acts is a crucial element in the Christian story. Not only does it explain what happened after the resurrection but it also explains the expansion of Christianity and puts many of the NT epistles into it's proper context. Without it our knowledge of the beginning of Christianity would be next to nothing.

This makes the study of the book of Acts quite exiciting. Here we are given a glimpse into how the early church under the leadership of the apostles faced the cultural pressures and challenges of their day. Here we are given a model church, not because it was perfect but because despite it's weakness, God raised up the most unlikely of people like Peter and Paul and Barnabas and Luke and Timothy and many others to build and strengthen his church. In the next several weeks, we'll be studying the book of Acts so I encourage you to read along and do the extra readings prayerfully. I know that I'm always encouraged in reading this book!

Posted by Pastor James