Now, the logic I understood was probably not what all of them intended. But regardless of intention, this was how I grasped it. The logic as I understood it was that people were trying really hard to please God so that He would say He was pleased with them. I could relate to this. I, too, wanted my parents to tell me ‘good job’ for the things that I accomplished. So, the way I figured that God worked was that if you did a good job and believed in Jesus, that he would say “well done”. The antithesis to that would be the guy who did a poor job in life but believed in Jesus, so God had to ‘let him in’, but wouldn’t say “well done”.

What this did in me was create this idea that somehow Jesus and His death and resurrection saved me, but that then I had to show God just how good I really was. This was problematic for me, because I wasn’t a good kid. At certain points, I even tried to be a good kid and still did things that were horrible. For example, in fifth grade, I tried to trip my teacher on the very first day of class. Why? I have no idea. I just did it. That was me. And my understanding of living for the “well done, good and faithful servant” welcome was telling me that God would not give me a high-five when I got to be with him at the end of my life.

I saw the gospel as God having to save me because of Jesus, but not having to be pleased with me. I sensed that I had to perform for the acceptance of God. But Jesus was not connected to that equation at all. In fact, my understanding of being told “well done, good and faithful servant” was completely contingent on my works – not the work that Jesus accomplished.

What had happened for me as a child and what has only recently been made much more clear, is that there is a difference between acceptance and faithfulness. What I was expecting was that God would accept dependent upon how faithful I could be. If I did a good job, then God would accept me. So, when I screwed my life up completely, I just wrote God off as never wanting to accept me because of my unfaithfulness.

But when I really grasped the gospel, that Jesus came for the unfaithful, and that in fact, He is the only one who is faithful, then that changed everything. When I connected the reality that Jesus lived a perfect and faithful life in my place because I can’t live a perfect and faithful life, that was so freeing. It told me that no one would hear “well done”, because no one is good (Mark 10.18). Only Jesus is worthy of being told “you are my beloved son and with you I am well pleased” (Mark 1.11).

But Jesus didn’t just come to live a life that was pleasing to God, but to die a sacrificial death that would appease the wrath of God for sinners. What this means is that Jesus, who never sinned, died for sinners, so that we could be forgiven and accepted as children. This shattered my entire view of how God worked. God was not a God waiting to reward me based on what I had done. I had already blown that (and so have you). What God was doing in Jesus, was rewarding people with what Jesus earned for them. Now, we can be fully accepted and approved of before the Father because of what Jesus has done in our place. All who trust in Jesus as Lord & Savior will hear, “you are my beloved child. With you I am well pleased”. Not because of what we’ve done. But because of what Jesus did.

So, what about the faithfulness part. We are called to be faithful. But faithful to what? I was not good at being faithful to rules as a child. I couldn’t stand the kids who were, because they let me know that they were good at it. But growing in my understanding of the gospel has led me to understand ‘faithfulness’ as finding life in Jesus. But what does this look like?

Instead of finding life in rules and how well we can keep them, we find our life in the one who kept them perfectly in our place. Rather than finding security in money, vocation, relationship, we find our security in Jesus. Comfort is found in Jesus in place of seeking all the comforts that we can find in life. And the real blessing of this calling to be faithful is that we can repent. When we see that we aren’t finding our enjoyment and life in Jesus, we can turn back to Him (implying that we turn away from what we thought would give us life).

It is essential for us to grasp and explain the difference between acceptance and faithfulness. It’s not that we are faithful so that we receive our acceptance. Rather, it’s that because of Jesus, we are accepted, so therefore we can, and should grow in being faithfulness.

All the faithful (those in Jesus) will hear “well done, good and faithful servant, for what you did with my Son”.

Last night, I spoke to one of my friends and he was telling me about his boss, who calls himself God. This man is not a homeless, delusional thinker. Rather, this is someone that has found a small ounce of power in his little pond of influence, and has perceived this to be God-like. My friend told me that this man will announce “God is speaking” before he talks.

Unfortunately, this is many of us. We just aren’t bold enough to declare it. Many of us wouldn’t think that we are THE God, but at least we are little gods. We think that things exist for our glory and our benefit.

As my friend was telling me about his boss, I was reminded of a chapter in G.K. Chesterton’s book, Orthodoxy, entitled “The Maniac”. Here is an excerpt:

“So you are the Creator and Redeemer of the world: but what a small world it must be! What a little heaven you must inhabit, with angels no bigger than butterflies! How sad it must be to be God; and an inadequate God! Is there really no life fuller and no love more marvelous than yours; and is it really in your small and painful pity that all flesh must put its faith? How much happier you would be, how much more of you there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos, scattering the stars like spangles, and leave you in the open, free like other men to look up, as well as down!”

How beautiful the gospel is – that shatters our dreams of ever being God, but shows us God, who came to earth not to lord or wield his power over us, but rather to die in our place, for our sick and twisted hearts, so that we can have new hearts that worship Him and bring us into God’s family. Repent from trying to be God and enjoy Him.

Typically, we think about meeting people so that we can jump into conversation about the “good news” that Jesus died for them. Now, without any context, how would it make you feel to hear that someone died for you? That would easily burden someone with mass amounts of guilt, wondering why it was their fault that Jesus died. Honestly, rarely is it ever taken as good news that someone died. Yet, as Christians, we run around talking to people we’ve never met about the “good news” that someone died. We make signs, bumper stickers, t-shirts and other such paraphernalia with slogans such as, “Jesus loves you and died for you”. But if He loved me, wouldn’t He be alive? If my wife loves me and died for me, then that would stop her love for me, because she would no longer be around to express that love.

In evangelicalism, we’ve developed tools to help us explain this “good news”. We help people understand that God created us (which most don’t believe) to have relationship with Him and to find our life in Him. We then move quickly onto sin, and really help people see that they do bad things. Without spending too much time on that, we hurry to the work of (not so much the person of) Jesus to help them see that He came to conquer sin and acts as a bridge to bring us to God, so that we can experience real life. And this real life is eternal. Then, at the end, we ask them if they want to pray to receive Jesus.

In all this, there isn’t any entering into the world of the person with whom we are sharing the facts of the gospel message. Yes, we are entering into conversation with them, but we aren’t entering into their lives, their thoughts, their beliefs, their struggles. We don’t take time to enter into the hopelessness of the person’s continual attempts to try to fill their lives with substitute saviors that don’t work.

Here is where Emmaus-type mission comes in. The Scripture is Luke 24.13-35. The scene goes like this. Jesus is alive. He has resurrected. But despite this, there were two disciples leaving Jerusalem extremely disappointed. They expected the Messiah to be one that didn’t die. They were hopeless. They had “hoped that [Jesus] was the one to redeem Israel”. But in their worldview and understanding, Jesus was still dead.

This is where most people are. They once had hopes that there was some sort of Savior that could redeem and rescue them. But those thoughts are dead. For this couple walking on the road to Emmaus, it had been three days since their “hope” had been dead. For many others, it has been years. Some grew up going to church, praying, hoping that God would fix their lives, change situations, etc. But He didn’t work like they expected Him to. He was as good as dead for them. So they, like the couple on the road, head back to real life, trying to find the messiah that will fulfill them.

Several years ago, I had a long-term substitute teaching job at a junior high school. The reason I had the job was because the teacher was extremely sick. The disease was quick and ended up taking the life of this man within a few months of developing the sickness. I distinctly remember walking the class to a room where the announcement would be made that their teacher died. After the announcement had been made, a 13 year-old girl looked and me with extreme sadness and said, “I prayed that he wouldn’t die. I guess that praying doesn’t work”. Her view of life, God and prayer were being shaped in that moment. That event will get added to her story and understanding of who God is. And we all have had many shaping events happen in our lives.

If we don’t listen to people’s stories and hear where their disappointment and hopelessness exists, we don’t really know where to even start with contextualizing the gospel to these people. Yes, we want to make the gospel understandable to culture, but culture is made up of people. More specifically, persons. It is made up of neighbors who are single moms, adults who were sexually abused as children by “religious people”, immigrants, strippers, homeless, religious, drug addicts, hard workers, politicians, and many more. They all have a story about their search for their savior. They all have a story about their disappointment. They all have a story about their struggle to believe. The people on the road to Emmaus asked ‘should we believe the women who came back from the tomb and said it was empty? Are they reliable witnesses?’ Jesus listened to them. He could have stopped them and simply said “I am Jesus”. But He listened.

Once we enter into life with these people and hear what they are looking for, then we can better direct them back to the real One that they are looking for. Jesus takes these two people from their thoughts about what their Savior would be like, and he takes them to Scripture to unpack for them who the Messiah would be. He helps them see that the the Messiah had to suffer and die. And Jesus used Scripture to do this (Luke 24.27).

As we are on mission, we are called to listen to people’s stories, love them, walk with them, and help them understand the One that they are really looking for.

What is amazing about these two people on the road leaving Jerusalem, is that when they understood that it was Jesus, that He had indeed risen and was the Messiah and Savior they were looking for, they “rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem”. They went back to the place they came from with zeal, and they proclaimed Jesus, and then Jesus showed up! Resurrection changes us!

As we are on mission, walking with people, proclaiming Jesus, Jesus shows up. Jesus will keep opening hearts. Jesus will keep rebuking unbelief. Jesus will keep making a people for Himself. And Jesus will keep sending out those who see Him in order to walk with those who don’t know Him, so that they can witness to Him, and He can keep showing up. This will take time. This will require patience. This will require resources. This will require dying to your desire to see people ‘say a prayer’, sign a card, come forward at a service, or respond so that you can “count it”. This will require you allowing for Jesus to work the way that He wants to work in their lives for His glory and for the transformation of their heart. Mission isn’t about you. It’s about Jesus.

I recently finished Tim Chester’s book, A Meal With Jesus, and was struck by many things he said. I wanted to share a few paragraphs where he challenges us to be a community that actually is more than an idea.

“Many people love the idea of the church as a community. But when we eat together, we encounter not some theoretical community, but real people with all their problems and quirks. The meal table is an opportunity to give up our proud ideals by which we judge others and accept in their place the real community created by the cross of Christ, with all its brokenness. It’s easy to love people in some abstract sense and preach the virtues of love. But we’re called to love the real individuals sitting around the table.

‘Those who dream of this idealized community,’ Dietrich Bonhoeffer warns, ‘demand that it be fulfilled by God, by others, and by themselves. They enter the community of Christians with their demands, set up their own law, and judge one another and even God accordingly.’ But, Bonhoeffer says, ‘Christian community is not an ideal we have to realize, but rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.’ So ‘we enter into that life together with other Christians, not as those who make demands, but as those who thankfully receive… We do not complain about what God does not give us; rather we are thankful for what God does give us daily.’ This means that the disillusionment we experience when we encounter real people with their problems is a reminder that we ‘can never live by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word and deed that really binds us together, the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ.’”

May we partner with Jesus in what He is doing in our specific communities and not impose our ideas of what we want to happen. He’s given us a great framework to start, and we just keep following Him as He shapes and molds each community the way that He wants them. It is His bride after all.

First – on February 20, we are multiplying our initial core group so that we can have two missional communities. We are looking into a third possible one as well. Just waiting to see what Jesus does in that area. So, we are really excited about this opportunity to essentially double what we are doing now and getting the opportunity to be on mission more geographically and with even more intention.

Second – we found a place to gather our missional communities together on Sunday morning. We are using a ministry building downtown in a great location (rue Pierce, which is one street west of Guy, and connects Maisonneuve & Saint Catherine). It is amazing how it all came about – and how simple it went down. So we will start meeting there at some point in March.But we aren’t officially launching a service until September.

We are also waiting on our website, which will be ready around the end of February. But until then – we are starting a blog for Initiative 22, which I will give the address to when it is finished.

So – we’re excited at what Jesus is doing. We’re having a big superbowl party at our place this weekend and expect this to be part of the celebration of what is happening with Initiative 22!

Pray for us – as we have a lot to get ready for the multiplication & new gathering.

Excited & Humbled.

In Ephesians 6, the passage that leaves all Sunday school teachers bound to send their students home wearing paper helmets, shields, breastplates & swords, Paul is telling us where our strength is found as we will be attacked. It’s so interesting that I remember all the armor (from my childhood), but I did not understand what this was actually used for.

In Ephesians 6.11 & 12, we find out that the reason we are to put on the entire armor of God is because Satan will attack us. Does anyone else have a hard time believing this? Doesn’t it seem more often than not that we should be putting on armor against the attacks from other people? But Paul clearly tells us that we aren’t wrestling against flesh & blood. This means that we aren’t at war with our co-workers, neighbors, family members – but instead against the rulers, authorities, the cosmic powers over this present darkness, & the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. There is something much bigger going on than we can imagine. We are extremely naive to believe that if we could just get away from the “evil people”, the internet, cable, or whatever else you want to label “evil”, that we would no longer be influenced by evil itself. But what Paul is saying is that the spiritual side of it is going on all the time – where we can’t physically see. Lies are being spoken to us; lust is being brought back to our thoughts; envy of our neighbor are whispered in our ears; we are even told to do things that are absolutely contrary to what we believe and know we are called to do.

So, what does Paul tell us to do in order to be able to stand firm against these schemes of the devil?

First, he says ‘be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might’ (Eph. 6.10). Because of our position ‘in Christ’ (found in such places as Eph. 1.3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 12), we now have received a greater Spirit than the spirits that are at work in the world (Eph. 1.13, 14). We have the Holy Spirit that brings us back to trust that our strength to fight is in who God is (Most powerful) and what He’s done (defeated Satan and disarmed the rulers and authorities – Colossians 3.15). Our strength does not come from us – but from Him. We are not strong enough in ourselves to defeat Satan – but Jesus already has, and He gives us the power in Him to be strong and use the strength of His might.

How do we use His strength?

First, we stand firm. We don’t have to run from Satan or his demons. In fact, where can we run? But we can stand firm, knowing that God is with us and is for us. Romans 8 asks the question ‘Who can condemn’? The answer is that Jesus died in our place condemned, so that we can be righteous. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So, we can stand firm in Christ.

Second, we fasten the belt of truth. We call out what are lies and what is the truth. We must preach to our souls the truth of the gospel and against the lies that are spoken about who God is, what He’s done and who we are. The belt holds everything else up. If the belt is wrong, the rest of the armor will not work. This is true of the gospel. If we miss the gospel, then the rest of our lives will not fit together correctly. We will consistently be looking for the piece that would hold everything together rather than compartmentalizing all the tidbits of life. The gospel is truly the A to Z in Christianity and life.

Third, we wear the breastplate of righteousness. This is not something we earn, but something that was given to us. We put this on because of what Jesus has done. Jesus became sin and wore our proverbial breastplate of unrighteousness so that we might be the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5.21). We are made righteous before the Father because of what Jesus has done and we don’t need to believe the lie that we need to earn our righteousness or our standing before God. We can rest in His righteousness, which is now ours!

I will conclude this short series tomorrow.

What is Christian unity? It has to be so much more than getting together for a breakfast or an event! But the term itself usually suggests some sort of compromise in doctrine, or gives the sense of an extremely soft gospel. But the term is just the opposite! Christian unity is rallying around what makes us Christian – Jesus!

In fact, the only reason we can be the church & have unity is because of Jesus. In Acts 2, we see that as the hearts of 3,000 people were opened to salvation, they were in unity around Jesus!

Unity seems to be a pretty big deal to Jesus as well. We see that in John 17.20-23 where Jesus prays for the disciples (and us) to be perfectly one as the Father & Son are one. Jesus knew that this was only going to be possible because of the power that was going to come in the Holy Spirit.

But if we’re called to be in unity, what is it that keeps us from actually working with others in unity in Christ? Do we really believe that we are made one body? I understand the whole doctrinal distinctives piece of things, as well as the tradition – but have we elevated our denomination, theology, church, tradition over the gospel?

Edmund Clowney writes that “the church is Christ’s. We cannot exclude those whom He welcomes, or welcome those whom He excludes.” Tim Keller adds to this point in saying that “catholicity-denying sectarianism results in unnecessary division. If two churches differ in their belief and practices of baptism and the Lord’s supper, then two different churches they will have to be – but that shouldn’t mean they cannot work together in all sorts of other ways. To stay apart or refuse to cooperate because true believers are members of the “wrong” denomination is to fail to welcome those whom Christ Himself has welcomed.”

If our calling is true unity in Christ, then what must we corporately repent of? Is it pride in our system, tradition, theology, philosophy of ministry, individualistic nature? What is it that has driven us to be working on our own kingdom in Jesus’ name rather than being a part of the body?

Let’s go back to Jesus’ high priestly prayer to hear why Jesus wants His people to be in unity. In John 17.21, Jesus says that the world will believe that the Father sent the Son by how the believers are in unity. In verse 23, Jesus goes on to say that the world will know that they are loved by the Father by how the believers are in unity. Amazing! This is an incredible hermeneutic for the gospel to be understood – through the community of Jesus. Furthermore, in John 13.34, 35, Jesus tells His disciples that the world will know that they are His disciples by how they love one another. So, our love & unity are important factors in people understanding who God is and what He’s done!

But we can’t do this unity thing unless it’s by the power of the gospel! We need a big Jesus and a big gospel to be able to have this desire of working in unity for the glory of Jesus!

As the church of Jesus who desperately need Him, in a city that desperately needs Him, may we, by the power of the Spirit, repent of our “own kingdom-ness” and be in unity around Jesus and His glorious gospel.

This city needs Jesus & His Kingdom – not your kingdom.

May we devote ourselves (as they did in Acts 2), by the power of the Spirit, to praying together for the glory and fame of Jesus in our hearts, our local churches, and in our city!

Before giving the final two questions, I wanted to wrap up with saying that this is a fairly in-depth reading of Ephesians 1. I understand that for many of you (including myself some days), you just don’t have the time to read and list out things in this depth. To that I would say a few things. First, don’t feel like you have to finish a certain amount by a certain period of time. God wants you to know Him. He is not giving you check marks or smiley faces on some big chart next to His throne each time you hurry through a passage to say that you did it. (And trust me, I’m guilty of this as well.) Second, read slowly and capture as much as you can from the passage, stopping to pray about something you’ve never seen before, have a hard time believing, someone comes to mind, you find you’ve been sinning, etc. It’s okay to stop and pray through Scripture. Third, you can still use this method of questioning but by reflecting upon what impacted you most. Maybe what impacted you most from Ephesians 1 is that God is Father (who is God), He predestined you for adoption through Jesus (what He’s done), I am now a child of God (who I am because of who God is & what He’s done), & now I am called to live as a child of the Most High God and not as an orphan (what I am called to do). If that is what you left Ephesians 1 with, that would be most beneficial in your relationship with your Father.

Now… on to the last 2 questions in our study of Ephesians 1, which actually follow up and are antithetical to questions 3 & 4. These questions are really meant to bring us back to the glory of God and what He’s done for us in Jesus. So, here they are.

1 – Who am I/would I be without God in this passage? (Take the answers you got to question 3 and put them in reverse)

• Sinner condemned (v. 1)
• Unfaithful (v. 1)
• Recipient of wrath (vv. 2, 6, 7)
• At war with God (v. 2)
• Cursed (vv. 3, 6)
• Forgotten (v. 4)
• Unholy (v. 4)
• Unloved (v. 4)
• Destined an orphan (v. 5)
• Slave (v. 7)
• Separated from Christ (v. 10)
• Without an inheritance (vv. 11, 18 )
• Not kept for God (v. 13)
• Object of God’s wrath (v. 19)
• Left for dead (v. 20)
• Not a part of God’s community (v. 22)

The answers to that question should make us rejoice that God is in this passage and that God has worked powerfully toward us who believe, with His immeasurable might. Now, we move on to our final question.

2 – Can we do what we’re called to do without Christ?

The simple answer is ‘No’! But we should take the time to look back at our answers to question 4 “What am I called to do in this passage” and now ask, ‘Can I do this without Jesus’? If the answer is ever ‘Yes’, then we’ve moved past the gospel and our need for a Savior. So, I’ll ask the questions:

• Can I live as a saint where I am without Jesus? (v. 1)
• Can I receive & give grace without Jesus? (v. 2)
• Can I receive & give peace without Jesus? (v. 2)
• Can I bless (because I’ve been blessed) without Jesus? (v. 3)
• Can I be holy & blameless without Jesus? (v. 4)
• Can I live as a son of God without Jesus? (v. 5)
• Can I make much of God’s grace without Jesus? (v. 6)
• Can I live forgiven without Jesus? (v. 7)
• Can I be hopeful for Christ to unite all things in Him without Jesus? (v. 10)
• Can I live for the inheritance to come without Jesus? (v. 11)
• Can I exist for God’s glory without Jesus? (v. 12)
• Can I believe the gospel of Jesus Christ without Jesus? (v. 13)
• Can I be secure in what God has done without Jesus? (vv. 13, 14)
• Can I rely on God for revelation about Himself without Jesus? (vv. 17-19)
• Can I lift up Jesus & worship Him without Jesus? (vv. 20-21)
• Can I put no man in the church above Jesus without Jesus? (v. 22)
• Can I be the body of Christ without Jesus? (v. 23)

The answers to those questions should make Jesus really big and our religious tendencies and fixations very useless. For we can not earn our way to our identity. It has to come through Jesus.

May your reading be hearing from Jesus about who He is, what He’s done, who we are because of Him & what He’s calling us to do. May we repent from our reading just to read. May Jesus be lifted up in our hearts in 2011 and for all of eternity!

1. Who God is
2. What God has done
3. Who we are in light of the aforementioned

Before stating the fourth question, I want to say that many people miss seeing and hearing Jesus in Scripture because they’re looking for what they are to do rather than what has been done. The popular acronym a few years back was “WWJD” (what would Jesus do). The reason that people would say this was to try to think what the proper application was in that moment. But by jumping to application (what should we do) before first seeing who God is, what He’s done & who we are because of that, we cut off all the power that would properly motivate what we should do.

Religion calls us to do – but has no power. The only powers that exist are despair or self-righteousness. If you are doing well, you can be self-righteous and proud of your endeavors. If you are doing poorly, then you swing to despair because you can’t keep up. But if you started with who God is and what He’s done, you would see that there was no way you could ever do it – but Jesus did it in your place. And reading Scripture in this fashion will produce the same results. If you jump to application, you’ll be religious and just try to find the right thing to do. Look for Jesus and the power of the gospel which will thrust you into doing the good works that God prepared beforehand for us to walk in (Eph. 2.10).

So, now to the fourth question in our study of Ephesians 1. What am I called to do in light of what I’ve just seen about God and who I am? These are both explicit and implicit. And yes they can become much more personal – as some have become for me. I will give the more personal applications at the end. So… I am called:

• To live as a saint (holy one) where I am (v. 1)
• To receive & give grace (v. 2)
• To receive peace & be peaceable (v. 2)
• To bless (because we’ve been blessed) (v. 3)
• To be holy & blameless (v. 4)
• To live as sons of God (v. 5)
• To make much of God’s grace (v. 6)
• To live as the forgiven (v. 7)
• To be hopeful for Christ to unite things in Him (v. 10)
• To live for the inheritance to come (v. 11)
• To exist for God’s glory
• To believe the gospel of Jesus Christ (v. 13)
• To be secure in what God has done (vv. 13, 14)
• To rely on God for revelation about Himself (vv. 17-19)
• To lift up Jesus & worship Him (vv. 20-21)
• To put no man in the church about Jesus (v. 22)
• To be the body of Christ (v. 23)

Now, as I mentioned before, there can be more personal or vague applications made from this passage such as:

• I am called to be a missionary & servant & light in the city where God has placed me (v. 1)
• I can give grace to my friend who hurt me because God has given me grace (v. 2)
• I can work for peace in my community among two nationalities at war with each other because of the peace God made with me, an enemy of Him, in Christ (v. 2)
• I can bless others freely because of the way that I’ve been blessed (v. 3)
• I can adopt children who don’t “deserve” (have not merited or earned it in any way) to be adopted because I was a rebel child who God has adopted as His Son.
• I can give my life away here because of the inheritance I have in Jesus (v. 11)
• I don’t have to fear or doubt my standing before God because He’s sealed me with His Spirit (v. 13)
• I can keep going to God in His Word and in prayer, even when I don’t feel like it, because I know that He can reveal Himself to me at any point, when He wants and how He wants (vv. 17-19)
• I need to keep believing the gospel (v. 13)
• I need to repent from following all these other idols and turn in faith to trust Jesus again (vv. 20-21)
• I need to repent of calling people to be my disciple and point people to follow Jesus and make much of Him (v. 22)
• I can plant churches with the emphasis on missional communities because Christ fills all in all through His body, the church.

What a glorious passage this is – filled with so much of Christ! I will do one more post on this passage tomorrow, where we will look at the final two questions which are meant to make much of Christ and not of us. Scripture is ultimately all about Him (Luke 24.27) and should be read that way. But we must be trained to do that. That why we are disciples called to make disciples.

May you enjoy Jesus as the Hero of Scripture.