Author: Ryan Hale

God’s plan has been in motion throughout eternity and it is still moving forward even today.

Peter and John had gone to the temple, and as they were going on their way, Peter healed a man who had been lame and unable to walk since birth. Peter healed him in the name of Jesus and the man was full of excitement and joy and went leaping and running from where he had stayed at the gate into the temple courts, praising God for what had happened to him.

Of course, as the people began to figure out what had happened, they came to Peter and John to learn more. Peter asked them why they were surprised. Why would they be shocked that God would heal a man in Jesus’s name? He is the author of life and this man has now been given a new life.

Peter then turns his attention to the people themselves saying that he knew that they had acted in ignorance, but that they needed to know that they had killed the Messiah. Peter had explained this, of course, on the day of Pentecost as well, but he continues to take the opportunity here in the temple courts also. They abandoned Jesus before Pilate, even accusing him and calling for his crucifixion, so they should repent of what they have done. They should leave behind their evil ways and they too can receive a new life through the forgiveness of their sins.

Peter explains that their actions were actually a part of a plan that God had been carrying out over many years. They were part of his plan, even if it was a plan that used God’s own people to kill His son Jesus.

Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.

Acts 3:17-20

Peter is saying here that God had fortold what had just happened through the prophets. But let’s make sure we know what that means. If God foretold it, that means that He knew that it was going to happen. In fact, even more than him knowing that it was going to happen, God made it happen. It was, in fact, God’s plan. God made the plan that His Messiah would be sent and would suffer both by and for his own people. It was, in fact, all God’s plan that Jesus would be killed. It wasn’t that Jesus’s crucifixion just sort of happened. It happened exactly as God had planned it and Jesus’s death was the fulfillment of God’s plan.

Who killed Jesus?

The Jews? Yes.

The Romans? Yes.

But most of all, God killed Jesus, just as He planned and foretold.

So Peter calls the people to repentance and to believe in the Messiah that God sent. Only in Jesus, only in God’s Messiah will the people find refreshing through the forgiveness of sins. Only in this way will we find communion with God and prepare the way within our lives and the lives of those with whom we tell for the Messiah to come again.

Jesus has now been resurrected and we have just passed the time of the Passover, the time when the Jews celebrated the slaughtering of the lamb and wiping of blood across their doorframes for the protection from the Spirit that went through Egypt to kill all of the firstborns as God led the Jews out of Egypt.

Jesus then stays with his disciples for 40 days, showing himself to convince them that he truly is resurrected from the dead and alive. They are in Jerusalem at this time and the book of Acts says that Jesus continues to teach them, just as he had done initially, about the Kingdom of God.

But the disciples, of course, continue to be confused. They ask instead about the kingdom of Israel. When will you restore Israel?

After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

Acts 1:3-6

Yeah, here we go again. How often does Jesus try to tell them about the Kingdom of God and the disciples turn around and think about the kingdom of Israel. They can’t seem to get the political kingdom out of their minds? Remember, at one point they were stuck on the idea that they would sit at Jesus’s right hand. It seems that they are salivating over this idea yet again.

In my mind, this connects directly to a conversation I have been having recently where we are. A man has been telling me that the message that we promote – that we are disciples who have all of the privileges and responsibilities found in the Bible – runs counter to Christian culture, whether it be Evangelical Christian or Catholocism. He has been asking me how it can be that, if you are in a church community, you can act in the way that Jesus taught?

Why do I see these two discussions as similar? Why would it be that the discussion about the disciples’ confusion over the kingdom of Israel vs. the Kingdom of God would be similar to the idea that we should act as disciples of Christ even within the context of a church community?

I say this because I believe that this doesn’t happen – that people are not equipped and sent to be the disciples that Christ has called us to be – because we prefer instead to build our own kingdoms. There is a dying world all around us, and instead of equipping and sending the people out to be the ambassadors that we are called to be, we instead prefer to gather the people to ourselves…and keep them to ourselves. We, as leaders, will often believe that we are the gatekeepers of truth. We are the ones that will get it right, and we will justify our actions by saying that we have a responsibility to protect right theology. How could I possibly justify sending someone else out to declare the Word of God? What if they get it wrong?

My goodness, how we build our kingdoms. We use excuses that sound right in the moment that they are being spoken, but in the end turn out to be a convenience to prevent obedience to the Word of God, to the direct commands of Christ. Instead of obeying the entire Word of God, we choose the parts that we like and do not teach the parts that we fear will cause a problem to our kingdoms.

And in that entire time, we instead mess with the growth of the Kingdom of God. We disobey God. We no longer do what Christ has told us to do. We need to repent and realize that we live and serve at the pleasure of our King, King Jesus. He is the King and he determines what is to be done. He has already told us. We should not stand in the way. We should not think of our own kingdoms and our own positions within them. We should, instead, think of God’s Kingdom and His glory.

Jesus had died on Friday and had been in the grave for a couple of days. Now, it was Sunday and the women went to the tomb to fully prepare his body for burial. They had left him on preparation day and didn’t return on the Sabbath because of the commandment that they must not do any work on that day.

But when they returned back, they didn’t find Jesus in the tomb. Instead, it was empty! And the same with Peter who went running there along with John after they had heard the report back from the women. And they all wondered what was going on. Where was Jesus?

A couple of the disciples – Cleopas and another man – headed toward Emmaus, and Jesus caught up with them on the road and explained to them what the scriptures said about him. They went running back to the rest of the disciples to report that they had seen Jesus and that he was truly alive, and it was at that point that Jesus appeared to all of the disciples at once.

They couldn’t believe it! Here he was, standing in their midst, showing them his hands and his feet, allowing them to see him and touch him. And what was more, Jesus ate something with them so that they could see that he was real. He wasn’t just a figment of their imagination. Otherwise, they would still have the fish that they had given him. He wasn’t just an apparition, or a spirit. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to take and digest the fish. No, he and his full body were there and functioning in the physical world.

But like Jesus had done with these two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus explained to the disciples yet again all that had been written about him. He reminded them that the scriptures spoke about him. The law and the prophets pointed to him:

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

Luke 24:44

And now, everything was being fulfilled, and it was being fulfilled in their presence. They were witnesses. They had seen all that Jesus had done. They knew the truth of what Jesus was saying because they knew the Old Testament scriptures and they knew what had happened in their midst. Now, Jesus was helping them to draw the connection between the two. He was helping them to see the fulfillment because now they would speak of this to others as well.

We don’t necessarily have the luxury or privilege of being the ones who are there to see, but we have the words of those who were there. They have testified to what they saw and have explained to us what they had done with Jesus, allowing us also to see the connections. Even further, through the Holy Spirit, we also can confirm the fulfillment of the prophecies. We can read what was done in the books of the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, and we can affirm that Jesus did fulfill the prophecies as well as became the real life example of many of the traditions and celebrations that the Jews would hold, and still even continue today.

This is an important part of our testimony. Jesus performed an incredible miracle of resurrection, but then he took his disciples directly into the scriptures to prove that they spoke about him through the fulfillment of what the prophecies said. Let us see and be able to also explain the connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Without the Old, there is no New. The scriptures are one story, the story that God is telling. It is the story of Christ.

Jesus had stayed silent as he was before Pilate and Herod. Even as he had been before the Sannhedrin, he had said very little in his defense. Jesus already knew God’s plan and had been telling his disciples that he would be handed over to the chief priests and the rulers to be killed, but would then rise again from the dead.

The chief priest, Pilate, and Herod all would have expected that Jesus would want to save himself. Who would despise their life enough that they would want to die, especially when they are innocent of the charges of which they have been accused? But this process of accusation to “trial” to condemnation and death was moving quickly, and so Jesus was simply letting the metaphorical train run down the tracks. He already knew that he was headed to his death, so he was allowing the process to play out.

The people, as they stood before Jesus as he was being crucified, called on Jesus to prove that he was the Messiah by saving himself.

The soldiers, the same thing.

 The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

Luke 23:35-39

Ironically, Jesus was the Messiah and he was acting perfectly in accordance with what had been prophecied for him to do. He was the King of the Jews, but this King was to give himself for the people so that they could live.

The people couldn’t imagine a scenario in which Jesus would want to die. They couldn’t even begin to imagine what Jesus was doing. He was giving himself as a sacrifice to God for the sins of the people – for them. And yet they were mocking him.

If you are the Messiah, save yourself!

Jesus was the Messiah, and instead of saving himself, he was saving them. He was saving them from their sins, if only they would believe. Now, we have the same choice. Will we believe that Jesus has also come for us? That he has done this according to God’s plan? That he was the Messiah, and precisely for that reason he was killed on the cross, taking the punishment for our sins?

Or will we continue to deny him and imagine that the greatest and highest thing that we could experience would be to save our lives?

In at least a couple of separate times, Jesus told his disciples that they shouldn’t worry about what they would say to others because he would come to them, and through the Holy Spirit, he would tell them what to say.

I have frequently had this quoted back to me by Christians in our churches today. They say things like:

Why do I need to learn to share the Gospel?

Or… Why do I need to learn to share my testimony?

Or… Why do I need to learn some structured way to make a disciple?

I want to be led by the Holy Spirit!

Ah, OK… So, we would like to be trained and prepared for a job. Or we would want to take a class to understand how to do a particular hobby. But we definitely shouldn’t try to prepare ourselves for a conversation about Christ. Hmmm… that seems a little strange to me.

Context matters. The situations in which Jesus said this were that he had promised the disciples persecution. In the first case, Jesus was intentionally sending the disciples out as “sheep among wolves” to proclaim and demonstrate the Kingdom of God. He told them that they would be beaten in the synagogues and taken before governors and kings to give an account for what they were saying.

The second situation was similar. In that case, Jesus spoke of the end times. The time just before he would return. Again, he tells the disciples that they will be beaten and that they will be called upon to give an account but that Jesus would be with them and give them words of wisdom so that they (we!) can speak of him and give an account for him.

“But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. And so you will bear testimony to me. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. Stand firm, and you will win life.

Luke 21:12-19

In both of these cases, you can imagine that there would be significant anxiety and fear on the part of the disciples; that nerves might be on edge, that it would be difficult for them to speak. But Jesus promises that he would be with the disciples in those very circumstances.

So, if I am speaking plainly and honestly, those that tell me that they don’t need to learn or don’t need to prepare because the Holy Spirit will be with them simply sounds like an excuse to me, an excuse to be a lazy Christian. And frequently I hear these same people say that they wish God would use them more. Or that they are looking for ways to be more fruitful for Christ.

But don’t worry…when the day comes – if it ever comes – to be able to speak for Christ, the Holy Spirit will be there to give the words. I hope that will turn out to be true! In the meantime, I want to encourage the rest of us to continue to prepare, to hone our message, to look to the lost, and bring reconciliation to God for those who are lost and do not know Him.

The first and last stories of Luke 18 are stories of persistence. In the first story, Luke says that Jesus was teaching his disciples to keep praying and never give up so he tells a story of a woman who is persistently pleading for justice to an unjust judge. He explained that even the unjust judge, just so that he can save himself from a widow, one of the weakest, and possibly least-valued, people in the society is concerned about himself, and so he will respond to the woman’s request and give her what she wants because of her persistence.

Then, at the end of the chapter, we see that a blind man heard that Jesus was passing by. He called out for Jesus to have mercy on him, but the crowd told him to be quiet. Ignoring them, he called out even louder for Jesus to have mercy on him.

But he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Luke 18:39

So Jesus stopped and asked the man what he wanted him to do for the man, as if it wasn’t clear enough already! The man wanted to see and so Jesus gave him his sight.

We learn here that God wants to hear from us. He intends and expects that we remain dependent upon Him. He wants us to call out to Him, to invoke Him and ask Him to intervene. And He will. Sometimes it won’t be in the timing that we want. Sometimes it will. Infrequently, at least in my experience, it will be what we expected. Frequently, at least in my experience, it will be even better than what we expected.

Let’s call out to God and depend upon Him for what we need. Everything we have comes from God and we can go to Him, to the source, to receive what we need if we are persistent.

God has put things in our hand that we can use for us, or we can use for Him and His Kingdom.

Jesus told a parable of a manager who had been accused of embezzlement and so his boss called him to an appointment to give an account of what he had done. The man knew that he would be found out, so he thought that he would use his present position to improve his future. He called in some of the people who owed his master – his boss – money or goods and asked them each how much they owed the master. In each case, he marked down the amount for the person that owed to the master, thus giving them a discount and making the person who owed his master think well of him.

As it turns out, the master approved of the man’s shrewdness, presumably because he at least received something back.

While I can understand the difficulty in understanding why Jesus would tell this story as a good example, given that the man had been a liar and a cheat, and then subsequently given discounts just to help himself, he – Jesus – did tell the story as an example of using what we have been given as an investment for the future. The man was using what had been put in front of him now to prepare his way for the future. He couldn’t do manual labor and he didn’t want to beg for money, so he used what he had been given as an investment.

“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Luke 16:8-9

This struck me this morning because here in Catania, we have noticed over the last several years that we have routinely run into the same problem. The people that we work with, the immigrants and refugees, have significant needs. They frequently don’t know where they will sleep, nor what they will eat, and they find themselves scratching to survive on a daily basis. That is a difficult position to be in when you are trying to help someone think about how they can turn over their life to Christ and live for him. They have no stability and are desperate, so while it is certainly good and right, and definitely the right time, to be considering what God is doing in their lives, when you are trying to figure out what you will eat or where you will stay, it is difficult to have space within your mind for those conversations.

A few years ago, we started Agape Bici as a way to simply fix bikes or give them away to those in need. However, we noticed that this was something that God had put in our hand and that we could invest in for the future. We didn’t need an income, as God has provided for us through the support of those who believe in what God is doing through our work, but it would allow us to invest in the Kingdom of God, offering work for people here in Catania, and we hope one day, in other places as well. Those whom we have prayed would become workers within the Kingdom would also have the opportunity to support themselves for the future.

We see this as a way that we can invest in the Kingdom. We can use what God has given to us to see His Kingdom continue to grow. We can take what God has offered to us and make more out of it for the purpose of glorifying Him. If we are able to raise up and support more workers – as in workers for the Kingdom amongst the people groups that we are serving – we can see more people come to Christ, more disciples made, and more churches planted.

Let us use what God has given us so that we can invest for the true future, the future of the Kingdom.

The Pharisees continue to look for ways to accuse Jesus so that they can get rid of him. Jesus keeps showing them the hypocritical state of their heart, continues to, in fact, embarrass them, but Jesus doesn’t seem to be phased. These things are all moving forward according to the plan that the Father has set out for him.

This time the Pharisees and teachers of the law come saying, in fact muttering:

This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.

Luke 15:2

To respond, Jesus tells them three stories. It is as if he responds to them saying, “You bet. That’s exactly right. I do welcome sinners, and here is why…”

Jesus tells a story of a man who had lost one of his sheep. 99 are still there, but 1 has wandered off. The man leaves the other 99 to go find that 1. The man goes looking because that 1 is important to him.

He went on to tell another story of a woman who lost one of her ten coins. She turns her house upside-down to look for it.

And then finally, Jesus tells a story of a wayward son who takes half of his father’s property and goes to spend it on himself, squandering the inheritance on prostitutes or any number of other worthless self-indulgences. When the son comes back, the father runs to greet his son and welcome him back.

Jesus is telling the Pharisees that these people that he is spending time with are lost and he is out looking for them. He is doing it because like the man, like the woman, like the father, those things and those people who were lost were precious to them.

We don’t go looking for the things that aren’t precious to us. And so, for this reason, we frequently don’t follow in Jesus’s footsteps. We don’t go looking for those who are lost because we don’t have the same heart as that of the Father. Jesus is clear that sinners – those who are lost – are precious to him, but to the Pharisees, they are nothing.

And so today, what do we say? Yes, of course these people are precious to us. Yes, of course we want these people to come to Christ. Yes, of course we try to reach them.

Do we though? Have we actually gone searching as the people did when that thing or that person was lost? Have we really looked, or maybe we’ve sent some money to someone else who is doing something?

Let’s take the next step. Beyond going, is the good news of salvation through Christ actually being shared? Through whom? How many times in the last week? In the last month? In the last year?

I suspect and fear that the answer to those questions is few, or possibly none. And so I think we have a problem. We don’t have the same heart as God for that which is lost, so we don’t go looking. We don’t go looking so we never actually tell people the Good News, the Gospel of Christ, that they can have salvation through him. We have other priorities. We have other things that we are worried about.

I noted here that in each case, there was a party at the end of each of the stories that Jesus told. Each time that the thing or the person who was lost was found, the person who found that which was lost called all of those around to celebrate. Each time. We should learn to come to know that joy, to celebrate the lost being found. We should learn to routinely bring others to Christ and throw a lot of parties because what was lost is now found.

Jesus doesn’t do half measures. His perspective seems to be that you either do it or you don’t. You don’t do it half way.

Jesus is God represented in the flesh, represented as a human being. He was all-in and brought all of His deity to the earth in the form of a human.

He came to the earth to re-establish His Kingdom, with Jesus himself as the King. He purchased for God people from every tribe, nation, and language, and he purchased them not with money, but with his own blood. That is most certainly a sign of being all-in, to give yourself for others, especially others who have not only not loved you, but have shown disdain for you.

I could go on with examples, but suffice to say that Jesus calls us to have the same level of passion and commitment to him and his Kingdom as he did for us. Jesus was explaining this to the crowds that were following him. He said:

In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

Luke 14:33

It is as if he was telling them, “You can’t just follow me around and say you’re my disciple. There is much more than that.”

Jesus had told his disciples that they must “hate” their father and mother, their brothers and sisters, their wives and children. Otherwise they cannot be his disciple. Are you prevented from following Jesus because of your family? You aren’t fit to be Jesus’s disciple, he says.

Jesus told his disciples that they must carry their cross and follow him. Are you prevented from following Jesus because you are afraid of being shamed by others for your association with him? Are you afraid of the possibility that you would be put to death because of your association with him? You aren’t fit to be Jesus’s disciple.

There is no half measure with which you can be Jesus’s disciple. Following him doesn’t mean just trying not to sin. It means that you go to do what he calls his disciples to do. You go to be the person that he calls you to be. This is the level of discipleship that Jesus calls us into. That is the Jesus in the Bible, and if we don’t understand this, and we don’t follow him in the way that he has called us to follow him, we won’t have a part with him. We won’t actually be his disciples.

God, help me – help all of us – to not only understand the cost of being a disciple, but even more, to truly be the disciple that you have called us to be. I pray that you won’t count us among the people who are just casually walking along, but those who have counted the cost and are willing to follow Jesus wherever he sends us, wherever he calls us to go. Do with us what you will, Lord. May you be glorified as a result of our lives and what we give to you.