Following the risen Christ can be a wild ride. By this point, the first Christians must have learned two things: be prepared, and expect the unexpected.

Take Philip, for example. An angel appears to him and sends him out on foot to the southern highway. He spots a foreign VIP (the head of the treasury of the Ethiopians) riding in a chariot, reading Scripture.

Philip asks politely, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” The powerful official says, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” He invites Philip to share his ride, and Philip explains how Jesus fulfills Scripture. Then Philip baptizes the first member of the church in Ethiopia (a church that exists to this day). The story ends with God whisking Philip away to the next town (v. 39).

Philip’s friend Peter has this to say: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15 NIV). Our new life in Christ gives us reason for hope. But we cannot always know when the Holy Spirit will move us to share this hope with others. So we ask, “Lord, what would you have me do today?” Be prepared. And expect the unexpected.

Prayer:
Holy Spirit, keep us attentive to those who may be asking, “Can someone explain this to me?”

Following the risen Christ can be a wild ride. By this point, the first Christians must have learned two things: be prepared, and expect the unexpected.

Take Philip, for example. An angel appears to him and sends him out on foot to the southern highway. He spots a foreign VIP (the head of the treasury of the Ethiopians) riding in a chariot, reading Scripture.

Philip asks politely, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” The powerful official says, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” He invites Philip to share his ride, and Philip explains how Jesus fulfills Scripture. Then Philip baptizes the first member of the church in Ethiopia (a church that exists to this day). The story ends with God whisking Philip away to the next town (v. 39).

Philip’s friend Peter has this to say: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15 NIV). Our new life in Christ gives us reason for hope. But we cannot always know when the Holy Spirit will move us to share this hope with others. So we ask, “Lord, what would you have me do today?” Be prepared. And expect the unexpected.

Prayer:
Holy Spirit, keep us attentive to those who may be asking, “Can someone explain this to me?”

The believers in Jerusalem were starting to feel like family. Then in a day, everything changes. Stephen is accused of blasphemy and stoned to death (Acts 7). From then on, Jesus’ followers become the hunted. A man named Saul begins “ravaging the church,” taking believers from their homes and tossing them in prison. Jesus’ followers scatter to Judea and Samaria. The close-knit group in Jerusalem must have felt great pain at the break-up of their spiritual family. But while the Jerusalem believers faced sadness, in Samaria “there was much joy” because the gospel had arrived (v. 8).

Sometimes our world gets rocked. We face difficult times of change. We can’t see why. In Acts we catch a glimpse of God’s working through a painful situation. The church was scattered, but behind the scenes God was using even persecution to bring glory to himself. Amidst pain and suffering, Jesus’ words came true that his disciples would be his witnesses in “all Judea and Samaria” (Acts 1:8).

We may never know why God allows suffering. But we can trust that even in the most difficult life changes and circumstances, God is alive and active. No example is more clear than the cross itself. It was by Christ’s death that we now have life.

Prayer:
God, your ways are often hidden in suffering. In times of great pain and crisis, give us the faith that you ultimately bring life.

There’s a tradition I share with good friends called “rose, thorn, bud.” Following a meal together, we go around in a circle. Each person shares one thing from the week that has brought joy (the rose). We then share a grief or frustrating trial (the thorn). Finally, we share something we’re looking forward to in the near future (the bud). Then we pray for each other.

This simple act of sharing followed by prayer never fails to yield blessing. It also leads us one step closer to being “one in heart and soul.” The disciples in Acts 2:42 “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” The Holy Spirit still works through this combination of sharing, studying, praying, and eating together (even if it’s just chips and salsa!).

We were created to worship God in community. Jesus earnestly prayed for his followers to be one in him (see John 17:20-21). That unity doesn’t happen automatically. It requires the Holy Spirit and effort on our part.

Having recently moved to another city, I have discovered that it takes time to build Christian community. But if Jesus wants us to have deep, intimate fellowship with each other, God will certainly provide brothers and sisters in Christ. He might even call us to step out in faith and make it happen!

Prayer:
Lord, thank you for Christian fellowship.

We outgrow our high chairs and cribs, but many of us never outgrow the desire for attention. This desire can shape the decisions we make: what clothes we wear, how we spend money, and how we act in public. Our desire for attention can be dangerous. It can disorient or even ruin our lives. Many celebrities admit that fame is as powerful as any drug.

Peter and John had a chance to become celebrities. They were walking past a helpless beggar. When the man asked them for spare change, they gave him something better. “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,” declared Peter, “rise up and walk.” The man stood. Then he leaped for joy. The crowd was wowed! Peter and John could have started signing autographs right then.

But Peter and John would take none of the credit. They basically said, “Don’t continue looking at us. If you want to know where our power comes from, look past us.” Only when the crowd looked past the apostles could they see the true Actor behind the act: Jesus.

As Christians, Christ lives in us. As the apostle said later, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Today, ask yourself: am I drawing attention to myself or to the one in me?

Prayer:
Lord, forgive us for seeking other’s praise. May we glorify you with our lives and redirect all praise to you. For Jesus’ sake, amen.

The Holy Spirit came like wildfire upon the disciples on Pentecost. The good news spread from an upstairs room into broad daylight through Peter and the 120 people who constituted the entire membership of the church on Pentecost morning. This was the disciple to whom Jesus said: “I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18).

Peter wasn’t a skilled orator or a politician. He’d been a fisherman. But God had big plans for Peter. Whenever God chooses, he enables us to transcend our weaknesses and do things we previously wouldn’t have believed possible.

God calls us ordinary folks to share in his extraordinary work. He calls us in spite of our insecurities, fears, brokenness, and laziness. With the Holy Spirit’s enabling, people with a stutter can preach powerfully, shy people can speak boldly against injustice, and new believers can teach wisdom to old. We all have a role—to point others to repentance, forgiveness in Christ, and new life in the Spirit. Are you ready to participate?

Prayer:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we need your strength. Enable us, like Peter, to boldly share the message of salvation with a world that desperately needs you.

Most fires never make the news. However, if winds begin to blow during the dry season a contained fire can suddenly burst into wildfire. The windblown flames jump rapidly across the countryside, threatening everything in their path. Wildfires are newsworthy.

Wildfires are also unpredictable. They often appear to be under control, only to spring up in another area. Perhaps the kingdom of God at Pentecost was a little like wildfire. When Jesus died, the devil thought he had won a great victory. He thought the burning fire of God’s love had been extinguished on the cross. He didn’t anticipate what would happen next: Jesus rose from the dead. God’s love was stronger than hate, and even hell could not stop it.

When Jesus returned to heaven (Acts 1:9), perhaps the devil thought the damage was contained. Then the Holy Spirit came like wildfire. Men and women gathered in the upper room heard violent wind and saw tongues of flame rest over them. The small band of Jesus’ disciples, once harmless, was now empowered. Enabled by the Spirit, the disciples spoke languages they had never learned. The powers of darkness resisted (2:13), but the Holy Spirit would not be put out. The wildfire of God’s love is the good news that has reached us today.

Prayer:
Holy Spirit, set our hearts afire with your holy love. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem . . . Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (v. 8)

People who want pulse-pounding, edge-of-the-seat storylines flock to action movies. The book of Acts is action-packed. Supernatural tongues of fire materialize out of thin air. Sorcerers, jailbreaks, insurrections, resurrections, and miraculous healings leap off the pages. Best of all, every word is true.

Acts is the sequel to Luke’s Gospel account. While Luke’s Gospel focused on Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, Acts focuses on life after Jesus’ ascension. Acts is an action story “filmed” on location, spanning thousands of miles. It tells the ongoing story of Jesus Christ and his church empowered by the Holy Spirit.

The story moves from Jerusalem to Judea and beyond. God’s people travel down dusty roads and across raging seas to share Christ. There is no wall thick enough, no religious persecution strong enough, no gossip vicious enough to stop the spread of God’s word.

Hang on to your seats! Over the next 15 days, we will witness God’s incredible, often surprising acts of power. These works are not confined to the book of Acts. Whether we feel it or not, the Holy Spirit is active. He calls us to share the good news to the ends of the earth: “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (2:21).

Prayer:
Lord, forgive us. Break into our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit and turn our hearts toward Jesus Christ the Lord.

I read an interview once with a minister who did not believe Jesus was actually raised from the dead. He believed the resurrection stories in the New Testament were fables and that we were supposed to think of the resurrection symbolically, not literally. To him, the resurrection represented the promise of second chances and renewal, like spring coming after a long winter. “My gosh,” he said, “if I actually believed a person had been raised from the dead I’d shout about it to everyone.”

Isn’t that exactly the point?

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the singular moment in human history. It is the lens through which Christians view reality. Everything we believe, not just about death but also about life, is affected by the resurrection. If there is no resurrection, Paul says, why do any of the things we do? Why preach? Why have faith? Why fight wild beasts in Ephesus (v. 32)? (Call Paul what you will, but don’t you dare call him boring.)

We have seen that the central theme of this letter to the Corinthians is unity. The climax of Paul’s teaching and the foundation of any hope for unity among diverse and disparate people is found in the resurrection, the pivotal point of history. In Christ, Paul tells us in verse 22, all shall be made alive. That promise indeed unites us.

Prayer:
Thank you, Father, for this gospel, this good news of your Son’s resurrection.

If we try to imagine the worship of the early church through the filter of our own experience we may have trouble. There was no building to go to, no beautiful sanctuary to sit in, no hymnals, no pew Bibles (or pews to put them in), no order of worship, no organ, no worship band, and no professionally-trained minister guiding the service.

Instead, the picture we get from reading 1 Corinthians 14 is that worship services in the early church tended to be more chaotic than orderly and could resemble free-for-alls. The Corinthians were desirous of spiritual gifts and seem to have fixed on tongues as the gift of choice. Paul counsels otherwise. Their exercise of tongues resembled children playing side-by- side in a sandbox without actually playing with each other. Paul wants unity over individual expression.

Prophecy, the gift of speaking God’s word understandably, is to be preferred. Prophecy builds up the body while tongues build up individuals. As he has done throughout this letter, Paul is asking the Corinthians (and us) to think about what is best for all instead of just best for me. This is a principle that transcends cultures and circumstances and should mean as much today—whatever the style of worship in which we participate—as it did to those early believers in Corinth.

Prayer:
Lord, help us focus not on ourselves but on what builds up the body in all things.

I had a professor for hermeneutics—the art of biblical interpretation—who captured my attention by saying that the Bible is more like a mountain range than a prairie. He meant that the Bible has peaks. “All Scripture is inspired and useful,” he taught us, “but some parts tower over other parts.” Surely 1 Corinthians 13 is one of those peaks.

Let’s be honest here: Paul’s letters can be difficult to interpret sometimes. His arguments can be dense. It takes skill to unwind them. Even Peter admitted his frustration, saying about Paul’s letters: “There are some things in them that are hard to understand” (2 Peter 3:15-16). Anyone who has read the New Testament knows what Peter means.

But that frustration does not apply to 1 Corinthians 13. Want to be really unified? Paul’s message is crystal clear—make love the center of your life. As verses 4 through 7 make plain, love isn’t a mushy feeling but an act of the will. Sometimes we get confused and think love is something we have to feel. It is a feeling, but more than that, love is also an action. Patience and kindness, for example, aren’t feelings but actions. All the things love is “not”—not boastful, not rude, not irritable—are also actions. We decide daily, in every situation and with every person we encounter, whether or not we will choose love. When we do act in love we happily discover that our feelings follow in the same way.

Prayer:
Let us choose love in all our actions.

Since unity has been such a theme of this letter, it’s fair to wonder how unity really can be achieved. It’s easy to imagine a Corinthian or two wondering how they were supposed to be united when they were so different. It’s not hard to look across the vast landscape of different Christian denominations today and wonder the same thing.

Paul seems to be saying, “That’s exactly my point!” Unity is not to be found in everyone acting like clones of each other. Unity is achieved when we recognize we are a body with many parts, and that no part is greater than another.

For an example of what this can look like, read verses 4 through 6 again carefully. Notice what Paul says. There are varieties of gifts, services, and activities, but only one . . . one what? Here Paul may surprise us. He does not say “one God” over and over. Instead he uses the three persons of the Trinity: one Spirit, one Lord (always a reference to Jesus) and one God. Is God unified? Absolutely. Does God also have three distinct persons? No doubt about it. Unity is not found in being the same but in being diverse without being divided. Be the best “you” you can be, because that’s what the body needs. And then don’t expect other parts of the body to be exactly like you.

Prayer:
We praise you, Lord, for the variety of your family.

What is your ancestry? The Internet has made genealogical research easier than ever. There are volumes of material available online, and with a few clicks of my computer mouse one day I found a picture of my Civil War-veteran great-grandfather’s grave. Then with a few more clicks I learned my Norwegian ancestors were actually born in Sweden.

Does it seem unusual to you that Paul would write the Corinthians—a church made up largely of Gentiles—and mention their ancestors who traveled under a cloud and passed through the sea? He is referring to the exodus, the pivotal event in Jewish history, but not a part of the family history of most of the Christians in Corinth. Paul doesn’t explain, he simply takes it for granted that all will understand that the church in Corinth is part of the family God rescued from Egypt. To be part of the family of God is bigger than any particular ethnicity.

So what’s your ancestry? What family do you belong to? As Paul writes in Romans 8:16-17: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” Being a child of God is a lot more important than having ancestors who came from Holland, or England, or Mexico—or even Sweden!

Prayer:
Dear Lord, thanks that we have the privilege to call you Father.

What is your ancestry? The Internet has made genealogical research easier than ever. There are volumes of material available online, and with a few clicks of my computer mouse one day I found a picture of my Civil War-veteran great-grandfather’s grave. Then with a few more clicks I learned my Norwegian ancestors were actually born in Sweden.

Does it seem unusual to you that Paul would write the Corinthians—a church made up largely of Gentiles—and mention their ancestors who traveled under a cloud and passed through the sea? He is referring to the exodus, the pivotal event in Jewish history, but not a part of the family history of most of the Christians in Corinth. Paul doesn’t explain, he simply takes it for granted that all will understand that the church in Corinth is part of the family God rescued from Egypt. To be part of the family of God is bigger than any particular ethnicity.

So what’s your ancestry? What family do you belong to? As Paul writes in Romans 8:16-17: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” Being a child of God is a lot more important than having ancestors who came from Holland, or England, or Mexico—or even Sweden!

Prayer:
Dear Lord, thanks that we have the privilege to call you Father.

What do you have a right to that you have not claimed? For Paul, he had a right to demand that those he ministered to pay his way, but he did not claim that right. He didn’t ask for money; instead, he supported himself by other means. In my opinion, Paul’s actions are like walking onto thin ice, but Paul stepped forth boldly.

Why do I call this thin ice? Because there is a great temptation for those who follow Paul’s example to slip into self-righteousness, false humility, resentment, overwork, or a martyr syndrome. The church has decided that, when possible, it’s better for all concerned that ministers be paid for their work directly by the congregations they serve. Ministers are entitled to fair wages and benefits, vacations and pensions. As Paul argues in verses 7 through 14, it’s not selfish for ministers to expect that. But Paul himself doesn’t do it.

I find myself meditating often on Paul’s example. His decision to support himself through tent making was motivated by a desire for unity in the church. Once again, Paul gives up something he could do—like eating meat sacrificed to idols—for the sake of others. “I do it all for the sake of the gospel” (v. 23), he writes, and one wonders what the church today might look like if all of us, clergy and laity alike, kept that principle.

Prayer:
The example of your servant Paul moves and motivates us, dear Lord.