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Week 41  Acts 1

When Jesus left earth for the last time he just disappeared into the sky and the disciples were left-hanging. So two angels came and told them: this same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.
So this means that Jesus’ (future) return to earth is going to be similar to his departure. Question: what’ll it be like when Jesus comes back? Answer: he’ll reverse the steps he took when he left. He’ll: a) appear in a cloud and b) descend to the surface of earth.
From other reading I know this is a real bare-bones description – other things will happen too. I do a cross-reference check of Paul. One of the verses he adds to the mix says: for the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Paul doesn’t mention a cloud but he confirms the descent from the sky…and he adds those couple of extra features:
a) an archangel will shout a loud command
b) there’ll be a trumpet blast
c) dead people who believed in Jesus will be resurrected.
So the angels’ promise to the disciples was adequate but incomplete. A more comprehensive list takes a bit more digging.

Note: quotes from Acts 1:11 & 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (NIV)

Week 40  Acts 1

The book of Acts opens with the disciples re-connecting with the Lord. The very first question they asked him was: Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?
This turns out to be one of those situations where a guy has a question that seems crucial to him but the reality is that – all other things considered – it isn’t really a very important question at all.
The Lord’s answer would have been deflating: it is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.
It’s a good reminder that there are things for me to know and there are things for me not to know. It’s like two rooms in a hallway. I can go to the Things-to-Know Room and walk in and get valuable information about certain things. But when I go to the Things-Not-to-Know Room I find the door locked.
Calendar dates are one of the things that it’d be interesting to know about. But Acts 1 reinforces the fact that there are some things – times or dates for instance – that are behind a locked door.
How many other things are locked away is hard to say. But when it comes to some questions it’s a waste of time trying to break down the door.

Note: quotes from Acts 1:6 7 (NIV). In recent news September 23 2025 was floated as a key religious date. But the day came & went without any key religious events happening.

Week 40  John 20

Near the end of his gospel John tells why he wrote it: Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John selected these events from Jesus’ life so that you may believe. The You in you may believe is referring to John’s audience (I don’t know if John figured an audience would still be reading his gospel two-thousand years later…but here we are. You includes me & whoever-all-else reads – or has ever read – John’s gospel).
Everyone who has ever read the gospel of John gets a chance to either a) believe it or b) not believe it.
For a reader who believes a kind of laddering takes place.
Step One is where I read a story – let’s say Jesus turning water into wine. Instead of dismissing it as a bit of first-century voodoo I choose a) – I believe it.
Now I’m in a position to take Step Two (another big belief): I believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. 
And finally Step Three – the outcome: by believing I get to have life in his name.
A few other finer points of detail could be added to these Three Steps. But they’re the gist-of-it.

Note: quote from John 20:30-31 (CSB)

 

 

Week 40  John 19

John says that at the moment when Jesus died he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Jesus is a special case but my sense is that this process might be generally true for everyone. The end of life comes. My physical body dies. I give-up my spirit.
If John is saying that – by design & constitution – people have both a) a body and b) a spirit then that’s a significant thing to know and it gives me something to think about.
First of all I need to decide whether I actually believe that I’m just my physical body or whether I have a spirit too.
Then if I do think I’m a body-spirit binary I have to decide what to do about my spirit. (I’m fully tuned-in to my physical humanness – body is pretty definitive and it’s impossible to disregard. But spirit is a trickier department to put-my-finger-on.)
Of course it’s possible that Jesus was absolutely unique. The only human being to ever have a spirit – and that when he gave up his spirit it was a one-off situation. If that’s the case I don’t need to be too concerned. But if – in a constitutional way – I’m made up of two-parts then I’ve got something to chew on because if I have a spirit that’ll get given-up when I die then the question is: what do I do with it in the meantime?

Note: quote from John 19:30 (ESV). September reading report: 86% completed.

Week 40  John 17

John 17 is a prayer – an audible prayer – prayed by Jesus. A lot of it was for or about the disciples.
One of the things Jesus asked was this: sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
Sanctify is a rare word. It’s an uncommon and mostly religious word so it’s not used much in everyday conversation. If I were to sanctify something I’d be setting it apart – earmarking or designating it for a religious or sacred purpose. It’s not a contemporary word or idea.
I checked quite a few bible versions to see if they’d switch-it-up but the majority – about 3-dozen – used ‘sanctify’. There were a few alternates like:
make them holy
set them apart (or set them apart for holiness)
make them ready for your service
dedicate them
consecrate.
Jesus prayed that his disciples would be sanctified – which is pretty special. But what really jumped out was the rest of the verse. The driver that motivated & gave momentum to sanctification was the truth. And then John added: your word is truth.
So sanctification – whatever-all that might actually involve for a person – is driven along by truth.
That’s welcome news for a bible-reader. I spend a bunch of time & effort reading with a specific goal of searching out truth. And it looks like when I find it sanctity will be piggy-backing along with it.

Note: quote from John 17:17 (CSB & NIV). Alternate words are from CEB CJB  NTFE OJB ERV EXB ICB Mounce NABRE GNT NLV NLT & TLB.

Week 39  John 5

Miracles were (likely) the most spectacular feature of Jesus’ life.
With the miracles a couple of things were going on.
First of all a miracle was a huge benefit for a miracle-recipient (for instance a blind man sees). So that was one thing.
But according to Jesus the miracles also had a second feature to them and that was because the majority of miracles weren’t done covertly. Most were public events. Which meant people witnessed the spectacle and then were faced with trying to account for it.
Of course people could draw whatever conclusion they wanted. Some might be shocked…but then shrug it off. Or shocked and left perplexed. There’s one case where people explained miracles by saying Jesus was an agent of the devil. So people could say whatever. But Jesus himself explained it this way (quoted from a  couple of versions):
These very works I am doing testify about me that the Father has sent me
The very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me
The very works that I do testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me
The very works that I am doing testify that the Father has sent me.
So a person in Jesus’ audience – like a bible reader today – can conclude whatever he wants. But the miracle-worker himself said that his miracles confirmed the fact that his Father-in-heaven had sent him.

Note: quote from John 5:36 (CSB ESV NASB NIV)

 

Week 39  John 2

One of the business-related features of the temple in Jerusalem was that it was a big Religious Merchandise Mart. So when Jesus drove out the traders and kind of blew the whole thing up there was a lot of belligerent “what-gives-you-the-right?” going on: what sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?
Jesus didn’t answer to the question. But he did say: destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.
If I’d been standing right there on the temple grounds that day and Jesus said that if the temple was demolished he could rebuild it in three days then I’d figure the temple he was talking about was the temple that I was standing right beside. There was no other temple. Every normal person would take it at face value: Jesus is talking about the material temple. And John as he was writing the gospel very well knew that and so added an explanatory note that the Lord was not actually talking about the temple (the temple he had spoken of was his body). But no one would have or could have understood that at the time.
So right away in John I see that the Lord sometimes talked in code. And I get my reader’s reminder that I’ve got to be very careful with what sound like totally & obviously & definitively literal comments. Some things don’t mean what they seem to.

Note: quotes from John 2:18 19 21 (NIV)

Week 37  Luke 17

There’s a short paragraph right in the middle of the chapter where the Pharisees came to Jesus and asked when the kingdom of God would arrive. He replied: the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed…for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. So it looks like a) the kingdom of God wouldn’t come with a big fanfare but b) the kingdom of God was already there.
A sidenote in my bible says that in the midst of you can also mean within your grasp or within you. Hmmmm. That muddies things up a bit. In the midst of you sounds different from within your grasp (maybe not totally different…but different). But the other phrase is more perplexing: the kingdom of God is within you. The kingdom-within-you sounds like a) the Kingdom of God has come and b) the Pharisees (the people Jesus was talking to) were it’s recipients. Which is baffling and doesn’t jibe with the usually negative view in the gospels about most of the Pharisees.
To me the kingdom in the midst of you and within your grasp and within you aren’t saying the same thing.
So my question is: what do I make of it?
And my answer is: I don’t know (meaning that about all I can do is shift this phrase into the Elevated Alertness & Unanswered Inquiries column – and hope that things eventually clarify).

Note: quote from Luke 17:20-21 (ESV)

Week 37  Luke 13

A guy in the crowd asked Jesus: are only a few people going to be saved? The Lord didn’t give him a specific answer but he did tell him that many will try to enter and won’t be able. To me many-will-not-enter sounds about the same as only-a-few-will-get-in. (So I guess the guy maybe figured the answer to his question was “yes”.)
Even though the word “many” is numerically inexact I do know that it means quite a few. Many is numerous. Many is a majority. It’s a large number. Many people are not going to be saved.
Jesus went on to tell a story about a house with a narrow door. People want to get in. But there are two entrance requirements.
Requirement #1 was trying to get in. Jesus said people had to make every effort to enter. Other versions substitute make-every-effort with words like strive. Struggle. Try hard. Do your best. So I’ve got to be wanting to & trying to & working at getting into the house.
Requirement #2 was knowing the Lord (and on-the-flipside being known by him). At the narrow door some people are trying to get in (which fulfils Requirement #1). But the homeowner says: I don’t know you or where you’re from. Get away from me. So trying is one requirement. But not the only one.
In the end many people will try to get in. But the bulk of them won’t make it.

Note: quotes from Luke 13:23 24 27 (CSB)

Week 37  Luke 13

As a general rule the gospels don’t report local new stories. But a couple of current event items from Jerusalem come up in chapter 13.
News story #1: Pontius Pilate executed some Galilean pilgrims at the temple.
News story #2: eighteen people had been killed when the tower of Siloam collapsed.
People told Jesus about Pilates’ executions – and waited to see what his reaction would be. But Jesus just asked them: do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all the other Galileans because they suffered these things?’
And then – even though they hadn’t mentioned it – he asked about the people who’d been killed in the tower collapse: do you think they were more sinful than all the other people who live in Jerusalem?
(I can’t say for sure but I think the audiences’ answer to the questions Jesus asked would have been ‘Yes’. I think that the rule-of-thumb in first-century Israel was that if a guy died unexpectedly or prematurely or violently then he was evil or immoral (evil person = shorter life. Good person = longer life).)
It was an interesting speculative question (but was really a God-only-knows question). And so Jesus didn’t answer it. He just said: I tell you; unless you repent, you will all perish as well.
There’s no reason to think Jesus wasn’t sympathetic with the tragic deaths. But his comment to the audience answered the more important question they hadn’t asked. An answer that was much closer-to-home.

Note: quotes from Luke 13:2 3 & 5 (CSB)