Story of Jesus Devotionals

Devotional Guide
& Reading Plan
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FOR EWOR D
Lukes gospel gives us the story of a God who once walked our very earth as a human
being; Jesus was born, walked, talked, laughed, cried, and had friends and family like
anyone else. Now, almost two thousand years later, we dont get to see Jesus in His flesh
and blood as Luke once did. What we have instead are the gospels that, if we allow them
to, can draw us into seeing Christ face-to-face through the telling of His story. The Story of
Jesus.
What you hold in your hands is a set of 27 weekly devotionals and a daily Bible-reading
plan to complement this series. If we are to allow a renewed understanding of who Jesus is
to transform us, then we must engage with this story, bringing it into our day-to-day lives.
To help you do this we have designed this resource in order to awaken your imagination
and help you be further immersed in that story with every passing day. A changed
Christian life wont just come from attending Sunday services, it will only come when you
intentionally soak yourself daily in the Word and presence of God. This resource has been
put together with that very purpose in mind.
I would like to extend a very special thanks to Chris Webster (devotionals) and Blair
Donaldson (reading plan) for the incredible amount of time, work, and prayer they have
put into this resource. My prayer is that as you engage in The Story of Jesus for yourself,
the Holy Spirit will awaken your imagination to see Jesus with fresh eyes and go deeper in
your relationship with Him.
Enjoy the journey!
Andrew Gardener
Senior Pastor
The Vine Church
Hong Kong
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INTRODUCTION
Christian meditation is a wonderful thing. It allows the spirit to soar and conforms the
mind more closely to Christ. These Story of Jesus devotions are not theological teachings.
They are my personal devotional thoughts, each penned after initial biblical research
followed by about four hours, on average, of prayerfully meditating on the texts. They are
not flawless, but they are as genuine an expression of devotion and worship as I know how
to make.
I once took a course on hermeneutics at an American seminary and learned how some
theologians use an ancient interpretation methodology to piece together biblical doctrine
by reading more obscure points in the light of clearer points. I use a similar approach
in these scriptural meditations: building up a more vivid, devotional picture of Christ
by allowing one Biblical story to enlighten another. This requires the application of
imagination.
Applying imagination to scriptures is frowned upon in some circles. It is threatening to
religious teachers who regard the Bible as a verbatim oracle from heaven or have a very
high view of received doctrine. The Bible is not like the Quran, however, which Muslims
believe to have been directly dictated by an angel. At the Bibles heart are a series of
historical accounts, Lukes being one of the more systematically undertaken and structured.
So with Lukes spirit of ferreting for historical truth, and with Jesus spirit of challenging
religious teachers who wanted to keep control of what people believe, we have every
invitation to dig deeper to find even more rich nourishment from The Story of Jesus.
We were not there when Jesus was alive, so we have to imagine what it was like. Sometimes
there are several interpretations that are each consistent with the Biblical texts. Exploring
them requires a blend of imagination, creative thinking, logical analysis and prayer. Time
spent asking Jesus (who was actually there) whats going on in the story is a process that is
itself an act of worship, filled with all the blessings reserved for those who seek after Jesus.
In Jesus time, seeking after Him meant literally making a journey to listen to Him and
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perhaps even conversing with Him. Seeking Jesus now means searching the scriptures to
get to know Him better: a journey we can make with the help of the Spirit of Jesus himself,
sent as our helper for precisely this purpose. This is the spirit in which these devotions are
offered. I hope that you find Jesus smiling on you and filling you as you respond to them.
Chris Webster
November 2016
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NOV EMBER 20-26 W EEK 1 DEVOTIONA L
Reading
John 12:20-22
Devotional - We Want to See Jesus

A Chinese graduate student came to my UK university office some years ago and asked,
Can I come to your church? Resisting evangelistic zeal I replied Study Jesus in the
Bible for a while, then ask Him to lead you to the right church. Two years later, after
graduating, he came to see me and said, You are my intellectual mentor; now you have
become my spiritual mentor. He had explored two churches and encountered Jesus. My
job had been to merely point him in the right direction.
Its all about seeing Jesus. In this passage in John, the disciples were not quite sure what to
do when some Greeks approached them and said, Sir, we would like to see Jesus. Philip,
at the time, would have regarded the whole Jesus thing as a specifically Jewish messianic
happening. So instead of bringing the Greeks to Jesus, they went to tell Jesus about the
Greeks. They needed some guidance. Jesus reply is therefore suitably addressed to the
disciples not to the Greeks. He speaks about dying in order to scatter widely the seeds of
life - redemption, truth and His resurrected Spirit. He generalises from the Jewish revival
going on around them to whoever serves me and to anyone who hates their life in this
world. Such seekers, He promises, will receive eternal life. Whoever serves me and follows
me, He adds, will be where I am - in His Fathers presence. Jesus came for all who seek
truth and righteousness, whatever their background, status, creed or level of spiritual
understanding.
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Response
In Jesus we see the Father. In us, collectively as the church and individually, people see
Jesus. Do people see Jesus in you? When you end your day of shopping, cooking and caring
for your employers home and young children, will those you serve go away touched by the
sunshine of Jesus? When you come out of a Board meeting at your company, lunch with
friends, teaching a class or training a fellow worker, do your workmates and companions
go away touched by Godly wisdom that stirs their hearts for more? Thats about all that
God requires of us. He can do the rest. If you are hungry for more of Gods kingdom
around you in your daily habitat, then concentrate on the simplest and most wonderful of
assignments from heaven: practice the presence of Jesus at every point in your unfolding
day so that the Greeks around you can see, and live themselves, by the Light of the World.
Prayer
Forgive me Lord when I complicate my faith and treat it more like a religion, focused only
on its rules about what to do and what not to do. Forgive me when I hinder those who
want to see Jesus by showing them something less.
I have too often brought You news of others who are searching for truth. In my prayers,
like Philip and Andrew, I show them to You rather than show You to them. Sometimes,
there is even a hint of self-righteous pride in my prayers pride at being a good evangelist.
Forgive me for missing the point so often.
Jesus, I will cast all else aside and run into Your arms with childlike faith, seeking only to
follow You, to serve You, to be where You are at all times; may Your Spirit in me make
those around me hungry and thirsty for righteousness.
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NOV EMBER 20-26 W EEK 1 REA DING PLA N
Sunday
20
Monday
21 John 12:20-36
Tuesday
22 Luke 8:5-21
Wednesday
23 Mark 7:31-37
Thursday
24 Mark 8:22-26
Friday Saturday
25 Psalm 2 26 Hebrews 10:5-7
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NOV EMBER/DECEMBER 27-3 W EEK 2 DEVOTIONA L
Reading
Luke 1:1-4
Devotional - The Certainty of our Belief

Our faith rests on facts, not a system of ideas. Ultimately, God rewards and accepts those
who have faith not in a set of teachings, religious theories or practices, but in a person. The
Word of God took on flesh to achieve reconciliation between the Father and humankind,
the pinnacle of creation, made in His image but set adrift and having to rediscover their
need for a heavenly father. The setting adrift, the coming of the Word, the restoration when
we repent and receive the Holy Spirit these are all factual; as much a law of the universe
as the gravity that keeps our feet on the ground.
It is easy to allow our faith to become religion, where ritual or mere ideas replace the
objective realities and historic events that comprise the Christian way.
Years ago, I once found myself sitting in a car on a rough British housing estate, leading a
giant of a man with a violent past in a prayer of repentance. He uttered the magic words
that I had been taught to require of someone before proclaiming him saved. Less than a
year later the estranged wife who had accepted him back after his conversion had lost her
fight against cancer and the man had inherited the house she had owned. He was not seen
in church again. On another occasion, a newly converted friend of mine in her late twenties
divorced her husband, another violent man, and quickly announced her engagement to
someone else. The new man was not a Christian and had some strange New Age ways.
Everyone counselled her against the marriage. Thirty years later, I stumbled across them
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again. He had become a bishop in a Pentecostal church movement in the USA and both his
and her families had been wonderfully converted, healed and restored.
The Christian faith is transformative not because it is an elegant set of cosmological and
theological ideas (though it is that); but because it is true. It works. It works, just like
a lamp lights up when plugged in and switched on because electricity is an objectively
verifiable attribute of material matter. At the heart of all material order, Jesus is found.
He holds it all together. Anyone who seeks will find. The truth will transform them. By
contrast, not all who say to Jesus Lord, Lord will be transformed. They may not have
truly engaged with His transformational truth.
And so Dr. Luke writes his own account of the the things that have been fulfilled amongst
us. He was not the only one. Many have undertaken to draw up an account, he says
to his noble friend Theophilus. Of course they had. They had witnessed the short life of
someone who claimed to have been with God since the start of Creation, been sent by God
to switch the lights back on in a darkened planet, returned to God and predicted that He
would return once more to reign on Earth! The unprecedented claims from the humblest
of men were supported, in front of disbelieving crowds, by signs and wonders, physical,
spiritual and emotional healings, restorations and resurrections. Many would have written
about these astounding events, with varying motives and accuracy. However, the signs
and wonders were not the main event. The person was the main event and it would take
analytical, literary and historical skills, as well as spiritual authority and inspiration, to
write a factual portrayal of Jesus.
So Luke sets out to make sure that Theophilus has an accurate account, written on the
basis of accounts from people who were with Jesus from the beginning. Luke wants to
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NOV EMBER/DECEMBER 27-3 W EEK 2 DEVOTIONA L
present his friend not with a set of formulaic steps, confessions or beliefs as the entry-point
into a new religion, but with the facts about Gods anointed visitor to Earth. These will
speak for themselves as they did when Jesus walked on Earth. The account of all that has
happened since Jesus came, including what has happened in the centuries between then
and now, becomes the factual basis on which we re-orientate our lives. And the truth sets
us free as we yield to it.
Response
As we prepare to journey through The Story of Jesus, spend some time reflecting on the
basis of your faith. Ask God to strengthen your faith in the person of Jesus and to be
concerned less with complicated theological, philosophical, ecclesiastical and religious ideas
and practices built up around the Christian faith. Be determined to know only Christ.
Hunger and thirst after righteousness and the Kingdom of God alone. Seek only to imitate
Christ, who came bearing the perfected image of his Father and who shaped it through
living and dying in the flesh in order to implant it within those who are filled with His
Spirit.
Prayer
I believe in God the Father: Loving, forgiving, patient, all powerful, gentle Father, I believe
that You are behind every atom in the universe, behind every strand of DNA in my body,
behind every colour in nature, behind every wave in the light spectra. I believe that You
are behind, and in front of, every remaining minute of my life, every remaining decade of
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this Earths future and every remaining eon in the beautifully crafted future of Your created
universe, which You have promised to share with me in some unimaginable transformation
beyond the conquered grave.
I believe in Christ the Son: Jesus my all-consuming friend, guide, rescuer, teacher, mentor,
king, priest, prophet and closest companion. I believe that You were with God, were sent
from God, returned to God, poured Yourself out by Your Spirit and will one day come
again. These are the most important facts in the universe. I commit to living in the light of
these facts so that they become the most important facts governing my life.
I believe in the Holy Spirit: Spirit of Jesus, come fill me anew with the words of God, the
heart of God, the emotions of God, the power of God; that I may live like Jesus lived,
overcome like Jesus overcame, give glory to the Father as Jesus did and thus follow Jesus in
extending Gods beautiful Kingdom on Earth - bringing light to all around me through his
light in me.
NOV EMBER/DECEMBER 27-3 W EEK 2 REA DING PLA N
Sunday
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Monday
28 Luke 1:1-4
Tuesday
29 Acts 2:22-28, 36-40
Wednesday
30 Galatians 4:4-7
Thursday
1 Hebrews 10:12-25
Friday Saturday
2 Psalm 2 3 Colossians 1:24-29
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DECEMBER 4-10 W EEK 3 DEVOTIONA L
Reading
Luke 1:5-25
Devotional - Preparing the Way

Righteous people find themselves fitting into Gods plan of redeeming the world. While
pain, suffering and trials may persist, and even worsen, because of a righteousness walk,
such people will find that life has an easy touch. A Midas touch - to the extent that you
walk with God, things you touch turn to gold. Even in the depth of poverty, a righteous
life can yield immeasurable riches.
Living righteously is easily over-theologised. It simply means doing the right thing. It
happens when you listen to God and take action. Burdens miraculously become lighter
when a person submits in this way. Its a promise from Jesus Himself. The elderly couple
in Lukes story have made a lifetime habit of doing the right thing. So much so that God
has a massive plan for them. But like many of His plans, it involved waiting a long time.
The time eventually arrives and God has all the pieces perfectly in place, including loading
the dice thrown to select which priest would do the honoured duty that year! What is
about to happen is more than massive. The angel Gabriel is going to materialise in front of
Zechariah and tell the old man that he will father the prophesied Elijah figure who will, in
turn, announce the appearance of the Messiah-King! Zechariah will emerge from the Holy
of Holy places and repeat Gabriels message to tens of thousands of Israelites on annual
pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Remember, there was no TV, Internet or social media in those
days. This was Gods way of making an announcement on prime time or starting a trending
post.
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But Zechariah isnt quite righteous enough on this occasion: at a crucial moment, he
doubts what he hears. I think two thoughts might have gone through his startled brain.
First what if Im dreaming? Am I sure enough to make this preposterous claim to the
gathered masses of Israel outside? Second, assuming he was confident enough it wasnt a
dream: How am I going to suggest to Elizabeth that we try for a baby? This was a hurdle
in the plan that Gabriel, being an angel, might not have appreciated. After all, once the old
couple had got over that embarrassment, the proof in the pudding would be, well, a bun
in the oven (an English colloquialism for pregnancy). On both counts (telling the crowds
outside and proposing a romantic evening with his elderly wife) Zechariah is being asked
to take quite a risk. Living righteously is risky living because you have to walk by faith and
not by sight. But the rewards are immense.
So Zechariah doubted for a few moments. Timing was everything in this, the first stage
of Gods warm-up act for the coming of Jesus, so Gabriel went to plan B. If he couldnt
be sure Zechariah would announce the coming of Elijah, he would draw the gathered
crowds attention another way. He sent Zechariah out literally dumbfounded. It was a
mercy, actually, relieving Zechariah of having to step out in faith and repeat what Gabriel
had just told him. Instead, people asked him, what had happened! Better, perhaps, that the
crowds are confronted with a miracle of sudden dumbness than a preposterous claim from
a quite elderly priest. Either way, the first step in the choreography leading up to the Son
of Man on Earth is taken. The masses will remember this story when, years later, John the
Baptist starts preaching in the wilderness Repent, Prepare the way of the Lord and The
one who comes after me will baptise with the Holy Spirit. Who knew how Johns unusual
birth announcement might have affected the popularity of his ministry thirty years later?
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Response
Living righteously doesnt mean never making mistakes. Its more an attitude of heart. If
you chose to live close to God, He will always find a way to make your life a blessing to
others. To produce gold. Its a law of the universe. He wont expect you to be perfect,
but He will use your life in ways that put you at glorious risk. He might even decide to
miraculously disable you in some way, for the purpose of securing all that He has invested
in your life.
Prayer
God of the angels, who lives in a sphere I cannot yet imagine but will one day be part of, I
submit wholly to You. I choose to live righteously, listening and then obeying. My life is no
longer my own. I want it to be Yours and used for Your greater and most glorious purposes
of blessing others around me. I give You permission to take away my comforts, health and
wellbeing, even life itself, if it is necessary to bring to fulfilment all that You have imagined
for my life. I know that the sacrifice I give will bear a fruit as wonderful as the blessings
you bring me daily as I make my decisions to walk in Your footsteps.
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DECEMBER 4-10 W EEK 3 REA DING PLA N
Sunday
4
Monday
5 Luke 1:5-25
Tuesday
6 Luke 7:4-28
Wednesday
7 Luke 1:76
Thursday
8 Thessalonians 3:13
Friday Saturday
9 Matthew 11:7-19 10 Mark 1:1-3
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Reading
Luke 1:26-38
Devotional - The Angel Visits Mary

Salvation (being cleansed from past sin and guilt) and sanctification (becoming more like
Christ) are both purposeful. We are saved from the kingdom of darkness in order to walk
in the kingdom of light. We are rescued from a life without God in order to live a life
that glorifies God. Prayer and miracles are essential to this transformation for each of us.
Drawing close to God in prayer helps re-calibrate our life so that it reflects Gods character
more clearly. Occasionally, God helps things along with a miracle something that appears
to buck His created laws of cause and effect.
Mary was highly favoured by God and the Lord was with her. Her life of humble devotion
and faith had prepared her for service. As with Elizabeth, Mary shows us that devotion
is risky, for it prepares us for scary acts of faith. When the Holy Spirit came upon Mary,
something physically changed in her body. A sperm materialised from nothing, or perhaps
was re-fashioned from something, and fertilised a human egg. For a follower of the God
of the Bible, a life of deepening faith and devotion is not just a lifestyle choice, or a choice
to be religious or to live more ethically. It is a decision to follow a life on-the-edge,
progressively connected with the Holy Spirit. It is to re-connect with the Spirit of God, who
first breathed life into humankind, so that God can continue His work of creation in us -
shaping us into His image.
What happened to Mary, is what God wants of us all as a daily experience. As we walk
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closely with God, He births seeds of faith in us. These are not just fanciful thoughts.
When a seed of faith is implanted, something changes in us and around us. People, events,
circumstance, converge wonderfully; as we humbly submit to the role God has asked us
to play, the course of history changes around us for the better. The Kingdom of God is
extended one small bit at a time in and around our daily lives as we take steps of faith.
Because this is scary, God promises constant cover. Mary is fearful of the angels
announcement as the consequences pour into her mind: dishonouring her fianc and family,
condemnation, ostracism, death as punishment for adultery and, if she makes it through
all this, the unimaginable experience of giving birth to and raising the Messiah. So the
angel promises Gods power and His almighty protection to help her get through it. The
power of the Most High will overshadow you. And so it is with us as we face our Mary
moments: preparation, impregnation, power, protection!
Response
What seed of faith has the Holy Spirit planted in you recently, or perhaps long ago?
Have you ever walked away from a Mary moment without stopping to hear, or without
believing the promise of power and protection? Perhaps your Christian life feels unfulfilled,
unproductive and lacking in joy. Invite the Holy Spirit to bring God much closer than you
could ever have imagined!
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Prayer
Forgive me Lord when I have focused on working rather than waiting for Your Kingdom
to come in and around me. I have not always believed that anything good in my life can
only be formed and birthed by You. You ask only that I remain close to You, ready for that
whispered wonder: the Holy Spirit will come upon you. Holy Spirit come upon me and
bring to birth a life of faith. Change things in me and around me as I walk more closely
with you daily. I long for more of you so that you can have more of me. I long to be more
full of You so that in the small things as well as the big things, people around me will see
Your good works and glorify my Father who is in heaven. Jesus, may the joy You had in
doing the Fathers will be my daily joy. It is all I want. Nothing more, nothing less.
Sunday
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Monday
12 Luke 1:26-38
Tuesday
13 James 2:21-26
Wednesday
14 Genesis 15:1-6
Thursday
15 Deuteronomy 1:21; 31:6-8
Friday Saturday
16 Isaiah 40:9 17 1 Samuel 1:1-28
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Reading
Luke 1:39-45
Devotional - Mary Greets Elizabeth

Mary and Elizabeth have had their worlds turned upside down. The angelic visitations, the
unmistakable messianic references in what the angels said, the general stirrings in Jewish
society, the uncertain political situation, all that their hearts are telling them all point to
the unthinkable.
And now a leap in Elizabeths bump confirms what she has already begun to understand
and submit to in the deepest cries of her heart: her child will be filled with the Holy Spirit
from birth and will pave the way for the promised King of the Jews. Why would Yahweh
have chosen vessels from such humble circumstances? What will become of their lives and
the lives of their unborn sons? The might of Rome is about to come down upon them and
their families. The two cousins are destined to be at the centre of an uprising of this small
and proud nation that has been awaited for over four centuries since the Jews return from
exile.
How could Elizabeth and Mary have known that the Messiah would establish not a
political and military revolution, but a spiritual revolution that would change not just
Israel but the world, forever?
With our hindsight and New Testament teaching, we understand the coming of Jesus
primarily in terms of a spiritual revolution. Jesus smashed the spiritual forces of evil,
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forgave our imperfections, filled us with His Spirit, called us His friends and reconciled us
with His Father. This is the heart of the gospel the good news. But the good news goes
much deeper. To appreciate the fuller depth, we need to recapture some of Elizabeth and
Marys awe and wonder.
Why did the Word of God take on human form - not just appearing as some kind of
angelic manifestation but as a real human, starting from a female seed inside a young
girls womb? To identify with the human race? Yes. To show us how to live? Absolutely.
To enable Gods secret weapon: the spirit of the Son of Man poured out on all mankind?
Certainly. To communicate what God is like? Undoubtedly. To take our sins to the cross,
freeing us from guilt? Mysteriously, yes.
Add to these an answer that Mary and Elizabeth would have been more familiar with:
Jesus was born from a womans seed because he is the future king of a redeemed and
resurrected humanity!
Why did Jesus have to rise from death? The theological answers are familiar. His
resurrection both achieved and demonstrated ultimate victory over the power of spiritual
and physical death. He was raised as the first-born of a new creation, spiritually and
physically. Add to this a Mary and Elizabeth perspective: Jesus needed to rise from the dead
because He has a job to do! His destiny is to be king of the new Heaven and new Earth. He
will one day return, in His resurrection body, to fill the new Earth with His glory, walking
through it as in the Garden of Eden, reigning in love and beauty.
Why did Satan try so hard to kill Jesus? There was King Herods massacre of babies;
Satans sly tempting of Jesus to fulfil His destiny by short-cut, including throwing himself
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from the high point of the Temple; the angry Galilean crowd trying to throw Jesus off a
cliff; an unnatural storm on the Galilean Sea threatening to drown Jesus just before He
confronts a legion of demons; the plotting of the Jewish authorities; and eventually, the
Roman legal system.
Remember: Satan would likely have had no more clue about Gods strategy for the
redemption of the human race than the angels, who we are told, had not been privy to
the mysteries of the gospel. Like Mary and Elizabeth, Satan would have been watching
out for a Messiah who would establish an earthly kingdom. So Satan tried to kill Jesus at
every opportunity. We need not even give Satan the credit of knowing for sure that Jesus
was the anointed one, at least initially although the evidence must have become clear
pretty quickly. Stirring up the people to crucify Jesus was Satans biggest mistake. It was
meant to be the arch-rebels triumph - killing the Son of Man, preventing the Kingdom of
God coming on Earth and securing Satans place as spiritual leader of fallen humanity. But
the crucifixion became the Son of Mans triumphant move! Through it, Jesus gathered a
redeemed and empowered humanity to Himself, equipping those who accept him as King,
to one-day rule with Him in the new Heaven and new Earth.
Response
Are you ready for the kingdom of God to invade the present? Get ready for more
excitement than you could have imagined as God uses you in small and not-so-small ways
to unfold his future for the word around you. Are you ready for the future kingdom of
God? It will be unimaginably more beautiful than the best of our current Earth. And Jesus,
seed of Mary, Son of Man and Son of God, will be its central glory.
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Prayer
Jesus, creator, open my eyes to see in faith, glimpses of the glorious future awaiting those
who have chosen to love You, follow You and acknowledge You as Lord of All, King of
Kings and inheritor of the New Creation. Forgive me where I have made my faith too
abstract. You are my living hope. Because I will one-day reign with You in a resurrected
body, I will view all trials and all successes as shadows in comparison with the brightness
of the glorious future Kingdom of God. And as for what You ask me to do today: I am
Your humble servant. Consumed with joy, I submit myself to be filled and used to extend
Your kingdom in whatever way You so desire.
Sunday
18
Monday
19 Luke 1:39-45
Tuesday
20 Galatians 3:6-11
Wednesday
21 Isaiah 61:10-11
Thursday
22 Joel 2:21-32
Friday Saturday
23 Psalm 71 24 Christmas Eve Devotional
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DECEMBER 24 CHR ISTM AS EV E DEVOTIONA L
Reading
Luke 1:46-55/67-69
Devotional - The Songs of Advent

Our New Testament theology can desensitise us to the intimacy between God and those
devoted to Him. Marys song challenges us in this respect. Her words ooze the substance
of the good news that her son will teach in His words and life, and then pour out to many
through His death, resurrection and Spirit. God is merciful: He saves, lifts up the humble,
satisfies the spiritually hungry with good things, rejects the proud in heart but does great
things through those who fear Him, comes upon the humble in spirit and bestows endless
blessing.
Neither Mary nor Zechariah knew exactly how Jesus would fulfil the promises made to
their forefathers Abraham and David, but this did not stop them entering into glorious,
prophetic praise to the God who they love above all. Praise flowed from Marys and
Zechariahs spirit and soul because God had spoken, they had believed, and it had
happened. Mary remained a virgin but was pregnant. Zechariah and Elizabeth remained
an old couple, barren in respect of children and past reproductive age, but Elizabeth
was pregnant. One baby had mysteriously responded to the other by leaping in the
womb, symbolising their foretold relationship and respective ministries. God had created
something out of nothing; He had displayed His own kind of power, choosing to change
the world through the humble and to send the rich and power-grabbing away empty.
The revelation of Gods nature causes praise from the lips of the spiritually hungry. Twas
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thus and shall ever be so. After Jesus life, death and resurrection, we know much more
than Mary and Zechariah did about how, exactly, God will fulfil His promises to Abraham.
But the outcome of an encounter between God and one of His humble servants remains
pretty much the same: praise, wonder, adoration, joy bubbling over, prophetic insights as
we repeat back to God what He is like, with even greater certainty, conviction and awe
than before.
Response
The Magnificat Marys song is not just the first worshipful human response to the
coming of Jesus. It is also a pattern for our response to every single touch from God in
our lives. Because of Jesus, Word made flesh, the unique event that Mary found her young
body participating in becomes our daily experience. The Holy Spirit overshadows us,
birthing something new every morning, every moment if we will let him, giving us reason
to sing our own Magnificat as a constant song of praise. A song of thanksgiving, praise and
worship that becomes the backdrop to a daily life lived in submission to the Most High
God, brought close through Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man. Marys song arose because
she felt and saw her womb swelling. She was part of some wonderful heavenly mystery
unfolding in and around her. All generations will call me blessed: her growing bump
convinced her that the angels words were true and that the course and meaning of her life
will be different from now on. What is your song a response to? What is God mysteriously
growing in you?
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Prayer
Most High God, overshadow me that I may carry Your seed, Your vision, Your purpose,
Your hope. You and I will partner together, I your humble servant, in producing something
out of nothing. You speak; I will hear, submit and adjust my life. I will adjust my lifes
expectations in accordance with Your wishes for me and for those around me who You
want to bless through my humble obedience. And as I hear, submit and adjust, so worship
and adoration and amazement at Your ways and wonders will overcome me. Make my life
a daily song of worship as I see the swelling belly of Your promises in my life and smile the
knowing smile of someone chosen to co-labour with God to produce something beautiful
that will bring more of You into the Earth.
Reading
Luke 2:1-20
Devotional - The Shepherds

The cosy rural scene depicted in Christmas nativity art doesnt really do justice to the epic
event taking place in this far-flung corner of the then civilised western world. A king is
being born. Not just any king the one who was with God in the beginning and through
whom all things were made, has now come to Earth. He has come to set up His rule in the
hearts of the humble. He comes to establish a kingdom of God that will subvert the evil
rule of the proud and arrogant. He comes to win a people who choose to follow His gentle
and truthful ways and who will one day rule with Him in a new Heaven and Earth when
creation itself has been renewed ready for His return.
To whom does God announce this pivotal event that changes absolutely everything?
Shepherds were towards the low end of the Palestinian social strata they lived rough,
smelt bad and were simple uneducated folk. God picks a group of them working on the
nearby hills outside Bethlehem. Not even special shepherds then just any old nearby
shepherds! This is to be a subversive kingdom in which the meek will inherit the Earth; the
first will be last and the last, first.
The shepherds prove faithful recipients of the great honour bestowed upon them. They tell
everyone they can about what has happened: the angelic visitation and the coded reference
to an animal feeding trough a clue that led them to Marys child rather than someone
elses in the crowded town full of census returnees.
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W EEK 6 DEVOTIONA L
From the very start of all that is about to unfold, as Jesus shows the world what God is
like, the clues are out for people to read. Word will have spread rapidly through the inns
and streets of Bethlehem and, with all the visitors, from there to other parts of Judea
and beyond: why shepherds of all people? Some of those asking that question will, thirty
years later, hear the adult Jesus preaching: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they
will be filled.
Contrast Gods choice of shepherds for the public announcement of the birth, with His
instruction to the visiting mystics from the east not to divulge the whereabouts of baby
Jesus to proud and ruthless King Herod. Another gloriously subversive move! As for the
most powerful ruler of the western world at the time, Caesar Augustus, God gives him only
a tiny impersonal bit-part in the story: organizing a census to get Joseph back to his home
town so that Jesus is born in Bethlehem! That small detail will have meant that Messiah-
watchers among the faithful will have their own clue to add to the shepherds angelic
encounter, in verifying that the anticipated king really has arrived! Augustus had absolutely
no knowledge of the real reason for deciding to hold a census at the time! The mighty
Roman emperor was more prop than bit-part!
Response
In a culture that honours education, career success, wealth, ostentation and human praise,
it is easy to forget that the eternal kingdom is a parallel one in which the one who lays
everything down before God will gain life, and the one who holds on to life will lose it. The
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first shall be last and the last first. When you are invited to a meal, Jesus says, choose the
lowliest place around the table to sit. This is the spirit of the Kingdom of God.
Prayer
Glorious God in the highest heaven, thank you for bypassing the proud when You
announced the birth of the Saviour of mankind. This was indeed glorious. May I never find
myself in a position where You have to bypass me because I have become too arrogant. I
see and worship the glorious way that You are in every part of Jesus life story, from His
birth in a borrowed manger to His entry into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey to His
burial in a borrowed tomb. In bringing Your kingdom to Earth, Jesus, You found no need
to assert Yourself within worldly kingdoms. Let this be my way too. To convey Your nature
to all mankind, You chose to place the Messiah into the family of a humble carpenter. I
commit myself to living like Jesus. Raise me up in the worlds eyes only as You please and
for as long as You please. I would rather be a door-keeper in the house of the Lord than to
spend my life lording it over others with the unrighteous or seeking vain glory and riches
that will soon disappear like grass.
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Sunday
25
Monday
26 Luke 2:1-20
Tuesday
27 Isaiah 66:1-2
Wednesday
28 Isaiah 49:1-13
Thursday
29 Luke 14:7-15:2
Friday Saturday
30 Proverbs 3:32-35 31 Isaiah 43:10-13
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Reading
Luke 2:21-38
Devotional - Simeon and Anna

Think about Gods choice when He decided to whom He would announce human historys
central event. Three couples: one very young (engaged to be married but the woman was
pregnant) and two very old (a married couple and a couple of prophets brought together
in the Temple). Then there is a group of local men at the lower end of society, smelling of
sweat and the animals they carry and a group of foreign men at the higher end of society
smelling of the expensive perfume and incense they carry. Not the expected PR warm-up.
There is symbolism in the choice and there is a practical purpose. Symbolically, just as the
Holy Spirit had impregnated a devout teenager from lowly background with the Word
made flesh, so God is about to impregnate human hearts, and thereby the entire human
civilization, with His outrageously counter-cultural Kingdom. God quite simply does
not care for the worlds way of doing things. He has His own much more important and
eternal agenda.
Symbolically, the two very old couples represent the best of the Old Testament. They are
on their way out of this life and watching for the new, which is represented by the young
couple. The young couple will usher Gods kingdom into the world in a totally new way,
like final sprinters in a relay race, completing all that has gone before. Simeon, representing
the old, bows out gratefully and gracefully, having played his humble part. The shepherds
symbolise core values of the coming Kingdom: the last shall be first and the meek shall
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inherit the Earth. The foreign sages, not mentioned in Luke, symbolise the worldwide
reach of the new Kingdom. It is for everyone: rich and poor, people from other cultural,
ethnic and faith backgrounds; for anyone who is wise and humble enough to seek, make an
uncertain journey, see, believe and bend the knee to the true king of the whole world.
There were also practical considerations in Gods choice of this cast of nativity actors. He
is seeding a set of viral rumours to prepare for the massive events to follow and He needs a
certain type of person. The three couples are all devout, living their lives in accordance with
Old Testament revelation. But they are more than followers of the law: they are sufficiently
in-tune with God to hear, believe and act when spoken to supernaturally. Their Godly
integrity helps validate the message and attract the interest of other spiritually hungry
devout Messiah-watchers in Jerusalem.
The symbolism in the choice of messengers is part of the message. It is a set of clues to
help those who have ears to hear hear. God is targeting people willing to believe that
the Messiahs birth has been first revealed to a bunch of shepherds. News of the childs
anointing in the Temple will have spread to others like Simeon, who truly believed the
Messiah story and are willing to accept that He has come as a suffering servant, not on a
war-horse. Further afield, the Messiahs arrival will be whispered of among pagan seers,
whose search for truth has led them to reach beyond the veils in their own religions. Some
of the more perceptive might even see the coded message in the ambiguities found in the
story of the Magi. The Magis system of revelation and wisdom is used by God but proves
far from precise. So they find themselves approaching the person who it is least wise to
ask about the babys whereabouts and, by doing so, alert the whole of the ruling class of
Jerusalem and put their worship mission and the baby King himself in mortal jeopardy! By
contrast, the simple shepherds own clue of a manger, revealed directly by a supernatural
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being rather than by their own study of the stars, leads them directly to the spot! For those
with eyes to see, the mystical wisdom of the east has found its match against the real
thing!
And so rumours will have spread throughout the region. The crowds that will gather first
to John the Baptist and then to his cousin Jesus will not appear without a back-story.
God has carefully let the news out thirty years earlier. Prophetess Anna goes off into the
Temple telling everyone about Simeons words. The shepherds go around Bethlehem telling
everyone about the angels, the manger, the baby and his humble parents. The elite of
Jerusalem will have gone around their social and religious circuits discussing the possibility
of a coup dtat in future years. Phase one of Mission Messiah has been completed! Next
phase, Jesus back at the Temple, aged 12.
Response
Will you wait for God to build his Kingdom? Do you sometimes find yourself rushing and
fretting impatiently about when He is going to move and what part you can play? What if
He asks you, like Anna, to wait until you are 84 years old before fulfilling His promises and
bringing your life to its full conclusion in His kingdom? In the 1970s, a businessman friend
of my grandfather in London suddenly found himself with an international preaching
and healing ministry when he was 82. It came after an Anglican vicar with a ministry of
deliverance prayed for him. Who knows what God is preparing us for! Our job: to live in
humble devotion to Him, open to the Spirits whispers.
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W EEK 7 DEVOTIONA L
Prayer
Holy Spirit You who whispered to Simeon, go up to the Temple today its time,
whisper to me, that I may be ever where You want, when You want and open to what You
want. Forgive me when I think so much about what you want me to do rather than what
You want me to be. I will dedicate myself to a life of obedient and profound devotion and
preparation, believing that when the times come for me to go up to the Temple, it will be
as natural as my next breath.
JA N U A RY 1-7 W EEK 7 REA DING PLA N
Sunday
1
Monday
2 Luke 2:21-38
Tuesday
3 Isaiah 9:1-7
Wednesday
4 Daniel 2:44
Thursday
5 Psalm 72
Friday Saturday
6 Zechariah 6:12-13 7 Genesis 49:8-12
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Reading
Luke 3:1-20
Devotional - John the Baptist Prepares the Way

Cyclical patterns are a well-understood type of scientific process operating in Gods
creation. The El Nio weather pattern recurs in 2 to 7 year cycles. Property price cycles
in the UK have recurred with an 18-year frequency since the mid-18th century. Five
long-wave technology cycles are thought to have governed modern economic growth
and stagnation since 1800. Cyclical behaviour occurs in the created order because of
the dynamics governing complex systems composed of many interacting individuals in a
human system, or interacting particles in nature. Cycles are a necessary consequence of the
autonomy God built into His beloved creation.
It is not surprising, then that spiritual cycles are as much part of human history as
economic cycles. Cycles in human society have a lot to do with crowd behaviour and the
learning and forgetting that goes on over an individuals and generations lifetime as well
as between generations. Spiritual awakenings in history always eventually die out but their
memory and influence live on, often reprising in another revival years later. The beneficial
effects in society can accumulate over generations, however, in spite of spiritual down
cycles.
A particularly long spiritual drought occurred between the penultimate and the final
prophets of the Old Testament era. For 400 years, Israel was in the spiritual doldrums.
Why did God not send a prophet in the middle of this period? Perhaps the people would
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not have responded. But since there are always a faithful few, however small the remnant,
it is more likely that God was timing things according to His grand plan: stretching out the
wilderness period in preparation for the massive prophetic bombshell about to drop into
this tiny but special Middle-Eastern nation. It is clear from John the Baptists reception that
the people were at a crisis point. It was actually a political, social and economic crisis point
as well as a spiritual one, born out of four centuries of oppression, poverty, inequality,
hopelessness, disillusionment and emptiness. A spiritual, identity and existential crisis in
Israel was peaking when John arrived. God had measured and controlled the depth and
height of it in His plan to draw the world into the kingdom of His beloved son!
Thirty years earlier, for those with spiritual eyes to see, God had given a set of signs -
clues that something wonderful was about to happen. In Zechariahs explanation of his
temporary dumbness could be found the Elijah figure clue: the one who will prepare the
way for the Messiah has already been placed into Judea! Further clues had been laid in
the family secret about Elizabeths cousin Marys pregnancy. Unbelievably, Mary claimed
not to have had sex with Joseph prior to the pregnancy! Then there were the mysterious
and thought provoking clues accompanying the boy Jesus birth. All of these will have
circulated as rumours amongst those eager for the consolation of Israel.
Aged about 30, John senses in the Spirit that the time has come: he moves symbolically to
the wilderness and starts preaching. Repent for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand; the
one coming after me is greater than me; He will baptise with the Holy Spirit and fire;
produce fruit worthy of repentance; if you dont know what that looks like, here are
some examples: stop exploiting people, stop being arrogant, act justly, stop being greedy,
demonstrate love for your neighbours by practically meeting their needs. Get ready for
whats coming next: things are about to change forever. The Kingdom of God is upon us
after 400 years of waiting!
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The effect is electrifying, immediate and massive. John is a national event. The whole
country flocks to him. They come to the Jordan, are confronted and divided; by his words
(the one who comes will divide the wheat from the chaff) and by their response to John
himself. But large numbers are being baptised as a sign of repentance and as preparation
for the bigger event that John insists will come next.
Response
God knows His creation in intimate detail. If He knows when a single sparrow falls to
the ground, how much more is He aware of and involved in the ebbs and flows of human
activity? When we are in the trough of despair, God is there. Though we walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, God is there. When the world is shattering around us,
God is there. When God seems far away, He is closer than we know. More than that: God
is preparing good at all times; seeing good in all things; strategizing to save through all
events; watching, waiting and longing over His people and never letting them suffer beyond
what can be endured in the refining processes.
Jesus came to baptise with water and the Holy Spirit and fire. Water drowns. The
Holy Spirit sanctifies. Fire burns. It burns the chaff: the unnecessary, the unhelpful, the
unedifying, the worldly, the fleshly and the downright evil. Sometimes, often even, we need
individually and together to go through the wilderness in order to receive the good that is
to come.
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Prayer
God of holiness, fire and the winnowing-fork, I present my whole life to You: peaks as well
as troughs; days of intense light and nights of intense dark; hopes and fears; triumphs and
regrets; successes and failures; emptiness and fullness. Bring all that is my life - past, present
and future - together into Your wonderful purposes and timing. Refine me in the wilderness
and troughs. As I endure them, prepare me for what is to follow when Christ comes and
lifts me to unbelievably new heights. I choose not to despair in the down-cycles, believing
that, filled with Your Holy Spirit, the wilderness can be as full of You as the land flowing
with milk and honey. Welcome Kingdom of God. I renounce the kingdom of darkness and
embrace the King of Heaven come to Earth.
Sunday
8
Monday
9 Luke 3:1-20
Tuesday
10 Malachi 3:1; 4:5-6
Wednesday
11 Isaiah 40:3-5, 9-11
Thursday
12 Luke 1:67-80
Friday Saturday
13 John 3:26-36 14 Luke 7:20-27
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Reading
Luke 3:21-38
Devotional - Jesus Baptism

There is a Chinese saying that it takes 100 years (three generations) to educate a child. My
son and daughter are seventh generation radical Christians and they know the blessings of
intergenerational discipleship. What must Jesus have felt knowing that His earthly fathers
line goes back to King David, Gods favourite Israelite? It didnt matter that Jesus was not
a blood-descendent: judging by Joseph, this was a family who passed on Davids love for
God.
Luke documents two lineages for Jesus: the line of Joseph and the line of the Holy Spirit!
At the moment of Jesus baptism, a voice is heard You are my son, whom I love; with
you I am well pleased. Jesus will have grown up with a sense of earthly and heavenly
lineages, both shaping Him in different ways at different times. Who knows how much
from each, led Him to make that prescient statement in the Temple, aged 12: I am about
my fathers business? Remember, Jesus left behind His power and majesty as Creator. He
was truly born a baby human: at one stage the only sense He would have had was the
warmth of His mothers breast. Perhaps in that position of perfect security, there might,
in some mysterious way, have been the first fusing of His dual identity: El-Shaddai, one of
the earliest names for God in the book of Genesis has two Hebrew language roots: to be
powerful; and breast, nourisher, sustainer. Just as Mary and her husband nurtured Jesus at
every step, so El-Shaddai, His heavenly father would have joined in, nurturing His spirit at
every step.
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W EEK 9 DEVOTIONA L
At what point might Jesus have fully accepted the thoughts that must have been secretly
growing stronger by the year as He grew in wisdom and favour, studying the scriptures,
praying to His Heavenly Father, mending chairs and fashioning new ox-ploughs? I came
from God. I am anointed. More than that, could it possibly be? I am the anointed one.
Father, in all that You have revealed to me over the years, I know that this is so. I am in
You and You in me. When I think, I think with knowledge that seems to emanate from
eternity itself. When I embrace creation, I know that in some unaccountable way, I am its
source. When I speak, I sense I am speaking Your words, sourced directly from Your heart.
I feel all this in my bones and spirit. I am ready Father. What next?
And Jesus finds Himself drawn with the crowds to His cousin John, baptizing in the
Jordan. Jesus knows but can he be sure? His steps take Him further into the unknown. By
the river, Jesus hears John preach and watches the tears of hungry repentance as people
came up from the water. And He knows: whatever lies beyond, what He must do now is
to submit to His cousins ministry. He must identify with these people - these people who,
as He worked in his fathers workshop and as He wandered through the Temple every
year, He has so often wished to gather protectively under His wing like a mother hen its
vulnerable chicks.
The reality of his Godly lineage bursts into time and space as he steps into the water. His
cousins eyes seem to open spiritually as if John too is seeing perhaps what he has secretly
known all his life: this is the one of whom I said: he is greater than me; he will baptise
with the Holy Spirit and fire. Then Jesus is under the water and then out again and he sees
Heaven open and the Holy Spirit come down upon him in the semblance of a dove. There
is a voice: this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Father, I got it right. You are
glorious. In this act of baptism, I have set my face to the plough. I will not be turning back
until all you wish to fulfil has come to pass.
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Response
When I bow the knee to God, acknowledging Him to be my Father, I am adopted into His
family and I have two lineages from then on. Like Jesus, I have to learn to grow in wisdom
and the likeness of my heavenly Father by spending time with Him. The Holy Spirit shaped
Jesus from birth in the likeness of God. At His baptism, the Holy Spirit also came upon
Him in power for the ministry that lay ahead. Like Jesus, the Holy Spirit energises me for
service. Embracing my heavenly lineage transforms all I have inherited from my earthly
lineage; putting off and blotting out what is not consistent with Heaven and putting on the
likeness of Christ.
Prayer
Jesus the baptised and baptiser, I come to You to wash away all that is of the old nature
and invite Your Spirit to fill me with a new nature that reflects the glory of our heavenly
Father. I choose to live as a child of God, transformed into the Fathers image.
Jesus, You did not consider Your eternal existence with God something to cling on to
but emptied Yourself, taking the form of a servant and being born a human. Like you, I
will live by faith, taking my cues from our Father in prayer and from others He sends as
signposts in my life. Forgive me when I am more inclined to rush ahead into something
rather than wait for Your cue. I will make humility a test in all things. I will find my
ministry by submitting to the ministry of others. I will submit and await Your endorsement.
Forgive me when I have endorsed myself and been too haughty to receive You through the
humble acts of faith of others on the same journey.
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Sunday
15
Monday
16 Luke 3:21-23; Matthew 3:13-17
Tuesday
17 John 1:29-34; John 17:20-26
Wednesday
18 2 Samuel 7:1-17
Thursday
19 2 Samuel 7:18-29
Friday Saturday
20 John 10:24-29 21 John 10:30
60
Reading
Luke 4:1-13
Devotional - The Temptation of Jesus

If the Gospel of Luke were a novel, this would be one of the early, nail-biting moments. The
episode should not be reduced to a purely symbolic moment though. Instead try looking at
it as a series of events that really did happen. The events reveal a weak and defeated Devil
and an awesome Son of God.
The context is the Spirit descending upon Jesus who has just stepped out of the carpenters
shop to take the biggest risk in his life so far. Because He walks by faith and has daily
conversations with His father, we can assume that He does not yet have full picture of what
comes next. Enter the Devil.
Assume also, that the Devil, being lost in his own delusions and as far away from God as
is possible, has much less of an idea than Jesus of what might come next. He is clueless but
cunning. Could this disconcertingly humble man really be my long awaited nemesis? But
whatever the Devil thinks is going on, the confrontation is in Gods hands: it is the Spirit
who leads Jesus into the wilderness, knowing full well that the Devil is watching anxiously
and will surely follow. It is a trap to give the Devil his second big defeat in Mission
Messiah (the first: Herods failed attempt to murder Jesus).
In the wilderness without food, the Devil tempts Jesus to create bread, as God had
provided manna for the Israelites in the wilderness. Jesus answer is artfully double-edged:
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though I am hungry, I do not need bread since I am feeding from another source, and if I
did, I would choose to rely on my Fathers miraculous provision not my own, just as my
forefathers did. So this becomes both a counter attack and a statement (possibly even a
discovery) by Jesus about the next step in His ministry. The Devil has been set up to help
launch Jesus ministry! Yes, I am the Son of God, but this mission is about me becoming
the Son of Man. My Kingdom will rely wholly on the power of my Father. My role is to
lead people out of exile, in the Devils kingdom of darkness, and into the promised land
of the kingdom of Gods beloved son! Those entering my Kingdom will come through
dependence on the Father who is in heaven, who will give them each day their daily bread.
The Devil, worried, ramps it up, leading Jesus to a high place (mountains are symbolically
places of worship). The cities and towns stretching before them turn into a devilish vision
of the kingdoms of the world. Since Genesis, the city has symbolically, practically and
aspirationally, represented mans attempt to set up autonomously from God. Jesus, in a
state of devotion from days of prayer and fasting, is dwelling in the book of Deuteronomy,
from where all three of His responses to the Devil come. The Devils offer is exaggerated,
but based on partial truth, as is often his tactic. God has indeed let him run loose for a
while, perverting the ways of man, so that the kingdom of darkness runs strongly through
the veins of human civilisations. An empty threat? It is likely that the prominent question in
Jesus wilderness prayers will have been What next Father? The Devil provides a scheming
answer: I have already prepared a kingdom for you: step right in and have it. You be CEO
and Ill be Chair of the Board. Easy. No pain, no suffering. Job done. But it is the wrong
kingdom. Jesus quote this time is Gods instructions to the Israelites in the wilderness
(Deut 6:10-16): when you come to occupy the Promised Land and find cities you havent
built, be careful not to worship their false gods. Worship the real God only. Jesus doesnt
capitulate. He has the power to
God has given Him the keys to the Kingdom - but He
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does not, because it is the wrong kingdom. What Satan is offering Him has been marked
for destruction long ago! The Son of Mans job is to set up a new and everlasting kingdom
of Heaven on Earth!
And then the scariest bit in the novel (had it been one). Now desperate, the prince of this
world takes the man he suspects, or by this time knows for sure, is the one sent to destroy
him and all he has been building since Eden to Jerusalem. Jerusalem: symbolically the holy
city where God resides and surely the place to launch the Messiahs ministry. This time,
whatever else Satan has in mind, he will try, again, to kill Jesus. He is sly and a master of
exploiting human vulnerability. If Jesus is the Son of God, might he not be tempted to
move into his ministry by an unequivocal demonstration of supernatural power? Jesus
must surely have doubts about his identity; would this not help him? Now Satan offers
Him something that seems to have more than one benefit: throw yourself off and prove
to yourself once and for all that you are who you think you are! And at the same time
make your supernatural credentials known to the people down there. Theyve come to
see God in the Temple: give them God! Youll have them eating out of your hands! Job
done! It is a desperate attempt, since if Jesus is in fact the Messiah, will not God send His
angels to rescue him? If so, it will surely be the end of the Devils rule. In characteristically
breathtaking arrogance, perhaps the Devil thinks that he really has usurped power on
Earth and that God would abandon the Messiah to death. Three years later, the Devil will
be gleefully convinced that this has happened as he hears Jesus, slowly dying on the cross,
call out in anguish Father why have you abandoned me? Little will Satan have understood
at that stage, the scale of his monumental own-goal!
Jesus third reply comes again from the passage in Deuteronomy about entering the
promised land and seeing cities that you have not built: No, Devil, I will not put to
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the test the Lord my God as did the Children of Israel at Massah, when they complained
that God was not looking after them. I will not be tempted to take matters into my own
hands but will be led forward in my Messianic mission step by step as the Father leads me,
trusting wholly on Him.
And so Satan leaves Him, chillingly, until an opportune time. But right at the start of
Mission Messiah, Satans defeat has already been demonstrated.
Response
Are you currently being tempted to achieve something good via a wrong route? Will you
embrace the refining fire of suffering instead of quick but shallow wins? Will you lay down
your passions and acknowledge that man makes his plans but God guides his footsteps?
Prayer
Father, I need Your forgiveness for so often giving in and choosing the easy way. On those
occasions when You have shown me something you want me to do and I am caught up in
its noble cause, I have often been less than willing for You to lead me to your conclusion
of the matter, by your path. I have often wanted to take a short-cut that evades suffering,
patience and the learning and deepening that goes with it. I have often wanted outward
confirmations rather than quietly following your footsteps into the unknown, content only
to be one step behind You.
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Jesus, you have shown me the way to live victoriously over the world, the flesh and the
devil. It is so simple, yet so powerful. I choose to trust You for the next step, demanding
to know no more than that I am secure in Your hands. I will live by Your bread alone;
worship You alone and trust You wholly, with patience, faith and hope, for all I cannot yet
see.
Sunday
22
Monday
23 Luke 4:1-13
Tuesday
24 Galatians 1:15-17; Acts 20:22; Galatians 5:16, 25
Wednesday
25 Hebrews 4:14-5:10; Romans 5:3-4
Thursday
26 Romans 8:17-18, 31-39
Friday Saturday
27 John 10:24-29 28 John 10:30
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JA N U A RY/FEBRU A RY 29-4 W EEK 11 DEVOTIONA L
Reading
Luke 4:14-30
Devotional - Jesus in His Hometown

Lets recap what has happened so far:
Step 1- Spirit leads Jesus to launch ministry by Jordan on edge of wilderness.
Step 2 - Spirit leads Jesus to wilderness to deliver first blows of final defeat against Devil.
Step 3 - Spirit leads Jesus to next assignment, continuing battle against Devils kingdom.
As an aside, Lukes account gives a touching glimpse into the relationship between Jesus
and the Spirit in the same way that John 14 show Jesus intimate relationship with the
Father. We can learn from this; if Jesus had a conscious need to walk through life led by the
Spirit, how much more should we?
Jesus will have had a deep understanding of the Messianic role from Old Testament
prophets. Prince of Peace is to be one of His titles. After His first mission, however, He will
have realised that the Father is sending him on the attack. Peace will have to be fought for.
The Spirit had first led Him right to the heart of the enemys camp, to present the Devil
with seemingly good and definitely bad news. The seemingly good news for the Devil was
that the eternal Word of God had at last come to Earth, emptied of His power and majesty
to live vulnerably as a son of the same Adam whom Satan had already succeeded in
corrupting. Open game! Come and get me (but at your peril)! The bad news for Satan was
that Jesus is demonstrably incorruptible and will set up His Kingdom on Earth. I will build
70
my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. After the wilderness, Satan must
have known that his days of lording it over Gods created order are numbered.
Jesus presses in with the attack in the second of His assignments recorded by Luke. The Spirit
leads Him back to His home region of Galilee, where He is rejected. After this, Jesus relocates
from His hometown of Nazareth in Lower Galilee to the town of Capernaum in Upper
Galilee on the edge of the vast lake. It is a strategic and prophetic move. From His lakeside
base of Capernaum, Jesus preaches in the surrounding villages and the Spirit confirms His
credentials with supernatural signs.
Why was Jesus kicked out of His home town, and whats so important about this?
When Jesus visits the town in which He grew up and worked for 18 years in the family
woodworking business, He could have simply preached repentance. Instead, He goes for the
jugular.
It is a shockingly devastating debut from the artisan turned rabbi and is a deliberate
provocation. He is taking the fight to the Devil! Using a passage from Isaiah, Jesus announces
Himself in His hometown synagogue as Messiah. All sit back marvelling at His authority and
scholarship. Then He says the worst thing they could possibly expect in the situation.
To understand just how provocative Jesus is being, we need to understand that Nazareth,
although despised by the snobs in Jerusalem, was part of Lower Galilee and not as tainted by
Gentile culture as Upper Galilee, where Capernaum was located. Upper Galilee had a large
minority, if not a majority, of non-Jews. Since the days of ancient Egypt, it had been a key
point on the trading routes to the nations to the north, east and west. The Spirit has led the
Messiah to make is first base in Gentile territory!
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Setting up the Messianic base in Capernaum was like a Chinese messiah settling in
Guangzhou, historically regarded in Beijing as the back-of-beyond, far away and over the
mountains from the Emperor and contaminated by foreigners. Jesus quotes a story about
Elijah being sent by God to miraculously rescue a poor widow in Sidon. The message is
not lost on the alarmed Nazarenes. Upper Galilee had been populated by Sidonians (the
modern day Lebanese) for centuries.
So Jesus first identifies Himself as the long promised one, come to proclaim good news
to the poor, freedom for the prisoners and sight for the blind. The Nazarenes refuse to
accept who Jesus says He is, and so He proclaims that a prophet is not welcomed in His
hometown. Adding insult to injury, Jesus then adds the incendiary reference to Elijah and
the Lebanese widow. Together with Jesus move from their town to Upper Galilee, the
Nazarenes would surely eventually realise that the move was purposeful and symbolic. He
sends an unambiguous message: the Messiahs mission of liberation is much bigger than
you think I have come to save those you regard as unclean. More than that, I have come
to save the whole world!
The freedom from captivity Jesus has come to secure, means exposing and defeating not
only the Devil and his spiritual forces of Godless rebellion, but the human institutions he
has influenced false religion, its attitudes and leaders. Jesus will move on to Jerusalem and
directly expose the corrupt Jewish leaders for what they are: children of the Devil. The
Messiah was popularly expected to be a liberating warrior, overpowering the oppressive
occupying forces to bring freedom to the people. And indeed, this is what the Sprit leads
Jesus to do. As He steps out in his Messianic ministry, Jesus strikes time and time again. But
it isnt to the Romans that Jesus brings His attack; it is at false religion.
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The true oppressor of spiritual freedom is false religion. The real enemy of truth is
falsehood.
It is too much for the Nazarenes. The people whose chairs and ploughs Jesus had once
mended, drag him to the top of a cliff to try to complete what the Devil had not been able
to achieve in the wilderness battle. But Jesus and the Sprit are on a roll! He walks right
through them, symbolically once again demonstrating that all opposition against the Son of
Man come to establish the Kingdom of God, will fall away.
Response
Sometimes we can be convinced that we are on the right side of some matter, or that
the way we have chosen to live our lives is OK with God, when really we have taken up
opposition to Jesus the liberator. If we choose to live in captivity, Jesus will gently (and
sometimes not so gently, if it is for our own good), oppose us. Are you for Jesus or against
Him?
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Prayer
Jesus, who followed the Spirit into many battles for freedom, I choose to be on Your side.
Forgive me when I have become so infected by the subtle and dark influences on human
culture that I have not realised that I am in opposition to the liberating message of Your
Gospel. You strip all bare. You see us for who we are. Son of God, oppose me when You
find me walking in chains into deeper darkness. In an instance, You can break those chains
and lead me into Your beloved kingdom of light.
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JA N U A RY/FEBRU A RY 29-4 W EEK 11 REA DING PLA N
Sunday
29
Monday
30 Luke 4:14-30
Tuesday
31 Acts 1:4-8, 12, 14; 2:1-4, 14-21
Wednesday
1 Acts 2:22-47; Isaiah 42:1-8
Thursday
2 Psalm 146
Friday Saturday
3 Acts 7:49-55 4 1 Kings 17:7-24; 2 Kings 5:1-14
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FEBRU A RY 5-11 W EEK 12 DEVOTIONA L
Reading
Luke 5:1-11 & John 1:35-51
Devotional - Calling The First Disciples

Meekness (or gentleness) is at the heart of the gospel. It means having the power to do
something but choosing not to assert that power. People living like this will inherit the
Earth, Jesus says in the Kingdom manifesto set out in the Sermon on the Mount. It is of no
surprise therefore that Jesus displays this characteristic in all He does including in His
recruitment policy.
He submits meekly to the ministry of His cousin John and thereby receives the green light
for His own ministry. Submitting to the ministry of the Spirit leads Him to a face-off with
the Devil in the wilderness. Laying down His eternal powers and relying on God alone for
His daily bread wins His first battle with the Devil. His first miracle comes from submitting
to His eager mother. Miracles follow as Jesus submits to the prompting of others:
responding to an invitation to visit SimonPeters mother in-law leads to her healing and
later that day He submits to the pleas of the friends and relatives of the sick. Frequently
in the months that follow, when exhausted from giving, He sometimes chooses not to turn
away the crowds but rather gives more. The King models the way to live in his Kingdom:
humble obedience, submitting to God and submitting to others. Miraculous results follow.
And so it is with the calling of His disciples. Jesus will not want to do this alone. Who to
ask?
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Characteristically He bows humbly to the ministry of others. Although He could muster

supernatural resources, as the Son of Man He chooses to live only by the values of the
Kingdom He is preaching. One of John the Baptists disciples was Andrew. Following Johns
identification of Jesus as the Messiah, Andrew and another disciple shift camps and start
hanging out with Jesus. Jesus accepts this rugged and radical fisherman and it all starts from
there.
Jesus sets up camp in Capernaum, the next village along the Galilee shore from Andrews
home in Bethsaida. Perhaps Andrew even played a part in Jesuss choice of base in North
Galilee. Jesus then graciously accepts Andrews recommendation of his impulsive and
strong-willed brother Simon.
Philip was from the same Bethsaida fishing gang and brings Nathaniel to Jesus. Rather than
turning away these friends of His new friends and insisting on a wider recruitment exercise,
Jesus makes them feel special, with prophetic words just for each of them that endorse His
acceptance and welcome. Likewise, Jesus accepts Simons fishing partners, brothers James
and John.
It is remarkable how Jesus simply chose to trust others. Laying down His heavenly majesty
and not considering equality with God something to be grasped are not just theological
statements. It is in the very nature of the King of Kings to desist from using His power in
order to empower others; to call us brothers; to give us the keys to the Kingdom; to anoint
His followers to do even greater things than He. This is our servant King.
He even goes as far as appointing one disciple who would prove one day to perhaps not
been suited to the job. Judas, later on, will give the Devil another opportunity to kill the
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King before He can get his Kingdom established! Wonderfully, Jesus lets Judas join His inner
circle and trusts the consequences to His Father who provides His daily bread and delivers
Him from evil. Satan may choose to attack from within, but Jesus Heavenly Father will
surely use all to His Kingdoms advantage! Kingdom thinking modelled by the King!
And now, time to gear things up a notch with this rough bunch of North Galileans. Push
the boat out into deeper water Peter and let down your nets. Im going to show you how to
really live in the Kingdom of Heaven! In this Kingdom, we do only what the Father asks us
to do. We follow the Spirit to the Jordan, to the Wilderness, to North Galilee and eventually
to Jerusalem. There will be no escaping Jerusalem. We put down our nets where the Spirit
directs. We harvest the seas and the land according to His plans. With miraculous fruit, God
endorses what we do. We live by the bread and meat of Heaven. Our bread is every word
that proceeds from the mouth of the Father. Our meat is to do our Fathers will. I am the
Word; I am the bread of life. You will live by me as I live by my Father; the Father in me,
you in me and I in you. Whether pulling fish from the sea or people into the Kingdom, your
life from now on will be overflowing and lived beyond your own abilities. The Kingdom will
be full of unimaginable adventure and risk, but it will be a pearl of such great beauty that
you will not mind giving up all to obtain it!
Response
Are you ready to be surprised by what will happen when you sign up for Jesus Kingdom
and start partnering with the Spirit? In leading us to new things, God often gives us
signs along the way to encourage us that we are on the right path and to endorse us to
others. Jesus started preaching and before He knew it the preaching was accompanied by
supernatural signs. Dont seek the signs, or worse, try to engineer them; they will just come.
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Jesus didnt instigate his first miracle His Mother did. He even resisted it. Our job is just
to push the boat out into deeper water obediently when called. God fills up our lives with
fish to the point that the bountiful produce of the Spirit in us flows over to people around
us, who themselves cant help but get caught up in the Kingdom.
Prayer
Jesus, master fisher of men, I am overwhelmed by the generosity and gentleness with which
You gathered Your co-workers to help build the Kingdom. I can think of many times when
I have demanded of others so much more than You have demanded of me; and so much
more than You demanded of Your disciples. I realise now that I become a fisher of men not
by taking up some lofty new office or specialised skill but by copying the One who called
me into his Kingdom.
Let me draw others to You by the words I speak, by the way I speak them, by the picture of
You that others see in me and by the miraculous abundance that starts to flow when they
join my gang Your gang.
Forgive me where I have imagined or manufactured signs to endorse my own plans. I will
be content only with pushing the boat out at Your request and then kneeling at Your feet
when my life fills to overflowing with abundant blessings that bring the bread of life to
others.
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FEBRU A RY 5-11 W EEK 12 REA DING PLA N
Sunday
5
Monday
6 Luke 5:1-11
Tuesday
7 Deuteronomy 8:1-18
Wednesday
8 John 4:34-38
Thursday
9 John 21:3-22
Friday Saturday
10 Isaiah 6:1-9 11 Luke 14:33
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Reading
Luke 6: 1-16
Devotional - The Lord of the Sabbath

News about Jesus spreads quickly and He becomes the new religious phenomenon,
replacing John the Baptist as predicted 30 years earlier by an angel in the Temple. The
tentative response of Jesus to the request for a miracle in the village of Cana quickly
transforms to a bold partnership with the Spirit: the power of the Lord was with Jesus to
heal the sick as they came from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem.
Among the sightseers from Jerusalem and elsewhere are Pharisees, watching and worried
like Satan. Jesus walks His home region, ever more boldly, as the Son of Man ushering in
the Kingdom of Heaven appearing less and less like the carpenter everyone once knew Him
as. The Pharisees notice when this transformation takes an alarming turn. I want you to
know that the Son of Man has authority on Earth to forgive sins, He says to them, having
announced both forgiveness and healing to someone who has just expressed deep faith in
Him.
The Spirit had set Jesus up for another battle! I imagine Jesus so overcome with love for
His Father and His followers as He sees how much faith the sick man and His friends
have in their hearts for him and for all He is saying and doing. He cannot keep it in! He
finds Himself proclaiming friend, your sins are forgiven. In the long hours of prayer and
fasting, Jesus had come to realise in His spirit that sins will be forgiven in response to the
simple and humble acceptance of the Son of Man. This could be seen as the most profound
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epiphany any human ever had! The moment when Jesus realises that childlike acceptance
of the Son of Man is all that the Father requires of a man or woman to become fit for the
Kingdom of Heaven!
It is a rule-breaking and game-changing moment that Luke records. A monumental shift

from the old wine to the new. Jesus must have stood back in awe and wonder as He
watched the rules of the Kingdom emerge through His own personality and spirit-filled
understanding, words and actions. I am He.
Then comes another battle. The Pharisees are now watching Jesus like hawks. His disciples
are picking grain on a Sabbath. The Pharisees swoop. They dont understand Him at all.
They think they have caught Him out - found an inconsistency. They expose the lack of
integrity they think they have found. How can He be from God if he breaks the law?
But once again, they fall into their own trap. The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. They
end up with a riddle that seems to go against them.
The same thing happens on another Sabbath, in a synagogue. Jesus heals a man. Working
on the Sabbath! Imposter! But Jesus is riding a wave that is more powerful than the
pettiness of the Pharisees corrupted religion. It is the wave of freedom, the wave of the
new wine of the Kingdom, washing away the old! And Jesus is the King. At what stage in
the journey from the Jordan, to the wilderness, to Capernaum, to Bethsaida, to the house
where He forgave someone their sins to the grain-field, I wonder, did Jesus fully realise
His true credentials and destiny? Personally, I think it must have been a journey. Even if
the Father had revealed the whole plan from baptism to the cross, it would have been a
journey of adapting to the truth and stepping into the role prepared for Him. He is, after
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all, the Son of Man. I love the way the rhythm gathers pace in Luke and the other gospel
accounts. Here in the grain field and the synagogue Jesus sets up another milestone in
announcing his Kingdom. The old is passed away: the new has come. I have come to fulfil
the law and the rules have changed! I am the new. The rules have pointed to me all along.
The law is fulfilled in the Word of God come to Earth. The new way is through me. I am
the way. I am Lord of the Sabbath!
I think Jesus had probably known this since that time in the Temple when He was just
12 years old. But his Kingship was wrapped up in humility and He must surely have had
to struggle to come to terms with what His Father was whispering to Him. In the Spirits
power He takes one bold step after another. Each of them delivering one more devastating
blow to the enemy whose kingdom He had come to destroy.
The agents of the enemy, furious, retreat further into the darkness. It is the point at which
they began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Response
Not all the Pharisees, teachers of the law, priests and religious faithful were blind to the
beauty of Jesus. Zechariah, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, for example saw and
questioned long-held beliefs and practices.
A lot more than we might realise of our contemporary interpretation of Christian beliefs,
church life and individual lifestyle, is culturally determined. Some of it, if we look closely,
may even have become tainted.
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Jesus, close on the heels of John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets, came
400 years after the last big prophetic shake-up. That was a lot of time to focus on things
that dont really matter. Distanced from God, the things that tend to get focused on are the
things that bring power and reward to power-hungry and greedy men. All religion becomes
corrupted quickly as men seek to control what the Spirit has sparked. It took the Roman
church 10 to 20 years to quench the spiritual wildfire that swept medieval Italy after
Francis of Assisis dramatic back-to-basics conversion.
Are you ready to be purified by the simple words of the Son of Man? As He whispers The
Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, what practices, rules and beliefs will you offer up in
exchange for His freedom?
Prayer
Lord of the Sabbath, I bow before You. You are Lord of everything. All things were made
through You. You came to the Earth You created and trampled down the doors to the
prison of the kingdom of darkness. Forgive me when I choose to live as though the Sabbath
is Lord over me. I have turned what is meant for freedom into something that entraps. You
have challenged me about holding on to things that You want me to release. Sometimes
they are not necessarily bad things in themselves. But they become bad for me when I resist
You.
If I have ever entrapped others, knowingly or unknowingly by imposing rules, expectations

or demands that are for my benefit; then deliver me from evil. I repent.
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Lord of the grain-field and creator of sublime landscapes, will You take me on that
walk with You, along the edge of the field, daring to go against the crowd, daring to be
radical, daring to break free. Whatever is not from You, take it away and leave me with a
conscience cleansed.
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Sunday
12
Monday
13 Luke 6:1-16
Tuesday
14 John 7:14-24
Wednesday
15 Mark 2:27
Thursday
16 Galatians 3:1-14
Friday Saturday
17 Galatians 3:15-22; 4:8-11 18 Galatians 5:13-18
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Reading
Luke 6:27-36
Devotional - Love Your Enemies

This passage contains the first appearance of the term sinner in Lukes story. To appreciate
the liberating simplicity and shocking novelty of these words of Jesus here, it helps to
unpack the idea of sin. When I think about the meaning of this word I focus on three
sources of sin that are referred to throughout the Bible: the Flesh, the World and the Devil.
The Flesh - In creating Adam, God raised up the human race to live as more than animals.
The Spirit of God, breathed into Adam, transformed him into a living, moral soul, made
in the likeness of God. Sins of the flesh are the moral and spiritual deficits when we choose
to live not as God has made us but instead as mere animals, following our instincts of
survival, competition, and selfishness as well as other desires. They are moral deficits
because they are a rejection of God, His generosity and His high calling over us, spiritual
deficits because living at odds with our creator and Heavenly Father damages the human
spirit (and ultimately damages the physical human body that hosts it).
The World - The World refers to the systems of civilised human thoughts, values, actions
and institutions that set themselves up against God. Members of the human race have
always been bombarded by Godless influences as they work, produce, trade, consume, are
educated, enjoy leisure time and experiment in seeking spiritual comfort. So, sins of the
world are sins that arise from accepting but then misusing our status of being more than
animals. Sins of the flesh arise from rejecting our status of being more than animals.
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Prime examples of world-influenced sin are pride and arrogance, manipulation and
distortion of the truth. Since the days of the Puritan movement in modern Western church
and society, sins of the flesh have tended to be more heavily emphasised, with many sins
of the world ignored. Arguably, sins of the world tend to have more extensive effects
on perpetrators and their victims because they corrupt the very fabric of human family,
social, economic, political life, rather than just one or a few individuals. Beware the subtle
destructive influences of the world.
The Devil - a created spiritual being, leading a rebellion in the unseen world of spirits and
angels and ambitious to usurp Jesus as King of the Earth - does what he can to encourage
any kind of rebellion. He will infect and amplify the fools fleshly lusts, making them
compulsive and addictive. He will inspire and influence the powerful and clever, who
spend their time devising ever-more-intricate ungodly schemes that lead humanity away
from truth and from Jesus the person in whom scientific, moral and historical truth are
fully harmonised. The mega human disasters of the 20th century, such as the Holocaust,
two world wars, Stalins purges and Maos Great Famine all happened as powerful, greedy
and hate-filled men abused their God-given powers to think, create, lead, influence, make
judgments and govern their fellow creatures. The already wide-ranging destruction of the
sins of the world, enhanced by the Devil: arguably, the worst combination.
And here is Jesus point as recorded by Luke: sinners of every kind, under each of these
influences, do good to their friends, love those who love them and lend to those whose
resources they may need in the future.
Jesus drops an atom bomb that sends a shock wave to flatten the arrogance of the proud
and self-righteous religious leaders from Jerusalem and to demolish their man-made
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worldly religious system. The shock wave thunders back through history for those with
eyes to see it, reinterpreting the entire purpose of the Law and the Prophets. And it pounds
into the future to break down every human thought, action and intention that sets itself up
against that first ancient generous act of God, by which He made our race into His image
and in-breathed His spirit so that we might become sons of God. Love your enemies. Do
unto others what you would want done to you. Put others first. Lay down your life for
those in need. Give away constantly from the abundance that pours into your life from an
ever-giving God.
Love is the first and second law of God. On these two laws of love (love God and love
others as yourself), Jesus says, hang all the law and the prophets. And Jesus completes our
understanding of this simplest, most central, most fundamental and longest-lasting (ever-
lasting) quality in the universe: Jesus is love. He defines it.
He came to show us what it looks like to love God and to love our enemies. He came to
show us how it works, to be our ultimate role model, to inspire us to follow Him. He came
to live out this love and then to pour out His experience into us through His spirit so that
we can love our enemies in his power, not our own.
The law of love completely reverses the dominant laws of the animal kingdom and the
domain of the flesh: selfishness, self-gratification and aggressive competition.
It turns on its head the dominant law of human kingdoms in the domain of the world:
power, selfish wealth accumulation and suppression of enemies.
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It blasts loud and clear above the rallying-call of Satans kingdom and the domain of
darkness: manipulation, usurpation, trickery, self-elevation and visceral hatred of others.
When we live in the power of Gods love, our lives praise God, shouting out in all we do,
how great is our God! In praising God, we make our lives into living worship and in
so doing become fully human - doing and being what we were made to be and do. Love
brings us alive.
In the blessings and challenges that immediately precede Jesus love-sermon, He makes an
important point to the disciples, whom He will send into the vast crowd to help explain
and elaborate the bomb-shell He is about to drop. The blessings that come through Gods
secret weapon loving enemies come with time. They are reaped in the future: both in
this life as we learn, over time, to submit to and become like, our loving Heavenly Father
and in the next life, when the law of love in the Kingdom of God will at last be fully
established on Earth. Love comes as a gift from God but it takes time, faith, hope and
perseverance to put on the law of love and let it transform us into the likeness of God.
The idea that the power of Gods love can only be learned through experience goes a
long way to answering some of the big mysteries of life, including why did God allow sin
and suffering and why did God create us with all the built-in constraints, handicaps and
weaknesses of the flesh? Jesus says later in Luke: but the seed on good soil stands for those
with a noble and good heart, who hear the Word (the law of love and all that goes with it),
retain it, and by persevering produce a good crop.
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Response
Answering the following questions is a good test of how deeply planted the seed of Jesus is
in you.
Do I secretly feel good when someone who wishes me harm, comes to harm?
Do I enjoy gossip that pulls down someone I have a difficulty with?
Prayer
When I come close to Your pure love, Lord, I sometimes catch a glimpse of a huge shadow
hanging over my life. The shadow is those things that I attribute to You and to Your church
and to my faith that are, in truth, man-made artefacts of religion that prevent me living in
and spreading Your love. Liberate me, Jesus, by Your outpoured love.
It is easy to justify turning people who are seeking love and approval away with the excuse
that as a follower of Christ I cannot accept their lifestyle. But religious people said of You
why do you spend time in the company of sinners? Forgive me for this Jesus.
Unrepentant sinners cannot love like You Jesus, but You can love sinners and You call me
to love like You. I will eat and drink with sinners, but more than that: I will also love my
enemies.
Search me and know me Lord and burn up all that is false and less than You. Change me
by Your indwelling spirit so that when I hear of some good thing happening to someone
who has called themselves my enemy, my heart leaps with joy.
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Sunday
19
Monday
20 Luke 6:27-36
Tuesday
21 Proverbs 25:21-22
Wednesday
22 2 Kings 6:8-23
Thursday
23 1 Samuel 24
Friday Saturday
24 Psalm 112 25 Romans 12:9-21
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Reading
Luke 9:18-27
Devotional - Who Do You Say I Am?

Jesus has been teaching and preaching for some time now and regularly draws crowds
of thousands from all over Israel and beyond. The miracles become more spectacular as
Jesus boldly partners with the Spirit; on one occasion even stopping a funeral procession
and calling the boys spirit back into the body. His battles with man-made religion and
its purveyors intensify. So do His battles with the Devil, once sending a small army of evil
spirits from a man into a herd of pigs. For those with eyes to see, the Son of Man is very
much on the offensive and the momentum of His mission is picking up.
Most are uncertain about His identity. Jesus wants to keep it that way until the right
time, knowing that widespread acknowledgement of His Messiahship will trigger events
leading quickly to His death. Johns gospel makes it clear that towards the end of his public
ministry Jesus moves into hiding, operating underground until in a conscious provocation
to His enemies, He raises Lazarus from death. From Lazarus tomb, Jesus makes His way
purposefully to Jerusalem, His trial, and His own tomb and resurrection. But at the stage
we are at in Lukes account, Jesus is strategically keeping a low profile in terms of His true
identity. The time is not yet right.
There is at least one, however, who has clearly concluded who Jesus really is. On several
occasions, Jesus has to silence evil spirits as they relinquish hold over someone He has
liberated. Ever wondered why they might have screamed Jesus, Son of the Most High God
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as they made their way into the pigs, or into some other place of spiritual imprisonment
to await their final destruction? Not an act of submission, worship or proclamation surely.
More like a devilishly sly attempt to stir up trouble by spreading His fame as Messiah
before His time. Another attempt by the Devil to get Jesus killed. The Devil and his troops
are clearly beyond doubt that Messiah has come! Sadly for them, they will have been
totally confused about His strategy. He has not become the expected warrior they were
no doubt preparing King Herods forces and the Roman Empire to fight. Satan would be
desperately looking for the subtler and more deadly (for him) attack that must surely come.
He will play Jesus at his own game and use the religious people to snuff-out the Son of
God!
The people have no such insight. Even those who may initially have made a connection
between Jesus and the rumours of what happened years earlier with Mary, Zechariah, the
angels and the shepherds, would now be in doubt. This is not the Messiah they expected.
Maybe He is just another prophet. Maybe He, not John the Baptist, is the Elijah-style
prophet expected before the Messiah. Jesus as the warm-up act to the real Messiah!
Now that would be an exciting rumour: if Jesus performs such amazing miracles, what
might come next! The idea is so popular that two people come to investigate. First, King
Herod, who Luke enigmatically tells us tried to see Jesus. We learn later that Herod was
fascinated to see a real miracle. Second is John the Baptist, who sends some of his loyal
disciples to ask who Jesus really is. Even poor old John is confused. Did I get it so wrong?
Was I only preparing the way for the one who will really prepare the way for the Messiah?
And so Jesus turns to His closest disciples, and perhaps taking stock of the level of risk,
to measure of how near the end is, asks them: who do people say that I am? Their answer
tells Jesus that His time has not yet come. The people think He is Elijah. The perniciously
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premature testimony of the evil spirits has not worked. Who do you say I am? He asks
them, hoping for a different answer and getting it. The Son of God.
He warns them, as He did many of those He healed and as He did the unclean spirits, to
keep quiet. And then He tells them why: He must suffer and be put to death but only at
the correct time.
Response
This is a point at which the disciples discover the next phase of Mission Messiah. It is
surely the point also at which Judas must have decided he will need to jump ship at some
point, when the risks outweigh his ill-gotten monetary gains Judas like many others who
had been drawn to Jesus, had joined up to reign not to suffer and die for a lost cause. What
have you signed up for? Following Jesus can only be radical. On Earth, He chose the way
and the message of self-denying love to break down the powers of the flesh, the world and
the devil. He makes it clear that following him into the Kingdom of God means taking up
our cross. For most, that wont mean an instrument of torture and death, though it has
for many over the centuries. It means taking up our obedience, whatever that is. That
obedience, however, is always unto death in another sense. The way of the Kingdom is to
love God and love others more than ourselves and that means joyfully dying to self.
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Prayer
Jesus, Son of the Living God, I will follow You to Jerusalem. Help me see that though there
is suffering on the journey there will be resurrection. That love will triumph over hate and
good over evil. That there will be joy and peace everlasting. You are the anointed one, who
was always with God. You came to Earth not only to reveal to us the true essence of God,
not only to destroy the powers of sin and death but to establish Gods kingdom here - as it
is in Heaven. This is who You are and I give my life to You.
FEBRU A RY/M A RCH 26-4 W EEK 15 REA DING PLA N
Sunday
26
Monday
27 Luke 9:18-27
Tuesday
28 Matthew 17: 10-13
Wednesday
1 Acts 3:18-26
Thursday
2 Mark 8:18-38
Friday Saturday
3 Isaiah 53:1-3 4 1 Peter 2:21-24
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M A RCH 5-11 W EEK 16 DEVOTIONA L
Reading
Luke 9:28-45
Devotional - Transfiguration
Why Elijah and Moses? Whether you prefer to interpret their presence figuratively or
literally, the answer is clearly something to do with the monumental divide in human,
natural and spiritual history that is about to happen. The two historical figures represent
the prophets and the law the two principal ways God has revealed Himself specifically in
civilised human history. In the Transfiguration, God endorses the transition from the Old
Testament to the New, from the seed that dies to the branches that follow, from Jesus to the
church. God calls Moses and Elijah from the sublime heavenly state of rest in which they
are awaiting the great resurrection, to witness the coming of the Kingdom! Lukes account
adds a mysterious detail: Jesus talks to Moses and Elijah about his departure. In the
original language, the word translated departure also means exodus. Jesus talks to Moses
about his own exodus from the world, which will lead to the culmination of the Fathers
great act of mercy, planned at the dawn of the creation: the exodus of the redeemed from
the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Gods beloved son!
Why this moment? A clue to the timing of this mysterious event is found in what happens
after they descend the mountain. Some of His disciples have failed to cast out a demon
and the crowds are disappointed. Jesus is disturbed. In the context of the great repentance
movement sweeping Palestine, first with John and then Jesus, Jesus sees the danger signs:
He is becoming too popular for the wrong reasons. The peoples expectations and demands
are getting ever greater. They are in danger of missing the point. Perhaps Jesus foresees the
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abrupt transition from the palm-fronds when He will ride into Jerusalem, to the crowds a
few days later baying for his blood: for the people are clearly expecting miracles and more,
not a humiliated, crucified prophet. Even His disciples seem to have missed the point. The
evil spirit had not come out, suggesting they had been operating in their own strength.
They later saw a disciple who wasnt one of us casting out a demon in Jesus name and
tried to stop him. Things have gone far enough. Gods endorsement on the mountaintop
steels Jesus for what He must now do. Back from the mountain, what He sees in the
disappointed crowds confirms it: time to switch tack. Next stop Jerusalem: suffering, death
and resurrection and breaking down the gates of hell!
Why Mount Hermon? The events before and after the Transfiguration happened around
Caesarea Philippi, named by Herod the Greats son Phillip in honour of Rome. Following
the Spirit, Jesus had symbolically based His ministry in religiously disrespected North
Galilee. To prepare for His final battle, He travels even further north, to a high place on
the very edge of pagan territory that is interestingly also the source of the River Jordan.
From this mountain springs of living water bring life to the land around it. Where better
to announce the time for fulfilling the law and the prophets by pouring out His lifeblood
and spirit for all mankind! God could have chosen the holy mountain in the South, Horeb,
where He had etched the law 1200 years earlier and where Moses and Elijah had both
met Him face to face. Instead, God visits a mountain in the north that has been the site of
pagan worship and rebellion throughout Israels history. God came down to Horeb in the
south to announce the Mosaic Covenant with Israel; now He comes down to Hermon in
the north to endorse the New Covenant with all mankind!
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Response
God selected Abraham to give birth to a race and nation that would keep the character
and purposes of God alive. Abraham lived in the Bronze Age when human civilisation
was rapidly taking shape. It would rapidly lead on to the Iron Age, starting roughly
about the time the Exodus, which would usher in a period of growth, expansion and
deepening of human civilisation unprecedented in the history of mankind. Sin would
spread and dominate through the abuse of mans privileged position in creation and
result in unbelievably evil and ungodly systems, cultures, ideas, values and practices. The
calling of Abraham, and the law and the prophets that followed, were all in preparation
for the coming of the Son of Man. On the Mount of Transfiguration, the baton is passed
from the old to the new. Neither the Israelite nation nor the Church, were meant to be a
mountaintop dwelling place. They are structures for taking Christ into a lost world so that
the world may see the light, fall down and worship Him and thus enter the kingdom of
God.
Do we seek to dwell away from the crowds on holy Mount Horeb? Or do we draw our
comfort and energy from standing with Jesus on the much higher, more uncomfortable, but
beautiful and exhilarating, Mount Hermon? Are we looking to partner with Jesus to reach
a lost world?
Prayer
Jesus, creator and redeemer of everything, my understanding of Your great plans is often so
small. Forgive me when I have dwelt on small matters and feared, lamented or complained
about some unimportant change in the way things are done in church. Or when I have
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fallen out with someone over some trivial point of teaching. Or worse: when I have focused
on someone elses weakness.
These are concerns of religion, not of Your Kingdom. Lift me to the mountain where You
stand. Draw me to the beautiful valleys and ridges of Mount Hermon, that I may share
Your love for the lost and be satisfied only by the Fathers endorsement.
By a quiet and humble life, following the footsteps of the Son of God, I will invite others to
join Your wonderful exodus from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. You
split the sea so I can walk right through it! Kingdom come!
M A RCH 5-11 W EEK 16 REA DING PLA N
Sunday
5
Monday
6 Luke 9:28-45
Tuesday
7 2 Peter 1:1-21
Wednesday
8 Matthew 28:1-5
Thursday
9 Daniel 7:9-10
Friday Saturday
10 Exodus 33:7-11; 33:12-19 11 John 1:4-18
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Reading
Luke 10:38-42
Devotional - Bethany
This is a beautiful story about friendship. The lesson often drawn from it may turn out to
be rather different from that which Luke intended. Jesus is not valuing the more reflective
over the more practical. He is commenting about the priorities of two close friends.
Whatever our personality and gifting, it becomes effective under the Spirits priorities
for the moment. There are always so many things to be concerned with. But at any one
moment, not all things are necessary. Martha could have cut down on the food plans and
joined her sister with just a jug of wine and some bread!
Bethany is such a lovely place to learn more about Jesus because it is the home of some
special friends! Mary, Martha and Lazarus are enigmatic characters. No explicit mention
is made of spouses or parents. Some, therefore, speculate that they were either young and
orphaned, or older and outliving their spouses. They have also, by some, been thought to
be a rich family (possessing a jar of expensive perfume and with many friends); devotees in
an ascetic community living in one of Bethanys famous homes for the poor (the perfume
being a donation to the community); a well-to-do household generous to the nearby leper
community (they were central to the party held for Jesus at Simon the Lepers Bethany
home, mentioned in Mark 14:1-10 and Matthew 26:6-13); or not guests, but children of
Simon the Leper (Martha was helping at the table, Lazarus reclining with guests and
Mary planning her act of devotion). What we can also say is that Bethany, two miles from
Jerusalem, was a place where lepers and other ritually unclean pilgrims could stay while
visiting the Temple.
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Martha, a term for someone running a household, may have been a descriptive name for
the elder sibling. Her sister Mary clearly found favour with the Son of Man, who honoured
her with a place in His heart and at His feet - despite her age, gender and social status.
Jesuss love for this family shows in His repeat visits to Bethany during the last, dangerous
phase of His ministry.
Lukes account may be of an early visit. That Martha is a close friend of Jesus, despite His
mild rebuke in Luke, we know from Johns account of another visit. It is Martha, not Mary,
who in a secret conversation with Jesus acknowledges that He is the Messiah. The two
sisters refer to their brother as the one you love. But tragically, Lazarus dies. Jesus breaks
off what He is doing and risks death to visit the girls (His increasingly hostile enemies had
tried to stone Him the last time He was in the vicinity). Martha meets Him a way off
taking control of the security situation perhaps. Jesus comforts His friend and then asks for
a private meeting with her sister. But the familys many friends from Jerusalem see Mary
sneaking away and following them. They witness the intimate exchange. She weeps, Jesus
sees her weeping and is moved, Himself, to tears of love and sorrow.
In attributing Jesus emotion to His love for Lazarus, the onlookers may well have missed
something. Jesus is willing for others to see His special affection for His friend whoever
she may have been: young poor girl working with lepers, daughter of a father healed of
leprosy, or wealthy devout widow. He loves all, but He loves in a special way, those who
have seen who He really is and who love Him back with undivided devotion.
This takes us back to Lukes window on this special friendship. Jesus is not only endorsing
Mary for having sensed the priority of the moment a little better than Martha on this
occasion. He is also endorsing a woman with such love for the Son of Man that she forgets,
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or ignores, cultural protocol and sits at His feet like the men. Mary places herself in an
indisputably male role: student of a rabbi, eager to take up the rabbis mantle. During the
celebration dinner at Simon the Lepers house, Mary assumes the same pose but breaks the
expensive bottle of perfume over Jesus feet, using her long hair to dry Him. Mary from
Bethany and the forgiven promiscuous woman in Luke 7 (sometimes considered, though
its unlikely, to be the same person), both wash their masters feet with their hair: one
redemptively using her femininity in an act of repentant worship that breaks religious and
social taboos; the other using it as an act of innocence that also breaks social boundaries
and in so doing delivers a forceful prophetic act (anointing Jesus for burial). Both express
something of the Kingdom that speaks as powerfully as Jesus culture-bending words.
Lazarus sister offers the powerfully feminine act from a position regarded as a mans
prerogative. Jesus not only condones the cultural innocence, but also elevates it as an
expression of the Kingdom that will be talked about until the King comes again!
Response
Sometimes we get it so wrong. Locked into our own perspectives, passions and purposes,
some of them Godly, some less so, we can overlook awesome beauty in the relationships
God is forming with those around us.
Prayer
Jesus, who loved to spend time with the marginalised, with orphans and widows, rich and
poor, young and the old; I will make friends in the way that You made friends. Forgive me
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when I have given less friendship than I should, or worse, less than I really wanted, because
of what others might have thought.
I will sit at Your feet and worship You whatever others may think. I will make room for
others to sit there too, even when that challenges what some think is right and proper.
I will seek, by Your help, to employ the abilities You have given me according to Your
priorities alone. Teach me when to engage and when to disengage; teach me when to go full
throttle and when to step quietly back as the gifts of others very different from me become
prominent.
I may even choose to sit with them at Your feet for a while, letting some of Your perfumed
joy in them spill over and wash my spirit.
Sunday
12
Monday
13 Luke 10:38-42
Tuesday
14 John 11:20
Wednesday
15 John 12:1-8
Thursday
16 Psalm 16:5-11
Friday Saturday
17 Luke 12:22-34 18 Psalm 73:23-28
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Reading
Luke 11:1-13
Devotional - Prayer
On the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus shared secrets of His own impending departure.
Reluctantly accepting that their Rabbi is determined to give Himself up to His enemies, the
disciples now ask Him how to walk with the Father. Teach us to pray could be read as:
show us how You know what to do, share with us how You sense the Spirit leading You
this way or that, show us how to walk following the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar
of fire by night and how do we keep walking towards the promised land when You have
gone? If we come out of it alive, we will need to talk to the Father like you do!
With clear references to the Exodus, Jesus obliges:
Start by acknowledging your sonship. This must guide all that you do and say. Your life
derives from the Father. When you fix your eyes on Him, all will follow. You are made to be
like Him. The Word of God comes to Earth as the Son of God in order to communicate the
wonder that all men and women are made to be like God.
Our Father
Your Father is not of this world; He is of Heaven. Living as a child of God means ceasing
to live as a child of flesh. You have been made to carry the Spirit of God. The Son of God
calls you brothers and sisters and leads you into a new Kingdom that will outlive the
kingdoms of this world. Walk as pilgrims on this present Earth: you are not of it.
Who is in Heaven.
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When you hallow the Fathers name in all you do you will find yourselves dwelling in
His Kingdom. Uplift, honour, revere, prioritise the name the purposes of God and
everything else will follow. Make all that God stands for your preeminent concern and you
will become a true son.
Hallowed be Your name.
Hunger and thirst after the Fathers Kingdom. Long for it to come on Earth; now and in its
fullness when I come again to dwell forever with You. Set your heart on the Promised Land
and leave slavery behind.
Your Kingdom come.
Rely, each moment of each day, on the provision of our loving Father, putting away all
anxiety about what you will eat and what you will wear. Do not seek security outside of
the Fathers provision: one days provision is not only sufficient but it will keep you from
taking your eyes from the Father. In this position you will learn to read His cues, become
sensitive to His whispers and enjoy His comfort.
Give us each day our daily bread
Fulfil the spirit of the Law by forgiving those who sin against you. To love is to forgive and
to forgive is to love. Harbour no grudges and bear no hatred.
As we forgive those...
Set your hearts to live like this and your Father in Heaven will surely forgive you and love
you unconditionally when you slip back into sin and slavery. By that forgiveness, He will
keep you from bondage. My words will ever cleanse you and heal you when you become
dirtied and damaged.
Forgive us our sins
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Do not only seek our Fathers forgiveness when you fall, but actively avoid the temptations
that lead you to fall. In your daily walk, ask the Father to take away those things that lead
to sin.
Lead us not into temptation
This, then, is how to pray! Knock on the Fathers door without shame and with the
audacity of a child approaching her earthly father, for the Father is pleased to give you the
Kingdom, little children.
This is the secret of My walk with the Father. This is how to live when I have gone. If you
live and love and knock and seek like this then the Father will surely give you the Holy
Spirit as your helper, as He did me. The Spirit will lead you in works of power in My name
and teach you all things. You may even end up doing greater works than Me!
Response
The real point of prayer is easily missed. Although we are invited to make petitions to God,
this is only in the context of the greater purpose of prayer: conversing with our heavenly
Father in order to become more like Him.
Effective prayer affects our will not Gods.
We ask and do not receive because we ask wrongly (James 4:3). When we abide in Jesus
and His words abide in us, we can ask whatever we want (John 15:7). We will receive
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because what we want reflects what He wants. True prayer is spending time with God to
become more aligned with His person and purposes. This is what Jesus did when He went
away to pray. In this way, like Jesus following the Holy Spirit around Galilee, we become
partners with the Spirit in establishing His Kingdom on earth. Prayer is about tuning the
spirit, body and mind to walk with God. Prayer is about calibrating my life to the Holy
Spirit.
Prayer
Son of God, forgive me when I have seen prayer as a religious practice. My desire is to
speak Your language; to live like You did on Earth; to breathe in the Spirit of God moment
by moment. Take me to the quiet place where I can rest in You. Be the air that I breathe. Be
the light of my eyes. Be the sweet fragrance of the new dawn as I awake to live each day in
partnership with Your Spirit. You have taught me that to pray is to walk with the Father.
May my whole life be spent walking with You. As I do this lead me away from temptation
and change my desires to be like Yours.
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Sunday
19
Monday
20 Luke 11:1-13
Tuesday
21 Acts 1:4-5; 2:4; 4:31-35
Wednesday
22 1 Peter 1:13-2:3
Thursday
23 Matthew 12:22-28; Luke 17:20-21
Friday Saturday
24 Luke 18:1-8 25 John 16:24
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M A RCH/A PRIL 26-1 W EEK 19 DEVOTIONA L
Reading
Luke 12:49-59
Devotional - Signs of The Times

The battle between Jesus and the religious leaders is now white-hot. Why spend so much
time in His last months bating the Pharisees? Partly, perhaps, because the Pharisees are
ever more desperately trying to catch Jesus out and turn the people against Him. But Jesus
seems more offensive than defensive. I think He turns His energies at this point to breaking
down the walls of the enemy that entrap. Some demolition is required for the coming
Kingdom to spread!
The demon-possessed couldnt receive peace until Jesus had cast out their live-in agitators.
The WW2 Allies couldnt bring peace to Europe without casting out an evil regime. Jesus
kingdom invitation is being opposed by evil-inspired religion that lays burdens far too
heavy to bear on the shoulders of the innocent. Before He goes to the cross to deal the
deathblow to the kingdom of darkness, Jesus goes all out to break down some of its earthly
structures and thwart those who prop them up.
And so Jesus finds Himself calling out the hypocritical religious people who claim to be
spiritual wise. They can read the signs of the weather but in the spiritual matters they claim
to be experts in, they havent a clue. The light in their eyes is deep darkness. Their father is
not Abraham but the Devil.
Someone asks Jesus for a sign - in spite of His miracles! They want a sign to show them
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without doubt who Jesus is: Messiah, Elijah or imposter. Shortly after, Jesus is accused of
being an imposter, working in partnership with Beelzebub rather than the Spirit.
In that incident, we see the depth of the blindness of those calling themselves spiritual
leaders. Jesus exposes them in order to break their authority and release those bound-up
by it. True to form, the Devil has been artfully playing Jesus at his own game: some of
the Pharisees have been casting out demons. Someone reasonably but wrongly suggests
that since Jesus is opposing the Pharisees, who must surely be on Gods side, He must be
working for the Devil.
The signs of the times are becoming truly muddled in the minds of those whose light is
darkness! Jesus cleverly reverses the logic and re-establishes clarity. The real sign of a
demon being cast out by a more powerful demon is that the freedom achieved sadly doesnt
last long! The freed-up person becomes open-game and more demons than before will
return to plague him. Family members of the demon-possessed would have clearly observed
the truth of Jesus words in that casting out of demons by the Pharisees resulted in more
bondage, while Jesus demonic cleansings resulted in lasting liberation.
So what signs of the times are Jesus referring to as He blasts the hypocrisy of leaders
who cant see farther than their pious noses? They are walking in condemnation towards
judgment. The living Word has exposed their corrupt and self-serving system for what it
is. The Son of Man has placed a ladder to an open Heaven from which grace and freedom
are pouring out! The signs are clearly visible at every level to anyone seeking truth and the
kingdom of darkness is exposed whichever way you look at it. These signs include the truly
liberating freedom of Jesus demonic cleansing versus the Pharisees counterfeit cleansings,
the authority of Jesus teachings versus the emptiness of the religious teachers, the rising
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M A RCH/A PRIL 26-1 W EEK 19 DEVOTIONA L
tempo of the human and spiritual battle against Jesus, and predictions about His death and
resurrection. For those with eyes to see, the hold of evil is under attack and something very
wonderful is about to happen!
Response
Late one evening in 1974, in the unlit nave of a traditional English Anglican church, a
few teenagers in jeans and a priest in robes stood around an agitated young man in his
twenties, whom I shall call John. John had survived the drug-dazed 60s worse for wear
and for as long as I had known him, had barked swear words uncontrollably every few
minutes. People would cross the street when they heard him coming. Without much ado
and little more than a simple authoritative pronouncement of the purpose of Jesus to set
free the captives, John fell to the floor, writhed, barking for a few minutes and then fell into
peaceful silence. 40 years later I mentioned this to a friend from the same town that John
had been from. She knew him and was amazed to learn that he used to bark compulsively
like a dog.
No one can understand quite what goes on in such incidents, since we do not have scientific
instruments to measure the spiritual realm and we cannot, therefore, ascertain the link to
mental illness. All I know is that my friend was healed of severe Tourettes syndrome in an
instance and that he remained cleansed and free for 40 years. I saw the sign and something
changed inside of me. The sign convinced me at the time, and still does, that Jesus is who
He claimed to be. Many signs point to Gods active engagement with the world around us
if we will only see and understand.
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Prayer
Jesus, master of all seasons and epochs, moments and millennia, make me more sensitive
to Your presence, Your words, Your actions, Your dominion. I am too quick to take the
popular versions of world events, national politics, social and local trends, family and
personal situations. Help me to see that You are active and saying something in all of
them. Help me to see the signs of Your Kingdom as it interacts and sometimes collides
with the kingdoms of this world. I am a pilgrim in this world and follow You in a different
kingdom. I will be as wise as a serpent and as gentle as a dove as I discern what You are
doing and follow You.
M A RCH/A PRIL 26-1 W EEK 19 REA DING PLA N
Sunday
26
Monday
27 Luke 12:49-59
Tuesday
28 Luke 12:35-48
Wednesday
29 Romans 13:11-14
Thursday
30 Zephaniah 1:12; Matthew 25:1-13
Friday Saturday
31 Luke 21:8-36 1 Psalm 96:7-13
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A PRIL 2-8 W EEK 20 DEVOTIONA L
Reading
Luke 18:18-30
Devotional - Rich Ruler

In this story, Jesus challenges a wealthy man and attacks the religious establishment that
robs people of their freedom. The Pharisees were friends of the rich. Partnerships between
clerics and wealthy establishments have been forged throughout history, across religions.
Money and favours flow one way as false spiritual comfort flows the other, and both
parties enjoy false security that lasts only for as long as the ungodly system that sustains it.
There is no evidence that this man was particularly bad. There is evidence that his religion
is empty thats what the story is about. I think Ive always been sympathetic to him
because he seems so polite: Good teacher But Jesus cuts straight to the point to expose
him as another casualty of false religion that shadows people from the truth. If I am good,
then I am from God and I am about to test whether you are really interested in God, or
just interested in being seen to be good.
We do not have to doubt the mans answer as he has been a religious man since boyhood.
Jesus does not question the goodness of this. Yet while the end result of Jesus kingdom is
goodness covering the Earth, the way into the Kingdom is not by trying to be good. A man
cannot enter the Kingdom by following external laws or even internalised moral principles.
Goodness in the Kingdom comes from the relationship that a repentant person has with the
Son of Man. It is all about that relationship.
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If the rich ruler is truly interested in God, he will in some way embrace the challenge Jesus
is about to give him. So Jesus tests how much the man loves God rather than money. Sadly,
the true nature of the mans religion is exposed.
He walks away sad because his spirit retreated from Jesus. This wasnt how it was meant to
be. He has inherited or earned security in his earthly life and wants to ensure an inheritance
in the next life. Perhaps he was looking for Jesus endorsement of the good life he had been
living. Perhaps he wanted Jesus to say that an eternal inheritance could be his by giving
away a substantial amount to the poor. All Jesus does is to invite him to walk away from
earthly gods and follow the Son of Man. Thats all God asks of any of us.
The issue is not wealth. Not long after, Jesus confronts another wealthy man. Zacchaeus
doesnt offer to give away all of his money, but an offer of half is good enough for Jesus
because it was his repentant heart that mattered most. The rich man in Luke 18 is trying to
force his way into the Kingdom but misses the point. The issue is what we value and love
most: earthly or heavenly comfort, God and others or ourselves. The issue is dying to self
and casting ourselves into the care of the King of Heaven. Greater wealth means greater
earthly security and comfort and it is therefore harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom
because he has more to give up. It is not money that is the root of all evil, but the love of
money. Money emerged in primitive societies to replace bartering. Rare items like cowry
shells in the south pacific became something that could be exchanged for goods without
having to barter specific items. The shells became a store of value that could be saved up,
avoiding the inconvenience of having to store some of your rice and carry it with you to
exchange for fish. Money thereby gives power. Wealth is valued because of the power of
self-determination it confers. Jesus is asking the rich man to give up his power and trust in
the power of God. Trust and faith are the currencies of the Kingdom of God. That is why
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pruning takes us deeper into the Kingdom and all its joys. It takes away our power. We
become weak so God can become strong in us.
Response
When it comes to entering into the Kingdom for the first time or going deeper, God is
likely to challenges us on our strengths as much as our weaknesses. Good musician? God
may ask you to lay down your guitar before you ever get an opportunity to lead others
in worship. At least until its ready to be given back to you. Great communicator with
a theological degree from a good university? God may well ask you to sit under other
peoples teachings until the wealth of knowledge and communication skills you thought
you had are purified enough to use in the Kingdom. Super-intuitive, caring person with
deep natural insight and high EQ? Be prepared for God to prune all you thought you ever
had, even if it seems like you are left with nothing. Then He can really use you in prayer or
counselling. Or something quite different perhaps! Jesus comes first. That is the Kingdom.
It is all in the relationship between you and the King. Seek that first and all these other
things will be added to you.
Prayer
Keeper of the storehouse of heaven, save me from condemning the rulers love of riches
without seeing the dollar signs, treble clefs, sporting trophies, university degrees, childrens
accomplishments or number of Twitter followers that darken my own eyes. Test me Lord.
Be merciful to me. Prune me. Search me and know me. If I hold anything more highly than
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You or if the loss of something saddens me more than the thought of casting all into Your
hands gladdens me, then come Holy Spirit and convict me. Bring me to the point where the
sadness at the thought of stepping away from that sin I have come to love, is overshadowed
by the joy of Your forgiveness, acceptance and Your promise of abundant life here and
everlasting life beyond!
A PRIL 2-8 W EEK 20 REA DING PLA N
Sunday
2
Monday
3 Luke 15:1-10
Tuesday
4 Ezekiel 34:11-16
Wednesday
5 Ephesians 2:1-22
Thursday
6 1 Kings 8:46-53
Friday Saturday
7 Hosea 2 8 Ephesians 3:14-21
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Reading
Luke 19:28-44
Devotional - Entry to Jerusalem

This is it. There is no going back. Jesus has been in hiding, carefully moving between
places where there are crowds. The authorities wont arrest Him among crowds. On a
pre-arranged signal, someone (not Jesus, for the authorities would surely be watching
His followers houses for him) slips into Bethany and unties a donkey. Perhaps it was tied
outside the home for the poor where Lazarus is thought to have lived. Perhaps it was also
a signal for another carefully arranged move. Ever wondered how the crowds suddenly
appeared cheering on the road from Bethany to Jerusalem? Might a runner have gone on
ahead to bring them out to protect the Master: Jesus is coming!
Then Jesus is travelling along the 2-mile route, over the Mount of Olives and down to the
city. The crowds are welcoming him and singing a section from Psalm 118 (verses 25-26).
Their presence in large numbers keeps the religious police at bay.
Jesus weeps at the sight.
He is weeping for Jerusalem, which will one day soon be destroyed by Roman forces.
From His first young steps into rabbinical teaching in the Temple He would have loved His
ancestral city. It symbolises so much. It is the place where Gods prophets of old preached -
and died. And now it is His turn. Passing through the people He is as vulnerable as He was
passing through His mothers birth canal into a hostile world. Now, as then, a murderous
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king awaits him. At Jesus birth he was known as Herod the Great, and now he was called
Herod Antipater.
In the crowds will be every shade of response Jesus has ever encountered. Lepers who
returned to thank Him and those who didnt bother. A prostitute who fell at His feet to
worship Him and scornful on-looking hypocrites who had used her many times themselves.
A humbled religious teacher who secretly believes, and arrogant ones blind to the scale
of their waywardness. A poor elderly widow giving the little she has in thanks for Gods
riches, and rich young rulers holding on to the last penny while losing out on their
heavenly inheritance.
But very few understand whats really going on. Not long before, in a coded story, Jesus
said that He would go away to be crowned king and return to see what His servants have
done while waiting. Luke says that he told the story because the people thought that
the Kingdom of God was going to appear at once. The people were not a small crowd.
Jerusalem housed up to 100,000 in Jesus day. But during the Passover it is thought that
up to 3 million could have gathered around the holy city. They would have camped out
along approach roads in all directions, including the short road to Bethany. Rumours from
3 years of ministry were raging through the vast crowds like uncontrollable waves. An
echo of the shepherds and angels rumour from long ago is heard in the crowd: Peace in
Heaven and glory in the highest, someone shouts.
Jesus, however, is weeping for Jerusalems destruction. He knows He will become a

gruesome sideshow for most of these people in a few days, as their disappointment crashes
to a resounding crucify him! How can you be the Messiah if you cant even bring
yourself down from the cross? He weeps at the shouting but not seeing, like the rich young
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ruler He met not long before who welcomed the Kingdom outwardly but inwardly rejected
the King. He weeps that they do not understand the time that God has at last come to the
holy city to bring everlasting peace.
But He rides on. It matters not that He is misunderstood. The King is on a donkey a
sign of peace. But His donkey is a Trojan horse. Jesus enters the heart of enemy kingdom
to enact the final battle. His opponent, the devil is already in the city, waiting for His own
Trojan horse, Judas, who the devil will enter for the final deed. Days later, Jesus will slip
out of the city along the same road as He is now riding, hiding in the masses going back to
their encampments for the night. Satan himself, inhabiting Judas, will follow and perpetrate
what he expects to be the final coup to eliminate the Son of Man and secure the kingdom
of this world for himself.
But Satan is already undone and Jesus rides silently and alone on the donkey towards
victory. Not even His disciples really realise whats happening. Had God not blinded their
eyes, perhaps they would have abandoned their master earlier than they did. Only once do
we hear Jesus speak, in one of His final rebukes to the Pharisees, who ask Him to silence
the shouting people. If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out, Jesus responds. Creation
itself is awaiting the return of the King.
Response
Look beyond the crowds, whether they are shouting the right thing or openly opposing
Jesus. Look beyond the routines of personal life, church, work, world affairs and all that
fills the media. Things are not always what they seem. God is in action. He has a plan. Jesus
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is coming again. He is always active by His Spirit, preparing for that time. Dont be like the
servant who hid his talent in the ground rather than investing it in the Kings business while
the King is away.
Prayer
Jesus King of Peace, forgive me for so often following the crowd blindly and not really
perceiving what You are doing in events around me. Fill me with your Spirit so I can walk
with You bravely and resolutely through fickle crowds who do not understand You and
who may quickly turn dangerous. Show me the road to my cross my obedience and
empower me to take it up joyfully, filled with love and compassion for those watching but
not understanding.
Sunday
9
Monday
10 Luke 19:28-44
Tuesday
11 Isaiah 52:7-10; Zechariah 9:9-10
Wednesday
12 Isaiah 49:5-9; 52:13-15; Psalm 118:21-29
Thursday
13 Luke 22:7-46; Exodus 12:1-28; 13:1-10; Zechariah 13:7-9; John 15:1-17
Friday Saturday
14 Luke 23:26-56; Isaiah 50:6-10; 15 Revelation 5
Isaiah 53
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Reading
Luke 22:7-46
Devotional - The Last Supper

It is His last night of freedom and Jesus has planned an intimate farewell Passover meal
with His closest disciples. He has been appearing in the Temple among the hundreds of
thousands of visiting pilgrims, teaching and then disappearing into the crowds and joining
the flotsam drifting out of the city at night, followed by His disciples they would not have
risked travelling as a group. A fugitive in His ancestral city, Jesus arranges a clandestine
meeting for His disciples who will be taken by a man carrying a water jar an unusual
sight to a secret place where they can enjoy a last supper together.
The ritualised words and frescos take away some of the meaning of this scene. Jesus has
spent His last days delivering final attacks on empty religion and its corrupt perpetrators,
and making alarming predictions about the future. The Temple will be destroyed and the
worldly system that will kill Him will itself be destroyed. The Earth as we know it will pass
away and there will be no marriage on the new Earth; its inhabitants will have bodies like
angels and will not die. Heaven is reserved for those considered worthy of taking part in
the age to come. The Son of Man will bring in that age only after great political, social,
economic and natural upheavals; His followers will be persecuted and killed. All of this
may seem a long way off, so be vigilant, remember me and pray that you will not fall into
temptation.
No wonder the disciples are depressed they are exhausted from sorrow (Luke 22:45).
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He raises a cup of wine. Wine represents joy, celebration, life and was an essential part
of a meal as it is now in the Mediterranean. This is my blood poured out for you. Blood
represents life. This is how it is going to happen; this is the mystery of the gospel withheld
from your ancestors and from the angels. My life will be poured out into yours. We will live
together: me in you, you in me and together in the Father. Share my cup of wine as you will
share my life in the Spirit.
The joy I have shared with you I am putting on hold: I will not drink wine with you again
until the Kingdom comes on Earth. The wine represents not only Jesus bloody sacrifice on
a Roman instrument of torture, but the pouring out of his life. The cup of remembrance
recalls His absence from the Earth while He goes away to be crowned king, ready for the
real triumphant return. Do this in remembrance of me: whenever you drink wine, do not
forget the Son of Man who is the source of all joy. I will be gone from the Earth, perhaps for
a long time. Remember me as often as you eat together. Keep me central to your thoughts
and daily rhythms.
And the same goes with the bread. I imagine Him tearing it roughly. This is my body broken
for you. Dont let a single day, a single meal, go by without remembering the Son of Man
who came from Heaven. Do not be like the servants in the parable who forget their master
after he has gone or those who did not invest themselves in their masters business while
awaiting his return. And as you remember me, understand that my life is divided up into
your lives. My body broken is the seed that must die for new life to flourish. It is the yeast
that will bring life to the whole batch of dough, the seed that will grow into a mighty tree.
Again, He raises the cup but this time pronounces a new covenant. His life poured out
His blood - symbolises a new covenant between God and mankind. Repent, love and follow
the Son of Man and you will be forgiven your sins and filled with His spirit. That spirit
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will empower you to live as sons of God in this wonderful Kingdom. The simple spiritual
transaction has been enacted so many times over the last three years. Is it easier to say
your sins are forgiven or to say get up and walk? Jesus forgives sins in response to
faith. He accepts those who come to Him as little children simply willing to believe that
He is from God and, repenting, follow Him.
The cup of the new covenant is a cup of joy that comes through laying all down: it is
life that comes through death, resurrection that follows the grave and hope that follows
disappointment. Jesus will die and the spirit of the suffering servant king will be poured
out on all who will receive Him. His body will have been broken and distributed; He will
bring life to those who choose to once again breathe in the Spirit that God breathed into
Adam, raising him up to become a son of God. Only this time, the poured out spirit is the
Spirit of the incarnate Word of God who rode into Jerusalem to conquer sin and death and
overcame them triumphantly. By uniting his spirit with ours, He empowers us to overcome
sin triumphantly and live lives pleasing to God.
Response
It is worth pausing in our ritualistic repetition of the Lords Supper to make sure that
we are truly remembering Jesus in the ordinary parts of our daily lives. Do our meals and
other social times look forward to his final coming? Does our dinner table conversation
celebrate His Spirit living on in us until He returns in person to reign on Earth?
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Prayer
Jesus: Yes, I am coming soon
The disciple: Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
(Revelation 22:20)
Suffering Servant King, I will live every day to the full in anticipation of Your return,
remembering You when I eat and drink and in all that I do so that my hope in Your
Kingdom transforms my present. In you, I am born again into a living hope! (1 Peter 1:3)
A PRIL 14 GOOD FRIDAY DEVOTIONA L
Reading
Luke 23:32-56
Devotional - The Death of Jesus

As soon as Satan enters Judas, everything happens very rapidly. The end, mercifully for
Jesus, is no long drawn-out affair. From the arrest on Thursday night, He is taken to an
illegal court. Illegal on several counts: it is held at night, against Sanhedrin rules; it is
held in the High Priests home, which is not permitted for major cases; false witnesses
are called; Jesus is permitted no defence; and the prosecution has determined He is guilty
and deserving death before the proceedings begin. Determining Him to be guilty, Jesus is
handed to Roman authorities with a request for execution, a penalty the Jewish court is
not qualified to impose. Pilate consults Herod, who is in town for the Passover, since Jesus
is from Herods Galilean jurisdiction. But Herods interest in Jesus has passed. He had once
been keen to see a miracle and may at one time have been worried about that old rumour
from his father about a baby king. But now there are no spectacles to see and no threat.
His thoughts can return to his grand construction projects in Galilee.
In the end, Jesus death is decided on a whim. If the crowd had bayed a little less loudly, it
seems that Jesus may have got off this time. There would have been another time of course.
But it was all over and Jesus was on the road to His execution site within nine hours from
first being arrested. The Son of Man, the promised Messiah and King of Kings, is hung up
on a rough piece of wood where for each breath He has to heave His whole body weight
up using His nailed-on wrists and scrape His flayed back against wooden splinters. You
normally died of suffocation on a Roman cross but only after your arms and wrists had
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come out of their sockets and lengthened by 15 cm or so. Only after you have exhausted
your ability to pull yourself up for breath using your stretched soft arm tissues.
Much is made in the Christian religion of Christs suffering on the cross. Much is also
made of the theory or theology of the cross. It might present considerable challenge and
disappointment to some modern religious leaders to suggest that you dont actually have to
know anything about the cross to enter into the Kingdom!
There were two fellow convicts on crosses close enough to Jesus to utter a few words of
conversation in between their wretched attempts to breathe. One of them seems to have
once been in one of Jesus crowds. He rebuts the other who can only repeat the mocking
of the soldiers: save yourself if you are Messiah. Remember me when you enter your
kingdom. In the process of dying, Jesus reaches out with forgiveness, hope and new life:
You will be with Me in paradise this very day.
Just as the Pharisees overcomplicated the religion of law, the religion of grace can be
overcomplicated. Grace is not meant to be a religion. The free grace of God that came
to Earth through Jesus Christ was an opening of Heaven once and for all a tearing of
that curtain in the Temple that once symbolically separated God from ordinary men and
women. What matters about the cross is that it happened. We do not have to understand
its full significance to benefit from what happened on that dark Friday morning. For Jesus,
it was just the next step. He goes through it with gritted endurance and obedience as
something that has to be done. His commentary on His impending execution during the
meal the night before tells us more about His own insights into it than His time on the
cross itself. The significance Jesus gives to the cross is simple: His life must be extinguished
in order for His spirit to be poured out to all mankind. The fuller commentary is found in
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the intimate conversations with His disciples immediately prior to death, recorded in Johns
gospel, and the emphasis is the same: His death will bring God and man together forever.
The epistles, especially Hebrews and Romans, elaborate upon the significance of the cross
with complicated concepts that will help Jewish readers understand salvation by faith. In
Jesus own conversations about His death, the step He was taking was quite simple: He
would defeat death and pass the victory and the Kingdom to anyone who will repent, take
up their own cross and follow Him.
Response
There is the fact of the cross and the theory and theology of the cross. The fact that the
cross happened is more important than understanding the reason for it. Anyone accepting
that Jesus came from God and choosing to repent, love and follow Him, becomes worthy
of taking part in the age to come. In introducing people to Jesus, we need to be careful
not to impose hurdles that Jesus didnt impose Himself. Jesus was not in the business of
imposing religious hurdles: He was in the business of breaking them down. He offered
hope to those who caught something of the beauty of God displayed in Him, turned
around from their old ways of thinking and patterns of living and followed Him.
Prayer
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, forgive me when I have made Your
death into a religious icon. I am sorry for when I have allowed it to affect my emotions
but not my life. I have sometimes been drawn to the graphic thoughts of Your sacrifice and
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come away with gratefulness for Your death but with no real desire to repent and follow
You to my own dying and rising, conquering and living. When I have done this, I have
missed the point. I have even idolised Your death, dwelling on the blood and the suffering,
when You Yourself endured the suffering to dwell on Your life poured out and the future
hope offered to those who will receive it.
A PRIL 16-22 EASTER DEVOTIONA L 1
Reading
Luke 24:1-12
Devotional - Resurrection
Like the crucifixion, there is the fact and the explanation of the resurrection. You dont
have to fully understand the resurrection to benefit from what happened to Jesus. The
recorded facts are as follows: Jesuss body is certified dead by a soldier, taken from the
cross by secret followers among the Jewish elite, heavily embalmed with spices and strips
of cloth and placed in a tomb with the door closed first by the embalmers then sealed by
soldiers. There it lay over Friday and Saturday night. An earthquake and the presence of
angelic men shining like lightning are recorded. Life returns as the decaying seed of flesh
and DNA are re-built into something quite new but not entirely different. The raised body
exits the tomb, grave clothes shed; waits outside to greet women coming to complete the
embalming; appears to individual disciples as well as to groups of twos, twelve and five
hundred; makes a short journey to a nearby village and a long journey back to base-camp
in Galilee; enters a locked room like a spirit; eats and cooks food like a human; and shines
and defies gravity like an angel.
No wonder the preaching of the resurrection usually focuses on the theory not the facts!
The climax to the story of Jesus turns out to be something much bigger than anyone could
have expected. Luke and the other gospel writers take us into the realm of what seems like
science fiction. Only it is not. It is, in fact, the point of the whole thing.
So we have to turn to the theory in order to fully appreciate this difficult to grasp shift in
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events! The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 gives the fullest explanation and it is mind-
blowing.
In a nutshell, heres the big deal (and it is a big deal).
Jesus is not just King of the Jews, He is not just a Messiah for the whole world, not only
the Word, revealing what God is like, not just the fulfilment of Israelite traditions of
sacrifice and not just Gods means of extending forgiveness and reconciliation to all who
repent. What could possibly be more than this?
In addition to all this, Jesus is the second Adam (1 Cor 15).
Jesus is the start of a new phase of humankind; He is a brand new kind of created being
and a raising up of man to an even more God-like physical and spiritual state than
happened when God breathed into the first Adam. The eternal Word, through whom the
physical universe was created, came to Earth to be grafted into his creation as the first in a
new phase of that creation.
It perhaps explains the virgin birth and why Jesus had to rise again. The Spirit produced
Jesus in Marys womb. Jesus lived a perfect life and God raised Him in a new, modified
body, which Paul tells us is the same kind of body we shall receive after we rise from the
sleep we go to upon death.
Notice that Satan, who has been fretting, scheming and stalking Jesus does not appear post
resurrection. He is finished! The sting of death is sin (1 Cor 15); death is the end of life for
the person not walking with God. When Jesus rose from death in His resurrection body,
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He proved factually, with incontrovertible proof for those who saw, that death is finished
for those who are in Christ Jesus! Jesus walked on that road to Emmaus and all the way up
to Galilee in His new body untouchable, triumphant and filled with the glory of God.
When Jesus called out Father, into your hands I commit my spirit He handed over the
seed of His life, faithfully cultivated in obedience and love, to be planted into a new and
imperishable body that will one day return to Earth to reign.
I have always looked forward to the great journey to the next life. When I awoke from
four days in a coma in 2011, I was at first disappointed to find myself back in my old
body. Slipping out of and into life is so simple. My 87-year-old mother died this summer.
She said to her carer: I think I shall go to sleep now, turned over and was gone. After her
sleep, she will rise in a new body, and life will mysteriously have some links with the past
(they recognised Jesus and He showed them his scars). Our lives now are an adventure
with God, but when our time comes there will be a new adventure of being born again into
a new kind of world in which the beauty and love in this current world is unimaginably
enhanced.
Response
The finale of The Story of Jesus turns out to be a much bigger deal than anyone could
imagine. We may place the resurrection into a theological box as part of our creed. We
may assent to it mentally. We may demand that people confess their belief in it as a sign
of conversion. Or we can choose to consider the staggering implications of the raw facts
confronting those first disciples. Jesus is not just the Messiah; He is the second Adam. As
we align our lives with Christ through His indwelling Spirit, we cultivate a seed that will
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be planted into a new form of immortal body that has been created to live in harmony and
perfection with the resurrected King of Kings.
Prayer
Resurrected Jesus, forgive my lack of faith. Empower me to believe and live by the hope of
resurrection and to see the immensity of your story. When I sing about Your resurrection,
sometimes it is just an emotional stirring. Awaken my whole senses to the reality of what
You achieved in breaking Your body and seeding it to the far corners of the Earth. I will
take, eat and drink, forsaking all and following You. I know that I will one day be changed
into Your likeness. Death will have no hold of fear over me, for its sting has been turned
into glorious hope!
Reading
Luke 24:13-49
Devotional - The Road to Emmaus

First, lets set the scene, piecing together various accounts: Jesus inner circle has disbanded;
one disciple has committed suicide; two secretly tailed the arresting party on Thursday
night and, from the wretched shadows, witnessed two hurried night-time trials and a
conveniently rushed morning execution; and the other nine disciples have scattered.
Braving the execution with Peter and John, were some faithful women from Galilee.
Among them, three Marys: Jesuss Mother, Magdalene and the wife of Cleopas and James
mother. The Sabbath started on Friday evening soon after Jesus died. For 24 hours, none
would have travelled or worked. When Sunday morning comes, the few disciples who
know exactly what has happened to Jesus have difficult choices to make. With spices
prepared on Friday, the women brave the tomb before sunrise. An excited Mary Magdalene
brings the news to Peter and John. The two men run to the tomb.
So disbelieving and unprepared are they all that Peter leaves the tomb wondering to
himself what had happened; He and John go back to where they were staying; and
the rest of the disciples refuse to believe the womens nonsense. Only John believes
immediately.
Cleopas and a companion pack up and set off back to Emmaus, believing the angels to
be imagined and having no body to embalm. Someone must have taken it and that means
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more trouble. Doubly dejected, the couple leave the city that has brought them such
crushing disappointment.
On the way, Jesus draws alongside them! Jesus has by this time met with Peter and Mary
Magdalene. Cleopas and his fellow disciple must also have been close companions. Jesus
graciously comes to lift them from their misery and engage them in the victoriously happy
task now to be done announcing the resurrection!
What does the mysterious traveller teach them that so warms their hearts? Familiar
ground, no doubt, but with amazing revelations! Jesus, the seed that bruises the serpents
head in Genesis, has now crushed Satan once and for all. Jesus, seed of Abraham, has now
opened the inheritance of God to all. Jesus, like the pillar of cloud in the desert has now
parted the obstacles and leads a global exodus from slavery to sin. His death, resurrection
and glorification mirrored in Joseph, has happened; His birth and suffering servanthood
predicted in the prophets has come and gone; and His glorious reign, foreshadowed in King
David, has started. All is set for the dramatic events leading to His final victory that was
foretold in the Book of Daniel!
But this is not a history or theology lesson nor a secret body of knowledge that no one
really understands. It is an explanation of what they are now experiencing. Jesus will
have explained to them what He later explains to Paul: He is the second Adam, raised
from the dead as the first fruit of a mass resurrection of the faithful. Inheriting the Earth
comes mystically and immediately to Christs followers, through a peace that passes all
understanding, a love that will not let us go and a freedom from sin that liberates the most
bound and down-trodden. The disciples had struggled to appreciate even this version of the
Kingdom. Most, like the two on the road to Emmaus, were still expecting the Messiah to
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somehow lift Israel from Roman oppression and reinstate the glory of the Davidic kingdom
even after having spent three years with Jesus.
Then He breaks bread and they recognise Him. He disappears and they turn right around
and make the dangerous seven-mile evening journey back to Jerusalem.
There they meet the disciples, who have regrouped. Jesus appears to them all together, with
the same purpose. He explains what has just happened to Him and how it is a fulfilment
of all that God has ever said over the course of Jewish and human history. To their initial
disbelief and amazement, He shows them His resurrection body - the body of Christ, Son
of Man, the new Adam, poured out for many. Three days before, and in very different
circumstances, he had said: take, eat in remembrance of me. Now He says to them: stay
in Jerusalem until you have been clothed in power from on high. Wait here until the Spirit
clothes you with my body. It will empower you. It is broken and distributed to each of you
as a pledge, a seal, that your body will one-day rise again in the same form as the body you
are now gawping at and gingerly touching!
And he explains what it means for them next: they have been chosen to be witnesses of this
extraordinary event and to proclaim it far and wide.
Response
Ever wondered why Jesus chose only to appear to select disciples or why God chose to
make the resurrection a secret affair rather than raise Jesus in front of vast crowds? The
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resurrection body is a promise to those who repent and humbly accept Jesus as king. A
public resurrection would have drawn the wrong type of people into the newly established
church, those not interested in repenting and following humbly, and caused all kinds of
problems. On the other hand, a public execution drew the right kind of people into the
church. Resurrection is the end-result, the reward. It is offered only to those who will die
to self, accept Jesus and thus qualify for heaven. The same applies to the current benefits
of the resurrection. We take up our cross and follow our master and come alive spiritually
now as we will come alive in the future resurrection. We are called to go into the world and
communicate, not a second-hand story, but the power of His resurrection in us.
Prayer
Glorious Jesus, I will wait until I am so overflowing with Your Spirit that I cannot help but
tell others of Your resurrected life, poured into those who are hungry and thirsty for God.
If my Christianity is anything less, then come Lord Jesus, once more: I repent, follow You
to the cross and receive Your resurrection power.
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Sunday
16
Monday
17
Tuesday
18 1 Corinthians 15
Wednesday
19 John 20:1-18, 24-29
Thursday
20 John 21:4-7; Job 42:2-5
Friday Saturday
21 Acts 9:1-22 22 Acts 22:12-16
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Reading
Luke 24:50-53 & Acts 1:1-11
Devotional - Ascension
Between the resurrection and the ascension there are forty days, during which Jesus
appears to His disciples on twelve reported occasions. It is a sea of calm at the end of an
intense ministry.
That ministry started with a forty-day period and ends with a forty-day period. In the
first, Jesus wanders the land being tested by the devil, who was oblivious to his imminent
downfall. In the second, Jesus wanders the land He has taken from the devil and the devil is
silent! In the first, the devil takes Jesus to Jerusalem and to a mountain. In the second Jesus
takes His disciples to Jerusalem and to a mountain.
Why the symmetry? Forty days in the Bible represents a period of testing associated with
judgment and a new start. Noah was in the ark for forty days followed by a new start;
Jonah preached that judgment would be upon Nineveh in forty days, but they repented and
were spared; depressed, tired and fearful Elijah had no food or water for forty days on his
journey to Mount Horeb, after which he anointed a new king for Israel and a successor
prophet; and Moses was with God on Horeb for forty days followed by a new start for
Israel, covenanted in stone tablets. Moses was prepared for ministry through forty years
spent in the wilderness. This was followed by judgment of Egypt and then the Exodus;
the Israelites wandered in Sinai for forty years which was followed by them entering the
Promised Land.
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God opens the ministry of Jesus with forty days of battle preparation followed by three
years proclaiming good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight
for the blind and setting the oppressed free.
Who is being prepared in the closing forty days? Principally, it seems, the disciples. Jesus
delays His ascension to prepare witnesses to His resurrection, who He sends to Jerusalem,
Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.
So in Acts 4, after Jesus has returned to the Father and sent His Spirit in His place, with
great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And
Gods grace was so powerfully at work in them all. Peter speaks and three thousand
believe. In the forty days of preparation, Jesus, corrects his disciples understanding of the
Messiah, plants a sense of calling, and provides irrefutable evidence of the resurrection. The
apostles need to be absolutely convinced that God has raised Jesus from the dead with a
body that is imperishable, immortal, fully spiritual yet physical, reflecting Gods beauty and
glory and energised by Gods power (I Corinthians 15). They need time eating, walking and
talking with Jesus. Peter would not have stood up and convinced three thousand people
had he only briefly seen an apparition of Jesus.
At the end of forty days, preparations complete, Jesus draws His closest disciples together
at one of His favourite places - the Mount of Olives. As an aside: the Mount of Olives is
only a few miles from Bethany and I wonder if He had been saying farewell to His beloved
Lazarus, Martha and Mary. When Jesus revealed himself to Mary Magdalene by the tomb,
she had tried to cling to Him in a spontaneous act of love, not wanting to let Him go. Do
not hold on to me, He said, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my
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brothers and tell them. There will be time for farewells: I am not yet gone. For now you
need to run and tell the others. As well as preparing the disciples, perhaps Jesus also spent
time with the people and in the places He loved.
At the Mount of Olives, Jesus blesses the gathered disciples and rises up into the sky so that
they have to bend their necks, and finally disappears into a cloud. Why go in this dramatic
fashion? So that the angels can say Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into
the sky? 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.
Response
The dramatic exit establishes the promised return of Jesus not just as some obscure
theological teaching, but as a future event that is as factual and physical as the ascension of
His physical body into the sky. It will be the same Jesus returning, in the same resurrected
body. He will appear for all to see, coming on the clouds like lightning flashing from east
to west. He will come back in this manner after His Spirit-fuelled disciples including we
who have believed without seeing His new body first hand have done their job of bearing
witness to the power of the resurrection in their own lives, to the ends of the Earth.
I once had dinner with the government minister for poverty alleviation in a Chinese
province of 60 million people and the conversation turned to conflict in the Middle East.
I started telling Him about the age-old conflict between the two sons of Abraham and the
belief held by both Christians and Muslims that Jesus will one day physically return to
Earth in the same way that He ascended. As I talked about the resurrection and the future
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reign of Jesus his eyes burned with interest and his questions went on long after the eating
had stopped.
Are we churchgoers or are we witnesses to His resurrection? Do our lives demand that we
open the scriptures in explanation?
Prayer
Jesus Son of God and Son of Man, I fall like Mary at Your feet and as I cling to You. You
tell me to go tell others that You are risen. But then I come back and You let me cling to
You. You bid me cling to you. You call me Yours and draw me into the intimate living
room of Your Fathers house and promise me a place there with You forever. Only, one day
there will actually be here! One day You will come back to Earth and this Earth will
be made new and we will be eternally glorifying You; we will be living forever in sublime
fellowship with You in the new Heaven and the new Earth.
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Sunday
23
Monday
24 Luke 24:36-53
Tuesday
25 John 20:17, 21, 22
Wednesday
26 Mark 13:23-26
Thursday
27 Revelation 1:7
Friday Saturday
28 Hebrews 10:12-25 29 Hebrews 12:1-3; Revelation 22:20
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Story of Jesus Devotionals

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Story of Jesus Devotionals

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Devotional Guide

& Reading Plan

Enjoy the journey!

Devotional - We Want to See Jesus

Devotional - The Certainty of our Belief

Devotional - Preparing the Way

Devotional - The Angel Visits Mary

Devotional - Mary Greets Elizabeth

Devotional - The Songs of Advent

Devotional - The Shepherds

Devotional - Simeon and Anna

Devotional - John the Baptist Prepares the Way

Devotional - Jesus Baptism

Devotional - The Temptation of Jesus

Devotional - Jesus in His Hometown

Devotional - Calling The First Disciples

Characteristically He bows humbly to the ministry of others. Although He could muster

Devotional - The Lord of the Sabbath

It is a rule-breaking and game-changing moment that Luke records. A monumental shift

If I have ever entrapped others, knowingly or unknowingly by imposing rules, expectations

Devotional - Love Your Enemies

Devotional - Who Do You Say I Am?

With clear references to the Exodus, Jesus obliges:

Effective prayer affects our will not Gods.

Devotional - Signs of The Times

Devotional - Rich Ruler

Devotional - Entry to Jerusalem

Jesus weeps at the sight.

Jesus, however, is weeping for Jerusalems destruction. He knows He will become a

Devotional - The Last Supper

Devotional - The Death of Jesus

In a nutshell, heres the big deal (and it is a big deal).

In addition to all this, Jesus is the second Adam (1 Cor 15).

Devotional - The Road to Emmaus

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