Beauty For Ashes
Memory Verse:
'The last enemy to be destroyed is death. '
1 Corinthians 15:26
Sermon Sentence: I believe in a God that takes the things that are broken, ruined, and hopeless, and brings life out of the chaos, destruction and death.
Day 1
Read Luke 23:32-49
I do hope that you have read this story over and over again in the last few days and weeks. When you read it here in Luke, he gives so much for us to meditate on and think about. The last time I was reading it before writing this devotion, I was thinking about the many different perspectives he packs into this version of the story. Notice that the two men on the cross get their perspective told in the story, the crowd of people gets their perspective told, the religious leaders and the soldiers. To spend time meditating on this passage, you could take 5-10 minutes to think about each of those categories of people and how they would have worked out what they were seeing before them. Think about that: this Jesus thing meant something totally different to each of them, but ultimately the same thing to all of them. This was salvation for all who called on the name of Jesus, the Roman soldier, the crowd watching a spectacle, the thieves dying beside him, and even the disciples trying to understand what was happening. Who doesn’t love a good story with layers and characters like that?
What do you think it would have been like to experience this as a Roman soldier just doing his job?
What do you think it would have been like to experience this event as an everyday working person that just stopped to see what the commotion was about?
What do you think it was like to experience this event as each one of the two thieves on the cross?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
I do hope that you have read this story over and over again in the last few days and weeks. When you read it here in Luke, he gives so much for us to meditate on and think about. The last time I was reading it before writing this devotion, I was thinking about the many different perspectives he packs into this version of the story. Notice that the two men on the cross get their perspective told in the story, the crowd of people gets their perspective told, the religious leaders and the soldiers. To spend time meditating on this passage, you could take 5-10 minutes to think about each of those categories of people and how they would have worked out what they were seeing before them. Think about that: this Jesus thing meant something totally different to each of them, but ultimately the same thing to all of them. This was salvation for all who called on the name of Jesus, the Roman soldier, the crowd watching a spectacle, the thieves dying beside him, and even the disciples trying to understand what was happening. Who doesn’t love a good story with layers and characters like that?
What do you think it would have been like to experience this as a Roman soldier just doing his job?
What do you think it would have been like to experience this event as an everyday working person that just stopped to see what the commotion was about?
What do you think it was like to experience this event as each one of the two thieves on the cross?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 2
Read Isaiah 61
Prophecy is different from a narrative. You have to know that and get that a little bit to understand how to read the Bible, which comes to us in a wide variety of genres. I like a good story and can follow a historical retelling of an event, but not all of the Bible is written that way. Some is, for sure. When you open the book of Isaiah, you will barely get any stories that are easy to follow. Instead, you will get writings that you are constantly asking who it is supposed to be about and when it is supposed to be about. Prophecy is strange that way. It can be about right now while also being about back then. It can jump back and forth. If you wonder how in the world we can say that is the case, we just look at how the readers have constantly interpreted throughout church history. This passage is about the coming Messiah…some. It talks of a day that is coming and of an anointed that is coming. Isaiah is writing this, but it doesn’t really fit the text to assume that he is writing about himself. Even after seeing the rest of the story play out in Jesus' life and understanding what He brought to the world, you may have to sit and read carefully to understand what is being said here. Don’t avoid tough texts. Also, don’t assume that you will get it all figured out today. Just listen to its message and see what you can learn as you continue to grow.
If you just take verses 1-3, how does this fit Jesus’ ministry?
How do you see this as specifically good news for today’s world?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Prophecy is different from a narrative. You have to know that and get that a little bit to understand how to read the Bible, which comes to us in a wide variety of genres. I like a good story and can follow a historical retelling of an event, but not all of the Bible is written that way. Some is, for sure. When you open the book of Isaiah, you will barely get any stories that are easy to follow. Instead, you will get writings that you are constantly asking who it is supposed to be about and when it is supposed to be about. Prophecy is strange that way. It can be about right now while also being about back then. It can jump back and forth. If you wonder how in the world we can say that is the case, we just look at how the readers have constantly interpreted throughout church history. This passage is about the coming Messiah…some. It talks of a day that is coming and of an anointed that is coming. Isaiah is writing this, but it doesn’t really fit the text to assume that he is writing about himself. Even after seeing the rest of the story play out in Jesus' life and understanding what He brought to the world, you may have to sit and read carefully to understand what is being said here. Don’t avoid tough texts. Also, don’t assume that you will get it all figured out today. Just listen to its message and see what you can learn as you continue to grow.
If you just take verses 1-3, how does this fit Jesus’ ministry?
How do you see this as specifically good news for today’s world?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 3
Read Luke 24:1-12
Luke’s gospel is a bit different than the rest. He was telling the story of Jesus, but he kept going to also tell the story of the resurrection. It seems that most of the other gospel writers got to this point and then just left the story after a short sentence or two about Jesus rising from the dead, assuming the reader was living out the next part of the story after that. Luke had a goal to keep going in the story telling. Did you know he also wrote the book of Acts? That is the post resurrection story of the church then spreading throughout the known world and making disciples, the very mission that Jesus sent us all on after he ascended into Heaven. So for Luke, he keeps going with the story, hitting details that the other gospel writers do not have because they stopped telling their story before it all. I know you are probably reading this a few days after Easter, but we will continue with the story the same way that Luke does it.
There is a great lesson in the question, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” What is the application of that idea and how would you consider it in your life?
As you read this part of the story, how does it make you feel to see the doubts and struggles with believing that the disciples started with?
How does this become your prayer today?
Luke’s gospel is a bit different than the rest. He was telling the story of Jesus, but he kept going to also tell the story of the resurrection. It seems that most of the other gospel writers got to this point and then just left the story after a short sentence or two about Jesus rising from the dead, assuming the reader was living out the next part of the story after that. Luke had a goal to keep going in the story telling. Did you know he also wrote the book of Acts? That is the post resurrection story of the church then spreading throughout the known world and making disciples, the very mission that Jesus sent us all on after he ascended into Heaven. So for Luke, he keeps going with the story, hitting details that the other gospel writers do not have because they stopped telling their story before it all. I know you are probably reading this a few days after Easter, but we will continue with the story the same way that Luke does it.
There is a great lesson in the question, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” What is the application of that idea and how would you consider it in your life?
As you read this part of the story, how does it make you feel to see the doubts and struggles with believing that the disciples started with?
How does this become your prayer today?
Day 4
Read Luke 24:13-35
Luke hits a side story that he likes to tell. We don’t even know these guys or know anything about them, except that they are wrapped up in the current events and the drama that has been going on around town. They are on their way home discussing all that just happened on their visit to Jerusalem. That is a strategic thing to note for sure, because Jesus is about to take them from being tourists to Jerusalem to missionaries in their home places. Or maybe a better way to say it is that they were in the crowds of people that started to see it all and ask questions about what just happened, to being disciples that follow Jesus. That was the goal…remember? To make disciples, of all the world. So these stories were the very thing that launched the beginning of the local church as we know it, with the goal of continuing the mission of disciple making. Notice what Jesus’ approach to doing this work is: he took the old scriptures and explained to them how this all made sense now. It was God’s word coupled with the work of God that brought them to a relationship with Jesus that launched them on a mission to share the gospel with more. I love the flow of this story and the application to our lives today!
How does this story show us the priority and mission of the local church?
How does this story inform our efforts and goals of mission work outside the church?
How does this study today become part of your prayer?
Luke hits a side story that he likes to tell. We don’t even know these guys or know anything about them, except that they are wrapped up in the current events and the drama that has been going on around town. They are on their way home discussing all that just happened on their visit to Jerusalem. That is a strategic thing to note for sure, because Jesus is about to take them from being tourists to Jerusalem to missionaries in their home places. Or maybe a better way to say it is that they were in the crowds of people that started to see it all and ask questions about what just happened, to being disciples that follow Jesus. That was the goal…remember? To make disciples, of all the world. So these stories were the very thing that launched the beginning of the local church as we know it, with the goal of continuing the mission of disciple making. Notice what Jesus’ approach to doing this work is: he took the old scriptures and explained to them how this all made sense now. It was God’s word coupled with the work of God that brought them to a relationship with Jesus that launched them on a mission to share the gospel with more. I love the flow of this story and the application to our lives today!
How does this story show us the priority and mission of the local church?
How does this story inform our efforts and goals of mission work outside the church?
How does this study today become part of your prayer?
Day 5
Read Luke 24:36-53
Luke ends it all in a very Marvel-like way. The credits are rolling and he is still giving glimpses of the next movie and some Easter eggs to come (no pun intended there!) Acts picks up the story and continues and I would encourage you to read Acts in your free time. I am doing that right now. The way he ends the story really doubles down on the ideas of how he wants us to continue on with what he presents as the start here. Jesus ascends into heaven, but the disciples, they continued in their work. Look at what he says they continued in and you will see this repeated again in Acts 2. They spent time with God’s word. Trying to understand it. Learning and growing. They worshipped together. They proclaimed the salvation message. They set their sights on reaching the ends of the earth. They stayed tuned for the next steps they were called to.
How is this the mission of the church you are a part of?
What do each of these things look like in our context today and how could we do it better?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Luke ends it all in a very Marvel-like way. The credits are rolling and he is still giving glimpses of the next movie and some Easter eggs to come (no pun intended there!) Acts picks up the story and continues and I would encourage you to read Acts in your free time. I am doing that right now. The way he ends the story really doubles down on the ideas of how he wants us to continue on with what he presents as the start here. Jesus ascends into heaven, but the disciples, they continued in their work. Look at what he says they continued in and you will see this repeated again in Acts 2. They spent time with God’s word. Trying to understand it. Learning and growing. They worshipped together. They proclaimed the salvation message. They set their sights on reaching the ends of the earth. They stayed tuned for the next steps they were called to.
How is this the mission of the church you are a part of?
What do each of these things look like in our context today and how could we do it better?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
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