Tuesday, November 4th

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Tuesday, November 4

Acts 5:12-18

Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison.

Back in my seminary days I had to take a course called “Clinical Pastoral Education” which involved serving as a chaplain in a hospital for a semester. There were about 6 or 8 students in my group; all from different seminaries around Chicago and all from different theological backgrounds. We took turns sharing our thoughts during a weekly devotional time. When my turn came I chose to share a quote from a book I was reading at the time that reminded me that even though I was called to minister to others I could not forget that I was still a sinful creature by nature. "I am a part-time novelist who happens also to be a part-time Christian… From time to time I find a kind of heroism momentarily possible—a seeing, doing, telling of Christly truth—but most of the time I am indistinguishable from the rest of the herd that jostles and snuffles at the great trough of life. Part-time novelist, Christian, pig." 
(“Telling the Truth” by Frederick Buechner)

I used the “pig” image to lead into the verse from 1 Timothy 1:15 where Paul writes:

...Christ Jesus came to save sinners, of whom I am the worst...

When I finished I thought I had done a pretty nice job! So I was shocked when the rest of the group didn’t agree. In fact, they were angry; I mean mad!

One woman was almost shaking with rage when she said, “How dare you! How dare you insinuate I am a sinner when I am giving my life to help people!”

And on and on it went; I thought I might need a police escort to leave the building!

I learned that no one likes to be called a sinner! I learned that before the gospel is good news, it can be quite offensive to some!

Look at what happens in this story! People are being healed by the power of the name of Jesus; you would think that the religious leaders would be overjoyed at what is happening in their city! But that’s not what happens.

But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison.

The gospel offended the religious leaders of Jesus’ day because they believed they were made righteous through their religious sacrifices. Jesus offended them because he didn’t behave in very religious ways in their eyes. Jesus offended them because they did not expect that the Messiah would die on a Roman cross.

Many people in our own culture find the gospel offensive because they regard it as the pinnacle of religious arrogance to make the claim of absolute truth.

“How dare you think you can tell me you have the truth!”

They will say, “Hey, that’s great for you; but that’s not my truth!”

The gospel offends some because it offends their notion of fairness. But the gospel isn’t built on fairness...it’s built on grace.

The gospel isn’t about getting what we deserve; it’s about receiving by faith what we don’t deserve.

The gospel isn’t about our goodness, it’s about the goodness of Christ himself.

In his book, “Explicit Gospel,” Matt Chandler writes:

“We are never, ever going to make Christianity so cool that everybody wants it.”

That’s another way of saying that some people will always find the gospel offensive.

Pastor Brian Coffey