Good Morning All!!
Acts 1:1; “In the first
book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach,”
Are you a starter? Do you have a lot of projects started? Do you like to start projects and then get
someone else to finish them? It is kind
of interesting that some of the world’s greatest masterpieces are
unfinished. Franz Shubert has the
“Unfinished Symphony”; Charles Dickens has “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”; these
are just two of the list of unfinished projects. Of course these projects went uncompleted by
accident not by design. Our verse speaks
of a project that is unfinished by design.
The Book of Acts is the second book of the
bible that speaks of Jesus beginning.
The Book of Mark starts with “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God”. Now Acts starts
with “with all that Jesus began to do and teach.” Both speak of Jesus beginning his
ministry. We see where Jesus is starting
but we never see where He finishes it.
He finishes the sacrifice on the cross “It is finished” yet in three
days he rises again and keeps on ministering to his disciples.
What Jesus began doing, he continues to do
through the Church by the Holy Spirit.
The message of the Bible isn’t some past event or ancient history; it is
the start of your life story and it is the start of my life story. It is in the Bible where God tells us of his
love for us; it is where God shows us his love for us by the offering up of his
son. The Bible is where God brings us
into His story, the story of restoring, reclaiming, and redeeming his creation,
of reclaiming you and me. The message of
the Bible is today and it is tomorrow.
It is God’s life refreshing message of hope and salvation. It is God telling you that you matter; you
are his redeemed child. Jesus began this
ministry and won’t finish it until he returns again.
This means that we, as Christians, live
in a state of “already but not yet”. We
are already saved; our name is already in the Book of life but we aren’t there
yet. Jesus has begun this good work in
you and will see it completed in his day and time. Our life with him has just started and our
time to serve with him has just started.
It has only begun. The old has
passed away and the new is here just not all of it. We live in the time of grace. We live in the time of God’s grace not yet
perfected, not yet completed. We are
given the time and the task of continuing the ministry of Jesus until he
returns. Jesus has begun this work,
continues it through us until He finishes it when He returns. God’s story of salvation continues through
you and through me. It is our hope and
our salvation.
Dear
Father, you choose to wait for the completion of Jesus’ ministry. Move us to use this time to bring others into
your kingdom. Let them see in us the
wonders of your love and grace. Keep us
strong by living in the message of hope that you give us. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.