Encounter with God: October–December 2019

By Mary Evans, Nigel Wright, Ernest Lucas and 5 more

Encounter with God is Scripture Union's daily Bible reading guide designed to lead you to a deeper understanding about what God is saying to you and to his world today. You'll find its thorough and energetic investigation of the whole Bible inspiring and stimulating. And you'll discover that its biblical exposition is complemented by pastoral warmth from a strong field of writers and contributors. As well as daily content, feature articles provide insights into Christian spirituality, tackle contemporary issues, and profile teachers who inspire.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scripture Union
• Release date: Jul 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9781785067235

Mary Evans

Former theological lecturer who still does regular stints as a visiting lecturer at the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology and elsewhere. Writing, speaking, church family, friends and Langham Partnership Board responsibilities fill much of the rest of available time.

Book preview

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Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version (Anglicised edition) Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica (formerly International Bible Society). Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK Company. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from The Message copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189 USA. All rights reserved.

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This edition of Encounter with God copyright © Scripture Union 2019. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978 1 78506 723 5 (ePub edition)

ISSN 2050-537X (Online)

ISSN 1350-5130 (Print)

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contents

Editorial: Stars and stripes

The writers

Using this guide

Stars and stripes

Sally Nelson, editor

A street preacher wearing a placard shouts into the indifferent crowd in a northern city near to where I live in the UK: ‘Are you thinking about Jesus this Christmas? Or are you just thinking of an alcoholic party?’ No one stops, and no one seems to be listening. Although the preacher’s attitude might put people off, his question is perfectly reasonable – few of the festive displays in the teeming shops have nativity themes associated with them – but maybe all of us need to check out whether we are really thinking about Jesus at Christmas.

This quarter our Christmas readings are from Matthew. It is fascinating to hear about Joseph’s experience: his surprising dreams of angels; his compassionate response to his mysterious fiancée; the hardships of their early life as parents. Matthew hints constantly at the prophetic fulfilment that is implicit in this child’s nativity, so that its significance would not be lost on his Jewish readers. But things can stare us in the face and we don’t see them, as the street preacher reminds us. Are we thinking about the REAL Jesus this Christmas?

I see three strange things in Matthew’s Christmas story. First, God uses people whom we might think unsuitable – not only the unmarried Mary and Joseph, but the Persian astrologers who were quicker than the Jews to see the King’s glory (in the OT, astrology is questioned: see Isaiah 47:13–15, for example). Second, God seems to take serious risks. Not only the hazardous pregnancy and birth, not only the multiple visitors to a tiny baby (imagine the safeguarding issues!), but the sheer nastiness of Herod, under whose jurisdiction the incarnation took place. Third, the countercultural nature of Jesus’ kingship when compared with this other king, Herod. While Herod stamped around in vindictive power, Jesus was vulnerable at birth and vulnerable at death: this is the strange and powerful love of God for us.

The reality of life is stars and stripes: glory and vulnerability. Which Jesus are we looking for this Christmas?

Sally Nelson

Editor

Angela Grigson

Content Project Manager

ON THE COVER ‘Maybe all of us need to check out whether we are really thinking about Jesus at Christmas.’

Writers

Nigel Wright is a Baptist minister, Principal Emeritus of Spurgeon’s College, London and former President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain.

Mary Evans is a former theological lecturer, still involved with research supervision and marking. Writing, speaking, church, family, friends and Langham Partnership Board responsibilities fill much of the rest of available time.

Daniel McGinnis is the Vice Principal of St Hild College, and leads the Barnabas Teaching Centre in Sheffield. He is also the Executive Director of the Leeds School of Theology. He loves the book of Acts, and has a passion for seeing today’s church inspired by the earliest church. He also enjoys teaching theology, particularly New Testament studies and hermeneutics.

Ernest Lucas was a research biochemist before studying theology. He has doctorates in both disciplines. Now retired, he had pastorates in Durham and Liverpool, and taught Biblical Studies at Bristol Baptist College, where he was Vice Principal. He has written commentaries on several Old Testament books.

Mark Keown is a Presbyterian minister and New Testament lecturer at Laidlaw College in Auckland, New Zealand.

Alison Lo is an Old Testament scholar. She formerly taught at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, London School of Theology, Moorlands Midlands Centre and Singapore Baptist Theological Seminary.

Gareth Higgs is the Superintendent Minister of Plymouth Methodist Mission. He is a husband, and dad to three children.

Jonathan Lamb is an author and Bible teacher, and serves as Minister at Large for Keswick Ministries and as a vice president for IFES. He was formerly the director of Langham Preaching, and continues to train pastors and preachers around the world.

Using this guide

Encounter with God is designed for thinking Christians who want to interpret and apply the Bible in a way that is relevant to the problems and issues of today’s world. It is based on the NIV translation of the Bible, but can easily be used with any other version.

Each set of readings begins with an Introduction to the section you are about to study. The Call to Worship section at the start of each note should help you consciously to come into God’s presence before you read the passage. The main Explore section aims to bring out the riches hidden in the text. The Growing in Faith section at the end suggests ways of applying the message to daily living.

The Bible in a Year readings at the foot of the page are for those who want this additional option.

Contents

Luke 9:18 – 13:9

Tuesday 1 October

Wednesday 2 October

Thursday 3 October

Friday 4 October

Saturday 5 October

Sunday 6 October

Esther

Monday 7 October

Tuesday 8 October

Wednesday 9 October

Thursday 10 October

Friday 11 October

Saturday 12 October

Sunday 13 October

Monday 14 October

Tuesday 15 October

Wednesday 16 October

Thursday 17 October

Friday 18 October

Saturday 19 October

Sunday 20 October

Luke 13:10 – 18:43

Monday 21 October

Tuesday 22 October

Wednesday 23 October

Thursday 24 October

Friday 25 October

Saturday 26 October

Sunday 27 October

Monday 28 October

Tuesday 29 October

Wednesday 30 October

Thursday 31 October

Friday 1 November

Saturday 2 November

Sunday 3 November

Monday 4 November

Tuesday 5 November

Wednesday 6 November

Thursday 7 November

Friday 8 November

Saturday 9 November

Sunday 10 November

Haggai and Zechariah

Monday 11 November

Tuesday 12 November

Wednesday 13 November

Thursday 14 November

Friday 15 November

Saturday 16 November

Sunday 17 November

Monday 18 November

Tuesday 19 November

Wednesday 20 November

Thursday 21 November

Friday 22 November

Saturday 23 November

Sunday 24 November

Luke 19–21

Monday 25 November

Tuesday 26 November

Wednesday 27 November

Thursday 28 November

Friday 29 November

Saturday 30 November

Sunday 1 December

Monday 2 December

Tuesday 3 December

Wednesday 4 December

Thursday 5 December

Friday 6 December

Saturday 7 December

Sunday 8 December

Proverbs 19–27

Monday 9 December

Tuesday 10 December

Wednesday 11 December

Thursday 12 December

Friday 13 December

Saturday 14 December

Sunday 15 December

2 Peter

Monday 16 December

Tuesday 17 December

Wednesday 18 December

Thursday 19 December

Friday 20 December

Saturday 21 December

Sunday 22 December

Matthew 1 and 2; Malachi

Monday 23 December

Tuesday 24 December

Christmas Day

Thursday 26 December

Friday 27 December

Saturday 28 December

Sunday 29 December

Monday 30 December

Tuesday 31 December

Interview: Seeking sure foundations in today’s world

Introduction

LUKE 9:18 – 13:9

The Cost of Discipleship

The title for the following studies is borrowed from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic work The Cost of Discipleship, first published in Germany in 1937. Intended as an exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, this writing was penned at a time when the need to resist the pressure to conform and to remain focused on Christ could not have been greater. It is well known that Bonhoeffer’s own determination to follow Christ was to lead to his martyrdom in Flossenburg concentration camp in April 1945. The opening words of the book are ‘Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace’.¹ Bonhoeffer embodied what he proclaimed, as did the Lord who was his inspiration.

Although these notes on Luke do not contain the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 5–7 and Luke 6 for this), we are confronted with the fact that following Christ is the greatest challenge we will ever face. As he makes his way towards death and martyrdom (and much more) in Jerusalem (‘for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!’ – 13:33), Jesus calls his followers to tread in his steps, to give up everything for the sake of identification with him. This challenge is for us all and is clear. Yet how it is worked out may be different for each one of us.

By following the Gospels closely, we can discern two circles of disciples, one inside the other. The inner circle consisted of men and women (8:1–3) who quite literally followed Jesus on his preaching journeys. They included the twelve (9:1–6) and maybe the seventy-two (10:1), and their lifestyle was stringent. Beyond these were those who stayed in their towns and villages, acting as those who ‘promote peace’ (see 10:6) and as the multitudinous family of disciples who give succour and support. Both circles are important. Whatever our calling, the challenge is the same: to offer up everything for Christ.²

Nigel Wright

¹ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, Reprint, SCM Press, 1959, p35 ² Matt 19:29

Tuesday 1 October

The Misdirected Life

‘Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.’¹

Luke 12:13–21

Few words of Jesus are more difficult for today’s disciples to hear than these. After all, we live in a world that is dedicated to the precise opposite of what Jesus says here. We are conditioned to believe that our life does indeed consist in the abundance of the things we possess. This is the age of the upgrade, the search for more, bigger and better things. Yet there is a problem: we actually do need to consume. We do need food, clothes, shelter, education, culture and much else. We do need to make reasonable provision for the future, to be a minimal burden on others. How do we avoid the legitimate need to consume becoming the culture of consumerism?

Jesus’ parable of the rich fool is triggered by someone in the crowd trying to get Jesus to arbitrate over an inheritance. Jesus declines. Perhaps the person has a legitimate case, but Jesus discerns a greedy attitude and will not collude. It prompts him to point out the foolishness of putting our trust in the search for security through