Day Fifteen

If you have 5 minutes!

Read Acts 3:24-26

24 “Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days. 25 And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ 26 When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

As already highlighted on Day Four, Jesus’ commission that his disciples bear witness to him in Jerusalem AND BEYOND was not the first time God had revealed his desire to reach out to all people! Rather, right at the start of Israel’s history – back with a guy called Abraham – God promised that one day he would bless all peoples on the earth through Abraham’s offspring. At the time, Abraham probably thought that meant his offspring in general but now it is clear that it is through one man – Jesus – that this promise has been fulfilled. Led by the Spirit, it is now the disciples’ responsibility to spread this great news. At the moment they’re still just in Jerusalem but even here – as Peter indicates in his speech above – they have the bigger picture in mind.

• So, HOW BIG IS YOUR COMMUNITY? In other words, even if God has called you to Loughborough for now, do you – like Peter – try to keep this bigger perspective in mind? If so, in what ways does this impact your life in Loughborough? (e.g. Do you regularly pray for people of different nationalities and cultures to your own? Do you pray for people who are facing hardship in different countries to our own? How often do you remember the plight of Christians facing persecution in the places they live and pray or act on their behalf? Are you open for God to call you to a different country and serve him there? Do you regularly pray for people from OH who have done just this?) If not, maybe ask God to reveal to you more of his heart for the nations and ask him to show you what you could do in response to this.

If you have a bit longer :-)

All through his speech, Peter makes reference to various Old Testament people and themes to demonstrate that Jesus is the pinnacle of all of this and fulfills these various OT strands!

• On a scale of one to ten (it’s still scale week!), how familiar are you with the OT? How clearly do you understand the ways in which Jesus is the fulfillment of it? Would you benefit from looking into all of this a bit more? If so do you think you’d find it helpful to attend Open Heaven’s Bible Overview Course at some point?!?! (Shameless plug!!!)