Yesterday we read about the first council at Jerusalem, and read about James speaking up from Amos 9:11-12. Today, let’s read that passage in it’s context. Read the whole chapter of Amos 9.

Questions:

1. What is this chapter about? What is being described?
2. How does the chapter make a shift from judgment to hope towards the end?
3. Why do you think James pointed to this prophecy in order to validate the decision to allow gentile believers to free free from Jewish laws? In other words, how does his use of this prophecy make sense?

Today, read Galatians 2:1-10 alongside Acts 15:1-35.

Questions:

• How does the Acts 15 passage clarify the controversy of Galatians for you?
• After Acts 15, what would you say is the “freedom” Paul is referring to in Gal 2:4? What is it freedom from, exactly? What isn’t it freedom from?

Yesterday we read that Paul was upset about the Galatians turning away from the gospel he preached to “another gospel.” Today, lets hear the gospel Paul preached in his own words. Read Acts 17:16-34.

Questions:

1.What is different about Paul’s gospel to the Athenians than other versions of the gospel you’ve heard? Specifically, what does he emphasize that you haven’t heard emphasized before, and what does he omit that you have typically heard emphasized?

2. If you heard the gospel articulated exactly this way in a public place today, do you think it would be criticized by some Christians? If so, why?

3. Read earlier in this chapter, Acts 17:1-9. In this passage the local Jews from Thessalonica are upset about Paul’s gospel, and summarize it as “There is another King, one called Jesus” (v7). Do you think this is a fair summary of what Paul says to the Athenians in 17:22-31? If so how, and if not, why?

3. Setting aside your previous concepts of the gospel, how would you summarize Paul’s gospel from Acts 17 in one sentence?

Read the opening of Paul’s letter to the Galatians again today (Gal 1:1-2:10).

1. 1. What seems to be the reason for Paul’s letter?
2. 2. What passages strike you as clues to the differences between Paul’s gospel and “the other gospel” he’s coming against?
3. 3. What questions, if any, do you have about this passage?

Today we begin our series on the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatian Christians.

Along with the letter to the Romans, Galatians is widely considered one of the two most important letters written by the Apostle Paul. These “books” in the Bible contain his strongest statements of theology concerning God’s plan of redemption for the world through Jesus Christ. As a result, the arguments and language of Galatians can be densely packed and difficult to grasp. To make matters even more difficult, there have been sharp disagreements about how to interpret and understand the finer nuances of Paul’s theology, and those disagreements have possibly become more strenuous in the last 15 years than they have ever been.

However, there is no reason we can’t read this letter together, and – with some diligent attention to the Old Testament narrative on the one hand and the first-century backdrop on the other – fully grasp Paul’s message to the extend that we are able today (we are always advancing in our understanding of theology, and we can expect that to continue).

Still, this will require some work on our part and it is well worth the effort.

Paul’s letter concerns nothing less than the meaning of the Christian “good news” or gospel, so this is something we must endeavor to get right. We’ve spent the better part of the last year reading through Christ’s teachings, ministry, death and resurrection, and as we move on to Paul’s letters we should bear in mind that some popular renderings of the Christian gospel (such as “Accept Jesus into your heart so you can be ’saved’ and go to heaven when you die” or, Joel Osteen’s “Let Jesus help you live your best life now” or political pundit Glen Beck’s recent articulation of the Christian gospel, “It’s all about you“) owe much to historical readings of Galatians and Romans, but they bear little resemblance to Jesus’ message of the Kingdom (see Matt 4-7, Matt 13, and Matt 25:31-46).

This apparent distance between Paul’s message and Jesus’ message is something we’ve inherited from the Reformation. 500 years ago the Protestant Reformers saw Paul’s strong emphasis on “salvation by grace through faith alone” as a powerful critique (and rightly so) of certain Catholic doctrines and practices that had no grounding in scripture. This Reformation emphasis, however, filtered through Enlightenment philosophies in the ensuing centuries, has only widened the apparent gulf between Jesus and Paul, leading some prominent contemporary theologians to conclude that Paul simply invented a new greek-influenced religion on top of Jesus’ death – a religion, they assert, that has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus.

This problem is not merely academic. Despite 500 years of strong emphasis on “salvation by grace alone through faith” in Protestant churches it is widely recognized today that the Western Church bears little resemblance to Jesus (the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church fare no better). Unbelievers have noticed too. As one recent book title puts it, They Like Jesus, But Not the Church.

So, one way to attempt to move past the weak or thin versions of the gospel mentioned above is to try to grasp how Paul’s teachings do, in fact, build faithfully on the gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed and demonstrated. This means we will need to dig a little deeper than normal, and perhaps ask some uncomfortable questions about our understanding of the gospel that reveal our own Enlightenment prejudices.

Again, let me say, it is well worth the effort. If we, as a small group of Jesus followers, do not grasp the depth and breadth of the good news that Jesus brings to the world we will be of little use to ourselves or anyone else. For the next 8-10 weeks, I’m asking you to make sacrifices in order to grapple with this letter from Paul. Work less. Spend less time watching television or surfing the internet. Spend less time at the gym. Whatever it takes to carve out an hour or so a day to seriously engage with the gospel of Jesus Christ that Paul is articulating.

No matter what you currently believe about the gospel, I can nearly guarantee that Paul’s breathtaking revelation of Jesus’ gospel will turn out to be a bigger, more surprising, perhaps more scandalous, and definitely more powerfully relevant to “real life” today than you realized.

A final word on what to expect from the format. Over the next 8-10 weeks we will gather on Sunday nights as usual and read through a portion of the text and engage with its meaning (we started last night by reading Galatians 1:1-2:10). Every Monday through Friday between gatherings we’ll engage with daily readings that help is dig a little deeper than we’re able on Sunday nights.

Today is our final reading before Easter, and much like yesterday’s chapter, today’s is packed with action as Jesus approaches the climactic moment of his earthly ministry. Take time to read through Matthew 27 today and reflect on the questions below:

Questions for Reflection:

1. What scene or character in this chapter do you most identify with? Why?
2. Imagine you were one of Jesus’ disciples, and expected him to be the anointed one who finally overthrew the Roman oppressors and vindicated you and your people. How would this series of events impact you? How might you have made sense of it all?
3. There is a tension that runs throughout Jesus’ ministry between him and his followers: they want him to conquer with power but he typically serves and sacrifices instead – including giving the ultimate sacrifice. That is, Christ’s strength always looked like weakness. How does this tension continue today between Christ and his followers?

Today read Matthew Chapter 26 and reflect on the questions below.

Questions for Reflection:

1. Chapter 26 is packed with action. What portion of it speaks to you most powerfully and why?

2. Which character in this chapter do you personally identify with most? What does it teach you about Christ and about your relationship with God?

Today’s reading is a little longer, and introduces us to Jesus’ teachings about the end of the age – a subject we don’t often hear about during the Easter season, but one that is obviously tied to his resurrection. So, read Matthew Chapter 24 and 25 and reflect on the questions below.

Questions for Reflection

1. How would you sum up Chapter 24? What is the main thing Jesus seems to be trying to say?
2. How would you sum up the teaching of the three parables in Chapter 25?
3. Why do you think Jesus might be discussing this during the week leading up to his crucifixion and resurrection?
4. How do you think this subject of the end of the age might be relevant for us today?

Today read Matthew Chapter 23 and contribute your thoughts to the comments below.

Questions for Reflection

1. What single saying in this long list of “woes” strikes you most or which one best sums up the whole list? Why?
2. If Jesus were to come today and give a modern version of the “woes” for Christians, what kinds of hypocritical behaviors do you think he would be condemning?

Today read Matthew Chapter 22 and Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and contribute your thoughts to the comments below.

Questions for Reflection

1. In this passage Jesus quotes part of the Jewish Shema from Deut 6, the most important prayer practice in Judaism (you can read more about the importance of the Shema here). How do you think reciting Deut 6:4-9 three times daily might affect your thoughts and life positively?
2. How can we know if a religious practice, like reciting the Shema three times daily, is effective for good spiritual formation or if it is merely an empty religious ritual? How are Jesus’ words in Matt 21-22 helpful in making this distinction?