Opening Prayer:
Creator of all, we thank you for the opportunity to gather in study. Open our minds and hearts. By the power of the Holy Spirit, unite us in faith, hope, and love. Help us to be faithful to the gospel and to walk humbly with you. Grant us your peace as we grow in wisdom and understanding. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
John 10:1-10 How can we discern the voice of our shepherd, Jesus, in all this noisy clamor?
Jesus was a master at using objects and illustrations from everyday life to convey his teachings. This passage (and most of John 10) tells how he used the images of sheep and shepherd to help explain his relationship with his followers. In a society of farmers and herders, the relationship of a shepherd with his sheep would have been very familiar. Drawing upon these images, Jesus began by saying who he was not. His hearers knew well that sheep were very vulnerable animals for which the shepherd must offer extensive care. A lazy, careless or disinterested shepherd would neglect or endanger the flock (the nation). Jesus would not be like the would be shepherds. Jesus knows his sheep by name and calls them, and they know his voice. Some who heard did not understand. Jesus’ primary audience may still have been the Pharisees addressed in John 9. Their failure to understand was not just a matter of intellect but of the heart. These images Jesus used have a movement. The shepherd and gatekeeper not only protect and lead the sheep but go well beyond. They come to bring abundant life.
1 Peter 2:19-25 When is it justified to “stick up for our rights?”
Today’s verses from First Peter are set in the larger context of an emphasis on submission to and respect for authority—political, societal, familial, and, ultimately, divine authority. Peter was urging his readers to use their freedom responsibly and to live exemplary lives so as to make an upright witness and give no cause to their detractors for criticism or persecution. In this connection he counseled Christian slaves to respect and obey their masters, even when they are treated unfairly (2:13-18). In the stratified class system of Peter’s day, slavery went largely unquestioned. Nor did Peter challenge it in this passage, probably because Christians, a tiny persecuted minority, were in no position to take on a major institution of the Roman Empire.
Acts 2:42-47 Do you have a personal rule of life and faith?
The early believers did not separate from the Temple in Jerusalem until it was destroyed. In fact, they went there together at designated times throughout the day for prayers, teaching and worship. Most likely what the apostles taught was what they remembered from Jesus’ teachings (see John 14:26). The Greek word for this is didache (teaching). They also congregated in their homes, eating together and also most likely serving Holy Communion. Christians have always found strength and a renewed sense of unity by sitting in fellowship around the table. There was a sense of awe and expectation as the growing community worshipped God together. Some point out that Luke’s snapshots of the early church are idealistic. Maybe that’s true. We know from reading the rest of Acts that the church would soon have problems and challenges. There can be no doubt, however, that something profound had happened to these people. They had been transformed. And through them and those after them the world would begin to be transformed as well.