DNA Study of Acts Part 3 (3:1-4:31): "Healing Power" (February 1-7, 2015)

DISCIPLESHIP

Focus Verse

Acts 3:12: "Peter saw this opportunity and addressed the crowd. 'People of Israel,' he said. 'What is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we made this man walk by our own power or godliness?'"

Bottom Line

Our mission calls us to bring healing and God must always get the glory.

Tension

Healing. What unfolded in Acts 3 was a supernatural healing. Today we don't seem to see the same sort of miraculous healings in our churches. We are blessed to have been given modern medicine and the many advancements that have come with it, but rarely do we hear about these unexplainable stories of physical restoration. And despite our many advancements in the area of physical needs, our emotional, relational, and spiritual needs are greater than ever. We seem helpless to do anything about it. Our lives are riddled with broken relationships, broken egos, and broken spirits, and we eventually reach a place where we don't believe any healing can ever take place.

Sometimes we just deny that any healing is needed. We deny that there is a problem. We think that because our eternity has been redeemed by Jesus, that we are not allowed to have areas of our life in need of growth and restoration.

When we do experience healing, we do whatever we can to rationalize and explain them. When we see amazing things happen, we jump to the reasons instead of pointing to the only person that could have made it happen in the first place. Why do we seem so incapable of experiencing healing? Why do we always have some area of our lives that is shattered, broken, and seemingly without hope?

Truth

Jesus rescues, redeems, and restores. This is the good news. This is the gospel.

What happened in this scene was astonishing. Peter's healing of the blind beggar was incredible because it showed how powerfully God works through human beings when they are fully committed to his mission and dependent on his power. We know Peter was doing both of these things because Peter didn't hesitate to point out who did the healing: God. It was God's mission and it was God's power, not Peter's.

There are a few things we can learn from Peter's experience here that can change the way we see what we're doing:

1. He trusted in God's power to heal. Never once do you get a doubtful vibe from Peter. When he approached this blind, crippled man, Peter didn't hint at the possibility of healing. He expected it. He trusted in God's power to heal the man long before the opportunity presented itself. He didn't have to see it first to believe.
2. He believed he was called to carry out God's mission. Peter never would have even considered healing the blind beggar if he didn't believe it was what he was supposed to do. But Peter understood that being a follower of Jesus wasn't just about following a set of moral do's and don'ts. Peter grew up in a Jewish tradition that defined people by moral standards, determining a person's spiritual maturity by what they didn't do, but in being a missionary Peter understood that his life would be remembered not by what he didn't do, but by what he did do in obedience to Jesus. Being a Christ follower made Peter a missionary and this meant carrying out God's good news of rescue, redemption, and restoration into a fallen world.
3. He acknowledged that there was something to be healed. This might sound obvious, but Peter didn't deny that the man had an issue that needed to be dealt with. He was clearly moved by the beggar's hurt and broken state and he was willing to take action.
4. He put the spotlight on God. Peter's decision to put the focus on God when everyone was ready to give him the credit was counterintuitive. He could have said, "Hey everybody, check out what I did!" But he didn't do that. He gave glory to the great Healer. He didn't even begin to try and explain what happened. This is not normal. We have been plagued by a constant need to understand when God doesn't ask that we understand Him. He asks that we worship Him.

Challenge

How can you model your actions and behaviors after Peter's? What is God challenging you to do today in these four areas?

1. Trust. Do you trust in God's power to heal the areas of your life that need healing? Do you truly believe that healing can happen or do you feel defeated? What about areas of brokenness in the world around you? Can you honestly say that you believe in God's power to rescue, redeem, and restore the broken lives, relationships, physical and emotional needs of the world? How can you be more trusting of God's power to heal in your life and the world around you?
2. Mission. Do you see yourself as a missionary? Do you believe God has called you to live out God's mission in the world? Is your life marked by sin avoidance, a pursuit of doctrinal precision, and moralism? Or is it marked by obedience to the mission of Jesus and an insatiable desire to do something about the brokenness in the world? Are you a part of a Microchurch at Echo and, if so, are you being a missionary to its mission field? Have you been putting your words into action?
3. Honesty. Are you aware that you have areas of your life that need healing? Are you willing to admit that you still have room to grow? What are some of those areas? Name them specifically.
4. Worship. Do you put the focus on God when healing takes place in your life or other people's lives? What would you have done if you were in Peter's shoes? Would you point to Jesus as the great healer or take the credit? Do you have a need to understand or are you willing to move beyond understanding to worship? Are you moved to humility by God's power? How can you better put the focus of your life on Jesus instead of yourself in the area of healing?

Dream

Imagine your life completely healed and restored, without broken relationships, hurt friendships, and feelings of emptiness. Think about what it would be like if you were walking in the full power of God to live completely and totally for him. Imagine a world where healing is normal. What would that be like? Imagine all of the death, disease, brokenness, and sadness of humanity redeemed and restored. Now imagine that God has invited you to be a part of His mission to bring that restoration to it. What gifts, skills, and abilities has God given you? What has he made you passionate about? What has your Microchurch devoted themselves to as a mission field? Imagine what it would be like with all of you working together for the advancement of God's mission, passionately pursuing his healing of the mission field He has called you to. Now go. Live it.

NURTURE: GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• What part of this devotional spoke to you the most?
• Do you think it's easy or difficult to trust in God's healing in your life? What about in the world around you? Why?
• Do you see yourself as a missionary through your church and/or Microchurch? How do your actions reflect this?
• What areas of your life need healing? Have you been honest to yourself about these areas so you can grow through them or have you ever found yourself in denial?
• What is one thing you can change (or begin changing) today in order to find healing in your life? Is there a specific action you can take to make this happen?
• What specific needs do you see in your Microchurch's mission field? Have people in the mission field expressed any specifics?

ACTION: PLAN & PRAY

• What does your Microchurch have coming up that needs to be planned (in terms of Micromissions and Echo Parties)? Supplies? Deadlines? Who will do what?

Pray as a group for the following areas:

• Individual Growth: Pray for each other's areas of need for healing.
• Missionary Formation: Pray for each other to be missionaries to your mission field, bringing healing and restoration.
• Group Growth: Pray for the group's unity and dedication to your mission field.
• Mission field: Pray for your mission field, naming specific needs and people.

DNA Study of Acts Part 2 (2:1-47): "Total Devotion" (Week of January 25-31, 2015)

DISCIPLESHIP

Focus Verse
Acts 2:42: “And they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching, to fellowship, to breaking bread, and to prayer."

Bottom Line

Being a part of a local church requires more than just what we can get out of it. It requires devotion.

Tension

This idea of devotion is an incredible thought. It reflects the idea of covenant commitment that we find throughout Scripture, this thing that goes beyond promises and becomes a relational bond that surpasses any expectations. We see God enter into covenants with people throughout the Bible and we tend to see it as a "promise," but a covenant is not a promise because promises can be broken, and God always fulfills his covenant. 

Our culture has a hard time understanding this type of devotion to another person. Imagine, though, a mother’s relationship to her newborn child. Even though the child can do nothing in return, the mother’s bond and love for the child is too great to be offended. She will honor, protect, and look out for her child no matter what. It’s not about her, and she knows that. Another person’s life matters more than what’s in it for her. Our culture would be shocked and dismayed if the mother abandoned her child. This is an example of covenant devotion.

We rarely treat any areas of life like this, including the Church. We might not say it exactly like this, but we want to ask, “What’s in it for me?” We go to churches and immediately begin evaluating if it will “meet my needs” or “feed me.” Our focus is on how excellent the children’s ministry is, if the pastor’s sermon fed us or went deep enough, or if the music matched our particular taste. This is totally and completely understandable for a person who is not a follower of Jesus, but when we begin the Christian journey, we are supposed to move from consumer to contributor, from “me” to “we.” It’s not about me anymore. It's about us. More importantly, it's about Jesus.

Have you ever thought about how incredibly consumeristic we are when it comes to church? I think that if the people in these early days were to walk into one of our churches today, they might not even be willing to call us a “church.” After all, do we really understand what it means to commit ourselves to one another in this covenant devotion way, where the only expectation is on ourselves to love fully and give ourselves to our brothers and sisters in Christ through friendship, compassion, and prayer? I’m not sure how we can repeat what they did, but these early church believers got it.

Truth

Acts 1:8 is one of the most beautiful pictures of the local church. The sentence just before it describes a scene in which 3,000 people become followers of Jesus. Three thousand people! Can you even imagine that many people following Jesus for the first time all at once? And what’s the first thing they do? They “devote themselves.”

I think these four things were a picture of God’s dream for what the local church is meant to look like:

1. The apostles’ teaching. The first thing they devoted themselves to was the teaching of the early church leaders. It’s also important to note the context of what we’re suggesting here. These people didn’t have what we know today as the New Testament of the Bible. It hadn’t even been written yet! But the apostles were the initiators of the vision. They were the church planters (this is what apostolos meant: “sent one”) and their vision was new, raw, and challenging. These guys were saying things that the early church believers had never heard before. Now the fact that this verse says they “devoted themselves” to the apostles’ teaching is amazing to me. 

After years of teaching in ministry, I can tell you that this is not normal, and it really hits home for me personally. I can give you countless examples of friends of mine in ministry who have reached a point of disliking the idea of getting up to give messages on Sunday because the last thing anyone in their church is doing is devoting themselves to the teaching of the pastor. I know one guy who said he has gone for over a decade without preaching a single sermon that didn’t result in a nasty email the next morning. Sad? Yes, but that’s what makes this scene in Acts 2 so amazing. I would more likely expect that they would analyze, pick apart, and evaluate their leaders’ teaching until there’s nothing left but scraps. But these young believers didn’t do that. Instead, they were teachable. They were coachable. They weren’t fiddling with semantics and nit-picking. They wanted to grow. 

They weren’t blind followers either (the Bible teaches that early church believers would examine the Scriptures to validate the claims of the apostles, to make sure it was truthful), but they also weren’t looking to poke holes in the teaching of the apostles. Instead, they chose to follow Jesus by following the apostles, in the same way that Timothy followed Paul’s teaching. 

Something else that makes this scene is so beautiful is the fact that these 3,000 people were all just starting out in their faith. There’s just something about us when we first begin following Jesus that makes us more teachable. Over time, we lose the ability to learn and grow and develop and, sometimes, we sadly hide this under a mask of spiritual maturity. I think teachability is difficult. It takes laying down our pride. It takes setting aside our own opinions, sometimes, and a willingness to learn a new way. As long as a pastor or church leader isn’t in outright denial of the gospel that is taught in Scripture, we should always be looking to learn from them, especially if they are further down the road from us in their spiritual journey. 

2. Fellowship. The second thing they devoted themselves to was fellowship. They experienced a sort of depth of community that was rare. They were united around their common identity in Jesus and the new mission he had given them. They didn’t have to manufacture community, but I doubt it was totally effortless either. After all, if it was effortless then they wouldn’t have to devote themselves to it! Any time you enter into new relationships with people, you have to commit yourself to the relationship before the depth of community happens. It takes devotion. 

3. Breaking bread. The third thing these new followers of Jesus devoted themselves to was breaking of bread. Now, in a lot of church circles we have interpreted this to mean the Eucharist, or Communion, in which we drink wine and eat bread in memory of Jesus’ last supper. While the last supper was undoubtedly something they did in the early church, the emphasis on communion here was not necessarily so ritualistic. Instead, this emphasis was on the intimate, relational invitation to dine together. Somehow food breaks down barriers. It allows us to “let loose” with one another, take off the masks, and get real. I love how the early church was intentional about using food to make community happen. 

4. Prayer. These new followers of Jesus were prayer warriors. They didn’t see prayer as optional. They didn’t merely pray when they needed something. Once again, they devoted themselves to it. I imagine so much of the power of their relationships was driven by their prayer for each other. They had a mission now, to keep this movement of Jesus going forward. They wanted everyone to know the power that comes through Jesus. And they knew that prayer was the vehicle to tapping into that power.

Challenge

How do you need to devote yourself? Let’s ask this question based on these four areas:

1. The apostle’s teaching. Do you spend daily time reading the Bible? Weekly? Just occasional? How can you be more consistent in your devotion to what God has revealed about himself through His Word? How about the teaching of those God has place in leadership in the church? Are you teachable? How can you prepare your heart for learning new insights and ways of following Jesus through their teaching? 

2. Fellowship. Are you dedicated to contributing to your local church’s sense of community? In what ways do you encourage others to bare each others’ burdens? Are you kind, compassionate, and looking out for the people in your church community? What is one thing you can do today to contribute to the fellowship of your local church community? 

3. Breaking bread. Do you dine with other Christ followers? Do you invite them into your home or out for coffee or lunch? Are you committed to making your time with your church community the first thing on your calendar, or is it second priority? Who is a person or group that you can build into your relationship through breaking bread?  

4. Prayer. Do you pray often? When you pray, is your time spent praying for your needs or the needs of others? Do you pray for your leaders and others in your church community? How can you pray for them now?

Dream

Imagine what would happen if we all took action in these four areas? Don’t you think this would be a beautiful picture of the local church? At ECHO, our Microchurches are meant to reflect these four areas. We want all four areas to be included, celebrated, and lived out in our Microchurch communities. Just think of what would happen if we devoted ourselves to God’s Word, pursued relentless fellowship with each other (including meals together!), and prayed ceaselessly for our leaders and friends. It would be unique. It would be different. It would be beautiful.

NURTURE: GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• What part of this devotional spoke to you the most?
• Why do you think the sort of devotion in Acts 1:8 is so hard? Why does it seem so much easier for new believers to have that type of commitment?
• What would it take for you to be committed to your church in the same way the early believers were committed to each other?
• What is one thing in your life that God wants you to change in the four areas listed in Acts 1:8 (teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, prayer)?

ACTION: PLAN & PRAY

• What does your Microchurch have coming up that needs to be planned (in terms of Micromissions and Echo Parties)? Supplies? Deadlines? Who will do what?

Pray as a group for the following areas:

• Individual Growth: Pray for each other's areas of need for healing.
• Missionary Formation: Pray for each other to be missionaries to your mission field, bringing healing and restoration.
• Group Growth: Pray for the group's unity and dedication to your mission field.
• Mission field: Pray for your mission field, naming specific needs and people.

DNA Study of Acts Part 1 (1:1-26): "Living As If" (Week of January 18-24, 2015)

DISCIPLESHIP

Focus Verse

Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth."

Bottom Line

The Holy Spirit lives in us and gives us an unstoppable power to live out God's dream for our lives, our city, and our world.

Tension

If you grew up in church, you probably heard the Holy Spirit talked about at least on occasion. If you didn't grow up in church, however, then I'll just tell you: it's kind of a big deal. According to the Christian faith, God exists in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

When it comes to God, we have an easier time grasping the idea of God the Father in the Old Testament of the Bible, or God the Son (Jesus) in the New Testament, but we have a harder time with God the Holy Spirit. We tend to treat Holy Spirit as this mystical presence that arrives for brief moments of emotional highs and miraculous healings, then retreats away for periods of time. And the presence of the Holy Spirit has been controversial in many church circles, where some ends of the American Church have been accused of elevating the Holy Spirit too high while others have been accused of treating the Holy Spirit as almost a "step child" part of who God is. In the end, we seem to only talk about the Holy Spirit in superstitious terms, when the Early Church saw it as so much more.

The American Church is at a pivotal point in its history. Today your church is extremely rare if it is growing. Decline is the norm, not growth. Why is this? Why does it seem as if the early church had so much going for it and today we are struggling to keep up with our own culture?

Truth

Here comes Jesus in Acts 1 with words rolling out of his mouth about the Holy Spirit. Up until now, followers of Jesus didn’t even know what it was. Not really, anyway. So I guess it was just as much a mystery to them at that time as it is today for us. But Jesus gave the early Church such an amazing encouragement here. He didn’t treat the Holy Spirit like some slot machine genie that we can manipulate and get to do whatever we want. He didn’t say that the Holy Spirit might show up if the people were good enough, prayed hard enough, or acted spiritual enough. No, he said the Holy Spirit would show up. And when it did, it would bring them power, the sort of power than can only come from the Creator God himself.

Why the Spirit came

Exactly why did the Holy Spirit come? Jesus said that we would become his witnesses “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.” Put yourself in the shoes of these early church people. How would you feel if this was your new mission. Until now, you've just been minding your own business, herding your goats and listening to re-runs of the feeding of the 5,000, when suddenly Jesus comes demanding that you change the world. Wow. Heavy. But Jesus did give them the charge, and they accepted. When the Holy Spirit came, it came to convict our hearts of our brokenness, lead us into the adventurous life of following Jesus, and give us power to take the mission of Jesus into the far corners of our neighborhoods, cities, and world. 

Natural vs Unnatural growth

So why is the American Church struggling in so many ways? There are many factors for sure, but the greatest factor of all is clear: We have lost our trust in the Holy Spirit. The early Church was an unstoppable force, not because they had the best music or small groups strategy, but because they depended on the Holy Spirit for power. It would be easier to blame church decline on style issues, as if a church's health and vibrancy rested solely on its ability too execute great music and teaching, but the Bible doesn't teach this. That's because a church's style issues are temporal and amoral and the power of the Holy Spirit is eternal and holy. Again, I'm not saying that the quality or style of our music and teaching doesn't matter, but when a church grows based solely on its style choices, its growth is natural, when the Early Church growth was not natural. Indeed, the Early Church didn't just experience growth. They experience a movement. If we learned to trust in the Holy Spirit’s power like the early Church did, nothing would stand in the way of what God is doing in us.

The Spirit living inside you

Did you know that if you are a follower of Jesus, the Bible teaches in 1 Corinthians 6:19 that the Holy Spirit lives inside you? That’s right, God is IN you! This is remarkable news! It means that you have the power of the living God giving you power to take the news of Jesus to all people. He gives you spiritual gifts to work with other believers for his mission. 

There is a movement inside you waiting to be unleashed.

Challenge

One of the hard things for us to do as Christ followers is to live "as if." In other words, to live as if we have the power of the Holy Spirit inside us, as if nothing can stop what God is doing in us, and as if God will give us the strength and courage and the right words to take Jesus into dangerous places, even places where he is not welcome.

Where is God challenging you to live as if? At work? School? Your neighborhood? Are you in a Microchurch at Echo and, if so, how will you carry out God’s dream for your mission field? Where has God called you to go? Where does nobody else want to go? Is there something specific you can do today that will advance the mission of Jesus into your sphere of influence?

God did not put you on this earth to just sit around. He put you here to act!

Who can you pray for today? Who has God put in your life for you to be a witness to? Ask God for courage. Ask him to the power to reach this person(s). The sort of power that Jesus speaks about in Acts 1:8. Ask him for the power to be obedient to his prompting. Ask him for the power to live as if.

Dream

Imagine the power that rests inside you and what would happen if it was unleashed in your life. Imagine what would happen if all of us depended entirely on the Holy Spirit for the results. Can you even begin to consider how powerful that would be? Our world would be changed. Transformed. Radically altered. The trajectory of our culture would shift dramatically. Nothing can stop the movement of the Church in America when we choose to let go of our own desire to control mm future and let God do His work. Jesus told us that he would build his Church, not us, and when we trust him fully with our futures, everything will be different.

NURTURE: GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

NOTE: Because of the controversy in some church settings around how the Holy Spirit expresses itself in the area of spiritual gifts, try to keep conversation focused and avoid chasing rabbit trails. Your conversation will be more fruitful if you can keep driving it to the core point of the discussion, which is the Bottom Line: "The Holy Spirit lives in us and gives us an unstoppable power to live out God's dream for our lives, our city, and our world."

• What part of this devotional spoke to you the most? 
• Why is it easier to blame a church's growth or decline on style choices instead of the presence or lack of the power of the Holy Spirit?
• Why do you think it is so hard to live "as if"? When you read the Bottom Line at the beginning of this devotional, do you really believe it? Why or why not?
• Share with the group one specific area of your life where you need to live "as if" and an action step you will take to do so. Commit to holding each other accountable to your action steps.

ACTION: PLAN AND PRAY

• What does your Microchurch have coming up that needs to be planned (in terms of Micromissions and Echo Parties)? Supplies? Deadlines? Who will do what?

Pray as a group for the following areas:

• Individual Growth: Pray for each other's areas of need for living "as if."
• Missionary Formation: Pray for each other to be missionaries to your mission field, bringing healing and restoration.
• Group Growth: Pray for the group's unity and dedication to your mission field.
• Mission field: Pray for your mission field, naming specific needs and people.