Outside In

At FBC, we begin a new ministry year with a new theme. (By the way, did you know that the Jewish calendar year begins with what we know as September?) Our theme for 2013/2014 is ‘Outside In’. All of us have had some experience with being on the outside; of being an ‘outsider’, excluded somehow in some way. It’s not a good feeling at all; being shut out, devalued, held back, separated from, cut off.

The radical good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is meant to bring us from the outside in; in from a life without God, into a relationship with Him and into His great family. The culture in Jesus’ day had a hard time with that. The tendency we have as people to think of ourselves as some elite group, or exclusive club, was very strong then as it is now. Outright hatred and violence are obvious forms but cliquishness and apathy are of the same spirit. Then along comes Jesus and right from the start He’s inviting the outsiders in! … Gentiles … Samaritans … women… children… tax collectors… lepers… people different from the rest of us … sinners of all types…. It got him into a lot of trouble. Some would say it’s what got Him killed. And they are right, because no matter how you look at it, the grace of Jesus cost Him His life.

The free grace of Jesus extended at His own expense to each and every single person on this planet is the most utterly compelling thing on earth. It is this aspect of the gospel which defines it and catapults it above any other religious idea known to man. We call it amazing grace and it is all of that and more.

This theme is prominent in the Gospel According to Luke and this ministry year, beginning September 8th, we will be going through the book of Luke each Sunday morning and in our community groups as well. It will take us 34 sessions and if you check your calendar you will see that, counting the Good Friday service, we will be finishing up the final chapter (24), which is the resurrection account, on Easter Sunday morning. It’s going to be a great journey together. This will be the longest book study that we’ve ever done together and there is quite a lot of excitement being generated about it. We are also encouraging individuals to be reading devotionally in the book of Luke this year so that we will all be immersed in the Word of God together, and making the very most of it, engaging on the personal level and on the group level, as well as hearing the same passages preached each Sunday morning.

Luke gives us an ‘orderly account’ of the ‘eye witness testimonies’ which he ‘carefully investigated’ even ‘from the beginning’ (see Luke 1:1-4) of the life and teachings of Jesus leading up to and including His death and resurrection. Luke’s clear intention, as stated by his own hand, is to report actual historical facts and events. And, of course, the events he reports on are the very realities that lie at the heart of salvation history - the gospel of Jesus Christ – by which God is calling us from the outside in.

Personally, I am pretty hyped about the potential this has for God to do amazing things for us and through us. As we see Jesus reaching out and lost sinners coming in, God will use His word to create and strengthen a mindset of outreach in our hearts and a lifestyle of living it out in our communities.