VineLife

Abraham's Worshiping Faith

2012-01-18T13:59:00.000-05:00

Reading: Genesis 12–15

The faith of Abraham was a faith that worshiped. Those who are of the faith of Abraham are a people with a faith that worships. I believe this is a central aspect of Biblical faith, yet may well be an aspect of faith that is most often neglected. Maybe it is the effect of our western culture, but faith in evangelical churches is often strong in reason, but weak in worship. Of course, we are all aware of those whose faith has been strong in worship but weak in reason. Should we have to choose? Is your faith worshiping?

Abraham was a worshiper. We see evidence of this regularly.

The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him. ⁸From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. (Genesis 12:7-8)

At the beginning of the account of Abram, even before his name change, we find two immediate references to his building an altar. The second clarifies the purpose of these altars: “and called on the name of the Lord.” It is this calling on the name of the Lord that makes it plain that Abram's faith was a faith that worshiped. It was more than a faith that believed certain things to be true; it was a faith that had a God-ward orientation, a verbal, active calling. The Hebrew word, according to the BDB Lexicon means to call, cry, or utter a loud sound—for help; like that of pleading in court. In other words, we might say Abraham was a man who was desperately dependent on God.

This pattern of worship continues through the story of Abraham (see Genesis 13:3-4; 13:18). God is seeking worshipers (John 4:23-24). In fact, a life of dependence on God—a life spent seeking and trusting in God—is one that God will reward and respond to by being strong on their behalf (Hebrews 11:6). This truth can be seen in Abraham's life.

In Genesis 14 we read of four powerful kings that squelched a rebellion from their vassal kings. Five of these vassal kings came to fight against Chedorlaomer who was banded together with three other kings. Five kings and their armies were doing battle against the four kings and their armies. The five lost to the four! In the plunder, Lot, his family, and possessions are taken. Oops! Lot is Abram's nephew. God is on Abram's side, and a survivor gets away to tell Abram what happened. And so we read,

When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan. (Genesis 14:14)

Five kings and their armies couldn't do anything against Chedorlaomer and his band of four kingdoms. But Abram and his household army are going after him. This looks like disaster in the making. How could Abram possibly survive? Because, as we read later in Israel's history, “the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9) God was going to be there for Abram! God will reward Abram's seeking!

Following this victory (Genesis 14:15-16), and the return of Lot and his household along with the rest of Sodom—the people and goods, we find Abram's God-ward response again.

¹⁸Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, ¹⁹and he blessed Abram, saying, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. ²⁰And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand." Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. (Genesis 14:18-20)

Abram was a worshiper. This time it isn't an altar, it is his tithe. Interestingly, it seems he didn't keep anything for himself, but still gave God the tenth that belonged to Him.

There is one more altar Abraham builds in Genesis. This is on Mount Moriah, where God sent him, telling him to sacrifice His son (Genesis 22:9). This time He was going in obedience to God (which is quite frankly amazing!). It is here, at this altar, that we learn something which has everything to do with our worship. As they traveled to this place, Isaac asks where the sacrifice is going to come from (not realizing he was the sacrifice). “Abraham answered, 'God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.'” (Genesis 22:8) The sacrifice needed to please Yahweh would be provided for by Yahweh Himself.

Hence, when the story is done, we read the “moral to the story,” or the punch-line as it were:

So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” (Genesis 22:14)

The Lord has provided the sacrifice necessary so that all who worship God, calling on His name through Christ, will be accepted by Him. (For more on this, see What Kind of God Would Tell Abraham to Sacrifice His Son?)

Abraham's faith was reflected in a life of worship—a worship that was actively calling on God. In a discussion about the present state of our souls, a friend of mine was telling me last week that he found real refreshing in just spending time singing to the Lord and worshiping. Seems simple. Today as I read Psalm 9:1-4 HCSB, instead of just reading it, I paused and read it aloud, and instead of just saying, “I will thank Yahweh with all my heart,” I began to thank Him with all my heart. And instead of saying, “I will declare all Your wonderful works. ²I will rejoice and boast about You; I will sing about Your name, Most High,” I began to declare His works aloud and rejoice in Him and boast about Him, even committing to boast of Him to others today. I sang to Him. This is where our faith moves from mere reason to a faith that worships.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Living in Scandalous Grace

2012-01-14T07:01:00.000-05:00

Reading: Romans 5, 6

In Romans 4, we have the glorious promise that the Lord will never charge you with sin (Romans 4:8 HCSB). What joy the truth of this glorious grace is intended to bring (See How Joyful Are You?). Romans 5 begins with, “therefore,” pointing back to this glorious grace of righteousness being credited to the one who believes in the Lord Jesus (Romans 4:24-25).

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. (Romans 5:1-2)

We now stand in grace. What does it mean that we have “access to this grace in which we stand”? In what sense do we stand in grace? How do we access that grace?

To say we stand in grace may be restated in Romans 5:5 as “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit...”. This is the love from which we cannot be separated (Romans 8:39). Romans 5:12-21 speak of how death reigned over all because of Adam's sin, and that now, grace reigns for all who believe because of Jesus Christ! So just as we stood condemned and were dead in our sins and destined to perish, now we stand in grace and are alive in Christ and are destined to eternal life! We are now loved by God and cannot be separated from that love.

So how does this reign of grace, this standing and living in the grace of God, filled with the love of God by the Spirit of God in our hearts, effect our lives? How does it transform how I live? How does it produce sanctification (actual righteous living) in me? How do I access this grace? This seems to be the discussion of Romans 6. Paul's answer seems so ridiculously good that it almost appears to just allow people to go on sinning. Paul acknowledges that opponents may bring that very objection (Romans 6:1,15).

As Paul begins Romans 6, he reminds us of the truth that since we believe in Christ we died with Christ, at the cross. Therefore, we are dead to sin. Baptism is where we make this identification by symbolically being buried with Christ in death (as we go down into the water). You only bury dead men. To be dead to sin is to say that sin no longer has dominion over us, and that we are now being made into the likeness of Christ's resurrection (Romans 6:2-11). In other words, we too are being raised into a new life.

But how does all this propose to actually produce a changed life in us? Paul, in Romans 6 is arguing that grace will actually produce changed, righteous lives. For the opponents who think we need a good dose of the law, in Romans 7:5-24 Paul demonstrates how powerless the law was to produce changed, righteous lives. But how does grace actually produce a changed life? If I am reading Romans 6 right, the answer to that question is almost so simple it is hard to catch.

¹²Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. (Romans 6:12-14)

Don't let sin reign (even though you still have evil desires)... don't offer the part of your body to sin...instead, offer yourselves to God, because you are not under law, but under grace! Romans 6:14 HCSB says it, “For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under law but under grace.” It appears Paul is saying, “since your sins aren't counted against you (you are not under law, but under grace) it can't rule over you. So stop fretting sin, and start living for God.” You stand in grace. God's love is shed abroad in your heart (because Christ's righteousness has been credited to you). Now instead of sin reigning in death, grace reigns in righteousness (Romans 5:21).

Paul goes on to say, that just as we once offered our bodies as slaves to impurity which led to greater lawlessness, now we can offer our bodies, our members, as slaves to righteousness which will result in sanctification (our being made righteous in actual living) (Romans 6:20 HCSB). Why will offering our bodies to do righteousness, to obey Christ, actually produce sanctification under grace when it didn't under the law? Because sin was reigning then, no matter how much we tried, sin triumphed. Now that grace reigns, no matter how much we fail, grace triumphs, and so we will indeed have our deeds sanctified through that grace. We access this grace by simply believing it and acting accordingly. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

Now, having been freed from sin, and become slaves of God (and joyfully so), our efforts actually produce fruit, the fruit of holiness, or sanctification (Romans 6:22). How can this be? Because now, our sins are not charged against us; now, we are animated, or empowered by the Spirit of God who lives in us; now, we stand in grace at all times before God. Now, our works can actually be good, even though at times our desires are not!

This is grace at seemingly scandalous levels. This is grace that transforms. Maybe Paul recognizes that when we grasp just how stunning this grace is, it will capture our affection with a power stronger than sins power, and that this will be the ground in which grace takes root, grows, and bears the fruit of holiness.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

No Dogs in the Kingdom!

2012-01-04T08:34:00.001-05:00

Reading: Matthew 7

Matthew 7 is full of verses that are well known and often used. I've heard it said that Matthew 7:1 is rivaling John 3:16 as one of the most well known verses in the Bible. I'm not sure if that is good, given that it often seems to be used in a way unintended. Additionally, verses calling us to ask, seek, knock...enter through the narrow gate... recognize them by their fruit...and to build our house on the rock, all come from this chapter. However, there is one verse in this chapter which is possibly the most misunderstood verse in scripture. (Okay, I made that statistic up, but if I am correct in what follows, it may well be an accurate statistic.)

“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.” (Matthew 7:6)

In my limited experience, I have never heard this verse used by someone in a way that exemplified any of the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount. Usually it is used in a way that, contextually we would have to assume it was from elsewhere. Something along the order of, “Well, I'm not going to try to help them anymore because I am casting pearls before swine.” Given the context of the sermon on the mount, it is difficult to square this or similar understandings with what surrounds the verse.

Blessed are the poor in spirit...If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles...Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?...Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? (Matthew 5:3, 41, 44-46; 7:1-3)

One commentary reads, “This enigmatic sayings stands alone...”. Another, “This verse appears to be a detached independent saying...unrelated to the preceding or following context.” Some do contextualize it and see it as a balancing statement to “do not judge”. Maybe something like, “Do not judge, however don't get too extreme, occasionally it is fine to think of them as pigs or dogs and ignore them.” (Pigs and dogs were very derogative terms in Judaism.) Is that balancing, or contradicting? Some say it is talking about not preaching to people who will not receive it or you will be persecuted. However, in light of “blessed are those who are persecuted” that hardly fits.

I have read dozens of treatments of this verse in commentaries, and while many are intriguing, I confess, I wasn't satisfied. And, the problem may be mine.¹ I just don't buy the line of argument that assumes somebody (like Matthew in this case) just wanted to get this verse in, so he threw it in here... with little or no reasonable connection to its surroundings. So that rather than actually having, “The Sermon on the Mount,” we have, “Random Sayings of Jesus Collected.” I generally assume that if I don't see how something fits its context, the problem is mine, not the author's (or Author's).

The following outline of Matthew 7:1-6 may help bring clarity to Matthew 7:6 in its context.

A Do not judge,

B or you too will be judged. ²For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

C ³"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

A₁ ⁶Do not, “give dogs what is sacred”; do not, “throw your pearls to pigs.”

B₁If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

Don't let the A, A_1,B, B_1,confuse you. They are merely there to show corresponding parts. For instance, “Do not judge” corresponds to, “Do not, 'give dogs what is sacred', and, “do not 'throw your pearls to pigs.'” “Judge” is replaced by, “give dogs what is sacred”, and, “throw your pearls to pigs.” I am suggesting that “giving dogs what is sacred,” or “throwing pearls to pigs” would have been common phrases or attitudes that Jesus would have considered to be judgments, and Jesus is telling us to stop with that kind of non-sense. In other words, don't try to correct with Pharisaical self-righteous wisdom for sinners, seeing yourself as the one with sacred pearls, or holy meat to be offered, and the poor fools you are talking to as dogs and pigs.

Now on to the “B and B₁”. If you do, the measure you use will be measured to you: they will trample your pearls underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces. That isn't living in the kingdom of heaven. That isn't the love and peace this sermon speaks of, rather that is the results of judging others rather than loving them. Instead, we are called to see the plank in our own eye rather than the speck in our neighbor's eye. If anyone is a pig or a dog, it is me. And if I am the pig or the dog, then you are one I consider more highly than myself (Philippians 2:3). Applied ths way I may well discover that there are no dogs or pigs in the Kingdom. (This could really change how we view the people we live with or go to church with!)

I may or may not have it right on the understanding of that verse, but at least I offer something that is completely consistent with the context of the Sermon on the Mount. And if we apply it and live it this way, by God's grace we will be more conformed into the image of Christ.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

1Subsequent to presenting this understanding in our church, one of our members mentioned a commentary on Matthew by Daniel Doriani that presents a similar understanding. I don't yet possess that one, but undoubtedly will.

How Joyful Are You?

2012-01-03T11:32:00.001-05:00

Reading: Romans 4

To understand the Gospel is to be filled with joy. No, I'm not talking about that head-in-the-sand, not-able-to-face-reality, enthusiasm that borders on madness. I'm talking about a joy that, although it may well encounter and experience all sorts of difficulties and griefs in life, endures through and beyond those experiences because of the truth it is anchored in. When we understand the Gospel, we understand a truth that produces this kind of joy. Are you a joyful person? If not, maybe you have a fundamental miss-understanding of the Gospel, or there is something you've forgotten.

Having just laid out the glorious truth of justification by faith alone in Romans 3:21-26, followed by an explanation that this way of justifying us automatically excludes all boasting in Romans 3:27-30, now Paul begins to illustrate further these truths in Romans 4. He begins by showing that Abraham himself had nothing to boast about because it was his faith, his trusting in God, that was credited for righteousness (Romans 4:1-3). He then goes on to explain that this is true for all who believe: their faith is credited for righteousness (Romans 4:4-5). Then Paul digresses from Abraham to illustrate with David the same principle.

⁶Likewise, David also speaks of the blessing of the man God credits righteousness to apart from works: ⁷How joyful are those whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered! ⁸How joyful is the man the Lord will never charge with sin! (Romans 4:6-8 HCSB)

This year I am reading through the Bible in the Holman Christian Standard Bible (which appears to be an excellent translation to add to your study collection). I could not help but be struck by the language of these verses. Did you get the impact of what this says?

David speaks of a blessing that belongs to all whom God credits righteousness apart from works. In other words, this blessing is for all who trust God and not their deeds, since their deeds fall woefully short! And here is the blessing:

Joy because their lawless acts are forgiven; their sins are covered. Do you trust Christ to be your means of salvation? Then your lawless acts are forgiven. All too often, we are prone to think our lawless acts are what keeps us from being blessed. Yet, the blessing David, and now Paul, speaks of is for those who have lawless acts that need forgiving... and they are!
Joy because the Lord will never charge you with sin! What a promise! If you have trusted in Christ, God will never charge you with sin. That is good news. That is Gospel news. And knowing and recalling that truth will bring joy to your soul.

Do we really believe that? The Lord will never charge the believer with sin. Some would argue, “Well, if that is true, then just go on sinning.” Some charged Paul with saying that (Romans 3:8; 6:15). Paul understood the glorious power of grace to transform. (In fact, Paul seems to turn the argument on his opposers in Romans 7 and essentially argues, “Oh, so you think the law is better than grace at teaching people not to sin...let's see, how effective was the law? That's right, the law came and I kept on sinning! The law didn't actually have any effect at stopping sin.)

How joyful is the man that believes that His lawless acts are forgiven. We tend to think our not-so-lawless acts are forgiven (as if there were such a thing). But we go on living under the guilt of our lawless acts. How joyful is the man or woman who, trusting in Christ, understands that the Lord will never charge him with sin. I'm not sure if you (or I) get the impact of that statement—will never charge with sin. Never! Ever!

And to what does Paul credit this glorious assurance? Our faith—our trusting in Christ as the propitiation for our sins, as satisfying the wrath of God against us (Romans 3:23-25). Our faith in the free grace of God to save us though we fall woefully short of the glory for which He made us. He doesn't credit this joy to the man whose life demonstrates that is really a Christian because of the fruit that is born. No, to the man who has simply stopped trusting in his works which fail and started trusting in the free grace of Christ. [For more on this, see the my blog entry, The Proper Ground of Assurance.]

May your new year be filled with this joy that comes from knowing these Gospel truths.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Look Who's Building a City

2011-12-26T10:27:00.001-05:00

Reading: Genesis 4

When Adam and Eve rejected God's rule over their lives (the kingdom of God), they were immediately separated from God (Genesis 3:8-10, 23-24). The relationship between Adam and Eve was altered from peace to conflict (Genesis 3:16). Now we see that the division between people extends to brothers as well (Genesis 4:1-8). The fall brought brokenness in our relationship with God and, as a result, our relationships with one another. We see this clearly in the story of Cain.

⁸Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let's go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. ⁹Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don't know,” he replied. “Am I my brother's keeper?” (Genesis 4:8-9)

Ironically, in Genesis 4:17, we discover that Cain—the one who was not interested in being his brother's keeper—is suddenly building a city. Evidently, this was a city of people who have no desire to be responsible for one another; a city of those not willing to be their brother's keeper. This is a culture rife with vengeance (Genesis 4:24).

Throughout Genesis, we find a contrast in what people build. Cain, the murderer, is building a city; Nimrod, the mighty warrior, built several cities—none noted for their godliness (Genesis 10:8-12). In Genesis 11:1-8 we read of Babel, and the city people were building there. Each of these cities were built in opposition to the rule of God. However, Noah built an altar to God, as did Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 8:20; 12:7-8; 13:18; 22:9; 26:25; 35:6). One group built a society in opposition to God; the other built lives around worship of God. Abraham and those who lived by faith were building their lives around worship and looking for a city they could not build; a city who's builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10).

When Christ came he announced the Kingdom of God. In Him, the rule of God has returned and it is clearly a kingdom in which those who live there are their brother's keeper. They are called to a new command, “Love one another, even as I loved you.” The King of the Kingdom has done the most to be “His brother's keeper,” in laying down His life for us. And rather than being a kingdom rife with vengeance (Genesis 4:24), it is a kingdom rife with forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-22).

Christ is building a city that is quite different than Cain's city. Christ is building His church (Matthew 16:18), a city which is also a bride (Revelation 21:2, 9-10), and Christ is building all who believe in Him into that city (Ephesians 2:19-22). To be a Christian is to build our lives around worship of God through Christ; and it is to allow our lives to be built into the city where we are our brother's keeper! Love one another rules the day.

In a day when even evangelical Christians are becoming more and more independent, living lives isolated from people they prefer not to be around, the Gospel intends to transform us into a city where we live under the King's rule—not running from difficult relationships, but reconciling and living in a kingdom where forgiveness and forbearance prevail. Look Who's building a city now—Jesus Christ, the King of the Kingdom. Are you being built into the city?

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

My Daughter's Wedding Sermon

2011-12-05T07:13:00.000-05:00

Reading: Genesis 2; Ephesians 5; Revelation 21

[This past Saturday, December 3, 2011, was my daughter Lindsay's marriage to David. For Donna and I, it was a joy to be blessed by the Lord in seeing now our second daughter married to a young man in whom, by the Lord's grace, we have confidence will lead our daughters well. Stephanie and Micah were married nearly 3 years ago, and now David and Lindsay. The following is the wedding sermon I wrote for David and Lindsay's wedding. I put it here as it grew out of my devotions and may serve yours as well. I have made slight additions since there are not so many limitations on the blog.]

The Bible begins and ends with a wedding: Adam to Eve; Christ, the Lamb and His bride. In each of these weddings, God is the Father of the groom; and God is the one who makes or prepares the bride for the marriage.

We read of the first wedding,

Genesis 2:18-25 ¹⁸The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."…²¹So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs [lit. from the man's side] and closed up the place with flesh. ²²Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. ²³The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, 'for she was taken out of man." ²⁴For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

God was Adam's Father–He made Him. Adam subsequently became the father of the human race. Because of Adam's rebellion against God Paul's wrote the Corinthians, “in Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Adam became the father of all, and all are born spiritual dead. Dead while they live.

When we get to the end of the Bible we have the second wedding...at least the second cosmic wedding. God is the Father once again of the groom, for the bride is the wife of the Lamb... Jesus the Lamb Slain. This is the One called “the second Adam” by Paul in Corinthians. That is to say, He will be the beginning of a recreated, reconciled human race. So the verse we read a moment ago continues, “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” In this second wedding, again the Father gives the bride after He has prepared the bride for the groom.

Revelation 21 ²I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband....[observe how this bride, the city of God, the people of God was prepared for their wedding] ¹¹It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. ¹²It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates.… ¹⁸The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. ¹⁹The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone.… ²¹The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.

This bride is prepared as a beautiful, glorious bride. And in both cases the bride is beautifully prepared.

Since God places a wedding at the beginning and end of Scripture, and since He uses a marriage to describe His relationship to His people, how should we live in our marriages? David and Lindsay, how should you live in yours?

I believe we have some help in answering that question from the pen of Paul, the apostle. In this text, which Chuck¹ read earlier, Paul actually references both of these weddings we've spoken about... the first and the “second” weddings. Lindsay, you are told,

Ephesians 5:22-33 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

This runs contrary to everything our culture tells us. Why, many ask, should a wife submit herself to her husband? What if the wife is smarter—she often is? What if the wife is right and the husband wrong? Paul is by no means commenting on who is smarter or who is right. Paul roots this directive in something much more significant: For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.

In the first marriage, Eve did not submit to Adam but to a serpent. Adam was right there... she did not turn and ask him, but rather handed him to eat. (And Adam passively abdicated his leadership rather than serving his wife with truth.) However, in the second marriage, the church comes to Christ, as His bride saying, “Christ is Lord.” This marriage is about our trusting in Him, and not ourselves. Paul says our earthly marriages as believers in Christ should mirror that relationship so as to model it to the world.

David you are instructed,

²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave him-self up for her ²⁶to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

In the first marriage, Adam did not wash his bride with the water of God's Word. Adam did not say in the face of temptation, “Eve, remember what God said... that in the day we eat, we die. Remember that though the serpent tells us that we will actually be better of if we disobey God, that God told us to have do-minion over the serpent... Do you realize that God has provided us with every-thing; we lack nothing. God has been good to us. Why would we now suspect God of withholding, and trust this serpent who has done nothing for us?” Adam sat idly by watching his wife wander into the trap of temptation, and then we read, “...she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

However, in the second marriage, Christ loved His bride and gave Himself up for her. In the second marriage, Christ took authority over the serpent through His own death, and Christ leads His wife as a Servant–suffering Servant on behalf of His wife. This is not a domineering or “I'm the boss” kind of leadership, but humble, laying down of ones rights kind of leadership.

Over the last several years, one of the concerns Donna and I have had for Lindsay, because of her compliant tendency, has been that she have a husband who is both a strong leader and a humble, gentle man who draws her out rather than silences her voice. This is not an everyday quality. From all I can observe, David surpasses anything we could have imagined. A humble, loving, gentle, strong, firm, willing to be entreated kind of leader. Around him, Lindsay's joy is evident, and her countenance brightens. Around him, rather than being silenced, she actually seems more free to express herself.

In Ephesians, Paul quotes a passage from the first wedding of Adam and Eve, and tells us that it was really pointing us to the second wedding:

³¹"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." ³²This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

David and Lindsay, your marriage is to be a reflection of this marriage—a model of the Gospel.

Finally, there is one more detail not to be overlooked when comparing the two weddings:

In the first, Adam slept, and while he slept, God took from his side and made the bride which He presented to Adam. In the second, while the Son of God slept in death, on the cross, we read in John's Gospel:

John 19:34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.

You see, from His side, we too have been created and prepared for Him.² It is in His sleep of death and resurrection that we are created in Him, when we believe. It is through the blood that flowed from His side that we are cleansed and prepared for our groom.

David & Lindsay not only are you cleansed by the blood from Christ's side; not only are you now part of the bride, the wife of the Lamb, having been taken from His side; you are charged to model Christ's relationship to the church by your relationship with each other.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

1I had the privilege of officiating jointly with the groom's father, Chuck.

2When you consider the numerous allusions to Genesis in John's Gospel, which begins with, “In the beginning...”, and that the first miracle mentioned of Jesus' in this Gospel is the transformation of water to wine at a wedding feast, I don't believe this connection is a stretch. The word for "side" in the Greek Old Testament (LXX) of Genesis 2:21, 22, is used only 25 more times in the whole Greek Bible; 4 at the end of John's Gospel referencing Jesus side. (Many of the others referencing side rooms of the temple.)

Is My Existential College Professor Right?

2011-11-01T10:14:00.001-04:00

Reading: Ecclesiastes 1–3

Ecclesiastes appears to be from a father to his son (Ecclesiastes 12:12). Apparently to a son who, having grown up under his father's tutelage, was beginning to explore life a bit and was finding a conflict between the way things ought to be and the way things seem to be. Dad wants to help his son sort through the frustration of life, the seeming contradiction between what ought to be and what seems to be.

Maybe his son has spent a year at the university and is home for the summer; he has begun seeing the other side of life. Maybe his best friend, the kid who always got all the answers right in Saturday school, just died when hit by a drunk driver. Maybe his mom, the most godly woman he ever knew, just died of cancer in her late 40’s. Maybe he was the top of the his own class in the Torah, voted most likely to succeed, and the girl of his dreams just married the mean kid who never went to synagogue. Let's face it, good kids shouldn't get cancer; only the bullies!

Ecclesiastes speaks to those frustrated by the brokenness of this fallen world. To those who don’t see everything quite as neatly packaged as the super-religious who are confident they have all the answers. Some of its sayings may shock you. And some of it’s answers may leave you hanging. But its purpose isn’t to shock, but to help. It’s purpose isn’t to mock or to ridicule, but rather to acknowledge, to sort through, and to give counsel. It is as if Dad is saying, “Let’s look at all those ideas that are running through your head, and let’s explore those philosophies and see what they can offer!”

The speaker calls himself Qohelet–leader of the assembly–variously translated “Preacher, Teacher, Pundit, Professor!” It’s as if Dad takes on the role of the professor and says, “Okay, I’m going to espouse these ideas, and take them to their logical conclusion.” As dads, we could take a queue from him. Don’t blast; explore together, guiding.

There are two key expressions which are vital to unlocking the treasures of this book. The first one is found in the second verse—five times!

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2 NASB)

The NIV translates this word for vanity as meaningless. Another translation renders it futility... utter fultility (JPS Tanakh). Each of these is driving toward the same point—one which at times is hard to capture in one English word. However, the Bible offers us some help here. The Hebrew word is hebel, sometimes written hevel, used in both singular and plural to communicate the utter vanity or futility of the matter—like “holy of holies” which brings us to “utter holiness”. Literally, it means vapor or breath! That is to say, “Everything is fleeting, transitory; like vapor or breath, it vanishes before your eyes.” Whether it be time or youth, or value, or the things you hold as meaningful, they too will vanish. Therefore they are vain (empty), and ultimately, meaningless!

Two other Old Testament uses of this word shed some light on its meaning.

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting (Hebel); but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.” Proverbs 31:30

Beauty is hebel—here today, gone tomorrow. If you find your meaning in beauty, you will spend your life looking for a new one; or obsessed with just one more surgery! Go to your 20 year high school reunion, then thirty, and so forth. Contrast pictures from gold and silver anniversaries with those of the wedding day.

The other use of this word that sheds real light on its meaning is the first time it used:

Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.” ²Later she gave birth to his brother Abel (Hebel). Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. (Genesis 4:1-2)

The name of Eve's second son here is the same word in Hebrew as in Ecclesiastes—Hebel. You know the story. Abel pleased God; Cain did not. Abel was the good son; Cain the evil son. But Abel's life was snuffed out early while Cain lived on and founded a city. Abel’s fleeting life, ending in unjust absurdity, captures the meaning of the word: it was like a vapor, or a morning mist that vanishes before you know it.

Thirty years ago Donna and I got married. At the time, we could not imagine life with children. We wanted to wait. We were a new thing; we were central; we were adventurous. Then we had kids and they were new, they were so central; they were an adventure in themselves. Within seconds, I could not imagine life without them. Now, I realize that soon they will be moving out one at a time. Vapor… transitory… and if this is all there is: meaningless!

Trying to catch meaning from the transient joys of this life is like trying to catch the wind in your hands (Ecclesiastes 1:14). Meaning is to be found elsewhere! This is caught in Ecclesiastes 1:4, “Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.” The earth seems unimpressed with our fleeting and vaporous lives!

The Greek word used in the LXX (Greek Old Testament) is also translated “frustration”. Needless to say, the transitory nature of things leads to frustration! You could sum up the message of Ecclesiastes with this: Apart from faith, life is meaningless, because everything is fleeting.

The second key expression that helps unlock the treasures of this book is the phrase, “under the sun”. The father-professor of Ecclesiastes examines life “under the sun,” excluding from his observations the perspective of faith—the understanding that what we see came from what is unseen and eternal. It is like a bunch of bacteria trying to define the universe, but limiting it’s input to what exists inside the Petri dish.

Unless one can see “above the sun” he is bound to only see vanity. Much like Ariel in Little Mermaid, who was dissatisfied with life under the sea, we are dissatisfied with life under the sun. We know we were made for something beyond that. In Christian language, “if Christ is not raised, then our faith is in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17) If there is no resurrection, then it is all vapor!

When all is said and done the father doesn’t answer all the sons questions–or ours–but he does seem to warn his son against spending too much time pondering the frustrating elements of life and to always come back to this eternal truth (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). If you find yourself oppressed by the complexities of life, you need to refocus on eternity, on God’s day!

But it isn’t as if the existential professor is all wrong. He loves life—the life God made. He loves the things God gave us to enjoy. True, when he isn’t viewing them with eyes of faith, he vests them with too much meaning, but if he didn’t want a life worth living, happiness, or joy in life, then the resurrection would have no attraction anyway.

Starting with the New Testament: We have a serious advantage over the writer’s son: we have more of God’s revelation about Himself! Christ has given us hope! Christ is the only one who offers something outside the Petri dish, above the sun! (1 Peter 1:3-9) If all we see is what is under the sun, in the Petri dish, then we can’t see that God is redeeming us, and we are subject to frustration. (Romans 8:18-21) The way things seem to be aren't as they ought to be, but one day God will set everything straight and in Christ that “setting straight” begins in our own lives. One day the work will be completed.

Ecclesiastes speaks of the importance of faith—those eyes God gives us to see what we cannot see, for without it, the vaporous nature of life is frustrating and constantly points to the futility of our efforts. Only faith in Christ imparts real meaning to life.

C.S. Lewis expressed this uniquely when he said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Do James and Paul Have Conflicting Views of the Law, Faith and Works? (Part 3)

2011-10-12T10:40:00.001-04:00

Reading: James 2

Does James 2:24 really teach justification by works and not faith alone?

In part one of this series of devotionals in James, we saw how both James and Paul are calling us to an obedience that comes through faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. Then, in part two, looking closely at James 2:14 in context, I suggested that James is not asking how a man is saved—whether by faith, or whether by faith plus works—but rather, how a needy person is helped (made whole or well, restored) by those who have faith if they do not have works? `“What good does your faith do the man in need if it doesn't demonstrate itself through works?” might be a good way of summarizing the point of James 2:14-17. But we haven't gotten out of the woods yet. Does James 2:24 really teach justification by works and not faith alone?

You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. (James 2:24)

The obvious answer is, “yes”. But should raise another important question (often overlooked). “What is meant by justified?” Does justified in James mean the same thing we mean by justified after centuries of systematic theology having categorized for us the doctrine of justification? In other words, is James talking about a man being saved by works and faith as opposed to faith alone? I would answer, “Absolutely not!” Is James contradicting Paul? Emphatically, “No!”

The word translated justified, has a small range of meanings, but in this context, or even in Paul's context in Romans 4, it seems to be its more basic meaning. According to Thayer's lexicon, it can mean, “to declare, pronounce, one to be just, righteous, or such as he ought to be,” or, “to show, exhibit, evince, one to be righteous”.

While Paul in Romans 4:2-8 speaks of a man being justified not by works, but by faith—wherein righteousness is credited to a man as a gift when he believes God—he is using saying that when we believe (just like Abraham, in Genesis 15, before he was circumcised, before he had done anything) God declares or pronounces us righteous, as a gift. This is speaking about justification “before God” (Galatians 3:11). In James, the larger context is speaking of justification before others, while there is still a sense in which the example James uses about Abraham, is speaking of justification before God in a different way than Paul.

In James 2:24, the broader context of justification indicates that James is speaking about whether we would be shown or exhibited before others as righteous (e.g. James 2:18). Would the neighbor declare us right? How would he see anything “right” by our faith? He can't see our faith. He can only see the way we live out our faith by passing on the mercy we have received to others. Even the devil believes in One God; so what, he isn't right before God. So, those who God declares to be right, can only reveal the Gospel by outwardly demonstrating the same love we've received.

However, the first example James uses to illustrate his point, is from Abraham and would seem to be speaking of justification before God, not others (James 2:20-23). As R. T. Kendall points out in his book, Justification by Works, Paul, in Romans 4, is speaking of Abraham being justified at the beginning of his walk before God (from Genesis 15), while James refers to an event a quarter of a century later, when he was called to offer Isaac on the altar. It is at this later time, after a long walk by faith—complete with times of success and times of failure—that Abraham's faith (which had justified him back in Genesis 15), was made complete or had matured. The righteousness he received freely by God's grace had now produced a righteousness that both God and others could attest to in his life.

Abraham was the father of faith because while he was considered righteous by his faith before God at the beginning of his walk (Gen. 15); by the end of his walk, when the massive test of offering Isaac came, he passed with flying colors and was shown righteous before God and many others (all who read of it) at the end. His faith became sight, we might say.

What becomes clear as we look at this text more closely is that James is not speaking of how we are saved, but how we demonstrate the Gospel before a watching world, and how our faith which saves us ultimately matures as it makes us the people God created us to be! (ref. Ephesians 2:8-10) “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” (Romans 4:7-8). Paul speaks of how that blessing comes (through trusting God), while James speaks of how we demonstrate that blessing in our life.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Do James and Paul Have Conflicting Views of the Law, Faith and Works? (Part 1)

Do James and Paul Have Conflicting Views of the Law, Faith and Works? (Part 2)

Do James and Paul Have Conflicting Views of the Law, Faith and Works? (Part 2)

2011-09-20T20:53:00.002-04:00

Reading: James 2

This chapter gets right to the heart of where many have viewed Paul and James as having conflicting views of faith and works. James was likely writing years before Paul's epistles, so James didn't have Paul in mind in his letter, but did he have a different view of faith and works than Paul? Did James believe we were saved by faith and works while Paul believed we were saved by faith alone? Absolutely not. In this devotional I will present one way of understanding James' comments that might reveal we've been reading too much Paul into them.

James 1:27 speaks of caring for orphans and widows (those at the bottom rung of the economic ladder), and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. Now James turns his attention to a specific situation amongst the believers; it may be a specific way they are being polluted by the world: they are showing favoritism. Favoritism is rooted in viewing others through eyes of self-love, not other-love. Favoritism is living according to what others can do for us, rather than asking how we can manifest Christ to them. James 2:4 references this when it says, “have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts [NASB: motives]?”

Then James goes on to speak about how, though God had honored the poor, they were insulting the poor (James 2:5-6). They clearly did not have a tight reign on their tongue (James 1:26). By insulting the poor, they were blaspheming the good name of the Lord. This may reference that fact that they were living in complete contradiction to Christ who humbled himself, became poor, in order to save us. James tells them to rather fulfill the royal law by loving their neighbor as themselves. This would be consistent with the Gospel they believed and by which they were saved. This would be living toward others as Jesus lived toward them. However, if you show favoritism (by not loving your neighbor as yourselves), you are convicted by the law as a lawbreaker.

James 2:10-13 might be seen as parenthetical. That isn't to say it is unimportant, but that James is digressing to explain something about his last comment. I might paraphrase this way, “If you are living in such contradiction to the Gospel that you treat others as if you yourself had not received mercy, then the law convicts you as a lawbreaker. How so? Because if you break one law, you're just as much a lawbreaker as if you break another. Therefore, stop living under that law because you can't win. Live as those who will be judged by the law that gives freedom—the Gospel. If we live as those unaffected by Gospel mercy because we don't show mercy, then we will be judged under the law. But those who live (speak and act according to) the Gospel are not judged by the law! Gospel mercy will triumph over the judgment of the Law.” (For an explanation of why 'the law that gives freedom' is the Gospel, see Part 1.)

We are called to speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom! (James 2:12) We have just been told, in James 2:10, that those who are judged by Moses law will be found guilty of breaking all of it. We however are not to live under that condemnation. We are to live as those who have come under the law that gives freedom—the Gospel. How is the Gospel a law that gives freedom? The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ calls us to follow Christ, it calls us to holy living (see Matthew 5 – 7), it calls us to obedience (Romans 1:5; Matthew 7:24), but it begins by cleansing us of our sin, by freeing us from the fear of death, by judging us righteous in Christ. It begins with mercy. Therefore, keeping God's commands—love your neighbor as yourself—grows out of mercy received (Compare to Paul's view in Romans 12:1ff).

If that paragraph (10-13) is parenthetical, then vs. 14 picks up where we left off—having been encouraged to love our neighbor as ourselves (vs. 8). It might help to read it like this:

⁸If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right.... ¹⁴What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? ¹⁵Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:8-9, 14-17) [Emphasis added]

If read this way, R. T. Kendall pointed out, one needs to ask to whom the “him” at the end of vs. 14 refers. In other words, what is the antecedent to “him” in that sentence? Most assume the question might be read, “Can such faith save him—the person who has that faith?” Kendall suggests that it may well be read, “Can such faith save him—the neighbor whom you have been refusing to love as yourself.” Especially if you understand the word “save” in some of its broader meaning: rescue from danger and to restore to a former state of safety and well being - save, rescue, deliver; keep safe, preserve; cure, make well.

The question might then be paraphrased this way: What benefit is there to a faith that has no works? Does such a faith meet the need of the man who needs clothing or food? Ought not a man who has faith, being so transformed by the mercy of Christ, now show mercy on others? Would that not bring restoration to those around him in a greater way that just believing? If this is what James meant, then the question about how a man is saved (by faith alone or by faith plus works) disappears for James is not addressing personal salvation but is speaking about how our faith will impact the world around us.

All is not solved. For even if this is the way to read it (and I am becoming convinced that it is), there are a few difficult passages to work through at the end of the chapter. Those must wait until the next posting, lest you become weary in reading. Aside from the admitted difficulties to be discussed, this take seems to be more in fitting with the larger context of the letter.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Do James and Paul Have Conflicting Views of the Law, Faith and Works? (Part 1)

Do James and Paul Have Conflicting Views of the Law, Faith and Works? (Part 3)

Do James and Paul Have Conflicting Views of the Law, Faith and Works? (Part 1)

2011-09-19T21:05:00.002-04:00

Reading: James 1

Martin Luther thought the epistle of James should be left out of the canon. This was due to the perception that James and Paul had conflicting views of faith and works. Regardless of how we understand James, I don't think we need to conclude that his writings were at odds with Paul, even if at first glance they may appear to be. I do wonder, however, if we have been reading James a little too much like Paul, or as if he were answering the same questions as Paul, and therefore may be stuck in how we read the answers. In this devotional I want to look at how James and Paul may well be perfectly agreed in their view of law, faith and works.

In the first verse, James informs us who he is writing to (James 1:1): to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations. At the time of this writing, James could not have been writing to Israelite believers from the twelve tribes that had been scattered among the nations because ten, if not eleven, of the tribes had long since disappeared (since the Assyrians took them into captivity). The Jews of Jesus' time and following were called Jews because they were from Judah, which consisted of two tribes.

We do know that James was writing believers (James 2:1), so in what sense was he writing to the twelve tribes? The term, twelve tribes, was an expression that would come to represent Israel. James, like John the apostle and Paul, used the expression the twelve tribes to refer to the church. In fact, this goes back to Jesus, who said the twelve apostles would rule over the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28). Of course, they were apostles over the church.

John communicates the same concept in Revelation 7 where he hears the description of the twelve tribes of Israel – a perfectly complete nation of twelves tribes with twelve thousand members of each tribe. This would be impossible at the time John wrote Revelation since the tribes had long since vanished. So John looks to see this nation and what he sees reveals just how the tribes would be regathered: I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. (Revelation 7:9) He heard about the twelve tribe nation of Israel that needed to be gathered, and he saw them gathered...from every nation, tribe, people and language. He saw the church!

Isaiah spoke of the regathering of the nation of Israel as a regathering that would include gentiles (for one of many examples see Isaiah 19:24). James is writing to the Israel of God, that is, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. (For Paul's understanding of who the descendants of Abraham are, the inheritors of the covenant, see Galatians 3:28-29; 6:16.)

James view of who this nation is, has been transformed and so has his view of the law. In James 1:25, he refers to the perfect law that gives freedom. What is this perfect law? Is it the law of Moses? After all in James 2:10-11, he refers to the law and then quotes from the ten commandments. So are the ten commandments the perfect law that gives freedom? Or, is the Mosaic law the perfect law that gives freedom? I don't believe so. In fact, the text tells us what this perfect law that gives freedom is.

¹⁸He chose to give us birth through the word (logos) of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created....²¹Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word (logos) planted in you, which can save you. ²²Do not merely listen to the word (logos), and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³Anyone who listens to the word (logos) but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:18-25)

What is “the word (logos) of truth” by which God “gave us birth”? The Gospel! (See also Ephesians 1:13, Colossians 1:5.) This is the Gospel that was planted in us by the sower and can save us. And it is the Gospel which we are to, “do what it says.” (See also Matthew 7:24.) (For more on a common misconception about law and Gospel read What is the Difference Between Law and Gospel). The Gospel is the perfect law that gives freedom. The perfect law that gives freedom is used as a synonym for the word (logos) planted in us, which can save us and which we must do what it says. The Mosaic law cannot save us; only the Gospel can!

Like Paul, James understood that we are not under law, but under Christ and the Gospel (Romans 6:14; 7:4). Both are calling us to an obedience that comes through faith (Romans 1:5) in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Do James and Paul Have Conflicting Views of the Law, Faith and Works? (Part 2)

Does the Promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14 Apply to the Christian?

2011-08-30T09:59:00.002-04:00

Reading: 2 Chronicles 7

2 Chronicles 7:14 is often used, speaking to Christians in our country and applied to America and our desperate need for “healing” from God. Undoubtedly, our country is in desperate need of healing today, and God hears and answers prayer—a promise that is found all over the New Testament. So pray, pray, pray! However, when read in context, it is fair to ask, “Does this really apply to America?” And, “Does this really apply to the Christian?” Or, “Does it apply today?” Let's read it in context:

¹³"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, ¹⁴if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. ¹⁵Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. ¹⁶I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. (2 Chronicles 7:13-16)

This promise was given at the dedication of the temple in response to Solomon's prayer (2 Chronicles 7:12), and the this place of these verses is the temple which Solomon built, and the my people was Israel (this is prior to the divided kingdoms), and their land, was the land of Israel. Is it fair, then, to turn my people into the church, and their land into America, and this place into wherever we happen to be?

It may be helpful to look further back in the story line to 2 Chronicles 7:1. There, after Solomon's prayer for dedicating the temple, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. (NIV's temple is specifying which house (literal)—the house of the Lord.) One translation translates the word for glory (kabod) as splendor (NET). Both are good. The glory, the splendor, of the Lord filled the house.

There are three (3) well known references in the Old Testament where fire comes down from heaven. First, at Mt. Sinai when God came down in fire and wrote the law on stone tablets (Exodus 19:18; Deuteronomy 9:10). Second, here at the dedication of the temple. Third, after 3 years of drought, when Elijah goes to Ahab and promises rain by days end. They gather all the priests of Baal who make their sacrifice to their god and pray all morning and well past noon for their god to send fire on the sacrifice to no avail. Then Elijah has his sacrifice drenched in water, and then with a simple prayer, fire comes down and consumes the sacrifice (1 Kings 18:36-38).

There is also a New Testament reference to fire coming down, and it is relevant to our text. In Acts 2:1-4, as the disciples are gathered together daily in prayer (Acts 1:14), and have done so again on the day of Pentecost, fire came down from heaven and divided into “tongues” (projecting points in this case, about the size of a tongue), and came to rest on each one. This is the fulfillment of the promise of the Father, the promised Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5).

Pentecost was a day in which the people “renewed the Sinai covenant”. A day they recommitted themselves to obey it. But something different was going to happen on this Pentecost. Just as God came down in fire at Sinai and wrote the law on stone tablets, now, the Spirit is coming down to rest on each believer as the Father has promised to write the law in their hearts and on their minds (Jeremiah 31:33). This is the New Covenant that replaces the Mosaic Covenant (Hebrews 8:13). Those who walk in the Spirit will fulfill the righteous requirements of the law (love of God and neighbor) (Romans 8:4).

Secondly, after the return to the land from Babylonian captivity, the temple was rebuilt, but the glory, the splendor of the Lord never returned like we saw in Solomon's day. But now, the sacrifice having been made (Galatians 3:13-14), the promised Holy Spirit can come and fill the house. As the disciples were gathered together in a room of the temple that day (Luke 24:53)¹, the temple was indeed filled with the glory of the Lord, the splendor of the Lord, as the Holy Spirit filled the temple—the church of the Living God (Ephesians 2:21-22).

Thirdly, even as fire came down from heaven after Elijah's prayer, so we have been promised answered prayer when we too pray fervently; we too are promised the Spirit's power in answer to prayer (James 5:16-18; Luke 11:9-13). Those who come to Christ are baptized by Him with the Holy Spirit and fire. We have the Spirit writing the law of God in our hearts, conforming us to the image of Christ. We have been filled with the glory, the splendor of God—Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). And we have been promised answers to prayer.

2 Chronicles 7:14 does apply to the Christian—indeed in an ultimate sense it was written for the Christian. It does apply today, as we are promised that God will hear and answer our prayers. There even seems to be an emphasis in scripture on the power of gathered prayer—prayer offered in this place which is now the temple, the assembled people of God. But, does it apply to America? Well, not in the same sense that it applied to Israel. However, we are called to pray for all people that God would for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. So we should pray accordingly for America and Zimbabwe, indeed for all men with this in mind.

Seek God's face for His eyes and heart are on His church who is gathered before Him in prayer in the name of His Son Jesus! God will hear from heaven and answer our prayer!

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

1There is some debate as to whether the disciples were in the upper room (the house) or the temple (the house) on the day of Pentecost. I believe we can firmly say they were in a room of the temple because, 1) the scripture tells us where they went to pray every day... the temple; 2) house was commonly used to refer to the temple; 3) 120 wouldn't fit in the upper room, and 4) had they been in the upper room they would have been across town from where all the people were gathered on Pentecost, hence no one would have gathered around after hearing them speak in tongues. Never mind all the implications of how this fulfills Old Testament prophecies since it was at the temple. I suspect the only upper room experience the disciples had was eating and sleeping. See also Acts 5:12.

The Source of Solomon's Wisdom

2011-08-24T11:23:00.000-04:00

Reading: 2 Chronicles 1

Solomon is renown for his wisdom. One can study the book of Proverbs in order to discover the key to his wisdom, or one might merely study 2 Chronicles in order to learn it. In fact, the key to Solomon's wisdom is found right here in the 1^st chapter, as confirmed throughout the book of Proverbs. In response to the offer from the Lord, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you” (2 Chronicles 1:7), Solomon prays,

“⁹Now, LORD God, let your promise to my father David be confirmed, for you have made me king over a people who are as numerous as the dust of the earth. ¹⁰Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?” ¹¹God said to Solomon, “Since this is your heart's desire and you have not asked for wealth, riches or honor, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king, ¹²therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, riches and honor, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have.” (2 Chronicles 1:9-12)

I can remember this story from my childhood (today I turn 49, so that was a long time ago). It has always stood out as one of the great heart tests of a man in scripture. It is certainly intended for us as both an example and a statement of value. The obvious contrast here is one that sets God's wisdom and knowledge over against wealth, riches, honor, and long life. This morning I noted another, less obvious, but equally as important aspect of Solomon's request: humility. Solomon's wisdom is rooted in humility.

Why do I say that? Because at its root, this request reveals that Solomon did not assume he had the wisdom and knowledge resident in himself to lead the people effectively. He didn't think of himself as a great king. He understood what he lacked. Solomon demonstrates for us right here in 1 Chronicles 1:10 what the book of proverbs keeps front and central throughout: Real wisdom comes in living our lives in utter dependence on God. Real wisdom is available to those who recognize their foolishness, while those who are wise in their own eyes, are fools.

If Solomon had been wise in his own eyes, he would have asked for riches, honor, or one of the other things on the list in vs. 11. However, Solomon saw his lack of wisdom, and that insight was essential to connecting him to the source of his wisdom. As he writes in Proverbs 11:2,“with humility comes wisdom.”

We might say that Solomon's humility was the beginning of his wisdom. Of course, we know that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” yet in Proverbs, humility is nearly equal to the fear of the Lord. If “the fear of the Lord” was a coin, the other side of the coin, would be labeled, “Humility.” (See Proverbs 15:33 where the parallelism places them in equal positions. Also Proverbs 22:4.) So that to say, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” and to say, “with humility comes wisdom” are to say the same thing from different angles. Tremper Longman wrote,

“Humility comes from a healthy fear of Yahweh. Those who fear Yahweh know that they are not the center of the universe. They are not 'wise in their own eyes.'”

Solomon displays this posture of the heart in his prayer for wisdom. What is the posture of your heart? Is it a posture of desperate dependence on God? Do you find yourself asking for wisdom? James 1:5 invites us with the same promise that Solomon had to ask and receive this wisdom. If we are not asking it is likely that we don't perceive our own need as Solomon did his. Solomon saw his foolishness, the fool always sees his own wisdom (Proverbs 12:15; 26:12, 16). What about you? If you lack wisdom, ask! God freely distributes it to fools who know they need it!

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

God on Trial?

2011-08-22T10:12:00.000-04:00

Reading: 1 Chronicles 21

God is on trial. The world is often quick to accuse God of injustice. Often the Bible is used as evidence against God, because the God of the Old Testament, it is often put forward, is not loving, according to the world's prosecution rhetoric. This trial of God is not new, indeed it is as old as history itself. It began in the Garden of Eden with the accusation of the age old serpent against God that God was lying in order to keep us from having “the good life.” (Genesis 3:4-5) 1 Chronicles 21 might help us see the serpent's lie and the truth about God and what He is like.

It begins with the age old serpent inciting David in an activity that will ultimately bring death (1 Chronicles 21:1). David tells Joab, his general, to go count the warriors in Israel. That doesn't seem to be a big problem, right? But Joab's response helps us see the problem.

But Joab replied, “May the LORD multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord's subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?” (1 Chronicles 21:3)

David's decision to count the troops is an evidence that his trust is shifting. He had always been one to trust in the Lord, not the arm of the flesh (Psalm 56:1-4). But now he has his eyes on how big his army is. Joab recognizes this and appeals to David. However, as king, David prevails and the counting begins. We discover that Joab was disgusted with this activity, and God was too (1 Chronicles 21:6-7).

What is the problem with this shift of trust? Though written later, Jeremiah 17:5 summarizes a truth that was equally true in David's time, in fact, gets to the root of sin itself. To trust in the Lord brings life, to trust in the flesh brings death. This isn't an arbitrary decision from the Lord; rather it is the upholding of truth. If trusting in the flesh would actually end in life, then the flesh would have to be the source of life. Or, rather, God would be upholding the lie which we are insisting on believing. God cannot lie, and God cannot prop up a lie.

God's wrath is poured on Israel and David sees his sin and repents. God offers him a choice between three forms of judgment. (1 Chronicles 21:8-10) David's response is telling:

David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.” (1 Chronicles 21:13)

David believed that God's mercy was greater than mans. There are a lot of people who think that they have a better idea of what love is than God does. A lot of people who presume to be more merciful than God. A lot in our day who would accuse God for killing these 70,000, but would defend to the death the right to take the life of innocent children in the womb to the tune of 55 million in our own nation. How can they possibly be so blind to the radical double standard. (Never mind that they have never given life to anyone, and God is the author of life. He is the only one with the right to give an take.)

David understood that he had rejected God, the author of life, in order to trust in man. He recognized the wretchedness of this action and understands just how deserving he was of death itself. But he knew that God's character is not limited to only justice, but is primarily holy love. His mercy is very great. David would much rather have fallen into the hands of the God of the Old Testament than to fall into the hands of men. (I dare say so would the Jews who were in Germany or Russia in the middle of the last century, and so would many babies today!)

As the account continues we discover that David understands that God extends mercy through a means of atonement, of dealing with man's guilt by a means of substitution. Sacrifices were given to demonstrate that God would deal with their sin by punishing their guilt on another. Of course, God never intended that animal sacrifices would be sufficient (Isaiah 1:11; Psalm 51:16). Those sacrifices were pointing to the reality that God would provide a means of atonement in which our guilt would be dealt with by a substitute, and were always pointing forward to the Lamb of God that would bear away the sins of the world.

God's love is a holy love. It isn't merely God saying, “it doesn't really matter, I was just kidding anyway when I said not to eat from the tree. I was just kidding when I said not to.... You won't really die.” Rather it is God saying, “I wasn't kidding. Death is necessary, but I will provide the answer, I will save you from death itself and give you life eternal.” It is God saying, “I will bear your death for you.” 1 Chronicles 21 looks to the ultimate sacrifice described in Isaiah 53:1-12. The world may think they have God on trial, but in reality, it is the world that is on trial, and needs a serious attorney (1 John 2:1-2).

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Are You Mission Minded?

2011-08-18T08:26:00.000-04:00

Reading: Ezekiel 2 – 3

Ezekiel was being sent on a mission. I am sure glad I have not been sent on the same mission, because as we see in this chapter it isn't going to be well received (Ezekiel 2:3-4). However, in this sending of Ezekiel, I believe we can still learn something about the nature of our own obedience to the mission, and our own obedience to the Gospel. The Gospel does call us to obedience, but it is an obedience of faith and must flow from our confession of the Gospel (Romans 1:5; 16:25-26; 2 Corinthians 9:13).

In Ezekiel 2:1-2, Ezekiel is told to stand up and the Lord will speak. So the command is clear to Ezekiel: Stand up! Yet, notice how he obeyed: As the Lord spoke, the Spirit came into Him and raised him to his feet! Through the ministry of God's Word and Spirit, Ezekiel was empowered to respond and obey God's command. This was not an obedience of Ezekiel's will power, but an obedience of faith. Yet, that doesn't negate the fact that Ezekiel was told, “you must speak...do not rebel...open your mouth...eat what I give you...” (Ezekiel 2:7-8).

There is no contradiction to say that Ezekiel must respond and obey while also saying, Ezekiel's response and obedience would come through the empowering of the Spirit that comes with the very word—command in this case—that he was to obey. We find in the Gospels a similar pattern. Jesus says, “Follow me.” And, evidently, the very words themselves empower the obedience of the recipient (by the Spirit), for we read, “At once they left their nets and followed him....and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” (Matthew 4:18-22; 9:9) The Word of Christ empowered by the Spirit of Christ empowers the obedience it commands.

Ezekiel 3 continues relating Ezekiel's commission. Many expositions of this chapter immediately jump to our commission and look at similarities.¹ No doubt there is something to be gained in reminding ourselves of the importance of communicating the message and the implications for others when we don't. Nevertheless, I suggest it is wiser to begin with the differences between Ezekiel's commission and the New Testament commission to the believer.

We are often prone to see the lack of receptivity of the audience to which Ezekiel is being sent, and quickly assume we are being sent to an audience with the same lack of receptivity. Ezekiel was not being sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language, but to the house of Israel; not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language, whose words he cannot understand. Why? Because if he were, they would listen. (Ezekiel 3:5-7)

Beginning with the day of Pentecost, we are being sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language (Gentiles). And the receptivity is demonstrated on that first day as 3,000 were added to their previously meager number of 120 (Acts 2:41). It is worth noting that the first sign of the new covenant era and new covenant commission is that of tongues—the obscure speech and difficult language (indeed in this case a supernatural ability to speak a language the speaker did not understand; at times a language the hearer did not understand) (Acts 2:4-12). And while the Gospel was first preached to Jerusalem, and Judea, it was here that those scattered people of God from all over the empire were the first converts. Even though the greatest resistance to the Gospel in the book of Acts would come from the Jewish people, there was almost an uncontrollable influx of Gentiles (see also Acts 10:44-48).

[I cannot help but notice the comparison between Ezekiel's vision and being told to eat the scroll and go speak to the house of Israel and their lack of receptivity (Ezekiel 3:1-7), and Peter's vision of Acts 10:10-17, his being told to eat and the receptivity of the audience such that it shocked even Peter (Acts 10:45).]

As we have been studying the book of Isaiah on Sunday mornings at Gulf Coast Community Church, we have noticed the difference between Isaiah's commission of Isaiah 6:8-13, and our own commission described in contrast in Isaiah 52:7 — a different message, and a different outcome. Our message is not the message of captivity that Isaiah (and in different words, Ezekiel) brought. Our message is good, peace, salvation; the Kingdom of our God has come and begun to reign! Ours is a message that God is no longer holding the sins of the world against them, but invites them in through Jesus Christ. And the nations have been given as an inheritance to our Lord and King, the resurrected Jesus Christ. Share the Gospel with faith! Hear this word from the Gospel of Christ, obey it as these very words, by the Spirit, empower bold proclamation of Christ. That is mission-mindedness!

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

1I've done this myself.

How is the Holy Spirit Our Counselor?

2011-08-10T21:08:00.001-04:00

Reading: John 16

What does it mean to say the Holy Spirit is our Counselor? Undoubtedly, there are many ways in which He is, but when we ask that we are usually referring to the specific references in John's Gospel, in the Upper Room Discourse of chapters 14-17 where this is mentioned. He is the paraclete (variously translated comforter, counselor); what does this mean? We tend to read our own culture into it and think therapeutic counselor. However, the common usage of the word in John's day, and the context both point to the meaning, Counselor-at-law (legal counsel).

There is a dual-trial that is occurring throughout John's Gospel. Jesus on trial before the world and the world on trial before Jesus. Jesus has been on trial before the world (the Jewish leaders), and he has had witnesses, starting with John the Baptist (John 1:7). The Samaritan woman testified about Him (John 4:39); the Father testified about Jesus; Jesus' works testified about Him; the Scriptures testified about Him (John 5:32, 36, 39). Of course, the trial of Jesus culminates before Pilate when Judah/Judas delivered Him over to Pilate (John 18:2, 5).

The world has been on trial before Jesus. While Jesus was here, He was testifying against the world (John 7:7). He did not come as the judge, but as a witness. There will indeed be a verdict (John 3:19), which is the outcome in a legal proceeding. Jesus came as a witness, indeed a witness who could not be bought by the Jewish leaders for their acceptance, but would testify to the truth (John 18:37). However, in John 16, Jesus is preparing to leave. Who will help the disciples carry on the trial? Who will bring their case to bear upon the world, and how?

⁷But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; ¹⁰in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; ¹¹and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. (John 16:7-11)

The Spirit was to come and continue the legal work of Jesus. Jesus called him the Counselor who would testify about Jesus (John 15:26). Counselor and Testify (witness) are both legal terms. Counselor is a legal term that would be like our, “counselor-at law,” not like a therapeutic counselor. This Cosmic Prosecutor will convict the world of guilt. What does it mean to say He has come to convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment?

We often use the word “convict” as if the Spirit came to bring about a feeling of conviction regarding these things. However, that modern notion of conviction as a bad feeling about sin is not what is intended here at all. This is convict in the same way a person who is found guilty of a crime in a trial is said to be convicted.

“It means to pronounce a judicial verdict by which the guilt of the culprit at the bar of justice is defined and fixed. The Spirit does not merely accuse men of sin, he brings to them an inescapable sense of guilt so that they realize their shame and helplessness before God. …The Spirit is the prosecuting attorney who presents God's case against humanity.”¹

The Spirit proves the guilt of the world in regard to sin, righteousness, and judgment. It is easy to understand how the world is guilty in its sin. No problem. But what about righteousness? What about its judgment? How is the world guilty in these? An episode of Law & Order I saw recently was about an escaped convict, who had been in for 10 years, but escaped so he could prove his innocence. It essentially turned in to a re-trying of a case where an innocent man had been convicted, and the accuser ends up going to jail. After His execution, Jesus escapes the grave, and comes back by His Spirit to “retry His case.” Andreas Kostenberger, regarding this passage wrote,

“The anticipation of the Spirit's work of convicting the world of its guilt in effect represents a retrial of the trial of Jesus who, despite the thrice-repeated "not guilty" verdict of Pilate, was put on the cross. When the evidence is properly weighed, it turns out that it is the world that is guilty...”²

But guilty of what? “in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me...” In convicting the only Purely Innocent One who ever came before a human court, to execution by crucifixion, the unbelief of men is revealed for what it really is. To not believe in Christ is to reject Him; to reject Him is to condemn Him to death. The leaders of the Jews in all their religious practice, and sense of doing right, did not believe in Christ and were therefore bent on killing Him. Man's sin is not an occasional lapse in judgment or a mistake here or there. Your sin and mine wasn't that we were basically good and messed up a few times, but we had good intentions. In Jesus' death we discover the essence of all sin and the work of all sinners. The inevitable outcome of Adam's eating from the forbidden fruit is that, given the opportunity, we would kill the Son of God.

“in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer...”

There is something about Jesus' presence which had already brought about an exposure of their guilt regarding righteousness. How did Jesus' presence expose the guilt of their “righteousness”? While Jesus was here, He demonstrated real righteousness. The Pharisees had a righteousness that wouldn't do good to a man on the Sabbath, and they were rather pleased with it. In fact, they kicked a man out of the synagogue for carrying his mat on the Sabbath. Jesus exposed the wickedness they called righteousness. Now the Spirit will come and continue that work.

Isaiah speaks of the righteousness of Israel in the same way.

I will expose your righteousness and your works, and they will not benefit you. (Isaiah 57:12)

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy [menstrual] rags...like the wind our sins sweep us away. (Isaiah 64:6)

Just as Isaiah did with Israel, and Jesus while He was here, the Holy Spirit will expose the righteousness of the world for what it is: a self-serving, self-defined, self-determined right and wrong that is ultimately a rejection of true worship and the true God to whom we owe our very lives. It is a righteousness that is a cover-up for evil deeds.

…concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. (ESV)

The world takes great pride in its ability to judge for itself, to bring everything into the courtroom of human reason and decide for itself the boundaries of right and wrong. Yet at the cross we see the real nature of the world's judgment, of its ability to judge right from wrong, and what do we find? The most heinous miscarriage of justice possible.

The cross of Jesus is the ultimate sham judgment in history. It is the apex of the world's judgment. In a garden at the beginning of our history, Adam set out to take the right of judgment away from God, the authority to discern between good and evil. Now, in a garden Jesus will be crucified (19:41) and there will be exposed man's inability to discern, to make right judgment. The cross convicts us of our guilt in this regard, for there man kills the only innocent One who ever lived.

And the world's judgment is tied together with the one whose ways they are following: the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit of disobedience (John 12:31). The world's capacity for right judgment is exposed and condemned along with their ruler, for in their ultimate act against God, God triumphs. The resurrection is the final judgment of Jesus for God declares Him righteous by raising Him from the dead! Death has no power over Him. The judgment of the world could not stick!

When God looks for right judgment, he sees bloodshed (Isaiah 5:7)! The faithful city is filled with murderers (Isaiah 1:21)! Jesus is now going to the Father, and man's religious judgment in the Jews, and secular judgment in Pilate, put God's Son on the cross. The resurrection and ascension are the re-trial, in which the One unjustly condemned becomes the Judge. The prince of the world has had his day, and He is judged by the resurrection and ascension of our Lord to Heaven's throne...and the world with Him. As we proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, we begin with the fact that we, mankind, have rejected and disowned the author of life, indeed in our historic moment we handed the Holy and Righteous One over to death (Acts 3:13-15). The Spirit will work with us to reveal guilt to those in need of a Savior!

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

1The Expositor's Bible Commentary on John's Gospel.

2Kostenberger, Andreas J.; Whatever Happened to Truth.

David Paid the Price; Jesus Paid the Price; Will You?

2011-08-02T22:37:00.000-04:00

Reading: 1 Chronicles 13, 15 – 16

“What's the big deal, all we wanted to do is pray?” I can imagine what David may have thought when he was angry with the Lord after the Lord's wrath had broken out against Uzzah and struck him down. Uzzah was doing God a service, it would seem, when he reached out to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled (1 Chronicles 13:9-11). The whole reason they were even carrying the ark to Jerusalem was because they wanted to pray and seek God's will rather than do things in their own wisdom (1 Chronicles 13:3).

David was afraid of God that day. First he couldn't wait to get the ark to Jerusalem; now he isn't sure if he wants anything to do with the ark. So David leaves it at the house of Obed-Edom. And the Lord blesses the house of Obed-Edom and everything he had (1 Chronicles 13:12-14). That beats all! David wanted that blessing; David called together the people of Israel in order to go bring the ark to Jerusalem so they might have that blessing; David wanted to do things differently than Saul had done; but instead of blessing one of their good men dropped dead. So he leaves this dangerous thing with Obed-Edom, and, lo and behold, blessing falls on his house.

It seems however, that over the next few months, David really did inquire of the Lord (absence of the ark, notwithstanding), for now he recognizes where they blew it (1 Chronicles 15:2). David isn't going to bring the ark in on a cart, following the ways of the culture; he was going to do it the way the Lord prescribed. David wants God's blessing, but he now realizes that he can't treat God like some sort of good luck charm. Blessing doesn't come from things that channel some sort of power from God; blessing doesn't come when we say just the right things; blessing comes when we listen to God and believe the truth that He tells us, and live in accordance with that truth. David's fear of God leads him to experience the blessing of God's presence.

I love how Obed-Edom's name keeps popping up in the 15^th and 16^th chapter (1 Chronicles 15:18, 21, 24, 25; 16:5, 38). He was the man who experienced the blessing of God's presence when the ark was left at his place. It keeps reminding us that God's blessing never stopped even if David wasn't experiencing it. David had to decide if he was going to have God's blessing on God's terms. He wasn't going to have it on his own terms. So after 3 months David is seeking the Lord again!

David is no longer mad; now we find that he is dancing and celebrating before the Lord with all his heart. He had an unrestrained passion for the Lord's presence. His wife, Saul's daughter, despised him. Many in our own day despise this kind of passion. They call it emotionalism, they call it disorderly, they call it excessive. David found it humbling (2 Samuel 6:21-22). While it may not always be appropriate to make this display, it certainly better be appropriate at some point or we are despising humble worship and love for God. And that day, David composes a song of worship.

This song instructs us in the attitude we should have toward the Lord and our need of His presence. This really stood out to me as I read it from the New English Translation (NET) this morning. Here is how that reads:

Give thanks to the Lord! Call on his name! Make known his accomplishments among the nations! Sing to him! Make music to him! Tell about all his miraculous deeds! Boast about his holy name! Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! Seek the Lord and the strength he gives! Seek his presence continually! ((1 Chronicles 16:8-11)

What is the take-away for us from this text? How are we to respond? If you are one who seeks the Lord, rejoice! Be a glad seeker! Seek the strength He gives, as one who needs it. And, get this: seek His presence continually! Not occasionally; continually! Christ died to make it possible for us to enter God's presence (Hebrews 10:19-23); He paid the ultimate price. David wanted God's blessing enough to pay the cost... to obey and seek on God's terms. Christ has paid our cost; now the only cost left for us is to want it enough to pay the price in time to seek Him. O the blessing that would come to the church if we did.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Do Good Works Matter?

2011-07-27T20:02:00.000-04:00

Reading: Titus

Some evangelicals are guilty of treating good works like a curse word. By that, I mean if one even mentions good works, the defenses go up and we begin to filter everything said with a “is this legalism?” suspicion. At times, I wonder if people somehow think bad works would be better than good works. The whole reason we call good works good is because they are good! And I sometimes wonder if we like to throw them under the bus of legalism so quickly because it somehow alleviates us of our accountability before God for how we live.

So it is fair to ask what, in another generation, may have been obvious, “Do good works matter?” The obvious answer is, “Yes!” But now we must get to the real point: How do they matter? Or, in what way do they matter? Do they earn our salvation? Absolutely not, that would indeed be legalism. But that doesn't mean they don't matter; that is not the only way they can matter. Paul's letter to Titus certainly reveals a significant reasons why good works matter.

In the greeting, Paul makes an important distinction.

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness—a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time... (Titus 1:1-2)

Faith and knowledge were both important in the mission of Paul. We know from Paul's other writings (such as Romans 3:22-24) that faith, trusting in Christ, secures eternal life. Knowledge of the truth leads to godliness. Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ, bringing a message from Him, for the faith and for the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness. The Gospel message that Christ called Paul to deliver would not only produce saving faith in God's promise of eternal life, it would produce a knowledge of the truth that would change how we live. The Gospel shines light into the dark places of our ignorance showing us how to walk! Godliness, according to Friberg's lexicon, is a particular manner of life characterized by reverence toward God; behavior directed dutifully toward God; godly living. In other words, godliness is living a life of good works.

Paul immediately takes up the topic of elders and their qualifications with Titus, reminding him of the importance for the elder to live a godly life as one “entrusted with God's work...” (Titus 1:7). He must encourage others by sound (healthy) doctrine, and refute those who oppose it. Those who oppose it are “ruining whole households” by their unhealthy teaching; their character is described as, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” (Titus 1:12) Finally, they are described in Titus 1:16 as those who “profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.” (ESV)

Our lives are either confessing Christ before men in word and deed, or they are professing Christ in word while denying Him in deed. Good works matter! Paul immediately picks up with Titus telling him to teach people how to live consistently with the Gospel. He instructs older men and women; younger women and then young men. He also speaks to slaves. The motivation behind these instructions comes out periodically as, “so that no one will malign the word of God,” and, “so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us,” and, “so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.” (Titus 2:5, 8, 10)

Indeed, because of the Gospel (what Christ has done for us), we are to be eager to do what is good (Titus 2:11-14). It is the Gospel that teaches us how to live godly lives; not the law. Paul doesn't send us to the law for that, but to the Gospel... to Jesus! Certainly the law was a shadow of how we are to live; the reality is found in Christ! The grace of God is what teaches us good works. That grace is most fully and perfectly expressed in Jesus Christ. (Click here for more on the difference between “law” and “Gospel”.)

Then Paul directs instruction to the church in general, that we would be “ready to do whatever is good.” (Titus 3:1) Paul doesn't seem to have an allergy to good works. In the verses that follow, it seems that Paul is arguing that because Christ saved us when we were living lives of evil works, full of hatred and lust—saving us not by any works of righteousness on our part, but purely on the basis of mercy, giving us the hope (confident expectation) of eternal life—we are to be intent on engaging in good works (Titus 3:2-8).

Do good works matter? Absolutely. Not because they earn us salvation, but, at least one reason is that they may help others find the same hope of eternal life, as they make the Gospel attractive. Grace was not our paycheck to do with as we please. Grace is God's investment in us (Matthew 25:14-30), and is to be poured into others. The love of Christ we have received is to bear fruit and grow in us that others may receive it also. Be eager to do good works.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Should Protestants Let Mary Help Them Pray?

2011-07-23T10:23:00.000-04:00

Reading: John 11

Before you run screaming from the question I asked in the title, you may want to read about how another Mary may teach us something about prayer. The account of Jesus raising Lazarus is loaded with much truth about Christ and His purpose in coming. In this brief post, however, I want to focus on the comparison between Mary and Martha. We are all used to hearing about these sisters in contrast from Luke 10:38-42 where Martha is weary from her labors (law), and Mary has found what is needed, not her labors, but Christ (grace)! Here, the comparison is deserves equal attention.

Having waited to go to Bethany until Lazarus had died (intentionally), Jesus arrives to discover that Lazarus has been dead four days. Mourners had arrived and were with Martha and Mary. The first encounter we read of involves Martha (John 11:20-27).

Martha hears that the Lord has come and goes out to meet Him. (It does not indicate that Mary heard; it will become evident that she was not yet aware that Jesus had arrived.)
Martha says to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Jesus response to Martha describes the truth: “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” ²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; ²⁶and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷“Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

In effect, Jesus is saying the last day is found in Him. All the judgment anyone has coming is dealt with through faith in Christ. The one who believes in Christ has, effectively, already been raised. Why? Because his judgment has been dealt with (see John 11:50-52); he will never die. Like Lazarus he may sleep; but it will not end in death. Like Lazarus it may appear that he dies, but the story is not over! Like Lazarus he may even decompose and stink, but Jesus is the resurrection and the life—the last day has come in Him and all who are in Him will live, even though they die.

Now, keeping Martha's encounter in mind, let's examine Mary's from John 11:28-35.

Jesus called Mary to come to Him.
When Mary heard his call, “she got up quickly and went to him.” This response is repeated for emphasis (vs. 31). Note the contrast with Martha's response. Mary is responding to the call of Christ with faith.
When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet! This is no mere theological statement, this is worship! Martha speaks to Jesus; Mary prays! Martha's response is appropriate, but ineffective. Mary's response is over the top, but effectual! It is not the outward form that makes the difference; it is clearly the heart that drives is... much like the Luke 10 account I referred to above.
Mary says to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” This is the exact same thing Martha said without the additional part about, “but even now....”.
Jesus responds to Mary by answering her prayer (virtually unspoken, but implied): “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ³⁴'Where have you laid him?' he asked. 'Come and see, Lord,' they replied. ³⁵Jesus wept.” Then Jesus proceeds to raise Lazarus from even a decomposing state.

There are a few things we can learn from this about prayer. While secondary to the truth about Christ being the resurrection and the life, it is certainly not unimportant. First, prayer is a response to the call of Christ! Mary responded to the request of Christ which Martha brought her. Here I am reminded of Revelation 3:20. Prayer is a response to Jesus standing at the door of our heart and knocking. We merely open the door. He comes in. We don't even bring Him in! As Ole Hallesby commented on that verse, “To pray is nothing more involved than to lift the eye of prayer unto the Savior who stands and knocks, yea knocks through our very need, in order to gain access to our distress, sup with us and glorify His name.”

Second, prayer is more about the groaning within our hearts for Christ to work and deliver us from the bondage of decay (Romans 8:23-27), than it is about how we express it. Mary barely expressed her need; mostly it was expressed in her weeping. Prayer is not answered according to how well we describe the need to God, or how accurately we ask. It is about our helplessness coming in desperation to the Savior. It is like another Mary who had no idea how He would answer, but merely expressed the problem in trust to her Son, “They have no more wine.” (John 2:3) That's it. We don't need to tell God how to deal with the need; we need to entrust the need to Him!

Mary had no idea (though Martha appears to have some notion that Jesus could raise Lazarus even still—John 11:22) that Jesus would raise a decaying body. She just knew that He was what she needed. Like everyone else, Martha and Mary thought that Jesus should have come sooner, that that would have been a better idea (John 11:21, 32, 37). Like them, we usually prefer different plans than those that appear to be working themselves out in our lives. We must fall before the Savior in worship, trusting our need to Him, knowing He hears our weeping, and knowing that in Jesus our finality, the last day, has been determined and that every other outcome is temporary!

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

How Might Bible Reading and Prayer Work Together?

2011-07-18T17:51:00.000-04:00

Reading: Daniel 9

Daniel read the scriptures and those scriptures moved him to pray. For him, scripture reading was a part of his communion with God. Here we see that Daniel was studying Jeremiah and came to understand that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. Daniel realizes that seventy years is nearing completion and so this decree of God in Jeremiah moves Daniel to pray, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes (Daniel 9:2-3). This is no casual prayer; this is earnest prayer.

Daniel didn't think, “God has already told us through the prophet Jeremiah that He is going to do such and such; so it doesn't matter what I do; it really doesn't matter if I pray.” Rather, it seems that Daniel saw the promise of God as a source of confidence in God's mercy—a source of knowing His willingness—and therefore sensed the urgency of the moment in understanding the will of God, and sought the Lord all the more earnestly. Maybe it is this kind of thinking that lay behind the apostle John's statement, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” (1 John 5:14).

Secondly, we can notice something about how Daniel prayed: He did not go to God telling Him what He would do, or demanding that He keep His promise. God's promises were never intended to embolden our arrogance. Rather they were intended to comfort us, draw us near to the throne of grace to find mercy to help in our time of need. Daniel goes the the Lord confessing his sin and that of the people, declaring how they have deserved the judgment they received (Daniel 9:4-8).

Daniel goes completely dependent upon and confident in God's mercy and forgiveness (Daniel 9:9, 18-19). He does not even appeal to how much they've changed or learned from this experience... quite the contrary (Daniel 9:13-14).

All too often I hear the New Testament call to come boldly to the throne of grace to receive mercy in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16; 10:19-23), twisted into a kind of boldness that comes telling God what He will do because somehow we found a promise. God knows His promises, and He intends to keep them. However, nobody likes having their words thrown in their face as some sort of trap that they now must follow through on. The invitation to come boldly is a call to come without fear of being rejected when we come looking for mercy. Daniel went to God looking for mercy.

Thirdly, Daniel appealed to God's justice.

O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us. (Daniel 9:16)

The words “righteous acts” or “righteousness” can be translated justice. Even when translated righteousness, or righteous acts, in that sentence it carries the meaning of justice. “In keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and wrath...” is another way of saying, “Lord I am calling on you to continue to do what is right, or be just! Now that may seem a little odd. If they were deserving of this judgment because of their sin, why would he appeal to God's justice?

Apparently, Daniel's sense of God's justice not only included the truth that His holiness would burn against sin, but it also contained the truth that God understood our frame, and that He has compassion on His people—holy compassion. His holy justice is most greatly revealed in His holy love! Therefore this call to God to turn from his anger (which was just) is rooted in understanding that God's justice will ultimately reveal itself in love. What Daniel could not yet understand fully, was how at the cross of Christ God's just wrath and just love would meet together (Romans 3:25-26).

Fourthly, and finally, Daniel appealed to God's reputation, His glory. “For your sake, O Lord...open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name....For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name." (Daniel 9:17, 18, 19) God being known is more important than anything else in the universe. Therefore Daniel's appeal to God's reputation—God's name being held in esteem rather than mocked and ridiculed—is a valid motivation for praying according to God's will! Indeed, Jesus taught us to pray, “'Father, hallowed be your name...”.

Is your scripture reading part of your communion with God? When you read about how the church is called to live in the New Testament, does it motivate you to pray according to God's will for your brother's and sister's in Christ? When you read of how we are called to flee temptation and walk in holiness do you call on God to empower you by His Spirit to walk in righteousness, bearing the likeness of Jesus Christ? … to guide you in paths of righteousness for His name's sake? Let's learn from Daniel how to make our scripture reading part of our communion with God!

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Humility in Daily Life, by Andrew Murray

2011-07-15T04:00:00.000-04:00

The following are excerpts from chapter six in Andrew Murray's book, Humility. This chapter is titled, Humility in Daily Life. I read it yesterday morning and have read many of these excerpts to my wife and friends since. His text for this chapters is 1 John 4:20. Here they are:

What a solemn thought, that our love to God will be measured by our everyday intercourse with men and the love it displays; and that our love to God will be found to be a delusion, except as its truth is proved in standing the test of daily life with our fellowmen. It is even so with our humility. It is easy to think we humble ourselves before God: humility towards men will be the only sufficient proof that our humility before God is real; that humility has taken up its abode in us; and become our very nature; that we actually, like Christ, have made ourselves of no reputation. When in the presence of God lowliness of heart has become, not a posture we pray to Him, but the very spirit of our life, it will manifest itself in all our bearing towards our brethren. The lesson is one of deep import: the only humility that is really ours is not that which we try to show before God in prayer, but that which we carry with us, and carry out, in our ordinary conduct; the insignficances of daily life are the importances and the tests of eternity, because they prove what really is the spirit that possesses us. It is in our most unguarded moments that we really show and see what we are. To know the humble man, to know how the humble man behaves, you must follow him in the common course of daily life....

Humility before God is nothing if not proved in humility before men....

It is in our relation to one another, in our treatment of one another, that the true lowliness of mind and the heart of humility are to be seen. Our humility before God has no value, but as it prepares us to reveal the humility of Jesus to our fellow-men....

In striving after the higher experiences of the Christian life, the believer is often in danger of aiming at and rejoicing in what one might call the more human, the manly, virtues, such as boldness, joy, contempt of the world, zeal, self-sacrifice,-even the old Stoics taught and practised these,-while the deeper and gentler, the diviner and more heavenly graces, those which Jesus first taught upon earth, because He brought them from heaven; those which are more distinctly connected with His cross and the death of self,-poverty of spirit, meekness, humility, lowliness,-are scarcely thought of or valued....

And let each failure and shortcoming simply urge us to turn humbly and meekly to the meek and lowly Lamb of God, in the assurance that where He is enthroned in the heart, His humility and gentleness will be one of the streams of living water that flow from within us....

Once again I repeat what I have said before. I feel deeply that we have very little conception of what the Church suffers from the lack of this divine humility,-the nothingness that makes room for God to prove His power. It is not long since a Christian, of an humble, loving spirit, acquainted with not a few mission stations of various societies, expressed his deep sorrow that in some cases the spirit of love and forbearance was sadly lacking. Men and women, who in Europe could each choose their own circle of friends, brought close together with others of uncongenial minds, find it hard to bear, and to love, and to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And those who should have been fellow-helpers of each other's joy, became a hindrance and a weariness. And all for the one reason, the lack of the humility which counts itself nothing, which rejoices in becoming and being counted the least, and only seeks, like Jesus, to be the servant, the helper and comforter of others, even the lowest and unworthiest....

Let us look upon every brother who tries or vexes us, as God's means of grace, God's instrument for our purification, for our exercise of the humility Jesus our Life breathes within us. And let us have such faith in the All of God, and the nothing of self, that, as nothing in our own eyes, we may, in God's power, only seek to serve one another in love....

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

What's Up with All the Water?

2011-07-13T21:02:00.002-04:00

Reading: John 9
Ever wonder why Jesus spit on the ground and put mud in a man's eye to heal him? I think there is an explanation pointed to in the pool of water that Jesus sent Him to for washing.

Water seems to be everywhere in John's Gospel. The first scene is John baptizing with water (1:26). Jesus' first miracle is a vast amount of water being turned into wine (John 2:6-10). Jesus tells Nicodemus that in order to enter the Kingdom of God (the Messianic Kingdom) he must be born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5). John 4 centers around a well of water, and Jesus offering Living Water to those who ask of Him (John 4:10, 14). And even the follow up story about the royal official whose son lay sick, though it has nothing to do with water, is prefaced by mentioning it occurred where Jesus turned water into wine (John 4:46).

Then, Jesus goes to Jerusalem, to a pool of water (Bethesda), where a man had no one to help him get into the water when it was stirred. Jesus heals him without a man to help him into the water, and without the water (John 5:2-9). Jesus was all the man needed to walk. He is the Water—the whole pool and the One who brings us into the pool!

Am I making much to do about nothing? In John 6:19 we find Jesus walking on water, in John 7:37-39, He invites all who are thirsty to come to Him and drink, to believe in Him and partake of the streams of Living Water that flow from within Him. (We partake of this water by the Spirit Whom He sent.) While John 8 doesn't mention water, it certainly sets up John 9 by setting up the discussion on where Jesus came from, and even making statements like, “Before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58) Jesus continues his declaration that He is “sent by the Father,” (John 8:16, 18, 26, 29, 42) a theme which has dominated since the fifth chapter.

So in John 9, we arrive at the story of the man born blind. There is the initial discussion over whether the cause of this blindness was his own or his parents' sin. Jesus denied either as the cause but indicated that the purpose was for Him to do the work of God in his life, “the work of the Him who sent me” (John 9:3-4). There is that “sent me” theme again. Then Jesus takes some water from his mouth and puts it on the ground (he spits on the ground!), and told the guy to go wash in a whole pool full of water, the Pool of Siloam (John 9:6-7). The man does so, and “came home seeing.”

Right in the middle of that is a seeming throw-away-clause, “this word means Sent”. I would suggest that there is nothing throw-away about that clause. Jesus being sent has been a constant theme in John, and while there are two words used for “sent” in the Greek text in John, they are used interchangeably and at times in parallel. It is no mere coincidence that Jesus tells this man to wash in this particular pool, and John is not merely adding color to an otherwise black and white picture here, he is interpreting the sign.

This phrase is a clue to the reader or hearer, that they should pay attention to the meaning of the name of the pool! Siloam would not have immediately stood out as meaning “sent” to the average hearer. (Most of us don't think about the etymology of words we commonly use. I don't think about the meaning of checkers when I pull through to get a burger at Checkers.) John is explaining the sign. Jesus being sent from the Father is one of the primary themes of John’s Gospel. What does it mean to be sent? Follow the water.

Where did the pool of Siloam come from? In 2 Kings 18 & 2 Chronicles 32 we read of a time when Hezekiah was under threat of imminent attack from the Assyrians. Jerusalem was a well defensed city: it was on a high hill, or mountain, and had great walls. The only problem? The only water source was outside the city. So if an army laid siege to them, it was just a matter of time until the city ran out of water. So Hezekiah, being humble and therefore possessing wisdom, accomplished an amazing feat.

It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Gihon spring and channeled the water down to the west side of the City of David. He succeeded in everything he undertook. (2 Chronicles 32:30)

Hezekiah covered the spring Gihon, creating an underground aqueduct, cutting right through stone, to carry the water about 6 football fields in length to a man-made pool inside the city: the Pool of Siloam. This would look like any other spring in that you wouldn't be able to tell the water was from outside the city. However, it was actually a spring that was sent from another spring. You couldn’t see the first spring, it was covered; and one might not realize that it came from the other. The water was the same! One you could see; one you could not.

Jesus is the Living Water (John 4:10), indeed streams of Living water flow from within Him (John 7:338-39), because it is the same life that is in the Father. No one has seen the Father, but the One and Only Son of the Father has made Him known (John 1:18; 6:46). How so? Same water, same life giving Spirit, same essence, but now, having become flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), we can see this one. He is sent. That is why, just like God took mud in the garden and gave it life, Jesus could take mud and give a man born blind sight. And that is why by washing our feet He can cleanse us entirely, and why from His side flowed blood and water... a stream of living water from His life poured out for us (John 13:5-10; 19:34).

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

The Most Important Task a Minister Has

2011-07-06T18:23:00.001-04:00

Reading: 1 Timothy 4 – 6

What makes a “good minister of Christ Jesus”? (1 Timothy 4:6) Paul seems concerned for what lays ahead in Timothy's life and work, and Paul has a sober message for Timothy, for it seems a lot is at stake. At this letters conclusion Paul writes, “Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care.” (1 Timothy 6:20) What had been entrusted to Timothy? What was he to guard? There are two possible answers.

Guard the Gospel

If we look ahead in to Paul's second letter to Timothy we see right off that he is exhorted to guard the good deposit that was entrusted to him (2 Timothy 1:13-14). There is seems clear in context that Timothy is to guard the Gospel, what he had learned from Paul. No doubt the Gospel was under attack. There was danger then, as now, of mixing it with false notions of the Gospel, and thereby changing the Gospel. We must guard or protect the faith—the Gospel. Is that what is being spoken of in 1 Timothy 6:20?

Guard the Church

Another way this word guard is used is found on the lips of Jesus. He prays, “While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.” The same Greek word is used where the NIV says, “kept them safe”. Jesus protected and guarded the disciples, the church in seed form, lest they be lost and doomed to destruction. Is there some sense in which Timothy is called to protect and guard the church from danger and destruction as the pastor of the church?

Though it is likely that 1 Timothy 6:20 refers to one or the other of these choices, it might not really matter which one we arrive at. Let me explain. In 1 Timothy 4:16, Paul writes,

Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Watch, though not the same word as guard, carries the same idea. Watch it closely so that it doesn't get away. Here Paul is telling Timothy, “Guard the Gospel (doctrine) and your life (how you apply the Gospel) in order to guard your church (save yourself and your hearers). In fact, much of this epistle from Paul to Timothy seems concerned with protecting the church from danger. Even how widows would be dealt with was done in order that the church would not be open to blame in the community (1 Timothy 5:7), and that the church would not be burdened unduly (1 Timothy 5:16). When instructing slaves, the chief concern was not how they could go about obtaining justice, but bringing about a bad report concerning the church of God (1 Timothy 6:1-2). One translation says, “This will prevent the name of God and Christian teaching from being discredited.”

Guarding the church is vital. Why? Because it is the pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15). It is a lighthouse in the world providing the only truth about where danger is and isn't. Timothy, and every minister of Christ Jesus, has a vital task: guarding the Gospel, and guarding the church lest they be led astray from the Gospel. There is no task greater than this!

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Get Out of My Face!

2011-07-04T10:11:00.001-04:00

Reading: 2 Kings 24

The Messiah, the Christ, was to come and restore God's people and regather them. He was to reassign the desolate inheritances of the people (Isaiah 49:5, 8 for example; click here for a sermon on Isaiah 49). In order to understand the restoration which the Messiah will bring about, we must first understand the exile from which they are being restored.

The exile is one of the most significant events in the Old Testament. It stands in contradistinction to the exodus. In the exodus, God rescued His people from slavery in Egypt and brought them to the land of promise, the garden-like land of His presence. In the exile God threw His people out of the land of promise, the garden-like land of His presence and they went into captivity, a slavery of sorts, in Babylon. Is that what the exile is all about? Is there a deeper meaning?

The book of Kings comes to its sad conclusion essentially with the exile. In 2 Kings 24, we read of it and discover the deeper meaning.

It was because of the LORD's anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence. (2 Kings 24:20)

The exile is ultimately about being thrust from God's presence. One way to translate that is they were trust from God's face—i.e. from before His face. This exile began in the garden of Eden after Adam and Eve ate from the tree. There God banished Adam from the Garden of Eden and drove him out, there man was kept from partaking of the tree of life (Genesis 3:23-34). Adam and Eve were exiles.

The Exodus out of Egypt, bringing Israel to the land of promise, was a picture of God returning His people from the exile. They were brought back to a garden-like land, and when they arrived to the land they entered from the east side of the garden-like land (Joshua 3:16) just like they left the garden. And there was a angelic, cherubim like creature guarding the way into the land (Joshua 5:13-16) (for more on this angelic swordsman, click here). Even the tabernacle was designed with a candlestick in the shape of a tree, likely representing the tree of life.

So the exodus from Egypt and being brought to the land is a picture of salvation from the first exile—the exile from God's presence in the Garden. But this salvation from slavery to Egypt was not sufficient. It was merely a shadow of the salvation to come. It was not sufficient for it did not deliver from sin, and that ultimately resulted in the exile of God's people from the land of promise. So the deliverance to come, the salvation from the second exile which the Christ, the Messiah, would bring about must ultimately deal with our deepest exile—the exile from God's presence.

If the exile is being booted out of the land, then the restoration from the exile is being returned to the land. But if the exile is being booted out of the presence of God, then the restoration from the exile is being returned to the presence of God. This is the work of the Servant Messiah to come. The Old Testament promises didn't end with the return from Babylonian captivity; they only end with the return to the presence of God led by the Messiah. Hence, in Isaiah 49:5, the work of the Servant is “to gather Israel to Himself.”

Through Christ we have access to the face of God, the presence of God, freely! God no longer says, "Get out of my face!" Rather, He bids us come boldly before His face. We come by a new and living way (Hebrews 10:19-22). And in Christ we return to the Garden of God, bearing fruit in His presence (John 15:1, 4-5). The real exodus, the ultimate salvation from captivity has truly occurred through the work of Jesus Christ.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Are You Still Carrying Your Water Jar?

2011-07-02T07:24:00.002-04:00

Reading: John 4

I was reading John 4, yesterday morning in my devotions, the encounter of Jesus with the woman at the well, and for the first time the phrase, “Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town...” (John 4:28), stood out to me. Leaving her water jar... is there anything significant in that detail? Is it merely narrative detail, making the story more interesting? Certainly it is the kind of thing that the disciple John would have noticed upon returning to Jesus. When they left Him there was no water jar with Him. “Why is this here?” the disciples might wonder. Is there more to this little detail? If so, does it have anything to do with me?

I suggest it is connected to the larger conversation Jesus is having with this woman. What is John 4 about? It is about Jesus the source and giver of living water... eternal life. Jesus' encounter begins in earnest the moment the disciples leave to buy food. A Samaritan woman arrives at the well to draw water and Jesus immediately engages her in conversation, asking for a drink. The woman's response is was something along the order of, “Did you fall off the cabbage truck yesterday? Don't you know better than to ask me for a drink?” (John 4:7-9) Then Jesus makes a most amazing statement.

“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)

Did you see that? If she asks, He will give. What I find most amazing about that is that this woman was living with a man, had been married 5 times previous, and has done no repenting. Yet Jesus plainly tells her, If you knew Me, and if you asked Me, I would have given you living water, i.e. eternal life!” What in the world? Doesn't Jesus know there is a lot more to it than this? Doesn't He need to explain something to her? Doesn't she at least need to acknowledge her sinfulness and turn from them and then ask Him?

Furthermore, Jesus tells her that if she drinks this living water, she will never thirst. So she asks for it, desiring not to have to keep coming to draw water (John 4:14-15). Jesus had already promised that if she asked, He would give her living water. Now she asks! We know Christ will give it to her. Wait up, though, she does not yet know, “who it is that asks you for a drink”. Don't fear, Jesus will take care of that momentarily.

In order to reveal Himself to her, He now asks her to go call her husband, knowing that she has none, but had five and was presently living with a man out of wedlock. This leads into a conversation which no doubt needed further explanation for the woman (John 4:19-24), so the woman responds:

“I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” ²⁶Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.” (John 4:25-26)

Now, she knows who He is, as He just made it plain, and she has asked him for living water. It seems that the only conclusion the text leaves us to draw is that she now has Living Water, even eternal life! Indeed she can now see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3), indeed she is staring at the King. That brings us back to where we started.

Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?" ²⁸Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town...” (John 4:27-28)

One translation says, “at that very moment his disciples came back” and so the woman departs, “leaving her water jar.” It seems that she will no longer need to keep coming back... or more significantly, that she has now received this Living Water and knows she will never thirst. Of course, I realize that this woman won't stop drinking water, and she may have picked up the water jar later on when she brought people back. But John wants us to see that this woman suddenly became unconcerned about her water jar, unconcerned about her ability to keep drawing water, for she was suddenly satisfied in a way that she thirsted no more!

The question I must ask myself as I consider this is, “What water jars am I still holding onto in pursuit of what will satisfy me?” I know Christ, the gift that He is and Messiah, the Christ, that He is, and I have asked for living water. But all too often, I wonder if I am too concerned about my water jar. I know Christ has satisfied me and satisfies me with living water. But do I know that He will satisfy me always? Do I understand that I will never thirst? Do you? If so, have you left your water jar(s)—those things you use to quench your thirst apart from Christ? This woman did.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

What do Two Jewish Kings Have in Common with Adolph Hitler?

2011-06-30T09:26:00.001-04:00

Reading: Jeremiah 36 – 37

Seems preposterous that the man who hated everything Jewish—ultimately everything but himself—could have something in common with two Jewish kings. But I suggest they do. First let's look at the Jewish Kings: Jehoiakim, son of Josiah (Jeremiah 36), and Zedekiah, son of Josiah (Jeremiah 37). Two sons of Josiah, one of the best kings of Judah. Josiah's response to God's Word is an amazing contrast to what we read of his sons (2 Chronicles 34:14-21, 29-33).

The Lord instructs Jeremiah to write on a scroll all the words the Lord had given him from the start of his ministry (Jeremiah 36:2-3), as one last plea for the people to turn from their rebellion. So, Jeremiah has Baruch write it all down on a scroll, and then to read the scroll at the temple in the hearing of the people (Jeremiah 36:4-6). This scroll is Scripture; essentially the book of Jeremiah. Micaiah heard this, and that led to a series of events whereby the king would have the scroll read to him (Jeremiah 36:11-21). Note how different, how polar opposite, Jehoiakim's response to God's Word is from his father's (Josiah).

²²It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the firepot in front of him. ²³Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe's knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire. ²⁴The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes. ²⁵ Even though Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. (Jeremiah 36:22-25)

Jehoiakim was the highest authority in his life, and demanded to be the highest authority in the land. He wasn't about to submit to another. So, he had to destroy the written words of God as those would speak against his totalitarian authority. Subsequently, we find the Jehoiakim and his family would die out (Jeremiah 36:30-31), but the Word of the Lord would live on (Jeremiah 36:32).

Then, Zedekiah, Josiah's other son, is found to be reigning on the throne. Zedekiah, however, didn't burn the word of the Lord, he was much more subtle. He simply didn't pay attention (Jeremiah 37:2). He still wanted the Lord's help, and could play along with religious activities in order to gain what he wanted (Jeremiah 37:3), but he didn't want to submit his life to a higher authority than himself. He had enough curiosity to inquire as to what God had to say (Jeremiah 37:17), but no interest in submitting to it. Any leader who sees himself as the highest authority will be threatened by the objective authority of God's Word.

So what do these men have in common with Adolph Hitler? In his hatred for the Scriptures. In the Nazi plan for the national church here are a couple of points (taken from Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, by Eric Metaxas):

Point 13: The National Church demands immediate cessation of the publishing and dissemination of the Bible in Germany...

Point 14: The National Church declares that to it, and therefore to the German nation, it has been decided that the Fuehrer's Mein Kampf is the greatest of all documents. It... not only contains the greatest but embodies the purest and truest ethics for the present and future life of our nation.

Point 18 requires the church to rid itself of the Bible.

Point 19: On the altars there must be nothing but Mein Kampf (to the German nation and therefore to God the most sacred book) and to the left of the altar a sword.

Of course, Hitler was anything but a Christian, and therefore, this should not surprise us. But in his hatred of scripture, God's Word and its higher authority than himself, he was just like these two Jewish Kings we read about, and very much not like Josiah. How about you? Do you love God's word? Do you pay attention to it? Does God have authority over you?

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Does Nicodemus Think He is Simon Cowell?

2011-06-25T12:25:00.000-04:00

Reading: John 3

Most every American knows who Simon Cowell is—former lead judge on American Idol, now X-Factor. I haven't yet seen the latter, but we know how American Idol works. Eager to be affirmed contestants audition in front of three judges, who then critique and, in Simon's case, usually insult (almost always deserved), them. The much feared Simon's affirmation is the rarest, and, if given, most prized. Imagine a contestant singing magnificently, then interrupting to explain he is not the least interested in their affirmation.

That may well parallel the situation we find in John 3. In order to really understand Jesus' dialogue with Nicodemus, we must ignore the chapter break. John 2 ends with the following:

²³Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. ²⁴But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. ²⁵He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man. ^3:1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. (John 2:23 - 3:1)

Jesus would not entrust Himself to men, for He knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about man, for He knew what was in a man. And there was a man who came to Jesus offering his testimony about Jesus, and the testimony of the Jewish ruling council. Jesus had no interest in entrusting himself to Nicodemus; He did not need the testimony of the Jewish ruling council to affirm Him. Indeed, the Jewish ruling council would have done well to seek Jesus' affirmation of them by coming into the light and allowing Him, the Light, to expose them (John 3:19-21).

What was Nicodemus' motive in coming to Jesus? Since Jesus cuts him off after a brief introduction and seemingly changes the subject, his intentions are not immediately apparent. However, the fact that Jesus cut him off, and the immediately preceding comments by John (the narrator of this account), and the content of what Nicodemus said, together make clear Nicodemus' intent. What did Nicodemus say?

He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." (John 3:2)

Nicodemus came offering the testimony of the Jewish ruling council; testimony about Jesus. Nicodemus very likely expected Jesus to be gladdened by this turn of events, especially in light of John 2:18. But, Jesus had no interest in their affirmations and would not entrust himself to them. He had no need of their testimony, for He knew what was in man. (Note the continuity of thought: ²⁵He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man. ^3:1Now there was a man )

Jesus knew exactly what was in Nicodemus and his accomplices back at the council. Jesus immediately interrupts with a statement that gets right at the problem with what was in them. They were of their father the devil (John 8:44) and needed to be born again (John 3:3). In fact, they could not even see the kingdom of God, much less be in charge of it as they supposed, unless they were born-again.

In effect, Nicodemus was coming on behalf of the council, attempting to barter a deal with Jesus. The logical direction of the conversation from Nicodemus' viewpoint would be something like this: “Now Jesus, we are willing to affirm publicly that you are indeed a man from God. We will give you ordination credentials and all! But there are a few things we need to discuss in order for this to work...” Then of course, he would lay down the boundaries which Jesus needed to keep. There is only one big problem: Jesus wasn't subject to the Jewish Ruling Council, they needed to be subject to Him. After all, according to John 3:31, Jesus is above all, which is to say He didn't need to submit Himself to them for their judgment, they needed to submit themselves to Him for His!

Nicodemus came affirming that what Jesus was doing was done through God, but what Nicodemus needed was Jesus to affirm that what Nicodemus was doing was done through God (John 3:21). Nicodemus didn't come for that and didn't leave with that. Nicodemus presumed that he and the Jewish leadership were in the position of judging Jesus, that He was in need of their affirmation... like some sort of contestant on American Idol needing the judges to “put him through to the next round.”

A big question for us, as we examine the Gospels, is whether or not we are coming to Christ to examine Him and judge Him as to whether or not He is from God. Fact is, we should not trust our judgment for it is faulty; faulty because of what is in us. We must be born-again. It is Christ that we must come to in order for our deeds to be exposed. It is Christ that we must gaze upon in order that we might receive eternal life (John 3:15-16).

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Was Jehosheba Another Scarlet Pimpernel?

2011-06-20T09:10:00.000-04:00

Was Jehosheba Another Scarlet Pimpernel?

Reading: 2 Kings 11

Each time I read this story, I can't help but think one day it should be made into a movie, or possibly the backdrop to a historical novel—maybe because I so enjoyed the 1982 movie version of “The Scarlet Pimpernel.”¹ There a young heir to the king is imprisoned, facing sure peril, but then he is rescued and whisked away into hiding to one day safely be put on the throne. The account here in 2 Kings is one of assassination, power grabbing, a wicked woman killing her grandchildren, rescue of infants, and more. Parts of this story may be more familiar to us that we at first recognize.

2 Kings 11:1 picks up the story of the Kings of Judah, the descendants of David from 2 Kings 8:26-27; 9:27. Ahaziah was in the royal line through which the Messianic King has been promised. So a lot is at stake in these events. When Athaliah saw that her son was dead, instead of doing the right thing and protecting her various grandchildren, so the rightful heir could reign on the throne, she wanted to hold on to her powerful position and increase it. She “arose and destroyed” or as the NET Bible points out in its notes, the sense is that she embarked on a campaign to destroy the royal offspring.

Princess Jehosheba, aunt of the royal heir, Ahaziah's sister, stole her brother's son away at about one year old and hid him in the temple for the next 6 years. The wicked grandmother was unaware that she hadn't succeeded in killing off the legitimate king. So when the child is seven, and the priest Jehoiada, in concert with the armed guards set the rightful king in place declaring, “Long live the king,” she comes out to see what the noise is all about and sees what is happening (2 Kings 11:13-14). There we read,

She looked and there was the king, standing by the pillar, as the custom was. The officers and the trumpeters were beside the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her robes and called out, “Treason! Treason!”

She was subsequently taken and put to death, and that is the end of her. Or is it? Is it possible that Athaliah is more prominent that at first perceived? Is it possible that she is a foreshadowing, a type of Judah herself who in the Bible's storyline has embarked on a campaign to destroy the royal offspring?

As I read this account, I consider its similarity to how God's people rejected God as King (1 Samuel 8:7-8, 19-20), wanting an earthly king. In Matthew 21:33-39, Jesus tells a parable of how the people of Israel, now the identity of the remaining tribe of Judah, had rejected the servants God had sent to them (prophets), and and how when the son was sent, the legitimate heir, they killed him saying, “This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance.” Just like Athaliah, they wanted to take for themselves was not rightfully theirs and were willing to kill in order to achieve it. (And they too were unaware that though they had killed him, they hadn't succeeded in killing off the heir, for He would rise again!)

When I read of Athaliah coming out and seeing the king standing by the pillar of the temple and her shouting, “Treason, Treason,” I recall the scene of Jesus, the legitimate heir to the throne, standing before Pilate and the people, accused of treason, and the shouts of the people, “Crucify, Crucify!” It is there that the story comes full circle from the rejection of Yahweh as King in 1 Samuel 8 (and in the Garden of Eden) as the people declare, “We have no king but Caesar,” swearing their loyalty to the earthly king over God. (See John 19:4-6, 12-16.)

Of course, if Athaliah is a picture of the Jewish revolt against Yahweh, then they are representatives of all mankind—the cream of the crop of humanity as the chosen people—in our rebellion and rejection of God. I know, you may be thinking, “But she is the antagonist in the story... the bad 'guy'! I more naturally think of myself as the rescuer (Jehosheba, or Jehoiada) or the one being rescued (Joash); I don't like being compared to Athaliah.”

Fair enough. But if the shoe fits.... Reality is that we have all, ever since Adam and Eve, rejected God as king and ultimately it is our sins that crucified Him, killing the legitimate heir. But the fact is, you can relate to the one being rescued also. For, thanks be to God that in the power and wisdom of God, the very act of rebellion in which Christ was crucified becomes the means through which God rescues us from our sin and redeems a people who will now come under the reign of Christ as King and serve the King in His Kingdom. Oh the glorious grace of God.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

1If you haven't seen this, one of my very favorite all time movies, you may want to put it on your must see list.

How Do You Keep Your Sanity?

2011-06-16T07:46:00.000-04:00

Reading: Daniel 4

Do you ever feel like you're losing your mind? Like you're on the edge of sanity and teetering? How do you keep your sanity? How do you regain it? Of course, I am using these terms in street vernacular, and not speaking of the more medical sense of the word. However, Nebuchadnezzar really did lose his mind can teach us a lot about how to keep our sanity.

Nebuchadnezzar had a nightmare (Daniel 4:5), and went mad—but not because of the nightmare. The nightmare was only warning him of what was to come. Nebuchadnezzar's insanity was no garden variety madness.

He was driven away from people and ate grass like cattle. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird. (Daniel 4:33)

What led to this kind of insanity? One day as he was walking on the roof terrace of his royal palace, gazing down across the great city he had built, the accomplishments of his reign, he said to himself:

“Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30)

Immediately, this insanity came on him. And then, we read, “At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored.” Nebuchadnezzar turned his eyes toward heaven and acknowledged the source of his rule (Daniel 4:34-35). Sanity begins with the acknowledgment of God in turning of our eyes toward heaven.

How often do we live our lives in our own version of insanity? Living our lives in prayerlessness is a declaration that we can do what we do by our own mighty power and for the glory of our own majesty. A prayerless life is a life lived in self-sufficiency, looking only down, or under the sun. This life is moving toward madness! Sanity is living a God-dependent life of prayer, turning our eyes toward heaven. If you need to restore your sanity, then turn back to God, turn your eyes toward heaven, looking to God in dependence, through prayer. (See also Psalm 123:2; 145:15.)

If what keeps you from going to God in prayer is a sense of unworthiness, then keep in mind two things. 1) That you are unworthy, and should never approach God based on your worthiness or lack thereof. 2) That there is a new way to enter God's presence without fear and with confidence to receive mercy in your time of need. Read about that in Hebrews 10:19-22, and never forget it. The new way if rooted in the worthiness of Jesus Christ and not our own. If you know these two things and are still not praying, then obey the imperative of verse 22 of that Hebrews text and stop wasting the work Christ did on your behalf. Regain your sanity.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Which Way to Zion?

2011-06-14T14:24:00.001-04:00

Reading: Psalm 87

“...the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.” (Psalm 87:2)

What a statement of comparison. God had chosen Jacob; Israel was His firstborn son. But here, God speaks of Zion, as loving its gates even more than the very dwelling places of Jacob. Zion is the place I want to be! But Zion can be elusive at times for me as I read the Scriptures. Sometimes I wonder, “Where is Zion? What is Zion?”

Originally, Zion was a fortified hill in pre-Israelite Jerusalem.¹ In 2 Samuel 5:6-10 we read of how David conquered Zion and made it the City of David. Shortly after that David sets out to bring the ark of God, where God was enthroned between the cherubim, to the city of David. Subsequently, Zion becomes associated with the place where God's throne, the ark, is. Therefore, when David's son, Solomon, moves the ark into the temple, the temple mount becomes associated with Zion. Zion is that place where God's rule is centered; the place where His presence in mercy is manifest amongst His people.

However, when we arrive at Psalm 87:4-6, there are some surprising things spoken about Zion. Twice we read that God will write or record the names of individuals, including Gentiles, in the records of those born in Zion. These are not proselytes, they are now natural born citizens. And from amongst the enemies of God's people: Rahab is another name for Egypt where Israel was in slavery (Psalm 89:10); Babylon held God's people captive during the exile; Philistia was the persecuting neighbor of God's people (Judges 10:7; 13:1). Now God will create from them those who are part of Zion! A third time we read that it will be said of Zion, “This one and that one were born in her, and the Most High himself will establish her.” Zion is being transformed into a place that doesn't have ethnic boundaries.

This psalm is also very similar to some verses we covered in a recent message in our Isaiah Series, Calling Blind and Deaf Witnesses. In Isaiah 44:3-5, we read of the day when God will regather His people from the ends of the world by pouring out His Spirit. At that time,

One will say, 'I belong to the Lord'; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, 'The Lord's,' and will take the name Israel.

Isaiah also speaks in many places of how this regathered people of God will come out of Gentile nations (i.e. Isaiah 19:23-25). Isaiah envisions the boundaries of Israel as a place expanded from the rising of the son to the place of its setting.

When we get to the New Testament, we find that Christ is the place where God's rule is centered; the place where His presence in mercy is manifest amongst His people. The Son of David, the Messianic King, relocates the throne of God to Himself, the temple of God (John 2:21) and therefore Zion is centered in Jesus Christ and where those who come to God through Christ are found.

²²But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, ²³to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, ²⁴to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24)

Zion is that place where God's rule is centered; the place where His presence in mercy is manifest amongst His people. Zion is that heavenly city which we are part of through faith in Christ and where we worship God in Spirit and in truth. Zion is where we gather on Sunday mornings, not in our church buildings, but with all the true saints there worshiping God together. Zion is a place where we have access because the blood of Christ speaks better things of us (righteousness: love one another) than did the blood of Abel (the guilt incurred in brotherly hatred).

Christ is the Way to Zion! When we come to God through faith in Christ, then it is said of us, indeed God records of us, “this one was born in Zion.” This is the new birth. This is inclusion into the family of God. Here there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, between slave and free, but Christ is all and in in all (Galatians 3:28) We are no longer outsiders looking in; we are fellow-citizens, members of God's household (see Ephesians 2:11-22). We are in the place of which it is said, “...the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.”

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

1Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 4, pg. 959.

The Restoration of God's People

2011-06-13T08:36:00.001-04:00

Reading: Jeremiah 30 – 31

To this point in Jeremiah, good news has been scarce. Three times we have read, “Do not pray for this people...” (Jeremiah 7:16; 11:14; 14:11), because their captivity was so certain praying for their well-being would be pointless. But now Jeremiah is told to compile a book of all the Lord has told Him because “the days are coming...when” God would bring His people, Israel and Judah, back from captivity and restore them (Jeremiah 30:3). That is how this section begins and it ends with a familiar promise:

³¹“The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. ³²It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. ³³“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

The days in which God will restore His people from captivity corresponds to the time when God makes a new covenant with His people — a covenant not like the Sinai covenant, because that covenant was broken by the people, though God was faithful to it; a covenant in which God would put His laws in their minds and write them on their hearts, when all within the people of God would know the Lord, a covenant in which their wickedness and sins would be forgiven and no longer remembered. The day in which God would restore His people is none other than the New Covenant, or the New Testament, as we call it.

In the middle, between these promises of restoration of the people of God from captivity through a new covenant, these chapters are rich with promises that find their fulfillment in the Gospel; some very clear while others are a bit more veiled. Consider some of these promises that find their fulfillment in the Gospel.

In Jeremiah 30:8-9, the promise is that “in that day” the Lord would break the yoke off their necks and tear off their bonds; no longer would they be enslaved in bondage to foreigners but would serve the Lord (Yahweh) their God and David their king, “whom I will raise up for them.” I cannot help but recall the words of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30 regarding His yoke that is easy and light replacing the yoke of bondage (bondage to sin and the law, which we had). (See also Jeremiah 31:2.) In the Gospel we realize the fulfillment of verse 9 when God raised up “David their king” (i.e. the son of David), in more than one way. First, in that the royal dynasty ended during the exile, an heir would have to be raised up, and secondly in how God raised up this heir, as Christ was truly raised up from the tomb as King over God's people (Matthew 28:18).

In Jeremiah 30:24, we are told about “the fierce anger of the Lord” not being turned back “until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart” with this Divine commentary: “In days to come you will understand this.” Jeremiah looked to a day when the mystery of the Gospel, now veiled (in his day), would be fully disclosed. Paul speaks of this mystery now revealed (Ephesians 3:3-5), as did Peter (1 Peter 1:10-12). This is the day in which we understand how God's fierce anger was not turned back until he fully accomplished His purpose to redeem us as He poured His wrath upon His Son who bore our sins. This is how the New Covenant would be put into effect (Luke 22:20).

This promise of restoration was not only for Judah, but also for Israel, the northern tribes, which had long since been scattered. In Jeremiah 31:5-6, promises are given for Samaria and Ephraim (Ephraim being another name for the northern tribes, Israel; Samaria the capitol) that they would “go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.” The conversation with the Samaritan woman in John 4:20-24 comes to mind and its discussion about where to worship. This Samaritan is assured that while Jerusalem is the place that Scripture affirmed for worship, the time has come where this Samaritan and all peoples are invited to worship the Father in Spirit and truth. This is the Zion to which we have come (Hebrews 12:22).

Jeremiah 31:8-9 speaks of how God will bring His people and gather them “from the ends of the earth,” and from among the blind, lame, expectant mothers and women in labor. That a great throng would return (see Revelation 7:9). Surely this is a promise that should encourage those serving in pregnancy centers rescuing women and their babies from the cruel clutches of the abortionists' grip. The Gospel is indeed the answer to deliver them from death.

We could find verses which find fulfillment in John 10 with the good shepherd, and John 15 with the well-watered garden finding fulfillment in those who abide in Christ. For a message in which I walk through Jeremiah 31:15, and how Christ's birth really does bring about the fulfillment of the “voice heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children,” go to http://gccc.net/resources/audio.html and search for the message titled, “When Weeping Turns to Dreaming”.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

I Said, “You are 'gods'”!

2011-05-29T09:18:00.002-04:00

Reading: Psalm 82; John 10

In John 10:31-37,when the Jews have picked up stones to stone Jesus because he claimed to be God (when He said, “I am God's Son”), Jesus quotes from Psalm 82:6. This quotation on the lips of Jesus has produced some confusion amongst those who study the Bible. Some suggest it means that Jesus is God's son in the same sense that any Jewish person would claim to be a son of God, or in the sense that any believer today would. After all, the whole quotation from Psalm 82:6 is, “I said, 'You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High.'” Is Jesus saying that He is the son of God only in the same sense that all of the Jewish people were considered to be sons of God? Not at all.

I continually remind our church of the following Bible study advice: When reading an Old Testament quote in the New Testament, go to the place where it is found in the Old Testament, read it in its context, understand it in its context, and then, go back to the New Testament and reread that passage with that understanding in mind. This practice will yield rich fruit in your understanding of Scripture. It will also often reveal that there are many texts which teach us the deity of Christ (the fact that He is God, YHWH), that we may never have realized until we find that Old Testament quotes regarding YHWH (Yahweh), are applied and spoken of Jesus. We must apply this practice here in John 10.

Going to Psalm 82:1-8, we discover that God is rebuking the leaders of the Jewish people. In 82:1, we have the picture of God presiding in the great assembly (the people of God gathered), giving judgment among the gods. This is a reference to the Jewish leaders, the shepherds of God's flock. It picks up on the fact that while the Jewish leaders are presiding over God's people, giving judgment, God is presiding over them, giving judgment among 'the gods'.

In Psalm 82:2-4 the leaders receive a job performance review. They have been defending the unjust; showing partiality to the wicked. Is that what God asked them to do? Is that how God rules over His people? Not at all. The Lord continues to tell them what they should be doing instead: defend the cause of the fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor; rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of wicked oppressors. Psalm 82:5 appears to be speaking of the people at large and their need for understanding or light. It speaks to the need of the shepherds of God's people to proclaim God's word which is light for the people who live in a world that is constantly being shaken. We walk by faith and must therefore be spoken to from the truth of God. The shepherds were not doing this.

That brings us to Psalm 82:6-7. Here, God is essentially firing the shepherds. “I said, 'You are “gods” (i.e. “In verse 1 of this psalm I said I give judgment among the gods, referencing you and how you are to help me shepherd my people”), you are all sons of the Most High,” But, you will die like mere men; you will fall like every other ruler.” That is to say, “You have failed miserably in your task, and you are fired! Psalm 82:8 then calls to God to rise up and judge the earth, for while God's people were called to be a light to the nations, they had fallen into the same corruption as the world. What will God do to rescue His inheritance, His people from false shepherds?

When we go back to John 10, we discover that failed leadership of the Jewish leaders is the subject of the whole chapter. In effect, John 10 is also about God firing the shepherds and replacing them with the Chief Shepherd! (Reference 1 Peter 5:4.) John 9:40-41 concludes the account of the healing of the man born blind with Jesus speaking to the Pharisees about the fact that they are guilt of blindly leading God's people. John 10 picks up with Jesus contrasting false shepherds with Himself, the true Shepherd. What defines the good Shepherd? He lays down His life for the sheep (John 10:11). The other shepherds were being paid off to oppress the needy, to defend the wicked. Not Christ, He will rule with justice.

This brings us to the the events immediately preceding the attempted stoning of Jesus. In John 10:25-30, in response to the Jews requiring that Christ tell them plainly who He is, Jesus reminds them that He has, but they did not believe, and that the very miracles he does tells them who He is, that Jesus gives eternal life to His sheep, that no one can snatch the sheep out of Jesus' hand, and that no one can snatch them out of the Father's hand; that He and the Father are one! In what sense are they one? In the sense that the sheep belong to both of them; that they both give eternal life to whom they please; that the destiny of men is in their hand. Not in the sense that they have the same goals or the same purpose. They are one in being God! The Jews understand this clearly (John 10:33).

Then, in John 10:34-35, Jesus makes an amazing claim. Quoting from a psalm that condemns their leadership as strongly as Jesus has, he takes the part in which the Jewish leaders were almost sarcastically called 'gods' (recall that in Psalm 82 there is nothing good said about how they were acting as 'gods'), and says (my paraphrase), “If the word of God in Scripture called the shepherds gods, and if the Scripture cannot be broken, then even if God had to send Me into the world to fulfill the Scripture that the leaders would be indeed gods, or God, then don't accuse me of blasphemy for telling you who I am! Especially sense the evidence of my miracles proves it!”

These are not verses which lower Jesus' claim to be God's Son to being in the same sense that God's people are His children. Rather, these verses elevate the claim to Jesus being God incarnate in order to fulfill His promise to His people!

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Walking Through Conflict in the Church

2011-05-25T08:27:00.000-04:00

Reading: Philippians 4

Does the Bible provide practical instruction on how to work out conflicts in the church? Given the reality of conflict in the church, it seems essential that we have a guide spelled out for such conflict. More than, “just get over it!” Or, “just forgive.” It is the word, “just,” that seems to be problematic... it is never quite that easy. Often times people leave churches and their primary reason is conflict. Is that the way the Bible would instruct us to deal with it... just leave?

²I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. ³Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. ⁴Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:2-7)

Like churches today, New Testament churches had conflict. Even Paul's co-workers had conflict; evidently, serious conflict. It is in Paul's instructions to these very co-workers that we may find an example of how to “live according to the pattern” Paul gave us (Philippians 3:17). Paul begins by pleading with Euodia and Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. Evidently these women had worked with Paul previously in advancing the Gospel, yet were having difficulty getting along. There was conflict and it wasn't resolving quickly or easily. Paul asks for another in the church to get involved in serving them in order to help them reach unity. But I don't think Paul's instruction ends there.

The instructions of Philippians 4:4-7 may well be intended as instruction in how these two conflicting believers were to “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.” (Colossians 3:15) Taken that way we have a very helpful guide in how to overcome the hard-to-get-through conflicts that are bound to arise in church life.

First, Paul reminds Euodia and Syntyche to rejoice in the Lord always—and he doubly emphasizes this (4:4). In the midst of conflict, it is essential to remember our source of joy. Our joy is not contingent upon “being right” or “getting our way.” Our joy is found in the Lord—in the reality of what He has done for us reconciling us with our Creator God. If our enmity with God has been resolved, we have reason for joy while we work through our conflicts with others. If God has done what He has done to redeem us when we were completely unable to resolve our enmity with God, then surely He has provided the grace we need to resolve our conflicts in the church. If we can't rejoice, then we need to go back to understanding who Christ is and what He has done.

Second, Paul reminds them how they should conduct themselves in their conflict and why they should carry themselves that way (4:5). “Let your gentleness be evident to all.” Why? Because, “the Lord is near.” The truth of Christ's presence with us in our conflicts ought to guide how we engage one another.

Gentleness, a forbearing attitude, being considerate of the other person as we interact, ought to be easily seen by those observing. Consider what He has done toward us. He was gentle, he has born our sins and the pain of those sins without hurling them back on us. In fact, he hurled them into the heart of the sea! (Micah 7:19) I don't need to throw the pain of another's sin against me back on them. I am to forgive as Christ forgave; I am to bear it myself... forbearing with them.

In light of what Christ has done, we should have forbearance toward those we conflict with. It should be easy to consider that, first, they could be right, and second, even if they are wrong, so what, we have been so wrong before God and forgiven. The Lord is right there present with us as we work through our conflict and watching.

Thirdly, Paul speaks to the driving force behind so many conflicts: our anxiety. If I examine conflicts I've had, it doesn't take long to see that I wasn't trusting the Lord. I was anxious. Thoughts like, “how can I let you think that about me?” or, “how could you possibly say that,” or, “what are others going to think,” and many others may not be plainly stated in my mind, but they are certainly banging on the door of my thoughts.... hiding behind the curtains of my mind. I probably have more “reasonable” sounding ways of putting them, but these thoughts are nothing other than anxiety and a lack of trusting in the Lord who will bring about justice (1 Peter 2:23). We can't hold onto thoughts like, “If I forgive them, then everyone will think I was wrong.” (Or any other version of that.)

In order to resolve conflict we must be a people who presents our requests, our demands, not to the other party, but to God! We have to trust God with our requests; we can't keep holding out for the other party to meet our demands. To walk as Christ did we are going to have to pray and commit our way to God as Christ did to the Father. There we can find the ground for conflict resolution. I wonder if Paul also had in mind that as we brought our requests to God, we might be reminded of Christ's instruction regarding prayer and forgiveness (Matthew 6:12; Mark 11:25; Luke 11:4).

Finally, we are given a promise: “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (4:7) The three instructions of verses 4-6 tell us how “to agree with each other in the Lord,” and they are a practical outline of what it means to “let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts.” When we obey these instructions we have a promise that God's peace, which may well supersede all our expectations, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ. Doing these things may tempt us to think things will get worse. But the promise says otherwise.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Is the Human Heart Beyond Cure?

2011-05-21T10:11:00.001-04:00

Reading: Jeremiah 16 – 18

Jeremiah has no delusions about the inherent goodness of the human heart (Jeremiah 4:14; 5:1, 31; 6:14; 7:24; 9:14; 11:8; 12:2; 16:12). Of course, Jeremiah is speaking to a particular people at a particular time, so we can't automatically assume it applies to all of us at all times. Jeremiah was speaking to the people of Judah. Does it apply to Americans, or Germans, or Russians, Arabs, or Libyans?

Jeremiah prophesied after the northern kingdom of Israel (the nation that much more rapidly went into apostasy and rebellion against God). He is speaking to the Jews, the remnant that remained. Judah had been much more faithful, and had more faithful kings. Yet still, they eventually became as involved in spiritual whoredom as her northern sister. These are the chosen people, those who have received the covenant from God, had been delivered and had knowledge of God and how He would work. If their hearts were stubborn and followed wicked ways, does it not mean that we also are in this condition? Paul answered this question quite clearly in Romans 3:9-18 – There is no difference.

Why are we so prone to sin? Why is there no risk of the evening news becoming nothing but human interest stories and nothing bad to report?

Judah's sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars. (17:1)

Sin is written on the human heart... engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of our hearts, and on the places of our idol worship. Jeremiah would not encourage us to follow our hearts. Indeed the reason He repeatedly gives for God's painful (Jeremiah 14:17) decision to send his people into captivity, to throw them out of the land as Adam and Eve had been thrown out of the garden, is because they followed their hearts (Jeremiah 16:10-13; 18:11-12). Not only do we have sin engraved on our hearts, we train our children in it as well... assisting them to write sin on their hearts before they learn how to write! (Jeremiah 17:2).

All of this leads Jeremiah to the astonishing conclusion:

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (17:9)

Does Jeremiah leave us with no cure? I don't believe He does; in fact, Jeremiah points us toward great hope for the human race. Just before this conclusion of 17:9, he hints that it exists (Jeremiah 17:5-8). He speaks of the curse on the one who trusts in man, depends on flesh for his strength, and turns away from trusting the Lord. He also speaks of the one who is blessed as he trusts in the Lord and who places his confidence fully in Him. How will it ever happen that people with hearts as described would trust in the Lord? We find the answer to that question a little later in Jeremiah.

³¹“The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. ³²It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. ³³“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

God was on a mission, a redemptive mission, that would culminate in a new covenant. This new covenant would be one where God's people who did not know Him would know Him because their sins would be forgiven. God would relate to them, not according to their sin, but would no longer remember them. This was accomplished in Christ. And now, God will do something for this redeemed and forgiven people: He will write a new script on their hearts by His Spirit whom He would place in them. The new script will not be the story of sin which was engraved in their hearts with an iron tool, but would be God's law and way.

We read of this new script in the New Testament epistles too. Ephesians 4:17-24 speaks of how we used to live according to the script of sinful ignorance, living in darkness. But calls us to begin living in the script of Christ, the new man created to be like Him in true righteousness and holiness. This new script is the Gospel, Jesus Christ. And it begins with how He laid down His life for us to forgive our sins and free us from the captivity of sin. (See also Paul's Definition of Spiritual Maturity.) This alone is the cure for the human heart!

Tomorrow morning the message from Isaiah 43 – 44 will show us how God will free us form the captivity of sin and then lead us out of the prison cell by His Spirit. This is really speaking of the same truths that Jeremiah pointed to as he envisioned a day when that which is written in our hearts would no longer be sin and rebellion but Christ!

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Is Paul's Pursuit Your Pursuit?

2011-05-17T21:28:00.000-04:00

Reading: Philippians 1 – 2

¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. ¹²Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. (Philippians 3:10-12)

What did it mean for Paul to know Christ? What does “becoming like him in his death” look like? Are we quite literally to get beaten, and crucified? Or is Paul speaking of something else? What was Paul pressing on to take hold of? For what purpose had Christ taken hold of Paul? While there are many ways one could answer these questions accurately, as I read the first two chapters of this letter this morning, I was struck by how Paul had already described this in detail before we arrive at Philippians 3. Here are some examples:

…filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:11)

To know Christ, to become like Christ, is to be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. Paul had known a righteousness that came through the law. And as far as that goes, he was faultless. But Paul gladly gave that up in pursuit of the fruit that can only come through Jesus Christ! Fruit that comes only after we have received a righteousness that is not our own! Another example:

…for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. (Philippians 1:19-20)

Gaining Christ includes gaining the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ; help that brings courage to Paul in the midst of sobering persecution; help that will enable Paul to live a life that exalts Christ in life or death.

But it is in the second chapter where we discover more completely how knowing Christ is our transforming pursuit. It begins...

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then... (Philippians 2:1, 2)

Paul is about to launch into describing what this fruit of righteousness is, that is described 1:11, with great detail. Before he does, he begins by connecting to the fact that is will come through Jesus Christ. The transformed life Paul is about to describe will come as a result of being united with Christ, because we have ourselves been comforted by His love, through the fellowship we have with His Spirit who lives in us, and because we have the tenderness and compassion of Christ shed abroad in our hearts by that same Spirit (see also Romans 5:5). What fruit does this life united with Christ produce?

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:3-4)

Humility is some of the fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ. This humility is the foundation for the love and unity described in verse 2. When we know Christ we will consider others better than ourselves. We will consider the interests of others and not just our own. Where does this come from? From having the a new kind of thinking that comes from Christ (Philippians 2:5). To become like Christ in His death is to not hold onto our rights, to make ourselves nothing as he did, and to take the nature of a servant (Philippians 2:6-8).

Christ took hold of Paul to transform Paul into the image of Christ. Paul's pursuit was to become like Christ, to take hold of the purpose of Christ in saving Paul. Christ took hold of you, Christian, to transform you into His image! This is the pursuit we are to have as Christians. This is the pursuit we are to have as Christians. And it can only happen as we are united with Him and live in fellowship with Him growing out of His tenderness and compassion in us.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Paul's Definition of Spiritual Maturity?

2011-05-09T20:35:00.001-04:00

Reading: Ephesians 4—6

How could Paul possibly expect Christians to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace? (Ephesians 4:3) He is telling us, “Spare no effort to keep the unity of the Spirit.” The “bond of peace” is that which connects us together. It can be a chain or cord that connects us; it can also mean the ligaments which connect the bones in a body. That might be a fit here. The peace of Christ, peace between fellow believers in Christ who are having difficulty getting along, should be our earnest pursuit.

How does Paul expect us to do that? Doesn't he understand that some people just don't treat us right? Or that some people simply misunderstand us so it won't help to pursue unity with them. Others don't understand what we are called to do and therefore we need to go off and do our own thing? Paul, however, had a clear grasp on what unites us and what makes us different.

He makes it clear that there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father; but there are different measures of grace gifting given (Ephesians 4:4-7). Sometimes it seems to me that many would be more easily persuaded that there are many bodies, many hopes... but we all have all the grace gifting we need, as if we don't need others. We must pursue unity; one reason is that we need each other!

Right after this declaration that we have different measures of grace gifting that he informs us that some were given as apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Then we are told what the goal of their work is (Ephesians 4:11-13). It is the last phrase that defines the goal: Christian maturity. And what is Paul's definition of Christian maturity? “... and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” What is Christian maturity? Becoming like Christ. Christ is the measure of Christian maturity! It is on this foundation that the latter half of Ephesians is built. If Christ is the measure of maturity, then Christ is the basis from which Paul calls us to live.

¹⁷So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.… ²⁰You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. ²¹Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. ²²You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:17-24)

When Paul tells the Ephesians they must change how they live, he doesn't tell them that they must now learn what Moses taught. He doesn't send them to the law to learn what righteousness looks like, or to mature them as believers. He sends them to Jesus Christ. He speaks of how they know Christ, heard of Him, were taught in Him, and about the truth that is in Jesus. He tells them to put on the new self. Who is this new self? In Colossians 3:10-11, Paul also speaks of the new self, and seems to be saying that the new self is Christ. In Romans 13:14 we are told to put on Jesus Christ. Paul himself gave up his ranking in the law in order to know Christ (Philippians 3:4-10).

In the rest of Ephesians, Paul begins to apply this measure of Christian maturity to the Ephesian church. It is as if he is saying, “Christ is like this,” or, “Christ did this for you,” follow with a, “so now you do this.”

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32)

…live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:2)

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. (Ephesians 5:8)

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (Ephesians 5:25-27)

Paul doesn't mention this with every line or every statement, but since he prefaces the rest of the book with the call to maturity that is measured by Christ, with the call to live as we learn Christ and came to know Christ, it is right to read it all that way.

How can Paul expect us to pursue unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace? Because he is calling us to live as Christ, to forgive as Christ, to give up ourselves like Christ did, to humble ourselves as Christ. He is not talking about something easy, but something supernatural. Paul expects us to be God-dependent in order to actually succeed in it.

In fact, this whole section is prefaced by Paul's prayer for the church to to be empowered to have Christ living in them, filled to the measure of the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19). Paul knew God answering prayer was absolutely essential to Christian maturity. There is good news in that: God does answer prayer, and will give His Spirit generously to those who ask! Paul expected it because Paul was praying. We can expect it in our churches when we call on God to form Christ in us the church.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Is God Repeating Himself?

2011-05-03T23:26:00.001-04:00

Reading: Exodus 37 – 40

In reading the end of Exodus have you ever thought, “Didn't I just read this?” But that is the point. You are supposed to think, “Didn't I just read this?” and then you are supposed to compare what you read before with what you are reading now. There is a lesson to be learned in the way it is repeated.

In Exodus 25 we begin reading, “The Lord said to Moses...,” followed by instructions of what and how they are to make it. For example we read:

"Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.

"Have them make a chest of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.

"Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.

"Make a table of acacia wood—two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high.

"Make a lampstand of pure gold and hammer it out, base and shaft; its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms shall be of one piece with it.

"Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim worked into them by a skilled craftsman.

"Make curtains of goat hair for the tent over the tabernacle—eleven altogether.

"Make upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle.

(Exodus 25:8, 10, 17, 23, 31; 26:1, 7, 15)

And that continues through about chapter 31 (which ends with a description of how they are to keep the sabbath). Then beginning in Chapter 36 we the following as a sample of what goes through chapter 39.

All the skilled men among the workmen made the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim worked into them by a skilled craftsman.

They made curtains of goat hair for the tent over the tabernacle—eleven altogether.

They made upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle.

They made the curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim worked into it by a skilled craftsman.

Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.

They made the table of acacia wood—two cubits long, a cubit wide, and a cubit and a half high.

They made the lampstand of pure gold and hammered it out, base and shaft; its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms were of one piece with it.

They made the altar of incense out of acacia wood. It was square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high—its horns of one piece with it.

(Exodus 36:8, 14, 20, 35; 37:1, 10, 17, 25)

As you read through these chapters, underline all the times the Lord says to make, and all the times they make. You may recognize this pattern from Genesis 1. “The Lord said...and it was so!” “The Lord said...and it was so!” Not only is the pattern in the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness similar to the creation of the world, notice the description of the completion of each.

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. (Genesis 2:1)

So all the work on the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, was completed. The Israelites did everything just as the LORD commanded Moses. (Exodus 39:32)

Again notice that just as the Lord blessed His people (Adam and Eve, male and female) when the work of creation was completed (Genesis 1:22, 28; 2:3), so now He has Moses bless His people when the work of the tabernacle was completed (Exodus 39:42-43).

The most significant thing of all may be what comes in between “the Lord said,” and “they made”. In Exodus 35:30-35 we read that the Lord would fill those carrying out the commands to make the tabernacle “with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge...” Just as the Spirit of God was the agent in Genesis 1 that carried out the creation orders, so now the Spirit is actively at work in this symbolic “recreation”.

When God made the heavens and the earth it was formless and void (even worse than a dessert!). There the Spirit went to work creating a garden by the Word of God. Now, in a dessert, with a people of God who are formless, but being formed, we have the tabernacle guarded by cherubim (just like Eden—Genesis 3:24); we have a tree of life represented by the candlestick shaped like a tree with almond flowers and buds; and, ultimately, we have fellowship with God made possible again because there God would dwell among His people.

As we move forward toward the New Testament we find that this pattern of God, by His Spirit recreating a people and placing them in a fruitful garden, though they walk through a dessert will be repeated (See Isaiah 32:15-19; 35:1-10). These verses in Isaiah are pointing forward to the era of the Gospel when Christ would be the true vine in the garden of God (John 15:1-8), and we would, by His Spirit dwelling in us, once again become the people of God through the proclamation of the Gospel (Galatians 5:22-23). This is the New Creation: The Gospel declaring the work of God; the Spirit making it so as He forms us into the people of God—the church of our Lord Jesus.

Is God repeating Himself? Yes, he is making a garden again... through Jesus Christ the True Vine, by the proclamation of the Gospel and the Spirit's work to make it so.

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

Which Voice are You Listening To?

2011-05-02T10:10:00.000-04:00

Reading: Proverbs 1

Most people believe that if we just know enough—know the right stuff—we will attain happiness and long-life. Wisdom has been at the center of man's quest for the tree of life from the beginning (Genesis 1:6), and from the beginning there have been competing voices of wisdom (Genesis 2:17; 3:4). The book of Proverbs is also about the quest for wisdom, the pursuit of the tree-of-life (Proverbs 3:18). Proverbs begins by describing the competing voices of wisdom and telling us where to find true wisdom.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge¹, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. (Proverbs 1:7)

Folly is the belief that we can be wise apart from God's truth. The folly and sin of Adam and Eve began with a lack of the fear of the Lord and a pursuit of wisdom in the absence of God's truth. Paul Tripp writes in Instruments in the Hands of the Redeemer,

Satan was not just selling Eve the best fruit in the garden, but something more fundamentally appealing. He was telling Eve that if she ate the fruit, she would be independently wise. The promise was autonomous personal wisdom, without any need for God or his revelation!... Satan was offering a different path to wisdom, holding out the promise that people can discern life on their own....The serpent is selling Eve the most attractive and cruelest of lies, the lie of autonomy and self-sufficiency. He offers her wisdom that does not need to bow the knee to God.” (emphasis mine)

Wisdom is all about which voice we listen to. Just as in the garden the serpent's voice was persuading Adam and Eve, it still attempts to persuade. Yet, just as in the garden God's voice was also speaking, so now God's voice speaks today in order to persuade us. God's voice was clear: “in the day you eat you will die.” Adam and Eve didn't have the fear of God.

The only way back to the tree of life is wisdom. The only way to wisdom is to listen to the right voice. The only way to listen to the right voice is through the fear of God. Wisdom begins with the fear of God. Proverbs 1:7 outlines the two points of the rest of the chapter which are given in two parables. Proverbs 1:8-19 describes how we find the fear of God; Proverbs 1:20-33 describes the outcome of the one who despises wisdom and discipline.

The first of these parables, describes two voices—two voices that everyone encounters in life. The father's instruction and the mother's teaching represent the first voice. Their voice holds out a promise—no flashy marketing department—a clear promise (Proverbs 1:5). The garland represents victory over enemies. The chain adorning the neck most likely represents protection and guidance. They are saying, “Listen to me and you will have victory...protection...guidance through life.” Each of these speak of a delayed reward. Victory comes at the end of the race. Protection is for a time when enemies attack.

The second voice, the gang, is a virtual marketing department. It promises vast, immediate reward (Proverbs 1:13). The father warns, “their feet rush into sin, they are swift to shed blood.” (Proverbs 1:16). Honestly, the promise of the gang seems a lot more alluring than the father's. One is future; the other immediate. So what motivation could dad possibly have?

¹⁷How useless to spread a net in full view of all the birds! ¹⁸These men lie in wait for their own blood; they waylay only themselves! ¹⁹Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives of those who get it. (Proverbs 1:17-19)

Until now, the whole scene has been horizontal. Now, the father introduces a vertical dimension. The gang has been carrying out their plans down here, looking left and looking right. But they have failed to look up. Birds fly around up there... above us, in the sky, seeing everything below. They have a “bird's-eye-view” of all they are doing. It is as if the father is saying to his son, “You can make your own decision, but you need to be aware that someone above sees all that is going on. And He is tinkering with the outcomes. The traps the wicked man sets will, in the end, trap only himself.”

The father has planted a seed in the son's worldview. A seed of the fear of God. Wisdom begins when we consider God and how He will interact with our lives. Wisdom starts when we look up; when we realize there is One to whom we will give an account; that our lives are in full view! Wisdom begins when we understand the truth of Hebrews 4:13.

“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

The second parable of this chapter describes what life will be like if we despise wisdom and discipline. The fool will not remain a fool for lack of opportunity (Proverbs 1:20-25). Wisdom is calling out! The fool remains in his foolery because he hates and rejects wisdom. “They love their simple ways... they delight in mockery (thinking wisdom is a joke)... they hate knowledge.”

What happens to those who reject God's wisdom? There is day coming when calamity will overtake you, disaster will sweep over you like an unexpected tornado, like a rushing tsunami, and when it does you are going to remember my appeals (Proverbs 1:26-31). It will be as if you hear wisdom echoing in your head, laughing at you, mocking you. “Wisdom” here is a personification of this body of knowledge. Wisdom won't really be laughing and mocking at the disaster; this is poetic. What happens when disaster comes? We play the reel back of all the times we could have done it differently. “What if only I had... or only I hadn't...” We replay it a 1000 times. We will replay wisdom's warning forever and it will be mocking us in our heads.

What is the point of this warning? To rescue you now, before you get there! God offers discernment, the ability to see clearly the difference between good and evil, and it begins with the fear of God. 1 Corinthians 1:30 tells us that Jesus Christ has become for us Wisdom from God. How so? When we “look up” and recognize the dilemma we are in (for we have all been fools), we must understand the whole story of God's wisdom. Instead of mocking us in our folly, God sent His Son to die for us. There is One who has made a way for fools to become wise and it begins when they come to Him in repentance for their folly, their rejection of God's truth and ways, and rejoice in the free provision of righteousness He gives. Now they gladly rejoice in His ways and follow Him. They have found the tree of life!

(For more on Proverbs 1, consider listening to the message, The Quest.)

Love the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,

Jerry

1 “Knowledge” is used here as a summary of all the forms of wisdom and knowledge described in Proverbs 1:1-6 – wisdom, discipline, understanding, a disciplined and prudent life, prudence, knowledge and discretion.