It's Ascension Day, so let's look at the last words Jesus spoke to his disciples before he ascended. Here is the end of Luke:
Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you--that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God. (Luke 24:44-53)
This is a great commission. It is not THE great commission from Matthew 28 that we like to quote and try to follow, but if we look at Matthew's version, we find something needed:
But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)
So our job is to make disciples. How? Well, we have to know this Bible inside and out. That's tough work, and it may seem daunting. We get scared, and we back off, because we think that everything is up to us.
Here is the version of the great commission from Mark:
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. (Mark 16:15-16)
Discipling in Matthew, preaching the Gospel in Mark, both amount to doing a lot of homework, and we stress out, because we feel the pressure of others' salvation upon us. This is not right to feel this way. Now, Luke's version of the great commission does not contradict the other two, but it does enhance and give details as to what the others seem to hint at.
Luke's great commission informs us of three things. The first is REVELATION. Jesus opens their minds to understand the scriptures, you know, that thing that we were finding a daunting task, when we thought it was all up to us after reading the other two versions of the great commission. Jesus is telling us here that the Holy Spirit will open our minds to the scriptures. The Holy Spirit will make us understand the Bible. The Holy Spirit will give us the words to say. Don't stress out, because God is in control.
Second, Jesus tells us not to generally preach the Gospel, but to specifically preach REPENTANCE, which leads to the forgiveness of sins. We live in a world where we don't think we are going wrong. Preaching the good news of the Gospel begins with preaching the bad news of sin. Repentance is the removal of the blockage, allowing the Holy Spirit in, but in case you were beginning to worry about this being the hard work you thought it would be, remember that only the Holy Spirit can bring someone to repentance. This is another supernatural action. Our natural state is to stay as far from repentance as possible. We don't need it. We don't want it. Once the scriptures have been revealed to us by the Lord, we can aim the Gospel toward repentance, and the Lord brings that person to repentance.
Finally, I'm going on the R theme: the third thing the Holy Spirit provides is REGENERATION. Only the Holy Spirit can do this. Once Jesus has been revealed through the scriptures and we have repented, the Holy Spirit begins to regenerate us. This is a life-long process that turns us into little Christs. From Luke's point of view, the Great Commission is not so daunting, because Christ reveals here that the Holy Spirit is in control of everything. God is sovereign.
Now, it's very important that we realize that these are the last words Christ spoke before ascending. The words need to be connected to the ascension, and here is why. Let's look at the beginning of Acts, also penned by Luke:
While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. "This," he said, "is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. (Acts 1:4-9)
Jesus has finished telling them about the three roles of the Holy Spirit, pertaining to the great commission, and still they are asking him about ushering in the kingdom to earth. Do you see that? This kind of thing is all through the Gospels. Jesus performs a miracle and the witnesses attempt to take him by force and make him king. Why? Well, what does an earthly king look like? An earthly king is going to solve all our problems, while we . . . continue living our lives the way we always had before. No spiritual or regenerational change in any of us.
Look at John 6. Jesus feeds the 5,000, and the people converge on him in order to make him king by force. Why? Because magic Jesus will feed us for free every night, and we won't have to work for it! We can go on living our lives the way we always have, which is continuing in SIN. Jesus will feed us magically by making food out of thin air.
When the disciples ask Jesus if he is going to bring the kingdom to earth, he responds, essentially, this stuff is not for you to know. Wait for the spirit. ASCEND. Jesus told Pilate that his kingdom was not of this earth, and that is essentially what he is saying at this point: Great Commission, Holy Spirit, ASCEND. The kingdom isn't a genie Jesus doling out food. The food for Christians is the Holy Spirit from above, revealing to us, bringing us to repentance, and regenerating us. THAT is the kingdom.
When we are speaking to someone about Jesus, we must remember that this is not about bringing someone into an earthly kingdom of Christ. This is not about getting members into a church. This is preparing someone for the heavenly kingdom, and Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit, who ushers in this kingdom now. This is food from above, and the food has been given to us for revelation, repentance, and regeneration.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Lydia
John 14:26 reads, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit,whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you."
Some translations have "Advocate" instead of "Helper." Helper sounds like the Holy Spirit is aiding us when we are in trouble, but overall, we are in charge of our own salvation. Let's see the Helper in action. Turn to Acts 16.
Starting at verse 6: They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been FORBIDDEN by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. Sounds like the Holy Spirit is helping? Actually, it sounds like the Holy Spirit is LEADING.
Verse seven: and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bythinia, and the Spirit of Jesus DID NOT PERMIT THEM. Once again, the Holy Spirit takes control of the situation. The disciples are just followers.
Paul and Silas come to Troas, and after this incident, the pronoun changes from "they" to "we." Yes, Troas is where the group picked up Luke. The Holy Spirit did not want Paul and Silas to go into Asia. They were not allowed to go into Bythinia. God needed Luke at this point.
It doesn't end here! Now, Paul gets a dream: a vision in the night of a man in Macedonia, pleading for help. So, the crew heads to Macedonia, and ends up in Philippi. They stayed in that city for some days, and then on the Sabbath they went outside the gate to the riveside, where they found a group of women. Hmm. None of these resemble the man from the vision, so why doesn't Paul throw up his hands and move on?
He doesn't. He teaches the women, and one, only ONE, named Lydia, was really listening. The Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. Here is our helper, once again, opening the heart of a solitary woman. Paul baptizes her whole household and the church of Philippi is started. Yes, the same church we have a letter to in our canon.
Paul gets arrested in Philippi in the next scene, and put in jail, where he converts the jailer, and baptizes the jailer's household. Is the jailer the man in the vision, seeking help? Probably not. After Paul and Silas are released and asked to the leave town, but before they leave, they go to Lydia's house to check on the church that had been planted there.
Now, they pass through a couple of towns and end up in Thessalonica. Preaching at the synagogue, Paul successfully persuades some Jews, a whole mess of Greeks, and a number of leading women. Next we get the Jews stirring up a mob and attacking the house of . . . Jason. Who is Jason? He apparently is the one who welcomed Paul and Silas in Thessalonica. If we look at the end of Romans 16, we see Jason's name as a prominent Christian on Paul's team. This is probably the man that Paul saw in the vision.
So, why did the Holy Spirit steer Paul all over creation to get to Jason? Because, although Jason was the goal, God has many milestones along the way that are just as important to him as the final destination. First Luke, then Lydia, then the jailer, then Jason. The first three are just as important to God as the last, and because God is sovereign, all of this was planned.
Paul and Silas didn't just happen upon Luke. God didn't just get them to Macedonia and say, "It's up to you, now." Paul didn't just think, "well, while we're trying to find the guy in my dream, we may as well teach this batch of women sitting here." Paul knew how to listen to the Holy Spirit's promptings. The Holy Spirit is Leader AND Helper. He leads Paul to where he wants him to go, and then he helps him listen. God wanted Luke, and he wanted Lydia, and he wanted the jailer, and he used the vision of Jason to get Paul there. Everything went according to God's plan.
When we think of Acts, we tend to think that it is the story of Peter and then Paul, or the church as a whole. But there are many stories in the book of Acts, and each story is just as important to God as Peter or Paul's story. Chapter 16 has Lydia's story, and the jailer's story. They were two important individuals to God. They are members of the elect, and we should not think of them as detours.
Think of the people we encounter each day. Who are the Lydias and jailers? Who are the people that God is steering us toward, and are we listening to the Holy Spirit pointing them out to us? Are we passing by the group of women outside the city gates because the man from our vision is not among them?
The big story, of course, is about Jesus Christ. Lydia's story is not just about Lydia but Lydia's encounter with Jesus. The jailer's story is actually about the jailer's encounter with Jesus. These stories are about the Good Shepherd finding his lost sheep Not only are these not Paul and Silas' stories. Paul and Silas are mere tools. They are already part of God's kingdom. They are already Christians. In the words of John the Baptist: they must decrease so that Lydia and the jailer can increase.
Evangelizing seems to be a difficult thing, because we are constantly thinking of it as part of our story. I hope I do it right. I'm scared. What if the person rejects me? I think this chapter in Acts demonstrates that this is not about us. This is about God finding his lost sheep. He's using us to do it, but like a shepherd's crook or a sheepdog, we are to minimize our roles and allow God to lead us where he wishes.
I hope it increases our thirst for evangelism to know that God is not trying to put us through another trial. Stop thinking of it that way. God is reaching his next Lydia through you. Let him do it. Let Jesus find his Lydia. It's about her right now.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
The Sea Was No More
I want to do a little biblical detective work today. Let's look at Revelation 21:1. "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more." This is the beginning of a beautiful piece of Scripture, where we hear described the new heavens and the new earth, and it gives us hope. This passage is read at funerals. There is so much going on here that is uplifting, and we miss this tiny fragment here: "and the sea was no more."
What does that mean? Does it mean that in heaven there's no water? That we going to live in the desert? It makes no sense. Let's do a little detective work. What I think of when I think of the sea: I go to Genesis 1. So we have God creating the heavens and the earth, and we get to verse six: then God said, "let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." So God made the expanse and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse, and it was so. God called the expanse heaven. And there's an evening and there's a morning, the second day.
We have separated waters from waters, and the expanse is called heaven. The space in between the waters is called heaven. Now, there are two ways we refer to heaven. We refer to heaven as God's throne room, as the place where God is. We also refer to "the heavens" as the space about us: the sky, space, outer space: that's all the heavens, where the stars are, where the planets are, with the suns and moons and all of the heavenly bodies. They are heavens.
So what is the water below the expanse? We get a verse 9: God says, "let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear." It was so. God called the dry land "earth" and the gathering of the waters he called "seas." God saw it was good. So, the waters below the heavens, the expanse, he calls sea and earth. He turns that into our planet, that is us, that is planet earth, where we live. So we have our planet earth below the heavens, the expanse, and then above the expanse is another bit of waters.
Now are we to forget about the waters above? Is it mentioned again? It IS mentioned again, in Psalm 148. We have, "praise him highest heavens and the waters that are above the heavens." The Bible still acknowledges that there are waters above the heavens. The waters below the heavens were formed into dry land and seas, which is what planet earth is. The waters above the heavens are the place where God is, the throne room. What is it? We don't really know, but I think Revelation 21 does give us a clue. The first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there's no longer any sea.
What we have here, in the expanse, is a separation of the place where God lives from the place where we live, and there is a sea of expanse, a vast area of expanse in between, and I think this first verse of Revelation 21 is saying the new heaven and the new earth are going to be different from the old heaven and the old earth, in the fact that there will be no more expanse between the two sets of waters. God's throne room is going to be ON earth. There is no longer going to be a separation, and we will have a relationship with the Lord from now on.
Sure enough, the rest of the verses confirm this: I saw a holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride for her husband. A loud voice from the throne says, "behold the tabernacle of God is AMONG MEN." He will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them. There is no more sea, no room or separation from us, from God. He will be with us to wipe any tears from our eyes. There will be no more death, pain. The first things are passed away, the new things are here, and they will be closer together. Heaven and earth will be one place now.
We think, "thank goodness that God has restored things, finally, that were damaged from the fall." Mankind fell, and so there is a separation between us and God, and God has now restored that. But wait! This separation came in Genesis 1:6, which is before the fall. This is something that God wholly set up from the beginning, before Adam fell. The separation between God and man was there from the beginning. God came to visit Adam in the garden, but God's home was somewhere else. God was living in the waters above the expanse, and man was living in the waters below the expanse, and this is before the fall. God comes to visit, but this separation was there from the beginning. Why?
What I think is, this separation was planned before the fall. The coming of Christ was planned before the fall. God says to Eve, as part of the curse, your seed will come and defeat Satan's seed. Eve's seed is Jesus. This was planned. The fall was planned. The separation was already there, before the fall. This was planned because a redeemed humanity is more interesting to God, is more desirable to God, than a humanity that never fell. Let me repeat that: a redeemed humanity is preferable to God then a humanity that never fell. This was planned from the beginning, before anything else, before anything was created. The Trinity decided that this was how things were going to go. God is sovereign. God had this planned from the beginning.
What does that mean? Does it mean that in heaven there's no water? That we going to live in the desert? It makes no sense. Let's do a little detective work. What I think of when I think of the sea: I go to Genesis 1. So we have God creating the heavens and the earth, and we get to verse six: then God said, "let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." So God made the expanse and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse, and it was so. God called the expanse heaven. And there's an evening and there's a morning, the second day.
We have separated waters from waters, and the expanse is called heaven. The space in between the waters is called heaven. Now, there are two ways we refer to heaven. We refer to heaven as God's throne room, as the place where God is. We also refer to "the heavens" as the space about us: the sky, space, outer space: that's all the heavens, where the stars are, where the planets are, with the suns and moons and all of the heavenly bodies. They are heavens.
So what is the water below the expanse? We get a verse 9: God says, "let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear." It was so. God called the dry land "earth" and the gathering of the waters he called "seas." God saw it was good. So, the waters below the heavens, the expanse, he calls sea and earth. He turns that into our planet, that is us, that is planet earth, where we live. So we have our planet earth below the heavens, the expanse, and then above the expanse is another bit of waters.
Now are we to forget about the waters above? Is it mentioned again? It IS mentioned again, in Psalm 148. We have, "praise him highest heavens and the waters that are above the heavens." The Bible still acknowledges that there are waters above the heavens. The waters below the heavens were formed into dry land and seas, which is what planet earth is. The waters above the heavens are the place where God is, the throne room. What is it? We don't really know, but I think Revelation 21 does give us a clue. The first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there's no longer any sea.
What we have here, in the expanse, is a separation of the place where God lives from the place where we live, and there is a sea of expanse, a vast area of expanse in between, and I think this first verse of Revelation 21 is saying the new heaven and the new earth are going to be different from the old heaven and the old earth, in the fact that there will be no more expanse between the two sets of waters. God's throne room is going to be ON earth. There is no longer going to be a separation, and we will have a relationship with the Lord from now on.
Sure enough, the rest of the verses confirm this: I saw a holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride for her husband. A loud voice from the throne says, "behold the tabernacle of God is AMONG MEN." He will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them. There is no more sea, no room or separation from us, from God. He will be with us to wipe any tears from our eyes. There will be no more death, pain. The first things are passed away, the new things are here, and they will be closer together. Heaven and earth will be one place now.
We think, "thank goodness that God has restored things, finally, that were damaged from the fall." Mankind fell, and so there is a separation between us and God, and God has now restored that. But wait! This separation came in Genesis 1:6, which is before the fall. This is something that God wholly set up from the beginning, before Adam fell. The separation between God and man was there from the beginning. God came to visit Adam in the garden, but God's home was somewhere else. God was living in the waters above the expanse, and man was living in the waters below the expanse, and this is before the fall. God comes to visit, but this separation was there from the beginning. Why?
What I think is, this separation was planned before the fall. The coming of Christ was planned before the fall. God says to Eve, as part of the curse, your seed will come and defeat Satan's seed. Eve's seed is Jesus. This was planned. The fall was planned. The separation was already there, before the fall. This was planned because a redeemed humanity is more interesting to God, is more desirable to God, than a humanity that never fell. Let me repeat that: a redeemed humanity is preferable to God then a humanity that never fell. This was planned from the beginning, before anything else, before anything was created. The Trinity decided that this was how things were going to go. God is sovereign. God had this planned from the beginning.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Want
The psalm appointed this week is the famous Psalm 23: The Lord Is My Shepherd. It is no coincidence that, with the bombing in Boston on Monday, this happens to be the psalm. I actually thought before looking at the lectionary that the psalm should be Psalm 23, and it just so happens the 23 was the appointed psalm. I didn't have to make any changes.
This is a psalm of comfort and it's fascinating to me that you can read this psalm over and over and still find something new. That's the way the Bible is: you can always find something new, because it says at the end of the Gospel of John the libraries on the world will not be able to hold all of the books that have been, or will be, written about Jesus Christ, and we see that continuing today. More and more can be found here in Psalm 23.
We read, "the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want," and our United States mentality, our American sensibilities, our individualism, our materialistic culture tells us, "I should invest in the Lord because then he will serve all my desires; he will grant every wish; I will never want for anything, because he will provide everything I want, like a genie. Jesus the genie, granting us our every wish!" This is not what this means. This means God removes the spirit of wanting, the spirit of being materialistic, which is a sin. Envy is one of the seven deadly sins, and it comes from being materialistic.
Materialism is not necessarily a new thing. It's always been the case, whenever there has been inequality, whenever there's been evil, whenever there has been death: the three things that Jesus conquers in his resurrection body. There is envy and all other sins. These sins come upon us no matter what time. So, people wanted back then, and people want like crazy today.
"I shall not want." The spirit of wanting is gone. The Lord is my shepherd, and he takes away the desire for stuff from me. He takes away the desire for me to control my own life. He takes away the selfishness. As if to prove that this is the meaning of that line, that second half of verse one, I shall not want, we read the rest of the psalm: he makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul, he guides me in the paths of righteousness. It doesn't say, "I wanted to lie down in green pastures, and so I snap my fingers, and the Lord said, hey! how would you like this pasture? I'll provide you a pasture!" It doesn't say, "I wanted to be beside quiet waters, and the Lord provided quiet waters for me." It doesn't say, "my soul needed restoring, and so I wanted to have you do that for me."
Notice how we in this culture change "want" to "need." We understand that the word "want" sounds selfish, and so what we do is we change the word to "need." It's still wanting something, but once we change it to need, then it sounds like it's something more than just some materialistic craving in our hearts, so we say, "I really really NEED this," and suddenly we can justify ourselves.
All of this is a lie, because the truth is we really don't WANT to be in the paths of righteousness. In fact, that is exactly the OPPOSITE of what we want. We, as fallen, sinful creatures do not want to walk in the paths of righteousness, but the Lord is not to be stopped. He guides us in the paths of righteousness. He guides us. He does these things. He is forcing himself upon us, because we don't want this, and here is the key: "for his name's sake."
For his name's sake. He's not doing this for US. He's not doing this because, "poor little Fred: he needs me!" He's doing this, because when he has transformed my life, when he has dragged me from my wanting to a place of peace, when he has dragged me where I do not want to go, I will be transformed into a child of God, and I will praise his NAME, and people will hear his name being praised, and they will respond. All of this is for God's name. God knows how to promote his name. I don't. I don't know the first thing about pushing God into the world, about promoting him. He knows. He will not be stopped.
Are we to just sit there and wait for God to work? Are we to just be thoughtless, mindless creatures who let our Lord take control of us, and possess us, and drag us wherever we don't want to go? Well that's not necessarily what removing the spirit of wanting from our lives is all about. Look at the sermon on the mount. Matthew 6: Jesus is talking about how we should not worry about where the next meal is coming from. We should not worry about our clothes, because God will provide.
Do not worry, then, saying, "what will we eat? or what will we drink? or what will we wear for clothing?" for the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you NEED all these things. He gives us what we need. He doesn't give us what we want. What we want is going to hurt us. He gives us quiet waters; he gives us peaceful beds; he gives us meadows; he gives us peace in HIM. He is the peace. The Good Shepherd gives us HIMSELF. He knows what we need: we need God.
And so he concludes: "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." So there is action on our part: seeking the kingdom of God, but a lot of people don't know what that looks like. It looks like prayer. It looks like looks like it's getting down on our knees and asking God to show us the kingdom, to ask God to take away the spirit of wanting in us and show us what we need, which is God himself, his kingdom, his righteousness. That is what we need, to take away the spirit of wanting.
Us actually getting on our knees and praying for God to take away the spirit of wanting is also an act of God. It's the Holy Spirit speaking to our soul, telling our souls, telling our justified souls to tell our sinful bodies to get on its knees and to say these words, and that is seeking the kingdom.
This is a psalm of comfort and it's fascinating to me that you can read this psalm over and over and still find something new. That's the way the Bible is: you can always find something new, because it says at the end of the Gospel of John the libraries on the world will not be able to hold all of the books that have been, or will be, written about Jesus Christ, and we see that continuing today. More and more can be found here in Psalm 23.
We read, "the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want," and our United States mentality, our American sensibilities, our individualism, our materialistic culture tells us, "I should invest in the Lord because then he will serve all my desires; he will grant every wish; I will never want for anything, because he will provide everything I want, like a genie. Jesus the genie, granting us our every wish!" This is not what this means. This means God removes the spirit of wanting, the spirit of being materialistic, which is a sin. Envy is one of the seven deadly sins, and it comes from being materialistic.
Materialism is not necessarily a new thing. It's always been the case, whenever there has been inequality, whenever there's been evil, whenever there has been death: the three things that Jesus conquers in his resurrection body. There is envy and all other sins. These sins come upon us no matter what time. So, people wanted back then, and people want like crazy today.
"I shall not want." The spirit of wanting is gone. The Lord is my shepherd, and he takes away the desire for stuff from me. He takes away the desire for me to control my own life. He takes away the selfishness. As if to prove that this is the meaning of that line, that second half of verse one, I shall not want, we read the rest of the psalm: he makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul, he guides me in the paths of righteousness. It doesn't say, "I wanted to lie down in green pastures, and so I snap my fingers, and the Lord said, hey! how would you like this pasture? I'll provide you a pasture!" It doesn't say, "I wanted to be beside quiet waters, and the Lord provided quiet waters for me." It doesn't say, "my soul needed restoring, and so I wanted to have you do that for me."
Notice how we in this culture change "want" to "need." We understand that the word "want" sounds selfish, and so what we do is we change the word to "need." It's still wanting something, but once we change it to need, then it sounds like it's something more than just some materialistic craving in our hearts, so we say, "I really really NEED this," and suddenly we can justify ourselves.
All of this is a lie, because the truth is we really don't WANT to be in the paths of righteousness. In fact, that is exactly the OPPOSITE of what we want. We, as fallen, sinful creatures do not want to walk in the paths of righteousness, but the Lord is not to be stopped. He guides us in the paths of righteousness. He guides us. He does these things. He is forcing himself upon us, because we don't want this, and here is the key: "for his name's sake."
For his name's sake. He's not doing this for US. He's not doing this because, "poor little Fred: he needs me!" He's doing this, because when he has transformed my life, when he has dragged me from my wanting to a place of peace, when he has dragged me where I do not want to go, I will be transformed into a child of God, and I will praise his NAME, and people will hear his name being praised, and they will respond. All of this is for God's name. God knows how to promote his name. I don't. I don't know the first thing about pushing God into the world, about promoting him. He knows. He will not be stopped.
Are we to just sit there and wait for God to work? Are we to just be thoughtless, mindless creatures who let our Lord take control of us, and possess us, and drag us wherever we don't want to go? Well that's not necessarily what removing the spirit of wanting from our lives is all about. Look at the sermon on the mount. Matthew 6: Jesus is talking about how we should not worry about where the next meal is coming from. We should not worry about our clothes, because God will provide.
Do not worry, then, saying, "what will we eat? or what will we drink? or what will we wear for clothing?" for the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you NEED all these things. He gives us what we need. He doesn't give us what we want. What we want is going to hurt us. He gives us quiet waters; he gives us peaceful beds; he gives us meadows; he gives us peace in HIM. He is the peace. The Good Shepherd gives us HIMSELF. He knows what we need: we need God.
And so he concludes: "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." So there is action on our part: seeking the kingdom of God, but a lot of people don't know what that looks like. It looks like prayer. It looks like looks like it's getting down on our knees and asking God to show us the kingdom, to ask God to take away the spirit of wanting in us and show us what we need, which is God himself, his kingdom, his righteousness. That is what we need, to take away the spirit of wanting.
Us actually getting on our knees and praying for God to take away the spirit of wanting is also an act of God. It's the Holy Spirit speaking to our soul, telling our souls, telling our justified souls to tell our sinful bodies to get on its knees and to say these words, and that is seeking the kingdom.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Worthy
I want to talk about the word "worthy." We seem to use the word "worthy" in songs a lot when describing God: "You are worthy! You are worthy!" and the word is sort of IN there. We say "you were worthy" and then we end up not continuing. But if you go to any concordance in the back of any Bible, you will see the word worthy always has some sort of context: worthy of death, worthy of his support, worthy of me, worthy of his wages, worthy of the gospel, the world was not worthy of him.
"Worthy is the Lamb!" We hear that in songs: "worthy is the lamb, worthy is the lamb" and sometimes our songs finish there, but then others realize that we do need some sort of context, so we get "worthy is the Lamb OF MY PRAISE." Worthy are you, Lord, of my praise. Now that just seems to turn God into a wallflower at the dance, saying "pick me! pick me!" Oh, okay, God, since you were jumping up and down the highest and waving your arms the widest, I will pick you! Worthy are you of my praise...this time around. Tomorrow it'll be Jeff, over there in the other corner, who will be worthy of my praise, but right now..."
I know what we are meaning. I know we're trying to say, "I used to worship other things, but now I have realized that only you, Lord, are worthy of my praise," but that's not exactly how it comes across. If we go to the book of Revelation, here we have in chapter 5 the long "worthy" context, the "worthy is the Lamb" statement starting at verse 12 of chapter 5:
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!
So, we have seven things that the lamb is worthy of. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. He is worthy to receive these seven things: power, riches, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing. Let's unpack each of these seven things to try to understand exactly what the Lord's worthiness is all about.
Power: I've talked to you before about how Jesus in his resurrection body is going to accomplish three things at the end of time. Those three things are to abolish power--authority--essentially inequality. He is going to abolish that first thing, and he is also going to abolish evil, and he is going to abolish death. Now, here is one of them again: worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive POWER. All power is transferred from the leaders of this world to our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one worthy of power. Now, WHY is he worthy of power? Because he is the only one who knows how to use power.
Here we begin to get into something that all seven of these things fall into. Jesus is worthy of power, because he is the only one who has the power to lay down his life for the world. Let me repeat that: Jesus is the only one with the power to lay down his life for the world. We, as it says in scripture, aren't even willing to lay down our lives for a friend. If a gun is put to our heads, then we MAY lay down our lives for our friends. We may lay down our lives for the truth, but as a matter of course we do not go out of our way to lay down our lives for even a friend. Jesus went out of his way to lay down his life for his enemies. He lay down his life for the world while the world hated him. That is true power: to be able to give up your life for people who hate you. That is why he is worthy to receive power.
Do you see what's happening here? Jesus is the only one worthy to receive something, because he is able to use that something in a unique way, and that way is the opposite of what we, as fallen human beings, think that power, for example, should be used. So we have riches. Why riches? Why is he worthy of riches? Because he was able to give up everything. As it says in Philippians 2, he who deserves wealth and power and glory, and all of these things that he already possessed in heaven--the glorious throne room--this Jesus gave up all to come to Earth as a poor person, to be spit upon, to be the poorest of the poor, to be rock bottom, to be at the bottom of the heap. He humbled himself even to the point of death, death on a cross. That that is how Jesus gives up riches, and that is why he is the only one worthy of riches.
We can't take it with us, but in Jesus we find riches, just as in Jesus we find power. While we are here on earth, we can acquire power--not in the world's way but through Jesus Christ. Likewise, while we are here on earth we can acquire riches, but the riches ARE Jesus Christ. This is not the prosperity gospel, where they say you do not have faith if you're not wealthy. Your wealth IS Jesus. It's not "having faith in Jesus will get you money." That is a lie. Having faith in Jesus will give you riches, which ARE Jesus, because he is the only one worthy of riches. He is wealth, he is power, he IS these things.
The next thing is wisdom. As it says in the letters of Paul, God's foolishness is wiser than our wisdom. As humans, mankind's wisdom is pure foolishness to God's foolishness, which is wisdom. Once again, we have the turning of wisdom on its head. It says elsewhere that Jesus Christ IS wisdom. Jesus is wisdom, so if we want to be wise, the only place to be wise is in Christ. We could go to Proverbs and memorize the proverbs and become "wise" that way, but that would be only us taking the word of God and trying to memorize it and trying to use the wisdom for our human purposes, but if we seek Christ, we find wisdom through Christ. His Holy Spirit guides us; it's an easier way to wisdom, if you think about it. It's the path where we acquire true wisdom, because we have sought Christ and not tried to find wisdom on our own. It's the same difference as trying to keep the law ourselves and following Christ who brings us into compliance with the law.
Jesus came and was humbled. He came to Earth, gave up his wisdom, and brought foolishness to the people. Everybody knew dying on a cross was a foolish thing, and here it is: the power, the glory of everything, saving the world, the wise thing, appears to be the most foolish thing--dying on a cross. What seems to be the most foolish thing turns out to be the wisest, and dying on a cross, giving up your life for a world that hates you, is foolish to us, but it turns out to be the wisest thing.
Next, we have might. Look at the image of the lamb. Have you ever heard of a mighty lamb? What comic book artist would come up with a superhero called the Mighty Lamb? It's an oxymoron! It doesn't fit our sensibilities. He is the only one worthy of might, because he's the only one who understands what might is. Being mighty is being slaughtered like a lamb. A lamb who sits on a throne is not what the world wants. The world rejects a lamb. The world likes to EAT lambs, because they're tasty. They taste really good. We slaughter them, we eat them, we forget about them, and here is the Lord of heaven coming to earth and becoming a lamb for the slaughter, and we are told that this is a mighty act. We don't understand how it's a mighty act. Scripture text tells us how it is a mighty act, and our faith believes, and so if we wish to be mighty, we don't try to become mighty on our own. Instead, we turn to Jesus Christ, who is our might. We can only be mighty through Jesus Christ, the lamb who was slain for us.
Honor: who deserves the honor? Who is the only one worthy of honor? Jesus Christ is the only one worthy of honor. Why? Because he did what is considered by the world a very dishonorable thing. He allowed himself to be killed like a criminal, the most dishonorable thing. He allowed himself to be destroyed like a common crook. To the Jews, their God doesn't die at all, and to the Gentiles, their God doesn't die like a criminal. It is the most dishonorable thing, and it turns out it is the most honorable thing, because we do not really understand what honor is. Honor is laying down one's life for one's friends, for one's children, who were once enemies, but through this particular death have become children of God.
Picture the man with the tux, and the cufflinks, and he's going to be honored this night, and his wife is in the sequin dress, and his children are dressed up, and they go to the party, and they hobnob with all the people and they sit at the table of honor, and the man at the podium stands up, and he says, "we are here to honor the person who has made this company the greatest," and the CEO and his wife are sitting there, and they're thinking, "this is it! This is the moment that we've been waiting for, that we've been living for all our lives," and the man at the podium says, "we are here to honor...the janitor, because the janitor is the one who cleans up this place day after day, night after night, and keeps it clean." He's not the one who made the company what it was, the greatness, the man-made greatness that it was. He's the one that keeps everything smooth, because he cleaned it up. Jesus came to earth and cleaned it up with his blood, his white blood, which covers us all and makes us appear as snow. He is the only one deserving of honor, because he did what is considered the dishonorable thing: dying in our place.
Glory. Glory means heaviness. Nothing is heavier than Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the anchor. Think of a heavy anchor, think of our flimsy little boats on the river of life rushing toward the cliff edge, and we are about to go over the side and crash down onto the rocks and be destroyed forever on those rocks below. Think of that. What would we need to stay at the top of the falls and remain in the river? We would need a heavy anchor. We would need to put down a heavy anchor to keep us from going over that edge, and Jesus is the only anchor that will keep us firmly planted until his coming again.
When we have the anchor of Jesus firmly planted, we will not go over the side. We will see all of the things that we used to praise, that we used to hold onto, that we used to glorify. We will see those musicals like Les Mis going by like driftwood, and they go over the side. We will see all those rock bands that we used to listen to, like big driftwood going over the side. We will see all the amazing celebrities, and we will see all the politicians, and we will see all the people that we used to look up to, just like driftwood in their little flimsy boats going over the side. But we will not go over the side, because we have finally put our glory into Jesus Christ. We are glorifying God. He is our weight. He is the one that keeps us steady, and if we try to grab onto anything else that appears to be strong, swooshing by in the current, like, "oh wow I'm really into that philosophy or political stance right now, so I'll jump on that piece of driftwood!" Over the falls you head again; it's just another piece of driftwood. It's not going to survive. Jesus's glory: he's the only one worthy of glory, because he did something glorious. We think, "high and lifted up," when really Jesus is low, he's heavy, he's an anchor, and he keeps us firmly planted in the river.
Finally, blessing. Jesus is the only one worthy of blessing. Blessings seem to fall on believers and unbelievers alike. Curses also seem to fall on unbelievers and unbelievers alike, but for the believer curses are not curses. They are God's sanctification, making us into better people, into children of God through the Holy Spirit. Blessings are good for the Christian, but blessings also seem to fall on the unbelievers. Why is that? Why should they be allowed to have blessing? We know one unbelieving couple that doesn't just not believe but they reject God. They call themselves atheists. They believe there is no God, and yet they had a child, and the child is beautiful and sweet, and we think, "God granted them a blessing!" But is it a blessing if that child will never learn about Jesus Christ? If that child will never know God, and that child is doomed to destruction? How is that a blessing in the end?
Jesus is our blessing. He is the only one worthy of blessing, because he did not bless himself. He became a curse for us. He took our place under the curse, and as a result he is the only one worthy to be blessed. He blessed us with his presence, with his perfect person in our lives. God had this plan from the beginning; he had this planned, where we would finally have blessing, when he told Abraham, "through you the world will be blessed." He didn't mean through Isaac; he didn't mean to Jacob; he didn't even mean through David. He meant through Jesus. Jesus was the seed promised to Eve at the beginning of the curse, that her seed would defeat the devil and bless the world. We are all blessed through Jesus. He is the narrow way. When we go through Jesus, we are blessed. It doesn't matter what blessings we seem to get from God while we are here on this tangible earth. As soon as it is over, and it all passes away, if we have not put our faith in Jesus Christ, we are cursed forever. There is no blessing after. Never will an unbeliever know blessing as good as what he or she has right now, and never will a believer know curse as dark as the one we live through right now.
Jesus Christ, the lamb who was slain: is he worthy? Yes! Is he worthy of our praise? Of course! Is he worthy to receive all of these seven things? Power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing? Why is he the only one worthy to receive those things? Because he is the only one who knows what they mean, and how to use them. Where can we acquire all of those things? Only through Jesus Christ.
"Worthy is the Lamb!" We hear that in songs: "worthy is the lamb, worthy is the lamb" and sometimes our songs finish there, but then others realize that we do need some sort of context, so we get "worthy is the Lamb OF MY PRAISE." Worthy are you, Lord, of my praise. Now that just seems to turn God into a wallflower at the dance, saying "pick me! pick me!" Oh, okay, God, since you were jumping up and down the highest and waving your arms the widest, I will pick you! Worthy are you of my praise...this time around. Tomorrow it'll be Jeff, over there in the other corner, who will be worthy of my praise, but right now..."
I know what we are meaning. I know we're trying to say, "I used to worship other things, but now I have realized that only you, Lord, are worthy of my praise," but that's not exactly how it comes across. If we go to the book of Revelation, here we have in chapter 5 the long "worthy" context, the "worthy is the Lamb" statement starting at verse 12 of chapter 5:
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!
So, we have seven things that the lamb is worthy of. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. He is worthy to receive these seven things: power, riches, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing. Let's unpack each of these seven things to try to understand exactly what the Lord's worthiness is all about.
Power: I've talked to you before about how Jesus in his resurrection body is going to accomplish three things at the end of time. Those three things are to abolish power--authority--essentially inequality. He is going to abolish that first thing, and he is also going to abolish evil, and he is going to abolish death. Now, here is one of them again: worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive POWER. All power is transferred from the leaders of this world to our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one worthy of power. Now, WHY is he worthy of power? Because he is the only one who knows how to use power.
Here we begin to get into something that all seven of these things fall into. Jesus is worthy of power, because he is the only one who has the power to lay down his life for the world. Let me repeat that: Jesus is the only one with the power to lay down his life for the world. We, as it says in scripture, aren't even willing to lay down our lives for a friend. If a gun is put to our heads, then we MAY lay down our lives for our friends. We may lay down our lives for the truth, but as a matter of course we do not go out of our way to lay down our lives for even a friend. Jesus went out of his way to lay down his life for his enemies. He lay down his life for the world while the world hated him. That is true power: to be able to give up your life for people who hate you. That is why he is worthy to receive power.
Do you see what's happening here? Jesus is the only one worthy to receive something, because he is able to use that something in a unique way, and that way is the opposite of what we, as fallen human beings, think that power, for example, should be used. So we have riches. Why riches? Why is he worthy of riches? Because he was able to give up everything. As it says in Philippians 2, he who deserves wealth and power and glory, and all of these things that he already possessed in heaven--the glorious throne room--this Jesus gave up all to come to Earth as a poor person, to be spit upon, to be the poorest of the poor, to be rock bottom, to be at the bottom of the heap. He humbled himself even to the point of death, death on a cross. That that is how Jesus gives up riches, and that is why he is the only one worthy of riches.
We can't take it with us, but in Jesus we find riches, just as in Jesus we find power. While we are here on earth, we can acquire power--not in the world's way but through Jesus Christ. Likewise, while we are here on earth we can acquire riches, but the riches ARE Jesus Christ. This is not the prosperity gospel, where they say you do not have faith if you're not wealthy. Your wealth IS Jesus. It's not "having faith in Jesus will get you money." That is a lie. Having faith in Jesus will give you riches, which ARE Jesus, because he is the only one worthy of riches. He is wealth, he is power, he IS these things.
The next thing is wisdom. As it says in the letters of Paul, God's foolishness is wiser than our wisdom. As humans, mankind's wisdom is pure foolishness to God's foolishness, which is wisdom. Once again, we have the turning of wisdom on its head. It says elsewhere that Jesus Christ IS wisdom. Jesus is wisdom, so if we want to be wise, the only place to be wise is in Christ. We could go to Proverbs and memorize the proverbs and become "wise" that way, but that would be only us taking the word of God and trying to memorize it and trying to use the wisdom for our human purposes, but if we seek Christ, we find wisdom through Christ. His Holy Spirit guides us; it's an easier way to wisdom, if you think about it. It's the path where we acquire true wisdom, because we have sought Christ and not tried to find wisdom on our own. It's the same difference as trying to keep the law ourselves and following Christ who brings us into compliance with the law.
Jesus came and was humbled. He came to Earth, gave up his wisdom, and brought foolishness to the people. Everybody knew dying on a cross was a foolish thing, and here it is: the power, the glory of everything, saving the world, the wise thing, appears to be the most foolish thing--dying on a cross. What seems to be the most foolish thing turns out to be the wisest, and dying on a cross, giving up your life for a world that hates you, is foolish to us, but it turns out to be the wisest thing.
Next, we have might. Look at the image of the lamb. Have you ever heard of a mighty lamb? What comic book artist would come up with a superhero called the Mighty Lamb? It's an oxymoron! It doesn't fit our sensibilities. He is the only one worthy of might, because he's the only one who understands what might is. Being mighty is being slaughtered like a lamb. A lamb who sits on a throne is not what the world wants. The world rejects a lamb. The world likes to EAT lambs, because they're tasty. They taste really good. We slaughter them, we eat them, we forget about them, and here is the Lord of heaven coming to earth and becoming a lamb for the slaughter, and we are told that this is a mighty act. We don't understand how it's a mighty act. Scripture text tells us how it is a mighty act, and our faith believes, and so if we wish to be mighty, we don't try to become mighty on our own. Instead, we turn to Jesus Christ, who is our might. We can only be mighty through Jesus Christ, the lamb who was slain for us.
Honor: who deserves the honor? Who is the only one worthy of honor? Jesus Christ is the only one worthy of honor. Why? Because he did what is considered by the world a very dishonorable thing. He allowed himself to be killed like a criminal, the most dishonorable thing. He allowed himself to be destroyed like a common crook. To the Jews, their God doesn't die at all, and to the Gentiles, their God doesn't die like a criminal. It is the most dishonorable thing, and it turns out it is the most honorable thing, because we do not really understand what honor is. Honor is laying down one's life for one's friends, for one's children, who were once enemies, but through this particular death have become children of God.
Picture the man with the tux, and the cufflinks, and he's going to be honored this night, and his wife is in the sequin dress, and his children are dressed up, and they go to the party, and they hobnob with all the people and they sit at the table of honor, and the man at the podium stands up, and he says, "we are here to honor the person who has made this company the greatest," and the CEO and his wife are sitting there, and they're thinking, "this is it! This is the moment that we've been waiting for, that we've been living for all our lives," and the man at the podium says, "we are here to honor...the janitor, because the janitor is the one who cleans up this place day after day, night after night, and keeps it clean." He's not the one who made the company what it was, the greatness, the man-made greatness that it was. He's the one that keeps everything smooth, because he cleaned it up. Jesus came to earth and cleaned it up with his blood, his white blood, which covers us all and makes us appear as snow. He is the only one deserving of honor, because he did what is considered the dishonorable thing: dying in our place.
Glory. Glory means heaviness. Nothing is heavier than Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the anchor. Think of a heavy anchor, think of our flimsy little boats on the river of life rushing toward the cliff edge, and we are about to go over the side and crash down onto the rocks and be destroyed forever on those rocks below. Think of that. What would we need to stay at the top of the falls and remain in the river? We would need a heavy anchor. We would need to put down a heavy anchor to keep us from going over that edge, and Jesus is the only anchor that will keep us firmly planted until his coming again.
When we have the anchor of Jesus firmly planted, we will not go over the side. We will see all of the things that we used to praise, that we used to hold onto, that we used to glorify. We will see those musicals like Les Mis going by like driftwood, and they go over the side. We will see all those rock bands that we used to listen to, like big driftwood going over the side. We will see all the amazing celebrities, and we will see all the politicians, and we will see all the people that we used to look up to, just like driftwood in their little flimsy boats going over the side. But we will not go over the side, because we have finally put our glory into Jesus Christ. We are glorifying God. He is our weight. He is the one that keeps us steady, and if we try to grab onto anything else that appears to be strong, swooshing by in the current, like, "oh wow I'm really into that philosophy or political stance right now, so I'll jump on that piece of driftwood!" Over the falls you head again; it's just another piece of driftwood. It's not going to survive. Jesus's glory: he's the only one worthy of glory, because he did something glorious. We think, "high and lifted up," when really Jesus is low, he's heavy, he's an anchor, and he keeps us firmly planted in the river.
Finally, blessing. Jesus is the only one worthy of blessing. Blessings seem to fall on believers and unbelievers alike. Curses also seem to fall on unbelievers and unbelievers alike, but for the believer curses are not curses. They are God's sanctification, making us into better people, into children of God through the Holy Spirit. Blessings are good for the Christian, but blessings also seem to fall on the unbelievers. Why is that? Why should they be allowed to have blessing? We know one unbelieving couple that doesn't just not believe but they reject God. They call themselves atheists. They believe there is no God, and yet they had a child, and the child is beautiful and sweet, and we think, "God granted them a blessing!" But is it a blessing if that child will never learn about Jesus Christ? If that child will never know God, and that child is doomed to destruction? How is that a blessing in the end?
Jesus is our blessing. He is the only one worthy of blessing, because he did not bless himself. He became a curse for us. He took our place under the curse, and as a result he is the only one worthy to be blessed. He blessed us with his presence, with his perfect person in our lives. God had this plan from the beginning; he had this planned, where we would finally have blessing, when he told Abraham, "through you the world will be blessed." He didn't mean through Isaac; he didn't mean to Jacob; he didn't even mean through David. He meant through Jesus. Jesus was the seed promised to Eve at the beginning of the curse, that her seed would defeat the devil and bless the world. We are all blessed through Jesus. He is the narrow way. When we go through Jesus, we are blessed. It doesn't matter what blessings we seem to get from God while we are here on this tangible earth. As soon as it is over, and it all passes away, if we have not put our faith in Jesus Christ, we are cursed forever. There is no blessing after. Never will an unbeliever know blessing as good as what he or she has right now, and never will a believer know curse as dark as the one we live through right now.
Jesus Christ, the lamb who was slain: is he worthy? Yes! Is he worthy of our praise? Of course! Is he worthy to receive all of these seven things? Power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing? Why is he the only one worthy to receive those things? Because he is the only one who knows what they mean, and how to use them. Where can we acquire all of those things? Only through Jesus Christ.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Trials
When we go through trials and tribulations, it's easy to think that we are on some sort of divergent course from "normal." Why, this isn't normal, we tell ourselves. I was living a normal life, and then this trial slammed down on me! Sometimes it's a sick loved one who needs care. Sometimes it's a needy friend, who hangs onto us, who unloads all of their problems onto us. Sometimes it's pain and suffering ourselves, our physical bodies being in disrepair.
What do we think about this, when we look at this passage:
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-3)
This is not a "suck it up" gospel. This is not a "get over it and deal with it" gospel. Sometimes you'll hear Christians telling you to do that very thing. You will hear Christians saying "suck it up" and "get over it." But this passage is a word of encouragement to us. It is not saying "suck it up." It is saying, "this is what God is doing in your life." This is reality. This is normal. What path you were on before is NOT normal. Normal is NOT 500 channels. Normal is not the Xbox. Normal is not flyfishing. Normal is not leisure. God rested on the seventh day, but he didn't play Xbox on the seventh day. Rest is different from leisure. He didn't kick back and watch the Discovery Channel. That is not rest; that is leisure, which is different from rest.
Suffering is normal for the Christian. It is a sanctification process. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 11. Here Paul is describing the suffering that he is going through:
[I've been] in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11: 23b-28)
Is Paul worth less than we are? Is Paul under God's wrath? There's this new thing--it's not really a new thing--it's a wicked, false gospel that has been spread for ages--it's called the prosperity gospel, and it's running rampant in all the churches now. What the prosperity gospel says is that if you are not prosperous, you're doing it wrong. If you are suffering, you are doing it wrong; you have no faith; God has not blessed you. You should be wealthy; you should be healthy; and you should have a good relationship with God. You should not have any doubts, you should not have any suffering, if you are truly a child of God, if you are truly faithful. This is a lie! All throughout, Scripture says that suffering is normal. In fact, suffering is preferred, because we know that it is God's process of sanctifying us, of making us more a child of God.
This is God's work: the testing of our faith that produces endurance, and that endurance is going to have a perfecting effect on us. Perfection is happening, which will be fully realized at the moment of physical body death. Our life agent continues on, and it's perfected. This is normal. Paul was being perfected with all that punishment. He wasn't under the wrath of God; he was under the sanctification of God. So don't let anyone tell you that this is not normal, that as soon as this is over, you can get back on with your NORMAL life. You don't WANT to get back on with your normal life. This is how you know you are a child of God.
Caregiving is the exercising of the second great commandment: love your neighbor as yourself. This is hard work, but it is true work; it is godly work. When God placed Adam in the garden, he set him to work immediately. This is BEFORE the fall. We think of the fall as being a punishment, and that work and toil and labor is a result of the fall. What God says in the curse on Adam is that his work is going to be tough. The earth is not going to yield up it's harvest as easily as it did before. But work, labor is part of normal life. It's when we think that it is not better, our flesh is rubbing against our souls, and we end up feeling the toil of the curse of life. We, too, have eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and we don't want to believe anymore that work is good. God worked six days out of the seven days. That is normal. God works. He gives you rest one day out of the seven. The work is not tough. The work brings pleasure. To work is not toil. There is work before the fall and work after the fall, but the work after becomes toil.
I want to talk about forgiveness. When you forgive someone, who is benefiting the most? Who is the one who benefits the most from forgiveness? We automatically assume it's the person who is forgiven, because obviously a great load has been removed from that person's shoulders. Thank goodness I have been forgiven! Now I am at peace! But in actuality, it is the person who forgives who benefits the more, because they have obtained a spirit of forgiveness. They are training their flesh to forgive. Their perfect soul that has been justified by God is teaching its body--it's captive body--to forgive.
Once we understand the spirit of forgiveness, once we have the spirit of forgiveness, we can then understand the God who forgives us. When we are able to forgive, we can then hear and understand why God has forgiven us our transgressions, our wickednesses, which we commit daily. God forgives us. Likewise, when you care for another individual, who is the person benefiting? Obviously the person being cared for. You're keeping them healthy; you are comforting them. They obviously benefit, but guess what? All of us are destined for the dustbin. To dust we shall return. You can only stave off death of the physical body for so long.
The person who benefits the most from caregiving is the caregiver. Just like forgiveness, the caregiver is receiving a spirit of caregiving; and will understand what caregiving is; and will then better understand Jesus Christ, who is the ultimate caregiver, who came to earth and suffered for us and died for us and washed our feet and took care of us. Caregiving is God's sanctifying work in us.
What do we think about this, when we look at this passage:
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-3)
This is not a "suck it up" gospel. This is not a "get over it and deal with it" gospel. Sometimes you'll hear Christians telling you to do that very thing. You will hear Christians saying "suck it up" and "get over it." But this passage is a word of encouragement to us. It is not saying "suck it up." It is saying, "this is what God is doing in your life." This is reality. This is normal. What path you were on before is NOT normal. Normal is NOT 500 channels. Normal is not the Xbox. Normal is not flyfishing. Normal is not leisure. God rested on the seventh day, but he didn't play Xbox on the seventh day. Rest is different from leisure. He didn't kick back and watch the Discovery Channel. That is not rest; that is leisure, which is different from rest.
Suffering is normal for the Christian. It is a sanctification process. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 11. Here Paul is describing the suffering that he is going through:
[I've been] in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11: 23b-28)
Is Paul worth less than we are? Is Paul under God's wrath? There's this new thing--it's not really a new thing--it's a wicked, false gospel that has been spread for ages--it's called the prosperity gospel, and it's running rampant in all the churches now. What the prosperity gospel says is that if you are not prosperous, you're doing it wrong. If you are suffering, you are doing it wrong; you have no faith; God has not blessed you. You should be wealthy; you should be healthy; and you should have a good relationship with God. You should not have any doubts, you should not have any suffering, if you are truly a child of God, if you are truly faithful. This is a lie! All throughout, Scripture says that suffering is normal. In fact, suffering is preferred, because we know that it is God's process of sanctifying us, of making us more a child of God.
This is God's work: the testing of our faith that produces endurance, and that endurance is going to have a perfecting effect on us. Perfection is happening, which will be fully realized at the moment of physical body death. Our life agent continues on, and it's perfected. This is normal. Paul was being perfected with all that punishment. He wasn't under the wrath of God; he was under the sanctification of God. So don't let anyone tell you that this is not normal, that as soon as this is over, you can get back on with your NORMAL life. You don't WANT to get back on with your normal life. This is how you know you are a child of God.
Caregiving is the exercising of the second great commandment: love your neighbor as yourself. This is hard work, but it is true work; it is godly work. When God placed Adam in the garden, he set him to work immediately. This is BEFORE the fall. We think of the fall as being a punishment, and that work and toil and labor is a result of the fall. What God says in the curse on Adam is that his work is going to be tough. The earth is not going to yield up it's harvest as easily as it did before. But work, labor is part of normal life. It's when we think that it is not better, our flesh is rubbing against our souls, and we end up feeling the toil of the curse of life. We, too, have eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and we don't want to believe anymore that work is good. God worked six days out of the seven days. That is normal. God works. He gives you rest one day out of the seven. The work is not tough. The work brings pleasure. To work is not toil. There is work before the fall and work after the fall, but the work after becomes toil.
I want to talk about forgiveness. When you forgive someone, who is benefiting the most? Who is the one who benefits the most from forgiveness? We automatically assume it's the person who is forgiven, because obviously a great load has been removed from that person's shoulders. Thank goodness I have been forgiven! Now I am at peace! But in actuality, it is the person who forgives who benefits the more, because they have obtained a spirit of forgiveness. They are training their flesh to forgive. Their perfect soul that has been justified by God is teaching its body--it's captive body--to forgive.
Once we understand the spirit of forgiveness, once we have the spirit of forgiveness, we can then understand the God who forgives us. When we are able to forgive, we can then hear and understand why God has forgiven us our transgressions, our wickednesses, which we commit daily. God forgives us. Likewise, when you care for another individual, who is the person benefiting? Obviously the person being cared for. You're keeping them healthy; you are comforting them. They obviously benefit, but guess what? All of us are destined for the dustbin. To dust we shall return. You can only stave off death of the physical body for so long.
The person who benefits the most from caregiving is the caregiver. Just like forgiveness, the caregiver is receiving a spirit of caregiving; and will understand what caregiving is; and will then better understand Jesus Christ, who is the ultimate caregiver, who came to earth and suffered for us and died for us and washed our feet and took care of us. Caregiving is God's sanctifying work in us.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Soul Speaker
Imagine your soul. It's a part of you. It has mass. At the point of death, our bodies get 21 grams lighter. The soul physically weighs 21 grams. And yet, this soul stands in the supernatural realm as well. It has senses. It needs to be fed. What does it eat? It eats and lives on the Word of God. When we read, study, and inwardly digest the Bible, our soul is fed. What do we do? We avoid reading and studying the Bible, and our souls atrophy. It's much easier to feed the body, which we can see, than the soul, which we can't.
Our souls wither and die, because we are unwilling to feed them. However, hear what Peter says in Acts 5: "And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." The Holy Spirit is also in the spiritual, or supernatural, realm. He is God's soul, his spirit, and he is a real part of the Godhead, the trinity, one of the three persons. God's soul speaks directly to our souls.
Our souls are quickened, awakened, when the Holy Spirit speaks directly to them. Our bodies feel the quickening. Our souls cry out, "feed me," and our bodies respond by picking up the Word of God. All of this is initiated by the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, we would have no urge to feed our souls. When we say that the Holy Spirit is living inside us, what we are really saying is that the Holy Spirit is speaking to our soul. Our souls are functioning together. He is waking our souls up, interpreting scripture for us, and generally strengthening the "real" part of us. The body will fail and waste away. It is dust and to dust it shall return, but our souls are the imperishable part of us. They last forever. Do we want shriveled up raisins for souls, or do we want vibrant, healthy ones? The Holy Spirit begins this sanctification process in us.
How do we know that this is happening? Beyond actually picking up the Bible and reading it, feeding our souls, look at the other verses in that Acts passage:
When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man's blood on us." But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." (Acts 5:27-32)
The disciples were told not to teach in Jesus' name, and yet what did the disciples do? They taught in his name. They couldn't help themselves. This is the sign that we are living in the Holy Spirit, that our souls, and therefore our bodies, are obeying the call. We won't be able to help ourselves, we will insist on teaching in Jesus' name.
Another thing we learn from this Acts passage, is that not only did the disciples disobey the authorities and teach, but as they are confronted by those same authorities, they begin teaching the authorities. The second sentence Peter speaks begins the gospel message. Here is another encapsulated version of the gospel that we can share with others.
We won't be able to help ourselves. We just have to get the subject to Jesus, and we will find every opportunity to speak about him to others. His Holy Spirit commands it, and our souls obey. They grow in love through God. They thirst for knowledge of God. They beg for our bodies, our flesh, to give them the only food they can survive on--the Word of God, truth itself, nourishment and sustenance. The soul speaker commands us, we obey, and we grow.
Our souls wither and die, because we are unwilling to feed them. However, hear what Peter says in Acts 5: "And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." The Holy Spirit is also in the spiritual, or supernatural, realm. He is God's soul, his spirit, and he is a real part of the Godhead, the trinity, one of the three persons. God's soul speaks directly to our souls.
Our souls are quickened, awakened, when the Holy Spirit speaks directly to them. Our bodies feel the quickening. Our souls cry out, "feed me," and our bodies respond by picking up the Word of God. All of this is initiated by the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, we would have no urge to feed our souls. When we say that the Holy Spirit is living inside us, what we are really saying is that the Holy Spirit is speaking to our soul. Our souls are functioning together. He is waking our souls up, interpreting scripture for us, and generally strengthening the "real" part of us. The body will fail and waste away. It is dust and to dust it shall return, but our souls are the imperishable part of us. They last forever. Do we want shriveled up raisins for souls, or do we want vibrant, healthy ones? The Holy Spirit begins this sanctification process in us.
How do we know that this is happening? Beyond actually picking up the Bible and reading it, feeding our souls, look at the other verses in that Acts passage:
When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man's blood on us." But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." (Acts 5:27-32)
The disciples were told not to teach in Jesus' name, and yet what did the disciples do? They taught in his name. They couldn't help themselves. This is the sign that we are living in the Holy Spirit, that our souls, and therefore our bodies, are obeying the call. We won't be able to help ourselves, we will insist on teaching in Jesus' name.
Another thing we learn from this Acts passage, is that not only did the disciples disobey the authorities and teach, but as they are confronted by those same authorities, they begin teaching the authorities. The second sentence Peter speaks begins the gospel message. Here is another encapsulated version of the gospel that we can share with others.
We won't be able to help ourselves. We just have to get the subject to Jesus, and we will find every opportunity to speak about him to others. His Holy Spirit commands it, and our souls obey. They grow in love through God. They thirst for knowledge of God. They beg for our bodies, our flesh, to give them the only food they can survive on--the Word of God, truth itself, nourishment and sustenance. The soul speaker commands us, we obey, and we grow.
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