Monthly Archives: October 2013

First Miracle, First Believers – John 2:1-12

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Let’s imagine I was at a soccer game with your family, and sure enough, your son broke his leg in the first half and was taken to the bench to wait for an ambulance. And let’s imagine also that I accompanied you to the sidelines and reached down, touched his leg, and healed him … and then he scored the winning goal in the second half! You’d be impressed, right? Anyone seeing what happened would be amazed and wondered where that power came from.

The purpose of miracles was not to simply be nice in a given situation – like providing wine or healing someone, or even raising someone back to life for their blessing and benefit. It was rather to be given as a sign – an evidence of divine authority and power that validated Christ and his message.

In fact, there is a clear purpose statement in the book of John as to why John wrote this Gospel. He says in 20:30-31, “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

The Gospel of John is often spoken of as having two major sections – a “book of signs” through the first 12 chapters, and then the “book of glory” through the remaining content. The first portion contains a total of seven signs that all lead toward a culminating “sign” in chapters 18-20 – the glorification of Jesus on the cross and through the resurrection.

Here are the seven signs of the first 12 chapters …

Water to wine (2:1-12)

Healing of the official’s son (4:43-54)

Healing a paralyzed man (5:1-15)

Feeding 5000 (6:1-15)

Walking on water (6:16-24)

Healing a man born blind (9:1-12)

Raising Lazarus from the dead (11:1-44)

So our reading today talks about the first of these signs – the water turned into wine at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Wedding festivals were big events that went on for even seven days. It was quite a celebration and gathering of people. And though the text does not indicate the identity of those being married, Mary, Jesus, and the disciples attend.

For some reason, there is a shortage of wine – a terrible social embarrassment and shame upon the master of the banquet. Mary asks Jesus to intervene. We cannot be certain as to why she did this or exactly what Mary knew or understood. It may not be anything more than she believed her son to be a very resourceful person who could advise for a plan of action.

In any event, Jesus orders that six large jars be filled with water. These were not containers of water for drinking, but rather for ceremonial, traditional washings. It is these that end up being turned into six containers of the finest wine. The master of the banquet did not see what had happened or where this fine wine came from, as he goes to the bridegroom wondering why the best wine was kept until the last – a backwards way of operating!

Let me make two simple points today:

1.  Jesus could have performed this miracle in front of a much larger crowd than that which actually witnessed it – which appears to only be but a few servants and the disciples. As Christ says in this passage, it was not his time for that … this would come with the seventh of the signs in the raising of Lazarus. No, this miracle was really directed toward the disciples – that group who would travel with him over the next three years. Here in this context they had only been with him for a couple of days … but they saw this, and John records, “and his disciples believed in him.”

2.  It is interesting that the first of the miracles is at a wedding feast, as the grand culmination of all things eventuates in the book of Revelation as the marriage feast of the Lamb. So, as the title of the first sermon in our series communicates, Jesus is “the true bridegroom.”  Here is the scene in Revelation … in heaven, around the throne, “Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: ‘Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.”

There is no reason for us to not believe – not with all that we know of the story! And this wedding reception is really something to look forward to attending!

Jesus Changes Water Into Wine  (John 2:1-12)

2:1  On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

4 “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.   

7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.

Followership: The Seed of Leadership – John 1:35-51

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A giant river doesn’t “just happen.”  If you have ever traveled westward through Tennessee and crossed the Mississippi at Memphis, it is really an impressive sight. The next time you do that, leave some extra time to visit the Mud Island River Park. There is a river walk there that extends for many blocks that is a replication of the path of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. Water flows through ever widening channels in the sidewalks that model the twists and turns of what Abraham Lincoln called “the Father of Waters.”  It ultimately empties into a huge swimming pool – which is the “Gulf.”  The display includes a variety of cascading fountains of water channeling into the main stream – each depicting the various tributary sources of the Old Man River.

People who are “giants of the faith” don’t just happen either. People who accomplish great things for God were not born winners and leaders. There are a lot of tributaries. Long before they were used by God in His service, they were mere followers and fledgling disciples barely inside the gate of the Kingdom of Light. They looked at Jesus and saw him as the way, the truth, and the life. They began to follow him, learning from his teaching and life. And over time, small opportunities became larger service venues; and they fulfilled the truth that he who is faithful with little shall be made faithful with much. Before they excelled at leadership, they learned followership.

In today’s reading we see the calling of the first disciples – a pair who were formerly the followers of John the Baptist. When it says in verse 37 that they followed Jesus, this has the double inference of physically walking on with him, as well as being committed to Christ in a teacher/student capacity. Only one is specifically named, and that is Andrew; but it is quite certain that the unnamed other initial disciple is our author John – whose brother James would also be one of the twelve.

Andrew immediately goes to find his own brother Simon and shares with him the good news that the Messiah Christ has been found, and he brings him to Jesus. On every occasion when we see Andrew in the biblical record, he is bringing someone to Jesus (and this little fact is so engrained in my mind that I have to think every time we talk about the “Matthews” for the My Hope Project … and I have a couple of times used the name Andrew when I’ve meant to say Matthew).

Jesus looks at Simon, and with divine knowledge of what will transpire in this aggressive and impetuous fisherman’s life, he says “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter.) Jesus anticipates how Peter will be a “rock” of faith in the confession of Christ’s messianic character, and later, a major foundation stone of the church.

The next day, Christ calls to Philip to come and follow him. And like Andrew, Philip shares this great news of Jesus of Nazareth with Nathanael – who blurts out the common view of Christ’s inauspicious home town, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”  Philip just says to come and see …

As Nathanael was walking toward Jesus, the Lord says of him that he was a man with a pure heart, causing Nathanael to ask how Christ knew him at all. Apparently when Philip found him, he was resting under a fig tree – a sort of saying that is something like our phrase “taking a break.”  The several remarks of Jesus would seem to indicate that he knew Nathanael was pondering the issue of the Messiah, and even thinking of the story of Jacob’s dream as revealed in Genesis 28:12.  Nathanael’s response to this divine insight was immediate belief – to which Jesus essentially says, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Peter, John, Nathanael, Andrew … all would be witnesses of incredible events over the next three years. Their lives would be forever changed and their faith immortalized.

Jesus is a master at taking ordinary people who are willing to follow him and walk with him and turning them into leaders and champions of faith. But you have to walk before you run, and you have to keep doing both for a long time in the same direction. Often the rewards seem far away and the current obstacles too insurmountable. But the Lord says to us to stay faithful, keep walking, and keep learning from Jesus – God up close!

John 1:35-51  The First Disciples

35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter.)

43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”

44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.

“Come and see,” said Philip.

47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

49 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”

50 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

 

What Are You Looking At? – John 1:19-34

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Did you ever have a situation where someone was dressed in some sort of outlandish fashion and then when you starred at the person, they were offended? Last summer, I was waiting to make a left turn onto Garland Groh Boulevard coming out of the Centre at Hagerstown parking lot. That is really not a good idea, since you have to wait and wait for so much traffic to clear! To my right, a car pulled up alongside me to make a right turn. It was now in my direct line of vision to my right, and as I looked that way, I could not help but see the woman driver who had rainbow-colored hair. We both had our windows down, and she yelled at me in an angry voice, “What are you looking at?”  I was too stunned to answer!

Today’s passage features an eccentric character called John the Baptist. He is described in greater detail in Matthew 3:4-6 where it says, “John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.”

This fellow was not a freak show for the sake of being eccentric. He was not hustling a crowd to sell them on any product of his own. It was clearly his preaching and message that drew the throngs of spiritually-starved people to him. Yes, living essentially in the wilderness made him an odd-looking fellow for sure. But his message had a ring of truth and relevance to it, and crowds began to gather and the word began to spread about him.

And the news of this John the Baptizer had come to the ears of the Jewish religious leadership in Jerusalem. They were accustomed to various false claimants of Messianic identity – for in that time, there was a heightened level of expectation of a prophetically-promised messiah figure who would, in that context, beat up the Romans and the enemies of Israel. Could this John be that guy? He had the look of (what we would term) an Old Testament prophet. Those historic figures were rather eccentric as well. So who was this latest fellow? Certainly the masses of the people liked him; and therefore the religious leadership faction from their Jerusalem headquarters sent out a delegation to investigate and interview John.

Now understand, these entrenched religious types were not excited about messianic figures who disrupted the status quo and threatened their leadership and lifestyles. They were the epitome of “peace at all costs” and “don’t change anything” types. But they were also not completely sure and unified about what the prophetic Scriptures actually taught relative to a coming Messiah. And so they begin to go through a list of the variant popular views in their query of John …

1. Are you the Messiah?  Answer: “I am not the Messiah.”

2. Are you Elijah? (Some people expected Elijah to come based upon a passage in Malachi.)  Answer: “I am not.”

3. Are you the Prophet? (Some people wrongly interpreted Deut. 18:15 as predicting a prophet to come before the Messiah.)  Answer: “No”

4. So who are you? Dude, we can’t go back to Jerusalem without an answer!  Answer: “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

So John does claim to be a fulfillment of a prophecy in Isaiah 40 … simply of one who would be a voice to point to the Messiah. He was not it … not the Messiah … not the light in the darkness. He was simply a bird dog pointing to Jesus, the Christ.

5. So what’s with all this baptism stuff you’ve got going on?  Answer: John explains that his water baptism (wherein people confessed sins and identified themselves with his message of repentance and expectation) was a mere physical event … whereas the greater one who would come after him would baptize in a greater way with the Spirit.

The actual revelation of the identity of this greater person happened the very next day. As Jesus appeared before John, the Spirit revealed to John that Jesus was the one to come – the Messiah, the Lamb of God (anticipating the sacrifice of Christ), the Eternal One, the baptizer with the Spirit, the Son of God. John and Jesus were relatives through their mothers, though it is clear from this passage that before that moment, John had no idea that Christ was the Messiah … and perhaps they did not even know each other.

So what are you looking at?  We should be looking at Jesus, which is our purpose in this series – to look at Jesus and to see him as “God Up Close.”  Too often we get caught up in looking at certain preachers who currently seem to be all the craze, or ministries that have the great crowds assembling, or studying what communicative techniques best reach our culture … when we should rather be looking at Jesus.

John 1:19-34  John the Baptist and His Testimony

John the Baptist Denies Being the Messiah

19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”

21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.”

22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

26 “I baptize withwater,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

John Testifies About Jesus

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

The End of a Long, Long Wait – John 1:1-18

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Have you ever had to wait for a very long time for something hopeful to happen? Whatever that hope may be, if the wait was extended even over many years, surely there were times you thought it would never come to fruition. False alarms of aroused hope crushed you too many times to actually anticipate that the dream would ever find reality.

I have a niece in Texas, who along with her husband has endured the pain of childlessness. Though possessing a deep longing for children in their home, the hopes even of adoption looked as grim as the medical realities already absorbed. There were false hopes of potential opportunities, but the statistics seemed insurmountable and as unending as the hoops through which to jump and the curves to navigate … it all combined together to laugh in the face of any dreams of a family.

But in the darkness of this extended sadness, a call came from an expectant woman in Minnesota who had seen their profile and who hoped that possibly my niece and her husband could be the parents to adopt her little boy. A light broke through the darkness. Hope had arrived, yet many details needed to be accomplished. And in the course of time, they were able to travel to Minnesota and take home a new little boy to begin their family.

Since Adam and Eve and the consequent fall of man into the death sentence of sin, the world languished in darkness. Prophets spoke of a messianic hope to come. But years turned into decades; and decades became centuries, even millennia … but nothing … just darkness.

Oh, to be sure, there were false messiahs who claimed to be something or somebody. Still nothing … until this eccentric fellow named John the Baptist showed up wearing animal skins and munching on locusts. He was not the light to penetrate the darkness, but he was the forerunner who told the world that the light of life was soon coming.

Our passage today is one that is so full of theological significance; it is no exaggeration whatsoever to say that volumes have been written on these verses. Let me just grab n’ go with a few big ideas, along with a single biggest idea in terms of our series of sermons / readings / devotionals.

Note that the opening paragraph identifies Christ as divine, as creator, as eternally existent with God. He is the embodiment of life and of the light that could penetrate and eradicate the darkness of sin.

One would think that the world of humanity who had been so long-enslaved by sin would welcome this light and life – especially the nation of whom God had chosen to be his own peculiar people. They had been the conduits of truth and the promises leading to an expectation of divine intervention. But, no, most of them did not receive Christ nor welcome him. Yet those who did – Jew and Gentile – found themselves to be born again … not because of race, nor even of human effort and desire, but because of God’s infusion of LIFE.

The eternal Word had become actual flesh, and the writer John and his other contemporaries were witnesses of this truth and of the glory of God that had been revealed through the person of Jesus Christ.

John says that it is true that no person has ever seen God the Father, but the Father God is revealed in Jesus Christ. Seeing Jesus was seeing the physical representation of God’s nature. The Greek word that is translated by the final four words of our reading today – has made him known – is the term from which we get “exegesis.”  This is the process we speak of when we say that a pastor/teacher is digging into the text to understand and then explain the full meaning of it. So … Jesus “explains” God and the details of his nature and character.

And it is this verse 18 that is the springboard for our series title “God Up Close.”  To see God in detail, one only needs to see Jesus in the same way … and that is what we desire to do through this series. We want to look at all the varied venues and vignettes in which John brings us an intimate view of our Savior. To know him is to know God. To know him and believe and trust in him is to have life. To follow his example is to walk in love and in the light. And that is what we all desire.

John 1:1-18    The Word became Flesh

1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Wanna See God up Close? – Introduction and Welcome

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There are few toys that transcend generations. But one toy that was probably under the Christmas tree for just about anyone reading this is the famous View-Master. We can all recall the joys of sliding those paper cylinders into the top, putting it to our eyes while aiming it toward a bright light, feeling the smooth click of the advancing frames, and enjoying a whole host of brightly colored images passing before our eyes.

Dating back as far as 1919, the early models were for stereoscopic sightseeing of postcard images of beautiful or famous sights around the world. In 1966, the device became popular more as a child’s toy – revealing child-friendly images of cartoons and movie characters.

In a history of the View-Master it is said that … “There have been some 25 viewer models, thousands of titles, and 1.5 billion copies of reels. Despite its long history and many changes in models and materials, the same basic design of reels and internal mechanism remained, ensuring that every reel will work in every model.”

Our study of the Gospel of John is with the purpose of seeing “God Up Close.”  Through a sort of “reel” of vignettes and accounts, John gives us a personal look at Jesus Christ – the one who is God up close, God in the flesh.

As Chris Wiles has written in the introductory study resource on our series web page (click HERE to see the detailed and excellent background) … In a child’s View-Master, images are collected on a small, paper wheel. But there are two of each image—placed at strategic locations on opposite sides of the wheel. When you look through the View-Master, your eyes see only one image—but the combined images appear as 3D pictures. Jesus is like this. He is fully human. He is also fully God. When we see those two natures together in one person, we see one Image, one Savior, one Hope.

Jesus makes God vividly real in our world in a way that no other teacher, no other religious system ever could. John’s gospel was written so that everyone could encounter Jesus in a new way. So we welcome you to come along with us through this series.

There will be a total of 12 sermons (including two that accompany Christmas season worship programs). And the devotionals that begin on Monday will take you through an explanatory reading of the Gospel of John with a total of 45 sections, Monday to Friday, over nine weeks. Note also that there are additional study guides (connected to the sermon passages) for personal or group use to be found on the series web page (www.GodUpCloseTSF.org).

If you, like many, are reading this on a device like your phone or tablet, perhaps not every graphic will come through perfectly, and formatting may occasionally be a bit stilted. But you can always click to be taken to the actual web page – again, where you will find a plethora of other resources and connections.

May you truly experience God up close in a new way in your life through this journey together.

“Everybody Hurts” (1 Peter 3:8-18)

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Live long enough, you’ll bleed.  Perhaps the saddest thing about our pursuit of comfort is the fact that we never actually catch it.  Life is full of suffering; no one gets out of here alive.

C.S. Lewis—the brilliant mind behind the Narnia series—once wrote that “crises reveal character.”  Sometimes suffering says more about our hearts than it does our circumstances.  Very often suffering reveals our idols—reveals where we look for comfort and security.  When our idols are threatened, we become bitter, angry, resentful.

Suffering also says a lot about our religious commitments.  If I am a deeply religious person, my tendency is to make an idol out of my religious performance.  I may be a pillar in my community, a well-respected member of my Church.  But when suffering comes, I don’t know how to handle it.  Wasn’t I good enough?  Is God angry with me?  I may become bitter, guilty, and depressed as I struggle to understand what’s happening.  I may search for someone else to blame—casting myself as an innocent victim of wicked circumstances.  If only the government would come through for us…then I wouldn’t be in this mess.

If I’m a very non-religious person, I may view myself as basically a good person.  So when suffering comes, I don’t know how to react.  I may become bitter toward God for allowing bad things to happen to good people.

Suffering is one of our oldest questions.  The Biblical character Job wrote a whole book about suffering before most of the Bible was even written.  But when we look at the reality of the fallen world we live in, we realize that there’s nothing about suffering that should surprise us.  In fact, the Bible promises that those who follow after God will often reap hostility from others.  This is why Peter would encourage the early Christians to persevere despite their persecution.

1 Peter 3:8-18

8 Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. 10 For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. 11 They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive,he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

The message of the gospel is radical.  We shouldn’t be surprised when the righteous suffer—we should expect it.  Jesus lived, suffered, and died despite His sinless obedience to God.  Why would we expect anything different for ourselves?  We therefore encounter suffering not with clenched fists, but with soft tears.

In the middle of this section we find the key verse: “Always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have” (1 Pe 3:15).  Why would a message about suffering suddenly turn to the need for evangelism?  Because if crises reveal where we place our hope and trust, then crises also provide opportunities to point others to that same hope.  “Everybody Hurts,” writes the rock band R.E.M.  “When you’ve had too much of this life, hold on.”  Suffering forces us to evaluate what it is we hold onto.  Peter is offering the Church something to hold onto: the gospel.

This is why the rest of the section is Peter’s way of unpacking this message.  Do you hear what Peter is saying in verses 18-19?  He’s emphasizing the death and the resurrection of Jesus, the cross and the empty grave.  Chances are, we don’t always have a good answer to the questions that arise during times of suffering.  But the gospel tells us what the answers can’t be.  The cross tells us that the answer can’t be that God’s not loving, because He cared enough to send His Son.  The empty grave tells us that the answer can’t be that God’s not powerful, because He raised His Son from the dead.  Suddenly the gospel shifts from merely “religious” knowledge to personal conviction.  If this world is all there is, then suffering robs our world of meaning.  With eternity in view, suddenly we find ourselves waiting for God to make all things new.

So as we head into the world, we do so with the expectation that we’ll bleed—some of us more than others.  But we enter the world with the confidence in a God of love and a God of power. It is His message, His gospel that we carry into a hurting and dying world, offering them the simple message: hold on.  Hold on.  Hold on.

“That’s Just Your Interpretation” (Luke 9:18-26)

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CoexistChances are, you’ve seen this bumper sticker before.  The word is “coexist,” spelled with the various symbols that compose our spiritual landscape.  On the surface, its message is admirable: we shouldn’t let our differences lead to violence or hostility.  But I suspect there’s another, underlying message: that we shouldn’t let our differences matter at all.  I mean really—aren’t all religions basically the same?  Who could be so arrogant to suggest that their view of God is the only correct one?

The word for this is pluralism.  Leslie Newbigin, author and former missionary to India, says that pluralism comes in two flavors.  “Descriptive pluralism” means that multiple religions can exist peacefully in the same society—a freedom that even our own Constitution protects.  But “prescriptive pluralism” says that all religions are equally valid and therefore must be embraced by everyone.  You know: coexist.

The irony is that this simply won’t work.  If you believe that all religions are equally valid and that they should coexist, think about what you’re really saying: “My approach to religion is superior to your approach to religion.”  So even if you try to accommodate every view, you will always be at odds with those who don’t embrace your way of thinking.

Perhaps you’ve heard it this way: a group of blind men encounter an elephant.  One of them feels its trunk and says, “It must be like a snake.”  Another touches its leg and says, “It must be like a tree.”  A third holds its tail and says, “It must be like a rope.”  The moral?  All religions can only describe a portion of the truth—it would be arrogant to claim that you’re right.  I just have one question: What’s an elephant?  Leslie Newbigin observes that the story is always told from the perspective of someone who sees the whole elephant.  Meaning, the person telling the story is actually aware of the truth and looks down on those who only see parts of it.

Jesus’ earliest followers lived in a world of many different cultures—primarily seen in the collision of the Romans and the Jews.  There were also many different perspectives on just who exactly Jesus was.  In Luke 9, we find Jesus discussing this confusion with His followers.

Luke 9:18-26

Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah

18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”

19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”

20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”

The parallel accounts in Matthew and Luke tell us that this conversation took place in a region known as Caeserea Philippi.  At first glance, the region would have looked like an ideal vacation spot.  But behind the lush trees and waterfalls was a series of small caves where people worshipped various Roman gods—most notably one named “Pan,” the god of fear.  So it was in a pluralistic setting that Peter declares the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.

Then the conversation takes a surprising turn.  In many ways, this was the turning point for Jesus’ ministry:

21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

Have you ever wondered what makes Christianity so unique among other religions?  There are actually many reasons, but what I find most fascinating is that Christianity is the only religion that can be proven wrong.  Think about it: nearly every major religion is built on the founder’s subjective experience.  Muhammad had a vision from God.  Buddha experienced personal enlightenment.  An angel appeared to Joseph Smith.  Experience can be neither proven nor disproven.  If I told you that God appeared to me in a dream, you’d have no way of knowing if I was lying, delusional, or the real thing.

What if instead I told you that my brother died and then came back to life?  That changes everything.  That’s a claim that can be proven wrong.  All the evidence you’d need to silence me would lie at the bottom of the grave.  If you found my brother’s body, it’s all over.  The early Church claimed that Jesus rose from the dead, and anchored itself not in subjective experience but objective history.  Christianity’s most crucial claim was also its most fragile.  All that Rome needed to do to silence the early Christians was to show them Jesus’ body.  The astonishing thing is that no one ever did.

What does that mean for us?

23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

The gospel promises that a crown of thorns will always precede a crown of glory.  We live with the awareness of suffering as well as the certainty of consolation.  Religious traditions tell us that our purpose is found in self-improvement and self-righteousness.  Only Jesus tells us that our purpose is found in self-sacrifice.  Live for self, Jesus says, and you’ll only be ashamed of life’s truest purpose.  Live for God, and you’ll experience life like never before.  Our world is one of both diversity and hostility.  Now, more than ever, we need men and women who carry their cross with both confidence and courage. 

 

 

What’s Man For? (Matthew 5:1-16)

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What’s man for?  Wait; let’s untangle that question.  See, my nephew’s reached the age of perpetual questions.  “What’s that?” he’ll ask, pointing to the fire truck for the thousandth time.  I don’t know much about child development, but there seems to be an age where questions become our primary way of engaging the world.  I’ve noticed that as kids get older, their questions even shift from simply “What’s that?” to “What’s that for?”  So when we ask “What’s man for?” we’re not asking what humankind is “for” as in, “in favor of.”  Instead we mean, “Why does man exist?  For what purpose?”

On the surface, it’s not a hard question.  “What’s a car for?”  Well, it’s for transportation.  “What’s a school for?”  That one’s for education.  “What’s a phone for?”  It’s for communication, interaction, and something called “Candy Crush.”  But “What’s man for?”  Well, that one gets a little trickier.

Social scientists tell us that there was a day when man was measured by his contributions to the greater good—was he/she a good teacher?  A good doctor?  Did they improve the lives of others?  But in today’s world, we measure ourselves by personal fulfillment.  Am I happy?  Am I achieving my dreams?  If the question was once: “How can we benefit?” the question today is: “How can I benefit?”

For God’s people, the greatest tragedy is not that we fail to attain happiness, but that we think that happiness is something that God owes us.  God’s Word delivers a vastly different set of values, and on a hillside in Galilee, God Himself sat down to teach His closest followers what “the good life” was really all about.

Matthew 5:1-16

5:1  Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.

He said:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

For Jesus, the “good life” wasn’t merely about some momentary happiness.  It was about being “blessed,” to enjoy the life that God had to offer.  And if you look at the list, God’s values seem radically different from those we usually think.  God’s Word offers us no promise of cheap, immediate fulfillment, but it offers spectacular promises of lasting joy.  It’s not as if God’s trying to get us to look at things upside down.  No; God’s trying to get us to realize that the world’s already upside down.  He’s just helping us see rightside-up again.

What does this have to do with bringing the gospel to our culture?  Plenty.  If you remember, the word “culture” denotes everything we use—art, music, film, politics, technology—to answer the question: “What’s it all mean?”  This in turn helps us understand our earlier question: “What’s man for?”  That’s a hard question to answer if you don’t believe in absolutes.

See, if the meaning of life is up to me to decide, then I can have no purpose other than my own private satisfaction.  But what if there was more?  What if life could have a definite meaning?  Suddenly my purpose could be a lot more clear.

If you have a background in church, you may have grown up with a small book called the Westminster Catechism—kind of a religious question-and-answer book.  The book opens by asking: “What is the chief end of man?”  The answer: “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

There’s our answer.  What is man for?  We exist to show the world the glory of God.  Of course, that still sounds a little church-y.  What does the word “glory” mean?   The concept of glory comes from an ancient word that literally meant “weighty” or “massive.”  Even today, we call this a “heavy” subject.  So to “glorify” God means that we show the world just how significant He is in every facet of our lives.  And how do we do that?  By being people who mourn, who make peace, who hunger and thirst after righteousness—people who are not satisfied by cheap, material blessing, but find their greatest joy in the values of God’s kingdom.

That changes everything.  Suddenly the Church has something vital to offer to the world.  This is why Jesus goes on to tell His people:

13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Salt and light.  This is what the Church is called to be.  I love how Christian writer Mike Metzger summarizes this concept:

“Being salt and light demands two things: we practice purity in the midst of a fallen world and yet we live in proximity to this fallen world. If you don’t hold both truths in tension, you invariably become useless and separated from the world God loves. For example, if you only practice purity apart from proximity to culture, you inevitably become pietistic, separatistic and conceited. If you live in close proximity to the culture without also living in a holy manner, you become indistinguishable from fallen culture and useless in God’s kingdom.” (Mike Metzger, quoted in unChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons)

Purity and proximity.  We need both.  Some of the greatest failures of the Church have happened when we emphasize one over the other:

  • Creating subculture (all purity, no proximity): The last century has seen the dramatic rise in Christian “alternatives” to secular culture: education, music, books, etc.  The philosophy, of course, is that these alternatives preserve Christian morals without the corrupting influence of secular culture.  The problem is this: Jesus said “Follow me and I will make you fishers of people” (Matthew 4:19). If we are not being “fishers” by reaching non-Christians, can we truly be “followers?”
  • Accommodating to the culture (all proximity, no purity): The alternative, of course, is to blend in with the culture to such a degree that no one sees a true difference in the life of a Christian.  In the absence of purity, the Christian living in proximity to the world will embrace wealth, status, sex, and a whole host of other things as his greatest treasure.
  • Creating a missional counter-culture (both salt and light): The gospel teaches us to be “in the world but not of the world.”  To be “on mission” means to practice both purity and proximity in your everyday life.  Mission, therefore, is not a matter of program, but a lifestyle that God’s people are called to embody.

What’s man for?  This.  He’s for this.  God’s people exist to form a vibrant, soul-nourishing, culture-rattling, missional community that seeks to exalt the name of Jesus in every facet of our lives and in every fiber of our being.  If you and I are to find lasting joy, we have only to look to the city on the hill.

Life in the Spiritual Marketplace (Acts 17:16-34)

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I have good news and bad news.  The bad news is that we’re facing the end of Christian America.  The good news is that we’re facing the end of Christian America.  Let me explain.  There was an era—not long in the past—when American culture was shaped by the kinds of conservative values we find in the pages of God’s Word.  But we currently inhabit a “post-Christian” world, one that no longer embraces Biblical teachings as the source of values.

Ask an average evangelical Christian, and they’ll tell you that America is heading for profound spiritual ruin.  Ask someone outside the church, and they’ll lament that Christians are trying to run the country.   How can both of those statements be true?  The answer is simple: people in today’s world are more “spiritual” than ever before; they’re just not wild about finding their answers within the confines of “traditional” religion.  Instead, spiritual pursuits are a matter of individual preference—what a CNN article once referred to as “Burger King Spirituality,” because you can truly “have it your way.”

Such was Paul’s experience in the city of Athens.  While waiting for his missionary companions, he found himself surrounded by the opulence of this great city, renowned the world over for its intellectual climate and spiritual leanings.  Later writers would remark that you couldn’t look anywhere without your eyes resting on an idol.

Here’s what happened in the city of Athens:

Acts 17:16-34

16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

Don’t you love that last verse?  Our nation finds no greater value than that of diversity.  Paul initially finds himself in the agora, or the city’s “marketplace.”  It was the common area where people gathered to discuss ideas.  But the interesting thing is that in today’s world, I’m not sure that such a place exists.  Perhaps for some it’s the coffee shop.  Maybe it’s a dinner table.  But in today’s post-everything world, I suspect the internet (social media, blogs, etc.) represents the most sprawling example of a marketplace, and the place where ideas are most regularly exchanged.

Chances are we meet the same kinds of people that Paul did.  Paul met three groups of people.  The Jews (and God-fearing Gentiles) may not have believed in Jesus, but at least they shared a common belief in the Bible.  They might be analogous to the traditional religious community of our day.  The Epicureans were another story.  They were the first to believe that the world was composed of “atoms,” and therefore when man dies he simply ceases to exist (according to Epicurus, even the gods would die and be no more).  They’re probably similar to the atheists of our day, who believe man comes from nothing and proceeds toward nothing.  Finally, the Stoics.  They believed the universe was governed by a universal “world-soul” which permeates everything in existence.  If this sounds like “the force” in Star Wars, you’re not far off.  It’s the same kind of thinking found in many Eastern religions (and their New Age counterparts).

Spiritual Types in Athens

When you look at these views together, you begin to realize that Paul stands in the center of all these swirling trends—as do we.  Paul is asked to speak to the Aereopagus, which was something of a council of intellectuals who would render their verdict on Paul’s new beliefs:

22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

Yes, the end of Christian America is indeed good news.  Why?  Because for a long time, Christians have sought comfort and security through isolation.  The last century saw the rise of Christian schools and universities, radio stations, coffee shops—heck, even Christian breath-mints.  So much for being “salt and light” to our world.  We’ve been more likely to peek behind our protective walls to lob a few grenades as part of an ongoing “culture war.”

But Paul’s no cultural warrior.  He’s more interested in dialogue than debate.  His conversation is sprinkled with specific phrases to grab his audience’s attention.  Most significantly, he knew their song lyrics.  He quotes their own poets back to them, because he wisely understands that quoting the Bible isn’t going to do much good in their current spiritual state.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing from a prison cell in Nazi Germany, said that we need to learn to “speak in a secular way about God.”  What did he mean by that?  Well, it means that when the Bible is no longer the starting point for a spiritual conversation, we need to find a new starting point.  And so Paul finds this point of contact in culture itself.

But make no mistake; just because the Bible wasn’t a suitable starting point doesn’t mean that his speech was anything less than Biblical.  And the gospel, properly spoken, will generate strong reaction.  Here’s what happened in Athens:

29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

Notice that for this community, it was the resurrection of the dead that proved to be a sticky point.  I tend to think that the gospel will challenge every culture differently.  In fact, I’d even suggest that in Western culture, we tend to struggle most with God directing human events.  Why can’t I control my own destiny?  Who cares what I do in private?  Who cares who I sleep with?  Like Paul, we can expect a similar diversity of reactions.  Some believed, some rejected—others wanted the conversation to continue.  And that’s perhaps what we also have to hope for.

I’m told that the Japanese word for “crisis” is the same as the word for “opportunity.”  I don’t know much about Japanese grammar, but it’s a nice concept.  The demise of Christian America is a crisis worthy of lament.  But it’s also an opportunity waiting to be seized.  Time to make your choice.

Putting on Skin (John 1:1-18)

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In his book Dangerous Wonder, Mike Yacconelli relates a story about a little girl meeting her baby brother for the first time.  “Baby, what does God sound like?”  she asked.  “Because I’m starting to forget.”

What do you think of when you hear the word “God?”  If you ask five different people, you’ll probably hear six different answers.  Maybe the question has even been a source of frustration—if God would just reveal Himself, then maybe it wouldn’t be so difficult to believe.

But that’s the radical nature of the gospel.  See, the gospel doesn’t just tell us that God exists.  No, the gospel tells us that God speaks.  Throughout the scriptures, God communicates through His Word.  When He spoke through His various prophets, it was because “the Word of the Lord came to Isaiah” and to Jeremiah and so on.  And, in the fullness of time, the Word of the Lord literally became flesh.  Listen to John’s description in John 1:

John 1:1-18

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

John is describing what is known as the “incarnation.”  The eternal God of the universe took on human form in the person of Jesus.

But why?  There are actually many reasons—the primary one being God satisfying His own need for a man to offer a perfect sacrifice for sin.  But there’s another reason as well.  In coming to earth in the humble flesh of Jesus, God shows a willingness to identify with the plight of mankind.  In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the devoted father Atticus Finch reminds his daughter Scout that we shouldn’t be too quick to judge others.  “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view” he tells her. “You’ve got to put on his skin, and walk around in it.”

And that’s what God did.  He put on our skin, and walked around in it, so that we have a “high priest” who can “sympathize with our weaknesses…yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).  If the God of the universe can do this, how much more can we try and see things through the eyes of spiritual outsiders.  If we are called to relate the gospel to our culture, we need to look no further than the humble example of Jesus.  To love our world is to see things from their point of view—in the hopes and confidence of the power of the gospel to speak through us to produce radical and lasting change.