BillyVs Quickhits

The Old Testament Thread that Points to Jesus

2011-12-07T08:41:00.001-08:00

The Old Testament Thread that Points to Jesus

With this lesson we are going to be pointing out the threadthat runs through the OT that points to Jesus. What were the people looking forin the coming Savior and how did Jesus fit the description?

I want you to add to the beginning Luke 24:25-27 discussinghow Jesus walked through the Scriptures starting with Moses (first five books)and the prophets

First Promise ofRedemption: Genesis 3.15

The account of salvation begins in the Garden of Eden. Inspite of their perfect surroundings, Adam and Eve disobeyed God and plunged allof creation into sin. Immediately, God took the initiative to remedy thesituation. In Gen. 3.15 God gave us the first promise of redemption and thefirst gospel proclamation.

Someone was coming who would conquer the evil one andrestore to humanity what was forfeited when humans disobeyed God in the Garden.

An EverlastingCovenant: Genesis 12.1-3

From sinful humanity God called a man and formed a nationthrough whom He would bless the earth and send His deliverer. Read Gen. 12.1-3.

Abram would give birth to a nation. By this and through hisdescendants God would bless “all peoples on earth.” Abram would be the means bywhich God would bless the whole world. (See also Gen. 17.7)

A Chosen Family: Gen.49.9-10

God begins to narrow the specific line by which God wouldbless the whole world. Verse 10 points to the coming of a Deliverer, theMessiah.

The ‘scepter’ was the symbol of kingdoms – it would beJudah’s. God had created humankind to ‘rule and have dominion’ over the earthas his vice regent (see Gen. 1.26-30). And now, as the plan to restore thatblessed estate and purpose for his creation developed, God selected one familywith a view to the restoration of rulership.

A Prophet like Moses:Deuteronomy 18.15

We are searching for an individual and the picture the OTpaint of Him, step by step. He will be born of a woman, an offspring of Abrahamand the fulfillment f an everlasting covenant, and he will be a King, aMessiah-King from the tribe of Judah (this is from Genesis). Another key figurefrom the OT is Moses. Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt; parted the Red Sea;worked miracles; brought the Ten Commandments down from the mountain; andproduced the Torah, the first five books of the OT.

Read Deut. 18.15.

God’s Deliverer would be someone who would speak for God inan authoritative manner, similar to the way Moses had.

An Eternal Dynasty: 2Samuel 7.9-16

The chapter record’s the Lord’s great promise to David (thedescendant of Judah). Other than Moses, no one in the OT is held in higheresteem than this king of Israel.

Elements of the Covenant with David from 2 Sam. 7.9-16:

I will make your name great…
I will establish a house (royal dynasty) for you
I will raise up your offspring…and I will establish his kingdom, and the throne of his kingdom will be forever.
I will be his father and he will be my son
My love will never be taken away from him
Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.

God promised to establish an eternal Davidic dynasty. Thecovenant that the Lord established with the house of David became the nucleusaround which the messages of hope proclaimed by Hebrew prophets of latergenerations were built.

Messianic Promises:Psalm 2

This royal psalm, perhaps composed for the coronation of aking from the line of David, calls the king the Lord’s “Anointed One” (that is,messiah/Christ) in verse 2. Verse 7 calls the king, “God’s son.” The king is ason who will rule not just Israel but also the nations (see verses 8-9). Thispsalm had a forward look to God’s end time King, his Anointed One who will ruleover David’s house forever. It is one of the most quoted Psalms in the NT. Theearly church applied the second psalm to the Messiah as an explanation of thecrucifixion of Christ by the rulers (see Acts 4.25-28). Paul applied it toJesus’ ministry: his sonship, resurrection, and ascension to glory, whichconfirmed God’s promises in Jesus as the Messiah (Acts 13.22-33). This psalmheld hope for a greater day and a greater King all the nations would recognize.

The SufferingServant: Isaiah 52.13-53.12

Isaiah 53 is directly cited no fewer than 7 times in the NTand is alluded to more than 40 times. There is no specific reference that theMessiah would die for the sins of the people, but we have to take seriously therole of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 52.13-53.12. In this passage we see that the “Servant” ofGod was “pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities”(53.5); “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (53.6); “the Lordmakes his life an offering for sin” (53.10); “my righteous servant will justifymany, and he will bear their iniquities” (53.11); and “he bore the sin of many,and made intercession for the transgressors” (53.12).

We have seen that he was “crushed for our iniquities…cut offfrom the land of the living…assigned a grave with the wicked and with the richin his death...” Yet, “he will see his offspring and prolong his days…after hehas suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied…”

The Son of Man:Daniel 7.13-14

The “Son of Man” was Jesus favorite designation of himself.The language of these verses recalls Gen. 1.28; 2 Sam 7.12-16; Psalm 2; 8; andIsaiah 9.7. The one described as “like a son of man” has the appearance of aman, but he is much more than a mere mortal. He comes with the clouds, asignature of deity in the ancient world. He is given the rule over all things,coroneted by the Ancient of Days (God himself). He is to be worshiped, and hiskingdom is everlasting. This final eschatological (end times) ruler is not justa man. He is the “heavenly Sovereign incarnate.” For a clearer picture of howthis relates to Jesus, note the similarity between this passage and Matthew26.63-64. (It is actually a combination of Ps. 110.1 and this passage).

From Days ofEternity: Micah 5.2

A promised deliverer was to appear from the tiny,insignificant town of Bethlehem. (Its significance was that it was David’shometown). He “will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, fromancient times.” There seems to be a sense that the ruler to come (afterJerusalem’s judgment) that was in some sense preexistent. This verse isappealed to in the NT as justification as to why Jesus was to be born inBethlehem (see Matt. 2.4-6).

The messianic hope is a single line that beings in broadestterms with God’s promise of victory over the serpent through the “seed ofwoman” (Gen. 3.15), then is narrowed successively to the seed of Abraham (Gen.22.18), the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49.10), the stem of Jesse (David’s father,Isaiah 11.1), the house of David (2 Samuel 7), the suffering servant of God(Isaiah 53) and finally through the Son of Man (Dan. 7.13-14). As you read the NT,you see this is the person that we find in Jesus of Nazareth.

Missio Dei - Communion message

2011-11-28T07:16:00.001-08:00

Communion – a celebration of Jesus’ Last Supper

Jesus’ Last Supper was associated with the Jewishcelebration of Passover.

Matt. 26.17-19 - On the first day of the Festival ofUnleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want usto make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” He replied, “Go intothe city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time isnear. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at yourhouse.’” So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared thePassover.

What was this Passover meal and what did it mean to theJewish people?

The people of Israel went to Egypt to escape famine. Theyflourished there for a few generations. But a whole new regime came in that didnot remember how valuable some of their ancestors were to the country. Theygrew suspicious of the Israelites and oppressed them and enslaved them. Theycried out to their God and he heard them.

Exodus 6.5-7 - I have heard the groaning of the Israelites,whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.“Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you outfrom under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves tothem, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts ofjudgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then youwill know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yokeof the Egyptians.

Chapters 7-11 of Exodus reveal the signs of God’s power overand against Pharaoh and Egypt’s gods (in the form of plagues). God is ready todisplay his might one last time by destroying the first born of all of Egyptand preparing the way for the Israelites to leave Egypt and go to their own land.They were to have one last meal in Egypt that would serve as a constantreminder of what God had done for them.

The meal is described in Exodus 12

Verses 7-14 - Then they are to take some of the blood andput it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat thelambs…This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt,your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it isthe LORD’s Passover. “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strikedown every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment onall the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on thehouses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Nodestructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. 14 “This is a day youare to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as afestival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance.

This lasting ordinance was reenacted every year that theywere in the land.

Verses 26-27 - And when your children ask you, ‘What doesthis ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice tothe LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared ourhomes when he struck down the Egyptians.’”

The importance of this deliverance in the life andhistory of Israel.

Ps. 78.12, 42-3 – He did miracles in the sight of theirancestors in the land of Egypt…They did not remember his power – the day heredeemed them from the oppressor, the day he displayed his signs in Egypt…

Ps. 81.4-7, 10 –Ps. 106.8, 10 –

Ps. 105.23-5, 37, 42, 44-5 – Then Israel entered Egypt…TheLORD made his people very fruitful; he made them too numerous for their foes…Hebrought out Israel, laden with silver and gold, and from among their tribesno one faltered…For he remembered his holy promise to his servantAbraham…he gave them the lands of the nations and they fell heir to whatothers had toiled for – that they might keep his precepts and observehis laws.

We see that there were expectations on the people that Goddelivered. He made an agreement with them, a covenant, the Law. And they wereto obey that covenant. God speaks to the prophet Micah of this agreement.

Micah 6 – I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you fromthe land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you…then God discussed how he shouldbe worshiped and obeyed. It wasn’t just the mere form of obeying the Law andthe sacrificial system, he wanted their hearts as well – He has shown all youpeople what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly andto love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

When the people of Israel were reminded of the rescue fromEgypt, when they pictured God as their redeemer, they were also to rememberthat they were to be obedient to God. They were to live like the redeemed. Theywere to model redemption.

Each celebration of Passover told the story of Israel’sdeliverance out of Egypt and the meaning of the various elements of the meal.

In times of exile or oppression (occupation) the Passovermeal would have also celebrated the greatest act of deliverance but also lookedforward to a great day when God again would deliver his people.

It is with this in mind that we discuss Communion.

We will look at Matthew’s account in chapter 26.26-29.

First, verse 26 - While they were eating, Jesus took bread,and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying,“Take and eat; this is my body.”

Jesus has come to give himself (his body) on behalf of his people.Jesus is the Word (the visible representation of God) who became flesh. And itis in this body that he paid the penalty for our sins to gain our deliverance:

1 Peter 2.24 - “He himself bore our sins” in his body on thecross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his woundsyou have been healed.”

It was through his physical body that he paid the penalty.We have deliverance from sin and death because of God doing this on our behalfthrough Jesus. Thus we begin to see a connection to the Passover.

That connection continues with the cup.

Verses 27-28 - Then he took a cup, and when he had giventhanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is myblood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness ofsins.”

This recalls Moses in the desert, after the Passover inEgypt and their deliverance from Pharaoh’s army at the Sea of Reeds. Mosesreceives the Law, the covenant, from God on Mount Sinai. It is a promise fromGod that he will be their God and they shall obey his commands. Moses ratifiesthis covenant in

Exodus 24.6-8, where he offers a bull in sacrifice and takesthe blood to impose upon the people how serious this commitment is –

Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and theother half he splashed against the altar.Then he took the Book ofthe Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everythingthe LORD has said; we will obey.” Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it onthe people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has madewith you in accordance with all these words.”

Sometimes we are turned off by the mention of animalsacrifice and the use of its blood. But it had significance. The blood was seenas the life force of the animal and without the shedding of blood there is noforgiveness of sin. It shows that the covenant (and sin) is costly and costsomething its life.

This idea of a covenant that Jesus is issuing is also foundin the words of the prophet Jeremiah 31.31-34 - “The days are coming,” declaresthe LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and withthe people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with theirancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because theybroke my covenant… “I will put my law in their minds and write it on theirhearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people… “For I will forgivetheir wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

Listen to what he mentions, “a new covenant” and “I willforgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more.” One can definitelysee the connection between Jesus’ words at his Last Supper and Jeremiah’smention of a “new covenant”.

Verse 29 – I will not drink from this fruit of the vine fromnow on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.

Just as the celebration of the Passover meal in Jesus daywas looking forward to a banquet at the end of times, when God overthrew all ofIsrael’s enemies and set up his complete Kingdom on earth, Jesus’ celebrationof Passover looked forward. Jesus has offered us deliverance, but we long for acompletion of his victory on earth.

Jesus here has in mind a final banquet at the end of times,when God completes his kingdom on earth that began with the resurrection andpouring out of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2.

In the OT, there was an expectation of an end times banquet.

Isa. 25.6-8 - On this mountain the LORD Almighty willprepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine— the bestof meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroudthat enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow updeath forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; hewill remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.

And we see Jesus pointing forward to some kind of finalbanquet when God inaugurates the completion of the Kingdom.

Matt. 8.11 - I say to you that many will come from the eastand the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac andJacob in the kingdom of heaven.

(And there are other comparisons to the inauguration of thecompleted kingdom in some of Jesus’ parables that we will look at nextsemester).

Luke adds another element (that Paul picks up on). Lukerecords Jesus saying “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22.19).

Just as the Jewish celebration of Passover looked back toGod’s deliverance from Egypt, our celebration of communion looks back to Jesus’death on the cross. And just as, during times of occupation, Passover lookedforward to a new day of deliverance, we are told to do this until Jesusreturns.

1 Cor. 11.26 - For whenever you eat this bread and drinkthis cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

As we do this, we are expecting Jesus to return. Jesus tellsus that he will eat and drink with us at that banquet when he completes andrestores all things for all time.

We see that the early church took these words of Jesusseriously and celebrated this Supper of Jesus apart from the celebration ofPassover. This was Luke showing how the early church carried out Jesus’teachings (see Acts 2.42, 46; 20.7, 11; 24.30).

Kingdom of God series: With the Kingdom comes...persecution?

2011-11-16T06:29:00.001-08:00

This message was in conjunction with the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (see www.idop.org).

With the Kingdom comes…persecution?

Blessed are those who are persecuted because ofrighteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Matt. 5:10

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

The key phrase…”because of me”.

Context: This command is from the Sermon on the Mount (foundin Matthew 5-7). In Matthew, Jesus is portrayed as a new and better Moses.Moses was seen as the Lawgiver in the Hebrew Bible (received the Law on MountSinai). What we find in the Sermon on the Mount, is that often, Jesus quotesone of the commandments or one of the other rules from the Torah (or Law, like5.21, 27, 31, 38) and he expounds on it, revealing the Spirit that God gave thecommand in. He wanted to deal with our sinfulness (both external and internal).

The people who heard this message would have been on thebottom rung of society’s status ladder. And here Jesus flips the entire socialorder based on his message and one’s reception of it. (The poor [in spirit],the meek/humble, the mourners, the persecuted…)

Blessed? On one level this word refers simply to being“happy”. But in this context, it refers to the happiness of those whoparticipate in the kingdom announced by Jesus. This is a deep inner joy of those who have long awaited the salvationpromised by God and who now begin to experience its fulfillment.

Righteousness – a right relationship with God. That comeswhen one is rightly aligned with Jesus. We repent (change our agenda to matchthe King’s agenda), we are born of the Spirit and we begin a life ofsubmission, obedience and allegiance to Jesus the King.

Righteousness here points to the character of the recipientsof the kingdom. Those who display their loyalty to God will become the reasonfor their suffering. And they are to see their selves as blessed.

Their confidence in Jesus and what they hear and observeshould produce a confidence in the future that can and should produce joy inthe present in spite of their painful circumstances.

The result of righteousness is…persecution? Insults? Peoplesaying evil and untrue things about me? What kind of reward is that?

In another place, Jesus even expands on these “rewards”.“Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you andreject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.”

Ahh, reward in heaven. Eyes on the final reward.

They kept their focus on the final reward. I don’t think youcan properly understand the book of Revelation without keeping the issue ofpersecution in your minds. There is a constant call from Jesus to “the one whois victorious” or “to the one who overcomes…” Revelation shows what the scenein heaven looks like, a portrait of praising the lamb who was slain (who alsohas experienced what they’ve experienced). This same lamb is the one “who sitson the throne” and to him be praise and honor and glory and power, forever andever (Rev. 5:13)! There is even a scene where those who have been killed fortheir faithfulness to Jesus are shown to be serving Jesus day and night in histemple and experiencing his presence. Rev. 7:16-17. Earlier, these martyrs wereasking how long until God would avenge their blood? They were told to waituntil the full number of their brothers and sisters who were to be killed first(Rev. 6.9-11). Then, God would pour out his wrath on the wicked and judge theevil ones and avenge those who were killed for their testimony. This book wasto assure those people who were suffering that Jesus was on his throne now andthat he saw it all and was waiting, but that he would act.

Aligning with Jesus opens us up to the possibility ofpersecution. Jesus never promised us an easy life when we decided to followhim. In fact, his call to be a disciple is come and die.

Luke 9.23-24

He warns the disciples on several occasions:

Matt. 10.17 – Be on your guard; you will be handed over tothe local councils and be flogged in the synagogues. On my account you will bebrought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.(But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it…)

John 16.2 – They will put you out of the synagogues, infact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offeringa service to God (Paul).

John 15. 18-21 - “If the world hates you, keep in mindthat it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you asits own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out ofthe world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than hismaster.’

How different is this message fromthose who share “the gospel” or the plan of salvation with you and do not sharethese verses as well?

We see this played out in the life of the early church.

In the book of Acts, some of the early apostles are firstarrested and then beaten because of their message (Acts 4.18; 5.40; 18.17;21.30-32). One early follower was stoned (Acts 7.58-50). Some were broughtbefore governing authorities (Acts 18.12-16; 24.2-9).

One of Jesus’ first twelve was executed (James the Greater,Acts 12.1-2). Paul was persecuted because he freed a slave girl from demonicpresence and men who were making money off of her were angry (Acts 16.22-23).Paul and Silas were illegally beaten and imprisoned even though they shouldhave been offered due process due to their privilege of Roman citizenship.

We see this played out throughout the rest of the NT. Thereaders of the book of Hebrews had experienced some type of persecution thatincluded the confiscation of property (Heb. 10.32-34).

1 Peter is written at a time when his readers wereexperiencing persecution. “Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that hascome on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you…” (1Peter 4.12, he goes on to connect the suffering of these believers toparticipating in the sufferings of Jesus).

Persecution is the backdrop of the book of Revelation withreferences to martyrdom throughout (6.9-11; 16.6; 17.6; 18.24; 19.2).

Jesus’ half brother, James was killed in the temple inJerusalem according to early church historian Eusebius. Tradition states thathe was thrown off the top of a wall around the temple, stoned and then clubbedto death.

Tradition of Paul and Peter’s martyrdom: Paul beheaded andPeter crucified upside down.

Roman historian Tacitus tells of the fire that burnt down %of Rome and Nero shifted the blame away from himself to Christians and began totorment them. Tacitus tells of the event where Nero had Christians dipped inpitch and set on fire to serve as torches in his garden at night. (Annals15.44).

How God works it for good.

The early church actually seemed to value their experiencesof persecution. After being flogged for preaching about Jesus, the disciplesrejoice because they feel that they have actually been counted worthy ofsuffering for the name of Jesus. They are connecting what happens to them iswhat had happened to Jesus. Jesus predicted this. It is coming true and they’rerejoicing.

Think about that on one level. Jesus the king suffers anddies and yet he appears alive to them. He reveals that he is the true king. Andall of the things that he predicted that would happen to them begin happeningto them. Things like the appearance and power of the Spirit, healings, signsand wonders and…beatings!

After being stoned by a mob and left for dead, Paul reflectsand tells his fellow believers “we must go through many hardships to enter thekingdom of God” (Acts 14.22). Later on in one of his letters, he would writethe chilling words of 2 Tim 3.12 - In fact, everyone who wants to live a godlylife in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…

How does God let this happen to citizens of the Kingdom?

Jesus won our victory by becoming a sin offering and byletting the forces of evil do their worst to him and he overcomes them throughhis resurrection. We are to follow in his footsteps as we seek to be conformedto his image. We must experience the same things that he experienced.

Hebrews 5.8 states that Jesus learned obedience through hissuffering.

There are several places in the writings of Paul thatdiscuss sharing in Jesus’ suffering. Two places connect our sharing in hissuffering to sharing with his glory (Rom. 5.3; 8.17). And one verse Paul seemsto assume that if we want to know the power of his resurrection then we’ll wantto share in his sufferings as well (Phil. 3.10).

It seems as if God used persecution to spread the message ofJesus in the early days of the church (as he may today as well).

In Acts 8.1-4 we see the result of the outbreak of full-scalepersecution of the church:

“Those who had been scattered preached the word whereverthey went.”

We can’t expect to follow Jesus into glory if we don’tfollow him through the garden. That doesn’t mean that we should actively pursuepersecution. Jesus cried out in the garden the night before his crucifixion,“Father, is there another way?” But when he receive his answer, he set forth boldlyand looked toward the glory that he would receive by being obedient, he lookedtoward the gift of the Spirit he would bestow upon the church by his obedienceand he looked toward the glory we all would share when he comes to complete hiskingdom.

We may never experience that suffering. But we need to beaware that it is a possible part of following Jesus. We know that there arebelievers around the world who do not have the freedom to express their faithlike we do here. How can we identify with them? When asked how we can help thepersecuted church around the world, the first response is always, “Pray forus.”

Hebrews 13.3 - Continue to remember those in prison as ifyou were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if youyourselves were suffering.

The Kingdom of God is displayed in power

2011-11-08T14:56:00.001-08:00

The Kingdom isdisplayed with power – Matt. 12.22-28

Context – Jesus heals a demon possessed blind and mute man.Crowds are amazed and want to know if Jesus is the “Son of David.” But ofcourse, hatahs gonna hate. The say that Jesus’ power to drive out demons comefrom Beelzebul, the prince of demons. Jesus states that his ability to drivedemons out of people is a sign that the Kingdom of God has come upon them.

Satan is identified by Jesus elsewhere as “the prince ofthis world” (John 16.11). Jesus showed in his exorcisms that the kingdom had brokeninto history. Jesus is invading Satan on his turf. Jesus does great damage tohis territory. Jesus went around healing all of those who were under the powerof the devil.

How did Satan getthis power?

For Jesus and the gospel writers Satan is the chief enemy ofJesus and the establishing of the kingdom of God. In Jesus’ ministry,especially in his exorcisms, Jesus gives evidence of the first stage of Satan’sdefeat by casting out his servants from people.

We have to discuss, if God is sovereign (in control) and Godis king, then why does Jesus call Satan the “prince of this world”? Why does hehave power on the earth and the ability to terrorize God’s people (and thosewho aren’t God’s people).

There is not a real well developed outline of the origin ofSatan and how he became the “prince of this world”. We see him in some form inthe early days of creation. We find “the tempter” in Gen. 3.1-15 who distortsand contradicts God’s words to Adam and Eve (“Did God really say…”).

Question: what is he doing in the Garden of Eden? How did heget there? Like I said, nowhere does the Bible give a detailed account of his creationor his rebellion. There are some writings by Jewish theologians that speculateon where he came from and what his mission is.

In a writing called Wisdomof Solomon, it states “God…made man in the image of his own eternity, butthrough the devil’s envy (of man having this image), death entered into theworld.

Another writing called TheLife of Adam and Eve elaborates on Satan’s motive and his role in the fallof humanity. When one of God’s angels ordered Satan to worship the image of Godin Adam and Eve, Satan answered, “I will not worship one inferior andsubsequent to me”. Consequently God expelled the devil and his angels fromheaven to the earth. Satan then explains to Adam “And immediately we were madeto grieve, since we had been deprived of so great glory. And we were pained tosee you in such bliss of delights. So with deceit I assailed your wife and madeyou to be expelled through her from the joys of your bliss, as I have beenexpelled from my glory”.

Other verses that have colored our view of Satan but are notexplicitly describing Satan:

Ezek. 28.11-19 – This was a prophecy condemning the King ofTyre and predicting his downfall. The prophecy discusses his apparent greatnessby describing his greatness and even his presence in the Garden of Eden. He iscalled a guardian cherub (angel like figure). He was expelled from the “holymount of God” and thrown to earth because of his pride in his own beauty. Hewill eventually come to a fiery destruction.

In Isaiah 14.12-14 there is a prophecy condemning the kingof Babylon. Again, this figure is has been cast down to earth. He is called themorning star (Latin: Lucifer). It was his pride (again) that was his downfall.He wanted to rule on a throne over God himself, he wanted to make himself likethe “Most High.”

In both of these cases, this is a prophecy against foreignkings whose pride caused them to mistreat God’s people, they did notacknowledge God’s role in their rise. But you can see how these passages havecolored the popular views on Satan’s origin and his original role in temptingAdam and Eve.

Satan’s role: Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, Satanappears to be this accusing presence that attempts to separate people from God.

1 Chr. 21.1 – “Satan rose up and incited David to take acensus of Israel.” This act angered God because it was seen as a lack of faith.David was measuring his might instead of resting in the belief that God was theone who had given him all of his victories.

In two prominent passages, we see Satan in his role as “theaccuser” which is what the term ha-satanmeans in Hebrew (or the adversary).

In the most famous passage, Job 1.6-2.7, Satan appears withthe “sons of God” and opposes God by challenging the genuineness of Job’s rightrelationship with God, claiming that Job follows God because God has blessedhim with wealth, family and good fortune. God allows Satan to strip Job of hiswealth and kill his seven children. Job continues to follow and worship God,“The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”That’s not good enough for Satan, who accuses Job again. Job is now personallyafflicted with a painful disease. And even though the rest of the book has Jobquestioning why God allowed this when Job has been so upright before him, Jobdoes not lose his faith and continues to follow God. His wife believes that Godhates Job and tells Job to “Curse God and die” already. Job’s reply shows hisintegrity: “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good fromGod, and not trouble?” In all of this, Job did not sin in what he said.

In Zech. 3.1-2 – we see Satan in his role as accuser. Hetries to disqualify the high priest by accusing him of his past sins. ButSatan’s accusations cause God’s goodness and glory to stand out, God hasforgiven Joshua all of his sins despite the accusations of the accuser.

So if God is sovereign, and it appears from these passages(especially Job) that Satan’s power is limited to what God allows him to do,why is he still allowed to accuse and tempt God’s people? It seems that Godallows this evil (and Satan’s accusations and his attempts to undermine him andhis people) as a contrast to his goodness. And also, when God’s people remainfaithful to Him, God receives even more glory as his people show themselves ascommitted to him. In the NT, Paul believes that Satan was allowed to tormenthim with a “thorn in the flesh” so that Paul would be reliant on God and hisgrace. His thorn made him in himself weak, but that forced Paul to lean more onGod and his power than on his own strength. Therefore, Satan’s work actuallygave God greater glory through Paul’s reliance on God’s grace.

So, perhaps God allows Satan to exist to test ourfaithfulness. If we remain faithful in spite of attack, God is glorified. Whenwe encounter his opposition, we experience God’s grace and power when we relyon him for our strength and allow his power to work through us.

Now moving to the NT and specifically the ministry of Jesus,we see Satan as the adversary of Jesus. We see him tempting Jesus while he wasfasting and praying in the wilderness (Matt. 4.1-11). He is the enemy of God’swork as he tries to snatch the word of God away from those who hear it (Matt.13.39). He is called the “evil one” (Matt. 5.37; 6.13) and “the tempter” (Matt.4.3). Jesus also calls him “the prince of this world” (John 16.11).

It is with this worldview of Satan and his power that Jesuscame and announced that God’s kingdom had come. It was one thing to announceit, but Jesus displays evidence that it has come. He does so by attacking Satanon his turf.

Now we see Jesus displaying God’s power by casting outdemons. And Jesus connects this display of power to the coming of God’skingdom. How does it display this?

Like I’ve already said, Jesus has called Satan the “prince ofthis world.” We’ve seen what his role is. Jesus displays God’s power over theservants of Satan and tells a brief little parable that pictures Satan as aheavily armed man (prince) hoarding his possessions. His possessions are thosewho have been created in God’s image. This is consistent with the rest of theNT.

1 John 3.8-10 - The one who does what is sinful is of thedevil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason theSon of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born ofGod will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go onsinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who thechildren of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does notdo what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love theirbrother and sister.

Prior to our life in Christ according to Eph. 2.1-3, it seemsthat we followed “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” and Satan’s spirit wasat work in our disobedience. This made us deserving of God’s wrath.

And the writer of the letter to the Hebrews (2.14-15) statesthat Satan has a limited period where he holds the power of death. He uses thispower keep us subjected to him as, prior to our new life in Christ, we had afear of death. We can see this as Satan distracts those who fear death withinstant gratification (pursuing earthly pleasure) as a way to distract us fromthe pain and certainty that death provides (if we have no hope of eternal lifethat we receive from Christ.)

But these episodes, like Jesus casting out the servants ofSatan reveal that not only was God’s Spirit and power working through Jesus butthey were evidence that God’s kingdom had come to them and that Satan’s rulehas been weakened (and in fact, Satan was becoming powerless over the peoplewho belong to God’s kingdom).
In Acts 10:38 – Peter discusses how Godanointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he wentaround doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil,because God was with him.

This was shown in him casting out demons (likethis episode) but it may have shown itself in illness – Jesus offers freedom toa woman who had been tormented by disease by stating:

Luke 13:12, 16 – Woman, you are set free fromyour infirmity…Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satanhas kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day fromwhat bound her?”

God’s power was displayed to in his ability to attack the deviland it was a sign that the power of God was with him (see Acts 10.38). Jesus isbattling Satan on his turf.

These victories over Satan and his “spirits” show Jesus to bethe Son of God. In fact the people want to know if Jesus could be “the Son of David”?

What did they mean by Son of David? This was a royal title.The messiah, or the great king who was going to rescue his people was to be adescendant of the model king of Israel. Their deliverer would be from his line.By asking this question about whether Jesus was the “Son of David”, they werewondering, could this man be the deliverer we have been waiting for? They wereunder the power of the Roman Empire. They could not understand why God’s chosenand holy people were under any kind of oppression. They eagerly expecteddeliverance. And that deliverance would come from a “son of David.” As you readthrough Matthew’s gospel, he definitely points out that, “Yes, Jesus is the sonof David. He is the one who will deliver us.” But Jesus’ deliverance will notbe from Roman occupation. It will not lead to a new government and an earthlyking on an earthly throne in Jerusalem. The deliverance that Jesus will bringis release from the power and captivity of our sin and a rescue from Satan’spower.

NT Wright – Jesus is letting the people know that Israel’sGod is powerful and active in and through Jesus. Jesus is showing that he hasengaged Satan in battle. The exorcisms are not only the release from bondagefor a few possessed people. For Jesus (and the gospel writers) they signaledsomething far deeper that was going on. Ministry was head-on war with Satan.Jesus regards his exorcisms (and the healings of those whose condition wasattributed to the work of Satan) as a sign that he was winning the battle, thoughit had not yet reached its height.

On one level Herod Antipas is still in charge of Galilee andthe Romans are the overlords of the entire middle east, but there is adifferent oppressor who is receiving a devastating blow and who will so beconquered.

If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then the kingdomof God has come upon you. This tells a story: Israel’s God will one day beking; the establishment of that Kingdom will involve the defeat of the enemythat has held Israel captive; there are clear signs that this is now happening;Israel is really being liberated.

What does this mean tous? Jesus has defeated Satan on his turf. It doesn’t always look like it,but he came to deliver us from the power of sin and death (both domains ofSatan).

This all comes back to the fact that Jesus is the king.Those who submit to King Jesus find themselves no longer bound by Satan’spower. We no longer have to fear death. These are two of the areas of Satan’spower that Jesus has overcome on our behalf.

Col. 2.15 – Jesus disarmed “the powers and authorities (ofSatan), he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

Eph. 1.21-22 - Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to God’sright hand have placed Him “far above all rule and authority, power anddominion…God place all things under his feet…”

Jesus, through his death and resurrection, has already wonthe decisive victory over Satan. But, the battle still continues. The totalseparation between good and evil comes at the end. In the meantime, Satan’sgoal is to keep people under his rule or to distract God’s people from givingglory back to God.

He snatches the word of God’s kingdom from hearts before thegrasp its truth and submit to it (Matt. 13.19).

2 Cor. 4.4 - He blinds the minds of unbelievers “so thatthey cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ…”

He will increase the intensity of his attacks on God’speople when he realizes how quickly his time is running out (Rev. 12.12).

Fortunately, Jesus has won the battle and has given us toolsat our disposal to overcome Satan’s attacks.

Paul tells us that we need to put on the armor of God sothat we can take our stand against the devil’s schemes. That armor includes:truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, our faith, our salvation and theword of God.

We are to call upon the power of the Spirit that oursubmission to Jesus gives us to actively resist Satan (see James 4.7 and 1Peter 5.9).

We need to take comfort in knowing that as powerful as Satanis, he can do nothing apart from God’s permission (as we have seen in Job’sstory). And perhaps we can learn from these episodes like Paul who saw thatSatan’s attacks were opportunities to rely more fully on God’s power and graceso that God could get even more glory from Paul’s service.

We can perhaps learn from the early churches in Asia Minor(modern day Turkey), who were undergoing intense persecution. They wereencouraged by Jesus himself to be faithful and he promised great blessings tothose who overcome the attacks of Satan through relying on the victory ofJesus.

The Kingdom is like...a man who sowed good seed in his field

2011-10-18T09:15:00.000-07:00

The Kingdom is like…aman who sowed good seed in his field. (Matt. 13.24-30; 36-43)

Have you ever been to a youth camp or youth retreatand just didn’t want it to end? The spirit of the camp was so alive and therewas good Bible teaching and excellent worship music. You surrounded by goodChristian friends and fellowship. You just didn’t want to go back home becauseyou knew that when you returned you were going to be in a completely differentenvironment. You’d be in an environment where you were surrounded with peoplewho couldn’t care less about Jesus or the your commitment to follow him. Infact, they would do their best to discourage you.

Or…

Have you ever just looked around and seen people juststeeped in evil or wickedness? Have you ever just wondered why God didn’t justremove them from the face of the earth? Or, at least, could God just removethem from your life?

I know of some people who have tried to do that in reverse,they withdrew out into a place in the country or the wilderness so they couldlive in community, love Jesus and each other and not be stained by thecorruption of the world.

Unfortunately, that’s just doesn’t seem possible at thispoint. Or is it unfortunate? Maybe it is part of God’s plan? Perhaps there is apurpose for committed followers of Jesus to live in and amongst the people ofthis world, even those who are bent on doing evil.

Let’s look at Matt. 13:24-30.

Purpose of parables – About 1/3 of Jesus’ teaching is inparables. They can be proverbs (Luke 4.23), a riddle (Mark 3.23), a comparison(Matt 13.33) a contrast (Luke 18.1-8) and both simple stories (Luke 13.6-9) andcomplex stories (Matt. 22.1-14). Parables demand interpretation, they point tosomething else. There not just clever stories. They are ways in which Jesustried to help people understand the kingdom. Jesus told these stories toconfront people with the character of God’s kingdom and to invite them toparticipate in it and to live according to it. Jesus was calling his hearers tochanged behavior and asking them to commit to being his disciples.

The primary focus of the parables is the coming of thekingdom of God and the resulting discipleship that is required. When Jesusproclaimed the kingdom he meant that God was exercising his power and rule tobring forgiveness, defeat evil and establish righteousness in fulfillment ofthe OT promises. In Jesus’ own person and ministry, these acts were happening,and the kingdom was made available to people. The kingdom comes with limitlessgrace, but it comes with limitless demand. As we have and will see, it is bothpresent and still awaits fulfillment in the future.

This parable seems designed to answer the question “How canthe kingdom have come if evil is still present?” The kingdom is present andgrowing even in the midst of evil, and judgment will take place in the future.Therefore, the kingdom invites both involvement and patience.

There seems to be an underlying issue with this parable thatJesus is addressing. Jesus has been preaching the kingdom and has been sayingthat the kingdom has come near and he has been displaying the power of thekingdom in his healings and exorcisms. These miracles have been displays ofJesus and his intent on attacking the power of Satan on his turf (prince ofthis world). They were visibly displaying that he has ultimate power overSatan. Thus and obvious question has to arrive: if the kingdom is near andJesus (as the king) is more powerful than Satan, then why are we stillsurrounded by evil. Why are the wicked still among us?

The details of the parable

Jesus talks about a farmer who has sown wheat into hisfield. But an enemy sowed a type of wheat in his field while he was not aware.For a time, the wheat and the weeds looked very similar. It was hard to tellthem apart. But when they started to sprout, it became obvious that there wassomething else among the wheat stalks. What the enemy of this farmer has sownwas something called darnel. It looks very similar to wheat, but it does notgrow as tall and its head is a different color. So, it takes a while before itis apparent that something else is in the field. The workers want to pull upthe weeds but it seems that the roots become intertwined while they aregrowing. The farmer merely says let them grow until harvest and then theharvesters will separate the two. The wheat goes into the barn and the weedsget burned up.

So, the field did not turn out as he desired. He had sowngood seed, but an enemy had sown weeds in the same field. The result was amixture of wheat and weeds. The solution was NOT to be in an immediateseparating of the two. For the time being the two were to be allowed to growtogether, so that the field was not an ideal field. But, eventually, the wheatand the weeds would be separated.

On this occasion (and on one other) Jesus gives a point-by-pointexplanation of this parable. This parable becomes an allegory, where theelements of the story stand for a deeper meaning. Now, not every parable is anallegory, but this one is because Jesus makes it one.

The elements

The sower TheSon of Man

Good seed Peopleof the kingdom

Field Theworld

Enemy Satan

Weeds Peopleof the evil one

Servants Angels

Harvest Endof the Age (Judgment)

Jesus is the Son of Man. What did he mean by calling himselfthat?

The good seed are the followers of Jesus. The followers ofJesus are not removed from the world. In fact, it seems that they are allowedto mingle in and amongst the people that belong to the evil one. And, it seemsthat Satan is active in putting his representatives among the people of Jesus.

I want to go back to our examples at the beginning. It seemsthat the original disciples themselves wanted to remain with Jesus and awayfrom all of the influence of the wicked. We see Peter, James and John on amountain and they get a glimpse of what Jesus is going to look like after hisresurrection. Peter doesn’t want to leave. He wants to stay with Jesus and hisfriends for a while. He must know that when he comes down from the mountain,Satan and his representatives are going to be waiting for him.

Some of the disciples have a different reaction. They wantthe evil removed.

Luke 9:51-56.

Two of Jesus’ disciples want a village of Samaritansconsumed with fire from heaven because they did not welcome Jesus properly.

God allows the righteous and the wicked to coexist at thistime. Eventually there will be judgment and separation. But for now we need tolive amongst each other.

Why didn’t God just take care of them when Jesus came andinaugurated his kingdom? Why wait?

Maybe it is because of God’s graciousness? Some in the earlychurch were mocked because it seemed that Jesus was slow in returning andsetting up his kingdom.

2 Peter 3.3-4, 9 – You must understand in the last daysscoffers will come, scoffing and following their own desires. They will say,“Here is this ‘coming’ he promised? The Lord is not slow in keeping hispromises, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, notwanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

What we need to understand is that there is this timelinewhere the present (evil) age exists for a time along side the age to come. Butultimately, the present age will end when Jesus returns.

Diagram

God allows the righteous and the wicked to coexist in thisage. But eventually he will eventually separate the wicked, judge them andpunish them, while gathering the righteous together to be rewarded by enjoyinghis presence forever.

Now, knowing all of this, what should our response be?

One is realize that God is not going to pull us out of thisworld before Jesus returns. (Pre-Tribulation Rapture stuff?) We need to knowthat not only do we exist in and among people who belong to Satan, but it seemslike Satan is active in not only aggravating believers, but he is also activein trying to prevent the Word of God from being spread (see Matt. 13. 19, …theevil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart.) We need to knowthat our battle is not with each other or even with the people that Satan isusing to tempt and distract us. It is with Satan himself. Paul gives us instructions to put onspiritual armor so we can stand against the devil’s schemes (Eph. 6.11-12).

Two, we need to realize that judgment is a reality. Therewill be a great separation of those who belong to Jesus and those who don’t.The fate of those who are not disciples of Jesus is grim. Jesus uses metaphorslike being cast into darkness, and fire and separation. Whatever it is, we knowthat there is an eternity separated from God and the fellowship of his peoplefor those who are do not belong to the kingdom.

Which leads us to three, we need to live like salt and lightin the midst of these people. We shouldn’t long for separation, but we shouldlong to be a positive influence on them so that they would long to be a part ofthe kingdom. It is interesting that Jesus uses the world as a field analogyhere. He does it in several places.

In Matt. 9.37-38 – The harvest is plentiful but the workersare few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into hisharvest field. Immediately after that, we see Jesus sending his initialdisciples (the 12) out into the world to carry forward Jesus’ message of thekingdom (10.7 – The kingdom of heaven has come near…). He sends them outbecause judgment is coming.

Jesus spoke of love and freedom and a release from bondageto sin and Satan, but he also spoke of judgment. The basis of that judgment wasallegiance to Jesus the King. That should motivate us to be salt and light in thisworld (not to be taken away from it). We are to be salt and light. Salt inJesus’ day was used as a preservation agent to keep meat from rotting. To besalt implies that this world is corrupt and dying and we need to be agents ofpreservation. To be light implies that this world is dark. Darkness often stoodfor evil and for those outside of the kingdom. We need to be the light in adark world to point people to the true source of light: our King Jesus.

That is why we call ourselves Missio Dei. It means theMission of God. God sent his son to seek and save the lost, the dying, those inthe dark. As God sent the Son, he sends us to join him in the fields of theworld so that we join him in sowing good seed and for the harvest at the end ofthe age to be great.

Kingdom of God - Least v. Great in the Kingdom

2011-10-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

Being called least versusgreat in the Kingdom of Heaven – Matt. 5.17-20

Have you ever read throughthe OT and came across some crazy, random rules or laws? Examples fromLeviticus 19. Ever wonder if we still need to fully obey such laws? I getquestions all the time, especially the one about the tattoos. We'll come back to this later...

In this passage, Jesus istalking about being called least in the kingdom versus being called great inthe Kingdom. Of course we all would like to hopefully work toward becoming knownas great in the kingdom of heaven so what are some of the things we should worktowards to make this happen?

In the context of thispassage, Jesus is about to set out to definitively interpret God’s Word. Butbefore he begins, he wants everyone to know that he holds God’s word in thehighest regard.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law orthe Prophets…

When he says this, it wasanother way of saying, I have not come to “set aside” or “repeal” the HebrewBible (or OT). Saying “The Law and Prophets” was another way of referring tothe whole of the OT.

Up until this point (and fromthis point going forward in his story) Jesus was accused of neglecting God’sWord, or specifically the Laws of the OT. He came under attack from the groupsmentioned in verse 20 of this passage: the Pharisees and the teachers of theLaw.

The Pharisees - Recognized asthe supreme authority in religion the written Hebrew Scriptures (all of them)and the oral tradition (or what is referred to in this text as the tradition ofthe elders). They were strict adherents to the Law, not only the Torah but theexpositions and traditions of the Law. More of a tendency to regard outwardformalism as more important than inward disposition of the heart (at leastaccording to the gospels and Acts).

The Teachers of the Law (orScribes) - Their key role was a more careful theoretical development of the Law– the scribes counted a total of 613 commandments in the OT. They were made ingeneral terms and needed to be made explicit and particular. For example:walking through a grain field had to be examined. When the wheat was ankle highnot knee high it was not considered threshing. But if the wheat was knee high,kernels might be knocked loose and it would be considered threshing. If acotton wadding which was worn in one’s ear fell out it could not be replacedfor this would be considered lifting a burden. The scribes wanted to make surethey knew what constituted a law and not a law. These accumulations were whatcame to be known as the tradition of the elders. This oral tradition wastransmitted orally until about 200 AD.

Why so zealous for the Law?Understandable? The greatest lesson learned during the exile was that they hadneglected the Law of God to worship idols. So the Jews were committed tostudying and obeying the Law completely. Idolatry was ended. Prophecy stopped,but scribes, the experts in copying, preserving and teaching the law, becamethe religious leaders.

These are the guys whoconstantly question Jesus’ zeal for the Law. Jesus does stuff on the Sabbaththat they don’t think he should do (like heal people). He eats with people theywould never eat with (like tax collectors and sinners). He touches people thatmake them unclean (like lepers and dead people). Jesus is about to give thepeople his interpretation of God’s word and wants everybody to know how muchrespect he has for God’s word. But he is going to show them how to properlyunderstand God’s word. God’s word needs to be read in light of him. You cannotproperly understand God’s word (and that includes the laws of the OT) withoutknowing Jesus.

The gospel story of Jesusalso resolves or brings to completion the Story of Israel as found in the Scriptures(thus, the events of Jesus story occurred “according to the Scriptures”. TheStory of Jesus Christ only makes sense as it follows and completes the Story ofIsrael. The gospel is the resolution and fulfillment of Israel’s Story andpromises. The good news of this gospel is that Israel’s Story has now reachedits resolution in Jesus Christ.

Jesus does not come toabolish the word of God. This means that he does not mean to set it aside orrepeal it. It still is valid and binding on the believer. He goes on to saythat not the smallest letter or least stroke of a pen will disappear untileverything is accomplished. (Jot and tittle, what does that mean?) What he doessay is that he has come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. What he means bythat is that he has come to bring Scripture to its intended goal.

Fulfillment of Scripture isMatthew’s theme through his gospel.

In chapter 1, Matthewconnects Jesus to David, the line of the everlasting king.

1.22 – Jesus’ birth by avirgin is seen as fulfilling Scripture (Isaiah 7.14).

2.3-4 – Jesus’ being born inBethlehem fulfills Scripture (Micah 5.2, 4).

2.15 – Jesus’ escape fromHerod to Egypt (Jesus identifies with Israel who also spent years in Egypt).

2.17 – Herod’s destruction ofthe infants was seen as fulfilling Scripture (Jer. 31.15)

3.2 – John the Baptist’sministry was seen as fulfilling Scripture (Isaiah 40.3)

4.1-11 – Jesus time oftemptation in the wilderness was seen as a way of identifying with Israel’stime in the wilderness after being set free from slavery in Egypt. The peoplewere tested in the wilderness and failed. However, Jesus represents faithfulIsrael as he does not give into the devil’s temptation in the desert.

4.14-16 – His early ministryin Galilee was seen fulfilling Scripture as well (Isaiah 9.1-2).

Jesus is affirming hisundying respect for the OT, and he wants us to know that all of the OT remainsnormative and relevant for followers of Jesus. But…it needs to be understood inhow it has been fulfilled in Christ. All OT texts need to be viewed in light ofJesus’ life and ministry.

What we are going to see isthat at some points, Jesus brings many OT events and laws to their fulfillment(like the sacrificial system). The sacrificial system is no longer binding, butnot because Jesus set it aside, but because he fulfilled the original intent ofthe sacrificial system. He became the perfect sacrifice to remove our guilt andsin from before God and through him we can have an unbroken, guilt freerelationship with God.

At some points, the OTScriptures remain quite valid, like love for God and love for our neighbor.

But how do we deal with someof the verses that just don’t seem so relevant to us today like the ones Imentioned? Jesus says that if we set aside one of the least of the commands ofthe Bible, we’ll be least in the kingdom.

When we look at how Jesusinterprets Scripture in the following verses after our passage, we see that hebegins with one of the Ten Commandments or a command from the Law and theninterprets it. He starts with, “you have heard it said…”, then he says “but Isay to you…” In none of the following verses does Jesus contradict the Law, butwhat he does is present the true meaning of the command. Do not commitadultery…but I say don’t look at a woman lustfully. Jesus gets beyond the mereoutward form of the command; he penetrates directly to the heart.

So, far from destroying orsetting aside the law (even in the cases where it looks like he is breaking thelaw like in the incidents we mentioned before), Jesus’ teachings penetrate tothe divinely intended meaning of the Law. Because the Law and Prophets pointedto him and he is their goal, he is able now to reveal their true meaning andbring them to fulfillment.

Knowing this, let’s go backto some of those obscure laws I mentioned earlier. When we look beyond the mereliteral meaning of the laws, we should look at the original intention of Godfor these laws.

Why not wear clothing ofmixed material? This was a symbol of purity and wholeness. They were enteringinto a land where the people were dishonoring God and were worshiping falsegods and their lifestyles were exceedingly wicked. A law like this was showingthem to be concerned with wholeness and purity. It was, in a way, a reminder tonot intermix with these people or intermarry with them. And a way of impressingthis on the people’s minds was to call them to wholeness in every area of theirlives, like their crops, their clothes, their animals…

They were not to cut theirhair because often shaving their hair, and especially their beards were paganmourning rites. The beard was a symbol of manhood and pride within Israel.Again, it was a symbol to be different from the people God was expelling fromthe land before them.

Tattoo marks were oftenbrands for devotees of pagan gods. Don’t be like them. Be set apart. Showyourself to be worshiping a different, holy God.

When we look at the intendedmeaning of these laws, we can better understand them and apply them to ourlives. God is calling us to be different. To be set apart. How do wedistinguish ourselves from the non-believers that we are surrounded with? Inour day, it is not necessarily in the way we dress, or having or not havingtattoos, or with the food we eat. We distinguish ourselves from thenon-believers around us by following Jesus.

So, who is least in theKingdom? If you set aside the Scripture (and more importantly) it’s intendedmeaning by God, you will be least in the Kingdom. Jesus is affirming thevalidity of the OT, but if we continue reading, he helps us understand theintention behind the commands of the OT (and really the whole Bible). We needto read the commands of the Bible in light of Jesus being the king and beingthe ultimate fulfillment of God’s word.

To be great in the Kingdom isto understand this as well and to teach this to others. To be great in theKingdom we need to teach the full word of God (especially in light of Jesus’way of looking at it) and obey his word.

Our righteousness needs tosurpass the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. What does that mean? Theteachers of the Law and the Pharisees spent so much time wrapped up in adetailed study of the minutiae of the law. The Pharisees were the sect whoattempted to fulfill the requirement of the Torah through an elaborate systemthat was based on ancient teachers who tried to explain its demands. They weremore interested in how they could follow the Law (or find ways to make itconvenient to follow the letter of the law) than they were in loving God andloving their neighbor. And when it comes right down to it that was the ultimateintention of all of the laws, to teach us how to properly worship God and serveour neighbors. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees kept the focus on thelaw and not God.

The righteousness that Jesusspeaks of does not come through this great preoccupation with the trivialpoints of the Law that outdoes the Pharisees. Jesus is going to show a new andhigher kind of righteousness that comes from understanding that he is the kingand that he is the one who can authoritatively interpret God’s word. And Jesusis not going to just interpret the Word for us and tell us how to live, he isgoing to model it. His life will be a display of his understanding of God’sword. And our righteousness is God’s gift. It comes when we repent, and we areborn of the Spirit. The Spirit’s presence enables us to properly follow Jesus.Following Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit is the way torighteousness that surpasses the Pharisees and teachers of the law who wereseeking to justify themselves through their obedience to the law, not through arelationship with God.

When do we do these things?Can we become like the Pharisees in regard to the commands that we thing makeus right with God? Whenever we put rules and commandments above following Jesusas ways to obtain favor with God, then we are pursuing the righteousness of thePharisees and Scribes. I don’t know what that looks like for you. In my circle,I gain some sort of righteousness if I abstain from drinking alcohol. It could be that you are relying on the factthat you don’t drink for a type of righteousness. It could be the fact that youdon’t cuss or that you abstain from premarital sex. That is what gives you yourright standing with God. For some of us it is involvement in Christian eventslike Bible studies and church attendance. It is like God owes you because youare serving him in these ways. All of these things I’ve mentioned can behelpful to you in your walk. But you should abstain from drinking only becauseyou feel it makes you more like Jesus. You should avoid premarital sex becausethat is what is best for the kingdom of God. You should study your Bible andattend church as a way of getting to know the commands of Jesus and tocorporately worship and fellowship with your brothers and sister in Christ.Those things don’t gain you points with God. They should be shaping you as afollower of Christ. Your righteousness comes as a free gift when you repent,commit to Jesus and receive his Spirit. His Spirit enables you to follow him,which is the command he gives us if we want to be a disciple of his (Luke9.24).

Jesus' Message of the Kingdom

2011-10-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

Jesus’ Message of the Kingdom

We’ve been looking at the Kingdom of God this semester. So far we did an overview of the concept, looking at it from the perspective of what a typical hearer of Jesus might have understood when he or she first heard Jesus announce that the Kingdom of God was near. We also looked at Jesus’ first words of his public ministry in the gospels of Matthew and Mark: “The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.” We also discussed how Jesus said we must enter the kingdom of God, that is we must be born from above/again and born of water and Spirit. Last week we looked at how the Kingdom of God starts small like a mustard seed or yeast in a big batch of flour: it seems to be insignificant yet grows beyond what seems to be its capabilities. This week we are going to look at the message of the Kingdom of God. What was the core of Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom of God? In the book of Luke, Jesus begins his public ministry with a grand announcement that will frame how Luke characterizes Jesus’ message about the Kingdom of God.

Luke 4:18-19

Context – Jesus himself had been baptized by John the Baptist as a sign that he was beginning a new phase of his life, his public ministry. Up until this point, he had lived a relatively obscure life. But now, he came out and was baptized, symbolizing new life (not repentance for forgiveness of sin) and his identification with the people of Israel. (Baptism and crossing the river?) God anointed him with his Spirit. In the OT, the Spirit would rest on people when God set them apart for a specific task. From this point on, we will see how Luke tells us constantly that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit. In 4.1, the Spirit led him into the wilderness where he was tempted by the devil. (Here he continues to identify with Israel, just as they spent time in the desert and yet were unfaithful to God, Jesus spends time in the desert and remains faithful). This leads us to our verses today and the message of the Kingdom.

Read Luke 4.14-21.

Jesus must have drawn attention to himself because of his teaching and healing ministry. It seems that he had a teaching ministry in Galilee (northern Israel). On this occasion he reveals his true intentions, that is, his ministry is to fulfill Scripture.

The passage that he reads is from Isaiah 61.1-2 (with some allusion to 58.6). Read the passage in Isaiah. Here the speaker has been anointed with God’s Spirit to announce “good news.”

Isaiah is looking to a day in the future when the people of Israel would be greatly disciplined due to their lack of obedience. The southern kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of Judah, would be conquered and many of the citizens would be sent into exile. What Isaiah sees here is God’s message to those who have suffered through this time and are longing for release from their captivity.

The “poor” in Isaiah have the connotation of the faithful members of Israel who wait on God during times of great misfortune, like captivity and exile. This was a common metaphor for people in distress. Because, literally, the poor had no other advocate than God. The righteous and faithful poor people would rely on God for their provision and salvation. And here, the poor are those who have been sent into exile and captivity. It is very similar with the term “brokenhearted”. God is going to heal their wounds. When he proclaims freedom for the captive, he is promising release and freedom for those who will be in exile.

Jesus continues the theme from Isaiah by proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor. Here both Isaiah and Jesus are talking about a concept that is found in the book of Leviticus 25 called the year of Jubilee.

In the Hebrew Bible, God had prescribed something called a “Sabbath year”. The Sabbath year had three basic provisions: the freeing of all slaves; the cancellation of all debts and leaving the fields fallow (or uncultivated) for the year. This was to take place every 7^th year (that is what Sabbath literally means in Hebrew). After 7 Sabbath years there would be a Year of Jubilee which is the similar to the Sabbath year but all of the land reverts back to its original distribution under Moses when the Israelites first entered the land.

The primary spiritual basis for Sabbath years and for the Year of Jubilee was for the release of slaves, debts and the land. This was due because God himself was the owner of the land and the people. It was he who had delivered them from slavery in Egypt and he gave them the land, so neither they nor the land could ever truly be sold. It was given to God’s people to be good stewards of the land (or caretakers). The prophet Isaiah sees a day of release from captivity of the people of Israel in the future and he uses this Jubilee imagery.

This would have been in the minds of the people present at that synagogue when Jesus reads this passage and makes this pronouncement, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

What qualifies Jesus to make such a bold statement? He basically compares his teaching ministry to the Year of Jubilee, which is good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind and freedom for those who are oppressed. How can he say such things? He can say such things because he is the king.

Now, did he look like the king they were expecting? No, not quite. We see this in John the Baptist. In one episode John is pointing at the one who is to follow him. The one following him is greater than John. John calls him the “lamb of God” who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus will baptize with the Spirit. John must decrease and Jesus must increase in importance. John helps Jesus inaugurate his ministry with his baptism, and then Jesus sets out healing people of diseases, feeding the hungry masses, spending time with sinners, casting demons out of people who were oppressed by Satan. John is thinking, where is your army, king? When is the revolt going to start? When are you going to defeat the pagan, ungodly people who are ruling God’s land right now?

John the Baptist angers the king of the region (a man named Herod Antipas). He gets thrown in prison. That is not supposed to happen to the man who announces the king’s arrival as John did. He starts to have questions. Jesus is not acting like the king John was expecting. John sends his own disciples to question Jesus.

Luke 7:20- Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?

Jesus’ reply would surprise us at first, but when we examine the Hebrew Scriptures, these were the things that the King was supposed to be doing:

Luke 7:22 – Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

Isaiah saw a day in the future when God would visit his people. On that day,

Isaiah 35.5 – then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer… and we’ve already seen Isaiah proclaim that the good news will be proclaimed to the poor in Is. 61.1-2.

These are the kind of things that will take place when God himself (the King) visits his people. Jesus reads the resume of the king and points to the very things he was doing.

So, how did Jesus display this “good news” in his life and ministry?

We’ll come back to the poor…

When he proclaims freedom for the prisoners, we probably shouldn't see freedom for criminals who have been justly imprisoned, but more likely in context those who have been jailed for their unpaid debts. In Jesus’ world, that was a very real possibility. They did not have the economic mobility that we have today (and even today, it has been shrinking in our sluggish economy). Someone could get into debt and would be jailed until their family paid their debt or they entered into an agreement to become a slave to the one you owe money to. There is a connection between forgiveness of sin and forgiveness of debt. Debt almost becomes a metaphor for sin. To forgive sin is compared to forgiving debt. This can potentially release someone from literal prison (in the case of monetary debt) and release from bondage (in the case of forgiveness of sin).

Luke 11.4 (in Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer) he says we should pray for God to forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. If Jesus can spread a message of forgiveness of sin it should extend to the debts that people owe us, especially if those debts came about due to unlawful exploitation of poor people (unreasonable interest rates, etc.).

Jesus’ message is good news because it means recovery of sight for the blind. This is probably referring to his healing ministry on one level, we see him healing people of many illnesses and disabilities but on another level he could be discussing spiritual sight versus spiritual blindness. In Matthew 23, Jesus criticizes the spiritual elite who thought they were honored by God due to their spiritual insight by calling them “blind guides”. And in John’s gospel Jesus heals a blind man but gives it deeper meaning in that he is allowing the people who are humble enough to accept him and his radical message to truly see in a spiritual sense. And those who are not humble enough to submit to him (the spiritual elite, the Pharisees), those who would never admit to spiritual blindness in themselves are the truly blind. They cannot see that they are guilty of sin. The blind man came to Jesus in humility risked being cast out of the community by making a profession of faith in Jesus. Because of his humility, he has received literal sight and spiritual sight as well. The sighted Pharisees were not humble, did not see their need for humility before Jesus remained spiritually blind. Jesus gives literal sight to the blind and spiritual sight to those who are humble enough to receive it.

Set the oppressed free – as we have been discussing all along, the people were expecting of the dawning of the Kingdom of God that God (or his messiah) would conquer all of Israel’s foes and rule from his throne in Jerusalem. The people of Israel of Jesus’ day were under occupation. The Romans were in charge. It was incomprehensible that a pagan government would be allowed to rule over God’s people. They were expecting deliverance. They were the oppressed and were longing for freedom (which they would fight for on several occasions). For Jesus, however, that day would lie in the future but the freedom for the oppressed that he was offering was freedom from the oppression of our sin and Satan.

When discussing our oppression due to sin, Jesus called it slavery and offered freedom.

Jesus’ healing ministry – Acts 10:38 – Peter discusses how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

This may have shown itself in illness – Jesus offers freedom to a woman who had been tormented by disease by stating:

Luke 13:12, 16 – Woman, you are set free from your infirmity…Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

Those are drastic examples, but all of us who have sinned are in some ways slaves. Jesus discusses this John 8:34-36 - ³⁴Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

When we submit to Jesus, he gives us his presence in form of the power of the Holy Spirit. This enables us to overcome our sin and live lives pleasing to God. We could not do that before we submitted to Christ.

Let us come back to the issue of Jesus proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.

Jubilee – Why did God give his people this concept in the first place? Jubilee was to ensure that there was an equitable distribution of the land to prevent accumulation of ownership in the hands of a few. We have to be reminded that God owns not only the land but all of our resources. He allows us to be his stewards of his property.

Lev. 25.23 – The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers. And not only that,

Psalm 24.1 – The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.

[God put rules in place to make sure that sold land could be redeemed by the seller’s family that is, bought back. This was out of concern for a family, or an extended family like a clan. This kind of policy can help break the cycle of poverty and restore dignity to a family.]

The concept of Sabbath year and year of Jubilee taught God’s people faith in his sovereignty and provision (the fallow year, allowing God to provide). It also taught forgiveness, to forgive debts. To understand that you have been forgiven by God means that you need to seek practical ways to demonstrate that forgiveness. It this concept it was the forgiveness of debts and releasing slaves from bondage. That is an easy to apply message to us today, for us to think about Jubilee requires that we face the Sovereignty of God, trust in his provision, know his redeeming action, experience reconciliation and practice these things toward others.

How Jesus message can be good news to the poor? So much of Jesus’ message was directed to the poor, both spiritually and materially. This came back to me when I was teaching on Matt. 6 about not worrying about what we will eat or wear because our Father cares for us. We are called to seek first the kingdom (and we will discuss that soon) and all these things (provision) will be given to us as well. The problem comes about when we realize that there have been believers who have gone without food and clothing. They are around the world and in our community. So, isn’t this verse untrue for them? How do we reconcile Jesus’ teaching about our “needs” being met, when there are some who have gone without?

Perhaps when God’s people, like us, corporately seek first his priorities, we will by definition take care of the needy in their fellowship. When we consider that a substantial majority of believers in our world live below the “poverty line”, shouldn’t that challenge us who have “great wealth”?

Craig Blomberg – “Without a doubt, most individual and church budgets need drastic realignment in terms of what Christians spend on themselves versus what they spend on others.

Deut. 15.4-5 – there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance; he will richly bless you if you fully obey him…

We see how the early church lived this out

Acts 4.32-34 - …No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had…God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

What we need to do is figure out how to do this. As we proclaim the good news, we need to remember the poor and help make the message of Jesus good news to them as we display the generosity that was shown to us.

Book Review: The King Jesus Gospel (part 5)

2011-09-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

Chapter 7 - Jesus and the Gospel

As Scot has defined the gospel, he now asks, “Did Jesus preach that he was the completion of Israel’s Story in such a way that he was the saving story himself? This kind of question shifts the focus of the gospel from being the personal, individual benefits we experience to the Person who himself is the good news.

Piper defines the gospel in his book, God is the Gospel, “the glory of god in the face of Christ revealed for our everlasting enjoyment.” Despite several important differences between McKnight on Piper on the contents of the gospel, they agree on this: the gospel is to declare something about a Person, about God in his revelation in Jesus Christ and about what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Scot then sets out to show that Jesus preached a gospel that concerned himself as the completion of Israel’s story in a way that he was the saving story himself.

Kingdom

Scot begins by examining how Jesus overtly connects his mission, his vision, and his preaching with kingdom. The gospels frame their stories (for the most part, synoptics anyway), from the start as how the births and beginnings of the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus point to messianic and kingdom expectations of Israel’s Story. Mary, Zechariah and john the Baptist point to the fulfillment of the Kingdom and kingdom for them is a community ruled by a King, the Messiah.

Jesus and the Kingdom

Jesus believed the kingdom of God was breaking into history. Two text point to that clearly in Mark 1.15 (the kingdom has drawn [very] near) and Matthew 12.28 (Jesus provides evidence that the kingdom has come upon you). Jesus believes he is the actual manifestation of the long awaited kingdom of god.

Jesus declares a new society in the land and a new citizenship.

Who Am I? Who are you?

Others thought Jesus was one of Israel’s great prophets. Others thought John was a prophet like Elijah or even the Messiah himself. John thought he was “the voice” calling out in the wilderness which prepare the way for the appearance of God himself. John thought Jesus was the one more powerful than himself. Perhaps even Elijah himself (the one who is coming). Jesus thought John was Elijah. This all brings to mind Paul’s thought in 1 Corinthians 15 that all of this was taking place according to the Scriptures. Jesus and John both knew they had a role to play and that role was found in Scripture.

Now, who did Jesus thing he was? Jesus preached that he was the center of God’s plan for Israel. Jesus went to the Bible to define who he was and what his mission was. Jesus believed he was completing scriptural passages. Jesus predicted and embraced his death and resurrection. Jesus therefore preached the gospel because he preached himself. Jesus preached the gospel because he saw himself completing Israel’s story.

Three “Look at Me!” Passages

The Sermon on the Mount – Jesus saw his teaching as the consummation and completion and resolution of the OT Law and the Prophets. Jesus claims that everyone’s morall life is to be measured by whther they live according to his moral vision.

Jesus and the 12 – Jesus appoints 12 that will sit on the 12 thrones that represent the covenant people of God. Yet Jesus stands above the 12, he is the Lord or King of the 12. Jesus chooses 12 to embody the hope for a reunited 12 tribes; he sees the 12 as embodying the fullness of the people of God, and he sees himself above the 12. He sees the Story of Israel coming to its completion in the 12 apostles, and he sees himself both as appointer of the 12 and the Lord over the 12.

Jesus and his death – Jesus saw himself as the Son of Man figure of Daniel 7 who suffered and was exalted. He reenacts the royal entry predicted by Zechariah the prophet. He “stages” a Passover-like meal during which time he declares his body and blood will liberate. God will protect the followers of Jesus if they will drink of his blood-cup and eat his body-bread.

When Jesus talks about moral vision, he sees himself completing the Torah and the Prophets. When he summons the twelve to be his apostles, he is summing up Israel’s hope and Israel’s covenant community as its Lord. And when Jesus speaks about his premature death, he sees it as fulfilling Scriptures, especially Passover.

So, did Jesus preach the gospel? Yes, he preached the gospel because the gospel is the saving Story of Jesus completing Israel’s Story, and Jesus clearly set himself at the center of God’s saving plan for Israel.

Kingdom of God - It starts small

2011-09-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

The Kingdom of God starts small (Matt. 13.31-33)

When we look at the earthly ministry of Jesus, it was relatively unsuccessful, numbers wise. There were around 120 followers of Jesus immediately following his return to heaven after his resurrection. And of those 120, they were really not very powerful or even have much status in their society. But within a little more than 300 years after Jesus’ resurrection, this movement that he started grew to almost half of the population of the Roman Empire (or around 32 million people at some estimates). How did this happen?

Exposition Matt. 13.31-33

Jesus told many parables to explain the Kingdom of God. These were little word pictures of concrete examples from their everyday life to explain various aspects of the Kingdom, what it would look like, how one entered it, what one must do when they encountered it, what it would ultimately look like. We will look at several of these as the semester goes along. Now we are going to look at a couple of short parables where Jesus describes the Kingdom of God as something very small and seemingly insignificant to the naked eye, but it turns out to be quite impressive as it works toward its goal.

The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed…In the ancient world, the mustard seed was known for its smallness. Later Jesus would say that faith the size of a mustard seed would be able to move mountains (that is, such small, pure, concentrated faith would be able to accomplish the seemingly impossible.) It is from this “smallest” of seeds that a very large bush like plant eventually emerges, large enough to accommodate the nests of birds.

It is similar with the yeast. It has this gradual, almost unobservable fermentation process that makes it a good simile for the impact of the kingdom. What we have is the dynamic power of yeast where a small amount (almost imperceptible) when first mixed into a lump of dough has an eventual, astonishing effect on the whole. When Jesus says that a small amount of leaven goes this dough, he is describing a very small amount that mixes with three measures of wheat flour. That is about 40 liters (or about 10 gallons) producing 50 kilograms of bread (or 110 lbs). Enough to feed 150 people.

The point that Jesus is making here is that in spite of the expectations of many (a grand entrance by God the King who would usher in a military victory and establish a physical kingdom on a real throne), the kingdom has begun. It is very inconspicuous but it has begun. In the end the greatness of the kingdom in size will provide a contrast as that between the mustard seed and the tree. You wouldn’t think that such a great tree could come from such a small source. So it will be with the kingdom. As is with the yeast, that what at the beginning looks unimpressive will have an effect that is out of all proportion with that beginning. The kingdom’s coming did not overwhelm the world, as expected. Yet it is destined to become a tremendous entity, in spite of its small origins. The Kingdom’s growth can only be attributed to God. It has always been this way. God uses such insignificant people and instruments to expand his kingdom and give glory to him. Since it starts so small, its success can only be explained by God’s power.

This is the way God has been doing things since he began his plan of redemption. The Bible begins with God creating a good creation and the first humans who had this unbroken and free relationship with the Father. Their disobedience ruined it all. It unleashed the power of sin in that things seemed to spiral out of control as we see in the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Then, God begins his plan of redemption. Who does he choose as his agents of redemption? A tribe of great warriors? A tribe who was advanced in creating tools for advancement? A tribe of artists and poets who could praise him? No, he chooses a childless old man and old woman to begin his plan to redeem all people. He chooses Abraham and Sarah. God makes a promise to him:

Genesis 12.1-3 – I will make you into a great nation…I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

This man was 75 years old, his wife 10 years younger who was not able to conceive. That is what God does. He begins his plan of salvation with these seemingly insignificant people and plans to redeem all humanity through their offspring.

The descendants of Abraham become the people of Israel. After a few generations, we find these people not in the land that was promised to them, but in Egypt working as slaves. Yet, God hears them in their distress, remembers his promise to their Father, Abraham. He delivers them. He calls them to be a light to the rest of the world. And yet, in spite of their failure over and over again to obey the God who rescued them, and their failure to be a blessing to all the nations, God still uses them. He comes as one of them. He doesn’t come as a royal figure from an earthly perspective. He doesn’t come from a wealthy or important family. He is born to a small town carpenter and his fiancée. This family even has to flee the country after the birth of this child because important people are threatened by him. This son lives in obscurity for thirty years and announces that the king is near. And he doesn’t do this by raising an army or revealing himself to the powerful. He hangs around insignificant people like fishermen, and hated tax collectors and sinners like prostitutes. To them he reveals his kingly credentials. And it is among these “insignificant people” that Jesus resumes God’s plan of redeeming and blessing all of the nations. Through these “mustard seeds” and through this seemingly insignificant amount of yeast that needs to ferment a huge amount of flour. It was from this beginning that the Roman Empire was over half Christians in about 300 years. How did this happen?

We have to start with God’s power. As we talked about last week, God pour out his power on his people starting with 120 followers of Jesus who were gathered together and praying for Jesus to make something happen. Jesus kept his promise to come back to them through the presence of his Spirit, the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2 we see the Spirit empowering these men and women, who previously were in hiding after Jesus’ crucifixion. Now they are boldly proclaiming what they have seen and heard. And they are speaking to a large crowd and telling them to change their way (repent) and follow Jesus. They would receive forgiveness for their sins and receive this same power (Acts 2.38). At this point we see 3000 people receive this message. The next few verses give us a clue as to how this community began to grow.

Acts 2.42-47:

They were devoted to proper teaching of the Bible (or doctrine); they were devoted to fellowship (eating together, worshiping together, praying together), basically loving each other (which Jesus commanded them to do). The Spirit enabled them to perform great signs and wonders. They became generous and shared everything. They met together in some form or fashion worshiping, praying, eating every day. And God continued to allow them to grow.

So the next element of growth was they were committed to each other. They were committed to community.

Looking back at that passage, we see that they were devoted to the apostles’ teaching. They were committed to orthodoxy (or proper doctrine). They were extremely devoted to preserving the teaching of Jesus and devoted to passing it down. We see throughout early church history challenges came to the apostles’ teaching. We have groups like the Gnostics, Marcion, Arius and many others who tried to divert the mission of the church to follow human perversions of Jesus’ words. At each instance, the church came together to meet these challenges head on. These challenges made these early followers examine which of the great writings of the apostles were actually inspired by God. That is why the church developed many of the great creeds and statements of the faith.

One of these, the Apostles’ Creed, developed out of a formula that early Christians would recite before baptism to affirm that they stuck to the true teaching of the church.

Do you believe in God the Father almighty?

Do you believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was born of the Holy Spirit and of Mary the Virgin, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and died, and rose again at the third day, living from among the dead, and ascended into heaven and sat at the right of the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead?

Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy church, and the resurrection of the flesh?

How did this movement spread? Was it due to some more of these big meetings like we see in Acts 2? Was it due to the work of missionaries like Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Peter and others? Somewhat, but most of the spread of the church came from normal everyday believers. Most were not esteemed in the eyes of society. In fact, one opponent of Christianity pointed out that Christianity spread in the kitchens, shops, markets by the uneducated rabble. It seems that Christianity spread through the great cities of the Roman Empire by normal people who traveled for commercial or personal reasons and as they went, they shared their faith with their family members and with coworkers and/or clients.

This movement spread in spite of brief, but at times intense, periods of persecution. Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimus Severus, Decius and Diocletian. These are some of the emperors who enacted state sponsored persecution over the first 300 years of the church’s life. How did the church survive times when there were forces actively trying to stamp it out? They kept their eyes on the end. They kept their focus on the final reward. I don’t think you can properly understand the book of Revelation without keeping the issue of persecution in your minds. There is a constant call from Jesus to “the one who is victorious” or “to the one who overcomes…” Revelation shows what the scene in heaven looks like, a portrait of praising the lamb who was slain (who also has experienced what they’ve experienced). This same lamb is the one “who sits on the throne” and to him be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever (Rev. 5:13)! There is even a scene where those who have been killed for their faithfulness to Jesus are shown to be serving Jesus day and night in his temple and experiencing his presence. Rev. 7:16-17. Earlier, these martyrs were asking how long until God would avenge their blood? They were told to wait until the full number of their brothers and sisters who were to be killed first (Rev. 6.9-11). Then, God would pour out his wrath on the wicked and judge the evil ones and avenge those who were killed for their testimony. This book was to assure those people who were suffering that Jesus was on his throne now and that he saw it all and was waiting, but that he would act.

How did this movement spread in spite of attacks on its beliefs and attacks on the believers? It continued to follow Jesus and obey his commands. One of the strongest statements come from a pagan emperor who wanted to stem the growth of Christianity. Emperor Julian tried to revive paganism in the Empire after the rise of Christianity. He wrote to a prominent pagan priest: “I think that when the poor happened to be neglected and overlooked by the priests, the impious Galileans (Christians) observed this and devoted themselves to benevolence…[They] support not only their poor, but ours as well, everyone can see that our people lack aid from us.”

Rodney Stark wrote a book on the rise of Christianity and made this observation:

"The power of Christianity lay not in its promise of otherworldly compensations for suffering in this life, as has so often been proposed. No, the crucial change that took place in the third century was the rapidly spreading awareness of a faith that delivered potent antidotes to life’s miseries here and now! The truly revolutionary aspect of Christianity lay in moral imperative such as “Love one’s neighbor as oneself,” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”…”When you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it unto me.” These were not just slogans. Members did nurse the sick, even during epidemics; they did support orphans, widows, the elderly, and the poor; they did concern themselves with the lot of slaves. In short, Christians created “a miniature welfare state in an empire which for the most part lacked social services.” Support for this view comes from the continuing inability of pagan groups to meet this challenge."

What does this mean to us? I hesitate to compare Missio Dei to the early church, but it does cause me to think what this small group of people could accomplish through the power of God. In the big picture of this campus, we are just a speck, 20+ people surrounded by 30k. We have some people who are with us in other campus ministries and churches, but we face a large task: to share with those around us what we’ve experienced in Jesus. I hope your experience with Jesus has been good news to you. Hopefully you constantly reflect on your experience and you seek to share it with those you know need to experience the same good things you’ve experienced.

It is my hope that we model those elements of the early church: devotion to the Word of God, to fellowship and community, to prayer, to worship and generosity and service. Even with such humble beginnings God can accomplish great things and perhaps even inaugurate a movement that we might get to be a part of.

Book Review: The King Jesus Gospel (part 4)

2011-09-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

How Did Salvation Take over the Bible?

In this chapter, Scot makes the argument that the ancient creeds of the church were actually expositions on Paul’s gospel from 1 Corinthians 15. The creeds seek to bring out what is already in the Bible’s gospel. He walks through some of the writings of the apostolic fathers to show how this was the same in them as well. He shows many of the similarities in the language of the creeds and Paul’s gospel serves as an apt outline for them, most specifically the lines about Jesus.

So what happened? How did we transition from a gospel culture to a salvation culture? This began in the Reformation. The Reformation has brought us so much good, but the Reformers did not frame things through Paul’s gospel or even the creeds, they framed their great statements of faith around justification by faith. The gospel became about personal salvation and was cut off from the grand story of Israel and Jesus. The gospel became God loves you, you are messed up, Jesus died for you, accept him and (no matter what) you can go to heaven. We shifted from a Story to a system.

Again, Scot invokes the words of Dallas Willard. He feels our gospel as a system of personal salvation makes Jesus only a sin remover and not necessarily a King to submit to. Our salvation instead comes down to a right decision, not necessarily to becoming a disciple in its fullest sense. We inherit a Gospel of Sin Management and “presume a Christ with no serious work other than redeeming humankind…and they foster “vampire Christians,” who only want a little blood for their sins but nothing more to do with Jesus until heaven.”

The Gospel in the Gospels?

Scot lays out here that Paul’s gospel was not only the outline for the early church creeds but perhaps the gospels themselves.

There seems to be a dichotomy between the messages of Jesus and Paul. Jesus preached the Kingdom while Paul focused (at least in Romans) on justification. If we twist things a little, we can find Jesus preaching justification (a la Piper) or Paul preaching the Kingdom. McKnight wants us to look at the gospel as being bigger than both terms. As we have seen, the gospel is declaring that the story of Israel as resolved in the Story of Jesus. That was Paul’s gospel and the apostolic tradition. Was this Jesus’ gospel as well? He did if we see that Jesus made his kingdom message center on his own role in the Story of Israel.

And besides all of this, the books of the four gospel writers were called “gospels” for a reason. These books are called gospels because in story after story they show Jesus and the power of God at work through him. Paul’s gospel was the Story of Jesus completing Israel’s Story, and the reason the early Christians called Matthew, Mark, Luke and John “The Gospel according to…” was because those gospels told the very same story. The early church wasn’t saying there were four gospels, they were in effect saying that there was one Gospel, but it was written down in four versions. The Gospels are about Jesus, they tell the Story of Jesus and everything in them is about Jesus. Scot quotes Pope Benedict XVI: To call the four accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John “Gospels” is precisely to express that Jesus himself, the entirety of his acting, teaching, living, rising and remaining with us is the ‘gospel’. Since Easter, the method of evangelization has been to tell men what we now read in the Gospels. Again, the gospels narrate the Story of Jesus in a way that shows that Jesus completes Israel’s Story in a way that the story is a saving story. They are lopsided in that they focuse on the death and resurrection of the hero more than any story in ancient history. Which comports nicely with Paul’s gospel in 1 Corinthians 15.

Two NT scholars comment on this full gospel. Hengel: Mark calls hearers to belief in the person who is described in it, Jesus, the Messiah and Son of God, and thus to eternal life; in other words it seeks to be wholly and completely a message of salvation. Marshall: Luke’s purpose is not merely to narrate the deeds and words of Jesus but to show how these did in fact lead to the experience of salvation and to the formation of the community of the saved.

Dead, Burial and Resurrection

Mark’s gospel is almost 50 percent focused on Jesus’ last week. Which is very Paul like (from 1 Cor. 15). That Mark is narrating the saving, forgiving story of Jesus as the completion of Israel’s Story. Israel’s story is coming to its resolution in John and Jesus. See if this sounds familiar, the gospels declare the story of Jesus according to the apostolic script: the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus – all this according to the Scriptures.

According to the Scriptures

All of the gospels (especially Matthew, Luke and John) see the Story of Israel completing itself in the Story of Israel.

For Our Sins

Matt. 1.21 – he will save his people from their sins. Luke has Mary son rescuing Israel by saving them from the burden of their sin. Mark has John the Baptist coming in fulfillment of the OT (Mark 1.4-5). John portrays Jesus as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1.29). Jesus himself passes the cup at the Last Supper and proclaims “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26.28). Scot wants us to make sure that we remember that Christ’s death became effective over sins because of the resurrection of Jesus himself from among the dead. We need to remember that death and resurrection are bound together to unleash an entire new world order, the new creation.

So…in summing up, the apostolic gospel, which is embedded in 1 Corinthians 15, announces the Story of Jesus as the completion of Israel’s Story in the Scriptures in such a way that Jesus saves people from their sins. The gospels do this because they are all about Jesus. They are all about Jesus being the completion of Israel’s story. They are all about Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, exaltation, and future coming. They reveal that this Jesus saves people from their sin.

I like how McKnight frames this: On the one hand, the gospel preaching of the apostles could be reduced to 1 Corinthians 15.3-5, and, at the same time, we could say that 1 Corinthians 15.3-5 was expanded and expounded into the first four gospels.

Book Review: The King Jesus Gospel (part 3)

2011-09-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

Chapter 4 - The Apostolic Gospel of Paul

Scot begins his exposition of “the gospel” where many people would, 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul lays out his gospel. For many, this is a springboard to their version of the gospel, Scot thinks it is the outline of the gospel of the apostles. I enjoyed this chapter because it stuck firmly to the text. This chapter will prove pivotal throughout several of the next chapters. This outlined form of the gospel is the basis for the creeds, the four "gospels" and the preaching of Peter and Paul in Acts.

The Apostolic Gospel Tradition

Scholars think that this may be the earliest link to the oral tradition of the apostles, before the NT, before any letters, before the Four Gospels, the gospel was outlined by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15. Scot makes eight observations about this passage and its connection to the oral tradition of the apostles. Of those observations, Scot remarks that Paul is passing on the authorized tradition of the apostles which Paul received (15.3). The gospel is the authentic, reliable gospel of the apostles – he both received that gospel and passed it on. It concerns these four events: that Christ died, that Christ was buried, that Christ was raised, and that Christ appeared. So as far as “good news” the gospel is to announce good news about key events in the life of Jesus Christ. To gospel for Paul was to tell, announce, declare, and shout aloud the Story of Jesus Christ as the saving news of God.

The gospel story of Jesus also resolves or brings to completion the Story of Israel as found in the Scriptures (thus, the events of Jesus story occurred “according to the Scriptures”. The Story of Jesus Christ only makes sense as it follows and completes the Story of Israel. The gospel is the resolution and fulfillment of Israel’s Story and promises. The good news of this gospel is that Israel’s Story has now reached its resolution in Jesus Christ. It is not the gospel if we extract a “Plan of Salvation” from this completed Story.

Here is where I think Scot is the clearest and rightest. The salvation that God provides is the intended result of the gospel story about Jesus Christ that completes the Story of Israel in the OT. The gospel needs to tell the story about how Jesus saves us from our sins. We need to go back through all of the Scriptures and pointing to the sacrificial system before we leap ahead to Isaiah 52-53.

The gospel was more than just a story about Good Friday (although that is a huge part of the story). It is a complete story. If we pick the story up in 1 Corinthians 15.20-28 we see that the gospel included the ascension of Jesus, the second coming of Christ and the final consummation of the kingdom when God becomes all in all.

The gospel Story of Jesus Christ is a story about Jesus as messiah, Jesus as Lord, Jesus as Savior, and Jesus as Son. These titles give weight to the fact that Jesus was the anointed King of Israel. The gospel must include Jesus’ triumphal victory over “all dominion, authority and power.” Jesus is the king who saved us from our sins.

End of all Ends

In looking at 1 Cor. 15.28, we see that the story will end with God the Father being God for all and in all and through all, and his Son will be glorified as the One through whom God is glorified. When we go back to Creation, we see that Humans were given just one command, to govern this world as God’s representatives. In 1 Cor. 15.28, when we are finally connected to God in this eternal union with God through his Son, humans will be doing exactly what God intended for his creation.

Pastor Tom

Scot defers to NT Wright here and his discussion of the Plan of Salvation versus the Gospel of the Kingdom. And similar to McKnight, Wright lays out what he hears in the gospel as plan of salvation: a description of how people get saved; of the theology whereby in some people’s language, Christ takes our sin and we take his righteousness; in other people’s language, Jesus becomes my personal savior, in other language, I admit to my sin, believe that he died for me, and commit my life to him. Wright doesn’t deny any of these things (or claim they are awful or wrong) they are just mislabed as the gospel.

To Wright, the word gospel in Paul is connected to the Story of Israel/Bible in his Roman context. The word gospel in the first century context was an announcement: “To announce that YHWH was king was to announce that Caesar is not.” The gospel is not a system of how people get saved. The announcement of the gospel results in people getting saved…it is the narrative proclamation of King Jesus.”

Greg Gilbert and his take on gospel: he gets his understanding of gospel from Romans 1-4 (but it really boils down to the plan of salvation again). For Gilbert, first humans are accountable to God (Romans 1). Second, the problem humans have is that we have rebelled against God (1.23; 2.1; 3.9, 19 and 3.22). Third, the solution to humanity’s rebellion problem is the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus (Rom. 3.21-26). Fourth, humans can be included in this salvation by faith alone (3.22). Four points: God, man, Christ, response. It is the plan of salvation, but not the apostolic gospel.

McKnight believes that Gilbert has not giving enough attention to the Story of Israel as yearning for resolution in Jesus as the Messiah and Lord as the framing story for resolution in Jesus as the Messiah and Lord as the framing story for how to understand gospel; and this Story of Israel is the driving focus of the book of Acts’ sermons and 1 Corinthians 15. McKnight thinks that the problem in Romans is that Paul is showing how God joins together Jewish believers and Gentile believers into one church of Jesus Christ (not simply providing the plan of personal salvation). Where Gilbert errs, according to McKnight, is that he does not see the fundamental gospel to be a declaration about Jesus as the resolution of Israel’s story. (Scot sees that 1 Cor. 15 processes the gospel through the lens of Israel’s story, finding its resting place in Jesus Christ, but is Scot seeing too much in that one phrase “according to the Scriptures”?)

Summary

To “gospel” is to declare this story, and it is a story that saves people from their sins (the absolute key to McKnight and to the gospel). The one holy and apostolic story is the Story of Israel. The gospel cannot be limited to or equated with the Plan of Salvation. The gospel of Paul is four lines and they are about the Story of Jesus (75 times). When he mentions his gospel he always means this: the gospel of the full, saving Story of Jesus resolving the Story of Israel. When the plan gets separated from the story, the plan almost always becomes abstract, propositional, logical, rational, and philosophical and, most importantly, de-storified and unbiblical. When we separate the Plan of Salvation from the story, we cut ourselves off from the story that identifies us and tells our past and tells our future. We turn it into a system.

Book Review: The King Jesus Gospel (part 2)

2011-09-20T08:42:00.000-07:00

Here are my summaries and comments on chapters 2 and 3 of Scot McKnight's very helpful book, The King Jesus Gospel.

Chapter 2 - Gospel Culture or Salvation Culture?

A precious conviction of evangelicalism is that each person must be born again or be saved. Personal faith is both necessary and nonnegotiable. Evangelicalism is known for at least two words: gospel and (personal) salvation. Scot thinks evangelicals are more soterians than evangelical (the root of the word gospel). Evangelicals mistakenly equate the word gospel with the word salvation. Our instinct when we think of gospel is to think (personal) salvation. Scot wants us to go back to the NT to discover all over again what the Jesus gospel is and that by embracing it we become true evangelicals. Instead we have created a salvation culture instead of a gospel culture.

A Salvation Culture

Our culture focuses on the experience of personal salvation as the decisive factor, “Are you in?” A salvation culture is not the same thing as a gospel culture. It betrays a lack of awareness of what gospel means and what it might mean for our world. We need to go back to the Bible to discover that culture and make it the center of the church.

Evangelicals have struggled with moving “The Decided” to become “The Discipled”. This is because we are obsessed in making the right decision so we can move from being unsaved to saved. In a gospel culture, it means moving the Members into the Discipled.

Scot points out another pastor and “his” gospel. “The gospel is the good news that God offers us salvation through his Son, Jesus Christ.” Christ saved us from our sins, by his death and resurrection. Scot looks at what Eric left out – The gospel is not a call to imitate Jesus. It is not a public announcement that Jesus is Lord and King. It is not (directly) and invitation into the church. It does not involve a promise of a second coming. For Eric, making a decision involves a decision of the mind, heart and will. Salvation is by faith alone, and that leads to discipleship. But if one presses too hard, then one might make the mistake that works are involved in our salvation and that may compromise justification by faith. Thus a salvation culture does not require The Members or The Decided to become The Discipled for salvation. Why not? Because its gospel is a gospel shaped entirely with the “in and out” issue of salvation. Because it’s about making a decision. In this book, Scot wants to show that the gospel of Jesus and that of the apostles, both of which created a gospel culture and not simply a salvation culture, was a gospel that carried within it the power, the capacity, and the requirement to summon people who wanted to be “in” to be the “Discipled”.

Chapter 3 - From Story to Salvation

Scot puts forth four categories that need to be defined and distinguished in order for us to proceed: The Story of Israel/the Bible, The Story of Jesus, The Plan of Salvation, The Method of Persuasion. Scot believes that these categories are connected to each other and ought to build on one another. For him, the Story of Israel is the foundation, upon which the Story of Jesus makes sense. The Plan of Salvation flows out of this Story of Israel/Story of Jesus and the Method of Persuasion flows out of the Plan of Salvation.

The Story of Israel – Adam and Eve were created as divine image-bearers to represent God, to govern for God, and to relate to God, self, others, and the world in a redemptive way. This task was distorted when Adam and Eve rebelled. Some of us skip right to the book of Romans in the stage to flesh out the plan of salvation, but Scot lets us know that the rest of the story is important as well. It is important for us to see how God chose one person, Abraham, and then through him one people, Israel, and then later the Church to be God’s representatives. But like Adam, Israel and all of its kings fail. So God sent his Son to do what Adam and Israel and the kings did not (and could not) do and to rescue everyone from their sins and systemic evil and Satan. What God does in sending the Son is to establish Jesus as the Messiah, which means King, and God established in Jesus Christ the kingdom of God, which means the King is ruling in his kingdom. And this is connected to the original creation. As his original representatives failed, so God sent his son to rule. As its king and messiah and Lord, the Son commissions the Church to bear witness to the world of the redemption in Jesus Christ, the true King, and to embody the kingdom as the people of God. The story has a climax, that is when God remakes everything at the end and sets up his once for all kingdom on earth. The gospel only makes sense in that story. Without that story there is no gospel. If we ignore that story, the gospel gets distorted, and that is just what has happened in salvation culture.

The Story of Jesus – The Story of Jesus as Messiah and Lord resolves what is yearning for completion in the Story of Israel. This Jesus is the one who saves Israel from its sins and the one who rescues humans from their imprisonments. The Story of Jesus is first and foremost a resolution of Israel’s Story and because the Jesus Story completes Israel’s Story, it saves.

The Plan of Salvation – flows out of the Story of Israel and the Story of Jesus. In our salvation culture, the gospel plan is what we mean by how an individual gets saved, what God has done for us, and how we are to respond if we want to be saved. The problem has been that sometimes we are so singularly focused on the personal-Plan of Salvation and how we get saved that we eliminate the Story of Israel and the Story of Jesus altogether. For some, the question arises, do you even need the OT for your understanding of the gospel? The plan of salvation, though extremely good is not the gospel. The Plan of Salvation includes God’s love and grace and holiness and righteousness. It includes our reaction as image bearers but our choice to sin leads to a condition of being under God’s judgment. The good news of the atoning death of Jesus Christ includes the news that he forgives us our sins and reconciles us to God. There is the need for every human being to respond simply by admitting one’s sinfulness, repenting from sin, and trusting in the atoning death of Jesus. Again, all of this is important and shouldn’t be dismissed. But it is not the gospel. The gospel is much fuller than the plan of salvation. It includes the plan of salvation, but it is much, much more. The plan of salvation does not lead to discipleship. It doesn’t lead to a life of justice or goodness or loving-kindness. But the gospel properly understood does lead to those things. We see that when we focus only on the plan of salvation, we have trouble moving the decided into the column of being disciples. (Again, Scot affirms that the kingdom vision of Jesus isn’t simply about the plan but without the plan of salvation, the kingdom doesn’t work).

The Method of Persuasion – this is how we have learned to “package” the Plan of Salvation in order to most powerfully and successfully to persuade people to respond. There have been several ways to “package” the message through church history. It seems that the Plan of Salvation and the Method of Persuasion have been given so much weight they are crushing and have crushed the Story of Israel and the Story of Jesus. Our Method of Persuasion is shaped by a salvation culture and is designed from first to last to get people to make decisions so they can come inside the boundary lines of the decided (but not necessarily disciples)

What Scot sets forth in the following chapters is that the word gospel belongs to one and only one of our four sets of terms, and he will contend that it belongs to the Story of Jesus as the resolution of Israel’s Story.

Book Review: The King Jesus Gospel (part 1)

2011-09-19T07:31:00.000-07:00

I will be posting a series of reviews on Scot McKnight's book: The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited. This review will cover his introduction and chapter one. There have been many groups who have claimed ownership of the term “gospel”. There are several ways that it is defined. For some it “the plan of salvation”, for others it is simply “justification.” In recent days, there are those who try to define the gospel a little more fully by trying to tell it in terms of the grand narrative of the Bible couched in four basic terms: God, man, Christ, response. What Scot McKnight will do in this book is try to sketch the whole gospel according to 1 Corinthians 15. His basic outline of the gospel is that the Story of Jesus as the completion of Israel’s Story in the Scriptures in such a way that Jesus saves people from their sins.

1971

Scot McKnight begins his book on the gospel by recounting his upbringing in a typical, conservative (fundamentalist?) evangelical church. He discusses how this church did evangelism and “won souls” to the Lord through decisions. One incident caused him to be somewhat cynical because the focus was more on the “decision” instead of making disciples (which was Jesus command). His experience was confirmed by many of his students who have discussed the same cynicism after being raised in the evangelical culture. He points to statistics that most of the population of the U.S. has made some kind of “decision/commitment” to Jesus. And yet our society does not look like it has that many disciples.

What McKnight gets to is that our focusing youth events, retreats and programs on persuading people to make a decision disarms the gospel, distorts numbers and diminishes the significance of discipleship. His students back up his fears when they reveal that many of them came to faith in the heated moment of a decision-shaped, low lights, evocative music event, but also verbalized that many of their friends did too – and now they have nothing to do with following Jesus.

What McKnight is going to do in this book is pay close attention to the connection of gospel and evangelism and salvation and our methods of persuasion. His preference is working on incorporating “discipleship” into “evangelism” or “gospel”. This book is going to flesh out what the gospel is and what evangelism is – and perhaps most importantly, how to do evangelism in a way that leads beyond decisions to discipleship.

Chapter one - The Big Question

What is the gospel? In the ancient world it was used for declaring good news about something (like a wedding or the emperor’s birthday). (Aside, I wish he would have spent a little more time defining the term gospel, where it came from and how it was used in the Greco-Roman world). Scot thinks we’ve got the gospel wrong or at least our current understanding is only a pale reflection of the gospel of Jesus and the apostles. Our current gospel isn’t biblical enough.

Three Exhibits

We are in need of going back to the Bible to ask this question all over again – as if for the first time, as if we were in Galilee listening to Jesus ourselves, or as if we were the first listeners to the apostles’ gospel in some small house church in the Roman Empire. McKnight thinks we may be shocked by what we find.

Exhibit A – this comes from an email from a student who wants to know what is good news about the fact that Jesus is the Messiah, the descendant of David. For this emailer, the word gospel is almost entirely about personal salvation. It is entirely divorced from Jesus within his own story.

Exhibit B – John Piper’s address “Did Jesus Preach Paul’s Gospel?” Piper says yes, because Jesus spoke (in one place) about justification by faith. Piper (and many or the new reformers) assume that justification is the gospel. Piper and his followers have defined the gospel in a short formula “justification by faith.” But did the apostles define the gospels this way?

Exhibit C – Another pastor that Scot has a discussion with claims agrees that the gospel is “justification by faith.” Scot asks, “Did Jesus preach the gospel?” This pastor shocks Scot with his answer. No, the pastor replies, he couldn’t have. No one could have understood the gospel until Paul and until after the cross, resurrection and Pentecost. For this pastor, the word “gospel” means “justification by faith,” and since Jesus didn’t talk in those terms, he flat out didn’t preach the gospel.

Scot feels that the word “gospel” has been hijacked in a way that it no longer means in our world what it originally meant to either Jesus or the apostles. For most American Christians, the gospel is about getting my sins forgiven so I can go to heaven when I die. Scot quotes Dallas Willard several times in this boo and his quote on the “gospel” in our culture; it is “sin management”, not transformation and discipleship.

The Kingdom of God (you must be born from again/above)

2011-09-19T07:08:00.000-07:00

In John 3, Jesus tells a man that in order to enter the Kingdom of God you must be born again (or from above). In a few verses later, he tells the same man that you must be born of “water and spirit.” We are going to look at how these two concepts are the same thing. More specifically, we are going to show how being born again (or born from above) is the same thing as being born of the Spirit. (We may even look at how being born of the Spirit is the same thing as inheriting eternal life. Or we may look at that next week).

John 3.1-15

Context: In John’s account of the life of Jesus, Jesus has just been to the temple. He had just drove all of the money changers out of the temple courts because they were distracting the people from the true purpose of visiting the temple and that was worship and sacrifice to God. In 2:23, John tells us that Jesus had performed many miraculous signs and the people were beginning to “believe” in him. But Jesus knew that their faith in him was shallow. They only believed in Jesus because he was a miracle worker, not because he had come to usher in a new age of relating to God.

One man, however, wants a closer look and goes to meet Jesus and perhaps discuss the meaning of signs that Jesus was performing. His name is Nicodemus.

Verse one tells us that he was a Pharisee (explain). Not only was Nicodemus a Pharisee, but he was also a member of the Sanhedrin, which was sort of like the Supreme Court of the Jewish people in the days of Jesus.

For the most part, the Pharisees had a very adversarial relationship with Jesus. But this Nicodemus didn’t come to battle Jesus, he came to learn.

He calls Jesus, “Rabbi”. Rabbi was a term of respect given to the great teachers of Israel. Nicodemus even admits that because of the signs that Jesus was performing, that he has obviously come from God. Nicodemus is an interesting character. I think his interest in Jesus was legitimate because we seen him elsewhere in John’s gospel. In John 7, the religious leaders were wishing to have Jesus arrested. In verse 51, we see Nicodemus ask,

“Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

He is immediately shouted down because Jesus doesn’t fit their mold of what the Messiah should be like. We later see Nicodemus in the story after Jesus’ crucifixion. He goes with a man by the name of Joseph of Arimathea to take the crucified body of Jesus and give it a proper burial. We get a sense that this Nicodemus was a man who is seriously intrigued by Jesus initially, is bothered by the opposition of the religious leaders and eventually risks his reputation amongst the religious leaders and his community by taking care of this condemned criminal.

Jesus’ reply is interesting. He does thank him or ask him questions as to how he figured out that Jesus had come from God. He doesn’t even want to know what N. means by it. Jesus begins the discussion by getting right to the point.

V. 3 – Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.

How did Nicodemus think that he was going to see the Kingdom of God? The Pharisees believed that their zeal for the rules and laws of the Hebrew Bible would prompt God to act and usher in his Kingdom on earth. He would conquer the enemies of Israel and set up his throne in Jerusalem. Seeing the kingdom of God would mean participating in the final age, when God completes all things. This language of being reborn referred to those Gentiles who converted to Judaism. It was said of them that a convert “is like a new-born child.” Now that did not apply to Nicodemus. He was in. He was a member of God’s chosen race. Not only that, he and the other Pharisees believed that they were really pleasing God because of their zeal for his Law. (That is the problem; they had a zeal for following the rules, but not a zeal for loving God).

Jesus takes part of this understanding of entering the Kingdom of God as to participating in the resurrection life. (The Pharisees believed that God would raise the righteous dead people when he set up his kingdom).

Jesus affirms that part of Nicodemus’ understanding of the Kingdom of God is correct (when God renews all things, see Matt. 19.28), but Jesus is letting us know that we can enter into that experience, at least partially, here and now.

Now the word Jesus uses here in John for “again” can also be translated “above”, or unless they are born from above.

Nicodemus isn’t catching these subtleties. He doesn’t think he needs to be born from above, and he doesn’t need to convert, so he thinks Jesus is maybe playing word games.

Verse 4 – How can someone be born when they are old? Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!

Jesus, making sure that he is understood here, rephrases things.

Verse 5 – Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.

What Jesus is saying here is that there is no difference between being born from above (or again) and being born of water and the Spirit. This should have been a little more familiar to Nicodemus. This language recalls

Ezekiel 36.25-27: (When God sets to make all things right, he says,) “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

There are many views on what it means to born of water and the Spirit, but in light of what we’ve seen and what John’s gospel has contained so far, I believe Jesus is saying that being born of water is baptism as a symbol of your repentance. John the Baptist’s baptism was a baptism of repentance.

Mark 1:4 – John the Baptist appeared…preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This was a symbolic act, signifying that the people were ready to give up their agenda for God’s. But it was only a symbol. The Baptist says, “I baptize you (only) with water, but he (the one coming after the Baptist) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. John’s baptism and his preaching were to call people to get ready for the appearance of the King, of God himself.

Mark says that John the Baptist’s ministry was to be the messenger who would “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.” Mark was quoting OT prophecy that was expecting the appearance of the Father himself. John’s baptism was basically for the people to get into a mind of repentance, ready to give up their way of doing things and to prepare for the appearance of the Kingdom, because the King was coming.

So, being born of the water was the cleansing of John’s baptism, or in our case, it stands for our repentance, our giving up our way of doing things, turning from our sins, our possessions, our religion, turning away from all of the things that keep us from focusing on God. And that enables us to be born of the Spirit. (Or as John the Baptist phrases it, being baptized with the Holy Spirit).

Jesus is telling Nicodemus to accept the promises of God from the Hebrew Bible. The Kingdom that Nicodemus and all of the Pharisees were expecting was now here in the person of Jesus. And his participation can only take place by spiritual rebirth. Nicodemus would have to give up his agenda, his thinking of salvation, his thinking about how the Kingdom was to be entered. He would have to give up his understanding of who the King was. That would be repentance to Nicodemus (come back to for us).

Let’s skip down to verses 13-15. Jesus is going to give us more instructions about how to be born of the Spirit, how to enter the Kingdom of God and receive eternal life.

No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life.

What does Jesus mean by eternal life here? We, of course, think of eternal life with Jesus and God in heaven forever. And that is part of it. But what Jesus affirms is that we can enjoy this eternal life in advance because we have been united with the one who has already risen from the dead.

What in the world? What is this “snake lifted up in the wilderness”? While the people of Israel were leaving Egypt, they wandered in the desert of Sinai for years before God allowed them to enter the Promised Land. During this period, there were several rebellions and grumblings. In one of these episodes of unrest, God sent poisonous snakes into their camp to punish the complainers. The people replied with contrition and asked Moses for help. Moses interceded for them and God instructed Moses to make a snake out of bronze and place it on a pole high up in the camp. If anyone was bitten by a snake, they could then look up to the snake as a reminder of God’s mercy and they would be healed. Why would God craft such a seemingly crazy arrangement? It was one of those incidents in the OT that God used to point forward to what he would do through Jesus. It was the saving grace of God that healed the bitten Israelites when they believed his word and obeyed his command. Jesus himself would be lifted up. And this had a double meaning. He would be lifted up on the cross. But he would also be lifted up into heaven as a sign that he has completed his mission. He would from then on be at his right station, the right hand of God, the position of honor and authority. So, just as those people looked to the snake raised on the pole and would live, those who would look to the Son of Man (God’s royal representative on earth) and believed in him, believed in who he said he was, believed in his mission, those who turned from any other competing agendas or missions, turned from their sin or anything else that separated them from God, those who experienced being born of the Spirit, they would enter the Kingdom of God. They would gain eternal life.

So, what does this mean to me? How can I enter the Kingdom of God? How can I gain eternal life? You must be born of water and of the Spirit.

Being born of water refers to our repentance, which I talked about last week. It is very similar to the baptism that John the Baptist called people to, except for one thing, we now change our agendas to follow Jesus. But on this side of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, our water baptism takes place after our Spirit baptism. Christian baptism emphatically symbolizes the new beginning for everyone who has been baptized with the Spirit. We are baptized by the Spirit when we turn in faith to Jesus, we pledge our lives and allegiance to him. Our water baptism symbolizes our union with him. We share in his death and burial (going into the water) and we rise with him from the death (we come out of the water with the promise of a new way of life).

What does this look like for us?

Jesus tells us later in the Fourth Gospel:

John 14.15-17 – If you love me, keep my commands (repentance). Now, how do I, a mere fleshly human being, keep the commands of a holy God? Jesus tells us that he will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth (or the Holy Spirit)… Jesus tells us that he lives with you and will be in you. In the next verse, Jesus says he will not leave us as orphans; he will come to us. He comes to us through the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit.

All throughout this gospel’s account of Jesus’ last night on earth, he tells his disciples (and all of the people who would follow them) that he would remain in us and that we would be in Him. He is in us because of the presence of the Holy Spirit and that presence unites us with Jesus and God the Father.

At the end of John’s gospel (20.22) Jesus symbolically breathes on his disciples and says “Receive the Holy Spirit.” I say this is symbolic because this happens in the book of Acts. In Acts 2 God poured out his Spirit on his disciples and that emboldened them to speak the truth about what they had experienced with Jesus. One of Jesus lead followers, Peter, tells the crowd that all of this was foretold in the OT:

2.17-18 - in the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people…even on my servants…I will pour out my Spirit in those days…

Peter tells the people that this has happened because God raised Jesus to life and they were all witnesses of it. 2.33 – exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

Peter goes on to tell them, that to receive forgiveness of their sins and to inherit eternal life and to enter the Kingdom of God, verse 38 – they must Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So what does the Spirit do?

The Spirit Empowers Us

Acts 1:8 - But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The Holy Spirit Teaches the Believer

1 John 2:27 - As for you, the anointing (the Holy Spirit) you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

The Spirit Sanctifies the Believer

Basically that means that the Holy Spirit is active in the continued transformation of the believer’s moral and spiritual character. The goal is conforming to the image of the Son.

Romans 8:8-11 - Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you…if Christ is in you…your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

The Spirit Bestows Special Gifts to Every Believer

1 Cor. 12:7 - Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

The lists of gifts are found in Romans 12:6-8; 1 Cor. 12:4-11 and Eph. 4.11.

The Kingdom of God (is about repentance)

2011-09-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

(Here are my notes from week 3 of our series on the Kingdom of God that I shared with Missio Dei)

The Kingdom of God is about repentance

The first words of Jesus in the gospel of Mark are “The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.” These are also the first public words of Jesus in Matthew. This is consistent with the words of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was a figure like an OT prophet who was calling the people to give up their evil ways and return to a right relationship with the Father.

What we need to do is look back at what the people were hearing when John and Jesus called them to “repent”.

The Basic Definition of the word “Repent”

At its most literal definition, repent means to change one’s mind or, better, change one’s way of thinking. But it came to mean a bit more than just to change one’s thinking. It also implied a change of behavior prompted by your change of thinking. Josephus quote?

Old Testament Background

We most often see this term or concept in the OT in the idea of turning toward or away from something and also a sense of returning (mostly returning to God after periods of straying).

Just to get a fuller sense of this word, we see Moses asking God to turn his anger away from his people:

Ex. 32.12 - Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people.

But most of the instances is it a prophet or prominent figure calling the people to turn away from their sin.

King Solomon prays to God that he will respond with forgiveness when the people “turn” from their sin and pray.

1 Kings 8.35 - “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and give praise to your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel.

Here are few episodes of the prophets calling their people to turn to God and turn away from their wicked ways:

Hosea 6:1 - “Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.

Jer. 26:3-5 - Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from their evil ways. Then I will relent and not inflict on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done. Say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: If you do not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, and if you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again (though you have not listened), then I will make this house like Shiloh and this city a curse[a] among all the nations of the earth.’”

Ezekiel 18.21 - “But if a wicked person turns away from all the sins they have committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, that person will surely live; they will not die.

The Kingdom of God and repentance

John the Baptist– our gospels begin with John the Baptist coming like one of these OT spokesmen, the prophets, with a similar message, turn away from your sins and turn to God. John was fully expecting God to come as king and judge to conquer all of Israel’s enemies and to rule from his throne in Jerusalem. John quotes OT passages where “a voice of one calling in the wilderness” prepares for the coming of God the Father himself. His role was foreseen by one of the OT prophets,

Malachi (4.5-6) who stated that the prophet like Elijah would come prior to the appearance of God. His message was to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents…

John was calling everybody to repentance that is to turn from their ways of doing things and calling them to new action. This repentance was more than just sorrow for their sins or even more than just mere confession. It was a call to a new way of life.

In Luke’s account of the life and message of Jesus (Luke 3:10-14), John tells the crowd that they need to be generous and share with those who are needy.

He tells the tax collectors (who were hated because they cheated the people) that they were not to collect any more than they were required to do (do your job honestly).

He tells the Roman soldiers of all people that they should stop taking bribes and blackmailing the people.

In Matthew’s account of the same thing, John tells the religious people they need to repent as well. He calls them a pack of snakes and tells them that they are not exempt from judgment. They were relying on their religious practices to make them right before the Lord. John tells them to

Matt. 3:8 to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. That is, you have to give evidence in your life that you are truly following God. It is more than just following a bunch of rules, it involves truly loving God and then, truly loving your neighbor. Jesus would later come and reveal to the religious people that their inner attitude of their hearts was keeping them from truly honoring God and keeping them from being accepted by him. John was warning them first that your religion (or the things that you do that you think make you right with God) were not good enough. They needed truly changed lives and changed hearts.

So, for each group that John the Baptist calls to repentance, it involves the acknowledgment of one’s sinfulness as well as taking on a new pattern of behavior. The symbol of this new life was baptism. In Judaism, it symbolized that a cleansing was taking place and a new pattern of behavior was following from then on. And that was John’s major role, calling people to new lives and providing this symbol of baptism as a visible symbol that there would be change.

Jesus – Jesus continues to call people to repentance, though there was a slight shift in emphasis from John and Jesus. John was calling people to repent because he thought the end was near and that people needed to get right before judgment. Jesus however, saw that the kingdom that he was inaugurating was actually the beginning. God was doing a new thing through his people. He was ushering in, not judgment, but a new age of salvation.

Repentance to Jesus was a change in agendas. It was saying that my agenda and my way of doing things just isn’t going to work anymore. I need to trust God’s agenda and be committed to God’s way of doing things. Jesus reveals to us that God’s way of doing things is following Jesus. Repentance is more than confessing our misbehavior (or sin), or our rebellion against God, it is more than being sorry or remorseful for our sin. It is radically altering our lives to follow Jesus. Thankfully, when we commit to doing that, God gives us the power of his presence that is the Holy Spirit. That is why John says that the one who comes after him (Jesus) will baptize with the Holy Spirit

Turning away:

From sinful ways – this is the most obvious. We need to turn away from the behavior that alienates us from God and shows to the world that we do not reveal Jesus’ character in our lives. There is a wonderful story in Luke’s account of the life of Jesus. In Luke chapter 7, a “sinful” woman interrupts a dinner between Jesus and a religious man. The woman cleans and anoints Jesus’ feet because he had shown kindness on her and offered her forgiveness of her sins. She, in turn, offers a great display of appreciation of Jesus for what he has done. (Discuss the alabaster jar from Luke 7). She is showing Jesus that she is giving up her former sinful way of life because he has offered her forgiveness. This is a picture of repentance.

Another picture of repentance also comes from Luke’s account of Jesus’ life in chapter 19. One of the tax collectors displays faith in Jesus. Tax collectors were hated by normal citizens because they would collect the taxes for the Romans, but they would at times collect more than what was truly owed. So they were seen as collaborators with the Romans and cheaters of their fellow countrymen. This sinful tax collector displays faith in Jesus. He displays his repentance in that he will now make amends. His behavior will now change.

Luke 19.8 – Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. Jesus replies that salvation has come to his house. Not because he believes the right things about Jesus now. Not because he promised to start going to church. Not because he feels bad about his sin. Salvation has come because he has repented. He is changing his behavior. He is putting his belief into action. He is getting right with God and his neighbors.

From wealth and possessions – It is easy to see how sinful people need to turn away from their evil deeds in order to repent and become right with God. But does Jesus call us to turn away our wealth and possessions in order to turn to him? Is that part of repentance?

One man wanted to know what he needed to do to gain salvation. He followed all of the rules but Jesus tells him that he lacks one thing:

Mark 10.21 – One thing you lack. Go sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven…

When the rich man went away sad, Jesus told his disciples that it is hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. The wealthy have less need of God than the poor or the needy. They can rely on their wealth. But repentance means that you turn away from your wealth as a source of security and salvation and you turn to God in faith and trust. Look at the disciples reaction:

10:28 – We have left everything to follow you…and Jesus tells them, because of their willingness to give up everything and follow him in trust and obedience that they would receive so much more in eternal life.

From religion – aren’t we pastors trying to get you to always do good and religious things? Isn’t that how we get saved? The more religious things we do like going to church and giving and stopping all of our “fun” things, isn’t that how we get into heaven? Not quite. There were a group of religious people who followed all of the rules and by doing so they felt like they were owed by God eternal life and blessings. They revealed selfish hearts. They didn’t serve God out of love but in order to get paid back.

Jesus confronts them in Matthew’s account of Jesus’ life:

Matt. 23.23 – Jesus says to these religious leaders: Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisee, you hypocrites! Sure you tithe but you neglect the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness. On the outside you appear quite holy, but on the inside you are filled with greed and selfishness.

Doing religious things does not save you. Jesus told them to turn from trusting in their religious duties for salvation and turn to more important matters like working for justice and showing mercy to your neighbor.

Tim Keller had a great quote about the difference between religion and discipleship. A religious person thinks, “I serve God, therefore I will be blessed by God.” The disciple thinks, “God loves me, therefore I will serve him.” The first performs in order to place God in their debt. The second acts because they have received the mercy of God.

Turning to – discipleship (or turning to Jesus’ way)

We see this played out again in Jesus’ relationship with a tax collector, a bad guy, a sinner. Jesus doesn’t tell him to get his act straight before becoming a follower; he just calls the man to follow him.

Matt. 9:9 – As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. Matthew then had Jesus and his disciples over to dinner and it seems that Matthew invited all of his “sinner friends”. Matthew understood repentance. He changed directions in his life and then went and invited his friends to learn more about this man who offers forgiveness and calls people to follow him.

Motivated by God’s grace (mercy) – as we have seen by some of the reactions of those who chose to repent and follow Jesus, they were motivated by his offer of forgiveness. And they were motivated to repent, change their agendas for his because he offered them a new life.

Result: rejoicing and celebration – what is the result of our repentance. Is it watchful eyes who can’t believe it took us this long to turn from our ways to God’s ways? Does God heap new rules on us to keep us in line? No, the response from heaven to our repentance is rejoicing and celebration.

A wonderful picture of how this plays out is in the parable of the prodigal son. A rich man had two sons. The younger one did not want to wait for his father to die to gain his inheritance, he asks for an advance. The story tells us that he wastes his father’s wealth on sinful living. When he comes to his senses, he hits rock bottom, he realizes that instead of making a living doing incredibly menial work, he could at least become an employee of his father. He treats his employees well. He decides to head home and he rehearses his apology to his father and his request to become a hired servant. “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants…

If we could impose ourselves into this picture, we’d probably expect a lecture from our father, a strong speech of disapproval, anger and resentment. But he is surprised in that not only does his father take him in, not only is the father glad to see him, but the father throws a big party when his son returns home.

This is a picture of our God when we repent. We may be sitting here afraid to commit to God because we’ve been too messed up for God to use us. We need to get our act together, become holy, do all the right things first, and get cleaned up before we can approach our heavenly Father. But that is not the case. Repentance is turning to the Father. It is confessing our sins in humility. It is the action of changed life, but we need to realize that this ability to live a changed life comes from God after we turn to him in repentance.

Bestowal of his Spirit that enables us to follow Jesus which is true repentance.

Missio Dei - Introduction to the Kingdom of God

2011-08-28T19:47:00.000-07:00

Missio Dei – Kingdom of God (beginning)
Why would we begin our semester with a series on the Kingdom of God?
• The Kingdom of God is a central theme Jesus ministry and teaching. There are 76 distinct “kingdom” sayings in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.
• When Jesus’ disciples asked him how to pray, part of his instruction (which we call the Lord’s Prayer) includes the line about praying for God’s kingdom to come (to earth as God has willed it in heaven).
• Jesus said to “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.
• Jesus told us it important to “receive” the Kingdom of God. Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it (Mark 10.15).
• Both Matthew and Mark introduce Jesus’ teaching ministry with sayings about the Kingdom of God: The time has come. The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news (Mark 1.15).

Definition of the Kingdom of God – when we hear the word “kingdom” we need to think of the rank, authority and sovereignty exercised by a king. In what we are talking about in the Bible, “kingdom” is the authority to rule. The kingdom is not a realm, a territory or even a people, but it is God’s reign.
The Hebrew-Christian faith expresses its hope in the terms Kingdom of God. It is deeply rooted in the OT and is grounded in the confidence that there is one eternal, living God who has revealed himself to men and who has a purpose for the human race which He has chosen to accomplish through Israel (and ultimately through Christ’s church).
Abraham?
God’s kingdom is his power. The territory of God’s rule is heaven and earth
Ps. 145.11, 13 – they (creation and God’s people) tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might… Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations.

Kingdom of God in the Old Testament – In the OT, there are many places that God is presented as king.
Prior to the people of Israel having God select them an earthly king, the people acknowledge that God was their king.
1 Sam. 12.12 – When you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites was moving against you, you said to me, “No, we want a king to rule over us’ – even though the Lord your God was your king.
Ps. 24.10 – Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty – he is the King of glory.
Isaiah 6.5 – (after seeing god seated on his throne with his robe filling the temple), Isaiah cries out, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord almighty.”
Isaiah 33.22 – for the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king, it is he who will save us.
Zephaniah 3:15 – The Lord has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy. The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm.
Also in the OT, the earthly king was understood to reign as God’s representative and be under his suzerainty. That means that a people group are allowed to rule themselves but under the watchful eye of a greater power. The earthly king was looked upon as the earthly expression of God’s rule.
We see this again in 1 Sam. 12.14 there was the understanding that the people and the earthly king were to obey the Lord and follow Him. If they did that, it would go well with them. If they did not obey (often times led by the king’s example) they were punished by the Lord.
God promised to have a descendant of King David (the greatest of the OT kings) on the throne forever.
2 Sam. 7.12-16 – God promises David that he will raise up David’s offspring to succeed him…God says, “I will establish his kingdom…I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever…Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established.
God wasn't just the king over Israel. We see in the book of Daniel that God moves the kings of all the nations. In
Daniel 1.1-2, we see that it was God who delivered the King of Judah into Nebuchadnezzar’s hands, who was the king of Babylon and the most powerful king in the world at the time. Later we hear testimony from Nebuchadnezzar in
2:47 – Surely your god is the God of gods and the Lord of kings…
And later after he is restored to power after going insane for a period of time, he praises Israel’s God by saying:
4.34-5 - His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth.
In the OT, the kingdom was an emphasis on the fulfillment of God’s saving promises. The ruling power of the Lord is demonstrated at the exodus when he destroyed the Egyptians and save Israel. Israel also looked forward to the day when God’s rule would be established and their enemies thwarted. This future kingdom would be realized under a descendant of David would rule in this kingdom.

The situation of the hearers of Jesus’ ministry and their longing –
The Jewish people of Jesus day were expecting God to come in judgment and punish the wicked (Israel’s enemies) and reward the just (Israel). They were longing for deliverance.
There were differing views about how this was going to be accomplished. How was this kingdom to be ushered in? What were the people supposed to be doing to “help” God inaugurate this ultimate kingdom on earth. There were two groups within the Jewish people who thought that if the Torah (the Law of Moses, the 613 laws/commands of the first five books of the OT) were kept more faithfully, God would fulfill his promises. God would usher in his kingdom. So the people of Qumran withdrew from society and tried to become God’s perfect people as they awaited him to justify themselves. The Pharisees held to a strict observance of the Law as well because they saw that in the past, God punished his people because they neglected the Law and instead turned to false gods for worship and security.
There were other groups like the Sadducees who advocated cooperation with the Romans (who were the occupying forces). They even compromised on matters of the faith and allowed Greek culture to blend in with their worship of God.
And yet on the other extreme, there were those who were Zealots who advocated violent rebellion against their oppressors. They felt that they needed a military messiah to deliver them and usher in a localize kingdom based in Jerusalem.

Jesus’ role in inaugurating the Kingdom of God – The kingdom of God lay at the heart of Jesus’ teaching. It had continuity with the OT as well as with those Jewish people who were expecting a conquering King who would defeat their enemies and set up his throne in Jerusalem. But it also differed a little bit. The scope of Jesus’ kingdom was universal rather than limited to just the Jewish nation. It was here and now and present in him rather than just a vague hope for the future. It was connected with him personally and with his ministry.
The coming of the kingdom was the central theme of Jesus’ mission. His teaching was designed to show humanity how they might enter the Kingdom of God (Matt. 5.20; 7.21). His mighty works were intended to prove that the Kingdom of God had come upon them (Matt. 12.28). His parables illustrated to his disciples the truth of the Kingdom of God (Matt. 13.11). When he taught his followers to pray, at the heart of their petition were the words, “Your kingdom come…” (Matt. 6.10). On the eve of his death, he assured his disciples that he would share with them the happiness and the fellowship of the kingdom (Luke 22.22-30). And he promised that he would appear again on the earth in glory to bring the blessedness of the kingdom to those for whom it was prepared (Matt 25.31, 34).
So what is the good news of the Kingdom? What does it mean that Jesus brought the Kingdom of God near? It is this: that God is now acting among humanity to deliver them from the bondage of Satan. It is the announcement that God, in the person of Christ is attacking the very kingdom of Satan. Jesus casting out demons is proof that the Kingdom of God has come among people and is at work among them.

Already/not yet? – The kingdom can be explained in terms of the already/not yet. The kingdom was inaugurated in Jesus’ ministry but not yet consummated. It had arrived, but the full salvation and judgment promised had not yet come.
The kingdom is a present reality
Matt. 12.28 – If it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
And yet it is a future blessing that will only fully be realized when Jesus returns.
It is at the same time a gift of God which will be bestowed by God in the future yet we need to receive in the present.
Jesus showed in his exorcisms that the kingdom had broken into history. Jesus is invading Satan on his turf. Jesus tells us that Satan is the prince of this world and Jesus does great damage to his territory. Jesus went around healing all of those who were under the power of the devil. And yet God’s enemies had not yet been entirely removed and the people of God did not yet possess all the blessings pledge to them in the OT. The Kingdom has arrived and yet there is a day in the future when God will judge all of the enemies of his people and Jesus will be that Judge.

Our role in extending the Kingdom of God –
The story of Jesus is the story of God’s kingdom being launched on earth as in heaven. It is the story in which evil has been defeated and new creation has begun. We, as followers of Jesus, have been commissioned and equipped to put that victory into practice.
Jesus assumes his authority from his Father and invests it into his followers.
In the Great Commission, Jesus tells his followers: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations…”

Now, how do we do this? How can we properly proclaim that Jesus is king and he is ruling from heaven and that death has been defeated and that God’s new world has begun? Doesn’t this seem laughable? But, if we as the church are working on correcting these issues, if we are actively seeking justice in the world and if we are cheerfully celebrating God’s good creation and its rescue in music and art and community, and if our community is allowing that to happen in our midst, forming a new community, then that announcement makes sense.

The kingdom of God burst into the world in the person of Jesus Christ. He came in power, and his death on the cross secured victory over death. The end is no longer in doubt. And yet there is work to be done. The goal of the kingdom is to make things as they should be, restoration of all things, but it is still in process. We get to partner with God in the creation of that kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. God has left us to represent this kind of kingdom on earth and – by the power of the Holy Spirit – to move it forward. When people look at us, the church they should see restored relationships, people made whole, miracles taking place and they should say, “Oh, that’s what the Kingdom of God looks like. The church is a sign and an instrument of the kingdom. It engages in kingdom work for a kingdom agenda. The church is the Kingdom’s tool.

When we look at it that way, then evangelism is not calling people to make a decision for Jesus and be happy with that. If we as the church are engaging in the work of new creation, working toward reconciliation, peace, justice, mercy, then evangelism is a call to invite our friends, coworkers, family members to come work alongside us to extend the kingdom of God.

Your role in this story is to receive the Kingdom. What is received? It is God’s rule. In order to enter the future realm of the Kingdom, you must submit in perfect trust to God’s rule here and now. We must seek first his kingdom and righteousness, that is his rule and reign in our lives.

That’s our hope for Missio Dei. I hope you will join us on this mission.

The Commands of Jesus: Do not worry about your life...

2011-05-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

The Commands of Jesus – “Do not worry about your life…” Matt. 6.25-34

In view of Jesus’ words on being a slave to money (verse 24), Jesus says here that if we put trust in God first, God will take care of the rest of life.
Worry is the key word of this entire section: it occurs 6 times (vv. 25, 27-28, 31, 34).
How do we balance planning for the future versus not being anxious?

The need for food: birds do not merely sit back and wait on God to serve them, they work. Yet they are far more dependent on the whims of nature than humans are. God provides for them. If God allows for birds to be provided for (in view also of their ability to work for provision), then won’t he provide for those he created in His image. (This also includes our ability to work for provision).
Also, what really does worry accomplish? Does it motivate us to work for provision? (Maybe). But it is the work that accomplishes the provision, not the worry. Worry doesn’t extend our lives in any way. (In fact, could we say that worry takes away from our quality of life? What does worry do to our emotions and physical state? Does the stress of worry negatively impact us?)
“Do not worry” or “Do not be anxious” here has the sense of being fearful and is associated with sleeplessness. A paralyzing worry can undermine our discipleship.

Clothing: the lilies of the field can be beautiful. More wonderful than the proverbial King Solomon, who had tremendous wealth at his disposal (see 1 Kings 4.20-34 or 1 Kings 3.13). If God gives attention and assigns beauty to such inconsequential things like plants (which have a short life and were often burned for fuel), won’t God provide for our needs. Again, humans were the ones created in God’s image.

Robert Mounce (Bible teacher), basically said that “Worry is practical atheism”. How so?
Anxiety characterized the religions of the day. People were dominated by the fears of a deity who was a despot who had to be appeased constantly. What are the fears of our current society? What do unbelievers (and unfortunately a lot of believers) fear and worry about?

Do we give too much attention to our food and clothing? Those things in and of themselves are important. But perhaps Jesus is saying that we can give too much importance to them and chase after them beyond what we need.
Disciples should not be distracted from their discipleship by an inordinate attention to their ongoing need of what we are going to eat and wear.
If God is the source of our life (and new life), will he not also provide food and clothing? A life dominated by concern for food and clothing (and other things) will lack full commitment to what is really important.

Seek first… When our priorities regarding treasures in heaven (Mt 5.19-20), God will provide for fundamental needs. We seek the Kingdom first when we follow the commands of Jesus.

Problem: hasn’t there been believers who have gone without food and clothing? Isn’t this verse untrue for them? How do we reconcile Jesus’ teaching about our “needs” being met, when there are some who have gone without?
How does this apply? Luke 12.33 – sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

Perhaps when God’s people corporately seek first his priorities, they will by definition take care of the needy in their fellowships. When we considered that a substantial majority of believers in our world live below the “poverty line,” does that challenge us who have “great wealth” in comparison?

Blomberg – “Without a doubt, most individual and church budgets need drastic realignment in terms of what Christians spend on themselves versus what they spend on others.”

The key to avoiding anxiety is to make the kingdom one’s priority. If God takes care of his creation, he will surely take care of those who participate in his kingdom. This passage does not mean that food, drink, clothing and other necessities will come to the disciple automatically without work. It addresses the problem of worrying about these things and perhaps pursuing them over pursuing the Kingdom of God (the commands of Jesus) and its righteousness (the right relationship which follows the spread of the Kingdom).

The Commands of Jesus: Do not resist an evil person

2011-04-26T10:35:00.000-07:00

The Commands of Jesus: Do not resist an evil person… (Matt. 5:38-42)

There is a very iconic phrase in this passage, turn the other cheek. We often use this phrase when someone wrongs us. Instead of retaliating, we “turn the other cheek.” Within this passage, there are some hard sayings to follow if we are to take them literally. We are told:
Do not resist an evil person;
When slapped on the right cheek, offer the other cheek as well;
If someone sues you for your shirt, give them your coat as well;
If forced (by a soldier) to go one mile (and carry his gear), go with them two miles.
How literally are we to take these verses?
All of these verses describe actions that do not necessarily come naturally to us. Especially the first two. Unprovoked assault prompts resentment and retaliation. This is a clue that the lifestyle of the kingdom is more demanding than the Law of Moses.

We need to keep in mind the command of the Law that Jesus deals with here in verse 38, “You have heard it said, ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’” This comes from Exodus 21.24. This sounds bloodthirsty but actually had a merciful aspect to it. It was supposed to limit vengeance. It actually was used in practice by putting monetary value to things and compensating for losses.
The first part about resisting an evil person, I’ve seen interpreted as saying, “do not render evil for evil.” Does that make any difference?

Offer your left cheek? Striking someone on the right cheek would have involved a back hand which was twice as insulting at to hit someone with the flat part of the hand. It isn’t very often that we are slapped on the face but often times we are insulted. Jesus is telling us not to resent insults and not to seek retaliation.
The tunic: The tunic was the inner garment made of cotton or linen to be worn as a liner to one’s outer cloak. Barclay says that even the poorest man would have a change of tunics. The cloak was the great, blanket like outer garment of which most Jews would only have one. Read Ex. 22.26-7, the point being that by right a man’s cloak could not be taken permanently from him.
What Jesus was probably saying is Christians do not need to stand upon their rights; they should not dispute their legal rights. They are not as important as acting with integrity…

Go the extra mile – While living in an occupied country, people can (and are) impressed into service (giving food, lodging, horses, assistance…see the Quartering Act of Revolutionary War time). We saw this with Simon of Cyrene. Jews could be impressed into service at any time. Maybe Jesus is saying don’t go a mile with bitter and obvious resentment, go two miles with cheerfulness and with a good attitude. Think of your duty and privilege to be of service to others. When a task is laid on you, even if the task is unreasonable, don’t do it as a grim duty to be resented, do it as a service to be gladly rendered.

Giving – one should lend to those from whom one does not expect to receive repayment, even if it is to one’s enemies.

This teaching comes in the context of not seeking revenge. How does Paul instruct us in regards to revenge?
Read Rom. 12.17-21
This is very similar. Do not repay evil for evil. God is the one who sees injustice and he is the one who will deal justly. Vengeance is His. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Question: How do we live out these simple injunctions when our time is so different than Jesus’? Are there any examples of this you can think of?

We, in America, even as Christians, are so concerned to assert our rights. It seems that Jesus here is saying that the disciple should not necessarily insist on their personal rights. Plus, the true disciple does more than is merely expected. (How often, especially in work or school settings do we do just enough to get by?) We should be freed from society’s low standards of expectation. We should be better than that.

We can get to this stage when we realize that we also are the unworthy ones who have experienced the good things of the gospel of Jesus. We’ve experienced unexpected grace.
Read Luke 6.34-36 to get a sense of what Jesus is asking here.
Read Rom. 5.8-10 (sinners and enemies is how we are described in our pre-Christian life.)
Hopefully these reminders will teach us to rely on God for justice when we’ve been treated unjustly (yet we should work for justice when the people in the margins are treated unjustly, widows, orphans, immigrants). We also realize how counter cultural Jesus’ commands are. Are they worth it? Can we do it?

The Commands of Jesus: Do not swear an oath at all…

2011-04-06T11:39:00.000-07:00

The Commands of Jesus: Do not swear an oath at all…

Jesus begins by summing up a teaching from the OT about swearing by oaths and/or taking vows in the name of the Lord. There are several teachings in the OT about swearing by oaths and taking vows.
Lev. 19.12 - Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
That is, if you swear by the name of the Lord, keep your oath.
Num. 30.2 - When a man makes a vow to the LORD or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.
Deut. 23.21-23 - If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the LORD your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin. But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty. Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the LORD your God with your own mouth.
Thus, you can see that an oath or a vow was a very serious, sacred thing. In fact, this is probably what one of the Ten Commandments was talking about (taking the Lord’s name in vain).

What would cause someone to take an oath or make a vow? There are various reasons, such as in judicial situations. But there were other situations that may prompt someone to take a vow.
Jacob made a vow to God that if He performed an act for Jacob, he would serve him.
Gen. 28.20-21 - Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the LORD will be my God
David made an oath that he would not rest until he found a dwelling place for the Ark of the Covenant (Psalm 132.1-3).
The people of Israel made a vow that if God would deliver some of their people who had been captured by a foreign king, they would utterly destroy those people (Num. 21.1-3).
One of the Proverbs talks about the importance of fulfilling your vows and oaths.
Prov. 20:25 - It is a trap to dedicate something rashly and only later to consider one’s vows.
Some examples of vows that were not well thought out:
Judges 11.30-31 - Jephthah made a vow to the LORD: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”
The result: verses 34-35 - When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break.”
Herod Antipas, when pleased by the dance of young Salome:
Mark 6:22-25 - The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”… At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
The example of a good vow? Hannah and Samuel (1 Samuel 1:10-11).

Why would people make such vows? Often they did so in order to strengthen their resolve to act on a matter. They knew that if they invoked God’s name in front of witnesses, knowing how serious oaths were, they would move heaven and earth to keep their oath or fulfill their vow.

Notice the names invoked when Jesus discusses oaths: heaven, earth, Jerusalem, your head. It seems that, again, religious people were finding ways around the Law. Some people felt that they could get around keeping a vow if they vowed by heaven or by Jerusalem instead of invoking God’s name. They might be serious about keeping a vow, but maybe not that confident. Jesus shows them how silly this is. You still invoke God in your oath in the name of heaven, because Heaven is God’s throne. You still invoke God in your oath in the name of the earth, because the earth is God’s footstool (Isaiah 61.1). If you swear by your own head, you speak against God sovereignty. He is the one who holds the future to your life.

When it comes right down to it, Jesus tells us that oaths and vows are unnecessary. All we need to do is keep our word. Let our yes be our yes. Let our no be our no.
Do you find yourself saying “I promise” after you say you are going to do something? Why? Is it habit? Is it insecurity (you don’t think people believe you)? Is it your past? Do people doubt your word so you feel like you must reinforce your statements with several “I promise” or “I swears”?
Our words should not be frivolous. Especially statements of things we are going to do. We need to be serious in keeping our word. We need to be people that when we say we are going to do something or be somewhere, people know that is what we are going to do and where we will be.
James 5:12 echoes these words of Jesus as well: Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned.

The Commands of Jesus: Go and be reconciled to your brother

2011-03-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

The Commands of Jesus: Go and be reconciled to your brother… (Matt. 5:23-24)

Context: This command is from the Sermon on the Mount (found in Matthew 5-7). In Matthew, Jesus is portrayed as a new and better Moses. Moses was seen as the Lawgiver in the Hebrew Bible (received the Law on Mount Sinai). What we find in the Sermon on the Mount, is that often, Jesus quotes one of the commandments or one of the other rules from the Torah (or Law, like 5.21, 27, 31, 38) and he expounds on it, revealing the Spirit that God gave the command in. He wanted to deal with our sinfulness (both external and internal).
Jesus is showing how demanding a holy God is. He cares more about our mere external obedience to a few commands, he cares about our heart. He was dealing with religious people who thought they could justify themselves before God on how they observed certain rituals (the Pharisees, that is). Jesus knows that external sinfulness comes from our internal uncleanness (see Mark 7.20-23). Adultery is obviously sinful but it stems from our evil thoughts. We think we are ok if we don’t engage in the external act of adultery (or any sexual immorality) but we can harbor these internal thoughts. These internal thoughts are what lead to the immoral sinful behavior. Jesus is trying to get us to deal with the source of our sinfulness (our hearts).

When Jesus discusses the “gift at the altar” he is discussing the OT sacrificial system. There were five main offerings in the OT. They ranged from offering animal sacrifice to cover various types of unintentional sins to voluntary offerings (both animal and grain) for thanksgiving, fellowship and worship.
Jesus pictures a person going to the temple to offer one of these sacrifices. The person on the way to sacrifice (or worship as it was known to the OT believer) realizes that someone has something against them. Jesus tells the potential worshiper to go and get it right before offering his “gift” or sacrifice.
Who is responsible to go and make things right? (You are, even if you are not wrong).

Other passages that discuss resolving conflict (within the Christian community)
Matt. 18.15-20 – If someone sins against you, tell that person first (and no one else)
If that is unsuccessful, take along one or two witnesses (involve others to hear the both sides and help to mediate the conflict).
If the witnesses see your side of the matter and yet the person who has wronged you has not repented, then tell it to the community that you are both a part of. If that doesn’t work, expel the unrepentant person out of your community. That is done so that, perhaps exclusion from such Christian fellowship will prompt the unrepentant person to repent, make things right and desire to rejoin the community.
(See 1 Cor. 5.1-5 to see the expulsion of a blatantly immoral person. The goal is ultimately restoration.)
What if the witnesses take the other person’s side? Then you need to be humble enough to examine yourself and repent if you indeed were wrong. Even if you still feel wronged, the right thing to do (I believe) is to repent publicly for the misunderstanding (and in your heart, forgive all involved for the sake of unity. See 1 Cor. 6.7-8, rather be wronged than to sue your Christian brothers and sisters).

What if that person is not a believer that has wronged you? I think the same principles apply (accept for the expulsion from the community).
I think Paul’s discussion in Rom. 12. 16-21 informs us here. Some of the highlights: live in harmony with one another; do not repay anyone evil for evil; be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody, if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone; overcome evil with good.

How hard is that, to go to someone who has wronged you? Or, can we apply this passage to an incident where you know a brother or sister is upset at you (and honestly, you’ve done nothing wrong)? Should we go and get things resolved? I do think so. As far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Go and get it worked out. Jesus makes it sound like it impacts your worship. Resolve conflict before you worship.
Read 1 Cor. 13.1-3 – if I can participate in all of these wonderful forms of worship (from an external standpoint) and do not have love (an internal attitude) then I have nothing. My worship, no matter how wonderful the external form might be, is compared to noise in God’s ears. My singing, my preaching/teaching, if not done with love (and love promotes unity and resolves conflict) is worthless.

Can you think of a time that you resolved conflict in a mature manner (similar to the passages in this lesson)? Can you think of times you tried to do things the right way and it was a disaster? Is there anyone out there that you can think of that has something against you (and perhaps you are completely in the right)? Can you begin to pray through a strategy to discuss the matter with them? Do you need one or two witnesses to help arbitrate?

Have you ever thought that your external form of worship could be undermined by your inner attitude, especially if there is unresolved conflict in the Christian community?

Commands of Jesus: Don't Be Angry with Your Brother

2011-03-15T08:52:00.000-07:00

The Commands of Jesus
Anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. (Matthew 5:22)

The Context: This command is from the Sermon on the Mount (found in Matthew 5-7). In Matthew, Jesus is portrayed as a new and better Moses. Moses was seen as the Lawgiver in the Hebrew Bible (received the Law on Mount Sinai). What we find in the Sermon on the Mount, is that often, Jesus quotes one of the commandments or one of the other rules from the Torah (or Law, like 5.21, 27, 31, 38) and he expounds on it, revealing the Spirit that God gave the command in. He wanted to deal with our sinfulness (both external and internal).
Jesus is showing how demanding a holy God is. He cares more about our mere external obedience to a few commands, he cares about our heart. He was dealing with religious people who thought they could justify themselves before God on how they observed certain rituals (the Pharisees, that is). Jesus knows that external sinfulness comes from our internal uncleanness (see Mark 7.20-23). Adultery is obviously sinful but it stems from our evil thoughts. We think we are ok if we don’t engage in the external act of adultery (or any sexual immorality) but we can harbor these internal thoughts. These internal thoughts are what lead to the immoral sinful behavior. Jesus is trying to get us to deal with the source of our sinfulness (our hearts).

In Matthew 5.21-22, it seems that there may be four different sins denoted here: murder, being angry, calling your brother “Raca” and calling anyone a “fool”. However, he is not discussing four separate sins, but looking at the internal attitudes that lead to destructive external actions. What Jesus is doing here is contrasting our external appearances with our internal attitudes. The point is that in all four cases is that anger, as the root of murder, deserves the same penalty. What Jesus seems to be saying here is that the sin in your heart is enough to put you in danger of eternal punishment. Of course we can believe that committing murder would be serious enough to make us liable to eternal punishment. But Jesus is saying that the attitude of your heart is also sin and enough to keep you eternally separated from God.
Look at 1 John 3.15 – Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.
See also 1 John 4:20 –

Jesus points out later that it is from within, our heart that our evil behaviors come from.
Matt. 15:19 – (evil thoughts almost being the heading of what follows)

For Jesus, the inner attitude is of supreme importance. Our inner attitude expresses itself in apparently small acts of unkindness, like calling our brother “Raca”. Raca is an Aramaic word that means empty head. This seems harmless to us today, but we need to remember that names carrying important meaning in Jesus’ day. The same thing works for “fool”.

Gehenna (or fire of Hell) – Gehenna was the Aramaic term for a place southwest of Jerusalem where at one time human sacrifices were offered to the god Molech (ancient Babylonian god, see 2 Kings 23.10; Jer. 7.31 for reference). In Jesus’ day it was basically the landfill area where people took their trash and it was burned. The constant burning there made this area a good metaphor for eternal punishment.

How in the world could my calling my brother “empty head” or anyone else a “fool” make me liable for eternal punishment? What Jesus is doing is connecting our external actions with our internal thoughts and showing us, again, how holy our God is. Our sin, in any faction, will lead to judgment before God. It can be as obvious as murder and as small as harboring resentment in your heart.

What does this have to do with me? We need to differentiate between getting angry once before we became believers and getting angry once after our conversion. All it takes is getting angry once before experiencing Jesus that can condemn us to eternal punishment. God is holy and all it takes is one blemish to keep us apart. (See Genesis 3 for back story here). On this side of conversion, our occasional angry outburst is forgivable, but if it is a lifestyle or it defines your character, that may be evidence that you haven’t experienced the power of the Spirit or that you need help walking you through such issues. It is evidence of a lack of discipleship. Go back to the verses in 1 John and Matthew 15 for support. Look at Col. 3.5-10 to see a list of behaviors that may have characterized your life prior to following Jesus (you once walked in these things). Thankfully there are a bunch of “But now”s in the Bible. You used to live like an unbeliever (because you were an unbeliever). But now, you can behave like Jesus because he has given you his power.

In this passage it shows us that we need to be respectful of not only our fellow Christians (brother of verse 22) but anyone (who you may insult by calling them a fool).

Jesus here penetrates to the spirit of the commandment. The fountain of a person’s conduct is the heart, or inner person, the transforming power of the kingdom must be especially experienced there. Anger and insults spoken from anger are evil and corrupting and call forth God’s judgment, just like the obvious act of murder.

Commands of Jesus: "Let your light shine before men..."

2011-03-08T08:58:00.001-08:00

Commands of Jesus: Let your light shine before men… (so that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven) Matt. 5:16

Context: This command is from the Sermon on the Mount (found in Matthew 5-7). In Matthew, Jesus is portrayed as a new and better Moses. Moses was seen as the Lawgiver in the Hebrew Bible (received the Law on Mount Sinai). What we find in the Sermon on the Mount, is that often, Jesus quotes one of the commandments or one of the other rules from the Torah (or Law, like 5.21, 27, 31, 38) and he expounds on it, revealing the Spirit that God gave the command in. He wanted to deal with our sinfulness (both external and internal).
Jesus is showing how demanding a holy God is. He cares more about our mere external obedience to a few commands, he cares about our heart. He was dealing with religious people who thought they could justify themselves before God on how they observed certain rituals (the Pharisees, that is). Jesus knows that external sinfulness comes from our internal uncleanness (see Mark 7.20-23). Adultery is obviously sinful but it stems from our evil thoughts. We think we are ok if we don’t engage in the external act of adultery (or any sexual immorality) but we can harbor these internal thoughts. These internal thoughts are what lead to the immoral sinful behavior. Jesus is trying to get us to deal with the source of our sinfulness (our hearts).

In Matt. 5:13-16, Jesus calls believers salt and light. If that is the case, then it must mean that the world is corrupt and dark. How so?
Tell me what you know about salt? Why would it be good for followers of Jesus to be salt? Jesus compares the world to meat or fish that, left to itself, will very quickly become rotten. The primary use of salt in His day was to preserve meat or fish by soaking it in brine (salt water) or rubbing salt thoroughly into it. Ever heard the phrase that someone was (or wasn’t) worth their salt? Salt was valuable in those days. A Roman soldier might even receive part of his compensation in salt.

Light is a little more obvious. We can see the metaphor for a follower of Jesus to be light, can’t we? How is this? Lamps need to be lit to avoid danger and damage if we want to be active after the sun goes down. That is the world to Jesus, a room in a house after the sun goes down.

It seems as if the world in which we live can become corrupt and dark. In this sense salt and light can challenge decay and darkness and actually transform them.
If a piece of meat goes rotten, it’s no use blaming the meat. That’s what happens when meat is left out on its own. The question is, “Where is the salt?” If a house gets dark at night, it’s no use blaming the house. That’s what happens when the sun goes down. The question to ask is, “Where is the light?” If society becomes more corrupt and dark, it’s no use blaming society. That’s what fallen human nature does. So often we don’t understand why non-believers don’t act like we do or see things the way we do. That is just the way lost people behave when they are left unchallenged by Christ-like behavior. When this happens, we need to ask, “Where are the believers?” Where are the saints who will actually live as saints in the public square, wherever that is for you? Where are those who see their mission as God’s people to live and work and witness in the marketplace?

How do we rationalize this with Matt. 6.1?
What were the “acts of righteousness” that Jesus is referring to? If we read 6.1-18, we get a sense that the acts of righteousness were giving to the needy, prayer and fasting. These are good things, but the religious people that opposed Jesus were doing these things with two purposes in mind: to attract the attention of other people and to justify themselves before God. These acts they thought were gaining them “holy points” with God.

Now, where is the public square that we live in? What are some practical ways that we can be salt and light in the world? What are things that can become “acts of righteousness” to us as they were to the Pharisees? How do we avoid doing “acts of righteousness” to draw attention to ourselves?

Should Our Gospel Communication Be "Reductionist" in Its Theology?

2011-03-02T07:33:00.000-08:00

Maggi Dawn wrote a blog post (http://maggidawn.com/rob-bell-love-wins/) about the Rob Bell/Universalism controversy. She takes aim at Justin Taylor, who wrote on what Bell stated on a promotional video about his new book Love Wins and John Piper who dismissively wrote “Farewell Rob Bell” on his twitter account.
Dawn defends Rob Bell, not on his supposed universalist views, but on his ability to communicate and what he is trying to do. Bell is seeking to connect with disaffected Christians and “seekers” so he is purposefully simple and is not much of a theologian in his communications, whether written or spoken.

She writes:
"As far as I can see, it’s this, rather than theology per se, (communicating) that is Bell’s real gift. His writing and broadcasting actually covers very little ground theologically, and does so imprecisely, but what he does par excellence is capture the imaginations of those who have become disenchanted with Christianity, and haven’t enough patience or emotional energy to re-examine it … he is reductionist in his theology, but that seems to me to emerge from his deeper longing to communicate at the level of an evangelist and pastor. Once people are interested in theology the finer details can be worked on with theologians who – precisely because of their concern for the finer details – fail to communicate in quite the way Bell does. But if people never get interested in the first place, they will never hang around long enough to examine the finer details."

My question concerns her understanding that pastors and evangelists do not need (nor should they) be concerned about theology. I’ve been studying the gospel preaching of some of the early “evangelists” in the book of Acts, and they seem rather concerned with theology.
Peter seems very theological in his preaching. He doesn’t sugar coat his message (or isn’t reductionist) as he tells his listeners, “You crucified him” and that salvation is found in no other name (Acts 3.13-26; 4.8-12). Peter also mentions that Jesus is a “judge”. Paul, even in a Greek context is not reductionist when he tells his Gentile listeners that a day of judgment will come and that all people should turn from their “ignorance” (Acts 17.22-31).

My point is that if ever there was a need for “seeker sensitive” messages, it was in the early church when Peter and Paul were speaking before either antagonistic audiences or audiences who did not know all of the back story. Yet, these “evangelists” were not reductionist in their theology and Paul on several occasions urged his pastoral representatives guard their doctrine closely (e.g. 1Tim. 4.15-6). Paul even connects pastoral love to strong theology (1 Tim. 1.3-11). I think that our preaching to “seekers” needs to be thoughtful and understandable, but at the same time, we should not avoid deep theological truths. If we are reductionist in our evangelism, we could be accused of using a “bait and switch” technique when we start to discuss issues like election, atonement and the concept of Hell or an eternity apart from God.

The Commands of Jesus: Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees

2011-03-01T08:05:00.000-08:00

The Commands of Jesus: Be careful…Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod (Mark 8.14-21)

Context: Jesus had just fed 4000 people, of which bread was the major staple (8.1-10).
The Pharisees ask him for a sign from heaven to test him (vv. 11-13; he just gave them a sign). Jesus refuses and leaves.
Jesus and the disciples are on a boat (with only one loaf of bread between them).
Jesus issues his command: Be careful… Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod (v. 15).

What does Jesus mean by yeast? – What is yeast and what is its purpose?
Positive – Matt. 13.33 - The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough
Seemingly negative – 1 Cor. 5.6-7 – things that corrupt.
The yeast had nothing to do with literal bread (which is what the disciples heard).
Yeast in those days was used at times as a symbol of corruption (in Greek understanding and Jewish understanding). In those days, with not the greatest preservation techniques and containers, yeast could go bad and if it did, it could infect a whole batch of dough and poison it.

The disciples don’t get it. They think he is telling them not to buy bread from the Pharisees and from Herod. Perhaps they begin debating whose fault it is?

Jesus is not talking about bread. Jesus was asking his disciples to not be infected with the same attitude of the Pharisees and Herod. Here the Pharisees demand a sign from Jesus, as they had elsewhere (even though they had observed Jesus perform miracles in front of them). Jesus needs to act the way they want him to. We have Pharisees (or teachers of the Law) present when Jesus heals the paralytic (Mark 2.6-12; 3.1-6).
Herod had shown a curiosity in Jesus as well, mostly in his signs and wonders ability than his teaching (Mark. 6.14; Luke 23.8).
Elsewhere
Matt. 16.12 - Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Luke 12.1 - “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

It seems as if the signs and wonders are never enough. They’ve seen several examples already. What were they looking for? Was it incontrovertible truth? If that was the case, they were trying to dictate to God the conditions they needed in order to believe in Jesus. Even then, I don’t think it would have been enough because it would not have fit the profile that they had of how God would act in history. They would have analyzed it, debated it and probably explained it away.

Where is the “yeast” that we need to avoid today? Who are the people and/or what are the thoughts that infect our whole being and our faith? How do we guard against such people/thoughts?

Do we find ourselves without faith and demanding signs? What signs do we demand from Jesus? Are we swayed by those who ask the same things as well? Do we wish that Jesus would just make things clear and obvious so that everyone would believe in him? (What would that do with our faith? Does John 20.29 say anything about this?)
What are we so dull about? Have we ever experienced God’s provision in Christ yet later wondered how we were going to provide for ourselves at another point?
When Jesus speaks clearly to us in context, do we understand it? What do we find so hard to accept? Have we ever experienced Jesus so clearly yet later on we wonder if he really is who he says he is? Have we even doubted that he has ever worked among us?

Do we need any sign from Jesus? We need one, which is the resurrection. If we have that one sign, then our faith in Jesus is warranted, no matter whether he provides anything else for us or not. He is worthy to be worshiped and followed on the basis of that.

In Mark, the disciples are portrayed as having a special relationship with Jesus, yet, despite their presence with Jesus and their sharing in his ministry, they appear to miss the significance of who Jesus is and what he is doing. They have an excuse, haven’t experienced the resurrections and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Do we understand how significant Jesus is and what he did (and is doing)? What do we need help with? What do you not yet understand? How can we help?

Do We Need to Call It Idolatry?

2011-02-23T07:51:00.000-08:00

I know this is going to aggravate a few people, but can I just ask a few questions without being painted with a specific brush or by attracting a firestorm of response?

There has been a lot of talk recently in certain evangelical circles on idolatry. I remember talking with someone who had just read Greg Beale’s book, We Become What We Worship. The young man reading the book basically summed it up by saying that the root of our sin is idolatry. I countered that I thought that the root of our sin is our selfishness. It could then be countered that our selfishness is when we elevate our desires above our desire for God, thus we become idols unto ourselves. Or, the things we desire become the idols.

I read Keller’s very helpful book, Counterfeit Gods. I greatly benefited from it. Keller defines an idol as: anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give. A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living. It is what you spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources on without a single thought. “If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.”

I understand that and I even agree with it to an extent. But, I still don’t understand the idolatry language. I’ve been studying Mark 7 and Jesus’ renunciation of what the Pharisees called “The Tradition of the Elders” (Jesus called them the traditions of men). I would imagine that Keller, Beale and others who agree with this kind of thinking would say that the traditions of the elders became the idols of the Pharisees, and those like it. This takes me back to my original question, why call it idolatry. Jesus doesn’t call it idolatry. In fact, as far as I can tell, the terms idol, idols or idolatry are not found in the words of Jesus or the gospels themselves. In fact, when idols or idolatry is used in the New Testament, overwhelmingly it is referring to literal pagan idol worship. There is one place in Col. 3.5 that does use idolatry as way of discussing greed (or it could be sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires as well, which are lumped together in that verse).

My main question is, why do we have to be so quick to label issues like this so quickly and not examine the texts and see how idolatry is defined. I am not saying that books like Beale’s and Keller’s aren’t helpful, I’ve already stated my appreciation for Keller and his book. But can’t I ask this question without being put into a camp or being shouted down. I just want to discuss these issues. It seems if you disagree with certain popular teachers or camps, you get criticized and your orthodoxy is questioned. (I fall into this camp with some of my favorites). Anyway, I don’t have a proper conclusion to this rant, but my study of Mark 7 got me thinking, “Why didn’t Jesus refer to sinfulness as idolatry?”

Commands of Jesus: "Go home...and tell..."

2011-02-21T07:50:00.000-08:00

The Commands of Jesus: Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you (Mark 5:19).

The Context: Mark 5:1-20 – Jesus restores a demon possessed man.
[Either read this passage or recap it].
Jesus is in the region of Gerasenes. It is a heavily Gentile (non-Jewish) area. This man is more affected than other people that he has encountered with demon possession. He could not be bound by chains (verses 3-4). Again, as Jesus approaches, he runs to him and confronts him.
Verse 7 – What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God…Don’t torture me.
Jesus asks the demon for its name. Legion, for we are many. Could be Jesus displaying his knowledge of the tactic of gaining the name of an opponent in spiritual warfare.
The demons beg Jesus to send them into the herd of pigs rather than cast them out into space. It is thought that perhaps the demons would prefer to possess any kind of body instead of being without a body.
The pigs run down the side of the hill into the lake and were drowned. The reaction is curious. The man is in his right mind and calm next to Jesus. The people become afraid. They are not astonished or amazed. They are so fearful that they want Jesus to leave.

We’ve seen Jesus heal a man possessed before (Mark 1.21-29). This seems to be more of a challenge according to verses 3-4. Was also called Legion, for they were many. A legion represented 1000 soldiers in a Roman army.
Jesus sends the demons into a herd of pigs. The people are afraid. Why? This was a region of Gentiles. They did not think that pigs were unclean. These pigs were probably their property or someone’s way of life. They were probably more concerned about their livestock than about someone’s well being. They want Jesus out of there. Asking Jesus to leave was probably a mixture of things. One, is the fear of losing more livestock. One could have been they just didn’t know what to do with this man who had so much power and so much authority. They may not have had a very well developed understanding of the God of Israel. They just knew that Jesus was more powerful than the most powerful demons. What could he impose on them to do? Could he dominate them like Legion dominated the man?

The man wants to follow Jesus (and rightfully so). Jesus tells him to go home? Why do you think he doesn’t let him follow him?

Jesus, in other healings, told people to not tell anyone (see Mark 1.44; 5.43). Why did Jesus tell this guy to go to his people and tell them what had happened?
Jesus is heading back to that vicinity (see Mark 7.24-37). Perhaps this man’s testimony is preparing the way for Jesus to visit?
The people who live in the man’s area responded to his testimony. They were amazed at what Jesus had done for him. They were amazed at the man sharing what God had done instead of amazed at amazing signs and wonders.
We see this in John 4 with the story of the Samaritan woman at the well that Jesus encounters. Jesus shows insight into this woman’s life that he could only know through some sort of prophetic revelation. Read John 4.28-30, 39 (Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.)

There is tremendous power in our testimonies. Sometimes the best form of witness for Jesus that we can give is to tell others what the Lord has done for us. Sometimes we simply need to tell of how he has had mercy on us.

Commands of Jesus: "Take up your mat..."

2011-02-16T08:27:00.000-08:00

The Commands of Jesus: Mark 2:1-12 - Take up your mat and go home. (Your sins are forgiven)

Context: Jesus’ teaching, healings and exorcisms are drawing crowds. While teaching in Capernaum, a group of friends, who know the power of Jesus, bring their paralyzed friend to be healed by him.

Verse 5 – When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

In verses 6-7 we see some members of the crowd quite aggravated by Jesus’ statement. They recognize that by “forgiving this man’s sins” he is claiming to be able to do something that only God could do. They think he is blaspheming. (And if he cannot forgive sins, then he definitely is blaspheming and was liable to be stoned according to the Law of the OT).

Jesus’ response? Which is easier? (Ask, which would have been easier, to heal a paralyzed man or forgive sins?).
Both are pretty difficult.
Verse 10 – Jesus points to his authority on earth by healing the man (he reveals his power as God’s Son in power).

What do you think the man needed more: to be able to walk or to have his sins forgiven?
Your answer depends on your state of spiritual need. Do you realize that you need your sins forgiven? What does that mean?

The Bible says we are all sinners.
Read Rom. 3.23 –
In this chapter, Paul is talking about our relationship with God.
In verse 22, righteousness refers to an unbroken relationship with God.
In verse 24, justification refers to being declared “not guilty” or “acquitted” of our transgressions against God. We have been redeemed, that is delivered from one status (being guilty of sinning against God; a broken relationship with God) to another (being acquitted of our sins; a healed relationship with God).
Verse 25 – Atonement – “At – one –ment” – that is what this word literally means. It refers to a healed relationship. We are now at one with God because of what Jesus has accomplished.
In the OT, atonement was accomplished by animal sacrifice. God forgave the people their sins with the performance of this sacrifice. The sacrifice symbolized that sin is costly and cost something its life. The worshiper (the one who offers the sacrifice) is represented by the animal (by placing his hand on the head of the animal). This was performed every year as a symbol.
Jesus becomes the once and for all sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. His sacrifice provides our “atonement” with God.

Hebrews 10:8-10 – we’ve been made holy through the sacrifice of Jesus. Holy means set apart, cleansed, righteous before God. Our sins have been forgive because Jesus became the once for all sacrifice that takes away our sin once for all (not to be performed every year like the OT sacrifice).

We don’t need to take up our mat (like the command of Jesus) but we do need our sins forgiven (our relationship restored with God).
Do you understand what it means to have your sins forgiven?
Do you realize what you’ve been forgiven of? If not, what do you need to know about your sinfulness?
Do you feel like you have an unbroken relationship with God?

If Jesus can do this (heal a paralyzed man, or more importantly forgive sins), what does it say about how we relate to him?
If he can do this, do we obey what he ask of us?

Commands of Jesus: "Be quiet! Come out of him!"

2011-02-03T12:05:00.000-08:00

The Commands of Jesus: Be Quiet! Come out of him!
Mark 1.21-28 – Jesus is teaching in the synagogue and the people begin to recognize his teaching authority.
He is confronted by a man possessed by an evil spirit.
The man asks, “What do you want with us?”
Jesus speaks a word and the evil spirit comes out of him.
Again the authority of Jesus is recognized, this time in his command over evil spirits.
No matter what the people knew to be true of Jesus, they saw him as a new kind of teacher.
His authority is recognized and the word of the unique nature of his authority spread.
In verses 29-33 we see that Jesus heals many of physical and demonic issues.
In verse 40-42 he heals a man of leprosy (again, through a simple statement, “Be clean!”)
In verses 2.1-4, the crowds gather even more.
In 5.1-20, Jesus heals a man possessed of many demons (legion, for we are many).

What stands out in each of these episodes is Jesus’ authority over the powers of Satan and sickness.
There were Greco-Roman and Jewish healers and exorcists. But Jesus’ exorcisms were distinctive – no lengthy list of gods, recites no formulas or incantations, uses no magical paraphernalia to cast his spells. A simple word of rebuke (Mark 1.25).
Recognition of Jesus by the demons – early on, only the demons grasp Jesus’ full identity. Jesus always rebukes these proclamations.
Spiritual warfare – one of the keys to gaining supernatural power over an opponent is to invoke his name (Jesus’ own strategy, in Mark 5.9). They are not confessing Jesus, it was a defensive tactic.

Ask: Why do you think these demons confronted Jesus in this way? Perhaps they knew that judgment was on the way.

What do these episodes reveal about Jesus?
His mercy? His power? His authority? (Yes to all of these)
His healings were signs that he was accredited by God (see Acts 2.22).
Also, it seems that his power was displayed to attack the devil and it was a sign that the power of God was with him (see Acts 10.38).
What we see in this passage (and others like it) is that Jesus is battling Satan on his turf. The NT reveals that Satan in the prince of this world and his judgment is coming with the victory of Jesus, see John 12.31 and John 16.11.
These victories over Satan and his “spirits” show Jesus to be the Son of God.
We see that because Jesus can drive demons out, the kingdom of God has come near (read Matt. 12.28).

What can we learn about this command of Jesus? This (most likely) is not a command that directly applies to us. If we are believers in Christ, we cannot be demon possessed. But these episodes can reveal something about Jesus and how we relate to him.
Jesus reveals the power of God with great authority. His assault on Satan (on his turf) shows that Jesus is inaugurating his kingdom.

We have no need to fear the demonic, because Jesus has overcome the power of Satan. He is still in the world, and has power, but he cannot possess us, only harass us. And yet we need to remember, great is he (Jesus) that is in me, than he that is in the world (1 John 4.4).

Commands of Jesus: Come, Follow Me

2011-01-26T07:18:00.000-08:00

The Context of this command: Mark 1:16-20
In Mark, Jesus is beginning his ministry. He is calling his “disciples.” in this context, being a disciple meant being a “follower,” “adherent” or “student” of a great master. They obviously learn a great deal from listening to his teaching, but they also learn a great deal by simply observing: with attentive eyes they observe all that the teacher does and then proceed to imitate him. Students would then flock around the great Rabbis of Judaism. And such a group formation – teachers and students – become something of an extended family. The teacher is the spiritual father, the students his spiritual children. They spend their time with him, they follow him, and they serve him. But they also learn a great deal by simply observing: with attentive eyes they observe all that the teacher does and then proceed to imitate him.

Here Jesus calls Simon (Peter), Andrew, James and John. They were fishermen practicing their trade. James and John actually left their father and his hired men in the boat in order to follow Jesus. It seems these men left their families and trades for an itinerant ministry based on faith support.
Others were given this opportunity. Read Luke 9.57-62 (especially v. 58). This was not an easy decision.

Question: Why did these men leave it all to follow Jesus?
It seems they were already spiritually minded. They may have been influenced by the teaching of John the Baptist. In John 1.35-42, we already see evidence of two unnamed disciples of John leave and follow Jesus as John pointed toward Jesus. We see Andrew (and Simon) listening to John as well. John the Baptist was a powerful preacher/prophet who pointed to someone greater. They were listening and eager to find the Messiah.

What did they leave? In the passage (Mark 10.17-31) where Jesus is confronted by a rich man about the requirements of inheriting eternal life, Jesus tells the rich man to sell everything, give to the poor and then follow Jesus. The rich man goes away sad, knowing the cost of discipleship is high. Peter (verse 28) reminds Jesus, “We have left everything to follow you!” Jesus then acknowledges that the rewards of following him may come at great costs (verse 29, leaving home or brothers or sisters of mother or father…for me and the gospel).

Why did they stay? In John 6.43-58 Jesus confronts his followers with some challenging words. He speaks metaphorically about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
The response? Verse 60 – This is a hard teaching, who can accept it?
Verse 66 – many of his followers turned back and no longer followed him.
Verse 67 – Jesus turns to his core, “Do you want to leave?”
Here is why they stayed, verse 68 – You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe you are the Holy One of God.

When Jesus says, “Come, follow me”, who is he talking to, just the Twelve?
Mark 8.34-5 – Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. *Whoever* Is it worth it?
Read verses 36-38 – gaining the world versus losing your soul.

We need to investigate more closely what being a disciple looks like. That is one of the reasons why we are looking at the commands of Jesus. What do they teach us about Jesus? Do they reveal how we relate to Jesus? Do they always apply to us?
Remember David Platt’s challenge from last week – Do I believe Jesus? And am I going to obey Jesus?

Have you ever thought that these calls applied to you?
Are you ready to apply these commands if/when they come if they do?
What are you prepared to sacrifice for the Kingdom of God?

Let’s look at these questions together and see how we can help each other follow Jesus and keep his commands.
John 14:15 – If you love me, keep my commands.

Commands of Jesus: Repent and Believe

2011-01-19T13:01:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted to this blog since middle of October. Got to get back on it. At least once a week. I am starting a new Bible study at Mizzou this semester. We will be looking at the Commands of Jesus as we survey the gospel of Mark. When we see that Jesus issues a command, we will stop and look at it, examine it in context and ask "how does this apply to us?" The first lesson is "Repent and Believe" (Mark 1:14-15).

I was reading the book, Radical by David Platt and he discusses two questions that confronted him as he examined his call to pastor a huge church against the reality that Jesus spent his time “shepherding” a smaller group of about 120. And Jesus gave those early followers (and those on the outer edge of his inner circle) some very serious commands. The questions that confronted Platt were, “Was I going to believe Jesus?” and “Was I going to obey Jesus?” We are going to try to ask those same questions as we look at what Jesus demanded of his followers.

Repent and Believe – Mark 1:14-15

Context – The writer is setting the stage for the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. He calls his story about Jesus “good news” (or the gospel). Mark immediately connects this story of Jesus to God’s story in the OT as he tells about John the Baptist. The OT prophets prophesied that there would be a forerunner to prepare the way for God to visit his people.
Read Mark 1:2-3 – Mark shows how John the Baptist fulfills this role of a forerunner who was predicted in two OT passages, Malachi 3.1 and Isaiah 40.3. If we go back and read those passages, we see that it was God himself who was going to come and visit his people. The one who would follow after John (Jesus, the presence of God himself) would give the power of the Spirit to those who would believe.

Read verse 4 – John’s message was one of “repentance for the forgiveness of sins”. The word for repentance here means “to change one’s opinion, feelings, (more importantly) change one’s purpose.”
John’s call to repentance was in line with the OT prophets. Their call for repentance meant:
1. Obedience to the will of God (Hos. 6:1; Jer. 34:15a)
2. Trust in God in rejection of all human help and false gods (Jer. 3:22-23)
3. Turning aside from everything that is ungodly (Jer. 26:3; Ezek. 18.26-27)
Keep all this in mind as well look at the first commands of Jesus.

John has prepared God’s people for this message of turning away from your own agenda, purposes and will. Jesus comes and preaches a message in line with John’s.
Jesus declares that the Kingdom of God is near. In what manner has the Kingdom of God come near? Mark has declared that Jesus is Messiah/Christ. To the ears of the hearers, Mark was declaring that Jesus was King. The Kingdom has come near because the King was near.

And because the King was near, Jesus is calling his people to repentance. Jesus was calling for a “once for all” turning to God in total obedience. Anything that might be put before God must be renounced. Repentance applies to everyone, demanding a complete commitment that seeks forgiveness (regret for our former way of disobedience) and full trust in surrender to God’s will. Why should we repent, change our agenda for God’s agenda? Because Jesus is King and deserves our obedience and allegiance.

After our call to obedience, the next command is to believe. Believe what? Believe that this is good news.

So, we are called first to repent, that is to change our agenda, our way of life, our purpose to conform to God’s agenda, God’s way of life, God’s purpose. Why, because the King is here.

We are called to believe that this is “good news”. An important feature in this “good news” is that Jesus gives us the power to change our agenda to follow his.
Read Mark 1:8 – I (John) baptize with water, but he (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. This baptism with the Holy Spirit is the bestowal of the power of God to enable you to change your agenda and follow God’s.

Questions:
Do you believe that Jesus is King? That is the basis of following the commands of Jesus, because you believe he is king.
Does this passage apply to us? If it does, then have you made a break from the past? Have you turned to God in total obedience? Do you reject the help and wisdom of human and false gods? Do you turn aside from everything that is ungodly? Do you follow God at the expense of your desires and purpose?

Maybe you don’t have enough information yet to believe that Jesus is King. If that is so, then stick around let’s look at the claims of Jesus and his commands. Maybe we’ll see together that he is worthy of our allegiance and obedience.

Review: Sufjan Stevens' "The Age of Adz" (cd and concert)

2010-10-20T07:19:00.000-07:00

My wife and I made the two hour drive to see Sufjan Stevens in concert at the Uptown Theater last Sunday evening. This was a concert I’ve been eagerly anticipating for over five years. His release “Illinois” was one of my favorites of the last decade. His songs are both fun and poignant and some are even worshipful. He has not been afraid to express his spirituality in his music and his release “Seven Swans” was filled with Christian imagery and allusions.

If you are familiar with his past few standard releases (“Illinois”, “Michigan”, “Seven Swans”, outtakes from Illinois: “The Avalanche” and his Christmas cd) you know his style of “orchestral folk pop.” His new release “The Age of Adz” is a complete departure from that (although not from some of his past stuff like “Enjoy Your Rabbit”). Instead of banjos and violins, it is filled with electronics. It is deeply heavy at times and reveals a man who has experienced a dark period of perhaps doubt and loss. At one point in the concert on Sunday he revealed a little bit about the departure from his recent past. He said that the art of songwriting had “betrayed” him. He had trouble composing the typical three to five minute songs that comprise standard cds. That was played out on the last song he played from “Adz”, “Impossible Soul” which checked in at 25 minutes. “Impossible Soul” is like 5 different songs strung together by a theme of two lovers evaluating their recent past and debating whether to go forward. It starts out well, bogs down to the point that it almost becomes comical. The band and the crowd had fun with it, but it went on too long for me.

In a surprise move, Stevens opened the concert with “Seven Swans”. It was much heavier than found on the cd and played live in the past. It contained the light, banjo strumming story of a family seeing apocalyptic imagery in the night sky but had forceful interludes that truly carry out a sense of foreboding and doom. It is one of his most worshipful songs for me. But his version this evening revealed that perhaps he is distancing from his overtly Christian focus of some of his music. He changed the words from “He said…” to “She said…I am Lord, I am Lord, I am Lord” and in the climatic crescendo he changed “He is the Lord” to “She is the Lord”. I am not saying that a Christian can’t imagine God as female, but the song for me is about the Christ as revealed in the book of Revelation, that is Jesus. It has always been worshipful for me and that little twist tweaked me a bit.

The bulk of the rest of the evening was devoted to music from “Adz”. I will admit that I was initially put off by a lot of the electronic blips, bleeps and loops on the release but I could always hear the beauty of the songs beneath the electronic layers. And that beauty came forth on the live versions of the songs. Songs like “Too Much” and “I Walked” have decent pop song foundations with depth as well. The highlight for me was title track. So powerful and awe inspiring as it accompanied by apocalyptic imagery on the screen behind them. The art was inspired by an obscure sign painter named Royal Robertson, a self proclaimed prophet (and probably a diagnosed schizophrenic). Knowing that Robertson was Stevens’ muse in this project should tell you where his mind may have been composing this project.
The eleven piece band were wonderful, with three trombone players, two drummers, bass, guitarist, piano player, two backup singers (who also performed choreographed moves behind him) and Stevens himself on various guitars and synthesizers.
He acknowledged that there were probably fans of his at the show that had no idea what was going on if they hadn’t sampled “Adz” yet and were expecting songs from “Illinois” and “Michigan” but they probably weren’t disappointed. Especially when he closed the show with three songs from “Illinois”: “Chicago” (which got a huge reaction and sing a long from the crowd); and the encore of “Concerning the UFO Sighting near Highland, IL” (which is a song about the incarnation of Christ [to me anyway]); and the eerie “John Wayne Gacy”.

I would have probably preferred more songs from “Illinois” and “Seven Swans” but I don’t think the concert would have stayed with me like the live experience of “The Age of Adz.” I still find the songs from that evening playing in my mind. It was a powerful experience and has caused me to embrace the new work even more.

Paul and Rabbinic Discipleship

2010-07-15T08:29:00.001-07:00

I have been reading a little book, The Origins of the Gospel Traditions by Birger Gerhardsson (95 pages). It is a distillation of two of his earlier works Memory and Manuscript: Oral Traditions and Written Transmission in Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity and Tradition and Transmission in Early Christianity. In them he discusses how rabbis would have passed down their teachings to their students and how faithful these students were to commit them to memory. As I was reading, I noticed how the process of discipleship has been passed down from the rabbis through Jesus and Paul and what we can learn from this process. I have excerpted a few chapters that point us to proper discipleship techniques.

To learn Torah one must go to a teacher. Students would then flock around teachers. And such a group formation – teachers and students – become something of an extended family. The teacher is the spiritual father, the students his spiritual children. They spend their time with him, they follow him, and they serve him.
Students learn much of the Torah tradition by listening: by listening to their teacher and his more advanced students as well as by posing questions and making contributions of their own within the bounds prescribed by modesty and etiquette. But they also learn a great deal by simply observing: with attentive eyes they observe all that the teacher does and then proceed to imitate him. Torah is above all a holy, authoritative attitude toward life. Because this is true, much can be learned by simply watching and imitating those who are educated.
We see in the Talmud that it was not only the teachings of the great rabbis that were preserved but their actions as well: “I saw rabbi so-and-so do thus and so.” The rabbinical tradition preserves examples of how bright and eager students followed their teachers’ actions even in the most private situations, motivated by the belief that “This has to do with Torah, and I want to learn!” (This includes a humorous story of students hiding in a rabbi’s bedroom because they wanted to learn the Torah in that “situation.”)

In seeking to preserve their teachings on the Torah, the rabbi’s were not so much only interested in the “cramming and mechanical recitation” of their teaching. They were very conscious of the importance of comprehending and personally applying that which had been impressed upon one’s mind. For this reason they carried on an energetic struggle against lifeless knowledge. According to the rabbis a disciple ought not be a dead receptacle for the received tradition. He should rather enter into it so that he understands it and is in agreement with it. Only thus can he actually live according to it, be a faithful steward of it, and pass it on to others in an infectious way. A living bearer of the tradition is to be like a torch which has been lit by an older torch, in order that it might itself light others.

Paul picks up this mantle of a “rabbi” as he looks upon himself as a spiritual father to those who have been won for the gospel (1 Cor. 4.17; Philemon 10). He encourages his congregations to be imitators of him in all respects, even as he himself is an imitator of Christ (1 Cor. 4.16; 11.1; 1 Thess. 1.6; 2 Thess. 3.7).
Paul thinks of the life of imitation which comes into being when obedient disciples receive (and pattern their lives according to) the instruction of their teacher. After his admonishment to “Be imitators of me,” he follows with the statement: “For this reason I am sending to you Timothy…He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church” (1 Cor. 4.17).
When Paul speaks of “my ways” he is referring to patterns of his life and teachings. Imitating Paul means the same as to receive and live according to the teaching which Paul proclaimed in all of his congregations. Thus Paul is not only passing down tradition as oral or written teaching but also how he lives. We see this fleshed out even more in Phil. 4.9: “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice.” The Philippians were even told to look in their own community for imitators of Paul, “Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you” (Phil. 3.17).

As I read this, I see that Paul is passing down a tradition of rabbinic discipleship. Just as the rabbis gathered students to themselves and passed on to them not only instruction in the Torah but also a lifestyle that exemplifies the Torah, Paul exhorts his followers to not only hold fast to his teaching but to imitate his lifestyle as well. We see that for the rabbis and Paul, discipleship is not a program or a book study to take someone through, but an opportunity to live out their teaching (in Paul’s case the gospel) in front of students and encouraging them to follow along. It seems deeply personal and time consuming but it is the model that we have been given.

My Thoughts on the World Cup

2010-06-10T07:41:00.000-07:00

Wow! It has been two months since my last post. Longest ever.

I wanted to get some World Cup thoughts down. I have several rooting interests and I wanted to explain my choices. Who do I root for at any given time? I will rank them.

Number One: USA - of course I am going to root for my country. They haven't given us a lot of international success recently (other than their showing at the Confederation Cup last year in South Africa where they beat Spain). They seem to have a few unlikeable guys on their team (but who doesn't?) Landon Donovan really stepped up his game during his loan to Everton this past year. Clint Dempsey has played well at a world class level. And Altidore seems to play much better for country than he does for any of his clubs. I see the US getting out of the group stage but probably losing in the round of 16 (to Germany?)

Number Two: Germany - I have a lot of German in my family line. They have been consistently good for decades. I've been a fan of Michael Ballack (although he is sidelined for this tournament). I love their colors and their kits.

Number Three: Argentina - I could almost put them Two B because I have been a fan of them since '86 and Maradona's run through the Cup. I watched all of their games that year and have followed them at a distance for years. Now, I've actually been to Argentina and I have some Argentine friends, so that adds to the rooting interest.

Number Four: Netherlands - this small nation plays a creative brand of soccer and is always fun to keep an eye on. They are always "punching above their weight". They won't win, but they have two players that were fun to watch in the Champion's League (Sneijder and Robben).

Players I will watch: I will follow my favorite Chelsea players, Lampard and Drogba (Eng and Ivory Coast respectively). He doesn't get the accolades of Messi, Ronaldo and Rooney, but I think Drogba is the most complete player in the world. Lamps had a fantastic year as he helped lead Chelsea to the Premier League Championship this year (and the FA Cup).
Landon Donovan, I like his game and he was great at Everton this past year.
KaKa - had a down year for him at Real Madrid, but has been considered one of the top three players in the world in the past few years and he is also an evangelical Christian (like me).
Arjen Robben - plays for Bayern Munchen and the Netherlands. Scored some wonderful goals for Bayern during the Champions League this year (especially his rocket that eliminated Man U).
And of course I will be following the consensus best player in the world who plays for one of my favorite teams: Lionel Messi for Argentina.

My pick for Champion this year: Brazil (who I believe will beat Spain in the final).

Total Church: Spirituality

2010-04-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

Spirituality
The disciplines of “contemplation, silence and solitude” certainly describe a good deal of what passes for spirituality among evangelicals today. The authors call this the exact opposite of biblical spirituality. It is not about contemplation, it is about reading and meditating on the word of God. It is not about detached silence; it is about passionate petition. It is not about solitude; it is about participation in community. It is centered on the gospel and rooted in the context of the Christian community.

Spirituality and the gospel word
In the mystical and contemplative traditions the goal of spirituality is union with Christ. Union with Christ is attained through a pattern of spiritual disciplines or a series of spiritual stages. Gospel spirituality is the exact opposite. Union with Christ is not the goal of spirituality; it is the foundation of spirituality. It is not attained through disciplines or stages; it is given through childlike faith. (138)
The previous understanding represents a spirituality of achievement.
In response to the spiritual elite in Colossians, Paul emphasizes the supremacy of Christ, the fullness of revelation in Christ and the sufficiency of Christ for Christian living. In other words, in the gospel of Christ we are richly supplied with all we need to keep going as Christians and to grow as Christians. We do not need anything else (140).

Spirituality and the gospel mission
Passionate engagement
In biblical terms to be spiritual is to walk in step with the Spirit in all of life. The world God made – spiritual and material – was very good. And the future God intends is both spiritual and material (141).
Biblical spirituality does not take place in silence; it takes place bearing a cross. It is not a spirituality of withdrawal, but a spirituality of engagement. You do not practice it on retreat in a secluded house; you practice it on the streets in the midst of broken lives (142).

Passionate prayer
Biblical spirituality is not a spirituality of silence; it is a spirituality of passionate petition. If we are engaged with the world around us, then we will care about that world. We will be passionate about people’s needs, our holiness and God’s glory. We will not be still in prayer. We will cry out for mercy with a holy violence. To ask God for things is a profound act of faith.

Spirituality and the gospel community
Here is a spirituality in which we grasp the amazing dimensions of Christ’s love ‘together with all the saints’ (Eph. 3.18). We model and embody God’s love for one another. I have a relationship with God because we have a relationship with God. There are persons of God because there is a people of God.
What does this mean in practice? Three suggestions:
First, we should prioritize prayer with others over prayer alone.
Second, we must not separate our relationship with God from our relationship with others. The barrier in our prayer life is not often sin against God, but sin against other people.
Third, we need to exhort and encourage one another daily (Heb. 3.12-13).
The avoidance of apostasy demands not simply individual vigilance but the constant care of each member of the community for one another (William Lane).
This community spirituality clearly requires a certain level of relationship. We need to be sharing our lives. We need to be with other Christians ‘daily’ (145-6).

Total Church: Pastoral Care

2010-04-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

Pastoral Care
The authors deal with the difference between seeking biblical counseling and professional therapy. The problem with this therapy culture, according to Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, is the way it has made therapy into a way of life. People are encouraged to define themselves as victims who have suffered at the hands of others. As long as people are encouraged to seek professional counseling to help them with everything from dealing with an unpleasant incident to raising their children, argues Furedi, individuals become disinclined to depend on each other in the normal routine of relationships. Relationships are increasingly ‘professionalized.’
This book (Total Church) is a call to a dual fidelity to the gospel word and the gospel community. It is our conviction that the gospel word and the gospel community do not fail us when it comes to pastoral care! (125)

The sufficient gospel word
Does the Bible give us an accurate and sufficient analysis of the human condition and an effective response or ‘treatment’? Have we created a dichotomy between the ministry of Bible teaching and that of pastoral counseling? The former is considered the preserve of the ‘minister’ while the latter is for qualified (in a secular sense) members of the wider community.
At the heart of historic evangelicalism is a commitment to the Bible as “the final authority on all matters of faith and conduct.” This confession has been summarized as the sufficiency of Scripture and this is where the debate is centered. There seems to be a view that argues that God has given us two books through which to understand the world: Scripture and Nature. Another view sees the Bible as unique and altogether distinctive in the way it defines what we are as human beings.
‘Simply by being Christians, we have access to everything we need to live a life that pleases God.’ This is the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture and this is what gives us confidence in our pastoral care as we expose each other to the gospel word. (125-27)

The efficient gospel community
If our primary identity is as persons-in-community, then our ability to thrive will be shaped by our involvement in a community…Pastoral care in a Christian community is not merely one ‘therapy device’ among many. It is the context in which any other pastoral care takes place.
So much formal pastoral engagement takes place outside of the community and one of the reasons for this is disengagement from the community…While the need for specific counseling sessions in a more formal environment will remain, healthy engagement with others in committed relationships will deal with so many of the presenting issues and underlying causes of her problems.
Dealing with marriage issues: a significant element in divorce rates is individualism. In a culture in which the rights and desires of the individual are sacred, bringing two individuals together in a relationship as close as marriage is bound to create problems. We live in a society with a disposable attitude toward relationships in general and this affects attitudes to marriage.
The breakup of the extended family with increased mobility has contributed significantly to the strain placed on marriage. We no longer live in an “it takes a village culture.” We leave child raising to a couple (and many times a single person). There is no better place for marriages to be nurtured than in a communal setting for two principle reasons.

Total Church: Discipleship and Training

2010-04-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

Discipleship and Training
The means by which sinners are evangelized, the gospel word and the gospel community, are the means by which sinners are discipled…The good news that gives life is the good news that transforms, while the community that incarnates gospel truth for the sinner is the community that incarnates gospel truth for the saint (110).

Teaching people the gospel word
Our contention is that being word-centered is so much more than being sermon-centered (112).
Word ministry takes place in a variety of ways, not simply for forty-five minutes on a Sunday morning. It takes place through group Bible studies. It takes place when two people meet to read the Bible. It takes place as people are mentored through the word. In our experience, most character formation and discipleship takes place through informal and ad hoc conversations. This kind of word ministry requires relationships, time and gospel intentionality.
What counts is teaching that leads to changed lives. Being word-centered means God’s word has priority over tradition and precedent. Many churches that claim to be word-centered are in practice tradition-centered…Unless someone long ago came to a complete and perfect understanding of the Bible; it suggests people are no longer living under God’s word so that it challenges their thinking and practice (114).

Teaching along the road
This is not to denigrate the importance of formal teaching times as church, but rather to emphasize the need also to bring teaching out of the pulpit and embed it in life…Chapters 9-10 of Mark’s Gospel are an extended explanation of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
They should understand the sovereignty of God not only from a sermon series on Isaiah, but as they see us respond to trials with ‘pure joy’! We have found in our context that most learning and training takes place not through programmed teaching or training courses, but unplanned conversations: talking about life, talking about ministry, talking about problems (115).

Shepherds who are sheep
Leaders are not a special class set apart on their own, having to face burdensome responsibilities and forced to endure a lonely existence. Leaders cannot be detached. They must be visible believers who live their lives openly in the midst of the believing community.
The only demarcation among the people of God is that of function not position. If my role is that of a leader in the local church, then I am a gospel minister using my gift to serve God’s people.
Many of my ‘minister’ friends speak of church as something from which they must seek solace. They ‘protect’ their day off and guard their privacy of their home…For Tim/Steve, church is where they find solace.

Total Church: World Mission

2010-03-26T07:47:00.000-07:00

Some brief thoughts on the chapter on World Mission from Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis.

World Mission

The centrality of the gospel word and the gospel community apply not only on our doorstep, but to the ends of the earth. God summons us both to “declare his praises” and be “a people for his own possession” (1 Pet. 2.9).

A word for the nations

The gospel word is a word for the present about the future. Hope is integral to our message. Non-Christians campaign for justice and feed the hungry, often with greater energy than Christians. But only Christians can point people to the world to come. Only Christians can show them how eloquently and relevantly the Bible describes the world we all want! People may dismiss this as ‘pie in the sky when you die’, but this is the promise of the gospel. The very best we can do for others is turn their gaze toward eternity. This is what the gospel word and gospel communities do so uniquely (100).

A community for the nations

Psalms 67 reshapes Aaron’s prayer of blessing over the people of Israel in Numbers 6.22-27. The Psalms connect the worshipper and God. Psa. 67 makes a further connection: between the worshippers, God and the nations. The prayer assumes Israel’s distinctive identity in the world.

The psalmist knew the purpose of Israel’s election and understood the determination of Yahweh to fulfill the promise he made to Abraham. He would bless the descendants of Abraham so that through them he might bless the nations and so be recognized as the God of the whole earth (101).

Both local and global mission is the privilege and responsibility of any and every local church (102)

Total Church: Church Planting

2010-03-23T07:43:00.000-07:00

Chester and Timmis in this chapter discuss how they view church planting as a form of evangelism. They look very closely to the mission and church planting practices of the early apostles (especially Paul) to provide a template. They are not so committed to house church planting as the only biblical manner of evangelism and church planting, but they do see the benefits that can come from planting smaller missional communities in homes. It is much more efficient for growth and reproduction that building one central meeting place. And in those smaller communities, it is easier to relate to one another, share each others’ lives and for all members to exercise their gifts in ministry.

The apostolic approach to mission
For Paul mission meant planting churches. In the NT, wherever the gospel was preached local churches were established. In Acts, Luke deliberately portrays Paul as a church planter. This methodology involves a church planting team or an apostolic band. The team functions as a church even as a church grows up around it, providing a context for discipleship and a demonstration of Christian community. (89).

The Apostolic approach to community
The apostolic churches were reproducing churches, meeting in households. This meant they grew by adding further household gatherings rather than by adding numbers to one mega-congregation. So, for example, Paul writes ‘to the church of God in Corinth’ (1 Cor. 1.2), but can also talk about information from ‘some from Chloe’s household’ and how he baptized the members of ‘the household of Stephanas (1 Cor. 1.11, 16; 16.15).
In Acts 16, Lydia and the jailer’s ‘households’ are baptized and a church is planted in Philippi. In Acts 18 the household of Crispus believes and a church is planted in Corinth… So in his time in Corinth Paul presumably oversaw the establishment of a number of household churches within the city. The point is that he chose to establish a number of smaller churches rather than create one large congregation. In Ephesus Paul used the hall of Tyrannus, but for public discussions. Meanwhile he taught the believers ‘from house to house’ (Acts 20.20).
Constantly reproducing churches was the pattern of apostolic churches, but it was a pattern that gave fullest expression to the principles of Christian community. The household model is in some way defining of church. The church is the household of God (Eph. 2.19-22, others). The ability of a potential leader to manage his household reflects his ability to care for God’s church (1 Tim. 3.4-5). For NT Christians the idea of ‘church’ was synonymous with household and home. (90).

No slavish adherence to homes…the point is that, as they grew, the apostolic churches became networks of small communities rather than one large group, to safeguard apostolic principles of church life. It matters little whether these small groups are called churches, home groups or cells, as long as they are the focus for the life and mission of the church. (91)

Small communities create a simplicity that militates against a maintenance mentality: there are no expensive buildings to maintain or complex programs to run. They determine a style that is participatory and inclusive, mirroring the discipleship model and table fellowship of Jesus himself. One of the key expressions of NT ecclesiology is ‘one another’.
Many are unenthusiastic about church planting because of assumptions that big is better. But the household model of NT practice was no accident. (91)

Church planting and the renewal of the church
Good church planting is crucial to the health of the wider church. Good church planting forces us to re-ask questions about the gospel and church; to re-invent churches that are both gospel-centered without religious tradition and relevant without worldly conformity. Far from weakening a sending church, church planting is a vital opportunity to re-focus the life of the church on the gospel. The identity of the sending church should radically change. It cannot continue as the same church or repeat the same program. It must look again for new leaders to emerge. It must ask all over again how it will reach its neighborhood with the gospel. (93)

Conclusion
In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul reflects on what constitutes good church planting. The key thing is that the gospel is at the heart of church planting. The Corinthian church plants had lost sight of the gospel. They were concerned with human power and wisdom. They were dividing over secondary issues. Paul puts the gospel of Christ crucified back at the heart of the church and church planting.
Those whose primary concern is church can too easily get absorbed with the internal dynamics or structures of the church so that getting the church community life ‘right’ becomes the priority.
Church planting is part of normal church life. At present church planting carries a certain mystique. Church planters are portrayed as a unique kind of rugged pioneer. But we need to create a culture in which transplanting is normal. Every local church should be aiming to transplant and raise up church planters. (94-5)

Total Church: Social Involvement

2010-03-22T19:03:00.000-07:00

A Welcome for the poor and marginalized

Chester and Timmis see that many of the divisions within evangelicalism are as much about social class as theological differences. In one direction people are seen as vulgar; in the other direction people are seen as snobbish. Why does this matter? It matters because they feel that we are failing to reach the working class with the gospel. Evangelicalism has become a largely middle-class, professional phenomenon (74). (I would add that it depends on how you define evangelicalism. There are many pentecostal and fundamentalist groups that do reach certain segments of the working class)

A word for the poor and marginalized

In recent decades evangelism and social involvement have come to be viewed as alternatives or, if not exactly as alternatives, then as separate activities which need to be held in balance.

Chester and Timmis want to make three assertions about the relationship between evangelism and social action:

Evangelism and social action are distinct activities – good social action is about harnessing the insights and resources of the poor, but the gospel is a message from outside that is addressed to us in spiritual helplessness and powerlessness.
Proclamation is central – social action without proclamation is like a signpost pointing nowhere.
Evangelism and social action are inseparable

They compare this balance to their desires for their own children. They do desire from their children might be reconciled to God through the gospel. This desire does not mean they are unconcerned about their temporal needs. But they do not simply teach them the Bible. They try to create a loving home in which they can experience life as a blessing. But still the greatest concern is to teach and model the gospel of salvation. It is the same with the poor and marginalized. (76)

A community for the poor marginalized

Poor people want to be included and not just judged and “rescued” at times of crisis.” The poor are, for the most part, those who are powerless and marginal.

Rescuing the poor: if it never moves beyond this, it reinforces the dependency and helplessness at the heart of poverty. The poor remain passive. It does not produce lasting or sustainable change. (77).

It is all about working with the poor to identify their problems, to develop solutions, to monitor progress, to evaluate outcomes. The poor want more than projects; they want to participate in community. “…I want…someone to be my friend.” (78)

The best thing we can do for the poor is offer them a place of welcome and community. Our first priority in social involvement is to be the church, a community of welcome to, and inclusion of, the marginalized.

But what about the rich? Are they also needy? Yes. Should we also evangelize them? Yes. The rich have many social needs. We need to pay attention to Luke’s pitch to Theophilus and Jesus’ call to the rich within the Gospel. It is not a domesticated, individualistic offer of salvation divorced from the day-to-day realities of life in a fallen world. Luke’s call is for Theophilus to side with the marginalized just as Jesus did. (79-80).

People sometimes claim it is a question of calling. They do not dispute the validity of ministry to the poor, but feel their calling is to the rich. That is not Luke’s pitch to Theophilus. And it does not explain why God apparently calls far more people to prosperous areas than he does to the poorer areas of the nation. (80).

The church today is growing among the shanty towns of Africa, and the favelas and barrios of Latin America. When we look at church throughout the world, God is choosing the weak and lowly to shame the power and wealth of the West. (81).

Total Church: Evangelism

2010-03-15T09:42:00.000-07:00

Gospel and Community in Practice (Part 2)

Evangelism
The gospel word is central in evangelism
Francis of Assisi is alleged to have said: “Preach the gospel always; if necessary using words.” It may be a great medieval sound bite, but it falls short of what the Bible teaches about evangelism. (And I believe it falls short of what St. Francis actually said).
The gospel message often becomes skewed towards me and how Jesus meets my needs. But the gospel Jesus proclaimed is about God exercising his life-giving rule through his Messiah for his glory. Thus, it is important for us to tell people the good news about Jesus.

The gospel community is central in evangelism
The gospel word and the gospel community are closely connected. The word creates and nourishes the community while the community proclaims and embodies the word.
That is why Jesus ends his injunction with the words: “All men will know you are my disciples if you love one another.” Before they are preachers, leaders or church planters, the disciples are to be lovers! This is the test of whether or not they have known Jesus.
People want a form of evangelism they can stick in their schedule, switch off and go home from. Jesus calls us to a lifestyle of love. Yet the new command of Jesus suggests that, whatever advances John made in the second scenario, there is a further vital dimension.
Christian community is a vital part of Christian mission.
In our experience people are often attracted to the Christian community before they are attracted to the Christian message.
My answer is to find ways of introducing them to the Christian community…Too much evangelism is an attempt to answer questions people are not asking.

The three strands of evangelism
Building relationship – Sharing the gospel – Introducing people to community.

A community project
By making evangelism a community project, it also takes seriously the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in distributing a variety of gifts among his people. It relieves some people who don't necessarily have the "gift of evangelism" (that is talking to strangers about Jesus) but allows them to be involved in evangelism as they are involved in community.

Ordinary life, gospel intentionality
Most gospel ministry involves ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality.
But the ‘ordinary’ is only a vehicle for Christian mission if there is gospel intentionality. The ordinary needs to be saturated with a commitment to living and proclaiming the gospel…Otherwise we simply form good relationships that never go anywhere.
The Crowded House folks try to create this culture by regularly teaching our values, celebrating gospel opportunities, setting aside time each Sunday to share what we have been doing, ‘commissioning’ people as missionaries in their workplaces and social clubs. Above all we model the culture for one another so that it becomes the normal thing to do…We need Christian communities to which we introduce people. These communities must be communities in which “God-talk” is normal. This means talking about what we are reading in the Bible, praying together whenever we share needs, delighting together in the gospel, sharing our spiritual struggles, not only with Christians but with unbelievers.
At the same time we try to make our meetings less strange to unbelievers.

Total Church: Why Community?

2010-03-10T21:41:00.000-08:00

Total Church: Why Community
Paul emphasizes here, and in many other places, that Christ wants to create “a people”, not merely isolated individuals who believe in him (see Titus 2.14). We are not saved individually and then choose to join the church as if it were some club or support group. Christ died for his people and we are saved when by faith we become part of the people for whom Christ died (37).

The Christian community is central to Christian identity
The Bible shows that we are communal creatures, made to be lovers of God and of others. Genesis 2 underlines this as the writer tells us that the only thing in all creation that is not good is the man on his own (v. 18).
Into our pervasively individualistic world-view, we speak the gospel message of reconciliation, unity and identity as the people of God. This is perhaps the most significant “culture gap” which the church has to bridge.
Today it is often difficult for people to contemplate conversion to Christ if that means distancing themselves from their existing networks, especially if those are the close bonds of a minority community such as those found in the gay community or among ethnic minorities. They need a new home. In The Crowded House they have also found some people wanting to be part of their church community not initially because they were interested in Christ, but because they wanted a kinder, gentler alternative to their existing network of relationships.
The NT word for community is koinonia, often translated by the now anemic word ‘fellowship’. Koinonia is linked to the words “common”, “sharing”, “participation.” We are the community of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13.14) in community with the Son (1 Cor. 1.9): sharing our lives (1 Thes. 2.8), sharing our property (Acts 4.32), sharing the gospel (Phil. 1.5; Phile 6) and sharing in Christ’s suffering and glory (2 cor. 1.6-7; 1 Pet. 4.13).
At the center or hub of life is not me as an individual, but us as members of the Christian community.
(38-43).

The Christian community is central to Christian mission
God is a missionary God and God’s primary missionary method is his covenant people.
The church is not something additional or optional. It is at the very heart of God’s purposes. Jesus came to create a people who would model what it means to live under his rule. It would be a glorious outpost of the kingdom of God: an embassy of heaven. This is where the world can see what it means to be truly human.
Our identity as human beings is found in community. Our identity as Christians is found in Christ’s new community. And our mission takes place through communities of faith. Christianity is ‘total church.’

If you warm to this vision of Christian community then start where you are. Sell the vision by modeling the vision. Become a blessing by offering hospitality, showing practical care, dropping in on people…Create something that other people want to be part of (48).

Total Church: Why Gospel?

2010-03-10T07:32:00.000-08:00

In the first major section of their book, Chester and Timmis discuss “Gospel and Community in Principle.” The first chapter is called, “Why Gospel?” They defend the preaching and teaching of Scriptures as a way of extending their community because Christianity is word centered. It is word centered because God rules through his gospel word. God extends his rule through his word.
Christianity is also mission-centered because God extends his rule through his gospel word. To tell people the gospel is to announce the kingdom or kingship of God and Christ. Their concern to be word-centered does not conflict with a concern to be Spirit-centered. The community formed by the gospel for the gospel is the community in which God dwells by his Spirit. In the Bible, word and Spirit always go together.
This means that Bible study and theology that do not lead to love for God and a desire to do his will have gone terribly wrong. True theology leads to love, mission and worship.

They sum this up by saying: The gospel is a word so the church must be word-centered
Being gospel centered has two dimensions. First, it means being word-centered because the gospel is a word. The gospel is good news. It is a message. It is a word that has become incarnate in Jesus Christ. It is this word that brings new life to people and shapes the life of the church.
Second, the gospel is a missionary word so the church must be mission-centered.

Implications
They begin to flesh out missional living with some very challenging thoughts to their community members (not just “called” missionaries and ministers). To think mission centered, they ask people to imagine they are part of a church planting team in a cross-cultural situation in some other part of the world:
• What criteria would you used to decide where to live?
• How would you approach secular employment?
• What standard of living would you expect as pioneer missionaries?
• What would you spend your time doing?
• What opportunities would you be looking for?
• What would your prayers be like?
• What would you be trying to do with your new friends?
• What kind of team would you want around you?
• How would you conduct your meetings together? (33)

For them, they believe the UK will never be reached until they create open, authentic, learning and praying communities that are focused on making whole-life disciples who live and share the Gospel wherever they relate to people in their daily lives.
The challenge for them (and passed on to all of us) is to make the gospel the center of our lives not just on Sunday mornings, but on Monday mornings. (36)