I have modified the model in such a way that it serves as a kind of tool in studying Scripture, looking especially for the gospel in a given passage. I use what I call “five questions” — (1) What comes against us? That is, what triggers our behavior? (2) How do we react — often in sinful ways? (3) What is the “God-substitute” (that is, what is the idol) that motivates us to react in such a way? (4) How does the gospel transform our hearts so that we abandon our idols and embrace the true God? (5) What fruit does this bear in our lives?

You can see how I use the five questions in a recent study I did of 1 Samuel 20. David’s life is at risk. Saul, the king, is pursuing him to kill him. Jonathan, who is Saul’s son and David’s friend, cannot bring himself to believe his father really intends to bring harm to David — at least, not at first. When he learns the truth, he takes measures to protect his friend. You can read the whole account in 1 Samuel 20:1-42 (ESV):

¹ Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?” ² And he said to him, “Far from it! You shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me. And why should my father hide this from me? It is not so.” ³ But David vowed again, saying, “Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he thinks, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved.’ But truly, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.” ⁴ Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.” ⁵ David said to Jonathan, “Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit at table with the king. But let me go, that I may hide myself in the field till the third day at evening. ⁶ If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the clan.’ ⁷ If he says, ‘Good!’ it will be well with your servant, but if he is angry, then know that harm is determined by him. ⁸ Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself, for why should you bring me to your father?” ⁹ And Jonathan said, “Far be it from you! If I knew that it was determined by my father that harm should come to you, would I not tell you?” ¹⁰ Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you roughly?” ¹¹ And Jonathan said to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” So they both went out into the field.

¹² And Jonathan said to David, “The Lord, the God of Israel, be witness! When I have sounded out my father, about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you? ¹³ But should it please my father to do you harm, the Lord do so to Jonathan and more also if I do not disclose it to you and send you away, that you may go in safety. May the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father. ¹⁴ If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord, that I may not die; ¹⁵ and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever, when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.” ¹⁶ And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord take vengeance on David’s enemies.” ¹⁷ And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.

¹⁸ Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. ¹⁹ On the third day go down quickly to the place where you hid yourself when the matter was in hand, and remain beside the stone heap. ²⁰ And I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I shot at a mark. ²¹ And behold, I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you, take them,’ then you are to come, for, as the Lord lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger. ²² But if I say to the youth, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then go, for the Lord has sent you away. ²³ And as for the matter of which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me forever.”

²⁴ So David hid himself in the field. And when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. ²⁵ The king sat on his seat, as at other times, on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat opposite, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty.

²⁶ Yet Saul did not say anything that day, for he thought, “Something has happened to him. He is not clean; surely he is not clean.” ²⁷ But on the second day, the day after the new moon, David’s place was empty. And Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why has not the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?” ²⁸ Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem. ²⁹ He said, ‘Let me go, for our clan holds a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away and see my brothers.’ For this reason he has not come to the king’s table.”

³⁰ Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? ³¹ For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Therefore send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die.” ³² Then Jonathan answered Saul his father, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” ³³ But Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death. ³⁴ And Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David, because his father had disgraced him.

³⁵ In the morning Jonathan went out into the field to the appointment with David, and with him a little boy. ³⁶ And he said to his boy, “Run and find the arrows that I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. ³⁷ And when the boy came to the place of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the boy and said, “Is not the arrow beyond you?” ³⁸ And Jonathan called after the boy, “Hurry! Be quick! Do not stay!” So Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master. ³⁹ But the boy knew nothing. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter. ⁴⁰ And Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him, “Go and carry them to the city.” ⁴¹ And as soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap and fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times. And they kissed one another and wept with one another, David weeping the most. ⁴² Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord shall be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.’” And he rose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city.

Five Questions:

What comes against us? We might answer this question from the viewpoint of each of the characters who make an appearance in this chapter. David is mentioned first, and so we may take him first. He is panicked because he knows that Saul is set on destroying him. “What have I done?” he asks Jonathan. “And what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?” (v. 1). When Jonathan insists that David is no danger from Saul, David’s language becomes more urgent: “Truly, as the LORD lives, there is but a step between me and death” (v. 3).

Second, we may consider Jonathan. At first, he is unaware of any malicious intent of his father toward David. It d0esn’t take long, however, before it becomes crystal-clear to him. His father is set on murdering his best friend (and brother-in-law). The next day is the new moon, and David is expected to show up at the king’s table. When he doesn’t, Saul explains it away. But on the third day, when David doesn’t show, Saul asks Jonathan about it. Jonathan gives his fabricated explanation, but Saul isn’t fooled by it. He flies into a rage. We will give Saul our attention momentarily, but let’s note for now that the trigger for Jonathan’s stress is the prospect of separation from David. On the fourth day, Jonathan goes to the field to warn David according to plan, and when they meet, we are told that it is a highly emotional parting for each of them.

Now to Saul. The king is threatened by David, even though he has no warrant for such feelings. Upon hearing Jonathan’s lame explanation of David’s absence, his wrath erupts, as we shall see in our answer to the next question.

How do we react? David seeks help. Jonathan provides it. I do not see anything sinful in either David or Jonathan’s response to the situation. But Saul is a different story. He definitely reacts sinfully. The narrator says, “Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, ‘You son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Therefore send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die’” (vv. 30f.). When Jonathan protests, Saul hurls his spear at his own son. This, of course, incites Jonathan to anger, and he rises from the table and leaves.

What is the idol behind the sin? The question, specifically, is: What does Saul love more than God that makes him explode in murderous rage? What lie does he believe? What distorted desire does he nurture? What fear overtakes him? What disordered affection drives him?

• The lie: His well-being and that of his descendants requires that he maintain a tight grip on power.
• The distorted desire: He wants his own agenda, not God’s, to prevail. He wants a dynasty, and the throne has become his idol.
• The fear: Saul is afraid of losing the throne and, with it, the recognition and power that he thinks validate him.
• The disordered affection: Broadly speaking, it is self that he loves more than God. In 1 Sam. 12, Samuel is told that “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument to himself…” (again, the need for recognition). Saul’s self-absorption is apparent. More narrowly, Saul loves the throne and wants to perpetuate his attachment to it through his son, Jonathan.

God has rejected him as king (1 Sam. 15:10, 23; 16:1), but he cannot accept God’s verdict. As a result, he enlarges his rebellion against God.

How does the gospel transform the heart? Essentially, what Saul needs is to turn from his self-centered strategies for significance and security and turn to God, trusting Him and depending upon Him for significance and security. Of course, he has been rejected, and he will not receive from God the gift of faith. God has so blessed David and Jonathan, however, and we may turn to them to see what God has done for them to bring them to salvation.

Jonathan seems to know that he is not to be king but, rather, that David is to succeed to the throne. We see this when Jonathan “stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt” (1 Sam 18:4). These actions were symbolic of yielding his right of succession to David. This is evidence of a heart that finds its satisfaction in God and in nothing else. Now, in chapter 20, Jonathan appeals to David to spare him and his descendants as if he knows for a fact that David will be in a position to do so. Consider these points in the narrative: (1) First, verses 13b-17: “‘May the LORD be with you, as he has been with my father. [What can this mean but that the LORD will make David king?] If I am still alive [when you ascend to the throne], show me the steadfast love of the LORD, that I may not die; and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever, when the LORD cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.’ And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David [note: “the house of David” is a royal dynastic term!], saying, ‘May the LORD take vengeance on David’s enemies.’ And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.” (2) Second, verse 42: “Then Jonathan said to David, ‘Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of the LORD, saying, “The LORD shall be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.”’” What is the point? That Jonathan does not depend on his own accession to the throne for his identity. He is compliant toward God and satisfied with God’s sovereignty in this matter. This is a work of grace. It is certainly not natural.

When it comes to David, we see another heart that has been transformed by grace. David shows a remarkable lack of vengeful feelings toward Saul. He is a man of war; he has “first strike” capability. He could attempt to kill Saul before Saul kills him. But his heart is not a retaliatory heart; his is an illumined heart. This is a work of grace.

We see grace also in the submission both of David and of Jonathan to the Lord’s sovereign will to separate them. Their parting, drenched in tears, is painful; this would likely be the last time these fast friends would see each other. And yet, it is the Lord’s will, and his will is supreme in their thinking. Their hearts have been delivered from the lie that only in having things a certain way could they be friends, from distorted desires for power and control, from disordered affections for preferred arrangements, even from fears that God’s way will somehow be less attractive. All this means that, by grace, they had come to find their satisfaction in God, not in the gifts of God.

We must ask what it is that leads Jonathan and David to anchor their contentment in God and not in circumstance. It is, of course, the character of God. We see this from the covenant that Jonathan and David make with each other. David says to Jonathan, “Deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the LORD with you” (1 Sam. 20:8). David is referring, of course, to the covenant to which the two of them previously agreed (1 Sam. 18:3). Jonathan himself reminds David of this covenant when he appeals to David not to “cut off [his] steadfast love from [Jonathan’s] house forever” (1 Sam. 20:15). This covenant-making behavior reflects God’s chosen way of relating to His people through covenant. He binds us to Himself and makes promises to us. Overwhelmed by His kindness (His character, or His characteristic ways), we respond by entrusting ourselves to Him and expressing that trust in loving obedience – faithfulness that has its roots in faith.

We see then how grace works. The Spirit changes the heart (regeneration), so that when God calls us to faith in His Son (effectual calling), we respond by abandoning former sources of comfort (repentance) and embracing God as our only source of comfort, trusting His favor, offered to us in Christ (faith). This places us in a right relationship with God (justification). Reminding ourselves how great is God’s love for us and what great things He has done for us, we rely on His power to demonstrate our love for Him in turn, seeking in Him alone our deepest satisfaction (sanctification). When we are at last in His presence, we will regard as our greatest reward not the gifts we receive but the Giver Himself (glorification).

What fruit does grace bear in our lives? We can only assume that the exemplary behavior of Jonathan and David in this account is to be attributed to hearts made right with God by God’s grace. There are plenty of triggers for sinful behavior on their part. Jonathan could at last listen to his father and turn on his friend. Jonathan and David together could conspire to murder Saul. But neither Jonathan nor David chooses such an option. Each of them elects to honor the ways of faithfulness and truth, relying not on circumstance but rather on God. This is a sign of God’s redemptive work within them, and it is the fruit of righteousness.

So, there they are: the five questions applied to a narrative account from the Old Testament. I hope this is a faithful rendering of the story. If so, we may look into our own lives and ask: (1) What comes against me? (2) How do I react sinfully? (3) What do I love more than God that causes me to react in such a way? (4) How does the gospel address that falsely placed affection? (5) What is the fruition of the work of grace in my life?

James writes, ‘Whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy.’ On the surface, this sounds simplistic and unrealistic. How can we be expected to be joyful about the pain we’re going through? But James is not being impractical here. Not in the least. He wants us to understand that how we experience our suffering depends on the way we perceive it, how we process it in our minds.”

James 1:2-18 (NRSV)

2 My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; 4 and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

5 If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6 But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; 7,8 for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

9 Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, 10 and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same way with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.

12 Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. 13 No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. 14 But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; 15 then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved.

17 Ever generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

TRIALS ARE INEVITABLE. There is no one, I suppose, who goes through life unscathed by one form of adversity or another. We’re all alike in this regard. But we’re not all alike in how we experience our troubles – how we understand them and how we let them shape us as people. For some of us, the outcome will be one of bitterness and resentment. We may come to hate life and, perhaps, other people and even God because of our afflictions. That will be the case for some of us. But others among us will be tempered by our difficulties, and the outcome will be a sweeter faith, a stronger character, and a deeper intimacy with God. And, whichever it is – whether we become bitter or better – it will be because of the way we think about our problems.

This is actually what James says in verse 2, where he writes, “Whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy.” On the surface, this sounds simplistic and unrealistic. How can we be expected to be joyful about the pain we’re going through? But James is not being impractical here. Not in the least. He wants us to understand that how we experience our suffering depends on the way we perceive it, how we process it in our minds. The word “consider” in verse 2 has to do with how we think, how we make judgments about the facts before us, and I guess what I want to emphasize is that it has nothing to do with how we feel. I can’t imagine that anybody in the midst of trying circumstances would feel good about what they’re going through. But if we have the right mind about our troubles – whatever they may be – if we think about them in a certain way, we may not only survive the ordeal but grow from it as well.

Look at the first word in verse 3. It is the word “because.” Here James gives us the reason we may “consider” our trials “nothing but joy.” It is “because” – and here I am quoting James – “it is because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete.”

You see! There it is: There is the reason you may “consider it nothing but joy” “whenever you face trials of any kind.” It is because God has a purpose in your difficulties. He wants to use them to grow you up and to grow you strong. He wants you to become “mature and complete,” “to grow up in every way into…Christ” (Eph. 4:15). He wants to bring you into maturity. He wants to “bring…to completion” the “good work” he has begun in you (Phil. 1:6). He wants to make you like Jesus.

Of course, the process will test your faith. There is no other way. Isn’t that what James says in verse 3, that “the testing of your faith [is what] produces endurance”? You will be tempted to lose your faith. You will find it difficult at times to trust God. You may grow sour at the things you have to endure. And so, in verse 12, James brings up this matter of temptation. He begins by pronouncing a blessing on “anyone who endures temptation” – especially the temptation to believe that God no longer has our best interests in mind. The one who endures, James says – the one who refuses to believe such a lie – “has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”

That’s a wonderful prospect, isn’t it? To think that our trials might actually lead to triumph, that we may, after all, overcome the temptation to let our difficulties dwarf our souls and wither our spirits. The question, though, is: How can we see that happen for us? How can that take place in our lives?

The difference, as we said before, is how we think about our afflictions. And we can think about them either wisely or unwisely. We can think about them with wisdom or without it. We need to remember – we need to keep in mind – that God has a greater purpose than what we can readily see. And that takes wisdom. And if we can’t look at our trials with that in mind, if we lack the wisdom to see things that way, James tells us to “ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given [to us]” (v. 5). And one part of wisdom is to know and believe that there is a loving hand that holds the chisel of our adversities, and though it strike us, it seems, mercilessly, and carve away at us, it will craft us more and more into God’s masterpiece. That’s one part of wisdom.

Another part of wisdom is to know that we will be tempted to forget this. When we’re in the furnace, scorched by the flames, our hopes melting in a puddle at our feet, it may be difficult to keep in mind that God has a loving purpose for us, even in the pain. James specifically mentions three temptations that may undermine our faith.

The first is doubt. James says, “The one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind” (v. 6). In other words, when troubles beset us, we may twist off into panic and lose all sense of direction and, in our tossing about, we may lose all hope and confidence in God. If that happens, then our trials do not turn into triumph. They turn into defeat. We must keep this in mind. We must remember that it’s important how we think about these things.

A second temptation is our tendency to think we can buy our way out of trouble. Whether we have the means or not, we think that’s the solution. James says, “Let the believer who is lowly [that is, the one who is poor] boast in being raised up, and the rich in being brought low” (vv. 9ff.). But that’s not what we usually do, is it? Whether we think of ourselves as poor or rich – it doesn’t matter which – we tend to regard money as the answer to our problems. If we’re poor, we may resent our condition and covet the ease that others seem to have, and if we’re rich, we may rely on ourselves rather than God. Neither path is the way to maturity. There’s a prayer in the book of Proverbs. Perhaps you know it. It is a good antidote to this kind of thinking. It says, “Give me neither poverty nor riches, or I shall be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or I shall be poor, and steal, and profane the name of my God” (Prov. 30:8ff.).

The third temptation James mentions – and another one we will want to keep in mind, lest it overtake us – is to blame God. And here’s the thing: We may blame him not only for the trials we face but also for the temptations they bring. It is the height of presumption for the sinners to say that it is God who is responsible for their sin. Verse 13 says, “No one, when tempted, should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one.” In fact, James tells us that temptation actually originates with us – in our own hearts, the seat of our desires. “One is tempted,” he says, “by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death” (vv. 14f.).

David Platt, a pastor in Alabama, lays out the process in four stages. First, he says, there is deception, and the fact that there is should remind us that “the heart of sin is unbelief – [that is,] not believing God.” The second stage is desire. Platt says that “sin starts with disordered thought, which leads to disordered desire, and we begin to want that which will destroy us.” Then, when we act on what we want, when we act on our disordered desire, we arrive at the third stage, which is disobedience. Disobedience, of course, assumes the form of some attitude we carry or some action we take and, in doing so, actually commit sin. And sin, of course, leads to Platt’s fourth stage: death – which is always the result of disobedience.

So, here we are. We cannot escape the trials of living. They are inevitable. And they often bring about the temptation to distrust God, to desire something other than his purpose for us. What can be done? We cannot avoid being tested and tempted. But can we avoid sin? Can we remain faithful? Can we grow into maturity through our adversity?

By God’s grace, and, by his grace alone, we can turn trials into triumph. He gives us everything we need to grow from our sorrows, to advance through our adversity. As James says, we can “let endurance have its full effect, so that [we] may be mature and complete.” And it is God who gives us what we need to think this way. In verse 17, James says, “Every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” In other words, God doesn’t alter his purpose for us. And he provides all we need to grow into maturity in Christ.

The first thing we need, if we’re to grow, is life, life in Christ. What we need is a new heart with new desires. And that is exactly what God gives to those who are his own. Verse 18 says, “In fulfillment of his…purpose” – see! he has a definite purpose – “in fulfillment of his…purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth.” The “word of truth” is the message of the gospel, and it is a message of new birth – what Jesus calls “being born from above” (Jn. 3:3) and what the apostle Paul calls “a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). This is a necessary gift of grace, because, in giving us new life, as we said, God gives us a new heart, a new heart filled with new desires, desires to be faithful even when the way is steep and narrow and the elements are against us. So, with this in mind, we trust God in our trials, and we turn to him in our temptations.

“Consider it nothing but joy,” James says, “whenever you face trials of any kind.” And we can do that – we can “consider it nothing but joy” – if we bring a renewed mind – a faithful way of thinking – to the way we look at our troubles. If we see God in them, sculpting in us his gracious design for our lives, and if we trust him even though we may be tempted not to, we will see: He will give us “beauty instead of ashes, the oil of rejoicing instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of despair” (Isa. 61:3, HCSB, KJV). He will turn our trials into triumph. And knowing that brings a joy that nothing can take away.

Photo Credit: Landscape by BarnyZ

So, what do we do when we suffer? How do we cope with what the book of James calls “trials of any kind” (Jas 1:2)? Here’s what I want to suggest: When you undergo afflictions, go over your convictions. That is, rehearse what you believe. Go over what you firmly hold on to in your faith. Or, to quote Joseph Bayly, “Never doubt in the dark what you learned in the light.”

2 Corinthians 1:3-11 (NRSV)

         3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, 4 who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ. 6 If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are being consoled, it is for your consolation, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our consolation.

         8 We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of the afflictions we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again, 11 as you also join in helping us by your prayers, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

JOSEPH BAYLY ONCE SAID, “Never doubt in the dark what you learned in the light.” But we do, don’t we? When we go through times of trial, we lose sight of what we believe. We have a tendency to see only the bad our afflictions.

For example, when the heat’s on, we may assume right off that God is punishing us in some way. It’s easy to jump to the conclusion that our suffering indicates divine displeasure.

Do you remember the incident when Jesus and his disciples encountered “a man blind from birth” (Jn 9:1)? Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” Do you remember what Jesus said? “Neither.” Neither! Affliction is not always the sign that God is angry with us. Sometimes, in fact, we suffer “for righteousness’ sake.” Jesus said, “Blessed are you” – in other words, you have God’s blessing – “when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” (Mt 5:11).

So, what do we do when we suffer? How do we cope with what the book of James calls “trials of any kind” (Jas 1:2)? Here’s what I want to suggest: When you undergo afflictions, go over your convictions. That is, rehearse what you believe. Go over what you firmly hold on to in your faith. Or, to quote Bayly again, “Never doubt in the dark what you learned in the light.” So, while we have a tendency to see only the bad in our adversity, we need to see also the good. And what I mean is: We need to see God’s purpose in our suffering.

And the first thing we see is that, in our suffering, God reveals the awful consequences of the Fall. Let’s go back to 2 Corinthians. The truth is, Paul and his companions hadn’t done anything wrong. They didn’t deserve to suffer. And yet, they did – to the point, Paul says, that they “despaired of life itself…. [They] felt that [they] had received the sentence of death” (2 Cor 1:8, 9a).

We know what that’s like. When we go through unwarranted suffering – or, when we see someone else suffer – we find ourselves asking why God lets bad things happen to good people. That question – as natural a thing as it is to ask it – reveals a problem with our understanding. The fact is that we live in a fallen world. And we forget that. The reason innocent people suffer is that this is not the world God created it to be. When our first parents sinned, they did not just incur guilt on themselves. Their rebellion affected the whole created order. It created a fault line in every aspect of life. If you look, you can see the effects of the Fall in our relationship to each other, you can see it in our relationship to ourselves, and you can see it even in our relationship to nature. We must never be surprised that so-called “good” people suffer. The fact is, we live in a fractured, fallen world, and because of that, all people suffer.

Even Paul. Even you.

And knowing that, we will not be surprised or perplexed by suffering. As we grow in Christian maturity, we come to realize that the world is out of sync with the way God created it to be. And that’s not all. We will also shout out all God has done and is doing through Jesus Christ to restore his fallen world. If we lived in a perfect world, there would be no need for a message of salvation, but because the world is broken, people need to hear about the One, the only One, who can repair things – who can repair us! – and make everything whole again. That’s one way God show us his purpose in the time of trial.

Another way our afflictions show us God’s purpose is that, in them, God shows us his design for our lives. He wants us to depend not on circumstances but rather on him. We read how Paul says that he and those with him “despaired of life itself” and “felt that [they] had received the sentence of death.” And then he tells us why. And it’s the same for us as it was for him. It is “so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (1 Cor 1:9b). This is God’s design for our lives. He wants us to rely on him, not on what we might consider favorable circumstance.

There is a third sign of God’s good purpose in our afflictions, and it is that, through them, God strengthens our faith in him. I quoted a few words from the book of James a moment ago. Let me give you the full context. James 1, verses 2 through 4, reads like this: “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.” Notice that James says, “You know” this. “You know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” It’s one of the convictions you have – one of your settled beliefs. That’s why I say: When you undergo afflictions, go over your convictions. Rehearse what you believe. That’s what Paul did. His faith in God found expression in verse 10, where he says, “He…rescued us from so deadly a peril….” Then he goes on to say, “On him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again.” He was strengthened in his faith. That’s one of the purposes God has in our afflictions. And that’s a good thing.

There’s one more way we may see the good in our afflictions. There may be other ways, of course, but there is one more way we see it here in 2 Corinthians, chapter 1. God not only reveals the awful consequences of the Fall, he not only shows us his design in our lives, and he not only strengthens our faith through our suffering, but he also equips us to minister to others in their suffering. In fact, Paul says in verses 3 and 4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction” – why? – “so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which ourselves are consoled by God.”

We could revise Bayly’s quote and say something like, What you learned in your own darkness, share with others in their darkness. There used to be a song that said, “If everyone lit just one little candle, what a bright world this would be.” Paul says it better. In verse 5 he says, “For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ.” We can console others in their trials because what Christ suffered consoles us in ours.

Do you believe these things? Are they settled convictions? Do you not only entertain them with your mind but also absorb them in your gut? That’s the hard part for me: to get these things out of my head – where I assent to them readily enough – into my viscera, where I really live. It’s not east. But I think the way to do that is: When you undergo afflictions, go over your convictions. Rehearse what you believe – I mean, what you really believe.

In fact, I want to encourage you: some time this week, write down three convictions you have about God – three strongly held beliefs about how he helps you in your times of affliction. Or, if you’re into social media, tweet them or post them to Facebook. Three things you learned in the light that you don’t want to doubt in the dark. Maybe some of the things we have talked about today will make your list: that suffering comes to all because of the Fall, that our trials remind us to rely on God and not on our situation, that adversity can strengthen our faith, and especially that the comfort we have received from God we can share with others.

Anyway, write down three – maybe four – solid beliefs you hold so that, when you need them, they will hold you.

Photo Credit: Darkness by Roberto Fontana

The Father gave his Son, and the Son gave his life so that the Spirit might give you life and you might live forever. You know these things. You assent to them with your mind. But, more than that, you have put your wholehearted trust in Jesus Christ.”

John 3:1-10, 14-16 (NRSV)

1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born? 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things…?

14 …Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

ONE OF THE PROBLEMS with religion is: You can believe all the right things – that is, you can be orthodox in your faith – but it can be a dead orthodoxy. You know what I mean? It can appear lifeless, certainly not vital and contagious. Same thing with our conduct. We may behave ourselves quite well – you know, do the right things, live good lives. But our morality can have the effect of making us smug and self-satisfied. We believe what we’re supposed to believe, and we do what we’re supposed to do. But there’s no joy in it.

So, can we avoid these things? Can we escape the trap of dead orthodoxy –believing the right things, to be sure, but with no passion – and can we be more than simply “good” people, living conventionally moral lives but that’s all? In other words, how can we have a vital, engaging, contagious faith? And, if so, how?

It starts with God. Doesn’t it? I mean: Any life we have begins with God. That’s what Jesus says here in John, chapter 3. An authentic faith is a gift of love that comes straight from the heart of the triune God. And what God gives in love, we receive by faith, so that we may live in hope. That’s the message of the most well-known Bible verse of all time. What does it say? John 3:16? “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

The first thing I notice in that verse is that God gave, and his gift was motivated by love. God gave in love. Today is Trinity Sunday, and if you look at this passage as a whole, what you will see is that all three Persons in the holy Trinity are involved in giving this loving gift. Jesus, remember, is talking to Nicodemus, a religious leader of the day, and Nicodemus, we learn, is like a lot of people in our own time. He is orthodox in his faith; he is upstanding in his conduct. But he is not alive spiritually. He needs to be born “a second time.” So Jesus explains what happens in the new birth, and he does it in a Trinitarian framework. He begins with the Spirit, he proceeds to the Son, and he ends with the Father.

If we reverse that order and begin with the Father, we see that, in love, the Father gave his Son. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” The apostle Paul says in Ephesians that “he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love” (Eph. 1:4).

The Son, in turn, gave his life. Later in John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (Jn. 6:51). In other words, Christ’s love impelled him to die for us.

In fact, here in John, chapter 3, Jesus says to Nicodemus that, “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (vv. 14f.). Now, what’s Jesus doing here? He is recalling an account given to us in the Old Testament book of Numbers, a story with which Nicodemus is no doubt familiar. The incident took place in the wilderness, when God’s people of old were traveling to the Promised Land. The way was hard, and the people grew impatient. And they complained about Moses’ leadership and they even “spoke against God.” So, we are told, the Lord sent poisonous snakes into the camp, and those who were bitten died. And, as you might imagine, the people cried out for mercy, and God showed mercy. He told Moses to form a bronze serpent and put it on a pole so that it could be seen from every point in the camp. When people were bitten, if they looked up at the bronze snake, they would be healed.

So, what is Jesus telling Nicodemus? He is telling him that he – Jesus, the Son of Man, as he calls himself – will be lifted up just like the serpent was. His “pole,” of course, will be the cross. And all those who look to the cross – all who look to him – will “pass from death to life” (Jn. 5:24) – pass from spiritual death to eternal life. All that’s required is to look to him!

But who will look to him? Who will put their faith in Jesus Christ for eternal life? The truth is that, without this eternal life, we are spiritually dead. Paul actually says in one place that we are “dead [in our] trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). And to be spiritually dead, according to Scripture, is to “live in the futility of [our] minds,” to be “darkened in [our] understanding, [and] alienated from the life of God” (Eph. 4:17, 18). People who don’t understand spiritual things, people who are alienated from God, do not look to the cross. They cannot. In fact, the Bible says that “no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11).

So, this is the role the Spirit plays. In love, the Father gave the Son. In love, the Son gave his life. And in love the Spirit gives us life. The way Jesus puts it here in John, chapter 3, is: “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit” (v. 5) – that is, without being born naturally and supernaturally. This is what Jesus means when he talks about “being born from above” (v. 3). The Spirit illumines our minds so that we can understand the gift that God is giving us in Christ, and he awakens in us faith, so that we can receive the gift.

And that’s how the gift becomes ours. What God gives in love, we receive by faith. What did we read a moment ago? “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him….” Let me stop there and ask, “What does it mean to believe in him?”

The Protestant Reformers gave serious thought to this question. They asked what it was that made faith “saving faith.” And this is what they concluded: Saving faith requires, first of all, that we know what to believe and, second, that we believe what we know. For example, we need to know that there is a God who created the world and everything in it, and therefore he has a right to expect from us obedience to his commands. We also need to know that not one of us has in fact lived up to God’s expectations – that we are all, every one of us, sinners; we have disobeyed his commands – and, therefore, as we have said, we are spiritually dead. We need to know that God, in love, has remedied this situation by giving us his Son, Jesus Christ, who did obey his Father, and who did so perfectly, and who gave his life in payment for our sins. This is what we need to know, and we need to believe what we know. In other words, we need to assent to these truths with our mind.

But all of that – essential as it is – is not yet saving faith. We must know what to believe, and we must believe what we know, but that is not enough to save us. The book of James in the Bible says that “even the demons believe” this much (Jas. 2:19). They know the facts, and they concur that they are true. What’s missing is trust. And that’s the critical element in faith. We must know what to believe. We must believe what we know. And we must also trust that it is so. What I mean is: We must put our trust in Jesus Christ. Remember the old hymn that says, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness”? “I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.” That’s saving faith.

And it leads to enduring hope. What God gives in love we receive by faith so that we may live in hope. Or, as John 3:16 has it, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him” – and here is the hope part – “may not perish but have eternal life.” I just want to say one thing about hope. In common usage, we sometimes equate hope with wishful thinking, but in the Bible that’s not what hope is. No. What hope is, is confident assurance that God will keep his promise. God has said that, if we trust in Christ and Christ alone for eternal life, we will not perish – ever. And when you know you’re secure in this promise, it affects how you live. You live hopefully. You live expectantly. You live joyfully.

God has given us a great gift in his Son. He has given us eternal life. A lot of people yawn at this announcement. They don’t get it. They don’t see the point. If they happen to be religious, their religion is something of secondary value. They don’t know what they have – or what they think they have – and so their lives have nothing to show for it. They may mentally assent to the right things, they may even live a “good” life, but they haven’t received God’s gift because they haven’t entered a relationship of trust with him.

Thankfully, that is not true of you. Or, at least, I pray that it is not. You are the “twice born.” You have been born not only physically but also spiritually. The Spirit has breathed life into your spiritual lungs, and you are a new creation. You know that God, in love, gave you life. The Father gave his Son, and the Son gave his life so that the Spirit might give you life and you might live forever. You know these things. You assent to them with your mind. But, more than that – because, as we said before, that, as necessary as it is, it is never enough. So, more than that, you have put your wholehearted trust in Jesus Christ, who is your only Savior.

This is what I pray is true for you. And it is right for me to desire this for you. Paul longed for this for those in his charge. In a letter to the people in Corinth, he said to them: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves,” he said (2 Cor. 13:5f.). I want to encourage you to do that. I want you to test yourself, to give yourself a heart check-up. I want to ask you to set aside some time this week to reflect on four questions. Look into your heart of hearts and ask, first of all, “What do you believe will truly bring you satisfaction?” Is it God, or do you actually rely on something else? John Piper once said, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” Are you satisfied in God? Ask yourself that. The second question is this: “What do you fear most?” Do you fear that you will be disappointed in your life, or do you fear that God may be disappointed in your life? Do you fear that your heart will somehow be broken, or do you fear that God’s heart will be broken? Ask that of yourself. Third: “What is truly the desire of your heart?” Is it that God may be glorified? Is that what you want more than anything else? Is it? And fourth: “On what or on whom do you place your ultimate affection?” We all know the Great Commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). Do you love God with such complete abandon? Or, if not – and who does, really? – do you at least long to love God this way? I urge you to examine your hearts for the answers to these questions.

What God gave in love we receive by faith, so that we may live in hope. God has given you life in Christ. Have you received it? Does your life show it? It is no small gift. I urge you to desire it, and if you have received it, I urge you to treasure it.

Photo Credit: On a Clear Morn – Trinity Alps by Gary Robertson

The message of a winsome church is what it says. The method of a winsome church is what it does. And the mission of a winsome church is where it goes. We are called to bear witness to those who are near and to those who far. If we want to be a vital church, that’s where we have got to go – here, there, and everywhere. That’s doing God’s work God’s way for the sake of God’s world.”

Acts 2, selected verses

     1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all those who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? … 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17 ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and you sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy…. 21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

22 “You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know – 23 this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. 24 But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.

32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear…. 36 Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified….”

37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord God calls to him.” And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL recently published a report indicating that “the U.S. now has a bigger share of people who don’t identify with any religion than those who do. In the last seven years, the number of people unaffiliated with either Roman Catholic or mainline Protestant churches has spiked from around fifteen percent of the population to almost twenty-five percent. That’s one in four Americans! Meanwhile, mainline Protestants – Presbyterians and Methodists and Lutherans and such – have declined from about eighteen percent to about fourteen percent. Even evangelicals and Roman Catholics have seen a plunge in numbers.

Now, if we care anything at all about the church and its health – and we do, don’t we? – I’ve got to think we would like to turn this trend around. So how do we do it? How do we stop the decline and start to grow again? What do you think? What drives some churches in their efforts is the glitzy glamour of the new, the bigger, the better, and the innovative. If we could just do more of something or do something bigger and better than anyone else, maybe that would reverse the reversal. Ron Hutchcraft once described such dead end tactics as programs, personalities, people, property, and profits. Scott Clark talks about the “killer Bs,” by which he means bodies, buildings, and budgets. Get more bodies in the pews, build bigger, better buildings, raise more money. It sounds promising, but, the truth is: such measures don’t work – at least, not in the long run.

I know a church here in our community that wanted to attract young people, so they built a gym. They went into debt to pay for it, and, when it was finished, it just sat there. The youth did not show up. “Build it and they will come” is a myth, and it only works in the movies.

A fourth “killer B” would be busy-ness. And a lot of churches see mere activity as a sign of life? But is it? Or bigness! There’s a fifth “B.” Is that the proof that a church is healthy and vital? If not, what is? What makes for a winsome church that is alive and well?

When you look at Acts, chapter 2, you can see that it’s not the external trappings that make for a winsome church. It’s not what’s up front that counts; it’s what’s inside. A winsome church does God’s work God’s way for the sake of God’s world.

Acts 2 tells the story of that pivotal Pentecost when God poured out the Holy Spirit on his church. Some people call that first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension – they call it the birthday of the church. Being a Presbyterian, I don’t call it that. I used to, but not any more. To me, the birthday of the church is recorded back in Genesis, when God first made a covenant with Abraham to bless all the nations through his offspring. That’s when the church got its start. That was its birthday. Pentecost, in my mind, was the coming of age of the church. It marked the point in time when the church was equipped for its mission with power from on high. It was now grown up and ready to go to work.

And when the church does God’s work – if it does it God’s way for the sake of God’s world – then that’s when it has the vitality it needs not only to survive but to thrive. Here in Acts, chapter 2, that kind of church is defined for us, and it’s defined by three components: one is its message, another is its method, and, finally, there’s its mission.

Take the church’s message for starters. What is it that a winsome church has to say to the world? What do we talk about? We talk about Jesus. He is our message. Pentecost, of course, was a Jewish holiday, and it was celebrated annually. It always came fifty days after Passover. It was on Pentecost that God first filled his people with the Holy Spirit, and the result was: Those early disciples were able to get their message out in an unforgettable, totally remarkable way. Peter and James and John and the others spoke in their own dialect, but people from all over the world heard the gospel in their own language. It was such a demonstration of the Spirit’s power that many of the bystanders thought the apostles were drunk! Well, they were. But they weren’t drunk with wine; they were drunk with the Spirit.

Peter was the chosen preacher for that day. And when he stood to speak, his talk started with a quotation from the prophet Joel and it went on to some quotes from the Psalms, but it was all aimed at one topic. Peter had only one theme, and that theme was Jesus – who he is and what he has done. Peter said in verse 32, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses.” In the next verse, Peter told the crowd that Jesus was “exalted at the right hand of God” and that he was the one who had “poured out” the Holy Spirit on his people. In fact, Peter said – and this was the stunning conclusion of his message: “God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified” (v. 36). That’s the message of a winsome church: who Jesus is and what he did and why it matters. Telling the story of Jesus: that’s God’s work done God’s way for the sake of God’s world. And if we want to be a vital, winsome church, that will be our message.

But what about the method? What is God’s way of doing God’s work for the sake of God’s world? What does a winsome church do? I see three things here in Acts, chapter 2. The people of Jesus wait, they witness, and they welcome.

First, they wait. Verse 1 says that “they were all together in one place.” Do you know why “they were all together in one place”? It’s because Jesus told them to wait. Back in Luke 24, we read how Jesus said to them, “Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in [my] name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” That’s what he said, but then he didn’t say, “Get busy!” He said, “Wait!” He said, “I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:47-49). Don’t do anything yet. They could have. They knew Jesus. They knew the message. They got it. They could have gone out and started proclaiming the Word. But do you what happens to the Word when it’s proclaimed without the power of the Spirit? It’s like an arrow that misses its mark. Those of us who stand in this pulpit and proclaim God’s Word – one of the things we need from you is: we need you to be praying earnestly that, when the Word is preached, the power of the Spirit will be evident in the message that’s proclaimed. I don’t know how there can be any power if the people aren’t praying. I urge you to pray. Pray for the people in the pews. Pray for the people in the pulpit. Pray that God’s Spirit will be present in power in our midst. I can’t help bu believe that, if all of us were praying from our hearts that God’s Spirit would be among us in his fullness, we would see a change. We would see something happen. This is God’s way. We Wait. We wait for the Spirit.

We’re not good at waiting, are we? We want action. We wanna get ’er done! But that is not God’s method. If we do God’s work our way, it won’t work. It will fail. God’s work has to be bathed in prayer. It has to be saturated in the Spirit. It has to be with his timing and with his power. The winsome church – the church that wins others to Christ – does God’s work God’s way.

And that, of course, involves not only waiting but also witness and welcome. Those early apostles bore witness. “Let this be known to you, and listen to what I say,” Peter said (v. 14), and when the people did listen and when they did respond, Peter and the others welcomed them and welcomed their families. Peter said, “The promise is for you [and] for your children” (v. 39). This is God’s method: wait for the power of the Spirit, then witness in the power of the Spirit, and welcome others into the fellowship of the Spirit. This is God’s method.

We need to make sure that, when people come into our midst, there’s a safe landing here. I want to encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and find somebody you don’t know, and I want to encourage you to go to them and meet them. When people come into our congregation, we need to get them into the mix. They need to feel that they’re coming into a family. And the only way they’re going to feel that is if we are a family. You don’t have to manufacture this stuff; you just have to live it. We need to know each other and care about each other and spend time together and make sure that other people know they’re welcome here.

We’ve seen that the message of a winsome church is what it says, and the method of a winsome church is what it does. Then, finally, its mission is where it goes. In Acts, chapter 1, Jesus told his disciples – he said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (v. 8). Their mission was to the neighbor – that is, Jerusalem – to the neighborhood – or “all Judea and Samaria” – and to the world – that is, “to the ends of the earth.” That’s the way any vital church looks at its mission. It sends the message – it bears witness – to those who are near and far. “The promise is for you,” Peter said, “for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him” (2:39). If we want to be a vital church, that’s where we have got to go – here, there, and everywhere. That’s doing God’s work God’s way for the sake of God’s world.

Are we that kind of church? Maybe we are; maybe we’re not…or not yet. Or maybe we’re somewhat that way, but we have to move with even greater intentionality in the direction of doing God’s work God’s way for the sake of God’s world. One thing’s for sure. Being that kind of church has nothing to do with program. It has nothing to do with buildings. Or budgets. It has nothing to do with how big we are or how small we are. It has to do with our heart. It has to do with where our heart is. And if our heart is set on Christ and it is open to the Spirit of God and we are growing in grace, then we become contagious. There is absolutely nothing we can do to compete with the glitz and glamor of this world. I guarantee you. We don’t have the money. We don’t have the resources. We don’t have the expertise. And we don’t need it. We don’t need to be playing around with the world’s methods anyway. What we need to do is: We need to figure what makes a church work, and what makes a church work is the heart of the people. It is a lifestyle. And if you want to make it a part of your lifestyle, here are some things you might want to try.

I’ve got six “L’s.” Here’s the first one. What if you were to list the names of three people you know who are unchurched? Or, if not three, then two. Or, if you can’t think of two, maybe you can think of one person. One person who needs to know Jesus Christ. Can you think of one? Let’s say you can; then what?

Then this: love that person for the sake of the Lord. Build a relationship with them. That’s the second “L.”

Third, lift them daily to the Lord in your prayers. Pray that they may come to know Jesus the way you know Jesus.

And then, as occasion presents itself – and this is the fourth “L” – lead them to the Lord. Help them to know that the promise is for them and for their children.

And then, link them with the Lord’s people. Invite them to something here at the church that you think they might enjoy. Introduce them to others who know and love Jesus.

And then, whatever you do, don’t fail to this. Look after them. Stay with them. Shepherd them along.

And if you can’t do all these, then do the first three. Write down somebody’s name. And love them. And show that love by praying for them every day. That’s the kind of thing that will make our church a winsome church. That’s the kind of thing we’ll be doing when we do God’s work God’s way for the sake of God’s world.

Photo Credit: Working Hard by Alan and Carolina Bloom

It was God’s heart for us, his people, that compelled him to send his Son, Jesus Christ, to draw us to himself, just as my mother did with me on that cold dark morning while we were waiting for a bus we thought might never come. This world can be cold and dark and even scary.”

Isaiah 49:13-18 (NRSV)

13   Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the LORD has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his suffering ones. 14     But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.” 15     Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

16     See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

17     Your builders outdo your destroyers, and those who laid you waste go away from you.

18     Lift up your eyes all around and see; they all gather, they come to you. As I live, says the LORD, you shall put all of them on like an ornament, and like a bride you shall bind them on.

WHEN I WAS A KID – I mean, a really little kid – my mother had to ride a bus to work every day. But first, she had to drop me off at the sitter’s, which means that I rode on the bus part of the way with her. It was always early in the morning. Ordinarily, the sun wasn’t even up, but we were! Standing at the corner across from our apartment building, we waited for the bus, and we did it every single day.

There was one day I will never forget. It was in winter. Snow was falling, and a thick layer of ice had already formed on the streets. Nevertheless, my mother bundled me up and took me with her for our daily routine of waiting for the bus. The coat I was wearing was no match for the piercing wind. I was shaking uncontrollably. I didn’t think about it at the time – because kids generally don’t – but my mother was probably just as cold as I was. And yet, you know what she did? She unbuttoned her coat, pulled me inside it, right up next to her, and she put her arms around me and held me close. I was still cold, but I felt safe.

What would childhood be like without our mothers? Some, of course, have had to find out. I talked with a man only this past week – he must have been in his eighties. He told me that his mother died when he was only five days old. He still grieves a life – what has turned out to be a long life – lived without a mother’s touch. My heart broke for him. It breaks for you, too, if you mother died when you were a child.

Most of us, thankfully, have memories of our mothers. They cooked for us, cheered us on, defended us, held us, sat up with us, and made us feel safe and important and capable. Today, we bless our mothers. Our mothers may be, hands down, the most influential people in our lives. In fact, we learn something about God from our mothers. As a mother never forgets her child, so our Father never forgets his children.

Sometimes, we think he does. In chapter 49 of Isaiah, the prophet tells us how God “has comforted his people” and how his compassion is unfailing. We see that in verse 13. But God’s comfort doesn’t always register with us. In the very next verse, verse 14, Isaiah writes, “But Zion said, ‘The LORD has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.’” Zion, of course, refers to God’s people – to you and me – and we have to admit: there are times when we conclude that God has managed to forget us.

When you think about it, God could take offense at this, given all that he has done for us. It would be something like telling our mothers, who have sacrificed greatly for our sake – it would be like telling them that they didn’t really love us. Saying something like that is a good way to hurt your mother’s feelings – so don’t do it, right?

But God doesn’t get his feelings hurt. In fact, if what we read here in Isaiah 49 is any indication, God redoubles his effort to persuade us that he does love us – with a love greater than we could even begin to measure – and to assure us that we are never forgotten.

When discouragement besets us, encouragement blesses us, and the source of that encouragement is God. In fact, here in Isaiah, God gives us four word pictures to encourage us when we most need it.

The first word picture he uses is that of a mother’s arms, and it is found in verse 15. The Lord asks, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?” We don’t even have to think about it, do we? Mothers don’t forget their children, and their compassion never fails.

There are, of course exceptions. We hear in the news about a woman somewhere on trial for taking the life of her children. Recently, I heard about a mother who introduced her daughter to drug abuse. Things like this happen, but they’re rare. As biblically instructed Christians, we may be saddened by such reports, but we are not surprised. We know that we live in a fallen world, a world where sin has its clutches on every one of us. But, generally speaking, mothers are not like that. Each case I have mentioned is the exception that proves the rule. A mother never forgets her child.

But look at what God says next. Even if she does, “I will not forget you.” As a mother never forgets her child, so our Father never forgets his children.

How could he? The next word picture takes us to the tattoo parlor, where God says, “See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” What an image! With God, your name is never out of mind, because he has it tattooed on his hands!

When God gave Moses instructions about how the people of ancient Israel were to worship him, he told him to “take two onyx stones, and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel, six of the names on the one stone, and the names of the remaining six on the other stone…. [And] you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces” of the garment that the high priest shall wear “as stones of remembrance.” And the high priest “shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders” (Ex. 28:9ff.). Now, what does that tell us? It tells us – doesn’t it? – that God has always taken great care to assure us that, as a mother never forgets her child, so our Father never forgets his children.

There are two more word pictures here in Isaiah 49, and like the first two, they attest to the encouraging truth that, with God, we are never forgotten. One of these remaining word pictures is a construction site. God describes himself as a contractor who has secured builders with such skill that they “outdo your destroyers.” This is a picture of real life – don’t you think? – with all its hazards and threats to our well-being. There are destroyers all around. But says, “Your builders outdo your destroyers.”

It reminds of what the Apostle John says to us in his first letter about the threats we face in this life. He writes, “Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them.” Notice how he puts this in the past tense. What he is saying is: You have already conquered your destroyers! And then he tells us why: “for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Your Savior, Jesus Christ, dwells within you, and he is greater than anything that comes against you. Again, you see. God has you in mind. As a mother never forgets her child, so our Father never forgets his children.

The final word picture in this passage is that of a wedding. Isaiah was writing to a people who had been in exile, dispersed across the face of the earth. But now They would all come home to safety. Israel would be like a bride, marrying her beloved, with all of her family in attendance. “Lift up your eyes all around,” God says to her, “and see; they all gather, they come to you. As I live, says the LORD, you shall put all of them on like an ornament, and like a bride you shall bind them on.” Isn’t that a beautiful portrayal of God’s heart for us, his people?

It is what compelled him to send his Son, Jesus Christ, to draw us to himself, just as my mother did with me on that cold dark morning while we were waiting for a bus we thought might never come. This world can be cold and dark and even scary. “But take courage,” Jesus said; “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). And he overcame the world by opening himself up to the cold, penetrating wind, risking the cruel chill, as it were, to keep us, his children, warm. The arms of Jesus stretched out on the cross present us with a picture of God’s embrace – as clear a picture as I know. As a mother never forgets her child, so our Father never forgets his children.

This week, as severe thunderstorms and the threat of tornados hovered over the region, Jan and I watched the news for information about the weather. Time and time again, we heard Kevin Selle say, “If you’re in this or that area, go to your safe place now.” Thinking about that now makes me wonder: What is your safe place? When the storms of life threaten, where do you go? Of course, there is only one truly safe place. It is in the arms of God. That is why devout mothers pray for their children to come to know Jesus.

Today, we celebrate our mothers. And one reason is that they show us something about God. As a mother never forgets her child, so our Father never forgets his children.

This week, why not take the time to write a letter or even a brief note and thank your mother for never forgetting you, for always having you in mind. If your mother is no longer living, why not write the letter anyway? It will be a way to pay tribute to your mother as you express your gratitude for all that she did for you.

And, if you’re a mother who has lost a child, our hearts go out to you. That, too, is part of living in a fallen world – a world that is broken. Would you consider writing a brief letter to your child, promising never to forget her…or him, as the case might be? It may help you, and it will demonstrate what we all know about mothers: They never forget their children. Neither does God.

Photo Credit: Mother Son Beach by Eduardo Merille

In our postmodern era, people of intelligence will not abide such exclusive assertions. Those who are wise by the world’s standards tell us that there cannot be such a thing as Truth. There are truths. They will allow that. There is your truth and my truth, but there is no overarching, definitive, absolute Truth. No Truth with a capital T.

John 10:1-21 (NRSV)

         1 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 “The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls them by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

         11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away – and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down, and have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.

19 Again the Jews were divided because of these words. 20 Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why listen to him?” Other were saying, “These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

WHEN I WAS A KID. I loved to go to my grandmother’s house. One of the things I remember about that house was a picture on the wall over the bed where I slept. It was a picture of Jesus. There’s a good chance you’ve seen it, or one like it. It shows the full stature of our Lord. He is walking toward you, the viewer. In one of his hands he is holding a shepherd’s crook, and in the other he is holding a lamb. He is carrying the lamb. And when you look at what is depicted in that picture, you somehow know that the lamb is you. He is carrying you. The painting, no doubt, was designed to portray Jesus as – well, as what he calls himself in our text for today. It shows him to be the Good Shepherd.

Now, the truth is, as a kid, I was easily frightened by the dark. But in my grandmother’s guest room, where she had the picture of Jesus over the bed, I never got scared. I felt safe. And, of course, I was. There was no danger to me, not in my grandmother’s home. And, if there had been, no picture was going to keep me safe, not even a picture of Jesus!

But now, out there in the world – even in the full light of day – there are hazards all around. You know the Bach piece, “Sheep May Safely Graze”? I love that composition. It is one of my favorites. But there’s one mistake you and I must not make. Sheep may safely graze, but it’s not because there is no danger. Danger is all around. And, what is worse, there are agents of that danger, sinister agents who do not have the welfare of the sheep at heart.

In John, chapter 10, Jesus calls them by name. In verse 1, there is the “thief and [the] bandit.” He is the one “who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way.” In verse 5, there is the “stranger.” The stranger calls to the sheep, but Jesus says, “They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” In verse 10, Jesus calls our attention to “the thief” yet again and exposes his aims. “The thief,” he says, “comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”

Then there is the “hired hand.” We find him in verse 12. He is the one, ostensibly, who has been charged with protecting the sheep. He is commissioned to feed them and care for them and keep them safe from harm. But when he “sees the wolf coming,” he “leaves the sheep and runs away – and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.”

When our Lord first began His ministry, we are told that “he saw the crowds,” and “he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36). I can think of nothing more vulnerable to the hazards of life than a lamb alone in the field with thieves and bandits all about, and strangers – not to mention wolf-like predators – and no shepherd in sight.

But God is not going to let His sheep go without a shepherd. In fact, He says in Ezekiel 34, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak…” (vv. 15f.). John, chapter 10, is the fulfillment of that promise. Here we find Jesus, who in the face of threats in every direction – there are thieves and bandits and strangers and wolves, and they are lurking everywhere – but, unlike the hired hand, Jesus does not run away. He lays down His life for His sheep.

He is the Good Shepherd. And that’s what the Good Shepherd does. He lays down His life for the sheep. He tells us this plainly. But here’s what puzzles me. The people he is talking to don’t understand it. In verse 6, we read, “Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying.” And then again in verse 19, John tells us that they “were divided because of [His] words. Many of them were saying, ‘He is…out of His mind. Why listen to Him?’”

And, without knowing it, they identified the key issue in this chapter of John’s Gospel. Why listen to Him indeed! How can He say, “I am the gate,” and mean it? How can He say, “Whoever enters by me will be saved,” and keep a straight face? He must be “out of His mind!” So, why listen to Him at all? His claims for Himself – are they not grandiose and extreme, especially in our day and time? Who believes anymore that He is who He says He is?

Certainly, in our postmodern era, people of intelligence will not abide such exclusive assertions. Those who are wise by the world’s standards tell us that there cannot be such a thing as Truth. There are truths. They will allow that. There is your truth and my truth. There is truth as you see it, but there is no overarching, definitive, absolute Truth. No Truth with a capital T.

Therefore, they will tell us that one religion is as good as another, different paths all leading to the same place. Your beliefs are fine, they will say, as long as you keep them to yourself and don’t impose them on others. My friends, this is what Jesus calls “the voice of strangers” (v. 5). And Jesus tells us that His sheep “do not know the voice of strangers.” They know His voice, and they follow Him. Listen: His sheep know their Shepherd’s voice, and they are safe.

They are safe for three reasons. I don’t have time to develop these three reasons, but I do want to give them to you. First, His sheep know their Shepherd’s voice, and they are safe…because He saves them. Our Good Shepherd, after all, is the Savior. The wolf has come and snatched and scattered us. The thief has entered the sheepfold with the design to steal and kill and destroy. And what has our Shepherd done? Has He, like a hired hand, run to save His own skin? No. “I am the Good Shepherd,” Jesus says. “The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” And that is what He has done. Three times He says it. No, four times He says it. Five times. Count ‘em. “I lay down my life for the sheep.” Why listen to Him? Here’s why. He does not save Himself so that He can save us. His sheep know their Shepherd’s voice, and they are safe.

They are safe because He saves them, and they are also safe because He secures them. We didn’t read verses 27 through 29 a moment ago, but they are some of the most reassuring verses in all the Bible. “My sheep hear my voice,” Jesus says. That’s our point, isn’t it? His sheep know their Shepherd’s voice. But then Jesus goes on to say, And “I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.” You see, He secures His sheep. Listen to Him. Listen to how He says, “No one will snatch them out of my hand” and “no one can snatch [them] out of [my] Father’s hand.” If ever you have the tendency to feel insecure and uncertain, come back to Jesus’ words here and absorb them into yourself. Jesus’ sheep know their Shepherd’s voice, and they are safe, because He secures them.

He saves them. He secures them. And, finally, He sustains them. His sheep know their Shepherd’s voice, and they are safe, because He sustains them. What does He say in verses 3 and 4? “The gatekeeper opens the gate for Him, and the sheep hear His voice. He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. When He has brought out all His own, He goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow Him because they know His voice.” Why listen to Him? Because He goes before us. He makes us to lie down in green pastures. He leads us beside still waters. He leads us in paths of righteousness. Even though we must at times walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He is with us. We, His sheep, know our Shepherd’s voice, and we are safe…because He sustains us.

Listen to me. You are His flock. Wolves prowl, and they would destroy you. Thieves lurk, and they would rob you of your hope. Hired hands flee because, as Jesus says, “A hired hand does not care for the sheep” (v. 13). But you are a people who know your Shepherd, and you know Him to be good. You know His voice, and you follow where He leads. You can distinguish His voice from the other voices that appeal to you for your trust. And you know that it is dangerous to trust anyone else. You know the risks, and so you tune your ears to one frequency only, the voice of your Shepherd. You trust Him because He loves you, and you know He loves you because He laid down His life for you. You trust Him because He sustains and secures you, and you know He can because, not only did He lay his life down; He took it up again.

Here’s what I want you to do. This week. Before next Sunday, today if possible. I want you to carve out some time to get alone. And I want you to sit down with the Twenty-third Psalm and perform this simple exercise.

I want you to read it through, and as you do, I want you to list the things your good Shepherd does for you. In the Psalm, of course, these things are stated in a general way for the sake of broad application. But I want you to get as specific as you can.

Your Shepherd has made you “to lie down in green pastures.” What does that mean? It means that He has fed you and given you rest. But how? That’s what I want you to think about. How, in your specific case, has He done this? Has He shown you something in His Word that has settled your spirit? Has He put you in just the right place at the right time to hear what you needed to hear to find comfort or hope? Think about how He has done this for you.

He has been with you in “the valley of the shadow of death.” But how? How, in your specific case, has He done this? How has He consoled you in your loss? How has He sustained you during seasons of fear and apprehension? I want you to reflect on that. Then, when you have worked through the Psalm in this way, I want you simply to say to yourself: “I am one of His sheep, and His sheep know their Shepherd’s voice and are safe.”

Will you do that this week? Perhaps even today? When will you do that? Think about it right now, and make a date with your Shepherd. And remember: His sheep know their Shepherd’s voice, and they are safe. You are safe…with Him.

Photo Credit: Schaf by Robert Weiler

What unfreezes us? What gets us out from behind locked doors? What compels us to share the good news of the risen Christ? And what makes us do it, not because we are obligated to, but because – get this! – we are so affected by it that we can’t contain ourselves? We have a risen Savior. We know that he is alive. Will we then retreat into a holy huddle and hide from the big, bad, mean world? We have the best news ever, waiting to be announced from the rooftops. Will we keep it to ourselves?”

John 20:19-23 (NRSV)

         19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.

WITHOUT JESUS AT THE CENTER of our faith and life, what are we left with? As far as our Christianity goes, it’s going to be nothing more than some form of bland moralism, religious formalism, or an anemic spirituality that neither motivates us nor appeals to others. We must have a Christ-centered faith if we want a faith that matters. Only a vital Christianity creates vital Christians.

And so, how do we come to possess such vitality? The answer is right here in Scripture. The account in John 20 takes place during the evening hours of that first Easter Sunday. Jesus’ disciples are huddled together with the doors locked, and John, who was one of them, tells us that it was because they were afraid. They have heard the wonderful news that Jesus, who was crucified and buried, is now alive. But they are still afraid, and they have closed the world out.

It’s an apt description of the church not only in their day but in ours as well. We have a risen Savior. We know that he is alive. And yet, we retreat to the holy huddle and hide from the big, mean world. We have the best news ever, waiting to be announced from the rooftops; yet we keep it to ourselves – and we do it out of fear.

So, what unfreezes us? What gets us out from behind locked doors? What compels us to share the good news of the risen Christ? And what makes us do it, not because we are obligated to, but because – get this! – we are so affected by it that we can’t contain ourselves? Take these first disciples. What moved them from cringing behind closed doors – locked doors, no less! – to the point where they found themselves saying, as Peter and John would later – “We cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard”? What was it that made the difference? You can’t miss it! It’s all over this passage. It’s Jesus.

I want you to notice how these first disciples were overtaken by four realities that changed them forever. I call them four tests of a vital Christianity. These are, by no means, the only tests the New Testament gives for a vibrant faith. There is no mention here of loving God and neighbor, no talk of believing and guarding the truth, and no mention of walking in righteousness. Those are also evidences of a vital Christianity. But here in John we have four. Let’s take a look.

So, here were the disciples – as we mentioned – hiding in fear behind locked doors. And Jesus appeared to them. And what’s the first thing he said to them? Shalom, right? Shalom. Peace be with you. The peace of Christ – that’s the first thing we have to know if our religion is going to have any life in it. Shalom, of course, is to this day a Jewish greeting. But on the lips of Jesus – as it should be on our lips – it is more than a mere formality. It’s not just another way of saying hello. It attests to a blessing for which every human heart longs: the announcement that we’re not at odds with God any more.

You and I may not like it, but the Bible says that, before Christ entered our lives the way he entered that locked house on that first Easter – before God moved toward us in grace – we were his enemies. What a thing to say, right? That we could ever have been enemies of God! How can I even suggest such an idea? Here’s how: As a race, we rebelled against him. In the words of Luke 19, we made a solemn declaration by our sin: “We do not want this man to rule over us” (v. 14). God would have been well within his rights, so to speak, to destroy us. But he didn’t. Instead, he chose to love us. Paul says that “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” That’s Romans 5:8, and just two verses later we read, “While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son.” Or, as Paul puts it at the beginning of that chapter, “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). We are at war no more.

This is the beginning of any measure of vitality in religion. We must know that, by God’s grace, we have now been reclassified. We are no longer enemies of God because of our sin, but we have been declared righteous in his sight. God “has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13f.). We know the peace that only Jesus gives.

Do you know this peace? If you do not, no amount of religious activity or moral effort will make up for it. In fact, you must lay down your best efforts and refuse to rely on anything other than the Prince of Peace. How does the old hymn go? “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”

So, the first test of a vital Christianity is knowing the peace of Christ. There’s a second, and it is experiencing the presence of Christ. After Jesus announced his blessed shalom to the disciples, John tells us, “he showed them his hands and his side. Then,” we are told, “the disciples rejoiced” at seeing the Lord. This is John, chapter 20, verse 20, and this is true 20/20 vision: seeing the Lord.

And notice what it is they see of him. It is “his hands and his side.” They see him risen, but this risen Christ is none other than the One crucified for them. We must never forget the precious wounds of our Savior. To borrow a phrase from Isaac Watts, the great hymn writer, only a survey of “the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of glory died” will cause us to count our “richest gain…but loss and pour contempt on all [our] pride.” When Paul was writing to the Christians in Corinth, with their puffed up, propped up pseudo-intellectualism, he said, “When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:1f.).

You and I may boast of a sophisticated religion, but we will never have a vital, life-changing faith without experiencing the presence of the crucified and risen Lord. That is why the symbol of our faith is a cross.

If we want a vital Christianity, we will need to know the presence of Christ, and it is the crucified Christ that we will want to be present to us. Because those marks in his hands and side are the signs of his mercy toward helpless sinners. There’s an old spiritual that says, “Jesus walked this lonesome valley; He had to walk it by himself. Nobody else could walk it for him; He had to walk it by himself.” So far, so good, right? But then comes the next verse, which says, “We have to walk this lonesome valley; We have to walk it by ourselves. Nobody else can walk it for us; We have to walk it by ourselves.” My brothers and sisters, there is no gospel in that song. It is in fact another gospel, and it will lead nowhere but to despair and to life-crushing religion that cannot by any stretch of the imagination be called Christianity.

Who needs a Christ who comes to us and says, “I did it. I walked the gauntlet. I showed you what to do. Now you have to do it.” There is no grace in that! No, Jesus came to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. Peter says, “Christ…suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God” (1 Pet. 3:18). You can’t bring yourself to God, no matter how good you may try to be, no matter how sincere you are, no matter how many right things you believe or how many right things you do. Psalm 37 says, “The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; he is their refuge” (v. 37). Or, as the Bible puts it elsewhere, “Deliverance belongs to the Lord” (Jonah 2:9). A vital, vibrant Christianity has its source – not in our best efforts – but rather in the presence of a Savior whose wounds stand as lasting testimony to an essential fact. And that fact is that he is the One who “lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

There is a third test of vital Christianity. The first test is knowing the peace of Christ. The second is experiencing the presence of Christ. The third is being commissioned with the purpose of Christ. When Jesus first appeared behind locked doors to his first disciples, he said to them, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). We are not sent to do what Jesus did. Only he could do that. Only he could die for sinners. Only he could take upon himself the penalty they deserved. That’s not why we’re sent. But we are sent. We are sent to bear witness to what Jesus did, to tell the glorious good news of the salvation that he procured by his atoning death. We are soldiers of the cross. And if you want to see a dead, lifeless Christianity, all you have to do is look at a Christianity that has forgotten this. The word “mission” comes from a term that means “to send.” It was Emil Bruner, the great Reformed theologian, that first said, “The church exists by mission as a fire exists by burning.” A vital Christianity creates vital Christians, and vital Christians embrace their commission to be on mission for Christ, to pursue his great purpose of bearing witness.

Of course, nothing we do will bear fruit unless we, like branches, abide in the Vine. The fourth test of a vital Christianity is the power of Christ. That is why Jesus “breathed on [his disciples] and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (v. 22). This is so important that Jesus told his disciples that they would be his witnesses but not before the Holy Spirit had come upon them (cf. Acts 1:8). He gave them strict instructions to wait “until [they had] been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).

It is pointless to try to do God’s work without God’s power. And only the Holy Spirit can give us that. Only a vital Christianity creates vital Christians. Can you picture yourself with such a vibrant faith? Can you see yourself like this? Can you think of yourself as fully persuaded of your gracious standing with God, enjoying fellowship with the crucified and risen Christ, and relying on the Holy Spirit to empower you as you share the joy of Christ with others? Why would you want any other brand of Christianity?

We’ve looked at what I have called four “tests” of a vital Christianity. I wonder if, sometime this week, you would be willing to examine your own heart, if you would simply set aside the time to ask yourself four questions. And here are the four questions: (1) Do I know peace with God through Jesus Christ? (2) Do I regularly experience the presence of Christ? (3) Am I committed to the purpose of Christ? and (4) Do I witness the power of Christ in my own life?

You will need some time to reflect on those questions, and I hope you’ll plan to take the time it requires. And, as you consider your response to each of those four questions, I want to ask you to do one more thing: Whatever you discover about yourself in relation to these questions, I want you to pray about where you would like to be in each of these areas. Simply talk to God about knowing the peace, the presence, the purpose, and the power of Christ in your life. He is the source of vital Christianity. And remember: Only a vital Christianity creates vital Christians.

Photo Credit: Vitality by Nguyen Vu Hung

 When Jesus appears to people, to his early followers, say – the women and the other disciples –  they stop running away from the challenge of faith, and they start running toward it. They move from unbelief to its opposite – conviction. And they forfeit passivity for engagement. We’re told in verse 20 that “they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere” – just like Jesus commissioned them to do. They weren’t afraid to go anywhere, and they weren’t slow in the going. Not anymore.”

Mark 16:1-20 (NRSV)

         1 When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bough spices, so that they might go an anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” 4 When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.

5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. 6 But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”

         8 So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

9 Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it

12 After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.

14 Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. 16 The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out an proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.

THE FAMILY I GREW UP IN was highly conflicted. You would think that, for all the fighting we did, we would have gotten good at it – or, at least, that we would have seen something constructive come out of it. But the incessant bickering never seemed to bring about change; we just grew farther and farther apart. My dad and my older brother never could seem to get along, and that fueled one quarrel after another between my parents.

It was not what you would call a peaceful environment, and so, I began to seek a means of escape. When I was about twelve years old, I got the notion that maybe religion was my “out.” My family wasn’t involved in church, so I didn’t have a clue how to begin. I found an old crucifix that my brother had brought home from somewhere, and along the way I had come into possession of a Bible. So, I took those things and I made a little altar in my room. I would open the Bible at random and read a few verses out of it. Of course, I had absolutely no idea what I was reading or how it all fit together. I would give anything if I could recover those first, uninitiated thoughts that went through my mind.

It wasn’t until later that I started going to church. I met a girl that I wanted to spend time with, and she went to church every Sunday. So, in order to be with her, I started going to church, too. Over time, of course, I began to understand the faith, and one day I acknowledged my need of a Savior and put my faith in Jesus Christ.

But the truth is: I never found the escape I was looking for. In fact, just the opposite happened. I had originally started exploring religion in hopes of finding a smooth path, a means of getting away from all the contention and discord. It makes me think of the movie, The Sound of Music, when Maria comes back to the abbey after being the von Trapps’ governess for only a short time. The Reverend Mother inquires why she has returned. And Maria says, “I was frightened….. I was confused…. I’ve never felt that way before. I couldn’t stay. I knew that here I’d be away from it. I’d be safe.” To which the Reverend Mother said, “Maria, our abbey is not to be used as an escape.”

And she was right. Christianity will never provide the “out” we may be looking for. I can still remember being a student at Baylor and coming back to the dorm one day after class. I had three books in my hands – all of them required reading for an ethics course I was taking. They were Harvey Cox’s The Secular City, Joseph Fletcher’s Situation Ethics, and Thomas J. J. Altizer’s Radical Theology and the Death of God. I threw them, all three on my bed, and cried out for the recovery of a simpler faith.

But faith implies risk. Otherwise it’s not faith. And it was the risk of faith that challenged me. It still does. I wonder how it is for you. Can you imagine falling in line behind Jesus and following him, believing that the road will lead to “green pastures” and “still waters,” only to find yourself one day in “the valley of the shadow of death”? You might raise a protest: This isn’t what I signed on for! I wanted clear skies and smooth sailing, not harsh winds and choppy waters! But do you know what I have learned? Our risen Lord thrusts us into a future we’d never choose but we’d hate to lose.

Take these women, headed for Jesus’ tomb on that first Easter Sunday morning. They had bought spices, and they were going to anoint the lifeless body of Jesus The biggest problem they expected the future to bring them was – what does verse 3 say? – “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” The only future they could conceive of was one with a dead Messiah in it.

But, of course, when they got to the tomb, the stone had already been rolled away. And when they went in to check it out, there was what Mark calls “a young man” – no doubt, an angel. And suddenly the future was beginning to take an unanticipated turn. Mark says, “They were alarmed” (v. 5). The angel, of course, told them not to be. “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified” he said. “He has been raised; he is not here.”

I don’t think they found his words very reassuring. And when he told them to go tell the others, they went all right. But they didn’t tell anyone anything. Mark says, “Terror and amazement had seized them” (v. 8). They were afraid.

What do you think they were afraid of? Nothing in their past – that’s for sure! No, what frightened them was the future. Things had taken a strange twist into unknown regions of experience. They were now in a future they could not understand, and so what they did is, they tried to run away from it.

We might wonder what exactly it was that they feared about the future, and there seems to be a hint. The angel instructed them to “go, tell.” But how do you tell about this? It’s like the future is demanding of them a task to which they are not equal. And so, they do the only thing they know to do: they run.

Now, I want you to notice something. To this point, none of the women has seen Jesus. In fact, no mortal has. But in verse 9 we are told that “he…appeared to Mary Magdalene.” She was the first. And now here is the part I want us to see. Once she experiences the risen Lord, once she encounters Jesus, now alive, she is able to go back to the others and tell them. So verse 10: “She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping.” In other words, she tells the disciples.

And what do they do? They dry their tears and lift up their voices in shouts of joy for the news that Jesus is alive! No! No, that’s not what they do. What they do is, they refuse to believe it! They are no different from the women who first discovered the empty tomb. They cannot embrace a future they cannot understand.

So, Jesus appears to two of them on a country road. They experience the presence of the risen Lord; they encounter Jesus, now alive. And they respond the same way Mary Magdalene did. They go back and tell the others. But still, the others do not believe.

In fact, Jesus appears to them a bit later, and he finds them “sitting at the table” (v. 14). The most phenomenal thing ever to happen in the history of the world has just taken place – a man who was dead has been raised to life – and how do his followers respond? They run in fear. They refuse to believe. And they collapse into passivity.

Why? What do fear, unbelief, and lethargy promise that makes them so much more appealing than the future now made possible by the resurrection? You know what I think? I think fear causes us to flee for safety. Fear is a reaction to a threat – real or perceived – and we try to put a much distance between us and the threat as possible. Running away promises security.

By the same token, unbelief offers us a way out of commitment. It promises us that we ourselves do not have to promise anything. We can keep our options open. And that’s closely related to sheer lethargy or passivity. We don’t have to believe anything. We don’t have to commit to anything. We don’t have to do anything.

But notice again how the presence of Jesus blasts all of that out of the water. When he appears to those early followers – the women and the other disciples – they stop running away from the challenge of faith, and they start running toward it. They move from unbelief to its opposite – conviction. And they forfeit passivity for engagement. We’re told in verse 20 that “they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere” – just like Jesus commissioned them to do. They weren’t afraid to go anywhere, and they weren’t slow in the going. Not anymore.

The risen Lord thrust them into a future that they’d never chose but they’d hate to lose. Could that happen to you?

Maybe you’re here today, and the truth is: You don’t make it to church all that often. But you’re here today. And I am grateful. I love seeing you here. My prayer for you is that you will have such an encounter with the risen Lord – the Savior whose resurrection we celebrate today – that you will risk a future in which he plays the biggest role in your life. I would love to see all of us here today become a people with a vibrant faith, actively engaged in witness “everywhere,” as Mark puts it, fearful of nothing and completely dependent upon the Lord. That’s a future you’d never choose but you’d hate to lose.

I’d like to ask you to do something if you will. I’d like to ask you to make plans right now to alter your future in a very small way. I’m not asking you to make a huge change. I’m not asking you to jump all in. Nothing like that. But I would like you to consider putting a toe in the water. What I am asking you to do is: Plan now to be in church next Sunday. Here, if you can, but, if not here, then somewhere. That’s the only commitment I’m asking of you. Just go to church next week.

You could run in fear. You could opt for unbelief, maybe even put the whole thing out of mind for another year. Or you could risk an encounter with the risen Lord, who just might thrust you into a future you’d never choose but you’d hate to lose. What do you say?

Photo Credit: Light the Future by Aikawa Ke