Chuck Anderson

Advent Begins Today

2011-11-27T14:38:00.001-05:00

TODAY begins the season of Advent—the beginning of a new “church year.” It is a season of waiting and expectation, leading up to Christmas. It is a time when we have a seasonal (and cultural) reason to reflect on the time in the life of Jesus right prior to his incarnation. During advent we can reflect on Mary’s faithful receiving of God’s promise that she, a virgin, would bear and raise the Son of God as her child. We can heed John the Baptist’s admonition to repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And because of our situation in history, we may also reflect on the true promise that Jesus Christ will come again a second time.

As such, here is a list of articles and resources that might help you reflect on Jesus this Advent. The Village Church in Dallas has a family devotional guide that you could incorporate into your family Advent traditions. And if you don’t have any advent traditions, this would be as good a year as any to start some.

If you haven’t thought much of Advent in the past, I would encourage you to rethink it this year. Give Advent a go. At the very least, take it as another opportunity to reflect on the life of Christ. And doing that, you can’t go wrong.

DesiringGod.org, Minneapolis, MN

What Is Advent?, Noel Piper
Advent: Standing in the Middle, Noel Piper
Looking Back: Advent Candles, Noel Piper
Written with Us in Mind, David Mathis
Advent and the Incarnation (1 of 4), David Mathis
Jesus Is Fully Human (2 of 4), David Mathis
What Is the Hypostatic Union? (3 of 4), David Mathis
The Virgin Birth (4 of 4), David Mathis

Sojourn Church, Louisville, KY

Advent Songs, Sojourn Music
A Child is Born, Sojourn Music

The Village Church, Dallas, TX

Advent at The Village, Geoff Ashley
Advent Guide (PDF)
Q&A: The Advent Season, Geoff Ashley and Matt Chandler
The Hope of Advent (Sermon), Beau Hughes

Laws, Traditions, and New Hearts

2011-11-08T00:59:00.000-05:00

Matthew 15:1-20.

How many of you watch lawyer shows on TV? A few years back, I used to love lawyer shows. I couldn’t get enough of things like Law and Order. I wanted to be like those guys. Arguing the full force of the law to make sure, to see to it that justice was upheld. From time to time, I would watch lawyer movies--the kind where all of the residents of a poor mining community have all contracted the same disease because the company was negligent, and the giant wealthy insurance company was refusing to pay, claiming that they all had something like preexisting conditions, or something like that. But you know that in those kinds of stories, the giant wealthy insurance company is the bad guy because they’re using the force of the law in order to keep from doing their part to help the poor mining community. And in all of these movies you get to a point about two thirds of the way through the movie where it looks grim. It looks like it’s an open and shut case for the bad guys. The only thing that keeps you watching is the fact that you know it’s a movie about justice, and that the good guys have to win. And of course they do.

The reason these kind of stories are compelling is that they highlight the fact that the law is designed to uphold justice and to promote good, but that there are people who use the law, in a way, to undo good—to keep justice from being done.

There is another story that illustrates all of this from another angle. Most of you are probably familiar with the story of Les Misérables. In that story the criminal Jean Valjean is changed by an encounter with a kind priest, Monsignor Bienvenu. The story goes that Valjean repents of his sin. His life is completely changed, so that as the story progresses we find that Valjean is an active doer of good—so much so that by popular acclaim, he’s made the mayor of his town. Then, as the story goes, Inspector Javert comes to town. We find out that he had been a guard at the prison where Valjean was held. He was certain that the mayor was still the criminal that he knew previously. And he made it his goal to prove it. Javert keeps on hounding Valjean through the story. At the very end, Javert is personally confronted with the fact that Valjean really has changed, and his world falls apart. Javert was concerned with the law outwardly. But the story seems to point out that there is something behind the law that is very important.

In our reading, Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees. They say to Jesus, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” The Pharisees were concerned with purity rituals. This is not without foundation in the bible. The whole book of Leviticus is concerned with the holiness of God’s people. They were supposed to distinguish themselves as holy, separated from the common. Separating the clean from the unclean. This washing was one of those traditions that built up around this use of the Law.

But Jesus points out how empty the Pharisees’ charge is here. He says, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” Jesus goes on,

“God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

So Jesus is shedding light on the Pharisees’ approach to the Law—their approach to their traditions. They’re doing these things without giving a single thought to the point behind them. The Pharisees are paying very close attention to the traditions of their elders. Perhaps even with intent to follow every command of God. But Jesus shows them that their traditions are empty and even turn the point of God’s law on its head. Jesus can’t get any clearer when exclaims, “You hypocrites!”

The Pharisees have taken the priestly practice of hand washing, interpreted it to represent ceremonial cleanness, and then they’ve applied the command to all of Israel. The other tradition in the text is that public formal religious vows tended to have greater weight in the eyes of the Pharisees and religious leaders than biblical responsibilities like honoring and caring for parents.

They may intend to follow the Law of God, but the actions they hold up as most important are purely outward actions. The new, living, God-oriented heart that the Law demands is nowhere to be found in the Pharisees’ understanding of their tradition.

In the next paragraph of our reading, Jesus explains that whole interaction with the phrase, “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” The disciples still don’t understand. They come back to Jesus, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” Jesus answers with two points: (1) Every plant that God doesn’t plant will be rooted up, and (2) the Pharisees are blind guides. They’re leading the people to follow all of these outward traditions—these traditions of men—but they’re blind themselves. The Pharisees know the law, but they don’t know the law. They don’t know what it’s getting at. They don’t know the heart behind it.

Apparently the disciples don’t either. They say, “Explain the parable to us.” Jesus then explains, that if you eat without washing your hands, you might get a little dust in your stomach, but it will come back out again. But he says what really defiles a person is having a heart that hates, so that it breaks the command against murder. What defiles a person is having a heart that is always looking around so that it breaks the commands against adultery and sexual immorality. A heart that is envious of others, thieving, lying, slandering—all of these things come from the heart and they are what defile a person.

Jesus condemns his contemporaries by quoting Isaiah. Having this kind of heart—a heart that worships outwardly, but that is defiled on the inside—was not a new problem in Jesus’s day. It’s a problem that goes back to Isaiah, even back to Adam. And it’s not a problem that went away, either. We are tempted in all of the same ways. Especially us. We Evangelicals are very zealous about the Word of God. We need to be careful because we can be so zealous about good doctrine—which is so important, we must keep at it!—we can be so zealous, though, that we miss the fact that the word calls us to repent. It calls us to live a life that is constantly oriented toward the cross, and powered by the Spirit. It calls us to make sure that we have new hearts.

Matthew makes it his point to show us who Jesus is. Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one of Israel, the Davidic King, the blessing that was promised to Abraham. Jesus is our savior. And through Jesus, this new world is dawning in which the people of God are going to be characterized by this new kind of heart, this God-oriented, neighbor-loving kind of heart.

Let us realize that the Law of God is important. It’s important because it points us to Jesus. He is the one who gives us new hearts by the will of the father and by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is the guide who isn’t blind. He takes the Law and interprets it for us so that it isn’t outward anymore, it’s a reality that characterizes the desire of our hearts. So trust Jesus. He died for you because you haven’t kept the law, and then he gives you a new heart that is God-oriented and neighbor-loving.

Date: 7 November 2011
Text: Matthew 15:1-20
Title: Laws, Traditions, and New Hearts
Location: Broadus Chapel, SBTS
Event: Foundations of Worship Class

MDiv Progress

2011-11-04T22:04:00.002-04:00

99% complete
2 Weeks Remaining (Lord Willing)
Projected Finish: December 9, 2011

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

2011-10-24T15:15:00.001-04:00

Well, we've got a lot to do today, so let's get started. Today, we're going to be studying Matthew 6:11. If you'll remember what we've been doing, we've been walking step by step through the Lord's Prayer. It's a prayer that Jesus gives us as a model when his disciples asked him, "How should we pray?" So he teaches them to pray in this way. He says,

Pray then like this:
"Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

So that means that we, here in the year 2011, can look over their shoulders and ask Jesus ourselves, “How should we pray?” And by reading and studying this prayer, we receive a model or a pattern to use for our own lives—our own lives of prayer. When we go about our lives day to day, praying, we can use each of these phrases, each of these thoughts, to spur us on.

Over the last couple months, we’ve looked at the introduction, “Our Father in heaven,” the first prayer request, “hallowed be your name,” and the second prayer request, “your kingdom come.”

So when we go to pray ourselves, we are reminded that we should address God as our Father in heaven. That means that we address the almighty, transcendent, most holy God—the very God who stood over the mountain in Exodus and with terrifying presence gave the Law to Israel, the very God who can strike us down for our rebellion against him—we address him as our Father. That means that he has a disposition of love toward his people. He’s a better Father than even the best father. I’ve got a good Dad, and he’s a better and more trustworthy Father than even my Dad. That also means that we can approach him in utter dependence.

The first request teaches us that we need to ask him even for the ability to glorify him in our lives and in our prayers. This is the kind of dependence that we need to approach God with. We can’t even give him glory without his help. We also saw how God is more than happy to answer these kinds of prayers because in them, we’re praying that he would help us to be exactly what he’s created us to be—for example, poor in spirit, meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and so on.

Then last time, we saw how in the second request, we pray that the Father’s Kingdom would come. We pray that God would keep us and make us a part of his kingdom. Then we also pray that everyone else would also be brought into this kingdom. We’re praying for the evangelization of the world, and our neighbors, and our families. We’re praying that this would happen quickly and that God’s influence would spread from our hearts right on out into our lives. Our hearts are changed; God is king in there. Our lives are changed; God is king out there. And then the world is changed because God is king over all.

Because of time and since I only have two weeks after this one, we’re going to step over the third request, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” It’s enough to say here that in this request, we pray for God to make us able and willing to know, obey, and submit to his will in all things, in the same way that the angels do in heaven. We pray that God would change our hearts as we sit under his word. We want to be able to do God’s revealed will, and we want to be able to do it from our hearts. And that’s what we pray for when we say “Your will be done on earth.”

So today, I want to look closely at what Jesus means when he tells us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” That’s the fourth request of the Lord’s Prayer. “Give us this day our daily bread.”

This is where the rubber meets the road, isn’t it? Daily bread. There was a psychologist writing in the 1940s, Abraham Maslow, who theorized that there is a hierarchy of human needs. His theory is called, interestingly enough, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. At the very basic level, he says humans need things like food and clothing and shelter. Without adequate clothing and shelter, you might die. Without adequate food, you will die.

Also, the apostle Paul points out something fundamental about our daily bread. He teaches that husbands should love their wives like people tend to love their bodies. And how does he know we love our bodies? His answer is that we feed them. We eat. We take care of ourselves.

In our section of the Lord’s Prayer today, we pray that God would give us this thing—this daily bread—that is so fundamental to our existence.

Martin Luther writes helpfully here in his Small Catechism. “What does this mean?” he writes. “God gives daily bread, even without our prayer, to all wicked men; but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to know it, and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” The Heidelberg Catechism points out here that this passages leads us to pray that God would be pleased to give us this so basic need. Also it moves us to realize that God is our only ultimate source of all good things, and that none of our own efforts will provide these things for us without God’s blessing. This passage should move us, then, to trust in God for our help, and no one else in any ultimate sense.

So what does Jesus mean by “daily bread?” I think Luther is helpful again. He explains that in this prayer, we're praying for a lot more than simply food: We pray for,

“Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as meat, drink, clothing, shoes, house, homestead, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful magistrates, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.”

So when we ask for God to “give us this day our daily bread,” we ask not only for our basic human need of food. We ask also for all sorts of things that the Lord uses to sustain us and keep us and help us from day to day.

God is Very Kind to Us

This highlights the kindness of God! Just think about it. He doesn't need to give us any of these things. He gives food to all kinds of people all over the world—wicked people as well as good people. He’s given food and plenty of other good gifts to us. He takes care of the world. Do you realize that there are over six billion people in the world? That’s really more people than have lived on the earth at any one time throughout history. And very many of them have their basic needs met, as well as higher needs—good gifts from God.

Now not all six billion have all of these things, of course. We’ll get to that in a bit. But as many as do have their basic needs met, as many as do enjoy the good gifts of God, they’re all sinners. We’ve all rebelled against God. So any of these gifts that he gives us, he gives to us out of pure kindness. The apostle Peter writes in 2 Peter 3, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” God is patient with us and he is very kind to us. So when we pray that God would grant our daily bread, let us be motivated to thankfulness and a deep sense of trust in this God, who is absolutely lavish with us.

But We're Tempted to Doubt God's Goodness

But we’re tempted not to trust God. I know I am. There are a couple of ways this works out in my own heart. First, it happens from time to time when I pray for people. I realize that this is a hard economy and there are a lot of unemployed people. And so when I pray that a coworker would be able to keep her job because she needs it to support her child and stay in her apartment, I am tempted to doubt. I am tempted to be less than bold in my prayers, because I wonder if God might not actually grant what I’m asking for. But Jesus compels us to pray for this. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Lord, sustain us. Give us what we need for today. Then he encourages us in Matthew 6:25,

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Another way that I’m tempted not to trust God here, is when I see that there are people in the world who don’t even have the most basic physical need of adequate food. There are starving people in the world. Even now, there is a severe famine in the horn of Africa. The cost of basic staple foods there is through the roof, and people are literally starving. Sometimes I wonder how can I pray with boldness, and how can I trust God to provide the most basic of needs, when I know that people will die of starvation. Frankly, that’s a sin that I need to confess and repent of. The fact is that these kinds of crises are all the more reason to pray even more boldly. God, meet their needs, give them the food they need

God Uses Our Prayers to Motivate Us

And you see, God is very creative in the ways that he meets our needs. If we pray for God to meet a need, he might just motivate us to do what we can. You know, he meets our very ordinary need for food by motivating an army of people simply to get up and go to work in the morning. Farmers get up and till and harvest. Merchants open their markets. Truck drivers deliver goods to markets. Staff right here at the Springhurst Health and Rehab prepare meals and serve them to you. Through all of them, God has answered this prayer for you.

God is generous in his kindness to you. And maybe in praying this prayer, God can motivate you to meet a need you’re able to meet, however complicated or simple it is. He will motivate some people to help the people in the horn of Africa with food. He will motivate others to help them by bringing them the gospel—the words of eternal life. So when we see needs in our lives and in others’ lives, needs that seem to go unmet, don’t let that prevent you from praying for God to meet them, no matter how daunting they seem. Because God uses the prayers of his people to meet those needs.

God's Gifts are Not Ultimate

I realize I’m running out of time, but we’ve got to do a bit more work to do. When we pray for our daily bread, we are motivated to receive it with thanksgiving. Like I said a moment ago, God is lavish in his kindness to us. This should motivate us to give thanks to God. But this also means that we shouldn’t make God’s gifts ultimate.

God gives us food so we can glorify Him, not so that we can stuff our bellies. Any of the gifts God gives us—whether food, or family, or health—he gives them to us in order to reflect back on him in worship. If we abuse these gifts, we commit various sins like gluttony, or sexual immorality, or drunkenness. When we make God’s gifts ultimate in our minds, if the Lord chooses to remove one of them for a season, then we are crushed. You can lose joy; you can lose your trust in God. Remember that God is good beyond the gifts that he gives you. He is out for your good. If God is ultimate, everything else falls into place. Seek first the Kingdom, and all these things will be added to you.

Jesus Christ is True and Better Food

Finally, we need to realize that there is a kind of food, a kind of daily bread, that is much more important than the food you eat with your mouth. Jesus answered the Devil’s temptation by saying “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” In John 4, John writes,

The disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Later in John 6, Jesus says, “I am the bread of Life,” and his disciples acknowledge that He has the words of eternal life. They have nowhere else to go, because Jesus has what is of ultimate importance.

So here’s the long and short of it. We pray that the Father would give us what we need for the day. And we trust that he will do it. We trust that he will because he’s already given us everything in Jesus, his Son. So trust in Jesus. He is the bread of life. The gospel really turns everything on end. Trust the Father through Christ to give you what you need and he will. Even if he gives you fewer good things than you think you need, you have Christ. And if you count the glory of God as better than all of his good gifts, than you can be completely thankful for all of the gifts you’ve been given.

The takeaway today is that in Christ, the Father gives you everything. I don't know if that sounds like a good thing to you, or not. I hope it does. So trust Jesus today and humble yourself. Confess your own sinful brokenness and turn to Christ. Right now, we are invited to pray together that the Father will give us the bread we need for today.

So let’s pray together, shall we?

Date: 22 October 2011
Text: Matthew 6:11
Title: Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
Location: Springhurst Health and Rehab Center
Event: Saturday Morning

Discussion about Spiritual Gifts

2011-10-06T09:42:00.002-04:00

This is a conversation between Mark Driscoll and Douglas Wilson on Spiritual Gifts. It took place at the Grace Agenda conference On September 16-17, 2011. I think it's an interesting conversation.

Doug Wilson Interviews Mark Driscoll | Part II - Spiritual Gifts & Cessationism from Canon Wired on Vimeo.

Strong Foundations

2011-10-03T07:51:00.002-04:00

In Matthew 7:21-29, Jesus finishes giving the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus finishes with two sections of teaching and then Matthew makes a closing statement. In each of the last two sections of the sermon Jesus puts into sharp focus the implications of what he’s been teaching so far in the Sermon on the Mount. We’ve talked about it several times in here how Jesus is really driving home that what really matters to God is that you have a new heart. And if you have this new heart, you will want to react to God’s instructions in the scriptures in the way Jesus describes in Matthew 5, 6, and 7.

Now I don’t know how you feel about verses 21-23, but I’ll tell you, it frightens me in a way. You know, I’ve heard a lot of harsh teaching on this passage. I’ve heard a pastor who’s held in high regard by some teach this passage to his congregation, saying, “This means that many of you will say ‘Lord Lord’ on the last day, but Jesus will say to you, ‘I don’t know you.’” This pastor preached this to his congregation. There is a way to teach and to understand this passage that will crush people with sensitive consciences. It will break bruised reeds and put out smoldering wicks.

So because of some harsh teaching, I reacted negatively, and spent some time ignoring the passage altogether. But it’s right here in the Lord’s sermon, and we do need to pay attention to what it tells us. But I think that in the context of this whole sermon, you can tell what Jesus is doing here.

Remember what Jesus says in Chapter 5:17-20. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus teaches something about a Christian’s righteousness that is different from the conventional understanding of righteousness that was popular among religious conservatives of Jesus’s day. Jesus says, “I am not destroying the Law, I’m fulfilling it.” And he says, “Unless your righteousness is greater than that of the Pharisees, you will not see the kingdom.”

From that point on, Jesus shows that the reality of what God wants from us—the reality of the Law—is so much deeper than the outward actions required by the Law. So there is a way that you can avoid murdering people, all the while crushing them over and over again in our hearts. And there is a way that we can participate outwardly in all the right spiritual disciplines, but internally, we love the praise of others more than we love God.

So when we get to our passage in 7:21, we see men and women who have lived this way. They come to the judgment of the last day and they try to justify themselves before the Lord by laying out all of the holy things that they’ve done for him. Jesus responds to this by saying, “Come on, man. You’ve missed the point.” It’s not about the works you do, if you don't have a new heart. If you do mighty works in Jesus’s name, but you don’t have a new heart, then you’re doing exactly what the scribes and Pharisees were doing. And Jesus calls them hypocrites.

Then again in verses 24-27, Jesus makes the point again. If you hear Jesus’s words and do them, that is, if you recognize your need for a new heart and keep on relying on him to give you one, then you will be like the wise man who builds his house on a rock. The house stands up through the storm. But if you don’t do what he says, that is, if you think that Jesus’s point is that you need to keep on trying harder, working harder, then your house is built on sand. It will fall down as soon as the wind blows.

You don’t have to work harder and harder. To get more righteousness than the Pharisees all you need is to recognize that there is no help for you apart from Jesus Christ. And if you call out to him for help, he is near to you. He is the one who promises that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Why is it easy? Why is it light? Because through Jesus’s work on the cross, the Father forgives our sins and the Holy Spirit gives us new hearts.

And after he said these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching. He was teaching as one who has authority, unlike their scribes. Jesus was demonstrating who he was. He was teaching the gospel.

It is crucial that you believe this. We’re all probably better at sinning than we give ourselves credit for. We can get pretty good at building systems for ourselves where we do better and try harder, and it looks a lot like righteousness. But if we do this, then Jesus says we’re deceiving ourselves. And if we tell the judge of the universe that we’ve done many mighty works in his name, and that’s what we’re banking on, then we’ve missed it. But if we repent of our sins and our answer to Jesus is, “I have no other hope than your work on my behalf,” then we’ve understood Jesus’s point. If you believe this, then your house will stand through the storm. If you believe this, you will not be cast out on the last day.

Date: 29 September 2011
Text: Matthew 7:21-29
Title: Strong Foundations
Location: Dillard Chapel at Southern Seminary
Event: Thursday Evening Prayer

Your Kingdom Come

2011-09-27T07:00:00.000-04:00

Matthew 6:7-13

Today we’re going to be taking a closer look at the second request in the Lord’s prayer. If you’ll remember last month, we talked about the introduction and the first prayer request—remember “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name.” And we talked about how addressing God as Father and then asking him to give us the heart and strength and ability even to glorify him—we talked about how that sets the stage not only for this prayer, but also for how Christians are called to address their Father and trust in him in all of life. He is more than glad to answer our prayers if we pray this way, because the first thing we ask is that he could help us to glorify him better. We’re asking him to help us do exactly what he’s created us to do.

We also talked about how the Gospel of Jesus’s death and resurrection, and his free forgiveness of the sins of his people runs under and enables all of that.

Today, we’re continuing our look at this model prayer and we’re going to look at what Jesus wants us to pray for when he has us ask for the Father’s kingdom to come.

Now when Jesus asks us to pray “Your kingdom come,” Matthew, the writer, has thrown a loaded term at us. You’re probably aware of a lot of loaded terms. You might be especially aware of loaded political terms. If you’ve heard of (or supported) the idea of a “fair tax” you know that it stands for a whole ideology of taxation that may not be immediately obvious in the term itself. Maybe you have heard of the term “social justice.” The same thing goes for that concept. The ultimate meaning of those terms depends on their use and context, and those terms have a lot of context.

The same thing goes for the word “kingdom” in the Lord’s Prayer. We need to understand that the gospel of Matthew gives us a clear Biblical Theology of the kingdom. So what, exactly, is the kingdom? Right at the start of their ministries, both John the Baptist and Jesus himself preach what Matthew calls the gospel of the Kingdom by saying, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Two observations here. First, the idea of the kingdom that Jesus preached is connected to the term gospel or good news. So the good news that Jesus preaches has to do with the coming of a kingdom—the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. The second observation is this: The way into that kingdom is repentance. So Jesus calls his followers to repent of their sins, and this is the key to the good news of the kingdom.

In the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus says he has come not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, he explains that those who will see the kingdom of heaven will need a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. So the implications here are that the kingdom involves the fulfillment of the Law or the rule of God. Also, this means that life in the kingdom involves real internal holiness—and a great deal of it.

So we can already see that Jesus is proclaiming the arrival of a new kingdom which is good news for us, especially if our lives are marked by repentance of sins, and that this kingdom that is marked by a real and great internal righteousness. And if we look closely at Matthew 2, we can see who the King of this kingdom is. Matthew writes about the wise men from the east, probably from somewhere near where Iraq is today. These wise men say say, “Where is this new born king of the Jews?” They were there looking for Jesus. They knew the bible's teaching about the coming of a chosen king. They knew it and they came to Jerusalem, and then to Bethlehem to find him and worship him. The events surrounding Jesus’s birth and his youth and really all of his life confirm the fact that the wise men were right about Jesus. He is the king of this new kingdom.

So we get into this kingdom through repentance of sin; it is good news for us; it is all about the rule of God, particularly in Jesus Christ; and life in the kingdom involves a righteousness that comes from the heart. The kingdom of heaven, as I understand it, means the gospel message of the work of Christ on the cross and in his resurrection and ascension; the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins, and of the Lordship of Jesus; and of the real life implications that flow out of this message.

When we pray, “your kingdom come,” I want us to see that we are praying for a few things all at once. The first thing we pray for is the growth of this kingdom in our world today. We pray this with the Psalmist, “May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth! May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him!” That’s from Psalm 72. In Matthew 24, Matthew writes, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” The proclaiming and growing of this kingdom is the last age of the world and it’s happening right now. By praying this prayer, we are praying that the Lord would complete his work in the world.

The second thing we pray for is that we ourselves would be incorporated into this kingdom and kept in it. And we also pray for the conversion of those who are not in the kingdom. I have friends who tell me they pray and weep for their parents who are not believers. They are effectively praying what Jesus calls us to pray with the words, “Your kingdom come.” With these words, we pray that the kingdom of God would come into the world, ruling in and over our hearts. And then we pray that God’s righteousness would be worked out in our lives, and that through this spread of the kingdom in our hearts, its influence would grow and spread out through the world. So we pray that God would grant us a desire for evangelism in the ordinary course of our lives. We pray that we would be able to see conversions. We pray for the efforts of missionaries and ministers who make it their vocation to continue preaching the gospel of the kingdom and spreading the love of God around the world.

The third thing we pray for is that Satan’s kingdom—the kingdom of the world, the flesh, and the devil; that false substitute kingdom—we pray that that kingdom would decrease in influence and would eventually end. Hopefully very soon! And we can see how that will happen as the Kingdom of Heaven spreads and grows in influence. As God's kingdom grows and expands in influence, the kingdom of Satan will decrease. Satan will lose control. And if you've been personally impacted by the gospel, you've already begun to see the start of it.

The final thing we pray for in this is that we would see the final success of this kingdom quickly. There are a lot of people who need Jesus, and who don’t even realize it. And that may be some of you. Jesus has us pray that God’s kingdom would come. In this prayer, we should hope with all of our hearts that everyone would be converted. Charles Spurgeon famously prayed, “Lord save all of the elect, and then elect some more.” O God that you would save the world. O God, please save my friends, family members, my friends’ families. We should want to see this realized as fully as possible and as soon as possible. And we know that it will be. The Bible assures us of it. Listen to Isaiah 11:6-9:

    [6]The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
        and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
    and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
        and a little child shall lead them.
    [7] The cow and the bear shall graze;
        their young shall lie down together;
        and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
    [8] The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
        and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
    [9] They shall not hurt or destroy
        in all my holy mountain;
    for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
        as the waters cover the sea.

We need to realize is that this is not the way things are right now. And we need to feel this. The kingdom of heaven is real, and if you’re trusting in Jesus it is being realized right now in your hearts. Some of you may have been able to see the kingdom of heaven more or less clearly in the life of your churches. But we need to realize even now that the world is still broken and we are still sinners. And to the extent that we let sin operate in our hearts and lives, we are giving power to the kingdom of Satan. And to the extent that you remain willful and stubborn against God’s word or his rule in your conscience, you give power to the kingdom of Satan. And to the extent that people you know are not repenting and trusting in Jesus, they are under the weight of the kingdom of Satan

But praise be to God, that breaking the bonds of the kingdom of Satan is not up to us. Christ has done this decisively on the cross. Satan lost his power ultimately and finally right there. So when you sin, you have the freedom to call out to God. And God will rescue you. He will forgive you.

And not only that, you will be enabled to follow Christ and his example. Even when you don’t follow him perfectly, he gives you the opportunity to repent again and again and again. He sanctifies your life. He sanctifies even imperfect motives. And all of this happens because if you are in Christ, you have repentance of sins. You have that gracious gift.

And again, not only that, but when you give hope to people by speaking the gospel to them, God has assured in the cross that your words will not be in vain.

Pray with all your hearts, with full confidence in Jesus, that the Father’s kingdom will come. He will answer this prayer.

Date: 24 September 2011
Text: Matthew 6:7-13
Title: Your Kingdom Come
Location: Springhurst Health and Rehab Center
Event: Saturday Morning

Your Father Sees Your Heart

2011-09-26T10:47:00.000-04:00

In Matthew 6:1-18, the Lord preaches a sermon that contains three points on giving, praying, and fasting. But in each section of his sermon, he makes exactly the same point. Today, we're going to look carefully at Jesus's three points. In each one, Jesus makes a clear distinction that his hearers would have quickly recognized—and that we can easily recognize too, if we think about it.

Jesus is distinguishing between true devotion and the practice of those religious leaders who give their money and pray and fast with a lot of pomp and fanfare and bluster, just so that they could be seen doing it.

Think about how you might feel if a wealthy and prominent member of your church stood up in the middle of the offering time to hand the pastor an oversized check. Or what about the guy who stands up to pray in your community group only to use vocal tones he never uses otherwise, and he makes his language much holier than usual, and you know he's going to get those prayer affirmation noises (you know: 'Mmm,' 'yes Lord,' and 'amen!'). Or what about the lady who likes to slip it into conversation that she makes it a point to stop at least once a week to fast and pray?

Do you know these people? Are you one of these people?

Jesus is warning against this mindset that says outward religion is what god really wants; that outward and public religious devotion is of first importance. This is the mindset that God cares most about the posture I use when I pray or the words that I use.

In the context of the passage, Jesus was preaching against the outward religious orientation of the Pharisees. And for those who have grown up in church or who have spent the last few years in some sort of public ministry, it's pretty easy to see how the Pharisees got it wrong. I am reminded of Jesus's illustration about how the Pharisees were more concerned with washing the outside of a cup than washing the inside of it. It is easy to see the relative emptiness of purely external religion.

Remember the baptism scene in The Godfather? Michael Corleone renounces the devil and all his works while his henchmen knock off all of his competition one-by-one. This scene clearly shows the dissonance between public devotion, and personal disregard for the reality behind the devotion. Empty religion is repugnant and that can be easy to see.

But this passage has more to say to us if we look just a bit closer. If we look into our hearts, I think we can find—at least I can find in my own heart that there is a spot in me that really wants to be congratulated on my generosity. And when I pray, I hate to admit it, but I tend to listen for those little affirmation noises. And I can remember times I've been disappointed that I didn't get any. I can remember talking about times that I've fasted—trying to be modest, but really loving the attention.

Just as much as he was speaking about the abuses of the Pharisees, we have to realize that Jesus was speaking to us too. We evangelical Christians have a lot in common with our friends the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the theologically conservative movement of their time. They loved the Scriptures. They were inerrantists, so to speak. They wanted to believe what the Bible taught and do what it said. The temptations they faced are some of the same temptations we face. We face the same temptations to outward displays of holiness that they faced.

We must understand that the true religion of God—the religion that Jesus preached—is a religion of the heart. In Jesus we see the exact likeness of God the Father, and we are moved by the Holy Spirit to worship him in spirit and in truth!

The fact of the matter is that it is common to humans to want to make ourselves holy (or at least to make ourselves look holy enough). Right?

But Jesus says to us, "Listen, that's a sin! That is offensive to me. I will not reward your outward holiness if you're not going to be holy on the inside. Because I see what is done in secret!"

But you know, even though we're tempted to give and pray and fast and do ministry to be seen and praised by others, and even though we actually live that way from time to time, Jesus's admonition is actually good news for us. Jesus says his Father sees what is done in secret!

You and I can only see the the broad patterns in our lives and actions, and that's good because we can ask the right questions and dig into each others' lives, and help each other walk along the way. But Jesus cuts strait to the heart. The Father sees our hearts.

And the promise that we have been promised is that when we recognize and repent of our sin—even the sin of loving the praise of others—and when we cling to Jesus Christ as our hope and our salvation, he will not let us go!

It is this gospel—this heart devotion—that assures us of God's favor, and then begins to prompt us from the inside out to change our pattern of life. We are prompted to give and pray and fast and worship purely for the sake of the glory of God and for the good of others. And all of this happens as we are shaped and molded and exposed and changed by the application of the word of God to our hearts.

So let us worship this God. He is the Father who looks on the heart. He sees what is done in secret. And he loves his Son, and along with his Son, he loves everyone who is found in him! Allow Jesus's words to expose the ways you are tempted to love the praise of others—really, the ways you are tempted to worship yourself. Then allow God's promise—his sure promise of repentance and salvation to wash your heart clean.

Date: 22 September 2011
Text: Matthew 6:1-18
Title: Your Father Sees Your Heart
Location: Dillard Chapel at Southern Seminary
Event: Thursday Evening Prayer

Our Lord and Our God

2011-09-03T10:33:00.003-04:00

In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis introduces a concept he calls a trilemma. He says we are not able simply to ignore Jesus by saying he’s a “good teacher.” Jesus claims to be God. So we either agree with him or we disagree. We can’t say “well, he’s alright, I guess.” Lewis says we have to call him either a liar—because he knows he’s not God and wants to convince you that he is—or he’s a lunatic—he thinks he’s God, but he’s not, really—or he really is who he says he is—he is the Lord God of heaven!

In Mark 15:12-21, we have three scenes, three snapshots, and three sets of characters and they all react to Jesus in one of these ways. In the first scene Jesus is standing in Pilate’s court and the set of characters we’ll focus on is the Jewish crowd. In the second scene, we move outside of the court. Now Jesus is standing before the Roman soldiers. In the third scene, we're walking with Jesus along the road to the hill where he's going to be executed. And here, we're going to be introduced to a man named Simon from Cyrene.

In each of these scenes, I think we see one of these three reactions to Jesus. When Pilate asks the crowd what he should do with Jesus—this man who calls himself the King of the Jews—they get angry and shout "Crucify him!" They're so angry that they don't even answer the right questions. Pilate: What should I do with Jesus? Crowd: Crucify him! Pilate: But what crime has he committed? Crowd: Crucify him! The crowd was so angry because they judged him to be a liar and a blasphemer. They wanted him gone; they wanted him crucified.

In the second scene, we find the soldiers, who obviously think that Jesus is a complete loony. They mock Jesus by giving him—remember that he's all bloody from the beatings he received—they give him a purple robe, and a false crown made from thorns. Then they even bow down to him in mock reverence. They beat him up, and then they pretend to venerate him.

Now in the third scene, the connection is not quite as clear, but I think we can make the allusion. In the third scene, we see a man walking with his sons back into town, when suddenly, he's interrupted by the most significant event in all history. He's compelled by a Roman soldier to carry Christ's cross for him. Unlike the Pharisees, and unlike the soldiers, this man is compelled to pick up a Roman cross and follow Jesus up the hill.

My question for you is this: where do you find yourself in this story? We don't tend to react in such dramatic ways as the Jewish crowd or as the Roman soldiers. But I think we can find ourselves in the story when, like the Pharisees when we set up our religious systems and practices and we think that's what God is ultimately pleased with. We can tend to maintain all sorts of divisions and we fail to love God or our neighbors well when we focus on things like Calvinism vs. Arminianism, formal and structured worship vs. free-form worship, hymns vs. contemporary songs, even different approaches to being missional; you name it. All of these things are important, but if we put them at the center of our self-understanding, we completely miss the point. We must keep the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the center—we must not let our religious systems and practices eclipse the One to whom they are designed to point us.

Perhaps we are like the soldiers when we say we believe things, but we don't really believe them in practice. You say, "I trust the Lord with all my heart, and lean not on my own understanding." But then you—then we—wake up every morning worried about finances, or class, or marriage, or ministry, or whatever is on our minds at the time. What are the things you say you believe, but have trouble following through in your heart?

In the reading, when we're introduced to Simon, he was pressed into service by the soldiers. But what he did clearly alludes to the life we are called to live. We are to take up our crosses daily and follow Jesus. In doing this we are freed from all distractions and allowed truly to love God and to love our neighbors.

What Simon did outwardly, let us by God's grace do now in our hearts and with our lives, trusting in Jesus, who is neither a liar nor a lunatic, but who is truly our Lord and our God.

Date: 1 September 2011
Text: Mark 15:12-21
Title: Our Lord and Our God
Location: Dillard Chapel at Southern Seminary
Event: Evening Prayer

Pray Without Ceasing

2011-08-09T00:27:00.004-04:00

The New Testament tells us in various places to pray without ceasing. In Luke 18, Jesus tells the parable of the persistent widow. Luke explains in verse 1 why Jesus tells that story: “to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” Perhaps the most famous biblical instruction to this end is 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Paul writes simply, “Pray without ceasing.” But that's not all Paul writes. He also says in Romans 12:12, “be constant in prayer.” In Ephesians 6:18, he says to pray “at all times in the Spirit.” And in Colossians 4:2, he writes, “Continue steadfastly in prayer.”

This is a common theme throughout Scripture, but it's a standard that I so rarely live up to. Do you feel that way? Are you constant in prayer, praying at all times in the Spirit? When the Bible teaches us to be constant in prayer, or to pray without ceasing, I don't think it means that we are, at all times in the day, to bow our heads and close our eyes and continue in prayer. I take it to mean that we are to have a constant, all-day, prayerful orientation toward God. And Scripture shows us, by example, people who have maintained this contstant prayerful orientation to God by means of sanctifying the day with times of prayer. Biblical examples would include the man of Psalm 1, Daniel, and the Lord himself.

The first example is found in Psalm 1. “Blessed is the man,” the psalmist writes, whose “delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.” The result for this blessed man is that “he is like a tree planted by streams of water.” He does not wither, and unlike the unrighteous man, he is not blown away by the wind. The psalmist says the blessed one meditates on God's Word day and night. When it is day, he meditates on God's Word. When it is night, he meditates on God's Word. An implication of this passage is that he sanctifies the time—both day and night, both morning and evening—by meditating on and praying through God's Word.

A second example is in Daniel 6. Because of Daniel's stature in Darius's kingdom, several jealous Babylonian governors conspired to have him cast out of Darius's court. They could find no crime to pin on Daniel so they had to make one up. They knew that Daniel prayed three times a day every day. So they appealed to the king's vanity and convinced him to sign a law outlawing prayer or petition to anyone but the king. Regardless, Daniel continued to pray three times a day, according to his custom. He was faithful to the Lord in the face of opposition and God delivered him. His example is commended to us by implication as one among the great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 11:33.

A third example is found in the life of Jesus Christ. In Mark 1:32-35, after an evening of healing people and driving out many demons, Jesus rose early in the morning to pray, before another day of teaching and preaching. He did this from town to town throughout all Galilee. In Luke 5, Luke writes that as reports of Jesus's ministry spread abroad, great crowds would gather to hear Jesus teach and to be healed. Luke continues in verse 16, "But He would withdraw to desolate places and pray." This was a pattern that Jesus would follow. In Luke 6, following His pattern, Jesus withdrew one night to pray, and He continued all night. It was the Lord's pattern to pray regularly, and He would withdraw to pray in both the morning and the evening.

Paul teaches that the gospel is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16). Peter says in John 6 that he follows Jesus because Jesus is the only one who has the “words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Since these things are true, it is clear why Jesus teaches, and Paul echoes, that we should always pray and not lose heart.

So we should learn from the habits of the blessed man of Psalm 1, and of Daniel, and of our Lord. In the morning, rise, read a chapter or two from the Bible and pray. Entrust the day to God. In the evening before you sleep, read a chapter or two from the Bible, pray, then go to sleep. Entrust the night to God. You'll have the Word of God on your mind in the morning and in the evening, and it will stay on your mind throughout the day. Martin Luther has a helpful order of daily morning and evening prayer in his Small Catechism. He also has a helpful tract on prayer entitled A Simple Way to Pray (availible here as a PDF, or as a book from Ligonier Ministries).

God will not be angry with you if you have a different pattern of daily prayer, or if you miss a day or several days. Prayer and meditation on the Word of God are gifts. They are our life lines. They are the things, together with gathered public worship, that God has given us to stay connected to the life of the Spirit. May we hunger and thirst for them, because Jesus said “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6).

Why a Healthy Spirituality is Important

2011-08-02T16:07:00.001-04:00

First, I should clarify that when I write healthy spirituality, I don't mean being a Christian. In this post, I assume that you’re a Christian. What I mean by the term spirituality is a kind of understanding of the Christian life and a particular approach to Christian devotion. So in other posts, I'll outline what a healthy, biblical spirituality looks like.

But today, I want to discuss why it's important. A healthy spirituality is important because of who you are. Did you know that the Bible calls you a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood? Right after Israel came out of Egypt, and right before God gave the Law to Israel, he called Moses and told him to give a speech. In Exodus 19:6, He said, tell the people "if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."

In the New Testament, Peter, writing to the fledgling church spread across the empire, picks up on this theme and tells them, "you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for [God's] own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy" (1 Peter 2:9). Peter then goes on to give these Christians practical instructions about how they should live their lives.

Spirituality is important because Christians are a kingdom of priests. A priest is charged with the responsibility to represent God to people—both to those inside the community and to those outside. For people inside your church community, you are responsible to bear each other's burdens (Galatians 6:2), to love each other (John 13:34; Romans 12:10). For people outside of the church, you are responsible to be ready to give a defense for the hope that you have in Christ (1 Peter 3:15). So in that sense, you have a clear responsibility before God to be a priest to one another and to the world.

This occurred to me as I thought about the vocation I'm preparing for at Seminary. I am called to be a pastor in the church. Lord willing, it will be a part of my responsibility to call sinners to repentance, to proclaim the forgiveness of sins to those who are penitent, and to administer the word and the sacraments. How can I faithfully accomplish any of this, I wondered, if I am not regularly worshiping and being instructed by the Word of God? A healthy spirituality is of prime importance to my calling.

The Bible is where God communicates with us. When we read the Bible, we are reading the very words that create and sustain faith within the heart (Romans 1:16). When we read the Bible, we read the very words that make a very ordinary application of water into holy baptism. When we read the Bible, we read the very words that make ordinary bread and wine into our participation in the body and blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16).

I cannot have the word of God always on my lips, if I'm not also meditating on it always in my heart. Neither can you, of course. So, for your own spiritual health, and for the well being of the people you influence, it is important that you have a vital spirituality—in other words, a healthy relationship with God. Remember, you are a royal priesthood, called out of darkness into his marvelous light

What is Prayer?

2011-08-01T10:57:00.001-04:00

The most basic definition of prayer is "talking to God." Anyone can do it. In your mind, you formulate something you want to say to God, then you say it. People pray all the time, all around the world, to a variety of deities. Indeed, prayer forms the basic building block of spirituality.

But the Bible has a bit of a different take on prayer. It still involves talking to God, and anyone can still do it. A biblical approach to prayer, though, involves responding to God's revelation. The author of Hebrews writes that God has, at various times and in diverse ways, revealed himself through the prophets. But now, Hebrews says, God has revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-2). The whole Bible—the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament—is the perfect chronicle of God's self-revelation.

The truth is that there is one God, the Father Almighty, who created heaven and earth; that there is one God who exists in the persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that this God is the only worthy recipient of worship. Biblical spirituality involves hearing or reading God's Word (the Bible), and responding in prayer.

When we pray, what are we responding to, exactly? Well, the Bible is a diverse library, of 66 individual books with literary genres consisting of poetry, prophecy, history, genealogy, and sermons. But all of these books and genres contain one overarching story: the creation of the world, the fall of humankind, God's redemption of humankind, and God's reconciling of the world to himself. When you read the Bible, you will see how God's plan is astonishing and unified. You will see, among other things, what Israel's exodus from Egypt has to do with Jesus' invitation for you to repent of your sins.

So what is prayer? Prayer is responding to God's call to you to repent of your sins and join Him in His plan for the world. In the Bible you see God for who He is, and you see yourself for who you are. This reality moves Christians to cry out with Isaiah, "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" (Isaiah 6:5) After that Christians are assured of God's forgiveness, because "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).

From there we move to giving thanks to God for various gifts he's given us, or bringing our requests to Him. When we pray we can ask God for help, or we can even express our lack of understanding about aspects of the life He has called us to.

The Lord is near to all who call on Him (Psalm 145:18).

Bach’s Cantata 147

2011-07-16T16:07:00.004-04:00

Born Again to a Living Hope

2011-07-09T16:18:00.005-04:00

1 Peter 1:3-9

1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded thorough faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with Glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

John Calvin, the theologian and protestant reformer, wrote “We should ask God to increase our hope when it is small, awaken it when it is dormant, confirm it when it is wavering, strengthen it when it is weak, and raise it up when it is overthrown.”

Does this resonate with you? Do you know this kind of hope? I realize, of course, where we are today. For many of you, it can be very difficult to find hope if you’re lonely, or if your health is failing. It can be very difficult to find hope, when you watch all the things that happen on the news. Hope, in our day, can be very hard to find.

But there is something in this quote that, for me, at least, is comforting and helpful. This is true for two reasons. First, it’s comforting that we have something to hope for at all, and second it’s comforting that when our hope is weak, we can ask God to increase it, to strengthen it, and He is inclined to do it.

Peter has quite a bit to teach us about hope in our passage today. We can see why we have hope, and we can see why He’s inclined to strengthen our hope when we ask Him.

1. The Source of Our Hope

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

If I were to walk into a Sunday school class and ask what it was that Jesus did for us, I imagine the most common answer would be something like “Jesus died for us on the cross.” That is very true. He did take the penalty for our sin on the cross. But our passage today calls attention to what happened three days after that. Jesus was raised from the dead! Peter writes that the Father caused us to be born again to a living hope, how? Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Because Jesus was raised, we can have hope. The resurrection of Jesus is a fact. It is a matter of public record. We see in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus after His resurrection appeared to the apostles as well as to five hundred disciples—eye witnesses that Paul mentions were still alive at the time of His writing. There were eye witnesses to the resurrection that could and did confirm the truth of the resurrection of Christ. The fact of the resurrection confirms for us that what Jesus said and what He promised was true.

Not only does the resurrection confirm the truth of the Gospel, it also foreshadows a gift to all Christians. In Romans 6, Paul says, “if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” In Romans 6, Paul is teaching that if we have faith in Christ, we are united to Christ, symbolized in Baptism. When the father gives us faith, when He causes us to be born again, He unites us to Christ, and just as surely as Christ was raised, we shall be raised as well.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the ground of our hope. We may be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

So the question for you is are you in Christ? See Christ has promised you salvation if you will repent of your sins and trust in Him as savior. If you trust in Christ to forgive your sins, He will—He proves it by rising from the dead.

2. The Substance of Our Hope

Those who are born again are born “to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded thorough faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

The substance of our hope is what Peter calls here an inheritance that is imperishable and unfading. Do you remember what God promised to Abraham? The Psalmist in Psalm 105:11 says God promised the land of Canaan as an inheritance. But in the New Testament, we see that the Land of Canaan pointed ahead to a true and better inheritance. In Matthew 5, Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” He then said “Blessed are you when others revile you…for your reward is great in heaven.”

Through the resurrection of Christ we receive an inheritance—the ultimate inheritance—eternal life with Christ in heaven.

Do you have the promise of this inheritance? How do you know if you do? Well, you have the inheritance by faith in Christ—you have the inheritance of the people of God if you are a part of the people of God. So what does that mean? It means that you repent of your sins and put your faith and trust in Christ alone to save you. Christians are people who are moved by the gospel to repent of their sins. Repentance is the mark of a faithful Christian.

Friends, as the Heidelberg catechism says, our only comfort in life and in death is that we are not our own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death, to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Trust Him today, and this is your hope too.

3. The Security of Our Hope

Those who are found in Christ, “by God’s power are being guarded thorough faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

This hope is guaranteed. We see here that by God’s power—the same power that raised Jesus from the dead—Christians are being guarded through faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. We often talk about salvation in the present tense. Are you saved now? And that’s true—you’re either saved or not—born again or not. Either Christ is your savior or He isn’t. But we have hope—and it’s a sure source of hope—that if you are regenerated now, you are being guarded by God. He’s keeping you through faith, so that you will be ultimately and finally saved on the last day.

On the last day, Christians will be glorified. They will receive their inheritance. All remaining sin will be purged.

4. The Setting of Our Hope

We’ve been talking about the Resurrection of Jesus today. More specifically, we’ve been talking about the hope that we have because of the resurrection of Jesus. But the fact that we speak of it as a hope means that there is something yet to come—something that’s not here yet. Our hope is sure—as sure as Jesus is alive, as sure as Christ is risen. But the context of our hope—where we are right now—is in the midst of various trials.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

I don’t know specifically what your trials are at the moment. I can venture a guess. Some of you are very lonely. Some of you are afraid of declining health. There are Christians here in the US and around the world who are being actively persecuted for their faith. The people to whom Peter was writing were indeed going through various trials. This text is encouraging you to persevere so that the tested genuineness of your faith may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, that is, His return.

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with Glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

This is how the passage ends. This is the character of persevering faith. You have not seen Him and you love Him. You don't see Him now, but you believe in Him, with joy.

Friends, you can have hope despite your various trials. Death and loss are frightening. But if you are found in Christ, you need not fear death because Jesus defeated death. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” Your body may die, but if you are in Christ, your soul will not die and your body will be raised, as Christ’s was. If you are in Christ, you will not suffer loss because He is the heir of all things.

This is the hope that we have in Christ: joy inexpressible. The outcome of our faith is the salvation of our souls. If you are not in Christ—that is if you continue to turn toward your sin and away from Christ—then none of this hope belongs to you. You have no promise of another moment in the world.

But there is yet hope in Christ. Turn to Him now—confess your sin to Him, accept his forgiveness, and purpose to love His word and begin to practice it. If you are in Christ, you have a living hope.

Christian friends, If you’re worried or anxious about anything at all, you can remember this hope you have in Christ. Take a moment to repent of your worry, even. You have a better inheritance.

Calvin says, “We should ask God to increase our hope when it is small, awaken it when it is dormant, confirm it when it is wavering, strengthen it when it is weak, and raise it up when it is overthrown.”

Let’s pray.

Father, Your word teaches us that we have a great hope in Christ, but our ability to see it is often shaky and weak. For those of us with small hope, I pray that you would increase it. For those with a dormant hope, I pray that you would awaken it. For those with wavering hope, I pray that you would confirm it. And for those with overthrown hope, I pray that you would raise it up again. Father, for some here, I pray that you would grant faith that some would be converted. For the, I pray that you would strengthen and encourage us, that we may obtain the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls. Amen.

Date: 9 July 2011
Text: 1 Peter 1:3-9
Title: Born Again to a Living Hope
Location: Springhurst Health and Rehab
Event: Nursing Home Service

Pocket Common Worship and Prayer

2011-06-30T10:51:00.001-04:00

If you're familiar with the Book of Common Prayer or the updated Common Worship, and if you have an Android phone, this may be a helpful resource for you. The app is called "Pocket Common Worship and Prayer." It contains daily orders of Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer. You can find it at the link below.

Pocket Common Worship and Prayer
https://market.android.com/details?id=uk.amimetic.pocketcommonworship

Great, but Unobtrusive

2011-06-08T14:41:00.001-04:00

"Keats once said, 'Poetry should be great, but unobtrusive.' So ought a sermon. It ought to be great, but it ought not to obtrude itself. If men go away saying, 'That was a great sermon,' it falls short of the ideal. When men listened to Demosthenes, they did not go off saying, 'That was a great oration.' They said, 'Let us march against Philip,'" (Charles Jefferson, The Minister as Shepherd, p. 103).

An Avarice as Fatal as the Greed for Money

2011-06-08T12:30:00.001-04:00

"Covetousness leads to conceit and also to vanity. Every human being has in his heart a peacock, and the peacock is ever hungering after crumbs. The covetous man feeds the peacock in him all the time. People praise his sermons, and this praise makes him voracious for more praise. They compliment his voice, or his memory, or his beautiful diction, and this wakens an appetite which, growing by what it feeds on, is never satisfied. this abnormal love of praise is in reality a form a covetousness. It is a sort of avarice which is as fatal as the greed for money. Praiseful words are coins, and some men itch and burn for them as other men do for silver and gold. Sometimes this disease makes such progress that the poor man becomes an object of ridicule in the church. He seeks habitually for compliments, and every man whose heart is sound secretly despises him. The last man of all men upon the earth who ought to hunger after the sugar of popular commendation is the minister of Jesus of Nazareth. If the applause-seeking brother were not spiritually asleep, he would hear a voice saying: 'How can you believe, who receive honor from men and seek not the honor which comes from God only?'" (Charles Jefferson, The Minister as Shepherd, pp. 90-91).

The Perils of Introspection

2011-05-31T14:15:00.000-04:00

In February of 2010, John Piper turned his attention to C. S. Lewis for his biographical address at the Desiring God Pastors Conference. In that address, Piper reveals several lessons he learned from reading and appreciating Lewis. One of those lessons is on one particular peril of introspection.

Lewis’s experience in the pursuit of Joy and the mistakes he made has had a huge effect on the way I think about the assurance of salvation in relationship to introspection and self-examination. What he discovered is that the effort to know the experience of Joy by looking at Joy is self-defeating. He wrote, “I saw that all my waitings and watchings for Joy, all my vain hopes to find some mental content on which I could, so to speak, lay my finger and say, ‘This is it,’ had been a futile attempt contemplate the enjoyed.” 1 It can’t be done, for the moment we step outside ourselves to contemplate our enjoying, we are no longer enjoying, but contemplating. The implication of this for knowing that we are believing God by trying to look at our believing is enormous.

This is our dilemma . . . as thinkers we are cut off from what we think about; as tasting, touching, willing, loving, hating, we do not clearly understand. The more lucidly we think, the more we are cut off: the more deeply we enter into reality, the less we can think. You cannot study Pleasure in the moment of the nuptial embrace, nor repentance while repenting, nor analyze the nature of humor while roaring with laughter. But when else can you really know these things? 2

You cannot hope and also think about hoping at the same moment; for in hope we look to hope’s object and we interrupt this by (so to speak) turning around to look at the hope itself. . . . Introspection is in one respect misleading. In introspection we try to look inside ourselves and see what is going on. But nearly everything that was going on a moment before is stopped by the very act of our turning to look at it. Unfortunately this does not mean that introspection finds nothing. On the contrary, it finds precisely what is left behind by the suspension of all our normal activities; and what is left behind is mainly mental images and physical sensations. The great error is to mistake this mere sediment or track or by product for the activities themselves. 3

What this has meant for me is, first, that I see now that the pursuit of Joy must always be indirect—focusing not on the experience but the object to be enjoyed. And, second, I see that faith in Jesus, in its most authentic experience is suspended when it is being analyzed to see if its real. Which means this analysis always ends in discouragement. When we are trusting Christ most authentically, we are not thinking about trusting, but about Christ. When we step out of the moment to examine it, we cease what we were doing, and therefore cannot see it. My counsel for strugglers therefore is relentlessly: Look to Jesus. Look to Jesus in his word. And pray for eyes to see.

From "Lessons from an Inconsolable Soul: Learning from the Mind and Heart of C. S. Lewis" at DesiringGod.org.

Footnotes

1 C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, p. 219.

2 C. S. Lewis: Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces, ed. Lesley Walmsley (London: HarperCollinsPublishers, 2000), p. 140.

3 Ibid. pp. 218–219.

For those in the Armed Forces of our Country

2011-05-30T10:21:00.001-04:00

ALMIGHTY GOD, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

—From The Book of Common Prayer (1979), p. 823.

John Piper Interviews Rick Warren on Doctrine

2011-05-30T09:58:00.003-04:00

John Piper Interviews Rick Warren on Doctrine (Desiring God Blog)

Law and Gospel

2011-05-30T09:49:00.000-04:00

I receive a daily email from John Stott Ministries (Langham Partnership) called the "Daily Thought." I thought I'd share this one.

After God gave the promise to Abraham, he gave the law to Moses. Why? Simply because he had to make things worse before he could make them better. The law exposed sin, provoked sin, condemned sin. The purpose of the law was, as it were, to lift the lid off man's respectability and disclose what he is really like underneath -- sinful, rebellious, guilty, under the judgment of God, and helpless to save himself. And the law must still be allowed to do its God-given duty today. One of the great faults of the contemporary church is the tendency to soft-pedal sin and judgment. Like false prophets we 'heal the wound of God's people lightly' (Je. 6:14; 8:11). This is how Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it: 'It is only when one submits to the law that one can speak of grace ... I don't think it is Christian to want to get to the New Testament too soon and too directly.'(1) We must never bypass the law and come straight to the gospel. To do so it to contradict the plan of God in biblical history. Is this not why the gospel is unappreciated today? Some ignore it, others ridicule it. So in our modern evangelism we cast our pearls (the costliest pearl being the gospel) before swine. People cannot see the beauty of the pearl, because they have no conception of the filth of the pigsty. No man has ever appreciated the gospel until the law has first revealed him to himself. It is only against the inky blackness of the night sky that the stars begin to appear, and it is only against the dark background of sin that the gospel shines forth. Not until the law has bruised and smitten us will we admit our need of the gospel to bind up our wounds. Not until the law has arrested and imprisoned us will we pine for Christ to set us free. Not until the law has condemned and killed us will we call upon Christ for justification and life. Not until the law has driven us to despair of ourselves will we ever believe in Jesus. Not until the law has humbled us even to hell will we turn to the gospel to raise us to heaven.

(1) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Letters and Papers from Prison" (Fontana, 1959), p. 50.

—From "The Message of Galatians" (The Bible Speaks Today series: London and Downers Grove: IVP, 1968), p. 93.

Christ for us, the righteous for the unrighteous

2011-05-17T09:20:00.003-04:00

1 Peter 3:18 (ESV)

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.

Over the last few months, I’ve been stepping through the gospel tract, Two Ways to Live. Back in February, we learned that God created the world, he is the loving ruler of the world, and he made us rulers under his authority. In March, we learned that we all reject God as the ruler by trying to run our lives in our own way, but we fail to rule the world or ourselves well. In April, we learned that God will not allow us to rebel forever, and that he promises death and judgment as punishment for our rebellion.

Today, we learn that God sends his son, Jesus Christ, into the world; that Jesus lives always under God’s perfect rule; and that by dying in our place, he took our punishment and brought us forgiveness for our sins.

In the next two months, we’ll take a look at Jesus’s resurrection—through his resurrection he conquered death and brought us new life. Then, we’ll examine the choice we all face: we can either live according to our own way or according to God’s.

So today, I have three points. First, God, because he loved the world, sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world. Second, Jesus always lived under God’s rule. And third, by dying in our place, Jesus took our punishment and brought forgiveness.

1. Because God loved the world, he sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world.

Peter, in verses 8 through 17, has been encouraging Christians who suffer for doing good. Peter concludes by saying, “it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.” And why does he say this? Because, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.”

The obvious questions are (1) Who is this Christ, and (2) How is it that He can bring us to God? The answer is, of course, that Christ is Jesus. He is the Son of God. He is God. The father sent Jesus to the world because he loves the world and so that the world would be reconciled to him. Let’s see where the Bible itself illustrates this.

John 1—In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Christ is true God of true God. He is the word who was with God in the beginning and is God. He can bring us to God because he is God and because the Father sent him for that purpose.

John 3—God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

God loved the world, and he sent Jesus Christ, his Son into the world. That is why it is so significant, then, that he suffered as a righteous man for unrighteous men and women.

This leads me to my second point.

2. Jesus always lived under God’s rule

Jesus was God. He was the Son of God. He was made flesh and lived among us. Not only that, but during his time in the world, he lived his life perfectly. Peter says that Jesus suffered as “the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.” Jesus was a righteous man. He was a man who lived under God’s direction. He was the blessed man who meditates day and night on the law of the Lord. He lived by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We can see clearly in Hebrews 4, that “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus lived all of his life without sin.

Also, we see that Jesus lived his life in perfect communion with the Father. John 10:30 says, “I (Jesus) and the Father are one.” In John 17, Jesus prays that the church would be united, even as He and the Father are one.

Jesus is a unique person. He is God and he is man, as we see in John 1. He was sent by God to reconcile the world to God, as we see in John 3. Not only this, but Jesus lived his life without sin, in Hebrews 4, and he lived his life in perfect communion with God, as we see in John 10 and 17. All of this leads us to the last point.

3. By dying in our place, Jesus took our punishment and brought forgiveness

Jesus did die in our place. This is the point of our text. “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.” Christ, the righteous, suffered for you, the unrighteous, so that you might be brought to God.

There is so much here, and we don’t have much time to unpack it all, but this verse is talking about the doctrines of salvation: imputation, substitution, justification, and so on.

To summarize I’ll read a brief quote from a pastor and a learned theologian, J. I. Packer.

God reconciled the world to Himself, says Paul, by means of a judicial exchange: ‘him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him’ (2 Cor 5:21, RV). Paul has just affirmed that reconciliation means the non-imputation of their trespasses to the trespassers; here he shows that the ground of this non-imputation is the imputing of their trespasses to Christ, and his bearing God’s holy reaction to them. As Paul says in Galatians 3:13 (NIV), ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.’ The reason why we do not have to bear our own sins is that Christ bore them in our place. This points to the thought of substitution.

It was, then, by a substitutionary, propitiatory sacrifice on the part of the sinless Son of God that our reconciliation was achieved. So much did salvation cost and it was for God’s enemies that this price was paid. ‘Christ died for the ungodly … God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us’ (Rom 5:6, 8). God quenched and put away His own just wrath against us by sending His own Son to atone for our sins in the darkness of Calvary. It is this that teaches us the message of the mercy of God; this that shows us the meaning of ‘God is love’ (see 1 John 4:8-10).

Jesus takes our punishment and gives us forgiveness. He gives us the benefit of his righteousness.

My question for you is this: How does this impact your life? As we’ve seen quite clearly in previous times, you are all sinners. I am too, of course. We’re all sinners. Our passage says that Jesus suffered as the righteous for the unrighteous. He suffered once for sins in order to bring us to God. What is your response?

There are a number of appropriate responses. I am assuming that many of you are Christians or have some Christian background. The first response for Christians, then, is to keep on believing this. Jesus suffered as the righteous for the unrighteous in order to bring you to God. Jesus came in order to forgive your sins. And that he will do, if you repent of your sins and trust in his promise! So keep on believing.

The second response for Christians is to allow Christ to bring you to God. Again, Packer says,

Faith both takes and gives: it takes God’s promises, God’s Son, and God’s salvation, and it gives itself up to God’s Service. It takes the Lord as Savior, and gives itself to the Savior as Lord. So the reconciliation is received, and guilty sinners find peace with God.

So be reconciled. Believe in the promise of the gospel, that Jesus Christ because of who He is, and because of God’s love for you will save you from the penalty of your sin. Then allow the word of God to begin to shape you and mold you into the image of Christ who saved you.

Some of you, then, are not Christians. For you, the proper response is to consider your own lives. Consider your life: have you kept God’s law well enough? Have you followed all of his commands? Are you blameless before God? The answer is no. You are a sinner. But Jesus Christ is a great savior. John Newton, the hymn writer, toward the end of his life as his health was failing said that he knew two things for certain: he was a great sinner and Christ is a great savior. You can be certain of this, too. The proper response for you is to repent of your sin and believe the gospel.

Some of you have a Christian background, but you’re living your life trying to make yourself righteous—perhaps so you can measure up on the last day. You’re trying very hard to do your best to get to heaven when you die. The proper response for you is to consider yourself the way the Bible considers you. You are a sinner. You can’t work harder to make yourself holy—there is only one who can make right in God’s eyes. It’s Christ! You too need to repent of your sin—even the sin of trying to earn God’s favor apart from the gospel of Jesus—and believe the Gospel.

Jesus Christ suffered and died for you, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that he might bring you to God.

Let’s pray.

Date: 14 May 2011
Text: 1 Peter 3:18
Title: Christ for us, the righteous for the unrighteous
Location: Springhurst Health and Rehab
Event: Nursing Home Service

St. Chrysostom's Easter Sermon

2011-04-30T14:10:00.004-04:00

This Sermon of St. John Chrysostom is read during morning services on Easter.

If any man be devout and love God, let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast. If any man be a wise servant, let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord. If any have labored long in fasting, let him now receive his recompense. If any have wrought from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward. If any have come at the third hour, let him with thankfulness keep the feast. If any have arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; because he shall in nowise be deprived therefor. If any have delayed until the ninth hour, let him draw near, fearing nothing. If any have tarried even until the eleventh hour, let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness; for the Lord, who is jealous of his honor, will accept the last even as the first; he gives rest unto him who comes at the eleventh hour, even as unto him who has wrought from the first hour.

And he shows mercy upon the last, and cares for the first; and to the one he gives, and upon the other he bestows gifts. And he both accepts the deeds, and welcomes the intention, and honors the acts and praises the offering. Wherefore, enter you all into the joy of your Lord; and receive your reward, both the first, and likewise the second. You rich and poor together, hold high festival. You sober and you heedless, honor the day. Rejoice today, both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast. The table is full-laden; feast ye all sumptuously. The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away.

St. John Chrysostom

Enjoy ye all the feast of faith: Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness. let no one bewail his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shown forth from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Savior's death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hades, He made Hades captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hades, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions. It was embittered, for it was abolished. It was embittered, for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was embittered, for it was overthrown. It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains. It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.

O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon and image from the Orthodox Church in America.

When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you shall know

2011-03-31T23:17:00.013-04:00

John 8:21-32 (ESV)

21 So he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” 22 So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” 23 He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” 25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. 26 I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” 27 They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. 28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

I’m going to reread two of the statements that Jesus makes in our second reading. The first is found in verse 21 and the second statement is found in verses 31 and 32.

Verse 21 says, “So he said to them again, ‘I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin.’”

Verses 31 and 32 say, “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”

Did you notice the progression? Jesus goes from telling the people they will die in their sins to telling them in the end of the passage that if they abide in his word, they are truly his disciples. The question I’d like you to consider is this: what changed? Think about that for a second. At the start of the passage, Jesus flatly tells them that they will die in their sins. By the end of the passage, at least some of them are disciples.

Here’s what changed. Jesus told them about the cross. Verse 28 says, “So Jesus said to them, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he.’” Then in verse 30, John writes, “As he was saying these things, many believed in him.”

We need to take a moment to get the context of this passage. From the very beginning of the book of John, John emphasizes who Jesus is and what his mission from the Father is. In John 1:1, John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” verses 4 and 5 say, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Verse 14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

Immediately prior to our passage, Jesus has just identified himself in his preaching as the bread of life in chapter 6—true food and true drink that does not perish, but endures to eternal life. In chapter 8, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” He says, “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Here again in our passage, the people ask, “what does he mean when he says he is going to a place where we can’t follow?” Then they question him about his identity—“Who are you, anyway?” Jesus answers them, “I am exactly who I’ve been telling you all along.” but he says to them in verse 28, “You’ll know that I am he when you have lifted up the Son.”

Here, Jesus uses language that would have been very familiar to the Jewish people he was speaking to. Earlier in John 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus in verse 14, “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.”

Remember the story? It’s found in Numbers 21. The people became impatient as they traveled away from Egypt and began to speak against the Lord, saying that he led them out of Egypt to kill them. They even spurned the Lord’s provision of the manna from heaven! So God sent serpents to bite the people. When the people repented of their sin and prayed to the Lord for help, he told Moses to make a bronze serpent and lift it up on a pole. Whenever the people would look at it, they would get better and live.

Then John 8:28-30 says,

28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

The cross—the post on which the Son of Man was lifted up—is the turning point, both of this passage and of the universe. Look on Him, believe in Him, and have eternal life.

So what now? We’re at seminary, so this is probably a very familiar concept to you. But I do have two points of application.

The first point is this: keep looking to Christ. Looking in faith to the Son of Man is certainly not a one-time event. Martin Luther wrote—helpfully I think—that when Jesus calls you to repent of your sins, what he is calling you to is a life of continual repenting and looking in faith to Christ—looking to Christ to save you from your sin and from God’s judgment. Christ, as he says in verse 28, is the one who does nothing on his own authority. Instead, he’s the one who always does what is pleasing to the Father. He is acceptable in God’s eyes, and you will be found to be acceptable too, if you are found in Christ. The gospel is not a thing that you do and then get out of the way. The gospel informs your Christian life day in and day out. You have to preach the gospel to yourself every day, or you’ll be completely blindsided by the fact that you are still a sinner, still in need of a Savior. To connect this to our passage today, the gospel is the message that Jesus Christ was crucified and was raised in order to give salvation and new life to all who would repent and look to him in faith. So that’s application number 1: keep repenting of your sins and keep looking to Christ to save you. And he will most certainly keep you.

The second point of application, then, is to abide in God’s word. Jesus says, “If you abide in my word, then you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The Psalmist writes “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by streams of flowing water, which yields its fruit in its season. Its leaf will not wither. In everything he does, he prospers.”

The word of Christ is your life. It is very easy to think of our studies as a path to a job in ministry. It is very easy to aim for a better grade, or the skill to write a thrilling sermon, or maybe the approval of family or friends. But as we study, we must instead apply ourselves to know God’s word and abide in it. As you’re here at Southern, don’t neglect your own hearts. This passage calls you to abide in God’s word. That means to let God’s word so permeate your thoughts that with it, you start to take your thoughts captive. Let the word of God fill your Heart so that the Bible is always exposing your sin, and always exposing the spots where you’re vulnerable to temptation, and always building you up so that you can walk in holiness. Our studies of the Church, or of Missions, or of the languages, or of History should point us always back to the Word of Christ, so that we may know it, and live in it.

Let us pray that God would help us in this.

Date: 31 March 2011
Text: John 8:21-32
Title: When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you shall know
Location: Dillard Chapel, SBTS
Event: Evening Prayer (with Paul Nesta)

God works through each of us

2011-03-31T09:21:00.001-04:00

God works through each of us:

Christ is also working, in a powerful way, through the vocation of the pastor. Christ as He animates His body, also works through what laypeople are called to do in the local congregation. All of those seemingly humdrum tasks--singing in the choir, serving as an elder, being on the board of trustees, teaching in Sunday school, doing committee work--are nevertheless critical areas of service that are tremendous blessings to the whole congregation.

Gene Edward Veith Jr., God at Work, 116.

(HT: Alex Leung)