Thursday, January 31, 2013

Judgment is what we need


An excerpt from my sermon for this week:

The idea of judgment is not a popular one today.  So when we hear the words “day of judgment” (2 Peter 3:7), we tend to bristle and wish the Bible didn’t say that.  But the Bible says that one of God’s roles is that of judge and one day the whole world will stand before him to be judged. 

In the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, there is an excellent illustration of what life would be like if there were no judge.  As Alice and the group of animals are waiting to dry off, the dodo suggests that they run a caucus race.  The caucus race, we learn, is a race with no course to follow, no finish line, and no losers.  You can run wherever you want for the time allotted and at the end everyone gets a prize.  It’s pure madness.  There’s no point to the race.

Is this what we want life to be like?  Nothing is right or wrong, people can do whatever they want, and in the end, God says that everybody did a good job and gets a prize?  Do we really want a God who doesn’t make any difference between what is right and what is wrong?   Was there nothing wrong with the recent school shooting?  Is there nothing wrong when parents abuse their children?  Is there nothing wrong when a 15 year old kills his family?  Judgment means that God says “This is right, that is wrong,” and that he does something to get rid of the wrong and make everything right.  Isn’t this a good thing?  Isn’t this something that we actually want, and need?

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Harps in heaven?

I've been doing a lot reading/thinking about what the Bible has to say about heaven and hell recently.  Am working through N.T. Wright's book "Surprised by Hope."  In general, I think we need a more robust, realistic view of heaven.  Most of the images and ideas that are put in our heads about heaven come more from art and culture than serious reflection on what the Bible has to say.  Does the idea of body-less souls floating around really sound exciting to anyone?  Does playing harps on clouds really get anyone to hope for that day?  Thankfully, I think the Bible paints a picture that is much more real (we will probably still work; we will certainly have bodies) and exciting.  In this vein, I was excited to find this quote by C.S. Lewis yesterday.  It made me chuckle.

C.S. Lewis writes, “There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of heaven ridiculous by saying that they do not want to spend eternity playing harps.  The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them at all.  All the scriptural imagery-harps, crowns, gold, and so on-is of course a symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible...People who take these symbols literally might as well think that when Christ told us to be like doves, he meant that we were to lay eggs.”  (The Great Divorce)

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Reading the Bible is hard, D

To continue with the series of posts I was doing on how reading the Bible can be really difficult...

One of the most helpful things that I've found when reading the Bible is to remember that we are not the original audience.  My dad puts it like this: The Bible was written FOR us, but not TO us.  The Bible was written to specific people, in a specific context, at a specific time.  It speaks uniquely into their situation.  This doesn't mean it has nothing for us.  It just means that we should seek understand a passages' original meaning, in context, before we seek to understand it's meaning for us. 

Understandably, this makes reading the Bible much more difficult than reading an email addressed to "Derek Fekkes."  I am not a 1st century Christian living in Rome with Jews and Gentiles mingled in the same church.  My situation, context, and historical position are all very different from that of the original audience of the Bible. 

An example:

Acts 15:28-29 says, "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements:  You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things."  

Does this mean that we are not to eat meat from strangled animals or to eat meat with the blood still in eat (no more rare steaks!)?  Remember, Acts was written to a specific people in a specific time.  Furthermore, this statement was spoken to a specific people.  If you read the rest of chapter 15, you learn that the situation that this statement is spoken into is this: The Gentiles (non-Jews) are coming to faith in Jesus and some Jewish believers are teaching that these Gentile believers must be circumcised (which had been the sign for the Jews of belonging to God's people).  The church leaders didn't agree.  They responded by saying that "we shouldn't trouble those of the Gentiles that turn to God."  

However, they did lay down the guidelines listed in the above verses.  Why?  The first three are for the purpose of the Gentile believers not offending the Jewish believers.  The Jewish Christians didn't eat food sacrificed to idols, blood, or meat from strangled animals.  That was part the ceremonial law that they still followed.  As Jewish Christians would often be mingled with Gentile Christians, the leaders asked the Gentiles to observe these food laws so that there would be peace among all believers.  It was NOT a command for all believers at all times.  The last command, to abstain from sexual immorality, was not simply a contextual command.  We clearly learn from the rest of the Bible that this is a universal command of God that still applies to us today.


More to follow...

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Hear the word!

"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."  Romans 10:17

We don’t just choose faith apart from any work of God.  God’s word is the means that brings us to faith?  Hearing the word is necessary.  Faith is necessary.  But God's word is the initial cause.  Thank you God for your word!

If the hearing of the word leads to faith (1 Pet. 1:22-23; Rom. 10:17; James 1:18), yet not all who hear the word will come to faith, what is it that causes different responses to the word?   What’s the variable that causes some not to be led to faith by the word?  Is it, as in the parable of the soils, the various effects of the work of the devil, times of testing, and the deceitfulness and attractiveness of life that cause some not to come to faith?  If so, then why aren’t all pulled away by these things?  What causes any at all to have faith?  Are some just less affected by temptations and less a target of the devil?  Or does God do the necessary work to lead some to faith?  Are some given the ability “to know the secrets of the kingdom of God” while others remain un-”seeing” and un-”hearing” (Luke 8:9-10)?  We know God’s word is an active agent.  We know that faith is an active agent.  The question is, is God or our decision of faith the initial cause?

What is clear is that God uses the preaching and hearing of his word to cause faith.  We must get the word out!  What is also clear is that we must believe.  We must choose faith.  Even if our faith is conditioned on God’s work through his word, we still have the responsibility to believe.  Thank you God for your word.  Thank you for giving us your word, your GOOD NEWS, that we might come to faith and into a relationship with you.  Help us to love, cherish, and confidently believe your word.  Help us to love, cherish, worship, adore, and find our greatest satisfaction in you!

Friday, January 25, 2013

Born-again confusion

It's been over a week since I've blogged.  I had ministry training class in Seattle all last week (Re:Train at Mars Hill).  This week has been busy as I am preaching the next two Sundays and have a lot to prepare for.  Here's what's on my mind this morning...

I am doing a little study of the term "born again," sometimes called "new birth."  The theological term for this is "regeneration."  In my studying I came across a sermon series that John Piper did on the topic.  He makes a good point.  The term "born again" is often used by researchers to describe those who claim a personal commitment to Jesus.  These researches then publish results of their research concerning so-called "born again" Christians.  One such study found that born again Christians are just as likely to divorce as are non-Christians (Barna Group).  Another study uses the word evangelical instead of born again, but found similar results, “Twenty-six percent of traditional evangelicals do not think premarital sex is wrong. White evangelicals are more likely than Catholics and mainline Protestants to object to having black neighbors”  (Ron Sider in "The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience").  

The point that Piper is making from this is that those who researches refer to as "born again Christians" live seemingly identical lives with non-born again Christians.  This is very concerning when we look at what the Bible says about born again Christians.  Most notably, the book of 1 John has much to say about those "born of God." 

-“If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him” (2:29).  
-“No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God” (3:9).  
-“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (4:7).

The big idea of the book of 1 John is that those "born of God" will live changed lives.  Being born again necessarily leads to living a different life.  It's not so much that you realize that you are born again and that you must work harder to be a better person.  It's not that you want to be a good Christian and go to heaven so you try real hard.  It's that God does a mysterious and powerful work in you that makes you a renewed person.  He changes your desires and will.  He gives you his Spirit to live in and with you.  He strengthens and equips you to obey, love, and worship him.  Being born again means that God "regenerates" you from the inside out and you live a new life as a result.  Does your life show evidence of this new birth?

Thursday, January 10, 2013

The story-teller


 My intro for last night's youth group discussion about mission and outreach.  I want to give the students a sense of the grand story and adventure that God calls us to participate in: 

God is a story-teller.  This world is his story, his book.   He has been writing his story from the beginning of time and will continue to write it until Jesus returns.   The theme or purpose of God’s story is that he is turning his enemies into his friends.  He is turning rebels into his friends.  He is bringing proud, selfish, distracted sinners like you and me into a relationship with him.  He is bringing peace into the wars that we fight against him.  This is what God’s story is about.  

You have a part to play in his story.  The first part that you play in the story is that God wants to turn you from a person who only lives for yourself into a person that lives for Him.  He wants change you by loving and forgiving you.  He wants to bring you into a relationship with him so that you trust in Him and He takes care of you.  The first part of the story is that you would be reconciled with God.   This means that there is a broken relationship that needs to be fixed.  God offers to fix our broken relationship with Him by taking away our sins and showing us great mercy.  

Once we are turned from enemies to friends of God, then we have another part to play in God’s great story.  He sends us out on a mission to bring other people into a relationship with Him.  God is writing a story where people who think they don’t need him and people who don’t want him come to see that they both need Him and want Him.  God is on a mission to give people the one thing they need and desire at the deepest level-Himself.  And he wants us to play an important part in this mission.  He writes us into the story by giving us a mission as ambassadors for Him. An ambassador is someone who represents someone or something else.  The USA sends out ambassadors to most other countries.  That person lives in the other country and represents the USA.  They speak for the USA in that country.  Well, we are ambassadors for God.  We represent Him wherever we are at.  We speak his message and tell others about Him.  This is the mission that God has put us on.  Our lives are part of His great story!  

Have you ever been watching a movie or reading a book and wished that you could become a part of the lives of the people in that movie or book?  Have you ever wanted to jump into the movie and have a part in the story?  Well, you have a part in the greatest story that has ever existed!  And it’s not make-believe.  It’s real!

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Evangelism...or not

I have noticed something in my own life in the last couple of years.  I don't tell people about Jesus.  I am horrible at evangelism.  And I think the main reason is this: I have been turned off from evangelism because of the ways I've seen it done over the years.  I've seen Christians be pushy, uncaring, unloving, insensitive and prideful when telling others about the good news of a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  It often appears that evangelism is done with motives other than love.  I don't think I am alone in having been turned off by evangelism done like this.

But I have made an equally wrong mistake.  In reacting against evangelism abuses, I have gone to the other extreme where I don't ever tell anyone about Jesus.  I just don't.  My justification is this: I tell myself that evangelism must happen through relationship.  The best way to reach people with the good news is to build relationships with them, let them know you truly care about them.  They will see your life is different and  eventually there will be opportunities to talk about Jesus.  Now, I still think that there is a lot of truth in all of that-relationships are hugely important-but here's the problem: I never get to the point where I talk about Jesus.  I so much want to avoid any resemblance to the "crazy" people who push Jesus onto others that I never bring Him up. I need to repent of this.

Jesus has called us to live with a mission.  As Jesus was sent into the world to draw people to God, so have Christians been sent to into the world to draw people to God.  Paul says, "...we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us" (2 Cor. 5:20).  God wants to speak and work through us to draw others to himself.  He is on a mission and has enlisted us to be his ambassadors.  Thus, we are on a mission.  This mission requires both our lives and our words as a witness to God's truth and love.

Five things that I need to remember and reflect on:


1. We have a mission!  God wants to use US to accomplish his great purposes.  We are part of his story. (2 Cor. 5:17-6:10)
2. Our mission is to connect people to Jesus. (Mt. 28:18-20; John 20:21)
3. Our mission is not an event; it is a lifestyle.
4. God works through us as we live out our mission. (2 Cor. 5:20; 6:1)
5. Why should we join God on his mission?  Because he came on a mission to find and save us!
(2 Cor. 5:18)

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Law and Grace

"Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness...No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God" (1 John 3:4, 9).

“Lawlessness” means the condition of living without any law, either because of ignorance of the law or because of continual violation despite knowledge of the law (studylight.org).  Christians are not to practice lawlessness.  We are not to live as if there is no law, no commands, as if obedience didn’t matter.  Paul says that we are no longer under the law, but under grace (Rom. 6:14-15).  He means that we are no longer defined by the law, but are defined by grace.  Our standing with God is not determined by the law, but by God’s grace.  Salvation and peace with God come not because of our goodness but because of our repentance.  However, Paul is quick to note that this does not give us freedom to sin.  This condition of grace does not make obedience null and void.  Paul’s reasoning is complex, but in effect, he says, “If you continue to make a practice of obeying sin, you will become its slave, and it will lead you to death (6:16).  The one who has been freed from sin by Christ’s death and resurrection will have a changed heart of obedience (6:17).  The answer to Paul’s question, “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” is, “We can’t!” (6:2).  Christians live changed lives, not to earn salvation, but because they have been graciously freed from the condemnation of the law, been made children of God, and are strengthened by the power and presence of the Spirit.  The law is not without purpose for the Christian, it is without power.  God’s grace and Spirit provide the power to obey God from the heart.  The promise that God gave in the Old Testament of what was to come was not that he would take away the law, but that he would “put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” (Jer. 31:33).  

Is God’s purpose that we would be reconciled with him and live in peaceful fellowship with him?  Or is God’s purpose that we would follow his commandments and do what is right?  The answer is “yes” to both questions.  God is not interested in our living in peaceful fellowship with him while showing no fruit of obedience.  Our lack of fruit actually reveals that we might not be in fellowship with him at all.  However, God is also not interested in simply morality, living a good life.  God wants our hearts, the deepest part of who we are.  His desire is not that we would just try to live the best life we can.  He wants us.  He is a jealous God.  He wants our worship, love and devotion.  Yet this is not something we can accomplish on our own.  Our sin keeps us running away from God and blinds us to His truth.  God’s purpose has always been to capture our hearts by his grace, not by our effort.  HE draws us to himself by his grace.  HE gives us eyes that can really see by his grace.  HE offers us the opportunity for repentance and salvation by his grace.  The result of all his abundant grace is that we would live changed lives.  His grace motivates us and his Spirit empowers us to practice obedience rather than sin.  Because of what HE has done, we CAN, WILL and MUST live changed lives in relationship to him.  This life will be characterized by repentance and continual reliance on his grace.  Repentance is a sign of belonging to God more than a sign of failure.  Repentance reveals that one is headed in the right direction.