Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]

Tag: Jesus

  • Searching for the Real Jesus (John 5:18) – Notes

    Good morning, Church.

    Where do we even begin with such lofty passages? All I can say is that I take it as a gift of God that we are in these verses so close to Holy Week!

    In them, Jesus makes the greatest defense recorded in Scripture of who He is, who He’s not and what His relationship to the Father is like.

    I think a lot of these verses are bewildering to modern readers – and that’s certainly a challenge.

    Why would “My Father is working until now, and I am working” lead to a charge of blasphemy?

    Did His hearers misunderstand His words?

    Did they misquote Him?

    Well, as it turns out, Jesus was given every opportunity to back down from His statements, but instead He doubled down.

    Is Jesus equal to God as He seems to claim?

     If so, why does the Father have to “show Him” all that He’s doing (John 5:20).

    The “Father has life in Himself,” but why did He have to grant “the Son also to have life in Himself” (John 5:26).

    Has Jesus always been equal to the Father? Or did the Father have to ‘make Him’ equal?

     Jesus is the great Judge, but why did the Father have to give Him the “authority to execute judgment”? (John 5:27)

    These are important statements, but behind them is the mystery of who Jesus of Nazareth really is.

    And any reverent person should expect no less than bewilderment at trying to capture within his or her finite minds a clear picture of the infinite God-Man.

    But that’s the task that’s before us this morning!

     1) Matthew 16:13-17 records an important conversation that Jesus had with His disciples …

    “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”

     What we’re going to consider this morning is something that Jesus Himself asked to wrestle with!

    Who do PEOPLE say that Jesus is?

     Who do YOU say that Jesus is?

    Well, the Bible paints a very distinct portrait of who Jesus is.

    Let’s begin at the end, shall we?

    2) The book of the Revelation, written by the same John as our Gospel, begins like this ….

     “Grace to you and peace from [ἀπό] him who is and who was and who is to come [the eternal Father], and from [ἀπό] the seven spirits [the seven-fold manifestation of the Holy Spirit] who are before his throne, and from [ἀπό] Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth [now, let’s pull over and park and talk about this last One!].

    To him [Jesus] who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he [Jesus] is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

    “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:4-8)

    Now, let’s notice a few things: 

    • Revelation 1:4-5 clearly references the Trinity: “Grace to you and peace from

    (1) Him who is and who was and who is to come [the eternal Father], and from

     (2) the seven spirits [Isaiah 11:2 – the seven-fold manifestation of the Holy Spirit] who are before his throne, and from

     (3) Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

    This clear reference to the Trinity is a part of Jesus Christ’s ἀποκάλυψις, or unveiling. 

    • After mentioning Jesus Christ, John (as I said) essentially says, let’s pull over and talk about Him for a bit!

    And here’s what the Holy Spirit revealed to John about Jesus.

    He is … 

    • Jesus Christ, Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, that is Jesus the promised One, Jesus the Messiah.
    • He is the faithful witness, ὁ μάρτυς, ὁ πιστός, the One who gave His life as a martyr testifying to the truth.
    • He is the “firstborn of the dead, ὁ πρωτότοκος τῶν νεκρῶν, the first one to rise from the dead never to die again – a token of the potency of our own coming resurrection.
    • He is the Ruler of kings on earth, ὁ ἄρχων τῶν βασιλέων τῆς γῆς, the King of every king. 
    • Furthermore, He is the One who loved us: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
    • Because He loves us, He has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 
    • And something else about this Jesus: Behold, He is coming with the clouds and [when He does] every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him [Israel will at last recognize their Messiah], and all tribes of the earth [Gentiles who are alive at His coming] will wail on account of Him.” 

    He is coming with clouds and every eye will see Him!

    Jesus described His return this way as He sat with His disciples on Mt. Olivet: 

    “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29-31). 

    It does not say ‘He will come someday,’ but “He is coming,” present tense, right now!

    And He has been coming since He promised as much to His disciples in the first century.

    Everything that has happened from then until ow are absolutely necessary for the bringing about of His return.

    He is coming with the clouds.

    When Jesus ascended into Heaven, His disciples looked on with their jaws agape. 

    Jesus commissioned them by saying: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) 

    And then: “When he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes [angels], 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11) 

    In the same way: visibly and spectacularly!

    Only in our generation has it even been remotely possible for the “every-eye-will-see-Him” prophecy to be fulfilled literally! 

    The Jews, who are in darkness to this very day – eagerly awaiting a Messiah who’s already come – will weep bitterly!

    Here’s how Zechariah prophesied it: 

    [W]hen they look on Me, on Him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn … The land shall mourn, each family by itself” (Zechariah 12:10b, 12-13). 

    “Behold, He [Jesus] is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.”   (Revelation 1:7)

    • Finally, this section of Revelation 1 ends with something truly astonishing.

    In verse 8, Jesus essentially pulls the pen out of John’s hands and signs the previous statement with a four-fold signature!

    Here’s what it says …

    “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Rev. 1:8). 

    R. C. H. Lenski, a Lutheran scholar (and, for my money, one of the greatest exegetes of the Greek New Testament in the history of the Church) describes the verse like this:

    “This statement is sealed with Christ’s own signature … This is Christ’s signature, the signature of His deity. The book [of Revelation] is signed in advance by Christ as the One who is no less than “Lord God,” co-equal with the Father. That is why the first name which He here signs is the name “Alpha and Omega.” These two great letters have passed into universal use in the church; we place them on our altars and elsewhere in the churches. Our people regard them as a reference to Christ, and they are right.” 

    There are some who will tell you that it’s the Father who is speaking here.

    Nonsense!

    Jesus is clearly the subject of the previous verses and is also clearly the subject of the verses that follow.

    To have the subject be Jesus in verse 7, and then switch to the Father in verse 8, only to return back to Jesus in verse 9 is way too abrupt to be syntactically reasonable! 

    Furthermore, Jesus describes Himself as the “Alpha and the Omega,” a phrase that is clearly a reference to Jesus.

    The “I am” (the Ἐγώ εἰμι) is emphatic: ‘None other than I alone am “the Alpha and the Omega.’[1]

     In fact, one of the last things Jesus says in the Bible – Revelation chapter 22 – is this:

    “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing My recompense with Me, to repay each one for what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:12-13).

    Furthermore, Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet and Omega is the last.

    These have a literary reference: letters make up words which make up sentences which make up books.

    Jesus is the Living Word that became flesh, the VERY subject of the Written Word which we diligently study!

    When we study the Word of God, we’re not studying a book; we’re studying a Person! 

    So, in John 5:39-40a, Jesus will say, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” 

    He is the “Word of God” who literally became flesh and when He returns “the name by which he is called is The Word of God” (Revelation 19:13).

    He alone is ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ, so the phrase “Alpha and Omega” suits Him perfectly! 

    A second designation adorns Jesus’ signature in Revelation 1:8: Κύριος ὁ Θεός, “the Lord God.”

    This phrase also marks Christ as the author. 

    Philippians 2:10-11 says that at the name of Jesus “every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord [κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς] …”

    John 20:28: “Thomas answered him, “My Lord (ὁ θεός μου) and my God (ὁ κύριός μου)!”

    So, the phrase “the Lord God” certainly describes Jesus! 

    The third phrase in Jesus’ signature is true of each Member of the Trinity: “who is and who was and who is to come.”

    The Father the Son and the Holy Spirit are an eternal IS.

    They always have been, are and always will be a present tense reality: God always IS. 

    “I AM” is the Name by which YHWH described Himself to Moses.

    Each has always existed into the eternal Alpha ages and will exist long into the Omega ages.

    The Father the Son and the Holy Spirit are eternal, without beginning or end, always in the present tense. 

    So, Jesus – like the Father and Spirit – is the One “who is and who was and who is to come.”

    So then, why the controversy?

    Why would anyone want to argue that it must be the Father and not Jesus who affixed His signature to the Book of Revelation in verse 8?

    Why engage in syntactical gymnastics and argue for a radical shift of subject from the Son to the Father and back to the Son in a mere three verses?

    Because of one word in Revelation 1:8: the last one, the fourth phrase in the signature. 

    The word is ὁ παντοκράτωρ, the Almighty.

    That word makes people nervous, REALLY nervous.

    It may be the strongest word in the entire Bible.

    It means the One who is all-powerful, almighty and alone omnipotent. [2]

    It is only and can only ever be used of God Himself. 

    Only God can be ὁ παντοκράτωρ – no other identification even remotely makes sense.

    It’s only used 10 times in the entire New Testament – 9 of which are found in its final book, the Book of Revelation.[3]

    It’s a compound Greek word made up of πας (“all”) + κρατος (“power”) = “all power.” 

    The Church Wrestles with the Defining the Biblical Jesus

    1. So, who is this Jesus? 

    Is He merely a humble carpenter’s son as some supposed who gained fame by His wise sayings and wonder-working?

    That would be OK, we can accept that.

    Or is He, as He claimed when he visited Nazareth after His testing in the wilderness, the promised Messiah?

    Or is He perhaps something even more than that!

    Is He God Himself?

    Is He equal with the Father? 

         2.  Is He God and Man in One Person?

    Two of my great loves are theology and history.

    So, the history of theology – how doctrines have developed – has always been of keen interest to me and something I devoted a lot of time to in Seminary.

    Of all the mysteries of the Christian Faith, this may be the greatest: who was Jesus of Nazareth? 

    Is He God? Is He Man? Is He both?

    If both, in what measure?

    Equal parts of each?

    50-50? 70-30?

    Is He still both God and Man or has He changed since His resurrection?

    This is one of the important questions which the Early Church Fathers had to answer.

    Was Jesus really?

    Was He really a Man, or did He only appear to be such?

    The longer I walk with God the more I am in awe of the wisdom of the Fathers and the care with which they approached these difficult theological problems! 

    Take for example the Council of Ephesus:

    In the 5th century, a dispute arose between Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius.

    According to Nestorius, the title theotokos [“God-bearer”] could not be used to describe Mary, the mother of Jesus.

    Nestorius argued that Jesus had two distinct natures and that God could not possibly be born.

    So, he argued, the man Jesus of Nazareth was born in union with, but separate from, the Word, or “Logos,” of God.

     Well, in 431 a council convened in Ephesus.

    Under the leadership of Cyril himself, they disagreed with Nestorius and found that Jesus had a human nature and a divine nature and they were one in Jesus.

    Therefore, they reasoned, it is wholly proper to refer to Mary as the theotokos because she really did bear within her womb, God Himself!

    Cyril of Alexandria, by the way, was the first person to use the word “hypostatic” to refer to Christ’s dual nature.[4]

    Further clarity came at the Council of Chalcedon held in 451, 120 years later in what is today Turkey.

    This understanding of who Christ is was finally codified into the Creed of Athanasius.

    Athanasius, amazing as he was, probably didn’t write it.

    But this stuff is not for the faint-of-heart! 

    It begins by saying that unless One keeps these things “whole and undefiled,” he shall “without doubt … perish everlastingly.”

    Then the writer sets out to describe the Holy Trinity … 

    “And the universal faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Essence.” 

    “For there is one Person of the Father; another of the Son; and another of the Holy Spirit.” 

    “But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal.” 

    This understanding of the Trinity is often shown in the so-called Shield of the Trinity, a traditional Christian symbol which expresses many aspects of the doctrine of the Trinity as described by the Athanasian Creed:

          • “The Father is God”
          • “The Son is God”
          • “The Holy Spirit is God”
          • “God is the Father”
          • “God is the Son”
          • “God is the Holy Spirit”
          • “The Father is not the Son”
          • “The Father is not the Holy Spirit”
          • “The Son is not the Father”
          • “The Son is not the Holy Spirit”
          • “The Holy Spirit is not the Father”
          • “The Holy Spirit is not the Son” 

    In late medieval Europe, this emblem was considered to be God’s actual coat of arms!

    Moving on from the Trinity, the Creed next takes up the question of the nature of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    It says … 

    “He is God from the essence of the Father, begotten before time; and he is human from the essence of his mother, born in time.” 

    “Completely God, completely human … [E]qual to the Father as regards divinity, less than the Father as regards humanity.” 

    Although he is God and human, yet Christ is not two, but one. He is one, however, not by his divinity being turned into flesh, but by God’s taking humanity to himself.” 

     “He is one, certainly not by the blending of his essence, but by the unity of his person … Christ is both God and human.”

    The true nature of Christ is certainly not easy to comprehend.

    Like the doctrine of the Trinity, it is one of the great mysteries of the faith which continue to stretch the Church and its people.

    Orthodoxy doesn’t change – only its illustrations do. 

    The most used illustration to describe the dual nature of Christ is this.

    Notice that the ‘divinity aspect’ is indicated by a broken line to show infinity.

    The ‘humanity aspect’ uses solid lines to indicate that the Incarnation occurred at a fixed point in time.

    Here’s the latest one I’ve seen. 

    Do you know what an interrobang is?

    It’s a lesser known punctuation mark designed for use especially at the end of an exclamatory, rhetorical question. 

    For instance, you might say, “You lost the car?”

    Or you could say, “You Lost the car!”

    Or you could say, “You lost the car!?”

    Or you could use an interrobang and say, “You lost the car‽” 

    Well, recently, the two natures of Christ have been defined like this.

    I don’t mind it. It’s orthodox, but I like the older one better! 

    3.  So, as we stand upon the shoulders of 20+ centuries of Christian belief, what can we say about Jesus? 

    Theologian Paul Enns summarizes Him this way. 

    “The two natures of Christ are inseparably united without mixture or loss of separate identity. He remains forever the God-man, fully God and fully man, two distinct natures in one Person forever.

    Though Christ sometimes operated in the sphere of His humanity and in other cases in the sphere of His deity, in all cases what He did and what He was could be attributed to His one Person.

    Even though it is evident that there were two natures in Christ, He is never considered a dual personality … although He has two natures, Christ is one Person.”[5]

     Discipleship Point

    1. Christ Pantokrator: 

    At the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt, near the town of Saint Catherine, lies one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world: Saint Catherine’s Monastery, named for Catherine of Alexandria.

    It was built between 548 and 565 and contains the world’s oldest continually operating library including Codex Syriac Sinaiticus, a very important late-4th-century manuscript of 358 pages, which contains a translation of all four canonical gospels into Syriac.

    The monastery is a part of the larger Greek Orthodox Church (although autonomous) and houses some of the most important early Christian Icons. 

    The greatest of which is this one: the Christ Pantokrator. 

    The Christ Pantokrator is a painted wood panel dating back to the 6th century.

    It’s considered to be one of the earliest Byzantine Christian icons in existence.

    Here Christ is shown dressed in a purple robe— a color commonly used to represent kingly status and royalty.

    So, the color of His robe is symbolic of His status and importance.

    Jesus is depicted with His left hand raised in blessing and His right hand holding on to the Gospel.

    His large, open eyes peer deep into our souls.

    Although clearly the Ruler of all, He wears no crown and bears no scepter as the kings of this world do.

    He’s different from all of them.

    His high, curved forehead indicates wisdom.

    His small, closed mouth, the silence of contemplation.

    But do you notice something a little ‘off’ about this painting – it’s true of all icons in the ‘Pantokrator style.’

    The painting is asymmetrical.

    The left side of Jesus’ face – His eyes, His hair, His cheekbone, etc. – doesn’t really seem to match the right side.

    Do you see it?

    His eyes differ from one another in both shape and size.

    And here’s why: the painting is deliberately asymmetrical in order to symbolize Christ’s dual nature. 

    Christ’s left side is symbolic of His human nature – and so, those features are depicted as much softer and light.

    But the right side is symbolic of His divinity, and those features are far more intense.

     

    2. This is an early Christian artist’s attempt to present to us a really BIG Jesus – one that’s consistent with the biblical picture the Scriptures paint of Him.

    So, how big is your Jesus? 

    If you’re like me, probably not big enough!

    But, He’s growing all the time as He eclipses me little by little, more and more, day by day.

    He’s big enough for everything I need – more than sufficient for every mountain and valley He leads me through.

    As the One who became flesh and dwelt among us, He can truly sympathize with everything I’m going through.

    So, Hebrews 4:15-16 says, “For 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. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

    Jesus knew hunger and thirst, He wept over the loss of a friend – even a friend that He was about to bring back from the dead!

    He knew the sting of rejection and harassment and persecution.

    He was despised without cause and hated by those who envied His freedom.

    But at the same time Jesus is the Almighty – the Pantokrator.

    He is able to do for us more than we could ever ask or think.

    He is the Alpha and the Omega – He was there at a beginning that was not a beginning and He will be there at an end that will never end.

    And He promises that, if we’ll come to Him in faith, we’ll be there with Him too – forever and exuberantly into the Omega Ages.

    He encourages us to bear this in mind that our lives here are but a fleeting shadow.

    Someone came up to me last week and said, ‘I’m just sick of being sick.’

    I know you are, sister – but it won’t always be this way.

    This is the promise of the One who promised and cannot lie.

    And He is with us now – with us always even to the very end of the age.

    We are His children and He loves us!

    And if, while we were yet His enemies, we were reconciled to the Father by His death, “much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life!” (Romans 5:10).

    O Church, behold the wonder of the Lord Jesus who should ever be the occupation of our Christian hearts – and especially as we move toward Holy Week!

    Draw strength from His glorious Person, from who He is! 

    And never, never, never forget the promise of James 4:6-8

    that “God gives MORE GRACE” – μείζονα χάριν, grace upon grace upon grace upon grace!

    He “opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

    So “submit yourselves therefore to God!”

    “Resist the devil, and He WILL flee from you.”

    “Draw near to God, and he WILL draw near to you.” 

    O, may He draw nearer to each and every one of us!

    Amen?

    [1] Lenski, R. C. H., The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961) pp.36-54.

    [2] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000) 3rd ed., p. 755.

    [3] The other is in the 2 Corinthians 6:16b-18 doxology: “For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17  Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18  and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty [λέγει κύριος παντοκράτωρ].”

    [4] He did so in a letter to Nestorius: “We must follow these words and teachings, keeping in mind what ‘having been made flesh’ means …. We say … that the Word, by having united to himself hypostatically flesh animated by a rational soul, inexplicably and incomprehensibly became man.”

    [5] Paul P. Enns, Moody Handbook of Theology, (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Press, 1989), p. 225.

  • Why Did Jesus Come?

    At Christmastime, perhaps more than at other times of the year, we think about Jesus coming into the world and why He came. So, why did Jesus come into the world? Careful! The answer you give to that question may say more about you than you think!

    At the most fundamental level, Christ Jesus came to save sinners. He came to teach us about His Father. He came to warn us about a real place called Hell – a place of eternal, perpetual separation from God – and to offer us everlasting life in another place called Heaven – that place where God will dwell with His people and that is beautiful beyond all imagining.

    Jesus came to reflect the Father’s love, to heal the sick and the lame, to restore sight to the blind – those physically blind and those spiritually blind. He came to challenge religious hypocrisy and to tell the truth about God. He challenged the religious leaders of His day to concern themselves more with mercy than with the tithing of their spices.

    John 3:16 tells us that Jesus was the Father’s gift of love to the world, so that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So, we share gifts with those whom we love at Christmastime to memorialize this – the greatest Gift and the greatest Gift-giver.

    A new believer would surely answer the ‘why-did-Jesus-come’ question with a hardy, ‘Jesus came to die for my sins’ – and he or she would certainly be right! Many passages of Holy Scripture communicate this truth. He died that we might live. He who was rich became poor that we, through His poverty, might become rich. He gave Himself for us, the Just for the unjust, the Righteous for the unrighteous. He laid down His life for His friends, and had the power to take it back up again. He left the Father to bring us to the Father. He died that we might live, and He rose from the dead so that we might never die. Yes, Jesus came to die for my sins.

    Graduate-level Christianity

    But, as it turns out, Jesus dying for our sins – as glorious as that is – is only an ‘entry level’ understanding of the true meaning of Christmas. Saving us from Hell would seem to be a gift that could not possibly be improved upon – for, what could possibly be better than that? Well, leave it to Paul to tell us! In 2 Corinthians 15:5, He offers us a ‘graduate level’ answer to the ‘why-Jesus-came’ question. “He died for all,” Paul writes, “that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.”

    Yes, Jesus came into this world to save us, to take our place in judgement. And His is the only name given under heaven by which men must be saved. But there was more to the plan than mere salvation. He came to change those who would be saved. He came to change us into people who would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for their sakes.

    Responding with faith to John 3:16 makes me a saved man. Responding with faith to 2 Corinthians 15:5 makes me a disciple.

    He Came to Change Sinners

    Jesus didn’t merely come to save sinners; He came to change sinners.

    Consider Matthew 16:24 & 25: “Then Jesus told his disciples, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

    What does it mean to ‘lose’ our life? Well, it’s graduate-level stuff, friends. It means that “those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.”

    Or think about Luke 14:27, which lays down an unassailable condition for true discipleship: “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” The cross, of course, was an instrument of death. Only one who’s come to it in the first place can take it up and follow Jesus. But, until we do – until we set the instrument of death upon our shoulders and begin walking after Jesus, we may be Christians, and we may be believers, but we’re not disciples.

    After saying this, Jesus went on to talk about the importance of counting the cost. “For which of you,” He asked, “desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” So, what is the cost of discipleship? In a nutshell, it’s dying to self and living to Christ.

    “I have been crucified with Christ,” Paul wrote, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Get it?

    “Remember Lot’s Wife” – Jesus

    The problem is, for many of us Christianity is more about keeping ourselves alive – prospering, achieving, advancing, and accumulating – than it is about ‘no longer living to self.’ And, in our quest to keep ourselves alive we lose ourselves in the soul-swallowing ether of the world.

    We want to live as citizens of two kingdoms at the same time and enjoy the benefits of both. That was the sin of Lot’s wife. God had delivered her from what He judged as evil, but she never really wanted to leave. So, she disobeyed God and couldn’t help but look back after being warned not to. She wanted the deliverance that God offered, but she also along with all that the world offered.

    God says the same thing to us, and He couldn’t have made it clearer: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

    We can’t love Jesus and love the world at the same time, we just can’t. We can’t love God and love money at the same time. We will, Jesus promised, wind up despising one of them. I’m not a great fan of paraphrases, but I do like the way The New Living Translation presents 1 John 2:15-17:

    “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”

    We want to live and serve two kingdoms, but God says, ‘Forget it. I won’t allow that. In fact, for you to desire what I gave My own Son to deliver you from is highly offensive to Me. And pursuing it will turn your spiritual life to a pillar of salt even as you stand!’

    Jesus “died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.” Make no mistake about it, Satan loves to watch us struggle with this. For the longer we do, the longer our spiritual power and ability to affect others with the Gospel is neutralized. And the clock’s a-tickin’, time’s a-wastin’, and the devil’s a-smilin’.

    And as believer after believer slips into eternity safe with God, the devil revels in his accomplishments and says with satisfaction, ‘Yes! There goes another one that might have mattered!’

    Do you know what time it is, Christian? It’s time to wake up!

    “Besides this you know the time,” Paul warned, “that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:11-14).

    What is Paul describing here? He’s describing a believer who’s stopped living for himself and is now living for Him who died in his place. He’s describing a believer who’s become a disciple – who’s graduated from John 3:16 to 2 Corinthians 15:5. He’s describing the Christian who’s taken up his cross and is following Jesus down the road.

    He’s describing someone who’s truly counted the cost and has judged even the tiniest crumb that might come from the Father’s hand to be of greater value than all that the world might offer combined!

     

    To consider

    • Why do you think Jesus came? How does 2 Corinthians 15:5 change your perspective on Christmas?
    • How long have you been a believer?

    Has the time been sufficient to have moved further than you have in genuine discipleship?

    What has held you back from living for the one who died for you? What holds you back still?

    • Consider 1 John 2:15-17 above. Think about each word.

    What is God saying to you in this passage?

    What is “the world” and why is God so adamant about you not loving it?

    What are “the things it offers you?”

    How is your response to the world and all it offers an indication of “the love of the Father in you?”

    Why are the things listed in verse 16 “not from the Father?”

    Contrast the world which is “fading away along with everything people crave” with what God promises in verse 17.

    • You might take a similarly careful look at Matthew 16:24-25.

    Here, Jesus gives three steps to following Him: (1) “Let him deny himself, (2) and take up his cross, (3) and follow me.”

    Think about what each of these three things looks like to you in real time.

    What does it mean to lose our life for Jesus’ sake?

    What does that look like to you? And what does it mean to “find it” (Hint: think Galatians 2:20 – ‘crucified, but alive’).

    Remember, the context here is not salvation, but becoming a disciple.

    • How does your life as a follower of Jesus look in the light of Luke 14:27: “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple”?
    • Do you find yourself looking back to the things that God has judged in your life, as Lot’s wife did?
    • Are you trying to live in two kingdoms at the same time?

    How is that working out for you?

    Is there something you need to speak with Jesus about?

  • Faithfulness in the Small Stuff

    Faithfulness in the Small Stuff

    Each time we gather to celebrate the Lord’s Table at Harvest we read our confession of faith. One part of it goes like this: “We believe that private and family prayer, the reading of the Scriptures, punctual attendance to the public worship of God and gathering together of His people, and special appointments for the purpose of corporate prayer, Bible study and Christian fellowship are in accordance with the Scriptures, and are important privileges and duties of professed Christians, and that obedience is the best evidence we can give of genuine love for the Lord.”

    These are good things to believe, ‘Bible’ things. Who we are ‘as believers’ is far more than who we are ‘at church’ – “the public worship of God.” It’s also who we are at home – devoting ourselves to “family prayer” and “the reading of the Scriptures.” We might say that all of this is summed up in the statement that closes the paragraph: “Obedience is the best evidence we can give of genuine love for the Lord.” Jesus put it just like that! He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

    There’s no question that there’s a tendency to think we’re more faithful than we really are. “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?” (Proverbs 20:6)

    It’s little wonder then that the Psalmist bemoaned the scarcity of faithfulness in Psalm 21:1: “Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.”

    But have you ever noticed that it’s often easier to obey the Lord in the ‘big stuff’ than it is in the ‘small stuff’? There can be a tendency to think the ‘small stuff’ doesn’t matter as much, but it does to God! In fact, our obedience in the ‘small stuff’ may give us the very best snapshot of the condition of our spiritual health.

    Faithfulness in Finances

    The finances the Lord entrusts to us should be managed with integrity, frugality, generosity and great care. That’s because what we spend our money on is a pretty solid indicator of what really matters to us. What we’re willing to pay for is what we really care about. It just is.

    Our careful attention to the small ‘stuff here’ will lead to the Lord trusting us “true riches,” spiritual riches. Jesus asked, “If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?” Why? Because, Jesus said, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much” (Luke 16:10-11).

    And notice what our Lord will say to His faithful servants at His Second Coming: “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your Master” (Matthew 25:21).

    Over and over again Jesus reminds us that what we do with the ‘small stuff’ matters!

    Faithfulness at Work

    Work is another area where it’s easy to let our guard down. After all, a lot of our time is spent there! We usually work with the same people. Familiarity can set in.

    We sometimes forget that God loves those people so much that He sent you and I to work alongside them! We’re there to tell them the truth about God, to pray for them in their distress, to testify of His goodness and of His incalculable love for them.

    But if we’re not careful to tend to the ‘small stuff,’ we can easily damage our testimony in an unguarded moment. And remember, it’s our testimony that gives us the moral authority to share the Gospel effectively. In order to share our faith and be heard, our hearers must at least believe that we actually believe what we’re preaching – that it matters enough to have changed our life.

    Furthermore, faithfulness to God (or the lack of it) is expressed in the way we manage our obligations at work. If someone has hired us to build his business, we should be faithful to work as unto the Lord in doing so. In Luke 16:12, Jesus asked, “If you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?”

    Paul echoed the same sentiment in 1 Corinthians 4:2: “It is required of stewards [those who manage the property of another] that they be found faithful.”

    We often miss this, but we shouldn’t. We’re to work for our employers as though we working for the Lord Himself. “Don’t work only while being watched, in order to please men,” Paul warned, “but work wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men, knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ.” (Colossians 3:22-24, HCSB).

    And there’s the rub: we’re not ultimately working for our employer’s paycheck, but for the Lord’s reward.

    The Lord’s Reward

    The faithful Christian has the Lord ever before his or her eyes. Salvation is the Lord’s work, but faithfulness is ours. And while the reward should not be our primary motivation for remaining faithful, the Lord does want us to know that He is the Great Rewarder. In fact, if we would truly please the Lord we MUST believe that He is just that! For “without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He [#1] exists and [#2] rewards those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

    And that’s precisely what the Lord will do at the Bema Seat Judgement – He will reward believers for their faithfulness. Unfaithfulness will be met with “loss” – not of salvation, but reward.

    1 Corinthians 3:13-15: “ … each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”

    In another place, Paul reminds us that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

    And, in yet another place, that “we will all stand before the judgment seat of God …each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Romans 14:10,12).

    The Lord is Searching for Those Who Are ‘Completely His’

    God is looking for hearts that are fully devoted to Him. He’s searching for that kind of faithfulness – faithfulness in the details, the ‘small stuff’. 2 Chronicles 16:9 puts it this way: “The eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”

    That’s how I want my heart to be: completely His. I wish I could say that’s always the case, but it’s just not. I need to be more faithful in the ‘small stuff’ because the ‘small stuff’ really matters.

    Jesus, of course, rebuked the hypocritical Pharisees for concerning themselves with only the ‘small stuff’: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.” But notice, He didn’t tell them to ignore the small stuff! Rather, He said, “These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others” (Matthew 23:23).

    Faithfulness to the Lord certainly means being faithful in the ‘big stuff,’ but it means being faithful in the ‘small stuff’ too. And as we strive to live lives that please the Lord, let’s do so embracing the promise that, “a faithful man will abound with blessings” (Proverbs 28:20).

     

    To consider

    If it’s true that “obedience is the best evidence we can give of genuine love for the Lord,” then what does your love look like lately?

    Are you more faithful to God in your public life or in your private life?

    Is there a difference?

    Should there be?

    What might you do to change that?

    Do you find it harder to honor the Lord in the ‘big stuff’ than you do in the ‘small stuff’?

    Why do you think that’s true?

    Do you manage your finances in a way that please the Lord?

    Are you a good steward of what’s been entrusted to you?

    I made the point that what we spend our money on is a pretty solid indicator of what really matters to us.

    Do you think that’s true?

    Why or why not?

    If it is true, reflect upon what you spend your money on. Is what’s important to you important to Him?

    Do you honor the Lord in your work?

    Paul said we’re to work for our employer as though we working for the Lord Himself.

    “Don’t work only while being watched, in order to please men, but work wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men, knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord” (Colossians 3:22-24, HCSB).

    Do Paul’s words reflect your own philosophy of work?

    Do you remember to hide the Lord’s promises that He will reward faithfulness in your heart?

    How might doing so change your attitude toward work and your employer?

  • A Love Explosion Called YOU!

    We all strive for purity as believers, right?

    We want to be like our Lord and our Lord is pure in every way. In Him, John tells us, “is no darkness at all.” That, he says, “is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you!”

    To walk with Jesus is to “walk in the light.” That place – the sphere of light – is where we must be if we want to have fellowship with him. In fact, “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7).

    Jesus is the true light who has come into the world giving “light to everyone” (John 1:9).

    So, what does purity look like? What marks it?

    How do I know I’m touching the purity that God wants to find in me?

    Well, James tells us. And I think his words form a powerful self-diagnostic for every born-again man or woman!

    He writes, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27).

    Two things here: one external, one internal.

    First, the second – the internal. Pure faith is characterized by something that really only me and God see – that I keep myself “unstained” from the world.

    The world is hostile towards God – it does all it can to separate me from a pure walk with Him. In his Systematic Theology, Lewis Sperry Chafer coined the phrase ‘Cosmos Diabolicus’ to describe Satan’s world system. The ‘world’ is the secular world energized by Satan, the “god of this age” who “has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

    It should be no surprise, then, that all Christians are admonished to be careful not to “love the world or the things in the world,” because “if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

    ‘Yikes!’ And double-‘Yikes!’

    So, first off, if my walk with Jesus is going to be pure, I must keep myself “unstained from the world” (James 1:27). There’s just no way around it.

    The second mark of pure faith (the first one James mentions), is the one that really floors me: “visit orphans and widows in their affliction.”

    Did you pick up on that?

    James is saying that a “pure and undefiled” faith “before God, the Father” cannot be separated from serving others. If it has no outward expression, my faith is not pure. Period.

    Why?

    Because a genuine faith that is unspotted from the world will always drive me to do the things that are important to God. And serving others is VERY important to God.

    It’s in our service that the internal purity of love and faith explode into the world to touch those around us. Just as the glory of God exploded into the world in a brilliant light that special night long ago when ‘shepherds were keeping their flocks,’ so God’s love explodes into the world through me when I serve others in His name (Luke 2:8-9).

    Legalists never get this, but followers of Jesus do.

    An expert on the Mosaic Law asked Jesus a question to test Him: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” He answered: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40).

    Love for God and love for my neighbor – these two commandments fulfill the whole of the Law.

    O, may our hearts be pure! May our faith be pure! And may the love that God has sown within our hearts explode through us into the darkness that surrounds us!

    Maranatha! Even so, come Lord Jesus!

     

    To consider …

    • Honesty time. Have you been cheating on your God? Carrying on a secret affair with the world? According to James, this is a VERY bad idea: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Honestly, is there any spiritual adultery that’s keeping you from being the explosion of love that God wants you to be to those around you?
    • How pure is your faith? Internally? Externally? Has the purity of your life with God exploded into the natural world lately?
    • James specifically identifies “pure” service as visiting “orphans and widows in their affliction.” I think the idea here is that we need to carefully examine our motives. Are we serving those we serve because we have some hidden motive other than love? Do we hope to gain something from our service? “Orphans and widows” are mentioned because they can give us back nothing materially. But, O the spiritual blessings that enrich us when we serve the Lord Jesus by serving them!