The Fruits of the Incarnation

1 John 1:1-4
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life – 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us – 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

The miracle of Christmas is the miracle of the Incarnation. God, the eternal Son, took on flesh and dwelt among people in the person of Jesus Christ! John brings this out in his Gospel (John 1:14 among other spots), his Revelation (5:5-10), and in his first letter in our passage above. Look at how He describes it in this first epistle. The very God who was from the beginning, we’ve heard Him! We’ve seen Him with our very eyes! More than seeing Him, we’ve looked upon Almighty God and touched Him with our hands – the very word of life!

Can you sense the excitement?! Can you take in the amazement? The One who is life itself has been revealed as life Himself, and has made Himself known to John and the other apostles through the Incarnation! What is the outcome of this? Verse three tells us – shared fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ and growing joy.

Many of us know this feeling of being a kid on Christmas morning – running to the room to see the gifts out on display or neatly wrapped and ready to open. As you get older though, you realize the gifts weren’t the gift. The gift was the people present who thought enough about you to sacrifice their time, treasure, and talents to provide you those loving moments and memories wrapped in gifts yes, but even more in their time with you, their provisions to you, their affection for you. Being present with them, during those times – that was the gift. The essence of this gift points to one much greater.

Now imagine you are a child again and you receive a gift you’ve been longing for, only this gift is different. It’s different because it comes directly from the One who knew you well enough to give you the perfect gift, a gift you were most longing for, but that was above and beyond anything you could have formed into words or penned on a list. On this occasion, the One who gave you the true gift for which you’d unknowingly been longing, was the author and designer of every good gift you have ever, and will ever receive. And it turns out this greatest gift – this eternal life – is to know God the Father and the One whom He has sent (John 17:3). This is to know in intimate, ever-growing communion the Triune God of whom David once wrote, “…in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore,” (Psalm 16:11). This is to see and bask in His matchless and inestimable worth described by the Asaph, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever,” (Psalm 73:25-26). This is to take and drink of the all-refreshing, living water that Jesus offered the woman at the well in John 4 – the kind that leaves you satisfied and is a spring that never runs dry.

This fellowship, this intimate, joy-filled relationship with the Almighty King, the lover of our souls, the Holy God, came at the most astounding of costs. It meant the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us (John 1:14). It meant the King of Kings and Lord of lords leaving the riches of heaven and taking on the form of a servant by being born in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:7). It meant this King in human form humbling Himself even further to experience death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). Why did He do this? He did this so that we, enslaved in our sin, doomed and deserving of Hell, could but look to Christ lifted up and be cleansed from all our sin by His blood. Through His shed blood and resurrection, by faith springing up from the Spirit (see John 3:3-8; 1:12-13; 4:10,14), we are cleansed and enter into that eternal life in fellowship with the Father and Jesus His Son – to His eternal praise and our everlasting joy.

But this joy we find in fellowship with God, through faith in the shed blood of the Son, is a growing joy. Verses 3 and 4 tell us that John and the other believers are proclaiming the wonders of personally experiencing the Incarnation and the fellowship believers have with the Father and the Son, for a very specific reason. What they have witnessed and enjoyed in fellowship with each other and with God, they want others to experience. “We proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ,” (1 John 1:3). When you’ve found forgiveness, life eternal, and the loving embrace of the Father and Son of the universe, you want that for others. Your joy isn’t only found in your enjoyment of God eternal, but in others finding their ultimate satisfaction in Him as well.

That’s why we go out to meet and pray for our neighbors, to sing carols, to have outreach services like this Sunday, to go and support others going to the ends of the earth proclaiming the matchless name of Jesus. Others finding joy in Him is the wonderful work God has given us to do that glorifies Him and completes our joy (John 1:4).

Father, have Your way among us this Sunday! By Your Spirit at work in and through us, take the joy of our fellowship we have with You and Your Son and allow children in our midst, and those who don’t yet know you, to look to Christ and receive the gift of eternal fellowship with us and You! Be at work to complete their joy and ours for Your glory we pray. In the name of Your Son Jesus, we ask. Amen.


Song as a War Strategy

Last Sunday we heard a powerful sermon from Pastor Jacob about Jesus – the Supreme Son of God from Colossians 1:15-20. An early insight shared in that sermon was that Colossians 1:15-20 is believed to be one of the oldest hymns we have from the early Church. We see another example of an early hymn like this in Philippians 2:6-11. In the context of orderly worship, Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 14:26, “…When you come together, each one has a hymn…” In a few weeks, we’ll see in Colossians 3 that one of the ways we remember our identity in Christ (3:1, 3) and keep our minds set on things above (3:2) as we await Christ’s return (3:4) is to together “sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness to God in your hearts,” (3:16). Notice the refrain here? In all of these verses, Christ’s bride has always been a singing church. Why is that?

Songs certainly weren’t unique to the New Testament. We see many references to songs and their various types sung throughout the Old Testament as well. Take for instance the two Songs of Moses in the Old Testament. One is found in Exodus 15 as a victory song of God, detailing how the LORD overcame Pharaoh’s army by bringing back the parted waters of the Red Sea over top of them. It is bookended by the chorus, “Sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea,” (Exodus 15:1, 21). The second song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 is a song Moses had the people memorize and teach their children. It was meant to serve as a warning and witness for them. It was to be in their hearts as a continual reminder to trust and obey God’s law and good purposes to them as their very life, or receive deadly consequences.  In addition, we’ve seen in Pastor Coty’s Psalms series that there are groupings of Psalms sung for specific purposes within the calendar year. One example are the Songs of Ascent (Psalms 120-134) sung as God’s people walked up to Jerusalem each year during the Feast of Tabernacles. Another set of songs are the Hallel songs of praise to the LORD sung at Passover (Psalms 113-118).

Throughout the Bible we see many reasons why God’s chosen and redeemed people have always been a singing people. Singing songs of praise to God about His character and past faithfulness certainly glorifies God. It also pleases Him to see His redeemed children seeing and savoring their almighty God. It serves as a way to verbally cry out and demonstrate His matchless worth (the essence of worship) through belting out who our triune God is and what He has done.

But I want to suggest to you today that singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs both individually (and especially collectively) is a means by which the Spirit enables us to wage spiritual warfare against our threefold enemy: our sinful flesh, the fallen world, and the Satanic powers of darkness. Yes, there are other means for spiritual warfare God has given us. These include regular reading of God’s Word in public gatherings and private settings. It includes private and corporate prayer, memorizing and meditating on God’s Word, regular meeting together for worship and fellowship, the Lord’s Supper and baptism, and fasting, among others. But I want us to briefly ponder in a few passages the purposeful power of singing to God while in the battle.

A classic case of this is in 2 Chronicles 20. King Jehoshaphat of Judah finds the southern kingdom facing the combined forces of a 3 nation army. Feeling fearful and weak, Jehoshaphat wisely calls for all of Judah to fast (2 Chronicles 20:3), and he seeks the Lord in dependence, admitting to God, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you,” (2 Chronicles 20:12). The LORD hears and graciously responds with the familiar answer to “not be afraid…or dismayed” (2 Chronicles 20:15). He then uses words reminding them of past victories He’s won for them. Just as David once had yelled out to Goliath, now the LORD reminds Jehoshaphat and the people, “the battle is not yours but God’s,” (2 Chronicles 20:15).  And similar to Moses’ words to the people trapped at the Red Sea, now God says, “You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf,” (2 Chronicles 20:17).

The response of the people is elation and boldness and faith and worship. It says, “Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the LORD, worshipping the LORD. And the Levites, of the Kohathites and the Korahites, stood up to praise the LORD, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice,” (2 Chronicles 20:18-19). The people rose up early, the King encouraged them to believe the LORD, and then after meeting with the singers something shocking happened. The singers went before the army and began to sing a chorus of praise to Yahweh, “Give thanks to the LORD, for His steadfast love endures forever,” (2 Chronicles 20:21).

Note, the battle lines of the enemy were not weakened, and the circumstances had not changed. The people had simply heard, received, and believed that the LORD was mighty, that He’s with them, and that He’s for them. And they worship! And what’s the result? Verse 22, “And when they began to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed.” We see in verse 23 the LORD turned the enemy against themselves. God’s presence turned the sin of fear to bold faith in Him, and used the bold faith as a means to turn their worldly enemies and Satan’s plans for evil to total defeat. The people plundered the spoil of their completely annihilated foe. It took three days to haul off. The valley of enemies that had just evoked fear became after that moment Beracah (the Valley of Blessing).

Two other quick New Testament examples of songs of praise being lifted up in the middle of the battle.

  1. Acts 16 – Paul and Silas went to Philippi and Paul, by God’s power, freed a fortune-telling, slave girl from spiritual possession. In anger, the slave’s owners seized Paul and Silas, raised up a mob, and they ended up being beaten with rods by the authorities. They were then sent to an inner prison and their feet were fastened in stocks. “About midnight,” the text tells us in v. 25, “Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them,” They were singing in the spiritual battle. Suddenly, an earthquake hit, all the prisoners’ chains were released, but none left. Paul saved the jailer who was about to commit suicide and then the jailer and his entire family received Christ and are baptized. Singing in the midst of the storm was instrumental for both Paul and Silas to keep their focus and perspective on their loving, unchanging, all-powerful God. It also was a means that fallen people around them heard the Gospel, and for more of Satan’s territory to be plundered.

 

  1. Then we see our LORD on His last night. He’d just eaten the Last Supper with His disciples. He’d just washed the feet of His closest friends who would all abandon Him. Jesus was about to break the news of this to His disciples and Peter. He knew, Peter would answer that he’d stay with Jesus till death, but that He’d actually deny three times he even knew Him. Another He knew, had just left the dinner to betray Him. So what does Jesus do as He’s leaving the dinner table, about to have these conversations, with the weight of the world on His shoulders? Matthew’s Gospel tells us as an aside, “And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” Just before Jesus takes the path headed straight towards what He knows is His certain death towards the Mount of Olives, likely on the same trail David took when he was weeping while fleeing from Absalom, He sings! He’s singing to God and then He’s praying to God. He alone took the path and made the decision in that Garden to go forward to the cross. He alone willingly took the path that didn’t lead to God’s encouragement that He’d be with Him, but led to Him becoming sin and the Father’s wrath. But on the way, He sang and then He prayed. And the result of His finished work on the cross and empty tomb was to set up a new kingdom. He defeated sin’s penalty and power over all who would believe in Him. He came to overturn and make right again this fallen world. And He came, and will come again, to finally crush and defeat Satan and his evil forces by fully plundering his kingdom of darkness and bringing people into the light of the kingdom of God!

 

So brother and sisters, in your homes, and as we come together this weekend, recognize one of the means of grace at your disposal – singing songs of praise to our God. When you do, know that it is a means to fight against the war we’re all involved in – against sin, against the fallen world, and against Satan Himself. Remind yourselves in Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs how great our triune God is. How loving our Savior is. Remind yourself how powerful the Spirit of God is within us and of the kingdom in which Christ has made us heirs, ready to fully inherit at His return. Sing with joy in God, knowing that He’s won our victory, He’s with and for us, and He’s using our song as a means through which our enemies camp is plundered.

To Fear or Not To Fear, That Is the Question – Matthew 10:24-33

(Note: This devotion has been slightly modified from a devotion I gave last week on 3/11/24 at Billy Graham)

Most of us know that found throughout the Bible is, the command “Do not fear.” It’s an incredibly encouraging command, because it’s usually included with the vital fact that the reason to not fear is because God is near (see Joshua 1:9; Philippians 4:5-7). Alongside this command in the Old Testament is the concept of “the fear the LORD”. This is perhaps most famously stated in the early lines of Proverbs in chapter 1, verse 7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” But does the fear of the Lord concept continue in the New Testament? How does this concept work alongside the continued command to not fear? Let’s peer and ponder our Lord’s answer in Matthew 10:24-33

24 A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of His household.

26 So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in Hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32 So everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in Heaven, 33 but whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father who is in Heaven.

So quickly, two things to not fear and One whom we should fear.

  1. Don’t fear the smear. Jesus is saying these words in the context of sending out His 12 apostles to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God and to verify it through miracles. He’s warned them, just before our passage in verse 16, that He’s sending them, “out as sheep in the midst of wolves.” He’s told them they’ll be dragged to court, and hated by others (even family members), for Jesus’ namesake. He’s telling them this ahead of time, so they won’t be surprised, but so they’ll endure and be saved. Here in verses 24-25, we’re given a clear reason why His disciples will be hated and mistreated. “A disciple is not above His teacher, nor a servant above His master.” Certainly a learner is not above the one who is teaching him, or someone who is serving above the one whom he’s serving. Clear enough. And now Jesus puts the focus on what He’s already been called and hatefully labeled by the Pharisees. He gets specific and personal. He tells them, He has been called “Beelzebul”, or the prince of demons as we see in Matthew 9:34. We later learn in Chapter 12 from Jesus that He attributes this prince of demons to Satan Himself. So consider this: If Jesus, the sinless and always-loving Teacher and Master is being labeled, dare we say cancelled, as Satan himself, then how much more will Jesus’ students and servants within His own household experience this?

But here we see Jesus’ first exhortation in verse 26, “So have no fear of them.” Who is “them” referring to? Those who would hatefully label, cancel, and malign His followers. Don’t fear the smear of others. Instead, Jesus says since all things will be revealed in the end anyway, the light of the good news of Jesus and the kingdom must not be hidden, but shared and proclaimed in all our lives.

We just heard Pastor Jacob preach from Mark 14 and 15 of Peter and Pilate and the way they feared the smear of others and allowed it to turn them away from Jesus. (Thankfully, for Peter, he repented and was graciously restored and used mightily!)  In both cases, with Peter denying Christ and Pilate seeking to satisfy the crowd,  we saw they did not shine the light of Christ, when the opportunity presented itself.

  1. Secondly, don’t fear the spear. Jesus says in verse 28, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” In the midst of risking one’s life to make Christ known and let His light shine, there is a limit to what can be done to us. We, thankfully, don’t know much of this type of persecution for the sake of Christ in this country. However, our brothers and sisters around the world know it. Listen to these words from a typical Chinese house church interaction with security police when faced with threats like these. This came from a book, “The Insanity of God” by Nic Ripkin:

Security police – “When we take your property (where they were meeting to worship), you and your family will have nowhere to live!’”

House church believers – “Then we will be free to trust God for shelter as well as for our daily bread.”

Security police – “If you keep this up, we will beat you!

House church believers – “Then we will be free to trust Jesus for healing!”

Security police – “And then we will put you in prison!

House church believers – “Then we will be free to preach the good news of Jesus to the captives, to set them free. We will be free to plant churches in prison.”

Security police – “If you try to do that, we will kill you!”

House church believers – “Then we will be free to go to heaven and be with Jesus forever!“

 

How does one get to this level of boldness? By following the One Jesus gives us to fear.

  1. Fear and love the Overseer of sparrows and our souls.

To fear God seems to mean these two things together. One, on our own, considering God’s holiness, unlimited power, righteousness, and justice, we know we are sinners deserving instant destruction. But at the same time, this holy, all-powerful, righteous, just God has loved you in the most generous way possible by sending His Son to die in your place, to bring you an enemy into His forever, loving family! In light of these two truths, we have a rightful fear, awe, reverence of His unequaled power, and a shalom and Fatherly calm knowing we as outsiders have been made insiders by faith in Jesus’ precious blood, shed for us!

But we do fear people and fall into that snare. We do fear death, and live in protection mode. We cower at the cancellers of our culture and those who could ruin or snuff out our lives.

But the good news of this message is not ourselves, our abilities, our performance, or our achievements. No, the good news we proclaim is our champion. We proclaim the King of heaven who became a Child of earth. We proclaim the Child who grew and chose death on the cross. We proclaim the Chosen One who was crucified and yet triumphed and cheated death.

He chose and challenges you today to not fear the smear of man. He says, don’t fear the spear of death. He tells us to fear Him – the founder of our faith and the lover of your soul who laid down His own life to make you free, so you’d live free! He wants you to live free from the fear of death; free from the hateful words and lies of people.

Think about this, the only One with the power, not only over your life, but also your eternal home, is the One who didn’t even spare His own Son for You, but came and laid down His life that You might belong in His house forever!

So how do we live out fearing God? We don’t hide, and blend into the world. In all places of our lives we acknowledge Jesus. We’re made right with God through faith alone, by God’s grace alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. But true faith is never alone; true faith always acts and acknowledges Jesus Christ before others. This acknowledgement demonstrates trust and fear in our triune God alone. If He cares for sparrows, how much more does He care for us – those He’s purchased through the blood of His own Son? He’s promised that our fearing Him through bold acknowledgement of Him as King, Lord, treasure of our lives means that He’ll acknowledge us before His Father. But if we deny Him or have denied Him, we must repent because the promise goes the other way also. Apart from repentance and faith in Him, an enduring denial of Him will mean He’ll deny us before His Father. So let’s look to Christ as our joy and share our greatest treasure with others.

Lord, build in us a holy fear of you that spurs us to obedience to speak and acknowledge You and rests in our loving acceptance in Christ.

A Method to Remain Unstained from the World – Ephesians 1:15-23

How are you with cleaning or replacing filters? I do not mean so much your personal skillset to do it, but more your consistent initiative to get it done. When you think about it, cleaning or replacing filters has some place in all of our lives, whether we are the ones directly doing it or not.

Filters are everywhere. You have oil filters and air cabin filters for our cars, water filters, home air filters, even lint filters for our dryers. You have vacuum filters, coffee filters, and furnace filters. Even for those tea drinkers among us, the tea bag itself is a filter. Depending on the type of filter and its use, filters need cleaning or replacing often because they capture dust and debris, used grounds or leaves, chemicals and compounds, gunk and grease harmful for engines, lungs, or stomachs.

But, in addition to physical filters, there are also spiritual filters. If James expresses that alongside visiting orphans and widows in their affliction, part of a pure and undefiled religion before God is to keep oneself unstained from the world, then there is certainly a need of a clean spiritual filter. The LORD has given us what we need in this by uniting us by grace through faith to Jesus and declaring us forgiven and cleansed in Him. He has also given us His Holy Spirit. But there is a relational sense of walking in step with the Spirit, of growing in the likeness of Christ, of walking in a manner worthy of the calling to which we’ve been called by God. In light of this, how do we keep our spiritual filters cleansed and renewed from the worldly, toxic grime?

First, let’s identify a few deadly ways the world can infect us without utilizing God’s means of keeping us spiritually filtered and clean.

  • Fatalism- Focusing on the world as the hopeless mess it is and us as hopeless sinners, and believing no good or change will ever come to it or us.
  • Cynicism- Thinking that everyone is in it for themselves and motivated by greed and power. No one can be trusted.
  • Overtly focusing on entertainment and distraction, consuming and wasting our lives with things that are eternally worthless.
  • Idolatry in all forms, but especially to self, tribe, and sex.

How do we resemble Christ more and more, and this present form of the world that is passing away less and less?

This, and the question before, are big questions of sanctification and perseverance that the Bible speaks to in many places. I believe Paul has a helpful part of the answer for us today in Ephesians 1, starting in verse 15.

To give some brief background, Ephesians was written to the group of believers in the major city of Ephesus and likely other groups of believers in nearby towns and cities as well. Ephesus was a port city on the western coast of what is now modern-day Turkey. Paul wrote this letter while in prison for Christ in Rome towards the end of his life (likely AD 60-62), and sent it by his faithful minister and brother-in-Christ Tychicus. So far in the letter, he has briefly greeted believers and then pens an astounding section of praise to God for His sovereign election and adoption of His people in Christ and the sealing by the Spirit- all to the praise of His glory. This is where our section begins in verse 15.

So getting back to the issue at hand, what does Paul model for us as he’s locked up in prison that would help us keep our spiritual filters unstained from the world’s toxic grime? Not surprisingly for us in this prayer-themed year, the answer Paul models is a prayer. And this prayer starts, fittingly for this time of year, as a prayer of thanksgiving.

“15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might 20 that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Notice, Paul’s thanksgiving is not over his imminent release from imprisonment or worldly comforts. His prayer of thanksgiving from prison for the Ephesian people is for two specific reasons:

    1. Their faith in the LORD Jesus
    2. Their love toward all the saints

Two quick observations.

  1. In the midst of Paul’s personal suffering, he is thankful to God for evidence of Christ’s saving work in other’s lives. He is Christ and kingdom-centered and others-focused.
  2. He’s not ceasing in prayers of thanks to God for them, continually remembering them. Most of us know seasons of prayer for others, but sometimes people in my own life people fall off my radar. I’m not suggesting we have a prayer list that only grows and involves every person on it getting daily prayers. I do gently ask though- who are those people (specifically believers) we know God has placed personally in our lives and called us to pray consistently for whom we haven’t prayed for in quite a while? I’d encourage you to pause even now, or as you finish reading this, to lift that person up to God and consciously bring them back into your regular time of prayer.

At this point, in verse 17, Paul gets specific in what prayer for those for whom he is so thankful looks like. He asks 3 things. Now, I don’t know about you, but the content of these prayers are much different than the healing, comfort, safety I’m used to running through for people. These things aren’t wrong to pray, but consider the 3 prayer points Paul mentions:

  1. That God the Father would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in their knowledge of Him.
  2. So that with their hearts now enlightened they would know 3 things:
    1. The hope to which He has called them
    2. The riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints
    3. The immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe
  3. A focus on the Gospel and who God has made Christ Jesus to be.
    1. Jesus is the One the Father has raised from the dead and seated alone at His right hand.
    2. Christ Jesus is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named in this present age, and the age to come.
    3. All things have been put under Jesus’ feet and He has been made the Head over all the Church, His body, and He fills all things everywhere.

So what is Paul’s help for us to keep our spiritual filters unstained from the world?

  • To put your focus on Christ and give thanks to God for how you’re clearly seeing the Spirit of Jesus at work in believer’s lives.
  • To continually lift up believers like this in prayer and share openly with them the way you’re encouraged by God’s work in them and work in others.
  • To pray specifically that God would grant believers to experience a spirit of wisdom and revelation of their knowledge of God
  • That through this greater understanding they’d experience hope and they’d ponder more with joy the inheritance we’re running to that nothing in this world can touch or compare
  • To have a better understanding and knowledge of God’s great power- the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, seating Him above all others for all-time, who is now directing His church to expand

This is a model of prayer by Paul that we can use as a filter to remain unstained from the world. Prayer like this transforms our perspective from worldly to eternal.

When we were in Turkey, just before seeing Matthew, Kailie, and the boys, we stayed a night in Istanbul and visited the Hagia Sophia. This building was built in 537 AD. At the time it was not only the largest cathedral in the world, but the largest building as well. It became one of the centers for the Christian faith for hundreds of years. Great sadness welled up in me going inside the building with Katie and the boys though. In the 1400s, Istanbul was taken over by the Ottoman Turks. So for the better part of the last 500 years, Hagia Sophia has served as a mosque. Within 15 minutes of entering the building, everyone was quickly forced to exit and the Muslim cry for prayer soon followed. With all the building had symbolized, it just felt like such a loss. There was a thought of “this is what it is to be conquered”.

Though I was there to be an encouragement for Matthew, I shared what I’d felt being in that place with him the next day. Not only does God use prayer and his Word to clean and replace our world-contaminated filters, He uses His people as well. Matthew reminded me that night that we’re not to the end of the story yet. He also said, if you’d told Christians who worshipped the LORD in that great building long ago that another religion would spring up and overtake the church for hundreds of years. And then you explained the Gospel would go out to the ends of the earth. It would even go out to a New World they didn’t even know existed. Then you explained believers from there would return with the same unconquerable message of Jesus in order to share it back in this city–they’d be in disbelief and wonder. Thinking about it now, hopefully they’d say, “take the city and the building, we have Christ, the conquering King, who is returning to set up a city, Church, and temple of God not made with hands, that will never end.”

That’s where our focus and hope must remain. That’s the filter through which we keep the world’s lies at bay, and also through which we also see the world around us and where it’s all headed.

Words for Those Waiting for His Rescue

The Greatest Threat to our Life

We just heard a rousing sermon Sunday from Pastor Jacob titled, “The Cry of Faith: Help my Unbelief” from Mark 9:14-29. One of the early takeaways from the sermon was this, “Unbelief is the greatest threat of your life!”

Do you believe that?

In our heart of hearts, I suspect many of us think of that statement with the same sort of perplexity the crowd likely had hearing Jesus’ first words to the paralyzed man, “My son, your sins are forgiven,” (Mark 2:5).

Perhaps they thought, “Forgiven sins? Jesus, this man needs miraculous healing – a rescue from paralysis.” In this case, the obvious rescue came quickly. As we know, Jesus said a few moments later, “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home,” (Mark 2:11). We see the instantaneous results, “And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We never saw anything like this!” (Mark 2:12). Don’t miss though the purpose statement of why Jesus said, “your sins are forgiven” and then spoke the healing. Just a verse before Jesus uttered those powerful words of healing, He stated the purpose behind it all, “…that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”.

That was the crux of everything at that moment. The paralyzed man, his friends, the questioning scribes, and the larger crowd needed to know and believe in Jesus’ identity and purpose. They needed to know and believe Jesus was the Son of Man who had authority to forgive sins. This was more crucial than the physical need for rescue from paralysis. There was ignorance and unbelief in Jesus at work, and therefore an eternal need for rescue.

We may admittedly think, “Yeah, I have issues with unbelief in my life, but it pales in comparison to the life-altering trials I’m currently enduring.” However, unbelief is a root buried under all of our sins, it robs us of our joy in Christ, it can quench the Spirit’s power and work in our lives, and it blunts our maturity in the faith. For those who are not born-again believers, unbelief in Jesus is the urgent and eternal barrier that must be overcome by the grace of God. Whether we’ve believed in Christ or not, unbelief is the crucial, foundational point from which we all need rescue. We must come to the point of knowing that God through Christ and by His Spirit is both powerful enough and that it’s His gracious will to ultimately rescue us.

Fighting Against Unbelief as we Wait on His Rescue

But how do we fight against unbelief and seasons of doubt in our lives as we endure trials, especially when His rescue seems to delay?

Again, Pastor Jacob gave some great points of application I want to highlight and expand on a bit.

1) Realize we’re in a spiritual battle, so we desperately need God. When we realize that for non-believers there is a war going on for their souls, then we realize how much we need Jesus to intervene. As believers, when we recognize that a war’s being waged to distract and tempt us to mar the name of Christ and His bride, and to divide and neutralize our effectiveness through depression, demoralization, moral failure, and false teaching- then we understand we desperately need God.

2) Recognize that as we’re needy for Jesus’ help we can be His instrument to help others. God works mightily through those who know they need Him and rely on Him. This makes sense since we’re made to glorify Him and help others find their greatest joy is found in Him. Sometimes our moment of realizing our greatest need for God can be a moment of fruitful work. That’s because in that moment, we’ll be less likely to bring any credit or glory to ourselves. As believers, we all have an opportunity to point others to the ways we’ve seen God’s faithfulness in our own difficult seasons and to comfort them with His comfort we’ve received directly and through others. This stepping out in faith to bless others is a way to fight against doubts and despair when our own trials are raging and our rescue is delayed.

3) Recognize God is working in our waiting. Sometimes with delays, it’s easy to feel God has forgotten us, or isn’t willing or able to rescue us. Biblically though, this we see lots of delays in God’s timing.

  • The Israelites were in Egypt for 430 years before God redeemed them through Moses (Exodus 12:40).
  • The exiles remained in Babylon 70 years before the first of them were able to return to Israel.
  • The man born blind was an adult before he was healed and believed (John 9).
  • Lazarus got sick and was dead 4 days before Jesus came and resurrected Him (John 11).
  • The woman suffered with an issue of blood for 12 years before receiving Jesus’ healing (Mark 5:25).
  • Jesus’ arrival on earth came after 400 years of silence from prophets and thousands of years after He was foretold. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son…” (Galatians 4:4)

God’s timing and His ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9). In His love, sovereign power, and omniscience He delays His rescue for the most opportune moment. While He delays, He works in His children to reveal unbelief, grow our faith, and make us more like Christ.

4) Recognize God has guaranteed an eternal rescue in Christ. Scripture does promise trials and hardships as we follow Jesus and does not promise a clean rescue from every one on this side of heaven. But, Christ Jesus does act as the Chief and Good Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4; John 10:11, 27-29) to carry us throughout our lives and ensure that our faith He’s gifted us will endure to the end. Paul toward the end of his life beautifully articulates this kind of confident attitude during crisis. In 2 Timothy, as he is nearing his execution, he says these words,

The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (2 Timothy 4:16-18)

This didn’t mean he’d be spared from being martyred for Christ. It did mean, not even death could stop God’s loving plans for rescue into His heavenly kingdom.

5) Recognize we must pray. In each of previous points, I hope you’ve sensed the necessity of Pastor Jacob’s final imperative Sunday to pray. If we’re dealing with cosmic forces of darkness, we need to pray for Christ’s protection and deliverance. If we’re to get beyond ourselves and see the opportunity to bless others, we need the Lord’s strength and wisdom. When our patience and faith and hope is running dry as we wait, we need to pray for God’s perspective and help to trust His perfect timing. We need to pray to keep our eyes focused on Christ and the eternal joy and rescue set before us in His presence.

This weekend, as we’re waiting for God’s rescue in circumstantial and spiritual ways both individually and as DGCC, we’ve got a chance to put our faith into action through prayer. We’ll have an opportunity for a corporate prayer of confession in our worship service. We’ll also have a joint time of prayer after lunch. Then we’ll send a group off to prayer walk around our church neighborhood. We’re even planning for a handful of people to stay back to pray that God’s Spirit would lead those walking to God-glorifying interactions.

As we pray together and seek His face, by His grace we’ll grow in our faith and will see the cry to rescue positively answered, “I believe, help my unbelief!”

The Master’s Questions to His Questioners

If you could ask God one question, what would you ask Him? This is a key starter question from evangelism training that some of us have attended in past years. It is also a feature question from one of our online courses at Billy Graham. Here are some actual students’ responses from just this past week in the course. (One question for God, what would you ask Him?).

  • Why is life so difficult?
  • How do I use my challenges to benefit the world in a realistic and tangible way?
  • What can I do for my friends and family to know and believe in Him?
  • How can I forgive without hurting when remembering the incident?
  • Why was I created?
  • How long will I be suffering in this world my Father?

These are genuine, raw questions!

How do you think God would answer those questions?

How would you answer those questions if asked??

There will be times in all our lives where not only will we have questions, but we’ll encounter loved ones, friends, neighbors, and coworkers with eternal questions. So how do we know how God would approach these questions and how He’d want us to as well?

One of the great things about the Bible is that it reveals to us, from start to finish, the character of God. In fact, the Word of God is God revealing His own character, so we might know Him, enjoy Him, and rightly worship and reflect Him in the world.

  • He shows His character through wisdom literature like Psalms and Proverbs.
  • He discloses Himself through His words to and through His Prophets.
  • He makes Himself known through the mighty promises and faithful actions in the books of the Law and with Israel.
  • He demonstrates who He is through logical conclusions in the letters.
  • He reveals Himself through the glorious defeat of evil and eternal reign as the King of kings and Lord of lords in Revelation.

But in the Gospels, we see the life and Person of Jesus laid out—the perfect image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15a). Here is truly on display God in human flesh making Himself known. You could look at His teaching, His miracles, His parables, His prophetic fulfillments and see great heights of His nature and the essence of His character.

However, one thing God has laid on my heart over the last month or so is to look deeper into how Jesus answers His questioners. During Jesus’ lifetime, He fielded many questions. I’m still working my way through the Gospels, but I counted 38 direct questions thrown Jesus’ way in Matthew. This won’t be a surprise to many of you, but Jesus answered 11 of those 38 questions with a question of His own.

Think about that. God Himself, who has the answer to every question and is the most loving being in the universe, did not always count it best to initially and directly answer His questioners. He asked questions back to them.

Today we’ll look at three instances where our Savior and Lord, questioned His questioners.

I. Change the Frame

Our first instance comes in Mark 2:18. The context concerns John the Baptist’s disciples and the Pharisees fasting. So some people come up to Jesus and ask Him, “18Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”

The question Jesus gives in response is the first type we’ll ponder. Let’s call it, change the frame—the frame of reference that is. This question rightly notices a difference in behavior between Jesus’ followers and those of John and the Pharisees. However, it wrongly assumes Jesus is on par with John and the Law. Jesus is the One to whom John’s whole life has been called to point to. He is the Giver and perfect fulfillment of the Law. Jesus is other, above, beyond, greater than any prophet, priest, or king and is the perfect embodiment of what a life in obedience to God and fulfillment of the Law looks like. Jesus’ initial question is going to change the frame. It’s meant to reset the frame of reference for the questioners. It’s meant to lovingly show them someone different is in front of them that they need recognize.

In verses 19–20 Jesus says,

Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.

He uses a picture of a groom and the celebration he brings to help his questioners understand His disciples are acting differently because the One who makes their joy complete is in their midst. He asked a question to change their frame of mind, to see Jesus as different, set apart, and bringing in a new era.

II. Turning the Tables

The second example of Jesus answering a question with a question comes from Matthew 15:1-9. We’ll call this turning the tables through pointing out hypocrisy. Here the tone from Jesus’ questioners is accusing His disciples of wrongdoing. “1Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ‘2Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.’” Here Jesus question doesn’t seek to help explain or answer where they’re hung up. It turns the tables on His questioners by exposing their “acceptable” sin and underlying hypocrisy.

Hear Jesus’ words in verses 3–9:

And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, “Honor your father and your mother,” and, “Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.” But you say, “If anyone tells his father or his mother, ‘What you would have gained from me is given to God,’ he need not honor his father.” So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (cf. Isaiah 29:13).

The Pharisees were making new laws of tradition to pile on others while they were not even keeping God’s Law itself. Jesus lovingly, directly, and bravely calls them on their wrong, knowing that they will be offended. Some of us run to this option too often. We imagine ourselves as hammers and most conversations as an opportunity to nail others where they’re missing it. Others of us are too afraid of offending others. The fear of people has a hold on us instead of the love of Christ. For those of us in this category, we need to prayerfully risk offending others and love them enough to point out the truth.

III. Drawing them Out

Now for a third way Jesus questions his questioners. This a famous one and is a bit different. It’s in Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 24, starting in verse 13 with the two men on the walk to Emmaus. We will call this one drawing them out.

Proverbs 20:5—The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.

Here two disciples are walking from Jerusalem. They are looking sad and talking about the things that have happened in the wake of Jesus’ death. Jesus comes up behind them and initiates the conversation with a question, asking what they are talking about among themselves. Then one of the guys named Cleopas answers, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

How ironic is this that the One to whom they’re asking the question was the very One who endured all of the betrayal, arrest, whipping, shaming, and crucifixion. What’s more, He had planned this with the Father from the foundation of the world. Nevertheless, our all-wise King in awesome love, humility, and wisdom draws them out by asking in verse 19, “What things?”

Only after they’ve explained the things on their heart does Jesus give them a rebuke and then the most amazing Bible study that we’ve mentioned many times! By drawing out where they were, He allowed His great lesson of the Scriptures being centered on His crucifixion and resurrection to fully sink in.

So what can we glean from our Savior at times questioning His questioners? A few takeaways:

  1. It’s a helpful thing to ask questions. It shows other people you’re interested in them. It keeps them engaged. It allows for dialogue.
  2. Of the three, it seems like the “drawing them out” method should probably be our bread and butter. Unlike Jesus, we don’t already know people’s hearts, or the thing that they need the most to hear. After praying for wisdom and the Spirit’s guidance, drawing them out allows us to better know where someone is coming from and gives us a sense of their worldview. It also shows us areas of common ground to start from and build toward Christ and the Gospel.
  3. All three methods of answering with questions are helpful and useful and called for in different circumstances. Sometimes analogies and visuals can help change the frame of people’s mindsets and reference points to see truths of Scripture and who our God is in a new perspective. Even turning the tables is needed at times to lovingly stand on truth and point others to the most flourishing way forward.

In all of this, we are called to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) and follow our Savior who is full of “grace and truth” (John 1:17).