Be Very Diligent to Love God

Jesus tells us the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our being (Matthew 22:38). Joshua 23:11 tells us this is neither natural nor easy:

Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God. (ESV)
So be very diligent to love the LORD your God for your own well-being. (HCSB)

Though God has given to all mankind “life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25), though, having given His Son on the cross, He surely will give His people all things (Romans 8:32), and though nothing will separate His people from His love (Romans 8:35-39), our love for Him comes and goes. In difficult times we are tempted to blame Him for our problems; in good times, we are tempted to ignore Him, to think and act as if we don’t need Him – like a teen who ignores the loving parents who feed him, clothe him, educate him, and pour out their lives for him.

Even when we know the Gospel and in our minds agree that we ought to love God, we often effectively slip into a pagan religion. While we would never be this blunt, our attitudes and actions can communicate: “I’ll attend church and small group, give money, read the Bible, help the poor, and speak the Gospel to others – then, God, how will you hold up Your side of the bargain?”

So Joshua speaks to us: “Be very diligent to love the Lord your God! Be very careful about this!” That is: “Don’t fall into such temptations! And don’t expect loving God to be easy – love is never easy! Work hard at it! Keep working at it day by day, week by week, year by year.”

One aspect of such diligence is to examine your heart – particularly when engaged in an activity you consider religious. Are you expressing and deepening joy in God, in Jesus? Or are you simply going through the motions?

But as important as the examination is your response when you fail! When you see yourself engaging in such perfunctory obedience, don’t fall for the lie, “If I can’t do this with the right attitude, I should just stop!” Instead, confess that lack of love to God (and possibly to other believers around you), ask God to incline your heart to Him – and continue in the task. Often, our Lord will give you a right heart as you persevere in that task.

For example, in the mid-1990s, our church in Massachusetts held two or three services every Sunday afternoon in the nursing homes in our town. If I had preached Sunday morning, everything in me wanted to go home, relax, and play with my kids. My heart was not right. I was not loving the Lord or acting out of that love. But when I went to the nursing home (often bringing children with me), prayed for a right heart, and opened up the Word, virtually every time God gave me love for Him and joy in Him along the way.

So be diligent to love the Lord your God! Fight the good fight to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

 

Delight to Fear His Name

[This devotion is taken primarily from the third and concluding sections of the March 24 sermon. The first section of the sermon cites a number of passages in which joy in God and fear of Him are both commanded. The second examines wrong ways for us to fear God. The audio of the sermon will be available shortly at this link.

What does Nehemiah mean when he says God’s servants “delight to fear Your name” (Nehemiah 1:11)? How are God’s people rightly to fear Him and to delight in Him?

Three passages are particularly helpful in resolving this paradox: Isaiah 40, Mark 4, and Isaiah 11.

Isaiah 40

While the entire chapter is relevant, consider especially Isaiah 40:21-26:

Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; 23 who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. 24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. 25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing. (emphasis added)

Isaiah says: Look at Who God is! It’s been clear from the beginning! He plays with planets and stars, supernovas and black holes, the way our little ones play with blocks. He knows every star and puts it exactly where He wants it. He places Mt Everest on a scale and says, “Looks like I need to add another three ounces to make this mountain the right weight.”

Consider the human beings who seem the most powerful, the most influential, as discussed in verses 23-24 – those who command armies, who influence our thinking, who lead movements, who govern countries. No matter how exalted their positions, no matter how imposing they may appear, God blows – Puff! – and they are gone, like the flame of a birthday candle. They are nothing – we are nothing – in comparison to God. He has no rivals. There is no one who approaches His importance, no one who rivals His power.

So Isaiah is telling us: Look! Open your eyes!  See Who He is! He is almighty. He is your God if you are among His people. So humble yourself before Him!

Mark 4:35-41

Jesus is in a boat with His disciples, crossing the Sea of Galilee. A great windstorm arises, far more dangerous than any these experienced fishermen have encountered previously. As waves burst over the sides, the disciples are bailing frantically, fearing for their lives.

Meanwhile, Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat.

They shake Him, crying out, “Don’t you care? Do something! At least help us bail!”

Jesus simply cries out, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind stops. The waves cease. There is a great calm.

How do the disciples react?

They were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41)

Do you see? Mark here presents the same idea as Isaiah 40. When the disciples looked at the wind and the waves and feared for their lives, they had a wrong fear – a fear of circumstances. Jesus is with them! He is in control! What evil could happen?

But the fear they experience after seeing Jesus’ power and authority is a right and proper fear. They are in awe of His power – but they know that power is with them, not against them. They can delight to have that type of fear.

Isaiah 11:3 and John 4:34

Prophesying about the coming Messiah, Isaiah tells us His “delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.”

Now, if we are united with Christ, we should become like Him; we are to take on His character. Our fear of God, therefore, as well as our delight, should be like His.

What did Jesus’ fear look like? John 4:34 helps us here. Remember the context. Jesus’ disciples have brought Him food to eat, but He doesn’t want any. They wonder – did someone else bring Him food? He says: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34).

Jesus’ sustenance, Jesus’ joy, Jesus’ delight is to do the Father’s will. He knows that the Father’s will is perfect. He knows that the Father knows all, sees all, controls all. He knows no one can give the Father counsel, or correct His plans. He knows to follow Him will bring about the best outcome. So He humbles Himself before the will of His Father. He delights to do His will. He delights to obey Him in everything. He delights to fear His Name.

So you see: Fearing God is closely related to humbling ourselves before Him. This results from beholding our God (Isaiah 40:9) – that is, clearly understanding Who He is. Such fear, such humility, is the starting point for delight. We have to see His power and majesty, and our own inability and unworthiness, in order to delight in Him. If we are impressed with our own accomplishments and abilities, there is no place for fear or delight in Him. We must rejoice:

  • That He is great and we are small.
  • That He is all wise and we understand very little
  • That He is holy and righteous and we are sinful and fallen
  • That He controls the universe and we can’t even control our appetites

To rejoice in God is to rejoice in our weakness and His strength, our finitude and His infinity. And that requires a proper fear of Who He Is.

So behold our God!

  • He is able to destroy this country – or any country – with a puff of His breath.
  • He is able to destroy this planet – with a flick of His wrist.
  • He is able to take a hardened, rebellious sinner, like the Pharisee Saul, and turn him into greatest missionary and theologian of all time, the Apostle Paul.
  • He is able to take the most powerful of all earthly rulers, the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar, and cause Him to eat grass like an animal for seven years.
  • He is able to punish you horribly for eternity, and He is able to make you into His beloved child.
  • He is able to take you – weak and powerless and sinful as you are – and advance His global purposes through you.
  • He is able to take millions of individuals from all times and places, and by their starts and stops, by their faithful acts and terrible failures, to bring about His perfect plan to fill the earth with the knowledge of His glory as the waters cover the sea.

So know His might. Know His justice. Know His holiness.

Know your insignificance. Know your lack of power. Know your lack of holiness.

If you are not in Jesus, you should have a fearful expectation of judgment (Hebrews 10:27). As Jesus Himself says, “Fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). You cannot stand before such a holy and righteous God in your sin. Humble yourself, asking for forgiveness based on the sacrifice of His Son. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ  – and then there will be no place for fear of judgment.

If you are in Jesus – even if you have only just now repented and believed – this mighty God is for you, not against you. He is working all things together for your good, as well as His glory. You are His precious child – and nothing can separate you from His love that is yours in Christ Jesus. You deserve punishment, but God has laid all your iniquity on Jesus. There is no retribution remaining. So delight in Him. Delight to do His will. Delight in His great plan – of which you are a part. Be overwhelmed by His majesty, by His holiness, by His grace.

And so delight to fear His Name.

Who is With Jesus and Who is Not?

[In the March 17 sermon, we considered the seemingly contradictory sayings of Jesus: “Whoever is not with Me is against Me” (Matthew 12:30) and “One who is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:40). We saw that in both cases Jesus is telling His listeners to serve others. The audio of the sermon will be available shortly at this link. The following lessons for the Christian life are taken from the concluding section, and are drawn out of the analysis of the context of those passages.]

Let’s draw out nine principles, nine lessons for the Christian life that flow out of our examination of this seeming contradiction.

First: Serve others by both elevating truth and loving our brothers and sisters in Christ.

This implication of the paradox is brought out well in the opening paragraph of our Statement of Faith Governing Teaching (which is based on language from the elder affirmation of faith at Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis):

A passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples is best sustained in an atmosphere of deep and joyful knowledge of the character of God. We thus aim to teach the whole counsel of God rather than aiming to discover and teach some minimum required for salvation. In affirming what we believe on these matters, we separate ourselves doctrinally from some brothers and sisters within the universal church. The cause of unity in the church, however, is best served not by finding the lowest common denominator of doctrine, but by elevating the value of truth through stating clear doctrinal parameters, and then demonstrating to the world how Christians can love each other across doctrinal boundaries, rather than by removing those boundaries. We commit ourselves to both elevating truth and loving our brothers.

We don’t serve anyone well by downplaying the importance of truth. And that’s the danger of listening only to Jesus’ statement, “He who is not against Me is for Me,” or emphasizing only God’s love, or only Jesus’ prayer that all His followers might be one. We are one – in Christ. And Jesus is both Lamb and Lion. God is both loving and just – indeed, it is because He is both that the cross was necessary. It is God’s truth that sets us free, that unites us to Jesus, that makes us one. So there is no way we can separate truth from being in Christ. At the same time, we are genuinely to love all those who are in Christ – regardless of how we might differ on our understandings of some important truths. So we exalt truth – and we love across differences in our understanding of truth.

Second: This lesson has to do with how we interact with those who might or might not be in Christ. There are four parts:

  1. We must not imply someone is in Christ who is not.
  2. We must not imply someone is NOT in Christ when they are.
  3. We do well to exhort others to examine themselves, to see if they are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5), using biblical criteria – without implying that they are not.
  4. We do well to challenge those claiming to be in Christ who are engaging in clear, obvious sin, by stating the truth that those who do so will not inherit the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Galatians 5:19-21).

Third: We must never give the impression that the essence of Christianity is being part of our group by avoiding certain behaviors or advancing some cause other than the Gospel

It may be wise to avoid certain behaviors other than those proscribed in Scripture. And there may well be political or social causes that we strongly believe are implied by Scripture. But the moment we say, “Unless you support this policy or act in this way, you are not in Christ,” we are distorting the Gospel. We are taking part in the Galatian heresy. However important any cause might be, it is not the essence of the Gospel.

Fourth: We must distinguish between individuals and their churches or denominations.

Some denominations or churches hold to specific doctrines that distort or deny the Gospel. We could not have a joint service with such a church. But there often are individuals within such churches that God has saved, in spite of the particular teachings of their church.

Fifth: With respect to other churches, we should ask: Does this doctrinal difference fundamentally distort the Gospel, demeaning the work of the Holy Spirit and the glory of Jesus?

This is the right question to ask, though it is often difficult to answer. For example, the Apostle Paul is absolutely clear that requiring circumcision of non-Jews who had become Christians is to distort the Gospel so thoroughly that there is no Gospel left at all (Galatians 1:6-9). On the other hand, though we believe biblical baptism should take place after profession of saving faith, we do not believe that the baptism of infants practiced in Presbyterian churches is a fundamental distortion of the Gospel.

Sixth: Realize we can and should cooperate on social and political issues without pretending our social allies are in Christ.

Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Muslims may well agree with us on a number of social and political issues. Any successful political movement will have to be broadly based. We may choose to work together for such causes. We should love and serve those who are working with us. But we must never give the impression that our social or political agreement is more important than Christ, or that our differences in understanding how a person can be reconciled to God are insignificant.

Seventh: Beware of civil religion.

It is tempting for those who love the United States to baptize this country, and to imply God’s cause is wrapped up with the future of the US, or that what binds us as citizens is as important as what binds us in Christ. We are to pray for our political leaders and to participate in civil institutions – but Christ’s church cuts across all nation states and unites those from every tribe and tongue into a oneness far more important than our citizenship.

Eighth: We must distinguish between loving friends and family members who are not in Christ and separating from false teachers and other religions.

We are to serve everyone. As we saw above, that means never implying someone is in Christ when they are not. Sometimes with false teachers, that will necessitate having nothing to do with them (2 Timothy 3:5). But we can serve and love family members and friends without making that wrong implication. Love them. Enjoy them. Speak the truth to them, and live out that truth before them. Don’t make your continued relationship with them dependent on their response to the truth. That is not service. They may choose to separate from you if you hold steadfastly to the truth – if so, you can’t avoid the separation. But try to love across the differences.

Ninth: We must examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith.
Are we truly with Jesus? If not, we are against Him. So: Is Jesus supreme in our lives – above our reputations, above all other relationships, above all that we have or own, even above life itself? In everything, is He preeminent (Colossians 1:18)? Do you believe, and do your actions show, that whoever loses his life for Jesus’ sake and for the Gospel will save it? Do you believe, and do your actions show, that the Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which, finding, a man covers up, and out of his joy he goes and sells all that he has in order to buy that field (Matthew 13:44)?

Whoever is Not With Me is Against Me

[This Sunday we consider what Jesus means when He says both, “Whoever is not with Me is against me” (Matthew 12:30), and “The one who is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:40). What follows is an edited excerpt from a sermon preached July 7, 2013 on Matthew 12:15-50, which raises similar questions. You can listen to the audio of that sermon at this link.]

Who is Jesus?

Where do you stand on that question?

Do you stand with Him – and thus see Him as the center of all human history, as the Savior of all who will come to Him, as the promised King who will return, right all wrongs, and reign forever? Do you see Him as the promised groom for His Bride, the Church – and thus as your beloved?

Or do you stand against Him? Do you see Him as a threat to what you hold dear? Do you see the Jesus of the Bible as a fake, a charlatan, whose followers have distorted the historical person?

Or perhaps on hearing those questions, you’re thinking, “Well, I’m not an extremist! I don’t see Jesus as the center of all history, but neither do I regard Him as a threat. There are aspects of Jesus I like, and other aspects I don’t like so much. But I’m neither with Him nor against Him. I’m an objective observer; I’m neutral.”

In Matthew 12:30, Jesus says explicitly: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” That is: Jesus says, “You cannot be neutral with regard to me.” Indeed He says, “You speak out of the overflow of what is inside you, out of the overflow of your heart, out of the overflow of who you are. And there are no neutral hearts. So come to Me and follow Me! But know: If you don’t come to Me, you are against me. You are my enemy. I am your rightful King, and you have joined the rebellion against me.”

Who is Jesus?

Matthew has emphasized Jesus’ authority previously. He does that again in Matthew 12:38 and following. Jesus claims to be greater than Jonah and greater than Solomon. Think about that: Here’s a young man, in his early thirties, with no wealth, no schooling, no position in society, the son of a carpenter from out in the sticks. And He claims to be greater than one of the greatest leaders in the history of His nation.

This is an audacious claim. And yet Jesus has just said in Matthew 11:28-30, “I am gentle and humble in heart.”

Is a carpenter’s son who calls Himself greater than Solomon humble?

Matthew explains this in Matthew 12:15 and following. After healing many, He commands these folks not to make Him known as the Messiah. In Matthew 12:18-21 the author then explains that Jesus telling others not to make Him known is a fulfillment of Isaiah 42:1-4. As prophesied, Jesus is not a loud, self-promoter. Yet He is God’s chosen, beloved servant; God has placed His Spirit on Him, and given Him a worldwide task as the hope of all nations. So, yes, Jesus is greater than Solomon and Jonah. But He is gentle; if you are faintly burning for Him, shining just a little light, He will not stand back and say, “Burn brighter or I’ll snuff you out!” No. He will trim that wick, enabling your light to blaze, and He will make you the light of the world.

So Jesus is the greatest of all humanity. Yet He came to serve, indeed, to die – for you.

Are You with Jesus?

Matthew gives us a parable from real life in Matthew 12:22 as an example of Jesus’ character. A blind and mute man, oppressed by demons and thus under Satan’s authority, is brought to Him. This man pictures every one of us when we are separated from Christ. Just as with us, Jesus opens his eyes and lips, ending the oppression.

This is the gentle, authoritative service Jesus always renders. He overcomes our oppressors, enabling us to fulfill the purpose of our creation: Praising God and delighting in Him.

How do people respond to this man’s healing? As we’re told in Matthew 12:23, they are amazed, and ask if Jesus could be the Son of David – that is, the Messiah.

That’s how we’re supposed to respond to Jesus: To see Him, to be amazed at His love, His service, His power and authority.

As Jesus explains in Matthew 12:35, these folks are speaking out of the overflow of their hearts. They see what Jesus does, and think: “This is what the prophets said! The blind see! The oppressed are set free! Could this man be our long-promised Messiah, the rightful King?”

Furthermore, Jesus explains in Matthew 12:46-50 that He offers more than freedom from oppression, even more than forgiveness of sin. He invites us into His intimate family: “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50).

So note: Jesus is not asking you simply to accept some propositions. He’s not only asking you to acknowledge His authority, His humility, and His forgiveness. He is saying, “Come to your loving Savior! Be a part of My family! As a part of that family, rejoice from the bottom of your heart in our Father. Speak out of the overflow of that heart – your mute lips have been opened! Exalt your loving Father in every way – and thus do His will. Come into the family – and then act like a beloved family member.”

Are you with Jesus? Do you not just acknowledge His power but love His person? Do you not just believe biblical doctrine but rejoice in the Father’s love?

Or Are You Against Jesus?

The Pharisees in this passage picture the opponents of Jesus. They see what He does, and they reject Him out of hand. Jesus spends much of this passage warning against that attitude – an attitude that explains away all evidence of Who He is, an attitude that will never believe, regardless of what God does, an attitude that is the overflow of what Jesus calls the evil treasure in a person’s heart.

We see this first in Matthew 12:24, when the Pharisees respond to the healing of the demon-oppressed man by claiming that Jesus casts out demons by the prince of demons.

In Matthew 12:25 and following, Jesus responds, saying that claim is obviously false. If Satan’s kingdom is divided like that, it is no threat at all; that kingdom will collapse. Rather than working with Satan, Jesus says He is binding Him (Matthew 12:29). That should be obvious to anyone with eyes to see.

Jesus takes a different tack in Matthew 12:27. There were a number of Jewish exorcists casting out demons in Jesus’ day, and the Pharisees don’t claim that they do so by the power of the prince of demons. So with the same evidence, in one case the Pharisees acknowledge the power of God at work, while in the other they deny it. This shows that the problem is in their hearts rather than in the evidence; they will not see and believe.

Jesus highlights this is Matthew 12:28, saying in effect: “This Kingdom has been prophesied for centuries. Here it is! It has come upon you in My person! Quit disbelieving! Acknowledge what is before your eyes! The promises are fulfilled!”

But the Pharisees keep their eyes closed. They see plenty of evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work, but they reject Jesus and claim He is doing Satan’s work. This is blasphemy against the Spirit (Matthew 12:31-32); that sin cannot be forgiven, because if you willingly and persistently close your eyes to the evidence of the Spirit’s work, you never will repent.

The author brings this out further in Matthew 12:38 and following. The scribes and Pharisees ask for a sign – that is, for evidence that Jesus really is who He claims to be. But they have just seen a sign – the healing of the man – and they rejected that sign. Obviously no sign will do any good to those who will reject every sign.

Jesus is not their performing animal: He will not produce miracles at their command. But in Matthew 12:39-40 He says they will indeed receive another sign: He will be in the grave three days, and then rise from the dead. And how do the Jewish leaders respond when they that happens? They reject it. They claim the disciples stole the body, though they well know that is not the case (Matthew 28:11-15).

So, are you with Jesus? Or against Him? This entire passage warns us: You cannot be neutral towards Him. And don’t be satisfied with taking a few steps in His direction – coming to church, reading the Bible, cleaning up a few parts of your life. You must be all in for Him. You must be His intimate family. If not, You are against Him – you are His enemy.

For Jesus not just an interesting teacher. He is not just a person with great insight; He is not just a good person whose example we should follow. He claims that He is greater than Solomon or Jonah; He claims that when He is present, the Kingdom of God has come.

Do you think you need more evidence? Be careful that you are not simply looking for excuses not to believe – that your rejection is not just displaying the overflow of a rebellious heart. But if you are genuinely looking, you will find Him – a “faintly burning wick” he will not snuff out. So pray, “I believe, Lord – help my unbelief! I submit to you; open my blind eyes, open my mute mouth!”

God created mankind to be part of His family. And Jesus says: “I am your rightful King, whether you acknowledge Me or not. And I can be your beloved husband, the source of your great delight. So come to Me, whatever your burden – and I will give you rest!”

 

What Can We Accomplish?

[This devotion is taken from the concluding section of the sermon, “Does God Need Our Help to Fulfill His Plan?” preached February 24, 2019. Audio will be available at this page soon.]

“Apart from Me, you can do nothing.”

So says the Lord Jesus (John 15:5).

Really, Jesus? Nothing?

It sure seems like we do things apart from Jesus.

So, think: What can we accomplish?

Consider: We have abilities, intelligence, experiences, family backgrounds, and education. Building on those, we plan, we research, we produce, we work hard, we train our minds and bodies, we develop our talents, we start and grow businesses, we write books, we perform jobs, we love our families, we raise our children, we serve our countries, we help our cities. And so, we – that is, many hardworking and successful people who on a human level are good workers, good neighbors, good citizens, and good friends, Christians and non-Christians – accomplish something of value. Something valuable to us. Something valued by our society. Something that seems good, useful, or helpful.

But note two points:

First: God needs none of that. Remember the story in Ezekiel 37. God commands His prophet to preach to dry, dead bones – and God creates a huge army. He needs none of our efforts to accomplish His purposes, to fulfill His desires. As the Apostle Paul says:

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, … is [not] served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. (Acts 17:24-25, emphasis added)

Second: As stated in those verses, all that we accomplish is a gift from Him. All of it – whether we are Christian or not, whether we actively depended on Him in the process or not. As Deuteronomy 8:17-18 tells us:

Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.

So apply that idea to yourself:

Not one iota of your success, your hard work, your contribution came from you apart from God. Hear the Apostle Paul once again:

What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? (1 Corinthians 4:7)

So reflect on your accomplishments. What might you be tempted to be proud of?

For myself: I might be proud of:

  • Earning a PhD
  • Publishing numerous economics articles
  • Leaving a good profession to become a full-time minister of the Gospel
  • Being a husband for nearly 40 years
  • Being the father of six children
  • Planting this church
  • Bringing the Perspectives Course to Charlotte, etc, etc.

Make your own list. And then if you are in Christ, pray something like this with me:

All this is from you, Father God. Whatever has been good, fruitful, productive, helpful, loving, or wise in my life is all from you. Whatever is messed up, wrongheaded, hurtful, hateful, or foolish is from me. If each second You had not given me life and breath, I would have been dead. If You had not graciously given me abilities, perseverance, empathy, and love, my life would have been one fruitless hell hole after another. Yet in Christ Jesus you have chosen me, you have loved me, you have set me apart as holy. You call me your child and assure me nothing will separate me from your love. And you call me along with all your people to be Your agents, Your  ambassadors! You make Your appeal through us: “Be reconciled to God!” (2 Corinthians 5:20). All praise to You, O Father. I love you. Though You do not need me, I gladly serve you. Use this service for Your glory. Fulfill Your plan through me and the rest of Your Church.

So, always remember:

It’s not about you, your ministry, your gifts, your calling – it’s all about God.

You are here to show God’s image, to display Christ. And Christ is both the suffering servant  and the conquering King, both the sacrificial Lamb and the majestic Lion. As we display Christ, we may display Christ- as-Conqueror or Christ-as-Sufferer. Or both. That’s God’s choice. He apportions gifts and outcomes as He chooses. But it is all working together to sum up all things in Christ, pointing to that final day when Jesus returns, and those from every tribe and tongue praise His Name (Revelation 7:9-12).

So there is no place for pride. And there is no place for despair.

Nor is there any place for self-exaltation or church-exaltation or country-exaltation.

Only God-exaltation. Christ exaltation.

May we acknowledge in our hearts what is true in reality: To Him alone belong the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.

Amen.

 

 

Where is Your Confidence?

[As we contemplate this Sunday whether or not God needs us, consider this devotion on Jeremiah 17, edited from the original version written in 2011.]

Where is your confidence? Where do you find hope? Where do you find security?

Consider Israel in Jeremiah’s day. The prophet has said time and again that judgment is coming upon the nation. No one, however, pays attention to his warnings. The political and religious leaders do not want to believe in a God who would exercise judgment on His chosen people, and they look to military strength and their foreign allies for protection. So, echoing Psalm 1, Jeremiah writes:

Jeremiah 17:5-9: Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD.  6 He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.  7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD.  8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”  9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Who can understand a heart that voluntarily turns away from the only source of true security, from the only source of true sustenance? What tree would send its roots away from a nearby water source instead of towards it? Yet that is what the people of Israel were doing.

And the lesson holds for us. If we abandon the source of all good, no matter how wealthy or powerful or successful we become, we have no security. We have no true accomplishment, for we will never become what we were created to be or do what we could have done by His power. Indeed, we can only expect loss. But the one whose heart is changed so that God alone IS his confidence will be fruitful always (there is wordplay in the Hebrew text of verse 7 to emphasize this point – we might capture that partially through this translation: “Blessed is the man who is confident in The One Who is; the One Who Is is his confidence”). For to know the source of all being is to be certain of becoming what you are intended to be.

Jeremiah continues a few verses later:

Jeremiah 17:13-14  O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.  14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.

There is only one way to quench our deepest thirst, and that is through the water fountain that is the Lord. There is only one source of healing, only one source of rescue, only one sources of strength: and that is God Himself – so if we turn away from Him, if we praise and depend on anything else, we will lose everything we think we are gaining, and thus will be put to shame. But if we instead come to Him for healing – if we cry out to Him for salvation, looking only to His offer of Christ for our confidence and joy – then we shall be truly healed. Then we shall be truly saved. Then we shall fulfill His great purposes for us, His people.

Father, it only makes sense to have confidence in you, the source and the generator of all life, of all goodness. Wean us from what leads us astray, all these false sources of joy and fulfillment and strength, so that you indeed might be our confidence, our sustenance, our power, and our joy.

Does Scripture Contradict Itself?

Does Scripture contradict itself?

The Apostle Peter tells us that

no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21)

Or, as the Apostle Paul puts it, “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16). If the Bible were simply the writings of dozens of men written over the course of hundreds of years, we would expect some writings to contradict others. But if, as Peter and Paul claim, God is behind everything in the Bible, there should be no genuine contradictions.

Sometimes different authors seem to contradict one another. Most famously, Paul in Romans and James in his letter speak in sharp contrast about justification, faith, and works:

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. (Romans 3:28)

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. (James 2:24)

But there are issues not only between different authors. Jesus Himself sometimes speaks in seeming contradictions. I well remember as a teen being disturbed when encountering these two statements by our Lord:

For the one who is not against us is for us. (Mark 9:40)

Whoever is not with me is against me (Matthew 12:30a)

Which is it, Jesus? Are those who are neutral for You? Or are the neutral ones against You?

Seeing such examples, we might think the Bible needed a good editor who would clean up such statements, modifying what was written in one place so that it is in accord with what was written in another place. Good publishers check book manuscripts for such issues all the time.

However, the seeming contradictions in Scripture are not limited to those written by different authors. Some are clearly intended by the author of a particular book – for they are placed right next to each other. For example, see Proverbs 26:4-5:

Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

Clearly the compiler of Proverbs is getting at something deeper than giving us a general rule about how we should respond to those who are foolish.

When we begin to look for apparent contradictions, we see them throughout Scripture. Many deal with issues of central importance to the Christian faith, such as our freedom in Christ:

Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. (1 Peter 2:16 NIV)

Or our attitude towards “life:”

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. (Mark 8:35)

Or especially the nature of God, the relationship between God the Father and Jesus:

I and the Father are one. (John 10:30)

Or the interplay between wrath and mercy, judgment and grace:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. … Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:16, 36)

These and other examples of apparent contradictions right next to each other indicate that these paradoxes are not mistakes in need of a good editor, but intended by the authors of individual books to help communicate their message. And if that is the case, it is reasonable to ask if the Holy Spirit, as the claimed author of the entirety of Scripture, uses the same technique across books of the Bible to communicate His revelation – truths that are best communicated through this literary style.

Such apparent contradictions are hard to understand – but in a book that purports to be the words of the sovereign God of the universe, that is not surprising. Peter himself tells us that:

There are some things in [Paul’s letters] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. (2 Peter 3:16)

Let us not be among the ignorant and unstable, twisting Scripture and thus headed to destruction. Let us instead follow the exhortation Paul gives Timothy after making some of those hard to understand statements:

Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. (2 Timothy 2:7)

Over the next several months, beginning Sunday January 20, we will do just that: Think over seeming contradictions, all the while praying that the Lord would indeed give us understanding, so that we might know Him better, love Him more, and follow Him more closely. In this sermon series, entitled, “Contradictions? How Delving Into Challenging Topics Unlocks the Riches of God’s Revelation”, we’ll consider issues in salvation and judgment, in living the Christian life, and in understanding who God is. After introducing the series this Sunday, on January 27 we’ll consider the topic of prayer: If God does whatever He pleases, how can our prayers have any impact on what happens?

Join us as we think over what God says. May the promise of 2 Timothy 2:7 prove true, as His Spirit unlocks for us the riches of God’s revelation of Who He is, who we are, and how we can follow Him and grow in Him in this world.

[Biblical citations are from the ESV unless otherwise indicated.]

 

The Word Became Flesh and Dwelt Among Us

[This devotion is taken from one section of the sermon on John 1:14-18 preached December 16, 2018.]

The Word was with God. The Word was God. Nothing was created apart from the Word.

That Word became flesh, became baby Jesus laid in a manger. And that Word dwelt among us.

The Greek word translated “dwelt” is interesting; it has the same root as “tent” or “tabernacle.” Thus, one literal translation renders this clause, “the Word became flesh and did tabernacle among us.”

Any person familiar with Hebrew Scriptures reading this text in Greek would see the connection. John is telling us that Jesus is like the ancient Israelite tabernacle that accompanied them through the wilderness and was the center of their religion until Solomon built the temple about 400 years later. The tabernacle and the temple both always pictured God dwelling with His people, God being in the midst of His people, leading them, loving them, interacting with them.

This idea is right at the center of God’s promises, whether under the Old Covenant or the New. Let’s survey some of the key passages that highlight this promise:

In Exodus 29, after describing how the Israelites are to construct the tabernacle, God says:

There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory…. I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God. (From Exodus 29:43-46).

Then multiple times in Deuteronomy, God speaks of “the place that the LORD will choose, to make his name dwell there.”

In Deuteronomy we also see the image flipped for the first time. Instead of God dwelling in the midst of His people, in Deuteronomy 33:27 we read, “The eternal God is your dwelling place.”

So He dwells with us – and we dwell in Him. Jesus will later use both of these images in one verse:

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. (John 15:5)

Many psalms expand on this image of God’s dwelling. For example, in Psalm 84 we read:

How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. … For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

The prophets look forward to a time when God will dwell yet more intimately with His people. And they see that in that day, God’s people will consist of those from many different nations:

Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the LORD. And many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst. (Zechariah 2:10-11).

Ezekiel 37 is a well known passage that highlights a number of New Covenant promises, including the removal of our hearts of stone and replacement with hearts of flesh. In the midst of those promises, God states:

I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

We today do not have the picture of the tabernacle or the temple. But if we are in Christ Jesus, God is dwelling in us today.

How? In at least two different and complementary ways. First, your individual body is a temple, a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, as the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19.

Second, all of God’s people together constitute a temple in which God dwells. As the Apostle says in Ephesians 2 when speaking particularly to non-Jewish believers:

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22, emphasis added)

So now each of our bodies individually is a temple of the Holy Spirit; now, together we are members of the household of God and are being built into a dwelling place for God by the Holy Spirit.

That dwelling place will be completed in the new heavens and earth:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. (Revelation 21:3)

So do you see the flow of all of Scripture?

The Word Became flesh in part so that He might dwell with you, with His people, for all eternity – so that – flipping the image – He could be your dwelling place for all eternity, so that He could:

  • Shelter you under His tent
  • Invite you into His home
  • Show You His hospitality
  • Welcome you into His family
  • And thus so that you could know Him and love Him and delight in Him
  • So that He could be your God and you could be His people.

So “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” is not only a great theological truth about incarnation, stating that God became man. It is much more. It is both a partial fulfillment of God’s great promise of dwelling with His people, and the means by which that great promise will come to complete fruition.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

He continues to dwell among us.

And He will be our dwelling place forever and ever.

 

Suffering and Advent

How do you respond to affliction and pain?

In Psalm 69 – our sermon text this week – David calls out to God, “I am afflicted and in pain!” He then, as we would expect, calls out for God to deliver him: “Let your salvation, O God, set me on high!” (Psalm 69:29)

But the next verse is surprising: “I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.”

In other words: “I am really hurting. And I will sing praises to God. I will show how great He is by thanking Him.”

Is that how you respond to affliction and pain?

Note that David has not yet been delivered when he offers praise. He praises God prior to any deliverance, because God made promises to him and to his people – and He always keeps His promises.

This is what the Advent season is all about: God has made promises. We eagerly await the fulfillment of those promises. We don’t know when they will be fulfilled. But we know He is faithful.

This is the position of God’s people again and again over the centuries. We hurt. We are in pain. And we praise God, looking forward to His fulfillment of His promises.

Consider these examples:

  • God tells Abraham that all the families of the earth will be blessed through his descendant (Genesis 12:1-3) – and he then remains childless for decades, awaiting the birth of a son.
  • God tells Abraham that his descendants will be afflicted in another land for 400 years, but then He will bring judgment on that nation, and they will come out (Genesis 15:13-14). And so the Israelites suffer much oppression in Egypt, crying out to God, before He sends Moses and brings about their exodus.
  • In 586BC God destroys His temple, His picture of His presence with His people, sending the Jews into exile. And yet decades earlier the prophet Isaiah, looking forward to this time of exile, had written, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned” (Isaiah 40:1-2).
  • The faithful Jews held on to God’s promise of a coming Redeemer, a coming Messiah, across the centuries of foreign dominance and oppression. So in Luke 2 we find faithful Simeon and Anna in the temple, having waited for decades, and now at last seeing their Messiah as a little baby.

We find ourselves in a similar position today. Our Lord promises us, “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). We will experience pain and affliction. Jesus guarantees it. And we don’t have to look far to find it. In our own neighborhoods – indeed, in our own families – we find broken relationships, poverty of spirit, and oppression of the soul, as well as physical needs and maladies.

But Jesus also tells us in that same verse, “In me you may have peace. . . . Take heart! I have overcome the world.” And the Scriptures conclude with His promise, “Surely I am coming soon! (Revelation 22:20).

So in this interval between the First and Second Advents of our Lord, we will experience troubles similar to those endured by our brothers and sisters in the faith across the centuries. Like them, we will be afflicted and in pain. Like them, we will witness suffering and suffer ourselves.

But also like them, we can follow David’s example in Psalm 69, and, in the midst of trials and hardships, cry out, “I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.” For the Lord is a faithful God. He always keeps His promises. And all who love His appearing, all who trust in Him, will see Him face to face – and will know the reality, then, that they have believed all along: That “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

As a Slave, Who Do You Aim to Please?

“If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10 HCSB)

Again and again the New Testament presents those redeemed by Christ’s death as slaves to God, slaves to Jesus Himself: We have been bought at a price (1 Corinthians 6:20); we do whatever He desires from the heart (Ephesians 6:6); we are slaves of God (Romans 6:22), and living as His slave is the only way to find true freedom (Romans 6:16-18, 1 Peter 2:16).

Contemplate this image. Strip away all the negative connotations of slavery. Think of a Master who is worthy of all honor, authority, and status, who is wise far beyond you, who therefore knows better than you what is in your own best interest, who understands your strengths and weaknesses, your capabilities and limitations – who loves you and will make you effective and productive in fulfilling His good purposes for your joy.

If you are a slave with such a master, it only makes sense to obey Him wholeheartedly, to follow His will in everything. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says, what anything else thinks, what anyone else asks, what anyone else does; you aim to please your Master, not others. Others may try to tell us we are doing things wrong; they may accuse us of being foolish or arrogant; they may command us to follow them or serve them; but we should ignore those other voices and slave for our wise, loving Master.

Now, our Master does instruct us to do good to others, to love others, even to serve them – but we do so in response to the Master’s command, in the way the Master explains, not in response to the commands of others or in the way they prefer. Thus Paul can say as a slave of Christ he is not trying to please people (Galatians 1:10) while also saying, “I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved” (1 Corinthians 10:33, emphasis added). That is, Paul does not aim to please himself, nor does he do whatever others want him to do; he obeys his Master’s command to make disciples of all nations, to be His ambassador, to share the Gospel – so that others may join Him in the glorious freedom of slavery to Christ. By obeying the Master, we love others in the best way possible, pointing them to the deepest joy.

We constantly face temptations, however, to please others in ways that are contrary to our Master’s command: To modify the Gospel, or not to mention it; to live as they instruct, rather than as God instructs; to quarantine Jesus to Sunday mornings, rather than acknowledging Him, following Him, and delighting in Him every minute of every day.

But when we see ourselves rightly as His slaves, as bought by Him, as redeemed by His blood, as being transferred from the kingdom of darkness to His Kingdom of light – we will ignore those siren songs. We will do neither our own will nor the will of others. Instead, we will serve Him to our fulfillment and joy.

This very day, may we see ourselves rightly as belonging body, soul, and spirit to Jesus Christ, and so aim to please Him in all of our interactions with others.