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).

The Generosity of God

From the fountainhead of God’s generosity flows Christian, gospel generosity. That is, we are called to imitate God’s generosity by giving the gospel of Jesus to the world. I think the best way to grasp the depth of God’s generosity, is to first consider his greatness. So let’s consider God’s greatness, his great generosity in light of himself, and our call to imitate him.

 

Imitate God

In Ephesian 5:1, Paul issues this command: “Therefore be imitators of God…”. This leads to the inevitable question. How can we be like God? Well, when you consider God, what comes to mind? Currently, we as a church family are memorizing Psalm 139 together. In this Psalm, David reflects on some of the awesome attributes of God. So, let’s consider Psalm 139 along with some other passages.

 

God’s Greatness

Perhaps when you consider God, his perfect knowledge springs forth. David reflects on this:

 

Psalm 139:1–6—O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.

 

Or, perhaps you think of God’s immensity. He is omnipresent, everywhere all at once. There is no place we can go that God is not there. Again, David observes:

 

Psalm 139:7–12—Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

 

Or, perhaps you can’t help but think of his awesome power as the Creator, who created all things (Genesis 1:1). Consider a passage from Jeremiah:

 

Jeremiah 10:12–13—It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses.

 

And, again, David considers this awesome power of God to create life while also acknowledging, in the same breath, that it is in God’s power to take life:

 

Psalm 139:13–14—For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

 

Psalm 139:19—Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me!

 

God is all-knowing, ever-present, and all-powerful. There is none like him. And as our sermon text this weekend will make clear, God in all his knowledge, immensity, and power, well, he can do whatever he wants.

 

Psalm 135:5–6—For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.

 

Given all of this, I ask again: How can we be like God? How can we be like God when there is literally, none like him? He has all knowledge. We don’t and never will (No matter how advanced our AI). He is everywhere at once. We can never be, though we might try on the regular. He has all power. Though we might like to think we have some power, if he has it all, we actually have none save what he gives us. And, in his greatness, God does whatever he pleases. Another impossible task for us. Even if we did have the ability to do whatever we pleased, it probably wouldn’t go over so well. How, then, can we be like God? Let’s look at again at Ephesians 5:1 and consider the context and how it points to God’s generosity.

 

God’s Generosity

Ephesians 5:1 fits into a context of wondrous generosity. Do you see it? “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” Imitating God means being his children, his family. As children of God, there is a family resemblance. God’s children will look like him. In the immediate context of this passage, Paul exhorts the Ephesians to “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). When Paul exhorts the Ephesians to be “imitators of God”, then, he is exhorting them to be who God made them to be. They should turn from sin and walk in the righteousness and holiness of God. And the same is true for us. As God’s loved children, we strive to look like our Father in righteousness and holiness. So indeed, we can imitate God in this way. But where’s this wondrous generosity I mentioned? Let’s dig deeper. How did we even become his children in the first place? Consider the next verse.

 

Ephesians 5:2—And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

 

This passage reveals another attribute of God: generosity. What does God do with all his freedom as the greatest being? God, in all his knowledge, in all his immensity, in all his power, in his perfect freedom, makes us, his lowly creatures and rebels against him, his children through the perfect love in the person of his Son, Jesus. And what was the nature of that love? Generosity. God reveals his love for us in the giving of Jesus, who “gave himself up for us” (Ephesians 5:2) so that we could be God’s adopted, beloved children (Ephesians 1:5). This is the generosity of the gospel. And this generosity is multifaceted. Consider the generous gifts of God in the gospel of Jesus.

In the gospel, God gives us the gift of his very own Son, Jesus.

 

  • John 3:16—For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

 

  • John 4:10— If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.

 

In the gospel, God justifies us, lavishes on us righteousness, and gives us eternal life.

 

  • Romans 5:16–17—And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

 

  • Romans 6:23—For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

In the gospel, God gives us the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to Jesus, to remind us of his ways, and to empower us for gospel witness.

 

  • John 15:26—But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

 

  • John 14:26—But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

 

  • Acts 1:8—But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

 

  • Acts 2:38—And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

This list could go on and on, but the point is clear. God has been inconceivably generous to us.

Imitate God’s Generosity

So how do we imitate God? We, as Ephesians 5:1–2 suggests, act like God’s children. Certainly, then, we imitate God by being holy and righteous in our ways (Ephesians 4:24). But we also imitate God’s generosity. Indeed, this can look like generous giving out of our material resources, as Paul exhorts the Corinthians to do (2 Corinthians 8:9; 9:13–15). But, we also imitate God’s generosity by giving to others what he gave us to make us his children in the first place. God in all his knowledge, immensity, power, and freedom delighted to be generous to us. He made us his family by generously giving us the gift of the gospel through his Son, Jesus, by the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:34–35). God’s gospel generosity, then, sets us up to give to others the most generous gift we can: the gospel of Jesus. By giving ourselves up to the task of giving the gift of Jesus in the gospel to others, we love as Christ loved us. We love with a love marked by generosity. In this way, we imitate God.

 

Conclusion

From the fountainhead of God’s generosity flows Christian, gospel generosity. In all his greatness, God delighted to be generous to us. And, through his generous gift of the gospel, God has made us his family where we were once his enemies. Therefore, while we may not be able to imitate God’s divine attributes of knowledge, immensity, and power, we can imitate his divine generosity by passing on this gospel gift to others. This is the greatest act of generosity we can perform. This is who God made us to be, his generous gospel giving family. So let’s be like our Father and generously give the gift of Jesus to the world.

Does God Need Our Help to Fulfill His Plan?

[This devotion is a shortened form of a sermon preached February 24, 2019 in the series, Contradictions? How Delving Into Challenging Topics Unlocks the Riches of God’s Revelation. You can listen to the audio of that sermon via this link.]

Jesus said:

  • “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21).
  • He said: “Go … make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18).
  • Paul says: God has entrusted “to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).

These statements and commands raise the question: Does God need us?

God is spreading His Gospel to every tribe and tongue and people and nation

He tells us this Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and only then will the end come (Matthew 24:14).

So does God need us – His people, His church – in order to fulfill this promise?

Jesus also said: “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2).

Doesn’t that sound as if God needs laborers?

God commands us to go and proclaim the Gospel. But sometimes that biblical command is coupled with an implied picture of God in heaven, wringing His hands, just hoping that maybe someone would go and do the work that He needs done.

Now – most who read their Bibles regularly know that image is wrong. Nevertheless: Don’t the statements above imply that in some sense God needs us?

The biblical answer is quite helpful to us. In summary, that answer is: God gives us a tremendous task and a tremendous privilege. He gives us tremendous power to fulfill that task. Actively depend on Him – and never trust in yourself, or take pride in yourself.

Let’s see how Scripture fleshes out that answer.

God Doesn’t Need Us

That God doesn’t need us is simple to prove from numerous Scriptures. We’ll limit ourselves to only three.

First, John 15:5. Jesus says:

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

This is not ambiguous! We can do nothing on our own.

But notice what Jesus says in John 5:30: “I can do nothing on my own.”

Thus: We can do nothing apart from abiding in Jesus. And He can do nothing apart from the Father. So in effect: We are like Jesus! Jesus was actively dependent on God the Father. We must be actively dependent on God the Son

So Jesus does not demean in saying we can do nothing apart from Him. Rather, He is saying that everyone who is fully human – including Himself – must depend on God at all times. Jesus lives out for us the type of active dependence we must have.

For our third Scripture, turn to Zechariah 4. Many Jews have returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon, and are beginning to rebuild God’s temple. This is a great work of God, a necessary step in God’s plan to redeem a people for Himself. It is also a difficult, expensive engineering task. So there is a need for laborers.

Yet what is word of the Lord? “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6). In effect God says: “You can’t even build a building apart from me.”

So: God has no needs that we could ever meet. He is the one with all power. He is the one who rules the world and controls all that happens. We need Him. He does not need us.

Fulfilling the Commission by Diligent Dependence

So: God commands us to go and make disciples, and God does not need us. How are these consistent? Let’s look more closely statements that call us to be God’s ambassadors.

  • Matthew 28:18-20: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore.… And lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
  • Luke 10:2: The verse opens with a statement of fact: the harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few. But the second part does not say: “So go out into the vineyard.” Rather, it says, “Pray!” He is Lord of the harvest. He will see that the harvest comes in. He will send the laborers. His power accomplishes the task.
  • 2 Corinthians 5.19-20: God has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation; we are indeed His ambassadors. But Paul then says, “God [is] making his appeal through us.” So He chooses to use us. But He is the one making the appeal.

Consider also 1 Peter 4:10-11. Peter tells us how to conduct all the ministries God gives us:

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies— in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (emphasis added)

The Apostle tells us why we must serve in God’s strength: So that He gets the glory! If we served in our strength, we could boast. But when we serve by His strength, we are humbled.

Thus,

  • We go out for the sake of His Name
  • We go in the power of His Name
  • We go diligently depending on Him for all that we do
  • We go in prayer, asking for His help every step of the way

Not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit.

Viewing the Paradox via the Bible’s Storyline

Let’s step back and remember how reaching every people group with the Gospel fits into the overall storyline of the Bible.

God created mankind for His glory, to show what He is like. Man rebelled, rejecting God’s purpose in creating him. God could have destroyed all mankind immediately, thus displaying His perfect justice. Instead, to show not only justice but also love, mercy, and power. He instituted a millennia-long plan to create out of rebellious humanity a people for Himself, a people who would fulfill the purpose of the creation of mankind, a people who would show He is ultimate, not them. So He promises that a descendant of the first woman will crush the head of Satan. Then after rebellious mankind tries to make a name for Itself by building a tower up to heaven He scatters people, confusing their languages, dividing them into many different people groups. But then He calls a man, Abraham, and tells him all these people groups will be blessed in his descendant. And Abraham fathers this promised child only by God’s mercy and miraculous power.

Over the centuries God shows time and again that apart from Him we can do nothing. Despite the disobedience of His people:

  • He rescues Abraham’s descendants from slavery
  • He chooses the youngest of Jesse’s sons to be king
  • He promises that HE will build an eternal kingdom with a descendant of this man David reigning as king
  • And He promises through Isaiah that He will lay all the iniquity of His people on a suffering servant – whom He will then raise from the dead

So in the fullness of time He sends Jesus into the world to be born to a poor teenage girl. Jesus then lives out how to depend on God every minute of every day, thereby displaying God’s power, majesty and authority. And while evil men and Satan try to destroy God’s plan by killing Jesus, God in His power, authority, and love uses their very plan to fulfill His promise to redeem His people by a suffering servant. He then show His might and the sufficiency of the sacrifice by raising Him from dead.

And this risen Jesus then commissions us to go, like Him, in the power of God to be His ambassadors. He reminds us that we can never do this on our own. God will use His weak, powerless people to accomplish His great work. The earth must be filled with the knowledge of His glory; every tribe and tongue and people and nation must be a part of His people. And He will bring it about.

This, reaching the nations is not some minor sidelight in God’s overall plan. It is a key part of that plan.

God doesn’t need us to fulfill that plan – He could raise up workers from dried bones (Ezekiel 37) or even from stones (Luke 3:8). But He gives us the task, the privilege, and the power to go in His Name. He delights to use us, as we depend on Him and thereby fulfill His plan.

What Do We Ever Accomplish?

So let’s step back from our commission and ask: Can we humans really do nothing apart from Jesus?

What do we accomplish?

We have abilities, intelligence, experiences, family backgrounds, and education. Through these, we think, 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 thereby many – Christians and non-Christian – accomplish something of value.

  • Something valuable to us.
  • Something valued by our society.
  • Something that seems good, useful, and helpful.

But note two points.

First: God needs none of that. He gives us even the breath we need to live! (Acts 17:24-25).

Second: All that we accomplish is a gift from Him. This is true whether we are Christians or not, whether we actively depend 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 (1 Corinthians 4:7).

Reflect on your accomplishments and goals. What do you have to be proud of?

In my case:

  • I earned a PhD
  • I am a husband and father
  • I planted a church
  • I brought the Perspectives class to Charlotte

List with me all that you could conceivably be proud of. And then pray:

All this is from you, Father God. Whatever in my life is good, fruitful, productive, helpful, loving, or wise is from you. Whatever is messed up, wrongheaded, hurtful, hateful, or foolish is from me. If You had not given me life and breath each second 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 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 ambassador! All praise to You, O Father – I love You. May I serve You with what You do not need, and so glorify You. Fulfill Your plan – in part through the way You use me. Here am I.

So, always remember: It’s not about you, your ministry, your gifts, your calling – it’s all about God. It’s all about Jesus. You are here to show God’s image, to display Christ.

Thus we must have no pride and no despair. No self-exaltation. No church-exaltation. No country-exaltation. Only God-exaltation. Only Jesus-exaltation.

His is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church

[In Let the Nations Be Glad, John Piper writes that worship is the fuel of missions, because “you cannot commend what you do not cherish.” A new book by Daniel Hames and Michael Reeves – God Shines Forth: How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church (Crossway, 2022) – elaborates on that idea. Here are some excerpts, with page references – Coty]

Our aim is to set before your eyes God as he truly is: God who is so full of life and goodness that he loves to be known; not as a campaign to impose himself on us or on the world but to give himself and share his own life with the world. (21)

The glory of God is personal: the Father’s radiance is the Son. It is God the Son who comes to be with his people and, in doing so, shines upon us the truth of the Father. (31)

“The love of God does not find but creates that which is pleasing to it.”[Luther] In his love, God gives to us what we need to know him and have fellowship with him. It is all by his grace and does not rely on us in any way…. God truly loves us sinners and has done everything necessary to redeem us and bring us to himself. He is not interested in our intelligence, morality, or abilities so much as our loving trust and reliance on him in his goodness. (45)

The glorious fullness of the living God revealed in Jesus sets him apart from all other gods. His innermost being is a sun of light, life, and warmth, always shining out: radiant and outgoing. Other gods, however, are always pits of grasping neediness. (66)

The human soul is like an open throat. For you to be a “living being” is to be like a newly hatched chick in the nest. Not yet able to fly or hunt for yourself, you open your beak wide and cry out for the provision of your parents. You are created to desire and crave—and to have poured into you from outside—life and sustenance, whether physical or spiritual. For this reason, the very soul of a person can “thirst for God” like a deer panting for water (Ps. 42:2) or a man in a “dry and weary land where there is no water” (Ps. 63:1). To be human is to be a thirsting and hungry throat: to rely on, receive from, and eat and drink from the living God. The Lord has made us this way to show that he alone is the source of life and that we must go to him for it. (69-70)

When we set our hearts and hopes on anything that is not the living God, we are thrown back on ourselves. Gods that cannot speak will need us to find words. Gods that cannot carry us will need us to pick ourselves up. Gods that cannot freely love will need us to make ourselves loveable. Whether our god is reputation, possessions, or relationships, we will be let down. Exhausting our own supplies, and with no supernatural help from such non-Gods as these, we will become as demanding and oppressive as they appear to us. (71)

Having turned away from the God of glorious fullness [in the Fall], [humanity] condemned themselves to chase the fullness they now lacked in created things that could never meet their needs and desires…. Eve thought that eating the fruit would make her “like God”—something more than she already was. Yet, in the eating, she and her husband became far less than they were. They had, of course, been created to be like God in the first place, but now, heeding the whisper of the serpent, they were quite unlike God…. How the mighty had fallen! This was a fall not only from moral innocence and purity but from fullness and glory (75-76)

Given all we have seen, it is no wonder that our culture is overrun with issues surrounding identity. Since the garden, we do not participate in the fullness of God’s life, his image in us has been vandalized, and we are consumed with self-love. Sinners do not know who, why, or what they are. Many people want to improve themselves but simply do not know what “mended” or whole people would look like. Sensing our brokenness, we make wild stabs at solutions: political activism, radical moral codes, mindfulness, self-improvement, dieting fads, and so on. Increasingly, self-assertion is seen as the key to real happiness, and so, in the brave quest for “authenticity,” almost anything is to be applauded and honored. We recognize that some do not consider themselves beautiful, some are compelled to lie in their job applications, and others feel ill at ease with their biological sex. The answer to all this, we are led to believe, is to look in the mirror and to reach deep within to retrieve our “true self,” increasingly accept it, and let it shine. However quirky, socially unacceptable, or controversial our actions, we are encouraged to be “true to ourselves,” and those who do so most tenaciously are lionized. “You do you,” says the world. This self-assertion is a kind of mission, but one driven by the empty self and not by the glorious God of heaven. It reaches out into the world not to give but to take. Ours is a society utterly persuaded by this lie and largely unable to see the truth: all the talk of looking within and finding “it” within yourself will never solve the problem, because that is the problem. We are simply not designed for incurvature. (85-86)

Evangelism is, by definition, the good news of Christ, not only a warning about the last day. When it comes to motivating Christians to mission, the gospel that moves the missionary must be the same one he or she expects to win the hearts of the lost. If we burden Christians with the guilt of abandoning people to hell, it will be the message of guilt and hell they will pass on, rather than the message of the Savior of sinners and conqueror of hell. Jesus Christ will not be the jewel of the gospel they tell, but only the means to escape a terrible end. Not only this, but the resulting converts will have been motivated by their preexisting instinct for self-preservation. Disciples who are won not by the glory of the Lord to repentance and faith but by an appeal to their own well-being will continue in exactly the same direction. Their newfound faith will be more about themselves than about Christ. (110)

We may find ourselves emphasizing themes of the gospel like “grace” or “heaven” but not explicitly holding out Christ as the gift and as the treasure of heaven. We may offer the world the hope of transformed lives, healed hurts, and renewed communities, but make Jesus the means to these things rather than the center of them all. These things are blessings of the gospel, but if they are elevated to become its center and our focus, they will become nothing more than substitute gods. (113)

[Quoting Luther] “It is right to call the word of the minister and preacher which he preaches God’s word, for the office is not the minister’s and the preacher’s, but God’s; and the word that he preaches is likewise not the minister’s and preacher’s, but God’s.”… This could not be more astounding. In the word of God, even when it is spoken by fallible and sinful humans, God truly gives himself. This means that in our proclamation of Christ in sermons, evangelistic messages, and even conversations about the gospel, Christ the Word is present in power. God is speaking his own Word; God is enlightening with his own light; God is offering himself to those who hear. (116-117)

If God seems to us to be empty and needy, we will serve him with empty hearts, finally taking what we need from the world rather than freely blessing it. What we truly worship and cherish will, for good or ill, be revealed in our mission. It is possible to look completely theologically orthodox while doing this kind of mission. We may doggedly cling to the inerrancy of Scripture, the uniqueness of Christ, the doctrine of hell, and substitutionary atonement while—all the while—exposing the world to an undelightful God. The God we know—or think we know—is the God we will show to the world. If we ourselves do not constantly revel in his free justification of sinners, his self-giving love, and his Son poured out to death for us while we were still his enemies, then we will be ghostly, unhappy Christians holding out a black hole of a god to people already dying. (123)

[For those who go out with the gospel today,] considering the contours of the biblical narrative of God’s mission is of great value. Knowing the history of the church’s missionary efforts is inspiring. Understanding the latest theory and literature in missiology is enriching. But beneath all these is the irreplaceable foundation of knowing and enjoying God. (131)

God’s plan for “the coming ages” is not to surprise us with a glory other than his Son’s but to take us ever deeper into “the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). In other words, in the gospel’s promised future, we will eternally enjoy the very glory that fuels our lives and mission today. (144)

Since we are sure of our future in the eternal embrace of Jesus Christ, we are people of hope. In our mission today, we invite the sinful, broken, and empty not to the hope of “heaven” as an ethereal afterlife but to the beauty, fullness, and glory of the Lamb who was slain for us. His delight is to fill his people with joy in him both now and forever. (145)

The cross is not simply the mechanism by which we receive a selection box of blessings of the new creation: the cross shows us exactly what sort of blessing this is. For the glory of God that will fill the earth at the end is the same glory we see in the death of Jesus. Specifically, the self-giving glory of the cross is the key to understanding the glory that is to come. (148-149)

The future we have to offer to our friends and neighbors is a world of unshakeable, unquenchable love. Can you imagine a life where you know, without any creeping anxiety, that you are perfectly and totally loved by God? Where you love him in return without any whisper of shame or inadequacy? A life where you are entirely secure in the love of those around you and are able to love them all without feeling exposed or vulnerable? Where you love people with such a generous freedom that you yourself only become more open and lovely? This is life in the glory of God and the light of the Lamb who was slain. (157)

The church’s mission is shaped and driven by the very nature of our God. All that we know of him, however limited by our present ignorance and sin, fills us with joy. Yet our hope of knowing him fully in the age to come can only increase our delight and anticipation, propelling us out into the world in overwhelmed gladness. How can we leave our friends, families, and colleagues in ignorance of the Lord whose purpose for all things is so good? Knowing his love that has reached out to us—and will one day reach out and fill all the world—what else can we do but reach out with that same love today? Gazing on the glory of the Lamb who was slain for us, and knowing that this is the glory that will shine in all the world, we may well sing with Wesley, ’Tis all my business here below to cry, “Behold the Lamb!” (160)

A Picture of Mao in Hell

[Sunday February 6 we consider 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11, which says in part: “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” Randy Alcorn’s book Safely Home attempts to describe what this destruction looks like. The book tells the story of Ben Fielding, a high-powered corporate executive in a multinational firm with factories in China, and Li Quan, Ben’s college roommate whom he locates after twenty years and visits. Expecting Li to be a successful university professor, Ben instead finds that his Harvard-educated friend is a strong believer in Jesus, a leader in a house church, and – because of persecution – a locksmith’s apprentice. Li Quan’s faith, the persecution that he encounters, and Ben’s reaction to that persecution form the structure of the novel. Alcorn is not trying to write great literature; instead, he is trying to communicate biblical truth in a way that is engaging, interesting, and accessible. By that standard, this book is excellent. Alcorn is a reliable interpreter of the Word, and uses the medium of the novel to teach:

  • the reality of persecution today;
  • how to fight the fight of faith in the midst of suffering;
  • the reality of the spiritual world around us;
  • the nature of heaven;
  • the nature of hell

After reading the first hundred pages, I found myself praying more regularly and more fervently for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. That alone makes reading Safely Home worthwhile. I strongly recommend it.

Below find Alcorn’s picture of Mao Zedong – the founder of the People’s Republic of China – in hell. Read it – and weep – and witness – Coty]

Where is my palace? Where are my servants? Does no one know who I am?

The vast, cold darkness cut into his face. It felt like intense frostbite, burning his skin.

I was the most powerful man in Zhongguo. I created the People’s Republic. I was the revered father of my country. They worshiped me. I was god! He waited, listening to the silence. Cannot anyone hear me?

His voice disappeared into the great dark void. It did not echo, for there was nothing for it to echo off. It was immediately absorbed into infinite nothingness. His words went no farther than his blistered lips.

A parade of untold millions marched inside his mind’s eye. His sentence was to relive the suffering of each of his victims. He had been here over twenty-five years. Every minute of those years he had relived the sufferings he inflicted on others. Every torture his regime inflicted he now received, one after the next after the next. Eventually, perhaps, they would start over, so the millions he had already endured were but the first installment. The pain was unbearable, yet he had no choice but to bear it. There was no escape into unconsciousness – no drug to take, no sleeping pill, no alcohol. That which he had laid upon others was now laid upon him – endlessly, relentlessly.

He longed to pluck out his eyes, to keep from seeing what he saw, to puncture his eardrums to keep from hearing the wailing misery, to pull out his tongue to keep from tasting the awfulness he had legislated. But he had no ability to destroy himself. He had no control now over his destiny, no power over himself or others. There was no one he could command to fix the situation, no one to prepare him an eight-course meal to assuage the eternal hunger, no one to do his work, no one to punish for their errors. No one to salute him, cower at his voice, or bow heads in his presence.

Where is everyone?

Misery loves company, and he had long sought the consolation of others. But all others were still on earth, secure in heaven, or confined to their own private hells at distances immeasurable.

The aloneness was stifling. He could hear nothing but his victims’ cries, feel nothing but their pain, see nothing but their blood, taste nothing but their vomit, sense nothing but their torture. He had only himself. He could not enjoy his own company, for he saw himself as he really was. It was an ugly sight, revolting beyond comprehension.

He felt a burning. A fury welled up inside him. Anger and bitterness, unfocused hostility, frustration leading him to lash out. But there was no one to lash out at. No incompetent aide, no dissident, no Christian pastor, no helpless peasant. No one to beat or shoot or hang or starve. No one to cower in fear at the power of the great chairman, architect of the Republic. No one to shine his shoes or rub lotion upon his burning feet.

Grief and rage warred within him. His hell was a growing cancer, gnawing at him, eating away at him, devouring him. He was like a bush that burned yet was not consumed, so the burning could never stop.

He had come to death entirely unprepared – and now it was too late to prepare. If the torture was not enough, a sickening feeling of foreboding had gripped him from his first moments here. He had hoped it would subside, that he would get used to it. He hadn’t. It only got worse.

He could see now through all his rationalizations. His arguments against belief in a Creator had never been intellectual ones, as he had claimed. By rejecting a Creator he thought he could rid himself of a Judge. But it had not worked. His atheism had been the opiate of his soul and the executioner of uncalculated millions. But now his comforting atheism could no longer exist, even for a fleeting moment, for he had been forever stripped of the power to deny reality.

He had lived his short todays as if there were no long tomorrows. He had believed the lie that all were accountable to him and he was accountable to none. He had believed the lie that death would slip him into eternal unconsciousness. He knew now – how well he knew – the curse of always being awake, ever alert, unable to allay his suffering with a moment’s sleep or distraction.

The winds of hell blew upon him. On them floated sounds of laughter and joy from a place far distant. These voices were torture. Many he recognized as belonging to Christians he had persecuted, worshipers of the Carpenter he had murdered. He relived what he had done to them, this time on the other end of the cattle prod. By the time he had died, while he and all he stood for were in decline, they and all they embraced were in ascent. They had beaten him. Their King had dethroned him even in the other life – how much more in this one.

As they celebrated in their far-off realm, at first he had imagined they were cursing him, celebrating his demise. He thought of them as his eternal enemies who would forever speak of what a great foe he had been to them. But he had come to realize something far worse. They did not curse him. They did not relive his great campaigns against him. No. They simply did not think of him at all. He was unimportant. Insignificant. In the eternal scheme of things, he did not matter.

Not matter? How dare they ignore me! Don’t they know who I am?

He had said, “I want there to be no God; I want nothing to do with him.” His atheist’s prayer had been answered. The everywhere-present God had chosen to withdraw his presence from this single place, turning it into a cosmic desert. This was a ghetto of massive proportions, yet so small it could slip through a single crack in the tiles of heaven. It was located in some distant and empty place, never to be feared or even stumbled upon by the citizens of Charis. His life, with all his supposed accomplishments, was but a puff of smoke, dissipating into nothingness.

Stop what you’re doing and listen to me! Stop or I will… I will…

No power to give meaning to a threat. No reason to be listened to. And no one to hear him.

Thirst without water to quench it. Hunger without food to satisfy it. Loneliness without company to alleviate it. There was no God here. He’d gotten his wish. On earth he’d managed to reject God while still enjoying his blessings and provisions. But it was excruciatingly clear now that God was the author of good. Therefore the absence of God meant the absence of good. He could not have it both ways, not here. No God, no good. Forever.

He had wanted a world where no one else was in charge, where no order was forced upon him. He had finally gotten it. He had secretly wondered if there was something beyond death, but if he went to hell, he’d fully expected to rule there. Yet there was no king, for there were no subjects. Only one prisoner – himself – in eternal solitary confinement.

He missed the sound of laughter. There was no laughter here, nor could there be, for laughter cannot exist without joy or hope. An awful realization gripped him. There was no history here. No story line. No opening scene, no developing plot, no climax, no resolution. No character development. No travel, no movement. Only a setting of constant nothingness, going nowhere. Excruciating, eternal boredom. Nothing to distract him from the torment of the eternal now.

He had charmed his friends and cheated his enemies, but death he could not cheat, hell he could not charm. This nameless, ever-shriveling man writhed in terror. Faced with his own deeds, punished by them, he was receiving in himself the penalty for what he had done. He longed for a visit from a foreign dignitary, delivered by a courier, a request for an audience in his illustrious presence. But no. He knew now none would ever come, or even want to. He could not return to Beijing – and knew Beijing itself would soon be gone, a flower withered in a summer’s wind. Perhaps it was gone already.

No one to fear him. No one to revere him. No one to hear him. No one to think about him.

He who had claimed to be savior was forever without a Savior. Ignored and insignificant. Empty and embittered and regretful. Without a following. Without a heart. Without a hope.

Forever, time without end.

[From Safely Home by Randy Alcorn (Tyndale House, 2001), p. 327-330. The first chapter of the book is available online. Visit www.epm.org for more resources from the author, or to order the book. Note that all royalties from its sale are used to help persecuted Christians and to spread the Gospel in their countries.]

 

The Advent of the Kingdom

How should you prepare for the coming of the King?

We are entering the season of Advent – the weeks leading up to Christmas when we celebrate the incarnation and birth of King Jesus. Prior to that first coming of David’s promised descendant, many devout Jews, like Simeon, were “waiting for the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25). They lived “righteous and devout” lives, feeding on God’s Word, serving His people, proclaiming His promises, eagerly anticipating the fulfillment of every promise by the “God of Amen,” the “God of Truth” (Isaiah 65:16).

Today we can profitably use this season prior to Christmas to prompt ourselves to live similarly as we wait for the final consolation, eagerly anticipating the fulfillment of all the remaining promises by the same God of Amen.

But note: God grants a partial fulfillment of those promises today! As we long for the final consummation, “all the promises of God find their Yes” in Christ Jesus. And that “Yes” means that today He establishes us, He anoints us, He seals us, He puts His Spirit in us (2 Corinthians 1:20-22) so that “as He is, so also are we in this world;” indeed, “love [is] perfected with us” (1 John 4:17).

This is how we rightly celebrate Advent today: Not as a preparation for gift-giving or carol-singing, but in living our lives today in light of God’s promises and their present and future fulfillment.

Consider Psalm 81 in this regard. Like us, the Israelites of the psalmist’s day had been redeemed by God (out of Egypt) and had received God’s promise that through their offspring all the nations of the world would be blessed. But, like us, they suffered over the years from both external enemies and their own internal tendency to stray. In words that echo the opening lines of the Ten Commandments, God says:

“Hear, O my people, while I admonish you! O Israel, if you would but listen to me!  There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god.  I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
“But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes.  Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him, and their fate would last forever. But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” (Psalm 81:8-16)

There are at least five explicit or implied commands here – five imperatives that tell us how to live in anticipation of God’s fulfilling His every promise:

  • “Listen to me and to no other!” God says, “Hear! Consider what happens when you listen to my words of life! Don’t listen to other claims of authority, to other claims of what leads to joy!”
  • “Worship me and no other! Others will seem to display power, will seem to exhibit wisdom, will seem to offer salvation – don’t bow down to them!”
  • “Remember my redemption! You once were slaves, and groaned in your slavery. I redeemed you, and no other. So don’t put yourselves back under the yoke of a master who only desires to use you!”
  • “Do not harden your heart! You naturally have a stubborn heart; left to your own desires and preferences, you will not listen to me, you will not submit to me; your own counsels will lead you far from me. Since you naturally will fall away from me, you must fight to open yourself up to me.”
  • “So open your mouth wide, and I will fill it! I will fill it with the finest of wheat, with honey from the rock, with what is better than you could ever imagine! Yield to me – and I will give you the deepest joy man can experience.”

How do we open our mouths wide? What does that mean?

Surely it means in part obeying the first four commands: Feed on His Word, worship Him with joy, preach the Gospel to yourself daily, and guard your heart. The fight for joy in God consists in part in this internal fight to believe God’s promises and to trust Him with our thoughts, affections, and emotions.

But “open your mouth wide” also implies our stepping out in action. Step out to serve – and God promises to fill you and use you in ways beyond your imagining. Open your mouth wide to speak the Gospel – and God promises to give His power to that proclamation, to work miracles of salvation and encouragement. Show love to the hurting – and God promises to infuse that love with His own, so that the comfort received is the comfort of God Himself.

Do you see? When we rightly prepare for the (second) coming of the King, we not only prepare ourselves; we not only prepare those around us; we actually display the coming Kingdom now! God so works through His forward-looking people that His Kingdom is manifest today in acts of mercy and words of grace.

So how will you celebrate Advent? Who can you encourage? What mercy can you show? With whom can you share the Good News of God’s grace? How will God’s Kingdom come – today! – through you?

What is Biblical Discipleship?

Consider the last few verses of Matthew’s Gospel – what we frequently call “the Great Commission.” The risen Jesus says:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20).

The primary command in these verses is to “make disciples of all nations” or (perhaps better) to “disciple all nations.” Whatever Jesus means by this command, it includes preaching the Gospel so that unbelievers of all nations come to faith and are baptized, and it includes instruction in biblical life and doctrine.

Question: Where do we see such discipling taking place in the New Testament?

Everywhere! Consider a couple of specific instances:

  • There is a good reason why Jesus’ followers are called disciples! He teaches them how to understand their Scriptures; He brings them to the end of their own resources so they must acknowledge their need for a Savior; He shows them by example how to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and how to love their neighbor.
  • Paul’s relationship with Timothy is similar. Consider these words the Apostle wrote to Timothy near the end of his life:

You, however, know all about my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra [this is Timothy’s home town]–which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me.  Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,  that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:10-17).

Paul (as well as Timothy’s mother and grandmother) have taught him the Scriptures, and he has thus been reproved, corrected, and trained by them. Furthermore, he has seen the Scriptures lived out in Paul’s life through patient endurance, through persistent faith in the face of suffering – even when he was left for dead after being stoned, perhaps right before young Timothy’s eyes (Acts 14:19). As a result of this process, Timothy himself now is thoroughly prepared – that is, he is discipled, equipped for every good work. Paul, therefore, goes on to  solemnly charge his son in the faith to preach that same Word, “with great patience teaching all doctrine, … endure suffering, do the work of a preacher of the Gospel, fulfill your ministry” (paraphrase of 2 Timothy 4:2b and 5b).

And the New Testament examples do not end with these two! Indeed, every epistle is an example of this discipling process, as Peter, Paul, James, John, Jude, and the author of Hebrews flesh out what the Old Testament Scriptures and Jesus Himself imply about God and man, about sin and forgiveness, about marriage and family, about work and possessions. Every New Testament author is engaged in the discipling process as he writes.

But look back again at Matthew 28:18-20. Does Jesus instruct His followers to “teach them all that I have commanded you”? No. He tells His followers to “teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Jesus is concerned not only with passing on a body of teaching, but also with joyous, heartfelt obedience to that teaching. And He means here not only, “Tell them that they must obey” but “Show them how to obey; display for them what obedience looks like.”  This is what Jesus had done for them; this is what Paul does for Timothy; this is what Paul exhorts Timothy to do for others.

So: We have seen that fulfilling Matthew 28:18-20 requires at least four strategies:

  • A strategy for reaching all nations, all people groups;
  • A strategy for teaching the “what”: Biblical doctrine, biblical truth;
  • A strategy for showing the “how”: Examples of biblical life well-lived.
  • A strategy for sharing ministry and life, so that the person being discipled receives feedback and is thoroughly equipped for his or her role in discipling others and in reaching all nations.

This broad, biblical view helps to clarify several common misconceptions about discipleship, such as:

  • “Discipleship takes place when two people read a book together and discuss it.”
  • “Discipleship means meeting regularly with someone who will help me with my problems.”
  • “Discipleship means committing to meet together indefinitely with a group of people who will help each other battle sin.”

Biblical discipleship may – but need not – include meeting together with a mentor. It will necessarily include instruction in doctrine and Christian living, but that can take multiple forms. It will certainly include dealing with sin in our lives.

But there is a key, underlying error that is common to all three of these misconceptions: Discipleship is not primarily about YOU! Jesus commands us to disciple all nations not in order for each of us to improve. Jesus commands us to disciple all nations so that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). He commands us to make disciples so that those from your people group together with those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation will sing, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:10).

What then does it mean to be discipled? Consider this definition:

Learning what the Scriptures teach and command;
learning and seeing how to live out those truths;
and getting feedback as you live out (and fail to live out) those truths
in your family, in the church community, and among unbelievers,
so that together we might build up the Church through increased faithfulness and
powerful witness, reaching all peoples to His glory.

With this understanding we are faced with four key questions:

  • How do we structure our local church so that biblical discipleship occurs?
  • How do we help each member of our local church to grow as a disciple?
  • How do we help all members to spread the Gospel and to assist others in growing as disciples?
  • How do we ensure that the teaching ministries of the church accomplish the goals of biblical discipleship?

Different churches will answer these questions differently – there are several possible structures within which biblical discipleship can take place. But we must begin by aiming at the right goal if we are to have any chance of achieving it.

What does that mean for us at DGCC?

We praise God that this already is happening among us. And we encourage you to see to it that it happens all the more. Ponder how we can both step out individually and organize ourselves corporately in order to live out biblical discipleship more fully. We welcome your ideas and initiatives. But clearly living this out includes:

  • Making wise use of the time we already spend together – face to face and virtually.
  • Asking each other good, Gospel-centered questions.
  • Looking for opportunities to do ministry together.
  • Encouraging one another and praying for one another as we reach out to those who don’t know Jesus in our circles of relationships.
  • Praying for the nations, witnessing to the nations God has brought to Charlotte, sending some of us out to the nations, and supporting those we send.
  • Seeing that the preaching ministry, Sunday School, Core Seminar, small groups youth ministry, family devotions, and individual Bible reading all work together so that “with great patience [we] teach all doctrine” – including the centrality of joy in Christ, giving and money, marriage, parenting, fighting sin and temptation, preaching the Gospel to yourself, the devotional life, reaching the nations – and we can therefore say with Paul to one another, “You know all about my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness” (2 Timothy 3:10).

Will you pray that this church might fulfill this biblical calling? Will you commit yourself to living out these mandates? Will you step out in faith – so that we might disciple one another, and disciple all nations?

Reflections Growing Out of the Recent Epidemic by Francis Grimke

[Born into slavery on a South Carolina plantation in 1850, Grimke served as a pastor for 50 years, primarily at Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington DC. This devotion is taken from a sermon he preached November 3, 1918, when churches were allowed once again to meet after several weeks of closure because of the Spanish Flu epidemic. The entire sermon – more than twice as long – is available here.]

We know now … the meaning of the terms pestilence, plague, epidemic, since we have been passing through this terrible scourge of Spanish influenza, with its enormous death rate and its consequent wretchedness and misery. Every part of the land has felt its deadly touch…. Over the whole land it has thrown a gloom, and has stricken down such large numbers that it has been difficult to care for them properly, overcrowding all of our hospitals…. Our own beautiful city has suffered terribly from it, making it necessary, as a precautionary measure, to close the schools, theaters, churches, and to forbid all public gathering within doors as well as outdoors. At last, however, the scourge has been stayed, and we are permitted again to resume the public worship of God, and to open again the schools of our city.

Now that the worst is over, I have been thinking … of these calamitous weeks through which we have been passing—thinking of the large numbers that have been sick— the large numbers that have died, the many, many homes that have been made desolate—the many, many bleeding, sorrowing hearts that have been left behind, and I have been asking myself the question, what is the meaning of it all? What ought it to mean to us? Is it to come and go and we be no wiser, or better for it? Surely God had a purpose in it, and it is our duty to find out, as far as we may, what that purpose is, and try to profit by it.

Among the things which stand out in my own mind … are these:

(1) I have been impressed with the ease with which large portions of the population may be wiped out in spite of the skill of man, of all the resources of science.… How easy it would be for God to wipe out the whole human race … if he wanted to; for these terrible epidemics, plagues, the mighty forces of nature, all are at his command, all are his agents. At any moment, if he willed it, in this way, vast populations or portions of populations could be destroyed.

(2) I have had also this question come into my mind, why of those who took the disease some recovered and others did not? The reason may be found, in one sense, in purely natural causes— some were physically better prepared to resist the disease, were stronger in vital power, and so pulled through. Others, not having sufficient vitality, went down under the strain; but I believe there is also another reason, and is to be found in the will of God.… Some day we have all got to go, but how, or when, or where, we do not know; that is with God alone. In Job 12:10, we read:

In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.

We speak of accidental deaths, … but there are no accidents with God. All things are within the scope of his providence….

(3) Another question similar to the above kept also constantly going through my mind, why are some taken with the disease and others not? … The ultimate explanation must be found in the sovereign will of God. It must be because He wills it.

(4) Another thing that has impressed me, in connection with this epidemic, is the fact that conditions may arise in a community which justify the extraordinary exercise of powers that would not be tolerated under ordinary circumstances. This extraordinary exercise of power was resorted to by the Commissioners in closing up the theaters, schools, churches, in forbidding all gatherings of any considerable number of people indoors and outdoors, and in restricting the numbers who should be present even at funerals. The ground of the exercise of this extraordinary power was found in the imperative duty of the officials to safeguard, as far as possible, the health of the community by preventing the spread of the disease from which we were suffering….

And so, anxious as I have been to resume work, I have waited patiently until the order was lifted.…

(5) Another thing that has impressed me in connection with this epidemic is how completely it has shattered the theory, so dear to the heart of the white man in this country, that a white skin entitles its possessor to better treatment than one who possesses a dark skin.…

In this terrible epidemic, which has afflicted not only this city but the whole country, there is a great lesson for the white man to learn. It is the folly of his stupid color prejudice. It calls attention to the fact that he is acting on a principle that God utterly repudiates, as he has shown during this epidemic scourge, and, as he will show him when He comes to deal with him in the judgment of the great day of solemn account….

(6) Another thing has impressed me during this epidemic. It has brought out in a way that is very gratifying, the high estimation in which the Christian church is held in the community—the large place which it really occupies in the thought of the people. The fact that for several weeks we have been shut out from the privileges of the sanctuary has brought home to us as never before what the church has really meant to us. We hadn’t thought, perhaps, very much of the privilege while it lasted, but the moment it was taken away we saw at once how much it meant to us….

(7) There is another thing connected with this epidemic that is also worthy of note. While it lasted, it kept the thought of death and of eternity constantly before the people. As the papers came out, day after day, among the first things that everyone looked for, or asked about, was as to the number of deaths. And so the thought of death was never allowed to stay very long out of the consciousness of the living. And with the thought of death, the great thought also of eternity, for it is through death that the gates of eternity swing open…. The grim messenger is God’s summons to us to render up our account. That there is an account to be rendered up we are inclined to lose sight of, to forget; but it is to be rendered all the same. The books are to be opened, and we are to be judged out of the books. During the weeks of this epidemic—in the long list of deaths, in the large number of new-made graves, in the unusual number of funeral processions along our streets, God has been reminding us of this account which we must soon render up; He has been projecting before us in a way to startle us, the thought of eternity.

You who are not Christians, who have not yet repented of your sins, who have not yet surrendered yourselves to the guidance of Jesus Christ, if you allow these repeated warnings that you have had, day by day, week by week, to go unheeded—if you still go on in your sins, should God suddenly cut you off in your sins, you will have no one to blame but yourselves…. God has opened the way for your salvation, through the gift of His only begotten Son, who died that you might have the opportunity of making your peace with God…. Before you go out of this house make up your minds to do the right thing—the wise thing—the only sensible thing. You have come out of this epidemic alive, while thousands have perished. Are you going to spend the rest of your days in the service of sin and Satan, or in the service of God? You know what you ought to do; you know what you will do, if you consult your best interest—if you do the right thing.

(8) There is only one other thought that has come to me in connection with this epidemic; it is of the blessedness … of the sense of security which a true, living, working faith in the Lord Jesus Christ gives one in the midst of life’s perils. I felt … the blessedness of a firm grip upon Jesus Christ—the blessedness of a realizing sense of being anchored in God and in His precious promises. While the plague was raging, while thousands were dying, what a comfort it was to feel that we were in the hands of a loving Father who was looking out for us, who had given us the great assurance that all things should work together for our good. And, therefore, that come what would—whether we were smitten with the epidemic or not, or whether being smitten, we survived or perished, we knew it would be well with us, that there was no reason to be alarmed. Even if death came, we knew it was all right. The apostle says, “it is gain for me to die.” Death had no terrors for him….

In the presence of such a faith, in the realization of God’s love, as revealed in Jesus Christ, in the consciousness of fellowship with him, what are epidemics, what are scourges, what are all of life’s trials, sufferings, disappointments? They only tend to work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. But, of course, if faith is to help us; if it is to put its great strong arms under us; if we are to feel its sustaining power under such distressing circumstances, it must be a real, living faith in God …—a faith that works, that works by love, and that purifies the heart. Any other faith is of absolutely no value to us in the midst of the great crises of life…. [Now] is a good time for those of us who are Christians to examine ourselves to see exactly how it is with us, … whether our faith is really resting upon Christ, the solid Rock, or not….

If, as the result of such examination, we find that we did not get out of our religion very much help, in bracing us up under the strain through which we have been passing, then we know that there is something wrong: either we have no faith at all, or it is very weak…. Or, if we find that we were helped, that our fears were allayed as we thought of our relations to God and to his Son Jesus Christ, then we have an additional reason why we should cling all the closer to him, and why we should be all the more earnest in our efforts to serve him. We ought to come out of this epidemic more determined than ever to run with patience the race that is set before us; more determined than ever to make heaven our home….

Let us all draw near to God in simple faith. Let us re-consecrate ourselves, all of us, to him….

 

Our Incurable Disease

You have an incurable disease. All humans do. We inherited this disease from our parents, and they from their parents – all the way back to Adam and Eve.

There is no human help for this disease. Oh, we can alleviate a few of the symptoms through discipline, through accountability, through learning more self-control – but this disease is similar to the hydra of Greek mythology. When anyone cut off one of the hydra’s heads, two more immediately grew. When you learn to control one part of your disease – say, bursts of anger – more symptoms of the disease pop up – say, pride and arrogance.

But God in His grace and mercy offers you a cure. The question is: Will you accept it?

Scripture provides us with an apt picture of the way we are prone to resist this cure through telling the story of a leper in 2 Kings 5.

In the ancient world, leprosy was incurable. Naaman, a general in a powerful army, comes down with this disease. An Israelite servant girl in his household tells his wife of a prophet in Israel who can cure the disease. So Naaman’s king writes a letter to the King of Israel, telling him to cure Naaman of his leprosy.

The Israelite king is distraught, thinking the other is looking for a pretense to go to war. But when the prophet Elisha hears of the events, he tells the king to send Naaman to him.

Naaman arrives at Elisha’s place, bearing many gifts – he is a wealthy man and thinks he can pay handsomely for this service. He is an important man, and thinks this prophet will be impressed by his presence.

But Elisha doesn’t even come out to see Naaman. He simply sends a messenger, who instructs the general to go wash in the Jordan River seven times, and he will be cured. Hear Naaman’s response:

But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage (2 Kings 5:11-12).

Naaman’s pride almost causes him to miss this grace from God. But God shows him even greater grace, as He leads Naaman’s servants to appeal to him to try this simple task the prophet gave him. He washes seven times in the Jordan – and is cured.

Just so with us. God offers us healing of our incurable disease if we only turn to Jesus and trust Him with our lives. But so often we are like Naaman: We don’t like God’s plan. We want to prove our worth through some great deed we do for God. Or we want God to perform some grand visible miracle that will call attention to us. Or we want God to cure the disease in a different way, a way that seems better to us. “Just trust Jesus? Why? Why not some other way? Why not many other ways? How simplistic!”

Like Naaman, we can turn our backs and miss God’s grace because of our pride, because of our preconceived ideas about how God should work.

But praise God that He persists in the offer of the Gospel. As in Naaman’s case, He sends others to us to say again and again, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Don’t despise the miracle of simple faith. Admit you are diseased. Confess that you cannot cure yourself. And throw yourself on God’s mercy offered to you through Jesus Christ.

When you, like Naaman, humble yourself before the One True God, He will save you – through the death, resurrection, and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you will discover the love, joy, and peace you have so deeply desired.

What is Man that You are Mindful of Him?

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:3-4)

In comparison to God’s grandeur, we are nothing. We are infinitesimal. We are little specks of dust on a spinning ball.

Yet God grants us significance. He takes of His grandeur and stamps some portion on us. So David says He crowns us with glory and honor (Psalm 8:5).

Understand: That glory and honor is from Him – it is derived; it is not intrinsic to us. We have no glory, no status apart from what God has given us.

Many of history’s greatest tragedies – such as American slavery, such as the Holocaust – have come about because one category of mankind decided another category had no such status, no such glory, no such honor – they were subhuman.  But Scripture is clear: In this age, until Jesus returns, all humans have the status of image-bearers of God, no matter who they are or what they do (Genesis 1:27). Every person you encounter has this status – whatever their ethnicity, whatever their economic status, whatever their intelligence, whatever their education level, whether they live in utero or on a deathbed.

But Scripture hints that a time is coming when that will change. After Jesus returns, after the final judgment, there will be a class of humans without glory and honor, without the image of God. This class will not be racially based, nor based on intelligence, nor based on accomplishment. Rather, this class will consist of all those who continue in rebellion against their rightful King, those who are assigned to eternal punishment “away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). And what will it mean for people to be away from His presence? David says, “I have no good apart from You” (Psalm 16:2). James tells us “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). Thus, whatever good we have, we received from Him (1 Corinthians 4:7). Indeed, God is the source even of ability and craftsmanship (Deuteronomy 8:18, Exodus 31:3).

Imagine, then, that state: No goodness remaining; no creativity remaining; no pleasure remaining; no friendship remaining; no beauty remaining; no productive work remaining; no vocation, no fulfillment. Only pride, self-righteousness, anger, hatred, and rebellion.

To be away from the presence of God is to be without any good, without any glory, without any honor. Thus it seems that those sent away from the presence of the Lord will lose whatever remains of the image of God in them. They will then eat and devour one another for all eternity.

C.S. Lewis captures this idea in The Great Divorce. He pictures those in hell as hating each other, and thus isolating themselves more and more from each other, so that hell seems to be a huge place. But when hell is seen from the perspective of eternal realities, it is a tiny, insignificant speck.

Thus we come again to the question: “What is man that you are mindful of him?” The remains of mankind consigned to judgment – having shed all glory and honor, having lost all goodness, all ability, all creativity, and all craftsmanship – will be insignificant. God will no longer be mindful of them. But those redeemed by His grace, those credited with the righteousness of Christ, those granted significance now and forever, will shine forth with His perfected image in them for all eternity (Matthew 13:43).

In this life, no one is subhuman. All have significance. All have the vestiges of the image of God.

But we all have been granted those vestiges for a reason: To glorify Him! To display that image! So: Be astounded at the significance God grants you! Repent, and humble yourself before Him! Then join the heavenly throng, and display His character, now and forever.