There are a number of directions I could go with Pastor John Han’s sermon on the crossing of the Red Sea. Did it really happen or not? Is the story meant to be taken literally or symbolically?
I was struck by the fact that John was told by a six-year-old boy, of all people, “I don’t believe it ever happened.” This prompted John to seek out extra-Biblical historic and/or scientific evidence for the crossing of the Red Sea. I, for one, was surprised to discover that no such evidence is out there; surprised because of how much evidence exists to support other claims made in the Bible, including the fact that God once made the sun stand still for an hour. I don’t understand how, but it has been reported that scientists have discovered this actually happened. And the scientists who made the discovery, so far as I know, had no awareness of that story in the Bible. They just knew that, at some point in time, an hour of time has been lost (or gained? I’m not sure which way it works).
But apart from the Biblical account, no such evidence seems to exist for the crossing of the Red Sea. So did it happen or not? Furthermore, does it matter whether it happened or not?
Without trying to fully answer these questions, I will say that if such evidence could be found, then it would perhaps prove that the crossing of the Red Sea did happen as it is described in Exodus 14. However,, the lack of such evidence does not prove that it didn’t happen.
To me, it is only fitting that if we are going to accept this story as something that actually happened, then we must accept it by faith. The Bible is full of such stories, including the all-important Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And this is by design. The Bible is a book of faith, and God’s people are to be people of faith. “Without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him” (Heb. 11:6) (Italics added).
But our faith is not blind faith. As I said, history and science have proven many of the Bible’s truth claims to indeed be true. Of course, there is always debate over whether a passage should be interpreted literally or figuratively. But I don’t know of anything in the Bible that has been proven false. And I don’t believe that will ever happen.
For one thing skeptics don’t realize, and that believers sometimes forget, is that God is true. God cannot lie. God always speaks the truth. God is truth (cf. John 14:6). As Christians, we believe the Bible is the Word of God. Yes, it was written down by men. But the Holy Spirit inspired them, telling them what to write, in a way that did not compromise their individuality or their unique writing styles. But this work of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth (Jn. 14:17; 15: 26; 16:13; I Jn. 4:6), guarantees that everything they wrote is true.
Within our postmodern society, we are taught to question everything. More and more often, people have an attitude that says, “If you can’t prove it, I won’t believe it.” Such a mindset causes many to say that it no longer is good enough to say, “I believe it simply because the Bible says it. That’s good enough for me.”
But as naïve as that sounds, it should be true. If any portion of the Bible is not true, then we are open to debating which portions of it are true and which are not. Furthermore, if any portion of the Bible is not true, then at least within that portion, God has lied to us. And who wants to believe in a lying God, even if He lied only one time? I certainly don’t.
Having said all that, I do wholeheartedly agree with Pastor Han’s main point. Where are you in the story? How are you to apply it to your life?
Among other things, the Bible is a book of history. But it is not like other history books. It is not to be read and studied simply so we can recite who did what where and when. The history of the Bible is the history of how God has interacted with His people in the past. As someone once said, “[Biblical] history is His story.” In addition, it is the story of how people from the past have related to God.
Hence, Biblical history should be read with the intent of how God worked in the lives of the people we’re reading about. Then, knowing that God does not change, seek to learn how His is working in our own lives. And as we see how various people in the Bible responded to God, we should seek to learn how we ought to respond to God in our own lives.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. Romans 6:16 tells us that “if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness”. What sin(s) have you become enslaved to in your own life?
2. Romans 6:17-18 goes on to tell us that God has set us free from slavery to sin and has made us slaves of righteousness. How can this be true if you still have certain sins controlling you? What kind of freedom from sin is Paul talking about in these verses? And what does it mean to be a slave of righteousness, particularly in a society that values individual liberty above all else?
3. Finally, where are you in the story of the crossing of the Red Sea? Are you still in Egypt, wondering if you’ll ever get out? Are you on the other side, celebrating your new freedom? Are you in the midst of the dry ground, hoping and praying the waters don’t come crashing down on top of you before you make it to the other side? Are there situations in which you might actually be like Pharaoh, saying, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?”
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
A Father's Blessing
A little late posting it, but......
Father’s Day has lost a little bit of its meaning for me. My dad passed away just about two years ago, and I myself am not a dad.
But the day has not lost all of its significance for me. Who knows, if I ever get married again someday, I may become a dad, or a stepfather. On Father’s Day, it is easy for me to reflect on what kind of dad I would like to be if God ever blesses me with that opportunity.
More significantly, however, I seek to reflect, as we all should, on the Fatherhood of God. Jesus taught is to address God in prayer as, “Our Father, who is in heaven.” In Romans 8, Paul says that it is by the Holy Spirit that we are able to call God, “Abba,” which means, “Father.” Actually, a more literal translation would be, “Dad” or “Daddy,” which is much more a term of familiarity and endearment than “Father.”
Indeed, God is the perfect Dad. Every good quality that a dad possesses, or at least ought to possess, God possesses to the nth degree. Every good thing a dad does for his kids, God does for His children.
While this was not the direct focus of Pastor John’s Father’s Day sermon, we can certainly learn some things about the Fatherhood of God from our study of the blessing Isaac gave to Jacob.
The situation was tainted by the fact that this blessing rightfully belonged to Esau. Jacob and Esau were twins, but Esau was the first to come out of the womb. He was the firstborn. According to cultural norms at that time, two things to which the firstborn was entitled were the family birthright and the father’s blessing. Together, these gave him the majority of the family estate, as well as authority within the family after the father had passed on.
Several years before this event in Genesis 27, Jacob had tricked Esau into selling him the birthright. Now, he deceived Isaac, stealing the blessing away from Esau. Isaac intended to give this blessing to Esau. When he gave it to Jacob, he thought he was giving it to Esau.
What happened next teaches us something about the power of a father’s blessing. When Esau finally came home from hunting to receive his blessing, Isaac realized the mistake he had made. He had been tricked and had given the blessing to Jacob. However, the blessing could not be revoked. Isaac did not have the option of calling Jacob in and saying, “Because you lied to me and tricked me, the blessing is no longer yours. I am taking the blessing away from you and giving it to Esau.” The pronouncement of the blessing was irrevocable.
The custom of bestowing a special blessing on the firstborn is not followed today. However, I do believe in the power of the blessing. And, unlike Isaac, who played favorites, every father should equally bless each of his children, and not just one time. As we learned from PJ, there are ways a father can bless his children every single day.
This is because, as we looked at the blessing Isaac bestowed upon Jacob, there are four ingredients in the blessing. As we look at each of these ingredients, we see that these are indeed things that a father should give to his children, as well as to his wife, every single day.
Briefly, these four ingredients are affection, communication of affirmation and love, attributing high value to your children, and picturing for them a great and glorious future.
I will not rehash the ways in which a father can do these things. I will leave it to you to consider how to make them practical in your life. instead, let me return to my original point. God is the perfect Father. He is the ideal Dad. So let me show you that God has done and does do these things for us.
Let’s start with affection. Is God affectionate toward us? Well, Ephesians 5:1 tells us to “be imitators of God, as beloved children.” Now, the Greek word for beloved is a derivative of agape, which signifies the perfect, pure, unconditional love of God. It is the highest, purest form of love. When you look agape up in a Greek Dictionary, the first definition found is “affection.” Those who are beloved, as in Eph. 5:1 are the recipients of such love and affection. God is intensely, perfectly, purely affectionate toward us. We are His beloved children.
The second ingredient in the blessing is the communication of affirmation and love. This goes hand-in-hand with affection. And if anyone ever asks whether or not regularly communicates His love toward us, the answer is yes. Notice the verb tense in Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The verse doesn’t say, “God demonstrated His love toward us…” It says that He demonstrates His love. It is a present tense verb. It indicates continuous, ongoing action. God has demonstrated, keeps on demonstrating, and will forever be demonstrating His love toward us.
Just how does God demonstrate (or communicate) His love toward us? By continually drawing us back to the cross. He is forever seeking to remind us that” while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Additionally, Rom. 8:31-39 culminates with the statement that nothing shall ever separate us from the love of God. But I want you to notice something early in that passage. Verse 32 says, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
This is a promise of God’s provision. One way God communicates affirmation and love to us is by meeting all our needs; physical, emotional, spiritual. Paul says we can be absolutely certain He will do these things for us, because He has already given up His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins.
And what of placing high value upon us? This one is obvious, isn’t it? God placed such high value upon us that He gave up His Son for the sake of making us His children. He considered us worth the sacrifice. For God to be willing to sacrifice His own Son for us speaks volumes about how valuable we are to Him.
Finally, we come to the matter of a father picturing a glorious future for his children. And indeed, our heavenly Father has promised a great and glorious future to us. He has given us the promise of heaven; a place of perfect peace, joy, and safety; a place of immense beauty; a place where there will be no pain, no disease or sickness, no cerebral palsy, and most significantly, no sin. All this culminates with the promise of spending eternity enjoying the perfect presence of the Lord.
Some discount this as nothing more than “dreamy-eyed pie in the sky in the great by and by.” But it is the absolute promise of God that we can securely rest all our hopes upon. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to have my piece of the pie, thank you very much.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. If you are a dad, how do you bless your wife and children on a daily basis? In what ways to you fail to give them your blessing?
2. Do you have trouble connecting with God as your heavenly Father? Why or why not? In which of these four areas do you need to work on viewing God more as your Father?
I’ve only asked two questions, here. But they are very significant ones. Rather than just jotting down the first thing that pops into your head, really take some time to search your heart and consider these things.
Father’s Day has lost a little bit of its meaning for me. My dad passed away just about two years ago, and I myself am not a dad.
But the day has not lost all of its significance for me. Who knows, if I ever get married again someday, I may become a dad, or a stepfather. On Father’s Day, it is easy for me to reflect on what kind of dad I would like to be if God ever blesses me with that opportunity.
More significantly, however, I seek to reflect, as we all should, on the Fatherhood of God. Jesus taught is to address God in prayer as, “Our Father, who is in heaven.” In Romans 8, Paul says that it is by the Holy Spirit that we are able to call God, “Abba,” which means, “Father.” Actually, a more literal translation would be, “Dad” or “Daddy,” which is much more a term of familiarity and endearment than “Father.”
Indeed, God is the perfect Dad. Every good quality that a dad possesses, or at least ought to possess, God possesses to the nth degree. Every good thing a dad does for his kids, God does for His children.
While this was not the direct focus of Pastor John’s Father’s Day sermon, we can certainly learn some things about the Fatherhood of God from our study of the blessing Isaac gave to Jacob.
The situation was tainted by the fact that this blessing rightfully belonged to Esau. Jacob and Esau were twins, but Esau was the first to come out of the womb. He was the firstborn. According to cultural norms at that time, two things to which the firstborn was entitled were the family birthright and the father’s blessing. Together, these gave him the majority of the family estate, as well as authority within the family after the father had passed on.
Several years before this event in Genesis 27, Jacob had tricked Esau into selling him the birthright. Now, he deceived Isaac, stealing the blessing away from Esau. Isaac intended to give this blessing to Esau. When he gave it to Jacob, he thought he was giving it to Esau.
What happened next teaches us something about the power of a father’s blessing. When Esau finally came home from hunting to receive his blessing, Isaac realized the mistake he had made. He had been tricked and had given the blessing to Jacob. However, the blessing could not be revoked. Isaac did not have the option of calling Jacob in and saying, “Because you lied to me and tricked me, the blessing is no longer yours. I am taking the blessing away from you and giving it to Esau.” The pronouncement of the blessing was irrevocable.
The custom of bestowing a special blessing on the firstborn is not followed today. However, I do believe in the power of the blessing. And, unlike Isaac, who played favorites, every father should equally bless each of his children, and not just one time. As we learned from PJ, there are ways a father can bless his children every single day.
This is because, as we looked at the blessing Isaac bestowed upon Jacob, there are four ingredients in the blessing. As we look at each of these ingredients, we see that these are indeed things that a father should give to his children, as well as to his wife, every single day.
Briefly, these four ingredients are affection, communication of affirmation and love, attributing high value to your children, and picturing for them a great and glorious future.
I will not rehash the ways in which a father can do these things. I will leave it to you to consider how to make them practical in your life. instead, let me return to my original point. God is the perfect Father. He is the ideal Dad. So let me show you that God has done and does do these things for us.
Let’s start with affection. Is God affectionate toward us? Well, Ephesians 5:1 tells us to “be imitators of God, as beloved children.” Now, the Greek word for beloved is a derivative of agape, which signifies the perfect, pure, unconditional love of God. It is the highest, purest form of love. When you look agape up in a Greek Dictionary, the first definition found is “affection.” Those who are beloved, as in Eph. 5:1 are the recipients of such love and affection. God is intensely, perfectly, purely affectionate toward us. We are His beloved children.
The second ingredient in the blessing is the communication of affirmation and love. This goes hand-in-hand with affection. And if anyone ever asks whether or not regularly communicates His love toward us, the answer is yes. Notice the verb tense in Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The verse doesn’t say, “God demonstrated His love toward us…” It says that He demonstrates His love. It is a present tense verb. It indicates continuous, ongoing action. God has demonstrated, keeps on demonstrating, and will forever be demonstrating His love toward us.
Just how does God demonstrate (or communicate) His love toward us? By continually drawing us back to the cross. He is forever seeking to remind us that” while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Additionally, Rom. 8:31-39 culminates with the statement that nothing shall ever separate us from the love of God. But I want you to notice something early in that passage. Verse 32 says, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
This is a promise of God’s provision. One way God communicates affirmation and love to us is by meeting all our needs; physical, emotional, spiritual. Paul says we can be absolutely certain He will do these things for us, because He has already given up His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins.
And what of placing high value upon us? This one is obvious, isn’t it? God placed such high value upon us that He gave up His Son for the sake of making us His children. He considered us worth the sacrifice. For God to be willing to sacrifice His own Son for us speaks volumes about how valuable we are to Him.
Finally, we come to the matter of a father picturing a glorious future for his children. And indeed, our heavenly Father has promised a great and glorious future to us. He has given us the promise of heaven; a place of perfect peace, joy, and safety; a place of immense beauty; a place where there will be no pain, no disease or sickness, no cerebral palsy, and most significantly, no sin. All this culminates with the promise of spending eternity enjoying the perfect presence of the Lord.
Some discount this as nothing more than “dreamy-eyed pie in the sky in the great by and by.” But it is the absolute promise of God that we can securely rest all our hopes upon. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to have my piece of the pie, thank you very much.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. If you are a dad, how do you bless your wife and children on a daily basis? In what ways to you fail to give them your blessing?
2. Do you have trouble connecting with God as your heavenly Father? Why or why not? In which of these four areas do you need to work on viewing God more as your Father?
I’ve only asked two questions, here. But they are very significant ones. Rather than just jotting down the first thing that pops into your head, really take some time to search your heart and consider these things.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Misfits: Sarah--Lessons From a Misfit Mother
The story of Abraham and Sarah reads like the script of a soap opera. Perhaps we could call it, “As the Stomach Churns.” Abraham could have called it, “The Ways of My Wives.” To be certain, Abraham and Sarah were “The Old and the Restless.”
One part of the story that we did not learn about this week was the fact that, when a famine hit the land, Abraham went down to Egypt looking for food. Despite being a senior citizen, Sarah was still a beautiful woman. So beautiful, in fact, that Abraham thought the Pharaoh would kill him in order to take Sarah for his wife. Giving in to his fear, he asked Sarah to lie if anyone asked about the nature of their relationship. “Tell them you are my sister,” he said. Sarah agreed to go along with this, and as a result, Pharaoh did take her to be one of his many wives. But at least Abraham got to keep his life.
Ah, the tangled webs we weave. But the Lord proved Himself faithful by not allowing Pharaoh to sleep with his new bride and informing him that she was Abraham’s wife. Abraham then received a sharp rebuke from the Pharaoh, in which he was essentially told, “You should have had at least some trust in me.”
This happened, not once, but twice. And interestingly enough, we’re never told how Sarah felt about the whole thing. It makes me wonder whether there was a little bit of revenge when she was seeking when she offered her servant Hagar to Abraham. Was she perhaps thinking, “He offered me to another man. Let’s see what he does when I offer another woman to him”?
If revenge was a motive, I think it was a small one. The greater issue was a lack of faith on her part. She went to Abraham and said, “The Lord promised you a son, but He did not specify who the mother would be. And we both know I can’t have a child. I went through menopause twenty or thirty years ago. Take my servant Hagar, sleep with her, and let her be the mother of your prodigy.”
Abraham agreed, just as Sarah had agreed to lie about not being his wife. Hagar got pregnant and began rubbing it in Sarah’s face. “How long have you been married to Abraham? And all this time, you couldn’t have a baby. I slept with him once, and I’m pregnant. Maybe I should be his wife, and you can be my servant.”
My comment about whether or not Sarah was seeking some revenge comes from Genesis 16:5. After Hagar began looking on her with contempt, she went to Abraham and said, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!”
Sarah did not say, “May the LORD judge between Hagar and me.” Her anger was not truly directed at Hagar. It was directed toward Abraham. She was essentially saying, “I may have suggested it, but you’re the head of the house. You agreed to it. You went through with it. Now, this is your mess.” Perhaps she added, “This is what you get for trying to pawn me off on Pharaoh.”
Fast forward maybe ten years, and we find the Lord again promising a son to Abraham. This time, however, He is specific about who the mother will be. In Genesis 17, He told Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her” (vv. 15-16).
Abraham laughed at the notion of he and Sarah having a child in their old age. He did not believe it was possible. So he said to God, “You promised me a son, and I have a son…Ishmael. Let him live before you. Let all the blessings you’ve promised me come through Ishmael.”
God said, “No. Ishmael is not the one I promised. Sarah will have a baby. You are to name him Isaac, and he will be the one through whom the blessings will pass and the promises be fulfilled.”
A short time later, Sarah also laughed at the prospect of becoming a mother at the age of ninety. But God was faithful. He answered His own question (“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”) by opening her womb. She had a baby, and he was named Isaac.
With all the deception, disobedience, and doubt, it is hard to imagine Abraham and Sarah as people of great faith. A man of great faith doesn’t lie about his wife being his sister. A woman of great faith doesn’t encourage her husband to sleep with another woman. And people of great faith don’t laugh at God’s promises.
And yet, both Abraham and Sarah are listed in the book of Hebrews’ “Hall of Faith.” In fact, it is somewhat surprising to see that “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered Him faithful who had promised” (v. 11). The author of Hebrews tells us that she knew God had made a promise, and that she trusted God to keep His promise.
What does this tell us about faith? Perhaps it tells us that faith doesn’t have to be long lasting in order to be great. Sarah was not a woman who spent twenty or thirty years constantly trusting God and praying for a child. She did not patiently wait on the Lord, saying, “I know it will happen in His good timing.”
Still, she had a measure of faith. Perhaps it was wavering. Perhaps she did not express her faith until after the Lord rebuked her for laughing at the promise that she would have a baby at the age of 90. Maybe Sarah had what Jesus referred to as “faith like a grain of mustard seed” (Matt. 17:20). But it was faith nonetheless.
As with Adam and Eve, we learn from Abraham and Sarah that God is faithful. He is faithful to His people, and faithful to His Word and His promises, because He is faithful to Himself. God cannot lie, which means He cannot break any of His promises. Hence, as Wil Mayfield told us, what God has promised, He will perform.
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What “impossible” situation are you facing in your life? What do you want or need God to do in your life?
2. Do you truly believe God can and will handle the situation? Are you trusting Him to take care of it in His way and in His timing? Or do you find yourself trying to force the issue by handling it yourself?
3. How much is God’s working in your life dependent on your level of faith? What can you learn from how He worked in Abraham and Sarah’s life, despite their apparent lack of faith?
One part of the story that we did not learn about this week was the fact that, when a famine hit the land, Abraham went down to Egypt looking for food. Despite being a senior citizen, Sarah was still a beautiful woman. So beautiful, in fact, that Abraham thought the Pharaoh would kill him in order to take Sarah for his wife. Giving in to his fear, he asked Sarah to lie if anyone asked about the nature of their relationship. “Tell them you are my sister,” he said. Sarah agreed to go along with this, and as a result, Pharaoh did take her to be one of his many wives. But at least Abraham got to keep his life.
Ah, the tangled webs we weave. But the Lord proved Himself faithful by not allowing Pharaoh to sleep with his new bride and informing him that she was Abraham’s wife. Abraham then received a sharp rebuke from the Pharaoh, in which he was essentially told, “You should have had at least some trust in me.”
This happened, not once, but twice. And interestingly enough, we’re never told how Sarah felt about the whole thing. It makes me wonder whether there was a little bit of revenge when she was seeking when she offered her servant Hagar to Abraham. Was she perhaps thinking, “He offered me to another man. Let’s see what he does when I offer another woman to him”?
If revenge was a motive, I think it was a small one. The greater issue was a lack of faith on her part. She went to Abraham and said, “The Lord promised you a son, but He did not specify who the mother would be. And we both know I can’t have a child. I went through menopause twenty or thirty years ago. Take my servant Hagar, sleep with her, and let her be the mother of your prodigy.”
Abraham agreed, just as Sarah had agreed to lie about not being his wife. Hagar got pregnant and began rubbing it in Sarah’s face. “How long have you been married to Abraham? And all this time, you couldn’t have a baby. I slept with him once, and I’m pregnant. Maybe I should be his wife, and you can be my servant.”
My comment about whether or not Sarah was seeking some revenge comes from Genesis 16:5. After Hagar began looking on her with contempt, she went to Abraham and said, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!”
Sarah did not say, “May the LORD judge between Hagar and me.” Her anger was not truly directed at Hagar. It was directed toward Abraham. She was essentially saying, “I may have suggested it, but you’re the head of the house. You agreed to it. You went through with it. Now, this is your mess.” Perhaps she added, “This is what you get for trying to pawn me off on Pharaoh.”
Fast forward maybe ten years, and we find the Lord again promising a son to Abraham. This time, however, He is specific about who the mother will be. In Genesis 17, He told Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her” (vv. 15-16).
Abraham laughed at the notion of he and Sarah having a child in their old age. He did not believe it was possible. So he said to God, “You promised me a son, and I have a son…Ishmael. Let him live before you. Let all the blessings you’ve promised me come through Ishmael.”
God said, “No. Ishmael is not the one I promised. Sarah will have a baby. You are to name him Isaac, and he will be the one through whom the blessings will pass and the promises be fulfilled.”
A short time later, Sarah also laughed at the prospect of becoming a mother at the age of ninety. But God was faithful. He answered His own question (“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”) by opening her womb. She had a baby, and he was named Isaac.
With all the deception, disobedience, and doubt, it is hard to imagine Abraham and Sarah as people of great faith. A man of great faith doesn’t lie about his wife being his sister. A woman of great faith doesn’t encourage her husband to sleep with another woman. And people of great faith don’t laugh at God’s promises.
And yet, both Abraham and Sarah are listed in the book of Hebrews’ “Hall of Faith.” In fact, it is somewhat surprising to see that “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered Him faithful who had promised” (v. 11). The author of Hebrews tells us that she knew God had made a promise, and that she trusted God to keep His promise.
What does this tell us about faith? Perhaps it tells us that faith doesn’t have to be long lasting in order to be great. Sarah was not a woman who spent twenty or thirty years constantly trusting God and praying for a child. She did not patiently wait on the Lord, saying, “I know it will happen in His good timing.”
Still, she had a measure of faith. Perhaps it was wavering. Perhaps she did not express her faith until after the Lord rebuked her for laughing at the promise that she would have a baby at the age of 90. Maybe Sarah had what Jesus referred to as “faith like a grain of mustard seed” (Matt. 17:20). But it was faith nonetheless.
As with Adam and Eve, we learn from Abraham and Sarah that God is faithful. He is faithful to His people, and faithful to His Word and His promises, because He is faithful to Himself. God cannot lie, which means He cannot break any of His promises. Hence, as Wil Mayfield told us, what God has promised, He will perform.
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What “impossible” situation are you facing in your life? What do you want or need God to do in your life?
2. Do you truly believe God can and will handle the situation? Are you trusting Him to take care of it in His way and in His timing? Or do you find yourself trying to force the issue by handling it yourself?
3. How much is God’s working in your life dependent on your level of faith? What can you learn from how He worked in Abraham and Sarah’s life, despite their apparent lack of faith?
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Misfits: Adam & Eve
What does a Christian look like? How does he dress? How does he behave? Is a Christian someone who doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, and doesn’t dance? Is a Christian someone who goes to church every time the doors are open? At the church I grew up in, we had Sunday morning service, Sunday evening service, and Wednesday night prayer meetings. Is a Christian someone who makes sure he/she is at all three?
As Pastor John explained on Sunday, for most people, their perception of what a Christian is morphs into the same person. They believe in the cookie-cutter Christian. And as I once heard a Christian comedian say, “If you don’t fit in that hole, then you just aren’t saved.”
A misfit is, indeed, a mis-fit—someone who doesn’t fit the mold of what people think a Christian is or ought to be. Ironically, we’re all misfits. Because the mold, or the standard of what a Christian should look like is Jesus Christ.
As we began our series of character studies from the Bible, entitled “Misfits”, we looked at the first two misfits; the first two humans. Adam and Eve. They were misfits because they did not fit the mold of what God intended for the human race. God intended that we all be people who love Him and perfectly obey Him. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, became sinful, and passed the Sin Nature on to the rest of humanity.
Within his sermon, PJ suggested that Adam and Eve were the original Dr. & Mrs. Doolittle; that they could talk to the animals, or rather that the animals could talk to them. (I sometimes talk to my dog, but she doesn’t talk to me.) That this may have been the case is implied by the fact that, when the serpent started talking to Eve, she didn’t seem a bit surprised by the fact.
However, I personally would not necessarily conclude that Adam and Eve routinely conversed with all the animals. Numbers 22 tells the story of Balaam having an argument with his donkey. The fact that the LORD opened the donkey’s mouth, so she could speak, makes it clear that, at that time, animals did not have the ability to speak. And yet, Balaam was so upset that he never stopped to say, “Wait a minute. How is it that my donkey is talking to me?”
Regardless of whether or not Adam and Eve’s last name was Doolittle, the serpent spoke to Eve, she sinned, Adam sinned with her, and things went downhill from there.
The one of the overarching themes of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the loyalty of God. Time and time again, He proves Himself loyal (or faithful). In this case, He proved Himself loyal by killing an animal, covering their nakedness, and promising to send One who would crush Satan’s head (Genesis 3). And so we find that the story, as do all stories in the Bible, culminates with Jesus Christ.
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. In what ways are you a misfit? What forbidden fruit have you eaten from the proverbial tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
2. How has your sin broken down your relationship with God? With other members of your family? How can these relationships be repaired?
3. How has God shown His loyalty to you?
As Pastor John explained on Sunday, for most people, their perception of what a Christian is morphs into the same person. They believe in the cookie-cutter Christian. And as I once heard a Christian comedian say, “If you don’t fit in that hole, then you just aren’t saved.”
A misfit is, indeed, a mis-fit—someone who doesn’t fit the mold of what people think a Christian is or ought to be. Ironically, we’re all misfits. Because the mold, or the standard of what a Christian should look like is Jesus Christ.
As we began our series of character studies from the Bible, entitled “Misfits”, we looked at the first two misfits; the first two humans. Adam and Eve. They were misfits because they did not fit the mold of what God intended for the human race. God intended that we all be people who love Him and perfectly obey Him. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, became sinful, and passed the Sin Nature on to the rest of humanity.
Within his sermon, PJ suggested that Adam and Eve were the original Dr. & Mrs. Doolittle; that they could talk to the animals, or rather that the animals could talk to them. (I sometimes talk to my dog, but she doesn’t talk to me.) That this may have been the case is implied by the fact that, when the serpent started talking to Eve, she didn’t seem a bit surprised by the fact.
However, I personally would not necessarily conclude that Adam and Eve routinely conversed with all the animals. Numbers 22 tells the story of Balaam having an argument with his donkey. The fact that the LORD opened the donkey’s mouth, so she could speak, makes it clear that, at that time, animals did not have the ability to speak. And yet, Balaam was so upset that he never stopped to say, “Wait a minute. How is it that my donkey is talking to me?”
Regardless of whether or not Adam and Eve’s last name was Doolittle, the serpent spoke to Eve, she sinned, Adam sinned with her, and things went downhill from there.
The one of the overarching themes of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the loyalty of God. Time and time again, He proves Himself loyal (or faithful). In this case, He proved Himself loyal by killing an animal, covering their nakedness, and promising to send One who would crush Satan’s head (Genesis 3). And so we find that the story, as do all stories in the Bible, culminates with Jesus Christ.
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. In what ways are you a misfit? What forbidden fruit have you eaten from the proverbial tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
2. How has your sin broken down your relationship with God? With other members of your family? How can these relationships be repaired?
3. How has God shown His loyalty to you?
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Resurrection: A Living Hope
“It’s no use. All hope is lost. I’m a hopeless mess. God can’t love me. How could He? After all the times I’ve screwed up; all the times I’ve let Him down. I’m so ashamed of myself. How could God possibly love or forgive me? It’s hopeless.”
Have you ever felt that way? I know I have. And Peter also struggled with that feeling of hopelessness. For Peter had denied Jesus; denied being a follower of his Rabbi. He denied ever even having met Jesus, and not just once, but three times.
As PJ told us, denying your Rabbi was practically unheard of. The relationship between a Rabbi and his disciples was stronger than the relationships within one’s own family. To make matters worse, the one Peter denied wasn’t just another Rabbi. Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus was (and is) the Son of God. And Peter knew it! Peter denied—effectively rejected—Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God incarnate.
So we can imagine the hopelessness Peter felt as Jesus was falsely accused, convicted, sentenced, and eventually crucified. It was all over. Jesus was gone. He was dead, along with all of Peter’s hopes and dreams of overthrowing the Romans and establishing the Messianic kingdom.
But then, when we turn to I Peter 1:3, we read of a new hope, a living hope, that Peter had. And we might ask, “What’s this? Peter? Hope? Really?” Other than Judas’ betrayal, Peter had committed the ultimate sin. In fact, Matthew 26:74 tells us that Peter cursed and used foul language as he shrieked, “I don’t know that man! I’ve never met Him before in my life!” (My paraphrase). So how can Peter now talk about hope?
Peter answers this question in the very same verse by saying that we have been “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Jesus’ Resurrection gives us hope: The hope of a new day. The hope of a new beginning. The hope of forgiveness from God. The hope of a relationship with Him.
Last week’s sermon was titled, “Afflicted: Why Did Jesus Have to Suffer and Die?” This week’s message was, “Resurrection: A Living Hope.” But PJ could have just as easily entitled it, “Why Did Jesus Have to Rise From the Dead?”
In his sermon, John did not ask this question, but he did answer it. Jesus’ had to rise from the dead because you can’t have a relationship with a dead man. What point would there be in Jesus dying to bring us into relationship with Himself if His death was the end of the story? That relationship He died for would be nonexistent, and His death would have been meaningless.
Also, Jesus had to rise from the dead because He loves us. In this week’s sermon, Pastor John opened my eyes to a new way of looking at the Resurrection. Consider this: Romans 5:8 says, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” I John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Because of verses like these, we closely associate God’s love with the death of Jesus, and we should. But PJ told us that Jesus not only loved us enough to die for us. He loved us enough to come back from the dead, so He could engage us in the relationship that He died to make possible.
Many of us like to say that Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship. And herein is the difference between Christianity and other major religions in the world: Buddha is dead. Mohammed is dead. Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddy, Caesar, Pharaoh—all the so-called great religious leaders of the world, who are worshipped by their followers, are dead.
But Jesus Christ comes to us and says, “I was dead, and now I am alive forever and ever!” (Rev. 1:18). This is why we worship Jesus. For what good is it to worship a dead man? A dead man can’t save you. A dead man can’t forgive you. A dead man can’t give you the eternal life, hope, and comfort Jesus gives.
We could also say that Jesus had to rise from the dead in order to prove that His death accomplished its intended purpose. As we learned last week, He died as our substitute, as the sacrifice for our sins. But how would we know the sacrifice He offered was accepted by God if He had not risen from the dead? We know His death atoned for our sins because He came back from the dead.
And what about Peter, who had denied ever knowing Jesus? On the day of the Resurrection, an angel told the women who had gone to the tomb, “Go, tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee” (Mark 16:7). Peter was mentioned by name. The Lord specifically wanted Peter to know that He was risen, and that not even Peter’s denials could negate His love for him.
Fifty days later, Peter preached the first sermon of the Church. Over the course of the rest of his life, he lived up to his name, Cephas, meaning, “a rock.” He became a rock, preaching the gospel and refusing to ever deny his Lord again, even at the cost of being crucified upside down.
No wonder Peter wrote about “a living hope.” No wonder the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus is called the gospel; the good news.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. Do you ever feel hopeless? What causes you to experience such feelings?
2. What aspects of Peter’s story do you most identify with?
3. Judas, after betraying Jesus, felt remorse, and hanged himself. Peter felt remorse after denying Christ. But after the Resurrection, he was restored. What is the difference between Judas and Peter, and what lessons can we learn from this difference?
4. How does the Resurrection provide hope in the areas of life you struggle with the most?
Have you ever felt that way? I know I have. And Peter also struggled with that feeling of hopelessness. For Peter had denied Jesus; denied being a follower of his Rabbi. He denied ever even having met Jesus, and not just once, but three times.
As PJ told us, denying your Rabbi was practically unheard of. The relationship between a Rabbi and his disciples was stronger than the relationships within one’s own family. To make matters worse, the one Peter denied wasn’t just another Rabbi. Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus was (and is) the Son of God. And Peter knew it! Peter denied—effectively rejected—Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God incarnate.
So we can imagine the hopelessness Peter felt as Jesus was falsely accused, convicted, sentenced, and eventually crucified. It was all over. Jesus was gone. He was dead, along with all of Peter’s hopes and dreams of overthrowing the Romans and establishing the Messianic kingdom.
But then, when we turn to I Peter 1:3, we read of a new hope, a living hope, that Peter had. And we might ask, “What’s this? Peter? Hope? Really?” Other than Judas’ betrayal, Peter had committed the ultimate sin. In fact, Matthew 26:74 tells us that Peter cursed and used foul language as he shrieked, “I don’t know that man! I’ve never met Him before in my life!” (My paraphrase). So how can Peter now talk about hope?
Peter answers this question in the very same verse by saying that we have been “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Jesus’ Resurrection gives us hope: The hope of a new day. The hope of a new beginning. The hope of forgiveness from God. The hope of a relationship with Him.
Last week’s sermon was titled, “Afflicted: Why Did Jesus Have to Suffer and Die?” This week’s message was, “Resurrection: A Living Hope.” But PJ could have just as easily entitled it, “Why Did Jesus Have to Rise From the Dead?”
In his sermon, John did not ask this question, but he did answer it. Jesus’ had to rise from the dead because you can’t have a relationship with a dead man. What point would there be in Jesus dying to bring us into relationship with Himself if His death was the end of the story? That relationship He died for would be nonexistent, and His death would have been meaningless.
Also, Jesus had to rise from the dead because He loves us. In this week’s sermon, Pastor John opened my eyes to a new way of looking at the Resurrection. Consider this: Romans 5:8 says, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” I John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Because of verses like these, we closely associate God’s love with the death of Jesus, and we should. But PJ told us that Jesus not only loved us enough to die for us. He loved us enough to come back from the dead, so He could engage us in the relationship that He died to make possible.
Many of us like to say that Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship. And herein is the difference between Christianity and other major religions in the world: Buddha is dead. Mohammed is dead. Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddy, Caesar, Pharaoh—all the so-called great religious leaders of the world, who are worshipped by their followers, are dead.
But Jesus Christ comes to us and says, “I was dead, and now I am alive forever and ever!” (Rev. 1:18). This is why we worship Jesus. For what good is it to worship a dead man? A dead man can’t save you. A dead man can’t forgive you. A dead man can’t give you the eternal life, hope, and comfort Jesus gives.
We could also say that Jesus had to rise from the dead in order to prove that His death accomplished its intended purpose. As we learned last week, He died as our substitute, as the sacrifice for our sins. But how would we know the sacrifice He offered was accepted by God if He had not risen from the dead? We know His death atoned for our sins because He came back from the dead.
And what about Peter, who had denied ever knowing Jesus? On the day of the Resurrection, an angel told the women who had gone to the tomb, “Go, tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee” (Mark 16:7). Peter was mentioned by name. The Lord specifically wanted Peter to know that He was risen, and that not even Peter’s denials could negate His love for him.
Fifty days later, Peter preached the first sermon of the Church. Over the course of the rest of his life, he lived up to his name, Cephas, meaning, “a rock.” He became a rock, preaching the gospel and refusing to ever deny his Lord again, even at the cost of being crucified upside down.
No wonder Peter wrote about “a living hope.” No wonder the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus is called the gospel; the good news.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. Do you ever feel hopeless? What causes you to experience such feelings?
2. What aspects of Peter’s story do you most identify with?
3. Judas, after betraying Jesus, felt remorse, and hanged himself. Peter felt remorse after denying Christ. But after the Resurrection, he was restored. What is the difference between Judas and Peter, and what lessons can we learn from this difference?
4. How does the Resurrection provide hope in the areas of life you struggle with the most?
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Why Did Jesus Have to Suffer and Die?
Why did Jesus have to suffer and die? Believe it or not, nowadays, it depends on who you ask. Some believe He died merely to set an example of being willing to die for those you love, to die for what you believe in—a martyr for the cause—or as an example of obedience to God, even if it means your own death. Others theorize that He demonstrated God’s love by suffering as we suffer at times. One scholar claims that Jesus died merely to establish His right to rule when He returns to usher in Israel’s Messianic kingdom.
But what does Christianity say, and what does the Bible say? As PJ told us, the quick and easy answer given by most Christians is that Jesus died to save us from our sins. And that’s true. It is so very true. However, as PJ also pointed out, that quick, simple answer doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what was happening as Jesus hung, dying on the cross.
To demonstrate this reality, consider the fact that, back in 2005, Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle preached a 12-part sermon series entitled, “Christ on the Cross,” in which he focuses on 12 specific reasons Jesus had to die, all of which lie under the surface of the statement, “Jesus died to save us from our sins.” In addition, we could point to the fact that innumerable pages, articles, and books have been written about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, all seeking to unpack the meaning of this simple statement.
The aspect of Jesus’ death that PJ looked at this week was that of sacrifice. He began with the Old Testament, most notably, the book of Leviticus, in which we find the rules and regulations for all the sacrifices, or offerings, that were to be part of worship for the Israelites. As we read through this book, we find four kinds of sacrifices. There was the burnt offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering. In addition, on the Day of Atonement, Israel’s high priest offered a sacrifice for the sins of the entire nation. And let’s not forget the annual Passover sacrifice, commemorating when God led them out of Egypt.
The point of all this is that, day after day, hundreds, even thousands of animals were slaughtered. Their throats were slit, and blood would gush out as they bled to death. And with each sacrifice, some of the blood would be splattered on the altar. The temple grounds were continually a gross and bloody mess.
But why was all this necessary? To make atonement. That is, to reconcile the people back to God. For as God had told Adam and Eve, “In the day that you eat of [the forbidden tree], you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Likewise, Ezekiel 18:4 says, “The soul who sins shall die.”
Now, physical death did eventually come to Adam and Eve after they disobeyed God. But the more significant death they suffered—which we all suffer—is spiritual death. Spiritual death is separation from God; the breaking of a relationship with Him. And because God is holy, that separation is permanent.
That is, unless atonement is made through the death of one who does not deserve to die. In the Old Testament, it was the death of an animal. And what would happen is this: The person offering the sacrifice would, in the presence of the priest, lay his hands on the head of the animal and confess all his sins, thereby transferring his guilt to the animal. Now, it was as if the animal had committed those sins. Then the animal would pay the price for those sins by being killed. As a result, the person offering the sacrifice would be brought back into relationship to God.
But there was a problem with this. It was only a temporary fix. As Hebrews 10:3-4 explains, “In these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
Even after becoming Christians, we still sin, just as the Israelites continued to sin after offering a sacrifice. The difference, to quote from John the Baptist, is that Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). And as Hebrews 10 explains, Jesus “offered for all time a single sacrifice for all sins,” and by that single offering, “has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (vv. 12 & 14).
The reason for this is twofold. First, as a human, Jesus was capable of truly being our substitute. A human, not an animal, is the only one who could truly die in the place of other humans. Secondly, as the infinite God, Jesus was the only one who could bear the full penalty for all our sins. As Wayne Grudem says, “Any finite creature would have been incapable of bearing that penalty.”
Saying that Jesus died to save us from our sins, while true, does not even begin to scratch the surface of the meaning behind the cross. Neither does this brief study tying His death to the Old Testament’s sacrificial system. In fact, I think we could spend our entire lives studying the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and never fully grasp what was happening in the spiritual realm. However, we should not let that fact discourage us from seeking to understand it to the extent that we can.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. As PJ told us in his sermon, only someone who is infinite could adequately deal with our sin problem. What does this say about the nature of our sin and the punishment it deserves?
2. Some religions teach that a combination of faith and works is the prerequisite for salvation. As Protestant Christians, we believe that faith alone is necessary for salvation. How does the death of Christ counteract the notion that good works are also required for salvation? (Hint: Use John 19:30 as a starting reference point)
3. In the Old Testament, priests sacrificed animals. The book of Hebrews presents Jesus as both the priest and the sacrifice. Why, do you think, is this significant?
4. In the Old Testament, worship was closely associated with the idea of sacrifice. Since Jesus died on the cross, we no longer offer animal sacrifices to God. Has this removed the idea of sacrifice entirely from what it means to worship? In what sense ought we to “sacrifice” when we worship today?
But what does Christianity say, and what does the Bible say? As PJ told us, the quick and easy answer given by most Christians is that Jesus died to save us from our sins. And that’s true. It is so very true. However, as PJ also pointed out, that quick, simple answer doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what was happening as Jesus hung, dying on the cross.
To demonstrate this reality, consider the fact that, back in 2005, Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle preached a 12-part sermon series entitled, “Christ on the Cross,” in which he focuses on 12 specific reasons Jesus had to die, all of which lie under the surface of the statement, “Jesus died to save us from our sins.” In addition, we could point to the fact that innumerable pages, articles, and books have been written about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, all seeking to unpack the meaning of this simple statement.
The aspect of Jesus’ death that PJ looked at this week was that of sacrifice. He began with the Old Testament, most notably, the book of Leviticus, in which we find the rules and regulations for all the sacrifices, or offerings, that were to be part of worship for the Israelites. As we read through this book, we find four kinds of sacrifices. There was the burnt offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering. In addition, on the Day of Atonement, Israel’s high priest offered a sacrifice for the sins of the entire nation. And let’s not forget the annual Passover sacrifice, commemorating when God led them out of Egypt.
The point of all this is that, day after day, hundreds, even thousands of animals were slaughtered. Their throats were slit, and blood would gush out as they bled to death. And with each sacrifice, some of the blood would be splattered on the altar. The temple grounds were continually a gross and bloody mess.
But why was all this necessary? To make atonement. That is, to reconcile the people back to God. For as God had told Adam and Eve, “In the day that you eat of [the forbidden tree], you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Likewise, Ezekiel 18:4 says, “The soul who sins shall die.”
Now, physical death did eventually come to Adam and Eve after they disobeyed God. But the more significant death they suffered—which we all suffer—is spiritual death. Spiritual death is separation from God; the breaking of a relationship with Him. And because God is holy, that separation is permanent.
That is, unless atonement is made through the death of one who does not deserve to die. In the Old Testament, it was the death of an animal. And what would happen is this: The person offering the sacrifice would, in the presence of the priest, lay his hands on the head of the animal and confess all his sins, thereby transferring his guilt to the animal. Now, it was as if the animal had committed those sins. Then the animal would pay the price for those sins by being killed. As a result, the person offering the sacrifice would be brought back into relationship to God.
But there was a problem with this. It was only a temporary fix. As Hebrews 10:3-4 explains, “In these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
Even after becoming Christians, we still sin, just as the Israelites continued to sin after offering a sacrifice. The difference, to quote from John the Baptist, is that Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). And as Hebrews 10 explains, Jesus “offered for all time a single sacrifice for all sins,” and by that single offering, “has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (vv. 12 & 14).
The reason for this is twofold. First, as a human, Jesus was capable of truly being our substitute. A human, not an animal, is the only one who could truly die in the place of other humans. Secondly, as the infinite God, Jesus was the only one who could bear the full penalty for all our sins. As Wayne Grudem says, “Any finite creature would have been incapable of bearing that penalty.”
Saying that Jesus died to save us from our sins, while true, does not even begin to scratch the surface of the meaning behind the cross. Neither does this brief study tying His death to the Old Testament’s sacrificial system. In fact, I think we could spend our entire lives studying the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and never fully grasp what was happening in the spiritual realm. However, we should not let that fact discourage us from seeking to understand it to the extent that we can.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. As PJ told us in his sermon, only someone who is infinite could adequately deal with our sin problem. What does this say about the nature of our sin and the punishment it deserves?
2. Some religions teach that a combination of faith and works is the prerequisite for salvation. As Protestant Christians, we believe that faith alone is necessary for salvation. How does the death of Christ counteract the notion that good works are also required for salvation? (Hint: Use John 19:30 as a starting reference point)
3. In the Old Testament, priests sacrificed animals. The book of Hebrews presents Jesus as both the priest and the sacrifice. Why, do you think, is this significant?
4. In the Old Testament, worship was closely associated with the idea of sacrifice. Since Jesus died on the cross, we no longer offer animal sacrifices to God. Has this removed the idea of sacrifice entirely from what it means to worship? In what sense ought we to “sacrifice” when we worship today?
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Philippians 4: Joy in Covenant Relations
At the beginning of his sermon on Philippians 4, PJ 2.0 gave us a brief outline of the chapter. In Philippians 4, Paul has four points to make. He says to his readers, “Be united,” “Be happy and practice love,” “May God bless you as you have blessed me,” and “Encourage one another.”
So I sat back, expecting John Han to delve into how Paul develops these themes throughout the chapter. Instead, he started talking about law school and contracts. I wondered, “Where is he going with this?”
Then John started talking about the difference between contracts and covenants. And then I got it. What Paul says in Philippians 4 stems from the fact that Paul was in a covenant relationship with the Philippian church.
Covenants are very important throughout the Bible. On occasion we read of covenants made between people. But more significant are the covenants made between God and certain individuals or groups.
God made a covenant with Noah, promising that He would never again destroy the world with a flood. He made a covenant with Abraham, promising that he would have descendants more numerous than the stars in the sky, that God would give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants, and that (by virtue of the Messiah) “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3).
God made a covenant with Moses and the Israelites, promising blessing in exchange for obedience to His laws, and punishment in exchange for disobedience. He made a covenant with David, promising that one of his descendants would rule over the nation Israel forever.
But the greatest covenant of all is the New Covenant; the covenant that promises forgiveness of sins through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. It is the covenant in which God says, “I sent My Son to die on the cross to pay for your sins. And if you will but place your faith in Him, then I will forgive you, take away your sin, and give you eternal life.”
What has this got to do with Philippians 4? Everything. Paul had entered into this covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. The believers at Philippi had entered into this covenant relationship with Jesus. That common ground served as the foundation of the covenant relationship Paul had with the Philippian church. In fact, it can be said that by virtue of our relationship to Christ, all Christians throughout the entire world are in covenant relationship with one another. According to Ephesians 4:4, the universal company of Christians make up one body; the Church. We are all one with Christ and we are all one in Christ.
So as we come to Philippians 4, Paul expresses his heartfelt desire for these people with whom he was in covenant relationship. And part of his sentiment is the result of how they had expressed their love and concern for him and for the spreading of the gospel. He speaks of a time when theirs was the only church that gave him financial support for his ministry. They did something that John said is characteristic of being in a covenant relationship. They did the right thing, out of their hearts, expecting nothing in return.
Herein is one difference between a contract and a covenant. In a contract, you do something with the expectation of something in return. And don’t get us wrong here. Contracts in and of themselves are not bad. I have an employment contract with the Home Depot. I go into work every night and do the job they assign me to do—with the expectation that they will give me a paycheck. And I need that paycheck so I can pay my bills. Believe me, if I didn’t get that paycheck, I wouldn’t be in there every night stocking shelves.
Within a covenant, the overarching principal is that you do the right thing, expecting nothing in return. And that is what the Christians in Philippi did for Paul. They supported his ministry, expecting nothing back from him.
The interesting thing is that, while they did not expect anything in return, either from Paul or from God, they did get something back. First of all, they received a letter from Paul, expressing his thanks and friendship, as well as his heartfelt prayers for them. Since our sermon was on chapter 4, we can specify that his prayer for them included a desire that they be united, happy and loving, and blessed by God. In addition, they received a promise from God, through Paul’s letter, that God would meet all of their needs “according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (v. 19).
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. In the covenant God made with Moses and the Israelites, He promised to bless their obedience and to punish their disobedience. In Philippians 4:19, a group of Christians received the promise that God would meet all their needs, apparently in response to their support for Paul. If we’re not careful, these kinds of things can lead us to doing things for God with the expectation that He will bless us in return. How can we guard ourselves against this kind of mindset?
2. Paul had a deep, heartfelt love for the Philippian Christians, and they had the same kind of love for him. As stated above, this stemmed from the relationship each had with Jesus Christ. At Imago Dei, how well do we express our love for each other? How can we do a better job of developing and expressing love within the church? How does this tie into the relationship each of us has with the Lord?
3. PJ 2.0’s sermon did not address any specific verses within Philippians 4. Instead, it was a good explanation of why Paul says what he does in this chapter. Still, we would do well to spend some time interacting with the passage. So in your e-group, read through the chapter, and see if you can pick out some of the more significant verses in the chapter, even if they are typical “go-to” verses. Share about what these verses mean to you. And discuss their significance in relation to the covenantal relationship Paul had with this church, as well as the relationships we have in our church today.
So I sat back, expecting John Han to delve into how Paul develops these themes throughout the chapter. Instead, he started talking about law school and contracts. I wondered, “Where is he going with this?”
Then John started talking about the difference between contracts and covenants. And then I got it. What Paul says in Philippians 4 stems from the fact that Paul was in a covenant relationship with the Philippian church.
Covenants are very important throughout the Bible. On occasion we read of covenants made between people. But more significant are the covenants made between God and certain individuals or groups.
God made a covenant with Noah, promising that He would never again destroy the world with a flood. He made a covenant with Abraham, promising that he would have descendants more numerous than the stars in the sky, that God would give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants, and that (by virtue of the Messiah) “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3).
God made a covenant with Moses and the Israelites, promising blessing in exchange for obedience to His laws, and punishment in exchange for disobedience. He made a covenant with David, promising that one of his descendants would rule over the nation Israel forever.
But the greatest covenant of all is the New Covenant; the covenant that promises forgiveness of sins through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. It is the covenant in which God says, “I sent My Son to die on the cross to pay for your sins. And if you will but place your faith in Him, then I will forgive you, take away your sin, and give you eternal life.”
What has this got to do with Philippians 4? Everything. Paul had entered into this covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. The believers at Philippi had entered into this covenant relationship with Jesus. That common ground served as the foundation of the covenant relationship Paul had with the Philippian church. In fact, it can be said that by virtue of our relationship to Christ, all Christians throughout the entire world are in covenant relationship with one another. According to Ephesians 4:4, the universal company of Christians make up one body; the Church. We are all one with Christ and we are all one in Christ.
So as we come to Philippians 4, Paul expresses his heartfelt desire for these people with whom he was in covenant relationship. And part of his sentiment is the result of how they had expressed their love and concern for him and for the spreading of the gospel. He speaks of a time when theirs was the only church that gave him financial support for his ministry. They did something that John said is characteristic of being in a covenant relationship. They did the right thing, out of their hearts, expecting nothing in return.
Herein is one difference between a contract and a covenant. In a contract, you do something with the expectation of something in return. And don’t get us wrong here. Contracts in and of themselves are not bad. I have an employment contract with the Home Depot. I go into work every night and do the job they assign me to do—with the expectation that they will give me a paycheck. And I need that paycheck so I can pay my bills. Believe me, if I didn’t get that paycheck, I wouldn’t be in there every night stocking shelves.
Within a covenant, the overarching principal is that you do the right thing, expecting nothing in return. And that is what the Christians in Philippi did for Paul. They supported his ministry, expecting nothing back from him.
The interesting thing is that, while they did not expect anything in return, either from Paul or from God, they did get something back. First of all, they received a letter from Paul, expressing his thanks and friendship, as well as his heartfelt prayers for them. Since our sermon was on chapter 4, we can specify that his prayer for them included a desire that they be united, happy and loving, and blessed by God. In addition, they received a promise from God, through Paul’s letter, that God would meet all of their needs “according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (v. 19).
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. In the covenant God made with Moses and the Israelites, He promised to bless their obedience and to punish their disobedience. In Philippians 4:19, a group of Christians received the promise that God would meet all their needs, apparently in response to their support for Paul. If we’re not careful, these kinds of things can lead us to doing things for God with the expectation that He will bless us in return. How can we guard ourselves against this kind of mindset?
2. Paul had a deep, heartfelt love for the Philippian Christians, and they had the same kind of love for him. As stated above, this stemmed from the relationship each had with Jesus Christ. At Imago Dei, how well do we express our love for each other? How can we do a better job of developing and expressing love within the church? How does this tie into the relationship each of us has with the Lord?
3. PJ 2.0’s sermon did not address any specific verses within Philippians 4. Instead, it was a good explanation of why Paul says what he does in this chapter. Still, we would do well to spend some time interacting with the passage. So in your e-group, read through the chapter, and see if you can pick out some of the more significant verses in the chapter, even if they are typical “go-to” verses. Share about what these verses mean to you. And discuss their significance in relation to the covenantal relationship Paul had with this church, as well as the relationships we have in our church today.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Philippians 2: Value Others Above Yourself
In Philippians 1, Paul expressed his joy, stemming from the gospel. His purpose was not merely to tell us how joyful he was, but also to instill in us that same joy.
In chapter 2, he issues a call to humility. A call to value others above ourselves. One important thing to notice is that this call stems from what he has said about the gospel in chapter 1. In the New King James Version, verse 1 of chapter 2 starts with the word, “Therefore.” This transitional word means, “Because of this…”, or “in light of this…”
Furthermore, we can say that the call to humility is rooted in what the rest of verse 1 says: “Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy.” The interesting thing about the word if, which appears four times in this verse, is not that Paul is questioning whether or not these things are true. It can also be translated, “since.” To take the first of these four phrases as an example, he is saying, “If there is any consolation in Christ, and there is…”
So Paul is stating four truths. We do have consolation in Christ. We do have the comfort of love. We do have the fellowship of the Spirit. We do have affection and mercy. They were given to us when we became Christians. These truths are part of the gospel, and they serve as the foundation for Paul’s call to humility.
I mention this because we ought not make the mistake of reversing the order here. We do not obtain these blessings by being humble; by valuing others above ourselves. The fact is, we cannot be truly humble if we have not accepted the gospel, believed in Jesus Christ, and received these blessings of salvation. Let’s not be like others who try to earn brownie points with God by their actions.
Verses 2-4 issue this call to humility. Verse 2 focuses on unity within the church. As PJ said on Sunday, being like-minded does not mean being like everyone else. We are not cookie-cutter Christians. To be like-minded means to have one focus, one mission, one purpose within the church.
Verses 3 and 4 narrow the scope down to the individual. The church, as a whole, will be of one mind if every individual within the church is following the instructions in these two verses. Here, each of us is told not to do anything out of selfishness or pride; not to puff ourselves up or ask, “What’s in it for me?” Instead, we are to esteem, or value, others as better than ourselves. This is found in verse 3.
Notice that verse 4 does not tell us not to look out for our own interests and to look out only for the interests of others. It tells us not to look out only for our own interests. We are to look out for the interests of others, as well as for our own interests.
In light of verse 3, it should be said that we ought to look out for the interests of others more than we look out for our own interests. But we are not commanded to neglect our own interests and needs altogether. We should avoid the false humility that would prompt anyone to say, “I’m not concerned about my own interests. I am only concerned about the interests of others.”
The call to humility is not followed up by a list of how-to instructions, per se. Rather, Paul gives us four examples of individuals who have displayed such humility. He starts with the ultimate example, the Lord Jesus Himself. Then Paul presents himself as an example, followed by Timothy and Epaphroditus.
Unfortunately, I now have enough space to comment only on one of these. And of course, I will comment on the one that is most significant; the example set by Jesus. Phil. 2:5-11 is one of the most famous passages of the Bible, speaking of Jesus’ emptying of Himself. He humbled Himself, esteemed us as better than Himself (try wrapping your mind around that!), and looking out for our interests by dying on the cross to pay for our sins. PJ did a good job of tracking Paul’s progression of thought by pointing out that Jesus expressed His humility by lowering Himself, submitting to the Father, and sacrificing Himself on our behalf. Hence, our own humility should be no less lowering, submissive, and sacrificial.
In Philippians 2, Paul does not give us a “how to” list concerning this call to humility and valuing others above ourselves. But on Sunday, PJ gave us some practical suggestions. Without going into details, here is the list of things we can practically do as we seek to be more humble: Practice empathy. Practice compassion. Be friendly. Be helpful. Listen to others. Stop criticism. Don’t control others. And send yourself reminders.
Humility is an matter of attitude more than it is action. But this attitude will always express itself through action. And many times, when we take the appropriate actions, even if we don’t initially have the right attitude, the attitude will follow. We can use the actions of humility to foster the attitude of humility.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. Read Philippians 2:1. How do these blessings we have received enable us to be humble?
2. What is the mission of Imago Dei? Do you believe in this mission? Are you committed to helping Imago Dei fulfill its mission? How well are we, as members of Imago Dei, following the command to be like-minded?
3. Read Philippians 2:12-29. How did Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus exhibit humility in their lives? How can you learn from their examples?
4. Look again at the list of things we can do to foster humility in our lives. Which ones do you most need to work on? Are there any other things you could add to this list?
In chapter 2, he issues a call to humility. A call to value others above ourselves. One important thing to notice is that this call stems from what he has said about the gospel in chapter 1. In the New King James Version, verse 1 of chapter 2 starts with the word, “Therefore.” This transitional word means, “Because of this…”, or “in light of this…”
Furthermore, we can say that the call to humility is rooted in what the rest of verse 1 says: “Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy.” The interesting thing about the word if, which appears four times in this verse, is not that Paul is questioning whether or not these things are true. It can also be translated, “since.” To take the first of these four phrases as an example, he is saying, “If there is any consolation in Christ, and there is…”
So Paul is stating four truths. We do have consolation in Christ. We do have the comfort of love. We do have the fellowship of the Spirit. We do have affection and mercy. They were given to us when we became Christians. These truths are part of the gospel, and they serve as the foundation for Paul’s call to humility.
I mention this because we ought not make the mistake of reversing the order here. We do not obtain these blessings by being humble; by valuing others above ourselves. The fact is, we cannot be truly humble if we have not accepted the gospel, believed in Jesus Christ, and received these blessings of salvation. Let’s not be like others who try to earn brownie points with God by their actions.
Verses 2-4 issue this call to humility. Verse 2 focuses on unity within the church. As PJ said on Sunday, being like-minded does not mean being like everyone else. We are not cookie-cutter Christians. To be like-minded means to have one focus, one mission, one purpose within the church.
Verses 3 and 4 narrow the scope down to the individual. The church, as a whole, will be of one mind if every individual within the church is following the instructions in these two verses. Here, each of us is told not to do anything out of selfishness or pride; not to puff ourselves up or ask, “What’s in it for me?” Instead, we are to esteem, or value, others as better than ourselves. This is found in verse 3.
Notice that verse 4 does not tell us not to look out for our own interests and to look out only for the interests of others. It tells us not to look out only for our own interests. We are to look out for the interests of others, as well as for our own interests.
In light of verse 3, it should be said that we ought to look out for the interests of others more than we look out for our own interests. But we are not commanded to neglect our own interests and needs altogether. We should avoid the false humility that would prompt anyone to say, “I’m not concerned about my own interests. I am only concerned about the interests of others.”
The call to humility is not followed up by a list of how-to instructions, per se. Rather, Paul gives us four examples of individuals who have displayed such humility. He starts with the ultimate example, the Lord Jesus Himself. Then Paul presents himself as an example, followed by Timothy and Epaphroditus.
Unfortunately, I now have enough space to comment only on one of these. And of course, I will comment on the one that is most significant; the example set by Jesus. Phil. 2:5-11 is one of the most famous passages of the Bible, speaking of Jesus’ emptying of Himself. He humbled Himself, esteemed us as better than Himself (try wrapping your mind around that!), and looking out for our interests by dying on the cross to pay for our sins. PJ did a good job of tracking Paul’s progression of thought by pointing out that Jesus expressed His humility by lowering Himself, submitting to the Father, and sacrificing Himself on our behalf. Hence, our own humility should be no less lowering, submissive, and sacrificial.
In Philippians 2, Paul does not give us a “how to” list concerning this call to humility and valuing others above ourselves. But on Sunday, PJ gave us some practical suggestions. Without going into details, here is the list of things we can practically do as we seek to be more humble: Practice empathy. Practice compassion. Be friendly. Be helpful. Listen to others. Stop criticism. Don’t control others. And send yourself reminders.
Humility is an matter of attitude more than it is action. But this attitude will always express itself through action. And many times, when we take the appropriate actions, even if we don’t initially have the right attitude, the attitude will follow. We can use the actions of humility to foster the attitude of humility.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. Read Philippians 2:1. How do these blessings we have received enable us to be humble?
2. What is the mission of Imago Dei? Do you believe in this mission? Are you committed to helping Imago Dei fulfill its mission? How well are we, as members of Imago Dei, following the command to be like-minded?
3. Read Philippians 2:12-29. How did Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus exhibit humility in their lives? How can you learn from their examples?
4. Look again at the list of things we can do to foster humility in our lives. Which ones do you most need to work on? Are there any other things you could add to this list?
Friday, February 24, 2012
Philippians 1: Joy in the Gospel
Christians, more than anyone else, should be joyful. Expressions of joy, or the call to rejoice, are replete throughout the Bible, particularly in the Psalms. But the New Testament book that is most often associated with the theme of joy is Philippians. In the English Standard Version, the word joy appears five times within this book, and the word rejoice appears nine times. The book is centered around the theme of Paul’s joy, his exhortations to his readers to rejoice, and the reasons for each.
As we began our series on the book of Philippians, Pastor Wil laid the foundation for our study by outlining the reasons for Paul’s joy, as they are seen in chapter 1. Before doing that, however, he noted, as we will note here, some of the background and circumstances surrounding Paul as he wrote this letter.
The apostle Paul was originally named Saul. He was known as Saul of Tarsus. Saul was a Pharisee, a religious leader, who vehemently opposed this new religious movement that eventually came to be known as Christianity. According to Acts 7, Saul was present at, and gave hearty approval to the stoning of Stephen, the Church’s first martyr. Then, verse 3 of chapter 8 tells us that Saul travelled about the countryside, “ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.”
Then Saul had an encounter with the risen Jesus Christ. You can read about it in Acts 9. On that day, he became a Christian. The Lord changed his name from Saul to Paul, and Paul began his lifelong mission of actually spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Most of the book of Acts, from chapter 9 on, is an account of the rest of Paul’s life and ministry.
Now, the Jewish religious leaders of his day, as well as the Roman authorities, remained hostile to the gospel. Hence, as Pastor Wil stated it, “The man who once persecuted the Church was now persecuted for the Church.” He suffered many hardships, and was dogged by his enemies every step of the way. Paul was put in jail, beaten, stoned, and had to deal with false teachers on a constant basis.
The book of Acts ends with Paul being imprisoned in Rome; actually, he was under house arrest, being chained to two Roman guards at all time. At least one tradition says he was later set free for a time, then imprisoned again, and eventually put to death.
It was during this time of imprisonment that Paul wrote the book of Philippians, causing us to ask why a man in prison (even if it were only house arrest) would write a letter expressing such joy, given the circumstances.
As we learned on Sunday, Paul’s joy was rooted in the gospel, which is specifically mentioned six times in this chapter. And his joy began with his relationship to Jesus Christ. Here, I would say that nothing can compare to this relationship. Jesus died on a cross, paying the debt for our sins, and resurrected from the dead, having victory over death. Through Him we have the forgiveness of sins, as well as all the other benefits that accompany salvation. To explore the richness of each aspect of salvation would take a lifetime. But as a starting place, I would recommend studying Eph. 1:3-14, which may be aptly titled, “Our Position and Our Possessions in Christ.”
Secondly, we learned that Paul found joy in his relationship to the Church, particularly the Philippian church. Paul was grateful for them and to them because they were partners in the gospel with him. In Philippians 4:15, he speaks of a time when this church was the only one to provide financial support to his ministry.
But partnership in the gospel encompasses far more than financial support given to the local church or other gospel-oriented ministries. It means getting involved in the ministry. Just to use myself as an example, I am a partner in the gospel with Pastor John and Pastor Wil by writing these study guides for use in our e-groups. The people who set up the food for our time of fellowship are partners in the gospel. Juan is a partner in the gospel by running the sound system. Those who volunteer at the Salvation Army and Vision House are partners in the gospel. As involved members of Imago Dei, we are all partners with each other in the gospel.
Verses 12-18 of our chapter tell us that Paul found joy in the advancement of the gospel. Verse 13 indicates that Paul took advantage of the opportunity to share the gospel with the Roman guards to whom he was continually chained. Verse 14 indicates that other Christians, seeing Paul’s faithfulness, even while he was in prison, were encouraged and embolden to preach the gospel wherever they were.
How much joy do we find in the advancement of the gospel? To be sure, we are happy when we hear about someone becoming a Christian. However, there are times when we can be skeptical, as well. Ted Bundy reportedly accepted the gospel just before his execution. And yet, even within the Christian community, people questioned whether or not he was sincere in accepting Jesus as his Savior.
More significantly, though, our joy in the advancement of the gospel ought to motivate us to be more involved in its advancement. It is hypocritical of us to say, “I’m really happy that so-and-so is spreading the gospel,” if all we do is go to church, listen to a sermon, and sing a few songs. We need to be about the business of advancing the gospel, both through our involvement at Imago Dei and in our own daily lives.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. In Philippians 1:1, Paul identified himself as a servant of Jesus Christ. What does this say about Paul’s relationship with the Lord? What was it about being a servant that gave Paul joy?
2. Briefly scan Eph. 1:3-14. Without getting into too much detail, list some of the blessings we have received because of our relationship to Jesus.
3. With whom are you a partner in the gospel, and in what ways? How involved are you at Imago Dei? What other ministries do you contribute to? Why those ministries?
4. How genuine is your response of joy when you hear about someone becoming a Christian? Are you ever skeptical about a person’s profession of faith? Why?
5. What are you doing to advance the gospel? How can you do more?
As we began our series on the book of Philippians, Pastor Wil laid the foundation for our study by outlining the reasons for Paul’s joy, as they are seen in chapter 1. Before doing that, however, he noted, as we will note here, some of the background and circumstances surrounding Paul as he wrote this letter.
The apostle Paul was originally named Saul. He was known as Saul of Tarsus. Saul was a Pharisee, a religious leader, who vehemently opposed this new religious movement that eventually came to be known as Christianity. According to Acts 7, Saul was present at, and gave hearty approval to the stoning of Stephen, the Church’s first martyr. Then, verse 3 of chapter 8 tells us that Saul travelled about the countryside, “ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.”
Then Saul had an encounter with the risen Jesus Christ. You can read about it in Acts 9. On that day, he became a Christian. The Lord changed his name from Saul to Paul, and Paul began his lifelong mission of actually spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Most of the book of Acts, from chapter 9 on, is an account of the rest of Paul’s life and ministry.
Now, the Jewish religious leaders of his day, as well as the Roman authorities, remained hostile to the gospel. Hence, as Pastor Wil stated it, “The man who once persecuted the Church was now persecuted for the Church.” He suffered many hardships, and was dogged by his enemies every step of the way. Paul was put in jail, beaten, stoned, and had to deal with false teachers on a constant basis.
The book of Acts ends with Paul being imprisoned in Rome; actually, he was under house arrest, being chained to two Roman guards at all time. At least one tradition says he was later set free for a time, then imprisoned again, and eventually put to death.
It was during this time of imprisonment that Paul wrote the book of Philippians, causing us to ask why a man in prison (even if it were only house arrest) would write a letter expressing such joy, given the circumstances.
As we learned on Sunday, Paul’s joy was rooted in the gospel, which is specifically mentioned six times in this chapter. And his joy began with his relationship to Jesus Christ. Here, I would say that nothing can compare to this relationship. Jesus died on a cross, paying the debt for our sins, and resurrected from the dead, having victory over death. Through Him we have the forgiveness of sins, as well as all the other benefits that accompany salvation. To explore the richness of each aspect of salvation would take a lifetime. But as a starting place, I would recommend studying Eph. 1:3-14, which may be aptly titled, “Our Position and Our Possessions in Christ.”
Secondly, we learned that Paul found joy in his relationship to the Church, particularly the Philippian church. Paul was grateful for them and to them because they were partners in the gospel with him. In Philippians 4:15, he speaks of a time when this church was the only one to provide financial support to his ministry.
But partnership in the gospel encompasses far more than financial support given to the local church or other gospel-oriented ministries. It means getting involved in the ministry. Just to use myself as an example, I am a partner in the gospel with Pastor John and Pastor Wil by writing these study guides for use in our e-groups. The people who set up the food for our time of fellowship are partners in the gospel. Juan is a partner in the gospel by running the sound system. Those who volunteer at the Salvation Army and Vision House are partners in the gospel. As involved members of Imago Dei, we are all partners with each other in the gospel.
Verses 12-18 of our chapter tell us that Paul found joy in the advancement of the gospel. Verse 13 indicates that Paul took advantage of the opportunity to share the gospel with the Roman guards to whom he was continually chained. Verse 14 indicates that other Christians, seeing Paul’s faithfulness, even while he was in prison, were encouraged and embolden to preach the gospel wherever they were.
How much joy do we find in the advancement of the gospel? To be sure, we are happy when we hear about someone becoming a Christian. However, there are times when we can be skeptical, as well. Ted Bundy reportedly accepted the gospel just before his execution. And yet, even within the Christian community, people questioned whether or not he was sincere in accepting Jesus as his Savior.
More significantly, though, our joy in the advancement of the gospel ought to motivate us to be more involved in its advancement. It is hypocritical of us to say, “I’m really happy that so-and-so is spreading the gospel,” if all we do is go to church, listen to a sermon, and sing a few songs. We need to be about the business of advancing the gospel, both through our involvement at Imago Dei and in our own daily lives.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. In Philippians 1:1, Paul identified himself as a servant of Jesus Christ. What does this say about Paul’s relationship with the Lord? What was it about being a servant that gave Paul joy?
2. Briefly scan Eph. 1:3-14. Without getting into too much detail, list some of the blessings we have received because of our relationship to Jesus.
3. With whom are you a partner in the gospel, and in what ways? How involved are you at Imago Dei? What other ministries do you contribute to? Why those ministries?
4. How genuine is your response of joy when you hear about someone becoming a Christian? Are you ever skeptical about a person’s profession of faith? Why?
5. What are you doing to advance the gospel? How can you do more?
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Viral #5: God's Economic System
One of the most important, yet most frustrating, issues in our society is money. It always has been. Everyone in the world operates on some sort of economic system, even if it is buying toothpaste with cigarettes, as in the Nazi concentration camps of WWII.
People tend to stress out over their money and finances more than anything else. We never seem to have enough. We’re constantly asking ourselves, “How am I going to pay these bills?”, “How am I ever going to get ahead?’, or “How will I ever afford to retire on this kind of income?”
As PJ taught us on Sunday, there are two economic systems; the world’s economic system, and God’s economic system. On one hand, the world’s economic system was designed by God and is encompassed by God’s economic system. On the other hand, the world has polluted its economic system, so that it no longer reflects God’s intentions for it.
The overarching principle that governs the world’s system is individuality. The world says, “Get every dollar you can, and hang on to it with all your might.” The world teaches us to look out for #1. And cash is the bottom line. Your level of success is measured by the size of your bank account. Hence, we often hear reports of how much money certain individuals are worth.
God’s economy is different. Contrary to what some have taught, God does not want us to live in poverty. In my opinion, those who take vows of poverty are, foolish for thinking that is the way to godliness. John 14:1-2 and Malachi 3:10 tell us that God’s resources are unlimited. Psalm 24:1 tells us, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it” (NIV). This includes money.
Couple this with God’s love and His desire to bless us. Ephesians 1:3 tells us that He has already “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” II Peter 1:3 tells us He has given us everything we need for life and for godliness. And in Matt. 6:31-32, Jesus said, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’…your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.”
Because we have a God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10), and because He loves us and promises to meet all of our needs, according to His riches (Phil. 4:19), we are encouraged, and even commanded, not to be focused on the world’s economic system. Instead, we need to look beyond its façade and start doing things God’s way.
Now, the secret to financial success within God’s economic system is summed up in one word: GIVE. Give to the church. Give to people you know when they are in a bind. Give to the poor needy. Give to charitable organizations. Give, give, give. Why? In Acts 20:35, Paul quotes Jesus as having said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
This is completely opposite of what the world says. To the world, this doesn’t make any sense. Anyone operating in the world’s economic system looks at this principle of giving and says, “Give? How can you expect me to give when I don’t have enough to pay my bills, as it is? I can’t afford to be giving away any of my money.”
Ah, but you can when, in response to your giving, God gives to you. Malachi 3:10 offers an interesting challenge. Amidst all the verses commanding us not to put God to the test, this verse gives us permission, and even challenges us to test Him in one area. “Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. And thereby put Me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, [and see] if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need” (ESV). Another translation renders it, “there will not be room enough to receive it.”
My personal belief regarding this issue of God’s economic system (and I hope PJ would agree) is this: God’s promise to meet our daily needs is, for the most part, unconditional. In Matt. 6, Jesus did not say that God will meet our needs if we obey certain commands or if we give. He simply stated God’s promise to meet our needs. But the promise of blessings that go above and beyond our needs is conditioned upon our obedience to God, as well as how charitable we are in our giving. It is one thing to have God pour out blessing to the point of meeting our needs. It is quite another to have Him pour out such a blessing that we could not have enough room to receive it all.
One thing we must be wary of is allowing our greed to motivate our giving. Watching the late-night televangelists, you can get the impression that if you give to God, then God will make you rich. Do you want to be rich? Do you want to have more money than you know what to do with? Then send your $1,000 love gift to the ministry.
Don’t be fooled. Heaven is not listed on the stock exchange, and God’s blessings are not for sale. Greed is a sin. God does not honor greed, and He does not honor any actions that are motivated by greed, even if those actions would otherwise be noble.
The Bible’s command is that we give out of a spirit of giving. In addition, we need to remember that, while God’s blessings are often financial, they may not always be so. As Eph. 1:3 says, He has blessed us, and continues to bless us with spiritual blessings, which are of eternal value.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. On Sunday, PJ showed us a chart, depicting one circle inside another circle. The inner circle was labeled, “World’s Economics.” The outer was labeled, “God’s Economics.” In what ways does the world’s economic system correlate to and fit within God’s economic system? In what ways has the world’s economics distorted and deviated from God’s?
2. To what degree have I bought into the world’s economic system? Am I able to look beyond all of that and see how God’s system works?
3. Read Ephesians 1:3, II Peter 1:3, and Matthew 6:31-32. How does the promise in Matt. 6 relate to the truth stated in Ephesians and II Peter? How does the promise to meet how material needs stem from the fact that God has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”?
4. What is my overall attitude and pattern in giving? To the church? To charitable organizations? To people standing on the street corner?
People tend to stress out over their money and finances more than anything else. We never seem to have enough. We’re constantly asking ourselves, “How am I going to pay these bills?”, “How am I ever going to get ahead?’, or “How will I ever afford to retire on this kind of income?”
As PJ taught us on Sunday, there are two economic systems; the world’s economic system, and God’s economic system. On one hand, the world’s economic system was designed by God and is encompassed by God’s economic system. On the other hand, the world has polluted its economic system, so that it no longer reflects God’s intentions for it.
The overarching principle that governs the world’s system is individuality. The world says, “Get every dollar you can, and hang on to it with all your might.” The world teaches us to look out for #1. And cash is the bottom line. Your level of success is measured by the size of your bank account. Hence, we often hear reports of how much money certain individuals are worth.
God’s economy is different. Contrary to what some have taught, God does not want us to live in poverty. In my opinion, those who take vows of poverty are, foolish for thinking that is the way to godliness. John 14:1-2 and Malachi 3:10 tell us that God’s resources are unlimited. Psalm 24:1 tells us, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it” (NIV). This includes money.
Couple this with God’s love and His desire to bless us. Ephesians 1:3 tells us that He has already “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” II Peter 1:3 tells us He has given us everything we need for life and for godliness. And in Matt. 6:31-32, Jesus said, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’…your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.”
Because we have a God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10), and because He loves us and promises to meet all of our needs, according to His riches (Phil. 4:19), we are encouraged, and even commanded, not to be focused on the world’s economic system. Instead, we need to look beyond its façade and start doing things God’s way.
Now, the secret to financial success within God’s economic system is summed up in one word: GIVE. Give to the church. Give to people you know when they are in a bind. Give to the poor needy. Give to charitable organizations. Give, give, give. Why? In Acts 20:35, Paul quotes Jesus as having said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
This is completely opposite of what the world says. To the world, this doesn’t make any sense. Anyone operating in the world’s economic system looks at this principle of giving and says, “Give? How can you expect me to give when I don’t have enough to pay my bills, as it is? I can’t afford to be giving away any of my money.”
Ah, but you can when, in response to your giving, God gives to you. Malachi 3:10 offers an interesting challenge. Amidst all the verses commanding us not to put God to the test, this verse gives us permission, and even challenges us to test Him in one area. “Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. And thereby put Me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, [and see] if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need” (ESV). Another translation renders it, “there will not be room enough to receive it.”
My personal belief regarding this issue of God’s economic system (and I hope PJ would agree) is this: God’s promise to meet our daily needs is, for the most part, unconditional. In Matt. 6, Jesus did not say that God will meet our needs if we obey certain commands or if we give. He simply stated God’s promise to meet our needs. But the promise of blessings that go above and beyond our needs is conditioned upon our obedience to God, as well as how charitable we are in our giving. It is one thing to have God pour out blessing to the point of meeting our needs. It is quite another to have Him pour out such a blessing that we could not have enough room to receive it all.
One thing we must be wary of is allowing our greed to motivate our giving. Watching the late-night televangelists, you can get the impression that if you give to God, then God will make you rich. Do you want to be rich? Do you want to have more money than you know what to do with? Then send your $1,000 love gift to the ministry.
Don’t be fooled. Heaven is not listed on the stock exchange, and God’s blessings are not for sale. Greed is a sin. God does not honor greed, and He does not honor any actions that are motivated by greed, even if those actions would otherwise be noble.
The Bible’s command is that we give out of a spirit of giving. In addition, we need to remember that, while God’s blessings are often financial, they may not always be so. As Eph. 1:3 says, He has blessed us, and continues to bless us with spiritual blessings, which are of eternal value.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. On Sunday, PJ showed us a chart, depicting one circle inside another circle. The inner circle was labeled, “World’s Economics.” The outer was labeled, “God’s Economics.” In what ways does the world’s economic system correlate to and fit within God’s economic system? In what ways has the world’s economics distorted and deviated from God’s?
2. To what degree have I bought into the world’s economic system? Am I able to look beyond all of that and see how God’s system works?
3. Read Ephesians 1:3, II Peter 1:3, and Matthew 6:31-32. How does the promise in Matt. 6 relate to the truth stated in Ephesians and II Peter? How does the promise to meet how material needs stem from the fact that God has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”?
4. What is my overall attitude and pattern in giving? To the church? To charitable organizations? To people standing on the street corner?
Friday, February 10, 2012
Viral #4: Lord, if it is You...
Satan said, “If You are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread” (Matt. 4:3). The crowd in Jerusalem said, “If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Matt. 27:40). Peter said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water” (Matt. 14:28).
There is one significant difference between these three incidents. Jesus did not command the stones to become bread, and He did not come down from the cross. But He did tell Peter to “Come” (Matt. 14:29).
As our new associate pastor, John (AKA PJ 2.0), pointed out, Peter’s language was very much like the language used by Satan when He tempted Jesus and the language used by the crowd when Jesus was crucified. Clearly, on those two occasions, the words, “If You are the Son of God…” were words of doubt and skepticism. Those who spoke them were questioning whether or not Jesus truly was the Son of God.
Peter’s words reflected an element of doubt, but I’m not certain that he doubted to the same degree as Satan or the crowd. I wonder whether or not he doubted whether or not Jesus is the Son of God. It may be that Peter had the understandable doubt as to whether or not the person he saw out on the water was in fact Jesus.
Peter heard a voice. It sounded like Jesus’ voice, but amidst the noise of the storm and his friends crying out in fear, perhaps he couldn’t be certain. Peter saw a figure, but it was dark and stormy, out there on the sea. He couldn’t clearly see who or what was out there. Peter wanted to be certain it was Jesus. He didn’t want to follow or listen to the voice of another.
I’ve had a couple occasions in which I thought God was talking to me about some specific things that were going to happen in my life. But they did not happen. When it became clear that those things were not going to transpire, it became obvious to me that God had not spoken to me as I thought He had. Either the devil had deceived me, or I had deceived myself into thinking God had said something that He had not said.
So we do need to be careful about whose voice we’re listening to. But I will say that when it is clear that God is speaking to us, we need to listen to Him and do whatever He tells us to do.
Now, Peter’s request of proof that it was Jesus is interesting. “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” On Sunday, John suggested that this reflected Peter’s pride. “God, give me the ability, so I can do it on my own.”
Certainly, Peter did have his issues with pride. Later, it would be Peter who boasted, “If all the others fall away, I will never away. I am ready to go with You to prison and to death” (cf. Matt. 26:33; Luke 22:33). But only a few short hours later denied Jesus—not once, not twice, but three times—adamantly declaring, “I don’t know the man!”
Peter’s pride may be reflected in his request when he saw Jesus walking on the water. And we certainly must be wary of praying, “God, give me the power to do things on my own.” Of course, this is difficult in our western society that holds rugged individualism and independence up as a virtue. The Christian life is not to be a life of independence, but of dependence upon God. In John 15:5, Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” The Christian life is not about what we can do for God. It is all about what He does for us, in us, and through us.
But then I think of Romans 8:13, the latter half of which says, “But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Certainly, this cannot be done apart from the enabling of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do it on our own. But the command is clear. We must put the deeds of the flesh to death. The Holy Spirit empowers and enables us, but He does not do the work for us. Philippians 2:12-13 teaches us that it is God who gives us both the desire and the ability to obey Him. But He does not do the obeying for us. We must obey God. And there is nothing wrong with asking God for the ability to do so.
The difference may be subtle, but definitely there. Rather than arrogantly praying, “God, give me the ability, so I can do it myself,” we must humbly pray, “God, empower me to obey You and to do Your will for Your glory.”
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. Read John 10:27. What does this verse teach us about the Christian’s ability to hear God’s voice? How can we tell when God is speaking to us and when He is not?
2. Have there been any times in your life when you thought God was speaking to you about something when, in fact, He was not? How did you discover that it wasn’t the Lord speaking to you? What happened?
3. Have there been times when God was speaking to you, but you were not listening? Why didn’t you listen? What happened? What were the consequences of not listening to God?
4. How often to you pray for God’s power to be manifested in your life? When you do pray for this, what is your motivation? Do you want to bring attention to yourself and brag about what you’ve been able to do? Or is your desire simply to obey and glorify God?
There is one significant difference between these three incidents. Jesus did not command the stones to become bread, and He did not come down from the cross. But He did tell Peter to “Come” (Matt. 14:29).
As our new associate pastor, John (AKA PJ 2.0), pointed out, Peter’s language was very much like the language used by Satan when He tempted Jesus and the language used by the crowd when Jesus was crucified. Clearly, on those two occasions, the words, “If You are the Son of God…” were words of doubt and skepticism. Those who spoke them were questioning whether or not Jesus truly was the Son of God.
Peter’s words reflected an element of doubt, but I’m not certain that he doubted to the same degree as Satan or the crowd. I wonder whether or not he doubted whether or not Jesus is the Son of God. It may be that Peter had the understandable doubt as to whether or not the person he saw out on the water was in fact Jesus.
Peter heard a voice. It sounded like Jesus’ voice, but amidst the noise of the storm and his friends crying out in fear, perhaps he couldn’t be certain. Peter saw a figure, but it was dark and stormy, out there on the sea. He couldn’t clearly see who or what was out there. Peter wanted to be certain it was Jesus. He didn’t want to follow or listen to the voice of another.
I’ve had a couple occasions in which I thought God was talking to me about some specific things that were going to happen in my life. But they did not happen. When it became clear that those things were not going to transpire, it became obvious to me that God had not spoken to me as I thought He had. Either the devil had deceived me, or I had deceived myself into thinking God had said something that He had not said.
So we do need to be careful about whose voice we’re listening to. But I will say that when it is clear that God is speaking to us, we need to listen to Him and do whatever He tells us to do.
Now, Peter’s request of proof that it was Jesus is interesting. “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” On Sunday, John suggested that this reflected Peter’s pride. “God, give me the ability, so I can do it on my own.”
Certainly, Peter did have his issues with pride. Later, it would be Peter who boasted, “If all the others fall away, I will never away. I am ready to go with You to prison and to death” (cf. Matt. 26:33; Luke 22:33). But only a few short hours later denied Jesus—not once, not twice, but three times—adamantly declaring, “I don’t know the man!”
Peter’s pride may be reflected in his request when he saw Jesus walking on the water. And we certainly must be wary of praying, “God, give me the power to do things on my own.” Of course, this is difficult in our western society that holds rugged individualism and independence up as a virtue. The Christian life is not to be a life of independence, but of dependence upon God. In John 15:5, Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” The Christian life is not about what we can do for God. It is all about what He does for us, in us, and through us.
But then I think of Romans 8:13, the latter half of which says, “But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Certainly, this cannot be done apart from the enabling of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do it on our own. But the command is clear. We must put the deeds of the flesh to death. The Holy Spirit empowers and enables us, but He does not do the work for us. Philippians 2:12-13 teaches us that it is God who gives us both the desire and the ability to obey Him. But He does not do the obeying for us. We must obey God. And there is nothing wrong with asking God for the ability to do so.
The difference may be subtle, but definitely there. Rather than arrogantly praying, “God, give me the ability, so I can do it myself,” we must humbly pray, “God, empower me to obey You and to do Your will for Your glory.”
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. Read John 10:27. What does this verse teach us about the Christian’s ability to hear God’s voice? How can we tell when God is speaking to us and when He is not?
2. Have there been any times in your life when you thought God was speaking to you about something when, in fact, He was not? How did you discover that it wasn’t the Lord speaking to you? What happened?
3. Have there been times when God was speaking to you, but you were not listening? Why didn’t you listen? What happened? What were the consequences of not listening to God?
4. How often to you pray for God’s power to be manifested in your life? When you do pray for this, what is your motivation? Do you want to bring attention to yourself and brag about what you’ve been able to do? Or is your desire simply to obey and glorify God?
Friday, January 27, 2012
Viral #3: A Healthy Lifesty and the Temple of the Spirit
In last Sunday’s sermon, Pastor Wil gave us some tips on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Speaking from his own experience, one thing he focused on was maintaining a healthy diet. During a time when he did not watch his own diet, he gained weight and could notice a difference in his health.
Then, just about the time you started thinking you were attending a health seminar, rather than a church service, he shared with us some scriptures that speak of the relationship between the body, mind, and spirit. According to the Bible, our spiritual and mental health have an impact on our physical health. Likewise, our physical health has an impact on our spiritual and mental health. Not only does the Bible declare this to be true, but science and modern medicine have also testified to these facts.
To give just a couple examples from the Bible, Proverbs 3:7-8 says, “Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Proverbs 14:30 says, “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.”
In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus taught us not to be anxious about anything, Why? His focus was on our need to trust God to meet our needs. But doctors and psychologists everywhere will tell you that anxiety can have a very negative effect on your physical health. And as Wil testified to, poor physical health has a negative effect on one’s ability to handle stress.
All this leads us to the conclusion that God is just as concerned with our physical health as He is with our having a right relationship with Him—our spiritual health. This conclusion is validated by I Corinthians 6:19-20: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
Now, these words were written within the context of avoiding sexual sin. However, they can also be applied to other areas of our life, particularly how we take care of our bodies. If my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, then I need to take care of it. I need to take care of God’s temple.
But we do need to be careful not to go to certain extremes. Sometimes it seems our society is obsessed with diet and with health. Many late-night infomercials are advertising their new wonder diets or exercise equipment that you can buy “for just three easy payments of $49.99!” Watching these programs, not to mention the countless commercials throughout the day, as well as listening to all the experts on television and talk radio programs, can lead you to think that if you don’t look like a super model, then you are unhealthy, or at least unattractive.
The problem is that our society worships the body. It idolizes those who have the perfect physique, are athletes, and superstars. Some magazines annually rate and report on who is the “Sexiest Man of the Year.”
The difference between society’s obsession with health, diet, and good looks, and the Christian’s efforts to maintain a healthy lifestyle lies in motivation. Society worships the body and good health because people think this life is all we have to live, as well as the fact that they do not believe in God or recognize Him as the One who gave us our very lives in the first place.
From the Christian perspective, there is an eternal life that awaits us in heaven. And while we should not be foolish enough to think a healthier body in this life will equate to a healthier body in heaven, we do recognize that our bodies, like our money and material possession, truly belong to God. We ourselves are God’s property, and God has charged us with the responsibility of taking care of His property.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. Read I Cor. 6:19-20 again. What does Paul mean when he says that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? How often are you cognizant of that fact? If you were aware of it more often, how would that change the way you take care of your body?
2. Take a brief look at Matthew 15:1-20 (brief, because it is several verses). In light of what we learned in Wil’s sermon and this study, how should we apply what Jesus teaches here?
3. Passages like Romans 14 and I Corinthians 8 have a lot to say about Christian liberty—our freedom to do things the Bible does not specifically identify as sin. In light of that, how can we apply the principals of a healthy lifestyle without becoming legalistic about such things as eating junk food or red meant, or using alcohol and tobacco? Or should we be “legalistic” about them?
Then, just about the time you started thinking you were attending a health seminar, rather than a church service, he shared with us some scriptures that speak of the relationship between the body, mind, and spirit. According to the Bible, our spiritual and mental health have an impact on our physical health. Likewise, our physical health has an impact on our spiritual and mental health. Not only does the Bible declare this to be true, but science and modern medicine have also testified to these facts.
To give just a couple examples from the Bible, Proverbs 3:7-8 says, “Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Proverbs 14:30 says, “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.”
In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus taught us not to be anxious about anything, Why? His focus was on our need to trust God to meet our needs. But doctors and psychologists everywhere will tell you that anxiety can have a very negative effect on your physical health. And as Wil testified to, poor physical health has a negative effect on one’s ability to handle stress.
All this leads us to the conclusion that God is just as concerned with our physical health as He is with our having a right relationship with Him—our spiritual health. This conclusion is validated by I Corinthians 6:19-20: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
Now, these words were written within the context of avoiding sexual sin. However, they can also be applied to other areas of our life, particularly how we take care of our bodies. If my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, then I need to take care of it. I need to take care of God’s temple.
But we do need to be careful not to go to certain extremes. Sometimes it seems our society is obsessed with diet and with health. Many late-night infomercials are advertising their new wonder diets or exercise equipment that you can buy “for just three easy payments of $49.99!” Watching these programs, not to mention the countless commercials throughout the day, as well as listening to all the experts on television and talk radio programs, can lead you to think that if you don’t look like a super model, then you are unhealthy, or at least unattractive.
The problem is that our society worships the body. It idolizes those who have the perfect physique, are athletes, and superstars. Some magazines annually rate and report on who is the “Sexiest Man of the Year.”
The difference between society’s obsession with health, diet, and good looks, and the Christian’s efforts to maintain a healthy lifestyle lies in motivation. Society worships the body and good health because people think this life is all we have to live, as well as the fact that they do not believe in God or recognize Him as the One who gave us our very lives in the first place.
From the Christian perspective, there is an eternal life that awaits us in heaven. And while we should not be foolish enough to think a healthier body in this life will equate to a healthier body in heaven, we do recognize that our bodies, like our money and material possession, truly belong to God. We ourselves are God’s property, and God has charged us with the responsibility of taking care of His property.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. Read I Cor. 6:19-20 again. What does Paul mean when he says that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? How often are you cognizant of that fact? If you were aware of it more often, how would that change the way you take care of your body?
2. Take a brief look at Matthew 15:1-20 (brief, because it is several verses). In light of what we learned in Wil’s sermon and this study, how should we apply what Jesus teaches here?
3. Passages like Romans 14 and I Corinthians 8 have a lot to say about Christian liberty—our freedom to do things the Bible does not specifically identify as sin. In light of that, how can we apply the principals of a healthy lifestyle without becoming legalistic about such things as eating junk food or red meant, or using alcohol and tobacco? Or should we be “legalistic” about them?
Friday, January 13, 2012
Viral #2: Jesus Died to Save Marriages
The Bible says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The Bible also says that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). However, the good news we find in the Bible is that “`while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
Those of us who have been involved in church for any length of time are familiar with these truths. We understand that Jesus died to save us from our sin and give us the hope of heaven. But this is applied to the individual. No one gets to heaven riding on the coattails of another.
So what has this got to do with marriage? Everything. For Jesus also died to save our marriages.
Marriage was instituted by God way back in Genesis 2. And in light of the fact that Paul exhorts husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church (Ephesians 5:25-33), we see that God wants our marriages to mirror the relationship Christ has with the Church.
So think about the relationship each of us, as Christians, ought to have with Jesus. That relationship in which He is loving us, we are loving Him, we serve Him, He blesses us, we experience more of His love, and we continue to love Him more and more. This is the kind of relationship God wants us to have in our marriages.
The problem is that without Christ, we are all broken, selfish, sinful people. And what happens when two broken, selfish, sinful people come together in a marriage? Their brokenness comes through, they both behave selfishly, and they sin against each other. This is not the recipe for the dynamic, healthy, happy marriages that God wants us to have.
The solution to this problem—the key to having a successful marriage—is having Jesus at the center of your lives as individuals, and at the center of your marriage. Because it is only through having a dynamic relationship with Him that any of us can overcome our brokenness, selfishness, and sinfulness.
A week ago, we learned that Jesus prayed for His believers, that “they may be one” (John 17:11, 21, 23). This oneness Jesus prayed for should be evident in our marriages to an even greater extent than within the more general company of the Church. Dynamic, happy, healthy marriages are very important to God. This is why we can say that Jesus died to save our marriages, as well as to save us individually from our sin.
As we learned on Sunday, our marriages can go through seasons, just as individuals go through seasons of life. Of course, we describe these seasons in a similar way to how we describe the seasons and weather patterns of the calendar year. During the Spring, you’re planting things, and they’re beginning to grow. Within the animal world, lambs, calves, foals, and kittens are being born. There’s a fresh sense of life and excitement in the air. In Summer, the sky is clear, and the sun is warm. It is the time for barbecues, picnics, parties, fun, and games. Everybody loves Summer. Fall has an ominous feel to it. the days are shorter, darker, and cooler. The skies are gray. The heavy rains come. In Winter, it’s cold and icy. Many animals hibernate. Others scrounge around in the woods, looking for what little food they can find. Winter has a dead feeling to it.
From Gary Chapman’s book dealing with the four seasons of a marriage, Pastor John gave us some examples of how to apply these analogies to our marriage relationships. The one thing I would re-emphasize is this: Our calendar year has twelve months. Naturally, each of the four seasons is about three months long, and we cannot change that. In December, January, and February, when we’re complaining about how cold and dead everything is, we’re also aware that it’s just going to be that way for a while. We can’t do anything about the weather.
Within a marriage, however, while you may not be able to do anything about the fact that your marriage will enter those winter seasons, you can do something about how long it lasts. In fact, I will go even further and say you need to do something about it. From personal experience, I can tell you that if you don’t do anything to pull your marriage out of the season of winter, everything in your marriage may die. You could end up divorced.
How do you do this? First, as Pastor John said, learn your spouse’s love language and begin to “speak” that language. Second, I would say begin to act as if it were already Spring. Hasten Spring by planting those seeds of love, kindness, gentleness, etc. (see Gal. 5:22-23) that you want to be growing and flourishing when Summer comes back around. I think if you do, you’ll see Summer coming much sooner than you expected.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. Read Ephesians 6:25-33. What do these verses say about how Christ loved the Church? What did He do for her, and for what purpose? How does this apply to how husbands should love their wives? How does it apply to how wives should respond to their husbands?
2. How can I apply the truths of the gospel, namely the death of Jesus and the forgiveness of sin, to my marriage?
3. What is my spouse’s love language? Do I know his/her love language? Does he/she know my love language? How good are we at speaking one another’s love languages?
4. What season is my marriage in right now? How can my spouse and I prolong the Summer and/or shorten the winter? If we are in a Fall season, how can we best prepare for the Winter in order to hasten its passing?
5. As an individual, single or married, what season of life am I in? Answer the same things from Question #4.
Those of us who have been involved in church for any length of time are familiar with these truths. We understand that Jesus died to save us from our sin and give us the hope of heaven. But this is applied to the individual. No one gets to heaven riding on the coattails of another.
So what has this got to do with marriage? Everything. For Jesus also died to save our marriages.
Marriage was instituted by God way back in Genesis 2. And in light of the fact that Paul exhorts husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church (Ephesians 5:25-33), we see that God wants our marriages to mirror the relationship Christ has with the Church.
So think about the relationship each of us, as Christians, ought to have with Jesus. That relationship in which He is loving us, we are loving Him, we serve Him, He blesses us, we experience more of His love, and we continue to love Him more and more. This is the kind of relationship God wants us to have in our marriages.
The problem is that without Christ, we are all broken, selfish, sinful people. And what happens when two broken, selfish, sinful people come together in a marriage? Their brokenness comes through, they both behave selfishly, and they sin against each other. This is not the recipe for the dynamic, healthy, happy marriages that God wants us to have.
The solution to this problem—the key to having a successful marriage—is having Jesus at the center of your lives as individuals, and at the center of your marriage. Because it is only through having a dynamic relationship with Him that any of us can overcome our brokenness, selfishness, and sinfulness.
A week ago, we learned that Jesus prayed for His believers, that “they may be one” (John 17:11, 21, 23). This oneness Jesus prayed for should be evident in our marriages to an even greater extent than within the more general company of the Church. Dynamic, happy, healthy marriages are very important to God. This is why we can say that Jesus died to save our marriages, as well as to save us individually from our sin.
As we learned on Sunday, our marriages can go through seasons, just as individuals go through seasons of life. Of course, we describe these seasons in a similar way to how we describe the seasons and weather patterns of the calendar year. During the Spring, you’re planting things, and they’re beginning to grow. Within the animal world, lambs, calves, foals, and kittens are being born. There’s a fresh sense of life and excitement in the air. In Summer, the sky is clear, and the sun is warm. It is the time for barbecues, picnics, parties, fun, and games. Everybody loves Summer. Fall has an ominous feel to it. the days are shorter, darker, and cooler. The skies are gray. The heavy rains come. In Winter, it’s cold and icy. Many animals hibernate. Others scrounge around in the woods, looking for what little food they can find. Winter has a dead feeling to it.
From Gary Chapman’s book dealing with the four seasons of a marriage, Pastor John gave us some examples of how to apply these analogies to our marriage relationships. The one thing I would re-emphasize is this: Our calendar year has twelve months. Naturally, each of the four seasons is about three months long, and we cannot change that. In December, January, and February, when we’re complaining about how cold and dead everything is, we’re also aware that it’s just going to be that way for a while. We can’t do anything about the weather.
Within a marriage, however, while you may not be able to do anything about the fact that your marriage will enter those winter seasons, you can do something about how long it lasts. In fact, I will go even further and say you need to do something about it. From personal experience, I can tell you that if you don’t do anything to pull your marriage out of the season of winter, everything in your marriage may die. You could end up divorced.
How do you do this? First, as Pastor John said, learn your spouse’s love language and begin to “speak” that language. Second, I would say begin to act as if it were already Spring. Hasten Spring by planting those seeds of love, kindness, gentleness, etc. (see Gal. 5:22-23) that you want to be growing and flourishing when Summer comes back around. I think if you do, you’ll see Summer coming much sooner than you expected.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. Read Ephesians 6:25-33. What do these verses say about how Christ loved the Church? What did He do for her, and for what purpose? How does this apply to how husbands should love their wives? How does it apply to how wives should respond to their husbands?
2. How can I apply the truths of the gospel, namely the death of Jesus and the forgiveness of sin, to my marriage?
3. What is my spouse’s love language? Do I know his/her love language? Does he/she know my love language? How good are we at speaking one another’s love languages?
4. What season is my marriage in right now? How can my spouse and I prolong the Summer and/or shorten the winter? If we are in a Fall season, how can we best prepare for the Winter in order to hasten its passing?
5. As an individual, single or married, what season of life am I in? Answer the same things from Question #4.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
VIRAL #1: "That They May Be One"
I can’t remember his name, but I recently heard of a theologian who once said, “I will never speak of a man’s vices, except to his face. And I will never speak of a man’s virtues, except behind his back.”
This kind of attitude can go a long way in protecting the unity of the church, as PJ talked about in his opening sermon for 2012. As Pastor John indicated in his sermon, few things can so damage the unity of a church as gossip, backbiting, and looking for the negative in others. So we need to be careful and deliberate about building up the body of Christ, rather than tearing it down or allowing anyone else to tear it down.
Interestingly enough, though, as we looked at John 17, which contains Jesus’ final prayer for His followers before going to the cross, one thing that jumped out at me was the fact that He was asking the Father to protect His followers. This chapter does not contain any instructions Jesus gave to His disciples. It contains a prayer, and so what we read here is what He was asking God to do on our behalf.
This does not absolve us of any requirement or obligation. Certainly, such passages as Philippians 2:1-4 tell us to be “of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
In his various letters, Paul actually says a great deal about what we need to do in order to build up and protect the unity of the church. However, as I said, the focus of John 17 is on what Jesus was asking God to do, which means the two go hand-in-hand. God does His part, and we are expected to do ours. And when we struggle with how this all works out, I think it best to simply say that God does His work in us and through us as we strive to obey the commands given throughout the Bible.
Another significant point to consider is the purpose for which Jesus asks the Father to protect His followers. Most immediately, it is so that we might be one. Four times in His prayer, he mentions the unity of the church (vv. 11, 21, 22, 23). But why is it so important that we be unified in this way?
Two answers are given within this passage. We find the first in verse 13, where Jesus prays, “But now I am coming to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” Unity within the church is one key element to experiencing joy as a Christian. If you doubt that, just speak to someone who has been part of a church where there was little or no unity; a church where there was much gossip, backbiting, and arguing amidst various members of the church. They will tell you there wasn’t much joy to be experienced in that kind of setting.
The second reason Jesus prays for unity in the church is found in verses 22-23. Here, He says, “The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one…”—watch this now—“so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me.”
Oneness within the church draws people’s attention to God and to Jesus Christ. The same concept is stated in John 13:35, where Jesus told His disciples, “By this all people will know you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The antithesis is just as true. If we are not united; if we do not love each other within the church, then the world will not know we are His disciples. The world knows that one of the foundation stones of Christianity is love, particularly the love of God. So if outsiders look in at a church and see that the members of that church are not loving one another, then those outsiders will say, “They claim to be Christians, but they sure don’t seem to act like it.”
So how do the instructions of Paul tie in and relate to the prayer of Jesus. Quite simply, to tell the truth. As I’ve heard one pastor often say, “God initiates. We respond.” This is the pattern of the Christian life. With respect to oneness within the church, it starts with God placing His love within our hearts—His love for us, our love toward Him, and then His love toward those around us. As He gives us this love (in answer to Jesus’ prayer), we express it by following the commands we find in the Bible. And the more we act in obedience to God, loving each other by obeying God’s commands, the more He fills our hearts with love for Him and for one another.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. How much am I striving for unity within the church? Or am I someone who may be causing division? Do I gossip and talk about people behind their back? Do I listen to gossip? If I hear someone gossiping, am I willing to address the matter with them?
2. How’s my attitude at church? How’s my attitude toward the leaders of the church? How quickly do I get angry about decisions I don’t understand or don’t agree with? When discussing church matters, publicly or privately, what tone of voice do I use?
3. Read Philippians 2:1-4. To what degree am I exhibiting these characteristics? Where do I need to improve?
4. How often do I, like Jesus, pray for unity within the church?
This kind of attitude can go a long way in protecting the unity of the church, as PJ talked about in his opening sermon for 2012. As Pastor John indicated in his sermon, few things can so damage the unity of a church as gossip, backbiting, and looking for the negative in others. So we need to be careful and deliberate about building up the body of Christ, rather than tearing it down or allowing anyone else to tear it down.
Interestingly enough, though, as we looked at John 17, which contains Jesus’ final prayer for His followers before going to the cross, one thing that jumped out at me was the fact that He was asking the Father to protect His followers. This chapter does not contain any instructions Jesus gave to His disciples. It contains a prayer, and so what we read here is what He was asking God to do on our behalf.
This does not absolve us of any requirement or obligation. Certainly, such passages as Philippians 2:1-4 tell us to be “of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
In his various letters, Paul actually says a great deal about what we need to do in order to build up and protect the unity of the church. However, as I said, the focus of John 17 is on what Jesus was asking God to do, which means the two go hand-in-hand. God does His part, and we are expected to do ours. And when we struggle with how this all works out, I think it best to simply say that God does His work in us and through us as we strive to obey the commands given throughout the Bible.
Another significant point to consider is the purpose for which Jesus asks the Father to protect His followers. Most immediately, it is so that we might be one. Four times in His prayer, he mentions the unity of the church (vv. 11, 21, 22, 23). But why is it so important that we be unified in this way?
Two answers are given within this passage. We find the first in verse 13, where Jesus prays, “But now I am coming to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” Unity within the church is one key element to experiencing joy as a Christian. If you doubt that, just speak to someone who has been part of a church where there was little or no unity; a church where there was much gossip, backbiting, and arguing amidst various members of the church. They will tell you there wasn’t much joy to be experienced in that kind of setting.
The second reason Jesus prays for unity in the church is found in verses 22-23. Here, He says, “The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one…”—watch this now—“so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me.”
Oneness within the church draws people’s attention to God and to Jesus Christ. The same concept is stated in John 13:35, where Jesus told His disciples, “By this all people will know you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The antithesis is just as true. If we are not united; if we do not love each other within the church, then the world will not know we are His disciples. The world knows that one of the foundation stones of Christianity is love, particularly the love of God. So if outsiders look in at a church and see that the members of that church are not loving one another, then those outsiders will say, “They claim to be Christians, but they sure don’t seem to act like it.”
So how do the instructions of Paul tie in and relate to the prayer of Jesus. Quite simply, to tell the truth. As I’ve heard one pastor often say, “God initiates. We respond.” This is the pattern of the Christian life. With respect to oneness within the church, it starts with God placing His love within our hearts—His love for us, our love toward Him, and then His love toward those around us. As He gives us this love (in answer to Jesus’ prayer), we express it by following the commands we find in the Bible. And the more we act in obedience to God, loving each other by obeying God’s commands, the more He fills our hearts with love for Him and for one another.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND APPLICATION
1. How much am I striving for unity within the church? Or am I someone who may be causing division? Do I gossip and talk about people behind their back? Do I listen to gossip? If I hear someone gossiping, am I willing to address the matter with them?
2. How’s my attitude at church? How’s my attitude toward the leaders of the church? How quickly do I get angry about decisions I don’t understand or don’t agree with? When discussing church matters, publicly or privately, what tone of voice do I use?
3. Read Philippians 2:1-4. To what degree am I exhibiting these characteristics? Where do I need to improve?
4. How often do I, like Jesus, pray for unity within the church?
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