Who Is Watching?

Peter tells that two parties are watching (1 Peter 2:12). The “nations” or “Gentiles” are observing. And God is watching (day of visitation). We need to think about both of these from a Gospel perspective.

In Bible translations, the “Gentiles” are all those nations who are not Jews. They were, from an OT perspective, in large part, not the people of God. In the NT, since the Church is not identified with the Jewish people, it seems that a better translation is the “nations.”

In 1 Peter 2:9, the Church is called, among other things, “a holy nation.” The nations mentioned in v.12 then, are the “unholy” nations. The one has an interest in the holiness of God. The other has no interest in His holiness.

Now why is it that the nations are observing the lives and conduct of Christians? Normally, we don’t even notice, unless, of course, there is something interesting. That is, there is something distinctive, unique, or strange (as in “strangers,” 1 Pet 1:1).

1 Peter 4:4 says that the Gentiles, or nations, are “surprised when you do not join them” in their ungodly activities. There is a contrast in the lives of those without God, and those who are children of God. Other differences become apparent as we review 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7 and Ephesians 4:17ff. In fact, I think it is a beneficial exercise to actually think what the contrast would be to the miserable conditions or ungodly behaviors mentioned in relations to the nations. For instance, in Eph 2: 1-4, they are described as:

Dead – we have been “made alive” (1 Pet 1:3)

They belong to “the course of this world.” We understand that the course has been changed “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet 1:3)

They have a prince (small “p”). We have a Prince (capital “P”) (I know that there are not caps in the original, but the little “p” only bruised His heel, while the capital “P” crushed his head (Gen 3:15).

They have a spirit. We have the Holy Spirit

They are driven by lusts. We are characterized by love for God and neighbor. (It strikes me as I write this how far we fall short, which is why the nations find us so un-interesting.

They are given over to self- indulgence. We are to be known for sacrificial service.

They are called “children of wrath.” We are children of mercy (1 Pet 1:3; 2:10).

The list then is continued in Eph 4:17-24:

They are characterized by sensuality. We are to be known for a spirituality that is due to the activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Drunkenness is countered by a sobriety and seriousness that is taken up with eternal and ultimate issues.

Carousing and drinking parties that end up in disgrace are contrasted with gatherings in which grace is given and blessings are shared.

Abominable idolatries bespeak a continual search to find that which is worth living for – while Christians are linked and locked in to “the one true God, and Jesus Christ, whom (He) has sent (John 17:3).

We are to be “a light to the Gentiles (or nations)” (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6; Luke 2:32; Acts 13:47; 26:23). Our light is dim in that we have sunk to many practices that look suspiciously like the nations who do not know God. We aren’t all that interesting.

The second point is that God is “visiting” or “overseeing.” Jesus, in 1 Peter 2:25, is called “the Shepherd and Overseer (or Guardian) of our souls.” He is watching.

But many people have erroneous views of God’s oversight. Some think that He is watching, waiting to pound us when we mess up. But they miss the all-important point that, in Christ, we are “accepted in the Beloved.” There are no paybacks for Christians. Our punishment has been meted out to Christ, and it found satisfaction in the righteous judgment of God. He is not watching us to catch us, but because He delights in us.

On the other hand, some view God’s interest in His children as inconsequential. They suppose that, now forgiven, they should give no thought to what God thinks of their conduct. This is a denial of authentic faith. Faith in God is a dynamic presence in the life of a man that manifests itself in expressions of faith, one of which is fear and love for God. Luke 12 reminds us that if God has His eye on the sparrow, then He certainly will observe and care for His children far more.

We sometimes live as though no one is watching, neither the world around us, or God. We live as though there is nothing or no one to life for. How can we miss the point so badly?

The Cure for a Sick Soul

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” (1Peter 2:11 ESV)

When we go to the medical doctor for examination or surgery, he can find our brains, but she cannot repair our minds.

When the doctor opens our chests to do surgery on the heart, he is unable to do anything about our character.

When we receive a physical, there are no reports given on the state of our souls.

The Bible diagnosis for man in general is that we have great sickness of soul.

Mankind tends to ignore the soul, and thus to misunderstand the most weighty issues of life. Mankind places great emphasis on what the Bible calls the flesh. They may speak of human nature, human condition, wholistic health, etc. – but when considered apart from God, man is flesh – independent and temporary; willful, but weak.

The soul, in Biblical language, is the organ for relationship with God. When God formed Adam (Gen 2:7), he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man, a-dam, became a living soul – a creature made to correspond with the Creator in faith and fellowship.

But a dead or dormant soul does not have faith. We cannot enjoy fellowship with God with a captivated or collapsed soul. And it is not only God who desires your soul, but also the devil (1 Pet 5:8).

I am going to allow the context of 1 Peter 2:11 to control our thinking about the soul. In addition to the reference to “soul” in our text, Peter also refers to the soul in 1:9; 1:22, and 2:25.

Nothing to Look Forward to

1 Peter 1:9 speaks of “the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” This is followed, after a brief (but important) aside in vv. 10-12, with the admonition to “set youre hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (v.13). A sick soul has nothing to which it can look forward.

A sick soul has no dream of a future revelation (v.13), but is instead stuck in the present or perhaps the past. A sick soul has no sense of the holiness (vv. 15-16) of God which is above, beyond and behind all that we can see with our senses. The sick soul is then unable to respond to God with a proper fear (v. 17) that is due Him. He is left, by default, in the futility (v. 14) of a short-sighted, mortal and mundane existence.

Nothing to Act as Its Guide

The soul, by God’s gracious revealing, is broken free from its prison of blindness and ignorance to a whole new kind of life. This new life includes a consecration to God (1:22) which frees us from self-indulgence. God is gracious in that He has given our souls a guide in what is a trackless wilderness of life for those who are sick of soul.

This guide for the soul directs toward self-sacrifice rather than self-indulgence. We are to practice a brotherly kindness which is strenuous and which arises from only the purest of motives (v.22). Further, this kind of energetic direction does not allow for the crippling distractions mentioned in 2:1. These are to be put away so that our lives, as living stones (2:5), might be properly aligned with the Cornerstone, Jesus Christ (2:4,6). He is the Guide for our lives, and the Director of our souls.

Word studies lead toward to Biblical illustrations. The first is Joseph (Gen 39:8-9), who, in submission to his master and allegiance to God, endured false accusation and affliction. The second is Moses, recorded in Hebrews 11:24-26, who “refused,” “chose,” “considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.” These men had a guide from above that remained unaffected by the circumstances taking place here below.

No One to Look Up to

Jesus is called by Peter the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls (2:25). For those with sick souls, we have no one to look up to. For those who are wandering, their goal must be to either remain anonymous in the room, or strive to be the biggest person in the room. And when I try to “enlarge” myself, I cannot admit to a Leader or a Captain. But Jesus is the one who has blazed a path for us, “leaving you an example” (v.22). He suffered and died, and now serves as the One to whom we look (Heb 12:2), the Author and Finisher of our faith, for those with souls that are being healed.

The Cure for a Sick Soul is not education for our ignorance, but rather God’s gracious revealing of things that we cannot see with our eyes. The Cure is not moral improvement in order to overcome self-indulgence, but is rather the Call to become part of something that is bigger than us and our private dreams, and that will last eternally longer than a temple made with stone. The Cure for my soul is not heroism, unless that means that I finally find in Jesus what I can never be in myself.

Strong and Courageous

“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6)

Perhaps this is the message that the Church of Jesus Christ needs more than any other: “Be strong and courageous.” If this is indeed the needed message, why?

Because the Church is weak, and we are weak for a number of reasons. Our strength comes from the Lord, and yet the Church insists on trying to find its strength in the world’s wisdom and strategies. Our first reflex is to consistently imitate the behaviors of business in terms of planning and management and marketing, as opposed to the key behaviors of the Church, which are prayer and careful and thoughtful obedience to the Word.

Why is the needed message “Be strong and courageous?” Because we are afraid. No, not with a fear of the Lord, but afraid of the world. Afraid of being different and of falling out of favor. Afraid of risking our prosperity and afraid of being considered irrelevant.

Ironically, our fear of these very things actually ensures that we will lose the things to which we want to hold. The world wants nothing to do with a church that is not different and only acts to curry favor. The church cannot secure its own prosperity, and if it does secure financial gain, it is instantly in danger of spiritual impoverishment. A church that seeks to find its fit with the world becomes by definition “irrelevant,” since the church is not to act as a mirror for the world, so that when the world looks at us, it only sees itself. Rather, the church is to serve as a reflection of God as revealed in His Son. And we cannot at the same time reflect both, just as we cannot both seek God’s favor and the world’s. It is time to “be strong and courageous.”

Jonah and Jesus (1)

Appointments Broken and Kept; Mission Aborted and Fulfilled

I am writing about Jonah and Jesus, not because they are so much alike, but rather, because they are so different. Let me say at the beginning that this study is convicting to me personally, not because I am so much like Jesus, but rather, because I am so much like Jonah.

Both Jonah and Jesus are sent “from the presence of the Lord” (1:3,10). This is a difficult concept in view of God’s omnipresence. After all, where does the presence of the Lord start and stop? The phrase describes not so much one’s location as one’s relation to God’s mission. And here we find a key to the difference between Jonah and Jesus: Jonah left the presence of the Lord in order to “flee” mission; Jesus left the Father’s glory in order to “fulfill” mission.

The reader of this little narrative describing the recalcitrant prophet must grapple with the issue of how we ourselves avoid God’s mission. “Fleeing” can be translated in our lives as avoiding the glare of God’s expectations, isolating one’s self from that which is unpleasant and distasteful, distracting oneself with any number of pursuits (which may better be called “flights,’ as in “fleeing,” rather than “pursuits,” which denotes some kind of legitimate engagement). For whom would God have me pray today? With whom would God have me share both spiritual and physical blessings with which I have been favored? To whom would God have me speak words of grace and truth? What stands in the way of my involvement in these engagements? Is it the attitude of the reluctant priest and the recalcitrant prophet? Is the story of my life one of flight, avoidance, isolation, evasion, and distraction?

We happily enter into debates both great and small about issues of divine sovereignty and human freedom. This story displays for us the amazing amplitude that God allows in His servants – His servants who willfully refuse to serve. God commands the weather, and it instantly responds. God appoints the fish, and it does His will? He appoints the plant, and the scorching wind, and they instantly appear? But Jonah – he disappears.

Jesus is so different from Jonah. “Behold, I have come to do your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:7,8). “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt 3:15). “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” (Luke 4:43). Jesus left the throne room of heaven in order to fulfill and accomplish the appointed mission. Jonah removed himself from before the face of God in order to flee and avoid the appointed mission.

Ultimately, Ninevah’s fate was not bound up with Jonah’s faithfulness. It was secured by God’s amazing mercy which brought about a miraculous repentance in that great city. The fate of our families and churches likewise are not fettered by our own feeble faithfulness, but with Christ’s perfect fulfillment. But the call of God remains. And the questions still stands: will I flee from the mission in Jonah-like fashion, or will I fulfill its call as a faithful follower of Jesus.

Jonah prays in 2:4: “I have been expelled from Your sight.” It is perhaps impossible to discern what is faith and what is fake in this prayer. Is Jonah saying that, having fled from the face of God, it is now God’s fault that there is great distance between them? Or is there a great truth, that when I avoid the mission that God has placed upon my life, that there will necessarily be a break of fellowship with God. Somehow, it seems that God allows us to do what we want, and then brings to bear the consequences that we ourselves have chosen. “I have been expelled,” and that is pretty much what I wanted, though it looks a little uglier right now as fish food than it did when I was on a cruise ship.

Jesus prays in Matt 27:46, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Was Jesus expelled from the presence of God? Yes. Was it because he was fleeing from God’s mission? No. Rather, he was expelled from God’s presence in the very fulfillment of God’s mission, as the sinbearer for a rebellious people.

Jonah makes me think about Jesus, not because they are so much alike, but because they are so different.

Treasure for Treasure

Comfort for Comfort

2 Samuel 12:3 uses our word for “special possession” of a pet, a little lamb, bought and nourished. We can relate, can’t we, nuts about pets as we are. There’s just something about the way a pet conforms to the shape of your lap, adjusting itself to you. And that’s how we are to be with God, adjusting our shape to Him.

But some of your pets are not quite that way. They are demanding, and they master you. You quickly find that you are the one adjusting to them, rather than the other way around. And that’s what we often do with God, in our minds at least, adjusting Him for our comfort.

For instance, some aspects of the being of God are uncomfortable for us. We struggle with His sovereignty, since it rubs hard against ours. We can fix that, right? Just adjust (g)od to what your sense of (g)od should be, and the pet is happy, even though the house is in ruins.

Good for Good

Malachi 3:17 refers to the son who is joined to the father’s inheritance by virtue of relationship. The son is his pride and possession. And the son seeks the good of the father. Sure, the son realizes that, since everything that the father has will one day be his, when he serves the father, he is serving his own interests as well. But the interests of the father come first.

So the son does not ask, “what is good for me?” Rather, he asks, “what is good for the father?” He is not focusing on feathering his nest, but on serving the interests of the father.

We sometimes leave a church service and ask, “was it good for me?” “Do I feel better?” “Was I entertained?” We ask these questions in dozens of life situations. But shouldn’t the question be, “was it good for God?” Isn’t He the Father to be served, even as we realize that the path to an experience of indescribable goodness leads first through “seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness (Matt 6:33).

And the father, says Malachi, has compassion on the son who serves him. God delights to shower love upon His children as they serve the interests of their Father.

Treasure for Treasure

Matthew 13:44-45 speaks of men, one finding buried treasure, the other finding a pearl of great value. One goes and buys the field in order to have the treasure. The other sells all he has in order to obtain the pearl.

We are God’s treasure. That’s what our verse, 1 Peter 2:9, and our phrase, “a people for His own possession,” indicates. And He has “bought the field” and “sold all he had” for us. And we are to reach out to him like two-year-olds when daddy comes home, and treasure Him.

Our world is full of so many lonely people who do not have the experience of being treasured by God. They may have many comfortable, good treasures. But they are still empty. Why in the world would we trade this blessing of being God’s treasured people for mere bubbles?

Priests with a Royal Bearing; People with a Holy Calling

The Spirit guided Peter to write “royal priests” in 1 Peter 2:9 (adjective followed by verb), quoting from Exodus 19:6, the LXX (Greek), not the Hebrew. In Revelation 1:6, John quotes the same verse, but evidently from the Hebrew, which shows two nouns, “a kingdom and priests.”

Why? I think it fits with Peter’s point, which is that we are priests with a royal bearing, rather than kings with some added priestly duties. After all, Peter has made clear right at the beginning that we are outsiders, sojourners, and he will do so again in 2:12. We are related to the King, but we do not live life here as kings. We are servants, priests.

A priestly people is a little strange. From the Old Testament, we are used to have a priestly class within the people. Isn’t that what pastors are supposed to do today? Peter doesn’t think so. We all are priests.

Priests are blood-spattered. In New Covenant terms, this certainly does not involved animal sacrifice. But it certainly does involve Christ’s sacrifice. We show our blood-sprinkled (1:2) condition when we do two things: when we think often of our sin; and when we think often of our Savior.

When we emphasize how good we are, either trying to convince ourselves or others, we are not functionging as priests, or as Christians. One of the key differences between non-believers and believers is that the former often work hard at justifying self, while the believer finds his/her justification in Christ. The one covers and excuses sin and sins; the other confesses sin(s) and hates that which caused the death of Christ. If you are unaware of any struggle with sin, then I wonder if you even have a Savior.

Priests also are teachers of the ways of God. They take the hand of God with one hand, and the hand of man with the other, and seek to see them reconciled in Christ. If I let go of God and embrace man alone, I am no longer functioning as a priest. And if I forget about men and isolate myself in God, I also am no priest. Priests are continually concerned with a right relationship with God, for themselves, and for others.

Remember, we are priests, with a card in our wallet or a truth in our hearts that we belong to the King. We are not kings who practice religion on the side.

The other term under consideration is “holy nation.” The Greek word transliterates to a kind of “ethnicity,” leading me to think that this is about a distinctive group of people (as in the first term, “chosen race,) in whom an appreciation and hunger for holiness is evident and obvious.

God’s holiness speaks of His “otherness.” He is, so to speak, “out of this world.” That is, this world cannot contain Him, nor even describe Him, because He stands apart in key ways from anything that is known in the world or by the world. For God’s people to know God, they have, in a sense, their “head in the clouds,” not in the sense of being aloof, but rather, they can see or sense horizons that are beyond what we see and experience in this physical world. His holiness is not to be profaned, that is, made common or coarse. He is not ordinary. We should not treat Him, or His name, as such.

Of course, holiness also includes a concern of moral purity. It is the desire to see reflected in human terms what it means to be pure. We are not animals, and we are not to live like animals. The image of the holy God has been impressed upon us, though far from distinct as it once was.

In the OT, we were acquainted with the idea of holy “territory.” The burning bush, Mt. Sinai, the Tabernacle, the Temple, the Holy of Holies – had borders and boundaries. This seems to no longer be the case. The “holy nation” scatters with itself the holiness of God throughout the world. Our own “otherness” and striving for purity; our appreciation of the eternal dimension sets us apart, for God.

We are accustomed to driving past small towns or driving into large cities and seeing the spires of churches, pointing to heaven, reminding us that there is a God. This may be an excellent architectural feature, but it is not what God designed as testimony to His holiness. Rather, he is forming a people with a high calling, a holy nation, to point the world to a God that they do not know.

Gene Selection

(1 Peter 2:9, “a chosen race”)

Racism is a highly charged subject in our society. We struggle with properly admitting that there are different “kinds” of people, and then with ensuring that all “kinds” of people are treated equitably.

The Bible also speaks of “kinds.” It is the prerogative of God to establish kinds of plants (Genesis 1:11-12), and kinds of people (Gen 11). In the Bible, a “race” of people seems to designate a line of descendants from a particular father. Part of the reason for this may be because God delights in variety.

So when God chooses to designate “a chosen race,” He does so by selecting out Abraham to be the father of a new people (Gen 12). A major reason that God chooses is that He desires to accomplish His wider purposes (blessing all the families of the earth) through His particular choices (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob). Over time, this people is redeemed by God from slavery in Egypt, and formed into a covenant people at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19-24). They are to be characterized, as was their father, Abraham, by a strong attachment to and dependence upon God (Deuteronomy 10:12-22). This distinctiveness of people, if not strong attachment and dependence, continue even into the captivity, where the apocryphal addition to Esther speaks again of the distinctiveness of God’s chosen race: “For Almighty God hath turned to joy unto them the day, wherein the chosen people should have perished.” (Esther 16:21 KJVA)

Again, “race” in the Bible speaks of a distinctive “kind” of people, descendants of a common father. Peter seems to show this in advance of 1 Pet 2:9 with his comment in 1:17, “and if you call on Him as Father, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.” We are a chosen race if we have in common this heavenly Father.

Let me make three points of application with illustration:

1. Until we fully embrace our identity as a part of God’s chosen race as obedient children, we will never make sense of the Christian life. We continue to be painfully aware of racial differences as determined sociologically, but painfully unaware of the kind of distinctiveness that ought to be honored and preserved as God’s people. We show this in our marriage patterns, where more consternation arises from the joining of people with different skin color than does the joining of two people whose spiritual fathers are antithetically opposed to one another.

2. Until we accept our God-given place as God-redeemed outsiders, elect exiles (1 Pet 1:1), we will never adequately proclaim His praises. When Muslims become our next-door neighbors, we wonder what “they” are doing “here.” But Peter’s truth expressed several times is that they are not the outsiders; we are. We are the aliens, the strangers, the sojourners who are seeking to share our way of life with the insiders of this world. We are not to resist the infiltration of “different” people into our cocoons. We are, by race, the infiltrators.

3. Until we understand that we are no more “children of men,” but rather “children of the Heavenly Father,” we will not experience our greatest comfort. Others have no Father like ours. By comparison, it is as though all the world is orphaned, going to bed at night untucked with no story told and no prayers prayed. But we have a Father who never leaves us alone. What a blessed comfort to be a chosen race that can rightfully claim to be “children of the heavenly Father.”

Faith’s Friends

The subject of faith can be difficult. What does it mean to “have faith?” Perhaps we can learn from faith’s friends.

Faith and Grace are not equal partners. God shows gracious initiative in setting the table for us and in providing the meal. Faith’s role is to simply “taste” the Lord’s goodness (1 Pet 2:3) in his person and in his provision for us. Faith savors what God provides. Faith is not even responsible for the digesting of divine delicacy and its conversion to spiritual energies. God’s sanctifying grace accomplishes that as well. Faith simply savors (Eph 2:8,9).

Faith and Repentance are never-failing friends. If faith is an open-handed acceptance of the gifts that God graciously provides, then repentance is the emptying of the hands in preparation for the reception of the gift. To go back to the earlier illustration, to come to God’s table already made full by the junk food shoved down our throats by the world and greedily gobbled up by our own lusts is to preclude the experience of tasting God’s goodness and grace. There is no hunger for God without repentance. We are more apt to pass out into a sated stupor, or to be sick. Faith’s friend, repentance, is our turning from what is cheap to what is priceless, the forerunner of faith in our lives (Acts 20:21).

Faith and Love are never strangers. When Paul looks for evidence of faith in the lives of believers, he looks for love – love for God, and also love for others (1 Thes 3:6). For a self-centered and preoccupied person to claim faith is to make a statement that can be supported by no evidence. Faith in our lives, the savoring of the goodness and grace of God, becomes a dynamic force, through the operation of the grace of God, that will most definitely result in loving activity.

Faith and Works? We often think of these as enemies, since faith is not a work, and we can work to earn our salvation (Rom 4:5). But, having faith, we must expect that faith will work – because it is not a static force, but a dynamic element in our lives – as Paul says, faith working in love (Gal 6:5).

No Faith? Then you are missing out on faith’s friends as well. The absence of faith reveals a want of grace. The diminishing of faith’s vibrancy points to a desertion of the hard by happy work of repentance. Faith without love is mere marketing, and faith without works, as James reminds us (Jas 2:26), is dead.

Why Do People Stumble Over Jesus?

“A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense” (1Peter 2:8 ESV)

We stumble over things that we do not see. People stumble over Jesus because they do not see him. People stumble because they do not see the beauty of Jesus.

Some people do not see him because they are distracted. In chapter 2, Peter quotes Isaiah 28, describing the northern kingdom, distracted by their prosperity. People today, prosperous as we are, find themselves generally distracted. In fact, the busier we are, the more healthy lives we think we are living.

Our lives are filled with beautiful and attractive things. They attract our attention to the degree that we cannot see the most beautiful thing ever presented to humanity, Jesus. If only we could stop and think, and answer the penetrating question – what is really important? What will last for eternity?

We need to learn to ask people questions that stop them in their tracks. What do you think God is like? Really? What do you think God thinks of you? Could you take the time to find out what He is really like, and what He really thinks?

Some people do not see him because they are misdirected. They are looking for something else. And so they miss Jesus. Two stories can help us with this.

Saul/Paul held a vision of religion that was pleasing to God that excluded Jesus. Keeping the Law was central, and faith in Christ was leading many Jews away from the “beauty” of Judaism. He hated Christians and their way of life. But on that road to Damascus, Jesus appeared to Saul, and all of a sudden, God caused Paul to see the beauty of Christ (Acts 9). And his life was changed. He no longer stumbled over Jesus. He embraced him.

For years, even centuries, the Temple was the place where God’s people, Israel, could meet with their God. Never mind that Temple-worship was compromised by Roman government, Herod’s crooked benevolence, and priestly political compromise. The Temple was central. But the apostles, confronted by the risen Lord, realized the significance of Jesus’ words, that the Temple would be destroyed, and that they would be build around him, the Living Stone (1 Pet 2:4) as living stones (2:5).

Stories can help people see a reality that has been invisible to them to this point. The Bible is one, grand, dramatic story filled with many smaller stories. Jesus told stories, parables to help people see his beauty.

We need to listen to the stories of the Bible to have our own view of reality shaped and re-shaped. We need to be able to relate stories to people stumbling over Jesus, that they might see him for the first time.

Some people do not see him because they are disobedient. The testimony of the prophets, from whom Peter draws (Isaiah 8) is that God’s people consistently rejected light. It seems to be one of the ways of God that, when we choose our own way, he allows us to have what we say we want. Romans 1 shows this three times (24,26,28), that when man rejected God’s way, He “hands them over” to the consequences of their actions.

So if people reject the light of God’s beauty, why should God favor them with the beauty of Christ? If people prefer darkness, why not allow them to stay where they want to be?

And so, if the light of the beauty of Christ has become evident to you, do not be so wicked as to turn your back on him? And do not presume that, if that light is available to you today, that it will be tomorrow.

As we talk with people who are stumbling over Jesus out of disobedience, we must warn, and confront. God issues a summons through His witnesses: “Repent, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” And for believers, we also must pay full attention to the warnings. Do not allow sin to cloud the beauty of Christ in your life.

I Will Build My Church

According to 1 Peter, God takes the initiative. He gives us birth that allows us to love and believe in Jesus (1:3, 8); He plants the seed that has its fruit in it (1:23); He builds the Temple, the residence of His glory, by incorporating people like you and I, living stones, which, by the way, are practical impossibilities apart from His initiative (2:5).

We believe in this God, but we also show by our practice that we believe something else. The initiative of yesterday may belong to God, but the initiative of today belongs with us, with me. We read and write books, we attend and conduct training seminars, and we build like the Babelites (Gen 11), constructing our human significance, demonstrating our own importance and success, because, of course, we are the initiators of all good things that really matter. Good ideas. Great plans. Monumental projects.

We have growing confidence in technological manipulation – even to create life. God is the author of life, but we are learning how to produce it without him, though confronting us with haunting ethical issues. We contribute unceasing energies to a management control that will leverage better results this year than last, pressuring the perishable seed (1:23) to see what can be wrung from it, and leaving behind bruised and burned-out casualties. We tear down our barns to build bigger ones (Luke 12:18), hoping that that the bigger church building will compensate for the disciples’ immaturity, or the bigger house will make one feel better about the family’s dysfunctionality.

But being practically involved in God’s temple has not only to do with recognizing God’s initiative in its construction. It also demands that we be properly aligned with God’s select Cornerstone, Christ. The question is really not, “Do I feel good about myself” but "Is my life correctly aligned with Jesus Christ?” That question is more difficult than merely saying, “Follow Jesus.” Due to the distance caused by centuries and cultures, let alone sin and selfishness, we often have a hard time answering how it is that we are to align our lives with Christ.

And so when we face “life” questions, we tend to take the initiative and resort to our most trusted resources. They are doctors, psychologists, financial advisors, and school counselors. Most have no regard for God, or your faith, or the Cornerstone. They advise according to their own faith – faith in science, or faith in proven principles of (temporal) investment, or the secret of happiness as found in prescription drugs.

Does science, medicine, etc., have a role? Of course. We ought to thank God for what has been learned about how His creation works. But these things must be applied spiritually. They will not – they cannot – be applied spiritually by these people alone.

Our present and usual course of actions denies a practical faith in God. Our handling of life’s biggest and most painful issues denies full confidence in pursuing Christlikeness (Hebrews 3). We shortcut the Spirit’s guidance in our lives by resorting to other guides who will not direct us to the Cornerstone or give God His due.

How do we expect the Spirit to work? Through God’s Word. And how is God’s Word brought to bear upon one’s life? Through reading, study and meditation. Have you submitted yourself to that kind of investment in God’s Word? Also, through various individuals’ teaching of the Word. But also through the discernment of life issues as evaluated in light of Scripture and as lovingly handled by trusted Christian brothers and sisters.

God’s House is built upon the Cornerstone, and with many living stones. The Christian life is not to be lived alone, but in community. We find our proper alignment with the Cornerstone by the help of other living stones, other believers who are handlers of God’s Word and bearers of God’s Spirit, (being) equipped to hear and to help.

Is there another believer whom you trust? Are there others with whom you could share your heart, and allow them to ask questions, and understand? The sad reality is that many of us are more likely to reveal our doubts, questions and hurts to an unbeliever. Is it because we don’t really believe in God, we don’t really care about Christlikeness, and we simply cannot trust the Spirit to use other believers spiritually in my life?

What God builds will last forever, for His glory. What is built without faith (Hebrews 11:6) and apart from Him (John 15:5) will be destroyed, to our shame.

Spiritual Application

I’ve used my paint illustration before to try to describe the Trinity. This illustration has not been widely publicized, which has spared it being justly criticized.

The Father conceives a color. Think of a color that has never before been painted. You can’t. We may mix and match and “arrive” at a color, but we cannot say, “I am thinking of a color that does not exist.” God can. Not only does He create it. He also names it. Let’s call this new color “grace.”

The Son embodies the color. The name of the color and the description of the color (“it’s kind of like x, but not exactly”) cause us difficulty. We need to see it if we are to know it. We had never before seen or experienced “grace” until we saw it in Jesus.

The Spirit applies the color. For those who come to see “grace,” appreciate its beauty and love its lustre, there is the desire to bring it within one’s own space or room, into one’s own life. The Spirit takes the grace of Christ from its vessel (Jesus himself) and distributes it, applies it, paints it in and on our lives.

So what is Spiritual Application?
We call it sanctification. It is the process by which the Spirit of God renovates and redecorates the lives of believers so that they, more and more, reflect the beauty of the character of Christ.

It was never God’s intent to keep grace contained. God has appointed this work of the Spirit. And we know that we are to be involved in seeking Christ and the reflection of His character weekly in each message and daily in each devotion.

Mud Wrestling

My sermons are not pretty. The outlines are often fragmented and easily forgotten. The framework that is supposed to make clear the text is crooked and decrepit. The force of the argument is often lost in a preoccupation with a concept or an image.

As I spend my week in the text of Scripture, I feel like I’ve been mud wrestling. My insights are all smeared and gritty, and my notes are half-erased by the struggle and the search. By the time I enter the pulpit on Sunday, the page has surrendered to oblivion, and I am left to share my impressions and convictions.

You’ve got to admire the national preachers who can present their material so neat and tidy. They are a joy to listen to. They give you confidence that they have it all figured out, and they also give you assurance that, if you do these three things, you also will make significant progress. It’s why church can be fun, and Bible conferences can be entertaining.

I’m not buying it. The text isn’t that neat, and neither is the Christian life. The truth is, as we approach the text, we are a mess, and the text only exposes the mess for what it is. We seek to understand, to believe, to obey – and at the end of the day, there’s still mud in our eyes.

I could try and pretend. Forget it. Everyone knows that when you go to a mud wrestling event, it’s going to get ugly.

Survivors (Joel 2:32)

In a way, we are all survivors - that is, if we, indeed, survive.

All of us, believers and unbelievers, are beneficiaries of the grace of life. Common grace sheds abroad God’s goodness on us all.

As believers, we have been grabbed hold of by God’s redemptive grace. He graciously takes the initiative and reverses our destiny by replacing our hearts. We are blessed with Holy Spirit insight into God’s Word, and Holy Spirit presence in our hearts and lives.
So in what sense are we survivors?

We are survivors from our sin. Another word used commonly alongside “survivor” in the OT is “escapee.” We are not survivors because of our own fortitude, but escapees because of the daring rescue accomplished by God. But we are survivors nonetheless.

More importantly in Joel’s prophecy, we are survivors of the prosperity that we enjoy.

Surprisingly, not a single sin is mentioned in the Book of Joel. The people were being judged, but all that is mentioned is the loss of God’s blessing in their lives. The text does not identify the one or many sins that brought God to focus His displeasure and withhold (1:13) the basic lubricants (wine and oil) for gladness and joy (1:16).

The problem that occasioned the punishment was a dreadful disconnect between the blessings of God, and ... God. The people were enjoying their good times, but they failed to enjoy their good God. They thought that their pleasurable existence could be savored independently from their Savior. They were wrong. God took it away.

He sent the locusts - gnawing, swarming, creeping, and stripping locusts (1:4). They consumed all that was green. The people lost their blessings. God gained their attention. And the people repented (2:12-14, the pivot point of the book). Now, perhaps God would restore the tools of worship which he had previously been withholding.

The people survived. But they survived not only their sin - they survived their prosperity. And I wonder, will we?

Two phrases surround the reference to “survivor” in 2:32: “whoever calls’ at the beginning of the verse; and “whom the Lord calls” at the end of the verse.

What does it mean to be a survivor? To remember to call on the Lord in the busyness that our prosperity demands, and to hear the Lord’s call above the noise that is the constant by-product of our celebrations.

How do we live Spiritually in a Material world?

How do we live Spiritually in a Material world? Although the word “spiritual” is currently being used in many strange and plastic ways; and although we are severely impacted by a materialistic way of life, we must pursue the Bible’s teaching. Peter addresses this subject in the beginning of 1 Peter 2.

First, Let’s think through the issues in Trinitarian fashion (1. Spirit; 2. Father; 3. Son). Along the way, we will grab hold of some of the images involved (1a, 2a, 3a). Finally, I will suggest some practical expressions of spiritual living (1b, 2b, 3b).

1. To live spiritually must surely have to do with the Spirit. We are being built into a spiritual house as a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrificies (1 Peter 2:5). What this means is that, in our relation with others (as priests have relation with others) we must be chiefly concerned, not with the material element of their existence, but with the immaterial; not with the temporal expression of their existence, but with the eternal. The eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14 ) would have us correspond with the souls of men and women.

1a. Jesus, in his earthly ministry, faced a decidedly unspiritual blindness. The religious leaders were fully cognizant of his humanity. But they could not see his divinity. And they hated him. Our inability to see people only from a fleshly point of view is similar. We are holding them in unholy disregard.

1b. Led by the Spirit, we are called to “love one another earnestly” (1 Peter 1:22). We are to love the souls of men and women, not because of their bodies or their appearance or their image, and not even in spite of what we see with our eyes of flesh. Rather, we are to love them regardless of their appearance.

2. The Father is the Giver of Life. He creates out of nothing. He consistently does the unlikely, and surprises with the impossible. As children of the Father, we do not plan his surprises, but we can expect to be surprised.

2a. Now what should we expect from a stone (1 Peter 2:4,5)? Well, if we consider only the stone, then we should expect very little. Stones don’t do much, which is why they make good boundary markers. But if we consider God who can make the stones cry out in praise of the Son (Luke 19:40 ), or if we look at stones as divinely appointed wombs from which children of Abraham may emerge (Luke 3:8), then we begin to look at dead entities with a sense of expectancy.

2b. Do I have the kind of faith in God that expects him to radically re-engineer the dead ends of life? My faith was not given so that I could tell God what to do, but it is given so that I might grasp what God can do. He can rescue a marriage from the rocks. He can raise a church from the dead. A key question is: Do I want him to? Lazarus’ sister objected, “Behold, he stinketh.” Sometimes it is easier for us to be done with dead entities. God doing the unlikely can end up being uncomfortable.

3. We come to Jesus (1 Peter 2:4), but it seems as though we often have little influence over others in getting them properly lined up with the cornerstone (1 Peter 2:6). We know that we ourselves did not do the heavy lifting in securing our own relationship with him, so it would seem that there is little that we can do for others - Except that we act and serve “in Jesus’ name.”

3a. Matthew 10 mentions the “cup of cold water” offered to little ones. Quickly consumed. Easily spilled. Often forgotten. What good does it do? What about the salvation of our neighbors, or the return of our kids to the fold. We pray, in Jesus’ name.

3b. Sowing seed can be a wasteful activity. In the parable of the seed and soils, much is lost. I feel that way. Words are cheap, sometimes useless. They’ve heard it all before. They are accustomed to tuning out. Sometimes we wonder why we should bother. But we are to serve in little ways and we pray with hope that the redemptive activity of Jesus will be extended to the lives of the people to whom we serve and for whom we pray. And because of this hope, we do not give up. We continue on, in Jesus’ name.

So to be Spiritual – what does it mean? It means to be involved with the Spirit in love, with the Father in faith, and with the Son in hope. It means that we see people for their souls, that we dare to believe that God can and will again do what only God can do. It means that redemption still changes lives today, using weak and clumsy instruments to achieve his ends. This is at least a little bit of what it means to be spiritual in a material world.

Introduction to Discipleship

The word “discipleship” has a number of definitions and associations. But its closest cousin is a very important word in the Bible: disciple. If we remember that, we may avoid some of these problems.

Discipleship is not a program. When Peter and John were invited, no, summoned by Jesus to follow him as disciples, they were not recruited to subscribe to a program. They were called to live a whole new kind of life. The old life was left behind. The new life would be radically different.

Discipleship is not a class. Churches have often treated this subject almost like catechism. Now teaching the basics of the faith is important, but it is not discipleship. Because following Christ as a disciple includes not only what you learn, but how you behave. It is not just a mastery of facts and information, but it is being mastered by the Master.

Discipleship is not an option. It is not unusual in Sunday School to have electives. Discipleship is not one of these. One cannot say, “I would love to be a Christian, but I would rather not be a disciple.” A Christian is a believer who has been drawn into such a relationship with the Savior that he/she follows and learns, trusts and obeys as a disciple.

So what is Discipleship?
Discipleship is an involvement with Jesus along with other disciples of Jesus. It is not an individualistic exercise.

Discipleship is a commitment to other disciples of Jesus, encouraging them and holding them accountable in their walk with Christ.

The Immersed Life

We are an immersed people. We are soaked and marinated in our culture. As sinners, we are buried under the avalanche of sin. And, as believers, we are immersed in Christ, washed by his blood, and clothed with his righteousness.

We are Baptists. We immerse. We believe that this is a wonderful Gospel portrayal of the overwhelming truth of the forgiveness of sins. The sacrifice of Christ is sufficient to completely cleanse us from our sins. His identification with us was and is so complete, that no debt is left over, no punishment is yet due. Jesus paid it all.

But we desire to not only glory in the immersed life accomplished by justification, but also to experience the immersed life worked out in sanctification. How do I live the immersed life? How can I be so soaked in Christ that I am freed from my attachments to sinful patterns which are only encouraged by a godless culture?

I believe the answer is to live the Gospel - to be immersed in Gospel living. We need to learn what it means to be Gospel family members, and Gospel students, and Gospel employees, managers, bosses, and entrepreneurs.

It begins with sin. Jesus died for my sins. In my desire to be immersed in Christ, I will live “dead to sin” (Romans 6:3,4). We need to become much more serious about our playing around with this cancer in our lives. How can we ever expect the enjoy the blessings of the immersed life when, by our indulgence in attitudes and activities which condone carelessness with regard to sin, we treat Jesus’ sacrifice for sin as being trivial? The cross of Jesus was the decisive attack in the battle against sin and Satan, a war that continues to rage in our world, our culture, our homes, and in our bodies. Can we continue to behave as though we are at peace?

We must live “alive” to God. Wake up! Pay attention! Our God reigns! Stop living as though God does not exist! Talk to Him! Listen to Him! Seek His help in your recalcitrant heart. Submit to each prodding of His Spirit to listen, to learn, to lean on Him.

This is the beginning of the immersed life.

Taking the Weight Off

No, not another new year’s diet. This is about how we as a local church participate in the mission given by Christ to make disciples.

As I and others have wrestled with issues of fruit and faith, we have been forced to acknowledge a lack of both. And in that acknowledgement, we have been forced to go back to the Bible, and to ask what is involved in being faithful so as to develop fruitful disciples.

Our Sunday worship has been, by default, the primary component in our efforts to “make disciples.” It is not working. And I conclude that God never meant for it to work. The worship gathering is important, even essential; but the worship gathering is not sufficient to accomplish the work of disciple-making all by itself.

You and I need to cease expecting the worship gathering to “carry all the weight” of our spiritual growth. The worship gathering, and the ministry of the Word that takes place in these gatherings, in no way completes this week’s lesson. It actually only begins this week’s spiritual exercise.

How did we get here, to this condition of an out-of-proportion discipleship? There are probably many reasons. It’s partly the pastor’s fault, since Sunday is the focal point of his preparation. While that is true, and right, there is more to making disciples than this. Maybe it’s partly the deacons’ fault, for not leading into neglected areas of discipleship. And maybe it is partly the congregation’s fault, content to do what is easiest (sit) and feel congratulated for it. Nonetheless, discipleship demands that we distribute the weight of our energies to all that is needed for growth.

Has Such a Thing Ever Happened Before? Joel 1:2

We grow accustomed to certain patterns and cycles. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The work week and the week-end. The seasons and the holidays. Births, graduations, weddings, and funerals. We know what to expect. We go with the flow.
Every once in a while, something notable occurs. Has such a thing ever happened before? We turn to the elders, to the historians - what are we to make of this, that does not fit our patterns and cycles?

These disruptions may very well be gifts of God designed to interrupt our spiritual decline. The tremendous locust plagues that afflicted Israel were given for that very purpose. There is no question that the rare occurrence was not primarily a problem for agriculturalists, economists, and entomologists. The appearance of this enemy “like has never been before, nor will be again after them (2:2) was a divine signal calling for a spiritual response.

When our patterns and cycles are disturbed, do we ask the right questions? What is the source of our answers? Should it not be from the Lord, who will have his Day, and who works and moves to prepare us for that Day?

In our English translation of Joel’s prophecy, the locusts are mighty characters for the first chapter and a half. But the latter half of this book deals not with God’s before unheard of judgment, but rather of God’s never-seen-before revival. His mercies, which had been previously withheld (1:13) is now poured out in abundance, replacing desolation with abundance and distress with satisfaction. Whereas the people had never before experienced such chastisement, neither had they ever experienced such blessing.

Our lives are made up of cycles and patterns. But praise the Lord for His blessed interruptions, which bring both distress and comfort. May God be gracious to halt our spiritual decline, that we may see His glory as never before.

Eating Spiritually

We have already read about our need to breathe spiritually (On the Same Page). When we gather together, it is most often for our spiritual feeding.

I have been thinking and praying hard about how to properly feed people. To change metaphors, if the Bible is the sword of the Spirit (Eph 6), then I think we do a lot of sword waving. But a sword is not for waving; it is for cutting. We must get better at making application, so that the Word of God actually shapes our lives (by cutting) and causes growth (by digesting).

I think we tend to teach the Bible as though it is for old believers – for people who have heard it all before. We need to teach the Bible to new believers, as though we are hearing it for the very first time. I think you will notice significant change with regard to this on the coming Sundays.

If our worship and teaching gatherings are times of eating spiritually, then we all need to eat, to chew, and to swallow. It’s not much fun to come and watch one person consume what he has prepared. I want to watch you enjoy what teachers have prepared. Come hungry. Come ready to feast on God’s Word. You also have some preparation duties.

If we are going to eat spiritually together, then we shouldn’t be all spread out. You don’t take the cook’s food and go eat it in another room. We need worship that connects – that connects us to God’s Word, and to one another. I would love to rearrange this room. But until we are able, come forward. Sit close. We’re all in this together.

Consumed

The vine dries up
And the fig tree fails;
The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree,
All the trees of the field dry up.
Indeed, rejoicing dries up
From the sons of men. (Joel 1:12)

What’s eating you? What is devouring your substance, destroying your soul, and sucking the juice right out of you? If we could identify what consumes us, we might be able to identify with the plight of the people in the Book of Joel.

We live in a consumer culture. We consume for a living. We consume at a rate that is both astonishing and alarming. But we are also afflicted by consumers. We are under attack from the locusts of life.

The vivid imagery of Joel’s prophecy allows the reader to both see and hear the locusts in their destructive advance. What is left behind is destroyed, consumed, and stripped bare. The basic toolsfor living and rejoicing, grain and wine, have been devoured.

Joel presents a story in which God is able both to take away the basic blessings of life, and he is able to pour them out again in abundance. Blessing does not depend upon excellent agricultural practices, at least immediately. This does not excuse sloppiness or laziness on the part of the farmer. But blessing depends primarily upon God. God controls the weather, and commands the locusts. It all has to do with God. And God responds somewhat predictably. When the people do evil, God sends evil. When the people do good, God sends good. We don’t know why God waits to send evil until he does, or if he will ever relent and send good again. But we find a basic pattern.

It is interesting that the people are called to come together several times in the prophecy. But they do not come together to make a plan to deal with the locusts. They come and say, “What are we going to do about God?” It’s not the system, and the players in the system, that must be addressed. Our problem with God must be addressed. We are led into repentance.

Why does God act this way? Why does he send the pestilence that disrupts our worship and upsets our family life, that brings our employment to a standstill and removes gladness and pleasure from experience? Because God knows that we are consumers, and if he withholds (1:13) from us the goods of our consumption, then we will have to pause and look up. And if his people will not be consumed with their God, then they will surely not consume his blessing.

What Israel experienced agriculturally, affecting every other aspect of their life, we experience spiritually, affecting every other aspect of our lives. We tend, however, to portray our afflictions psychologically instead of spiritually. For instance, we feel “burned out” rather than “burned up” (Joel 1:19). But because of being trained toward therapy, we want advice in adjusting ourselves toward ourselves. But if we would understand these concepts spiritually, then we would know that what we need is not adjustment toward self, but adjustment toward God. The text gives clear advice on how to do this, but that is for another time.

Warrior-Priest

I did not enter pastoral ministry out of admiration for the preacher on “Little House on the Prairie.” He, like many pastor figures portrayed on television, was a rather daft, clumsy character who had his fat dragged from the fire many times by the lead character of the show, Pa, who, by the way, had really great hair. We have come to picture the pastor/priest figure as passive, clueless, and misguided.

But there is another picture in the Bible. Whether it be Aaron’s running with his censer, taking his stand between the dead and the living to check the plague (Num 17), or Phinehas’ zeal in turning away God’s wrath by piercing the fornicators with a spear (Num 25), priests could also serve as God’s warriors.

My own definition of the function (don’t confuse this with office) of priest is one who serves by facilitating the relationship between God and man. Christ, as our high priest, is the ultimate fulfilment of this role. He goes to bat for God, speaking and serving honestly and truly, without compromise. And he goes to the mat for man, actually becoming the sacrifice that he offers for man’s atonement. He represents God to men, and he represents men to God. He fiercely battles the stubbornness of men’s hearts against God, and he bravely absorbs the wrath of God poured out against men. This is pictured graphically in Scripture by the sword: one which is thrust to his heart, confirming his death (Jn 19:34), and one which proceeds from his mouth, expressing his life and authority (Rev 1:16).

We, as priests (1 Pet 2:5), would do well to “cowboy-up” (to miserably mix metaphors). Whether we like it or not, we have a role in introducing God to man, and man to God, through the Gospel, that word which is “living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12). We need to engage in this activity with ferocity and bravery, even as we seek to serve like Christ, sacrificially.

Suffering Prophet

Classical theology has long referred to Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King. This provides a dependable and helpful outline to consider certain roles that Christ fulfilled. It occurred to me recently how strange these pictures are to us – or, how strangely we have come to construe these patterns. If we get these pictures wrong, we will have a faulty view of Christ. But we will also have a faulty view of our own discipleship, since we also are called to a fulfillment of these pictures, not in an ultimate sense, but functionally.

A Suffering Prophet
A prophet is a representative of some authority. He represents both in deed and in word. It would seem that a glorious authority would share his glory with his representative. In like manner, the scorn directed toward a despised despot would also be directed toward his prophet(s). We would have expected heaven’s representative to be highly revered. But because man is in rebellion against God, he actually responds with hostility against the Lord’s Christ, who is the perfect embodiment of the mind of God in both deed and in word, actually called “the Word” by John (1:1,14). We would expect God’s spokesman to have center stage, and to hold all people in rapturous attention. But we find Jesus on the edges of Galilean society, and only occasionally in the Judean Temple. He found little favor among the religious inner circle, though they claimed to know God’s word inside and out. But they proved that they did not when they rejected God’s living Word. Though charactized by surprising kindness and perceptive love, Jesus was hated. He was not what one would expect. He was the Suffering Prophet.

As you and I seek to accurately display the truth of the Gospel in deed and in word, we also should expect the same. People will not thank you when you kindly explain to them that they are sinners, and that they stand under God’s judgment nor when you make clear that they can not earn God’s favor, even though you are simply trying to relate the wonders of God’s grace. When you relate how you yourself have humbled yourself before God to receive the salvation that only he can give, they will often pity you and think you rather foolish. Aren’t we doing them a favor? That is not what we should expect.

Stay tuned for A Warrior Priest, and A Servant King.

Standing Aloof

“On the day that you stood aloof, … You too were as one of them. Obad. 11

Like me, what they did wasn’t all that bad. Though there were “strangers that carried off his wealth,” I didn’t do that. I didn’t steal. I took nothing that was not mine. And though there were “foreigners that entered his gate,” breaking and entering, that wasn’t me. I am not guilty of trespassing, of going where I do not belong. And though there were some who “cast lots for Jerusalem,” don’t lay that on me. I have no interest in them.

But the text is convicting. In standing aloof, “you too were as one of them.” It may not be so much what we do that convicts us. It may be what we don’t do.

One possible, positive response would be to stand up against that which is evil. That would certainly be in contrast to standing aloof. Be willing to protest. Speak up when you see a wrong. But let’s go a little further and examine this from a Gospel point of view.

With regard to wealth, the only real treasure is what God himself gives. The very best treasure is knowing God, a knowledge that God himself shares, and then sharing that knowledge of him. The greatest offense is not in carrying off wealth, but rather in hoarding it for ourselves. Though I do not take people’s money, I steal when I rob them of an opportunity to know God, when I stand aloof, and do not go to them with the Gospel.

With regard to trespassing, the definitions need to be reversed. I am not trespassing when I go visit my neighbor, just as he is not trespassing when he responds to an invitation to come over to my house. But I find myself guilty when I stay home alone, choosing my own isolation rather than interaction with needy neighbors, and when I prefer my own company to theirs. Trespassing is not the issue – but failing to make any kind of neighborly contact certainly is an issue.

Casting lots seems to be an effort to get what you can get. Take a chance. Maybe you will get lucky. But my responsibility is to sow seeds. I have not idea what will take root, what will spring up, or what will result in life that lasts forever. But I am a guilty soul when I fail to give what I can give, just as I would be guilty when I cast lots to get what I can get. And the first offense, having no interest at all, is at least as bad as the second.

I tend to look down on crooks. I think of myself as above them. And then this verse says, “you too (are) as one of them.”

Small Things

“Behold, I will make you small among the nations;
You are greatly despised.” (Obad 1:2 NAS95)

I normally look at promises as good things. But in this case, they are rather foreboding. “I will make you small.” There are at least a couple of others in the book of Obadiah that match the mood: “I will bring you down” (Obad 1:4 NAS95); “You will be covered with shame,”
(Obad 1:10 NAS95). Not good. And it is true, that these words are words of judgment on Edom, especially because of their treatment of Israel.

But I can also see a fulfilment of these words/promises by Christ. To the prince of the universe, God says, “I will make you small.” To the eternal Son, he says, “I will bring you down.” To the Glorious One, it is said, “You will be covered with shame.” Was it because he committed Edom’s sins. No. But because he bore Edom’s sins. He takes our punishment.

But here we must take another step. For as the apostles accepted Christ’s order of events - that is, suffering precedes glory - it seems that the church also must accept that same order. And so if Jesus was willing to accept these words as personal promises, then so should I. “I will make you small.” Insignificant. Invisible. Buried.

Being consigned to smallness renders conversation about size irrelevant. It’s a discussion from which you walk away. But smallness did not mark the end of Jesus’ ministry. It provided the context. Bethlehem. Nazareth. Galilee.

Philippians 2 offers a template of the Obadiah promises. Jesus left heaven’s glory for earth’s servitude. “I will bring you down.” Adoration will be followed by criticism. The audience of many will largely abandon him. One who had looked to him for guidance now betrays him to enemy soldiers. Should we expect any less? The leader will be lonely, not only because he is out front of the pack, but because the pack hates his guts. Crucify him.

Self-esteem must give way to God-esteem and Christ-esteem. Because once you are covered with shame, that self-esteem thing just doesn’t work very well. Not only do other people hate you; you hate yourself. You can’t stand to be you, living where you live, and doing what you do. But that is hardly the issue, is it? It is so much more about who God is, and where he makes his presence known, and what he wants to do.

2 Peter says “great and precious promises.” “I will make you small.” “I will bring you down.” “You will be covered with shame.” Am I sure that I want to be a follower of Christ?

Internal Speech

“(You) who say in your heart,
‘Who will bring me down to earth?’” (Obad 1:3 NAS95)

We say a lot of things under our breath, in our hearts. What we really, truly believe is contained more in this internal speech than in the public, churchy declarations of our faith. What will most influence our actions and reactions is this hidden world of thought.

Abraham is publicized in the Bible as the man of faith. But there was a time when he said in his heart, “Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” (Gen 17:17 NAS95). The man of faith was afflicted with doubt.

Esau was committed to decency during the lifetime of his father. But “Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”” (Gen 27:41 NAS95). We can put on a nice face while holding hate in our hearts.

David embarrassed Michal. He was “acting the fool” due to his love for God, and she was more concerned with how his actions reflected upon her than upon God. And so, “she despised him in her heart.” (2Sam 6:16 NAS95). Maybe no one else knew, but do we really think it did not affect their relationship?

We think we can get away with secret sins. These types (and more) of internal speech fit the category. But they have an affect. They color how we hear and interpret God and his Word. They shade our view of ourselves and of others. They can be the voice of the enemy on our shoulder, whispering in our ear. And all the time we think it is our own enlightened sense doing the talking.

“You felt secure in your wickedness and said, ‘No one sees me,’
Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you;
For you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me.’”
(Is 47:10 NAS95)

I need to come to a place where I do not trust my own thoughts. “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But he who walks wisely will be delivered.” (Prov 28:26 NAS95) I may very well be the worst liar I know, or what I find in my heart may be the mouthpiece for the worst liar that the world has ever known. “Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44 NAS95)

Justified

We’ve been asking people this past week, “What do you think God is like?” That has yielded some predictable, and surprising answers. But maybe a more thoughtful question is, “What do you think God thinks of you?”

Most people seem to think that God is kind and forgiving. But at the same time, I suspect a whole lot of people think God is mad at them. But that doesn’t make sense, does it? How can God be both kind, and mad at me? And here’s the point: our thoughts of God are a mess!

If people think God is mad at them, it is an evidence of God’s kindness in retaining in their sinful hearts a remnant of the truth. The holy God must, by nature, be angry at sin – and his wrath hangs over the heads of sinners. If he were not angry at sin, he would not be holy.

Man’s most pressing need is to be set right with God. We are at odds with God and with his holy character. We are in rebellion against God. We are his enemies. How can that situation be remedied?

A key word for our answer appears in our new memory verses: Justified. It means that, appearing before the bar of God’s judgment, we are represented by Christ, who has borne our sin and our sin’s punishment. Standing in or behind Christ, God declares us “not guilty” by virtue of Christ’s sacrifice.

Our relationship with God the Judge has changed. We no longer stand under his wrath. We are no longer regarded as rebels or enemies. We no longer need fear God’s anger.

Justification doesn’t change us – it changes our relationship with God. There are other words and concepts which describe the changes that occur within our hearts and lives – but this word – justified – is the verdict that brings relief to our fears and rest to our dread – and sets in motion a tremendous change in our attitude toward God.

Now we can’t wait to talk about God and what he thinks of us.

Blessed Be Me!

Peter begins his first paragraph, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It sounds like the right thing to say. It sounds Biblical, and churchy. We might all agree that it was the right way to begin a book of the Bible. We just don’t want to actually live that way.

The way that we want to live is, “Blessed be Me!” We want things to work out well for ourselves. We want to be assured of happiness, and to be able to attain success and to be recognized for it. We want our health to remain strong, our jobs to be stable, and our salararies to increase. We want our kids to be at the top of their class, and our property taxes to stay low. If all those things, and a few more, could be in order, then we would have the ideal conditions: “Blessed be Me!”

We think like this for at least two reasons. One reason is that we are taught to think this way by our culture. We live in a “me-first” world, and the combination of tremendous freedom and opportunity means that we can greedily pursue our own desires without guilt or penalty. In fact, such actions are rewarded and admired.

The other reason that we so easily continue in a “me-first” vein is because we are sinners. Sinners do not want God to be on the throne. We want the crown for ourselves. And though those who profess faith in Christ should find themselves in a daily battle with this sin and others, we have somehow accepted the myth that it is OK to re-verse the order of royalty in the world and re-write the Bible, so that instead of saying, with Peter, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” we say “Blessed be Me!”, and scarcely give it a thought.

To those more sensitive than ourselves, we would be wary of such blasphemy, and fearful of the God from whom we are stealing glory. As John the Baptist said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

More than “Showing Up”

Our Sunday gatherings are extremely important. They are important because believers need to worship together. We need to be taught and trained. We need to be encouraged and warned. I believe that your participation in our Sunday gatherings is critical for your own spiritual lives, and for the mission of our church.

But our Sunday gatherings are not the most important part of your relationship with Christ or our church’s mission. Rather, it is how we relate to Christ through the course of the week, and how we represent Christ in all our relationships, and how we rest in Christ in all our difficulties – that’s what is more important.

Prayerfully, our times together on Sunday (and whenever else we may gather) help to prepare you (and our church as a whole) to live the resurrection life in a dying world. Whether we see the gathering of the church as a time of re-fueling, or of healing hurts, or as a vocational training center, teaching skills to be lived in the real world – we still must reject the notion that we have fulfilled our religious duty at noon on Sunday.

I confess that I have a problem in this area. I still notice who doesn’t “show up” on any given Sunday. And while the gatherings are critical, we need to find ways to get beyond mere attendance, and to find ways to be sure that you are prepared to live life.

Lord, I’m Committing this Day to You

If the Lord Jesus is Lord of our lives, then each day should be committed to him. If we are his servants, or more accurately, his slaves, then he owns our days – not just Sunday, but every day.

He is in charge of my agenda. He orders my appointments. He designs the things that go well, as well as the inconveniences.

He has the right of approval over all of my thoughts and my words. He has veto power over all of the things that I may think are bright or clever. I have no right to go out on my own authority, or to act as though I am merely representing my own thoughts or interests.

Yes, there are many times when I am not sure what I should do. And while, at times, I just take a stab at it, I also am in constant communication, asking, praying through, even discussing various issues.

But the ongoing communications may not be the most crucial. The most critical communication may be that first one, at the beginning of the day, before I even get out of bed. “Lord, I’m committing this day to you. I dedicate to you my energies and resources, all of which you have loaned to me in the first place. I pray for protection of my thoughts and words, that they would not be wayward, self-serving and sinful. I pray for opportunities to serve you in ways that will stretch me, and bring glory to you.”

“Go to Church” or, “Go as Church”

It’s Sunday morning, and it’s time to go to church. What a devastating idea! It’s not devastating because you can’t sleep in, or enjoy the Sunday paper, or go play golf. It’s devastating because the very idea “go to church” is so theologically twisted.

“The Church,” as defined in the Bible, is the Body of believers, the fellowship of the redeemed. As such, local groups meet together, most often in a building. But the truth is, they are the church – they do not go to church. They are church when they are gathered, and they are just as much church when they are scattered. Frankly, it is impossible to “go to church,” because church is not an address. It is a calling and a life.

Our Gatherings are important. We meet for Worship and for Teaching and for Training. We come together for the healing of hurts through the repetition of God’s promises and the encouragements of God’s people. But even more, we come together for preparation for service, for engagement in our world as ambassadors and representatives of Jesus Christ. And so our Gatherings are only successful so far as believers are encouraged and equipped to serve Christ in all the aspects of their lives.

Are you ever relieved when church is over? Get rid of that thought! It’s not over at noon. It’s actually time to “go as church.”

Heart, Eyes, and Soul

“but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul.” (Deut 28:65 NAS95S)
God’s curse lays heavily upon the people of Israel, because “you would not obey” (28:45); “you did not serve” (28:47); “if you are not careful” (28:58). This curse was the promise of God for disobedience, just as blessing was God’s promise for obedience. Today, as participants, not in the Old Covenant, but in the New Covenant, Christ has borne the curse for us. And yet I believe that there may be a spiritual warning here, even as God saw fit to communicate aspects of this curse in figurative language. Is it possible that, even for believers, there are these internal, spiritual consequences for not properly paying attention and taking care?

A Trembling Heart – a sense of dread exerts tremendous pressure on every aspect of a person. What he fears in his mind is experienced in his body. What weighs heavily on his heart causes his strength to melt away. Habakkuk 3:16 shows the physical aspect inwardly.
I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered.
Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble.
Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress,
For the people to arise who will invade us.
Is this dreadfulness actually a gift from God, to lead us to acknowledge our powerlessness, and lean more totally on Him? Perhaps this trembling at dread can be replaced by trembling before the divine:
The LORD reigns, let the peoples tremble;
He is enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake! Psa. 99:1
Failing Of Eyes – the rarely used word can be found in the LXX, and indicates being used up, often in reference to death (my time is used up). The eyes no longer see as they once did – the horizon, the panorama, the grand vista is no longer available. One’s sense of hope is chained to the present, limited by loss of vision. It would be easy to run headlong into the whole “vision” thing at this point, but it may be helpful to think about what happens when we lose a vision of God’s glory, when we lose attentiveness to God’s Word, when our love grows cold and our endurance falters. Old Christians who are not constantly renewed are poor leaders, just as outdoor experts with poor eyesight have lost their ability to serve as guides.
Despair Of Soul – a soul that melts is one that has lost its internal pressure, the sustaining breath of God that is fundamental for life. It seeks to survive from poorer sources. He is no longer the satisfied soul that delights in God, but rather has become the shriveled soul that has forgotten God.
The remedy for any of these conditions is a return to God in humility, asking him to do what only he can do, bring revival of heart, eyes, and soul – of the whole person, as I return to him in repentance and trust. In so doing, I am thankful even for the unpleasant gifts, since their intent is to drive this sheep back to the Shepherd: “For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls” 1 Peter 2:25.

Dedication to God's Will

I am taking my cue from 1 Peter 4:1 and Christ’s way of thinking. Let’s fly through Peter and try to learn about the mindset of Christ who suffered:

“And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1Pet 2:4-5 NAS95S)

The living stones of the living temple must have a resemblance to the cornerstone. This is a tremendously high calling, though it will not be so in the eyes of unbelievers.

“For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;” (1Pet 2:21-23 NAS95S)

The results and the reactions are not my responsibility: they are God’s. The goals will not be accomplished by forcefulness or persuasiveness of personality or words. It is the gentle approach; the suffering approach. Peter wants to bring this home to us as well by using nearly the same closing line with regard to Christian sufferers in 4:19 “Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.”

“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;” (1Pet 3:18 NAS95S)

Divine purposes. That’s what Christ had in his heart as he suffered: God’s purpose “that he might bring us to God.” If I am to “sanctify Christ as Lord in (my) heart,” then perhaps a part of that is to sanctify also Christ’s purpose, which is to bring people to God, to gather more living stones by portraying and proclaiming the beauty of a suffering Christ to people around us.

“Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,” (1Pet 4:1 NAS95S)

Dedication to the will of God. That was the theme of Christ’s life. Peter is warning people like me that if I am not so dedicated, then I will indeed be dedicated to “the lusts of men.” I have to be honest and careful about sin. It is not only damaging and destructive; it is a red flag that I am not pursuing the will of God, which was the mind-set of Christ.

Errant Intentions

We talked a lot about “mindset’ last night. I’m trying to think about how the Bible talks of this subject.

Simon the sorcerer, in Acts 8, was an apparent convert. He seems to accept the message, and then wants to manipulate the means. Peter rebukes him and says:
“May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! “You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right (straight) before God. “Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you.” (Acts 8:20-22 NAS95S)

“Hearts not right” require repentance, repent being a common command in Acts. I also found interesting the phrase “the intention of your heart.” It contains a word that is rare:

e¶nnoia, f; e˙pi÷noia, f: that which is intended or purposed as the result of thinking — ‘intention, purpose.’
e¶nnoiaÚ ‘it judges the thoughts and purposes of the heart’ He 4:12.
e˙pi÷noiaÚ ‘perhaps he will forgive you for having such a purpose in your heart’ Ac 8:22.

The word is used in apocryphal literature – not inspired; but convicting.
For the thoughts of mortal men are miserable, and our devices are but uncertain. Wis. 9:14

The cross-reference of a related word with Heb 4:12 is familiar, and important.
“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ”

And then there is this positive reference:
“Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,” (1Pet 4:1 NAS95S)

The dictionary article on this word collects some related words together, but gives some good things to think about:
nouvßb, noo/ß, noiŒ, nouvn m; dia¿noiab, aß f; e¶nnoiaa, aß f: a particular manner or way of thinking — ‘way of thinking, disposition, manner of thought, attitude.’
‘(such a person is) puffed up, for no reason at all, by his human way of thinking’ Col 2:18.
‘at that time you were strangers and enemies because of the manner in which you thought and the evil things you did’ Col 1:21.
‘you too must strengthen yourselves with the same way of thinking’ 1Pe 4:1.
In a number of languages it may be necessary to render ‘way of thinking’ by a clause, for example, ‘how people think.’ In the case of 1Pe 4:1, it may be necessary to translate ‘you too must strengthen yourselves by thinking just like Christ thought.’

So I’m thinking about errant intentions, which Peter calls “wickedness,” and associates with “gall” and “bond” (‘for I see that you are full of bitter envy (or ‘are bitterly envious’) and are a prisoner of sin’) I’m thinking about the need for repentance, and what is wrong, and what needs to change in my heart. I’m thinking about the Gospel, and it’s ability to cut to the quick. And I’m thinking about Christ, and his way of thinking [Phil 2 will have to be a stop on this journey (“Let this mind be in you”)]. I’m thinking about a world that is filled to the brim with wrong thinking, and the unlikelyhood of 4 guys sitting at a table conquering the problem, but that, if we submit to Christ’s Lordship, it just may happen.

Belong, in 1 Corinthians

What Does It Mean to Belong? 1 Corinthians


A. It means that we have been called, or summoned, by God, to participate in a new fellowship, centered in Christ, which will re-shape our intellectual framework (2:5); our relationships, both with others in the fellowship, and with those in the world; and our practices and our behaviors. (See list of verses on “call”).


B. It means that we have been set in spiritual relationship with one another as a brotherhood, with responsibility to and for one another, and with the shared privilege of one day enjoying the inheritance (6:9; 15:50). (See list of verses).


C. It means that a drastic change has happened (is happening) in our lives (6:11), containing both an inward and outward dimension. The church is pleased to accept, on the basis of a sincere outward expression, the reality of a spiritual inner operation (see chart below).


D. It means that we participate together in fellowship activity for the edification of the assembly and for cooperative service and witness. This is to be done in ways that honors Christ as opposed to other individuals, and that upholds Christ’s character as opposed to accomodating conduct which is dishonoring to Christ’s name (reputation). (See list of verses on “come together” and just a few other instances of “together”-type words).


E. The church has both a universal aspect (throughout the world and a local aspect. While being mindful of and active in our partnership with the universal church (16:1), our practical exercises and disciplines take place in a local setting (see list of verses on “church” and “churches”).

Savior

The Savior of the World
John 4:42; 1 Jn 4:14

God our Savior
1 Tim 1:1; Jude 25

God my Savior
Luke 1:47

Our Savior God
1 Tim 2:3; Titus 1:3; 2:10; 3:4

Savior (God)
1 Tim 4:10

Savior (Christ)
Eph 5:23

Leader and Savior (Jesus)
Acts 5:31

A Savior, Jesus
Acts 13:23

Our Savior, Christ Jesus
2 Tim 1:10

Christ Jesus, our Savior
Titus 1:4; 3:6

A Savior, who is Christ, the Lord
Luke 2:11

A Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ
Phil 3:20

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
2 Peter 1:11; 2:20; 3:18

Lord and Savior
2 Pet 3:2

Our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ
Titus 2:13

Grace Appearing

Grace has appeared, time and time again. In fact, every time God shows His hand, every time God reveals Himself, it is an act of grace. Since the highest possible good is to have a glimpse of God, then for God to pull back the curtain just a bit, it is an act of grace.

God has done this is creation. We can see God’s grace as we use the senses built into our own frames. Through our own eyes, created by God, we have a window on the world that is, in large part, an expression of God’s grace.

Why do I say, “in large part?” Is not all the world completely an expression of God’s grace? No, because it has been marred by sin. And so what we see, and the very eyes with which we see, hold deceptions and hide glory. And so we stand in need of God’s grace again – not as uncreated ones – He has already done that – but now as unredeemed ones. We stand in need of the grace of redemption so that we might one day enjoy fully the grace revealed in the new creation.

But – and there seems always to be a “but” – we resist His redeeming grace. We think we can fix things ourselves, or we prefer to live independently, foolishly thinking that we can live better apart from His grace.

And then, God’s grace appears anyway. He keeps working, often so subtly, in ways that we would not expect. He softens our heart with a trial. He invades our thoughts through a poem or a song. He corrects our thinking through a children’s lesson, and chastises our stubbornness with a memory from the distant past. In surprising ways, when we least expect it, God’s grace appears.

This is analogous to grace’s greatest appearing, when Jesus was born and placed in a feed trough. The Savior came as a Servant, and the King was treated as a criminal. The power of God’s grace was manifested in great weakness, and when we saw the glory of God’s grace in the sacrifice of His Son, and our pride was busted, our hearts were melted. We became captives, no longer of sin, but of God’s great grace.

“Grace, grace – God’s grace;
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt . .”

Believing in Jesus: Neither Minimalist nor Maximalist

Alistair Begg (last 2 weeks recordings) objected to a minimalist definition of what it means to be a Christian: just believe in Jesus. That could apply to most anyone, with no commitment, and no life change. On the other hand, a maximalist definition might say that to be a Christian means to be perfectly Christ-like. We all have a long way to go on that one. What does the Bible say is involved in true saving faith?

An illustration of this comes from being clothed in Christ’s righteousness. Otherwise, the best we can do “filthy rags.” For the minimalist, maybe that means taking the “righteous robe” from Jesus and simply hanging it in the closet. One could make the argument that such “closet Christians” are not Christians at all. On the other hand, one might expect that if you are dressed in Christ’s righteousness, that you will be mistaken for Jesus. And that simply does not happen, though we would expect that, once saved, we are not just like our old selves. People say, “there’s something different about you.”

We are going to study today in the first half of the Gospel of John. He uses an interesting phrase – we believe into Jesus. Let’s see if we can figure out what this involves.

1. to believe means to receive.
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,” (John 1:12 ESV)
Think of a receiver on a car, that accepts a trailer hitch. What would it mean, if to believe in Jesus meant to “get hitched” to him. Can you think of other, maybe better illustrations of “receiving?”
Q: can we be confident that we are believers when there seems to be little connection, little reception, between ourselves and the Lord?

2. To believe means to “see his glory.”
“This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” (John 2:11 ESV)
Before that, it is like drinking water. But for those who see Jesus in His heavenly dimension, as the Ultimate Fulfilment and Absolute Satisfaction, it is as different as water is from wine.
Q: can we be confident that we are believers when we treat Jesus as though he were just “another guy”?

3. to believe means to understand what is at stake.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:16-19 ESV)

Perish - that is the penalty for sin. You embrace that fact that you are a sinner. You come to terms with the fact that you stand under the sentence of condemnation, and that your future is summed up in the word, “perish.” To believe means to understand the terrible problem that exists because of sin.
Q: can we be confident that we are believers when we never admit that we have a problem?

4. to believe means to obey the Son.
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:36 ESV)

It implies that you see the Son as an authority in your life. What is implied in this obedience?
Q: can we be confident that we are believers when we do not respond to Christ’s authority?

5. to believe means to “come to Jesus” for your daily (spiritual) sustenance.
“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35-36 ESV)

No one eats just once, and anyone who says they believe, and yet does not continually keep coming to Jesus does not seem to have truly believed. This, of course, is the idea behind “Daily Bread,” which implies that true Christians will desire a daily relationship with the Lord.
Q: can we be confident that we are believers when we have only a 1-time experience of coming to Christ?





6. to believe means to have the Spirit,
“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:38-39 ESV)

It is the Spirit within us who produces a “heavenly flow.” His presence will be expressed. How does this show itself?
Q: can we be confident that we are believers when evidence of the Spirit’s presence is absent?

7. to believe means to expect (hope)
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26 ESV)

We believe, in the face of earth’s impossibilities, that there is absolutely nothing that Jesus cannot do, even if it means raising the dead. What do we expect Jesus to do? What is our hope?
Q: can we be confident that we are believers when we live as though this is all there is?

8. to believe means to have been changed
“While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” (John 12:36 ESV)
“I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” (John 12:46 ESV)

We have changed from one sphere (darkness) to another (light); and to be related to the King of the new kingdom (sons of light) as opposed to being related to the Tyrant of the old kingdom.
Q: can we be confident that we are believers when when there is no distinguishable difference between our lifestyles and those of the world around us.