Encountering Jesus: Matthew 2

Matthew 2:1-12

This advent season, we are going to approach the Christmas story through the lenses of the other people and characters involved.  There is a lot to learn in how people encountered the birth of Jesus Christ.

In the account of Jesus’ birth in Matthew chapter two, we have three distinct groups or individuals mentioned besides Mary and Joseph.  First, we encounter the Magi from the east.  There is a lot of mystery surrounding these men, and that may actually lead us to some interesting conclusions about their relationship to Jesus.  All we know for sure is that they come from the east, they were likely Chaldean or Arabian by descent, and that they were aware of what was happening in the birth of Jesus Christ.  The journey they endured took a significant amount of effort and time.  We learn later in chapter 2 that Herod is worried about baby boys at and under the age of two, so their journey brought them to Bethlehem up to two years after Jesus’ birth.

The second group we read about is often overlooked in the story-the scribes and priests.  When Herod hears of the Magi’s visit, he is concerned about the birth of a king and asks the experts in the Law where the Messiah is to be born.  Note two things about their reaction to the question.  First, they know exactly where he is to be born.  Second, they don’t go.

And thirdly, Herod provides a fascinating and tragic story.  Historically, we know this Herod died a suspicious and hated ruler.  By the time of his death he had assassinated at least three of his own sons, several wives, many beloved local tribal and political leaders, and several hundred baby boys in Bethlehem.

Observing Herod, we have our first lesson in encountering Christ.  Herod reacted in fear and hatred.  Ironically, Herod understood the Kingship of Jesus better than most Christians do.  He knew that if this child were to grow to be King, his power and sovereignty were gone.  The birth of Jesus meant he was no longer King.  Likewise, the birth of Jesus means I am no longer the sovereign of my own soul-Jesus, and no one else, is King.

Encountering Jesus means not just coming to terms with my Savior, Redeemer, and Friend, but with my Lord and my King as well.

The priests and scribes reacted with distracted apathy.  They knew exactly where, Herod had given them the when, but they made no attempt to make their way to the Messiah.  Their preoccupation with their religiosity blinded them to THE moment in their nation’s history.  There is nothing wrong with religious ritual, but it is intended to be a means to Christ, and not an end in itself.

Our religious observance should be a tool in the hands of God to help us encounter Jesus Christ.  Once it becomes an end in itself, it becomes a blinding idol.

I am going to use the phrase “spiritual endurance” to describe how the Magi encountered Christ.  They had no political, military, religious, or social investment or expectation in the birth of the Messiah.  They did not journey in order to find their next political savior.  They endured their long and arduous journey to do nothing but worship.  They did not ask a thing, demand a thing, and they did not leave with a thing.  They endured the journey to do nothing but present gifts to a baby-to worship the King.

What am I willing to endure just to worship?  I am typically more ready to endure in order to ask, expect or even demand of Jesus, but can I be like the Magi and endure all time and hardship to do nothing but worship my King?

Contagious Worship: Jeremiah 17:26-27

Jeremiah 17:26-27

At the tail end of a passage in which God teaches on the topic of keeping and breaking the Sabbath, there is a final blessing added to the community that faithfully keeps it. Here God promises that if the people of God worship Him the way He ought to be worshiped, people will come from the surrounding nations to worship with them.

26And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the LORD.

The problem Judah has with surrounding nations at this time is not that they are being ignored, but that they are flocking to Jerusalem to destroy them. Jeremiah has made it clear time and time again that Judah has turned its back against God, and that foreign nations are coming to enact judgment on their sins.

As we noted in the previous section, God uses some surprising language regarding the Sabbath. It is the kind of language we would expect to be connected with murder or idolatry. But nonetheless, this rather strong language applies to the keeping and the breaking of the Sabbath. Ultimately, keeping the Sabbath is an act of outward faithfulness expressing an inward disposition of worship and sanctification. We keep the Sabbath-we observe days and times of worship-because we are willing to prioritize our lives around God, and not vise versa. We stop the routine of our week, take ourselves someplace other than work, school, or any of our other normal destinations, and take ourselves to worship.

Judah was failing to worship on the Sabbath. According to scholars, the Sabbath command was unique among the ancient Jews. In fact, the only other culture to pick up on the same notion is the New Testament Church. The Sabbath made the Judean culture different, but different in such a way as to be a symbol of God’s lordship. Without the Sabbath, and by conducting commerce on the day of rest, Judah became just like any other culture.

When we take our time and energy to worship, we make ourselves different. And we are different in a way that points to the lordship of Christ. Some say sticking out might be a bad thing-it might attract the wrong kind of attention or repel people from the church. But that is not what God promised. He promised that proper, enthusiastic, whole-hearted worship would draw the nations in.

People were born to worship. The church of Jesus Christ should be able to point them to the one worthy object of worship; our worship can be and should be contagious. May we learn to lift up Christ and allow Him to draw all people to Himself.

Clearing a Path: Jeremiah 17:19-27

Jeremiah 17:19-27

This little section of Jeremiah contains some teaching and warning about a very specific violation: the breaking of the Sabbath. Of the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath law is maybe the most difficult for us to wrap our lives around, and the one we might be most inclined to think no longer applies to us. But we must be careful with such inclinations. In the Old Testament we discover that the Sabbath is a pervasive reality in the life of the observant Jew. And in the New Testament, it is an assumed observance amongst Christians. The biblical teaching about the Sabbath begins in Genesis 1 and wraps up in Revelation 22; it is a thread throughout literally the whole Bible.

So what does Jeremiah have to tell us about the Sabbath? Here, Jeremiah confronts a culture that has become accustomed to working and bearing burdens on the one day God instituted for rest. And the warning is introduced by some pretty stark language-the kind we might expect when God wants to talk about idolatry or murder.

21. Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22. And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.

When God begins to promise the blessings attached to Sabbath observance, the first one listed is that the rightful kings will be able to come in and out of the gate. The imagery is crucial. As long as there is clutter in the streets and the gate the king cannot enter, but if the clutter is cleared, the king will freely come and go.

24. But if you listen to me, declares the LORD, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, 25. then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David,…

The Sabbath is ultimately about setting ourselves aside from the rest of the world and focusing our time and attention on God. It is ultimately about worship and sanctification. We deliberately take our time and our energy and clear a path for God to reenter our hearts and minds. The imagery used by Jeremiah says this very thing: if the streets of the city are full of wrongful clutter, the king cannot come and go. But if the people properly worship God and remove the market from the streets on the Sabbath, the rightful king will reign.

Ours is a cluttered life. We are constantly plugged-in and we are constantly in touch with just about any part of the outside world through 24/7 media, cell phones, and ubiquitous access to the World Wide Web. Each of these vies for our spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical attention. For us, then, a Sabbath act of worship will likely involve the deliberate clearing of the clutter so the King can come and go.

We need to take purposeful and effective steps to disconnect ourselves from the mindless flotsam we live in. So how can we, in a culture so different from the ancient Jewish culture, affect Sabbath in our lives? I have three suggestions, and they may be ones you have heard before.

First, we should pay attention to prayer in our lives. Instead of praying out of habit or circumstantial compulsion, we need to pray deliberately. It can and should act as divine water washing out the debris in our hearts and minds. Secondly, Scripture reading is reorientation. Being so inundated with the pagan culture’s worldview, reading Scripture should help reorient us toward God’s point of view. And thirdly, corporate worship is a whole-body/soul experience in which we take our time, our mental and emotional energy, and we worship God with brothers and sisters in Christ.

Are the pathways in your heart and mind filled with the kind of flotsam and jetsam that hinders the coming of your King? Do you hear the blessing promised by God for clearing out the clutter and allowing Him to enter? May we pay more attention to the Sabbath and the kind of relationship with our Lord it promises.

From Frustration to Affirmation: Jeremiah 17:1-18

Jeremiah 17:1-18

It is difficult to keep our eyes on Christ in hard times. Peter serves as the clearest lesson of this truth when he tried to walk on water and began to sink after moving his gaze from Christ to the storm around him. Jeremiah has been through many difficult times simply for being a faithful servant of God, and in these few chapters we have heard him express that frustration several times. But what might it be like on the other side; what clarity there may be when the trial has passed and our gaze has not moved from God!

In verses 5-18, we read a psalm of sorts from the pen of Jeremiah. In fact, you might recognize the influence Psalm 1 has on the vocabulary and themes of this chapter. Jeremiah begins by expressing the fate of those who trust in humanity:

Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.

This is not the kind of cursing in which we wish futility or destruction upon our enemies. This is the word God used to curse the serpent in the garden, and it means, “doomed.” The prophet has learned that those who rely on the potential and abilities of themselves or other humans are doomed to a path of aggravation and eventual failure. And the prophet is clear on why we cannot trust in others or ourselves:

The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?

This may be the starkest and most vivid description of the state of the human heart in Scripture. Of any and all things wicked and twisted we can imagine, the heart is worse than them all; clearly not a thing to be trusted. And in what is sometimes a convicting twist of phrase, though we are unable to fully understand the depths of our own heart, God sees and comprehends it all.

But all of this is a lesson Jeremiah has learned-he is writing out of what he has lived. Whereas he once accused God of being a deceitful brook (15:18), he now affirms that in reality, God is a fountain that never runs dry. Jeremiah has discovered that God never fails-never ceases to provide nourishment and grace to those who trust in Him.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.

So now, where in the past we read a complaint spoken out of desperation, we read an affirmation spoken from a position of strength (vs. 14-18)-from one who has seen the dregs of life and who has kept his eyes on God the entire time. In the past, Jeremiah has wondered about God’s ability to save and heal (15:18), now he proclaims that God is the only one who can save and heal. In the past, Jeremiah has complained about scoffers (11:19). He now brushes them aside. In the past, Jeremiah has felt the burden of his call (15:16-17), but now he proclaims in victory and thanksgiving that he has not turned aside from God’s purpose.

Let Jeremiah be an example to us all. Taking our eyes off of God and turning them to humanity for our provision and security spells certain doom. We must train ourselves to keep our eyes on the only one who is able to heal and to save; the only one in whom our trust and faith should reside.

My Only Hope Is In The Lord: Jeremiah 16

As chapter 16 opens, God wastes no time in laying a fairly heavy burden upon the prophet in order to get a point across to the people of Judah. These first nine verses are sometimes difficult for us to read.

First, God commands Jeremiah not to marry. The command is final: it is not the case that Jeremiah can marry later on in life. God wants the prophet to stand for the rest of his life as a symbol of the desolation, loss and loneliness that Judah is about to encounter. And this is no small matter for a young man or woman in Jeremiah’s culture. Marriage was not only considered a blessing, but singleness and chastity were considered a curse. Our prophet has become a social pariah-an outcast at the command of God.

Secondly, God commands Jeremiah not to mourn. Though this may not sound as harsh to our ears, it would have been to the prophet. Funeral processions were a community event, especially in a community as small as Jeremiah’s hometown, and again the servant of God is asked to stick out in an uncomfortable way.

And thirdly, Jeremiah is commanded not to make merry. This command reminds us of Jeremiah’s complaint in 15:17, “I did not sit in the company of revelers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone, because your hand was upon me…”

Each time, however, God gives Jeremiah and Judah his reasons. These are not arbitrary commands on God’s part. There was coming a day in which everyone would lose their families, when the dead would outnumber the living and there would be no time to bury and mourn, and the sounds of joy would be gone from the streets and homes of Judah.

But even then, it is sometimes hard for us to imagine the God we serve and want to follow demanding these kinds of things of his faithful servant. Note that none of these commands concern “extraordinary” events or circumstances. They comprise “expected” and normal events of life. (The extraordinary things might be much easier to give up!) Barring any calling to the contrary, most of us imagine ourselves being married someday, we plan on attending the funerals of our friends and family, and we intend to rejoice with those who rejoice. We tend to consider these events as things that will naturally come to us in the courses of our lives.

But we need to be careful with what we expect out of life. Jeremiah expected nothing but the glory and kingdom of God. If we expect anything else (for ourselves) it is because from time to time we consider our selves as more important than the kingdom and purposes of God. Jeremiah, on the other hand, did not see life as a string of events that were due him. Rather, he viewed life as a series of opportunities to be a part of God’s kingdom and fulfill his purposes. If the normal graces of life come, it is by the grace of God, and if they do not, then there may be more important things taking place.

So as a result of this series of hard commands, what is the prophet’s response? In verses 19 and 20 Jeremiah says:

O LORD, my strength and my stronghold,
my refuge in the day of trouble,
to you shall the nations come
from the ends of the earth and say:
"Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,
worthless things in which there is no profit.
Can man make for himself gods?
Such are not gods!"

This is language of hope straight from the Psalms. As a social outcast simply for being a faithful child of God, Jeremiah recognizes where ultimate hope lies-in the kingdom of God. It is there where salvation is to be found-for himself, Judah, and the nations of the world. Jeremiah did not consider himself a living martyr, but he knew that by letting go of his “rights” in this world, he was grasping hold of something far more important and far more eternal in God’s will.

May God grant us the wisdom and strength to know not just that our hope is in him, but that our only hope is in him.

God Remembers Jeremiah: Jeremiah 15

Jeremiah 15

Sometimes the call is difficult. Sometimes faithfully following the path God has laid out in our lives asks things of us that are a stretch, and sometimes they require everything we are and everything we have. Sometimes even just trying to be a Christian in our world is hard. I know we feel that strain from time to time in our lives today, but we can draw strength from the stories of God’s people and learn from them how to relate to the world around us and to God all at the same time.

As chapter 15 opens, God tells Jeremiah that despite his intercession Judah was slated for judgment. In fact, even if two of the better-known intercessors in the OT, Moses and Samuel, were to stand in the gap at this point, it would avail nothing. Our hero must be feeling a little useless.

Then, as we reach the halfway mark of the chapter, we enter another of Jeremiah’s complaints and if we are honest with the text, and ourselves, it is not difficult to hear a certain degree of self-pity and frustration. Jeremiah, like Job before him, laments the day of his birth. He feels as if his life has been nothing but a pain to everyone around him since the day he was born. But God feels differently. He reminds the prophet that he knew what he was doing when he gave him life. In fact, God had noted this very fact when he called him. Chapter 1:5 states:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;…

But Jeremiah has more to say, and taking note of the logic in his next argument is crucial. He says in verse 15:

O LORD, you know;
remember me and visit me,
and take vengeance for me on my persecutors.

“Remembering” in the OT is a powerful tool. When it is used, it means more than just simple recollection. It is intended to request a return to a previous state of affairs: it is a plea for action. In using this device, Jeremiah wields a powerful notion. He is asking God to return to a time in their relationship when Jeremiah felt God’s protection and life overall seemed a little easier for the prophet. Our hero is struggling.

Next, Jeremiah notes that he gladly and faithfully took in God’s word, and by virtue of that, his life has been a struggle.

Your words were found, and I ate them,
and your words became to me a joy
and the delight of my heart,…
I did not sit in the company of revelers,
nor did I rejoice;
I sat alone, because your hand was upon me,
for you had filled me with indignation.

In other words, Jeremiah is telling God that his word has built in him a love for God and godly things and a hatred for sin and evil. The catch is that all Jeremiah was seeing was sin and evil, and therefore he was indignant all the time. Our hero is tired.

So how does the God who led him to this life respond? After a mild rebuke asking Jeremiah to turn back to him, God encourages the prophet in a profound way. In verses 20 and 21, God repeats almost word-for-word what he told Jeremiah when he called him in 1:18-19. God returned to that spiritual mountaintop in Jeremiah’s life-he remembered Jeremiah.

God remembers you. God is willing and able to restore a relationship of blessed union and grace in your life and mine. It will probably not mean an end to the difficulties of this life, but what are they in light of the glories that are to be revealed in us? (Rom 8:18)

God's Glory Is My Greatest Delight: Jeremiah 14

Jeremiah 14

If everything were stacked against you, and you perceived certain struggle in the future, how would you turn to God? What would you ask for? How would you pray? In chapter 14 of Jeremiah, we get another wonderful glimpse into a conversation between the prophet and his God. God continues to present a message of coming judgment through Jeremiah, and a brutally honest prophet continues to faithfully convey the message while at the same time communicating his heart and struggles to God.

Now that is a difficult combination to preserve in our lives: brutal honesty and complete faithfulness. Oftentimes we assume that we have to surrender ourselves to a destructive doubt in order to speak with God on honest terms, or we feel that in order to remain faithful to God and his call on our lives, we need to ignore the questions or frustrations creeping along in the backs of our minds. Neither is so with Jeremiah. This chapter contains another display of Jeremiah’s struggles with the problem of evil while at the same time containing the prophet’s prophetic description of a famine resulting from rebellion.

So how does an honest and faithful prophet struggle with the problem of evil? In verses 8 and 9 Jeremiah opines:

O you hope of Israel,
its savior in time of trouble,
why should you be like a stranger in the land,
like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?
Why should you be like a man confused,
like a mighty warrior who cannot save?

In other words, Jeremiah is wondering how God can act like a tourist or a worthless warrior while his people perish all around him. And before we have a chance to catch our breath, God replies in verse 10:

Thus says the LORD concerning this people:
"They have loved to wander thus;
they have not restrained their feet;
therefore the LORD does not accept them;
now he will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins."

God’s answer, in this situation, is that the problem of evil is directed at the wrong person. Why is there so much evil and why does it seem that God is absent? It is because rebellious people have wandered away from God. It is not God who is causing the trouble, and thus it is not God who should be catching the grief. The people’s rebellion caused their pain.

And then after some more conversation, Jeremiah finishes his thoughts with a prayer. Given all that the weeping prophet sees around him, and all that he knows is good for the people of Judah and for himself, this is how he summarizes his thoughts in verses 20-22:

We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD,
and the iniquity of our fathers,
for we have sinned against you.
Do not spurn us, for your name's sake;
do not dishonor your glorious throne;
remember and do not break your covenant with us.
Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?
Are you not he, O LORD our God?
We set our hope on you,
for you do all these things.

Three things come to the surface. First, Jeremiah recognizes that he and his people are sinners. Even if Jeremiah struggles with the problem of evil from time to time, he knows it does not exonerate him or those around him from their sins. Thirdly (a little out of order), he acknowledges God as the only God. There is no one besides him who can rescue his people.

Secondly, and I think most telling, Jeremiah asks for God’s name to be glorified. Jeremiah does not pray that the whole ordeal will be over with quickly, or that the righteous would be saved from the pain and sorrow, or that God would stop it all. What Jeremiah wants more than anything else at this moment is God’s glory. He knows that what is best for him and best for Judah is what is best for God-that he would be exalted and glorified.

Will I have the strength of faith required to pray that prayer when the time comes? Do I honestly know that no matter what I perceive to be the best outcome in the face of pain or peril, it is the one that will glorify God? God’s glory is my greatest delight.

What Does God Think?: Jeremiah 12:7-17

Jeremiah 12:7-17

This particular passage is one of those that can fly by very quickly in our evening devotions as we prepare to fall asleep. You know the kind of passage. The one you reach and think to yourself, “I can skim through this passage-it will be OK.” We are all guilty of that, and we can’t always be blamed for trying to get to sleep on time. But there are treasures for the diligent reader, and this passage contains some wonderful and challenging truths for us if we only have the wherewithal to read closely.

Our passage opens with God describing the loss of his treasure. Though destruction is upon his people, and though God has warned them and told them the present troubles are a result of their own evil deeds, God is broken-hearted. Notice how the first three phrases make this evident:

“I have forsaken my house,”
“I have abandoned my heritage,”
“I have given [to their enemies] the beloved of my soul.”

I hope that our trek through Jeremiah has taught us a clear lesson about God-he is not vindictive, capricious, arbitrary, or spiteful. The God of the Bible is so full of love for his creation that even when we suffer the consequences due our rebellion, God hurts over our struggle and still considers us his beloved. His love demands we feel the sting of our sins and rebellion, but he remains always the lover of our souls and the forgiver of our sins.

As the passage continues, God describes how Judah has turned against him though he came to them over and over. They were like a wild lion in the forest and turned on their God. Then the chapter ends with an enthralling twist of pronouns.

Imagine yourself the king of Judah. Your enemies surround your country, many of your town and villages have already been leveled, and here stands the prophet of God bringing you the news of your imminent demise. Then you get this little gem:

“Thus says the LORD concerning all my evil neighbors… after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them…”

If you watch the pronouns closely (or read this passage in a clear paraphrase or contemporary translation), you will discover that God is telling Judah that he will have compassion on their enemies. This is not what you, the imaginary king of Judah, want to hear. But it is a powerful pair of lessons from the God of history to his people.

First, this reality, the potential for gentiles (everyone) to become part of God’s kingdom, should fight against the hatred the Judeans have at this point for all outsiders. God’s priority for them-even them-is reconciliation with him.

Secondly, this passage is a clear theological call for the particularity of the worship of the God of the Bible. God describes the terms of their reconciliation by telling us that He should be worshiped alone: there is no room for sincere worshipers of idols and pagan gods.

There is a great deal of pressure in our pluralistic culture to minimize the particularity of Christianity and hold to the kind of belief in which all sincere religious adherents have access to “salvation.” One catch is that Scripture doesn’t teach that. The most compassionate thing we can do is expose people to the God of the Bible and give them an opportunity to become a part of His kingdom-no matter who they are.

Let us not loose the courage of our doctrine, but gain the freedom found in the truth of the unique Gospel of Jesus Christ. And let us gain the compassion and strength to carry the message to “whosoever will.”

Take It From An Old Man: 1 John 2:1-6

1 John 2:1-6

What would your last piece of advice be? If you had a chance near the end of your life to write a letter to your loved ones, how would you encapsulate the lessons of your life? John had a chance to do that very thing in this letter, and his advice is a little surprising. We might think of “love God,” or “be thankful and kind.” There is nothing wrong with either of these pieces of advice, but they are not what John picks.

John has, almost literally, seen everything. He was there at the cross, the empty tomb, and the ascension. And don’t forget, this is John the Revelator who watched as Christ’s kingdom came to fruition. So what might this wise man say? “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” (vs. 1) So this apostle, whom God has given the opportunity to watch the universe be torn apart as a result of sin and rebellion, turns to his beloved readers and pleads with them not to sin. In a world in which we take sin lightly, in a world in which we think we may find joy and fulfillment in redefining our brokenness and indulging our shortcomings, John asks believers to take sin seriously. Take it from an old man who has actually watched it happen-sin will tear us all apart.

But John is a realist, and this brings us to the good news.

John pleads with me to avoid sin, but he also knows I will fail. He immediately adds, “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ…” (vs. 1). The error the false teachers were making (dealt with in chapter 1) was that they did not believe in sin. The error the sinner makes is not turning to a God who is “faithful and just to forgive us of our sins.” And this is a God who not only wants our repentance, but who has provided everything necessary for our forgiveness. We need not do anything but turn to Him.

Many believe that we should soften the blow of Christian teaching by downplaying the topic of sin. The idea is that it is easier to make people happy and fulfilled if they are not aware of their sinfulness. But John sees things differently. After describing the boundless forgiveness provided for by God Himself, John has this to say in verse 5, “but whoever keeps his word, in him, truly the love of God is perfected.”

The phrase, “love of God” is interesting here. It could mean several things, but most scholars agree that it is intended to convey the concept of “my love for God.” Secondly, the word “perfected” adds a great deal of meaning. This word is translated in a few ways in the NT including “finished” and “fulfilled.” It contains the Greek prefix telos, which means, “purpose,” “end,” or “design.” Now, having a feel for John’s language, reread that first phrase of verse 5. I am able to perfect/fulfill/find purpose for my love for God if I keep His word-if I come to Him finding forgiveness and His amazing grace. But that requires that I take a humbling, but crucial step toward him.

So many of us are searching for meaning and fulfillment in life, and John has given us insight into how to realize these desires. Let us strive to take the advice from this old and wise man-find yourself in the ocean of God’s forgiveness and love.

Is It OK To Say That? Jeremiah 10:17-11:17

Jeremiah 10:17-11:17

As we reenter Jeremiah part way through chapter ten, the vocabulary changes back from reflections on wisdom to prophetic lament and warning. What is rich about this particular passage is not only the imagery and metaphor employed by Jeremiah, but the glimpse we get into the prophet’s heart and mind. I think this is one of the things I am enjoying the most about this study in this prophet-following a faithful follower of God and learning from his frustrations, struggles, and triumphs.

In verses 17-18, and 22, the focus is the warning of impending judgment on the rebellious people. The rest of the chapter focuses on how that is affecting Jeremiah. Verses 19-21 hint at three things going wrong for the Weeping Prophet: possible physical illness (definite physical anguish), his home has been destroyed (and the families around him are being torn apart), and the general cultural decay wrought by corrupt and stupid leadership.

A good context for this short section is chapter 9:1-2. Here Jeremiah is conflicted between staying with his people and speaking God’s word to them in hope, and fleeing to the desert to escape all the inevitable pain. What does the prophet decide to do? He stays. His faithfulness to God’s call not only lead him through difficult circumstances, it required it of him. “Truly this is an affliction, and I must bear it.” (10:19)

So how does that make Jeremiah feel? It makes him feel like praying death and annihilation upon his enemies. “Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not…” (10:25). In doing so, Jeremiah stands on solid ground with the other prophets and the Psalmists. Several times in Scripture God’s people pray for these kinds of things in no uncertain terms, and they are never rebuffed for doing so. For instance, “happy is he who…seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” (Psalm 137:8-9)

But what I really want to know is if I should pray this way. I think we should, if we understand properly what these prayers are intended to do for us. First, praying this way teaches us utter honesty with God. We can dig into the ugly and gnarled depths of our selves and yank out the things we don’t even want to acknowledge. And note that the biblical pattern in these prayers is to request that God He resolve them. These are not vigilante prayers.

Secondly, we should learn to pray against God’s enemies this way. This does not mean praying against individuals, but the forces and the “isms” behind them. When was the last time you prayed against the Christian-killing reality of totalitarianism? Or what about the soul-dulling force of consumerism? Psalm 97:10 says, “O you who love the Lord, hate evil!”

And thirdly, praying this way helps make us aware of Christians who really are facing persecution and death around the world simply because they are the people of God. This was the scenario Jeremiah and David faced, and there are countless believers around the world facing the same thing for the same reasons. Pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ!

Is it OK to say these kinds of things? You bet-in fact, it might just be an enriching experience to let some of these things out into the open.

So That Our Joy May Be Complete: 1 John 1:5-10

1 John 1:5-10

If I were to give you a chance to fill in this blank, what word would you use: “In order to fulfill joy in my life, I would say God is ______.” Maybe most of us would choose words like “love,” “faithful,” “gracious,” and so forth. These tend to be the concepts of God that fill our lives with comfort and peace, they are certainly true of God, and John will in fact make a big deal out of “God is love” later in this epistle. At this point, however, John finishes the sentence differently. Following the thought in verse four, “I write these things so that our joy may be complete,” John then says, “This is the message…that God is light.”

As a metaphor for Jesus in the New Testament, light conveys two basic concepts. It first tells us something about the character of Christ-it conveys a fact of His person. But what may be more important about this image is that we know these facts as a result of Christ’s activity in our lives. So light is not just who Jesus is, it is how He works in my life. As a fact about His character, Jesus is absolutely perfect-He is holy. As an image of His activity, Jesus is at work in my life drawing me toward His light and pushing away the darkness.

We should be struck by John’s train of thought-my joy is made complete because God hates sin.

To describe his point, John proceeds to quote three saying that were familiar to the current false teachers.

“If we say we have fellowship with him…” (vs. 6)
“If we say we have no sin…” (vs. 8)
“If we say we have not sinned…” (vs. 10)

The false teachers clearly had a twisted view of sin. They were sure they could live in open rebellion against God’s light and live in spiritual harmony with the Church and with God. They were also sure that they simply did not commit things of which they should be considered guilty.

What may be the most destructive view of sin is one of denial or apathy. As John shows, it tears apart not only the fabric of our own beings, but it tears apart our fellowship with Christ and the Church, and it separates us from God’s boundless forgiveness.

So what happens when we deny or neglect sin? Be aware of the progression contained in these verses:

“we lie and do not practice the truth.” (vs. 6)
“we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (vs. 8)
“we make him [God] a liar, and his word is not in us.” (vs. 10)

But if we take a close and honest look at our own brokenness, a very different world is open to us:

“we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (vs. 7)
“he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (vs. 9)

So which scenario makes my joy complete? The one in which I have in fact lied so much and so long that I have deceived myself and no longer know the difference between what is true and false? Or the scenario in which I have thrown myself completely upon the matchless grace of God who is faithful and just to forgive me of all my sins and restore my fellowship with His Son and with His people? You be the judge.

What Does God Value? Jeremiah 9:23-24

At the end of Jeremiah chapter 9, the language changes from prophecy and lament to reflection on wisdom. The passage we are looking at breaks down into two sections: what humans boast about in themselves, and how things are different for followers of God.

The first list contains three items-wisdom, might and riches. Wisdom is the Hebrew word for “skill.” We tend to believe that through technological, political, or scientific advancements, we will be able to save ourselves. Might is simply the word for strength. Our culture idolizes the physically fit exactly because they are physically fit. What an incredible character trait to have!

The third item on the list, riches, is also plain to see. For many in our culture, wealth has become a surrogate for significance. We believe that a little more-a little more of anything-will fill us with meaning and purpose. We wrongly assume that significance is measures in dollar amounts, notoriety, corporate promotion, fame, etc.

God, however, sees things differently. Note how the second list in our passage is introduced:

“…but let him who boasts, boast in this, that he understands and knows me…”

The first step of wisdom in a rebellious world is to grasp how different God’s character is from ours. So what marks that character? What is wisdom for the faithful?

Justice and Righteousness mark God’s character, and should mark the character and actions of His followers, but for present purposes I want to focus on the first item on the list.

God practices “steadfast love.” This is a hard word to grasp in English, but one commentator describes it this way, “[it is] that inner aspect of character which prompts God or man, quite apart from any constraint of law, to show kindness, friendship, and magnanimity to another….It is the virtue that knits society together.” It is a display, even a disposition, of love where none is required, demanded, or even deserved.

Imagine living a life where traits like justice and righteousness come flowing from your very core-they come naturally from your character and disposition. Imagine a life in which the fruit of the Spirit come easily from you-they come flowing from an abundance of “steadfast love” at work within you.

As foreign as that sounds to us, it was the life Christ lead, and it is the life we are called and empowered to lead as we follow Him. Reflecting on whether all this can be said of your life, ask yourself, what do I value?

Torn Between Two Worlds: Jer 8:18-9:26

Jeremiah 8:18-9:26

Have you ever thought to yourself or been told that if you are exactly in the middle of God’s will for your life, things will be easy or smooth? I think sometimes we carry that assumption around, even if we do so without thinking about it. Without doubt, there are times of blessing, plenty, grace and peace, but if we take a close look at the lives of faithful people in Scripture, such as Jeremiah, we realize that God’s plan for our lives often contains times of struggle and difficulty.

The point I want to draw from this passage comes from the passage 8:18 through 9:3. We should take note that Jeremiah is not struggling in his walk with God, or “kicking at the goads” with his calling. Rather, Jeremiah is leading a faithful life dedicated to God and His work through him. And yet it brings him an unusual amount of personal frustration.

“My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me.”

The prophet then laments about God being gone from His people, and surprisingly enough, God answers his question. Jeremiah wonders if God is still in Zion, and God says there is a good reason it feels like He is absent-the people have turned away from Him. All too often when we pass through seasons in which it seems God is absent, we blame God for being gone. What we should be doing is asking whether we have turned away from Him in any significant way.

And then as Jeremiah continues to struggle through his people’s rebellion and God’s judgment, the first three verses of chapter 9 give us a great glimpse into the heart and mind of the weeping prophet. Contrast the first line of verse one with the first line of verse two:

“Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night…”

“Oh that I had in the desert a traveler’s lodging place, that I might leave my people.”

Jeremiah is in a place of struggle and difficulty because he is bound to his people and bound to God at the same time; he will not let go of his love and care for his culture and he will not let go of his call and vocation from God.

Pretend you have never read beyond Jeremiah 9:3; think for a moment as if you don’t know what the rest of the book holds. Will God’s prophet stay, be faithful to God’s call and hope against hope that some will listen and be saved, or will he disappear into the desert and cast his prophecies over the wall of the city from a safe distance?

Which will we choose? Do we find ourselves torn between love for our fellow human being across the street and our call to be witnesses for God? Have we given up on one or the other in the stress and strain of the conflict? The easy choice is to let one of them go-either love for our neighbor, or our dedication to God. But that is not the choice Jeremiah made.

True Repentance: Taking Shame Seriously

Jeremiah 8:4-17

In our study of Jeremiah we find ourselves in chapter 8, and in another long litany of judgments and proclamations by God. It is easy in such a book to loose sight of the details and nuances of these kinds of passages and skim over them as if they were all the same. What a closer reading finds, however, is a wealth of knowledge about human nature and the character and nature of God.

In the first three verses of our passage we learn a little more about the realities of true repentance (for a fuller passage see Jeremiah 3:6-4:4). It is just a matter of human nature, for instance, to turn away from God in our sin, recognize our mistake, and make an effort at returning to God: “When men fall, do they not rise again?” But Judah has made a habit of turning away from God, and it has become a “perpetual” activity for them. Additionally, they no longer are bothered with the notion that they have done something wrong: “no man relents of his evil saying, ‘What have I done?’” At least two things can be gleaned here about true repentance.

First, we must not only turn away from sin and rebellion, but we must turn to God and fill ourselves with the things of God. It is not enough to rid ourselves of our sins; we must actively strive to be filled with the Spirit and mind of God. Secondly, an appropriate sense of shame and regret must accompany our contrition. Later in this passage, Jeremiah notes that the people commit shameful acts and have forgotten how to blush (vs. 12).

Shame, in spite of its poor public image, is a necessary component of the human conscience. It is like a pain reflex for inappropriate behavior. Shame tells us there may be something wrong with an act, and that we should pay closer attention to the morality of our behavior. Having said that, there are two ways of getting rid of shame. First, we can rectify our behavior. Second, we can normalize shameful behavior and short-circuit the shame reflex.

We live in a shameless society-you be the judge as to which route we have taken to get there.

Have we become accustomed to things that should cause us to reflect on our sinful nature and our separation from God? Are we loosing the ability to take sin and the radical rift it causes seriously? One of the first steps in returning to God is realizing our profound need to turn away from the things which so easily entangle us.

I Touched Him!

1 John 1:1-4

If I were to ask you to describe an influential person you knew several years ago, or to describe a close friend you have not seen in years, where would you begin? Most of us might begin with a description of the time and setting of our friendship or encounter and some of the more salient descriptive details. We might describe where we were, what they did for a living, people’s perception of that person, their career, their family, etc.

If we were really close to them, or they made a profound impact on us personally, we might begin with our experience of the person.

In his first epistle, John does a little of both. Maybe 40-50 years after Jesus’ death there has been plenty of time for the apostles and the Church to build theology around Him and who He was. There have been decades of teaching about Christ and encountering heresies that threatened to split congregants away from the true faith. And in 1 John, the author draws on much of that in order to correct some of the problems he sees in the congregation to which he writes.

One of the burdens of 1 John is to answer questions like, “Who is Jesus?” and “How do we identify Christianity among all the competitors?” So John fills his readers ears and heads with plenty of foundational theology. Just in these first few verses we encounter the crucial realities of Jesus as eternally existent God (“from the beginning”) and fully incarnate man (“made manifest”). John points out that we, as Christians, cannot give one inch of our Christology-Jesus was fully God and fully man; He was God in the flesh reconciling the world to Himself.

But the thrust of John’s description in this opening section is his personal experience of the person Jesus Christ. Note the almost redundant usage of sensory language-heard, seen, looked, touched, seen, seen, heard. Jesus was a real person in real time touching the lives of real people.

John’s first recollection of Jesus-the first method of communication John uses-is to say, “I touched him!”

Our discipleship should be filled with experience. We should be able to draw close to Christ, knowing who He is and paying close attention to the details of our doctrine, but at the same time touching, seeing, and feeling Him.

If you were to describe to someone who Jesus is, would you be able to begin where John began?

The Process of Repentance and Discipleship: Jeremiah 3:19-3:25

We all know the story of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker-how Vader is redeemed through a final act of goodness that saves his son’s life and his own in the process. As the story describes it, Darth Vader was “turned” from the dark side of the force. A less familiar story (much less familiar) of “turning” is the moral drama that is Mr. Furious. After leaving his band of Mystery Men in a huff over his diminishing leadership role, he is convinced by his girlfriend to return and apologize. Mr. Furious sees a perfect opportunity to blame his behavior on his super power-his boundless rage. His girlfriend, though, simply suggests that he “just apologize.” Fortunately for Mr. Furious’ relationship with his good friend The Shoveler, not to mention the future of Champion City, he takes her advice over his own.

It takes a lot to admit when you are wrong. It takes even more character to return to the ones you have offended and apologize and reconcile-to repent. Our innate tendency is to blame the mistake or the sin on another or on circumstances out of our control (our “boundless rage”), but those tactics never produce a mutual and blessed relationship. Sometimes, the only thing that will work is an admission of guilt, a change of behavior, and a different perspective on our relationships. Sometimes, only genuine repentance will do.

In Jeremiah 3:19-4:4, we watch a conversation about repentance. Earlier in chapter 3 God called His people to return to Him and He promised blessing and forgiveness. Now the people express repentance. The tension lies in wondering if it is a genuine expression of sorrow for sin and a turning to the face of God, or if it is simply an expression of people singed by their own sinfulness.

Whatever it is, what God’s people express in their repentance makes for a profound understanding of sin. They clearly recognize that the years they spent on the hilltops worshiping false gods has been an utter waste (vs 23). And then they note that their rebellion has not only hurt their lives, but it has poisoned or destroyed the lives of others (parents and children.) A friend of mine is fond of saying that we don’t live for ourselves, and she is absolutely right. Our rebellion against God not only hurts us, but it separates us from God and from the ones who love us the most.

With all this deep comprehension of repentance and sin, let us hope it takes!

The reference to the “bare heights” is an interesting one. The hilltops are now devoid of the polls and temples of worship, so we know that Josiah’s reform is underway. And the people are weeping, lamenting their rebellion, which is a good thing. But they are still on the hilltop, where they used to gather routinely for the worship of pagan gods.

The process of maturity and discipleship is not always a straight line. The people of Israel were right to lament their sins, but they were not yet out of the habit of going to the temple to commit those sins. They were, if you will, in process. Our journeys are not dissimilar. Paul encourages us to transform the way the think about life, and we should discover that that is exactly what is at work as we learn to be more and more the disciple of Christ. We should be discovering “bare heights” in our lives over and over as we draw closer and closer to God.

Being A Pentecostal Church II

In the summer of 1906 there stood a reclaimed and whitewashed two-story factory building on the wrong side of the tracks in Los Angeles. If you were to walk inside at almost any time of the day or night you would behold some pretty amazing sights. A few fans hung from the ceiling, some wooden planks had been turned into pews, and there were a couple of old crates in the middle of the room turned on their sides and used as pulpits. There was a constant stream of people in and out of the building. They were praying, singing, and worshiping God in all kinds of languages. You would certainly notice something almost unheard of in its time-there was no visible segregation in any way. The rich and the poor, the children of slaves and the Oriental railroad workers were all in the same pews, apparently not aware that they shouldn’t be. One reporter who covered the Azuza Street revival remarked, “The ‘color line’ was washed away in the blood.”

Another notable detail that might have caught your eye was the man who appeared to be the leader. He was on the platform with a shoebox-on his head. From time to time he would remove the box, approach the makeshift pulpit, preach what God had planted on his heart, and then return to his seat and replace the shoebox-on his head. William J. Seymour, himself the son of a slave, was at the heart of the revival that shook the world of his day.

As a century has passed and pastors and theologians have looked back at Azuza Street, there have been many reactions. Most of them have focused on the shoebox-maybe not just the shoebox, but all the things that came with the revival that were shoebox-like. Many have mocked and rejected the Pentecostal movement because of its roots in Azuza Street, and others have tried their best to carry on the spirit of the revival. Unfortunately, what many people in this second category have carried on is the shoebox.

It is almost axiomatic in pastoral circles that if you have something that is working for you, you need to bottle it, write a book, and take your show on the road. What William J. Seymour did was write. And what he wrote about might surprise a lot of people who look back at all the shoeboxes of Pentecost-he wrote about love. What Seymour sought in Pentecost was not the signs or the wonders, and he certainly did not seek notoriety or fame for himself. What he sought out, and what he wanted others to see, was the life-transforming love of Jesus Christ.

Despite the scoffers, those who reject Pentecost, and those who try to turn a buck at its expense, Seymour watched the active presence of the Holy Spirit begin to transform the world around him by the power of God’s love.

In the events of Acts chapter 2, we have a clear and concise example of what the moment of Pentecost did to the church. On that very first day of the life of the church, what did it mean for them to be Pentecostal? In what follows, we will look at three sweeping themes of the chapter.

First: Pentecost empowered the church to glorify God in a way people could understand.

The obvious miracle of Pentecost was the act of speaking in tongues. But what it accomplished was the drawing of a crowd who then heard God glorified in their own native languages. Their curiosity was piqued; some wanted to know more about what was going on, and others were unable to grasp enough of what was happening, so they mocked the disciples.

How well is the world able to understand or translate the church? Do they know why we are here and why we do the things we do? A book I read recently made the point that there are dozens of churches in our culture who have a regional, national, or international reputation, but the people who live across the street have no idea what that church is all about.

Second: Pentecost empowers the church with the wisdom and strength it needs to fulfill Christ’s mission here on earth.

You might say that just moments before Acts 1:4, Peter still didn’t ‘get it.’ He and the other disciples still did not understand why Christ came. They still thought the Kingdom of God was a matter of human political and military institutions. But the moment the Holy Spirit came upon them, they understood to a much greater degree what the Kingdom was all about.

And in the face of even a little persecution, the disciples stood their ground and proclaimed Christ. Don’t forget that these are the same disciples who, just a few weeks earlier (even after beholding the empty tomb-John 20), were locked in a room with the windows shut.

Third: Pentecost empowers the Church to change the world through the lives of transformed believers.

The final section of Acts 2 describes a radically changed group of people. And the transformation was not trite. It was not just that mean people were now nice, and gruff people were now spunky. These people now saw everything differently. The rich no longer viewed their position as one of privilege, the poor no longer saw theirs as one of loss; they saw the way they ate differently; they viewed money differently; everything had been transformed.

Besides these transformed lives, the early church had nothing-no money, no buildings, no prominent political figures-nothing. But in the lives of the believers they did have the one thing every church desperately needs, and is so longing to have-the empowering and transforming presence of the Holy Spirit.

Being a Pentecostal Church I

As we make our way to Pentecost weekend, I think it will be appropriate to talk about what it means to be a Pentecostal church. I receive e-mails from time to time regarding Quail Lake and our style of worship and/or our denominational affiliation. We are affiliated with the Assembly of God, a Pentecostal denomination, and our theology and practice is in step with sound Pentecostal thinking.

What most people think of when confronted with Pentecostalism are the extraordinary things, and unfortunately, sometimes the abuses of a few charismatic churches and figures. While gifts such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, and words of wisdom are certainly crucial components to our theology and practice, I think there is a better place to begin when thinking about Pentecost and the birth of the church.

Paul famously deals with these issues in 1 Corinthians 12-14. I think we should begin where Paul does in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11. Instead of commencing by answering the issues of should we speak in tongues and how often, Paul begins by combating ignorance. The Corinthians were destructive in their use of the gifts because they were not clear as to why they were given-answering the question why is always primary to the question how.

The thrust of verses 2-3, rather cryptic themselves, is to point out that while the Corinthians used to worship mute idols, they now need to learn how to worship a God who is actually speaking to them and through them. No small matter indeed. (A fascinating cross-reference to this issue is Habakkuk-especially the opening questions compared to God’s words in the last third of chapter 2.)

Verses 4-6 arrange a Trinitarian example for the body of Christ; there may be many gifts that are given in many ways, but they are all given by the same God. The same point is made in verses 8-11. The simple thought in verse 7 is the fulcrum of this passage.

“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

From the reality of the Trinity to the potentiality of the body, Paul urges us to understand that the Spirit is given to the church to create unity amidst our diversity. The phrase above, “common good” in the Greek is part of the work family from which we get our word “symphony.” The body is like a well written and executed symphony in which the Spirit is manifest diversely in each member while the good of the whole is served by the actions of each individual. You should take a minute or two to read through 1 Corinthians 14 and note how often Paul urges everything to be done for the edification of the body-it happens over and over.

If God has given you a spectacular gift-maybe you really are some kind of a prophet-then you should exercise that gift in keeping with Christ-like humility and in deference to your brothers and sisters in Christ. If God has given you a gift that causes you to find yourself in the shadows more often than not, realize that God is using you to build up the body to look more and more like His Son.

This is where we begin when we think about being a Pentecostal church.

Jude 5-7

Jude 5-7

Reading and understanding the Epistle of Jude is a little like arriving early to the symphony. As you find your seat and wait for the concert to begin, the musicians file in one by one, take their seats, and some of them begin to play their instrument. As each one runs over a section of their piece, the sound that reaches your ears is cacophonous, but if you broke down each individual piece and put it in its proper context it would make perfect sense. After a few minutes of warm-up, the conductor arrives on stage, raises his wand, and when he brings it back down the cacophony has turned into a symphony.

The middle section of Jude, verses 5-16 can be very cacophonous if we are not careful to put each piece of the text into its proper context. The key to understanding and applying Jude is not to skip over this quirky and odd section, but to pay careful and thoughtful attention to each piece. Fundamentally we want to know what Jude expected his hearers to understand, and how that applies to the twin thrusts of Jude-Mercy and Defending the Gospel.

In the current section, verses 5-7, Jude lists three examples of past judgment and wants his readers to understand how they relate to the false teachers. The first judgment story is familiar.

Jude reminds his readers of what happened in the desert after the exodus from Egypt? What happened? Those whom God showed great mercy upon rebelled, turned against God, and died in the desert. The Exodus is a pivotal point in Scripture, not only historically but theologically as well. Jude reminds his readers that God’s mercy and grace cannot be presumed upon.

The second example is about angels being held for final judgment. According to Jewish tradition (the way his readers would be thinking), these are the angels of Genesis 5 who sexually intermingled with humans. Their sexual perversion and deep disregard for God’s creation put them in chains awaiting eternal punishment.

The third example is again a familiar one-Sodom and Gomorrah were punished for their sexual impurity as well.

So to pause for a second and bring some symphony from the cacophony, why did Jude use these examples? The false teachers had come into the community of Christ and were teaching a kind of moral liberation. According to Jude they were perverting the grace of God, which means they believed that because God is a forgiving God, it gave them the right to act however they pleased. But Jude sees it differently. God showed tremendous mercy on the children of Israel by bringing them out of Egypt, but their subsequent behavior got them a hot and sandy grave.

God’s act of loving forgiveness toward us does not always allow us to be shielded from the consequences of our own actions. God stands ready to forgive us all if we come to Him in love and surrender, but He loves us enough to allow us to sometimes learn that our sinful actions have rotten consequences.

Easter Reflection: Whose Story Will You Believe?

Our Easter text comes from John 20:1-10. Although there is much in this passage to discuss, I want to spend my space here talking about the reactions of Mary and the two disciples as they encountered the empty tomb.

As Mary comes early in the morning, she finds the stone has been rolled away and the tomb no longer holds the body of Jesus. Her first reaction is to run back to the disciples and tell them what she has found. Her tale is telling. Keep in mind that she, along with so many others have spend the better part of three years with Christ while he has taught them and the masses about who He is and the kind of Kingdom he is bringing. Among those teachings, we find at least three distinct times when Christ told them all that He would be betrayed, killed, and would rise from the dead. At this point, he was betrayed just like He said, and killed just like He said, and He has risen from the dead. But what is Mary’s story?

She tells the disciples Jesus’ body has been stolen. Before you worry too much about Mary’s faith, when John and Peter race to the tomb, we get this description, from John himself, about how he reacted, “and he believed…” (vs 8). Believed what? The next verse helps us answer the question. They did not yet understand that Christ would rise from the dead. When Scripture tells us John believed, it is not telling us that John had an amazing moment of faith, it is telling us he and Peter believed Mary’s story. We may be able to excuse Mary’s take on the resurrection because she may not have been in on all Christ’s discussions about His resurrection, but we cannot say the same for Peter and John-two of the closest disciples to Christ.

As the chapter proceeds, Christ reveals Himself to Mary and then to the disciples, and at the end of the chapter, Thomas enters the scene. This poor disciple has been given the unfortunate moniker “Doubting Thomas” because he refused to believe in the resurrection until he saw and felt Christ. But the same should be said for every other disciple!

I am struck by this question: why did Jesus allow Mary and the disciples to encounter and empty tomb before they encountered Him? Keep in mind Jesus has been up for a while now and if He has been just a little faster, or had not been stuck in traffic, He would have gotten to Mary and the disciples before they reached the tomb. He didn’t, though.

I believe Jesus was giving them a chance to believe the story He had been telling them for three years. Mary and the disciples, when they were confronted with the empty tomb, fell back to an easy and comfortable belief-that Jesus’ body had been stolen.

During Easter we are confronted with the same opportunity-will we believe the easy, human, politically correct version of Jesus’ story, or will we choose to believe what He has been trying to tell us for centuries? Our lives hang in the decision.

You will be able to find the audio of the sermon here.

Jude: Intro vs1-2

1Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

This past week we began a study on an oft-neglected book, the Epistle of Jude. This book is overlooked for many reasons, including its short length and the cryptic issues raised within the central portion of the letter. If we are careful, though, there is a lot to learn from this little epistle, and I think we will find it almost startlingly applicable.

First, a point that will make the study of Jude a little easier is that it is a close cousin to the longer 2 Peter. We will find that many of the issues raised in Jude in an almost shorthand fashion will be expounded upon in 2 Peter. The two letters are so close, that many scholars believe one letter borrowed from the other. There is much discussion about which came first, but generally it is believed that Jude was the original of the two.

Another point that will aid in our understanding of Jude is its relatively late date of authorship. Many evangelical scholars place the writing of Jude between the mid 60s A.D. to the mid 70s A.D. This little fact is helpful given the occasion and burden of Jude’s letter. He clearly states from the beginning that he is writing to encourage the believers to “earnestly contend for the faith” and be on guard against false teachers. Just a decade or two before, we know that there were false teachers following Paul and the other apostles corrupting the church. By the time we get to Jude and 2 Peter, it may be the case that the false teachers have become more organized and the need to consciously oppose them has become more pressing for the church.

Who were these false teachers? In our study we will discover plenty about these people, but we should make one point here. Part of what Jude may be dealing with is the very inception of the earliest and most predominant contender to Christianity-Gnosticism. As a systematized way of looking at the world, Gnosticism really won’t come into its own for a few decades, but it appears to be on the rise in the early church. Part of what make Jude so surprisingly applicable is that Gnosticism is still one of the most predominant religious contenders to Christianity. Its latest standard bearer is the philosophy behind The Da Vinci Code. The claims Dan Brown makes in that book are among the oldest contentions against Christianity on record. As our study progresses, we will get a chance to look more closely into the early Gnostic claims.

Before we finish, I want to make two points about the opening two verses. First, the author is most likely the half-brother of Jesus, and yet he does not identify himself as such. Among those who openly mocked Jesus during his earthly ministry, one of the identifiable groups is his brothers. More than likely, Jude (as well as James) were powerfully transformed by the death and resurrection of Christ and subsequently did not see fit to call themselves his brother. Instead, he calls himself a “bondservant” of Christ. What a powerful transformation must have taken place for one brother to see things this way!

Secondly, Jude makes use of the concept of “mercy” instead of the more familiar Pauline “grace” in his opening. Mercy, as the concept of “a loving act of forgiveness” will become an important concept for Jude before the book is through. This is important not to miss-though Jude is fascinating for its cryptic OT references and citations, that is not what Jude is after. He is after a sense of mercy and love pervading the church.

Jude has something profound and powerful to tell the Church even today.

Style Change

Due to my personal time constraints and further decision making on my part about the purpose of this blog, I have decided to change the direction of what I write here. I have intended in the past to simply “hit the highlights” of my talks, but I end up basically repeating my entire sermon on the blog. Clearly, that is not an addition to people’s study or the development of my own ideas and sermonizing. If you want the whole thing, you can find the audio on the QLCC web page. And in a technological twist of fate, if you own an iPod and subscribe to Podcasts, you will be able to subscribe to those sermons.

In any event, hopefully the change in format will be helpful toward the study and devotional life of those who decide to read the humble musings of a simple pastor.