Nice Church

As a follower of Jesus, I am challenged by what the Bible says. I mean extraordinarily challenged, to the core of who I think I am as a Western Christian man. The challenges are wonderful. Holy. Exciting. It isn’t a stretch to call them life threatening. A line from the song, Jeremiah, by Sarah Groves, comes to mind:

“At the slightest invitation, You came with total detonation. Now, that’s a fire.”

The “You” in that line refers to the Lord.

Have you ever had the Lord do that in your life? Lately, in my ongoing experience with the Lord, it is becoming more and more apparent that the Lord God, the Creator and Sustainer of everything that exists, is now choosing to blow up—in a spiritual way, of course—our casual Western Christian belief system and its attending organizational structures.

What’s funny about it—or tragically sad, depending on one’s point of view—is that the detonating scriptures we’ll be discussing have been there in the plain sight all along.

Let’s look at this one from Luke 14:25-33.

“Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple’” (ESV).

Apparently, according to this scripture, I cannot be a disciple of Jesus unless I am willing to turn away from my own family to follow Him, to love Jesus more than I love my family. I cannot be a disciple of Jesus unless I pick up my cross and follow Jesus, which means literally to be willing to give up my life and die, perhaps, a very torturous death. Finally, I cannot be a disciple of Jesus unless I renounce all that I possess.

When we read this, we all nod our heads in agreement. Yep, that’s what it takes. We might even want to sing, “The world behind me, the cross before me.”

However, Jesus didn’t end His teaching about the cost of discipleship there. He went on to say, in a most uncomfortable way, “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Luke 14:34-35 ESV).

Jesus is saying, basically, that if we don’t meet these requirements for discipleship, we have lost our saltiness. And therefore—hey, Jesus said this, not me—we’re not even good for the manure pile. This is something like saying that unless we gave up absolutely everything to follow Jesus we would then be good for nothing at all. Euphemistically—rather, in a roundabout way—Jesus tells us that we’re good-for-nothings unless we love Him more than, well, everything, including our own lives. Slackers. Lazy louts. Deadbeats. But it’s really much worse than that. We might be willing to accept the tag, “slacker.” But not good enough for a manure pile? I’m just glad that Jesus loves us when He says these things.

But somehow, we have the idea that these are the requirements for discipleship:

Going to church on the weekend.

Having a strong devotional life.

Joining a small group.

Tithing.

Serving during the church service.

And for the most committed among us, giving above our tithe and serving in our communities or perhaps somewhere outside the borders of our native land.

Certainly, there is nothing wrong with these six things in and of themselves. But they don’t require us to live on the radical precipice the way Jesus tells us to, where we daily entertain the possibility that the loose rocks on that precipice might actually give way; where we rejoice in a life lived on that rock face, because we are living the way Jesus did, the way the apostles and prophets did—people who are, according to Paul, the foundation of the Church:

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:19-21 ESV).

We know what kind of lives the prophets lived. To varying degrees, they were ignored, scorned or persecuted. And the apostles? Church tradition tells us that all of them, except John, who died in Ephesus, died violent deaths.

Here’s a list:

Matthew was killed by the sword in Ethiopia.

Mark died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he was dead.

Luke was hanged in Greece. .

Peter was crucified upside down on an x-shaped cross.

James was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat him to death with a club.

James, the son of Zebedee, was beheaded at Jerusalem (Acts 12:2).

Bartholomew was flayed to death by a whip in Armenia.

Andrew was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Patras, Greece.

Thomas was stabbed with a spear in India.

Jude was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.

Matthias, the apostle chosen to replace Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded.

Paul was tortured and then beheaded by the Emperor Nero at Rome in A.D. 67.

These men are the foundation of the Church. Jesus is the cornerstone. If the lives of these men and of our Savior were exemplified by sacrifice, what makes us think that ours shouldn’t be?

In my opinion, we have taken six very laudable activities that I listed above and made them external indicators of one’s life in Christ. (I might point out that these six things have become a kind of religious legalism for us in the evangelical world—but we’ll let that point rest for now.) My controversy with this paradigm is that these actions aren’t in Jesus’s definition of discipleship. They require a degree of sacrifice, to be sure, but they don’t require life-giving sacrifice. It is this sacrifice that Jesus will inevitably draw us toward as we draw near to Him, because that is part of His nature, part of His model, part of His example for us. Peter wrote:

“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21 ESV).

Anything less will not fulfill us.

However, this is not what the Western Church offers its adherents. We offer them Nice Church. Should we be surprised that the young people of our culture try to find ways to live extreme “sacrificial” lives in very physical ways? Should we be surprised that two of the most common criticisms of the American church—“All they talk about is money” and “They’re hypocritical”—stem from our lack of sacrificial living?

These things concern me. There was a time, early in this discovery process, that I was critical. However, this criticism has faded, thankfully, by God’s grace. Criticism has been replaced by an ongoing burden. So I suppose you could say that one of the purposes of this blog is to burden you—to burden you with the knowledge that the beloved church of Jesus Christ in the West is in danger of ignoring the very Scripture to which she claims such undying adherence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Apostle Paul’s Strange Admonition

            I grew up as a Christian in the Pentecostal tradition. I still consider myself to be a Pentecostal or Charismatic believer or whatever we call Christians who believe that the gifts of the Spirit are still in operation today. One of those gifts is prophesy, but as I’ve (hopefully) grown up with Jesus, I’ve discovered that my understanding of that gift has been limited. I take complete responsibility for that limitation, since it’s pretty clear in Scripture what the nature of prophesy is. From what I read in the Bible, the gift of prophecy contains four major elements:

1. Prophesying about events that have not yet come to pass, whether good or bad. An example of this is Agabus prophesying that there would be a famine in the land (Acts 11:28).
2. Teaching or speaking the Word of God in ways that challenge people. Most often, these challenges are directed toward God’s people, but not every time, like when Jonah prophesied to Nineveh. These words could include rebuke, warning or judgment and may concern events that have yet to come to pass. There are many examples of this. One is when Jesus told His disciples what would happen to the temple in Jerusalem because they wouldn’t allow themselves to be gathered to Him (Luke 13:31-35).
3. Offering words of affirmation and encouragement, which also may contain reference to events that have yet to happen. One example is the Lord telling Abraham that his offspring would be a blessing to the world (Genesis 22:15-18 See also First Corinthians 14:3-4).
4. In all of the above aspects, there may also be instructions about what to do. One example of this is when the Lord told Gideon that he would have victory over the Midianites and Amalekites and how to do it (Judges 6-7).

            Before we go on, I want to make it clear that I make no claim to having expertise in this area, so if you have additional insights, please feel free to share them.

            Now let’s turn to Paul’s strange admonitions concerning this gift of prophecy. Twice in First Corinthians 14, he tells the church (es) in that city to “earnestly desire to prophecy” (vss. 1 and 39). He tells the believers that prophesy is for their upbuilding, encouragement and consolation. It’s my opinion that the Pentecostal church has interpreted this to mean that the gift of prophecy is to include the first, third and fourth characteristics listed above but largely ignore the second—that of rebuking and warning God’s people about its behavior—which is the most prominent aspect of prophecy in Scripture. We just need to read the books of Jeremiah, Isaiah, and the minor prophets to see this. I have come to realize that the building up of the Church includes speaking difficult, not just saying nice things or words of affirmation.

            My understanding of this comes not only through Scripture but through my personal experience as well. The first difficult prophesy I ever gave was to a lady who was an elder sister to me. The Lord told me to tell her this: “Just as I raised Lazarus from the dead, I will raise you from the dead.” The assumption of this word, of course, was that this sister was dead, which is certainly not what we would consider a word of affirmation or encouragement. It was an uncomfortable thing to say, and I didn’t want to give this prophesy; but I the Lord compelled me to do so. In my experience with Him, I have found Him to be very…persuasive. Within days of the speaking of this word, this sister repented of her sin and was on her way back to the possibility of having spiritual health in Jesus Christ.

            In the last few years, I have become deeply troubled by the consequences that have resulted from the direction that the evangelical church in the West (and wherever else in the world where it has been influential), has taken. If you’ve ever read the blog posts on this site, that will have been apparent. I believe that the Lord is the One who has motivated this troubling. There have been too many insights into Scripture that have made this plain to me and to others. I’m just not that smart to see, over and over again, places in Scripture where it’s clear what we’re doing with through and in the Church is in opposition to the Word of God.

            So, here’s what I find amazing about Paul’s admonition to earnestly desire to prophesy in the Church, in regard to our gathering together: The Lord is telling us, through Paul, that we Christians regularly need to be shaken up in our walk with Jesus—shaken up by Him, that is. Life with Him and the Church should be edgy, in other words. It should keep us regularly questioning what we’re doing—and what He’s doing—and therefore seeking Him. This is very challenging. Well, it is to me, anyway, and I’ll admit to a propensity to getting stuck in ruts and be comfortable with the status quo. However, I think we would all agree that most of us are quite fond of stability and averse to its opposite. If you’ve been around for any length of time, you have discovered that change is difficult for people, and that includes people in the Church—perhaps more so. We’ve all heard stories about how people have left churches for relatively insignificant reasons such as a change in how rooms were carpeted. I have no uncertainty that the Lord is aware of this aversion to change.

            Therefore, this is where the apostle Paul and we in the Church come into conflict with each other. He wants to keep us challenged in our walk with Him and help us resist the status quo. We prefer predictable sameness. However, He recognizes blind spots that we just can’t see. That’s why they’re called blind spots. He loves us too much to not call us on things that may lead to laxity or lifelessness. In addition, let me be clear that this is not about reading our Bibles, praying or going to church. This is about our hearts toward Him and our love for Him—our sacrificial love for Him. We must always keep in mind that doing what is right (reading the Bible and so forth) and not doing what is wrong are symptoms, not causes. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” in John 14:15. I’ve found that it’s not that I stop loving Him per se—it’s that I simply don’t understand what loving Him really entails. Again, it’s that blind spot thing. If we allow prophets to speak, He will challenge us down to the depths of our souls concerning our love for Him. And that’s a good thing.

 

 

 

A Young Pastor and Leader Shares His Thoughts About the Church

My friend, Stephen Norberg, sent this to me recently:

“I got baptized at the front of a large church when I was 16 years old. I announced to everyone that I was getting baptized because I had decided following Jesus was more exciting than anything this world had to offer. Years later, I would be lying if I said my experience in ministry and as a pastor was nearly as exciting as simply following Jesus. And that makes me sad.

It seems that Christianity, and pastoral ministry especially, has largely evolved to become about more than just following Jesus and helping other people follow Jesus. Most pastors I know have schedules packed with meetings and meetings about meetings; between the planning, the sermon preparations, and the endless recruiting of warm bodies to accomplish all the church tasks that need doing, very little time and energy is left. So pastors get burned out, the leaders under them get burned out, and more godly people than would like to admit it wake up on Sunday mornings and wearily wish to be able to skip church, if just for the day.

Why does being a pastor entail so much STUFF? Why do a growing number of people think church is boring and irrelevant? And why are Christians consistently defined as judgmental and hypocritical, when Jesus told his followers the world would simply know them by their love?

Could it be that the Church looks too much like world?

Sure, we have an entire genre of music, a Christianese dialect, our own lobbyists in Washington, scriptures to backup everything we do, and some of the biggest holidays in America. Oh, and let’s not forget our impressive propensity for Bible quoting, cross-wearing, anti-swearing, alcohol-avoiding, and sinner-condemning behavior. But, unfortunately, none of those things make us look like Jesus.

Today, our denominations are billion-dollar organizations that often operate more like franchise operations than disciples of Jesus who have given up their lives for his sake. Many of my friends and peers are incredibly disillusioned with church and organized religion, but until the Church overwhelmingly shifts from spending so much time on matters of power, money, and religious agenda, and gets back to simply loving people unconditionally like Jesus did, I see little hope for those negative opinions changing.

I remember going to the Foursquare National Convention in Columbus, Ohio in 2012, where I heard significant discussion about how the average age of pastors and church congregations was slipping older and older, and how that was a real problem. At the time, I was embarrassed to tell anyone, but as a 27 year-old pastor, I couldn’t help but secretly think, “No wonder. I don’t think many of my friends would enjoy being here.”

More than anything else in the world, people are hungry for love and relationship. And church SHOULD be the one community where people feel absolutely accepted and loved. But too much of church has become about lecturing, recruiting, and acting religious to the point of being fake. A hurt and disillusioned friend recently told me, “I just want somewhere where I can be myself, and can be free.” Can’t we please make church that place? That’s something I could really get excited about — it sure beats the pants off debating polity and church politics.

At the end of the day, we don’t need bigger churches and better services, we just need bigger love and better relationships. And until we’re willing to reorder our priorities and commit to simply getting really good at love and being genuine — even at the expense of failing at impressive worldly things like bank accounts, prestige, and nifty branding — then people will not see Jesus through us.

My vision for the Church is to return to the excitement and simplicity of following Jesus, and helping other people follow him too. Maybe then we can all finally find a place where we belong. Through his life and death, Jesus showed the world a love too pure and good to come from anywhere other than God. I don’t know a lot of things, but I do know I want to spend the rest of my life getting to know that kind of love.”

The God We Do Not Know, Part Three

The more one finds out about God, the more amazing He becomes. Our universe-creating, present-everywhere, knows-everything, loving God is also, for lack of a better word, common. I suppose one could say that He’s “earthy,” but I’m not sure that communicates clearly the aspect of His nature that I’d like us to consider.

The first example for us to examine is from Exodus 20, after the Lord had given the Ten Commandments to Moses and the people of Israel. The people were afraid.

“Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.’ Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.’ The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.’ After Moses told the people not to be afraid, he drew near to the darkness where God was. God spoke. ‘And the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it, And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it”’” (Exodus 20:18–26 ESV).

Here’s one way I think we could approach these verses. To paraphrase and amplify, “You saw yourselves how I spoke to you. I spoke from heaven. I am God, and I have the ability to speak to you like this, unlike any other so-called god can. I know you are afraid when I do this. However, I don’t want you to make any gods of gold or silver to be with Me. They are not gods, and I don’t need gold or silver. In fact, I want you to make an altar of dirt, not of gold or silver, where you can offer sacrifices. And if you decide to make Me an altar of stone, don’t cut it from another rock. It’s not necessary for you to be concerned about making the lines and edges just right. Don’t carve anything at all on it. I just want it to be a pile of rocks. If you start putting your hand to this work, you’ll profane it. Those very common rocks are just fine without you thinking you can make them better. You won’t. You’re sinful. That’s why I don’t want you to go up by steps by this altar. Your nakedness will be exposed. There was a time when it was okay for you to be naked, back in the Garden of Eden. That was before you fell. But after your ancestors sinned, I had to make garments by sacrifice for them because they were ashamed of their nakedness, the way I had created them to be. But you’re still fallen. Don’t think you can somehow ‘beauty up that fallenness.’ You can’t.”

The Lord commanded something similar after Joshua and the people of Israel had crossed the Jordan River to go into the land that the Lord had promised to them and their forefather Abraham. Here’s what the Lord told them to do in order to remember what He had done to bring them into the Land:

“Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’ Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, ‘Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, “What do those stones mean to you?” then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.’” (Joshua 4:2–7 ESV).

Today, and all throughout history, this is not how memorials to events or individuals have been constructed. The world is filled with great works of architecture, memorials to honor dead pharaohs, heroes and kings, statues to significant leaders and victorious warriors, and historical commemorations where important events took place. Even those unknown to many of us, like brave, fallen soldiers, have at least a plaque, be it ever so simple. I’m not saying such things are wrong or improper. I’m simply drawing a contrast to how the Lord wanted Israel to remember something significant He had done and how we remember noteworthy people and events. The Lord had just miraculously stopped the waters of the Jordan River so Israel could cross over into the Promised Land. If they’d had their way, I’m relatively certain that they would not have simply gathered rocks. And I have little doubt that if something similar happened today and we had our way, we wouldn’t either. I’m not sure how Israel at that time would have responded without the Lord’s direction, but today we’d certainly need to have months of meetings and subsequent appeals to raise funds in order to do something appropriate. We’d probably spend lots of money to make sure we were honoring God for what He had done. Expensive architecture and building materials would certainly be involved. It’s also not a stretch that we would also undoubtedly think that God had done this great thing to make sure our group, people or country survived because we were so strong, wise, wonderful or needed—otherwise, why would He have done it? Well, He commanded Israel to pile up twelve rocks for one reason only—so that they would remember what He had done—not to cause Israel to consider themselves superior to others.

The God We Do Not Know, Part Two

Jesus’s teaching that His disciples should become like little children is one of the most difficult of His teachings for me to understand. How does an adult do that in reality, not simply in theory? I immediately ask myself, “What are children like?” Well, it’s a mixed picture. True, they’re cute, innocent, snuggly, random, funny—the list could go on. However, at times they’re not cute at all, at least in a behavioral sense. In our house, we used to joke that our kids were cute when they were asleep. And innocent? Well, let’s face the uncomfortable truth. Children will lie straight to a parent’s face. Snuggly, sure, but they also fight like cats and dogs. Random, yes, but often maddeningly illogical. And they’re funny, although they often laugh at others in order to humiliate them. And isn’t it true that they can be monumentally selfish? Have you ever been around a couple of two year olds and heard the word, “Mine!”? I’ve often said that people who think kids are gentle and innocent either have never had any children and/or have never been in a room where two or more toddlers were present. One of the most challenging things first-time parents often have to face  is the reality that their sweet, beloved children aren’t pure, spotless angels—they’re actually misbehaving, tantrum-throwing sinners, much like everybody else’s children. The other uncomfortable truth is that children are a lot like adults. So, Jesus can’t be telling us that we’re to act like selfish children. What is He saying? To discover that, we need to look at the context.

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.       Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven’” (Matthew 18:1–4).

It seems clear that the childish trait that Jesus emphasized here was humility. Jesus said that His followers should become like children in response to the disciples question about greatness in the kingdom of God. However, this doesn’t fully solve our problem of understanding what Jesus meant. How does one humble oneself like a child? How are children humble? I think biblical scholar Ulrich Luz summed it up well with one sentence in his commentary on Matthew: “Disciples who are like children are thus small, insignificant, and without power.”¹ According to Jesus, being great in His kingdom equals utter powerlessness as the world views power.

This is Jesus, again, profoundly contrasting our understanding of how His kingdom functions with how the world functions. This is the kingdom of the God we do not know. It’s not necessary to go into a lengthy investigation of how greatness is perceived in all cultures. We all know how the world operates and effectively gets things done and what it values, whether it’s in the realm of government, village, tribe or business. It would not be inaccurate to say that what is prized among all these realms are power, money, influence and status or combinations thereof. How in the world are Christians to function or even exist in this kind of world if they are to become as small, insignificant and powerless as children? The acknowledgement that we struggle with a real-world answer to this question should indicate to us how little we know about our God.

Is it possible for us to envision how a leader would pastor a church like a powerless child? I don’t deny that is difficult. To do so, he would have to release the reins of power. Ah, but who would then take those reigns? The congregation? Another individual? I can’t imagine how becoming like a child would be possible in the way we view church leadership. However, if we view church leaders as elders whose primary job is to shepherd disciples to become like their Savior, the picture becomes a bit clearer. The power to tell others what to do, as a leader would direct his employees in a corporate structure, disappears. The hiring and firing of staff would no longer be necessary. Thus, the entire system of programs would disintegrate. So, we would have a church that would be led as an elder father leads his family. Now, a father does exercise control over his young children—until they become adults, that is. Disciples of Jesus Christ are no longer children and thus cannot be controlled like children. They are to be shepherded like adults. However, according to this teaching of Jesus, the elder would need to include being a powerless child into his leadership paradigm. That would mean that his authority to “move” others toward a greater intimacy with Jesus would not come from his own personal authority but from the authority of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. He would encourage and teach them to be obedient to Scripture. He would admonish and rebuke them, if necessary. He would love and encourage them. If they chose not to follow Christ, that would be their unfortunate decision. The elder had done his job. He had been faithful to the Word and to Jesus—he had done all that he could do. Of course, in our current understanding of church leadership, the reality of people forsaking Christ is also the case. Nevertheless, we do not lead like elders without earthly power. I should amend that statement. “Successful” churches do not lead like this. If we led like this, like powerless children, we would not “get anything done.” However, I am met face-on with Jesus’s statement: “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Therefore, I am confronted with a seemingly impenetrable conundrum. If I want to strive to be what our Father wants me to be in His kingdom, it’s very possible that I will not “get things done” or “be successful” according to our current metrics of success. Church leaders say they have a vision to change to the world or reach the world and other such statements. The way this is accomplished is by means of leadership that is contrary to what Jesus taught. It is a leadership of power, of positional authority. Therefore, I cannot escape the truth that being greatest in the Father’s kingdom will work against the “getting it done” mindset. Apparently, our understanding of evangelizing the world for Christ by using a top-down corporate structure is at odds with Jesus’s teaching. It seems inconvertible that our zeal to evangelize has been at the expense of being great in God’s kingdom. This revealing reality is so contrary to my thinking that it makes my head swim. He is indeed the God that I do not know.

¹ Luz, U. (2001). Matthew: A commentary (H. Koester, Ed.). Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible (429). Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg.

 

The God We Don’t Know

Below is the beginning of a chapter of a book that I’d like to write about the Christian God. I’m not quite sure what to call this book, but its common theme is how different He is from us, how differently He thinks. And it’s not just that He’s different. It’s that when He inserts His truth into our lives, it’s like throwing a spiritual hand grenade into our midst. That’s why I’ve wondered about titling the book, “Jesus and the Art of Throwing Spiritual Hand Grenades.” That might be a bit too much. I’ve also considered, “The God We Don’t Know.” If you have any great ideas, I’m open. Anyway, here’s a couple of paragraphs I’ve been working on:

The more one finds out about God, the more amazing He becomes. Our universe-creating, present-everywhere, knows-everything, loving God is also, for lack of a better word, common. I suppose one could say that He’s “earthy,” but I’m not sure that communicates clearly the aspect of His nature that I’d like to bring our attention to.

The first example I’d like us to consider is from Exodus 20, after the Lord had given the Ten Commandments to Moses and the people of Israel. The people were afraid. “Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die’” (Exodus 20:18–19). After Moses told the people not to be afraid, he drew near to the darkness where God was. God spoke. “And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: “You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it, And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it”’” (Exodus 20:22–26).

Here’s one way I think we could approach these verses where the Lord spoke to Moses and Israel. To paraphrase and amplify, “You saw yourselves how I spoke to you. I spoke from heaven. I am God, and I have the ability to speak to you like this, unlike any other so-called god can. I know you are afraid when I do this. However, I don’t want you to make any gods of gold or silver to be with Me. You don’t need them, and I don’t need gold or silver. In fact, I want you to make an altar of dirt for Me where you can make the sacrifices. And if you decide to make Me an altar of stone, don’t cut it from another rock. It’s not necessary for you to be concerned about making the lines and edges just right. Don’t carve anything at all on it. I just want it to be a pile of rocks. If you start putting your hand to this work, you’ll mess it up. You’ll profane it. Honestly, those plain old rocks are just fine without you thinking you can make them better. You won’t. You’re sinful. That’s why I don’t want you to go up by steps by this altar. Your nakedness will be exposed. There was a time when it was okay for you to be naked, back in the Garden of Eden. That was before you fell. But after your ancestors sinned, I had to make garments by sacrifice for them because they were ashamed of their nakedness, the way I had created them to be. But you’re still fallen. Don’t think you can somehow ‘beauty that fallenness up.’ You can’t.”

Losing the Election and Losing the Culture

After the failure to put Mitt Romney in the White House in the election of 2012, conservatives were seeking answers. The defeat of their candidate caused conservatives to come to this shocking truth: In a democracy, the majority rules, and the majority of people in this nation voted for a man that many thought was a socialist who was actually trying to bring down this nation, a man who promotes gay rights and abortion. It seemed to be a surprise that this was the man the culture wanted, but if this was the man the culture wanted, the answer is to change the culture, they say.

Change the culture, huh? Good luck with that. But I don’t believe in luck. It’s a superstition, like keeping your fingers crossed, hoping that gesture will somehow change the outcome of something. God is sovereign, not luck.

We’re not going to change the culture via a political process. I think most Christians know this, but I suppose they were all hoping against hope that somehow Romney would at least keep us from bankruptcy and uphold conservative family values, in particular traditional marriage and protection of the unborn. However, Romney’s traditional Mormonism would have done nothing to stop the slide of morality in the country. If Christians thought so, they were deluding themselves.

Here are two brutal realities, no matter who had won the election of 2012:

Reality one: Traditional values in the United States were strong enough to hold for a while, but they have fallen to the onslaught of sinful culture change.

Reality two: The majority of people in the United States have turned away from God. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that we have turned away from Jesus.

Now, I know that Christians are quite willing to blame the Church for this decline. We’ve failed to reach the culture, we say. This is a strange position to hold, since our megachurches are doing, it seems, all that is worldily possible to engage the culture—emphasis on worldily, if that’s even a word. But the church has always been worldly. When I read commentaries from a century or more ago, those authors also lamented how carnal the Church was. It all sounds very familiar. And check out Paul’s letters to the Corinthians and the Galatians, as well as Jesus’s letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation. Keep in mind that this had happened within less than sixty years after Jesus walked the earth. Didn’t take long, did it?

So has the Church failed to “hit the sweet spot” in engaging this culture? Maybe. I have huge problems with the Church. If you’ve read any of the posts on this blog, that is evident. Nevertheless, the evangelical church is still populated by very many born-again believers. These are good folk who are trying their best to spread the light of Christ to the people of the United States. Are they doing a great job? I don’t know. Are you?

Is it the Church’s fault that the majority of people in the United States are falling away from the Lord? No. It’s more accurate to say that people are sinful, and they would rather remain in that condition than come to the knowledge of salvation through Jesus. This culture is hugely strong. It’s tsunami strong. For just one contemporary example, try resisting consumerism this Christmas season, and let me know how it works out for ya.

So, Jim, Mr. Smart Guy, what’s the answer, you may ask. Well, Jesus told us the answer. “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Many years ago, Laurie and I were part of a fellowship that used to sing a song with this verse: “Disciples first, then fishers of men—that’s what Jesus said. Disciples first is still the call today.” So, I suggest we read Luke 14, where Jesus laid down the criteria for discipleship. After being challenged by it, ask for His grace and help to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. Then tell others about the liberating joy of following Him and having all their sin and guilt erased by the blood of a Savior who gave His life for them. After they have repented and come to Christ, disciple them according to the truth of Scripture. Simple, huh? Simple—but not necessarily easy.

May the Lord bless you as you endeavor to follow Him—and make disciples.

Thoughts About the Lord’s Prayer, Part Twelve

This is the final installment in our thoughts about the Lord’s Prayer. I leave this study with a little sadness. I know that I have barely scratched the surface of His prayer. Maybe in a few years I’ll have more to share.

The last part is simply three words: “forever and ever.” Again, like so much of this prayer, we say these words easily, letting them just fall from our lips. Let’s try not to let this happen, by His grace. The preceding words were, “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory.” So, what is it that is forever and ever? Well, of course, He is. But in this prayer, Jesus emphasizes that the Father’s kingdom, power and glory are everlasting.

His kingdom will be forever and ever. There will be no change of administration or rulership. His reign is eternal. This is a wonderful thought, if we’ll pause a moment. I’m not a great student of history. I know just a little bit. However, one doesn’t have to have a doctorate to know that many of the greatest kingdoms that have existed on earth no longer…exist. The kingdoms of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Hittites, Mayans and Aztecs, to name a few, are gone. The once great nations of Greece, Spain, Portugal and Rome are a few of the formerly powerful kingdoms that are but shadows of their former “glory.” Right now, we have the United States at the top of the heap with China pushing for preeminence, and Russia flexing her muscles. Where will these nations be five hundred years from now, if the Lord doesn’t return? Of course, there is no way to predict these things. But of one thing we can be sure: God’s kingdom will last…forever. Forever is a difficult idea to wrap one’s head around, but you and I should both know that, if we’re Christians, we will be part of God’s kingdom a trillion years from now. Not just part of it—sons, daughters and co-heirs with Christ in it. Now, honestly, I have little idea what that means, but surely it is good and glorious, because He is the good and gracious King.

His power will last forever and ever. He has an everlasting kingdom. We don’t. He has power. In and of ourselves, we wield very little power. One could maintain that we don’t really have any power at all in any eternally significant way. We Christians get to partake in the use of His power while we live on this earth, but clearly, the power to heal, deliver and save comes from Him, not from us. God’s power is so immense that we can’t comprehend it. Somehow, out of nothing, He created all that exists. If we were to build a few buildings we would think we were pretty hot stuff—and we’d be using the stuff that God already provided for us. If we had to create the building material ourselves out of nothing, there wouldn’t be any buildings at all. The book of Revelation tells us that in heaven, there will be no need for lamps or the sun anymore because the Lord will be our light: “And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:5 ESV).  I have no doubt in my mind that He will be able to pull this off with no blackouts, brownouts or interruptions. His power is forever and ever.

Finally, His glory is forever. Jack Hayford once said that the reason the inhabitants in heaven are continually giving praise to God is because He is always doing wondrous things. Right now, as I type this, I have little doubt that, all over the world, people are getting healed, delivered, saved and called. Not only that, at this very moment, He is upholding all things in the universe by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). The glory will be His, not ours, forever and ever. If that thought makes you uncomfortable or seems like God is being egotistical, I encourage you to ask Him to allow you to know Him better—more fully and deeply. Everything that God does is good, and praise to Him is not only right and proper, it edifies us and puts our souls aright. It’s the way He’s wired us, and in this we find joy, fulfillment and satisfaction.

Father, thank You that your kingdom, power and glory are forever. You are amazing.

Thanks for hanging in with me through this study. I’ve enjoyed it, and I hope you have, too.

Thoughts About the Lord’s Prayer, Part Eleven

This is the next installment in what has been an all-too-brief study of the Lord’s Prayer. It concerns the last few words of the last sentence, “For Yours is…the glory…”

His glory. The glory is His. The glory for all that exists. The glory for all that He has created. The glory for all that He has done, and ultimately He does everything—everything of any eternal consequence, that is. Yes, I know men and woman have done notable works down through history. They have ruled, and some have done well; but many were either incompetent or downright evil. Mothers and fathers have raised families, but far too many of them have done their parenting by their individual and/or cultural lights, which have had nothing whatsoever to do with our great Redeemer and Savior God. Men and women have achieved amazing scientific and technological breakthroughs by studying and understanding the order and material which God created. Many of these breakthroughs, particularly medical and technological ones, have without question, benefited mankind. They have, by and large, made life easier, more comfortable, safer and faster. But regardless of how much we have achieved, in and through it all, God is the one who provided the brainpower, physical strength and insight to achieve it. He has never, not once, stopped being sovereign and managing it all. Unfortunately, He has not been the One who has been glorified—we have glorified ourselves. We are the powerful ones. We are the creative ones. We are the intelligent ones. No—all these gifts come from God, by His grace. I’m glad for the achievements. They’ve made my life more comfortable and easier, too. I’m glad for the gifts that God has given us to accomplish these things. But God should have been given the glory, since He is the gift giver, not only of our brains but of the very air we breathe.

I’m ashamed to admit that, even as I write this, I find myself struggling with believing it is actually true. I’ve been so conditioned to exalt man that I find it counterintuitive to exalt God for what man has done with the gifts the Lord has given. “One small step for man, one giant step for mankind.” Look what man has accomplished! What we can do if we apply ourselves! Why do I feel like I’m standing at the base of an ancient tower that somehow might “reach the heavens”?

Even the Church, may the Lord forgive us, has bought into this. We misappropriate the verse from Philippians that says, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” We put it on posters and t-shirts, as if by believing it, we can achieve great things in the world. It’s weird that we so seldom read this verse in context. Here it is: “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble” (Philippians 4:10–14 ESV). Paul wrote that he had learned to be content in Jesus Christ whether he was hungry or full, whether he faced abundance or need. This wasn’t a truth so he could get pumped up to accomplish great things—it was a truth that helped him remain content and trusting no matter what the circumstances.

We may accomplish great things in our lives. We may make lots of money and possess lots of things. We may have creative insights that will help people’s lives. We may even be instrumental in changing the course of government. However, I can tell you with assurance that, when you and I stand before the Lord Himself, our earthly accomplishments will mean nothing at all. Because where He is right now, He is the only one receiving glory from the inhabitants of heaven. No one abiding in that eternal place is impressed with anything that is done on earth. Perhaps we should begin to add our voices to theirs and express the truth that all the glory for everything done here belongs to Him. Let’s consider being less impressed with the next advancement of CGI in movie making, the next iteration of an electronic device or medical breakthrough and instead be impressed with Him. Let’s endeavor, by His grace, to have an eternal perspective about what is happening on the earth. All of this that we see, touch and interact with physically will turn to ashes one day. Or, to quote that great theologian and gladiator, Proximo, it’s all, “Shadows and dust.”

“For Yours in the glory.” I’m glad that Jesus didn’t add, “And thank You, Father, for making it possible for people to glorify themselves a little, too.”

Thoughts About the Lord’s Prayer, Part Ten

We have come to the final part of the Lord’s Prayer: “For Yours is the kingdom and the glory and the power forever.” This last sentence is no longer found in most modern translations because it isn’t in the best and oldest manuscripts. Nevertheless, I’m going to include it, since this is the way most of us in this contemporary culture have learned it, and I don’t find it to be anti-biblical in any way.

“Yours is the kingdom.” It’s His kingdom, not ours. He reigns, we don’t. On its face, this seems simple enough, and I don’t think any Christian would disagree with this truth. However, as is often the case with us in-process believers, what we say and how we live and think are two different things. Let’s be transparent here. This is something we all struggle with, in our personal lives and in our ministry lives. On a simple, day-to-day basis, we struggle with giving the Lord control of our lives—allowing Him to reign. We struggle with giving up everything to Him. By everything, I mean our money and goods, our children and our futures. Western Christians in particular are in danger of joining the sad company of the rich, young ruler, who when told to sell all he possessed, give to the poor and follow Jesus, lamentably declined. Although this sell-all-you-possess command was given only to this man, Jesus said, as the fellow walked away, “How difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Since, generally speaking, Western Christians are rich by the world’s standards, this should give us pause.

And in spite of the lip service we Christian leaders give to the truth that it’s the Father’s kingdom, not ours, we run our churches as if we were indeed rulers. Now, ruling in the world is something we all understand. Coaches coach. They “rule” over their teams. If a football coach says, “Next week we’re going to two-a-days,” that’s what happens. If as basketball coach says, “Okay, guys, full court sprints,” the players start running. Bosses run businesses. When the boss says, “You can’t drink on the job,” employees don’t drink on the job, if they want to remain employed. Presidents, prime ministers, legislators, and, of course, kings and dictators also “rule,” in varying degrees. (Thankfully, democratic republics limit this rulership.) This is just simply the way the world works. This isn’t something that we question or don’t accept. Things wouldn’t work any other way. However, many of our Church pastors and leaders, unfortunately, have come to adopt the world’s way of “ruling,” in spite of what Jesus said: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25–28). Hmm. “He who is first among you must be your slave.” Slaves, generally speaking, don’t tell people what to do. Is this how you view your pastor? No, pastors “rule” over their staffs and volunteers. They tell them what to do. They hire and fire people, just like bosses do, or they hire someone to do that job for them. They are the captains of the congregations. Is there anyone but me who questions how the biblical definition of pastor has morphed into leader? I encourage you to check out the gift and ministry lists in Scripture. I encourage you to do a study of leadership in the New Testament. Be prepared for a shock. You will find that the biblical definition and our current definition of leader bear little resemblance to each other.

We’re going to have to stop here. We only got to the first part of this final sentence of the Lord’s Prayer. I don’t think that the next two parts are going to be any easier.