The Gospel Part 4 - Relationship

(We are going through a series on the Gospel in order to try to truly understand the whole Gospel and see how it counters prevalent false Gospels.  See all the posts here.)

So far, we have seen the first three parts of the Gospel.  Part one, Royal, showed us how God is the King over all, infinite and eternal, holy, righteous, and deserving of all glory.  Part two, Rebel, showed us how we are sinners to the core who have made everything about us instead of giving God the glory due His name.  Part three, Reconcile, showed how God was gracious and sacrificed Himself so that we could be freed from the and power of sin.

What we have gone through so far is the story of the Gospel.  It is the story of a Holy God and a sinful people who have been brought together through the cross of Christ.  But our articulation of the Gospel has five words, so if we have gone through the Gospel story, what is left?  The Gospel response.  The Gospel is more than just history; it is a continuing story that we are called to join.  We can talk about the story of the Gospel all we want, but if we want it to do anything then we must respond.  Our first response is Relationship.  There are three very important things for us to learn about relationship in the Gospel.

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." Phil 3:7-11

1.  A relationship with Jesus is to know and experience Him.
Paul makes it clear that above all else he wants a relationship with Jesus.  For him this means "know[ing] Christ...sharing in his sufferings [and] becoming like him in his death."  Any relationship in which we are currently involved we both know the person and we experience life with them.  And those we are closer to, we know more of them and we experience more life with them.  It's the same with Jesus.  To be in relationship with Him means to know Him deeply and intimately, to know what He is like and what He loves.  And it means to experience life with Him.  First, we experience part of His life, His death and resurrection, then, He walks with us through our new lives.

2.  We have been saved for this relationship.
Too often when we think about our salvation we think about action.  We have been saved to do good works, to glorify God, or to spread the Gospel.  These are all true; God did save us for a mission.  But we were primarily saved for relationship and we are involved in mission for the sake of increasing this relationship.  The ultimate downside to sin was that it broke the possibility of relationship with God and ultimate wonder of the cross is that it restores that relationship.

3.  Our highest value is this relationship.
Since we were saved for this relationship and since Christ is the incredibly glorious, we value this relationship above all else.  If we ever put anything above this relationship, even good things (seer Phil 3:4-6) then we are missing the point of our salvation.  And not only would we miss the point but we would miss the glory of our salvation since the ultimate reward and treasure of our salvation is God Himself.  So we strive to deepen this relationship by spending time with Him because that is our greatest desire.

How about you?  Are you working to deepen your relationship with Jesus?

Ambition vs. Affection

"If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." Philippians 3:4-8

In high school I went on a  youth retreat where David Platt preached on this passage.  He discussed how Paul is describing the five treasures of a wasted life.  Five things that, if we treasure above all else, will lead to a wasted life.   

   1.  Family Heritage - circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel

    2.  Social status - of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews

     3.  Biblical Knowledge -  in regard to the law, a Pharisee

     4.  Religious Fervor - as for zeal, persecuting the church

     5.  Moral Lifestyle - as for legalistic righteousness, faultless

Platt’s point was that if we treasure any of these more than knowing Christ (v.7) then our lives will be wasted.  The one that really hit me was "Biblical Knowledge".  That is something that I too often pride myself on and find identity in.  I then realized that Biblical knowledge is only as good as it brings me closer to Christ.

I think many in my generation need to hear about "Religious Fervor".  That if all we do is work for God and the poor then our lives will be wasted.  All of the stuff we do is only good in so far as it leads us and others deeper into Jesus.

A friend of mine is fond of saying that we should never let our ambition for God become greater than our affection for God.

I am in a generation that desires so much to change the world.  But, what the world needs most isn’t another NGO or non-profit.  It needs people who are deeply in love and intimate with Jesus and willing to share it.

So, let’s make sure that we are always falling more in love with Jesus. May our ambition for God never become greater than our affection for God.

The Gospel Part 3 - Reconcile

(We are going through a series on the Gospel in order to try to truly understand the whole Gospel and see how it counters prevalent false Gospels.  See all the posts here.)

The Gospel part 1 showed us how amazing the Royal God of the universe is.  Part 2 made it clear that it would be impossible for us to be in relationship with that God.  If the Gospel ended there, it would be a depressing story (and would not be gospel at all).  But, thankfully, the story keeps going.

The third, and central, part of the Gospel is reconcile.  Our rebellion caused hostility between us and God.  We were essentially enemies.  Colossians 1:21 states that once we were "alienated from God and were enemies in [our] minds because of [our] evil behavior."  After all, a Royal King cannot be with rebellious subjects; the president cannot hang out with those who have committed treason.  But the wonderful and glorious truth of reconcile is that even though we were enemies with God, "He has reconciled [us] by Christ's physical body through death" (Col 1:22).  How did this happen?  There are two ways...

Jesus' work on the cross reconciles us to God by freeing us from the penalty of sin. Our rebellion and sin against God earned us the death penalty (Rom 3:23) in the same way that one who commits treason can be executed (18 U.S.C. § 2381).  But what Jesus did on the cross was He took the punishment that we deserved.  He stood in our place and, by the mercy of God, He went through what we should have suffered (1 Pet 2:24).  

This incredible act of grace benefitted us in two amazing ways.  First, it paid our debt.  Our sins wrote a check that we could never cash.  The law demands a perfect sacrifice for sin (Lev 1:3; 1:10; 3:1; 3:6; etc.) and endless sacrifices of bulls and goats would never cut it (Heb 10:4).  Only the sacrifice of a perfect life could pay our debt, and Jesus paid that Himself. 

Second, it satisfied God's wrath.  God, because He is good, hates sin and evil with all of Himself.  Every bit of who He is reels at our rebellion, and it incites Him to great anger.  When Jesus died on the cross God was able to pour out all of His wrath on the perfect God-Man who was the only one able to handle it.  "God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood - to be received by faith.  He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." (Rom 3:25-26)  This means that we no longer have to sit under the judgement of God wrath but instead can enjoy the riches of His kindness.

Jesus' work on the cross reconciles us to God by freeing us from the power of sin.  But not only did the work of Christ save us from the punishment of our rebellion but it saves us from the rebellion itself.  I think the church has often missed this part of our reconciliation.  If Jesus takes our punishment and then we continue to sin what good is it (Heb 10:26)?  (But do not misunderstand this - when Jesus took our punishment He took it for all of our sins - past, present and future.)  Jesus' work on the cross actually changes who were are down to the very core so that the essence of who we are has changed.  We are no longer slaves to sin but we have been set free so that we do not have to live in constant rebellion against God. (I've written more about this idea here.)

Praise God that He has reconciled us to Himself.  This reconciliation will lead us to the next part of the Gospel - being in relationship with God Himself.

The Gospel Part 2 - Rebel

(We are going through a series on the Gospel in order to try to truly understand the whole Gospel and see how it counters prevalent false Gospels.  See all the posts here.)

 Last time we talked about the Gospel we learned that it is a story that begins with God.  The first part of the Gospel taught us that God is the royal, holy, perfect King over all the universe who deserves all of the glory.  Part 1 of the Gospel teaches us about God and part 2 teaches us about ourselves.  So, the first two parts of the Gospel simply teach us about who God is and who we are.  As John Calvin said, "Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. "  The Gospel teaches us three main truths about ourselves.

1.  We were created to reflect the image and glory of God.  In Genesis 1 when God created humans He set them apart as distinct from the rest of creation by making them in His own image.  "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness...So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them." (Gen 1:26-27)  There is a lot of speculation about what it means to be made in the image of God.  Does it mean that we are conscience of our existence, rational, emotional, or relational?  Those may be part of it, but at the center of the idea of being in God's image is displaying His glory.  In the context of the ancient near east there were many different gods and many temples to those different gods.  At the heart of each temple was an image or idol of that god.  That image was meant to be a display of the glory of that god and was intended to point people to worship that god.  In the same way, humans were made in the image of the true God to reflect His image and glory so that people who be always turned to worship God.  But, the second truth the Gospel teaches us about ourselves shows that things did not always work out this way.

2.  We rebel against the royal God by trying to exalt our own image and glory.  But humans proved to be not very good at reflecting the image and glory of God.  In Genesis 3 the first rebellion against God happened.  Adam and Eve decided that instead of reflecting God's glory they would try to be like God and make decisions for themselves (Gen 3:5).  Instead of glorifying the royal King, they tried to make themselves gods.  This rebellion is sin.  Whenever we sin we are making ourselves little gods over our own lives instead of submitting to the true King.

But the Gospel tells us that this rebellion was more than just an act Adam and Eve committed in the garden.  It is a disease that has infected all of humanity.  Paul says that "sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned." (Rom 5:12)  And also that "there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God." (Rom 1:10-11)  This rebellion is something that every human has participated in.  We have all tried to usurp God and make it all about us when it should be all about Him.  And there is nothing we can do about this.  We are sick and we cannot heal ourselves.  Down to our very core, to the deepest parts of us, we are in constant rebellion against God.  And this presents a huge problem, which is truth number three.

3.  Our rebellion makes it impossible to be in relationship with the royal God.  This rebellion we have all joined has many negative consequences: sickness, poverty, natural disasters, anger, violence, greed and the like.  But the worst result is the separation it creates between us and God.  God is royal and we are rebels.  God is holy and we are sinners.  God is good and we are evil.  Because of these essential differences no relationship is possible.  This is part of the ultimate goodness of God, that He cannot put up with what is not good.  This should break our hearts, that this rebellion has made it impossible for us to be with God and should drive us to repent.

(But, it does not stop there.  This is part 2 but there is a part 3 coming.  As Paul says, "Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?  Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Rom 7:24-25))

If we knew Jesus like this, He would be enough.

It's is amazing how on little thing can make us forget how Jesus is so much more than enough for us.  And this is why it is so important to have a high view of Jesus, to know Him deeply, and to always be in wonder of Him.  Because when we really know how great Jesus is, we need nothing else but Him.


 

Essentials for Transformative Preaching

I was talking with one of my mentors the other day and we got on the topic of preaching.  It seems pretty obvious to us that a lot of (maybe even most) preaching does not work.  People and society are not being transformed but are getting worse.  All too often, members of our congregations are sitting passively in our church services, leaving no closer to Jesus then when they walked in, and a hour later forgetting what was preached.  What must be included for preaching to change lives?  After talking about this we agreed that at least two things are essential (there may be more that are necessary for transformative preaching but these two things are required).

Biblical Centeredness  The first thing we need is for Scripture to be central in all preaching.  All of the power in preaching comes from God's Word and the degree of preaching's power is equal to the degree of its congruence to Scripture.  When we preach, we must lift up the Word, share the Word, speak the Word, and make the Word known.  Because God has promised to use His Word.  It will accomplish His purpose (Isa 55:11); it penetrates hearts (Heb 4:12); it is useful for teaching and training in the way of God (2 Tim 3:16); and God reveals Himself through His Word (2 Sam 3:21).

But we do not make the Bible central.  In most preaching the thoughts of the preacher are central.  Modifying behavior is central.  Jokes and stories are central.  However, all of these other things lack the power to transform us into the image of Christ.  People do not need good jokes, illustrations, applications, or thoughts, they need the Word.  These other things only help when they point us deeper into the Word.  In one sermon David Platt described this idea using the image of a pool.  Many preachers treat the Word like the diving board, they use it to get into what they really want to say.  Other preachers use the Word like pool furniture, occasionally swimming over to it.  But we want the Word to be like the pool, we want to dive into it, explore it and spend most of our time in it.

Big Challenges  Another thing that is necessary is for the preacher to call his listeners to radical commitments.   This steams from being Biblically centered, because Jesus called those who heard to Him to radical lifestyles (see Luke 14:25-35).   People are not interested in living in lukewarm Christianity; that's boring.  People want to live for something that is bigger than themselves.  They do not get excited about small dreams but about big dreams.  And when they are challenged to do big things they realize the ways their lives fall short and they begin to make changes to their lives.  Preaching is most effective when speakers challenge their audience to make big, huge, radical changes. 

And this make us realize that relevance is overrated.  I think that sometimes preachers are soft on either Biblical centeredness or big challenges because they feel like they need to make sure that their preaching is relevant to the lives of the people.  But Scripture is not concerned with being relevant; it is concerned with making a new relevance.  It wants to show us that what we have valued is not of value because there is something of so much more value that we have missed.  Scripture is about changing our values to such a degree that even what we consider to be relevant to our lives changes (because our very lives have changed).

What do you think?  Are these essential for transformative preaching?  What else may be essential for transformative preaching? 

The Gospel Part 1 - Royal

(We are going through a series on the Gospel in order to try to truly understand the whole Gospel and see how it counters prevalent false Gospels.  See all the posts here.)

The gospel begins with God.  This is appropriate, since it is a story that is about God.  Too often, in our self-centeredness, we begin the story with ourselves.  We want the story to be about us so we begin with us.  But the truth is that if we do not understand who God is then we will never understand the gospel.  If we do not understand who God is then we will not understand why Jesus had to die, how great is the privilege of relationship with Him, and whose renown we are compelled to spread.  The gospel must begin with God.

God begins the story.  He ends the story.  He is the center and the crux of the story.  He is the story.  God is the gospel.  It is a story about how He has shown Himself to us and drawn us to Himself.  Without seeking to know God we will never know the true gospel.

Too often we have sacrificed a lofty idea of God on the altar of ease and relevance.  Because when the gospel does not begin with God we do not have to think deeply about His character nor do we have to measure up to His divine standard.  But, an easy gospel will never be relevant, because it will never be true (think of all the time Jesus talks about the cost of following Him).  And a gospel that primarily seeks relevance will never transform us, because it will look too much like us to change us.  What we must understand is that a noble picture of the Triune Godhead is of infinite worth. 

So we begin the story of the Gospel with the simple statement that God is Royal.  He is Lord.  He is King.  His is mighty and sovereign over all things. In the beginning He was.  He is infinite and eternal, timeless and everlasting, faithful and true.  He loves justice and hates sin.  He has mercy on His people and judges wickedness.  He is greater than we could ever imagine and more glorious than we could ever describe.

There are over 100 billion trillion stars in the universe, and He made each one.  He calls them each by name and it is because of His great power and might strength that not one of them is missing.  The universe is about 40 billion light-years across and He can measure that with the breadth of His sovereign hand.  Every single living creature depends on His for life and substance.  When he open His hand they are feed and life prospers, but when He closes His hand there is death.  He controls ever mountain, volcano, river, ocean, continent, and cloud.

And He is holy.  He is righteous and pure, perfect and true.  Everything about His is wonderful, good, and deserving of praise.  Simply because of who He is He deserves all the glory, the honor, and the praise that is in all the universe.  And all of this is but a glimpse of the God who begins the gospel.

What is the Gospel?

(We are going through a series on the Gospel in order to try to truly understand the whole Gospel and see how it counters prevalent false Gospels.  See all the posts here.)

Most Christians know that the Gospel is at the center of the Christian life and faith.  After all, Jesus came to preach the Gospel ("good news" - Lk 4:18), Paul's life centered around preaching the Gospel (Col 1:23),  and the Gospel saves us (1 Cor 15:2).  But while many may know that the Gospel is important, many do not know what the Gospel is.  And way too often we may know one part of it but not the other, or focus so much on one part we forget about another.  But, as A.W. Tozer said, "it might be demonstrated that almost every heresy that has afflicted the church through the years has arisen from believing about God things that are not true, or from overemphasizing certain true things so as to obscure other things equally true."  We must know the Gospel, the whole Gospel.  And we must know what is not the Gospel, so that we do not make nonessentials essentials and divide the Church even more.

So, for the next few blog posts we will dive into the Gospel and try to discover what the true, complete Gospel is.  We will see the Gospel with five parts as follows:

Royal (Eph 1:19-23; Col 1:15-20):  The Gospel is a story that begins with God (Gen 1:1).  He is the royal king who rules and reigns over the whole universe and deserves all the glory in all the universe (Job 38).  He is majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, and working wonders (Ex 14:11).  He is righteous and holy, perfect and pure, and hates sin with all of His infinite being.  Everything in all creation is obedient to Him, every bird, wave, and mountain.

Rebel (Eph 2:1-3; Col 1:21):  Except for us.  We have rebelled against this holy God and sinned.  Instead of giving God the glory He deserves, we tried to exult ourselves (Rom 1:21).  Instead of being obedient to the Creator, we insisted on creating our own way.

Reconcile (Eph 2:4-5; Col 1:22a):  Even though we rebelled against this royal God, He loved us so much that He wanted to be with us.  So, out of His mercy, God became a man, lived among us, and died to take the punishment for our rebellion.  In doing so, Jesus reconciled (made peace) between God and us and destroyed the sin barrier that prevented us from being with God.

Relationship (Eph 2:6; Col 1:22b-23a):  Now, since Jesus has reconciled us to God, we get the unbelievable gift of being in relationship with the King of the Universe (Matt 27:51).  The Gospel is not primarily about us getting to go to heaven, or being loved, or given purpose, but it is primarily about us getting God (Phil 3:7).  We love and are grateful for these gifts because they lead us deeper into relationship with Jesus.

Renown (Eph 2:7; Col 1:23b):  But, this relationship is not primarily for us (Eze 36:22-23).  God has a purpose for this relationship, that we would go and spread His renown in all the earth (Isa 26:8).  In all things we are to make disciples of Jesus (Matt 28:19) and glorify God in all we do (1 Cor 10:31).

May this Gospel transform us, our churches, our neighborhoods, and the world for His renown!

Gregory of Nazianzus and the Wonder of Jesus

The following is an expert from Gregory of Nazianzus' third theological oration preached in A.D. 380.  It an incredible piece that causes us to marvel and the wonder of Jesus.

For He Whom you now treat with contempt was once above you. 

He Who is now Man was once the Uncompounded.

What He was He continued to be;

what He was not He took to Himself. 

In the beginning He was, uncaused; for what is the Cause of God?

But afterwards for a cause He was born.

And that cause was that you might be saved…

He was born—

but He had been begotten:

He was born of a woman—

but she was a Virgin.

The first is human, the second Divine.

In His Human nature He had no Father,

but also in His Divine Nature no Mother. 

Both these belong to Godhead.

He dwelt in the womb—

but He was recognized by the Prophet, himself still in the womb, leaping before the Word, for Whose sake He came into being.

He was wrapped in swaddling clothes —

but He took off the swathing bands of the grave by His rising again.

He was laid in a manger—

but He was glorified by Angels, and proclaimed by a star, and worshipped by the Magi…

He was driven into exile into Egypt—

but He drove away the Egyptian idols. 

He had no form nor comeliness in the eyes of the Jews —

but to David He is fairer than the children of men. 

And on the Mountain He was bright as the lightning,

and became more luminous than the sun, 

initiating us into the mystery of the future.

He was baptized as Man—

but He remitted sins as God…

He was tempted as Man,

but He conquered as God;

yea, He bids us be of good cheer, for He has overcome the world. 

He hungered—

but He fed thousands; 

yea, He is the Bread that gives life, and That is of heaven.

He thirsted—

but He cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. 

Yea, He promised that fountains should flow from them that believe.

He was wearied,

but He is the Rest of them that are weary and heavy laden. 

He was heavy with sleep,

but He walked lightly over the sea. 

He rebuked the winds,

He made Peter light as he began to sink. 

He pays tribute,

but it is out of a fish; 

yea, He is the King of those who demanded it. 

He is called a Samaritan and a demoniac; —

but He saves him that came down from Jerusalem and fell among thieves; 

the demons acknowledge Him,

and He drives out demons and sinks in the sea legions of foul spirits, 

and sees the Prince of the demons falling like lightning. 

He is stoned,

but is not taken.

He prays,

but He hears prayer.

He weeps,

but He causes tears to cease.

He asks where Lazarus was laid, for He was Man;

but He raises Lazarus, for He was God. 

He is sold, and very cheap, for it is only for thirty pieces of silver; 

but He redeems the world, and that at a great price, for the Price was His own blood. 

As a sheep He is led to the slaughter, 

but He is the Shepherd of Israel,

and now of the whole world also.

As a Lamb He is silent,

yet He is the Word,

and is proclaimed by the Voice of one crying in the wilderness. 

He is bruised and wounded,

but He heals every disease and every infirmity. 

He is lifted up and nailed to the Tree,

but by the Tree of Life He restores us…

He lays down His life,

but He has power to take it again…

He dies,

but He gives life,

and by His death destroys death.

He is buried,

but He rises again;

He goes down into Hell,

but He brings up the souls;

He ascends to Heaven, and shall come again to judge the quick and the dead