Preached by Gregory W. Lee
19 February 2006
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to John 1
1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2. He was with God in the beginning.
3. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
4. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
5. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
6. There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.
7. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.
8. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
10. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
11. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
12. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--
13. children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
14. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
-- when I was a child, I discovered magic and power beyond belief -- one day, I opened the page of a book and I was swept away to a magical land where boys floated on rafts down the mighty Mississippi River -- where battles raged between countries and men of valor fought with bravery and skill -- where knights courted fair maidens and fought for justice and righteousness against evil and against dragons -- when I was a child, I opened a book and discovered the magic and power of the written word
-- there is something magical about the written word -- by opening a book and reading the words written there in black and white, you can be transported instantly to a realm that only exists in the mind of the author -- by opening a book, people and places and events that you could never even dream possible suddenly become real as you enter the world of the author
-- there is something special about the written word -- as you all know, I enjoy going to the movies -- I enjoy seeing how a director takes the written word and transforms his image of the word to the big screen for all to see -- but I have never seen a movie that could compare to the images I see on the screen of my mind when I become totally and fully immersed in a great story
-- when I grew older, I learned more of the power of the word -- as I learned to write, I learned that the true power of the word was not in just reading what others had written -- but in creating -- in writing yourself -- in taking your own dreams and worlds and characters and bringing them to life through the word so that others might experience for themselves what previously had only existed in your own mind
II. The Power of the Mortal Word
-- recognizing the power and magic of words is universal -- from the time that Adam and Eve were created and placed in the Garden of Eden up to our modern times, words have always been the most important and longest lasting facet of a society -- in all places and in all times and in all cultures -- whether the word was written on paper or passed down through stories told again and again and again around a campfire -- we have always recognized the power of the word
-- words have the ability to bring thoughts and emotions and feelings to life -- words have the ability to bring ideas and plans and passing thoughts to life -- words spoken with love have the power to change hearts and lives forever -- and words spoken in anger or in haste can affect lives in a negative way forever
-- when I was a kid on the playground and others used to yell taunts at me or call me names or make fun of me, I used to call back with that familiar rhyme that we all know, "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me"
-- but when I became older, I came to realize that there was a lot more power in words than in sticks or stones -- I got into the occasional scuffle in school -- got bullied from time to time -- but I can barely remember any of the actual blows that I took along the way -- I can't remember the pain from any time I was ever hit or pushed
-- but, the words that were said and the names that I was called -- those have stuck with me to adulthood and still affect who I am and what I do to this day -- no, there's a lot more power in words than in sticks or stones -- that is why we often say, "the pen is mightier than the sword" -- and that is why the poet Eric Idle changed the words of this children's rhyme to, "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will make me go into a corner and cry by myself for hours"
-- Frank Peretti, one of my favorite authors, penned a semi-autobiography called "The Wounded Spirit," in which he talks about how childhood taunts and name-calling dramatically affected him for life and wounded his spirit and how these taunts and words thrown around so carelessly in our schools today are destroying a new generation
-- I think we all can recognize that there is power in our words -- power to hurt and to cause harm to our family and friends because of our careless use of words
-- but, in our words, there is also power to encourage and to heal and to strengthen others -- I can't tell you how many times I've stood with families who have just lost a loved one and I've listened to them talk about the one who they just lost -- and most of the time, they talk about how that person encouraged them and strengthened them and showed love to them -- not only through their life -- but also through their words
-- in the Kairos ministry I help with in the prisons, all of the team members are required to write a letter to each of the prisoners involved in the program -- some of those men have never received a letter in their life -- some of those men have never heard an encouraging word from a soul -- and I have watched as grown men -- hardened criminals -- wept at words of encouragement and hope and love sent to them by people they had just met a few days before -- words have a power unlike anything else in our world
-- parents -- grandparents -- if you get nothing else from this message this morning -- never forget the power that your words have in the lives of your children and grandchildren -- with your words, you can bring life -- you can bring hope and strength and encouragement -- or, you can bring harm and chaos and hurt that will last a lifetime
-- you see, the power of words lies in its creative ability -- when you speak a word or when you put a word on paper, you are creating life -- you are giving life to a thought or idea -- whether good or bad -- and that word leaves you to affect others around you
-- so when you speak words of encouragement and hope and life to others, they are positively affected by those words -- and, on the other hand, when you speak words of hatred and anger and hurt, they are negatively affected by those words
-- a pastor friend of mine used to say constantly, "don't speak words of death on a situation -- it will come to pass -- speak only words of life to a situation, so that things will get better"
-- we need to always keep in mind that there is power in the words that we use
III. The Power of the Spiritual Word
-- and, if there is power in our limited, mortal use of words -- whether written or spoken -- can you imagine the power that is wrapped up in the words of our God?
-- look back at verse 1
1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2. He was with God in the beginning.
-- now we're all familiar with these verses -- we often use them as a proof text to prove to others that Jesus -- who John calls the Word -- the Logos -- the Divine Expression of the Lord God Almighty -- was God
-- verse 14 says that the Word became flesh and made His dwelling place among us -- meaning that God Himself became flesh and lived among us as Christ Jesus
-- but what is John telling us here in regards to the power of the Word? -- look at verse 3
3. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
4. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
-- here we see the power of the Word of God -- John tells us that in the beginning, there was nothing but God -- nothing but His Word -- but then, God spoke and through His Word, all things were created
-- turn over to Genesis 1 and let's look at a parallel passage
-- verse 1
1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
4. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.
5. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day.
-- this passage in Genesis is a very close parallel to the first five verses of John 1 -- John opened with the statement "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God" -- then he goes on to say that God created all things through the Word
-- in this passage, the writer tells us "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" -- so, how did God create the heavens and the earth? -- how did He bring life to the heavens and the earth? -- it tells us in verse 3 -- "And God said" -- God spoke -- the Word came from the mouth of God and spoke life into existence -- when God spoke, He spoke with power -- when He spoke, whatever He had imagined -- whatever He had thought of in His mind -- came into being -- it was made manifest -- it was created
-- look at verse 6 -- And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water."
-- and verse 9 -- And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so.
-- and verse 11 -- Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so.
-- "God said" and it happened -- all the way through the creation story in the book of Genesis, we read these words, "God said" and life was created -- the Word of God spoke and things were never the same again -- and, that, more than anything else, is the message of the Bible
-- that in our lives and in the lives of this world, God is constantly speaking and bringing His power and presence to bear in any and all situations
-- in the Old Testament, when the Israelites were in bondage in Egypt, God spoke liberation and freedom through a burning bush and Moses led God's people out of Egypt and to the Promised Land
-- when the nation of Israel clamored for an earthly king, God spoke and a shepherd boy -- a man after His own heart -- led God's people into a great nation and turned the hearts of the people back to their God and Savior
-- later in the Old Testament, as the Israelites forgot the covenant of God and turned away from Him to chase after foreign gods, God spoke discipline and justice and sent His people from the Promised Land and into bondage in foreign lands to bring their hearts back to Him through repentance
-- throughout the Bible, God would speak through His prophets -- and everything that He spoke -- everything that He ordained -- everything that He promised -- would come to pass just as He said
-- finally, in the New Testament, we see the Word of God becoming flesh in the person of Christ Jesus -- everything the Father thought -- everything the Father had spoken -- everything the Father wanted man to be -- was made manifest through His Son
-- when we failed to understand God's Word -- when we failed to understand what it meant to love our neighbor as ourself -- Jesus showed us through His life -- when we failed to understand what it meant to love our God with all our heart and all our mind and all our strength, Jesus demonstrated through His relationship with the Father
-- when we failed to keep God's Word given to us in the Law, Jesus stepped in and fulfilled it for us, showing us exactly what God intended when He first spoke it into being
-- but Jesus did not just live out God's Word here on earth -- He not only was the Word -- He also spoke the Word -- through His words, lepers were cleansed, the lame were restored, the blind were given sight, and sinners were forgiven
-- in every single instance of healing in the Bible -- with the only possible exception being the woman who reached out and touched His cloak -- Jesus healed through His words -- He spoke and they were healed -- He spoke and their sins were forgiven -- He spoke and their lives were changed through the power of God's Word
-- even from the cross, Jesus continued to speak words of healing and power and hope -- it was from the cross that Jesus said, "Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do" -- and "It is finished"
IV. Closing
-- but, the great thing is, is that Jesus is still speaking today -- the Bible tells us that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father at this very moment, interceding with the Father on our behalf -- that means that right now, Jesus is speaking words of healing and power and hope and strength and encouragement on our behalf right now -- both to the Father and to us -- as He speaks life into us every single moment of every day
-- Jesus continues to speak to us today -- through our prayers -- through His church -- through the Bible, His written word -- and through the circumstances of our life
-- what is Jesus saying to you today? -- as you look at your life -- as you look at situations and events and the things going on in your life, what is the Word of God saying to you?
-- is He saying, "come to me and take my yoke?" -- is He saying, "Come, and follow me?"
-- is He saying to you "your sins are forgiven" -- is the Word you are hearing "Saved?"
-- is He saying to you "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life"
-- is He saying, "go and sin no more"
-- is He saying, "your faith has healed you"
-- is He saying, "I will never leave you or forsake you"
-- or is He saying "I am the love you have been looking for"
-- what is God saying to you today?
-- no matter what situation you are in -- no matter what is going on in your life -- know that the Word of God is still speaking today -- He is speaking words of life -- words of love -- words of hope -- that have the power to change hearts and to change lives and to change you
-- all you have to do is listen for His voice -- hear His words -- and allow them to change your situation and your life for the better
-- if you have heard God's voice today, then I invite you to respond to His Word before you leave here today
-- let us pray
Friday, February 24, 2006
Friday, February 17, 2006
SERMON: THAT'S WHAT THIS ALTAR IS FOR
Preached by Gregory W. Lee
5 February 2006
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to 1 John 1:5-2:6
1 John 1
5. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
6. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
7. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
8. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
10. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
1 John 2
1. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
2. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
3. We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.
4. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:
6. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
-- earlier this week, I received an e-mail from someone that asked the question, "Are saved Christians still sinners?" and then went on to present lots of Bible verses to show this author's point that if you are saved, that you shouldn't be sinning any longer -- in other words, the author was trying to make the case that Christians should be sin-free
-- when I first got this e-mail, I immediately discounted it -- I get a lot of unsolicited e-mails from people because my e-mail is out there on the net in various places
-- but a few days later I thought about that e-mail again as I was driving past a local church -- the church sign said that they were going to be holding a revival for the next several days and that a guest evangelist was coming to preach -- and I found myself thinking, "why in the world is that church having an evangelist come to preach their revival?"
II. Thoughts on Revival
-- as I'm sure all of you know by now, I am fascinated by the concept of revival -- and am I fascinated at the way that the churches approach the concept of revivals in this day and age
-- I am still amazed at the fact that a lot of churches continue to press on with the old mindset of revivals -- a lot of us grew up with the idea that a revival is the place where the lost get saved -- where people who don't come on Sunday are going to come to church in the middle of the week, get convicted of their sins, and get saved -- that is our picture of revival -- and it was probably true in the early part of the 20th century on up to the 1950's or so
-- in fact, it was an event like that where Billy Graham got saved -- Mordecai Hamm had come into town and was preaching in a tent revival and Billy Graham went to hear him preach one night and gave his life to Christ
-- and that's what we know and that's what we expect to happen -- and so churches schedule a revival and hire an evangelist to come and preach the gospel and then they gauge the success of the revival based on the number of conversions they record
-- but, things have changed a lot since the 1950's -- revivals are not the events they used to be -- and even though we still schedule revivals and still hold them with the same format we've always used, we just aren't seeing lots of people come to Christ at these services -- in fact, most of the people who come to revivals now are already committed church members -- they're the only ones who actually want to come to church in the middle of the week
-- and so churches like the one I passed this week schedule evangelists to preach conversion to the converted -- to preach salvation to the saved -- and nothing much gets accomplished because the preacher is preaching a message to people who aren't there and is failing to preach God's message of revival and renewal to the people who are actually gathered there
-- I think it's time for the church to take a moment and step back and consider just what we mean and what God wants to see happen in our churches when we talk about revival
-- in the Bible, there are two meanings to the word revival -- the first is from the Old Testament -- in the context of the Hebrew Scriptures, the word revival conveyed the idea of breathing -- breathing with the breath of God -- living in such a way that God's presence was manifested through us -- not only at church -- not only in our individual lives -- but in the lives of the community and the nation as well
-- revival was a means by which God restored and preserved and healed the nations -- it was a means by which God prospered the nations
-- in the New Testament, the word revival takes on a slightly different meaning -- it becomes more personal and it means to bring back to life -- to live again -- to find the first love that you have lost -- in the New Testament, we learn that true revival begins first at home -- in your heart and in my heart -- and then spreads out to the church and to the community and to the nation
-- in their book, "The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever," Elmer Towns and Douglas Porter defined a New Testament revival as an extraordinary work of God in which Christians repent of their sins as they become intensely aware of the presence of God in their midst -- they say that a true evangelical revival is characterized by a deepening of their individual and corporate experience with God and an increased concern to win others to Christ
-- which brings us back to the question that that e-mail asked when I opened it, "Are saved Christians still sinners?" -- if you believe that a revival begins when Christians repent of sin in their lives, then you have to answer this question, "Yes, saved Christians can still be sinners" -- but, if that's true, then what do we do about it? -- these questions are exactly what the Apostle John was addressing in this epistle that we opened with
III. Are Saved Christians Still Sinners?
-- when John wrote this letter, there was a growing movement called Gnosticism that was bringing in heresy and false teachings into the churches -- Gnostics believed that anything spiritual was good and anything material was evil -- this meant that they believed that anything to do with the physical body was inherently evil -- and they believed that salvation was ultimately the freeing of the spirit from the body
-- because of their beliefs, the Gnostics introduced two types of false teachings into the church -- first, the Gnostics taught that you could still be in fellowship with God but walk in sin -- they reasoned that it was your spirit that was in fellowship with God, and so it didn't matter if your body walked in sin or not -- in fact, they said that since the body was going to be destroyed in the salvation act anyway, why not go ahead and help destroy it by walking in sin -- by gratifying all the lusts of the flesh so you would speed along your eventual salvation
-- secondly, the Gnostics held was that there was no real natural tendency to sin -- that your true spiritual self was good and could not sin -- it didn't matter what the body did -- what only mattered was the state of the spirit
-- the bottom-line was that these false teachers refused to take sin seriously -- and they were passing on this teaching to Christians in the churches that John was writing to
-- so John addresses these two false teachings in the passage that we read -- look back at verse 5
5. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
6. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
7. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
-- John is telling us here that a relationship with God obliges us to live in the light -- in other words, if you are in a relationship with God -- if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior and claim to be a Christian -- then you should be walking in His light -- the light of holiness and purity and righteousness -- you should be striving to be sin-free
-- in Romans 12:2, Paul writes, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." -- when you are a Christian, you are a new creation and you are in the process of becoming more like Jesus every day -- this means that we quit living our lives in the pattern of the world but live it in the pattern of Christ -- following His example and living lives of holiness as the Holy Spirit transforms us from who we were to who He has called us to be
-- John is painting a picture here of our goal -- of where we are heading in our spiritual journey -- as we wander through the wildnerness of this life, our Promised Land is a life free from sin -- a life of holiness and righteousness and purity -- this is where we should be headed as Christians
-- but, John knows that we aren't there yet -- look back at verse 8
1 John 1:8. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
10. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
1 John 2
1. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
2. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
3. We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.
4. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:
6. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
-- even as Christians, we find ourselves still mired down in sin -- despite what the Gnostics taught, we were born with an inherent sin nature as part of us -- because of the fall in the Garden of Eden, we all were born with this innate capacity to sin -- that is why the Bible teaches that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
-- John recognizes that -- he tells us here quite plainly that saved Christians still sin -- and if we claim that we don't sin, then we are liars -- we are never going to be perfect in this life -- we are never going to reach the place where we don't occasionally sin in our lives -- hopefully, as we grow in grace -- as we become sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives -- we will look back and see less sin in our lives every day -- but the truth of the matter is, right now, we still sin -- no matter how much we may deny it -- no matter how much we wish it might not be true -- we still sin -- every single one of us
-- but, just like the Gnostics, I sense that the vast majority of us don't take it serious -- and that is why we haven't seen a major revival in our churches in decades
IV. Repenting of Our Sins
-- John tells us quite plainly in this passage what we are to do with sin in our lives -- we are to confess it -- we are to acknowledge the sin in our lives and to turn away from that sin and then God will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness
-- we see the same thing in 2 Chronicles 7:14 -- God says, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
-- even as Christians, we are sinners -- we know it -- God knows it -- and He calls us to confess our sins and to repent of our sins -- to turn away from them and turn towards Him -- and He promises forgiveness and healing and revival
-- but the sad part is, we already know all this -- this isn't the first time that we have heard these verses -- this isn't the first time that we have read them in this church -- but it seems like we don't take them serious -- it seems like the church as a whole is not taking them serious
-- I have talked before about how the church in America is no more holy or moral than the culture as a whole -- how we sin just as much as the rest of this country does -- and how we continue to lose members in all of our mainline denominations -- we lost over 140,000 members in the Methodist church in just the last two years
-- and, despite all of this -- we still don't take sin seriously enough to humble ourselves and pray and confess our sins and turn from our wicked ways and live the life that God has called us to live
-- John tells us here that God has given us provision by His Son -- through the blood that was shed on Calvary -- to come into His presence -- so that we might obey His commands and walk as Jesus did
-- when God called the Israelites out of Egypt and made them His own people, He had them build a tabernacle and in the midst of the tabernacle -- in the Holy of Holies -- He had them place an altar where they could come and seek forgiveness from their sins through a blood sacrifice
-- that is what the altar is for -- the altar is a place of sacrifice -- a place of repentence -- the place where revival starts -- this is the place where we can come before the presence of God and give Him all of our sins and our burdens and our needs so that we can be revived and refreshed and renewed with His presence and power
-- John tells us that Christ went to the cross for us as the atoning sacrifice for our sins -- He offered Himself on the altar for us as the final blood sacrifice -- so that we might experience forgiveness of sins and newness of life
-- now Jesus calls for us to offer ourselves for Him -- to place ourselves on the altar as a living sacrifice -- confessing our sins and repenting of our wicked ways and living the life He has called us to live
-- and yet we refuse to come -- every Sunday, we have Christians go home with sin still in their hearts -- with burdens still weighing them down -- with trials and temptations holding them in chains -- and that is the reason why we aren't seeing a revival in our church -- that is why we aren't living lives that God called us to live -- that is why you can't see any difference between us and the world
-- we are refusing to admit we are sinners and we are refusing to do anything about the sins in our lives
V. Closing
-- it is time we come and offer ourselves to God -- it is time that we lay our burdens on the altar of life -- to give God the things that are hindeirng us from growing in grace -- the things that are keeping us from seeing revival in our lives and in our churches and in our communities
-- God's altar is a place of restoration -- a place of healing -- a place of new beginnings -- the altar is not only for those being saved -- it is also for us who have been saved
-- God tells us that revival starts in the heart of His people -- and our hearts won't change until we recognize the sin in our lives and come to God in confession and repentance
-- Charles Finney is recognized as one of the greatest evangelists ever to preach in America -- in the early 19th century, he preached to thousands of people in the northeastern United States, and a major revival swept through the churches in his day -- but curiously, Finney preached only in churches and only to people who claimed they were Christians already
-- what was his message? -- it was the same as the Apostle John in this passage -- the same as John the Baptist and the same as Jesus Himself -- first, he reminded these Christians that even though they were saved, they were still sinners -- secondly, he told them that God was calling them to live a life free of sin -- and finally, he told them that they should confess their sins and turn from their wicked ways and God would lead them from the darkness and into the light
-- and the people listened -- and they responded to God's call through Finney's message -- and over 100,000 lives were changed as revival swept through the United States
-- do you want to see revival in this community? -- do you want to see revival in this church and in your life? -- do you want to live the life that Christ called you to live? -- then we have to get serious about sin and acknowledge its presence in our lives and repent from it so that God will heal our land and forgive us our sins and revive our nation
-- and this all starts with you coming before the altar of God in humbleness and in repentance and offering yourself as a living sacrifice to Him
-- God is calling His people to live lives of holiness -- to walk in the light as He is in the light -- to turn from their sins and to live the life He has called them to live -- a life of holiness and obedience to His commands
-- I am going to close by playing a song by Ray Boltz called, "That's What This Altar is For" -- as this song plays, I want to invite you to respond to God's word as you feel led
-- if you would like for me to pray with you, I would be happy to do so
-- let's pray
5 February 2006
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to 1 John 1:5-2:6
1 John 1
5. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
6. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
7. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
8. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
10. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
1 John 2
1. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
2. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
3. We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.
4. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:
6. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
-- earlier this week, I received an e-mail from someone that asked the question, "Are saved Christians still sinners?" and then went on to present lots of Bible verses to show this author's point that if you are saved, that you shouldn't be sinning any longer -- in other words, the author was trying to make the case that Christians should be sin-free
-- when I first got this e-mail, I immediately discounted it -- I get a lot of unsolicited e-mails from people because my e-mail is out there on the net in various places
-- but a few days later I thought about that e-mail again as I was driving past a local church -- the church sign said that they were going to be holding a revival for the next several days and that a guest evangelist was coming to preach -- and I found myself thinking, "why in the world is that church having an evangelist come to preach their revival?"
II. Thoughts on Revival
-- as I'm sure all of you know by now, I am fascinated by the concept of revival -- and am I fascinated at the way that the churches approach the concept of revivals in this day and age
-- I am still amazed at the fact that a lot of churches continue to press on with the old mindset of revivals -- a lot of us grew up with the idea that a revival is the place where the lost get saved -- where people who don't come on Sunday are going to come to church in the middle of the week, get convicted of their sins, and get saved -- that is our picture of revival -- and it was probably true in the early part of the 20th century on up to the 1950's or so
-- in fact, it was an event like that where Billy Graham got saved -- Mordecai Hamm had come into town and was preaching in a tent revival and Billy Graham went to hear him preach one night and gave his life to Christ
-- and that's what we know and that's what we expect to happen -- and so churches schedule a revival and hire an evangelist to come and preach the gospel and then they gauge the success of the revival based on the number of conversions they record
-- but, things have changed a lot since the 1950's -- revivals are not the events they used to be -- and even though we still schedule revivals and still hold them with the same format we've always used, we just aren't seeing lots of people come to Christ at these services -- in fact, most of the people who come to revivals now are already committed church members -- they're the only ones who actually want to come to church in the middle of the week
-- and so churches like the one I passed this week schedule evangelists to preach conversion to the converted -- to preach salvation to the saved -- and nothing much gets accomplished because the preacher is preaching a message to people who aren't there and is failing to preach God's message of revival and renewal to the people who are actually gathered there
-- I think it's time for the church to take a moment and step back and consider just what we mean and what God wants to see happen in our churches when we talk about revival
-- in the Bible, there are two meanings to the word revival -- the first is from the Old Testament -- in the context of the Hebrew Scriptures, the word revival conveyed the idea of breathing -- breathing with the breath of God -- living in such a way that God's presence was manifested through us -- not only at church -- not only in our individual lives -- but in the lives of the community and the nation as well
-- revival was a means by which God restored and preserved and healed the nations -- it was a means by which God prospered the nations
-- in the New Testament, the word revival takes on a slightly different meaning -- it becomes more personal and it means to bring back to life -- to live again -- to find the first love that you have lost -- in the New Testament, we learn that true revival begins first at home -- in your heart and in my heart -- and then spreads out to the church and to the community and to the nation
-- in their book, "The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever," Elmer Towns and Douglas Porter defined a New Testament revival as an extraordinary work of God in which Christians repent of their sins as they become intensely aware of the presence of God in their midst -- they say that a true evangelical revival is characterized by a deepening of their individual and corporate experience with God and an increased concern to win others to Christ
-- which brings us back to the question that that e-mail asked when I opened it, "Are saved Christians still sinners?" -- if you believe that a revival begins when Christians repent of sin in their lives, then you have to answer this question, "Yes, saved Christians can still be sinners" -- but, if that's true, then what do we do about it? -- these questions are exactly what the Apostle John was addressing in this epistle that we opened with
III. Are Saved Christians Still Sinners?
-- when John wrote this letter, there was a growing movement called Gnosticism that was bringing in heresy and false teachings into the churches -- Gnostics believed that anything spiritual was good and anything material was evil -- this meant that they believed that anything to do with the physical body was inherently evil -- and they believed that salvation was ultimately the freeing of the spirit from the body
-- because of their beliefs, the Gnostics introduced two types of false teachings into the church -- first, the Gnostics taught that you could still be in fellowship with God but walk in sin -- they reasoned that it was your spirit that was in fellowship with God, and so it didn't matter if your body walked in sin or not -- in fact, they said that since the body was going to be destroyed in the salvation act anyway, why not go ahead and help destroy it by walking in sin -- by gratifying all the lusts of the flesh so you would speed along your eventual salvation
-- secondly, the Gnostics held was that there was no real natural tendency to sin -- that your true spiritual self was good and could not sin -- it didn't matter what the body did -- what only mattered was the state of the spirit
-- the bottom-line was that these false teachers refused to take sin seriously -- and they were passing on this teaching to Christians in the churches that John was writing to
-- so John addresses these two false teachings in the passage that we read -- look back at verse 5
5. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
6. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
7. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
-- John is telling us here that a relationship with God obliges us to live in the light -- in other words, if you are in a relationship with God -- if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior and claim to be a Christian -- then you should be walking in His light -- the light of holiness and purity and righteousness -- you should be striving to be sin-free
-- in Romans 12:2, Paul writes, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." -- when you are a Christian, you are a new creation and you are in the process of becoming more like Jesus every day -- this means that we quit living our lives in the pattern of the world but live it in the pattern of Christ -- following His example and living lives of holiness as the Holy Spirit transforms us from who we were to who He has called us to be
-- John is painting a picture here of our goal -- of where we are heading in our spiritual journey -- as we wander through the wildnerness of this life, our Promised Land is a life free from sin -- a life of holiness and righteousness and purity -- this is where we should be headed as Christians
-- but, John knows that we aren't there yet -- look back at verse 8
1 John 1:8. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
10. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
1 John 2
1. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
2. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
3. We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.
4. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:
6. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
-- even as Christians, we find ourselves still mired down in sin -- despite what the Gnostics taught, we were born with an inherent sin nature as part of us -- because of the fall in the Garden of Eden, we all were born with this innate capacity to sin -- that is why the Bible teaches that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
-- John recognizes that -- he tells us here quite plainly that saved Christians still sin -- and if we claim that we don't sin, then we are liars -- we are never going to be perfect in this life -- we are never going to reach the place where we don't occasionally sin in our lives -- hopefully, as we grow in grace -- as we become sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives -- we will look back and see less sin in our lives every day -- but the truth of the matter is, right now, we still sin -- no matter how much we may deny it -- no matter how much we wish it might not be true -- we still sin -- every single one of us
-- but, just like the Gnostics, I sense that the vast majority of us don't take it serious -- and that is why we haven't seen a major revival in our churches in decades
IV. Repenting of Our Sins
-- John tells us quite plainly in this passage what we are to do with sin in our lives -- we are to confess it -- we are to acknowledge the sin in our lives and to turn away from that sin and then God will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness
-- we see the same thing in 2 Chronicles 7:14 -- God says, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
-- even as Christians, we are sinners -- we know it -- God knows it -- and He calls us to confess our sins and to repent of our sins -- to turn away from them and turn towards Him -- and He promises forgiveness and healing and revival
-- but the sad part is, we already know all this -- this isn't the first time that we have heard these verses -- this isn't the first time that we have read them in this church -- but it seems like we don't take them serious -- it seems like the church as a whole is not taking them serious
-- I have talked before about how the church in America is no more holy or moral than the culture as a whole -- how we sin just as much as the rest of this country does -- and how we continue to lose members in all of our mainline denominations -- we lost over 140,000 members in the Methodist church in just the last two years
-- and, despite all of this -- we still don't take sin seriously enough to humble ourselves and pray and confess our sins and turn from our wicked ways and live the life that God has called us to live
-- John tells us here that God has given us provision by His Son -- through the blood that was shed on Calvary -- to come into His presence -- so that we might obey His commands and walk as Jesus did
-- when God called the Israelites out of Egypt and made them His own people, He had them build a tabernacle and in the midst of the tabernacle -- in the Holy of Holies -- He had them place an altar where they could come and seek forgiveness from their sins through a blood sacrifice
-- that is what the altar is for -- the altar is a place of sacrifice -- a place of repentence -- the place where revival starts -- this is the place where we can come before the presence of God and give Him all of our sins and our burdens and our needs so that we can be revived and refreshed and renewed with His presence and power
-- John tells us that Christ went to the cross for us as the atoning sacrifice for our sins -- He offered Himself on the altar for us as the final blood sacrifice -- so that we might experience forgiveness of sins and newness of life
-- now Jesus calls for us to offer ourselves for Him -- to place ourselves on the altar as a living sacrifice -- confessing our sins and repenting of our wicked ways and living the life He has called us to live
-- and yet we refuse to come -- every Sunday, we have Christians go home with sin still in their hearts -- with burdens still weighing them down -- with trials and temptations holding them in chains -- and that is the reason why we aren't seeing a revival in our church -- that is why we aren't living lives that God called us to live -- that is why you can't see any difference between us and the world
-- we are refusing to admit we are sinners and we are refusing to do anything about the sins in our lives
V. Closing
-- it is time we come and offer ourselves to God -- it is time that we lay our burdens on the altar of life -- to give God the things that are hindeirng us from growing in grace -- the things that are keeping us from seeing revival in our lives and in our churches and in our communities
-- God's altar is a place of restoration -- a place of healing -- a place of new beginnings -- the altar is not only for those being saved -- it is also for us who have been saved
-- God tells us that revival starts in the heart of His people -- and our hearts won't change until we recognize the sin in our lives and come to God in confession and repentance
-- Charles Finney is recognized as one of the greatest evangelists ever to preach in America -- in the early 19th century, he preached to thousands of people in the northeastern United States, and a major revival swept through the churches in his day -- but curiously, Finney preached only in churches and only to people who claimed they were Christians already
-- what was his message? -- it was the same as the Apostle John in this passage -- the same as John the Baptist and the same as Jesus Himself -- first, he reminded these Christians that even though they were saved, they were still sinners -- secondly, he told them that God was calling them to live a life free of sin -- and finally, he told them that they should confess their sins and turn from their wicked ways and God would lead them from the darkness and into the light
-- and the people listened -- and they responded to God's call through Finney's message -- and over 100,000 lives were changed as revival swept through the United States
-- do you want to see revival in this community? -- do you want to see revival in this church and in your life? -- do you want to live the life that Christ called you to live? -- then we have to get serious about sin and acknowledge its presence in our lives and repent from it so that God will heal our land and forgive us our sins and revive our nation
-- and this all starts with you coming before the altar of God in humbleness and in repentance and offering yourself as a living sacrifice to Him
-- God is calling His people to live lives of holiness -- to walk in the light as He is in the light -- to turn from their sins and to live the life He has called them to live -- a life of holiness and obedience to His commands
-- I am going to close by playing a song by Ray Boltz called, "That's What This Altar is For" -- as this song plays, I want to invite you to respond to God's word as you feel led
-- if you would like for me to pray with you, I would be happy to do so
-- let's pray
A FIELD GUIDE TO EVANGELISTS
As a wildlife biologist, I have a vast collection of field guides in my library, from birds to mammals to the identification of road-killed wildlife. So, you can imagine how excited I was to find out about the new field guide to evangelists that is coming out soon (Hat tip to John at Locusts and Honey).
This book is being put out by Lark News, which is a site that takes a satirical look at Christian issues. I am a fan of satire, because I believe that it is healthy for the church and for Christians and even for us evangelicals to stop and take a look at ourselves and our points of view from a different perspective. What, for us, may be normal behavior may be confusing or simply humorous to those outside our particular persuasian. That is one reason why I was not offended by the short-lived NBC show, "The Book of Daniel," or by the Mandy Moore movie, "Saved."
Satire frees us from dogmatism and keeps the church healthy by forcing us to evaluate what we believe, why we believe it, and how we are portraying it to the world at large. I am reminded by the Apostle Paul's words in Romans 6:19 where he says he put the message of the gospel in "human terms" so that the church in Rome might understand it better. Satire can keep us from hiding behind Christianese and Christian lingo and can keep us speaking in human terms so that others might hear the message of Christ from us in a way they can understand and apply.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
THE AMAZING LOVE OF GOD
Exodus 34:17 -- "Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."
Just a late thought from this Valentine's week -- Have you ever considered the love of God for us, His children? In this verse from Exodus, God is giving Moses the laws that Israel is to follow that will separate them out from the world and demonstrate to the world that they are God's chosen and beloved people. In this verse, He tells them that worship -- love, devotion, praise, honor -- is reserved for Him and Him alone. None other can have it, and if the Israelites try to offer praise and worship to any other god or idol of their own making, then they will separate themselves from the love of God.
Now, with that verse in mind, isn't it amazing that God loves us so much that He allows others into our lives that we can love? Our families and our friends and all the loved ones in our lives. God demands all of our love and all of our worship and all of our praise and devotion, but He allows us to love and be loved by other created beings. God's love is so expansive, that He not only fills our heart with it, but He allows us to share it with others. As John wrote, God is love, and through Him we experience what the true meaning of love is all about. Similarly, by letting us love and be loved by others, God allows us a glimpse of the magnitude of His love for us. I pray that this Valentines Day found you loved and loving, not only our Lord God, but also your family and friends who surround you every day.
Just a late thought from this Valentine's week -- Have you ever considered the love of God for us, His children? In this verse from Exodus, God is giving Moses the laws that Israel is to follow that will separate them out from the world and demonstrate to the world that they are God's chosen and beloved people. In this verse, He tells them that worship -- love, devotion, praise, honor -- is reserved for Him and Him alone. None other can have it, and if the Israelites try to offer praise and worship to any other god or idol of their own making, then they will separate themselves from the love of God.
Now, with that verse in mind, isn't it amazing that God loves us so much that He allows others into our lives that we can love? Our families and our friends and all the loved ones in our lives. God demands all of our love and all of our worship and all of our praise and devotion, but He allows us to love and be loved by other created beings. God's love is so expansive, that He not only fills our heart with it, but He allows us to share it with others. As John wrote, God is love, and through Him we experience what the true meaning of love is all about. Similarly, by letting us love and be loved by others, God allows us a glimpse of the magnitude of His love for us. I pray that this Valentines Day found you loved and loving, not only our Lord God, but also your family and friends who surround you every day.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
MAKE THE WORK HARDER
Exodus 5:1-9 (NIV) -- Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: `Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.'" Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go."
Then they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword."
But the king of Egypt said, "Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!" Then Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working."
That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: "You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don't reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, `Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies."
In this passage, we read about Moses' and Aaron's first attempt to get Pharaoh to release the Israelites and to let them leave the land of Egypt. As I read this, it struck me that Pharaoh responded to their demands in exactly the same way that Satan responds to us when we try to go out and fulfill God's callings and commands in our lives and in our churches. He makes the work harder.
I think the main way he does this now is by keeping Christians and churches so busy that they can't be effective at doing what God has called them to do. I noted in an earlier post that I was as busy as I have ever been in my life, between work and church and family issues, and it seems like a lot of others have that problem. We just had a Sunday School committee meeting and the issue came up of why people weren't coming to Sunday School and why we couldn't get teachers to commit. The answer, "People are just too busy. They just have too much going on in their lives." The work gets harder.
Satan doesn't seem to mind if you are busy just doing church stuff, because he knows that you can get so wrapped up in programs and committee meetings and ministries that you neglect the relationships that are of vital importance, your relationship with God, your family, your friends, and those you are witnessing to. I had a friend who got so busy with church a few years ago -- so busy doing God's work -- that his wife told him that she was leaving and taking their children. If Satan can keep us busy, he can keep us from being effective and can destroy churches and marriages and friendships in the process. The work gets harder.
I think a good question to ask ourselves, then, is how are we doing at managing our resource of time to accomplish what God has called us to accomplish. Are we spending all our time being busy without being effective, or are we accomplishing what God has called us to do? Are we too busy to take care of our family and our friends and maintain our relationship with our Father in Heaven? David pointed out in the Psalms that God desires your heart above anything else you can do or offer. Is Satan just keeping us busy, just making the work harder, so that we will forget to go and worship God, so that we will forget to keep our relationships strong?
I want to share with you something that I got off the internet a few years ago. It made its rounds via e-mail and can be found circulating around today. Maybe it will make a difference in the way that you look at your busy life and maybe it will help you stop trying to do everything and start trying to do what is truly important.
Satan Called a Worldwide Convention.
In his opening address to his evil angels, Satan said, "We can't keep the Christians from going to church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship experience in Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken.
So, let them go to their churches; let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't gain that relationship with Jesus Christ. This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Saviour and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"
"How shall we do this?" shouted his angels.
"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon, their home will offer no escape from the pressures of work!
"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive. To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ. Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers.
"Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogues, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes. Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines so the husbands will believe that external beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. Ha! That will fragment those families quickly!
"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted and unprepared for the coming week. Don't let them go out in nature to reflect on God's wonders. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies instead. Keep them busy, busy, busy! And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions.
"Go ahead, let them be involved in soul winning; but crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause. It will work! It will work!"
It was quite a convention. The evil angels went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get more busy and more rushed, going here and there. I guess the question is: Has the devil been successful at his scheme? You be the judge!
Then they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword."
But the king of Egypt said, "Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!" Then Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working."
That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: "You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don't reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, `Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies."
In this passage, we read about Moses' and Aaron's first attempt to get Pharaoh to release the Israelites and to let them leave the land of Egypt. As I read this, it struck me that Pharaoh responded to their demands in exactly the same way that Satan responds to us when we try to go out and fulfill God's callings and commands in our lives and in our churches. He makes the work harder.
I think the main way he does this now is by keeping Christians and churches so busy that they can't be effective at doing what God has called them to do. I noted in an earlier post that I was as busy as I have ever been in my life, between work and church and family issues, and it seems like a lot of others have that problem. We just had a Sunday School committee meeting and the issue came up of why people weren't coming to Sunday School and why we couldn't get teachers to commit. The answer, "People are just too busy. They just have too much going on in their lives." The work gets harder.
Satan doesn't seem to mind if you are busy just doing church stuff, because he knows that you can get so wrapped up in programs and committee meetings and ministries that you neglect the relationships that are of vital importance, your relationship with God, your family, your friends, and those you are witnessing to. I had a friend who got so busy with church a few years ago -- so busy doing God's work -- that his wife told him that she was leaving and taking their children. If Satan can keep us busy, he can keep us from being effective and can destroy churches and marriages and friendships in the process. The work gets harder.
I think a good question to ask ourselves, then, is how are we doing at managing our resource of time to accomplish what God has called us to accomplish. Are we spending all our time being busy without being effective, or are we accomplishing what God has called us to do? Are we too busy to take care of our family and our friends and maintain our relationship with our Father in Heaven? David pointed out in the Psalms that God desires your heart above anything else you can do or offer. Is Satan just keeping us busy, just making the work harder, so that we will forget to go and worship God, so that we will forget to keep our relationships strong?
I want to share with you something that I got off the internet a few years ago. It made its rounds via e-mail and can be found circulating around today. Maybe it will make a difference in the way that you look at your busy life and maybe it will help you stop trying to do everything and start trying to do what is truly important.
Satan Called a Worldwide Convention.
In his opening address to his evil angels, Satan said, "We can't keep the Christians from going to church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship experience in Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken.
So, let them go to their churches; let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't gain that relationship with Jesus Christ. This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Saviour and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"
"How shall we do this?" shouted his angels.
"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon, their home will offer no escape from the pressures of work!
"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive. To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ. Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers.
"Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogues, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes. Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines so the husbands will believe that external beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. Ha! That will fragment those families quickly!
"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted and unprepared for the coming week. Don't let them go out in nature to reflect on God's wonders. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies instead. Keep them busy, busy, busy! And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions.
"Go ahead, let them be involved in soul winning; but crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause. It will work! It will work!"
It was quite a convention. The evil angels went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get more busy and more rushed, going here and there. I guess the question is: Has the devil been successful at his scheme? You be the judge!
Does "busy" mean:
B-eing U-nder S-atan's Y-oke?
B-eing U-nder S-atan's Y-oke?
Saturday, February 04, 2006
OF WINE AND WINESKINS AND DIFFICULT PASSAGES
Matthew 9:15-17 (NIV) "Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast. "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."
Luke 5:36-39 (NIV) "He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, `The old is better.'"
Of all of Jesus' teachings, these parables have been the ones I have struggled with the most. I have studied these in various translations and paraphrases, searched commentaries, and meditated on these verses for years. Finally, I felt like I understood the text and the meaning of the text in context. As I understood it, Jesus was refuting the Pharisees' concerns that His disciples were not fasting and adhering to the traditional measures of the Law as the Pharisees and John the Baptist's disciples were. Through these parables, Jesus was pointing out to them that He was bringing with Him a new way of relating to God, a new way of understanding what it meant to be in communion with God, and that these new ways could not fit the mold of the old, traditional teachings of the Pharisees. For that reason, His disciples did not fast now, but would in the future, fast in a new way.
The whole intent of the passage, as I understood it, was that a new covenant had come, one that was similar to the old covenant, but so entirely different in form and function that the old ways and old traditions would burst if they tried to contain the liberating message of Christ. Likewise, just as it would not be profitable to try to force His disciples to conform to the old traditions, it would be extremely difficult for those contained by the old traditions to try to capture the new. In short, Jesus was prophesying that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law would reject His new teachings in favor of the old traditions they revered, missing the glorious freedom offered by the new wine. The ultimate meaning, as I understood it, was that the gospel was the new wine and the new wineskin and the old wine and the old wineskin represented the traditional teachings of Judaism.
This understanding served me well and seemed to mesh with all of the other commentaries I studied until this week, when I was left confused and confounded once again. I was reading this passage in the New Interpreter's Study Bible (which I had bought as a required text for a class this summer) and found a completely different interpretation of this passage. In fact, it was exactly the opposite of what I had come to believe and what the other commentaries taught. The NISB interpreted this passage by saying that Jesus was teaching that the old wine was good and that the Pharisees were forcing a new religion onto the ancient purpose of God. The NISB reads, "Unlike Jesus, they have introduced new patterns of religion that are incompatible with the ancient ways of God. Against such a backdrop, Jesus' message may seem innovative, but it is nothing other than the outworking of God's ancient plan."
I can understand this interpretation, but it leaves me confused and concerned. Why is this interpretation from the NISB so far removed from the other commentaries I read and from the understanding that I derived from the text? Which is correct? While they both seem accurate, can they both be true? Is this a case of isogesis versus exegesis?
So, since I am sure there are more astute biblical scholars than I in the blogosphere, I pose this question: How do you exegete and understand these parables? How would you approach this text?
Usually I try to handle these texts like the pastor who was preaching verse-by-verse through the Bible. He preached on verse 16. Then he got to verse 17 and said, "Now, this is one of the most difficult verses in the Bible." Then he skipped it and went to verse 18.
Luke 5:36-39 (NIV) "He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, `The old is better.'"
Of all of Jesus' teachings, these parables have been the ones I have struggled with the most. I have studied these in various translations and paraphrases, searched commentaries, and meditated on these verses for years. Finally, I felt like I understood the text and the meaning of the text in context. As I understood it, Jesus was refuting the Pharisees' concerns that His disciples were not fasting and adhering to the traditional measures of the Law as the Pharisees and John the Baptist's disciples were. Through these parables, Jesus was pointing out to them that He was bringing with Him a new way of relating to God, a new way of understanding what it meant to be in communion with God, and that these new ways could not fit the mold of the old, traditional teachings of the Pharisees. For that reason, His disciples did not fast now, but would in the future, fast in a new way.
The whole intent of the passage, as I understood it, was that a new covenant had come, one that was similar to the old covenant, but so entirely different in form and function that the old ways and old traditions would burst if they tried to contain the liberating message of Christ. Likewise, just as it would not be profitable to try to force His disciples to conform to the old traditions, it would be extremely difficult for those contained by the old traditions to try to capture the new. In short, Jesus was prophesying that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law would reject His new teachings in favor of the old traditions they revered, missing the glorious freedom offered by the new wine. The ultimate meaning, as I understood it, was that the gospel was the new wine and the new wineskin and the old wine and the old wineskin represented the traditional teachings of Judaism.
This understanding served me well and seemed to mesh with all of the other commentaries I studied until this week, when I was left confused and confounded once again. I was reading this passage in the New Interpreter's Study Bible (which I had bought as a required text for a class this summer) and found a completely different interpretation of this passage. In fact, it was exactly the opposite of what I had come to believe and what the other commentaries taught. The NISB interpreted this passage by saying that Jesus was teaching that the old wine was good and that the Pharisees were forcing a new religion onto the ancient purpose of God. The NISB reads, "Unlike Jesus, they have introduced new patterns of religion that are incompatible with the ancient ways of God. Against such a backdrop, Jesus' message may seem innovative, but it is nothing other than the outworking of God's ancient plan."
I can understand this interpretation, but it leaves me confused and concerned. Why is this interpretation from the NISB so far removed from the other commentaries I read and from the understanding that I derived from the text? Which is correct? While they both seem accurate, can they both be true? Is this a case of isogesis versus exegesis?
So, since I am sure there are more astute biblical scholars than I in the blogosphere, I pose this question: How do you exegete and understand these parables? How would you approach this text?
Usually I try to handle these texts like the pastor who was preaching verse-by-verse through the Bible. He preached on verse 16. Then he got to verse 17 and said, "Now, this is one of the most difficult verses in the Bible." Then he skipped it and went to verse 18.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
BOOK REVIEW: "CHRIST THE LORD: OUT OF EGYPT" by Anne Rice
I just finished reading the new book by Anne Rice, "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt." For those of you who are familiar with Anne Rice and her other novels, you may be extremely surprised at her taking up this topic in her latest novel. This book is a fictional account of the child Jesus during the lost years of the Bible -- the time between Mary and Joseph's flight into Egypt and Jesus' appearance at the Temple in Jerusalem as a young man.
Not to give away much of the plot, but the story opens with Jesus as a boy of seven living in Alexandria in the Jewish Quarter. He is a student of Philo, who recognizes the uniqueness of this child, although he doesn't understand who Jesus really is. The story progresses from that point to the journy of the extended family back to Israel and eventually their return to Nazareth where they re-establish their life. The story is told from Jesus' point-of-view in the first person, and, as true with all Anne Rice novels, Ms. Rice's considerable research into historical culture and society and natural settings lends a realism to this work of fiction.
I enjoyed the book, but found it a little difficult to become engaged with at first. It was strange to put yourself into the mind of Jesus as a boy and as He struggles to discern who He really is and why He came into the world. But, once I got several chapters into the book, I was hooked and enjoyed the story immensely. For those who pick this up, though, keep in mind that Ms. Rice is Catholic, and the story reflects Catholic teachings in a variety of areas that may cause concern for Protestant readers. For instance, Jesus' brother James is not a son of Mary, but a son from Joseph's first marriage, keeping the Catholic teaching that Mary never had other children intact. Other distinctly Catholic doctrines can be found in the text, but it does not distract too much from the story.
However, as interesting as the story was, the best part of the book was the Author's Note at the end. In this part, Ms. Rice presented her testimony and her search for Jesus, from her early upbringing in the Catholic Church, to her rebellion and distrust of organized religion, and finally to her soul-searching following the death of her husband that led her back to the Jesus of her youth. She shares the story of how this book came to be and how the research into this subject deeply touched her religious understandings of who Jesus was and who He could be in her life. And, she presents a telling critique over some of the scholarship related to Christology expressed by the more liberal camps of Christianity. Buy this book, if only to read this part. I consider it well worth the price just to read the fascinating journey and testimony of Ms. Rice, whose works I have enjoyed over several years.
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