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God Finishes What He Starts (Philippians 1:1-20)

2012-01-24T16:42:00.001-06:00

Philippians 1:1-20; Key Verse: Phil 1:6

"...he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

How reassuring it is to know and to hear that it is God (not me) who began His work of salvation in me, and that it is also God (NOT ME) who will complete His work of salvation in me!

Inadvertently, we might teach the Bible as though it is God who saved us by His grace. But after that it is up to us to make sure we don't lose our salvation and blow it! With such thoughts, we are guilt ridden when we sin, and we guilt trip other Christians when we think that they are not living "up to par" or living as they should. In Php 1:6, Paul is crystal clear that the work of salvation begins with God, and that is is completed by God (not by me, or by Paul). The NT emphasizes this over and over again, repeatedly (Php 1:29, 2:13; Eph 2:1,5; Col 2:13; Jn 1:12; Acts 11:18; 2 Th 2:13-14; Heb 11:29, 40).

When some Christians hear this, they say that such a teaching is saying that how we live, what we believe, and what we do as Christians is not important. But Paul does not say that there is nothing for us to do, or that faith is not important, or that our living and our actions as Christians are not important. But Paul is simply emphasizing that God is the One who initiates our salvation by His grace alone, through Christ alone, from the beginning to the end. We never start with God, and then after that it is up to us. If it were the case, we are all in big trouble!

Philippians has been called "The Epistle of Joy," or "The Epistle of Excellent Things." The words, joy, rejoice, glad, peace is repeated over 20 times in this short 4 chapter letter. It is notable that Paul's letter is bursting with palpable and expressive joy, while he is in prison! Joy is indeed one of several great themes in Philippians.

For such a short letter, Philippians also has countless memorable key verses: Phil 1:6,20,21,29; 2:5-11,12-13; 3:7-11,12-14,20; 4:4,5,6,7,8,11,13,19.

As we prayed for 2012 to be a year of Sanctification, it felt to me as though every verse and passage in the Bible is related to or about sanctification! For instance, no Christian will truly have peace and joy, without being sanctified in Christ. So far, we have studied:

Sanctification, Part I: Change is Possible (Php 2:12-16),
Sanctification, Part II: Not There Yet (Php 3:12-4:1), and
Sanctification, Part III: Joy, Peace and Contentment (Php 4:2-23).

Pray if the above could be foundational Bible studies for dynamic Christian living.

Going "backwards" in Philippians, I hope to finish this short letter in the next few weeks. Today's text, Phil 1:1-20 teaches us several things about Paul:

His identity (1-2): Who he is.
His heart (3-5, 7-8): How he feels.
His faith (6): What he believes.
His prayer (9-11): How he prays, what he prays for.
His hope (12-20): How he sees life--all of life.

I. Paul's Identity (Phil 1:1-2)

Paul identified himself and Timothy as "servants of Christ Jesus" (Php 1:1). "Douloi" means "bond-slaves." The acknowledgment that he is a servant of Christ reminds us that though he looks like a prisoner of Caesar, a victim of Caesar, a servant of Caesar, he’s not. He’s the servant of the Messiah. If he is in prison, it is because that’s where Jesus wants him. If Jesus doesn’t want him there, even Caesar cannot hold him there! He will be wherever Jesus wants him to be, and Caesar has nothing to say about it! So the fact that he is in Caesar’s custody is only because of the fact that the God of the universe, the real one who is Lord, has decided that that is where he’s supposed to be.

That kind of thinking is dangerous. It can change your life. If you start thinking about your life that way, things will change. "Lord, This is Your plan for me, Your plan to exalt Yourself in my life. You’re going to be glorified in this, protect me in this, magnify Your grace in this, because I am not a victim of this world. I’m a servant of the Messiah, Jesus." You be careful about believing this. Be very careful.

II. Paul's Heart (Phil 1:3-5,7-8)

In Phil 1:3-5, we learn:

Paul’s thankful heart (Php 1:3). Cf. feeling entitled and taking things for granted.
Paul's joyful prayer (Php 1:4). Paul's joy comes from God.
Paul's gospel focus (Php 1:5). Unity comes from gospel focus/fellowship, not natural affinity.
Paul's deep affection (Php 1:7-8). Grace and mission creates a band of brothers. Love and affection grow in the soil of grace and gospel service.

When we deliberately pray to cultivate a gospel fellowship, true unity in the Spirit results. But if our fellowship is primarily based on common affinities — growing up in the city, going to the same school, having a common set of friends, in a particular line of work — if those are the fundamental things that unite us, then the edges of our congregation will be walls; anybody that cannot join in those natural affinities will not be a part of us. But if our union, if our communion, if our fellowship, is related to the gospel, then the edges of our fellowship will be porous. Then even people who are not like us — not from our socio-economic class, racial/cultural background, not a part of the same set of friends, but they do trust in the Jesus, they will very easily become a part of the gospel fellowship because the thing that fundamentally unites us is not those natural affinities, but the gospel affinities.

III. Paul's Faith (Phil 1:6)

Paul's simple single point about salvation is this: God is at work in your salvation from beginning to end. Salvation is God’s work from start to finish. We learn 6 things about salvation:

Salvation is God’s work (100%).
Salvation is a good work (because it makes us fit for the enjoyment of God).
Salvation is unfinished work (for sanctification is ongoing this side of heaven).
Salvation is a certain work (because God always finishes what He starts).
Salvation is perfect work (because God only does things perfectly).
Salvation’s work will only be perfect on the last day.

IV. Paul's Prayer (Phil 1:9-11)

7 things that Paul prays for the Philippians are that:

their love would abound (Php 1:9a),
their knowledge would grow (Php 1:9b),
their discernment would increase (Php 1:10a),
they would choose the excellent (Php 1:10b),
they would continue in purity, sincerity and integrity (Php 1:10c),
they would live in fruitful righteousness (Php 1:11a), and
they would deliberately live for the glory of God (Php 1:11b).

V. Paul's Hope (Phil 1:12-20)

In this part, we learn several more things about Paul:

Providence in imprisonment: How he views his circumstances of being in prison (Php 1:12-14).
Promotion of the gospel: What to think of those who preach the gospel out of envy and rivalry (Php 1:15-18).
Purpose of life: What Paul's single hope and purpose of life is (Php 1:19-20).

Thank and praise God that our salvation in Christ alone, by grace alone, and through faith alone is entirely the work of God from the beginning to the end.

Questions:

Who are the senders (Php 1:1a; "douloi" means "bond-slaves.")? The recipients (Php 1:1b; "hagios" means "different.")? What was his greeting (Php 1:2)? What can such an identify do for you?
Why is Paul so joyful and thankful in his prayer (Php 1:3-8)? Do others pray for you with joy? Who were Paul's partners (Php 1:5; Acts 16:11-15,16-18,19-40)? What truly unites us (Php 1:5-7)? Hinders us? What does Php 1:6 teach about salvation (Php 1:29, 2:13; Eph 2:1,5; Col 2:13; Jn 1:12; Acts 11:18; 2 Th 2:13-14; Heb 11:29, 40)?
Can you identify Paul's "7" prayer topics for the Philippians (Php 1:9-11; 1 Jn 4:19-20; 1 Tim 1:5; Eph 4:15)?
How does Paul see his imprisonment (Php 1:12-14; Rom 8:28)? Why motives might some have for preaching the gospel (Php 1:15-18)? When (not if) adversity happens, is the question, 'Why me?' or 'How is God going to exalt Himself?'" (Php 1:19-20)

References (5 Sermons by Ligon Duncan):

Greetings From Paul (Php 1:1-2).
I Thank God For You (Php 1:3-5).
He Finishes What He Starts (Php 1:6).
Love Abounding (Php 1:7-11).
For the Greater Progress of the Gospel (Php 1:12-20).

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Sanctification Part III: Joy, Peace and Contentment (Philippians 4:2-23)

2012-01-18T10:56:00.001-06:00

Philippians 4:2-23; Key Verse: 4:7a,9b

"And the peace of God... And the God of peace will be with you."

In keeping with our prayer for 2012 to be the year of Sanctification, we studied "Sanctification, Part I: Change is Possible" (Php 2:12-16) and Sanctification, Part II: Not There Yet (Php 3:12-4:1). In Sanctification, Part III, we study Php 4:2-23 and find that sanctification is not something negative or burdensome or undesirable, for sanctification leads to all the attributes that every human being wants: Joy, Peace and Contentment.

What compelled me to Christ before I became a Christian was that I knew without a doubt that I had no peace, no serenity, no tranquility. This really bothered me. I could study well, become a medical doctor, have wonderful parents who never hurt me, have an inner spirit of resolve to never be defeated by life or by anyone, and yet I had no peace. In today's passage, Paul gives us at least 7 exhortations that leads to the promise of the peace of God which is beyond human comprehension. These exhortations do not teach us the way of salvation. These exhortations are not the gospel. But in these exhortations Paul is expressing how a true Christian lives, how one who is truly sanctified lives the Christian life. Let us examine the 7 exhortations of Paul plus a promise of peace in Php 4:2-23:

Be Reconciled (Php 4:2-3).
Rejoice (Php 4:4).
Be Gentle (Php 4:5).
Do Not Worry, but Pray (Php 4:6).
Think (Php 4:8).
Put It Into Practice (Php 4:9a).
Be Content (Php 4:10-23).
The Promise of Peace (Php 4:7,9b).

I. Be Reconciled (Php 4:2-3)

Perhaps, the "most difficult" task for a Christian is not necessarily to convert someone to Christ. You befriend them, love them, extend grace to them, pray for them, listen to them, be genuine before them, teach them the Bible as much as they can digest, and allow God to transform them. But the "most difficult" task for a Christian practically is to reconcile with another Christian who has hurt you, wounded you, insulted you, ignored you, disrespected you, not trusted you, betrayed you, and the list of wrongs can just go on and on. On UBFriends I have written over 20 articles, and my most viewed article is entitled “Why Do We Have Divisions?” (5,300 views). I began the article with this sentence: The problem with the church is that it has people!

Paul knows the inevitability of conflicts among Christians in the church. He did not give the impression that we in the church of God are united and loving with no problems. Rather, Paul openly and publicly exposed the conflict between 2 senior Christians: Euodia and Synthyche (Php 4:2). Imagine if your name is one of those sent out in a letter to be read in all the churches where people know who you are! "I plead with Kathy and Betty to agree with each other." That's what Paul did. Also, Paul did not just privately address both of them to overcome their differences in Christ. Rather, he involved and enlisted many notable leaders in the church to help resolve this conflict: "my loyal yokefellow," "Clement," and "the rest of my fellow workers" (Php 4:3).

Whenever there is a problem in a church (and there will ALWAYS be problems and conflicts in the church), we want to cover it up, act as though nothing is wrong, involve as few people as possible, so as not to "discourage others." Behind closed doors, we gossip and blame people. But this is not the biblical pattern. In fact, Paul did the very opposite: he exposed the people and the conflict publicly (because he loved them), and he enlisted and involved virtually the whole church leadership to pray for and promote reconciliation. Paul also did not blame anyone. To Paul, reconciliation is so crucial for the church, because God promoted reconciliation with us sinners at a tremendous and priceless cost--the cost of His One and Only Son. Without genuine reconciliation, we will not experience the peace that passes understanding.

II. Rejoice (Php 4:4)

Was there any reason for the church in Philippi to rejoice? They were being persecuted and opposed (Php 1:28). There was envy and rivalry (Php 1:15). There were conflicts and divisions (Php 4:2-3). With such ongoing problems, they could easily become cynical and bitter. How could they possibly rejoice? Only when their joy is not drawn from their circumstances. Any Christian who wants to experience the peace that passes understanding needs to cultivate a heart of joy and rejoicing that comes from the Lord (Php 4:4), and not from circumstances.

III. Be Gentle (Php 4:5)

There are many legitimate ways to translate the word "gentleness" (epieikeia): "reasonableness," "moderation," "generosity," "modesty," "magnanimity," "forbearance," "forbearing spirit," "unselfishness," "considerateness," and "softness." The Greeks explained this word as "justice and something better than justice" (Jn 8:10-11). The Message says, "Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!" But they all get the point across that in our dealings with one another we are to be kind, gentle, generous, respectful, considerate, and reasonable. The reason Paul gives for this is because "the Lord is near" (Php 4:5). If you are having a fight with your spouse, and someone walks in, you stop fighting. Thus, we should interact with others as though Jesus would walk in at any moment. In fact, he is right there in the midst of all that we do and say to one another.

IV. Do Not Worry But Pray (Php 4:6)

We worry to try to feel more in control of a situation. But worry only does 2 things: depresses you and discourages others. Php 4:6 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Paul is not saying that the Philippians do not have anything to worry about. They do have things to worry about. They are persecuted. They are experiencing division in their congregation. There are those who preach out of envy and rivalry. There are a lot of reasons why they should worry. So Paul does not say to not worry because their circumstances are good. He tells them to not worry because they have got a God who is in charge who loves them and who they can pray to (Mt 6:31-32).

V. Think (Php 4:8): "A man is what he thinks about all day long." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) "You are not what you think you are. But what you think, you are." (Trinity Seminary Professor)

Before you go to bed at night, do you wonder if you have thought about anything of eternal significance that day? Someone said, "Some people would rather die, than think." We are so preoccupied by the trivial that we do not get around to the profound and the permanent. By being preoccupied with the problems of life, we have no time for any deep reflection. Thus, Paul stresses the utmost importance of thinking deeply in the Christian life. The Puritans made it a practice of meditating on 6 great things from God’s word, which they regarded as absolutely essential for cultivating heavenly-mindedness:

the majesty of God;
the severity of sin;
the beauty of Christ;
the certainty of death;
the finality of judgment; and,
the misery of hell.

Paul's imperative in 4:8 is "think about such things." It suggests that unless we decide to do so, we will not. Paul knew that unless we are deliberate about thinking godly thoughts, we will not grow as a sanctified Christian.

What is Christian meditation? Non-Christian practitioners of meditation say that it is vital that we "empty our mind" in order to meditate. This is a dangerous practice and it is contrary to Scripture. Instead the Bible says that we must fill up our mind with God's word (Php 4:8; Ps 1:2; Jos 1:8). Why? It is because God has already spoken, and that we ARE NOT LISTENING! Meditation is to help us to listen to what God has already said in his Word. Meditation is the activity of calling to mind and thinking over and dwelling on and applying to ourselves the various things that we already know about what God's Word says. Mediation connects the mind and the will – the head and the heart – so that the truth we know is worked deep down into our soul so that it begins to affect what we desire. How do you move the 12 or 18 inches from the head to the heart? A biblical answer is through meditation, through dwelling on, reflecting on, thinking over, looking at every side of the truth in meditation and reflection. The idea is for the truth to so take hold of our desires that we begin to desire the right rather than the wrong thing, the permanent rather than the temporary thing, the lovely rather than the ugly thing, the true rather than the false thing.

Again, these exhortations are not the gospel. Rather, he is telling Christians who have already received the gospel how to live the Christian life, how to think as a Christian. John Stott has written dozens of wonderful Christian books. One book you may not know is about bird-watching. He loves to look at birds, and he has written a book about what he’s learned from birds about the Christian life. In the introduction to the book, he whimsically calls it “ornitheology” — not ornithology (or, the study of birds) — but ornitheology (learning about God from the study of birds). On a more mundane scale, when I saw the movie The Descendants, I thought about the Gospel of our salvation.

VI. Put It Into Practice (Php 4:9)

If we are Christians, we already know what we ought to do and what we ought to stop. The question is "How?" An answer is there has to be a desire that is opposite and greater than the desire that is enticing us to what is wrong and trivial if we are going to be able to fight that desire. How do we meditate until our desire for God is greater than our desire for the base?

Paul suggests that we need meditation, instruction, direction and application (Php 4:8-9). Basically, look at him, learn from him, watch what he does, and then just do it, or put it into practice. A Christian never learns just by listening. Unless he puts his Christianity into practice, he remains a spiritual infant and lives as though he has not been sanctified. It is like learning how to play the piano just by reading a book about how to play the piano. But a virtuoso practices the piano 300 times, 600 times, 1,200 times. Sir William Osler (1849-1919), one of the greatest icons of modern medicine, said, "To study the phenomenon of disease without books is to sail an uncharted sea, while to study books without patients is not to go to sea at all." Likewise, if I do not put my Christianity into practice, I am functionally not a Christian, even if I insist that I am.

VII. Be Content (Php 4:10-23)

Are you content? Exactly in your present situation, are you perfectly content? In this part, Paul expresses something that is vitally important in the Christian life, without which, a Christian will not experience the peace that passes human understanding. Being content is crucial for a Christian (11-12; 2 Cor 12:10; 1 Tim 6:6-8; Heb 13:5). Paul teaches us several things about contentment which would encourage us if we are not content:

Paul had to learn how to be content.
Contentment is not innate to the Christian.
The greatest likelihood of finding real gospel contentment is when you sense you lack it. On the contrary you are least likely to find real gospel contentment when your life circumstances provide you a greater measure of contentment.

This is confounding and counter-intuitive. You are more likely to find real contentment when you realize your lack of real contentment than if you are in a circumstance in life where your situation provides you with such comforts that you are not thinking about your lack of the real thing. This is why Jesus said that it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven (Mt 19:23; Mk 10:23; Lk 18:24). Why? Because the rich man can mistake circumstantial contentment for gospel contentment. He can mistake a superficial temporal contentment with a deep, permanent and eternal contentment. He cannot seek real contentment, because he doesn’t sense his lack of real contentment, for he is in circumstances that make him content. The first thing to realize about gospel contentment is that it is non-circumstancial.

What is the secret of contentment? Buddhism stresses the cultivation of contentment. 1 brand of Buddhism says that the way to cultivate contentment is to lower your expectations. But gospel contentment does not come from circumstances or lowered expectations, but "through him who gives me strength" (Php 4:13). The secret of contentment is God’s providence apprehended by your soul. It is the God of providence embraced by your soul so that you believe it. Gospel contentment rests on a deep personal doctrinal experiential embrace of God’s providence.

God will never ask me to do something that I can do myself. Rather, God will call me to do something that I cannot do without Him. The secret of gospel contentment is knowing that without Jesus, I am not able to do anything. But with Jesus and by His help alone, I am able to do all things, especially things that I know that I am totally unable to do.

VIII. The Promise (and the Prayer) of Peace (Php 4:7,9b,19)

One of the most beautiful verses in the Bible is Php 4:7: "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." There is a way for a Christian to experience the peace that surpasses human comprehension. Paul is saying that even when we are hurt, wounded, wronged, discouraged, disheartened, betrayed, misunderstood, maligned, marginalized, and when the world around you seems to be caving in on you, you can experience the peace of God that just does not make any sense humanly. How is that possible? The peace of God is never dependent on your circumstances. The peace of God is a gift of God. The peace of God comes from the God of peace (Php 4:9). The peace of God comes from fully enjoying and embracing the truth that "my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus" (Php 4:19).

Generally people do not like the Bible because they think that the Bible is intrusive, that it is "Do this" and "Don't do that." The Bible is no fun. Sadly, even some Christians think that the Bible has commands that wants them to just "suffer and die." Some Christian leaders might even teach and promote that. Some Christians might rather prefer to die than to reconcile with someone who hurt them deeply. Or they might prefer to blame others or throw a pity party for themselves than to be content in their undesirable or unfavorable situation. But when we take to heart the imperatives and exhortations of the Bible, Paul says that we will experience the peace of God from the God of peace who will meet ALL our needs according to the riches of God's glory in Christ Jesus (Php 4:7,9,19)! May God bless you with the peace of God from the God of peace, as you enjoy living out Paul's exhortations that are all for our own good: Be reconciled. Rejoice. Be gentle. Don't worry, but pray. Think. Put it into practice. Be content.

Questions

What did Paul plead with Euodia and Syntyche (2)? Who were they (3)? Whose help did Paul enlist (3)? What can we learn about conflicts in the church? About creating and cultivating a culture of reconciliation and forgiveness?
Is there anything about the Philippian situation to rejoice about (4)? What is the key to rejoicing?
The word "gentleness" (5) has been translated "reasonableness," "moderation," "generosity," "magnanimity" and "softness." What reason does Paul give for being gentle with one another?
How can we live worry-free in a care-filled world? (6; Mt 6:32-32)? Who can do so? What is God's promise to those who practice Paul's exhortations (7,9b)?
Why is it important cultivate godly affections and thinking (8)? What if we don't (Rom 8:6)? What is the difference between Christian meditation and transcendental meditation? How did the Puritans cultivate heavenly-mindedness? How do we do this (9; 3:17)?
How does Paul encourage Christians with regard to contentment (11-13)? Why should Christians be content (11-12; 2 Cor 12:10; 1 Tim 6:6-8; Heb 13:5)? Why is gospel contentment hard for the rich (Mt 19:23; Mk 10:23; Lk 18:24)? What is the secret of contentment (13,19,20)? What can we learn from Paul's final greetings (21-23)?

References

The Shalom of God (Php 4:2-7). L. Duncan.
Do As I Do (Php 4:8-9). L. Duncan.
Content in Every Situation (Php 4:10-20). L. Duncan.
Grace, with Your Spirit (Php 4:21-23). L. Duncan.
The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. William Barclay, The New Daily Study Bible, 1975, 2003.

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Sanctification, Part II: Not There Yet (Philippians 3:12-4:1)

2012-01-15T09:36:00.003-06:00

Philippians 3:12 - 4:1; Key Verse: Phil 3:13

"I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do..."

Paul is a man of "one thing" (Php 3:13), "one goal" (Php 3:12), "one prize" (Php 3:14), and "one desire" (Php 3:10), for which he gives all of himself. He does not do so out of any righteousness, nobility or goodness in himself, but attributes all of his zeal and passion to the grace of Jesus (Php 3:9; Gal 2:20b). In this way, Paul shows us the one single driving force behind his sanctification and his Christian life.

We have been praying that 2012 may be the year of Sanctification. What is sanctification? Louis Berkhof (1873 – 1957), a renowned 20th century theologian, explains Sanctification: "Sanctification is a work of the triune God, but is ascribed more particularly to the Holy Spirit in Scripture, Rom 8:11; 15:16; 1 Pet 1:2. It is particularly important in our day, with its emphasis on the necessity of approaching the study of theology anthropologically and its one-sided call to service in the kingdom of God, to stress the fact that God, and not man, is the author of sanctification. Especially in view of the Activism that is such a characteristic feature of American religious life, and which glorifies the work of man rather than the grace of God, it is necessary to stress the fact over and over again that sanctification is the fruit of justification, that the former is simply impossible without the latter, and that both are the fruits of the grace of God in the redemption of sinners. Though man is privileged to cooperate with the Spirit of God, he can do this only in virtue of the strength which the Spirit imparts to him from day to day. The spiritual development of man is not a human achievement, but a work of divine grace. Man deserves no credit whatsoever for that which he contributes to it instrumentally."

In brief, sanctification is God's work, not man's work (even though man works in grace, following God's work in him). Last week, our sermon from Php 2:12-16 was titled "Sanctification, Part I: Change is Possible." This week, our sermon from Php 3:12-4:1 is titled "Sanctification, Part II: Not There Yet." It has 4 parts:

Not There Yet.
Pressing On with Zeal.
Striving by Grace.
Practical Application: 2 Exhortations: "Imitate me" and "Stand firm."

I. Not There Yet (Php 3:12a,13a)

A Christian, by definition, is always one whom God is working in, so that they will work it out in the practical details of their life (Php 2:12-13). Of course, they can rebel against God working in them and suffer the consequences (Gal 6:7). Even the "greatest" man of God, the Apostle Paul, wanted to be sanctified further so as to become more and more like Jesus (Php 2:10). Paul could be regarded as the greatest Christian, the greatest theologian, the greatest pastor, the greatest church planter, the greatest leader, teacher, mentor, discipler, who ever lived. But how did Paul regard his own spiritual condition or progress?

He said, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal..." (Php 3:12a). Again, Paul said, "I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it" (Php 3:13a). Paul basically said, "I'm not there yet."

Paul is likely addressing a false teaching called "perfectionism," which suggests that a Christian can become perfect (or close to it) in this lifetime. He was likely referring to the Judaisers (Php 3:2-3), those Jewish Christians who wanted the Philippian Christians to believe Paul’s teaching about Jesus the Messiah but also wanted them to strive for holiness. How? By keeping the Law of Moses, especially the ceremonial law – the ritual law. They taught that the way to be complete, mature, perfect, was to not only believe in Jesus, but also to keep the laws of Moses.

Last week I saw an elderly patient who has been a minister and a preacher in his church for over 4 decades, ever since he was 18 y/o. He told me, "I am a holiness preacher. Therefore, I do not lie, cheat, smoke, drink alcohol, and I've had 1 wife all my life." I believe he is a sincere Christian. But he seems to be communicating perfectionism.

Perfectionism is not an uncommon sentiment among Christians today. A minister preached in church that he had achieved this state of perfection as a Christian. A man asked him after the sermon, "Does your wife agree that you have achieved this state of perfection." He answered, "She does not believe in that doctrine yet..." Isn't it quite obvious why she doesn't believe in that doctrine!?

Such teaching began with John Wesley who explained from Php 2:12, 15 that Christians should strive for perfection (true) and that some Christians could reach some degree of perfection in this life (not true). Wesley's motivation for saying this was good: He wanted to combat the dead formalism of the church in his day. He wanted to see real, vibrant holiness among Christians. But to say that perfection is possible in this lifetime is not supported by the Bible.

I have also sensed an implicit idea that Christians regard themselves as more holy, more godly, more spiritual and more mature the older they get. It is likely true that Christians "sin less"--quantitatively speaking--as they get older. But are older Christian less sinful? I painfully acknowledge that the main reason that I seemingly "sin less" is because I had a lot more strength to sin more when I was younger!

Such an idea that older Christians are holier and more godly and spiritually mature was not what Paul taught. Perfectionism promotes elitism, which is not healthy for any church or Christian community. Paul was not an elitist. He testified that he is the worst of sinners--not as a young Christian--but as a mature, seasoned, Christian (1 Tim 1:15). He regarded all his fellow Christians as co-servants (Php 1:1), partners (Php 1:5), brothers (Col 1:1), and not as his subordinates or "foot soldiers." How could Paul be so genuinely humble? He knows from his heart and core that he is not there yet, that he has not yet been perfected in Christ (Php 3:11).

II. Pressing On With Zeal (Php 3:12b,13b-16)

"The highest wisdom, even of him who has attained the greatest perfection, is to go forward, and endeavor in a calm and teachable spirit to make further progress." John Calvin (Institutes, Book 3, Chap 2, 4)

Paul is clear that Christians are not the fellowship of those who have arrived. Like Paul, we are not there yet; we've not gotten to our goal. As a result, we press on with all that we are toward that goal. Paul's language is active, passionate, and intense: I press on, I forget what is behind, I strain forward, I hold true to what I have attained (Php 2:12,13,14,16). Paul's singular desire is to be more and more like Jesus, and he never lets up.

We Christians like to motivated to "press on." When we hear this, we are inclined to press others to also "press on." We are likely to be upset or irritated with those whom we think are not doing so. But Paul was speaking in the 1st person: "I press on to take hold," "I do not consider," "one thing I do," "I press on toward the goal" (Php 3:12-14). Then he address those who are mature, for only the mature would have Paul's perspective of living up to what has already been attained (Php 3:15-16). So, what Paul says is primarily for us to "press on," and not for us to "press others to press on."

This message is also not for non-believers, for it is not about salvation and not about how we come to be saved, which is only by grace alone, by faith alone, and in Christ alone. The message of salvation is never by faith in Christ, plus you must "press on."

However, when a mature Christian hears "press on," he or she knows what this means: "I must never ever rest with where I am today with regards to godliness and holiness. I must always press on by cultivating a holy dissatisfaction about my present state of growth." Paul knows that he is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone; and yet, he is utterly dissatisfied with staying with where he is in his present state of godliness. He wants to be more like Jesus.

III. Striving by Grace (Php 3:12c,14b)

How is Paul pressing on? Though Paul is pressing on with zeal, his inner motivation is not himself or his effort, but the grace of Jesus. Paul is clear that he is who he is only by the grace of God (1 Cor 15:10), not his own credit or goodness. Despite his intense effort in being more and more like Jesus, he knows that it is only because God first chose him and worked in him (Php 2:13), and that "Christ Jesus took hold of" him (Php 3:12b), and that "God has called (him) heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Php 3:14b).

IV. 2 Exhortations and 2 Reasons (Php 3:17-4:1)

Paul knows that the enemy of pressing on by zeal and by grace is the world. Paul's 4 points of practical application to fight against the seduction of the world are:

Imitate me (Php 3:17).
Worldliness kills (Php 3:18-19).
Homesickness helps (Php 3:20-21).
Stand firm (Php 4:1).

1. Imitate me; imitate godly examples (Php 3:17): "Join together in following my example...and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do" (Php 3:17). Paul is saying, "Act like me. Live like me. Follow my example. Do as I do. Watch me. See how I live. Copy me. Watch those who copy me, copy how they live." It's like one of our favorite catchphrases: Be like Mike. Our founder, Samuel Lee, often said, "Imitation precedes creativity." Perhaps, some might carry this too far, until it becomes like a law of tradition where younger leaders are expected to "do whatever they are told." But Paul is obviously not saying that he is perfect. He fully acknowledges that he is still sinful and not near Christ-likeness (Php 3:12-13). But he knows that only by the grace of God, Jesus has changed and transformed his heart. He is not arrogant, like the super-apostles in Corinth (2 Cor 11:5, 12:11). He is not ruled by the Law like the dogs--the Judaizers (Php 3:2-3). He considered others as better than he (Php 2:3), and of himself with sober judgment (Rom 12:3). Paul is truly a loving, gentle, humble, unimposing man in Christ. Look for such mature Christians and imitate their faith and life as a way to overcome worldliness.

2. Worldliness kills (Php 3:18-19): The Puritans understood the crippling temptation/seduction of worldliness. They said: "Love God, but use the world." Otherwise you will love the world, and use God to get the world. They also said: "Love the world and gold is your God. Love God, and God is your gold."

John Newton understood the grip of worldliness in this less known hymn:

“Fading is the world’s pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show.
Solid joys and lasting treasure,
None but Zion’s children know.”

Worldliness is perhaps one of the greatest problems for Christians. It is not the problem that we Christians critique "out there." Worldliness is our home address. We ourselves are steeped in it. 85% of best sellers of CBD, of the top 100 Christian books are about using God to get what you want, to get the world. 85% of Christian TV is also about using God to get the world. But this is never Paul's message, Jesus' message, the Bible's message or Christianity's message.

Worldliness means a person has come to be at home in this world, to find their place of belonging in this world, to think like this world, to act like this world, to desire the things that this world desires. Paul is warning that even people who are religious, even people who are spiritual, even people who claim to be Christians can become captivated by that kind of worldliness, and, he says, it will kill them. It is soul destroying.

We think of worldliness as hedonism, materialism, partying, drugs, drunkenness, gluttony, immorality, etc. It is. But the worldliness Paul is addressing are people who claim to love God and yet they are so worldly that he characterizes them as "enemies of the cross" (Php 3:18)! He says of them, "Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things" (Php 3:19). What is Paul saying? They’re all wrapped up in this life. They want their praise here. They want their affirmation here. This is where they belong. This is where their reward is. They claim to be believers, but what they want most in life is here. Worldliness is a matter of the heart. It is what my heart desires. It takes control of my mind, my will, my decisions, my life, my affections. Then we become captive to a lesser joy than the real and true joy of Jesus and his kingdom. Even putting my hope in my own church is a deceptive form of worldliness that blinds me from the kingdom of God.

3. Homesickness helps (Php 3:20-21): Paul says, "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body" (Php 3:20-21). Paul is saying that if we’re not heavenly-minded, if we’re not homesick for our home, if we’re not longing for something that this world can’t give us, we’re utterly vulnerable to worldliness. Because until that point we are vulnerable to believing that this world can actually give us something that can last.

4. Stand firm (Php 4:1): Paul's 2nd exhortation is "Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!" (Php 4:1) Paul says this because no one overcomes worldliness just by wishing that their worldly longings will just suddenly disappear overnight; it requires resolve. Just as the devil tempted Eve, the devil constantly tempts us today, saying, "God is not enough. You need something else." May God help us resolve not to be deceived by the devil's lie to seduce us with the world, which includes many good things, such as our family, our children, or even our church.

Are you there yet? Paul was clear that he was not. So, his life was an intense pressing on toward the goal to win the prize (Acts 20:24). But his inner motivation was not his ambition, passion or zeal, but the grace of Jesus that is greater than all the delights of the world. May God bless 2012 to be a year of sanctification.

Questions:

What is Paul's confession of his own progress in Christ (12a, 13a; 1 Ti 1:15)? What does "perfect" (12) and "mature" (15) mean? (They are translated from the same Greek word "teleios.")
What is "one thing" (13), "the prize" (14) and the "goal" (12,15)? Why did Christ take hold of him (12c; Rom 8:29)? What does "press on" (12b, 14a), "forgetting" and "straining" (13b) teach about sanctification (1 Cor 9:24-27; 1 Ti 6:12; Heb 12:1)? How should mature Christians hold true to what they have attained (16; 2:12-13)?
What is Paul's exhortation to Christians (17; 4:9; 1 Cor 4:16; 11:1; 1 Th 1:6; 2 Th 3:7-9; 1 Ti 4:12,15-16; 2 Ti 3:10-11; 1 Pe 5:3)? Why (Heb 3:13)?
What is Paul's tearful warning (18)? Who are these "enemies of the cross" (2)? Are they non-Christians and pagans? What is their destiny, their god, their glory, and their mind set on (19)? What is the problem with worldliness (1 Jn 2:15-17)?
What is the goal of sanctification (20)? How is this accomplished (21)? Are you homesick? Do you have a resolve (4:1)?

References:

Pressing On Toward The Goal (Php 3:12-16). Ligon Duncan.
Two Ways To Live (Php 3:17-4:1). Ligon Duncan.
The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. William Barclay, The New Daily Study Bible, 1975, 2003.
Sanctification by Louis Berkhof.

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Sanctification, Part II: Not There Yet (Philippians 3:12-4:1)

2012-01-15T09:36:00.001-06:00

Philippians 3:12 - 4:1; Key Verse: Phil 3:13

"I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do..."

Not There Yet.
Pressing On with Zeal.
Striving by Grace.
Practical Application: 2 Exhortations: "Imitate me" and "Stand firm."

I. Not There Yet (Php 3:12a,13a)

II. Pressing On With Zeal (Php 3:12b,13b-16)

"The highest wisdom, even of him who has attained the greatest perfection, is to go forward, and endeavor in a calm and teachable spirit to make further progress." John Calvin (Institutes, Book 3, Chap 2, 4)

III. Striving by Grace (Php 3:12c,14b)

IV. 2 Exhortations and 2 Reasons (Php 3:17-4:1)

Paul knows that the enemy of pressing on by zeal and by grace is the world. Paul's 4 points of practical application to fight against the seduction of the world are:

Imitate me (Php 3:17).
Worldliness kills (Php 3:18-19).
Homesickness helps (Php 3:20-21).
Stand firm (Php 4:1).

John Newton understood the grip of worldliness in this less known hymn:

“Fading is the world’s pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show.
Solid joys and lasting treasure,
None but Zion’s children know.”

Questions:

What is Paul's confession of his own progress in Christ (12a, 13a; 1 Ti 1:15)? What does "perfect" (12) and "mature" (15) mean? (They are translated from the same Greek word "teleios.")
What is "one thing" (13), "the prize" (14) and the "goal" (12,15)? Why did Christ take hold of him (12c; Rom 8:29)? What does "press on" (12b, 14a), "forgetting" and "straining" (13b) teach about sanctification (1 Cor 9:24-27; 1 Ti 6:12; Heb 12:1)? How should mature Christians hold true to what they have attained (16; 2:12-13)?
What is Paul's exhortation to Christians (17; 4:9; 1 Cor 4:16; 11:1; 1 Th 1:6; 2 Th 3:7-9; 1 Ti 4:12,15-16; 2 Ti 3:10-11; 1 Pe 5:3)? Why (Heb 3:13)?
What is Paul's tearful warning (18)? Who are these "enemies of the cross" (2)? Are they non-Christians and pagans? What is their destiny, their god, their glory, and their mind set on (19)? What is the problem with worldliness (1 Jn 2:15-17)?
What is the goal of sanctification (20)? How is this accomplished (21)? Are you homesick? Do you have a resolve (4:1)?

References:

Pressing On Toward The Goal (Php 3:12-16). Ligon Duncan.
Two Ways To Live (Php 3:17-4:1). Ligon Duncan.
The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. William Barclay, The New Daily Study Bible, 1975, 2003.
Sanctification by Louis Berkhof.

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2012: The Year of Sanctification

2012-01-13T17:39:00.006-06:00

2012 Key Verse: Philippians 2:12b-13

“…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to act according to his good purpose/pleasure.”

West Loop UBF does not need me. I said: “West Loop UBF does not need me, but I need West Loop UBF.” Why? We have 9 families who are faithful stewards, friends and elders for our local church community. For all practical purposes, these 9 families run West Loop UBF with little to no input or contribution from me. I only thank God for the initiative and love of Jesus of my friends. I also said, “Please make mistakes boldly. If you want to do anything, you do not have to ask for my permission or blessing. I trust you. If it works, praise God! If it flops, learn from your mistake.” From the outset of West Loop in Jan 2008, my principle is for West Loop to run without me. By God’s grace, I believe it has.

Sanctification, Part II: One Thing I Do (Philippians 3:12-4:1)

2012-01-10T18:58:00.001-06:00

Philippians 3:12-21; Key Verse: Phil 3:13 "But one thing I do..."

What is Paul's confession of his own progress in Christ (Php 3:12a, 13a; 1 Ti 1:15)? What does "perfect" (Php 3:12) and "mature" (Php 3:15) mean? (They are translated from the same Greek word "teleios.")
What is "one thing" (Php 3:13), "the prize" (Php 3:14) and the "goal" (Php 3:12,15)? Why did Christ take hold of him (Php 3:12c; Rom 8:29)? What does "press on" (Php 3:12b, 14a), "forgetting" and "straining" (Php 3:13b) teach about sanctification (1 Cor 9:24-27; 1 Ti 6:12; Heb 12:1)? How should mature Christians hold true to what they have attained (Php 3:16; 2:12-13)?
What is a healthy principle for a Christian (Php 3:17; 4:9; 1 Cor 4:16; 11:1; 1 Th 1:6; 2 Th 3:7-9; 1 Ti 4:12,15-16; 2 Ti 3:10-11; 1 Pe 5:3)? Why (Heb 3:13)?
What is Paul's tearful warning (Php 3:18)? Who are these "enemies of the cross" (Php 3:2)? Are they non-Christians and pagans? What is their destiny, their god, their glory, and their mind set on (19)? What is the problem with worldliness (1 Jn 2:15-17)?
What is the goal of sanctification (Php 3:20)? How is this accomplished (Php 3:21)? Are you homesick? Do you have a resolve (Php 4:1)?

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Sanctification (Philippians 2:12-18)

2012-01-08T07:58:00.001-06:00

Philippians 2:12-18; Key Verse: 2:12b-13

"...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose."

The 1 point of my 2012 New Year sermon is: "Because God works in you (accepts you/saves you), you can change and you will change." Are you changing? Stated differently, the 1 point is: "Because God accepts you, change is now possible." Thus, there will always be change in a Christian's life, and it will always work itself out in our lives daily. This is salvation. Salvation never means, "I save myself by my repentance, my faith, my decision and my will." Rather, salvation always means, "God saved me, even though I am (completely) helpless to save myself."

West Loop UBF Church has prayed that 2010 may be the year of the Gospel and that 2011 may be a year of Grace. For 2012 we pray that it may be the year of Sanctification. (This sounds scary, especially for me!)

What is sanctification? What does it have to do with salvation?

There are 3 stages of salvation: Justification, Sanctification, Glorification. Justification removes the penalty of sin (hell). Sanctification removes the power of sin (the pattern of sin in one's life). Glorification removes the presence of sin (perfection), which does not occur till Jesus 2nd Coming. In Christ, God accepts us and adopts us in Justification, changes us in Sanctification, and perfects us in Glorification. All 3 stages fully involve the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Spirit (2 Cor 13:14). J. I. Packer summarizes the gospel as,

"God saves sinners. God—the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit; three Persons working together in sovereign wisdom, power and love to achieve the salvation of a chosen people, the Father electing, the Son fulfilling the Father’s will by redeeming, the Spirit executing the purpose of Father and Son by renewing. Saves—does everything, first to last, that is involved in bringing man from death in sin to life in glory: plans, achieves and communicates redemption, calls and keeps, justifies, sanctifies, glorifies."

My 3 point sermon on Sanctification is as follows:

What it is.
What it does.
What it's like.

I. What is Sanctification (Php 2:12-13)? How does it work? Why it works?

Php 2:12-13 is 1 of the most important passages in all of the Bible about sanctification. Sanctification is a technical term that theologians and Bible teachers use to describe what it means to grow in Christian maturity.

The NT talks about sanctification in many ways: becoming more and more like Jesus, imitating Jesus, emulating Jesus, becoming more godly, having the fruit of the Spirit, having the law of God written in our heart by the Holy Spirit, being reshaped in the image of God, which was not lost, but marred, not erased but effaced by sin. In sanctification God is addressing that marring, and healing it and restoring it to its former glory so that we would be what He intended us to be in the 1st place: the very image and likeness of God Almighty.

Paul begins in Php 2:12 with "Therefore..." which should prompt the question, "What is 'therefore' there for?" Paul is pointing back to Php 2:5-11, which is the humiliation and exaltation of Christ. Thus, "therefore" is there for encouraging Christians to live in light of Jesus' humble obedience in his humiliation and exaltation.

What is the difference between our work and God's work? The Greek word for man's "work" (Php 2:12) is katergazesthai, which always has the idea of bringing to completion. Paul does not want us to stop half-way, or burn out, or suffer from CFS - Christian Fatigue Syndrome. No happy Christian ever thinks, "I've arrived. I'm there" (cf. Php 3:12). Instead, every Christian knows that "I am a work in progress. I am still under construction."

However, the Greek word for God's "work" in us (Php 2:13) is energein, a word which is always used of the action of God, and it is always used of effective action that cannot be frustrated, nor can it remain half-finished; it must be fully effective. This is not an excuse for failure or apathy. Instead, how comforting and reassuring it is to know that God's work can never fail, and will never fail, even if my work fails and falls short all the time.

II. What Sanctification Does (Php 2:12-16a)? The 5 signs/evidences of Sanctification (Salvation) are:

Obedience: Daily practical work (Php 12; 3:12-16). We pursue godliness/holiness.
Awe: Fear and trembling (Php 12).
Gratitude: Without grumbling or arguing (Php 14).
Purity: Blameless, pure and without fault (Php 15a).
Evangelism: Shine forth the word of life (Php 15b-16a).

Do you have these 5 signs and evidences of Sanctification?

III. What is Sanctification Like (Php 2:16b-18)? Sanctification is like:

An athlete racing/competing to win the prize (Php 2:16b, 3:14; 2 Tim 4:8; 1 Cor 9:24-27).
An offering poured out to God (Php 2:17-18; 2 Tim 4:6).

The practical "real" problem in the Christian life is that we still have sin in us. Because of sin still in us, we either despair in fatalism that we will never change. Or we primarily change outwardly like a Pharisee, so that we try to look good in the eyes of others (Mt 23:25-28), not that this ever works. Paul's encouragement to us is that real heart change and real life change is possible because it is God whose work in us can never fail (1 Cor 8:6, 12:6; 2 Cor 3:5; Eph 2:8-10; Php 1:6; Rom 6:17; 2 Th 1:11-12; Heb 13:20-21; 1 Pet 4:11; Gal 5:22-23). This reminds me of a poem that expresses God's ever present grace to us:

I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew
He moved my soul to seek him, seeking me.
It was not I that found, O Savior true;
No, I was found of thee. (Anonymous)

Questions

To what is "therefore" referring (2:5-11)? What does it mean to "work out your salvation" (12)? "...for it is God who works in you" (13)? What is the difference between our "work" and God's "works"? What is sanctification (1 Th 5:23; 1 Pet 1:2)? How does salvation "work" (1 Cor 8:6, 12:6; 2 Cor 3:5; Eph 2:8-10; Php 1:6; Rom 6:17; 2 Th 1:11-12; Heb 13:20-21; 1 Pet 4:11; Gal 5:22-23)?

Notice and discuss the "signs" of salvation in Phil 2:12-16a:

Daily practical work (12; 3:12-16).
Fear and trembling (12).
Without grumbling or arguing (14).
Blameless, pure and without fault (15a).
Shine forth the word of life (15b-16a).

Notice Paul's use of athletic imagery: run and labor (16b; 3:14; 2 Tim 4:8; 1 Cor 9:24-27), and religious sacrifice: poured out like a drink offering (17; 2 Tim 4:6). What does this tell us about Paul's life (1 Cor 15:30-31)? How should the Philippians view suffering (18; 1:19)?

References:

The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, William Barclay, The New Daily Study Bible, 1975, 2003.
Live Life in Light of the Humiliation and Exaltation of Christ, Ligon Duncan, Php 2:12-13, Sermon 2/10/08.
Sanctification 101 and Missions, Ligon Duncan, Php 2:12-13, Sermon 2/17/08.

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HOW SALVATION WORKS (Philippians 2:12-18)

2012-01-03T17:10:00.001-06:00

Philippians 2:12-18

Key Verse: 2:12b-13

"...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose."

To what is "therefore" referring (2:5-11)? What does it mean to "work out your salvation" (12)? "...for it is God who works in you" (13)? What is the difference between our "work" and God's "works"? What is sanctification (1 Th 5:23; 1 Pet 1:2)? How does salvation "work" (1 Cor 8:6, 12:6; 2 Cor 3:5; Eph 2:8-10; Php 1:6; Rom 6:17; 2 Th 1:11-12; Heb 13:20-21; 1 Pet 4:11; Gal 5:22-23)?

Notice and discuss the "signs" of salvation in Phil 2:12-16a:

Daily practical work (12; 3:12-16).
Fear and trembling (12).
Without grumbling or arguing (14).
Blameless, pure and without fault (15a).
Shine forth the word of life (15b-16a).

Notice Paul's use of athletic imagery: run and labor (16b; 3:14; 2 Tim 4:8; 1 Cor 9:24-27), and religious sacrifice: poured out like a drink offering (17; 2 Tim 4:6). What does this tell us about Paul's life (1 Cor 15:30-31)? How should the Philippians view suffering (18; 1:19)?

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Was Luther a Lunatic?

2011-12-13T10:41:00.001-06:00

Is there any truth in the lunacy of Luther? Martin Luther, the 16th century Augustinian monk and Protestant reformer, has been accused of being insane. Why? Luther was a brilliant scholar. When he entered the priesthood, he thoroughly examined the Scriptures and the Law of God with his brilliant mind, and felt completely overwhelmed and greatly convicted of his sin. He would spend 3-4 hours in confession each day. How much could he have sinned living in a secluded monastery! That’s why he was accused of being an insane psychotic lunatic. But was he?

What do we Christians do when (not if) we sin? When we look at pornography? When we are overcome by lust? Sexual fantasies? Greed? Bitterness? Jealousy and envy? When we retaliate in self-righteous anger? When we blame others? When we feel entitled? When we make excuses? When we take revenge by lashing out and losing our temper? When we cannot forgive one particular person? When we feel superior to someone else?

Do we think “I’m justified”? Or “we’re all human”? Or “God understands”? Or "Jesus forgives me"? Or do we examine ourselves before the 10 Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount?

Do we lower the standard of God to fit the level of where I am at to relieve my guilt? Or do we keep the standard of God and cry out before him with agony of soul as Luther did? Was Luther indeed insane? Or was he a sincere Christian?

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God Became Weak (John's Christmas Message) (John 1:14)

2011-12-11T05:27:00.001-06:00

"The Word became flesh" (John 1:14).

John 1:1-18, the introduction/prologue of John's gospel, may not be thought of as a Christmas message, unlike Matthew and Luke chapters 1 and 2. We think of Christmas as a baby in a manger (Lk 2:1-7), a baby visited by Magi (Mt 2:1-12). But there is no baby Jesus in John 1. So, is there a Christmas message in John 1?

Matthew and Luke report the facts of Christmas, about what happened: Mary's visit by the angel Gabriel, the angel of the Lord appearing to Joseph in a dream, Mary's conception by the Holy Spirit, Caesar's decree, Joseph and Mary's journey to Bethlehem, no room in the inn, born in a manger, the shepherds in the field, the angel's chorus, the star of Bethlehem. But John does not mention any of this. However, John tells us not the facts of Christmas, but the meaning of Christmas. John doesn't tell us about how the baby Jesus came to be, but who the baby Jesus is.

What is the meaning of Christmas? To many, it is family gatherings, gifts, Christmas services and messages, singing carols, feeling dreamy and sentimental. This is all good. However, the meaning of Christmas is inexhaustible, theologically profound and powerful with life changing truth. John Piper calls Christmas the end of history, for it is the ultimate fulfillment of God's salvation purpose in redemptive history. In John's Christmas message we think about the meaning of Christmas by considering who Jesus is from John 1:14. It breaks up into 3 aspects of the most pregnant parts:

Jesus is the Word of God.
Jesus is the Word made flesh.
Jesus is the glory of God revealed.

I. Jesus is the Word of God (Jn 1:1-3, 14)

John 1:1-3 tells us that the Word is God. John 1:14 tells us that the Word/God became a man. Why does God chose to reveal Himself as the Word? The Greek word Logos can mean word, thought or speech. What is a word? A word is an audible or a visual expression of a thought. Thoughts are incommunicable until they are put into words or expressed by an action. We make inferences about people we observe: He's cool. She's pretty. He's a jerk. She's a snob. But we will know them best if we talk to them, and they speak to us. Unless I talk about cats with joy, you may not know that I'm crazy about cats. Likewise, God reveals himself most precisely through the Word, who is Christ. Apart from Jesus we may know a lot of things about God. We can even believe in God and know what God wants us to do. But we can't truly know God apart from Christ. Knowing God requires knowing Jesus personally and intimately, because Jesus is the supreme and ultimate revelation of who God is (Col 1:15; Heb 1:3).

Hitch (2005) is a romantic comedy where Will Smith plays a date doctor. In advising a young man to win the girl of his dreams he says, "60% of all human communication is nonverbal body language. 30% is your tone. So that means 90% of what you're saying ain't coming out of your mouth." Jesus revealed God through his words, his Spirit, and his person by his meekness, gentleness, compassion and humility. Jesus is "full of grace and truth" (Jn 1:14). Likewise, we communicate Jesus not just through our preaching and Bible teaching, but also especially through the Spirit enabling us to communicate the spirit of Christ. Even when we teach the Bible correctly, we may fail if we communicate a spirit of self-righteousness, Pharisaism, superiority, bias and prejudice.

People generally think that we come to know God either through rationalism or mysticism. But to know God, neither rationalism nor mysticism will suffice. Many say, "Give me proof that God exists and that the Bible is true, and I will believe in God. What I want is a slam dunk water tight argument that proves that Christianity is true." But God has not given a water tight argument (which is an abstraction) that Christianity and the God of the Bible is true, but a water tight person (as the compelling proof), in whom there can be no argument because Jesus is perfect. Jesus' life towers above all other lives. Look at the life of Jesus, the data of his teachings, the accounts of his life, death, resurrection. Process it by using your mind. Think about it. Have you done this? Have you taken Jesus seriously? Do you take your life, actions, choices, and behavior seriously?

II. Jesus is the Word Made Flesh

John 1:14 says, "The Word became flesh." What does this mean? "Flesh" (sarx [Greek]) means that God was made soft, the Almighty was made weak, the divine was made human, made vulnerable, made killable. Only Christianity among the world religions is where God is made human, vulnerable, killable. When God heard our cries he left his ivory palaces and came down; he made himself vulnerable. When a woman was attacked on the street at night, she screamed for help. All the lights in the high rise turned on. The mugger ran away. But no one came down. When he saw that no one came down he returned and killed her. No one came down because it would be taking a risk. But God did not come down at the risk of his life, but knowing that it would cost him his life. God came down knowing that he would be killed.

Hebrews 2:14 says, "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity..." Jesus was made like us, his brothers, in every way. The best counselors are always those who have gone through hell. An X-ray technician, while positioning his patients on the X-ray table, would not care that he was hurting them when they groaned or winced in pain. But this technician had a kidney stone and he had to be placed on the X-ray table. He felt how painful it was when the X-ray technician put him on the table. Since then, he treated his patients very gently. Christmas says what no other religion says: The God of the universe has been on the table. The God of the universe faced hunger, loneliness, homelessness, grief, rejection, betrayal, torture, injustice, death. Jesus has experienced it all. Have you been betrayed? Are you broke? Have you been abandoned? Have you been hurt and wounded? We can go to Jesus. He’s been through it before. Jesus had a big prayer turned down in Gethsemane. Jesus has been abandoned by God.

III. Jesus is the Glory of God Revealed

John 1:14 is translated: "So the Word became human and made his home among us" (NLT). "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood" (Message). "The Word became flesh and took up residence among us" (Hollman). They translate the Greek word "tabernacled," which means "To build a booth, tent, or temporary hut, which fitly applies to the human nature of Christ as a temporary residence for the eternal Divinity." This incarnation is where God takes the form of a man. Because Jesus tabernacled or "tented" (lived in a tent) among us, the author John said, "We have seen his glory."

What OT event is John trying to remind his audience of? In Ex 33:18, Moses prayed to the Lord, "Now show me your glory." God answered him, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live” (Ex 33:20). Then God instructed Moses to build a tabernacle (Ex 35:4ff, 36:8ff), also called the tent of meeting. When the tabernacle was completed (Ex 39:32), Ex 40:34 says, "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle." God would be with his people, but his glory was concealed in the tabernacle. But through Jesus' incarnation, John said, "We have seen his glory." John and us today may behold God's glory in Jesus, which Moses could not without being killed. What does this mean?

Christianity and Christmas signifies the end of religion. Dick Lucas, the renowned minister of St. Helen's church in London, once preached a sermon where he recounted an imaginary conversation between an early Christian and her neighbor in Rome. The neighbor says, "I hear you are religious. Religion is good. Where is your temple? Where do your priests work and do their rituals? Where do you offer sacrifices to acquire the favor of your God?" To each question, the Christian replied, "Jesus is our temple. Jesus is our priest. Jesus is our sacrifice." The pagan neighbor sputters, "No temple. No priest. No sacrifice. What kind of religion is this?" It’s no kind of religion at all. The Christian faith is so utterly different than how every other religion works that it doesn't really deserve to be called 'religion'. All religions, including Christianity wrongly understood, insists on doing things to be right with God. But Christianity says the reverse: because we’re accepted in Christ, we then do things. Religion says, “Live this way, then you’ll be accepted.” Christianity says, “You’re accepted. Therefore, you live this way.” It’s exactly the opposite of religion. All the requirements of religion is gone, because Jesus himself is the tabernacle: he is the temple, the priest, and the sacrifice. There is nothing for the Christian to do to get right with God. Because of Jesus there is no more need for temples, priests and sacrifices, for Jesus is all of that. We don’t get a religion; we get a person: the Word. In religion you need to prove yourself to be good before you can see God's glory. But in Christianity, we are shown God's glory freely through Jesus Christ.
Christianity and Christmas enables us to see (feel, touch) God's glory, which Moses could not. Why? Anyone who has been wronged, anyone who has experienced injustice and evil, a gap opens between the victim and the perpetrator. Even if the perpetrator says, “I’m sorry,” the gap remains. Some action has to happen to close that gap. We feel that gap because we are made in the image of God. Injustice is such a serious thing. No one can just shrug off injustice. Something has to happen. The gap we experience between man through our injustices to each other is nothing compared to the infinite gap between the human race and God. Because of what we’re done, what we’re done to creation, what we’re done to each other, there’s a gap. Something has to close that gap. There has to be atonement. The tabernacle was pointing to it. There were priests and there were sacrifices. Jn 1:14 says Jesus tabernacled among us. What does this mean? Jesus came to this world to become vulnerable. Why? So that he can become killable. Why? So that he can pay the price. By paying the price, Jesus closed the gap. At Christmas the glory of God became a baby we can behold.

In the OT, the glory of God is smoking mountains, pillars of fire, a consuming fire. In NT, the transcendent holiness of God, the unscalable holiness of God become a baby. What does this mean? The glory of God is a baby. God is now accessible, safe, embraceable, huggable. Because Jesus has paid the price and closed the gap.

Just as God has come into history, now the glory of God can come into each man’s life. The life transforming glory of God can come to you and I.

That is what Christmas means: The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. Now we can behold the glory of God that Moses was not permitted to see. If not for Christmas, we would never be able to see the glory of God without being killed and destroyed.

Reference:

The Word Made Flesh (Sermon by Tim Keller, 12/13/09): John’s Gospel begins by teaching that Jesus Christ is the Word of God. Just as we come to know a person through speaking to them and listening to their words, we come to know God by listening to Jesus speak to us. Yet, Jesus did not come solely to speak. He came to live among us so that there is nothing we will suffer that He has not also suffered. But most of all, He came to die for us. In the incarnation, God became vulnerable to us—even to death—and yet He loved us so much that He was glad to so.

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Characteristics of a "Christian" (Psalm 15:1-5)

2011-11-25T17:23:00.001-06:00

"Who shall dwell on your holy hill?" (Ps 15:1; ESV)

Questions:

What is Psalm 15:1 asking (Ps 24:3; Isa 33:14)? What 2 ideas does God's "tent" suggest (Exo 29:42; Ps 27:4; 84:1-2)?
What are the 12 ethical requirements which focuses on life-and-lip qualities (Ps 15:2-5)? What does this tell us about the man's character, words, allegiance, dealings and place?
How can a man never be shaken (Ps 15:5c; 16:8; 21:7; 55:22; 62:2,6)?

Who can come in the presence of God (Ps 15:1)? God's reply is not a list of rituals, but a searching of the conscience (Ps 15:2-5; 24:3-6; Isa 33:14-17). It reveals the pure in heart, a man after God's own heart, a "Christian" who loves and honors God.

God's "tent" (and holy mountain/hill) conjures 2 ideas: worship/sacrifice (Exo 29:42) and hospitality. Man comes to God to worship, but he also comes as an willing invited guest (Ps 27:4; 84:1-2). The encounter is both one of awe and friendship, transcendence and immanence, holy and personal. Notice the 12 ethical requirements (Ps 15:2-5), which focuses on life-and-lip qualities. The qualities described are those that God creates in a man, not those he finds in himself:

Blameless: not sinless, but whole, wholehearted and sound. His lifestyle exhibits integrity.
Does what is right/righteous: promotes happiness. His deeds exhibit justice.
Speaks the truth: not merely correct but what is trustworthy. His speech exhibits reliability.
Tongue utters no slander, which has the meaning of "going around," spying things out, spreading them abroad.
Does no wrong to a neighbor: He does not harm his fellow man.
Casts no slur on others (Prov 10:12).
Despises a vile person. His allegiance is clear cut, not Pharisaical but loyalty and declaring what he admires and where he stands (Gen 14:17-24).
Honors those who fear the Lord: He respects the people of God.
Keeps an oath to his own hurt: He holds himself accountable.
Does not change: He is not fickle.
Lends money to the poor without interest: He is not greedy or exploitative.
Does not accept a bribe: He cannot be bought.

"Whoever does these things will never be shaken (moved)" (Ps 15:5c). The threat of insecurity expressed often in the Psalms by the word "moved" is met not by siding with the strong, but by steadfast trust in God. Psalm 16:8 says, "I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand I will not be shaken."

References:

Psalms 1-72, Derek Kidner, 1973: A Man After God's Heart

God as man's host (Ps 15:1)
Man as God's guest (Ps 15:2-5)

His character: true (Ps 15:2).
His words: restrained (Ps 15:3).
His allegiance: clear cut (Ps 15:4).
His dealings: honorable (Ps 15:4c-5).
His place: secured (Ps 15:5c).

MacArthur Study Bible, 2006: Description of a Citizen of Zion

A 12 part response (Ps 15:2-5) to a 2 part question (Ps 15:1).

Reformation Study Bible, 2005: Who Shall Dwell on Your Holy Hill?

The 10 requirements for approaching God's presence (Ps 15:2-5) are ethical, not formal or liturgical.

ESV Study Bible, 2008.

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How David Expressed His Thanksgiving (2 Samuel 9:1-13)

2011-11-20T19:38:00.001-06:00

"I will surely show you kindness" (2 Sam 9:7).

Being thankful is so darn hard. Why? It's so much easier to be angry and upset with others!

2 things that seem to deeply upset and anger us is when we think or feel that we were unappreciated or disrespected. We just can't get over feeling dissed or disregarded, regardless of whether or not others intended to do so. This bothers us so deeply and profoundly, because we so naturally default to self-centeredness and self-righteousness, which are common expressions of selfishness. So, how can we be thankful when we feel angry, upset, disrespected, unappreciated, disregarded?

To be thankful we must know that Being Thankful is a Response, not a Command. Luke 17:7-19 suggests that thanksgiving requires that we acknowledge 2 things:

We deserve nothing, even after we have done our best (Lk 17:7-10).
We need Jesus more than what our hearts desire (Lk 17:11-19).

When we do our best, we invariably expect some reward, either from God or others. But such an attitude will not result in thanksgiving, because we are then only getting the reward that we believe we deserve. Therefore, only when we know that we deserve no good thing, can we be truly thankful. Only "unworthy servants" (Lk 17:10) are thankful and happy.

As fallen beings, what our hearts desperately want should always be questioned, even if what we want is a good thing. The fact that 10 lepers cried out to Jesus to heal them is a good thing. Jesus healed all 10 of them. But only 1 returned to give thanks and "praise to God" (Lk 17:17). What's the problem of the other 9? They wanted to be cured of their leprosy (a good thing) more than they wanted Jesus. Thus, only when Jesus is all I want and need as my utmost treasure, will we be truly thankful. Otherwise, we will only "use" Jesus to get what I want.

Our thanksgiving sermon is a short narrative about David and Mephibosheth (2 Sam 9:1-13). It teaches us about "chesed", which is a rich Hebrew word that is translated "kindness" (2 Sam 9:1,3,7), "loving kindness," "steadfast love," "loyal love." It shows us how David expressed his thanksgiving practically. To David, his expression of thanksgiving was:

A top priority
Surprising
Promise-driven

Previous post: David's "Chesed" Love.

1) David's thanksgiving sought for a way to show kindness as a top priority when he finally became king after years of hardship (2 Sam 9:2-6). Some questions to ponder about "chesed":

How aggressive is your love for people?
Are you on the look out for people to love?
Can you love people who can't pay you back, or who might even be your enemy?

2) David's thanksgiving, expressed as "chesed" kindness toward Jonathan's son Mephibosheth, was "over-the-top" generous. Jonathan asked David to not cut off his family (1 Sam 20:14-15). But David went far beyond what Jonathan asked (2 Sam 9:7,9-10).

Is our love like this?
Is it over-the-top, surprising in its generosity?
Does it think through and address the particulars?
Is it directed toward the "lame"--those who are in no position to reciprocate?
Does it find special joy in conferring honor upon others?
Is it fearless, reaching out to those who might turn out to be our enemies?
Is it costly?

3) David's thanksgiving and "chesed" is promise-driven, arising from faithfulness to pledges earlier made (2 Sam 9:1,7). David is like God who swore to his own hurt (Ps 15:4). God's love is a love that honors--a love that keeps a promise and is willing to pay any price. As displayed movingly in David's first act as king, God's love is:

a love that takes the initiative,
a love that is over-the-top generous,
a love that is costly,
a love that is thoughtful and particular,
a love that never wanders from promises that have been made.

What is the source and the power behind such love? It is to know that:

I am nothing but a "crippled dead dog, lame in both feet" (2 Sam 9:8,13), and yet...
I am loved, well provided for, and highly honored (2 Sam 9:7-13).

3 questions:

How can you and I know this?
How can we be thankful like David who gave "everything" to Mephibosheth?
How can we be thankful like Mephibosheth who received "everything" completely free of charge?

We have to be a Mephibosheth before we can be a David. David knew he was a "dead dog" whom God delivered only by his grace. Thus he could be gracious and generious toward another "dead dog" Mephibosheth. Ultimately, we can be thankful:

Only through Jesus who is the true David who loves, provides for, and honors us more than David loved Mephibosheth.
Only through Jesus who is the true Jonathan because of whom we are so loved with every blessing (Eph 1:3).

2 Practical Applications/Ministry Implications (simul justus et peccator):

We are humbled. Why? We are spiritually like a "crippled dead dog, lame in both feet."
We are bold and confident. Why? We have been loved, provided for and so highly honored by God through Christ, and it is not at all because of me or my performance or merit.

Only in Christ, we are "honored failures" and "righteous sinners." No matter how "good" we become we are still sinful. No matter how sinful we are, we are still honored and loved because of what Christ has done for me on the Cross. When we deeply apply our status as both "honored failures" and "righteous sinners," thanksgiving overflows in our hearts through Jesus Christ.

Questions:

After David was established as king over all Israel (2 Sam 8:15), what was the first thing he did (2 Sam 9:1)? Look up the meaning of "chesed" or "hesed." Whom did David find (2 Sam 9:2-6)? Why was David like this (Lk 19:10; Jn 4:23)? How aggressive is our love for people?
Who is Mephibosheth (2 Sam 9:6)? What had Jonathan once asked David (1 Sam 20:14-15)? How great is David's love (2 Sam 9:7)? What is the cost of love (Rom 5:6,8)? How generous is our love for others?
What was the motivation/driving force behind David's kindness (2 Sam 9:1,7)? How is God like this (Gen 3:15; Ps 15:4)?
Should we love this way? Why? How? Where do we find the power to love like this (Ps 27:1; 1 Jn 4:19)? How can I be sure of such love when I am so "lame, crippled and like a dead dog" (2 Sam 9:3,8,13)?
Who is the only one worthy of God's "chesed" (Mt 17:5)? How did Jesus lose it all (Ps 22:1; Mt 27:46; Mk 16:34)? Why is Jesus our true David and our true Jonathan (1 Jn 3:1-2; Rom 8:32; 2 Cor 5:21)?

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Being Thankful is a Response, not a Command (Luke 17:1-19)

2011-11-20T08:18:00.001-06:00

Thursday, Nov 24, is Thanksgiving Day. But being thankful is so darn hard. One painful reason is that we expect rewards and commendation for our good works. So instead of being thankful, we expect reward for "good Christian behavior."

Truth be told, there is always SOMEONE we are upset with, or angry about, or hurt by, or disappointed with. What are the reasons? They disrespected me. They disregarded me. They gossiped about me. They slandered me. They lied about me. They did not support me. They cared only about themselves. They don't love me. They caricatured me. The reason could even be, "They are not thankful." It is almost comical to say or feel, "I am so unhappy and unthankful because that guy is so unthankful!"

According to the Bible, how can we be thankful?

Luke 17:1-19 seem to be isolated disconnected teachings of:

Jesus teaching his disciples about sin (1-4), faith (5-6), and duty (7-10).
Jesus' healing of 10 men with leprosy (11-19).

How are these seemingly separate teachings related? How do they connect together?

My theme is that "Thankfulness is a response, not a command." My thesis is 2 fold:

No one can be thankful or happy if they think they are owed something from God or others. No one can be thankful if they think that their sacrifice, faithfulness and good works obligates God and others to reward or honor them.
No one can be thankful or happy if they strongly desire something else more than Jesus.

3 Things Christians should always do (Jesus' teaching about sin): Jesus' teaching about sin is that his disciples should do 3 things (Lk 17:1-4):

Never cause others to sin/stumble (1-3a).
Always confront others' sin (3b).
Always forgive others when they sin against you (4).

How easily do we cause others to sin! It could just be a subtle look or a body gesture of disgust, and we might cause others to sin.

How can we always confront others when they sin? It is easy to smash others by self-righteously pointing out their sins. It is easier to ignore others when they sin. To truly confront others when they sin requires deeply bearing the pain and grief of their sin, and approaching them gently with humility, tears and trembling (Gal 6:1).

How can we always forgive others when they have deeply hurt us or betrayed us? How do we forgive others, not just once or twice, but 7 times (Lk 17:4), and then 70 X 7 times (Mt 18:22)?

Increase our faith (Jesus' teaching about faith): When the disciples heard the 3 things Jesus said about sin, they knew it was impossible for them to do. They cried out, "Increase our faith!" (Lk 11:5) Jesus' response was not that they needed a greater quantity of faith, but they simply needed faith, even "faith as small as a mustard seed" (Lk 11:6), which is proverbially the smallest of seeds. How can our faith increase? Luke tells us Jesus' parable of a nasty landowner (Lk 17:7-10), followed by Jesus' healing of 10 lepers (Lk 17:11-19), which teaches us 2 things about faith:

Faith is knowing that our good works do not count (Lk 17:7-10).
Faith is treasuring Jesus more than our heart's desire (Lk 17:11-19).

God is not obligated to you by your good works (Jesus' teaching about duty): This is really a hard and bitter teaching (Lk 17:7-10). When we do good we want and expect respect, honor and appreciation. But our faith is that just as God does not hold our sins against us, God also cannot credit our good works to us. Why not? All of our good works and righteous acts are tainted by selfish impure motives (Isa 64:6), even the selfish motive of being honored and recognized! So, we are upset if we don't get it.

What do you want more: Jesus or your heart's desire? (Jesus healed 10 lepers) When Jesus healed 10 lepers, only 1 returned to thank Jesus. If they were asked whether or not they were thankful, the other 9 would surely answer "Yes!" Yet Jesus lamented, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸ Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” (Lk 17:17-18) The other 9 would insist that they are thankful for being healed of their leprosy. But their actions testified otherwise. Though they were "thankful" to Jesus for healing and blessing them, their heart's desire was to be cured of their leprosy, which they already received. In effect, they no longer needed Jesus, since they already got from Jesus what they wanted. Only 1 man truly loved and valued and treasured Jesus more than being cured of his leprosy. Only 1 man out of 10 was truly, deeply thankful.

The Bible says, "Give thanks in all circumstances" (1 Thess 5:18). It is an imperative command. Yet it can only be obeyed in response to what we are thankful for. When we think we are worthy of something, anything, we will not be thankful and happy. But if we know that we are unworthy servants, we will be thankful and happy. If we are overcome by our natural desires, our emotions sway with the wind. But if Jesus is our ultimate Treasure, we will be happy, like the thankful leper.

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Thanksgiving Is Knowing That My Good Works Do Not Count (Luke 17:7-10)

2011-11-17T10:48:00.001-06:00

"We are unworthy servants..." (Luke 17:10)

What is your posture before God? As Christians, do we have the posture of a trembling, undeserving, unworthy sinner before God, no matter how hard we have faithfully worked, served and sacrificed for our church and for others?

This is a very, very painful and bitter thought: God can never ever credit any of my good works to me.

Why is my good works not being credited to me so painful and bitter? Even if we mentally acknowledge that this is true (Eph 2:8-9), we often do not feel or act accordingly. We all get upset if we think that others do not appreciate our efforts or our faithfulness. Why is this biblical truth so hard to swallow? It is because all of life suggests otherwise: If we study hard we get good grades. If we do what our boss/leader expects, he is pleased. But it doesn't work like this with God. Why not?

Our best efforts fall short of God’s requirements (Rom 3:10-12,23).
Our hearts are deceptively faulty and deceitful (Gen 6:5; Jer 17:9).
Before God’s eyes of perfection, there is nothing good in us (Rom 7:18,23-24).

Was this hard for Martin Luther? The 16th century German Reformer Martin Luther understood how "exceedingly bitter" it is that God loves us only through our faith and by his grace alone, and never though our good works. Luther wrote,

"Even though we (Christians) are now in faith ... the heart is always ready to boast of itself before God and say: After all I have preached so long and lived so well and done so much, surely he will take this into account ... But it cannot be done. Let anybody try this and he will see and experience how exceedingly hard and bitter it is ... I myself have been preaching and cultivating it (the message of grace) ... for almost 20 years and still I feel the old clinging dirt of wanting to deal so with God that I may contribute something, so that he will have to give me his grace in exchange for my holiness. And still I cannot get it into my head that I should surrender myself completely to sheer grace; yet (I know that) this is what I should and must do."

What do I believe and what do I feel? Even if I believe what the Bible says about undeserved grace, it is still so easy to feel that God owes me his favor for my holy living and faithful service. No matter how long we have been a Christian we default to our work righteousness. We subconsciously relate to God on the basis of my attempts at holy living. Sadly, we also relate to other Christians (and non-Christians) on the basis of their performance of Christian duties (or on their living morally and rightly).

Do you truly feel like an unworthy servant? To illustrate that God is not obligated to us by our good works, Jesus told a very unpleasant and painful parable about an ungrateful and unappreciative landowner (Luke 17:7-10), who seems to care less about his servants. He overworks them all day in the fields. He does not care if they are tired, hungry, sick, or discouraged. He seems concerned only about how well his own fields and flocks are doing, and about being served for his own comfort and convenience. Why does Jesus suggest that God is like this unsympathetic and nasty landowner?

A way that this parable should NEVER be taught is to tell our fellow Christians that no matter how hard you work, serve or sacrifice, you should just be thankful and not to expect anything from God or others (even though this is true). What shouldn't we do this? It is because we are not God or Jesus! We are all equally fellow servants and fellow beggars of his grace.

What is the secret of being thankful? Jesus simply wants his disciples to know that God is a God of grace. Just as our sins do not stop God from loving us, our good works do not obligate God to give us his blessing. That our gracious God loves us fully despite our sin also implies that God does not account our good works as the reason that he must show us his affection.

This is the secret of being thankful. If I think that I earned or deserve something from God or others, I will never truly thankful, because I am just getting what I think I deserve. But if I truly and deeply know that I have received everything only by the grace of Jesus, then I can be genuinely thankful for his marvelous undeserved grace that is greater than all my sins.

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How Can God Expect Me To Be Blameless? (Gen 17:1-27)

2011-11-13T14:38:00.001-06:00

“I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless” (Gen 17:1).

Previous passages: How the Divine Deals with our Doubts (Gen 15:1-21); See The God Who Sees You (Gen 16:1-16)

What is Genesis about? Jesus says that Genesis is about Jesus, for Moses, who wrote Genesis, wrote about Jesus (Jn 5:46). We want to study Genesis and find how it points to Christ (Lk 24:27,44). Genesis tells the story of Creation, the Fall of Man resulting in God's judgment on man and the world, and God's plan to save man and restore the world. How would God do this? By calling 1 man Abraham, through whom God would send the Messiah to save us from our sins.

The Covenant: Gen 17:1-27 occurs 23 years after God called Abraham. God promised to make him into "a great nation" (Gen 12:2). In Gen 17:5, God promised to make him "a father of many nations." The key word in this passage is "covenant," which occurs 14 times (NIV, 2011). What is a covenant? A web definition is "an agreement between God and his people in which God makes certain promises and requires certain behavior from them in return." Gen 17:1-27 shows us that God's covenant with Abraham required him and his household to be circumcised. Let's study about the covenant in 4 parts:

What the covenant is: God's grace (Gen 15:1-16:16).
What the covenant requires: Walk blamelessly before God (Gen 17:1-8, 15-22).
What the covenant commands: Circumcision (Gen 17:9-14, 23-27).
What the covenant means: God will be our God, and we will be his people (Gen 17:7-8).

What it is
What it requires
What it commands
What it means

Questions:

Why does God reveal himself as "God Almighty" (Gen 17:1)? What does this suggest about how we should live (1 Chron 28:9)? Explain coram deo (Gen 3:8). How can we not be cut off when we are not able to walk blamelessly (Isa 53:8; Lk 2:21; Gal 3:13)? What do the new names of Abram and Sarai signify (Gen 17:3-6, 15-16)? Why was this hard for Abram (Gen 17:17-22)? What did he do (Gen 17:23-27)?

How is the covenant of Gen 17:1-16 similar/different from the covenant in Gen 15:9-19? Why is it significant that God's oath came first before Abram's oath (Rom 4:9-11)? How is the gospel different from religion (Ex 12:13, 20:2-17)?
How is circumcision the sign of being God's covenant people (Gen 17:9-11; Dt 10:16, 30:6; Jer 4:4)? Why is community crucial (Gen 17:12-13,23,27; Heb 10:24; Gal 3:28)? How does Jesus' cross shed light on circumcision (Col 2:11-12; Rom 2:29)?

I. What the Covenant is: Grace

God's covenant is a covenant of grace (Gen 15:1-17:17). What is grace? Grace comes to us when we don't deserve it, when we are not seeking it, when we resist it again and again, and even after we have received it we do not appreciate it. In Gen 15:1-21, God "walked between the pieces" and promised to unilaterally bless Abraham at great cost to himself. In Gen 16:1-16, after receiving abundant grace, Abraham acted like a non-believer by conceiving an illegitimate child through a concubine. Abraham failed completely...for 13 years. But God comes to him again...in grace.

II. What the Covenant Requires: Be Blameless

There is a serious misunderstanding of grace. Some Christians think that because they are saved by grace, then what they do or fail to do is not so important. Though God's covenant with Abraham is based on grace, yet God said to him, "Be blameless." The Hebrew word translated "blameless" does not mean "sinless" but "whole." It signifies complete, unqualified surrender. Abram is to be wholly devoted to God. God's covenant of grace will benefit only those who walk before God and are blameless. Grace never makes obedience optional (Jn 14:15). When God removes good works as a condition for his acceptance, he does not remove righteousness as a requirement for life. We cannot undermine legitimate standards of the Bible without grave consequences. God does not love us because we obey him, but we cannot know the blessings of his love without obedience. Resting on God's grace does not relieve us of our holy obligations. Our holy obligation requires that we live coram deo: live before the gazing eyes of God. "Walk before God" is a call to 3 things:

Know God personally.
Obey God.
Grow continually.

When we live blamelessly and wholeheartedly before God in his grace, we will:

be fruitful (Gen 17:2,4,6; 1:18). We bear inner fruit (Gal 5:22-23) and outer fruit.
change (Gen 17:5,15-16). God changes us from selfish/self-centered to God/other centered.
experience everlasting and temporal blessings (Gen 17:7-8): Kingdom of God and peace on earth.

III. What the Covenant Commands: Circumcision

Circumcision brought God's people into a:

relationship with God. It is our personal, individual surrendering of our heart to God.
relationship with others. It is our communal commitment to community.

No Christian ever grows to maturity without giving his heart to God and to others in community. Abraham needed to "cut" his heart's attachment to Ishmael (Gen 17:18), and yield it to God. Abraham needed to believe God's almighty power to give him and his barren wife a son in their old age (Gen 17:19,21), through whom the Messiah would come.

IV. What the Covenant Means: God will be our God

The ultimate purpose of the covenant (of the Bible) is "to be your God and the God of your descendants" (Gen 17:7). God simply says, "I will be their God" (Gen 17:8). Why does God want to be our God? It is not because God needs us to complete himself (Acts 17:25). But God does love us. God wants to be our God not for any personal ego reasons, but because God knows that God being our God is the only way that we can ever be truly happy. When we live as though we are god who knows what is best for ourselves, we loose our peace and joy sooner or later.

No one is able to walk before God blamelessly, save One. Only Jesus ever did all that the Father wanted (Jn 8:29). Jesus is the only One who deserves all the covenant blessings. But instead, Jesus was "cut off" and cursed for living blamelessly (Isa 53:8; Gal 3:13). Why? So that we who fail to walk before God blamelessly and should be cut off, can be blessed. This is grace. This is how God kept his covenant.

Pray that because of the grace of Jesus, God may enable us to be children of obedience, and people of community.

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The Lord Came Down To See (Genesis 11:1-9)

2011-11-06T08:16:00.001-06:00

"But the LORD came down to see..." (Genesis 11:5).

From this week we resume our study of Genesis. I had given 8 sermons from Gen 3:1-24 (The Fall of Man) to Gen 28:10-22 (The Stairway to Heaven) before I left for the Philippines for 2 months in July 2011. However, we did not study every passage from Genesis chap. 3 to 28. My plan now is to fill in the gaps and continue to the end of Genesis by early 2012.

Why do we study Genesis? What is the point of Genesis? More fundamentally, what is the Bible about? Briefly, the Bible is NOT a book of morals or instructions (even though it has both). It is a STORY. The story of the whole Bible can be summarized in 4 words:

Creation.
Fall.
Redemption.
Restoration.

Genesis is crucial to the understanding and foundation of Christianity and the Bible because it teaches us clearly about the Creation (Gen 1-2), the Fall of Man (Gen 3), and about God's plan to redeem fallen man (Gen 3:15), beginning from 1 man Abraham (Gen 12:2-3), through whom God would send the Savior of the world (Jn 4:42; 1 Jn 4:14).

What is the point of Genesis? It is NOT to emulate the patriarchs or the heroes in Genesis, for they are all flawed people. Why not? Abraham was a coward. Sarah was mean and harsh. Isaac was spiritually blind and showed favoritism. Rebekah tried to play God and taught her son Jacob the art of deception. Jacob was a nasty fellow in every way imaginable. Joseph was an insensitive sociopath in his youth before God disciplined him through slavery and imprisonment. The point of Genesis cannot be to be to be like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob or Joseph.

What does Jesus say that Genesis is about? Jesus said, "If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me" (John 5:46). Jesus also said, "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). "Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44). Jesus said that Genesis is about JESUS.

From her book, The Jesus Storybook Bible, Sally Lloyd-Jones rightly explains what the Bible is not before she beautifully explains what the Bible is. She writes:

Now, some people think the Bible is a book of rules, telling you what you should and shouldn’t do. The Bible certainly does have some rules in it. They show you how life works best. But the Bible isn’t mainly about you and what you should be doing. It’s about God and what he has done.

Other people think the Bible is a book of heroes, showing you people you should copy. The Bible does have some heroes in it, but (as you’ll soon find out) most of the people in the Bible aren’t heroes at all. They make some big mistakes (sometimes on purpose), they get afraid and run away. At times, they’re downright mean.

No, the Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne–everything–to rescues the ones he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life!

You see, the best thing about this Story is–it’s true.

There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.

It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby. Every story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in the puzzle–the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture.

I pray that God may help us to see this beautiful picture and learn about Jesus as we study each passage in Genesis.

Previous/related posts: Sin, Faith and Salvation (Gen 6:1-14); Divine Judgment (Gen 6:5-13); Am I Really That Bad? (Gen 6:5).

The familiar story of the tower of Babel can easily be divided into 2 parts (Gen 11:1-4; 5-9) as Rebellion (Man's) and Response (God's), or the Sin and the Solution. Though it is an ancient story, it is quite contemporary, for man in his sin and rebellion continues to build our own towers of Babel. I had previously blogged on this: Babel: Let's Do Away With God (Gen 11:1-9). Let's think of this passage in 3 parts:

How We Sin (Gen 11:1-4)
Why We Sin (Gen 11:4)
The Solution of Sin (Gen 11:5-9): What God does

I. How We Sin (Gen 11:1-4)

Misery loves company. No one sins alone. We cooperate with others to justify our own sins, and move away (usually gradually) from God (Gen 11:1-3). Like the people of babel we sin by:

building a city (Gen 11:4).
building a tower that reaches to the heavens (Gen 11:4).

Why do we do this?

II. Why We Sin (Gen 11:4)

The love of praise (make a name for yourself; exalt or glorify self).
The love of security (build a city and not risk going out to fill the earth).

III. The Solution of Sin (Gen 11:5-9): What God does

God knows them (Gen 11:5).
God laments at them (Gen 11:6).
God confuses them (Gen 11:7).
God scatters them (Gen 11:8).

Gen 11:5 says, "But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building." God came down to see... God is omniscient. God knows and sees everything, including all the hidden secrets and inclination of our hearts (Gen 6:5,12; 1 Chron 28:9). It is the narrator's way of showing the folly of man before the all knowing God. How foolish is any man to think that he can accomplish anything and succeed against the purpose of God!

God came down to see... This also hints at the heart of God toward his fallen children. Man, who is of the earth, foolishly thinks that he is able, by his own meager effort, to reach heaven or to find his own happiness. God, who occupies the highest heaven and lives in everlasting light and security, has no reason to leave his domain. Yet he came down to see the folly of man and live among them (Jn 1:14). God came down and became like the foolish, so that we who are foolish, may be enlightened. God, who lives in an ivory palace, descended to the lowest depths, so that we, who are mired in the valley of sin and shame, may be rescued. We are too low to ascend, due to our sins. God is too high to descend, due to his holiness. But heaven down and glory filled my soul.

When God came down, he confused their language and scattered them (Gen 11:7-9). God did so to prevent their escalation of rebellion (Gen 11:6), which would warrant God's severer judgment. What hope is there for man in such a world of rebellion and arrogance? God confuses and scatters the inhabitants of Babel in order to restore his kingdom of earth. Out of this world of rebellion and idolatry (Josh 24:2), God would call one man Abraham (Josh 24:3), and through his seed, Jesus Christ, God would save the world (Gal 3:16). When Jesus died at Calvary, he took away "the sin of the world" (Jn 1:29). After Jesus rose again, he commanded his disciples, "Go and make disciples of all nations" (Mt 28:19).

The people of Babel will never ultimately succeed, but be totally destroyed (Rev 18:2,10). In this passage, God scatters the inhabitants of Babel in order to restore his kingdom on earth. This gives hope to God's people today that our sovereign Lord is able to break down secular kingdoms in order to restore his kingdom on earth.

God's promise to bless the nations (Gen 12:3) was initially fulfilled at Pentacost when Jesus' followers "were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven" (Acts 2:4-5). This resulted in amazing unity among people from different nations (Acts 2:41-47). Pentacost reversed the judgment of Babel, which is the city of man, the city of autonomy and rebellion. One day, the new Jerusalem, the city of God, will replace Babel entirely when Christ returns (Rev 21:1-4).

How can I know this? Only through the gospel. Like Babel, we are confused and scattered wanderers because of our willful rebellion and sins. Truly this is our destiny. "But the LORD came down to see..." Ultimately, God's coming would be costly. He would go to the Cross, where our sins were laid on him. God's full wrath fell upon him. Jesus was not just confused and scattered, but he was ripped apart and deconstructed (Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34). In this way, Jesus descended from the highest heavenly light to deepest depth of destruction. Why? So that we who are confused and scattered may be enlightened and brought home. Jesus became completely lost so that we may be found (Lk 19:10).

Do you understand this? To the degree that you do, you will no longer live in confusion, but live in everlasting light (Isa 60:19-20; Jn 8:12). Your heart will be transformed by the grace of Jesus that is greater than all our sins. We can become people of the gospel. We can become a gospel community. We can respond to all others in grace, because we have tasted and know of the grace of Jesus who lost all things, so that we who are lost can gain and obtain all things.

Questions:

What is the advantage of a common language (Gen 11:1)? Why did people move east (Gen 11:2; 3:24; 4:16)? In Gen 11:4, notice 2 expressions of rebellion and 2 underlying motives (sins) of man (Gen 3:5; Dan 4:30)?
Why is "making a name for oneself" defying God (Isa 14:13; 63:12,14; Jer 32:20; Neh 9:10)? How can a man's name become great (12:2; 2 Sam 7:9; Phil 2:9-11)? Why is "not wanting to be scattered" a sin against God (Gen 1:28; 9:1; Isa 12:4)?
Notice God's 4 responses to man's rebellion (Gen 11:5-9). Think about the irony of God who "sees" them "reaching for the heavens" (Gen 11:5; 6:5,12; Ps 2:1-4; Isa 40:21-23). Notice the phrase "Come, let us..." (Gen 11:3,4,7). Whose "let us" prevailed (Gen 11:8-9)?
The Hebrew for "confused" is "balal," while Babel means "gate of the God." What is the narrator communicating in this wordplay?
What is the message of hope for Israel (Num 13:28; Deut 1:28; 3:5; 9:1; Jer 51:53)? For us (Gen 11:10-32; 12:1-3; Jn 1:29; Mt 28:19; Rev 18:2,10)? How is Pentecost at Jerusalem the initial reversal of the judgment at Babel (Acts 2:4-6,11,41-47)? How is the new Jerusalem the final fulfillment (Isa 2:2-4; Rev 21:1-4,10,23-24,26)?

Reference:
Preaching Christ from Genesis, Sidney Greidanus, 2001, 120-138.
The Jesus Storybook Bible, Sally Lloyd-Jones, 2007

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Real Power Through Real Weakness (2 Corinthians 11:16-13:14)

2011-10-24T10:57:00.001-05:00

"I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses..." (2 Cor 12:9). "I will boast of the things that show my weakness" (2 Cor 11:30).

Paradoxes: The backdrop of 2 Corinthians is the devastating assault on the Corinthian church by the "super-apostles," who virtually accused Paul of everything bad/evil under the sun. This devastated Paul, who found comfort and the power of God in his utter helplessness. Thus, the theme of 2 Corinthians is "Out of weakness comes strength" (God's Power Expressed Through Man's Weakness). This is one of Christianity's countless confounding paradoxes.

What's the Problem with Paradoxes? The problem with a paradox is that Christians understand it and agree with it in principle, but practically it seems impossible to truly put it into practice. Thus, though you like the paradox, you do not experience it as a reality, because you are unable to live it out. How does strength come out of weakness?

Some Paradoxes: Here are some of the paradoxes that are common in Christianity:

If you die, you live. If you try to live, you die.
If you work hard, you will live easy. If you live easy, your life will be hard.
If you live poorly, you're rich. If you try to be rich, you're poor, no matter how much you have.
If you limit yourself, you're free. But if you live without limits, you're a slave.
If you listen, you're heard. If you demand to be heard, no one listens to you.
If you give up control, you have authority. If you're authoritarian, you loose control.
If you're humble, you're exalted. If you want to be exalted, you're humbled.
If you expose your weakness, you experience power. If you conceal your weakness, you loose your power, even if you have might.

Paul concludes 2 Corinthians by gladly boasting about his weaknesses, so that God's power may be manifest through his weakness in the following ways:

Weakness as a Fool Through Suffering (2 Cor 11:16-33).
Weakness Through a Thorn/Stake (2 Cor 12:1-10).
Weakness in Love for the Church (2 Cor 12:11-21).
Final Warning: Examine yourself (2 Cor 13:1-14).

2 Corinthians is Paul's 4th letter to the church at Corinth. The 1st letter is lost (1 Cor 5:9), and the 3rd letter, known as the "severe letter" (2 Cor 2:3-4), is also lost. What we have is Paul's 2nd and 4th letter, which is known to us as 1 and 2 Corinthians.

Understanding 2 Corinthians requires a knowledge of the context and circumstances as to why Paul wrote it. Paul was being severely criticized by some who regarded themselves highly (2 Cor 10:12) as elite and special "super-apostles" (2 Cor 11:5; 2 Cor 12:11). They undermined Paul's credibility not only as an apostle and a Christian, but also as a human being. So Paul wrote this letter to encourage them (chap 1-9) and to defend himself by "boasting" about his credentials, and about what God has done through him and revealed to him (chap 10-13).

Paul was clearly against boasting (2 Cor 12:1). Yet he boasted, not because he wanted to defend himself, but because he wanted to build up the gullible Christians (2 Cor 10:8, 12:19) who were being swayed by the defective teachings of the super-apostles (2 Cor 11:4).

Questions:

Weakness as a Fool: Why might Paul have repeated the word "fool(s)" or "foolish(ness)" 11 times (1 Cor 1:18,20,21,23,25,27; 2:14; 3:18,18; 4:10; 15:36) + 8 times (2 Cor 11:1,16,17,19,21; 12:6,11)? How did Paul show his "foolishness" (2 Cor 11:16-33)?
Weakness through a Thorn: Why did Paul write in the 3rd person (2 Cor 12:1-6)? Is it good to boast (2 Cor 12:1,5-6)? What did God want to teach Paul through his thorn/stake (2 Cor 12:7-10)?
Weakness in Love for the Church: How did Paul not burden them (2 Cor 12:11-18; 11:7-11)? Why did Paul defend himself (2 Cor 12:19-21; 10:8)?
Final warnings: Why should we examine ourselves (2 Cor 13:1-10)? What can we learn from Paul's final greetings and his Trinitarian blessing (2 Cor 13:11-14; Mt 28:19; 2 Thes 2:13-14; Rev 1:4-5)?

References:

The Message of 2 Corinthians, Paul Barnett, The Bible Speaks Today, 1988.
2 Corinthians, John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary, 2003.

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God is Sovereign in the Tragedy of Exile (Daniel 1:1-21)

2011-10-17T20:23:00.001-05:00

"But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine..." (Daniel 1:8)

Questions to ponder: Imagine being alone and scared, exiled from home to a foreign city, a long way from the familiar. How would you cope in a hostile setting? What truths do you cling to? Would you remain faithful to your former identity or be assimilated into your new surroundings?

Another question: Is Daniel about how we should deny ourselves like Daniel (Dan 1:8), or about One greater than Daniel who made the ultimate sacrifice and denied himself for us?

What is Daniel about? It is about enduring faith through trials and adversity. It is to believe God who is sovereign, and to be faithful to Him in the midst of trials and adversities like Daniel and his friends. Otherwise, trials and adversities are a nightmare. In God, they are His grace to us. Sinclair Ferguson says, “All too frequently we tend... to see our trials and temptations... as isolated nightmares. God, however, sees them from a different perspective. They are important and connected punctuation marks in the biography of grace He is writing in our lives. They give formation, direction, and character to our lives. They are all part of the tapestry He is weaving in history. He uses them to build up our strength and to prepare us to surmount greater obstacles, perhaps fiercer temptations.”

Daniel is is both familiar and unfamiliar to most Christians. We teach/encourage Christians to “Dare to be a Daniel,” and live for Christ in a hostile world. This is biblical: they provide models and examples for believers living in an alien world as to how they can both serve the culture, and at the same time live lives distinct from that culture. They encourage believers to remain faithful, no matter what the cost. Yet the reality is that few of us can really claim to come close to the standard set for us by Daniel and his friends: we are all compromised in so many ways, even after being Christians for decades. Therefore, it is important to be reminded of the one greater than Daniel who has perfectly lived the exilic life of service and separation for us, Jesus Christ.

As encouraging as they were, Daniel is not about his bold decision (Dan 1:8), or the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace (Dan 3:16-18), or the daunting apocalyptic passages in the latter chapters that often lead to a variety of end time speculations. Rather, the centerpiece of these visions is the exalted heavenly Son of Man who took upon flesh in the person of Christ. Daniel helps us to see how the gospel of Jesus Christ is at the heart of the book. Also, the theme and the main thing is: The Lord God is the sovereign Lord and He will bring about all His holy will in His own time, no matter how bleak the present circumstances appear to be.

Are you in exile? Like Daniel, it is still true that Christians are exiles on earth. As citizens of heaven, we live as aliens and strangers in a land that is not our own (1 Pet 1:1). At times the world’s enmity/hostility is felt. We feel squeezed/pressured into its mold, to make us conform to its values and standards in school, at work, in the way we dress, the language we use. We are expected to laugh at certain jokes. We gossip about others. If we want to be promoted in business, we are pressured to leave our values and religious beliefs, assimilate to the business community, value the things the surrounding culture values, pursue passionately its glittering prizes, and live in obedience to its idols. We have to choose daily whether to be part of this world in which we live, or to take the difficult path of standing against it (1 Jn 2:15-17; Rom 12:2).

Dan 1:1-21 may be divided into:

God's Judgment (Dan 1:1-2).
God's Providence (Dan 1:3-16).
God's Faithfulness/Grace (Dan 1:17-21).

I. God's Judgment (Dan 1:1-2)

To "live in exile" we need God's help and God's faithfulness. Interestingly, in Dan 1:1-2 God expressed his faithfulness in his judgment by exiling Judah to Babylon in late 700 B.C. How? "...the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into (Nebuchadnezzer's) hand" (Dan 1:2).God gave his people into the hand of their enemies. Why?

They broke their covenant with God. In Lev 26:3-13, God promised his favor and blessing when they kept God's covenant, but if they violated God's covenant, they would experience his wrath and disfavor (Lev 26:14-39): their crops would be ruined (Lev 26:20), God would multiply their afflictions and afflict them for their sins 7 times over (Lev 26:21,24), scatter them among the nations where they will waste away (Lev 26:33,39). This was exactly what happened when they went into Babylonian exile.
It was the specific fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah in 2 Kings 20:18. King Hezekiah of Judah had received envoys and a gift from Merodach-Baladan, king of Babylon. In response, Hezekiah showed them all of his treasures (2 Ki 20:13), for which Isaiah prophesied against him specifically and severely (2 Ki 20:14-18). The Babylonians would one day carry off everything in his palace (2 Ki 20:17), and some of his own offspring being taken off would become eunuchs in the palace of the Babylonian king (2 Ki 20:18). Why was God so upset? Because Hezekiah was seeking an alliance with Babylon to be a useful ally against Assyria. Politics replaced trust in the Lord. Do we adopt the world's methods of getting ahead instead of simply trusting in God (Prov 3:5)?

II. God's Providence (Dan 1:3-16)

God's judgment does not mean God's abandonment. This important point is repeatedly shown through out the Bible. Though God judged his people very severely through exile, he would never abandon them. One day God would open the way for their return (Ezra 1:1-7).

God is always in control. This tells us that though life often seems to be out of control, God is never out of control. Though men say and do things that adversely/unfairly affects/wounds us, every detail of life lies under the control of our sovereign God. No sparrow dies without God's permission (Matt 10:29). Even the most trivial of events are within his sovereign rule. At the other extreme, the most wicked act of all time, the crucifixion of Christ, was also decided and predestined by God before hand (Acts 4:28). No sin of ours/others ever catches God by surprise or thwarts his sovereign will (Gen 50:20). For Christians, every single circumstance is the Lord's means of furthering his sanctifying goals. God NEVER abandons or forgets us, but will preserve us through even the most fiery of trials by his grace (1 Pet 1:5-9).

The world's strategy of spiritual reprogramming. Thus, in the will of God, Daniel and his 3 friends found themselves exiled in Babylon, and chosen by the king for special consideration, reeducation, favor and privilege (Dan 1:3-7). The 4 of them were perhaps teenagers at the time. What happened to them?

Their names were changed from Yahwistic names to Babylonian names which invoked their gods, Marduk, Bel and Bebo, rather than Israel's Lord (Dan 1:6), for:

Daniel means "God is my judge."
Hananiah means "the Lord is gracious."
Mishael means "Who is what God is?"
Azariah means "The Lord is a helper."

They were instructed in the language and literature of the Babylonians, so that its myths and legends would take the place of the Scriptures as the source of their wisdom and worldview (Dan 1:4).
They were to be royally supplied from the king's table, with a daily allowance of food and wine, which would lead them to become accustomed to a life of dependence on their new master (Dan 1:5a). After 3 years, with their previous identity fully obliterated, they would enter the service of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 1:5b).

Satan's reprogramming. Worldly reprogramming consists of threat and promise (the recalcitrant banished), enforcement and encouragement (the majority assimilated), since more flies are caught with honey than with vinegar. The fundamental goal was to obliterate all memory of Israel's God from their lips and minds and instill in them a sense of dependence on Babylon for the good things in life. Likewise, Satan violently persecutes Christians in some parts of the world, while seducing the rest to forget about God and seek blessings from somewhere else. He controls the educational process, changes the worldview of our children, instills in them a dependence on material comforts and pleasures of the world/flesh, to draw us away from God.

How did the 4 young men deal with this? They had to maintain their dual identities as citizens of 2 kingdoms. Likely, they did not outwardly resist the Babylonian system, or refuse to work for them. They recognized God's hand in their situation. They understood through Jeremiah that they should actively labor for the common good of the community and for the blessing of Babylon (Jer 29:4-7). They did their best to work within the system, and were good citizens of Babylon as well as of heaven. We learn here that our calling is not to form Christian ghettoes that are isolated from the world around us.

Though the 4 young men served the Babylonian community, they accepted the will of God for their lives, and inwardly resisted the assimilation process of the Babylonian empire.

They resisted the pagan Babylonian program. They answered to their Babylonian names. Yet they maintained their Jewish names/identities as well. They preserved biblical knowledge and perspectives in the midst of a thoroughly pagan educational system. Daniel did not become Belteshazzar, though he answered to that name, nor did Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah become Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They preserved their Hebrew names amongst themselves as a marker of who they really were (Dan 1:11,19;2:17). They lived with dual names as a reminder of their dual identities, and of their God. Likewise, as citizens of heaven, we should celebrate our heavenly citizenship, gather with our fellow exiles, remind one another of our "true home" (2 Pet 3:13), and fix our eyes on the heavenly realities that truly define who we are. We do not gather to be taught how to be better spouses, parents, children, employees, etc. Rather, if our heavenly identity is strong, it will transform our marriages, parenting, work relationships (Eph 5:22-6:9). Whether we home school our kids or send them to secular schools, we pray for them not to outwardly conform to Christian morality but to live in true countercultural Christian identity as citizens of heaven on earth. They need to know and understand the contemporary "language and literature of the Babylonians" and be armed with discernment into its follies and flaws.
They stayed dependent on God: They resolved not to eat the food from the kings' table nor to drink his wine (Dan 1:8-16). There was nothing intrinsically evil about the Babylonian food and drink (Dan 10:3). But they instead choose to eat only things that grow naturally--grains and vegetables--and to drink only naturally occurring water (Dan 1:12). This suggests that their decision was to be constantly reminded of their dependence upon their Creator God for their food, not dependence on King Nebuchadnezzar, which was the sin of King Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:17).

What can we build into our daily routine that provide constant reminders of our dependence on God?

Give thanks for our food at each meal.
Keep a daily record of the Lord's gifts to us, from the trivial to the profound.
Practice fasting--deliberately choose to abstain from some of the legitimate pleasures and satisfactions in the world.
Omit a meal to devote time to pray.

Daniel and his friends sought to maintain faithfulness to God by working within the Babylonian system, not against it. They sought permission from the chief official for their personalized diet plan (Dan 1:8). When the official feared potential consequences of bucking the system (Dan 1:10), Daniel asked the guard who looked after them and proposed a 10-day test (Dan 1:11-14). At the end of the trial period, Daniel and his friends looked fitter, healthier, better than those who indulged in a high-calorie lifestyle (Dan 1:15).

III. God's Grace (Dan 1:17-21)

God's faithfulness. The focus on this chapter is not simply the faithfulness of these 4 young men to their God, but it is on God's faithfulness to them. God caused them to find mercy (rahamim) in the eyes of their captors (Dan 1:9; 1 Ki 8:50). Also, the outcome of their 10 day dietary test was not what ordinarily would have been expected, but was a mark of God being with them. God also gave all 4 of them exceptional knowledge and understanding of Babylonian literature and learning and gave Daniel the unique ability to discern visions and dreams of all kinds (Dan 1:17-21). God's favor upon them enabled them to answer all of Nebuchadnezzar's questions, so that he found them 10 times better than all of his other advisors (Dan 1:20). God placed them in a unique position where they could be a blessing to their captors and build up the society in which they found themselves, while at the same time enabling them to remain true to God in the midst of extraordinary pressures.

Only God can... If we stress the resolve and decisions of Daniel and his 3 friends, we might miss the remarkable work of God's faithfulness to them, and thus miss the comfort and encouragement, which only God can provide. If God is able to keep these young men faithful to him in their situation, then he is surely able to keep us faithful to him in our much lesser trails and difficulties. No matter how overwhelming our situation may seem, God is able to keep us through it. It is his work from beginning to end, and he will do it.

God's faithfulness sustained Daniel through out his life. This theme of the faithfulness of God emerges again in the brief note that closes this chapter: "And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus" (Dan 1:21). That year was the year in which the decree was issued that enabled the Jews to return home (2 Chron 36:22-23), 70 years after the time Daniel and his friends were taken into exile. God faithfulness proved sufficient from Daniel throughout the entire time of the exile. Babylonian kings came and went, until the Babylonians themselves were replaced as the ruler world power by the Medo-Persians in the person of Cyrus. Yet God sustained his faithful servant throughout the whole time. In the same way, God is able to preserve us throughout the trials and tribulations that we face, no matter how intense they may be or how long they may last. When the world does its worst, God's grace and faithfulness is enough.

Do not try to "Be like Daniel." Most of us are NOT like Daniel and his 3 friends. Those who think they are may come across as self-righteous Pharisees or self-proclaimed elitist Christians. Thus, if the message of Daniel is simply "Be like Daniel and all will be well," then studying Daniel may not be beneficial to us as Christians. The more we get to know Daniel, the more we come to realize that we are NOT Daniels.

The gospel: Jesus is the true and ultimate Daniel. The good news of the gospel, is not simply that God is faithful to those who are faithful to him. It is that a Savior has come to deliver faithless and compromised Christians like us. Our salvation rests not on our ability to be like Daniel and remain undefiled by the world, but rather on the pure and undefiled offering that Jesus has provided in our place. Jesus came voluntarily into this world, with all of its pains and trials. He endured far greater temptations and sufferings than Daniel did, or than we ever will (Heb 4:15). Yet he remained entirely faithful and pure until the very end, without spot or blemish, and grants the perfection of his obedience to all those who trust in him by faith (1 Pet 1:19). What is more, Jesus has already returned from his time of exile and now sits at the Father's right hand in heaven. He has prepared our places there, and his presence there already is the guarantee that 1 day we will be with him there as his people. The cross is the means by which God's faithfulness redeems the unfaithful; the resurrection and ascension are the surety of our inheritance in heaven.

Fix our eyes on Jesus crucified, raised and exalted. He has not only pioneered the route home; he is the route home. Trust in him and ask him to work in you a true faithfulness. Be constantly dependent upon God's sanctifying work, looking to him to keep you faithful, not to your best efforts to "Be a Daniel." Finally, long for the day when his heavenly kingdom will invade this earth and bring the fullness of your inheritance.

References:

"When The World Does Its Worst" (Daniel 1:1-21), Iain M Duguid, Daniel, Reformed Expository Commentary, 2008.
"Take Time To Be Holy" (Daniel 1), Ligon Duncan.

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God’s Power Expressed Through Man’s Weakness (2 Corinthians)

2011-10-14T10:52:00.001-05:00

"I will boast of the things that show my weakness" (2 Corinthians 11:30).

"I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses..." (2 Corinthians 12:9).

"...he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power" (2 Corinthians 13:4).

In his commentary, John MacArthur says, "A church should not ordain anyone who has not read (2 Corinthians) and commentaries on (it)."

The Theme: Power Through Weakness. The magnificent message of 2 Corinthians is that God’s power comes to people in their utter helplessness and weakness, not in their human strength. So...

Do we defensively show our strength, our smartness, our significance, our success?

Or are we free, even happy, to be regarded as useless, foolish, worthless, weak?

The Problem: Shadowy Opponents Regard Paul as a Fool, as Scum and Garbage. Today, Christians highly honor Paul as the greatest Christian who ever lived. But Paul’s own real life situation and reality was quite the opposite: he was regarded as a fool--a horribly depraved and undesirable human being. To many Christian leaders, he was scum and garbage (1 Cor 4:13)! He had multiple opponents and opposition, who attacked him, criticized him, and slandered him mostly behind his back. In this letter Paul confronts his shadowy opponents who "ganged up" against him with the local church leaders and members of the church at Corinth. 2 Corinthians is a fascinating record of that painful conflict, which is often a sad reality today behind many church conflicts, church divisions, and church splits. No preacher in the history of the church has faced more intense persecution as did Paul, and in this letter he models how to handle suffering in the ministry (2 Cor 1:4-10; 4:7-12; 6:4-10; 11:23-33).

Paul's Godly Character shines through as he interacts with his most troubled church. Paul's humility is evident through out. He describes himself as a lowly clay pot (2 Cor 4:7). He stressed his human weakness and inadequacy (2 Cor 3:5, 11:30, 12:5,9-10). He was reluctant to defend himself when attacked (2 Cor 11:1,16-17,21; 12:11). He reveals his passionate concern for God's flock, both for their spiritual growth (2 Cor 3:18, 7:1), and for their spiritual safety (2 Cor 11:2-4,29). His selfless concern for them is seen in his declaration, "For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake" (2 Cor 4:5).

An Important Principle in Studying 2 Corinthians. Paul's 13 letters were expected to be read straight through, not broken up into chapters or paragraphs and studied section by section or verse by verse. Thus, when preaching or teaching through any portion, the whole big picture should not be lost or ignored. This is true for all 66 books of the Bible.

Time Line. Paul’s relationships with the Corinthians span 7 years. (Dates below are approximate.)

AD 50-52: Paul spent 1 ½ years in Corinthian planting/establishing the church.

AD 54: 1 Corinthians written.

AD 55: Paul made a 2^nd visit to Corinth (2 Cor 13:2), the painful visit (2 Cor 2:1) to deal with an emergency disciplinary problem in the church.

AD 56: 2 Corinthians was written from Macedonia after this 2^nd visit.

AD 57: Paul came to Corinth for the 3^rd and final time (2 Cor 13:1) and stayed for 3 months.

Differences Between 1 and 2 Corinthians. Of all the churches planted/founded by Paul, the Corinthian church was the most demanding. As a result, Paul wrote 4 letters to them, 2 lengthy ones remain, while 2 were lost, 1 written before, and the other after 1 Corinthians (1 Cor 5:9; 2 Cor 2:3-4, 7:8-12).

1 Corinthians deals with major problems of behavior (divisions, immorality, lawsuits, favoritism) and doctrine (doubts about the resurrection). They also questioned Paul’s abilities and authority (1 Cor 2:1-5, 4:8-13). Paul addressed all of these issues objectively and unemotionally.

2 Corinthians, however, reveals a range of unashamed emotional extremes in Paul. He is overjoyed and confident (2 Cor 7:4), yet deeply hurt by their coldness toward him (2 Cor 6:12), by them “putting up” with him (2 Cor 11:1), and believing all the criticisms leveled against him, that he is weak, ineffective and not a true apostle/leader. They believe that Paul is all of the following:

He is worldly; he can’t keep his decision (2 Cor 1:17).
He is deceptive; he distorts God’s word (2 Cor 4:2).
He is weak; he will just fade away (2 Cor 4:16).
He is corrupt; he exploits people (2 Cor 7:2).
He is not a true servant of God (2 Cor 10:7).
He is unimpressive in person, while he boldly talks big in his letters (2 Cor 10:1,10; 11:6,21).
He is a fool; he is out of his mind (2 Cor 11:1,16,23).
He is untraditional, unconventional, crafty; he refused financial support (2 Cor 11:7; 12:13-16).
He is not a leader; he lacks credentials as a leader (2 Cor 12:1,11-12).

Because of all such criticisms against him, spurred on by other Christian leaders, Paul was forced to defend his doctrines/teachings, his ministry, and his integrity/character (2 Cor 1:12-13; 2:17; 3:5; 4:2, 5; 5:9-10; 6:3-4,11; 7:2; 8:20-21; 10:7; 11:5-6,30; 12:11-12; 13:5-6). He is sorry that the Christians do not reciprocate his love for them (2 Cor 6:11-13), and that they do not acknowledge the authenticity of his Christian life--his apostleship, and God’s work done through him (2 Cor 3:1-3; 12:11-13).

Why Christians Criticized Paul. There may be 2 major factors:

1. Cultural differences. Since Apollos and Peter had visited the church at Corinth, the educated Greek Christians were drawn to the gifted orator Appollos, an Alexandrian Jew (Acts 18:24-28), while the Jewish members were attracted to Peter. These southern Greeks, who were fascinated by oratory, rhetoric, intellectualism and sophisticated discourse, were unimpressed by manual worker Paul because of his amateurish speaking abilities. They also felt insulted by his refusal to accept money from them, while he accepted money from the rustic northern Greeks (2 Cor 11:7-9). They also likely didn’t like Paul continually admonishing them about their idolatry and immorality (2 Cor 6:14-7:1; 12:20-13:1). The Jews, on the other hand, were upset with Paul for not championing their conservative Jewish Mosaic tradition. (See below.)

2. Senior Jewish ministers criticism of Paul. Paul does not name or identify these elite, special, superior, “super-apostles” (2 Cor 11:13,23). They were persuading the Christians in Corinth that Paul’s Bible study and theology was bad/wrong, because he seems to dismiss the Law of Moses and promote cheap grace. They also claimed their own legitimacy on the basis of their works, their achievements, and their miraculous/mystical experiences, which they claimed Paul lacked. They also slandered Paul for being personally and morally deficient in many ways (2 Cor 7:2).

Thus, Paul was preparing to make his 3^rd and final visit to them (2 Cor 13:1) by writing 2 Corinthians, which is Paul's own defense for why he did what he did. Paul explained why he deferred the 3rd visit and wrote to them instead (chap 1-2). He nevertheless expressed joy that the moral problem which necessitated the 2nd, painful visit and the (now lost) "sorrowful" letter has been resolved (chap 7). He urged that the collection of money for the Jerusalem church (which had lapsed) be revived and completed (chap 8-9). The major part of 2 Corinthians is devoted to answering the criticisms against him by the "super-apostles" (chap 3-6) and their assault on his character (chap 10-13).

Can we overcome our endless need to defend ourselves and prove our worth to others? Or are we happy to be regarded as scum and garbage as Paul was, and be content to let God reveal His power through our utter weakness and helplessness?

Reference:

The Message of 2 Corinthians, Paul Barnett, 1988, The Bible Speaks Today.

2 Corinthians, John MacArthur, 2003, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary.

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What is the Purpose of West Loop UBF Church?

2011-10-13T12:09:00.002-05:00

"I consider my life worth nothing to me ... my only aim is to ... testify to the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24, NIV, ESV)

What's the point? When we began having Sunday Worship Services at West Loop on Jan 4th, 2008, I came up with 3 short catch phrases: "Love God. Understand People. Impact the World." Yet, over the last few years, not a few people have asked me, "What is the purpose of West Loop UBF?" After almost 4 years (probably a little late!), this might be my first written attempt to answer the question.

Philippines UBF

2011-10-05T21:00:00.001-05:00

The Wind Blows Wherever It Pleases (Philippines UBF)

“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

Like I had never left Chicago. After living in Manila for over 2 months (minus 1 week in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur), I returned to Chicago on Oct 3. When I got home, I said to my wife, "It feels as though I had not left at all." She echoed the exact same sentiment and added, "We are so close that we can even dance together in 2 different countries." Even an unromantic person like myself was quite touched by her spontaneous comment. I am so glad to be back, and I also look forward to going back to the Philippines again.

Previous Reports on Philippines UBF. I had previously blogged about Philippines UBF as a fruitful and exemplary indigenous ministry, and why I am going to the Philippines to live for an extended time. I had planned to stay for 3 months, but I had to return 3 weeks earlier due to issues in my medical clinic.

The Wind and the Spirit Blowing in Philippines UBF. John 3:8 always comes to mind when I am in Manila: I feel the wind of the Spirit blowing wherever the Spirit pleases and working tenderly in the hearts of people in various campuses through out Manila. Over the past year, we have began 3 church plants:

At Antipolo (2 hours from the main Philippines UBF center), led by Dr. John Talavera and his wife Hannah. Their 2 weekly Bible study fellowship meetings on Wed and Fri (called Ignite UBF) has up to 30 students from Fatima University attending and participating. I met them each week on Fri to lead a Bible study. On the last Fri before I left the students made me a picture with a collage of each of the students faces. (See picture) This ministry is lively and vibrant because students like Andrew, Jimmon, Rem, Kaiser, Marjenel, Monique, Pie, Camille, Moja, Kevyn, etc, take stewardship, leadership and responsibility over the ministry and they are constantly inviting their friends and class mates to join in Bible study and fellowship.
At Caloocan City (half hour from the center), led by Jonathan and Grace Reytos. I led their group Bible study on Tue. The first time I went there were about a dozen students. The last time I went about 25 students came, all from UCC (University of Caloocan City). Grace is a warm, gracious and friendly lady who has the gift of inviting many students to come, while being a busy mother of 4.
At the University Belt (an hour from the center), led by Timothy and Esther Ipapo. I've served their Sun service with a sermon/Bible study on Sun 4 pm, after giving the sermon at the main center at 10 am. About a half dozen students attend. Suzette, a nurse, is in the process of going to work in Singapore as a nurse. We are praying that through her, God may enable us to begin to pray about planting a church in Singapore. Esther is expecting her 4th child, which is a girl.
Once a week on Thu, I also lead a group Bible with students at UP (University of the Philippines), which is the top school in the country, perhaps like SNU in Seoul, or Harvard in the US. Students who graduate from UP have their bright futures set in stone, and they can virtually get jobs anywhere else in the world. Each Thu, up to a dozen students, mostly women, come for Bible study, not as skeptics but as open-hearted seekers. Arlene, who recently married Andrew Jaegers of U of C, is the faithful steward of this ministry, together with Ayra, Kyra and Bebs. Aivy, who just recently joined Bible study and fellowship, gave me a plaque signed by her, which states "Outstanding Servant of the Lord Award." I am quite touched and humbled by her gift, and trembling to live up to it!
William and Sarah Altobar, who live in the main center near Fatima University in Valenzuela City, are truly the backbone, pillar and foundation of the ministry. They are literally and functionally the mom and dad of everyone in the ministry. They live together with about a half dozen single boys and half dozen single girls, who are all either students or recent graduates. William is like a Barnabas who loves, embraces, encourages, and welcomes everyone, while I am socially awkward and might be more of a heady cerebral sort of person, like a super mini version of Paul. So William loves and serves and embraces everyone, while I seem to spend most of my day reading and studying and then meeting everyone for Bible study. The women who live in the Bible house served me in every possible way while I lived there: Sarah Altobar, Gemma, Minda, Rachel, Luz. Without them taking care of me, I could not have lived there. Thanks!

Preaching Christ from Genesis. During my stay there, I gave 9 sermons on Genesis on Sun, by showing how each text and each narrative points to Jesus, since Jesus said that Moses wrote about Jesus (John 5:46), and that the Old Testament Scriptures are not primarily instructions for living, or examples to follow, but that they are all pointing to Christ (John 5:39; Luke 24:27,44; Acts 10:43). I had previously explained what the point of Genesis is. For instance, I shared how Jesus is the true Joseph (who suffered more than Joseph), or Jesus is the true Abraham (who made the ultimate sacrifice), or Jesus is our true Rebekah (who took our curse in our place), etc. Then I sensed that the hearts of our audience were being touched by the grace of Jesus, who loves us at great cost in spite of all our sins. Several confessed to me that their hearts were moved to tears because of the grace of Jesus through our Christ centered and gospel driven approach to studying Genesis.

Some final general encouragements from me.

The Bible is about Jesus, Grace and the Gospel, not about Law, Legalism and Religion. Religion says, "I obey, therefore God will bless me." The Gospel says the exact opposite, "God already blessed me through Christ's sacrifice, therefore I obey." I pray that we may live with gospel driven obedience, rather than obedience driven by desire for some other reward.

Read, read, read. I left about 50 Christian books and encouraged them to read, so that we may learn to love God, not just with our hearts, souls and strengths, but also with all our minds. Francis Bacon said, Reading makes a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.

Never feel inferior to anyone. Because of poverty, Filipinos tend to act deferential toward rich people or toward Americans who are richer. So, I encouraged them to repent if they, as a Christian, ever feels inferior to anyone because of their financial status or standing. Because of Christ in us, by his grace alone, and by faith alone, God has enabled and empowered us as his children to be the kings and stewards of the whole world.

A man must be a man (1 Kings 2:2). The symbol of a man is courage without any hint of fear. Only fear God, not man (Prov 29:25). One who fears man insults God. One who causes others to fear man plays God. When we fear God, we fear no one, while we live a life of repentance (Ps 51:4), and we work hard because of the marvelous grace of Jesus (1 Cor 15:10). Thank God for our MEN who meet for 6 am Daily Bread: Lyndon, Archie, Sam, Jim, Christian, Jayson, Marlon.

A woman must be unavailable. (1 Pet 3:3-4). This does not mean that she has to fast from boys, or be rude to them. Rather, while single, her heart must be unavailable to any boy, because her heart is available only and primarily to Christ, her true husband (Isa 54:5). Unavailability and mystery makes a woman truly beautiful. I wrote about this in A Woman's Beauty (1 Pet 3:1-6).

Thank God for the gracious work of the Spirit and the "blowing wind" in Philippines UBF (John 3:8). Thank God who helped me to not miss my wife (or my 3 cats!) while I was away for over 2 months. It helped that I could call and speak to my wife from Skype almost daily to find out the goings on in Chicago. From this trip, I realize that I can go and live anywhere as long as someone feeds me, does my laundry, and there is a good and fast internet connection! Oh my gosh, what a sacrifice!

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How Great is our (Incomparable) God (Micah 7:18-20)

2011-10-02T23:51:00.001-05:00

“Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression…?” (Micah 7:18)

Micah’s name means “Who is like the Lord?” As the prophet completes/concludes his book he identifies himself with a question, which is also his name: “Who is a God like you…?” (Mic 7:18) It is a rhetorical question that is an assertion of God’s incomparable glory and greatness. Micah is really saying, “There is no one like the Lord, for our God is greater than all gods!” The book of Micah reveals our God in 3 ways:

Our Incomparable God.
Incomparable Grace.
Incomparable Faithfulness.

I. Our Incomparable God

What does the Bible teach us about who God is? What does Micah reveal to us about God? 3 thoughts:

God’s holiness.
God’s almighty power.
God’s sovereignty.

1. God’s Holiness. The book of Micah emphasizes repeatedly that God is a holy God, a God in a unique category, set apart from all others. God's thoughts/ways are never man’s thoughts/ways (Isa 55:8-9). The whole Bible sets “forth the awful gulf that separates the creature from the Creator” (J. Gresham Machen, 1923). It relates to God’s absolute separation from all evil and sin. “…he is exalted above the possibility of sin—in him, as the absolutely good, evil cannot enter” (Gerhardus Vos, 1994).

Micah confronts us with the reality of God’s holiness all through his book. God appears in frightening cataclysm, where “the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open” (Mic 1:3-4). The reason? “All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of…Israel” (Mic 1:5). The holy God is always grievously offended by all sin. God is a just God who judges sin with great severity (Mic 2:1), until he regards his sinful people as an enemy (Mic 2:8).

2. God’s Almighty Power. The holy God also has power to judge sin. “I will make Samaria a heap…and uncover her foundations” (Mic 1:6). No one can match God’s power. No foundation can withstand God’s power. When Sennacherib, the Assyrian conqueror, besieged Jerusalem, the Lord struck down 185,000 soldiers of his army in a single night.

3. God’s sovereignty. No human king or authority determines the fate of peoples. Only God in his sovereign majesty reigns supreme. God is omniscient, knowing all our secret thoughts (Mic 2:1), while we know not his (Mic 4:12). God’s absolute sovereignty over all history includes the minutest details of the affairs of men and nations, as seen in the many and specific prophecies Micah makes regarding the future.

He foretold the judgment of wicked Samaria (Mic 1:6).
He predicted details of the Assyrian advance prior to the event (Mic 1:10-16).
He prophesies God’s deliverance of his people when the enemy comes to the very gate of the city (Mic 2:12-13).
He sees the Christian age of the gospel, when people from all over the world will come to God to worship and learn (Mic 4:2).
Most dramatically, he provides one of the most detailed and accurate predictions of the Messiah’s birth, nearly 700 years in the future (Mic 5:2).

Micah spoke boldly about specific events that have not yet happened because he speaks for a sovereign God, who exercises perfect control over all things, past, present, and even into eternity.

II. Incomparable Grace

Is there 1 thing about God that causes Micah to celebrate his incomparable glory? The answer is in his final verses (Mic 7:18-20). It is that the majesty of the holy, almighty, sovereign God is seen most wonderfully in his grace. “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression…?” (Mic 7:18). We observe 4 things:

What God forgives.
How God forgives.
God’s attitude in forgiving.
The finality of God’s forgiveness.

1. What God forgives. What is it that God forgives? Micah uses 3 terms to describe sinful man’s offense to God.

God pardons “iniquity” (Mic 7:18). ‘Avon (Hebrew) refers to our guilt. Our sins incur a debt to God’s holy justice that must be paid.
God passes over “transgression” (Mic 7:18). Pesha denotes rebellion against God. We reject God’s right to govern our lives. In the parable of the 10 minas, the rebels insist, “We do not want this man to reign over us” (Lk 19:14), which incurs the king’s rightful response of judgment and destruction (Lk 19:27).
God casts our “sins” into the depths of the sea (Mic 7:19). Chatta’ah refers to wickedness or evil, which God, as ruler of creation, cannot tolerate but must destroy.

All 3 of these terms—guilt, rebellion, and wickedness—have been ascribed not to pagans but to God’s people residing in Jerusalem where they worship in the temple of God. Judging by the standard of God’s perfect law, no one is righteous, not even one, and no one does God, not even one (Rom 3:10,12).

2. How God forgives. How can a holy God ever forgive his people’s sins? Micah’s language is vivid and instructive, containing the very heart of the Bible’s gospel. He virtually uses NT language that only Jesus is able to fulfill.

1. God pardons our iniquity/guilt. Nasa’ literally speaks of God lifting our guilt, taking it away (Jn 1:29). An Israelite would naturally think of the Day of Atonement, where the high priest sets the scapegoat free (expiation), while slaying the other (propitiation), which shows that God takes away our sin/guilt by the substitutionary death of a God-appointed sacrifice (Lev 16:8-10; Rom 3:21-26). God had to both bear and take away our sins (Bruce Waltke, 2007). The NT applies this directly to the cross, where God cancels our record of debt by nailing it to the cross (Col 2:14). This transfer of our sins to Christ is imputation (2 Cor 5:21; Isa 53:6).

2. God passes over our transgression/rebellion. The language here also points to the cross, through the events of the Passover (1 Cor 5:7; Mic 7:18). This passing over of our sins happens for those who have confessed their sins and believed in the gospel of Christ. What other God or deity ever responds to our wickedness against him by placing our guilt onto himself? This is the main difference between Christianity and all other faiths.

3. God’s attitude in forgiving our sins. Does God forgive begrudgingly, resentfully, or halfheartedly? “He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love” (Mic 7:18). Micah’s hope is in the incomparable God whose heart is moved by grace. Chesed, is the great OT word for covenant mercy and love of God, for God delights in tender, loving, mercy for his people. This word is so rich that it can hardly be given a single English translation. It is rendered as:

“steadfast love” (ESV),
“faithful love” (Holman-HCSB),
“unchanging love” (NASB),
“mercy” (KJV, NIV)

Seemingly, no godly people were left in the land (Mic 7:2-3). How could such depraved people be spared by a holy God? It is ONLY because of God’s mercy (Tit 3:5). Micah’s hope lay in God’s delight in mercy, and there he rested his burdened heart.

4. The finality of God’s forgiveness: God casts away our sins…

· God “will again have compassion on us” (Mic 7:19). Racham speaks of tender affection, the way a mother loves a child.

· Like a conqueror and a liberator, God “will tread our iniquities underfoot” (Mic 7:19). When God takes away the guilt of sin, that it may not condemn us, He takes away also the power of sin, that it may not rule us. Thus,

o Our guilt he takes away to the cross;

o Our rebellion he covers with Christ’s blood; and

o The corrupting power of evil in our hearts he treads underfoot.

· God casts “all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Mic 7:19). This allusion is to Pharaoh’s chariots in the Red Sea. Just as the Egyptians were prevented by God from catching the Israelites to destroy them, God will not allow our sins to catch up to us.

This knowledge is crucial to our relationship with God, and to our peace and joy in salvation: the finality of our forgiveness in Christ. Heb 8:12 echoes Jeremiah when God declares to us: “I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” How can an all-knowing God forget that we have sinned against him? In Micah’s language, God has:

Lifted our sins and taken them to the cross;
Covered our sins with the blood of Christ;
Trodden them under his own foot;
Cast them into the sea of his incomparable grace.

III. Incomparable Faithfulness

How can we count on God extending such grace to us, when we stumble and stutter in sin? Only by God’s incomparable faithfulness to his covenant promises of old in the Bible (Mic 7:20). “Faithfulness” is emet, which also means “truth.” God will be true to Jacob (Gen 28:14) by working salvation for Jacob’s descendants. God will show “steadfast love (chesed) to Abraham” (Mic 7:20) to fulfill God’s promise to him (Gen 12:3; 15:5). God has sworn this “to our fathers from the days of old” (Mic 7:20). Thus, “we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Heb 6:19).

In conclusion, God delivers us from the power of sin by first assuring us of our complete forgiveness through the blood of Christ. Why would he do this? Because “he delights in steadfast love (chesed)” (Mic 7:18). When we behold the cross, we can praise God like Micah and say, “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression…?” (Mic 7:18)

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How Does Salvation Happen? (Jonah 2:9)

2011-09-30T00:20:00.003-05:00

“Salvation comes from the LORD.” (Jonah 2:9, NIV ‘84, '11) “Salvation belongs to the LORD!” (ESV) “Salvation is of the LORD.” (KJV)

Which is it? Did you first accept/believe Jesus and then God saved you? OR did God save you first and then you accepted/believed Jesus?

(Related post: Jonah: an Introduction.)

Not a new question. Throughout church history , Christians have explained salvation in 2 predominant ways. Those who emphasized God’s sovereign grace or divine election have been called Calvinists (after John Calvin), or Augustinians (after St. Augustine), while those who objected to this emphasis and contented for a rational doctrine of free will have been called Arminians (after James Arminias) or Wesleyans (after John Wesley). It is important to note that both perspectives are compatible with traditional orthodox Christianity. Thus, Calvinists and Arminians are friends in Christ, not angry argumentative combatants, just as George Whitfield a Calvinist was friends of John Wesley an Arminian. A “3^rd category,” which is non-Christian, is Pelagianism (after the heretical monk Pegagius who was excommunicated from the church), because they reject that man is a sinner and deny the need of grace for man’s salvation. Finneyism (after Charles Finney of the 2^nd Great Awakening) has also been regarded by some to be non-Christian because of his vagueness about salvation through justification, and his narrow and primary focus on man’s free will in determining his salvation.

Babel: Let's Do Away With God (Gen 11:1-9)

2011-09-26T08:02:00.001-05:00

"Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves" (Gen 11:4).

The onslaught of atheism against God is not a modern invention, nor a recent 20th century occurrence. It already happened ions ago when man built the tower of Babel to do away with God, and to regard God as irrelevant, redundant or non-existent. Yet there is still a need to affirmatively declare their own independent autonomy and self-rule. They indeed lay claim to a heaven without God, while the world continues to pine away amidst the constant din of ongoing and escalating unrest.

But don't we all build our own towers of Babel? Biblically, Babel reflects every man's utmost longing for significance and security. Before I became a Christian in 1980, what drove and motivated me was my intense desire to become a doctor. It was not that I really wanted to be a doctor. (All my 4 kids sensed that, and my life as a doctor did not inspire any of them to want to be a doctor!) What motivated me? It was the praise and recognition by others if I became a doctor. It was also my longing for financial security by being a doctor. So, I built my "tower of Babel" through 5 years of medical school, and after that by coming to the U.S. to solidify my status and security and significance as a doctor. Surely, all human beings are building their own "towers of Babel" in their own unique ways. For a time, they may seem triumphant. But the song that reflects the sentiment of the last century still cries out even among the affluent, "I Can't Get No Satisfaction!" Or in the ancient words of Solomon, it would be, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity." (Eccl 1:1)

In Gen 11:1-9, let's examine why God was so displeased with those who built the tower of Babel that he confused their languages? What was so wrong about building the tower of Babel?

The ESV Study Bible says, "The Babel enterprise is all about human independence and self-sufficiency apart from God. The builders believe that they have no need of God. It presents a unified humanity using all its resources to establish a city that is the antithesis of what God intended when he created the world. The tower is a symbol of human autonomy, and the city builders see themselves as determining and establishing their own destiny without any reference to the Lord." Thus, "this episode is significantly more important than its length suggests."

Previous/related posts: Sin, Faith and Salvation (Gen 6:1-14); Divine Judgment (Gen 6:5-13); Am I Really That Bad? (Gen 6:5).

Gen 10-11 is the bridge between the story of Noah (Gen 6-9) and Abraham (Gen 12ff). Gen 11:1-9 is the last picture of what the world is like prior to Abraham. The rest of Genesis will concentrate on the line of Sham, especially the line of Abraham and Sarah. Gen 11:1-9 divides easily into 2 parts:

Rebellion: What Man Does in Rebellion (Gen 11:1-4).

4 expressions
2 sins
Root sin
Quest for a name without God

Response: What God Does to Fulfill His Will (Gen 11:5-9).

I. Rebellion (Gen 11:1-4): 4 Expressions of Rebellion: What was the motivation for building Babel? They expressed 4 things quite explicitly in Gen 11:4:

To build a city.
To build a tower that reaches to the heavens.
To make a name for themselves.
To not be scattered over the face of the whole earth. This is contrary to God's plan that people fill the earth (Gen 1:22,28; 9:1,7).

2 Underlying Sins. The 1st 2 correspond to the 2nd 2: #1 is related to #4; #2 is related to #3. To build a city (#1) is to avoid being scattered over the whole earth (#4); to build a tower to the heavens (#2) is to make a name for themselves (#3). The city and the tower (#1 & #2) are outward expressions of 2 inward sins:

The love of praise (make a name for yourself; exalt or glorify self).
The love of security (build a city and not risk going out to fill the earth).

The root of sin. God's will for man is that He made man in God's image (Gen 1:26-27) not to find joy in being praised, but to find joy in knowing, praising and glorifying God (Jn 17:3; 1 Cor 10:31). God's will is also not that we find security in cities, but in God whom we love, trust and obey (Prov 3:5-6; John 14:1,15,21). Thus, they were determined not to build the "City of God" that glorifies God, but the "city of Man" that exalts the achievements of man. Even the severe judgment and warning against sin by the Flood did not change man's heart (Gen 6:5, 8:21). His heart was like it was with Adam and Eve: We decide for ourselves what is best. By default we do away with God. This is the story of all mankind to this very day apart from the redeeming grace of God.

Our name is our identity. In the Bible, to get a name is to have our identify. When God names a person, He refers to what He has already done or what He is going to do in their lives. In God, through his undeserved grace, we find our security, priority, sense of worth and uniqueness, which is based on what God has done for us and in us. If we do not have a "name" we cannot but live in vague insecurity, as a restless wanderer (Gen 4:12,14) still in search of who we are. Thus the people of Babel sought their identity ("name") in 2 ways:

in the greatness of their personal accomplishment. They wanted to build "a tower that reaches to the heavens" (Gen 11:4). They are assigning value to their work and attaching significance in their accomplishment. It is their subconscious attempt to "save themselves" through their work and trying to "get to heaven" without God. They are boldly declaring, "I don't need God to face the world with confidence and joy. Look at the skyscraper I've built!"
in the size and power of their group. Their sense of power is derived from the size and wealth of their city and of their people. In #1 they make an idol out of their accomplishments. Here they make an idol out of their group. They feel they have a name if their group is great and powerful. This leads too various forms of imperialism, colonialism, racism, intellectualism, etc. We look at the world and we can sense how much one group despises another group, regardless of whether the groups are religious or irreligious.

II. Response (Gen 11:5-9)

God knows them (Gen 11:5).
God laments at them (Gen 11:6).
God confuses them (Gen 11:7).
God scatters them (Gen 11:8).

The narrative shows the utter folly of man in rebelling against God's ordinances. "Babel" (Gen 11:9) in Hebrew occurs over 200 times in the OT and is translated Babylon in all but a few. Babylon perhaps might strike us today as something ancient. But in Moses' day and in OT times, Babylon was the city of cities, the ultimate city, a symbol of power, wealth and pleasure, like London, Paris, Tokyo, New York, etc. Yet this great city which was the epitome of man in all his ability and sophistication, was easily humbled and decimated by the slightest action of God, without God even “breaking a sweat,” so to speak. Today, Babylon is no more. Similarly, all the Babylons of the world, through presently impressive, will one day come to naught (Rev 18:1-10).

Finally: Babel can also represent man's attempt to reach God and find "salvation," which is the way of all religions in the world. We are rewarded according to our effort. But the Gospel is God's initiative to reach and save man only by His grace alone through His Son's death and resurrection. When we live religiously, we never quite know how much is enough. We cannot but be nervous and uncertain. When we think we do well, we are confident. But when we think we do poorly, we are humble. But only the Gospel of Grace that is not depended on our performance frees us to receive his grace and live a life of thanksgiving and joy.

References:
"Babel." Ligon Duncan
"City of Man; City of God." Tim Keller, What Were We Put in the World To Do?, 81-90.
"Gen 11:1-9." A sermon by Scott Lindsay
ESV Study Bible, 2008.
"The Pride of Babel and the Praise of Christ." John Piper, Spectacular Sins, 65-73.

John Piper shares 5 ways how even the blatant rebellion of Babel magnifies the glory of Christ:

Christians guarded. (We humans are far too evil to be allowed to unite in 1 language or 1 government.)
Pride destroyed (2 Thess 2:8).
Every group claimed (Mt 28:18-19).
The gospel glorified (from every language) (Rom 1:16).
Jesus praised (from all the different languages).

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A Woman's Beauty (1 Peter 3:1-6)

2011-09-22T23:30:00.001-05:00

"Your beauty ... should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit..." (1 Peter 3:3-4).

"What a beautiful woman she is! She is the kind of woman any man would want to marry!" This was my immediate thought when I heard the story on the radio years ago of how James Dobson (of Focus on the Family) came to marry his wife Shirley.

Before marriage, Dobson and Shirley, both Christians, were dating in college with the understanding that they would marry in the future. But when Dobson had to serve in the National Guard he proposed to Shirley that they keep their options open when he was away on duty, and that they could each date other Christians if they wanted to. Because Shirley was in love with him, this shocked her. But she did not express it or react to his "hurtful" proposal. On their last date before he left, he wanted to kiss her good night as he usually does at the door of her house. But she politely refused. Rather abruptly, she went home and closed the door. This surprised Dobson. What he did not know was that after she closed the door she cried all night. But she did not reveal any of this to Dobson. Then when Dobson was away on duty, he did not date others. Instead, he kept writing her over and over, while she was quite lukewarm in her response to him. As a result, Dobson kept pursuing her until they married. Isn't Shirley the kind of woman with the poise, mystery and beauty that any man would want to marry?

Probably, it is somewhat awkward for a man to address the topic of a woman's beauty. A safe statement may be that every woman wants to be beautiful. Also, every man wants to see or to be with and to marry a woman who is beautiful. But our perspective regarding beauty has been affected by our sin. As a result, many a man inclines toward sexual sentiments in his reflections about a woman's beauty, while many a woman obliges a man to pursue them by their subtle and not so subtle behavior and attire or non-attire.

1 Peter 3:1-6 is addressing a Christian wife who is presumably married to a non-Christian (or to an immature husband). Briefly, the woman described here is not that of a pathetic, mousy, spineless, mindless woman. Rather, she is a joyfully obedient woman (not stupid!), a fearless woman whose hope is in God (not man), and who accomplishes great things through quiet, patient, obedient living. She is indeed a happy woman (Prov 31:25), and not a slave to her weak husband, as Leah was to her husband Jacob (Gen 29:32-34). Thus, the principles Peter addresses applies to all marriages, not just one with an unbelieving or immature husband. What does 1 Peter 3:1-6 teach us about a happy, mysterious and beautiful woman?

1. She is submissive to her husband (1 Pet 3:1a). This does not mean and has never meant that she is inferior to him (Gen 1:27). She is his "helper" (Gen 2:18-22). The word "helper" has been demeaned to mean nothing more than a domestic servant. But the Hebrew word "ezer" is a combination of 2 roots, meaning "to rescue, to save" and "strength." Ezer is used 21 times in the OT, twice referring to Eve (Gen 2:18,20), 3 times to nations providing military assistance to Israel, and 16 times in reference to God as a helper. Thus, a weak wimpy woman will have no strength, no power and no wisdom to help her husband be the man that he should be.

2. She wants to win her husband to Christ (1 Pet 3:1b). Even though he may not want to be won over, she is out to melt this cold, cruel man into a tender kind disciple of Jesus. Her heart's utmost desire is not to win him over to her, but to Christ. But if she wins him to Christ, she also wins him to her, for he will love her more.

3. She witnesses to him not through words (certainly not through nagging), but in a much harder way, by her life and her example (1 Pet 3:1c).

4. She is pure and reverent (1 Pet 3:2). She knows more about fixing her spirit, than about fixing her face. Instead of looking at herself in a mirror, she looks at herself through the lens and figurative mirror of Scripture.

5. Her beauty comes from inner gentleness and quietness (1 Pet 3:3-4). She does not win her husband just by looking beautiful. She amazes her husband not by physical seduction, but by her purity and reverence that displays the love, quietness, meekness, gentleness and humility of Christ (Mt 11:29).

6. She puts her hope in God (1 Pet 3:5). Her submission/obedience to her husband is like the obedience of the church to Christ, or the obedience of Christ himself to the heavenly Father, an obedience which engages all her gifts, her creativity, her thought. When we put our hope in man, our emotions go up or down depending on the man. We become like a yo-yo, being controlled by some man. But hope in God is steadfast and unfailing.

7. She does not live in fear (1 Pet 3:6). She is a person of great strength, a calm in the storm. When we live in fear, or when we fear a man, we are insulting God. When we fear God, we have poise, knowledge and wisdom (Prov 1:7, 9:10). Moreover, when we fear God, we fear nothing and no one (Prov 29:25). How glorious and victorious it is to live without fear. How painful it is to live in fear and anxiety.

Conclusion: Man's irresistible affinity for beauty. That God created man and woman in God's image (Gen 1:27) means that our heart craves for what is most beautiful, for God is the Ultimate Beauty. But sin severed our view of the beauty of God. Thus, we seek endlessly all our days for alternate sources of beauty--our counterfeit gods and our idols of choice. Our craving for counterfeit beauty invariably disappoints and disillusions. Our hearts need redemption to be able once again to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord (Ps 27:4), and to see the king in his beauty (Isa 33:17). How?

Jesus is the most beautiful one. But in his incarnation, he had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him (Isa 53:2). On the cross he was disfigured and marred beyond recognition (Isa 52:14). On account of our sins, Jesus lost all of his beauty. Why? So that we can be made beautiful once again.

Reference:
ESV Study Bible, 2008.
Marriage As Unjust Suffering (1 Peter 3:1-7), John Frame.
Hebrew word "ezer" explained.

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Jesus' Resume (Heb 1:1-3)

2011-09-22T19:45:00.001-05:00

Karl Barth (Swiss Reformed theologian, 1886-1968) was asked if God had revealed himself in many religions besides Christianity. His answer: "No. God has not revealed himself in any religion, including Christianity. He has spoken in his Son, Jesus Christ." The beginning of Hebrews tells us Jesus' short resume.

Hebrews is about persevering in the faith (Heb 13:22). It was written to (Jewish) Christians (in Rome) who were struggling in the faith (Heb 10:38-39). It was for drift prevention--for they were tempted to wonder away. Since Rome detested all things Christian, they endured suffering, ridicule, imprisonment, the confiscation of their possessions, and, under Nero, the possibility of being fed to the lions in the Coliseum (Heb 2:14-18). Should they give up being Christians? To the author of Hebrews, rather than forsake Jesus, they should be willing to surrender everything to have him. Why? It is because of who Jesus is. He is:

Creator
Sustainer
Heir
Son
Priest

Jesus is the Creator God. "...he made the universe" (Heb 1:2). Since Jesus is the creator, he existed from eternity (John 1:1-3). See Col 1:16, 1 Cor 8:6.
Jesus sustains "all things by his powerful word" (Heb 1:3). See Col 1:17. If God did not continue to sustain the world each and every moment, the world would lapse into non-existence. God executes his providential purpose simply: by the sheer power of his word. Without stress, burden, sleepless nights, 2nd guessing, ulcers, effort whatsoever.
Jesus is heir "of all things" (Heb 1:2). Sons inherit everything. Everything that has ever been created has been created for the Son of God (Ps 2:8). Nothing will escape his heirship--not 1 rebellious angel, not 1 rebellious human, not 1 rebellious atom. But as God's adopted sons through Jesus, we too are heirs (Rom 8:14-17; Gal 4:6,7; Heb 1:14). Jesus is the cosmic Lord.
Jesus is the Son. "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being" (Heb 1:3). The glory of deity is not so much to be explained as it is to be adored. This visible glory was seen by Moses in the burning bush (Exo 3:1-6); it appeared at the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai; it came upon the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and later in the temple in Jerusalem. But its primary location was a place within the temple called "the Holy of Holies." It contained the ark of the covenant. On top of the ark rested the mercy seat. On both sides was positioned mighty cherubim--angels uniquely associated with the very presence of God. Above the mercy seat, between the cherubim was the visible manifestation of the glory of God. It was the most holy place on this planet. Because of idolatry God's glory abandoned the temple. But God came as the incarnate Son, revealing his glory (John 1:14), and became the temple (John 2:19,21), the dwelling of God with humanity. The glory has returned and its locus is in Jesus Christ: he "is the radiance of God's glory."
Jesus is the Priest. Jesus is the priestly king; he "provided purification for sins" (Heb 1:3). Sin does many devastating things to us. Among the most graphic is that sin defiles us. It stains us. In the holy and pure eyes of God (Hab 1:13), sin makes us filthier than a soiled menstrual cloth (Isa 64:6). We need purification. How? In Leviticus, dirty people are made clean by means of priests offering sacrifices. One day a year, the high priest enters the Holy of Holies and sprinkles blood on the mercy seat. But the priests' work never ended. Regarding the furniture in the temple (Exo 25,37; 1 Kings 7:15-50), there is no provision of a place to sit. No chair. No bench. No stool. Why? Because the priests' work of making purification was never done. This foreshadows the coming of the Son, who said with his sacrifice on the cross, "It is finished" (John 19:30). Then Jesus "sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven" (Heb 1:3). For the first time in the entire history of redemption, a priest sat down, because finally purification had been achieved (Tit 2:14; Rev 1:5).

References: "The Greatness of God's Ultimate Word" by Arturo G. Azurdia III, a sermon in Heralds of the King, 2009, 203-219.
"Jesus, the Great Revelation of God" (Heb 1:1-3), Ligon Duncan.

From a previous post on Heb 1:1-4 (Jesus, God's Final Word) Jesus is:

The Creator. "He created the world." (John 1:3, 10; Col 1:16)
The Heir. "(God) appointed the heir of all things." As God's adopted sons through Jesus, we too are heirs (Rom 8:14-17; Gal 4:6,7; Heb 1:14).
The Glory of God. "He is the radiance of the glory of God." (2 Cor 4:4-6)
Upholder. "He upholds the universe by the word of his power." (cf. Col 1:17)
Mediator. "(He provided) purification of sins." (Tit 2:14; Rev 1:5)
Inheritor of an exalted/excellent/superior name. "The name he has inherited is more excellent."

How did God speak to us in the past (Heb 1:1)? In these last days (Heb 1:2)?
What does Jesus' resume mean when the author describes him as (Heb 1:2-4):

Son (John 1:18, 10:36)
Heir (Rom 8:14-17; Gal 4:6-7; Heb 1:14)
Creator (John 1:1-3,10; Col 1:16; 1 Cor 8:6)
God's glory, the radiance of (John 1:14, 2:19,21)
God's being, the exact representation of (John 14:7,9)
Sustainer (Col 1:17)
Providing purification for sins (Tit 2:14; Rev 1:5)

What does sin do to us (Eph 2:1-3)? How does God see sin (Hab 1:13)? Why do priests in the temple not sit down (Ex 25,37; 1 Kings 7:15-50). Why did Jesus sit down (Heb 1:3; John 19:30)?

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The "Joy" of Death (Gen 25:1-11)

2011-09-21T20:47:00.001-05:00

"...he died at a ripe old age, having lived a long and satisfying life" (Gen 25:8, NLT).

Previous passage: The Lord Will Provide (Gen 22:1-14).
Contrasting passage: Lot's End is God's Judgment (Gen 19:1-38)

Death is gut wrenching and crippling to countless billions, to put it mildly. One of my most vivid memories is that of a successful Chicago lawyer in his mid to late 30s. He was a brilliant confident self-made man. He built up his law firm from the ground up, has dozens of lawyers working for him, lives in a 5 million dollar house (25 years ago), has countless luxury cars, and a stunning wife. I met him as a trainee oncologist. He came to see my mentor oncologist with complaints of mild difficulty in swallowing for 3 weeks. He just had a biopsy taken from his throat and came to the oncology office to discuss the findings. He was jovial as he entered the office with his gorgeous wife. He said jokingly, "Doc, am I gonna live?" But the mood soon changed. After some elaborate explanation by the oncologist, it gradually dawned on him what his biopsy report meant when his diagnosis read "small cell carcinoma of the esophagus." The moment arrived when he suddenly realized that he had inoperable terminal cancer and had about 4 months to live.

His response was worthy of an academy award performance, except that it was reality. In literally a split second, his face turned ashen white. The look of horror on his face was visibly palpable. His whole body went limp and he spontaneously slumped over onto his wife's lap, for she was sitting next to him. Then for half an hour he sobbed uncontrollably, in silent morose sobs and with spasms of unashamed loud wailing, as his wife gently and tenderly caressed his hair. Finally, he left the oncology office with the posture of one who has been mortally wounded.

This is a dramatic response of one who was facing his own mortality. Let us contrast this with the death of our father of faith, Abraham. Gen 25:1-11 has 3 sections:

God Kept His Promise (1-4): Abraham’s new wife.
God Showed His Grace (5-6): Abraham’s provision for Isaac.
God's Friendship Made All the Difference (7-11): The death and burial of Abraham.

I. God Kept His Promise (Gen 25:1-4): Abraham's New Wife

Abraham took another wife Keturah (Gen 25:1), who bore him children (Gen 25:2), who then bore him even more descendents for many generations (Gen 25:3-4). This shows that God is faithful to keep His promise to make Abraham a father of many nations (Gen 17:5-6; 15:5,18-21). Midian (Gen 25:1,4), one of Keturah's sons was the father of the Midianites, Israel's half-brothers. They would play a role in Israel's future. Moses' father-in-law, Jethro was a priest of Midian (Ex 2:16). God kept his promise to Abraham to the very end of his days. Like Abraham, we are called to trust God (Prov 3:5) and His promises. We never outgrow our need to trust God. God keeps his promises to us as long as we have breath.

II. God Showed His Grace (Gen 25:5-6): Abraham's Provision for Isaac

"Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac" (Gen 25:5). Abraham secures the unique place that Isaac is going to have in the plan of God. From Isaac, who received everything from his father, we learn that grace affords us benefits that we have not earned and do not deserve. The covenant of grace affords us unearned favors. Isaac did nothing to deserve this. God had chosen him even before he was born (Gen 17:19). Then to the sons of his concubines, he gave them gifts and sent them away from Isaac (Gen 25:6), to keep them from battling over the land that was given to Isaac.

Why did Abraham leave everything to Isaac? It was God's revelation (Gen 17:19). Though Abraham struggled for God's blessing to fall on Ishmael (Gen 17:18), God choose Isaac instead. Such inequality in the treatment of our children would be the surest way to spoil or hurt our children. But this was not the reason behind Abraham's "bias." He did not do so out of favoritism or his own personal preference, but because of God's revelation to him.

This part teaches us the doctrine of unconditional election and free grace (Eph 1:4; 2 Tim 1:9). God choose Isaac before he was born (Rom 9:6-16). God choose Jacob not because he was better than his older brother Esau. God does not choose his servants because of something in them or in us. God's election is never based on our merit or our works (Eph 2:8-9), but on the love of God in Christ. God always bestows his blessings based on the unearned favor of God. No one earns it. No one merits it. It is given by the free grace of God.

III. God's Friendship Made All the Difference (Gen 25:7-11): The Death and Burial of Abraham

How did Abraham die? "Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years. Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him..." (Gen 25:7-9). There is a richness and a fullness in the description of Abraham's death. The NLT says, "having lived a long and satisfying life." In sharp contrast to Abraham's full and satisfying life when he died (Gen 25:8) is Lot's tragic last description in the Bible (Gen 19:27-38). What do we learn here? 2 things:

Lot's unfavorable end, despite being a righteous man (2 Pet 2:7-8). He died lonely, isolated and a drunk, with his 2 daughters having sex with him. Why? He lived in fear (Gen 19:30), rather than by faith (Rom 14:23; Heb 11:6).
Abraham's full and satisfying life. The most important lesson is that friendship with God makes all the difference in the world.

John Calvin says, “The chief part of a good old age consists in a good conscience and a serene and tranquil mind.” Calvin also says, “We see how many in our own day are in bondage to the desire of life; yet nearly the whole world languishes between on the one hand, a weariness of the present life, and, on the other hand, an inexplicable desire for it to continuance. The contentment with life, therefore, which will cause us to be ready to leave live, is a favor from God.” In other words, it is God who gives us contentment that enables us simultaneously to enjoy life, but also to be ready to leave it when God calls. God had given that blessing to Abraham.

Sadly, people of various ages, whatever their status in life, show such an ingratitude for their lot in life. They become cynical, jaded and bitter as they age. In contrast, Abraham’s love for God and his fellowship with him, had made his life singularly full.

During a tornado in Oklahoma City, a man and his wife had their 3 week old son snatched from their arms, carried a mile away, and killed. When reporters asked him about this, he said, "I just want to thank God that He allowed me to be a father for 3 weeks." That is the difference between one with the fullness of life and one who doesn't have it.

In fullness of years and life, Abraham "was gathered to his people" (Gen 25:8). There is a sense of the continued existence of those who believe in the Lord after death. Matthew Henry says, “Death gathers us to our people. Those that are our people while we live, whether they are the people of God or the children of this world, are the people to whom death will gather us.” Will we be gathered to the children of promise, or will be gathered to the children of this world? It depends upon with whom we find our ultimate fellowship in this life.

At the funeral of Abraham his 2 sons Isaac and Ishmael were temporarily united (Gen 25:9), as they shared the responsibility of their dad's funeral. Jacob and Esau would also be reunited in a similar fashion at the death of Isaac (Gen 35:29). After the funeral, God Himself confirms the covenant blessings on Isaac (Gen 25:11). So the blessing of Abraham did not die with him. God continued to favor all the children of promise.

The fullness of Abraham’s life was because of his friendship with God. The things that made Abraham’s life rich was not his possessions, it wasn’t the great age which God had granted him, but rather it was his relationship with God. 3 times in the Scripture, Abraham is explicitly called the friend of God (II Chron 20:7; Isa 41:8; Jas 2:23). The fullness of his life was based upon that redemptive friendship he had with the living God.

God through his Son has chosen to call us friends (John 15:15). He longs for us to be an eternal, saving, redemptive friendship with Him. May God make that a reality in all of our lives that we should be called the friends of God.

Reference: ESV Study Bible, 2008.

Genesis 25:1-11 "The Death of Abraham," Ligon Duncan.

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Why Do We Need Elders (1 Tim 3:1-7)

2011-09-21T03:48:00.001-05:00

"Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task" (1 Tim 3:1).

Related post: What Kind of Elders Do We Need? (1 Tim 3:1-7)

In 1 Timothy, Paul is laying down for Timothy--a young evangelist, minister, church planter--a permanent pattern for ministry in the church. 1 Tim 3:1-16 focuses on officers in the church. Why do we need elders (1 Tim 3:1-7)? 3 answers:

Paul required that elders be appointed in every church (Tit 1:5).
Jesus gave elders as gifts to the church. We must need them, because Jesus doesn’t give unneeded gifts.
Elders are given to the church for the purpose of discipleship and spiritual oversight.

I. Paul Directed that Elders (pleural) be Appointed in Every Church that was Planted

"The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you" (Tit 1:5). In Acts, 1 Peter, James, Timothy, Titus, Hebrews, we have a body of elders (pleural). "Obey your leaders" (Heb 13:7). "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church" (Jas 5:14). "To the elders among you..." (1 Pet 5:1). Also Acts 20:28. Over and over in the NT we find everywhere there is a settled church, there is a body of elders which has been given spiritual oversight.

II. We Need Elders because Jesus Gave Them to the Church

After Jesus ascended on high, "Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers" (Eph 4:11) This can be translated as "pastor teachers." In this passage it is clear that Jesus has given officers to the church, and among those officers that He has given are pastors and teachers. Paul also calls elders shepherds and pastors. An elder is a pastor. As elder is an overseer.

Why do we need elders? "...to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:12-13). Elders are given, and necessary, for our spiritual edification. Jesus gave elders to the church:

to equip Christians for works of service, for the work God made us to do. We need elders to equip us.
to build up of the body of Christ.

How do elders build up the body of Christ? "...until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature" (Eph 4:13). Elders are there to foster the unity of the fellowship, to build us up to be mature in the faith, to help us grow in grace, to disciple us into spiritual maturity, etc. That’s why we need elders. Paul says to the Ephesian elders, "Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God" (Acts 20:28).

What Kind of Elders Do We Need? (1 Tim 3:1-7) Paul tells us 6 things:

Elders who want the work, not just the status of being an elder.
Elders who are godly men, for holiness is God's qualification for an elder.
Elders who are able to teach--to be able to convey God's truth to disciples.
Elders with godly homes and families.
Elders who are spiritually mature.
Elders whose moral reputation is good with local non-Christians

Reference: Why We Need Elders and Why Kind of Elders We Need Sermon by Dr. J. Ligon Duncan, 2002.

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Moses Himself Needs a Humble Savior (Numbers 12:1-16)

2011-09-20T18:49:00.001-05:00

Our Daily Bread passage on Mon, Sep 19, 2011 was "Moses' Humbleness" (Num 12:1-16). Later that day, someone asked me, "Teach us about Moses' humbleness." These are my reflections.

My Initial Thoughts: Without the gospel of grace, at best we Christians will act humanly humble, usually by being soft spoken or silent. Though Moses was "humble," 8 chapters later he was proud, impatient and filled with anger, when he struck a rock twice in defiance of God's instructions to him (Num 20:8-11). This caused him to forfeit his life dream of entering the promised land (Num 20:12). Moses the humble man, needed a humbler Man. Moses, the mediator of Israel, needed a Mediator himself. Moses who delivered his people needed a Deliverer himself. Moses who saved his people needed a Savior himself. Only the gospel of Christ being butchered for me produces true sweet humility. This narrative is ultimately not about Moses' humility, since Jesus said that Moses wrote about Jesus (John 5:39, 46).

My Questions. I asked myself a few questions: What is the main biblical teaching of Num 12:1-16? Is it to be humble like Moses, who allowed God to deal with his dissenters? Is it to never complain against God's appointed leader, or else face very harsh and severe consequences? Absolutely and surely without question, as God fearing and God honoring Christians, we should always seriously heed the obvious answer to both questions with fear and trembling in our own frail and proud hearts. But do such teachings help us to see Jesus and to understand the gospel? My above thoughts suggests, "No." Outside of the gospel, no one can be truly humble. Also, outside of the gospel no one can overcome his or her own pride and jealousy. These are my burning thoughts as I looked into Num 12:1-16.

My key verse is Num 12:11: "I ask you not to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed." A title could be "Complaining in the Camp/Church."

A Painful Reality. A sad and painful reality in Christian ministry is when dissension arises within a church family or community, even among good, godly, God fearing, God honoring Christians. This was apparently what happened in Numbers 12. It is similar to the 2 prior incidents of grumbling in Num 11:1,4-6,10, except that this 3rd time it occurred in the highest ranks of Israel's leadership. Moses was a great leader. Aaron was the chief priest and Moses' older brother. Miriam was a prophetess (Ex 15:20) and Moses' older sister. Both Aaron and Miriam were greatly honored servants of God in Israel in their own right, and whom God had also used mightily. Was there jealousy over Moses their younger brother playing the lead role in Israel? Perhaps so. Regardless, it displeased and angered God, because Moses was God's appointed servant and mediator. Though God had used Aaron and Miriam greatly, yet there was folly and sin in them. 2 observations:

1. God violated the traditional and expected iron law of primogeniture. Primogeniture is a hard and unfamiliar word. It means that the chain of command in any family begins with the oldest son, for the oldest son always receives the largest share of the family inheritance--ALWAYS. But God does not follow "human rules and tradition." God's calling and election is ALWAYS by grace alone, and never based on a person's status or standing. As a result, God often breaks this "iron law" and expected tradition of man. For instance:

God chose Abel the younger instead of Cain the older.
God chose Isaac the younger instead of Ishmael the older.
God chose Jacob the younger instead of Esau the older.
God bypassed the older 10 sons and chose Joseph the 11th of Jacob's sons.
God chose Ephraim the younger son of Joseph instead of Manasseh the older son.
God chose David, the youngest of the 8 sons of Jesse.
God chose Moses, the youngest one in his family.

2. Dissension arose within the senior leadership and God dealt with it (Num 12:1-10). This shows that even among the most gifted and God-appointed/anointed leaders sin can creep in and cause serious dissension. Little sins can cause tremendous ruptures in the life of God's people. Most of all this passage points us to man's utmost dire need for a Mediator, just as Moses was a mediator of the Lord for Israel, and also for Aaron and Miriam. This passage can be divided into 4 parts: Rebellion, Mediator, Judgment, Intercession.

Rebellion: Rebellion Against Moses by His Own Family (1-3).
Mediator: A Mediator is Necessary to Stand Between God and men (4-8).
Judgment: God's Judgment Against Those Who Reject His Mediator (9-12).
Intercession: The Mediator as Intercessor for Sinners (13-16).

I. Rebellion Against Moses by His Own Family (Num 12:1-3)

The complaint against the mediator Moses' wife (perhaps for racial reasons) masked their real complaint against Moses' leadership and unique position and authority (Num 12:1-2). God, who searches all hearts, "heard this" (Num 12:2b), for this was a complaint against God who had appointed Moses. Their complaint against Moses was not unlike the complaint against Jesus in his own hometown and by his own family.

Moses' humility was like that of Jesus who did not speak up or retaliate when falsely accused (Num 12:3; 1 Pet 2:23; Isa 53:7). Moses humility is commendable. Jesus' humility is ultimate.

II. A Mediator is Necessary to Stand Between God and Men (Num 12:4-8)

Because of the challenge against the mediator Moses, God becomes the advocate for the mediator. God summoned all 3 of them to the tent of meeting, where "the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud" and "summoned Aaron and Miriam" to step forward (Num 12:4-5). Then in the 11-line poem in Num 12:6-8, God describes Moses' unique mediating role (Ex 33:11, 18-23). To vindicate the mediator, God shows us the uniqueness, the necessity, and the indispensability of the mediator. To God, any challenge to his appointed mediator will ultimately result in our own destruction, because the mediator has been provided by God for our good, and without him we are undone. To Christians, it is a foreshadowing of Christ, the prophet greater than Moses (Deut 18:15; Acts 3:22, 7:37).

III. God's Judgment Against Those who Reject His Mediator (Num 12:9-12)

In anger, God departs and Miriam becomes leprous (Num 12:9-10). Aaron pleaded with Moses, "Please, my lord, I ask you not to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed." This plea is a picture of the doctrine/teaching of the non-imputation of our sin to us through God's imputation of our sin to His Mediator. This doctrine underlies the great gospel doctrine of justification by faith alone, where God freely justifies us by grace, which we receive through faith, not because of our own righteousness, but because of the righteousness of Christ imputed (reckoned, counted, credited) to us, while our sins are credited to him (2 Cor 5:21). Here God is demonstrating the necessity of a mediator.

IV. The Mediator as Intercessor for Sinners (Num 12:13-16)

Here Moses the mediator intercedes for those who sinned against him. It is like Jesus' prayer of intercession on the cross on our behalf in Luke 23:34. When we sin and our heart is weighed down by our guilt, our only place of true rest is to come to Jesus (Mt 11:29). Like Moses, Jesus did not defend Himself against His accuser. But Jesus is the greater Moses (Heb 3:1-6).

Final Thoughts. Though Moses was a humble man (Heb 12:3), he too needed a humble Savior and Mediator himself. Though Aaron and Miriam sinned against Moses, their sin was primarily and ultimately against God (Ps 51:4), from whom they needed forgiveness. Moses the human mediator and leader could not heal or forgive them. Only God can (Num 12:13-15; Lk 23:34)

References: ESV Study Bible, 2008
Numbers 12:1-16 “Murmuring In the House.” Sermon by Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III July 18, 2007.

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Laziness is Incompatible with Being a Christian (Phil 2:12-13)

2011-09-19T19:07:00.001-05:00

"I'm not lazy. I'm just tired." This was a catchphrase I used when I preached a sermon on Cain about the secrecy of sin, that sin always starts very, very, very small, since sin in its beginnings is "crouching" (Gen 4:7) almost out of even our own view or awareness.

Misunderstanding Grace: There is a prevalent idea today that if grace is taught and proclaimed in the church, Christians will think that since they are saved by grace (that has nothing to do with them), then they do not have to do anything. But there is no such suggestion or teaching through out the NT (Heb 13:20-21; 1 Pet 4:11). Paul in particular never had such an idea that "grace" = "I don't have to do anything" in his thought or in any of his writings. In fact, Paul communicates the very opposite thought--that grace ALWAYS results in work (Eph 2:8-10; Rom 6:17; 2 Thess 1:11-12; Gal 5:22-23). Also, because of grace, Paul himself was constantly compelled and motivated to work even harder (1 Cor 15:10), with far greater joy, hope and intensity.

The Pervasiveness of Grace: Grace is a free gift of God. "The gospel of the grace of God" is what Paul gave his life proclaiming (Acts 20:24, ESV). Grace is "synonymous" with "the gospel" and with "God." It is a theme in all of Paul's 13 epistles. He begins and ends each epistle with the greeting of grace. He is not ashamed of grace (Rom 1:16). Grace is what compelled him to work harder than anyone else (1 Cor 15:10). He never tires of proclaiming grace (1 Cor 9:24-27; 2 Cor 11:23-29). Because of his proclamation of grace, he was misunderstood and hated, even by his own countrymen, and finally he was beheaded and martyred by Nero. Yet he was not defeated, but victorious (2 Tim 4:7-8). Most of all, he gave all the glory to God (1 Cor 10:31).

The Results of Grace: In Phil 1:12-13, Paul spells out the result of the grace of Jesus, which is our sanctification. Briefly, justification is God accepting us, while sanctification is God changing us all the days of our life. Justification requires nothing of us. But sanctification requires that we work and cooperate with what God is doing in us. Paul gives 4 exhortations for our sanctification to those who know the grace of Jesus:

Continue to obey (Phil 2:12a). Obedience is natural and vital to the Christian life.
Work out your salvation (Phil 2:12b). Grace causes us to be active in the Christian life, No one grows in grace or is sanctified passively.
Obey and work with reverence and awe (Phil 2:12c). Grace causes us to be humble and God-fearing.
Obey and work because God is at work in us (Phil 2:13). God works in us for our growth in godliness, therefore we pursue holiness. There is no greater encouragement than the realization that the Holy God is working in me.

In the NT, grace which never depends on what I do NEVER means "I do not have to do anything." Instead, it means the very opposite. Therefore, laziness is incompatible with being a Christian.

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Marriage as Unjust Suffering (1 Peter 3:1-7)

2011-09-18T21:57:00.001-05:00

What kind of title is that? I suspect that many would not like this title. They might even be a little upset by the title. I was personally surprised to see such a title. So I was quite curious to see how John Frame (born 1939, renowned American philosopher, presuppositionalist, Calvinist theologian) would "justify" or explain such a title, since he is a godly married Christian man. (He married rather late in 1984 at age 45, which perhaps might explain why he came up with such a title in the days when he was still a bachelor!).

Christian marriage portrayed as too rosy? Before I read his sermon, I did think about several things regarding the way we older Christians portray Christian marriages which might actually be a disservice to our young Christian couples when they marry:

Sometimes Christian marriages and Christian families do not turn out as flowery and sweet, or as blessed and happy, as our Christian marriage sermons might make them out to be. There are several great Christians in history who were, sorry to say, horrible husbands: John Wesley, William Carey, AW Tozer. Sorry, if I burst the bubble of some.
Also, we older Christian couples tend to not share the "bad stuff" in our own marriages, but only the "good stuff." Worse yet, we imply that there is "mainly bliss" in our marriages, which may be true. Yet, such a tendency gives young Christian couples an unhealthy unrealistic expectation of their own marriage. As a result, they would have a tough time when they face issues and problems, since "the marriages of our older couples are so much happier than ours."
I need to state that my position is that I am pro-marriage in Christ, and those who know me know that I am VERY pro-marriage. So, if a Christian marriage goes south, or if the marriage is not happy, it bothers me. It doesn't surprise me. But it does bother me, because God is not glorified when a Christian marriage is unhappy, or when children of Christian parents are unhappy with their parents.
Sorry, kids, for the times I made your mom cry, primarily because of my roughness, insensitivity, self-centeredness, pride, and lack of compassion. What Frame says in his sermon touched my heart:
"A wife in her frail body is a glorious child of God. For her Christian husband to be unkind to her, to treat her wrongly is to fail to honor the great work of God's grace in her. Dishonor God's image in your wife and you dishonor God himself."

How does Frame justify/explain his title of "Marriage as Unjust Suffering"? This is how he does it exegetically from 1 Peter:

A major theme of 1 Peter is the suffering of Christians. Peter wrote to Christians who were enduring various kinds of suffering (1 Pet 1:6). Some were persecuted for the sake of Christ (1 Pet 4:14), while others were suffering due to their own fault (1 Pet 2:20, 4:15). Our natural tendency would be to complain and blame God and others. But when we suffer, justly or unjustly, we Christians should look to the innocent One (1 Pet 1:19, 2:21-22) who endured the most wrongful, unjust suffering ever, and yet he did not retaliate (1 Pet 2:23). In this way, he saved us from all our vile sins against God (1 Pet 2:24; Ps 51:4).
Peter talks about suffering in different situations, such as under governments that give Christians a difficult time. Yet we should be good citizens, we should not break the Law, and we should submit to the governing authorities (1 Pet 2:13).
Next, Peter addresses suffering in the master/slave relationship (1 Pet 2:18-25), since more Christians were slaves than masters, and often their masters were wicked and cruel. Yet, they must be willing to suffer wrongfully, for that is the way of Christ.
What is the next suffering in Peter's next application? Look at the text. It is marriage! Marriage as persecution! Marriage as wrongful suffering! So, yes, there is a downside of marriage. So sorry to the starry eyed single Christians who are waiting for their very own knight in shining armor, or their very own Miss Christian Universe!

OK, I was being sarcastic there. But truly, marriage is not all fun and games, and not all romance and exhilaration. Why? It's simply because we are still selfish sinners, who need daily sanctification through the grace of God. But yes, there is an upside of marriage as well, which is surely nothing but the grace of Jesus. Hopefully, I may expound on the upside of marriage soon...

Reference: Marriage AsUnjust Suffering (1 Peter 3:1-7), John Frame.

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The 2 Preaching Key Verses of John Piper (1 Pet 4:11; 2 Cor 3:18)

2011-09-17T19:24:00.001-05:00

Over the last few years, I began to read books and sermons and attend conferences where John Piper preached and taught. Over time I heard and read Piper share 2 Bible verses he regards as guides to his preaching and Bible teaching over the last 30+ years. They are 1 Peter 4:11 and 2 Corinthians 3:18.

1 Peter 4:11 says, "If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen." (NIV, 2011) 2 questions are:

"How do you speak the very words of God when you are using your very own voice to speak?"
"How do you serve with the strength God provides when you have to use your own strength to serve God?"

It is a delight and a mystery to ponder these questions and to work it out with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12-13). As Christians, Bible teachers, and preachers, these are surely crucial and critical questions, for if we fail to do so, we would be showing off ourselves or our churches, rather than giving God the glory.

2 Corinthians 3:18 says, "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." (ESV) Piper writes: "The principle is this: true gospel change of a person's character comes from steady gazing at the glory of Jesus. "Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into his image." We become like what we treasure enough to spend time focusing on. Some say, "Seeing is believing." This text says, "Seeing is becoming." You become like what you behold." From A Year-End Look at Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:9-20).

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Freedom (John 8:31-32)

2011-09-16T22:30:00.001-05:00

This morning, Lyndon, a member of Philippines UBF, asked me to speak about "freedom." I quoted what I considered the most famous verse in the Bible about freedom--John 8:31-32--which says, "To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'” (This appealing popular verse has often been quoted out of context.) I also mentioned Galatians 5:1 and 2 Corinthians 3:17. For an hour, these are the points I shared in no particular order:

Freedom is not a matter of the human will. No one can truly free himself no matter much he wants to be freed, especially from vices, such as pornography, addiction, gluttony, greed, infidelity, jealousy, covetousness, etc. Only the truth of the gospel of the grace of God sets us free (John 8:32; Acts 20:24).
Freedom is freedom from the power and influence of sin (John 8:34). Christian or non-Christian, no one can make himself stop sinning or stop his bad habits, even if they want to stop sinning.
Freedom is the power to say "No" to ungodliness (Titus 2:12). But how? Not by human will power (see #1), but only by knowing, reflecting, and applying the grace of God (Titus 2:11).
Freedom enables us to "taste and see" that the grace of God is sweeter than our sins (Psalm 34:8). To "taste" expresses that there is a difference between being told that honey is sweet and tasting that honey is sweet (Jonathan Edwards, A Divine and Supernatural Light). When we do not taste and experience how sweet the grace of Jesus is, we cannot stop wanting to taste our sins again and again, even all of our lives.
Freedom leads to the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace... (Galatians 5:22-23). No one knows, tastes and experiences eternal love, joy and peace, who is bound and captured by any sin, "big or small."
Freedom uncovers our ultimate Enemy who wants to master us (Genesis 4:7). Though Cain was a religious man who knew God and made an offering to God, he had no freedom because he was captured by his sin of judging God for not accepting his offering, instead of examining his own wicked heart (Genesis 6:5).
Freedom comes from holding to and learning from the teaching of Jesus (John 8:31). Otherwise, we will be mainly holding on to our own proud ideas (that blames God and blames others) and our sinful feelings.
Freedom comes from knowing that Jesus was completely bound unto death on the Cross to set us free (2 Corinthians 5:21). Christians need to taste the sweetness of the grace of Jesus by willingly dying for us in our place. Otherwise, we will never be freed from bondage to sin.
Freedom is to be able to do whatever you want to do. So the question is: What do you truly want to do? Sin? Love God with all your heart (Deuteronomy 6:5)? Glorify God in whatever you do (1 Corinthians 10:31)?
Freedom is to know that God wants all of me or none of me. Though Lot was a righteous man (2 Peter 2:7-8), a Christian, he kept something back for himself. As a result, unlike Abraham, he was a curse to his wife, his 2 daughters and all of his descendents (Genesis 19:1-38).

Do you have freedom from sin? As a Christian, what teaching are you holding to whereby you experience freedom (John 8:31-32)?

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A Song of Danger (Psalm 91:1-16)

2011-09-16T08:18:00.001-05:00

"Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty" (Ps 91:1).

Previous passage: A Song for the Afflicted (Psalm 90:1-17)

Theme: How to trust God in impossible and dangerous circumstances.

God intends for every Christian to experience a measure of safety and security in an unsafe and insecure world. If we do not know the security that comes from God and His gospel, it leads to all kinds of problems in the Christian life--relationship distance, an inability to forgive, an inability to repent, or the fear of man (Pro 29:25). Then we look to change our circumstances, which is never the ultimate cause of any of our problems. Not knowing where our safety comes from cripples our Christian life.

Intro: The Psalms in large measure answer the question of what a true believer experiences in his/her life with God in this fallen world, what a healthy Christian experience feels like that can even lead to singing! Psalm 91, a beloved song, a beautiful song, is a song for danger. It’s a psalm for those who are surrounded on all sides by danger – real danger, intense danger, comprehensive danger, immediate danger – and it tells us how to react as believers to that danger. One of the great themes of Psalm 91 is how believers learn to trust in God in the midst of the most real and intense danger. This is absolutely vital. Believers need to believe down to their socks that they are shadowed by God, that they are under the care of God the Almighty (Rom 8:28). The Psalmist presses this theme of absolute trust in God in the midst of grave danger in 3 stanzas:

The Psalmist's testimony (1-2)
The Psalmist's exhortation to us (3-13).
God's promises are security only for His people (14-16).

I. The Psalmist's Testimony (Ps 91:1-2)

No shelter in the world. The only truly safe and secure person is the one who finds their shelter and refuge in God (Ps 90:1-2, 32:7). Many in the world, self-confident in their own autonomy and ability, seem to be quite safe and secure (Ps 73:2-16). But any adversity can throw them into a tailspin. Their most dreaded day would be the day of their death. As much as they "eat and drink" (1 Cor 15:32; Isa 22:13), awaiting that inevitable dreaded day of death, yet when it comes, it is never a welcomed day, though they await it all the days of their life.

Real security. David was a great and powerful king. Yet when he thought of the day of his death, he shuddered. But he found shelter, safety and security when God revealed to him the path of life, and that he would not be abandoned to the grave (Acts 2:25-28; Ps 16:8-11). What or where is your source of security?

II. The Psalmist's Exhortation to Us (Ps 91:3-13)

What does God protecting us mean? The exhortation of the Psalmist in Ps 91:3-13 is this: "You, believer…you, Christian, can be safe in all times and in all circumstances because of God’s providence over you." This does not at all mean that God will spare us from all unbearable agonizing difficulties. It is not that God will spare us hard circumstances in life, or that He will get us out of hard circumstances in life – even though He often does. The ultimate reason the Psalmist wants us to feel safe and secure is because God’s providence is comprehensive and minute, stretching all the way to the smallest detail of our life. Not a hair on our head can be touched apart from the sovereign discretion and will of your heavenly Father (Mt 10:30; Lk 12:7). Our God, because of His faithfulness, always delivers us or covers us (Ps 91:3-4). He may not deliver us out of a situation, but He will cover us in a situation. Most often He does both. He both delivers and covers us.

Did God protect Jesus? Amazingly, Satan used this Psalm to tempt Jesus (Ps 91:11-12). Did God send his angels to guard, keep and protect Jesus? God didn’t do it to spare Him from the cross. Where did He do it? He sent angels to minister to Him in the garden, to prepare Him for the cross. God did not deliver Him from His troubles, but He covered Him in His troubles, and God enabled Him to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.

How to feel safe and secure? God always delivers or covers His people, one way or another. Jesus said, “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him" (Lk 12:4-5). Jesus says that if you fear God, there’s nothing else to fear in this world, there is no un-safety in this world that can match His strength and power. If you trust in God, believe in Him, He will always deliver and cover you, no matter what your circumstance.

III. God's Promises are Security Only for His People (Ps 91:14-16)

What is the requirement for safety and security? The promise of safety and security is not for everyone. The promise is made only for those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation as He is offered in the gospel. In Ps 91:14-16, God says that we are safe, not in being rescued from every evil circumstance in life, but that we are safe by faith in Him – a faith that is evidenced and manifested by our love for God, our personal knowledge of God, our prayer to God, and our communion with Him in prayer. What is the requirement for safety and security? Faith in God (Ps 91:14).

What does God promise Christians? Simone Weil was an anarchist, soldier, factory worker, labor organizer, school teacher, mystic, resistance fighter, philosopher. She was born in 1909, in Paris, France. Towards the end of her very short life, she began to be very interested in Christianity, and she wrote: “The extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering, but a supernatural use for it.” She understood that Christianity does not promise us that we will escape from suffering, but it does promise us that God will use the suffering which He has appointed for His own purposes and that He will cover us, even though He may not deliver us in the way we expect.

References: Psalm 91 “Shadowed.” Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III, June 22, 2008
ESV Study Bible

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A Song for the Afflicted (Psalm 90:1-17)

2011-09-15T19:49:00.001-05:00

The 4th Book of the Psalms is from Psalm 90-106 (chart of Psalms). In brief, the Psalms teach us about what the true believer ought to experience in his or her life with God in a fallen world, what it should feel like to be a Christian.

Psalm 90:1-17 addresses the afflicted and answers the question: How do we put perspective when afflicted or distressed (Ps 90:13,15)? When the days of our life (Ps 90:4,9,12,14,15) feels overwhelming, hectic and filled with stress and distraction? How do we wrestle with our own sin, and when others sin against us? This psalm of Moses points us to God (1-6), sin (7-12), and grace (13-17), and he bids us to meditate on it, believe it, and sing it.

I. God Himself is Our Home (Ps 90:1-6).

Security. God Himself is "our dwelling place" (Ps 90:1), our refuge, our place of belonging, our place of safety, which cannot be found in this transient world. Only God is "from everlasting to everlasting" (Ps 90:2b). Only God is eternal. "Before the mountains were brought forth," before there was the world (Ps 90:2a), He was already God. Only this will center us in our crazy world.

Pressure. Moses in the wilderness was under the constant pressure of shepherding hundreds of thousands – millions – of people. He could have been caught up in the moment, in the instantaneous, in the impermanent. But He focuses his attention on the only source of stability, to God who is our dwelling place, home, refuge, city, and the place where he and God's people belong.

The eternality of God. In the hectic busyness and transience of life (Ps 90:3-6), what does Moses point us to? To theology. He points us to the eternality of God (Ps 90:2). Why? God’s eternality is the answer to our transience. He is the hope in the midst of this passing world. We have no continuing city here, but He is our dwelling place, and we seek a city to come (Heb 11:10,16).

Warning: Having God as our dwelling place does not excuse having poor relationships with others. Yet, we are sinners with blind spots, shortcomings and failures. In a recent biography, AW Tozer, while serving wholeheartedly in ministry, had a distant and cold relationship with his wife and his children, to the point that when he died, his wife remarried. She married a man who had come to faith in Christ under Tozer’s ministry. When asked after that marriage how it was, she said: “I have never been happier in my life, because I knew that Aiden Tozer loved Jesus Christ, but I know that my husband now loves me.”

Man's only home. Moses makes it clear that we’re never going to find our place of belonging, safety, the place which is our home, our dwelling place, our habitation, in the world, where there is no continuing city. We’ll find it only in God Himself who is our home, our refuge, our city, and the place where His people belong (Ps 90:1).

II. Sin, Our Fundamental Problem (Ps 90:7-12)

The problem. The only problem we face is not simply the problem of transience, of passing away, of death (Ps 90:3-6). No, death is actually rooted in another deeper problem--sin. In Ps 90:7-12, Moses bids us to think about suffering, death, and God’s judgment, and then to draw a line from those 3 things to sin.

Rejecting God because of suffering? Bart Ehrman, a brilliant young NT scholar, once was an evangelical Christian; he, like Charles Templeton, denied the faith because of suffering. In actuality, suffering proves the existence of God. Without God, suffering is not wrong; it just happens. The one who can say that suffering is wrong is one who believes in the God of the Bible, for without the God of the Bible, suffering is not wrong; suffering just happens.

Sin causes suffering. Moses, when he looks at suffering, doesn’t draw the deduction that there’s some problem with God. No, the deduction goes the opposite direction! Today, as 20th century man, we look at suffering in the world and ask, "Why suffering?" But in all ages before, wiser people asked, "Why sin?" because sin brings suffering into this world. The logic of the Christian life is we always draw a line from all misery and all death back to sin, and we learn to hate sin and fear God thereby.

Why don't we connect the dots? In spite of all the signs of God’s displeasure around us, the thought that sin leads to death never registers. The nature of sin is that men hardly ever realize the relationship between death and sin. Why? We’re always living for the moment. We’re never thinking about the last things, the final things, the permanent things. Thus, Moses says, "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Ps 90:12).

III. Grace (Ps 90:13-17)

Finally, after pointing to God (1-6) and to sin (7-12), Moses points to grace. The 5 parts of his prayer of petition are:

Forgive us for our sins (Ps 90:13).
Satisfy us with your "lovingkindness" (hesed); help us taste your grace (Ps 90:14).
Restore us from our affliction (Ps 90:15).
May your kingdom come (Ps 90:16).
May our labor not be in vain (Ps 90:17).

How did God answer this prayer of Moses, when Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land after 40 years of hard labor in serving and leading his people to the promised land? Was God a little unfair to Moses?

When Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses was there, shining brightly (Lk 9:28-31). The Lord answered Moses’ prayer in a way that he never could have imagined, far beyond all that he could ask or think. Do not think that if you will go to the loving Lord, your refuge, that He will disappoint you in His answer of grace.

Reference: Psalm 90:1-17, "Moses’ Psalm," sermon by Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III June 15, 2008.
ESV Study Bible.

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