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Focus and Motivation: The Perspectives Course
Wanted to pass along this opportunity, which will be held at Davisville Church this fall. One of the course’s organizers, Chuck Walton, has spoken at our missions conference and at the young adults fellowship, and once hosted some friends and me at his home nearby to tell us about his life as a missionary and opportunities for people to serve the Lord abroad today.
I’ve heard nothing but great things about the Perspectives Course. If you want some biblical focus to your sense of life mission, and especially if you think you want to be involved in missions at all, you might want to think about stepping out and taking this course!
Locations: Davisville Church
Days: Sundays
Time: 5:30 – 8:30PM
Dates: Aug 26 to Dec 9, 2018 (15-week course)
For more info, and to register, click here or here.
Fighting Passivity, Taking Action
For those of you who came out Monday night, and then stayed the whole time (which I think was basically everybody), I salute you! What I weird night…losing power 15 minutes before everyone showed up, piling in on the gym bleachers, then halfway through the study, moving everyone to the auditorium…where we had no microphone and no air conditioning, and the temperature rose through the whole rest of the study. Not the best environment to teach in, or to listen, for that matter. A few people have asked for the notes. With all the distractions I was hoping it made sense, but if you wanted to revisit any of the points, here you go!
One opening observation–sometimes there’s an idea that floats around that not doing things is more spiritual than doing things. The idea sometimes is that true spirituality waits around for God to do things. But that’s juts not an idea that you find in the bible. So first, here are a few stories (out of many) of people acting, in faith, from both the Old and New Testaments:
Caleb: Joshua 14:6-13, 15:13-19
- Actively part of God’s work in the world.
- Lived by faith (14:9)
- Asked for what God had already promised (v.12)
- Willing to take a chance (14:12)
Boaz: Ruth 2:4-12, 3:1-13
- A godly man. Taking care of his responsibilities.
- Knew she was a godly woman
- When presented with an actual opportunity to marry her…
- Took action.
Jonathan: 1 Sam 14:1-2, 4-14
- Doing his basic duty (v.1)
- …so he was part of the real battle.
- Operated by faith (v.6)
- Took action when doors opened.
David: 1 Sam 17:17-37
- Doing his basic duty (v.17-20)
- Cared about God’s name (v.26, 45-47), in a time when God’s people were being defamed (v.10)
- Took action (v.32)
Nehemiah: Neh 1:1-5, 1:11-2:8, 2:11-12, 16-18
- Doing his job.
- Cared about the things of God and God’s work. (1:4)
- Prayed for Favor. (1:11)
- Didn’t fear people. (2:2-3)
- Took action. (2:18)
Philip
Acts 6:1-5 Philip is known as faithful and spiritual
8:3-8 Goes to Samaria because of persecution, does what’s obvious.
Barnabas
Acts 4:32-36 He’s a living, active part of the church
9:26-30 takes Saul to Apostles
11:19-23 He’s sent to Antioch, and stays there in response to God’s work
11:26-30 gets Saul to help teach
Paul
Acts 15:36-41 decides to go see the churches
16:1, 4-5 finds Timothy
16:6-10 gets divine direction when needed
16:11-12 goes to the chief city of Macedonia
Summarizing insights from these stories:
1. Actively keep God’s commands. Make them your priority.
- Be a person who’s privately and publicly following Christ.
- Be a living part of your church fellowship.
- Actively do righteousness.
- Make God’s big aims for the world the things that shape your personal aims for your life.
- Keep your life free of sin.
This keeps you “in God’s Will.” …that is, in God’s revealed will. Key: This is the only part of God’s will God holds you accountable to be in.
2. In areas where God has given guidance, but no direct commands…search the scriptures, talk with godly people, pray, and act.
- What does the scripture say about this issue?
- Talk to other godly people. God uses Christians who are Godly and wise to help other Christians. It’s part of what the bible teaches the body of Christ is for.
- What do they think about your options?
- Do they think your timing is good?
- Do they think you should be patient? Do they think you should get going?
- Pray: For God to make your heart pure, for the ability to know yourself and your motivation, for freedom from the fear of people, for freedom from the fear of the future, for strong faith, for insight into the situation, and by all means, and for God to guide you.
- Take Action. “Action” may be to remain faithful in your current situation. Or it may mean to move into a new situation. But it might depend on what you want to do.
Two Issues Regarding Prayer:
Issue #1: “Waiting on the Lord”
- It’s not about waiting for a sign. Should we pray for “signs”? Do we have any indication in the New Testament that people ever prayed for signs?
- It’s not about being passive in areas that require us to do something.
What is it about? In the Psalms and Prophets, waiting on the Lord always refers to:
- Patiently continuing to trust in the Lord, and identify as one of his people, when you are in a difficult situation that you can’t change.
- Patiently staying faithful to do live according to God’s commands, even when evil people are prospering and exercising power.
So, “Waiting on the Lord” means—in situations we are powerless to change, patiently expecting God to come fix a situation that is painful or wrong, instead of lashing out or giving up in anger or despair.
Example: Psalm 37:7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
Issue #2: “Praying for a sign.”
- We need to pray.
- We should pray for guidance—it’s how we communicate that we’re yielded to the Lord’s will.
- But we’re never told in the NT to wait for a supernatural sign before acting…and we’re never told we need to have some 100% sure way to know exactly what his will is in every situation before we act. (No Spiritual GPS.)
- Prayer is never meant to be a substitute for action.
- So… see what the bible says, talk to other godly people, pray, and act.
Three areas where we need to think about these things.
Once you’re already living a life that’s given over to actively keeping God’s commands…
Jobs:
- We know God wants us to work.
1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 We urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; 11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.
2 Thess 3:10-12 10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. 11 For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. 12 Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.
Ephesians 4:28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
- We don’t need to agonize over where we’re going to work or what work we’re going to do.
- Go get a skill and work heartily at honest labor—provide for yourself, for a family, and for others in need.
- If another opportunity presents itself—Search the scriptures, talk to other godly people, pray, and make a decision.
Relationships:
Proverbs 18:22 He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the LORD.
1 Corinthians 7:1-2, 6-9, 32
…It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband…. 6 But I say this as a concession, not as a commandment. 7 For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. 8 But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am; 9 but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion… 32 But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord– how he may please the Lord.
- Marriage is good.
- Singleness is good too—if it’s used to serve Jesus. (1 Corinthians 7) (How does this look? This probably looks like, “What I’m doing now is so full and alive and it would all really have to change if I get into a relationship so I don’t really feel like it’s the right time.”)
- God has his ways of shutting things down if we’re yielded to him.
- Let the scriptures shape and guide your desires—what kind of person will best serve Jesus’ purposes in your life.
- Pray for guidance. But…The NT doesn’t lead us to believe God will reveal to you beforehand who you’re going to marry. So don’t wait for that.
- If you want to get married—Search the scriptures, talk to other godly people, pray, and act.
How to Serve God:
- We have lots of direct, clear commands in the NT about things we should be doing. Do all the things that everyone is supposed to do. (i.e. Search the Scriptures)
- Be part of a godly church—talk to other godly people.
- Get involved where you can—and where you want to.
- Pray (For: God to give you a selfless heart, and a vision for his work in the Church, and for love for God’s people. Pray for the church. Pray for God’s people.)
- Take opportunities as they come up.
Summing Up:
- If you don’t’ know Christ—your life can have a purpose that’s beyond you. It’s what you were made for. You find it by letting Jesus be your king.
- If you are a Christian—Following Christ does not mean that we live in perpetual fear of missing God’s will. We don’t have to be paralyzed because we don’t know what our next move should be. We’ve been given lots of things that God has clearly told us are his will. We should attend to those. And then, we should feel free to go places and do things that serve God’s purposes, as opportunities become available, or as we want to pursue them.
It’s time for you to finally get victory.
Samuel James has an excellent article on a needed topic: How to Leave Porn Behind. James writes:
The sin of pornography goes much deeper than the singular moments of watching and downloading. It’s about entire daily patterns of unbelief, laziness, self-absorption, and much more. Thus, repentance from enslavement to pornography must seek more than behavior modification in one isolated habit. It must be a resolve to bring every piece of the heart’s architecture, every beat of the rhythm of life, into the light of the gospel.
Many Christian men are fighting a losing battle with pornography because they are trying to remove the sin without adopting a radical lifestyle of repentance. They know their spiritual lives would be sweeter without giving way to lust. They know their capacity for rich relationships with other believers would expand tenfold if they weren’t smothered by midnight shame. They know their Godward ambitions for vocation and missions and pastoring are being squashed by it.
They really do want it gone, but they want everything else to stay where it is — and then they are perplexed why it just won’t work, even with accountability partners and internet filters. It won’t work long-term because this is not how God designed us.
James is on point when he writes about the need to adopt a “radical lifestyle of repentance.” He points out that if you really want victory, you might need to change your job, your friends, your hobbies, the entire way you spend your “free time,” and more. Another way to say all this would be to say, you can’t selectively obey Jesus. It doesn’t work. You can only defeat one sin by resolving to repent of all sin. When we’re really ready to defeat “that one thing” that embarrasses, or weakens, or plagues us, we have to lay our whole life on the table before the Lord and say, “Ok, have your way in everything.”
The teaching of Christ that always comes to my mind on this issue is:
“If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”
…and it just begs the question: if Jesus would say this about a hand, and we can kind of know that he’s going over the top to make a point, isn’t it clear that he would definitely say this to us about the things that we might keep in our life which lead us to sin?
If your phone helps you sin, don’t have a smart phone.
If your friends always lead you to sin, deal with it, or change your friends.
If your gaming ends up in sin, stop gaming.
If your TV, movies, or internet, or social media time lead you to sin, cancel the service, delete the accounts, and just stop watching things.
If you won’t stop sinning with your boyfriend or girlfriend, break up with them.
Isn’t that exactly what the application of Matthew 5:30 should be?
I encourage you to read the whole article. And, wherever necessary, do whatever it takes to have Jesus, and not sin, as your Lord.
What will God make of us?
When God’s Spirit is given a free hand to work in our lives, what might be the result? Where might we go? What might we do? Who can tell?
One thing is certain–the Spirit of Life is not limited by genetics, upbringing, circumstances, history, or any of the other things that seem to define us and dictate to us when God’s not alive in our life.
Along those lines, here’s a great meditation from Athanasius:
He is the Author of spiritual regeneration. Here is your proof:— None can see or enter into the Kingdom, except he be born again of the Spirit, (John 3:3) and be cleansed from the first birth, which is a mystery of the night, by a remolding of the day and of the Light, by which every one singly is created anew.
This Spirit, for He is most wise and most loving, if He takes possession of a shepherd makes him a Psalmist, subduing evil spirits by his song, (1 Samuel 16:23) and proclaims him King;
If he possess a goatherd and scraper of sycamore fruit, (Amos 7:14) He makes him a Prophet. Call to mind David and Amos.
If He possess a goodly youth, He makes him a Judge of Elders, even beyond his years, as Daniel testifies, who conquered the lions in their den. (Daniel 6:22)
If He takes possession of fishermen, He makes them catch the whole world in the nets of Christ, taking them up in the meshes of the Word. Look at Peter and Andrew and the Sons of Thunder, thundering the things of the Spirit.
If He takes possession of tax collectors, He makes gain of them for discipleship, and makes them merchants of souls; witness Matthew, yesterday a tax collector, today an Evangelist.
If He takes possession of zealous persecutors, He changes the current of their zeal, and makes them Pauls instead of Sauls, and as full of piety as He found them of wickedness.
Where will the Spirit take us? Who will He make us?
A Mountain of Grain
We should never grow tired of doing what Jesus calls “searching the scriptures.” In that vein, check out this heap of inspiration from Charles Spurgeon:
“Search the Scriptures.” — John 5:39
The Greek word here rendered search signifies a strict, close, diligent, curious search, such as men make when they are seeking gold, or hunters when they are in earnest after game. We must not rest content with having given a superficial reading to a chapter or two, but with the candle of the Spirit we must deliberately seek out the hidden meaning of the word. Holy Scripture requires searching—much of it can only be learned by careful study. There is milk for babes, but also meat for strong men. The rabbis wisely say that a mountain of matter hangs upon every word. Tertullian exclaims, “I adore the fulness of the Scriptures.”
No man who merely skims the book of God can profit thereby; we must dig and mine until we obtain the hid treasure. The door of the word only opens to the key of diligence. The Scriptures claim searching. They are the writings of God, bearing the divine stamp and imprimatur—who shall dare to treat them with levity? He who despises them despises the God who wrote them. God forbid that any of us should leave our Bibles to become swift witnesses against us in the great day of account.
The word of God will repay searching. God does not bid us sift a mountain of chaff with here and there a grain of wheat in it, but the Bible is winnowed corn—we have but to open the granary door and find it.
Scripture grows upon the student. It is full of surprises. Under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, to the searching eye it glows with splendor of revelation, like a vast temple paved with wrought gold, and roofed with rubies, emeralds, and all manner of gems.
Lastly, the Scriptures reveal Jesus: “They are they which testify of Me.” No more powerful motive can be urged upon Bible readers than this: he who finds Jesus finds life, heaven, all things. Happy he who, searching his Bible, discovers his Savior.
How to Avoid Delayed Adulthood
“Maturity will always be in high demand. Societies need good citizens. Nations clamor for noble leaders. Businesses seek out responsible employees. Parents long for prudent children.”
That’s the beginning of a short, great article with all kinds of relevance for those of you in the Young Adults fellowship. It’s called “6 Ways to Avoid Delayed Adulthood.”
The author writes: “While maturity isn’t simple, it’s also not complicated. Maturity follows this basic path: desire, commitment, faithfulness, humility, courage, and resilience.”
I agree with this basic assessment. So much of our modern culture is built to prevent maturity–as if we should literally play games and chase our dreams forever–even though, as noted above, what society actually needs is maturity. But even more importantly, the Bible commends, and commands, maturity. It’s God’s design that those who know Him should be maturing, so that early in life they reach the status of “full-grown” in all the strength, steadfastness, productivity, and wisdom that status refers to.
So articles like these, when they are written to explore and apply Biblical wisdom, are helpful. Here, then, are 6 ways we can get on with life:
1. Wake Up: Desire. (“The first step toward maturity is wanting it. This virtue—basic desire—sits at the core of who we are and what we become.”)
2. Sign Up: Commitment. (“…desire alone is not enough. Without a concrete set of roles and commitments, even a healthy desire for maturity can become just a compost pile of good intentions”)
3. Show Up: Faithfulness. (“Signing up is one thing. Showing up is another. There are too many young people who want to move up but don’t want to show up…The majority of maturity is faithfulness.”)
4. Shut Up: Humility. (“You also have to learn to shut up. As we move through adolescence into young adulthood, we’re sometimes tempted to think and act like we know far more than we do.”)
5. Step Up: Courage. (“Closing our mouths and opening our ears is a vital discipline. But we should develop it out of humility rather than fear, patience rather than indifference.”)
6. Get Up: Resilience. (“If you want to grow, you’ll have to face the challenges that growth entails.”)
It really is worth it to click over and read the whole thing. Hope you enjoy.
Tonight: Memorial Day, Grill, Front Field
Young Adults! Come join us at the Church building, out on the front field, at 6:30 PM, for a little grilling, some time in the Word and worship, and maybe some volleyball etc.
Bring a drink or side dish or desert to share if you can.
See ya!
Reading Together for Fellowship and Growth
Have you ever heard of communal reading? Evidently, it was the norm among the first Christian believers. Check this out, from an interesting, and important, interview:
Can you give a picture of what a first-century communal reading would look like?
It would have occurred in many different ways. It could have been friends sharing literature. It could have been public figures actually having something at a theater or auditorium. They happened in both formal and informal venues: apartments, temples, synagogues. They were happening everywhere, courtrooms, private homes, schools.
There are even some pretty humorous examples of one first-century writer, Martial, who talks about how annoying it was when people were reading everywhere to everyone, even while he was in a public bathroom. So there are a number of accounts in the first century where it seems like there were more people reading communally than scholars have thought, and it was just pervasive.
Also notable is the type of reader, that it’s not just the elite. All sorts of people were reading. What my book really shows is there were more people involved in this than have been really seen so far. So I think, in one sense, their problem back then was everyone seemed to be reading and reciting literary works. But our problem today is thinking that no one was doing it or no one could do it.
The person answering the question is Brian J. Wright, author of the new book, Communal Reading in the Time of Jesus, a Window into Early Christian Reading Practices.
It seems that communal reading was part of the culture, and especially, part of the daily life of the first Christians. It not only provided discipleship and fellowship, it also provided stability to their texts as they passed them down:
Are you then suggesting that this phenomenon of communal reading events might have provided some consistency to the transmission of Christian literature?
Absolutely, for the texts that would have been read more frequently. Let me give one non-biblical example. If someone were to misquote Homer, everybody would know, because that was just read so frequently. Paul’s writings and other early Christian writings that would have been quickly or immediately read and used, even in the first century, would have been similar. In fact, there’s countless examples after the first century of somebody standing up to read and there’s an uproar in the congregation over one word that had changed because of a new translation.
I reference in the book a letter Augustine wrote to Jerome about when Jerome translated the Latin Vulgate. Augustine’s congregation was in an uproar over one verse in Jonah (4:6) because there was one word that had been changed from what they knew. But I wasn’t just finding examples like this in later centuries like the third and fourth. I started seeing those same type of things in the second and even first century.
So, texts that were read more often would necessarily have been more well known, and people could, in a sense, stand up and say, “That’s not what we’ve been hearing” or “I’m not sure that’s the correct reading of that text” or things like that. I think that should increase our understanding and confidence that there may have been more stability to the transmission of Christian tradition and more stability to these texts than we’ve thought.
I recommend you read the whole thing.
Toward the end of the interview, Wright asks, “…instead of reading little and gathering infrequently, what might happen today if Christians read a great deal in community like they did in the first century?”
That’s a great question. Wouldn’t it be great if a bunch of groups like this broke out among the Young Adults fellowship? Let me know if you’re interested in being part of one.
Jesus defeats anxiety about the future
Last night we finished our study of some of the amazing things God did for us when Jesus came. What does it mean that God became a man? How does it answer our biggest issues?
It does, of course. When Jesus came, and said what he said, and did what he did, it solved ten thousand problems–literally every issue we have as humans. Which means that whatever ten or twenty big things we’re thinking about right now–whatever pressing questions we have in our generation–Jesus is the answer for those things too. Last night we took a few minutes to look at how the Incarnation addresses our anxieties over the future–especially the kind of anxiety over global events, and how my life will be affected by the big things I see in the news. Here are the notes:
Notice that Jesus Called Himself “the Son of Man.” See Matthew 8:20, 9:6, 12:8, 12:40,16:13, 17:22-3, 20:28.
What was he referring to? The prophecy recorded in Daniel 7. In Daniel 7:1-8, 15-17, and 19-25 we see all the craziness of world history and even current Geo-politcal events. But then in 7:9-14 we see “one like the Son of Man,” who takes dominion, which is to say that he becomes the absolute ruler of the world. He will come and put an end to all the craziness, he will conquer, and he will reign over everything.
Looking at these things together can address one of the major causes of anxiety: The future. What’s going to happen in the world? Where’s it all going? Is the world going to get ruined? What’s going to happen to my life?
So, How does the incarnation address this anxiety?
We know from the Old Testament prophecies that one day God will solve all the world’s problems. He’s going to conquer every evil empire, and rule the world in justice. And he promised to do it through someone who keeps popping up through all the OT scriptures—usually he gets called the Messiah, but sometimes he’s called the Son of David, or here, here he’s given the title, “the Son of Man.”
So we know that God knows how bad the world is, and he’s promised to fix it all. This alone should deal with our anxiety over the future. We should always be able to think, “OK, things aren’t going that well, but God’s going to fix it and it’s going to be OK.”
But…it’s been a long time. And things haven’t been fixed yet. And we could get tempted to start wondering if God was really going to make good on his promises. So what did God do? He ratified his promises by sending Jesus. We call it “the incarnation.” It solves all our problems. It even addresses our issues with this kind of anxiety.
Because when Jesus came, one of the things he did was to self-consciously select this name for himself… “the Son of Man.” It doesn’t just mean, “human,” or, “my dad was a man.” He seems to have picked this title to say, let’s get one thing straight—“I’m the Son of Man—the one from the prophecies.”
In other words, Jesus wanted us to know that He is this figure from Daniel 7. He’s the one who’s going to come and crush all the evil empires. In other words…God is keeping his promises…
This is big for a few reasons.
First, it’s God’s way of proving, historically, once and for all, that the things he said through the prophets in the Old Testament will happen. He’s committed to ruling the world in Justice and fixing every problem. And we can be sure of that because…he sent Jesus. No matter how long history winds on, or how bad things get, no matter what people are doing out there, we can always know, it doesn’t matter—Jesus came. God’s going to keep his promises.
Second, the fact that Jesus picked this name for himself helps us when we realize that even though Jesus came, even though he died, and even though he rose again, we still don’t actually see all the world’s issues fixed yet. But when he called himself the Son of Man, he was sending a very clear message–The fact that he got killed by Rome, the fact that he left even after rose from the dead, it doesn’t matter–We can know, no matter what, Jesus is the one we’re looking for. We’re not waiting for some other messiah. Jesus is the Son of Man. We haven’t seen him conquer the world’s empires yet, but we’ve seen him conquer death—and so when he tells us he’s the Son of Man from Daniel 7, we can trust him to finish what he started.
Third, we don’t just know that God’s going to do this, we know who the man is he’s going to do it through. We can even know what that man is like—what kind of person is he? How good and just is he? How loving, how corruptible is he? How powerful is he? We know the kind of king we’re getting, because we got to see a detailed preview of just what he’s like for all those years that he was with us living out a real human life. Today, we can read the accounts of his life—and we can get excited that one day soon this man will be king of every nation.
So here’s the challenge: as followers of Jesus we’re called to learn to look at our personal problems and worries in light of the global solutions God has promised. Whenever we worry about big things, we learn to think: it’s OK, because Jesus is going to come back and set this straight. There’s nothing to worry about. I can rest in that. And, when we’re worrying about the small things—our own lives—we learn to think about how the big promises God has already made about the whole world affect our personal lives.
Finally, see Daniel 7:17-18, 26-27. The Son of man will share his rule with the saints of the most high.
So, no matter what happens to me personally, if I’m a follower of Jesus, I can know that my small life is joined unbreakably, eternally, to the huge victory Jesus will come and win. Since he came and took on human flesh and conquered sin and death, I can know that if I trust him, he’ll share his victory with me. So even if I suffer setbacks and disappointments—even if something ruins my life (as we say) for this particular part of my existence, I have an eternal future ahead of me which nothing can ruin—Jesus is going to give me the kind of life, on a healed planet, which can only be described as “ruling and reigning forever with him.”
Notice the same theme in these passages:
2 Timothy 2:11-12 – This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him. If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us.
Revelation 2:26-7 – “And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations – ‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels as I also have received from My Father.”
Revelation 3:21 – “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”
Revelation 22:5-7 – There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever. Then he said to me, “These words are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place. Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
Matthew 25:31-34 – “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…’”
Finally, See: Luke 12:22-32, where Jesus says: “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing… And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Notice exactly how Jesus frames the issue—We shouldn’t live in fear because we’re going to receive God’s kingdom. Do we struggle with worry at all? We need to trust God that he knows the real remedy. We need to let him tell us his solution. We have to stop running to other things: entertainment, sin, work, obsessively informing ourselves about the state of the world—whenever we get tempted to think that his word doesn’t really have the answers we need, we’ve got to stop ourselves and place our trust in the great physician…and take his remedy.
And the remedy is: Jesus came. He identified himself as the Son of Man from Daniel 7. He promised to give us the kingdom, just like Daniel said he would, and he told us that that thought could cure our fear. And every time we get tempted to think otherwise, I think we need to remind ourselves—no, Jesus is the Son of Man. All the kingdoms of the world will be his. And I’m going to be right there with him. No matter what happens, these words are faithful and true.
What would keep this from being a real remedy? Well, I guess it would be not caring about his kingdom. If the things I love have no place in his kingdom, and won’t be eternal, then all of this will be no comfort to me. Which is probably why, right before he said, “don’t fear” in verse 32, he said (in verse 31), “Seek first the kingdom of God.”
Or, as Paul writes in Colossians 3, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.“
Identity and Jesus
Last night we continued our exploration of what it means that God became man, by looking at this topic:
The incarnation explains our identity and addresses our attempts at self-definition
Current ideas about identity:
1. Identity is self-chosen, without reference to others or a higher authority. We’ve been taught that we don’t have any real access to any big truth about who and what we are, so, since no One’s there who can really tell us who we are, we have to make up the answers for ourselves.
2. Identity is primarily focused on parts of who we are. (Things like career, accomplishments, talents, sexuality, interests.) Since no one can answer the big questions about humanity, we don’t even try. We define ourselves by parts. We try to use these smaller parts of who we are to define the big things about ourselves.
3. Identity is based on difference, and on distinction. Since we’ve lost a vision for family and community, we’ve decided difference is more important than connection. And so we’ve elevated the things that make us distinct from others over those things that connect us to others.
In the Bible, God doesn’t tell us to start from the small parts of who we are and build an identity from the ground up, He answers the big questions first. He defines what humanity is. Then He invites you to find your identity as part of the big picture. And then, we interpret parts of who we are by finding out how they relate to who and what we are as part of the human family in its connection to God.
So what does the bible say? Identity is not constructed, it’s received. Identity does not come from distinction, it comes from connection. Identity is unique, but it is not separate.
How we find our identity in Christ:
1. See Genesis 1:26-28. Humanity is made in the image of God. (according to the pattern.)
2. See Corinthians 15:47-49. The first man (Adam) is made of dust, and “we have born his image.” The Second Man (Christ) is the Lord from Heaven, and “we will bear His image.”
3. See Colossians 1:15-17. Who is this “heavenly man”? He is the one who originally is the image of God, now in human flesh. In all the verses, the english word “image” is being used to translate the ancient Greek word eikon. (It’s the same word used in Hebrews 10:1 – “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form (eikon) of these realities” (Also translated , “the very image of the things.”) New Testament scholar Peter O’Brien writes: “Eikon speaks of ‘embodiment’ or ‘actual manifestations’ of the realities in question.” The NIDNTT states: “In the NT Christ is said to be the eikon of God, but there is no difference between the image and the essence of the invisible God, for in Christ we see God.”
4. See 2 Corinthians 4:3-4. Christ is the image of God, but Satan blinds the minds of people so they can’t see it. Murray Harris writes: “As eikon, Christ both shares and expresses God’s nature. He is the precise and visible representation of the invisible God.”
5. See 2 Corinthians 3:12-17. When you turn to Christ, the veil is removed, so that You see him for who he is, and then…”we are transformed into the same image” … our humanity is conformed into his humanity. (Also see Romans 8:28 —“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”) So Jesus was the first-born of a new family. He was the first of a new kind of human, and he actually points to the original kind of human that always should have been. Being his “brother” means that we share the new family resemblance. In other words, we’re conformed into his image.
6. See 1 Corinthians 15:47-49 again. When the “conforming” is done, we will bear the image of this new humanity. “A body permeated with divine glory and perfectly adapted to the ecology of heaven.”
Jesus shows us a humanity that is:
- Led by the Spirit. (Lk 4:1, Rom 8:14)
- Not defeated by sin. (Lk 4:1-13, Rom 6:14)
- Totally free. (from constraint, from anxiety, from compulsion—doing what he wants)
- (John 10:17-18, 14:31, John 8:31-36, Galatians 5:1)
- …and yet, totally submitted to the will of the Father (John 4:34, 6:38, Mark 3:35)
- …because he was in constant communion with the Father. (John 11:41-42, Romans 8:9, 2 Cor 13:14, Heb 13:5)
- Totally defined by and directed by the scriptures. (Mat 5:17)
- Living with purpose. (Lk 19:10, Jn 18:37, John 17:18)
- Knowing its future. (Matt 25:31-32; 1 Thess 4:13-5:5 (or just 5:1-5))
When the perfect image of God comes and lives a human life that perfectly pleases his Father, we can look at him and say, this is what a human is supposed to be!
And, since this kind of humanity is God’s original, true intention for humanity, you could say that when God makes us more like this…we’re being made more truly human. You could also say that to move away from the picture of humanity that Jesus showed us, to reject Jesus as the pattern of humanity, and to become some other kind of human, is actually to degrade our own humanity and choose something that is less than human. It is to choose a humanity (to invert the previous list) that…
- has no spiritual life in us
- has no leading of the Spirit
- is defeated by sin and enslaved to it
- is bound by all kinds of outer constraints and inner anxieties
- is totally out of step with God
- is not doing God’s will
- has no communication with God
- lives without a true, transcendent purpose
- is totally unaware of eternal things or the future in store for the world and humanity
And there’s even more than simply what Jesus showed us in his earthly life.
Now see 1 Corinthians 15:50-55. The New Testament is very clear, only those who’ve followed Christ and received new Spiritual life will inherit the coming kingdom. And here it says that only those who are “changed” inherit the kingdom, and it’s referring back to the statement in verse 49, we’re going to bear the image of the new man—Christ.
This means that, when Jesus returns and becomes king, everyone who lives in Jesus’ kingdom on the new earth will have this kind of humanity. Every other kind of humanity, anything different from Jesus’ kind of humanity, will not be in God’s kingdom. God calls all of this “sin.” And sin will be expelled from the coming kingdom.
So… If every other kind of humanity has been designated by God as something less than what he desires for us, and something which is ultimately harmful to our relationship with him and harmful to others, and if it means that every other conception of humanity is already declared obsolete by God, then… It means that only Jesus’ kind of humanity counts as humanity. It’s the only one which will last. And it’s the only kind which has the seal of approval from the creator of humanity.
So if we want to really talk about identity, we have to start here…
Human identity is found in Jesus. Jesus defines what it means to be human. And we’re either moving towards this or away from this. If we’re becoming more and more like Jesus every day, we’re becoming more truly human, because Jesus is the pattern, the proto-type. So that is the answer to the “big” question of identity—what does it mean to be human? And the answer to the smaller question of identity—who am I?—is found within the answer to the bigger question. I find my identity as an individual human as I find my place in the human family—a family that is led and defined by Jesus, humanity’s king.
I am not the center. I am not the pattern or the definer of anything. Jesus is. He is the image of God, and he is also the true image of humanity. We must conform to his pattern. If I attempt to find or create my identity outside of his commands or his authority, or without reference to him, I will lose everything—because whatever identity I construct will be false, whatever kind of humanity I build will be swept away.
So many of our problems today come from the fact that we’ve lost track of all this, and we’re attempting to self-define.
Now please hear this: Christians would never look at someone who disagrees with Jesus and say, “You’re less than human,” or anything horrible like that. No, we say something more like:
“God created you to be a human, that’s an awesome, holy thing–you carry significance and meaning and intention that are literally eternal. God created you know experience his love and everything he made forever. But you’re choosing to believe lies that cancel all this out and try to make you meaningless. Don’t go there! Turn around! The Bible says those things are beneath men and women. Let go of them…they’re harmful to you. And God doesn’t like things that degrade and harm human beings.”
At the bottom of it all, Christians are people who’ve heard the message of Jesus, and the message of the whole bible, and realized that it’s better news than anything else we’ve been told about ourselves and the world. And as we’ve embraced this better news, we’ve realized, it’s not just good news…it’s true good news.
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