This is Discipleship

This is what we are all about: Making disciples of Jesus Christ for the glory of God and the joy of His people.

Keep Your Eyes on Good Examples

On Sunday, we were looking at Philippians 3:12-21 where Paul describes his life as a race to know Christ and make Him known. Paul then tells us to follow the example that we have in him and in others who similarly treasure the gospel and run hard after Christ.
Other than Jesus himself, no human—including the Apostle Paul (Phil 3:12-13)—has ever achieved perfection on this side of the resurrection, so we are not looking to follow the example of people who think they have it all together. Rather, we are looking to follow imperfect people who treasure Christ and the Gospel and put no confidence in their own efforts (Phil 3:3). People who treasure the Gospel will find freedom to admit their need to grow and will find fuel to run hard after knowing Christ. The finish line of the race is the end of your earthly life and the subsequent resurrection. The prize is Christ—to know Him fully, even as we are fully known (1 Cor 13:12).

In the sermon, I mentioned three categories of people that we should “imitate” and “keep our eyes on” as we treasure the Gospel and run hard after Christ: (1) people in the Bible who treasured God’s glory, (2) People in church history who ran well and finished well, and (3) people in our own church community who are running hard after Christ.

1. Examples from the Bible – Hebrews 11 gives a good starting point for examples of people who walked by faith. I am often amazed by the people that made this list—this ‘Hall of Faith’. The reality is, many of these people who demonstrate amazing faith also demonstrate gross failures. This is one of the things that I love about the Bible, aside from a couple of exceptions, even the greatest “heroes of the faith” are portrayed as mere men and women with their own struggles and failures and their dependence of the grace of God. The book of Acts also gives great examples of people who were fueled by faith in Christ, empowered by the Spirit, and driven to lay down their lives for the Gospel and for others. As Paul said, “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.” (Philippians 3:17)
2. Examples from Church History – One place to whet your appetite for good examples is to listen to John Piper’s biographical lecture series entitled “Men of Whom The World Was Not Worthy“. Here Piper explores the lives (both strengths and weaknesses) of people who laid down their lives for Christ and His Kingdom. Over the years, Piper has spoken on Jonathan Edwards, Charles Simeon, David Brainerd, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, William Cowper, J. Gresham Machen, John Owen, Charles Spurgeon, Martin Luther, John Calvin, St. Augustine, John Bunyan, John G. Paton, John Newton, William Wilberforce, and Adoniram Judson. Piper’s wife, Noël, has written a book entitled Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God (available for free online) in which she explores the lives of five faithful women: Sarah Edwards, Lilias Trotter, Gladys Aylward, Esther Ahn Kim, and Helen Roseveare. Each of these men and women have strengths and weaknesses, but what holds them in common is their faithfulness and commitment to the cause of Christ even in the midst of opposition and suffering. Pick individuals that intrigue you, read their biographies, and follow their example of faith. “And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Hebrews 6:11-12)
3. Examples from our own community – Look to surround yourself with people who treasure the gospel, repent from sin, and run hard after knowing Jesus. Follow those people, and become one of them, so that you can say with integrity and true humility, “I’m not there yet, but I am learning to treasure the gospel and run hard after Christ. Follow me as I follow Jesus.”

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, [2] looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. – Hebrews 12:1-2

Church Plants - To Join or Not To Join

This blog post was adapted from TheResurgence.com:

Top 10 Reasons to Join a Church Plant:

1. If you want to see Jesus do something new and are sick of the status quo.
2. If you dream of being part of something bigger than yourself.
3. If you want to get into a fight/enter a battle for the kingdom of Christ.
4. If you feel a constant itch to see people who don’t know Jesus come to know Jesus and you believe church planting is the best way for the gospel to advance.
5. If you want to give your time, money, energy, and talents to starting something new and you want to make sacrifices to see a mission to succeed.
6. If you fully support the vision, mission, doctrine, and leadership of a church plant.
7. If you want your faith to grow and you want God to fundamentally meddle with and change your life.
8. If you want to love your city.
9. If you want to watch God move in ways you never imagined and you want an adventure (with all it’s discomfort and risk).
10. If you’re not afraid to bank your life on Matthew 16:18 (“I [Jesus] will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”).

Top 10 Reasons NOT to Join a Church Plant:

1. If you’re looking for the next cool thing in town (We want to grow by conversion growth, not church-goer transfer growth).
2. If you’re a Christian and you don’t like your current church (You will find reasons to not like this church).
3. If you have a bad track record at churches of being unteachable and causing problems (You won’t change here, you’ll repeat the pattern).
4. If you’re a consumer wanting to “go to church” once a week for a nice show (We are not a Sunday show, we are a community of disciples on a mission).
5. If you want religion (This church will be built on the radical gospel of grace).
6. If you have an agenda (We have our vision, our mission, and our values—your private agenda does not supercede them).
7. If you’re a wolf (We will sniff you out).
8. If you think this will be a nice little church that stays the same size, where everybody knows your name and you have my cell number on speed dial and we have a picnic lunch together every week (By God’s grace, we want to grow).
9. If you think this will be easy and smooth (This will be hard and difficult; this will be a fight, a battle, and a challenging mission).
10. If you want to hold onto your comfortable life (You must lose your life).

Also, a quote from Sir Ernest Shackleton, from the advertisement he used when recruiting men for his expedition to Antarctica in 1914:

Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.

Old Testament Timeline (PDF)

This is a more graphical version of a very helpful timeline / chart: 
Download PDF

Coffee Stains and Covenants

The bible is a book to be abused.
Now give me a second to qualify that statement.

There is a lot in the bible. So much, in fact, that some shy away from reading for fear that there are just too many pages. I can sympathize with that. And let us not forget that its immensity has oftentimes led to its misinterpretation. However, my heart behind these biblical theology seminars has been to make the immensity of the bible manageable and in so doing provide clarity in our interpretation.

Making it manageable, though, still requires work. It requires that we wring out the pages in order to obtain their life giving waters. It demands that we wrestle with confusing texts until we pin down their meaning. Familiarity with the bible requires that we awake it early in the morning and argue with it late into the night. I hope the pages of your bible become covered with coffee stains. It’s a good indicator that you’re fighting (1 Timothy 6:12).

If we can grasp the bible, we are hanging onto the very power of God’s word (1 Corinthians 1:18), and that is worth contending for.

Covenants are more than just theological terms

Back to manageability, though. One way in which we can begin to grasp our bibles (and see how they preach Christ crucified start to finish) is to get a handle of covenants.

The bible is filled with covenants, some between God and man, man and man, and sometimes even between God and God. So what is a covenant?

A couple weekends ago we learned that a covenant is a treaty between two kings: one great, one small (or vassal). Covenants were common to the ancient near east culture where the bible was written. In God’s revelation, when He makes a covenant, He is condescending to our thoughts and paradigms to reveal Himself as a King in yet another way. Don’t let this thought trouble you, rather, let it magnify your appreciation of His mercy.

These covenants typically involved the great king promising some type of protection or blessing to the king and kingdom of the lesser. On the vassal king’s side, he was to swear allegiance and obedience to the great king. If he obeyed, he was blessed. If he disobeyed, he received curses and wrath.

This was the normal case, and is referred to as a “covenant of works.” However, every once in a while a great king would just make a promise to a lesser king (or a nobleman, a brave warrior, etc.) in which no obedience was demanded. The king would just want to bless. This is referred to as a “covenant of grace.” We’ll see the profound differences between the two as we work through these seminars (I briefly explained it in the seminar). God makes both types of covenants with different people at different times throughout the bible, and it’s important to know what kind of covenant we find ourselves in with God and, therefore, the basis of our blessing.

Covenant structure

So what were these covenants like? We can learn a good deal just by looking at the typical structure. Usually, covenants would contain the following:

• Preamble -  identifies the great king who authors the covenant
• Historical prologue – what the great king has already done for the vassal king
• Stipulations – what is expected of the vassal king
• Document clause – requirement that both kings carry a copy of the covenant and read it to the people on a regular basis
• List of blessings – rewards for vassal king’s obedience
• List of curses – consequences for vassal king’s disobedience

An excellent example of this can be found in Exodus 20:2-17. Read it, and you should be able to readily identify the preamble, the historical prologue and the stipulations.

There are a few additional things to note about covenants.

Firstly, they are generational. This means that the covenant is binding not only on the people who were alive when the covenant was made, but also their descendants after them (see Exodus 30:47).

Secondly, though it was the king who would enter into the covenant, the people underneath that king were also bound by it.  Therefore, the vassal king’s (or the kingdom’s) obedience or disobedience would result in either the people’s being blessed or cursed.

Lastly, covenants were cut. That is to say, covenants were sealed with blood. Usually by the sacrifice of an animal. In doing so, the kings essentially said to each other, “If I don’t keep this covenant, may it be done to me as it was done to these animals.”

If you would like to see a reconstruction of the story of the animal sacrifice in Genesis 15 in God’s covenant with Abraham, check out the blog I’ll be posting in the near future. I hope to convey the significance of the cut there.

Identifying the major covenants in the bible

In terms of our second most recent seminar, we went over the six major covenants of Scripture. On account of how busy these couple of weeks are turning out to be, I’ve decided to just post the (lightly edited) notes that I made and used in the seminar. If you were there (or plan on listening), you’ll see we covered some, but not all of these, so feel free to read at your leisure and think through these things as you go:

• CREATION COVENANT – Genesis 2:15-17
  Key reference verses – Romans 5:12-21
  In Adam all die (“death reigned”)
• Type – Works
• Stipulations: “don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” v. 17
• Between God and – Adam (and his seed, all of mankind)
• Blessing – Eternal life in the Garden, uninterrupted perfect fellowship with God
• Additionally the way they were blessed in Genesis 1:28 (fruitful multiply and have dominion)
• Curse – Death (see Romans 5 again); the changing of the blessings into curses, the earth is cursed (Gen. 3)
• Sign – ? maybe the tree of life (they could have partook of that instead of knowledge)
• Additional Notes/Implications –
• The curses reflect the blessings in cursed form (compare Genesis 1:28-30 and Genesis 3:16-19 and notice the changes)
• The covenant of redemption (theological covenant, that is to say a covenant made between the Persons of our Triune God) is a covenant of grace that shows up after Adam broke covenant  and promises redemption (Genesis 3:15)
• From Romans 5 we learn that Christ is a better covenant head
• Even though through the disobedience of Adam we all die (and disobey), Christ triumphs over that as a better Adam and a better covenant head

• NOAHIC COVENANT – Genesis 9:8-17 (see surrounding verses, too)
• Key reference verses – Genesis 9:11, Isaiah 54:9-10 (refers to new covenant that will be like Noahic covenant)
• Type – Grace
• Between God and – Noah and his descendants (all of mankind) [v.9-10]
• Blessing – fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, have dominion over it [9:1-3]; judgment is postponed
• Curse – NONE
• In the flood mankind was reaping the curses from the Creation Covenant
• Sign – Rainbow [9:13]
• Additional Notes/Implications –
• Note the shedding of blood in Gen 8:20 [I think this is the “cut”]
• Genesis 3:17, the ground is cursed; Genesis 8:21, God will not curse the ground again àis this foreshadowing the removal of the curse? I think so, but only foreshadowing its ultimate fulfillment in Christ.
• The covenant is primarily between God and Noah, but it includes all of mankind
• It also includes the other creatures of the earth
• You get the re-establishment of the proper function of God’s order (though not fully)
• Notice how God gave Noah blessings like that are similar to the ones he gave Adam
• However, humanity is still tainted by sin (Genesis 8:21 – every intention is evil, that’s why He destroyed it in the first place), this is pointing to a greater restoration still.
• INCREDIBLE display of grace (He won’t do it again, though sin remains).
• Is a shadow of the New Creation that is to come
• Points to a more significant redemption and judgment (2 Peter 3:6-7)

• ABRAHAMIC COVENANT – Genesis 12, 15, 17
• This, in a lot of ways, is the beginning of God’s redemptive work in humanity
• Key reference verses – Genesis 12:1-3, Galatians 3
• See preamble in Gen. 15:7
• Type – Grace
• Between God and – Abraham and his descendants (15:5,18, explicitly 17:7)
• Blessing –
• -          Great nation and name (12:2)
• -          a blessing to others (12:3)
• -          give the offspring the land(15:18)
• -          Father of a multitude of nations (17:4)
• -          He will be nations and kings will come from him (17:6)
• Curse – NONE
• Sign – circumcision [17:10]
• Additional Notes/Implications –
• What’s going on in 15:9-18?
• This is the cutting of the covenant
• MASSIVELY important in this covenant of grace
• The great King establishing His covenant
• God walks between the animals alone, symbolizing that He is going to make sure that His purposes are accomplished and nothing will stand in His way.
• God does demand Abraham’s obedience, but as we saw above, it was God who secured the covenant.
• Again, He was the one that passed between the animals, Abraham was absent
• See the commitment of God to this covenant when He begins to refer to Himself throughout the rest of the Bible as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
• It’s an everlasting covenant (Genesis 17:7)
• The blessings of the covenant are certain (talks about it in past tense in 17:5)
• When God promises something, it’s as good as accomplished, so even if it’s a future promise, God can talk about it like it’s in the past.
• Consider Romans 8 (predestined, called, justified, glorified in verse 30)
• Just a thought to ponder before we get to the Mosaic covenant, Abraham appears to blow it over and over again, but that did not nullify God’s faithfulness to this covenant.
• Highlights the difference between covenant of works and of grace
• Keep in mind that shadowy nature of the OT, because the NT picks up on this theme of the land, the offspring, the nations, the blessing, etc. to show us that it was pointing to something else (cf. Hebrews 11:13-16)
• WE ARE COMING BACK TO THIS ONE BIG TIME IN THE NEAR FUTURE!
• This is foundationally important for the rest of the story of the Bible.

• MOSAIC COVENANT – Exodus 20-25, Deuteronomy 27, 28
• The story of how Israel found themselves at Mount Sinai (plagues, exodus, bread, water)
• This is the beginning of the very explicit fulfillment of Abrahamic covenant
• The scene at Mount Sinai (terrifying)
• Lightning, thunder, darkness, fire
• No one comes up but Moses or else you die
• It is establishing the holiness of God
• Key reference verses – See Deuteronomy 27 & 28 for list of blessings and curses,
• -          IF you obey (Exodus 23:22)
• -          Preamble in Exodus 19:1-6
• -          Called the book of the covenant in Exodus 24:7
• Type – Works
• Between God and – the people of Israel
• Blessing –
• -          Long life in the land
• -          Land is blessed, wombs blessed, everything blessed
• -          Echoes of Eden
• Curse –
• -          Everything gets cursed, and then exile
• -          Explicitly specific with the description of curse and exile à you don’t want it
• -          Continuation of the Fall
• Sign – Sabbath (Exodus 31:17)
• Additional Notes –
• -          It builds upon the Abrahamic Covenant in that it shows that the beneficiaries of the covenant are to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:6)
• -          Do the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy 28 ring a bell with anywhere else in Scripture?
• The blessings are re-establishing what was lost in Eden.
  • Creation, fall, redemption, restoration
  • You see God redeeming a people (Israel, bought them from Egypt at the cost of the firstborn there) and hints at a final restoration.
  • Israel’s function was to be a light to the nations (we see this in a lot of places in Isaiah).
  • But to neglect to obey is to be have the land cursed and exiled (just like in the Garden)
• Blessings are lost in disobedience, regained by obedience, but we fail
  • Thus, Christ!
• You have a hint of restoration, but the reality is that it won’t happen this way [i.e. through the law] (Romans 7, Galatians 3)
• The continuity and discontinuity of the Law (ministry of life and ministry of death, 2 Corinthians 3-4)
• How it applies to us and how it doesn’t…
• Jesus fulfills the curses of the Mosaic Covenant by becoming a curse for us so that we might receive the blessing (Galatians 3:13-14)
• God’s holiness demands that His subjects live a life of holiness à these laws were designed to make Israel distinctive from all the nations of the earth
• It is a covenant between God and the people of Israel, we are underneath a different covenant as believers.
• We even see in Exodus 30 that failure to adhere to the principles of this covenant was anticipated. We’ll talk New Covenant in a bit, but it’s interesting to note the covenant of grace is implied in Exodus 30:6-10

• DAVIDIC COVENANT – 2 Samuel 7
• Key reference verses – See also 1 Chronicles 17
• Type – Grace (2 Samuel 7:12-15a)
• Between God and – David and David’s son (Solomon initially, but has layers to it)
• Blessing – An eternal kingdom (v.13)
• Curse – NONE
• Sign – A son
• Additional Notes/Implications –
• -          We have a major fulfillment to the Abrahamic covenant here
• -          There are direct implications for Solomon, etc.
• This covenant is why so much of the rest of the historical narrative of the Bible takes on the form that it does
• It talks about the kings because the kings now represent the people
• You see the prophets pick up on the theme of David/son of David, etc. which heightened the anticipation for a Messianic King, One who would save his people
• The question for us becomes, if it’s a covenant of grace…
  • and it said that the Kingdom of David would be established forever, but that obviously didn’t happen in the traditional manner, then what’s up?
  • points to Jesus

• NEW COVENANT – Jeremiah 31:27-34
• Key reference verses – cf. Jeremiah 32:36-41; Ezek. 36:22-38; Matt. 27:26-29; Ezekiel 11:14-21; Hebrews 8-10
• Type – Grace
• Between God and – the house of Judah and Israel à we need to talk about this and the continuity and discontinuity between the identity of the people of God that develops as we move from Old Testament to New Testament.
• Blessing –
• -          Forgiveness (Jer. 31:34, Matt. 27:28)
• -          New Birth, Law on hearts (Jer. 31:33, Ezek. 11:19-20; Ezek. 36:26-27)
• Curse – NONE
• Sign – Baptism (see Romans 6)
• Additional Notes/Implications –
• In terms of the promises to Israel/Judah; it seems to me that the NT writers are talking about a different kind of Israel à issues of continuity and discontinuity with the people of God
• Remember, everything in the OT is shadowy, and the substance is all in Christ (the Israel of God [Gal. 6:16])
• This might be difficult, but wait until the last session
  • Not saying I have all the answers, but I think that I’ve started down the right track.
• The prophets are almost always pointing back to the Abrahamic and forward to this covenant when they are talking about restoration.
• He DELIGHTS to do you good! (Jeremiah 32:40-41, and see the surrounding context to check for the different covenants that are mentioned)
• You will see that this is implied in almost every promise of restoration that you see throughout the prophets
• The continuity and discontinuity that exists
• Between us and Israel in particular
• Galatians 3 (which we’ll deal with next time) will show us this

All things unto Christ

I’ll finish this post like I finished the seminar: by briefly demonstrating how all of these covenants point to Jesus.

Jesus is the true and better Adam. A covenant head and representative of mankind that faced temptation not in a garden of plenty, but in the desolate wilderness, and then in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His betrayal. He was tempted beyond what any of us would care to imagine, and yet He obeyed, crying out, “Yet not what I will, but what you will,” (Mark 14:36).

Jesus fulfills the commitment of the covenant God has had from all of eternity to redeem mankind, though this was just a whisper to humanity moments after we fell (Genesis 3:15).

Jesus is a better vehicle through which we find salvation from the wrath of God. He is the first fruits of a New Creation, not just the same stuff re-emerging from the old, but truly new and truly better without any of the clinging remnant of sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). He is the one who can truly provide peace between God and His creation and is clothed in the rainbows of God’s mercy (Revelation 4:3).

Jesus is the true offspring of Abraham to whom all the promises of Abraham were kept and fulfilled in measure greater than we had a right to expect. It was Abraham himself who saw His day and rejoiced in it (John 8:56).

Jesus fulfilled the Law of Moses (Matthew 5:17) by living the life of perfect obedience, securing the blessing, and dying the atoning death bearing the curse that we all deserved for our disobedience, for it is written “cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree,” (Galatians 3:13, cf. Deuteronomy 21:23).

To the consternation of His opponents, even the blind were able to recognize that Jesus was the true Son of David (Matthew 9:7). His Kingdom, though not of this world (John 18:36), is an everlasting Kingdom with perfect order that will be consummated one day. He will not have an ongoing lineage of sons that will be the king, but He Himself is the perfect Son, seated at the right hand of God, making intercession for mankind (Romans 8:34). Who isn’t just figuratively the vice-regency, representing God’s people to God, but is the exact image of God himself, so that when God looks upon us, He sees not us (nor the image of a fallible king), but the perfect image of His Son.

Lastly, Jesus is the Mediator of the New Covenant, one that was not sealed with the shedding of the blood of goats and heifers, but with His own blood. Blood that is imperishable. Blood that is more precious than fine gold. Blood that does what the blood of goats and bulls could never do by granting us access to the Father.

I pray God uses this rather long post to elicit worship in our hearts and help us comprehend and love our great Savior all the more.

The Kingdom of God in the Beginning

These posts will deal with the revelation of God as a King establishing His Kingdom. In this post we will survey this claim tracking it through Genesis 1-11. You should read your bible before reading this and see if these things are so. The (much shorter) audio for this story can be found here (download or listen) starting around 1:02:50.

We know and we worship a very powerful God. He created the vastness of our universe and governs the infinitesimal parts (Hebrews 1:3). He is a King and his throne is in the heavens (Psalm 103:19). He made everything, and then hovered over its formlessness.

He spent the first seven days of Creation on the throne giving the edicts of a King to His creation. He has established right and rule over all of it. He assigned its functions and deemed their worth. He tested and judged it. He saw that it was good.

Yet in all of God’s creative power, He saw fit to create a being that would share in His likeness. A being that, like Him, would maintain some degree of rule and reign. A being that would also be an “us.” He made man in His image, in His image He made them. And He gave them dominion by the blessing of His word. And He showed them love by His blessing. And He established their steps in front of them. He loved them with an everlasting love. He walked with them.

He showed them that He is to be trusted, that His Word is true and powerful. That He is a King to be honored and revered. He was a King that was with them in the Garden, in His Temple.

He displayed His Kingship over man by giving them a word of warning. More like a command. Eat anything and do anything. Just don’t eat that. Trust Me.

His Word is truth. His Word is steadfast. His Word is right. His Word was challenged.

A snake. It was a snake that uttered the first lie. He first perverted God’s eternal Word, and then He craftily contradicted it. He appealed to that side of man that was hungry for more power, more control, more rule. That side of man that is suspicious of his King. That side that is prone to doubt, and prone to leave the God he loves. Then man fell in. And great was that fall.

The fall into the ocean of doubt left a mountainous wake. We no longer trust God. We don’t know Him. We don’t see Him. We hurt. We labor. We do it all in vain. We go back to the dust from which we were created. And yet we continue, by the sweat of our brow and by the pain of our love.

God could have destroyed them there. He has the power to un-make them. Instead, He made them a promise and some coats. They didn’t realize it, but this was designed to point to a better Man. A faithful Man in whom there is no deceit nor shadow of change. A Man tempted, but a Man who would prevail. A Man that would suffer bruises, but would not neglect to administer the final blow. A Man whose covering would truly shield us from our frigid shame. A Man who was there in the beginning. A Man who not only trusted the Word, but who is the Word.

And so they were exiled from the presence of God. They suffered the murder of their own son, not realizing that this, too, pointed to a better Son who also was going to be murdered. A Son that will one day put an end to all murder. A Prince of Peace, as it were.

And so evil continued. It went from nonexistent to the status quo in the matter of a generation. And it increased. It was pitiful. Sorrowful, even. So terrible that if you could have seen it, or if you could really see it today, you’d have wished there was nothing there. Nothing is at least better than this. The King took note, and then He acted.

Not a faithful subject among them. They had all neglected the King. Yet He liked one of them. And because He liked him, He spared him. A big boat would carry him to safety. Noah could even take his family, and a few thousand animals.

And God uncreated the world. Where once land had emerged, it was now covered again with water. And a dove hovered over the face of the deep. And then land emerged. The dove returned with a message of peace.

The earth was allowed to teem again. Noah was given rule over it. There was freshness in the air. A new thing had been done. A new promise had been made. The spectrum in the sky had been assigned its function. The Warrior King had set down His bow in a symbol of amnesty.

Still, in all its drama, the “recreation” was a disappointment. The boat couldn’t have been the King’s true vehicle of deliverance. Surely there must be a better and more sufficient device in which we can find refuge from His wrath. There must be something better emerging from the water than the same old land, any dove could find that. Show me the Dove who can locate where the truly new life is found. Show me the Dove who descended on Him (Matthew 3:16-17).

And because it was insufficient, the earth’s underkings quickly went back to what they did best. They sought power, fortune, fame, and status. Tall things have always been impressive, so they constructed a city and manufactured a tower. One tall enough to even withstand a flood of biblical proportions.

Yet the cities of man have never compared to the Garden of God. The kings of this world can only think of height when the Kingdom of God demands that we lay ourselves low. And so the true King confused them. He gave them over to themselves, that they might seek their own glory, confusing their own languages, starting their own wars, and creating their own misery. Zealously sitting upon their own thrones.

But in the multiplicity of voices, the King is making for Himself a beautiful song with a harmony of voices that will see, proclaim, and admire His greatness someday in the fullness of peace (Revelation 7:9-10).

And this will start with an old man and his barren wife.

Sipping from the Fire Hydrant

The Kingdom of God and a Biblical Theology
The leadership of the Crossing has labored for some time now to try and convince the body of the legitimacy and need of a good biblical theology. You may not realize this. They do it very shrewdly. Well, they used to anyway. Up until now, Aaron and Gary have preached (and preached well) using a biblical theology framework. They usually don’t mention biblical theology by name when they do it, but if you’ve ever wondered why Aaron and Gary (especially) tend to take us through the entire story of the bible in so many of their sermons, this is what they are doing. They’re teaching us to be whole bible Christians.

It makes sense; the whole bible was meant for Christians (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

I say that it used to be a shrewd approach because if you didn’t have a biblical theology framework, you might just think that our pastors were continually just trying to fill up time in their 45 minute sermons with lengthy explanations of the history behind almost anything. However, as of last Sunday, we introduced our first of five biblical theology seminars. It’s in the light now. I took the helm in order to teach through the basics of biblical theology by giving some of the technical terms as well as providing background information on the Old Testament and introducing the story of God and His Kingdom by doing a survey of Genesis 1-11 (which is in a different post).

We covered a lot of ground, perhaps too much. By the end I felt like a loosed fire hydrant bidding the neighborhood to take a quick sip before heading on with their day. In case you weren’t there, and you don’t want to listen to the audio here’s what you missed.

The Tools

Biblical theology is distinct from the other theologies (which we won’t go into here) because it handles the bible on its own terms. That is to say, the bible progresses throughout its own story line to reveal to us more and more of God’s character and plans for humanity.

Because of this, we need a handful of new terms to understand what in the world is going on.

Progressive revelation is a helpful term that identifies the aforementioned fact that the bible is (in large parts) a historical narrative that tells a story as it progresses throughout time. A lot is revealed about God in Genesis 1:1, but this is not the end of the story. It doesn’t end until the close of the age and the return of the King, so we must realize that there is more to be learned as we progress through the book, and that the latter revelation (NT, particularly) very helpfully interprets former revelation (OT, particularly).

Exegesis is a concept that is sensitive to the fact that there are some 3500 years between us and the writing of the earliest books of the bible (and a mere 1900 years from the end of the NT). Because the bible was written by men (inspired by the Spirit of God, 2 Peter 1:20-21) from a completely different era, it seeks to understand what the original author’s intent was. It requires discipline and thinking, but the bible (and the Holy Spirit of God, 1 Corinthians 2:13) are very helpful in informing us about these things. Exegesis bridges the gap between us and the original authors to get to the truth of what the author was trying to convey to his original audience. This helpfully informs how the various portions of Scripture are applied to us.

Exegesis is sensitive not only to the history of the bible, but also to its literature. Whether it’s narrative, poetic, prophetic, a parable, wisdom literature, an epistle, or apocalyptic, exegesis weighs the significance of the nuances between these types of literature and seeks a correct interpretation of them.

These tools will help us refine our hermeneutic. A hermeneutic can be thought of as the lens through which you view scripture. It is a starting point that ends up driving all subsequent interpretations of a text. Therefore, the more scripturally informed hermeneutic you have, the better you will be able to interpret the various texts of the bible.

A few important notes on this, when reading the bible, one must be humble enough to let the bible interpret itself at many points. The bible is a highly self-conscious book in the sense that the various authors oftentimes are familiar with the other texts contained within the bible. This is highly true of the New Testament, but true of much of the Old Testament as well. Therefore, we must allow the New Testament to be the glasses through which we read the Old Testament. The New Testament refines our Old Testament hermeneutic.

Dual authorship is the term that refers to the very nature of how we received the bible. The bible was indeed a book written by the finger of God. But as we noted earlier, it is also a book that finds its feet very much in the happenings of human history. This establishes for us the inexorable link between God’s word and His sovereignty over human history.

The concept of dual authorship can be found in 2 Peter 1:20-21 and just establishes the fact that though it is a book written by the hands of men, it was born out of the mind of God. The human authorship of the bible does not detract from the inerrancy and infallibility of God’s word, but neither does the divine nature of the revelation negate the fact that this book was written by real individuals with a real audience dealing with real problems confined to a specific time frame and location. Both of these truths inform our exegesis and establishes that though the bible was not written to us it was in fact written for us. Incidentally, the fully human and fully divine nature of the written word makes more sense when we consider the fully divine and fully human nature of the Word made flesh (John 1:14).

That is a drastically simplified view of the tools that are needed for proper biblical interpretation, but I hope it is helpful for the faithful bible reader. Much of it is actually quite self-evident, but oftentimes these principles go unapplied to the study of the bible. These ideas will be refined and built upon throughout the rest of the courses.

The Old Testament is Very Big and Very Old

In order to help participants in this class with how to view the Old Testament, I provided a few materials that give biblical timelines and helpful charts and spreadsheets for understanding the Old Testament’s breakdown. If you request in the comments, I’ll be happy to provide those texts for you. If you came to the seminars, I hope you have taped these charts to the inside of your bible. If you haven’t, then do it. Now.

All this was to say that if we can get the general ideas of what’s going on in the Old Testament, it will help immensely when we get down to the individual verses that can sometimes seem very strange and very far removed from ourselves.

It’s important to note here that the Old Testament is very important to us as Christians. The New Testament itself stands upon what was laid down by the prophets. Jesus commended it and fulfilled it (Matthew 5:17-20). I hope this becomes clearer and more potent as we continue, but our God has seen fit to give us a very large book, and so we ought to be familiar with all of it (Deuteronomy 8:3). Breaking up the magnitude of it in understandable sections is very helpful, and so I would encourage you to either seek out or think through ways you can do this.

In the Next Post

I urge you to read the story of God’s Kingdom from the beginning. For the purpose of keeping this post shorter, I’ve posted in separately. Read your bible before reading it and see if these things are true.

If you have any questions, please write them in the comments and we’ll discuss them. Next week we’ll talk about the various covenants of scripture that are monumentally important for understanding God’s unfolding plan.

Getting Started – A Brief Explanation of Biblical Theology

I want to try and set forth a brief case for why biblical theology is needed within a local church body and explain the principles that guide and shape it. Wish me luck, because there are a lot of things that could be said about either of these.
For starters, I think it’s worth mentioning that biblical theology is just a name that we have given to a certain way of understanding the bible. It is, however, how the bible has been properly understood and interpreted since the time of the New Testament authors (and Old Testament, for that matter).

In the next couple of weeks, I hope to establish that this is the right way of understanding the bible through these blog posts and in our Sunday seminars (which, in case you forgot, are starting this Sunday and will continue for five weeks).  My hope and prayer for this is that it will clarify and inform our personal reading of Scripture, which in turn will be fuel for heart-filled worship and benefit anyone involved in a local church.

Biblical theology steps back and views the forest for the trees. That’s not to say that it neglects the trees, though. Without the trees you have no forest. But if you have no idea that you’re in a forest in the first place, the trees look daunting, unfamiliar, and tough to climb. Biblical theology provides a map by which you can find your way through the forest, and in so doing, see the glory of each of the individual trees much more clearly.

This is accomplished by viewing Scripture in a particular way. Instead of seeing the bible as a collection of 66 books and poems and letters that are disjointed and unfamiliar to each other, biblical theology teaches us that the bible is really one book by one author telling one story.

What is the story? It is the story of a King and his Kingdom. It is a story about God and His people.  It is a story that begins in the beginning (Genesis 1:1) and ends when all things are made new (Revelation 21:5). And it is a story that traces God’s plans and intentions throughout all of this.

Put more succinctly, it is the story of God redeeming people from every tribe, language, people and nation (Revelation 5:9) through the blood of His eternal Son (John 1:2) to the praise of His glorious grace (Ephesians 1:5-6).

This story, in my opinion, unfolds beautifully throughout the bible, and I hope to be able to show that to you here and in the seminars.

A few things to note about the seminars:

Timing: We’ll be getting started between 12:30 and 1:00pm every Sunday for the next few Sundays. The reason I chose this time is because I hope it will serve to extend Sunday fellowship among the people of the Crossing as well as some friends from nearby churches. The first seminar will have lunch provided, but after that I invite you to bring your lunch to the seminar so you can eat and fellowship with people as we gather around God’s word.

You will need to come ready to think. God has given us minds that are best employed when they are in service to Him (Matthew 22:37). Be ready to learn a lot of new words. You’ll be hearing about things like exegesis, hermeneutics, systematics, progressive revelation, typology, covenantal arrangements, epochs, eras and many other things that may be unfamiliar to you now, but will quickly become part of your vocabulary.

Notes are not necessary, but helpful.

You don’t need to come to all of the seminars; they should stand alone well enough, but will be best when done all together.

You can go as far as you want with it. I’ll advise literature and provide optional assignments that I think will be highly beneficial.

My desire is not to preach, but to facilitate some informative conversations. So come ready to share what you think and any questions that may arise.

Lastly, by way of personal appeal, I have grown deeply in my appreciation for God’s Word since having been introduced to these concepts. I hope this course will benefit you all in same way by increasing your love and the ability to savor the grace of God. That’s why we’re doing this. That’s why we should do all things (Psalm 34:8).

The Treasure Principle

I just recently finished reading a great book by Randy Alcorn titled “The Treasure Principle”. This little book is page after page of biblical truths and convicting arguments regarding personal finances, and the worshipful act of giving. I strongly believe that every Christian should read this book. That might seem a little presumptuous, but I believe I can make that claim for two reasons. First, it’s very short, and takes very little effort and time commitment to read. And second, it is deeply rooted in scripture. So, I strongly encourage you to give it a read on your own.
However, in case you don’t read it, or procrastinate reading it, I want to share the books main points with you now. Randy Alcorn outlines six main points which he calls the keys to the treasure principle. And they are these (descriptions mine):

1. God owns everything. I am His money manager.
   Here, the lesson is essentially what you will find in Luke 19:12-27. This is the parable that Jesus tells of the servants who were given money by their master, to be stewards over. Two of the men are good stewards and work hard with what they’ve been given, eventually multiplying their master’s money. The third, however, is lazy and unwise; instead deciding to horde his money, not using it for any good. For this misuse of his money, the master is very angry, and punishes his servant. The lesson is this: God, our Master, has blessed us with much so that we can use it for His kingdom and glory, not to keep to ourselves.
2. My heart always goes where I put God’s money.
   In a great video, Mark Driscoll explains this principle much better than I could here. The main point, in both book and video, is that your money and your heart are inherently and eternally linked. Your money will follow your heart, and (maybe more importantly) your heart will follow your money. (Click here to watch that video.)
3. Heaven, not earth, is my home.
   How many times have you heard someone say: “It’s all gonna burn”? I am blessed to have been raised by parents who are extremely generous. When my dad decided to give one of our vehicles away to someone in need, I remember my sisters objecting that he should charge something, if only a small amount, and that this was a very poor financial decision. He just responded with that age-old saying. 2 Peter 3:10-13 affirms this truth. The old heavens and the old earth are going to pass away, along with everything you ever owned. You are going to die, and you are (by Christ) going to spend eternity in your true home. Don’t get too attached to what you have here. It’s not yours anyways.
4. I should live not for the dot but for the line.
   This point closely relates to #3. Eternity is a long time. One analogy that I’ve always liked is this: Imagine if the entire Earth was made of steel, and in the entire world there was only one little ant. However, this ant was special in that it was indestructible and did not age. Now imagine how long it would take for that entire Earth made of metal to be eroded away, down to nothing just by the friction of that ant’s little legs on the Earth. That amount of time is just the beginning of eternity. A popular saying is that our lives are but a vapor (James 4:14). And it’s true. Imagine that our lives here on Earth and our lives in Heaven are a dot and a line. The line goes on for forever. So which one are we living for? When we give to God what is already His, we are saying in effect “I will live for the line”.
5. Giving is the only antidote to materialism.
   If you haven’t yet, now would a good time to watch that video I mentioned. Someone wiser than I once said: “Materialism uses people to get things. Christianity uses things to get people.” Your heart will follow your money. So pray that your money would follow God. If you have a desire for missions, but you want God to grow your heart in it, start by giving more to it. Think about this: Scripture teaches us that furthering the kingdom is more important that food, shelter, or comfort (Matthew 4:4, Luke 9:58, 2 Corinthians 11:24-29, etc…). Yet, scripture also exhorts us to take care of those in need (Luke 14:13, Acts 10:4, Galatians 2:10, 1 Timothy 5:3, etc…). These two lessons could seem contradictory. Does God want me to help the poor by giving to them, or by evangelizing to them? Maybe God commands us to do both because He knows that when we give to those in need, our heart for them will follow, as will the gospel.
6. God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving.
   Seriously, watch the video. Matthew 6:19-21 tells us to store our treasures in Heaven, not Earth. This implies that there are situations where we have a choice. We are undoubtedly the richest people group to ever walk this earth. I once heard that if you were rich enough to afford college, you are in the top 1% of the richest people in the world. God has historically blessed people with the tools and abilities they need most in their time. I believe that in times of war, God has blessed His people with traits like strength and perseverance. Or that in times of disease God has blessed us with compassion and healing. Now imagine a time in history when the Gospel has its greatest potential to reach every corner of the globe. A time when information can travel at the speed of light, and people can be sent to the most remote locations. However, this massive venture isn’t cheap. What might God bless His people with?

Our Former Sins for His Glory

“I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” 1 Timothy 1:12-15

Confessing our sin is indispensible to the Christian life.

I have found it interesting, yet unsurprising, how often the apostle Paul mentions his life prior to his experience on the road to Damascus. In addition to that which I quoted above, you can also see him make mention of it to the church of Corinth in his first epistle to them (1 Corinthians 15:9), he uses it as part of his defense before his accusers at the temple (Acts 22:4), in another defense he laid out before King Agrippa (Acts 26:9-11), again in his letter to the Galatian churches (Galatians 1:13), and in his letter to the Philippians (Philippians 3:6).

I find it interesting because this, for Paul, seems to be the one sin he mentions more than anything else. Undoubtedly there was still a sense of shame and an acknowledgment of his former waywardness that found its way into to his thinking on a regular basis. Or at least on a basis regular enough to cause him to write it to several churches and bring it up in several public addresses.

I say unsurprising, though, because we see this everywhere. Undoubtedly, the reason we know so much about Peter’s three-fold denial of the Lord was because he told people about it (Mark 14:66-72). Assuredly Thomas is known as the doubter today because he was known as the doubter among the apostles in his day (John 20:25). And we know that John and James themselves were arrogant (Mark 10:35-37) and violent men (Luke 9:52-55), and how could we find out unless they had shared these things?

In addition to that, though, my lack of surprise stems from the fact that we as Christians do the same thing today. There is not a true living saint who would not be able to disclose to you in some detail what his or her life was like before Jesus was first revealed to them in the beauty of the gospel. Even if that person attained a saving faith at a young age, the understanding of sin and its repercussions for a person’s life is indispensible to what the gospel is all about. It has been said that the only thing that we as Christians bring into our own salvation is the sin from which we need to be forgiven. It’s a striking way in which God makes for himself humble followers.

I get this sentiment from many places within the bible, but to keep it brief, just look how our opening passage ends, “The saying is trustworthy…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost.” There are a handful of these “sayings” throughout the pastoral epistles, but suffice it to say, they are oftentimes proverbs, verses from hymns, and brief doctrinal statements. What we have here is likely a fantastic truth wrapped within a colloquialism of the early church. We can assume that most of the members of the early church (like most members of the current church) were not great orators, yet since they had been so radically changed by the gospel they needed and even desired some way to articulate the gospel to an unbelieving world. I can imagine this saying falling from the lips of an early saint when approached by a family member, or friend, or neighbor, or hostile questioner when asked, “What’s so great about this Jesus?” to which our Christian brother or sister would be able to reply “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost.”

I bring these topics up because I have recently encountered a number of situations that have forced me to come face to face with a good deal of my own shameful and largely regrettable past.

These occasions have forced me to consider the way in which I lived before and even in the midst of a very messy conversion experience. I’ve often found myself becoming nervous before visiting friends and former relations in these situations not because I was ashamed of the gospel, but because these were people who knew my sin and knew it well. And because my own conversion occurred over a protracted period of time, they were also there to see the way in which I misused the gospel and oftentimes denied it in my actions.

Unlike Paul, I might end up writing pages upon pages about the various sins that marked life prior to my coming to faith. For Paul it was sufficient to remark that he was a persecutor and a blasphemer, and my aim is not to diminish that. However, do we not at times feel the utter sinfulness of our sin, both past and present? Do we not sometimes lament over the way in which we denied the Lord? And do we not feel grief over doing those things that are so offensive to a holy, heavenly, perfectly loving Father?

In a way, I hope we do. I trust that these oftentimes rough feelings are evidence of the new heart that we receive as new covenant believers (Jeremiah 31:33, cf. Ezekiel 11:19-20).

On the other hand, we need not be ashamed of these things any longer. It was Christ who came to die for sinners. It’s the Son of God who bore the wrath of God for our sins. He took upon himself all of those things that separated us from our heavenly Father and now he grants us access to him (Romans 5:1-2). And on top of all that, God even redeems our former waywardness and shows that he can be exalted not only in spite of it, but even through it, as was Paul’s case. As was mine. As I hope is yours.

Consider, for a moment, the grace that caused personal change in the restoration of Peter, the revelation to Thomas, the Lord’s adulation of John, the execution of James, and the obligation that was given to Paul (John 21:15-19, John 20:26-29, John 13:23, Acts 12:2, Acts 9:16). Yet it is God who restores and redeems the former brokenness and brings good out the evil (Genesis 50:20, Romans 8:28).

As for me, God has been so gracious time and time again to use the mess that I made of things in coming to faith to allow me to witness to his surpassing grace and kindness. I have shared my story so many times and been told by unbeliever and believer alike that they were deeply moved by the story of what God had done in my life, and so often what he did it in spite of myself. God uses our former sins and gains glory through them.

I trust this is one reason Paul talks about his former sins repeatedly, and so perhaps we ought to also. We need not glory in our sin. We talk about these things not to shine any light on ourselves, but if we have truly been struck by the power of the gospel, we do it to show the surpassing mercy and grace that are found in God our Savior. And when we have received it, we desire all others to see it as well, regardless of what they knew about us beforehand. So I pray you come, and behold the Lamb of God, who takes away and works redemption through the sins of the world.

Living the Contradiction

The Living Contradiction of Christ in the Upside Down Kingdom

He was the meekest and lowliest of all the sons of men, yet he spoke of coming on the clouds of heaven with the glory of God. He was so austere that evil spirits and demons cried out in terror at his coming, yet he was so genial and winsome and approachable that the children loved to play with him, and the little ones nestled in his arms. His presence at the innocent gaiety of a village wedding was like the presence of sunshine.

No one was half so compassionate to sinners, yet no one ever spoke such red-hot, scorching words about sin. A bruised reed he would not break. His whole life was love, yet on one occasion he demanded of the Pharisees how they ever expected to escape the damnation of hell. He was a dreamer of dreams and a seer of visions, yet for sheer stark realism he has all of our self-styled realists soundly beaten. He was the servant of all, washing the disciples’ feet, yet masterfully he strode into the temple, and the hucksters and moneychangers fell over one another from the mad rush and the fire they saw blazing in his eyes.

He saved others, yet at the last, himself he did not save. There is nothing in history like the union of contrasts that confronts us in the gospels. The mystery of Jesus is the mystery of divine personality.

James Stewart, quoted in Has Christianity Failed You? by Ravi Zacharias (p.28)

Sermon Notes – Showdown in the Holy City

Betrayal, Desertion, Injustice and the Glory of the Gospel
Mark may seem to have written the most bare bones gospel account that we get in all of Scripture. Unlike the other three gospels, you don’t really see Jesus taking up long discourses with the people, and therefore you don’t get the same directness of the teachings of Jesus that you see elsewhere. However, what you do find in Mark is, what I like to call, a “superhero” Jesus who travels from place to place doing good works and performing marvelous signs. Though implicit to this is that he is preaching the gospel all along the way (Mark 1:38).

About a week ago, Pastor Gary preached on the beginning of what seems like such an odd climax to such a remarkable life as it is described in Mark 14:43-65. For over a year, we have studied the Gospel of Mark and seen and heard about Jesus healing the sick, forgiving sinners, commending the humble, rebuking the proud, and generally stirring things up wherever he goes.

Yet what we see in this passage by all accounts would have been considered merely the abrupt end of this controversial life were it not for the ultimate design of the resurrection. By way of review, we read about how Jesus was betrayed by one of his disciples (Mark 14:43-45), arrested by the religious leaders (Mark 14:46-49), abandoned by the rest of his disciples (Mark 14:50-52), and unjustly tried by his own people while they disgraced and mocked him (Mark 14:53-65). Hardly seems like an apt end for our Hero.

And yet what we do have here is a portrait of a Savior who was “tempted as we are, yet without sin,” (Hebrews 4:15).  This is something that sets Jesus apart. He was betrayed, and yet he did not turn to his betrayer in anger (Matthew 26:50). He was abandoned, but he remained faithful to those who deserted him (2 Timothy 2:13). Injustice and evil surrounded him, yet he did not respond in turn (Mark 14:61). Sin upon sin was hurled at Jesus, and he just absorbed it. Sin stops at Jesus, for it was the Father’s good pleasure to make “him to be sin who knew no sin.” But why? “So that in him we might become the righteousness of God,” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The Upside Down Nature of the Kingdom of God

Much like everything else that Jesus did, his way of displaying his power was, to say the least, unconventional. And yet even this is full of glory. We should not expect God to do things the way we would (Isaiah 55:8-9), nor should we expect the way of the cross to make much sense to our natural minds (1 Corinthians 1:18-21); however, this is all part and parcel of what Jesus has been showing us in Mark for many chapters.

The natural ways of man are contrary to the ways of God. This is clearly evident from a brief reading of any of the gospels, and so we must think in an upside down sort of way in order to “get” the gospel. Therefore, we have a Hero that is disgraced, a Savior who is crushed, a Lord who serves all, and a living God who has come to die.

Gary commended us to continue to think and live in such a way so as to vehemently press upon the door of heaven and enter into this upside down Kingdom. In order to do that, we must look to Jesus. It’s why Mark wrote this gospel. It’s why we’re studying it.

So, as we were challenged by Gary’s sermon, let us beware of any blind spots that might keep us from seeing something that would prevent our entrance. Let us beware of the deceitfulness of hardship, so that we might not run from Jesus in times of trial. Let us lay down our lives for one another and for this city, so that we might achieve true greatness, bearing in mind that it is only by the grace of God that we can hope to attain to any of this, and the grace of God is made accessible by what we are reading here in the beginning of Jesus’s most severe sufferings as he prepares for his crucifixion (Hebrews 2:10-11).

Established Worth Found in Christ

Previously, I had posted on Aaron’s sermon about the anointing of Jesus by the woman with the alabaster flask in Mark 14:3-9. It is a beautiful passage, and I hope the sermon and blog proved to be profitable for those who listened and read. One thing I had wanted to mention but did not, though, was Jesus’s response to this extravagant worship:

And truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she had done will be told in memory of her.
Mark 14:9

By way of preface, I should note two things: first, this will not be an exegetical study of the above text, and secondly, hardly anything I write below is a thought that is original to me, but comes from having my thoughts formed after hearing many, many sermons.

Ok, that’s out of the way.

The context of this story, if you recall, was in the midst of when Mary was being harangued for her worship. In the midst of such derision, though, Christ affirms the precious nature of this worship, and in so doing, validates her own personhood, for He says, “what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

This is an astonishing statement. The Lord of glory Himself not only took note of Mary’s action, but also affirmed her worth. And that’s what I’d like to focus on here.

One thing you may notice throughout the gospel accounts is that in the midst of preaching to the masses and roaming around the countryside with His band of disciples, Jesus repeatedly takes special time and care to stop and interact with broken, hurting, and curious individuals. Passages throughout the Bible that talk about these stories have grown increasingly precious to me.

Perhaps one of the most striking instances of this is the story of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well captured for us in John 4:1-45. In it we have the story of Jesus interacting with a racially discriminated against, morally rejected, profoundly confused woman. For Jesus to even speak with a woman (not to mention one of “ill-repute”) in that day would have been scandalous to the utmost! And yet we not only see Him speak to her, but He gives to her the most profound of self-disclosures when, after talking to her about the prophesied Messiah, He says to her, “I who speak to you am he,” (John 4:26).

I would love to mention some more of these stories, but for want of time and space I will forego them here. Rather, I would encourage you to open up to any page of the four gospels and see that there is more than likely a story involving Jesus spending time with an individual.

There is something worth pointing out here, and that is this: people have worth. There is something within a person that the Son of God Himself found so compelling that He took the time to interact with many of them on a one-on-one basis. However, this inherent worth in humanity, I believe, is established in something extraneous to itself.

Perhaps one of the more peculiar yet foundational claims made by the Judeo-Christian worldview is that men and women are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). That is to say, humans are created with inherent worth because they are made in the image of someone who is infinitely worthy. This is a compliment that I think far exceeds anything that we could possibly comprehend.

I freely admit that I lack a comprehensive knowledge of all the worldviews that find themselves in stark contradiction to the teachings of the Bible. As for what I do know, though, I believe that the way in which Jesus displays this fundamental truth makes for a profound distinction between Him and all the other leaders and pedagogues of all other major worldviews. From eastern pantheism to western atheism, I have a hard time imagining how any other worldview might argue for something that appears so self-evidently true.

Conclusion

Reasonably, you may well wonder why I bother bringing this up. Good question.

For starters, I think we must know this: that the image that God has stamped upon us has been marred by human sin. In all the honor into which God created us, we have all too readily given it up to go after our own sinful and selfish proclivities.

Secondly, though sin has separated us from God, in a sense it did not separate God from us. This is what I mean, “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us,” (Romans 8:3-4). Know this: Christ Jesus came into the world to save individual sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). He came in the very likeness of man and died upon a cross in order to reconcile us to a most worthy, and good, and just, and holy, and loving God! Christ coming in this likeness tore down the veil that separated man from God (Matthew 27:51, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Hebrews 10:19-20).

Third, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” (2 Corinthians 5:21). That is to say, if you are a believer in Christ, not only do you have the compliment of being made in God’s image, but you now have the utter privilege of being redeemed to conform to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). Do not let this conformity confuse you, however, for in conformity to this Individual, we gain the truer and better expression of our own individuality.

Fourth, take the time to understand and love the way that Jesus does things. He loved people (John 3:16). He loves you (Ephesians 2:4-5). Rejoice in this love! And now show that love by following the example of Jesus. Understand that there is something very important about the individuals that God has placed in your life, both believing and unbelieving. Do not neglect this truth, for you would do so at your own peril and the peril of others. Like Mary, our response to Jesus, his love, and his salvation in our acts of worship and obedience toward God are precious in the sight of our Savior. As feeble and small as they are, like the destitute widow’s offering (Mark 12:41-44), or the handful of unbelieving individuals that you know, individual acts of obedience make for a powerful and lasting impact that leave impressions even upon Jesus.

Fifthly and lastly, this is how the Kingdom of God is built. It is built upon broken individuals being saved and then put together as wholesome stones into a temple (1 Peter 2:5). Yes, Jesus did speak to the crowds, but I’m sure it was not uncommon for them to leave after hearing His hard words (John 6:66). But in nearly all the examples of Jesus going to an individual, the change is drastic and effectual. Jesus did the hard thing by building His Kingdom from the bottom up, and not from the top down. He loves individuals into His Kingdom. This, again, distinguishes Jesus from all others.

We as the Crossing need to take this same approach. On several occasions I have heard Pastor Aaron say that we are planting a church in the most difficult way possible. That is to say, our “evangelism strategy” is simply to tell the church to love their neighbors, coworkers, and friends, to pray for them often and earnestly, and share the gospel in deed and truth (1 John 3:18), hoping that their hearts would be softened and they would come to know God in Christ.

Honestly, I can’t think of a better way to do it.

Catalyst - The Spark for Change

For those of you who were unaware, this previous weekend was marked by a gathering of pastors and other leaders involved in the Crossway Chapel church planting movement (http://www.crosswaychapel.org/) for the third annual Catalyst church planting conference. It was held in our sister church Windsor Community. Represented there were leaders from:

Fort Collins, Colorado (www.mvcchurch.org, www.thecrossingfc.org)

Windsor, Colorado (http://www.windsorchurch.org/home/)

Ault, Colorado (http://www.highplainsharvest.org/)

Wilmington, North Carolina (http://www.crosswaywilmington.org/)

McMinnville, Oregon (http://creeksidemac.com/default.aspx)

Toms River, New Jersey (http://remedynj.com/)

Vsetin, Czech Republic (http://cb.cz/vsetin.majak/)

From the get go, the Crossing has been part of this church planting movement. And by God’s grace we will continue take part in the process of replicating healthy, doctrinally sound, gospel centered local churches that strive to make Christ known as we endeavor to remain such a church ourselves.

For those who were not there, the basic layout of the conference revolved around a series of five messages that sought to understand the various ways in which the words of Jesus in Mark 8:34-35 applied to church planting. These messages were punctuated by Q&A sessions with a panel as well as table discussions. I will very briefly discuss some of these here, but the messages and panel questions will be available for download in the near future, and I’ll provide the link as soon as I have it.

Being a Catalyst for Change – Tom Harcus

In this message, Tom Harcus from Crossway Chapel of Wilmington challenged us to lay aside the “consumer culture” that has invaded much of the American church and instead pick up the cross of “Kingdom culture.” There are flagrant differences between the two, but those that Tom highlighted most vividly were those that demonstrated where consumer culture tends to be passive, safe, and look only to the temporal, Kingdom culture is rooted in a proactive and risky approach to a life that sets its hopes in eternity. If we are to see drastic change for the Kingdom of God, we must be willing to take up the cross of difficulty, but we will gain a crown of glory in the process. In other words, it will be well worth it.

Missional Living – Eric Loyer

Eric Loyer from New Jersey (who preached at the Crossing on Sunday) delivered a message that took a deep and discerning look at the heart that is behind missional living. The idea of missional living stems from the thought that we ought to be intentional for the mission of God in the redemption of lost souls within the areas that God has placed us. However, instead of giving us a “how to” message or berating us for not living missionally enough, Eric went to the heart of what is needed for every person who desires to live missionally, and that is a firm faith and standing in the gospel of Jesus. Apart from the gospel, our intentions to live missionally will be compromised by either discouragement (pending failure) or pride (pending success) and thus we run the risk of “losing our souls” in the process. However, if we are firmly rooted in the gospel, our life will be a cross bearing missional response to that very gospel as we strive forward in the love of Christ.

Serving in Plurality – Tom Harcus

Plurality in leadership is the portrait we gain from the New Testament as to how local churches ought to be led. In this message, Tom made the point several times over by highlighting different aspects of Paul and Barnabbas’s ministry. He also shared a lot of personal stories about how God brought along different leaders for the church in Wilmington to complement the areas where he needed more strength. In having a plurality of leadership, though, there is a significant amount of having to die to oneself in order to create a culture of trust, accountability and transparency. Most successful church plants need multiple leaders that can spearhead different tasks and keep one another accountable not only in their ministry but also in their personal lives, namely in their marriage and with their family.

It’s Warfare – Mark Hotaling

Mark Hotaling from High Planes Harvest in Ault spoke on the reality of the fact that as the Kingdom of God advances into the world through the local church, and there will be opposition and difficulties to be encountered. Mark reminded us that the battle belongs to the Lord (1 Samuel 17:47), that one must consider the cost to be a church planter because it will be difficult (Luke 14:31-33), that one cannot and should not try to do everything on their own (2 Timothy 2:3-4), and lastly, that prayer is an absolute necessity in all of this (1 Chronicles 5:20). There is a significant cross to bear in planting a new church in order to win over lost souls to the Kingdom of God, and the Lord has granted success to Mark and his flock in this endeavor so far. So let us strive to do the same, keeping a watchful eye, and continuing to pray for them and ourselves in the process.

Responding to the Call – Dan Harty

Windsor’s Dan Harty delivered the final message of the conference. In it, he challenged us to be watchful for any signs that we are not standing firm in the gospel; namely by worrying more about the temporal than the eternal, complaining about a lost world more than we’re praying for it, praying for ourselves more than we pray for the conversion of our neighbors, considering safety and comfort as more valuable than having an impact for the Kingdom, trusting in ourselves rather than God, and thinking more about what we want to get, rather than what we want to give.

We were then challenged to look for God’s call in our life to go on a church planting team. How do we know we’re called, though? Dan answered this by saying we must “hear” the call, and then have it confirmed through a season of both personal prayer and prayer from others. And we must remember a call is often to go towards something, rather than to run away from something (like a difficult situation at our current church).

Following this, we watched a video involving some of the key leaders from Windsor Community and their apparent call to plant a church in Loveland, Colorado. They have prayed for a number of years to plant a church in Loveland and continue to feel the need and the urge for a gospel centered church to start there. We were challenged (and I challenge you) to consider whether or not God might have us serving in a new church in Loveland in which we will experience all the challenges and difficulties mentioned above by bearing the cross involved in church planting, but thereby gaining (and seeing) much life.

Conclusion

God is on a mission to redeem a people for Himself who are zealous for His fame (Psalm 8:1) and zealous for good works in this world (Titus 2:14). In His wisdom, He is sending His bride, the church, into all of the world to proclaim His excellencies (1 Peter 2:9) and call people to know, love, and worship Him as they come to be known by Him (Galatians 4:9) and learn of His love for them (John 3:16). In order to take part in this great and wonderful and satisfying work, it will require us to die to ourselves, but we know that in all of these things we end up gaining our life, and much more than that, we gain Christ and the joy of seeing His glory spread through the proclamation of His gospel.

Sermon Notes – Valuing Jesus: Priceless

Note: “Sermon Notes” entries exist to help us as a church body gather around the faithful teaching and preaching of the Word of God. I pray they enhance our study and appreciation for the teaching we receive on a weekly basis.
The Scripture text from the sermon two weeks ago came from Mark 14:1-11. Pastor Aaron noted that within this text is a “sandwich story.” That is to say, one story sandwiched between two stories that are more closely related to each other than they are to the story in the middle. The “bread” of this passage includes stories of individuals who esteemed Jesus of very little (if any) worth. The chapter opens with the chief priests and scribes plotting how they might kill Jesus, and the passage ends with their opportunity realized when Judas Iscariot goes to them in order to betray his Teacher.

Aaron did an excellent job exposing the reality that there are many who esteem Jesus of very little worth both inside and outside of the church, so I’ll speak of it briefly here. One thought that came to mind was the depraved nature of the hearts of man. The religious establishment in being so zealous to maintain their codes and creeds were plotting to destroy the one who is the culmination of those very things (Matthew 5:17). And we see Judas, who even though he was in such close physical proximity to Christ, had a hard and bitter heart. If nothing else, this passage illuminates the vanity and perversity of religion which is entirely divorced from the truth and glory of Christ in the gospel.

What we have between these two passages, though, is the beautiful picture of a woman who understands the surpassing worth of Christ.

We learn from John’s gospel account that this woman was actually Mary, the sister of the very recently resurrected Lazarus (John 12:1-7). One can only imagine what was going through her head in everything that lead up to this event. Jesus had a peculiar and fond affection for Mary and her family (John 11:5), and we can assume the fondness was mutual. Mary had probably known the Man for years, and perhaps only recently came to discover that Jesus really was the Christ.

I like to think that Martha had told Mary about her interaction with the Lord when He came to see their (at the time) deceased brother. Perhaps Martha had shared those mysterious words of His, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

And now here He is, sitting in her house; sitting with her beloved brother in the house of a leper that we can likely assume Jesus had healed. He’s just sitting there, in the presence of those who were dead and had been made alive, and those who were unclean and have now been made clean. A house full of restored and redeemed people.

The relentless thoughts running through Mary’s head as she contemplated who it was that was sitting in her presence would have been astounding. The sheer amount of appreciation she had for what Jesus had done moved her to respond. And respond she did, perhaps somewhat brashly. She grabs the alabaster flask containing the most valuable thing she owned, and smashes it. Right there. In front of everyone. And she begins to rub it on His head (Mark 14:3) and wipe it on His feet with her hair (John 12:3).

This is a portrait of a person who understands that Christ is worth everything. He’s worth the embarrassment and scorn we might receive from friends, family, and outsiders. He’s worth the awkwardness that oftentimes accompanies genuine expressions of worship. And He’s certainly more than worth all of our material good.

The worth of Christ is a subject worthy of our contemplation.

We as believers must understand that Jesus is worthy of our worship. It may sound obvious to state it like that, but it’s a point that must be established repeatedly.

It is far too easy to give way to the thought that Jesus is worthy of worship because He has given us much in the way of material blessing, or because of the health of our bodies and our families, or because things in life have been going well, or even because we recognize the stunning amount of grace that accompanies the forgiveness of our sins. And He is worthy of worship for all of these things!

What I want to establish in our thinking, though, is that Christ is worthy of worship not primarily because of what He gives, but because of who He is.

This must be the posture of the church at all times, and there are many examples outside of Mary’s story demonstrating this.

It can be seen in the lives of His apostles. Paul stated, “Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ,” (Philippians 3:8).

The psalmist boldly states, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you,” (Psalm 73:25).

And in referring to the suffering, testing, and loss that come through faith in Christ, Peter said in 1 Peter 1:6-7 that our faith, which unites us to Christ, is of more value than any earthly good, and its result will be to the praise and glory of Jesus.

In contemplating the sheer worth of Christ, it taxes the mind and the imagination of man beyond its physical limits. But, as Aaron would say, it’s a beautiful thing.

However, even in Mary’s expressions of worship, there was still something lacking. And Jesus made sure they knew it when He said, “she has anointed my body beforehand for burial,” (Mark 14:8).

There was still something lacking in what needed to be accomplished through the suffering that He was soon to endure (Hebrews 2:10). And indeed, it is because of His sufferings that the entire host of heaven will cry out, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:12). And it is His sufferings that have made it possible for us to enjoy Him.

Finally, as Pastor Aaron helped us to understand, we will fall short when it comes to our worship. And so I want to leave us with a thought from the pen of the great hymn writer John Newton:

Weak is the effort of my heart,
And cold my warmest thought;
But when I see Thee as Thou art,
I’ll praise Thee as I ought.

The gospel makes up for all of our shortcomings. Mary understood that. At the heart of every genuine believer is the desire to live and give oneself in such a way that reflects the true worth of Christ. We will fail in attempting to do this on our own, so let us first seek to see Christ for who He is (2 Corinthians 4:6). Because then, and only then, will the response of genuine worship be possible.

The Conundrum of Grace that Works

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:9-10)

I have always loved Christian biographies and autobiographies. I have unashamedly told many friends and relations that, outside of the Bible itself, I find more spiritual nourishment in the stories of these men—broken and marred by sin as they are, as they experience and proclaim the grace of God—than anywhere else. There is a lot of good that one could procure by reading stories about Hudson Taylor, George Müller, David Brainerd, Adoniram Judson, and hundreds of others within the cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1).

However, I recently found myself in a conversation with a dear friend when the subject of God’s grace and our efforts came up. We were both struggling with the thought that it seems as though, throughout history, God’s choicest saints were also those that tended to work the hardest in the work and proclamation of the gospel.

This thought seemed strange to both of us.

Yet somehow, as we can see above, Paul’s hard work did not diminish the glory and sovereignty and grace of God at all in his ministry. If anything, it amplified it. Paul bursts forth with praise and thanksgiving for God over and over for the works that are produced by the gospel.

In speaking about proclaiming the gospel, Paul declares, “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me,” (Colossians 1:29).

After Paul defends his ministry to the Corinthian church, setting forth the case that his sufferings have attested to his apostleship more than any of the “super-apostles” that are denouncing him, he sums up his defense by partially quoting Jeremiah 9:24 when he says, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord,” (2 Corinthians 10:17).

And in one of the most powerful passages that illuminates the saving grace of God that comes through faith in His Son, Paul culminates the passage with, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them,” (Ephesians 2:10).

So what are we to make of all of this?

For one, God’s saving grace is completely unmerited on the part of the believer. To think that one could act good enough or perform enough good works is a sentiment that has so many passages within the New Testament that denounce it that I would easily run out of room attempting to quote them here.

Secondly, throughout the Bible, laziness is deplorable, so the answer cannot be a simple “Let go and let God” sentiment that has unfortunately infiltrated into much of the church today. In terms of the work of the kingdom, one would be hard-pressed to find any scriptural warrant for this thought, but may rather find themselves taken aback by its condemnation (Matthew 25:26-30).

What I think that we can learn from these passages (and others like it) is that there is a sense in which working hard will expose us to the grace of God in ways that we would have previously thought impossible. And I think that it will come through seeing how insufficient our hard work actually is, and how reliant we really are on the grace of God for all things, both hard and easy, big and small.

So why bring this up to the church? For one, we have recently experienced a large amount of God’s grace in the joining of what were two separate local church bodies. The grace experienced in this conjoining is almost certainly achieved through the hard and faithful work of many. Yet who would have thought that God’s grace would manifest itself in this way?

Additionally, we are still living in a city within a world at a time when the need for the gospel is immense. We must work towards the display and proclamation of the gospel of God’s grace in the death and resurrection of His Son. And by His grace, we certainly will.

Brokenness is Where Healing Begins

All of us sin… I’m not saying that we have all sinned (though that is true, Romans 3:23), but we all—actively, persistently—sin. If we say otherwise, we lie, but if we confess our sins—if we agree with God that we have fallen short of His holy standard—He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8-9).
The Gospel—that Jesus died and rose again to forgive us, cleanse us, and cancel the record of debt that stood against us—should free us to humbly confess our sins to one another, knowing that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!

Confession is the response to true brokenness, and brokenness is the place where healing begins. “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16).

The New Crossing

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"I Will Build My Church"

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus makes this incredible statement, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Over the past year, we have seen this promise working out in and through The Crossing. Jesus is at work, and nothing can stop Him!

We launched in March with about 25 people meeting in the Santini’s livingroom.

For the rest of the Spring we met at Registry Ridge Club House, and Jesus continued to build His Church through the Crossing.

Throughout the Summer, Fall and Winter, God continued to bless The Crossing with growing community of amazing people. This last picture is from last Sunday (February 27).

Join us in thanking God for the great things He has done and is doing for His Glory in and through The Crossing.