Snapshots Of Jesus: Dying To Live (John 12)

You may have heard of an autobiographical book called Eat Pray Love written by Liz Gilbert in 2006. Here’s a brief synopsis thanks to Google:

“Liz Gilbert thought she had everything she wanted in life: a home, a husband and a successful career. Now newly divorced and facing a turning point, she finds that she is confused about what is important to her. Daring to step out of her comfort zone, Liz embarks on a quest of self-discovery that takes her to Italy, India and Bali.”

This was not the first time Gilbert had discovered something about herself. In 2015, Gilbert wrote an article in the New York Times in entitled “Confessions Of A Seduction Addict.”[1] In it she describes what she found out about herself in the years before the events in Eat Pray Love.

It started with a boy I met at summer camp and ended with the man for whom I left my first husband. In between, I careened from one intimate entanglement to the next — dozens of them — without so much as a day off between romances. You might have called me a serial monogamist, except that I was never exactly monogamous. Relationships overlapped, and those overlaps were always marked by exhausting theatricality: sobbing arguments, shaming confrontations, broken hearts.

 Still, I kept doing it. I couldn’t not do it.… If the man was already involved in a committed relationship, I knew that I didn’t need to be prettier or better than his existing girlfriend; I just needed to be different… Soon enough, and sure enough, I might begin to see that man’s gaze toward me change from indifference, to friendship, to open desire. That’s what I was after: the telekinesis-like sensation of steadily dragging somebody’s fullest attention toward me and only me.

 My guilt about the other woman was no match for the intoxicating knowledge that — somewhere on the other side of town — somebody couldn’t sleep that night because he was thinking about me. If he needed to sneak out of his house after midnight in order to call, better still. That was power, but it was also affirmation. I was someone’s irresistible treasure. I loved that sensation, and I needed it, not sometimes, not even often, but always…

In my mid-20s, I married, but not even matrimony slowed me down. Predictably, I grew restless and lonely. Soon enough I seduced someone new; the marriage collapsed. But it was worse than just that. Before my divorce agreement was even signed, I was already breaking up with the guy I had broken up my marriage for… If you asked me what I was up to, I might have claimed that I was a helpless romantic — and how can you judge that? If really cornered, I might have argued that I was a revolutionary feminist, taking brazen agency over my own sexuality…

For the first time, I forced myself to admit that I had a problem — indeed, that I was a problem. Tinkering with other people’s most vulnerable emotions didn’t make me a romantic; it just made me a swindler. Lying and cheating didn’t make me brazen; it just made me a needy coward. Stealing other women’s boyfriends didn’t make me a revolutionary feminist; it just made me a menace.

 I hated that it took me almost 20 years to realize this. There are 16-year-old kids who know better than to behave this way. It felt shameful. But once I got it, I really got it: There is no way to stop a destructive behavior, except to stop…

She then tells a story about meeting a man to whom she was really attracted but whom she resisted. She stopped her pattern of destructive behavior. As far as one can tell when the article ends, all is well. It’s heart-breaking to read, but there’s a happy ending. 

Then she traveled on her quest for self-discovery as chronicled in Eat Pray Love, which culminated in her marrying someone new. Then, one year after her article about her move into maturity, this appeared in the New York Times[2]:

Ms. Gilbert, speaking directly to her readers in a Facebook post, said that after 12 years she was separating from José Nunes, the Brazilian importer whom she met during her travels and later married, and who was a central character in the book… In April, Ms. Gilbert said that she missed travel: “I’ve never been to Japan, Iceland, South Africa and other places that it would be a pity to come to this earth and miss.”

So there was no happy ending. In her journey of self-discovery she discovered things about herself, but to what end? It turns out that the act of discovery is not enough. What we do with what we discover matters a lot. 

Mrs. Gilbert’s self-discovery didn’t solve an apparently returning restlessness, what some would call an existential void that she has had all her life. It might manifest in different ways at different times, but what she was seeking at the deepest level simply won’t be found - and can’t be found - with the things she is pursuing. Sadly, her story has a lot of fans convinced that her approach is the way to a good life. The Daily Mail wrote: 

“Eat Pray Love had struck a chord with an entire generation of women who, Gilbert feels, didn’t ‘get the memo that they are in charge of their own lives.’”[3]

This might be the place to note that “being in charge” might not always be the blessing we think it would be.  Sometimes, putting ourselves in charge is a terrible idea. And frankly, as much as she used the language of choice, self-empowerment and self-discovery, I am not so sure she has been in charge of her life as much as she thinks she has.  

In fact, ‘being in charge’ simply means we choose who or what we will serve. To use biblical language, we will all be servants or slaves to something. We all give our lives to something that we believe will ultimately satisfy our deepest longings, and that thing first intrigues us, then itmolds us, then leads us, and then defines us.

You don’t have to be a Christian to see this. I am fascinated with the insight by a novelist named David Foster Wallace. He was not a Christian by any stretch, but he noted the following:

“There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship—be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles—is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. 

If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.”

He finished his 2005 speech [4] by saying,

 “It is about making it to thirty, or maybe fifty, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head.”

David Foster Wallace did not make it to 50. Four years after he gave this speech, he committed suicide. I am reminded of what the always quotable C.S. Lewis had to say:

"Thomas More said... 'If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God, it will in the end make no difference what you have chosen instead.' Will it really make no difference if it was women [or men] or patriotism, cocaine or art, whiskey or a seat in the Cabinet, money or science? Well, surely no difference that matters. We shall have all missed the end for which we are formed and rejected the only thing that satisfies. Does it matter to a man dying in the desert, by which choice of route he missed the only well?" 

Everybody worships. And we will either worship something that always leaves us unsatisfied – “wells that run dry or leave us thirsty,” (Isaiah 58) and leads us to disillusionment, unhappiness or despair - or we will draw our refreshment from a well that will never run dry, and will lead to hope and satisfaction as we worship a God who meets us in the deepest and most profound levels of our longing (John 4). 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

My snapshot of Jesus today is from his final public teaching as recorded in John 12. He had just raised Lazarus, and he had quite a crowd following him. In this teaching he makes the turn from physical resurrection to spiritual resurrection. I’m condensing all of the teaching in this chapter to one paragraph that focuses on what I believe is the main topic. 

“ I tell you the truth: unless a grain of wheat is planted in the ground and dies, it remains a solitary seed. But when it is planted, it produces in death a great harvest. The one who loves this life will lose it, and the one who despises it in this world will have life forevermore. Anyone who serves Me must follow My path; anyone who serves Me will want to be where I am, and he will be honored by the Father… (v.23-26)

The reality is that everybody dies to something so they can live for something else.  We all “lay down our lives” for something that we believe will bring us life.  In some ways, Jesus’ call to ‘die so we can live’ is not the radical part; the radical part is the call to die to self and for someone else – in this case, Jesus.

But this dying to self is not simply the way to bring life to ourselves.  It’s how we bring life to everyone around us. Everybody worships, right? And whenever we worship, somebody is sacrificed, and it will be either us or others.

·      If I worship my comfort, I will sacrifice my wife and kids. They will pay the cost of my comfort. “Stop bothering me. We will talk when I’m good and ready. No, you adjust your hopes and dreams and priorities because they don’t match mine.”  I will sacrifice my friends. “You upset or hurt me. Clearly you are the problem. I need a better class of friends.” I remain dead in my selfishness and sin, and I drag down those close to me.

·      If I worship my reputation, I will sacrifice any of you who don’t make me look good. “You think I’m wrong? You’re an idiot. You don’t like how I pastor? You clearly have a heart issue. You are winning an argument with me? I will lash out and try to humiliate you or keep beating this argument to death because I can’t be wrong.”  And I will remain dead in myself selfishness and sin and drag down those around me.

·      If I worship money, I will choose work time over relationship time and I will choose profit over people.  

·      If I worship my health, I will make everyone else take second place to my diet and workout schedule. 

·      If I worship sex, all that will matter is my fulfillment and my happiness, and I will sacrifice the dignity and autonomy of people around me as I manipulate and pressure and use… And I will remain dead in my selfishness and sin and drag down those around me.

You want to know what you worship? Ask yourself who in your life you sacrifice; then ask yourself why. 

So what do we do if we are caught in this trap? What does it mean to present our bodies as living sacrifices, wholly acceptable unto God? (Romans 12:1) I will focus on the first crucial step: dying to self.

 In the same way you gave your bodily members away as slaves to corrupt and lawless living and found yourselves deeper in your unruly lives, now devote your members as slaves to right and reconciled lives so you will find yourselves deeper in holy living. In the days when you lived as slaves to sin, you had no obligation to do the right thing. In that regard, you were free.

But what do you have to show from your former lives besides shame? The outcome of that life is death, guaranteed. But now that you have been emancipated from the death grip of sin and are God’s slave, you have a different sort of life, a growing holiness. The outcome of that life is eternal life. The payoff for a life of sin is death, but God is offering us a free gift—eternal life through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King. (Romans 6: 19-23)

It begins with a commitment to Jesus. Acknowledge the reality of who Jesus is; surrender your life to Him; commit to following his path.  This is the biblical idea of ‘dying’ so that we can be raised to life. We must commit to learning what it means to love Jesus and others more than ourselves, to valuing the kingdom of God over the Kingdom of the earth. 

And part of that re-ordering of our loves and priorities is learning where to place our focus: specifically, how to sacrifice ourselves. We turn to C.S. Lewis again for a great summary:

“The very first step is to try to forget about the self altogether. Your real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him… The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up your self, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life.

 Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”

I remember thinking as a young man that I wanted to make a difference in the Kingdom of God. I really wanted my life to count. I saw some older folks who were godly and whose presence had really impacted my life. I knew it was because of Jesus at work in them, and I wanted that! 

Well, I had to be willing to die. If I wanted to live, I had to be crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20). If I wanted the power of the resurrection, I needed to participate in the fellowship of His suffering (Philippians 3:10). 

·      If I wanted to become wise, I had to prioritize certain things in my life that would lead to wisdom. 

·      If I wanted to self-controlled, I had to practice self-control. 

·      If I wanted to overcome anger, I had to address my anger and the issues fueling my anger. 

·      If I wanted to move from lustful thoughts to pure thoughts, I had to change my habits and my focus and bring in something new.  

There was no amount of wishful thinking that was going to change me in those areas.  There was, however:

·      Praying (prayers of surrender and for supernatural help)

·      reading and studying biblical truth

·      seeking Christian counsel (casual and professional) that would help to guide me in the path of righteousness

·      choosing accountability with others

·      putting into practice what I learned  

The need for new life is ongoing, of course. The problem with a ‘living sacrifice’ is that it can crawl off the altar and try to throw somebody else up on the altar instead. Every day, we surrender our pride, our time, our desires for comfort and fun. 

But what we find on the other side of death is resurrection, and when we finally get up on that altar so that we die instead of others and the life of Jesus begins to work in us and through us – then we begin to truly see how the Kingdom of God is meant for our good and God’s glory.

This is the pattern. 

·      In Jesus’ death and resurrection we see the foundation of the promise of salvation. We see the nature of profound love: dying so others can live. 

·      This establishes the pattern God will use to bring us to life from the midst of our death, first spiritually and ultimately physically. 

·      Our lives become characterized by dying to self (self-sacrifice) rather than living for self (self-indulgence). 

·      That sacrifice is not just a vague practice of denial: it’s a purposeful commitment to livingfor Jesus by living like Jesus to point others toward Jesus. 

And in that process, that seed of our life that ‘dies’ comes to life and bears a crop in which the goodness of God is multiplied for the good of others and the glory of God.

 ________________________________________________________________________

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/magazine/confessions-of-a-seduction-addict.html?src=recg&_r=0

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/02/style/elizabeth-gilbert-separation-eat-pray-love.html?_r=0

[3] Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3683437/What-happens-romance-inspired-thousands-happy-comes-bubble-popping-end.html#ixzz4ECYoi98w

[4] “This Is Water.” http://bulletin.kenyon.edu/x4280.html

What DID Jesus Do?

Remember the WWJD days? Lots of people were wearing bracelets remind themselves that it was important to think about how Jesus would handle the situation they are in. That was a great reminder, but I think there is an even more fundamental question to ask first, and that is, “What DID Jesus do?” So that’s where we are going today. We are going to look at five key things that happened to Jesus, and in the process of seeing how his life unfolded, we can see what He DID, and what the implications are for our lives.

* * * * *

The first thing that happened to Jesus was that he was born. (Brilliant, I know…) Luke takes the geneology all the way back to Adam, but Matthew gives the geneology of The Son Of Man, and he starts with Abraham.

A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab,Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon,

Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife, Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconia aand his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon. After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim,Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob are the founders, so that’s impressive, but….

• Rahab was a Canaanite

• Bathsheba was a Hittite by marriage

• Ruth was a Moabite

• Tamar’s origin is unclear, but we do know she seduced her father-in-law by pretending she was a prostitute

• Jehoram killed all his brothers to secure his power and the Bible says he “abandoned God.”

• Ahaz offered his son to the god Moloch by burning him alive.

This family or origin tension hits even closer to home.

• PARENTS – Jesus was born into a family who, while morally strong, were viewed as morally weak. As far as people knew, Joseph and Mary had jumped the gun a bit in terms of getting family life started. It is almost certain there was a stigma attached there.

• Nazareth (“Can anything good come from Nazareth?”) James Strange, an American archaeologist, notes: “Nazareth is not mentioned in ancient Jewish sources earlier than the third century AD. This likely reflects its lack of prominence both in Galilee and in Judaea.” Plus, there was a Roman garrison there – seriously occupied enemy territory.

• His dad’s vocation was very ordinary and very hard.

Jesus has what would appear to be a family tree with a lot of shade by the standards of the world; Some embarrassing skeletons in the family closet; assumed to be conceived before his parents were married; lived in a nothing town; had an ordinary job. When the Bible says that Jesus ”made himself of no reputation,” it wasn’t kidding.

If the accounts of Jesus life are meant to give us insight into both Jesus and life, I suspect we have details like this recorded so that we will have hope as we build upon or overcome our family of origin.

“The fairest thing in nature, a flower, still has its roots in earth and manure.” (D.H. Lawrence. ) I am going to paraphrase: “You can’t have a flower without dirt, and sometimes some crap.”

If people dig into where our roots are, sometimes there is a lot of good soil….but sometimes its just dirty, and it stinks. Even Jesus had a family history that had to simultaneously be embraced and be endured.

If you are a person who struggles with your roots – your parents, your family, really anything about the formative parts of your past - the key is to learn how to embrace the good and admit the bad without shame. The Bible didn’t try to hide Jesus’ hurdles. I believe everything that is in the Bible is purposeful, and one thing God apparently wants us to know is that no one has to be ashamed of where they have come from. God can grows beautiful things out of crappy soil.

THE FIRST LESSON: WE MUST LEARN HOW TO GROW FROM THE EARTH AND THE MANURE INTO WHICH WE HAVE BEEN PLANTED.

* * * * *

Here is God in the Flesh, and when he is 12 years old he gives this great line in the temple - “I must be about my Father’s business” – and then he disappears. So what did Jesus do during the 18-or-so year gap in the gospel records between the last record of his youth and his adult ministry? The Bible gives this vague explanation: “He increased in wisdom, and stature (physical maturity), and in favor with God and man.” (graciousness of manner; divine influence reflected in life; reputation.)

Jesus most likely remained in his father's (Joseph's) home and learned the family business. This was the most common path for Jewish lads to follow. In Jesus' case, it would mean he worked in his father's shop as an apprentice until he fully learned the trade. This trade is commonly been held to be carpentry, but was more likely stone cutting and building (the Greek text supports this point). As the oldest son, he probably was responsible for his mother after Joseph died (which is assumed by the time Jesus went to Calvary).

So what did Jesus do for 18 years? He lived a normal life. He was sent to earth to save the world, and how did he get ready? He just put one foot in front of the other, for 18 years.

One of the hardest things to do is wait, especially in a culture of instant gratification. But the reality is, it is in the times that we think are wasted that God does some of his best stuff. If you are in a place in life where you feel like you are spinning your wheels, be content. Perhaps this is the time for you to increase in wisdom, and to find favor in the eyes of God and others. If you are surrendered to God, there is no wasted time. The Kingdom of Heaven is full of people who have learned to be content with God’s timing.

THE SECOND LESSON: WE MUST SEE EVEN THE MOST ORDINARY OF MOMENTS AS OPPORTUNITIES TO BECOME WISE AND BUILD REPUTATION.

* * * * *

Luke 4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry.

And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." And Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE.'"

And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'" And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written,
'HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,' and,
'ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP,
SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'" And Jesus answered and said to him, "It is said, 'YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'" When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

These three temptations mirror what 1 John 2:16 calls the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.”

• The lust of the flesh: the desire of the natural body to indulge in things –perhaps even good things - at the wrong time or in the wrong way. There are natural cravings that will draw us to experience something about God’s creation in improper ways.

• The lust of the eyes: the desire for forbidden things. Greed for things we do not or should not have.

• The pride of life: arrogance. Building identity, achieving status or demanding respect because of the things that I have acquired.

Jesus met these head on.

• “You are really hungry; make bread!” (Lust of the flesh)

• “Don’t you want this glittery, beautiful world?” (Lust of the eyes)

• “And then you can demonstrate your power in front of everybody!” (The pride of life)

THE THIRD LESSON: WE MUST BE READY FOR THE DESERT

• Pray that God helps you learn the art of self-control (lust of the flesh)

• Pray that God gives you contentment (the lust of the eyes)

• Pray that God gives you humility (the pride of life)

Even people with the best backgrounds, and the greatest increases in wisdom and reputation face tremendous desert experiences where these three desires seems overwhelming. Be faithful; the one who withstood them all is with you.

* * * * *

Luke 4: 14-16 And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read…”

THE FOURTH LESSON: YOU WILL HAVE A MINISTRY

1. Your effectiveness comes from the Holy Spirit (“in the power of the Spirit”) Don’t forget that it’s not about you. If you minister to people with effectiveness and authority, thank God, because He is empowering you. There is a world of difference between “God needs me” and “I need God.” You are a vessel that God is preparing to use to carry Him to others. When you arrive at your destination – when you realize that you are at the place where God plans to reveal himself through you – get out of the way.

The death of our effectiveness is confirmed any time we find ourselves saying or thinking something along the lines of, “Do you know who I am?” All that matters is who God is, and the rest of us are in the same category – jars of clay, in desperate need of God to fill us.

2. Your audience is closer than you think (“Galilee…surrounding district”) Don’t look so far away for a mission field that you overlook your yard. If we are not careful, we become bifocal Christians – we are almost always looking far away for a mission field, and when we look close to home we adapt a posture of looking down our noses. (“We are going to JPUSA to work with the homeless…Safe Harbor? I can’t stay up all night!) ( I’m going to Costa Rica to work with children in the villages…Sunday School in my own church? I can’t send out cool Christmas letters about that!)

There is nothing wrong with going some distance if God calls you there; but I think more often than not, He wants you to start by ministering to your kids, your spouse…your neighbor…your parents…your friends…the people and ministries in your church.

3. Your habits lay a foundation (“The synagogue, as was his custom”) Someone once said, “First we form habits, then they form us.”

When Jesus was 12, he was in the temple. When we see him again at 30, he is going to the temple. What did he do between those two events? Developed a custom. We are what we do, and we become what we consistently do.

4. Your authority comes from God’s Word (“and stood up to read.”)

The first words of Jesus that are recorded after he began his official ministry are from the book of Isaiah. If proclaiming God’s Word is a good starting point for Jesus, I have to think it’s a good starting point for us. And it wasn’t just a random reading. It was purposeful. Jesus knew what he was doing. We are the followers of the Word become flesh; we need to be people of the Word.

THE FIFTH LESSON: YOU WILL NEED TO DIE (TO SELF), BECAUSE THERE IS NO RESURRECTION WITHOUT CRUCIFIXION.

Reading Scripture Well (2 Peter 3:14-18)

So, my friends, while we wait for the day of the Lord, work hard to live in peace, without flaw or blemish; 15 and look at the patience of the Lord as your salvation. Our dearly loved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, has written about this. 16 He says essentially the same in all of his letters, although uneducated and unstable readers misinterpret the difficult passages, just as they always misread Scripture, to their spiritual ruin.17 So hear my final words, my friends. Now that I have warned you about what’s ahead, keep up your guard and don’t let unprincipled people pull you away from the sure ground of the truth with their lies and misunderstandings. 18 Instead, grow in grace and in the true knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Anointed, to whom be glory, now and until the coming of the new age. Amen.

Peter makes a big deal about true and false teachers, about learning what has been passed on by the prophets and apostles, about the importance of this to avoid spiritual ruin. Because of the importance of these final words from Peter, I want to walk us through some principles of Bible study today so that we do not misinterpret and fall into spiritual ruin.

Christians may still have points of tension on certain issues even if all parties are following these principles. God seems content to let mystery remain in the midst of things that are certain. That’s not a bad thing. I think it’s supposed to force us into community – but that’s my final point ☺

KNOW THE GENRE

• History - a purposeful presentation of facts. Real people and places and events. This includes biography, war texts, etc.

• Law Texts – Moral (don’t kill), ceremonial (wash your hands), hygienic (quarantine lepers), civil (forgive debts every 7 years).

• Wisdom Lit - Wise or insightful saying about general principles in life. Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (and possibly even a good way to understand some of the law texts).

• Poetry – Psalms; scattered throughout the Old Testament A lot of symbolism (“He will cover you with His feathers and wings”) and emotion. Poetry is often a journal rather than a manual.

• Prophetic writing - prediction of the future or an analysis of how people are doing from God’s perspective.

• War texts - a particular way of recording conquests

• Apocalyptic – Revelation, parts of Daniel. Meant to be hopeful for people in distress. It is full of strange imagery and codes.

• Romance - Song of Solomon; Ruth

• Epistles (letters)- Personal communication on theology, church life, Jesus, the work of the Holy Spirit, living in the city, etc.

• Parables – stories to illustrate a point

KNOW THE PURPOSE

A. Prescriptive (“Do/believe this not that!”)

• The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)

• 7 churches in Revelation (Revelation 1-3)

B. Descriptive (“This is what happened.”

• Jephthah sacrifices his daughter in Judges 11.

• John the Baptist confronts Herod Antipas (Matthew 14)

Passages can be both – but they might not be. Read carefully.

KNOW THE CONTEXT [1]

What was the original author trying to say, and what did the original audience hear?

“Language assumes a culture, operates in a culture, serves a culture, and is designed to communicate into the framework of a culture…. We must translate the culture as well as the language if we hope to understand the text fully.” – John Walton

“We can easily forget that Scripture is a foreign land and that reading the Bible is a crosscultural experience.” – Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes

The Bible is situated in a culture. Cosmology; covenants; images (the sea is “chaos”), honor/shame; worship rituals; kings and kingdoms; sacrifice; societal structures, loaded language…

A book is situated in the Bible.

A chapter…in a book

A paragraph…in a chapter

A verse….in a paragraph.

A phrase…in a verse.

A word…in a verse.

Meaning always flows from the top (the Bible) down (to the verse), not the other way around.

Practice: what do these phrases mean in the broader context of the passage of Scripture in which they are situated?

• Philippians 4:13 - “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.” (What things can we do, specifically?)

• John 12:32 – “When I am lifted up, I will draw all men…” (How is Jesus lifted up?)

• Ruth 3:9 and Ruth 2:12; Numbers 15:37-40 – what is Boaz ‘spreading’ over Ruth in 3:9?

• John 10:10 – “The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy…” (who is the thief?)

• Romans 4:17 – “Call things that are not as though they are…” (Who does this, and what is the thing that ‘is not’?)

• Matthew 18:18-20 – “Whatever you bind…loose…in heaven…“whenever two or more are gathered in my name, there I am...” (Hint: what is this section about? Where does the Old Testament talk about the importance of two or three witnesses, and why?)

• John 8:32 – “The truth will set you free…” (What kind of truth? What kind of freedom?)

• 2 Timothy 1:7 – “God has not given us a spirit of fear…” (what is meant by “spirit” here? Hint: however you interpret ‘spirit’, does it fit if you use the same meaning in the rest of the section when the word ‘spirit’ is used?”

• 1 Corinthians 10:13 “God will not give you more than you can handle…” (Is this trials or temptations?)

• 2 Corinthians 10:4 – “divine power to demolish strongholds…” (What are the strongholds?)

• Isaiah 55:8 - “my ways are not your ways” (Hint: why does God remind his people of this? What does he want them to do?)

Practice: Choose one of the following sections of Scripture for contextual analysis:

• Mark 11:12-21 A visit to the temple occurs between two incidents with a fig tree. What do they have in common? (Note: the fruit should appear before the leaves on a fig tree. A leafed tree should have fruit.)

• Luke 4:14-28 Why are the people angry with Jesus? You will need to reference Isaiah 61:1-2. (Note: it was not uncommon for rabbis to quote only portions of a passage or bring in parts of other passages in order to make a particular point.)

NUMBERS AS AN EXAMPLE OF THE NEED FOR CONTEXT [2]

We have to be careful. Sometimes numbers are just numbers. But in the ancient Near East, numbers were often used symbolically rather than literally. If we try to make those writers’ symbolic use match our literal use, we can miss the point - sometimes badly.

NOT FIRST; SECOND

God often gives the most value to the second person – which is in direct opposition to the idea that the firstborn was the most important. We see this in events as well. The second is often more important than the first in God’s plan and purpose. It’s part of the “upside down” kingdom, where the wisdom, priorities and values of the world are turned upside down and shown to be foolish and unimportant.

• Not the animals who were created first on day 6; the humans

• Not the first creation (Eden), but the second (New Heaven and New Earth

• Not Esau; Jacob

• Not Saul; David

• Not Ruth’s first husband; the second

• Not Joseph’s first court appearance (he was jailed); the second

• Not Moses’ first try freeing the people (killing the Egyptian); the second

• Not the first leader out of Egypt (Moses); the second took them to the Promised Land (Aaron).

• Not the first Adam/Abraham/David/Moses/Noah; the second (Jesus)

• Not the first sacri@icial system; the second (the cross)

• Not the first lamb (Passover); the second Lamb (Jesus)

• Not the first birth (physical); the second (spiritual)

• Not the first Jerusalem; the New Jerusalem

• Not the first tree (in the garden), but the second tree (after the garden, on a hill)

THE NUMBER 6, the numbers of humanity (and beasts)

• On the 6th day, men and beasts were created. You will actually see “man and beasts” paired together a LOT through the Old Testament.

• 666 is familiar, yes? It’s the ultimate humanist mockery of the Trinity.

THE NUMBER 7, the number of completion (and perhaps perfection).

• On the 7th day, God rested.

• 7 days of creation/days of the week

• 7 covenants with humanity (Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Levitic, Davidic, and Messianic)

• 7 days (and seven times) around Jericho

• “Wash in the Jordan seven times.” (2 Kings 5:10)

• 7 pairs of each clean animal on the ark (Genesis 7:2)

• 7 stems on the tabernacle’s lampstand (Exodus 25:37)

• 7 qualities of the Messiah in Isaiah 11:2

• Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus has 6 sets of 7 generation - putting Jesus as the 1st in the 7th seven.

• Luke’s has 77 generations from Abraham.

• 7 signs in John’s Gospel

• 7 things the Lord hates in Proverbs 6:16

• 7 parables in Matthew 13

• 7 woes in Matthew 23.

• “70 weeks” prophecy in Daniel 9:24 (7 times 7 times 10).

• Jeremiah 29:10 predicted the Babylonian Captivity would last for seventy years (7 times 10).

• Jesus is the seven-fold “I AM” in the Gospel of John.

• forgive a wrongdoer “seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22)

• 7 letters to 7 churches; 7 spirits before God’s throne (Revelation 1:4)

• 7 golden lampstands (1:12); 7 stars in Christ’s right hand (1:16); 7 seals of God’s judgment (5:1); 7 groups of people judged in Revelation 6

THE NUMBER 10 is fullness or entirety.

• Ten generations from Adam to Noah, and Noah to Abraham.

• The Ten Plagues fully expressed God’s judgment

• The Ten Commandments

• Jesus used the number ten often in parables to represent the full number of something.

• Beasts from Daniel and Revelation often have ten horns - a full representation of earthly or evil power.

• “Do not be afraid of the things you are about to suffer….that you may have tribulation ten days.” (Revelation 2:10:)

THE NUMBER 40 is the number of testing

• The rain in the flood was 40 days and nights

• Moses was 40 years in Egypt, in the desert, and on Mt. Sinai.

• Jonah warned Ninevah for 40 days.

• Jesus’ testing in the wilderness was 40 days.

• It’s the number of days between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. [3]

RECAPITULATION is the retelling of the same events with a different perspective and different purpose. There is an Old Jewish saying: “repetition is the mother of all wisdom.” No wonder that the Jewish writers used repetition.

A. Genesis 1 & 2 recapitulate: all of creation (Chapter 1) and then a focus on the 6th day (Chapter 2)

B. “The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon.” (Genesis 41:32 NIV).

C. Daniel 2 looks at empires from a human perspective; they’re worthy and valuable (described with precious metals). Daniel 7 looks at empires from God’s perspective; they are grotesque beasts.

D. The four gospels are recapitulations:

• Matthew: Jesus is the complete fulfillment of the Old Testament

• Mark: Jesus was a servant, so no genealogy because slaves and servants had no genealogies.

• Luke: genealogy to Adam - Jesus is the Son of Man

• John: all the way back to before creation – Jesus is God

E. The book of Revelation is full of recapitulation [4]

• Revelation 6 - stars fell to the earth, which would completely destroy the earth. It’s the great day of the wrath of God’s judgment.

• Revelation 11 - the 7th trumpet ushers in the end of the world

• Revelation 16 - 7th angel’s bowl of judgment ends the world

• Revelation 19 - the divine warrior’s sword wipes out all of the evil in the world and ends the world again.

• Revelation 20 - Satan is kept from deceiving the nations, but didn’t he just get thrown into the lake of fire the previous chapter? At the end of the chapter, evil is wiped out again.

• Revelation 21 - evil is thrown into the lake of fire. Again.

Linearly, this makes no sense. As a cycle of recapitulation, this is beautiful and all works together. Recapitulation allows for multiple perspectives and points on the same story. They all hammer home the same message – if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, stand firm in the midst of persecution. God wins in the end.

WAYS TO APPROACH BIBLE STUDY [5]

THE BOOK SURVEY METHOD [6]

• Read through a book without stopping to consider the details (Titus, Philemon, James, Jude, Haggai, and Malachi are good ones to start with).

• Draw a chart or outline (you can also find good ones online).

• Find out all the background information you can. [7]

• Read it again, perhaps in a different version (or in a side-by-side format ), taking notes of things that stand out while you read. [8]

• What is the purpose of the writer? What “feel” do you get from reading it? Is the writer angry? Sad? Happy? Worried? Excited?

• What are some of the significant words or phrases? What ideas are repeated or emphasized the most?

• What seems to be the key verse or thought?

• Use commentaries to see how you are doing ☺

THE CHAPTER ANALYSIS METHOD

• Check the context. Who is speaking and being spoken to? When and where is it being spoken? What is the occasion or circumstance?

• What is the main subject of the message? What other background material clarifies this statement? Are there cross-references somewhere else in the Bible that would be helpful?

• Ask interpretive questions. Why did the writer say this? What is the meaning of ____________? What is the significance of ____________? What is the implication of ____________?

• Write out a paraphrase it. The simplest way is just to rephrase the chapter in your own words. Read multiple translations, commentaries concordances to help you with particular words.

THE VERSE BY VERSE ANALYSIS METHOD

• Same as above, just with a verse ☺

READ IN COMMUNITY

The Bible is intended to be read in the company of others in whom the Holy Spirit is at work. This includes voices from the past and the present, and from around the world.

______________________________________________________________________

[1] Some resources that have been influential for me in this area:

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, by Kenneth Bailey. 

Sexual Morality In A Christless World,  Matthew Rueger

Insights into Bible Times and Customs, by G Christian Weiss, published by Moody Press.

Misreading Scripture With Western Eyes, E. Randolph Richards

Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus, by David Bivin and Roy Blizzard.

40 Questions About Interpreting The Bible, by Robert Plummer

The Untold Story Of The Church, Frank Viola

Hard Sayings of the Bible, by Walter Kaiser, F.F. Bruce, and others. 

Paul Among The People, by Sarah Rudan. Excellent insight into the culture in which Paul wrote.

followtherabbi.com (Ray Vander Laan’s site)

Some of John Walton’s books (try “The Lost World Of The Old Testament”)

The Bible Jesus Read and The Jesus I Never Knew, Phillip Yancey

Dennis Prager’s Rational Bible series offers some insightful perspectives on the Old Testament through the lenses of Jewish history and tradition (Prager is Jewish, not Christian).

Is God a Moral Monster?  Making Sense of the Old Testament God, by Paul Copan. 

Reading The Bible With Rabbi Jesus, Lois Tverberg

Hard Saying of the Old Testament, by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. 

Hard Sayings of Paul, by Manfred T. Brauch. 

Series on Biblical books by Timothy Keller (such as Galatians For You) or N.T. Wright (his New Testament for Everyoneset)

[2] See “Design Patterns In Biblical Narrative”  (a video from The Bible Project) and Nicole Clark, “Literary Design Pattern: See, Take, Do.” as good introductions to this.

[3] Also, the number 1,000 is rarely used literally. Check out all the verses with 1,000. God owns the cattle on 1,000 hills, for example, or God’s promise to Abraham is for 1,000 generations. We are not to assume the next hill or generation is exempt. 

[4]  From a series by Shane Woods on Revelation, with help from notes by a dude named Mike (https:// www.catlinchurch.com/content.cfm?id=213&download_id=736)

[5] I’m building/paraphrasing from info I found in a book Rick Warren wrote on methods of studying the Bible. He has a lot more ways he recommends; I am focusing on these three to stay with the theme of ‘context.’

[6] The Bible Project does a fantastic job giving overviews of each book.

[7] A website called Precept Austin has a lot of information. If you become a member of Bible Gateway (membership is cheap), they have excellent resources for this. Adam Clarke’s commentaries are helpful, as are the commentaries at biblehub.com. 

[8]Bible Gateway is fantastic for this.

God In The Hands Of Angry Sinners

(This sermon was given by Tom Gordon)

In colonial America during the 1740s, Jonathan Edwards preached the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God to the congregation in Ensfield Massachusetts.This particular congregation was holding out against the revival that had been sweeping across the colonies during the First Great Awakening. Edwards was unable to finish the sermon and had to join other local pastors in comforting the congregation, such was the response to his message of hell-fire which figuratively melted this congregation where they sat.

It occurred to me in recent years that Edwards’ sermon, this sermon, and every sermon ever preached in the Christian Community these past two-thousand years has only been possible because God allowed himself to first fall into “the hands of angry sinners.” Hence, the title.

Today I’m going to tell you a story--almost 3,000 years in the making; so buckle up. During the years of Homeric Greece, hundreds of years before Socrates, the Greeks sought after “arete,” or “excellence.” These were the semi-mythical days of Achilles, Paris, and Hector, the Trojan War and the endless fratricide of the Greek world. For them, arete mandated lots of violence, unrestrained sexual expression and self-promotion --all aimed at the glorification of self above others. This was “excellence” to the pre-classical Greeks.

They believed their gods were involved in this same sort of activity and that this was the proper marriage between body and spirit (action and will) though, admittedly the primary emphasis was on the body and its desires. They believed this arete was THE recipe for the most awesome of all possible lives. Of course--it was a recipe for disaster.

Hundreds of years later, as the Peloponesian war between Athens and Sparta went very badly for Athens, Socrates went about the city criticizing its leaders for their mindless prosecution of the war and their equally mindless pursuit of vainglory. Socrates had grown “out of step” with arete. He proclaimed that the “unexamined life was not worth living.” Though executed for his criticisms, Athens had been humbled and was ripe for his message. Socrates effectively instituted a new heroic ideal for Greece-- and a new form of arete--the examined life.

As a side-note, by the time of his death, Socrates had gotten into the habit of expressing contempt for the Greek gods, yet also of referring to both Heaven and God in the singular and as if both were sources of “Good.” Athens, afterall, juts out into the middle of Mediterrannean trade routes and was a center of exchange for both goods and ideas. I have no doubt that Socrates was exposed to both Hebrew and Persian conceptions of God.

A now, humbled Athens, and eventually the entire Greek world embraced this new ideal with its new type of hero. This was a life of the mind (read that as “spirit”) which grew increasingly suspicious of the doings of the body. We may think of this “divorce” of body from spirit as a sort of proto, or pre-gnosticism in which the mind became the path to salvation and the body the path to destruction in the same way that their earlier heroic ideal had led Athens to destruction.

God Prepares the Stage for Jesus

This new ideal was spread across the Mediterrannean as well as both the Near and Middle East by Alexander the Great. Alexander loved Greek culture and spread it from Macedonia to India--art, architecture, language and philosophy--all became part and parcel of the world Jesus was born into.

Into this Greek-saturated, Roman-controlled world Jesus came preaching the good news that “the kingdom of the heavens is available” here and now.This is the True marriage of body and spirit that the world desperately needed then and still needs today.

For Socrates, freedom from the body (his own death) meant discovery of all (Truth) which he had wondered about as a philosopher. For Jesus, by contrast, eternity was in session “now;” Truth was available “now”--while in the body (and of course, forevermore) with Jesus himself as headmaster of a never-ending school of discipleship.

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Let this passage sink in. Read it again. One more time. Knowledge, Truth and Freedom were of paramount value in the Greek world at that time. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle had made sure of this. Jesus comes out swinging and addresses all three: simply, beautifully, authoritatively.

• When are we free? When we know the Truth.

• When do we know the Truth? When we hold to his Teaching.

• What does it mean to hold to his teaching? Do--the--things--he--said--to--do!

• How do we “do” things? With our bodies and our spirits.

This is a syllabus for life in the Kingdom. If we fail this course on Knowledge, Freedom and Truth, then we will end up (or remain) ignorant, enslaved, liars. Incidentally...Jesus said all this to “the Jews who had believed him.” They took this last point to mean precisely that they were ignorant, enslaved, liars and decided to kill him--believers did this! We ought not be too quick to think ourselves above violence toward Jesus, toward His message, toward His kingdom. He is after-all the God who gave himself into the hands of angry sinners.

Do you ever take offense at Jesus? He is no respecter of your culture or the empire that created and maintains that culture. Don’t expect it of Him. Don’t impose it on Him.

Reforming the Reformation (Metanoia Might Annoy Ya)

About 500 years ago the Church was subject to a much-needed correction. However, we also lost a deep, rich, tradition of spiritual practice which had been commonplace in both the church and amongst God’s people for centuries prior. Bodily practices in the form of the Spiritual Disciplines, which involved effort (sometimes a great deal of effort) fell largely along the wayside in Protestant practice due to an association with abuses within the Church.

At issue was a single word--Metanoia. The word translates to “repent.” Repentance involves unconditional surrender to God and an exchange of the path one is on, for the path toward God. Unfortunately, the word had been mistranslated over a thousand years earlier as “do penance.” Penance involves a voluntary self-punishment (often involving monetary payment) for wrongs committed.

The abuses that followed essentially amounted to “working off” one’s debt of sin and earning salvation. Anything that could be construed (or misconstrued) as “earning one’s salvation” became highly suspect and essentially abandoned. The spiritual disciplines were largely jettisoned from Protestant practice and one of the practical ramifications has been hints of gnosticism sneaking back in through an open window. Once again, the body was viewed as suspect and the mind/spirit viewed in stark contrast to that. There was no hope to be found in what could be done with/through the body.

It became commonplace to view salvation as simply agreeing to belief in a set of propositions about God. But remember, “even the demons believe (that there is One God)….” James 2:19. Church...We need to move well beyond agreement with demons.

A rough analogy might be a person who agrees that exercise is a good thing, buys a gym membership and watches people exercise every week while she sits and drinks a smoothie. Even out of shape people agree about what’s healthy.

Think back to the definition of metanoia: “Unconditional surrender to God and an exchange of the path one is on, for the path toward God.” What happens on a path? We walk. We engage in life. If your body is carrying around your spirit, it’s going to be really hard not to involve your body in this unconditional surrender. Any lingering doubts about the “goodness”of physical things can be put to rest by reading the first chapter of Genesis where God created ALL of it and pronounced it all “good.” In fact, after Eve’s creation it was “very good.” To claim that the body is “evil” is to tread in heresy territory. We’ve walked too close to this line in the last 500 years like a dog returning to its vomit. We must move from a mere “appreciation for Christ, to an “appropriation” of Christ and, like it or not, your body is coming along for the ride. Heck, it is the ride.

Works of the Flesh vs Spirit

At this point you might be getting nervous and thinking where’s Anthony when we need him? Let’s distinguish between the goodness of God’s physical world and the badness of works of the flesh.

Works of the flesh are those works which are attempted out of your resources alone. Often they are intended to get you noticed, or to create an obligation from God back to you. Works of the Flesh are about “earning.” They essentially say “God, do you see me.”

Example: Say I have a student who desperately wants to please me but does terrible on every assignment in spite of his very strenuous efforts. I notice this and offer to meet with him. I also offer the Tutoring Center, Success Coaching and the Writing Center. He refuses all these resources, continues producing bad academic fruit and will eventually fail the class and submit a scathing review of me on “Rate my Professor” because I did not see and appreciate their effort. This is a rough analogy for “works of the flesh.”

Let’s shed some light on works of the Spirit by way of some further analogy and discussion.

Looking “At” Versus Looking “Along”

C.S. Lewis once wrote of being in his garden shed. The door was closed and a shaft of light pierced through a crack in the door into the darkness of the shed. When he looked “at” the light he saw dust particles floating inside the beam. When he stepped into the shaft and looked “along” the light, the dust particles were no longer visible (even though they were still there) but now he saw a tree outside and the sun burning millions of miles away producing that light. Both experiences were true but both were very different. Each is diminished without the other.

In these last several centuries the sciences have caused a divorce of sorts between looking “at” and “looking along.” Backed by the Academy, modern science gives the authoritative nod to “looking at” as the superior, even the only, way of knowing. This way of knowing had been neglected since the ancient Greeks and the overreaction has proven extreme. This thinking has permeated our culture and has caused a great deal of rot within the Church. Looking “along” has been all but abandoned in Western Civilization, even in the Church.

Another quick example from Lewis just to make sure we’re clear on this point. Imagine two biologists attempting to give an explanation of what it means to be “in love.” One has been in love before, the other has not. Both can look “at” being in love and talk about the chemical and biological processes involved. However, one clearly has an advantage over the other. This is the advantage that we, in the West, have discarded.

The Ancients, by contrast, saw knowledge as thoroughly experiential. They would find it absurd that we award PhD’s in philosophy to people who can speak accurately about the implications of such-and-such school of thought. For them, if you weren’t a Stoic, or an Epicurean, or a Christian then you didn’t know these philosophies; you had, at best, looked “at” them. They would say that to know Christ was to look “along” Christianity; it was to do the things He told us to do. We have to move beyond “appreciation” of Christ to “appropriation” of Christ.

Have you experienced Jesus? More importantly, has Jesus experienced you? These two questions attempt to get at what it means to “know” in the Biblical sense. Think for a moment about a type of prayer we often engage in. “God please be with “so-and-so.” But, we know God is there, yet we (at times) drone out this prayer as if on auto-pilot. Perhaps what we need to pray is not that God would show up (we know He’s there), but that we would show up. Yes, my body is there, but where is my spirit? Perhaps this or that particular prayer concern is an opportunity for Jesus and I to experience each other and to spread the Kingdom.

Magic or Faith?

Perhaps it would be good to point out the difference between magic and faith at this point. Magic is the attempt to manipulate perceived powers to serve particular ends that we deem worthy of pursuit. It involves various actions, incantations of particular words and phrases which, if done correctly, will bring the result that is sought. Faith (in the Christian context) is complete trust in someone. It ultimately trusts that Good will be the result, regardless of the perceived outcome. Which of these two is more likely to require that you be present (not on auto-pilot)?

I recall visiting Ivan the Terrible’s church in Russia. Just down the valley from this ancient building were two stones on opposite sides of the valley. On the left, women came to sit on a stone to receive healing for “female” problems. On the right, men did the same thing for “male” problems. I witnessed serious parishioners coming from prayers at the church building, down to the stones to sit. They were navigating the various perceived sources of power in their lives trying to effect some sort of favorable outcome. Is this Faith?

We know that our bodies are carrying our spirits around. So, how do we show up, both body and spirit?

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Romans 12:1

The spiritual disciplines are based largely on this verse and the verse that immediately follows it. Their aim is to help us to be “present” in a way that we were not before. Offering up our bodies in fasting, solitude, silence, and a multitude of other disciplines is a means of offering up our bodies as “living sacrifices.” It breaks us free of the patterns of the world we see all around us and which we grew up in and which have been normalized by our culture-- our empire.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”

The spiritual disciplines are not a means of earning. They are one of the places where God meets and transforms us. They are a part of the “grace” of God by which we become more like him--where we come to know His will. They are a Success Center, Tutoring Center, Gymnasium of the Spirit--resources we dare not ignore.

“When Jesus saw him lying there and realized that he had spent a long time in this condition, He asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 7“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool….”

Embodied Apologetics (transformed lives) is what the world is starving for today. Why would someone sign up (and pay) for the gym but not exercise? Why would someone use their treadmill only to hang laundry? Think for a moment about the paralytic at the pool of Bethsaida. Why on earth would someone NOT want to get well? That’s what Jesus asks him. Perhaps after 38 years, he’s found a pattern of life that suits him. His answer certainly was cagey. Do you want to be well? Is something keeping you from the water?

Anger can be a useful tool for getting your way, perhaps you’d rather not give that up. Asking the same question seven different ways until my child finally caves in and tells me what I want to hear may be an effective pattern of manipulation for me. If my “yes” actually is a “yes,” I may lose advantage over my child or over others. Perhaps I don’t really want to get into that water--especially after ---all ----these ----years.

How do I do the things Jesus told me to do? How do I “let my ‘yes’ be a ‘yes’ and my ‘no’ be a ‘no’”? How do I “do good to those who persecute” me? The spiritual disciplines are one of the places where God meets me for the express purpose of transforming me more perfectly into His image. They are a place where I can ask “God, do I see you”?

Some Quick Examples

• I keep an image of one of my daughters on my cell phone. Every time I see it, I’m reminded that other people are precious to their parents in the same way my girls are precious to me. It short-circuits a whole raft of inappropriate thoughts and behaviors that tempt me.

• I seek to let my “yes” be a “yes” and my “no” a “no” by asking “real” questions. Amy and I used to ask our girls, for example, “do you want to ask that little girl over to play”? If we didn’t hear the answer we wanted to hear we would rephrase the question over, and over until our poor kid would give up and say what we wanted to hear. We learned that if it isn’t a choice, not to phrase it as a choice; this manipulation just frustrated our girls and made liars of us. This also allowed their “yes” and “no” to be meaningful.

There are, so far as I can gather, an endless number of spiritual disciplines beyond the classics of fasting, praying, solitude and silence. Sharing these with each other could prove to be a deep well of transformation at CLG.

What does God get out of my spiritual transformation? The person I become.

Incidentally, this is also what I get out of my transformation. It’s all good, all ways, for all time and all eternity.

False Teachers Will Rise (2 Peter 1: 20 - 2:16)

“But notice first that no prophecy found in Scripture is a matter of the prophet’s own interpretation. Prophecy has never been a product of human initiative, but it comes when men and women are moved to speak on behalf of God by the Holy Spirit. But notice first that no prophecy found in Scripture is a matter of the prophet’s own interpretation (unpacking; untying interpretation knots”) . Prophecy has never been brought forth by or been a product of human initiative, but when men and women are brought forth to speak on behalf of God by the Holy Spirit.

2:1 Just as false prophets rose up in the past among God’s people, false teachers will rise up in the future among you. They will slip in with their destructive opinions (damnable heresies), denying the very Master who bought their freedom and dooming themselves to destruction swiftly, but not before they attract others by their unbridled and immoral behavior. Because of them and their ways, others will criticize and condemn the path of truth we walk as seedy and disreputable. These false teachers will follow their greed and exploit you with their fabrications, but be assured that their judgment was pronounced long ago and their destruction does not sleep.

For God did not spare the heavenly beings who sinned, but He cast them into the outer darkness and chaos of Tartarus to be kept until the time of judgment; and He did not spare the ancient world, but He sent a flood swirling over the ungodly (although He did save Noah, God’s herald for what is right, with seven other members of his family); and God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ash as a lesson of what He will do with the ungodly in the days to come (although again He did rescue Lot, a person who did what was right in God’s eyes and who was distressed by the immorality and the lawlessness of the society around him. Day after day, the sights and sounds of their lawlessness were like daggers into that good man’s soul).

If all this happened in the past, it shows clearly the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials and how to hold the wicked in punishment until the day of judgment. And above all, it shows He will punish those who let the desires of their bodies rule them and who have no respect for authority. People like this are so bold and willful that they aren’t even afraid of offending heavenly beings, although the heavenly messengers—in spite of the fact that they have greater strength and power—make no such accusations against these people before the Lord.

These people who speak ill of what they do not understand are no different from animals—without sense, operating only on their instincts, born to be captured and killed—and they will be destroyed just like those animals, receiving the penalty for their evil acts. They waste their days in parties and carousing. As they feast with you, these stains and blemishes on your community are feasting on their deceptions. Their eyes are always looking for their next adulterous conquests; their appetites for sin cannot be satisfied. They seduce the unwary soul, and greed is the only lesson they have learned by heart. God’s curse lies upon them.

They have veered off the right road and gotten lost, following in the steps of Balaam, the son of Beor, the false prophet. Balaam loved the reward he could get by doing evil, but he was rebuked for crossing the line into sin; his own speechless donkey scolded him in a human voice, an amazing miracle that reined in the prophet’s insanity.

We could get lost in the weeds explaining why those Old Testament references were important and relatable to Peter’s audience, but that’s not the point of this sermon. Just know he is pulling from a shared history to reference stories about how God does not abide the devastating effect of sin.

Peter is pretty concerned about false teachers. He gives quite a list of identifying features in the early church. People being what they are, the issues remain timeless even if the particular ways that false teachers and teaching show up then and now is different. I’m going to split this into two categories: What they taught and what they did.

WHAT THEY TAUGHT

1. False view of God. The temptation to make God in our image is as old as human history. Another way of saying this is that we tend to mold God into some kind of shape that feels good or is useful to us, which is very different from being true.

1. Do you think God must love what you love, or do you make sure you love what God loves? If you think God is pleased with you, is it because you are pleased with you, or because the Bible reveals that you have aligned yourself with the things that please God? If a teacher does not present God in such a way that your ways and thoughts are not challenged by God’s ways and thoughts, something is off.

2. Is God a God of justice, anger and consequences, or is God a God of mercy, love and grace? Are you never good enough for a demanding, perfectionist God, or is God madly in love with you just like you are? You might be surprised how much your answer has to do with family and church of origin rather than the Bible. If a teacher overemphasis/ignores God’s nature or acts, distortions are going to creep in.

3. Is prayer an opportunity to get what I want, or an opportunity to align myself with God’s heart and pray for God’s will? If a teacher tells you that powerful prayer is the kind that manipulates God – if there is never, “not my will, but yours be done” – it’s a problem.

2. False use of Bible. We’ve talked about this principle before: never read a Bible verse. It’s the idea that context matters: verse, paragraph, section, chapter, book, entire Bible. There is a Big Picture that cannot be ignored if we want to read the Bible well, and that picture will either distort our view of God or what it means to live like image bearers – and sometimes both. Let’s take the issue of judging as just one example.

I hear the verse all the time: Matthew 7:1 – “Do not judge, or you will be judged.” That’s absolutely in the Bible, but look what else is there – in the same chapter.

• Matthew 7:5 – “You hypocrite!” #judgy

• Matthew 7:15 – “Watch out for false prophets.” #judgy

• Matthew 7:20 – “By their fruit you will recognize them.” #judgy

• Matthew 7:24-29 – Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders #judgy

Very judgy chapter, actually. The overall message of the entirety of the biblical texts – which includes a book literally called Judges - is clear: Don’t judge hypocritically; judge impartially; judge fruit, not hearts; keep in mind that you get what you give.

WHAT THEY DID

False sense of self. They are arrogant fools in the most book-of-Proverbs sense of the word.

• They think they are the smartest person in the room.

• They respect no one but themselves.

• No one who disagrees with them can possibly be right.

• The focus of conversation always turns to them/their ministry.

• They make sure their face is always front and center.

• They build modern Babels where their name is made great not incidentally but purposefully.

Honestly, I am increasingly concerned about huge ministries where leaders pursue and/or embrace celebrity. Money, fame and power are a toxic mix. Those who navigate these things successfully - and some do, don’t get me wrong - have several things in common from what I see.

1. They didn’t pursue it.

2. They don’t really like it.

3. They reject the trappings of success.

4. They limit their pubic appearances.

5. They divest their power.

6. They humble themselves under authority.

False idea of freedom. Biblical freedom is freedom from the bondage of sin and the penalty of death, and freedom to follow the path of righteousness. That was clearly not happening. We occasionally see a scandal break where this is still a problem, but I think there is a more subtle kind of false freedom that tempts us.

One of our biggest challenges in the United States is confusing American freedom with biblical freedom. The Constitution is not the Bible. It’s possible it’s not perfect (!?)! it’s also certain that this country grants freedoms to me that the Bible does not.

• I am free in this country to cheat on my wife, but I’m not free to do that in the Kingdom of God.

• I am free in this country to hoard my money, but I’m not free to do that in the Kingdom of God.

• I am free in this country to say virtually anything I want to say; I’m not free to do that in the Kingdom of God.

• I am free in this country to watch pornography; I am not free to do that in the kingdom of God. I’m not free to objectify and commodify people.

• I am free in this country to love or hate whoever I want; I am not free to do that in the Kingdom of God. “You have been taught to love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you this: love your enemies. Pray for those who torment you and persecute you— in so doing, you become children of your Father in heaven. He, after all, loves each of us—good and evil, kind and cruel. He causes the sun to rise and shine on evil and good alike. He causes the rain to water the fields of the righteous and the fields of the sinner. It is easy to love those who love you—even a tax collector can love those who love him. And it is easy to greet your friends—even outsiders do that! 48 But you are called to something higher: “Be perfect (complete), as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5: 43-48)

False path of life. Three things stand out in this passage: greed, exploitation, and following desires like dumb animals.

• When you start to hear a giant vacuuming sound as teachers personally accumulate money and things because of the gifts from God’s people, beware.

• When people around teachers continually quit because they are used or abused spiritually, emotionally, physically or financially, beware.

• If you find out that a ministry has a buffer of people between a leader and everyone else, beware.

False view of community. These false teachers saw the church as a place for them to control and exploit rather than care for. They are presented here as predatory. The community of the church is where they gorge themselves on the people, the money, the food (probably “love feasts” associated with Communion). There is no mutual honor and respect; there is no accountability and transparency; there is no humility, no sense of an ebb and flow of repentance and forgiveness; no sense of serving rather than being served.

False representation of the church. False teachers ruin the reputation of Christ and His church. Not only are they not above reproach, they are more reproachable than most. It’s one of my biggest fears as a pastor, frankly. May God give me the strength to make His name great, not drag it through the mud.

* * * * *

First, I invite your inspection. God forbid I teach or live falsely. If you believe I am, you have the right if not the duty to confront me.

Second, apply this message to yourselves. You may not be formal teachers in a ministry or organization, but if you are a follower of Jesus, you have opportunity to teach – talk about and represent Jesus. This is for leaders for sure, but all of us are at times in a position where we lead someone else either towards Christ or away from Christ.

May we all, by God’s grace, be true in word and deed.