Another year has gone by. It’s cliché, but time flies. The older I get, the faster it goes. This post marks my 10th year of posting the books I read. That’s a long run! To celebrate, I created a new page on my website that houses all the books I’ve read throughout the years. You can access that page here, or you can navigate using the menu -> Book Lists -> Books I’ve Read.
The page is designed to highlight the top reads by year, but you can also filter and jump to the year’s full reading list as well.
I hope you enjoy browsing the list. It’s always fun for me to look back at the year’s reading and reflect on which I thought were best.
As I normally do, here are a few notes before you start browsing:
The list isn’t in any ranking.
My reading is a bit eclectic, as I think everyone’s should be. You’ll find works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and theology. You’ll find different thinkers and influences. It’s the way I like to read.
“Top Read” indicates the books I enjoyed the most. It doesn’t include re-reads, and some classics I read for the first time don’t make it. If they’re a classic, they should probably be on the list, but whatever. I reserve the right to like what I like, just as you do.
If you have some book recommendations for me this year, leave a comment. I’m always on the lookout for a good read.
All the links are Amazon affiliate links, so if you buy it from that link, I get some money from the purchase.
Now, on to the list!
Don’t you love those recipe posts with the long introductions? Isn’t it so fun to read through the storyline of how the recipe came together? It’s just so necessary for making the dish yourself.
At the risk of doing the same thing, I will have a longer-than-normal introduction to this post. Maybe you won’t care about it. That’s fine. Just scroll down to the list. Scrolling doesn’t cost too much energy these days. (I even made it easier to find where you should pick up by including a line before the list.)
For the rest of you, I want to share how I choose what to read. Of making many books there is no end (Ecclesiastes 12:12), so how can one choose what to read among endless options? Here are a few considerations.
Genre. Much of this is mood-based but can also be interest-driven or work-related. I read several books at the same time because my mood shifts daily. In the morning, I am clearer-headed to read more difficult works. At night, I need to relax with an easy read that doesn’t require too much of my brain. On the weekend, I might want an escape with a good work of fiction. Sometimes, when the jazz music that serves as my reading soundtrack strikes me the right way, I’ll pick up some poetry and pretend I’m more cultured than I am.
Author. Some people are just worth reading. If you’ve followed my “Books I Read” posts for a few years, you’ll notice some authors always make “The Best” lists. That’s because some authors just know how to write, and part of my criteria for a “best” book I read that year is based on how well-written the book is. Some authors are great thinkers, and while the writing is usually good (I struggle with a poorly written book, even if it is thought-provoking), their logic is what attracts me. I heard someone once say to a group of incoming students, “Take teachers, not classes.” In other words, a class with a great teacher on a subject you aren’t necessarily interested in is better than a subject you’re thoroughly interested in with a bad teacher. So it is with books. This criterion differs for fiction and nonfiction.
Nonfiction
The author is an expert on the subject matter.
The author is a good writer/thinker; therefore, the subject matters less.
Fiction
The author is a great writer.
The book won a respectable award.
The book or author was recommended by a trusted source, often a friend or public figure who knows what they’re talking about.
Reputation. Some books don’t qualify for the above criteria for one reason or another, but they have a reputation of excellence. This would be like a movie that was a critical success but won no awards and didn’t do well at the box office. It’s still worth watching. A book like that is still worth reading.
Subject. Perhaps the most boring of considerations, sometimes subject trumps all. This is especially true when one needs to read a book for one’s vocation, research a topic for a talk, paper, training, etc.
Length. The shallowest of considerations but a necessary one, nonetheless. We all have limited time. Some big books just won’t be read because we simply don’t have the time to commit to it—at least not yet. I don’t shy away from books due to their size, but I do have to plan better to finish them.
Medium. We live in a day where books can be consumed by more than eyes on a page. We can listen to books on our commute to work, doing chores around the hours, walking the dog. Some books must be read the old-fashioned way, but some are just fine being listened to. Such non-listenable genres for me are theology, poetry, and most fiction (I find it too hard to keep up with characters and small details that make the story what it is). Older works are also often unlistenable due to their style. History, biography, sports, Christian living, essays, and some fiction (the more pop-lit type) are great for listening to.
Availability. If you can’t get it, you can’t read it. Most of my books are purchased second-hand. I live for the local library book sales and used bookstores. If it is for sale at a deep discount, I’m more likely to own it and, therefore, to read it. But, of course, there are other ways to get one’s hands on a book. If not owned, can I check it out at the library? Is it included in an audiobook subscription service I already use? Does a friend have a copy I could borrow? When it comes down to it, the books nearest at hand are the books most easily read. That is one reason I am a proponent of a large library.
Mood. I mentioned this along with genre above, but mood plays a role in everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is, overall, the largest determining factor in what I read if no other forces push me in one direction (i.e., I’m not preparing to teach, preach, or write on a topic). Like food, what you’re in the mood for drives you to the restaurant.
Personal taste. I read some books simply because I’m interested in the subject, author, genre, etc., though I would understand why others would not be. I love books on baseball. That’s because I love baseball, history, and biography, and baseball has the best history and some of the most interesting personalities. We like what we like. I don’t let what I should be reading interfere with what I want to read. Just find time for both! Like exercise, the more you do it, the more you like it. Do you want to read that book you know you should read but lack motivation? Reading begets reading. Pick up a book you know you’ll like first and leave the more daunting book for after the appetite is whetted.
A few notes before you get started:
The list isn’t in any ranking. I look at what I read in chronological order and then put it in either the best or the rest category and list it here. So the last of the best is not the worst, just the last I read.
My reading is a bit eclectic, as I think everyone’s should be. You’ll find works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and theology. You’ll find different thinkers and influences. It’s the way I like to read.
I separate the list into “The Best” and “The Rest\". By no means do I intend to communicate that “The Rest” are not good—quite the opposite. I try to be discerning about what I read. Life is too short not to be. But some books rise above the others. Maybe I leave some out of my best list that you would include. That’s what makes these lists so fun.
“The Best” means the books I enjoyed the most this year. It doesn’t include re-reads, and some classics I read for the first time don’t make it. If they’re a classic, they should probably be on the list, but whatever. I reserve the right to like what I like, just as you do.
Some of “The Rest” were re-reads, and many likely were on “The Best” lists of prior years. But since it’s not a new read for me, I don’t include them in “The Best.” So if you see one that you would think I would put in “The Best” section, it’s probably a re-read.
If you have some book recommendations for me this year, leave a comment. I’m always on the lookout for a good read.
All the links are Amazon affiliate links, so if you buy it from that link, I get some money from the purchase.
Now, on to the list!
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41MmvvSVt4L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n We live in an age of technology and convenience. Our digital lives take up so much time and space that we often skip across the surface on the way to the next thing. But what do we miss if we don’t engage with others as deeply as we could? What if we actually knew someone? What if our deep need to be known was commonplace? David Brooks asks similar questions. What should we ask when in conversation with others? What should we pay attention to? Lean into? Learn from? Knowing how to know people takes some work, especially these days. What if we spent the next year learning how to get to know others and, in turn, letting people get to know us? What would our future look like? This book could help with that. And, as an added bonus, which even Brooks doesn’t fully realize, this is exactly the kind of life God intends for us!
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516EhpM-8SL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Oh, I adore a good baseball book. If that good baseball book is written by a great writer, well, that’s about as good as a book gets. Roger Kahn is a great writer, and he knows baseball. The Boys of Summer is Kahn’s classic book about the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s, written by a man who loved the team and the players. He covered them early in his career, and as they all grew and separated, Kahn reconnected with each of them to see how life turned out. It contains nostalgic recollections, life advice, baseball glory, and post-baseball struggles. From Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color barrier to the classic 1955 World Series win against the mighty Yankees, this book will take you deep into mid-century baseball—baseball as it is in every boy’s memory, whether you lived through those years or not. Oh, how i wish the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, and Ebbets field was still standing!
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fxD-IisqL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Piper’s book is part of the Love Your Church series published by The Good Book Company. I think it’s the best of the series. I have the privilege of knowing Barnabas. He is one of my pastors at Immanuel Church. I don’t think my knowing him influences this book’s position on my list other than the fact that I feel its truths deeper for knowing him. It is true, nonetheless. Immanuel Church, where Piper serves, is the best church I know for experiencing Christian belonging. We call it gospel culture. If you want to taste what that is, this book is for you. Who doesn’t need a greater sense of belonging? That deep desire can be satisfied, and this book can help you.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51U6lRPzsML._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Here is a book on many “Best of” lists this year, and rightly so. Jonathan Haidt sounds the alarm on what is happening with our children. Technology is a great gift and creates many wonderful opportunities, but we can’t let it rule us. The consequences are dire. Mental health among children and teens nose-dived in the early 2010s—right around the rise of social media and smartphone usage among that same group. Play-based childhoods are fading, and technology is filling the gaps. Children are more distracted, less rested, and more connected, but they are more troubled than ever. Anxiety is at a high point. Haidt offers not only the data supporting his thesis but also some potential solutions. This is a book well worth your consideration.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51n2jk6GCbL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Here’s a good rule to live by: if Leif Enger writes it, you should read it. Enger has the ability to combine intriguing adventure and profound emotion together in ways few authors can. I Cheerfully Refuse is a story of a man who has loved and lost much refusing to fall into the pit of despair.
Enger’s writing is beautiful. His stories are gripping. Again, if he writes it, read it. I think every book I’ve read by him ends up on my best of list.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51rCwzlqYvL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Here is a book that qualifies in the category of “great author, regardless of the subject.” I’ve read Goodwin on presidents, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and now on her marriage to Dick Goodwin. Dick was on JFK’s team as he prepared for a presidential run. His speechwriting was monumental during the 1960s, and this book is largely a history. It was written by someone who was not only heavily involved in the major political lives at the time but was married to someone who was also. It’s a story of a marriage that lasted more than 40 years, written based on letters and diaries revisited long after their writing—a time filled in with wise and profound reflection that can only come by age.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51c29r-JgtL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Another baseball book. This time, on the greatest baseball player to ever live. Sure, you can argue other players have come along with equal talent, but I’m not sure I can buy an argument that anyone surpasses Ruth. Part of that is because of the way he changed the game, ushering in the live ball era where home runs ruled the game, but part of it is the personality behind the bat. Ruth was an all-time great with a personal and professional life that has kept him in the American consciousness for over 100 years. If, after that long, others in your field are still compared to you, you know you’ve reached the top.
Biographies abound on Ruth, and this book isn’t novel in that regard. But Leavy's writing always feels fresh. She centers the story on a point in time and writes around it, bringing in the full history. That approach helps us feel as if we are at dinner with the subject, listening to old stories over the course of the evening, drawing us into the personality behind the lore.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fqOtUnz+L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n It wouldn’t be a best-of-list without Jared making an appearance. Here is a book for writers about writing by one of the best writers around. What makes Jared’s books so good is not just what he writes about (mostly Jesus) but how he writes. There is a craft to it. Every word matters. The style says something about the subject. Good writing adorns the gospel, and no one does it better than Jared.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41yQaV+oTjL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n One of the great joys of 2024 was getting to know Gavin and his family. In doing so, I got an up-close look at the brilliance that is Gavin Ortlund. I don’t know anyone else who is doing what he does. His YouTube channel, Truth Unites, is outstanding. He defends Protestantism so well, with courage, intelligence, and great care. This book is a distillation of a lot of his YouTube content. It’s a heady read but a really great one.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41E2wlG4tvL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Another Ortlund book! Ray and Jani were our dear friends when my wife and I were newly married. We learned so much from them about what a marriage should look like. We missed out on their parenting days with kids in the house, but we heard stories, and we saw the lives their children now live. We were impressed. This book is their attempt at coaching us parents on how to think about our family through the gospel lens. Your family matters to God. It is a divine strategy for blessing. Lean into it, and let this book help you.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41T42dc30KL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Another great joy of 2024 was spending more time with my friend Sam. I don’t know anyone who uses illustrations to explain the gospel as well as he does. In this book, he helps us understand what it means to be united with Christ—a biblical reality that sits above all other realities in our relationship with God. Let Sam teach you what it means to be one with God, and rejoice in that glorious truth.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51AvTJabcNL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n The NFL is the biggest sports league in the country. Nothing compares to it in terms of revenue earned, influence produced, and eyeballs attracted. How did it get that way? This book tells the story. If you want to know how the NFL grew from a cute little league barely making it to the behemoth it is today, this is it.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41zW3NlBHwL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Speaking of football, Jos Posnanski takes that great American game and tells us stories about it in this wonderful book of memories and recollections. Posnanski is just like us—a fan. He happens to also be a great writer. You might have other moments you would include, but you can’t argue with the ones he highlights in this book.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41tzpa44XrL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Twenty-five years after The Tipping Point, Gladwell revisits the idea of social epidemics and why things become what they become, why places turn into what they are, and why people end up where they do, with a look at the darker side of tipping points. I listened to this one and would highly recommend that experience.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31h4n2M9SUL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Maybe this is just a more professional attempt at fan fiction, but this book was fantastic. Percival Everett retells the story of Huck Finn through the eyes of Jim, the slave. It includes all the elements that made Twain’s original so good—all the adventure and comedy, but with a sober look at slavery. It’s more than just a straight retread from different eyes. It adds to and expands the story.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ZJe-kf7ML._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Vanhoozer’s latest is just excellent. It takes some focused attention, as all his works do, but it rewards. The premise is simple enough: essential principles for reading the Bible as Scripture everywhere, at all times, and by all Christians. His proposal is “mere” in that way. The impact is far from mere, however. If we read the Bible incorrectly, we make a major mistake. We need to right lens to see the light of the Bible. Vanhoozer helps us put those lenses on in this great book—my favorite book of theology this year.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51BG4uKcgsL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n I love to look at year-end book lists. This one showed up on NPR’s Books We Loved list, and it drew me in. I listened to this one. It’s short enough to listen to relatively quickly, and easier to keep up with the characters because there are so few. It’s a story, ultimately, of friendship between a man about to lose his house and land and the one sent to take it from him.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511spfWLZzL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Here is a book I would normally never pick up. It’s a graphic novel, which isn’t my cup of tea. But this one is different. For one thing, it’s about two of my favorite authors: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Hendrix tells the story of their friendship from the early days of the first meeting to the Inklings and eventually to the strain their relationship faced near the end. It’s a wonderful story that keeps you turning the pages. It’s also beautifully written and illustrated. And I promise, especially for Lewis and Tolkien fans, the final chapter is worth the journey.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41aZb9LPhqL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n This little book helped me revel afresh in the genius of Jesus, who doesn’t often get the credit he deserves for being the smartest man to ever live. Using the story of the prodigal son, Williams explains how Jesus’s brilliance is on full display in a relatively short story about two sons and their father. If you liked how Tim Keller expounded and applied the parable in his great book The Prodigal God, this book will help you dive even deeper into the glory of that story.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NAeoDNVgL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Hisham Matar won a Pulitzer Prize for his book The Return in 2017. He’s back now with a new novel about a man named Khaled who leaves his home country of Libya to go to school in London. While there, he and a fellow countryman make a decision to attend a protest that changes their lives forever. Through a series of friendships, Khaled learns to live his unexpected life away from his family but close to friends he wouldn’t otherwise have had. Matar shows us what friendship can do and how it can create in us a good life even when the life we imagined is lost forever.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51do4z8x8hL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Another truism: if Fredrik Backman writes it, read it. That’s what I do. While waiting for his forthcoming novel in 2025, the great people at Amazon published this short story about how a frying pan changed a person’s life. It’s short, funny, moving, and well worth the little time it takes to read it.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51brYTmA7QL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Here is a true story that is stranger than fiction. It’s one of those fun reads that just boggles the mind. Here is the description from Amazon.
Stéphane Bréitwieser is the most prolific art thief of all time.
He pulled off more than 200 heists, often in crowded museums in broad daylight.
His girlfriend served as his accomplice.
His collection was worth an estimated $2 billion.
He never sold a piece, displaying his stolen art in his attic bedroom.
He felt like a king.
Until everything came to a shocking end.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51EG8AyJiQL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vnAH8lQUL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41LMAvzoo4L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71gysHfGMhL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41xBxpB4-oL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/413EDSAI3mL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Zwpk+0hFL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51oDlR-P4sL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51szYcNojUL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/417POH0vrFL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41bq5O5pcGL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41s1pdhrEML._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/411l5Z5x86L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31Y-+bSHV8L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41wFagcxmLL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41pIimtMIKL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51odidfCMXL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41oKShtpSOL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ABWPCU+ML._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41bxi0Zb8BL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51wmXXPcnGL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515BViNxfeL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ztCsr0MUL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41r45-aQiNL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/410HMxPWxvL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31Keo1w7FBL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41xFsoUjFFL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41CdlELBk9L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/21TLyTA3oTL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51XRfNziY7L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41JJjwJihWL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nFRQvlgHL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eVNlqfveL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41BHiF3m8AL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31YXXYSdxQL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511OyLIy2AL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519usS1ewtL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41VEc4UhXUL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517ansUbE-L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31DjhKxFa0L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51JWA3p-vFL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Q0Mxe3qqL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61-zHZEjTQL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51EoGrk2BLL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41xJYmV5f0L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41cBIur6mzL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41u0MSJ4e+L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+db7dQ6uL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41whqpXJ8dL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517FA7k2PAL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51DbxHs00VL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516wKazBM-L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/419m6VOTwqL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/21LI8DEPv9L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Tn73ZjQzL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51F1rdd1TVL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51V8oFQkOSL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51zJEcBkvpL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51sscnI+dGL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41tLI8VJDVL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51sC4sIamKL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Hk+KToVDL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41vgl0oWNSL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41u1flDbTsL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/418EEkudOfL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ncjz-misL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41NjFaUrR8L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31Ed-AqbU1L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51EH-PXF1vL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41hah7vl4RL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/412W99Kt1dL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41kA5+AmjLL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ebEw9zTOL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51HvGCFPw7L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514cOsYQifL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51wAogQ-hEL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Hi. My name is David, and I’m an anxious person. In fact, just saying that makes me a little anxious.
Mostly, I worry about everything. I wake up worrying, and I go to sleep worrying, and in between, I worry some more. I even worry about worrying about the right things. What if I forget something and my family doesn’t have what they need when the time comes? What if, by my failure to worry, I lead us straight into hardship? What if I fail them?
It’s a miserable way to live, honestly. But it’s my way.
I know it’s not the way I’m meant to live. I worry about that as well. I need to change, but it’s hard. In this kind of world, how can one not be a little anxious all the time?
Who can save me from this body of death?
The Bible, of course, isn’t silent in the face of anxiety. It’s well known that the most repeated command in scripture is “Do not fear.”
There is a whole section in the most famous sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus addresses this issue. I’ve read it a thousand times. Maybe you have, too. But, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to point out something that has changed my life. I don’t mean to be hyperbolic (that’s an anxiety trait, I know), but it has made a bigger difference in my mental health than anything else ever has. And the thing is, it’s been there for thousands of years.
The key verse in this whole thing for me is Matthew 6:26. The ESV heading for this little section is “Do Not Be Anxious,” which, honestly, gives me anxiety. I like the CSB heading better: “The Cure for Anxiety.” That’s much less anxiety-inducing. Maybe the cure will work. Maybe it won’t. But that’s not up to me. So, let’s try it out, shall we?
Matthew 6:26 is such a simple verse. “Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they?”
Tim Keller used to say that good preaching connects an intellectual truth to a sensory experience. Jesus was a good preacher, of course, so he knew this too. That’s what he did in this verse. We are anxious people, constantly worrying about provision. Will we have enough tomorrow? Will we be okay? The intellectual truth that God will care for us takes us only so far. We need some sensory experience to help us actually believe it.
In fly the birds. I imagine it like a Disney movie. Right on cue, a bird or two flitters in and perches beside the crowd. They turn their heads from side to side, as birds do. They tweet (but not the annoying hot-take kind). They look again to the side and toward the ground, hop off their perch, grab a seed, and fly off with a chirp. Illustration complete.
They didn’t sow or reap or gather into barns. God fed them. They had all they needed.
This is a classic “from lesser to greater” illustration. Since God cares for the lesser thing, he will, of course, care for the greater thing. If the birds (the lesser thing) are cared for by God, won’t you (the greater thing) be cared for as well?
God loves using this kind of logic. If the blood of goats and bulls sanctify, how much more will the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:13-14)? If evil parents know how to give their children good gifts, how much more does God (Matt. 7:11)? If God did not spare his own Son, will he not with him freely give us all things (Rom. 8:32)?
The logical move from lesser to greater is the kind of thing that helps us see how secure we are in Christ. God is not letting us fall through the cracks.
Back to the birds for a minute. Do you know how many birds there are in the world? I asked myself that question the other day. So, I Googled it. National Geographic is the first result with my answer, and it’s quite a doozy. “New research estimates there are between 50 billion and 430 billion birds on Earth.”[1]
That’s quite an estimate. There’s a massive difference between those two numbers. But for the sake of our article here, let’s just go with the lowest number. 50 billion birds.
The thing about big numbers like that is that our brains can’t properly recognize them. What I mean is that we don’t see how big they truly are. We reduce them. So, let’s put the numbers on another scale. How many years are 50 billion seconds? Answer: 1,585 years. If you wanted to count to a billion, it would take you a little over 95 years to do so. So, counting to 50 billion would be something that my Excel document wouldn’t even show the full number for. Stack a billion dollars on top of one another, and you reach the lower portion of the troposphere, one of the outer layers of the Earth’s atmosphere. That’s about 68 miles. I guess 50 billion takes you into a galaxy far, far away.
Do you see the point? 50 billion birds are a lot of birds. And that’s the low estimate.
Why are there 50 billion birds in the world? Partly because that gives us 50 billion reasons to trust God with our lives. That’s Jesus’s point in Matthew 6:26. We do not have a meager amount of care. We have millenniums worth. We have galaxies worth.
The next time you step outside, look for the birds. You don’t even have to look. You can listen for them. They’re out there flying around, making music, gathering sticks for nests, poking at the ground for worms. They’re doing just fine, and they always will be because God loves them.
And he loves me. He loves you.
He wants us to know that way deep down. He wants us to trust him with our lives. He wants us to know that he cares for us today, tomorrow, and into eternity.
We do not have a cold, distant deity sitting idly by, watching us worry and work. We have a heavenly Father who loves us more than he loves the birds, who cares for us more deeply than we do even for ourselves, and who wants us to know how deep his love is.
So, he gave us the birds.
The next time you are anxious, consider them, and through them, remember your Father who loves you.
[1] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/how-many-birds-are-there-in-the-world-science-estimates
Another year has come and gone, and another book list is published. It’s the circle of life for a reader.
It’s funny to me that this annual list is among my most popular posts each year. You people like to know what I read!
Looking over this year’s list, I notice a few things. I added in some new interests, like science. I think that’s related to watching the entire series of The Big Bang Theory, which is a hilarious show. I also re-read several books from years past. Some of my reading was influenced by what I was working on at the time. I taught several seminars during the summer months, so I read several books on the topics. It’s neat to go back and remember what was going on in my life at the time. I also read more “big books” than normal. If you told my high school self that I would grow up and read things like this, my Sparknotes-For-Every-Assigned-Reading self would not have believed you.
Anyway, I hope you find some new things to read in this list. I have a rule with my personal library that you can borrow any book you want, but when you return it, you have to discuss the book with me. Maybe I’ll do the same with this list. If you read something off of it, let me know. I’d love to discuss it when you’re finished.
Now, a few notes before you get started:
The list isn’t in any ranking. I look at what I read in chronological order and then put it in either the best or the rest category and list it here. So the last of the best is not the worst, just the last I read.
My reading is a bit eclectic, as I think everyone’s should be. You’ll find works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and theology. You’ll find different thinkers and influences. It’s the way I like to read.
I separate the list into “The Best” and “The Rest\". By no means do I intend to communicate that “The Rest” aren’t good—quite the opposite. I try to be discerning about what I read. Life is too short not to be. But some books rise above the others. Maybe I leave some out of my best list that you would include. That’s what makes these lists so fun.
“The Best” means the books I enjoyed the most this year. It doesn’t include re-reads, and some classics I read for the first time don’t make it. If they’re a classic, they should probably be on the list, but whatever. I reserve the right to like what I like, just as you do.
Some of “The Rest” were re-reads, and many likely were on “The Best” lists of prior years. But since it’s not a new read for me, I don’t include them in “The Best.” So if you see one that you would think I would put in “The Best” section, it’s probably a re-read.
If you have some book recommendations for me this year, leave a comment. I’m always on the lookout for a good read.
All the links are Amazon affiliate links, so if you buy it from that link, I get some money from the purchase.
Now, on to the list!
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/518NAEnCPuL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n I love Westerns. My family laughs at that. I make them watch old John Wayne movies with me. Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone and all the spin-offs are so entertaining to me. Surprisingly, my four-year-old daughter is the child who shares this interest the most. She loves to watch “the bad guys” receive their outlaw justice.
I don’t have a cowboy hat because, living in Nashville, I couldn’t wear one and not look like a tourist, but if I lived almost anywhere else, I’d wear one regularly. My family owns a 350-acre farm with about a hundred head of cattle. We have a farm hand who looks after them and, honestly, he has my dream job.
Instead, I read and watch Westerns. Thankfully, the Western has had a long, glorious run as a genre, and I don’t think it’ll die anytime soon.
The Sisters Brothers was one of the first books I read in 2023, and it was one of my favorites. It’s not a typical Western. It includes far more humor than most. The story is 100% Western, though. It’s plenty violent. It has the good guys and the bad guys, and it’s hard to tell who is who most of the time. If you’re looking for an entertaining novel, Western or not, this one will scratch that itch.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/418AnujShOL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Christopher Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory is the best book I read this year. I’ve recommended it to several people, and I plan to revisit it often. It’s a big book, but it doesn’t feel like it to me. Reading it, I didn’t want it to end. I wished it kept on exegeting our modern culture for a thousand more pages.
A lot of people might be turned off by the title, thinking it’s some woke thing. It’s not. Watkin helps us see that what we think we know about modern life and culture finds its grounding and reality in the Bible. The scriptures help us understand everything, and with Watkin’s guidance, we can start to understand that in new ways.
If you’re looking for a book that helps you understand our world through the eyes of the Bible, this is the book for you. Don’t be intimidated by its size or title. Instead, dive in head first. You’ll come out wiser than before.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41YUCjgO8yL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n There isn’t enough space to write about Tim Keller’s influence on me. I wrote a little about it on the day he died.
I was really looking forward to Colin Hansen’s “biography” of Keller since I first heard about it some time last year. I put biography in quotes because it’s not the kind of biography you’re used to. Yes, it tells the story of Keller’s life, but it is, fittingly, not Keller-centric. Rather than focusing on Keller himself, we learn about the people who influenced him. We see how he became who he was and how he was formed spiritually and intellectually.
It’s a brilliant idea. To understand a person, you have to understand the people that shaped them. From C.S. Lewis to Richard Lovelace to Edmond Clowney to Barbara Boyd, you get to see the minds that shaped the mind that touched the hearts of so many of us.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41AkIg2fDcL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Rick Rubin’s career is a long list of greatest hits. He’s worked with everyone cool, Johnny Cash being, by far, the coolest. His creative instincts are matchless. So, when I saw he wrote a book about creativity, I knew I had to read it.
The book is broken into chapters by what Rubin calls “78 Rules of Thought.” He aims to get inside the internal dialogue of the creator where self-doubt and insecurity run rampant. If you’re a creator (which Rubin says we all are), you will enjoy this book.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/413B3ecrbWL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n When I picked this book up, I thought, “What a great idea for a book!” Generations are a bit difficult to pin down. Where does one end and another begin? I’m on the front edge of Millennials, but i don’t seem to resonate with those of my generation that came after me. Does that mean I’m not one of them?
Twenge helps us understand the differences between the generations. Starting with the Silent Generation, she takes us all the way up to babies today. Each generation has its own quirks. Each has a reaction to the ones before them. Some of these things are obvious. Some are more subtle. And for people like me, kind of in the middle between the boomers and the babies, this book helps me understand that large gap of people. Of course, not everyone falls into the stereotypical generational buckets, and Twenge knows that. But she helps us understand the cultural aspects that, in part, define each group. She takes us inside their thought life, their dreams and fears, their mindset and approach to life.
If you want to better understand the people around you, this is a book that will get you there.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51s5pqj32GL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n If it wins a Pulitzer, it’s probably a pretty good book. Kingsolver’s novel Demon Copperhead is worthy of the prize. It’s the story of an Appalachian boy born into poverty in a culture addicted to opioids. His life is representative of so many like him. There are hopes and dreams that lift and inspire, and then there is the hard reality of life in the real world that brings you back down.
Piggybacking off Charles Dickens, Kingsolver transports the Victorian novel to the American South, showing that times haven’t changed much, even if many years have passed. It’s a story that sticks with you, as all great novels should.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51SZ4kXEcnL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Taxi. Cheers. Frasier. Friends. Will and Grace. Those are classic TV shows. Those were all directed by James Burrows. To direct one of those would make a career. Burrows did all those and more.
Sometimes, you just need a nice, light read about show business. I do, anyway. I like to sprinkle one in every now and then. I’m currently reading a book about The Big Bang Theory, which, as it just so happens, Burrows directed both pilots for (yes, there were two pilots, and they are vastly different from one another).
Burrows tells his story of becoming a director and stumbling into all these great shows. Part of his luck was the right place, right time kind of thing working in the golden ages of television. Nowadays, with so many streaming options, it’s hard to imagine a show reaching the heights of any of Burrows’s greatest hits. That makes this book part nostalgia for those of us who remember those golden ages, and it’s a trip down memory lane told by someone on the inside that makes this book so wonderful.
I’m sure you watched at least one of his shows. Who didn’t in the 80s and 90s? So, I’ll go out on a limb and say you’ll probably find something enjoyable in these pages.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31sRGosQPaL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n If anything plagues our times, depression and anxiety do. It’s been well documented. I don’t know many people who don’t struggle with one or both to some degree. So what should a Christian think about it? There have been a few books written on the topic, and I’ve read several of them, but this one was the most helpful to me, perhaps because it does not come from our times. Sometimes, it’s yesterday that can speak life into today.
Richard Baxter is best known for his book The Reformed Pastor. He was an insightful pastor himself who knew how to help the suffering. The collected wisdom of this book will help your soul sort things out if you suffer from depression or anxiety. It helped me.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41KW9KnUjZL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Russell Moore is a gift to the Church. He’s been through the wringer, too. As a lifelong Southern Baptist pastor and convention leader, he was at the forefront of some of the toughest times the denomination ever faced. And he faced it as a Christian should, with full integrity and faith.
But that doesn’t mean it was easy. It wasn’t at all, as he explains in this book. In his own voice, Moore helps us see the problems evangelical America faces and the path forward by God’s grace.
If you feel a bit denominationally lost, this book will help you find your way. If you worry about the state of evangelicalism, this book will both affirm and comfort your worries. If you need a shot of reality, this book will give you the proper dose. It’s honest and real, and that’s what we need right now. Like an altar call, Moore invites us into a new life with God.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41sJjBemmaL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Some books are best described as a tome. This is one of those books. It is 600 pages, which, in a way, doesn’t sound like a lot, but I promise it’s a lot. Holland takes us through history, all the way back to Jesus, and shows us how thoroughly Christian our Western world is. Yes, perhaps we are secularizing in some big ways, but the light of Christianity still illuminates our thinking. The Christian ethic deeply shapes us. Where else did our modern ideas of justice, equality, science, and liberalism come from? Christianity has done more to influence, and still does more to influence, our modern world than anything else. This book explains why that’s true.
If you want to understand our world better, read this book and Christopher Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory alongside it.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/415249yI7GL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n I didn’t read all this book this year. I finished this book this year. I actually started it in 2020, reading alongside a friend of mine. We would read a chapter and then discuss it over a Zoom call over lunch. Those were weird times, weren’t they?
But now that I’ve finished the book, it can finally go on the list. Here’s the best endorsement I can give of it. It’s the single best one-volume systematic theology ever written. Okay, I haven’t read all of them, but I’d read plenty, and even if I hadn’t, it would be hard to imagine a better one.
Why not buy this book and read a little each day? I promise you won’t regret it.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31++QDKMbvL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n I don’t know how Gavin produces as much as he does, but now that he lives near me, I’m going to ask him. Maybe I’ll go watch him work because it has to be something to behold. Not only does he write a ton, but he also has a great YouTube channel with videos packed with information and insight that I couldn’t produce in a year.
I always love finding a single book to recommend on a topic. On the topic of Humility, this is the book. Every Christian should buy a copy and read it, and then buy a copy and hand it out.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Lp0qW6e5L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n You have likely heard about people leaving the church. Who are they? Jim Davis and Michael Graham, with the research help of Ryan Burge, tell us who they are. By looking at certain nuanced stereotypes and using real data to extrapolate across a wider spectrum, they show us how certain types of people view the church today. Many are leaving, yes, but not all hope is lost. It turns out that those who have left would come back if one thing happened. What is that thing? Read the book to find out.
Just kidding, it wouldn’t hold that back. The one thing is so simple it’s almost insulting to our intelligence. Most of those people would return to church if someone they knew invited them. Isn’t that amazing? You don’t need all the answers to our culture’s hot topics. You don’t need to be a great apologist. You just need to be kind and welcoming.
But, as with everything, being prepared certainly helps. This book will prepare you and equip you. It will help you understand and motivate you to make a difference. In a day when the church is losing people all the time, what if we took 2024 as the year to invite them back in?
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/316BSRlLkeS._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Here’s another big book. It’s one you should have on your shelf. In his classic style, Piper dives deep into the waters of God’s providence, bringing the Bible with him. Perhaps the thing that strikes you the most as you read is how many scripture passages help us see God’s providence. If you want to understand how God works, this book will help you. It’s not one man’s opinion. It’s grounded in the Bible. Piper serves as our tour guide, pointing out all the ways we can find God’s wonderful work in this world and our lives.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516TqwD2seL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Another Western. This one is different from The Sisters Brothers. First, it’s older. Second, it’s not funny. It’s the story of a famous gunman nearing the end of his life. He has cancer, and there is nothing the doctors can do. So he goes to El Paso to the one man he thinks can help and lives the rest of his days there, with enemy after enemy coming to try and do him in now that he’s weak. But he outwits them all, determining how his life ends.
It’s a classic Western story. If you like the genre, you’ll like this book.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51xIt-gAGHL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n The great thing about Jared’s writing is that there is at least one book a year, and they always make this list. Full disclosure: Jared is one of my best friends. We’ve known each other since before his first book was published. But his books don’t make my best-of lists each year because of his friendship. They make them because they deserve them.
Jared is a great writer, which undersells him quite a bit. He’s the best. And his books are always the best because they come from a heart that loves Jesus and knows him well. In this book, Jared writes about his friend Jesus and helps us revel in the glory of knowing him as our friend.
Some of us feel beat up by life. Some of us wonder if Jesus even likes us. But in the Bible, Jesus calls us his friends. If you want to know what that means, this book is for you.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51M+z-t6QFL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n If there is one man who is transforming our world more than anyone else today, it is Elon Musk. He’s an odd guy, which I think you have to be to do what he does. He’s super-smart. He takes incredible risks. He uses all he has to do what he thinks is best for the world. He’s as innovative as anyone in history, if not more so. From Tesla to SpaceX to X, formerly known as Twitter, Musk has his hands in a lot of different areas.
How did he get there? This book by the great biographer Walter Isaacson shows us how. He tells us the amazing parts, the good parts, and the bad parts. It’s an honest biography, which is all we can really ask for.
Musk is a transformative figure, and knowing those transformative figures is important, I think. So, if you’re looking for a biography to read in the new year, why not pick this one up? I don’t think you’ll regret it.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41KmVjx8PyL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n The wide variety of books that exist never ceases to amaze me. There are books on topics I’ve never even considered. This is one of those books. Amanda Ripley defines High Conflict as what happens when conflict goes from mere disagreement to us vs. them, good vs. evil thinking. Basically, it is what we see in modern politics. What we find on cable news. What we overhear in our local coffee shop, where the conservatives hang out with the conservatives and the liberals hang out with the liberals.
But it’s more than high-brow politics. It reaches across cultures. It affects street gangs. It affects how Jews in New York and conservative communities in Michigan interact (yes, that’s a real example used in the book).
If you want to understand the high conflict of our age, this is the book to explain it. I found it fascinating, and I think you will too.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416+x8CoJ+L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n I have a rule in reading. If Greg Lukianoff writes it, I read it. I don’t agree with everything he says or thinks. I don’t agree with anyone 100%. That would be too boring. But Lukianoff understands our culture better than almost anyone. He researches it. He thinks about it. He looks at it honestly and assesses it with clear eyes.
In this book, he dives into the cancel culture plaguing today's society. He shows the danger it poses and how it affects people all along the political spectrum. Conservatives are as prone to it as liberals. It’s a shocking reality that feels too common.
If you are concerned about cancel culture and want to explore how we can get out of it, this book is for you.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51jCMZs-2TL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Have you ever read a book about math? Forget your school days. I’m talking about as an adult not taking a math class. I hadn’t until this one. I work with math all day at work. I don’t even really like math. So why would I read a book about math? Because this one is fun and entertaining and teaches you something all at the same time, and i like books like that.
The bad drawings are just a gimmick. The drawings aren’t that bad. They stem from Orlin’s teaching days where he would use his bad drawing to communicate the mathematical concepts to his students. It lightened things. It engaged them. And he’s turned that into a series of popular books and blogs on math. Fascinating.
Orlin explores why the triangle is the strongest shape and how that impacts everything we use every day, like our houses. He explains why we can’t trust statistics. He talks about Ted Wiliams, the last man to hit .400 in a season. He talks about probability and insurance and the lottery and all kinds of other things that are mathematical, even though we don’t think of them simply in those terms.
I don’t know who this book is for. I didn’t think it would be for me. So, if you’re just looking for something interesting, why not give this a try? I really think you’ll like it.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51x30HJFCBL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Over Thanksgiving, my friend Kelsey asked to borrow a memoir. I found the one she wanted on my shelves and gave it to her, and then she asked if I’d read Esau McCaulley’s latest book. I hadn’t, though it was on my to-read list. She told me I had to move it up the list. So I did. I listen to Kelsey. She’s wise and smart and insightful and one of my favorite people in this world.
Her recommendation did not disappoint. Esau is a great writer, and his story is one that I’m glad he told. Writing about one's life can’t be easy. There is always so much pain and sorrow, even if it’s a good life with a lot of happy moments. But those who share in a hopeful, Christ-centered way help us see that, in many profound ways, we’re all alike. We all sin. We all are sinned against. We all need Jesus, and he offers himself to everyone.
His experience as a black man in America is not my experience. He faced things I will never face. I hurt for him in those experiences. But he also shares my common humanity. He wrestles with what it means not to be defined by what we do but by who God says we are. We all have a family history that is complicated and wonderful at the same time, and it takes some people a lifetime to come to terms with it all, if they ever do. Esau shows us how we can do it.
If you want to read a great memoir this year, this is the one I recommend. Listen to Kelsey. She knows what she’s talking about.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Ik9PDSymL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.“
“The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!”
“Here’s the pitch by Downing. Swinging. Here’s a drive into left center field. That ball is gonna be … outta here! It’s gone! It’s 715! There’s a new home run champion of all time, and it’s Henry Aaron.”
Baseball is the best. There’s just no way I won’t ever believe that. Baseball has given me more joy than any other sport ever has, and there isn’t a close second. Baseball has also given me more pain than any other sport ever has, and there isn’t a close second. I’m a Braves fan, after all.
But let’s forget about the pain. Let’s talk about the great moments. That’s what Posnanski does in this wonderful book. (Though it is ironic that the best moments are also someone else’s worst moments, but let’s not think about that right now.)
The title promises 50 great moments, but there are actually 108. Posnanski can’t help himself, and I love him for that. I wish this book were twice as long. To relive some of these moments was great. Some I never knew. Some I wasn’t born for. Some I remember like they were yesterday.
If you are a baseball fan, this book belongs on your shelf. You’ll love it. I sure did.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517BibTATyL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41dQOL6mryL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41k2gDTD4jL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51797uvcYrL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41DqpPHtcZL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41HUISNH64L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514cEMJPiTL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51JcdERIUKS._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mEvx7P+mL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41qPkhPFBwL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41N+aBO5ouL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51LC+VvLV8L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517htCuZ-3L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41vn9SPR7pL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61SlFNDxS-L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nssklsOWL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51M3kctIMBL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41RoJB7lD1L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51EmHR-UxEL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41bnNO4jljL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41blEzo9DyL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41HNPD34q2L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/311Q+29fZKL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41cg8+NA6LL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41XS1a7n5zL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515iLb7QRzL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41b5KmvDoYL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vYCl2MXPL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41A-h09dKPL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41aVfkJOu+L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/413W0iHvItL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51D2XVJ86zL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/414VsLAv0qL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51zU1OqJZLL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41L30q2QGWL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41IDaFLjKIL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41JcHLk7CvL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41VwOT78FjL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514LNv6VcAL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41F-r7T3IZL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41j1VV8qkCL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41vI5xDes1L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51qmIDVNQcL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41K3pCH0K8L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/411y-P4OYGL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41N6IgbfHjL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/413r473IvcL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ktgHMQqFL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41pQlygU+VL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41yEF2TBbbS._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41wcroCjUQL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51lXlPoG9tL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n \n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51MOKxa54KL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ODabD47xL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41WA3sSHJVL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ovlmmLfBL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Ngk5BJi1L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41yAg-LJ1hL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41B+yH6Dl7L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41GXY4RpVRL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416xdI3pmdS._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51KPkqwM8uL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vVE-bkQWL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41065fRdIQL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/4141SzlMa7L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/4150LU4zC8L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31kYLOSo3CL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51QXo29lJrL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51boRaa39PL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41WwI-6ubGL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/615hc3a57hL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416C3Ch7IgL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51jn-cBy9CL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/410VtuvCJcL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51O3skb3InL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41s-AThj1wL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51kUCLTZNSL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41CcpLlC4pL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pg1RfkgZL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41kzYrZeIbL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41bQQ8fRqQL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n God is utterly in control. Any other view would be absurd—this God spins galaxies and holds atoms together, after all. This God raised spiritual corpses to new life in Christ. Salvation is warm and bright because God planned it. He had your name in mind in Christ. He holds us in his hand, bringing about his purposes. And we choose at every point.
Human life is absolutely significant; every fleeting thought, every choice, and every experience matter. This God calls you to faith, obedience, and responsibility. Because his purposes will not be thwarted, you can leap to the call, learning to be courageous, optimistic, persevering in love through troubles. His purposes sustain you through it all. His rule establishes the significance of our choices. Any other view would be absurd—human life counts, God’s will controls. His will of control (Eph. 1:11) is to be trusted as the frame of reference behind every experience; his will of command (5:17; 6:6) is to be obeyed with all our heart.
The supremacy of God’s purposes is not a debating point. It is the foundation of indestructible confidence and ravishing delight. God is in control, and you can bend all your energies to your calling, trusting that God’s plans are working out.
— David Powlison, Seeing with New Eyes, page 47.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a show on Apple TV became an unlikely hit series. Ted Lasso was born out of commercials to promote NBC’s English Premier League soccer coverage. Jason Sudeikis created the American-football-turned-English-football coach and built a world around him that included a Major League-type scenario where the football club owner wants to run the club into the ground to get back at her ex-husband. She hires Lasso as a big joke. The problem is, he’s successful. On top of that, he’s incredibly likable. Throughout the first season, you know at some point, the club owner, Rebecca, will have her scheme crumble. The truth will have to come out. When it does, how will Ted react?
It all comes out in the penultimate episode. Rebecca is weighed down with guilt, and at the prompting of her friend, Keeley, she goes into Ted’s office and confesses everything. Here was, finally, the climax of the first season. At first, Ted looks hurt and angry. Then, he does something that shocks Rebecca and the audience. He stands, comes close to her, looks into her eyes, and says, “I forgive you.” Rebecca doesn’t understand. Forgiveness was the one thing she didn’t expect.
Ted reasons that divorce makes people do crazy things. He was enduring his own throughout the first season. He knows what it can do to people. So, he forgives her. Shocking.
I remember watching the episode while walking on our treadmill, and I couldn’t get over how profound the scene was. It wasn’t overly emotional. It wasn’t dragged out too long. It was just another moment in another day in the life of Ted Lasso. His heart was ready to forgive. It was prone to forgiveness. That went against the grain of every viewer's expectation. Why? Because we live in a culture whose heart is not prone to forgiveness, where forgiveness is rarely if ever granted. And if it is, it certainly doesn’t come that easily. Ted Lasso was suddenly a prophetic voice to a hurting society.
The thing that makes Ted Lasso tick as a show is the kindness of the community. Ted is the driving force of it, bringing out the best in everyone around him. It is fitting, then, that in the most pivotal moment, Ted leads the way in cultivating the community. It could have all fallen apart, but it didn’t because Ted forgave.
One lesson we can draw from this is that a true community cannot exist without forgiveness. The entirety of the show is filled with kindness and love amid the difficulties each character experiences. Ted is the leader of that compelling community. It would have been understandable if Ted had not forgiven, but we would never really understand him unless he forgave. When Rebecca’s sin threatened to destroy the community that had been built, Ted’s forgiveness assured it wouldn’t break. Forgiveness has that kind of power. His extension of forgiveness revealed his true heart, what he valued most. It’s the same with us. If we want true community, we need to be ready to forgive and ask for forgiveness. We cannot have any relationship without it.
In a time when social media was filled with anger, blame, and outrage, here was a TV show capturing hearts with what is possible in this world. Shouldn’t the church be even more compelling? Shouldn’t the world expect at least the same kind of reaction from Christians?
Forgiveness does not seem to us to be a missional strategy, but it is. It always has been. The felt forgiveness we experience from God should flow out through us to others. When we forgive rather than take offense, when our words are gracious and merciful instead of bitter and angry, when we go in for a hug when a punch is deserved, we put on display the kind of God we have.
In a make-believe world like Ted Lasso, perhaps forgiveness comes easy. But in real life, it’s hardly so simple. That doesn’t mean, however, that it is impossible. There is a path of forgiveness that helps our hearts prepare to forgive. It flows from the forgiving heart of God. We start there. God, in Christ, forgives us of all our many trespasses against him. He does not ask for atonement from us. He accomplished that himself at the cross of Christ.
From God’s forgiveness flows our forgiveness. Life in this world gets painful real fast, and we find ourselves faced with the need to forgive. We must forgive others as God has forgiven us, but how can we do that?
Tim Keller wrote a book on forgiveness, and in it, he laid out the four elements of forgiveness.
To forgive, then, is first to name the trespass truthfully as wrong and punishable, rather than merely excusing it. Second, it is to identify with the perpetrator as a fellow sinner rather than thinking how different from you he or she is. It is to will their good. Third, it is to release the wrongdoer from liability by absorbing the debt oneself rather than seeking revenge and paying them back. Finally, it is to aim for reconciliation rather than breaking off the relationship forever. If you omit any one of these four actions, you are not engaging in real forgiveness.[1]
Corrie Ten Boom tells a story of her life that captures this idea so vividly. She lived in Nazi-occupied land during World War II. She and her family were sent to a concentration camp for hiding Jews in their home. Her father was killed. Her sister, Betsie, died in the camp. Corrie survived. One day after the war, she spoke on forgiveness at a church, and afterward, a former guard at the concentration camp came forward to greet her. Here’s what she said about that day.
It was in a church in Munich that I saw him, a balding heavyset man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken, moving along the rows of wooden chairs to the door at the rear.
It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives.
It was the truth they needed most to hear in that bitter, bombed-out land, and I gave them my favorite mental picture. Maybe because the sea is never far from a Hollander’s mind, I liked to think that that’s where forgiven sins were thrown.
“When we confess our sins,” I said, “God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever.”
The solemn faces stared back at me, not quite daring to believe. There were never questions after a talk in Germany in 1947. People stood up in silence, in silence collected their wraps, in silence left the room.
And that’s when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones.
It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were!
Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbrück concentration camp where we were sent.
Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: “A fine message, fräulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!”
And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course–how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?
But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. It was the first time since my release that I had been face to face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze.
“You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk,” he was saying. “I was a guard in there.” No, he did not remember me.
“But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräulein”–again the hand came out–“will you forgive me?”
And I stood there–I whose sins had every day to be forgiven–and could not. Betsie had died in that place–could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?
It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.
For I had to do it–I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience. Since the end of the war I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality.
Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that.
And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion–I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.
“Jesus, help me!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”
And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!”
For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.
And having thus learned to forgive in this hardest of situations, I never again had difficulty in forgiving: I wish I could say it! I wish I could say that merciful and charitable thoughts just naturally flowed from me from then on. But they didn’t.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned at 80 years of age, it’s that I can’t store up good feelings and behavior–but only draw them fresh from God each day.[2]
Forgiveness isn’t easy for any of us. But if Corrie Ten Boom can do it under those circumstances, can’t we follow in her footsteps? If God can do it in his holiness, can his power by the Spirit not enable us to forgive far less?
Forgiveness can change the world. So let’s go and be world-changers.
[1] Tim Keller, Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I?, pages 9-10.
[2] Corrie Ten Boom, “Guideposts Classics: Corrie ten Boom on Forgiveness” https://guideposts.org/positive-living/guideposts-classics-corrie-ten-boom-forgiveness/
The Apostle Peter tells God’s people, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” (1 Peter 4:8-9)
It is unarguable that we are a people with a multitude of sins. We hurt one another. We offend one another. We live in a world where it is common to close doors instead of opening them. We huddle with like-minded allies, and we define ourselves by enemies as much as our friends. Whom we fight against tells the story of what we believe. Person X believes that, so I believe this. We see this attitude most clearly in politics, where issues are defined in black and white, Republican and Democrat, but it appears nearly everywhere today. We increasingly live in an environment of what Amanda Ripley, in her book by the name, calls “high conflict.”
High conflict is different from the useful friction of healthy conflict. That’s what I like to call good conflict, in homage to what the civil rights leader John Lewis called “good trouble.” Good conflict is a force that pushes us to be better people. Good conflict is not the same thing as forgiveness. It has nothing to do with surrender. It can be stressful and heated, but our dignity remains intact. Good conflict can lead to radical change, tectonic shifts in how societies operate. But it does not collapse into caricature. We remain open to the reality that none of us has all the answers. To everything all the time, and that we are all connected. We need healthy conflict in order to defend ourselves, to understand each other and to improve. These days, we need much more of it, not less.
High conflict, by contrast, is what happens when conflict clarifies into a good-versus-evil kind of feud, the kind with an us and a them.
In high conflict, the normal rules of engagement no longer apply. In this state, each encounter with the other side, whether literal or virtual, becomes more charged. The brain behaves differently. We feel increasingly certain of our own superiority and, at the same time, more and more mystified by the other side. When we encounter them, in person or on a cable news channel, we might feel a tightening in our chest, a dread mixed with rage, as we listen to whatever insane, misguided, dangerous thing the other side says. The conflict feels like an existential threat, even if it isn’t. [1]
Throughout her book, Ripley explains through the lives of real people and real events how we get into high conflict and how we can get out of it. There are some surprises along the way. One of the most baffling of examples is Gary Friedman.
Friedman was a lawyer. One day, two friends approached him to be their lawyer in their divorce. Both of them wanted his representation. No way could happen, he told them. But then he started wondering, why couldn’t he help both of them? So, he started the now common practice of mediation. For years, he honed his craft and introduced the concept to the world. What is now a common practice started that day with Friedman and two friends.
It’s hard to imagine a scenario rife with more high conflict than a divorce. If there was anyone who seemed able to avoid the perils of conflict, it was Friedman. But then, he ran for local government in his small California coastal town.
Perhaps there is just something about politics that incites our high-conflict personalities. But Ripley proves that government isn’t the only hotbed. It can happen at home, too. Think Hatfields and McCoys or, to put a single name and face on it, Curtis Toler, a former gang member in Chicago.
Toler’s story includes the typical gang member story. A young boy caught up in neighborhood us-versus-them rivalries that easily escalate into violence. Toler’s downward spiral came after his childhood hero, Benji Wilson, was murdered on the streets. Toler—and everyone else—assumed it was a rival gang. He set off on a search for the killer. But Toler didn’t even know Wilson. He just assumed he was a brother gang member. After years of gang activity, a few stints in prison, and an awakening to a new life later, Toler finally meets the man who killed Wilson. His story is vastly different from Toler’s imagination. It wasn’t gang activity at all. It was just street violence born out of fear and youth.
Toler’s motivation throughout much of his life was born of a misconception of the truth. People were hurt because of a phantom us and them.
How can this happen? That’s what Ripley seeks to answer. Along the way, she finds four conditions that can act as fire starters in any conflict.
Group identities (us versus them)
Conflict entrepreneurs (those who delight in conflict and fan the flames)
Humiliation (an often-overlooked root cause of conflict)
Corruption (organizational influences that start the fires and can’t put them out.
Understanding the categories goes a long way to preventing high conflict, but it is no guarantee we won’t fall into it. To prevent it, we need to be much more diligent at a very personal level, which isn’t easy for any of us. We have to truly understand the story and realize the truth is more nuanced and complicated than our binary us-versus-them mentality. We have to push the fire starters to the edges where the oxygen level is too low to maintain a blaze. We need to make space for others.[2]
What can the church learn from this research?
If I could boil down Ripley’s insights into a one-word answer to the problem of high conflict, it would be hospitality. Hospitality is what making space for others looks like.
The Bible calls us to a life of hospitality. Romans 12:13 says, “Seek to show hospitality.” Seeking means working toward it. It’s not automatic.
1 Peter 4:9 commands us to show hospitality without grumbling. We’re prone to grumble because hospitality puts us directly in each other’s path. It’s not easy.
So, to some degree, we narrow the responsibility to those like us. But Hebrews 13:2 says we must show hospitality to strangers. In the context of the ancient world, where hotels were not common, that likely means travelers to our cities. However, appropriating it to our modern definition of strangers is not entirely wrong. Unlike the relatively smaller towns of the ancient world, many of us do not even know our neighbors. Nearly everyone around us all the time is a stranger.
And, to lift the matter to even more importance, in two places, we are told that hospitality is a requirement for those in church leadership (1 Tim. 3:1-2, Titus 1:7-8).
God’s call on our lives to practice hospitality is an unignorable command throughout the New Testament. We cannot overlook this. If we want to be obedient to God’s word and a faithful presence as witnesses for Christ in our day, our only option is to learn how to do hospitality well.
One problem today is that our modern sense of self is fragile and competitive. We aren’t sure exactly who we are, so we use other people to prove our worth. No wonder we struggle with hospitality.[3]
With such an impure mindset toward others, we cannot be welcoming, especially to those unlike us. But recovering the Christian practice of hospitality can speak a powerful word to our world. Listen to author Rosaria Butterfield’s exhortation on what she calls “radically ordinary hospitality.”
Engaging in radically ordinary hospitality means we provide the time necessary to build strong relationships with people who think differently than we do as well as build strong relationships from within the family of God. It means we know that only hypocrites and cowards let their words be stronger than their relationships, making sneaky raids into culture on social media or behaving like moralizing social prigs in the neighborhood. Radically ordinary hospitality shows this skeptical, post-Christian world what authentic Christianity looks like.[4]
This kind of ordinary hospitality is something we can all do. But, of course, there are ways we can do it that feel more like duty than delight. Pastor Michael Keller believes that the way to fight against the weakening cultural bonds and fragmentation we experience is to invest more deeply in joyful hospitality.
A church that celebrates, a church that does meals for those inside the church, but also those outside the church becomes a curious space. Christians should be the best at hosting parties and celebrating others as we have every reason in the world to have joy about the coming kingdom, including present “wins” whether they are simple birthdays that highlight the created-ness of others, or milestones of our neighbors’ achievements.[5]
Hospitality is one thing we can all do to reduce the high conflict culture we all live in and hate. It is not a pathway to no conflict but to the good kind, where we can all be changed as we learn to love one another for Jesus’s sake. Avoiding all conflict is only realistic if we refuse to open our doors. But the answer to high conflict, bad conflict, is the good conflict of everyday life where sinners interact with sinners in all the small things of life that make relationships grow and develop and lead to a joy that this world longs to experience. All it takes is a willingness to open the door.
Our world is filled with high conflict. It’s everywhere we turn. People make a lot of money off creating and sustaining it. But everyone longs deep down inside for a kind of hospitality that cuts through the tension and creates a place where people of all stripes can come as they are and be who they are. It’s why the theme song of Cheers is so great. You wanna go where people know, people are all the same. You wanna go where everybody knows your name.
God’s people should be the most hospitable people in all the world. Only when the Church outshines the local bar as the most welcoming and honest place in town will we start to experience the kind of biblical hospitality on a wide scale that heaven is made of. If we want to make heaven on earth, there isn’t a much better place to start than with true, biblical hospitality. It’s not easy, but we can do this.
We can move from high conflict to good conflict. We can move from making assumptions about others to being curious about others. We can cut off our monologues and create dialogs. We can seek solutions to our problems together rather than sizing our fists for the right boxing gloves. We can stop rejoicing in “their” losses and learn to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep (Rom. 12:15).[6]
In her book, The Gospel Comes with a House Key, Rosaria Butterfield devotes a chapter to the kindness of hospitality in our post-Christian world. I will list the main points of that chapter and add some additional commentary of my own drawn from her insights.
We can respect and even accept others even if we do not approve of their views or lifestyle. If we are to bring people inside, unbelievers must see genuine acceptance and genuine love. Our acceptance is not approval. It is an invitation to a relationship. Hospitality means opening the door to people as they are before offering the hope of Jesus that shows them who they could be.
We live in a culture where safe places outside of one’s home are almost nonexistent, and for many, the home isn’t even a soft place to land. Our modern world is so fast-paced and self-focused that many don’t have any deep relationships. Loneliness is an epidemic.
To be hospitable people, we must be willing to invest in others for the long haul. People will only share their burdens if they sense we will bear the load. As Butterfield says, “Invest in your neighbors for the long haul, the hundreds of conversations that make up a neighborhood, and stop thinking of conversations with neighbors as sneaky evangelistic raids into their sinful lives. Maybe our own lives are actually more sinful. Is it not more sinful to openly sin while claiming Christ’s lordship than to sin while claiming false rights to self-autonomy? Stop treating your neighbor as a caricature of an alien worldview.”[7]
Jesus said God makes the sun shine on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matt. 5:45). Many good things happen in and through the lives of unbelievers because of God’s common grace. You might be surprised at how nice and decent unbelieving people are.
Perhaps one practical step you could take to reach out to your neighbors is to get to know them well enough that you can throw a party for their next win—when they get a promotion at work, when they pay off their car loan, when they finish the big project, when their kid does something great. Goodness should be celebrated where it is found. This takes getting very close to those around you. Close enough to share in their joys.
We’re not talking about the difference between Calvinists and Arminians or Presbyterians and Pentecostals. Theology is much more nuanced than that and spills over into all kinds of places in our lives. In today’s world, it takes almost no time to find out if someone is a Republican or Democrat. The politicization of everything makes it obvious almost immediately. If your neighbor won’t shop at Target anymore because of their support for the LGBTQ community, don’t cut them off because of that. Don’t think less of them just because of that. Keep engaging them. Don’t make them your enemy—endeavor to make them your friend. Politics will come and go, but relationships can last the long haul.
We must rest in our identity in Christ for ourselves. Only there can we find the grace to press into hard and, at times, uncomfortable relationships. But we also must remember that those who don’t believe are made in God's image, even if they derive their identity from somewhere else. The more we recognize our common heritage, the easier it will be to live together. Unbelievers may be offensive to us. But we must remember we are likely offensive to them too. Perhaps the greatest gift we can give to our neighbors in today’s modern world is the ability to remain truly hospitable even when our feelings get hurt. Hear Butterfield’s exhortation.
Practicing hospitality in our post-Christian world means that you develop thick sin. The hospitable meet people as strangers and invite them to become neighbors, and, by God’s grace, many will go on to become part of the family of God. This transition from strange to neighbor to family does not happen naturally but only with intent and grit and sacrifice and God’s blessing.[8]
Butterfield says, “One logical place to start is at the end of your driveway.”[9] We tend to overcomplicate mission. We look for something formal. We wait for the church to start a new program. But what if we all just went to the edge of our driveway and started talking to our neighbors for no other reason than to love them for Jesus’s sake? You can do that today. It’s not much, but it’s something, and we know what Jesus can do with a little something.
In our high conflict world, Christians ought to be the most reasonable, the most open, the most willing to admit weakness and wrongness. We ought to be those who walk through the world like Jesus, with eyes open to the weak and wounded, seeking to make friends with sinners, because we know we will find common ground with them. After all, we are sinners ourselves. Our only saving grace is the grace of God, and his grace will help us welcome others as he has welcomed us (Rom. 15:7).
[1] Amanda Ripley, High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out, pages 3-4.
[2] Ripley explains each of these ideas in Appendix III of her book.
[3] This insight came from James Eglinton, “Lemonade on the Porch – Why and How to Build Porches: The Gospel in a Post-Christendom Society,” https://quarterly.gospelinlife.com/lemonade-on-the-porch-part-2/
[4] Rosaria Butterfield, The Gospel Comes with A House Key, page 13.
[5] Michael Keller, “Lemonade on the Porch: Redeemer Pastors Suggestions,” https://rpc-download.s3.amazonaws.com/Lemonade_on_the_Porch_Redeemer_Pastors_Suggestions.pdf
[6] These insights are drawn from page 286 of Amanda Ripley’s High Conflict.
[7] Rosaria Butterfield, The Gospel Comes with a House Key, page 54.
[8] Rosaria Butterfield, The Gospel Comes with a House Key, page 62.
[9] Rosaria Butterfield, The Gospel Comes with a House Key, page 62.
God saves sinners. God - the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; three Persons working together in sovereign wisdom, power and love to achieve the salvation of a chosen people, the Father electing, the Son fulfilling the Father's will by redeeming, , the Spirit executing the purpose of the Father and Son by renewing. Saves - does everything, first to last, that is involved in bringing man from death in sin to life in glory: plans, achieves and communicates redemption, calls and keeps, justifies, sancti-fies, glorifies. Sinners - men as God finds them, guilty, vile, helpless, pow-erless, blind, unable to lift a finger to do God's will or better their spiritual lot. God saves sinners. ... Sinners do not save themselves in any sense at all, but salvation, first and last, whole and entire, past, present and future, is of the Lord, to whom be glory forever, amen!
— J.I. Packer, “Saved by His Precious Blood: An Introduction to John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ,” in A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life, page 130.
Tim Keller says, “Today’s culture believes the thing we need salvation from is the idea that we need salvation.”[1] We live in a culture that lacks the foundational Christian understanding of previous generations. At the same time, we live in a culture deeply and foundationally influenced and shaped by Christian values. Our modern world has what the Scottish Professor James Eglinton calls a “love-hate relationship with Christianity,”[2] simultaneously shaped by and offended by the claims of the Church. Christianity both attracts and repels modern people. Many refer to this as a “post-Christian” culture. In his book Biblical Critical Theory, Christopher Watkin explains this paradoxical environment.
We live at a peculiar moment in history when our culture’s assumptions and values retain a deeply Christian imprint but when the teachings of the Bible are largely unknown, misunderstood, or condemned. This makes for a strange and at times amusing situation in which society increasingly sets itself against Christianity but does so by using distinctively Christian arguments and assumptions.[3]
Apologist Glen Scrivener argues that the Western world has been so deeply shaped by the Christian worldview that it is simply the air we breathe, though many have no idea their values spring from Christ.[4] Values such as equality, justice, compassion, consent, freedom, and even individuality find their basis in Christianity. But without the Christian understanding combined with expressive individualism, we end up with unequal equality, unjust justice, uncompassionate compassion, nonconsensual consent, and unfree freedom. Everything separated from God eventually becomes its opposite.
Post-Christianity combined with expressive individualism makes for a very complex and paradoxical world in which you can have someone deeply devoted to the idea of sexual consent as a fundamental value but also very affirming of others’ freedom to express themselves sexually any way they want. So, on the one hand, they firmly believe certain sexual relationships are off-limits because they are fundamentally non-consensual, such as situations in which one party is influenced by the power dynamic of the relationship, compromising willing consent. On the other hand, they are firmly committed to individual expressive sexual freedom. But you can’t have both. Suppose you rightly hold to the importance of consent. In that case, you must denounce some sexual activity, but if you confirm expressive individualism, how can you deny that person’s right to express themself? There is a dissonance.
It’s worth asking where this person got their idea of consent in the first place. It came from Christianity. In the first century, a man had total power over women. But when the Christian sexual ethic flooded the world, Paul said things like 1 Corinthians 7:4, “Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” Historian Kyle Harper comments. “The social assumptions of pre-Christian sexual morality, such as the casual exploitation of the bodies of [powerless] non-persons, seem incomprehensible [to us today] precisely because the Christian revolution so completely swept away that old order.”[5] The modern person deeply believes in consent but has no idea that value was born of God.
This goes for a value like justice as well. Without the biblical social ethic, there is no modern understanding of justice. Leviticus 19:15 says: “You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” Deuteronomy 16:19 says: “You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous.” Jesus showed up and went after the powerful religious leaders, cleansing the temple they defiled with their injustice. His brother told us in James 2 not to show partiality or favoritism. Justice is a biblical idea.
But you cannot simply say to many people, “Justice is a Christian value.” They won’t believe you. The Church, of course, hasn’t helped with this. The Church has carried out many injustices throughout history. Even today, we see so many inside the church pushing against the idea of social justice, claiming it is a Marxist ideology. What was once an obvious connection between a Christian value and a publicly shared value is now severed. People can no longer connect the dots. With no shared language for God and no obviously Christian influence, many people find it difficult to understand what we are talking about when we talk about Christianity. To many, it’s just another religion they are ready to lop off, not understanding in many significant ways that it is the branch they are sitting on.
So, how can we help? Tim Keller asked this question in an article written a couple of months before his death called “Lemonade on the Porch – The Gospel in a Post-Christendom Society.” I will discuss it in detail because it is the most compelling discussion I’ve read on the topic, and I believe it needs more attention.
Keller combined two similar ideas. First was the idea of the front porch. Many of us don’t even have front porches today, but historically, the front porch served as the meeting place between the home and the street. You could invite a neighbor up to the porch for a glass of lemonade and get to know them. It was a good halfway point. Not in the house, but not on the street either. The second idea was drawn from the Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper. In the early 1900s, Kuyper discussed the European relationship between Christianity and culture.
Kuyper argued that for centuries, the cultural institutions of European countries had a “Christianizing” effect on most people in the population. General beliefs in a heaven and hell, in a personal creator God, the authority of the Bible, the need for forgiveness of our sins, sexual fidelity within marriage—all these and more were instilled in the general populations. Genuine, born-again Christians were only a fraction of any European society at the time, but Kuyper in no way despised the nominal Christians who constituted the majority. When nominal Christians came into church to hear the gospel preached, they had been prepared for it all their lives. The message did not sound completely, utterly confusing, or radically contradictory to their moral sensibilities because they had been “on the porch” of Christianity.
European culture was, to use Kuyper’s metaphor, a “forecourt” or porch for the church. It was a half-way place between complete unbelief on the one hand (the “street”) and fervent, heart-faith on the other (the “sanctuary”). On the porch were people friendly and respectful toward Christianity.[6]
Kuyper went on to point out that the culture was changing. The church’s forecourt, or porch, was disappearing. “The large number of people in western societies who were unconverted but who nonetheless had traditional values and a respect for Christianity were melting away.”[7] Years after Kuyper wrote this about Europe, the United States seemed to be proving an exception. But as Keller saw in New York City, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Kuyper’s observations about a post-Christian Europe began to show up in America. New York is typically ahead of places like Nashville, but that gap is closing. Nashville is growing into a major city in this nation, and along with all the good that means, it also means we will experience more of the big city ethos that we see in places such as New York.
What is the impact of this shift? Keller explains.
Suddenly, especially in the minds of younger Americans, Christians were the immoral ones, the cruel ones, the enemies of democracy, freedom, and compassion. In most parts of the country, church growth and church planting became far more difficult. Christians found themselves public targets of criticism for their views, especially on sex and gender. Then the pandemic emptied the churches. And since public services began again, most churches to this day have not yet recovered their former congregations. The American forecourt was emptying; Kuyper’s prediction was coming true even in the United States.[8]
That means we live in a culture that is increasingly losing our Christian language, and, therefore, most unconverted people lack the fundamentals for hearing and responding to the traditional gospel presentation. Keller explains those fundamental beliefs:
1) there is a personal God who created us and who judges us, 2) there is some kind of objective moral standard by which we are judged, 3) no one lives up to that standard perfectly and so we need forgiveness, 4) there is an afterlife, a heaven and hell.
Those are the basic building blocks of evangelism. “If you think for a moment of these beliefs as ‘dots,’” Keller says, “then evangelism for centuries in the West has consisted of simply connecting the dots.”[9] Unfortunately, the post-Christian world can no longer connect the dots because they lack a fundamental Christian understanding. Our work just got much harder. Keller presents the problem.
Most non-believers cannot quickly hear a gospel presentation and be asked if they want to receive Christ. Rather, like the early church and the church throughout the non-western world, congregations in the West must learn to create their own porches or forecourts where people can enter a relational process and be prepared to hear and understand and perhaps embrace the gospel… The vast majority of churches continue to reflexively work as if there was still a cultural forecourt. Their ministries and messages implicitly still assume that non-believers will be brought by friends or will simply show up in church and understand what is being preached. Some may, but this will increasingly not be so. This is a lethal kind of spiritual blindness and is a contributing factor to the decline in the church that we are seeing now in the U.S.[10]
The punch line is this: Churches can no longer rely on the culture to provide the front porch. We must build our own. How do we do that? Keller offers some advice.
On porches people are regularly exposed to Christianity in at least three ways: (1) They are enabled to see it. This happens when it is modeled in the lives of individual Christians, but it may also consist of visible expressions of Christianity, whether it be a service in the community (such as caring for the poor), art (such as literature, music, or theater) or in education (such as a Christian school). (2) They must be encouraged to question it. This happens when Christians in the space listen intently, patiently, and with great respect to non-believers’ doubts and questions, and respond with humility and thoughtfulness. Of course the questioning goes both ways. On porches, the powerful and unquestioned cultural narratives—“we are only intolerant of intolerance” and “you always have to be true to yourself” are patiently interrogated. (3) Finally, they must be enabled to hear it. This happens when Christianity is presented in their own language and vocabulary (instead of Christians’ insider jargon), and as answers to the questions that are most on their hearts, fulfilling their greatest aspirations and hopes better than their own intuitions and beliefs.
Keller ended his article by teasing a second part that would include practical tips on building porches. Unfortunately, Keller didn’t live to write the second installment of the article. However, Keller’s conversation partner on this topic, James Eglinton, attempted to flesh out three practical ways to help in the follow-up article, “Lemonade on the Porch – Why and How to Build Porches: The Gospel in a Post-Christendom Society.”[11] He proposed three things: hospitality, cultural apologetics, and forgiveness (to which I will add repentance). I agree with all three, and I will discuss each one, but first, I want to add another one that is the foundation upon which the others are built.
Personal Reality with Christ
The only way to avoid the despair of our modern age is to deeply accept the gospel identity Jesus can give us. That includes not only a proclamation over you but also the offer of reality with Christ within you.
To help others in any way, we must have a vibrant personal life with Jesus. He must be more than a theory for us. He must be more than a talking point, more than an argument, more than an approach to society's ills. He must be our personal Lord and Savior, deepest Friend, and nearest Companion. If we are not cultivating our relationship with Jesus, we will not be much help to our hurting and lost culture. How could we? We will draw our identity from the same wells as the world. We will suffer the same despair. We will adopt the same talking points. We will draw lines between “us” and “them.” The only way we can truly help is if we are personally walking with Jesus—if we experience reality with him moment by moment, by his grace.
Hospitality
We live in a world where it is common to close doors instead of opening them. We define ourselves by enemies as much as our friends. Whom we fight against tells the story of what we believe. Person X believes that, so I believe this. We see this attitude most clearly in politics, where issues are defined in black and white, Republican and Democrat, but it appears nearly everywhere today. It’s impossible to be hospitable with that attitude.
Modern identities are fragile and competitive, and so they struggle with hospitality.[12] Our mindset isn’t pure. We aren’t welcoming, especially to those unlike us. But recovering the Christian practice of hospitality can speak a powerful word to our world. Listen to author Rosaria Butterfield’s exhortation on what she calls “radically ordinary hospitality.”
Engaging in radically ordinary hospitality means we provide the time necessary to build strong relationships with people who think differently than we do as well as build strong relationships from within the family of God. It means we know that only hypocrites and cowards let their words be stronger than their relationships, making sneaky raids into culture on social media or behaving like moralizing social prigs in the neighborhood. Radically ordinary hospitality shows this skeptical, post-Christian world what authentic Christianity looks like.[13]
Pastor Michael Keller believes that the way to fight against the weakening cultural bonds and fragmentation we experience is to invest more deeply in joyful hospitality.
A church that celebrates, a church that does meals for those inside the church, but also those outside the church becomes a curious space. Christians should be the best at hosting parties and celebrating others as we have every reason in the world to have joy about the coming kingdom, including present “wins” whether they are simple birthdays that highlight the created-ness of others, or milestones of our neighbors’ achievements.[14]
Hospitality is one thing we can all do to build porches. All it takes is willingness to open the door.
Cultural Apologetics
According to The Gospel Coalition’s Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics, “We’re living amid the largest religious transformation in American history. Forty million Americans have left the church in the last 25 years. Many other Western countries have already seen similar declines. But that’s not the only challenge. After the fall of Christendom, believers in Western countries now face a strange mixture of apathy and antagonism toward the gospel. Many of our neighbors view Christianity as yesterday’s news but also as the source of today’s problems.”
Hospitality is good. It can show unbelievers what Christianity looks like. But despite what you may have heard, we cannot preach the gospel at all times through deeds and only use words if necessary.[15] We must use words. But which words? Eglinton, again, is helpful. “Cultural apologetics deals with explaining the history, workings, and shortcomings of secular modernity to the people who depend on it most but think about it least: secular Westerners.”[16] Collin Hansen defines cultural apologetics as apologetics that “helps unbelievers want the gospel to be true even before they may fully understand this good news. We offer the beauty of the lordship of Christ as opposed to the ugliness of the lordship of the principalities and powers (Eph. 6:12).”[17] Ted Turnau says, “The job of apologetics is to build a bridge between hope and the non-Christian.”[18]
Cultural apologetics proposes engagement with unbelievers using their own language and values (their culture) to show them how Christianity is the true truth, the spring from which it all flows, and to show them how it fulfills human longings. Both the Bible and church history are filled with this type of cultural engagement. Jesus used illustrations from every day life that made sense to his hearers. Peter at Pentecost and Paul on Mars Hill speak to their specific audiences in their cultural languages. Justin Martyr’s First Apology and St. Augustine’s City of God spoke to the Roman empire in their specific cultural moments. Cultural apologetics understands that every culture expresses itself in ways that lead to an opening to Jesus and his gospel. Our job is to help unbelievers connect the dots.
Dan Strange calls this “subversive fulfillment.”[19] Keller explains it this way.
When the gospel is rightly preached, it not only confronts but attracts. It not only appeals and compels, it offends. It says, “the plot-lines of your life will only come to a happy ending in Jesus Christ.” Subversive fulfillment is both affirming and contradicting. It challenges people, but on their own terms. And it means offering them, on gospel terms, what all human hearts rightly need—a meaning that suffering can’t take away, a satisfaction not based on circumstances, a freedom that doesn’t destroy love and community, an identity that doesn’t elude you, crush you, or lead you to exclude others, a basis for justice that doesn’t turn you into a new oppressor, a relief from shame and guilt without resorting to relativism, and a hope that can enable you to face anything with poise, even death.
This means, first, that on the church porch we are seeking to win the respect of non-believers and to affirm some of their beliefs. We are not merely saying, “We are right and you are wrong.” Rather, we affirm some of their beliefs and reason in this way, “If you believe (rightly) this – then why do you inconsistently believe that?” And then we attract them by showing how the things they seek can only be found in Christ.[20]
Repentance and Forgiveness
Eglinton points out that hospitality needs to be accompanied by cultural apologetics, and forgiveness holds the two together.
The existential power of forgiveness holds together the porches of hospitality and cultural apologetics. If we have no capacity to forgive, hospitality is impossible. Forgiveness is hospitality’s constant assumption—and when hospitality has to give an apologetic for its own existence, sooner or later, it will have to talk about forgiveness. But forgiveness also has to provide its own apologetic: why forgive, rather than be indifferent to wrongs, or bear grudges, or mete out your own revenge?[21]
In a cancel-culture world, we have lost the ability to forgive. We have lost, in many instances, even the possibility of forgiveness. We not only withhold it, but we heap condemnation on top of condemnation. The transgressor is not simply wrong; they are evil. There are no mistakes, only evil hearts proving themselves.
The Bible has something to say about that, doesn’t it? No one is good, not even one (Rom. 3:10-12). Yet the God of the Bible does not leave us in that hell. He brings heaven down in his Son to offer forgiveness freely and fully. That vertical reality affects our horizontal relationships. Christians must show that to the world. Other things may bring people onto the porch, but the doctrine and practice of forgiveness will get them in the house.
The precursor to forgiveness is repentance, and that starts with us too. We will sin, and when we do, we must repent and ask for forgiveness. Instead of doubling down, we need to humble ourselves. In his book Losing Our Religion, Russell Moore says, “As the prophet Ezekiel was told to dramatically enact carrying “exile’s baggage” as a way of showing Israel their coming judgment (Ezek. 12:1-16), maybe what the church is most called to do in this moment is not, first, to preach repentance but to embody what repentance looks like so that a culture seeking forgiveness will know what the words even mean.”[22]
Conclusion
We live in a complex world. There are no easy answers. The goal is not to find the silver bullet answer. The goal is to be formed by Christ to live for him in this world. The goal is to let him work through us, and that begins by humbling ourselves, acknowledging our weaknesses, and trusting him for the grace to help.
We will end with James Eglinton’s exhortation.
The goal of the forecourt is to offer something that secular Westerners need as human beings (made in the image of God), and to an extent still partially intuit (in the confused heritage of post-Christendom), but that they cannot get to on their own.[23]
We have news to share. We have a Savior to invite them to know. We have salvation to offer.
There is much to do, and it may feel, at times, impossible. But with God, all things are possible, especially with the God that will step out of heaven to find us. The Church is his house, and he has welcomed us in. Now, in response, will we go out to the porch and invite others in?
[1] Tim Keller, How to Reach the West Again, page 7.
[2] See Eglinton’s talk “The Church and Society,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5SGaIt0-GE
[3] Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory, page 15.
[4] Glen Scrivener, The Air We Breathe, page 12.
[5] Kyle Harper, “The First Sexual Revolution”, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2018/01/the-first-sexual-revolution
[6] Tim Keller, “Lemonade on the Porch (Part 1): The Gospel in a Post-Christendom Society,” https://quarterly.gospelinlife.com/gospel-in-a-post-christendom-society/
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] James Eglinton, “Lemonade on the Porch – Why and How to Build Porches: The Gospel in a Post-Christendom Society,” https://quarterly.gospelinlife.com/lemonade-on-the-porch-part-2/
[12] Ibid.
[13] Rosaria Butterfield, The Gospel Comes with A House Key, page 13.
[14] Michael Keller, “Lemonade on the Porch: Redeemer Pastors Suggestions,” https://rpc-download.s3.amazonaws.com/Lemonade_on_the_Porch_Redeemer_Pastors_Suggestions.pdf
[15] A quote often (wrongly) attributed to St. Francis of Assisi.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Collin Hansen, “What is Cultural Apologetics?” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-cultural-apologetics/
[18] Ted Turnau, Popologetics.
[19] See Daniel Strange, “For Their Rock Is Not as Our Rock: The Gospel as the ‘Subversive Fulfillment’ of the Religious Other.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 56/2 (2013) 379–95. https://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/56/56-2/JETS_56-2_379-395_Strange.pdf
[20] Tim Keller, “Lemonade on the Porch (Part 1): The Gospel in a Post-Christendom Society,” https://quarterly.gospelinlife.com/gospel-in-a-post-christendom-society/
[21] James Eglinton, “Lemonade on the Porch – Why and How to Build Porches: The Gospel in a Post-Christendom Society,” https://quarterly.gospelinlife.com/lemonade-on-the-porch-part-2/
[22] Russell Moore, Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America, page 201.
[23] Ibid.
In John 8:1-11, we find the story of the woman caught in adultery. After her accusers drug her before Jesus in the temple, and after Jesus confronted them with their own guilt of sin, they turned and walked away. In verses 10 and 11, Jesus spoke to the woman for the first time, comforting her. It’s worth looking at their interaction because, at some point in our lives, we might find ourselves in need of comfort amid accusations, and John 8:1-11 shows us the kind of Defender we have in Christ.
In John 8:10, Jesus stood, looked at the woman, and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
Commentator Colin Kruse points out that this is the first time in the whole episode that anyone addressed the woman. They dragged her in, accused her of adultery, and demanded her death, but until then, no one spoke anything to her.
Jesus did not start with her sin. He started with her accusers. Isn’t that interesting—and just like him? When she answered that none of them condemned her, Jesus said something amazing in response. “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
How can Jesus say this? Well, in a way, he could say it because now that everyone is gone, there is no real case against her. The charges are dropped, as it were. But there’s a more puzzling question. The scribes and Pharisees weren’t totally wrong. If the law is violated, doesn’t that demand punishment? Shouldn’t Jesus act justly? Is he ignoring the law?
Well, notice what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “You aren’t guilty.” The last thing he tells her is to sin no more. He’s not saying she’s innocent. But he doesn’t condemn her. Isn’t that interesting? Jesus is the most holy person that exists. He can’t overlook sin because if God overlooks sin, that is a real problem. How can there be any justice in the world if God overlooks sin?
Here’s where we get straight to the very heart of Christianity. Christianity says that we are guilty, but we aren’t condemned. How can that be? If we are guilty, we must be condemned. Justice demands it. If we are truly guilty, there is no way around it. Try telling parents whose child is murdered that there is no condemnation for the murderer. They would be outraged, and rightly so. So, how can Jesus say this? How can we be guilty but not condemned?
Perhaps the most amazing verse in the Bible, Romans 8:1, says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Here’s how we can be guilty but not condemned. Only if we’re in Christ. It can only be true if Jesus takes our guilt for us. It only works if 2 Corinthians 5:21 is true. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Only if Jesus takes our guilt and our sin and pays the price for us can we not be condemned. It’s only true if Jesus is condemned for us. The guilt and sin don’t just disappear. The penalty must be paid. Someone must pay it.
We can only be guilty but not condemned by the law if Jesus upholds the law for us. Jesus can only not condemn this woman now if he’s going to be condemned for her later, and that’s exactly what he will do. Jesus knows she should be stoned. He wrote that law! As God, he does demand perfect holiness from his people. But as Savior, he knows that cannot come apart from himself. Instead of throwing the first stone, he will let stones be thrown at him. Instead of her being crushed beneath the weight of their blows, he will suffocate upon the cross under God’s wrath for her sin. Jesus didn’t condemn her then because he would be condemned for her later. That’s why Paul says in Romans 3:26 that God is both just and the justifier—he is just, and no sin will go unpunished, but for his people, he is also the justifier, the one who sets things right on the cross. That’s the only way this works. He can only forgive because he will pay the penalty himself. That’s the heart of Christianity.
Left before Jesus, the only one who really could condemn her, she finds a rock she didn’t expect to receive—the rock that will be struck for her, the cornerstone that becomes a new foundation for her life. If she found that, you can too. This is not a one-off story. One of the things that makes this so powerful is that this is the normative way Jesus works. We don’t see this only here in John 8. We see it throughout his interactions in the Bible.
Throughout the gospels, we see Jesus moving toward sinners and sufferers in ways that shock and surprise us. Jesus shows us that God’s heart isn’t trigger-happy to condemn. In Luke 7, When the woman of the city (likely a prostitute) poured ointment on Jesus’s feet, and wiped them with her hair, and kissed them, the Pharisees were repulsed, but Jesus welcomed and forgave her for her many sins. In Luke 19, Jesus ate with Zacchaeus the tax collector. When the friends of the paralytic brought their suffering friend to Jesus in Matthew 9, Jesus didn’t even wait for them to speak. When he “saw” their faith, he told the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven,” and the paralytic got up and walked out. As Jesus traveled and saw the crowds, he had compassion on them. He taught them from God’s law but bent down and healed their diseases (Matt. 9). Jesus stood outside Jerusalem and wept over them. Throughout his ministry, we find the truth of Isaiah 42:3, “A bruised reed he will not break; a smoking wick he will not put out, till he brings forth judgment to victory.” He brought forth judgment to victory on the cross. He will not break us. He will not put us out. He was broken for us. He was put out for us.
The thing that pours out most naturally from Jesus’s heart is compassion for the undeserving. In his book Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund says it this way: “Time and again it is the morally disgusting, the socially reviled, the inexcusable and undeserving, who do not simply receive Christ’s mercy but to whom Christ most naturally gravitates. He is, by his enemies’ testimony, the ‘friend of sinners’ (Luke 7:34).”
When you come to Jesus “caught in the act,” you expect the full weight of the law to crash into you. It’s what you deserve. But with Jesus, you get what you don’t deserve. You are guilty but not condemned because he was condemned for you. All you have to do to receive that is receive that. Just open your empty hands of faith and accept his cleansing blood. That’s the scandalous grace of the gospel.
Jesus comforted her by not condemning her, but he didn’t stop there. Verse 11 says, “Go, and from now on sin no more.”
We must remember this. Jesus did not merely say, “I don’t condemn you.” He also said, “Sin no more.” True Christianity is both the full grace and forgiveness found in Christ and a call to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him. It includes both melting before his grace and stepping into the obedience he calls us to. He forgives, and he challenges. But notice the order. It’s so important to remember the order. He could have said, “I won’t condemn you if you don’t sin anymore.” But he didn’t say that, did he? His grace comes first, and that grace empowers obedience.
This is how we know Jesus really loved that woman and how we know he loves us, too. If he only forgives and doesn’t care how we then go and live, does he really care about us at all? If he only sends us back into the same lifestyle that got us dragged into accusation, pain, and potential death, would he send us back after forgiving us? Is that what you would do to someone you love? Of course not. Real love is loving someone enough to help them change into who you know they can be. Jesus loves like that. That’s why he calls us to obedience. He wants us to be like him; we can’t do that unless we obey him. But we can’t obey him—not truly—until we’ve been changed by his grace and mercy. Don’t mistake the order, and don’t mistake his love for you. Real grace forgives us completely, and real love calls us higher. Only in Christianity do sinners become saints. Heaven will be filled not with the deserving but with the undeserving.
Two Applications
Now, how does this passage help us? I think in two ways—personally and corporately.
First, personally.
Perhaps no sins result in as much shame as sexual sins. It’s not just what we act out, it’s also the thoughts we have. When Jesus added insight to the law in his Sermon on the Mount, he said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt. 5:27-28). Are any of us not adulterers? We are more like this woman than we want to believe. Who among us is qualified to throw stones? We ought to be stoned. Many of us feel so broken, unworthy, and even sometimes repulsive to God. We might even wonder if we’re even Christians.
Well, when your heart condemns you, God is greater than your heart, and he knows everything (1 John 3:20). You are not repulsive to Jesus. You do not shock him. Jesus came to save people like you. He wants you to know that. He wants you to experience the cleansing he can give.
Hebrews 4:14-16 says we have a great high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. He calls us to draw near to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Here’s what that means. It means that if Jesus is really a savior—if he’s not just a mentor, or a self-help guru, or an example, or just a judge—if he’s really a savior, he will get down in the mess with you, and save you in time of need because he perfectly understands you. He will be there in the grossness, the desperation, the deepest temptation, and the hottest part of the battle. He is not just a counselor for the after-party when the high has worn off. He’s the hero running into the war with you. His throne is not the bench to approach to pay your fine after the infraction. His throne is a wartime walkie-talkie that you can call when the battle gets hot. He’s there for the dark moments, the moments you don’t even like to think about. He’s there with grace and mercy. He is not aloof to your real life, your real sins, the real you.
Jesus was tempted as we are but remains perfect and sinless, so he knows the real cost of holiness. And his perfection is not a platform from which he condemns but from which he saves. As Romans 8:34 says, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” When you are caught in the act, he won’t condemn you because he was condemned for you.
Your most desperate need when you are most desperate is not to get your act together so you can come to him; it is to simply come to him and receive from his deep wells of grace upon grace. Only then will you even have a chance at getting your act together. Don’t take your problems to the law; take them to the gospel. If you go to the law, you will get justice, which will crush you. That’s its job. But if you go to Jesus, you will find that the law has been fulfilled on your behalf in him, and, therefore, you can find, from his fullness, grace upon grace (John 1:16).
Second, here’s how this helps us corporately.
If the only person who had the moral perfection to throw stones at the woman didn’t, let’s be very careful about picking up any rocks. Sin is serious, but it is no match for Jesus’s cleansing blood. Let’s always remember the heart of Jesus for sinners and sufferers. If we are to make an impact at all in this judging and condemning world, we are going to do it by stepping into the grace of Jesus together. We are going to do it by laying aside our weapons—stones or otherwise—and coming together to find the mercy of Christ for us. I don’t know about you, but I have enough of my own sins. I don’t need to go looking at yours. I have enough need of the cleansing blood of Jesus for myself to keep me on my knees for a while. Don’t you?
We have two options. We can become a community that radiates the beauty of Christ so profoundly that condemnation is only something we know we’ve been saved from, not something we’re looking to bring upon others, or we can become a community that is so hard to please even Jesus himself wouldn’t be welcome. What kind of community do we want?
By God’s grace, we can cultivate a gospel culture where Jesus is our greatest love. Where sin isn’t safe, but sinners are. Where we take each other to the gospel and not the law. Where we together boldly approach the throne of grace to find the help we need. Where we treat no sin too lightly nor too heavily because Jesus commands real obedience, but he forgives the worst we can do because he paid the price. And because he paid the price, we don’t have to. Let’s not ever make anyone pay for what Jesus already paid for. Let’s love him together, and let’s see what only he can do.
In John 10:27-28, Jesus revealed the kind of gift and assurance his grace grants to all his sheep. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
Let’s consider those verses, phrase by phrase.
“My sheep hear my voice.”
Later in John’s gospel, we see Mary Magdalene standing outside the tomb weeping on the morning of his resurrection. Two angels appear and ask, “Why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” She looked in the tomb; he was gone, and her heart broke again. Jesus was dead, and now even his body was missing. Her life was already shattered, this only added to the pain. But then, she turned around and saw someone she thought was the gardener. She said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” She’s just dying to find Jesus. Then, this amazing thing happens. The man she thought was the gardener was actually Jesus, but she couldn’t see him yet. Not until Jesus said her name. “Mary” (John 20:11-18).
That first Easter morning, Mary heard her Shepherd’s voice. He spoke directly to her heart in a way no one else could. Not even the angels could make her feel better, but when Jesus spoke, she instantly knew it was him. Her tears went from sadness to joy. With one word, he changed everything for her.
If you are in Christ, you know something of this voice, don’t you? He speaks to the deep places of our hearts. He uses our name in a way no one else can. Why? Because of the next phrase in verse 28.
“And I know them.”
When he speaks, you hear because he’s speaking personally. You are not a nameless person among the crowd. Jesus knows you intimately. You are his. He knows you totally. He knows exactly what you need. He knows what’s going on in your life. He knows the difficulties. He knows the joys. He knows the uncertainty you feel. He knows the depression and the anxiety. He knows the hopes and dreams. He knows the longings and hopings. He knows the sins and failures. He hears the prayers and even prays himself on your behalf.
Remember when Nathaniel met Jesus back in Chapter 1? When Jesus saw him, he said, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathaniel said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” That did it for Nathaniel. “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (John 1:47-49).
We have no idea what Nathaniel was doing under the fig tree. That’s not for us to know. It’s only for Nathaniel and Jesus to know. But Jesus knew it, and that convinced Nathaniel of his deity. Maybe Nathaniel was doing something he shouldn’t have been doing. Maybe he was sitting there longing for God and praying. We don’t know. Whatever it was, it was the thing that made Nathaniel know that Jesus knew him.
Jesus knows you like that too. He really, truly, deeply knows you.
“And they follow me.”
What else are you going to do if someone speaks to your heart so deeply? Who else knows you like him? Why would you not follow him? It’s the natural outflow of his grace.
Your only calling in this life is to follow Jesus wherever he goes (Rev. 14:4). I can’t say where all the paths he might lead you down. Psalm 23 comes to mind. There might be some valleys of the shadow of death, but he will bring you out the other side. You just have to trust him. The destination is glorious. It’s worth the wait. It’s worth the hardship. It’s worth all the fears and doubts and uncertainties. He will bring you all the way home to be with him in a restored and redeemed world where you have unhindered access to him for eternity. He is leading you into green pastures and beside still waters.
“I give them eternal life.”
The other day, two of my boys were talking to my young daughter in the backseat of the car. They mentioned how everyone would die. My precious daughter asked, “Daddy, will everyone die?” This was news to her. I told her that her brothers were right. Everyone would die one day. She said, “But I don’t want to die.” So I told her that if she loves Jesus, death is nothing to fear because he gives eternal life. That seemed to settle her. Oh, how it should settle us! Death? Where’s his sting? Jesus has conquered him. He is utterly defeated.
Hebrews 2:15 says Jesus defeated death by going through it. He destroyed the devil and delivered all those who, through fear of death, were subject to lifelong slavery. The fear of death enslaves us, but if we have Jesus, the chains are broken. We can truly live now because we will truly live forever.
If you are in Christ, you have this promise in black and white: I give them eternal life. In verse 10, which we saw last week, he already said the life he gives is abundant life. Now, added to that abundance is eternality. Oh man, think about this. The life your heart most longs for. The life that is so fulfilling that you can’t wait to get up in the morning to go and live. The life that is so deep and rich and meaningful. The life that is literally the ideal, perfect life is yours forever in Christ. It’s better than you can even imagine it to be.
So, okay, this life we currently live might not be the best. Jesus never said we were going to live our best life here. But there is another life to come—an eternal one, an abundant one. And you know what? Knowing that life is out ahead actually changes our life here today, doesn’t it? It’s like knowing vacation is coming. We can endure another day. We can even be excited about it.
“And they will never perish.”
The corollary to eternal life is the promise that you will never perish. You won’t wear out. You will last forever with God. You will never perish because Jesus will never perish. You are as secure as he is. He lives for you. Sticks and stones may break your bones and even kill you, but Jesus will forever save you.
“And no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
I challenge you to show me a more assuring sentence. I’m so glad this is in the Bible. No wolf can sneak in and capture. No thief can come through the back door and steal. Satan cannot snatch you away. You can’t even ruin yourself. In Jesus’s mighty hand, you are safe and secure. You have a rock-solid assurance that you will never be lost because Jesus has found you.
As if that wasn’t enough, Jesus said more in verses 29-30 to reinforce these already comforting words. “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” The Father himself stands behind Jesus’s words. If we doubt Jesus can hold us tight, we also have the Father’s grip. If we doubt Jesus’s words are true, we also have the Father’s words. If we doubt that Jesus is working in concert with the Father, we can rest assured he is not. The Father and the Son, and the Spirit, are united in mission to seek and save the lost and to keep and provide for the sheep. Whatever Jesus does only reveals to us the heart of the Father. And what does Jesus reveal about his heart? That the Father himself loves you. There is no greater comfort than this.
Jesus is the shepherd we’re all looking for—the one who can care for us powerfully, relentlessly, and everlastingly.
In John 5:39-40, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for misreading the scriptures. “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life!”
The Pharisees were the most diligent Bible readers the world has ever seen, but Jesus said they missed the entire point because they didn’t see him. That means it is possible to read the Bible and miss what it says.
How can that happen? It’s not as hard as you might think. We do it all the time. Preachers even do it all the time. Any time we take a passage of scripture and read it isolated from the grand story of the gospel of Jesus, we miss the point. Any time we make something the main thing that isn’t Jesus and his gospel, we miss the point. That is not to say we cannot and should not also glean other things from the Scripture, but we must be careful what we live our life on from our reading. Anything other than Jesus is sinking sand.
I want to highlight just two ways we can miss Jesus. There are certainly more, but I think these are two main ways.
The easiest place to miss Jesus is in God’s law. The Pharisees were famous for their piety. They obeyed God’s law better than anyone. The Apostle Paul, himself a former Pharisee, talks about the rigidness of his former obedience in Philippians 3:4-6. “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” Later, after his conversion to Christianity, he realized his folly. He counted all that past righteousness as nothing at all and clung to a righteousness not his own that came from the law but that which came through faith in Christ (Phil. 3:9). Once, all he cared about what seeing the law. Later, all he could see—even in the law—was Jesus.
Paul realized later on that the law was not given to show him how to obtain righteousness but to show him how far from it he really was (Gal. 3:24-27). The law was a pointer to our failure, not a ladder to our inheritance. The proper response is to fall on our knees, not rise on wings of self-righteousness.
Why, then, the law? We needed to understand sin. “It was added because of transgressions.” Paul explains this in more detail in Romans. “Through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). “Where there is no law there is no transgression” (Romans 4:15). “If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin” (Romans 7:7). Romans 5:20 says, “The law was added so that the trespass might increase.” Timothy George comments on this.
In Romans the word for “added” means literally “came in by a side road.” The main road is the covenant of promise—inviolate, irrevocable. The law has the character of something additional, a side road intended to carry extra traffic and excess baggage and, if we may anticipate Paul’s argument, designed not to lead to a separate destination but to point its travelers back to the main road.[1]
In his grace, God gave the law to show us how far we’ve fallen. But what God gave as a view into the fallen heart, we tend to construct into a ladder to God. We seek to prove ourselves holy when God intends to prove us needy. Therefore, how we understand the law determines how we understand grace and, ultimately, how we understand the gospel. What is good about the news of salvation if you believe you can attain it on your own?
Under the strict watch of the law, our failure is highlighted, which prepares us for grace. Martin Luther said, “The principal point of the law is to make men not better but worse; that is to say, it shows their sin, that by the knowledge thereof they may be humbled, terrified, bruised and broken, and by this means may be driven to seek grace, and so to come to that blessed Seed.”[2]
The other place we can miss Jesus is in the stories. Ed Clowney said, “It is possible to know Bible stories, yet miss the Bible story.”[3]
If we aren’t careful, we can get caught up in the Bible’s stories without connecting each story to the big story of Jesus and his gospel. We can focus on the characters and the events, and even the places and times. We can get fascinated by the little things that seem like big things and miss the truly big thing, which is Jesus.
Every story whispers Jesus’s name, as Sally Lloyd-Jones says.[4] No matter how great the story, it always points to someone greater. There is a danger with the narrative portions of scripture to make the characters the main point. Joseph running away from Potiphar’s wife is an example of running away from our lusts. David slaying Goliath is our example of facing our fears. Jonah’s prayer in the belly of the whale is our example of repentance. We may be able to draw some very important lessons from each of those stories, but they are not the main point. Jesus is the true Joseph who always avoided sin but was cast into the real dungeon and rose again to save his brothers. Jesus is the true David who fought for his people to save them. Jesus is the true Jonah who entered the belly of the earth for three days and rose again, taking our sins into the ground and leaving them there.
We can do this even in the New Testament stories. We can read about Jesus without really seeing him. We can use him as an example instead of beholding him as a savior. We can look at Paul’s faith instead of rejoicing in his savior. We can get caught up in John’s images in Revelation and miss the Lamb worthy to open the seals.
In one of the end notes in his book on preaching, Tim Keller discusses how to “get to Jesus” and make Jesus the hero from harder parts of scripture. One way to do that is to develop the narrative tension of what we’re reading.[5]
For example, there may be some conflict in the passage that we can’t figure out how to resolve. Perhaps, as Keller points out, God is acting complexly or inexplicably. How can God be both just and loving? Only Jesus can hold both together. For all who trust him, God pours out the fullness of his wrath on Jesus at the cross and saves them by his substitutionary death. For those who reject him, there is a final judgment to come. Both just and loving.
Are the covenants conditional or unconditional? Only Jesus can answer that question. There are blessings and curses in God’s law based on obedience. But we fail to obey. Yet God also promises his everlasting love and faithfulness. How can both be true? Because Jesus lived the perfect life for us and fulfilled every condition, and by his substitutionary death, gives us his righteousness as he takes our sin upon himself (2 Cor. 5:21).
Another tension is a prophecy, promise, blessing, or human longing that seems impossible to fulfill. Until we see Jesus is the fulfillment of every prophecy (Luke 4:21), of every promise (2 Cor. 1:2), of every blessing (Acts 3:25-26), of every longing (Rom. 8:31-39), we will not understand how God can say such things.
If every story truly whispers his name, let’s not let the louder parts tune him out. Let’s amplify the name of Jesus because he alone is worthy of all our praise. He alone can change us. He alone can bear the weight of being the one main thing of every story.
[1] George, Timothy, Galatians: The Christian Standard Commentary.
[2] Luther, Martin, Galatians, Crossway Classic Commentaries, page 176.
[3] Clowney, Edmund P., The Unfolding Mystery, page 11.
[4] Lloyd-Jones, Sally, The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every story whispers his name, pages 14-17.
[5] Keller, Timothy J. Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism, pages 259-260.
Many of us feel guilt when we think about reading the Bible. We remember all the failed starts. We regret all the mornings we couldn’t get out of bed to spend a little time with God. Maybe we even tried at night and found ourselves asleep before the end of the first chapter. We know we should do better, but we just can’t. Maybe something is wrong with us.
Or maybe we’re completely normal.
Remember the guy who fell out of the window while Paul was preaching (Acts 20:9)? How do you think that guy felt?
If thinking about Bible reading stirs up guilt, here’s what you can do right now. By faith, you can read this verse from Philippians 3:13-14 and dare to believe it. “One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on…”
Every one of your past failures has only served to bring you right here, right now. It’s a low place. A humble place. And there is no better place to start again with God. Forget what lies behind. You failed. Ok. I have too. But God still loves you. Jesus’s blood still cleanses you. The Holy Spirit still indwells you. His word is still there. It hasn’t disappeared. So press on. Strain forward. Start today.
But before you start, do something maybe you haven’t done before. Ask God for a new desire. Ask him to help you. Why would he say no to that prayer? He won’t!
Then, sit down and open your Bible and ask God for light. Ask him to help you read it. Ask him to engage with you through it. Ask him to be with you in every word. Why would he say no to that prayer? He won’t!
You can read the Bible. And you can start right now. So why not?
I don’t know about you, but my life works best when I have a plan. Nothing is set in stone. I’m not ultimately in control of my life, and you’re not ultimately in control of your life. But a plan sure helps to get me going. It probably helps you too.
One thing you might not realize is how achievable it actually is to read the Bible. For example, Justin Taylor once posted this on his blog. “There are about 775,000 words in the Bible. Divided by 365, that’s 2,123 words a day. The average person reads 200 to 250 words per minute. So 2,123 words/day divided by 225 words/minute equals 9.4 minutes a day.”[1]
Reading the Bible in a year takes less than 10 minutes a day. You can do that!
To help you, there are more Bible reading plans than I can list here. Google is your friend. Use it. Find one that works for you.[2] There are no rules. The point is not to get the “right” plan but the “right now” plan. Our lives change. Our time frees up or freezes up, depending on our circumstances. Parents with young kids do not have the free time that empty nesters have. Find something that works for you.
The best plan in the world is the plan that helps you. So find one that does that. You might need to experiment a little bit. That’s okay!
Maybe you’ve been down this road before and are ready to start again, but you know what’s up ahead. You know, at some point, it’s going to get hard.
How do we continue when it gets hard? Like anything in life, there will be some tough times. You may, for example, start a Bible reading plan that puts you in Genesis, then Exodus, then, gulp, Leviticus. And you hit Leviticus with absolute determination to plow through, but you get so bogged down in all the laws that seem so detailed and meaningless today.
Well, let me comfort you. You’re not the first person to think that. Not even close.
Now, let me encourage you. The investment is worth it. If you pay close attention to the laws of Leviticus, the rest of the Old Testament will make much more sense. When you get to the gospels, you will understand the Pharisees better. When you reach the end of the New Testament, you will appreciate the book of Hebrews, especially chapters 8-10, and not many people understand those chapters very well!
But more than that, Jesus is there deep in the pages of Leviticus. He’s there in the sacrificial system. He’s there in the ceremonial laws. He’s there in the rules and regulations that set a nation apart to himself. He’s the One who will fulfill every bit of it, so you don’t have to. If you read it that way, asking God for help through each chapter, you’ll be surprised at how relevant it suddenly feels.
But maybe you don’t have a problem reading even the “boring” parts. Your problem is consistency. Okay. I get that too. Life is busy, and sometimes we don’t have time. You missed a day of your plan. Then another day. Then a week. And you sit down, and it’s something like ten chapters to catch up on. Well, here’s an idea. Just skip those chapters. Go back to them later when you do have time. Don’t let yesterday’s absence impact today’s reading. Press on. Strain forward.
After all, if you don’t read your Bible daily, do you know how many of God’s laws you’re breaking?
One?
Two?
Nope.
Zero.
Let’s not make our Bible reading into a new law by which we measure our standing with God. God never tells us we must read his word every day. For most of history, the world was populated by people who couldn’t read or didn’t have access to a Bible. God is not a hard taskmaster. We live in an age blessed to have the Bible in multiple formats readily available. That’s a gift that we should cherish. But we are not failing his law if we miss reading for a day. Relieve yourself of that guilt. Guilt does not compel us to pick up and read. Grace does. And there is more than enough of that deep in God’s heart for you.
The gospel of Jesus Christ proclaims grace and mercy over the entirety of your life. What Jesus accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection is the total salvation of your total self. It is the complete forgiveness of every single one of your sins—past, present, and future. It is the warm hug of love for every moment of your life.
You are not your failures; you are Jesus’s treasure.
You are not your sins; you have his victory.
You are not your weaknesses; the joy of the Lord is your strength.
You are not a mess-up; you are a child of the King.
You are not a disappointment; you are hidden in Christ with God.
You are totally free, totally loved, and totally secure in Jesus, your Savior.
Now, what if you lived out of that sense of acceptance? What if you woke up each morning preaching this gospel to yourself? What if, when you sinned, you looked to God for forgiveness, accepted it, and moved on? What if you approached all your life with faith in this Jesus? You can. And it will change you.
You need that kind of grace for the journey of life. You need it for the journey of Bible reading, too, because the Bible is the kind of book that will mess with you. When you read it, you’ll confront some tough things about yourself. God’s word is living and active. It cuts deep. It slices you open and exposes the parts of your heart you’d rather keep under cover. But God will take his scalpel and perform his surgery on you, and when that happens, you need to know it’s the hand of a loving physician. It’s a healing effort. He’s remaking you into the image of Christ. Let him.
[1] Taylor, Justin, Reading the Whole Bible in 2016: An FAQ, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/reading-the-whole-bible-in-2016-an-faq/
[2] Here is one great place to find a plan: https://www.ligonier.org/posts/bible-reading-plans
“The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times… The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” – Psalm 12:6,
“The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” – Hebrews 4:12
The Bible is worth more than all the gold in the world. It is alive and active. It can enrich our lives immensely. The great English bishop of the 19th century, J.C. Ryle, said, “Happy is the man who possesses the Bible! Happier still is he who reads it!”[1] It is our food (Jer. 15:16), our life (Deut. 32:46–47), our comfort (Ps. 119:50), our strength (Ps. 119:28), our guidance (Ps. 119:105), our desire (Ps. 119:20), our hope (Ps. 130:5), our love (Ps. 119:97), our joy (John 15:11), and our treasure (Ps. 119:72).[2]
There is nothing like the Bible. It’s perennially the world’s best-selling book. It has transformed every culture it has encountered and has given a framework for living, especially in the Western world. We treasure it as God’s very word, as his gift to us so that we might know him.
The Bible is something we never truly master, even if we read it all day, every day of our lives. It’s deeper than any other book, with more to discover about who God is, who we are, and what this world is than any other book could ever offer. As the 19th-century English pastor Charles Spurgeon once said, “Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years…The deeper you dig into Scripture, the more you find that it is a great abyss of truth. The beginner learns four or five points of orthodoxy, and says, ‘I understand the gospel, I have grasped all the Bible.’ Wait a bit, and when his soul grows and knows more of Christ, he will confess, ‘Thy commandment is exceeding broad, I have only begun to understand it.’”[3]
Reading the Bible is a life-long pursuit. For some of us, it’s still a very daunting book. Maybe you’ve tried to read it several times and can’t seem to make it through. Perhaps you’ve read it multiple times all the way through, yet you sense there is still more to learn.
No matter where you fall on that spectrum, I want to highlight some things that make the Bible unique among all the other books in the world. My hope and prayer is that these encourage you to take up and read.
First of all, it’s a big book, and in our bite-sized publication era, where Tweets and Facebook posts are the newspapers of our day, we struggle with long-form reading. I fall into that category too. I love to read, but this modern world has trained my brain to take in small doses of information at a time. Reading the Bible takes far more effort than scrolling social media or the Apple News app.
How can we overcome this problem? It helps to break it down. Rome wasn’t built in a day, as they say. If you’ve never read through the whole Bible before, it will be hard to pick it up and go right through without a plan. Thankfully, there are many reading plans that you can use to guide you. Google is your friend here.[4] Take it in reasonable bits. Maybe that means a few chapters a day for you over a year. For some, it might mean bigger chunks over a shorter period.
Don’t let the size of the Bible intimidate you. Just start reading and ask God for help to continue.
The Bible is an ancient book. As Michael Bird says, “Even though the Bible is for us, it was not written to us, nor was it written about us. When we read the Bible, we are entering into a historically and culturally distant world and we must ‘mind the gap’ as they say on the London Tube.”[5]
Thankfully, we already have a good bit of practice in this kind of world-shifting. For example, we naturally do this when we turn on a TV show. Of course, the images help, but our brain can put us in a particular time and place. A Western is a different context from Star Trek. Some things only make sense when you understand the world where the events occur. We must do a similar orienting exercise when we come to the Bible. If we don’t, we might misunderstand and misapply what we read. A letter is a different type of literature than a narrative. It helps to know what you are about to read.
A good study Bible will serve you well here. The ESV Study Bible is one great resource. It includes an introduction to each book of the Bible with information on the author, date, place of writing, theme, purpose, occasion, and background. It even highlights the literary features of each book, providing even further orientation.
The Bible is also a complex book. It is a collection of 66 books written in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) by dozens of authors over more than 1,500 years. Nevertheless, it tells one story of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. It’s truly a remarkable accomplishment.
To complicate it more, these 66 books are in different genres. The Bible includes history, narrative, poetry, wisdom, prophecy, gospels, letters, and apocalyptic literature. Knowing which genre you are reading is vital to reading the Bible correctly.
You often hear people say they take the Bible literally. Literally, that can’t be true because the Bible includes all kinds of literature that, if it were to be taken literally, would be terribly confusing and unhelpful. Sometimes it’s telling us mere facts. But other times, it uses imagery to get the point across. Jesus did this all the time. Think of all the images he uses of himself in John’s gospel. For example, he refers to himself as the “door” (John 10:9). Are we supposed to think of him as a literal door—wooden, about seven feet high, with hinges and a doorknob? Surely not. That makes no sense at all. Instead, he is a door in the sense that he is the entryway into God’s kingdom.
No one reads the Bible literally because it just makes no sense to do that. Instead, we are to read each part according to the type of literature it is, taking the words seriously and looking for the true meaning behind each one. Again, a good study Bible is of great assistance in this regard.
Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” In other words, the Bible is inerrant.
The inerrancy of the Bible has been hotly debated for centuries. At various times, it has been misused, misdefined, and misunderstood.[6] Without getting too far into the various topics, the classical orthodox Christian view is put simply as this: the authors spoke the truth in all their affirmations, and the original text of the Bible is without error or mistake. The doctrine of inerrancy means that you can trust your Bible while reading it. God does not lie.
The Bible doesn’t tell us everything we wish we knew. Wouldn’t it be nice if God spent more time on Genesis 1 and 2 explaining exactly how the world came to be? What about the dinosaurs?
The Bible also doesn’t answer all our tough questions about how some things work. Divine sovereignty and human responsibility, for example. How can both be true? We cannot ultimately answer that because the Bible doesn’t. There is tension in the scriptures. God is presented as entirely sovereign, and we are held responsible for all our actions. When the Bible holds something like that in tension, we must learn to be okay with that.
Though the Bible doesn’t tell us everything we wish to know, it does tell us everything we need to know. We are not saved by knowing the details of the world's creation. Old Earthers and New Earthers are saved only by faith in Jesus Christ. Arminians and Calvinists are saved only by faith in Jesus Christ.
What do we need to know? We need to know the gospel. We need to know that we are sinful and unable to save ourselves, but God sent his Son to live the life we should have lived and die the guilty death we deserved to save us from the wrath of God that we were owed. Three days later, he was raised from the grave in a glorious resurrection, and all who turn from their sin and put their faith in him and his work, trusting him for salvation, will live forever with God in a renewed and restored universe upon Jesus’s return.
The Bible doesn’t tell us all we wish it did, but it tells us enough. It is complete and sufficient in its message of repentance and grace.
The Bible is a divinely inspired book. This is where we depart from what the world would recognize about the Bible. Here, we step into Christianity. The Bible is not just any old historical book. It is God’s gift to us. It’s his very word. It’s his message to us. It’s his revelation of himself. As Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is God-breathed.”
Though human hands wrote the Bible, those men wrote words from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21). God did not take over their bodies and make the authors serve as mere scribes. Instead, God inspired them by his Spirit and worked through their personalities and circumstances to create the Bible. And what a gift this is to us! We have God’s words in our human language!
Because of its divine inspiration, the Bible can never be wrong. If it were wrong, that would mean God would be wrong, and he can’t be (Num. 23:19; 1 Sam. 15:29; Heb. 6:18; Ps. 89:35). Now, the problem with that is that sinners like us will look at parts of the Bible and think, “Huh, I disagree with that.” I would go so far as to say that if you never disagree with the Bible, you probably haven’t understood what you’ve read. The Bible should confront our thinking. It should bother us. As Tim Keller said, “Only if your god can outrage and challenge you will you know that you worship the real God and not a figment of your imagination…If your god never disagrees with you, you might just be worshiping an idealized version of yourself.”[7]
Though we may disagree, we must bend our thoughts to God’s. We cannot “agree to disagree” with the Bible. We must change our thinking to match what God has said. Because of the holiness of the Word, we have no right to deviate from it. Saint Augustin put it plainly. “The Scriptures are holy, they are truthful, they are blameless.… So we have no grounds at all for blaming Scripture if we happen to deviate in any way, because we haven’t understood it. When we do understand it, we are right. But when we are wrong because we haven’t understood it, we leave it in the right. When we have gone wrong, we don’t make out Scripture to be wrong, but it continues to stand up straight and right, so that we may return to it for correction.”[8]
Lest that discourage us, view this as a great gift instead. We live in an age in which truth is a very malleable thing. It’s something everyone gets to define for themselves. But truth that changes with the times is not truth at all.
The Bible stands outside of our time and engages and informs our time. It does that not only for us but for every age. This is incredibly helpful and comforting. The problem with looking to our age for answers is that while we may have come to some view on something that is true, we still have our blind spots. No era is infallible. But God’s word is. If you want to truly be a counter-cultural influencer that lives on the razor edge, stand on God’s word.
For example, we live in a day when there is a strong (and right) emphasis on justice and equality. But divorced from scripture, our culture either takes those good and right ideas to improper ends or dead ends.
In the LGBTQ+ discussion, there is much talk of justice and equality, using similar language used in the Civil Rights era. While we should treat every person with dignity and respect, we cannot begin redefining basic ideas of personhood to fit an ever-shifting culture. A man and a woman are not malleable things. They are biological truths. Using the biblical concepts of justice and equality apart from the biblical definitions of personhood only takes us to an improper end, missing the actual point God is making about the dignity of each man and woman created in the image of God. We are not our sexual identities. We are God’s good creation. Only he can define us.
On the other end of the spectrum, our culture can take the good and right ideas of justice and equality to a dead end where no one can win. Divorced from scripture, if anyone fails the culture's definition of justice or equality, the game is over. There is no forgiveness or mercy for the offender.
Only the Bible strikes the right balance between upholding justice and equality, the proper definitions, and the opportunity of experiencing forgiveness and mercy when we fail. Not only that, but the Bible also gives us the power to forgive others when they have wronged us. It is a way out of cancel culture and into real community. That’s life on the razor edge. It’s surprising. It’s counter-cultural.
In his book The City of God, Saint Augustine told a better story of Rome than Rome could tell of itself because he looked through a biblical lens. The Bible knows us better than we know ourselves. It tells a better story of us than we can tell of ourselves because the Bible sees outside and beyond us, and we can only see ourselves for whomever we might be at any given moment. We can’t see the fullness of our lives at any given moment. The Bible, however, does. And that story of ourselves is founded in a more profound love than we have for ourselves. It’s a story steeped in the mercy and grace of Jesus.
We need this more than we realize. Without God setting the tone, we cannot truly know ourselves. To know ourselves, we need to know God. John Calvin said this about knowledge in his classic book The Institutes of the Christian Religion. “The whole sum of our wisdom—wisdom, that is, which deserves to be called true and assured—broadly consists of two parts, knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves…The purpose of the first of these is to show not only that there is one God whom all must worship and honor, but also that he is the fount of all truth, wisdom, goodness, righteousness, judgment, mercy, power, and holiness…The purpose of the second is to show us our weakness, misery, vanity and vileness, to fill us with despair, distrust and hatred of ourselves, and then to kindle in us the desire to seek God, for in him is found all that is good and of which we ourselves are empty and deprived.”[9]
When we come to the Bible, we are coming to a book that shows us who God is and who we are, but we are not the main attraction. God is. And that revelation of God helps us understand him and ourselves because everything in this world is understood in the context of God. He gives meaning to it all because he is the Creator of all.
[1] Ryle, J.C., Practical Religion
[2] Smethurst, Matt, 8 Things Your Bible Says About Itself, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/bible-says-about-itself/
[3] Spurgeon, C.H., The Sermons of Charles Spurgeon, vol. 2, n.d.
[4] Here is one great place to find a plan: https://www.ligonier.org/posts/bible-reading-plans
[5] Bird, Michael F., Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew about the Bible, page 95.
[6] For a more detailed analysis, see Matthew Barrett’s essay for The Gospel Coalition entitled “The Authority and Inerrancy of Scripture.” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/authority-inerrancy-scripture/
[7] Keller, Timothy J., The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
[8] Augustine, Colossians, 1–2 Thessalonians, 1–2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, page 269.
[9] Calvin, John, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, page 1.
At the outset of each day, we should hear God saying, You are accepted, because the guilt of sin is covered by the righteousness of Christ; You are free from bondage to sin through the power of Jesus in your life; You are not alone, but accompanied by the Counselor, the Spirit of the Messiah; You are in command, with the freedom to resist and expel the powers of darkness.
— Richard Lovelace, Renewal as a Way of Life, page 137.
Two week ago, I argued that Jesus is the main character of the Bible. Last week, I argued that grace is the main theme of the Bible. This week, I will explain how the gospel is the main application of the Bible.
What is the gospel? 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 says, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”
The gospel is the news of God’s redemption in his Son Jesus Christ, who, through his perfect life, substitute’s death, and glorious resurrection, saves his people from their sins, taking the wrath of God upon himself and making atonement with God by his blood. Now, all who receive Christ’s redemptive work have a promise of everlasting life in a renewed and restored creation.
No matter where we are in the Bible, this gospel message can be found. (See Appendix G.) In fact, it must be found to understand it properly. In his book The Unfolding Mystery, Ed Clowney said, “If you tell a particular Bible story without putting it into the Bible story about Christ, you actually change the meaning of the particular story…Because the story becomes a moralistic exhortation to try harder to live up to the example of the person in the story instead of a call to live by faith in Christ.”[1]
Think about David and Goliath. What is the story about? David, representing Israel, fights Goliath, representing the Philistines. Whoever wins that battle wins it for his nation. Goliath is much bigger than David. He’s stronger and better armed. Goliath is a professional soldier. David is a little shepherd boy. But David wins, and through him, Israel wins.
Now, what can we apply from that story? We could say, “We shouldn’t be afraid, but have faith like David in the face of our fears.” But is that where we need to stop? What if we can’t muster up that faith? Where does that leave us?
So, let’s dig a bit deeper. Where are we to find ourselves in the story? Are we really David? Or are we more like the Israelites cowering in fear on the sidelines, waiting for a savior? Is God calling us onto the battlefield to face the giant? Or is he showing us how the giant has already been slain on our behalf? Is David an example or a savior?
Now, put this story into the larger story. Factor Jesus into it. Who is David? David is like Jesus. Jesus faced a giant too, but it was much scarier. And he faced it not for himself but on behalf of his people. If he won, they won. David faced Goliath, and Goliath could kill him, but Jesus faced sin, and he let it kill him. Jesus didn’t just risk his life; he gave his life. As Tim Keller said, “Jesus is the true and better David whose victory becomes his people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.”[2]
The main application is not to “be like David” but to receive the victory won for you. Yes, we should be brave by faith in the face of our own giants, but doing that isn’t what saves us. We need to receive and believe the gospel. We need someone to fight for us because we all have giants we can’t fight and win. And if we can’t win, then what hope do we have? But if someone fought the only things that can really kill us—sin and death—and won the battle for us, that makes all the difference. If Jesus loved us and died for us to save us from all that can truly destroy us, what now do we need to fear?
That insight changes how we apply the Bible. It’s not just an intellectual pursuit that hits our heads but not our hearts, which could make us prideful of our knowledge. It’s not just a devotional pursuit that hits our hearts but not our heads, which could make us slaves to our circumstances. It’s not just a pragmatic pursuit that reaches only our will to change, which could lead to self-righteousness.[3] It’s far deeper than that. It reaches all the way down. We are all weak and broken and in need of a savior, and the gospel is the only solution that gets down to the very bedrock of our souls. Everything else is ancillary to that one main thing.
[1] Clowney, Edmund P., The Unfolding Mystery.
[2] Keller, Timothy J., “The Bible is Not About You”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq1kJLN-izE
[3] I owe these insights to Tim Keller and Ed Clowney in their seminary class at Reformed Theological Seminary, “Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World,” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/course/preaching-christ-postmodern-world/#introduction-to-the-course
Last week, I argued that Jesus is the main character of the Bible. This week, I will argue that grace is the main theme of the Bible.
John 1:16 says, “For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.” Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” Romans 5:20 says, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” Hebrews 4:15-16 tells us about the “throne of grace” that we can approach to “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” James 4:6 says Jesus gives “more grace.” Romans 6:14 declares we are “not under law but under grace.”
Matthew 11:28-30 is the one place in the Bible where Jesus speaks of his own heart. What does he say? “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” That’s grace.
But, you say, that’s all in the New Testament. What about the Old Testament?
After the fall of Adam and Eve, what did God do? He clothed them (Gen. 3:21) and promised them a savior was coming (Gen. 3:15). When Israel was in slavery, what did God do? “God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.”
When God gave the Ten Commandments, where did he begin? On terms of grace. Exodus 20:1-2, “And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.’”
Isaiah 55:1 says, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
Psalm 86:15 says, “But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
Lamentations 3:22 says, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.”
Time fails me to mention all the times we see God’s people fail and deserve death, and instead, God saves them and redeems them. Grace permeates the Bible, covering it like the waters cover the ocean.
The Princeton Seminary stalwart and New Testament scholar J. Gresham Machen said, “The very center and core of the whole Bible is the doctrine of the grace of God—the grace of God which depends not one whit upon anything that is in man, but is absolutely undeserved, resistless and sovereign. The theologians of the Church can be placed in an ascending scale according as they have grasped with less or greater clearness that one great central doctrine, that doctrine that gives consistency to all the rest; and Christian experience also depends for its depth and for its power upon the way in which that blessed doctrine is cherished in the depths of the heart. The center of the Bible, and the center of Christianity, is found in the grace of God; and the necessary corollary of the grace of God is salvation through faith alone.”[1]
Isn’t this amazing? Think of all the books that exist in the world. Of all the guides that show us where to go and what to do. Of all the self-help books that motivate us to become the best versions of ourselves. Of all the other religious texts in the world that heap demands upon us. The Bible stands above them all with a message of grace for the undeserving. God wrote a book, and the thing he wanted to get across more than anything else is the reality that he is “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Ex. 34:6-7).
Understanding that grace is the theme of the Bible changes the way we receive the Bible. If we don’t understand the terms of grace the Bible offers us, we will make it into a rule book. We will make it into something we strive to live up to. We will make it a merit contest. That will do one of two things. It will either make us incredibly prideful and self-righteous, or it will absolutely destroy us in guilt and shame. But if we understand the terms of grace upon which the Bible is offered to us, we will receive it as the gift that it is. We will enjoy it more. We will experience the love of God in it. We will see some ugly things about ourselves. We will see that we deserve judgment and hell. But we will also see that, in Christ, we can receive forgiveness and heaven.
This understanding of grace will also ensure we read what the Bible actually says, not what we think it says. Here’s what I mean. We tend to approach the Bible like we do so much of the rest of our lives. If you want a job, get qualified. If you want love, make yourself lovable. If you want to run a marathon, start running. So, we naturally think if you want God’s love, earn it. We are all legalists at heart. But that thinking is anti-biblical. Nowhere in the Bible do we see God ask us to earn his love. Instead, repeatedly, we see him offering it freely on terms of grace.
The logic of the Bible is different from the logic of the world, and that takes some getting used to. Theologians use two words for the concept: indicatives and imperatives. Indicatives are what God does. Imperatives are what we do. The Dutch theologian Herman Ridderbos put it this way. “Every imperative of Scripture (what we are to do for God) rests on the indicative (who we are in our relationship with God), and the order is not reversible.”[2]
How often do we go to the Bible, read a passage or verse, and think, “I am not _____. I should be _____. So, I need to do or be _____.”[3] But that’s not the logic of the Bible.
Listen to what Paul says, for example, in Romans 6:18-19. “Having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness [indicative (who we are in our relationship to God)], therefore now present your members as slaves of righteousness leading to sanctification [imperative (what we are to do for God)].” See the logic? Since you’ve been set free…present your members. Not the other way around.
Ephesians 2:10 provides another example. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” We are created…that we should walk in them. Not walk then created.
If we don’t approach the Bible with the understanding that grace is the main theme, we will naturally reverse the order of God’s own words. We will think it says one thing while it actually says another because we are all legalists at heart. And, worse still, we will talk to others about what we read in the Bible and place law upon them instead of the gospel. We must never forget that what we do does not define who we are in Christ. Who we are in Christ defines what we do.
Understanding that grace is the main theme of the Bible changes our entire approach to it. It motivates us to seek it out, frees us to receive God’s words—even the hard ones—and motivates us to live for him in all aspects of our life. Only grace truly motivates because only grace truly frees. And grace—praise be to God—is the theme of the Bible!
[1] Machen, J. Gresham, What is Faith?, pages 173–74
[2] Ridderbos, Herman, Paul: An Outline of His Theology, page 253.
[3] I’m indebted to Justin Taylor for this insight from this blog post: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/imperatives-indicatives-impossibilities/
The Reformer Martin Luther said, “Take Christ out of the Scriptures, and what will you find remaining in them?”[1] But seeing Jesus in the scriptures isn’t easy. It’s not automatic. Some of the greatest Bible readers in history have failed to see him. The Pharisees were the most proficient and diligent Bible readers in the history of the world. Yet what does Jesus tell them? John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.”
The Pharisees weren’t the only ones missing the point. Jesus’s disciples did too. After Jesus’s resurrection, Luke 24:13-27 tells the story of two disciples on the Emmaus Road. Jesus approached them, unrecognized, and asked them what they were discussing. They said, “Well, we thought Jesus was the Messiah, but he was crucified, so I guess we were wrong.” Jesus responded with a reprimand, saying, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then he does something amazing. “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
The Bible is one big, unified story about Jesus. Remove him, and you have nothing left.
I’m arguing for a Christocentric reading of the Bible because I think that’s what the Bible itself argues for.
Now, here’s what I’m not saying. I am not saying you can see Jesus’s name in every verse. You can’t even see it in every chapter. You can’t even see it in every book of the Bible. Esther doesn’t mention God’s name. But think of it like a trajectory. The tension builds with every story.
A Christocentric view of the New Testament isn’t as difficult because Jesus is mentioned by name so often. But what about the Old Testament? Though he is not named, we see Jesus everywhere. We find the pattern of Jesus—a Savior rising to redeem God’s people. We hear the promise of Jesus—one to come that will undo the curse and bring the blessing. We feel the presence of Jesus—divine help amid God’s people in all their struggles and sins.[2]
As Tim Keller famously summarized it, Jesus is the true and better everything.
Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us.
Jesus is the true and better Abel who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out, not for our condemnation, but for acquittal.
Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void not knowing wither he went to create a new people of God.
Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just offered up by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us. And when God said to Abraham, “Now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love from me,” now we can look at God taking his son up the mountain and sacrificing him and say, “Now we know that you love us because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love from us.”
Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us.
Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the king, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.
Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant.
Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses who, struck with the rod of God’s justice, now gives us water in the desert.
Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends.
Jesus is the true and better David whose victory becomes his people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.
Jesus is the true and better Esther who didn’t just risk leaving an earthly palace but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn’t just risk his life, but gave his life to save his people.
Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so that we could be brought in.
Jesus is the real Passover Lamb, innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us. He’s the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light, the true bread.[3]
No wonder, then, that when Paul was in Thessalonica in Acts 17:2-3, he entered the synagogue, “and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.’” No wonder Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:20, “All the promises of God find their Yes in him.”
Jesus is everywhere in the Bible. He is the meaning and purpose of every word, every story, every book, every genre, every section, every theme, every figure, every image, and every storyline. When you realize that, the Bible becomes like the movie, The Sixth Sense. Once you know the ending, you can’t help but see the clues all along the way. You see it everywhere. We need to develop a sixth sense for Jesus.
Perhaps no one has said it better than Sally Lloyd-Jones in her children’s book The Jesus Storybook Bible.
Now, some people think the Bible is a book of rules, telling you what you should and shouldn’t do. The Bible certainly does have some rules in it. They show you how life works best. But the Bible isn’t mainly about you and what you should be doing. It’s about God and what he has done.
Other people think the Bible is a book of heroes, showing you people you should copy. The Bible does have some heroes in it, but most of the people in the Bible aren’t heroes at all. They make some big mistakes (sometimes on purpose). They get afraid and run away. At times they are downright mean.
No, the Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne—everything—to rescue the one he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life!
You see, the best thing about this Story is—it’s true.
There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.
It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby. Every Story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle—the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture.[4]
Jesus is the main character of the Bible. Miss that, and you misunderstand the Bible. Get that, and it all suddenly starts making more sense.
Reading the Bible this way takes some practice. For many of us, it requires quite a bit of unlearning. We tend to read the Bible as piecemeal bits of information, like pearls on a necklace. It’s all connected, but it’s not unified. We have the Old Testament law, the prophets, the Psalms, etc. And we have the New Testament gospels and letters. But how do they hold together? Who knows. We read a portion, find the pearl we need for the day, and move on. But to read the Bible through the Jesus lens is to recognize that it isn’t made up of pearls on a necklace but links in a chain. It’s all connected to the one big story of Jesus.
This type of reading doesn’t ignore the other points the passage may be making. It only helps us find our way through them. C.S. Lewis said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it, I see everything else.”[5] A Christocentric reading of the Bible is like that. It’s by Jesus that we see everything else. Reading the Bible without Jesus at the center is like reading in a dark room. Jesus turns the lights on. Jesus is the organizing principle. Jesus is the point of the whole thing. Jesus is the key to opening the truth of every part of the Bible.
Some of us don't read the Bible much because we haven't yet learned to see Jesus in it. The Bible is just a history book, and history is boring for most people. But once we start to see Jesus in all the Bible and understand that every story is part of the larger story of Jesus, it becomes vastly more interesting, and we actually want to read it. Every page suddenly becomes an adventure. It's something living and active (Heb. 4:12) that still surprises, confronts, and comforts us today because Jesus speaks to us about himself.
Learning to read the Bible this way takes a little more thought than we often give to our quiet times, but this is where we gain real traction in our Christian lives. When we start to see Jesus as the answer to everything, the Bible comes alive in our hearts, and we desire to read it more. He’s the light that shines on it all, and we start seeing things we never saw before. That’s the glory shining through, and who doesn’t want more glory in their life?
[1] Luther, Martin, The Bondage of the Will, page 71.
[2] For more on this idea, see Glen Scrivener’s article “Where is Jesus in the Old Testament” on the Desiring God website: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/where-is-jesus-in-the-old-testament
[3] Keller, Timothy J., “The Bible is Not About You”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq1kJLN-izE
[4] Lloyd-Jones, Sally, The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every story whispers his name, pages 14-17.
[5] Lewis, C.S., “Is Theology Poetry”, The Weight of Glory
We have a friend at court that speaks a good word for us, and is following our cause in heaven; let this animate and encourage us in prayer. Do we think it too much boldness for such sinners as we to come for pardon, and that we shall be denied? Surely this is a sinful modesty. Did we indeed come in our own name in prayer it were presumption, but Christ intercedes for us in the force of his blood. To be afraid to come to God in prayer is a dishonor to Christ’s intercession.
Christ is at work for you in heaven; he makes intercession for you.
Oh! But I am afraid Christ does not intercede for me. I am a sinner; and for whom does Christ intercede?
“He made intercession for the transgressors” Isa. 53:12. Did Christ open his sides for thee, and will he not open his mouth to plead for thee?
But I have offended my High Priest, by distrusting his blood, abusing his love, grieving his Spirit; and will he ever pray for me?
Which of us may not say so? But, Christian, dost thou mourn for unbelief? Be not discouraged, thou mayest have a part in Christ’s prayer. “The congregation murmured against Aaron.” But though they had sinned against their high priest, Aaron ran in with his censer, and “stood between the dead and the living.” Num. 16:41,48. If so much bowels in Aaron, who was but a type of Christ, how much more bowels are in Christ, who will pray for them who have sinned against their High Priest! Did he not pray for them that crucified him, “Father, forgive them”?
But I am unworthy; what am I, that Christ should intercede for me?
The work of Christ’s intercession is a work of free grace. Christ’s praying for us is from his pitying us. He looks not at our worthiness, but our wants.
But I am followed with sad temptations.
But though Satan tempts, Christ prays, and Satan shall be vanquished. Thou mayest lose a single battle, but not the victory. Christ prays that thy faith fail not; therefore, Christian, say, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” Christ intercedes. It is man that sins, it is God that prays. The Greek word for advocate signifies comforter. It is a sovereign comfort that Christ makes intercession.
- A Body of Divinity, pages 182, 186.
Intercession is the correlate of atonement. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at, that those who deny the doctrine of Christ's atonement, should have maintained the position that his intercession is only figurative. This is the view taken of the subject by Socinians, who resolve the intercession of Christ into his kingly office, understanding by it nothing more than the exercise of his regal power in communicating to men the blessings of his mediation. That the Saviour possesses and exerts such a power, is not by any means denied, but that it is the same thing as his intercession, and is all that is meant by this part of his work, may fairly be disputed on the most satisfactory grounds.
The relation which intercession bears to atonement has just been remarked. They are correlate ideas. They stand to each other in much the same character as do the ideas of creation and providence. The providence of God consists in upholding all things, or maintaining in being the creatures he has made; it is best conceived of as a continued putting forth of the creative energy. So the intercession of Christ is the continued efficacy of his expiatory merit; on which account it has been spoken of by some of the ancient writers as a perpetual oblation. If the providence of God were suspended all created being must be annihilated; and if Jesus were not to make intercession, the merit of his atonement would prove utterly unavailing. The arguments by which the reality of atonement has been established, thus support the reality of intercession. Admit the necessity and truth of Christ's atoning sacrifice, and the certainty and prevalence of his intercession within the vail naturally and irrefragably follow.
Christ's intercession is, indeed, essential to the fulfillment of the covenant of grace. As \"mediator of the covenant\" everything which he performs as a priest has a relation to this divine economy. The sacerdotal functions of oblation and intercession have regard respectively to the condition and the administration of the covenant. The stipulated condition of the covenant is, that satisfaction shall be made to the law and justice of God for the sins of those who are redeemed; and this is done by the sacrifice of Christ. The administration of the covenant comprehends whatever is concerned with putting and maintaining the covenant children in possession of the blessings of redemption: and this takes its rise directly and immediately from the intercession of Christ. True it is, the agency of the Spirit and the instrumentality of means are concerned in this object; but, in the economy of man's salvation, the intercession of the Mediator is necessary alike to the operation of the one, and to the efficacy of the other. It is so arranged by infinite wisdom that all the good done to the souls of men, in connection with the covenant of grace, shall be begun, carried forward, completed, and maintained through eternity, in relation to Christ's intercession.
- The Atonement & Intercession of Jesus Christ, pages 256-257.
To be able to fulfill this high-priestly office, he had to be the Son, who, as “the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being,” creates, upholds, and inherits all things (Heb. 1:1–3; 4:14; 5:5; 9:14). In his human nature, moreover, he needed through suffering and trials to learn obedience and so be “perfected,” be fully prepared, for his high-priestly ministry in heaven (2:10f.; 4:15; 5:7–10; 7:28). After thus bringing his one, perfect sacrifice and so effecting purification for our sins (1:3; 7:27; 9:12; etc.), he as high priest entered the heavenly sanctuary foreshadowed in the holy of holies of the Old Testament tabernacle (6:20; 9:12, 24)—not with the blood of goats and calves but by the power of his own blood (9:12–14), through the tent of his body (9:11), the curtain of his flesh (10:20), in order to appear there on our behalf in the presence of God and to pray for those who through him draw near to God (7:25; 9:24).
- Reformed Dogmatics: Sin and Salvation in Christ, vol. 3, page 476.
Christ was high priest already on earth (7:27; 9:11, 14, 25, 28; 10:10; 13:12), but he was that not in the way of Aaron’s high priesthood, but according to the order of Melchizedek, eternal and unchanging. It is for this reason, however, that the Letter to the Hebrews so strongly stresses Christ’s entry into the true sanctuary. He entered it by the power of his own blood, not to sacrifice himself again in a different manner, for he did that once for all, and by that sacrifice acquired all the benefits of the covenant of grace (9:26–28; 10:12, 14; etc.). He entered it now to be, in the full and true sense, the high priest of the good things to come (9:11), a high priest seated at the right hand of the throne of majesty on high (1:3; 3:1; 4:14; 6:20; 8:1). We have a perfect high priest, one who learned obedience, who perfected himself, who became like us, who can have compassion with us, who once for all offered himself through the eternal Spirit, but who in that way also secured the right to sit at the right hand of God. He is a high priest who, like Melchizedek, is at the same time king, king of righteousness and king of peace, an eternal, spiritual, and heavenly king; a high priest who acquired, possesses, and distributes the heavenly goods to come, who can appear in heaven before the face of God for our benefit, pray for us, and save us completely (7:25; 9:24). And this describes the priestly activity that Christ still performs even now. He no longer sacrifices himself there, for he did that once for all and completely on the cross. In heaven there is no repetition, no renewal, no reproduction of the sacrifice of the cross. For in the innermost and true sanctuary, there is no room for an altar.
- Reformed Dogmatics: Sin and Salvation in Christ, vol. 3, page 478.
Are those that are already justified by the blood of Christ, yet such as have need of being saved by his intercession? Then hence I infer, that Christ is not only the beginner, but the completer of our salvation.
He is, as the Holy Ghost calls him, the author and finisher of our faith; or, as he calls him again, the author of our eternal salvation; of salvation throughout, from the beginning to the end, from first to last. His hands have laid the foundation of it, in his own blood; and his hands shall finish it, by his intercession. As he has laid the beginning fastly, so he shall bring forth the head stone with shoutings; and we shall cry, Grace, grace! At the last; salvation belongs only to the Lord!
Many there be that begin with grace, and end with works, and think that this is the only way. Indeed works will save from temporal punishments, when their imperfections are purged from them by the intercession of Christ; but to 17 ' be saved and brought to glory, to be carried through this dangerous world, from my first moving after Christ, until I set my foot within the gates of paradise, this is the work of my mediator, of my high priest and intercessor. It is he that fetches us again when we are run away; it is he that lifts us up when the devil and sin have thrown us down; it is he that quickens us when we grow cold; it is he that comforts us when we despair; it is he that obtains fresh pardon when we have contracted sin; and he that purges our consciences when they are loaded with guilt.
I know also that rewards do wait for them in heaven that do believe in Christ and shall do well on earth; but this is not a reward of merit, but of grace. We are saved by Christ; brought to glory by Christ; and all our works are no otherways made acceptable to God, but by the person and personal excellences and works of Christ. Therefore, whatever the jewels are, and the bracelets, and the pearls, that you shall be adorned with as a reward of services done for God in the world, for them you must thank Christ, and before all, confess that he was the meritorious cause thereof.
He saves us and saves our services too. They would be all cast back as dung in our faces were they not rinsed and washed in the blood, were they not sweetened and perfumed in the
incense, and conveyed to God himself through the white hand of Jesus Christ: for that is his golden censer; from thence alone ascends the smoke that is in the nostrils of God
of such a sweet savour.
- Christ, A Complete Savior, pages 52-54
The perpetuity of the priesthood of Christ, as unchangeably exercised in his own person, is a principal part of the glory of that office.—His discharge of this office for the church in his own person, throughout all generations, is the glory of it. 1. Hereon depends the church’s preservation and stability. There is neither a ceasing nor any the least intermission of that care and providence, of that interposition with God on its behalf, which are required thereunto. Our high priest in continually ready to appear and put in for us on all occasions. And his abiding for ever manifests the continuance of the same care and love for us that he ever had. The same love wherewith, as our high priest, he laid down his life for us, doth still continue in him. And every one may with the same confidence go unto him with all their concerns, as poor, diseased, and distempered persons went unto him when he was upon earth; when he never showed greater displeasure than unto those who forbade any to come unto him, whatever their pretences were. 2. Hereon depend the union and communion of the church with itself in all successive generations. For whereas he is their head and high priest, in whom they all centre as unto their union and communion, and hath all their graces and duties in his hand, to present them unto God, they have a relation unto each other, and a concernment in one another. We that are alive in this generation have communion with all those that died in the faith before us; as shall be declared, if God will, on chap. 12:22–24. And they were concerned in us, as we are also in the generations that are to come. For all the prayers of the church from first to last are lodged in the hand of the same high priest, who abides for ever; and he returns the prayers of one generation unto another. We enjoy the fruits of the prayers, obedience, and blood of those that went before us; and if we are faithful in our generation, serving the will of God, those shall enjoy the fruits of ours who shall come after us. Our joint interest in this our abiding priest gives a line of communication unto all believers, in all generations. And, 3. The consolation of the church also depends hereon. Do we meet with troubles, trials, difficulties, temptations, and distresses? hath not the church done so in former ages? What do we think of those days wherein prisons, tortures, swords, and flames, were the portion of the church all the world over? But did any of them miscarry? was any one true believer lost for ever? and did not the whole church prove victorious in the end? Did not Satan rage and the world gnash their teeth to see themselves conquered and their power broken, by the faith, patience, and suffering, of them whom they hated and despised? And was it by their own wisdom and courage that they were so preserved? did they overcome merely by their own blood? or were they delivered by their own power? No; but all their preservation and success, their deliverance and eternal salvation, depended merely on the care and power of their merciful high priest. It was through his blood, “the blood of the Lamb,” or the efficacy of his sacrifice, that they “overcame” their adversaries, Rev. 12:11. By the same blood were “their robes washed, and made white,” chap. 7:14. From thence had they their righteousness in all their sufferings. And by him had the church its triumphant issue out of all its trials. Now, is he not the same that he ever was, vested with the same office? and hath he not the same qualifications of love, compassion, care, and power, for the discharge of it, as he always had? Whence, then, can any just cause of despondence in any trials or temptations arise? We have the same high priest to take care of us, to assist and help us, as they had, who were all of them finally victorious. 4. This gives perpetual efficacy unto his sacrifice, etc.
- An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, pages 520-521
According to the Bible, according to the book of Hebrews, Jesus Christ is the ultimate Advocate. He stands as your representative before the ultimate throne, the ultimate bench in the ultimate trial before the court, which is the only one that counts. Jesus is your Advocate. How does this work?
When I first became a Christian, when I was a new Christian, a young Christian, I heard of this idea that Jesus Christ intercedes for us before the Father, and it was of no comfort to me at all. One of the reasons was it sounded bizarre. It was also of no comfort to me partly because I think of some of the ways in which some high-profile lawyers actually operate in court. Because of what I saw in some of those high-profile trials, I really misunderstood what this was all about. Here’s what I thought was really happening, and here’s why it wasn’t any comfort to me.
I figured every day Jesus came before the Father with a kind of caseload. He’d pull out a folder: “Keller.” He looks up and he says, “Ah, yes, Father. All these promises he has made to change, and he’s doing it again anyway. Please give him a break, for my sake. Give him one more chance. I know he means well. This one more time could be it, and you owe me. I went to earth and all those things. Pretty please, I ask for mercy for my client. I throw myself on the mercy of the court.”
I expected, I guess, the Father would say, “Well, all right.” Here’s the reason why that was of no comfort to me. Because I understood what Jesus was doing, if that’s the intercessory work of Jesus Christ, spinning to get mercy out of the Father, I thought to myself, “How long can he keep that up?” There’s no particular reason why the Father one day couldn’t just say, “Look, he’s a minister now. It’s too late. I’ve had it. He can’t keep doing things like this.”
That’s not at all the kind of advocate Jesus is. An effective attorney doesn’t just wheedle and cajole and emotionally manipulate the jury and the judge. Sometimes that might work, but frankly, that’s right. How long can you keep that up? An effective attorney has a case, and according to this passage Jesus Christ is not up there asking for mercy. When you ask for mercy, that means you’ve lost the case.
Do you know what he’s up there doing? Look at [Hebrews 7:27 and 28.] “Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.” This is what Jesus is saying, as it were. It’s metaphorical, but I’ll get to that in a second.
He’s saying, “Father, you demand justice. You are a just God, and my friends here, the people on whose behalf I’m speaking, are guilty. I have made payment. There is my blood, and it would be unjust to get two payments for the same debt. Therefore, because I’ve made payments for this debt, I am not here asking for mercy for my brothers and sisters. I am not here asking for mercy. I demand justice. Your very justice, your very righteousness, demands your complete embrace and acceptance of them throughout all eternity.”
That’s an infallible case. The book of Isaiah says the divine justice and righteousness of God is as inexorable so the mountains are like dust in the scales by comparison. How dare you think you can every day when you sense …? Whether you’re a believer or not, whether you believe in God or not, as Arthur Miller pointed out, every day you’re trying to prove yourself.
Every day you’re making arguments. Every day you’re saying, “Well, I do this, and I’m okay like this.” You’re dealing with yourself to try to bolster your self-image, to try to deal with your conscience every day. What are you pointing to? “I’m a good mother. I’m a good father. I love my parents. I try my best. I work harder than most of the other people in my department.” What’s that compared to this?
What this is saying is … In 1 John 1:9, do you notice that little place where John says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins …”? It doesn’t say he’s faithful and merciful. Do you know what that’s saying? The intercessory work of Jesus Christ, the high priesthood of Jesus Christ, the substitution of Jesus Christ, who lived the life you should’ve lived and died the death you should’ve died in your place, has changed things forever so now the very law and justice and righteousness of God demands your acceptance.
To be in him is to have that kind of confidence. Do you know there’s that place where God comes to Cain after he has killed Abel? He says to Cain, “The blood of your brother Abel cries out to me from the ground for vengeance,” but there’s a better Abel, Jesus Christ, whose blood cries out from the ground for grace. It’s an infallible case. Jesus Christ is the ultimate Advocate. He’s the ultimate Attorney. If it’s the ultimate case, then to be in him is to have that kind of confidence.
- “The Advocate.” The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive.
The intercession of Christ is a holy intercession. It's a perpetual intercession. It's an authoritative intercession. It's a loyal intercession. It's a legal intercession. It's a personal intercession. It's a particular intercession. It's a complete intercession. It's a compassionate intercession. It's all of that perfectly. I think the biggest misconception is not to grasp the fulsomeness of it all. As complete as we see Jesus's justification through his death and being, and as complete as we see his resurrection guaranteeing our blessed resurrection, so complete we ought to see his intercession—that he will keep us and bring us into the Father's presence, and will not rest until he can say, Here am I, Father, and all those whom Thou hast given me. There won't be one empty chair in heaven, as one of the Puritans put it. His work will be complete. His intercession will be totally victorious. So praise God for the intercession of Jesus!
- https://www.crossway.org/articles/podcast-do-you-know-that-jesus-is-praying-for-you-joel-beeke
In this post, I pick up where we left off last week, three applications of Christ’s intercession. Here are five more.
We never need to concern ourselves that God is not for us nor with us. His exalted status in heaven is to our great benefit. No matter what we face in this world, God is there above it all. As we wake in the morning, our Kingly High Priest is upon his throne just as the dew is upon the grass. Just as the sun shines forth its rays to warm the air, so our Savior warms our hearts with his gospel. There is never a second in which he is not upholding the world by the word of his power (Heb 1.3). Whatever our days hold, we can be sure that Jesus is in them and over them, interceding on our behalf during them. He knows what’s really going on, and he’s interceding on our behalf even when we aren’t mindful of him. Even when we forget to factor Jesus into our lives, he never forgets to mention us in his prayers. His high and holy status only gives him all the more power to care for little me and you. As Ray Ortlund said, “God is not too great to notice you; God is too great to overlook you.”[1]
We may think our sins will eventually become too much, but there is no end to his saving grace. He saves not in part but in whole. His blood is effective for the worst of sins, the greatest number of sins, the most egregious of sins, the most abhorrent of sins, the most preposterous of sins, the most condemnable of sins. Whatever your sins are, fear not. You can draw near to God through Christ’s intercessory work to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16). Nothing can undo that open invitation because the blood of Christ purchased it, and the same Christ who died for you lives for you now.
With our intercessor in heaven, nothing in this world can keep us from God. He overcomes every enemy. He forgives every sin. He constantly renews our faith. He will bring us all the way home.
Though we are fully justified by faith in Christ’s atoning work on the cross, we still struggle with ongoing sin. We will until we are with the Lord in glory in the next life. God’s plan to help us is Christ’s intercession. Jesus is looking out for us. He is praying for us. He is sending help from his throne of grace to us in our times of need. We are not left to figure out the Christian life on our own. We are helped by the interceding Christ moment by moment.
If one Christian intercedes for another, that is a good and right thing. We should pray for one another in the name of Jesus for all his efficacious power. But there is a difference between our prayers and his. His intercession is even more profound. Williams Symington says, “We can never be said to plead with all our heart; he never pleads in any other way.”[2] Puritan John Flavel puts it this way. Jesus’s intercession “is an intercession with God for us, in his own name, and upon the account of his own proper merit; the one is a private act of charity, the other a public act of office.”[3] We have God himself interceding on our behalf. (Heb. 9:28). We are not left to ourselves, and we are not left in another’s hands equal in status to ourselves. We are in the hands of God almighty, and if God himself asks, how can he say no? God cannot deny himself (2 Tim. 2:13).
We also find the Holy Spirit prays on our behalf. Part of his intercessory work is sending of his Spirit to help us (John 15:26-27). The Puritan Thomas Goodwin said, “The Spirit prays in you, because Christ prays for you.”[4] We are then doubly secured by prayer through both the Spirit and the Son, all part of the gracious gifts of the Father.
Hebrews 9:13-14 says, “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
We can work out of our salvation instead of for our salvation. We can experience the joy of serving God in a way we never could apart from Christ’s intercessory work. We can go forth, doing our best, looking to him by faith, trusting that when we fail, he will uphold. When we sin, he will forgive us. When we don’t know what we need, he will intercede.
We are deeply held in Christ’s mighty arms. His intercession proclaims his gospel—that his life, death, and resurrection are sufficient to save us. As Gavin Ortlund put it, “The infinitely sweet benefits of Jesus’ atoning work on the cross can be freshly communicated to us at every instant of our lives. The intercession of Christ provides a mediating link from the accomplishment of Christ in his Friday afternoon agony to any other point in history where it is received by faith. As often as we draw near to God, he washes and cleanses us afresh (Hebrews 10:22). The grace of God is not a flash flood after which we have to try to retain the water that is left over. It's a continuous waterfall, flowing unto eternity.”[5]
Our lives are a series of struggles to find peace and acceptance. The intercession of Christ assures we have it today, tomorrow, and on into eternity. The blood of Christ was effective to forgive sins past, present, and future. We do not need to justify ourselves. We have all the justification we will ever need in Christ. God will not demand that we pay for sins he already paid for. If we are in Christ, we are completely, unchangeably, unendingly safe and secure, and if we ever doubt that fact, all we must do is look at this doctrine to see how profoundly God is for us. Jesus lives for this (Heb. 7:25).
[1] Though this is written in his commentary on Isaiah, I prefer to hear it from him on the Immanuel Church Worship album Volume One: The Love of Christ, track 4.
[2] William Symington, The Atonement & Intercession of Jesus Christ, page 290.
[3] John Flavel, The Fountain of Life.
[4] Thomas Goodwin, The Heart of Christ, page 37.
[5] Gavin Ortlund, https://gavinortlund.com/2010/04/29/christs-intercession-application/
To intercede means to intervene on someone’s behalf. It means to entreat, to argue, to plead, and to stand in the gap between two people with a view of reconciliation. Intercession is prayer but of a specific kind. There is much that is mysterious about Jesus’s intercession, but the Bible and great theologians of church history offer some clarity. Referring to Christ’s intercession, the Puritan John Owen defined it as “his continual appearance for us in the presence of God, by virtue of his office as the ‘high priest over the house of God,’ representing the efficacy of his oblation [offering], accompanied with tender care, love, and desires for the welfare, supply, deliverance, and salvation of the church.”[1]
In other words, by virtue of his all-sufficient atoning sacrifice, Jesus stands at the Father's right hand in heaven, working and praying for us to accomplish our full salvation.
Whenever we approach a biblical doctrine, there is the temptation to leave it in the realm of the intellectual. But it is good to consider how the doctrine applies to our lives. How does what we now know of Christ’s intercession make our hearts burn within us (Luke 24:32)?
Here I will make three primary applications.
Though we are justified in Christ for all time when we first trust his saving work, we do not stop sinning until the age to come when we are with him in glory. Though we know the truth of God’s love, we still have low thoughts of God, disbelieving, mistrusting, and doubting him. Though we know we are saved by Christ’s works, not our own, we still fall into the old ruts of our self-salvation projects, denying the power of his life, death, and resurrection. Our fleshly desires may wane, but they do not disappear, and we continue to use God’s good gifts for improper ends. Who will save us from this body of death (Rom. 7:24)? Jesus, by the power of his intercession.
John Bunyan wrote a whole book about Hebrews 7:25 called Christ a Complete Savior. In that book, he said,
“Many there be that begin with grace, and end with works, and think that this is the only way…But to be saved and brought to glory, to be carried through this dangerous world, from my first moving after Christ, until I set my foot within the gates of paradise, this is the work of my mediator, of my high priest and intercessor. It is he that fetches us again when we are run away; it is he that lifts us up when the devil and sin have thrown us down; it is he that quickens us when we grow cold; it is he that comforts us when we despair; it is he that obtains fresh pardon when we have contracted sin; and he that purges our consciences when they are loaded with guilt…We are saved by Christ; brought to glory by Christ; and all our works are no otherways made acceptable to God, but by the person and personal excellences and works of Christ.”
Christ’s intercession is there to save us from the sin that remains. God did not expect us to become perfect and never again struggle after our conversion. He factored our ongoing fight against sin into the equation and provided the intercession of Christ to preserve and encourage us. That shows how great the love of Christ is for us sinners. Why would he intercede if he didn’t care? Why would we be continually on his mind if he did not love us? As a parent loves a child and thinks about them all the time, so Christ considers us and always thinks of our good. He prays on our behalf. He takes our prayers and rewords them on the way up (Rom. 8:26). He holds the door to heaven open for us. He is more committed to our salvation than we are, and he will never leave us nor forsake us. He cares for us and sends affirmations of that care to us by his Spirit.
The Puritan Thomas Goodwin spoke of 1 Corinthians 2:16, where Paul says we have the “mind of Christ.” You know those moments when you sense a word from the Lord, a verse of Scripture, or a reminder of the love of Christ, those seemingly invasive thoughts that remind you of God’s love? Those are Spirit-sent thoughts from Jesus himself. They are sent down from heaven to tell us what he is thinking of us and for us in that very moment. Those are holy moments with our interceding Christ.
And in those moments when we find ourselves weak and wounded because of sin, when we long for a holy moment but fear we have blown it big-time, we must remember his intercession. We must remember his heart for sinners and sufferers, how gentle and careful he is with us. Hear Goodwin describe it.
“Your very sins move him to pity more than to anger…For he suffers with us under our infirmities, and by infirmities are meant sins, as well as other miseries…Christ takes part with you, and is so far from being provoked against you, as all his anger is turned upon your sin to ruin it; yes, his pity is increased the more towards you, even as the heart of a father is to a child that has some loathsome disease, or as one is to a member of his body that has leprosy, he hates not the member, for it is his flesh, but the disease and that provokes him to pity the part affected more. What shall not make for us, when our sins, that are both against Christ and us, shall be turned as motives to him to pity us the more?
The greater the misery is, the more is the pity when the party is beloved. Now of all miseries, sin is the greatest; and while you look at it as such, Christ will look upon it as such also. And he, loving your persons, and hating only the sin, his hatred shall all fall, and that only upon the sin, to free you of it by its ruin and destruction, but his affections shall be the more drawn out to you; and this as much when you lie under sin as under any other affliction. Therefore fear not.”[2]
In other words, our sins do not turn Jesus away from us but rather move him closer to us. As a parent moves closer to a hurting child, so Christ moves closer to his hurting people. Maybe that’s hard to believe, but hasn’t Jesus always proven to be the “friend of sinners” (Matt. 11:19; Luke 7:34)? After all, Jesus knows what it is like down here. “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things” (Heb 2:14). We always fear our sins will eventually ruin our relationship with him, but his intercession is the very proof that they can’t.
Intercession is what Christ does for us always, for our general needs. Advocacy is a particular form of intercession he takes up for specific needs.
Luke 22:31-32 shows on way this advocacy works. Jesus told Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” He was talking about the events leading up to Jesus’s crucifixion. Peter would deny Christ three times, and perhaps Satan wanted that sin to destroy Peter. But Jesus interceded and then told Peter about it to preserve his faith through the trial.
Consider how amazing this is. Before Peter knew about the trial, Jesus covered it in prayer. Before Peter felt the heat from the fire, Jesus prepared the extinguisher. Before Peter fell into sin, Jesus secured his salvation. Peter’s Advocate stood for him even though Peter wouldn’t later return the favor in Jesus’s hour of need.
1 John 2:1 says that if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. It doesn’t say we will have an advocate, but that we have an advocate. We don’t need to dial him up like we would our lawyer. He’s there when we need him, even before we know we need him, defending us against the Accuser, applying his blood to our sins, giving us his righteousness. He’s a skillful advocate who knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows our needs before we do. He is a holy advocate. He is a tender advocate. He is a sympathetic advocate. In every sense of the word, he is a perfect advocate.
In his Systematic Theology, theologian Louis Berkhof said, “It is a consoling thought that Christ is praying for us, even when we are negligent in our prayer life; that He is presenting to the Father those spiritual needs which were not present to our minds and which we often neglect to include in our prayers; and that He prays for our protection against the dangers of which we are not even conscious, and against the enemies which threaten us, though we do not notice it. He is praying that our faith may not cease, and that we may come out victoriously in the end.”[3]
Jesus is the advocate we need. By grace, we are “hidden in him” (Col. 3:3). He is more than our representative, he is our very life. If our life is hidden with Christ, and Christ lives forever, how can we not also live forever with him? Who can defeat his advocacy? Who can overcome the argument of his atonement? No one. Not you. Not Satan. Not even God himself, for it is his very grace that brought it about.
The doctrine of intercession shows us how deeply God is committed to us. He’s on our side. Always.
The classical definition of grace is “unmerited favor.” With Christ our Savior serving as our Intercessor, the grace of God is multiplied to us many times over. We have the saving grace of Christ and the preserving grace of Christ. We have the justifying grace of Christ and the sanctifying grace of Christ. We have the grace of newness of life and the grace of ongoing cleansing. Whatever we may face in this life, with Christ as our intercessor, we can always count on grace.
Hebrews 4:14-16 says we have a great high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. He calls us to draw near to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Here’s what that means. It means that if Jesus is really a savior—if he’s not just a mentor, or a self-help guru, or an example, or merely a judge—he will get down in the mess with you, and save you in time of need because he perfectly understands you. He will be there in the grossness, the desperation, the deepest temptation, and the hottest part of the battle. He is not just a counselor for the after-party when the high has worn off. He’s the hero running into the war with you. His throne is not the bench to approach to pay your fine after the infraction. His throne is a wartime walkie-talkie that you can call when the battle gets hot. He’s there for the dark moments, the moments you don’t even like to think about. He’s there with grace and mercy. He is not aloof to your real life and your real sins. He intercedes for the real you, not the Instagram you.
Jesus was tempted as we are but remains perfect and sinless, so he knows the real cost of holiness. And his perfection is not a platform from which he condemns but from which he saves. As Romans 8:34 says, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” When you are caught in the act, he won’t condemn you because he was condemned for you, and his intercession assures that you will remain safe in the arms of his salvation.
Your most desperate need when you are most desperate is not to get your act together so you can come to him; it is to simply come to him and receive from his deep wells of grace upon grace. Only then will you even have a chance at getting your act together.
With Jesus Christ, you are never without an intercessor that can overcome all your enemies, comfort all your wounds, advocate for all your needs, and sustain even the greatest of doubts and the weakest moments of faith. You are covered in his grace from this day until the very last. You may feel weak and unworthy, but take heart, Jesus lives for you!
[1] John Owen, Exposition of Hebrews, vol. 5, page 541.
[2] Thomas Goodwin, The Heart of Christ, pages 155-156.
[3] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, page 403.
Photo credit: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/tgc-co-founder-tim-keller-dies/
“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.” Philippians 1:3
The other night, an old friend came to my house for a visit. I hadn’t seen him in a while, and we realized later that even though we had served alongside each other in ministry at a church before for years, we had never really sat down and talked at any great length. We were in meetings and studied the Bible together, but we never sat and just talked.
Well, that night, we talked. And he brought with him a little box of little gifts for me. Many were baseball-related because we share a love of the game. In the box, there was a piece of paper. It was a list of names with books beside each name. He told me it was from the first men’s group meeting he attended at our church a dozen years ago. About 30 or so guys met each week for theology, community, and honesty, and we started each meeting with an icebreaker. The night's icebreaker was, “What is the most influential book you’ve ever read?”
He asked me, “Do you remember which book you said?”
I thought about it. It was 2011. “Did I say, ‘Prodigal God’?”
“Yes! And I went home, bought it, sat on my porch, read it, and just wept.”
Tim Keller had that effect on people.
For about as long as I’ve been a Christian, Tim Keller has been there. His articles have answered my questions. His sermons have lifted my heart to Jesus. His books have engaged me and changed me. His humility has inspired me. His cultural apologetics has challenged me. Without me realizing it, Keller’s thinking slipped into my own. He became a friend from afar, always there with an encouraging word or a challenging thought.
He taught me that I’m far more sinful than I ever dared to imagine but far more loved than I ever dared to hope.
He taught me that Jesus’s kingdom is an upside-down and inside-out kingdom where death is the way to life and the last are first.
He taught me that all death can do is make the Christian’s life infinitely better.
He taught me that making work my identity will mean success will go to my head and failure will go to my heart.
He taught me that the only person who dared to wake a king at 3:00 am for a glass of water is a child, and we have that kind of access.
He taught me that God either gives me what I ask or gives me what I would have asked if I knew everything he knows.
He taught me that the only thing that can truly destroy me can’t anymore because it destroyed Jesus.
He taught me that if the resurrection is really true, everything I’m worried about right now will one day be ok.
He taught me how to center a church’s ministry on the gospel alone.
He taught me how the Father loves and invites both the irreligious, sinful younger brother and the moralistic, self-righteous elder brother back home.
He taught me that the world screams with reasons for God’s truth to be true truth.
He taught me that ministries of mercy in the local church are how Jesus changes a community.
He taught me that marriage is more than two people trying to live together. It is a picture of the gospel.
He taught me that preaching is not just an explanation of a text but an engagement of the heart.
He taught me how to navigate leadership and church size dynamics.
He taught me how to identify counterfeit gods and recognize the one true God.
He taught me how to have hope in times of fear.
He taught me how to walk with God through pain and suffering.
He taught me how to pray.
He taught me how to work for the glory of God.
He taught me how to make sense of the world God made.
He taught me how to read the Bible as one big story.
He taught me how to meditate on the Psalms.
He taught me how to understand the true meaning of Christmas.
He taught me how to navigate life in wisdom.
He taught me how to read the book of Jonah and see in it the true prodigal Prophet coming for us all.
He taught me about the God who came to become King, but a King who chose the cross as his point of victory.
He taught me that Jesus is the true and better everything.
He taught me so much more even than that.
Keller is the one I seek for help understanding a biblical passage every time I preach or teach. His clear thinking and his devotion to Christ have not once failed to help me help others. If you have benefited from my writing or teaching or preaching in any way at all, you owe a debt of gratitude to Tim Keller.
Tim Keller is now with Jesus. It’s the one place he longed most to be. I cannot be sad for him, though I am sad for myself. I’m sad for the world. The Lord gave us an immense gift in Tim Keller. It's hard to even put into words all that he gave us. The Gospel Coalition, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, all his books, all his sermons, all the cultural apologetics that helped so many of us understand our world. It's amazing how powerfully God used him.
I’m sad he’s gone, but I’m profoundly grateful he’s more alive now than he’s ever been before.
And because the resurrection is actually true, the cancer that killed him will one day be crushed under the Savior’s feet, and everything sad will come untrue.
“The LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” — Deuteronomy 30:6
Circumcision is the mark of God’s people. But it alone is not enough. Inner transformation is required. How can that happen? By God’s grace. As we open up to him in repentance, he floods our hearts with grace and marks us as his own. Only then can we begin to obey. The heart is finally right.
Isn't it wonderful that though we are responsible for obeying, God grants obedience by his Spirit? He does what we can't do so that we can have what he wants to give. Jesus showed us this most of all as his perfect life achieved what we could not and granted us the righteousness we need to stand before God (Romans 8:3-4).
Psalm 88 shows that even when we can't find the good, when hope feels lost, the faithful go to prayer. Lament is not outside the Christian experience. The Psalmist doesn't ask for much. He only needs to talk, and asks God to hear him. Sometimes, that's all we can do. Children of God go to their Father when nothing else seems good, even when he seems far, because he's the only one who can do anything about anything.
Any contemporary observer, who saw Christ die, would have listened with astonished incredulity to the claim that the Crucified was a Conqueror. Had he not been rejected by his own nation, betrayed, denied and deserted by his own disciples, and executed by authority from the Roman procurator? Look at him there, spread-eagled and skewered on his cross, robbed of all freedom of movement, strung up with nails, pinned there and powerless. It appears to be total defeat. If there is victory, it is the victory of pride, prejudice, jealousy, hatred, cowardice, and brutality. Yet the Christian claim is that the reality is the opposite of the appearance. What looks like (and indeed was) the defeat of goodness by evil is also, and more certainly, the defeat of evil by goodness. Overcome there, He was Himself overcoming. Crushed by the ruthless power of Rome, he was Himself crushing the serpent's head. The victim was the victor, and the cross is still the throne from which he rules the world.
John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ, pages 227-28.
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
\t \tServe the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
\t \tKnow that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
\t
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
\t \tFor the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
- Psalm 100:1–5.
Have you ever noticed how children’s prayers are filled with thanksgiving? It's the only way they know how to talk to God. But as we grow, our prayers to requests and laments. That's fine. They are biblical. But we must never forget to thank God for who he is, what he’s done, and what he gives (and doesn't give). Psalm 100 helps us get started.
Answer me quickly, O LORD!
My spirit fails!
Hide not your face from me,
lest I be like those who go down to the pit.
Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love,
for in you I trust.
Make me know the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.
- Psalm 143:7–8.
God does not love us less the needier we get. Our neediness causes him to fly to us. God looks at our need and fills us with himself.
We are not a problem for him. The thirstier we are, the more grace he gives. And he never runs out.
And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.”
Mark 15:29–32.
On the cross, Jesus was mocked and derided. They used his own words against him. They wanted him to save himself as if that would prove something amazing. They wanted him to come down from the cross so that they could “see and believe,” as if that is from where the blessing sprung.
But they believed the wrong thing. The true miracle wasn’t coming down; it was staying put. He would not save himself so that he could save others.
In J.I. Packers's book, Knowing God's Purpose for Your Life , he gives ten statements that help us discern God's call on our life.
Live with the question of “What is the best I can do for my God?”
Note the instructions of Scripture; the summons to love God and others, the limits set and the obligations established by the Law, the call for energetic action (Eccles. 9: 10; 1 Cor. 15: 58), and the drilling in wisdom to enable one to make the best choice among behavioral options.
Follow the examples of godliness in Scripture, most of all, imitate the love and humility of Jesus himself. When that is what we are doing, we cannot go far wrong.
Let wisdom judge the best course of action: don’t be a spiritual lone ranger; when you think you see God’s will, have your perception checked. Draw on the wisdom of those who are wiser than you are; take advice.
Take note of any nudges from God that come your way—any special concerns for ministry and service, any restlessness of heart which might indicate that something needs to be changed.
Cherish the divine peace which, as Paul says, will garrison (guard, keep safe and steady) the hearts of those who are in God’s will.
Observe the limits set by circumstances to what is possible, and when it is clear that those limits cannot be changed, accept them as from God.
Be prepared for God’s guidance on a particular issue not to appear until the time comes for decision about it, and expect God to guide you one step at a time; for that is how he usually does it.
Be prepared to find God directing you to something you thought you would not like, and teaching you to like it!
Never forget that if you make a bad decision, it is not the end of everything: God forgives and restores. . . . The Lord is my shepherd; he leads me. What a relief it is to know that.
Take comfort in these ten insights today.
“He has done all things well”
If ever a phrase describes Jesus, this is it. But past tense doesn’t capture it. He does all things well, even still today. He will do all things well for eternity.
Your life, whatever shape it is currently in, is under the careful watch of the One who does all things well. He does not forget you. He upholds you with the power of his word. If you are his, he is yours—now and forever.
As the use of remedies is the way to health, so this remedy took up sinners to heal and restore them. And just as surgeons, when they bind up wounds, do it not in a slovenly way, but carefully, that there may be a certain degree of neatness in the binding, in addition to its mere usefulness, so our medicine, Wisdom, was by His assumption of humanity adapted to our wounds, curing some of them by their opposites, some of them by their likes. And just as he who ministers to a bodily hurt in some cases applies contraries, as cold to hot, moist to dry, etc., and in other cases applies likes, as a round cloth to a round wound, or an oblong cloth to an oblong wound, and does not fit the same bandage to all limbs, but puts like to like; in the same way the Wisdom of God in healing man has applied Himself to his cure, being Himself healer and medicine both in one. Seeing, then, that man fell through pride, He restored him through humility. We were ensnared by the wisdom of the serpent: we are set free by the foolishness of God. Moreover, just as the former was called wisdom, but was in reality the folly of those who despised God, so the latter is called foolishness, but is true wisdom in those who overcome the devil. We used our immortality so badly as to incur the penalty of death: Christ used His mortality so well as to restore us to life. The disease was brought in through a woman's corrupted soul: the remedy came through a woman's virgin body. To the same class of opposite remedies it belongs, that our vices are cured by the example of His virtues. On the other hand, the following are, as it were, bandages made in the same shape as the limbs and wounds to which they are applied: He was born of a woman to deliver us who fell through a woman: He came as a man to save us who are men, as a mortal to save us who are mortals, by death to save us who were dead. And those who can follow out the matter more fully, who are not hurried on by the necessity of carrying out a set undertaking, will find many other points of instruction in considering the remedies, whether opposites or likes, employed in the medicine of Christianity.
- Augustine, On Christian Teaching, page 12
It might seem somewhat peculiar or peripheral to argue that one crucial consequence of the resurrection is that Christianity is a singing faith. Other religions have chants and meditations, but throughout its history Christianity has set a particular emphasis on celebratory, happy song. The reason is that, having been rescued by superabundant grace and united to a resurrected and triumphant Christ, the Christian cannot but adopt a posture of grateful participation in the victory over death that has already been secured.
- Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory, page 441.
The wonderful thing about the gospel is that when we step inside God’s sacred light, we find healing in ways nothing else can provide. We cannot heal ourselves. We simply don’t know how. We think we can change, but only Jesus can get deep enough.
Jesus must deal with you—the real you, not the dressed-up you. He’ll strip you down first. C.S. Lewis illustrates in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Eustace is in love with his treasures. One night, he falls asleep with a gold bracelet on his arm and transforms into a dragon, becoming an outward manifestation of his inward self. The bracelet gets tighter and tighter, and he can’t get it off. He’s driven from humanity and in a moment of loneliness begins to cry. Aslan, the lion, the Jesus figure, arrives and asks Eustace to follow him.
They go down to a well. The water clear and inviting. Eustace senses the well can heal him. But before getting in, Aslan tells him to undress. Of course, dragons don’t wear clothes. But dragons are kind of like snakes. He realizes Aslan meant he must shed his skin first. So he starts scratching and scratching. He says, “And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bath.”
But his scales grew back. So he goes through the exercise again. But it grows back again and again. Aslan says, “You will have to let me undress you.” Eustace was afraid, but he saw the task was impossible in his own hands.
“I was afraid of his claws,” Eustace said, “but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.
“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off...
“Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off — just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt — and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me — I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on — and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again...
“After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me...in new clothes.”
The new clothes Jesus provides are better by far than any we can make on our own. They are worn by those willing to expose themselves to his care. It may feel severe, but the only way to true healing is to let Jesus undress us and then to clothe us. Jesus can get at the real us. Every other way is only superficial.
Every one of us is wired to lean one way or the other—toward emphasizing doctrine or culture. Some of us naturally resonate with truth and standards and definitions. Others of us resonate with feel and vibe and relationships. Whole churched, too, can emphasize one or the other.
Left to ourselves, we will get it partly wrong, but we won’t feel wrong, because we’ll be partly right. But only partly. Truth without grace is harsh and ugly. Grace without truth is sentimental and cowardly. The living Christ is full of grace and truth (John 1:14). We cannot represent him, therefore, within the limits of our own personalities and backgrounds. Yet as we depend on him moment by moment, both personally and corporately, he will give us wisdom. He will stretch us and make our churches more like himself, so that we can glorify him more clearly than we ever have before.
These equations help me define the matter more simply:
Gospel doctrine - gospel culture = hypocrisy
Gospel culture - gospel doctrine = fragility
Gospel doctrine + gospel culture = power
Only the powerful presence of the risen Lord can make a church this gospel-centered.
Ray Ortlund, The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ, pages 22-23
That Christ should come from the eternal bosom of his Father to a region of sorrow and death; that God should be manifested in the flesh, the Creator made a creature; that he that was clothed with glory should be wrapped with rags of flesh; he that filled heaven and earth with his glory should be cradled in a manger; that the power of God should fly from weak man, the God of Israel into Egypt; that the God of the law should be subject to the law, the God of the circumcision circumcised, the God that made the heavens working at Joseph's homely trade; that he that binds the devils in chains should be tempted; that he, whose is the world, and the fulness thereof, should hunger and thirst; that the God of strength should be weary, the Judge of all flesh condemned, the God of life put to death; that he that is one with his Father should cry out of misery, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' Mat. xxvii. 46 ; that he that had the keys of hell and death at his girdle should lie imprisoned in the sepulchre of another, having in his lifetime nowhere to lay his head, nor after death to lay his body ; that that head, before which the angels do cast down their crowns, should be crowned with thorns, and those eyes, purer than the sun, put out by the darkness of death ; those ears, which hear nothing but hallelujahs of saints and angels, to hear the blasphemies of the multitude ; that face, that was fairer than the sons of men, to be spit on by those beastly wretched Jews; that mouth and tongue, that spake as ueverman spake, accused for blasphemy ; those hands, that freely swayed the sceptre of heaven, nailed to the cross ; those feet, ' like unto fine brass,' nailed to the cross for man's sins ; each sense annoyed: his feeling or touching, with a spear and nails ; his smell, with stinking flavour, being crucified about Golgotha, the place of skulls ; his taste, with vinegar and gall; his hearing, with reproaches, and sight of his mother and disciples bemoaning him; his soul, comfortless and forsaken ; and all this for those very sins that Satan paints and puts fine colours upon! Oh ! how should the consideration of this stir up the soul against it, and work the soul to fly from it, and to use all holy means whereby sin may be subdued and destroyed
Thomas Brooks, “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices”, Works of Thomas Books, vol. 1, pages 17-18
At the sight of men’s sins….always decide to use humble love. If you resolve to do that, once and for all, you can subdue the whole world. Loving humility is marvelously strong, the strongest of all things, and there is nothing else like it.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, page 270.
To forgive, then, is first to name the trespass truthfully as wrong and punishable, rather than merely excusing it. Second, it is to identify with the perpetrator as a fellow sinner rather than thinking how different from you he or she is. It is to will their good. Third, it is to release the wrongdoer from liability by absorbing the debt oneself rather than seeking revenge and paying them back. Finally, it is to aim for reconciliation rather than breaking off the relationship forever. If you omit any one of these four actions, you are not engaging in real forgiveness.
—Tim Keller, Forgive, pages 9-10 (paid link)
The cross does not merely provide a temporary respite from condemnation. We are told that Christ stands before the Father as our legal representative, our advocate (1 John 2:2; Hebrews 7:25; Romans 8:33-34). What this means is that the law, once our enemy, which demanded our punishment, now becomes our friend, demanding our acceptance. How so? The law has been perfectly fulfilled in our substitute, and so now it would be unjust for God to turn on us! For God to punish us for any sin would be to exact two payments for the same debt (since Jesus has already paid it). Now Jesus stands before the Father, in a sense, demanding not mercy but justice for us. We have both his law and his love for us. We could not be more secure.
— Tim Keller, Forgive, page 81 (paid link)
Judas was a thief. We don’t know much about him other than that. The Bible is quiet about most of his sins. Only two made it to print. The big one is treason against Jesus, turning states evidence for thirty pieces of silver. The other is his sleight of hand, reaching into the money bag for a little pick-me-up when no one was looking. But with Jesus, someone’s always looking. You ain’t getting away with nothing.
Judas was the man who turned the whole thing upside down. At least, that’s how it looked from the outside. You gotta wonder if he was ever really on team Jesus or if he knew the end game from the start. You’d think he’d try for more than thirty pieces if it were the plan all along. Judas seems to me the guy who wasn’t so much the setup man as the man set up. He never really repented. Never really followed. Never really changed. Jesus didn’t need anybody to tell him what was inside. He knew the heart of man. But he called him anyway. Like it was the plan. To use a guy who’d never change to change the world. His heart was too hard from the beginning. Jesus’s grace bounced right off. It never even cracked. Somehow, that made him just the right guy to carry out God’s will.
What did the others think of Judas? Not after his betrayal but before. Was he liked? Did he fit in? I wonder if he laughed at their jokes. Maybe he had some of his own. He probably didn’t ask a lot of questions. Guys trying to hide their actions keep quiet if they know what’s good for them. Don’t ask too much. Don’t offer too much. Do the thing and get out. Keep your mouth shut. Move along. Keep the wheels turning to cover the tracks you don’t want nobody noticing.
But there was that one question in John 12, when Mary busted the jar of perfume and poured it all over Jesus. It was an act of worship, and he broke up the party to file a complaint. That was good money she just threw away, and for what? Jesus? He’d throw him away later. Jesus was cheap. That perfume, though, now that was rich stuff. Three hundred denarii stuff. Doesn’t come around very often.
But maybe other times, he was nice enough. Jesus called him. Made him a disciple. An apostle, even. Gave him the money bag and said, “Keep watch.” He was good at that. Could probably tell you exactly how much money was in there at any given time. Crooks know that kind of stuff. They know the stuff others don’t pay attention to. That’s how they make it. There isn’t another way. Details and more details. His eyes were so focused on the bag he didn’t see much else. That’s what did him in. The bag got light, and the perfume got spilled, and Judas started jonesing for another payday. Where would it come from this time? He knew a guy who knew a guy. They’d eyed each other before. Made some kind of silent deal to meet up later and get the plan down pat.
Then the time came, and Jesus seemed to know. How he knew, Judas didn’t know. He didn’t care. The plan was the plan, and that was that. He made the deal, and it couldn’t be undone. His eye stayed on the bag like Jesus told him to do. He was obeying. The deed just didn’t match the intent. That’s usually the problem. We listen but don’t. We obey but rebel. We think we got it, but it all goes wrong. Sometimes we don’t mean to. Sometimes we do. Judas meant to. He intentionally misheard. He purposefully kept his eyes down, on the bag, away from Jesus.
Judas was the guy on the corner making the big deal without knowing the big deal was yet to come. After dipping the bread in the cup, he went out at dark cause that’s when things like this go down. He hustled to the rendezvous point and got his share of the dough. Then, he took the crew to the garden, and with a kiss, he sealed his fate, Jesus’ fate, and the whole world’s fate.
His father, the Devil, had a plan. But it was a bad one. He thought he’d slip in when nobody was looking and do the dirty deed real cheap. But with Jesus, someone’s always looking. He tried to steal Jesus, but all he got was Judas.
Judas realized what he’d done. He threw the silver back one by one, but it was too late. No refunds on sin. Guilt tracked him down, snuck up behind him, and put the knife to his throat. He wasn’t getting away. Guilt was too strong. It was over. Guilt took him out to the field, had him tie his own noose, throw the rope over the tree, and climb on in. Guilt took him down. That’s what it does unless grace comes chasing.
Grace was busy on the other side of town. The plan was in full motion by then. Judas tried to steal something but gave something instead. The man Judas kissed took a walk down another road toward another tree. Guilt didn’t take him there. Betrayal forced him there. Greed paid his way. But love made him walk.
Did Jesus love Judas? You have to think he did. Doesn’t he love everyone? But Judas didn’t love Jesus, and that’s what did him in. His eye was on the bag, and Jesus said you can’t serve two masters.
The concept of substitution may be said, then, to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone.
— John Stott, The Cross of Christ, page 160. (paid link)
In Mark’s account of the death of Jesus in Mark 15:33-47, he includes a bit about Jesus’s burial in verses 42-47. Why does he record the burial of Jesus? Throughout history, this has been a contested point of the story. Some say Jesus didn’t really die on the cross. Maybe he passed out, was taken down, and recovered somewhere. Muslims say he was taken to heaven before he died on the cross. Others say dogs ate his body. But from the earliest of days, the burial of Jesus was an important and well-recorded point. All four gospels record his burial, and the earliest Christian creed, the Apostles’ Creed, includes it.
But why does his burial matter so much? Because only a dead Jesus saves. Only a dead and buried Jesus experienced the full wrath of God against our sin. Only a dead and buried Jesus can resurrect. If he wasn’t really dead and truly buried, the resurrection couldn’t have happened, it was only for show, and if the resurrection didn’t happen then, as Paul said, “our preaching is in vain and our faith is in vain.”
The details Mark includes lead us to the conclusion that Jesus really did die, and he really was buried. Verses 42-43 tell us that by evening, because it was the day of Preparation, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin council, took courage and went to Pilate to ask for the body. Those details matter because of what comes next. Verse 44 says Pilate was surprised to hear Jesus was already dead. Crucifixion could take days. Jesus was dead in a few hours. So he called the centurion who oversaw the death. After confirming, Pilate gave Joseph his body. This wasn’t normal practice. Usually, to complete the humiliation of crucifixion, the body was thrown in the trash heap. So why did Pilate give the body to Joseph? Mark doesn’t say. All he says is that he did, and that’s important because it’s different from the normal way of things. It’s the kind of thing that is only written down if it’s true.
But it’s important for other reasons too. It’s a fulfillment of prophecy. The Old Testament prophesied this kind of burial for the Messiah. Joseph was a rich man—only a rich man had a tomb like this prepared. Isaiah said the Messiah would have his grave made with a rich man in his death (Isaiah 53:9) and that the tomb would be cut out of a rock (Isaiah 22:16). Even more amazing, John says in his account that this tomb was in a garden (John 19:41). Remember, that’s where the tragedy of this world’s darkness began. The Puritan commentator Matthew Henry puts it this way, “In the garden of Eden death and the grave first received their power, and now in a garden they are conquered, disarmed, and triumphed over. In a garden Christ began his passion, and from a garden he would rise, and begin his exaltation.” In his death, Jesus is undoing the terrible events of the Garden of Eden. In his burial, he is planted to become the first fruits of the resurrection. If you’re in Christ, his burial represents your burial. As Paul says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.” That’s important because of what he says next. “In order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). In other words, when that stone was rolled over Jesus’ grave, he took your sin in there with him. He buried it away in his death, which means you don’t have to bear the punishment anymore. Yes, you still have some darkness in you, but there is also now a new light. His death purchased it and his burial sealed it. Your sins are there in that grave, dead and gone in the sight of God, never to be resurrected.
But on the third day, Jesus was resurrected. His body came back to life, and he became for us the first fruits of what we will one day be in him. Paul says in Romans 4:25, “[Jesus] was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Though the wages of our sin is death, the wages of Jesus’s death is our resurrection. God accepts Jesus’s payment, and in him promises us newness of life. As dark as this world is, as dark as your heart is, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).
This is the good news of the gospel. It is available to all who will accept it. You might think you’re not worthy, but the cross says you can’t be too low for Jesus. In fact, the cross was the lowest form of death, the most humiliating kind of execution ever invented. Jesus came all the way down to be visible to those at the very bottom.
In verses 40-41, Mark includes the witness of several woman that day. Why mention them? Because women were the lowest of all in those days. They were watching from afar because Jewish convention demanded it. Their witness didn’t even matter in court, but they were witnesses to God’s salvation. When almost nothing else was, God was available to them. His salvation was for them. They saw Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. God was using them—the lowest—to tell his story. He always does.
Even if you watch from afar, the cross is God’s action that draws you near. You might think, “Okay, but what if I mess up? I mean really mess up. Isn’t there some point at which this salvation can’t be true for me anymore?” John Bunyan was a man who knew this feeling well, and he spoke the gospel to himself to assure his heart. He wrote a book called Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ. It was devoted to one verse in John 6:37 which, in the KJV Jesus, says, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
But I am a great sinner, you say.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I am an old sinner, you say.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I am a hard-hearted sinner, you say.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I am a backsliding sinner, you say.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I have served Satan all my days, you say.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I have sinned against light, you say.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I have sinned against mercy, you say.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I have no good thing to bring with me, you say.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
The very place where you see yourself as most undeserving is the very place at which Jesus’ cross says to you, “Come to me.” You say, “But when does his welcome end?” The cross says, “Never.” Jesus has the final word with us. His salvation is not temporary. His sacrifice is not for a limited time. This is a permanent deal.
2022 was a great year for reading. I read a record number of books. Part of that is because I prioritized reading and listening to books over other things. I didn’t listen to any podcasts—not even one episode. I read in the small margins of my days. I filled the gaps with books. I shut off Facebook and Instagram. I stayed on Twitter because it’s the social media app I like best and where I get all my news and follow all the baseball accounts I like.
Looking back over the list, I re-read a lot of books this year. The re-reads won’t make the “best” list because they likely made them already in years past. You’ll just have to guess which those are.
So I made it through a lot of books this year. And, as always, I will recap what I read below.
A few notes before you get started:
The list isn’t in any type of ranking. I just look at what I read in chronological order and then put it in either the best or the rest category and list it here. So the last of the best is not the worst, just the last I read.
My reading is a bit eclectic, as I think everyone’s should be. You’ll find works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and theology. You’ll find different thinkers and influences. It’s the way I like to read.
I separate the list into “The Best” and “The Rest\". By no means do I intend to communicate “The Rest” are no good. Quite the opposite. I try to be discerning about what I read. Life is too short not to be. But some books rise above the others. Maybe I leave some out of my best list that you would include. That’s what makes these lists so fun.
“The Best” means the books I enjoyed the most this year. It doesn’t include re-reads, and some classics I read for the first time don’t make it. If they’re a classic, they should probably be on the list, but whatever. I reserve the right to like what I like, just as you do.
If you have some book recommendations for me this year, leave a comment. I’m always on the lookout for a good read.
All the links are Amazon affiliate links, so if you buy it from that link, I get some money from the purchase.
Now, on to the list!
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31ABY6szM0L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Job is considered one of the Bible’s wisdom books, and Eric adds wisdom to wisdom. If you are suffering (and who of us won’t at some point?) this book will help you understand your suffering. It doesn’t give every answer to every question. Not even the Bible does that. But it does point us to the God who is with us in our suffering, and that is worth more than any answer ever could be.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pkZpeOXxL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Chipper Jones was my favorite baseball player growing up. I wore number 10 because he did. I played third base because he did. He was a lifetime Brave, and I am a lifetime Braves fan. He played baseball the right way throughout his career, even during the height of the steroid era. He is the best switch-hitter to ever play.
So, yeah, I loved this book because I love Chipper Jones, the baseball player.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41NIdW-17DL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Sometimes you just need to read a book that isn’t too heavy. This one certainly qualifies. That’s not to say it doesn’t have poignant moments. If you’ve ever watched The Office, you know how they can sneak some meaningful moments amid hilarity.
This book is basically an oral history of the show. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at all the actors and actresses and writers, and staff members that made the show so great. The one thing that constantly stood out throughout the book was Greg Daniels’s impact. There are some nuggets of leadership held in this book that surprise and make you laugh.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51lyRmiBA0L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n This is my must-read novel this year. Steinbeck’s saga that retells the story of Cain and Abel is so well-written and so engrossing. It’s a long read but well worth every minute.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/418F-aV5FnL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n As a leader at my company, in my church, and inside my home, anxiety is a constant enemy. I have my ups and downs, my good times and bad times. Anxiety, for me, is basically a constant, but certain times are far worse than others. This book helped give me some tools for managing it and understanding the effect it has on others—and the effect others’ anxiety has on me.
If you’re a leader, this is a must-read.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51DR52aX6JL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n If you were around Twitter in 2016, you might remember a bit of debate raging on your timeline. No, I’m not talking about the Presidential election. I’m talking about the Trinity.
I followed the debate as closely as I could, but honestly, I just didn’t have the proper vocabulary or understanding at the time. I felt as if I was constantly playing catch-up as I listened and read these wise pastors and scholars discuss.
Matthew Barrett was one engaging during that time, and this book is, in part, a result of that. It is clear and engaging. You don’t need to be a scholar to understand it, but you’ll feel like one when you’ve read it.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fxsGEadCL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n I love reading Bible commentaries. I know that makes me a nerd, but I don’t care. When it comes to commentaries, I like things that are thorough and well-researched. I like my commentaries to have insight I can’t get anywhere else—not because it’s heretical, but because it just goes where others don’t or can’t.
Leon Kass’s commentary on Genesis checks all of those boxes. Kass is not a Christian himself. He is a Jew. But what he does helps us understand what the book of Genesis is saying from a historical and literary perspective. He doesn’t make connections Christians would. There is no talk of Jesus. In that regard, there is much to be desired. But that doesn’t mean we can discount the immense value of the work. If you’re a fan of the book of Genesis, as I am, this is a must-read for you. You will find it fascinating.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41CY55WQI3L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n I like to think I like art, but really, I don’t “get it.\" Maybe you’re that way too. If so, Ramsey’s book will help you understand some of the greatest works of art in the world. In addition, he will help you see the connection of art to Christianity. Many of the greatest works of art are explicitly Christian works, and the artists were intentional in their artistry.
Here is a book that’s worth picking up and savoring. Don’t read it too fast, and take time to look up the works to truly grasp the wonder of it all.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61rGjAi9CNL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n C.S. Lewis is objectively one of the greatest writers and thinkers to walk this earth. How did he get that way? One way is his deep understanding of Medieval times. I know that sounds weird, but this book makes the argument, and it succeeds. Lewis understood the great books. He was more than conversant in them. They swam around in his head all the time and permeated his thinking. If you love Lewis as I do, this book will help you understand him more.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41LWq4KELHS._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Sometimes you just need someone to give you some good news. Sam Storms does that in this book. It’s a book about sin, which doesn’t sound like good news, but it is so gospel-soaked that you don’t leave a chapter without feeling deeply loved by Jesus. God’s forgiveness of our sins is the best possible news in this world, and there isn’t a single one of us that doesn’t need to understand how forgiven we truly are.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41+mYYRIPWL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Truman’s book made a lot of “best of” lists last year, but it took me a year to pick it up. Some books help us understand our times a little better. Truman’s work certainly does that. He dives into the LGBTQ+ issues and explains where the social thinking behind them came from. Taking you back into the history of philosophy, you’ll walk away from this book with a better understanding of our times that will equip you to think more clearly about what’s going on because you understand how we got here.
One critique I have about the book is that I wish he spent more time providing some solutions to our modern age. But that’s probably another book of the same length. This is step one: understanding.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51RSexZdLnL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n I won’t say this is a great beach read because I don’t think people read books like this on the beach. But I did. Ferry takes us through the history of Western thought and shows how we got to where we are. Combined with Truman’s work, it really helped me understand the foundations of modern philosophy. His chapter on Christianity is worth the price of the book. Though not a Christian himself, he cannot deny the immense impact Christianity has had on the world for good. Christianity simply answers the deepest longings of our soul better than any other philosophy ever has. Pick up this book to learn more.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61jMEmKJx2L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n My guess is you’re seeing this book on some “best of” lists this year. For good reason. It’s the kind of book that comes along every so often where anytime someone asks what fiction to read, this book pops up in the replies. It’s a surprising book. I didn’t expect the depth of emotion in it. The story of an immigrant family finding their way in America but with a deep Christian faith at the center. It’s funny and heartbreaking and breathtaking all at the same time.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51SZ+xIbZnL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Okay, it’s confession time. Until the year of our Lord, 2022, I had never read the Lord of the Rings books. Furthermore, I had never seen the movies all the way through. I saw the second in the theater when it came out because my friend and I didn’t see anything else on the list that interested us. We chatted through most of it and walked away thinking, “Meh.”
Here’s my take. I was just too young and stupid. I remember Ray Ortlund saying he tried reading the books when they first came out, but he didn’t find them interesting. Then he picked them up years later and couldn’t put them down. He realized the books hadn’t changed at all, but he had. He had lived enough to give meaning to Tolkien’s epic story.
I won’t say any more about the others immediately after. I included all three books on The Best list this year. How could I not?
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41NVeaXKQkL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41lbrACxWWL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41UcyvCMtKL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Here was a book I was absolutely floored by. I picked it up during a week off at a used bookstore and sat down on my porch one morning to read it. I read it all the way through that same day. I couldn’t put it down. So much of what Reeves says in this book resonated deeply with my heart. It is about evangelicalism, but not in the way you might think. It’s about the gospel and why evangelicalism is simply the best way to explain the kind of people the gospel creates.
This is a book that I carry with me all the time and refer back to. It’s marked up like you wouldn’t believe. I open it about once a week and flip through the pages. It now sits on my shelf next to Ray Ortlund’s The Gospel because these two books just make such a great pair.
\n \n I saw someone whose literary taste I admire talk about this book on Twitter. If Twitter ever fails, this is one of the things I will miss most—finding books I would never know to pick up.
Keegan’s little novel is a Christmas story about the small things that make a big difference. It’s a short read—only 70 pages. I read it in one sitting but carried it with me for far longer. It is one that I will re-read every now and then simply for the beauty of the prose and the story.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31tfSoO2xGL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n I don’t consider myself an angry person, but like everyone, I get angry sometimes. What is going on during those times? Ash helps us understand by taking us inside God’s word on the matter. There is righteous anger. There is sinful anger. And it’s hard to know the difference sometimes. Even more, it’s hard to know how to deal with our anger properly.
If you struggle with anger or want to understand it better, this is the book for you.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41qLt9-I7SL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n I love Backman’s novels. This one is the next in the Beartown saga, continuing the story and wrapping up some loose ends the others leave untied. Like all his books, you’ll be surprised by how moved you are by people you know are made up because their stories are all too real in this world.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/518aZmjIx3L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Here’s a rule to live by: if Bob Dylan writes it, read it. He wrote a biography years ago called Chronicles: Volume 1. Volume 2 never came out. Maybe that’s intentional. I don’t know. It was a great read, and I wish there was another one coming.
But here’s at least something new from Dylan. He calls it a philosophy of modern song, but it’s more accurate to say it’s Dylan riffing on some great tunes. Of course, he dips into philosophical items from time to time, but there doesn’t seem to me to be a cohesive philosophy springing from the pages. It doesn’t matter. Dylan’s insight into these classic songs and his retelling of them in his unique personification is worth every penny.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41lOAN+1O1L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Sometimes it’s good to hear from different parts of the world. We can get so caught up in what’s happening here. I understand why that happens. But every now and then, we need to look outward and listen to Christians from other, more difficult parts of the world.
Here’s a book that does just that. Taken from sermons from Chinese pastors during the COVID pandemic, this book will encourage you to look to Jesus as your only hope. I listened to this book, which I always recommend if books are a complication of sermons. Throughout, I found myself convicted and encouraged. You will be too.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41BE10P9GWL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n I read anything Tim Keller publishes. He is, in my opinion, one of God’s greatest gifts to the church in his generation. This new book on forgiveness is one everybody should put on their shelves. It is a wealth of wisdom on what the Bible says about forgiveness and how, through Christ, we have the resources and power to forgive because we have been forgiven by God.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41D94XYdb2L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Some stories are so amazing you can barely believe they are real. This is one of those stories. Enslaved in Auschwitz, Walter Rosenberg was one of the few who escaped and lived to tell his story. Along with another man, he found a way to warn the world of what was really going on. The problem was, no one did anything about it. The story is wild and heartbreaking and a warning all at once. It’s one of those Holocaust stories that should be told and retold again and again.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ke5BOwA+L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Some books come along that are must reads. This is one of them. If you want to understand how we got where we are, Scrivener will help you see. The air we breath is thoroughly Christian, even if our culture denies that permeating past. Our modern sense of freedom, justice, equity, and all the rest finds its roots in the Bible. We can ignore the Bible if we want, but we can’t deny its influence.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31H4a9LOZ8L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Perhaps nothing is more commonplace in the Christian world than apathy to the things of God. How do we get back to the place of passion? How do we restore our zeal? Uche Anizor gives a great gift to the church in this book taylor made for our modern malaise.
![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Lz+EiVsGL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/311FmGltAoL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Xyrqwt+wL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41lWsOqrDOL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41uw2Gp4x4L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fAfXZ-u+L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41IQ2v81ZrL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41O-ACHGYPL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fCusIKkjL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51enGG+FjEL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511q8tN8fUL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/410vwyHq8KL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51zTXki+YEL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/4177mZ1SC2L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51DCEgdsptL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41XIEcvLDcL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/413JnPnFqIL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ggo4Ex2KL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51sSUcmQRwL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51CF5XN1qdL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51GJagO-9RL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41yqDGt9BJL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41cq0C9fbFL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41R3XrPS20L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41hyxCvVHOL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51flP2eWUqL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/419ZI5-iVgL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/310Usm4+d4L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41oAbPV+cPL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/414SktRuTQL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515yOWz7S7L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/518FGWCOBvL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41as47Vnu6L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51v3qGMEJbL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/415x4hMFwiL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ubimqECGL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41gXjrVfhEL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519C2Gz-v2L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31u4yq7Bo7L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51kIuz-YyCL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ABzlatgkL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n \n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41IAsNZLa9L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510GBDA0Q4L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51PXiKxhtdL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519mxGwmLkL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51oOEsx+NrL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/3144921HqPL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51sQcUYpM9L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ULHT5a6ZL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41DC+nuiFFL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fWN7sncPL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41dlZHMLOfL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51lTEFhQPzL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510y8ZH7uXL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51oDwBFWV4L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41cd4uHnd0L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516tnoFXFPL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41IJGeeIJNL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31bWgVxrpxL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41kosTbXh+L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mvAKNbWKL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51F6OuFKFrL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31o34ReoPdL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61D+wcGPiIL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41B0kNcS-tS._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51nHX-xk2aL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nltnz2WrL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41QUH646XJS._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41IgQvujXuL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51RHXkMhfBL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41xt9CK5qtL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41W3LDCj9EL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41hcOimTjIL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41yD0h4eunL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Gi6vCYfaL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41OWbqfT60L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vno+X-U+L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/518nWJ0pqoL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514tIC5G-mL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fTEdsUvAL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Thb8FXkpL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41uNKGyfM0L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51jRbmh-iPL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41hqGp9LPsL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51v+SnpekvL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ZIjG7QH0L._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41b7ZM0MGmL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Jz+CDRdWL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n ![](\"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41S-qSHdIcL._SL500_.jpg\"/)
\n \n Mark 15:33-47 shows us the cross of Christ. The darkness of sin overcame Jesus on the cross, and he felt it. Verse 34 says Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark includes both the Aramaic version Jesus actually spoke and the Greek translation for his readers. According to verse 35, some thought he was calling for Elijah. The Aramaic words misheard certainly could sound like it, and in Jewish thought, Elijah, who had not died but had been lifted into heaven, would come back to help God’s people. In verse 36, they took sour wine to him, fulfilling the prophecy of Psalm 69:21, “for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” This isn’t the wine with myrrh offered to Jesus on the way to the cross. This wasn’t meant dull his pain but to prolong his life, to see if Elijah would come. But Elijah wasn’t coming. He wasn’t crying out for Elijah anyway. He was crying out for another reason—not for someone to save him but to show the kind of salvation he was securing.
His cry was the first verse of Psalm 22. Why that Psalm? Because there, the Psalmist David laments the feeling of forsakenness. The first two verses say, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.” Do you know that feeling? Have you felt forsaken? Have you felt abandoned? On the cross, that’s how Jesus felt as the darkness came over him. He wants us to know he identifies with us. His cry is our cry because our cry is his cry. Dane Ortlund, in his book Gentle and Lowly, says this.
New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham notes that while Psalm 22:1 was originally written in Hebrew, Jesus spoke it in Aramaic and thus was personally appropriating it. Jesus wasn’t simply repeating David’s experience of a thousand years earlier as a convenient parallel expression. Rather, every anguished Psalm 22:1 cry across the millenia was being recapitulated and fulfilled and deepened in Jesus. His was the true Psalm 22:1 of which ours are the shadows. As the people of God, all our feelings of forsakenness funneled through an actual human heart in a single moment of anguished horror on Calvary, an actual forsakenness…The world’s Light was going out.
As the Bible says, he who knew no sin was becoming sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). All our darkness was placed on him. As the prophet Isaiah said, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-6). On the cross, all the iniquity of all God’s people throughout all history, past, present, and future, was laid upon his Son, and God’s wrath was poured out on him. And it killed him. Jesus did not die a normal death of mere physical expiration; Jesus died the extraordinary death of spiritual expiation. He made amends for our guilt. He atoned for our sins. By his death, Jesus set us right with God. He went into God’s courtroom of Divine Justice as our substitute and received a guilty verdict. He was led to the place of slaughter and executed for our sins. Jesus hung there, covered in darkness, physically and spiritually, experiencing the very Hell we deserve to give us the very heaven we long for. And as Psalm 22 says, he has done it!
So when Paul says in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,” it means there is therefore now no condemnation for any who receive this offer of salvation from Jesus! Right now, you are free from the eternal punishment of sin. Right now, you are free from condemnation. You might condemn yourself, but God won’t condemn you because he condemned Jesus instead. Right now, God fully approves of you because Jesus paid it all—not some: all. There is, therefore, now no condemnation. You are utterly and eternally free forever. This is the grace of God. Grace is like looking behind you and realizing God isn’t chasing you down with a hammer to condemn but looking ahead and seeing the nail-pierced hands of Jesus open wide to welcome you.
All you need to do to receive this gift of grace is accept it with the empty hands of faith. I love what Gerhard Forde said.
We are justified freely, for Christ’s sake, by faith, without the exertion of our own strength, gaining of merit, or doing of works. To the age-old question, “What shall I do to be saved?” the confessional answer is shocking: “Nothing! Just be still: shut up and listen for once in your life to what God the Almighty, creator and redeemer, is saying to his world and to you in the death and resurrection of his Son! Listen and believe!”
We see something of this in the Centurion’s reaction to Jesus’s death. Verse 39 says when Jesus made a loud cry and gave up his spirit, the Centurion said, “Truly, this man was the Son of God!” This is the first time in Mark’s gospel a human voice refers to Jesus as the Son of God. The centurion saw the struggle of Jesus on the cross. He saw the darkness descend. He heard the words uttered. This professional executioner noticed something different was happening.
On the cross, Jesus represented his people. The Greek used for “loud cry” is what the author of Hebrews used when he said, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death” (Hebrews 5:7). The context there is Jesus’s learning obedience through what he suffered. So then, the cry on the cross was a cry of obedient suffering. Why was he obeying? Because we needed him to. His cry was our cry. His obedience was our obedience. His suffering was our suffering. His forsakenness was our forsakenness. Like Isaac taken up the mountain by his father, Jesus is there as a sacrifice, but this time the Father will not relent. The knife is plunged. The Son dies.
When he died, verse 38 says the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. That’s important because it tells us another result of the cross. Where there was once separation between man and God in the very heart of God’s temple, there is now open access. The Great High Priest has gone behind the curtain and offered himself as the final sacrifice. When his flesh was torn, the temple curtain came down with it. No more separation. No other mediator between God and man is needed. By his blood, we now have all the access to God we will ever need (Hebrews 10:19-22). We can come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). God will hear us now because, on the cross, Jesus wasn’t heard. We will never be forsaken because on the cross, he was.
Psalm 22 starts with lament, but it ends in praise for God’s deliverance. Jesus cried verse 1 to give us the rest of the Psalm. He asked for our deliverance through him, and we received it! Satan can’t condemn us. The world can’t destroy us. We can’t even ruin ourselves anymore. Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice conquered it all!
It’s not hard to see that something is deeply wrong with the world. But it wasn’t always this way. When God created the world, he said it was good. So what happened to God’s good creation? The tragedy started in a garden. Adam and Eve listened to the lies of Satan and rebelled. From there, sin went viral, passed down from generation to generation. We’ve all contracted this sickness unto death. It darkens all we do, even the good things we take part in. The Puritan William Beveridge put it this way.
I cannot pray, but I sin. I cannot hear or preach a sermon, but I sin. I cannot give an alms or receive the sacrament, but I sin. Nay, I cannot so much as confess my sins, but my confessions are still aggravations of them. My repentance needs to be repented of, my tears want washing, and the very washing of my tears need still to be washed over again with the blood of my Redeemer.
Sin is pervasive in us and, therefore, in the world. We are not good people who occasionally do bad things. We are evil people proving it all the time. Sin separates us from God. Sin separates us from other people. Sin separates us from creation. Sin separates us from ourselves. The shadow of sin stands over this world because we have rejected God. As a result, here is Jesus on the cross.
We read in Mark 15:33-47 about Jesus, who had been on the cross for three hours. At noon, the sixth hour, the very heart of the day, darkness covered the whole land until 3 PM, the ninth hour. Some scholars try to write this off as just a solar eclipse—nothing special. But solar eclipses don’t last three hours. They last about seven minutes. This was an act of God. He was showing us the darkness of sin that placed Christ on the cross. The physical darkness represented our spiritual darkness.
The Old Testament prophets talked about the darkness of the “Day of the Lord” or Judgment Day. For example, Jeremiah said, “I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light” (Jeremiah 4:23). The prophet Isaiah said, “We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men” (Isaiah 59:10). God told Isaiah that no one could lead themselves out of their own darkness, so God will strap on the armor himself and save them. The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem (Isaiah 59:15-20). Here is the fulfillment of that prophecy: their Redeemer, hanging on a cross, going under the darkness for his people.
Amid the darkness all around, the spotlight is on the cross. There, our savior hangs, mangled and marred. It’s messy, and it’s bloody because it must be. This is the only way to forgiveness. The Bible says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22) and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). But the blood of goats and bulls isn’t enough. Man’s sin requires man’s blood. And our sins are so great, nothing less than Christ’s cross can save us. The only hope of any light at all is by the Light himself going under the darkness for us, dying in the darkness for our darkness, letting the darkness engulf him and take him down.
Last week, I posted a word about slavery in Paul’s address to bondservants in Colossians 3. This was, basically, an excerpt from a sermon i preached on the entire passage of Colossians 3:22-4:1. It is a passage often used to speak to how Christians are to work. I think that is the right way to approach the text, and i wanted to provide another excerpt from my sermon today.
In Colossians 3:18-4:1, Paul shows the fullness of Christ for our home life. In the first four verses, he addresses husbands, wives, children, and parents. Then, in verse 22, he addresses bondservants, or slaves. It’s the same word. In this address, we might expect Paul to start a different way. Why address the slaves before the masters? But this is how Paul arranged the entire section. Why not the husbands before the wives? Why not the fathers before the children? Paul started with the powerless because the powerful are always first. He started where there is the least natural hope. There is grace and mercy in even the arrangement of the verses. God’s word is amazing.
Paul tells the bondservants to “obey in everything those who are your earthly masters.” This is similar to his command to children. Of course, Paul is not condoning sinful behavior. Bondservants are not to be disobedient to their masters, but if their masters ask them to do something sinful, they have a higher master. They are to obey their earthly masters, but they are to fear the Lord. Jesus not only limits the slave master’s authority but also frees the slave to disobey when morally necessary. Their earthly master is only earthly. Jesus is the big boss.
We all have an earthly boss. Someone demands our time and attention. How are we to obey? How are we to work? “Not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.” There are two things here—a positive and a negative. Negatively, we can’t slack off when no one’s looking. Jesus’s eye is ever upon us. Positively, we don’t have to hope someone notices our hard work. Jesus’s eye is ever upon us. Both of these are good news. There isn’t a meaningless moment. The King of the Universe is right there with you. When the King notices you, you can’t slack off. You don’t want to. When the King notices you, you need no other praise. His is enough. Someone once asked G.K. Chesterton, “If the risen Christ suddenly appeared at this very moment and stood behind you, what would you do?” Chesterton looked them squarely in the eye and said, “He is.”
So when you’re sitting at your desk, tempted to slack off, remember Jesus is watching. Your work matters to him. How you work matters to him. He wants you to work hard because that is how his people work. It’s like the Patriot way or the Yankee way. There is a certain way Christians go about their work. It looks like Jesus—always about his Father’s business. And when you’re sitting at your desk, wishing someone noticed the care you put into every task, remember Jesus is watching. He sees the effort, and he rejoices in it. That care you put into your work is putting the glory of Jesus on display as you devote yourself and your work to him.
This changes our Mondays, doesn’t it? As we serve our earthly masters, we are serving the Lord himself. We are working, most truly, for him. Verse 23, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” This is the fullness of Christ for the worker. Some of us work joyless jobs. All of us have some joyless tasks in our jobs. But Jesus is saying it doesn’t matter what you do. “Whatever you do.” Our work, no matter how small, isn’t too small for Jesus. Our work matters because it matters to him. He is that involved with us. Our little work life isn’t so little. Even the slave’s work is cherished by Jesus and received by him as unto him. That’s amazing.
We all have earthly masters. Some of them are good bosses. Some are not. But we all have a higher master who is good and does good, and he is who ultimately matters. What kind of boss is Jesus? He’s a good one, I promise you. He’s forgiving. He’s gracious. He’s merciful. He’s kind. He expects a lot. He doesn’t coddle us. But he cares for us. He asks us to work hard. Working as unto the Lord means the work actually gets harder—no eye-service, no people-pleasing—but it’s far more rewarding. Jesus makes even the most menial task an important one—not because of what we’re doing but because of who we’re doing it for. We won’t slack off because his eye is always upon us. And he will send his help by the power of his Spirit to give us energy for the task. He will give us rest at night after a hard day. He will give us peace during the tough parts. He will be all we need anyone to be for us and far more. He may ask us to do hard things, but he won’t be hard on us. No matter our current situation, the deepest truth about our work is that Jesus is over it and in it all. His gospel goes everywhere.
Jesus is saying to us today that the motivation for our good, hard work is not to be noticed by him but comes from already being noticed by him. We are under his kind watch. He is not only infusing our work with his grace to honor and glorify him and provide goods and services to others that help them flourish, but he is also receiving all our work unto himself as service to him. No task is meaningless. How could it be? Jesus is in it.
Isn’t that amazing? Is there an area of life that the gospel does not change? There isn’t. That’s the point. Even slaves have meaning now. Even tasks no one else notices are holy moments of service to the King of the Universe. He sees it. He honors it. He rewards it.
So, let’s go and do it, looking to Jesus and trusting him moment by moment.
In Colossians 3:18-4:1, Paul shows the fullness of Christ in the home. The first four verses are directed at husbands, wives, parents, and children. Then, in verse 22, he addresses bondservants, or slaves. It is a passage that is not easy for us to read today. The issue of slavery is a very sensitive subject, and rightfully so.
Paul’s address to husbands, wives, parents, and children addresses God-ordained and God-blessed social structures. In this address to slaves, Paul is stepping into a social construction of oppression that God does not condone. Some wonder why Paul didn’t attack the institution of slavery head-on. Why give instructions rather than condemnation? Because radical social change never happens in an instant, and in the meantime, the gospel has something to say to everyone in any situation. Paul is applying the gospel to this reality, showing how the fullness of Christ makes a difference today amid everything going on.
It’s important to point out that this passage should never be viewed as the Bible’s approval of slavery. Like anything, to understand what the Bible says about a topic, we have to take the Bible as a whole. If we take the totality of what the Bible says, we could never conclude God is pro-slavery. In fact, the Bible is the very reason we have any anti-slavery ideas at all. Passages like ours today introduced a new idea to the world. No one else was saying anything remotely close to this. It was the idea that slaves were inherently equal to their masters, just as wives were to husbands and children to parents. Paul destroyed the normative social constructs as he brought the fullness of Christ to bear upon their lives. This was a radical new idea. Paul turned his modern world’s view of humanity on its head. If we do away with the Bible because we believe its views of human equality are too backward, we are cutting off the branch we’re sitting on. The only reason we have those ideas of human equality at all is because the Bible quite literally gave them to us. No one in the ancient world talked to slaves as inherent equals to masters. Only Christians did that. Luc Ferry is a French philosopher. He is not a Christian. Some years ago, he wrote a book called A Brief History of Thought. Here’s what he said about Christianity.
Christianity was to introduce the notion that humanity was fundamentally identical, that men were equal in dignity - an unprecedented idea at the time….This idea may seem self-evident, but it was literally unheard of at the time, and it turned an entire world-order upside down. (Pp. 72-73)
Without Christianity’s idea of human equality found in the gospel of Christ, we would never have our modern ideas of social equality. The Civil Rights Movement would never have happened without Jesus breaking into the world with this new vision of humanity. Christianity changed the social game. So, just because Paul addressed slaves doesn’t mean he’s falling in line with the social norm. By addressing slaves as human beings with moral agency and being on the same level as masters was quite literally a new thing. God is the first abolitionist. He’s the originator of the Civil Rights Movement throughout the world.
The Bible has some amazing verses about this. One we’ve already seen in Colossians 3:11. “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” Pauls said almost the same thing in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” In the Christian church, there is no room for sexism or racism, or any other social separation into upper and lower classes. We are all one in Christ Jesus. We are used to that idea today, but that’s only because the Bible gave us that idea. Every person who has ever fought for social equality has done so because the Bible gave them the framework of understanding. The moral ground for every civil rights movement is the Bible. God gave us these ideas. This is just one of a million ways Christianity changed the world.
We see this play out early in the Church’s history. Inside the Colossian church sat at least one slave that we know of. His name was Onesimus. The house in which the Colossian church met was likely owned by a man named Philemon. Philemon also owned Onesimus. One day, Onesimus escaped and ran to Rome. He apparently stole something from Philemon on the way out and was hoping to hide in the big city. But by God’s providence, he came into contact with Paul, heard the gospel, and was saved. Later, Paul wrote a letter to Philemon. We have it in our Bible. In it, he appealed to Philemon in Christ to receive Onesimus back not as a bondservant but as a beloved brother (16). He asked Philemon to receive Onesimus as he would receive Paul and promised to repay any debts Onesimus owed. It was a radical thing to ask. No one else in the ancient world would ask such a thing. It’s the kind of thing only the gospel makes possible.
The Christian gospel speaks to all people in every situation all the time. You cannot get any socially lower than a slave. But Jesus doesn’t ignore the lowly. He speaks directly to them. This is nothing new for God. Remember in Exodus when Israel was in slavery? God heard their groanings. Fast forward thousands of years, and here is a slave in the Colossian church wondering how what Paul is saying applies to his life in bondage. He was seen as equal to a tool with no rights or dignity, and then he hears this: “Bondservants….” Jesus is speaking to him. That’s glorious. In the hands of our Savior, even the lowliness of slavery can be a glorious calling in Christ. I don’t say that flippantly. I say it because the Bible says it. Slaves are not nobodies to Jesus. They are somebodies on the same level as the richest man.
I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with…The catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.
— C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms. pp. 111
Psalm 136:1 says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” There is a command, a reason, and a promise.
The command is simple: “give thanks to the Lord.” Giving thanks to the Lord does not mean we enjoy this life and merely give God credit, like a tip on the table for good service. It means far more. The Hebrew words for “give thanks” means “confess” or “acknowledge.” Commentator Derek Kidner says this calls for “thoughtful, grateful worship[1]”. Giving thanks to God is like giving glory to God, treating him with the weight he is due. Our lives are what they are not by chance of luck but specifically because of him. Giving thanks to him in the biblical sense is giving thanks to God for the whole of our life—the good and the bad, because, in his wisdom, he is working all things for the good of those who love him (Rom. 8:28). In this sense, giving thanks to God is more than receiving this life as from him and going about our merry way; it is loving him through confession that our life is what it is by his gracious and glorious plan.
Then there is the reason we are to thank the Lord: “for he is good.” The Hebrew word for “good” means “pleasant” or “joyful.” There is a beautiful and beneficial nature to his goodness that fills our lives with pleasantness and joy in all circumstances. Even if our lives were void of all goodness, God would not be. He is good in and of himself. The Bible says God is love (1 John 4:7), and he is holy (Lev. 11:44), and he is just (Deut. 32:4), and he is righteous (Ps. 11:7). Love, holiness, justice, and righteousness are not parts of God, as if they are things he does. He is those things. God does not just do good; he is good. If we think of goodness as pleasant and joyful, then because God is good, we should think of God as pleasant and joyful—not sometimes, but all the time. Goodness is not something he does sometimes; it is part of his very nature. So, how could we not give thanks to him? Our God is the very definition of good.
Finally, there is the promise: “for his steadfast love endures forever.” The Hebrew word for “steadfast love” is hesed, which points us to the covenant love with which God loves us. God has bound himself to us to care for us and stay faithful to us. This plays itself out in what we see and experience all around us. Psalm 136 goes into detail about how God’s hesed love surrounds us. He created the universe because of it; he daily upholds everything because of it; he redeems us because of it; and so on. The idea here is that God’s love has no end. It doesn’t end when we sin because Jesus is our sacrifice. It doesn’t end when we stray because Jesus is our Good Shepherd who seeks us out. It doesn’t end even when we die because Jesus rose from the grave. God’s steadfast love is more than a witness to past love; it is a promise of future love.
We give thanks to God for all things because he is good and because his love will never end.
This Thanksgiving, based on our understanding of Psalm 136:1, what do you want to give thanks to the Lord for today? Maybe it is something wonderful. Maybe it is something that was hard. Whatever it is, he was in it, he was over it, and he provides meaning to it. So, let’s thank him for it.
[1] Derek Kidner, Psalms 73–150: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 16, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1975), 493–494.
What kind of God does your church have? Is he the big God of the Bible, Lord of all, King of kings, upholding the universe by the word of his power? Does his arm reach around the world, even the expanse of space? Does his eye run to and fro throughout the whole world? Is he seated on a throne in heaven? Is he a big God with a big plan for this big world? Does he care about the things outside your town? Does his heart for the nations stir yours for them too?
Our prayers often reveal the kind of God we have. What we pray about shows what we think he can do. In our church services, how big is the prayer? Praying for our own is good and necessary. The Bible tells us to pray for one another. But is that all we pray?
John Stott got pointed on this topic.
“I remember some years ago visiting a church incognito. I sat in the back row. I wonder who’s in the back row tonight.
You know they often slip in there incognito. I’m not going to tell you the church. You won’t be able to identify it; it’s thousands of miles away from here.
When we came to the pastoral prayer, it was led by a lay brother, because the pastor was on holiday. So he prayed that the pastor might have a good holiday. Well, that’s fine. Pastors should have good holidays.
Second, he prayed for a lady member of the church who was about to give birth to a child that she might have a safe delivery, which is fine.
Third, he prayed for another lady who was sick, and then it was over. That’s all there was. It took twenty seconds.
I said to myself, it’s a village church with a village God. They have no interest in the world outside. There was no thinking about the poor, the oppressed, the refugees, the places of violence, and world evangelization.”
–John Stott, Ten Great Preachers: Messages and Interviews, Ed. Bill Turpie (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), 117.
When we gather, let’s pray to the big God for this big world with its big needs. No village God. Only the one true God. Big enough for the village, yes, but far, far bigger indeed.
Christ who is the content of the gospel leaves no one in a neutral state.
—Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God, page 399
The one thing the gospel never does is nothing. Under the preaching of the gospel, no one remains the same. We are either moving closer to God or further from him. No one remains neutral. No one remains unchanged. We soften, or we harden.
Encountering Jesus is a life-altering event every time it happens. His word is always fresh. Even if we believe we know it, because he is God, his word is not returning void. Every time it is spoken, something happens. We fall in love with him, or we grow to despise him. We lean in, or we turn away. In every church meeting every Sunday morning, there is a massive movement in the hearts of people all over the world because of the gospel of Christ. Because Christ is the gospel, when we hear his word, we hear him, and when we hear him, we either fall down before him, or we run the other way. The one thing we don’t do is nothing.
It’s not always easy to perceive this movement. Perhaps we notice the leaning in more than the turning away. Yes, we can sprint in the other direction, but that’s not how it works for most of us. It’s more like drifting away at sea. The waves of doubt take us out. The depths of sin call us away. We move inch by inch, and we don’t see it until we’re further than we ever imagined we’d be.
Just as we can drift away, we can also inch closer. When Jesus melts our heart again and again, when his gospel surprises us with its grace and mercy, when we feel his love, and keep letting his love come into our heart, we step closer to him.
The one thing the gospel never does is nothing. No one remains in a neutral state.
God is in control of all things. He is sovereign. But he does ask us to believe him. Our only part in the gospel is our response to it. We either accept it or deny it. We either open our arms or cross them. We run toward or away. But we cannot stand motionless.
The good news of the gospel, of course, is that even if we jump a ship to Tarsus like our old friend Jonah, and even if a great fish swallows us up after we are thrown overboard, there is still hope. God still hears our cries in the deep, dark places of the stormiest sea. The gospel never does nothing, and because of that, there is always hope of redemption, even as there is always the danger of drifting away.
As long as Jesus is on this throne, as long as the Spirit blows like the wind wherever it will, as long as God is still a Father, there is hope. As we continually expose ourself to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and as we just open our empty hands before him, we can trust that he will do his work. He will not leave us as we are. He will increase our joy. He will soften our sorrows. He will heal our wounds. He will, if he must, even cause the fish to get sick and spit us upon his shores to witness his redemption.
God works in ways we can’t understand. The one thing we can be sure of, always, is that he works. He never does nothing. That’s good news.
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17)
Inside the Colossian church was a self-appointed jury that looked out on others with judgment upon their spiritual lives. There was an Inner Ring claiming the inside scoop on true spirituality. The truly spiritual path was paved by the law, abstaining from certain food and drink and observing certain days: festivals, new moons, and the Sabbath.
The false teachers set the boundaries of true spirituality around these doctrines and judged others accordingly. There were sincere believers inside the church, and they were unnecessarily burdened. Paul wanted them to know that the judgment they felt heaped upon them was wrong. They do not have the right to pass judgment. Only God can judge, and he has already passed his judgment on these Christians on the cross of Christ.
As Paul said in Colossians 2:14, God forgave our trespasses and canceled our debt by nailing it to the cross. Jesus was perfect in every way. He never sinned. But on the cross, Jesus was judged for our sins as if they were his sins, as our substitute. This is why the cross is called the great exchange. All our sin was placed on Jesus, and in return, all his righteousness was granted to us. So now it is not only just as if we never sinned but also as if we have always obeyed.
If that’s true (and it is), who is left to judge these Colossians? If God has judged and acquitted in Christ, there is no higher court of appeal. That’s Paul’s point. No one can judge you now because, in Christ, you have been judged and found not guilty by grace. That’s not only true when you first believe, but it remains true for the rest of your life. Every day, you are as free as if Jesus died for you yesterday.
Now, in fairness, perhaps the false teachers would agree Jesus paid for our sins, but they still held to a certain path as the way to true spirituality. But that is only a new law. Like the Old Testament law, it’s only a shadow of the things to come. As Paul said in Romans 7:4, when Christ died, “You also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead.” If we have died to the law, what good is it to live to it again, as if it can give something Jesus can’t?
Paul says these false teachers are merely chasing shadows. They’re after the old age, but the new age has come. The law was a shadow of the good things to come (Heb. 10:1). The substance belongs to Christ. He is the fulfillment of the law, and we have that fullness now in him. As Herman Bavinck said, “What the law demands of us is given us in the gospel for nothing.” If we already have the gift of full obedience to the law imputed to us by Christ, why then go back to the law as if it can add something to that finished work?
The problem can be boiled down to one word: legalism. Legalism is the idea that we earn favor with God through works. Obedience is important. God requires it. But it does not gain us favor with him. We have all the favor we will ever need in Christ by grace. Our works add nothing to that, any more than the works of your children add to your love for them. You love them because you love them, and for those in Christ, God loves you because he loves you.
Maybe you’re a child with many siblings, and you know your parents love you, but you’re the black sheep of the family. No way your parents love you like your all-star brother or sister. I doubt that’s true, but let’s just grant for a moment it is. Is that how God loves? With degrees of affection? No. He loves you as he loves Christ. The doctrine of the adoption of God means we are adopted as sons and daughters in Christ. As Jesus prayed in John 17:23, “You…have loved them even as you have loved me.” You have the fullness of God’s love and favor in Christ freely and fully.
But legalism says you don’t. Legalism establishes requirements of moral conduct beyond what the Bible teaches and then sets the boundaries of true spirituality and acceptance dependent upon adhering to those requirements. In its ugliest form, legalism forces that theology on others. The only way someone is fully “in” is to fully obey their rules, and faith becomes a side-bar issue. Works are what really matter. This is what happened to the Colossians. Legalists were excluding Christians from the Church. The problem is, they aren’t in charge. Jesus is.
One of my favorite phrases is “the finished work of Christ.” When Jesus died on the cross, he did not say, “My part is done, now your turn.” No. He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Jesus lived the perfect life we failed to live and, on the cross, atoned for all our sins to set us right with God now and forever. He finished that work and was raised on the third day. What Jesus has accomplished and filled up on our behalf, he does not also ask us to do to earn his favor. What God has deemed finished, let no man continue.
God asks us to obey him, yes, but out of his fullness of grace, not as a path to it. We obey because we are loved, not to be loved. We obey because we have spiritual life in him, not to gain it. True spirituality is found in Christ alone, in communion with him, in living inside his gospel promises, in going into the gospel deeps, not in eating or drinking the right things or observing the right days, but in loving the Savior and following him only.
In his early years, Martin Luther was a fearful man. Plagued by his guilty conscience, he deeply believed he was condemned before God for his lack of obedience. Hard as he may try, he felt he could never obey enough. The standard was too high for him. Always failing before the holy God whom he so desired to please, fear grew in Luther’s heart.
Roland Bainton, in his biography of Luther, shows us the way the gospel changed Luther’s heart from a fearful man into a fearless leader of the Reformation.
In his religion he was a Hebrew, not a Greek fancying gods and goddesses disporting themselves about some limpid pool or banqueting upon Olympus. The God of Luther, as of Moses, was the God who inhabits the storm clouds and rides on the wings of the wind. At his nod the earth trembles, and the people before him are as a drop in the bucket. He is a God of majesty and power, inscrutable, terrifying, devastating, and consuming in his anger. Yet the All Terrible is the All Merciful too. “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord…” But how shall we know this? In Christ, only in Christ. In the Lord of life, born in the squalor of a cow stall and dying as a malefactor under the desertion and the derision of men, crying unto God and receiving for an answer only the trembling of the earth and the blinding of the sun, even by God forsaken, and in that hour taking to himself and annihilating our iniquity, trampling down the hosts of hell and disclosing within the wrath of the All Terrible the love that will not let us go. No longer did Luther tremble at the rustling of a wind-blown leaf, and instead of calling upon St. Anne he declared himself able to laugh at thunder and jagged bolts from out the storm. This was what enabled him to utter such words as these: “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”
Bainton, Roland H. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther / Roland H. Bainton, New American Library, New York, NY, 1978, p. 401.
Everything that is to be said of the church is said by saying, “We point to him.”
— John Webster. The Culture of Theology, p. 92.
What can we say about the Church? A lot, I am sure. The Church is God’s people. It is where people find community. The Bible is read inside its gathering space. Songs are sung. Communion is taken. Prayers are prayed. Every Sunday throughout the world, billions of people go to Church.
Churches have raised up missionaries. They have housed charities. They have preached sermons and changed the world many times over.
The Church has not always behaved well, of course. They have been on the wrong side of executions and discrimination. They have shut their doors to those who need help. They have abused many inside. They have condemned more outside.
There is a lot we could say about the church, both good and bad.
But what does the Bible say about the Church? What is the vision of what the church should be, according to God’s word?
Jesus told Peter that his confession of Christ was the rock upon which the church would be built, and not even the gates of hell could prevail against it (Matt. 16:18).
Paul told the Ephesian elders upon his departure that the church was purchased by the blood of Jesus (Acts 20:28).
The church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets—the mouthpieces of God. Jesus is the cornerstone, holding it all together. The people are God’s temple, holy in the Lord (Eph. 2:-20-22).
It is the body of Christ where members are members of one another (Rom. 12:5).
It is the body of Christ who serves as the head (Col. 1:18).
The church is the bride of Christ (Eph. 5:23).
It is a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession (1 Pet. 2:9).
The church is a pillar and buttress of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15).
As John Webster says, “Everything that is to be said of the church is said by saying, ‘We point to him.’”
That is the sum total of the Church’s mission. Everything goes wrong when that isn’t our singular focus. If we are pointing to him, we can trust he will take care of everything else.
In the beginning of all we know was the Word. It started with him. It all burst forth from his everlasting lips, echoing down the canyons of time and filling up the caverns of the earth, planting the minerals in their proper place, sowing seeds under fresh soil, bringing forth all kinds of life from the wonder of his imagination. None of it was frivolous. There together with creativity is great wisdom. All parts make a magnificent whole. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And what we see is his glory.
This is, of course, what we learn from the opening pages of the Bible and from the opening sentences of John’s account of the gospel. The Bible is many things. Boring is not one of them. The beauty of the words alone is enough for endless ruminations, but the externals to which the words take us really leave us in awe. It is the whole world in view—the world whose sunsets never disappoint, whose oceans seemingly know no end, whose storms still shake our bones, and whose land teeming with life makes it home. We see his glory there—in the threreness of it all.
It didn’t have to be this way. He had no reason to create. He wasn’t missing something in his life. It was out of his good pleasure that everything came forth. He didn’t need it. He was fine without the planets and the stars. He wasn’t thirsty before there was rain. He didn’t hunger for the fruit of the land. He had all he needed and wanted within himself, in the Triunity of his own being. The Father and the Son and the Spirit danced eternally together in the radiance of glory.
Yet God created the heavens and the earth and the things in the heavens and the earth. God created a world that goes on creating new things all the time. But it is not out of control. He knows everything that is. He knows the number of hairs on the heads of every person to ever live. I suppose he knows the number on every mammal too, and every feather on every bird, and every scale on every reptile and fish. It is all known to him because he is not a creator who winds things up and steps away; he is a creator who keeps his eye even on the sparrow, who knows our comings and goings. He watches and sees. He knows the deep things beneath the outward things. He sees the seeds first bursting forth of life beneath the surface. He sees the secrets of every human heart. He sees the hidden sorrows and the silent heart tears. He hears every groan and feels every pain. He knows the laughter of the children playing and the joy of the elderly’s long life. He is life, and in him is life.
In the beginning was the Word, and in the end, there he will be too, for God has no end, just as he has no beginning. He just is. He is there. He always has been. He always will be. He’s here right now in the stuff of your life. He was in yesterday’s stuff, and he’ll be in tomorrow’s too. Because he is he is never not, which means from beginning to end, you are surrounded by his love, wrapped up in his care, upheld by his ever-watching eye. In the thereness of your life is the God who is magnificently, overwhelmingly, everlastingly there.
In the late 1800s, J.C. Ryle wrote a book on the definition and defense of what it means to be an Evangelical Christian. Michael Reeves says to be an Evangelical means to be a gospel person—a person who stands on the historic doctrine of revelation from the Father, redemption by the son, and regeneration through the Spirit. It’s classical Christianity. In Ryle’s book, he wrote about “the many ways in which the faith of Christ may be marred and spoiled, without being positively denied…the very reason that so much religion called Christian, is not…” He then laid out four ways the gospel may be spoiled.
You may spoil the Gospel by substitution. You have only to withdraw from the eyes of the sinner the grand object which the Bible proposes to faith,—Jesus Christ; and to substitute another object in His place,—the Church, the Ministry, the Confessional, Baptism, or the Lord’s Supper,—and the mischief is done. Substitute anything for Christ, and the Gospel is totally spoiled! DO this, either directly or indirectly, and your religion ceases to be Evangelical.
You may spoil the Gospel by addition. You have only to add to Christ, the grand object of faith, some other objects as equally worthy of honor, and the mischief is done. Add anything to Christ, and the Gospel ceases to be a pure Gospel! Do this, either directly or indirectly, and your religion ceases to be Evangelical.
You may spoil the Gospel by interposition. You have only push something between Christ and the eye of the soul, to draw away the sinner’s attention from the Saviour, and the mischief is done. Interpose anything between man and Christ, and man will neglect Christ for the thing interposed! Do this, either directly or indirectly, and your religion ceases to be Evangelical.
You may spoil the Gospel by disproportion. You have only to attach an exaggerated importance to the secondary things of Christianity, and a diminished importance to the first things, and the mischief is done. Once alter the proportion of the parts of truth, and truth soon becomes downright error! Do this, either directly or indirectly, and your religion ceases to be Evangelical.
Lastly, but not leastly, you may completely spoil the Gospel by confused and contradictory directions. Complicated and obscure statements about faith, baptism, Church privileges, and the benefits of the Lord’s Supper, all jumbled together, and thrown down without order before hearers, make the Gospel no Gospel at all! Confused and disorderly statements of Christianity are almost as bad as no statement at all! Religion of this sort is not Evangelical.
Ryle, J.C. Knots United, pp. 12–13.
Some gospel-soaked encouragement from Martin Luther.
When I go to bed, the Devil is always waiting for me. When he begins to plague me, I give him this answer: “Devil, I must sleep. That’s God’s command, ‘Work by day. Sleep by night.’ So go away.” If that doesn’t work and he brings our a catalog of sins, I say, “Yes, old fellow, I know all about it. And i know some more you have overlooked. Here are a few extra. Put them down.” If he still won’t quit and presses me hard and accuses me as a sinner, I scorn him and say, “St. Satan, pray for me. Of course you have never done anything wrong in your life. You alone are holy. Go to God and get grace for yourself. if you want to get me all straightened out, i say, ‘Physician, heal thyself.’”
Bainton, Roland H. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther / Roland H. Bainton, New American Library, New York, NY, 1978, pp. 375–376.
I recently preached a sermon at my church on Colossians 1:15-20. That passage from the Apostle Paul’s pen is one of the most magnificent descriptions of Jesus in all the Bible. It was pure joy to preach.
My sermon was too long (over 50 minutes, which is at least 15 minutes longer than I typically preach). But the length didn’t seem to matter to our congregation. They gladly stared at Jesus with me for that length of time, and we all walked away better than we came in.
In the sermon, I hit on a few vital doctrines that I wanted our church family to get at least a taste of. We have a fairly theological-minded group, so I doubt there were many new things. But it’s not often you hear about the eternal generation of the son from the pulpit. I believe it is good from time to time to stretch our brains and reach deep back into Church history to hear about events like the Council of Nicaea to consider how our fathers wrestled with the doctrine of the Trinity.
Below is an expert from that sermon, focusing on Colossians 1:15-17. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
The Colossians were confronted with destructive teaching about Christianity. Paul writes this letter to defeat that wrong teaching. So how did he do that? By lifting Jesus up for the church to see. That’s always the best way. When we see Jesus, it’s easy to see wrong theology. But when we take our eyes off Jesus, all kinds of wrong things can slip into our minds and find a home there. What these Colossians needed, and what we need, is a big vision of the glorious Jesus. We need to see how sufficient he really is. We do not need anything else. Jesus is enough. When we start thinking something else is better, something else is needed, we need to come back and stare at Jesus.
So let’s start staring at him.
We’ll take it bit by bit. Look at the first half of verse 15. “He is the image of the invisible God.”
This is not the only place in the Bible we see this language. John said something similar in the opening chapter of his gospel. “No one has ever seen God. God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known” (John 1:18). The author of Hebrews uses a similar phrase when he refers to Jesus as “the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus himself said in John 14:9, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
So what does it mean that Jesus is the image of God? It means Jesus represents God. He shows us who God is. How does he do that? I have four children. Two take after me, and two look like Sarah. Andy, for example, is basically the spitting image of me at his age. Is that what Paul means—that Jesus looks like his Father? Well, yes, and no. We can’t say that in the physical sense because God the Father is invisible. So Jesus must image him in another way. What way? In his essence. In his righteousness, goodness, wisdom, power, holiness—in all the invisible attributes.
Now, in a way, I think this helps us see the point even more clearly. If my son looks like me, you can say he is an image of me, but that’s only surface-level. Do we share the same temperament? Are we the same person underneath our skin? With Jesus, the answer is yes. Everything that God is, Jesus is. He just puts a face on God in the incarnation. Jesus shows us God because—and here’s the point—he is God. When we look at Jesus, we are looking at God.
In Jesus, God becomes very definite to us. In Jesus, we can point to a specific person who lived in real space and time. The name “god” is used all the time, but how do we know we’re all talking about the same god? The answer is who we say Jesus is. Is he God? If the god we talk about doesn’t look like Jesus, then it isn’t the true God we’re talking about. The Bible makes it clear: if you accept Jesus, you accept God; if you don’t accept Jesus, you don’t accept God. No more than any other person, God is not someone we get to define. He defines himself, and he reveals himself in the visible Jesus.
Now, Jesus is also the image of God in another way. Think back to the beginning of the Bible when God created everything. In what way did he create man and woman? In his image. Our sin kind of messed that up. We’re not very good image-bearers, are we? But what about Jesus? The Bible tells us he never sinned. But in the incarnation, as the eternal God stepped into our world and took on flesh, he became the perfect image of God in the Genesis sense as well. He became the perfect image-bearer we failed to be.
So Jesus is both the image of the invisible God and the perfect image of humanity, made in God’s image.
Therefore, we have a double blessing as we behold Jesus. We see God as he truly is, and we see ourselves as we will one day truly be. We see God because Jesus is God. We see ourselves as we will one day be because Jesus, in his humanity, became the perfect image-bearer and showed us who we will become in him by the power of his resurrection. So as we follow Jesus, we are following God, and he is making us more our true selves. Jesus does not remove our humanity from us. He gives it back, redeemed and restored. By the way, this is how we find our truest self—by following Jesus and letting him mend our broken humanity.
Paul goes on. Look at the second half of verse 15. Jesus is “the firstborn of all creation.”
This is an easy phrase to misunderstand. What is Paul really saying? Is he saying Jesus is the first created being? That’s what Jehovah’s Witnesses say today. But that’s not a new heresy. It’s an old one.
In the 4th century, there was a man named Arius who denied the deity of Jesus by asserting there was a time when the Son did not exist. In his desire to protect monotheism, he said that while God has always existed, the Son has not. There was a point at which the Father became a Father. He didn’t deny the holiness of Jesus, just the infinity and equality of Jesus with God. Now, the Bible clearly presents God as a Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But to Arius, the Trinity was not an eternal reality.
This heresy, known as Arianism, spread around the ancient world until, eventually, at the council of Nicaea in 325 AD, the Church officially distinguished between two words that Arius smushed together to mean the same thing. Those two words were “begotten” and “made.” Begotten is a biblical word. You recognize it from maybe the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…” Does that mean God made Jesus? Arius thought so. But if that is true, it means Jesus isn’t really God because he is a creation of God, and the created can never be the creator. There is a difference in nature. But the Bible does not distinguish the nature of the Son from the nature of the Father nor from the nature of the Spirit. The Triune God is one in nature.
So how did the council of Nicaea resolve this? They resolved it by expounding on the word begotten and how it related to God the Father and God the Son. The key distinction comes down to a doctrine known as the eternal generation of the Son. That’s a good five-dollar theological word for you. Obviously, to be a son means to be from a father. But when talking about God, does it mean the Father created the Son, or does it mean something else? In God, this generation is an eternal act, not as an act of creation but as an act of eternal reality in himself. If Jesus was never sent into the world to save it, he would still be the Son because his sonship does not depend on creation at all. He is the eternal Son from the Father regardless of creation. Jesus has always existed as God, with God. There was never a time when the Father was not the Father, and there was never a time when the Son was not the Son, and there was never a time when the Spirit was not the Spirit. The Son is called the Son because he is eternally generated from the Father, not as a different creation of him, but from the same eternal, infinite, immutable, impassible, divine essence of God. To affirm Jesus as he really is requires we affirm his whole divinity—he is of the same essence as God the Father and God the Spirit.
They hashed all this out at the council of Nicaea. Whatever we might think of ancient people, we can’t say they were dumb, can we? This is hard stuff!
At the council of Nicaea, they wrote the Nicene Creed. It is one of the most important statements of faith in Church history. That creed says Jesus is “the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”
Now, in a way, that’s a sidebar to our text today, but it’s important we understand Jesus was not made. Jesus is the eternal God. There are other clues in our text today that affirm this. For example, I couldn’t help but notice a phrase in verses 15, 17, and 18—“he is.” He is the image of God. He is before all things. He is the head of the body. Jesus is. Not he was or he will be, but he is. He has existed eternally with God, as God, in the person of the Son. He is as the Father is, the great I AM.
So if Paul isn’t saying Jesus is the first created being, then what is he saying? He’s using firstborn language in the sense of priority. In the ancient world, if you were the firstborn, everything was yours by right. That’s what Paul means. Everything belongs to Jesus by right as the eternal Son, and because he is God, he is the ruler and creator of it all.
That’s why Paul says in verse 16—notice the prepositions—“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” If all things were created by him and through him, he cannot be among those things created because then it wouldn’t be all things. It would be almost all things. But Jesus stands above all.
Notice that Paul includes heaven and earth, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities. He doesn’t leave anything out, does he? As Abraham Kuyper said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” Jesus is supreme over it all. Jesus rules heaven just as he rules earth. Jesus rules over things we can’t even see, just as he rules over what we can see. There are things in the depths of the ocean and in the expanse of space we haven’t yet seen, but Jesus is lord of those things too. There is no power anywhere that Jesus isn’t supreme over.
We owe all we have and all we see and all we are and all that is to Jesus, the Son of God, the King of the universe, the Lord of all. So, as Paul says in verse 17, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Without Jesus, this entire universe ceases to exist. As John Calvin once said, “If God should withdraw his hand a little, all things would immediately perish and dissolve into nothing.”
I want you to see one more thing before we move on. Notice it says all things were created not only by him and through him but also for him. Let’s personalize this a minute. You were created for Jesus. He cares about you because you belong to him. Your life has meaning, and that meaning is not defined by you; it is defined by Jesus. You are not ultimately in charge of your life, and that is very good news because you—the real you—were created for Jesus. He loves you.
Jesus is supreme. He will always be enough. If you are a Christian, there is nothing else you need but Jesus. If you are not a Christian, there is nothing else you need but Jesus. He is the goal and purpose and joy of life.
Recently I took a new role at work. After a decade in the same role, I was used to knowing the answer to just about every question that arose. Suddenly, I was in a position where I barely knew anything—at least that’s how I felt. Every day at 8:30 I meet with my direct reports, and every day there is another question I don’t have an answer to. That means every day I have to look at someone needing and answer and respond with a deeply humbling response. “I don’t know.”
At the beginning, I felt this to be a failure on my part. I’m the boss. I should know the answer. I should at least know the direction to go. But so often, I had nothing. I didn’t know the ins and outs of the department. I didn’t have the necessary history to light the path forward. I felt I had nothing, and wasn’t sure where to get the information. I left every day feeling depleted and exhausted by my ignorance.
Now, I’m not saying I didn’t know anything. I have a certain set of skills that helps me naviagte unknown waters. I can make it through ok, but it sure isn’t comfortable. You’ve probably been there too. Maybe you’re there now. You don’t have the answer and you don’t know where to get the answer. Your only answer is that you don’t know, and you feel like that isn’t enough.
But it is. Because we simply can’t have all the answers. The sooner you and I accept that, the sooner we will find the freedom we need to learn.
Here’s one way to think about it. There is freedom in not knowing, and a responsibility to learn. No one knows it all. For example, I’ve been watching baseball my entire life. I played as a kid. I watch 162 games of my favorite team each season and probably another 75 games on top of that, not including all the playoff games. I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I’m a big fan and I watch intently. Still every season something happens on the field that I didn’t know was possible. A play is made and the ump makes a call and I learn something new. Even lifelong baseball men—men who played the game and coached throughout all levels well into their golden ages—know each pitch offers something to learn, every situation has so many possible answers it’s anyone’s best guess as to which will work. In other words, baseball is a game for which the only right answer a lot of the time is, “I don’t know. Let’s find out.”
Your life and mine is the same way. We’re all asking questions no one can really answer, and our only responsibility is to try and find out.
There can be such intense pressure to know everything, and we so deeply long to live up to that challenge. But who likes a know-it-all? It’s better to answer honestly and then go and find out than to fall into the trap of saying something that may lead in the wrong direction. What would you rather have? A guide who considers the path before leading you down the dark or one who runs headlong without looking at the map?
Only God knows it all, and we are not him. So let go of the anxiousness of knowing and lean into the freedom of not knowing. Then go and learn and then teach others.
Ninety-nine years is a long time to wait for a new name. Most men make a name for themselves well before. Through their work, they conquer their field and make their contribution. Through their family, they establish their progeny and expand their influence.
But for Abram, it was a different story. We meet him in Genesis 12, where God calls him to go to a land he will show him (Gen. 12:1). He was a foreigner in a strange land, unknown by the world, childless, landless. In a world that depended so much on one’s family line, he was as nameless as they come.
The irony is the name Abram carried meant “Exalted Father.” Would he ever live into his name? That question constantly nagged. In his 75th year he heard a word from God and followed him into a new land, chasing promises from a God previously unknown but one whom he deemed trustworthy, Abram put all his chips on God’s square. What had become of the gamble? So far nothing.
But the promised remained. Not only did it remain, but it was also constantly reinforced. God kept coming to Abram, bolstering his word with covenants and signs and everything else. In Genesis 17, God did something new in Abram’s life. He changed his name. Abram had 99 problems, but a name wasn’t one. Exalted father ain’t too shabby, unless, of course, God says it’s not enough.
God changed Abram’s name by shoving two extra letters before the “m.” Abram became Abraham. “Exalted Father” became “Father of Multitudes.” A century-old childless man. Is that a joke?
The author of Hebrews said no. In Hebrews 6:17, he spoke of the promise God made to Abraham. “When God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath.” God oathed himself to Abraham. “Exalted Father” becomes “Father of Multitudes,” and what made the difference was the God who made the change.
Leon Kass comments, “The change of Abram’s name, offered in conjunction with God’s abundant promise, is in fact deeply significant. ‘Abraham’s very identity is now inextricable from God’s promise of abundant offspring. His being depends on God’s speech. If God breaks his promise, Abraham ceases to be Abraham.’”1 Abraham cannot be Abraham unless God is faithful. It all depends on the promise.
And what of Abraham’s part in this? Kass goes on. “As for Abraham (and his seed), the obligation of the new covenant is remarkably simple: keeping the covenant simply means remembering it, that is, marking its token or sign in the flesh of every male throughout the generations, by the act of circumcision.”1
You could argue circumcision isn’t nothing. That’s true, it’s not. But it isn’t something anyone earns. It is something that happens passively. It is a sign of the covenant, a reminder that God has made his claim on his people.
The only way Abram becomes Abraham is by the power of God through the never-failing word of God.
The only way we become who we must become is by the power of God through the never-failing word of God.
1 (Kass, Leon. The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 2006, p. 312.)
My back hurts almost all the time now. It starts when I wake up. I turn on my left side to stop the alarm from waking my wife and notice the slight twinge of discomfort. If I am not careful, laying there on my pillow with my head tilted the wrong way will prepare me for a day of nagging ache.
I suppose this is part of what it means to grow old. Pain comes more quickly—if it ever really leaves. Like the birds of morning and the crickets of night, the noise of pain exists in an ever-present state, sitting in the background of everything else going on. The difference, of course, is no one considers the pain beautiful. No one stops to listen to the pain. What’s the point? It only makes it stronger.
When I finally put that first foot on the floor and rouse myself from the warmth and comfort of the bed, the pain moves to my heels. When I sit down with my coffee to read in my leather chair, the back pain returns. It is dulled only by the thoughts racing through my brain of the upcoming day. The meetings, the problems, the conversations, the projects, all of it sitting on my shoulders. I am Atlas without the strength to bear it.
However, even a bad day for me is a better day by far than most in the world both now and before. I am, after all, starting my day in a warm bed and with hot coffee. I drive a nice car to a well-paying job with enough challenges for a lifetime. I am surrounded by people who require only my attention and effort. I go home to a big family with a good dinner. Seven months out of twelve, Major League Baseball is in season. It is not a bad life. Not by a long shot.
But the pain is still there. Life is good, but it is not easy.
The right attitude would help, I’m sure. Gratitude would make a world of difference, I know. I get there sometimes. I force myself into it. But it doesn’t remove the ache. It doesn’t solve the problems. Seeing the good side doesn’t make the bad side less real. It doesn’t shine it up enough to camouflage it from the rest of life. Even the best days have some bad in them. Even the biggest laughs hurt if you go on long enough. I am grateful for all the varied gifts each day prepares and delivers. I am not depressed—at least, I don’t think I am. I still know well the feeling of hope and joy. But the sun sets on the best of days. All things are full of good, yes, but also of weariness. Life goes on. We age, we hurt, we die, and nothing will stop that progression.
I have no doubt what I have said so far is true. We all feel it. If you don’t yet, it’s probably because you’re not old enough. Give it time. This world reveals itself for the broken thing it is.
Is there any wisdom in what I am saying? That is the real question. Do I see things as they are and live within those boundaries, or am I merely complaining about things that I have no reason to?
The Preacher of Ecclesiastes is my only hope in answering that question. As far as I know, I have not said anything he did not say. In fact, I have held back. I have not (yet, anyway) proclaimed it all meaningless (Eccl. 12:8). I have not (yet, anyway) made much of the vanity of it all. God knows deeper than I ever will the truth of the matter.
Perhaps you have felt the way I do right now. Where do we go then, when the days are an endless cycle of discomfort, and we look ahead only to greater pain in the future? Our best days, we sense in some way or another, may be behind us. I will never move the way I did in my youth. A good night’s sleep is something I’d gladly pay for if I could, but I can’t. A great restaurant will eventually disappoint. A sunrise in all its beauty only reminds me of the day ahead full of toil and trouble. What is the point of it all? When it ends up in the coffin, what can life amount to?
The answer is difficult to find. Hope in an increasingly hopeless world is shrouded in mystery. But it is there. It is real. It is available. It is a gift—and that is the thing we must all remember. Hope is not something we can muster up from within. Our greatest hopes are never enough for the bigness of our hearts. Life will always let us down. We must look beyond ourselves, this world, and all we see and touch and smell and hear and taste. The hope that props up the world is not visible to our earthly eyes. No wonder it’s hard to see.
Our only comfort in life is that we may belong to another. If we are our own, our demise is a welcome thing. Finally, the trouble is ended. The pain will stop. But if we are not our own, our problems lie in the hands of someone else. We have an end to which we are headed. There is a solution to all our problems. There is one who cares even when we struggle to anymore. There is one who makes it all matter, who gives it all deep meaning.
The Heidelberg Catechism is ultimately right. What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
My faithful Savior. Though everything else ultimately will, Jesus will not let me down. I am his, and he doesn’t fail.
Father in heaven, we come to your throne of grace this morning through the mercy of the blood of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. We know you rule and reign over all the earth. You uphold the universe by the word of your power. You are good, and you do good.
Father, we pray for the people of Ukraine as they endure war in their homeland. We pray for strength, courage, perseverance, and wisdom to face Russian aggression. We pray for Russia to turn from its destructive path.
We pray for safety amid the conflict. For peace in times of war. For kindness to find its time to shine. For faith to see its hour to stand. For hope to bear fruit in righteousness. For the enemy’s foot to slip and for the way of heaven to break through down here on earth.
We pray for wisdom and understanding for Ukraine’s brave leaders. In times of such intensity, it isn’t easy to know the right path. We pray they would look to you. We pray they would find wisdom in your word. We pray they would know the right way and that you would reveal it to them.
We pray for all those fleeing their home and settling in new areas, fearing for the lives of those they left behind. We pray for those who will watch their homes be destroyed, who will see their loved ones taken or killed, who will endure the suffering only war brings about. We pray for their endurance, for healing, for help.
We pray for those fighting on both sides. We pray for their safety. We pray the bullets would miss and the missiles would fail, and the war would end in minimal human destruction. We pray that the soldiers will find Christ in the foxhole.
We pray for the churches serving you in Ukrainian cities. May they be a light to their town in times of darkness. May the gospel of Christ be clear and compelling. May your glory be revealed.
We pray for the ministries, relief workers, humanitarian agencies, and all organizations bringing help and healing to a broken nation. Bear them up in your power, Lord.
We pray for believers facing uncertain futures, wondering how God wants them to respond today and tomorrow. We pray for your grace and mercy to flood their hearts. We pray for your felt forgiveness in the gospel of Christ. We pray for your power from on high to lift them. We pray for courage to face the enemy and faith to take the next step, and endurance to keep going.
We pray for those who have never heard the gospel of Christ in Ukraine and Russia. We pray this may be a time of great turning to you. We pray your Son would be seen in his glory. We pray for all those who wonder where God is in these moments. We pray you would show yourself to them—that you are there with them in the struggle, you were always there with them though they couldn’t see before, and you will always be with them because you are a God who dwells with his people.
We pray for you to hasten the day when war will be no more. The day when you make wars cease to the end of the earth, when you break the bow and shatter the spear, when nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore.
We pray this in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus, by whom and through whom and for whom all things exist. Amen.
2021 was a tough year. Can I get an amen? I think we all hoped we would be past the pandemic, but many are still firmly stuck inside and isolated. We’re still seeing spikes of Covid and having to deal with all that entails socially, politically, and otherwise.
I was hoping to read more in 2021, but my life was particularly interesting this year. I started a new role at work in August after staying in the same role for a decade. It’s been challenging and uncomfortable, but ultimately good. Ministry was very difficult for me this year, and it had nothing to do with my day job. Our little church saw many families leave for various reasons. I carried a heavier preaching load due to our lead pastor’s continued effects from contracting Covid, and I just plain wore myself out. All that meant I didn’t read as much as I like to. Some days I just felt like I was trying to survive.
But I didn’t read nothing, and that’s why you’re here—to see what I did read.
So here you go. Here’s my annual list of the books I read.
A few notes before you get started:
The list isn’t in any type of ranking. I just look at what I read in chronological order and then put it in either the best or the rest category and list it here. So the last of the best is not the worst, just the last I read.
My reading is a bit eclectic, as I think everyone’s should be. You’ll find works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and theology. You’ll find different thinkers and influences. It’s the way I like to read.
I separate the list into “The Best” and “The Rest\". By no means do I intend to communicate “The Rest” are no good. Quite the opposite. I try to be discerning about what I read. Life is too short not to be. But some books rise above the others. Maybe I leave some out of my best list that you would include. That’s what makes these lists so fun.
“The Best” means the books I enjoyed the most this year. It doesn’t include re-reads, and some classics I read for the first time don’t make it. If they’re a classic, they should probably be on the list, but whatever. I reserve the right to like what I like, just as you do.
If you have some book recommendations for me this year, leave a comment. I’m always on the lookout for a good read.
All the links are Amazon affiliate links, so if you buy it from that link, I get some money from the purchase.
Now, on to the list!
Warren is a fantastic writer. She writes with a heart that feels deeply for the things of God and with a mind that thinks deeply about him too. This book on suffering is one I will revisit as my life shifts and shapes, because no matter what happens in life, suffering is a friend that visits us often.
Sometimes a book encapsulated a ministry. Jared’s ministry is one to pastors. It’s to the Church. It’s to those serve the church, who go to church, we need the church to be the church. He is Jared’s magnum opus. It’s the distillation of a lifetime of thinking about the church through the lens of the Bible. If you’re in ministry at any level, this is a must read. If you’re a pastor, it’s required reading.
By general rule, if Tim Keller writes a book, I read it. Kelley’s godly insight has helped thousands of people throughout his gifted ministry. This book is no exception. The resurrection is the turning point of history. Keller takes us inside that great hope. Buy this now and save it for Easter time. It’s the perfect book to help you see the magnitude of Jesus’s victory.
Each year I try to take an author and read through their corpus. The past two years have been interrupted by life, so I haven’t been able to stick with that plan. I didn’t even pick an author in 2021, but throughout the year i realized I was reading a lot of Eugene Peterson. I had never read anything by him before, so everything felt new and fresh to me. Then this great biography came out and I picked it up. What I found was a book that was about Peterson but also read like him. Some biographies tell you about the subject. Good ones helps you see the subject’s importance in the world. Great ones introduce to the subject himself. This one is the latter kind.
I love a good western, and this is a good one. I’m obviously not the only one to say that. This book won a National Book Award in 1992. It’s the story of John Grady Cole who finds adventure in Mexico chasing horses. It has enough action to make for a good western and enough remarkable scenarios to make for great fiction.
I used to think the Beatles were overrated. The popish songs of their early days felt cheap and shallow. But maybe the problem was I just never met a real Beatles fan. If I had, maybe seeing the band from a fan’s eyes would open mine. Sheffield is about as big of a fan as one could find. This book is really nothing more than a series of essays on his love for the Beatles. I picked it up while on vacation in Florida and read it in between shuffling the kids from the beach to the pool. It was the perfect beach read. Easy. Light. Funny. Engaging. And now I listen to the Beatles a lot. One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year was McCartney’s newly released book of lyrics.
Alexis Cole did something really difficult to do. She wrote a book about George Washington that covers his life in all its grandiosity while providing something new and fresh. The layout of the book is great. The content is thorough. It’s the kind of biography of a man of legend that only a woman could write, and I’m glad she did.
Erik Larson’s books are legendary at this point. He can take history and make it sound fictional. He can tell a story containing multiples stories without missing the main point. In this story of Germany’s air raid war on England during World War II Larson takes us inside the British and German governments and all the various players. It is hard to believe people lived through these events, and it’s hard to believe a book could relate it all so well.
It wouldn’t be a best of list on this website without at least one Ortlund book. This year’s has two, and I read four Ortlund books by four different Ortlunds this year. Ray’s book on porn is probably different than what you expect unless you know him. It’s not legalistic. It’s not shaming. It’s not a pointed finger. It’s an invitation to a better life. Through a series of letters written to younger men, Ray brings us into difficult and awkward conversations about a real problem in the world today. He’s blunt but loving; pointed but caring; convicting but inspiring. It’s a book everyone—especially men—should read.
Most people know Andrew Peterson from his music. But more and more are getting to know him through his writing, and I mean that literally. Peterson writes with his heart wide open. He takes us inside his thoughts and intentions and fears and desires. This book is written memoir style and features lots of trees. Maybe that doesn’t sound interesting, but I promise it is. It’s well-written and devotional. It’s a testament to the grace of God in the ordinariness of life and creation.
Here is the second of the Ortlund books I read in 2021. Gavin is a great thinker, and I truly mean great. Here you will find a reasonable man searching for reasonable answers in what feels like an unreasonable world. What I appreciate is Gavin’s willingness to not start immediately with his firmest Christian beliefs. Instead he starts with the kinds of questions all seekers must start with and builds from there. He ends with a strong defense for God, but not in a way that is off-putting to those still thinking it through. This is the kind of apologetic we need today.
Some authors reach the level of “I’ll read whatever he writes.” Doerr reached that level with his Nobel Prize-winning novel All the Light We Cannot See. Cloud Cuckoo Land is a crazy title for a book. It sounds too out there, and when you start reading it you might think, “I don’t know about this one.” But stick with it for the first 100 pages and you’ll race to the end. It’s a complex novel with multiple storylines throughout different centuries. But it’s really one story, and it’s a good one.
Alan Noble understands our age. He gets inside one of the common messages we hear every day, “you are not your own.” He counters, of course, with scripture. But before he gets there, he lays the foundation of the world in which we live so that when we hear God’s word in the face of our current situation, we’re ready for answers. It’s a book well worth reading and thinking about for a while.
In Four Quartets T.S. Eliot said, “Human kind cannot bear very much reality.” We shield our eyes. We busy ourselves. Like dealing with a fussy child, we direct our anxious hearts to something else hoping for a moment’s peace. Neil Postman wrote about “amusing ourselves to death.” We cram our lives with TV shows and movies and songs and social media and YouTube videos and everything else. We can face the reality of others, as long as we don’t have to tune into ours. Inside each of us is darkness we cannot face, and uncertainty we cannot bear. It’s all points to, as Eliot says, “one end, which is always present.”
We cannot bear very much reality. So we go into virtual reality. Strapping on our headsets, we depart from this world to another. We fight fake battles and climb mountains of pixels. We bowl alone, our eyes wrapped in technology taking us far, far away without leaving our chair. The day behind us falls like a blanket to the floor and the day ahead floats out front but we can’t see it. We don’t want to see it. We want an escape. The darkness is too much, so we blind it with light from a thousand sources.
Our day is not unique, only novel. We have more options for distraction. We have easier worlds to enter and more roads to take. But we cannot, no matter what we do or where we go, escape the one end, which is always present. That future we fear is only a day away. The one end makes us anxious so we prefer not to think too much about it. We cannot bear very much reality.
But, of course, reality is where we live. It is the warp and woof of our minutes and hours and days and months and years. Our fantasy worlds are only that. Isn’t it interesting that even there our worlds are filled with danger and risk and cliffs and swords and guns? In our escape, we run to what unnerves us. The one end may be avoidable in fantasy land, and perhaps that’s why we enjoy it so much. We know we’re doomed here, but we have a chance of survival there. We love that alternative story. We need another hope because our reality is too heavy.
Here is where Christmas holds so much power. IThis real world is the one to which Jesus came. Jesus entered our humanity. He became one of us, taking on flesh and blood, partaking of the same things as you and me (Heb. 2:14). The God of Heaven, who is above all and over all, who in himself has the fullness of love and joy and peace came to bear our reality.
Jesus can bear more reality than we can. He chose to bear more reality than we can. He came all the way down, all the way in, all the way through. The reality we run from, he came to live inside. He looked poverty in the face. He felt the leprous skin on his hand. He smelled the offensive incense of false offerings. He heard the blasphemies of man. He tasted the sting of betrayal and death. The reality we cannot bear, he chose.
Christmas is the proclamation that the human kind that cannot bear very much reality has been visited by Reality himself. The one end to which all this points has appeared already. The end of the story has been written and revealed. The birth of Jesus was the power of God breaking into our reality to take us into his. The darkness we fear has been broken by a light from above. The one end always present is no longer an unsettling void but a warm embrace, no longer a cause for distraction but an invitation to focus, no longer a reason for despair but a welcome to hope. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Human kind cannot bear very much reality, but Jesus can, and he did. He will carry us through. Christmas is the promise. His life is the proof. His death is the end. His resurrection is the hope. Because Jesus bore the reality we can’t bear, he offers us one we can.
There is a very simple and basic truth I want to share with you. But before I do, I want to emphasize that it’s a truth. It’s not an idea. It’s not a theory. It’s not even a hope. It’s a reality that’s as true as the chair you’re sitting on or the screen you’re reading this on.
If you’re in Christ, God delights in you, and there’s nothing you can do to change it.
He doesn’t delight in the you you wish you were. He doesn’t delight in the future version of you that finally shook the sin weighing you down. He delights in the you you are right now. He really loves the real you, and you can’t do a thing about it.
Our sensibilities aren’t comfortable with that, I know. Maybe you woke up today after a night you’re not proud of. Maybe you’re not sure what today holds and you find weaknesses in yourself so profound you wonder how you’re ever going to get where you want to go. There are so many things in this world standing against us. But there is One who stands for us, and if we’re held in his hand, no one can pluck us out.
So, face today with the full-bodied, boldly defiant truth that God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing (Zeph. 3:17).
God delights in you, and you can’t change a thing about that.
You can only receive it.
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Paul says he cannot understand his own actions. There is much controversy over exactly who Paul is referring to in this passage. Throughout verses 7-25, he uses the personal pronoun I. In his amazing commentary, Douglas Moo lays out the four main views.
The autobiographical direction. Paul is describing his experience as a Jew under the law, his immediate post-conversion struggle with the law, or his struggle to obey the law as a Christian.
The Adamic direction. Paul is referring to Adam in his description of the struggle with sin and the law.
The Israel direction. Paul describes the continuing situation of Jews under the Mosaic law.
The existential direction. Paul describes nobody in particular and everybody in general.
Despite the controversy on who the I is, the main point is that the sin indwelling man is the problem. The law highlights that problem and prepares us for the remedy, which is the person and work of Jesus Christ. The main point, therefore, is that our righteousness cannot come from inside of us, wicked as we are. It must come from somewhere outside. And that’s the good news of the gospel. We can’t save ourselves so God saves us through Jesus Christ.
Personally, I believe Paul is taking the autobiographical direction in these verses. He is speaking about himself. Why use I if you’re not talking about yourself? Paul is such a clear writer elsewhere, qualifying his manner of speech. For instance, in 6:19 he says, “I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations.” He qualifies his argument so as to be crystal clear. If he was meaning someone different than himself in 7:7-25, I believe he would have qualified it there as well. But he doesn’t.
Assuming Paul is referring to himself in this passage, the question then is what stage of his life he is talking about. There are two primary views here: the unregenerate self and the regenerate self. Let me explain each before I explain my position.
Among modern commentators and scholars, no one today makes the case for the unregenerate view as strongly as Douglas Moo. His commentary is considered one of the best modern commentaries on the book of Romans. I will summarize his arguments below for both views.
The case for the unregenerate Paul:
The strong connection of I with the flesh (vv. 14, 18, 25) suggests that Paul is elaborating on the unregenerate condition mentioned in 7:5 being “in the flesh.”
I throughout this passage struggles “on his/her own” without the aid of the Holy Spirit. For example, in verse 25, he uses the phrase, “I myself.”
I is under the power of sin (v. 14)—a state from which every believer is released (6:2, 6, 11, 18-22).
As the unsuccessful struggle of vv. 15-20 shows, I is a “prisoner of the law of sin” (v. 23). Yet Romans 8:2 proclaims that believers have been set free from this same “law of sin (and death).”
While Paul makes clear that believers will continue to struggle with sin (eg. 6:12-13, 13:12-14, Gal. 5:17), what is depicted in 7:14-25 is not just a struggle with sin but a defeat by sin. This is a more negative view of the Christian life than can be accommodated within Paul’s theology.
The I in these verses struggles with the need to obey the Mosaic law; yet Paul has already proclaimed the release of the believer from the dictates of the law (6:14, 7:4-6).
The case for the regenerate Paul:
I must refer to Paul himself, and the shift from past tense of vv. 7-13 to the present tense of vv. 14-25 can be explained only if Paul is describing in those latter verses his present experience as a Christian.
Only the regenerate truly “delight in God’s law” (v. 22), seek to obey it (vv. 15-20), and “serve” it (v. 25). The unregenerate do not “seek after God” (3:11) and cannot “submit to the law of God” (8:7).
Whereas the “mind” of people outside of Christ is universally presented by Paul as opposed to God and his will (Rom. 1:28, Eph. 4:17, Col. 2:18, 1 Tim. 6:5, 2 Tim. 3:8, Tit. 2:15), the “mind” of I in this text is a positive medium, by which I “serves the law of God” (vv. 22, 25).
I must be a Christian because only a Christian possesses the “inner person.” Paul’s only other two uses of the phrase in 2 Cor. 4:15, Eph. 3:16 prove this.
The passage concludes after Paul’s mention of the deliverance wrought by God in Christ with a reiteration of the divided state of the I (vv. 24-25). This shows that the division and struggle of the I that Paul depicts in these verses is that of the person already saved by God in Christ.
So who is Paul talking about, assuming the autobiographical view is the right one?
I remain unconvinced of the unregenerate view. My problem is that as I read Romans 7:7-25, I feel a bond with Paul in this struggle today. I do not look at this as my past experience but as my present reality. If this is an unregenerate Paul, then I have very little hope for my regenerate self. I still fight to do what I want to do and not do what I do not want to do. I still give in to sin. I still want to sin. I also follow Jesus and I certainly want Jesus. It seems to me that the unregenerate view is reconciling a problem not meant to be reconciled. As Martin Luther said, we are simul justus et peccator—we are simultaneously justified yet sinful.
Furthermore, the regenerate Paul interpretation gives me great hope. It makes Romans 8:1 all the more powerful. “For there is therefore now no condemnation for this in Christ Jesus.” Despite my struggle with sin, I am not condemned. I have peace with God in Christ right now. That applies to today and every day until the end. I never lose my standing with God because Jesus did all the work to secure me forever in God’s love.
Hermeneutical approach aside, Romans 7:7-25 has much to teach us about the purpose of the law. So, whatever position you ultimately take, be careful not to make this passage about the scholarly pursuit of Paul’s rhetorical style, but of the death to the law that Jesus Christ affects in the life of the Christian. The main point is not to settle on who the I is. The main point is to settle on what Christ has done.
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Commentator Douglas Moo points out that Romans 7:7-25 has two primary purposes. The first is to vindicate the law from any suggestion that it is sinful or evil (v.7). The second is to show how, despite this, the law has come to be a negative force in the history of salvation (v. 8). The law itself is not sinful. After all, it comes from God, who cannot sin. But the law does bring knowledge of sin. There is a connection between the law and sin, but they are not connected to one another. Mankind stands in the gap, serving as the link.
Sin seized an opportunity to act as it came face to face with the law. When we see the law, we know what we are not supposed to do and what we should do instead. The law awakens us to sin because it shows us what sin is in explicit terms. We can see it there on the paper before us. \"Do not…\" \"Do…\" We see it, and our flesh cries out against it. As soon as we are told what not to do, we want to do that very thing. Like a child who is told not to touch the stove, we want to rest our hand upon it just to test the warmth.
Sin multiplies. We not only commit the one sin but multiply it into a thousand different flavors of sin. Before the giving of the law, sin was not active in the same way. But after the law, sin grew in power because sin became obvious. Our heart is so wicked that before the law of God we run toward more sin, not less. Our hearts are like mold spores looking for water. The law is like a continuous faucet. The more water, the more mold.
Sin seizes an opportunity through the law to multiply, deceive, and ultimately kill. Where sin lives, people die. Where sin dies, people live. But the law does not destroy sin. Sin must die another way. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death (v. 10). The law doesn't change the heart. It exposes the heart. As St. Augustine said, \"God commands what we cannot do that we may know what we ought to seek from him.\" The path forward is not stricter obedience, but a new heart from God.
There are strong opposing views on who Paul is speaking about in 7:7-25. I will spare you the debate points now and say that I take the view that this is Paul speaking of himself in the present. That is, Paul, a Christian, is talking about the struggle with sin that exists in the Christian’s life. With that assumption, then, let’s look ahead.
Tim Keller provides a good synopsis of this passage.
All of life is a battle between two selves, but there’s a different war before you become a Christian from the war that happens after you become a Christian…What Paul is trying to show us here is there’s a war between the selves that happens before you meet Christ, and then there’s a war between the selves that happens after you meet Christ. The war between the selves before you meet Christ is a world without hope. You cannot win…The war after you meet Christ you cannot lose.[1]
In verses 7-13, we see the battle that we cannot win. It's a fight against the law of God. In verse 7, Paul points to the last of the Ten Commandments, \"You shall not covet.\" He knows that he's failed to live up to that commandment. Paul, being a devout Jew all his life, has always been knowledgeable of the law. He's not talking about a new commandment, but a new experience with that commandment. He’s talking about that experience of awakening to the law and its demands. Before the law of God, we all fall short. It stands over us with a whip. Anytime we don’t live up it beats us. Before the law of God, we face a battle we cannot win because we have a heart that cannot obey.
But in verses 14-25, Paul tells us of the battle that we cannot lose. Everyone has a moral compass. We know what we should do. The problem is that we can't do what we know we should do. We do the opposite. It's a losing battle. But for the Christian, a change has taken place. We face the battle with a new weapon. We don’t face it alone, naked before the law. We face it in the power of Christ, alive to God because of him.
In Romans 7:7-13, Paul talks about the Christian as if he is two people in one body. There is the Moral Self with a high moral compass, wanting to obey the law. Then there is the Law-Breaking Self who breaks the law. Before coming to Christ, we are both of these selves. We are slaves to our desire to live the \"right\" life, and yet we are slaves to our desire to make our flesh feel good.
But when Christ comes to us, we are changed from the heart. The old self in two parts was doomed. The Moral Self wants to obey the law, but the Law-Breaking Self hates the law since it impedes fulfilling fleshly desires. What we need is not for the Moral Self to grow and overpower the law-breaking self. We can never get there. The two selves destroy one another. So, no matter how hard you work on the Moral Self over against the Law-Breaking Self, the Law-Breaking Self will always counter-attack. You might take two steps forward, but you'll always take another step back.
So, what we need is an end. The Law-Breaking Self needs to die. But the Moral Self isn't the one to do the job. It just isn't sufficient. What we need is not fertilizer for the Moral Self, but poison for the Law-Breaking Self. We need a new birth. We can’t do what we want to do. We delight in the law in our inner being, but we see another law waging war against God and capturing us in sin. Who will deliver us?
The answer, of course, is Jesus Christ. In his life, he became the Moral Self unlike anyone else ever has. He obeyed all the way through. He never gave in to the Law-Breaking Self. He was more alive to God than any human who has ever lived. But that alone wasn't enough to save. We didn't just need to see another person live the perfect moral life; we needed someone to kill the law-breaking self for us because we can't do it.
Jesus Christ becomes our peacemaker at the cross. There, the ultimate Moral Self lays it all aside and puts on the Law-Breaking Self. He becomes what he has never been so that he can kill what we can never kill. He does the work on our behalf and gives us victory in his resurrection.
Paul breaks out in thanksgiving in verse 25, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” He has delivered us from this body of death and given us newness of life. He has become the wretched man so that we can become the righteous man. Before coming to Christ, we are in a battle we cannot win. The Law-Breaking Self will always slay the Moral Self. After coming to Christ, we are in a battle we cannot lose. Though the war rages on inside, there is a new power that overtakes both of our selves. Jesus Christ obeyed on our behalf and became for us the law-breaker so that we don’t have to rely on our Moral Self and we aren’t condemned by our Law-Breaking Self. We are a new creature altogether.
That’s why, as we enter Romans 8, Paul can say there is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. The battle in our hearts doesn’t matter as much anymore because Jesus has won the war on our behalf. Skirmishes may break out, but we know the victory party is coming soon.
[1] Timothy J. Keller, “War between Your Selves—Part 1”, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).
“Let us not grow weary of doing good.” (Galatians 6:9)
In 1983, John Piper preached a sermon on Galatians 6:9 with this opening statement. “Probably the worst enemy of enthusiasm is time.”
No matter how strong we start, time has a way of eroding our zeal. No matter how good the effort is initially, time’s strain wears us out. No matter how righteous the thing is, we grow weary of it. The worst enemy of enthusiasm is time.
Many of us feel that acutely these days. The age of coronavirus has beat relentlessly against us. Hundreds of thousands have perished. Stores have closed. Schools have swung their doors open only to slam them shut the next week. Churches, trying to serve the many, broadcast online to the few while hosting the rest in socially distanced venues. Or they broadcasts online to the many while the few make Sunday feel like the first year of a church plant. Whatever our good is that we’re doing, we’re getting weary.
A wise pastor used to say anything good done in this world is done by tired people. Nothing worthy moves forward on momentum alone. It takes sustained effort over a long period of time. In the words of Eugene Peterson, it takes a long obedience in the same direction. Time may take the wind out of our enthusiasm, but we must find new ways to raise the sails again.
How can we do that?
Paul gives an answer in Galatians 6:9 in the form of an imperative. “Let us not grow weary of doing good.”
Paul knew what it was to grow weary. After all, it was he who said, “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?” (2 Corinthians 11:24-29)
If anyone knew what it meant to grow weary of doing good, it was the Apostle Paul. So how can he say flatly, “Let us not grow weary of doing good”? What kept him going? What did he see that we need to see?
He tells us in the second part of the verse. “For in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
Of course, we must be sure the thing we’re doing is truly good. We must be certain that our work is God’s work. If we are in it for our selfish purposes, may it die a thousand deaths. If we are in it for glory or control or a million other less-than-holy reasons, may time suck it all away.
But in the doing of good for God, the only way we fail is by giving up. The only way the harvest doesn’t come is if we pack it in. The only way time wins is if we never regain our enthusiasm. We will reap, if we do not give up.
Everyone has a counter-argument to the endurance doing good requires. You probably have it in your mind right now. You are the exception. You are the outlier. You are the one in all of human history for whom God will not come through.
But God is not letting up on us because he’s not giving up on us. His call is not to take it easy when it gets hard but to press in all the more, especially when it’s hard. The Lord loves us deeply, but he doesn’t coddle us, and he won’t let us coddle ourselves either. He knows the cancer that time is to our zeal, but he has fresh mercies every morning.
So whatever good you are doing right now, and whatever good you are tempted to quit doing right now, don’t. Don’t give up. Do not weary of doing good. The harvest is coming. Just don’t give up.
It feels all too common. I open Twitter and find news I wish wasn’t true. I hope it’s not true. But as I read I realize, tragically, it is all too true. A well-known Christian leader has fallen. He wasn’t what he seemed to be. His sins, as the Bible promises, have found him out (Num. 32:23).
I could list names, but you know them. We all do. Each one, whether in our theological tribe or not, causes grief. They seemed so gifted, so persuasive for Christ, so used by Christ. How could they do what they did? What will happen now? What else don’t we know?
Ancient Israel knew the feeling. In the Old Testament, we find the most complete biography of anyone in the ancient world: King David. From his anointing to his death, we live David’s life along with him through the books of 1 and 2 Samuel and, perhaps more poignantly, through the Psalms. All of David’s life is before us—his righteousness and his sins, his faithfulness and his disobedience, his heroics and his failures. It’s all there for the reading and the re-reading.
As the story begins, 1 Samuel 16-26 tell of David’s ascent. Samuel anoints him as king. Saul welcomes him into the palace. Jonathan befriends him and helps him. When Saul eventually turns on him, God clearly protects and delivers David from all evil. He’s the golden child who can do no wrong. Even when his men plead with him to execute Saul as he is at the mouth of the cave, David strongly denies them. He will not put his hand against the Lord’s anointed. Not once, but twice, David proves he means it.
After David spares Saul’s life a second time in 1 Samuel 26, he refuses to return home to Israel. He still fears Saul, and rightly so. But instead of staying where he is, David flees to a surprising place: into the land of the Philistines, Israel’s arch-enemy.
Go read 1 Samuel 27. It’s not a bright spot in David’s life.
In fact, it’s difficult to know what to do with it. Faithful David seems lost. He gives himself over to a foreign king in a foreign land, hiring himself out as a mercenary. Though the cities he raids aren’t Israel’s, he lies about what he’s doing, kills everyone so no one can break his cover, and puts himself in a deeply compromising situation. It’s the kind of season of David’s life that he wouldn’t put on his resume. Reading it later on as a member of the nation of Israel would have surely been jarring. His actions seem so out of character. No inquiring God for direction. Just merciless killing and lying. By this point of the story, we’ve become fans of David. It was clear he was the chosen one, the king Israel longed for. But why does it feel like a different person in this chapter?
As commentator Dale Ralph Davis says, by the time we finish the chapter, we’ve likely become an angry reader. Perhaps we even feel betrayed by him. Who is this David? What is he doing? These are the kinds of things that we’d see on the back-alleys of Twitter today, the rumors we hope aren’t true.
David is a sympathetic figure. He’s relentlessly hunted by Saul. He’s away from home. David is as good a guy as a good guy can get. But now? He’s a disappointment. There isn’t even a mention of God 1 Samuel 27. That’s no oversight. It’s an insight into David’s mindset. Far from depending upon God in the wilderness, he’s left him to make his own path.
For all the questions we have about David, Dale Ralph Davis helps us see what’s going on inside our hearts as we read the story
Did you ever think that perhaps the writer is trying to correct your mistake? Yes, you, Bible reader that you are, may have fallen into the trap of hero worship, of looking on your pet Bible characters and exalting them too highly. Why should you be surprised, shocked, off ended? Why should you talk about “betrayal”? The text is saying that this chosen, anointed servant is made of the same stuff as all the Lord’s people. Must we throw out God’s kingdom because not only its subjects but even its premier servants are sinners? Karl Gutbrod is right: the text will not allow us to view Saul with only contempt and save nothing but admiration for David; the text resists every attempt to make David the mirror of all virtue. (Dale Ralph Davis, 1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart, Focus on the Bible Commentary (Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2000), 286–287.)
What Davis says about looking on our pet Bible characters and exalting them too highly has sprung out of the Bible and into the Church. We do this all the time, don’t we? A gifted preaches rises to prominence and we jump on the bandwagon. We don’t mean to make more of him than we ought, but it happens anyway. His leadership seems impressive. People come to Christ from his preaching. He moves us deeply, and we thank God for him.
Then it crumbles.
Heroes fall apart.
All but one.
And that’s the point. That’s where a chapter like 1 Samuel 27 can help us. There is only one hero. Others may good models in some areas, maybe even in most areas, but all but Christ are fallen.
The Bible warned us about this. We could overlook David’s actions here, but even if we do, we cannot when he takes advantage of Bathsheba and kills her husband. David’s sins, too, will find him out, and the whole nation will be impacted.
Putting our faith in someone other than Jesus will inevitably lead to disappointment. Yet we do it anyway. That’s why it hurts so bad when our heroes fall.
The solution isn’t to never have a hero. I don’t think we can live that way. We need someone to look up to. We just must be sure we’re looking to the right one. Jesus is all the hero we will ever need with none of the failures of all the others.
He will never let us down.
Just like anything between two sinful people, friendship can be complicated. Our feelings get hurt. Our expectations aren’t met. We say things we shouldn’t and do things we later regret. But just like anything between two sinful people, friendship is the soil from which grace can abound.
In his great book, The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis said, “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art. . . . It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that gives value to survival.”
We don’t need friendship to live, but who would want to live without it?
Lewis’s words tap into what makes friendship the most grace-full of all relationships. It’s the undeserved joy of life that we can all have. Not all of us will be a mother or a father. Some of us lost our parents long ago. A few of us won’t marry even once in our lives. But we can all have friends. In a very real sense, friendship is the only relational assurance any of us have. There are, in all this world, no friend-less people. I dare you to try to find one.
Lewis is right. We don’t need friends. But his point is just the opposite: we actually do. Friends are the most wonderfully unnecessary necessity.
The thing about friendship is it doesn’t reveal itself as necessary until the right time. Friends don’t go on talking about how great of friends they are—at least not when around one another. They just are together. They talk. They don’t talk. They laugh or they don’t. They see each other when they do and they catch up later if they can.
Friendship is, in a sense, the least demanding of all the relationships. In fact, demanding something from the friendship strains the joy all out of it. No one wants a friend always on your back about being a better friend. The beauty is in the there-ness of it, not the definition of the terms. It’s the thing itself that holds the beauty, and nothing else needs to be said.
The lack of demand is exactly the reason why friendship is the most surprising thing in the world when our world falls to pieces. When life is ripped open and our heart lies raw on the ground, it is friendship that always surprises us. The obligationlessness of friendship makes the presence of friends all the more moving when everything else crumbles. Our family has to be there, but our friends don’t. Blood doesn’t tie them to us nor us to them. Something else does—something no contract defines, no witnesses sign off on, and no vested with power authority must approve.
Julie Beck writes about Friendship for The Atlantic. In a column about two friends named Andy and Gabe, she allows them to tell their story of a weekly high five. In 2014, Andy and Gabe started a tradition once a week where they would walk to the park and give each other a high five. Sometimes they’d stay and talk a while, sometimes they wouldn’t. But they did it once a week for six years. Then Gabe got sick and lost his memory.
Andy tells a story about visiting Gabe in the hospital.
Andy: That first week that he was in the hospital, there was a special high-five moment. He was allowed one visitor a day, and I stayed overnight so his wife could go home and be with their daughter. That night, I asked him, “Do you know who I am?” He’s like, “Yeah. Andy. Did I get that wrong before? I’m sorry.” I asked him if he knew anything about the high five, and he said, “No; what are you talking about?” So I told him the basic story.
The next morning he got up to use the restroom. At that point, his short-term memory was really, really bad, so he wouldn’t have remembered the conversation the night before. I said, “Okay, Gabe, this probably isn’t going to make any sense, but on your way back from the bathroom, I’m going to walk toward you. I need you to give me a high five.” He was like, “Okay.” We did it with his left hand because his right arm had all the IV stuff in it.
I started walking toward him, and then right before the high five, he did the clap, and the snap, and I just started crying. I said, “I can’t believe you just did that.” He was like, “Can’t believe I just did what?” It just blew my mind. I didn’t expect him to remember anything about it.
Gabe: That’s one of the things I love about the routine of it. Not just the mechanics of it, but the friendship part of it is so burned into my body memory that that’s what came out.
High fives turned into tears. Weekly walks turned into a night at the bedside. A memory embedded into the body’s rhythmic habits turned into more than a liturgy. What started so child-like took them to the grown-up shores of the darkest of nights—a place to which only friends can travel. Or, perhaps, a place to which only friends will travel.
It is such moments where the realization dawns upon one or another, if not both, that something more has happened over the course of time. Another friend has been joining the two together for more than high fives. It was, as C.S. Lewis puts it as if the Great Friend himself said, “You have not chosen one another, but I have chosen you for one another.”
Such moments clear the air and make one thing certain if nothing else in life is. Friendship is the most necessary thing in all the world. We can survive without it. But we can’t live.
** I’m indebted to Jonathan Rodgers’s newsletter for drawing my attention to the story of Andy and Gabe.
Well, it’s been an interesting year, hasn’t it? I would say I’m ready for 2021, but I’m learning not to put my hope in a new day but in the same Savior.
Each year, I set out with a goal to read as much as I can. In 2020, I didn’t read as many full books as I had hoped, but I think my overall reading went way up. I read more articles and parts of more books than I did in previous years.
A few notes about the year:
I started out wanting to read all of Shakespeare’s works. I was using a daily reading plan and then when the pandemic came in full force in March, I was consumed with the news about it and just let my reading slide. I got backed up, and like everyone who knows how it feels to get behind on a reading plan, I gave up. I’ll try it again sometime, but probably not in 2021.
I struggled to shorten my list of “The Best” this year. Maybe I’m getting more selective with my reading and therefore everything is a bit more directed to my interests. I don’t know. Whatever it is, my best list felt longer than previous years and there were several I left off that would have been there in any other year, I think.
I typically write a little blurb about each of the best books I read, but this year is ending in typical 2020 fashion and I simply don’t have time to do it.
The list isn’t in any type of ranking. I just look at what I read in chronological order and then put it in either the best or the rest category and list it here. So the last of the best is not the worst, just the last I read.
I’m still working on my reading goals for 2021, but I’m thankful for all I read in 2020. Maybe you’ll find some good reads here for your reading life next year.
Now, on to the list!
(Just a quick note: all the links are Amazon affiliate links, so if you buy it from that link, I get some money from the purchase.)
I’ve never done this before, but as I thought back on my writing life in 2020, I felt disappointed. I didn’t write nearly as much this year as I have in the past few years. Why was that? Oh, I don’t know. The pandemic, maybe. But in some ways, I had more time to write than ever. I was working from home, which freed up my commute time. But writing is hard when things are uncertain—for me, anyway.
As I thought about my lack of production, I went back to review what I did publish. And, honestly, it’s more than I thought. Not all of it made it into a blog post, of course. But why should it? Sermons are just that—sermons. I manuscript them, but they’re meant to be heard, not simply read. Also, for the first time, I had the privilege of writing for Lifeway’s The Gospel Project. I had two sessions published in the Summer 2020 project and three more in the forthcoming Fall 2021 project. Along with my writing featured here on my website, I also continued to write for Gospel-Centered Discipleship, where I enjoy the honor of being one of their staff writers, and I also continued to contribute to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s For The Church website.
Finally, one other kind of big thing happened. I joined a Writer’s Guild. We’re like the Mandalorians—just as deadly, but with less armor. You can find more information about that here. We’re always looking for more writers who want to join a group seeking to cultivate the writing life in community.
So, mostly for my own encouragement, for the first time, I decided to create a year-end round-up of sorts for my writing life. Below are links to articles, sermons, and resources published this year. I hope these are an encouragement to you.
I write in three primary places: here at Things of the Sort, monthly for Gospel-Centered Discipleship, and regularly for For The Church. Here are the articles published this year on those platforms.
This world, with its in-your-face-ness, forces us to make opinions about many things. We are judged based on them. But the God of the Bible asks us to be convinced of one thing only—that he is God who saves.
She is Valued for Herself Alone
Why was she here? What was her purpose? History has struggled to answer. She’s been a bit of everything, really. She’s been in bondage and she’s been free. She’s been valued and discarded. She’s been used and abused. She’s been a mother, a sister, and a wife. She’s been the world to many and no one to too many. But what did God intend?
The Disturbing Interaction with the Rich Young Ruler
What is Jesus doing? He’s telling us that salvation is not something man can accomplish. No matter how much we do, we can never gain heaven. We’re a big, smelly camel trying to fit through the narrow holiness God requires. And we just can’t do it.
Let’s beware of missing Jesus. Let’s beware of standing in the presence of God and missing the hope of the gospel. Let’s beware of our knowledge and agreement shielding us from repentance and belief. Let’s not merely discuss matters with Jesus but fall down in worship before him, crying out for rescue. There is only one way to enter the kingdom of God, and the Bible is clear from cover to cover that the one way is faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone.
Are We Building Barriers or Removing Barriers?
We have two options: we can make rules to exclude or remove barriers to include. If God’s church is a house of prayer—a house of worship—then everyone is welcome. Everyone has a chance to meet Jesus.
Of all the benefits of the gospel offers, none is higher than this truth of the Fatherhood of God.
Remember the old school-yard debate? “My dad could beat up your dad.” In a boy’s eyes, no one is stronger or mightier than their dad. It should be this way. Dads are strong and mighty. But though our earthly fathers wither and fade, God never can and never will.
God's Excellent Greatness For You
God’s excellent greatness is that he’s not too great for you. He’s never too busy. He always has time. And nothing ever goes against his perfect plan. Who God is for you is all you need him to be at every moment of your life. He’s not too great for you; his greatness is for you.
What we need to get from our drab, everyday doubts and fears is a big vision of the big God who created this whole world, and who is re-creating it in the redemption of Christ.
That Which is Me Must Become the Me of God
“The Scripture emphasizes that much can come from little if the little is truly consecrated to God.”
The play of a child when no one is watching is beautiful. It is who we all want to be: lost in a world of our own making, where it’s all ours. I left that place long ago, but my children still live there. They haven’t faced the real terrors yet that rob us of make-believe.
Then my mind wandered to the other things I forgot. That email at work I meant to respond to. The request in my personal inbox with an invitation to join a conversation on a podcast. The sermon prep I meant to get a jump-start on. The cheese Danish left somewhere in the back of my car for the church breakfast months ago. The older I get, and the more I do, the more I forget.
The fire’s sparks jump skyward like dancers to the rhythm of a beat I cannot hear. One after another—jumping, jumping, jumping. The constancy reminds me of the order of things, built into the very warp and woof of life. Sparks fly upward. You cannot stop them.
Baseball innings consist of three outs. Get three outs and you’ve won the inning. Even a long inning only lasts a matter of minutes. With life as crazy as it is, let’s not over-complicate it. Getting through 2020 sounds daunting, doesn’t it? And as good as 2021 sounds, we don’t know what it holds yet either. We don’t have to.
Just win the inning.
I never called him Fred. To me, he was Granddad because that’s who he was to Sarah. He was married to Gammie. They were family from the start. I never, even on that first visit, felt like an outsider.
Sixteen years later, when the dance was finally over, like a country song, I carried his casket.
With Me You Shall Be In Safekeeping
It’s in the Christ where once upon a time becomes happily ever after. Maybe not in this life, but surely in the life to come. The good King wins, not by his might but by his weakness, not by his circumstance but in spite of it, not by his force but by his love.
The Hope of Heaven in the Presence of Death
Death comes like a thief. It takes more than you thought it could. And when the funeral’s over, we have to keep on living. But how?
The Rich Young Ruler Went Home Sad, But You Don’t Have to
The rich young man wanted to know what he must do to inherit eternal life. His search is ours, too. But we don’t have to go home sad like him.
Are you grumbling during your quarantine? You’re not alone. In fact, God’s people have been grumbling for thousands of years.
We live in an age of differences. Even Christians disagree and can hurt each other. So what is the solution?
The Certainty of God in an Uncertain World
If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s to always expect the trouble. But the certainty of God can anchor us amid the uncertainty of life.
God Wants to Answer Your Prayer
We become the kingdom people Jesus calls us to be not by our rugged self-reliance but by our humble prayers.
We some perspective on where true joy comes from in the midst of our trials.
The Kind of Love Every Church Needs
How do we get the kind of love our churches truly need? Let’s look to Paul’s experience with the church at Philippi.
What Jesus Meant About the Lost Sheep
Jesus knew the Bible, and he used David's words to foretell the kind of battle he came to fight and the kind of victory he came to win.
If you throw yourself upon God, no matter how far the fall or how great the impact, he will always catch you in the arms of Jesus.
Gentle And Lowly: A Book Review
Without neglecting the work of Christ in his earthly life, on the cross, and in the resurrection, Ortlund shows the value of the heavenly intercession of Jesus for us right now.
When your sin puts you in the depths of despair, and you have no way out on your own, there is a God above who rules and reigns and forgives and saves.
I treat God like a teenager does a parent, recognizing his presence but longing for him to leave me alone, for crying out loud.
God is not calling perfect people to be His ambassadors in this world.
have three sons.
When we know Christ, we get wisdom—and anyone willing to repent of their sin and trust Christ can get in on this.
Why Honesty Is Key to Gospel-Centeredness
We think comparison makes us winners. But in God’s eyes, it proves we’re losers because it proves we’re self-justifiers, unwilling to trust his justification by Christ.
The Fear of the Lord is Humility
As it always is with God, we get more than we deserve.
When we know Christ, we get wisdom—and anyone willing to repent of their sin and trust Christ can get in on this.
If we are to be with the holy, pure God, we cannot waltz into his presence as we are.
At my church, Refuge Church Franklin, we began the year finishing our series through the gospel according to Mark. Then, during the summer months, we made our way through Ecclesiastes. And to finish the year strong, we waded through the Jesus-drenched pages of Philippians.
Mark 13:14-37 | Jesus and the End, Part 2
An unknown future with a known Savior is better than a known future without a known Savior.
Mark 14:53-72 | Jesus Before the Council and Peter Denies Jesus
On the cross, Jesus absorbed all of our sins—all of Peter’s denial—as if it was his own, as if he denied God. On the cross, God accepted Jesus as our substitute. He accepted the offer of his life in place of ours. That’s why Jesus could forgive Peter. That’s why God can forgive us.
Mark 15:33-47 | The Death and Burial of Jesus
We’re living in what everyone calls “uncertain times.” But Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). His salvation is certain. If he saved you then, he’ll save you today, and he’ll save you forever. You won’t fall through the cracks. You can’t. The dying love of Christ is holding you. He will in no wise cast out! How could he? He was cast out for you! There is no mess he can’t handle. He bore it all. He loves you to the end.
Ecclesiastes 5:10-6:12 | The Power to Enjoy in an Unenjoyable World
Here’s something non-obvious but available: the enjoyment we want in life isn’t lying out beyond our grasp, but given graciously by the hand of God if we’ll take it.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 | The End of the Matter
As commentator Phil Ryken says, “The final message of Ecclesiastes is not that nothing matters in the end but that everything matters in the end.” And the proof is here in these two verses. One day, you will stand before God and give an account. He will bring every deed into judgment. It’s only right that he will. He created you. He cares about what happens in your life, and what you do with your life, and he has the right to judge the outcome of your life. One day, very soon, you will report in to him to receive his judgment. Because that day is coming, every day matters for that day.
Philippians 1:9-11 | Paul's Gospel-Centered Prayer
What might God do if we learned to pray this prayer? What kind of people might he make us? What kind of church might he make us? What abounding love would we have? What radiant beauty? What purity of heart and blamelessness in Christ? What fruit of righteousness?
Philippians 1:27-30 | A Church Worthy of the Gospel
So much demands our attention and calls us away from Jesus alone. And when opposition and persecution and suffering confront us, as it did the Philippians, it takes courage to keep the gospel central. A gospel-centered church needs gospel-centered courage.
Philippians 2:19-30 | Following Jesus in Selfless Sacrifice
Earlier in chapter 2, Paul presented Jesus as an example of humility and sacrifice. Verses 19-30 read like a travelogue. It feels different. But if we look deeper, we’ll see the connection: two men who exemplify the Christ-like qualities he spoke of earlier. The Lord is our model; and Timothy and Epaphroditus are model Christians.
Philippians 4:1-4 | How to Disagree Well
Paul had to address a problem. Two women couldn’t agree on something. We don’t know what it was, but the disagreement was so big it was threatening the church’s unity at the very time when they needed it most. Instead of standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel (1:27), they were bickering and fighting. Paul urged them to stop. And without taking sides in the disagreement, he marshaled the rest of the church to help these women come together in the Lord because whatever their disagreement was, it was not bigger than the wrap-around reality of their salvation in Christ and his mission for them in this dying world.
Isaiah 9:1-7 | The Hope of Christmas
What is God doing? He’s overturning our expectations. God has ordered the world such that weakness overcomes power, foolishness overcomes wisdom, a child defeats all evil. It’s an unlikely, improbable, incredible story. When everything else in this world fails, when all our best plans are found wanting, when we’ve reached the very end of what we can do, unto us a child is born.
As I mentioned earlier, I had the immense privilege to write for Lifeway’s The Gospel Project. I can’t link to those resources online, but I would encourage you to look at their material to see if they would be a good fit for your Bible study or Church. They’re a group of faithful men and women who do amazing work for the Church.
From time to time, I write Bible study papers for our Church, usually for either our men’s weekly Bible study or monthly gatherings. This year, as you can imagine, we had some major interruptions to business as usual. But we started out strong by looking at the Apostles’ Creed. I expect us to pick this up again next year, but for now, here are the papers I wrote.
Once upon a time, there was a king in a cave.
Everyone in distress, and everyone in debt, and everyone bitter in soul gathered around him (1 Samuel 22:2). It wasn’t the life he imagined the day the oil ran down his head at his anointing. It wasn’t the day he pictured standing over Goliath’s slain body. It wasn’t the palace he once knew in Saul’s court. It was altogether different.
But the king didn’t complain. He welcomed this rag-tag group of men. He became their commander. He suffered with them in the wilderness.
Can you imagine it? A suffering king.
The cave at Adullam is King David’s unlikely palace. There amid these suffering ones, serving as a type of One to come, he found his place in the story of redemption. His heart is on full display. It isn’t inward but outward; not self-centered but thinking of others; not fearful but finding refuge in God. David is the king of the downcast and the outcast, the put out and put off, the debtor and drunkard and distressed. He was the kind of king the lowliest needed. The highest already had theirs.
While King David made his home in the cave, King Saul sat on the heights under a tamarisk tree. The men of his tribe surrounded him. Unlike David who sought to care for others, Saul cared only for himself. He wondered why no one told him where David was, why no one let him in on his secrets, why they all seemed to admire him when he couldn’t give them a field or a vineyard or a command of men. Saul was the big man on campus. Couldn’t they see that?
Well, Doeg the Edomite could. Why this brute found a home with Saul while the righteous David could not is an insight into Saul’s depravity. He was not a king of the people; merely a king for himself. The throne he sat upon wasn’t only Israel’s, God’s nation, it was also the one of his own heart. He was The Man, and couldn’t tolerate anyone else lurking in the shadows.
It’s surprising, then, that Saul listened to the one who did lurk in the shadows. The last time Doeg appears in the Bible he’s overhearing David’s conversation with Ahimelech the priest. David lies about his mission, pleading for food and weaponry. His intentions perhaps were good. Maybe he wanted to protect Ahimelech. He didn’t. Doeg ruined that plan. Once he found his way back to Saul, he spilled the beans.
And off Saul went.
The story of 1 Samuel 22:11-19 is hard to read. Saul summoned Ahimelech to see if what Doeg said was true. It was. Ahimelech had seen David and given him food. He also gave him the only weapon in his possession: Goliath’s sword. Angered, Saul said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s house.”
But none of Saul’s men would strike the priests. How could they? These were the priests. How could they stand before God with the blood of the mediators on their hands? Leave it to the Edomite to do the dirty work. This was nothing new for his clan. Standing against God’s chosen was their way. He unsheathed his sword and put it to the priests, then to the men of Nob, then to the women, then to the children.
And Saul approved of their execution.
Ahimelech surely died, but not with all his father’s house. One escaped.
Abiathar fled after David. How he knew his whereabouts is a mystery but he found him nonetheless. He told him all Saul had done, the carnage he witnessed, the deaths that couldn’t be undone. The words of Saul probably rang in his ears, pounding his heart to the beat of despair, “You shall surely die.”
The king he ran from was like those of other nations. When it came right down to it, he couldn’t be trusted. Instead of learning from God’s law as delivered by the priests, he slaughtered them. Instead of remaining humble, his heart was lifted up above his brothers (Deuteronomy 17:18-20).
But the king he ran to was unlike those anywhere else. He was, after all, the kind of king who received such men: distressed, bitter, suffering. In his day of greatest need, Abiathar found a soft spot to land in the care of the king in the cave. “Stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me you shall be in safekeeping” (1 Samuel 22:23).
Do not be afraid is one thing to say, another to receive, and yet another to apply. Fear is instinctual. It is rational. It keeps us safe and keeps us alive. But when our fears find their refuge, they can be put to rest finally and fully. David was such a refuge to Abiathar. Why? Because David was God’s king with God’s promises. Yes, a mutual enemy sought their life. But with David, Abiathar was safe—not because Saul couldn’t find them. In fact, he did very soon after. Abiathar was safe with David because David was safe with God. He was the anointed one, the Christ.
In the Christ is where our fears find their refuge. It’s in the king in the cave, suffering alongside those unworthy in this world to be among the powerful. It’s in the king in the wilderness, taking command of people who have run out of options. It’s in the king who suffers not just alongside his people but for his people. It’s in the Christ who takes responsibility for everyone in distress, everyone in debt, everyone bitter in soul. It’s in the Christ who saves them even at great expense to himself.
It’s in the Christ where once upon a time becomes happily ever after. Maybe not in this life, but surely in the life to come. The good King wins, not by his might but by his weakness, not by his circumstance but in spite of it, not by his force but by his love.
There may be a time when you too must run for your life. If so, there is a king who has stooped low, and if you run to him, you shall be in safekeeping.
Illinois State Route 37 takes you past America. Nestled in Pulaski county, a few miles northeast of Mounds, it’s a nondescript town, noticeable only by the sign bearing its continent’s name. A turn onto Mounds Road takes you by Meridian High School, a run-of-the-mill rural school where kids roam the halls dreaming of next week’s football game and next year’s possibilities.
Then there is Mounds. A town that you can tell was once something but is no more. Mounds was middle America in the middle of the twentieth century. Now, it seems, as it does in so many other places around the country, the middle has been squeezed like an old tube of toothpaste, just enough life left to make it useful but mostly empty. A small town in a small part of the country overlooked and forgotten. A drive-by town whose passersby have no idea what true greatness lies within.
There in a church on a warm August afternoon in the hellish year that is 2020 is a man in a coffin just shy of his 97th birthday. He used to tell his family, “Remember, you come from strong stock.” He was never talking about himself, but he’s the reason it’s true. Now, that family mills about the sanctuary. His granddaughter tunes her violin in the back room. His great-grandchildren run around like it’s a living room—something he always found such amusement in. Relatives arrive, masked and tear-stained, to pay their respects. A slide show cycles through the years that went by too fast at times and not fast enough at others. Images of the war so long ago, the yellow house down the street, the children born into the world, and the loved-ones already gone. The images appear and disappear, the stuff of life hovering above the man who lived it and who made it not only a life but a life.
AMERICAN SOLDIER
Fred Moyers was many things. We all are, I guess, but he was more. He was a World War II soldier. D-day, the Battle of the Bulge, prisoner of war, hero, the whole bit. He was a husband. Faithful. Kind. Generous. He was a father of two. Loving. Constant. Tender. He was a grandfather to four and great-grandfather to nine. Fun. Energetic. Encouraging. He was a servant of his church. Christian. God-fearing. Available. He was a musician. Self-taught. Countrified. Harmonica-based. He was a county clerk. He was a licensed real estate agent. He was a certified entomologist, a small business owner, ballroom dancer, a life-time learner, skilled at just about everything, and by all accounts, the most joyful person anyone ever met.
I remember his eightieth birthday party. I started dating Fred’s granddaughter, Sarah, that year. We showed up to the “party house,” a house next door to Sarah’s Uncle and Aunt, specifically designated for house parties, equipped with a sound system, stage, and dance floor. Fred took his wife and they swirled around the floor like teenagers, smiling and laughing like it was high school prom. The karaoke machine got hot that night as Fred and his wife, Helen, sang country tune after country tune, mixed with a little gospel and a bit of rock-n-roll. I thought, “If this is 80, it’s not so bad.” Fred made it look good. He had that way about him.
I never called him Fred, though. To me, he was Granddad because that’s who he was to Sarah. He was married to Gammie. They were family from the start. I never, even on that first visit, felt like an outsider.
Sixteen years later, when the dance was finally over, like a country song, I carried his casket.
A MILITARY FUNERAL
A few miles southeast of the church is Mound City National Cemetery. Filled with the bodies of soldiers long gone, another was moving in. Perhaps he was seventy years too late. So many never came home from Europe. But, as we know, God’s never anything but right on time. Granddad had miles to go before he rested.
The casket rolled into the shade. Military personnel stood at attention. The American flag draped over the wood box, the soldier resting inside. I stood to the side, hands folded, back straight, still. How else can you stand before such honor?
The preacher gave us God’s hope from the Bible. Prayers were offered. Tears were shed. Taps played on a harmonica, Granddad’s favorite instrument—the one he always carried with him, just in case. The rifles blasted. Then, the flag was folded, the procedure carefully explained, and handed to the family as his fellow comrades passed by in salute.
My three sons sat with their grandmother, Granddad’s daughter, on the bench before the casket. They’re young: nine, seven, and four. They took it all in, undoubtedly unsure of what all the fuss was about.
If you’ve ever seen a military funeral up close, it’s hard to be unmoved. I’m not an overly patriotic person. I think our country is good but not without deep flaws. I respect the flag but I don’t bow before it. I am grateful for our land of the free but wish it was freer still. I believe in the creation of a more perfect union, and hope one day we’ll get there. So did Granddad. He was a patriotic man who loved the U.S.A. and her flag. I guess that’s what happens when you fight for her.
THE FIRST SALUTE
Granddad’s first salute was sometime in the early 1940s. Heeding the call, he enlisted in the Army, ready and willing to head to Europe to join the great fight. He married Gammie just before leaving, eloping in secrecy after which Gammie went home terrified to tell her parents what they’d done. They found out soon enough, and there was nothing they could do about it. So began a marriage lasting 77 years.
It was a marriage begun under less than ideal circumstances. But what wasn’t less than ideal in those days? A Great Depression. A Great War. Only such things could bind the ties of marriage tighter and tighter. Gammie waited at home while Granddad went off to fight the Germans. He was positioned at the top turret of a B-26 Bomber, flying back and forth to strike the enemy where it hurt. One run, the plane was hit and going down. He climbed out of the turret to find many of his fellow soldiers already dead. He got the living out, ensuring their parachutes were firmly secured. The last one out of the plane, he nearly jumped without his own parachute on when he felt a tap on the shoulder. He says it was God saving him.
He jumped. Falling through the air, he realized he left his gun in the plane. German soldiers were waiting for him. The left-behind gun was now his savior. He wasn’t a threat; only a captive. Now he was stuck, unsure what comes next, knowing the next letter home wouldn’t be a happy one.
But he survived. He came home like so many others and built America. The Greatest Generation.
THE FINAL SALUTE
Granddad’s final salute was August 17, 2020, on a warm summer afternoon under a sunny sky. The honor guard surrounded his casket. What was left of his family was there too, and one old school mate from his childhood.
A life nearly ninety-seven years in the making.
A life that made so many other lives, filling them with a joy that doesn’t come along often enough.
A life that made music wherever he went, always ready with a song and a smile.
A life with encouragement for others, hand in hand with Gammie as they faced the world that, try as it may, couldn’t take their life away until they’d rung it dry.
A life too big and too long and too full to possibly capture in words.
A life fit only for eternity with which he’s now rewarded in Christ his savior.
He loved America. I mean, there’s so much to love, isn’t there? We have our problems. Every country does. We’re more wicked in some ways. Less in others. But men like Fred Moyers make me believe it can one day finally be great. Not because of the laws say so. Not because the flag flies high. Not because we proclaim it such. But because men like Granddad walked this land.
LEGACY
As my boys sit there taking it all in, I wonder if they understand what they see. Do they know the greatness that lies before them? Do they know the honor they witness? Do they know the sacrifice? Do they know the love? Do they know the life? They don’t. They’re too young. They might not remember the day or the folded flag or the rifle salute, or maybe even Granddad himself, but as they grow in this land of the free and home of the brave, I pray that whenever their fellow countrymen need them—of whatever background and whatever story, and whatever the need—that they will answer the call. Not because it’s the popular thing to do; it will never be. Not because it’s the path of least resistance; it’ll always be hard. But because they can’t imagine doing anything else. And when I see it, I’ll think, “he was right.”
They come from strong stock.
For more about Fred Moyers, especially his War stories, click here.
Is there a more important verse for us today than these words from Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount? “Do not be anxious about your life” (Matthew 6:25).
We live in an anxious age. A virus keeps us home and wondering what tomorrow will bring. School starting makes us worry about our kids, both about their health and their education. Working from home (for those who can) presents challenges we weren’t ready for, especially if you have school-aged kids doing online school. If we can’t work from home, we wonder if we’ll get sick, if we’ll infect others, if we’re doing what’s right. We’re juggling a lot, and without our normal social interactions, the weight feels heavier than ever for many.
Jesus’s words about anxiety are fit for our days. We may not worry about food or clothing, but we still worry about our daily needs. We need the exposing question Jesus asked his disciples on the mountainside, “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” (Matthew 6:27). We know it does no good, but we can’t seem to stop. We look at the days ahead and wonder how we’re going to make it.
Here’s how we’re going to make it: one day at a time. “Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34). Jesus doesn’t tell us there won’t be trouble tomorrow, only that today’s trouble is enough for today.
There is another place we can look for this kind of “short-term” focus. Maybe it’s not the most popular sport anymore, but baseball still models life more than any other. In this shortened season due to COVID-19, teams are faced with more challenges than normal. It’s a sprint after a long layoff. And with illnesses and injuries, the rosters are bigger than ever and young players are getting more chances than ever in The Show.
My favorite team, the Atlanta Braves, have their fair share of obstacles to overcome, especially on the pitching mound. Reality has not cooperated with the plan, and younger guys have had to step in to fill big voids. With so little experience and such a great responsibility, their marching orders are simple and to the point: “Win the inning.”
A young pitcher easily gets overwhelmed. To face professional hitters with even your best stuff on your best day isn’t easy, and once they see your stuff a time or two, they catch on quick. Baseball is a game of strategy just as much as skill, and if you over-think it, you might very well mess it up. So instead of thinking about winning the game, you have to think about winning the inning. Win enough of those and you just might win the game.
Just win the inning.
Baseball innings consist of three outs. Get three outs and you’ve won the inning. Even a long inning only lasts a matter of minutes. With life as crazy as it is, let’s not over-complicate it. Getting through 2020 sounds daunting, doesn’t it? And as good as 2021 sounds, we don’t know what it holds yet either. We don’t have to.
Just win the inning.
When Jesus says not to be anxious about tomorrow but to focus on today, he’s speaking to our temptation to look farther than we can see. We don’t know what’s coming, and that unsettles us. But Jesus knows to live in fear of what may come is an opportunity for today’s faith. We have what we need right now in Christ. God is watching over the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. He’s watching over you too.
You can’t do what God can do. He can see tomorrow’s troubles. And you can’t create what God can give. He’s already out there with his hands full of grace and mercy for you. But he’s also here today, sustaining you as you look to him moment by moment.
Maybe this year more than any other, you are facing one overwhelming obstacle after another. You’re not alone. In a year like this, we’re all rookie pitchers, alone on the mound, hoping our next pitch is the right one.
Just win the inning.
The fire’s sparks jump skyward like dancers to the rhythm of a beat I cannot hear. One after another—jumping, jumping, jumping. The constancy reminds me of the order of things, built into the very warp and woof of life. Sparks fly upward. You cannot stop them.
Job saw another truth in the fire’s sparks. “Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). From the womb, we are brought forth in iniquity (Ps. 51:5). You cannot stop us.
Sparks don’t last long. As quickly as they rise, they disappear into the night. A rather short life by any measure. Dead, dying, and then gone like a vapor, like a breath on a cold day. Poof! Even the most brilliant of them lasting but seconds.
The Bible says apart from Christ I’m not much more. Pushed upward in birth to a flash-dance of life and then gone. The spark, bright as it may be, was dead even while it was here. Dead in trespasses and sins. Following the course of this world. Captive to the enemy. Dead even while I’m alive.
But there is a surprise in God’s plan, an ironic twist of divine design. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved” (Eph. 2:4-5).
Grace. From death to life. From the grave to glory. From an orphan to a child. From consumed to the consuming fire of God’s eternal love. Jumping still. Pushed upward from birth. But no longer destined to flame out. Destined now to endure. Dancing to the rhythm of a beat even the angels hear.
My shower has two sliding doors. In these quarantine days when I hate to say it, showering isn’t a daily activity, I find myself forgetting the order the doors shut. Standing outside, the door with the handle is the door, naturally, that opens the shower. But standing on the inside, when natural intuition says the door with the handle shuts you in, it proves a false hope. In my forgetfulness, my attempt finds it sliding back into its place. The same door that lets you in is the same door that closes you in. I don’t even know what the other door is for.
I stood there the other day, after trying and failing twice to shut the door, trying to remember the last time I was here. Was it Saturday? Who knows? Who cares? I don’t go many places these days and I live in a house with three young boys. I’m by far the least smelly.
Then my mind wandered to the other things I forgot. That email at work I meant to respond to. The request in my personal inbox with an invitation to join a conversation on a podcast. The sermon prep I meant to get a jump-start on. The cheese Danish left somewhere in the back of my car for the church breakfast months ago. The older I get, and the more I do, the more I forget.
Inevitably, guilt sets in. People are probably mad at my forgetfulness. They probably don’t want me on the podcast anymore. The cheese Danish was probably delicious. By this point, I’m ready to pray and ask God’s forgiveness and help. So much of my life is unintentional forgetfulness. Don’t even get me started with the things of God I’ve let slip. The things really worth remembering are the things perhaps most easily forgotten.
In the end, though, somehow most things work out. I’ve never found myself standing inside the shower with an open door wondering what I’m going to do now. I always figure it out. The order of things in the showers of life isn’t worth remembering. But the order of things in the deepest realities of life can’t be forgotten. Forgetful me is not forgotten by the remembering God. I’ve not left his mind even when my mind can’t hold him. In a world with so much that can be forgotten, that’s one thing worth remembering.
C.S. Lewis said the inspiration for the Narnia books came from an image his mind created of a fawn walking by a lamppost holding an umbrella. Well, I’ve not imagined such a thing, but I did see outside my window a young blond-haired boy the age of four walking joyfully under a dinosaur umbrella on a hot, sunny, spring day. For him, it was nothing unusual, For me, it was a reason to smile. I was worried about so much; he so little. I was the adult; he the child. Oh, to be a child—or to have, at least, child-likeness.
The play of a child when no one is watching is beautiful. It is who we all want to be: lost in a world of our own making, where it’s all ours. I left that place long ago, but my children still live there. They haven’t faced the real terrors yet that rob us of make-believe.
The Bible is strangely silent with the English word “smile.” But it’s not with the word “laugh.” And you can’t laugh without smiling. Just as my boy walked through the yard that day, laughing at the things to come, so sits our Lord in the heavens. He laughs at the wicked (Psalm 37:13) as a child in a game of cops and robbers. He holds the nations in his hand as they wriggle and writhe, plotting against him. And he laughs (Psalm 2:4).
I don’t mean to belittle his sovereignty. He’s dealing with real wickedness and real evil, not pretend. I mean, rather, to enhance his bigness. This world with all its fear, visible and invisible, is nothing to King Jesus. “Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps” (Psalm 135:6).
Children are too big for their world. One day they’ll find it’s too big for them. Their smile will fade. But not for Jesus. He’s far too big for this world. And, with him on our side, he’s able to make even grumps like me smile. Suddenly, the world is manageable again.
Imagine God in his royal study behind the desk that runs the cosmos. If he were like you and me, he would be intensely focused. He probably wouldn’t even notice us enter the room. From somewhere deep within, we muster up the courage to say something. Maybe we don’t even know what we’re saying, but we want his attention. So we stumble over our words. Eventually, something resembling a sentence comes out and he looks up. What now?
He’s a busy God. He has the universe to uphold, you know. But we’re not asking for much. Not really. I mean, we want a lot. We have requests. We want to see him. We want to be with him. But we understand. He’s so important, and we’re just us.
So we make our requests known quickly. We just spew it out. It doesn’t sound impressive because it’s not. And we don’t wait long enough to get an answer. We’re too scared, either afraid that it’ll be a no when we want a yes or afraid of his presence. Worst of all, maybe something else will come up we weren’t prepared for. He may, you know, actually say something to us. So we go on about our day and leave God to his work.
Is that the God you know? Too often, it’s the image that comes to my mind when I sit down to pray. I know he’s busy. I also know he cares. But the busy God outweighs the caring God. Perhaps that’s less a reflection on his business than my own. I have things to do. I need to get going. But God? Of course, he has a lot coming at him. Throughout the world, people are praying. The stars never stop shining. The universe never stops turning. Evil must be kept at bay. People need to be saved. How does he do it all?
This is the excellent greatness of God (Psalm 150:2). He is not limited as we are. I can do very little. He can do very much. I grow frustrated with interruptions because I can’t multitask, no matter how many times I tell myself I can. When my kids visit my study as I’m hard at work, I grow impatient and frustrated. I will answer their questions when I’m done. How will my world keep spinning if I take a break?
But God’s world spins, and it doesn’t come at our expense. He does not have to delay our interaction. He can do it all.
As we enter that royal study where the universe is upheld by his very word, we find not a distracted Father too busy for us. No, he smiles when we come in. He’s happy to see us because Jesus has paid our entry fee. We can come boldly, as a child, because by Christ’s blood we’ve been given that right (John 1:12). He gets out of his chair and bends down to pick us up. He listens to the rambling stories and disconnected thoughts. He bears with our weakness because he knows we are but dust. He takes his time with us. He lets us linger. He’s not worried about the wars and rumors of war rising in the background. He’s in control of that even as he speaks with us. He’s able to be everywhere all the time. He’s at every point in history as if it were the present. He’s over it all and above it all but not disconnected from it all. He cares on a level we cannot because we cannot see what he can. His capacity for trouble outweighs ours. His endurance is limitless. His stamina never fades. God can, at the same time, sit us in his lap and hear our prayers while hearing the prayers of all the saints throughout the world, receive praises from all on earth and those in heaven, and oversee the smallest detail in the most hidden corner of space.
God’s excellent greatness is that he’s not too great for you. He’s never too busy. He always has time. And nothing ever goes against his perfect plan. Who God is for you is all you need him to be at every moment of your life. He’s not too great for you; his greatness is for you.
In his classic book, Knowing God, J.I. Packer writes, “What is a Christian? The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father…If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father…For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. ‘Father’ is the Christian name for God.”
Of all the benefits of the gospel offers, none is higher than this truth of the Fatherhood of God. That sounds like an overstatement, but even though justification sets us right with God, it’s the Fatherhood of God that brings us into the family. As Packer says, “To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.”
This privilege is not for just anyone. The Apostle John opened his gospel by saying, “To all who did receive [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12-13). Only those who’ve accepted Jesus can claim to be God’s children. And only those to whom God has come can accept Jesus. So it’s a gift of God that makes us children of God. The Bible’s word for this new reality is adoption. Paul says in Galatians 4:4-5, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” We become children of God through the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, makes us his brothers through his propitiating death.
Adoption does not—certainly, should not—label one as “less-than.” It describes the way we come into the family, not who we are in the family. As Russell Moore says, “There is no such thing in God’s economy as an ‘adopted child,’ only a child who was adopted into the family. ‘Adopted’ defines how you came into the household, but it doesn’t define you as some other sort of family member. In the Book of Romans, Paul defines all Christians, both Jew and Gentile, as having received a common ‘spirit of adoption’ (Rom. 8:15; 9:4).”
But how do we know God is our Father? Is this just some vague hope or is there proof? Well, here is just a sampling of verses from the Bible.
For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. (Galatians 3:26)
But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. (Isaiah 64:8)
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. (1 John 3:1)
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. (Romans 8:14-16)
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. (Luke 15:20)
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12)
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:29-31)
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32)
Even if we believe those verses, which I hope we all do, we can still have a wrong view of the kind of Father God is. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus tells a parable that we know as The Parable of the Prodigal Son, but perhaps it could also be called The Parable of the Father’s Love.
11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” ’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”
Both sons in the parable orphaned themselves. They didn’t see how good their father was. This is not an uncommon occurrence. So many of our problems result from forgetting that we are children of God. Pastor Jack Miller put together a chart to help us diagnose ourselves.
The Orphan
Feels alone. Lacks a vital daily intimacy with God. Is full of self-concern.
Is anxious over felt needs: relationships, money, health. “I’m all alone and nobody cares.”
Lives on a succeed/fail basis. Needs to “look good” and “be right.” Is Performance-oriented.
Feels condemned, guilty, and unworthy before God and others.
Has little faith, lots of fear, lots of faith in himself: “I’ve got to fix it.”
The Child
Has a growing assurance that “God is really my loving heavenly Father.”
Trusts the Father and has a growing confidence in his loving care. Is being freed up from worry.
Learns to live in daily, conscious partnership with God. Is not fearful.
Feels loved, forgiven, and totally accepted because Christ’s merit really clothes him.
Has a daily working trust in God’s sovereign plan for their life as loving, wise, and best. Believes God is good.
What kind of Father is God? He’s the kind of father who runs to meet his wayward children who squandered it all. He’s the kind of father who comes to the self-righteous child who refuses to celebrate. He’s the kind of father we all need, no matter what our personal story is.
The overwhelming biblical evidence is that, if you’re in Christ, God relates to you not like a king to a servant or a boss to an employee but as a father to a child, with warmth and depth, tenderness and care, attention and intention. You’re not an orphan! You’re a child of God! Jesus knew this would be a hard truth to accept, so on his way to the cross, he made a promise: “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” Why did he say that? Because we fear he’ll leave us. So Jesus promised the Father would send the Holy Spirit to be and abide with us, to tell us we are children of God. He’s not just the Father. He’s your Father. And he wants you to feel his massive heart of love for you. He sent Jesus to show it, and he gives his Spirit to seal it. The triune God is at work right now to communicate his love to you! The Puritan Thomas Goodwin understood this so well. In his book The Heart of Christ, he comments on John 16, where Jesus says that whatever the Spirit hears he will speak.
“All his speech in your hearts will be to advance me, and to greaten my worth and love unto you, and it will be his delight to do it. And he can come from heaven in an instant when he will, and bring you fresh tidings of my mind, and tell you the thoughts I last had of you, even at that very minute when I am thinking of them…So that you shall have my heart as surely and as speedily as if I were with you.”
In other words, those moments when you believe the word of God, when you feel loved by him, those moments are not just coincidental. They are not merely emotional. Those moments when you think, “my Father loves me,” are the precise moments when your Father is thinking of you, and he’s communicating his love to your heart by his Spirit who dwells within you. So if you believe God’s fatherly love for you right now it’s not because I’m telling you it’s true, it’s because he’s telling you it’s true!
A few weeks ago, the Twitter account Atheist Forum tweeted, “CHRISTIANITY: Belief that one God created a universe 13.79 billion yrs old, 93 billion light yrs in diameter (1 light yr = approx. 6 trillion miles), consisting of over 200 billion galaxies, each containing ave. of 200 billion stars, only to have a personal relationship with you.”
To that, we say, “Amen.” God did create this universe, and he did create it for that very reason: to have a personal relationship with you.
The Bible opens with the words, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Into nothing, God spoke and, poof, there was something. Throughout the six days of creation, the book of Genesis shows us that God created the plants and animals, the sky and the sea, the land and the water, and, crowning it all, he made man in his own image. Before anything else, God is presented as the creator. The Bible could have started with any number of things. Why is it important that we know God created it all? Because if we miss who created everything, we will miss the entire point for which everything exists. If we don’t recognize God as the creator of all, we have no reason to give allegiance to him, thanks to him, praise to him, or glory to him. The Bible’s opening chapters show us who and what God created so that we can see that, as Paul says in Colossians 1:16, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” Everything in existence is here because God is the creator, it all belongs to him, and it’s all for him.
The Bible tells us it doesn’t take long for God’s good creation to go wrong. Sin enters the world a mere three chapters into the story-line. From there, it’s a downward spiral of sin and sorrow. We feel it. Our sins are many. The sins against us our many. This is where the fact that God is the creator takes on a new and more precious meaning. In the midst of the brokenness, when all hope seems lost, God breaks in and says it will not always be this way. A day is coming when he will re-create this world, restoring it to his original intention. Sin will be wiped away. The Creator will create something new and better out of the ashes of this world.
But we still wonder, “Can God make anything great out of my life?” The gospel’s surprising answer is a resounding, “Yes!” What we need to get from our drab, everyday doubts and fears is a big vision of the big God who created this whole world, and who is re-creating it in the redemption of Christ.
Isaiah 40:12-26 helps us here.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,
or what man shows him his counsel?
14 Whom did he consult,
and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing before him,
they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
18 To whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness compare with him?
19 An idol! A craftsman casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and casts for it silver chains.
20 He who is too impoverished for an offering
chooses wood that will not rot;
he seeks out a skillful craftsman
to set up an idol that will not move.
21 Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
23 who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
25 To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
and because he is strong in power,
not one is missing.
We live in a big world far outside our control. But to God, it’s easily manageable. Gather all the waters in the world and it fits in the cup of his hand (v. 12). He measures the heavens with his arm (v. 12). He created it all with his own genius ideas without any help (v. 13), and without any mistakes (v. 14). He carries all the world’s nations around like a child does a bucket of rocks (v. 15-17). He is above it all, greater than it all, greater even than the sum of all it’s wonderful parts (v. 18). Yet we still are prone to make God’s creation into our god (v. 19-20). But God wants us to see the world through his eyes because when we start to see the bigness of his glory, we start to see our lives in a new light. So in verse 21, he asks some questions. “Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?” Through whose eyes are we seeing? It is God who “sits above the circle of the earth” (v. 22). He’s in control of it all. That changes our outlook, as it did for those in Isaiah’s day. They feared the mighty and massive Babylonians. They wondered if God could do anything to help them with the powerful enemy. Isaiah 40 is God’s answer, and a major part of his argument is that he is the Creator of heaven and earth. It’s all in his hands.
Commenting on this passage, Ray Ortlund says this. (You can find it on this amazing Immanuel Worship album, track 4. I highly recommend listening to it, then listen to the song that follows, “Missing Not One”.)
Here we are on tiny Planet Earth. The closest star to us is, of course, the sun. The sun generates energy with the same explosiveness as a hydrogen bomb—its own continuous internal nuclear fission. The surface of the sun is a relatively cool 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, while the center is a toasty 27,000,000 degrees. The diameter of the sun is 870,000 miles, 109 times larger than the earth, and its volume could contain 1,000,000 earths. Its luminosity is equal to four million trillion 100-watt lightbulbs—more than you’ll find even at Home Depot.
Our solar system is inside the galaxy called the Milky Way. And this galaxy we live in is shaped like a spiral, a gigantic pinwheel spinning in the expanse of space, with our solar system rotating around the center once every million years or so. We lie about two-thirds of the way out from the center of the galaxy, in what might be considered the boondocks. The Milky Way is 104,000 light-years across, containing over 100 billion stars. To count them one by one would take us over 3,000 years. And according to the latest probings of the Hubble Space Telescope, there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in God’s universe!
Why did he do that? Because we deeply believe he has forgotten us—or at least he’s forgotten me. He probably loves y’all. But my life? I have fallen through the cracks. He goes through a whole day, never gives me a thought. I deeply believe that, and Isaiah gets up in my face and says, “No. Not one is missing. You’re not missing. You’re not far from his heart. His eye is upon you at all times. God is not too great to notice you; God is too great to overlook you.
And from eternity past, through all of time into eternity future, his eye is upon you, and you, and you, and you. Not one is missing. That is the perfect love of Christ. It does not say the perfect attempt of Christ. He’s good at it. He’s a professional. You can trust him.
Whatever your fears may be, your Creator God is not impotent. He created you, and he can re-create you. In the end, because he’s both Creator and Father Almighty, not one will be missing—not even you.
Remember the old school-yard debate? “My dad could beat up your dad.” In a boy’s eyes, no one is stronger or mightier than their dad. It should be this way. Dads are strong and mighty. But though our earthly fathers wither and fade, God never can and never will. In fact, as time goes on, God grows mightier. The prophet Isaiah said of the coming Messiah, “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.” In other words, the reign of Jesus, the Son of God, will, under the fatherhood of God, only increase forever. Time will not weaken him. As more people enter the world, as more governments create their kingdoms, as more tribes form their cultures, the ruler-ship of God only grows ever wider. In other words, God’s fatherhood capacity has no limit. The number of children he can take in has no end. He is boundless in fatherhood. He is almighty.
But we tend to think at some point, God will overlook us. Something will come into our lives—maybe some great sin—and he will be done with us. God knows that fear of separation remains in our hearts. What is his response? In Romans 8:31-39, we hear these comforting words from our Almighty Father.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If God turned the cross from an instrument of torture and death to an instrument of redemption and new life, can he not deal with your problems? You have no weak father. You have One sovereign over all, ruling and reigning on behalf of his children, and he’s bringing you to glory. He is, as the prophet Zephaniah says, “a mighty one who will save.” But not only that, “He will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17). The Father Almighty loves his children with all his almighty heart.
The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
(Exodus 4:2-5)
“Consider the mighty ways in which God used a dead stick of wood. ‘God so used a stick of wood’ can be a banner cry for each of us. Though we are limited and weak in talent, physical energy, and psychological strength, we are not less than a stick of wood. But as the rod of Moses had to become the rod of God, so that which is me must become the me of God. Then I can become useful in God’s hands. The Scripture emphasizes that much can come from little if the little is truly consecrated to God.”
[Francis A. Schaeffer, No Little People (1974), reprinted in The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, 2nd ed., 5 vols. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1982), 3:8.]
I have a notebook in my Evernote account labeled “Ray Ortlund Papers.” It’s a treasure trove of papers Ray wrote during the seven years I was at Immanuel and he was lead pastor. Like old friends, I think of them often and visit them regularly. Each time, I find within their pages a word of hope for my soul. If you know Ray at all, you know his words drip with grace and bleed with Bible.
Recently, I was talking with a few other men about preaching. We came upon the topic of preaching with conviction, which reminded me of an article in my files from November 2012 called “The gospel creates men of conviction.” It was written to men because it was a men’s meeting, but the truths apply to women equally.
The dictionary makes a distinction between an opinion and a conviction.
Opinion: a personal judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce certainty.
Conviction: a fixed or firm belief that rests on an authority completely worthy of trust.
Using those definitions and Hebrews 11:1, Ray explains that most things in life deserve no more than opinion but a few things in life demand conviction. If we look at the way we actually live, we can track our convictions. They might not be what we want, but our actual life will reveal our actual convictions.
The surprising thing about convictions is that they are founded upon unseen things. We can’t see our convictions with our eyes but know them to be real and worthy regardless. How do we know? Because they are the things that keep us living. They are the things we really pursue. Our convictions get us up in the morning, get us going throughout the day, and give us hope for tomorrow as we lay our head down at night. Our convictions push us out the door into a world of opinions. They are the things we stand upon, sure they are true though we can’t see them with our eyes.
We might have an opinion about the music on the radio in the car on the way to work but we are convinced the laws of physics will propel our car down the road. We may have an opinion about home school or public school but we are convinced education is important. We reserve an opinion for things for which there are many options but not one definitive answer. We reserve conviction for things for which there is but one answer. The gospel of Jesus Christ is one such thing.
Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” One danger the enemy uses as a trap is to keep everything, even the gospel, at the level of opinion. He loves to make Jesus but one option of many to follow. But to treat something as vital as the gospel as a matter of mere opinion dooms us. It causes us to pause. It makes us paralyzed. We never get traction with God because we’re not sure he’s really who he says he is. We never grow in godliness and holiness because we can’t be sure what’s true and what’s not. We never risk anything for the gospel because it isn’t big enough in our minds to warrant it. Instead, we live Christian-lite lives where Jesus is a good guy and a great model but nothing more.
But our heart longs for more than that, and so does God’s.
God wants us to be convinced of his love for us. He wants us to be convinced of the life to come in his presence. He wants us to be convinced that living for him is the only life worth living because he’s the only King worth serving and the only God worth worshiping because he’s the only Savior who can and has done anything about our mess. In the words of Hebrews 11:6, gospel conviction is faith in two things: that God is real and that he is rewarding. “Without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Do you believe in the real and rewarding God?
Ray says, “Every day this present world gets up in our faces and yells at us that it is the only happiness we’ll ever see. Those of conviction say, ‘Sorry, but I’m convinced that God is real and rewarding.’ The Bible’s point is, that decisiveness is faith. And those of faith will make the real Jesus non-ignorable.”
He goes on to give the following diagnostic.
Are you a person of opinion or of conviction? Here are some ways to check yourself out:
People of opinion can do a lot of good things, but they do not put God first in the practical realities of time, budget, relationships. They do not push themselves. They do not sacrifice. They play it safe, keep a low profile and wait and see how things turn out.
People of conviction already know, from the Bible, how things are going to turn out. Guided by the gospel North Star in their nighttime sky, they go against the flow, because their eyes are lifted all the way to the Prize above, which is Jesus. And they use their influence to help others get there too.
The paper ends with a quote from A.W. Tozer. Read and considered, this quote is a searchlight of the heart.
Pseudo-faith always arranges a way out to serve in case God fails it. Real faith knows only one way and gladly allows itself to be stripped of any second way or makeshift substitutes. For true faith, it is either God or total collapse. And not since Adam first stood up on the earth has God failed a single man or woman who trusted him.”
This world, with its in-your-face-ness, forces us to make opinions about many things. We are judged based on them. But the God of the Bible asks us to be convinced of one thing only—that he is God who saves. Living as those convinced, we will have only God to fall back on. There may come a day when he is all we have. And when he is, he will be all we need. We can be convinced of that.
So what if you fear you’re more a person of opinion rather than of conviction? Ray closes his paper with three practical steps to take. Why not consider taking one today?
Take a fast of something earthly that means too much to you
Hang out regularly with people of conviction
Take a risk that is absolutely crazy, if the gospel is false.
Living by conviction is one way in this crazy world to make a stand for God. And all it takes is knowing he exists and he rewards.
Jesus’ interaction with the rich young ruler found in Mark 10 has forever fascinated me—primarily because it disturbs me. It should. It’s a warning. Jesus looked at his disciples and said, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:23). The disciples were amazed at his words. Money was a sign of God’s blessing. How could this man’s money be his problem?
I live in a wealthy city in a wealthy country surrounded by wealthy people. Maybe his problem is our problem too.
But lest we take this as some rejection of the wealthy, Jesus expands his comment. “Children [Notice the assuring address], how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! [Notice: no wealth mentioned] It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished. They asked, “Then who can be saved?”
Now maybe you’ve heard that Jesus is referring to a narrow entry gate into Jerusalem called the Eye of the Needle. A camel could get through it, but it had to bend down and squeeze through. It was difficult, but it was possible. That’s not what Jesus meant. A camel was the biggest animal in Israel. The eye of a needle was the smallest opening. Jesus is saying, “You know what’s absolutely impossible? That big camel fitting through that tiny hole. You know what’s even more impossible? Someone getting into heaven.”
What?
What is Jesus doing? He’s telling us that salvation is not something man can accomplish. No matter how much we do, we can never gain heaven. We’re a big, smelly camel trying to fit through the narrow holiness God requires. And we just can’t do it. We’re too fat with sin, too lumpy with unrighteousness. It’s impossible to squeeze ourselves into heaven.
Our best and brightest, our most valuable gifts, our most righteous works amount next to God’s holiness as nothing, even less than nothing. Our bigness doesn’t buy heaven. It’s not for sale.
So sell it all. Downsize. Minimize. Simplify. Make our life as small and laser-focused as a thread. Then perhaps we can make it through that needle’s eye. But our smallness doesn’t let us slip through heaven’s doors either.
Our hearts are hard, and our sin runs deeper than our actions; it lives in our blood. It’s hereditary. As Paul realized after his conversion, outward obedience to the law is nothing compared to inward disobedience (Phil. 3:6). There is no earthly cure; only a heavenly one. “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” What things?
Things like making fishermen fishers of men. Things like casting out an unclean spirit to make a man clean. Things like healing all who are sick and demon-possessed in one night of miraculous power. Things like touching an untouchable and making him clean. Things like telling a paralytic to rise and walk. Things like collecting a tax collector into the kingdom of God. Things like restoring a withered hand. Things like calming a storm at sea. Things like healing a man with a demon. Things like drying a discharge of blood that no one could stop for twelve years. Things like raising a little girl to silence those who doubt. Things like taking a few loaves and fishes and making a feast in the desert for thousands. Things like walking on water. Things like restoring hearing to the deaf and sight to the blind and a right mind to a boy with an unclean spirit. Things like upholding God’s law, teaching with authority, and calling sinners to repentance.
Things like that, which we have seen so far in Mark’s gospel and show that for all our impossibility Jesus has storehouses of possibility. Jesus came to make a way. With man it is impossible, but not with God. Not with Jesus.
“Then who can be saved?” You can.
But before you can be saved, Jesus must deal with you—the real you, not the dressed-up you. He’ll strip you down first. C.S. Lewis illustrates in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Eustace is in love with his treasures. One night, he falls asleep with a gold bracelet on his arm and transforms into a dragon, becoming an outward manifestation of his inward self. The bracelet gets tighter and tighter, and he can’t get it off. He’s driven from humanity and in a moment of loneliness begins to cry. Aslan, the lion, the Jesus figure, arrives and asks Eustace to follow him.
They go down to a well. The water clear and inviting. Eustace senses the well can heal him. But before getting in, Aslan tells him to undress. Of course, dragons don’t wear clothes. But dragons are kind of like snakes. He realizes Aslan meant he must shed his skin first. So he starts scratching and scratching. He says, “And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bath.”
But his scales grew back. So he goes through the exercise again. But it grows back again and again. Aslan says, “You will have to let me undress you.” Eustace was afraid, but he saw the task was impossible in his own hands.
“I was afraid of his claws,” Eustace said, “but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.
“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off...
“Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off — just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt — and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me — I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on — and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again...
“After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me...in new clothes.”
The rich young man was Eustace of his day. He needed to be de-dragoned. We all do. Jesus has to strip us to save us. He has to remove to redeem. He saves the us underneath the stuff we put on top to protect. He saves as we really are, not as who we want to be. He removes our false savior—our false Holy Grail—and replaces it with himself. Jesus is our only hope of heaven.
That was the offer Jesus made to this young man. But he didn’t trust Jesus enough to lay down and let him tear deep. But you can.
With you it is impossible. But not with God. Not with Jesus. Why not lay down all we have built up—all our monuments of righteousness, all our grand obedience and good deeds, our wealth and possessions, and let Jesus tear deep. It might feel like you’ve entered hell, but he’s giving you heaven.
28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Mark 12:28-34
The scribe made a great first move. He came to Jesus. But he didn’t come close enough. He came to Jesus to ask a question but he didn’t draw close enough to see the true answer. If he had, he would have seen that Jesus not only knew God’s law but obeyed God’s law. He would have seen Jesus wasn’t only a teacher but a savior, a man like himself in appearance but unlike him in divinity. He would have seen a perfect man there before him who loved God with all he was, who never disobeyed for a second, and loved his neighbor as himself, headed to the cross to prove it. But the scribe didn’t see that because he didn’t come to Jesus as a sinner in need of saving but as a scribe in need of a theological answer.
How have you come to him?
Jesus told the scribe he was not far from the kingdom of God (Mark 12:34). But being not far doesn’t mean being in, and the difference between being near and being in the kingdom of God is simple, though I admit, not easy. It comes down to this: What do you do with Jesus? Is he a teacher or a savior? Can you see him for who he is and what he did or do you merely admire him for what he taught?
Standing before Jesus, the scribe never saw him for who he truly was. He who transcribed the Old Testament events about God’s glory coming into the temple didn’t see it when glory stood before him. He never saw the crushing weight of the law. He never realized the man before him was a Rescuer, the Son who, as Paul said in Galatians 4, “God sent forth…born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Jesus was there to pull him from under the law by taking his place. The scribe remained a slave to the law, but how close he was to being a son! How close he was to finding in God not only a great law-giver but a loving Father! Jesus was there for that very reason, but he missed it! And because he missed it, he was outside the kingdom. He wasn’t far, that’s true, but to be not far is to be altogether out.
Let’s beware of missing Jesus. Let’s beware of standing in the presence of God and missing the hope of the gospel. Let’s beware of our knowledge and agreement shielding us from repentance and belief. Let’s not merely discuss matters with Jesus but fall down in worship before him, crying out for rescue. There is only one way to enter the kingdom of God, and the Bible is clear from cover to cover that the one way is faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone.
So here’s the hope for any of us that feel not far from the kingdom but want in. As great as his teaching was, Jesus did not come only to give you tips on how to live. He did not come merely to show you how to be kind to others. He came to rescue you from sin and death. He came to save you from the crushing weight of the law. He came, as he said in John 10, to be the door by which you enter the kingdom of God. He came to have his flesh torn open so that by his blood you find cleansing and hope. He suffered the separation on the cross that you deserve to give you the peace of God that you don’t deserve.
So if you want to be a citizen of his kingdom, all you have to do is ask him to bring you in. He will gladly do it. If you’re tired of trying to obey a law you’ve already failed and you’re tired of gaining more knowledge for knowledge’s sake and you’re tired of just agreeing with God and you’re ready to lay it all down at his feet and ask for new life, he’s ready to welcome you. How do I know? Because he said he would. To all who are weighed down by their sin and their failed attempts at obeying the heavy yoke of the law, Jesus says this morning, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The kingdom of God is not for high-achievers. It is for repenters. If you can repent and admit your need for Jesus, the kingdom of God can be yours. If you see the law is killing you, Jesus will be your life.
I want you to know about God and I want you to agree with everything God says, but that alone won’t get you into heaven. And, in fact, the first step is knowing and agreeing with God that you’re a sinner in need of a savior. You enter God’s kingdom by coming to Jesus as your only hope and laying every other merit down at his feet. Your hope cannot be in your obedience. It cannot be in your character. It cannot be in your knowledge or agreement with God or anything else. Your hope must be placed in the power of Jesus Christ crucified, raised, ascended, glorified, and coming again. If it is anywhere else—even God’s law—you stand outside the kingdom looking in. But you must be in. Life is in there!
That’s not a matter of theological debate. It’s the truth of the gospel—something to rejoice in and enter into.
And if you’ve not come in yet, well, the door is still open. Hurry inside.
15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.
Mark 11:15-19
When Jesus entered the temple that day, he was on a mission. The temple was the center of life and worship. It was where the sacrifices were made to grant purification and forgiveness. Where sinners met with God. Where God dwelt on earth. It was the place to worship. But though it bustled with activity, it was lifeless, and its deadness was not a problem Jesus could ignore. He had to confront it. God’s glory was at stake. Sinners couldn’t get close to God.
The British pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “every institution tends to become it’s opposite.” The temple, where the nations could come and find God, became a place where it was hard to find God. This can happen inside a church too. When a church becomes a place where it’s hard to find God, it becomes something other than what God intends. That’s why Jesus says in verse 17, referring to Isaiah 56:7, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” Isaiah 56 is about the nations coming to God. It’s about God’s heart for all people—the Jews and the Gentiles—and Jesus was there to set things right.
The temple had four main sections. Jesus stood in the outer court of the temple, the only place Gentiles could go. The leaders should have been there to minister but their heart wasn’t in it. They made it a den of robbers by establishing costly buying and selling and money-changing procedures for the sacrifices. They made a profit on the worship of God. Who can worship God in a Wal-Mart?
How did the temple get to this point? It didn’t happen all at once. Nothing like this ever does. It happens one compromise at a time. We don’t have to set up elaborate trading floors with international exchange rates. We just have to fail to welcome people, fail to make it easy to find Jesus. We just have to let our preferences set the agenda, let our feelings rule our interactions, let God’s word about loving one another for Jesus’ sake become mild suggestions rather than holy commands.
Ray Ortlund (to whom I’m indebted to these ideas and so many more) illustrates this well in his commentary on Isaiah.
Chuck Smith was pastoring a little church in Costa Mesa, California, in the late 1960s, not far from the beach. God began to pour out his Spirit. Teenage kids started getting saved and coming to church. But there was a problem. The oil deposits off the coast of California bubble up little globs of oil that land on the beach now and then, about the size of a quarter. If you step on one, it sticks to the bottom of your foot and you mess up the carpet when you get home. So these young people began coming into church right off the beach. They didn’t know they were supposed to wear shoes. All they knew was, Jesus is outta sight and church is cool. God was gathering in outsiders, and it was beautifully authentic. But the new carpets and the new pews at Pastor Smith’s church were getting stained. One Sunday morning Chuck arrived at church to find a sign posted outside: “Shirts and shoes please.” He took it down. After the service he met with the church officers. They talked it through. They agreed that they would remove the new carpet and pews before they would hinder one kid from coming to Christ.
That’s the heart of Jesus.
Through that one decision not to hinder anyone from coming to Jesus, God brought revival. He poured out his Spirit. They chose not to put up a barrier and God brought the people. What if they had kept that sign up? It wasn’t a big thing, right? Is it too much to ask people to wear shoes to church? Well, no, but it’s also not necessary, and it’s the unnecessary barriers we construct that quench the Spirit of God.
We have two options: we can make rules to exclude or remove barriers to include. If God’s church is a house of prayer—a house of worship—then everyone is welcome. Everyone has a chance to meet Jesus. This is something Jesus is willing to fight for and, ultimately, die for. This act of cleansing the temple cost Jesus. “The chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him” (Mark 11:18).
Jesus cared so much about removing barriers to worship that he lost his life over it. How much do we care? The test of true worship is not merely how we’re feeling about God; it’s about how open we are to God, and how open we’re making things for others. The test of true worship doesn’t reside in showy religiosity but in God-glorifying life. And just as it cost Jesus, it might cost us. We will have to lay down some of our preferences. We will have to open our hearts to those not like us. We will have to let Jesus rule in our church. But we know the kind of good King he is, don’t we? Give me one reason not to do church his way!
What if all of us in all our churches committed to never establish any barrier that would keep others from Christ? Yes, there are certain biblical commands and requirements we must obey. Those aren’t up for discussion. But those usually aren’t our biggest problem, anyway. It’s our man-made walls that too often separate.
If people leave the church because the Bible makes it hard for them to worship God, that’s between them and God. But if they leave the church because we make it hard for them to worship God, that’s between God and us.
Do we realize what God has done in Jesus Christ—how open the kingdom is? A church can become a place where it’s hard to find God. It should not be. What if we flung the doors wide open? What if, without compromising biblical doctrine, we allowed our culture to mirror God’s heart for the nations? What if, in our day and for God’s glory, we removed barriers rather than built them? It will take some courage. It will take some bucking of traditions and customs. It will take an opening of doors we might rather keep shut. But if we can follow Jesus down that hard road, we just might see what only God can do. That’s a risk worth taking.
“Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people’s way.” For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the heart of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isaiah 57:14-15)
The image of God appeared for a second time, born not of a woman, as it would be from then on, but from the mind of the Maker. From Adam’s rib, her flesh was formed, and with his breath, God inflated her lungs. She was a new creation, like the one from which she came yet altogether different. She was bone of Adam’s bones, flesh of his flesh. Called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
But why was she here? What was her purpose? History has struggled to answer. She’s been a bit of everything, really. She’s been in bondage and she’s been free. She’s been valued and discarded. She’s been used and abused. She’s been a mother, a sister, and a wife. She’s been the world to many and no one to too many. But what did God intend?
Genesis 2 holds a surprising answer.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Throughout that first creation week, he populated the land and sea and sky, bringing forth all kinds of living creatures with his powerful voice. But all that he made paled in comparison to what he formed from the dust on the sixth day. The crowning achievement of creation was not the now bustling earth that once stood empty and void. No, all the winds and waves, trees and shrubs, mammals and reptiles, birds and bugs were nothing beside Adam. He alone was made in God’s image. He alone was ruler and cultivator of all that lie before him.
Adam was God’s glorious creation, and he set out to do God’s will. Taking upon his responsibility to rule over all the earth, he received each kind of animal in what I suppose was a strange processional with God himself as the usher. Adam thought about each one and wisely named them all (Genesis 2:19-20). One after another, the animals came forth. But Adam noticed something missing. Of all God’s creation, nothing seemed a match for him. He saw the animals pairing up but to whom would he go home?
God saw and God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helper fit for him” (Genesis 2:18).
It’s easy to miss the beauty of this account. Far more than a creation story, this is a love story. God loved Adam. Adam loved God. But that wasn’t enough. Adam had a need that only God could fill. So he made Eve.
Eve was made like Adam but also from Adam (Genesis 2:21). And after, as a father would a bride, God presented her to Adam (Genesis 2:22). Here at least was a helper fit for him. Someone in whom he could confide, rejoice, and be intimate. He fell madly in love.
The New Testament notices this act of creation, using it as the basis from which all teaching on manhood and womanhood resides. The man was created first, then the woman. It is the man who is the head, the woman who submits. Made for man, here is woman.
The world bases her worth, as it does to man, on what she is. She is mother. She is wife. She is co-laborer. She is sexual desire. She is businesswoman. She is a thousand other things, some good and right, some twisted and wrong, just as man. But to God, and to Adam, Eve, and therefore Woman, her value is not in what she is but that she is.
Derek Kidner, in his commentary on Genesis, makes this startling claim. “The naming of the animals, a scene which portrays man as monarch of all he surveys, poignantly reveals him as a social being, made for fellowship, not power: he will not live until he loves, giving himself away (24) to another on his own level. So the woman is presented wholly as his partner and counterpart; nothing is yet said of her as childbearer. She is valued for herself alone.” (Emphasis mine)
Woman is valued for herself alone. She is many things, but the glory of Woman is that she is. She is a God-created original, valued not for her future achievements but for her present companionship. God’s creation of woman was not a pragmatic move. It was not merely for childbearing, nor was it for housekeeping or child-raising. Eve was created for Adam. Eve’s value was in her existence alone. That first day when Adam beheld Eve, he did not wish her to be any more than she was. That she was was enough for him.
God’s intention in creation was not to make useful tools but to breathe life into beings in whom he—and we—can delight. Woman, according to the Bible is marvelous because she is. She needs no other reason.
I like to wait to publish my book list for the year on the last day of the year. That’s because I need all the time I can get to finish off my books. I didn’t read as much this year as I normally do. I realize I still read a lot, but it just wasn’t a normal year. We moved in January. We welcomed our fourth child into the family in April (this time an amazing little girl). I preached and taught and wrote more than ever. So it was a busy year.
But no matter how busy I get, I can’t not read. Books are the lifeblood that keep pushing me. They help me see new things, think new thoughts, experience buried feelings, and reveal hidden aspects of life. As always, I like to read a large variety of things from fiction to nonfiction, from poetry to prose, from sports memoirs to theological treatises. The sheer variety of books in the world is one of the things that draws me in. There’s just so much to learn!
So here is my book list for 2019. I’ve listed them in the order I read them, so the ordering is not a reflection of ranking. I’ve categorized them into two large buckets—first, the best books I read this year and, second, the rest of the books I read this year. Just because they fall in the “rest” category does not mean they aren’t good and certainly doesn’t mean they might not find their way onto your best list. The best are just those I enjoyed the most throughout the year.
I hope you find something to read here in 2020!
At the beginning of the year, one of my best friends gave me a first edition copy of Vanauken’s book. Somehow, I’d never even heard of it. I soon found out it was far more popular than I realized. As I began to read, I could tell it was going to be one of the best books I read all year. It certainly lived up to the hype.
It’s a well-written love story, written as a memoir. Full of insight and wisdom, you can tell the man writing understands the gospel knows how to apply it to life.
I think I have one of Jared’s books on this list every year. That’s a testament to two things. First, Jared writes a lot. Second, all of his books are very good.
I’ve known Jared a long time—before he had a book published! As one of my best friends, it’s easy to include him on the list of my favorite reads of the year. But it’s not just because I love him. It’s because his writing deserves every top book list.
The Gospel-Driven Church is Jared’s attempt at helping others move their church from one of pragmatism to gospel-centeredness. It’s an important work. If you’re a leader in a church, it’s a must have. if you’re a part of a church, it’s a must have. If you love the church, it’s a must have.
I had heard of this book. I had been told to read this book. I had let this book sit on my shelf for years. This year, I finally picked it up and read. Why did I wait so long?
I’ve never heard a bad word about this novel. I’ve never heard anyway say, “You know, I read it and it was just okay.” I’ve never heard anything but praise. I now see why. It’s perhaps the perfect novel. The story is captivating, but it’s the way it’s told that makes it great. It’s full of intrigue and hope and suspense and surprise. It has everything a great novel must without anything it doesn’t need.
If you haven’t read it, make it a priority in 2020.
While I was reading Peace Like A River, Enger’s latest book showed up in the mailbox. I picked it up as soon as I could. To my surprise, I liked it just as much as Peace Like A River. I didn’t think I would. I was wrong.
Virgil Wander is of a different sort from Peace Like a River. It’s a character study, but not a boring one. The same excellent writing style is present here, and it gives the same feeling as you read it—as if you’re reading something that will outlast these times and reach into the next.
I was first introduced to Whitehead last year with his successful The Underground Railroad. Here, he moves ahead about 50 years in America and finds the same kind of racism alive and well. While the characters are fictional, the story is based on true events. What Whitehead does for us—especially white readers like me—is take us back in time to show us how things really were in the racist South. He does it in such a way that it’s mark is lasting. I was so enthralled in the story that I finished it as my kids rode rides at our county fair. I couldn’t put it down.
Beware. This isn’t an easy read. But it’s a necessary one.
I had bookmarked this book in 2018 when I saw it make some top book lists for novels. It intrigued me but the library copy was checked out and the wait list was long. Then i forgot about it. When I remembered it, I found several others I knew had recently read it and recommended it. So I picked it up and blazed through it. The writing is superb but it’s the story in this one that grips. It’s not an easy read (it’s about the rape of a teenage girl), so beware entering into it. But in our moment, it does a good job (I think) of showing the systems and powers that keep a story of rape under wraps for so long and the difficulty of being believed in a world that would rather protect the abuser than the victim.
Randy Alcorn is one of those writers who not only talks the talk but walks the walk. Therefore, what he says holds immense weight. His case for giving freely of your money and possessions is compelling because it comes from the Bible. He’s not trying to trick you into giving money to his ministry. He’s not trying to guilt you into giving more than you should away. He’s trying to help you see that the path to joy in Christ includes sacrificial giving, and that’s not a new secret; it’s an ancient one. My wife and I have talked about this book often throughout the year and are re-working our lifestyle to see what changes we can make.
As a freshman in college, I would take long drives. In Lexington, Kentucky, there is a lot of open space. Where was I going all those nights? Nowhere, really. I wasn’t trying to arrive; I was going because I couldn’t stay where I was. I was looking for a place to be, knowing the place I was wasn’t it.
Have you been there? The 4th century Bishop of Hippo, Saint Augustine, has. He didn’t have a car, but that didn’t stop him from going, and he has something to say to all who wander.
That is what James K.A. Smith wants us to see in his latest book, On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts. He wants to hop in the car with us, but he’s bringing a friend along for the ride. And he’s not just any friend. He’s “a prodigal who’s already been where you think you need to go” (xi).
Read the rest of my review of this book at For the Church here.
I’ve loved Andrew Peterson’s music for a long time. His ability for writing a song is second to none. And he’s no newbie to writing books either. But this one is something different for him because it’s an exploration of the ins and outs of creativity rather than a creative result. His humility shines through it all. He’s a man whose career proves he knows what he’s talking about, but even if it didn’t, this is the kind of book anyone would want on their shelf. I found in him a friend—someone i could resonate with, someone with whom I felt could spend many good hours with me talking around the coffee table.
This is one of those books I’ll re-visit, and with as many books as there are to read in the world, onyl a few rise to the level of re-visit-worthy.
It took me some time to get through this book. Not because it wasn’t well written—it is. Not because it was boring—it’s not. It took me a while because it’s so heavy. If you’re not familiar with Rachael’s story, read a bit about it here. This is a book for our times, one that should be required reading. It’s honest without being sensational. It’s saturated with the gospel and its implications for survivors of sexual abuse and the call to bring justice into the world.
Here’s a book you’ll want on your shelves if for no other reason than to remind you that our current moment isn’t the only important one. As an Evangelical, this book helped me reach back in time to church history to find common friends who wrestled with many of the same things we wrestle with today. It’s so easy to disconnect ourselves from the past thinkers, but that is to distant ourselves from the blessings of God that they were. We need retrieval. And we need it more today than perhaps ever before. Gavin gives us a road map here.
I’ve been working on creating and cultivating good habits in my life for a long time. And I’ve come a long way. Of course, there is still room to grow, and that’s why this book is here. James Clear understands the power of habits. What he gives here is a sound set of reasons to change your life by changing your habits. At this time of year, when we’re all setting resolutions and thinking about what we want to do and accomplish next year, the key to getting from here to there is habits. Change small things—atomic things—and make a big impact. I’ve found that to be true in my life, but when it comes time for goal-setting, i rarely think about the little things that need to change for the big thing to come to pass. Well, this book helps me see how foolish that is and gives me a new hope to accomplishing all that I desire.
It’s hard to find many people today who aren’t affected by anxiety and/or depression. For the past five years or so, I have been afflicted with anxiety. It’s better now, because I’ve been working on it, but it wasn’t always so. I’ve been paralyzed by it. I’ve not wanted to get out of bed or go to bed because of it. I’ve been worried over and fixated on small things that in the end don’t matter at all but in the moment feel like the only thing in the world. J.P. Moreland has been there too. This book is a gift to all who struggle. It’s not self-help. It’s God-help. His insights are based on the Bible and where he brings in so-called “secular” insights, he shows how they’re a gift we can gladly accept. If you struggle with anxiety or depression or someone you know does, here’s the book to buy.
I was too young to watch Larry and Magic play. Their classic NCAA finals game happened before I was born. They both won an NBA Finals before I was born. By the time of the Dream Team in 1992, both were on the back-end of their careers. So I grew up a Jordan kid. Forever, the epitome of basketball greatness is the image of His Airness. But I also knew Larry and Magic were great players. I just didn’t ever really know their stories until this book. Since then, I’ve been teaching my two basketball-playing boys about them. We’ve watched YouTube videos of highlights. I’ve stopped clicking through the TV channels as I see Larry or Magic on NBA TV talking about the glory days. If you don’t know much about how great they were, this book seems to do it justice. It’s enjoyable to read and one of those rare sports memoirs that are worth your time.
I saw one of my friends post something about this book a while ago, so I picked it up and started reading. What I found inside was sooooo good. I was amazed I hadn’t heard anyone else talking about it. Then all the book lists for 2019 hit the internet and suddenly I realized this book was like the best-kept secret of the year. It’s filled with practical wisdom about pastoring. Never having gone to seminary and having only on-the-job training, as it were, I found this book to be both an affirmation of the duty and an encouragement to go deeper into the job. Shepherding God’s people is not easy; it is glorious.
Please note that if you purchase using the links below, this website uses an Amazon program that earns fees for linking to Amazon.
To me, the 1990s are like yesterday. Time and math say I’m wrong but I don’t care. You can’t tell me that the 1995 Braves World Series Championship is twenty-five years old. You can’t tell me that the Internet isn’t new. You can’t tell me everything will be okay with Y2K. I mean, you can, I’m just not sure I can believe you. Time can’t possibly move as fast as you say.
Sitting here on the brink of 2020, even I have to face that another decade is coming to a close. The 2010s are almost a complete memory. For me (and probably for you too) there were many that I’ll cherish for a long time, some I wish were never so, and a whole lot of others that were just days in the life that seemed meaningless at the time that appear monumental in hindsight. Here are a few of them.
On May 1st, 2010, I sat at a table in the front of the sanctuary at Immanuel Church. Ray Ortlund was teaching a group of us how to study the Bible. It was raining hard outside and had been all morning. My Bible lay open to the book of Jonah. My pen in hand, paper before me. I mapped out what I saw. I made connections. I learned how to study just one book of the Bible, and it was worth a full seminary degree.
As I said, outside it was raining. I didn’t know it at the time, but the next day, all that rain would find its way into the river by my house and then up to my house and then inside my house. My wife, Sarah, and I were married only two years by then. We had no children yet, just a dog and a little house in Franklin, TN where we made our life together.
On May 2nd, I sat in my car in my parent’s garage and listened to the radio as they talked about landslides. I went inside to see cars floating down I-24. I watched as helicopters rescued horses on someone’s farm. The rain just kept pounding.
The night before, we’d gone home, moved all we could upstairs, and prayed for the rain to stop. It didn’t. Laying in my childhood bedroom that night, my wife rebuked me of little faith. She was right to do so. This was not outside God’s sovereign hand. This was God’s sovereign hand. Didn’t we just see what God can do in the book of Jonah? Didn’t I know that he even cares for the cattle? Why else was there a helicopter saving horses the next day?
For some, the Nashville Flood of 2010 was disastrous. For us, it was redemptive. God used it to wash away all the things we thought we needed. As we tore up the floors and cut out the walls to prevent the mold from growing, God tore something out of us that, if left, would kill. He took the short life we’d built together and tore it apart to rebuild it on a new foundation—him. We didn’t lose our home. We got it back better than ever, with a new focus and a new purpose, to use it for the advancement of his mission rather than a retreat from the world he’d sent us into.
(You can read more about this here)
Months after the flood, we were preparing to go to dinner with one of our deacons at church. I was to take over the finances the next year, and he wanted to show me some things. I got home from work, changed clothes, and came downstairs to a wife unsure of how to break the news. So I just looked at the positive result on the test and hugged her, both tears and fear rising within me.
How could I be a dad? I didn’t know what to do! We smiled at each other. It was overwhelming. We didn’t have time to talk about it. We were due for dinner. We got in the car and drove, saying something and nothing, unsure of how to proceed. When do we break the news to others? When do we go to the doctor? When do we need to get the nursery ready? What if something terrible happens?
Jack appeared on July 6, 2011. Two days before, we spent the day walking around the festival downtown and eating watermelon with our friends on the back porch. Then, it was just the two of us. Forty-eight hours later, it was three of us. I was a dad. Sarah was a mom. We were a family.
Throughout the rest of 2011 and into 2012, we learned how to be parents. We scheduled naps and feedings. We posed for newborn pictures, then three-month pictures, then six-month pictures, and so on. Jack grew from a baby into a toddler, learning to walk and then run. He fell often, hitting his head and causing a bump to appear. But he never stopped. His pain tolerance was, and is still, very high. Nothing discouraged him. Very little does now.
In May of 2012, we took a trip to Vermont to visit our best friends who had recently moved up there. Through the winding hills and beautiful scenery, Sarah complained of car sickness more than usual. I knew something she didn’t but wasn’t able to vocalize. Was I right?
She was pregnant. We found out shortly after we arrived home. We wanted another child, but this one would be a mere 18 months younger than Jack. Could we handle two babies? Too late now. We were about to find out.
So we prepared to make another leap, this time from a family of three to a family of four. We had another room to prepare, another registry to make, and another set of appointments to keep. As the year wound down and Jack celebrated his second Christmas, a new set of hopes began to appear brighter and brighter. Luke was almost here.
Luke arrived on January 14, 2013. He was later than planned. We didn’t know it at the time, but that’s just his way of living. He’s not in a hurry. Even still, we’re constantly waiting on him to leave the house. He’s wandering upstairs trying to find his shoes as we sit in the car wondering what’s taking so long. He’s the one who sleeps in. He’s not worried about time because, in his mind, there’s always plenty of it.
It’s funny that it was 2013 that taught us how short time actually is. There was never enough. Two kids needed to be fed. Two needed to be put to bed. Two needed far more than one, and though there were two of us, two wasn’t enough. Luke required more attention as a baby than Jack ever had. We had to adjust. We had to adapt. What worked with Jack simply didn’t with Luke. He needed to be wrapped, carried, rocked, fed, sung to, and held tight before he thought about going to sleep. If we failed at any one of those, he’d scream for an hour.
Luke was the kid that came in and taught us we weren’t the all-star parents we thought we were. It wasn’t that he was bad. It was that he was different. Babies, it turns out, aren’t robots. God has a thousand ways to keep parents on their toes, dependent on him alone, and personality types is game plan number one.
We settled in and Luke grew and grew. Soon, he was nearing the size of his brother, in weight, if not yet in height. He would snuggle with us on the couch and watch a show, content to be in your arms. He would eat, and eat, and eat some more. He had different likes and dislikes. He filled our house with a joy we didn’t know we needed.
I remember waiting those long extra weeks for Luke to arrive. I wondered if I could love another child as much as I loved Jack. Then Luke was here and I wondered how I ever wondered that. He had my heart. He still does. He always will. Love, as my dad said once, doesn’t divide. It multiplies. Luke proved that to me.
In March of 2014, Sarah and I were learning how to raise our two kids. We were serving in our church. Sarah was making our house a home. I was working hard at my job. And about 45-minutes down the road, my grandfather was dying.
In reality, he’d been dying for a while. His heart just wasn’t strong anymore, and nothing would strengthen it. The time was coming. We all knew it. So one Saturday, my parents, my sister, and my family went out to his house. We ate dinner with my grandparents and my aunt and cousins. We sat downstairs because Granddaddy couldn’t climb the stairs anymore. His spot, secured by his remote control and container of peanuts was still there, but he wouldn’t sit in it again.
My sister took Jack outside. It was a sunny day in early spring. The tulips were up. Jack found a yellow one and picked it. He brought it in the house, walked to his great grandfather and handed it to him. I snapped a picture of Granddaddy sitting there holding the tulip my young son had just given him.
Jack would never have the privilege of eating Granddaddy’s fried catfish. He wouldn’t pick him up and take him to McDonald’s for hamburgers. There would be no trips to Dairy Queen for dipped ice cream cones. But those were my memories with him. They couldn’t be Jack’s.
But as he sat there holding that flower, I grieved for the things I had that my kids would never see of him. If they remembered him at all, which I knew they wouldn’t, it would be one of weakness. It would not be that of summer days in the creek, the cold water up to our knees looking for fish and frogs. It would not be sweating on the bank of the pond, waiting for that catfish that would make the perfect dinner. But again, those were my memories. They weren’t meant for them, no matter how much I wished they would be.
This was the year I would first taste the sorrow of death. Granddaddy died just short of his 80th birthday. On Tuesday, March 18th, I stood beside his grave and conducted my first funeral. I had no idea at the time that the next few years would usher in more than I wanted of death. But that day, I stood and told of the days gone by, of Granddaddy and me in the creeks and beside the ponds. I told people of the hope we can find in Jesus in the face of death. And I reminded us all of the words of Saint Patrick, because Granddaddy’s birthday fell on Saint Patrick’s death day, and he almost made it full circle. “Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me.”
As spring morphed into summer and summer gave way to fall and fall ushered in winter, the clock rang in another year. We were half-way through a decade.
In many ways, I could break the decade into two halves centered on the two churches we served. The first half was comprised of Immanuel Church in Nashville. We began attending in only their second year as a church. We jumped right in, growing like weeds under the ministry of Ray Ortlund. Sarah was discipled by his wife, Jani. We served in about every capacity we could and we loved every minute of it. We had no plans to ever leave. But our plans are nothing compared to God’s.
In the summer of 2015, I sat in a restaurant’s private room with the other elders of Immanuel. We were interviewing a guy from Louisville who planned to plant a church in Franklin, just a few minutes south of Nashville and my hometown. I was so glad to meet him. I wanted to see a new church planted in Franklin for years, even considering if God was calling me to do it myself.
As the conversation progressed, it became clear that we could help this pastor. We hired Dustin as the Church Planter in Residence. A few months later, we began talking. I had no plans to leave Immanuel. Sarah wouldn’t even entertain the idea. And then something happened. God called and we answered. He was telling us to go—to leave the church that grew us and matured us and to begin again with new people in a new location in a new church. I remember feeling the stirring in my own heart and, eventually, I asked Sarah, “What do you think about going with Dustin?” Her response told me all I needed to know. “I’m open to it.” I knew then it was a done deal.
We didn’t officially leave Immanuel until 2016, but it was 2015 when the work began. Refuge Church was born. We were there at the beginning. We’re still there.
2015 was a year of accepting change. We were changing churches—on the best of terms, but still hard. And we were also changing as a family once again. Sarah was pregnant with Andy, due right around Luke’s birthday.
I had no idea how much Sarah wanted another child until we found out we were pregnant again. I wasn’t so sure. How could we raise three kids? Would it be too much? Little did I know, Andy was the joy we needed (and still need) because dark times were coming. I don’t want to place too much on a boy, but Andy has been a continual bright spot in our lives—a blessing we would never for a second claim to deserve. All our kids are.
A week before Andy was to be born, we were sitting at home. Sarah was on the floor with Jack and Luke, her belly ripe and ready. Sarah’s mom called my phone. I didn’t answer in time. I thought it was odd. They were on vacation. Why would she call me? And if she needed something, why not call Sarah?
A voice mail popped up. I listened. It was Sarah’s mom’s friend, the one they were visiting. My heart sank. Something happened but I didn’t know what. All she asked was to call her back. I feared the worst. Were they in an accident? Were they both gone? What happened?
I called back. It was bad news. After dinner that night, they went back to the house and were enjoying a nice evening on the back porch. Suddenly, Nick, Sarah’s step-dad, grabbed his chest and fell to the ground. In a flash, he was gone. He went to Florida for vacation but he wasn’t coming home.
I remember Sarah heaving on the floor. I thought the baby would come out that night. I held her. My sister came over to watch Jack and Luke. They didn’t understand what was happening, thankfully.
I called our pastor, Ray. I’ll never forget his first words after hearing the news. “Oh, I’m so glad he knew the Lord.” He was right. Nick did know Jesus. He wasn’t coming home. He was home.
That night was filled with heaviness and tears. Eventually, we gave in to the sadness and fell asleep. The next day, I knew I had to break the news to the boys. I just didn’t know how to do it.
I sat my boys down and said we had something to tell them. They didn't remember the tears in our eyes from the night before. They didn't know why my sister came over to play with them until bedtime as their mom and I withdrew together. They thought good news of a fun-filled day was coming. I wish it was, but that day had to wait. Death had approached our doorstep, crashing its way from Florida with the speed of a trembling voice on the other end of the telephone. Their Pops was gone.
(You can read more about this here)
2016 was a difficult year, to say the least. Andy was born, and his birth brought joy into a sad world. As he grew, we only saw the joy grow with him. He still smiles more than he cries. His eyes light up with excitement about nearly anything.
2017 was unremarkable in comparison. There were no births and no deaths in our little family. We just learned to live and grow with new realities. One of Sarah’s parents now missing, and three little mouths at our table.
That was the year Jack started Kindergarten. We entered a new era. Like every parent, there were fears and tears for our child. Would he be okay? Would he make friends? Would he miss us? The answer, it turns out, is yes to all of those. But the last one isn’t nearly as bad as you’d think. We missed him far more than he missed us.
2018 started normal enough. Jack was doing well in school. Luke was soon to join him. In August, we found out we were pregnant yet again. This one was a total surprise. More about that later, because there’s another story about another child that needs to be told first.
Finn was nearing his fourth birthday, but he wouldn’t make it there. He and his family moved from New York a few years before. They joined our church, arriving just as we launched and never left. A few months after they joined, we received the tragic news of Finn’s cancer. It was rare and aggressive and, ultimately, deadly.
As autumn drew near, the winter of Finn’s life came blowing in like a New York snowstorm. A planned surgery revealed more tumors than the doctors ever imagined. There wasn’t anything else they could do for him. They sent him home to rest, but his parents couldn’t. They searched and searched for a cure but everything was too little and too late. In early December, when we all knew the time was near, I was preparing for church one Sunday morning and received a text from Dan, Finn’s father. He was gone.
A week later, we gathered to remember his life. The next day, we buried him in the ground. It was yet another funeral, this time far more tragic, this time one that was hard to make sense of. So we gathered and looked to Jesus and his gospel. We put our hope in the resurrection promise. We cried and we mourned and we still do.
My kids had lost great-grandparents and grandparents. Now they had lost a friend.
(You can read more about this here)
As 2018 gave way to 2019 and we neared the end of the decade, we moved. It wasn’t far. But it was still a big deal. The house we bought in 2008 was no longer our home. It was sold to an investor who already was looking for future tenants.
We loved our house. We loved our neighbors and neighborhood even more. But we were out of space. Another baby was coming, this time a little girl. It was time to move on, even though that was hard to accept at first.
In mid-January, we watched as movers took all our stuff to a big truck and drove it across town to our new house. We settled in and waited for April, and Kate, to come. She finally did on April 12th. At last, our little girl—the one we’d always wanted but would never confess to that desire—was here. And she’s amazing.
(You can read more about this here)
Looking back now, my decade probably wasn’t too different from yours. Babies were born. People died. Life was lived. Tears and joy mingled to make a portrait of something bigger and more complex than we could ever imagine.
Standing on the brink of a new decade, we can’t imagine what will take place. We can know only one thing: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The grace of God has not yet run out. His mercies are new every morning. And no matter how dark the night gets, joy comes with the morning. Throughout the next decade, for those in Christ, all that’s guaranteed is day after day of the love of God. That’s all we can know for sure. And it’s enough.
The two disciples began the seven-mile walk home from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Despairing recent events, they didn’t notice the man joining their party until he began talking. Had they known him? They certainly had, though they were unaware at the moment. In an ironic twist, the topic of their home going discussion was now one of their carpool. The one whom they had hoped was the one to redeem Israel (Luke 24:21) was alive again. Their hope was not put to shame (Romans. 5:5). But they couldn’t see that yet. Oh, how hope is often veiled by own our doubts!
It’s a common fear, this putting to shame of one’s hope. It is a fire easily extinguished by the wet blanket of the world’s disappointments. By definition, hope is something future-oriented, out beyond, something promised though not yet possessed. Anything out in the future is, of course, uncertain, and that uncertainty plays with our mind. The things we hope for (and hope in) can let us down. We’ve been there a thousand times, haven’t we? The hoped-for Christmas present never comes. The hoped-for spouse never asks you out. The hoped-for promotion never materializes. To grow up in this world is to grow up learning to deal with disappointment.
Hope, it seems, is a fickle thing. Perhaps it’s something better left alone. That’s why so many today seem to have none. Why bother? So cynicism reigns. Things might be okay later on, but don’t get your hopes up. Everything ultimately disappoints. Even death, that release into the great land beyond is now thought by so many as a great nothingness—a removal of sorts from all that matters, never subjecting one to pain again, nor, for that matter, to any other emotion. Culturally, our hope amounts to nothing. The great hope of the enlightenment, that we were progressing upwardly, soon to be far better versions of ourselves, is no longer enough. We aren’t progressing—the twentieth century proved that well enough—but now we’re barely even trying. We dull our fears with entertainment and erase our eternal hopes with something more instantly gratifying: another hit of sugar, another purchase from Amazon, another trip to the beach, anything short-lived because who has time for things to come one day? So credit card bills carry a never decreasing balance because someone has to foot the bill of our hopelessness.
The Emmaus road disciples would find a home in twenty-first-century America. Obviously, Jesus is dead, yet the world still spins. Death is imminent but better left unconsidered. Going home is the only option left. At least there’s comfort there as we wait out the rest of our days.
But as they walked, their new partner rebuked their lack of faith and spoke wonderful things to them from the Bible. He proved something, though they weren’t sure at the time what the point was. All they knew was that their hearts began to light up with something pushing them onward, a burning inside that restored the hope they thought they’d lost (Luke 24:32). They went home despairing a dead Jesus but on the way, they met a living savior.
Hope is born out of such things. It’s when our head is lowest and our hearts are dimmest that Jesus does his best work, even if that work has been there from the foundation of the world. It’s us that needs to see it, and it’s to us that Jesus comes, rebuking if he must, but still lovingly bearing with us as if we’re the only ones in the world. To him, we are. You, Christian, are his mission—the very reason he lived, died, and rose again. In his glory, he has all the time in the world for you. All the patience too, it seems. He aims to make his people not only able to bear with the world he left them in but to make them hopeful in the living.
That day, Jesus taught his disciples (and therefore us) to look beyond this world. Christians do not set their hope on the uncertainty of worldly riches be they life or treasure. Christians set their hopes, rather, on God who richly provides (1 Timothy 6:17). Christian hope is solid and firm, like the Rock it stands upon. More than vague optimism, Christian hope is the firm conviction of things not yet seen that are coming sure as the morning sun—like a risen Savior revealing the glory of what’s really before us.
The Bible is riddled with hope. Open it, and like a spring tightly wound, it jumps. Even the darkest moments glimmer with something better coming quickly from heaven. It seems that for the saints of Hebrews 11, every day was like Christmas Eve. By faith, they followed the Lord where he led. As a child waking too early in the morning, not all their steps were sure, but they knew something great was coming.
Every Christmas we celebrate the coming of King Jesus. But the hope of the world did not end 2,000 years ago on the cross. The hope of Christmas was not only that Jesus came into the world back then but that he’s coming again very soon. It is that great hope to which the New Testament points. Yes, Jesus accomplished our salvation on the cross. That’s the “already” of the gospel. But the “not yet” is out ahead. So Christians serve the living God today because, as Paul tells Timothy, “We have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior” (1 Timothy 4:10).
As the prophets of old grounded the hopes of Israel in the certainty of God’s promises, so Jesus grounds the hopes of Christians in the certainty of the same. Jesus grounds our hope in the certainty of God himself. Jesus, our hope, has more than the shifting winds of circumstance and chance. Jesus, our hope, has the firmness of the promises of God. What God has said surely will come to pass (Joshua 21:45, Isaiah 14:24, Ezekiel 12:25). Christian hope is a certainty, even if he in which we place our hope cannot be seen. As the apostle Paul said, we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
When the world gets dark, as it did that day on the road to Emmaus, we say things like “it’s hard to keep hope alive.” But we don’t have to keep this hope alive. Our hope isn’t a vague self-willed determination. It’s a person. And Jesus is alive. If he is our hope, it matters not how you feel about your hope. Jesus died and rose again so that even when our hope fades, his resurrection glory burns all the brighter.
“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Corinthians 1:20). Placing our hope in the promises of God apart from the person of God ensures disappointment. Misplaced hope is a terrible thing to live with. But placed in the crucified hands of Jesus, hope holds us up because Jesus holds us up. The one we hoped would be the redeemer of Israel is the redeemer of Israel. Hope proves himself. Hope becomes a solid foundation rather than a wobbly anticipation.
J.I. Packer helps us understand the biblical meaning of hope in his Concise Theology.
Living between the two comings of Christ, Christians are to look backward and forward: back to the manger, the cross, and the empty tomb, whereby salvation was won for them; forward to their meeting with Christ beyond this world, their personal resurrection, and the joy of being with their Savior in glory forever. New Testament devotion is consistently oriented to this hope; Christ is “our hope” (1 Tim. 1:1) and we serve “the God of hope” (Rom. 15:13). Faith itself is defined as “being sure of what we hope for” (Heb. 11:1), and Christian commitment is defined as having “fled to take hold of … this hope as an anchor for the soul” (Heb. 6:18–19). When Jesus directed his disciples to lay up treasure in heaven, because “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:21), he was saying in effect, as Peter was later to say, “set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Pet. 1:13).
Hope, for the Christian, is as firm as can be, and even our suffering can’t take it away. As Packer goes on to say, “Though the Christian life is regularly marked more by suffering than by triumph (1 Cor. 4:8–13; 2 Cor. 4:7–18; Acts 14:22), our hope is sure and our mood should be one of unquenchable confidence: we are on the victory side.”
We are on the victory side not because we are overcomers but because Jesus, our hope, is the Overcomer. Christian hope, therefore, is resting in the victory of Jesus. It is knowing that he cares for his people and will bring them home—or, more precisely, he will bring his home to them, making new what we destroyed.
That evening after the long journey home, Jesus sat with his disciples and did what he’d done so many times before. He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them (Luke 24:30). And when they ate, as Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened to their sin, these disciples’ eyes were opened to their Savior. They saw before them Hope himself. And they ran back to Jerusalem to share the good news with their brothers and sisters in hope.
A year ago, we gathered in a cemetery chapel next to a coffin that seemed too small to be real. That beast Cancer had taken another. This time, little Finn.
Through tears and a shaky voice, I offered the words God gave me as best I could. Moments later, I watched parents bury their earthly dreams for their boy. The dirt piled on. They said their goodbyes. But how does a parent bid goodbye to their three-year-old son? How do they go on, parenting their other two boys when the one missing pulls their heart underground with them?
I don’t know. But God knows. And in moments like that, that’s the greatest hope we have.
Last week, on the anniversary of Finn’s death, we gathered to remember. We grieved together as those in Christ grieve—truly but with all the hope Jesus gives. There is a day coming when death shall be no more. We believe that. We look forward to it. Today, though, isn’t that day. So we cry with aching hearts. But we won’t bury our hope. How could we? Our hope rose from the grave.
For two and a half years, the fight for a cure was in full force. Then, suddenly, one day it was over. For a year and a half, all Finn’s parents had each night as they tucked their boy into bed was that morning would come bearing new mercies. Perhaps one day, they hoped, the mercy of a cure would come knocking on their door.
But that cure never came. Instead, the tumors grew larger and faster, making their home in a place they didn’t belong. The medical landscape dried up. Time ran out. One final morning, it was all over.
I remember the moment I saw the text message come in. As I looked at the words there in black and white, I grieved. I knew this was coming. We all did. But it hurt. It felt surprising. Death always leaves you longing for just one more something—one more visit, one more hello, one more goodbye, one more hug, one more look, one more smile, one more anything. Among the many things death steals is the normal things of life that you don’t even notice until you can’t have it again. Those are the things that really hurt. The toys sitting on the living room couch. The label that prints his name for Sunday School at church. The things of life that just happen until they suddenly don’t. Those are the things that hurt so much more than we expect.
Days after his death, we showed up to a church in town to mourn together and to celebrate a life too short but oh so meaningful. We wore our avocado pins because they were Finn’s favorite food. We told stories and gave hugs and we worshiped God because that’s what you do when you have no other answers. You lift your praise to the one who knows what it’s like to lose a son. And you put your hope in that Son’s resurrection.
During the service, there was a slide show of Finn’s life. Ellie Holcomb’s Red Sea Road served as the soundtrack for the first part.
We’ve buried dreams,
Laid them deep into the earth behind us
Said our goodbyes
At the grave but everything reminds us
God knows we ache,
When He asks us to go on
How do we go on?
How does a family go on? I didn’t know. So I looked to the one who was trying to—to Finn’s dad. And he gave me hope. On this anniversary of Finn’s burial, I know no better words than Dan’s, which I have included below.
Every night before bed, we had the same routine. We’d get a glass of water, and say our prayers. Sometimes we would pray but there were times when he would pop up and say, “I want to pray.” So he would pray. He’d say the usual prayers and when he was done praying, he’d look at us, and hold his arms out and say, “Hug and kiss.”
So we’d tuck him in, snuggling with his lion blanket. We’d pull his blanket over him, and he would give us just the sweetest and gentlest hug and kiss you can imagine. And every night without fail, he would finish by saying in the cutest little voice, “See you in the morning.”
Finn is profoundly missed. Where once there was a loving and joyful presence in our lives, there is now a gaping, jagged raw hole. The loss of Finn is so real, so physical, so emotional, and it is so life-dominating that it is hard to think of anything beyond our present moment of sorrow. And as we cry out to God in our sorrow and our anger, it’s hard to see any hope in any of this. And yet in the midst of this bitter grief, the Bible does still give us hope. Psalm 30 says that weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning. It teaches us that because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the things that are will not always be. There is a hope for those in Christ Jesus, and a glorious future to look forward to. The apostle Paul spoke of this and he said it makes our current suffering seem light and momentary in comparison.
What is will not always be. We may be deep in the night now, but there will most assuredly come a morning. And with that morning will come great joy.
For now we mourn. But we cling to the hope that we will see Finn again. We will see him without tubes, without bags, and without the ravages of cancer. We will laugh and we will run. And we will probably eat avocados.
Finn, we will see you in the morning.
This is the hope of Advent lived in between the death we experience and the life promised. As Fleming Rutledge says, “The disappointment, brokenness, suffering, and pain that characterize life in this present world is held in dynamic tension with the promise of future glory that is yet to come. In that Advent tension, the church lives its life.”
Only the church has this hope. The promise of future glory is yet to come. A light will shine in the darkness. So we go on, as Ellie Holcomb sings, because in Christ, by the power of his gospel, we can sing this good song of gospel hope to our souls.
Where He leads us to go, there’s a red sea road
When we can’t see the way, He will part he waves
And we’ll never walk alone down a red sea road
Why? Because God is always there. Even in the midst of the deepest sorrow. He was there when Finn took his final breath. He was there a year ago when we laid him in the ground. He was there last week when we gathered to remember. And he will be there every moment of every hour of every day because he is a faithful God.
On a day like today, as I remember the pain of last year, and as Finn’s parents weep and remember, there is a God above who is faithful, who is bringing a morning so bright that all this pain will certainly be in comparison light and momentary. And all those little things we miss today he will restore. In our mourning, in Christ, we can know that there will most assuredly come a morning. The years that the locusts have taken will be ours again, and no one will snatch them from our resurrected hands.
“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!” (Psalm 130:1)
We all know what it’s like—all of the redeemed know, anyway. We remember the darkness. We remember the coldness. We remember the way our heart felt fear and loneliness and sorrow and grief and guilt all at the same time. We were in the pit. Our cries echoed in the depths as if mocking our solitary confinement.
Worse, there was no one to blame. No one to point the finger at. No one to bear our burden alongside us. This was our doing. We deserved it. In fact, we knew then we deserved far worse. This was only the beginning. It was the point of no return. We could not pull ourselves out. Our only hope was someone coming to our rescue, but who would do that now? We pushed them all away. We sinned our way out of favor. We fell hard and fast though it had been coming for a long time.
Such is the heart of the Psalm 130 man and woman. Sin has not returned void. The bill is due. And out of the depths, a cry rises to God. As Derek Kidner says, “Self-help is no answer to the depths of distress, however useful it may be in the shallows of self-pity.”
Self-pity could never reach such lows. It’s too self-referential, too self-reverent. It still upholds a certain amount of pride. But the Psalm 130 man and woman has lost all sense of self-pity. It has fallen to the depths. From there, the cry goes out. Verse 2 shows us it’s not a silent plea of the heart but an urgent cry of the voice. “O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy.” Mercy. The only hope the sinner in the pit.
Mercy is, as Tim Keller says in his Bible Study material on the Psalms, “the appropriate reaction to spiritual depths.” When our sin is ever before us, God’s mercy alone is our hope. Thus the Psalmist prays. “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” (Psalm 130:3-4)
There lies the hope of the sinner’s heart: that God is merciful and forgiving. If God were to mark our sins and hold them against us, not one of us would stand. We’ve all missed the mark. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But with God, there is forgiveness of sins. There is hope even for the one deep in the murky pit.
Yet the forgiveness of God is not at our beck and call. It is not the dog out in the field. It is the sun on the other side of the world. We must wait for what we most need. And the waiting, as Tom Petty said, is the hardest part.
But the Psalm 130 man and woman waits. Their soul waits. How? Verse 5, “in his word I hope.” The sinner’s waiting stares at the Bible. It’s a waiting that turns and digs and prods and plows through God’s word, finding the promises, uncovering the truths, and treasuring every verse. In the depths, God’s word becomes the light.
So the soul waits as the watchman—not passively but expectantly. “My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning” (Psalm 130:6). Of all the phrases that could be repeated, it is surprising to me that it’s this one. But perhaps this is the core of it all. In the depths, there’s nothing to do but wait. You can’t pull yourself out. All you can do is wait for someone to come along. Cry all you want but it will not change a thing. Your only hope is something breaking the horizon.
What breaks in the horizon for the repentant sinner? The mercy of God. Just as a watchman knows the morning will always come, a sinner placing him or herself in the low place before God knows the morning mercies of God are coming sure as the dawn. The night may be dark, and it may get darker still, but light is coming. New morning mercies are on the way.
We know this because Mercy came in Christ. All our hope rests in the cross of Christ. If he took our sin upon himself, which he did, it cannot come back to us. God will forgive because Christ has died and risen.
As the Psalmist lets the fact of God’s impending mercy settle on his heart, he moves out into mission. “O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”
True repentance is always missional. The one who repents and finds the mercy of God cannot hold back the good news of God’s forgiveness. All the details may not be shared—they aren’t in this Psalm—but enough is told so that all can see that God has restored to his marvelous light the one who once was in the dark depths of sin. God’s faithfulness is seen in the forgiveness of sinners. And he loves to forgive!
When your sin puts you in the depths of despair, and you have no way out on your own, there is a God above who rules and reigns and forgives and saves. Even if no one else sees you there, he does, and his hand will come to your rescue, if only you’ll wait on him. Sometimes the destruction our sin causes results in a long recovery process. Wait on God! Keep waiting until the Sun of Righteousness rises on the horizon. Wait until mercy’s light shines into your heart. Wait on God as a watchman for the morning. Morning always comes. With God, so does mercy.
A little over a hundred years ago, God broke through in Korea. As the Spirit moved, public confession flowed. Here is one account of the impact.
Then began a meeting the like of which I had never seen before, nor wish to see again, unless in God’s sight it is absolutely necessary. Every sin a human being can commit was publicly confessed that night. Pale and trembling with emotion, in agony of mind and body, guilty souls, standing in the white light of their judgment, saw themselves as God saw them. Their sins rose up in all their vileness, till shame and grief and self-loathing took complete possession; pride was driven out, the face of man forgotten. Looking up to heaven, to Jesus whom they had betrayed, they smote themselves and cried out with bitter wailing:
“Lord, Lord, cast us not away forever!” Everything else was forgotten, nothing else mattered. The scorn of men, the penalty of the law, even death itself seemed of small consequence if only God forgave. We may have other theories of the desirability or undesirability of public confession of sin. I have had mine; but I know now that when the Spirit of God falls upon guilty souls, there will be confession, and no power on earth can stop it.
Young-Hoon Lee, “Korean Pentecost: The Great Revival of 1907,” AJPS 4 (2001): 77-78.
I recently prepared a talk to my church’s men’s gathering on Psalm 85 and revival. During that time of preparation, I was reminded of a sermon from Ray Ortlund in September 2018. During that sermon, he answered five questions about revival from Psalm 85:6, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”
1. One, what is revival?
It is God refreshing sinners with more mercy than we’ve ever known before. Revival isn’t God recycling the same-old-same-old but God visiting us with fresh blessing.
2. Two, who needs revival?
We do. God’s people do. Can we be above it? Would we even want to be? It was the Laodiceans who said, “I need nothing,” which only proved that they needed everything.
3. Three, who is the reviver?
God alone. The word “you” in verse 6 is emphatic in the original text: “ Will you not revive us again”? Grace for the undeserving through the finished work of Christ on the cross – it’s who God is. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). We are weak and foolish. That’s who we are. But the most important thing about our future is not who we are but who God is.
4. Four, what is the impact of revival?
We are lifted up with new life, so that we rejoice in him again. He puts a new thrill in our hearts. He puts a new spring in our step, a whole new outlook on life, new energy for obeying him and we walk out of church thinking, “Man, I want to live for Jesus this week!”
5. Five, what are our chances?
Excellent. Verse 6 is not the psalmist wringing his hands and moaning, “Will you revive us again?” He asks with expectancy, “Will you not revive us again?” In fact, the version of the Old Testament published by the Jewish Publication Society – and they know their Hebrew – paraphrases verse 6 not as a question but as an assertion: “Surely you will revive us again.” That’s exactly right. In other words, “Given who you are, Lord – let’s look beyond who we are, since that’s depressing – but given who you are, surely you will. We’re a mess. But we’re your mess. Will you not pour out your newness of life again, that we may rejoice in you?”
I had a friend who used to answer a common question in an uncommon way. He has since moved to another city, but his response has never left me. For a long time, when I would ask how he was, he gave a three-fold response:
“God is on his throne, everything is going his way, and he loves me.”
These are simple yet profound truths. They define not only how we are in ultimately, but how we can be in the present. Our circumstances may loom large in our minds. We may fear and fret all day long. But for those in Christ, these three things are always right.
“God is on his throne” means a King is ruling and reigning. He is immovable and irreplaceable with glory and honor. We are not left alone. Despite what we may be tempted to think, this world has order and meaning. Everything matters—even what you’re enduring right now.
“Everything is going his way” means nothing is surprising to God. Nothing is outside of his control. History may be long and bloody, your life may be filled with suffering and tears, but it all bends toward restoration and redemption. We can trust his hand because we’ve seen his heart.
“And he loves me” means our King cares. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He will be will us always, until the end of the age. When we’re not sure what to make of what we’re facing, this truth re-centers us on the gospel. Jesus died to have us. God loves you, and maybe your biggest struggle is to let his love in—to let God love you.
We opened in prayer. How could we start any other way? With heads bowed and eyes closed, we asked for the Lord’s blessing, for fresh eyes to see his Word, and for enlarged hearts to receive his grace.
The local expression of God’s church to which I belong is beautiful. How could she not be? Christ died for her. Though she isn’t big by American standards, she is large in the realms of glory. She is young but not immature. She is small yet mighty.
I have only a small vantage point compared to the all-knowing eyes above, but what I saw last Sunday was breathtaking.
Down the hall, a group of women were opening the pages of Micah. And in our men’s Bible study, we were looking at Psalm 116, learning from Tim Keller how to pray the Scriptures. Taking five minutes to pray the words before us, one man prayed a simple and obvious prayer from the first verse. “I love you, Lord, because you’ve heard me and done so much for me.” The simplicity of it struck me. How could something so basic be so moving? We opened the Bible. We prayed the Bible. And glory came down.
An hour later, gathered in the cafeteria of an elementary school, we sang praises to God. Our pastor stood and preached a difficult but wonderful sermon from Mark 10:1-12: Jesus’ teachings on divorce. We took communion. We gave of our tithes and offerings. We sang a few more songs and we left.
Down the road, a group of women met in my living room to discuss a Christian book. They opened up to one another, asking questions and digging deep.
Hours later, my living room was filled again with our community group, there to catch up with one another, pray for one another, and discuss the day’s sermon.
It wasn’t a banner day, really. But then again, it was. It was the Lord’s day, and I saw his hand upon the breadth of it.
I admit, most Sundays come and go without these thoughts. I don’t always see the beauty of the church. Too often, I see the shortcomings. I wish for more: more people, more intensity, more good feelings, more something. But whether I see it or not, God’s glory descends upon our church week by week, day by day, moment by moment. Not because we have built something great but because, with his blood, Jesus has.
Ephesians 5:25 says, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” The church gathers in the aftermath of the crucifixion. We are a sacrificial gathering, but not one offering our sacrifices to please God; we come under the God-pleasing sacrifice of Christ. We assemble as ones freed from eternal wrath, washed by cleansing blood, redeemed from death by death.
Is that crazy? God gave himself up for this. The church is not man’s idea. We wouldn’t have thought of it. We would over-complicate it. We would muddle it. We would infuse it with more things, thinking our stuffing would enhance the flavor. But what we add only detracts. What God gives is pure and undefiled.
The message never changes. At least it shouldn’t. It’s the old, old story of Jesus and his love. Told again and again, from page to page and sermon to sermon. The gospel’s glory held high, multifaceted and eminently practical. We come with our fears and find courage. We come with our anxieties and find peace. We come with our wounds and find healing. We come with our joys and find gratitude. We come in a thousand different ways all at the same time and yet we come—we come to the Lord and his people.
What do we find when we get there? On the surface, not much. A few songs. A talk that lasts too long for the kids in the pew. A little bread and juice. A benediction and it’s over. But it’s not. It’s never really over. We’re changed, even if only a little, passing to another degree of glory. The chatter that happens on the way out is a glorious reminder that these are God’s people, his family, and today’s reunion was another picture of the eternal home to which we’re going. It will have better lighting, for the Lord will be our sun. There will be more life, for we will be made new. Yet it will feel like home, because we’ve been here before, gathered under the Lord’s grace, joined by his resurrected body.
Our American world doesn’t see what happens each Sabbath morning. Sunday’s interstates and highways are near empty. The Monday through Friday, nine-to-five pedal pushers press the brakes, opting for extra time in bed and another cup of coffee. But something glorious is happening in every village and town and city. The songs of the redeemed are rising like incense, a very pleasing aroma. God is tasted and seen. The King is worshiped. A revolution comes to its rallying place.
I recently read Randy Alcorn’s book Money, Possessions, and Eternity. The entire book is a ball of conviction. His argument is so impactful because it comes from the pages of Scripture. This part particularly got me.
Paul says, “See that you also excel in this grace of giving” (2 Corinthians 8: 7). Like piano playing, giving is a skill. With practice, we get better at it. We can learn to give more, give more often, and give more strategically. We teach the pursuit of excellence in our vocations. Why not make giving something we study, discuss, and sharpen, striving for excellence? We have Bible studies on everything else. Why not giving?
Paul is not just speaking to individuals. The church is to work together corporately to excel in giving. It’s increasingly common for Christians to ask each other the tough questions: “How are you doing in your marriage?” “How much time have you been spending in the Word?” “How’s your sexual purity?” “Have you been sharing your faith?” But how often do we ask, “Have you been robbing God?” or “Are you winning the battle against materialism?” or “How much are you giving to the Lord?”
When it comes to giving, churches operate under a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. We lack communication, accountability, and modeling. It’s as if we have an unspoken agreement—“ I won’t talk about it if you won’t”—so we can go right on living as we are. Ask the young people at your church if they can point out examples of prayer warriors in the congregation, people who have a lot to teach about prayer. Most can come up with names. Now ask them to point out the giving warriors, people who have a lot to teach about giving. The fact that the term giving warrior sounds so foreign says it all, doesn’t it?
Think about it—how do young Christians in our churches learn how to give? Where can they go to see what giving looks like in the life of a believer captivated by Christ? Why are we surprised when, seeing no other example, they take their cues from a materialistic society? Statistics clearly indicate that young adults in the church give a much lower percentage of their income. Part of the reason is that older Christians have failed to pass on a vision for giving.
We’re to “consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10: 24). Shouldn’t we be asking, “How can we spur on each other’s giving? How can we help each other excel in giving?”
One way church leaders can inspire giving is by committing the church to give away a higher percentage of its own income. Does 15 percent of the church’s income go to missions? Raise it to 25 percent next year and more the next. Does 5 percent go to helping the poor? Raise it to 15 percent. For the same reason that churches wanting to discourage their people from incurring debt should not incur debt, churches wanting to encourage giving should give. Giving shouldn’t just be something churches talk about, but something they do.
When Paul said to “excel” in giving, he was referring to special giving to suffering believers facing famine in Jerusalem. Pastors shouldn’t limit instruction on giving to times where they’re raising funds for building projects. Why not preach on giving for four weeks, and then follow it not with an offering that will benefit the church but with a missions offering that will benefit others? If we want people to stretch themselves in their giving, the best way to model this is for the church to stretch itself in its giving.
When it first launched, www.ImmanuelNashville.com was a picture of a coffee cup, a space for an email address, and an offer to meet for coffee. So I entered my address. A few days later, my friend Jared and I were sitting in a Starbucks with Ray Ortlund.
That email changed our lives.
Jared and I were planting a church in Nashville. Ray was planting a church in Nashville. We needed friends. We didn’t know it yet, but so did Ray. We all entered that Starbucks with more questions than answers. We didn’t know if anything we were doing would work. Maybe that’s why we became friends.
The story of my friendship with Ray is too long to write about here. With Ray’s recent retirement from pastoral ministry, my goal is to talk about a few things Ray taught me over the dozen or so years I’ve known him.
I guess Ray and I have a thing for meeting at Starbucks. I was serving as a deacon at Immanuel at the time. I met Ray at the church, and we rode in his truck to grab a coffee. I don’t remember what we talked about. All I remember is the ride back to church.
We were at a stoplight—a long one. Ray didn’t intend to teach me anything, but he did. I asked him how he was doing in an area I knew he was struggling with. Looking straight ahead, he said simply but profoundly, “David, God is so patient with me. He’s so patient. He’s so patient. He’s so patient.” My memory tells me he repeated that phrase for at least a full minute. Ray couldn’t (and still can’t) get over the patience of God. That’s why Ray’s sermons drip with grace.
Ray loves music. Or, rather, Ray loves 1960s music. Bob Dylan. The Beatles. The Beach Boys. But most of all, Credence Clearwater Revival.
Why does that matter? Before coming under Ray’s ministry, I was hesitant to enjoy the things of this earth. I couldn’t deny my love for baseball, for Tom Petty, for coffee, for summer evenings outside. But I wasn’t sure I should like them.
Then one Sunday, Ray preached a Thanksgiving sermon that changed it all for me. God gives good gifts. CCR is proof. Enjoy what God gives. Thank him for it. To not to is a sin.
Ray loves the Bible more than anyone I know. He doesn’t just read it. He investigates it. He gets inside it. Cut him open, and he bleeds it.
My wife and I packed a sack lunch and sat for six hours in a stuffy upstairs room in an old church building for Immanuel’s new member’s class. Ray explained why Immanuel existed, what Immanuel believed, etc. All the things you’d expect from a membership class.
Then he said something I’d never heard before. I don’t even remember what section we were in, but Ray was talking about rest. He explained that a Christian rests not from his work but for his work. Rest is God’s way of restoration, not retreat. Then he said, “Some people go on vacation and don’t take their Bible.” Up to that point, I’d never once taken my Bible on vacation. It never occurred to me to do so. But to Ray, rest and the Bible go hand in hand. The Bible, to Ray, is rest, because Jesus, to Ray, is rest. He is for us all, if we’ll have him.
Immanuel’s call to worship, when given by Ray, is a holy experience. Ray taught me that God doesn’t despise me. He loves me. He did this simply, by telling me, from the Bible, of the dying love of Jesus. Click the link above to hear it for yourself.
In the early days of Immanuel Church, a group of thirty or so men met a few Saturdays a year for an all-day seminar led by a seminary professor or pastor. It was an intense day of theology, like drinking from a fire hose. It was amazing.
Ray is a scholar. When it comes to the Bible, he’s the smartest man I know and no one is a close second. But if you were to observe those seminars, you would never know that. Ray was the best student there—taking notes, asking questions, paying attention. I have to think Ray knew a lot of that stuff already, but he was finding new things to learn, new ways to see, new insights to gain. Ray never stopped growing.
Immanuel was busting at the seams in our current building. We needed to move. Nothing in our predetermined range opened up or was affordable. Then we got a call. A building on the west side of Nashville was coming available. Would we like to see it?
We gathered the elders and deacons to discuss. It was outside the area we thought was best. But it was a good building. Lots of space. Growing area. After some discussion, Ray said, “Why not go?”
Ray was always doing that. Whereas many of us were quick to see reasons not to do something, Ray was quick to see an opportunity. Yes, it wasn’t our ideal, but what did we know, anyway? God was in this. Let’s trust him.
The decision to move sent Immanuel Church into overdrive. We could have done nothing, but Ray doesn’t do that. He goes where God gives opportunity.
I don’t know if you’ve been around Ray and his wife, Jani. If you have, you know what I’m talking about already.
Ray and Jani are the most “in-love” people I know. They adore one another. They’re like a dating high school couple. They call each other “Dear” and “Babe” and so forth, and it’s as real as can be. There is no faking; only love. They are proof that romance never dies if we keep it alive.
There is a fullness in God that we cannot exhaust. He loves us deeply, and our need does not deplete him; it energizes him. And from his fullness, God gives graciously. Our part is only to ask and receive.
As long as I’ve known Ray, he’s been praying for revival. Ray longs to see what only God can do. He taught me a whole new category for expecting big things from God.
I suspect Ray wonders if he’ll ever see revival. But I think he did. I was part of a group in the early days of Immanuel that felt like revival. It may have been small in scale, but it was not insignificant in the kingdom of God. I saw newness of life burst forth. I saw the word of God preached powerfully. I saw the gospel land gently on a whole church, and I saw what only God can do.
He did it through Ray.
Okay, so Ray would say this lesson came from his Dad. And it did. On his deathbed, Ray Sr. sent this bit of wisdom to Ray via his siblings. Ray told to story often. But what he doesn’t realize is that he actually lived it. To Ray Ortlund Jr, just as to Ray Ortlund Sr, Jesus was, is, and will forever be everything. That’s why their ministry worked.
I met Ray during a tough time in his life. He wondered if his ministry was over. It wasn’t. It isn’t now. He may be retired from pastoral ministry, but God is far from done using him. I can’t wait to see what’s next!
There’s a fascinating part of Gary Millar’s book, Calling on the Name of the Lord: A Biblical Theology of Prayer.
The only unique prayer in Deuteronomy is the prayer of Moses before his death, reported in 3:23-26:
“And I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, ‘O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours? Please let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon.’ But the Lord was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me. And the Lord said to me, ‘Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again.”
This is the first example of a prayer in the Bible that is explicitly rejected. Not only does Yahweh refuse to answer this prayer, but he is ‘angered’ by the request. Why is this? This is a vital question, as any attempt to outline a biblical theology of prayer must say something about the delicate and pastorally sensitive issue of ‘unanswered prayer.’ So why is the prayer of Moses, the great intercessor, portrayed in such a negative light, and why does it receive such a severe rebuke from Yahweh?
Yahweh’s response here is completely predictable, because it is completely consistent with everything we have seen about prayer in the opening books of the Bible. Prayer is inherently covenantal, and is both drive by and based on the commitments Yahweh has made concerning the future of his covenant people, and his plans to reveal his glory to all nations. How does Moses’ prayer fit with all this? The short answer is, ‘It does not!’ Despite beginning with an admirable statement of the greatness of God, it moves quickly on to a request that can only be described as ‘selfish’. Moses’ prayer may be completely understandable from a human point of view, but, for the first time in the Pentateuch we have a prayer that has no essential connection with the progress of the plans of Yahweh. Moses, it seems, should have known better.
What about our prayers? How “covenental” are they, really? How centered are they on God’s revealed word? How much do they lean on his promises? How many are merely selfish desires robed in Christian language?
Herman Bavinck said the big question in religion comes down to this: what must we do to be saved? How we answer that question, of course, determines the kind of religion we have.
We can answer it any number of ways. We have no lack of religions. Some say we’re saved by our good works. Some say by our lack of bad works. Others strive for an enlightened state. Yet more sacrifice to appease the wrath of the gods, crossing their fingers it’s enough by the last breath. Still others (the right ones, I believe) put their full hope in a Savior.
Just as we answer the all-important question individually, we also do so corporately. In fact, that’s what the church is. Every church is answering the question. And the question we must ask of every church is what is their answer?
In other words, every church has something at the center. Something driving the gatherings, the activities, the functions. Something serving as the engine powering everything that moves. What’s at the center is what’s all around.
So what’s that something? Or, better yet, what should that something be? In a world where self-salvation projects are many, what single thing can shatter them with enough glory to save them from themselves?
The gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s what.
The Apostle Paul said, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). He said elsewhere he “decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). What’s at the center is what’s all around. For Paul, it was the gospel.
Speaking humanly, Paul was the greatest church planter the world has ever seen. The New Testament tells us of 14 churches he planted throughout the ancient world. He may have planted even more than that. In each case, what he brought to establish was not a significant budget, it was not a put-together team, it was not a polished worship service, it was not a plan event for city renewal. All Paul brought with him was the gospel he received from Jesus. That’s all he needed. In the 1960’s another Paul sang “All you need is love.” It’s a good song, but the wrong noun is at the end. The Apostle Paul sang a different tune. All you need is the gospel.
So what is the gospel?
The gospel is the good news that God saves his sinful people from his wrath through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, promising to share his glory with them in a renewed creation forever—all to the praise of the glory of his grace.
The gospel is the best news the world has ever—or will ever—hear. It’s an endless song of joy, one that is big enough to be the center of a church, the center of a people, even the center of heaven.
William Tyndale, the man who translated the Bible into English in the 16th century, said:
Evangelion (what we call “the gospel”) is a Greek word, signifying good, merry, glad and joyful news, that makes a man’s heart glad and makes him sing, dance and leap for joy.
A church without the gospel fails to be a church. It’s something else—a social club or political action committee or a rallying point for pet projects or hobby horse hermeneutics. Those are man-centered organizations. And they can’t last. They make us sad. Maybe not immediately, but ultimately. Every man-made institution ends in tears. But the gospel ends with a party. It’s good news of great joy.
Ray Ortlund wrote a great little devotional book on Romans, A Passion for God. In the afterward, he says this:
A wave of authentic revival sweeps over the church when three things happen together: teaching the great truths of the gospel with clarity, applying those truths to people’s lives with spiritual power, and extending that experience to large numbers of people. We evangelicals urgently need such an awakening today. We need to rediscover the gospel...
We should not think, “Well, of course we have the gospel. The Reformation recovered it for us.” Such complacency will cost us dearly. Every generation of Christians must be retaught afresh the basic truths of our faith. The church is always one generation away from total ignorance of the gospel, and we today are making rapid progress toward that ruinous goal. Rather than carelessly assume the gospel, we must aggressively, deliberately, fully and passionately teach and preach the gospel. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ. If we do not intentionally search them out, we will miss them.
I believe Ray is right. What will sustain us over the long haul is constant dependence upon God. A rugged commitment to his message of grace. A recurring rediscovery of his gospel. If we ever abandon the gospel as the centering point in our churches—no matter how good a thing we replace it with—we will have failed to remain faithful, and God must bring us to repentance or shut our doors.
Everyone coming into our church is asking the same question: what must I do to be saved? If our answer isn’t “throw yourself upon Christ in repentance and faith\" we’re peddling religious goods unable to last. When the buyers’ joy turns to remorse, it will be because we failed to give them the good news they sought. God will hold us accountable.
Our faithfulness to the primacy of the gospel is the issue, the pulse that proves we’re still alive. The degree to which we keep the gospel at the center is the degree to which we will see what only God can do.
The gospel is big enough to be the center of our church. We don’t have to add to it. To do so only ruins it. It’s big enough by itself.
The first of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses says, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said ‘Repent,’ he meant that the entire life of believers should be repentance.”
We cannot follow Jesus without repentance. To be his disciple is to be a person of repentance.
So, what is repentance? Here’s how the Westminster Shorter Catechism defines it: “Repentance unto life is a saving grace by which a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does, with grief and hatred of sin, turn from it toward God, with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.”
In other words, repentance is simply turning from ourselves to God, asking him to help us obey. To repent is to trust that God has more mercy than we have sin.
Repentance is part of the good news of the gospel. It’s how we get free. We need that kind of freedom over and over again. Repentance is saying, “I was wrong” to the One who has never been wrong and cannot sin, and, therefore, can help us get out of the mess we’re in.
How can we be sure he will help us? The gospel proves God is not a “told you so” disappointed father, waiting for us to shuffle home so he can tell us how it really is. No, the gospel proves when we come to our senses and leave the pig sty for the Father’s house, he runs to meet us with a party and a fatten calf and a robe and ring. He treats us as if we never left and gives us what we never deserve.
Repentance is the doorway into God’s grace. Once inside, we find ourselves not in the courtroom but the royal court, deep inside the heart of God. God loves repentant people. Why? Because repentant people have come to God with no more answers, no more grand ideas, no more theories of how to “get better.” Repentant people come to God trusting only his mercy and grace to change and help them. Repentant people are humble people, finally open to God. And they find in him a refuge. God becomes God to them. They change because they weren’t looking for seven steps to a better life but one hope to an eternal one. Seven steps might move us along, but it doesn’t change our direction. Only repentance does.
We are not after what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace.” Cheap grace is being forgiven without changing directions. In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance…Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.”
Bonhoeffer goes on to say the grace we need, and the grace Jesus offers, is costly grace. “Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his son: You were bought with a price, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.”
The way we experience the costly grace of Jesus is through true repentance. It’s one of the sweetest graces God offers to us in Christ, by his Spirit. As we stop coddling our sin and turn to Christ, we find his smile upon us. And he sends us out to find others who need that smile. God calls his people to repentance because he’s sending us heralds of the King, and the message we carry is best expressed from forgiven sinners, not prideful do-gooders. Repentant sinners show the watching world the kind of king Jesus is. Repentant sinners invite others in because they just can’t get over his grace. They’ve heard the good news and they must share it, whatever the cost. The world must know of this Savior who went to such lengths to save a wretch like me! Repentant sinners are contagious, spreading the aroma of Christ wherever they go.
Remember Romans 7? Paul said, “I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:21-24)
Jared Wilson wrote about this in his book, The Imperfect Disciple.
Every day, I wake up into Romans 7. Every dadgum day. My alarm goes off and I sit up in bed, gearing up for sins—both of omission and of commission. I’m engaged in the flesh before I even get my feet on the carpet.
And yet, right there beside me, laid out like the day’s outfit for school, are new mercies. Romans 8 lies right there, spooning Romans 7 in a full-size bed, no wiggle room.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.” (Romans 8:1-3)
Every day you drift naturally into Romans 7. You don’t need any help with that. It’s just that your wheels are naturally out of alignment. You’re just wobbly, okay? So here’s what you do.
As early in the day and as often as you can, you turn on the light of Romans 8. You bring Romans 8 into Romans 7 and you say, “look what I found, everybody!” You’re the gal who’s brought your fiance home to meet the family, and it turns out he’s a much better catch than anybody, including yourself, ever thought you’d end up with. He’s a rich doctor-slash-fighter pilot who spends his summers digging wells for orphans in the Congo or something, okay? And Aunt Bitterness is sitting over there in the corner of the living room strewing away, ready to take you on a trip down angry memory lane, and you’re like, “Aunt Bitterness, I’d like you to meet my fiance, Dr. Gospel. Isn’t he dreamy?” And there’s Uncle Lazy sitting at the table medicating his feelings with three Egg McMuffins, and you bring Dr. Gospel over, and Uncle Lazy instantly perks up and realized how embarrassing he looks in the face of such accomplishment. And there’s your twin sister Pride sitting there in the middle of the room, like she owns the place, but when Dr. Gospel walks up to her, she gets up and offers him her seat without a word.
It’s a little like that. You introduce the truth of Romans 8 to every corner of the room, every dark place in your heart, as often as you can, as much as you can, as fiercely as you can.
Every day. It has to happen every day.
God is not calling perfect people to be his ambassadors in this world. There wasn’t a perfect man among the twelve apostles. There is only one kind of disciple Jesus really has, and that’s an imperfect one trusting in his perfection.
If you’re so weak you can’t get out of the bed in the morning without wondering who will deliver you from this body of death, but you’re turning to Jesus for the strength you need, you’re the perfect disciple for Jesus. You are exactly the kind of person Jesus is looking for, exactly the kind of person Jesus will use, and is using. You are not only tolerated by Jesus, you are accepted by him. He is not ashamed to call you his brother or sister.
Paul puts it bluntly in Romans 3:22-23.
For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
That’s so offensive to our well put-together ideas of ourselves, isn’t it? All have sinned (past tense) and fall short of the glory of God (present tense). We are all liable to divine judgment.
A proper understanding of sin is necessary for a proper understanding of the gospel. The gospel is good news, but it includes bad news. It tells us that without the Triune God’s intervention, we have no hope of heaven. We have no righteousness on our own.
The gospel makes us really honest people. We live in a country that likes to look good. From our dress to our cars to our homes, we’re all very Instagramable. But the gospel takes the filter off. It shows us for who we really are. And when it does, we have a choice to make. We can choose either to be impressive or to be known. What will we choose? In a gospel-centered church, where the risen Christ’s good news is ever-present, we can take a risk of being known. We can trust Jesus with our sin, and we can trust his people to help us find forgiveness and freedom. The gospel says we aren’t impressive, and that’s embarrassing. But the gospel also says we’re known deeper than we thought possible, and loved for Christ’s sake. When we step inside that circle of honesty with Jesus, we actually become far more impressive than the best of this world. We radiate with the glory of Jesus.
If we are to build and maintain gospel-centered churches, we must allow the gospel to make us honest people. Why? Because total honesty is the only way we grow. Only when we get honest with our sins and struggles will we find help and freedom and forgiveness. Don’t we all want that? Don’t we know deep down that we’re just not okay? If we’ll just admit that and come to Jesus, we will find in him a friend who understands. He is a faithful and merciful high priest in the service of God. He is for you even when you can’t be for yourself. He has covered your sins and failures by his blood. And all he’s asking us to do is walk out in his light, to trust him with all of our life, and to find cleansing by his blood.
It’s risky to live inside a gospel-centered church because it means we don’t set the rules. We can’t limit God. He can go to places in our heart that we’d be fine never entering. But what God wants for us is total renewal, and you can’t get there without him messing with you, opening you up, knocking you around a bit.
C.S. Lewis put it well.
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.
When we allow God inside, we become new people. We stop comparing ourselves to others. We love to make comparisons and come out on top, don’t we? But God says there is no distinction between us and others. God sees not as we see. Before God, we all stand condemned. God sees not how we compare to another sinner. God sees how we compare to him. And before that holy standard, we all fail.
We think comparison makes us winners. But in God’s eyes, it proves we’re losers because it proves we’re self-justifiers, unwilling to trust his justification by Christ. We’re using others to make us feel better, to give ourselves a boost. That kind of attitude—which we’re all prone to—is a red flag that we’re not trusting the gospel. We’re not taking our sin seriously. We take some sin seriously, but only those we don’t struggle with.
The Devil loves for us to live like that—comparing ourselves to others, always coming out ahead. If he can get us to do that, he can keep us far from God and the gospel. One way we can fail to be a gospel-centered church is by failing to take our personal sins seriously. We can preach the gospel, teach the gospel, share the gospel, but if we fail to take our personal sins seriously, bringing them to the throne of grace for forgiveness, we will say we have a gospel-centered church that even the Devil himself can love. We will say we trust Christ while avoiding him.
But if we get honest with ourselves and stay honest with ourselves about our real need, about our real sin, about our real problem of unrighteousness in our self, we have a chance at maintaining and cultivating a gospel-centered church. God loves a humble people.
Ray Ortlund at Immanuel Church taught me that Isaiah 57:15 says God lives in two places: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit.” He’s way up high where we can’t go, and way down low where we can go. But he doesn’t live in the middle, where okayness is the status quo. A church filled with people who know they’re sinners is a place where God abides, where his gospel shines brighter than anything else. As pastor Tim Keller says, “The church is not a museum for pristine saints, but a hospital ward for broken sinners.”
Making ourselves feel better than others doesn’t free us. What frees us is letting Christ give us his righteousness. When God gathers a group of people and those people open their hearts before him and, by his grace, keep them open, nothing about anybody surprises us anymore. We realize we’re one before the cross of Christ—sinners in need of a savior.
Genesis 12 showed us the beginning of God’s work in Abram’s life. He called him out of darkness to go to a land that he would show him later. God promised to bless him and to make him a blessing to the world. Abram believed God and went. By faith, he followed God’s call.
The next event we see, in Genesis 13, is faithful Abram making decisions of unfaith in Egypt. He lies to save himself, forgetting that God is in control of everything. His lies gain him wealth but put his wife in danger. Worried about the promises of God coming to pass, Abram exchanges God’s word for his own, and follows his heart into dangerous territory. Through all of this he learns—not for the last time—that there are no shortcuts with the promises of God. Though it may look like he’s absent, God is present in our waiting. Abram went down to Egypt a sojourner with a bright future. He came back humbled and exposed.
What would come of Abram now? Genesis 13 tells us God has more than one new beginning for his people. We see that God’s promises are not dependent upon our ability to make them come to pass; they are dependent on God alone. After Egypt, Abram saw that in a new way, and that new way led him to repentance and faith once again. That’s the path of the Christian life: faith, repentance, faith. The cycle of repentance and faith is what each of us can expect from now until the day we stand before the Lord in glory.
After the failure in Egypt, Abram returned a shell of who he was. Exposed and saddened, he saw himself in a new light. But God didn’t. God knew who he was when he called him. He knows who we all are when he calls us. We don’t surprise him, even if we surprise ourselves. We are all, like Abram, a mixture of self-righteous sinners and faithful followers of God. God knows that. Our righteousness didn’t get us in, and our failures don’t throw us out. It is God who is faithful through and through.
In his return to the Promised Land, Abram retraced his previous path as he considered the faithfulness of God. He went into the Negeb and on to Bethel. It was a pilgrimage back to his first love. It was a walk of repentance, recapturing the wonder of his previous walk with God. He came finally to the altar he built all those days before. He called on the name of the Lord, exalting him again in the land of pagans, proclaiming the goodness of the God who brought him out of Egypt.
What can we learn about this return? Simply this: God is faithful to his promises. Abram messed up in Egypt, but his mess ups couldn’t retract the promise of God. As we see at the end of Genesis 12, God miraculously delivered Abram and Sarai out of Egypt. As Abram sat despondent, God was working. So it is in our life as well.
John Piper said it well in his blog post “God Is Always Doing 10,000 Things in Your Life”.
God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.
Not only may you see a tiny fraction of what God is doing in your life; the part you do see may make no sense to you.
You may find yourself in prison, and God may be advancing the gospel among the guards, and making the free brothers bold. (Philippians 1:12–14)
You may find yourself with a painful thorn, and God may be making the power of Christ more beautiful in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:7–9)
You may find yourself with a dead brother that Jesus could have healed, and God may be preparing to show his glory. (John 11:1–44)
You may find yourself sold into slavery, accused falsely of sexual abuse, and forgotten in a prison cell, and God may be preparing you to rule a nation. (Genesis 37–50)
You may wonder why a loved one is left in unbelief so long, and find that God is preparing a picture of his patience and a powerful missionary. (Galatians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:12–16)
You may live in all purity and humility and truth only to end rejected and killed, and God may be making a parable of his Son and an extension of his merciful sufferings in yours. (Isaiah 53:3; Mark 8:31; Colossians 1:24)
You may walk through famine, be driven from your homeland, lose husband and sons, and be left desolate with one foreign daughter-in-law, and God may be making you an ancestor of a King. (Ruth 1–4)
You may find the best counselor you’ve ever known giving foolish advice, and God may be preparing the destruction of your enemy. (2 Samuel 17:14)
You may be a sexually pure single person and yet accused of immorality, and God may be preparing you as a virgin blessing in ways no one can dream. (Luke 1:35)
You may not be able to sleep and look in a random book, and God may be preparing to shame your arrogant enemy and rescue a condemned people. (Esther 6:1–13)
You may be shamed and hurt, and God may be confirming your standing as his child and purifying you for the highest inheritance. (Hebrews 12:5–11)
Highlighting the love of God in this way leads us to worship, and that’s ultimately where Abram was led in Genesis 13. He worships in verse 4 at the altar at Bethel and builds a new altar in verse 18 at Hebron. The entire story of Genesis 13 is bookended with the worship of God. As Kent Hughes puts it, “the whole story here is clothed in authentic worship.” Abram teaches us that it should be so in our lives as well. Yes, we fail, but God is good and worthy to be worshiped. He accepts us by the blood of Christ. We can draw near to him right now.
When we fail, as we undoubtedly will again, our failures can lead us to worship the one who saves us from them all—the one whom Abram rejoiced to see was coming, to wash him anew in grace and mercy.
The ministry of Jesus is miraculous. It was miraculous from the beginning, being born of the virgin Mary. It was miraculous at the end, being raised from the dead on the third day. And it was miraculous every moment in between.
In our world, where “normal” is an acceptance of brokenness and an expectation of disappointment, miracles feel like a break from reality. An interruption. Something crashing in from outside this world. But the Bible doesn’t present miracles as a break from reality. The Bible presents miracles as an in-breaking of ultimate reality.
In his book, Can We Trust the Gospels?, Theologian Peter J. Williams explains biblical miracles this way.
“They are presented not as random disturbances of an otherwise orderly universe but as events that actually form an orderly pattern pointing to God’s meaningful action in the world. Reports of miracles surrounding Jesus are not disruptions of order but signs pointing to who he is.”
Miracles point us not only to what God can do but to who God is. The Bible includes them to display the character of God. Whether we realize it or not, that’s why we love the miracles of the Bible. They give us what our heart longs for: the miraculous hope of God. Our hearts long to believe in something greater than what our eyes can see and what science can explain. Miracles point to the power and glory and healing and provision and satisfaction of God who made this world, oversees this world, and one day will restore this world. Miracles prove that even when all looks lost, in the hands of God, it never really is.
The New Testament bears witness to the reality that God’s kingdom has been inaugurated in Christ. But while that new kingdom reigns, it does not yet reign as it will. There is an “already” but also a “not yet.” Jesus has already come but not yet consummated his kingdom as he one day will. As the entirety of the Christian life, miracles find their place somewhere here. The kingdom has broken in, and miracles are signposts pointing to what one day will be every day. But it’s not here yet.
John Stott said:
“Is not the most helpful way to approach the gospel miracles to place them within the familiar and inescapable tension between the already and the not yet, kingdom come and kingdom coming, the new age inaugurated and the new age consummated? To the skeptical (who doubt all miracles), I want to say ‘but already we have tasted the powers of the age to come.’ To the credulous (who think that healing miracles are an everyday occurrence), I want to say ‘but not yet have we been given resurrection bodies free from disease, pain, infirmity, handicap, and death.’” (Evangelical Essentials: A Liberal Evangelical Dialogue)
The miraculous ministry of Jesus points us to the kingdom God brought—and is bringing—into this world. But there is more yet to come. As great as a miracle is, we know—and God knows—a healing, a raising, a providing, a calming, a restoring in this world, no matter how real, is only temporary. All who were healed, raised, provided for, calmed, and restored one day died.
The miraculous is fascinating, but it’s not the point of God’s work. To see only the miracle and not raise one’s eyes above to the giver of the miracle is like licking the rock splattered with the water from the raging river beyond. Miracles are calls to come to the source and open wide. They reveal what only God can do, and create a longing for another. No one who saw a miracle ever wanted to see only one miracle. That’s why the crowds followed Jesus. They wanted another. Another they have, if they’ll look not for the miracle itself.
God’s miracles are funny things. They provide for our most pressing needs while revealing our need far beyond. Jesus never performed a miracle someone didn’t need that very moment; but he also never performed a miracle for someone that didn’t have a greater need. As much as we may cry out for something only God can do, miracles point us to the someone only God is. Only God can give sight to the blind. Only God can grant hearing to the deaf. Only God can calm the storms at sea. Only God can make five loaves into a feast for thousands. Only God can raise the dead. But none of those things are the point. All are but mere pointers to the God who is there and is not silent, calling out through the miracles to our need for him.
Solomon said it best, “Of making many books there is no end” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). The Apostle John, too, knew that when it came to Jesus, were every one of the things he did were to be written, the world couldn’t contain them all (John 21:25). Include in that multitude books on the atonement of Jesus.
But not all books are created equal. Many books can explain the doctrine but not all can make one feel the glory of it.
Enter Donald Macleod’s treatment of Christ’s crucifixion in Christ Crucified: Understanding the Atonement among the latter.
In the opening chapter, Macleod urges the reader to feel the intensity of Jesus’ suffering for his people. In a section on the cross as the climax of his suffering, he makes the point—quite effectively—that the cross was “but the climax of his suffering. His whole life, from the cradle to the tomb, was suffering.” He goes on to explain in more detail.
Once the public ministry commences, the pressures and privations are immediately obvious. They begin with the temptations in the desert, underlining the fact that though Jesus was free from sin he was not free from temptation. On the contrary, he was tempted just like ourselves ‘in every way; (Heb. 4:15). Behind the phraseology, sanitized by centuries of quotation, lies the harsh reality that Jesus was dogged and harassed by the Prince of Darkness throughout his life. But there were more mundane pressures as well, and they clearly took their toll, even of his physical appearance: so much so that he could be taken for a fifty-year-old (John 8:57) when he was scarcely thirty. He was poor beyond our imagining, owning only the clothes he stood in; homeless, without a pillow for his head; oppressed by crowds demanding a sign and plying him with endless questions; often exhausted, as when he lay dead to the world in the stern of a tiny fishing boat caught in the eye of a fearful storm (Mark 4:38). He was misunderstood by his family, who feared for his sanity; pursued by the sick and their desperate relatives; stalked by the Pharisees with their undisguised hostility and their sly coadjutors with their entrapping conundrums (Mark 12:13). His whole life followed a pattern of rejection: rejection in ‘his own country’, Nazareth; rejection by the religious establishment; rejection by public opinion, always fickle; and rejection, at last, by his disciples, who all forsook him and fled.
When Jesus entered our world, he came all the way down. He lived no middle-class life. He was invited into the places of power only to be condemned. His withstood the full weight of temptation but never gave in. His sufferings before the cross were intense and profound.
This, to me, heightens the active obedience of Christ, whereby he obeyed God all his days, never failing once. He was truly a man of sorrows. It wasn’t easy for him. But sorrow didn’t overwhelm him, for it was the joy that was set before him for which he endured the cross. He suffered for his people because he rejoiced in his people. And all the suffering was worth it because he obtained the prize for which he lived: us.
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John” (John 1:6).
Mark 6:7-13 tells how Jesus sent out his apostles to spread the word of his kingdom come. Everything is different. Hope abounds!
Then, Mark makes what seems to be a diversion to tell about the death of John the Baptist. It’s not until verse 30 that he tells us about the apostles coming back from their mission. So we have what commentators call a Markan sandwich. Jesus sending the twelve (Mark 6:7-13) and receiving the twelve back (Mark 6:30) are the pieces of bread, and the story of John the Baptist’s death (Mark 6: 14-29) is the meat that makes it a meal. It tells us, in blunt and honest terms, what it means to be sent from God. It tells us about the cost of discipleship.
In calling his first disciples, Jesus made certain they understood the cost of following. He said that God’s kingdom, for God’s people, must be the first priority.
He said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” (Luke 14:25-32).
He also said, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:23).
And he said, “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).
One day a scribe came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.” (Matthew 8:18-22).
So to be sent by God is to be sent into hardship for Jesus’ sake. On the front end of it all, he calls us to deeply accept that as part of the deal. He prepared the apostles for hardship, but he gave them his power. He does the same for us. It’ll be hard, but we’ll be with Jesus, and doing anything with Jesus, no matter the hardship, is a privilege we do not earn. Even suffering for Christ is undeserved grace. And we are not suffering pointlessly. When we suffer for Christ on his mission, we’re suffering for the sake of all who will hear. We are, in a small way, playing out the very gospel story that we preach. That’s why the apostle Paul said, “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake” (Colossians 1:24).
When we suffer with Jesus, we are standing right smack-dab in the middle of historical Christianity. We are standing with the apostles, who gladly suffered for Jesus’ sake. We’re standing with the Reformers who risked their lives to return gospel-centrality to the Church. We’re standing with those who fought for social justice in an unjust America. We’re standing with the missionaries across the world who today aren’t sure about tomorrow.
If we want to see the world come to Jesus—and we do—then we’re going to have to suffer because in a world at war with God, there is simply no other way. And we want to say right now, that’s just fine with us. We want to fight for Christ.
There’s a scene in the WWII mini-series Band of Brothers where two soldiers are talking about the day’s events. Dick Winters says to Lewis Nixon after he returns from an airplane jump, “You’re probably the only man in the 101st with three combat stars over his jump wings.”
Nixon replies, visibly frustrated, “Not bad for someone who’s never fired his weapon in combat, huh?”
Winters can’t believe he’s never fired even a round. Nixon then tells him how after he jumped, the plane took a direct hit and all others were lost. He doesn’t seem happy to still be alive. Instead, he seems angry and depressed. Why? Because in his mind, he was never really in the fight. He never fired a round, and maybe he’d never get to. He wasn’t feeling sorry for himself because he was in the war, he was sorry because he never actually was.
Christians are like that. When we, by grace, are drafted into God’s holy army, we want to be in the fight, to be on the front-lines sharing the gospel, taking our shots, because Jesus is there saving people, redeeming the world, doing what only he can do. It’s where the glory is!
We don’t want to reach the end of our life without firing a shot for Jesus! As the old hymn says,
Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize
And sailed through bloody seas?
John the Baptist confronted Herod with his sin not because he hated him and wanted to point out his flaws but because he loved Jesus and wanted to fight for his holiness. Bringing the gospel to the world will put the preacher of the gospel at odds with others. Some will come around and receive us. Others never will. That’s not up to us. Our job is only to spread the good news that there is Savior who will cleanse us, no matter how dirty we’ve made ourselves.
Our reason for fighting is not to demolish the other person before us. John didn’t approach Herod with that desire. Our reason for fighting is to see sinners saved by Christ. With Christ, it is not defense that wins championships; it’s offense. The gospel is advancing and God is doing his work. That doesn’t mean we will always be successful but it does mean God will.
We want to fight because our’s is a fight of joy to the world. We’re not mad at anybody, no matter how mad they get at us. We’re spreading the aroma of Christ, and if they don’t like it, they’ll have to take it up with him. They might wound us. They might shoot us. They might even kill us. That’s the cost we’re willing to pay. Why? Because the love of Christ compels us. And his is a dying love that brings life only through death.
23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: 26 how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” 27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:23-28
The Pharisees worked really hard to obey, and Jesus and his disciples just don’t seem to care. To avoid doing any work on the Sabbath, the Pharisees created a list of thirty-nine different activities that one could not do on the Sabbath. Strange way to avoid working, huh?
Among those thirty-nine activities were probably are least two that Jesus’ disciples were breaking. They probably violated the “Sabbath-day journey” and they certainly reaped grain. The Sabbath-day journey was defined as less than 2,000 paces. So if you walked any more than a little over half a mile, your were a Sabbath-breaker. Presumably, Jesus’ disciples went further. And along their way, they picked grain and as they rolled it in their hands, they harvested it. So they “did what was not lawful on the Sabbath.”
In response to the Pharisees’ question, Jesus uses an old Pharisaical device. He appeals to Scripture. “Haven’t you read your Bibles?” he asks. Of course they have! But they missed something. David did this same kind of thing. He went into the temple on the Sabbath when he was on the run from Saul, and he took the showbread. You can go back and read this in 1 Samuel 21. The point is this: Jesus is saying, “David did this, and something greater than David is here.”
But David didn’t just take the showbread for himself. He took and gave it to his men with him. In the same way, Jesus gave the grain to his disciples. How can he do such a thing? Because he knew the original intention of the Sabbath. How did he know that? Because he is Lord of the Sabbath. See that in verse 28?
Now that’s just an absolutely astounding thing to say. Earlier in Mark 2, Jesus said he had the authority to forgive sins. Here he says he has the authority to say what the Sabbath is for because he’s Lord of it. Jesus is once again claiming deity.
Jesus knows what the Sabbath is for. “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” When he made it, there were no rules about walking 2,000 paces, or reaping grain, or healing the lame (as we’ll see next week). We were not made to be slaves to the Sabbath. The Sabbath was given as a good gift from God for our restoration.
And so we see in this a very simple but life-altering truth. We can complicate the kingdom of God all we want. We can put restrictions on it. We can make it hard to get in to. We can make it burdensome. But when we do that, we make it the opposite of the kingdom of God. We make it the kingdom of this world. Just as the Sabbath is for our rest, so too is the kingdom of God! In bringing the kingdom, Jesus is not adding a burden to our already weighty life, he is bringing relief and restoration!
In bringing the kingdom, he’s bringing the Sabbath rest we long for. The author of Hebrews tells us that “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.” (Hebrews 4:9-10) How do we enter God’s rest? By entering his kingdom. How do we enter his kingdom? Through Jesus Christ. When Jesus says he is Lord of the Sabbath, he means that he is the Sabbath. Jesus is our rest. And he’s rested from his works. You can rest from yours. Stop trying to save yourself! Enter God’s rest in Christ!
Everyone on the planet is either currently on or has been on a self-salvation project. But Jesus says, “Forget about that. I’m here to complete that project for you. You can’t do it, but I can, and I have.”
Here’s Christ’s kingdom offer: all our striving and trying for all his finished and accomplished. That’s not for the “good” people over there somewhere, because they don’t exist. It’s not for the people who achieve some great state of perfect obedience, because they don’t exist either. It’s for people like you and me: sinners in need of a savior. To our weary, worn out, self-justified-out hearts, Jesus Christ’s call is simple. “Come to me, and I will give you rest.”
So, why do his disciples do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? Wrong question. Rather, why do the Pharisees make God’s Sabbath law into a chore? Why do we work so hard for love that is freely given in Christ? Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. Following him is doing what is lawful. Total openness to Jesus is obedience.
Jesus doesn’t do away with the law. He fills it up in himself so that as we follow him, as we draw life from him, as we live in his kingdom, we find the rest we’ve longed for. For the first time in our lives we actually obey the law in him.
Do you need that rest? Then go to the only One who can give it because he is it. Go to Jesus. His kingdom is for you, my dear sinner. And, amazingly, it’s for me too.
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
Mark 2:18-22
Since the fall, the kingdom of God has been attacked from outside and inside. Even the law of God was misused. By the time Jesus arrived, the Jewish world in that day was weighed down with laws. Some were from God. Those were to be obeyed. But some were from the Jews themselves, additions to the law of God that, in the end, distorted God’s law and had the reverse effect of his original intention. That’s how it always is with us, isn’t it? We have an amazing ability to complicate the purposes of God.
When Jesus appeared, the Jews expected him to fall in line with the status quo. And when he didn’t, it proved troublesome. It angered the Pharisees, and it confused the common Jew. That’s what we see in verses 18-22. It’s not the Pharisees who question Jesus but the “people.” They want to know why the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Jesus’ don’t.
God’s law really only required one fast—on the day of Atonement. But over the years, other fasts were added to the calendar: important holidays and so forth. And if you were a Pharisee, you were so holy that you fasted twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. And they must have made a show of it because later on, Jesus told his disciples, “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.”
But Jesus’ disciples didn’t fast at all, and that was confusing. So Jesus answered by appealing to a cultural norm. “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?” No, he says. They cannot. That wouldn’t be right. When something joyous occurs, no one thinks of avoiding food. When something joyous occurs, everyone wonders what’s for dinner! How are we going to celebrate? Weddings in Israel were not an afternoon affair. They lasted a full week. All week long, everyone would eat and drink. No one was fasting. Everyone was celebrating. Jesus is saying his disciples are doing the same.
He didn’t say his disciples would never fast. Indeed, a time would come when they must—when the bridegroom is taken. But while he is here, it makes no sense to fast. Jesus is merely saying his disciples know the time of things. They’re aware the feasting is here, even if the fasting will come later. He’s saying to them that something new has come, and as long as the new is here, the old way of things cannot be forced to work.
To illustrate, Jesus uses two brief parables. “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins”
Both parables serve the same purpose: the new cannot fit with the old. You can’t sow a new patch of cloth on an old garment without creating more harm. Why? Because the old is shrunk down by washing. A new piece of cloth isn’t. When it’s washed, it’ll shrink and tear a hole greater than the one it patched. In the same way, you can’t put new wine into old wineskins without them bursting. The expansive, fermenting new wine will cause the skin to stretch and burst.
What’s he saying? You can’t fit the kingdom of God into old religious forms. Man-made traditions and ceremonies and tired religious structures are simply not suitable for the new wine of the gospel. It’s too expansive. The joy is too great. It’s growing too fast. You can’t put it into the status quo. God’s kingdom isn’t just for Jews; it’s for Gentiles too. It’s not for the righteous, but sinners—the unclean, the ungodly, the tax collectors and their friends, the losers of this world! Christ has come, and he’s filling God’s purposes up. He’s the new patch. He’s the new wine. The times, they are a-changin’!
Jesus is not the poster boy for old-time religion. He’s not the Bible Belt co-pilot. He’s not the post-modern homeboy. Jesus is the covenant-making God filling up the old in himself and pouring out the newness we long for. He’s the perfect Jew, obeying the law to the fullest as it was originally intended. And that’s so radical, and so different-looking, that everyone wonders, “Who is this guy?” Well, he’s the King of God’s coming kingdom, that’s who. Doesn’t his kingdom look better than the one you’ve been living in—the one where you never measure up, where you never find a place, where you never have peace, where you never have joy? Well, forget all that now! Yes, there’s a time to fast, but even then, with Jesus, the joy is deep. No gloom! God’s kingdom is a happy one! The gospel is fermenting, and it tastes good!
Here’s the question: will we hold onto the status quo or will we make room for Jesus and join the wedding celebration?
To hold on to man-made religion when the entire purpose of religion is standing before you is to reject the pure, living water for the sewer. It’s to make mud pies in a slum instead of accepting Jesus’ offer of a holiday at sea. It’s to miss the point entirely. And Jesus is here, saying to us this morning, “Don’t miss me! I’m here for you!”
The call of the gospel is actually mind-blowingly simple. It seems too good to be true, but it’s the truest thing in this world. As we swim in the ocean of counterfeits, Jesus stands to proclaim the good news of the gospel, and it’s so real it takes us aback. Jesus Christ has come to save sinners, and you can’t fit that inside any man-made religion. It just doesn’t work. All that we need to do, Jesus did. All that we needed to avoid, Jesus avoided. All that we need to be, Jesus was and is. So give it up your self-salvation project and come to him. You will never be successful, but he already has been! He will justify you by his life, death, and resurrection. All you have to do is accept his free gift of grace!
Gerhard Forde puts the shock of the gospel this way.
“We are justified freely, for Christ’s sake, by faith, without the exertion of our own strength, gaining of merit, or doing of works. To the age-old question, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’ the confessional answer is shocking: ‘Nothing! Just be still; shut up and listen for once in your life to what God the Almighty, creator and redeemer, is saying to his world and to you in the death and resurrection of his Son! Listen and believe!'”
When we accept that, we start to look like people having too much fun. We free up. Yes, we still struggle. Jesus never promised a life with him apart from suffering. Quite the opposite, actually. But he also promised a joy and peace that surpassed understanding—to ourselves and to the watching world, especially to stiff religious people.
So, do we look like people freed from something? A church where people are freed from something is compelling. It makes people wonder what’s going on. And when they ask, we get to say, “Jesus is here!” That’s it! His newness has come and filled up all our sadness, cleansed all our sin, removed all our excuses.
We are professionals at building barriers between God and us, but God is a professional at tearing them down. Way back in the Old Testament, he told the prophet Isaiah to “remove every obstruction from my people’s way.” The prophet Malachi said the Great Day of the Lord for God’s people would make them like “calves leaping from their stalls” (Malachi 4:2). Don’t we want that freedom, that joy?
Let’s refuse to put weights on our already weighty life. Let’s refuse to add rules where God is silent. Let’s refuse to make following Jesus a burden. We’re here to enjoy the journey with him together!
That’s so maddening to serious religious people. A joyous church, full of the Spirit’s freeing power, following the Lamb wherever he goes is a threat to the status quo. Fine! Let’s be that threat! Jesus was. So if we’re following him, I guess we will be too! Okay by me. How about you?
13 He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
15 And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Mark 2:13-17
Jesus goes down by the sea and calls Levi the tax collector to follow him. Soon after, Jesus is sitting in Levi’s house, reclining at table with his friends. The Pharisees want to know “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus’ answer is simple. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” It’s a common-sense answer, a proverbial quote known far and wide. A doctor must go to the sick. What good is a doctor who never does? But coming from the mouth of Jesus to the Pharisees in front of his new tax collector and sinner friends, it had a different slant. It posed a question even as it affirmed a truth. It was as if he was saying, “Do you understand your sickness? Do you understand the sickness of sin? Do you understand the illness of the soul? Do you understand that no good you’ve done or could ever do will remove the evil of sin from your heart? Do you understand my salvation?”
We are all—everyone us—diagnosed with a sickness unto death. And the sinners and tax collectors he sat among saw it. They saw their sickness. So they welcomed the Physician.
But the Pharisees didn’t. They were concerned with the optics of it all. How could a rabbi sit with those people? Jesus says he can because it’s the entire reason for his coming: to call not the righteous, but sinners. In reclining with the tax collectors and sinners, while it proved to be bad optics for his budding ministry, was the precise reason for his ministry. He was not there for those who had no need of him. He was there for those who had a great need for him.
So here’s the question we need to answer: Do we sense a personal need for Christ or do we think we’re doing just fine? Do we need a Physician or can we heal ourselves?
The Bible makes it quite clear that no one is righteous. But there is a difference between affirming that biblical truth and feeling the need for a rescue. A religious person can recognize the evil inside while thinking better behavior will atone for it. But the one for whom Christ came recognizes no good from within can atone for the sins of the heart. The Bible is screaming to us from Genesis 3 onward that we need a rescue, we need a Savior.
There are really only two types of people in this world, no matter the religion. There are those who know their need for a savior and those who see no need for one. And the kingdom of God exposes both.
We see the difference in the narrative. There are two sets of people. We have Levi and his buddies on the one side and the Pharisees on the other.
What do we know of Levi? We know from other parts of the Bible that he’s also called Matthew, the author of the gospel. We also know from this passage that he was a tax collector. Tax collectors in that day were seen as unclean people. Many of them around there were Jews, and to get the job, they bid the amount of tax revenue they could take in to the Roman government. The open jobs went to the highest bidder. Some taxes were fixes and you couldn’t charge more than the going rate, but others had looser definitions. Tax collectors would take advantage, collecting their quota and pocketing the excess. They were traitors to the Jewish people they extorted.
The Pharisees would have nothing to do with such men. They avoided fellowshipping with such people to maintain their ritual purity. And they considered reclining with those unversed in the Law, such as these “sinners” to be a disgrace. But Jesus didn’t seem to mind. Apparently, they were the ones for whom he came.
The Pharisees didn’t like that. They are the bad guys in this story, no doubt. But is there not a Pharisee in us all? Somewhere, deep in our heart, there is a prejudice against others. Yes, the Pharisees didn’t associate with sinners and tax collectors, but the sinners and tax collectors didn’t associate with them either. They were of separate worlds, and that was fine with each. In every one of us, there is a world in which we live and world in which “those people” live, isn’t there? And if “those people” were to come in this room right now, their presence would make us uncomfortable.
But in God’s kingdom, there aren’t us and them. There’s just us and Jesus, and we have to deal with the mercy he’s shown to all. Notice Mark says the disciples were with Jesus in Levi’s house. I wonder what they thought about Levi when Jesus called him? I wonder what they thought about entering his house with all those tax collectors? Remember, the first disciples of Jesus were fishermen. They worked hard to make a living. Remember, too, that it was beside the sea working in his booth that Jesus called Levi. That must have taken the disciples back to their fishing days when they would come to shore, and a man like Levi—maybe even Levi himself—sat in his booth, taxing the fish they caught. And now here is this man among them—one who, if he had not extorted them, his certainly friends had. What would they do with this? What kind of rabbi is this Jesus?
Well, it turns out, he’s the kind that saves sinners. What we see in the calling of Levi is Jesus’ continued call of the unclean, unwanted, even despised people into his kingdom. Levi was not a man any other rabbi would have wanted. The Pharisees didn’t. But Jesus did! So he went and got him.
In response, Levi invited Jesus home for dinner. When you realize Jesus doesn’t just tolerate you but wants you, it changes everything. For a man cast outside the religious circles of his day, a rabbi who wanted him to follow him was unthinkable. When Jesus came along, Levi couldn’t help but invite him among his friends. And Jesus wasn’t above attending.
Years later, another sinner, this time a Pharisee, would understand Jesus. In speaking to his disciple, Timothy, the Apostle Paul said that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom—notice this personal pronoun—“of whom I am the foremost.” Charles Spurgeon notes that between that world saves and that word sinners, there is no adjective. It matters not that you are a tax collecting sinner or a murderous sinner or an obedient-to-tradition sinner. All that matters is that sinners are in the world and you are among them. That’s what Jesus is saying! He came for the sick, are you sick enough for Jesus?
We need not simply better behavior; we need a rescue. We need a Savior. We need one who will dine with sinners and befriend them. And that’s who we have in Jesus.
We have two options before us. We can stand at the door questioning Jesus’ methods or we can join his party raging inside. We can be like the elder boy in the parable of the prodigal son, angry that we’ve always obeyed but never received, or we can be the prodigal enjoying the welcome home. Jesus is saying, “Your brother has come. It’s fitting to celebrate and be glad. The dead are alive! The lost are found! Come, join the party.” Jesus came not to call the righteous, but sinners.
Are you sick enough for the Good Doctor, Jesus? If so, rejoice! The kingdom of God is at hand, and it’s coming for you!
We don’t like authority, do we?
Or, rather, we don’t like someone else’s authority. We like our authority just fine. We bask in it. We don’t give it up easily. And that’s why the opening chapter of Mark’s gospel can be so difficult. Mark shows us what happens when the authoritative Jesus shows up. Here is One who has the power to cast unclean spirits from their hosts. Here is One who has the power to heal diseases. Here is One who has the ability to touch a leper without becoming unclean. Mark’s gospel proves Jesus is our authority, whether we like it or not.
Our sinful flesh doesn’t like the authority of Jesus. He is a threat to all that we hold dear. So we construct our idea of personal authority like the Tower of Babel, reaching high enough to become a joke to Jesus. And, if he’s merciful to us, he comes in to change the language, to reroute our plans, to destroy our hopes. The tower of personal authority crumbles.
Personal authority can never save us. But we’ve seen the abuses of authority in this world. Personal authority isn’t only a sinful ambition. For some, it’s a bullet-proof vest. It’s protection from the evil outside even as it prepares the den for the evil inside.
We cannot, however, deny the authority of Jesus. The gospels prove too much. Our sense of personal authority encountering the risen Christ is a battle we cannot win. So the question must become, is there something to fear in the authority of Jesus? If he takes over, what will happen?
The Bible not only tells us what happened but shows us how Jesus acted. In all his interactions with sinners and saints alike, we see the depths of his character. We see what Jesus did with his authority. Did he lord it over others? No, the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
We may fear the authority of others, but if we come to him, we have nothing to fear in the authority of Jesus. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, and what does he do with it? He used it for our good. He goes to the cross. He died on our behalf. He saves our soul! And with that same authority, he rises again, bringing many sons to glory!
That’s really good news, because if you’re like me, you just can’t seem to get your act together. If my salvation was dependent on me keeping up, I would never make it. But it’s not dependent on me. It’s dependent on Jesus. Jesus has authority over me. And he has authority over you, too.
When you can’t seem to get any better, Jesus has authority to save you from yourself. When you fall into the trap of the enemy’s temptation, Jesus has authority to set you free from darkness. When your heart is broken, he has the authority to bind it up again. When you feel hopeless and in despair, he has authority to put hope deep in your heart. He has authority to make your restless soul still. He has authority to restore your fortunes. He has authority to turn your ashes into beauty. And when you fall into the sleep of death someday in the future, he has authority to raise you up again. Jesus has the authority to fix everything in the deepest part of your being and no one can stop him.
In this world, abuse of power comes as no surprise. That’s why when Jesus comes, his use of power is so surprising. With all the power in the universe, he uses it to lay down his life as a ransom for many. His power shuts our mouths not with the force of his hands but with the power of his stripes.
The only reason to fear Jesus’ authority is if you are unwilling to come to him. If you won’t come to the most wonderful person in the world, you will end up like the demon in Mark 1:21-28. You will shriek and cry out and you will be cast from his presence. But if you’ll let him melt your heart with his love, you will be like the man from whom the unclean spirit departed. You will be made clean again. You will stand up straight, with eyes clear, beholding your Savior. You will have your life back, and no demon or anyone else can take it from you again. Why? Because no one has more authority than Jesus. When Jesus saves you, he saves you all the way. He’s a complete Savior. There are no half-salvations in the kingdom of God. There is only Spirit-filled, blood-washed, dead-raised salvation of the authoritative King Jesus. When he sets you free, you are free indeed.
27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 11:27-12:3
Genesis 11:27-32 is more than a genealogy. It’s a status update on humanity. We’re at a dead end. Genesis 1-11 is the story of beginnings. It takes us from the creation of the world down to Abram’s family. As the Bible zeroes in on Abram, we find not a God-fearing family thriving in their land but a pagan family barely making it. It’s a hopeless scene. Even Sarai, Abram’s wife, is barren, and he’s an old man.
It shouldn’t have been this way. Go back far enough in Abram’s family line, and you’ll find faithful Noah. Keep going, and you’ll find Enosh, the son of Seth, who called upon the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:26). But by the time we find Abram, we see a family far from God. Joshua tells us, “Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods” (Joshua 24:2). Somewhere along the way, Enosh’s kids stopped calling upon the name of the Lord.
The once-bright future is now a darkening present, and no one can do anything about it. Commentator Walter Brueggemann says, “The barrenness of Sarah is an effective metaphor for hopelessness. This text tells us there is no foreseeable future. There is no human power to invent a future. The human race and human history have just hit a dead end. It’s over. And then God speaks, and there’s hope again.”
Genesis 12:1 shows us what happens when God speaks to a man. Before God speaks, deadness and darkness; after God speaks, life abundant. Abram’s redemption—like every believer’s—began with God speaking. No one comes to saving faith apart from God’s effective call.
We see that call in verse 1. In the midst of darkness, God speaks to Abram and calls him into his marvelous light. But it isn’t easy. God’s call is to go, to leave, to follow God wherever he leads. It is a call to abandon his father’s gods and place his faith in him alone.
The Bible gives us the facts here, but we can imagine this wasn’t an easy decision for Abram. Terah, Abram’s father, took his family away from Ur to the land of Canaan. But they stopped in Haran and settled there. That was a problem. The land of Haran was not the land the Lord had for his people. They needed to go onward. It was time for Abram to leave his country, his family, his father’s house. It was time to follow God. Terah took him only so far. But God’s call on Abram’s life was to go further. He says simply, “Go.” The King James version says, “Get thee out.” The language is strong. God is saying to Abram, “Your father won’t go, so you go. Get yourself out of here. Now.”
The call wasn’t an easy one. God called him away from everything he knew without telling him where he would end up. As John Calvin says, the call was, “I command you to go forth with closed eyes, and forbid you to inquire where I am about to lead you, until, having renounced your country, you shall have given yourself wholly to me.” The call was void of specifics. It was a naked call. It was the kind of call that caused Abram to rely wholly upon God. And even in the face of hopelessness, that’s a scary thing. Sometimes the miserable life you know is better than the unknown life you fear.
Tim Keller helps us see the internal struggle Abram must have faced. His family descended from the faithful, and though his father never heard the word of God, Abram did. Nominal belief no longer worked.
Abram basically is having a conversation, and he’s saying, “Well you know, God, I’ve come halfway. This is as far as Dad and everybody else wants to go. You know, Nahor and all the guys … I just can’t get them … They like it here, and they don’t want to go any farther. I’ve come halfway.” So what is God saying? “Then come yourself.”
Keller goes on to apply this to us all.
[God] is saying, “It’s not good enough to be part of a Christian ethos.” It’s not good enough for you to say, “Well I’m in a Christian family, and I’ve always joined a church,” or “I’m from Scotland, and I feel at home in a Presbyterian church,” or “I’m Italian, and I feel at home in a Roman Catholic church,” or “I’m Mississippian, and I’m at home in a Southern Baptist church.” It’s not enough to be part of the ethos. It’s not enough just to be part of the environment.
“Yes, of course, I feel very good around Christians…” Have you met God yourself? Have you gotten out yourself? Have you encountered him yourself, in your own self? Has it penetrated you as an individual? Have you made the personal commitment? Do you see that? That’s the first thing. It’s personally radical. You can’t come in on anybody else’s coattails. It has to be your faith.
How does one’s faith become one’s own? By believing God’s word at the deepest personal level. When what God says stops becoming a theory and becomes a reality, when you stop thinking about obeying and begin to obey, when you forsake your plans for your life and accept God’s, you know you’ve stepped across the line from unfaith to faith. When you hear God’s word as a word for you, you step over the line of unbelief into belief. That’s what Abram does in Genesis 12:1-9. He steps over the line. Abram becomes a believer.
Of course, verses 2 and 3 show us God’s call isn’t only sacrificial; it is also promissory. It always is. The gospel is not merely a call away from sin; it’s a promise of righteousness. The gospel is a message of what God has done in Christ for his people. And though Abram didn’t hear the good news of what God did in Christ, he heard the news of what God would do for him. God calls Abram from three things, but he isn’t asking him to abandon those good things forever. He will restore them in himself with a three-fold promise. In leaving his country, he was leaving part of his identity. But God promised to make of Abram a great nation. In leaving his kindred, he was leaving his name behind. But God promised to give Abram a great name. In leaving his father’s house, he was leaving any blessing he could receive. But God promised Abram he would be a blessing. God called him away from the lesser to give him the greater. That is the normal way of God. Yes, he calls us away, but he gives abundance in himself.
The abundance of God comes in part in this life, but in fullness only later. When we step over the line from unbelief to belief, we’re stepping into a hope that extends beyond this world. We’re stepping into an eternal hope. Abram realized this. Though he trusted God’s promises, he didn’t live to see them come to pass entirely. Hebrews 11:39 says, “And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised.” Abram was made into a great nation, but he didn’t see it. He was given a great name, but he didn’t hear it. He was a blessing to the world, but he didn’t know it. Such is the life of faith—following God to the Promised Land when that land cannot be seen, trusting God for a great name when you’re despised, hoping for a home as aliens in the world.
Still, God’s call goes forth, and we all stand where Abram stood wondering if we should follow.
At 9:00 AM last Friday, I signed the closing papers on the house my wife and I owned for nearly eleven years. Immediately after, we signed the papers to purchase our next home.
The movers were at the old house, loading our life into the back of a truck. They did it quickly as if the memories each piece held were light as air. We celebrated in an empty kitchen with a styrofoam container of Panda Express. Minutes later, we were gone: I to meet the movers at the new house, my wife to pick up the kids from their last day at the beloved school.
No move is easy. Ours especially wasn’t. We lost a contract, fixed a structural issue, and had to push every step of the way. But God was kind and gave us the house we consider a blessing and give to him for his glory for as long as we live there.
We worked out a deal with the buyers of our old home to lease it back for three days. That meant we had until Monday at 7:00 PM to get everything out and the house cleaned. I did most of that work Friday and Saturday and left a little bit to do on Monday. Our kids wanted to play with their neighborhood friends one last time. So on Monday around 3:00, we drove to the old house one last time. There was a fridge to clean, trash to throw away, a few things to take to goodwill, and a few to pack. We did it all as quickly as we could, knowing our time was short. All the while, the kids played like the old days, running through the yard, hiding behind the fence, shouting and laughing as only kids can do.
Around 5:00, I walked back into the empty kitchen to find my wife in tears. The house we came home to after our wedding, the house we carried three newborns into, the house we rebuilt after a flood, the house where so many memories were made wasn’t ours anymore. We were saying goodbye.
I knew I needed to take one more walk around each room, just to make sure we didn’t leave anything behind or anything in disarray. For the past two years, I’ve loathed so many things about that old house. For one, I hated the squeaky floors. I knew all the spots. When we lived there, I avoided them, not wanting to hear their cry. But on this final trip around the house, I found them all, stepping on each as I surveyed the room. It sounds weird, I know, but it was as if the house was saying goodbye to me as I was saying goodbye to it.
When we first bought it in April of 2008, we were just kids full of dreams. Eleven years later, we’re aged—parents of three boys and a little girl on the way. We’re not old, but we’re not young anymore. When you’re young and just married, life looks more whole than it is. Like a house, it takes years to really settle. When you do, the cracks that form show not only who you’ve become but who you always were. Like a house, we’re all more broken at the foundation than we imagined we were. Like a house, we’re more beautiful that way. A new house has an outward appeal, but only an old house has grace. Only an old house has the symphony of squeaky floors living within. Like us, an old house is one that’s seen life as it really is and stood to the test of time.
I lingered in each room, soaking it in one last time. I walked downstairs and saw my boys outside playing with the neighbors. I gave the ten-minute warning, they groaned as they always have, and ran off to play a little longer. My wife was outside by the van, trying to keep it together. She snapped one last picture, wiping away the tears.
Our neighbor stood on the edge of his front yard, our conversation continuing as it had for so many years. But this time, I found words hard to speak. He understood. He just took my hand, looked in my eyes, and said, “I’m still holding on to that offer to watch a baseball game and have a beer on the back porch,” referring to an offer from last summer that never came to pass. Friends don’t need to hear the goodbye. They can say it with their eyes.
Two of my kids got dutifully in the van. My oldest was stuck in the neighbors’ garage, unable to leave knowing he wouldn’t come back tomorrow. Soon, though, he and his friends went to the end of our old driveway, as they did so many days leading up to this. I heard the oldest among them say, “One last group hug.” I told my two van-sitting children it was group hug time and they jumped out to join.
One last group hug. When you leave a place that meant so much, a group hug from neighbors is the perfect ending.
But it’s not the last group hug because our move wasn’t far. It's twenty minutes on a slow day, and the neighbors are coming for dinner next week. But it is the last of that kind of group hug among those friends. The last of the after-school playtime on cold winter evenings extending into the dark. The last of the “dinner is ready” calls to come in. The last of the see-you-tomorrow type.
Why did we move from such a beautiful place? I ask myself that from time to time. At one level, the answer is simple: our growing family needed more space. We’re welcoming a baby girl in April. At another level, the answer is more complicated, because all of life is. The were multiple variables. Life isn’t a simple equation. Even the most brilliant mathematician gets stumped. We get close from time to time only to find it doesn’t add up. So we trust God has something else for us to do in another part of town.
We had a wonderful life there but as good as any chapter is, the next one must come. And it’s time for us. My wife and I knew it. We can cherish the memories while expecting the future.
Our new house is amazing. I wake up every morning barely able to believe it’s ours. It’s not an Air BNB, I say. It’s our house.
No, it’s more than that.
It’s home.
“The Father himself loves you” (John 16:27).
It’s too easy for us to misunderstand the heart of God. From the beginning, the enemy has come with his damning question, “Did God really say…?” Since Adam and Eve answered, “No,” it’s been a disaster for the rest of us. When God comes, telling of his great love, we think, “Eh, maybe. Did he really say that, though?”
After all, you might say, isn’t Jesus is saying to us even in John 16 that the Father loves us in a responsive way, like making the friend of your friend your friend? Keep reading. “The Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I come from God.” There’s a reason for God’s love, and it’s not out of his own great heart. It’s a response to ours. He loves Jesus, and us by proxy.
But that’s nonsense. It cannot be that God loves because we first loved. The same apostle says the opposite in 1 John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.” Saint Augustine comments:
This, then, was the efficient cause of our loving, that we were loved. And certainly to love God is the gift of God. He is the one who gave us the grace to love him, who loved while still unloved. Even when we displeased him, we were loved so that there might be that in us whereby we should become pleasing in his sight. For we could not love the Son unless we also loved the Father. The Father loves us because we love the Son, seeing it is of the Father and Son we have received the power to love both the Father and the Son: for love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit of both, by which Spirit we love both the Father and the Son and whom we love along with the Father and the Son. It was God, therefore, who created this religious love of ours whereby we worship God, and he saw that it is good, and for this reason he himself loved what he had made. But he would not have created in us something he could love if it were not for the fact that he loved us before he brought about that something.
But this is all so far just playing with words while avoiding the primary issue, that most simple yet disturbing question: What do you think God thinks of you?
Do you think he’s angry? Do you think he’s apathetic? Do you think he’s waiting for you to fix yourself up? Is he like a bitter parent who wished he had better kids?
We doubt the love of God because we know who we really are. But the image we paint of ourselves is far better than the dim reality. God sees through it. We see the outward appearance even of our inward parts because we hold the brush, but God sees the heart.
The simple yet disturbing truth is that God loves you. We know that not because it’s said by pastors and theologians and Sunday school teachers and Bible study curriculum but by God himself through his Word, Jesus Christ.
We don’t deserve this love. And that’s the difficulty in believing it. We know we’re unworthy. But, as Ray Ortlund has said, at the heart of the universe is a love too great to be limited by what we deserve. Here in John 16:27 we undeserving get what we could never earn: the love of God.
It does not start with us. How could it? That’s the good news of the gospel, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God’s love doesn’t wait on our love. God’s love is the first mover. His love is the primary change agent.
And what a change it creates! It changes us deep inside. It makes us do things we’d never do before. It opens us up. It allows us to be known. It frees us to confess sin. It emboldens us to talk to strangers about him. It empowers us to take risks. It unhinges the closed doors of our hearts to let love pour out into others. It derails the train wreck of our life and places us in green pastures and beside still waters. It actually makes us believe that perhaps the center of the universe is good and loving and kind and generous and wonderful. It restores hope to our hopeless lives. It redeems our past, present, and future. It sets us free.
The bad things we do in life are done for one reason: our desire to be loved. Why else would we care what people think about us? Why else would we lie? Why else would we steal? Why else would we seek to live out our sexual fantasies? Why would we do any of the terrible things we’ve done? If we feel unloved we would trade anything in the world to obtain it. We were made to be loved.
So, God makes us a deal. He comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ and sits us down. He looks into our eyes. He opens our eyes so we can look into his. He speaks to us in a way that we can understand him. He opens his mouth and tells us his secrets. He affirms who we are, though we barely want to admit it. He shows us who he is, though we can barely see him. And at the end of it all, he makes his final offer: all of your sin and unloveliness for all my kingdom of righteousness and unending, unyielding, unashamed, outrageously faithful love. Sound good?
Do you believe this? If not, here’s the kicker. Why does Jesus say this, anyway? Because he’s talking about prayer, and prayer is about talking to God, and we will never really talk to one whom we don’t believe wants to hear from us. But God does want to hear from us, and Jesus is there to affirm and confirm that open heart.
In Christ, God gave us the right to become his children (John 1:12). What do children have from their father if not love? As Tim Keller says, “The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.”
You, dear Christian, have that kind of access to that kind of love. What’s keeping you from enjoying him today?
Suffering is one thing all of us have in common. We do not have to seek it out. It will find us. We can’t avoid it. It is unkindly patient. Even if spared early in life, at some point, it sniffs us out.
Why is suffering, like taxes, so ubiquitous? Joshua Chatraw and Mark Allen take up that question in their book Apologetics at the Cross: An Introduction for Christian Witness. They ask, “Does the Bible give an apologetic for our suffering?” Their simple answer is “Yes.”
They also have a more extended answer.
Humanity suffers because of sin. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God's one command; as a result, sin entered the world, and suffering followed (Gen 3).
Israel suffers because they disobeyed the Deuteronomic covenant.
God's children sometimes suffer from human disregard and abuse in order to accomplish a greater divine good (Gen 50:20).
Suffering gives the faithful new insight into God (see Job) and his written revelation (Ps 119:67, 71).
Disciples of Jesus suffer persecution because they follow Christ, who was persecuted himself (Matt 5:10-12).
Early Christians suffer persecution because of the jealousy and hatred of human leaders (Acts 13:45; 14:2, 19; 17:5, 13; 21:27).
Christians suffer in order to know Jesus better (Phil 3:10).
Christians share in Jesus Christ's sufferings in the present in order that they might share in his glory in the future (Rom 8:17).
God's children suffer because God disciplines his children out of his love for them (Prov 3:11-12; Heb 12:5-6).
Christians suffer in order to mature spiritually (Jas 1:2-4), grow in righteousness and peace (Heb 12:5-11), and be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Rom 8:28-30).
Christians suffer so that their faith can be proven genuine (I Pet 1:6-7).
While recognizing that this is not an exhaustive treatment, they provide a clear, biblical response to God’s answer to our suffering.
Here’s the point. God doesn’t leave us answer-less to this urgent question. The Bible tells us plainly what’s going on when we suffer. We know the why. Often the why isn’t the problem. It’s the enduring that causes the trouble.
But God helps us with that as well. In the Christian gospel, we have not only a God who answers our questions but also a God who enters our pain. As Tim Keller has said, we may not understand all the reasons of our particular form of suffering but we can know it’s not because God doesn’t care. The fact that Jesus entered our world to live as a man of sorrows proves he’s trustworthy.
As I type this, all but a handful of my books are packed away in boxes. I have no bookcases in my house. The only books I have remaining with me are held in a small drawer underneath the TV. Why? Because we’re moving. We’re not going far, but it’s hard to move if you don’t pack your stuff.
I packed the books in late September, believing we’d be in our new house by mid-November. My books would make their reappearance in my life around Thanksgiving, and I’d spend the month of December soaking in their pages. But that didn’t happen. My books are still in boxes.
Boxes or no boxes, though, 2018 was still a good year of reading for me, if not a bit different and more complicated. I read more on Kindle. I listened to more audio books. I took longer breaks than planned. But at the end of the year, I look back with gratitude that God gave us the gift of language, the ability to write, and for all the writers who labored over every word to give the world a treasure.
Here’s what I read in 2018 in chronological order. First, the best. Then, the rest.
In the first volume of Geerhardus Vos’s Reformed Dogmatics, he answers the question of the difference between God’s holiness and righteousness:
What is the difference between the holiness of God and His righteousness?
Those two attributes are most closely connected to one another, yet they are not to be identified with each other. The difference is mainly twofold.
a) We call holiness the rational goodness of God as He possesses that in Himself, without our understanding that goodness as moving outside of Himself. On the other hand, righteousness is specifically that attribute of God's being that compels Him to make His holiness a power outside of Himself.
b) Holiness is, as we have seen, God's determination toward Himself. It is, as it were, a centripetal property, by which God moves toward Himself, toward the center of His being. On the other hand, righteousness is more a centrifugal property, by which God works from Himself outwardly, although this also occurs to reveal and maintain His holiness.
God moves in two directions: toward himself in holiness and toward his people in righteousness. If God were to move only toward himself, he would still be God. But by moving also toward his people in his holiness, he brings more glory to himself than he otherwise would. The holiness of God separates us from him. The righteousness of God unites us to him.
Friendships are an amazing discovery in life. But strong friendships don’t just spring from nothing. Friendships require wise effort. They require forging. And in his grace, God has given us wisdom in the book of Proverbs to understand this forging process.
A good summary always helps. No one is better are distilling the book of Proverbs into modern Proverbs like Derek Kidner. In his commentary, he has a little section highlighting what a good friend is. The good friend has constancy, candor, counsel, and carefulness (Kidner calls this tact, but Tim Keller refers to it as carefulness, which is so much better because, you know, alliteration).
A friend is always with you. A friend is committed. He sticks closer than a brother.
Maybe you think you don’t have any close friends—no one who really sticks close to you. Well, maybe you don’t. But it’s very easy to pass the blame onto others without admitting maybe there’s something wrong with you. Good friendship begins with you.
Let me ask a very uncomfortable question: What kind of friend are you? Are you the kind of friend who sticks closer than a brother? Are you a constant friend?
Proverbs doesn’t just help us recognize true friends; it helps us become one.
Proverbs 20:6 says, “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?” Is there a difference between the kind of friend you say you are and the kind of friend you actually are?
Proverbs points out that superficial friends don’t stick around when times are bad. Proverbs 19:4 says, “Wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend” Proverbs 19:7 says, “All a poor man’s brothers hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him! He pursues them with words, but does not have them.”
But real friends are constant. Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
What kind of friend are you?
The best way to find a faithful friend is to be a faithful friend. Do you seek others out? Are you available for friendship? Do others even know you’re available? And when you find a friend, are you there for them?
British pastor Vaughan Roberts wrote a little book called True Friendship. He says something really profound.
Perhaps we are confident that if a friend was truly in need, we would be there for them. But would anyone think of turning to us in such circumstances? Have we kept our friendships in good shape in better times so that they are prepared for the moment when a crisis occurs?
Maybe the reason you don’t have the friends you need is because you haven’t yet learned to be the friend you need. Proverbs 27:10 tells us not to forsake our friend. We all need a constant friend. And that starts by being a constant friend to others.
We are sinners in need of help. We have blind spots. And Friends are God’s gift to help us repent and change and move forward.
Real friends don’t just humor or flatter. Real friends deal honestly. They give meaningful input. They sharpen. They make us wise.
So, let me ask you: do you have a friend in your life who can sharpen you? Do you have a friend who can tell you the cold, hard truth when necessary? Furthermore, are you that kind of friend?
Proverbs 29:5 says, “A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.” Friends don’t butter one another up. They shoot straight because they don’t want to see their friend ensnared later on. They want their friend free from sin, free from pain. Why? Because in a way, your happiness is tied to theirs. If your friend hurts, you hurt. That’s one way know you have real friendship—how much you feel what happens to them. But even more than that, we want to stir up one another to love and good works for Jesus’ sake. Our friendships are accountable to Jesus. Are we obeying him? Are we allowing him to use us as he desires in the life of our friends? Or are we ignoring his call to go deep?
You know you have a friend when you can say to them—and they can say to you—what no one else could get away with. Friends don’t hide how they feel. They say what they must without hiding their love. Proverbs 27:5-6 says, “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” Friends wound with love. They don’t kiss with flattery.
Oscar Wilde said, “A true friend stabs you in the front.” That’s a harsh way of putting it, but there’s some truth to it. Friends see what we can’t see about ourselves, and their blunt honesty can save us.
That candidness opens the door for counsel. Real counsel is candid. Proverbs 27:9, “the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.” Earnest counsel isn’t just “do this, don’t do that.” It’s not detached. As commentator Charles Bridges says, earnest counsel is “the counsel of his soul.” A friend puts themselves in our shoes and counsels as he would wish to be counseled. A friend isn’t just a prophet speaking truth in the face of sin but also a priest bringing you to Jesus for help. If you have a friend who is candid with counsel, you will grow in wisdom.
Real friends are candid and give counsel, but their love keeps it from being reckless. Real friends are careful with one another. They don’t want to push you away; they want to bring you nearer to themselves and to Jesus.
This is why friendship requires so much wisdom. God wants us to be careful with what we say and how we say it. Is it helpful? Is it necessary? What impact will it make? As Proverbs 18:21 tells us, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
So, Proverbs teaches us to avoid three friendship killers: gossip, aloofness, and grudges.
First, we must not be gossips, and we must not make friends with gossips.
Gossip is to friendship what adultery is to marriage. It destroys trust and fractures the relationship. Proverbs 16:28 says, “A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer [gossip] separates close friends.” Proverbs 20:19 says, “Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler. ” Gossip is poison. Avoid it at all costs.
Jesus doesn’t gossip. When he speaks of his friends, he has only good things to say because their faults are not talking points for him. He’s not interested in the dark side of your life. He’s bringing you to glory.
Second, we must not be aloof to our friends.
A friend isn’t detached or unsympathetic. Proverbs 25:20 says, “Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda.” Singing happy songs to a heavy heart isn’t just wrong, it’s mean. Real friends know when to weep and when to rejoice. Real friends can read the mood and apply the right balm. They know how to be with present in the circumstance.
And sometimes, being a friend means knowing when to not be there at all. Proverbs 25:17 says, “Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house, lest he have his fill of you and hate you.” Proverbs 27:14 says, “Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, will be counted as cursing.” We all need space. A friend understands that. A friend knows when they’re wearing out their welcome.
But more than that, a friend is earnest in friendship, treating others with respect and honor. A friend doesn’t deceive. Proverbs 26:18-19 says, “Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, ‘I’m only joking!’” Friends bring the right word at the right time with the right posture. They don’t treat others lightly, but with the weight of glory others deserve. Yes, you joke around, but the joking doesn’t have a mean streak. No one should question after the comment, “What do they really think of me?” Friends open others up, not shut others down.
Jesus doesn’t stand aloof. He entered humanity. He knows what it’s like to live in this world. He knows what you need and comes in mercy and grace to give help when you need it.
Third, we mustn’t hold grudges.
Friends are forgiving. Proverbs 17:9 tells us, “Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.” Every friend will disappoint us, and we will disappoint every friend. But wisdom says, “Okay, you’ve been disappointed. Now what? Now, cover that offense. Seek love. Don’t bring it up again.”
The word “repeats” means to bring it up only a second time. That’s all it takes—one more time. Proverbs 28:13 says, “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” If your friend has not concealed but confessed, don’t bring it up again. God doesn’t keep bringing our sins to the forefront. He covered them with his love at the cross. If we don’t do the same with our friends, things can get out of hand. As Proverbs 17:14 says, “The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks.” Proverbs 18:19 says, “A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarreling is like the bars of a castle.” Proverbs 11:12 says, “Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.” You might be in the right, but is your rightness worth the friendship? A friend knows when to cover the offense, when to quit fighting, when to shut up and forgive.
Jesus doesn’t hold a grudge against you. He’s forgiven you completely. He’s paid for all your sins. He won’t bring them up again. Why would he? When he said, “It is finished,” he meant it.
Tim Keller summarizes a friend as one who always lets you in and never lets you down. That’s a high model for us to aspire in our friendships, and we will fail one another more than once. But with God’s grace in our friendships, we can experience the kind of intimacy with friends for which our heart longs.
To be a great friend, be constant, be candid, give counsel, and be careful.
Proverbs 9 shows two options open before us, personified in two women in two houses. In Proverbs 9:1-6, we see Lady Wisdom standing at her door. In Proverbs 9:13-18, we see Lady Folly sitting at her door. And we have a choice. To whom will we go?
Verses 1-6 show us Lady Wisdom.
1 Wisdom has built her house;
she has hewn her seven pillars.
2 She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine;
she has also set her table.
3 She has sent out her young women to call
from the highest places in the town,
4 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
To him who lacks sense she says,
5 “Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.
6 Leave your simple ways, and live,
and walk in the way of insight.”
Now, verses 13-18 show us Lady Folly.
13 The woman Folly is loud;
she is seductive and knows nothing.
14 She sits at the door of her house;
she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,
15 calling to those who pass by,
who are going straight on their way,
16 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
And to him who lacks sense she says,
17 “Stolen water is sweet,
and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
18 But he does not know that the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
So, Wisdom stands at her door. She’s built a great house, with seven pillars—beautiful perfection. She’s made all the proper arrangements. She has meat. The wine is mixed, that doesn’t mean it’s watered down, it means t’s spiced up and therefore better. The table is set. And she goes out to the streets to call all who will come to dine at her table, with her, forever.
And Folly is at her door. She’s loud and incompetent. She’s seductive, a temptress. She doesn’t stand at the door of her house; she sits because she’s lazy. She didn’t build her house; she just occupies it. But her house does sit at the high place of town, so it looks impressive. She didn’t prepare the meal, she stole it, and it’s not meat and wine, it’s bread and water. Folly’s is the loud house party that looks fun from afar, but get close enough, and it turns your stomach.
Wisdom offers ever-increasing life. Folly tricks her guests into death.
The contrast couldn’t be more stark. But there is one commonality between the two. Look at verse 4 and verse 16. They’re the same. “’Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!’” Wisdom and Folly call the same people. What does that mean? Both Wisdom and Folly are open right now to anyone who will come. These verses push us to a decision point. Which house will we choose—the house of Wisdom or the house of Folly? We can’t have both, and there is no third option.
The right answer is obvious, isn’t it? So why is it so hard to walk through Wisdom’s door? Because we’re complicated people. Sin complicates our otherwise obvious choice. Our hearts are like vinyl records. Over the years, sin creates deep grooves in our soul, and the needle of the world always finds the groove to play it’s sad, lonesome song. What we need is a new song in our heart. And that’s what God gives by his grace in Christ. God’s gospel song that he sings over you changes the song of your heart from cheap pop music to Mozart. When that happens, we see the house of Folly for the loser she is and run to the house of Wisdom as fast as we can.
And when we get there, we find not merely a virtue to take back with us into the world; we find a Person to go with us into the world. The Bible presents Wisdom as more than a Personified Lady. The Bible presents Wisdom as the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is Proverbs incarnate. In the choice between Wisdom and Folly, we’re choosing between life with Jesus and life without him—it’s that simple.
In verse 6, part of Wisdom’s invitation is, “Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.” What is Folly’s invitation after verse 17? Nothing! There is no offer of life and insight because there is no life and insight with Folly. All that’s there are the dead ones, the ones wasting their life, dead even before they die.
The Bible calls Jesus the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). And Wisdom stands at the door of his house calling all who will turn in to him.
When Christ as Wisdom calls us to eat and drink, he’s calling us to more than a meal at the Sage’s house. On the night before he died, he stood before his disciples at the last supper and “took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’”
After that, Wisdom gave himself up to die on the cross. He was condemned unjustly to execution, beaten senselessly to exhaustion, nailed ruthlessly to a cross, crucified mercilessly to death. And it was no accident! It was the plan of God!
That looked like a foolish plan to the world. But the foolishness of God is wiser than men! The Bible says, “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Why is it the power of God? Because by the cross Jesus won our heart. He purchased our salvation. He paid for our sins. He gave us his righteousness. He saved our soul! As the old hymn says,
“No more let sin and sorrow grow
Nor thorns infest the ground:
He comes to make his blessings flow
Far as the curse is found!”
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Jesus is not only the Sage we need; he’s the Savior we need. The wisdom of God is more than just right thinking; it’s the glories of his righteousness and the wonders of his love.
Here’s the point: the wisdom of God is not the obvious choice to fools like us. But the Wisdom of God is not an unreachable thing for fools like us! Why? Because Christ came to take upon himself our foolishness at the cross. And when he died, what looked like folly to the world was the wisdom of God three days away from bursting forth in new life for all of God’s people for all time.
Wisdom calls us to forsake folly and follow Jesus. And we find the power to do that by beholding the wisdom of the cross where the Prince of glory died. The risen Christ is calling us to more than a meal at his house. He’s calling us to salvation in his kingdom. The only question remaining is: will we go?
This is an excerpt from a sermon on Proverbs 3 & 9 preached at Refuge Church Franklin.
Saint Augustine said, “I've read in Plato sayings that are wise, but I've never read in one of them: Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.” True wisdom is more than clever words; it’s the life-creating heart that lies behind them. When God’s wisdom comes down into a church, we get more than just right thinking; we get right thinking plus a life-giving culture. Which means life-giving culture is not an optional add-on to wisdom. A life-giving culture is the result of wisdom. It’s what God, by wisdom, created at the very beginning, and has sustained throughout time.
Consider Proverbs 3:19-20. “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew.”
By wisdom God founded the earth. He not only founded the earth and established the heavens, he created the method to create the rain and give the dew each night. God’s wisdom wasn’t just a good idea; it was a life-giving good idea. He created a world in which life multiplies. And in verses 22-27, he shows us how his wisdom gives life to us so that we can take his wisdom to give life to others.
It starts in verse 21. God calls us to keep wisdom: “My son, do not lose sight of these—keep sound wisdom and discretion,”
Now, in verses 22-26, we see how that wisdom beautifies our life.
22 and they will be life for your soul
and adornment for your neck.
23 Then you will walk on your way securely,
and your foot will not stumble.
24 If you lie down, you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
25 Do not be afraid of sudden terror
or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes,
26 for the LORD will be your confidence
and will keep your foot from being caught.
God’s wisdom gives life and adornment. It creates a straight path. It grants peace, removes fear, instills confidence. God’s wisdom beautifies our life, and when we receive that gift from God, God calls us to move it from an inward reality to outward action.
Look at verse 27. Here’s the gospel motivation for gaining wisdom: “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.” The alternative translation of that verse is “Do not withhold good from its owners.” In other words, if there is good we can do to another, they own that good, not you!
Ray Ortlund talks about this in his commentary.
“If you have good you can do for somebody, then legally you own it, but morally they own it. The state has no right to force you to be generous. And no one can walk into your house and start helping themselves to your things and say, “The Bible says I own it.” What the Bible says to them is, “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15). But what the Bible says to you is, “You shall not withhold.” We sin against each other not only by the bad things we do but also by the beautiful things we withhold. Withheld love is a life-depleting sin. It is a sin to tell ourselves, “I’m not doing anybody any harm.” The question is, what good are you withholding? Jesus withheld no good thing from you. Okay, now we know how to build a culture of life, by his power. A culture of life is where people love each other openly and eagerly with the love of Jesus. All around us are opportunities to breathe life into more people. We cannot do everything. But we can do something, for his sake. If we have the ability, they have the ownership. And we owe it today, not tomorrow.”
When God’s wisdom rules your heart, your desire to give life to those around you increases in urgency.
Proverbs 3:28-29 says,
28 Do not say to your neighbor, \"Go, and come again,
tomorrow I will give it\"—when you have it with you.
29 Do not plan evil against your neighbor,
who dwells trustingly beside you.
Wisdom removes selfishness and infuses generosity. Wisdom protects from evil and creates trust. By wisdom, God gives life not only to you but to the community around you through you.
A wise community says so much about the person and work of God because a wise community shows this foolish world what shalom looks like, what true peace is. But even more than that, wisdom shows this world where true peace is—in Jesus Christ alone.
This is an excerpt from a sermon on Proverbs 3 & 9 preached at Refuge Church Franklin.
Proverbs 2:5 says if we fear the Lord, we will find the knowledge of God. One verse later, Proverbs 2:6 tells us what we find is what God gives. “For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” In other words, the wisdom we need does not rise up from within us; it comes down from the wise God above as we seek him out. God offers his wisdom from his book for his people.
Proverbs 3:13-18 takes us further in to God’s wisdom.
13 Blessed is the one who finds wisdom,
and the one who gets understanding,
14 for the gain from her is better than gain from silver
and her profit better than gold.
15 She is more precious than jewels,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.
17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;
those who hold her fast are called blessed.
Verse 13 says the one who finds wisdom is blessed. Well, if we want that blessing, we need to understand what wisdom is.
Proverbs 1 gives some synonyms for wisdom.
Wisdom is related to instruction. That is, training, a hard-won aspect of our character, as endurance to an athlete.
Wisdom is related to understanding, insight, and wise dealing: practical knowledge of what to do in the hard-to-understand aspects of life.
Wisdom is learning or knowledge, which Proverbs 2:5 and 3:6 tell us isn’t merely about facts but about a Person, about God himself, from whom wisdom originates.
So Proverbs shows that wisdom is more than a single thing—it’s a multitude of things that, together, define wisdom. We see this in the wise characters of our popular stories: Yoda, Dumbledore and Gandalf and so on. Why are they wise? Because they have a combination of all the necessary things: experience, knowledge, prudence, instruction, learning.
Everyone else in the story seeks their wisdom. But as wise as they are, Jesus is clearly the wisest man the world has ever seen. Up until his coming, Solomon, the author of many of these Proverbs, was. But when Jesus came, he said, “One greater than Solomon is here.” And unlike finding Yoda, you don’t have to travel to a different planet to access his wisdom. He’s promised to be with us by his Spirit. So the wisdom we need is not something unobtainable. It’s part of the deal God made in Christ. When we know Christ, we get wisdom—and anyone willing to repent of their sin and trust Christ can get in on this.
Consider again chapter 3, verse 13: blessed is the one who finds wisdom. The Hebrew word for one is the generic word for man or human being. God’s wisdom is available to anyone willing to come to God. The New Testament author James says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all.” There is no caveat in that: if any of you. Not if any of you super-smart people, any of you Ph.D.s. You—whoever you are, if you lack wisdom, ask God and he’ll give it. God does not make this too hard for us! You just have to be alive and open to God. You just have to pay attention to his teaching, to his gospel message, and wisdom flows down from heaven. And when it flows down, we realize that what we search for in so many other things is found in getting wisdom.
Consider verses 14-16. “For the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.”
God says compare wisdom with anything else you can get, and wisdom is better because wisdom helps us know what to do with what we get. You might think you need more money, but maybe you just need wisdom to know what to do with the money you have. Get wisdom, and you’ll make the amount of money right for you. Get money only, and you might miss out on both wisdom and money in the end. Remember, King Solomon wrote this. He wasn’t a poor man! He was one of the wealthiest kings in Israel’s history. He spared no expense on his life, but in the end, he realized the best thing he had was the wisdom he got from God.
We in America live have more concentrated wealth than in just about any place in the history of the world. Many of us have jobs that pay well. We have houses full of comfortable things. We have cars that rarely break down. We have vacation spots we visit annually. But do we have wisdom? What’s fancy food on the table without laughter to enjoy it? What’s a nice house that isn’t a home? What’s a family without unity? What’s a retirement plan without a reason to live? All the world’s goods without wisdom is like the Dragon Smaug in Tolkien's The Hobbit: a cave full of treasure but sleeping on it alone!
God offers a better way through wisdom in verses 17-18. “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed.”
Wisdom keeps us from wasting our life on important but not ultimate things. What we need is not the weight of the world’s treasures but the lightness of God’s wisdom. We reach too low for “the good life.” God wants more for us than what this world can offer. He wants to free us from the chains of this world. That means God will ask us to give certain things up, not because he wants less for us, but because he wants far more for us. He wants pleasantness and peace of a good conscience before him, of a life well lived in his presence by his wisdom granted on terms of grace.
But gaining wisdom might not always feel like pleasantness and peace. But wisdom teaches us to look beyond our feelings. In fact, it helps to see the verses leading into this passage. Verses 11-12 show us that if we want God’s wisdom, it comes through his discipline. “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.”
Why does he tell us not to despise the Lord’s discipline? Because he knows we’re prone to despise it! Why? Because it’s hard! Who wants discipline?
Every parent knows without discipline the child never grows up right. But with the proper discipline, the potential of the child is huge. We are to accept God’s discipline because it’s one channel through which God’s wisdom comes down to us. When he corrects us, we learn. When he reproves us, we grow. We tend to think of God’s discipline as his disappointment in us, but that’s not how the Bible presents it. The Bible says God’s discipline is his investment in us.
Wisdom teaches us that everything in our life is an investment in us from the good God above. He may take us through some really rough passages, but in every adventure, there is a bridge you don’t want to cross. And when you put your foot on the creaking board, and it sways a little more than you’d like but it holds you up, you realize the adventure God has for you is better than the one you dreamed up for yourself. It’s far more dangerous but far more exciting, and he’s leading you to something far more glorious than you ever imagined. He’s taking you from the silly life you’d live in foolishness to the full life you’ll live in wisdom.
All you have to do to go on the journey to wisdom is say yes to God. And when you do, when you say yes and follow him wherever he leads, you find that, ultimately, no matter what happens, his purposes for you are good because he’s your Father, and father’s don’t abandon their children, they invest in them. Sometimes the best gifts are ones we don’t think we need, and sometimes wisdom comes through things we’d rather not face. But he who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
God’s investment is his delight in you. Just think, if you feel under God’s discipline now, how much delight he must take in you.
This is an excerpt from a sermon on Proverbs 3 & 9 preached at Refuge Church Franklin.
Proverbs 2:1-5 teaches us the very first step in the fear of the Lord is humility
1 My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
Do you see the logic of the passage? Notice the word “if”: “If you receive my words,” “if you call out for insight,” “if you seek it like silver.” Those “if” statements are funneling down to the “then” statement of verse 5 where the fear of the Lord is found. We cannot reach the “then” without the “if”, but we cannot reach the “if” without humility. In the pursuit of the fear of the Lord, humility comes first. Our hope begins with the realization of who God is and who we are.
And who are we, really? Verse 1 tells us: “My son.” That’s not a throw-away phrase. The book of Proverbs is a gift from the open-hearted Father to his open-hearted children. God offers us freely, through Christ, a place in his heart. The question for us is simple: will we go there?
If we will, the passage shows us what to do: “receive … treasure up … making your ear attentive … inclining your heart … call out … raise your voice … seek … search …” God calls us to humble, hopeful action.
Now, you might say, “Wait a minute. Isn’t that works-based?” No! As Dallas Willard said, “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.”
Do my sons earn their way onto the family walk at night? No! They’re in just for being my children. But to be with me on the walk, they must put their shoes on and come. That’s what the wisdom of Proverbs offers us—a chance to walk with God, a hopeful humility that assures us God will take us where we long to be with him. But we must put our shoes on. We must listen to him, open our heart to him, revere him for who he is. God is not the hold out!
If we want to understand the book of Proverbs, we must understand that wisdom isn’t automatic, and the fear of the Lord isn’t either. God is making the first, and most significant, move, but he’s asking us to respond. If we want to get traction with God, if we want to grow in his grace, if we want to go further with Christ than we’ve ever gone before, here’s what we must do. We must humble ourselves as his beloved children who know his purposes toward us are good. We must receive his word. We must treasure it up. We must listen. We must incline our heart. We must call out to him. We must seek and search. And if we’ll do that, we’ll understand the fear of the Lord because we’ll begin to see him as he really is. In fact, we’ll find the knowledge of God. We will see his grandeur and majesty. We’ll behold his glory. And the heart of every child of God longs for that.
The first step in fearing the Lord is humility. Humility is the currency of God’s kingdom, not because it’s easier to get but because it’s more joyous to have—and God’s kingdom is a kingdom of joy. True humility is true freedom because it looks beyond one’s self to the only Wise Person in existence. Pride says you don’t need God. Humility says you can’t live without him. Pride says you must learn the ropes of this world if you want to succeed. Humility says this world isn’t ultimate, because God has something better out ahead for us. Pride is cynical. Humility is hopeful.
When Jesus comes back to restore this broken world, we will live in a humble, hopeful state of the fear of the Lord that leads to perfect wisdom forever because we’ll draw forever from the fountain of Wisdom itself in Jesus Christ, and Jesus just wants us to get a head start right now.
I can’t help but notice that Proverbs often shows that humility and the fear of the Lord are parallel terms—they go hand in hand. For example, Proverbs 15:33, “The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.” Honor is not ours for the taking. What is honorable about us apart from Christ? Honor is ours for the receiving. It’s the result of humility and the fear of the Lord because we receive honor by beholding the honorable, by being in the presence of Majesty. When we put ourselves in the low place before God where we belong, he lifts us to the high place with him where we only belong because of his grace.
As it always is with God, we get more than we deserve. Proverbs 22:4 says, “The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.” God is no miser. He’s a big spender on his children. And he never runs out of riches and honor and life for you because Jesus’ victorious resurrection opened the door to it all. The Bible says all things are yours, whether the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s (1 Corinthians 3:22). How is that so? Because Christ humbled himself to the point of death on a cross for you. “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)
In Jesus we see that he not only gives wisdom, he fulfilled Wisdom in his earthly life. He lived the only truly humble life full of the fear of the Lord for us so that we, by the power of his Spirit, can have the life he came to give.
When we see that—when we really see it—we have the fear of the Lord, because it's impossible to behold the dying love of Christ for you and not feel it, not revere him, not be in awe of him.
This is an excerpt of a sermon from Proverbs preached at Refuge Church Franklin.
“And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”
— Jonah 1:17 —
Jonah didn’t deserve this fish, did he? He deserved God’s wrath. But God gives his people better than what they deserve. With God—as amazing as it sounds—our sin is swallowed by his grace. As the waves swallowed Jonah, God’s grace came to the sailors. And as Jonah was swallowed by the fish, God’s grace came to him as well.
When did God’s grace come to you? Has it yet? Maybe you need to see your sin first. Maybe you need to suffer the consequences of your sin first. I know that sounds terrifying, but we can trust God with it. There’s a deep spiritual truth that we can affirm from Scripture but that it difficult for us to believe. When we cover our sins in the darkness, God will drag them into the light. Jonah is proof of that. But when we drag our sins into the light, God will cover them with the cross.
We can keep running from God, or we can stop and face him. I wonder: what about Jonah 1 proves God isn’t faithful? What about Jonah 1 proves God’s not worth trusting? What about Jonah 1 proves we can avoid him? Our only hope is casting ourselves upon his mercy and grace. Our only hope is turning away from our sin and toward him.
And what will happen when we do that? What will we find?
The greatest commentary on the Old Testament is the New Testament. And in the New Testament, in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus commented on this verse.
The Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign to prove himself. “But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”
Jesus affirms Jonah’s prophetic voice—that Jonah speaks of Jesus. Jonah is a type of Christ. Of course, Jesus didn’t sin like Jonah. Jesus didn’t say, “Another Jonah is here.” He said, “One greater than Jonah is here.”
How is Jesus greater?
Jonah heard God’s call and said, “Not your will but mine.”
But Jesus heard God’s call and said, “Not my will but thine.”
Jonah showed no care for the lost. He didn’t care about the sailors on the ship. He didn’t care about the Ninevites in their sin. The compassion of God didn’t melt his heart, it angered him.
But Jesus came to seek and save the lost. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Jonah fought against God’s heart.
But Jesus is God’s heart.
Jonah brought news of God’s grace.
But Jesus is God’s grace.
Jonah was thrown overboard for his own sins.
But Jesus was thrown overboard for the sins of others.
Jonah’s sacrifice caused the storm at sea to cease.
But Jesus’ sacrifice caused the storm of God’s wrath to cease.
Jonah was swallowed by the great fish that saved him from death.
But Jesus swallowed sin on the cross to save his people from death.
God loved the Ninevites enough to send Jonah.
But God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Do you see the difference? Everything thing and everyone but Jonah is obeying God in this story! But Jesus went willingly into the weakness of flesh, to make himself like us so he could save us. Jesus came to find our sin out on the cross and to pay the consequences of our sin in his death.
Here’s God’s promise to us. When we face our sins, openly and honestly, and turn to God with open hands of faith, God will swallow our sins in Christ. He will not throw us overboard because Christ has already been thrown overboard. He endured the wrath for us. And we can now have the storehouses of his mercy and grace. The grave could not hold him. And if you believe in the One greater than Jonah, the grave can’t hold you either. That’s way better than we deserve, isn’t it? It turns out that when we hurl ourselves into the ocean of God’s justice, we find at the bottom God’s mercy and grace.
Yes, we’ll have to change our lives. We’ll have to run wherever he says to run. But where did running on our own ever get us? Why not try listening to God for a change?
We see so much of ourselves in Jonah, don’t we? But the Apostle John says in 1 John 3, “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” Yes, we’re like Jonah. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, when we say yes to Christ, we are becoming like him.
If you feel more like Jonah than Jesus, don’t worry. God will send storms into your life. He uses them as interventions to show us who we are. And when our sin finds us out, and we face the consequences, God has a word for us that blows us away. God looks us square in the eye, without coddling us, without downplaying our sin, and presents his answer to our sin. There is One greater than Jonah who speaks a better word. His sacrificial blood can clean your sinful heart, and his resurrected life can grant you the newness you need. All you must do is listen to his word. Don’t let the Ninevites rise at the judgment and condemn you. Come to Christ now and find life!
The sign of Jonah is this. Jesus swallows your sin by his cross. Sin may belong to us, but salvation belongs to the Lord.
This is an excerpt from a sermon on Jonah 1:1-17 preached at Refuge Church Franklin.
And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
— Jonah 1:7-10 —
There’s a deep truth running through the world—evil exists, and evil is exposed. It’s really hard to deny that. It’s just so obvious.
The Bible calls evil sin. But it’s not as easy for everyone to recognize sin as evil living within each of us. We like to think we’re basically good people who do bad things from time to time. But the Bible says otherwise. We’re really bad people who do good things from time to time, by God’s grace. Jonah is a classic example. Here is a prophet—one of the godliest men in his nation—and he’s running from the presence of God because he doesn’t want God to be merciful to his enemies.
We look at Jonah’s life and we’re probably all a little amazed at how unconcerned he seems to be. He’s asleep in the ship, for goodness sake! How could he sleep knowing what he’s done? Well, at this point, he didn’t yet see the evil of what he’d done. No one else even knew about it. It didn’t seem to be a problem. After all, the ship was there, ready to go. Why did God make it so easy to run if he didn’t want him to?
Here’s the problem: sin is deceptive. And part of the deceptive power of sin is convincing us that we’re really not that bad. That’s why Jonah could lay down and go to sleep. When we’re deceived by sin, we’re not bothered by sin. In fact, it’s possible to be so deceived that we actually feel justified in our sin. Sin questions God. It whispers, as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, “Did God really say?” That’s how Jonah felt—as if he were right and God was wrong. “Mercy for the Ninevites?! No way that's God’s will. They're the evil empire!” And they were. They were really bad people. But apparently God loves really bad people: Nineveh and Jonah.
My guess is Jonah’s plan for his life didn’t include running from God. Who's does? But over time, Jonah put up walls around the word of God. When God called him to Nineveh, Jonah wouldn’t obey because long before he put up a wall of nationalism. Jonah limited what God could ask of him. He drifted from God. He didn’t see the drift, because we never see the drift. He floated away slowly, but he could still see the shore. So he still felt he operated within his calling. He wasn’t cheating on his wife, he wasn’t stealing, he was being a good Israelite. But over time, he drifted far enough away that when God asked him to go beyond his own land to his enemies, he could not and would not do it. Not only that, he was appalled that God would even ask it of him. I wonder, are there some things God asks that are appalling to us?
Drifting happens when two evils coincide: we neglect God’s word and we accept an alternative message. That’s what happened to Jonah. He ignored God’s word to go to Nineveh and accepted an alternative word that God should judge, not forgive Nineveh. Jonah turned the most merciful Person in the world into an unforgiving Judge. And he thought he was justified in doing so. If we projected all our thoughts about God from this past week onto this screen behind me, what would he look like? Would he resemble the God of the Bible?
When we refuse to listen to all of God’s word, and substitute other, more palatable messages instead, we set ourselves on a path to sin big-time. And we might not even see the depth of it until something extraordinary comes along and wakes us up—something like a storm at sea and a group of pagan sailors pleading with us to pray for salvation.
The storm forced out of Jonah more than an inward consideration of his failings. It forced his failings to his mouth before many witnesses. Jonah thought he ran from God’s presence. He thought his sin was his own personal issue. But his sin found him out. God knows, no matter where you are, if you're faithful or not. Others may not know your sin yet, but God does.
Look at the narrative. Verse 7 says the sailors cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Casting lots was an old way of answering an unanswerable question. Roll the dice and let God (or in this case, the gods, as the pagan sailors believed) decide where it falls. For it to fall on Jonah means this was no mere coincidence; it was divine providence. God used these pagan sailors to confront the prophet with his sin. Oh, the irony! Pagan sailors doing what the prophet should have done!
So they confront him in verse 8. “What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”
Jonah answers in verse 9. “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
It’s an interesting response. Jonah is technically right about who he is and who God is. He’s a Hebrew, an Israelite. God is the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. But there seems to be a disconnect in the middle, doesn't there? Does Jonah fear the Lord? It doesn’t look like it.
Jonah got the questions right doctrinally, but he was wrong relationally. Here’s a question for us: Does our doctrine line up with our life? Are we proclaiming one thing about God while relating to him differently? Do we claim to fear the Lord while riding the fleeing boat of rebellion?
Jonah obviously has some realization of his situation because there’s one question he didn't answer. Do you see it? “What is your occupation?” He was a prophet. But he didn’t tell the sailors that, did he? I wonder why? He was awakening to the cost of his sin. He couldn't be a prophet if he failed to speak God’s word.
By this point, the sailors understood Jonah’s sin. During the conversation, he told them he was running from God. They knew then the reason the storm was so strong. Verse 10 says they became exceedingly afraid. Literally, they feared a greater fear. Jonah said he feared God, but it’s the pagan sailors who act like God-fearers. They cry out, “What is this you have done!” that isn’t a question. It’s an accusation. There is no question mark. It's an exclamation point. When our sin finds us out, it's shocking.
Jonah's sin found him out, and he was about to face the consequences.
This is an excerpt from a sermon on Jonah 1:1-17 preached at Refuge Church Franklin.
Why does church membership matter? Isn’t it just a formal structure we can take or leave? What’s the big deal, anyway?
You may say, “I can be part of Christ’s cosmic church without joining a local church.” To that, I would say, “Try it.” Try being a sideline-Christian. Try saying to your fellow Christians that you worship with week-in and week-out, sit in a community group with, fellowship with, and say, “I really love you, but I don’t want to covenant with you. I don’t want to commit to you. You never know, another church down the road might give me more of what I’m looking for. I want to keep my options open.”
You might not say those words with your mouth, but your unwillingness to enter the church body says it with your actions.
More importantly, you’re saying to Jesus, “I love you, but I don’t love your church.” Theologian Russell Moore says,
“Saying ‘I love Jesus’ but hating the church is as irrational as saying to your best friend, ‘I like you–I just can’t stand being around you.’ Your attitude toward the church tells you–simply–your attitude toward Jesus.”
Now, I’m not trying to pile on anyone. I’m simply trying to express how important this is. After all, Jesus does call his Church his Bride. Commitment matters to him.
Church membership matters because it is the Church that Christ promised to build. It matters because it is the Church that is on the offensive against the gates of hell and the gates of hell will not prevail. We all know an army is stronger than an individual soldier. A Church is stronger than a Christian.
The world is a dark place, isn’t it? What’s God’s answer to this present darkness? It’s the Church! My friend Jared Wilson says, “The Church is God’s Plan A for the world, and there is no Plan B.” If you want to join Christ in pressing his light into the darkness, you cannot do it apart from the Church. The Church is where he works. The Church is where he saves. The Church is where he builds. The Church is where he moves. The Church is who he’s coming back for. When you join the church, you’re saying, “I will not let the darkness overcome the light. I will join Christ’s army for his glory. I will join my brothers and sisters not with a noncommittal I’ll-make-it-if-I-can attitude but with a firm I’ll-stand-by-you-and-die-for-you conviction worthy of the risen Christ.”
And as we do that, we find that through his gospel doctrine, God creates a gospel culture. And as we follow the Lamb wherever he goes, he creates a gospel family on mission together to evangelize the world for his glory alone.
You may be thinking, “Well, that sounds great, but I’m not sure I can do it. Sometimes I even wonder if I’m a Christian. Sometimes I fail to obey. Sometimes I struggle with intimacy with God.”
Well, Jesus said he did not come for the righteous, but for sinners. You may come in some days needing your fellow members to carry you on a stretcher. That’s fine with Jesus. He came to heal the paralytic. You may come some days so blinded by the world that you can’t see. Well, Jesus gives sight to the blind. You may come in so discouraged and lifeless that you’re not sure you can sing praises to God. Well, you’ve got brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers who will lift your faith up with their faith.
And those days you come in feeling good and ready to praise the Lord, it’s your job to pick up those limping in. You can’t fix them, but Jesus can! And maybe they need your help for years. Fine. Keep taking them to Jesus as they keep taking you to him. We’re in this together, guys!
Can we do that?
I know we can because Jesus died for his Church. He hung on the cross., and he took all our sin with him into the grave. And on that third day, he rose victoriously, and came walking toward us, gathering people in every city, in every country, in every nook and cranny of the world into local churches, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against the work of God. Sorry, Devil, Christ’s Church is here, and we’re going to be triumphant in him!
We can have meaningful church membership because what Jesus died for, he will give life to. Jesus died for the church. He will give life to it.
Church membership is God’s idea, it’s revealed in his Word, it matters to God, and goodness knows, it’s good for us.
This is the third of a three part series on church membership based on a sermon I preached at Refuge Church Franklin.
The entire New Testament speaks not only of the church but to the Church.
One of the reasons it may be hard to understand today why church membership matters is because, at least for many of us in America, there is very little risk associated with church. But it was not always so, and it’s not so today in other parts of the world. The early Christians risked their lives to join the church. Luke tells us in Acts 5:12-13: “Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.”
Why did the rest not dare join them? Because it was a social risk! It could cost their lives. But the Christians watching had no qualms about joining. In the early church, Christians were only found in the local church.
Nathan Rose, pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in Kansas City, organizes it under three headings, which I’m borrowing (and reordering a bit) here.
First, the early church kept track of its members.
In Acts 2:41, Luke tells us, “those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”
Added to who? Added to the church, of course.
In 1 Timothy 5:9-12, Paul says: “Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works.”
So, there were rolls in the early church—ways of keeping track of who was included in the body.
Second, certain commands assume meaningful church membership.
The author to the Hebrews tells us in 13:17, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
How can we obey our leaders and submit to them, and how can they watch over our souls if we have not committed to one another.
Furthermore, how are leaders held accountable for people who haven’t covenanted with them? If we don’t have meaningful membership and Dustin and I go off the rails with heresy and sin, who will cast us from among you?
Third, church discipline can only work if church membership is in place.
What happens when sin enters the church? How is it handled? Jesus and Paul told us what to do. Church discipline is a biblical call, but it can’t happen apart from church membership.
In Matthew 18:15-17 Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
Furthermore, in 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 Paul says, “For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
It is those inside, not outside, the church that are to be judged. How can one determine insiders and outsiders without formal membership? If I leave Jesus to pursue sin, how can you hold me accountable if we haven’t committed to one another in membership?
This is the second of a three part series on church membership based on a sermon I preached at Refuge Church Franklin.
What is church membership?
Simply put, church membership is a commitment to join Christ on his mission with his people for his glory.
Jonathan Leeman defines it this way:
“Church membership is a formal relationship between a local church and a Christian characterized by the church’s affirmation and oversight of a Christian’s discipleship and the Christian’s submission to living out his or her discipleship in the care of the church.”
Now that’s a good, formal definition. But what does it mean practically? It means that as an individual, you’re saying to Jesus and his Church, “Jesus, I’ve counted the cost, and I know what you’re asking me to do as your follower. You call me to love God and to love others as myself. I’m ready now to join your local, definable people to live that out. I take responsibility for them, and them for me. I’m not here only to receive but also to give. I want to receive care, but I also want to extend care to others. I want to grow in you, and I want to help others grow in you. I want others to know me and help me when I sin, and I want to know and help others. I want to submit to godly leadership. I want to be all in with Christ’s church. I want more than a taste. I want the real thing.”
In other words, church membership is more than scrolling down and hitting “Agree” on the pop-up screen to proceed. Church membership is a considered step toward Christ and his people. It is a full-hearted agreement with his call to community and a full-bodied involvement with his people.
The apostle Peter helps us see this. Though he’s not directly addressing church membership, in 1 Peter 2:9-10, he helps us think rightly about it. He says,
“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
“You are a chosen race.” A church member is a member of God’s chosen race, an offspring of Abraham, a descendant of the called out family of God.
“A royal priesthood.” A church member is a member of God’s royal family. Though we are children of God, we are more than mere passive children. We are active priests to one other, able to minister to all around us, bringing the gospel to bear upon our lives.
“A holy nation.” A church member is a member of God’s holy nation—the people set apart to himself for blamelessness and spotlessness, for his own glory.
“A people for his own possession.” A church member is a member of God’s family—one who has forsaken the ownership of the world for the care of Jesus, the one and only God.
“That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” A church member is a herald of the King, a bringer of the gospel, a witness to the grace of God, a soldier in Christ’s army fighting against the darkness and spreading the radiance of his marvelous light, displaying the many excellencies of Christ.
“Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” A church member is one who was once not a people but who now is, one who once had not received mercy but now has, one whom God has gathered together into a gospel family.
As Jonathan Leeman says in his book The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love, church membership:
Identifies us with Christ.
Distinguishes us from the world.
Guides us into the righteousness of Christ by presenting a standard of personal and corporate righteousness.
Acts as a witness to non-Christians.
Glorifies God and enables us to enjoy his glory.
Identifies us with God’s people.
Assists us in living the Christian life through the accountability of brothers and sisters in the faith.
Makes us responsible for specific believers.
Protects us from the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
Understanding how important it is for our souls and the advancement of the mission of God, church membership is not an optional add-on to the Christian life. If anything in this world calls us to commitment it is Jesus Christ. He not only calls, but he also takes the first step. He stepped out of heaven to join us in our flesh. He stepped into obedience where we only ran the other way. He stepped into Pilate’s court as the crowd released Barabbas. He stepped onto the cross. He stepped into the grave, and three days later he stepped out of the grave so he could step toward us in newness of life. Jesus Christ was committed to us, and he’s calling us to be committed to him by becoming members of his church.
This is the first of a three part series on church membership based on a sermon I preached at Refuge Church Franklin.
In calling us to himself, Jesus calls us to more than an anti-to-do list. “Don’t do this…Don’t do that.” In calling us to himself, Jesus is calling us not only away from doing bad things but into doing good things.
Ray Ortlund, in his commentary on the book of Proverbs, comments on the culture of life wisdom creates. His comments are regarding Proverbs 3:27-28: “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, “Go and come again, tomorrow I will give it”—when you have it with you.”
“In a culture of life people help each other as much as they can. We cannot do the impossible. We cannot give what we do not have. But when it is in our power to do it, when we have it with us, wisdom says, “Give it away.” The grace of Jesus taught the Apostle Paul to say, “I am a debtor” (Romans 1:14, nkjv). He did not see himself as a demander but a debtor. Nobody owed him a hearing. He won a hearing by loving people the way God loved him—graciously.
Let me show you how radical this is. Verse 27 says, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due.” But also note the alternative translation in the esv margin: “Do not withhold good from its owners.” If you have good you can do for somebody, then legally you own it, but morally they own it. The state has no right to force you to be generous. And no one can walk into your house and start helping themselves to your things and say, “The Bible says I own it.” What the Bible says to them is, “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15). But what the Bible says to you is, “You shall not withhold.” We sin against each other not only by the bad things we do but also by the beautiful things we withhold. Withheld love is a life-depleting sin. It is a sin to tell ourselves, “I’m not doing anybody any harm.” The question is, what good are you withholding? Jesus withheld no good thing from you. Okay, now we know how to build a culture of life, by his power. A culture of life is where people love each other openly and eagerly with the love of Jesus. All around us are opportunities to breathe life into more people. We cannot do everything. But we can do something, for his sake. If we have the ability, they have the ownership. And we owe it today, not tomorrow.”
What good are you withholding today? Why not give it away for Jesus’ sake?
As I prepare to preach this coming Sunday on the fear of the Lord, I found a sermon by Jonathan Edwards on Proverbs 29:25 called “Christian Safety\". He describes what we must have in order to have a right trust in God.
There must be a lively sense of our need of him, and the sufficiency of all other confidences.
There must be a firm belief in his all-sufficiency.
There must be a firm belief of God’s merciful nature, and that he is willing to help us and do for us: a trusting in God is a trusting in his mercy and goodness.
A firm belief of God’s truth and faithfulness to his promises: there is no trusting in God without a firm belief of the Word of God, and the revelation he has made concerning himself, especially his gracious promises.
A love to God: there is no such thing as trusting in God, as long as we are enemies to him and hate him; it is not possible we should come to God, and sweetly repose our souls upon him, as long as we have an aversion and antipathy to him, as we all naturally do.
A hope in him that he will bestow his mercy on us: neither can we be said to trust in God, except we hope that he will bestow upon us what we trust in him for.
A rest and satisfaction in the soul, arising from such a belief of, love to, and hope in God.
A Christian is safe insofar as he leans upon the Lord’s goodness to him. We may search for safety outside of God, but the further in we go, the safer we are.
I've always loved poetry. I write it from time to time, but you'll probably never see it. I'm not a good poet, even if I do enjoy good poetry. And during the month of July, I read a good deal of poetry, with a little theology and fiction sprinkled in.
Here are the books I read in July 2018.
I remember how dark it looked inside. It was mid-morning. The sun was hot in the sky, and my skin felt it, but the tomb looked cold, as if it had been robbed of it’s purpose. As my eyes adjusted, I saw the linens. And that was it. Nothing else.
Were the women lying? I wasn't sure. I pursued truth for so many years—that's why I followed him—but now my heart felt as empty as the rock-cut tomb. He wasn’t here, that much was true. Where could he be?
I turned around and walked away. No goodbyes. No farewells. Nothing but the turn of the heel and the open road. I somehow missed the joy the other women felt. Would I ever feel it? Not today, I thought. Maybe never. But perhaps soon? One can never be sure when it will come. Joy isn't ours to beckon; it's ours to receive.
I followed my husband. He kept replaying the events of the past few days. I wished he stop talking about it. It wasn't helping me feel better, and it wasn't answering any of the questions I was asking myself.
As we walked, I felt caught in a dream. It was a nightmare, and there was no one across the room to wake me from the dread. It was only he and I, walking, not waking.
In this nightmare, I could see hope. It had become a person, a man. He wasn't transparent, but he wasn't solid, either. He was what you’d expect hope to be: touchable yet not quite reachable.
He was standing above pouring something down on me. I couldn't feel it, and that was what made it a nightmare. I knew it must be something good, something to take the bad away, but I couldn't feel it no matter how hard I tried. So I jumped, as if jumping into the downpour would make me shoot through it to the depths, like jumping into the sea. I wanted to drown myself in whatever it was, but I couldn't get to it. The pain of not feeling it was unbearable.
As I stood beneath the unfeelable rain, I looked at my husband and saw that he was in a worse position. The downpour wasn't flowing his way. I reached for his hand to bring him inside the waterfall but couldn't find it. So I gave up and turned my face downward to the dust swirling around my feet. The staleness of the world dried up the beauty of the rain.
Shaking myself awake, I heard a man’s voice. As he approached, he asked what we were discussing. Discussing was a strong word. Had I said anything yet?
I didn't see from where he came but supposed it to be our same direction. My husband spoke first. I was grateful. My voice was hard in my throat, like that feeling when you want to cry—need to cry—but try hard to resist. Nothing can go out because as soon as the stone rolls away everything else inside will follow, and the insides on days like this can't be good.
My husband seemed to rebuke the man. I was surprised at his tone. But, then again, everything seemed surprising now.
“Are you the only one who hasn't heard of these things?”
The man pleaded ignorance. ”What things?”
I drifted in and out of those first few sentences, and my nightmare returned. But this time I felt it differently. It wasn't really a nightmare. Something else was happening, though I couldn't recognize what. The dust I saw before was lapping up the rain and becoming something fresh, something new. The words of the Psalmist rose to my mind from nowhere. “You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.” Something was changing.
I awoke again still on the road. How much time had passed? Not much, I supposed. My husband was still rehearsing the days’ events.
”What things? I can't believe it! The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.\"
The stranger’s disposition changed. He wasn't curious anymore. He looked at my husband and then at me and then back at my husband. With pity in his voice, he said, ”My dear Cleopas, how could you be so foolish and slow to believe the prophets? We're not all these things necessary? Was it not the plan of God? Did the Christ need not suffer these things and enter into his glory? Surely you do not fail to understand!”
We were stopped now. When did that happen? I felt something begin to rest, but it wasn't relief from walking. Something deep inside slowed to rest, like laying down after a hard day’s work.
The stranger continued talking, taking up each of the scriptures in turn, explaining things I never before considered. I could see my husband was confused. He was trying, but something seemed out of reach. I realized my nightmare was his nightmare too. Something was pouring down, but he couldn’t feel it. Not yet, anyway. I could tell he wanted to, just as I did. But there was a veil.
We began walking again. And we came to the edge of town. It was getting dark. The stranger wanted to travel on, but neither I nor my husband could bear for him to go. We pleaded with him to stay, and when he agreed, we found a friendly house and entered. Food was prepared and brought. We sat down to eat.
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”
His story began there. I remembered the way my heart ached before he came and that ache returned with fury, burning inside my breast. The unfeelable rain was pouring now, but this time not in a dream. I could feel something bursting out of me. Or was it bursting out of him into me? I couldn’t tell. It felt so foreign yet so familiar. I wanted to hear more, even if the pain would only increase. There was something fresh in the story he told, as if it was all new, though I had heard the words before.
The meal was before us, and the stranger took the bread. I fixed my eyes on him now. I had seen him before. Why didn't I notice this until now?
He took the bread, and he blessed it and broke it, and he gave it to us and we ate. Then the eyes of us both were opened, and we knew that He was in their presence—or were we in His?
I thought of the nightmare on final time and realized I was awake for the first time. The rain came, the harvest arrived, and it was of eternal abundance. I stepped inside and felt it. Hope.
18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Ephesians 5:18-21
When the Holy Spirit comes down, he changes our culture. We go from selfishness to selflessness, from pride to humility, from fear to courage.
There’s an entry from the journal of John Wesley that proves the truth of Ephesians 5:18-21. Wesley was one of the key men God used in the 18th century revival known as the Great Awakening. He was aboard a ship to America with a group of Moravian Christians when a strong storm arose. The difference between his reaction and that of the Moravians changed him. Here’s what he said.
At seven I went to the Germans [Moravians]. I had long before observed the great seriousness of their behavior. Of their humility they had given a continual proof, by performing those servile offices for the other passengers, which none of the English would undertake; for which they desired, and would receive no pay, saying, “it was good for their proud hearts,” and “their loving Saviour had done more for them.” And every day had given them occasion of showing a meekness which no injury could move. If they were pushed, struck, or thrown down, they rose again and went away; but no complaint was found in their mouth. There was now an opportunity of trying whether they were delivered from the Spirit of fear, as well as from that of pride, anger, and revenge. In the midst of the psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the main-sail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured in between the decks, as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible screaming began among the English. The Germans [Moravians] calmly sung on. I asked one of them afterwards, “Was you not afraid?” He answered, “I thank God, no.” I asked, “But were not your women and children afraid?” He replied, mildly, “No; our women and children are not afraid to die.”
From them I went to their crying, trembling neighbors, and pointed out to them the difference in the hour of trial, between him that fears God, and him that fears him not. At twelve the wind fell. This was the most glorious day which I have hitherto seen.
Do you see the wise culture the Spirit created? The Moravians stood in the storm as Wesley shrank away. They praised as the waves crashed. Why? Because they lived with wise urgency. Because they were filled with the Spirit. They were there to worship God! They didn’t do it out of a desire to be loved. They did it because they were loved. There was no difference in their faith in the sunshine vs. their faith in the storm. We often think wise urgency matters only when the storm comes, but these Christians show us wise urgency matters in the sunshine before it matters in the storms. It was their way of life in the mundane that struck Wesley at first. And when the storm came, what he saw only confirmed the strength of their faith. If you don’t have wise urgency in the sunshine, the storms won’t bring it out. Who you are in secret proves the wisdom or foolishness in which you’re walking.
The Moravians stood to sing before the storm came. When it came and threated life, they sang on. Their singing addressed Wesley, as verse 19 commands. As their voices rang out to God, they made melody in their hearts, as verse 19 commands. And they gave thanks always and for everything, as verse 20 commands. The Spirit flowed from them and filled Wesley’s heart.
Now, some would say they’re stupid for singing in that kind of storm, but it was the will of God. Don’t be surprised if your walk with God looks stupid to the world. The wisdom of God was death on a cross!
Be filled with the Spirit, look carefully how you walk, and see what God will do. Your faith today will lead to singing in a storm. And God might use you to encourage the next John Wesley and spur the next Great Awakening!
The Moravians humbled themselves. They served where others wouldn’t. They were filled with the Spirit. And through them, the Spirit filled Wesley. And what was his response? It was to submit himself to them, as verse 21 commands. He saw their faith and it cut him to the heart, and he went to his English brethren and pointed out the difference between him that fears God and him that fears him not.
Do you see the kind of wise culture the Spirit creates? He brought heaven down to that ship. But it wasn’t easy, was it? There was a storm. There was danger. But God was in it!
When God gets involved, it doesn’t mean everything will be safe. It just means everything will matter.
In C.S. Lewis's book The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Mr. Beaver talks with Susan about their troubles with the evil White Witch. It’s rumored Aslan, the Jesus-figure, is on the move. Mr. Beaver assures Aslan can help, but when Susan realizes Aslan is a lion, she says,
\"Oh. I'd thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion\"
\"Safe?\" said Mr. Beaver. \"Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”
When King Jesus comes, of course he isn’t safe. How can holiness be safe to our sinfulness? But the wonder of the gospel is that this King puts himself on the cross instead of us. This King gives his holiness to sinners. This King destroys evil by redeeming us. It’ll be painful. It’ll be trying. But it’ll be glorious because this King is good. And when the King comes, I tell you, he creates something beautiful.
This is an excerpt from my sermon on Ephesians 5:15-21. You can read the full sermon or listen to it here.
\"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit\"
Ephesians 5:18
The Bible calls us to live with wise urgency. How are we going to do that? By being filled with God himself.
When we come to Christ, God gives us an inexhaustible resource of fullness. The concept of “filling” is really important to Paul in Ephesians. In 1:23, he says the church is Christ’s body, “the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” In 3:19, he prays that we “may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” In 4:10 he says Jesus “ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.” In 4:13 he says God put gifts in the church to “become mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” And now here, in 5:18, Paul says to be filled with the Spirit.
God did not create a world full without him. He created a world to be filled with him. We were made to be filled with God. But when sin entered the world, we turned from God to idols. Sin didn’t remove our need for filling; it just redirected our gaze from the one who can satisfy to worthless fillers, like junk food on a Saturday night.
So, Paul gives us two opposite ways we can be filled: with wine or the Holy Spirit.
The seems like a strange choice of options, doesn’t it? Get wine-filled or Spirit-filled! But this isn’t the first time the Bible mentions these two together. We see in the book of Acts, when the Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, that some of those watching thought the disciples were drunk. So, there must be something to that comparison. The word Paul uses for drunk means to be soaked, saturated with, dominated by. Being drunk is to be controlled by the alcohol. To be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by him. But the Spirit takes control in an opposite way from alcohol. He makes you better, not worse.
To be drunk with wine is debauchery. The Greek means spilled out. It’s what Jesus used in the parable of the Prodigal Son, when he said the younger son went out and spent all his money on riotous living. He spilled it out. He wasted it. He squandered it. He spent all his inheritance and got nowhere. That’s what being drunk on wine does. It spends you and gets you nowhere. But being filled with the Spirit is the opposite. When filled with the Spirit, we aren’t wasters. We’re buyers. Those drunk with wine waste their time. Those filled with the Spirit buy up the time God gives, they make the most of it.
Pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jones understood this. He was a medical doctor before he became a pastor. He says:
“Wine, pharmacologically speaking, is not a stimulant. It’s a depressant. Further, it depresses first and foremost the highest centers of the brain that controls everything that gives self-control, wisdom, understanding, discrimination, judgment, balance, the power to assess everything; in other words, everything that makes a man behave at his very best and highest.
The Holy Spirit has the exact opposite effect. If it were possible to put the Holy Spirit into a textbook of Pharmacology, I would put him under the stimulants, for that is where he belongs. He really does stimulate. He stimulates our every faculty: the mind and the intellect, the heart and the will.”
Being filled with the Spirit is a life of mental, emotional, and psychological stimulation. It’s being alive in the most wonderful way—alive to God.
But maybe you say, “Well, I’m not a drunkard.” That’s fine. Replace wine with any other idol. It’s the same thing. It leads to debauchery. It leads to exhaustion. Riotous living might not look like a keg party every Friday night. It might look like a normal Williamson County life, void of the Spirit of God and full of the spirit of the age, pursuing comfort, security, and the good life. The question for us today is: do we factor God into our life or is our life too full for him?
God is saying we must empty our lives and be filled with the Spirit because that’s what we’re made for. We spend so much of our life going from one thing to another never being satisfied. And God is commanding all of us today, “Stop it! Stop filling yourself with emptiness. Let me fill you.”
When you say yes to that call, the Holy Spirit will lift you far higher and for far longer than anything else. Everything else is fleeting. The Spirit abides.
The Spirit’s filling is part of the gospel promise. In John 7, Jesus stood at a feast and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” And John says, “This he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive.”
In the gospel, God promises to continually fill us with the Spirit as we come to him and drink. So, here’s the command today: go to Christ and drink! Fill yourself up with him, and he will fill you up with himself. You don’t have to pay for him. He’s free. You don’t have to earn him. He’s all of grace. You don’t have to maintain him. He’s self-existent. You don’t have to perform for him. He’s not impressed with you, anyway. He’s impressed with Christ. But you must go to him. And when you do, he floods with living waters. So, what are you waiting for? Why put life on hold for one more second? Go to Christ!
This is an excerpt of my sermon on Ephesians 5:15-21. You can read the rest or listen to the full sermon here.
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Ephesians 5:15-17
When Christ calls us to himself, he calls us immediately. There is no ramp-up period. We don’t ease into new life with Christ. He starts his work immediately, and he never lets up.
C.S. Lewis captures that idea in his book Mere Christianity.
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.
When God comes down to live in our house, we begin living with increased attention, increased urgency. Life with God is like living in a construction zone in the middle of a war. He’s building something beautiful, and we have a great hope that one day it’s going to be far more than we could ever imagine, but the enemy seeks to destroy. God doesn’t want us to be ignorant of that. He wants us to live with wise urgency, as a soldier at war. The time to obey Jesus is now.
How aware are we of spiritual danger in the world? Paul was aware. He talks about it throughout Ephesians. In chapter 2 he said unbelievers follow “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” In the passage we saw last week, he urged us “not to take part in the unfruitful works of darkness.” In chapter 6, he says “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Spiritual warfare was part of Paul’s theology because the evil one still roams. And though he lost us to God, he’ll do all he can to make us ineffective Christians.
Too many of us assume the days are harmless because most days look so nice. We aren’t careful because the threat doesn’t seem large. But Satan doesn’t have to persecute us into ineffectiveness. We can be beat on the front of pleasure just as easily as the front of pain. In fact, pleasure may be easier. And I think that’s where we are today in America. The enemy is crafty, and he’s on the attack. And as he props up the appealing images, we drool our way into his hands. We forget God’s wise path to life because the path of darkness looks brighter at the start. But it’s a lie. It’s a trap.
So Paul says we must live with wise urgency. How do we do that? Well, we pay attention to our steps, moment by moment. Do our steps land in line with God’s word? We must be wise. Biblical wisdom is someone skilled in finding what’s pleasing to God. We must make the best use of time. The Greek language here means to purchasing a slave’s freedom – buying up the time, redeeming the time. We are to understand what the will of the Lord is. That sounds complicated but it’s really not. The Bible tells us God’s will. It’s to make us like Christ, to redeem the world, to bring heaven down, to grant eternal life.
And Paul warns us here to pay attention. It’s far too easy to step off this path and go back into darkness.
So what’s our hope?
Jesus is our hope. In the fullness of time, God waged war against the evil of this world. What was his weapon of choice? It was a baby. He sent his Son into the world to redeem the world. Jesus lived with wise urgency. He looked carefully how he walked, obeying the law perfectly. He was wise, the beloved Son in whom God was well pleased. He made the best use of time. At the pinnacle of his battle, he gave himself up for us on the cross. He bought up the evil days and purchased our freedom. Why? Because he understood the will of the Lord. He prayed, “not my will but yours.” And he’s asking us all to pray the same. That’s the wise urgency we must have, living in a moment-by-moment relationship with God, trusting he knows best, listening to him, and following even when the path seems crazy.
No one looked at the cross that first Good Friday and saw good news. It looked like utter failure. But what looks like failure to the world is the wisdom of God. Jesus’ resurrection was the historical proof that God’s way is not crazy; God’s way is wise. On the cross, Jesus defeated satan even as satan thought he defeated Jesus. God turned the tables on the devil. Jesus exchanged sin for righteousness and reconciled sinners to the Holy God. Death brought about life.
Every other path may look bright and be loud and flashy, but it leads to death. God’s path looks stupid, like death on a cross, but it leads to life. Are we willing to listen to that wisdom?
Satan doesn’t want you to. He doesn’t want you on the front lines. Redeemed sinners are a threat to his power. He wants you hiding in the ditch alone. But God never leaves us alone, and he never makes ineffective Christians. We might end up in the ditch sometimes, but he’s there with us. And when we’re with him, we’re always on the front lines of the battle of this world. We might not be able to move out of bed, but we’re fighting with Christ, for Christ. And the best news of all is that he’s fighting for us. In fact, he already fought for us. And he won. And he gives us his Spirit now, granting the wisdom we need. The devil hates that. He freaks out about that. A Spirit-filled you is too much for him!
But a Spirit-filled you is God’s plan! You are not a problem Christ has to figure out how to solve. You are a strategy he’s seeking to deploy. There is no time to waste. The devil isn’t resting. Neither is God. Are you?
Death looms over this world, and the only way to make it through is to follow the One who’s already conquered death. If you’re in Christ, the truth is, you’re already dead. And if you’re in Christ, the truth is, you’re already alive. The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. Will you accept that and live as if it’s true?
This is an excerpt from my sermon on Ephesians 5:15-21. You can read the sermon or listen to it here.
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” Ephesians 5:1
Children imitate their parents. You don’t have to tell them to do it. It just happens. Why? Because they’re the biggest influence in their life. They’re their hero. They’re perfect in their eyes.
But earthly parents fail to live up to the test of time. They disappoint. So we distance ourselves. We orphan ourselves to avoid pain. Many of us even transfer parental disappointment onto God. But that’s not fair. Your father may not have been all he should, but God will never let you down. In fact, if you view God like a more distant version of your earthly parents, you will never imitate him. Why would you? To imitate God, you need to be like a child caught up in the wonder of your Father. And unlike some of our earthly parents, God constantly tells us of his love for us.
Don’t orphan yourself. Accept your childhood. So many of your problems result from forgetting that you are a child of God.
Jack Miller, the Presbyterian pastor, thought a lot about this. He put together a chart to diagnose how we view ourselves in relation to God.
We have it on the screen. On the left, is the mindset of the orphan. On the right, is the mindset of the child of God.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/fb758d743286441d-orphan-vs.-child-3H9HgIqYvqo45gidqBMHBQ5T3sk0s6.png\")
\n \n\n
Which describes you?
The Bible calls all Christians “beloved children.” Romans 8:15 says God has given us the Spirit of sonship and by him we cry, “Abba, Father!” When Jesus taught us to pray, he taught us to say, “Our Father.” Paul says in Galatians 4 we are children of the promise. John says Jesus gave us the right to be called children of God.
If you’re in Christ, God relates to you not like a king to a servant or a boss to an employee but as a father to a child, with warmth and depth, tenderness and care, attention and intention. You’re not an orphan! You’re a child of God! So, Paul says, be like your Father!
This wasn’t any easier for the apostles than it was for us. So on his way to the cross, Jesus made a promise: “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” He knew his leaving would trouble his followers. So he assured them they wouldn’t be alone. God would send the Holy Spirit to be and abide with them, to confirm what he taught them, to tell them they were children of God.
What’s true of them is true of us. You, Christian, are a child of God. He’s not just the Father. He’s your Father. And he wants you to understand his massive heart of love for you. He sent Jesus to show it, and he gives his Spirit to seal it. The triune God is at work right now to communicate his love to you!
The Puritan Thomas Goodwin understood this so well. In his book The Heart of Christ, he talked about what Jesus meant in John 16 when he said that whatever the Spirit hears he will speak.
“All his speech in your hearts will be to advance me, and to greaten my worth and love unto you, and it will be his delight to do it. And he can come from heaven in an instant when he will, and bring you fresh tidings of my mind, and tell you the thoughts I last had of you, even at that very minute when I am thinking of them…So that you shall have my heart as surely and as speedily as if I were with you.”
In other words, those moments when you believe the word of God, when you feel loved by him, those moments are not just coincidental, they are not merely emotional. Those moments when you think, “my Father loves me,” are the precise moments when your Father is thinking of you, and he’s communicating his love to your heart by his Spirit who dwells within you.
So if you believe God’s love for you right now it’s not because I’m telling you it’s true, it’s because he’s telling you it’s true!
And when you listen and believe, you then have a responsibility to those of us who feel like orphans. You must imitate God and walk in love toward us, showing us what it’s like to be a child of God, reminding us of the honor, helping us see our Father in new ways, with new eyes. That’s what Paul means in 4:29 when he says we must speak so as to build one another up, that it may give grace to those who hear. We’re family, and we need one other’s faith to build faith.
Be imitators of God, as beloved children.
Mark’s gospel opens with “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” And it ends with “the people were coming to him from every quarter.” Once his ministry began, Jesus’ following grew fast. Everything was zooming toward the cross. But his followers couldn’t see that. Would they have followed if they did?
He began his ministry with baptism, not because he had sins, but to identify with his people. He was tempted in the wilderness as Israel was, but succeeded where Israel failed. His opening words were, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Then, something interesting happened: Jesus called his first disciples.
As he began the most important work the world has ever seen, Jesus invited a group of complicated sinners to come along. Discipleship was important to Jesus. His choosing of them, his investment in them, and his deployment of them was the way he changed the world.
That’s been his way ever since. If you’re a follower of Jesus, your life has massive importance. You may have problems. Who doesn’t? You may need help with those problems. Who doesn’t? But you are not a problem Christ has to figure out how to solve. You are a strategy that he is seeking to deploy, to advance his kingdom, to bring his grace to earth right now.
You can’t follow Jesus unless he calls you. But when he calls, you get moving.
What do we do with Christ’s call? We follow him wherever he leads. And right now, he’s leading Refuge Church into a deeper walk with him in discipleship.
In verse 17, Jesus said “Follow me.” That’s the simple call. He didn’t fill in all the blanks. He didn’t tell them the plan. He simply commanded them to follow. Then, he said, “I will make you become fishers of men.” That’s the big promise. He didn’t say, “I’ll give you the tools to build a successful life.” He said, “I will make you become fishers of men.” In other words, I will do in and through you the work that I want to do in the world. The promise wasn’t based on their ability, it wasn’t based on them living up to their potential. It was based on his promise. All they had to do was follow, and he’d bring about the rest. So it is with us all.
What was the response of Simon and Andrew? Verse 18: “immediately they left their nets and followed him.” What about James and John? Verse 19: “immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.”
When Jesus comes to us, the right response is an immediate yes.
It’s drastic. There is no ramp-up period. They immediately go into Capernaum, enter the synagogue, and Jesus begins teaching. He heals a man with an unclean spirit. From there, he goes to the house of Simon and Andrew and heals Simon’s mother-in-law. The people of the city bring their sick and their oppressed and he heals them all.
They get up the next morning and can’t find Jesus because he’s out praying. Everyone is looking for him, but Jesus says it’s time to go to the next city. The gospel must be preached there. He arrives in Galilee and cleanses a leper by touching him. His touch didn’t make Jesus unclean, as the law said it should. Instead, it made the leper clean.
When Jesus touches us, everything changes. And tonight, Jesus is touching us by his grace and asking us all to recommit ourselves to following him.
What is our response? As I see it, there are two options available. Some of us are ready to become fishers of men. We’re ready to build others up in the Lord. Others of us need help getting there. Which are you? What do you need to do to get moving today?
The summer months are good for reading, or at least some people say. I find it harder. Vacations with three small boys doesn't offer much down time, so my beach reading was made up of three pages. I preached twice this month, more than my normal once a month. All that to say, my number of pages read in June was smaller than a typical month. But it was still a good one.
Here's what I read in June 2018.
May was the freest month I've had so far this year. I didn't preach during the month, and I was only obligated to write one article. So, how did I fill my time? Well, baseball was one way. The other was reading.
Here are the books I read in May 2018. There were some good ones.
In his latest book, Some Pastors and Teachers, Sinclair Ferguson considers how God changed the city of Geneva through the ministry of John Calvin. He questions how Geneva was “transformed from a quasi-political reformation to a genuine gospel reformation.”
“First, prayer changed the city. One of the first things Calvin did on his return from Strasbourg was to institute a weekly day of prayer. While there was regular preaching each weekday, Wednesdays were set aside for prayer from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. At these times, as well as in the regular private prayers of the congregation and the regular prayers in the worship services, the people and this ministers prayed for the benediction of God on the city and on the growing number of churches that were being planted outside of Geneva.
“The second thing that transformed Geneva was the ministry of the word of God. Sermons were preached on Sunday mornings and afternoons. On weekdays, Calvin preached three times during the week (and when his strength allowed it, he preached every day). Beza says about a thousand people crowded into the cathedral in Geneva to listen to this frail, asthmatic man as he preached the word of God. He worked the word of God like a potter into the clay of God’s people in Geneva, sometimes preaching ten times a week, perhaps forty minutes or more each time. Besides that, he gave three lectures on the Old Testament to student each week, went to Consistory meetings on Thursdays, and participated in the Congregation.”
Ferguson concludes of Calvin, “He lived physically and spiritually on the edge. At times he could be irritable. It was a wonderful reality, then, to this tightly wound man, living under such great pressure, that Jesus Christ was so kind.
The kindness of the Lord sustains his servants. What if we all opened our heart to the kindness of Jesus Christ? Maybe he could transform your city into a modern-day Geneva.
“We throw the words ‘all things’ in Romans 8:28 like a circle around all things. We do honor to God and the finished work of Christ as we put that circle around the whole; God works all things together for good to those who love God, for those who are the called according to His purpose. But to the extent to which we properly throw the term ‘all things’ around all things, it carries with it also the ‘all things’ of Ephesians 5:20, ‘giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father…’ We cannot separate these two. The ‘all things’ of Ephesians 5:20 is as wide as the ‘all things’ of Romans 8:28. It must be giving of thanks for all things—this is God’s standard.”
—Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality
The Christian has a hope that a non-Christian cannot have. It is the hope that everything in this life is meaningful. Nothing is outside his control. There are no surprises to God, even if we can’t ever find consistency. And because Jesus is alive, every single thing is both something that he will work out for the good of those who love him and something to give thanks for. The good and the bad find their home here. He’s not asking us to understand how that works. We can’t. Our minds are too small to see such grandeur. He’s asking us to trust that it is true.
Will you trust him?
At the start of the year, I stood before my church and presented an opportunity for each of us to enter into a daily experience of joy. I held a Bible in one hand and a reading plan in another.
For many, “joy” and “reading plan” don’t jive. How many of us have set out January 1 with Genesis 1 only to fail somewhere around Leviticus 10? As the laws are stacked up, many succumb to the weight. The Bible isn't an easy book to read. Bite-sized chunks of daily reading help, but the fact is no matter which plan you use, you must use it. You must read regularly.
During the late spring and early summer months, I always feel as if I’m slogging through my reading. I stay up later, sleep in longer, and spend more time outside. So, I understand the temptation to miss a day here or there. The problem with missing, though, is that it adds up quickly. Three chapters become six, and six become nine. Before you know it, you’re twenty-something chapters behind and about to call it quits. But you don’t have to give up! If you’re behind, just start again today. Pick up today’s reading and keep going. You can read what you missed another time. Or try a new approach. Maybe you need less will-power and more gospel-motivation. Maybe you’re disheartened. Well, your savior is the one who can put your heart back in. Will you let him?
Often, the reason we’ve given up isn’t that we weren’t enjoying it. It’s not because we’re unable to keep up the pace. If we're honest, often it’s because we’ve become bored. As the Old Testament progresses, the books get harder to understand, and instead of doing the work to gain understanding, we grow bored with it like the student in a Shakespeare class wondering what it all means, and why he must suffer through another sonnet.
What we need is a way to make the most of our daily reading. Instead of just getting through it, we need to go deeper into it. Like sipping your coffee in the morning, it’s best after a hard night and little sleep. The Bible is the same. When it feels hopeless, that’s when God is most ready to break through.
So here are five ways to make the most of your daily Bible reading.
This is, by far, the most obvious and simple action we could take. But my guess is it’s the one we’re least likely to do. How many times have you opened the Bible to read, allowed your eyes to skim the words, closed the book and thought, “I have no idea what that means.” Then you put the Bible on the shelf and wish you were a better Christian. Your problem isn’t your lack of faith or understanding. It’s your lack of prayer.
The Bible is like no other book. When you open God’s word, there is a person behind the word. God himself is there to greet you, to change you, to shepherd you. God wants to meet with you more than you want to meet with him, and he has the power to bring dead people to life. Couldn’t he also wake you up for twenty minutes to talk with you? Ask him. Sit down with your Bible, ask God for light and trust him to provide. He will. Why wouldn't he? He preserved this book through the ages and placed it in your hand. You are so loved.
We live in the richest age of Bible resourcing the world has ever seen. Right now, you can open your web browser and find a wealth of information about the Bible that did not exist twenty-five years ago. There are so many good resources, one would be hard pressed to list them all.
But rather than searching the vast mines of the Internet, I find it helpful to get one or two physical copies of a good study Bible. Both the ESV Study Bible and the ESV Gospel Transformation Bible are great resources. I reference these nearly every day. If I need to gain insight into a passage, these have never once let me down. It won’t answer all your questions, but it might help you see which question you should be asking. They are pointers to Christ, and ultimately that’s the goal of any Bible reading.
Different people learn in different ways. I believe we can be trained to learn in common ways, but some of us retain more by listening or reading or writing it down. Whatever works for you, do it!
This year, I’ve listened while reading along. I find it helpful to keep me on track and engaged. It pushes me along more quickly than I sometimes want, but I can always just hit the stop button and keep reading without the audio.
I’ve also seen people have success in writing out the Scripture. Doing so forces you to focus on each word, and in the Bible, each word holds immense weight. Every one is breathed out by God for our good. Too often, we skim them and miss the wonder each holds. Writing them slows us down and connects our eyes with our hand with our head with our heart. It engages so much of us that it’s hard to remain the same even after one verse.
To help our church gain some momentum early this year, I took an Instagram picture of the reading plan, with the day checked off, on top of my open Bible. In the caption, I jotted down a few thoughts and insights into the reading for that day. Every day since then, I’ve done the same thing. At first, it was just to help guide. Now it has become a way for me to engage with my reading. I’ve retained more this year than ever before. The process isn’t difficult. I just ask a few questions. What did that passage say God and me? What was striking about it? How does it help me anticipate or see Jesus?
To my surprise, these notes became something many in our church look forward to seeing in their feed each day. One of our women’s Bible studies even uses them as the material for their weekly time together. But you don’t have to be so formal or public. Grab a legal pad and a pencil. Write some thoughts down. Engage with the Bible as God engages you with it. You’ll be amazed at what happens
By the way, I’ve compiled my notes throughout the year on a page on this website. You can check it out here if you’d like.
As my pastor and I planned our Journey Through the Bible initiative at our church, we discussed how to keep people engaged and help them along. My Instagram posts have been one way we’ve accomplished that. But there is little interaction in those posts, and interaction is where we grow the most. So, we decided early on that we needed weekly opportunities to interact with what we were reading. We reorganized our Bible studies around our reading plan. If you show up to any of our men’s or women’s Bible studies, you’ll find us talking about a chapter, passage, or section of the reading from that week. We try to grab the big rocks from the last few days and dive deep. This helps us get both the macro view of Scripture (reading daily) without losing the micro view of Scripture (intense Bible study).
But, once again, you don’t have to be that formal. Just find a friend or your spouse and talk about what you’re reading with them. It has been my consistent experience that all Christians love to talk about the Bible. I’ve never run into another believer and started talking about the Bible and had them say, “You know, that’s enough about that. Let’s talk about something else.” If anything, Christians crave more discussion about Scripture, especially informal discussion. Not only does it help you wrestle through some of your reading, it is edifying and encouraging to those around you. It’s a way to minister as you go, and isn’t that what Jesus called us to do (Matthew 28:18-20)?
True grace gives us the backbone to stand up for God’s purpose in the world. We become willing to suffer for the cause of Christ because Christ is the purpose of all human history. He’s the only thing ultimately worth living for. Spreading his gospel of freedom is worth all the bondage of this world.
Paul suffered for the Gentiles. But he wasn’t sad about it. He tells the Corinthians, “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls” (2 Corinthians 12:15). He was God’s gift to them. You too are a gift to someone to show there is a God above who loves and saves and sustains and heals and brings his children home to a world without sin and pain. God is calling us to suffer on behalf of them.
What’s our motivation? It’s that, like Paul, God has revealed the mystery of the gospel to us (Ephesians 3:2-6). Paul’s ongoing motivation wasn’t that face to face encounter he had with Jesus. It was the ongoing relationship he had with him through the Spirit. It was understanding the implications of the mystery of Christ. Well, God has given us that same revelation. We know the secret to the universe. We have Jesus. Paul’s words in Ephesians 3:1-6 are our biography now. We are prisoners of Christ Jesus on behalf of others! And this mystery is ours to share.
We live in an age of God-minimization. Christianity is too often explained as what sociologist Christian Smith calls \"moralistic therapeutic deism,” where God is basically a cosmic therapist or divine butler, ready to help when needed. But we know he's far greater than that. He’s the lover of our souls. He doesn’t just help us through life with tips and life-hacks, he heals all that’s wrong with us deep inside. He’s there in the big and small things, calling us to himself for himself and his purposes. We are made in his image, and we have no right to create him in ours. The gospel is not merely a call to morality; it’s a call to a person, to Jesus Christ our Lord. He came to serve but he is not a butler. He’s the Lord God Almighty who is in the heavens and does whatever he pleases. And his pleasure is to get involved with the real you for his real purposes of glory.
God is greater and more glorious than who many of our neighbors and co-workers believe. I'm not saying we're better than anyone. We're not! Paul didn't believe he was. He says in verse 8 he's the very least of the saints. Our attitude is not that we are better, but that Jesus is better than every other possible alternative. Life with Christ is the very best life possible. Who do you know who needs to hear that? Who needs to experience the life-giving wonder of the gospel in the church?
God is calling us to lay down our lives for them: to lay aside every preference, every prejudice, every comfort, every vain pursuit, every selfish ambition. He's asking us to gladly and boldly do all we can to make room for more and more people in his kingdom. He may ask us to move. He may ask us to rearrange our schedule. He may ask us to give more than we think we're able. He may call some of us out into the world, and some of us home with our children. But if the gospel is true, if anyone can be saved by God in Christ, why would we ever hold that message back? Why would we put up any walls to keep anyone out?
All we must do right now to get involved in God’s plan for the world is just say yes to him because “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” He’s not asking us to figure this out. He’s telling us to follow. There is not one man or woman in the history of the world who said yes to Christ and lived to regret it. When we say yes to Christ, we are saying yes to joy no matter what happens. By grace, you and I are swept up in God's eternal plan for the world!
Union with Christ means that who Christ is we are. It means we are one with him like our body is one with our head, like you are one with your spouse, like the vine is one with the branch. It means we are surrounded by him, drawn up into him, supported by him, placed deep inside him, shielded by his strength, upheld by his grace, rescued by his mercy, included by his love, protected by his sovereignty, ensphered by his holiness, bound up in his life, cleansed by his blood, forgiven by his death, saved by his cross, raised by his Spirit, made right by his righteousness, kept by his intercession, rescued by his mighty hand, preserved until the end. There’s not one second he forgets us, not one minute we’re alone, not one hour he leaves us, not one day he doesn’t come home, not one week he doesn’t carry us, not one month he doesn’t provide for us, not one year he doesn’t shepherd us, not one decade he doesn’t bring us closer. Our union with Christ means we are irrevocably, unendingly, unceasingly, to the uttermost his, and he is ours. And when we follow him and suffer for him, he is suffering with us, and we know the glory his suffering produces.
My six year old is the hardest worker I know. He wakes up and gets right to it. My wife and I try to get up early every day. The alarm goes off at 4:00 AM and we make our way to the coffee pot and then upstairs in our bonus room to read our Bible, other books we’re making our way through, and to write or work on other long-term projects. Around 6:30 AM, my six-year-old approaches the stairs. I call him the traveling salesman because each day he has a backpack, bag, or sometimes even a wagon—a little blue wagon with a yellow handle—full of toys, stuffed animals, trinkets, and “treasures.” He clinks and clangs up the stairs and takes his seat on the same cushion as his mother, hip to hip with the one who gave him life. There he sits with all his stuff, and then he starts talking. His questions are unceasing. “How many minutes is 100?” I have no idea what that means so he clarifies, “how many minutes are in 100 minutes?” Easy, son, “100.” “How high is Mt. Everest? Is it like 100?” What?
After interviewing me, he gets back to the task at hand: organizing his inventory. Often he’ll begin drawing sports logos. He never stops moving, even when he’s sitting. To sit next to him is like sitting next to fish surprised to find itself out of water. He flips and flops. He wiggles and twitches. He’s the Energizer Bunny, if the Energizer Bunny drank a case of Red Bull.
This will probably serve him well in life. He doesn’t lack for motivation. But getting him working on the right thing is often difficult. He will work for food but only the right kind of food, mostly chicken nuggets or pizza. He will finish the task, but he’ll start another ten along the way. His doesn’t lack focus as much as he wants to focus on multiple things at once.
I know where this restlessness comes from. It’s my fault. As I’ve grown older, I move less but I still do multiple things at once. And that’s where my problem comes. I struggle to finish one task before heading off to another. As an example, I wrote one full blog post and started three more before I finished this one. I checked my Twitter notifications and my work email. I ordered a coffee and I logged onto the Starbucks internet I have no intention of using. I’m a distracted man.
At the end of most days, I look back with disappointment. So much to do, so little time. Truthfully, it’s more like so much to do, so much wasted time. More days than not, I don’t feel productive at all. I feel like a waste, like a bad steward of God’s good gifts. I can never recover lost time, and I’m well aware of the price I’ve paid. It doesn’t stop me though. Tomorrow will be the same.
I wonder: have I made a god out of productivity?
Work is not a result of the fall. Adam and Eve were to tend the Garden of Eden before they sinned. But work is significantly harder after the fall. That difficulty creates all kinds of problems. We are measured on what we produce. “What have you done for me lately” is the way of the world and few disagree with it’s validity. The fruitful one is the model, even if the fruit is of the Wal-Mart quality instead of the fresh picked field. We care less about quality and more about quantity. Don’t believe me? Look at Netflix. No one subscribes to watch a single well-produced show. It’s the thousands of shows that draw us in, even if most we would never watch in a million years.
The world measures us by our output but God measures us by our input. No where in the Bible are the capable called for God’s work. It’s alway the incapable. Abraham, the pagan family-man. Jacob, the deceiving little brother. David, the small shepherd boy. Jeremiah, the scared prophet. Peter, the unfaithful follower. Paul, the persecutor of Christians. These men produced, but their production is never mentioned as a reason for God’s favor. Rather, it is what God puts in them that sets them apart. God puts himself in those whom he calls. God saves on the basis of what he’s given, not on what we give him.
This truth destroys the need to produce. When we aren’t productive, we lose nothing of ultimate value. We still have God because Christ was productive in all the right ways. On our best days we will never produce the righteousness required, but Jesus never failed to. At our highest peak we will still be weighed down by sin, but Jesus never was.
When we don’t feel productive, the work we should look to and be comforted by is the work done by Jesus. His work makes all of our work effective, even if it is small, because God takes small faithfulness and multiplies it a hundred fold. He can do in one minute what we could never do in a thousand years.
My son is a lesson to me. The things he does are of almost no value whatsoever to me. I don’t care about the old shoe he found in the street and deemed a treasure. I don’t care how many trinkets he’s collected in his mason jar. But I do care about him. He doesn’t have to do anything for me to love him. God is the same with me.
I know this now, but I won’t tomorrow. That’s why I’ll need another reminder. The gospel must be applied daily to a production seeker like me. You too?
April is always a slow reading month for me. I'm not a big TV-watcher. But when April rolls around, we get into what I consider to be the best TV time of the year: Major League Baseball opens their season and the NBA and NHL playoffs kick off. I LOVE all of these. So I stay up later than I should. I wake up later than I'd like. And I read less than just about any other month of the year.
But that doesn't mean I didn't read anything. I still managed to get through 7 books, and I nearly finished an 8th. Below is what I read this month.
Andy awoke from his nap with a croupy cough. If you’re a parent, you know the strained, barking cough. It’s usually not very serious. The virus causes the airways to swell and makes breathing more difficult. Serious or not, it’s a disturbing thing to hear. A few hours later, we were out at my mother-in-law’s house and Andy had a coughing fit. He struggled to get enough air. With the help of his big brother, we calmed him down and decided to take him to the doctor. Better to go now to the urgent care center than to the ER in the middle of the night.
Andy’s a smart kid. He knows what it means to go to the doctor, and he wasn’t too excited about it. He gets that from me. Unless I’m unconscious and therefore unable to protest, just let me be. We loaded him up and drove off with him repeating “Go to the doctor?” over and over. He was okay but concerned. I assured him the doctor could help.
We arrived, checked in, and he saw the first of many amazing sights of the doctor’s office. A family had brought happy meals into the waiting room for their children. I didn’t judge. I’ve done weirder things to keep the peace. Andy loves McDonald’s. \"Maybe this doctor isn’t so bad,\" he must have thought.
We were called back a few minutes later. They asked him to stand on the scale to get his weight. Last time he refused to do it. I wasn’t there, but my wife remembers the scene well. This night, however, he stood up tall and looked at me with a smile.
We entered the room and he jumped up on the table, ready to be examined. A few minutes later, the nurse came in, asked some questions, and took a few initial vitals. I stood by my son, showing him what to do when the nurse asked. “Just put your finger out like this. He’s going to put that thing on it.\" \"Just be still, he's taking your temperature.\" He did as instructed.
The doctor arrived a few minutes later. By that time, Andy was feeling good. The doctor looked in his ears, asked him to open his mouth wide, and listened to his breathing. Andy obeyed all his orders with a close eye on my face to ensure I was watching. After the doctor left the room, and he had obeyed all the orders, Andy looked up at me with a smile. “I did it, Dada!”
He did it.
I had no idea the whole night was a test of my approval. Andy believed he passed. He did. But he was the only one testing. He had my approval all along.
What Andy needed that night more than a trip to the doctor (turned out he was fine and didn’t need any treatments) was the approval of his father. Don’t we all?
I know too few men who feel the approval of their fathers. They grow up wondering if they’re pleasing to him. For some, that uncertainty results in rebellion. For others, it results in man-pleasing. In either case, it’s a tragedy. Some sons do disappoint their fathers. But, by and large, I would guess that most sons by the fact that they’re sons have their father’s approval. They just don’t know it because their fathers never say it. They navigate childhood hoping the home-run will bring praise, the A-filled report card will elicit pride, or the diploma will ensure proof of pleasure. They go into adulthood wondering if their job is enough not only to provide for their future family but enough to please their father's expectations. Are they man enough? Are they good enough? Are they a disappointment?
I wonder what kind of world we fathers of young boys could create with the simple words, “I’m proud of you, son.” Those words must not come only after home runs and buzzer beaters or good report cards and graduation. They must come in the mundane, in the doctor's office and the playroom and at the kitchen table over Sunday dinner. Your influence is more massive than you realize.
What would you give to hear your father’s words of affirmation on a normal Saturday evening or Wednesday afternoon? Why hold back with your sons now?
Of course, our fathers will fail us and we will fail them. No one is perfect. And it’s also true that our affirmation alone isn’t enough to unleash all the good we wish it could. There is real sin residing in us all. But there is a Father above who approves of us because he never disapproved of his Son. Through his work, we have approval for eternity. If nothing else motivates us--and even if some words are hard for us to say for a variety of reasons--we can look to the words of the Father to the Son, “This is my beloved Son of whom I am well pleased.” Approval flows from heaven and floods this earth in Christ. Let’s advance the tide in our day. Let’s tell our sons of our approval before it’s too late.
I didn’t know Andy needed my approval. I wonder if you know your son needs yours? You have him in the house for a little while, and if he doesn’t know you approve of him now, he’ll wonder all his adult life if he’s ever lived up to your expectations. You have that much power. Use it wisely.
In Ephesians 2:1-10, Paul explains salvation. Verses 1-6 tell us what happens when God saves: bringing us from death to life. Verse 7 tells us why God saves: so that in the coming ages God could show us the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. And verses 8-10 tell us how God saves.
At the heart of this passage is one of the Bible's classic texts on Christian salvation. \"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
To understand Christianity, you must understand two big words in Ephesians 2:8: grace and faith.
What is grace? Grace is unmerited favor. Grace is God’s kind disposition toward sinful people who can't get their act together and can’t obey and can't find their way to him. Grace is God’s consistent provision for his people who can’t provide for themselves. Grace is God’s activity of good to those whose activity is bad. Grace is not grading on a curve—bumping a letter grade to a student who tried really hard. Grace is giving an A to a student who rarely showed up, who never passed a test, who never got any question right. Grace is being good to the undeserving. It’s not adding sprinkles to a wonderful cupcake. It’s making a stone into a cupcake. Grace is an outpouring of good when only wrath is deserved.
And grace runs throughout the Bible. When Adam and Eve sinned, God said he would crush the serpent’s head by the seed of the woman—the woman who had just caused the fall of creation. Immediately after, what does God do? He clothes Adam and Eve, covering their newfound nakedness. That’s God’s grace. It's as big as crushing Satan’s head and as small as a pair of pants. It's God’s kindness and care bringing life where death reigns. Grace is Jesus saving the undeserving. Grace is what we’re saved by.
So, what about that other word, faith? If grace is the basis of salvation, faith is the instrument of salvation. Faith is what lays hold of grace. It’s the hand that reaches out and grabs. It’s the proof that grace has come. It’s both trusting God will crush Satan’s head and the action of putting on the pants God provides.
The book of Hebrews defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” So faith is forward-looking. Our future hope creates present faith. Faith is not a leap in the dark, where we don’t know what’s on the other side, so we just hope it’ll turn out ok. That’s not biblical faith. Biblical faith looks at the world and sees God’s hand all over. Faith understands that though God is invisible, his promises are certain, because we’ve seen then in Jesus Christ. R.C. Sproul says, “The idea is this: I don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring, but I know that God knows what tomorrow is going to bring. So if God promises that tomorrow will bring something, and if I trust God for tomorrow, I have faith in something I have not yet seen.”
Faith is the rock-solid surety of God’s promises based on God’s character. It’s looking to God and trusting that his grace is sufficient to save because it always has been. It’s believing that God has never once failed one man or woman who has trusted him and he’s not going to start with me.
Now, look at the last phrase of verse 8, “And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” Here’s what Paul is saying, and it’s what the entire New Testament says, the totality of our salvation—by grace through faith—is God’s gift. The prime mover in your relationship to God is God. Nothing inside us compels God to save us. God saves us because God wants to save us.
Here’s how this is good news. If your salvation was up to you, you would never have it. You can’t muster up enough faith apart from God’s grace to believe. You can’t receive grace without God giving it. Grace, by definition, is unmerited favor. How can dead people merit anything? Before God’s activating grace, we were like the dry bones of the valley in Ezekiel 37. We need the Spirit to blow through and give us life.
Some people will say it’s up to us to choose God. But Ephesians 2:1-3 says we can’t choose God and we won’t choose God—not on our own. Ephesians 2:4-7 says God must make us alive to him first. God must do something in us before we can make any move toward him. Before God acts in our heart, we don’t want him. We are led by the Devil and by our own sinful passions. To want God, we need to be alive to God. That’s what God’s grace does. It grants life so that we can have faith. When the Holy Spirit gives us a new nature, we then naturally do what our new nature wants: we come, we believe, we repent, and we trust God.
God’s grace comes before faith, not the other way around. God must grant the gift of faith by grace. Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” A few verses later, Jesus says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” This whole passage is written to show us this truth: we are completely unable to bring about our own salvation. We are totally dependent on God to do it all. We are like Lazarus in the tomb. We need Jesus to call to us, “Come out!”
This truth gives us the ground of all assurance before God. Do you see that? Do you ever wonder if your faith is strong enough to save you? Do you wonder if there’s a point at which God is just going to write you off? There’s sin in your life you haven’t beat. There’s a past you can’t get over or there’s a future that seems too uncertain. Here’s what Jesus says about that, from John 6:37, “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” That verse and John 6:44 about the Father drawing you to Jesus go hand in hand. It’s both. You come but you come because God draws you. And when you come to Jesus, you come to safety. The totality of your salvation is found in God.
You don’t need to worry about the amount of faith you think you need. The amount of your faith is not the key; the object of your faith is. When you come to Jesus you’re placing your faith in him. You’re placing your life in his hands. You don’t have to worry if your faith is strong enough to save you, you just have to worry if Jesus is strong enough to save you! And Jesus is very strong. He can hold you up when you can’t hold yourself up. He knows what you need before you need it. The faith that endures is the faith placed in Jesus for safe-keeping. Jesus won’t cast you out. He can’t. He was cast out for you. How could you lose him now? If you’re in Christ, you are as secure as Christ is. And where is Christ now? He’s seated at the right hand of the throne of God. What greater assurance do you need?
Your sin can’t kick you out of God’s love because your righteousness never put you in it. God saves by grace through faith. It’s a gift. All you must do is receive it.
Jesus was the smartest man to ever walk this earth. He’s still the smartest man alive. So much of his recorded teachings have far more Old Testament allusions than we modern Gentile readers can fathom. As we were studying the account of David and Goliath in our Bible study at church, I saw David’s words in 1 Samuel 17:34 with new eyes. There’s more than a hint of Jesus there, and Jesus knew it.
As David prepared to face Goliath, Saul rebuked him saying, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth” (1 Samuel 17:33). David responded. Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” (1 Samuel 17:34-37).
We are so familiar with the story that we read these words as mere narrative progression. It gets us to the payoff of the battle. But David’s words point beyond Goliath to a bigger enemy and to a bigger hero.
Jesus once told a parable to some Pharisees in the presence of some Gentiles about a lost sheep. Luke records it as the first in a trilogy of parables about Jesus seeking and saving the lost.
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:5-7)
Jesus left the many to find the one. So did David. Was Jesus thinking of David standing before Saul, making his case for facing Goliath? Was Jesus facing a type of Goliath and finding rebuke by the leaders of Israel?
There is no reason to draw out every possible correlation. I am not suggesting an allegorical reading of 1 Samuel 17. There is no need. Jesus does enough allegorical work for us. Just as David went after the one lamb and delivered him from the mouth of the lion, so Jesus goes after the one sheep and returns him home to the Father’s pasture.
The implication is obvious. David was a type of Christ in his shepherding and in his fighting. He left the many to find the one. He fought the lion to save. Before Goliath, David faced a larger foe but he did not shrink back. In the same way, Jesus faced the cross “for the joy set before him” (Hebrews 12:2).
What Jesus meant to say in the parable of the lost sheep was that he was like David, facing the ultimate enemy and bringing the lost one home. He came to seek and save. He looked nothing like the warrior the world expected, but neither did David. Both were mocked for their smallness. Both failed to make the proper impression. Both saved their people.
Jesus knew the Bible, and he used David's words to foretell the kind of battle he came to fight and the kind of victory he came to win.
It's hard to believe we're already a quarter of the way through 2018. Time goes incredibly fast. Good books help us make it along the way.
Here's what I read in March 2018.
The Bible includes a fascinating cast of characters, if you want to call them that. They’re not “characters” in the novel sense. They’re real people, with real lives and real sins, who experienced real grace or real judgment. So let’s call them people, for that’s what they are. These people come in all shapes and sizes, they’re of every profession. Some are of no profession at all—nomads following God through the world. And there are, of course, legitimate professions and illegitimate professions. Prostitution falls in the illegitimate column. That’s why it’s a surprise that the Bible presents a prostitute as a model of faith.
Rahab first appears in the Bible’s pages as we turn from the desert to the Promised Land. Moses’s eyes fall upon the land as he draws his final breath. His servant Joshua fills the void of leadership and walks toward another body of water in need God’s miraculous separating. He leads God’s people out of their wandering and into the promise. But first, they meet a prostitute.
A Friendly Welcome
Joshua sends a set of spies to gather information about Jericho, the city they must conquer first. Sneaking through the gates, the spies enter a prostitute’s house. There is no indication they’re visiting her. They’re just visiting, in the normal sense. Where better to get information on the city than a chat with one who had intimately seen many of the top men?
Rahab has heard of these Israelites. The whole city has. Israel makes them nervous, with their God in their midst and the miraculous things he’s done. Israel’s fame goes before them, racing ahead as the wind before the storm. Not one to turn men away, Rahab opens her doors to Joshua’s spies. But the king of Jericho hears of their arrival. So he goes to see what he can see. “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.” But Rahab is closed for business. Another force has already invaded her home, one compelling her to take a risk. “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.” Hiding on the roof were the spies sent to view the land, and from their perch, they saw the city God was giving into their hands. How did they get there? Rahab the prostitute, the woman of faith, put them there.
The king and his men run off to chase imaginary men in the hills. Rahab risks her life for spies she just met—spies sent to see how difficult it will be to destroy her city. And it’s this friendly welcome that prevents her perishing with those who were disobedient (Hebrews 11:39).
Rahab Outside the Camp
In his presentation of Old Testament examples of men and women of faith, the author of Hebrews presents Rahab as the final example. Carl Mosser, in his contribution to The Epistle to the Hebrews and Christian Theology entitled “Rahab Outside the Camp,” argues Rahab is the center-point of the entire chapter. A prostitute, the center of the Hall of Faith!
His case is compelling. In Hebrews 10:39, the author encourages his readers, “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.” From there, he runs through the Genesis and Exodus narratives in rapid fire: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses. Who comes next? The reader expects Joshua, but he gets Rahab. I’m afraid this doesn’t shock us nearly as much as it should. The author steps outside the pattern. He abandons Israel for Canaan. He drops Jew for Gentile. There’s a kind of faith that doesn’t shrink back, a kind of faith that conquers, a kind of faith that preserves the soul, and that faith is found in Rahab the prostitute, a Gentile, Canaanite woman. Joshua, as great as he was, is overshadowed by Rahab.
As Rahab stood firm in her faith, so too must these Hebrew readers. So too must we. In the face of persecution, with the temptation of withdrawing to an easier life, leaving Jesus is like Jericho closing its walls to Israel. Better to stand and let them plunder you than close your gates to God. Better to welcome the spies inside than kill them in the square. God will ransack the heart open to him. But in mercy, the slaying God does is the kind that saves. Rahab is proof. Of all the people listed after the author’s encouragement not to shrink back and be destroyed, Mosser points out Rahab is the lone example explicitly said not to have been so. “By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.” No shrinking. No destruction. A friendly welcome saves the soul. A prostitute is the model to follow.
Imitate the prostitute is not a familiar cry. But the Bible is not an ordinary book. Christianity is not a run-of-the-mill religion. The claims of Christ are sweeping, gathering up prostitute and eunuch alike. Only the God whose power to save the worst of sinners can use those sinners as examples for the faithful. God’s ways are not our ways, and his call to us is as broad and deep as his saving of us. Rahab lived in the city wall, but God calls us out further. He calls us outside the city, to walk the path Jesus walked. We must go outside the camp and bear the reproach of Jesus because that is where he suffered and sanctified us (Heb. 13:12-13). Outside the camp is the place of blessing. Rahab saw the camp contaminated with unbelief. So she left it all to follow God. With God, the road away from perceived safety is the road to eternal safety.
Many of our spiritual problems are problems of location. We live in the city of man when we should live in the city of God. We hold firm to things of the past while God calls us to glories of the future. For the readers of Hebrews, it was the Jewish temple and sacrificial system that was so appealing. But we too must abandon former things God pushes aside for the present and future things he is providing. You cannot hug a shadow, and who would want to try when the person finally rounds the bend? Let’s go outside the camp to meet him.
Saved from Death
A few chapters later, in Joshua 6, Israel marches around the city, blows some trumpets, does some shouting, and the walls come tumbling down. The city is plundered, conquered, annihilated. All except Rahab and her family. Amid the battle, she is remembered and saved. Her actions proved her faith, and her physical salvation confirms her spiritual salvation. The family of God welcomes all. Even prostitutes. Especially prostitutes.
In every reference to Rahab throughout the Bible—in Joshua 2, 6, Hebrews 11, James 3—her profession follows her name, “Rahab the prostitute.” But there is one exception: Matthew 1:5. The prostitute produces the Savior. The path to the Savior goes through Jericho’s destruction. And when he comes, the shame is dropped from the name. All is forgiven. Grace is here.
“I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” (Joshua 2:9–13).
God delivered Rahab’s life from death, both in the days of Jericho and in the days to come. Imitate the prostitute.
2 Samuel 11-12 gives us the horrible tragedy of David and Bathsheba. It’s one of the most famous stories in the Bible. The righteous King David saw the beautiful Bathsheba bathing, purifying herself from her uncleanness. Jonathan Edwards says, “It was probably just about sun setting, which was the time of day when those that were legally unclean were cleansed. The case being thus, it greatly increased David’s temptation, for when a woman was thus cleansed from her uncleanness, then it was lawful for her husband to lie with her, so that it put David in mind of that act, and stirred his lust.” David didn’t just see her bathing. He thought about her bathing. He considered the reason for her bathing. He saw, and he imagined, and he sent for her.
David’s sin didn’t start with Bathsheba in his bed. David’s sin started with Bathsheba in his mind. Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount, “I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). David should have nipped it in the bud. Instead, he let it flower, growing with anticipation as he awaited Bathsheba’s arrival. If ever there was an abuse of power, David was the abuser, Bathsheba was the victim. After all, who refuses the king?
David’s dirty deed done, he sent Bathsheba home. She conceived and sent word to David. With the king’s child growing inside another man’s wife, David must do something. He could have repented. He’s done that before. He chose another route. Enter Uriah the Hittite.
Who was Uriah the Hittite? The fact that he’s a Hittite means he wasn’t part of Israel’s covenant community. That doesn’t mean Uriah wasn’t pro-Israel or pro-David. He was both. That makes this all the more tragic. David didn't assault a random woman. He didn't wound a strange man from a strange land. He sinned against his ally, his friend. The relationship between David and Uriah provides a lesson to us about the evil lurking inside every heart. In his sermon on this passage, Tim Keller gives more insight into the evil of David's actions.
“Do you know who Uriah the Hittite was? When David was a fugitive, when he was in the wilderness being hunted down by Saul, a group of friends voluntarily came around him. They were called his mighty men, and they risked their lives to save David’s life. One of them was Uriah the Hittite. This isn’t just any old person. This is a man to whom David owes his life. He covets the man’s wife, he commits adultery with the man’s wife, he murders the man, and then he lies to cover it up, half the Ten Commandments being broken in one awful enterprise.
This is done by a man who wrote the Psalms, who wrote that incredible worship poetry, including Psalm 40:8, in which he said, “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” The man who wrote that and the man who meant that did this. What does that teach us? It teaches us a lot.
Here’s what it teaches us. The seeds of the most terrible possible atrocities, the capability of the worst possible deeds, live in every human heart, even the best people, even people who are converted by God. Whoever you are, even the best people who have ever lived are capable of this. The seeds of those things, the seeds of the worst possible deeds are right now in your heart. That’s the teaching.”
That’s the teaching. May we learn the lesson before it’s too late.
23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
Galatians 3:23-29
John Stott says, “Everybody is either held captive by the law because he is still awaiting the fulfillment of the promise or delivered from the law because he has inherited the promise. More simply, everybody is living either in the Old Testament or in the New, and derives his religion either from Moses or from Jesus…he is either ‘under law’ or ‘in Christ’.”
The false teachers of Galatia were living in the Old Testament. They had heard the gospel message and rejected it as unbiblical. They could not stomach the thought of God justifying sinners apart from their obedience to the law. So, instead of opening their hearts to God’s free gift and accepting his grace, they set themselves apart from him, clinging to their misunderstanding of the law of Moses. But the problem, as it is with every heretic, is they thought they were being faithful to God. However, any theology that minimizes the need for Christ’s death is not only bad theology, it is dangerous theology—anti-biblical.
Paul, on the other hand, lived in the New Testament, a land flowing with milk and honey. His journey there is as important as his citizenship now. Paul did not land in the New Testament without first traveling through the Old Testament. He did not inherit salvation without first finding condemnation in the law. He walked through the valley of the shadow of eternal death and found Jesus’ hand reaching out for him. When he grabbed hold, Jesus transferred him to a new land.
So it must be for all of us. We must journey through the law to find grace. That’s why Paul says before faith came, we were held captive under the law. The law was our guardian until Christ came, helping us see our need. But when the need has been met fully in Christ, we no longer need to go back under the law again. We can reside in the land of the living, leaving the valley of dry bones to rot in the sun.
In this new land of the New Testament, there is no separation between us. We are united to Christ and therefore to one another. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; there is no male and female. There is one people of God, indistinguishable from one another because we share in Christ’s righteousness. In the land of the false teachers, a caste system remains, with levels of justification. But in Christ’s kingdom, there is Jesus, our head, and us, his body.
I want to focus on one important topic. Remember Galatians 2:11-14, when Paul opposed Peter to his face. Why did Paul oppose him? When certain Jews came from Jerusalem, Peter withdrew from eating with the Gentiles to eat with the Jews. Peter, who knew the gospel, stepped outside the gospel with his racism. Paul rightly saw this as an anti-gospel move and called Peter out on it. Peter’s racism wasn’t a private problem, it was a public heresy. He spurned the unity Christ created between the Gentiles and Jews in his gospel. He didn’t realize what he was doing, but Paul did. Paul understood Christ demolished racism on the cross by saving all men the same way. There is no Jew nor Greek, black nor white, superior nor inferior. We are all one.
Our country needs this message. Our racist history bleeds into our present. We may all live on the same street, but the ghost of white supremacy haunts the alleys, so we build our walls and bar our windows. But Christ destroys those barriers with his gospel. That’s why in our day, with so much racial tension, we see racism as a gospel issue. We cannot proclaim Christ as Lord on Sunday, propping up our white skin up as preeminent on Monday. We must not erase the colors, but rather see all colors as equal inheritors of the blessing of Christ. We are one—now and forever.
Unfortunately, racism is still an issue in the church. We don’t like to think that’s true, but if Peter fell into it, and we who live in a country with such profound racism find ourselves unable to fall into it, we aren’t being wise as serpents nor innocent as doves. We’re being wolves in the midst of sheep, persecuting our minority brothers and sisters with a false appearance of unity when Jesus calls us to the real thing. We must not only admit our racial bias inside, we must take active steps of reconciliation as we follow Jesus into the hard things of our world. It’s true, this shouldn’t even be an issue, and I wish it weren’t. One day it won’t be. But here, today, we must face the truth of the racist inside us all because the gospel is at stake. What we say we believe can be undone with what we do with what we believe.
Galatians 3:28 is clear. Paul does not diminish the racial tension. He defeats the racial tension with Christ’s cross. He looks it in the face and brings the gospel to bear on it. We need nothing less today. We are all one in Christ Jesus. But we can understate Paul’s point far too easily. He’s not calling us to racial diversity in our churches. He’s calling us to racial reconciliation in our churches.
Racial reconciliation is not less than racial diversity—you can’t reconcile unless you’re in the same room—but it is far more than racial diversity. Racial reconciliation is a positive movement of love toward Christians of another race, just as Paul’s move toward the Gentiles was one of love and the Gentiles’ move toward Paul and all other Jews was one of love. In America, the majority culture owes it to the minority to make the first move. Our racist past is the fault of our ancestors. It's on us to move toward them, rather than waiting on us to move toward us.
We will face opposition as soon as we do this. The enemy hates racial reconciliation, but Jesus died for it. So whatever the cost, we must endure, resting in the Spirit’s power to help and direct. When we move together positively toward Jesus, we find that he moves us together positively toward one another. In his grace, Christ will separate us from the world, but he will unite us to our brothers and sisters in him, regardless of skin color.
What we want no longer matters. Our wants were never right, anyway. The gospel calls us to lay our personal preferences and wicked sins at the foot of Christ’s bloody cross. When we’re ready to do that, moment by moment, over the course of our life, we will find that Jesus not only cleanses us from all sin, he brings us into fellowship with one another. The beauty of the gospel shines when people of all races live together in unity before Christ. After all, it’s our future. Why not live it out today and show the world what God’s grace can really do?
“I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Revelation 7:9-12)
In his death, Jesus killed racism. If we have died with him, we've died to racism too, and we now live to God. If racism is still alive in our heart, we must ask the hard question: have we died with Christ, or are we just playing opossum?
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Luke 15:1-10
The parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin are basically the same stories. In each, something is lost, searched out, and found. Jesus is making a simple point. He came to search and find the one. He came to restore that which was lost. Charles Spurgeon put it this way, “The truth here taught is just this—that mercy stretches forth her hand to misery, that grace receives men as sinners, that it deals with demerit, unworthiness, and worthlessness; that those who think themselves righteous are not the objects of divine compassion, but the unrighteous, the guilty, and the undeserving, are the proper subjects for the infinite mercy of God; in a word, that salvation is not of merit but of grace.”
Since salvation is not of merit but of grace, God’s heart toward sinners is different than our heart often is. He’s not waiting for them to turn their lives around, he’s out there searching for them to bring them home. He’s on the move, even if they’re stuck in a cave or lost in the floorboards. He is not content on merely finding the lost one, he rejoices over its restoration. God searches for and finds the lost, one by one until all his children are tucked safely in their eternal rooms. Then, he throws a heavenly party. Who would spend such time on one sheep or one coin? It seems excessive, doesn’t it? God’s love is like that: excessive, extravagant, lavish.
The sinners and tax collectors gathered around must have understood Jesus was referring to them. They were the lost sheep, the lost coin. Jesus had come looking for them, and they had been found! How many in the crowd had dined with him? How many had he healed? How many had received his smile, felt his touch, been warmed by his presence? And yet it was not to this group that Jesus directed his parables that day. He was not instructing the sinners. He was instructing the self-righteous Pharisees and scribes. The sinners and tax collectors had been found by Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes were still running from him.
They knew the law, but they did not know God. They looked at the letter and found rules to obey without seeing the heart to love. They ventured into the world with their Sunday best, shirt starched as stiffly as possible, Bible in hand, with a smile ready to produce. But their hearts were far from God because their hearts trusted in their good deeds rather than God’s good grace. Their mind was too occupied with obedience to see a need. They were too full of themselves to be needy for Christ. They were lost and needed to be found. But they didn’t know it.
And Jesus was asking them a simple question: how far does God’s grace go? How far does his love stretch? How deep does it plunge? To the worst sinner? To the deepest depravity? To the best Pharisee? To the smartest scribe?
In each of these parables, Jesus includes two characters. The first is that which is lost. The second is the one who seeks. The lost must be found. But in each instance, the lost do not know they are lost. We have no indication the sheep understood his plight. He had no awareness of danger. He thought he was fine. The coin has no ability to see, it cannot understand, it doesn’t think. Each is lost, and each matters so much that the seeker leaves much to find the one.
The one who seeks wastes no time. The shepherd abandons the ninety-nine to look for the one. The woman sweeps the house over to uncover the coin. Time is not mentioned. Cost is not counted. All that matters is the one being returned to the many. And when it is, a party is thrown. It was not the sheep who stayed or the coins in the bank that were the cause of the party. It was the sheep that wandered, the coin that was lost. And everyone was invited to rejoice.
The Pharisees and scribes don’t know how to rejoice. Instead, when they see sinners coming to Jesus, they blame Jesus for being too lenient, not for being too gracious. They miss the wonder of his mercy thinking they deserve the party instead.
What about you? Can you rejoice in bad people being made good in Christ? Is there a certain test, designed by you, administered by you, and graded by you that one must pass to be included in God’s kingdom? The Pharisees and scribes had such a test, and Jesus couldn’t even pass it. Would your test exclude Jesus as well?
Jesus is calling the self-righteous to account in these stories. He’s showing us what his brother, James, said years later, “Judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:13).
In a recent interview, Psychologist Jordan Peterson says our lifetime influence reaches 1,000 people. Your influence on 1,000 people who also influence 1,000 people means your reach is a million strong. Our little lives have a massive impact.
So what about a man like Billy Graham?
No estimate can be given with one hundred percent accuracy, though some have tried. In live performances alone, Joe Carter says he preached to \"nearly 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories.” Lifeway’s Facts and Trends breaks some the numbers further. But Graham's influence reaches beyond those who heard his preaching live, on television, or radio. Using their personal influence, many hearers of his gospel message went on the share it with others. Kathie Lee Gifford, for example, whose wonderful response to Graham’s death was broadcast and shared widely. She came to faith through one of his movies. In her proclamation of Graham's gospel message, she influences others as she was influenced by him. Graham's astronomical influence stretches beyond his 99 years on this earth.
Many younger Christians fail to realize Graham's cultural force in twentieth-century America. Speaking recently with a co-worker, he remembered his mother forcing the family to eat dinner quickly to huddle around the screen. His televised sermons were Must-See-TV. Where is that in today’s world?
I was born into an America whose prime-time coverage was headed toward reality TV, not Supernatural TV. I never saw Graham's sermons on my screen, but that doesn’t mean I've escaped his influence. His impact made it's way to me indirectly through one of my former pastors, Ray Ortlund. Ray loves to preach the Bible. He’s very good at it. He believes in the full authority of the Bible, and this conviction leads to preaching that lets the Bible say what the Bible says. No apologies. No hesitation. Only power.
Billy Graham also preached with authority. He preached with conviction. That conviction came from his unfailing belief in the authority Bible. He was not a flashy preacher. He didn't need to be. He had the weight of Scripture behind him. The timeless message of the gospel of Jesus Christ was all he carried into the pulpit. But to arrive here, it took a crisis of faith.
And that's where his influence came to me--through a magazine article Ray stuffed away in his files long ago.
In 1956, Graham founded Christianity Today. In October of that year, the first edition hit the shelves. Graham contributed an article entitled “Biblical Authority in Evangelism.” Inside, he spoke of this crisis of faith, which led to the secret that changed his ministry forever.
“In 1949 I had been having a great many doubts concerning the Bible. I thought I saw apparent contradictions in Scripture. Some things I could not reconcile with my restricted concept of God. When I stood up to preach, the authoritative note so characteristic of all great preachers of the past was lacking. Like hundreds of other young seminary students, I was waging the intellectual battle of my life. The outcome could certainly affect my future ministry.
Graham's doubts about the Bible resulted, in part, from a friendship with fellow evangelist Charles Templeton. Graham met Templeton in 1945. Templeton was considered the better preacher, the one with the brightest future. But in the things of God, earthly talents and promise mean little without a close walk with the Lord. Evangelism is about the gifting of the power of the Spirit from on high.
Desiring to advance his education and influence, Templeton enrolled in Princeton Theological Seminary. By that time, Princeton had turned the ship toward liberalism. Templeton told Graham they were behind the times. No one took the Bible straight anymore. It shook Graham. What was happening? He too had questions he could not answer. Was he on the wrong side of history? Then, God brought Graham to Los Angeles for a short evangelistic stint--a trip that turned out to be the start of a new era of ministry. He arrived on shifting sand. God gave him a solid rock to stand on. God transformed his questions about the Bible to assurance of what the Bible said.
Graham goes on explain the results in his article.
In August of that year I had been invited to Forest Home, Presbyterian conference center high in the mountains outside Los Angeles. I remember walking down a trail, tramping into the woods, and almost wrestling with God. I dueled with my doubts, and my soul seemed to be caught in the crossfire. Finally, in desperation, I surrendered my will to the living God revealed in Scripture. I knelt before the open Bible and said: ‘Lord, many things in this Book I do not understand. But Thou hast said, ‘The just shall live by faith.’ All I have received from Thee, I have taken by faith. Here and now, by faith, I accept the Bible as Thy word. I take it all. I take it without reservations. Where there are things I cannot understand, I will reserve judgment until I receive more light. If this pleases Thee, give me authority as I proclaim Thy word, and through that authority convict me of sin and turn sinners to the saviour.’”
“Within six weeks we started our Los Angeles crusade, which is now history. During that crusade I discovered the secret that changed my ministry. I stopped trying to prove that the Bible was true. I had settled. in my own mind that it was, and this faith was conveyed to the audience. Over and over again I found myself saying “The Bible says.” I felt as though I were merely a voice through which the Holy Spirit was speaking.
Authority created faith. Faith generated response, and hundreds of people were impelled to come to Christ. A crusade scheduled for three weeks lengthened into eight weeks, with hundreds of thousands of people in attendance. The people were not coming to hear great oratory, nor were they interested merely in my ideas. I found they were desperately hungry to hear what God had to say through His Holy Word. I felt as though I had a rapier in my hand and, through the power of the Bible, was slashing deeply into men’s consciences, leading them to surrender to God. Does not the Bible say of itself, ‘For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12)?’”
Graham's experience high in the mountains outside Los Angeles was not the spiritual high of church camp, momentary and fleeting. Graham’s experience that day was a lifelong lifting of the Spirit, placing the Bible’s rock-hard solidity beneath his feet.
Charles Templeton took another route. He went the way of the agnostic. In a memoir published in 1996, he wrote of his differences with Graham.
All our differences came to a head in a discussion which, better than anything I know, “explains” Billy Graham and his phenomenal success as an evangelist.
In the course of our conversation I said, “But, Billy, it’s simply not possible any longer to believe, for instance, the biblical account of creation. The world was not created over a period of days a few thousand years ago; it has evolved over millions of years. It’s not a matter of speculation; it’s a demonstrable fact.”
“I don’t accept that,” Billy said. “And there are reputable scholars who don’t.”
“Who are these scholars?’ I said. “Men in conservative Christian colleges?”
“Most of them, yes,” he said. “But that is not the point. I believe the Genesis account of creation because it’s in the Bible. I’ve discovered something in my ministry: When I take the Bible literally, when I proclaim it as the word of God, my preaching has power. When I stand on the platform and say, ‘God says,’ or ‘The Bible says,’ the Holy Spirit uses me. There are results. Wiser men than you or I have been arguing questions like this for centuries. I don’t have the time or the intellect to examine all sides of the theological dispute, so I’ve decided once for all to stop questioning and accept the Bible as God’s word.”
“But Billy,” I protested, “You cannot do that. You don’t dare stop thinking about the most important question in life. Do it and you begin to die. It’s intellectual suicide.”
“I don’t know about anybody else,” he said, “but I’ve decided that that’s the path for me.”
Billy Graham knew the life for him because God gave him life abundant. He could not answer every question that arose, but he could answer the most important question. How is one saved? \"We must admit that we are sinners. We must turn away from our sins and to Christ. We must trust Him as our Savior and follow Him as our Lord. God promises that when we do this, He will save us and make us His children, and we will live with Him forever.\"
Billy Graham’s ministry took flight at those Los Angeles crusades on the authority of Scripture. The press puffed him. His fame grew. The Holy Spirit used him--not because he answered every philosophical question or every doubt about the Bible. The Holy Spirit used him because he dared to say in the face of a nation racing toward liberalism—theologically, socially, sexually, and otherwise—”The Bible says.”
Billy Graham's influence spread far and wide and deep, coming down even to a young man in a church in Nashville, Tennessee reading a fifty-year-old article about biblical authority. His faith in the Bible, and in the God of the Bible, helped me stand tall and affirm the same thing.
Biblical authority matters in evangelism. Billy Graham proved it.
You can read the full article by Billy Graham at Christianity Today’s website. You do have to have an active subscription to read it all.
February is a hard month, isn't it? Around here we missed the record rainfall amount by hundreds of an inch. So, it's been wet. Spring is coming, though, right? Wasn't there a groundhog somewhere that said so?
So while all this rain fell outside, I picked up a few books to keep me occupied.
Here's what I read in February 2018.
“Whom he appointed the heir of all things.” Hebrews 1: 2
The best things in our culture image who God is. Those things are not merely human inventions, they are God’s gifts to humanity so that when God explains himself to us, we have categories by which we can understand him. So when the author speaks of Jesus being the heir, we understand what he means. Everything the father has, the Son has. And although Jesus is Creator, through his finished work God also appointed him the heir of all. He alone is worthy to inherit the Father’s kingdom.
What is Jesus the inheritor of? Well, in Psalm 2, God says to the Son, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.” The New Testament says, “all things were created for him,” and “to him are all things.” So Jesus inherits the world and everything in it.
But there’s a deeper insight the author wants us to see. There is good news for us here. When Jesus became a man and therefore inheritor, he brought with him the possibility of us inheriting something of God as well. The author highlights this in chapter 2, quoting from Psalm 8—a Psalm about mankind. “You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now, the Psalmist says that’s who you are.
Wait a minute. That doesn’t sound right, does it? You probably don’t feel like you’re crowned with glory and honor, do you? You don’t see everything in subjection under your feet. You can’t tame the storms. You can’t even tame your heart. But Jesus can. And Psalm 8 is ultimately about you because it’s ultimately about Jesus. Jesus inherits all things, including you. When he inherits you and grants you faith, he places you in himself and you get what he has, which includes, amazingly, glory and honor and rule over the world. This doctrine reminds us that every promise God has made will come to pass in and through and for Jesus Christ.
Jesus doesn’t lord his inheritance over you. He serves you with it, giving you a portion along with him. Why? Because he loves you! You aren’t his property like a slave. You’re his joy like family.
When we’re saved, Jesus unites us to himself and makes us, as Paul says in Romans 8, co-heirs with Christ. But that happens because Jesus first united himself to us, making himself human. For all the good things Jesus inherited, when he came to earth, he inherited something else—our inheritance from Adam. Now, he was conceived of the Holy Spirit, so he wasn’t born with original sin like we are. But by becoming human, Jesus willingly partook of the same things as us, and on the cross, the Father gave him the inheritance due to us so that in the resurrection he could give us the inheritance due to him.
Jesus is the heir of all things, and that all things includes you, but to get you he had to pay for your sins. And on the cross he did.
To the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:6
Throughout Ephesians 1, there is a goal. Three times, in verses 6, 12, and 14, is a call to praise God for his grace. I wonder what you think of that. I wonder if it sounds a strange goal to you? It certainly did to C.S. Lewis. He couldn’t understand why God would save people to praise him. I mean, who wants to be around someone who always wants praise? But as he thought through the problem in the Psalms, he realized something.
“The most obvious fact about praise – whether of God or anything – strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise . . . The world rings with praise – lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game – praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. . . . praise almost seems to be inner health made audible. . . . I had not noticed that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: 'Isn't she lovely? Wasn't it glorious? Don't you think that magnificent?' The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us what we delight to do, what indeed we can't help doing, about everything else we value.”
Christians are on the path toward inner health made audible, to complete fulfillment and enjoyment of the one person whom our heart longs for the most. We are racing toward the presence of God, and one day we will get there. And our response will be praise.
I wonder if this sounds as good to us as it should. I think to really get it, we need to back up and consider two words in verse 4 that we kind of raced over before. God chose us that we should be holy and blameless before him.
If we want to understand why the goal is the praise of God, we must understand the weight of it means to be before him. God is and will forever be the most glorious person. Our enjoyment of him will be complete as we praise him. Our deepest desires will find their fullest satisfaction. Just as you had to contain your heart from exploding on your wedding day, standing before God in holiness and blamelessness will be a complete inability to keep your mouth shut. All your greatest desires will pour out in praise, your greatest joys will find their end, your deepest longings will be totally satisfied before him. You will have no further wants, no further needs. You will be whole in a way you can barely imagine right now. You will wonder how your heart can take it all in, but it can, because God will give you an even greater heart to bear it—a heart holy and blameless. In this world, we constantly encounter cheap imitations of the real thing. But one day, we will be brought to ultimate reality himself.
So, what will that day be like? The Bible tells us a little about it.
Isaiah 25:8-9
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
Revelation 7:13-17
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
“Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Revelation 21:3-7
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
Revelation 22:3-5
No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
You might have noticed how many times wiping the tears from our eyes appeared in these verses. Why is that? Because our unholiness and blame created our tears. With every sin we commit and is committed against us, we die a little more inside. But when we are before him, we will behold Life itself. We will no longer have any reason to cry over our little death because the pierced hands of Jesus will remind us of the life we have in him. He will wipe away every tear every sin ever made us cry and we will be reminded that he was the one who took them all upon himself for us. He will give us our life back, we will feel finally at home, and his love will place a smile on our face. We will be made white in the Lamb’s blood. The injustices committed against us will be made right. Every single thing our heart truly longs for will be ours for eternity in him, and the increase of that joy will never end. Every day will be better than last. You were chosen and predestined in Christ for that future! And everything God is doing right now in your life is to get you ready for that day when he will present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. And when we finally arrive, we will explode with praise for eternity.
So we can endure with hope, can’t we? Our life is absolutely massive because we’re on our way to the massive presence of God. And in his glorious wisdom, God calls us to share this journey with others. He calls us to invite others in. That person you’re thinking of right now who doesn’t know him and doesn’t want him might join us on the journey one day. Why not tell them where you’re going and see if they’ll come along?
This is an excerpt from my latest sermon on Ephesians 1:4-6. You can read or listen to the whole thing here.
The world recognizes Leonardo da Vinci as one of history’s great artists, arguably the greatest ever. His Mona Lisa is the most famous painting the world will ever know. He never finally finished the picture. He was still working on it at the time of his death. Leonardo kept it with him, moving it from city to city, never handing it over to the one who commissioned it, because he was never done perfecting it. He tinkered and touched up and remade it throughout his last years of life. He even went to the lengths of painting the undergarments so that the proper texture was visible on the outer garment. He was meticulous and discerning. He researched the muscles of lips on corpses to get the smile just right—a smile that has sparked conversation since its revealing so many years ago. Is she smiling or not? Look at her eyes, and it appears the answer is yes. Look at her mouth, and it becomes debatable. Who could paint such a face full of motion? Only Leonardo because he alone cared enough to research the exact movements of the human mouth. He was never finished until the painting attained a specific and intentional character. So too is God.
In his book, The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis says about God something we see in Leonardo’s intention with his art. “We are, not metaphorically but in very truth, a Divine work of art, something that God is making, and therefore something with which He will not be satisfied until it has a certain character.” Just as a Leonardo worked on the Mona Lisa (and, in fact, many of his other paintings—he was a meticulous procrastinator and denier of deadlines), so too is God working on us all our lives. We are never off his mind. Even as he goes about upholding the world, spinning the stars, balancing the weights of the universe, his purposes are for our fully-formed character aligned to his.
God is the true and better Leonardo. But rather than taking a blank canvas and layering paint drop by drop, he takes a soiled heart, made hard by sin, and softens it, reworks it, in fact, remakes it into his image. His art is not of the kind to hang on a wall for admiration. It's the kind that stands in the hall, shouting down the corridors the glory of the artist. He's creating not a showpiece but sons and daughters for himself. And if he's producing such characters for his own enjoyment and pleasure, to share a part in his joy and gladness, why would he be content with any remaining sin or spot or imperfection? Why stop with good enough when he has all the holiness, righteousness, and goodness at his disposal? Indeed he will not stop. Every painting goes through a stage of harm, one in which the picture appears a blurry mess and incomplete disaster. But over time, at least for Leonardo, the lines became the proper amount of blurry as to look real, the eyes reached the appropriate depth as to become a welcoming gaze, the perspective and optics arrived at their maturity as to come alive. So too in the hand of God shall we one day arrive.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/cf5a87522b6b6d53-image-asset-BElidcUE1vNBGOBU8rbrEKOVa1Vzcz.jpeg\")
Photo by Sam Carter on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nThe scene: Exodus 12. God sends the final devastating plague to the Egyptians
I don’t have a lamb.
Where am I to get one on such short notice?
I’m exhausted. Ever since Moses and Aaron started opening their mouths, I’ve had to work harder than ever. They don’t even give me the straw to make my bricks anymore. I have to go get it myself and still produce just as much. I can barely move my hands these days. My wife is no better off. And the kids! Those poor kids. My Jack won’t make it through this if I don’t find a lamb.
Remember. Just think for a minute. What did he say? Didn’t he say something about neighbors helping neighbors? “If the household is too small for a lamb, then he can his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons.” That’s right. Ok, God is providing. We’re gonna be ok. Maybe.
Well, at least I have a lamb now. I really don’t know what I’d do without my parents helping us out. I can’t create a lamb out of nothing! Ok, it’s time to think clearly. Remember what Moses said to do. It’s the fourteenth day. It’s time to kill the lamb. He said to wait until twilight. We’ll all kill them together.
I can see the neighbors outside with their knives. Time to go.
The sound was terrible. I may never get the bleating of the lambs out of my head. What a terrible sound.
Kids, sit down.
No, you can’t put your jammies on.
Yes, you have to wear your shoes.
Please, stop talking!
Just listen to me.
Eat, son. Eat right now.
Do you have your bags ready?
Did I put enough blood on the doorpost?
How did the neighbors do it?
What if I messed this up? What if I’m the cause of my son’s death?
What if I die?
What will happen if tomorrow only Luke and Andy still remain in this house?
If I make it, the only reason will be because this lamb didn’t.
What is that noise?
If the destroyer here? Is he passing over us? If he entering?
Does anyone else hear that sound? Is that screaming? I’ve never heard such horror. I long for the bleating of lambs to drown out this terrible noise.
I have no idea if we’re going to make it through this.
But God said we would if we obeyed.
I’m doing my best. It feels so insufficient.
Shut up, everyone. I hear a knocking on the door.
What’s that? Time to go?
Kids grab your bags. Let’s go.
Keep up.
Don’t lag.
Just listen to me.
I don’t know where we’re going. Just follow along.
Where are we?
Is that the sea?
How did we get here?
I guess this is the plan. Are we free?
What happens now?
Haha, who cares? We’ve made it this far!
Wait, what just happened? Look, my family is all here. The lamb’s blood did this?
What will God do now?
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/a4b9321b472e2dc6-books-january-jjFvFXc6HPrgD1RX8JF2aAciLwI2fm.jpg\")
Photo by Thomas Kelley on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nJanuary is an exciting time for me, especially in my reading life. A new year brings a fresh start, and this year, my fresh start included getting back on track with some reading goals I’ve had in previous years that I had to set aside in 2017 due to other responsibilities. Each year, I like to choose one author and read through his or her works throughout the year. I like to compare it to that popular ice-breaker question, “if you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would you choose and why?” But instead of having one dinner with that person, reading through his or her works is comparable to dining with them every day for a year. You get inside their thinking. You learn their answers to questions. You anticipate where the conversation is going. And, if you’ve chosen well, you get plenty of surprises along the way.
So this year, I chose C.S. Lewis. I’ve read many of his works before, but I wanted to read as many as I could in the span of 2018. Lewis was a great thinker and writer. He knew how to use his imagination to create worlds that draw in the reader. His Christianity was real, and though he wasn’t a theological, nor a scholar of theology, he had a way of writing about the life of faith that was enduringly beautiful. He’s quoted often from the pulpit and his influence runs deep and wide. His cross-genre span of works also allows for one not to grow bored throughout the year. For those reasons and more, Lewis is my choice for 2018.
But C.S. Lewis is not the only author I plan to read this year. Below is a list of what I read in January.
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis![\"\"](\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thingsoftheso-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0060652926\")
\n
\n
\n
\nThis was my third time through this book. The first was shortly after I had awakened to the gospel. The second was a few years after that. But as I read through it this year, it was as if I’d never read it before. It came alive to me in new ways. So many quotes I recognized from sermons, other books, and lectures I’ve heard over the years, and I see now how this book has stood the test of time. \n
\n
\nKey Quote:\n
\n“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”\n
\n
The Aeneid by Virgil![\"\"](\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thingsoftheso-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0143105132\")
\n
\n
\n
\nEvery biography I read of anyone born prior to the mid-20th century includes a bit about the man or woman reading Virgil growing up. This story is a classic beyond our modern meaning of it. It has endured centuries. If you’ve never read it, it’s comparable to Homer’s Illiad or Odyssey stories. In the way that Homer’s stories gave the Greeks a mythology of their creation, the Aeneid does the same for ancient Rome. It’s one of those books you probably should have read in school somewhere along the way, so why not read it now? \n
\n
\nKey Quote:\n
\n“Do the gods light this fire in our hearts or does each man's mad desire become his god?”\n
\n
Lincoln in the Bardo: A Novel by George Saunders![\"\"](\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thingsoftheso-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0812985400\")
\n
\n
\n
\nThis was a weird book. Winner of the Man Booker prize last year, it reads like a series of letters recounting the events leading up to and days after the death of Abraham Lincoln’s eleven-year-old son. Grounded in the historical fact of the young Lincoln's death and his father's grief, the book takes those facts and greif and stretches them into a tale of the afterlife that includes some not-so savory characters, a reverend, and the young,recently deceased Lincoln boy. They all exist in this ghostly otherworld—not heaven and not hell. Over the course of the book, they all vanish from this ethereal world into whatever lays beyond. Mixed with both humor and sorrow, Saunders’s book takes the reader on a weird journey that at it’s best takes you inside the intense grief of a father and makes you feel all the feelings you never want to feel again. It also shows us the hopelessness of a world without a real Heaven and a real Savior who gives real assurance.\n
\n
\nKey Quote:\n
\n“How was I (how are any of us) to do other than that which we, at that time, actually do?”\n
\n
Exit West: A Novel by Mohsin Hamid![\"\"](\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thingsoftheso-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0735212171\")
\n
\n
\n
\nMy third novel of the year was one of the most critically-acclaimed from last year. Hamid’s novel tells the story of two young people, Nadia and Saeed, that fall in love in their war-torn country. Eventually, they are forced out of their homeland and find their way through the world via a series of magic doors that take them to new places and to new people. In our day with so many refugees fleeing places like Syria, this book gives a view into the emotion involved in leaving home. It does have some adult sexuality in it (as does Saunders’s book I mentioned above), so read with caution. But if you want to understand the difficulty of the refugee crisis, this novel helps you see it through the tool of story.\n
\n
\nKey Quote:\n
\n“To love is to enter into the inevitability of one day not being able to protect what is most valuable to you.”\n
\n
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis![\"\"](\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thingsoftheso-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0060652934\")
\n
\n
\n
\nHere is another book quoted so often I felt like I’d already read it. But to pick it up and make my way through it, I think it must have been awful for Lewis to write it. To imagine the demonic conversation is both brilliantly helpful and dangerous spiritually. It is probably far better for us than we imagine that we cannot hear these spiritual conversations, nor can we see the heavily battle waging all around. It is far better instead for us to cling to Jesus through the Spirit and let his power grant us victory over every evil. But Lewis’s fictional account does help us see that there is a real enemy to God, and the sad thing is that we too often fall for his schemes. Praise God that he has a better scheme—one the Devil himself cannot fathom, cannot overrule, and cannot conquer. No matter Screwtape's advice, Wormwood doesn't stand a chance against God.\n
\n
\nKey Quote:\n
\n“It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.”\n
\n
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll![\"\"](\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thingsoftheso-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0147515874\")
\n
\n
\n
\nSometimes I scroll through my library app and find a classic book to listen to. One day in January, I found this one and listened to it at night. I remember watching the movie as a kid and that Cheshire Cat’s smile still resides somewhere in my mind’s eye. It’s one of those books that as you read outside of childhood, you see how much depth exists in a silly story about a girl stumbling into Wonderland. \n
\n
\nKey Quote:\n
\n“Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.”\n
\n
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis![\"\"](\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thingsoftheso-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0060652381\")
\n
\n
\n
\nLewis’ journals come to life in this book. The loss of his wife hit him harder than he imagined it would. His tale of first-hand grief is illuminating and stirring. I haven't lost my wife, but walking through the death of my father-in-law two years ago with my mother-in-law gives this book even more weight. Everyone experiences grief differently, and not everyone experiences it the same was Lewis did. But that makes this book no less effective. \n
\n
\nKey Quote:\n
\n“We were promised sufferings. They were part of the program. We were even told, 'Blessed are they that mourn,' and I accept it. I've got nothing that I hadn't bargained for. Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination.”\n
\n
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis![\"\"](\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thingsoftheso-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0060652950\")
\n
\n
\n
\nWhat a book! This fictional account of a dead man passing through hell to heaven gives incredible insight into what really damns us. Yes, some people do terrible things in this world that earn them a seat in the inner court of hell. Others, however, live a “good” life. But the door of hell is locked from the inside, or so Lewis believed. The good life can be the hellish life we want to live, and no amount of pleading from the heavenly host will persuade us to come to the other side. We can debate the theology of this book if you’d like (which stands for most of Lewis’ books), but we can’t debate the literary beauty of it.\n
\n
\nKey Quote:\n
\n“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, \"Thy will be done,\" and those to whom God says, in the end, \"Thy will be done.\" All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.”\n
\n
The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis![\"\"](\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thingsoftheso-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0060652942\")
\n
\n
\n
\nThis was the hardest of Lewis’ books to get through this month. I read it quickly, probably too quickly, and I think that had something to do with it. Regardless, it was a good one, and I see why it’s in the collection of some of his best.\n
\n
\nKey Quote:\n
\n“For every one pupil who needs to be guarded against a weak excess of sensibility there are three who need to be awakened from the slumber of cold vulgarity. The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defence against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head.”\n
\n
Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson![\"\"](\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thingsoftheso-20&l=am2&o=1&a=1501139150\")
\n
\n
\n
\nMy first biography of 2018 was a good one. I wish-listed this book when it released late last year and picked it up on Audible with one of my credits this month. Leonardo da Vinci was a fascinating guy. He took his art seriously and created masterpieces by pulling from experiments and observations in science, math, and geography. This multi-disciplinary life gave him insights many never attain. The Mona Lisa’s smile, for example, is a masterpiece in itself, never mind the rest of the painting. He studied the muscles of the lips, even peeling the skin off of cadavers to find the proper movements. His notebooks are filled with insights and observations well ahead of his time. If they were publish in his lifetime, it’s very possible we would recognize Leonardo as the father of science and math in the same way, if not more so, we admire him for his art.\n
\n
\nFor a taste of the book, you can read an excerpt from Isaacson here.
\n
\nKey Quote:\n
\n“An object will display the greatest difference of light and shade when it is seen in the strongest light. . . . But this should not be much used in painting, because the works would be crude and ungraceful. An object seen in a moderate light displays little difference in its light and shade, and this is the case towards evening or when the day is cloudy; works painted then are tender, and every kind of face becomes graceful. Thus, in everything extremes are to be avoided: Too much light gives crudeness; too little prevents our seeing.”\n
\n
Aesop's Fables by Aesop![\"\"](\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thingsoftheso-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0451529537\")
\n
\n
\n
\nEveryone knows the morals of these famous stories. “Necessity is the mother of invention.” “Gossips are to be seen and not heard.” “Birds of a feather flock together”,”you can’t please everybody.” “Misery loves company.” Do you know the stories behind these morals? They’re really wonderful and often funny. Most of us have read these stories before but revisiting these as you grow older gives you a greater appreciation for their staying power.\n
\n
\nKey Quote:\n
\n“Those who pretend to be what they are not, sooner or later, find themselves in deep water.”\n
\n
The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place by Andy Crouch![\"\"](\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thingsoftheso-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0801018668\")
\n
\n
\n
\nI posted a picture of this book on Instagram with the caption: “When good thinkers write books, you read them because good thinkers produce good books. This book is helping me understand how to integrate technology into my house with wisdom. We don't have to reject it outright, but we should seek to accept it on our terms, nudging ourselves toward the life we really want, not the life our phones and tablets and TVs wish us to have.” This book was good, but it wasn’t the best book I read this month about technology. That book is below. Keep scrolling.\n
\n
\nKey Quote:\n
\n“Technology is only very good if it can help us become the persons we were meant to be.”\n
\n
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance![\"\"](\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thingsoftheso-20&l=am2&o=1&a=006230125X\")
\n
\n
\n
\nElon Musk is changing the world. What he will change it into, and how deep and wide his impact will be, is still up in the air. What’s not up in the air is his ability to reach for crazy things and succeed. I see more and more Teslas on the road. They’re amazing. He’s made solar panels and lithium ion batteries common commodities at a low cost. He’s making a rocket to go to Mars. He wants humans to be a multi-planetary species. I have my doubts that will ever happen. I’m not sure that’s God’s plan for us. He has something far better than Mars in mind. But the fact that someone with Musk’s money and influence and success is trying this is something to pay attention to. Also, he once started a conversation with a girl in the 1980s by asking if she ever thinks about electric cars. Anyone who uses that pick-up line and it works is interesting enough to know about.\n
\n
\nKey Quote:\n
\n“He seems to feel for the human species as a whole without always wanting to consider the wants and needs of individuals.”\n
\n
12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You by Tony Reinke![\"\"](\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thingsoftheso-20&l=am2&o=1&a=1433552434\")
\n
\n
\n
\nI said earlier my favorite technology book I read this month was coming. This is it. Reinke is a fantastic writer. He takes his time to craft each sentence for maximum impact. I have never once regretted reading anything he’s written. And this book was helpful beyond my expectations. One failing (in my opinion) of Crouch’s book is to put our current technology in it’s God-gifted place. But Reinke does that well. He says, “Every time we open our Bibles, our souls are being fed through centuries of technological advancement.” Technology is one of God's good gifts to us. It's what we do with it before him that matters. Reinke’s purpose of the book isn’t to bash our phones or to even expel them from our lives. It is to view them properly, considering the heart motivation for everything we do. “The question of this book is simple: What is the best use of my smartphone in the flourishing of my life? To that end, my aim is to avoid both extremes: the utopian optimism of the technophiliac and the dystopian pessimistic of the technophobe.” Read Crouch’s book for practical help for your family. Read Reinke’s book for practical help for your soul.\n
\n
\nKey Quote:\n
\n“The more we take refuge in distraction, the more habituated we become to mere stimulation and the more desensitized to delight. We lose our capacity to stop and ponder something deeply, to admire something beautiful for its own sake, to lose ourselves in the passion for a game, a story, or a person.”\n
\n
2,000 Years of Christ's Power Vol. 1: The Age of the Early Church Fathers by Nick Neeham![\"\"](\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thingsoftheso-20&l=am2&o=1&a=1781917787\")
\n
\n
\n
\nKnowing Church history isn't and shouldn't be only for scholars and seminarians any more than the history of our country should be just for politicians and teachers. Christ has connected us to the saints who lived centuries ago. His power is present now as it was then and our understanding of what he did--how he guided his Church through the ages--gives us a deeper appreciation for his sovereign hand. Learning church history is a worshipful endeavor. Our God is a God of the ages, not a presently constructed idea nor a mere historical fact. He's a living person, existing forever, who always relates to his people as the loving Father, saving Son, and Holy Spirit. What makes this book (and the whole series) great is the simplicity of the writing without the forfeiting of truth. Everyone can comprehend the people, teachings, and impact of the different lives, thoughts, and controversies. It also includes samples of writings from so many church fathers, wetting the appetite for a larger meal.\n
\n
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/96256379dc7d51ac-looking-22eqfiSmKFmsnu6eXknw4IZFjC4hV1.jpg\")
\n \n\nIn The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis presents a fictional account of a man in Hell boarding a bus toward Heaven. Anyone who wishes to cross over from Hell to Heaven can do so, but it’s not easy, for those in Hell have grown used to their state. Throughout the book, the man encounters a variety of people in conversation with one another and with heavenly spirits come to persuade them to come along to Heaven. In one such conversation, a heavenly spirit talks with a ghostly artist in Hell as they near the heavenly realm.
‘I should like to paint this.’ said the Ghost.
‘I wouldn’t bother about that just at present if I were you.’ replied the Spirit.
‘Look here, isn’t one going to be allowed to go on painting?’
‘Looking comes first.’
‘But I’ve had my look. I’ve seen just what I want to do. God!–I wish I’d thought of bringing my things with me!’
The Spirit shook his head scattering light from his hair as he did so. ‘That sort of thing’s no good here,’ he said.
‘What do you mean?’ said the Ghost.
‘When you painted on earth–at least in your earlier days–it was because you caught glimpses of Heaven in the earthly landscape. The success of your painting was that it enabled others to see the glimpses too. But here you are having the thing itself. It is from here that the messages came. There is no good telling us about this country, for we see it already. In fact, we see it better than you do.’
‘Then there’s never going to be any point in painting here?’
‘I don’t say that. When you’ve grown into a Person (it’s all right, we all had to do it) there’ll be some things which you’ll see better than anyone else. One of the things you’ll want to do will be to tell us about them. But not yet. At present your business is to see. Come and see. He is endless. Come and feed.’
There was a little pause. ‘That will be delightful,’ said the Ghost presently in a rather dull voice.
‘Come then’ said the Spirit offering it his arm.
‘How soon do you think I could begin painting?’ it asked.
The Spirit broke into laughter. ‘Don’t you see you’ll never paint at all if that’s what you’re thinking about?’ he said.
‘What do you mean?’ asked the Ghost.
‘Why, if you are interested in the country only for the sake of painting it, you’ll never learn to see the country.’
‘But that’s just how a real artist is interested in the country.’
‘No. You’re forgetting,’ said the Spirit. ‘That was not how you began. Light itself was your first love: you loved paint only as a means of telling about light.’
Looking comes first. The Author of Hebrews calls us repeatedly to consider Jesus, to fix our eyes upon him. Whatever else we do as Christian leaders must stem from seeing Jesus. And seeing Jesus is not a quick glance. He’s too glorious for that. We must linger with him.
Spiritual leaders must do many things. They must shepherd and serve and teach, but they must not turn our attention away from Jesus. How can they paint the picture of heaven if they’ve only seen the outskirts? They must be present with the King to tell about his kingdom.
If this sounds too hard, don’t worry. Jesus will bring you to himself. You do not go to him. He comes to you. That’s what makes the gospel so freeing. You are not asked to work your way to heaven. By the Holy Spirit, God brings you to heaven. All you must do is not miss the beauty for the desire to paint the picture.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/6d8f05d0fee260db-schaeffer-gFwQndbP4qPo1a41VYVCecC5cQ0Swb.jpg\")
\n \n\nIn a letter to a friend Francis Schaeffer wrote the following.
I am more and more realizing that Scripturally none of us are ready for leadership until we come to the place before the Lord where we are really ready for His will—regardless of what it is—and therefore, of ourselves, we would prefer not to have the leadership, or at least be neutral concerning it. It is out of such stuff that true Christian leadership can come.
At this time in Schaeffer’s life, he was wrestling through an awakening of sorts. For years, he had spent much energy and focus on separating himself, along with many others, against the liberal Christian movement in the United States. He and his friends had the doctrine right. They held closely to orthodox beliefs and fought tooth and nail to protect and advance what the Bible actually said. But as the distance grew between those events and his current ministry in Switzerland, Schaeffer began to realize that much of the fighting they did had been done without the spirituality that would have made it most effective. The theology was correct but there was a deep lack of love for the other party, and therefore, a lack of true love for God.
In the same letter, he goes on to say something about how this focus on right doctrine created a void among the people whom he was fighting with.
I have been thinking and thinking: can you think of any American who has written really deep devotional literature? And can you think of anyone in our separationist movement in America who has written devotional literature that really is deep in its contact with the heart? When you read Bonar, Murray, and so on, there is an impact that one never forgets. I wonder who among our men has written anything even looking in this direction.
For Schaeffer, spiritual leadership was comprised of two things. First, spiritual leadership maintained a neutral outlook on leadership itself. If God gave it, accept it, but do not believe you are ready for it on your own terms. God will give it—or he won’t—based on his will alone. It is only the open-hearted man before God who can lead God’s people to God’s Promised Land. Second, spiritual leadership held closely to gospel doctrine without forsaking gospel culture. The devotional life was not something one gets to in the course of life as a leader; it is the life of the leader. One way we can tell where our allegiance really lies—in the pursuit of being right or in the pursuit of God’s glory—is the amount of devotional literature, preaching, thinking, and talking that rises from our midst. If the heart is deadened to God, even if the theology is technically correct, it is a dead orthodoxy.
God did not only put the bones back in order as Ezekiel stood there in that dry valley. He also brought the wind, bringing resurrection life where death reigned. Where is the wind in our day? Let’s ask God for an increase.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/ded2cd74ada413c7-image-asset-NnvGcYmT99NvmKCA0PlxkgKK8Skl06.jpeg\")
Photo by Kyle Johnson on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nGenesis 22 is one of the great pieces of literature in history—not only one of the great pieces of biblical literature but of any literature. It is the climax of the relationship between God and Abraham. Ten chapters after his call, Abraham is asked to sacrifice his son whom God promised to give, the one who was to be a blessing to the world, the one through whom the ultimate Promised One would come. But here God is asking him to take this son and sacrifice him. He’s asking Abraham to remove the most important person on the planet. This is no minor story in the biblical plotline. This is a major event reaching deep into God’s promises and far into the future of mankind.
This chapter isn’t easy to read. One thinks of the difficulty of Abraham’s obedience. God calls with this remarkable command, and Abraham begins to obey immediately. It’s hard to believe we would have acted so quickly had God called us. But one also thinks of the offense of God’s command. Why would God tell his faithful servant to do such a heinous thing? What good could come from this? And then one thinks of the relationships surrounding the whole affair. Isaac is old enough to understand what’s going on. He realizes on his way up the mountain that the lamb for the offering is missing. Where would it come from? If Abraham goes through with the deed, what will he tell Sarah, his wife whom God provided for even after her laughing unbelief? How are the servants along for the journey to understand what Abraham has done? Would they continue on with him, or find in him something too repulsive to keep him alive on the journey home? And what of God’s goodness? How does one uphold the character of God in this? So many question swirl in the mind of the one who has read this passage carefully.
Thankfully, we have the entire canon of Scripture from which we can draw upon when reading such difficult passages. We can walk into the passage with the knowledge of God’s goodness, of his grace and mercy, of his steadfast love and faithfulness. But we can also walk into the passage with a fuller understanding of humanity. We know our need for forgiveness. We understand, at least as much as we are able, the impact of our sin on the relationship between God and man. We understand that the sacrificial system is God’s mercy in providing a way for man to come near to God again, to be reconciled to him. And so when we approach this passage, we bring with us the knowledge that the firstborn always belongs to God, and Isaac was the firstborn of Abraham and Sarah. As Abraham responded to God’s command, he understood it in the light of the sacrificial system. In particular, of the firstborn claim of God. Abraham was not, as we are prone to believe, following a line of thinking coming from left field. He was following the orders of the God who in mercy provided atonement from sins through a bloody sacrifice on an altar before him. Abraham was following God’s established priestly functions, not following a wild hair disconnected from all he knew of God.
The narrative flows quickly in the first five verses. Abraham hears God’s call, responds immediately, and begins his journey to Moriah and one of the mountains of which God would reveal to him later. But in verse six, the narrative slows down. The tension builds. The emotions are high. Abraham and Isaac begin their ascent up the mountain, as Abraham says in verse five, to worship the Lord.
Abraham lays the wood on Isaac his son—a foreshadowing of another Son who would carry wood up a nearby mountain. He takes the knife and the fire himself, as Tim Keller points out, he takes the dangerous stuff for himself. Abraham is not looking for a way out of this call. If he was, it would make sense to let the boy carry the knife or the fire. Perhaps he’d stumble on the way up and the job would be done for him. This only proves that Abraham did not receive this as a call to murder but to sacrifice. This is not something to be rushed and ended quickly. It is something to be done carefully and worshipfully.
That doesn’t mean Abraham has all the answers. He’s not sure how this will turn out. As they’re walking, Isaac asks his father, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham receives his son’s question and responds as honestly as he can. “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” There is tenderness in the response, perhaps mournfully so. The truth is, Abraham doesn’t know how God will provide. The Hebrew text points to this. It’s as if Abraham is saying, “We will have to see what God will do, but we know he’ll do something.” Abraham doesn’t have all the answers to the future, but he has enough trust in God to know whatever happens will work out for good.
Here is the wonder of this passage. The Bible doesn’t record a conversation between Isaac and Abraham anywhere else. This passage is all we have. We know Abraham loved Isaac. How could he not? He waited a lifetime to receive him. He was the one through whom God’s promise in the world was to continue. He was as dear to him as your son or daughter is to you. Isaac’s question must have been agonizing.
We learn in Hebrews 11:17-19 at least some of Abraham’s mindset as he scaled the mountain. “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.” Abraham’s trust in God was big enough to include resurrection.
In the end, Isaac is spared. God does provide a sacrifice for himself. A ram is caught in a thicket. Issac is unbound and the ram is laid upon the altar. Isaac was not an idol in Abraham’s heart any longer. God alone was worshiped there. Abraham’s obedience leads the angel of the Lord to say, “Now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” Abraham and Isaac did worship on that mountain. But they only could because one day another Father led his Son up that same mountain range.
This story is not so much about how a faithful man follows God. It is far more about how a faithful God provides for his people. Tim Keller helps us see this in a profound passage in his book Counterfeit Gods.
This famous incident was also about something that Abraham could not see, or at least not see very well in his time. Why had Isaac not been sacrificed? This sins of Abraham and his family were still there. How could a holy and just God overlook them? Well, a substitute was offered, a ram. But was it the ram’s blood that took away the debt of the firstborn? No.
Many years later, in those same mountains, another firstborn son was stretched out on the wood to die. But there on Mount Calvary, when the beloved son of God cried, “My God, my God—why hast thou forsaken me?” there was no voice from heaven announcing deliverance. Instead, God the Father paid the price in silence. Why? The true substitute for Abraham’s son was God’s only Son, Jesus, who died to bear our punishment…
God saw Abraham’s sacrifice and said, “Now I know that you love me, because you did not withhold your only son from me.” But how much more can we look at his sacrifice on the Cross, and say to God, “Now, we know that you love us. For you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love, from us.” When the magnitude of what he did dawns on us, it makes it possible finally to rest our hearts in him rather than in anything else.
Jesus alone makes sense of this story. The only way that God can be both “just” (demanding payment of our debt of sin) and “justifier” (providing salvation and grace) is because years later another Father went up another “mount” called Calvary with his firstborn and offered him there for us all. You will never be as great, as secure in God, as courageous, as Abraham became simply by trying hard, but only by believing in the Savior to whom this event points. Only if Jesus lived and died for us can you have a God of infinite love and holiness at once. Then you can be absolutely sure he loves you.
In the story of the sacrifice of Isaac, we see something of the heart of God for his people. Abraham's faithfulness takes us into God's faithfulness. God has always been the provider for his people, and in this story, we see his provision to us. He preserved Isaac. And generations later, because Isaac was saved on that mountain, Jesus came to walk up his mountain and lay his life on the altar for us all.
Today's blog post kicks it to another great blogging platform, Gospel-Centered Discipleship, where I have an article reflecting on one of Jonathan Edwards' resolutions. While you're there, check out some other great articles and consider subscribing to receive new content as it's published.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/b62687141e2df1aa-image-asset-be33tQ3N1jkNbAksLpkkwZbnLyCGpY.jpeg\")
Photo by Alina Grubnyak on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nSince then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:14-16
The author of Hebrews presents the mercy of Jesus as a reason to trust him. Just before, in 3:6-4:13, his aim was to call us to stick with Jesus. Now, in 4:14-16, his aim is to show us how Jesus sticks with us.
These three verses hold some of the richest descriptions of the priesthood of Jesus in all the Bible. He is a great high priest in heaven (v. 14) who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses (v. 15). He has been tempted as we are in every respect yet without sin (v. 15). Through him, we can draw near to God’s throne of grace where we can receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need (v. 16).
Because of this, we have something unheard of in the Old Testament. We have a sinless priest who is able to make the perfect sacrifice to end all sacrifices. Though he was tempted, he never sinned. Therefore, he is able to help us whenever we need him. He’s ready at all times. He has no need to cleanse himself first.
But this raises an important question. If Jesus never sinned, how is it possible he can sympathize with us? If he hasn’t experienced the bitter taste, how does he know the sweetness he must apply? Doesn’t it take someone who has “been there” to sympathize with those who are there? How does a sinless Christ help us in our temptation?
In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis helps us answer that question.
“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”
It is the one who goes the distance that knows how hard the race is. The iron-man has far more help to offer than the piddler. The one who stood against the temptations of the world knows how strong they are. A sinless Christ knows more about sin than the sinner who gives in every time. He’s faced the full wind and stood until the end. He’s seen the end while so many have only seen the first few steps. Jesus tried very hard to be good, and his victory in goodness is our hope in sin.
So here’s how that changes your life. You know those moments when you’re giving into temptation? Those moments when you’re in the midst of sin and you surprise even yourself? What do you do at that moment? Here’s what we tend to do. We tend to put off repentance. We feel too guilty. We think Jesus will cleanse us afterward but not during. And we beat ourselves up, and we work ourselves into guilt. We might go and confess our sin to a brother in Christ. Then, at some point, we get around to asking God’s forgiveness. But that’s not the kind of help Jesus is offering here. It’s more instant than that.
Those moments of awareness in the midst of our sin – those moments where we are surprised by our actions or thoughts – are moments of grace from the throne. Here’s what we can do at that moment. We can cry out to Jesus to save us! Notice the words of verse 16, “that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” When is our time of need? Is it not when we’re in the midst of need? Doesn’t that include sin?
Think of a soldier at war. He needs help not at the point of recovery from the battle only, but also in the midst of battle. He needs another gunner to take out the enemy that he can’t see. He needs a friend that sticks close. He needs an ally to fight for him. When a soldier cries out in war, he is not ignored. When you cry out in sin, you are not ignored. Jesus is there with you in your need, not only before or after the need. Help is help only when it comes on time. Jesus is never late.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/aa3e1317b823f82b-bible-study-YTgKg0rcG3v6MPbtm3uVcNS8gTQ2Ra.jpg\")
\n \n\n2017 is behind us. 2018 is ahead of us. Every new year brings an opportunity to look back at what God did in the past and to look forward to what he will do in the future. And as we stand on that mountain, knowing what we’ve traveled so far and wondering what adventures lie ahead, we do so with the knowledge that God alone is unchanging—he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Just as every morning brings new mercies, every year brings new mercies as well. We get a fresh start, as it were, a new set of downs, another chance to renew our walk with God.
And for many, a new year brings another opportunity to read through the Bible. At Refuge Church, we welcome that opportunity with open arms.
At our Christmas Eve service, we announced a plan to read through the Bible together during 2018. Everyone received a guide taking them chapter by chapter, day by day, through God’s word. And now we’re four days into our journey.
Why make this a point of emphasis? Our church launched in August of 2016. We don’t have a lot of programs. We meet weekly for corporate worship, in small groups throughout the week in homes, and offer a few Bible studies throughout the week. In a sense, we don’t have much to “offer.” That’s by design. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to grow spiritually. In fact, we desire deeply that everyone in our church grows nearer to the Lord each day, thus our journey through the Bible. So what can we do with the little we have? We can read what God has given us.
Reading the Bible in a year is not a spiritual benchmark whereupon those crossing the finish line arrive at a new spiritual plane. It is not the indication that one is more serious about Christ than any other Christian. It is, however, one endeavor that a church can embark upon to move corporately toward a goal of growth. Not everyone in our church will stick with it. Not everyone will even begin. But we’re hoping a large majority will both begin and persevere, and we aim to help along the way.
One way we aim to help is by altering one of our Bible studies to align with the reading plan. Each week, I will choose a passage from the week’s reading and we will study it together during our regular Bible study time. That means in the coming weeks we will study a few passages from Leviticus. In a few months, we will find ourselves in the midst of Job. We will dig into the treasures of the Psalms. We will consider the strange words of the minor prophets. We will make our way to Paul’s epistles. We’ll navigate the weirdness of Revelation. We’ll see all the parts of the Bible, and that will be good for us.
Reading the Bible is not easy. Certain portions are hard to understand. Some are hard to read. Some, honestly, feel flat-out boring, mostly because we’ve never learned to read them properly. But when read and studied together, they become more approachable. Others see what we can’t. It takes the whole body working together.
So, beginning this week and continuing throughout the year, we will sharpen our pencils and study the Bible together. We’ll make connections across verses, turn over words to find treasures underneath, follow lines of thought to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and rejoice in the God who reveals himself to us. We will journey through the Bible together, not because it gains us any amount of righteousness but because it leads us to our Righteousness.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/30b7e0af29ff7b9f-image-asset-VQexN1NKtmYeL1gq88Hh5PsqocgnK7.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIt's the time of year for lists. Here are the best books I read in 2017 as well as the rest I read throughout the year, categorized, but in no particular order.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/0f758b8ddfc8de2d-image-asset-2FxcbWp95KjyqDrgcGsLtWOVgixGcM.jpeg\")
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\n“After making purification for sins he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
- Hebrews 1:3
Hebrews makes a big deal about Jesus being our High Priest. Sin dirties us in the sight of God. And if we are to be with the holy, pure God, we cannot waltz into his presence as we are. We must be cleansed. And God’s appointed way for cleansing is through the shedding of blood by the priestly sacrifices.
In the Old Testament, a priest would sprinkle the blood of a spotless lamb on the altar symbolizing that the blood of perfection must be shed for the forgiveness of sins. But the blood of an imperfect animal could never bring about the kind of cleansing we need. Man’s sin requires man’s blood. But if we shed our blood for all our sins, how can we live? We can’t! Our sin is too great. One sin against God is worthy of eternal damnation. How could we ever pay for all the sins we’ve committed?
Well, we can’t. But Jesus can. And at Christmas, Jesus became the only person ever born on a mission to die. He became the only priest to ever walk the road of a sacrificial lamb.
He lived the perfect life on our behalf, obeying God every step of the way. And when he reached the end, he obeyed to the point of death on a cross. He set aside all his rights as God and God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus did not die because he was sinful. Jesus died because we were sinful. He was spotless. We were stained. He was our sacrifice. We are the forgiven.
By his single offering, Jesus perfected us for all time, making purification for sins by his blood. What Christmas began, the cross ended.
And after the finished work of the cross, Jesus sat down in the presence of God! Old Testament priests never sat down in God’s presence. The work was never finished. More sin always needed forgiving. But in Christ, all the sin of all God’s people was forgiven once for all. And he sat down. There is no question about your salvation if you are his.
And just as important as his sitting is the place of his sitting. When he finished, Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high—the spot of exaltation—to rule the universe.
And what’s more amazing is he isn’t sitting there as a spirit. Even in death, Jesus never gave up his body. Jesus’ resurrection was a bodily resurrection. He rose in the same kind of glorified body he will one day give all believers in the great and final day of the resurrection. That means there is a God-Man ruling the universe, and his name is Jesus, the one who came so long ago to save his people from their sins.
No one will vote him out and no one will overthrow him. He’s secure. And if you’re in Christ, you are as secure as he is. How's that for a Christmas present?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/77b50bd94f001649-image-asset-yavjOdPInNg2hkFiZNf5LcUfjtPofp.jpeg\")
\n \n\nGospel doctrine creates gospel culture. As the gospel message goes out, a community around Jesus Christ is formed. When God joins his word with his people, he gives power to the church as an outpost of the kingdom of heaven. Ray Ortlund puts it simply:
Gospel doctrine - gospel culture = hypocrisy
Gospel culture - gospel doctrine = fragility
Gospel doctrine + gospel culture = power
Of the two, gospel doctrine is easier. It’s easier to learn the words than to be formed by them. It’s easier to recite the message than to reconcile to your brother. But both are needed. When gospel doctrine is joined with gospel culture, God's power shines forth. Francis Schaeffer understood this as well. In his book, The Church At the End of the Twentieth Century, he explains the power of L’Abri.
It’s a costly business to have a sense of community. L’Abri cannot be explained merely by the clear doctrine that is preached; it cannot be explained by the fact that God has been giving intellectual answers to intellectual questions. I think those two things are important, but L’Abri cannot be explained if you remove the third. And that is, there has been some community here. And it has been costly.
In about the first three years of L’Abri all our wedding presents were wiped out. Our sheets were torn. Holes were burned in our rugs. Indeed once a whole curtain almost burned up from somebody smoking in our living room. Blacks came to our table. Orientals came to our table. Everybody came to our table. What happened at L’Abri could not have happened any other way.
You see, you don’t need a big program. You don’t have to convince your session or board. All you have to do is open your home and begin. And there is no place in God’s world where there are no people who will come and share a home as long as it is a real home…
If you have been married for years and years and had a home or even a room and none of this has ever occurred, if you have been quiet especially as our culture is crumbling around us, if this is so – do you really believe that people are going to hell? And if you really believe that, how can you stand and say, “I have never paid the price to open my living space and do the things that I can do on my own level?”
I have a question about in my mind about us as evangelicals. We fight the liberals when they say there is no hell. But do we really believe people are going to hell?
Community is a costly business. But someone must pay the cost. Why not you? Why not me? If we want to make a big impact on our world, why not get in the risky business of building community? Why not take the gospel seriously enough to let it impact the way we relate to one another? Why not reach out to reconcile? Why not open up your home to welcome? Why not rearrange your schedule to be free for those who need friendships?
What could God do if we used 2018 to reach out beyond social media to the real persons behind the avatars? It would be costlier, yes. But it would be more beautiful and more satisfying. And, in the end, it may be the thing that God uses to bring revival.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/030116dbf1be6640-image-asset-qI8ayaoqB3eYEN51L3ws4PBohzb1uP.jpeg\")
Photo by Dariusz Sankowski on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nIn Matthew 25, Jesus tells the story of a man going on a journey. As he departs, he entrusts talents to three servants. To the first, he gives five talents. To the second, two talents. To the third, one talent. Each was given talents according to their ability. Then he went away. When he returned after a long time, he came to settle accounts with the servants and to see who had done what with his stewardship. The servant entrusted with five talents made five more. The servant with two talents made two more. The servant with one talent made no more, for he buried his in the ground. The master rewarded the two servants who worked. The one who buried his talent was cast out.
God has entrusted each of us with a talent. But not all our talents are the same. He gives according to our ability. Our ability is dependent not on us, but on him. He made us who we are. He gave us what we have. He placed us in our time, place, and season. But no matter who we are or what we have or where we may be, God has entrusted something to us. What shall we do with it? That is the question to which we must find the answer. All our hopes and dreams must circle that stewardship.
The first step is to think through what we have. This first step is limiting because taking inventory is always defined by what we have right now. It’s not focused on the future, and it doesn’t dwell on the past. The purpose is to see what you have at this moment.
The second step is to take those answers to step one and ask a further question: What must you start doing?
The third step is more difficult. What must you stop doing?
The fourth step is harder still. What dreams must die so that others may live?
The fifth (and final) step is easier but riskier. Start doing.
Hannah Anderson, in her book Humble Roots, has helpful insight. She talks about the moment when she made a commitment to becoming a writer.
“I wasn’t trying to earn my freedom; I just wanted to use my freedom well. And through the process I resolved the following:
You, too, have resources at your disposal. They may not be many or public, but you have them. And no matter how small, no matter how few, God intends for you to use them. He intends for you to become a humble, resourceful person, first by receiving His gifts with gratitude and then by cultivating them for the good of those around you.
But in His wisdom, He’s crafted the world in such a way that you can’t do this apart from Him. You will regularly have to take risks, you will regularly feel pressed past your abilities, you will regularly feel like the husk of your life is being broken open and your seeds scattered to the wind. But this is exactly how He means to teach you humility. This is exactly how He means to relieve you of your burden of guilt and self-reliance. Just as you must accept your resources as good gifts from Him, you must accept that you cannot cultivate them apart from Him. The very process is meant to teach you dependence.”
If we are to ever step out of our wondering and into God’s light, we must be willing to do two things constantly. We must be willing to acknowledge and thank him for the gifts he’s given (even if they don’t look like gifts at the moment). We must also be willing to take a risk and step into the unknown, trusting that our Father is with us because he’s promised he will be.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/fbec386fa37d2342-work-QoQYgURXWhf0lJbFYEFBrGwowkMBeq.jpg\")
Photo by Jordan Whitfield on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nThe default assumption I bring to my relationship with God is that he loves me for what I do. I bet you assume the same thing, too. But where did this idea come from? I have three sons and each one of them was lovely in my eyes from the moment I knew they existed. As soon as the news came that my wife was pregnant, I loved a person that had not yet done anything good or bad. I loved a boy who would grow into a man with the love of a father—deep, unconditional, proud. I loved them before they could smile, before they could hug me, before I could even hug them!
But when I think about God, I assume that he loves me based on what I do, not merely for who I am. And that assumption is a lie.
That assumption makes sense to me. I’ve grown up in the world where nearly every relationship is transactional. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. I like your Instagram picture, you like mine. I retweet your tweet, you retweet mine. I buy your product, you buy mine. On and on it goes. We know it’s empty but it’s the way the world works. And when we come to God, we bring the same credit card system. I use you and gain points. You provide a benefit I wouldn’t otherwise have, and at the end of the year, I pay it all off and we’re even steven.
That’s not Christianity.
Of course, this isn’t the theology I ascribe to verbally. It’s not what I’d tell you I believe. I’d tell you I believe that I’m saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from all my works. And that is what I believe. But what I believe as truth isn’t always what I live as truth, and that’s why grace is what it is. Grace is a covering for me even when I’m unable to understand how God saves me.
You can see how this is problematic, can’t you? If I believe God loves me for what I do, what happens when I fail to do what I should? Where is God's love then? What happens when I should have known what to do and I didn’t? Now time has passed and I can’t travel back to the place of my ignorance. What happens then, when the failures of yesterday come calling at my door today? What happens when the failures of years ago come calling at my door in a year from now? If I am loved based on my doing, I’m unloved based on my not doing. I have a big problem. I’m stuck in a place of constant turmoil and deep unrest. I’m tossing and turning like the sea headed for the shore, only to crash and be swept back out. I never find home. I never settle. I never stop moving. And in the end, no matter how hard I try, I’m one storm away from doing it all over again.
But that’s not Christianity.
Christianity is not about my doing. It’s not about my perfection. It’s about Christ’s doing. It’s about his perfection.
When I’m focused on my doing rather than Christ’s doing, I don’t have a problem with God, I have a problem with me. God is not against me. I’m against myself. When I begin believing that God can’t love me because I’ve failed to live as I should, I’m living in the wrong kind of fear. I’m living in the fear of condemnation when Jesus has already taken it for me. I’m living in the fear of damnation when Jesus already descended to hell on my behalf. I’m living in the fear of abandonment when Christ has already reconciled me to God. What I should be doing is living in the fear of the Lord—an awe-filled wonder and reverence for him. But I’m doing the opposite.
So what is my path forward?
Tish Harrison Warren writes in her book Liturgy of the Ordinary, “Christ didn’t redeem my life theoretically or abstractly—the life I dreamed of living or the life I think I ideally should be living. He knew I’d be in today as it is, in my home where it stands, in my relationships with their specific beauty and brokenness, in my particular sins and struggles.”
The salvation of God is not theoretical or abstract any more than it is merit-based. God’s love isn’t contingent on my doing any more than my love for my sons is contingent on their doing. God’s love is true love—boundless love.
My four-year-old son understands this. He came home the other day and told my wife that he heard about Luke (his namesake) in the Jesus Storybook Bible at school. My wife asked what he did in the story. Luke said, “Nothing. Just sit around.” My wife replied, “Did Jesus love Luke?” Luke answered, “Yes.”
Jesus loved a man named Luke who, according to my son Luke, just sat around. Isn’t that amazing? My son’s understanding of the love of God is not based on action. Why is mine? I know more theology than he does! Ah, but he's a child, with the faith of a child.
Of course, the biblical Luke did lots of things. One of those things was writing two major books of the Bible. He traveled with Paul. He was a good historian. He was a good physician. He was a good storyteller. But none of that made him lovable in God’s eyes. In fact, Luke—like my Luke, like me, like you—was lovable (perhaps most lovable) when he was sitting around listening to the gospel and believing. He was lovable when he wasn’t doing anything because the only doing that matters, in the end, is the doing that Jesus did and does.
God loves his children just as I love my children. Actually, no. It’s not quite the same. His love is deeper, wider, and bigger than mine. Why do I doubt it? Because, like my glasses after my two-year-old gets a hold of them, my lenses are smudged. I need some Holy Spirit cleansing.
That’s Christianity—God cleansing us, removing our doing and not-doing with his doing and done, replacing our failure with his success. And my path forward is a return backward to the love of God seen in the cross of Christ, which pushes me forward to the sustaining love of God in the resurrection of Christ. I'm covered in grace from front to back. If you're in Christ, so are you.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/022b45cff31e3c46-universe-1j5gZxi2crW0wP6KkttiPK6eUMkTxE.jpg\")
Photo by Tyler van der Hoeven on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nA little over seven years ago, one phrase in the first chapter of the book of Hebrews grabbed my attention. “He upholds the universe by the word of his power.” Seven years later, I still don’t know exactly what that means. My mind is too small to grasp it all. How does Jesus uphold the universe by the word of his power? The NIV puts it, “sustaining all things by his powerful word.” That’s good but less majestic. King James says, “upholding all things by the word of his power.” Nearly the same as the ESV but, still, for as wonderfully poetic as the King James is, this still feels less other-worldly to me. It’s not just all things Jesus upholds. It’s the universe, and that word lifts me up above mere things into the cosmos. When thinking of such glory, we should rise so high.
Jesus is the one who upholds the universe.
What does it mean that Jesus upholds the universe? It means he’s got the whole world in his hands. He’s got the itty bitty baby in his hands. He’s got you and me brother in his hands. He’s got you and me sister in his hands. He’s got the whole world in his hands. All things included. The depths of the earth, the heights of the mountains, the valleys of the ocean, the brightness of the stars, the warmth of our sun and all others. Every planet, every comet, every galaxy swirl in his great, big, giant palms. Every tear of every child he bottles, keeping count of their tossings, one day to wipe every tear from their face with the hands that uphold the world and everything in it. He’s got the whole world in his hands, down to the tears our sorrows produce.
This upholding is not a mere Atlas-holding-the-world-on-his-shoulders statuesque model. It is softer, more flexible, flowing through the ages, going where it will, where it must. The NIV’s “sustaining” is the true meaning of the ESVs “upholding.” It’s an upholding that both supports and sustains. It’s an active upholding. As Chrysostom said, “a greater work than that of creation.” Bringing something into existence is one thing. Upholding and sustaining is quite another. One can be finished and left. One is finished yet never finished. And the only work Jesus is finished with is the finished work of the cross. Everything else is ongoing, constant, to the uttermost of time and season. Jesus rests from his atoning work, but not from his upholding work. He rests from the troubled breaths of the cross in his humanity, but not from the life-giving breaths of the savior is his divinity.
Charles Spurgeon warns us to “shade our eyes, for you cannot look upon this wondrous sight without being dazzled by it.” Dazzled! What last dazzled you? Do you even dazzle anymore? Children do. My two-year-old does nothing else. He’s continually dazzled. And the author means for us to be continually dazzled by this phrase. Jesus is so far above, so majestically glorious, that all the adverbs and adjectives in the world, should they be written about him, would with ink the ocean fill.
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Dazzling, to be sure.
Jesus is the one who upholds the universe…by the word of his power. Oh, the powerful word of Christ! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5)
If it were not for the upholding, sustaining power of Jesus the world would fail. As John Calvin said, “All things would instantly come to nothing, were they not sustained by his power.” Christ upholds all things such that not one molecule fails to do it’s appointed task. Not one ant goes off course. Not one leaf withers and falls out of place. He upholds all things well.
And since he upholds such small things, he therefore also upholds such big things. He also, as Spurgeon reminds us, upholds me and you as well. “Surely, if Christ upholds all things He can uphold me. If the word of His power upholds earth and heaven, surely, that same word can uphold you, poor trembling heart, if you will trust him.”
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/55dc4f60237421cb-robinson-OXknen1B2w3SYzsipBavxqp3wEXocE.jpg\")
\n \n\nI like to keep a reading list of broad topics. One such topic is sports. I love watching sports. I used to love playing them until I grew old and out of shape. And now, as happens when you become older, I suppose, I enjoy reading about them too.
Recently, I’ve been reading through Jack McCallum’s book Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry Charles, and the greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever. Aside from the title being as long as one from Jonathan Edwards, it’s a pretty good book. It takes you inside the selection of the 1992 US Men’s Olympic Basketball team, considered by, well, everyone to be the greatest team ever assembled. Looking back now, it’s amazing that such iconic players crossed paths. Michael Jordan was a bonafide superstar. He was hands-down the best player on the planet. (I know many argue for Lebron James’s place atop that list now, but no one played like Jordan. No one.) Magic Johnson was fresh off his HIV diagnosis and in a weird “I am retired but might come back” commitment to the NBA. Larry Bird was at the tail-end of his hall of fame career. Charles Barkley was young and slim, but still as free with his mouth as he is now. Those four players take center stage throughout this book, as well they should. They were the faces of the team. (Barkley less so, though now we see more of him than any of the others.)
But the team was comprised of twelve players. Aside from Michael, Magic, Larry, and Charles, the team included Karl Malone, Christian Laettner, John Stockton, Patrick Ewing, Scottie Pippen, Clyde Drexler, Chris Mullin, and David Robinson. As a team, they’re Hall of Famers, being inducted in Springfield in 2010. Individually, all but Laettner are in the Hall, though he is a member of the Collegiate Hall of Fame. Three of the four coaches are in enshrined. To say the least, this was a very good team. To say the most, no team will ever top it.
Personality was not at a premium on this team. We all know about Barkley’s loud-mouth ways, but nearly everyone else was full of it too. The exception being, seemingly, David Robinson. By 1992, Robinson was a Christian, having come to Christ a year earlier. As such, he was a bit of an outsider on the team. Robinson certainly deserved his spot. He was one of the best centers in the league. No one questioned that. His physicality and smarts provided a huge advantage to Team USA.
I found McCallum’s chapter on Robinson’s faith to be a pleasant surprise. Though McCallum isn’t a Christian and therefore doesn’t understand what really makes Robinson tick, I think he did a good job presented him fairly. I knew Robinson was a Christian. I remember admiring his game alongside Tim Duncan with the Spurs, and I remember when he retired after winning it all in 2003. But I had forgotten about him as the years went on. In his retirement, Jordan went back into the basketball business, buying teams. Magic went into all kinds of businesses, buying stakes in the Lakers and Dodgers. Barkley went on TV and is one part of the most entertaining show on television as a member of Inside the NBA. Laettner reappears every March, sinking that last second shot, to the chagrin of my fellow University of Kentucky fans. The rest have found their place in life, mostly away from the spotlight, like Stockton, who moved home to Spokane, Washington.
David Robinson did something different. After his retirement in 2003, he started a school, The Carver Academy, in San Antonio, named after George Washington Carver, the once slave-turned entrepreneur. Carve was a scientist and botanist who invented a way to use alternative crops to cotton, helping poor farmers grow both a food source and a money-maker at the same time. Robinson named the school after Carver with the vision of helping the underprivileged in a poor area of San Antonio. But Robinson didn’t just start it. He funded it—to the tune of $10 million. It wasn’t a financial investment. It was a monetary gift and investment in the kids who benefited. That’s the kind of guy Robinson is. He’s different. He’s a Christian, and what he does with his money is outside of what the other Dream Teamers did with theirs. (He did, however, buy a small stake in the Spurs, which he still owns.)
Robinson’s initial funding of the school was only the start. He was involved in the day-to-day. McCallum writes, “The vast majority of his time and money go to Carver. He and his wife, Valerie, have put in additional millions as the school has flourished, and Robinson continues to spend the majority of his waking hours keeping the school humming, raising money for scholarships and facility upgrades, supervising curriculum, hiring and firing, traveling to conferences—all those day-to-day things that define the lives of most of us, though generally not the lives of Hall of Fame athletes.”
Robinson went on to start Admiral Capital Group with the goal of creating a platform to make an impact on the broader community. In a 2014 Forbes Magazine interview he said, “It was a way to sustain the work I was doing in San Antonio, but also allowed me to work with other communities. It also presented a new and exciting challenge in a new field. I was interested in learning more about the world of finance, how it worked, how it impacted different people. I also knew that to make a bigger impact, I would need to have a strong, profitable and sustainable business with the right partners. I had the opportunity to start a business with a close friend and board member of The Carver Academy, Dan Bassichis, someone I trusted and who shared my passion for helping the community.”
He goes on to say, “The community and social impact is at the heart of Admiral Capital. Dan and I initially started it with a commitment to using at least 10% of our profits to support Carver and other community projects. Additionally, our goal is use every asset we invest in to create opportunities for lower income communities and to support education.”
Interviewer Dan Schawbel asked Robinson his top three career tips, and Robinson responded with this. “1. Honor God with your first fruits. 2. Do the very best you can at everything you do and take pride in your work. 3. Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.”
You can read the rest of the interview here.
Obviously, Robinson’s faith has had an impact. He’s lived his life out of the grace he’s experienced in the gospel. Robinson spent fourteen years in the NBA, all with the San Antonio Spurs. He was the Rookie of the Year, a ten-time All-Star, a two time NBA champion, an NBA MVP in 1994-1995, a ten-time All-NBA player, a Hall of Famer, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and a member of the greatest team to ever take the court, the 1992 USA Men’s Basketball team, the Dream Team.
But basketball dreams aside, Robinson is now making dreams come true for other people. What does that say about him? What does it say about the Dream Team of which he was apart? That’s the question Jack McCallum asked in his book. Here’s his answer.
“Robinson was sometimes an afterthought, too, on that immortal team, whose members admired his athleticism, his grace, and his integrity but didn’t know him particularly well, and who talked about how basketball wasn’t his passion, how his success was due to the accident of his astounding genetic composition.
“But twenty years later, as the greatness of the 192 Olympic gold medalists becomes more and more a flicking light in history, I think that Robinson might be the truest Dream Teamer, a gentle and complex man from two worlds who lived the dream and, through the power of his own sweat and blood and faith, now gives a dream to others.”
David Robinson was a basketball player—and a really great one. But Robinson’s life was bigger than basketball, and when it was over, he passed the baton to his friend Tim Duncan and got to work making dreams come true for others.
So, yeah. David Robinson might be the truest Dream Teamer. After all, isn’t the purpose of dreams to reach beyond this world into another?
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/2ae2a43b2d015d92-two-ways-Xr5hwSSfF3Xj01EIaHEMahBkQeFleO.jpg\")
Photo by Pablo Garcia Saldaña on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\n21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,
“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than those of the one who has a husband.”
28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
Galatians 4:21-31
Sin makes us illogical. It muddies our mind, causing us to choose things contrary to the right path. Paul highlights this lack of logic in selecting the law over Christ. This passage is difficult to understand because Paul is using allegory. He’s looking back into the Old Testament and finding the hidden meaning in this story. Hagar was an Egyptian slave of Abraham. Sarah was the rightfully married wife of Abraham. There is a stark contrast between the two sons they bear.
Hagar Sarah
Ishmael Isaac
Slave Free
“According to the flesh” “Through the promise”
Old Covenant New Covenant
Mount Sinai Mount Zion
Present Jerusalem Heavenly Jerusalem
In these contrasts, Paul is showing the difference between associating ourselves with the law vs. the gospel. Hagar was part of Abraham’s house as a slave, not as a recipient of the law. Sarah, however, was Abraham’s wife, one flesh with Abraham in the promise and, as the mother of the Jewish race, the eventual recipient of the law through her progeny. It is Hagar, however, whom Paul associates with the law rather than Sarah. Why is this? Paul aims to show the spiritual reality that lies underneath our attempts to take matters into our own hands. Paul’s point is less about the persons of Sarah and Hagar, or even Isaac and Ishmael. It is more about the calamity of what results when we take the reigns of our life. When we step into the promise God has made, hurrying it along to fulfillment, we undercut the glory and birth tragedy.
Remember the story. God promises Abraham and Sarah a son. But it feels to them as if God is taking too long. Rather than patiently waiting, as they’ve been doing, they decide it’s time to help God bring about the promise. Their mindset is, as Timothy George has pointed out, “the result of the outworking of the philosophy that God helps those who help themselves.”
Paul is showing us that whenever we believe we must help God achieve his promises, we ruin them. Whenever we step in with our ability, we step out of the place of blessing and into the place of destruction. We trade freedom for slavery. We must be careful how we treat the promises of God. We may treat them like a grand potential rather than a divine grace. This isn’t a slight deviation from faith, nor is it a truer definition of it. Rather, it is the repudiation of faith altogether. It’s our prideful conclusion that God needs us to bring about his divine purpose.
But God doesn't need our assistance to fulfill his promises. Abraham and Sarah's interference resulted in Ishmael, a child of the slave, the father of the Arab race, the opponent of God’s people. When Abraham and Sarah decided they’d help God do what God said he’d do, they undercut the promise and birthed a problem.
Therefore, when we believe adding our works to God’s grace gives us extra credit on his salvation test, our perfect score turns into a failing one. The gospel, if it shows us anything at all, proves God needs only himself to fulfill the promises. The only thing we add to the salvation story is the sin that makes it necessary, not the remedy that makes it achievable.
The false teachers in Galatia stand in a long line of works righteousness soldiers. They believed the same thing as the Jews in the days of John the Baptist. When John the Baptist appeared to prepare the way for Christ, he confronted the Jews, “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.” The Jews rested in their lineage, thinking an association was enough to save when it took a new birth altogether. It’s not physical lineage but spiritual lineage that matters. These Jews, thinking they were Isaac’s brothers were, in fact, Ishmael's.
The truth is, we are all either an Ishmael or an Isaac. We are either a child of slavery or a child of freedom. How we relate to God’s word determines which we are. If we, like Paul, hold to the gospel message as God himself first proclaimed it in the person of Jesus Christ, we are Isaac. But if we, like the false teachers, believe the gospel needs our works to gain full righteousness before God, we are Ishmael.
In Galatians 4, however, Paul isn’t talking primarily to the false teachers who were unwilling to throw off the law for grace. He was talking to the Isaacs of the church. The emphatic word in verse 28 is you. Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. Their identification with Isaac runs the full gamut. Not only are they inheritors of the promise, but they are also persecuted by those who aren’t. Ishmael troubled Isaac when he was a child. In adulthood, his progeny continued the persecuted. All the way down to the present day, Ishmael’s pestering influence is felt. But we know how the story turned out. We know where the place of blessing resides. It’s with the child of the promise, not the slave. We can expect the same treatment from Ishmael that Isaac received. Even so, we can also expect the same treatment from God Isaac received. We can live according to the flesh or through the promise. One is less costly here on Earth, but it houses all the promises of God for eternity. The world will hate us, but God will love us. Are we ok with that?
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/9db7cc728c96366c-image-asset-z02EmFnmYwXT5iDbR7nZFGt2PPEShY.jpeg\")
Photo by Cliff Johnson on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nWhere is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
1 Corinthians 1:20
“But where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
Man does not know its worth,
and it is not found in the land of the living.
The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’
and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’
It cannot be bought for gold,
and silver cannot be weighed as its price.
It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,
in precious onyx or sapphire.
Gold and glass cannot equal it,
nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal;
the price of wisdom is above pearls.
The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it,
nor can it be valued in pure gold.
“From where, then, does wisdom come?
And where is the place of understanding?
It is hidden from the eyes of all living
and concealed from the birds of the air.
Abaddon and Death say,
‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’
“God understands the way to it,
and he knows its place.
For he looks to the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
When he gave to the wind its weight
and apportioned the waters by measure,
when he made a decree for the rain
and a way for the lightning of the thunder,
then he saw it and declared it;
he established it, and searched it out.
And he said to man,
‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”
Job 28:12-28
As every age does, we search out wisdom apart from God. But we cannot find it. Until we turn away from evil and to God we never will.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/838ff0b5caa7a56d-vibes-OOYVFCdpK5nqt6k7OAYvwmFWKiozHE.jpg\")
Photo by MARK ADRIANE on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\n1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
1 John 4:1-6
There is a spirit behind every religious message. John tells us it’s either from God or from the Antichrist. What should we believe? That's such an important question, isn’t it? What we believe forms what we worship, and what we worship forms who we become. And John tells us not to believe every spirit.
But so many sound so good. For example, “Every religion is a valid path to God.”
We’re tempted to believe this because then we don’t have to preach about the need to come to Christ. We see people as generally good people, doing their best, so our mouth stays shut, thinking they’ll be fine in the end. But to keep our mouths shut and watch people follow a false spirit is to watch them die without Christ. It is like refusing oxygen to a diver in the depths of the sea or denying medicine to a sick child. No one is fine without Christ. He’s the only Savior.
Another example, the prosperity gospel: “God wants his children to be healthy, wealthy, and happy.”
We’re tempted to believe this because isn’t a life of prosperity is what we all want? My guess is most reading this deny the prosperity gospel as right doctrine, but do we functionally live as if it’s true? In other words, are you saying God is not some magical ATM dispensing healthy hearts, large paychecks, and buckets of smiles, yet living as if he does? When things go wrong, do you grow anxious, frustrated, angry, accusing God of not being good?
I think we are tempted to believe at least a version of the prosperity gospel more than we realize, especially here in America. I’m speaking broadly here, and also to myself, but too often, we want what we want, not what God wants. So we spend our money on material things in hope of attaining the good life while the things of God are given the standard monthly fee. But that’s a dangerous message to follow.
It’s not that God doesn’t want good things for us; he certainly does. The Bible says, “It’s your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” But what God defines as good is himself. Everything else just gets in the way.
Many eat false spirits like candy. They sound good. But we must be careful. Jesus warned us in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” We must always compare the version of the good life the false spirits offer with the glorious life Jesus offers. The candy coating makes it go down easy, but it’s poison inside.
Are you believing any false spirits today? What are you building your life on? Can you find it in the Bible? Do not believe every spirit.
This post is an adaptation of my sermon on 1 John 4:1-6 at Refuge Church in Franklin, TN. For more, visit www.refugechurchfranklin.com
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/e93f7f7401ad8be8-image-asset-iJv1rImGC9pR893ZxvcZNpGzH1F4I7.jpeg\")
Photo by Joshua Gresham on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nI want my kids to be good people. I want them to know right from wrong. I want them to stand up for the oppressed, the bullied, and the outcast. I want them to be influencers for good in the world. Doesn’t every parent want the same?
But as I teach my kids the Bible every night during dinner, I can’t help but see something troubling about who they will become. No matter what I do, how I shape them, what I say to them, they are on an inevitable path to becoming sinners who will fail to do that right thing and will enjoy doing the wrong thing. And I can’t do anything to stop it.
I can teach biblical values. I can pray for them to resist temptation and pursue righteousness. But I know they will sin. And that scares me because I understand how lousy sin tastes and how addictive it is. I know because I haven’t been able to stop sinning, and I never will this side of heaven.
It takes three chapters into the Bible before I have to explain what sin is. We can’t even get to the first biblical meal without temptation slithering into the Garden. We can’t see the first Edenic bite without the breaking of the relationship between God and man. The Lord expels Adam and Eve, and it gets worse from there.
I have to explain why one brother would murder another in chapter 4—to my three sons.
The world somehow worsens, and in Noah’s day, God sends a flood to remove all but one family. It takes no time for Noah to mess up once the waters reside, proving sin is eradicated only in the removal of humanity, not in the removal of bad humanity.
Some people then build a tower thinking they can reach God. I teach the boys about irony, as God comes down to see the creation in Babel. I explain how pride exalts, and that God will humble.
Genesis 1-11 shows us how God created the world, and how we messed up his creation. Genesis 12-50 shows us God’s plan for the world. I explain grace flowing from the heavens, mercy dripping from the throne, the everlasting arms underneath.
Then God calls Abram. We have another fresh start. But Abram isn’t spared from sin either. He carries it with him to the Promised Land, spewing it all over the place as he struggles to trust God’s goodness. He follows and falls and rises again on the wings of faith by the power of God to trust him once more. We have in him the first case study in the Christian life. And it’s messier than I wish it to be.
My boys listen and interact and respond. They understand sin is bad and God is good. They learn the path Abraham should have taken. Don’t go to Egypt. Stay in the land God provided. Refuse the riches of the world. Receive the priest’s blessing.
But they will commit their own sins. They already have, and more are on the way.
I can’t stop it.
It’s my fault.
It’s Abraham’s fault.
It’s Noah’s fault.
It’s Adam’s fault.
But it’s God’s plan.
I can’t reroute their sins to me.
I can’t undo the pain they’ve already felt.
I can’t remove the stain with which they were born.
But Jesus can.
So I point them to him, knowing that he’s the answer to all my desires for their goodness. He is their goodness.
I leave them in the only hands that can wash, praying for the flood of mercy that springs forth.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/cb4a249d07f34d15-ashamed-NjhB698hx0SZrLg0Oc2NFZWiQ553HB.jpg\")
Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nFor I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Romans 1:16-17
Francis Schaeffer said Romans is split into two sections: chapters 1-8 and chapters 9-16, and the key to understanding the first section is Romans 1:16-17. John Chrysostom summarized these verses this way, “It is the righteousness of God that is revealed here, not yours but God’s, a righteousness both abundant and easily accessible. For you do not receive it by toils and labors, but you receive it by a gift from above contributing one thing only from yourself, namely, ‘believing.’” If he is right, how could anyone be ashamed of the gospel? What else in the world has the power to change us so thoroughly simply by believing?
The gospel is a powerful message, but there are a lot of powerful messages in the world. What makes it unique? Michael Bird explains it this way, “The gospel is a speech-act, in that it not only announces the way of salvation, but actualizes salvation in those who hear it with faith. The same power of God manifested in raising the Son, in creation, in the divine acts of redemptive history, in keeping covenant promises, and in miraculous events is also infused into the gospel. The gospel manifests God’s death-defeating, curse-reversing, evil-vanquishing, devil-crushing, sin-cleansing, life-giving, love-forming, people-uniting, super- über-mega-grace power that results in ‘salvation.’” In short, the gospel is not only powerful in message but also powerful in action. Powered by God himself, the gospel does something even as it says something.
As powerful as the gospel is, we can somehow still become ashamed of it. That’s how deep our sin is. The very message that saved our soul is the same message that we can be embarrassed by. Jesus warned us about this. In Luke 9, Jesus tells us, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me… whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” We have a choice: embrace the shame of the cross, or become ashamed of the cross. In God’s Kingdom, laying down your life gives life back, and holding on to life takes it away. The choice seems obvious, but it must be made moment by moment.
How can we be ashamed of the gospel? Michael Bird gives us a brief list as a checkpoint:
The apostle Paul was proud of the gospel, but it did make him odd to the world. He didn't mind. Do we?
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/cc5cf9202372d64c-image-asset-n8pmRe8KNRiotMh9PeWSaAmxcMIXAj.jpeg\")
Photo by Jez Timms on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nJesus said one characteristic would set his people apart. “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). But love for one another isn’t an automatic. It’s a determination, a conviction, a pursuit, a calling. It’s the kind of thing you must set your mind upon, orient your heart toward, stiffen your spine for. Love is what everyone wants. But love, it turns out, isn’t something everyone’s good at. Love for oneself comes naturally. Love for others is learned.
My church meets together every Sunday, as Christians have done for centuries. We gather around for singing and listening, for praying and repenting, for fellowship and the breaking of bread. My church also meets together throughout the week in small groups, which we call Community Groups. Someone’s front door opens and a few saints cross the threshold into a place of openness and honesty before God and one another. Those rooms become the weekly experiments of love.
The apostle John remembered Jesus’ words in his letter of 1 John. He says in 4:7-12,
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. The motivation comes not from the idea of creating a better world, but from the Creator who made the world. Love for one another is not our idea. It’s God’s. It was not launched from the Beatles’ microphone: “love is all you need.” It was woven into the fabric of creation: “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” But no matter how many times John Lennon sings “Love, love, love,” we’re not good at it. We find reasons to dislike. We misinterpret glances. We hide in our shells of self-consciousness. For all the trust we have in love as the ultimate goal, our faith in it is as weak as a six-year-old’s front tooth. We wiggle it and upon the slightest movement, abandon the whole thing, fearing the fall-out, even if we know something stronger is coming right behind. We fear what love may do to us, through us, in us. So we hide. We side-step. We dip our toe in, maybe even get up to our knees. But to go head first is a scary proposition.
Since the moment love died in the Garden of Eden, it has been spreading its stench throughout the world. The winds picked it up and brought it on the crest of every storm. We who should be stewards of love, inventing new ways to bring life into one another, instead sit out in the rainfall of the world. Our umbrella is just inside, but we refuse to open it. After all, it feels so far away, better to wait it out by this point. We’re already wet, what’s one more drop?
But this is not the Christian life. The Christian life is a life of bold love. It is walking unmasked into the stench of death with the aroma of Christ. It is not easy. It is often painful. But it is the God-ordained way of the saint. It was Jesus’ path, and he’s calling us from the cross to follow. What are we saying in response? What does the world see?
In his little book, The Mark of the Christian, Francis Schaeffer writes the following.
The church is to be a loving church in a dying culture. How, then, is the dying culture going to consider us? Jesus says, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love on to another.” In the midst of the world, in the midst of our present culture, Jesus is giving a right to the world. Upon His authority He gives the world the right to judge whether you and I are born-again Christians on the basis of our observable love toward all Christians.
How will the world know is? Not by our doctrine, but by what our doctrine creates. It’s not the gospel message but the gospelled life that projects to the world. Like lightning before the thunder, it is the light of Christ’s love that is seen before the message is heard. And if real, observable love doesn’t exist? Well, why would anyone believe? They can find that kind of life in any old place.
In the dying culture, Christians are to bring the life of love. But too often, we instead carry the knife of backstabbing. We spread the decay of gossip. We channel fears into withheld love. No one has ever seen God, and if we fail to love one another, he’s hidden all the more.
A church, or any group of Christians, can be broken in many ways. We are so fragile. Without the strong hands of the Potter shaping and reshaping our clay hearts, we let small things become big things. We retreat when we should invade. And what is said in those moments can take years of recovery. As we withdraw from the church, we speak something to the watching world, as Schaeffer goes on to say.
I have observed one thing among true Christians in their differences in many countries: what divides and severs true Christian groups and Christians—what leaves a bitterness that can last for twenty, thirty or forty years (or for fifty or sixty years in a sons’ memory)—is not the issue of doctrine or belief which caused the differences in the first place. Invariable it is lack of love—and the bitter things that are said by true Christians in the midst of differences. These stick in the mind like glue. And after time passes and the differences between the Christians or the groups appear less than they did, there are still those bitter, bitter things we said in the midst of what we thought was a good and sufficient objective discussion. It is these things—these unloving attitudes and words—that cause the stench that the world can smell in the church of Jesus Christ among those who are really true Christians.
Real disagreements may arise. Doctrine does matter. What we say about who God is matters. But how we disagree will say something to those watching. If the disagreements we have look like a bitter board meeting, the world will not see the reconciling love of Jesus Christ. They will see instead something more dangerous than a broken relationship. They will see a broken religion. They will see the continued spread of the death found in the world. But it will be worse, because it will be death shrouded in light. It will be like rain on a sunny day—surprising, confusing, misfitting. And they will walk away assuming that though the signs of fair skies were there, it was all a veneer covering the truth behind.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. It’s easy, say the Beatles. But we know it’s not. That’s why we need the love of God made manifest among us, that we might live through him. It turns out we don’t really know how to love at all. But God does, and he abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Are we willing to endure the pain of God’s love? If we are, the world will see it, and the world will be compelled. Like lightning before the thunder, God’s hurricane of love is coming. Are we going to step out of the way? Or will we stare into the eye, bracing for impact?
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/8743cb360a29b152-image-asset-tElFkY1SilsTPDYaFMTKz2k5MJb9g1.jpeg\")
Photo by Steve Halama on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nIn Hebrews 11, the author gives example after example of what faith looks like. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. But faith does not guarantee an easy life. An easy life isn't the point. The point is getting to Jesus. We often look to this chapter for the encouragement to keep pressing on, and we should do just that. But unlike what the prosperity gospel preaches, the life of faith is not always blessed in this life. It doesn't always take the shape of big bank accounts and sculpted bodies. It very often looks rather scrawny and full of scar tissue. But behind the veneer of shame is the weight of glory.
As the author nears verse 32, he runs out of time to continue his string of examples. So he sums the rest up.
And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
Notice the results are not the same for all. Some are victorious in this life. Others aren't. This is not a difference of faith but a difference of circumstance. The faith is the same because the faith is put in the same God. God has no obligation to give us happiness, material wealth, good circumstances, and so on in this life. The blessing of God is primarily future-oriented. True faith sees beyond circumstances. No matter what happens – in victory or in defeat – faith reaches into heaven and draws salvation from the throne of God.
Francis Schaeffer uses an illustration of two chairs.
“According to the biblical view, there are two parts to reality: the natural world-that which we see, normally; and the supernatural part…I would suggest that this may be illustrated by two chairs. The men who sit in these chairs look at the universe in two different ways. We are all sitting in one or other of these chairs at every single moment of our lives. The first man sits in his chair and faces the total reality of the universe, the seen part and the normally unseen part, and sees truth against this background. The Christian is a man who has said, ‘I sit in this chair.’ The unbeliever, however, is the man who sits in the other chair. He sees only the natural part of the universe, and interprets truth against that background. Let us see that these two positions cannot both be true. One is true, one is false. If indeed there is only the natural portion of the universe, with a uniformity of natural causes in a closed system, then to sit in the other chair is to delude oneself. If, however, there are the two halves of reality, then to sit in the naturalist’s chair is to be extremely naïve and to misunderstand the universe completely…
“However, to be a true Bible-believing Christian, we must understand that it is not enough simply to acknowledge that the universe has these two halves. The Christian life means living in the two halves of reality: the supernatural and the natural parts…
“Being a biblical Christian means living in the supernatural now, not only theoretically but in practice. If a man sits in the one chair, and denies the existence of the supernatural portion of the world, we say he is an unbeliever. What shall we call ourselves when we sit in the other chair but live as though the supernatural were not there? Should not such an attitude be given the name ‘unfaith?’ ‘Unfaith’ is the Christian not living in the light of the supernatural now. It is then Christianity that has become simply a ‘good philosophy.’”
The question Hebrews 11 asks is this: is Christianity a good philosophy or is it a wholly new way of life? Faith in Jesus causes us to leave behind the shadow of the Old Testament and cling to the realities of the New Testament. Our journey is not to an earthly promised land, but to a heavenly home prepared for us by Jesus. Will we believe in the promises of God and let those promises inform and transform our lives, or will we live as if what Jesus accomplished is a good thing but ultimately insufficient?
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/9a42d2bf71127e46-go-ExO5cFDN1iUydQW2VKMs9NnytWrfSP.jpg\")
Photo by Amine Rock Hoovr on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nThe Parable of the Two Sons – Matthew 21:28-32
28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. 30 And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.
As Jesus enters Jerusalem on his way to the cross, he encounters the Jewish leaders. They don’t like him. Jesus is a threat to their authority. He teaches with power. He heals effectively. He has baffling insight and wisdom. And on top of it all, he claims to be the Messiah. Their pride can’t handle this combination. Before them stands Jesus, the Son of God, and instead of bowing down to him, they interrogate him.
Jesus knew his Bible, so he was not surprised to meet such opposition from the leaders of God’s people. It was always this way—God would send a messenger and Israel would persecute them. Claiming to be on God’s side, they’d prove otherwise by their actions towards God’s mouthpiece. Without fully realizing what they were doing, their violence toward the prophets was a foreshadowing of the violence toward God himself in Jesus Christ. That’s why Jesus dies with the words, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
What we do with God’s word is a pointer to what we would do with God himself. If we treat his word as worthless, disgusting, imposing, violating, or offensive, then we will also treat God himself that way. When, for example, something like the Nashville Statement seeking to reaffirm biblical values on sexuality meets such outrage from within Christianity, we must begin to think how we would react to Jesus if he were here today.
When saying what the Bible says about a topic creates such debate, we must wonder how the wider church views the Bible—if the God presented there is the God known to the masses. Or, perhaps, we’ve created a new god, one that has the semblance of holiness but is disguised as an angel of light. How we treat God’s word is how we treat God. The only thing preventing us from killing him is that the first century Jews already did.
And here is Jesus, standing before them, on trial before he goes to trial, the prophet before his hard-hearted people. The old saying, “actions speak louder than words,” would be an apt title for this parable. This parable shows us the importance of doing what is right, not merely talking about doing what is right. The Jewish leaders talked a good game, but no matter how much they studied the playbook, they always ran the wrong play. The Divine Coach had them on the field, and they trusted their intuition more than the Coach’s word.
This parable teaches two primary lessons on two different levels.
Lesson one, level one: the one who listens and obeys God is the one who does God’s will.
Lesson two, level one: the one who listens but disobeys God is the one who fails to do God’s will.
Lesson one, level two: anyone can come to Jesus, all you must do is listen and obey.
Lesson two, level two: whoever comes to Jesus must truly want to listen and obey, not merely pretend to.
Level one is what we see in the story itself. Level two is what we see in Jesus’s words after the parable. The Christian life, from beginning to end, is comprised of listening to God’s word and walking in obedience to it. We won’t be perfect, but what we do with what God says will prove how we really view God. We may say we follow him, but our arrival in the vineyard is the only ultimate proof that we actually do.
Since Adam and Eve sinned and lost their home in the Garden of Eden, the world has been inhabited by sinners, the nation of Israel not excluded. Some were easier to spot. They were the tax collectors, extorting their fellow citizens on behalf of Rome. They were the prostitutes, violating their bodies and the bodies of others for money. Sin consumed their daily life, unable even go to work without marring their soul. They were the wicked, outcast, despised. But they also repented and believed Jesus when he came to them. It was not hard for others to see their sin, and it was not hard to see it themselves. Their problem was not knowledge of sin but what to do with that sin. They’d been banished and left to their own devices. So, when the Physician comes, they ask for healing. Their response to the gospel was the proper one, even if their life before showed no openness to God. This group comprised lesson one. They initially refused to listen to God, but later changed their mind. Jesus came to them, and they decided to stick around.
But there was another group of sinners in Israel. They didn’t look the part. They were those who read the Bible and prayed and went to the temple for feasts and sacrifices. They were the ones who appeared close to God. But their heart betrayed them. When God came to them, they didn’t draw near. The tax collectors and prostitutes begged for mercy; the Pharisees and scribes thought they already had it. And in their arrogance, they found themselves not fighting for God but fighting against him. It is never enough to make promises to God, or to say you believe, or to memorize the right words. What ultimately matters is that our heart truly desires God. The outside can be clean, but as Jesus said, it could be merely a whitewashed tomb.
Jesus didn’t have to engage the Jewish leaders—he knew who they were even if they couldn’t see it—but he engaged them anyway because God’s word of grace goes out to all, even to the God-haters. Anyone who repents can have God. Jesus was giving them a chance to see themselves and to repent of their sin. But they wouldn’t, or couldn’t, do it. All they had to do was obey his voice, but what went out pure as the newly fallen snow, fell to their dirty heart and became a mud so thick they couldn’t wash it off. Not only couldn’t they, but they also wouldn't even try. Instead, they plotted in their heart against the Son who came to save. They listened to the Father and said, “Sure, I’ll go,” then turned their back and plotted murder.
Which way are you turning? How you respond to the Word of God is how you respond to God. Not everything in the Bible is easy to accept, but if we refuse it as an outdated interpretation or backward view of life, we will find ourselves walking out of the presence of God and into the presence of Satan. We will side with the enemy and post ourselves in the fortress of defiance. But the gospel goes even there. God never stops shooting his arrows of light. The question is, what kind of target is he going to find? One of flesh, easily penetrable, or one of stone, impenetrable? When Jesus sends his armies of grace, let’s wave the white flag.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/e3ba9d621f785fb8-debt-JIRaB2UYRcDeLkS4108c7Z2YxhzaFg.jpg\")
Photo by Alice Pasqual on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nIn Matthew 18:21-35, Jesus tells a parable about an unforgiving servant. Through it, he's helping us see two kinds of radical, radical forgiveness and radical unforgiveness, and what will happen if we ignore the former for the latter.
21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Theoretically, forgiveness is wonderful. Realistically, it’s nearly impossible. When sin comes charging at us, harming us in ways we could have never imagined, and the sinner is there before us, unable to undo the damage, how can we grant forgiveness? Even more, how can we do it again and again and again. This parable isn’t about one-time forgiveness. It’s about life-long forgiveness. And that’s where the trouble really comes.
The parable arises from a question the Apostle Peter asks of Jesus.“How often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Peter is trying to see how far forgiveness must go, and in so doing shows us that even in our most generous thoughts, we cannot grasp the depth and breadth of God’s call to forgiveness.
We can break the parable into three scenes. First, verses 23-27.
23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
The story, like all of Jesus’s parables, has an easily understandable plot. A king is trying to balance his books and, therefore, settling debts. He calls a man who owes him ten thousand talents. This man is a slave, given the fact that when he can’t repay, the king plans to sell him and his family, probably both as a punishment and to regain some of the lost money. The servant, of course, cannot pay such a large sum. So he begs for forgiveness.
It’s important here to understand how large the sum was. A talent was worth six thousand denarii. A denarius was a day’s wage for a common laborer. Therefore, the math tells us one talent was worth about twenty years’ wages. Ten thousand talents, then, would equal 200,000 years’ wages. Obviously, that’s an incredible amount of money, one this servant could not repay.
But the servant asks for time to repay the debt. How he accrued it we are not told. Regardless, we can see that his request for patience to repay is ridiculous. No one could pay such a debt. He’s at the end of his rope. He’s begging for patience, hoping that the king gives him time to make it up. But he doesn’t. The king does something far greater instead. He forgives him entirely and releases him. In this first meeting between the servant and king, the king grants radical forgiveness.
This forgiveness is meant to sound radical. Jesus is showing us the kind of grace and mercy he shows towards those who’ve racked up a massive debt against him. To understand the shock and scandal of this radical forgiveness, we need to understand the shock and scandal of what God does in forgiving our debts against him, for this is the point of the parable. We become forgiving people to the extent to which we understand God’s forgiveness of us.
You and I are sinners from birth. We can thank Adam for that fallen condition. It doesn’t take us long to prove our sin, either. As we grow, our sin begins to feel normal. It becomes a part of who we are, how we think of ourselves, what we expect from ourselves. But normalcy of sin doesn’t make sin less than it is. Sin is treason against the King. It is an offense to the God who created us. It is a serious matter. Alexander Maclaren defined sin this way. “Sin is rebellion, the uprising of the will against rightful authority - not merely the breach of abstract propriety or law, but opposition to a living Person, who has right to obedience. The definition of virtue is obedience to God, and the sin in sin is the assertion of independence of God and opposition to His will.”
Our sin is not a small matter between God and us. It is the issue that separates us. It is the problem in our life. It is the limiting factor in us attaining holiness, finding God, reaching heaven. It is the core issue of our life. And unless our sin is dealt with—unless our sin is forgiven—we can find no way around it, we cannot clean it up, we cannot undo it. We are broken. We need a Savior.
Throughout the Bible, when people find themselves before the Lord, they always find themselves soiled with sin in his presence. For example, Isaiah pronounces woes on himself (Isaiah 6:5). Before God’s holiness, we find nothing good in us. We cannot stand before him. We need a massive cleansing from God, or we will have no way to stand before him when he calls us to account. Fleming Rutledge says, “From beginning to end, the Holy Scriptures testify that the predicament of fallen humanity is so serious, so grave, so irremediable from within, that nothing short of divine intervention can rectify it.”
And divine intervention we have in Jesus Christ. What we receive in Christ’s justification on the cross is not mere forgiveness of sins. It is a restoration of the relationship. It is a setting right. On the cross, in his death, Jesus pays the penalty for our sins on our behalf. What he does, then, is bigger than forgiving our iniquity. He is paying the penalty for our sins in his perfection, trading his goodness for our evil. That great exchange grants us a right standing before God. We become as Jesus is because he became as we were.
In the parable’s second scene, the servant goes from his forgiveness from the king to oppression of another servant.
28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.
We should find this repulsive. Jesus wanted us to. But more than that, he wanted us to see our own heart before God’s forgiveness. Are we just as repulsive? What do we do with the forgiveness God has granted? Do we, in turn, forgive others? Or do we still expect justice? How forgiving are we?
This parable pushes us to a deep evaluation of our own heart. We can be so unforgiving of those who sin against us. So much of our unforgiveness we’re unaware of. But like poison, it will ruin us. When we withhold forgiveness, we are saying to the world that Jesus’s grace is sufficient to clean us, but not good enough to clean others.
Are we going from Sunday service to a troubled Sunday night dinner with the family? Are we harboring unforgiveness towards someone who can never undo their sin? Are we expecting something from others that we hope no one ever expects of us? Are we willing to forgive, or do we just talk about the idea of forgiving?
Whatever we say about our view of forgiveness, what we really believe shows up in how we act toward others. We will either let them go with a smile in our heart or we will throw them in jail with bitterness in our heart. There is no such thing as moderate forgiveness. There is radical forgiveness or radical unforgiveness. Which are you?
In the third scene, the servant’s actions reveal his true heart to the king.
31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Earlier in the story, Matthew records Jesus’s words in 6:14-15, “If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” James says it this way, “Judgment by God is without mercy to those who have shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:13). No matter how you slice it, the Bible makes it clear: if we are to be forgiven, we must also forgive others.
We see it here in the parable as well. The other servants witness this gross injustice and run to tell the king what they’ve seen. The king summons the servant once again, but this time mercy has run out. It’s time for judgment.
No one listening or reading this parable looks upon the king as the one in the wrong. He is just to condemn the servant for his unforgiveness. If we live our lives in unforgiveness, we alone will be surprised to stand before the King and be judged. Everyone else will see what we said we believed was only a nice thought we had, not a reality we lived.
There are only two kinds of forgiveness: radical forgiveness and radical unforgiveness. Which have you received? Which are you granting?
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/daa436fb513153f3-image-asset-K1AMih0jNetIFZhaGirXeyIirWt8TS.jpeg\")
Photo by N. on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\n44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Matthew 13:44
Here we have a simple parable. A man finds a treasure in a field, covers it up, sells all he has, and buys the field, buying also the treasure within. Simple though it is, this parable raises many questions. Why would someone bury treasure in a field? When he found it, was the man ethical in covering and then purchasing the field? What does the treasure represent? Interpretations have varied throughout church history. And while those are important things to consider, I’d like to summarize the answers quickly so that we can consider what I believe to be the real power of the parable.
In Jesus’s day, no one put their money in a bank. If they needed to keep it safe, they would bury it in the ground. We see this in the parable of the talents, where the man with one talent is fearful of losing it, so he buries it until the Master returns (Matthew 25:25). To find treasure in the ground would not have been surprising to Jesus’s audience. Furthermore, the man would not have been considered unethical for covering it and purchasing the field. Jewish law stated, basically, whatever you find outside someone’s house is yours—finders keepers.
Now, what is the treasure? This is the big question of the parable. What is worth so much that the man sells everything he has and, in joy, buys the field? Here in chapter 13 of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus tells parables to explain the Kingdom of God (kingdom of heaven, in Matthew’s words). Considering the context, we must force ourselves to stay inside the kingdom lines and listen to what Jesus is saying. He who has ears, let him hear (Matthew 13:9)
Jesus is telling us, in no uncertain terms, that the kingdom is very valuable. It is also, apparently, very accessible. The man who found the treasure did not travel to a far away galaxy. He didn’t change his situation. He went about his day and, to his surprise, dug up the treasure.
Out of these seven parables of Matthew 13, four of them feature a field as its location. Coming after the sower, the weeds, and the mustard seed, Jesus must want to communicate something about the kingdom using fields. What is it? Tim Keller talks about the ordinariness of the ways of God. Just before Jesus tells these parables, he has miraculously healed people. That’s not ordinary. But when he gets to his teaching about the Kingdom of God, he puts away talk of miracles and begins speaking about ordinary things. Why? Because the normal working of God is found in the ordinary. He can work outside of that, but his normal workings are inside of everyday life.
A field is something we take for granted. We pass by them all the time, and we give almost no thought to what’s inside. The kingdom of God is like that. It’s always around but seldom on our mind. In these parables, Jesus is bringing the Kingdom of God to the forefront of our mind. He’s telling us what it’s like and how important it is.
At this point, some commentators would say the parable is about the cost of discipleship. Jesus is, after all, talking to his disciples, having left the crowds and entered a house (v. 36). I believe there is much to be said about following Jesus from this parable, but I do not believe that is Jesus’s primary concern. His focus is on the Kingdom of God. That includes discipleship, but something must happen before you give your life to Christ. You have to find something, and that’s what Jesus is telling us about here: what it’s like to find. Finding comes before life-giving. When we find a treasure like God’s Kingdom, the cost to follow becomes insignificant. This means the parable isn’t so much about what we’re willing to give up to gain the kingdom but that the kingdom is worth losing everything to gain it. That may sound the same, but in a world at war with God, coming under his rule is not like paying dues to the country club. It’s more like suffering the abuse of the world. Paul puts it this way in Philippians 3:7-8, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” Those aren’t the words of a man who lost anything. He found something worth suffering everything. This parable is not about losing. This parable is about gaining.
So, what are we to gain? When God created the world, he did not blast it from his finger and step away. He is no remote, unconcerned God. He created it with care, and he oversees it with the same care. “He upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrew 1:3). One way God reveals himself is through his creation. “His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:20). Therefore, God, in creation, placed us in our home on Earth as a Father would his child in a house, where the pictures on the wall remind us of whose world we live in. We are his creation living inside his creation.
But being on the planet is no guarantee we are in the Kingdom of God. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they stepped outside of God’s care and into Satan’s destruction. Their eyes became dull. Their God-sense broke. They entered death and all that comes with it. Before, they walked with God in the cool of the day. After, they were banished from the Garden. From that moment on, the Kingdom was veiled from our eyes. It became hard to see the glory of God due to the darkness of sin. That’s why, when Jesus begins speaking in parables, he tells us repeatedly, “he who has ears, let him hear.”
The Kingdom of God is less about location and more about rule. Who reigns over your life? Whoever it is, that’s whose kingdom you live in. Because of this, the Kingdom of God is a kingdom that costs you everything and nothing. It costs you everything—you’re completely changed, altered from the inside out. It costs you nothing—the price has already been paid. Let me explain.
The Kingdom of God costs you everything because, when you find it, you can’t stay who you once were. Your life is radically changed. Your loves are altered. Your purpose is different. The Kingdom of God costs you nothing because Jesus paid the price to give it to you. He gave you the right to be called a child of God (John 1:12). Now, because of him, it's your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32).
This parable has been misunderstood from time to time. Some think it’s telling us we can purchase the kingdom. They use it to preach works righteousness. That’s not what Jesus is saying. Throughout, the Bible talks about the free gift of grace (Romans 5:15). Isaiah called out to God’s people, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” (Isaiah 55:1). What Jesus accomplished on the cross was not only salvation from sin. It was also the entrance into the Father’s house. He paid the price on our behalf. All we do is stumble into it like a man digging in a field.
Gaining the Kingdom doesn’t cost us anything. Receiving the Kingdom costs us everything. And it’s a happy trade-off. Everything we’ve ever longed for is inside. In his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/df8bbc45446ee1f8-ftc-JeqaPDyJa77XXOihqf064Ni6CnoSQn.jpg\")
\n \n\nI just returned from the For the Church Conference hosted by Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, MO. It was the best conference, with the best content, I’ve ever attended. Here are three reflections on why.
Seminaries are wonderful places. They train the next generation of pastors, counselors, missionaries, and scholars. They teach God’s word, at best, with enthusiasm and faithfulness. But not every seminary is created equal. Not every seminary, for example, remains faithful to the Bible. Some stray down dark paths, holding the flashlight of the world when the floodlight of the Holy Spirit is available. But Midwestern is not one of those unfaithful schools. No, they don’t just love the Bible, they love the Bible. There’s isn’t the flash-in-the-pan puppy love of the high-schooler. There’s is the life-long, rooted love of a lifetime.
And because they love the Bible, they love the local church, because you can’t read the Bible and come away believing the church is inconsequential. Seminaries don’t appear in scripture; churches do. Parachurch ministries don’t appear in Scripture; churches do. That doesn’t diminish the importance of either, it just puts both underneath the local church. It is the church, globally sowed by God, organized locally by his Spirit, that serves as the primary strategy for worldwide advancement of the Kingdom. And it is this church that Midwestern is not only a fan of, but is thoroughly, faithfully, and doggedly for.
What does it mean to be “for the church?” Ask anyone on campus and they’ll tell you. Their website says, “Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary & College serves the church by biblically educating God-called men and women to be and make disciples of Jesus Christ.” Do you notice those three words in the middle? “Serves the church.” Those three words make all the difference. Their very mission is one of being for the church.
This mission comes through loud and clear in so many ways. From the mission statement itself to the website (to which I contribute) called, unsurprisingly, For the Church, where article upon article written by and for those serving in the trenches of local ministry is housed, to the conference focused on the work of the minister, Midwestern is living up to its mission, and it’s serving the church very, very well.
Their goal for the conference this year, as stated on their website, was for it to be “a time of refreshing and rejoicing.” For me, and for many others, it was a success on both fronts. I came in weary and anxious. I left refreshed and happy in Christ—restful, even. I came in with a limp and left with a back stiffened by the gospel, ready to take the hill for Christ. They had no magic tricks, just an old story of a crucified savior.
Midwestern is for the church, and I’m thankful they are because that’s my people and my people need them.
The line-up was first class. Midwestern’s President, Jason Allen, kicked it off with The Minister’s Preaching. H.B. Charles, Jr., pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, gave us the best sermon on prayer I’ve heard on The Minister’s Prayer. Ray Ortlund, Jr., my former pastor at Immanuel Church in Nashville, TN, and my dear friend preached the best sermon anyone’s ever heard on The Minister’s Marriage. Associate Professor of Christian Theology and Director of the Center for Public Theology, Owen Strachan, helped us understand the importance of the warfare that is The Minister’s Study. The Austin Stone’s Matt Carter reminded us that the time for our people to engage in Christ’s mission is right now in his powerful, The Minister’s Mission. My friend and For the Church’s Director of Content Strategy, Jared Wilson, preached the most refreshing-to-my-soul sermon on The Ministry’s Legacy, calling us all to a “glorious nothingness” for Christ. And Matt Chandler of the Village Church in Dallas, Texas, undertook the difficult but vital task of urging a room full of pastors to believe the gospel for themselves in The Minister’s Gospel. From front to back, the preaching was not only saturated in scripture, it was proclaimed with fire.
One can’t help but notice each sermon began with an address to the minister. Once again, Midwestern is proving their mission to serve the local church. A conference can be about many things. It can be educational. It can be practical. It can be both. But the best kind of conference for a pastor is one of gospel-rich content applied to the Jesus-needy heart of the minister. It is the cool water of the gospel poured into the heart whereupon the flame is fanned into an urgency to preach and teach and share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I commend every sermon and every preacher. And I didn’t even have time to mention the breakout sessions and extra talks given. From beginning to end, and all through the middle, this conference was not only helpful, it was like resting in the arms of Jesus for two days, interrupted only by the laughter and enjoyment of friends and fellow laborers in the field.
Aside from the preaching, the conference gave me another look into the deep things of God: his work in the local church. It is one thing to hear about the local church from the stage, it’s another entirely to see it in the hearts of the men around. My church plant is in year two of public ministry. It is going well, but it is hard. It is exhausting. It is challenging. And, it turns out, we aren’t alone. What the Lord is doing in my church is different from but shockingly similar to what he’s doing in so many around the country. I can tend to think the church is in trouble, and in many cases she is. But when I gathered this week with my friends in Kansas City, I saw that the church wasn’t only surviving in this crazy culture of ours, she’s expanding, growing, and deepening by the grace of Christ.
The future of the church in America is bright. Not because we have found some secret to share but because God has given us a story as old as the universe that has the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. It was that gospel that we needed yesterday, that we need today, and that we’ll need tomorrow that was preached, believed, and rejoiced in this week on the campus of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The chapel was probably bouncing. After all, Aaron Ivey and the Austin Stone’s worship band was there. And when you get a thousand pastors and ministry leaders in the same room with the same gospel, it gets loud.
May the loudness of that chapel echo in the churches of all represented, and may the Lord continue his work, doing what only he can do through sinners redeemed by his grace.
Join us next year. I promise it’ll be worth the trip a hundred times over.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/6e7dda9c321a85c9-image-asset-sXjJoAWWTCTs2JXHQdNld2hHRlexXB.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIn J.I. Packer's book, Knowing God's Purpose for Your Life, he gives ten statements that help us discern God's call on our life.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/13a4119ad06a822c-fail-PkKaXsEJ8wthnWxiMbhK12627aigq6.jpg\")
Photo by Cherry Laithang on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\n13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
(Romans 4:13-25)
Here is Abraham, standing at the peak of his city. He looks out beyond the walls and sees nothing but wilderness. Has God called him to go into that? He didn’t even give the destination. He said he would show him in due time. Should he go? How could he not go? This God is different from the rest. He seems trustworthy. His promises have power. His heart feels different as he hears from him. That promise…how can he refuse that promise?
Abraham was promised a son. Through that son, God would eventually save the world. But that son was to be born to a man 100 years-old and a woman 90 years-old. That’s crazy. But is it any crazier than God creating the world out of nothing? The word “promise” is mentioned five times in these verses. Abraham’s faith is related to his trusting God’s promises even when they don’t make sense. That’s what happens when we trust a person. We trust what they say. Abraham trusts the person of God. He loves God himself, which creates in him a hope that will not be put to shame.
To be saved, we must come face to face with the promises of God in the person of God. We don’t obey our way into the Kingdom of God. We believe our way into the Kingdom of God. And as we face the God who made the universe and hear his promises to his people, we trust or we don’t trust. Having salvation in God means trusting in the promises of God. It is not a baseless, blind, leap-in-the-dark faith. Such faith does not exist. Faith relies on something sound and sure. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith for us as “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
As Abraham looked into the future, he saw his boy laughing as his mother once laughed at the silliness of God’s promise – they? A man and woman who should be great-grandparents by now? The barren one is to have a child?
Abraham didn’t obey a law to be saved. There was no law to obey. There was only a promise. After all, the law was never intended to save. How could it? The law arouses sin more than destroys sin. It shows us the standard by which God requires us to live if we are to be holy and rebels always rise against the standard. Trusting the law to save, therefore, leads only to condemnation and wrath. “The law brings wrath.” We cannot obey.
But God has provided another way. Through Jesus Christ, we have been freed from the law because he has fulfilled it for us. We should never look to our goodness to save us. We should always look to the goodness of Christ to save us. Why would we return to the impossible when Jesus has already accomplished the impossible on our behalf? Abraham couldn’t provide God’s promise no matter what rules he obeyed or disobeyed. Sarah was barren and he was old. There was no changing that. God had to do it or it would not be done.
Notice the logic of verse 16. “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.” The “it” is the promise. The promise depends on faith. It does not depend on works. If it did, it would not be grace. It would be wages. The only wages we deserve is death (Romans 6:3). But if the promise depends on faith in the one who makes the promise, then the one who receives the promise receives it by grace. Furthermore, the promise is so pervasive and expansive and everlasting, it is so deep and abiding, it is so profound that it extends to the offspring of the one to whom it was originally given. Abraham, the believer of God, became the father of all who would later believe in God. How? By the great work he did in creating his son in his old age? No! By believing the God who gave him a son in his old age. Our justification – our righteousness before God – is made up entirely of believing in God.
Abraham saw his old age. Why couldn’t God have come earlier? Why now? How can this happen? He felt the creaks as he rose from his bed. He saw the wrinkles on Sarah’s face. They had never known anyone as old give birth to a child. Could it be?
But in hope Abraham believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations. The promise didn’t seem reasonable, yet Abraham saw God as trustworthy and therefore believed. When God came to him and promised a child, he looked at all the circumstances and believed God beyond them. Why? Because he saw God as trustworthy. He believed the promises of God because he believed the person of God.
Abraham did not allow his feelings to inform his doctrine. He let God’s doctrine inform his feelings. When he felt hopeless, he looked to God for hope. When he felt as if this promise would never come to pass, he looked to God and knew that God would do what he said. As Abraham gave glory to God, he grew strong in his faith. Though circumstances said otherwise, when Abraham beheld God he believed more in his promises, not less. He became fully convinced that God could do what he had promised. That’s why he was justified. Not because he did a lot of good deeds but because he believed in the Good God.
As Abraham wandered in his new home, he wondered about God’s promise. He believed, but what if it didn’t happen? He had moments of weakness. He faltered. He feared for his life. He gave Sarah over to Pharaoh and then again to Abimelech. Thankfully, he received her back without compromising the promise. Sarah had Hagar given to him. He went in to her. They conceived. But Ishmael was not the promised son. It was Isaac who was to come. Abraham’s sins were bold and egregious. But God held fast to him still. It didn’t depend on Abraham as much as it depended on God who made the promise. Our works add nothing to the promises of God and they take nothing away from them. God does it all because God is the mover in this relationship. He is the one to be counted on. He is the one who justifies.
For us today, what is the faith that we must hold? What do we believe? Paul summarizes it in verses 24 and 25. “It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Justification will be counted to those who believe in God who raised Jesus from the dead – the very Jesus who died for our sins upon the cross and was resurrected on the third day. The resurrection became the proof that the sacrifice of Christ was accepted. The penalty had been paid. Those who believe had been saved.
If you believe in this gospel you are saved. You are justified before God. You have looked beyond yourself and placed all your hope in God. You believe his promises. You trust in him alone. You love him and follow him and obey him because you cannot do otherwise now. Jesus has been crucified and raised. Let me ask you, can he die again? If he has been killed and resurrected what keeps you from believing you will be resurrected as well? What promise has God not proven trustworthy in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Paul is giving us here in Romans 4 deep rest amid our tumultuous circumstances. We have God above all circumstances who can create a child from an old man and life from death and righteousness from unrighteousness. What are you facing that you can’t trust God during? If your salvation was based upon what you do or don’t do, you would never feel secure. How could you? You can’t even obey the rules you give yourself each day. But if it is God that declares us righteous, who acquits us and creates in us new hearts, how can we not feel secure? God is not running the calculations in heaven to see if we add up to righteousness. He is reckoning us righteous in Christ and imputing the merit of Christ upon us to make us worthy of him. We are no longer orphans. We are sons of God.
Real faith gives us a sure standing when everything else feels like it's falling away. Real faith is not a leap in the dark. It is a sure and steady looking upon God in the gospel and finding the Person who has justified us smiling upon us in salvation. Real faith is realizing that no matter what the world says, no matter what our heart says, no matter what our circumstance says, we are as secure as Christ is, and who in the world is going to remove him from the throne?
After all those years, Abraham finally heard the cry of new life. He looked and there lie his boy in his mother’s arms. He was here! After all those tense moments of wondering. After all the questions, spoken and unspoken. After all the tears, all the miles, all the ridicule. Isaac is here – the promised child!
And then, Isaac is there - the one God has asked Abraham to sacrifice. Here they are, together on the road to Mt. Moriah. Abraham will not delay. He has delayed enough in his life. He’s not sure what God is going to do but he knows God’s promise will remain. Even if he is to kill the boy, somehow God will provide. Even if it means resurrection, God will provide. So, come what may, he walks on…
Michael Bird summarizes Abraham this way, “What made Abraham unique was that he put his faith where his fear was.” Real faith transforms and overcomes real fear. Wherever in our lives we have fear, faith in God is the remedy. George Muller said, “Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends.” And so it is with our justification. Do you want to be set right with God? Then look to God. When you’ve come to the end of yourself, when you can’t obey any longer, when you see that you cannot do anything truly good and deserve only the wrath of God, lift your eyes to the cross and see the righteousness of God flowing down. Behold the Son of God dying on your behalf, becoming the sacrifice pleasing to God. See the resurrection and know that you, by faith alone in his work, have been justified by Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. If you throw yourself upon God, no matter how far the fall or how great the impact, he will always catch you in the arms of Jesus. After all, it depends on his promise. In all human history, he has not yet failed one person who has trusted in him. Will he fail you now?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/7e7a757131f81edf-image-asset-1OaP7R4Vy5SrnuGm6rOtSJiul78A3j.jpeg\")
\n \n\nThe worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.
-- Lois Lowry, The Giver
We are complex beings. Ancient moments never forgotten shape and mold us into the men and women we are today. The slight grin of others when you were a kid and fell going down the stairs. The disappointment you caused your parents in an unexpected moment of weakness. Like Poe's raven, showing up on your evening doorstep, sins of your past haunt your present, destroying you piece by piece.
And the problem with memories is that often only we share our particular experience. Others may have been there, but only we remember it from our vantage point. There's loneliness in that. The moment, years ago, that informs who you are today cannot be replayed nor replaced. We are, for better or worse, stuck with the memories of our past.
Like all of our lives, memories are best when shared. The collective memories of the family replay the vacation twenty years ago. The memories among co-workers preserve the crazy ex-employee, even if someone else now sits in their chair. We are memory making, and memory keeping, beings.
But for all the things we can't seem to forget, there is one thing that is hard for us to remember: We are loved by God. And that's a memory that should never be lonely. In fact, the church works best when sharing this memory.
One result of sin is our inability to remember properly. We forget how sinful we truly are, forgetting how massive God's love must truly be. God's memory is not tainted. He needs no reminder of our sinful heart. It was his law we stepped over on our way to sin. He sees it all. In fact, God doesn't need to remember anything. He is outside of time, always present at every point. The greatest sin of our past is not a long-gone fall for him. It is a current and everlasting dagger of betrayal. But the work of Christ redeems it all, changing the memory from one of treachery to one of salvation.
When Jesus sat down to the last supper with his disciples, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.\" (Matthew 26:26-28)
In that moment, Jesus brought to pass the promise of Jeremiah 31:31-34.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
I'm not sure what I would do if Jeremiah 31:31-34 wasn't in the Bible. For all the things we can’t forget, here is the thing we must remember: Jesus has paid it all. When God looks at us, all he remembers is Jesus. \"For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.\" If that verse wasn't in the Bible, what would I think of God's memory in light of mine? How would I deal with the terrible things I couldn't forget if I were unsure of God's posture toward them?
Memories need to be shared. If not, the loneliness becomes excruciating. But some memories are too painful to share. And those are the memories for which the word “excruciating” was brought into being. Upon the cross, Jesus died to wipe them clean. We may never forget them, but we can be sure that God doesn’t hold them against us. He can’t. Jesus has paid the price. He’s executed the memory and replaced it with himself. In his grace, the worst part of having memories becomes the reason for falling into his arms. Whatever we've done, or has been done to us, is washed in his blood, cleansed by his righteousness, and redeemed by his love. And in this, the memories we long to forget are transformed by grace into a memory we long to share, because in the sharing our joy is complete. The salvation of our soul becomes the memory of our life, crying out to be told so that others may find the peace we’ve been granted.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/5c4bdbb93f7c6cdd-image-asset-DiNDNSzI6ZQKqXJ500jXGI09qtnnqR.jpeg\")
Photo by sergio souza on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nOver a year ago, I wrote a piece on what church planting is teaching me. That was a few months before the public launch of Refuge Church in Franklin, TN. Thankfully, that post is still relevant, and what I wrote I’d still affirm. Since our public launch last August, an entire year has somehow already passed. So, I thought it’s time to revisit my thoughts on church planting. A year in, what am I learning?
I’m sorry to start with a downer, but this is the first thing that came to my mind. Ministry is filled with loss. I guess it makes sense. We follow a Savior who was crucified. We’re asked to pick up our cross daily. We follow Jesus to victory but it’s not without paying a price. We’ve experienced our share of it, too. Many of the people who started with us are no longer with us. They, thankfully, have not left Jesus, just our church, but seeing them leave us was and is difficult. This is common in church planting (and every other start-up). Often, people are with you for a season. Not everyone is in it for the long haul. That’s ok. The Lord uses them as he wishes. All kinds of decisions go into the process of leaving a church—some good and some bad—but every time it happens, it creates doubt in the mind of leaders. Are we ok? Are we doing something wrong? Is this a sign of something else? Over the past year, as people have moved in and out, moving on from loss to life has been a necessary process. For us, no one (as far as we know) has left the faith. They just left us. That’s sad and painful, and not always for good reasons, but the Lord is their Shepherd, and we can rejoice that he gave them to us if only for a while.
Jesus told Peter to feed his sheep (John 21:17). He didn’t mean take care of the grass. He meant give them the solid teaching about the person and work of Jesus Christ, the bread of life. A good shepherd never phones it in on Sunday. He studies. He prepares. He crafts his sermon to the best of his ability. He preaches with enthusiasm. He teaches them the Bible—uncomplicated, biblical truth, week after week. Some people want this. Everyone needs this.
In our church, we have created multiple spaces for teaching. Sunday sermons are obvious entry points, but we also offer weekly Bible studies for men and women, a discussion group using John Frame’s Systematic Theology, weekly community group gatherings, and one on one discipleship. Teaching the Bible happens in small chunks over a large period of time. That’s how all real learning happens. No one understands it all at once. So, to that end, we decided to become a church where everyone can grow, because we all need to, and when we come to Christ, we all have a desire to.
Many pastors and church leaders forsake good organization because they’re wary of becoming too “corporate.” But organizing yourself well isn’t putting corporate practices on top of biblical ones. It’s putting God’s wisdom to work in the most important institution in the world. Your church organization of people, ministries, and processes will either give or take opportunities. If you’re organized well, you can seize more opportunities. If you fail to organize well, you’ll lose out on more. It’s not complicated, but it takes intentionality and clear boundaries.
For example, in our church, I serve as the Director of Teaching Ministries. Our Lead Pastor and Planter, Dustin Neeley, does the lion’s share of the preaching and visioning and recruiting and day-in, day-out church work. I work a full time job at a big company with a lot of responsibilities. I don’t have time to do everything, but I can do something. And in this season, the Lord has me primarily teaching inside the local church. Here’s why that matters to Dustin and me: Dustin can focus on Sunday and people while I focus on teaching throughout the week. What one man would struggle to do, two men can do an adequate job of.
But it doesn’t stop with teaching. Refuge is blessed with incredibly gifted people in every area. We recognize we’re a bit of an odd church plant. We have, at every level, high-capacity leaders with years of ministry experience. Recently, Dustin, our Lead Pastor, was out of town for a speaking engagement. I was preaching that Sunday. We found out on Tuesday that we couldn’t use our normal location for the service on Sunday. In the span of a day, our team worked out a plan to move from the cafeteria to the gym, rent lights, recruit extra set-up volunteers, masterminded the new workflow, re-organized the entire Sunday morning and pulled it all off without a hitch. So, in the span of a few days, without our Lead Pastor there to help, our team pulled it off. And they made it look easy. That didn’t happen by accident. It happened because, over the course of many days, Dustin handed off responsibility and empowered others to make decisions and lead in their respective areas.
Organization matters. Stop thinking it doesn’t.
Speaking of organization, you can’t have an effective one without humility throughout. It starts at the top. Our pastor, Dustin, is an incredibly humble man. He knows how God has gifted him and he serves in those areas with great effectiveness. He also knows what God has gifted other for and he unleashes them to serve. As a church planter, it must be incredibly hard to hand over tasks and responsibilities, but Dustin does it with ease. He trusts the Lord and trusts his people. That kind of humility falls down through the entire church. A church where the “one anothers” of the New Testament play out is a church where humility reigns at the top.
I know, I know. I’ve said this already, right? But it’s true. No one can do everything. Lots of people can do lots of things. The reason our church is working well is that we’ve learned to work together. No one can do this alone. God didn’t call us to. Remember when Jethro told Moses to get some help (Exodus 18)? Well, he was right. Team work does make the dream work.
American adults don’t stumble into friendships. We intentionally create them. A friend recently told me one day a guy came up to him at church, shook his hand, and said, “I want us to be friends.” My friend laughed and said, “Ok, sure.” The guy responded, “No, for real. I want us to be friends. And I want our wives to be friends.” There are two amazing things about that. One, who does this? Two, the guy wasn’t even married yet, just engaged. Yet here he was already leading his soon-to-be wife into friendships. Today, these two couples are great friends. They do everything together. All it took was one guy proposing friendship.
Our church is filled with people like me: young kids at home, lots of work at the office, full schedules. So, building relationships must be intentional. A year in, I’m not satisfied with the amount or depth or relationships we’ve built so far. So, I started having guys over for agenda-less hang time on the back porch. A few weeks ago, thirteen guys showed up and stayed for hours. For many, it was the first time to hang out with one another. It doesn’t take much. It just takes intentionality. And the closer we get to one another, the more Jesus can do his work in us. We need more friendship proposals.
While getting together for hang-outs is fun, it can’t be the totality of our life together. Friendships are born in casual conversations but brotherhoods and sisterhoods are forged in thinking deeply about God together. Too many churches settle for Bible-less talk. The early church had a lot of problems, but when it came to Bible study, they did it right. They devoted themselves (Acts 2:42). We need no less today.
For us, small groups, which we call Community Groups, are the primary place that happens. They’re sermon-based, so we’re always in the Scriptures together. Our sermons are intentionally text-driven. We don’t preach many topical sermons so when our groups gather throughout the week, they have chapter and verse to look at rather than a topic to consider. The word does its work as we look and talk together in community. In my view, there is no replacement for this.
We’ve started things that didn’t work. So we scrapped them. Maybe, later on, we can resurrect them, but for now, they need to die. For church planters and those who plant with him, starting things comes naturally, letting things die doesn’t. But there is wisdom in letting some things go. When it zaps energy instead of gives it, it’s time to move on. That’s okay. Failure is part of the process.
The key is recognizing when to cut the cord. It’s not always an easy assessment. Every ministry is started out of passion, and passions don’t fade quickly. But wisdom sometimes tells us to stop.
Planting a church is hard. Some days are just bad, draining, spiritually dry. At times, I wonder what we’re doing wrong. At times, it feels like pushing a boulder up a long hill that keeps getting longer. Then, at other times, it feels like the boulder slips and rolls over you. You have to go to the bottom and start all over.
Thankfully, this is rare, and no matter how bad some days are, the light always shines in the darkness.
The best thing, hands down, about church planting has been seeing the faithfulness of Jesus to build his church. When I start thinking it’s a sinking ship, he sends another family. When I begin wondering what’s missing, he gives us a story of healing and redemption. I can see only a part of what God is doing. As John Piper has said, God is doing ten thousand things in our lives, and we can only see a few of them. The same principle applies to church planting.
So, a year in…it’s hard, and it’s wonderful, and I don’t want to be doing anything else.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/e15a0cdb6a893db8-flood-e71OXBQFR2e1n8omdz3oVfCpmTUEuV.jpg\")
\n \n\nThis was originally posted June 7, 2016 on thingsofthesort.com. In light of the recent flooding in Texas, I wanted to repost. I understand the fear, heartbreak, and sadness a flood brings. The Nashville flood in 2010 was an experience I'll never forget and never want to live again. My prayers go out to all in Texas struggling to make it to dry ground, wondering if they're lives are lost. This is my story. Yours may be different, but in a time like this, sharing what you have about God's faithfulness is worth doing. I pray God tells millions of other redemptive stories through this disaster. If anyone can create beauty out of catastrophe, Jesus can.
My wife and I were married in June 2008. The next summer we got a dog, a border collie, named Glory. We started building our life in our new home in our new marriage with our new dog and our new jobs. Everything was new, but some old things still clung to us. They needed to go, but they wouldn't give up easily. It was time for a change, but change was too regular.
The next summer, 2010, our house was flooded. The little life we had been building was interrupted. The brown water of the Harpeth River had found its way under the cracks of the doors, and with it the grace of God found its way into the cracks of our hearts.
The thing about water is that it travels to the lowest possible spot. It doesn’t ascend, it descends. It goes down and spreads out. You can block it until the level rises, then you just have to move higher.
The day the rains came we spent the morning at church learning how to study the Bible from a man who knows how to study the Bible. We looked at the book of Jonah. We saw in that short book a glimpse into ourselves. We run from the call of God. When he comes, we buy the first ticket in the opposite direction. We force our way away from God as if we can ever truly leave his presence. The wonder of the book of Jonah is that God comes to people who hate him. He chases after rebels as if they were his own children. He sends a messenger to them to speak of his grace and love. And in the process changes the messenger as well. His grace is pursuing and conquering. We can run, but only as far as he'll let us.
Later that night, after arriving home from dinner with my in-law’s, we were met with a trail of cars at the head of our street. The waters had already come. Some families were staying, some were leaving. We waded through the water and entered the still-dry house. We moved everything we could upstairs, prayed in the empty living room and then waded back to the car and spent the night at my parent’s house.
As we lay in the bed in the bedroom I grew up in, I lamented about our circumstances. The water wasn’t in our house, but it was surely on its way. Had I moved all of my books? Would it get high enough to ruin the electrical? Would it destroy our home? What would happen? Had we just lost the little we had built in our short marriage?
My wife looked at me, and with a voice that she uses only when she’s deadly serious, said, “Where is your faith?”
The next day we sat together on the couch as the rain continued. We heard stories of mudslides, watched horses rescued by helicopter on TV, listened to weather reports as if they were sermons, waiting for some good news.
The rain stopped mid-afternoon. We got in the car and drove the hilliest way we could find back to our house. We just needed to see what had come of it. A house across the street from us had burst into flames when the gas can floated its way to the hot water heater pilot light. Did our house meet the same fate?
Two Fire Fighters were standing at the end of my driveway. I thought maybe the water didn’t get in. They wouldn’t let anyone down our street, so I went down another street, through some trees. I waded through waist-deep water that rose to my chest in some areas. The Harpeth River is not clean water when held within its banks, and it was doubly disgusting now that it had picked up everything on its way to my house.
It was a slow process. You can’t run in water. I was afraid someone would see me and make me leave so I went slow and quiet. I made it to my neighbor’s house in a few minutes. I saw the firewood that went unused during the winter floating beside me. I knocked a log out of the way and noticed something else. I knew what it was, but that it was right here was amazing to me. There was a fake rock that had been given to us as a housewarming gift two years ago when we moved in. The words etched on the surface, “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”
This could have floated anywhere over the past two days. But it didn’t. It floated right by me Sunday, May 2 around 5:00 PM. It found me. It ran into me.
I grabbed it and continued wading toward the house. I reached the deck and was able to get some good standing for the first time. I could hear the voices of the firefighters at the end of my driveway. I was hoping they didn’t hear me. I walked up the deck and looked in the windows into the kitchen and saw brown water covering the floor. It had come in. Our house had been flooded. Things were different now.
There wasn’t anything to do, so I just turned around and walked back to the car where my wife was waiting. My fears were confirmed—our house was flooded. But something else had been confirmed during that walk too. Jesus was the only solid rock I could stand on. My hope was not in this house. It was in God. We were going to be ok.
The next day we came back and started cleaning up. We mopped the floors and wiped down the walls. Then we began pulling the hardwoods up and ripping out drywall. We had a long road ahead of us, but we weren’t alone. We had a community of people there to help us. They selflessly gave their time to help put our house back together.
That August, we brought the first piece of furniture back into the house. My wife cried as she saw the entryway table standing there. We had our home back. But it wasn’t our home anymore. Our names were still on the deed, but someone else had laid claim to it. This was God’s house. He gave it to us, but it was his all along. Now we could see that.
The next week we went out and bought a kitchen table. It wasn’t nice. It was from Target. It cost $120. It was a rectangle with four chairs. We still have it.
That table represented something. It represented the change that had taken place in us. We were not the same people. Our house wasn’t the same. Our marriage wasn’t the same. That table represented our transformation.
When we put the house back together that table became the centerpiece. It became the place where we ate our dinner. It became the place where we sat and talked. Eventually, it became the place where our first married Bible studies took place. It became the place where I fell in love with the book of Hebrews. It became the place that replaced the empty promises of our former life and solidified the new promises—the better promises—that our new life would be built on.
That table signified a shift that had taken place in our hearts since the flood waters came. It represented the change in priorities. The TV was replaced as the centerpiece. The kitchen table had won our hearts. And that table won us over because it was where we recounted the goodness of the Lord in our time of trouble. We became a family for the first time, not because of the flood, but through the flood. God took us from boring, lifeless man and woman through the rivers to bring water and life to our dry bones.
Water always goes to the lowest spot. It doesn’t care what’s there. It floods it, carries it away, erodes it, changes it. And that’s what the grace of God had done to us. The flood brought us low and God had his way with us in his grace. He changed us, and he did it by sending a river through our house.
For many those two days were harrowing. They were the end of family pictures and a house full of memories, I was (and am) sorry for their loss. But for my wife and me, those days were days of maturation. They were days when we learned that sometimes the best thing God can do for you is wreck your life. A flood of grace can come in the form of a flooded house. He’s the rock. Get off the sand.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/95ade83ee0e0b7da-bread-5ZXlzZjxKigpF1QpSyvNSup33al6CK.jpg\")
Photo by fireskystudios.com on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\n31 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
33 He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”
Matthew 13:31-33
In Matthew 13, Jesus begins telling parables, explaining what the kingdom of God is like. He begins with the sower, moves on to the weeds, and then, to further answer the question of the kingdom, Jesus gives two more parables. First, a parable of the mustard seed. Second, the parable of the leaven. Each makes the same point with different images. The kingdom of God is growing and spreading, but you can’t see it, and that’s how God wants it.
A grain of mustard seed is not the smallest seed on earth. Jesus wasn’t making a technical statement about which seed is the smallest. Rather, he was making a statement about which seed, being the smallest in use in farming in that day, grew to be the largest relative to its small start. The parable of the leaven teaches the same principle. It is a small thing that, when put inside something, grows into a large thing.
God has always worked this way. Unlike the ways of the world, where the loudest and most impressive receive the limelight, God goes after the small and insignificant. He chose Abraham of Ur and gave him his blessing. Out of Abraham, he created a nation that, even at its peak, was an unimpressive kingdom relative to the world. He chose a remnant out of Israel to preserve his gospel. He chose Mary, a virgin, to bear his Son. He chose a carpenter to father the Savior. He chose Nazareth to raise the Lord. From the smallness of the world grew the largeness of the kingdom. From weakness, his power comes.
This would have encouraged his disciples. They were nothing in their day: fisherman and tax collectors. But to them was given the keys to the kingdom. Even after their years with Jesus, they were considered by outsiders to be common, uneducated men. Their only authority was that they had been with Jesus. And that was all they needed. It’s all any of us need. That’s why Jesus tells us these stories—to show us how deeply he is with us, or, rather, how deeply we are with him.
Jesus was the ultimate pastor, and in his shepherding, he brings us into the depths of God’s purposes. He shows us God’s heart. He is not unconcerned with evil. He is against it. But his view is long-term, not short-sighted. His kingdom has come, his will is being done, and earth will one day transform into heaven. But that day has not yet appeared in its fullness. God is still patient, not wishing that any would suffer eternal death.
In his incarnation, Jesus endured what God should never have to face. He did it in no small corner of the world. He became the most famous person of his day and the most famous person of all time, but he did not start that way. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, through the womb of a virgin to a crib in a stall. He worked in the shadows, using the enemy’s strategy against him, coming in the veil of night whereby a star led his worshippers to his manger. On that Christmas Day, God’s armies of angels praised him, the war cry of heaven, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14). When God waged war on the evil of this world, he sent a baby.
And that baby grew in wisdom and stature, like any baby before or after him—as a mustard seed would, or a bit of leaven in a lump of bread. Jesus brought the kingdom of God in the most fitting way possible: slowly, intentionally, effectively. He grew alongside his enemies, awaiting the time of harvest. But his harvest came early. The enemy would not wait for the end. He acted beforehand, according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23). After the last supper, Judas went out to commit his sin, and it was night (John 13:30). And God was in control of it all.
Like an eclipse, the darkness overwhelmed the Son, nailing him to a cross. He hung there in condemnation, a Savior bearing the sins of the world. With a final gasp, he died. He was buried in the tomb of a friend. And he was gone. But the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5).
What the enemy believed to be victory was, in fact, defeat. Without his knowledge, the mustard seed had grown, and like bread too big for the pan, Jesus burst forth from the grave. The enemy may have had some whips and nails, but the Son had life, and his life outlasted the enemy’s death. There was Jesus, in his glorified body, shining like the sun in the kingdom of his Father. His present reality became the future hope of his people and the ultimate dread of his enemies.
What is the kingdom of God like? It’s like a sower spreading seed on the ground, wheat growing among weeds, like a mustard seed in the ground, like a little leaven in a lump. The kingdom of heaven is the rumble underneath the earth, waiting for the time of eruption. It’s growing by leaps and bounds, swallowing up the world, until that final day when Jesus returns and makes all things new. Until then, we remain, practicing patience. We may not be shining yet, but we have the Son himself to lean on. Evil may remain rooted in this world, but we have the Savior granting us the strength to carry on, giving us hope that his kingdom is swelling, and one day, at the end of the age, all will be set right.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/76bbad53eaee5afc-image-asset-DAxw3tYDPDsFIr5OtY4G2RMHbRqsXf.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIn the year that King Uzziah died, God lifted the prophet Isaiah in a vision to the holy throne room. He saw the Lord sitting high and lifted up, surrounded in praise by the angels. In response, Isaiah cried out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5)
In a moment of clarity, Isaiah saw himself as he really was. He saw his people as they really were. He saw God as he really is. And in response, he fell on his face before the Lord. He was humbled and repentant. He understood the wickedness of his sin. He felt his depravity. He would have accepted his condemnation. But he received forgiveness. An angel flew to him, and with a burning coal from the altar, touched his mouth and made him clean. His guilt was gone. His sin atoned. Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord, and it freed him.
God then needed a man who understood forgiveness to go to his people preaching of forgiveness. Who would he send? Isaiah pipes up, “Send me!” So God does. But Isaiah was given a tough assignment.
“Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9-10)
God’s prophet takes God’s word to God’s people, but they are unable to hear. The greatest task of their lives is one they fail to accomplish because they’ve traded the glory of God for the glory of man. They have exalted themselves above the Lord, and in so doing, have failed to attain the glory they seek.
The world Isaiah stepped into was a world at war with God. Jesus stepped into the same world. But the war was subtle. Shots weren’t fired all at once. Time was still pregnant, awaiting the fullness when all hell’s fury swelled toward the cross. God came offering peace, but the Israelites of Isaiah’s day, and the Israelites of Jesus’s day, refused to accept the terms. Instead, they waged war.
All Isaiah’s hearers had to do was listen and repent. But they couldn’t. Can you?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/7a6760a440aad554-image-asset-flNTOaQf5TYAeRg8xUZERlBSiKr3iN.jpeg\")
\n \n\n11 See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. 12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. 14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16 And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
17 From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.
Galatians 6:11-18
Paul ends his letter to the Galatians with a summation of his main point. His urgency is evident. He’s writing this ending with his own hands rather than relying on dictation. He wants them to feel his heart.
The false teachers are pushing circumcision for one reason: they don’t want to bear the persecution of Jesus. They don’t want to follow Jesus to the cross at the hands of angry Jews. So, if they add a little Jewishishness to their lives, they can claim Judaism and Christianity in some disfigured hybrid. They don’t mind deforming God as long as they aren’t deformed themselves.
The Christian life does not consist in what we do or don’t do. It consists in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What he accomplished is the only boast we have. We need no other. The world has been crucified to us and us to the world. We are more than conquerors through him who loves us.
The cross of Christ may be our boast but it is an offense to the world. It tells us all that we are so evil Jesus had to die to save us. It puts our pride on the ground and stomps it until it’s dust. Our only hope is that dust is swallowed in the blood of Christ’s cross. When he cleanses us, we become a new creation—no longer the person we were but the person God has made us. Our personal boast is broken as Christ’s cross is lifted up.
The Christian life will lead to persecution. That is no new revelation. Jesus himself told us it would be so. Paul understood the cost, but he could not deny his Lord. It was painful being beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, maligned, slandered. But when the scars healed he bore on his body the marks of Jesus. He became a living witness to the gospel of his glorious grace. The wounds hurt but Jesus healed them all. More than that, he put them on display before the watching world, proclaiming his good news of salvation. We may struggle through this life, but the marks we bear on our body will one day match the marks Jesus bore on his. And when we enter eternal life we will find, amazingly, we have the garment necessary for entrance into his kingdom. It wasn’t easy, but we went to war with Jesus and watched him slay the giant on our behalf. It was glorious, and we have the rest of time to enjoy the spoils.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/1de15451464b2022-image-asset-HUmPWXgf8fLAXGV673LEoKWeLDasTt.jpeg\")
\n \n\n\"Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.\" Galatians 6:2
American men today know very little of friendship. A recent study showed that the biggest threat facing middle-aged men isn’t smoking or obesity. It’s loneliness. No one sets out to isolate themselves, but as we age and get more involved in our jobs and family, we have less and less time for friendships. Before we realize it, we are on an island with no one to hear our cry. In fact, we’ve forgotten how to cry altogether. We may feel the heaviness but can’t find the cause and certainly can’t find the cure. But Galatians 6 makes no sense apart from friendships. In fact, much of the Christian life cannot be lived without others. Jesus saves us individually but connects us to a community where burden sharing is the norm.
Our churches should seek to fight the American pastime of loneliness. We want to push against the cultural call to isolation and push into the gospel call to loving our neighbor. The Christian life is hard enough as it is. Isolation makes it only harder.
So, who is bearing your burdens? Whose burdens are you bearing? Who are you confessing sin to? Who is confessing their sin to you? What other man really knows what’s going on inside you? Who actually knows you—not facts about you but the real you—the you kept hidden from so many others?
What if the Lord began creating friendships among us such that anyone walking through our doors on Sunday morning wouldn’t find just a collection of Christians assembled for a common cause but a group of Christian friends living life together for Christ? What change could that bring to our city?
As we are planting Refuge Church, we want to see a movement of men befriending other men for the sake of Christ because we believe gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture. And in a gospel culture, no man stands alone. In a gospel-culture, men stand ready to give their lives away to others, for Jesus’s sake. We are part of a brotherhood, refusing to settle for a solitary life, ready to engage in the battle of our times.
We can take one of two paths: we can wait and see how our lives and the lives of others turn out, or we can move towards one another in encouragement with the gospel. At Refuge, the answer is obvious. We choose the second option.
So here is how this works:
What's stopping you from starting this today? What barriers do you have set up in your hear that the grace of Jesus can't break down, flooding it with his glorious purpose?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/b5f6f8d2473b2d47-image-asset-DxmiQjBqPw8dUOHw5m6iyoZfjNwUFi.jpeg\")
\n \n\n16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Galatians 5:16-26
There is a grittiness every Christian needs. But this grittiness isn’t self-made. It’s God-given. The gospel puts steel in our bones, giving us an invincibility against the flesh that once killed us with every breath. We need this ruggedness because we daily face an internal conflict. The desires of the flesh cry out to be satisfied while the Holy Spirit calls out to be obeyed. Moment by moment, we have a choice. Will we obey the Lord or our flesh?
In the battle, the gospel is comforting, reminding us of forgiveness in the face of our sin. But it is also a call to holiness, commanding us to wage war on our sin. As Jesus comforts us with his grace, he calls us to stand tall next to him in combat. He leads us, and he arms us. Will we walk by the Spirit or will we gratify the desires of the flesh? We can’t do both.
What have we been doing? Our lives bear witness. The flesh leads to enslavement. Our desires show up in how we treat our bodies and one another. Is our sexuality out of control? Is our heart following idols of selfishness? Are our relationships strained and divided? If so, our story these past few days, months, or years has been one living under the passions of the flesh. Now is our moment to repent and trust Jesus for a better way. In our new birth, God gave us the Holy Spirit. He gave us gospel grit.
Gospel grit means we obey God in the face of our flesh crying out for satisfaction. It means we look to him for strength, knowing, in the end, he will give us more joy than the fleeting pleasures of this world. We don’t run from the battle. We face the enemy within and slay him.
We all experience this war inside. At the intellectual level, we understand the strategy. But at the heart level, we struggle to follow orders. We struggle not only with the big things. We struggle in the little moments. We can’t keep ourselves clean. We slack off on exercise. We sleep in and miss opportunities. We pause on the Instagram photo a little too long. We refuse to rejoice with a brother over good news he received. It’s the little things, moment by moment, that give way to a life drifting from Jesus.
But it doesn’t have to be this way! The Holy Spirit has been planted in our heart, and if we will listen to him, follow him, and let him lead us, we will find that his fruit will begin to grow. Our whole life could change. We could find more joy than we’ve ever experienced, more freedom than we knew was available, more peace than we could ever understand.
So, what’s the path forward? Paul tells us in verses 24-25. “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” There are two things. First, we are to crucify the flesh. Second, we are to keep in step with the Spirit. Die to self. Live to God.
The Christian life is not easy. It’s messy, bloody, sacrificial. It is a constant walking our sin toward the cross, offering the flesh, nailing it to the wood, and leaving it until it suffocates. It’s horrifyingly ugly and breathtakingly beautiful because it’s the same path that Jesus walked. What he did for us, he’s calling us to do for his sake. As he said in his own words, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).
We need gospel grit because the flesh doesn’t die all at once. It dies day by day, moment by moment. As John Brown says, “Crucifixion…produced death not suddenly but gradually…True Christians…do not succeed in completely destroying it while here below; but they have fixed it to the cross and they are determined to keep it there till it expire.”
We will never witness the complete crucifixion of all our sin in this life. But by God’s grace, keeping in step with the Spirit, we can crucify it little by little over the course of our life. Before we will take that step, however, we must see sin as destructive as it truly is. We can’t play with it. It’s not a harmless friend. It’s an enemy of joy. It is not what makes life interesting. It’s what takes life away. As Jackie Hill Perry says, “You won’t put to death what you believe is keeping you alive.”
John Stott shows us that rejection of our old nature is to be pitiless, painful, and decisive.
“So, Paul says, if we crucified the flesh, we must leave it there to die. We must renew every day this attitude towards sin of ruthless and uncompromising rejection…The first great secret of holiness lies in the degree and the decisiveness of our repentance. If besetting sins persistently plague us, it is either because we have never truly repented, or because, having repented, we have not maintained our repentance. It is as if, having nailed our old nature to the cross, we keep wistfully returning to the scene of its execution. We begin to fondle it, to caress it, to long for its release, even to try to take it down again from the cross. We need to learn to leave it there. When some jealous, or proud, or malicious, or impure thought invades our mind we must kick it out at once. It is fatal to begin to examine it and consider whether we are going to give in or not. We have declared war on it; we are not going to resume negotiations. We have settled the issue for good; we are not going to re-open it. We have crucified the flesh; we are never going to draw the nails.”
So, we crucify our flesh, day by day, moment by moment. But we also keep in step with the Spirit. In our relationship, God takes the initiative. He’s asking us to nail our sin to the cross, but he’s showing us that he did it first. By his Spirit, he’s giving us a view into the saving work of Christ, and through his Spirit, he’s giving us the power to follow. All we must do is walk with him. We don’t have to know the way. We don’t have to understand the path. We don’t have to know the future. All we must know is that he’s better than every alternative. Like a sheep that trusts his shepherd, we must trust our Good Shepherd and follow him even through the valley of the shadow of death.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/751e442d6a8437d2-image-asset-QcBPYReSR6iBLfPYqCtiRKnRn0f2DZ.jpeg\")
\n \n\n13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Galatians 5:13-15
What is true freedom? In our day, everyone wants it, but no one can find it. To some, it means the ability to choose who you love and marry. For others, it means living apart from dependence on the government. For yet others the definition is fluid: the autonomy to do whatever you want without any hindrance whatsoever. But Christianity alone offers the path to freedom. And, surprisingly to many, that freedom comes through submitting yourself to the rule of Christ. The truth of the matter is this: no matter what we may believe about our experience of freedom, until we have given ourselves as slaves to Christ, we will be bound to the slavery of our desires. We are not wonderful masters. We are oppressors. What we need is an exodus out of slavery—even the slavery of our own making.
What we need is not the fulfillment of our desires but the crucifixion of our desires. We need the Holy Spirit to awaken us to God, and in doing so, awaken us to real freedom—the freedom of God himself. When that happens, we stop treating other people are stepping stones to our freedom and begin serving other people in humility that they might experience the same freedom we’ve found in Christ.
Many misunderstand the freedom Christianity offers. Law-keepers see grace as the pathway to sin. But the Christianity is not freedom to sin. Christianity is freedom from sin. It is possible to use our freedom as a soldier would a base of operations. We can use the freedom we’ve gained as an excuse to go on the offensive, hurtling ourselves toward whatever we want. But to use our freedom in that way is to use freedom as the launch pad back into slavery. If a fish bound to the ocean chooses to use his freedom to jump onto the shore, he will become a slave to the air, and he will begin to die. If he stays inside the ocean, however, he can go and do whatever he wants. Real freedom is not the absence of all boundaries. Real freedom is the presence of proper boundaries. And the only place we can find proper boundaries is in the person who created the borders of the universe.
The false teachers’ self-righteous law-keeping persecuted the believers in the church, including Paul. Since they could not grasp the grace of Christ and the freedom thereof, they captured the Galatians in the snare of the law. Thinking they were obeying it, they instead violated it. They wanted only to make much of themselves, and so they used the members of the church as stepping stones to their personal glory. They took the second table of the law and smashed it on the heads of their fellow church members. To obey the law is to love your neighbor as yourself. They loved only themselves. Whatever good intentions they had, they disobeyed the law because they failed to love others.
The gospel has logic to it, though this isn’t apparent to the merely moral man. The moral man wants only to obey the rules so that he feels good about himself. He aims at the end of his life only to look back and be able to say, “I was a good man. I did some good—more good than bad. I earned my way. I am ok.” But morality is not the life Jesus came and died to give.
The logic of the gospel tells us that our goodness cannot come from us. Adam ruined or chance before we were born. But Jesus Christ entered our world, lived the obedient life we couldn’t live, died the guilty death we deserved, and rose to new life, showing us our future glorification if we will only follow him. The gospel says that we can’t obey because our heart is of the wrong sort. We need a new one. By grace, Jesus has purchased the new heart for us and through the Spirit, regenerates us, removing our hardened heart of stone and replacing it with a tender heart of flesh. This new heart has new capacities of love and obedience the stoney heart could only hope for.
This new heart not only longs to obey God (and since it’s God-given, it has God’s instincts included), it also longs to love others because in doing so, we fulfill the law. The redeemed heart does not despise obedience to God. The redeemed heart is the only heart that truly wants to obey God because its desire is born of God. The unredeemed heart, no matter how “good” the intentions, leads to biting and devouring because only one man can stand on top. But the redeemed heart is willing to lose it all because he has already gained Christ. He needs not bite and devour but humble and serve. In doing so, he finds not a loss of joy but the discovery of it. He’s following his Master’s footsteps all the way to glory.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/13ef95aae6b35bc9-image-asset-5M1PQZX0lWi8LgqAxFyVNK0GXV1ksj.jpeg\")
\n \n\n8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
Galatians 4:8-11
The hardest question to answer about anything is “why?” It gets to the heart of every matter. It is the question to diagnose every ill. It is the starting point for every remedy. And that’s Paul’s question to the Galatians (and to us). Why would you turn back on God? Why trade your sonship for slavery?
The problem, as with most problems, is the Galatians don’t see it as being all that dramatic. They’re likely saying, “Come on, Paul! You’re making way too big of a deal about this. We’re just trying to be good Christians! Why would you prevent us from obeying God’s law? Isn’t that what he wants? What’s the harm?” The harm, as Paul has already pointed out, is that to use the law as a ladder to God is to cut the power cord of grace flowing from the risen Christ. We are saying, in effect, “I know what you did, Lord, but can’t you see what I’ve done? Look at my achievements! Love me for them!” To say that is to deny grace. It is to turn God’s gift into our wages. But the only wages we ever earned are death (Romans 6:23).
We like to think of ourselves as law-abiding people. We feel good about ourselves the more we obey. But we can easily turn our obedience into a platform from which we demand God’s grace instead of seeing our disobedience as a need for God’s grace. We climb the platform thinking our good works gained us the spotlight only to realize that guillotine awaits. We deserve death, not life. Jesus deserved life but got death. Jesus made a terrible trade deal that worked to our benefit. Do we want to make a worse deal by spurning his offer?
The biggest “Why?” question we must answer is this. Why are we reluctant to rest in God’s finished work? Why do we insist that we have our hand in our salvation? Why would we, who have never succeeded fully at anything in our lives, want to put our dirty hand into the purifying work of God?
Paul feared he labored over the Galatians in vain. He feared his work of gospel preaching led only to law pursuit. He was astonished they left the gospel of freedom for the law of slavery. And it’s the same for every pastor since Paul. There is always the danger of a church turning from grace to law, and it can happen in an instant. When it does, not only have they abandoned Jesus, they turn on one another, biting and devouring, stepping on one another as they make their way toward God. That’s why, often, the first sign that a church is losing its first love is the way they treat one another. Here in Galatia, they’re treating Paul as a nuisance instead of giving him the honor he is due. He’s the one who first shared the gospel with them, bringing the news of salvation, but you’d think he brought a brood of vipers instead. They’re saying, “Come on, Paul. Leave us alone. Quit talking about Jesus so much.”
Paul labored on anyway, shepherding from afar, worried he labored over them in vain, but having enough faith to write to them still. After all, it’s not man’s gospel, it’s God’s, and if God’s, then it’s always the most practical thing in the world, the most urgent thing, the only thing.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/e071fe1d2b0c7df2-image-asset-ZSIC7hxeLWfSS02GVXuqrIZXsSyJ6L.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIn the Bible, God reveals himself to us. It’s not a picture of his face or a collage of thumbnails. It’s a story of his grace, stretching throughout history from the moment he spoke light into existence to the heaven-coming-down-to-earth end of it all. In the middle (at least roughly so), Jesus comes into the world, born of a woman, born under the law so that he might redeem all those born under the law. God incarnate, the long-awaited Messiah, the Seed of Abraham, the Promised One. Better than any man before him, he never failed the test of obedience. More innocent than a new-born baby until the time of his death, he died as a guilty man—the sins of the world placed upon his capable shoulders. Vindicated by God after his final breath, he rose in a glorious, new body, the future of all who shall follow him into eternal life. In the Bible, God reveals himself: that he created, he planned, he promised, he preserved, he came, he lived, he died, he rose, and he’s coming back.
In the Bible, God tells us the story of everything culminating in the most important thing: the gospel of Jesus Christ. But walk into any group discussion among American Christians and listen for the conversation to shift to that central story. Can you hear it? Probably not. Perhaps unlike anywhere else in the world, American Christianity lays on the bed relying on the slow drip of weekly pick-me up medicine supplied by a professional keeping them alive. American Christianity is, at base, indifferent to the things of God. No, let me rephrase that. American Christianity is, at base, indifferent to God. We like his things. I’m not sure we like him.
It’s in my heart, too. The subtle sigh as I look at my Bible on the shelf, indicating not my desire to read it, my gratefulness for its existence as a child is for his favorite blanket, but the irritation that it’s there, like a tedious job I need to make ends meet. The trailed off prayers as I go throughout my day, unable to hold together as if I’m conversing with a real person but distant and puny, scattered in a thousand directions, clouded by overused words and mindless ramblings, like getting lost in a forest. The lack of joy inside coming not from my circumstances as much as from the lack of the circumstances I want. I know God is the pathway, but to where does his path lead: my hoped-for circumstantial happiness or his promise-fulfilled eternal joy?
I treat God like a teenager does a parent, recognizing his presence but longing for him to leave me alone, for crying out loud. But to live in God’s house is not to cohabitate with him. It is to be with him, or rather, for him to be with me. It’s not a separate but equal relationship, tip-toeing around one another’s annoyances and practicing general peacekeeping. It is a takeover. When God comes in, he isn’t, as Ray Ortlund has said, getting a seat at the board room table of my heart. When God comes in, he fires the rest of the board and takes his rightful place as sole controller of the company doing business as David.
As I look out at the foundational indifference toward God in so many Christian circles, I wonder if the deal we thought we made in coming to Christ was like adding a member to the family. You know, the crazy uncle we keep hidden in the other room at the reunion, dismissing his radical calls to revolution as we take another cookie off the counter. I wonder if we miss the point entirely. We think of the gospel as our gospel; it’s a “me and Jesus” attitude that puts Jesus in his rightful place after me and asks him to take a supporting role in the adventure I’m trying to live out on my own.
But Jesus isn’t the safety chute in my backpack. He’s the plane carrying me up, the officer pushing me out, the parachute floating me down, the air holding me up, the wind hitting my face, the ground I’m falling toward, the sky I’m zooming through. I don’t call the shots as I like to think. I follow his orders, and when he says jump, I don’t hesitate at the door. I fall fast, knowing he’s there all along, even if the chute fails to open. If it does fail, if I fall to my death before I’d like to see this life end, I know it’s all part of the story he’s telling. It’s his war I’m training for. It’s greater than myself. It’s worldwide and cosmic, flesh and blood and spiritual through and through. It’s his world; I’m just living in it. And dream of all dreams, he’s not left me out. He’s called me to himself where the training is grueling and the days are long and the nights are sleepless but the glory awaiting never fades. An indifferent soldier is a dead soldier. But even the dead man can be raised by Jesus.
1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Galatians 4:1-7
Imagine God sitting you down at the beginning of your life. You somehow have the capacity to reason and understand all his words. He says to you, “I’m going to give you some rules to live by because in your immaturity and ignorance you’re going to need them. Without them, you’ll go down the wrong path. But you won’t be under these rules forever, only for a portion of your life. They will serve you and prepare you for the gift I’m giving you when you reach the proper age. When that time comes, the rules will not stand as walls to keep you inside, I will write them on your heart to go with you wherever I send you, and you can walk into the freedom you will have wished you had all your life. Will you trust me? Will you follow me all the way to maturity, allowing me to set the rules both now and then? Living under these rules for so long may make it hard for you to come out from under them when you reach maturity, but will you trust me then just as you’ve trusted me all along? Listen to me now—you have a great promise, but first, you must be trained. When you receive the promised gift, don’t despise the training, and don’t act as if the training is the purpose of your life. The inheritance is worth the wait.”
That is, in essence, what God said to his elect nation of Israel when he brought them out of slavery and gave the law on Mt. Siani. He made a promise to their father, Abraham, that through him a seed would come that would be a blessing to the whole world. They are his offspring, awaiting to promised seed. And God gives his people Moses to liberate from Egypt and enslave to God. Though it has been difficult in slavery to the Egyptians, and though it will be difficult now to be a slave to the law of God, they must hold on to God’s promise, trusting that one day the Seed is coming. The promise is on its way to fulfillment.
All throughout the Old Testament, God reminds his people of his promise. His law stands, as strong as ever, as the world races towards the fullness of time. But when the fullness of time comes, and God sends his Son and his Spirit into the world, the Galatians falter on their journey at the hand of the Jews who had received the promise. They listened to the sirens along the path, following them into slavery when God was calling them into freedom. The false teachers couldn’t understand God’s purposes. They couldn’t get beyond the law. They couldn’t see how God could grant them righteousness apart from their merit. What they didn’t understand is what Paul understood so clearly because, for Paul, it was not a new message. It was the old message, spoken by God at the very beginning. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)
God is under no slavery to the law. He is free to himself. His intention for his children is no less. Paul doesn’t disparage God’s law, as the false teachers accuse. He understands the proper place of the law for the Christian. The law was a guardian, keeping God’s people until the fulfillment of the promise in Jesus. In light of the fulfillment, Paul was in a hurry to move into the land of promise. Why go back to slavery when the kingdom of God is at hand?
We are too often tempted to sell our sonship for slavery. That’s where our heart leads when we forget the gospel. It’s all part of Satan’s scheme to ruin God’s plan. He knows our pride. Though we have received the gift of righteousness apart from the law, he aims to convince us the law will only add to God’s love for us. In doing this, he’s twisting God’s word, as he always has. When we believe him, and begin adding our works to Christ’s, we tear down Christ’s work for us and prop up our work for him. Satan doesn’t mind our obedience to the law of God—though he is against it—if it means we abandon faithfulness to Jesus.
And if we won’t use the law as a ladder to God, Satan will use God’s law, not as a provocation toward wanting God’s righteousness, as God intends, but as a gun to shoot his fiery darts of damnation. What God designed to be used to drive us to see our need for a Savior, Satan will use to convince we’re too evil to be saved. Whatever he needs to do, he will endeavor to ruin Christ’s name. He seeks to minimize the cross. But God aims to highlight it. That’s why, in the fullness of time, God gave us two gifts: his Son and his Spirit.
Jesus entered the world just as we all have: born of a woman. He didn’t skate around the law; he was born under the law to redeem all who were under it. Satan did his best to lead Jesus into temptation, but where we failed in following God, Jesus succeeded to the very end. This is the gospel—that Jesus entered our world, lived the perfect life on our behalf, and gave his life as a ransom for many. John Stott summarizes.
The divinity of Christ, the humanity of Christ and the righteousness of Christ uniquely qualified him to be man’s redeemer. If he had not been man, he could not have redeemed man. If he had not been a righteous man, he could not have redeemed unrighteous man. And if he had not been God’s Son, he could not have redeemed men for God or made them the sons of God.
In his work of redemption, Jesus made us children of God. As Tim Keller says, “The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.” How do we use our access? God sends the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, giving us his own voice. He provides us with a part of himself, so that when we need him, we have him calling out on our behalf, and he can never deny himself.
Only a fool would leave God’s house to build a shack to impress him.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/6afd476b79bc7068-image-asset-MLLZvWhUf27x8KOXzCbqKfLLX3g3wn.jpeg\")
",
"category": "Christian Life"
},
{
"slug": "how-to-greet-visitors-to-your-church-on-sunday",
"title": "How to Greet Visitors to Your Church on Sunday",
"date": "2017-07-18",
"tags": [],
"excerpt": "Some of us are more outgoing than others. Some of us can talk in groups better than one-on-one. But all of us have a responsibility to welcome others into the church God has called us to. There are countless ways to do this, but for those who find it hard to know where to start, ",
"image": "https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/bb651778f6a158b1-welcome-I0R67JFxqfmZFLn8G1iMS1OqqM1gUn.jpg",
"oldUrl": "https://www.thingsofthesort.com/blog/2017/7/18/how-to-greet-visitors-to-your-church-on-sunday",
"body": "![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/74c1b6564d0ea100-image-asset-aeloCUJrQPZjWkvJQrlCq797xk2HuQ.jpeg\")
\n \n\nI’m part of the church planting team at Refuge Church Franklin in Franklin, TN. And, as most church plants go, we have many visitors checking us out week to week, hoping we might be a good fit. Of course, as most church plants go as well, the folks we have are often busy getting things set up, ensuring the kids are taken care of, and catching up with friends pre-service. But if we’re not careful, we will let those good and necessary things prevent us from welcoming new visitors as we should.
Every new person walking through the doors on Sunday morning is a stewardship from God for, at a minimum, that day. They are image bearers in need of grace, coming to hear the gospel, whether they realize it or not. They are our responsibility. So, we must labor to be kind, wise, and Jesus-focused each Sunday.
Some of us are more outgoing than others. Some of us can talk in groups better than one-on-one. But all of us have a responsibility to welcome others into the church God has called us to. There are countless ways to do this, but for those who find it hard to know where to start, here are six ways to greet new people on Sunday.
1. Walk up to them, look them in the eye, shake their hand, and introduce yourself with a smile.
This point is so obvious it barely needs to be said, which is why it needs to be said. We all know this is the basic way of introduction in our society. So why don’t more of us just do it? The first hurdle is always the most uncomfortable. The best way to clear it is to sprint toward it and rely on your muscle memory. You meet people all the time. In most environments, you have no problem doing so. But when it comes to taking the initiative, you balk, waiting for someone else to make the first move. But in God’s church, we’re all responsible for welcoming one another as Christ has welcomed you (Romans 15:1).
We are excuse generators. We have a “reason” for everything we do, and more importantly, for everything we fail to do. We often allow ourselves to get too caught up in conversation with our friends or checking the kids in or grabbing some coffee that we forget that we were once new to this place as well. Had it not been for someone taking a risk and introducing themselves to you, you would have left that Sunday and never come back.
The first step is always the hardest. But if you never move toward it, you’ll never cross the finish line.
2. Learn to make purposeful small-talk.
I despise small-talk. But I also realize that it’s necessary. You can’t dive into the meaning of life if you haven’t first asked someone else about their life. It doesn’t take much to get people talking. It boils down to asking questions.
“How did you hear about our church?”
“Have you been in the area long?”
“Where did you move from?”
“Did you move for work or some other reason?”
“What do you do for a living?”
I routinely ask all of these questions of each visitor. They’re widely acceptable questions that give important insight as to why they’ve walked in your doors. If they’re new to the area, the likely know very few people. They need friendship. If they’ve been in the area a while, they likely have previous church experience and a story behind looking for a new one. Their answers not only get the conversation started, they tell their story in bits and pieces, helping you see how best your church could serve them, even if only for that day.
Small-talk is not easy for everyone. If it’s not for you, make a mental list of a few standard questions and ask everyone you meet the same thing. Have them ready so you don’t have to think of them on the spot. By asking questions, you’re welcoming the other person into your church and your life. They may not be forthright, but they won’t be mad at you for caring enough to ask.
If you just can’t muster the courage, take someone with you. The buddy system not takes the pressure off you, but makes multiple introductions!
3. Tell them about yourself (briefly) and your church.
Your questions will inevitably lead them to ask the same of you. Prepare concise answers. Don’t rush through them, and be as honest and precise as you can be, but don’t linger long on yourself. Your goal is not to give them your life story but to hear theirs.
Once you’ve made it through your list of questions, give them information about the church. Most visitors don’t walk in blind. Like going to a store, most people know the inventory. But don’t assume they know everything there is to know about the church. Give a brief history of the church, an overview of some key ministries that serve as easy entry points, explain the outline of the service and what they can expect. In other words, make them feel at ease and welcome to partake of the ministries your church provides. This will not only help them get acclimated but will provide an opportunity for the next point.
4. Invite them to something.
First-time visitors are there just to check it out. But it’s hard to get a big enough view of the church on one Sunday. It’s also hard to know what the next step is. For our church, sermon-based small groups (Community Groups, we call them) are the next step. Endeavor to know all the groups, the leaders, and the days/times. If that’s too much, help create a card for your church that can be handed out to visitors.
Don’t just throw information out, expecting them to remember all you’ve offered. Invite them to one thing that you’re attending. Explain what it is, what to expect, and why you attend. People rarely show up to a small group on their own initiative, and very many show up because they’re personally invited. Take responsibility for shepherding the person. And if you need to connect them to someone else because they’d be closer to their house, similar in age, etc., take the step to make the introduction and bridge the gap.
Everyone wants to be cared for. Care for them enough to invite them in.
5. Help them find what they need, and give them time to get settled.
Not every conversation with a first-time visitor needs to last forever. I typically allow five minutes. That’s enough time to ask my questions, give them information, invite them to something, and end the conversation, allowing them time to get settled.
In our individualistic society, people need space to get comfortable. They need to acclimate themselves to the new environment, ensure the kids are in the proper place and not crying for help, and so on. Ensure they have enough time for all of those essential things. Like inviting someone into your house and saying, “Make yourself at home,” we must do the same on Sunday, freeing them to get comfortable.
As you’re nearing the end of the conversation, find the natural break and shake their hand once again, welcoming them to your church. Let them know when the service will get started, point them to coffee or the kids drop off area, and give a big smile. Now, you’re free to find the next visitor and do the same.
6. Follow up post-service.
It’s good that you’ve met the visitor at the beginning, but don’t waste that momentum. You can never know exactly what they thought of the service or the sermon or the music, but you can be sure that they leave with the warmth in which they arrived. Find them after the service, thank them for coming, and follow up on the invitation offer. Give them space to say no but don’t fail to give them the opportunity to say yes.
I will often give my email address or phone number away, making the out easy for them and the invitation personal. If they don’t want to come, they can simply not reach out. If they want more information or to attend the next event, they have a personal contact that can help them. We also have a card that each new visitor is asked to fill out. This gives us their contact information to follow up. The key is to follow up. Filling the card out is a risk for some. If they take the risk and give you their information and you never use it, why would they think you care about them?
All of us have room to grow here. It takes a conscious effort to walk into a room and be a “there you are person” rather than a “here I am person.” But doing the hard work will yield fruit in the end. We endeavor to be friendly not because we want to be liked, but because the glory of Jesus is at stake. What we say to new people (and how we say it) will either give credence to our message about Jesus or take it away. As in everything, the beauty of Jesus is what we’re after, and if it makes us a little uncomfortable, well, that’s ok. Jesus endured the cross. We can endure an introduction.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/51459f32d5712a9b-image-asset-LGvPY0f4HyI0Gd6b5WlJkOi3u98hyz.jpeg\")
\n \n\n1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Galatians 3:1-9
When we hear the phrase, “Christ crucified,” what comes to our mind? For many, familiarity has softened the shock. We know it as truth. We believe it. But does it move our heart? As John Stott says of the gospel, “It is not a general instruction about the Jesus of history, but a particular proclamation of Jesus Christ as crucified.” And that’s the message Paul took to the Galatians: Jesus Christ has been crucified! But they turned to works of the law as if it could ever produce the kind of life-changing salvation that faith did.
Paul uses the Galatian's own experience to prove his point. In verse 2, he asks them how they received the Spirit. What is what they did or what they heard and therefore believed? They know the answer. They weren’t saved based on what they did but on what they heard. The message of Christ crucified changed their heart. The Holy Spirit entered and saved them. If, then, they began their Christian life by the Spirit, are they going to perfect themselves by works of the law now? If salvation means they have been granted a perfect standing with God, what could they add on top to make God accept them more?
These Galatians are so much like us. God's Spirit saves us through the work of Christ in the providence of God, and afterward, we slip into rule-following as if that’s where the real Christians gain their medal. But when we abandon God’s gift of grace for our effort, it’s a complete disaster.
Paul uses their own experience of salvation but also uses the Bible’s testimony of salvation to press his point further. The false teachers wanted to use Moses and the law God gave him as the ladder to God’s grace. But Paul wants to go back further to Abraham and show that it’s not the ladder we climb to God but the dimension he travels to us that mediates his grace.
Paul quotes from Genesis 15:6. Abraham had just received the covenant promise from God. “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” (Genesis 15:5). Abraham was an old man, far beyond childbearing years. His wife, Sarah, was just as old. But Abraham looked at his circumstances and then at the promise of God and trusted God’s promise. That’s faith. Faith is seeing beyond the outward appearances to the object of God standing behind it all. That’s how we’re saved. We can’t atone for our sins. We must trust that Christ atoned for them on our behalf. We can’t reconcile ourselves to God. We must believe that God has reconciled us to himself in Christ. We can’t change our heart. We must believe that the Holy Spirit has been given to us and is transforming us from one degree of glory to another. That’s what Abraham did when he believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
Faith has always been God’s method of salvation. And God has always been growing his faith family. That’s why Paul says in verse 8 that all the nations will be blessed because of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that the Gentiles would come to faith in Christ, and Abraham became their father. The blessing of God is not found in obedience to the law, but in faith in Christ. Once we have the blessing, then we can obey with a purified heart, which means we’ll obey as pleases God.
The false teachers in Galatia thought the way to please God was to combine God’s law with God’s gospel. But what God has filled up in the gospel, let no man empty with the law. That is not to say we should not obey. Paul never promoted disobeying God. But Paul also never (in his Christian life, anyway) advocated coming to God based on our merit. What Paul preached was Christ crucified, not Christ crucified plus works of the law. The gospel produces obedience, but obedience never produces the gospel. When the gospel comes first in our message, obedience flows from it. When obedience comes first in our message, the gospel becomes a side dish rather than the entire meal.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/29b9df306f758ecb-image-asset-HppCeF0Yg1uSvdIK4lAj8PaOyR2YmY.jpeg\")
\n \n\nWe have a problem, and what we need is not a simple removal of guilt. We don’t need our guilty slate wiped clean. We need a new slate altogether. Our problem is not one of degree, with some being more guilty than others. Our problem is one of kind. We have the wrong kind of heart. We need a new one. But how do we get one?
Here’s where the good news of the gospel shines. Being a Christian is not about what you do. It’s not about your effort. You will never make the necessary sacrifice, no matter how long you try. Only your blood would satisfy the wrath of God that your sin invoked. But Jesus willingly sacrificed himself on our behalf. He lived the perfect life so that he could offer the perfect sacrifice. He was a sufficient replacement for us because his blood was human yet without sin. Therefore, by a single offering, he perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
This changes everything. In the perfect sacrifice of himself, Jesus brought us something that the law could never bring. He completely satisfied the wrath of God, and he changed our hearts. Jeremiah 31:33-34 shows us how. There are two primary blessings. First, we will obey the law because it will be put within our hearts rather than forced upon us from outside via the law. Our heart is transformed to obey God out of love for him in response to his love to us. Second, all the sin separating us from God is removed and the only person still remembering them as a barrier to God is us. In God’s sight, our sin is dealt with. It is removed. We can come to him unhindered, without sacrifice, because Jesus has paid it all.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/4cc79772f62381c4-image-asset-UMs5cl1KfKaUB08auJrDqlcMZo9xiz.jpeg\")
\n \n\nWe look at our lives and, if we’re honest, we see very little glory. We see struggle and hardship and failure. We wonder what happened to the dreams we once had. We have been beaten up and cast aside. But the gospel offers us something new. In Christ, the story of our past failure can become his story of glorious redemption. Our mediocre present can become the sanctuary of praise. Our uncertain future can become highly anticipated consummation. In short, in the gospel, Jesus is bringing us all the way home to God. We may have some rough patches to wade through, but the destination is nothing less than glory.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/18ae9e531984fb67-image-asset-qxdmL4UC75zMb2BmidsgR7mPirYbLe.jpeg\")
\n \n\nHow do you live in light of the gospel? How you live helps you see what you really believe. For example, when you sin, what thoughts flood into your mind about God? Do you believe you must clean yourself up before coming to him for forgiveness, or do you run to him with conviction in your heart and cling to Christ’s righteousness alone? When others sin, what thoughts flood your mind about God? Do you believe they can find freedom in Christ right then or are you secretly holding them to some other external standard? In other words, is God’s grace sufficient for you in both what you believe and how you live? What about for others?
If we're not resting in God's free gift of grace, we will hold others to a different standard, and it will a standard that we ourselves set but that we attribute to God. We might call it the law. We might call if an implication of the gospel. We might call it obedience. Whatever we call it, if it's not the gospel of Jesus' work imputed to us, we will set the standard to something we deem achievable in our flesh and muddy God's grace. We will hold the pen in our hand and mark the boundaries and wait for others to get their act together. We will draw lines and keep others out. But God erases those lines, and with the blood of Jesus draws a wider circle around the whole world, encompassing all people groups of all backgrounds—whoever will believe in him—and includes people we would never even think of including. God reaches into the hell-hole of this world and grabs handfuls of hopeless sinners and puts them on top in his kingdom. Why does he do that? Because grace that big points to something so wonderful that only God can be in it.
So, are you holding the pen and drawing lines or are you resting inside the bloodline Jesus has drawn?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/95f736d2e8117ab3-image-asset-tiGYCcZKg4GJBPF0vHyRa5MqG0lGSF.jpeg\")
\n \n\nGalatians 1:11-17
11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
There were some in Galatia who said Paul got his gospel from the apostles, and like a game of “Password,” Paul had slightly changed the message along the way. We’re not really saved by grace alone. Obedience to the law justifies us along with God’s grace. Paul wants to make something crystal clear. He uses the phrase “For I would have you know.” This is a rhetorical device that recurs throughout Paul’s letters when he wants to stress a point. The point here is that the gospel he preached was not man’s invention but God’s revelation. The message came down from heaven in the person of Jesus Christ and was given as a revelation of his grace to Paul and to the Galatians.
Why does this matter? Because if it was man’s gospel, changing the message makes sense. More information, more insight, more time to think it over may provide valid reasons for altering the message. But Paul got his message from Jesus, not from man. Therefore, it is unchangeable because God is unchangeable. As John Frame says, “If God sets the standards, we may not argue with him. For us to debate with God is as ridiculous as for clay to debate with its potter (Isa. 45:9-11).” And arguing is exactly what these Galatian false teachers were doing. They were arguing not with Paul, but with God.
After all, Paul was a zealous Jew. If anyone was unwilling to bend the law at any point, it was Paul. He would have loved a gospel that came alongside the law, helping the law justify a sinner. But that’s not what the gospel does. It doesn’t sidle up to the law like a friend in an AA meeting. It comes in like a doctor to a patient on the operating table. Paul’s message was that radical, and his radical life-change gave credence to his message.
There was nothing in Paul’s past that set him up for a favorable reception of the gospel. He includes part of his story in verses 13-17 to show us the shift in his life. He was sincere in his Jewish faith but sincerely wrong in his conclusions. Rather than covering those sins, Paul writes them down for everyone throughout history to see! That’s the kind of change Jesus creates in the gospel. We become people willing to share our shameful past because of the bright future Jesus has given to us. When God reveals his gospel to us, we become honest about our past and use our story to help others understand God’s story. Only freedom in Christ can create such honesty.
Paul’s Judaism led him to persecute the church of God. What Paul was doing was an attack on the people he thought he was protecting: God’s elect. His desire for the purity of God’s word drove him to approve the killing of God’s people because he believed they were redefining the boundaries of Israel by following Jesus. He had no idea that Jesus had redefined the boundaries for them. It wasn’t their message. It was God’s. Paul just hadn’t heard it yet. When Paul did hear the gospel, he experienced a complete life change.
First, God set Paul apart from birth to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Martin Luther comments.
God has sanctified, ordained, and prepared him. God has appointed, when Paul was still in his mother’s womb, that he who raged against his church would afterwards by God’s grace alone be mercifully recalled from this cruelty and blasphemy into the way of truth and salvation. In short, when Paul was not yet born, he was an apostle in God’s sight; and when the time came, he was declared an apostle before the whole word.
Thus Paul removes all thought of merit and gives glory to God alone, and to himself only shame and confusion. This is like saying, “All the gifts, both small and great, both spiritual and physical, that God intended to give me, and all the good things that at any time in all my life I would do, God himself had already arranged when I was still in my mother’s womb, where I could neither wish, think, nor do any good thing. Therefore, this gift came to me by the predestination and free mercy of God before I was born. After I was born, he reached out to me who was loaded with innumerable and most horrible iniquities. And in order to make very plain the unutterable and inestimable greatness of his mercy to me, he solely by grace forgave my abominable and infinite sins and moreover replenished me with such abundant grace that I not only knew what was given to us in Christ but also preach it to others.”
Our faith is not some divine accident. It is God’s predestined plan.
Second, Paul was called by God in his grace. Because Paul was set apart before birth to the gospel cause, in due course, Paul was called by God’s grace to believe the gospel. There are thousands of pounds of theological weight here. It was God’s electing grace that saved Paul, not Paul’s ability to achieve salvation on his own. If we boil the gospel down to the basic ingredients, this is one of them. We are called by God to repent and believe. How does this happen? By God’s gift of repentance and faith through his divine call. God overcomes our resistance to him by wooing us to himself and causing love to rise from our heart to him because his love has come into us and transformed us from God-haters into God-lovers.
Third, God was pleased to reveal his Son. This language shows us the beauty of God’s love. It’s not that God is compelled by Jesus’ sacrifice to now do something for his people that he wouldn’t otherwise desire to do. No, God the Father is pleased to reveal his Son, Jesus Christ. This shows us that the gospel is, at the foundational level, a story of God’s love. It is an exaltation of love in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Like a Father who has a surprise for his child hidden behind the couch, God the Father cannot wait to reveal his Son to Paul. He ushers him into the room, turns on the lights, and with a smile, brings Jesus out from the shadows. And Paul’s heart grows three sizes that day, as he beholds the Son in his glory. God is pleased to give us himself. And when he gives himself to us, he gives our joy to others as we share the gospel.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/de0755722a4cfc13-image-asset-VAsQz4KBgpBlGoNQT5oyjM9M1Ukq1e.jpeg\")
\n \n\nPaul closes his letter to the Romans with a list of greetings. In our Bible study with my brothers of Refuge Church a few weeks ago, we looked at this passage and fought to mine some usefulness out of it. What do you make of a list of names, most of which we know very little about outside of Paul's brief comments?
1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, 2 that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.
3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. 5 Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. 6 Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. 7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. 8 Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. 9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. 10 Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. 11 Greet my kinsman Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. 12 Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. 13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. 14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. 15 Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. 16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you. (Romans 16:1-16)
On the surface, a list like this is tedious at best and a skip-over at worst. But if we will take the time to actually read it, we may find there is more to it. As we thought this passage over, one friend pointed out what Paul said about each person. In Romans 12:10 Paul instructs the church to \"outdo one another in showing honor.\" In Romans 15:7, he tells the church to \"Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.\" Here in Romans 16, Paul is practicing what he preached. He is honoring and welcoming in the most Christian way.
Think of how these folks must have felt as Phoebe read the letter to them. Mary's heart was warmed as Paul recognized her hard work. Rufus' mother felt useful and loved upon hearing her mothering was accepted and appreciated.
If you were to make a list of the people in your church, what would you say about each one? Why not say it to them now? They probably don’t see how they’re used by God in your life. They probably can’t understand how their messed up life adds value to the kingdom of God. Why not break that narrative with some gospel encouragement? Why not do it today?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/4ae36287cda0b99f-chain-8Ts9TxYBV65s0PEVHJ03Mof88W4sxw.jpg\")
\n \n\nRomans 15:1-13 shows us what gospel culture looks like.
1 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.” 10 And again it is said, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” 11 And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.” 12 And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.” 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Paul puts the burden of building and maintaining gospel culture on the shoulders of the strong. He is not excusing the weak. He’s simply telling the strong that they set the tone. They should bear the failings of the weak. In this instance, he’s referring to the “strong” Gentiles who enjoy the freedom in Christ to eat all foods and ignore Jewish festival days, and to the “weak” Jews who still follow the Torah laws. Paul is not calling the strong merely to tolerate the weak. He’s telling them to indulge them at the expense of themselves. They should bend over backward for them precisely because they understand freedom in Christ.
And what are the grounds for such a command? Jesus Christ himself. His work of humility is the foundation and power from which the strong can draw from. Paul uses Psalm 69:9 as proof of Jesus bearing the failings of the weak, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” As the strong bend down to help the weak, they replay the humility of Christ bending down to help us all. Their death to preference leads to new life for those for whom they die. That’s the power of the gospel. It frees us from our personal likings and comforts to serve others with love beyond this earth. To do this is to fulfill the command of Paul in verse 2, “Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.” A gospel culture knows nothing of pithy putdowns and mindless insults. It knows much of humble service and gospel encouragement.
We can only go so far in our own power. A car cannot run without fuel, but the car cannot create the fuel. Likewise, we cannot run without the fuel of the Holy Spirit, but we cannot create the fuel. God must give himself. And the good news of the gospel is that he has, and he does, and he will continue to do so. He does this in a variety of ways. One way is through the reading of the scriptures. Paul gives us insight into how he read the Bible and how he expects us to read as well in verse 4. “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The Bible is not just a historical record. It is a historical record leading us to the living God. We can look to it to find instruction on how to live as holy people. Furthermore, we can find in it encouragement and hope. How is this so?
The Bible is our primary source for the workings of God throughout history. And we know that living the Christian life is a high calling. Jesus did not rise from the grave to give us a mediocre existence. He rose from the grave to give us his best. But his best is hard for us to hold in our two hands. We lose our way. We get sidetracked and confused. So, God in his grace gave us the Bible to help in times of need. We have before us all the information the God of the universe deemed good for us to know. We would be foolish to ignore it. We would be wise to search it. Scripture endures. Scripture encourages. Scripture gives us hope. When it gets hard to live the Christian life, we can turn to the Scriptures to find the supreme example of humility in the person of Jesus Christ. We can see what he did and what he gives to find the strength we need to build a gospel culture that radiates Christ’s beauty.
In all this, Paul has one goal he’s striving toward. It’s the same goal the entire Bible is striving toward: the glory of God. Paul prays the first prayer since Romans 1:9-12. He prays that God would give them the endurance and encouragement to live in harmony with one another so that with one voice they may glorify God. He’s not praying that they would all learn to think alike but that they would all learn to love alike with the aim of glorifying God. Despite all our differences in ethnicity, race, culture, age, etc. God is uniting his people so that the sound coming from the church building throughout the world is the song of praise of the glory of his grace. It is one voice singing to one God who has made his varied people one people in his Son.
The glorious reality we have walked into when we came into Christ is the reality that in him we are welcomed completely. Jesus has welcomed us, and he calls us to welcome all his people. “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” The word Paul chose to use for “welcome” is the image of pressing into the heart. When another Christian walks into our church, our response should be to press that person into our heart. We accept them wholly, as Christ has accepted us. Can you imagine the beauty that would radiate from the community if that was the default reaction? How can the world ignore that?
After all, the work of Jesus benefited the whole word. It is fitting, therefore, that the whole world would see his glory. Paul uses several Old Testament scriptures to prove this point. The gospel was preached throughout the scriptures—the plan was always to bring the Gentiles in. Paul wrote this letter to the church in Rome filled with Gentiles. As Paul looks back over the Old Testament, he sees the fulfillment of God’s promises and this church is proof. Think of the joy that must have filled his heart? That’s why he prays in verse 13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” The Christian life leads to abounding hope. We serve and follow a God of hope that gives out joy and peace to his children. The path all in Christ are walking down is one that leads to an abundance of happiness. And the more people included, the happier it is.
Community is hard. A joyful and peaceful community is even harder. But God can create it through the gospel. And that’s why Paul is writing this letter. He aims to join Jew and Gentile. Michael Bird gives us a vivid illustration of how this may have looked.
Imagine a group of Gentile Christians in Rome, perhaps a mixture of slaves and artisans, sitting at the back of a leather-worker’s shop one night, huddled around a candle, singing a hymn, recounting their day, and sharing what little food they had. One of the slaves is a scribe and is able to read from a notebook a few verses from Psalm 69. Then in walks Herodion, a Jewish freedman, who had returned to Rome from Alexandria some weeks ago. Herodian turns to Rufus, the leader of the house church, and says, “greetings and peace.” Rufus has not seen Herodion for six years and when they had last met there had been a ferocious debate about drinking wine. Herodion had visited Rufus’s shop to explain why drinking pagan wine was wrong; it was defiled by its use in libations, so God-worshipers must avoid it or risk God’s judgment. Rufus wasn’t convinced and Herodion stormed off cursing Rufus and his pagan drink.
Now, however, Rufus looks at Herodion; he looks weak and malnourished. Perhaps his master has cast him out for his Christian faith. Everyone in the group looks at Rufus to see what he will do. Rufus rises, kisses Herodion on the cheek, sits him down, and gives him some bread and a few turnips and pour him a cup of water. He looks at Herodion and says, “Eat! For we all belong to the same Lord.” That is why Paul wrote Romans.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/6b788e4114a7b44e-image-asset-jizioqpzyCcnSQdoT2253AKp3ynVJK.jpeg\")
\n \n\nGrace and peace come from nowhere but God. That’s why Paul goes on to explain the God who grants it, “God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” It is the gospel message from this gracious God of peace that the Galatians so desperately need to rediscover.
To understand the gospel and the grace of God, we must understand who Jesus Christ is. He is the one who gave. Martin Luther sums it up, “Gave what? Not gold or silver or animals or paschal lambs or an angel, but himself! What for? Not for a crown or a kingdom or our holiness and righteousness, but for our sins. These words are great thunderclaps from heaven against all kinds of righteousness.” By righteousness, Luther means self-righteousness. It is not our goodness that causes our salvation. It is the death of Christ on the cross because of our wickedness that grants our salvation from God. That’s why Paul says he’s delivered us from this evil age. Luther goes on to say, “The force and power of sin is made quite clear by these words: who gave himself for our sins. Here we must note the infinite price given for our wickedness, and then it will be clear that its power is so great that it could not be put away by any means except by the Son of God giving himself for it.”
Our sin is our downfall. With it, we have lost all closeness to God. We cannot atone for our sin, and we cannot come to him with any gift to make us right. We must rely solely on the grace of Christ. And it is his grace that we can have in the gospel message. It is only there, and nowhere else. That is the problem Paul is confronting. It is as if the gospel of the free grace of God that was originally preached and accepted has been hijacked by other “teachers” who would add onto it a bit of the law to perfect the Christians in the sight of God. This angers Paul because to add to the gospel is to destroy the gospel and to set the believer back to an uncertain future with God. What God has given as a certainty who is man to come in and cast doubt?
Luther helps us see something in verse 4 that we are prone to overlook. Who is it that Jesus gave his life for? Luther says, “Consider very carefully every word of Paul, and especially note the pronoun our, for the effect consists altogether in the correct application of the pronouns that are found in the Scriptures…It is easy, in general and without the pronoun, to say how great was the benefit of Christ—that he was given for our sins, but for other people’s sins, worthy people’s sins. But when it comes to this pronoun our, our weak nature and reason recoil and dare not come near God, nor promise that so great a treasure shall be freely given to us; and therefore we will have nothing to do with God unless we are pure and sinless first. Therefore, although we read the words who gave himself for our sins, we do not apply the pronoun our to ourselves, but to others whom we deem worthy and holy; as for ourselves, we will wait until we are made worthy by our own works…In short, human reason wants to present to God not a real sinner but a pretend one, unafraid of anything, without any feeling of sin. It wants to bring to God one who is well, not one who needs a physician; and when it feels no sin, then it wants to believe that Christ was given for our sins.”
Of course, we gospel-centered people know we cannot make ourselves worthy by our own works. It is only the work of Christ that makes us worthy. But that doesn’t stop us from trying. Our flesh wants so badly to justify ourselves that we take any small proof of goodness to his throne as if it makes up for the whole of our sin. But to do this is to deny the gospel and refute the grace of Christ. What we need is to forsake our righteousness and cling to the grace of Christ with all our heart. As Ray Ortlund says, “What is it about this present age that’s evil? That’s a strong word, “evil.” What is evil about our era of history? Primarily, as we’ll see in Galatians, the most evil thing about this world is its righteousness. A brokenhearted whore clinging to Jesus is closer to God than the most upright solid citizen who does so much good that he’s too good for Jesus. That is what’s evil about this world – false righteousness.”
Therefore, let’s deny our self-righteousness and cling to Christ alone. But some of us look at this and laugh. We could never think of ourselves as righteous. We are wicked. We not only know it, we feel it. We feel it so deeply, in fact, that we believe God could never save us. Why would he want such a failure? But before we throw ourselves down Pity Lane, let’s see that this is just another form of self-righteousness. Are we the only sinner in the world so great that God couldn’t save us? How could we think so highly of ourselves such that we deny God’s grace in our life alone? This was Martin Luther’s problem. He couldn’t reach God’s righteousness, so he hated himself and God because he thought God hated him. But when he finally saw God’s grace, he refused to let anyone tell him it wasn’t for him.
“I have often proven by experience, and I continue to find out every day, how hard it is to believe, especially during conflicts of conscience, that Christ was given not for the holy, righteous, worthy, and those who were his friends, but for wicked sinners, for the unworthy, and for his enemies who deserved God’s wrath and everlasting death.
“Let us therefore arm ourselves with these and similar sentences of the Holy Scriptures, so that when the devil tells us we are sinners and therefore damned, we may answer, “Because you say I am a sinner, I will be righteous and saved.” Then the devil will say, “No, you will be damned.” And I will reply, “No, for I fly to Christ who has given himself for my sins. Therefore, Satan, you will not prevail against me when you try to terrify me by telling me how great my sins are and try to reduce me to heaviness, distrust, despair, hatred, contempt, and blasphemy. On the contrary, when you say I am a sinner, you give me armor and weapons against yourself, so that I can cut your throat with your own sword and tread you under my feet, for Christ died for sinners. Moreover, you yourself preach God’s glory to me, for you remind me of God’s fatherly love toward me, that ‘he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). And whenever you object that I am a sinner, you remind me of the benefit of Christ my Redeemer. It is on his shoulders, not mine, that all my sins lie, for ‘the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all … for the transgression of my people he was stricken’ (Isaiah 53:6, 8). So when you say I am a sinner, you do not terrify me but comfort me immeasurably.”
Satan loves this present evil age. But Jesus has delivered us from it because it was the Father’s will. Let us not think that it is Jesus who twisted the Father’s arm to accept us. It was the Father and Son together who set out to save our souls. And when they accomplished the work, they smiled from the throne and poured out the Holy Spirit so that we could behold their happiness. As J.B. Lightfoot says, “The gospel is a rescue, and emancipation from a state of bondage.” This present age is evil, and we still have much evil residing inside our own heart of sin. But Jesus has delivered, is delivering, and one day will deliver us finally and fully from it all. God’s rescue plan isn’t done yet. He’s still got more to give. All we must do is stay in the center of his grace, and we will inherit it all. It is this gospel of God’s grace that Paul earnestly desires to protect. And it is this gospel of God’s grace that compels him to write the bold letter to the Galatians.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/5c322209f7339de2-image-asset-AITtCadAoLeZ1Fr8VnYG8ZREttTP3C.jpeg\")
\n \n\nMany churches never go beyond Romans 1 whereupon they read, \"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.\" (Romans 1:18)
So, they never move beyond condemning the blatant sinner to condemn their own hidden sin according to Romans 2:1. \"Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
So, they never move on to see that their own self-righteousness is equally sinful. \"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.\" (Romans 3:10-11)
So, they never move on to see how God grants his righteousness to the sinner by faith alone according to Romans 4:24-25. \"It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.\"
So, they never find peace with God because they fail to admit their need for him. Romans 5:1-5 becomes a nice but unsatisfactory passage. \"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.\"
So, they never find the grace abounding over sin in Romans 6:5 because they refuse to die with him in order to be raised with him. \"For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.\"
So, they fail to see that wrestling with sin leads to needing Christ daily according to Romans 7:24-25. \"Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.\"
So, they never feel the mercy of Romans 8:1 washing over them. \"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.\" They never know life from the Spirit according to Romans 8:14-15. \"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry 'Abba! Father!'\" They never know the help of God in their weakness, according to Romans 8:26, because they know nothing of personal weakness. \"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.\" They never feel secure in Christ because they believe their arms are strong enough to hold on to him. When they slip, they must pretend instead of fall into the words of Romans 8:35. \"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?\"
So, they never see the glory of God bursting forth from Romans 9:15, because they believe God owes them something for their goodness. \"For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.'\"
So, they never see the boundarylessness of the Church of God according to Romans 10:12-13 because their dividing walls are so thick with exclusion. \"For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.\"
So, they never understand the wisdom and wonder of God's sweeping plan across history according to Romans 11:33-35. \"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 'For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?' 'Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?'\"
So, they never offer themselves as a living sacrifice according to Romans 12:1 because the gospel is merely step one on a ladder to religious success. \"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.\"
So, they never learn to fulfill the law they proclaim to obey because they fail to love one another according to Romans 13:8. \"Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.\"
So, they pass judgment on one another for weakness contrary to Romans 14:1. \"As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.\" In their church, opinions are all that matter.
So, they know nothing of the welcome of Christ, and therefore know nothing of welcoming one another according to Romans 15:7. \"Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.\"
So, they miss the entire point of the gospel Paul preached in Romans 16:25-27 because their doctrine created a culture of exclusion. One wonders if they'll find inclusion on the day of judgment. \"Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.\"
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/6d76b666933d8dac-image-asset-yU2BV2q1tbpSozNKh2c7uGgFLt9uIf.jpeg\")
\n \n\nTeach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments. (Ps. 119:66)
In Psalm 119, David prays for God's helping hand in good judgment and knowledge. We all need teaching from God. Without it, we remain lost and confused. With it, we grow in his ways and find joy. Charles Spurgeon comments:
Again he begs for teaching, as in Psalm 119:64, and again he uses God's mercy as an argument. Since God had dealt well with him, he is encouraged to pray for judgment to appreciate the Lord's goodness. Good judgment is the form of goodness which the godly man most needs and most desires, and it is one which the Lord is most ready to bestow. From want of knowledge David had misjudged the chastening hand of the Heavenly Father, and therefore he now asks to be better instructed, since he perceives the injustice which he had done to the Lord by his hasty conclusions. We are not able to judge, for our knowledge is so sadly inaccurate and imperfect; if the Lord teaches us knowledge we shall attain to good judgment, but not otherwise. The Holy Spirit alone can fill us with light.
What David desired was godly growth. He didn't want to merely know more about God. He wanted to know God more. He had misjudged him because he knew him less than he should. He had concluded God was against him when God was for him. He had held a grudge against God for his discipline when he was maturing him. The remedy for these grievances was growth in the knowledge of God.
We know relatively little about God when he saves us. We may behold his glory, but that doesn't mean we understand the weight. As we mature in the faith, we grow like students in elementary school. But unlike our school days, we will never outgrow the need for our study of God. We can never graduate from him, and can never reach the pinnacle of the field of divine revelation. The deeper we go, the wider he gets. We may find a corner to plow into, but that only leads to the caves of his mystery.
One of the gifts God grants in salvation is the desire to grow in the knowledge of God. For many (myself included) their days of reading books began shortly after conversion. Being saved by someone leads naturally to a desire to know them in the same way that meeting your future spouse drives you to study.
Learning about God isn't easy on our own. It works best inside the community of faith. That's why last Sunday night, we started something new at our church. It’s actually pretty crazy. A group of us met for an hour and a half for the first of ten months’ worth of discussions over John Frame’s Systematic Theology.
I say it’s crazy because this book is around 1,100 pages. It costs around $35. And each time we meet (which is every two weeks) we are all supposed to have read around 50 pages. That’s a steep investment.
So, why do this? Because we want to be a church where anyone can grow, and one way to grow is to think through theology at a deep level, over an extended amount of time, in community with other Christians. We do this because God gave us the gift of the mind. Thinking deep thoughts about God helps us walk with God.
Like David, we want to be sure the God we think of is the real God of the Bible, not the false god of our imagination. We want to relate to him rightly, and that happens when we get to know him.
Like David, we have a deep need for God's gracious touch to learn about him. He must teach us or we will never learn. He must bend down and speak to us as children so that we might become men and women of God who can testify to his grace in the world. And he not only can do that; he desires to do it!
On June 6, 1944, Fred Moyers boarded a B-26 Marauder airplane, one of 13,000 aircraft crowding the skies that summer day. The mission took place over the shores of France. The objective was to bomb weapon sites and bridges, disabling the enemy as the Allied forces invaded the beaches of Normandy.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/41b2ce3616e120f6-image-asset-gahRDIaugi9HnGFDRy4jW2x3h0eQgF.jpeg\")
\n \n\nFred's plane made it over the sea and into enemy territory, accomplishing their objective.
Months later, in January 1945, on his 45th mission, Fred's plane was shot down. He had only one option. He jumped.
In the confusion, he almost forgot the most important piece of equipment he needed to survive: his parachute. He ran to the door, and just before jumping, he felt a tap on the shoulder. The only other man in the plane was the pilot in the cockpit. His arm couldn't reach that far. You can hear the break in Fred's voice in the audio. That break is because he believes that tap was God's divine intervention.
Upon landing, the enemy surrounded him. He was escorted off the battlefield by German soldiers and spent the rest of the war as their prisoner.
His story is only one of many, but his story is one that matters to me because Fred Moyers is my wife's grandfather.
A few years ago, my wife and I sat down to interview him about this experience. You can listen to the audio included at the beginning of this post. (Note: there is some background noise that I don't know how to edit out. In a way, it'd be a crime to remove it. It's beautiful to hear because Fred's life is full. His family is big, and his love for them is bigger. To edit the noise out would, in some way, be to tarnish the story. The story of Fred Moyers reaches into the generations that have come from him. So, ignore the screams of my boys as they play with their uncle. Fred would only smile to hear it now. Smile with him.)
I've also included a portion of the audio transcripted below. It takes you through the first 3 minutes or so, giving a brief summary of his war-time experience, which, of course, he tells in the third person.
Fred is a true hero, like all veterans who served and gave and sacrificed. He will be 94 in September, and he can recall vivid details of the war, of D-Day, and the cost of it all, with tears in his eyes.
Here's to Fred and all the others who sacrificed so much.
Sarah Grandad, I want you to tell me about a story from your childhood that you remember. Do you remember anything from your childhood?
Fred Why, let’s see. I believe I do, Sarah.
Sarah What is it?
Fred Well, here’s what I have on my mind
Sarah Yeah, tell us.
Fred Ok. Fred Moyers's war story. Fred Moyers married Helen Talley on February 6, 1943. And he was inducted into the army on May 2, 1943. From March 1943 to 1944, Fred trained to be a soldier and also trained to be an engineer and top turret gunner on a B-26 air force bomber (they, of course, won the war). He took gunnery training at Ft. Myers, Florida and airplane mechanic school at Goldsboro, NC.
On May 10, 1944, Fred departed for England, arriving May 20, 1944.
He joined the Air Force 394 bomb group, 587 bomb squadron, in England to prepare for the Normandy invasion. There their targets were weapon sites, bridges, air drones, and gun placements.
On D-Day, June 6, they bombed gun positions at Cherbourg, afterward striking communications and fuel supplies, and strong points in support of the Normandy campaign invasion. They took part of the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944.
In January 1945, they flew over enemy territory in Germany for eight months. Then was shot down on his 45th mission and lived with the Germans for three months. His battles and campaigns were the European, African, and Middle Eastern ribbons with four Bronze Stars, two Overseas Service Bars, and medals of six Oak Leaf Clusters. And Fred was discharged from the service on September 6, 1945.
The full interview gives more details, but let me point out two things.
First, Fred starts his story with his marriage to his wife, Helen. That's because wherever Fred is, Helen is there also. They don't leave the same room without one another. I've never seen them apart. They're still living side by side, singing their favorite songs.
Second, Fred tells his story in the third person because, to him, all of life is a gift. He's not the hero, God is. He always says, \"Don't sweat the small stuff because it's all small stuff.\" I guess when you've jumped out of a plane and spent three months in a Germon prison camp everything else is small. But his statement isn't to belittle anything. It's to magnify the things that really matter. And as Fred approaches the end of this life, he has the bigness of the hope of glory to look forward to.
Thank you for your service, Fred. And to all those who served alongside, in his generation or in another, thank you.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:31-39
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/d71c929ebcff1211-image-asset-9TSw8zjVUGIyRcm3snhkqu6TDb6qc0.jpeg\")
\n \n\n13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. 16 So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
Romans 14:13-23
Foregoing judgment on non-primary issues is serving Christ because in doing so you are serving his people. We all have so many stumbling blocks in coming to the gospel. We trip over our own feet as we approach the altar. The more hindrances others place in front of us along the way, the harder it will be to get to Jesus. What we must do is not build new obstacles but to take a sledgehammer to the existing ones. The goal of Christian community should be to destroy anything that would stand in the way of another brother or sister in Christ from getting to Jesus. We do not have to agree on everything to create this loving environment. We only have to agree on one thing: the truth of the gospel. Andrew Wilson recently made an observation on Twitter that helps us understand this passage. He pointed out that we see Paul write elsewhere on two occasions the phrase, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” First, in Galatians 5:9, Paul uses this phrase for people saying something is essential when it isn’t. Second, in 1 Corinthians 5:6, he uses it for people denying something is essential when it is. Both cases are problematic. So, we must be sure we know what is essential, and what isn’t. We need to be able to do theological triage to discern what we should hold with a closed hand and what we should hold with an open hand.
So, here we must remember the gospel that Paul preached in Romans 1-11. We must remember that everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and that everyone in Christ has been freely justified by his work, not our own. It is the grace of God that saves. If grace, then it cannot be by works, otherwise grace would not be grace. Only then can we all seek to stand firmly in the grace of the gospel every time we meet. Let us not judge one another over nonessentials. Let us welcome. If we are to judge at all, let us judge whether we are placing a stumbling block in another’s way.
But how can we do theological triage? A good starting place is the Bible itself. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as you read, to give you the insight to behold the gospel. We can also look to the historic creeds such as the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed, where the essential doctrines are laid out for us. We should also look at our church doctrinal statement or statement of belief.
Michael Bird helps us by giving five helpful principles. First, learn to differentiate between areas of conviction and areas of command. Second, don’t major on minor doctrines or minor on major doctrines. Third, exercise your convictions to build others up, not to tear them down. Fourth, do not exchange freedom in Christ for slavery to human tradition. Fifth, at all times, act in love and carry each other’s burdens.
The goal is to walk in love, as Paul outlines in verse 15. If another is grieved by what you eat, you are not walking in love. That means we should care what the other person feels when we do something that we know is against their conscience. Even if our conscience is free, we set aside our desires for the good of the other person. Isn’t that what Jesus did for us? He set aside his glory to humble himself in the form of a servant. He took on skin to veil his radiance and live the life we should have lived to die the death we don’t want to die and save us from our sins. If Jesus was willing to do that, can we not give up one meal for the sake of another? Must we always win, even in the small things?
“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Paul’s words here are so clarifying. He’s gospel-centered through and through. He lets nothing get in the way of the gospel mission they’re all on. We love to argue. We love to set up tribes, or camps, or factions, separating ourselves from those with different opinions over small matters. But Jesus did not come and die for such nonsense. He came and died to save sinners and unify his people. How were you brought into the kingdom? By eating the right thing and observing the right day? Or by the shed blood of Christ on the cross, re-coagulated in the risen King? If you were brought in by his grace, welcome others brought in the same door. Welcome, and do not cast out. Whoever does this serves Christ and finds approval from other men (v. 18).
Splitting over small matters destroys the work of God (v. 20). We are given the stewardship from God to either create a beautiful community of unity or to establish pillars of our own self-righteousness. God is an includer. We are excluders. But Christ can change us into includers. He can re-direct our hearts. He can change us. But if he doesn’t change our convictions over what we eat or drink (or our view of baptism or any other non-primary issue), we must do what is in accordance with our conscience before God. We must be men who walk in faith because faith matters above all. The heart with which we approach God matters to God, and he will accept us or reject us based on the way in which we come to him.
We see this most clearly in verse 23. “But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” This is such a sweeping statement. Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin in that whatever is not done out of a willing heart submitted openly to God is sin for the person doing it. How can we then know if what we’re doing is sin? When so many freedoms are available, how can we be sure we’re doing the right thing? Here’s how. How do you feel before God about it? Can you partake with joy, or do you feel guilt or shame as a result? If you can’t thank God for the goodness of it out of a heart devoted to him, then you should not do it. Find something else to do. In sum, we all have our differences, but one thing remains above all: do everything you do with an open heart to God. He will fill it up. Remove the barrier and let his grace fall in.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/e49366adee1ef3fa-image-asset-WVnuVE2uq48pYER51YHJ7XZX7o7lKy.jpeg\")
\n \n\nJared Wilson writes in his book, The Imperfect Disciple, about a time he was acting like a weirdo.
Once I took my daughter and her friend shopping at a local outdoor mall. I dropped them off and then went to the coffee shop in one of those big chain bookstores. I read a little bit from a book, and I confess I looked at my phone a little bit, but when I looked up, I felt self-conscious because everyone else was looking at their phones. I decided to just sit there and think. I did some people-watching. I drank my coffee. But I kept my head up and my mind active. I did that for about an hour.
When my daughter and her friend finally found me, my daughter walked up and said, “You look weird.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because you’re just sitting there.”
Apparently, “just sitting there” looks weird. It was a strange sight to her to see someone sitting out in public who wasn’t looking at a screen. Or looking at anything in particular. She thought, in fact, it seemed a little creepy that I was just sitting there. That’s how upside down we are.
But until we learn to simply sit there, to be still, to be settled, to look at the great big world around us, to consider with wonder all these incredible humans made in God’s image, to look at his endlessly fascinating creation in long, steady concentration, we will continue in spiritual myopia and spiritual boredom. When our vision is constantly occupied by small things, we are tempted to yawn at the glory of God.
I know what Jared means when he says, “when our vision is constantly occupied by small things, we are tempted to yawn at the glory of God.” Do you know what he means?
We built a deck in our backyard this past winter. When I say “we,” I mean the guy we hired to build it. I said for seven years I’d do it, then realized I never would. So, we hired someone. He did a great job, and the deck is exactly what we wanted. We bought some furniture to go out there—the kind with nice cushions so you’d want to sit in it. And spring came early this year, so we have been able to enjoy it a lot.
I also happen to wake up early: like 4:00 AM early. I do this because I work a day job at a big company but I also have this love of reading and writing and serve as part-time preacher and teacher at my church. So, I have to squeeze every ounce of every productive hour out of my little body. (Pro tip: writing at night takes at least seven times longer than writing at 4:30 AM. Trust me.)
So, since I now get up before the sun rises, and since we built that deck in the backyard, sometimes I take a lamp out, get the cushions out of the deck box, and sit facing East. I read and I write and I study and I think about God and how to put the amazing truths of Romans 8, for example, into a 3,000-word paper that will help others see just a little of the glory. If you’re a writer, you’ll know that a lot of writing is sitting in one spot and staring into space for a considerable amount of time. It’s how we think. But have you ever done that as the sun rises early in the morning? Have you ever done that outside? Staring into space, I mean. Here’s what I learned.
Did you know there are different colors of morning? I had no idea. God doesn’t take the world from black night to day blue. He takes it through a progression of blues and reds and yellows and oranges. The first blue of dawn is not the final blue of day. It took me thirty-three years to discover that. What have I been doing all my life that made me miss something that happens every single day?
Every morning I wake up and begin my day. I do this largely ignorant of the amazing things God is doing just outside my window. He’s waking the world with a variety of colors and movements. It is as if the Earth is performing her great symphony and I have gone into the sound-proof room to escape the noise. I look outside and I see the morning but I don’t behold it.
And I ask myself now: if I have missed thousands of mornings of beauty and grace, how much more have I missed? If I fail to behold the glory of the dawn, how much more have do I fail to behold the glory of the Son? How is it that with all the grace squeezed into each day—from the Bible morning reading to the taste of the coffee to the blessing of a job to the joy of my family—do I yawn at the glory of God? I'm occupied with small things, not knowing that even those are windows through which to behold the glory of God.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/0ca40d917b8e9a6e-image-asset-ClK2b3uI6o1InkcCLZIx2aCgDQLuAX.jpeg\")
\n \n\nFrancis Schaeffer in his book, True Spirituality, helps us understand how God cleanses our conscience.
Martin Luther, in his commentary on Galatians, shows a great understanding of the fact that our salvation includes salvation from the bondage of our conscience. It is, of course, natural and right that as we become Christians our consciences should become ever more tender. This is a word of the Holy Spirit. However, I should not be bowed down by my conscience year after year over sins which are past. When my conscience under the Holy Spirit makes me aware of a specific sin, I should at once call that sin sin and bring it consciously under the blood of Christ. Now it is covered, and it is not honoring to the finished work of Jesus Christ to worry about it, as far as my relationship to God is concerned. Indeed, to worry about it is to do despite to the infinite value of the death of the Son of God. My fellowship with God is restored.
Now there may be a price yet to pay for my sins in regard to the state; there may be a harm to individuals that I have to deal with. These things still have to be faced...But as far as my fellowship with the Father is concerned, God says it is restored upon the basis of the value of the blood of Jesus Christ. And if His blood is of such a value as to bring a rebel and a sinner from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God's dear Son at justification, what sin is so black that it cannot cover it?
As I consciously say, \"Thank you\" to God for a completed work, my conscience should come into rest.
For myself, through the thirty years or so since I began to struggle with this in my own life, I picture my conscience as a big black dog with enormous paws which leaps upon me, threatening to cover me with mud and devour me. But as this conscience of mine jumps upon me, after a specific sin has been dealt with on the basis of Christ's finished work, then I should turn to my conscience and say, in effect, \"Down! Be still!\" I am to believe God and be quiet, in my practice and experience. My fellowship with God has been supernaturally restored. I am cleansed, ready again to resume the spiritual life, ready again to be used by the Spirit for warfare in the external world. I cannot be ready until I am cleansed; but when I am cleansed, then I am ready. And I may come back for cleansing as many times as I need, on this basis.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/75adaa5e6e5e7d06-image-asset-GoTK55tTDZmvAbX9h9rCp9k99dtOJB.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIn his wonderful book, Reading Scripture with the Reformers, Timothy George reminds us of Martin Luther's method of meditation. In a day when Twitter and Facebook timelines fill any free time, meditation upon scripture is a lost art. We find it difficult to do, if we try at all. But for Martin Luther, it was where he received his life. Below are George's comments.
Luther says that one should meditate not only in the heart but also outwardly, \"by actually repeating and comparing oral speech and literal words of the book, reading and rereading them with diligence, attention, and reflection, so that you may see what the Holy Spirit means by them,\" He further emphasizes that the call to meditation is a lifelong vocation: \"And take care that you do not grow weary or think that you have done enough when you have read, heard, and spoken them once or twice, and that you then have complete understanding. You will never be a particularly good theologian if you do that, for you will be like untimely fruit which falls to the ground before it is half ripe.\"
In his first lecture series on the Psalms, Luther distinguished meditating and thinking by defining the former as \"to think carefully, deeply, and diligently...to muse in the heart, to stir up in the inside, or to be moved in the innermost self.\" To be stirred so deeply in this way is not a matter of private musing but rather a rule of life that involves, as the psalmist says, meditating on God's law \"day and night.\" Day and night refer not only to matins and vespers but also to every season of human existence, good times and bad times, times of prosperity and times of adversity, of contemplation and activism, of life and death. In this context, Luther applies the description of the godly woman in Proverbs 31:18 to the ever-present solace of Scripture: \"Her lamp does not go out at night,\" that is, in the time of death. The focus of meditation is always the God-given external word, the inspired text of Scripture, not the innermost recesses of the human psyche. Oswald Baylor has well expressed Luther's concern at this point: \"Those who want to search for the Holy Spirit deep inside themselves, in a realm too deep for words to express, will find ghosts, not God.\"
The key sentence for me is: \"The focus of meditation is always the God-given external word, the inspired text of Scripture, not the innermost recesses of the human psyche.\"
I live in the world of introspection. I search out my innermost feelings and attitudes. I can tell you what's going on inside better than I can what's going on outside. I'm a reader of my heart more than a reader of God's. I see the text message notification of my fears and disappointments more boldly than I see the written text of God's inspired word. But that is not what God wants for me. I need not more of my own thoughts but more of God's.
If the focus of meditation is always the God-given external word rather than the innermost recesses of the human psyche, we must always be looking outside ourselves. That will be the catalyst for the inward transformation we're trying to attain with our self-analysis.
So, here's a rule to live by: for every one look inside your own heart, take ten looks to the cross. In our heart, we will find such ugliness and sin. It would do us well to see that ugliness and sin nailed dying with the crucified Jesus. Only then can we look beyond the cross to the newness of life granted in the resurrection. We all want new life. Why do we spend so much time looking inwardly when outside in the world Jesus kciked the stone away and walked out of the tomb? Don't you want to walk with him? I know I do. I'm tired of my treadmill.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/5211344df8ace626-image-asset-2sUADv3jgYKqWqQIhNXRYzlW7aZUjn.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIn his book, The Mark of the Christian, Francis Schaeffer said, “In the midst of the world, in the midst of our present culture, Jesus is giving a right to the world. Upon His authority, He gives the world the right to judge whether you and I are born-again Christians on the basis of our observable love toward all Christians.”
A lack of love toward one another, even in our differences, is how the Christian witness to the watching world is marred. More than that, it is the reason many Christians find it hard to live among other Christians inside the church. How many stories of church injuries have you heard? How have you been wounded yourself by the church? What is the solution? It is not withdrawal or retreat. Leaving the church will not make your or anyone else’s life better. Separating the believer from the family only increases the pain. The only solution is a commitment to loving the way Christ loves—covenantally. That means we love even when we don’t feel it. We can disagree and still love because we have already made a promise with the other person in the future to be there. We can love because it isn’t based on our feelings but on the promise that Christ gives.
Schaeffer goes on to say,
I have observed one thing among true Christians in their differences in many countries—what leaves a bitterness that can last for twenty, thirty or forty years (or for fifty or sixty years in a son’s memory)—is not the issue of doctrine or belief which caused the differences in the first place. Invariably it is lack of love—and the bitter things that are said by true Christians in the midst of differences. These stick in the mind like glue. And after time passes and the differences between the Christians or the groups appear less than they did, there are still those bitter, bitter things we said in the midst of what we thought was a good and sufficient objective discussion. It is these things—these unloving attitudes and words—that cause the stench that the world can smell in the church of Jesus Christ among those who are really true Christians.
We live in an age of differences. If you follow Christian Twitter, for example, you will see disagreement every day over what appears to be a minute detail. I can't keep up with the outrage. I often step back and ask myself, “Where is the love in this discussion? Where is the place for real disagreement with real unity in Christ? Must I choose one side in order to belong?” In those cases, where the disagreement is over a small matter, love must prevail. The strong does not judge the weak and the weak must not judge the strong.
There are sometimes cases where Christians will have disagreements over larger issues. How can we move forward without compromising orthodoxy and yet displaying love? How can we find the exit before the train goes down the tunnel of darkness?
Here, Schaeffer provides valuable insight.
What happens, then, when we must differ with our brothers in Christ because of the need also to show forth God's holiness either in doctrine or in life? In the matter of life, Paul clearly shows us the balance in 1 and 2 Corinthians. The same thing applies in doctrine as well.
First, in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 he scolds the Corinthian church for allowing a man who is an active fornicator to stay in the church without discipline. Because of the holiness of God, because of the need to exhibit this holiness to a watching world, and because such judgment on the basis of God's revealed law is right in God's sight, Paul scolds the church for not disciplining the man.
After they have disciplined him, Paul writes again to them in 2 Corinthians 2:6-8 and scolds them because they are not showing love toward him. These two things must stand together...
A very important question arises at this point: how can we exhibit the oneness Christ commands without sharing in the other people's mistakes? I would suggest a few ways by which we can practice and show this oneness even across the lines where we must differ.
First, we should never come to such difference with true Christians without regret and without tears…The world must observe that when we must differ with each other as true Christians, we do it not because we love the smell of blood, the smell of the arena, the smell of the bullfight, but because we must for God’s sake. If there are tears when we must speak, then something beautiful can be observed.
Second, in proportion to the gravity of what is wrong between true Christians, it is important consciously to exhibit an observable love to the world. Not all differences among Christians are equally serious. There are some that are very minor. Others are overwhelmingly important [Know the difference.]...
Third, we must show a practical demonstration of love in the midst of the dilemma, even when it is costly. The word love should not be just a banner. In other words, we must do whatever must be done, at whatever cost, to show this love. We must not say, “I love you,” and then—bang, bang, bang...
Fourth, approach the problem with a desire to solve it, rather than with a desire to win. We all love to win. In fact, there is nobody who loves to win more than the theologian. The history of theology is all too often a long exhibition of a desire to win. But we should understand that what we are working for in the midst of our difference is a solution—a solution that will give God the glory, that will be true to the Bible, but will exhibit the love of God simultaneously with his holiness...
Fifth...keep consciously before us and help each other to be aware, that it is easy to compromise and to call what is wrong right, but that is equally easy to forget to exhibit our oneness in Christ. This attitude must be constantly and consciously developed--talked about and written about in and among our groups and among ourselves as individuals.
In fact, this must be talked about and written about before differences arise between true Christians. We have conferences about everything else. Who has ever heard of a conference to consider how true Christians can exhibit in practice a fidelity to the holiness of God and yet simultaneously exhibit in practice a fidelity to the love of God before the watching world? Have you heads of sermons or writing which carefully present the simultaneous practice of two principles which at first seem to work against each other: (1) the principle of the practice of the purity of the visible church in regard to doctrine and life; and (2) the principle of the practice of an observable love and oneness among all true Christians?
Before a watching world, an observable love in the midst of difference will show a difference between Christians’ differences and other men’s differences. The world may not understand what the Christians are disagreeing about, but they will very quickly understand the difference of our differences from the world’s differences if they see us having our differences in an open and observable love on a practical level.
At the end of the day, do you sigh in exasperation or with love? What are we saying to the watching world? Is there unity among us? Is there a seeking of peace? If not, we need to listen to the Apostle Paul's words in Romans 13:8-10.
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
We should owe no one anything, except love. Paul’s message is otherworldly. He’s actually telling us to go into debt, but only in one case. He tells us to rack up mountains of debt in the category of love. Love doesn't mean approving or accepting all views. It means, for the sake of Christ, loving others as you would love yourself and showing that love in a multitude of ways. One of those ways may be the correction of bad theology. Another may be in the hug after a hard conversation involving discipline. Yet another may be the reception and giving back of that hug with the one who disciplined you.
Is your mountain of love-debt so high that only Christ can pay it?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/9dcd4ded0847fe48-image-asset-plWFdmYr7sARHgm7u1dLEZkFRJXtHy.jpeg\")
\n \n\n1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Romans 12:1-8
Paul transitions from the high exaltation of God’s glory in election and preservation in Romans 11 to the implications of following God in Romans 12. Christians are marked by how they live. They don’t live like people on their way to death; they live like people on their way to life. The body may wear down but the spirit soars to new heights as the gospel comes to bear.
Paul begins by appealing to us to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God. In verse 1 he says, “I appeal to you.” That’s interesting. Paul is an apostle. He could command us. But he doesn’t. He urges us. The gospel he just proclaimed provides the platform from which he can urge rather than command. Obedience is a response to grace, and Paul knows the love of Jesus will inspire a new way of living. The law and its commands creates outward obedience but inward ugliness. The gospel and its grace creates inward obedience and outward beauty.
So, what is he urging us to do? “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” What we believe shows up in what we do, even in our bodies. How we live is a statement on what we believe. Paul is helping us see how to live the Christian life. It is one of sacrifice, but not of the Old Testament kind. We don’t offer our lives up to God so that he can slay us, but so that he can empower us. We are taking our hands off our life so that God can put his hands on our life.
We’re called to be a living sacrifice. But the problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar. As Tim Keller says,
See, the old sacrifices were no problem. You killed it, and then that was it. They burned and it was over. A living sacrifice means every day, every hour, every moment, right now you have to deliberately, consciously, continually, and perpetually offer yourself to him. It’s constant. It’s never over. It’s intense... You’re not living the Christian life unless you put to death the idea that you have a right to live as you choose. I can’t believe I’m saying this in the middle of America. I can’t believe I’m actually pointing out to you that there probably has never been a culture in the history of the world more averse to the very essence of what it means to live a Christian life. Do you hear that?
What it means to live a Christian life is that you put to death the right to live life as you choose. You put to death the idea that you belong to yourself. You put to death the idea that you know best what should happen in your life. You put that to death, and you give it to God. It feels like a death to really say, “You know best, and I just trust you. Here’s what you say in your Word, and I don’t like it, but I’m going to do it. I don’t choose anymore.”
It feels like a death, but on the other side it’s life. That’s why it’s a living sacrifice. It’s a sacrifice that leads to life.
And that life is a life of worship. As Nijay Gupta says, “What Paul is calling for in Romans 12:1 is an invitation to live out the freedom of Christ (especially freedom from unrestrained passions) by surrendering oneself wholly, especially bodily, to God in worship.” To be a living sacrifice is to worship God with all your life, and that’s the entire point of Romans 1-11—to lead you into worshipping God. Our lives—the way we live, think, act, and feel—are to point to the God worthy of worship. That’s why Paul tells us not to be conformed to the world but to be transformed by the renewal of our mind. We are either being conformed by the world or we are allowing God to transform us. To have our minds renewed means to shift away from a debased mind—a mind of the flesh—and shift toward the way of the Spirit. It is to be transformed into the image of Christ where we are able to recognize the things of God, appreciate the things of God, love God and his people, and desire God’s thoughts more than our own. It is to take our hands off our lives and ask for God to never remove his.
When we take our hands off our life, our sacrifice shows up in how we sacrifice and serve other people. Paul shows us this beginning in verse 3. The for at the beginning of the verse indicates what follows is an implication and proof of verses 1-2. If Romans 12:1-2 is the way of life, the fruit is humility. Michael Bird says, “Gospel transformation requires a modest view of self and a generous view of others.” But achieving that modest view of self and generous view of others is a constant act of humbling ourselves. Just as we must give ourselves over to the Lord moment by moment, we must give ourselves over to others moment by moment.
Humility was not an ancient virtue. So, by pursuing humility, the church was setting itself apart from the world. It was an outpost of heaven, where the King reigns in exaltation because he was first humbled on Earth. And in this Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, the people pursue what the world despises because it’s what the King loves.
Pursuing humility doesn’t mean not using the gifts you’ve been given. It means using those gifts in humility. Each one needs to know how God made him: what he can and cannot do. And he should pursue to use those gifts accordingly. Though the church is many, we are one body in Christ. When everyone serves according to the measure of faith that God has assigned to each, God creates out of that service a radiant community that shines as an outpost of Heaven.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/75025ba5e712954f-image-asset-GA9Qvcq6AgD07Px0wwRtMlwtaLOF2S.jpeg\")
\n \n\n20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Romans 6:20-23
Verse 23 is the summation of all that Paul has been saying throughout Romans 6. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We earn death, but God gives life. That is the message of the gospel in seven words. The simplicity of it should not deceive us. There are depths here that we will never fully plumb. At the cross, we died. In the resurrection, we rose.
N.T. Wright says, “The Messiah’s resurrection means that those who are ‘in the Messiah’ now stand, and must walk, on resurrection ground.” When we see the miracle of the grace we have received, we stop thinking it as cheap and start seeing it as precious. We look and see the golden path to follow. The free gift is free because Jesus paid the ultimate price. It is free because he bore the wrath of God on our behalf. If we ever begin to think we earned grace, we have misunderstood it. If we ever begin to use grace as an excuse for sin, we have misappropriated it. If we ever start to grow tired of grace, we have lost the marvel of it.
Grace for the Christian brings a new power to obey. Jesus gave us life in exchange for death. The greatest treasures in the world stacked on top of one another and handed to us with a golden certificate of authentication would not be worth one ounce of grace dripping from the throne room of God. If we have one dew drop of the grace of God, we have enough treasure to fill the oceans a thousand times over. Would we ever think of wasting earthly treasures on rusty experiences and worthless thrills? How then could we think of spending God’s grace any differently?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/b2cc3d340e670b96-image-asset-dCPUy0h3BWYGIyyOIFbp8ahB7AEjug.jpeg\")
\n \n\n15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
- Romans 6:15-19
Romans 6:1 asks, “Should we sin to gain more grace?” Romans 6:15 asks, “Should we sin because of grace?” The answer to both is an emphatic “No!” We have come to Christ with all our need and placed it at his feet. We have pleaded with him to forgive our sins, and he has shown on the cross that he paid the penalty. More than that, he has granted new life with him. The grace he gives comes at the cost of his finished work. How could we treat it as a poker chip to be gambled?
Tom Schreiner says, “One is either God’s slave or sin’s slave. Those who think that freedom is attained by jettisoning obedience to God opt for sin as their lord.” Real freedom is not the absence of all rule. It is the presence of right rule. We cannot be free by throwing off all lordship. To do so is to be under the lordship of sin. You find the escape hatch by becoming a slave to God. True freedom is found living under the lordship of Christ.
We are slaves to the one whom we obey, and we all obey someone or something. Our lives are thousands of little decisions to obey either sin or God. One leads to death, the other to righteousness. Before coming to Christ, our master, Sin, led us to death. Every act of sin brought us closer to the grave and further from the Father. But after coming to Christ, our Master, Jesus, has so thoroughly cleansed and changed our heart that we no longer desire to obey sin. We desire to obey Jesus.
Paul says we have become “obedient from the heart” (v. 17). Heart obedience is different from behavioral obedience. To obey from the heart is to obey out of your deepest self. We have not done this on our own, finding our way to God like a pilgrim stumbling upon the New World. We have come to these blissful shores by the blood-stained path of Jesus. God brought us here. He emancipated our soul. He purchased our life. He became our Lord. Our former master beat us daily, slowly killing us. Our new master heals us moment by moment until we look like him.
We have the ability now to love God because of the great love with which he loved us. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The man who loves because he has been made free by God is the most revolutionary man on earth. He changes all values. He is the most explosive material of human society.” In an age where sin still enslaves, the man saved by God and following God in righteous is the most revolutionary man in town. If we will be open to God and follow him, letting him change us moment by moment, he will use us to spread this gospel of grace.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/a9d9bddee7dd6bfa-image-asset-V2PPGgxVTECHF6tPoO8owA0I5nI1i6.jpeg\")
\n \n\n20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
- Romans 5:20-6:14
One of the great wonders of the Christian life is reconciling who you are now in Christ with who you once were without him. We are like one who marvels as he sees his empty bank account become one with an infinite sum. Life will never be the same. For the Christian, however, our lives have not simply been enhanced as the rich man but resurrected as the dry bones of the valley (Ezekiel 37). We have passed from death into life.
John Piper says, “Romans 6 deals with the kind of life that leads to eternal life: What it is and how to live it.” When we placed our faith in Christ and trusted his finished work to set us right with God, we received his grace. What do we then do with that grace? In Romans 6, Paul points out two opposing options. We can use grace as an excuse for sin, or we can use it as a power for obedience.
There are two key words throughout this chapter: death and life. Sin leads to death, and grace leads to life. If we choose to use that grace to sin more so that grace might multiply, we have misunderstood the purpose of grace. Grace doesn’t increase because we seek sin, but because we pursue God. As we see God in light of the law, we perceive more of our sin. But we also see more grace covering our sin. That leads to more obedience to God, not less. Life in Christ is stronger than death in Adam. Grace saves us from sin and to obedience. Life is found in and lived through Jesus.
But when preached rightly, the gospel of grace leads to a charge sounding something like this. “So, you’re telling me that it doesn’t matter what I do. Jesus has paid for it all. If that’s true, then why not sin?” Should we continue in sin so that grace may abound? No way! How can we who died to sin still live in it? As Michael Bird says, “The problem with remaining in sin is the absurdity of the thought. It is kind of like asking whether one should remain stuck at the bottom of a well even while a rope has been lowered down to us. Grace is designed to get us out of that situation, not to make us feel more comfortable within it!”
Paul gives us five implications of this grace that leads us out of death and into life.
If there was a theme to Paul’s writing, it might be this idea of union with Christ. The Christian doesn’t merely follow in the footsteps of Jesus; he weds Jesus. What he is, we are. What he experienced, we experienced. Since God unites us with Jesus in his death, he shall indeed unite us with him in resurrection. The boundless hope of our life is not that we will bring ourselves from death to life, but that by being joined to Christ, he will do it for us.
The cross is the center of the Christian story. Upon the cross, Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins. It was not merely a nice gesture or a symbolic act. It was real punishment leading to real death for real sin. On the cross, Jesus, the sinless man, had the entire weight of sin placed upon him. He paid for it all. Since we are united with him, when he was crucified, we were crucified. Sin’s reign in our life is over.
Sin runs the course of life. David confesses he was born with it (Psalm 51:5). Sin’s reign is mighty and pervasive. It wire-taps our brain, reading our desires and offering the latest high. It infests our flesh, pushing us toward comfort and satisfaction in forbidden choices. But in the crucifixion of Christ, being united to him, we are set free from the rule of sin.
If the first event (dying with Christ) has happened, the second event (living with Christ) follows. God keeps his promises. If we have died with Christ, we will also live with him. Sin is irrevocably defeated. In Jesus’ resurrection, our relationship to sin is fractured.
Once upon a time, we were alive to sin and dead to God. But now we are dead to sin and alive to God. Jesus’ once for all death lead to his resurrection life. We join him in that. We don’t have to wait for it, either. We join him right now in part as we await the fullness of what is to come. We should consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God this very moment.
If 6:1-11 tells us what is true, 6:12-14 tells us what to do with that truth. We are not under the rule of sin anymore. It can allure us, tempt us, call out to us from the streets, but it has no power to make us obey. Sin has no dominion over us. We are under grace, and that grace leads us away from sin and into obedience. We can say no to sin and yes to Jesus. We can do this (and succeed in doing it) because the words of 6:1-11 are true.
The question that remains is not “will we receive grace?” but rather “what will we do with the grace we received?” There are two options before us. We can use grace as an excuse to sin or we can use grace as power to obey. Paul urges us to present ourselves to God (v. 13). Sin has no dominion over us. We are under grace. That means the grace we need to grow in holiness is the grace that comes from our union with Christ. We must never stop drinking from this fountain. Let’s present ourselves to God and let his grace rule.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/f98f26f3648812f8-image-asset-3izNFTvDGVrYJVcm16IA2GGwhpp0Np.jpeg\")
\n \n\nThe Westminster Shorter Catechism defines repentance as “a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.”
Repentance is not only turning from your sin. It is turning to God. It’s not just feeling sorry without changing. It’s feeling convicted and turning from sin to God. It’s being inwardly humbled and visibly reformed. It’s a directional change in your life from sin to God.
Repentance is one of the foundations of the Christian life. It’s mentioned over 60 times in the NT and Jesus’ first words when beginning his ministry were “Repent, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). So, we need to know what it is. You can’t be a Christian without understanding repentance.
David shows us in Psalm 51 what repentance is. Repentance is three things.
Look at verses 1-5.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
We might be appalled at David’s actions. But be careful. We are capable of the same sin. Seeing the sin of others is easy. Seeing our own sin is hard. It took David nearly a year and a prophet from God to see it. But when he does, he uses strong words about himself. He refuses to blame-shift, or make excuses. He owns up. In verses 1-5 he admits his sin: “my transgressions,” “my sin,” “my iniquity.” In transgressing, he knowingly steps over the law. In sin, he misses the mark of righteousness. In iniquity, he twists what God has made straight. He calls these acts what they are: evil. In verse 5, he admits he’s always been a sinner. He was born with it. Personalizing our sin creates sorrow for our sin. Repentance begins when we start using I and my. We start hating our sin when we see what it does to our relationship with God, and you’ll never repent of a sin you don’t hate.
Sin is always first against God. That’s why in verse 4 David says his sin is against God alone. God is right to judge him. Notice what he’s saying. David committed adultery with Bathsheba, but the first sin of adultery he committed was against God. David didn’t go from perfection to murder. It never happens that way. We sin step by step, smaller to greater. The first step is always to cheat on God. What would have happened if David repented of his lust before he sent for Bathsheba? What if he repented of his self-assurance before he stayed home alone? What if he repented of his pride before he overlooked the city he ruled? The earlier we repent, the safer we will be.
If we think of repentance as only turning from sin we won’t ever turn do it. We can’t. It’s too ingrained. What we need is a power greater than our sin. 19th-century pastor, Thomas Chalmers said we need the expulsive power of a new affection. We need a greater love to drive out our love of sin. We need to understand God’s heart toward sinners.
David understood. That’s why he could come to God in this moment of brokenness and plead, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love and abundant mercy.” He’s not demanding something from God, but pleading something from God. He pleads God’s own promises using covenant language, God’s “steadfast love”—the love he promised to have for his people for all time. He pleads for God’s abundant mercy—tenderness as a mother has with her child.
The lower we go in repentance, the clearer we see God. Sin clouds our vision. Repentance cleans the window. Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke comments, “Standing in the deep, dark hole of his sin, David looks up and sees stars of God’s grace that those who stand in the noonday sunlight of their own self-righteousness never see.”
Look at verses 6-12:
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
In repentance, God doesn’t abandon. He heals. But it’s not painless. In C.S. Lewis’s book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, there is a selfish boy named Eustace. He loved his treasures more than anything else, and one night he falls asleep with a gold bracelet on his arm, so happy to have it. He transforms into a dragon, becoming an outward manifestation of his inward self. He’s driven from humanity and in a moment of loneliness begins to cry. Aslan, a great lion, the Jesus figure, arrives. He offers to help Eustace remove his dragon-ness by removing the dragon skin. Eustace tries himself but to no avail. Aslan offers to help.
“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off...
Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off — just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt — and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me — I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on — and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again...
After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me...in new clothes.”
To repent is to be de-dragoned, to be de-sinned. In repentance, we’re not asking God to be anything he isn’t. Aslan wasn’t unwilling to clean. It was Eustace who wanted to do things on his own. When Eustace finally asked for help it flooded in. In repentance, we’re asking God to be all that he promises to be to us: heart-cleanser, spirit-renewer, Holy Spirit-giver, joy-restorer, life-upholder, sin-remover.
God came as unexpectedly to David as David did to Bathsheba. Both encounters held serious consequences. But whereas David’s actions led to death, God’s actions led to life. That’s how he always works. You may not see what you need to repent of right now. But in God’s timing, he will reveal it. Repentance itself is a grace. The prime mover in your relationship with God is God, and he loves you too much to let you remain unrepentant. God created you; he loves you; he’ll bring you back to him.
Repentance always moves us close to God. That’s why we must do it constantly. The gospel alone compels us to repent, and has power to change us. Only in the gospel do we have a message that says, “I know you’ve sinned, but your sin can’t keep my love from you because I paid the penalty for it.” We can deny our sin, we can beat ourselves up over our sin, or we can believe the gospel that God’s love has covered our sin. The greatest power for change is always love. So, here’s the goal. Let’s be a church staring at the love of God. He’ll call us to repentance, and we’ll have to think it through, and we’ll have to change, but we’ll have a power to change because the gospel never changes.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/35a9e16992884b3a-image-asset-8jNnzhYnANiLuY2Ond16gT56qc3VfT.jpeg\")
\n \n\n7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. 19 I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.
Verse 8 is the key verse in this passage: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Inside the City of God, no matter who rules the world around us, we know that Jesus is the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power (Heb. 1:3). We have no election to fret over. We have no takeover to worry about. We have no party to apologize for. God is on his throne, everything is going his way, and he loves us.
Leadership change can be disruptive to an organization, ushering in uncertainty and fear. We grow to love those who have led and pastored us for years, and when they go, we fear what the next leader will do. But there is a great hope that the City of God has that the City of Man can never know. Men die. God lives forever. Leadership change in the City of Man almost guarantees strife. Leadership change in the City of God reminds us of the true Leader, Jesus. With Jesus as our head, all godly leaders lead under him. Though the leaders may change, Jesus never does. It’s like the Vice President being changed after four years. Would we notice a difference in the direction of leadership?
Leadership change in the church should not be a cause for alarm. It should be a cause for rejoicing. But every Christian must have their eyes peeled for wrong doctrine. Leadership change is dangerous when the gospel is compromised. That’s why the author urges them not to be led away by diverse and strange teachings. As long as they follow those who preach the same gospel message, they will find the same gospel grace.
Some leaders have passed on to be with the Lord, and others rise to take their place, but Jesus sustains his church because he is the same yesterday and today and forever. We can submit to our Jesus-loving leaders because they are led by Jesus himself, and he always remains faithful.
But it won’t be easy. Jesus’ leadership is not accepted by the City of Man. If we are to follow him, we should expect the same kind of treatment that he received. He was dragged outside of the city. We should not be surprised if we are as well. In fact, the author of Hebrews calls us to voluntarily go outside the camp. We must leave the City of Man to come to the City of God. It is better to be mistreated with the people of God than to be lavished with all the riches of the world. We have treasures the world cannot understand.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/49534e7a6df55170-image-asset-MCGnodQMgf2jG01ifhKIvsaRNXWZO1.jpeg\")
\n \n\n1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:1-6)
In his classic book, The City of God, St. Augustine shows us how to think about the world. There are two cities: the City of God and the City of Man. These cities are founded on two loves. Augustine explains:
Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men; but the greatest glory of the other is God, the witness of conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, “Thou art my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.”
Hebrews 13 is about two cities, with the focus on the City of God. How does the City of God live? The residents, sustained by Jesus, persevere in love. They remember those in prison, hold marriage in honor, stay free from love of money, and remember that the Lord is their helper. By nature, the City of Man is opposed to the City of God because love of God has replaced love of Self, and Self never dies easily. The City of God operates under different rules, powered by the Holy Spirit. Whereas the City of Man looks for the easy way out, maximizing comfort and affluence, the City of God looks for the righteous way out, maximizing love and care.
Because the City of Man hates the City of God, the original audience would have known people imprisoned for their faith. The author is asking his readers to identify with them in their suffering because Christians comprise one body. Undoubtedly, that would have included watching over their spouses and children. The unity of the believers means not only that they are part of one church but that they stick their neck out for one another, even if that leads to suffering. After all, they’re following a man who died for the ones he loved. That’s not an easy call, but what in the Christian life is easy when living in the City of Man?
When it comes to holy living, the City of God never lets up. The joy of the Lord is their strength. So, naturally, the author moves from the hard to the harder. He calls his readers to two things in verses 4-5: marriage must be held in honor, and we must be content. The author has repeatedly warned us not to drift from God. One way we could fall away from the faith is to give ourselves over to sexual sin. Another way is to give ourselves over to greed.
Sexual immorality and greed are often closely linked. Discontentment leads to sexual sin, and sexual sin leads to discontentment. It is as true today as it was in the ancient world. Our disordered desires cause our downfall. But in the City of God, citizens are content with what God has provided because they’ve already received the deepest desire of their heart. They have God, the one who fulfills all longings.
We drift from God because we believe the Devil’s lie that God is holding us back. We are like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, considering the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge Good and Evil when the Tree of Life has been provided. Therefore, we fight sexual temptation and discontentment by considering Jesus Christ. Christ keeps us tied to the harbor of the gospel. He holds us in the throne room of heaven. We may feel the wind and the rage of the storms, but we cannot be lost at sea because the anchor holds.
To endure, we need reminders of the sovereign power of God. Here in Hebrews 13, the author quotes Psalm 118 as comfort and motivation for holy living. “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Our motivation to keep the marriage bed undefiled and remain content is the goodness of God. He will not leave us nor forsake us. He is our helper. The logic of the gospel tells us that all our greatest fears have been conquered in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. If the Lord grants us victory over our foes of sin and death, how much more will he grant victory over sexual temptation and greed? Is God holding out on us, or are we holding out on him? In which City do we have our citizenship?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/86244a0aa7d1c08c-church-5tVQTZdw4ZN72yGBQ5Xze1rzBylulo.jpg\")
\n \n\n26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 10:26-31 provides a warning. Considering the person and work of Christ, what happens to those who refuse to believe Jesus?
The author reminds us that we aren’t dealing with earthly adversaries. We are dealing with the one who “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (1:3). Jesus is waiting from the time of his ascension until the end of time when his enemies shall be made a footstool for his feet (10:13).
But we don’t have to be his enemies anymore. He has done the will of the Father. He has obeyed perfectly, fulfilling the law for us, and died to pay the penalty for our sin. He’s ascended into heaven, and he’s there now, at the right hand of the Father, sitting, ruling, reigning, and serving us as our great high priest. He has accomplished all the work to bring us near. If just listen to him, we will find in him a friend, one made like us to help us in our need.
If we refuse him, the Bible is clear. There no longer remains a sacrifice for sin (v. 26). There is a fearful expectation of judgment (v. 27). There is a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries (v. 27). There is a worse punishment than there was under the law (v. 28-29). The Holy Spirit is outraged (v. 29). “For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” There is one way to God– through the blood of Jesus Christ. Every other way is not only a dead end but an offense to the One who gave his life for you.
The author wants his readers to not only hear his words and heed them but to press these words into one another. In verses 24 and 25 he says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
The word used for “stir up” is the same word Luke uses in Acts 15:39 when talking about the strong disagreement between Paul and Barnabas. That’s the negative connotation. Here in Hebrews is the positive connotation. What he’s calling us to is not a “don’t be hard on yourself,” “give yourself some grace,” “life gets busy, I understand,” “we miss you, it’d be great to have you back when you are able” kind of encouragement. He’s calling us to a robust, durable encouragement that has a bite to it. What you and I need is not merely a pep talk or to get off the hook. We need an exhortation. We need a warning as if we’re on the edge of a cliff that we can’t see. We need to look one another in the eye and communicate that no less than the glory of God is at stake. We need strong words because we are weak people. We need strong words from one another because the glory of Jesus is too wonderful to miss out on. That can’t happen if we isolate ourselves. It can only happen when we intentionally meet together. If you want more of the assurance of God in your life, you must be in regular community with other believers.
Therefore, let’s not let one another miss out on the grace of God. Let’s not let one another fail to draw near to God. Let’s not let one another sin in secret. Let’s not let one another fail to stand for Christ. Let’s encourage one another all the more as the Day draws near.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/1aba22641aa9dd0b-image-asset-ii9ZW1ZHnqabmVoRtJXA22Jfnyu5di.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIn Philippians 3, Paul tells us of the righteousness we have by faith in Christ Jesus. It doesn't matter who we once were. All that matters is who are are now in Christ. We gladly give up what we once treasured, and forsake what we once pursued contrary to God. \"For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ\" (Philippians 3:9). We can lean heavily on Christ because we have something in Christianity that nothing else can offer. Paul goes on to say, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11)
Notice the order Paul places this. What comes first? The power of the resurrection. Then suffering. Then death. We are all on a path toward death. But for the Christian, while death looms, it doesn’t define. Life defines the Christian experience. But not life in a general sense. It is a particular kind of life – the power of the resurrection. This means that as we live as Christians we have a greater power than anything else in the world. Since the beginning of time, humans have sought immortality. Every god we create, every idol we fashion, is an attempt at gaining immortality.
Recently, I heard on NPR the results of a study. Here was the title, “Has the human life span hit the ceiling?” We have made so much progress in the diagnosis and treatment of disease that some scientists were wondering if we had seen the limit of human aging yet. Some thought the life span would just keep increasing. The results of their research hit a rock wall recently when the average life-span actually went down. One researcher confessed, “We cannot break through that ceiling. The take home message essentially is this whole ever-increasing life expectancy of humans cannot go on.” Is that really surprising?
We understand this desire, though, don’t we? Don’t most people want to live a long time? But isn’t the kind of life you live more important that just living? What Paul gives us here is insight into the kind of life we have available to us as Christians. We don’t have immortality as we typically understand it – with this present life going on forever. We have something far better. We have the power of the resurrection. The life Jesus lived – obedience to God, suffering, death on the cross, then resurrection – is reversed for us. We have the power of the resurrection – the great hope that all is not lost, that this life and the next really does matter. And in that power we can obey, suffer, and die with a peace that comes only from God. We have the righteousness of God in Christ. We don’t have to earn it. We just have to receive it. And in doing so, we have the power of the resurrection. Do you want immortality? You have it in Christ. But more than just that, you have real, powerful, meaningful life. We are invited into not just more of the same kind of experience that this life has to offer, but into the power of the resurrection life that only God can offer.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/fc31688c331ed7d5-image-asset-zV0aOeXpN75JJorpmTRRUWBcY4vq6f.jpeg\")
\n \n\nPastoring a church is not an easy job.
Here are 10 ways you can encourage your pastor (or pastors).
It's not easy preaching every week. It's not easy carrying the burden of ministry every day. And a pastor rarely hears \"thank you.\" A good pastor isn't in the ministry for a thank you from the congregation. They are not after man's approval but are working for God's approval (Galatians 1:10). They shepherd as one who will give account to God (Hebrews 13:17). But a thank you can go a long way. Pastors, like nearly everyone, are severely under-encouraged. My guess is you appreciate the work he does. Tell him so.
One practical way to do this: write him a letter. Emails usually include a criticism. Hand-written letters nearly always include encouragement. It shows you thought more than the 30 seconds it takes to send an email too. Letters also have a way of sticking around for a while. Emails get buried quickly. Letters are sweet reminders on the desktop after a long, hard day of ministry.
A general thank you is more than what many pastors hear week after week, but a specific thank you is life giving. Find one phrase or thought or action to thank him for. Specificity implies gratefulness. If a phrase from his sermon last week stuck with you, let him know. Lots of pastors hear very little specific feedback on their sermon. Imagine spending hours each week preparing something and you never know how it is landing on the people you're speaking to.
One practical way to do this: immediately after the service, walk up with a smile and repeat to him one phrase from the sermon that you found life-giving. Every pastor wants to help people see God. Tell him specifically how God used him that day. Even if he preached a dud find something to thank him for.
If God has placed you in this church he requires for you to submit to her leaders (Hebrew 13:17). Most of the time, that's an easy call. But stick around long enough, invest deep enough, and something will arise that you have to submit to. Do it joyfully, understanding that God is leading this church. If the gospel isn't being thrown out and sin isn't being glorified, submit.
One practical way to do this: when he says something that you aren't fully on board with initially, pray in the moment for a spirit of submission. Unless it is a gospel issue, or sinful, or illiegal, or...you get the idea, submit to the leadership. I guarantee your pastor has thought more and prayed harder about the vision they are presenting than your 30 seconds of evaluation.
That is not to say don't have problems, but don't create problems. Be a life giver and not a life sucker. It's no surprise to anyone who's lived with other humans that humans tend to make life harder to live. Pastors often see the worst parts. They are called when the crisis has reached breaking-point. They sit with grieving parents and children during deaths of loved ones. They have difficult conversations for the glory of God and the good of the church. Do all you can to make their job easy. Make it so your pastor is happy to see you.
One practical way to do this: when you send an email with a question or wanting to get together, be specific. It's really difficult to receive an email from someone in the congregation requestion to \"talk about something,\" or \"run something by you,\" or \"some feedback on your sermon.\" Include specifics as to exactly what you want to talk about, even if it is negative. Like anyone else, pastors appreciate the time to prepare for a conversation. Make their job easier, not harder.
Pay them well, if you are in a position to make such a call. Speak well of them to outsiders and insiders. Tell them how you see God at work in their life. Use your words to build up, not tear down.
One practical way to do this: speak well of him in public and private. Your pastor may annoy you. He might not be the best preacher. He may have a quirk or two. Don't talk to others about that--these are personal preferences. If he's preaching the gospel and walking in the light, don't beat him up for being who God made him. Instead, speak well of him at all times, just as you hope others would do of you.
Leaders take a lot of heat. Let only their actual words and actions be discussed, not feelings about such words or actions, especially if you disagree. Be slow to speak. Remember, don't cause problems. Don't let your prayer requests for others be a shrouded attempt to spread news that isn't yours to spread. Don't be the wind on the flame of gossip. Be the water.
One practical way to do this: when someone shares something you know is gossip, end the conversation immediately. You may be able to do this subtly. You may have to confront publically. Be wise in how you do it, but do not let a gossip speak long. Nothing can ruin a church as quickly as a bit of juicy information. The tongue is like fire (James 3:5-6).
Pastors love the people of their church and not attending is troublesome. It causes much worry. Come and be present. When you are absent, you pastor(s) notice. They have committed to God to care for your soul. When you aren't there, and they don't know why, they wonder how you are. Be tied into the church. Pretend it's like a family, because it is.
One practical way to do this: decide right now you'll go to church every week. Don't allow any room for excuses. Even if you're sick, come and sit in the back. Let people know you're not feeling well so you won't shake their hand and spread the illness. I make it a rule that unless I'm too sick to get out of bed I'm at church. It's not only encouraging to the pastor, it's good for your soul (Hebrews 10:25).
Don't wait for him to ask for your help. Offer it, and be satisfied with the answer of yes or no to follow. What do you have that you didn't receive? Worship God through the use of your gifts. Even if you don't love the job, do it joyfully. Most likely, you won't do it forever. If you can help, help!
One practical way to do this: learn your gifting. There are all kinds of spiritual gift tests you can take. Some of those are fine. But you know what you can and can't do. If you don't, others around you can see your strengths and weaknesses. Ask them. The point is, be ready to serve where and when you can. Open yourself up. Take a risk. Be dependable. After all, you're not serving your pastor. You're serving the Lord. You can never serve God too much.
He's leading you the best he can as he follows Jesus. Trust his instincts. Give the benefit of the doubt.
One practical way to do this: tell him you trust his leadership and are thankful for him. Be explicit in this, especially if you have a disagreeable personality. It's hard enough to preach each week. It's even harder when you wonder if certain people out there trust what you're saying. Following the Lord is a crazy journey. He asks us to do risky things from time to time. Trust that your pastor is following Jesus closely enough that you can trust him. Trust him until he proves he's untrustworthy.
Nothing means more than this. Every day is a spiritual battle. Satan hates what pastors do. He wishes nothing more than for a great fall into sin. Every moment, the battle is waged. How often do you include your pastors into your prayers? What if, instead of complaining that the sermon was too long, or that he forgot your birthday, you instead bowed your head in thanksgiving?
One practical way to do this: every Sunday morning on the way to church, pray for your pastor. He's about to preach. That's a hard job! He's about to lead the church in beholding the glory of Christ. He needs your prayers. Oh, and when you get there, tell him you prayed for him on the way. Let him know he's not the only one trusting God to provide today.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/6a942e93ff6da516-image-asset-CkWdm9vksE1h00P7qVmjVPnc1xf8Xp.jpeg\")
\n \n\n12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
In Romans 5:12-21, Paul deals with what we may call “federalism.” Federalism means one person acts as a representative for one or more persons. In the biblical view, God has appointed two representative heads: Adam and Jesus. Sin came into the world through Adam. Righteousness came into the world through Jesus.
Some people struggle with the idea of federalism, especially when it comes to accepting Paul’s words in verses 12-14. It’s hard for some to accept that they inherited sin. Some people believe man is basically good, and from time to time does bad things. But that’s not what the Bible says. Because Adam sinned, we are all born in sin. The theological term is Original Sin. Our Original Sin is a birth defect, and no amount of scientific or meritorious effort can change that which with we were born. Sin stained us from the womb because of our federal head, Adam.
But federalism actually works to our advantage, if we trust in Christ. Sure, it’s a bummer that we’re born into sin because of Adam. It may seem we don’t even get a fair shake at life. But give us enough time, and we would sin our way out of God as well, especially now that we have the law to show us what sin is. We don’t merely miss the mark with our sin; we stomp on top of the law on our way to sin. Whether we are born sinners or not, no one can look at his life now and declare righteousness apart from God. So, to be represented by Adam helps us understand from where we came. Adam was a terrible representative, yes, but he is our representative, and to deny that truth is to put ourselves in more danger, not less. Federalism is to our advantage because if it’s true that in Adam we all sinned, then it can also be true that in Jesus we are all made righteous.
Commentator Douglas Moo says, “The universal consequences of Adam’s sin are the assumption of Paul’s argument; the power of Christ’s act to cancel those consequences is its goal.” Paul has labored to prove the universality of sin. Now he is working to show the universal character of justification for those who believe. If sin condemns all in the church through one man, it makes sense that through one man all are justified. If Adam got us into the war, Jesus got us out.
Adam, as the first man, represented all humanity to follow. The result of his life is, therefore, universal and inescapable. In Adam, all die. But in Christ, all live. Paul calls the benefits of Christ the “free gift.” He mentions this free gift five times in verses 15-17. The point is exactly what it sounds like: the righteousness of Christ is both free, meaning we don’t have to do anything to earn it, and it is a gift, something we receive. Some gifts are as a result of hard work. (Think of a Christmas bonus for employees at a company.) But other gifts are given because of love. (Think of a Christmas gift to a child in a home.) The righteousness of Christ is of the latter kind. God gives the full benefits of Christ’s perfect record to his children because he loves them. All we have to do is receive the free gift with the empty hands of faith.
It would be appropriate to compare ourselves in Adam to a poor family that has made ruin of life. We started out well, with plenty of money in the bank, a beautiful house on a hill, abundant resources, and friends abounding. Then, out of sheer defiance, we decided we didn’t need what got us here anymore. We didn’t get there on our own, but we decided we could make it here on out on our own. We left the one who provided it all to blaze our own trail. In doing so, we cut ourselves off. In an instant, we lost the money. Over time, we lost the house. In the end, we found ourselves on the streets, wandering from town to town just trying to survive. As the generations were born, they didn’t realize the plight. They were born into this family. It just seemed to fit. Then one day a generous donor comes and says he understands what has happened to us and he would like to make it right. He aims to restore all that we squandered. He says he came into some money and it was more than he needed. He wants to share it. So, he gets out his pen and checkbook and writes the check to cover all the debts plus enough to meet every need from here on out.
We are in this family that squandered and lost it all. And then Jesus comes and begins to make all things new. He tells us of his righteousness, shows us his holiness, and grants us his forgiveness. In a moment of realization that came from somewhere outside our own heart, we believe him, give up our rags and follow him.
Joseph Hart, the 18th-century English pastor, put it this way.
I can feelingly say, he hath proved himself stronger than I and his goodness superior to all my unworthiness. He tells me (and enables me to believe it) that I am fair, and there is no spot in me. Though an enemy, he calls me his friend; though a traitor, a child; though a beggared prodigal, he clothes me with the best robe and has put a ring of endless love and mercy on my hand. And though I am sorely distressed by spiritual and internal foes, afflicted, tormented and bowed down almost to death with the sense of my own present barrenness, ingratitude and proneness to evil, he secretly shows me his bleeding wounds and softly and powerfully whispers to my soul, “I am thy great salvation.” His free distinguishing grace is the bottom on which is fixed the rest of my poor weary tempted soul. On this I ground my hope, often times when unsupported by any other evidence, save only the Spirit of adoption received from him. When my dry and empty barren soul is parched with thirst, he kindly bids me come to him and drink my fill at the fountain head. In a word, he empowers me to say with experiential evidence, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Amen and Amen.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/726a39e2d5689924-img_0433-XB4lauD1amry3REDb9AaoEo1XoDfsG.jpg\")
\n \n\n6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11)
The totality of salvation creates in the Christian a robust trust in God to protect and provide. Though it may include suffering, Paul wants to show us that our suffering should not discourage us from trust. The argument in 5:6-11 is this. God has already done the hardest thing in saving you through Jesus’ coming, living, dying, and rising. And he did that when you were in love with sin. How then can he not do the easier thing of keeping you safe and secure for eternity? He’s earned the fortune. What can stop him from spending it now on you?
God didn’t wait until we became savable. He’s not like us, weighing the options, trying to decide if action is rational at this point or that point. God had a plan for the world, and he worked out that plan. It was when we were still sinners that Jesus died for us. It was not when we were cleaned up or even when we became repentant enough. We offer him nothing but our trust in him.
Paul continues to drive home his central point of God’s love. How does God show his love for us? In dying for us. When does he show this? When we’re still sinners. The love of God would not be as clear if he died to save good people who make some bad mistakes from time to time. The love of God is most explicit when we see that he died to save bad people who never can do enough good to find their way to him.
That’s the theological truth. God saves sinners. In verse 9, he shows us the result. Since God justified us, he will keep us for eternity. Notice the verb tenses in verses 9-11. Past tense: “we have been justified by his blood.” Future tense: “much more shall we be saved by him.” Past tense: “we were reconciled to God.” Future tense: “much more shall we be saved by his life.” Present tense: “more than that, we also rejoice in God.” Past tense: “through whom we have now received reconciliation.” Paul uses prior justification for present and future hope.
Paul is showing us how to live the Christian life. When things pop up, how do we respond? We can look to the past justification of God, and from it draw implications that inform and transform our current circumstances. If God has justified us in the past, he must be able to keep us in the future. God doesn’t save partially. He saves entirely. He’s not giving us a get out of jail free card only to put us back in the world to see how we do now. He’s giving us an eternal hope. In moments of trial, we can look to the past reality of our justification to enjoy the present and future hope of glory on that basis. God showed his love at the cross, it is experienced in the present, and is kept in endless storehouses for us in the future. Whatever our need is at any moment, meditating on the justification we have received in Christ sustains us.
\n![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/5b12dc9a851af394-image-asset-aHcsoqVMkgYv3edLvsXFM50xGf5lPe.jpeg\")
\n \n\n1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)
In Romans 5:1-5, Paul is leading us to one place: God’s love. Justification by faith grants us access to God in a new way. Thus, there are four big advantages that the Christian now has.
First, we have peace with God (v. 1).
Paul has put forth a convincing argument that we are sinners worthy of the wrath of God. We, who were made by God for his glory, have rebelled against God and declared open war on him. He loved us into existence, and at the first opportunity, we raged back at him in sin. But that doesn’t stop God’s love from coming to us. He justifies us through Jesus Christ, granting peace with God. When God waged war against our sin, he didn’t unleash the full storehouse of his wrath upon us. He sent a baby to Bethlehem. He sent a boy out of Egypt. He sent a man to a cross. He did this to save us completely—so completely that it extends to our present reality and our future hope. We have genuine peace with God because Jesus bore the wrath we deserved.
Second, we stand in the grace of God (v. 2).
Through Christ, we have obtained access by faith into grace. Notice the present tense-ness of it. The Christian life actually exists in three tenses. In the past, God saved from the guilt of our sin. In the present, God saves from the power of sin. In the future, God will save from the presence of sin. We tend to understand the past salvation fairly well. We also tend to comprehend the future salvation well, though we cannot fully imagine it. The real battle is our present salvation from the power of sin. In the life of a Christian, there is always a struggle. Martin Luther said Christians are simul justus et peccator, meaning we are simultaneously justified and sinful. As sinners, we need to behold our justification as we wage war against sin. It there that we experience the grace of God.
We need more than a vague awareness of the love of God for us in the past or the future. We need a present reality with God, moment by moment. We need to see the wonder of Christ’s blood forgiving us and transforming us right now. Every moment of the Christian’s life is a time of present standing in grace. The same power that saved us is the power by which we can live. We have the grace of Christ. Francis Schaeffer says that to understand this is to have the key to the Christian life.
Third, we can rejoice (v. 2-3).
We may want to say that the benefit is that we can now rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. But that is not the full advantage. We can also rejoice in our sufferings. We can rejoice no matter what is happening in our lives. We have a great hope of glory—we will be glorified in heaven one day—and we have a great hope of endurance, no matter what suffering comes our way we can endure it. How?
Justification allows us to rejoice in the hope of glory because we have lost our condemnation. But it also helps us rejoice in sufferings because we know nothing can snatch us out of God’s hand. We realize that nothing can ruin the relationship we have with God now. Our sin wasn’t powerful enough to separate us, so how can suffering severe the bond? We can know that God isn’t punishing us because our justification says that we’ve been put right with him. He can’t punish us for sins that have already been paid for and forgiven. That would mean our justification wasn’t real, it was just theoretical, and God doesn’t deal in theories. He deals in realities. We have peace with God (v. 1). So, the worst that can now happen in our suffering is that we grow more in the hope of glory. During the pain, God is drawing us nearer to himself.
In suffering, we can experience reality with God. The theoretical ideas die and what remains is the raw reality of our relationship with God. Personal relationship replaces the mechanical Christian life. Our sufferings produce endurance. Endurance produces character. Character produces hope. As you suffer with Christ, you grow in Christ. He who has experienced all the pain this world has to offer, he who suffered the full wrath of God against sin will stand with you and for you as you endure the hardships of life. He will prove, moment by moment, the worthiness of his sacrifice and the unfading crown of glory awaiting you in heaven. The result of suffering for the Christian is a greater hope than ever before. Apart from Christ, we can only wallow in sadness. This world is the best we will ever get. But with Christ, we can rejoice in hope. This world is the worst we will ever get.
Fourth, we have the Holy Spirit (v. 5).
This is the greatest benefit of all. We have God living within us now. It was always the plan of God to dwell with his people, and through the Spirit, by way of the justifying work of Jesus, he makes residence inside us. The Father justifies us, the Son reconciles us, and the Spirit testifies to us. The triune God thoroughly saves us and keeps us.
These four benefits point us to one overarching reality: the love of God. That’s the goal toward which Paul is racing. This supports his statement in 1:16 about not being ashamed of the gospel. We are unashamed of the gospel when we see that everything from God leads us to God. When we see the glory of the gospel, we become willing to endure anything. The Christian has merely believed his way to the point of eternal life. We are the patient on the deathbed. Jesus is the doctor healing our soul.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/f4ebef7dd7fe01dd-law-FZUPSKtUBMmzb5CiKDOI2NHxhNGB6w.jpg\")
\n \n\nThe Old Covenant (i.e. the Old Testament) is problematic. We can't keep the law, and even if we try, we end up becoming self-righteous and breaking it anyway. You and I have a problem with the Old Covenant. We simply can't keep it up.
So what's the solution? The author of Hebrews helps us understand in 8:8-13
8 For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” 13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
The old covenant has passed away. The new covenant has come. John Piper explains these verses in the following way.
“What was wrong? What was the flaw? There are two ways to answer that question. From the human side and from God's side. From the human side the problem was unbelief and hard-heartedness (Hebrews 3:8,15,19; 4:7). From God's side the problem was that God withheld the sovereign enablement of his Spirit.
Listen to Deuteronomy 29:4. Moses is speaking as he looks back over forty years of rebellion in the wilderness: \"To this day the LORD has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.\" That was the ultimate reason why the old covenant was inadequate. God had lessons he meant to teach in the Old Testament and they involved enduring generations of stubbornness and rebellion and hard-heartedness until the time the new covenant should come.
But now it comes with Jesus Christ, the Mediator of a new covenant. He says three things about this new covenant: First, the will of God is going to be written not just on stone tablets or white Bible paper, but in the mind and on the heart. Second, the new covenant will establish a relationship of ownership of us by God: \"I will be their God and they will be my people.\" And finally, the new covenant will be personal and intimate. When it is perfected we won't have to exhort each other to know the Lord, because we will know him intimately and personally. \"All shall know me from the least to the greatest.
Christ is the Mediator of this new covenant, according to Hebrews 8:6. What does that mean? It means that his blood—the blood of the covenant (Luke 22:20; Hebrews 13:20)—purchased the fulfillment of these promises for us. It means that God brings about this inner transformation by the Spirit of Christ. And it means that God works all this transformation in us through faith in all that God is for us in Christ. The new covenant is purchased by the blood of Christ, effected by the Spirit of Christ and appropriated by faith in Christ.”
In Jesus, the shadows of the Old Testament have faded away. Jesus is the founder of the new covenant. The terms he brings are different, they are more gracious and more merciful.
It is not that the old covenant was not gracious. It was. For example, the Ten Commandments are preceded by grace. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2). But under the old covenant, Israel had to keep the law in order to be blessed, and if they failed they were under the curse of God (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 26-28). Clearly, it was insufficient because sinful men can never hold to the law of God. Our hearts are too hard without him. We need the softening that only comes through Holy Spirit-enabled regeneration.
The goal of both covenants was the same: knowledge of God. The problem under the old covenant was that we didn’t want to know God. As Paul says in Romans 1, we suppress the truth. Our hard hearts push God away from us. Until God does his work to soften the heart, we cannot, and will not, know him. The author quotes Jeremiah 31 (the longest OT quotation in the NT) to prove the fault was with man, not with God.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
Jeremiah is talking about the new covenant. This is groundbreaking. Nowhere else does the Old Testament speak of a new covenant. This is brand new language.
To bring about this new covenant two things had to happen:
Notice that both are the work of God for us. The old covenant gave us the stipulations by which we should live, but it did not provide the power by which to live it. But in the new covenant, the Holy Spirit is given to all believers to empower them and make them new. We have new hearts by the blood of Christ. We are washed, cleansed, remade. Ezekiel’s prophecy in 36:26-27 has come true, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
Matthew 26:26-29 shows us what Jesus did right before his crucifixion.
26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.”
What Jesus did during that last supper was more significant than serving bread and wine. He prophesied the work he was about to accomplish. Some manuscripts insert the word “new” before the word “covenant” in verse 28. Regardless of that word being there, we should read it that way, because that’s what Jesus was doing. He was instituting the new covenant. His body and blood were the covenant promises. His life was the covenant guarantee. What no one could have imagined was that God would come as a man and die on behalf of his people. But that’s exactly what Jesus did.
Jesus, our high priest, took the sacrifice into the presence of God and presented it for the atonement of his people’s sins. Jesus did not break the old covenant in order to bring about the new, he fulfilled it perfectly down to every jot and tittle (Matthew 5:18). He left nothing out. He satisfied God’s desire for the law so that he could satisfy our need to be made righteous.
What makes Hebrews 7-8 so powerful is that it proclaims to us the reality that the priest we need is the priest we have, forever and always. Jesus, our great high priest, has accomplished his work to offer the perfect sacrifice, and to become the perfect sacrifice, and has entered his priestly ministry in heaven now interceding on our behalf. Our life in Christ is safe because Christ is keeping us safe in heaven.
We don’t have to return to slavery under the law, trying to earn our way into his favor. We have his favor because every sin—past, present, and future – has been forgiven at the cross of Christ. We are free. Now it’s time to live like it.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/8928dad3ed4a5c9e-offices-TRn21knPU2VWbYzK9CyEWCmTZ7EpnH.jpg\")
\n \n\nThe Dutch theologian, Abraham Kuyper, famously said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” That means everything we do is under the watchful eye of God, and we have a choice, moment by moment, to submit to him or rebel against him. The great news of the gospel is that Jesus has looked down upon us and cried, “Mine!” He has saved us and relocated us from the kingdom of darkness into his kingdom of light. Our lives matter now and forever.
Every area of our life matters, including our work. There is not a square inch in the whole domain of your work over which Christ does not cry “Mine!” What are the implications? Specifically, what are the implications regarding speaking the word of God in the workplace?
Apart from our family and church, the primary mission God has called men to is work, and since Jesus owns everything, your work is his, and he has placed you there for his glory. My aim is to convince us that we can effectively speak the word of God into the workplace through three guiding principles: prayer, productivity, and platform. We must be men of deep and pervasive prayer, we must be men committed to productivity, and we must do both things for the building of a platform from which to speak. Let’s look at each one, and then we will consider one more belief to close.
Prayer
The Christian life is dependent upon God for power. Jesus told us as much in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” Do we believe that? If we do, our life of prayer will reflect it. If we don’t, we have an opportunity to see the power of God in our life in new ways.
The Bible gives us many examples of prayerful men. Let’s consider just one: Nehemiah. Nehemiah was among the exiles of Israel. He served as the cupbearer to the King of Persia, Artaxerxes. Some men from Judah brought news to him of the walls of Jerusalem. They had fallen, and the gates were destroyed by fire. They were left unrepaired. The city was in disarray. Nehemiah, a Jewish exile, was distraught. He sat down and wept. The first chapter of the Old Testament book of Nehemiah tells us of his period of mourning and prayer. He pleaded with God to forgive the sins of his people and to grant mercy. Then he went back to work for the King.
Nehemiah tells us in chapter 2 “Now I had not been sad in his presence.” The King noticed his sadness and asked, “Why is your face sad, seeing that you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Nehemiah was unsure, but he spoke up. “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” The King knew he was going somewhere with this, but where? He asks, “What are you requesting?” The moment has arrived. What will Nehemiah say?
Nehemiah 2:4 has one phrase that makes all the difference. “So I prayed to the God of heaven.” Here is Nehemiah, before the King. He is on the precipice of asking for his release to go and do the work the Lord is calling him to. He needs courage. What does he do in that brief moment? He prays.
Now, you and I will not be asking our bosses for release to repair broken down walls in Jerusalem, but there is a principle here to grasp. We will all face moments among coworkers or bosses that will force us into corners. At some point, our allegiance to Christ must be made known. That should come from the words you say and the actions you take or don’t take. Whatever the case, a moment will come where you can say or not say something vital for the Lord. At that moment, follow Nehemiah. Pray. Do not depend on yourself. You can’t be trusted. Depend on the Lord. It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.
Productivity
In Ephesians 5:15-17, the apostle Paul tells us, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
The author of Proverbs tells us in 6:6-8, “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.”
We are called to do our work well. Being productive is not simply a good way to keep your job; it is a good way to love others. John Piper says, “Aimless, unproductive Christians contradict the creative, purposeful, powerful, merciful God we love.” The more productive we are in the workplace, the more legitimacy we build and the more good we can do for the most amount of people. People depend on us. The better we do our work, the better others can do their work, and the more freedom we will have for unobstructed conversation. Furthermore, the better work we do, the more we image our Creator. Being productive in the work your boss asks you to do is a good work that ultimately points back to the one whom you truly work for, God.
As hard as it may be, and as bad as it may feel Monday-Friday, work is not a result of the fall. Genesis 2 is the pinnacle of God’s creation. Man is born. Then, in Genesis 2:15, the Bible says, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” There we have it. God gave Adam work to do. The next verse gave him boundaries to obey, and a chapter later, Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, birthing sin into the world. But before sin, there was work. And God said that it was good.
Matt Perman is an expert on this subject. He says, “A radical concern for others is to be at the heart of our productivity and at the heart of everything we do every day. Hence, being productive is not just about getting things done. It’s about being a useful person, making a contribution, and leaving things better than you found them. It’s about always being on the lookout to do good for others and knowing how. Christians are to be known by their love—not just love in the abstract but in their everyday lives. And this is substantially shown through a concern for being of benefit to others in all that we do (not just some things that we do)…A life of serving is a life of joy and adventure and excitement—far more exciting, in fact, than a life lived for yourself, no matter how many times you get to travel the world.”
In the words of John Wesley, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.” When we do this, we create the necessary space and equity needed to take the gospel to a hard area like the workplace. The better employees and bosses we are, the most open others will be.
Platform
Our private life before God, and our public life before others are important, but the two can never be connected until we open our mouths. We seek to become prayerful, productive men because in doing so, we create a platform from which to speak the word of God in our workplace.
The Bible says God determines the times and places in which we live (Acts 17:26). You are not at your workplace by accident but by divine providence. You have been lovingly placed there by God, for his glory, for the good of others. Day after day, as we seek the Lord in prayer for those we work with, and work hard unto the Lord, he will provide opportunities to share the gospel.
We are human beings made for relationships. Therefore, we should befriend those we work with. We should also see that no relationship is more important than relationship with God. Due to sin, human beings stand guilty before God. That should trouble us.
Francis Schaeffer said, “As Christians, we should be deeply concerned that the unsaved world is under the wrath of a holy God. We should not be able to think about this without some emotional reaction. Let’s get this in our heads: People are lost. If we think of the unsaved world being under the wrath of God merely as an intellectual concept, remaining unstirred emotionally, we have already entered the door of dead orthodoxy. These people are my fellow humans, and they are under the wrath of God.”
We will speak up when God provides the platform when we see others as lost and guilty before God. We will keep silent when God provides the platform when we see others as mostly good people who are doing just fine in life. We need eternal lenses through which to see the world.
But we must also realize that we are not the savior of the world. God may have placed us in our workplace to share his good news, but he has not placed us there to become anyone’s savior. Jesus is all the savior the world will ever need. Our job is simply to speak of him. We are dying men speaking to a dying world. We have what everyone needs. Will we speak up or not?
In her novel, News of the World, Paulette Jiles’s Captain Kidd is an old army captain who travels the post-Civil War U.S. reading the hard to get news to others. At one point he says, “Maybe life is just carrying news. Surviving to carry the news. Maybe we have just one message, and it is delivered to us when we are born and we are never sure what it says; it may have nothing to do with us personally but it must be carried by hand through a life, all the way, and at the end handed over, sealed.”
Some things in life are hard to figure out. Some things are a journey where we never really arrive at the destination. But the gospel is not one of those things. We are carriers of news, and we have only one message – the love of Christ for the undeserving. We can be certain of what it says. It would be a shame to get through life, all the way, and at the end hand it over, sealed. The gospel is a message that must be opened and shared because it holds life. What God gave to us should go through us to others.
In Romans 1:16, the apostle Paul says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” The gospel is the power of God for salvation. Let’s be sure to get this straight. We are not the power of God for salvation. The gospel is the power of God for salvation. The gospel does something even as it says something. News can alter the course of our personal history. For those of us who have been saved by God, we never lose the wonder of our salvation. It altered everything. How can we keep that message from others?
Failure
Now, there is one more thing we should consider. If the discussion above felt more condemning than freeing, you’re probably not alone. Though I would suggest the principles of prayer, productivity, and platform as proper goals to shoot for – as a path to obedience – I also realize that for many men a deep sense and reality of failure abides. The question is if we fail at work – from failure on a project to failure in firing – how do we still speak the word of God in the workplace? In other words, how can Jesus use our failures for his glory?
The message of the gospel begins with failure. Out of death, God brings life. It is probable that your greatest ministry will arise from your greatest failure. So, if you’ve failed in the workplace, there is hope for you yet. God can use you. All you must do is open your heart to him and be available. Here’s what you can say to him now. “Lord, I know my failures. You know my failures. In fact, you know all my failures that you have in kindness hidden from me. But my failures do not keep me from you because of the grace of Jesus Christ. I place all my trust in him for my salvation and ask that you would use me to spread the gospel among my colleagues. I feel so weak and inadequate, but your Word shows me that you are happy to use such people. I’m open to you now, Lord. Keep me open all the time and lead me into whatever path you would have. For your glory alone.”
We know that God uses our weakness to prove his power (2 Corinthians 12). Let’s never be afraid to run to Christ for help. Let’s never be afraid to open our mouths because your father is the King of the universe. What do you need that he doesn’t have?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/863f54ad7caf0ec3-image-asset-FNTyatPKDnhhIWZ6DUmPksj4Dks9WW.jpeg\")
\n \n\n“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.
Matthew 21:28-32
There are 2 sons, asked the same question, who respond in similar, yet very different ways. One disobeys temporarily, the other disobeys ultimately. Which one are you?
The parable can be broken down into two questions:
They are very different questions. The first implies that you’re purposely opposing the word of God in your life – your sin is one of commission. The second implies that you’re listening to the Lord but not doing what you know you should – your sin is one of omission.
Most of us could probably answer both of these questions at the same time. We’re filled with both kinds of sin. But there is something far worse than being filled with both types of sin – to be blind to it. This was the issue with the religious leaders Jesus is confronting. They don’t believe Jesus has authority from heaven. They don’t hold him to be a prophet. They didn’t even hold John the Baptist to be a prophet. They can’t see themselves, because they can’t see God. Therefore, they don’t think they need to do what Jesus is asking them to do, namely, to repent and believe.
We are going to sin. It is our nature. But the grace of God is this: that we see our sin and repent, believe, and are forgiven. Jesus won’t condemn the first son for his harsh words because ultimately he goes into the vineyard. He repents. He believes. He is forgiven. He is brought into the kingdom. Jesus will condemn the second son, however, for his lack of action. He doesn’t repent. He doesn’t believe. He isn’t forgiven. He won’t enter the kingdom.
Jesus is saying something to us today. Yes, he’s showing us how we sin, but he’s showing us something beyond that. He showing us what happens when Jesus gets involved in our sin.
Jesus is on his way to the cross. By this time in Matthew’s gospel account, Jesus has entered Jerusalem, cleansed the temple, and cursed the fig tree. He’s days away from death. And yet, though he’s going to die at the hands of Jewish religious leaders who hate him for proclaiming to be God, Jesus is standing before them calling them to repentance. He doesn’t have to tell this parable. He could just walk away. But he doesn’t. Jesus shows us what God is like. God calls us to repentance, even those who think they don’t need it. If we refuse, he moves on and lets the tax collectors and prostitutes go into the kingdom of heaven because, after all, they listened to him and entered the vineyard, perhaps not immediately but certainly ultimately.
But the religious leaders? They stood on the sidelines agreeing with the laws – even God’s laws – but their hearts were far from him. In the end, they wouldn’t enter the vineyard because they didn’t think they had to. Agreeing with God and doing what he says are two different things. One is to take his side; the other is to take his grace.
There are two types of sons – those who listen and those who don’t. Which one are you? Are you willing to listen to Jesus and believe? That’s the call. He’s calling now.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/c417e8be5d4ea84a-image-asset-YhEQ0s5ra05RPENwIS8MZeRsojVeFC.jpeg\")
\n \n\nI turned 33 this past Sunday. I know that’s not old, but it's worth pondering. I remember as a kid not being able to imagine what it would be like when I was in my 30's. And now here I am.
So, what am I thinking? Well, here are 33 thoughts.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/0146d8c46cda5087-image-asset-Rx5kHa6sYlAZdbTFAnZZLyLKb2F4qY.jpeg\")
\n \n\nThe former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Hebrews 7:23-25
Hebrews 7:25 is the heart of the entire book of Hebrews. There is not greater point that the author wishes to make. This is the climax, the supreme word from God to these people through this author. It is the highest peak in the mountain range of Hebrews.
“Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
We need a high priest like this – an enduring priest. The Levitical priests could not accomplish the deepest desire of God for his people. We need a high priest who is radiantly holy and completely innocent and eternally effective to bring us to be with the Father. Jesus is the perfect priest.
“He is able to save to the uttermost.” Another translation for “uttermost” is “at all times.” It an expansive word. The more our need, the more Christ’s ability to save. There is not a time, not a season or second of your life that Jesus is not able to save you. His power to save is limitless. The grace of God in Christ extends further than you can imagine to the deepest, most outrageous sin that you have ever committed. Never believe the lie that you are beyond saving. Satan brings guilt to the uttermost. Jesus saves to the uttermost. He will save the unsaveable.
“Those who draw near to God through him.” One of the key responsibilities of a priest is atoning for the sins of the people to bring them back into right relationship to God the Father. Jesus does this perfectly. We go to God through the person of Jesus Christ. He is our merit. He is our entry fee. He is the one who brings us into God’s glory.
“He always lives to make intercession for them.” Jesus is alive in heaven at the right hand of the majesty on high. His purpose is to pray for you. I remember someone asking the question, “What would you do if you knew Jesus was in the next room praying for you?” Hebrews 7:25 tells us Jesus is in the next room praying for you. Your sin – past, present, and future – is covered because there is a high priest in heaven praying for you. And he will never leave. There’s never a moment when you want to come to God that he will not be there to receive you because of Christ. Jesus’ priesthood is always successful.
John Bunyan said,
“Many there be that begin with grace, and end with works, and think that this is the only way…But to be saved and brought to glory, to be carried through this dangerous world, from my first moving after Christ, until I set my foot within the gates of paradise, this is the work of my mediator, of my high priest and intercessor. It is he that fetches us again when we are run away; it is he that lifts us up when the devil and sin have thrown us down; it is he that quickens us when we grow cold; it is he that comforts us when we despair; it is he that obtains fresh pardon when we have contracted sin; and he that purges our consciences when they are loaded with guilt…We are saved by Christ; brought to glory by Christ; and all our works are no otherways made acceptable to God, but by the person and personal excellences and works of Christ.”
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/3dac305c406ae06f-image-asset-xF2XAVj6no0tlv4cwSwYtMdoFUmEQ0.jpeg\")
\n \n\nThough Jesus never sinned, he did expose himself to weakness. The experience of Jesus included suffering. Look at Hebrews 5:7-8. “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” How did Jesus learn obedience through what he suffered?
When my oldest son, Jack, was three years old he took three things with him everywhere he went: his blanky and two stuffed dogs named Be-yo and Other Be-yo. One Sunday morning as we were getting ready for church he found a backpack and asked if he could fill it with toys to take in the car. I said yes. He went about filling it and soon was ready to go. I had a class to teach that morning, and we were already running a bit behind.
As we were driving down the street, Jack took out each toy. About ten minutes away from home he asked with worry in his voice, “Dada, did you get blanky and Be-yos?” I replied, “No, you always get them.” With his lower lip dipping a bit now, he asked, “Can we go back?” But we didn’t have time to go back.
I wanted to go get them, but we couldn’t. I also knew he would be ok without them. A few minutes later I looked back at him and saw tears welling in his eyes. But he didn’t make a sound. He sat there, silently obeying my words. He didn’t fight back or negotiate. He learned obedience through what he suffered.
It is possible to learn obedience through suffering without our sin being the result of the suffering. Some things will come into our lives like a forgotten Be-yo, and we will wonder what happened. How did we get here? What must we have done? The answer may be that we’ve done nothing extraordinarily sinful, but there is a lesson to be learned. If Jesus, being perfect, had to learn, we, being sinful, must learn too.
In suffering, we learn obedience. We learn what it’s like to trust in the goodness and love of God. We learn to trust him in all things – not only in good things. In the darkness, God can be trusted because he is working all things together for our good (Romans 8:28). Though some terrible things may be included in that “all things,” taken together with the whole of our life, God will work it ultimately for our good and his glory.
So, when suffering comes, as it inevitably will, we can suffer under the mercy of God. And somehow through it all, he’s bringing us to a closer experience of himself. When we suffer, our heart breaks open to God in ways that it can’t otherwise. And what has Jesus given us at a time such as that? A throne of grace.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/9b82973dfcc6eb50-image-asset-TuJ5s5V9fHMc9wiVPMXn6yynULFu3P.jpeg\")
\n \n\nLeo Tolstoy began his classic novel, Anna Karenina, with these words, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” I do not know the various ways in which your extended family struggles. For some, deep pain resides. For others, small grievances make life tolerable but uncomfortable. For yet others, anger and shouting are as common at Christmas as the tree and presents. But though we all have our own crosses to bear, I believe there is a common way to approach the issue of speaking the word of God to our extended families, and that is my attempt here.
The first domino that must fall in our understanding of ourselves is to see that those of us in Christ are complete, full-bodied, mature ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20).
We tend to see ourselves inside the extended family unit as we once were rather than as we currently are. For us younger guys, that means we tend to see ourselves as the kid we once were rather than the adult we have now become. For us older guys, we may still see ourselves as the parent we once were instead of the grandfather we are now. Being around extended family has a way of keeping us in the mindset of the past. But the gospel gives us a message that pushes us toward a hopeful future. We are ambassadors for Christ.
Kevin Vanhoozer says, “Justification carries with it appointment to an office that authorizes those who have been justified to serve as ‘ambassadors for Christ.’” When we understand that God has justified us in Christ, we begin to see the world through a different filter. We are no longer proving ourselves; we have been proven. We are no longer waiting for the mission; we have become a missionary. We are no longer wondering what will come of us; we know our future with certainty.
Vanhoozer goes on to say, “To the extent that we respond to his lordship, an external authority, we become freer to act as his authorized agents on earth, thus fulfilling the promise of our created image.” This connection is vital. The question is: do we understand what has happened to us? There is a sequence of thought, which taken to its logical conclusion, will lead us to not merely a desire to speak the word of God to our extended family, but a responsibility to do so.
The sequence is as follows: the lordship of Jesus, our free justification and adoption, and our authorization as ambassadors for Christ.
The Lordship of Jesus
Who is Jesus? Jesus is the Son of God. That title is not merely familial language, though it is that. It is more than a son as you and I think of ourselves. Jesus, the Son of God, is the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of his nature (Heb. 1:3). Jesus isn’t merely a son – a descendant – of God. He is God, the Son (John 1:14; Luke 3:22). God is one God in three persons (John 14:16-17). Using traditional language, Jesus is the second person of the Trinity. He is the eternally begotten Son of God with all authority given over to him (Matt. 28:18). He is Lord, not just of our lives, but the entire cosmos (Acts 10:36). He entered our world and made himself like us to save us from the wrath of God (Phil. 2:8). Jesus is the Lord who is also our Savior.
But we tend to think of Jesus as a buddy to help us rather than God to rule us. That’s because the world has infiltrated our thinking. We live in an age where lordship means nothing. We elect a new president, and he becomes “not our president” if we disagree. We attend a new church and leave if we don’t like a certain aspect that falls in the category of preference. We quit jobs because the boss is too exacting. On and on it goes, until we find ourselves not even able to agree on how to define gender, of all things. What should be obvious and easily definable becomes opaque.
Jesus is not just our buddy. He is our Lord. But under his lordship, we are not slaves living in fear. We are slaves to righteousness and joy (Rom. 6:18). We have been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God (Col. 1:13).
The lordship of Jesus is non-negotiable. If we have been saved by him, we have come under his rule. But even if we haven’t been saved by him, he still rules (Heb. 1:3). We are just refusing to submit to him and rebel against the king of the universe. As I tell my kids all the time, you are not in charge. There is a God, and he is in charge. Drill down to the bedrock bottom of the universe, and you find the eternal God presiding over it all (Gen. 1:1). We didn’t create him, and we can’t change him. He is there, and he is not leaving. He is Lord.
Now, the next in the sequence will tell us how this Lord rules.
Our Free Justification and Adoption
Jesus is unlike any ruler we’ve ever known. All earthly rulers tend toward harshness and cruelty. It just happens because the human heart is wicked (Jer. 17:9). But Jesus is no cruel dictator. He is a kind servant (Phil. 2). Let’s think this through. What is the message of the gospel?
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). You and I fall inside of the all. We have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We cannot escape this reality. Look inside yourself long enough, and you’ll find evil intentions, evil thoughts, evil desires. Look at your outward actions, and you’ll find evil that sprung from the heart (Matt. 15:19). We have not done bad things merely to ourselves or other people, but ultimately to God (Ps. 51:4). Our first sin is always unbelief in God (Gen. 3; Heb. 3:12).
How does God respond? God is patient toward you, not wishing that you should parish but that you should reach repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). God would rather redeem you than destroy you. What we deserve is the death penalty but what he has given us is a place in the family.
The theological term by which we have been made right with God is “justification.” It’s not that he has merely forgiven us. To do so would be gracious and merciful. But God has done more than that. He has restored us (1 Pet. 5:10). He has reconciled us to himself (2 Cor. 5:18). He has bought us with his own blood (1 Pet. 1:17-19).
We who believe in Christ for our salvation have been completely and freely justified by his grace by his life, death, and resurrection (Rom. 5:1). We are no longer enemies of God because God chose to befriend us (Eph. 2:14-16).
When we begin to see this, we begin to see that we have nothing to prove to God. He’s not waiting on our goodness to get us to heaven. He came down from heaven in his goodness to rescue us (Matt. 1:21). We are clear before his holiness. We have come inside the courtroom of his justice and been declared innocent (Rom. 5:8-10). It’s not only that he sees us as forgiven sinners. Because of Christ, he sees us as if we had never sinned at all. We aren’t just wiped clean of a guilty conscience; we’re given a new life altogether. We’ve been reborn, recreated, redeemed.
Lord Jesus has freely justified us before the Father. But more than that! He’s made us family members. The theological term is “adoption.” Jesus is the true and better older brother who goes and rescues his little brother out of the pig-sty, cleans us up, and brings us home with a smile on his face (Luke 15:11-32). He’s not ashamed to call us brothers (Heb. 2:11) because he made himself like us (Heb. 2:14). “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Gal. 4:4-7)
We have a role to play in God’s kingdom. Our Father is King of the universe; we can take a risk. We are authorized.
Our Authorization as Ambassadors for Christ.
“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Cor. 5:20).
An ambassador is an official representative. He speaks not for himself but on behalf of another. Surprisingly, Paul became and ambassador for Christ. He saw the lordship of Jesus and was converted from a murderous Jew into a gracious Christian (Acts 9). Furthermore, he was authorized by Jesus as an apostle to take the word of God to the Gentiles – to the ends of the earth (Gal. 2; 2 Cor. 5). Paul, who wanted to kill those who spread the good news in the Jewish world, became the one through whom the good news went into the entire world. He was authorized as an official representative of Jesus.
In our family, there is one dynamic always present: authority. Who has authority to say what to whom? The words of grandparents weigh heavy, no one listens to the crazy uncle, and the kid’s table is cute but unauthorized. As we age, our place in the family changes but the dynamics stay, generally, the same. We are creatures of habit and environment, no matter how much we want to think differently.
Many of us want to prove our worth, especially to our families. We want them to be proud of us. We want to be accepted by them. We wait for their validation of our lifestyle, our profession, our accomplishments. How many of us could win the prize of the century and still feel like nothing until our family stands and applauds? So, when it comes to sharing the gospel with them, we simply follow family rules. We forget the lordship of Jesus, our free justification, and our authorization as ambassadors. What would change if you understood these three realities? What would you say? How would you say it?
Nearly every one of us has a family member that we can’t imagine will ever believe the gospel. We can feel so weak. Paul felt weak in his life, too. He tells us how he asked the Lord to help him. And God responded, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). What we see as inadequacy he uses as power. Our weakness is no excuse before God because he has not left us to figure this out on our own. He has given us the Holy Spirit. If we trust his leading, he will give us both the opportunities and the power to speak the word of God to our families. Furthermore, it is not we who do the saving. God does. We are simply heralds of the King. Let’s just be open enough to be used by him and see what only God can do in our families.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/1fe481ad99945a77-image-asset-TipP7I9eB1d7lS5dyptkK6U9dxmvyX.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIt’s Valentine’s Day - the day most people pretend to hate because they either don’t feel loved, or don’t want to show love, but also because they always wish the love they had was more intense, more real. So, it’s the day that we eat candy and have nice dinners and buy flowers and try to imagine a love more powerful. But for the most part, people are disappointed because they see that even love itself is too often a fleeting feeling that we can’t create even in the perfect of circumstances. That’s why love can’t be defined in terms of experience, merely, but must be defined in terms of underlying reality, eternally. We long for a reality that shapes every day and every thing, not relegated to the convenient or designated times.
God is love (1 John 4:8). He is not love because we exist. That would mean he needs us to be who he is. We exist because of his love. Without that love of the Father, there would be no reason for us. That is the underlying eternal reality. Because God is love, there has never been a day in all of existence that wasn’t defined by love. Love itself is the foundation and groundwork; it is the structure and frame, the heartbeat and skeleton, the flesh and blood that reverberates throughout each day. So, why do we not feel it moment by moment?
If God is love and God upholds the universe by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3) would not love then be even the ruling reality of the universe? It’s more than foundational; it’s governmental as well. The love of God sustains the entire cosmos. Love then is meant to be intense and real because God himself is intense and real and God himself is love.
So, here on Valentine’s Day, we look out on all those disappointed in the world. Their experience of love isn’t working. They feel let down. They feel betrayed. They feel as if something as good as love should be more real and so why isn’t it? Simply put, their eyes are too low.
God is love. I love, but I’m not Love. But God is. So, on Valentine’s Day, if we want love, we have to raise our sights to him. We wouldn’t go to someone who has water and expect for them to be the satisfying reality of water. We must go to the water itself for that. So, if we want real love, shouldn’t we go to the source? And the good news is that this Love isn’t unavailable to us. He is there. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Do you want a love that exceeds even the most thrilling of Valentine’s Days? Go to him and get it. After all, it’s the most real thing in the universe. Ultimate reality is a God who is love.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/c61181e782167c3f-photo-1445462474364-0955cb455316-libSSREIphy47zoXmrAbNbTpEYBl5T.jpg\")
\n \n\nJohn Newton once said, “Self likes to do great things; but grace teaches us to do little things with a great spirit – that is, for the Lord’s sake.” Christian ministry should be about the Lord and the Lord alone. But self seeps in like a cold draft, dethroning the Lord in our heart. It quickly becomes about us.
But it’s not about us. It’s about the Lord.
The phrase, “it’s not about me,” is such a simple statement, but it has significantly affected my ministry. I am a selfish person. I think a lot about what others think of me. I wonder if people respect my leadership. I worry that I’m failing others because of weaknesses I can’t overcome. It holds me back. Perhaps my greatest sin in leadership thus far has been withheld love leading to withheld ministry in the name of fear.
But it’s not about me, and that’s made all the difference.
There are times so awkward or painful or frightening that I have no words. In those times I repeat to myself, “it’s not about me.” That phrase reorients me. The sooner I can recognize my inward turn the sooner I can make the God-directed U-turn I need to be an active minister of the gospel.
I like to do great things, but I’m also afraid of doing nothing. In my pride, I like to see the effects of my ministry. In my pride, I also fear the worthlessness of my ministry. But given to the Lord I can hand over the reins and stop caring about my ministry at all. And I can get into the ministry of the Lord because it’s about him, not me.
The Lord may grant me the privilege of doing great things for him, but they won’t come at the expense of doing little things with a great spirit.
I was once at an event that was far more uncomfortable for me than I wished. The hosts had no idea, nor did they care about the issues I wrestled with all afternoon. They were facing something far greater. I was facing awkwardness. We were all there to support and pray for our friends. We gathered in a circle and began to pray. I cannot recall the first three prayers because my self inflated to such a size that it eclipsed any view of Christ I could have had. And then, after hearing two others pray that I knew felt the same awkwardness, the ball was popped. “It’s not about me” came flooding into my mind, and my mouth opened in prayer to God on behalf of my friends.
In ten thousand years, when all of us gathered in that circle are with the Lord in glory, no one will remember the awkwardness of that moment, but we may all remember (or be reminded of) the sweet incense of prayer rising to the God who can heal and save.
That prayer was a little thing, and I did not have a great heart, but I opened my mouth for the Lord’s sake. And like the Grinch, my heart grew that day. I realized the kingdom of Self had collided with the kingdom of God and the battle was not in Self's favor.
If we are to do anything great in this life for the Lord, we must come to a place where we recognize there is no greatness in us. Greatness belongs to God, and he grants us the privilege of being used by him. It’s not about me, and it’s not about you, it’s about the Lord. Whatever God has called you to do at a particular moment pause and reflect long enough to kick self out of the driver’s seat and let the glory of the Lord be the battle cry of the moment. You will do great things, but only after doing a bunch of small, insignificant, Saturday-afternoon-awkward-prayer-things.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/a027088bd4530b4f-image-asset-Vj54Id0jWtos36MiqgZAemWjWinV5Q.jpeg\")
\n \n\nFrancis Schaeffer said, \"One cannot explain the explosive dynamite, the dunamis, of the early church apart from the fact that they practiced two things simultaneously: orthodoxy of doctrine and orthodoxy of community in the midst of the visible church, a community which the world could see. By the grace of God, therefore, the church must be known simultaneously for its purity of doctrine and the reality of its community. Our churches have so often been only preaching points with very little emphasis on community, but exhibition of the love of God in practice is beautiful and must be there.\"
Ray Ortlund taught me to sum it up like this: Gospel doctrine leads to gospel culture.
As we are planting Refuge Church in Franklin, TN, we are striving for this very idea. We do not want to plant a new church just to have something to do on the weekends. We do not want to plant a new church to bring a new attraction to the suburban landscape on Sunday mornings. We want to plant a new church because we believe our city needs a certain kind of church – a church with gospel doctrine that leads to gospel culture.
So, what does it look like? For starters, the church must be firmly planted in the full belief of historical, orthodox Christianity. To believe in gospel doctrine is to believe in the full-bodied gospel that the Bible presents: God’s grace coming down to sinners. It is biblical teaching about the essentials of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We preach this doctrine from every part of the Bible. Every passage leads us to Jesus, the hero of every story. We talk about this gospel doctrine at every level. It informs and transforms all that we do.
But gospel doctrine, in some ways, is the easy part. Gospel culture is harder. What we say about our doctrine can be unsaid by our culture. The culture that we allow the doctrine to create is the real test of what we believe the doctrine to be. What our culture says will give us the right (or remove the right) to speak to those outside.
Ray uses this simple, but powerful, formula: gospel + safety + time. This is the shared experience of grace in community. We need the gospel pressed in at every level, with many ways of speaking and hearing it. We need the safety to be who we are, where we are. We need to be able to confess sin without fear of being looked down on or gossiped about. We need freedom to be needy. We need time to follow Jesus without pressure to have our lives figured out by the end of the week. We need time to build the beauty of relationships in gentleness and unity.
We have more need than we realize, and Jesus has more grace than we ask for. We need to be low before him - humble, weak, and repentant. We need to ask for his help.
Here are just five indicators that a church is on its way to experiencing this kind of culture.
1. We rejoice in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The gospel is not a theory. It’s not a possibility. It’s the only good news in all this awful world. It’s the breath of air that we need at every moment. We rejoice in salvation because we see that we have been purchased by Jesus on the cross. Our sin has made us evil. There is no other word for it. But Jesus has intervened. Now, we rejoice in the hope that we, as sinners, are redeemed for eternity. We rejoice now as one body, happy in Christ.
2. We follow Jesus courageously.
Our lives are not our own. We have been blood-bought. More than merely rescued, we’ve been ushered into the kingdom of God. We’re citizens of a new country now. We have a reason to try hard and take risks. We can joyfully pay the cost to spread the good news. We have freedom to fail because all our failures are covered by his blood. We have hope to succeed because all our success is granted by Jesus’ resurrection.
3. We love one another boldly.
Most love in the world is weak. Sensual love is weak because it’s based on a fleeting lustful desire. Once the desire is satisfied, the love wanes. Much marital love is weak because it’s based on the individual’s search for meaning and significance. When the spouse fails to provide, the marriage fails to breathe. But the gospel creates real, lasting love in the believer. We’re no longer searching for meaning. We have it in Christ. We have a bold love now – one that cannot be taken from us because it was given to us by God.
Bold love looks different. It loves the way God loves. It may not even always feel loving, because bold loves beyond feelings. Is it nice for God to show us how bad we are? It hurts. But if we never see it, we’ll never be saved. Bold love hurts when it must. Bold love confronts when it must. Bold love completely forgives without conditions. Bold love is lived out in humility through confession and repentance. Bold love honors one another, for Jesus' sake.
4. We exult in Christ and forsake self-assurance.
Jesus is always first. When I laid my life in his nail-pierced hands, I gave up my right to rule my life. In my coming to faith I abandoned all my claim to righteousness. I forfeited all my entitlement. I admitted I deserved hell, and when I did that, I gained heaven. So, now, selfishness is forsaken. Jesus is all the Savior I will ever need. I don’t prove my worth. I have worth. I don’t own anything. I am a steward of everything God gives. My preferences don’t die, but they are not the ruling factor. They are spectators now to what God is doing. He sets the agenda. I exult and follow.
5. We expect Jesus to be real and beautiful among us.
Most of our lives are dull. We grow up, get in a routine, and wait for the weekend when our coffee pot turns on at 8:00 instead of 6:00. We live most of our lives in the drudgery of our own making. But when we are included in the kind of life Jesus grants, he will surprise us. No day will be the same. He will change us. No year will be stagnant. He will be real among us and his beauty will overtake the landscape. We will even face opposition because of him. But when we do, we find that he is there in power.
And as he changes us individually, he changes us corporately. And as he does that, he builds something beautiful out of the ashes of our lives. The church becomes radiant, not because of the beauty of the people, but because of the beauty of Christ in the people.
A gospel culture is not easy to build because it requires constant death. But if Jesus showed us anything in his life it’s that out of death comes life. What’s your hold-out? Why not die a little here and there so that Jesus can resurrect you in glory?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/fdb34af1982db408-image-asset-rNslWGOBEyMDVsHshmRaezZQgmwdBS.jpeg\")
\n \n\nHebrews 4:14-16 says,
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
These three verses hold some of the richest descriptions of the priesthood of Jesus in all the Bible. He is a great high priest in heaven (v. 14) who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses (v. 15). He has been tempted as we are in every respect yet without sin (v. 15). Through him, we can draw near to God’s throne of grace where we can receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need (v. 16).
Because of this, we have something unheard of in the Old Testament. We have a sinless priest who is able to make the perfect sacrifice to end all sacrifices. Though he was tempted, he never sinned. Therefore, he is able to help us whenever we need him. He’s ready at all times. He has no need to cleanse himself first.
This raises an important question that we must answer. If Jesus never sinned, is it possible that he can actually sympathize with us? Doesn’t it take someone who has “been there” to sympathize with those who are there? How does a sinless Christ help us in our temptation?
C.S. Lewis helps us understand in this passage from Mere Christianity.
“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”
Because Jesus has entered the Most Holy Place (Heaven), we now have unprecedented access to God. The Levitical high priest entered the Most Holy Place, but alone and with a rope tied to his leg in case he was to die. No one else could enter. It was exclusive and costly. But in Christ’s priesthood, the curtain separating us from God has been torn. We didn’t tear it, God tore it (Matthew 27:51). We are now invited to draw near to God’s throne whenever we need help, that is, at all times! “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace” (v. 16). We can go with confidence – no fear of rejection because Christ has given us ultimate acceptance through the imputation of his righteousness.
The throne of God is not a throne of punishment or judgment or condemnation for those in Christ. It is a throne of grace. We approach God’s throne, where he rules and reigns and where we can find help for our various needs. The Greek text indicates “bold frankness” in this drawing near to God. We can come to him, exactly as we are with all our need. We can say what we really need to say to the one who can really help. He is not afraid of our deep need. Jesus made himself like us. He “partook of the same things” (2:14). Jesus feels the pain you feel. He has made himself co-sufferer with you, for you.
So here’s what that means in real time. You know those moments when you’re giving into temptation? Those moments when you’re in the midst of sin and you surprise even yourself? What do you do at that moment? Here’s what we tend to do. We tend to put off repentance. We feel too guilty. We beat ourselves up, and we work ourselves into guilt. We might go and confess our sin to a brother in Christ. Then, at some point, we get around to asking God’s forgiveness. But that’s not the kind of help Jesus is offering here. It’s more instant than that.
Those moments of awareness in the midst of our sin – those moments where we are surprised by our actions or thoughts – are moments of grace from the throne. Here’s what we can do at that moment. We can cry out to Jesus to save us! Notice the words of verse 16, “that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” When is our time of need? Is it not when we’re in the midst of need? Doesn’t that include sin?
Think of a soldier at war. He needs help not at the point of recovery from the battle only, but also in the midst of battle. He needs another gunner to take out the enemy that he can’t see. He needs a friend that sticks close. He needs an ally to fight for him. When a soldier cries out in war, he is not ignored. When you cry out in sin, you are not ignored. Jesus is there with in your need, not only before or after the need. Help is help only when it comes on time. Jesus is never late.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/481eaa2b179ffc11-52j7km2qtjk-sven-van-der-pluijm-f33A0UKxkG6aGguPkpaFqemcYmYKSb.jpg\")
\n \n\nIn John 13 Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. He bends low over a basin of water and cleans his people.
When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” (John 13:12-20)
Then he says that one of them will betray him. After loving them in service, he loves them in prophecy. What will happen will not be a surprise.
John 13:21 says, “After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit.” What is about to happen is troubling to him. It will no doubt be troubling to them as well.
He goes on to explain that he is leaving. He gives them a new commandment to love one another. He explains that Peter will deny him. Then he speaks six words that floor me: “Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1).
Let not your hearts be troubled? How could their hearts be anything but troubled? Jesus will be betrayed? He will leave? Peter will deny him?
He knew these men before him. He knew the anger they would have had towards Judas for his part. He knew the sorrow they would have had for their own failure to stay awake and pray. He knew Peter’s guilt over denying him. He knew it all – their past, present, and future sin – and he bore it all for them. Jesus is saying, “I am troubling for you.” He untroubled the troubled heart. He troubled on their behalf so that when they became troubled they would know the peace of God.
There is a strain of Christianity that says, “Let your hearts be troubled.” And there is a proper place in the Christian life for true conviction of sin. But the gospel does not consist in a troubled heart. There is a bigger truth, a bigger reality, than troubling over our sin. There is a gospel of grace that envelopes it all.
What if we dared to believe John 14:1? What if we took our troubled hearts to the One who troubled for us? What would we find there?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/228cda595552d2d6-image-asset-eq6RYKxHi8YwKZdJknvuy4X5LjfHTF.jpeg\")
\n \n\nPerhaps the most famous passage in Hebrews is 4:12-13.
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
Why put these verses here? They seem out of place. They come at the end of a passage talking about entering the rest of God. The author's point has been to convince his readers that they must strive to enter the rest of God. He has a Sabbath rest waiting for his people. We just need to get there. These verses immediately following feel disjointed. But they are, in fact, brilliantly used by this literary genius.
These verses are reminding us of the circumstances embedded in Psalm 95. Psalm 95 reminds us of the grumbling of the Israelites in the wilderness. It highlights their unbelief. They could have had the promised land if they had just listened to God. But they refused, and as a result, wondered in the desert for 40 years. I think no one summarizes the point better than William Lane.
“The sharp warning in verses 12-13 supplies a supporting reason for diligence. Here the pastor appeals to the character of the word of God as “living and effective.” Once more he draws attention to the experience of Israel at Kadesh, when he describes God’s word as “sharper than any double-edged sword.” God has said to the Israelites, “You shall not enter the land.” But the people, in essence, said to Moses, “We have made a tragic mistake. Let’s take up our weapons and enter the land. We are now prepared to believe God” (Num. 14:39-40). Moses warned them not to go. Entrance into the land now would be an act of presumption, inviting defeat: “You will fall by the sword of the Amalekites and Canaanites” (Num. 14:41-43). But they disregarded his warning and entered the high hill country, unaccompanied by Moses or the ark of the covenant. There they fell by the double-edged sword of the Amalekites and the Canaanites (Num. 14:44-45).”
“The description of God’s word as “sharper than any two-edged sword” in verse 12 is a sober reminder that these Christians were not dealing with Amalekites and Canaanites, but with God. When we are confronted by God’s word we are confronted by God himself.”
When we open the Bible, we are confronted not just with words on a page but a person speaking through a page. We are confronted by God himself. To read the Bible is a risky thing. We cannot read it, put it down, and claim ignorance. We have been enlightened through the Scriptures to the reality of God. To open the Bible is to expose ourselves.
This sounds terrifying. And, in many ways, it is. But it’s also terrifying in a wonderful way. We need to be exposed. We need to stand naked before God. We cannot hide there. He knows all. It’s what he does with that knowledge that surprises us. We think, like the Israelites who were afraid of the Amalekites and Canaanites, that God will slay us quickly and mercilessly. But that’s not what he does. He does wound but only to bind. He does hurt but only to heal. To be exposed before God is not to lose face with God but to gain peace with God. He saves through exposure, like a surgeon who must cut to get the tumor out.
So how does this help us with unbelief and striving toward rest? The more we are exposed to God the more assurance we will have of both his reality and the hope of rest. We tend to think our lives will be best if we don’t think too much about the future. But the Bible says we need to think about the future far more often. It is there, in the hope of glory, that we find the hope we need for today’s difficulties.
We’ve talked about hearing God, but what are we to hear? Look at verse 2, “good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.” What is the good news? It is the gospel! The Israelites heard the gospel – the grace of God coming to them – but did not believe it. The message they heard did not benefit them. They didn’t listen. So the question for us: are we listening?
Today we have an opportunity to enter God’s rest. So hold fast. Strive to enter his rest. Keep listening. Keep believing. Keep pressing on. When we get there, we will find not only rest for our weary bodies but God himself, Rest personified.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/75e8dd63f24c6f4d-image-asset-H3jmANXxalm8WSmqwmjRNmS9dzXJoY.jpeg\")
\n \n\nOne popular ice-breaker question goes like this: \"If you could have dinner with one famous person, living or dead, who would it be?\" The supposition is that this person would be someone you find fascinating and would like to learn something from. Well, I find a way to have that dinner. It's just spread out across 365 consecutive days. Each year, I choose one author and read all of his or her works. People I share this with love the idea. So, I wanted to talk about why I do this and the benefits I've found that lie within.
I haven't been at this long. I started only two years ago. This will be my third year. The first year, I took an easy one - Tim Keller. I say easy because his writing is current and fits with the modern ear very well. His books are easy to find and easy to read. He's still publishing like crazy, so two years removed I haven't read all his works anymore. But at the time, I had.
What I discovered in doing this was that I understood Keller's way of thinking. I saw the totality of his ministry philosophy and communication style. I saw the nuances of his theology and the beating of his heart for post-modern, individualistic, intelligent-but-unbelieving, urban people. That helped me see how one man (one of the most important pastors of our generation, in fact) sees and interprets the world in light of the Bible. Keller knows how to preach to the heart, and if I am ever going to be able to do that with any skill at all, I want to see the works of a man who has done it for so many years.
This past year, I read through Francis Schaeffer's works. Crossway published a five volume collected works. I found it at a used bookstore for $15. I have no idea which fool put that there! What Schaeffer gave me was a knowledge base that extended beyond my education. His understanding of art and philosophy taught me to see the secular world as a cry for God. He showed me how to use cultural idols as a gateway to a gospel presentation. He showed me the beauty of community and the importance of clear, biblical teaching for all times and for all people.
This year I'm reading John Bunyan. I'm three books in and my heart is bursting from the wisdom of God from his pen. Bunyan understood the importance of the cross. He knew the role of faith. He knew the love of God. He felt his need for a Savior. His writing shows. His pastoral heart beats for the revelation of the glory of God. I've found a new friend.
This is one of my favorite annual rituals because I can crawl inside of one person's mind and see what they see. I can get a fuller understanding of God's purpose and intention in one life and see how their ministry, which is so effective, was built, sustained, and expanded. Aside from the knowledge both Keller and Schaeffer impart, I see the love of Jesus and the life of spirituality both men live(d). Through their writings, I witness the grace of God at work. I see the love of Jesus bursting forth from the pages. I see his glory.
It's like having that dinner every day for a year. You've had time to talk about all kinds of different issues. You begin to think like them in some ways, and know what they mean when they say certain things, and can see the world through another set of eyes. Reading an author's collected works achieves this same thing. I have never met either Keller or Schaeffer, but I consider them both friends.
So, to alter the question just a little bit, if you could read any one author's collected works in 2017, who would it be?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/bf01670163a36102-78a265wpio4-david-marcu-fVkMWaIzJNUjjx2jfty6hvAmTKKVVe.jpg\")
\n \n\nEvery Friday a group of men wake up before the sun. We get into our cold cars and drive to the downtown area of our city. One man brings coffee for us all. We unlock the doors of an old office building and climb the stairs, creaking all the way. The lights come on and the heat is cranked up. We sit around a conference table, with our white coffee cups steaming in the cool air, and open our Bible to the book of Hebrews. For the next ninety minutes, we do nothing but talk about the glorious things written there.
Recently, we opened the book to chapter 4. There the author spurs us to strive to enter the rest of God. Using Psalm 95 as the call, he urges us not to be like the wilderness generation of Israel who forsook God, turned their back on him, and refused to believe the good news that came. The promised rest was not found in the Promised Land. It was not in the reign of the great King David. It was not even in the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. It is yet to come at the end of time. The promise of rest still stands. Strive to enter.
It is a hard chapter with hard words. And the hardness of it descended on us that Friday morning around 6:40. The first thirteen verses did their work. As verses 12-13 say, “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
We stood naked and exposed. We had been flayed open like a piece of meat. We were ready for the fire.
We realized that we have a problem. We must enter God’s rest but we feel so unrestful. Our sin felt like it would prevail. How do we take the eschatological rest and dump that great hope like a bucket all over our present experience and soak ourselves in it? In other words, how do we have the peace of God today? We know we have peace with God through our justification. But how does that translate into the peace of God?
What I saw that morning was the promise of God in Hebrews 4:12-13 coming alive. The word was living and active. It was cutting deep into us all. It was piercing and discerning and exposing. And it hurt. It always hurts.
Before the clock hit 7:00 that Friday morning we were laid low before the Lord, in full recognition that we were helpless apart from him. No matter how hard you try and no matter how long you try it, you can’t pull yourself into the rest of God. It’s either a gift or it’s nothing.
But the word of God doesn’t just pierce. It implants. It doesn’t just discern. It remedies. It doesn’t just expose. It also covers.
We have a problem but the solution was only one passage away. We stopped to talk, creating space for the problem to formulate itself fully. It left us desperate and speechless. And then the solution came, knocking us down like a surprising wave. We fell face forward into the ocean of God’s surprising grace, and the taste got in our mouth, and the glory got stuck in our nose.
\"Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.\" (Hebrews 4:14-16)
Here is the solution to our problem - how we receive the peace of God, how we rest when we’re told to strive. Oh, the grace of God!
We expected, and in some measure, experienced, the wilderness that morning. Then God took us to the Promised Land. When we got there, we saw that it wasn’t a land at all. It was a throne.
The throne of God is not a throne of punishment or judgment or condemnation for those in Christ. It is a throne of grace. We approach God’s throne, where he rules and reigns, and where we can find help for our various needs. The Greek text indicates “bold frankness” in this drawing near to God. We can come to him, exactly as we are with all our need. We can say what we really need to say to the one who can really help. He is not afraid of our deep need. Jesus made himself like us. He “partook of the same things” (2:14). Jesus feels the pain we feel. He has made himself co-sufferer with us, for us.
So here’s what that means in real time. You know those moments when you’re giving into temptation? Those moments when you’re in the midst of sin and you surprise even yourself? Those moments when the rest of God seems so far away? What do you do at that moment? What do you do when your peace with God doesn’t give you the peace of God?
Here’s what we tend to do. We tend to put off repentance. We feel too guilty. We think Jesus will cleanse us afterward but not during. And we beat ourselves up, and we work ourselves into guilt. We try harder. We might go and confess our sin to a brother in Christ. Then, at some point, we get around to asking God’s forgiveness. But that’s not the kind of help Jesus is offering here. It’s more instant than that.
Those moments of awareness in the midst of our sin – those moments where we are surprised by our actions or thoughts – are moments of grace from the throne. Here’s what we can do at that moment. We can cry out to Jesus to save us! Notice the words of verse 16, “that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” When is our time of need? Is it not when we’re in the midst of need? Doesn’t that include sin?
Think of a soldier at war. He needs help not at the point of recovery from the battle only, but also in the midst of battle. He needs another gunner to take out the enemy that he can’t see. He needs a friend that sticks close. He needs an ally to fight for him. When a soldier cries out in war, he is not ignored. When you cry out in sin, you are not ignored. Jesus is there with you in your need, not only before or after the need. We experienced his help that morning. We cried out in need and he answered in grace.
Help is help only when it comes on time. Jesus is never late.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/73f584b86016c04b-image-asset-7wRXR9SS8awjHQdvmzkkKVLfv3b36J.jpeg\")
\n \n\nI posted something at the end of last year, The Books I Read in 2016, that received lots of questions from lots of people. Most of the questions centered around how I find time to read as much as I do. One friend asked if I could plot out a typical day – where do I find time for it? So, I wanted to devote a post to answering that question, but, really, more than just that. I want to talk about what I do and why I do it, which leads me to the how. (If you want the quick and dirty version, jump down to the How I Read section.)
Briefly, here’s what I do. I work for HCA Physician Services. I’ve been there almost ten years. It’s the only place I’ve ever worked. I manage a group that develops software applications for our accounting team. I also serve at my church, Refuge Church Franklin, in various capacities. I preach when our pastor is out, I lead men’s Bible studies, lead a small group, manage the money, and serve wherever else I can. I have three children, all boys. My oldest is five-years-old. My youngest is one-year-old. I have an incredible wife who encourages and helps me in ways that I never knew were possible. I write and read and disciple. And that’s about it.
I do lots of things. I could do lots of other things. I do what I do because it’s where God has led me. I believe that he ordains the times and places in which we live (Acts 17:26). I believe that he gives gifts to the church through people (Ephesians 4:11-12). And so, I am where I am by the grace of God to fulfill the call on my life for his glory.
I wasn't always a reader. I never read anything in high school from cover to cover that I can remember. I found books to be incredibly boring and hard to endure. I was barely able to make it through the cliff notes (at that dawning era of the internet, Spark Notes were all the rage.) In my view, reading used to be a worthy but unnecessary goal. Then I went to college in Kentucky and found a group of Christians who lived like Christians and my world got turned upside down. I saw day in and day out their love for Jesus and their desire to live for him. Something changed inside of me - God had awoken my heart in a new way. I picked up the Bible, and I started to read, and thus my relationship with books began.
It was the Bible that kindled the fire for more books. The first time I read through the New Testament, it took two full weeks. It wasn't fast. I just had a lot of time because Sociology 101 was boring, and I didn’t need to be there to ace the test. I skipped a lot of classes those two weeks. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else. I don’t think it pleased God that I shirked responsibilities, but I needed to focus because my world was changing.
Shortly after that, I started to read other books. Most were an attempt to help me understand that one big book I had just finished. So much of it was a mystery. What was Paul talking about in Romans 9? Why did Jesus have to die? What in the world is the book of Revelation? I needed more information. I could find the right person to ask and schedule some time, or I could pick up a book and take it with me. I chose books.
I didn’t read 100 books that year. I maybe read 4, if that. I didn’t read 100 books the next year, either. In fact, I didn’t read 100 books until this year. Last year I read a lot, but not 100. Whenever we see someone doing something that seems incredible we tend to forget that they didn’t wake up playing basketball like LeBron James or making one-handed catches like Odell Beckham. No one just stumbles into crafting each nook of the house by hand like they do on HGTV. No one preaches like Ray Ortlund on the first try. No one…you get the point. It’s a gradual thing. We grow, like a plant, millimeter by millimeter. Most of the growth we see happens in the shadows, hidden beneath one tiny alteration after another until we have enough distance to see that things have changed. So it was for me and reading.
One simple, obvious reason I read is that I like it. But, as I’ve said, that wasn’t always the case. Over time, I began to enjoy to act of reading. I would find myself looking out at a cold, rainy day and longing for my chair, coffee, and a book. I would see a free night as an opportunity to read. A summer evening dream included a book and a cigar on the back porch. I would find anticipation in getting up early to crack the spine of a newly acquired volume. Books open new worlds, introduce life-changing characters, explain Scripture in insightful ways, challenge my cultural blind spots, expand my geographical understandings.
But it’s more than just a desire to read. The call on my life (which may be different than the call on your life) is to be a leader in the local church. As such, I need to read. I don’t have a seminary degree. I don’t have money or time to pursue one. I have three children and a full-time job and responsibilities at home, work, and church. Reading is the way I acquire the knowledge I lack from missing out on formal education. I read not only because I want to but because I need to. If I am to be a good steward of God’s grace, I must be a reader.
Maybe you’ve seen those articles on Lifehacker where they interview someone in some profession and ask how they work. Well, here’s mine. Here’s how I attack my list and make it through so many books while raising three small boys, working a full-time job managing employees and various projects, loving my wife, serving my church, etc. (Nothing more than what all of you do on a daily basis.)
It’s simple. I don’t have a big house, and therefore don’t have a lot of space for a desk. Every bit of work I do at home is accomplished in my brown leather chair that I’ve owned for 15 years. It’s right beside the TV, so if it’s on, I can’t see it and be distracted. I have two bookshelves next to me, one on my right and one on the left. I have stacks of books I’m working through or using for reference, with a Bible nearby. I just purchased the Bibliotheca Bible set, so that’s what’s sitting next to me now.
In the office, my desk-set up isn’t how I’d like it, but the room just doesn’t allow anything else. I don’t face the door; I face a window. So, my back is to anyone who comes into the office. I don’t like that, but it’s what I have to work with. I spend a good portion of my day in meetings. The rest is spent at that desk.
Now, how do I read so much? It’s simple. Fill your time with books. We all have more free-time than we realize. Smart phones have hijacked most of it. Twitter is amazing, and I love it, but it’s a free-time sucker unlike anything I’ve ever seen. They call it a feed for a reason. The line of thought never ceases. When you run out, you’re just a refresh away from something new. And we, like the Athenians in Acts 17, spend our time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. We are news junkies in a fake news world with access to more information than anyone in the history. And we swallow the fake news with glee instead of tasting the sweetness of a well-crafted and carefully thought-through paragraph.
Here’s what I do. I make a list of books I want to read, and I start reading them. Some I purchase, some are given to me, and lots are rented from the library. (We tend to forget that we have access to the greatest books in the world for free. Every major city has a world-class library with more volumes than most of the world’s great thinkers and writers ever had access to. Use it.)
I also do this…keep reading…this is the best secret I have.
Lately, I've been getting up at 4 am. It's life changing. It's the most productive I've ever been. If you're looking for time, I'm firmly convinced that 4 AM is it. I use that time to both read and write.
It sounds crazy. I'm not historically a morning person. I remember the days when I regularly stayed up past midnight and slept until well after the sun had risen. But these are new days for me, and I must say, 4 in the morning is getting better and better.
Here's why it works for writing and reading (I don’t do any “office” work during this time. This is purely creative/input time):
And here's how I make it work:
4 AM has, day by day, changed my life. I bet it could change yours, too.
Oh, and it turns out I'm not the first one to figure this out. Who knew?
I’m in positions all the time where I need to be able to think clearly and broadly. I need experiences and thoughts outside of my head. Not every book I read sticks in my mind. Not every chapter or paragraph or sentence is in the filing cabinet of my brain, ready to be retrieved at the click of the mouse. But what reading does do is expose me to new ideas and thoughts and experiences. Even if I don’t remember the nuances, I remember the thesis. John Piper once said books don’t change people’s lives, sentences do. I believe that. Reading an entire book for one great sentence is worth reading it. Just like watching an ok movie is worth that one scene that lifts you into another world, or makes you laugh uncontrollably, or makes you cry on a Friday night after a hard week.
It might sound like I’m always running fast without must rest. But that’s not true. I play with my three boys a lot. When they’re awake, they get my attention (most of the time). I get up early because I know they need me and they’re still sleeping at 4:00. We laugh and wrestle and throw balls at each other and run around and play soccer and basketball and baseball. We play board games and eat ice cream and watch movies. We live a normal family life. My wife and I talk after the boys go to bed. We don’t accomplish much in the evenings, and that’s ok. We have time for each other.
Primarily, though, I recharge through the hearing and believing of the gospel. Without the free forgiveness of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ, I have no rest at all. As Augustine said, our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God.
I read through the entire Bible every year. I’ve done this seven years in a row now. It’s the most important thing I do each year. I write primarily for ministry. I read primarily to expand my knowledge of God.
I attend church regularly, every Sunday. I don’t miss. I can’t miss. I need to be reminded of the grace of God. I need to worship through singing and partaking of communion. I need to be around fellow believers and let their faith rub off on me.
I meet with other Christian regularly, as well. I need to confess sin. I need to hear how others are doing. I need people who know me.
I pray when I’m tired and when I’m overwhelmed and when life seems like too much. I pray at other times, too, but especially when life feels hard. I go to the one who has asked me to cast my cares upon him because he cares for me.
I do this, and write this, not to boast about anything, but to share what God has taught me in hopes that it helps someone. Everything I know, I learned from someone else. But isn’t that how life is? That’s perhaps the biggest reason of all that I read. I need thoughts not my own. Mine are just too boring.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/655e8bd585a784de-photo-1479243484125-a36de7807dc8-2AgsUCnze6sEaRtjxwkcjqX9MgzL8O.jpeg\")
\n \n\nLove one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.Romans 12:10
A healthy leadership team doesn't see one another as competition. It works together as one unit. Each person has their role, and they work hard to perform in that role as best they can. But there is one competitive verse in the Bible. Romans 12:10 tells us to outdo one another in showing honor.
Ray Ortlund, Pastor of Immanuel Church, once said, \"Our churches tend to live on a starvation diet of personal affirmation.\" That applies to the members as well as the leaders. So, how do you encourage your leaders? Do they know how the Lord is using them?
One of the rhythms we are trying to build into our lives as leaders at Refuge Church is a culture of honor. There are some things that we need to say to each other that too often go unsaid. Many times, I've sat in wonder as I watched one of our folks serve selflessly, tirelessly, joyfully. I knew I was witnessing Christ at work in them. We need to create spaces to honor that.
We are a young church plant, so, naturally, our meetings are still taking shape. We currently have our staff meeting via conference call. Everyone is in a different house in a different part of the city. It works for us. Recently, we were able to all gather in one spot to have dinner and celebrate what the Lord has done so far. We talked about what it looks like to create a gospel culture among the leadership. Then we took some time to honor one another.
We call it honor time. It's one of the many great practices I took with me from my time at Immanuel Church. Honor time is not flattery time. It is not saying something nice to someone so that they might say something nice to you. It is not a mutual admiration society meeting. It is looking at the work of God in another person and naming it. It is recognizing the glorious ways the Holy Spirit is building his church through his people. We're honoring the Lord by honoring one another. And in so doing we are showing one another that our labor is not in vain. God is moving.
Leaders can feel so lonely. My guess is that each Sunday you and your leaders go home with some nagging piece of disappointment. You may even think the Lord could never use you. You may wonder if you're wrecking the church. Honor time can quiet those voices.
So, how could you build this rhythm into your team's life? Outdo one another in showing honor. It's the one competitive thing we do.
Oxford Dictionary added a new word this year. They called it the word of the year for 2016. Know what it is? “Post-truth.” Definition: “Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Doesn’t that sum up 2016? Emotions ran high and devalued truth. Therefore, post-truth prevailed.
But Christians do not live a post-truth life. Francis Schaeffer used to say that Christianity is true truth – it is the truth that undergirds every other truth. If you drill all the way down to the bedrock bottom of the universe what you find is the truth of who God is and what he says. The God of the Bible is the God who is there, and he is not silent. He has spoken in the Bible so that we might know him.
Psalm 100 helps us see that feelings don’t surpass truth. Truth informs feelings. Actions in the Christian life are not based on feelings alone, but feelings derived from everlasting truth.
1 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
2 Serve the LORD with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
3 Know that the LORD, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
5 For the LORD is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
Notice the first word in verse 3, know. That word indicates certainty. If there is a word in this Psalm that supports all the others, it is this word know. We must know something for any of the rest of this Psalm to make any sense at all. Knowing is the prerequisite for everything else in the Psalm. So what should we know?
There are seven things the Psalmist lists. Remember, the way we live as Christians is based on what we know. It all starts with knowing who this God is. So who is he?
1. He is God (v. 3)
This is the main dish – the turkey in the center of the table, if you will. It’s the first thing we must know – that God is God.
In 1 Kings 18, God was put to the test by the prophets of Baal, a pagan god. Elijah, God’s prophet, came to the people of Israel and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”
Elijah and the prophets of Baal then have a showdown. All 450 of the prophets of Baal pray and wait for Baal to send fire down upon the altar. Nothing comes. Then Elijah asks for the altar to be flooded with water. If the fire comes, it’ll have to be a miracle. Elijah prays. “Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.”
He’s not one god among many. He’s the only true God. He is infinitely perfect, eternally self-existent, fully self-sufficient, and unconquerably-powerful.
2. He made us (v. 3)
We are not accidents. We have divine intention. We were made by God, in his image. David expresses this in Psalm 139 when he says, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.”
Humanity is not formed by throwing a group of molecules into a stretch of time and a bundle of chance. We are knitted with careful attention to detail. The you that you are is no accident. You were created by God. You were thought of before the foundation of the world. You have significance, even glory, because God made you!
3. We are his people (v. 3)
He not only made us but wants us. We’ve done enough sinning to separate us eternally from God. But he still calls us his. He wants us. He wants you.
How can we know that? Because he came for us. In sin, we turned our back on him, but in grace, he turned his face toward us. Jesus left his home in heaven, pushed out, as it were, by his great love for us. He accomplished the work of salvation because his heart beat for his people. He couldn’t have it any other way. He wouldn’t abandon us. The Bible says His people are the apple of his eye (Ps. 17:8).
4. We are the sheep of his pasture (v. 3)
He’s not a benevolent but distant father. No, he’s in the field with us. He shepherds us. This imagery shows God’s loving care. He leads. He protects. He disciplines. He guides. We’re not left to ourselves. We’re under the kind watch of the Good Shepherd. If we stray, he comes to get us!
Psalm 23 comes to mind. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
5. He is good (v. 5)
For the Lord is good. Who is good but God alone? (Luke 18:19) He is good and does good (Ps. 119:68). The Lord is good to all, and his mercies are over all his works (Ps. 145:9). For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon you (Ps. 86:5). But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:11-12).
Who secures an eternal redemption for his people except for the one who is good? He’s not just good to some; he’s good to you.
6. His steadfast love endures forever (v. 5)
The Hebrew word used for steadfast love is chesed. This is God’s loyal love. It’s the love that he bound himself to in his covenant promises. It’s a never-ending, ever-present, eternally-increasing, constantly-shaping, fiercely protective love. It’s the love that kept a remnant of Israel throughout their sinful life. It’s the love that pushed Jesus down into our world. It’s the love that bound him to human skin. It’s the love that empowered him to fight temptation and remain sinless. It’s the love that compelled him to endure the cross for the joy set before him. (Hebrews 12:2) And we are that joy! If he was willing to endure all of that, how can we doubt his steadfast love now? He won’t give up on you!
7. His faithfulness endures to all generations (v. 5)
When we are unfaithful, he remains faithful (2 Tim. 2:13). He never runs out of faithfulness. He didn’t for Israel and he won’t for you. You fit inside the “all generations” of this verse. Micah 2:5 says, “My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.” And one day, Christ will return. “And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory” (1 Peter 5:4).
Knowledge of God drives our emotions toward him which drives our actions. We are not post-truth people. We are true-truth people.
For more on this, read or listen to my sermon on Psalm 100.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/b7c64dc74334f675-photo-1457386335663-6115e304bd29-zPo19Nyyb8UbGPnwAgqZL9IC3ogISR.jpeg\")
\n \n\nJesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.”John 21:12
There is an ordinariness to the resurrected Jesus. But there is also a glory. He is a man like us yet unlike us. It is the likeness that draws us in, but the unlikeness that causes us to bow down in worship.
Here is Jesus, on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias. He looks like a man asking for fish. His disciples are out on the boat, just like before. They can't catch anything. So Jesus tells them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat. They do as they're told and find the fish that they were looking for. John recognizes the man as Jesus and shouts out to Peter, and Peter jumps into the water to swim to his master.
When Peter arrives, there is Jesus on the shore with a charcoal fire. There was one other time that John mentions a charcoal fire. It's when Jesus is in the court of the High Priest before his crucifixion (John 18). The servants and officers make a charcoal fire because it was cold. It is there, before that distinctive smell of the charcoal, that Peter denies his Lord.
Luke tells us that after the third denial, the Lord looked at Peter, and Peter went out and wept bitterly (Luke 22:61). And here is Jesus again before Peter with the smell of charcoal in the air. But, this time, there are no tears. There is no denial. It is only Jesus on the shore bidding Peter, and the rest, to come and have breakfast.
Jesus and Peter had a hard conversation after that. But Jesus gives Peter forgiveness because he paid for his sins. He was free to love him now. He was free to feed the sheep now. No matter how hard the night was, Jesus was there in the morning inviting him into his presence.
He'll be there for you too.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/17fe44cafc55bba2-photo-1437915219556-8c287594737a-pn8LOahYRT2TIMF6w0513gGXYsyWZ1.jpeg\")
\n \n\nI have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.Isaiah 44:22
We have relentless memories. Our failures hang onto us like an evergreen’s leaves. We grow, and they grow with us. Even when we come to Christ and understand his pervasive forgiveness of our sins, we can't seem to get rid of them. Our memories aren't as broken as we wish they were. The record may be smashed, but the song still plays in the echo chambers of our hearts.
God knows this. He is not surprised by our inability to forget our sins. And in some ways, our memories serve us well. We avoid certain sins because we have learned the consequences. Our memories do have a sanctifying effect. But there is a profound danger in placing these memories on the walls of our life, like a wedding portrait of an ex-wife. The past may haunt the basement, but it shouldn't adorn the entryway.
We tend to use our past sins and failures like a prosecutor. We bring them up at the right time to convince us that God doesn't love us and could never use us. Furthermore, Satan and his demons use them too. They only have to press play on the video tape of our minds, and there we are, stuck in the past we can't get escape. Like a Facebook video, it just starts playing as soon as the screen scrolls to it, intruding damnation.
But that's not what God does. That's not what he sees. He has dealt with our sins completely. Jeremiah 31:34 is now not only a promise of what will be but the reality of what is. \"For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.\"
Isaiah 44:22 sings out to us. Like a song in the midst of war, it calms our heart. God is wooing us with his mercy. He's reminding us of the standing we have with him because of Christ. The Holy Spirit pauses the video and scrolls away. He projects a new show - one where the sin we can't forget fades like a cloud in the Summer sun. It reveals to us Christ upon the cross bearing the penalty. We are free, and condemnation will never come because it has already come to Jesus.
The mist of sin fogging our mind clears and there stands the risen Jesus without a frown. His smile is upon you. He has redeemed you. Before his glory, the clouds have parted and he remains faithful and sure, mighty to save.
John Bunyan struggled to see the pervasive forgiveness of God in Christ. He tells of this in his book, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. He believed it for others but could not believe it for himself. He felt he had committed the unpardonable sin. He felt he had told Christ to depart from him, and so he had. But it was not true. And the Lord called Bunyan to return to him. One day, in the midst of his struggle, he felt the Lord speak to his heart, \"I loved thee whilst thou wast committing this sin, I love thee before, I love thee still, and I will love thee forever.\"
Bunyan hated his sin and felt the condemnation of it. Jesus hated his sin and bore the condemnation of it. Bunyan was free. All he had to do was to return. He needed only to see the everlasting broadcast of Christ's love.
He saw it in the deep love of God. \"It was thus made out to me, that the great God did set so high an esteem upon the love of his poor creatures, that rather than he would go without their love he would pardon their transgressions.\" God loves us so greatly that he would forgive us before he would condemn us.
When the video of sinful memories starts playing, let the Lord put on the new show of the gospel. Return to him, for he has redeemed you.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/b122bb29044c184c-image-asset-bmT2BK25pusjUGYvhwGgaQr5xuLRGl.jpeg\")
\n \n\n
I love books. If you've been to my house, you know that. I have them everywhere. Recently, the stack next to my chair got so tall that my wife feared for the children's safety. Three weeks later, I finally put them away on the shelves. There are currently only two books there now, but it'll grow again.
2016 was a fun year of reading for me. The year isn't quite over yet, but so far I've read 107 books. I suppose I'll finish one more before the ball drops.
I also happen to love lists, especially lists of books. The end of the year is special for me, in part, because everyone reviews the best books of the year. Then I add them all to my Amazon wish list.
So, without further ado, here is my list of the best books I read in 2016. Just a note, not all of these were published in 2016, that's just when I got around to read them. I also did not include books I had previously read (e.g. The Great Gatsby, and Between the World and Me - easily two of the best books I've ever read.) These are also not in any particular order.
Also, I've included the full list of what I read in 2016 below.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/120a4893bf47266c-photo-1477295642034-731bf6bd37e2-S458HahnQeTtNfBvJUBUOD0DPDpBTg.jpeg\")
\n \n\nHebrews 3:12-19 says,
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Hebrews 3:12-19 serves as an exhortation to us. Once again, we see the author present Jesus to us and then turn and tell us to pay attention. The problem is hardness of heart. How is the heart hardened?
First, by the deceitfulness of sin (3:13). Archibald Alexander said, “All sin takes its origin from false views of things.” John Calvin said nothing is easier than for our heart to be deceived. What we believe about God matters. Our deep need is to see the gospel clearly. When our vision gets blurry, sin seems a better option.
Second, our hearts are hardened because we have an evil, unbelieving heart (3:12). As we give in to sin, our heart stops believing God and begins believing something else – a false view of things.
Third, our hearts are hardened because we drift (2:1). Once we have given in to sin once, the subsequent temptations become easier to fall into. Before we realize it, we are drifting away.
How could sin seem a better option? Because sin bends our hearts toward sin. We are not good people who do bad things from time to time. We are bad people who do good things by the power of the Spirit. Apart from God, we cannot do anything good. “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all” (John 6:63).
What is the way to a soft heart? It is by sitting at the feet of Jesus. Only there will we find any power at all to fight sin. Only there will our evil, unbelieving heart be exposed. Only there will our hearts be transformed through mercy and grace. Only there will we see the faithfulness of Jesus.
The faithfulness of Jesus is our great hope. His heart is the defense against our heart. His heart pushed him into our world. It pushed him into human skin. It pushed him to the cross. It pushed him to take all our sin in himself and to defeat it in his perfect righteousness.
Notice the problem with the Israelites. It was not that God abandoned them. It was that they abandoned God. They didn’t enter God’s rest because of their unbelief. Psalm 95 says of the Israelites, “they always go astray in their hearts.” Tom Schreiner says, “The word ‘always’ indicates that Israel’s wondering from the Lord was not temporary or occasional but was the constant refrain of their lives.” What is the constant refrain of your life? Is it to always go astray or is it to always draw near?
The question Jesus posed to his disciples applies to us now: “where is your faith?” (Luke 8:25)
Jesus asked that question as he calmed the storm. The wind and waves were crashing into their boat. They were professional sea men and yet they were afraid. And as they looked at Jesus they saw him asleep in the midst of the storm. Didn’t he care about them? Wasn’t he concerned? Could he not be bothered to rouse from his sleep now? So they go to him and shout out, “Master, master, we are perishing!” And Jesus awakes and rebukes the storm. And after the waves still and the wind dies, he turns and asks, “Where is your faith?” They didn’t know God cares for them even in the middle of a hurricane.
This author is asking the same question. He’s doing what he encourages them to do to stick close to Jesus, namely, to “exhort one another every day.” These Hebrews were facing intense suffering and persecution. And their pastor looks them in the eye and asks them pointedly, “where is your faith?”
So, where is yours? Is it in the one who not only calms earthly winds and waves but also the fear of death? Is it in the one who not only awakes from sleep to save but also sends the winds and waves for our good? What are you facing that Jesus is incapable of handling? What are you facing that is greater than the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/9ad4c301e70e2f6a-photo-1473220464492-452fb02e6221-OJEdiFzthqb0TO2x1rXvEgQPAXO1uL.jpeg\")
\n \n\nHebrews 3:7-11 says,
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”
We see the author quote from the Old Testament, just like chapters 1 and 2. He’s a master artist with the brush of the Old Testament, painting the picture of God’s faithfulness as grounds for continued faith today. Verses 7-11 are a quotation of Psalm 95.
Psalm 95 served as the call to worship for the Jewish people. Each time they met in the Synagogue on the Sabbath day they would hear this Psalm. It was a reminder to listen, a reminder of those who refused to listen, and a reminder of the tragedy that not listening becomes. Let’s turn to Psalm 95 and read the entire Psalm.
Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”
To understand verses 7-11 in both Psalm 95 and Hebrews 3, we must understand the context surrounding the events recorded in the book of Numbers, particularly in chapters 13-14. But before that, it is helpful to go back to Exodus 17 and find out what Meribah and Massah are.
The Israelites have just been led out of Egypt though ten miraculous plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. They’re now in the desert and ask for food. God gives them manna from heaven. Then, they grumble some more and ask for water. God tells Moses to strike a rock and water will flow. He does, and they drink.
Let’s read Exodus 17:1-7
All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
So Meribah and Massah are allusions to the event where the Israelites quarrel with the Lord. Then later, in Numbers 13-14, we see them testing God on the border of the Promised Land.
What is happening in Numbers 13? Spies are sent into the Promised Land to scout it out. The spies return and report that the people are strong and well-fortified and they cannot defeat them. Only Caleb and Joshua stand against their claims and, in doing so, stand for God. They trust God’s promise.
What is happening in Numbers 14? The people rebel against God. They do not believe Joshua and Caleb and instead give into the fear that the other spies have described. Moses intercedes for the people because they have despised God and he is ready to destroy them. God spares them but promises judgment. They will not see the land he promised their fathers. After hearing the judgment, the people decide they’ll go and fight after all. Moses warns them not to, saying they will be defeated. But in their stubbornness, they go anyway. They are defeated. Their unbelief leads to their destruction. They missed out on the rest they could have had because they refused to listen to God. And so, once again, the author warns his readers to listen to God, and we come to the second major warning in the book.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/b81701180077ba33-photo-1473621038790-b778b4750efe-e5hxpj4fyX0nqIdVoNRsVirQKeertI.jpeg\")
\n \n\nHebrews 3:1-6 says,
Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
Just like the start of chapter 2, the author calls us to consider Jesus. There is a rhythm in this book. First, he tells us about Jesus, then calls us to consider him, and warns us of what will happen if we refuse him. He wants us to avoid sluggishness in our pursuit of Christ. Jesus is better than everything else. He deserves to be first in our lives. If we listen, we will find that we are inheritors of great blessing.
Let’s consider him together now.
What do we see about Jesus in these first 6 verses?
Jesus is an apostle, High Priest, faithful, appointed, worthy of more glory, worthy of honor, builder of the house of God, builder of all things, Son, and our hope.
Now, notice verse 1. The author gives us two descriptions of Jesus: apostle and high priest. What do these descriptions mean?
Apostle – one who speaks for God
High Priest – one who mediates for God
John Piper says, “Jesus is a word from God and a way to God.” These two descriptions sum up the presentation of Jesus in 1:1 – 2:18. He is the ultimate word from God, and through his death and resurrection has become the way to God. By becoming the true Psalm 8 man, Jesus has led us out of sin and death in a new, better exodus.
The author now continues his method of comparison. He wants to prove that Jesus is better. So in verses 2-6 he compares Jesus to Moses. But once again, we see that Jesus is better. What’s the difference between the two?
Moses:
Jesus:
The interpretive key to these 6 verses is faithfulness. William Lane says, “Faithfulness on the part of a servant is required; faithfulness in a son is an expression of pure love.” The faithfulness of Christ in service to God as the son over God’s house (the church) is another building block in the author’s argument that Jesus can be trusted. They already trusted Moses. Will they now trust Jesus?
Jesus has been faithful. The love that Jesus has for the Father is the engine for his faithfulness to him, which means that the love of the Son for the Father is the key to understanding how he has saved us. In love, Jesus saves – both in obedience to the Father who desires to save and in response to our need to be saved.
This faithfulness on the part of Jesus fulfills the Old Testament promise of a faithful high priest. “And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever.” (1 Samuel 2:35)
The author connects us to this image of the house in verse 6, “We are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” In doing so, the author is asking an insightful question. Jesus has been faithful. Moses was faithful. Will you be faithful? Or will you harden your heart?
What do we do with that word “if” in verse 6? “If we hold our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” The author is pushing us to consider our faith. The author is not pushing toward becoming something as much as he is pushing us toward being something. John Piper helps us see that in his wonderful sermon entitled “Do Not Harden Your Heart in the Day of Trouble.” (http://www.desiringgod.org/sermons/do-not-harden-your-heart-in-the-day-of-trouble)
It might sound as if the author is questioning the security of our salvation. But he’s not! Instead, he’s using this language to prove that our salvation is secure, and giving us a way to know that it’s secure. Your present faith is the best indicator of your future faith – not as much because you are faithful, but because Jesus is faithful. After all, he’s the faithful Son who built the house. He’s the founder and perfecter of your faith (Heb. 12:2). Do you believe right now that Jesus is your savior? Then you are secure!
Verse 6 becomes the evidence of your faith rather than an enemy to your faith. It grants more assurance, not less. As Piper says, “Everything in chapter 3 is written to encourage and empower you to be earnest and vigilant and focused in the fight to maintain strong assurance in Christ.”
This is part 3 of a 3-part series on the role of husband to speak the word of God to his wife.
Part 3 - How we say what God says
These are based on a talk a gave to the men of Refuge Church in November 2016.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/4bbaed0a6a5056d0-yb-fv93yl54-scott-webb-UARAdoYXWpUkFFLtgfCRZR2b9GP4rK.jpg\")
\n \n\nIn previous posts I've talked about how what we say and what God says. Now, how do we say what God says? Notice the word love in Ephesians 5:25. What does that look like? Notice the words nourish and cherish in verse 29. We love by nourishing and cherishing, and in so doing, we create opportunities to say what God says.
Here’s how we nourish. Your wife needs to hear you say, \"I love you.\" Your wife needs to hear you say, \"God loves you.\" Would Eve have taken the fruit if Adam was whispering against Satan's lies?
Here’s how we cherish. Your wife needs to see you love her in tangible ways (gifts, dates, flowers, hugs, kisses outside the bedroom, etc.) She needs to know she’s the only one for you.
Here are a few practical examples of how this can play out in your marriage.
1. Read the Bible with your wife.
There is no better way to speak the word of God to your wife than to read the word of God together. A few years ago, Sarah and I started reading the same Bible in a year plan so we're always on the same page, literally!
2. Pray with your wife.
All prayer is response to God. Never waste an opportunity to pray with your wife.
3. Notice your wife.
Here’s how you could walk in the house when you get home from work: Open the door, let the kids run to you and hug you. Then, walk over to your wife and look her in the eye and say, “I’m so glad to see you.” Step back and look her over and say, “Wow, you look great today.” You don’t have to fake it. She should look great to you! She’s the only woman who should look great to you! Then give her a kiss and ask her how her day was. If she mentions something, take note of it to bring it up later for more discussion.
4. Evaluate the state of her heart.
Become an expert in her, knowing weaknesses and strengths, so that you can point her in the right direction at the right time. A thoughtful question or two beyond “how was your day?” will go a long way.
I find that my wife needs some time to process how her day was and what’s going on inside. She’s busy all day just keeping the kids alive and the house from burning down. Here’s what I do from time to time. I take a 3x5 note card and write down ten questions. They range from meaningful and requiring thought to fun and requiring no thought. We dream together. We talk about hard things together. But she needs time to process. And I need time to listen.
5. Be quick to take her to Jesus.
Your job isn't to fix her, it's to take her to the one who can. Take her by the hand and lead her to Jesus and let him do the fixing. Your job is to speak God’s word to her, not to do God’s work for her. Here’s how this can work out practically. When she starts crying you can walk over to her, hold her hand, and start praying.
6. Encourage her.
She needs your constant encouragement. Build in time to honor and encourage her. God tells us to care for our wife as we would our own body! What do you need? She needs it too!
7. Have fun together.
Don't take life so seriously all the time, fun loosens the tension and allows us the freedom to informally enjoy God and one another together. Do what you did when you were dating and trust God to play out the gospel story again in your marriage. Praise God as your having fun. Just say what you’re thinking, “Isn’t it amazing God would give us this gift?”
Everything God calls us to he equips us for. Remember: “The husband is the head of the wife, as the head of every man is Christ” (1 Cor. 11:3). You are not alone. You have someone to lead you. And he will never fail. Just as you are one flesh with your wife, you also are united to Jesus.
You’re not her savior. You’re just the one God appointed to be the primary pointer to the Savior. He chose you to play out the gospel story in your marriage. Model Jesus. Speak the word of God to your wife so that she might see God in her life.
This is part 2 of a 3-part series on the role of husband to speak the word of God to his wife.
Part 2 - What God says
Part 3 - How we say what God says
These are based on a talk a gave to the men of Refuge Church in November 2016.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/aa6591b7f0f993db-photo-1470686164816-830d3688f62c-q7fCtoqp7KSdAAUP4FarnF4g3ostVs.jpeg\")
\n \n\nEphesians 5:25-32 says,
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”
Your marriage is a metaphor for the gospel. God tells us that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. We should nourish and cherish her. We do this in many ways but one way is by opening our mouths to speak the word of God to our wives. We are to be like Jesus: bringing the gospel in.
If you’ve failed here (and who of us hasn’t?) remember this: God hasn’t given up on your marriage. The gospel is at stake. And he’ll never give up on gospel things. Jesus is reconciling all things to himself (Col. 1:20). Your marriage falls inside of that “all things.” So if you feel like you’re a failure in this regard, that’s the first step to doing really well in the future.
God comes to us in the person of Jesus - touchable, vulnerable, breakable. A husband makes the love of God manifest to his wife in the same ways – touchable, vulnerable, breakable, rugged, enduring, steadfast, faithful. Never shy away from humility, gentleness, and kindness in your marriage. If your marriage is a metaphor for the gospel, and it is, then we’re playing out the story of the gospel. And in doing so, we are prophetic.
This is part 1 of a 3-part series on the role of husband to speak the word of God to his wife.
Part 1 - What we say
Part 3 - How we say what God says
These are based on a talk a gave to the men of Refuge Church in November 2016.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/70836b4a7bedaf0a-photo-1459204137123-238c569e22bd-IRL1fhZOYXMsTy1BgQDd0QIZu7y25S.jpeg\")
\n \n\nGenesis 2:20-24 says,
“The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Here we have the only recorded human words spoken before the fall. It takes place at the first wedding. God brings his daughter, Eve, down the aisle and presents her to Adam. And what does Adam do? He says something to his bride. He speaks poetry to Eve while praising God. She is his wife, given to him by God for his good.
So, the first question we must ask is this: does your wife know that you believe she is God’s gift to you? Does she hear your praises to God for her?
Why do we feel so inadequate communicating to our wife? That feeling of inadequacy is a result of the fall. In Genesis 3, we see that God holds Adam responsible for Eve’s actions. Why? Because Adam was charged with leading his wife. “The husband is the head of the wife, as the head of every man is Christ” (1 Cor. 11:3). We still feel that failure.
What happened in the fall? Satan, in the form of the serpent, came to Eve and spoke anti-gospel words to her. He posed questions: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’? You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:1,4). Adam should have spoken the word of God against Satan’s lies.
We’ve all seen the sitcoms where the wives can’t get their husbands to listen or to talk or to remember things. The men are buffoons. But I wonder if those caricatures are not just the longings of our wives made visible – a husband to engage and lead and speak. No matter who you are or what you do or what you know, your wife thinks you’re the most amazing man in the world. What you say carries immense weight. So does what you don’t say.
All effective communication reaches the heart. That’s why it’s so hard. And we have so much sin in us, and our wife sees and knows so much of it, that we can feel completely unworthy to be used by God. Let’s deny that thought. Where is that in the Bible?
So what do we say? Let’s speak the gospel. To speak the gospel to your wife is to deploy the army of God's word to do its work in her heart. When we as men communicate to our wife, she rejoices. When we communicate the word of God to her, she rejoices all the more.
Early in our marriage Sarah and I were driving one night and she was crying over the hard things in our life at that time. I was trying to be helpful and giving tips and plotting schemes to take away the difficulty. Suddenly, she stopped me, and through her tears said, “I just want someone to talk to me about Jesus and you won’t do that.” I was stunned. I had failed my wife. But her calling me out was not a way to silence me. It was an invitation to start talking.
Here’s a scary but life-giving challenge: ask your wife what kind of husband you are? Don’t wait until she’s forced to say this like my wife was. Ask her. Take the first step of humility and find out where you stand. Then you can respond and change and grow.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/9bd7b27d3f972d7a-photo-1466692476868-aef1dfb1e735-YyMO6YTnySntm705lMKx1feBKuyum5.jpeg\")
\n \n\nI have a paper in my files from Ray Ortlund on how to grow in 2013. Oh, it feels so long ago now! In that paper Ray says,
“One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on . . .” (Philippians 3:13-14). That is the radical new drive the grace of God creates in a man. And it is such men who change the world.
Most of us want to grow. We are dissatisfied with some part of our life. Some of us are dissatisfied with most parts of our life. We can take one of two paths. We can just settle into the \"this is as good as it gets\" mindset, or we can plan to grow.
A new year creates new expectations. Even if you're among the \"I don't do new year's resolutions\" crowd, you're still hoping for something in the new year. If you're not, you've given up on life - and very few of us have done that.
So what does a healthy path forward look like? How can we set out to grow without overwhelming ourselves? How can we formulate achievable goals and stay on track?
Two ways:
Be realistic yet ambitious
You need a plan. It needs to include things you're not already doing but want to. It also needs to include good things you're already doing, but just take it up a notch. Don't put down \"Read 100 books\" if you struggle to read two a year. But maybe reading four books, each on a different topic, would be realistic.
Let this plan stretch you. Like a good workout, a plan is good when you're a little sore at the end. If you're not setting out to make sacrifices in the new year, you're not going to stumble into them. No one gets up early on accident every day and finds themselves reading the Bible. We plan for that.
So what are you doing that you want to continue? What are you not doing that you feel the Lord would be pleased with? Write it down. Pray over it. Talk to your spouse and friends about it.
Start with celebrating your wins for the year. What went well? What did you accomplish? This not only helps you rejoice over the good things in your life but also shows you areas God has his hand on. Maybe you realized this year a new gift, a new way to serve, a new insight into your life. Cling to those and recognize the Lord's kindness in them.
Then move on to your failures. Don't let them crush you, but see them as one of two things: either an opportunity to trust the Lord and press on or as areas of weakness that you need to leave behind. It is ok to fail in life. If we never fail we aren't trying. Bring your failures to the Lord and ask him what to do with them. He will answer.
Evaluate the whole of your life. Where are you in your life stage? If you have very young children your time will be limited. You can't do as much as you want to at a personal level, and your goals need to reflect that. Focus on what you can do as a spouse and parent. What is God calling you to in this particular season? One day the kids will be gone and you can pursue that hobby or take that trip or invest in that cause. Maybe the best thing you can do in the new year is plan for family worship, discipleship of your children, intimacy with your spouse. God has you here in this season for a purpose. Seek him in it.
Be in community
You will fail if you are alone. We simply can't do much left to ourselves. Maybe you should make one goal to meet with a friend on a regular basis to talk about life. Include your growth plan in that. Hold one another accountable. Encourage one another. Help one another.
The point of a growth plan isn't purely selfish. We want to grow, but if we want to grow only for ourselves, God won't bless it. So put down some goals that you can't achieve without others.
Keep it simple
The best growth plans are simple and realistic. So maybe you break it down into four categories:
Gospel
Plan to grow in the gospel. Read the entire Bible cover to cover. Read gospel-centered books. Listen to sermons on the way to work or around the house. Intentionally set the gospel before your eyes and ears throughout the year so that your heart grows warm toward Christ.
Community
Join a church. Start a small group. Invite people into your home. Gather people for a cause. Pray for people. Ask people how they are. Become a good listener.
Mission
Meet your neighbors. Pray for an unbelieving friend. Share the gospel. Start a bible study in your neighborhood. Serve the community.
Multiplication
Disciple someone. Use your influence to invite people to church. Use God's gifts in your life to teach someone something
The point is you can grow. God did not create us for boring lives. What is he calling you to next year? In his power go after it. Day by faithful day God will use us to conform the world to his image.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/b47da07af9628286-photo-1431223040846-5a117f06b7cb-vAodXPig9wqGOHRiDLHOemuJEczz2P.jpeg\")
\n \n\n\nNight falls early this time of year. Where I live, right outside Nashville, Tennessee, sunset is 4:45. I drive home from work in near pitch blackness. I was recently driving the winding roads home and felt my heart was growing as cold as the night air. My awareness of God was not less, but my sense of reality with him felt like last year's jacket - hung up and forgotten. I had been doing churchy things in fleshly ways. I needed, as Francis Schaeffer says, to do the Lord's work in the Lord's way.
But how do you do the Lord's work in the Lord's way when God feels distant? How do you get back into the presence of a God whom you've talked about but not talked to?
My commute home takes me over the rolling hills of Middle Tennessee. As I ascend one hill and take the hard left on the descent, I feel the prompting of the Spirit. I don't have to wait to talk to God. There is no better place. There is no better time. Right now is a holy moment.
I pray. With a weak, undeserving voice, I confess my coldness to God. I confess that my desire to talk about him exceeds my desire to be with him. It has been this way for at least a month. I have prepared sermons, taught Hebrews, prayed with and for people, led discussions, organized systems and structures, and done it all in the power of my own strength. Whatever good came of any of it was a gift of grace from the Lord to those people who sat under me. I was not worthy of God's attention - not now. Not after I treated him as an object.
And yet, he listened. More than that, he drew me near to him. As my mouth confessed the true state of my heart, I did not feel condemnation sweep in. I felt grace. I felt love. I felt the refreshing air of the Spirit blowing where he will. And i realized where he wanted to blow was in my direction.
The Lord softened me. He reminded me of my worthiness and merit in Christ. He assured me that I am his, and he is mine. There is no distance between him and me because I've been united to Christ. I am in him, and in him I am never alone, never forgotten, never merely fleshly. I have the same Spirit living in me that rose Jesus from the grave. And I needed to be raised that night.
No one saw this moment. It came and went without fanfare. No one else was ever involved. But it was a real, holy moment - a divine breakthrough into this world. At 5:00 PM on a Thursday evening in Franklin, Tennessee on a back road hill, God broke into the world.
I felt peace that night, and I slept well. I woke up and taught Hebrews 2 to eight men in my small church plant. I met with a friend to answer questions about the Christian faith. And I realized in the midst of that morning of grace that Jesus cares about his people. He is the good shepherd.
I wonder, where will you be when Jesus draws near?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/8bbdbd89c0dfa9d3-photo-1473861646675-0252edc45daa-S09rdhnTzfJe5dphjQRePDRktFV5Zv.jpeg\")
\n \n\nHebrews 2:10-18 says,
For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.”
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
We see in these verses how heroic Jesus, our older Brother, is.
Earlier in the chapter, the author quotes Psalm 8,
“What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Psalm 8 is coming true, but not without a cost. The price was the sufferings of Christ. But we must not think Jesus did this begrudgingly. “For the joy set before him he endured the cross.” (Heb. 12:2) He suffered because of the great love with which he loved us.
His suffering was not a mistake. It was purposeful. Whether you realize it or not, the suffering of Jesus in his earthly body is some of the greatest help that you will ever receive, because in his suffering he was made the perfect high priest and the perfect savior. He can sympathize because he has been there.
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplication, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered” (Heb. 5:7-8).
The school of Christ’s suffering has become the nursery for your wounded heart. Where he was hurt, you can be healed. Jesus allowed his flesh to be broken so that when ours breaks his pierced hands can put us back together.
No matter what you compare Jesus to, he always comes out better. He entered human flesh to show us that he is better in every situation, at every turning point, in every crisis. He came in human form as the prophetic Son to become the Great High Priest that the angels could never be. Because of that, he was exalted to the King we’ve always needed. Jesus is our heroic brother.
Most of us live with some sense of shame and a strong pull toward temptation. Those feed off of one another. The more tempted we are, the more shameful we feel, and the more shameful we feel, the more tempted we are. In Christ, that cycle can be broken.
We need someone who can help us. We need someone to reach down into or mess – into our shame and temptation cycle – and like Moses, to lead us out of Egypt. We need our own emigration out of sin, slavery, and death. Who can provide such an exodus? Jesus. Only Jesus can help because he himself has suffered when tempted. Therefore, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
The Christian life is not easy. Distractions are everywhere. We are prone to drift. But Jesus is our great Captain – when the ship of our faith begins to drift, he is there to bring us to glory. Let’s listen to this warning. Let it awaken us to the glory of Christ and see that in him our salvation is complete. Perhaps what we need is to hear afresh this word from God and respond, like Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” (John 6:68)
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/2d078cd41daa16d5-photo-1474169482634-9d0381a70510-KPhhLdgnwXQlC2ygQaULduM1yNEI8j.jpeg\")
\n \n\nHebrews 2:8-9 says,
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
We are far from rulers over the world. And yet, at the same time, we can see that, because of Christ, we, in fact, are rulers over the world. How do we know? Because we can see him. Who is this him? Interestingly, this is the first time the author of Hebrews has used the name “Jesus.” Everything he’s said so far has been building to this crescendo. Jesus, the earthly name of the Son of God, is the one through whom the human race gets its life back. We receive the blessing of God not from some ethereal spirit in the sky, but through a flesh and blood brother come down from heaven. We get our lives back through the God-man, Jesus.
We can see Jesus, and in him, see that one day everything will be in subjection to us. One day, we will be crowned with glory and honor. One day, we will no longer be lower than the angels, we will judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3)!
Nothing is outside of our control because nothing is outside of the control of Christ. He upholds the universe by the word of his power (1:3). We have seen what God plans for mankind in sending Jesus to earth as a man on our behalf. He has entered in. He has been made like us so that we can see where we are headed. Our salvation was made visible in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
In verses 2-8 of chapter 2, the author of Hebrews quotes from Psalm 8. Psalm 8 is about mankind. But the problem is we don't see what Psalm 8 proclaims about mankind. So how can the author apply Psalm 8 to us?
What Psalm 8 says about mankind came true – and is coming true more fully in the future – because Christ has suffered and died to give it to us. We ruined it. Jesus redeemed it. He was made perfect through suffering. We are made perfect through his suffering. He sanctifies. We are sanctified. He came from God and went back to God. We came from God and are going back to God because of him. He is not ashamed to call us brothers because he has done all that is necessary to restore us and to redeem us. As Tim Keller says, Jesus is the King that gets involved with us and he’s the brother who is proud of us.
Our life matters now and forever because Jesus made himself like us so that he could bring us to glory. That’s not simply a theory. That’s a loving, visible action. That’s not a formula. That’s a story of love and loss, and life and death, and sin and redemption. That’s something to pay attention to and to listen to and to believe. That’s what the book of Hebrews is about. We are being awakened from our slumber. We are rousing from our sluggishness and beholding the worthiness of Christ.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/7afb806752ed2fd0-photo-1428895009712-de9e58a18409-WuVq8CSmZ2W4xQAdvdwezKkR1hegkc.jpeg\")
\n \n\nThe book of Hebrews presents to us the Savior of the world. He’s not just a good man, or a good idea, or a great hope for the future. He’s a kingly priest who, through his prophetic word, has proclaimed salvation to our hearts. What are we doing with plugs in our ears?
But just telling you, “Jesus can help,” is not the same as showing you that Jesus can help, and that’s what the author begins to do now in 2:2-5, which is a quotation from Psalm 8:
For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Psalm 8 is interesting. If we were to turn there now, we’d be surprised to see that this Psalm isn’t messianic – at least not in the way we typically think. It’s more man-centered than God-centered (in as much as the Bible can be man-centered rather than God-centered). Psalm 8 is about mankind. It is a proclamation of the human race – its history, purpose, and future. The problem is it seems wrong. It doesn’t sound like what we see.
We don’t see mankind crowned with glory and honor. We don’t see everything in subjection under our feet. This world seems to shout back, “Nonsense!” We can’t tame the storms. We can’t tame our hearts. We can’t tame our desires. How can Psalm 8 be speaking of us? God made all things good, and through one bite of a forbidden fruit, it was all spoiled. Adam destroyed us all.
So why quote this Psalm here? Because the author wants us to see how the person and work of Jesus is bringing reality to the promises of God for mankind. Jesus is undoing what Adam destroyed.
The author uses Psalm 8 as a passageway into the humanness of Jesus. We may not see the totality of Psalm 8 in our life right now, but we can see something of it in Jesus.
![\"photo-1424894962383-bdc3668d693b\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/d177da301476883c-photo-1424894962383-bdc3668d693b-pC9edeF7AVUufAVpXHR8HJTOSPjcXu.jpeg\")
photo-1424894962383-bdc3668d693b[/caption] \n \n\nTherefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.Hebrews 2:1
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
Hebrews 4:1-2
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:23-25
No Christian can stand alone. The idea of \"lone ranger\" Christianity is not found in the Bible. It is a human invention. After all, God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone\" (Genesis 2:18). God's creative intention requires companionship.
We cannot understand God by ourselves. C.S. Lewis understood this. He wrote about it after his friend, Charles, died. He and Charles were part of a great friendship group, The Inklings, that spurred one another on. Lewis says,
“In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles is dead, I shall never again see Ronald’s [Tolkien’s] reaction to a specifically Charles joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him “to myself” now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald…In this, Friendship exhibits a glorious “nearness by resemblance” to heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each of us has of God. For every soul, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest. That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah’s vision are crying “Holy, Holy, Holy” to one another (Isaiah 6:3). The more we thus share the Heavenly Bread between us, the more we shall have.”
Friends draw out different aspects of one another. A community of people draws out all sides of one another. We can't really understand a person without understanding them in the context of others. Take another example, a grandfather with a grandchild. It may be that the son or daughter of the new grandfather grew up thinking he was a hard man. And then the child is born and they see the tenderness of their father that must have alway been there somewhere. The child draws it out in a way that you and others cannot. It may very well be that he's always been that way - he was that way with you as well - but you did not have the chance to see it because you were the child. Sometimes it takes growing up a bit and having a child to see who our parents really are.
It should not surprise us, then, that it is the same when it comes to God. We understand God best when we are in community with other people. As we sit in a circle and talk about God from a text from the Bible, we begin to see the fullness of who he is. That aspect of him will stand out to one, another aspect to someone else. As we make our way around the circle we begin to lose our truncated view of God and begin to see him in his fullness. We need each other to see more of God.
The Bible speaks of this. Hebrews, for example, is written not to a person, but to a community of persons. The author knows the vital importance a community provides. All Christians want to stay close to Jesus. But to try to do that on your own is to set out to fail. We need others to help us stay close when we are prone to drift.
We've all seen the war movies. As the invasion begins the fleet of ships run full steam toward their positions. Each one moves along with the other, gaining energy from one another. Fear is aboard but it is veiled by the determination and importance of the mission. The Christian life is that way. You never see a solitary ship heading into battle. It takes a fleet to support an invasion.
The author of Hebrews knows that left to ourselves we will drift because we will begin to believe the lies of Satan about Jesus. The fullness of God's glory will start to chip away, and no one will be there to patch it up. Our sin will deceive us. We will begin to float away.
Community keeps you from drifting. People reminding you of the gospel keeps you steady and sure upon the waves of life.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/388114fa94c778d0-photo-1470330453978-5692624aa578-Jip3mV78lHt5U2ILGnIUGOj6L72dKS.jpeg\")
\n \n\nHebrews 2:1-4 says,
Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
“We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”
The message Jesus has brought is non-ignorable. We must pay close attention. At every moment, we are vacillating between two realities. We are either tightening our grip to the anchor in heaven, or we are loosening our grip on the anchor. We are never neutral. If we aren’t tightening, we’re drifting.
How do we drift? Let’s think that through. We don’t drift because we set out to drift. We drift because we set out not to not drift. We drift because we become sluggish (Heb. 6:12). We drift because, though we know the gospel and we have Bibles and we belong to a church, we sit on the sidelines, satisfied to get our weekly fix of a sermon and some songs as we segment our spiritual lives from our “regular” lives. We who should be teachers by now are like babies (Heb. 5:11-12) still asking for a simple Christianity, as if there ever was such a thing.
We can drift for a long time and never know it. And then suffering comes and we’re shaken awake and we wonder how we got where we are. We wonder why God doesn’t seem real to us. Instead of growing stronger in faith through suffering, we begin to waver in the face of suffering (Heb. 12:3-4). Jesus seems distant and mythical, if not distant and mean.
Drifting happens as we begin to take our eyes off Jesus and onto something else. The Greek word is pararuomen. It describes a boat which is allowed to drift away aimlessly, missing the landing point. If we allow ourselves to drift, we are allowing ourselves to walk in danger.
I love “lost at sea” stories. In each of these stories, it is vitally important that you know which direction you’re heading and that you stay pointed in that direction. You don’t want to drift off course. Why? Because to do so could cost you your life. You have only so much food and water in reserves. The sun beats down relentlessly. You have no help coming. Sharks are circling, just waiting for you to fall overboard. It’s a perilous situation. To stray could mean to die.
When you’re lost at sea, or lost in life, and you begin to drift, you aren’t staying neutral. There is no such thing as neutral in life. You are moving further, not closer, to your destination. To drift is to lose your way. And even if you were to realize you’re drifting and make course corrections, you can’t simply pick up from where you left off. You must get back to where it all went wrong and then make headway. You’ve lost ground, and the path is all the harder now.
That’s what the author is trying to communicate. We need a moment by moment awareness of our standing with God. We need moment by moment reality with him. We can’t simply sit on the sidelines of the Christian life. Jesus didn’t call us into that. He called us into a life that must be lost to be found, a life that requires bearing a cross daily. To follow Jesus is serious business. Therefore, to drift from him is serious business.
So how did these people drift? Two ways. One way is to neglect the truth. The author exhorts us not to neglect such a great salvation. That word “neglect” is the same Greek word Jesus uses in Matthew 22:5 in his parable about those who failed to attend the wedding banquet because they had other things to do. The second way we drift is to allow a substitute message to enter in. When truth vanishes, something will fill the void.
Here’s what the author is saying in bold, clear terms: Pay attention! Don’t drift! Don’t ignore the message that has come to us in the Son of God! What God said through the angels was reliable! How much more so is the message from his Son. We can’t neglect this. It’s too important. Keep listening. Consider Jesus.
These Hebrews run the risk of staking their future on something unstable and untrue. They need to reorient their hearts to see Christ for who he is and what he has done. Raymond Brown says, “The gospel is not only genuine and reliable, but also distinctive. In almost every period of Christian history there have been those who have offered a substitute message.” They, like we, need to flee the substitute message and cling to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
\nHow do we hear from God?
Some would tell us to go on a journey. God is everywhere, and when we search for him, we find him. The more in touch with the world we become, the more we will hear from God.
Others would tell us to look inward. We’re good at heart, and our problem is that we have lost the connection to our goodness. The more in touch we get with our true selves, the more we will realize that the power of God is within.
But what does the Bible say?
The Bible says we hear from God not through connections to creation or ourselves but in connection to the Scriptures. Hebrews 1:1 says, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.” The Old Testament Scriptures reveal God to us. But they don’t reveal all of God to us. He also gave us the New Testament because to understand God to the extent he desires we need to see him in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 1:2 says, “but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” When we open our ears to what the Bible says, we hear God.
Jesus is the final word from God because Jesus is God. So to hear clearly from God we need to hear clearly from Jesus. And Hebrews is all about Jesus. It presents to us the person and work of Christ in clear words to people with stopped ears. The people this author is preaching to are wondering, “Is Jesus worth it anymore?” Nothing could be more relevant to our times.
So how can we be sure Jesus is worth following all the way to the end? We have to hear from God. The author of Hebrews works hard to prove to us that Jesus is better than every other alternative. He’s the complete savior for complete sinners. He’s always there when we need him. His work is eternally sufficient. His grace is never-endingly free.
5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”Acts 17:5-7
Paul and Silas have made their way to Thessalonica. They enter the synagogue and prove from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ. And that' turns the world upside down.
How can a few men turn the world upside down? They aren’t barging into cities, taking over by a military coup. They’re not like ISIS recruiting people from across the world to attack. They’re heralds of the King.
Isn’t it crazy? The men who have turned the world upside down are men that bring with them nothing but news – good news. That’s all they have. They have no power in themselves. They have no weapons. They have a message of a King who has come to die for his people and rise again from the grave. All they do is talk about Jesus wherever they go, and the world is turned upside down!
It’s like becoming a parent. One day you’re free to sleep in, go wherever you want, have free time. Then you have a baby, and your entire world is turned upside down. You’re up all hours of the night. You're completely exhausted. The baby constantly needs you. But you don't mind it one bit because the baby has transformed you – given you new life, new purpose, new meaning. You gladly give up your rights for the good of your child.
Believing the gospel is something like that. Our world has to turn upside down before it can be built right side up. When you’re grappling with what the gospel says, and what it means for your life, it can get pretty uncomfortable. It means releasing the grip on your life and handing it over to Jesus, a man who lived and died and rose a long time ago.
But when you hand your life over to Christ you realize you haven’t given up anything but you’ve gained everything. You’ve been adopted into God’s family, and no one can snatch you out of his hand. You have peace. You have hope. You have joy that cannot be taken. You’re in a new Kingdom.
Paul saw the world as it really is. Caesar was king of Rome, but Caesar wasn’t the kind of king Jesus is. Caesar was a king of a temporal empire. Jesus is the King of an eternal universe. Jesus is the true king – an upside down King, who stoops low to bring us high. The true Kingdom is cross-shaped, where death comes before life, not the other way around.
Jesus left his throne in heaven. He was willing to have his life destroyed so that you could have his best. Like a good parent, he gave up who he once was to gain the joy of having you. He’s the kind of King this broken world needs. And he’s the kind of King we have. Believe in him and you can have all this. All it takes is small faith placed in this big God.
Paul and Silas have already endured a lot, and much more was ahead. It wasn’t easy to take the message of the gospel to a hostile world. You know, following Christ means our world is constantly being turned upside down. It doesn’t end after we believe. It’s constant, because following Jesus is an adventure. He’s on the move and he’s bringing us along.
Working out the implications of the gospel on your life is no easy task. That’s ok. Live in the tension. Jesus said we have to lose our life to find it. That means it’s not easy do to. Let’s be open to that – whatever his call is. You're going to live under some king, why not the one who’s proven his kindness: the good King Jesus?
1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. 5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. 9 And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
Acts 17:1-9
How clearly do we see the gospel?
When we see the gospel clearly, we see everything else differently.
C.S. Lewis said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
What we believe about Jesus will determine what we believe about everything else. The clearer we see the gospel, the clearer we see the world as it really is.
So how clearly do we see the gospel?
To see the gospel clearly, we need to see Jesus clearly.
Paul and Silas are on this journey because the world looks differently to them now. The gospel has opened their eyes to who God is and what he’s doing. They realize something new has arrived – a new kingdom with a new King. So they come to Thessalonica, and go to the Jewish synagogue for three weeks to prove from the Bible that Jesus is the Christ.
Paul gets to work and verse 4 says that some were persuaded – that’s another way of saying their eyes were opened. They saw things differently now. The gospel became clear. How did that happen? Look at verses 2 and 3 and notice three words: “reasoned”, “explaining”, and “proving”. Paul reasoned with them, he explained the Bible to them, and he proved something from the Bible.
What did he prove? Verse 3: “That it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”
Why does he need to prove that? Because they are waiting for the Christ to come. And Paul looks at the life of Jesus and looks at the Old Testament scriptures and he’s convinced that Jesus fit the job description.
But the Jews resisted the idea of a suffering Christ, even though it appears throughout the Old Testament. And we resist the need for Jesus to suffer too, especially if we start talking about him suffering for us. “No, don’t suffer. There’s no need. I haven’t done anything that bad,” we say.
This is because we don’t understand who we really are. We don’t see how desperately we need to be saved. We don’t think our sin is that bad, and so surely Jesus shouldn’t suffer on our behalf. We use words like “mistake” and “slip up” instead of sin. But – look at me – we are sinners, and the fact that we are gentle with our sin proves how much we love it. A single sin against an infinitely holy God is worthy of eternal damnation. But God has a plan to fix it, but he can’t fix it without the suffering of Christ. It was the only way to reconcile the world to God.
So what did Paul say to persuade them? Well, we don’t know exactly because Luke doesn’t record that for us. But that’s ok because we have the same Bible that Paul had, and so we can look back into the Old Testament ourselves and see what Paul saw. Throughout the Old Testament we can see that God has a redemption plan, and it centers on Christ.
The first part of that plan included the suffering of Christ.
Christ had to suffer because sin came into the world through Adam, and spread to us, separating us from God. If he doesn’t suffer, we can’t be reconciled.
Christ had to suffer because sin requires a penalty: “the wages of sin is death.\" So God laid on him the iniquity of us all. If he doesn’t suffer, the penalty isn’t paid.
Christ had to suffer because true life only comes through death. Jesus himself said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24) If he doesn’t die, the fruit of the gospel will never bud.
On the cross, Jesus absorbed all our sin and let it crush him completely, and because he did that willingly, without sin, God raised him up. Which was part two of God’s redemption plan.
Christ had to rise from the dead because death can only be defeated by going through it, not around it. If he isn’t raised, we have no life.
Christ had to rise from the dead because God cannot give us his best until our worst is killed. If he isn’t raised, we have no hope.
Christ had to rise from the dead to show us the good news of the gospel. A crucified Messiah is a failed Messiah unless he rises again. Then he’s the Savior of the world, and all things will be made new. If he isn’t raised, the gospel has no power.
The gospel is good news of a King who came and died for his people. It is good news of the King who rose from the grave to reign forever. It is good news that Jesus is better than we thought the Christ would be. God never intended to save us just for this lifetime, but for eternity.
The Resurrection proved God is more gracious than we are sinful. You cannot out sin the grace of God. Do you realize how patient God is? Luke says it was Paul’s custom to go to the synagogues first when he entered a city. Why? Because God is patient with his people. If you feel far from God, like he’s about to give up on you, stop thinking. He is patient and he’s ready to prove himself to you. Just breathe and listen to him.
God’s redemption plan was a declaration to the watching world that he is just to penalize sin and merciful to forgive it. And Jesus was the center of it all.
And this Jesus is the Christ! Jesus is what the Old Testament promised him to be.
He is the seed of the woman, the new Adam, obedient that we would be made righteous.
He is Abraham’s offspring through whom all the nations are blessed.
He is the leader of the better Exodus, not out of Egyptian slavery, but out of eternal hell.
He is the manna in the wilderness, the bread of life, given daily to all who are hungry.
He is the Rock in the desert judged before his people, out of whom flows rivers of living water.
He is the one who suffered temptation in the wilderness and never sinned.
He is the fulfillment of the Law, coming not to abolish, but to fulfill it.
He is the conquering warrior who has trodden the winepress alone, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.
He is the radiance of the glory of God, the high priest whose ministry never ends, the final Word from heaven. Like the bronze serpent in the desert, he was lifted up so that whoever would look upon him would find healing and forgiveness.
He is the son of David, leading his people from the everlasting throne.
He is the Good Shepherd who leaves the many to find the one - who faces the lions in the fields, laying his life down for the lost.
He is the one who faced the shadow of death and did not shrink back because we were the joy set before him.
He is the temple of God, come down to dwell in glory with his people.
He is the wisdom of God that looks like foolishness to man, calling out from the streets the good news of the gospel, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!” “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
He is the suffering servant of Isaiah - despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. He is the one who bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we were healed.
He is the Son of Man, the Ancient of Days who shatters the horns of the earthly kingdoms.
He is the Passover Lamb who was slain to protect us from the Angel of Death.
He is the one who lived the perfect life and suffered for it.
He is the one who bore the penalty for our sin on the cross so that we might become the righteousness of God.
He is the one who suffered the separation from the Father so that we never would.
He is the one who drank the cup of God’s wrath upon the cross and gave up his spirit – ushering in the new covenant by his body and blood.
He is the once for all sacrifice; the scape-goat sent out of God’s presence.
He is the one who lived the perfect life, died the guilty death, and rose to defeat sin, Satan, and death.
He is the one who crushed Satan’s head because he rose to an incorruptible body.
He is the one who faced every evil thing in this world and our hearts and came out victorious.
He is the Christ. He’s the savior - the sun of righteousness, who will rise with healing in his wings.
Look at any passage of the Old Testament, and you can smell the aroma of Christ, you can see the movement toward the Messiah, you can hear the song of the Savior.
On the cross, all the failures of the world met in the only one who ever succeeded. Jesus suffered the weight of it all, and he saved us through it. It was necessary that he suffer and rise. What looked like failure on the cross was actually victory. The life of his people is wrapped up in him – it always has been, and always will be.
Paul would have seen something like that. And some were persuaded. I wonder, are you?
![](\"https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1463569643904-4fbae71ed917\")
But lots of people pick up the Bible and start picking it apart. They focus on one or two parts, and sometimes even build entire theological structures out of a verse or two. The Bible, however, cannot be read like that. It is made up of 66 books, but that does not mean those 66 books are not telling one story. It’s broken into chapters and verses, but that doesn’t mean Romans 9 should be read as a stand-alone. What we see in one part must be put in the context of the whole.
\nThink of it like a bowl of chili. I tried to get my 5-year-old to eat some the other night. He wanted to pick out the meat. I told him no. So he asked for just a bean. I said no again. He said he doesn’t like onions. I said that’s ok, taste it anyway. Chili is best tried when the entire mixture is in the bite. It takes the whole to understand it. You might not like onions by themselves, but put in with the rest, it adds to the wonder of the flavor.
\nThe Bible is like a bowl of Chili. The individual ingredients are great. Some we like more than others in isolation. But taken together as a whole, it tastes wonderful.
\nSwallow the Bible whole. Take all of it and put it in your mouth. Only then can you truly taste and see that God is good.
\nIn many churches and Christian circles today, the gospel-centered movement has made a significant impact. There is a laser-focused emphasis on the cross of Christ. The beauty of the hideous cross is preached, discussed, adored, and magnified from Sunday to Sunday. And that’s a very good thing. Gone (for many, at least) is the self-help sermon or the lift-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps mentality. The cross is the message.
The cross is the center of the gospel – the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. It is not, however, the totality of the gospel. I’m so grateful for our gospel-centeredness, but I am afraid for many, gospel-centered is cross-centered. But the cross is not the end of the gospel.
To hear many sermons and to read many books and to listen to many presentations of the gospel, one could come away with the idea that Jesus’ death on the cross is the only part of the gospel – that the good news extends no further than the last desperate breath. Good news, by definition, needs to be good, and while atonement is certainly good news, death is not. Furthermore, we would not see that atonement is effective without the open grave. A crucified Messiah is a failed Messiah unless he is raised from the dead. Only a risen Lord can prove that God is for us, not against us.
What I am attempting to emphasize is that the resurrection matters just as much as the cross. The gospel is not a 140-character tweet but a full-length book of good news. That’s not to say it can’t be summarized; it just takes all of history to show its goodness and bigness.
Imagine you have a new watch. You purchase it and take it out of the packaging. You immediately open it up and admire the gears inside. You analyze it and figure out which gear turns that way, and which gear turns this way. You understand how it’s put together and how it keeps track of time. You notice how the dials are tied into the gears and how precisely it can be set – down to the second. You’re in awe.
You love the watch. You take it everywhere. You tell all your friends about it. But you never put the watch on. For all the admiration you have, you’ve never even used it. It’s a great talking point, but not a very functional item. It doesn’t make it into daily life.
Some of us have a theology like that watch. We understand the cross. We can get from Isaiah 53 to John 19 as easily as you get home from work each day. But do you know what time it is?
The resurrection helps us to see the time. We are living in a new kingdom. King Jesus is reigning and ruling. If my stomach starts growling and I look at the watch to see it’s noon, I understand why I’m hungry. If my soul starts growling and I look at the Bible to see the resurrection, I understand why my longings are there. This life will not last forever; the resurrection is coming.
Let us not stop too soon for our comfort. Let us go on to the to the fullness of the gospel. Jesus was raised for our justification. He is reigning and ruling now. The kingdom of God is at hand. The cross wasn’t the end; it was only the beginning of the end. The consummation of history is coming. Do you know what time it is?
\nJesus is fully God and fully man. He’s the God-Man. Without the divinity of Jesus, he lacks the ability to save us. Without the humanity of Jesus, he lacks the experience to comfort us. With both, he is perfectly qualified to save us from our sins.
Jesus was sinless in his life. “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
There’s a debate about whether or not Jesus could have sinned. The theological terms are peccability vs. impeccability. Jesus was able to sin, or he was not able to sin. That is the question. I have my view, but that’s not my purpose in writing this. Whatever side you come down on, the Bible is clear: Jesus did not sin.
And that’s a comfort to us. But that’s also troubling to some. I struggled with this issue in my life. I’m so thankful (and always have been thankful) that Jesus never sinned. But what I thought that meant was that he must have never really felt tempted – at least not in the way I do.
If Jesus never sinned, is it possible that he can sympathize with us? Doesn’t it take someone who has “been there” to sympathize with those who are there? How does a sinless Christ help us?
In other words, what does it mean that Jesus “in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” and how does that help us in our temptation? Let’s start with the temptation of Jesus in the desert
Matthew gives an account of this in chapter 4 of his gospel.
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
What we see in this passage is no weak Savior. He’s not merely facing some temptation, he’s facing intense, serious, life-defining temptation.
Satan comes to him after forty days and forty nights of fasting. He was hungry. “Have some bread, Jesus. You don’t deserve to starve. You fed those poor saps in the desert, why would you not feed yourself now?” But Jesus didn’t take the bait. He would not grumble like his ancestors. He would not complain to God and curse him in his heart because his belly was empty.
“Fine, you don’t want bread? Ok, how about you jump from the temple and prove your worthiness to be followed?” No, Jesus wouldn’t bite here either, despite his rightful claim of worthiness. He gave that up when he came down to us. He was not going to take it up again before the time.
“Ok, whatever, Jesus. You’re not hungry and don’t want to be worshipped. Then worship me! Don’t go through with this ridiculous plan of yours. Just worship me and I will give you the whole world. We could shortcut this whole endeavor, right here, right now.”
“Be gone, Satan!” Jesus was finished, temptation was crushed. Righteousness reigned.
Does that sound easy? Is that the fight of a weak man? Or is that the fight of the Savior of the world. Jesus faced temptation, and he stood the test. He never, not once, not for a second, gave in.
C.S. Lewis said,
“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”
The question now is why. Why did Jesus not give in? Whether or not he could or couldn’t, we know he didn’t. He wouldn’t. He stood firmly planted in the love of the Father so that we could be firmly planted in the city of God to come. Jesus endured it all so that when we need him most, we have him – the one who knows what it’s like.
Jesus used the same resources we have available to us: the scriptures, the Holy Spirit, and prayer. But we have something Jesus didn’t have: his finished work. Jesus was in the middle of his work. Really, he was at the beginning of his work. He had three years of teaching, healing, arguing, suffering, and dying to endure. But we’re on the other side. We’ve seen the outcome. We have his finished work to rely upon. It doesn’t depend on us. We can stand firm, because he stood firm for us.
Jesus faced temptation of every kind so that ever kind of temptation we face, we have a sympathizer, a priest, who knows what it’s like. He’s not aloof. He’s not ignorant. He’s wise and caring. He’s there when the hard times come. And though we won’t always win in this life, the worst that can happen to us is that we fall into the throne room of God, where mercy and grace await. Because Jesus has won the war, even if we lose the battle, we are victorious still.
![](\"https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1453219562534-36e2ce0ea18e\")
We know we should read the Bible, and we even want to read the Bible, but we don’t read the Bible – at least not like we wish we did.
\nJust reading that can cause guilt to creep into your heart. That may actually be conviction from the Holy Spirit, and we should listen to that. But if it’s just a general feeling of guilt that leads to the thought, “I’m a lousy Christian. God can’t love me. How could he? I don’t even read his word. He might love me because he has to, but he doesn’t like me. He just can’t.” That feeling is not guilt. It’s accusation. But it can drive us to God anyway.
\nWe think that until we feel wooed by the grace of God in an irresistible way we can’t read the Bible honestly. We think we’re just going to it under guilt, and because of that nothing good came come from it. I’m not sure that’s true.
\nSometimes I do things for my wife that I do only because I feel guilty about something. Let’s pretend I was short with her because I was under stress at work. I snapped off a snarky answer to a real question she had about one of our children. She didn’t deserve to bear the brunt of my stress. And so hours later, after my head has cleared and the stress has melted a little, I notice that the laundry hasn’t been folded. She’s in with the baby, putting him gently back to sleep, and I pick up the laundry and fold it and put it away. The entire time I’m doing this, I’m thinking about what a miserable husband I am, and how it’s amazing she even loves me at all. I am under such a sense of guilt that I’m only folding and putting away the laundry because I see this as one way I can keep my stay in the house.
\nThen my wife walks back into the room and sees the bed clear of laundry. She looks in the basket and see it empty and realizes that I put the laundry away. She walks over with a smile on her face and gives me a hug followed by a kiss and whispers, “I love you.”
\nI went to laundry under guilt and came out under grace.
\nWe can approach the Bible with such a wonderful sense of God’s love for us that we can’t imagine a time we wouldn’t read his word. But those moments aren’t constant. We can also approach the Bible under such guilt that we can’t believe he could ever love us.
\nWhat we need in times of guilt before our lack of Bible reading is not a better plan, or a better drive, or a better accountability system. What we need most is to just pick up and read. Because even if we approach the Bible under guilt, we are met with a God full of grace. Like my wife coming in with a hug and words of love, the God of the Bible is there to meet with you and speak of his love to you when you open the Bible, and the message doesn’t change depending on how you feel. It’s the same all the times because the word of God does not change.
\nWe need to realize that on the other side of the pages of the Bible is a person. A person who loves us so much that he died for us. He’s paid for our sins, and he’s not holding them against us anymore.
\nSo next time you open your Bible wondering how God could love such a lackluster Christian, hear the words you read and receive the hug of your Father.
![](\"https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1466978913421-dad2ebd01d17\")
The Bible calls us to be hospitable, but we find it hard to do so. Peter’s words, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9) may as well be telling a child to eat their broccoli without making a face. We grumble because the house isn’t perfect, we’re not a good cook, we’re too tired from work, our favorite TV shows are on, we just need to relax, this is our family time. We have more reasons for not showing hospitality than for showing it. And that’s a problem, especially for Christians.
\nHow many people have been in your home this year? Family doesn’t count. I’m not sure close friend should even count in this assessment. How many people you just met, or barely know, or are mere acquaintances with, have stepped over the threshold of your door to sit at your dining room table and eat with you?
\nBut you’re not a good cook? Name your favorite place. I bet they do carry out, maybe even delivery. But my house isn’t big enough? When’s the last time you crammed into a crowded coffee shop and thought to yourself, “this is so cozy.” We think we need perfection before we do anything, and given the choice between perfect or nothing, with no other alternative, we will get nothing every time. If you have a room in your house with more than one space to sit, your house is ready for practicing hospitality.
\nMy guess is that most people are invited over to someone’s house for dinner maybe once or twice a year. We are lonely people-no matter how many kids are crammed into the upstairs bedrooms. We are people longing for deeper connections, lasting friendships, meaningful conversation.
\nMy wife and I believe that part of our calling as Christians is to practice hospitality with gospel intentionality. We call it gospel hospitality.
\nGod has called us to help create and develop flourishing community among the church. Jesus did not come down to our world, walk up to Zacchaeus and say, “I must go to your house today” so that we would look at that and think, “You know, that’s just so wonderful of Jesus. I guess that’s just what God does, invites himself over.” Jesus shows us the way to hospitality by stooping down low to come and live among us. Jesus invites us not only into the throne room of heaven but into the heart of God himself. His definition of hospitality is not limited to dinner once a year, but communion at every moment.
\nI’m guessing we all need to be more radical with our hospitality. We need to open up our home. All the time, we should be thinking about who could we invite over, how could we serve, who needs encouragement and help, who is hurting that needs a listening ear, who is happy and needs someone to rejoice with, who is lonely and needs a friend, who is angry and needs justice or calming, who is confused and needs help, who needs a friend and how can we befriend them, how can we push the gospel community deeper and broader than it’s ever been?
\nThis won’t be easy, which means we will be pushed into dependence on God. There have been many times that we’ve had a family coming for dinner and I didn’t want them to come. I was tired from work, or had something on my mind, and I had to pray that God would make me a good host. I didn’t want them coming, but they were coming anyway. Those nights always seem to be the most memorable. I need community more when I don’t want it than at any other time. And scheduling people to come over regularly ensures that I can’t hide in my own house whenever I want to.
\nGospel hospitality means we live our lives in open repentance and open joy before the Lord, as he gives us grace. We push out towards people, not in towards ourselves. We read our Bible and love God with all our heart, strength, soul, and mind. We pray for others and with others. We never miss an opportunity to pray. We write letters with insight and wisdom because we’ve actually talked to the people who have come into our home. You’ll be amazed at what is shared over the dinner table: hopes, dreams, heartbreaks, setbacks, roadblocks, joys, jokes, and sorrows.
\nAll this sounds too high but God is with us and he's given us this ministry. We can suppress it or we can embrace it. If we suppress it, we will be miserable and wonder why we’re lonely in a world with all these people. If we embrace it, we will be in awe of God all our life as we live together in the power of the Spirit. Our lives will be messier, but they’ll be happier. Remember Jesus Christ, “for the joy set before him he endured the cross.
\nHere are the questions to start asking: Who do we invite over? How many nights a week can we have an open home? Who can we befriend? How can we work hard to build gospel hospitality into our lives as far as the Lord will allow?
\nThat means the books we buy should be bought with the intention of giving to others to help in their time of need. The food we buy should be bought with the intention of feeding lots of others - so we always have something in bulk we can make on a whim. The way we lay out our home creates as much comfortable space as possible for people to linger. We always have good coffee and good tea and good snacks. The fire is always ready in winter and the AC in summer. The yard is always cut and ready for a backyard hangout. The play room has toys for all ages-not just for kids.
\nWe have a nice TV for football games and Olympics and March madness parties, not just to watch our movies and our shows. Our front door is unlocked and open. Our backdoor is how our kids’ friends get in the house. Our garage and attic houses the extra stuff we need for others, not just storage space for our old memories. Our floors are clean for babies and the bathroom is clean for guests. Our personal time and space are held lightly because we are selfish people by nature who only think we know what we want. Our hearts are wide open to people we don't even like. We buy cokes, and beer, and water bottles, and half and half, and milk, and juice, and paper plates, and cups, and plastic forks because we are always ready for company. We use all 8 chairs at the dining room table regularly. We don't stress over perfect meals or a perfect house or a perfect schedule but welcome all as Christ has welcomed us.
\nThe nicest things we have will be broken. The cheapest things we have will become treasures because of the memories of all the people who used our old plates and mismatched cups and dearly held coffee mugs.
\nWe cannot do any of this without it being a call from God and without the Spirit's help. We have both.
\nLet's always think, are we ready for company if they showed up tonight?
\nMay God turn our home, and your home, into a refuge from the world for more than just you and your children, but for your neighborhood, your church family, your kids’ schoolmates, your coworkers, your city.
![](\"https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1464692805480-a69dfaafdb0d\")
The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.\n\nMatthew 13:44
\n
I remember my grandfather owning a metal detector. As a kid, I'd go out in the yard with him and walk slowly, waving the detector back and forth with each step as if I was vacuuming the grass. I never found anything, but who's going to find any treasures in the back yard of a suburban neighborhood? They found all the good stuff when they developed the land, I’m sure.
\nBut I kept at it, not because I thought I'd find a pot of treasure just beneath the oak tree out back, but because the mere thought of the possibility was worth the time and effort. The anticipation kept me going.
\nFrom time to time we'd take that old thing out to the country where my grandfather grew up. I think his goal was to find some old Indian artifacts - arrowheads, maybe, or some old Civil War musket balls. But I never saw him find anything out there either. Even if he had, he would have hardly moved out of his house and bought the field where he found an arrowhead. It's just not worth that much.
\nNo one sells everything they have unless they’ve found something better than everything they have. And even then we weigh the cost heavily. Sometimes the life we know, as dull and joyless as it may be, is better than the life we don't know, with all the risks involved, even if that new life gives hope of greater joy. As much as we are joy-seekers, we are also risk-avoiders, deeply held by the life we've come to accept.
\nJesus's parable in Matthew 13:44 is one of his shortest, but its length is not a measure of its insight.
\nThe kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. We know this is true, don't we -that the treasure is hidden? Because all of us have been searching for the joy that never fades since we were able to breathe. Babies cry out when they need the smallest amount of comfort. Then we grow up and buy things, or cling to people, or attach ourselves to substances to give us the high our everyday lives can't provide. Joy is hidden. It's hard to find.
\nBut when this man finds it he knows what he's found. He goes and sells all that he has and buys the field.
\nHe's crazy. Unless he's right.
\nThe parable is about the gospel. It's about Jesus. If Jesus is who he says he is, and the gospel is the news of his coming, and dying, and rising, and living, then that treasure is worth more than the entire world. It's worthy of another world - the true world, hidden from view, but as real as the chair you're sitting on.
\nIf Jesus has conquered sin, Satan, and death, and he's offering freedom to come to God through his finished work, we would be crazy to shrug our shoulders and walk away to find another arrowhead in the soil. We should react the way this man does. Jesus is worth everything.
\nChristians know this. It's one of the amazing things about the Bible: verses like this become reality for the reader. We understand this. Jesus has become our treasure, and we're not giving him up. Or, more appropriately, he's not giving us up.
\nThe real joy of this parable is not that we find Jesus in a field and leave all to follow him, but that he came down to the field and found us, and somehow, considered us joy worthy of having. He entered our world, and lived our life, and died our death, and rose for our justification. He found us, laying in the field, in our own blood, and rose up, followed the Father to the cross, and gave himself up.
\nJesus sold all he had and bought the field. Aren't you glad you live in it?
\n
\n
“The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor the old Roman Catholicism or the new Roman Catholicism, nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus which surrounds us. All these are dangerous but not the primary threat. The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them.”\n\n― Francis A. Schaeffer, No Little People
Those words, written over 40 years ago, were prophetic then, and sadly, still so today. Communism has proven to be senseless, and the new Roman Catholicism of Schaeffer’s time is approaching middle age now. But the truth of these words are not in the examples surrounding, or opposing, the church, but within the church itself, just as Schaeffer points out.
\nYou might, after a thorough reading of Schaeffer’s works, conclude that he was overly critical of the evangelical church. He wrote about it a lot, and with a broad-brush. He himself gave much of his life, especially his middle and later years, to a parachurch ministry out in Switzerland, L’Abri. But to think that Schaffer was anti-church is a mistake. He understood the church and its problems. He had person after person live with him in his home who were turned out by the church. He was critical, yes, but not unnecessarily so. His words, I believe, can help us see ourselves as we really are, and seek the Lord for necessary change.
\nReformed churches can be cold places, where theology is high but personal relationships are low. That’s not all Reformed churches, but it is surely some. And that’s a problem because the higher our view of God and the Scriptures goes, the higher an emphasis on the beauty of personal relationships we should have. As our view of the sufficiency of the Scriptures goes, so go the radiance of our relationships. But it is not always so. Often you find people living together in beautiful openness and harmony in liberal churches, but they lack the theology to sustain it long-term. In a place where everything goes, nothing will suffice in the end. There will never be enough truth to buttress the relationships.
\nA church that takes the Bible straight should expect to see, over time, real, deep, beautiful relationships flourish because the foundation of the entire ministry is built upon the solid rock of commandments such as “love your neighbor as yourself.” The problem in many churches is not the wrong doctrine, but the wrong consequences of that doctrine on the life of the church. Schaffer calls this doing “the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit.” In other words, doing the Lord’s work in our way, rather than doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way.
\nIf we are to see an explosion of conversions, a revival in both doctrinal faithfulness and true conversion, and a vibrant ministry of reconciliation, we are going to have to take the Bible straight. We cannot put the Bible aside as a book of good advice for hard times and expect to experience the good times we hope for. If we want real beauty in real churches, we need to have a real truth as soft as a pillow when we fall face down during the hard days of life together.
\nIf we don’t have the Bible’s promises of relational beauty, we won’t have the courage to continue on. At some point, we will fracture because at some point we will contradict even our own moral standards. We can never fully live up to one another’s standards, and we can never fully live up to God’s either, but God offers grace to failures who admit their sins. We just kill each other for them – repentant or not. And that isn’t biblical. The “one-anothers” of Scripture call us to much more than mere coexistence. They call us to sacrificial love and bold community.
\nWe can do ministry in one of two ways: in our power of in the Lord’s power. One way leads to death in the church, the other leads to life. The first is, by far, easier day in and day out, but the second is more glorious, by far, moment by moment.
\nWe might wage war against the culture, against the President, against liberalism, or socialism, or any other “ism”, but “the central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them.”
\n
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.Ecclesiastes 12:13
As Solomon concludes his teaching, he sums up everything he’s been trying to say with these words from verse 13 of chapter 12, “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” That’s a stunning statement. Everything we are living for, if it isn’t consciously submitted to God, is a vapor. This is the entire point of the book of Ecclesiastes.
We are prone to give our lives to almost everything but God. In fact, we are so sinful that unless God breaks into our lives and recreates our heart, we will pursue everything the world offers without ever finding lasting satisfaction. Solomon knew this. He lived it. Ecclesiastes is his witness to the reality of how easily we can waste our lives. So, he ends with these words to put us on the right path for fruitful living. After chronicling all of the ways the richest person in the world can chase happiness and satisfaction, he tells us plainly the only way to gain all that we really want.
Life in this world goes fast. It is a vapor. So much of what we do won’t last. We will build things to hand off to others, who may or may not steward it well. We will accumulate things only to see them given away. We will pay for things that rot over time. Everything of this world stays of this world. The only thing we carry around with us that will go with us after death is us. So, what are you living for? That’s the question Solomon raises in this book. What you are living for will tell everything you need to know about who you are. Are you living for God or for the world?
Since life in this world doesn’t last forever, there must be something eternal to live for or you will waste your life. And since few things in existence are eternal, we better be sure that we focus on those few things that are eternal above everything else. Here’s how we do that: “Fear God and keep his commandments.”
This focuses on two eternal realities, the only two eternal realities. God has always been eternally present. We, his creation whom he loves, are eternal from our conception. So we, the creation, must respect God, the Creator. We must fear God and keep his commandments.
To fear God means to worship God as God. Fearing God is giving him the respect, honor, and glory that the Lord of all creation is due. God is God; there is no other (Isa. 45:5). We fear God when we read the Bible and receive it whole, without filtering it down to fit our current construct of him. We don’t want to define God for him. We let him define himself. He sets the rules in our life.
Sinclair Ferguson explains the fear of God this way:
“The fear of God is not terror. Terror of God is the reaction of guilt in the face of his holy power. It desires only to run from him in despair. Through every aspect of his character God means to show us his glory. This he loves to do more than anything else. Moreover, he loves his people so much that he will let nothing stand in the way of them coming to share in this glory. The person who sees this learns what it means to fear God. It means to be filled with a sense of breathtaking awe at his character. It means to realize with shame that although we have been made to live as his image, we have forfeited by our sin our privileges and our destiny. It means also that we have begun to realize the costly way in which he restores that glory to us. The fear of God in some ways defies our attempts at definition, because it is really another way of saying ‘knowing God’. It is a heart-felt love for him because of who he is and what he has done; a sense of being in his majestic presence. It is a thrilling awareness that we have this greatest of all privileges, mingled with a realization that now the only thing that really matters is his opinion. To fear God is to be sensitive to both his greatness and his graciousness. It is to know him and to love him wholeheartedly and unreservedly. To fear God, to trust God, to love God, and to know God – these are really one and the same thing.”
Since God is God, the all-powerful sustainer of life, and since he has given us commandments to follow, we should be very careful to follow them. If God were to show up and tell us this morning how our life would work at its very best, we would pay attention. We would write down every single word he said. We would be on the edge of our seat. We would set our alarm and get up early and be ready for him when he arrives. We wouldn’t waste that time. Well, through his word God has given us that gift. He has told us how life works. More than that, he has told us in every way imaginable. He has given us narratives. He has expressed it in poetry. He has given us songs and proverbs and examples. In Ecclesiastes, he gives us the wisdom that he gave to Solomon. It turns out that Solomon’s wisdom wasn’t for his own use only. It was also God’s amazing gift to us. And the sum of his wisdom, after a life spent chasing everything else, is that we should fear God and keep his commandments.
We can try to live another way. We can pursue everything we think will satisfy us. Or we can listen to a man who went after it all, got it all, and was disappointed in the end. What that man says is that the end of the matter is this, that we should fear God and keep his commandments, because that is the whole duty of man. Loving Jesus for who he really is means we want to keep his commandments without any shortcuts. And that, according to Ecclesiastes 12:13, is the whole of life. We love God and obey him.
The question for us, then, is this: what are you chasing today and how can the grace of God in the gospel of Christ speak to the longing behind that chase?
![](\"https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1433023396640-673394a1faa8\")
\nAs we started across the ocean, the Northern Lights stretched like a grew bow on our right. Halfway, almost to the minute, between Shannon and Gander, both motors on my side of the plane stopped at once. We fell about 3,000 feet in a very few minutes….
\nI had already flown a lot, and so I could feel the engines going wrong. I remember thinking, if I’m going to go down into the ocean, I’d better get my coat. When I did, I said to the hostess, “There’s something wrong with the engines.” She was a bit snappy and said, “You people always thing there’s something wrong with the engines.” So I shrugged my shoulder, but I took my coat. I had no sooner sat down that the lights came on and a very agitated copilot came out. “We’re in trouble,” he said. “Hurry and put on your life jackets.”
\nI fully expected to spend the night on the wing of the plane! My chief concern was my notebook, which had grown thick and heavy during the ninety days, and I was glad I had lost so much weight so that I could stuff it under my belt into my pants. I assured a woman with two children that I would take one of them.
\nSo down we went, and we fell and fell, until in the middle of the night with no moon we could actually see the water breaking under us in the darkness. And as we were coming down, I prayed. Interestingly enough, a radio message had gone out, an SOS that was picked up and broadcast immediately all over the United States in a flash news announcement: “There is a plane falling in the middle of the Atlantic.” My wife heard about this immediately, and she gathered our three little girls together and they knelt down and began to pray. They were praying in St, Louis, Missouri, and I was praying on the plane. And we were going down and down….We could see the waves breaking beneath us and everybody was ready for the crash.
But the plane didn’t crash. Miraculously, the motors kicked on again and the plane rose back into the air. Schaeffer asked the pilot about this after landing.
\n\n“Well,” he said, “it’s a strange thing, something we can’t explain. Only rarely do two motors stop on one wing, but you can make a rule that when they do, they don’t start again. we don’t understand it.” So I turned to him and I said, “I can explain it.” He looked at me. “How?” And I said, “My Father in Heaven started it because I was praying.” That man got the strangest look on his face and he turned away. I'm sure he was the man sitting in the materialist's chair.
Schaeffer taught us that we may sit in one of two chairs. The first is the chair of the consistent materialist, where the world is comprised of nothing but mass, energy, and motion. There is nothing else to it. The other is the chair of the Christian, who lives in light of the Bible's teaching about the world.
\nThe one in the Materialist's chair can search the world over to try and understand what is really going on but never comes to full knowledge. He learns a lot, and all of it very true and accurate, but never complete. He cannot know anything of the origin of life, or of the true working of things, or why these things work as they do because he has totally left God out.
\nOn the other hand, the Christian, sitting under the Bible sees the whole of the world - both the seen and unseen. He is, in short, enlightened to the fullness of all that exists, and why it exists as it does. There is the physical world that can be seen and explored, as well as the spiritual world that can only be learned from God's revelation in the Scriptures.
\nSo the Materialist, though he may spend his life looking at the world as it is, can never actually see what is really there. He sees only one part and has no patience, nor time, nor stomach for the rest. So though he may be able to explain the what, he can never explain the why. Only the Bible gives us the why.
\nHere Schaeffer is, on a plane with the Materialist. Sitting in a different chair, looking at the same world through a different lens. They both see the engines stop. They both see the waves of the ocean breaking beneath them. But only one knows that there are everlasting arms underneath it all.
\nThe Materialist has no answer for the miracle of the engines, but Schaeffer is not bothered by it in the least. It is no surprise that God would work in this way. He's been doing it all along, and he'll continue to do it for eternity. The chair of the Christian factors God into all things at all times, and that makes all the difference.
\nThe Materialist can never pray because he does not believe anyone will listen. The Christian can always pray because he believes God is there to always listen.
![](\"https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1446051642017-6d07a440087f\")
It’s a culture of peace and openness and joy because we have been redeemed and we have good news to share – so we share it all the time! It’s a place where people are set free from their past to walk in newness of life because Jesus has set them free in his death and resurrection. It’s a place where we don’t pressure one another to change quickly, but help one another walk the hard path of life, looking to Jesus as the only savior. We are needy people with an all-sufficient Christ.
\nIt is like a blanket woven from different fabric. Though coming from different places, with different colors and attributes, they make one beautiful whole.
![\"moon.jpg\"](\"https%3A//wordpress.com/2ccf1345-5b4c-4a77-9acb-b1e862e51893\")
Our God is a good Father. He knows what is best for us at all times. Therefore, he sets out to accomplish his will for us regardless of how we feel about it. We may be tired, but if he has work to do in us that requires a troubled mind unable to soundly sleep, then our duty is to yield to the working of the Spirit – to cry out to God in the night as a child does for his mother desperately needing someone to make it all better.
\nGod never sleeps. He has no need of rest because he is not restrained by the limits of created beings. And though he created us to require deep, regular sleep, we must be careful not to idolize a good night's rest. It is possible that the Lord has important lessons for us to learn through sleepless nights that turn into hard days: first the lesson of weakness, and second the lesson of gentleness and love.
\nNothing makes us feel our weakness quite as acutely as weariness. When you haven't slept, even simple tasks such as driving home become the front line of battle where the enemy of sleep attacks at every stop light. You wonder at 4 AM how you will make it through the meeting at 2 PM, and how you'll have enough energy to play with your kids at 6 PM. You wonder if you will be cognizant and helpful in the counseling session at 10 AM, and if you can study and write for an afternoon at 3 PM. You will wonder why God hasn't granted you sleep and you will begin to rage at him, accusing him of holding out on you something so necessary and simple. Like a child throwing a fit for not getting a second bowl of ice cream, we forget that most nights we sleep as if on clouds. If he wants to rouse us, he certainly has the right to do so.
\nSo weakness becomes the first lesson. We must learn to trust him at every moment of the day: when our sense of justice raises us to the world's judge we must remember that he is merciful and gracious, when the fuse of our temper runs short we must remember that he is slow to anger, when our apathy begins to bud and then flower we must remember that he abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness. Our weakness is no match for his grace, and his grace is no slouch for our weakness. The entire life of the service of a Christian is one done out of profound weakness.
\nToo often we fail to see how frail we truly are. We get puffed up by even the smallest accomplishment. A Tweet here, a blog post there, an email in the afternoon and we are as proud as Satan as he fell from the sky. Compared to his holiness we are but wicked sinners in need of constant grace. Nothing makes us feel this more than sleeplessness. To be weak is not anti-Christian, but rather profoundly Christian. We, like Gideon in battle, must be exhausted yet pursuing. We pursue not out of perfect strength, but out of deep weakness because God is worthy of all our life, not simply the leftover life. He has the right to turn our 22,000 troops into 300, or our 8 solid hours into 30 restless minutes.
\nThe second lesson of gentleness and love is the natural outflow of the first. Our weakness exposes us to a degree we find entirely uncomfortable. The first to go is our gentleness; second is our love. Everyone has seen the child overtired from the day's activities losing his mind because he cannot find the words to express his dire need for sleep. He rages against his parents who love him and dared to give him green beans along with dinner. He slaps the table and throws the food and spurns the gift of health all because he has not learned yet to steward his energy. He has no gentleness, only rage. So too we are prone to such extremes. We become irritable and quick to anger. We snap at one another like crocodiles longing for lunch. We sigh as our wife asks us for a favor. We complain that the children aren't more well-behaved. We speak sternly and rigidly and are on the verge of losing our Christian witness in the world, or at least in our own household. We need the touch of grace, and even though the gift is there we refuse to enter the room to open it.
\nAlong with our lack of gentleness comes a lack of love. Perhaps that's not entirely true. A better way to describe it may be love of others, for we certainly are filled with self-love. When we have not slept we are tempted to focus all our efforts on self-preservation. Save a little energy here, check out in that meeting there, just make it through the day without destroying something, but caring very little about giving love that we may not have the energy to give. If the life of a Christian is to be marked by love it will have to be tomorrow. Today has no more to spare.
\nBut this is not the way of Christ. To lose our gentleness and love due to lack of sleep is to lose sight of who God calls us to be in a world hostile against him. This is a chance at living out of the Spirit in weakness, recognizing our temptation to sin, and calling upon his overwhelming grace to rescue and to redeem. The gears of the world churn on the fumes of tired men and women.
\nWe must lose the illusion that our ministry comes out of what we put in, or that its effectiveness is due to our ingenuity and resourcefulness. It is emphatically not. Our ministry is the result of God working in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. I have no doubt he can do far more without us than he can with us, weak and sinful as we are, but he nevertheless chooses to use us. Let us not elevate ourselves pridefully to the place of which we no not the cost, but let us look to the Lord with open hands and accept all things from him.
\nEven our sleepless nights can bear fruit of ministry that perfect conditions spoil. The question of the day is not \"are you going forth in the fullness of your strength,\" but rather \"are you going forth in the fullness of Christ\"? It may be that through weakness you are being brought there, though you go kicking and screaming. Just stop. Just yield. Just rest in the power of the risen Lord, even if you cannot rest on the softness of your pillow. His grace is a far more comfortable bed.
\n
![\"desert\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/3c066ebc907bcd59-desert-l1qiNzpc6TA5Ej2aGFpI9AuWbhFQ7G.jpg\")
desert[/caption] \n \n\n\nExcuse making is at the heart of disobedience. I am a professional excuse maker. Unfortunately, that’s my inheritance from Adam. He left me some nice things, like life, but also some bad things, like death through sin. In the death basket lays a ready-made excuse generator for hearts that want to preserve pride and avoid responsibility.
Moses received the same inheritance as me. Unfortunately for him, his dealings with God were recorded in the Bible, excuse making and all. We see it first in Exodus 4:10 after God calls him to go to Egypt and free his people.
But Moses said to the LORD, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”
Not being an eloquent speaker is a good reason for not standing before the most powerful man in the world. It makes sense. Most of us would shudder at giving a presentation to a room full of people, so to be shy to stand in front of Pharaoh makes sense to us. But the problem for Moses is that this is just an excuse. Yes, he’s not eloquent. But God has just told him to go. He has a power-vision problem. He holds the opinion of Pharaoh of more worth than the opinion of God. This isn’t humility; this is disobedience through excuse making.
God answers in Exodus 4:11-12,
Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”
God’s answer is so God-like. Ok, Moses, you’re not eloquent. Great. I’m the one who made your mouth.
Moses continues. Exodus 4:13
But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”
His excuse didn’t work. Now he just flatly asks God to remove him from this responsibility.
The call of God on our life is not easy to accept. Sure, some parts are easy - like salvation and love - but the call to obedience and the call to mission is hard. The journey he takes us on is always surprising. It always costs us more than we are willing to pay. It is a higher mountain than we are able to climb. It is a more uncomfortable path than what we'd like. The call always has hard terms.
Moses understood this. He made excuses because he could not fathom going through with God's plan. It seemed too hard, too ridiculous, too risky. And it was. That's how God works. He uses us and calls us into ridiculously hard and risky things because he has a purpose of glory to reveal, and glorious things do not come easy.
Moses started with excuses and progressed to refusal. But in the end God used him anyway, because God, for reasons we can't fully explain, has determined to use sinners like Moses, and me, and you.
We may tell God to send someone else, but his grace is large enough and forceful enough to run through our objections and use us in spite of ourselves. After all, it is the Lord's work and he will accomplish his goals.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.(Romans 5:6-11)
If you believe in Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul you are eternally secure in his overwhelming love for you. You have nothing to fear in this life or the next. If Jesus is your greatest treasure, then you have been transferred into a different kingdom. Nothing is the same. Everything is wonderfully different. The person you once were is gone, a new person has been created. You are alive and on your way to even greater life – abundant life. You are fully saved, without one reason to doubt your eternal security. That’s what trusting in Jesus gives you.
Here’s the truth about all who believe in Jesus for their salvation: God has declared you righteous in his sight and has drawn near to you in a new kind of relationship. You are infinitely worse than you ever imagined yet loved infinitely more than you ever dreamed. And your future salvation is as secure as the seat you are sitting on.
\nWe live in an age in which we make demands of one another while repudiating demands others make of us. Our outrage gauge is always on the high side, but wonder how others could find any problem in us. We demand what we crave and, as you know, cravings are personal – they come and go, change and redirect, ebb and flow.
Psalm 78 helps us see what comes of these cravings. It recounts the history of Israel, pointing to their unbelief and God’s faithfulness. It’s the story the Bible tells often: Sinful man rebels against God, blaming him for the terrible spot they’re in, demanding he make it right.
I wonder what demands we are making of God right now? What are we holding him accountable to do that he has not explicitly told us he would do? What bitterness is taking root due to our misdirected cravings?
Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness? He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?”
Psalm 78:17-20
Can’t you just hear the indignation in those verses? The accusation that God is holding out on them, unwilling to give them what they want! How dare he deny his people whatever their heart wants whenever it wants it.
They did not believe in the goodness of God. They thought they knew better what would bring them joy in life, and they refused to be satisfied until he had met their demands. So too do we act like such selfish children before our Holy God.
But God will not be bullied. He will not give in to our demands because we do not know what is best for us.
\"You be you.\" \"Follow your heart.\" \"Live out your passion.\" \"Be your truest self.\" Are the damning phrases of our age. They are all attempts at defining and justifying ourselves apart from God. And the further in we go the deeper down we sink into despair. Life is not meant to be lived upon the blissful shores of my cravings. We cannot grow on the fruit of evil desires, but in the barrenness of God's desert training. When we give ourselves over to his care we will find that he knows best.
Notice the verbs in verses 17-20: sinned, rebelling, tested, demanding, spoke against. The Israelites condemned God as a bad Father. And so do we.
Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant. Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.
Psalm 78:37-39
Yet he. God is gracious. He has mercy. And for people as sinful as the Israelites, and you and me, what good news this is! God shows mercy to mercy-less people. He gives grace to grace-less people.
He remembers that we are but flesh, and the flesh is no help at all (John 6:63). Our flesh demands what God is not willing to give because our flesh does not understand what goodness awaits in God. Our flesh only knows what we want, not what we need. And so we need someone to watch over us to give us what we need, like a good parent who monitors their child's food, refusing a diet of desserts and providing a diet of fruit and vegetables. We need someone to give us what we really need because we have no idea what we need.
Our cravings cause us to condemn God, and God's mercy causes him to forgive us. God gets the raw end of this deal. He is abused and maligned, and we are freed and forgiven.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/b6632a59d76e7d6c-towers-rM2lSjv8FGscRr4VzsPMVMnMwgtFvA.jpg\")
\n \n\n\"Pride,\" observed Mary, who piqued herself upon the solidity of her reflections, \"is a very common failing, I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed; that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.\"Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
The twins, Pride and Vanity, have plagued the human race since that grievous day the apple was eaten in the Garden of Eden. They know no barrier, are intimidated by no wall of protection, and have no care for status or economy. Pride and Vanity attack all equally. We should tremble.
Our sin will find us out. There is no doubt about that. But Pride says it will not be so. Pride props himself up in our hearts as the most faithful of friends. He keeps us from despair. He whispers to us of our value and worth. He sings over us the love song of self-admiration. He won’t back down and he won’t let go. Of the two, Pride is the meaner.
Vanity is timid. He panders, shifts, sways, flip-flops, changes with the wind. He has our best interest in mind, maintaining high views of ourselves in other’s minds. To have even a little Vanity with a lot of Pride causes us to care just enough to be nice, but not enough to be happy. Vanity, in a sense, is the governor of Pride. Left alone, Pride will run through the heart like Alexander the Great, conquering every land with unquenchable thirst. Vanity is the regulator for worldwide conquest, beacuse he must ensure that a majority likes us in the end.
But these twins, though their power is great, have an enemy even greater. His name is Humility. Like the tongue he is small in stature, yet the most powerful weapon to wound or heal. So he first wounds, then heals. He first tears down, then builds. He first destroys, then repairs.
Humility cares enough about the self to ruin it all so that it might in the end be saved. Pride, given enough time, will destroy beyond repair. Vanity, left unhindered, will cause self to wither away. But Humility destroys early and frees forever. Humility gives the self the proper order of things, restoring peace where fear once ruled. Humility alone opens us up to God and to others that we would live a proper life, fitting of the kingdom of God.
Humility comes between Pride and Vanity and breaks the bond between the two. The twin towers crumble and something new begins to grow.
Pride is a very common failing. I believe that. But Humility is the antidote. Choose wisely the friends we make. Some give life, some take it away.
![](\"https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1458707926943-2226cddba8d4\")
\nGod really likes caring for you. His disposition is not that of a disappointed father, with scowl and grumpy voice to match. He is not waiting for you to get your act together before you deserve the grace he has at his disposal. He is your shepherd who loves you, his sheep.
I have nothing more to say. Simply that. God really likes caring for you. Rejoice and be his child today.
“Exhausted yet pursuing.”Judges 8:4.
If anything can sum up the life of ministry so simply, this is it. Exhausted yet pursuing. Following Jesus is tiring. Not in the “I want to give up and take a vacation” way, but in the “I think they misunderstood what I said” or the “how can I say this a different way for greater impact” or “Lord, I don’t see the way out but I’m trusting you tonight” or “God, I need you right now” kind of way.
As we pursue the Lord and his call on our life, we find that he takes our 32,000 troops and gives us 300 back. We have to do more with less, often in the middle of the night, without even the comfort of sleep. That’s the way the Lord has ordained it. Not because he likes to see us suffer, but until we come to the end of ourselves, we won’t look to the fullness of Christ.
What we need for ministry is not a stronger tug on our bootstraps on the ground, but the security of the anchor of our soul in heaven (Hebrews 6:19).
We need the power of Christ resting upon us (2 Corinthians 12:9).
We need the fullness of Christ going before us (Romans 15:29).
We need the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11).
Because ministry is exhausting, but the pursuit never ends, because God never ends. His mission is worthy wearing ourselves out for. His glory is supreme. His grace is sufficient. His mercy endures. His steadfast love never fails. And as long as he gives us strength we will use it, because this life is for him anyway.
And one day, when it’s all over and we pass into glory, we will enter into the rest of God (Hebrews 4:9).
Until then we will pursue the cause of Christ in this world, and we will exhaust ourselves, because the one whom we follow ended his life on a cross. Ministry isn’t easy, but it is glorious and worthy. Press on, my friends. Press on.
\nDeath comes like a thief. You are never prepared, and it always takes more than you thought it could. It is jolting, stunning, unbelievable. It is unnatural. We were not made for death, but it has its way with us all.
Perhaps the worst part is that none of us are immune. We will all be touched by death, both here in life and in our own death someday out ahead. The pain of it rips through like a summer storm – fast and mighty – but lingers like a snowfall in New England – long and deep.
Death is the anti-life. It is the end of all. It is the abrupt ending to the world we spend so much time creating. It is the leaving behind of all that we have. It is final. There is no recovery. There is no hope. Death is and life is not.
Unless.
Only that which is the more powerful life defeats death. Only if life supersedes death, outlasts it, was before it, and will be after it– then there is hope. Unless death meets the same end that it seeks to bring to us can we truly live. If death is immanent and final – truly final in the most real sense – then pack your bags and leave right now. The pain will only increase the longer and better you live.
But if death has a death day just as it had a birthday in the Garden of Eden then there is light at the end of the tunnel. There is a hope that shines at the end and what happens after death, if it is the final thing in life, must be the final final thing we face. And if there is light then death is not as final as it feels. It is final for this brief period, but leads into something that lasts longer. If there is a light, and the light has come into the world, and the light comes toward us, and we enter into the light, then death loses its sting. Death dies, if that light exists. The great question then becomes: is that light there?
Philosophers will say we cannot know for sure because we cannot know death and still have knowledge to impart back to the living. They are wrong. For philosophers to be wrong should be no great surprise. Thales thought the world was made of water – water was all that mattered. He was wrong, no one can argue his validity today. We need not a philosophy of life – or of death – to reason this out for us. We need a person to prove to us that there is life, and a person to prove to us that death is dead.
We have such a person.
Jesus is the light at the end of the tunnel. Not only that, he is the light that illumines the path of life. He is the light that we can enter into. We can do so because he came down into our darkness. He walked in the shadow of the valley of death. He let his bones be broken and his side be pierced and his life blood flow into death to go through death to defeat death for us. He is the life that defeats death. Death is a result of sin, and a sinless man cannot die – not unless he chooses to pick the fight to defeat the power. And that’s what Jesus has done. He picked the fight with our greatest enemy so that the bully would leave us alone.
He didn’t philosophize about that. He did it. He proved it in his very personhood, his very life. He lived. He died. He lived again. Now, death, what can you do to a man like that? Indeed, what can you do to his friends if he chooses to beat the bully for them?
You and I will die. It is inevitable. But because of the work of Christ on the cross the death we die is the entrance into the light that we can see only a pinprick of today. There is hope, because though death looms thick like a summer fog, the sun is rising to burn it all away. The way in? Faith. That’s all it takes.
So, death, where is your sting? Where is your great boast? Where is your victory? Where is your championship trophy? Where is your hall of fame? Where is your pride? It is nothing. You have nothing. Not as long as Jesus is King. Death, you are a joke. A terrible, terrible joke that causes pain and sadness, but a joke you are. Ten billion years from now when those in Christ are partying in heaving with him forever we will look back on you and laugh as you laughed at us. We may have born you into the world, but Jesus has taken you out. Goodbye, death. Goodbye, fear of death. There is a new, greater reality in town. His name is Jesus. His presence is life.
\nThe greatest need of our moment is to take a good look at the reality of our heart before God, confess the many sins that are there, and rejoice in the forgiveness flowing down from heaven. Nothing is more urgent. Nothing is more vital.
Confession of sin scares us. Rightly so. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). And before the holy God our sin condemns us. Confession is dark and messy and painful, but only through the pain of the broken path can we find the way back to the Savior. Because though we must fall on our faces before his holiness, his grace in the cross saves us from the condemnation we are due.
If the Lord were to grant a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit on our country that lead to mass confession, I wonder what problems would be solved? Why not pray for that with me this week? His grace can change the world. It already has. Let’s ask him to show his power again. May we confess and find forgiveness and reorient our lives around the Savior of the world.
\"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one, another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.\" 1 John 1:7
![](\"https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1423449866043-73b9a34cb270?ixlib=rb-0.3.5&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&s=20c1e9e0940275f968b5b3d2483150e3\")
Saul changes his mission – or, more accurately, God changes Saul’s mission. On his way to Damascus to persecute the church, he ends up preaching sermons and proving Jesus to be the Christ to Jews in the synagogues rather than ravaging the homes of Christians. He’s a changed man, and the disciples, much less the Jews, aren’t sure what to make of him.
\nHe has two attempts on his life in verses 20-30. The Jews try to kill him in Damascus and in Jerusalem. It’s not going well for him. Every comfort he once had is gone and in its place is the fear of death. But he doesn’t seem to mind. The disciples have to remove him (I’m guessing against his will) to Caesarea so his life would be spared. He’s relentless for Jesus.
\nThe entire episode is amazing for its historical importance, its intense drama, and its witness to the power of Christ. But what has struck me the most as I’ve read and thought over it is how Saul goes from an enemy of the church to a brother in the church in a matter of a few verses.
\nWhere else in the world can this happen but in the church, where everyone is saved by the same gospel and brought into the same family of God? How beautiful is the reality of salvation, that it makes enemies brothers and restores and reconciles relationships so that opponents become family?
\nMay God continue to save and bring unity to his Church.
\n“But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord…” Acts 9:1
\n“So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hand on him he said, ‘Brother Saul…’” Acts 9:17
\nFrom an enemy to a brother. Grace upon grace.
\n“Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” Romans 15:7
![](\"https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1463109598173-3864231fade5?ixlib=rb-0.3.5&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&s=5243f341aba3431fc1d74ac036e0ea62\")
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.\n\nHebrews 1:3
I barely have the capacity to understand these words. Jesus is so big that I cannot fit his grandiosity into my little brain. But my heart understands something about this verse that my head can’t wrap itself around. My heart understands the magnitude of this verse at the personal level. My heart understands that this verse means Jesus is the God that I need. He is a God big enough for all of my needs. He is big enough for you, and for me, and for the whole world. This verse tells us that Jesus does have the whole world in his hands. It relieves my heart, even if my mind cannot grasp its totality.
\nThis verse means that Jesus can do anything in the world that he wants to do. He has power over all. He can end evil kingdoms with a breath. He can raise up the humble to powerful positions in a matter of days. He can send a flood to cover the earth. He can stop the sun in its place. He can do whatever he wants. He’s the king. So what does he choose to do?
\nHe chooses to love you.
\nHe chooses to save you.
\nHe chooses to sanctify you.
\nHe chooses to hold on to you.
\nHe chooses to give you joy.
\nHe chooses to redeem your suffering.
\nHe chooses to intercede on your behalf.
\nHe chooses to bring you into his glory.
\nThis king, who can do anything he wants, chooses to care for you. He doesn’t care from a distance but from the place of personal nearness. He is not a distant king ruling and reigning with an iron fist and a closed door. He is a king that has come near – near enough to suffer and die. He is a king with a heart wide open, welcoming you. He is a king with a kingdom far beyond your wildest imagination. He is a king with unlimited power and he chooses to use that power for your good, because it brings him glory.
\nHe is a glorious king, and you are his glorious prize. Jesus loves you.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/1835229080f7abe3-photo-1441804238730-210ce1c2cc00-GmyDLmZYCxQWSaXxvEk2n6nC01puRP.jpg\")
\n \n\nSometimes we actually empower Satan by the way we speak of Christian conversion. We highlight the testimony of the ex-alcoholic who says, \"Since I met Jesus I've never wanted another drink.\" Now that happens sometimes, and we should give thanks for God's power here. But this liberation is no more miraculous, indeed in some ways less so, than the testimony of the repentant drunk who says, \"Every time I hear a clink of ice in a glass I tremble with desire, but God is faithful in keeping me sober.The girl with same-sex desires might conclude she is doomed to be a lesbian because she isn’t drawn to boys and still fights her attraction to girls. Family members who have to cut up their credit cards to keep from spending every paycheck on what they see advertised may conclude they’re just not “spiritual” enough to follow Christ because they still war against their wants. Nonsense. You are not what you want. You are who you are. And that’s defined by the Word of God. It might be that God frees your appetite from whatever it’s drawn toward, but usually he instead enables you to fight it. This might go on for forty days, for forty years, for an entire lifetime. That’s all right. There must be room then in our churches for a genuine bearing of one another’s burdens when it comes to the appetites. Pretending the appetites are instantly nullified by conversion is a rejection of what God has told us – that we are still in the war zone.
Moore, Russell. Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011. 72-73.
If we are to make any progress in our churches in the area of mutual sanctification and mortification of sin, we must begin to see one another as co-sufferers. We are all controlled, at some level, by the strength of our desires. We want what we want, and to not want it is painfully difficult. But we are not alone (or we shouldn't be, anyway) in the church. The church is made up of people who have stared sin straight in the face and seen a greater power break the chains. Jesus is alive, which means there is hope even for the hopeless. The key to encouraging sin-strugglers, of which we all are, is to continually point them to the only real sin defeater, who works endlessly on our behalf.
The struggle is real. The fight is exhausting. Admit that. Bear one another's burdens. Be there when it gets hard. That's not only the job of pastors and church staff, that's the job of Christian brothers and sisters, of Christian friends. Walk in the light - together, forever.
When the clink of the glass is loudest, you need a nagging friend who breaks the glass with the power of the gospel.
![](\"https://hd.unsplash.com/reserve/wuZ2o7URf6Rj1gJ6oZxh_327425_616020918991_1349673719_o.jpg\")
\nWe are at war. It's an old war, as old as the earth. It's an invisible war that, at times, reveals itself in the visible world. We are at war, and we would do well to recognize it. Our enemy is as real as flesh and blood, though he takes not the form of it. He's working in the spiritual realm - planning, scheming, attacking. This enemy never tires of his evil. He is unrelenting. He's made up his mind - he is greater than God, and he's out to prove it, whatever it takes.
And here we are, all of us Christians, following the Lord wherever he calls. The enemy hates us. It's not as if in a worldly war, where upon one side seeing the face of the man he's fighting against grows some form (even small) of sympathy and sadness for the man he's trying to kill. Our spiritual enemy knows our face, but does not care, because he hates our Godward heart. He hates what Jesus has done to us in saving us. He hates what the Spirit bears witness to us. He hates the throne of God.
\nIn the book of Ephesians, Paul instructs us about this battle.
\n\n11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
\nEphesians 6:11-20
We need to know whom we are wrestling with. This is not a benign threat, nor a mere warning of what may be. This is a full-fledged attack, with a draft into the Lord's army.
\nWhat would it look like for your ministry if you realized you are in the midst of war? A wartime mentality, while taken too far can be weird, taken too lightly can be disastrous. There is a real war going on, and if you are a Christian serving in ministry, you are an officer with a bounty on your head. The enemy wants you dead, and he'll go to any lengths to make sure he succeeds.
\nBut he can't succeed. He's already lost the war. This doesn't mean we can underestimate him now, or take him lightly. He still has his flaming darts, and he's a good shot. But he can't ultimately defeat you, because he has already been ultimately defeated.
\nHe thought he won at the cross. As Jesus hung there in agony and frailty, he rejoiced as only evil can. His hellish laughter rose to its pinnacle as the spear entered the side of the Savior. His devilish pride ascended above the cross to look down upon his defeated foe. He walked away with a smile on his face, and a pep in his step - all the way into the empty grave, upon where he realized with horror his utter defeat. The cross was his shining triumph, but it was also his staggering downfall
\nWe cannot even agree on the meaning of days anymore. That first Friday was not good. It only became good because Sunday followed. Our enemy sees it the other way. We are utterly opposed to one another. There is no hope of restoration. He’s made up his mind. God must go. But he won’t. He can’t. He’s the victor, and victors don’t give up their kingdom.
\nNow we are the ambassadors of the King. We are sent out to proclaim this good news of the victory of Jesus on the cross. But we do so not as proud soldiers in that heavenly war. We were not there to take up our swords. We were on the ground, rebelling against God right along with our enemy, because we too are the enemy. Our own hearts have rejected God. And the cross was our defeat as well, if we’ll have it.
\nThe difference between the enemy of God and the friend of God is the difference between humbling ourselves at the foot of the cross and propping ourselves up on his throne. The glory of the gospel is that Jesus didn’t kill us at first sight. Instead, he yielded his throne for a manger. He traded his crown for a cross. He laid down his shield and let the flaming darts penetrate deep inside his body – all the way to death. He let us, and Satan, kill him, because it was the only way to save us.
\nSo as Hellish Friday turned into Good Friday as morning rose on Sunday, those in Christ went from citizens of the underworld to citizens of heaven as quickly as the sun turned night into day. The Savior walked out of the grave and defeated his challengers by the power of an indestructible life. He could die yes, but he could not stay dead. And that makes all the difference.
\nYou can’t keep a good man down. But our enemy doesn’t see this yet. So he fights on. Now he attacks the King’s ambassadors. We must pray for them, for they are our brothers and sisters – they are us. We must take up the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. Under that protection – His protection – we cannot fall. We have become good men through the Good Man’s death and resurrection.
![\"Refuge\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/0b2e43a132057c02-refuge-3Y5UWUrSowSrMwgWMzYmCxbG0sSHev.jpg\")
\nChristians always want to put themselves in positions to be used by God. On Sunday, August 7, 2016, a group of Christians will do just that at 10:30 inside of a school cafeteria. Refuge Church will officially launch in Franklin, TN.
We have come from different churches, from different areas of town, from different backgrounds, with one sense of calling: to plant a church in Franklin for Franklin. We believe Jesus has called us to this work. He has led us here, for this moment, at this time, for this purpose. He is building something new, and we are along for the ride.
\nAs I look forward to Sunday, I am grateful for a few things, and hopeful for a few more.
\nI am grateful that Refuge is already a church body. Sunday, in some ways, doesn’t change much. Our worship service will look much the same as it has the past few months. We will sing praises to God, we will come before the throne of grace in prayer, we will preach the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will come to the communion table in remembrance of him. We will come and gather together and go and scatter throughout our city during the week. We will meet in our Community Groups to help one another press the gospel deep into our hearts. We will pray for one another, bear one another’s burdens, encourage one another, confess sin together, be needy and hopeful Christians together. Our commitment to church planting in our city, our country, and throughout the world will not falter. The same Jesus Christ that we love and follow will be the same Sunday as he was yesterday and as he’ll be today.
\nI am grateful that Jesus has called us into this mission. He has provided for us. We have a place to meet, we have a large core group that has been faithfully praying and working toward this new work, and we have many partnerships all throughout the country. Our sending church, Immanuel Church, has prepared us well and sent us out with great joy. We are, in the hands of the Lord, as ready as we can be.
\nSo in one sense, on August 7, 2016 nothing changes for Refuge Church. We will continue meeting and continue preaching and continue praying and continue pressing the gospel message out into the world. But in another sense, everything is about to change.
\nI'm also hopeful for a few new things. Of course, I have no idea what God might do with this new church, but I believe that as we give it all to him, day by day, he will work within our church miracles of grace that will ring throughout the heavens and outlast this dying world. He will save and he will restore and he will make all things new to the praise of his glorious grace.
\nSo here are a few things for which I am praying and hoping.
\nI am hopeful for an influx of unbelievers and tired Christians. I’m praying that Refuge Church will become a Refuge to our city. That those who are tired of church, who have been wounded by the church, who do not know the Lord, and don’t even want the Lord find Refuge underneath his wings of salvation.
\nI am hopeful for an explosion of joy – the kind of joy that heaven is filled with. Franklin is a great city. It’s my hometown. I love it. And in so many ways it is already filled with joy. Families rush downtown for the latest festival, business move in because of new opportunities, houses can’t be built fast enough. There is joy in that. But the kind of joy I’m praying for is the kind that can only come from above, not crafted by human hands.
\nI am hopeful for new opportunities. Franklin is one of the wealthiest and fastest growing areas in our state. The median income of Franklin is twice the median of the state of Tennessee. If a majority of the city were to come to saving faith and cause an explosion of generosity our state, our country, and the entire world could be changed. Now, that might sound overly optimistic, but isn’t that what the gospel inspires? What if just 10% more people were to have their conscience cleansed by the Holy Spirit? Let’s say a new 10% begins giving 10%. At our current medium income level and current population, which are both growing rapidly, that would release over $55 million annually into mission. How many new churches could be planted? How many new missionaries could be sent? That’s not just a financial impact, that’s a people impact. 10% more people loving and following Jesus wherever he leads.
\nI am hopeful for an awakening. I believe that God is not done with this country. I believe that God will bring a renewal to our country as more and more people bend their knee in repentance and faith. Every city has a tipping point. The pastor of Immanuel, Ray Ortlund, calls this the threshold of non-ignorability. It is the point at which something reaches such a height such that it becomes a topic of conversation. I’m really ready for a new conversation, one centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ. What would it look like for Jesus to become the topic of the town?
\nI am hopeful for the advancement of the gospel. One way Refuge Church will advance the gospel in our time is through church planting. Our pastor, Dustin Neeley, is uniquely gifted to do just this. He understands the ins and outs of church planting well. God has prepared him. But Dustin isn’t the only one in Refuge that longs for, works toward, and prays for more churches. God has brought people that want to see the church multiplied. I am hopeful that in our life as a church, for as long as God gives us, we will be involved in training, sending, and planting churches throughout this world. The gospel is going to go out from Franklin, TN and many who hear the message will never know our names. That’s fine with us. This is not about us at all, it’s about Jesus.
\nFinally, I am hopeful for fresh grace. In Ephesians 3 Paul prays that God may grant us to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in our inner being, so that we can have the strength we need to comprehend all that Jesus is. Essentially, he’s praying for our hearts to be strengthened by grace for grace. Our weak hearts are too frail for all the wonder of Jesus Christ. So God strengthens our hearts to experience more and more of him. That’s fresh grace, and Jesus never runs out.
\nOn Sunday a new church will officially open her doors to Franklin, TN. But it is not flesh and blood who will unlock that door, it is the Holy Spirit of God who will do that. This is, and has been, and, by God’s grace, will always be Jesus’s church. Refuge Church is a gift from God coming through his people to a city that needs the love of Christ. Whatever he asks of us, our answer is \"yes.\"
\nPray with us as we near our launch. May Jesus be glorified. May people be saved. May the gospel go forth. May we find fresh grace and everlasting joy in the only Savior in all the world.
\nGod be praised for his overflowing grace!
\n
![\"listen\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/b7b3445b423329a1-listen1-aWHd5pXcjf34XSYWu7mf9DmtrJdOwu.jpg\")
\nThe Christian life is crafted by listening. We can’t save ourselves. We can’t change our hearts. We can’t turn the corner of obedience by will-power. We can’t please God with our flesh. We need something from outside of us. We will never arrive at the right way to live by our own instincts. We must listen to live and we must listen to obey, and that is harder than it sounds.
When Paul took his ministry to the Gentiles he found success because of their willingness to listen. Luke writes at the end of his second book, in Acts 28:28, “Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”
\nWhen the author of Hebrews labors to push his audience towards Christ he urges them to listen - to not harden their hearts or close their ears (Heb. 3-4). He encourages us to exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today”, that none may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Heb. 3:13). Using Israel in the desert as his example he says, “For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.” (Heb. 3:2)
\nThe Holy Spirit says in Psalm 81:11, “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.”
\nWe see in the opening pages of the Bible that God never creates without speaking. Over and over again as creation unfolds, we see “God said” flash like lightening on the page. His way of creating is by speaking. If it was so in the beginning, it is so now. As the original creation was born out of the word of God, so then is the new creation born out of the Word of God.
\nBut we don’t attend God as we would a concert. We don’t go to see him like an amusement or an attraction. We submit to him as Lord or we ignore him altogether. Given enough time, if you don’t submit, you will be pushed away because he doesn’t say easy things in easy ways for half-hearted people. He says glorious things, and frighteningly wonderful things, and life-giving reassuring things to those who love him. But he is nothing but a threat to those who want to treat him as an optional add-on.
\nYou are probably sick of yourself and you probably want to change a thousand things. And each year when the calendar turns over a new year you sit down and tell yourself all the ways you will recreate yourself in the next 365 days. And then January 2 comes and you’ve already failed. But what if there was a word, that if listened to, had the power to actually change you? There is, and his name is Jesus. The Christian life is crafted by listening. And he’s speaking all the time. The question is, are we listening?
![\"world\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/c9293bec5c8dab67-world-sdjtRTe1dJBGfuBhWM8GHNUr5n7bEV.jpg\")
\nThe Lord is sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up (Isa 6:1). He is there and he is not moving. He will not be voted out. He will not be overthrown. He won’t stumble and he won’t fail. He will be there ten billion years from now just as he was ten billion years ago. Which means the future promises of God are coming as sure as sunlight at dawn.
This should lift your heart. Christians are a people who live in light of what is to come, not merely in the shadows of what has gone before. For those outside of Christ, this life is as close to heaven as they will ever be. For those inside of Christ, this life is as close to hell as they will ever be. And yet as I look out at the landscape of Christian hope in our time, I see a mere speck of hope and a whole ocean of fear and trepidation. How can this be?
\nWhat can faith in the future promises of God do to our fears about what is to come? In this moment, right now, where you are, who you are, with the sins you’re drowning in, with whatever feelings are racing through your body, if you are in Christ you are loved by the Lord sitting upon his throne, high and lifted up.
\nYou aren’t forgotten, though you think you are. You aren’t forsaken, though you fear the world falling away. You aren’t alone, though you wonder if anyone will be there in the end. You are as secure as Christ is, and the Bible is clear as to where he currently resides. The gospel is big enough for all of your fears, for all of your doubts, for all of your insecurities.
\nBecause the gospel is the only thing that is big enough and strong enough to bear the weight of the world, God created a world that was big enough to need this big gospel. Where you are in your life at this very moment is the exact place that God wants you. You are not a mistake, no matter what you tell yourself. God doesn’t make mistakes. And just as sure as he is sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, so you one day will join him there, glorified for eternity.
![\"crazy\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/a79fe155b5e828ee-crazy-wgLlpVOVnmWGNKDmjiRyfh4kEtP4mU.jpg\")
\n“I love you. We aren’t crazy.”
I see those words light up on my phone sitting on top of the black coffee table. I believe those words, especially the first three. But the last three are just as meaningful. I am tempted to believe that I am crazy and that my dear wife is just growing more insane by the day due to her proximity to me. We aren’t crazy, though. At least not according to the Bible. We trust God – in the good and in the bad. We hold fast to him. We ask him to lead us. We lay down before him and tell him that we are his responsibility. And we wait. And we wait some more. And we move when he tells us to and we are still when he tell us to be still. It’s hard, and it looks like insanity. But it’s not. It’s obedience.
\nObedience looks crazy to the world. Honestly, it looks crazy to me most of the time. I wonder what will come of my life. I wonder where I should go, what I should do, what I shouldn’t do, and so on. I wonder about the goodness of God. I do what I feel I need to do, and I say yes to some things, no to others, and then I’m left at the end of the day with a thousand questions and I need those words. “I love you. We aren’t crazy.”
\nThe Christian life is hard. Ministry is hard. Life is hard. Jesus is real. He is alive. He is active. He is leading. He is working. He is moving in power through this world and he will call his people to do things that look downright crazy without the lens of faith. But with the spectacles of faith resting snuggly upon your face, the world looks crazy and that crazy Jewish guy who lived a wanderer’s life, and died a sinner’s death, and rose up out of his grave all those many years ago starts to look like the only sane person you’ve ever known. He looks down on us during hard days with faithful eyes and says, “I love you. I’m not crazy. Keep following.”
\nSo we follow though we don’t know where we’re going. He leads us through the good times and through the bad times, and in the end, we know we will end up in his world – recreated and restored to its original purpose. We will find that after all these crazy years we, in fact, were not crazy.
\nIf you are following Christ, though all the world might scream out at you for your foolishness, you are not crazy. You are doing the only sane thing in the world, following the only sane person in the universe.
\nTake heart, for he has overcome the world.
![\"sunlight\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/37277dceccd3a059-sunlight-s9RwV7m0meSZO4ofm9B4gkD9IUROPv.jpg\")
\nSomething about the way the sunlight shines through the green leaves of a tree in August stirs my soul. Isn’t that odd? Something that happens, and has happened, every moment since the world was constructed so many years ago has the power to alter my state of mind. It’s nothing, and it’s everything. It is unnoticed by nearly everyone, often myself included, and yet it goes on an endless loop all day long. Only the sunset can calm it. Then the moon takes over and the coloring is different.
Who could create such a sight? Who would create such a sight? Why should it even matter? Because hearts matter, and desire matters, and simple beauty matters to the One who is himself the most beautiful. If simple sunlight through green leaves upon green grass is such a masterpiece, what must the One who gives it be like?
\nAdd in a surprisingly cool breeze in the shade on a summer day and paradise seems to have arrived. I can smell the scent of cigar tobacco as well. A cup of hot coffee is beside me. It is a sensory delight. All of it. What must He be like? The creator of such simplicities that are not so simple. The giver of such gifts that are more like windows into his heart. The lover who spares no expense to lavish his bride. What must he be like?
\nOh, to know him – to understand his ways. To be caught up in the net of his joy and to drown in the river of his delight. And yet he is knowable. Not because of the sunlight through the trees but through the One who stood under trees himself, who was placed upon a tree himself. Jesus, the one through whom and for whom and by whom all of the goodness of creation was made, subjected himself to the brutality that creation became under the curse of my sin. God is knowable because he became like me, but the perfect me. The me that I have ruined he redeemed. The me that I destroy every moment he endlessly restores. The me that deserves every evil in the world he bore in order to give me all the joy his Father has.
\nHe did it all on a tree, without the sunlight shining down, without the beauty of the world. He did it by becoming all of the ugly that the world – his world – had to offer. He who knew no sin became sin so that I might have the righteousness of God.
\nAnd the tree that stands before me, whose leaves partially block the sun, yet allows a few rays to hit the ground – that tree is a portrait of the dying love of Christ for me. It’s not crazy. It’s the reason the world was created in exactly the way it was. There are cool, breezy, sunny summer days because God is on his throne and his purpose is to magnify his grace in the world. My noticing of the tree is no mere accident. It is a gift.
\nI wonder if I were to see him now in his glory would I see the sun shining through his pierced hands to the ground below? Would I find that beautiful?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/3eaef7365beb794d-path-k1lfspCCyCguRGyOmPIYUtBEaE0Utm.jpg\")
\n \n\n\nIf Acts 2 shows us the favor of the early Christians in the beginning of the church, Acts 4 shows us the persecution of the early Christians in the beginning of the church. They once had favor will all the people (2:47). Now they’re thrown in jail (4:3). While we pray for the favor of God, let us not fail to create the biblical category of persecution as well.
Thinking about persecution, and the possibility that it may someday come for us, opens up to us at least two pathways that we must heed.
One path opens us up to a romantic view of persecution. When that day comes, the signs on the path say, then we will really be able to test our meddle. On that day we can take our stand for Christ. Along that path we can start wanting persecution to come so that we can prove who we are.
The other path leads us into the dangerous arena of wondering if Jesus is worth it anymore. The letter to the Hebrews was written to a group of Christians wondering this very thing. They had faced persecution, and were going to face more, and they wondered if going back to Judaism might be the wise thing to do. They were ready to abandon Christ because of their tough circumstances.
Both of these paths are dangerous. The first because it puts the glory on us, not on Christ. The second because it causes us to harden our hearts against Christ and deny him. But there is another path that leads us where we want to go. We can accept both the most wonderful of earthly things and the most difficult of earthly things from the hand of the Father when we begin to realize, as the apostles did, that though our circumstances may change, we have a changeless God. Whether we have favor with all men or are being thrown in jail, Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb. 13:8).
Our circumstances don’t change the reality of who Jesus is and the efficacy of the gospel. Peter says in Acts 4:12, “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Enduring persecution as a good soldier does not earn us the medal of honor that usurps the need for saving grace. Abandoning Christ as savior will only lead us into a more awful death than what men can do. Sticking near to Christ on the path he leads us is the only way to pursue the glory of God in all things.
There is salvation in no one else. That means the Christ that is with us in the good times is the Christ who stands beside us in the bad times. We can endure persecution, if it comes, as we look to the Savior who endured the ultimate persecution on the cross. We can do it without acclaim, suffering as he did, because he is the only name under heaven given men by which we must be saved. And there is power in the name of Jesus. Don’t run to other gods promising safety and security. While their fortresses may look mighty, the walls are made of paper. The only security we have in this life is the security we find in Christ alone. We are as secure as Christ is.
Let’s fight together to stay together on the only good path: the path Jesus paved for us by his death and resurrection. Following him, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil. And in due time he will lead us, the Good Shepherd that he is, into green pastures and beside still waters. Salvation is by Christ alone. Let’s trust him in good times and in bad. After all, if God is for us, who can be against us (Rom 8:31)?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/c80c360412769896-desert-RB0pWygVj1xxkqFaLHTuyhB4caLIEP.jpg\")
\n \n\n\nGod gave us Jonathan Edwards years ago during the time of a great awakening in America. Edwards himself has been heralded as arguably America's greatest intellectual, but it is his dedication to seeing things as God sees them that really sets him apart. He gave us an incredible work on revival entitled The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God.
RC Sproul summarizes these Marks in the following way in his book, The Spirit of Revival:
Negative Marks (those marks that are not necessarily marks of revival):
Positive Marks (those marks that indicate true revival):
This summary is helpful (though for full context you need to read Edwards's complete text). At the very least, this gives a starting lens with which to see things. What is God doing? What do I see? What do I not see? Be always on the lookout for revival. Yearn for it. Trust God for it.
What if God were to move in your church, in your city, maybe even in your own heart in a new way? Why not pray for that blessing?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/3880056c3161e979-grave-39keTsTmDVaqwKPVfwtRHrHIrQ2xqX.jpg\")
\n \n\n\nDeath changes things. It changes more than removing the presence of someone. It changes cars, porches, beds, tables, atmospheres, homes. A home once filled with laughter and love becomes a place of sobs and sorrow. It’s enough to make your stomach fall just walking into a once familiar setting. Suddenly, everything seems lost. The smells from the kitchen lack the extra spice that only they could add. The dent in the couch begins its long recovery to normal formation. The hallway screams with absence. The porch weeps with the wind on a warm summer night as the chimes play their desolate song.
The car parked in the driveway needs to be sold, but not yet. The tools in the shop must be parted with, but not yet. The clothes in the closet hold tight to the scent of the departed, unyielding as winter’s cold. Pictures hanging on the wall, sitting on nightstands and dressers, stuck to the refrigerator by magnets remind us all of the life that once was, and will never be again. By their taunts we long for just one more normal day, even a bad normal day. Anything to revert back to the feeling of normalcy before.
Death changes things. It turns joy into despair, peace into rage, fullness into emptiness. It takes without asking and promises no hope of return. It is final, and finality changes things. We can’t go back. We can’t recreate the way things used to be. We can watch videos, look at pictures, recall memories, but even then those moments don’t seem the same. We notice the color of the shirt, the slant of the smile, the squint of the eyes, the tone of the voice, and the softness of the face as if we’re noticing someone for the first time, though we’ve known them all our lives. The future we believed would always include them now turns to the past we long to hold on to. The present sadness reaches back in time to the past happiness, even past pains, because even living pain is better than death.
Death changes things, and there is no way around it. We cannot escape it. So we cry. We weep. We get up every day with an unshifting burden. We plod through the day, avoiding the night because night illuminates memories in a way the sun cannot. Blue skies don’t develop what once was, they point to the glory that lays beyond, but starry skies remind us of what remains after everything else fades.
Death changes other things, too. It changes the way we view other people. Those grieving become more dear to us. Death changes the outward demeanor of even the most hardened of people. It cracks us open like nothing else can. It removes the veil and breaks the glass shrouding our feeble hearts. It gives us a view into the humanity of people – some we thought perhaps were barely human to begin with.
It changes the way we view the world. It alters our outlook. It rearranges our lives. Sometimes that’s for the good, sometimes for the bad. But one thing remains certain: death changes things.
And after the shock has worn off and the grind of daily life returns, the sunset looks a bit more radiant. The smell of a spring morning is fresher. The taste of coffee is less bitter. The tight hug of another person is more comforting. The smile of a neighbor is more noticeable and appreciated. Death changes things – most things for the worse – but some things, well, some things are only noticed in death. And those things often help us to recover from the loss. The ordinary grace of God shines brightest in the darkest of nights. What we rage at him for at midnight is what we love about him at dawn. And all the while he’s there with us.
Death changes things, and the thing it changes most is us. We aren’t the same. Something has been lost. But, open to God, something more can be gained. One day we too will leave and things will change. It’s a good thing, then, that we have a God who, when we can’t change the reality of death, changed death for us. He reversed the curse and reordered the universe. Death changes things, but not nearly as much as life.
![\"photo-1451481454041-104482d8e284\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/99920e18c180a7b9-photo-1451481454041-104482d8e284-kpFYfSHBO3h8YGM0dkB6BpsCzeHryi.jpg\")
\n
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.\n\nJohn 1:12
\nSee what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.
\n1 John 3:1
\n
I have three small sons. I love them. Having children brings a lot into your life. It changes what you do, how you do it, why you do it, and who you do it for. Nothing is the same as it used to be. Going out to dinner is different now. Heck, going out at all is different now. I think we’ve taken less luggage on a weeklong trip to southern California than we have on a trip to Wal-Mart with three kids. But we do it all with absolute, unhindered, authentic, love and joy because they are our children. We love them and nothing can change that.
\nMy sons have certain privileges as a result of being my sons. They have access to me in a way that really no one else does. They control a part of my heart that no one else touches. Even their smile affects me in a way that no other smiles do. As my children, they have full rights to everything in our family. I don’t charge them rent, they eat for free, they have endless toys at their disposal, they have everything – and more – that they need. Everything I do and think goes through the lens of their present and future situation. How will this affect them? How will this set them up for success or failure? What am I showing them? What will this do for them now and in the future?
\nHaving children also changes the way I have thought about being a child of God. Throughout scripture, especially in John’s gospel and letters, we are told that believers are children of God. John opens his account of the gospel saying that for those who have received Christ, God gave the right to become children of God. Later in his first epistle, he says that because of the Father’s love we are now called children of God, and not only called, but actually are children of God. Not just mere name-sake but Spirit-sake. We’re in, and nothing, or no one, is changing it.
\nSo, if my sons have that much access, that much privilege, that much right as my child, what do believers have as children of God? A few thoughts:
\n1) As children of God we are co-heirs with the firstborn, Jesus. Romans 8:16-17 says “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” Jesus of course is preeminent in everything but by God’s grace, we are co-heirs with Christ! This is amazing. When we feel the weight of this, the second part of verse 17 – provided we suffer – becomes endurable. Suffering is a small price to pay in light of what we now receive as children.
\n2) As children of God we are adopted into a family filled with brothers and sisters in whom we get to rejoice. We are transferred into a family full of brothers and sisters. They enhance everything for us – even our enjoyment of God. I love the way C.S. Lewis discusses the impact of community in his book, The Four Loves:
\n\n“Lamb says somewhere that if, of three friends (A, B, and C), A should die, then B loses not only A but “A’s part in C,” while C loses not only A but “A’s part in B.” In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles is dead, I shall never again see Ronald’s reaction to a specifically Caroline joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him “to myself” now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald. Hence true Friendship is the least jealous of loves. Two friends delight to be joined by a third, and three by a fourth, if only the newcomer is qualified to become a real friend. They can then say, as the blessed souls say in Dante, “Here comes one who will augment our loves.” For in this love “to divide is not to take away.” Of course the scarcity of kindred souls – not to mention practical considerations about the size of rooms and the audibility of voices – set limits to the enlargement of the circle; but within those limits we possess each friend not less but more as the number of those with whom we share him increases. In this, Friendship exhibits a glorious “nearness by resemblance” to Heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each has of God. For every soul, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest. That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah’s vision are crying “Holy, Holy, Holy” to one another (Isaiah VI, 3) The more we thus share the Heavenly Bread between us, the more we shall all have.”
3) As children of God we are brought into eternal life. My children will receive the best I have to offer them. I’ll try to pay for their college tuition. I’ll help them out when they needs some cash. I’ll give them the best opportunities I can afford. But God gives us eternal life. It is far better to be God’s child.
\n4) As children of God we have rights to the Father. He hears our prayers. He draws near to us when we need him. When we cry out in the night, he comes to us. As Tim Keller says, \"The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.\" He loves us and he pays attention to us. He knows our needs.
\n5) As children of God we have the joy of God. Hebrews 12:2 says that for the joy set before him he endured the cross. We are his joy. My sons have my joy right now. They had it when we found out we were pregnant. They had it more when they were born and I finally saw them. It is ever increasing. God’s joy over us is also ever increasing - not because of what we do or don't do, but because his love is of an increasing nature. And therefore our joy is ever increasing. Don’t we all long to make our earthly fathers proud? Our Heavenly Father is proud of us all the time and not because we did anything to earn it, but just because he has chosen to look on us and see Christ. We will never be ashamed again.
\n6) As children of God we don’t stop being children when we misbehave. The gospel is bigger than our sin. Grace abounds. When one of my sons misbehaves I don’t stop loving him. He’s not less of my child when he misbehaves. He’s still my child. When we become children of God, we never, ever lose our childhood. We can’t. It’s impossible. Once a child, always a child. Forever and ever. Jesus paid for us. He stands in heaven mediating the new covenant for us. He will come back to get us. He will redeem all of the earth for us. He will give us everything that he has. Therefore, when we misbehave, when we sin, we should look to our Father and find in him the love he has for his children. There is peace in that now and forevermore.
![\"landscape\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/3d22e07447f00b36-landscape-8PKrLcI81OwDCDqo5QYXuVadVrMfxD.jpg\")
\nFrancis Schaeffer, in his book, Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History, recites the story of Joshua from assistant to Moses to leader of Israel. In doing so, he wisely reminds us that for Joshua to make the leap he had to trust in three changeless factors:
He had the same book. Joshua had the Bible. Moses wrote everything down (Deuteronomy 31:9). Joshua had the written word of God that he was commanded to read often to the people as a reminder. He had the same book as Moses, because God gave it to his people.
\nHe had the same power. Joshua had the same powerful presence of God as Moses had enjoyed. God magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel to prove that, as he was with Moses, he would be with Joshua in power (Joshua 3:7). He had the same power.
\nHe had the same leader. Joshua, as leader of Israel, had the same leader even after Moses died. Moses, like Joshua, was the human leader of Israel, but the undying leader was the Lord himself. The rules did not change. There was no break in leadership. There was no doubt as to who was in charge. There was no breakdown in government. Joshua had the same leader, and that leader was, and is, the Lord himself.
\nSo Joshua, having the same book, the same power, and the same leader, took his place in the long line that would become leaders of God's people. Moses had served well. He was faithful in all God’s house (Hebrews 3:2). But Moses died. His ministry was over, but the Lord's ministry wasn't.
\nThis has implications for our day, as well. Leadership in God’s church is no different than leadership was for Joshua as he steered God’s people into the Promised Land. We too have the same book, the same power, and the same leader. Biblical Christianity relies on these three changeless factors. Without them we begin making things up on our own, which leads to our destruction. But with them we begin to gain traction in the kingdom of God because, after all, it is not our work that is effective, but the work of the Lord that holds all the power.
\nStick to the Bible. Pray for and recognize the power of God present with you in the person of the Holy Spirit. Follow the leader, King Jesus. Do those three things in your ministry and you will stand in a long line of Hebrews 11-type saints who followed the Lord wherever he went.
\nYou have a revelation from the mouth of God, power in the presence of God, and a leader in the person of God. Rejoice in this, God has not left us alone. He cares for his people even today.
![\"\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/180dfdb87f8db979-img_3782-wuBlfxn5pGCzwFZdiqPnESw1vfJO5L.jpg\")
John Calvin, in his Institutes, defines repentance: “It is a true turning of our life to follow God and the path which he shows us, a turning produced by a genuine and unfeigned fear of God, and consisting in mortification of our flesh and of the old man, and in vivification by the Spirit.”
Such a definition is helpful to firm up the vagueness of repentance that lives in my mind, and no doubt in the mind of many Christians today. Too often I believe my repentance is a turning from my sin to the path I believe will take me back to God (entirely works righteousness) rather than going to the path which God in his mercy reveals. The path God shows takes us by the cross of Christ, whereby we see our sin nailed to the bloodstained wood upon which the Savior hangs, paying our sin’s penalty. To take my own made-up path spurns the work of Christ on the cross. God’s path upholds and confirms the seriousness of my sin in God’s sight, leading me to praise and thank him for his rescue of my soul from the wages of my sin.
\nOnly the path revealed by God brings me to God. And only his path shows the death of Jesus, which is my death as well. It then leads onward to the resurrection, of which I too have become a partaker in newness of life. Therefore, repentance is much less a work I do than a journey on which God takes me back to himself. My part is the willingness to turn and face God so that he may lead me on this journey. Then, and only then, can the Spirit confirm to my heart God’s goodness in salvation.
\nI want to make repentance difficult because I really want to be my own savior. But God in his mercy won’t allow that to happen, because it can’t happen. In reality, repentance is much easier than we might think. Our sin is ultimately faithlessness in God. So the remedy is to look to him in faith. Jeremiah 3:22 puts it plainly, “Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.”
![\"community.jpg\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/0a75e27a07653709-community-zmrM97C7TZ8DNNwN2aL48daux7kTKJ.jpg\")
\nLife together in community is a defining attribute of the Christian life, or at least it should be. For many Americans, life together in community is more of a theory than a reality. Many desire community but find it hard to do so with the other demands of life.
So how can someone break through the barrier to community? One word: Awe.
\nThe key is not only to rearrange your schedule, though that must happen. It is not to change your priorities, though that too is necessary. The key is to open your heart to God and to others so that you are able to become awed by the One who has called us together in the first place.
\nLet’s be honest, life together is hard. We are sinners always bumping into other sinners. Why would we want to put ourselves on that track again when we can hear the train coming around the bend? But what if that train doesn’t intend to run you over, but to pick you up and take you with it to the place of blessing: into green pastures and beside still waters?
\nActs 2:42 says that the early church, “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Life together in community was a defining attribute of the early church.
\nAnd the result? Acts 2:43, “And awe came upon every soul.”
\nWhen you finally relinquish yourself over to the King of the universe you find not a life of dull servitude, but a life of joyful praise to the One who has saved you from all your sin, who has washed you clean by his blood. He fits you for community by forgiving you of your iniquity and sin. There, in the midst of other believers, you are lifted out of self-consumption and presented with a crystal clear image and diamond hard bedrock of the kind of life Jesus creates. And awe comes down from heaven.
\nThe awe you long for can be found, and it can be found in the midst of community. There you will see that Jesus has done for others what he has done for you, and that will lead you to awe. You will find a place where you belong, and that will lead you to awe. As someone says something that resonates with your heart, you will find yourself saying, as C.S. Lewis said of friendship, “You too? I thought I was the only one.”
\nMany people today live as if Christianity is just one part of their life, and that leads to an awe-less life. Not because God isn’t really there – he is – but because they haven’t opened their lives up to him or to others. The place of blessing is always in the midst of God with the people of God. It is there where he himself resides with power.
\nLet us devote ourselves to the teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And as we do let’s lift our eyes to the One we worship and wait expectantly for awe to come down to our hardened hearts.
\nWe know where that kind of life leads, because the Bible tells us that as well. Acts 2:47, “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” The Christian in awe of God is used by God for the salvation of others, which leads to increased awe of God.
\nSo let’s pursue God together and wait for awe to come upon us who believe as well as those who don’t yet believe. Let’s do it together, in community, for the glory of God.
\n
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/abf2b563f1edd257-cross-pQPTfcvlB5IO9ny8ATTsvIXSomOeUQ.jpg\")
cross.jpg [/caption] \n \n\nDeath comes as a thief. You are never prepared, and it always takes more than you thought it could. It is jolting, stunning, unbelievable. It is unnatural. We were not made for death, but it has its way with us all.
Perhaps the worst part is that none of us are immune. We will all be touched by death, both here in life, and in our own death someday out ahead. The pain of it rips through like a southern summer storm – fast and mighty – but lingers like a New England snowfall – long and thick.
Death is the anti-life. It is the end of all. It is the abrupt ending to the world we spend so much time creating. It is the leaving behind of all that we have. It is final. There is no recovery. There is no hope. Death is, and life is not.
Unless.
Unless there is somewhere a life stronger than death. Unless there is somewhere a life that supersedes death, outlasts it, was before it, and will be after it – then hope springs. Unless death meets the same end that it seeks to bring to us can we truly live. If death is imminent and final, pack your bags and leave right now. The pain will only increase the longer and better you live.
But if death has a death day, just as it had a birthday in the Garden of Eden, then there is light shining through its thick shadow. There is a hope that shines at the end. And what happens after death, if it is the final thing in life, must be the final-final thing we face. And if there is light, then death is not as final as it feels. It is final for this brief period but leads into something that lasts longer. If there is a light, and the light has come into the world, and the light comes toward us, and we enter into the light, then death loses its sting. Death dies, if that light exists. The great question then becomes: is that light there?
Philosophers will say we cannot know for sure, because we cannot experience death personally and impart that knowledge back to the living. They are wrong. We need not a philosophy of life – or of death – to reason this out for us. We need a Person to prove there is life, and a person to prove death is dead.
We have such a person.
Jesus is the light at the end of the tunnel. Not only that, he is the light that illumines the path of life. He is the light that we can enter into. We can do so because he came down into our darkness. He walked in the shadow of the valley of death. He let his bones be broken, and his side pierced, and his lifeblood flow. He went into death to go through death to defeat death. Death is a result of sin, and a sinless man cannot die – not unless he chooses to pick the fight to defeat the power. And that’s what Jesus has done. He picked the fight with our greatest enemy so that the bully would leave us alone.
He didn’t philosophize about that. He did it. He proved it in his personhood, his life. He lived. He died. He lived again. Now, what can you do to a man like that? Indeed, what can you do to his friends if he chooses to beat the bully for them?
You and I will die. It is inevitable. But because of the work of Christ on the cross, the death we die is the entrance into the light that we can see only a pinprick of today. There is hope because though death looms thick like a summer fog, the sun is rising to burn it all away. The way in? Faith. That’s all it takes.
So, Death, where is your sting? Where is your great boast? Where is your victory? Where is your championship trophy? Where is your hall of fame? Where is your pride? It is nothing. You have nothing. Not as long as Jesus is King. Death, you are a joke. A terrible, terrible joke that causes pain and sadness, but a joke you are. Ten billion years from now when those in Christ are partying in heaving with him forever we will look back on you and laugh as you laughed at us. We may have born you into the world, but Jesus has taken you out. Goodbye, death. Goodbye, fear of death. There is a new, greater reality in town. His name is Jesus. His presence is life.
![](\"https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1425421640640-64c4debea1b4?ixlib=rb-0.3.5&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&s=d93f11d349d8ec22873c0f7c547f14ab\")
How can such a simple phrase be so hard to understand?
\nMy heart is settled in this matter. Jesus is better than everything else. But one look at my life – my thoughts and actions – betrays what I believe about the truth of the sign.
\nAnd perhaps that’s the most profound aspect of the truth. Jesus is better than my failure. He’s better than my best days and better by far than any other savior who promises peace on my worst days. He’s the savior I have when I don’t know I need him. He’s the living God offering a throne of grace when I run into the wall of despair that the road of my choosing leads. He’s better than the alternatives.
\nJesus is better. He’s better than we tend to think he is. He’s the only savior who saves with an unending salvation for no cost whatsoever. He’s the one who opens to us the passageway to the life we long for, but can’t ever seem to find on our own. He’s the savior who made himself like us so that whatever temptation we face we have a friend who knows what it feels like. He’s the savior who never sinned because we need someone to atone for our sins. He’s the savior who is there when we need help. He’s the anchor of our soul firmly fixed in the inner place of heaven.
\nNo matter what you compare him to, Jesus is better.
\nNowhere in the Bible are we told not to compare him to anything. In fact, we are told time and again to compare him to everything, and in all comparisons, he reigns supreme. (Ps. 40:5, Ps. 89:6, Is. 40:18,25, Is. 46:5, Matt. 13:24, Matt. 18:23, Matt. 22:2, Mark 4:30, Lk. 13:18, Lk. 13:20, the entire book of Hebrews, etc.)
\nSo today, why not compare Jesus to whatever other hope you have? Why not put his record up against yours, or your job’s, or whatever other idol you have crafted?
\n
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/8f2f08bb0f326032-talk-IB5oSzXBAi1bTDYtd3h91UdTh4ES2J.jpg\")
\n \n\n\nAs a Christian, I long for more people to know my Lord. I want Jesus to be cherished in every heart, because he is worthy of such love. So I pray for unbelievers, and I share the gospel when I have an opportunity. Then I wait on the Lord to change hearts, because only he can. But recently I was reminded of what a dangerous request I am praying. I am praying for the destruction of their world, and for God to remake them in a new one.
We see the implications throughout the New Testament. Nicodemus sought Jesus at night and realized he had read the Bible wrong (John 3). We don't know if the Rich Young Ruler ever changed, but we know he understood to follow Jesus he had to (Luke 18). Paul was blinded on the road to Damascus and set upon a new course (Acts 9). The gospel crashes into lives and begins renovating everything, and the demolition isn't easy.
When we pray for God to open hearts we are not praying something easy or mild. We are praying for devastation. There are no true unbelievers. All people believe something. And for anyone to begin believing something new, like the gospel of Jesus Christ, they must first stop believing something else. That is incredibly hard because we don’t change easily, especially when it comes to belief. Our belief system is the most intimate part of our selves. We cling tightly to the ideas that shape and explain who we are.
So praying for God’s salvation is praying for the destruction of current beliefs, and for the gift of new belief. We are praying for God to push people to the end of their current belief system – to take them to the precipice of the mountain they believe in and to look over the edge and jump off. No matter how high the mountain, the fall is going to hurt. We are praying that God strips them of all diversion, so that his message is clear and loud. We are praying for disruption of lives.
I am beginning to add on to my prayers for the unbelievers in my life. I am adding a request that God would prepare me to be there when they fall off their belief mountain. When they hit the ground shaking and screaming and weeping with fear and despair, I am praying that I will be there with good news from a good God who could not let them go on any longer. I am praying that I will be there when the bottom falls out of their life so that God might use me to give them the message of the only mountain that cannot be shaken.
We must remember that as we pray for conversions we are praying for destruction before we are praying for building. We all have to unbelieve something in order to believe something else.
When the crash is heard in the other house, are you going to be there? We must be ready, because if the Lord is to grant the number of conversions that I know many churches and many Christians pray for, we need to be ready when lives fall apart.
So let’s get ready now. Let's pray. Let’s read our Bible. Let’s prepare our churches. Let’s open our heart to God. And when the cries are heard in the streets let’s walk through the shattered and battered and bruised with news so wonderful that the savior we proclaim becomes the savior they see and love.
We can't save them. Only God can do that. But we can be there with the glad news of grace when they need it most.
![\"honor.jpg\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/ba54c29107c6cbff-honor-cNrGQktWIBqZZYaR6CdpGzPQW4LD6t.jpg\")
honor.jpg[/caption] \n \n\n\n“Outdo one another in showing honor.” Romans 12:10
This may be the only competitive verse in the Bible. Paul is calling us to outdo one another. Unlike the competitive nature of the world, as in politics or the boardroom, Paul’s charge is to outdo one another in building up, not tearing down. This is a call to recognize in another person that which is worthy of commendation, that is worthy of honor.
It is not flattery. The world loves flattery – I say something nice to you, about you, so that you will say something nice to me, about me. Flattery is self-serving. Honoring is Christ-focused.
To honor another person is more than recognizing their efforts, as honorable as they may be. Honoring someone is looking at the work of the Holy Spirit in that person. It is honoring the Lord for what he has done, or is doing, through one of his children. That’s why it can be competitive: it is boasting in the Lord. We should outdo one another in honoring what the Lord is doing through us.
Are we a people known for encouragement? Do we look beyond ourselves to others, honoring one another?
We look for good words said about us, but too often fail to say good words about others. To honor one another is the Christian’s rebellion against the status quo of the cynical world. It is our war cry of grace into the misery of strife and accusation.
To be a Christian is to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. That means that within us is the most honorable person in the universe. He is working in us and through us. He is accomplishing his work through weak sinners like you and me. He is advancing the gospel. He is saving the world. He is rescuing people out of darkness. He is bringing people into the light. Christians who are open to him are honorable people because they are allowing the Lord to do his work through them.
So outdo one another in showing honor. Recognize the work of the Lord in someone else. Most likely, they have no idea that God is doing anything through them. They feel weak and sinful, and they are, but they are also strong and glorious in Christ. Call that out in them for the glory of God and the building up of his church.
Outdo one another in showing honor.
Who's first?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/a3faaf2beab027fe-flood-M9eeYEuamGhzpW7c71F5P4zv7ZDnrc.jpg\")
\n \n\n\nMy wife and I were married in June 2008. The next summer we got a dog, a border collie, named Glory. We started building our life in our new home in our new marriage with our new dog and our new jobs. Everything was new, but some old things still clung to us. They needed to go, but they wouldn't give up easily. It was time for a change, but change was too regular.
The next summer, 2010, our house was flooded. The little life we had been building was interrupted. The brown water of the Harpeth River had found its way under the cracks of the doors, and with it the grace of God found its way into the cracks of our hearts.
The thing about water is that it travels to the lowest possible spot. It doesn’t ascend, it descends. It goes down and spreads out. You can block it until the level rises, then you just have to move higher.
The day the rains came we spent the morning at church learning how to study the Bible from a man who knows how to study the Bible. We looked at the book of Jonah. We saw in that short book a glimpse into ourselves. We run from the call of God. When he comes, we buy the first ticket in the opposite direction. We force our way away from God as if we can ever truly leave his presence. The wonder of the book of Jonah is that God comes to people who hate him. He chases after rebels as if they were his own children. He sends a messenger to them to speak of his grace and love. And in the process changes the messenger as well. His grace is pursuing and conquering. We can run, but only as far as he'll let us.
Later that night, after arriving home from dinner with my in-law’s, we were met with a trail of cars at the head of our street. The waters had already come. Some families were staying, some were leaving. We waded through the water and entered the still-dry house. We moved everything we could upstairs, prayed in the empty living room and then waded back to the car and spent the night at my parent’s house.
As we lay in the bed in the bedroom I grew up in, I lamented about our circumstances. The water wasn’t in our house, but it was surely on its way. Had I moved all of my books? Would it get high enough to ruin the electrical? Would it destroy our home? What would happen? Had we just lost the little we had built in our short marriage?
My wife looked at me, and with a voice that she uses only when she’s deadly serious, said, “Where is your faith?”
The next day we sat together on the couch as the rain continued. We heard stories of mudslides, watched horses rescued by helicopter on TV, listened to weather reports as if they were sermons, waiting for some good news.
The rain stopped mid-afternoon. We got in the car and drove the hilliest way we could find back to our house. We just needed to see what had come of it. A house across the street from us has burst into flames when the gas can floated its way to the hot water heater pilot light. Did our house meet the same fate?
Two Fire Fighters were standing at the end of my driveway. I thought maybe the water didn’t get in. They wouldn’t let anyone down our street, so I went down another street, through some trees. I waded through waist-deep water that rose to my chest in some areas. The Harpeth River is not clean water when held within its banks, and it was doubly disgusting now that it had picked up everything on its way to my house.
It was a slow process. You can’t run in water. I was afraid someone would see me and make me leave so I went slow and quiet. I made it to my neighbor’s house in a few minutes. I saw the firewood that went unused during the winter floating beside me. I knocked a log out of the way and noticed something else. I knew what it was, but that it was right here was amazing to me. There was a fake rock that had been given to us as a housewarming gift two years ago when we moved in. The words etched on the surface, “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”
This could have floated anywhere over the past two days. But it didn’t. It floated right by me Sunday, May 2 around 5:00 PM. It found me. It ran into me.
I grabbed it and continued wading toward the house. I reached the deck and was able to get some good standing for the first time. I could hear the voices of the firefighters at the end of my driveway. I was hoping they didn’t hear me. I walked up the deck and looked in the windows into the kitchen and saw brown water covering the floor. It had come in. Our house had been flooded. Things were different now.
There wasn’t anything to do, so I just turned around and walked back to the car where my wife was waiting. My fears were confirmed – our house was flooded. But something else had been confirmed during that walk too. Jesus was the only solid rock I could stand on. My hope was not in this house. It was in God. We were going to be ok.
The next day we came back and started cleaning up. We mopped the floors and wiped down the walls. Then we began pulling the hardwoods up and ripping out drywall. We had a long road ahead of us, but we weren’t alone. We had a community of people there to help us. They selflessly gave their time to help put our house back together.
That August, we brought the first piece of furniture back into the house. My wife cried as she saw the entrywar table standing there. We had our home back. But it wasn’t our home anymore. Our names were still on the deed, but someone else had laid claim to it. This was God’s house. He gave it to us, but it was his all along. Now we could see that.
The next week we went out and bought a kitchen table. It wasn’t nice. It was from Target. It cost $120. It was a rectangle with four chairs. We still have it.
That table represented something. It represented the change that had taken place in us. We were not the same people. Our house wasn’t the same. Our marriage wasn’t the same. That table represented our metamorphosis.
When we put the house back together that table became the centerpiece. It became the place where we ate our dinner. It became the place where we sat and talked. Eventually, it became the place where our first married Bible studies took place. It became the place where I fell in love with the book of Hebrews. It became the place that replaced the empty promises of our former life and solidified the new promises – the better promises – that our new life would be built upon.
That table signified a shift that had taken place in our hearts since the flood waters came. It represented the change in priorities. The TV was replaced as the centerpiece. The kitchen table had won our hearts. And that table won us over because it was where we recounted the goodness of the Lord in our time of trouble. We became a family for the first time, not because of the flood, but through the flood. God took us from boring, lifeless man and woman through the rivers to bring water and life to our dry bones.
Water always goes to the lowest spot. It doesn’t care what’s there. It floods it, carries it away, erodes it, changes it. And that’s what the grace of God had done to us. The flood brought us low and God had his way with us in his grace. He changed us, and he did it by sending a river through our house.
For many those two days were harrowing. They were the end of family pictures and a house full of memories, I am was, and am, sorry for their loss. But for my wife and me, those days were days of maturation. They were days when we learned that sometimes the best thing God can do for you is wreck your life. A flood of grace can come in the form of a flooded house. He’s the rock. Get off the sand.
![\"twitter\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/c3c4d57ad82d2983-twitter-f8caXPfGzEzAkUgit0HV1TMap8J74o.jpg\")
twitter[/caption] \n \n\n\nI don’t think social media is evil. It has evil things on it, sure, and yes, it is a great distraction for our attention-less age. But it is not evil. Much good can and has taken place on it. I get almost all my news from Twitter. I haven’t watched the nightly news or even seriously browsed a news website in months. Facebook might be evil, but only because of cat videos and the latest gorilla story sweeping the nation. Some good things are on Facebook – enough to get you hooked. It’s the Turkish Delight of the platforms. The White Witch uses it to seduce you, promising more goodness if we just invite a few friends to a “Facebook Party.” And then there’s Instagram, which I like, Snapchat, which I’ve never used and don't plan to, Periscope, that allows you to watch other people do things live and unedited, with terrible quality. I’m sure there are others, but I ran out of time on Facebook to investigate those.
All that to say, social media isn’t evil, but it is a time waster – or can be. I Tweet, but not often. I post pictures on Instagram because my kids are adorable and hilarious and the world needs to know. I share life on there, which is nice, but not necessary. So I like social media, but I hate how it affects me. I despise the time I waste and the diversion it creates. I notice myself picking up my phone and opening one of the apps without even thinking about what I’m doing. I’m not sure how it happened, but at some point checking Instagram became as commonplace as breathing. Twitter became synonymous with relaxing.
I’m not setting up the argument to delete the apps from your phone, trading in your iPhone for a flip phone, or setting strict rules of phones in the basket by the door when you get home. That’s just a band aid on the real problem, anyway (though I would recommend considering Tony Reinke's recent article on a Digital Detox). I have a desire to know, to be informed, to be liked, to be updated. But none of that is either necessary or important. The problem I have is the dam social media is to the rivers of flowing water that I could have – the real knowledge, real information, real love, real updates. In short, my social media addiction severs my connection to ultimate reality even as it connects me to earthly reality.
I wonder what people did before Twitter? I’m not sure I’ve ever refreshed Twitter without new Tweets to read. It is constant. Wonderful in many ways, but entirely distracting. As much as my flesh cries out, “One more Trump bash!” I don’t need another. What I need is silence: to pause and to reflect.
Once upon a time I had thoughts, not thoughts that came to me from outside, but from inside. Thoughts that popped up out of nowhere and occupied my mind, changing me in slight ways as they revealed to me the inner parts of my heart. Those brief moments that spoke to me the direction of my life have been silenced by updates from the world. I see no need for prayer when I have enough people telling me what to think about any given situation.
My problem boiled down in one sentence is this: I can’t stop getting updates long enough to understand how God plays into all of life. My problem is a problem of prayer. I need a solution.
So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to move my apps. I know, I know, that’s just too radical! Like I said, I like social media. I just want my unconscious thoughts to go to prayer, not to Twitter. So I moved my apps and put in their spot a prayer app. Over the past few days I’ve noticed myself opening the app and seeing prompted prayers on the screen. I’ve prayed. And I’ve seen a change – a small one, indeed, but that’s how most change happens, anyway.
This might just be too radical for you, moving your apps and all. But if you’re tired of the world barging in all the time, it might be time to let another world barge in instead.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/8d69d63322e6a73f-prayer-SlQlvNzE8wOXXoubKASVsuvoSRoYUh.jpg\")
\n \n\n\nJack Miller once said in a letter to a missionary in Uganda, “the book of Acts is the story of the acts of Christ done in history in response to the constant corporate prayer by the leaders of the church.” One clear example of this is the response of the apostles in Acts 5:41. After being imprisoned, released and commissioned by an angel to preach the word in the temple, arrested again, and beaten, the apostles leave the council “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.”
Acts 5:41 is a perplexing verse. It is counter-cultural – counter-human, even – to such a degree that its surprise lingers in the mind long after reading. How could they say this? I think the answer is in the prayer of Acts 4:29. There they pray for boldness to keep on speaking God’s word despite the threats and punishments from the authorities. Acts 5:41 would not happen apart from Acts 4:29.
The corporate prayers of the early church prepared them for bold witness in their generation. Acts 5:41 would not have happened apart from Acts 4:29. Prayer prepares us to persevere when we are punished for our witness. We need something more than our will-power or self-inspired defiance. We need a power from above to give us the backbone of steel fashioned from the message of the gospel. We have good news, and there is not a force in this world – political or otherwise – that can silence the mouths of God’s church. We are a prophetic voice calling out to the world to repent and believe the gospel. We are messengers of the King.
Do our prayers reflect it? Or are we satisfied with moderate lives in a very immoderate society? Where is the boldness of our generation for Christ?
But before we get ahead of ourselves, we need to know the cost. To follow Jesus where he leads is not an easy task. It is filled with joy, no doubt, but also of hardship. Paul’s recollection of his trials proves that the mission of Jesus is not easy. He speaks of his Christian life in defense of his ministry to the Corinthians,
“with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?”
Paul was involved in more ministry than most of us will ever see, but the point is the same: If we are to serve Christ, we will suffer with Christ. There is no way to follow Jesus in this world and come out unscathed. But there is no way to follow Jesus in this wolrd and not receive the eternal award awaiting us in heaven, and joy in this life. There is no path that the Lord Jesus will not ask you to walk. This life is about him, not about you or me. When we see that Jesus is the point of everything we become willing to go anywhere, do anything, and take any risk for his glory.
To prepare for such a daunting task we must be together in prayer. Corporate prayer is the key to rejoicing in suffering. We do not live in an agreeable world. We live in a world that despises Christ. We live in a world in rebellion against Christ. Sin has ruined mankind, and without the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit there is no hope for the world. War will be constant, strife will be ever present, pain and suffering will be commonplace. Only the message of the gospel with the power of Christ gives any hope to this dying world.
When we see the way the world treated our Lord, we see a glimpse of how they likely will treat us as well. But to be treated so is not a sign of God’s abandonment. It is a sign of God’s involvement. When we start praying for boldness in the face of danger, we will start rejoicing in suffering for the sheer amazement that we are counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus.
![\"victory\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/e8f40887801aecd5-victory-Z70yDpcFxVDHYBjcVfw2KmmTUGA7RS.jpg\")
\nChristians are a triumphant people. Those are strange words to write, because if you look throughout the history of the church it does not look very triumphant. It looks at times very weak. It looks often broken and wounded, on the verge of falling off the cliff they’ve driven each other far too close to.
Even our own personal experience is hardly one that regularly shouts of, \"Victory!\" We struggle with sin. We struggle to love. We struggle with fellow Christians. At times, every opportunity is a closed door and every open door leads to a brick wall.
\nSo how can Paul say in 2 Corinthians 2:14, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in victory through Christ. God uses us to spread his knowledge everywhere like a sweet-smelling perfume.”
\nDoes God really use us to spread his knowledge everywhere?
\nThat verse is much easier to understand when our efforts, or the efforts of the church, are widely recognized as significant, especially if recognized by secular people. But it is much harder to understand when the church falls into persecution or when another big-deal pastor falls. Are we a triumphant people? It doesn't look like it.
\nBut yes, we are triumphant. We are triumphant all the time, not because of our personal or corporate victories in our own strength, but because of the personal victory of Jesus Christ on the cross. If we have died with him in his crucifixion, we shall also be raised with him in his resurrection to newness of life. A person who can never die by definition has to be triumphant.
\nThe good news of the gospel is that no matter the mess we find ourselves in, we have a God who redeems and restores. He leads us in victory through Christ. The darkness may be thick and smelly, but the sweet aroma of Christ is still stuck in our noses, and somehow we still difuse him to others despite the gunk. His goodness has no expiration date. His mercy never ceases to increase. His grace never fails.
\nChristians are a triumphant people through the work of Christ. In him alone is our strength, our victory, our peace, and our future. When you feel so weak and broken and insignificant remember the God who remembers you, and lean into his victory, because it is the only eternal victory in the universe.
\nCome all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/2cfb4395b9bebe24-talking-VXWx8ybwOzmmjBLF6NZcg9rN5AVogK.jpg\")
\n \n\n\nEvery Christian wants to be on mission. It’s part of the way God recreates us when he saves us. Our new heart wants other people to know and love Jesus and to serve others out of love for him. But not every Christian is comfortable sharing the gospel with lots of people in bold ways or serving in hard places in hard ways. I wonder if our fear of those things prevents us from doing the simple thing God asks us to do.
Being missional is nothing more than opening your mouth when God says to. If you want evangelism to take root in your life, be open to the opportunities God places in your life. There are people that you know who don’t know Christ, and you may be praying for them – that they would come to the knowledge of the Lord. It may be that you are in their life because you are the person God is going to use to share the good news. How do you do it?
The book of Acts gives us a manual for many things: biblical community, church planting, preaching gospel-centered sermons, evangelism, enduring persecution, and so forth. But if you notice how the early church spread the good news of the gospel around the world, you can’t help but see that they simply opened their mouths to proclaim the good news when the opportunities arose. God is the creator of gospel proclamation. We are just the vessels he uses to bring the news.
We can use Acts 5 as proof. The apostles are arrested and an angel of the Lord breaks them out of jail and tells them to “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life” (Acts 5:20). They didn’t go searching for an opportunity to preach in the temple. They were in prison! But God set them free to go and preach. And so they go.
They waste no time going, “they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach” (Acts 5:21). Then they are arrested again and brought before the council. And what do they do? They preach to the very people who crucified Jesus! They open their mouths. Their mission was to open their mouths when God told them to.
Even with this wonderful model before us, we may still be thinking something like, “Well, ok, that’s fine. They were the apostles! That’s just what they did. But it’s not easy for me. I’m not bold like they are. I don’t think I could talk to people in the same way.” To which Peter would answer, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
For some of us our problem is fear of man – the person on the other side of the table, or in the cube next to us at work, or in the house across the street. But I wonder if this fear is not just a justification of our greater desire to obey ourselves rather than to obey God. We want to make our lives easy, and saying hard things (even if they are the best things in the world) is not easy. We want to obey the voice crying out inside of us, rather than to join the voice crying out in the wilderness preparing the way for the Lord. We have a fear problem, and an obedience problem, before we have a missional problem.
But there is grace for our fear. Jesus gives us the faith we need and as we slowly step out to trust him we will find that he is with us every step of the way. In fact, what we will see is that this is his mission anyway, he's just using us because he loves us and wants us to have the joy of sharing the good news.
![\"light.jpg\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/8d15abba0481d7ae-light-kjSuet9vdMcadRqlZ1fPStZhFAIpP7.jpg\")
light.jpg[/caption] \n \n\n\nOn the evening of January 6, 2016 outside Tampa, Florida, my father-in-law suffered a fatal heart attack on vacation with my mother-in-law. On the morning of January 7, 2016 inside my living room in Franklin, Tennessee, I had to find the words to tell my 3-year-old and 4-year-old sons the bad news. How to fit such sadness into the small box of language and experience of little children?
The historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus matters in times like this. If it were not for the risen Christ, I would have no good words to share amidst the bad news of death. But because Jesus has risen, I have hope that speaks into a hopeless situation. And I needed some hope to share.
I sat my boys down and told them we had something to tell them. They didn't remember the tears in our eyes from the night before. They didn't know why my sister came over to play with them until bed time as their mom and I withdrew together. They thought good news of a fun-filled day was coming. I wish it was, but that day had to wait. Death had approached our doorstep, crashing its way from Florida with the speed of a trembling voice on the other end of the telephone. Their Pops was gone.
It was time for the hope of the resurrection to prove its power. He was united with him in a death like his, and he shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
My father-in-law was a Christian. My boys were close to him. He was a part of their weekly lives. He went to church with us. He played hide and seek with the boys every Tuesday night, sat them in his lap as they ate their ice-cream sandwich, and brought my oldest a peppermint every time he saw him. Those special bonds were severed without warning, without preparation, and without apology. And it was awful.
But because he knew Christ, when he died he was ushered into the presence of God - the great gift of the gospel. He had departed from us, that’s true, but his heart would never fail him again. He is with God, and soon he will receive his resurrection body. The day is coming, as my 4-year-old says, when Jesus will \"restart everything\". The resurrection is coming.
In sharing bad news of death with my two boys, I had the good news of the resurrection to point them to. And that good news does not reside in that we merely have hope of future life. The good news resides in the fact that Jesus is there to make our future life the kind of life where death and evil and sickness and pain cannot live. The good news of the resurrection is good news because it is the restoration of all that this sin-stained world has ruined. Jesus is making all things new - even new hearts in old Pops, for what was sown is perishable, but what is raised is imperishable. And what is raised in Christ will live with him forever, beholding God for eternity - the great gift of the gospel.
Through tears that January morning, I had hope to share while delivering bad news. My boys could not understand the full impact of death that day. They are still slowly realizing all that it means. They understand life much better than death, and we do too. And so the truth that we have a God of the living, not of the dead, matters because life, not death, fits inside their language and experience. They can understand the future life of their Pops, even if they can’t understand his present absence.
It will not always be like this. In just a little while, if my boys come to faith in Christ, they will see their Pops again. Perhaps they will share an ice cream sandwich in some big leather chair in the new world. Jesus will join them, and tell them of all the little things he was doing in their lives in these hard days as he worked for their good and for his glory. Perhaps they won’t have the language or experience to understand the full impact of it all until they can see the good news himself sitting beside them. Perhaps their experience of heaven will only be enhanced because early on in life they began to look forward to it.
I don’t know all that they feel when they ride in his old truck, or see an old picture of him in a party hat, or when they play with a hand-made toy he gave them one Christmas. Maybe it whispers to them of the brokenness of the world. Maybe thoughts of heaven shine into their little minds. Perhaps Jesus himself comforts them in ways I can't see. I pray it creates in them a longing for a better world with a God who saves them from everything bad, and gives them back all the joy in his heart - the joy at his right hand, with pleasures forevermore.
![](\"https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1438032005730-c779502df39b?crop=entropy&fit=crop&fm=jpg&h=975&ixjsv=2.1.0&ixlib=rb-0.3.5&q=80&w=1700\")
You Have to Take Risks:
\nLeaving an established church to plant a new church is, in itself, a risky move. But that's just the start of it. One of the reasons I think church plants make such an impact on the community is because of the risks they are willing to take. Church plants don't have any people so they love outsiders. Church plants don't have any money so they ask bold things from poor millennials. Church plants don't have any traditions so doing things is easy, though not without much prayer and wisdom. Church plants don't know what they're doing - even if they've done it before. Everything is new, everything is possible, everything is risky. Taking risks for the sake of the gospel is the way church plants survive. And it's one of the hardest things for most people to do.
\nYou Have to Be Flexible:
\nWe are preaching our way through the book of Acts at Refuge Church. And in so doing, we are finding that one trait the Holy Spirit creates in his people is flexibility. We need it. Not only to survive the call of God, but also to survive one another. We are figuring this thing out. Nothing is written in stone. We are moving in and out of places all the time, searching for our long-term home. We are trying things to see what works. We are praying for as many conversions as the Lord will grant. We have people from different backgrounds and different church philosophies. We have need for much flexibility, and that's hard to do. But it is essential.
\nLeaders Must Lead:
\nIf that isn't an obvious point, I don't know what is. But I also have seen the importance of good leadership. The planter and his small leadership team are the only people guiding this ship. There are no members to vote on things. Sometimes there is no denomination to support and guide (as in our case). So leaders must lead, and they must lead well. With the Bible in hand and prayer on the lips, leaders must look to God for direction and choose wisely the path to follow. They must be humble and low before God. This is his work, but he's called certain leaders to establish it. Those leaders must lead.
\nEveryone Matters:
\nA church plant starts out with maybe one family. Hopefully more, but in many instances it is the planter, his wife, and their kids. If the Lord blesses the work more will jump on board soon. But you probably won't plant a church with 150 people out of the gate. So everyone matters. Everyone has a place; the trick is finding where that place is. Try things. Give people opportunities. Lead well. Handle issues as they arise. And remember that everyone matters, to God and to his church. They wouldn't stick around long if they didn't believe in the work you are doing. Be wise in who you commission, but don't be afraid to do it at all.
\nThe Bible is Truth:
\nOk, here's the really obvious point: the Bible is the only truth we have. But what a wonder it is to have it! Lean heavy upon its words. Read it daily, diligently, prayerfully, openly. Consult its pages, learn from its authors, draw near to God through it. Let it remind you that there is power in the name of Jesus, and that Jesus will build his church.
\nThe Bible also proves its worth in community discussion. Looks across the room and seeing a newer person flipping though the pages of the Bible, deep in though over its words, it a joy inexpressible. God is becoming real to that person. May he become so more and more as we grow!
\nYou Will Be Attacked:
\nSatan hates church planting. Spiritual warfare is real. Be prepared. Don't be surprised when things start hurting, people act weird, or problems arise. Be mindful that not every bad thing is a demon, but know that they are actively working against your efforts. God is with you and for you. Trust him and ask for much prayer from others. Don't ignore the devil, but don't give him too much credit either. Recognize his power, but recognize that it is weak compared to the resurrected Christ.
\nGod Will Be With You:
\nGod will be with you. He will. He has promised it. He will lead you and bless you. He will give you opportunities that don't make sense apart from his providence. He will give you grace in moments when it seems everything is falling apart. He will send you $10,000 checks as you're on the phone with someone telling you their leaving the plant. He will send you people with a heart bigger than yours for a specific purpose. He will supply you with grace upon grace because you are involved in work that will last for eternity.
\nYou Need Friends:
\nYou need friends to plant a church - real friends. You need encouragers for hard days, and you need realists for crazy ideas. You need people to just hang out with. You need someone to watch a football game with and not talk about anything church related. You need people to go to dinner with. Your wife needs friends; your kids need friends. You cannot do this on your own, and friends are the balm that heals the wounded heart and spurs the discouraged one. Don't be so occupied planting the church that you fail to make deep, abiding friendships.
\nJesus Builds His Church:
\nJesus is the church planter. We are just involved in his work. He's the one with the vision. He's the one with the saving grace. He's the one who died for his bride. We join him in his mission, and in so doing we find so much joy.
\nTruly, God is Our Refuge:
\nThere is no refuge from God, there is only refuge in God (Psalm 2 proves this). More people need to know this. That's why we're planting in Franklin, Tennessee. Everything man-made will fail. Eveything God-made will last. He alone provides refuge from the storm of life. Find your shelter beneath his wings.
\n\n
There are a thousand more lessons I'm learning, and perhaps I'll do another post in six months to talk about those. But for now, this is what the Lord is teaching me. Now, go and write a letter of encouragement to a church planter you know. He needs it.
![\"pray.jpg\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/2cf51021c7d924c8-pray-jJEoDlCC6z6nKqR4zQeiLax0jOU4mR.jpg\")
\n“Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.\"
Exodus 5:22-23
\nAt some point in the life of ministry, these questions will surface. If you are living for the Lord at all, you will have to confront him about the seemingly impossible and insane situation he has brought you into. His ways often do not make sense to us – at least not right now. Moreover, it often looks like massive failure. With God, things sometimes get worse before they get better. That’s not because he doesn’t love us, but because he has to love some things out of us before we will be willing to accept him as he is. He uses clean vessels and it takes some scrubbing to get the dirt out. We’re pretty sullied.
\nIf you are serving the Lord and it appears that he has turned everything you touch to poison, it may be that he is purifying you for greater blessing than you have the capacity to imagine right now. You must be certain that you are following him. You must be certain that you are doing his will. But if you are following him and you can see within the pages of the Bible that you are being obedient, just hold on a little longer. God is coming in glory to you and your people. He is coming to save, just as he did for Israel in Egypt.
\nFaith is the ability to look through the outward circumstances and see the truth behind it all. It means to understand on a grand scale the purpose of everything. God is the wisest person in the world. For him to wrestle with us is not punishment. It is blessing. If we only had eyes to see it, we would smile and thank him. Give him time and you will see that he is smiling upon you even in the hardest of times. He is for you and he is with you. Just hold on.
![\"prep.jpg\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/bdc9a4f967a28501-prep-goLyMn4HhcsQ4Yjhxce5RtNkKxZi3h.jpg\")
\nFrancis Schaeffer, in his book Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History, shows us in one remarkable chapter, entitled “Joshua’s Preparation”, how the Lord himself prepared Joshua to lead God’s people. It serves as a reminder that each of us must be prepared by God for our ministry. We cannot do this on our own, not if we want to call it biblical ministry. The Lord must call us or we must refuse to lead.
Here is Schaeffer’s summary of the lessons of Joshua:
\nThese 14 lessons of Joshua are helpful as reminders to all leaders, and as expectations for all future leaders.
![\"Touchable\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/d0c51b13163dc173-touchable-IRL6O2vCvzziKYZxbgyFKiM3Eli5V7.jpg\")
\n“She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.” Luke 8:44
What kind of person walks up to Jesus and touches him? A person who understands two things. First, that Jesus is a person. He’s not a mere theory, but a living, breathing, active person. Second, that he has power to heal. When you touch him, you believe that something will happen. You somehow know you won’t stay the same.
\nWhat do you think of Jesus? (Now that you’ve agreed with yourself that you believe these two things about Jesus, what do you really think of him?) Is he touchable to you? Or is he so far removed from your day to day life – your decision making, internal conversations, way of living, your overall mindset – that a touchable Jesus is fine in the Bible, but not today, not in your life? What do you really think of him?
\nThis woman in Luke 8 had spent the past twelve years seeing physician after physician without one ounce of healing. Her blood still flowed like a leak from a faucet, in desperate need of repair but without means to get it fixed. Her spirits were not high. She was ceremonially unclean and had most likely not been touched by anyone for over a decade. She was poor, having spent all her living on physicians who could not heal her. Yet here she was one day in the street and sees Jesus walking by. She can tell he’s on his way somewhere. Jairus has just come and implored Jesus to come and heal his twelve year old daughter from a deadly illness. “Twelve years old,” she thinks. “Jesus is going to heal her, why would he not heal me for my illness has lasted twelve years. If he’s willing to go to her, perhaps he’s willing to help me.\" The moments were tense in between that initial sight and the move toward Jesus. \"What will he think? Can I touch him? He is my only remaining chance at life. I have to touch him.” Her hopelessness pushed her to the greatest hope the world has ever seen.
\nSo she drew near and touched him and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. Jesus was there, and he seemed so real and so compassionate and so willing. How could she pass up this opportunity? She couldn’t. She didn’t. She drew near and touched him. It could not have been an easy decision. It was so risky, but she had to do it.
\nIt was a rash decision. It was costly. She had to push through the crowds that would be appalled by her. She had to risk touching others who would not understand, who may throw her out of the city. But every cost was worth it because Jesus was unlike anyone else. She had heard about him from afar, but here he was - not a theory, but a reality. So she went because she believed he could heal her.
\nSuch a small episode in the life of Jesus is included in the Bible for generations to read. Why did Luke include this? Because he wants us to understand something about Jesus that we often overlook. Jesus does not discourage anyone from drawing near to him. He has no fortress around his life. He has no bodyguard. He has no security detail. He is there. He has made himself touchable. The Holy God has made himself touchable to sinful men and women.
\nA touchable Jesus is not a theoretical Jesus. A touchable Jesus has power to heal. Is this the Jesus you know? Is he touchable? Is he powerful? The real Jesus – the one who came to earth and lived the perfect life you have failed to live and died the guilty death you deserved to die and rose from the grave to defeat the final enemy – is touchable and powerful.
\nWhat have you spent all of your living on? What has failed you time and again? What dead ends have you constantly run into? Where else are you going to go? What if Jesus is passing by? What if he’s there and he’s touchable? What if you believed he could heal? What if you drew near? What if there was a crowd in the way? What if you had to push through obstacles and barriers and other people? What if you made it to him and took the risk and stretched out your arm?
\nThe real Jesus makes himself touchable to real sinners because he knows we need a real salvation from a real problem. We don’t need a theory. We need a reality. We don’t need another failure. We need a final success. Only Jesus can give that, and he can give it today. There was nothing special about that day this woman touched him. It was like any other. Likewise, there is no special day you need to wait for to draw near to him. Now is the perfect time. He’s always there, always available, always living, always ready, always gracious, always merciful, always powerful, always touchable. So draw near. Reach out in faith and touch him, and finally find the healing you've always needed.
![\"gospel](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/8dcfa41b2e9919ca-gospel-freedom-GC4vNkpvYFFyLfbrxJK6cbIy8c7Nh4.jpg\")
\nThe gospel is freedom: a message proclaimed by men and women that have been captured by freedom. Captured by freedom; an oxymoron, I know. But that’s the way it is. Slavery is normal, freedom is not. We must be captured by freedom, we are born into slavery. The only true liberation is that which comes from someone freeing us from the slavishness of ordinary life.
Before Jesus rescues our captured heart sin reigns. Did you know your heart has a throne? I didn’t know that before I understood the gospel. I thought I controlled what I did. That was a lie. I controlled nothing. I didn’t even control what I thought about. Sin was reigning and ruling. I never did one good thing, because even my good things were orders carried out from the sinful throne.
\nAnd then I was captured by freedom. You know how a spring day feels – I mean that first spring day after a long winter? The air is a warm coolness. The sky is crisp. The sun is bright. It feels like freedom. It feels like the gospel. You just want to sit there soaking it up. It is as if you have come out of anesthesia, feeling comes back, and a smile is hard to keep away. This is the freedom of new life. This is like the gospel. God has freed us. Life reigns now.
\n“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1).
\nRun free, soul. Run free. You have been captured.
![\"5611054343_fe3b727c07_b\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/8f8657f275b5251c-5611054343_fe3b727c07_b-wlXBJr5HBq59qh3Vr4B1ex9vD07NbM.jpg\")
\nThe world is a hard, cruel, and mean place and you and I add to it.
The cross of Christ absorbed all of that hardness, cruelty, and meanness for us.
\nInside the grave, as the body of Jesus rumbled to life, the very reign of sin was brought down forever. Life reigns now, and nothing will usurp its rule because the guarantor of the inheritance has died and lives now to appropriate the gift.
\nHardness, cruelty, meanness, and every other form of sin is gripping a melting glacier that one day will evaporate into the nothingness of its own eternity.
\nEaster is for this.
![\"thousand](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/079aa25712deb398-thousand-little-things-xzln2cHkXdAsMPq64xLBkFM1HPK0TE.jpg\")
\nA thousand little things go unnoticed.\nPiles, like dirty dishes, of tiny sins\nThat softly declare the kind of man I am –\nOr the kind that I am not.
There are no soap suds to soak in,\nNo water hot enough to release the stain.\nNo, the stain remains, like a scar –\nFading, yes, but never removed.
\nGoodness will not undo it,\nA new work merely adds to the offense.\nThis is sin. This is human life. This is death.\nThis is the life that Jesus came to save.
\nA thousand little things were noticed.\nBlood, like streams, of divine blood\nSoftly declares the kind of man I am –\nAnd the kind that I am no longer.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/05c94842982f28a7-humbled-sYNwy8dzlRn8xanbFNSHQRJlmwz4fK.jpg\")
\n \n\n\nUnless we have tangible proof of our weaknesses, we immediately get inflated ideas of our own abilities, and readily imagine that they can prevail over every conceivable difficulty. So it is that we develop an empty, foolish confidence in the flesh, which then produces a supercilious attitude toward God, as if our own resources were sufficient without his grace. God has no better way of humbling such arrogance than by showing us by hard experience how weak and feeble we are. So he brings disgrace, poverty or sickness upon us, or loss of kin or other calamities which, try as we may, at once overwhelm us, because we are not strong enough to bear them. Hence, being humbled, we learn to plead for his power, which alone allows us to stand firm and to hold up under the weight of such burdens.
Calvin, John, and Robert White. \"The Christian Life.\" Institutes of the Christian Religion. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2014. 801.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/f8e517472a17b7e0-photo-1418065460487-3e41a6c84dc51-5fr3NOcjkekVZHoGyam984tTsT9iWg.jpg\")
\n \n\n\nIt was a long winter. The days were short and the nights were long. Joy is hard to hold on to in times like that. The sun was afraid to come out, as if Punxsutawney Phil had sent it into exile. But winter is gone. I hope it never comes again. This particular Sunday morning the sun was out, it was foggy, and we were on our way to church.
Perhaps it’s the grace of God in my life, but I often am struck by the beauty of creation most on my drive to church. The air seems thick with his goodness and glory. This particular morning, the fog in the Tennessee hills slowly fading before the light of the sun was breathtaking.
Isaiah 44:22 uses this imagery to describe our redemption. “I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.”
Driving to church that Sunday morning I was a living parable of the salvation of the Lord. As the fog slowly dissipated and the sun rose higher and grew warmer in the March sky, I saw before my eyes the clouds fading and the sun clearing my path. That’s a picture of what has happened in my life. The Son of righteousness shines, and before his great light not one of my sins are visible because he has burned them all away – forever.
Because of my sin, I deserve endless winter, but winter is gone. Spring has come. This is grace – whole, free, pure, effective, endless, matchless, beautiful.
“Come on, Bubba! Let’s go upstairs.” Jack screamed, as he screams everything, on his way to get his brother, Luke. It’s 7:30. Breakfast has been digesting for nearly an hour. We’ve run around the house playing “trains” for at least 20 minutes. Curious George has been watched, the theme song danced to. It’s a normal morning for the McLemore family. It is glorious. It is a miracle.\nEvery morning is basically the same. Jack wakes up first. He calls out, “Dada!” over and over again until I climb the stairs to his room. I go in quietly and turn the light on the lowest setting. It’s always too bright for him. He declares that he’s done sleeping and grabs his two stuffed puppies and his blanket. Then he makes a few demands of me to carry him and ten other toys and stuffed animals downstairs. I always follow his orders.
\nOur conversation is the same every morning on the way downstairs.
\n“Jack, did you sleep good?” I ask.
\n“Uh-huh.” His constant reply.
\n“Did you have any dreams?”
\n“No.” Although, there are times this varies, only to tell me about dreams of the family dogs.
\nWe arrive downstairs to a welcome from Mama. I sit him down on the couch in his spot and we read books or watch TV (animal shows, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Caillou, and Curious George are his favorites). He eats his breakfast and waits for his brother to wake up. Luke always sleeps later, sometimes as much as an hour later than Jack.
\nSo the time passes and Jack and I talk about what he’s going to do that day or what we did yesterday or what crazy thing the people on TV are doing. I have to go to work soon, but he doesn’t know what that means, or what I will have to face that day. He doesn’t need to know. He just needs me, and I do my best to just be there for him. Because he is a miracle.
\nLuke wakes us the same way every day. He slowly sits up in his crib, makes a few noises indicating he’s ready to get up, and is promptly brought downstairs. The quiet is over. He is always mad because breakfast isn’t immediately available. So he grabs two muffins and sits on the couch with us to enjoy whatever it is we’re doing. He’s always fit in just perfectly with our way of life. He doesn’t demand new things, doesn’t want to change things, he just wants to be involved in all of it. He is a miracle.
\nJack and Luke are my sons. They are miracles. I do not deserve them. Jack is 3 and Luke is 2 and my life is forever changed because God looked down on me in grace and mercy in giving these boys to me. I am their father. It is all an utter miracle.
\nAs I hear Jack calling for Luke, I can’t help but see the miracle of life running up the stairs right before my eyes. Four years ago our house was quiet. The morning started much later. Life was less complicated. Everything we did was based on comfort and convenience, centered more than we realized on our personal needs and wants. And then God gave us these children and everything changed. Going out to eat is difficult. We have to be home early for bedtime. Staying up past 10 PM is hard for us. Our life is different and it’s a miracle.
\nWhat strikes me most about this new life is the very fact that it is new. New priorities. New questions to ask and to answer. New ways of thinking. New dinner plans. New schools. New clothes. New toys. New TV shows. New cribs. New car seats. New life.
\nAnd this is perfectly perfect for me. It is a miracle. Everything that God does for us is a miracle. He is making all things new. We live miracle-filled lives. Day in and day out every single thing that happens is an in-breaking from God. He is here. He is active. He cares. Jack and Luke running up the stairs to jump on Jack’s mattress in his darkened room is a flat-out miracle of God because I do not deserve any of it. Only a miracle making God can give a sin filled being a life of any joy whatsoever. And yet here I am, with two boys playing together.
\nI hear laughter from Jack’s room while I get ready for work. I’m actually a bit upset this morning because I read the clock wrong and got dressed too early. I could have been in there with them, jumping up and down, letting them jump up and down on me. But for now I just listen to their laughs together. They are enjoying one another in a new way. It is a miracle. It is grace. It is life.
\nSo much of our lives are just so regular. Nothing spectacular is happening. For us in America, our lives are so amazingly good compared to people throughout the rest of the world both today and in history that we don’t even recognize the relative ease of our lives. Everything is just normal and sometimes that just bothers us. But in the normalcy of everyday American life in Franklin, Tennessee on February 23, 2015, I found in the upstairs bedroom (that needs new carpet and has a hole in the wall from the door and a chalk stain on the wall) that something miraculous was happening. My boys were learning to love one another simply because they lived with one another. Who knows what tomorrow holds. It could be disastrous. But today, well, today there is laughter. Let me be glad in it. It is a miracle.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/de4273398cb943ea-c9e23-images1-nTYUSFSr9TanP4IiqK3BVWdQcpUlrv.jpg\")
\n \n\n“I will not let you go until you bless me.”Genesis 32:26
These ten words make up one of the great acts of faith in the Bible. Knowing with whom he wrestled, Jacob demands a blessing from the One who made a promise to him. So, his name is changed, but not before making confession to his character by stating his name. Our names today don’t say much about us, but for Jacob his name was indicative of his deepest person – he was a deceiver. His new name, Israel, was a step up from that – one who wrestles with God. In this meeting, God transformed his past and prepared him for his future. All such meetings with God have that kind of everlasting impact.
It is interesting that Jacob strove with God all night and held his own, yet when God was ready to end the fight it took only one touch to his hip to permanently injure him. Jacob thereafter walks with a limp. On the eve of his greatest faceoff ever Jacob will arrive with the greatest handicap of his life. In the providence of God, this limp is a gift to his chosen child. His pride has been removed. He can finally be honest. It cost him something, but it would have cost far more without it. A man who shows up to the battle already wounded and restored by God is a man who can face the true test that lies ahead.
The meeting of Jacob and Esau could not be more contradictory to the way they left each other so many years ago. Esau’s response is entirely gracious. It is so gracious that it startles us. It is entirely unexpected. There is sweetness in this reconciliation that is very deep and moving. It must point to a greater, deeper truth. Just as an angry God has met Jacob with kindness, so now an angry brother is meeting him with kindness. Both of whom were sinned against, yet both respond in kindness and grace towards Jacob. What a testimony to the wonderful workings of God! If ever Jacob misunderstood who God was and what his promise meant, these two meetings should have beaten it into his memory forever.
What can we learn from this account of Jacob’s life? At least one thing: our most honest confession is not a surprise to God, but is a means that God will use to transform us into men and women of biblical faith. We can wrestle all night, but when dawn breaks there is only one victor. This story shows us, surprisingly, that the victor is Jacob. God’s very words confirm it to us in verse 28, “Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
You may say, “how can I be the victor?” Because Christ lost on the cross to gain our victory. We are only as victorious as Jesus on the cross. What a victory it is! What a marvelous God who creates life out of death and through a crucifixion destroys the power of the devil forever. We can finally be honest, and in our honesty become who we are made to be. “Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession” (2 Corinthians 2:14)
A time will come when everything is on the line - your reputation, your livelihood, your very life itself. When you're staring at the end of the rope with the threads so frayed that you can't believe a rope even once existed, God is fighting for you, defending you, and keeping you. He is your refuge and your strength. He is present in the midst of your struggle. An unmovable figure unswayed and unfrazzled. Though you may feel alone and forgotten, he is not slumbering as you melt away. He is in the very center of the battle, shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart. He is a very present help in your time of trouble, always near and never far. He is with you and for you. A bulwark never failing.\nThe ship feels as if it's sinking. The cannons have poked holes through and through. But God is a hiding place protecting you from the storm with power to make the winds and seas obey. The waters may roar and foam, swirling and twirling, pulling and ripping, seeking to devour the very mountains themselves. Mountains may be moved to the heart sea, drowned far below without a ripple upon the surface to pay tribute. Yet you will not be moved any further than your Father allows. You need not fear. Your helper he amid the flood.
\nAs the deer pants for constant flowing streams so your soul pants for living waters. There is a city present today and tomorrow where the streams of living water flow gently by, as a cool creek on a hot summer day. The very glimpse of it can calm your soul. It is a city of peace because the Prince of Peace is there. It is the city where God is with you and for you, visibly and undoubtedly. It isn’t shakable and it isn’t moveable, except to come down from heaven to dwell with you. It is a city with a King on a throne and though all the nations rage, the earth melts at the utterance of his voice. On earth is not his equal.
\nGod is involved in your life. He will be there when the rope starts to lag. He will be there when it gives way. At that very moment you are bid to come and behold the works he has performed in your story. He has parted the Red Sea before you. He has brought you out of the house of slavery. He has relocated your dislocated heart. He has reached down into the madness of your very being. He has ended the wars raging in your heart. He ceased the accusers, the loud-mouths, and the insulters. He has destroyed the weapons of war waged against you. He has brought you under his watchful care. He has been God to you. The right man is on your side.
\nWhen that time comes, and as surely as the day is bright it will come, surrender your all to God. Be still, for he is God. He alone will be exalted and in him alone will you be exalted. God is with you and for you. You are his and he is yours. He is your refuge, your strength, your help. He is your mighty fortress. He is your God. His truth abideth still.
\n\n\n\n1 God is our refuge and strength,\n a very present help in trouble.\n2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,\n though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,\n3 though its waters roar and foam,\n though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
\n\n\n4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,\n the holy habitation of the Most High.\n5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;\n God will help her when morning dawns.\n6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;\n he utters his voice, the earth melts.\n7 The Lord of hosts is with us;\n the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
\n\n\n8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,\n how he has brought desolations on the earth.\n9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;\n he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;\n he burns the chariots with fire.\n10 “Be still, and know that I am God.\n I will be exalted among the nations,\n I will be exalted in the earth!”\n11 The Lord of hosts is with us;\n the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
\nPsalm 46
\n
\nIt was one of those summer nights that come along in your mind during winter. The humidity was palpable but not too high. The sun was low in the sky, a summer evening winding slowly down into night as if the day is unwilling to relent. Changing like a kaleidoscope from bright blue to bright pinkish-orange, the sky was littered with beautiful cumulous clouds. Jack wanted to catch fireflies that night. His bath was already taken, little brother Luke already in bed, and at least an hour yet to go before the first firefly would emerge from his home.
His sandals on his feet, bughouse in tow, Jack took my hand and asked to walk down to the park. The answer was, of course, “Yes.” The summer air overtook us quickly as we departed from the coolness of the house. We took a hard right out the front door and headed down the path toward the little park at the end of the road. Jack grabbed my hand in the way only a three-year-old little boy can—fully, unashamedly, and joyfully. Soon he and I were off into the great wide open to hunt for his beloved fireflies.
I realized quickly that my large, adult steps where causing his little legs to work extra hard, but he wasn’t complaining. This was the kind of night he dreamed of; a night with just he and Daddy, walking together to hunt down something magically. It was the kind of night I dreamed of, too.
The walk to the park was slow. It was happy. It was heart filling. Life doesn’t allow for these kinds of moments often. It’s the stillness of the summer evening and the leniency of a mother and father and the child-like excitement of a little boy that can only create these kinds of night. We have them from time to time, but only rarely. Life is more demanding of us than we ever thought it would be. None of us can escape it. The hurts and pains and failed attempts and lost dreams mixed with the chasing of new dreams and plans of the future create a sort of angst inside of us that does it’s best to push these kinds of nights out of our realm of possibility. But in the grace of God a moment will come along surprising us in its innocence and peacefulness. We’ll wonder why we don’t do this more often and we’ll plan to do it again as soon as possible only to find that these moments that we cherish in life aren’t so much created as they are received. From the hand of God himself these moments come down to us from heaven to remind us that our Father cares for us. As I was taking Jack’s hand and leading him down to the park, God was taking my hand and leading me into his joy.
We reached the park in due time. It wasn’t a quick trip. It was deliberately slow. We passed the creek on our left and Jack exclaimed, “Dada, I see creek!” I looked over at it with him and asked if he wanted to go down and sit by it. His answer, as always, was no. He’s not a fan of water, especially the kind that moves somewhere. So we continued down our path.
A few steps away from the creek Jack let go of my hand. I looked down as he was bending low to pick up a small stick. He promptly put it in his bughouse, a nice perch for his soon to be firefly friends. He reached back up, taking hold of my hand. My heart filled again. Something in the way he looked at me as he told me about that stick filled me anew with child-likeness. He was thrilled to have found such an amazing thing just lying on the path. What joy must we miss as we rush from appointment to appointment? Jack notices everything. Sometimes I wonder if I notice anything. He not only notices but also enjoys that which he sees. He takes it in like we do when trying a new food. He lets it roll around in his mind. He evaluates it and then proclaims it good or bad. Everything he sees gets a fair shake. Nothing is left without a pronouncement of good or bad, in the way only Jack could say.
Our path had finally run out and we turned the bend to enter the park. It was unusually crowded this night, though not with friends his age. There were two kids playing soccer with their dad, a group of teenagers coming up from the creek bed where they had no doubt spent a good amount of time relishing in the cool water on the hot summer evening. There were people riding bikes and running on the path. It was full of life. It representing what was happening in Jack’s and my life. We were full of life. As silly as it seems in the grand scheme of life, we were deeply excited about catching fireflies.
We had made it to the park but we were still woefully early for the fireflies. We would have to spend the remaining minutes swinging and climbing and sliding down slides. At any other time it would have been thrilling, but tonight it was just something to pass the time. Oh, there was joy in it enough. Fun was had. But it was not our objective. We had bigger plans than a baby swing would allow for!
“Jack, do you want to walk back home and eat an ice cream bar while we wait?” I asked him as he swung through the air, legs flailing all about, twisting his swing. “Oh, yeah!” Jack replied. So we walked back home, hand in hand, stopping only to pick up some rocks or a few new sticks. We walked slowly back; I wasn’t willing to rush through this. My heart, though I barely noticed it at the time, deeply needed these moments with my young son. I was building a memory for him. I was building a memory for myself. What was happening that night was ours. No one could take it. We would remember it, me more than him, but whether he realizes it or not these kinds of moments are what makes me his daddy and he my son.
Walking by the side of the house we heard a tapping on the window. It was Mama! With a smiling face she was waving us home. Luke has just been put to bed. Jack and I entered the house to proclamations of, “Mama, eat ice cream bar!” in Jack’s youthful voice. All shared the excitement. Ice cream bar in hand, we settled on the back deck, eyes peeled for the lights to shine in the darkening sky.
Ice cream bars never last long enough. They were soon completely gone, enjoyed down to the last bite. Still with no fireflies in sight, Jack and I set out to the garage to play with toys until the night grew closer. Finally, moments later, our time had arrived. Jack was the first to spot them.
“Dada! Dada! Stop! I see firebug!” Fireflies never had a cuter name. We ran to get the bughouse we had left on the back deck. Running as quickly as we could around the front of the house, Jack was yet again the first to see them. “Dada, over there! I see one!” I rushed over and grabbed it. Jack came running, laughing and jumping. We put it in his bughouse and our hunt began.
It lasted only about 15 minutes. But for 15 minutes we were two of the greatest firefly hunters Middle Tennessee had even known. 20 fireflies and one crowded bughouse later, we surveyed the land can concluded that we had caused extinction in the front yard.
As we stood there, looking for just one more, I looked down to see Jack aping my stance. He was happy in that moment. I could tell only because of how he was trying to be like me. My heart filled once again. I had just had fun, f-u-n, untarnished, child-like, carefree fun.
After a few pictures and admirations we decided to open the bughouse door and release the fireflies back to their homes. One by one they flew away to the “Bye bye” of their greatest hunter, Jack Briggs McLemore. They would meet again, but for now the game was over.
And so ended another summer night. It was like any other summer night, except it wasn’t. In nearly every place on earth the evening of July 21, 2014 was as normal as July 20, 2014 and July 22, 2014. But for the McLemore men of the McLemore household, it was a night to remember. We had waited, we had trapped, we had enjoyed, and we had released the essence of small boyhood fun. Our night was ending but the memory was just coming off the presses, to be read about the next day and kept in the scrapbook of the mind for years to come.
As we entered the house, the front yard lit up once again with the majesty of the fireflies. A boy had a smile on his face and sweat on his brow. His father had the same. We climbed the stairs for bed and as I lay with him there that night, waiting for him to go to sleep, I thanked God for what he had just given me and realized that soon—sooner than I can even imagine—I will be doing the same thing with my Father in heaven. He will one day take my hand and lead me on the adventure of discovering his world, of discovering himself, and I will forever be satisfied, just like tonight.
\nGod’s plan from the startFor this world and your heart\nHas been to show His glory and His grace
Those words from Steven Curtis Chapman sung over me from the radio. Driving to church in the rainy November autumn I saw a leaf in front of me, falling slowing, twisting on its way down. I was overcome with emotion.
\nIt’s a bit strange, I admit, but I couldn’t help but feel the glory and grace of God in that moment. There are times in our lives when the reality of God breaks through the mundane. It happens in the little moments. We expect him to be there with us in the big moments, that’s why his presence in the small moments, the ordinary moments, is so surprising. It turns out God really cares about us at all times. In the same way I pay attention to how my son’s eyes bulge a bit at seeing the horses on the way to church, my Father sees, and is in, the awe I have over that falling leaf.
\nIt was a fleeting moment, but it was a moment with God. As I saw that leaf twirling slowly toward the ground, I realized how much I felt it. There are times in our lives when we feel like we’re slowing twirling towards the ground. Nothing big and bad has happened, but the feeling is just there. We feel like failures, like things are falling apart, like sin will win in the end. We’re falling, and it’s going slowly, and we’re twirling around, disoriented and lost. We perceive that below us is the hard, cold ground and, most likely, we’ll be hit by a car once we get down there.
\nBut God promises something better for his children. He promises his presence in the messiness of our ordinary lives. In moments of our own failure God hasn’t failed. In moments of our own disorientation and pain God is reorienting and healing. We may feel as if we are falling toward the hardness of life, even death, but in Christ we are only falling to his softness of grace. He will be there, all the way down, and even more so when he finally hit the bottom. We won’t be run over, we will be restored, because he’s prepared for us, even orchestrated it all on our behalf.
\n\n\"And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.\" (1 Peter 5:10)
Everything we fear will in the end only be cause for rejoicing in the grace of God for us. It’s his plan from the start, for this world and your heart. He’s going to show you his glory and his grace.
Psalm 73 is fascinating. Go read it and then come back to this.\nThe author opens up his heart with pure honesty. He wipes the dew from the window of his soul and places glasses on our eyes so that we can clearly see. Across the landscape we see the earthly fruit of wickedness that leads to the selfish desire of the results of wickedness for oneself. But like seeing for the first time in the morning we rub our eyes and look again to see an answer that Job and Jeremiah, and you and me, long for—satisfaction amidst the wickedness. It’s surprising and wonderful. We stand there with our mouth open as we do before a breathtaking sunrise—in total awe of a God who is in absolute control of every single thing.
\nIt seems as if those who disregard the law of God find green pastures and still waters. They succeed. They look good. They don’t suffer. They aren’t sad. They have good self-esteem. They are at ease, unhurried, rich. But that’s what it looks like from the window, not from the heavens. Horizontally, it looks good, but from a birds-eye, all-seeing view it’s not so attractive. Like seeing the fish from the side of the aquarium, it looks like there is plenty of room to swim. But take a look from the top and you’ll see that space is limited. For the wicked, their time is coming and everything they have will be taken away.
\nThis is the kind of view that we can only see from the window of the biblical authors. It’s the view from the top of the castle, not the ground floor of the marketplace. It’s the view that lifts us up above the hustle and bustle where slights of hand can trick the eyes. It’s the view from the sanctuary of God.
\nThe wicked are on the edge of the universe. They are on a slippery slope. But they don’t know it. They think they’re at the center of the universe—secure forever. The only way they could fall is if they allow it. They are autonomous. They have spent their lives building their kingdom. They are the king and there is no opposition. They are living the dream.
\nYet a sunrise is coming on their kingdom that they haven’t considered. They’ve set themselves up far from the only true reality in the world. They’ve distanced themselves from the only true satisfaction in the world and exchanged the glory of God for the glory of themselves. Their dream will soon become a nightmare—even worse, a never-ending nightmare of eternal damnation.
\nThere’s something about them, though, isn’t there? We see what they have and we want it. We long to be satisfied in our bodies. We want to matter. We want to be known and loved and admired. And so, like the Psalmist, we are envious of the arrogant when we see their prosperity. And in so doing we become beasts toward the Lord. Thankfully, we have a God who turns beasts into beauties.
\nTruly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart (v. 1). His goodness is of a transforming nature. Pureness of heart is single-focused. It’s the heart that can say honestly, “I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (v. 3) and “I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you” (v. 22). It’s the heart that, because of God’s goodness, looks upon the wicked and finds that they actually, honestly do desire more from their life and they aren’t satisfied with not having it. But it’s the heart that doesn’t settle for the stolen treasures of the wicked and instead goes knocking on the castle of the treasure-making God to seek out that which moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves can’t break in and steal (Matt. 6:19). It’s the heart that when welcomed into the castle clothed in their dirty garments find not a silent overseer but a loving Father. It’s the heart that is invited to see from the rooftops the reality of the kingdom. It’s the heart that finds a home in the dwelling place of God. It’s the heart that, because of the work of Jesus on his behalf, calls out to God, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (v. 25). It’s the heart that can say with an all-satisfying smile, “For me it is good to be near God” (v. 28). It’s a transformed heart. It’s a once selfish heart suddenly become other’s-focused, “I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works” (v. 28).
\nAnd you know what? The desires of that kind of heart are the same. The answer is just from a different source. That kind of heart isn’t a self-made heart like the false kingdom of the wicked. That kind of heart is the God-made, God-given heart that comes when all else fails. It’s the heart that has all the same desires, but now has something to satisfy those desires—secure forever.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”Romans 1:16-17
Fires are not uncommon to the forests of Yellowstone National Park. As the flames consume the tall, majestic trees common logic would tell us they must be extinguished. But the secret toYellowstone fire comes in the freedom to burn. Those who monitor them don’t damper the blazes. They let them burn with all their fury. Why? Because the fire brings new life to the forest.
As those fires rage on in Yellowstone, scientists have discovered an amazing phenomenon. The magic number is 25. Each tree bursts into flames and burns for an average of 25 seconds. Those 25 seconds just happen to be the perfect amount of time to heat the tree up to do two things: destroy the tree, and reveal the seeds for new life. Each tree bears pinecones with a hard outer shell that together house millions of tiny seeds. How are those seeds going to get out of the pinecone? God’s answer is through fire. 25 seconds is the right amount of time to melt the rosin on the cone and reveal the seeds, allowing them to fall to the ground and germinate. More than 25 seconds would be too much and the seeds would burn, less than 25 seconds and the rosin wouldn’t melt. So, you can literally walk through the scorched earth after the fire and and find millions of seeds scattering the ground, many of which already bursting forth with tiny green leaves under the suddenly clear blue sky. The forest floor has been reborn through the cleansing fire. The key is to freely let it burn.
Paul says in Romans 1:16 that the gospel is the power of God for salvation. That word “power” is the same word in Greek from which we derive our English word “dynamite”. The gospel is a message of the person and work of Christ that holds within in it the investment of God’s power for sinners. The gospel is a divine pack of dynamite set to explode and burn away the sin of unbelief in our hearts so that the righteousness of God may be revealed to us in a saving way.
If the gospel has within it dynamic power then it is comparable to the fires of Yellowstone National Park in at least one way. It is a consuming fire that rages through souls of people burning away the sin of unbelief at just the right temperature and revealing the seeds of righteousness at just the right time to all who believe. Just as the sky is invisible to the forest floor before the fire, until the gospel burns away the blindness in our hearts, we are unable to see the righteousness of God. In his mercy and great grace, God has seen fit to use the message of the gospel – that foolishness of preaching – to melt away the rosin of our hearts so that he may reveal to us his saving righteousness.
Just as the fire monitors in Yellowstone are not ashamed to stand by and watch it rage, Paul wasn’t ashamed of the gospel. He wasn’t ashamed precisely because he knew the power that God had invested in it. The gospel is a message, a proclamation, an announcement. It is made up of words that point to a person, namely, Jesus. God’s answer to the great problem of sin in the world is to destroy it through the fire of the preaching of his Son Jesus Christ. When the pure gospel is preached in the timing and temperature at which God has prepared in his divine furnace, thousands of hard pinecone hearts melt under the heat of the revelation of the righteousness of God for the salvation of their souls. The gospel is that powerful. It is that dynamic.
Paul understood himself to be a debtor to the cause of Christ (Rom 1:14). He realized that as long as he held the message of the gospel it compelled him to proclaim it to the world. Every Christian who has had the hardpinecone of their heart melted in the fiery furnace of God’s great mercy walks around with gospel dynamite. Is that dangerous? Perhaps. It certainly is glorious. So, who will light the fuse?
![\"just_say_no_to_valentines_day_button-p145107014862477719en88u_400\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/59926ddea4c4520e-just_say_no_to_valentines_day_button-p145107014862477719en88u_400-qgTRrQRTkEGFn16HouTszYgn79xsNR.jpg\")
\nIt’s Valentine’s Day. The day that most people pretend to hate because they either don’t feel loved, or don’t want to show love, but mostly because they always wish the love they had was more intense, more real. So, it’s the day that we eat candy and have nice dinners and buy flowers and try to imagine a love that is so powerful that romance bursts out of us spontaneously, without even trying. But for the most part, people are disappointed because they see that even love itself is too often a fleeting feeling that we can’t create even in the perfect of circumstances. That’s why love can’t be defined in terms of experience, merely, but must be defined in terms of underlying reality, eternally. A reality that shapes every day and every thing, not relegated to the convenient or designated times.
God is love (1 John 4:8). He is not love because we exist. That would mean he needs us to be who he is. We exist because of his love. Without that love of the Father, there would be no reason for us. That is the underlying eternal reality. Because God is love there has never been a day in all of existence that wasn’t defined by love. Love itself is the foundation and ground work, it is the structure and frame, the heartbeat and skeleton, the flesh and blood that reverberates throughout each day. So, why do we not feel it moment by moment?
\nIf God is love and God upholds the universe by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3) would not love then be even the ruling reality of the universe? It’s more than foundational, it’s governmental as well. The love of God literally sustains the entire cosmos. Love then is meant to be intense and real because God himself is intense and real and God himself is love.
\nSo, here on Valentine’s Day we look out on all those disappointed in the world. Their experience of love isn’t working. They feel let down. They feel betrayed. They feel as if something as good as love should be more real and so why isn’t it? Simply put, their eyes are too low.
\nGod is love. I am not love. I love, but I’m not Love. But God is. So, on Valentine’s Day, if we want love, we have to raise our sights to him. We wouldn’t go to someone who has water and expect for them to be the satisfying reality of water. We must go to the water itself for that. So, if we want real love, shouldn’t we go to the source? And the good news is that this Love isn’t unavailable to us. He is there. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
\nDo you want a love that exceeds even the most thrilling of Valentine’s Days? Go to him and get it. After all, it’s the most real thing in the universe. Ultimate reality is a God who is love.
![\"\"](\"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hnWdDzQ2HRQ/TeII92pVtGI/AAAAAAAAArQ/eY7ejR6Hn80/s1600/046-capu-rossu-cave-mouth.jpg\")
\nCaptured, blind, I knew it not, in my sinful cave.\nCollapsed, the mouth, years ago – light began to fade.\nChoice within, and nature-born, dug, I did, my grave.\nDarkness growing darker still; left alone would I have stayed.
Steadfast love and faithfulness I knew in only word.\nA soured mind, mine was, growing filthier ever still.\nThe word proclaimed, was it not? Yet my ears it never heard.\nEmbarking journeys, never ending, but, alas, did not fulfill.
\nA new Spirit, put, within, the best I may explain.\nThe law I kept never once, yet, still pursued was I.\nThe cave, the mouth, left behind, seeing now so plain.\nA toad, a worm, nay, smaller still, somehow is beautified.
\nEarned death, I did - an eternal one - but seeing now I’m free.\nDescending down to hell was I – reversed to now ascend.\nWonder about, never more! I know Him who died for me.\nThough as enemy I have ever stood, yet Jesus is my friend!
And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.\n\nActs 18:9-11
Paul is laboring in Corinth. It’s his last stop on his second missionary journey. He is working hard in the synagogue, preaching and teaching and proclaiming Christ as the Lord. He is reasoning with them. He is persuading them. He is pleading with them. Verse 5 says that when Silas and Timothy arrive from Macedonia that Paul is occupied with the word. Paul is working hard!
\nDespite Paul’s hard work, however, he isn’t seeing the fruit of his labor. He is opposed and reviled. They won’t believe him. They listen and then try to convince him that he is crazy to read the scriptures in a Christocentric way. Paul becomes frustrated and proclaims his innocence because he has been faithful to preach the word of God and present the gospel clearly. If they won’t believe, it’s not for lack of trying to bring them to repentance. A few do believe, but most don’t. Paul isn’t seeing conversions. He is discouraged. It is hard soil. He has just left Athens where he did not plant a church and did not see many, if any, converts. Would Corinth be the same? Paul won’t give up – he stays a year and a half. Why?
\nIn verse 9, the Lord appears to Paul in a vision and says, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” The next words Luke pens are these: “And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.” The note in the ESV study Bible under verse 10 says, “Predestination implied successful evangelism.”
\nThe Lord told him that He had already saved many people in Corinth, though they did not yet know it. They were going to come to Him, though they didn’t yet book their trip. His labor would not be in vain. That was enough for Paul. He didn’t leave because he knew God had many who were His. Paul stayed so that they would become His.
\nWhat hard soil are you tilling? Are you reviled and opposed? Are you not seeing conversions? It is possible that the Lord has many in your city that are His people. Be faithful. Stand strong. Preach the gospel. Be occupied with the word! If you preach it, they will come.
\nAccording to the book of Hebrews, Jesus is:
\nConsequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.\n\n- Hebrews 7:25
Hebrews 7:25 tells us three important things about sin:
\n1) Hebrews 7:25 tells us what we can be sure of when we sin.
\nIn Hebrews 7 the author labors to establish the priesthood of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament Levitical priesthood. Jesus is the perfect priest that offers the perfect sacrifice on the perfect altar with the perfect blood from the perfect lamb. He is better than the old priests. By his active obedience (fulfillment of the law) he can enter into his passive obedience (death on the cross) and atone perfectly for the sin of the world. Therefore, since Jesus is the ultimate priest doing the ultimate priestly work on the cross, he is able to save us.
\nChristian, when you sin you have to know that Jesus can save you from your sin. He is able. Hebrews 7:25 tells us so. He not only able to save in some cases but to the uttermost – at all times. There is never a time, no matter the sin, when the perfect High Priest cannot save you. It would be against all that Jesus has done and against all that Jesus is to say that any sin is unable to be atoned for. He is able to save.
\nThere is no further qualification in this statement. He is able to save – anyone, anytime, for anything, period. Not because of who you are, but because of who he is.
\n2) Hebrews 7:25 tells us where we can go when we sin.
\nSince Jesus is able to save to the uttermost he invites us to go to the only place that we can be saved, that is, to God. This doesn’t make sense. No one this side of heaven wants the nearness of someone who has sinned against them, yet this is exactly what the Holy Spirit is saying God wants from you. You have offended him and in the face of that offense he asks you to draw near to him to find forgiveness.
\nChristian, when you sin the only truly safe place you can run to is the throne of God. In fact, Jesus is only able to save those who draw near to God through him. When you sin, run to God. You have no reason not to. After all, he is able to save.
\n3) Hebrews 7:25 tells us that we can be certain God won’t turn us away when we sin.
\nJesus is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. God can’t turn us away when we come to him in our sin because Jesus lives so that we can come to God with our sin.
\nChristian, when you sin you can go to God in full confidence that he is able to save you because Jesus died on the cross to pay for all of your sin – no exceptions. When you sin and turn to God in repentance, Jesus stands at the right hand of the Father to show him the nail pierced hands and proclaim that your sin has been atoned for. You are free. You are forgiven. Jesus lives to make it so.
\n
![\"\"](\"http://redlikeblood.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Christ-Heals-the-Paralytic.jpg\" "\\"Jesus")
\"Jesus the healer of our souls! God knows, we need Him still. When past sins rise up to mock our best endeavors, when our strength is sapped by the power of evil, when our lives seem to be a hopeless tangle, unlike anything that was ever seen before, escape shut off on every side, regret and remorse staring us in the face whichever turn we take, a strange miserable hopeless puzzle, beyond our own comprehension and far beyond our own power to help - we need a healer. We need one who can untangle the snarl of our lives, who can apply a healing touch to the dreadful wounds of the soul, and set us forward in some new, strong, healthy life.\nA healer - where shall we find him? A few men and women found such an one long ago in Palestine. A paralytic borne of four - 'Child, thy sins are forgiven thee.' A publican sitting at the receipt of custom - 'They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.' A demoniac among the tombs, whom they found sitting clothed and in his right mind. A sick woman, who touched His garment - 'Daughter, thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.' These, somehow we are sure of it, received peace. They found a healer.\"
Machen, J. Gresham, and Ned Bernard Stonehouse. \"The Living Saviour.\" God Transcendent. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1982. 76. Print.
The Lord loves us. Because he loves us, he disciplines us. Because he disciplines us, he brings us into his presence. If it were not for the Lord’s disciplining love, we would not find ourselves in his presence. It is one of the ways in which he shows us grace.\nThere are three “therefore” clauses in Hosea chapter 2: verses 6, 9, and 14. All of these show us the progression of God’s grace in response to our sinfulness.
\n\nFor their mother has played the whore;\nshe who conceived them has acted shamefully.\nFor she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,\nwho give me my bread and my water,\nmy wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’\nTherefore I will hedge up her way with thorns,\nand I will build a wall against her,\nso that she cannot find her paths.
\n(Hosea 2:5-6)
Because of the whoredom of Israel, the Lord stops her way. He prevents her from being as wicked as she could be. He disciplines her with thorns, blocks her way with a wall, and loses her in a maze of confusion.
\n\nShe shall pursue her lovers\nbut not overtake them,\nand she shall seek them\nbut shall not find them.\nThen she shall say,\n‘I will go and return to my first husband,\nfor it was better for me then than now.’\nAnd she did not know\nthat it was I who gave her\nthe grain, the wine, and the oil,\nand who lavished on her silver and gold,\nwhich they used for Baal.\nTherefore I will take back\nmy grain in its time,\nand my wine in its season,\nand I will take away my wool and my flax,\nwhich were to cover her nakedness.
\n(Hosea 2:7-9)
Israel comes to her senses. She realizes that her current path is not leading to the places she once thought it would. It is a dead end. Literally. So, she decides to return to the one whom she left, realizing that it was better then than it is now. Like the prodigal son in Luke 15, she came to herself. Though she still doesn’t realize she had it all before, she sees what has become of pursuing her dreams. Because of this, the Lord will take away the blessing he once poured out on her in order to expose her at a deeper level. The grain is thin, the wine is dried up, and the wool and flax are scarce, exposing her nakedness. She’s left unprotected and can now see the depths of who she has become. The confusion leads into humiliation.
\n\nNow I will uncover her lewdness\nin the sight of her lovers,\nand no one shall rescue her out of my hand.\nAnd I will put an end to all her mirth,\nher feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths,\nand all her appointed feasts.\nAnd I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,\nof which she said,\n‘These are my wages,\nwhich my lovers have given me.’\nI will make them a forest,\nand the beasts of the field shall devour them.\nAnd I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals\nwhen she burned offerings to them\nand adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,\nand went after her lovers\nand forgot me, declares the LORD.\n“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,\nand bring her into the wilderness,\nand speak tenderly to her.\nAnd there I will give her her vineyards\nand make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.\nAnd there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,\nas at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
\n“And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.
\n(Hosea 2:10-20)
The Lord takes away the feasts she once enjoyed. There is little rejoicing. It is painful. Everything she’s worked so hard for is suddenly gone. She’s returned to the Lord with the gifts from her idols and finds the Lord stripping them away. He’s destroying her life. As Hosea 6 says, he is tearing her so that he may heal her. He’s acting mercifully, though it may not feel merciful.
\nSo far, the Lord has been ruthless with Israel. She has found herself destitute and utterly lost. She’s weakened and powerless. She’s searching for answers. Then the Lord begins his love song to his bride. The third “therefore” shows us what the other two therefores were there for. He’s using his gracious discipline to return Israel back to himself. He’s literally wooing her back. Notice the romantic language: allure, speak tenderly, etc. The Lord is kind to a people who were nothing but evil.
\nIn what way is the Lord tearing your life apart? What walls are you running into? What thorns are sticking in your side? What paths have you lost sight of? Is your wine coming to a slow drip? Is your grain withering? What enjoyments are losing their flavor? What was once held dear that seems to be slipping away? It may be that the Lord is ruining your life so that he can save you. He may be tearing you apart so that he can heal you. There are worse things. Painful as it may be, the destination is salvation. Press on. Be torn. Be healed. Know the Lord.
\nGod is infinitely exalted about all created beings in goodness. Goodness and royal bounty, mercy and clemency is the glory of earthly monarchs and princes, but in this is the Lord, our God, infinitely exalted above them. God delights in the welfare and prosperity of his creatures; he delights in making of them exceeding happy and blessed, if they will but accept of the happiness which he offers.\nAll creatures do continually live upon the bounty of God; he maintains the whole creation of his mere goodness: every good thing that is enjoyed is a part of his bounty. When kings are bountiful, and dispense good things to their subjects, they do but give that which the Almighty before gave to them. So merciful and so full of pity is God, that when miserable man, whom He had no need of, who did Him no good, nor could be of any advantage to Him, had made himself miserable by his rebellion against God, He took such pity on him that He sent His only Son to undergo his torment for him, that he might be delivered and set free. And now He offers freely, to bestow upon those rebels, complete and perfect happiness to all eternity upon this, His Son's account. There never was such an instance of goodness, mercy, pity, and compassion since the world began; all the mercy and goodness amongst creatures fall infinitely short of it: this is goodness that never was, never will, never can be paralleled by any other beings.
Jonathan Edwards, Works 10, 424.
\nAfter his ejectment [from his church], Watson preached occasionally whenever he could do so with safety. Fines and imprisonments were insufficient to close the mouths of the witnesses of Jesus. In barns, kitchens, outhouses, or dells and woods, the faithful few gathered to hear the message of eternal life. Those little secret assemblies were doubtless charming occasions for devout minds; the word of the Lord was precious in those days. Bread eaten in secret is proverbially sweet, and the word of God in persecution is peculiarly delightful. Little can we realize the joyful anticipation which preceded the appointed meetings, or the lingering memories which clung to them long after they were over.
Charles Spurgeon's introduction to Thomas Watson's A Body of Divinity (Banner of Truth Trust 2008), x.
\nThen the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.
\n(Matthew 27:27-31)
\n
The life of Jesus is different than the Jews expected. They constantly misunderstand his mission. They’re expecting a warrior king to retake the land for Israel. This wasn’t unwarranted. The Old Testament paints the coming Messiah as a warrior king. Isaiah 63 comes to mind:
\n\n\nWho is this who comes from Edom,\nin crimsoned garments from Bozrah,\nhe who is splendid in his apparel,\nmarching in the greatness of his strength?\n“It is I, speaking in righteousness,\nmighty to save.”\nWhy is your apparel red,\nand your garments like his who treads in the winepress?\n“I have trodden the winepress alone,\nand from the peoples no one was with me;\nI trod them in my anger\nand trampled them in my wrath;\ntheir lifeblood spattered on my garments,\nand stained all my apparel.\nFor the day of vengeance was in my heart,\nand my year of redemption had come.\nI looked, but there was no one to help;\nI was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;\nso my own arm brought me salvation,\nand my wrath upheld me.\nI trampled down the peoples in my anger;\nI made them drunk in my wrath,\nand I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”
\n
This is a description of no wimpy man. This is a mighty warrior. This is the kind of king they expected. Honestly, it’s the kind of king we all want. We need this kind of king - a king who can conquer all. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.
\nOften, we cast the disciples off as bumbling idiots and see the Jews who expected Jesus to be a conquering king as foolish. But I think if we were still waiting for the Messiah, and suddenly he showed up on the scene, we’d be expecting the same thing – if not to a greater degree. Would we be disappointed? Would we be confused? Would we wonder what happened?
\nThe Jack Bauers of our entertainment-saturated culture have driven us to expect the unbelievable. Sure, we expect the hero to be tortured, that builds suspense, but the torture can only last so long before our hero defies all odds to burst forth in a rage of fury, breaking free from bondage, and cracking the necks of those holding them down along the way. We’re used to that. After all, these are super-human guys we’re talking about. But what if we knew they were God himself? The disciples knew who Jesus was. Imagine the confusion when the God-man didn’t emerge from the governor’s headquarters. Surely he could break the bondage he was under, right? Well yes, but he couldn’t break his bondage and ours at the same time. So he chose to stay.
\nMatthew’s account of Jesus’ path to the cross is chilling for its irony. He meant it to be. The torturers themselves meant it to be ironic. After being released into their hands to be beaten, they begin playing around with this “king.” The whole battalion is there. They all took part. They stripped his clothes off, shaming him before them all. To cover him up, they placed a scarlet robe on him – the royal color that no doubt matched the blood pouring from his body. A few of them sat down to fashion a crown of thorns. They placed it on his head, mashing it down so that it pierced his scalp. Then, to top it off, they put a reed, a staff, in his right hand. Here is the moment that Jesus could make his great escape, right? Bursting forth in energy, he could take the reed and start whipping everyone he sees.
\nBut he stays and takes a few more blows to the head. The king of glory is beaten like a regular man. He seems to have no super-human strength.
\nYet, the lack of super-humanity is not wholly true. I doubt Jesus looked much like a linebacker. He perhaps even lacked the fighting skills of King David. It’s possible that Jesus looked a lot like a normal guy in his early 30s. But what he lacked in the physical strength department, he more than made up for in obedience. Jesus does something in taking this beating that is absolutely super-human. He never once thought a single sinful thought as the rod hit his thorn-crowned head. He watched as they spit in his face, never once cursing them in his heart. He listened to their painful mockery and then followed them as they led him to the cross, as the book of Hebrews says, for the joy set before him. This man suffered immense, intense, excruciating torture without one ounce, without a nanosecond, of sin.
\nWhat Jesus did that day was beyond heroic. It looked higher than the salvation of one or even a few living souls. Jesus stayed in that tortuous spot because he knew by doing so he was reconciling all believers – past, present, and future – to God. He did not consider his life worth saving because it was his life that was meant to end. If he had been Jack Bauer he could have saved himself from the physical enemies, but he would have doomed everyone else along the way. The height of irony then is this – Jesus was the most heroic of all men because he laid down his life to save all who would believe in his name. He died so that we might live. He gave us life through his death. He voluntarily gave up his crown so that we would never lose ours. He obeyed to the point of death so that we wouldn’t die because we couldn’t obey.
\nIn the Jack Bauer world, his death is the end of life for those who trusted in him. In the Jesus world, his death is the entryway into eternal life.
\nJesus re-defined hero. Jack Bauer he is not and thank God for that! But a mighty warrior is he. Oh, and Isaiah 63 is still true, it just hasn’t happened yet. It will. And we’ll be amazed.
“The Father himself loves you” John 16:27
\nWhat do you think God thinks of you? Do you think he’s angry at you? Do you think he’s apathetic? Do you think he’s waiting for you to fix yourself up? Do you think he’s watching you, just waiting for your next screw up like a bitter parent who wished he had better kids?
\nWhat if you were told that God loves you? What if you were told not just by pastors and theologians and Sunday school teachers and Bible study curriculum, but by God himself? What would you say? Would you believe it?
\nJesus is saying something magnificent in John 16:27. He’s telling us how the Father feels about us. He could say more, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t need to. He’s telling us how the Father feels and what he chooses to reveal to us is that the Father himself loves us. It’s all we need. This phrase alone should startle us.
\nWe don’t deserve this love. It shouldn’t be for us. The love of the Father should be restricted to only those good enough to have it. It shouldn’t be for lowlifes like us. But Jesus says that it is. Jesus himself showed us how the Father loves in his earthly ministry. He was constantly pressing towards the undeserving in love. He does that for us now, if we’ll admit we need it.
\nThis love does something to us. It changes us deep inside. It makes us do things we’d never do before. It opens us up. It allows us to be known. It frees us to confess sin. It emboldens us to talk to strangers about him. It empowers us to take risks. It unhinges the closed doors of our hearts to let love pour out into others. It derails the train wreck of our life and places us in green pastures and beside still waters. It actually makes us believe that perhaps the center of the universe is good and loving and kind and generous and wonderful. It restores hope in to our hopeless lives. It redeems our past, present, and future. It sets us free.
\nThe bad things we do in life are done for one reason – we want to be loved. Why else would we care what people think about us? Why else would we lie? Why else would we steal? Why else would we seek to live out our sexual fantasies? Why would we do any of the terrible things we’ve done? If we feel unloved we would trade anything in the world to obtain love, after all, we were made to be loved. So, God makes us a deal. He comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ and sits us down. He looks into our eyes. He opens our eyes so we can look into his. He speaks to us in a way that we can understand him. He opens his mouth and tells us his secrets. He affirms who we are, though we barely want to admit it. He shows us who he is, though we can barely see him. And at the end of it all, he makes his final offer: all of your sin and un-loveliness for my entire kingdom of righteousness and unending, unyielding, unashamed, intensely wild, outrageously faithful love. Sound good?
\nWhy does God do this? Because he loves us. Jesus told us so. The Father himself loves us. What else do we need?
\nSing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
\nPsalm 30:4-5
\n
Much of our lives are spent in sin. We’re tainted with it. No one is good or righteous. It takes just one look at us to see it. When compared to the infinite holiness of God, we should see ourselves like Isaiah saw himself and cry out, “Woe is me!” We need so much grace.
\nWhat we don’t deserve from God is a lifetime of favor; we deserve a lifetime of anger. That is not what we receive. There is a time for weeping over our sin. If you have never shed a tear over some sin in your life, it may be that you have never truly felt the grace of the Lord. How can you feel forgiven if you’ve never felt that you needed it in the first place? Yes, we should weep over our sinful state. If you haven’t been there yet, look to the Lord to bring you to that terribly wonderful valley, for it is there that you will be able to look to Mount Zion to see your Savior standing there proclaiming forgiveness over you. It is a grand design of the Lord that in our sorrow for sin we should be set free of it. We are guilty people but our guilt doesn’t define us, his grace does.
\nWhen forgiveness comes down from the Lord in the gospel of grace, we sing praises to the Lord. We give thanks to his holy name. We do this individually, yes, but also corporately. It is the Lord who has saved us, together. In God’s economy there is not one human that is better than another – we are all the same sinful people. It is his grace that sets us apart. We experience that grace together. Have you ever stood in the presence of God’s people and sang your heart out in praise to him? The kind of praise that gives you chills, that makes it so you can’t help but smile, that makes you wish it would never end. That’s the kind of praise God gives to us.
\nIt is no chore or duty to praise like that. People redeemed by God can’t help but praise in that way. What in the universe is better than the forgiveness of sins? I can think of only one thing: the Lord who forgives those sins. Only the giver is better than the gift for we see by the gift what the intention of the giver is, and the intention of the Lord in the gift of redemption from sin is joy that comes to us. Real joy, felt joy, outrageous joy, unspeakable joy, ridiculous joy, unfading joy, heart-pumping joy, overwhelming joy, weepingly wonderful joy, freeing joy. The intention of the Lord is to give us joy. He wants our happiness and he gives it by way of entrance into his joy filled kingdom, and because he forgives sin forever, we never, ever have to leave.
\nThe wages of sin is death but the free gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is something we are owed, and it’s not eternal life in the joy of the Lord. No, we are owed death. But, because of the goodness of the Lord, what we receive is eternal life. It is a particular kind of eternal life. It is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. We know Jesus cannot be anything but filled with joy. Therefore, it stands to reason that because it is in him that our redemption is found, it is his joy that we are inside. This is good news. This is the gospel.
\nAre you beat down by sin? Good. Know this: weeping will tarry for the night, but in the morning when the Son rises in your heart, you will have nothing but joy. It’s not what we should have but it’s ours because the moment of God’s anger was put on the Savior on the cross and so we get a lifetime of favor. An eternal lifetime of favor.
\nNow when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
\n(John 2:23-25)
\n
In his gospel account, John is pushing the doctrine of Christian belief. He wants to put forth the necessary element of belief in Jesus as the Son of God for the salvation of sins. Therefore, throughout his gospel, he is using the word belief over and over again. For example, in John 3:16-18 he uses some form of the word believe four times. He says near the end of the account, in 20:30-31 that he wrote it so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ. Obviously, believing is at least one item on John’s agenda.
\nIn the account above, Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Passover feast. He is teaching and performing miracles and causing some kind of belief in many. But, the way John writes it, the folks don’t necessarily have true belief, that is, saving faith. They believe in Jesus up to a point but not all the way to believe in him as the Christ – The one who they’d been waiting for. Perhaps he was a prophet like the prophets of old who could perform miracles. They certainly saw it with their eyes but it was really a vain faith. It was a faith that got them something, maybe a story to tell or something like that, but it wasn’t a faith that looked upon Jesus as the fulfillment of all history.
\nJohn says that Jesus didn’t entrust himself to them. He did not because they ultimately believed not. We know from the gospel accounts how the religious leaders saw Jesus: as a blasphemer and insolent rebel, not as the Christ.
\nWhat John says, though, is striking to me for two reasons:
\n1) Jesus knows all people. He needs no one to tell him how people are. Being God he’s omniscient. That’s a truth about God. But in the humanity of Jesus, there is a more relational aspect to this statement of John, which leads to the second point of emphasis.
\n2) Jesus himself knew what was in man. Not theoretically, not distantly, not hypothetically, but personally. John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” Jesus became flesh. He put on humanity and dwelt with us. That means that he understands man in the most personal of ways, in the ways that only a man could understand man.
\nThis second point is important for at least two reasons:
\n1) Jesus being man and understanding man gives him even more right to condemn the wicked, unbelieving man. If Jesus himself, who was a man, was able to believe with perfect belief, as we know he did, then how can we say that there is any reason not to believe? Jesus proved in his humanity that there was no reason. Mere miracles are not enough for true belief; it must extend into the whole being of man, from conviction of sin to joy in salvation. Belief in Christ is what gives us the right to become children of God (John 1:12).
\n2) Jesus being man and understanding man gives us extreme comfort. If Jesus understands man as John proclaims in the way that he proclaims it, then that means the he can understand exactly the way in which you are being tempted, the acuteness of your suffering, the severity of your need. He was tempted in every respect yet did not sin. He himself partook of the same things as you. He had to go away to quiet places to be alone to pray in trying times. He was misunderstood by his best friends, abandoned by his inner circle, alone in a crowd because of his faith, despised because of his scandalous mercy. In so many more ways he lived as a man in this world to the limit. If there is anyone who understands man, it is Jesus. Therefore, if there is anyone who is able to help, it is Jesus. He himself knows. He is able to help those who are being tempted. We can draw near to him to find mercy and grace to help in times of need.
\nJesus understands you. He understands more deeply how sinful you are. He also understands more deeply how to help you despite of it. But because he understands it so well, he knows how damnable it is. The issue in John 2 was not that they saw Jesus’ works and believed in he could do those works, it was because they saw those works and didn’t believe in his ultimate work. The work of Jesus accomplishes us nothing good if we don’t look upon him in faith to see that it is sufficient to save us from our sins. And no one understands that more clearly than Jesus.
\nHaving a hard time believing? I know someone who can help with that.
Seeing Jesus suffer helps give us more patience in our own sufferings. While we are waiting for our suffering to come to an end, we are still covered by the love of Jesus. Jesus understands. He knows what it is like to have a costly delay in life. So when God calls us to wait patiently through suffering, the Savior he sends to help us and comfort us is a Savior who understands. This is something else to remember whenever we get impatient: Jesus knows and cares about our earthly struggles. Therefore, we must learn to interpret our circumstances in the light of his love and not to judge his motives on the bases of our suffering.\nRyken, Philip Graham. Loving the Way Jesus Loves. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012. 86.
\n“So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.”\n2 Samuel 15:6
When a wrong doctrine comes into the church, there must be a swift defense against it. Leaders of the church cannot wait and hope their people are equipped enough to not fall for Satan’s tricks. You always hope they are, but never sleep when the lion is prowling. David’s sin in 2 Samuel 15 was that he did nothing while his son stood outside the gates of the city campaigning to be the king of Israel. His objective was to steal the kingdom from his father. David should have stopped it. He didn’t.
\nSo, Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. His campaign worked. Why? It can’t be due to the truth of Absalom’s claim that David wouldn’t hear hear cases. We know from 2 Samuel 14 that he heard the case of the woman of Tekoa. It also wasn’t because David wasn’t a good king. We have enough in the Bible to tell us that God approved his kingship. If the man after God’s own heart wasn’t a good king then who was? No, David was a fine king.
\nThen how were their hearts stolen? Absalom was lying and he knew it. Surely there were others who knew it too. David certainly knew it. So, how could a liar steal their hearts? Because David was unwilling to do the hard thing and oppose his son. He didn’t see the lie as a big deal. Perhaps he thought it would pass. He was not aware enough of the way in which our pride can dilute our doctrine. Absalom played to the selfishness of the men of Israel. They wanted a king who would hear their case and take it seriously. David, according to Absalom, was unwilling to do that. If he was king, he would hear every case. He made friends. He made them feel important.
\nAbsalom stole their hearts with his lies and four years later stole the kingdom from his father. It took time but Absalom got the only thing he really wanted – the kingship over Israel. His lies worked. He stole their hearts. But it could have been prevented. If David had acted against it, if he had put it down, if he had interceded on his own behalf, the kingdom may not have been lost.
\nChurch leaders must be aware that there is always a man at the gate, telling lies to any who will listen, shouting in their ear that they too should be heard. But a hearing for every matter isn’t really what a church, nor a kingdom needs. It needs blessing from God. That only comes through the gospel. The gospel comes to the people through right doctrine. Right doctrine comes from the Bible. And the teaching of it all comes from the men established to lead the church by the Lord above.
\nIf you are a leader of a church, God has placed you there. You have a strong duty to keep first things first. Do not lose the hearts of the people. It takes one lie. Keep the truth paramount. Keep Jesus the focus. Press hard on the gas pedal of the gospel. Propel your people into deeper truth, for it is there that we, with a single-mindedness on Christ, will see God. Then our matters do not matter so much, because we have a great King who will do something about them. He will hear them. Let us go to him, not a weak imitation.
\n“Hear another parable…”\nMatthew 21:33
We know Jesus was patient with sinners. We see it in the gospel accounts in the Bible. He’s constantly eating with them, talking with them, spending time with them. The Pharisees hate it. They don’t understand how he can be a prophet, much less the Son of God, and associate himself with these people. From our viewpoint, 2000 years later, we are quick to jump all over the Pharisees. “Don’t they get it?” We smugly ask. But, do we get it?
\nIt’s no surprise to many of us that Jesus was patient, loving, and compassionate to the tax-collectors and prostitutes. That seems like Jesus to us. The Savior came to save sinners. It makes sense based on the way Jesus is presented. And, it’s 100% true. But Matthew’s two parables in the 21st chapter, the two sons and the tenants, show us how patient Jesus is with the Pharisees – the “righteous” people of his day.
\nThe parable of the tenants starts this way, “hear another parable.” This alone is more grace to the undeserving than we would ever think to give. Jesus is saying this to the people that are going to kill him. He’s saying it to those who have opposed him his entire ministry. They despise him. They don’t want anything to do with him. They constantly try to trap him in conversation so they can accuse him. They plot against him. They provoke him at every turn. They test him and try him and pester him. And he gives them grace by telling them another parable.
\nThis shows the lengths that Jesus goes to bring people to repentance. He is harsh with the Pharisees, yes, but he is patiently harsh. He waits until they bring his harshness upon themselves with their resistance to his call. Their hearts are hardened by their own prideful sin so that they cannot accept what he is saying to them. Yet, he tells them another parable.
\nSo when we’re interacting with those Pharisees in our day – the legalists that we all know and hate – what is our interaction with them like? Do we condemn them in our hearts before we even begin talking? Do we think they will change or are we merely waiting their judgment? If so, we’re unlike Jesus. He told them another parable. Read the parable of the tenants and see what sin it brings up in your heart.
\nThe time for parable telling, repentance calling, gospel sharing will one day end but it isn’t we who decide when that end comes, the Lord does. Until then, let us press on toward those with a legalistic bent and urge them to repent of their righteousness, just as we seek to repent of ours. Because you see, we really are one in the same: one resents the sinners for their disobedience to the law; the other resents the righteous for their disobedience to mercy. Both are sinners. Jesus saves both.
\n[24] And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. [25] And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, [26] and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. [27] She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. [28] For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” [29] And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. [30] And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” [31] And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” [32] And he looked around to see who had done it. [33] But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. [34] And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
\n(Mark 5:24-34)
\n
This section of Mark’s gospel says something amazing about Jesus.
\nJesus is on his way to Jarius’s house. His daughter has fallen ill and is about to die. So, Jesus has been beckoned to his house for help. He’s surrounded by tons of people, all around. One woman who had suffered for a very long time comes to him and touches his garment. She thinks doing so will cure her disease and restore her lost life of health. She has no idea what else she’s about to receive.
\nThe amazing thing about this story is more than just the healing of the woman – it’s Jesus’ reaction to her touching his garment. I’d never noticed this before in reading this account. It’s so personal. It’s so meaningful. It says a lot about our Savior. He loves us personally, non-theoretically, intensely.
\nJesus stops in the middle of his journey to ask who touched him. Mark says that he perceived that power had gone out from him. Power. I love that. The power of Jesus went from him to this woman. So, Jesus asks who touched him. The apostles are baffled. I mean, they are busy already. Surely Jesus isn’t worried about one person touching him in this large crowd. Many people probably touched him as they walked together.
\nBut this was a different kind of touch. This was no accidental, flippant, pat-you-on-the-back kind of touch. This was the touch of faith, and Jesus knew it. So, he stopped and asked who touched him and looked around to see who would answer.
\nThe woman came to him, fearing and trembling. This woman was already healed. She’d suffered immensely as we know from verse 26 and perhaps she was thinking this was just one more layer of suffering. Moments before she had watched her blood dry up and felt healing for the first time in many years. Jesus had noticed her touching. What would his response be?
\nHe looks down at her, lying there before him trembling in fear, and says something amazing to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” He called her daughter. He didn’t insult her for touching him. He didn’t ridicule her for trying to get in the way of his very important journey. And, he didn’t ignore her. He looked at her and called her daughter. He made it personal. He identified himself with her. He then commends her faith and tells her to go in peace. She is healed physically but I believe she was healed spiritually as well. Imagine the pain she must have suffered being an unclean woman in those days. She would not have had rights to anything. She would have been a disgrace and most likely people had told her for many years that it was her sin that made her ill. Her life was a mess. She knew Jesus was the answer. So she touched his garment. That changed her life.
\nJesus loved this woman. He loved her personally. He stopped his journey. He entered into her life. He forgave her. He set her free.
\nOh, how different the church would be if we would just look to Jesus as the answer to our ills. Oh, what a difference it would make to touch his garments. Oh, how free we would be to have him look at us, pronounce us as healed, and set us free to go in peace! The gospel gives us this. We can’t touch him as he’s walking by but we grab hold of him through faith, just as this woman, and when we do, he bends down in mercy and grace and sets us free.
\nThis woman’s blood was dried up at the touch of his garment because later on, Jesus’ blood would run like a river down a cross at the touch of a spear in his side. What he gave this woman that day he now freely gives to all who would look upon him. The Lamb slain for us.
\nWhen we look to him in faith, he doesn’t look back in condemnation. No, he looks down and says to our hearts, “Your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
\nWe glorify God by working out our own salvation. God has twisted together his glory and our good. We glorify him by promoting our own salvation. It is a glory to God to have multitudes of converts; now, his design of free grace takes, and God has the glory of his mercy; so that, while we are endeavoring our salvation, we are honouring God. What an encouragement is this to the service of God, to think, while I am hearing and praying, I am glorifying God; while I am furthering my own glory in heaven, I am increasing God's glory. Would it not be an encouragement to a subject, to hear his prince say to him, You will honor and please me very much, if you will go to yonder mine of gold, and dig as much gold for yourself as you can carry away? So, for God to say, Go to the ordinances, get as much grace as you can, dig out as much salvation as you can; and the more happiness you have, the more I shall count myself glorified.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2008), pages 13-14.
When we see that the whole sum of our salvation, and every single part of it, are comprehended in Christ, we must beware of deriving even the minutest portion of it from any other quarter. If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that he possesses it; if we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, we shall find them in his unction; strength in his government; purity in his conception; indulgence in his nativity, in which he was made like us in all respects, in order that he might learn to sympathize with us: if we seek redemption, we shall find it in his passion; acquittal in his condemnation; remission of the curse in his cross; satisfaction in his sacrifice; purification in his blood; reconciliation in his descent to hell; mortification of the flesh in his sepulcher; newness of life in his resurrection; immortality also in his resurrection; the inheritance of a celestial kingdom in his entrance into heaven; protection, security, and the abundant supply of all blessings, in his kingdom; secure anticipation of judgment in the power of judging committed to him. In fine, since in him all kids of blessings are treasured up, let us draw a full supply from him, and none from any other quarter.\nJohn Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Peabody, Hendrickson Publishers 2008), 338.
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7\nConfession of sin glorifies God. Here are 3 ways:
\n1) When we confess our sin we own up to who we really are and proclaim who God really is.
\nWhen we are honest with ourselves in light of what scripture reveals about sin, we are left with the conclusion that we are not ok without Jesus. By fallen nature we are prideful creatures who hog glory at every chance we get. We want love, acceptance, praise, even worship, at all costs - even at God’s expense. Romans 3:10 says, “None is righteous, no, not one.” When we confess our sin we acknowledge this truth. We finally own up to who we really are – sinful creations of a sinless creator.
\nThis gives us the opportunity to see who God really is – holy and blameless. He alone is righteous. By admitting who we are as sinful creatures, we acquit God of any wrongdoing. This mess we’re in is our fault, not his. Through our confession he retakes the throne that we have occupied in our selfishness within our hearts and minds. Therefore, our confession glorifies the Lord’s goodness, righteousness, and holiness because we are proclaiming who he really is.
\n2) When we confess our sin and look to God in Jesus to save us from the penalty of those sins, we glorify him in the gospel of grace.
\n1 Timothy 1:15 says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Jesus himself said in John 6:40, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” The reason Jesus came to earth was to accomplish the salvation of sinners. When we confess our sin, we are stepping into the very path that Jesus tread in his earthly life. We are getting into the race. We are saying to him, “Jesus, you said you came to save sinners like me. Ok, then save me! I confess this sin! I confess it all! Save me! Rescue me! Help me!”
\nThe salvation of sinners glorifies Jesus. Our confession of sin now prepares us for that great day when, as Revelation 7:9-10 says, “A great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”
\n3) When we confess our sin and are forgiven, we are set free to be in fellowship with him – thus glorifying him for accepting sinners by his grace into his fellowship.
\n1 Corinthians 6:15 says, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” When we are saved by God, it isn’t like joining a club. We haven’t paid our dues and so now we’re in the building. Being saved by God is becoming member of Christ. We are literally saved into him. Christ isn’t a building, or a concept, or a theory. He’s a person. And when we’re saved, we’re saved into him. In other words, salvation by God gives us access to God the Father, through Jesus the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit into fellowship with the all-holy, triune God. This one God in three persons existed from eternity past and will exist in eternity future. There is never a time when God will not exist, will not rule, will not love, will not accept forgiven sinners into his presence.
\nWe barely understand a God like this. A God who is one but in three persons?! Yet, this is the same God that created us, we ruined the relationship by our sin, and yet he brings us back into relationship with him through forgiveness of sins by the death of the Son. This is astounding. This is the gospel. When we confess our sins, we get into fellowship with this God. We don’t belong there, but he brings us there anyway. Confession of sin, the first step in the process, then, glorifies God.
\nSo, there are at least 3 ways that God is glorified in the confession of sins. All Christians desire to give God proper glory and honor. Confession of sin is one way we can do that. After all, what is more central to the gospel than the salvation of damnable sinners at the hands of a gracious God? Confession is the first step in the outworking of the gospel.
I highly recommend this sermon series by Ray Ortlund. (The Real Jesus series)\nThis year, Ray is preaching through the Sermon on the Mount at Immanuel Church. He just finished preaching through the beatitudes of Matthew 5.
\nThis series has changed Immanuel Church - in ways we cannot even articulate yet. The Lord has come down during this series bringing a deep repentance to his people through his Spirit. Personally, I am different because of these sermons. I understand God more deeply and I understand myself more completely.
\nDownload these. Put them on your iPhone. Listen while in the car. This is the best series on the beatitudes I've ever heard.
Those words are spoken each Tuesday night at Immanuel Church in Nashville, TN. They are our rallying cry. Every Tuesday, from 7PM -9PM, somewhere between 40 and 50 men gather together in a run-down building, sitting on broken down pews and fold out chairs for 2 hours. In three years I’ve missed only a handful of these meetings. There are 3 reasons why.\n1) Theology.\nSomething happens in my mind between Sunday morning and Tuesday afternoon. It takes about one full day for my mind to go completely from grand thoughts of God to small beliefs. This really isn’t a Sunday to Monday thing only – it’s daily. I don’t wake up each morning and immediately think, “God love me.” That’s why I read the Bible, and that’s why I need deep theology from gospel-loving men poured into me weekly. I have it pounded into me. I so easily am caught endlessly in my own circumstances and miss out on the glory that is in Christ Jesus. So, every Tuesday night I come into the church building to sit with all those men who encourage me, challenge me, and press me towards Christ. What we discuss is not easy. What we talk about isn’t light. There are times I leave with my mind reeling from the topic. But I’ve never once left thinking I could have spent my time better elsewhere.
\nWhen all else fails, and it will, God alone will remain. That’s why we put our hope in an unshakeable kingdom. It won’t ever crumble. Ever. But, to see that, I need to think of the deep things of God. I need to be pushed theologically. If my mind isn’t steadily filled with the glory of Christ, I’ll easily fall into the quicksand of the world. Theology matters. So we talk about it.
\n2) Community.\nThis group of men is unique. Not because we’re special. It’s because our Savior is special. The Triune God – Father, Son, and Spirit – show us what community is like. When we enter that building, we are entering into a fellowship of men that exists because there is fellowship in God. Community is where life change happens to us. Some men go in weak in their faith. Some go in strong. The faith of the strong is imparted to those who are faltering. Why? Because to see a man faithfully proclaiming who God is does something to our hearts. It stirs us up. It encourages us. When another man sits across from you and tells you what the Bible says about God, the Spirit inflates affections for Christ in the hearts of those around. We build one another up.
\nHere’s another way we build one another up. Near the end of each meeting we have what we call “Honor Time.” It is derived from Romans 12:10 – outdo one another in showing honor. One at a time, as we’re ready, each man speaks directly to another man in the room about how he has helped him, how he has pointed him to Christ, how he has been blessed by his life, how he has been used by God. Not everyone is honored every week and not every man speaks every week. But together, as one, we listen intently to who is honored. Words are chosen carefully. We rejoice in the work of God in and among these men. We honor one another. It is the only competition we allow. To outdo one another in showing honor points us to the lavishness of honor that we receive in adoption as sons of God. The Lord honors us, so we should honor one another. It is life-giving.
\n3) Honesty.\n1 John 1:7 says, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.” We call this time “Walking in the Light.” It is a built in opportunity for guys to share the real state of their heart. Nothing is off limits. Anything can be admitted. There is safety. No guy takes this out of the room. We hold one another accountable. We pray for one another. We give guys time and space to be changed by the Lord, but we do it together. We provide, intentionally, a place of honesty before God and each other. Without this, we are merely pretending that we understand the theology we have discussed. To walk in the light proves that our theology is working. We are broken men in need of a perfect savior. Admitting our weakness doesn’t drive a wedge between us and our savior; it removes the wedge and brings us into fellowship with him. Our pride blocks the light of Jesus, our humility opens the door of our hearts and lets the light of his grace pour into us. No guy is shamed. No guy is berated. We are all in this together. So, we admit our sins and turn to Jesus to be healed. Some of the best times of the night are found in these few minutes. Lives are changed by the Savior of the world.
\nSo, if you’re ever in Nashville on a Tuesday night and you’re looking for something to do, come on by. We’ll be there. Theology, community, and honesty.
\nFor you formed my inward parts;you knitted me together in my mother's womb.\nI praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.\nWonderful are your works;\nmy soul knows it very well.\nMy frame was not hidden from you,\nwhen I was being made in secret,\nintricately woven in the depths of the earth.\nYour eyes saw my unformed substance;\nin your book were written, every one of them,\nthe days that were formed for me,\nwhen as yet there was none of them.\nHow precious to me are your thoughts, O God!\nHow vast is the sum of them!
\n(Psalm 139:13-17)
The creation of a child is amazing. It is of God, therefore, it is miraculous. We would never think of this. God uses specific parts of a man and specific parts of a woman that must come together at exactly the right moment under exactly the right circumstances and when it does, it creates a human being – not just a human body, but a human body with a soul. This cannot be of us. This has to be of God. Who among us can create a soul?! Therefore, we stand in awe of the beauty of child creation.
\nPsalm 139 speaks of this miracle and much more. Psalm 139 is David’s declaration of the knowledge of God. The Lord knows David. He knows David in a way no one else does. And David invites this knowledge of the Lord into his heart, not so that the Lord can find something hidden in the crevices of his soul – the Lord knows all of that - but so that the Lord can reveal himself to every part of David’s interiority and change him with his love for him. The gospel does that. The love of God, when let into our heart, spreads out in mission converting every part of us. Deep forgiveness, salvation, and redemption lies in the knowledge of the Lord.
\nNow, for those who have a child within know this is an amazing thing. The parents of the child, though they love them very much, have never seen their child’s face. They don’t know what color eyes they will have. They can’t see their hair. Can’t hear their coos .Can’t imagine their grip on their finger. Can’t rejoice in the smile on their face. They haven’t experienced their cry in the night. They haven’t smelled the sweetness of the newborn skin. They know, really, so little of their child. But the Lord is not that way. He knows all of that and more. He knows not only the eye color, hair, cooing voice, smile, etc., he knows the most inward parts of the child – the things the parents may never see.
\nThis should bring comfort to all parents. Our children are often a mystery to us. When they are babies there are times we wish we could crawl into their brains and see what’s going on. There is so much they don’t know and at times it seems there is so much we don’t know. Having a child, in some way,s is to invite a complete stranger to live with you for 18 years that you hope to get to know but in the end will never truly get more than what the child is willing to share. But the Lord knows all. The Lord knows every inward part, for he formed them.
\nLet’s look again at the words of the Psalm. “You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” Some of us have tried our hand at knitting. It is tedious. It takes time. It takes effort. When you want a knitted scarf you can’t just say, “Scarf, appear!” It doesn’t work that way. So you plan. You buy the right kind of material. You make sure your knitting sticks – or whatever they’re called – are just right. You get a book to make sure you’re not going in the wrong direction. You seek advice to make sure the outcome will be what you expect. You sit up at night in your spare time. You work at it. And in the end, you have a handmade scarf that you knitted. It is your handiwork. You know the snags in it. You know the imperfections. You know the intricacies of it. God is like that with us – and with our children. The only difference is that he can speak us into existence but that does not limit his knowledge. He knows not only the starting materials from a distance. He also made them. He knows all. The Lord knows all. He makes all. Every human, then, is a being brought forth by the divine hand. He loves us into being. He puts within us breath. When your baby is born, you can see the work of God. It is an incredible experience.
\nThis should lead us into worship of God. This is what happens to David. As he meditates on the expansive knowledge of God, the creation of his being in the hands of the almighty, he is brought into worship of God. He says, “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” This, then, is where we should end. Whenever we ponder on the work of the all-holy God above we should end in worship. If we don’t, we’re not seeing him correctly. If worship isn’t the ending point of the study of any aspect of God then we have misunderstood him. But in this case, in Psalm 139, the words of the Spirit speak directly to us and to our children. There is nothing more personal. Our creation is out of our hands. We can’t make ourselves. We can barely even change ourselves! Because of this fact, we look to God above and with David we say, “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” And we bow in worship to the one who gives life.
An excerpt from Ray Ortlund's sermon on Matthew 5:7 preached at Immanuel Church on April 1, 2012. Read the rest here.\nIf you have the time, I highly recommend you listen to the podcasts of the Real Jesus series. Ray is opening up for us at Immanuel what Jesus really says and who he really is. It is changing our church.
\nWe pray for a new visitation of God upon our city. When God comes down and lays hold of our city, I believe it will be, more than anything else, an outpouring of mercy for the guilty. Picture in your mind Berlin in 1945, at the end of World War II. We’ve all seen pictures in history books. Think of the rubble and wreckage – the bombed out remains of a once magnificent city. Do you see? Spiritually and relationally and emotionally and theologically and morally, that’s us in Nashville today – people who have sinned and been sinned against and the destruction is everywhere we look. But where is the mercy? Where is the divine power to restore? Only the mercy of God, coming down through the gospel, can give us all the better future we long for. The real Jesus did not come down into this world to hold out against the guilty. He did not come to settle a score. He did not come with a burning sense of wrong. Jesus said, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous but sinners” (Matthew 9:13). What you want is what you are, at the deepest core of your being. And Jesus said he wanted mercy. And here is what he’s saying to us today. It’s the merciful he will use to spread his mercy. If we are willing to serve him in this way, we ourselves will experience more mercy. It is not easy to forgive. There is nothing more costly than to forgive. It wasn’t easy for God. There was a cross. But mercy is the power that brings down the kingdom of heaven
\nAnd he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.(Colossians 1:17)
“All things” includes rolling dice (Prov. 16:33), falling sparrows (Matt. 10:29), failing sight (Ex. 4:11), financial loss (1 Sam. 2:7), the decisions of kings (Prov. 21:1), the sickness of children (2 Sam. 12:15), the suffering and slaughter of saints (1 Pet. 4:19; Ps. 44:11), the completion of travel (James 4:15), repentance (2 Tim. 2:25), faith (Phil. 1:29), holiness (Phil. 3:12–13), spiritual growth (Heb. 6:3), life and death (1 Sam. 2:6), and the crucifixion of Christ (Acts 4:27–28). From the smallest thing to the greatest, good and evil, happy and sad, pagan and Christian, pain and pleasure—God governs all for his wise, just, and good purposes (Isa. 46:10).
\nJohn Piper, Justin Taylor, Paul Kjoss Helseth, eds., Beyond the Bounds: Open Theism and the Undermining of Biblical Christianity (Wheaton: Crossway, 2003), 380–81.
The problem some people have with certain parts of the Bible is not an issue because of what the Bible says; it’s an issue with who we are. It points to our sin. It points to our lack of willingness to accept all that God has said. Sin hardens us. It puts a thick layer of gunk right over our heart. It lops the censors to God right out of our minds. It smears mud over our eyes. It clogs our hearing like earplugs. It ruins us. Sin transforms our heart into stone. But, like the classic game of “rock, paper, scissors,” the paper that make up the pages of Scripture can cover the hardness of our rocky heart and defeat us.
\nWe can be redeemed through the words that burst forth from the pages of Scripture. If anything should be shocking to us about the Bible, it should be the way it shows us how wrong we are on so many things, and the way God is so gracious to us idiots. The Bible is God’s gracious gift to his children, pointing us to the way life works, and changing our hearts to obey his whole counsel. Let the Bible determine your thoughts. Put your thoughts of God on trial before you place God on trial. We are the guilty ones, not him.
\nThe best possible thing we can do with the Bible is swallow it whole – accept it all, unwaveringly, as the word of God. Then we will start to get traction in our faith. The key to knowing God is opening all the doors of sin in our heart to let his grace come pouring in. When we experience his grace, as put forth in the Bible, we see him for who he really is, and therefore, we can know him. The real problem with the Bible for many is the honesty with which it speaks. It’s dangerous because it lays us bare. But it’s wonderful because in it we find the love of the all-holy God. It’s in that love coming up out of the pages of Scripture that we find the real problem – ourselves. But, finally, it’s in that love coming up out of the pages of Scripture that we find the real solution – God.
\n\nNow therefore let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is the LORD who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering, but if it is men, may they be cursed before the LORD, for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the LORD, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’
\n- 1 Samuel 26:19
\n
David was a man completely open to the Lord. He had no reservations. He had no doubts of who God was. He was honest with himself and honest with those around him. Here we see the openness of David in action. He crept in the darkness up to the camp where Saul and Abner are sleeping. Saul’s spear is at his head and David’s companion, Abishai, offers to take the spear and pin Saul to the ground. He promises to only strike him once, but intends to kill him. David says no. Not because Saul is friendly to him, because he’s not, and not because David isn’t the rightful king of Israel, because he is, and not because Saul doesn’t deserve to die, he does. No, David doesn’t kill Saul because he knows Saul as the Lord’s anointed. Though it seems as if the opportunity has presented itself for the very reason of killing his enemy once and for all, David instead listens to the will of God and stands against all worldly reason to command a firm “No.”
\nInstead, David and Abishai take the spear and a jar of water that was by Saul’s head and hop over to the top of the hill on the opposite side and yell back down at the camp. “And David called to the army, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, ‘Will you not answer, Abner?’ Then Abner answered, ‘Who are you who calls to the king?’ And David said to Abner, ‘Are you not a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord. This thing that you have done is not good. As the LORD lives, you deserve to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, the LORD's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is and the jar of water that was at his head.’ (1 Samuel 26:14-16). David confronts Abner’s lack of protection. He shows Abner and Saul how close they both were to death.
\nSaul responds, “’Is this your voice, my son David?’ And David said, ‘It is my voice, my lord, O king.’ (1 Samuel 26:17). What David says next blows me away. I don’t understand it. I am not like this. I want to be, but I’m not. What David says next shows the openness he has to the Lord. David says, “Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What evil is on my hands? Now therefore let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is the LORD who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering, but if it is men, may they be cursed before the LORD, for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the LORD, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’” (1 Samuel 26:18-19)
\nWhat strikes me in this passage are David’s words, “If it is the Lord who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering.” David is saying to the man chasing him down, waiting for the chance to kill him, ruining his life, that he will accept it if it’s from the Lord. David is willing to accept what from all appearances is an unjust death if the Lord wills it. Years before, Samuel anointed David as Israel’s next king. David has spent countless hours in the wilderness with God in prayer. David has led men to great victory. David has been faithful to Saul. David has been a good man. David is a man open to the Lord. Since he’s open, despite all that he’s done, he’s not expecting things to go well for him unless the Lord decrees it. He is willing to accept even death if the Lord decrees it. David loves the Lord and because he loves the Lord he’s willing to take anything, and everything, from his hand. Like Job before him, David said in his heart, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21).
\nOf course David is a type of Christ. David’s openness to the Lord foreshadowed the openness that Jesus would have for his Father while on earth. If anyone was open to the will of God, Jesus was. We see in Luke chapter 22 Jesus praying to the Father in the garden before he goes to the cross. He asks, saying, “’Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.’ And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:42-44)
\nSomething happened in that prayer. Jesus began by asking his Father to remove the cup from him, if possible. Knowing that it wasn’t possible did not prevent him from asking. But it did prevent him from closing himself off to the Lord. What is one thing you know the Lord is asking you to do, but so far you’re hardening your heart against it? Jesus never did that. Though it drove drops of blood to appear upon his brow, he looked to his Father for the strength to continue on in his mission. He did not harden his heart, he opened it.
\nThis passage always kind of made me wonder about something. Is this saying that Jesus maybe didn’t want to go to the cross? Did he hesitate? For years I worked it out in my mind that Jesus didn’t want to go to the cross but he did it anyways because that’s what he was supposed to do, and he was the kind of man who did what he was supposed to do. Well, yes, but it’s more than that. Hebrews 12:2 says, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” How did Jesus go from, “Take this cup from me” to “the joy that was set before him”? One thing: complete and utter openness to the Lord. Jesus knew fully what David only knew in part. He knew that the all Holy God, his Father, wasn’t holding anything back from him. He could be open because only in openness like that can there be any true joy. Jesus didn’t go to the cross because it was what he was supposed to do, he did it because therein lie the very center of the joy in his mission.
\nThough it shook Jesus to the core of who he was, though it was more trying than we can ever understand, though it took a sinless life and a violent death to attain the calling, Jesus did it willingly. And joyfully. Not because it was only what he was supposed to do, though it was that, but because in following the Lord he came to the joy of salvation. He accomplished the work that was set out at the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8).
\nSo, what is it that you’re hiding from God? What part of your heart is closed off? Where are you not completely open to the Lord? What forgiveness are you holding back on extending? What grace to another are you returning with bitterness? What call from God are you ignoring? What area of service do you deem to low for such a high person as you?
\nOf course, we can’t be perfect. Only Jesus was perfect. But we can look at a mere man like David and say with him, “If the Lord wills it to be, though I expected better, let it come as it will. And I will be happy to be a part in God’s story, no matter the part.” This is openness, this is obedience, and Jesus showed us that this is the path to true joy. To close ourselves off from the Lord because we’re expecting some path that will bring us honor on earth is a deadly course. Listen to the words of the Good Shepherd, “If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” (John 12:26) Let us all, together, follow him. And the Father will honor us, and there is no greater honor. Complete openness. Complete honesty. Complete joy.
![\"\"](\"http://davidnormanblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/trinity_symbol_lg1.png\" "\\"Trinity\\"")
\n
The main practical reason for learning how to think well about the eternal life of the Trinity is that it is the background for the gospel. The blessedness of God's inner life is the only thing that is even better than the good news. The life of God in itself is the source of all the riches that fund the economy of salvation. It is also the guarantee that God's grace is based on his character rather than on anything outside himself.
\nFred Sanders, The Deep Things of God (Crossway, 2010), page 83.
\nFor we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
\n(Hebrews 4:15-16)
\n
I love the words of Thomas Watson on the priesthood of Christ. This doctrine has done much for my soul in the past two years, particularly stemming from the study of the book of Hebrews. To know that Jesus, my Lord, is standing as intercessor for me before the Father has lead me to worship time and time again. What a Savior!
\nListen to the words of Thomas Watson:
\nWe have a friend at court that speaks a good word for us, and is following our cause in heaven; let this animate and encourage us in prayer. Do we think it too much boldness for such sinners as we to come for pardon, and that we shall be denied? Surely this is a sinful modesty. Did we indeed come in our own name in prayer it were presumption, but Christ intercedes for us in the force of his blood. To be afraid to come to God in prayer is a dishonor to Christ’s intercession.
\nChrist is at work for you in heaven; he makes intercession for you.
\nOh! But I am afraid Christ does not intercede for me. I am a sinner; and for whom does Christ intercede?
\n“He made intercession for the transgressors” Isa. 53:12. Did Christ open his sides for thee, and will he not open his mouth to plead for thee?
\nBut I have offended my High Priest, by distrusting his blood, abusing his love, grieving his Spirit; and will he ever pray for me?
\nWhich of us may not say so? But, Christian, dost thou mourn for unbelief? Be not discouraged, thou mayest have a part in Christ’s prayer. “The congregation murmured against Aaron.” But though they had sinned against their high priest, Aaron ran in with his censer, and “stood between the dead and the living.” Num. 16:41,48. If so much bowels in Aaron, who was but a type of Christ, how much more bowels are in Christ, who will pray for them who have sinned against their High Priest! Did he not pray for them that crucified him, “Father, forgive them”?
\nBut I am unworthy; what am I, that Christ should intercede for me?
\nThe work of Christ’s intercession is a work of free grace. Christ’s praying for us is from his pitying us. He looks not at our worthiness, but our wants.
\nBut I am followed with sad temptations.
\nBut though Satan tempts, Christ prays, and Satan shall be vanquished. Thou mayest lose a single battle, but not the victory. Christ prays that thy faith fail not; therefore, Christian, say, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” Christ intercedes. It is man that sins, it is God that prays. The Greek word for advocate signifies comforter. It is a sovereign comfort that Christ makes intercession.
\nThomas Watson, A Body of Divinity (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2008), pages 182, 186.
\n\nBut God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have seen saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
\n- Ephesians 2:4-7
\n
The two words that begin this passage are two of the most precious words in all of scripture – but God. Without these two words we should know very little about the greatness of the love of God. Without these two words we should all perish. The preceding verses do not paint a flattering image of the Christian. Paul lays out before us the true state our sin has caused – “you were dead in the trespasses and sin…were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Did you hear that? We were dead. There is not anything dead people can do to bring life back to themselves. They are dead. Dead people are just dead. There is no hope. If you kill yourself, you cannot bring yourself back to life. With our sin, we’ve all killed ourselves. The trigger has been pulled and the fatal bullet has entered our hearts. It’s over. This is the reflection of humanity that Paul lays before us.
\nWhen it seems the darkness could not get any blacker, God intervenes. He has the final word, not us. He doesn’t let our sin keep us dead. He comes to conquer sin and give us life. Like David going up against Goliath, Jesus faces the massive enemy of sin on our behalf and slays the great giant, cutting off his head, claiming victory for God, and sending life rushing toward us like a mighty river overflowing its banks. Like Lazarus we are raised from the tomb after our body has begun to rot. We are unbound and we can breathe again. We have newness of life. What was once lost we have regained. Only this time, it can’t be lost again.
\n“But God” is the hinge upon which this verse, and the life of a Christian, swings. Without those two words, without God stepping in, we are still following the prince of the power of the air. And we are still dead. But our Lord would never allow that for his children! He placed himself inside of that deadness so that we could have fullness of life. Jesus took on all the sin, all the darkness, all the ruin, all the trespasses, all the disobedience, all the lustful passions, all the desires of the body and the mind, all of the wrath; and he did it willingly. He did it so that we could hear those precious words, “But God.”
\nPaul goes on to expound on this great truth. What has the death and resurrection of the Lord accomplished for those whom he’s saved from death? First we see that those in Christ have been raised with him. When Jesus walked out of the tomb that first Easter morning, it wasn’t just for his own glory. No! It was for ours as well! His glory comes by giving us dead sinners glory! His glory comes from raising us up with Christ! Don’t you know, Christian, that you’ve been raised from death? Don’t you see that you’ve been resurrected to a new life with a new heart with a new obedience through Christ’s resurrection? Did you feel that on Easter? If not, listen to what Paul is saying. We have been raised with him!
\nSecondly, the death and resurrection of the Lord gave us a seat with Christ in the heavenly places. This statement is so glorious that we cannot even imagine the full breadth of it here on earth. Seated with him in the heavenly places?! How wonderful that is. That means that right now, today, you who sinned just moments ago, you who are sinning with nearly every breath, are seated with Christ in heaven. You will be there one day fully. You’re seat will be warm when you get there for Christ has been saving it for you.
\nSo Paul goes on to say this has all happened so that in the coming ages God can show us the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ. There is a grand purpose for this “But God” and it’s not what we think. The purpose of raising us dead sinners and seating us with Christ is for the express purpose of lavishing his kindness upon us for eternity. The death and resurrection of Jesus was the entry way into the kindness of the Lord. It took the unfair death of God on a cross to give us the unfair life of his grace. It required the cruel punishment of the spotless Lamb to give us the wonderful kindness of eternal life. We were dead, but God has redeemed us. Now those in Christ have nothing but eternal happiness to look forward to.
\nThis is such wonderful news! We don’t deserve it. We couldn’t ever deserve it. It has to be a gift. The Lord has provided. The great question now is why? Why would the Lord do this? Why intervene? Why not just leave us to reach the end for which we were headed? The answer is the most surprising thing. The answer is the hardest thing for us to come to terms with. The answer is found in verse 4: because of the great love with which he loved us. Did you hear that? Great love. O, our Lord loves us! He loves you! He’s done everything he can to prove it. He died for you. He rose for you. He saw who you had become and he reached down to save you from eternal damnation because he loves you. Our whole lives we long to be loved. From birth to death we search for approval, for notice, for acceptance. This passage tells us explicitly, directly, unashamedly that we are massively, wildly, and lavishly loved by the only One whose love matters in the end. The all holy God is smiling on us. Why? For no other reason than because he loves us, just as a father loves his child so the Father loves you, child. Bask in it. Revel in it. Be swept away in it. Let God love you. It’s all you ever wanted and you and I will see in time, in the ages to come, just how kind and just how much he really does love us.
Grown another year with me;
We see the best may yet to be.
Deeper in truth and life I see
God’s graceful hand touched to thee!
Life and breath do we share;
‘Round us praise and prayer.
Such beauty lies in the stare.
Slacking rare and flinching ne’er.
A love full, sweetness lies
Piercing kindly from thy eyes.
Aged but little, yet mounting wise
In trial, in toil, in grace thy rise!
Left handed finger holds fast the ring
That binds thou, queen, to me, thy king.
Yet a Savior’s cross dost thou tighter cling;
Repenting in winter to cleansing spring!
Happy birthday, Sarah!
Seek the Lord all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord.
\n- Zephaniah 2:3
\nThe prophet Zephaniah’s name literally means “The Lord hides.” The message he brings to Judah was one of restoration after the repentance of sins and the forgiveness of the Lord. This message isn’t unique to Zephaniah. Most of the prophets brought a similar message. The part of Zephaniah’s message that stands out in this verse is the reference to his own name – the Lord hides. This again isn’t something unique to Zephaniah. God often named his prophets in line with the message he was going to give them to proclaim to the people. But I saw something in Zephaniah that set my heart on fire. I saw something in Zephaniah that perhaps the apostle Paul also saw one night as he was meditating on this book. I saw that the Lord hides those who are his with Christ in God.
\nColossians 3:3 says, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” This verse has always been beautiful to me. Just the language of it is beautiful enough but the truth it proclaims is utterly amazing. Paul is telling the Colossians, and us today, that through faith in Christ, the most important death of our lives has already come and since we died with Christ on the cross, we now have a life that is hidden with Christ in God. In other words, we have union with Christ through the death and resurrection of the sinless savior so that when judgment comes, we are hidden in the righteousness of Jesus. We have nothing to fear because the Lord is smiling upon us with the same smile he gives to his Son.
\nIn my Bible, when studying the book of Zephaniah about a year ago, I boxed in the phrase, “perhaps you may be hidden” and put next to it the word “grace” and Col. 3:3. I remember seeing the verse and immediately jumping in my mind to Colossians 3:3. But, it wasn’t until studying it again the other day that I really connected the two. It came upon me like a storm in the night; I couldn’t see it coming but could feel the rumblings from afar. That’s one of the wonderful things about the Bible. You can just be reading along then Bam! You’re in the middle of the most wonderful storm with the thunderous word of God rattling through your bones. You feel as if you’ve just rediscovered him and your love and affections for him grow strong. You see him for who he is. He reveals himself to you.
\nI saw that night the grace of the Lord. Zephaniah’s message in this part of his book is a proclamation to Judah that there is still hope of restoration through repentance if they will just admit their sin and turn to God for healing. The promise from the Lord is that if they turn to him in repentance, they will be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord.
\nThis day of the anger of the Lord is not something you want to see. We saw what the anger of the Lord did to Jesus. It crucified him. It made him suffer. It hurt him beyond all belief. It was devastating. That day is not something anyone will want to endure, but yet some will have to because of their unrepentant heart. For those who repent and turn to God in faith, however, this wrath of the Lord is taken away. It’s instead put on Christ. That’s why Paul can say, along with Zephaniah, that through the death of Christ we can be hidden with him in God. Through his death we have life. Through his death we have justification. Through his death we are hidden from the wrath and anger of God. It cannot touch us. Not because we’ve hidden ourselves but because God himself has hidden us. He’s done it out of love. He’s done it in grace. We, of course, deserve all the punishment we have coming for us. But Jesus came so that God could say in bold letters through the mouth of Paul the same message that Zephaniah, that bold prophet, spoke so many years before. “The Lord will hide you in his perfect Son. You have nothing to fear because you fear the Lord. He loves you and he’s going to show you by removing your sins and setting you free.”
\nThe end of Zephaniah bursts forth in proclamation of joy in the midst of the Lord. It’s one of my favorite passages in all of scripture. For those in Christ, we will find ourselves in the midst of the Lord – with Christ in God – and we will find nothing awaits us there but unending joy. Zephaniah’s message is one that says, “Stop trying to make it your own way. Your sin is messing it up. Hide yourself in God who takes away sin.” Perhaps what you and I need to do is stop trying to stand out and start hiding ourselves in Christ. Only in that hidden-ness is there true joy.
Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.
\n- Joshua 21:45
\nThe Israelites had finally made it into the Promised Land. It took 40 years of wondering frustrated in the desert, over 400 years of oppression and slavery in Egypt, and three patriarchal generations to get here. What a journey it was! Now, the land had been conquered and allotted, and the people were settling in. As the Israelites looked back on their history as a people, they couldn’t do so without seeing the promises of God shining through it all like the sun that stood still in Gibeon. He had been faithful. He had brought them what he promised. He had been God.
\nI love this passage because of what is says about the promises of God. Not one word failed. Not one. The Lord isn’t just faithful over most of his promises, but all of them. Nothing the Lord says will ever fail. It cannot fail. If it were to fail it would un-God him. The Christian life is met with so many struggles that it leads many to doubt the promises of God but the Bible says we need not to. Our disbelief in God is unwarranted. He’s God and he’s proven it time and time again. If the Bible does one thing for us, it shows us the faithfulness of our God. He’s never failed, even when it looked like he would.
\nThe prophets spoke words of doom to the people of God when life was chugging along like a Spring Break party on the beach. Nothing seemed that it could go wrong. Yet, God’s mouthpieces spoke impending doom to the people. And it happened. They also spoke words of restoration and hope to the people of God when life was at its most bitter end. When they could see nothing but darkness on the horizon, God said it wasn’t the end of the story. And it wasn’t. Restoration came.
\nAs the disciples stood at the cross, or hid themselves in fear, or watched from afar, they thought it was all over. Perhaps Jesus wasn’t the Lord. After all, Lords don’t die, right? His death surely could not bring anything good. Just like the Israelites in the wilderness so long ago, they may have grumbled a bit, they may not have fully trusted, though they had seen his glory. They were confused. They were hurt. They were hungry and saw the bread of life losing his life on the tree. They were thirsty and saw the one who promised they’d never thirst again losing all liquid in his body as the blood poured out onto the ground below. The sun went away and the earth shook. Surely this could not be the apex for which Jesus lived. This had to be merely the end of a promising life. This was the end of all their hopes and dreams. No reigning king. No kingdom of heaven. No Promised Land.
\nBut the way God works is not like man. As Jesus was hanging on the cross, losing his life, it was as if God was saying yet again, “I am doing a work in your time that you would not believe if told.” (Habakkuk 1:5) Yet this time, he was not sending an army of wicked Babylonians to justly destroy his people, but sending a perfect savior to unjustly die to save his people. He was the savior, it just didn’t look like they expected. He was much better. He was the once and for all sacrifice. He was the spotless lamb on the altar. This was the pinnacle of the most perfect life showing the most perfect love at the hand of the most perfect God. He shed light on all the promises before and when he rose from the grave three days later, he gave hope, nay surety, to all the promises of the future.
\n“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.” (2 Corinthians 1:20) Because of Christ, as we look back on our history, we can’t do so without seeing the promises of God shining through it all like the sun that stood still in Gibeon. He has been faithful. He has brought us what he promised. He has been God. And he will be for eternity. Oh, what a Savior!
\n\nFor the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
\n- Habakkuk 2:14
\n
The world as we know it is going to end. If you believe the Mayans it may happen this year. Even if you don’t believe the Mayans, it will happen sometime. If the Mayans are wrong, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise. It’d be just one more miscalculation to put up the next to Harold Camping’s and the myriads of others. But to think about the end of the world is fascinating to some people, especially Christians. You can find all kinds of crazy, and I mean crazy, stuff on the end of the world.
\nThe Bible itself isn’t silent on the end of all things. There is an entire book devoted to it – Revelation. Yet, so far time has continued to go. Prediction after prediction has failed but everything else has gone on as usual. Nations rise and fall. Wars come and go. Babies are born and people die. Winter turns to spring and summer into fall. The world goes on. But what is the end? What does it look like? What do we know that is certain? At least one thing: the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will fill the earth.
\nAs I was teaching a class on the Minor Prophets, I came to this verse in Habakkuk and was stopped by it. What I long to see, what I meet with a group of men each Friday morning to pray for, what stirs my soul to think about will one day come true. All revivals of the past and those that lay ahead of us in the future will all be shadows of the Big One that is to come. There will come a day when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Do you know what that means? As the waters cover the sea! The sea is mind-boggling for its vastness, its power, its depth, its width, its volume, its density. One day, the glory of the Lord will be like that. There will not be a place on earth that will not be soaked in it. And we will see it. It will be real to us. No more hoping for it. It’s here! As Jonathan Edwards once said we will “swim in an ocean of love...the very air and breath will be nothing but love.” This is heaven. This is what Christians long for. This is the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.
\nThe Lord rules the world now. This isn’t just something in the future. There is a kingdom presence on the earth today. We know that. But, we also know those who do not acknowledge that the Lord even exists. To some, Jesus is as real as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. But in the age to come, there will be no doubt in anyone’s mind as to who Jesus is. Everyone will understand. At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. This is the future. This is the knowledge of the glory of the Lord coming upon us as the waters cover the sea.
\nOne day we will be bathed in the glory of the Lord. We will no longer fear. We will no longer doubt. We will no longer struggle. We will no longer even cry. Joy will explode like a nuclear bomb from the presence of the Lord and our lives will be forever illuminated by his glory. Like the fish in the deepest part of the sea, we will be surrounded with the very thing that brings us life. And life we shall have. I can’t wait.
\nThe Lord has taken away the judgments against you\n- Zephaniah 3:15
\nFor those in Christ:
\nGenesis 3 tells us that sin entered the world. The rest of the Bible shows the reality of what that sin has caused. There is sin abounding in all of us. The Bible tells us that because of sin, we are subject to judgment. We are guilty and we know it. The Judge is going to come and soon everything we’ve worked so hard to hide, or everything we’ve worked so hard to show off, will come under judgment.
\nZephaniah 3 tells us that judgment is entering the world. The rest of the Bible shows the reality of what that judgment has done. It has killed the Savior. The Bible tells us that because of the death of the Messiah, we are now subject to freedom. We are free and the Bible lets us know it. The Judge came and everything we worked so hard to hide, and everything we worked so hard to show off came under judgment. But we didn’t bear it. He took away the judgments against us. He took them away by enduring the judgments for us – on the cross.
\nFor those not in Christ:
\nGenesis 3 tells us that sin entered the world. The rest of the Bible shows the reality of what that sin has caused. There is sin abounding in all of us. The Bible tells us that because of sin, we are subject to judgment. We are guilty and we know it. The Judge is going to come and soon everything we’ve worked so hard to hide, or everything we’ve worked so hard to show off, will come under judgment.
\nZephaniah 3 does not apply to you. Judgment is coming. The Bible, however, tells us the way into Zephaniah 3-type goodness, “Whoever believes in Him is not condemned.” Jesus is the Savior. Your guilt is taken away by him at an incredible exchange rate: you admit your weakness and sin and you look to him as the one who saves you and He takes your judgment. That’s the doorway into Zephaniah 3. Once inside, the ultimate end of your life is no longer judgment, but joy.
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.\n- John 12:24
\nI’m not humble. I want to be, but I’m not. I have a white board at home that I write on from time to time. Usually I write something I’m studying at the moment that I want to share with my wife, other times I write a question that I can’t answer. So, it sits there awaiting a response. For about a month now, I’ve had the question, “What does it mean to humble yourself?” Until this past Tuesday I had no idea how to answer it.
\nI’m blessed to be part of a church that finds herself deeply seated in God’s blessing. Each Tuesday night around 40-50 men gather to talk theology, confess sins, and honor one another. Those nights have been for me like oxygen to a dying man. This past Tuesday I was able to finally put my finger on what I must do to humble myself – I think.
\nCurrently we are looking together at Milton Vincent’s fantastic book A Gospel Primer for Christians: Learning to See the Glories of God’s Love. Most recently, we read these words from the section titled “All Things Crucified, Part I”:
\n\n\nGod is committed to my dying every day, and He calls me to that same commitment. He insists that every hour be my dying hour, and He wants my death on the cross to be as central to my own life story as is Christ’s death to the gospel story. “Let this same attitude be in you,” He says, “which was also in Christ Jesus…who became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.”
\n
And later on:
\n\n\nI should expect every day to encounter circumstantial evidence of God’s commitment to my dying; and I must seize upon every God-given opportunity to be conformed more fully to Christ’s death, no matter the pain involved.
\nWhen my flesh yearns for some prohibited thing, I must die. When called to do something I don’t want to do, I must die. When I wish to be selfish and serve no one, I must die. When shattered by hardships that I despise, I must die. When wanting to cling to wrongs done against me, I must die. When enticed by allurements of the world, I must die. When wishing to keep besetting sins secret, I must die. When wants that are borderline needs are left unmet, I must die. When dreams that are good seem shoved aside, I must die.
\n“Not My will, but Yours be done,” Christ trustingly prayed on the eve of His crucifixion; and preaching His story to myself each day puts me in a frame of mind to trust God and embrace the cross of my own dying also.
\n
Sitting in a room full of men reading and meditating on this section of the book, I had a moment with God as Philippians 2:5-8 rung in my head: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
\nI had a glimpse of what it looks like to humble myself. And I felt a freedom wash over me as I pondered what it meant. I felt as if the risen Lord himself was caressing my soul, saying to my proud heart, “David, listen to me. Look at what I’m asking you to do. Look at what I did for you. Trust me. Follow me. Love me because I love you. If you don’t believe me now, let me prove it. Let me love you. Give yourself up.”
\nI’ve spent most of my life trying not to die, and the Lord’s call to me is to come and die. Not because he’s mean, but because he’s incredibly loving. My Father is asking me to die to those things that are killing me. I saw in that moment that all the struggles I’ve had in the past and all the struggles I have awaiting in the future are there for the very reason of giving me the chance to die and therefore to bring me into life. God is so committed to my glorification that he won’t let me live the way I currently am. He will bring hardship. And I will be forced to die. And He will do it because he loves me with the love that he has for his son Jesus Christ. This, to me, is incredibly amazing. The words of the Savior ring true, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Death is the way to life.
\nI found myself suddenly able to answer the question I had written on my white board a month earlier: What does it mean to humble yourself? The answer, I found, is quite amazing. I had been trying to answer the question in a way that put me in the middle of the humility. I was trying to find the missing action that I needed to take. What I was doing was exactly opposite of what humility actually is. Humility is not anything of my doing, but all of His doing in me. A dying man cannot do very much. In fact, in the moment of his death that is when he is doing the least he’s ever done. He’s passing on to a different state. Everything is different and there is no amount of effort that can change what is happening. He’s dying. He’s going away. Not because he tried to die but because death came and got him.
\nThe way I can humble myself is to die. In the act of dying I’m giving up all that I’m seeking out of my pride. I’m giving up myself for the sake of another. I’m giving up myself to gain Christ. I see now that perhaps the doorway I’ve been looking to enter into humility isn’t near the self-help aisle where my effort abounds. No, the doorway into humility is closer to the morgue. And it’s only in the morgue of this world that we can find ourselves entering into God’s world.
\nIn God’s kingdom, death is the way to life. It’s exactly opposite of this worldly life. It has to be because God is opposite of this worldly life.
\nBut, death is not the end of the story. It can’t be. No, death isn’t the end. We know this because after the cross came the resurrection, and in the resurrection came glorification – true life. If death were the end of the story no one would want to die. But because we have a God who loves us, those who trust in him for salvation find that death isn’t so bad after all. One day, maybe 60 years from now, maybe 5, who knows, I will shed this sin I carry around. I won’t have to worry about being humble anymore. I will be humble, but not because I did something to attain it. Rather God did something to give it to me. He died so that in my death I can have everything my heart was made for.
\nThe ultimate end of my life is joy. I will travel many roads and have to die many small deaths before the great big one comes. And in those deaths I will find that I’m not more sorrowful for what I’ve lost but that I’m more joyful for what I’ve gained. Perhaps this life is like walking up a steep mountain in winter. Everything is dead and it only gets colder as we near the peak. But once we arrive on the peak there is an endless array of the most beautiful spring we’ve ever seen. Newness of life awaits and though the terrain is tough and I might even lose a little of myself on the way, get there I will and spring I will enjoy.
\nI’m not humble. I want to be, but I’m not. But God is going to slay me as I walk with him through life. And the slaying of the Lord is painful. I will yell and scream in anguish. But as the wounds deepen and as they heal I will find myself soaked in the love of God. And there is no place I’d rather be. Humility will be mine. Not because I can attain it but because He has attained it for me. And he’s going to give it to me. I just have to die.
\nSo, come, die with me. It’s the only way to life.
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.\n- Colossians 1:28-29
\nPaul’s goal is to present everyone mature in Christ. It is why he was called to the ministry. It is why he wrote letters to churches. It is why he lived. It is why he endured suffering. And Paul realized that this was no task he could do himself yet at the same time this was no task that he could remove himself from. There was a balance in Paul’s thinking. “I have a responsibility to present these people mature in Christ. I will do it through proclaiming Christ, warning and teaching with all wisdom. And when I’m done doing that work, I will rest on the work that Christ himself does for it is not me but he who works this out. I can’t change hearts but he can and he will. My job is to be faithful in proclaiming him.” Paul understood that the best proclamation was that which proclaimed Jesus in his gospel message. Paul understood that the best warning was that which presented Jesus in his fullness, including the wrath. Paul understood that all wisdom was that which proceeded from the risen Christ. That is why Paul resolved to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and him crucified. For Paul, there was nothing else that would bring maturity.
\nBecause Paul understood the way in which the life of a Christian works, he recognized that it was not his work that paid off but rather Christ’s work that brought the maturity. The job of a Christian is not to put the entire burden upon himself to change hearts, he could never do that, rather the job of a Christian is to put the burden upon Christ to change hearts. Through the preaching of the word of God, no matter how eloquent or how simple, the Christ-centered Christian will put his trust in Jesus to bring maturity. Paul struggled with all his energy but it wasn’t simply his own energy. He didn’t muster it up. It was Christ’s energy. And it was the power of Jesus that was working that energy out in Paul.
\nBut Paul did toil. Christians who are not toiling are not going to present any people mature in Christ. The Christian life is not a life of passivity. It is a life of work. We are saved by faith in Christ’s work so we work by grace. It is grace-driven effort that now marks our work rather than performance-driven or law-driven or pride-driven work. The work is still done, the foundation is just changed. Therefore, toil. Work hard. Try big things. It won’t be easy. It will be glorious, though. Any time you’re involved in the work of Christ it is glorious. Now go and work as one who has nothing to lose but had everything to give. Give Christ away. It will be tiring. It will be trying. It will bring suffering. But, as we see in Paul’s life, it will bring immense joy. His words to the Colossians just a few verses earlier show us that, “Now I rejoice in my suffering for your sake.”
\nTherefore, rejoice. All Christians now have the privilege of being involved in the work of Christ.
This is an editted version of a sermon I preached on the gospel call to mercy ministry. I need to say up front that I'm not good at mercy ministry. I'm not heavily active in it right now. But I have given much though to the proper way of engaging in it and I believe we cannot do it well until we first see the way the gospel draws us into mercy. Therefore, read on and know that I am nothing more than a fellow Christian seeking to understand how to serve the living Christ and extend mercy to those in need. Hopefully this will be of some help.
[25] And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” [26] He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” [27] And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” [28] And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
[29] But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” [30] Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. [31] Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. [32] So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. [33] But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. [34] He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. [35] And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ [36] Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” [37] He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
(Luke 10:25-37 ESV)
The great call from Jesus in the parable of the Good Samaritan is for us to go and do likewise. We see that but do we understand it? If we understand it, how do we do it? And it we understand it and do it, where does our motivation come from?
Jesus is calling us in this parable to a life of mercy ministry. The lawyer (who is a religious lawyer, not a civil lawyer) understands what the law requires. He even seems to imply that he’s kept at least the first part and now is trying to narrow the definition of “neighbor” so that he can squeeze into righteousness. But Jesus traps the one trying to trap him by telling him who his neighbor is. It’s a high calling. It’s tougher than the lawyer can imagine. It’s harder than what he is able to do. And that’s the point. That’s the point for us too. We can’t do this, at least not without first seeing it done.
The parable loses some of its shock value to today’s readers. Without understanding the relationship between Samaritans and Jew and the danger of the Jericho road, this parable isn’t as amazing. The Jews and Samaritans hated each other in a way that is startling. We don’t have an equivalent today, I don’t think. The Jericho road was one of the most dangerous in the world and even until recent times people fell to a bloody and often times deadly fate on that road. It was referred to in ancient times as “The Bloody Way.” It was probably rougher than the roughest street in your city. Robbers and murderers were always lurking. So, for a man to fall into this situation where he’s left half dead wasn’t too uncommon. The shock of the story is that the priest and Levite passed by but the Samaritan stopped.
We have to look at what the Samaritan actually did in order to see the depths of what Jesus is calling us to go and do likewise. First, he stops on the most dangerous road in the land. He sees a man left half dead, which means the robbers are most likely nearby since he isn’t all the way dead. Next, he pours out expensive oil and wine onto the man to sooth and comforts him. Then, he puts the man on his own animal, meaning he’d have to walk down this dangerous road at a much slower clip than riding through it. He takes him to an inn and puts him up in a room. He takes care of him. He binds his wounds, gives him food, puts him in the bed, and tends to his needs. Then, as he’s leaving, he essentially gives the innkeeper a credit card and says, “There is no limit. Whatever he needs, pay it on this. I’ll pay the bill.” Then, perhaps most astounding of all, he says he’ll come back to him. He’s going to check up on him. This is no drive-by act of mercy. This is a long suffering, inconvenient, compassionate type of mercy that invests much to give much.
So we see the price this Samaritan pays. It is indeed high! In many ways, it’s much higher than we can do. Who has the money to spend like that? Who can put himself completely in harm’s way? Who can afford to get off track for a couple of days to care for another? Who can give until it costs everything? Well, most of us can’t and I submit that no one truly can until it has first been done for them. Enter Jesus.
More shocking than the use of a Samaritan in the parable is that Jesus is the Samaritan. We see him as the Great Samaritan. We often look at the parable and identify with either the lawyer of the priest and Levite, neither of which did the job. We certainly don’t look at it and see ourselves as the Good Samaritan, at least if we’re honest. But how often do we see ourselves more like the half dead man? I think that’s the point Jesus is trying to make. Yes, we are to go and do likewise, but there’s a starting point and it doesn’t start with us being righteous. It starts with us being dead. It starts with receiving mercy, then extending it.
You see, Jesus is the Good Samaritan. He didn’t pass us by. He couldn’t pass us by. He looked upon a dying world and not only did he stop to help us as he was passing through, he passed through for the very reason of saving us. He came looking for us! Without his passage there is no hope. Without the blessed Savior bending down and pouring oil and wine on us, putting us upon his back, carrying us to an inn where we are provided for and paying the full cost of our healing, we are left for dead in the ditch and no one else is coming by. He’s the Great Helper. He’s the Great Compassionate One. He’s the Great Binder of Wounds. He’s the Great Healer. He’s the Great Provider. He’s our Great God. He’s everything we needed when we were wounded by our own sin, lying in a pool of our own blood completely unconscious of what our true state was. He came. He helped. He lifted us up and placed us in the Great Inn of his Father because he is the Great Neighbor. And when he got to the cross he paid the ultimate penalty to bring us ultimate mercy and salvation. He traded places with us so that we wouldn’t die. He put himself in harm’s way so that we could escape the ultimate penalty of the wrath of God. Without putting our faith in this saving grace we are lost! We are just another victim in a hopeless world with nothing to cling to. And when he rose from the grave he showed us that we would never have to face death. He defeated death forever for those who trust in him. Now because of this mercy and grace we can go and do likewise. He has put us in right standing with God by his death and resurrection so that we can now go. Without this, there is no hope. Without this, we cannot go and we will not go and we will not do likewise. We must have this and he must provide it.
So we see that the gospel is the engine behind all true acts of mercy. We see that we do this because the Lord our God has shown mercy to us. How then can we not go and do likewise? How can we sit in our homes watching the pain in the world through the light up boxes we call TV? How can we drive through the rough neighborhood with the only thought being to lock the doors on the car? How can we pass by the hospital hoping only that we don’t find ourselves in there any day soon? How can we go through an entire day without giving one thought to the homeless man out in the cold as we plan our nights inside because of the chill? How can we go through the week without reaching out to the single mom struggling to raise the kids and work a low paying job? How can we make it through our year with only helping during Christmas when it seems convenient? How can we even think we are doing likewise? God have mercy on us! We must cry out to him together, tonight, for mercy to save us from our apathy! He must save us from our lack of compassion! He must save us from our hardened hearts! And the gospel tells us that he has! And now, because of that good news of the gospel, we are propelled into a new world that isn’t like the old. It’s full of mercy and grace and now we have the privilege of serving the least of those among us. Let us no longer do it out of a sense of duty or obligation but in the fullness of the joy of the gospel to the praise of the glory of his grace!
Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high.\n- Job 16:19
\nIn chapter 16 of the book of Job, Job is in a terrible spot. He’s suffering greater than most of us could bear. His friends are now standing by his side condemning him for his lack of faith, his sin, and a hundred other reasons they can think of that they are certain has led to this suffering. Job finds himself family-less, friend-less, health-less, money-less, respect-less, and everything else-less. He has nothing. But he has God.
\nThe reason Job can endure the suffering is because he knows who God is. Therefore, he knows himself. The Lord calls him blameless in chapter 1. Of course Job can’t be blameless according to the law because no one is. So how is he blameless? I think Job 16:19 tells us how. In the aftermath of the assault on his character at the hands of his friends, Job comforts himself by asserting that he has One who stand for him in heaven. While all the evidence seems contradictory, his faith tells him that God is for him, not against him – “Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high.”
\nJob understands the gospel of grace. In the midst of his deep suffering, when he had nothing else, when everything he’d known had been taken from him, he didn’t turn against God. He didn’t blame God. His suffering didn’t cause him to abandon his faith but rather served to strengthen it. When no one else was for him, Job looked to the heavens and saw a mighty God standing as witness to his suffering and testifying to the grace that he had poured out on him that indeed made him blameless. Job wasn’t a sinless man. No one outside of Jesus can ever attain that. But Job was a faithful man of God and that faith in the goodness and glory of God sustained him when all else was failing.
\nThis verse foreshadows what all believers would later be able to claim in the person and work of Jesus. Job probably didn’t know Jesus’ name. But that doesn’t mean that Jesus wasn’t that witness in heaven. It doesn’t mean Jesus didn’t stand before the congregation in heaven and sing his praise. Jesus wasn’t ashamed to call Job his brother. Jesus is the very reason for Job’s blamelessness. The author of Hebrews affirms it for us when he says, “we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace in time of need.”
\nLet all those who suffer cling to Christ as their defender. Let all those who suffer cling to Christ as their witness. Let all those who suffer cling to Christ as their Great High Priest. He is sympathetic to our needs. He understands. When all else fails, when everything and everyone has let you down, when life is absolutely killing you, cling to Jesus and through him draw near to God. We are blameless because our Savior died on a cross to save us from our sinful guilt and gave his blamelessness to us. Job’s position in God’s sight didn’t change as he went from prosperous to destitute to prosperous again but rather stayed in his grace and found himself justified in God’s sight because of his Great High Priest. O, praise Him!
How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warms and tender. I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.\n- Hosea 11:8-9
\nGod makes it absolutely clear in the book of Hosea that Israel is a whore. Again and again, as in the example of Gomer in chapters 1-3, Israel goes off and whores after other gods. They do not love the Lord. They do not honor him. They do not respect him. They pay lip service at best. They turn to him only in times of desperation and even then do so reluctantly. Yet, God makes it absolutely clear in the book of Hosea that he will not, in fact cannot, give Israel up. He moves towards them in grace. Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. How can this happen? How can this be? Is this not astonishing? If it’s not, re-read the book of Hosea! See the sin of the people! See the wickedness of their heart! Then, turn and see the Lord’s mercy and grace! If it doesn’t stir your soul then you need to be saved from your blindness. If it doesn’t stir your soul, you do not yet understand who the Lord is. God gives us the book of Hosea to show us the immeasurable love with which he has loved us. It is a kiss from heaven, a Valentine from the almighty, an epic love story from above.
\nChapter 11 of Hosea brings us to one of the many climaxes within the book and perhaps my favorite of all. After laying out for the 100th time the sin of Israel, God then asks himself, and the Israelites, how can I give you up? The answer is clear! Look at the sin! That’s how you give them up! Burn them! They are deserving. Yet the Lord’s compassion grows warm and tender. He says he will not execute his burning anger; he will not destroy them. Why? Because he is God and not man. He doesn’t stoop to our level. He’s too good for that.
\nWithin the book of Hosea, it seems that chapters 1-3 set the stage for everything to come. In chapter 11 we see the Lord affirming what chapter 3 tells us – “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel.” Hosea goes to the marketplace, the whorehouse, to buy back his wife. Hosea is a man of God. He’s a prophet. And yet he marries a whore. He is rejected by his whoring wife and finds himself in the middle of a bidding war for her. He buys her back at great expense to his own reputation. He does it because he’s showing the love of God towards his people from whom he holds nothing back, even at great expense.
\nThe book of Hosea is a great love story. It is pointing us to a Valentine’s Day gift unlike any other. It’s pointing us to the cross of Christ. God can say that he will not execute his burning anger on his people because all of that anger was poured out on Jesus on the cross. God can say he will not again destroy his people because all of that destruction fell upon Jesus as he was hanging on the tree. God’s heart recoils within him because Jesus is buying us back. God’s compassion grows warm and tender because Jesus has redeemed us. The wrath we deserve was sent to Jesus. The anger we rightly are due was handed over to the Christ. The destruction we should endure destroyed Jesus, who was bloodied for our sin, and died on a nasty cross. And the compassion, the warmth, the tenderness, the life, the justification, the grace, was given to us by the hand of the loving God as Jesus got up from the grave and walked out of the tomb.
\nHosea is a great love story. It’s a story of God who takes a wife. It’s a story of a wife who cheats on her husband. It’s a story of the husband loving his wife back into relationship. It’s a story of the gospel. We have a God who loves us. We are a people who have sinned against him. And we have a God who will get us back, even if it means entering into a whorehouse, where he doesn’t belong, and taking all of the wrath, anger, and destruction we deserve. Even if it means dying for those who don’t deserve him. Hosea, then, is a book that shows us how Jesus is our great Hosea and we are his dirty bride. And he has brought us back to him. And when Jesus went to the cross, he did not go in wrath but rather to absorb it for his brothers and sisters.
The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.\n- Exodus 14:14
\nThe Israelites are standing on the brink of freedom. They’ve been led out of slavery in Egypt due to no might of their own. All that stands in their way now is a great sea. But behind them is an approaching army, the greatest army in the world at that time. Pharaoh and his troops are heading straight for them with hardened hearts intent on enslaving them once again. It seems hopeless. There is no way out. On one side is a great sea and on the other is the Egyptian army. The Israelites begin grumbling and Moses has an answer: The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.
\nThe Lord is going to show his glory. And the Israelites job is to be quiet. That’s what we do in the presence of God. Our words are of no use. They are not worthy. We should be silent. But the Israelites could not stay silent for long. Their grumbling started up again shortly after this miracle.
\nGod could have ended the Israelites there on that beach. He could have said, “That’s enough, which do you want: the ocean or the army? Take your pick.” But he didn’t do that. Instead he told them to be silent and he would fight for them. That’s who he is. He’s the Lord who fights for us – despite our grumbling. Our response should be silent awe. Too often it’s intense grumbling.
\nThe Lord’s mercy is counterintuitive. If any human was god he’d have destroyed the Israelites a hundred times out of frustration. But God isn’t like that. He doesn’t stoop to our standards. He doesn’t grumble against us. He fights for us.
\nSo what about silence? How can God still be so good to us in our grumbling though we should be silent before his majesty? Isaiah 53:7 says “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”
\nGod can be good to us because Jesus was silent for us. In the moment where silence was most necessary the crowds could not help themselves. They misunderstood who Jesus was. They were angry at what he said and did. Their pride welled up inside them. Sin reigned in their hearts and led to shouts of “Crucify him! Crucify him!” And crucify him they did. Crucify him we did. And he was silent. When we couldn’t be silent he was silent for us. When we couldn’t stop our mouths from punishing him as severely as humanly possible he took the punishment for us so that the Father could welcome us back in. We don’t deserve this. This is ridiculous. This is other-worldly. This is stunning. This should leave us in silent awe. This is the gospel.
I hear a lot of people say they wish they had more faith. They say they need more faith. Well, yes, that’s true. Don’t we all need more faith? Wouldn’t it be nice to get over the struggles to believe the gospel daily? So how do we get there? When we say we need more faith, where do we think we’ll get the faith? Surely we can’t think we can do it ourselves! Paul helps us in Romans 4 when referring to Abraham’s righteousness before God because of his faith. In verse 20 he says, “He grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God.”
\nAbraham’s life was marked by faith. We know this because scripture tells us so. He left his home and family to go to a place God would show him later on (Genesis 12). He refused the riches of the world offered by the king of Sodom because the Lord was his great gift, not earthly treasures (Genesis 14:22-24). He nearly sacrificed his only true son because God asked him to (Genesis 22) and had the thought the whole time that even if he did slay Isaac, God had the power to raise him (Hebrews 11:19). Clearly Abraham lived by faith. But how did this faith get there? Paul says it grew as he gave glory to God. So, what does it mean to give glory to God?
\nOne of my favorite examples of Abraham giving glory to God is in Genesis 14. He has just gone all Jack Bauer on his enemies and rescued his nephew, Lot, from the hands of the foreign kings. He’s returning in triumph to his land and is met by Melchizedek and the king of Sodom: one offering a blessing from God, the other offering a comparably puny amount of temporary goods.
\nSo, here is Abraham, a mighty warrior who has just pulled off a great rescue. He’s returning weary from battle and is met with a blessing and a subsequent temptation. Melchizedek says to him “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” Melchizedek then accepts a tithe from Abraham (Genesis 14:20). Then the king of Sodom offers to repay Abraham his tithe and then some, “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.” (14:21) But Abraham’s response shows him glorifying God, not himself, nor any other man. Therefore, his faith grows. He says, “I have lifted my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me. Let Aner, Eschol, and Mamre take their share.” Abraham goes into battle with many men, much strength, and more possessions. He leaves having lost a few, weary, and having given a tenth to Melchizedek. He is in many ways weaker now than before. But he recognizes that the king of Sodom has but temporary gifts to offer him. God is the possessor of heaven and earth! What are the good of foreign kings compared to that! So, Abraham glorifies God.
\nIn the face of temptation, in the midst of a life based on promise that is yet unfulfilled, Abraham looks to God. He glorifies God in his victory. He glorifies God in temptation. He glorifies God to the kingdoms around him. And by his glorifying of God, his faith is strengthened. What if Abraham didn’t glorify God on this account? What if he had taken to possessions from the king of Sodom? What if he held back his tithe? What if he refused the blessing? What if he didn’t praise God with his lips in that moment? Would he have had the faith to lay his son on the alter? Would he have had the faith to know that even in death there could still somehow be life? Would he have had the faith to endure to the end?
\nAbraham’s faith grew strong as he glorified God. When we glorify God we see him as he truly is. We see ourselves as we truly are. In glorifying the Lord, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth we are saying to ourselves, to the world, and to God, “I have nothing but honor to give to you, Lord. I trust in you. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, the eyes of my heart can see the horizon and there is a great King on the throne. I will wait for him.”
\nYou want more faith? Glorify God. Our faith grows strong through it. God is faithful. He will strengthen us and we will enjoy him.
And he said, “O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.” And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”\n- Daniel 10:19
\nWe are sinful. We know it. We can’t hide from it. We can’t shake it. We want to, but we can’t. So we create methods of sin management. We build moats around our castles and keep the draw bridges up. But, no matter how tightly we secure the ropes and how forcefully we command that the bridge not be let down, somehow, before we even realize it, we’re invaded by an army of friendly looking devils. Once inside they ravish us. They destroy our wills. They cater to our flesh and our flesh trades our righteousness in for a good time. Before we know it we welcome them into our castle and give them the seat of honor at the table. We make friends with them. And then, after the party ends and the torches burn out for the night, we’re left with guilt. It over takes us and we long for comfort.
\nSo, when we find out that we aren’t good sin managers as we previously thought what do we do? Often we vow to never do it again. We know it’s a lie the moment we say it but we say it still. Perhaps we’ll take a week to feel as guilty as possible about our actions all the while thinking we’re atoning for it through our guilt feelings. Some of us drift into dark thoughts of God: maybe he really isn’t good, maybe he really does hate me, maybe he really is going to destroy me and send me to hell because of this. Others of us take our bodies to the whipping post. We rage inside at ourselves as if we ever had the ability to stave off sin in the first place. All of these are worthless attempts. After sin we have one refuge, one comfort, one reconciler: Jesus.
\nThe moment after sin is in some ways the most important time. Because we hate our sin so much, we make a big deal of our sin. We dwell on it. We despise it, yes, but in some ways we give it an honor that it doesn’t deserve. We give it our attention. But, sin is not the point. Jesus who saves us from sin is the point. He deserves the honor. He deserves the attention. We don’t conquer sin by anything we do. We conquer sin by faith in Jesus. Therefore, when constructing your next castle, lay the traditional plans aside. Forget the drawbridge and don’t bother digging the moat. In fact, leave the roof off and the door unlocked. Don’t fear the devils. Not because they won’t come, but because they have no lasting power. Only Jesus has that.
\nAnd so when you sin next in that most painful, most embarrassing, most despicable way, hear the voice of your Savior from the prophet Daniel. “O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.” And let us like Daniel say, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.” Jesus loves us greatly. A love of that magnitude can do nothing less than strengthen us. The gospel’s message of the love of God doesn’t manage our sin for us; he takes it out back to the woodshed and handles it for us. All we have to do it walk with Jesus. He’ll take care of us – even when we continue to sin. He’s that good. We are greatly loved.
(1 Peter 5:6-7 ESV)
\nIs there a thought more comforting than the one that tells you someone cares for you? What else in this world are we seeking? Money comes and goes. Success is fleeting. Happy circumstances arise but end too soon. In the human condition we’re often teetering on the verge of exuberant joy or collapsing failure – it just depends on the day, perhaps even the hour. What then is greater than to know someone cares for you? Does your child care for you? Of what worth is his presence? Does your wife care for you? Of what value is her love? Does God care for you? Of what value is his attendance?
\nGod has little reason to care for us. First, we are prideful. So prideful, in fact, that our heart works to reject his love. We don’t want it. We deny its power. We seek things that affect our own pride first, and then, if there is room for the Lord, we may give him some of the honor. Secondly, we are ungrateful to the core. Even our tears of repentance are stained with sin. We cannot fully see the depth of ourselves. And praise God for it! For if we had but one moment’s view into the total depravity we find ourselves we would never recover. Finally, even after our conversion and after feeling the nearness of him, we go on sinning. We are not only prideful and ungrateful but at the same time evil. Only his goodness overshadows our evil. If left to ourselves, we’d perish and no blame could we place outside our own flesh. But he cares for us.
\nIn what way does he care for us? As the apostle shows, he exalts us to a lofty position. In our state, we do not call for much honor. We do not deserve an ounce of glory even on our best of days. Yet our Lord exalts us to co-heir with his Son. We do nothing for it. We go nowhere to get it. We reach no level of achievement. We humble ourselves. We see him as the mighty God he is and put ourselves, by his power, in the very place we deserve to be – at the bloody cross, where sin is forgiven.
\nHow else does he care for us? He takes upon himself the anxiety of our heart. We cast aside our fears, our worries, our doubts, our insecurities. We take them to the throne of God by the blood of Jesus and throw them at his feet. In return we are given the grace of God. We are comforted and encouraged. We are set free. Our problems do not disappear but we see them through new eyes. It is as if we are seeing for the first time. What was once only darkness on the road ahead, we now see full of light because we’ve been placed in the very light of God and his grace illumines our path. We may still have to endure the stormy sea, perhaps we must even suffer the ship wreck, but though it may be on the planks of the ship that we reach the shore, our Lord will take us there because he cares for us.
\nAll of this is done because God is wonderful. He is merciful. He is glorious. He is gracious. He is abounding in steadfast love. He is longsuffering. He is kind. He is many more things that cannot even be described. And this God cares for you! What ails your soul? Cast it onto him because he – the Lord of heaven and earth – cares for you! Of all realities swirling about your head, know that there is a God who deeply cares for you.
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the LORD’s table may be despised. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil?”
\nMalachi 1:6-8
\nMalachi brings a word from the Lord. The Lord is asking the priests why they do not honor him. They are bringing polluted, blind, and lame animals to the altar for sacrifice. By doing that, they are not honoring the Lord. Only a pure sacrifice will do. Only a spotless sacrifice will do. But why?
\nThe Lord put forth the requirements for sacrifice in his law. Moses stood before the congregation and spoke the law of God to the people. The priests had even more rigorous stipulations, though, because of the uniqueness of their job. They were to be a mediator between the people and God – to offer sacrifice for the sins of the people. They had high standards. God planned it that way. He has high standards.
\nHe’s told them what sacrifices are good and which are bad. They know the rules and yet they don’t obey. God doesn’t keep silent. He moves toward them to alert them of their sin. But why is this a big deal? Malachi is a mere 54 verses. 17 of those are spent talking to the priests. That’s over 30% of the book. It is apparently a big deal.
\nSacrifices have always been a big deal. The Old Testament is littered with references of sacrifices to God. It’s that way for a reason. God isn’t just being picky when he confronts the priests. No, rather, what he is doing is honoring his son. God requires a spotless sacrificial lamb from the priests but he’s not asking for something that he’s not willing to provide. God himself is going to provide a sacrificial lamb. The sacrifice is a big deal because at the center history is a sacrifice. The sacrifice is a big deal because it’s all pointing to Jesus. The priests aren’t just profaning God the Father’s name, they are also profaning God the Son’s name. Jesus is the point of this passage. Jesus is the perfect sacrifice. And the shadows of this perfect sacrifice, while still shadows, must not be taken lightly. They are pointing to something far greater.
\nToday we don’t make animal sacrifices. We won’t have a word from the Lord coming to our pastors asking why they aren’t killing spotless lambs. There is no longer a need. Jesus has put an end to the sacrifices. How? Jesus, the perfect high priest has himself become the sacrifice. He is the spotless lamb. He is the sacrifice that all sacrifices pointed to. There is no more payment required. There is no greater sacrifice. So, what are we to do with this passage? How are we to apply it to our lives? Surely there is something that we can glean, some warning, some conviction, from this passage. There is indeed, but it’s not what anyone would have expected.
\nThe author of Hebrews helps us apply Malachi’s rebuke. Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”
\nThere is still a sacrifice for us to present but instead of blood, we bring praise. The blood has been shed. There is no more blood that can be presented to God in an acceptable manner. There is no more need. Christ shed his own blood and that blood though physically dry in the ground at Calvary is still fresh enough today to cleanse his children from all their sin. Though the cross no longer stands on that bloody hill outside Jerusalem, it stands still in the memory of God the Father and God the Son and its accomplishments are transferred to us by the power of God the Spirit. One bloody sacrifice of a spotless lamb for all time. Now, the game is changed.
\nSo, what is a sacrifice of praise to God? It is simply this: praising God for the gift of salvation purchased through the blood of Jesus. Our sacrifice now is not the slaying of a lamb but rejoicing because The Lamb has been slain. Our great sin is not the lame animals we bring but the grumbling and questioning that we bring to God. It’s not our blind animals that we present at the altar that are the problem but our blind hearts that refuse to praise God for the redemption of the Lord over all our lives. We don’t have to fear slaying a polluted animal but we should fear a polluted spirit of praise.
\nOur sacrifice to God is now the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. So acknowledge the name of Jesus. He is the perfect Lamb. He is the perfect Sacrifice. What if I told you that you’re only job from now to the end of your life was to offer praise to God for saving you from eternal death? What if I told you that the only thing you’d ever have to pay God is the breath that it took to speak his name in praise? Of course, when following Christ we will inevitably have to make what seem like sacrifices in our lives, but is it really a sacrifice? Is it really a sacrifice to praise and follow the one, the only one, who can save you? At the heart of the gospel there is a cross with a spotless lamb, bloodied by sin, to get his children back. The sin has been paid for. That’s praiseworthy. He is worthy of our praise. He is worthy. Praise him. It is our only sacrifice.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. – John 1:12
\nSee what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. – 1 John 3:1
\nI have a 6 month old child. He’s my first child. He’s currently my only child. I love him. Having a child brings a lot into your life. It changes what you do, how you do it, why you do it, and who you do it for. Nothing is the same as it was six months ago. Going out to dinner is different now. Heck, going out at all is different now. I think we’ve taken less luggage on a weeklong trip to southern California than we have on a trip to Wal-Mart with my son. But we do it all with absolute, unhindered, authentic, love and joy because he is our child. We love him and nothing can change that.
\nMy son has certain privileges as a result of being my son. He has access to me in a way that really no one else does. He controls a part of my heart that no one else touches. Even his smile affects me in a way that no other smile does. As my child, he has full rights to everything in our family. I don’t charge him rent, he eats for free, he has endless toys at his disposal, he really has everything – and more – than he needs. Everything I do and think goes through the lens of his present and future situation. How will this affect him? How will this set him up for success of failure? What am I showing him? What will this do for him now and in the future?
\nHaving a child also changes the way I have thought about being a child of God. Throughout scripture, especially in John’s gospel and letters, we are told that believers are children of God. John opens his account of the gospel saying that for those who have received Christ, God gave the right to become children of God. Later in his first epistle, he says that because of the Father’s love we are now called children of God, and not only called, but actually are children of God. Not just mere name-sake but Spirit-sake. We’re in, and nothing, or no one, is changing it.
\nSo, if my son has that much access, that much privilege, that much right as my child, what do believers have as children of God? A few thoughts:
\n1) As children of God we are co-heirs with the firstborn, Jesus. Romans 8:16-17 says “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” Jesus of course is preeminent in everything but by God’s grace, we are co-heirs with Christ! This is amazing. When we feel the weight of this, the second part of verse 17 – provided we suffer – becomes a moot point. Suffering is a small price to pay in light of what we now receive as children.
\n2) As children of God we are adopted into a family filled with brothers and sisters in whom we get to rejoice. We are transferred into a family full of brothers and sisters. They enhance everything for us – even our enjoyment of God. I love the way C.S. Lewis discusses the impact of community in his book The Four Loves:
\n“Lamb says somewhere that if, of three friends (A, B, and C), A should die, then B loses not only A but “A’s part in C,” while C loses not only A but “A’s part in B.” In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles is dead, I shall never again see Ronald’s reaction to a specifically Caroline joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him “to myself” now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald. Hence true Friendship is the least jealous of loves. Two friends delight to be joined by a third, and three by a fourth, if only the newcomer is qualified to become a real friend. They can then say, as the blessed souls say in Dante, “Here comes one who will augment our loves.” For in this love “to divide is not to take away.” Of course the scarcity of kindred souls – not to mention practical considerations about the size of rooms and the audibility of voices – set limits to the enlargement of the circle; but within those limits we possess each friend not less but more as the number of those with whom we share him increases. In this, Friendship exhibits a glorious “nearness by resemblance” to Heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each has of God. For every soul, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest. That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah’s vision are crying “Holy, Holy, Holy” to one another (Isaiah VI, 3) The more we thus share the Heavenly Bread between us, the more we shall all have.”
\n3) As children of God we are brought into eternal life. My child will receive the best I have to offer him. I’ll try to pay for his college tuition. I’ll help him out when he needs some cash. I’ll give him the best opportunities I can afford. But God gives us eternal life. It is far better to be God’s child.
\n4) As children of God we have rights to the Father. He hears our prayers. He draws near to us when we need him. When we cry out in the night, he comes to us. We have the right to ask for a drink of water in the middle of the night and receive that water because we are his children. He loves us and he pays attention to us. He knows our needs.
\n5) As children of God we have the joy of God. Hebrews 12:2 says that for the joy set before him he endured the cross. We are his joy. My son has my joy right now. He had it when we found out we were pregnant, he had it more when he was born and I finally saw him, he has it more now that he’s about to crawl. It is ever increasing. God’s joy over us is also ever increasing. And therefore our joy is ever increasing. Don’t we all long to make our earthly fathers proud? Our Heavenly Father is proud of us all the time and not because we did anything to earn it, just because he has chosen to look on us and see Christ. We will never be shamed again.
\n6) As children of God we don’t stop being children when we misbehave. The gospel is bigger than our sin. Grace abounds. When my son misbehaves I don’t stop loving him. He’s not less of my child when he misbehaves. He’s still my child. When we become children of God, we never, ever lose our childhood. We can’t. It’s impossible. Once a child, always a child. Forever and ever. Jesus paid for us. He stands in the heavens mediating the new covenant for us. He will come back to get us. He will redeem all of the earth for us. He will give us everything that he has. Therefore, when we misbehave, when we sin, we should look to our Father and find in him the love he has for his children. There is peace in that now and forevermore.
For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.
That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
History is rich with promise. Our own lives are rich with promise. We’re promised things all the time. We promise others things all the time. Why? Well because there is so much uncertainty in the world. We need something to cling to. We need something more sure than empty words. We need a promise. A child doesn’t merely take someone’s word for it. No, when something great is told to a child he almost always asks, “You promise?” He must do that because even at a young age we are lied to. What all too often happens is what seems too good to be true is so often simply too good to be true. We find ourselves cast into a sea of uncertainness. Trust is lost. Faith is sent reeling. Feelings are hurt. In cases of the most serious of promises being broken, such as wedding vows, perhaps even lives are destroyed by one’s sin. But, we serve a God who loves to make lavish, outlandish, audacious, flat out bold promises. And he’s not into breaking promises. He’s into super-fulfilling them. And throughout history his people have been asking one of two questions: either “You promise?” or “How long, O Lord?” Both God intends to answer. And both he has answered. Paul indicated this in the verse quoted above from 2 Corinthians 1:20. Jesus is the answer to all of God’s promises. And what an answer he is!
If God makes promises, and he does, it begs the question of why does he promises us anything? Certainly he doesn’t have to. Certainly it’s not because he’s obligated in some way. No, of course he doesn’t have to and of course he’s not obligated. He does it because in our sinfulness we are absolutely filled with disbelief. He does it because we won’t believe him without one. He does it because he loves us enough to prove himself to worthless creatures like us. He does it because he is full of grace and because we are full of sin. We need a promise. And we need a great promise keeper. God is both.
Throughout the history of Israel, God promised his people great things. He promised Abraham he would be the father of many and that through him all nations would be blessed. Jesus came to fulfill the law and through that fulfillment to graft in the Gentiles (Romans 11:11-24), thus opening the blessing to all nations. Jesus is that offspring of Abraham (Galatians 3:16). Promise kept.
When Abraham’s descendents found their way into Egypt and into slavery God heard their cries for relief and sent them Moses. Moses led them out of slavery and into the wilderness and God promised them that another prophet, one like Moses, would rise and it was he that they should listen to (Deuteronomy 18:15). Jesus is that prophet (John 6:14). Promise kept.
When Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land and the judges began to rule over them, they longed for a king. God gave them Saul but he wasn’t the answer. In his goodness he then gave them David. David sinned mightily and lost a son over it. But, David’s sin didn’t keep away the promise God had for him and for all of Israel. No sin is larger than God. God told David that he’d always have a king on the throne from his line (2 Samuel 7:12-13). Jesus is that king (Revelation 19:11-16). Promise kept.
When David was writing the Psalms, through all of his ups and his downs, God promised a priest to come. This priest would be in the line of Melchizedek, that is, everlasting (Psalm 110:4). No priest would ever supplant him. There would be no need for he would be the perfect priest. Jesus is that priest (Hebrews 5:10). Promise kept.
Promise after promise, Jesus fulfills them all. Paul uses the term “the fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4) in reference to Jesus’ coming to earth. It was the fullness of time because it was time for God to answer Yes to all of his promises. It had been 400 years since a prophet had roamed the land. It had been 400 years of silence. Perhaps this was the silence Amos referred to in 8:11-12 – “Behold, the days are coming”, declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land – not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.” Did God stop talking? Was he done speaking to his people? It seemed so.
But then, not a day late, not a moment too soon, Jesus shows up and, as John says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14). Jesus is God’s answer. God sends a cry in the night from a new born baby to break his silence. God’s answer to every promise, the final installment, the greatest and last and ultimate fulfillment was finally here!
Jesus’ life was ordinary at best for about 30 years. He grew up. He worked a job. He ate food. He drank water. He went on walks. He prayed. He learned Scripture. He took care of his mother and siblings. He was, for lack of better words, normal. But, this normal human was more than just that. He was the fulfillment of everything. Jesus is the great Yes.
Every longing in our heart for okayness, every longing for reconciliation, every longing for a good king, every longing for a good kingdom, every longing for a sufficient sacrifice, every longing of every human heart was satisfied in Jesus. God looked down on the world in which he had made so many promises to children asking when these promises would come to maturity and he answered yes in Jesus.
All of the promises of God find their yes in him. Jesus is the great Yes of God. Christmas wasn’t just God sending Jesus as a gift to the world, although it was that, but it was God answering Yes to every promise he’d ever made. Now, because we know the answer is Yes, we can come to him and ask him for the love we so long have desired. We can ask him for the joy we’ve always sought. We can ask him for the peace we know we don’t have. We can ask him for the patience we’re always lacking. We can ask him for the kindness we can’t ever attain. We can ask him for the goodness we know we don’t have. We can ask him for the faithfulness we know we can’t keep. We can ask him for the gentleness we know we have always wanted. We can ask him for the self-control we have never, ever had. We can ask him for the salvation we desperately need. We can ask him for himself. And his answer, because of Jesus, is a resounding Yes. Forever and ever. Amen.
Charles Spurgeon on Micah 5:\n
We notice, next, the position of Bethlehem. It is said to be \"little among the thousands of Judah.\" Why is this? Because Jesus Christ always goes among little ones. He was born in the little one \"among the thousands of Judah.\" No Bashan's high hill, not on Hebron's royal mount, not in Jerusalem's palaces. but the humble, yet illustrious, village of Bethlehem. There is a passage in Zechariah which teaches us a lesson:--lt is said that the man on the red horse stood among the myrtle-trees. Now the myrtle-trees grow at the bottom of the hill; and the man on the red horse always rides there. He does not ride on the mountain-top; he rides among the humble in heart. \"With this man will I dwell, saith the Lord, with him who is of a humble and contrite spirit, and who trembleth at my word.\" There are some little ones here this morning--\"little among the thousands of Judah.\" No one ever heard your name, did they? If you were buried, and had your name on your tombstone, it would never be noticed. Those who pass by would say, \"it is nothing to me: I never knew him.\" You do not know much of yourself, or think much of yourself; you can scarcely read, perhaps. Or if you have some talent and ability, you are despised amongst men; or, if you are not despised by them, you despise yourself. You are one of the little ones. Well, Christ is always born in Bethlehem among the little ones. Big hearts never get Christ inside of them; Christ lieth not in great hearts, but in little ones. Mighty and proud spirits never have Jesus Christ, for he cometh in at low doors, but he will not come in at high ones. He who hath a broken heart, and a low spirit, shall have the Saviour, but none else. He healeth not the prince and the king, but \"the broken in heart, and he bindeth up their wounds.\" Sweet thought! He is the Christ of the little ones. \"Thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel.\"
[12] Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. [13] Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, [14] I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. [15] Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. [16] Only let us hold true to what we have attained.\n
(Philippians 3:12-16 ESV)
\nFor those who have been graciously saved by the all mighty God, we have more than a meager interest in seeking Him. Paul’s words in the letter to the Philippians do not show a small passion for his Savior. No, his words display an earnestness to grow in Christ. He’s reaching for a goal, an upward call. He’s reaching for nothing less than Christ. Why? Because Christ Jesus has made him His own. Christ makes us His own. What else are you going to do with such love? What other goal are you trying to reach outside of His presence? What other prize could you ever desire? What greater call is there?
\nSo, how do you forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead? By holding true to what we have attained, that is, justification by the blood of Christ. Look to Christ as your salvation, your goal, your prize, your caller, your maturity, your great revelation, your only true joy. Look to Christ. It is by Him, through Him, and for Him that we strain. He is worthy. He is indeed the only person worthy of such devotion. All else is idolatry.
\nWe have not yet obtained perfection but we press on because by the blood of Christ we can know Him. Your works serve to display the glory of Christ. If you don’t want to work for Him, you don’t love Him.
[23] The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, [24] but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. [25] Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.\n [26] For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
\n(Hebrews 7:23-26 ESV)
\nIt is fitting that we have a high priest such as Jesus. Without Him we can no closer come to the throne of God than we can to a raging fire. But because of the sweetness of the blood that dripped from the Savior’s body, we can with all purity, confidence, joy, and boldness walk under that crimson waterfall and commune with the Father.
\nIt is fitting because we so desperately need it. Without Christ as our Great High Priest, we stand before judgment, awaiting the moment we are cast out to a land that we truly deserve. But, for those whose sins have been covered so fully by His blood, we draw near, no, closer than near, into the God who upholds the universe by the word of His power. He goes far beyond mild salvation; He makes far more of us than we could deserve in thousands of years of good deeds. He makes much of us in our making much of Him. He knows where we will find unlimited joy and satisfaction and He holds nothing back to give it to us. He gives us Himself. By His blood we are found in Him.
\nIt is fitting. We do need it. He does give it. We do enjoy it. Permanently.
I have been married to my wife, Sarah, for 3 years now. I love her so very much and as each day passes I get a greater glimpse into the gift from God that she is. She is truly a blessing to me. Proverbs 31 rings true:\n
An excellent wife who can find?\nShe is far more precious than jewels.\nThe heart of her husband trusts in her,\nand he will have no lack of gain.\n
I have found that wife. Our marriage is a great gift from God and I praise him for Sarah. This is a poem from a book of poetry that I gave her as a gift for our anniversary. She's an amazing example of gospel living for it is she who continually shows me grace upon grace, day after day, reflecting the immeasurable grace that Christ shows us in the gospel.
\n\n
Jesus Christ
\nThe One Head
\nOf Our Only
\nOne Marriage
\nSustaining, Upholding, Redeeming, Maturing, Recreating
\nRestoring, Disciplining, Solidifying, Blessing, Glorifying
\nThru Himself
\nIn Our Great
\nWeakness By
\nThe Spilt Blood
\nOf His Single
\nSacrifice On
\nThe Cross For
\nRedemption of
\nOur Deep Sins
\nTo The Praise
\nOf His Glory
“As the Word of God is enclosed in the Scriptures, so the Scripture is our theology, to such an extent that we assign complete authority to every part of it, and to each and every truth contained in it. This declaration is not reached (as in other sciences) by each proposition being built up from another, by application from another, by application of the rules and conclusion of logic, with human reason adding its consent, but, instead, we receive each revelation or demonstration of truth immediately as it is given with sure confidence because each is a Divine revelation-the very thing upon which true theology depends.”\n- John Owen -
\nfrom Biblical Theology – The History of Theology from Adam to Christ, page 17; Soli Deo Gloria Publications 1994
\nWhat you make of the authority of Scripture is the degree to which you have your Christianity. We stand under the Bible, not beside it, and most certainly not over it. God’s very words spoken to our hearts in the Bible are of such immense value that to taste it and then fall away from it is to crucify Christ again and hold him up to contempt (Heb 6:4-6). Through the Holy Spirit’s work we see the steadfast love of God in the creation, the exodus, the kingdom building and destroying, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the plans for future glory. We are enlightened by it, we taste the heavenly gift, and we share in the Holy Spirit through it.
\nThe Scripture is our theology as much as water is our drink or bread is our food. The very existence of the Bible means that there is right and wrong theology. God isn’t a silent God. He’s not leaving us to wonder what He’s like. He isn’t leaving us without a glimpse of our future. He isn’t leaving us without a view of his holiness and glory. Sit under the Bible. Listen to its word. Find within its pages the glory of Christ in the gospel and respond in worship. Receive it as truth, for there is no greater truth outside of the word of the living God.
\"On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, \"They have no wine.\" And Jesus said to her, \"Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.\" His mother said to the servants, \"Do whatever he tells you.\" Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, \"Fill the jars with water.\" And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, \"Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.\" So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, \"Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.\" This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.\"\nJohn 2:1-11
\nThe wedding at Cana is the site of the very first miracle recorded in Jesus' ministry. I've often wondered why this was his first miracle. I mean, turning water into wine? Couldn't he have healed someone? What about driving out some demons? Why was this the way in which Christ decided to manifest his glory in order that his disciples would believe in him? What is Jesus saying to us through this story?
\nOn the surface it's simple, Jesus is showing us that it's ok to drink wine. :)
\nI'm kidding.
\nActually what I see in this passage is so comforting, so amazing, that it \"puts more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound\" (Ps 4:7)
\nJesus is invited to a wedding. He's probably just hanging out, having a good time, enjoying his new disciples that he's just called. His family is there, or at least his mother is. There is wine, there is probably dancing.
\nIn the middle of this wedding, something interesting happens.
\nJesus' mother asks him to turn some water into wine. Up until this point, Jesus had not performed any miracles, so it's a little odd that Mary would ask her son to do such a thing, but he does it anyway.
\nSo the servants do what Jesus tells them to do and they take the new wine to the master of the feast. He is astonished. Of course the wine was good, Jesus made it, but he doesn't know that. He gives credit to the bridegroom.
\nHe calls the bridegroom and tells him, \"Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.\" The master of the feast means no slight toward Jesus, John even says he didn't know where the wine came from. But what the master says is true, just not of the bridegroom of that wedding. John includes this miracle because its really about another bridegroom. A bridegroom that was invited to the wedding (v. 1) but more deeply was the entire reason the wedding was taking place.
\nJesus is the true bridegroom.
\nWhat a comforting thought that Jesus, the true bridegroom, is saving the best for last. The end of the party is better, far better, than the beginning. Jesus isn't calling us to have \"Our Best Life Now,\" he's calling us to follow him. He's calling us to believe in him. He's calling us to trust him, to serve him, to obey him. He's calling us to join in the wedding feast of the lamb where there will be wine and where the best, the new heavens and the new earth, will be saved for last.
\nAs our true bridegroom, Christ has done all that is needed for us to partake in his marriage. He made water into wine, sorrow into gladness, fear into hope, darkness into light, weeping into laughing, sadness into joy, death into life. It is our duty to look at him and behold his glory. He's the only bridegroom who can fully satisfy. He's the only one whose supply never depletes but ever increases.
\nAnd he's inviting us to the wedding supper of the lamb.
\nLook to Christ, see his glory manifested and like the disciples before you, believe in him.
\"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.\"\n- Stephen Hawking
\nObviously this is a false statement. It is ignorant, naïve, and honestly, just plain dumb. It shows very little analysis of the world and displays enormous egotistical problems within Hawking’s own psyche – I mean, really, he knows that heaven doesn’t exist? How? But, if looking at the last clause of his quote “that [heaven] is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark” it possesses incredible truth found in the gospel.
\nThe truth is, heaven is a fairy tale and it is for those who are afraid of the dark.
\nWhat Hawking doesn't take into account is that for sinners, the gospel is like a fairy tale and for those whom God has graciously saved, we are afraid of the dark. Not in the same way that Hawking means of course, but we are afraid of the dark because we have seen the glory of the light. To not be in the light of Christ is therefore frightening indeed.
\nJohn spends considerable effort and time to playing off the themes of light vs. dark in his account of the gospel story of Jesus. In the first 9 verses of chapter 1, he mentions the word \"light\" 7 times. This light, Jesus, is the one which \"enlightens everyone\" (v. 9). Later in his gospel there are mentions of darkness, most significantly perhaps in the account with Nicodemus in chapter 3 where Jesus proclaims that you must be born again after Nicodemus comes to test him, and again in chapter 13 when Jesus tells Judas that he will betray him - \"And it was night\" (v. 30). John knew the difference between light and dark.
\nMatthew, Mark, and Luke also knew that darkness was not good (Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44). Each of these accounts have some variation of the words \"from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness.\" This darkness, occurring in the middle of the day while Jesus is on the cross, is utterly frightening. In that moment, it is not glorious to those witnessing. In that moment, it is not hopeful, it is not good. In that moment, it is not just the end of this man's life, but for some it is the end of all their hopes, and perhaps even their salvation. But, the story doesn't end there. Hawking is right about one thing, there is death, everyone knows that. But he's wrong about death keeping us. There is a resurrection. Jesus, as our forerunner has already experienced the resurrection and is the seated in heaven this very moment in his glorified body.
\nThis is where the fairy tale begins. How do fairy tales work? Well, for Disney it works something like this:
\n1) There is a low and humble lady. She's often devoted to her family, often hard working, often overlooked.
\n2) There is a prince, or hero type, whom everyone looks to. Everyone honors and admires him.
\n3) At some point this lowly lady catches the eye of the dashing prince.
\n4) There is an enemy who threatens to destroy the lady, the prince, or both.
\n5) In the end the prince eventually destroys the enemy and rescues this lowly, humble lady from her despair and seats her as princess on the throne next to him.
\nIt is a once upon a time...happily ever after story. For those in Christ, it is much the same, with a few important exceptions that make the Christian fairy tale the most glorious of all fairy tales.
\nException #1: From the perspective of God, we’re low and humble. From the perspectives of ourselves, we’re high and mighty. We’re often not devoted to our families, we’re lazy, and we’re never overlooked because if we are, we make sure someone knows we’re overlooked. In many ways, we’re the opposite of the low, humble lady. But, Philippians 2 says that Jesus was the low and humble one. So low and humble that he” humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (2:8) So, the gospel flips Disney’s #1 around, showing Christ as the low and humble one.
\nException #2: So, if Jesus is the low and humble one, then who is the prince? Well, Jesus is! He is a prince too often ignored, dishonored, and not admired in the proper way. We instead make ourselves the prince of our world. We look out for ourselves; we concern ourselves with comfort and convenience. We put the true prince to open shame in our lives.
\nException #3: At some point this humble prince makes us turn our eyes toward him.
\nException #4: Perhaps this is the most startling difference of all. The truth is there is an enemy; it’s just not who you think it is. In a dramatic twist we look to the gospel to see that the true enemy isn’t anything or anyone outside of us, but rather inside us. We are the enemy. Of course Satan is God’s enemy but he can only work with the evil he has at his disposal – he can’t create anything. So, we see that the true enemy is within us and Satan just spurs us on. If left unchecked, this enemy will destroy, but God in his grace won’t allow it to happen to those whom he’s chosen. In the gospel, Jesus looks the enemy in the eye and loves him. He crushes the enemy within us and transforms us. He loves the evil out of us! Of course, as a true fairy tale story must go, he destroys Satan as well, because he is beyond salvation.
\nException #5: This is actually no exception at all. In fact, this is the only one in which Disney got exactly right. There is a reason that we love fairy tales. There is a reason that Disney can make a movie that awes children and at the same time ignites wonder in adults. The fairy tale is true for those in Christ! The prince does eventually destroy the enemy! The prince does take his bride and seat her on the throne! The story is true! The gospel of course is worthy of more than a mere fairy tale label but if we’re talking about fairy tales at all, let’s look to Jesus as the ultimate prince. The humble prince who rescues stupid, sinful, ungrateful people and puts them next to him in eternity where they will become super smart, unable to sin, and ever praising his glorious name!
\nSo, Stephen Hawking is right – almost. Heaven is a fairy tale for those afraid of the dark, just not in the way he meant it. It's a gospel story where the humble prince saves us, the enemy, from the darkness and brings us into his light. It's glorious in every sense of the word.
\n[14 ] Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, [15 ] and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.\nHebrews 2:14-15
If you are in Christ you have been brought into a salvation through his life, death, and resurrection. This is the great news of the gospel. Jesus came to destroy death for us. This is indeed a great salvation.
\nJesus saves us from the wrath to come. He saves us from tasting death. He brings us eternal life. He rescues to the uttermost. He destroys the one who has the power of death. But, he does even more than defeating death! Look at verse 15. Jesus goes beyond saving us from the event of death; he saves us also from the fear of death! If the only real power Satan has over the world after Jesus defeats him in death is to still bring the fear of death upon us, Jesus has squashed that as well! Jesus didn’t only save us from eternal death; he saved us even from the fear of death!
\nIf this is true, and it is according to scripture, any fear we have of death is a sign that we are still living in slavery. It is not what Jesus wants for us. Through his death he has delivered us from the slavery of that fear of death. How did he do this?
\nOn the cross Jesus took upon himself the full wrath of God for our sins. Every evil thought you’ve had, every bad deed you’ve done, every single sinful aspect of your being that you cannot even think of because of the sinful nature of who you are was atoned for on the cross of Christ. Those in Christ are fully and wholly righteous through Jesus. He is our great advocate. This means that we no longer have anything to fear in our death. Our death, because of the cross, is now an entry way into glory. We will for the first time see with unveiled eyes the glory of the Lord. Our joy will be complete.
\nIf you are a believer of Christ and you live in fear of death, you can now be set free through the greatness of the cross of Christ. To fear death now would be to fear the consummation of marriage as your wedding night nears. It would be fear in vain.
\nLet the full glory of the cross fall on you. Fear not for Jesus has saved. We have such a great salvation!
\nConsider the greatness of Jesus. Fear the Lord alone. Come to Christ, trust in him, and leave the fear of death behind. To live is Christ and to die is gain! Let that ring true today and forever more in this life.
\"For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.\" - Galatians 1:12\nIn Paul's letter to the Galatians, he spends a bit of time explaining the way in which he was called. As many of us know, his experience came on the road to Damascus when Jesus stepped in front of him, blinded him, and saved him. The entire account is remarkable but what strikes me most is Paul's statement in verse 12 of chapter 1 where he says he was not taught the gospel but received it.
\nIt might be fair to say then that the gospel is not something we learn like we would mathematics, with each piece building to a more complicated whole, but rather it is something we receive like a birth mark. If we've received the gospel, it never leaves us.
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Hebrews 1:3)\nThis means that Jesus can do literally anything in the world that he wants to do. He has power over all. What does he choose to do for those who love him?
\nRejoice in that all of your days.
I have just finished re-reading the story of David as told in 1 and 2 Samuel. As I was reading, this section in 2 Samuel 16 jumped out at me:\n
5When King David came to Bahurim, there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera, and as he came he cursed continually. 6And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. 7And Shimei said as he cursed, “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! 8The Lord has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.”\n\n9Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.” 10But the king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’” 11And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. 12It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.” 13So David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust. 14And the king, and all the people who were with him, arrived weary at the Jordan. And there he refreshed himself.
David is fleeing from his son Absalom whom he raised from birth. He’s raised him and provided for him his whole life and now finds himself running from the child he used to carry in his arms. He has been disrespected in a way few fathers could imagine; his flesh and blood wishes him dead so that he can be king. David and his men are in the wilderness headed toward the Jordan River for safety. He's probably had enough at this point. He’s weary as we can tell by verse 14 and he’s no doubt distraught about the future of not only his kingdom but also his life. Things are not going well.
\nNow here comes a man from the house of Saul, a man whom David had to flee as well, who wishes to curse him. David’s response astounds me. It’s miraculous. In the heat of his retreat from his son, Shimei throws stone and tosses this curse at him: “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! The Lord has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.”
\nThe men with David have the “rational” response to this man: “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.”
\nDavid has the gracious response: “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’ Behold, my own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. 12It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.”
\nNow, if you continue reading you will find that eventually David does have this man killed telling Solomon in 1 Kings 2: 8-9 “8And there is also with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse on the day when I went to Mahanaim. But when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ 9Now therefore do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man. You will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down with blood to Sheol.” Solomon then tells Shimei to go into a house and not come out for if he does he will be killed. Well, he does and he is killed and it is counted to Solomon as wisdom.
\nFor now, let’s look past David’s revenge on this man in his last days but instead focus on his response in this great time of despair. While his men want to do away with Shimei, David wants to heed his word as the word of God. It is an incredible thing to be able to listen to criticism in this way, in this hour or despair, and hear it as the word of God so that good may come of it.
\nToo often I find myself responding to even the slightest bit of criticism to either myself or those I respect and love the same way David’s men responded to Shimei. My initial reaction, while not as drastic as death, is to disregard that person as a “dead dog” who has no business making judgments on myself or the one I love. They clearly have faults of their own and no matter what, it is not right for them to say these things. I seek revenge on them instead of grace. I wish for their demise instead of thanking them for the words.
\nWhat I love about David’s response is the humbleness of his heart. He looks upon this man and does not rebuke him but rather his own men who are defending him. For a person to have anyone say something negative about them to their face and not blow a gasket is rare, even more so for a man of David’s position, the king of Israel. That’s what makes his reaction so amazing. He doesn’t rebuke Shimei but rather rebukes his own men for wanting to harm him.
\nIt is difficult to ignore rebuke. Even if it is true, we are always offended by their words and not our actions. It is a God thing when we can look at those who curse us and say “Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to.” It is even more amazing to do this for as long as David does: “So David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust. And the king, and all the people who were with him, arrived weary at the Jordan.”
\nWe may arrive weary at the end by the hand of our critics with bad timing who show up when we’re already dealing with so much. Praise God for these people because often it is through rebuke that we are sanctified. It is through hardship that we grow. Just as God first rebuked us for our sin, he then saved us through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Indeed we cannot be saved if our pride isn't hurt. We can't have Jesus if we can't accept criticism.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/44fab2ed328a884d-reformation-graphic-f2dqBlNMWvy46hHre1JNzFwe8vvTuP.jpg\")
\n \n\nThis is a teaching from Wednesday Nights at Immanuel on October 29, 2025.
We’re just days away from the 508th anniversary of Reformation Day, October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany, and ignited the Protestant Reformation. So it’s a fitting time to reflect on Reformation theology.
What was the Reformation? It was a rediscovery of the biblical gospel. It was a return to the Bible’s message of salvation freely given in Christ.
Tonight, I want to consider the Five Solas—five Latin phrases that summarize Reformation theology: Scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.
As you can see, the keyword is sola, alone. They express the amazingly wonderful truth that salvation belongs to the Lord alone. I want to show you they still matter and how they are good news.
So, let’s dive in.
Picture this: It’s the middle of the night, and you can’t sleep. You're miserable, worn out, and burdened. The blackness outside is like a screen showing all your sins and failures. You’ve tried to fight temptation, but you keep giving in. It’s eroding your assurance of salvation. You want to pray, but it feels useless. You know God is holy, and you feel anything but. Your head drops into your hands, and you feel a deep lostness, a despair that overwhelms, shame and guilt that feel like a dark night of the soul that no light could break into.
Now, imagine Jesus stepping into the room. You look up at him. What kind of look is on his face?
That question haunted a German monk named Martin Luther.
Luther was a spiritually anxious man. The words “righteousness of God” struck him like lightning. He said, “When I heard them, I was exceedingly terrified. If God is righteous, I thought, he must punish me.”[1] He entered the monastery driven by fear, hoping that devotion could please God and ease his conscience. But he found the opposite. “Though I lived as a monk without reproach,” he said, “I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that anything that I thought or did or prayed satisfied God.”[2]
His struggles resonate with us because they are our struggles, too. We long for a release of guilt, a free grace to cover our sins, and a righteousness we can’t lose.
Luther tried fasting, prayer, pilgrimages—everything he could to root out sin and earn righteousness. But all he could imagine was condemnation on Christ’s face. Then, as he taught through Romans, he had a breakthrough. It was Romans 1:17 that made the difference. “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.” He saw that justification was not earned but given, not by works but by grace, not through penance but repentance. He later wrote, “Here I felt as if I were entirely born again and had entered paradise itself through the gates that had been flung open.”
What he saw can be summarized in the Five Solas. Each Sola answers a question of the heart.
Question: Where can I find truth I can trust?
Answer: In Scripture alone
Question: How could God love someone like me?
Answer: By grace alone
Question: How can I ever be right with God?
Answer: Through faith alone
Question: Where can I find salvation?
Answer: In Christ alone
Question: Does my life even matter?
Answer: Yes, to the glory of God alone
The deepest questions of your heart not only matter to God but are answered by God in the Bible, so let’s start there—where can you find truth you can trust? In Sola Scriptura, Scripture alone.
Is there any place of everlasting, infallible, totally reliable truth? Where can you go when you need answers about your standing with God?
Sola Scriptura asserts that Scripture alone is the place.
Gavin Ortlund explains it this way.
“The core idea is that Scripture is the church’s only infallible rule. A rule is a standard that governs the church’s faith and practice. Infallible means being incapable of error. So sola Scriptura is essentially the claim that Scripture is the only authority standing over the church that is incapable of error…
“In other words, the fault line of difference between sola Scriptura and alternative positions is this: Does the church possess any rule other than Scripture that is infallible?”[3]
The Reformers answered, “No.”
The Roman Catholic Church says that Scripture and apostolic tradition, mediated through the church’s authority, together form the rule of faith. The Reformers valued tradition but refused to place it alongside Scripture, because only the Bible carries the authority of God himself. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The Scriptures alone are God’s very breath. Tradition and church councils may be helpful, but they are human and can be fallible. God did not breathe them.
Here's why that mattered in the 16th century. To fund St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope issued indulgences—reductions of time in purgatory based on the borrowed merit of saints. Johann Tetzel popularized it with, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.” Luther saw this as a distortion of the gospel that led to shallow repentance and false assurance.
That may sound distant from us, but the same question still matters today: Where will we look for assurance? In the words of men or in the Word of God?
That question bothered Luther. He started to wonder: If the pope can release souls, why not empty purgatory? That raised further questions. How are sins paid for? How is one set right with God? Where could he find truth he could trust?
He went back to the Bible and found passages like these:
Romans 3:23–24 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 1:13–14 - He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Hebrews 10:10–14 - We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all…For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Romans 8:1 - There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Luther found in the Bible no mention of indulgences, no treasury of merit, no pope with power over souls. Instead, he discovered that salvation is God’s work alone, by grace, through faith, in Christ. He wrote about it, which got him into trouble with the church. He was summoned to recant before the authorities at the Diet of Worms. He replied, “I am bound by the Scriptures…and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything.”
When everything was on the line for Luther, he trusted Scripture alone. And that was enough. When everything is on the line for you—when you’re in that room of despair facing an uncertain future, what the Bible says about that future is your ultimate authority. You can listen to it alone. It’s God’s very breath for you.
So let’s go deeper into what it says. Next stop, Sola Gratia—grace alone.
Before the Reformation, Luther believed grace was God’s gift, but also an enabling power given to cooperate in justification through merit. He never had assurance—too much depended on him. He wrestled constantly: How could God love someone like me? He knew he didn’t deserve salvation. He echoed Paul in Romans 7, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” He feared dying without the necessary righteousness to enter heaven, so he worked hard. He said, “If ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery, it was I.”
But that’s not the way to God’s love. The path is easier, clearer, freer. It’s by grace alone—Sola Gratia.
So what is this grace that could set a man like Luther—and us—free?
The Dutch theologian Louis Berkhof defined grace as “the free bestowal of kindness on one who has no claim to it.”[4] God’s grace is not for perfect disciples but imperfect disciples, for people who can’t get their act together, for people who can’t even find the act. It’s like getting an A when you never showed up or passed a test. It’s wholly undeserved.
John Calvin said, “Grace does not merely assist; it does everything.”[5] Salvation is not something we earn or contribute to. It’s all of grace. God owes us nothing but punishment. Our sin is too sinful. God’s judgment is too just. Our inability is too great. If we are saved, God’s grace alone must be the reason.[6] His grace must be greater than our sin. And that’s what the Bible says.
Consider these passages.
Ephesians 2:4-10: 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Romans 3:24: We are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:15, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Charles Spurgeon points out that there’s no adjective before the noun—no qualification at all, except that they are sinners.[7] We don’t need to qualify it. God saves sinners, not the good or the improved sinners—just sinners.
Justification is not a process of grace-produced merit but a declaration of imputed righteousness through Christ’s cross. The merit we need belongs to Jesus, who gives it freely. Luther called it an “alien righteousness”—a righteousness outside us in Christ, that becomes ours by his grace. No wonder Paul ends Romans 7 with doxology: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
The Bible isn’t calling us to get better and get Christ; it’s calling us to receive grace and get Christ. When Jesus steps into that room of guilt or exhaustion with you, he doesn’t bring a to-do list. He doesn’t bring a challenge. He brings grace alone—grace upon grace (John 1:16). He brings assurance that, because of his grace, your sin doesn’t have to define you anymore.
How can we grab hold of that grace? Through Sola Fide, faith alone.
Luther called justification by faith alone ‘the doctrine by which the church stands or falls.’ It’s the hinge of the gospel, the answer to the heart’s question: How can I be right with God?
Is justification something we earn or something we receive? Here’s Paul’s answer:
Romans 3:28 — “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”
Galatians 2:16 — “A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.”
This is amazing news. If our works justify us, we’re doomed. Paul said in Romans 3:10. “None is righteous, no, not one.” If it’s up to us, there is no hope. Even if we could obey from this point on, what about all our past failures? How could we ever make up for those? We would still lack the righteousness God requires.
That’s why justification by faith alone isn’t just good theology—it’s good news for weary sinners. The righteousness we need is not achieved but received. Faith connects us to Christ, whose perfect righteousness is freely given by grace.
So how do we get faith? The Bible says—this is amazing—that faith itself is a gift. Look at Ephesians 2:8 again. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” There is some debate on the referent to “this” and “it”. Is Paul referring to grace or faith? Without getting into the weeds, the answer is both—faith, like grace, is part of the gift of salvation. Other passages say so. Here are a few.
Philippians 1:29-30 – “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” “Granted” means to give freely and graciously.
Acts 16:14, speaking of Lydia’s conversion, says, “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.”
2 Peter 1:1 – “To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” “Obtained” means to receive by lot. It’s a gift God distributes.
Here’s how it works. God’s gift of faith connects us to the righteousness we need. The authors of the Westminster Confession said it is “the alone instrument of justification.” By instrument, they mean faith is the thing that attaches us to Christ. It’s the way we lay hold of Christ and receive all his righteousness. Charles Spurgeon said, “Faith justifies, but not in and by itself, but because it grasps the obedience of Christ.”[8] Faith is the way we grasp Christ. Theologian R.C. Sproul called faith, “nothing more than the empty hand that receives the righteousness of Christ. It adds nothing to that righteousness, and it accomplishes nothing apart from it.”[9] We’re justified by faith alone. It’s enough because it connects us to Christ, whose righteousness is ours by grace, and his righteousness is all the righteousness we need
So when Jesus walks into the room with you, he’s not looking for something in your hands to offer him. He’s not waiting for your gift—he is the gift. All he looks for is an empty hand to fill with his righteousness. And even if that hand trembles, that’s okay. It’s not your strength but his that makes the difference.
That’s where we’ll turn next—Solus Christus.
Scripture says we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone—Solus Christus.
Christ holds the key to it all. To the heart’s question, Where can I find salvation? Jesus answers joyfully, “In me!”
Romans 4:5 says, “To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” Justification by faith alone means justification by the righteousness of Christ alone.[10] Faith itself has no power to save unless it’s connected to a strong object. Faith justifies because Christ has all the necessary merit we need.
Jesus alone deserves heaven. He alone lived a perfectly righteous life, fulfilling every demand of the law. And what did he do with that perfection? He gave it away on the cross. Isaiah 53:5 says, “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The ultimate innocent one became the ultimate guilty one.
Why did he do this? Not to make our salvation possible, or even eventual, but to make it effectual—to make it certain. Not to give us a starting point, but to be the finishing point.
Calvin put it this way: “When God justifies us through Christ, he does not acquit us on a proof of our own innocence, but by an imputation of righteousness, so that though not righteous in ourselves, we are deemed righteous in Christ.”[11] The church father Irenaeus said, “For the sake of his infinite love [Jesus] has become what we are in order that he may make us entirely what he is.”
On the cross, our sin was transferred to Christ’s account, and his righteousness was transferred to ours. This is what the Reformers called the double imputation. Our sin became Christ’s sin; our unrighteousness became Christ’s unrighteousness. And Christ’s work became our work; his merit became our merit. All the righteousness needed to stand before God is ours in Christ—free by grace through faith.
Luther called this a “wonderful exchange.” The Swiss theologian Emil Bruner called it “the most incomprehensible thing that exists.”[12] It’s mind-blowing. The all-holy God we offended, whose wrath we rightly deserve, in his great love for sinners, provided the one way his wrath could be satisfied—through Christ, and Christ alone.
Christ is our substitute who sacrificed himself to satisfy everything needed for our justification.[13] In him and him alone, we are set right with God. When Jesus cried out from the cross, ‘It is finished,’ he meant it. Praise God!
That’s why, in Acts 4:12, the early church preached, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” It is not Christ plus anything. It is Christ alone.
When you’re in that room in the darkness by yourself, if salvation is not by Christ alone, then you are really alone. It’s up to you to finish the job. Who else can if Christ can’t?
But if, on the cross, Jesus gave his perfection to the imperfect you, then God’s not asking for anything else from you. It is finished. You can rest in that. You can receive that.
Finally, Scripture tells us we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone—for the glory of God alone. Soli Deo Gloria.
One of our key values at Immanuel is calling. We all want our lives to matter. Soli Deo Gloria tells us our lives matter because our lives are a testament to God’s glory, and nothing matters more than his glory.
Romans 11:36, “For from him and through him and to him are all things.”
Psalm 115:1, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory.”
Habakkuk 2:14 promises, “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is this: What is the chief end of man? Answer: To glorify God and enjoy him forever.
This is the end to which everything is designed, and out salvation contributes to that. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, so that God’s glory might be seen, adored, enjoyed, worshiped. As Paul says in Romans 3:26, God might be both just and the justifier, upholding his righteousness even as he gives righteousness to sinners through Christ. Amazing!
Everything exists for the glory of God—that’s why you’re here. That’s why stars shine, winds blow, and hearts beat. It’s all for him.
It’s easy for our Christianity to drift from God-centered to man-centered, as if salvation were something we help bring about. But God is the one who planned it and brought it to pass. That’s why Paul says in Ephesians 1:6, 12, and 14 some variation of “to the praise of His glory.”
The Solas show the beautiful chain of how we are saved: by grace alone (not by law), through faith alone (not through works), in Christ alone (not in anything else). If that is true—and it is—then who can get the glory but God?
Now, one final time, come back with me into that room. You have nothing to offer Jesus but need. You know you can’t be your own savior. You’ve tried and failed. But that’s okay with Jesus. He’s not afraid of your need. He’s not looking for help from you. He’s there to show you that your sin is forgiven in him, that you are justified in him, that your future is not dark like that nighttime sky but is brighter than the morning sun.
So when you look up at Jesus, what is the look on his face? That look makes all the difference—and you can’t control it. That’s what the Reformers rediscovered in Scripture. Salvation is not in our hands but his. It doesn’t come by our law-keeping but by his grace, not through our works but through faith in his finished work. It comes through him alone. It’s not because we’re great, but because he is.
What is the look on his face? It isn’t disgust or disappointment. It’s not a frown. It’s a smile. A welcome. All the sympathy of a gracious and merciful Christ who came not to damn but to save, not to condemn but to redeem, not to destroy but to restore. That’s the gospel.
So when you’re alone in the dark, head in your hands and despair in your heart, and the Righteousness of God comes into the room, it’s not a sword coming to slay but a Savior coming to save. Yes, you’ve failed. Yes, you’ve sinned. But the way forward is simply to receive, with the empty hands of faith, the grace and peace that just entered the room in Christ. All you need for your justification is already done.
How can you know that’s true? Because the darkness outside your window is only a shadow of the real darkness that Jesus entered for you. He paid the penalty and won the victory. The motto of the reformation was post tenebras lux—after darkness light. That’s who Jesus is for you. He’s a complete savior. To God alone be the glory!
Endnotes:
[1] Luther, Martin, Luther’s Works, Vol. 54, page 193.
[2] Luther, Martin, Luther’s Works, Vol. 34, page 336.
[3] Gavin Ortlund, What it Means to Be Protestant, page 72.
[4] Berkhof, Louis, Systematic Theology, page 71
[5] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.3.6
[6] J.I. Packer listed these truths in Knowing God, pages 117-119.
[7] https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/the-whole-gospel-in-a-single-verse/#flipbook/
[8] C. H. Spurgeon, Sermon No. 1812, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 31, p. 403.
[9] R.C. Sproul, Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification.
[10] R.C. Sproul, What is Reformed Theology?, page 67.
[11] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols., trans, Henry Beveridge (1845; reprint, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Erdmans, 1964), 3:27 (3.11.1)
[12] Emil Bruner, The Mediator, page 524.
[13] The concept of Jesus as our satisfaction, sacrifice, and substitute comes from James Montgomery Boice, “Christ Alone,” Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace?
Let’s open the Bible now to John 20:1-18
We’re at the end of John’s gospel. We’ve seen Jesus's death and burial, and today, we see his resurrection.
Let’s read it now.
1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went back to their homes.
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.
This is God’s word.
If John’s gospel were a typical biography, all we’d have left at the end would be a few final words about Jesus. Instead, we find something anything but typical. The story doesn’t end; it begins anew. We find a new hope, a new dawn, a new day, an entirely new era.
This new era is why John wrote the book. Jesus's resurrection is the foundation of the Christian faith. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:17, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.” But he has been raised! We are not still in our sins! That’s the whole point.
The resurrection ensures our salvation. In Romans 4:25, Paul said Jesus “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” If our transgressions were the reason for his death, then his resurrection is the reason for our justification. In other words, Jesus’s resurrection confirms that his payment for our sins is sufficient and wholly accepted by God. We are free and forgiven in Christ from all unrighteousness.
Jesus’s resurrection is the exclamation point ushering in the new chapter of God’s story, the new age of new life where all who believe receive glory in heaven with Jesus, where we will experience in resurrected bodies the ultimate love, peace, and joy, where everything sad comes untrue, and where we are loved forever by the one whom the Bible says is love (1 John 4:8).
At the end of his gospel, John wants to leave us with the reality and the hope of the resurrection. So, today, we’ll consider those two purposes.
The reality of Jesus’s resurrection.
The hope of Jesus’s resurrection.
First, the reality of Jesus’s resurrection.
Three days after the crucifixion, Mary Magdalene arrived at Jesus’s tomb early in the morning on the first day of the week. The newness of the day and the newness of the week point to the newness of the age Jesus is ushering into the world with his resurrection. Something new is happening. It’s not a normal morning. It’s not a normal week. A new day is dawning.
Now, Mary didn’t go to the tomb looking for a resurrection, and when she got there, she didn’t even consider it a possibility. She saw the stone had been taken away from the tomb, and her heart did not soar; it sank. Mary uses the word “taken” three times—here in verse 1 and again in verses 2 and 12. “Taken” was the narrative running in her mind. Jesus had been taken. Her Lord was gone.
Heartbroken all over again, she ran back to the disciples and told them the devastating news. Peter and John ran to the tomb. John arrived first, looked inside, and saw the linen cloths lying there. Then, Peter went inside the tomb and saw the clothes as well, and he saw an additional detail—the face cloth that had been on Jesus’s head folded up by itself.
In his book, Hope in Times of Fear, Tim Keller points out that the Greek word used for the word “saw” is important in this passage. When Mary “saw” that the stone had been removed, John used the typical Greek word for sight. But when Peter and John “saw,” John used a Greek word that means to reason, theorize, ponder. Keller says, “In other words, they were not merely glancing. They began theorizing about the condition of the grave clothes—they began to posit hypotheses in their minds that could account for what they saw. This is the same reasoning process that a scientist uses in seeking a working hypothesis to explain a phenomenon.” [Keller, page 89]
So, John is taking us on a scientific-method-type journey. What happened in that tomb?
The details about the linen cloth matter. They saw that the linen cloths weren’t disturbed. Dead bodies were wrapped in long strips of cloth. But Jesus’s cloths were just lying there without a body inside.
Now, we have to wrestle with this. There are many proposals about what happened to Jesus.
First, there is what I call the Mostly Dead Hypothesis. Jesus didn’t really die on the cross. He somehow survived the beating, crucifixion, and spear thrust into his side. He didn’t resurrect from the dead; he just recovered from injuries. In other words, he was only mostly dead. Now, thanks to the classic movie The Princess Bride, we know there is a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. As Miracle Max explained to Inigo Montoya, “Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, there's usually only one thing you can do—go through his clothes and look for loose change.”
Jesus was all dead. But if Jesus was only mostly dead, there is still a problem. When Miracle Max revived Westly, he couldn’t stand or walk. Andre the Giant had to push him in a wheelbarrow and carry him around. But the mostly dead Jesus had enough strength to unwrap himself and move the stone?
A more realistic and biblical example: when Jesus raised Lazarus in John 11, he told the people to “unbind him and let him go.” Lazarus was raised to life with enough strength to walk out of the grave and yet even he couldn’t unwrap himself. He hadn’t been beaten and crucified. No spear went through his side. Jesus was in far worse pre-death condition. But the mostly dead Jesus had enough strength to unwrap himself and move the stone?
I don’t think so. Jesus was all dead. Professional executioners saw to that.
Then there is Mary’s Hypothesis: someone took Jesus’s body. Maybe grave robbers went through and looked for loose change, as it were. But why not take the one thing valuable in the tomb—the linen cloths? Or maybe his friends took him. But why would they unwrap him in the grave and presumably take him away naked? Wouldn’t that only further degrade and disrespect him?
Regardless, the Greek text doesn’t allow for the unwrapping hypothesis anyway. The Greek word John used for “lying there” is used for things kept in careful order. In other words, the cloths weren’t disturbed at all. They were lying there in the same shape and form as they had been wrapped around Jesus. The only difference was there was no body inside. It was as if Jesus passed through them and left them behind. Apparently, death not only could not bind him as it had Lazarus; it couldn’t even hold him down.
The final hypothesis I’ll mention is the Folklore Hypothesis. Jesus didn’t really rise, but the story of his resurrection grew to be considered true over time, like a piece of folklore. His followers were so heartbroken that he was dead that his resurrection became true to them in some spiritual way as they sensed his presence guiding them. After all, weren’t those people less scientific than we are? Weren’t they more open to the idea of a bodily resurrection because they just didn’t know as much as we know now? C.S. Lewis calls that “chronological snobbery.”
Besides, it’s not historically accurate. In his book, The Resurrection of the Son of God, N.T. Wright spends a lot of time proving that no ancient society had a category for bodily resurrection. It was discussed, but the verdict was clear: it simply did not happen. It wasn’t possible. Everyone knew that. Even among the Jewish people of the time, it was nuanced. Of the various sects of Judaism, the Sadducees didn’t believe in a resurrection at all. We’re not sure if the Essenes did or not. The Pharisees did, but they didn’t teach anything remotely like what happened that first Easter Sunday. They taught a resurrection at the end of time but not in the middle of it. When Jesus stood with Martha outside Lazarus’s tomb, Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” She believed in a last-day resurrection, but no one had a category for a resurrection in the middle of history. Yet that’s exactly what happened in the resurrection of Jesus.
The point is that no one thought it could or would happen. That’s why Peter and John had to think through what they saw. If they already had a category for bodily resurrection, why wouldn’t they jump right to that conclusion? It’s not that they got to the tomb and said, “Oh, yeah, of course Jesus is alive. We knew that was going to happen.” No, they didn’t know that at all.
Now, it wasn’t because the Bible was silent on the matter. John says in verse 9 that “as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” That’s an admission that it was there all along. Jesus even told them it was going to happen. But they just didn’t see it or understand it. Later, they would. But they didn’t at first. They didn’t believe in the resurrection until it happened, and then they believed because it had happened.
In verse 8, we see the light dawning on John. Speaking of himself, John said, “Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed.” Some commentators say that just means John believed what Mary said—that the tomb was empty. But that’s not all it means. The Greek word for “believed” doesn’t just mean to assent to some truth claim intellectually. It’s not mere agreement with facts. Something else is going on here.
John uses the word “believe” a lot. The word in verse 8 is the same word, for example, in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” The Greek is literally, “whoever believes into him…” The belief John is talking about is something that takes us into Christ. It’s more than agreement. It’s an entrance into a whole new way of thinking, a whole new life, a whole new trust, centered in and resting on Jesus. It’s something you enter into deep in your heart, not something you pass along the way with a nodded head.
Let me illustrate it this way. By 1908, the Wright brothers had invented the first airplane. They were trying to sell their invention to the US Army, but the Army said they needed it to hold a passenger before they would sign the deal. So, the Wright brothers returned to Kitty Hawk, NC, to create and test a new two-passenger plane. A friend named Charley Furnas went with them. They designed the passenger plane and began test flights. At first, Wilbur or Orville would fly alone with a sandbag in the passenger seat. Once they were comfortable that it would work, the day came for the first human passenger. Who would dare to take that first ride? Their friend, Charley Furnas, would. Now, Charley was there for all the test flights. He believed it would work. But on May 14, 1908, he put that belief to the test. He got into the plane. Biblical faith is more than knowing the truth. Biblical faith is, as it were, getting into the plane with Jesus. This is the belief John is talking about. He didn’t just agree that the tomb was empty; he believed into the new life of Christ.
Have you believed into new life in Christ?
You might think, “Well, you know, John was actually there that morning. I wasn’t. I can’t see the empty tomb. I can’t see the risen Christ like he did.” Ah, yes, that’s right. You can’t. But let’s think about this for a minute.
You know, John didn’t say he believed after he saw Jesus’s resurrected body. What did he say? When did he see and believe? At the empty tomb. He hadn’t seen Jesus yet. That’s really interesting, isn’t it? This makes John the only apostle we’re told of who believed in the resurrection before seeing the resurrected Jesus. Later, Jesus will tell Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John was the first to do that. That means he’s a model for us. John was in the same spot we are today, and he’s asking us to believe into Christ along with him. I think that’s something to consider.
Of course, more could be said about this, but let’s think about what the reality of Jesus’s resurrection means for us. If Jesus has risen, it changes absolutely everything. How we live today hinges on what we think about Jesus’s resurrection. If it happened, it means Jesus has shown us his people’s future already. If Jesus already defeated death, that means he can defeat death for us too.
Because the resurrection of Jesus really happened, we can know our resurrection will really happen, too. We can have hope now, too. We can live backward, as it were. We can live today as we will live in that day. We can live as citizens of heaven in a fallen world that needs the light of Christ. We can be joyful in hardship. We can be generous in tough times. We can be hopeful in times of despair. We can serve selflessly. We can love with all our hearts. We can admit our sins and failures because we know redemption has been accomplished for us, and we have nothing to prove except Jesus’s grace and mercy. We can lay down our lives for God and others because we know that whatever happens, God will raise us up again. We can follow Jesus wherever he leads because even if he takes us through the valley of the shadow of death, we know it’s only a shadow. He took the real death for us, and he’s only leading us now into green pastures and beside still waters to a glorious resurrection like his.
This is the hope that John went home with. And remember who John cared for in his home now. Jesus’s mother, Mary. She was about to hear the news that her son lived, and because he lived, she would live, too.
And it’s the same hopeful news another Mary, Mary Magdalene, would soon receive, which leads us to our second point, the hope of Jesus’s resurrection.
Verse 11 shows Mary Magdalene weeping outside the tomb. The word used for “weeping” means to weep or wail, with emphasis upon the noise accompanying the weeping [Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 303.]
This was one of those full-body, overwhelming bouts of sadness that accompanies the loss of someone dearly loved. Some of us know that feeling all too well. Mary had already wept for the loss of her friend. She now wept for the loss of even his body. None of him was left. He was totally gone.
She looked into the tomb again, and she saw something that didn’t seem to register with her in her grief. Two angels in white sat where Jesus had lain, and they asked her why she was weeping. Her Lord has been taken. Why wouldn’t she be weeping?
But then things started to change for Mary. She turned from the tomb and saw someone standing before her. She didn’t recognize that it was Jesus. Perhaps that was because she wasn’t expecting him. Perhaps it was because her eyes were too blurred from tears. She thought he was the gardener. (By the way, that is just filled with all kinds of biblical imagery. It was in a garden where Adam threw the world into death, and it was in a garden tomb where the new Adam defeated death. As the poet George Herbert said, “Death used to be an executioner, but the gospel has made him just a gardener.”)
Jesus spoke to Mary, asking the same question the angels had: “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Jesus was reasoning with her, metaphorically beginning to wipe the tears from her eyes.
Then, in verse 16, Jesus said something that changed Mary. Look what he said. One word that changed everything. He said, “Mary.”
Something happened inside her when he spoke her name. She recognized him instantly. It was his voice—the voice she thought she would never hear again. She turned to him and said, in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” John used the Aramaic word there. You can see the parenthetical note “which means Teacher.” John wants to preserve the scene, how intensely personal it was. Jesus said Mary’s name as he always had, and she called him Rabboni as she always had.
Why did that one word open her eyes? Think back to John 10. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.” Mary knew his voice. But at first, she didn’t. So, what’s happening? There is a hearing that isn’t really hearing, and then there is a God-given hearing. Mary experienced both in a matter of minutes. There was the hearing with dead ears and then the hearing of ears alive in Christ. What was the switch? It was Jesus calling her name. His sheep heard his voice. It was a knowing call. It was a faith-giving call. My friend T.J. says, “This is the shortest sermon in the Bible. Just one word. And yet it is the heart and goal of every sermon preached in the name of Jesus Christ: that we would all hear our names spoken.”
The hope of the resurrection is that it not only brought Jesus back to life but also brings his sheep back to life. The hope of the resurrection is not reserved for Mary only. We will see next week this hope surging through the disciples and eventually out into the world. The hope of the resurrection is the power of the Spirit bringing people to life in Christ. It is the power of God turning weeping into joy. It is the Gardener doing his work in our hearts, uprooting unbelief, and planting the flower of faith that saves.
Between verse 16, when Mary’s eyes were opened, and verse 17, when Jesus again spoke, Mary hugged him. We don’t know how long that hug was, but I doubt it was a short one. It was the hug for someone she thought she would never see again. She didn’t ever want to let go. But Jesus told her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.” Now, that’s a very difficult verse to understand. What does Jesus mean? D.A. Carson put it this way.
The thought might be paraphrased this way: ‘Stop touching me (or, Stop holding on to me), for I am not yet in the ascended state, so you do not have to hang on to me as if I were about to disappear permanently. This is a time for joy and sharing the good news, not for clutching me as if I were some jealously guarded private dream-come-true. Stop clinging to me, but go and tell my disciples that I am in process of ascending to my Father and your Father.’ [Carson, The Gospel according to John, 644.]
Jesus told Mary that his resurrection was good news for everyone, and she now had an important job. He made her the apostle to the apostles. She would be the one to share the good news of the resurrection. Jesus entrusted that honor to a woman who, at that time, would not even be allowed to testify in a court of law. Isn’t that remarkable?
We know from Luke 8 that Mary was once possessed by seven demons. Jesus drove them from her. Now, at his tomb, he drove another darkness from her. He was alive! There is no greater joy. And Jesus, in his massive grace, charged this once demon-possessed woman with taking the news of the resurrection to the apostles. Don’t tell me Jesus can’t change someone’s life!
Mary was in a unique position that day, but she is a model for us all. We, too, have been delivered from darkness, and we, too, have good news of Jesus’s resurrection to share.
Mary knew the resurrection changed everything, and the other disciples soon would, too. But imagine for a second that you were one of Jesus’s disciples that day. You had walked with him throughout his ministry, but by the time of his arrest and crucifixion, you weren’t the friend he needed at that hour. You couldn’t stay awake and pray, as he asked. If you were Peter, you denied knowing him three times. Would you receive the news with great joy or with also a little fear as to how he would respond?
Some of us don’t have to imagine that. We feel so unworthy of being his disciples that we can barely rejoice in his life. We fear him coming to us. Our sins are many. Oh, but his mercy is more! Look at verse 17. What did Jesus say to Mary? “Go to my brothers.” He could have said, “Go to those failures,” but he didn’t. That’s not who they were to him, not because of his life, death, and resurrection. They were his brothers.
Because of the cross and resurrection, all whom Jesus calls are no longer outsiders hoping to get in. All in Christ are insiders. Brothers and sisters. Like the disciples, we aren’t in God’s family because we earn a spot; we are in God’s family because he purchased us on the cross and gathered us in his resurrection. That’s why He told Mary he was ascending to “my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” We don’t earn our way in, and we can’t sin our way out. His cross is our deliverance from darkness, and his resurrection is his welcome into his kingdom.
So, as her Lord told her to do, Mary went and, full of joy, announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.”
I love how Sally Lloyd-Jones describes what that joy might have been like in The Jesus Storybook Bible.
Mary ran and ran, all the way to the city. She had never run so fast or so far in all her life. She felt like she could have run forever. She didn’t even feel like her feet touched the ground. The sun seemed to be dancing and gleaming and bounding across the sky, racing with her and shining brighter than she could ever remember in the clear, fresh air.
And it seemed to her that morning, as she ran, almost as if the whole world had been made anew, almost as if the whole world was singing for joy—the trees, tiny sounds in the grass, the birds…her heart.
Was God really making everything sad come untrue? Was he making even death come untrue?
She couldn’t wait to tell Jesus’s friends. “They won’t believe it!” she laughed.
Of course, we don’t know if that’s what Mary thought as she ran to the disciples, but it sounds about right, doesn’t it? The resurrection changes everything. Everything sad is coming untrue.
Jesus has risen! He has risen indeed.
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible now to Luke 1:46-55.
We’re looking at Mary’s song, known as the Magnificat. Magnificat is a word we don’t use very often. It’s a Latin word that means “magnifies,” which is the first word of this passage in the Latin translation of the Bible. It’s a fitting title. In this song, Mary magnifies the Lord.
The song comes after the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would bear a son by the Holy Spirit. In response to that unbelievable message, she asked, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” Gabriel said the Holy Spirit would come upon her, and she would be the mother of the Son of God.
Gabriel then added additional confirmation that nothing is impossible with God when he told Mary that Elizabeth, her much older relative, was also pregnant. So, Luke says, Mary went in haste to Elizabeth. When Mary arrived, she didn’t even have to tell Elizabeth what happened. She already knew, and she cried out. “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
Elizabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist, and Mary was pregnant with Jesus Christ. They were joined by a common situation, which itself is a wonderful gift of grace to each. Elizabeth’s words confirmed what Mary had heard from the angel. She wasn’t crazy. Elizabeth didn’t downplay what was happening in Mary’s life. She magnified it, which might be one reason why Mary then magnified the Lord through song.
Mary’s song is the first Christmas carol, and as we will see, it’s the best one too. Let’s read it now.
46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
This is God’s word.
INTRODUCTION
Buddy the Elf said, “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.” Mary knew that, too. Now, this song wasn’t a performance. Mary didn’t write it for a crowd. She wrote it as a response to God for God. It’s very personal and real to her, but God has used it to spread Christmas cheer for 2,000 years.
Her song is in the form of a Psalm of Thanksgiving. She begins by thanking God and then tells why she is thankful. It’s highly theological and worshipful. It’s amazing that a woman so young as Mary could have composed it, and some commentators think it must have been a later addition written by someone else. It would be quite amazing if an American girl wrote a song like this today, but our day of biblical illiteracy was not the norm in Mary’s day. Every young Israelite would know the great songs of the Old Testament by heart. They would know the great story of God’s redemptive work by heart. They knew the Bible very well. Mary knew it so well that commentators have pointed out the song either quotes from or alludes to verses from Genesis, Deuteronomy, 1 and 2 Samuel, Job, Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. Mary knew her Bible.
But what else did Mary know? There’s a song we sing this time of year that asks that question. People have strong feelings about that song because people have strong feelings about everything. But feelings aside, I do think the question is a good one for our text today. What did Mary know?
Her song tells us she knew at least three things.
1. The Wonder of Christmas
2. The Purpose of Christmas
3. The Faithfulness of Christmas
THE WONDER OF CHRISTMAS
A.W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Mary’s song shows us what came into her mind when she thought about God.
Look at the opening in verses 46 and 47. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” By “soul” and “spirit,” we aren’t to take that as two separate parts. It’s parallelism. She’s saying the same thing twice. She’s talking about the deepest core of her being. Her innermost self. Her heart. She’s been touched by, moved by, and captivated by God deep inside. Her soul magnifies, and her spirit rejoices. Her heart worships God.
In verses 48-49, Mary tells us why she sings. “For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.”
Here’s where this song starts to get really convicting and really remarkable. Mary knew who she was. She wasn’t a big deal. Later, when Mary sings about those of humble estate in verse 52, she means those like her at the bottom of the social order. She was a nobody from nowhere. She knew she wasn’t perfect. That’s why she calls God her savior in verse 47. She wasn’t deserving of God’s attention. But God looked down upon her with mercy and grace. She had a deep sense of wonder over this. She wonders, “Why would God do great things for me? Why would he care about me? Why will all generations call me blessed?”
Mary’s response to the news of Christmas was, “Why me?” Isn’t that amazing? Now, if something bad happens to me, I ask, “Why me?” You probably do, too. But when this wonderful thing happened to Mary, that’s when she asked, “Why me?” She made no assumptions about her relationship with God. She did not assume she was deserving. She did not think to herself, “Well, of course, I would be the mother of God.” No. She didn’t think that at all. She is a great example of the kind of humble amazement that should mark every Christian.
Mary shows us what true Christianity looks like. True Christianity is a humble faith. It’s not something done by you; it’s something done for you. I like how Tim Keller puts it.
What is Christianity? If you think Christianity is mainly going to church, believing a certain creed, and living a certain kind of life, then there will be no note of wonder and surprise about the fact that you are a believer. If someone asks you, ‘Are you a Christian?’ You will say, ‘Of course I am! It’s hard work but I’m doing it. Why do you ask?’ Christianity is, in this view, something done by you—and so there’s no astonishment about being a Christian. However, if Christianity is something done for you, and to you, and in you, then there is a constant note of surprise and wonder…
So if someone asks you if you are a Christian, you should not say, ‘Of Course!’ There should be no ‘of-course-ness’ about it. It would be more appropriate to say, ‘Yes, I am, and that’s a miracle. Me! A Christian! Who would have ever thought it? Yet he did it, and I’m his.’
Christianity is a religion of utter shock. It’s all grace. So here’s what this means in light of Mary’s song. If you are in Christ, Mary’s song is your song, too. Yes, she was blessed in a unique way as the mother of Jesus, and maybe you think, “Well, you know, it’s not hard to praise God when you’ve got Jesus inside you!” But don’t you, Christian brothers and sisters, have him inside you, too? Doesn’t the Bible tell us that? The apostle Paul spends a lot of ink saying we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Colossians 1:7—one of my favorites—“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
The hope of Christmas isn’t for Mary only. It’s for you, too. Every Christian is like Mary, and Mary is like every Christian. Mary’s song is your song if you are in Christ. What moved Mary to sing was not so much the physical reality of Jesus, the baby, in her womb as it was the spiritual reality of Jesus, her savior, looking upon her with his grace and mercy. We have been recipients of the same grace and mercy. Her song is our song.
There are basically two ways to think of God. We can minimize him, or we can magnify him. Mary shows us the kind of people that magnify the Lord. They ask, “Why me?” in humility and wonder. They praise him for his work in the world and in their lives. That’s not to say it’s easy. Think of Mary’s situation. Without her doing anything but receiving the grace of God, she became a pregnant, unwed virgin. She was young. She was not socially well-off. The situation could have sent her through a break-up, a scandal, and a life of exclusion and derision. Her life could be ruined by this news. But instead of spiraling downward, she looked upward. Isn’t that amazing?
The opposite of magnification is minimization. We minimize God when we ask, “Why me?” in a despairing way, in a way that looks for a way out of the situation he’s put us in, where we just can’t seem to trust he has anything good in this for us. We minimize him when we let our circumstances get bigger in our minds than God. We minimize him when when we consider our feelings as greater than his purposes. We minimize him when we don’t factor him into the moment-by-moment events, thoughts, and realities of our lives.
Isn’t Mary’s way the better way? Isn’t it the biblical way? Isn’t it the way we most long to live? How can we get there? We get there the same way Mary did—by standing in awe of God, by being captivated by him. That’s not an automatic thing. Not for sinners like us. But that can be our reality if we open our hearts to God, moment by moment.
Francis Schaeffer used a great phrase for this: active passivity. Active passivity is putting yourself in the path of God’s grace and letting him do his work in your life. It’s active in that it’s a conscious effort with the help of the Holy Spirit, and it’s passive in that it is God who works in us, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. It’s our faith in his work. It’s an active looking to him, moment by moment, like Mary did, receiving moment by moment all that he is. Isn’t it freeing to know that God is not asking us to save ourselves? He’s asking us only to receive his salvation. Mary did that, and she stood in awe and wonder. “Why me?”
Mary sang because God had done great things for her. He has done great things for us, too, has he not? Shouldn’t we respond like Mary? “Why me?”
Now, Mary’s song starts out with a lot of personal pronouns—“me” and “my.” I think it has to. There is a very personal element to faith. But faith leads us on to consider God’s grander purposes, which is our second point.
THE PURPOSE OF CHRISTMAS
By faith, Mary was caught up in God’s grand story. By grace, she had a role to play. That grand narrative is where Mary takes us next. She extols God’s work in the world. What he is doing for Mary is what he has been doing for all like her throughout history. It’s the normal way God operates in the world.
Look at what she says in verses 50-53. “And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.”
God’s mercy isn’t for everyone. Who is it for? Look at verse 50. “His mercy is for those who fear him.” The word fear means reverence. Those who revere and honor God as holy and look to him by faith are the recipients of his mercy. And the wonderful thing is it’s not limited to a certain era. This offer of mercy extends “from generation to generation.” All God asks of us is that we treat him as God and receive his mercy in humility. The bar is really so low, but our pride can get in the way.
These verses help us see how God relates to the proud and the humble.
God humbles the proud. Verse 51, “He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.” Verse 52, “He has brought down the mighty from their thrones.” Verse 53, “The rich he has sent away empty.” I think of the traditional American folk song, “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.” You can run on for a long time, but sooner or later, God’s gonna cut you down. History shows us this. All who set themselves against God end up scattered. He brings down the mighty from their thrones, and by thrones, Mary means those actually ruling. Think of the examples we see of this in the Bible. Pharaoh. Nebuchadnezzar. The Assyrians. The Babylonians. Where are they now? When God comes in judgment, he scatters. He did it at the tower of Babel. He did it to the armies that faced Israel in the Promised Land. He still does it today.
On the other hand, God exalts the humble. Verse 50, “He has mercy on those who fear him.” Verse 52, “He has exalted those of humble estate.” Verse 53, “He has filled the hungry with good things.” Think of Joseph in Genesis. Think of David and Goliath. Think of Job in his suffering. Think of Daniel in Babylon. Think of Mary at Christmas. Think of Jesus in his resurrection after the cross.
When God comes in judgment, he scatters. When God comes in salvation, he gathers. What is true for us depends on our willingness or unwillingness to receive the reality of Christmas. Jesus came to save sinners. Are you sinful enough for Jesus?
Do you feel a need deep in your heart for forgiveness, for mercy, for grace, for a new start? Jesus has come for you.
Do you feel like you’ve ruined your life, and you’re not sure where to go next? Jesus has come for you.
Do you feel like you’ve blown it, and there’s just no hope left? Jesus has come for you.
Do you feel trapped by your own sin? Jesus has come for you.
On Andrew Peterson’s amazing album, Behold the Lamb of God, there is a haunting song called “Deliver Us.”
Our sins, they are more numerous than all the lambs we slay
Our shackles, they were made with our own hands
Our toil is our atonement and our freedom Yours to give
So Yahweh, break this silence if You can
Deliver us, deliver us
Oh Yahweh, hear our cry
And gather us beneath Your wings tonight
Christmas tells us that Yahweh has heard our cry, and Jesus has come to gather us beneath his wings tonight.
Jesus is not asking for any sacrifice from you. He’s already provided that on his cross. All he’s asking for is your empty hands of faith. He’s asking for you to accept his sacrifice and to fall into his arms and find rest. Christmas tells us God is not silent in the face of our deep despair. To the humble of the world, to the poor in spirit, to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, Jesus has come to gather you!
In your fear and longing and despair and suffering and sins and all the rest of the terrible, horrible things that frighten you and wound you, Jesus has come to deliver you. Your sins are your shackles, but Jesus came to set you free. If you want him, and you’re willing to lay down your weapons of sin and rebellion, if you’re willing to be weak enough to accept his salvation, to humble yourself before him, he will gather you into his arms where there is safety and refuge forever. You cannot be too low for Jesus. He came all the way down here to get you.
But if we don’t want that. If we refuse him. If we set ourselves against him and do all we can to minimize him, he will have his glory anyway. All that you work for will be for nothing in the end. He will scatter you. And, you know, perhaps that’s exactly what you need to be humbled enough to come to him. I don’t know, but he does. If it takes scattering to gather, there is mercy in that, too.
These verses are not just comfort for the humble; they are also a warning to the proud. Heed both.
It’s not too late to make a change. Mary sang these verses in the past tense, but commentators point out that based on the grammar, Mary is also being prophetic. These words are true not only of history but also of the present. The comfort still stands. So does the warning. Jesus came to live and die and rise again. Will you accept mercy from the Savior’s crucified hands?
If we will, God will be faithful to have mercy on us. Christmas shows the faithfulness of God, which is our final point.
THE FAITHFULNESS OF CHRISTMAS
Mary ends her song by looking back to the very beginning in verses 54 and 55. “He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
In the book of Genesis, God made a covenant with Abraham. In Genesis 15, God and Abraham perform a covenant ceremony. In those days, two parties would cut animals in half, and each party would walk through the separated pieces of flesh as a way of saying, “If I break my promise, I’ll become like these animals. Torn apart.” It was an agreement to uphold their end of the deal or die.
But something interesting happened during this particular ceremony. The Bible says that God put Abraham in a deep sleep, and at the time when both parties would traditionally walk through the separated flesh together, God walked alone. God was saying, “If the covenant is broken by either of us, I alone will be torn apart. You, Abraham, are not held responsible for this promise. This is mine to bring about, and I will do it.” God’s covenant doesn’t depend on us; it depends all on him, on his faithfulness to bring it to completion.
Two thousand years later, Jesus came and said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.” Jesus came to pay the covenant penalties on behalf of the party who broke it. We deserved death. But God made the promise alone, and he bore the penalty alone. Jesus died so that we might live. He came to make peace with God on our behalf. The hopes and fears of all the years were met in him that night. Jesus will gather us beneath his wings. We are safe in him. Always. God is faithful. Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday prove it.
When Mary looked at God’s promise to Abraham, she knew it was a promise beyond Abraham. It was a promise to his offspring, from generation to generation forever. Abraham lived inside the story God was creating for his people in the future. Mary did, too. In a sense, we all do. The promises of God are guarantees sealed by the Spirit of the weight of glory that is to come when Jesus returns. And he will come again because God is faithful. No one can defeat his plans.
Mary shows us that God’s story is an everlasting one of his Never-Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love. It’s a song for all who are weary and need rest, for all who mourn and long for comfort, for all who are anxious and yearn for peace, for all who fail and desire strength, and for all who sin and need a savior.
This is your gift from your Heavenly Father. Will you take it and enjoy it?
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible now to Matthew 1:18-25.
It’s the Christmas season, so we’re taking a few weeks to look at the Christmas story. Today, we’re looking at one of the quintessential Christmas passages from Matthew’s gospel. And what Matthew tells us is that this baby born so long ago is both like and unlike every other baby ever born. He is like us in that he is human like us. But he is unlike us in that he is God. He’s God come down to us. That is, of course, what Christmas is all about.
So, today, I want us to consider what that means. I want to behold Jesus together, considering his might and glory, his humility and love, and his presence and peace.
So, let’s read the passage together now.
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
This is God’s word.
INTRODUCTION
You know, it’s easy to get used to the Christmas story, isn’t it? Christmas is the most celebrated holiday in our culture. Even the most secular places play songs about Jesus this time of year. With all that familiarity, it’s not hard for the razor’s edge of Christmas to become dull to us. The story slips into the rest of the season’s sentimentality. I think that’s a tragedy. We need Christmas. We need this story. We need this truth. And we need to be sure we don’t miss it.
Christmas is the answer to our deepest problems, most wicked sins, and most profound longings. We need Christmas because we are not who we should be, and we don’t know how to get where we need to be. We need Christmas because, if we’re completely honest with ourselves, we need a hope from beyond. We need someone to save us from what we’ve done and who we’ve become.
Christmas is the answer to that deep problem. All of history pivots at the birth of Jesus, from anticipating the Savior to accepting the Savior. It changes everything. It preaches good news to sinners and sufferers. As Tim Keller said, “To understand Christmas is to understand basic Christianity, the Gospel.”
And, oh, how we need the gospel! Christmas comes to us each year as a fresh pronouncement of the Savior’s birth, the Savior’s mission, the Savior’s love, the Savior’s saving. Christmas is heaven’s cry that though we are profoundly sinful and undeserving, God has not abandoned us. He has come to be with us. The gospel is a paradox. The holy God cannot abide with sinners, but in Christ, he does, not by giving up his holiness but by giving his holiness to us in Christ. Jesus, being born like us, became the perfect us through his perfect life. And in his substitutionary death and glorious resurrection, he both paid for all our sins and gave us all his righteousness. In Christ, the Holy God is with us—he could not be closer.
This is the amazing story of Christmas. When this world, by its sin, declared war on God, the Lord of Armies sent a baby who lived and died and rose again to usher in a kingdom that cannot fail and cannot fade, where tomorrow is better than today, and the future consists of an increase of glory and hope and joy because Jesus, our Savior, has redeemed us.
So, let’s look at this Savior now. He’s more than we bargained for, but he’s all that we need. He’s God, he’s man, and he’s Immanuel—God with man. Let’s consider each of those truths.
JESUS IS GOD
Matthew tells us plainly who Jesus is. He gets right to the point. Jesus is God. Look at verse 18. “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.” We hear the same again when the angel told Joseph in verse 20, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
The weight of these words is magnificent. From the Holy Spirit. Birth is always miraculous, but this was truly unique. Matthew is saying that the baby in Mary’s womb had no earthly father’s DNA. This child came from the Heavenly Father, from the Holy Spirit, from God himself. In no uncertain terms, Matthew is saying that Jesus is God.
Now, that statement has always been controversial, no less in our day than in any other. But this isn’t a one-off. Go to any New Testament writer, and you will find them talking about the divinity of Jesus. They all treat him and worship him and follow him as God. The divinity of Jesus is a basic tenant of biblical Christianity. The Bible tells us of this Triune God, this one God in three persons. This is why Christmas demands as much as it comforts. It demands that we treat Jesus as God. We laugh at Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights around the dinner table praying to baby Jesus because he likes the Christmas Jesus the best, but the Christmas Jesus isn’t a sweet little harmless baby. He’s the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power. He’s the one who conquered sin, death, and Satan. He’s the mighty God. Christmas is not just a nice holiday that gives families and friends time to give gifts and be kind and eat good food and take a day off work. Christmas is a declaration. It’s a line in the sand. It’s a proclamation the God is here, his name is Jesus, and you can have him if you want him, but you have to take him whole. You have to take him as God. You can’t have him as only a teacher. You can’t have him as only a good example. You can only have him as God and Lord because that’s who he is. You can have him, but you must have him as God. There is simply no other way.
Now, I also want to point out that this couldn’t have been easy for Joseph to accept. Joseph was a Jew. Jews didn’t exactly have a category for God coming down to his people like this. If he were a Greek or Roman, he may have accepted it easier. Their religions included gods who often disguised themselves as humans and came into the world. But Jews did not have a category for that kind of thing. God was personal but also infinite. He was the Creator of all, the Sustainer of all, above everything and over everything, transcendent. The glory and majesty of God were so fearful that Jews wouldn’t even say his name because it was deemed so holy. Yet here is an angel telling Joseph in a dream that this transcendent God is coming down to earth in the form of a human baby.
To get an idea of the magnitude, we have to think of all that Scripture says about God. I love how Ray Ortlund put it.
Think of the names of God in the Bible: Yahweh, the one who is near; El Shaddai, the Almighty; El Elyon, the Most High; Adonai, Master; El Olam, the Everlasting God; El Qanna, the Jealous God; Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide; Jehovah Sebaoth, the Lord of Armies; Jehovah Ropheka (Rof-a-ka), the Lord who heals you; Jehovah Tsidkenu (Sid-ke-new), the Lord our righteousness.
Think of the images of God in the Bible: king, shepherd, warrior, rock, refuge, shield, father, maker, judge, lawgiver, comforter, savior, lion, lamb, and many more.
Think of the attributes of God in the Bible: living, powerful, shrewd, just, merciful, pure, honest, faithful, joyful, patient, rich, sovereign, kind, and above all, loving.
Christmas tells us that glorious God came down to us in Jesus. Perhaps it’s difficult to accept Jesus is God. It’s easier to think of him as semi-God, something like God but less than. I mean, could glory like that inhabit flesh like ours? But if we are to accept the Bible as it is, to swallow it whole, as it were, we must accept that Jesus is God. If we can’t accept Jesus’s divinity, it means our Jesus is just too small.
Let me say it one more time. Christmas is about the God of glory coming down from heaven to save his people from their sins. The Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Revelation 1:8) has come down to us. In Jesus, God came into the world!
And Joseph was to be his father. Of course, not in the traditional sense. There is a reversal of sorts here. Notice Joseph didn’t choose to be the father of the incarnate God. He was told he would serve that role, making him the adoptive father. Joseph didn’t choose Jesus. Jesus chose him. The child adopted the father. That’s amazing. Jesus is the only baby in history that chose his family. And what a family he chose! Sinners, all of them. Unworthy, every one of them. Undeserving, each and all.
Now, why did God choose Joseph? Of all men at the time, why him? He didn’t seem particularly important. We don’t even hear much else from him after Jesus is born. To understand why he was chosen, we have to go back to the Old Testament. A long time ago, when David was king of Israel, in 2 Samuel 7, God promised David that one of his sons would rule forever. Years and years later, an angel came to Joseph and—look at verse 20—referred to him as who? “Son of David.” In other words, Joseph had the lineage God promised would rule. God’s promise was coming true. More was at stake with Joseph accepting God’s call than another child born into the world. This child was the everlasting ruler promised long ago, coming to reign as prophecied. God was fulfilling his promise.
It turned Joseph’s world upside down. It turned the whole world upside down. Christmas is good news of great joy for all the people. It’s the story of the baby born in a manger who is the Lord of lords and King of kings. The one for whom there was no room in the inn but made room in heaven for sinners. The child who was born like us to give us a new birth so that we may be like him. This boy in the barn was the glory of heaven. We have been visited not by a vision of God, not by an apparition of God, not even by a messenger of God, but by God himself, in Jesus.
This is the great hope in which we live. God has come. He stepped into our mess, into our lives, into our experience, into our hopelessness, into his promises, and brought life and hope and everything else. He came to us to bring us to himself. He did it not from heaven but from earth. Jesus is God, but Christmas tells us more. Jesus is also man.
JESUS IS MAN
In verse 21, the angel told Joseph that Mary would “Bear a son...” Sons are born every day. But that day was special. The glorious God became a humble man. We might be so used to this that it’s lost its edge, so let’s listen to a couple of men who thought this through.
C.S. Lewis tried to help us grasp the humility of Jesus.
The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a foetus inside a woman’s body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab.
J.I. Packer put it this way.
God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child…The babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation.
Jesus is God. He is also man. Just as Jesus is not something like but less than God, he is not something like but less than man. He is fully man even as he is fully God. He is profoundly and completely one of us. As the author of Hebrews put it, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things.” Not similar things. The same things.
Jesus was born just like you were. He grew up just like you did. His body changed and developed and matured just like yours did. He had to learn how to walk, how to talk, how to do things for himself. He lived a human life just like you live. He ate food. He drank water. He laughed. He cried. He felt the coolness of the breeze on a summer day and the chill of night after the sun went down. He knew how good it felt to sit down and take your shoes off at the end of a long day’s work. He felt the comfort of friendship. He experienced the joy of life at weddings and parties.
He also experienced the pain of life. He got splinters in his hands. He lost friends to illness and death. He knew betrayal. He knew what it was like to have those close not trust him. He bled. He died. He went through it all. The only difference between your human life and his human life is that he never sinned. And if that difference weren’t there, we wouldn’t be here talking about him at all. But there is that difference. The sinlessness of the man Jesus Christ is the hinge upon which the door of Christmas opens and stays open. It’s the only way we could be saved. Jesus becoming man to become the perfect man to save sinful man was the whole point of Christmas. Christmas is God’s great rescue plan. It’s his great story.
As it always is with God, the deeper we go, the bigger the truth gets. The comfort of Christmas grows the more you consider it. Jesus is God. Jesus is also man. Fully both. That means that God has now been on the inside of man. He knows this life we live. He understands you. He’s been in your shoes. There is nothing you face that God doesn’t know intimately. There is nothing you face that God hasn’t conquered for you. There is nothing you face that can keep you from God.
We know this not only because of the story but also because of the name of this child born in Bethlehem. Look at verse 21. “And you shall call his name Jesus.” Now, I have four kids, and I think they have wonderful names. I named them. But their names don’t really mean anything. They’re labels. Nice labels, I think, but really just labels. It’s not that way with Jesus. His name isn’t a label. It’s a message. The name Jesus means “savior” or “God is salvation.” That’s why, in the phrase immediately after, the angel adds an explanatory note. “And you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” So, every time we say the name Jesus, we are proclaiming the gospel message: God is salvation.
Jesus’s name meant he had a mission. He had to live up to the name. He was to save his people. What was he to save them from? From their oppressors? God’s people had many throughout the ages. From their suffering? There is plenty of that in this world. Maybe he would save them from disease or accidents or storms or disasters? But it wasn’t any of those things. He was to save them from what? Look at verse 21 again. “He will save his people from their sins.”
Our greatest enemy is not anything outside of us. It is who we are, the sin we are born with, the sin we act out and think with. The most tragic thing about us is not what happens to us but what happens in us. That doesn’t mean terrible things don’t happen to us. They do. But it does mean that we, too, are guilty of our own sin. As much as we may need salvation from others, we need salvation from ourselves—from our sins.
So Jesus came on a mission with a purpose to save us from that. But why did God have to become man to save us from our sins? Couldn’t he save us without leaving heaven? In Hebrews 9:22, the author tells us, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” In the Old Testament, God instituted the sacrificial system in Israel to give them a pathway to forgiveness of sins by sacrificing bulls and goats. But in Hebrews 10:4, the author says, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” So what’s the deal? God gave a sacrificial system that wasn’t good enough? Yes. The truth remains—only blood atones—but not the blood of animals. It all pointed to what was to come in Jesus.
The Bible tells us the wages of sin is death. Our sin deserves the death penalty. God, in his mercy, provided a way of forgiveness in the sacrificial system, but it was only temporary. The blood of animals could never satisfy the penalty of our sins. Man’s sin requires man’s blood. So, as Paul says in Romans 3:25, God put forth Christ as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. Jesus offered his blood for us. After living a perfect life we could never live, he died a guilty death he never deserved. On the cross, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Of course, he knew the answer. The answer begins at Christmas. Jesus came to be the one on whom our sins were laid as a propitiatory sacrifice to take the judgment of God against us and set us free in him.
“You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Here’s what that means: In Christ, you are free. You owe God nothing and you have in God everything. That’s the story of Christmas. That’s the great gift.
But, as hard as it may be to believe, there is even more in the gift. It’s kind of like Mary Poppins’s bag. How can it all fit in there? Jesus came not only to pay for our sins but to welcome us into his arms. He came not just to fix our problems but to give us peace. He came not just to save us but to redeem us. He came not just to deal with us but to be with us, and that’s our third point.
JESUS IS GOD WITH MAN
Look at verses 22 and 23. “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).” If Jesus is his name, Immanuel is his nature. He saves us, and he stays with us.
Here’s why this matters so much. I think most of us has realized by now just how hard life can be. For some of us, every day is a struggle. It might be physical pain. It might be emotional pain. It might be mental pain. It might be a combination of all three or any number of other things. Sins against us and sins we have committed harm and wound us. Our thoughts are not safe. We can go to dark places. Even Christians can. We might have been saved by Christ’s cross, but that’s 2,000 years ago. What about yesterday? What about today? What about tomorrow? When I face that hard thing I know is coming, who will be with me then? Christmas says Jesus will be.
You know, at some point, a question will arise: has God abandoned me? Sometimes, we suffer so profoundly that we wonder if God has forsaken us. Our Bedford Falls turns into Pottersville. Our childhood dreams of B.B. Guns never arrive on Christmas morning. Our Cousin Eddies are the only ones who show up, lugging their junk along with them, making our embarrassment greater and our seasons harder. Our Christmas is stolen, and there is no song around the tree in the morning because the Grinch actually knew how to strike our hopes. There is no miracle on 34th Street or any other street. We are left home alone, and no one is looking for us. We strike out to find our dad, only to find a cold city with a hard heart and no Christmas spirit. Life sometimes feels that way, doesn’t it?
What does Christmas say to those feelings? It says this, and it says it as loud as possible: God is with us!
That doesn’t mean life is easy. It doesn’t mean we don’t have to live through Pottersville. It doesn’t mean our hopes aren’t sometimes disappointed. It doesn’t mean others don’t cause us problems. It doesn’t mean what is precious to us isn’t stolen. But it does mean you aren’t alone. Your life is not limited to what this world can give. It’s not limited to what you can achieve. It’s not limited to what you can get through your hard work and sacrifice. It’s not limited to your own luck. Your life is defined by a miracle. God is with you!
It is so easy for us to believe God is against us. He has every reason to be, doesn’t he? Our sins are many. Our failures pile up. Our weaknesses shine brighter than our strengths. But Christmas says God is not against us. Not anymore. Not because of Christ.
I just want that to settle in your heart today. Christmas means God is with you. Jesus makes this a reality. He entered this very real world you and I live in right now. He came into this darkness. He came into this situation. He came into this difficulty. He came into this life of suffering. He came into this judgey world with its constant demands and never-ending criticisms and unwavering conflict. And though he died, he rose again, and this ehe ascended to the Father, he sent his Spirit. He’s still with us today. He’s here right now, and he’ll be there tomorrow when that thing you dread comes.
Perhaps the best thing of all is that none of this depends one bit on you. Jesus isn’t with you because you deserve him. He’s with you because of his grace. And God is so with you that there is not a single second that he turns from you. He never gets weary of you. He hears your cries. He knows your needs. He sees your sins, and instead of turning away, he comes to save you. He is your ally when you feel abandoned and alone. He is your defender when you are guilty. He is your justifier when you have no excuses. He is your surety when there is only uncertainty. He is the anchor of your soul when your life hangs in the balance. And he is the one you can turn to when life feels so sweet you just want to thank someone. He is personally involved with you. Jesus is more than what he did for you. He is a very real presence with you. Jesus came to be your savior and your friend. Receive that gift. Enjoy it. It’s yours in Christ.
All you need to have Jesus is need. Your sin and weakness that you believe disqualify you actually qualify you for his grace. Jesus came to the lowly for the lowly. He’s not just with the cool kids. He’s with all who are weary and need rest, all who mourn and long for comfort, all who feel anxious and yearn for peace, all who fail and desire strength, all who sin and need a Savior. He is Immanuel. God with you.
In Christ, you can have your life back. Pottersville is fading away. Bedford Falls is being restored.
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible now to John 15:1-17. We’re in the middle of Jesus’s Farewell Discourse, where Jesus instructs his disciples on how to live in this world. We’re listening in on those conversations now because they are for us just as they were for his original hearers.
John 15:1-17
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
John’s gospel includes seven “I am” sayings of Jesus. “I am the bread of life” (6:35). “I am the light of the world” (8:12). “I am the door” (10:7). “I am the good shepherd” (10:11,14). “I am the resurrection and the life” (11:25). “I am the way and the truth and the life” (14:6). And, lastly, “I am the true vine” (15:1).
One reason Jesus defines himself that way is because he’s affirming that he’s the God of the Old Testament who has come to save his people.
But he also wants us to know that he is everything we need. He’s a complete savior. He feeds and nourishes us. He enlightens and illuminates us. He lets us in and welcomes us. He cares for and tends to us. He restores and redeems us. He leads and saves us. He sustains and grows us. Jesus is all the savior any of us will ever need.
Our passage today confirms who Jesus is for us and what Jesus can do in us. It explains what it means to be a Christian. It’s not about what we do for God but about what God does for us.
We see the seventh and final of Jesus’s “I am” sayings. “I am the true vine.” For 11 verses, he explains what that means. Then, in verse 12, he seems to jump to a different subject, but the common thread of fruit-bearing appears again in verse 16, indicating that these two paragraphs are one unit.
In verses 1-11, we see Jesus, the true vine. In verses 12-17, we see Jesus, the true friend. We need both, and he is both. He’s the vine who will grow us and sustain us, and he’s the friend who will be with us and for us, bearing fruit in us and through us, for his glory and our joy. So, let’s look at each one of these truths—Jesus, the true vine, and Jesus, the true friend.
Verse 1. “I am the true vine.”
What does Jesus mean? Well, in the Old Testament, a vine is a recurring metaphor for Israel. Israel was God’s vine. But Israel proved to be a bad one. They wouldn’t open their heart to God and let him do his gracious work in them. They wanted to be a nation like all the others, and so God’s purpose for them to be the conduit through which his grace would stretch out to the whole world did not bear fruit.
But, of course, God planned for this, and his plan included the sending of the Son, Jesus, who, in the fullness of time, came and became what Israel was supposed to be. He was the true vine that bore good fruit. Through him and in him, the world would find the grace of God pulsating into all his branches, through all his people, through all his churches, ushering in the kingdom of God that will never fail to have good grapes.
So when Jesus says, “I am the true vine,” the emphasis is on the word true. He’s the true vine because he is the true Israel.
But Jesus says something more in verse 1. This is the only “I am” saying with an additional assertion. “And my Father is the vinedresser.” We not only have the true vine, but we also have a Gardener who cultivates his vineyard in two ways, as Jesus says in verse 2. “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”
A good gardener walks through the vineyard to find branches that produce no fruit. They’re just taking strength away from the good vines, so he cuts them off. They’re worthless but costly. Then, he finds the branches with fruit and prunes them to make them even more fruitful. God designed gardening to work this way. Pruning promotes growth.
Now, this metaphor works on two levels. It is true of the church as a whole and of individual believers. Every branch that does not bear fruit in the church—unbelievers—he takes away. Judas is an example of a branch that was cut off.
But it is also true that God cuts off branches in believers. He removes the dead weight. He takes his knife and lops off big, bad things and prunes good branches. The Greek meaning of pruning in verse 2 is hard to translate into English. The idea is that God cleans his people. We see the word clean in verse 3, “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.”
By nature of your conversion to Christ, you are, in a sense, already pruned. But the work is ongoing. It has to be. One of the ways God continually prunes is through the Word. We know this experientially, don’t we? Think of the times when you’ve read the Bible and come across something that cuts against your desires, and you let that word change you and you started to rethink your life. That’s God pruning and cleansing with the Word.
Yet we also know experientially that, though we may be already clean, it sure seems as if God has a lot of work to do in us, doesn’t it? There is an old adage in novel writing that says you must always keep your hero in trouble. Well, some of us feel like that’s our life. Our lives are not easy, and we suffer so many trials. Some of us encounter such trouble because we’re sinful and rebellious. But others of us face it seemingly just because it’s our lot in life. But what if that was because God is deeply at work in us? The trouble we feel is his pruning. He’s a good Gardener. He knows what he’s doing. He’s skilled. He’s a professional. If you ever see a plant after a good gardener has gotten a hold of it, it looks like a disaster, it looks like it’s in trouble, but come back later and you can see the beautiful, fruitful result. Our lives are like that in God’s hands.
Now, that can sound harsh, like God is being mean. But is he? If he’s really God, doesn’t he know best? Talk to anyone who’s been a Christian for a while and they can bear witness that God can be trusted with his shears. They can tell you that God only cuts what would be a loss to keep and what ends up a gain to lose.
This is where we get deep inside Christianity. Other religions set the rules and step back and say, “Get to work.” In Christianity, God comes down to you in Christ and connects you to himself by his Spirit and says gently and seriously, “Let me get to work in you.” You are not left alone to figure out your spiritual life. You are tended to and gardened by your gracious and merciful God. All he asks of you is what Jesus commands in verse 4, “Abide in me, and I in you.”
The word abide is a great word. It means to remain or to stay or to make your home. Isn’t this amazing? Of all the things Jesus could demand, he asks only that we abide with him, to make our home with him. Who of us can’t do that?
But it’s not easy to do, of course. You know those charging stations you see in airports and other public places? They’re great, right? It’s a great amenity when your iPhone is dying and you need a quick recharge. Well, we can treat Jesus like that—like a charging station. We’re thankful to have him when we need him, but he’s a stop along the way. We don’t stay connected to him. He’s merely an amenity. And as a result, our spiritual life doesn’t really work.
Abiding with Jesus is treating him as more than a charging station. He’s offering a life of full power all the time. He’s offering all of himself for all of our needs. And he’s offering it on terms of grace, without any prerequisite, without us bringing anything to the table. He’s offering a constant flow of his everlasting, empowering grace, moment by moment, for the entirety of our lives. We plug into that life source by abiding with him. How can we say no to that offer?
Jesus knows this is hard for us, but he’s so gracious to us. He tells us what we need to know, and when we fail, he forgives us. When we grow bad branches, he cuts them off. When we’re not as fruitful as we could be, he prunes us. He’s making us into who we most deeply desire to be in him. Who wouldn’t want to live in that kind of environment? That’s Christianity. It’s Jesus working in you to make you like himself, the only perfect human to ever live.
Abiding in Jesus is the home we’ve been looking for all our lives, and this wonderful place of endless fruitfulness is ours by grace. In fact, it’s the only true home at all. Everything else is only a mirage, a fake, a con. Even the greatest this world can offer apart from Christ is only a puddle on the shore of God’s great ocean. One wave, and it amounts to nothing. Why not instead dive into the deep places of abiding with Christ?
Our problem all too often is that we think we can get the same peace and assurance by other means. Abiding with Christ doesn’t sound like enough. It sounds too easy. So we get busy, and we end up busy but barren. In verse 4, Jesus says, “The branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” And in verse 5, he says, “Apart from me you can do nothing.”
We are not self-made Christians. We are grace-made Christians, Christ-made Christians. We are not planted nor grown by ourselves, and we don’t bear fruit on our own.
Now, what fruit is Jesus talking about anyway? We see a few aspects of what it might be in the passage.
There is the fruit of effective prayer, verse 7. “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
There is the ability to keep his commandments, verse 10. “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”
There is the experience of his joy, verse 11. “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
There is love for one another, verse 12. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
And there is the fruit of our witness and the winning of the world to Christ, verse 16. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.”
Some say the fruit is obedience. Others say it’s evangelism. I think both are right. It’s much bigger than one single thing. It’s a whole life change. Think of how Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. It’s an entirely new heart. It’s Christ-likeness.
Now, we can’t do any of this in ourselves, can we? We can try, but we just fail. No wonder he says we can do nothing apart from him. Our self-made fruit might look impressive, but it’s like fake fruit on a coffee table. One bite, and it proves itself as nothing. You can fake it with others, but you can’t fool God. Even churches can fall into this trap of faking it. A church can look outwardly like they’re doing the Lord’s work. But if that church does not abide with Christ, it will be like the Church of Sardis in Revelation 3, to whom Jesus said, “I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” We can’t fool God.
Francis Schaeffer said something that is never far from my mind. “We must do the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way.” Anything done in our own strength, though it may look like a wild success, is a massive failure. Anything done in abiding with Christ, though it may look like an absolute disaster, is a massive success. Let’s be people and a church abiding with Christ, doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way. Maybe that’s not impressive, and that might be hard in this world we live in. Our reputation might be of being dead, but if we’re abiding with Christ, we are really alive. Is that ok with us?
The alternative is a life we don’t want to live. Jesus says in verse 6, “If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” Fruitless branches are cut off and burned. But abiding with him guarantees fruitfulness—not because we “figured it out” but because we are connected to the life source itself—to the true vine. Abiding with Christ is the only way to true success.
One more thing before we move on. Look at verse 9. What is the foundation of all this? Where does this come from? Why would God prune us at all? Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” Jesus loves us with the same love as the Father loves him. There is no deeper, truer love than that. The foundation of God’s gardening work is his deep love for us. Jesus is asking us to make our home there, in his love. Why would we not be willing to do that? Even if it hurts sometimes, and we don’t understand it all, knowing what we know, can we not trust him? When has Jesus proven untrue? When has he not come through? What in him is untested? When did he prove untrustworthy?
So, that’s Jesus, the vine. Now, Jesus, the friend.
John 15:12 is a verse that, if we took it to heart, would transform our age, as it would every age. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
The true vine is also our true friend. Abiding in Christ grants more than growth. His love brings us inside the sacred circle of friendship.
And his love changes us into lovers, too. “Love one another as I have loved you.” How does he love us? Verse 13 tells us. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” That wasn’t just a nice saying to Jesus. It would soon become his reality.
Knowing the hell of the cross, Jesus told you, his friend, “I’ll do that for you.” Jesus loves you to death. He loves you sacrificially. He left heaven to come and live the perfect life you couldn’t live and die the guilty death you deserve to die so that you could have new life in him and bear spiritual fruit if you simply accept his offer. On the cross, he was, as it were, cut off so that you wouldn’t have to be. Now, in him, you’re only pruned.
So when we get to verse 14 and read, “You are my friends if you do what I command you,” we can receive that the way he means it. He’s not telling us how to make him our friend. He’s telling us what proves we are his friends. When you see fruit on a branch, you don’t wonder if it’s connected to the vine. You know it is. The fruit is proof. Our obedience proves that we are—not makes us into—his friends.
Verse 15 gives even more insight into what friendship with Jesus means. “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
There is a difference between a servant and a friend. A servant—the meaning there is really a slave—is told what to do but never told why. He is not invited into the conversation. Jesus could treat us that way, but he doesn’t. Instead, he invites us into the conversation. He reveals to us the plan, the mystery of the gospel. He tells us where this world is headed, where he is headed, where we are headed with him. Jesus lets us in on his plans and his purposes, just like a friend would.
This ought to melt our hearts with gratitude, but it can also have the opposite effect if we are not careful. We can puff up with pride. We can attach more importance to ourselves than we should, as if we deserve this knowledge, as if we are better than others because of it. So, to make sure we don’t get too high and mighty on our own self-importance, Jesus reminds us in verse 16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” Our standing as friends of Jesus Christ is not based on anything we have done, are doing, or will do in the future. It is not even based on our reaching out to him to make him our friend. It is based on his sovereign, electing grace. We did not choose him. He chose us.
And he chose us for a purpose. This is so dignifying. Jesus did not choose you for a life of mediocrity. He did not choose you to just get by. He chose you for glory. It’s so easy for us to think of ourselves too highly, but it’s also easy for us to think of ourselves too lowly. The gospel is the answer to both. We’re not so great that we don’t need saving, and we’re not so bad that we can’t be saved. We haven’t done anything so great to deserve his attention, and we haven’t done anything so poorly to disqualify ourselves from his mission.
If you tend to see yourself as too low, as I often do, you need to know that Jesus chose you to be his friend. You are not basically a problem to him. You are a divine strategy. Your life matters to him and he aims to use you for his glory in this broken world. Verse 16 says as much. “I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
In other words, Jesus chose you because he has chosen others, too, and your friend Jesus is asking you to go out into his world and invite others into friendship with him. And to give us even more confidence, he tells us that whatever we ask the Father in his name, he will give to us. People can and have taken that the wrong way. The context is key. Jesus isn’t saying we can ask for whatever we want, generally, but for whatever we need in Christ, specifically. As we abide with him and go out to bear fruit for him through a life devoted to him, and we run into a need that only he can meet, we can ask the Father in Jesus’s name, and he will provide. That’s the kind of friend we have in Jesus. He is a true one. One that stands by us, always.
So, when Jesus says in verse 17, “These things I command you, so that you will love one another,” we know the place from which he says this has the power of his love behind it. It’s a love as deep as the cross and as glorious as the resurrection. Our love is based on his love, and his love is as big as it gets. Why not abide there for our whole lives? I can’t think of a better place.
I want to end with a story that shows what abiding in Christ looks like.
Corrie Ten Boom lived in Nazi-occupied land during World War II. She and her family were sent to a concentration camp for hiding Jews in their home. Her father was killed. Her sister, Betsie, died in the camp. Corrie survived. One day after the war, she spoke on forgiveness at a church, and afterward, a former guard at the concentration camp came forward to greet her. Here’s what she said about that day.
It was in a church in Munich that I saw him, a balding heavyset man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands…
It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives.
“When we confess our sins,” I said, “God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever.”
The solemn faces stared back at me, not quite daring to believe. There were never questions after a talk in Germany in 1947. People stood up in silence, in silence collected their wraps, in silence left the room.
And that’s when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones.
It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin…
Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: “A fine message, fräulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!”
And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course–how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?
But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. It was the first time since my release that I had been face to face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze.
“You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk,” he was saying. “I was a guard in there.” No, he did not remember me.
And I stood there–I whose sins had every day to be forgiven–and could not. Betsie had died in that place–could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?
It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.
For I had to do it–I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion–I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.
“Jesus, help me!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”
“But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräulein”–again the hand came out–“will you forgive me?”
And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!”
For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.
And having thus learned to forgive in this hardest of situations, I never again had difficulty in forgiving: I wish I could say it! I wish I could say that merciful and charitable thoughts just naturally flowed from me from then on. But they didn’t.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned at 80 years of age, it’s that I can’t store up good feelings and behavior–but only draw them fresh from God each day.
That’s what abiding in Christ looks like. Corrie Ten Boom was already clean by the washing of the word, but she was pruned that day to do something she never imagined possible, to bear the fruit of forgiveness to a man who didn’t deserve it, just as she didn’t deserve her Father’s forgiveness. That’s the kind of Gardener God is. Isn’t he good?
Let’s pray.
Zechariah 9:9-13
The Coming King of Zion
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
11 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
12 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
today I declare that I will restore to you double.
13 For I have bent Judah as my bow;
I have made Ephraim its arrow.
I will stir up your sons, O Zion,
against your sons, O Greece,
and wield you like a warrior’s sword.
John 12:12-36
The Triumphal Entry
12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. 17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”
Some Greeks Seek Jesus
20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
The Son of Man Must Be Lifted Up
27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. 34 So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” 35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
We’re at a pivot point in John’s gospel. For 12 chapters, Jesus, in his public ministry, performed miracles and signs proving he was the long-awaited Messiah. In chapter 12, that public ministry ends as he steps into the role of Messianic King in a new way, setting his face toward Jerusalem and marching toward the cross.
On Palm Sunday, Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem showed the deliberate steps he took to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies, specifically that of Zechariah’s king. Written about 500 years before Christ, the Israel of that time wasn’t very impressive. Returned from exile in Babylon, their nation, ruined by sin, was a shell of its former self. No king. No temple. No vitality. But God did not give up on them. He kept and restored a remnant of the people. The days looked bleak, but a King was rising on the horizon.
This King would not be like the kings of the world. He would come in a different way, with a different purpose, with a greater power. “Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he,” Zechariah said. (Zech 9:9). He would be everything Israel and her kings had not been: righteous, compassionate, just, merciful, faithful, loving, true, obedient, and able to truly save his people.
His kingship would be hard to see at first. When Jesus stepped into the role, people were confused. They couldn’t see how he fulfilled the prophecy at all. His life ended with a crown of thorns rather than a crown of glory. He was shamed and derided. Written over his cross was a mocking sign that read “King of the Jews.” Who would believe it? Yet the sign was right. He was the King, not only of the Jews but of the whole world. He is still the king—the king every human heart longs for, even ours today.
In three parts, John 12:12-36 gives us three pictures of the king of King we have in Jesus.
The Humble King (12:12-19)
The Fruitful King (12:20-26)
The Exalted King (12:27-36)
It was Passover week, and Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead. There was a buzz around town, and as Jesus headed from Bethany toward Jerusalem, a large crowd heard he was coming. They took palm branches and welcomed him, crying out, “Hosanna! [which means “Save now!”] Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” It was a King’s welcome.
Earlier in John’s gospel, after the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus eluded those who wanted to make him king (6:15), but here he accepted the role.
There is a great irony here, as there is in the rest of the chapter. Here was this great Messianic King who came in the most humble way. It wasn’t what the crowd expected. It’s not what we would have expected either if we were there. But he was exactly the kind of king we long for.
There is an old ache in our hearts for a great king. One fierce with his enemies yet gentle with his own. The bravery and courage of a great warrior but with fatherly affection. Exalted above all but with an open throne room to which we can come with our needs. More glorious than us, of course, yet one of us. We want to do more than behold him. We want to be with him. We want more than his greatness, we want to be inside it. We want protection from all that threatens. We want grandeur, yes, but also humility. We want a lion and a lamb in the same person. The problem is that no king ever lived up to that standard except Jesus. He meets all the requirements. Jesus holds within himself all those excellencies we most desire yet cannot seem to be held in any one person. That old ache for a glorious and all-sufficient king deep inside of us is fully satisfied in him and in him alone. He’s the king we most deeply want, and he’s the king we most wonderfully have.
But when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem that day, and the people went out to welcome him as King, he defied expectations. He brought no pomp and circumstance in himself. He didn’t look like a great warrior who would come and save his people from Roman rule, restore their land, bring back their honor, and renew their nation.
Instead, Jesus did something that was, on the one hand, absolutely surprising and yet, on the other hand, absolutely to be expected. In fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy, he found a young donkey, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
Instead of a great warhorse and chariot, Jesus rode into town on a donkey’s colt, a small, humble animal. Not quite King David being sung into the city after a great military victory. Not much like King Arthur pulling the Excalibur sword from the stone. Here is a meek and humble king. When the crowd cheered out, “Save us!” I’m not sure they had this kind of king in mind.
But Jesus knew what he was doing. He was showing the nature of his kingship. He was identifying himself with the king prophecied in Zechariah 9. Instead of bringing war, he was bringing peace. He was the king they longed for, they just didn’t understand what his victory would look like.
Let’s think about it. What if Jesus had come in on a war horse, rounding up an army of millions to take on the Roman oppressors? Maybe he could have led them to a great victory. But if they beat the Romans, what good would that ultimately do? They’d still die sometime, and then what would happen? How would that victory help you? We need a King who can reign and rule for much longer than a lifetime. Jesus was there to solve a much greater problem than the Romans. He was a King leading his people in a different battle, an ancient one, with no higher stakes. And the only way to win was through humility.
This was not something the crowd or Jesus’s disciples understood immediately. John said they only understood it after his resurrection. They must have cocked their head in confusion. Some among the crowd had seen him raise Lazarus from the dead. Some just now wanted a glimpse of this great king who was finally coming into the great city. All their hopes were pinned on Jesus, but they barely understood what they were even hoping for. Jesus would go on to do far more than they could ever ask or think. He came there to defeat death and sin, and the only way to do that was through the weakness of the cross.
Now, the Pharisees were also watching. And what they saw confirmed their greatest fears. Jesus was too big now. All their efforts were for nothing. “Look, the world has gone after him,” they said. Their words were more true than they knew, which leads us to our second point. Jesus is the humble king. He’s also the fruitful king.
The Passover feast brought millions of people to Jerusalem. Most, of course, were Jews, but in verse 20, John tells us that some Greeks were also there. Some wanted to see Jesus. So Philip and Andrew took them to him. We aren’t told what they said, but in verse 23, Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”
This is the fourth of nine times Jesus referred to his “hour” in John’s gospel, always in reference to his death. Up until this time, Jesus said his hour had not yet come. For 11 chapters, John prepared us for this moment. The coming of the Greeks was the trigger for the change from not time to time. Why? Well, interestingly, this is the first time in John’s gospel that non-Israelites seek Jesus. The world was coming to him now, just as he was coming to the world. His mission was wider than the boundaries of Israel.
Jesus was king of the Jews, and riding in on a donkey proved that, fulfilling Zechariah 9:9. But Zechariah 9:10 tells us that his reign extends to the ends of the earth. “I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.”
Zechariah 9:10 quoted Psalm 72:8, which promised a worldwide reign of Israel’s king. The Messiah is more than the King of the Jews. He is the King of the world. Now, as Jesus welcomes the Greeks, he proclaims that this worldwide salvation has come.
In verse 24, in one of the most profound statements ever spoken, Jesus told how this salvation would come. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
Jesus said this about himself. He came to fall into the earth and die. Why? Because that’s how a fruitful harvest is born. Think about that. It’s a shocking statement. Like the grain, Jesus would die. But how can the King die? The King must live. Long live the King, right?
This is where the gospel starts to defy our thinking. We just don’t expect life to come through death. We don’t expect the world to be saved by a crucified king. But it’s the only way it could happen. There is no salvation without the death of Christ.
Here’s why. Because of our sins, we are under the wrath of God. It’s our fault. Because of our sins, there is no way for us to get back our righteousness. We can’t be sorry enough. We can’t do enough good deeds. Our sin completely cuts us off from God. There is a gap between us and God, and there is no way for us to bridge that gap on our own. That’s the bad news of the gospel.
But here is the good news of the gospel. God bridged the gap. As prophecied in the Scriptures, Jesus came to live the perfect, obedient life that we should have lived but didn’t. Our heavenly King, rather than passing condemnation on his people, stepped off his eternal and sovereign throne to be born of a virgin, live thirty years as a carpenter, and enter into a public ministry to sinners and sufferers of all kinds to inaugurate his kingdom. Then, knowing the only way to bring this story to completion, set his face toward the cross and went steadfastly to it. He was willing to go to the front and die for his people because he loved them. Taking their place, he was condemned as a criminal and beaten and nailed to a Roman cross, where he died for his people’s sins. In his death, he took upon himself the full wrath of God for sin and paid the penalty in total.
To be the fruitful King, he had to first be the crucified King. His triumphal entry was a gateway to a cross where he laid down his life for sinful people. Our King’s victory came through defeat because the only way to save us from the only enemy that can truly kill us is to be killed on our behalf. As the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, so Jesus fell to the earth and died.
But just as the wheat then grows into a bountiful harvest, so too does Christ. When the Holy Spirit rose Jesus from the grave, he brought with him a host of captives in his train (Ps. 68:18). He led many sons and daughters to glory. He is the fruitful King whose fruit is born out of the grave, through his blood, by his death.
We should never look at a seed the same way again. Even a grain of wheat preaches the gospel!
Now, this is more than just an explanation of how Jesus saves. It is also a message for how we ought to live in light of his gospel. Jesus followed up verse 24 with verses 25 and 26, which say, “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” Jesus went first, and he’s asking us to follow him.
Here’s the irony of life. Only by losing the life we think we really want and handing that over to God will we ever get the life we really, most deeply want. We don’t know what we want. But God does. Following Jesus might feel like a lot of little deaths. But we’re only dying to the things that will kill us so that we can come alive to God.
Following Jesus ensures that we have the one King who can truly save us. Sometimes where he takes us won’t make sense. Sometimes it might feel like darkness covers us. But how can a grain of wheat grow unless it falls into the ground and dies?
If we follow Jesus, we will walk his path. If we serve Jesus, we will be where he is. And if we are where he is, the Father will be there too, and he will honor us. Everything we do in life is to get honor and glory, isn’t it? Isn’t that what motivates everything? Well, where can you get it? Not for a fleeting moment, but forever? Only one place: with the glorious One, with Jesus. The only place of true glory is being with Jesus. So how do we get to be with him? Well, that leads us to the final point. Jesus is the humble king. He is the fruitful king. Finally, he is the exalted king.
In Zechariah 9:11, the coming King is prophesied as the one whose blood sets the prisoners free from the waterless pit. No wonder, then, that in John 12:27, Jesus says, “Now is my soul troubled.”
John’s gospel doesn’t include the Gethsemane scene where Jesus asks that the cup be removed from him. This is John’s Gethsemane moment here. His soul is troubled because the time is now at hand. But look at how Jesus responds to his troubled soul. “And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.”
Jesus knew this is why he was there. He was born for this. This was his moment. It was the time that all of human history was leading up to. What was he going to do now? Could he turn away? Does the King retreat? Our King doesn’t.
In a wonderful moment when we glimpse the glory of the Trinity, Jesus turned his troubled soul to the Father and, in verse 28, prayed the greatest prayer anyone can ever pray. “Father, glorify your name.” What happened next is amazing. It’s one of only three times we hear the Father’s voice in Jesus’s earthly life. It happened at his baptism, and it happened at his transfiguration. In both, the Father glorified the Son. Here, the Father glorifies himself in response to Jesus’s prayer. “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
Jesus is in a moment of crisis. The entirety of his life is funneling down to the next few days, where he will endure suffering unlike any human ever did or would again. He had the weight of the world upon his shoulders, and in his desperation, he called out to the Father. His greatest desire is to glorify the Father, and the Father responds with assurance that he will.
Now, this is not the main point of this passage, but let me just say this. The Father will be there with you too. When everything is on the line for you, your prayer needs to be nothing more than “Father, glorify yourself.” Your life is most valuable and worthwhile and exciting and weighty when the glory of God is primary. God can glorify himself in little old you—not to the same effect as in Jesus, of course, but no less truly. You can trust him even when the prospects are dim. In fact, that’s where his glory shines the most clearly.
Now, the crowd that stood there heard the voice but could not make out the words. They knew something supernatural occurred and thought it was an angel. Jesus said it came for their sake. The voice confirmed that Jesus was on a bigger mission than any they had in mind. Jesus said to them, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.” Though Jesus was a humble king, he was also a mighty warrior, even if the world couldn’t see it. Now was the time of the judgment for the world and for sin and for the devil. Jesus was strapping on his armor by humbling himself. He was saving his people by going to his death. He was to be lifted up by going down. The issue is not his strength or his bravery; it is his method. The way to win the war looked like losing it. The way to eternal life for his people was his death upon the cross. Look at verse 32. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John helps us by saying, “He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.” The humble king would be exalted, but the place of exaltation was the cross. The irony of the gospel is amazing. The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (1 Cor. 1:25).
Now, I know we are all familiar with the cross, but let me just remind you that the cross was not a pretty thing. It was a method of punishment designed for utmost humiliation, Author Fleming Rutledge said, “Crucifixion was specifically designed to be the ultimate insult to personal dignity, the last word in humiliating and dehumanizing treatment. Degradation was the whole point.” What King would willingly allow himself that?
Jesus would. And he said this is how he will draw all people to himself. Only Jesus could turn the symbol of humiliation into the symbol of glorification. Despite insults, he brought praise. Despite the loss of dignity, he showed forth honor. Through disgrace, he attracted worshipers. In his dehumanization, he gave us back our humanity. In his degradation, he restored our relationship with the God against whom we rebelled. God will have his glory in the cross of Christ, and the world will flock to it and behold the King.
Now, that seems to defy all logic. The crowd couldn’t understand. Look at verse 34. “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”
It didn’t compute with them. No wonder. It’s not at all what anyone would expect. But this is the message from of old. This is the gospel embedded in the fabric of God’s universe. The King would save his people, usher in his Kingdom, and welcome the world inside. He would do it from a cross, not a palace. He would do it through the victory of death. He would do it by dying and rising again, like a seed that bears much fruit.
He would be the exalted King, lifted on a cross for the whole world to behold.
Finally, look at verses 35 and 36. “So Jesus said to them, ‘The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.’”
Here is the invitation. Step into the light of Christ. Believe in the light that you may become sons of light.
How can you do that? It’s simple, really. Just behold the King. Listen to Jesus’s words and trust his work. Accept the grace of God, who draws you in through the exaltation of his Son on the cross.
The King has come and won the victory over the only enemy that can truly kill you. He’s the King you long for. Though he died, he now lives by the power of his resurrection, and one day he will return to gather his people into his everlasting kingdom of grace and glory.
As a herald of the King, with the authority of the crucified and risen Christ, I invite you into his kingdom. Come and see what the Lord has done. Come with me and worship this great King.
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible now to John 10:22-42. Like so much of John’s gospel, this passage is all about whether or not Jesus is the Messiah, the one to come, the Christ. Throughout the book, Jesus constantly battles those who don’t believe him; he does so again here in our passage today.
Let’s read it now.
22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. 41 And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42 And many believed in him there.
There are ultimately only two responses to Jesus. Fall at his feet in worship or pick up stones to kill him.
It’s been that way from the beginning. John’s gospel shows us that. We find some, like the woman at the well, who fell in worship. We find others, like the religious leaders, who picked up stones to throw at him. Everyone Jesus met had one of those two reactions. Some aren’t as obvious. Some doubted before they believed. Nicodemus is one example. But in the end, it’s either worship or total rejection.
The real Jesus we find in the Bible demands a response, and he will make us happy or angry, but he won’t leave us unchanged because the gospel never does nothing. Whenever we encounter God, we move closer to or further from him, but we never remain the same.
The main goal of John’s gospel is our deep and sincere belief in Jesus. That’s true of every part of the book, including this passage today. Because it’s broken into two main paragraphs, we’re going to look at it in two major points.
True belief in Jesus is a gracious gift and a rock-solid assurance (22-30).
True belief in Jesus is biblically reasonable and empirically verifiable (31-42).
John orients us by telling us where Jesus is and the time of year. It’s the Feast of Dedication, which is Hanukkah. It’s winter, and Jesus is in the temple, where he went often. The problem that day started as the Jews gathered around him with a question, as we see in verse 24. “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
They wanted to know whether Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah or not. They had asked this question before, and Jesus answered it, as he said in verse 25. “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me.” Not only had he said enough, but he had also done enough. His words and his works bore witness about him. Have we not seen throughout this gospel clear expressions of himself? Didn’t Jesus reveal himself as the long-awaited Messiah in his word and deed? They saw it firsthand and still wouldn’t believe it.
Continuing the figure of speech used in the passage we saw last week, Jesus gave a very clear reason as to why these Jews didn’t believe. Look at verse 26. “But you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.” The implication is that true belief is a gift from God. Those who belong to Jesus’s flock are those whom God chooses for eternal life, and they believe that Jesus is the Christ. They don’t need constant proof. They hear his voice and follow him. These Jews, not among Jesus’s flock, couldn’t believe because the gift of faith was not granted to them, so they couldn’t hear his voice and wouldn’t hear his voice. It takes a new heart, softened by the Holy Spirit, to trust in Christ. Sin deadens our hearts to God. Only God can change the heart. Hard-hearted sinners come through the door of salvation by having their hearts melted by the grace of Jesus, and that melting happens as we hear the good news of his gospel message and accept Jesus as Christ.
We must remember that no one is good. No one deserves God because we have all rebelled against him with our sins. No one could naturally choose God because sin deadens our hearts toward God. We don’t want him. He must first come to us and change our desires to want him. All those who go to hell are those who never wanted heaven anyway, and all those who go to heaven are those who deserved hell but received grace. True belief in Jesus is an undeserved, gracious gift of God.
Now, Jesus told us in the first part of John 10 who the sheep are. They are the believers who put themselves in their Shepherd’s care, who enter by the door of Jesus and enjoy him. Here in verses 27-28, Jesus revealed the kind of gift and assurance his grace grants to all those sheep. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
Let’s just think about what he just said for a few minutes. Let’s take it phrase by phrase. I don’t want to skip over it too quickly because if we receive this gift of grace, we will never find a more assuring passage anywhere else.
“My sheep hear my voice.”
Later in John’s gospel, we see Mary Magdalene standing outside the tomb weeping on the morning of his resurrection. Two angels appear and ask, “Why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” She looked in the tomb; he was gone, and her heart broke again. Jesus was dead, and now even his body was missing. Her life was already shattered, this only added to the pain. But then, she turned around and saw someone she thought was the gardener. She said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” She’s just dying to find Jesus. Then, this amazing thing happens. The man she thought was the gardener was actually Jesus, but she couldn’t see him yet. Not until Jesus said her name. “Mary” (John 20:11-18).
That first Easter morning, Mary heard her Shepherd’s voice. He spoke directly to her heart in a way no one else could. Not even the angels could make her feel better, but when Jesus spoke, she instantly knew it was him. Her tears went from sadness to joy. With one word, he changed everything for her.
If you are in Christ, you know something of this voice, don’t you? He speaks to the deep places of our hearts. He uses our name in a way no one else can. Why? Because of the next phrase in verse 28.
“And I know them.”
When he speaks, you hear because he’s speaking personally. You are not a nameless person among the crowd. Jesus knows you intimately. You are his. He knows you totally. He knows exactly what you need. He knows what’s going on in your life. He knows the difficulties. He knows the joys. He knows the uncertainty you feel. He knows the depression and the anxiety. He knows the hopes and dreams. He knows the longings and hopings. He knows the sins and failures. He hears the prayers and even prays himself on your behalf.
Remember when Nathaniel met Jesus back in Chapter 1? When Jesus saw him, he said, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathaniel said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” That did it for Nathaniel. “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (John 1:47-49).
We have no idea what Nathaniel was doing under the fig tree. That’s not for us to know. It’s only for Nathaniel and Jesus to know. But Jesus knew it, and that convinced Nathaniel of his deity. Maybe Nathaniel was doing something he shouldn’t have been doing. Maybe he was sitting there longing for God and praying. We don’t know. Whatever it was, it was the thing that made Nathaniel know that Jesus knew him.
Jesus knows you like that too. He really, truly, deeply knows you.
“And they follow me.”
What else are you going to do if someone speaks to your heart so deeply? Who else knows you like him? Why would you not follow him? It’s the natural outflow of his grace.
Your only calling in this life is to follow Jesus wherever he goes (Rev. 14:4). I can’t say where all the paths he might lead you down. Psalm 23 comes to mind. There might be some valleys of the shadow of death, but he will bring you out the other side. You just have to trust him. The destination is glorious. It’s worth the wait. It’s worth the hardship. It’s worth all the fears and doubts and uncertainties. He will bring you all the way home to be with him in a restored and redeemed world where you have unhindered access to him for eternity. He is leading you into green pastures and beside still waters.
“I give them eternal life.”
The other day, two of my boys were talking to my young daughter in the backseat of the car. They mentioned how everyone would die. My precious daughter asked, “Daddy, will everyone die?” This was news to her. I told her that her brothers were right. Everyone would die one day. She said, “But I don’t want to die.” So I told her that if she loves Jesus, death is nothing to fear because he gives eternal life. That seemed to settle her. Oh, how it should settle us! Death? Where’s his sting? Jesus has conquered him. He is utterly defeated.
Hebrews 2:15 says Jesus defeated death by going through it. He destroyed the devil and delivered all those who, through fear of death, were subject to lifelong slavery. The fear of death enslaves us, but if we have Jesus, the chains are broken. We can truly live now because we will truly live forever.
If you are in Christ, you have this promise in black and white: I give them eternal life. In verse 10, which we saw last week, he already said the life he gives is abundant life. Now, added to that abundance is eternality. Oh man, think about this. The life your heart most longs for. The life that is so fulfilling that you can’t wait to get up in the morning to go and live. The life that is so deep and rich and meaningful. The life that is literally the ideal, perfect life is yours forever in Christ. It’s better than you can even imagine it to be.
So, okay, this life we currently live might not be the best. Jesus never said we were going to live our best life here. But there is another life to come—an eternal one, an abundant one. And you know what? Knowing that life is out ahead actually changes our life here today, doesn’t it? It’s like knowing vacation is coming. We can endure another day. We can even be excited about it.
“And they will never perish.”
The corollary to eternal life is the promise that you will never perish. You won’t wear out. You will last forever with God. You will never perish because Jesus will never perish. You are as secure as he is. He lives for you. Sticks and stones may break your bones and even kill you, but Jesus will forever save you.
“And no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
I challenge you to show me a more assuring sentence. I’m so glad this is in the Bible. No wolf can sneak in and capture. No thief can come through the back door and steal. Satan cannot snatch you away. You can’t even ruin yourself. In Jesus’s mighty hand, you are safe and secure. You have a rock-solid assurance that you will never be lost because Jesus has found you.
As if that wasn’t enough, Jesus said more in verses 29-30 to reinforce these already comforting words. “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” The Father himself stands behind Jesus’s words. If we doubt Jesus can hold us tight, we also have the Father’s grip. If we doubt Jesus’s words are true, we also have the Father’s words. If we doubt that Jesus is working in concert with the Father, we can rest assured he is not. The Father and the Son, and the Spirit, are united in mission to seek and save the lost and to keep and provide for the sheep. Whatever Jesus does only reveals to us the heart of the Father. And what does Jesus reveal about his heart? That the Father himself loves you. There is no greater comfort than this.
Jesus is the shepherd we’re all looking for—the one who can care for us powerfully, relentlessly, and everlastingly.
Now, maybe this is all just sentimental talk. Maybe Jesus is just hoodwinking his people. Maybe he’s making it all up, gaining followers for his own ego. People do that, you know.
But Jesus doesn’t.
Everything Jesus said and did is biblically reasonable and empirically verifiable.
The Jews listening to Jesus that day did not find comfort in his words. They grew angry. Verse 31 says they picked up stones again to stone him. As they picked up the stones, Jesus asked a question in verse 32. “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” It wasn’t the works that angered them—at least, that’s what they said here. It was the blasphemy of making himself God though they believed he was only a man.
They asked for clarity from Jesus, and they got it. When Jesus said, “I and the Father are one,” that was their final straw. He was claiming equality and oneness with God. He was, of course, right in saying that, but they didn’t believe him. And if Jesus was not telling the truth, he would have been blasphemous. It came down to what they believed. They believed he was lying.
So Jesus goes to the Bible. Think of how amazing this is. Jesus is so calm here. A mob surrounds him with stones in their hands, and he has the calmness and clarity of mind to recall a portion of scripture to refute their argument. That’s amazing to me.
But what Jesus said isn’t easy to understand. Look at it in verses 34-36. “Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?”
Jesus quoted from Psalm 82. It was a powerful statement in rabbinical thought and logic. Jesus used that portion of Scripture because those to whom the law was given meant they could serve as God’s representatives for justice in the world. They had authority from God through his revealed law. So if they were gods, then what about Jesus? Wasn’t he a god? He has authority. He has the law. It said far more to them than it does to us, and it made them even angrier because it was an even clearer statement of his divinity. He claimed to be the judge of the world. And the force of the argument grows even more when Jesus adds that he was consecrated by God and sent into the world by him. If those to whom the law was given were called gods, then cannot the one whom God sent into the world call himself the Son of God?
It’s a brilliant move. Jesus argued from Scripture. It didn’t persuade them, but it did make them think. He challenged them with the word of God they claimed to believe and know and obey. Jesus was always doing this, wasn’t he? He based everything he did on the Bible. He was always explaining, teaching, and proving who he was from it. True belief in Jesus is biblically reasonable.
True belief is also empirically verifiable, and that’s what Jesus argued for next. In verses 37-38, he challenged them, “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
There is immense mercy in these words. They wouldn’t take Jesus at his word. Okay. Take him at his deeds. What did he do that disproved he was from the Father? What did he do that wasn’t found somewhere in the Bible as a promise of the Messiah’s coming? What did he do that wasn’t a promise fulfilled? What did he do that denied his union with the Father? If they can’t believe his words, why can they not believe his works?
Jesus was merciful toward them. It was a final plea. “Look at my works, and then listen to my words.” But what did they do? “Again they sought to arrest him.” Is there anything more tragic than that? Standing before Jesus, listening to his words, and having him plead for them to look at his works, they got out the handcuffs and told him to shut up. Utter tragedy.
I hope none of us in this room is like these Jews. I hope no one has an unbelieving heart. But if there are any, let me ask a question—and this is something you can ask your unbelieving friends when the time is right. Maybe you don’t know what to do with Jesus. You just aren’t sure what he said and did is true. Okay. But don’t you want it to be true? Don’t you want a Shepherd like him who can care for you in all your various needs? Who will never let you wander off and die? Who will always know what you need even before you do? Who will run to you when you’re in trouble? Who will fight for you when you’re in danger? Who will lead you where you should go? Who will tend to your wounds? Who will literally lay his life down to save you? Not just metaphorical but actually. Don’t you want eternal, abundant life? Don’t you want more than what you have? Don’t you want to know that behind everything is a kind, loving, gracious, and merciful God who can take your life in his hands and truly know you and care for you forever? Don’t you want it to be true? How can you know it is?
That’s the point of this passage. That’s the kind of God the Old Testament presents to us, and Jesus wasn’t breaking new ground. He said he is that God. He was building on the foundation laid from the beginning. All the way back to the very beginning. Jesus’s words and deeds are biblically reasonable, and if you don’t trust the Bible, they are also empirically rational. He really did do the deeds recorded in the Bible. He really did rise from the grave. No one has ever been able to refute that it actually happened, and millions of people have borne witness that it did.
You can know because Jesus showed up in this world and said the things he said and did the things he did. God is not sitting in some corner of the universe, hiding from his people, and then blaming them when they can’t find him. No, he comes to his people. He showed up two thousand years ago in the person of Jesus to live and die and rise again to give us the eternal, abundant life our hearts long for. Don’t you want that to be true? Well, this passage tells us it really is true. It’s not made up. Jesus isn’t hoodwinking his people. Everything he said and everything he did has the entire history of God’s Scripture holding it up and confirming it. Scripture cannot be broken. Jesus said that in verse 35. He didn’t show up to break it. He showed up to reveal how true it has always been and always will be.
The urging of this passage is to accept Jesus as the Christ. To listen to his words and to consider his works. Is he not God incarnate? Is he not the Savior of the world? Will you come into the door of his pasture, or will you stand outside with stones in your hands? Those are the only two choices you ultimately have. Which will you choose?
At the end of verse 39, we see that Jesus escaped from their hands. We don’t know how, but he did. In verse 40, we see Jesus returning to the Jordan, where John had baptized at the beginning. He remained there, and many came to him, and many believed in him. Why did they believe? Verse 41. “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” It wasn’t the signs, it was the message. It was the word. The witness of John the Baptist proved true. Jesus was who he said he was.
We can’t see Jesus’s signs anymore like those first-century eyewitnesses did. But we have his word. Will you trust it? Will you listen and believe?
Don’t you want to? Go to him.
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible to John 8:1-11, the story of the woman caught in adultery.
First of all, happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there. I hope you had a great Sunday.
Now, your Bible probably has a notation about this text. For example, my ESV Bible has double brackets around the text with a note saying. “The earliest manuscripts do not include 7:53-8:11.”
What’s that about? Well, most scholars don’t think this passage is original to John’s gospel. It wasn’t in the earliest manuscripts we have. It was added later by the early church. When we find the passage in later manuscripts, it’s in different places: John 7, John 21, and even Luke 21.
Now, there is a whole branch of biblical studies known as textual criticism that researches all these kinds of things. I don’t have time to get into those details right now, but I want to say a few things.
First, having these kinds of notes in our Bible is a great gift of scholarship and should only increase our confidence in scripture. There are other textual variants that your Bible will notate as well. In all of them, choosing one word over another doesn’t change Christian doctrine one bit. You can be absolutely certain that the Bible you have in your hands is the word of God that he wants you to have.
Second, though its place in the Bible is debated, this is an ancient story that several early church fathers reference, and the church has historically held to its authenticity. It’s so consistent with Jesus and doesn’t contradict anything else we know about him in the scriptures. So, as John Calvin said, since the passage “contains nothing unworthy of an Apostolic Spirit, there is no reason why we should refuse to apply it to our advantage.”
Now, let’s read the passage.
8 53 [[They went each to his own house, 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” ]]
What do we see in this passage? Two things.
1. Jesus confronted the accusers (8:1-9)
2. Jesus comforted the accused (8:10-11)
The religious leaders loved to test Jesus with traps veiled as questions. He was so different from their expectations of the Messiah and so vastly different from how they lived that they couldn’t fathom how Jesus could be anything but a blasphemer.
We pick up the story in the temple. Jesus was teaching that day when the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman in and said, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” Jesus was put on the spot in front of everyone. What would the great teacher say?
There are a couple of things worth noticing about this accusation.
The law they are referring to is found in a couple of places. Deuteronomy 22:23-24 says, “If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.” Leviticus 20:10 says, “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”
Now, I wonder if you noticed something about those laws. There’s something missing in how they brought the accusation. Do you see it? The law command both parties to be punished. So, where is the man? Maybe we could assume they didn’t see him, but that’s not really a possibility. To gain conviction in Jewish law required a very specific type of witness. At least two witnesses must agree on absolutely everything. There’s an old Jewish story about a woman named Susanna who was accused of adultery under a tree, but she was acquitted because, in the cross-examination, the witnesses couldn’t agree on the size of the leaves.
On top of two witnesses agreeing, they had to actually see the act being played out. In other words, it wouldn’t work if they saw her leaving a room or in a compromising situation. They had to see the act itself.
So, these religious leaders are saying they saw the woman in the act of adultery. If that’s the case, again, where is the man? Why is it so often only women who bear reproach?
Some speculate perhaps the woman was set up. Maybe the man was even among them in the accusing party. The text doesn’t tell us, so we can’t be sure. But if these scribes and Pharisees were really concerned about upholding the law, they should have brought the man too since, by their own accusation, they surely had seen him. But the woman was enough for their purposes. They were using her to trap Jesus. They were taking her shame for their gain. They were more threatened by Jesus than they were by any lawbreakers. There was no formal trial. There was only an accusation and then a question, “What do you say, Jesus?”
Now, let’s consider the stakes. If Jesus didn’t uphold the law, then all he said about fulfilling the law was a lie. But if he did uphold the law and commanded stoning, how would that jive with his insistence on grace and mercy and the compassion he showed to sinners throughout his ministry? Do you see what’s on the line? This isn’t an easy one. It comes down to this: is Jesus just, or is he just compassionate? But, as Tim Keller said, “Jesus combines compassion and justice so perfectly that the world has never seen its like.”
How did Jesus respond? Verse 6. “Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.” What did he write? Don’t you want to know? Well, I do too, but there is no way to know. No one knows what he wrote, and anyone who says they know what he wrote is just making it up.
I don’t think it matters what he wrote because immediately after, he spoke. In verse 7, he stood and said some of the most famous words ever spoken, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Let’s not overlook the brilliance of this. Notice what Jesus didn’t say. He didn’t say, “Don’t throw any stones.” What did he say? He said, “Go ahead, but make sure the one who throws it is without sin.” He trapped the trappers. He confronted the accusers. He turned the tables on them. He said, “You want to apply the law? Then let’s apply it.” It’s a brilliant move. He didn’t deny the law, he applied the law. And no one could stand before it. No one there was without sin except for him. No one was qualified to throw the first stone but him. And he didn’t do it—we’ll look at why in a minute.
Then he went back to writing on the ground. Again, we don’t know what he wrote. It doesn’t matter. Maybe all this writing on the ground shows how far outside of this fabricated drama Jesus remained. They came to him with this big deal, and he kind of ignored them. Not that obeying the law doesn’t matter, but he sees right through them. He knows what they’re up to, so his writing on the ground is a way to show his disinterest in their little show—like a kid playing in the dirt in t-ball. The coaches are yelling about a close call at first, and the kids don’t even acknowledge anything happened.
His words, however, hit home. And maybe he went back to writing in the dirt because it took a few minutes for his words to sink in and drive action. Verse 9 says, “When they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones…” Why the older ones first? Maybe because as you age, you start to realize just how far from perfect you really are. You can trick yourself into thinking you’re not that bad when you’re young. There are things you would never do, and as long as you’re on the right side of the proverbial line, you can convince yourself you’re a decent person. But the longer you live, the harder it becomes to keep that self-image up. After the older ones started the trend, everyone eventually left. They realize they don’t have the righteousness required to throw the first stone. Whatever we want to say about the scribes and Pharisees, I think it’s disingenuous to say they didn’t want to obey God.
The focus now turns from the accusers to the accused. Moments before, the angry crowd was ready to stone her. Now, not a single one was left to condemn her. As D.A. Carson says, “Those who had come to shame Jesus now leave in shame...the ring around her melted away.” It was her and Jesus only.
Now, that’s not necessarily good news for her—not yet. Jesus didn’t say, “No stones need to be thrown.” He only said, “Whoever has no sin, go ahead and throw it.” Jesus was the only one without sin. He was the only one who could truly condemn, the only one who could truly throw the first stone. Would he? She knew what she deserved. What would Jesus give? He would give the most amazing thing. Jesus confronted the accusers, but he comforted the accused, which is our second point.
Jesus stood, looked at the woman, and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
Commentator Colin Kruse points out that this is the first time in the whole episode that anyone addressed the woman. They dragged her in, accused her of adultery, and demanded her death, but until then, no one spoke anything to her.
Jesus did not start with her sin. He started with her accusers. Isn’t that interesting—and just like him? When she answered that none of them condemned her, Jesus said something amazing in response. “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
How can Jesus say this? Well, in a way, he could say it because now that everyone is gone, there is no real case against her. The charges are dropped, as it were. But there’s a more puzzling question. The scribes and Pharisees weren’t totally wrong. If the law is violated, doesn’t that demand punishment? Shouldn’t Jesus act justly? Is he ignoring the law?
Well, notice what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “You aren’t guilty.” The last thing he tells her is to sin no more. He’s not saying she’s innocent. But he doesn’t condemn her. Isn’t that interesting? Jesus is the most holy person that exists. He can’t overlook sin because if God overlooks sin, that is a real problem. How can there be any justice in the world if God overlooks sin?
Here’s where we get straight to the very heart of Christianity. Christianity says that we are guilty, but we aren’t condemned. How can that be? If we are guilty, we must be condemned. Justice demands it. If we are truly guilty, there is no way around it. Try telling parents whose child is murdered that there is no condemnation for the murderer. They would be outraged, and rightly so. So, how can Jesus say this? How can we be guilty but not condemned?
Perhaps the most amazing verse in the Bible, Romans 8:1, says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Here’s how we can be guilty but not condemned. Only if we’re in Christ. It can only be true if Jesus takes our guilt for us. It only works if 2 Corinthians 5:21 is true. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Only if Jesus takes our guilt and our sin and pays the price for us can we not be condemned. It’s only true if Jesus is condemned for us. The guilt and sin don’t just disappear. The penalty must be paid. Someone must pay it.
We can only be guilty but not condemned by the law if Jesus upholds the law for us. Jesus can only not condemn this woman now if he’s going to be condemned for her later, and that’s exactly what he will do. Jesus knows she should be stoned. He wrote that law! As God, he does demand perfect holiness from his people. But as Savior, he knows that cannot come apart from himself. Instead of throwing the first stone, he will let stones be thrown at him. Instead of her being crushed beneath the weight of their blows, he will suffocate upon the cross under God’s wrath for her sin. Jesus didn’t condemn her then because he would be condemned for her later. That’s why Paul says in Romans 3:26 that God is both just and the justifier—he is just, and no sin will go unpunished, but for his people, he is also the justifier, the one who sets things right on the cross. That’s the only way this works. He can only forgive because he will pay the penalty himself. That’s the heart of Christianity.
Left before Jesus, the only one who really could condemn her, she finds a rock she didn’t expect to receive—the rock that will be struck for her, the cornerstone that becomes a new foundation for her life. If she found that, you can too. This is not a one-off story. One of the things that makes this so powerful is that this is the normative way Jesus works. We don’t see this only here in John 8. We see it throughout his interactions in the Bible.
Throughout the gospels, we see Jesus moving toward sinners and sufferers in ways that shock and surprise us. Jesus shows us that God’s heart isn’t trigger-happy to condemn. In Luke 7, When the woman of the city (likely a prostitute) poured ointment on Jesus’s feet, and wiped them with her hair, and kissed them, the Pharisees were repulsed, but Jesus welcomed and forgave her for her many sins. In Luke 19, Jesus ate with Zacchaeus the tax collector. When the friends of the paralytic brought their suffering friend to Jesus in Matthew 9, Jesus didn’t even wait for them to speak. When he “saw” their faith, he told the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven,” and the paralytic got up and walked out. As Jesus traveled and saw the crowds, he had compassion on them. He taught them from God’s law but bent down and healed their diseases (Matt. 9). Jesus stood outside Jerusalem and wept over them. Throughout his ministry, we find the truth of Isaiah 42:3, “A bruised reed he will not break; a smoking wick he will not put out, till he brings forth judgment to victory.” He brought forth judgment to victory on the cross. He will not break us. He will not put us out. He was broken for us. He was put out for us.
The thing that pours out most naturally from Jesus’s heart is compassion for the undeserving. In his book Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund says it this way: “Time and again it is the morally disgusting, the socially reviled, the inexcusable and undeserving, who do not simply receive Christ’s mercy but to whom Christ most naturally gravitates. He is, by his enemies’ testimony, the ‘friend of sinners’ (Luke 7:34).”
When you come to Jesus “caught in the act,” you expect the full weight of the law to crash into you. It’s what you deserve. But with Jesus, you get what you don’t deserve. You are guilty but not condemned because he was condemned for you. All you have to do to receive that is receive that. Just open your empty hands of faith and accept his cleansing blood. That’s the scandalous grace of the gospel.
Now, Jesus comforted her by not condemning her, but he didn’t stop there. Look again at verse 11. “Go, and from now on sin no more.”
We must remember this. Jesus did not merely say, “I don’t condemn you.” He also said, “Sin no more.” True Christianity is both the full grace and forgiveness found in Christ and a call to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him. It includes both melting before his grace and stepping into the obedience he calls us to. He forgives, and he challenges. But notice the order. It’s so important to remember the order. He could have said, “I won’t condemn you if you don’t sin anymore.” But he didn’t say that, did he? His grace comes first, and that grace empowers obedience.
This is how we know Jesus really loved that woman and how we know he loves us too. If he only forgives and doesn’t care how we then go and live, does he really care about us at all? If he only sends us back into the same lifestyle that got us dragged into accusation, pain, and potential death, would he send us back after forgiving us? Is that what you would do to someone you love? Of course not. Real love is loving someone enough to help them change into who you know they can be. Jesus loves like that. That’s why he calls us to obedience. He wants us to be like him; we can’t do that unless we obey him. But we can’t obey him—not truly—until we’ve been changed by his grace and mercy. Don’t mistake the order, and don’t mistake his love for you. Real grace forgives us completely, and real love calls us higher. Only in Christianity do sinners become saints. Heaven will be filled not with the deserving but with the undeserving.
Now, how does this passage help us? I think in two ways—personally and corporately.
First, personally.
Perhaps no sins result in as much shame as sexual sins. It’s not just what we act out, it’s also the thoughts we have. When Jesus added insight to the law in his Sermon on the Mount, he said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt. 5:27-28). Are any of us not adulterers? We are more like this woman than we want to believe. Who among us is qualified to throw stones? We ought to be stoned. Many of us feel so broken, unworthy, and even sometimes repulsive to God. We might even wonder if we’re even Christians.
Well, when your heart condemns you, God is greater than your heart, and he knows everything (1 John 3:20). You are not repulsive to Jesus. You do not shock him. Jesus came to save people like you. He wants you to know that. He wants you to experience the cleansing he can give.
Hebrews 4:14-16 says we have a great high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. He calls us to draw near to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Here’s what that means. It means that if Jesus is really a savior—if he’s not just a mentor, or a self-help guru, or an example, or just a judge—if he’s really a savior, he will get down in the mess with you, and save you in time of need because he perfectly understands you. He will be there in the grossness, the desperation, the deepest temptation, and the hottest part of the battle. He is not just a counselor for the after-party when the high has worn off. He’s the hero running into the war with you. His throne is not the bench to approach to pay your fine after the infraction. His throne is a wartime walkie-talkie that you can call when the battle gets hot. He’s there for the dark moments, the moments you don’t even like to think about. He’s there with grace and mercy. He is not aloof to your real life, your real sins, the real you.
Jesus was tempted as we are but remains perfect and sinless, so he knows the real cost of holiness. And his perfection is not a platform from which he condemns but from which he saves. As Romans 8:34 says, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” When you are caught in the act, he won’t condemn you because he was condemned for you.
Your most desperate need when you are most desperate is not to get your act together so you can come to him; it is to simply come to him and receive from his deep wells of grace upon grace. Only then will you even have a chance at getting your act together. Don’t take your problems to the law; take them to the gospel. If you go to the law, you will get justice, which will crush you. That’s its job. But if you go to Jesus, you will find that the law has been fulfilled on your behalf in him, and, therefore, you can find, from his fullness, grace upon grace (John 1:16).
Now, here’s how this helps us corporately.
If the only person who had the moral perfection to throw stones at the woman didn’t, let’s be very careful about picking up any rocks. Sin is serious, but it is no match for Jesus’s cleansing blood. Let’s always remember the heart of Jesus for sinners and sufferers. If we are to make an impact at all in this judging and condemning world, we are going to do it by stepping into the grace of Jesus together. We are going to do it by laying aside our weapons—stones or otherwise—and coming together to find the mercy of Christ for us. I don’t know about you, but I have enough of my own sins. I don’t need to go looking at yours. I have enough need of the cleansing blood of Jesus for myself to keep me on my knees for a while. Don’t you?
We have two options. We can become a community that radiates the beauty of Christ so profoundly that condemnation is only something we know we’ve been saved from, not something we’re looking to bring upon others, or we can become a community that is so hard to please even Jesus himself wouldn’t be welcome. Which kind of community do we want? I believe we have the first kind right now, but let us never think because we have it now, we will automatically have it later. If we stop trusting Jesus, if we remove ourselves from his light, if we grow bored with his grace and start looking for our righteousness somewhere else, we can become the very opposite of what God wants most for us.
Let’s not do that. Instead, let’s continue to cultivate a gospel culture where Jesus is our greatest love. Where sin isn’t safe, but sinners are. Where we take each other to the gospel and not the law. Where we together boldly approach the throne of grace to find the help we need. Where we treat no sin too lightly nor too heavily because Jesus commands real obedience, but he forgives the worst we can do because he paid the price. And because he paid the price, we don’t have to. Let’s not ever make anyone pay for what Jesus already paid for. Let’s love him together, and let’s see what only he can do.
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible now to John 6:1-15, the feeding of the five thousand.
John chapter 6 is the longest and one of the most important chapters in the New Testament. We’re only going to look at the opening portion today, where we’ll see another one of Jesus’s signs.
This is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In John’s gospel, this miracle helps us connect the dots between God’s provision to Israel in the Old Testament and Jesus as the Bread of Life in the New Testament. We will see that more clearly in the coming weeks, but today, we are going to look at the miracle that sets the scene in John 6:1-15.
Let’s read it now.
JESUS FEEDS THE FIVE THOUSAND (JOHN 6:1-15)
1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
In the Old Testament, God took his people into the wilderness and provided bread from heaven for them. Here in John 6, Jesus takes his people into the wilderness to provide bread again. It’s a story about how Jesus cares for his people—not just to care for them for a day but as a sign of how he cares for them for eternity. It’s a story about an insignificant little boy that loses his lunch to feed a city, about a couple of disciples who have no answers through whom Jesus provides for a multitude.
This is a story about a power from heaven that can not only fill you but can sustain you, that not only satisfies you but uses you for God's glory, that not only settles you in the deepest possible comfort in this word but resettles you inside the heart of Christ your Savior.
It’s a story about the super-abundance of God, about how we can entrust it all to Jesus, how we can boldly believe that with him, all things are possible and that he is all we need. It’s a story about the all-sufficiency of Jesus in the face of our all-insufficiency. Those are our two points today.
Our insufficiency
Jesus’s all-sufficiency
In the Christian life, there is no other place to start than with our own insufficiency—to see our weakness and powerlessness. That’s not easy. We like to deny it. We cover it up. But the whole thrust of this story is to take us right to the idea of our powerlessness. Everything Jesus does takes us to that low place because that low place is where the blessing is.
Jesus and his disciples were in Galilee, where Philip and Andrew were from and where he had been healing sick people. A large crowd followed them, eager for more. So, Jesus took them on a field trip outside the city and taught them all day. They went up a mountain. It was springtime, and the grass was green. But that doesn’t mean it was a well-manicured place. It wasn’t a city park. It was a wilderness. And he was about to teach something important to this crowd, to his disciples, and to the world.
According to Verse 4, he performed this act during the Passover festivities, which was an important time for Israel, harkening back to the time of the Exodus from slavery in Egypt. It was a time of great nationalism, kind of like the 4th of July or something for us. It was their celebration of freedom.
Remember what happened after the Exodus. They went into the desert, and what happened? They started to get hungry, and they started to complain. What did God do? He sent them bread from heaven. He sent manna, this flaky bread that literally fell from heaven every night like the dew, and the Israelites could go out each morning and eat it. That was a sign of God’s powerful provision. He could feed his people when it looked like no food was available anywhere—when there was no food available anywhere.
Fast forward thousands of years later, and here is Jesus, the Lamb of God, soon to be slain to bring his people out in a new kind of Exodus, and he’s taking them out into the wilderness. He’s taking this massive group of people and providing enough bread for all of them to eat. Do you see what’s happening? Jesus is filling the role of God in the Old Testament. Jesus is doing what God always does. He’s providing when there is no one else to do so.
In verse 5, we see how Jesus is going to do this. He saw a crowd coming toward him. By the way, we know this crowd was huge because John says in verse 10 that it was five thousand men. Do you see that there? Now, it was surely greater than just five thousand. That numbered only the men. There were women and children in this crowd too. We know that because of the little boy that shows up in the story. D.A. Carson says in his commentary on this passage that the total number may have been twenty thousand or more. That’s an unbelievably big crowd that witnessed this miracle. It’s the kind of crowd that, if it didn’t happen, I don’t think it would have made it into four separate gospels.
Think about it this way. Paul says in 1 Corinthians that up to 500 people saw the resurrected Jesus, and that is considered a huge number of eyewitnesses. This is a crowd 40 times that size. It’s a huge number. I’m not saying this is a miracle greater than the resurrection—there isn’t one greater—but this was an important miracle. Jesus made sure there was a big crowd for this one.
So Jesus saw this crowd coming toward him, and he said something to Philip. Look at verse 5. “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” Notice Jesus said this to Philip. It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t as if Jesus was wondering what he was going to do, and he was buying time to search for an answer. No, that’s not it at all. We know that because of verse 6. “He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.”
What’s going on here? What is Jesus doing? I’ll tell you what he’s doing. He’s getting Philip desperate. He’s revealing a need to Philip that Philip can’t possibly meet, and Jesus knows that. But Philip doesn’t yet. He doesn’t even yet see the need. So Jesus showed him the need and then made him feel how insufficient he was to meet it.
Now, why did Jesus do that? Was Jesus just a practical joker? Was he just trying to have a little fun at poor Philip’s expense? I don’t think so. That doesn’t make sense to me. Jesus was teaching his disciple something here, and through him, he’s teaching all his disciples, and the first lesson is a lesson in insufficiency.
Do you see how powerless Philip must have felt? All those people, and no bread, and Jesus asked where to get some. What would you do? What would you say?
Philip was in an incredibly difficult situation, and it was right where Jesus wanted him. He wanted him to feel the powerlessness. Jesus is teaching Philip about ministry. In ministry, there are always needs, and the needs are always beyond our human capabilities. He wanted all of his disciples to learn that.
In fact, Mark places this story right after the disciples return from their missionary journey, paired up two by two to preach the gospel and cast out demons, and heal. They took nothing with them but the power of Jesus and came back utterly exhausted. When they got back, Jesus said, “Let’s go away to rest.” But when they get out to the mountain, this huge crowd came, and Jesus told the disciples to serve them.
You can kind of imagine how that feels, can’t you? We’ve all had time when we’re just absolutely beat, totally sapped, absolutely exhausted, and we get home thinking we’re finally going to get some rest, and then the phone rings, and more need just comes pouring into our lap. We can’t rest. We have to keep going. And in those moments, we feel so powerless, don’t we? When we are full of strength, we might start thinking life is manageable, but when everything is falling apart around us, we start to understand we have no power at all. Our power is a facade. It’s a mirage. It’s not real at all. We don’t have any power. When life gets real real, we realize how insufficient we truly are.
We are all like Philip in those moments. We’re facing utter need and zero resources, and everyone is looking to us for answers. What do we say? What did Philip say? Look at verse 7. He said, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” In other words, “Jesus, you’re crazy. There’s nothing to do. We can’t possibly buy enough bread for them. Eight months’ salary wouldn’t be enough to pay for it. We don’t have enough money to give everyone even just a slice. Forget about it.”
Now, what’s wrong with his statement? Wasn’t it true? Do you see anything wrong with it? Here’s what’s wrong with it. It’s what’s wrong with so many of our reactions to the seeming impossibilities of life. We don’t factor Jesus in. Philip didn’t factor Jesus in. He looked at the situation and looked at the resources he had, and he said, “Nope. Can’t do it.”
Remember, verse 6 tells us this was a test. What was the test? It was this. Jesus is saying to Philip, “Philip, do you remember how God gave the bread from heaven in the desert? Do you remember how God provided when there were no earthly answers? The Israelites had to learn to factor God into their lives. Will you factor me into your life? Will you think of what I can do in you and through you by faith in me? Will you trust me when there are no worldly answers? Or will you rely only on yourself and what you can see?” That’s the test. It’s the same for each of us. Will we factor Jesus into our life or not?
It’s a perfect way to test him, isn’t it? Take him out in the wilderness away from all resources, present a need so great he can’t possibly meet it, and then ask him what to do. What if Philip had turned to Jesus with a smile and just said, “Jesus, I don’t know where to get that bread, and even if I did, we couldn’t afford it, but I have a hunch you have an idea up your sleeve. I think maybe you have a plan, and I’m just wondering what that is and how I can be a part of it.”
What if Philip had said that? What if you said that to Jesus the next time you’re confronted with a need for which you have no answers? That’s what faith looks like.
The raw facts are that we are totally insufficient in ourselves. We simply do not have what it takes, and the sooner we realize that the sooner we get traction in our Christian lives. The Christian life is not about coming to Jesus to let him give you some new tools to live better. Christianity is not about God sprinkling his wisdom on our little brains to help us through our days. Christianity is about reality with Jesus. It’s about factoring Jesus into every situation. It is about coming to God through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit to live a life fully open to him such that the impossibilities of life are no longer threats to us but opportunities for us.
If Philip had only remembered what Jesus initially said to him way back in John 1:43—remember what he said?—“Follow me.” Maybe if he remembered that he would have turned to Jesus in a different way that day on the mountainside. Well, you can. Jesus has called you to follow him. He’s in charge. He knows you don’t have the answers. He’s not asking you to figure it out. He already has the plan ready. Your part is only to follow. He’s inviting you to be involved with him, to let him work through you, to understand your total insufficiency so that you can receive the totality of his sufficiency.
So that’s the first thing we need to see—our insufficiency.
Let’s turn now from our insufficiency to Christ’s sufficiency. Look at verses 8 and 9.
After Jesus asked Philip what to do, and after Philip had no answers, Andrew piped up. Andrew was another of Jesus’s disciples, and he was there with Jesus, overhearing the conversation, and he noticed something. How he noticed it, we’re not told. He saw a little boy who had five barley loaves and two fish. But then Andrew, like Philip, failed the test in the same way. He followed up his observation with a question, “What are they for so many?” Andrew saw some food, but he knew it wasn’t enough. Oh well.
You know, Andrew was right. It wasn’t much at all, especially for so many. He didn’t have good bread. Barley loaves were poor people’s bread. It wasn’t the nice bread you eat. You probably wouldn’t like it. And the two fish weren’t much either. They were small, like sardines, that were mostly to help flavor the bread. So, it wasn’t much, but it was something, and Jesus created the world out of nothing, so something small like this is just perfect for him. He can do a lot with nothing. He can do a lot with just a little bit. He doesn’t need much.
What Jesus did next is so amazing. In verse 10, he told his disciples to have the people sit down. He organized them. He settled them. He seated them at the table, as it were. And then Jesus did the most amazing thing. He took the little boy’s lunch! Isn’t that amazing? I mean, imagine the scene! This is so incredibly fascinating to me. I wonder what that interaction was like.
You know, I bet that little boy was probably really looking forward to eating that bread and fish. But this little boy is a lesson to us all. He gave a small gift to Jesus, and it was all he had, but in the hands of Jesus, it was more than enough. Jesus used that little boy to feed twenty thousand people! But because he lost control of his lunch and gave that control to Jesus, he had far more of it than he could have ever possibly had.
Jesus used that little boy to teach a lesson to his disciples. He used him to teach a lesson to the crowd. But even more than that, Jesus loved that little boy. He taught that little boy to trust him. He took what was his, and maybe that even hurt the little boy’s feelings at first, but then Jesus gave back far more than what he originally took. Look at verses 11-13. Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to the crowd. Then he did the same to the fish. And—look at the end of verse 11—it was as much fish as they wanted. When they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
The little boy gave his lunch to Jesus, and Jesus gave him back a feast. What was once so little that he might have even still been hungry afterward is now so much food he can eat as much as he wants and still have leftovers. Isn’t that just like Jesus? Isn’t that how he always works? So why don’t we trust him more? Why do we cling to things as we do? When we have this kind of God who does this kind of thing, why can we not let go of our little loaves and fish? Why can we not entrust to his mighty care all that we have and see what he can do with it?
A.W. Pink was an English pastor in the early 20th century. He made a profound observation about this very reality. Remember in 2 Kings when Elisha filled the widow’s jars with oil so that she might have provision after her husband’s death? The oil lasted as long as there were vessels. Probably if there were more vessels, the oil would have lasted.
The point is that we have an all-sufficient Jesus, one who can meet and super-meet your every need. He’s always been that way. This is not a one-time thing. It’s the way he rolls. Always has been. If there is truly a need, Jesus is there to meet it. Remember in Matthew 6 when Jesus said to consider the birds? His point was that God takes care of them, and they don’t have to worry about what to eat, they don’t have to worry about tomorrow, so we don’t either. There’s something like 50 billion birds in the world. Why? Partly because that gives us 50 billion reasons to trust him for our lives.
Jesus might ask you to give something up, but if he does, he gives it back to you in more fullness than you could ever imagine. We might grumble and complain. We might not see the way forward. But if Jesus is there, what else do we need? We can trust him. The birds do.
Now, there is something else I want you to see. Not only did that little boy get back more than he gave up, he and the disciples both became more than they originally were. In other words, in the hands of Jesus, they were used by him to reveal his power. They became channels of his power. They became ministers under him, for him, with him.
Here’s Philip and Andrew, a couple of blockheads who can’t see the Creator of Heaven and the Earth right beside them, worrying about how they can buy bread. And here’s this little, poor boy with a little lunchbox of a very modest meal. Those people became the instruments through which Jesus worked his power. Isn’t that incredible?
Here’s the lesson. When Jesus calls us to follow him—and I hope you have heard that call. If not, I hope you hear it today—When Jesus calls us to follow him, he will take us to some tough places, maybe even into the desert. And he will take from us some very precious things, maybe all the food we have left. And he will ask of us some impossible things, maybe to feed more mouths than our bank accounts can afford. But he will be with us in those hard places. It will be his power coming through. He’s not asking for our power. He’s asking for our weakness. He’s using our insufficiency to prove his all-sufficiency. He’s taking our meager bread and giving back himself. He will always give back more than he takes. He will always answer our doubts with his grace. He will always fill us. He is a God of super-abundance. Maybe the wilderness is in our future, but so what. There’s always manna in the morning. And, better than all the bread in the world, there’s Jesus, the Bread of Life.
We have two options. We can be like Philip and Andrew, who looked at the situation before them and doubted anything could be done, or we can be like that little boy who handed Jesus his little lunch and watch Jesus feed a city. We can factor Jesus into our lives, or we can forget about him. We can be the channels through which Jesus works his power in this world, or we can close our lunchboxes and go home. We can starve a city, or we can feed one. Which life do you want to live?
When we start factoring Jesus into our lives, impossibilities become opportunities. Possessions become tools. We become channels of his power. Don’t you want that?
All you have to do is recognize your insufficiency and turn to Christ and his all-sufficiency. Who among us can’t do that? Who among us can’t just say, “I cannot figure this out! I have no answers. I have no strength left.” The bar is so low. It’s not as if Jesus is saying, “Come up to ‘Here,’ and then we’ll start talking.” No! He’s saying, “Admit you can’t do it. Admit your weakness. See your insufficiency. That’s where we’ll start. Because that’s where my power is seen most clearly.”
Only some of us can reach the heights of this world, but who among us can’t fall down? When we do, that’s where Jesus is. His grace lives there. That’s where we learn to take our hands off our own life and allow his mighty hand to take over. That’s where we become channels of his power, of his grace, of his mercy, messengers of his gospel.
There is right now a city that needs to be fed, and there is a Christ who can feed them. He wants to do it through you. Will you let him? Or do you have some really good objection to why it just can’t happen? Will you be Philip and Andrew? Or will you be the little boy?
Oh, what a life we could live if we just learned to factor Jesus into it!
But let me warn you. When you start to do that, I can’t say what he will do in your life. You can’t tame him. Look at verses 14 and 15. We’ll close with this.
When the people saw the sign, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Then they sought to make him king, and Jesus withdrew from them. Verse 26 helps us understand why. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you of your fill of the loaves.” In other words, they wanted him as king because of their full bellies. He was satisfying their worldly desires. But as John Piper said, “Jesus didn’t come into the world to lend his power to already existing appetites.”
If you want Jesus to be king over your preconceived plan, then I’m sorry, he just won’t do that. But if you want Jesus to be king over your failed life, over your wounded heart, over your wilderness wandering, he will be your king. He will walk away if, in the face of his miracles, you only want more miracles. But if you want him, he will draw you to his heart. Want miracles alone, and you’ll have none. Want him alone, and you’ll have all the miracles you can stand. He didn’t come to give you bread; he came to be your bread. How did he do that? Hear what he said in verse 51. “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Jesus is the king who dies for his people, who gives his life on the cross for sinners insufficient enough to receive his sufficiency, weak enough to receive his power, hungry enough to eat his bread.
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible now to John 4:46-54.
The last time I spoke, we were in Cana in Galilee, and here we are again in the same place.
At this point in John’s gospel, Jesus has returned home from his trips to Capernaum, Jerusalem, and Samaria, where he’s done a number of miraculous things and talked to a wide variety of people.
The last time he was in Cana was for a wedding. This time, he meets a much more somber event. That’s how life goes, doesn’t it? We have joy, and we have sorrow. We have weddings, and we have funerals. Jesus’s presence makes a difference in both. He’s the one you want at the party and the one you need in your desperation.
So, let’s read our passage now. John 4:46-54
JESUS HEALS AN OFFICIAL’S SON
46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
This is God’s word.
I think it’s helpful to remember what John tells us at the end of his gospel about why he wrote the book. “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).
John’s whole purpose is that we would have faith in Jesus, and our passage today is all about faith. How does faith grow? That’s the question we have before us today. Through the story of this official, God shows us that there is a progression of faith, a journey of faith, in three stages.
True faith in Jesus brings us to him (it is reasonable)
True faith in Jesus takes him at his word (it is trusting)
True faith in Jesus settles our heart in him (it is transforming)
This first point is my longest point by far because if we don’t get this right, we miss so much of what’s going on here. We have to start unbelieving some things about him before we can start believing the truth about him.
We pick up the story in Cana in Galilee, where Jesus made the water wine. There’s a man whom John calls “an official” from Capernaum whose son was ill. Some translations call him a “royal official” or a “nobleman.” During this time, Herod Antipas was the king of Galilee, so this man was likely one of Herod’s officials. He was likely a man of significant status. But as this man has learned, significant statuses don’t exempt people from sorrow.
We don’t know a lot about this official. He doesn’t appear in any other story. Though the stories are similar, he is not the centurion that appears in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels. This is a different man.
From what we can gather, he seems to be a good father. Capernaum was about 20 miles from Cana. That’s no small distance in those days to travel, but there is no indication he deemed it too far to go to help his son. He seemed also to be a decent man. Later in the story, when he goes home, his servants come to meet to share about his son’s health. They seem to care about him, presumably because he cares about them. But just as a good socio-economic status doesn’t prevent sorrow, neither does a good moral status. This man was in dire straights. His son was dying, and he had no more answers. In the midst of his sorrow and anxiety over his son, he heard about Jesus and came to him for help.
Why did he come to Jesus? Verse 46 refers to Jesus’s miracle of turning water into wine. We also know from verse 45 that people had been talking about the miracles he was doing in Jerusalem. He was a well-known miracle worker by this point. So John tells us in verse 47, “When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.”
We see here the first stage of faith. The official heard and came. This is how faith starts. We hear something about Jesus, and we sense he has what we need. So we come. It’s a reasonable act. It’s a considered step. It’s thinking things through. It’s not a strong thing yet, but it’s something.
This official heard Jesus was able to do things no one else could do, and he started thinking about it. “Maybe,” he thought, “Jesus could do something for my son.” It was desperation that brought him to Jesus. How many of us came in a similar way? At the end of our rope. With tears in our eyes. With no other answers.
This official had no other answers. The doctors couldn’t do anything. Nothing was working. So he went to someone whom he knew had already worked a miracle. He heard what Jesus had done, so he came to see what he could do for him. That’s how faith starts. It starts with hearing truth and letting it inside you.
John tells us he heard and went to Jesus, and then what? He asked him to come down and heal his son. Jesus’s response in verse 48 is interesting. Look at it. Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” Huh. Why did he say that?
It’s a strange response, isn’t it? But, you know, Jesus had a lot of strange responses to people. Think of how he responded to his mother at the wedding in Cana. She said, “They’re out of wine.” And Jesus said, “What does that have to do with me? It’s not my time to die.” Then when Nicodemus came to Jesus, he said, “You have to be born again. The Spirit is like the wind. It goes where it wills.” Then at the well in Samaria, he said to the woman, “I’m thirsty.” When she offered him water, he said, “I have water you don’t know about…living water. You should ask me for that.”
In each of these conversations, we have to think to understand what Jesus is saying. Christianity is a thinking faith. Jesus engages our minds to enflame our hearts. When we think through these conversations, we start to see what Jesus is doing. He’s telling a bigger story. He’s revealing who he really is. He’s manifesting the glory of God.
Why did he respond like that? To get them—and us—thinking. What was his mother doing at the wedding? She was forcing him out before he was ready to reveal himself. What was Nicodemus doing? He was misunderstanding Jesus’s teaching, looking for salvation through works instead of from the Spirit. What was the woman at the well doing? She was there in the middle of the day to avoid her shame. What was this official doing? He was there to ask Jesus for a miracle because he had heard Jesus could do that sort of thing.
In each case, Jesus is confronting something much deeper than outward appearances. He’s cutting to the heart. He’s getting to the core issue. When you come to Jesus, you will get much more than surface-level help. You will get the deepest possible help.
Now, to get that help, we need to understand Jesus’s response to him. There’s an interesting grammatical thing going on in the Greek that we can’t see in our English translations. The “you” in verse 48…”Unless you see signs and wonders…” that’s a plural “you.” He’s speaking to this official, yes, but also to everyone in his hometown of Galilee. Why? Because as we see in verse 44, a prophet has no honor in his hometown. But then in verse 44, we see they welcomed him home. What’s going on? Yes, they welcomed Jesus home for what he could do, but they didn’t welcome him for who he was, for what he would say. He was a prophet, and the hometown crowd doesn’t like to hear from the hometown prophet. Jesus’s signs weren’t just neat things to discuss and marvel at. They were revelations of God’s glory, and they didn’t accept those words.
Jesus is not singling this guy out. He’s lumping him in with everyone else in town. “You people,” he’s saying. “You people don’t care about me for me. You only care about what I can do. You’re missing the whole point.”
It’s not an unfounded rebuke. Look at how the official approached him. He was an important person, and he approached Jesus like an important person. He came with a demand that sounded like a question. “Come down before my child dies.” There wasn’t really much humility in him yet. He doesn’t even think about what Jesus might have going on. At this point, he sees Jesus only for what Jesus can do for him. He doesn’t yet see Jesus for who Jesus is. He expected Jesus to drop whatever he was doing and come with him. He didn’t even consider that Jesus would do something else.
So Jesus rebukes his thinking. Do you see how deep he’s getting here? This official, who had a real, desperate need, came to him because he heard about the miracles Jesus could do. In that way, he was like everyone else. But was he really? That’s what Jesus wants him to think about. Was he there just for a miracle? Or was he there for something else? As his life is falling apart, can Jesus do more than ease his pain?
Jesus is redefining some things for this man. He’s getting him thinking deeper than he is. He’s distracted by his situation, which makes sense. There’s nothing really wrong with that. But his situation, as dire as it is, is not his greatest need. Was he there for signs and wonders, or was he there for something else? Is there something else? Is there something more to Jesus than miracles? Maybe he hadn’t even thought in that category before. Faith brought him to Jesus, and now Jesus is about to bring him all the way in. He’s about to heal much more than his son’s fever.
This is amazing to me. Jesus is not caught up in our circumstances. He stands above them, and he can use them to give us living water we don’t even know about. In every situation we find ourselves in, Jesus works in ways we might not expect to give us the life we want most but don’t even know is possible. Aren’t you glad we have a God who doesn’t wait for us to realize what we need but gives it graciously even when we’re too hard-headed or anxious or distracted to even see it?
Maybe you’re coming to Jesus for a better life in some way. Jesus wants you to think that through. We all want relief, but do we even know what relief is possible in him? Are we, as C.S. Lewis once said, playing with mud pies in a slum when Jesus offers us a holiday at sea? What if there is a greater miracle Jesus can do in us?
Maybe we don’t have a sick son that needs healing, but we all have some need only Jesus can meet. And I hope you’re asking him to help. But how are you asking? Are you even asking? Or are you demanding? What limits are you putting on Jesus? This man wanted Jesus to come to his house, but Jesus had another way to heal. He wasn’t even aware of that category. Are you like that? Will you allow Jesus to deal with you on his own terms? Will you trust him to handle things his way?
This official doesn’t yet get it, but he will. He has the reasonableness of faith to come to Jesus, and that’s the first step, but he hasn’t yet learned to trust him. He still thinks he needs to see to believe. But Jesus will teach him how to believe without sight next. He will teach him to take him at his word, to trust him, which is the next stage of faith’s progression.
Look at verse 50. “Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.”
Jesus spoke, and the man went. Jesus did not do what the man requested. He asked him to come down to his house. But Jesus said to him, “No, I don’t need to go. I said your son will live, so you can go, but I will stay.” And the man did the most amazing thing. He trusted him! He turned and went on his way. This is the end of the conversation. He didn’t press Jesus to come with him again. Why? Because at that moment, he trusted Jesus’s word. He had confidence that his son would live because Jesus said he would. Faith was blossoming.
How do we know the man thought this? I mean, maybe he just thought to himself, “Gosh, you know, Jesus seemed a little upset that I was there. I asked what I wanted to ask. I guess I’ll just leave it at that, and I’ll see what happens next.” Maybe this man was just a bit shy. Maybe he wasn’t a type A personality. Is that it?
I’m not so sure. After all, this man walked 20 miles for help. He was at his wit’s end. Nothing else had worked. This was his last resort. If your son was dying, would you leave just because someone seemed a bit put off that you asked them for help? Wouldn’t you press? Wouldn’t you keep pressing? So why didn’t this man? Because he trusted Jesus’s word. He believed him. We don’t have to assume that. John tells us he did. Look again at verse 50. “The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him.” He had everything he needed. He could go now.
Jesus gave this man a bigger gift than he expected. If Jesus had come down to his house with that man, the man would have believed because he saw. But as Jesus later told Thomas after his resurrection, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” This official was one of those blessed ones. He didn’t see, yet he believed. He knew the miracle was done, even though his eyes had not yet beheld it. He had in his heart the kind of trust faith gives. He took Jesus at his word. It was enough for him.
True faith in Jesus takes him at his word. It trusts him. Do you trust him like this official did? Do you take Jesus at his word? Think about it. Your faith starts with reasonableness. You come to Jesus because you see the logic of it. You heard what he could do. You heard who he is. And so you came. But coming alone isn’t enough. Being in the room isn’t enough. Your faith has to move from reason to trust. You have to come. That’s the first step. But do you trust? Do you place your faith in the person of Christ? Not even in the work of Christ but in his person. Do you trust him?
By the way, that’s the key to faith. Trusting him. It’s not about the strength of your faith. John tells us nothing about the strength of this official’s faith. It’s all about where his faith is, who he puts his faith in. That’s the key.
Jesus can do amazing things. He can perform miracles. But it is Jesus himself who matters most. The greatest miracle is not what Jesus can do for you but who Jesus is for you. Do you see that? Jesus is a miracle.
When you realize that, when faith grows from reasonableness to trust, something else starts to happen in your heart, which is our final point.
What happened to this official? Verse 50 says he went home. Verses 51 and following tell us more. As he went, his servants met him and told him his son was recovering. He asked when he started getting better, and they said, “Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.”
Now, there’s a little debate about what the 7th hour is, but I think the best arguments place this at around 1 PM. At 1 PM the day before, Jesus said, “Your son will live.” Why is that important? I mean, who cares? The point is he’s healed, right?
Well, this shows us two things. First, it confirms the man’s faith in Jesus’s word. As soon as Jesus said his son would live, he started to live again. That’s just flat-out amazing, isn’t it? Jesus didn’t have to go to his house. He didn’t have to perform a little song and dance. He didn’t even have to pray to God. He is God. His word is authoritative, and John’s little detail here is not only historically accurate but is theologically important. Jesus’s word is effective. What he says is true and does happen. That has massive implications for us today. If Jesus said it, it’s as good as done.
Second, this little detail tells us something else about this man’s faith. Think about it this way. If it was 1 PM, the man likely departed his house early that morning to go find Jesus. At 1 PM, there was still time to turn and head home. But he goes the next day. This is a little detail that I think makes a big difference. Why didn’t he rush home? He came in such anxiety to get help. Then he met Jesus and believed Jesus’s word, and he didn’t rush back home! All that he needed was already done. Jesus had spoken. What was there left to do? His son shall live. He can see him tomorrow. He doesn’t have to rush home today. His anxiety was gone. His heart was calmed. He was utterly transformed. He changed from an anxious father into a calm father. Isn’t that amazing?
You know, you’re in the same position as this man, right? Maybe you don’t have a dying son, but you have anxieties. You feel the weight of worry. You have fears of tomorrow. You have the burden of responsibility. But Jesus has spoken. His gospel rings out. You are ok. You can rest. You can rejoice. You can be still and know that he is Lord.
When faith goes from reasonableness to trust, it leads to peace. When you trust Jesus—really trust him—you are transformed from someone always worried to someone who knows the outcome already. That doesn’t mean we never worry; it just means we don’t have to anymore. Underneath the entirety of your life are the everlasting arms of Jesus. You can rest there.
It’s interesting to me that we never actually hear what happened when the father saw his healed son. We know he saw him, but we don’t get the details. Why? Because that meeting isn’t important. The important meeting was the one he had with Jesus. It was the faith of the father John wants us to see, not the healing of the son. The faith of the father then leads to the faith of the household. You see that in verse 53. “And he himself believed, and all his household.” His faith took root inward, and it grew outward, and the healing healed more than a fever.
We don’t know the rest of the story, but you know, one day, the father may have faced his son’s impending death again, and he certainly faced his own. But Jesus’s sign that day in Cana foretold what was to come for this official and his family. Death was no longer the problem it once was because when he got home and shared the good news of Jesus, his son believed in Jesus, too, along with all his household. When someone got sick again, and healing didn’t come, they didn’t blame Jesus for letting them die. They rejoiced that they would forever live. They didn’t need to see another miracle. They had the miracle within them. They had faith. They had Jesus. They had all they needed. Do you have Jesus like this? Do you trust him like this? Do you know his peace?
If you don’t, you can. He’s available right now to give it to you. If you do, you know the joy it gives. Praise him for it, and share that good news with others.
In closing, I want us to see one final thing. Look at verse 54. “This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.”
C.S. Lewis said miracles are more than powerful acts. They are demonstrations of who Jesus is. They are signs.
What did we see in the sign at the wedding in Cana when he turned water into wine? We saw that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament law and ritual. He took ceremonial water jars and filled them with the new wine of the gospel. He was saying something about who he is. Maybe his most amazing miracle, in John 11, when he raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus said something about who he is. He is the resurrection and the life. Miracles don’t just impress us, they teach us. They not only show us God’s power; they show us God’s character. They help us learn to trust him because miracles are never just cool tricks. They are revelations of God’s glory, his goodness, his salvation, of his deepest heart.
Remember what we said Jesus was thinking about at the wedding in Cana back in chapter 2? He was thinking about his own wedding to come. The wedding supper of the Lamb, where his bride, the church, would be wed to him for eternity. What is he thinking about now with this official? What does he say to him? “Your son will live.”
You know, he could have said so many things. He could have said, “Your son will be healed of his fever.” He could have said, “Your son is better now.” He could have said all kinds of things, but he says, “Your son will live.” And since we know the son came to faith in Jesus when the father got home, Jesus meant more than recovery from the fever. The son will live.
Think about it. Why was Jesus there anyway? Why did he come? Think back to John 1:12. “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Jesus came to give a right to all who believe—the right to become a child of God. This world is full of dying sons. But then Jesus came. Why? So that the children would live. This royal official coming to Jesus is but a shadow of the true Royal Official who left his home to go get salvation for God’s sons. Jesus understands this man deeper than the man even knows. Jesus is on the same mission. There is a sickness unto death in the children of God, but Jesus has come to destroy it by letting himself be destroyed. He’s come to kill sin by being killed. He’s come to rise again so that the children may live.
Are you one of the children of God? Then you, too, will live.
If you’re not one of the children of God yet, why not? Why don’t you come to Jesus and see what he has for you, who he is for you?
Jesus has spoken. Take him at his word. Trust him. Let him transform you. Let him give you life.
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible now to Hebrews 2:14-15.
We’ve come to what some people call “the most wonderful time of the year.” I might argue for summer instead of winter, but it’s not wonderful because of the weather. It’s wonderful because of something else. It’s wonderful because this time of year, we’re all caught up in a story. It’s a story of a king coming in an unexpected way who wins a war for his people that they could not win on their own. It’s a story that has spawned a thousand stories, but no one has ever improved on the original. They can’t. It’s the best.
So, let me tell you that story.
A long time ago, in a place not so far away, a man and a woman lived in a perfect world. They enjoyed God’s presence with them. Work was easy and rewarding. Their relationship was without strain. They had all they needed. It was paradise. But one day, a serpent slithered in with some lies about God, and in their hearts, they began believing God was holding out on them. They listened to the serpent’s lies and rebelled against God. But instead of giving them something better, their rebellion brought something bad into the world. Something God had warned them about but that they decided not to believe. Something so terrible that every person who came after would fear it. It was called Death. For every person since that day, death has been the greatest threat. It lurks behind every corner, hides in every dark room, shadows every joy, and is the end of even the greatest lives. Death is the enemy we cannot avoid facing and the one we cannot beat. It will come for us all, and the only difference between us is when it comes.
We’ve tried to solve the problem of death. We’ve searched for fountains of youth. Our laboratories mine the depths of science for a cure. Medicine can prolong us, but it cannot insure us. Diet and exercise can extend us, but they cannot save us. Of all things in this world, death is the most certain event that will happen to us. Because of that, we fear death—the manner, the method, the reality—and are enslaved by that fear.
But something else happened that day in the Garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve sinned, God promised that one day the woman’s Offspring would crush the serpent’s head under his heel. One day, the devil, a midwife for death’s birth in the Garden, would lose his power to hold it over our heads. One day, God’s children would get their life back. One day, death would die.
Then the world kept spinning, centuries upon centuries added together, and nation upon nation was founded, flourished, and disappeared. But through it all, God’s promise never faded. He never wavered. He never yielded. He kept telling the same story again and again: the Savior is coming.
And one day, a long time ago, in a place not so far away, when it seemed as if there was no hope God’s savior would come, God waged war on death, and his Savior marched into battle. But to everyone’s surprise, he wasn’t a giant like Goliath. He was humble like David. He wasn’t an impressive politician like Caesar. He was a normal person like me and you, a carpenter by trade. He was a baby born in a manger in the city of Bethlehem. His name was Jesus. He was like us—flesh and blood, but though he was like in that way, he was also unlike us in another way. He was the Son of God, very God of very God, the radiance of God’s glory, and the exact imprint of God’s nature. The Savior had come, and the savior was God himself.
We celebrate this story each year at Christmas. It’s the most wonderful time of the year because it reminds us that God has kept his promise. He has come to make things right. Jesus did not rise from the ranks of this world but came down from the heavenly throne. At Christmas, God came down. We call this the incarnation of Jesus. The heir of all things, the creator of all things, the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power, came down to save us. He became like us, so when we see the salvation he has wrought by his blood, we know this is one like us who saves people like us. This isn’t some theoretical salvation. This is the real stuff.
Jesus came down not like a Greek god from Olympus to check on things down here but to become like us in every way except for sin to save us because he knows how things are down here. Christmas is the story of God becoming like us. And he didn’t just make a cameo. He moved into the neighborhood. He came on a mission for a purpose, which takes us to our text today, Hebrews 2:14-15.
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
This is God’s word.
Now that’s real comfort and joy.
We see two reasons for Christmas. The first is for the second.
(Reason #1) Jesus made himself like us so that (Reason #2) Jesus could conquer death for us.
Look at verse 14. “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things….”
As the author of Hebrews begins explaining God’s solution to death, he begins with the incarnation at Christmas. Since the children are flesh and blood, Jesus partook of the same things. Jesus became human because we are human. Jesus needed to be human to save humanity. Our salvation could only come from the inside, as it were.
Why is that? Why did Jesus need to be human? The Heidelberg Catechism, written in the 1500s, asks the same question.
Q: Why must he be a true and righteous man?
A: He must be a true man because the justice of God requires that the same human nature which has sinned should pay for sin. He must be a righteous man because one who himself is a sinner cannot pay for others.
Romans 6:23 says, “the wages of sin is death.” Death is something we get because we deserve it. Death is our “reward,” you could say. It might not be the reward we want, but it is the one due to us. We get what we earn. Every person ever born—with one exception—is a sinner, and our sin earns us death. Now that might sound drastic to us. It makes sense that it would. We’re the ones on the hook, after all. But God warned Adam and Eve about this. He warns us in the Bible about this. We sin with our eyes wide open. We know what we’re doing. We cannot claim innocence. Our guilt is all too real.
Still, it helps to understand why death is the reward for sin. (And, by the way, it’s important to understand that by “death,” we don’t just mean physical death but also eternal death. Sin’s rewards are not paid out with a death certificate.) Death is the reward for sin because of the nature of who God is. God is holy and righteous. By his nature, he must punish sin. Otherwise, he would not be holy and righteous. Therefore, it's holiness or else. It’s not like he hasn’t given us enough information. We have God’s law written down. We know what he’s asking. The problem is that we can’t live up to it. Adam and Eve ruined our only real shot, and the Bible says we inherit a sinful nature by birth because of them. But we can’t blame them too much. We’ve all added our own sins on top of theirs. We are all guilty, and where holiness is not present, death must be.
Romans 6:23 is terrifying. “The wages of sin is death.” But there is a second part to that verse, “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God provides a gift to his children—the gift of eternal life. How does that gift come to us? In Christ Jesus our Lord. As the Heidelberg Catechism says, because God’s justice requires human nature to pay for sin, Jesus had to be like us. He had to partake of the same things. If we are going to be saved, Jesus had to be really, fully, truly human. And he had to be a perfect human. He had to be righteous. He had to be holy. Because only a righteous man can pay the penalty for unrighteous men, only a holy man can make sinners holy by his sacrifice. This is the reason for Christmas. We needed a savior, and Jesus is that savior.
At Christmas, the all-holy God above put on skin and flesh on top of bones and organs and was born as a human baby, just like we were, to save his unholy people. In Jesus, God has a neck we can hug. He has a laugh we can hear. He has a face with a smile that we can see. And because of that, he has hands that can be pierced. He has a side that can be cut open with a spear. He has righteousness that can be ours by faith. At Christmas, Jesus became die-able so that he could die to save us. God didn’t outsource this job. He couldn’t.
That’s so important to understand. Christmas will never mean very much beyond some vague sense of happiness resulting from the “spirit of the season” if you don’t understand the enormity of these truths. Before anything else, Christmas screams to us, “You need a savior!” And Christmas provides that savior.
Christmas is God telling us that our most desperate need is fulfilled in Jesus. That’s why it’s merry and bright. That’s why it’s the most wonderful time of the year.
So, reason #1 for Christmas: Jesus himself became like us. Now, reason #2: so that he could conquer death for us.
Let’s keep reading. “14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”
Only a human Jesus can live for us, and only a dead Jesus can rescue us. The reason for Christmas is Good Friday and Easter.
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet says death is “the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.” Jesus said, “Not so fast.” He went to that undiscovered country and returned. That reality is the most astounding thing in all the world. Jesus came not only to live the perfect life we failed to live but also to die the guilty death we don’t want to die. And when he did, he secured something for his people that no one else could ever do. He secured life for us.
Jesus secured life for us in a surprising way: by death. Jesus destroyed death from the inside. He destroyed death by going through it. In all human history, there has not been, and will not be, any greater accomplishment. Everyone in the world is looking for a solution to death. It hangs over our heads. We fear it. We’re enslaved to it. Death is, as one commentator put it (Phillips), not only an event that awaits us but a power that rules us. The fear of death plays itself out in a million different ways. It’s the reason for our mid-life crisis. It’s the reason for our despair. It’s the reason for our anxiety. It’s the reason we hold on to things too tightly. Death rules us.
But the author of Hebrews wants us to see how this great enemy has been dealt with in Christ’s hands. Because Jesus has gone through death, he has destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil. This doesn’t mean Satan ceases to exist. He’s still around. It means he no longer has the power he once had over death.
That does beg the question as to how the devil gained the power of death to begin with. How did that happen? Well, we have to look back at the beginning of the Bible. In Genesis 3, the devil ushered death into the world in the Garden of Eden by tempting Adam and Eve to sin. Because he introduced sin, he also introduced death. When God passed the death sentence on sin, the devil frightened humanity’s conscience and brought them into slavery under the fear of death. That’s why Satan is called the “god” of this world (2 Cor. 4:4) in the Bible. He’s the author of sin and the enslaver of those under sin’s penalty.
But then Jesus stepped onto the battlefield, dressed not in armor fit for another but dressed like us, in flesh and bones and skin that could be pierced and blood that could be spilled. When Jesus died upon the cross, he entered death with all the sins of God’s people and took those sins into the grave with him. But he then did something the devil wasn’t prepared for. He rose from the grave but left those sins buried. When he rose on the third day, Jesus ripped the sword from the devil’s hand. His ability to hold our guilt over our heads was gone. The sting of death has been taken away because Jesus bore it on the cross. The devil has no power to condemn us any longer because Jesus has made us right with God. On the cross, he took our guilt and gave back his righteousness. He took our shame and gave back his holiness. This was a real transfer. He really took our sins, and he really gave us his righteousness. It is as much ours as it is his because, on the cross, our sin was as much his as it is ours. This is how, as we saw in our Colossians series, “Jesus disarmed the powers and authorities, triumphing over them on the cross.” The devil’s power was destroyed by the death of Christ.
Since death is dead, the fear of death isn’t what it once was. By his death, when Jesus defeated our great enemy, he also delivered us from our great slavery. Death no longer hangs over our heads. We no longer need to fear the judgment to come. We no longer need to ensure we wring every ounce out of this life because it’s all we have. We no longer need to avoid thinking about death. We aren’t enslaved to fear of death anymore. We are free because Christ set us free. Oh, death, where is your sting?
If you have Christ, your death day can be the greatest day of your life. Death cannot destroy you. It can only usher you into the waiting arms of your Savior. Death will separate you from this world for a while, but it will not separate you from God. It will unite you with him even more closely. Now, that’s freedom!
Church history helps us see what this freedom looks like. I want to tell a few stories as we close.
John Wesley, the English evangelist in the Great Awakening, was on a ship heading across the Atlantic Ocean from England to Georgia. Two groups of people were on board: his English countrymen and a group of German Moravian Christians. One day, the Germans had a church service on the boat’s deck, and as they were singing, a big storm came. They were on this little wooden boat in this big ocean, and Wesley was scared. Here’s what he said in his journal about that day.
In the midst of the psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the main-sail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured in between the decks, as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible screaming began among the English. The Germans calmly sung on. I asked one of them afterwards, “Were you not afraid?” He answered, “I thank God, no.” I asked, “But were not your women and children afraid?” He replied, mildly, “No; our women and children are not afraid to die.” From them I went to their crying, trembling neighbours and pointed out to them the difference in the hour of trial, between him that fears God, and him that fears him not.
DL Moody, the 19th-century evangelist, said, \"Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don't you believe a word of it! At that moment, I shall be more alive than I am now.”
F.B. Meyer was a pastor and a friend of D.L. Moody. He was near death and sent a postcard to a friend. “I raced you to heaven. I’m just off. See you there.”
Donald Cargill was a Scottish Reformed preacher who was hung in 1681 for his reformed preaching. He said, “This is the most joyful day I ever saw on earth. I am no more terrified of death because of sin than if I had never sinned. For all my sins are freely pardoned and washed thoroughly away by the blood of Jesus Christ.”
Donald Grey Barnhouse was the pastor of 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. His wife died of cancer. He was left with four kids, all under the age of twelve. They were driving down the road one day when a big semi-truck pulled past them, casting its shadow over them. Barnhouse asked his kids, “Would you rather be run over by the truck or the shadow of the truck?” One of the children said, “Shadow, of course.” Barnhouse said, “Well, that’s what has happened to your mother….only the shadow of death has passed over her because death itself ran over Jesus.”
In the 3rd century, in the city of Carthage, Perpetua was a recently married mother of an infant son. She and others from her church were arrested for being Christians. Their sentence was to be fed to wild beasts to entertain the paying crowd. When they heard their fate, they returned to their prison, glad to be able to die for the glory of God. Perpetua’s father came to persuade her to deny her faith and live, but she wouldn’t. She said, “I am unable to call myself other than what I am, a Christian.” When the day came, a bull tossed her in the air, and her hair came undone. She asked for time to put her hair back up because undone hair was a sign of mourning and this was a day of joy for her.
There was another girl there that day in Carthage, a slave named Felicity. She was pregnant, and it was against Roman law for pregnant women to be executed until their child was born. Not wanting to face execution without her church members, she asked for prayer that her child would be born before the execution day. God granted their prayer. During childbirth, Felicity cried out in pain. The prison guards mocked her, asking how she could face the wild beasts if she couldn’t stay silent during childbirth. Felicity replied: “Now I alone suffer what I am suffering, but then there will be another inside me who will suffer for me because I am going to suffer for him.”
When it’s your turn to die, what can you expect by faith? You can expect the same thing. These were not super-human people. These were normal Christians like you and me. All they had is all we have—the gospel of Jesus Christ and faith in him by the power of the Holy Spirit. They were free from the fear of death because they were free from the consequences of death by the grace of Christ. They knew they were free, and if you trust Christ, you need to know you are free too. Jesus is your death defeater. He is your redeemer. He is your Savior. When it’s your turn to die, he will come and get you!
This is the reason this is the most wonderful time of the year. This is the reason we sing “Joy to the world.” Because a long time ago, in a place not so very far away, the curse of sin entered the world, but then Christmas came, and through Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, we have a new song. “No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow, far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found.”
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible now to John 2:1-12.
We come to a section of John’s gospel now that stretches to chapter 12, known as “the book of signs,” where John focuses on the revelation of Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. John wants us to see the glory of Jesus in these chapters and, through them, to place our faith in Jesus as Savior. In fact, that’s the purpose of the whole book. We know that because John said so. If you flip to the end of the book, in 20:30-31, you can see this. “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
The whole point is to give you good reasons to believe in Jesus. These stories aren’t just neat little tricks Jesus performed. What John tells us in the coming pages is how Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament scriptures and how Jesus is the Messiah who is the answer to God’s promises. John wants you to see how wonderful Jesus is. How capable Jesus is. How worthy Jesus is. How loving and kind and mighty and glorious Jesus is. He wants you to believe in Jesus. And I want you to as well.
So let’s read 2:1-12 now.
The Wedding at Cana
2 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
12 After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
We find ourselves peeking into a little slice of history that, on one level, is not all that remarkable. A young couple is getting married. But on another level, Jesus is there to transform that little Galilean wedding into a revelation of God’s glory. That’s the difference Jesus makes. He turns weddings into foretastes of heaven. He turns a party into a mega party. He turns bad news into good news. He turns water into wine. He turns the law of the Old Testament into the grace of the New Testament. He turns ceremonial jars into vats of celebratory wine. He does this because he’s thinking about something much bigger than this little wedding at Cana in Galilee.
So let’s look at this in two headings: the story and the sign. Let’s consider the story’s details and then consider what those details tell us about the sign.
So, first, the story.
Look at verse 1. “On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee.” John orients us to the time and place. He did this throughout chapter 1 as well. In 1:19, the chronology began. The Jews came to John asking about his baptism. The next day, 1:29, John proclaimed Jesus as the Lamb of God. On the third day, 1:39, Jesus took his new disciples home. On the fourth day, 1:43, Jesus met Nathaniel. Now, here in 2:1, John says it’s the third day. He means it’s the third day after his encounter with Nathaniel. So this is the seventh day since John started recounting Jesus’s acts.
Now, who cares what day it is? Well, normally, John doesn’t care at all, which makes this so interesting to me. When Jesus is resurrected, for example, he doesn’t even mention that it’s the third day. Throughout the rest of John’s writings, he is totally ambivalent about days. But not here in the first two chapters of his gospel. Why is that?
Remember John 1:1. “In the beginning…” Remember how it reminded us of Genesis 1? That’s intentional. As we meet Jesus in his public ministry, John is taking us on a journey of seven days that correspond in some way to the seven days of creation. But instead of focusing on the creating power of Jesus, John focuses on the recreating power of Jesus. By the seventh day, Jesus had already, in a sense, recreated the Messianic hopes and realizations. He had recreated the purpose of baptism. He had recreated the hearts of his disciples. And now, at a wedding, he recreated water into wine. John presents to us the One who was there in Genesis 1 and the One who will do even more than Genesis had time to tell us. John is preparing us for something magnificent. The story is really about to take off.
Verse 1 again. “The mother of Jesus was there. Jesus was also invited to the wedding with his disciples.” We don’t know how Jesus knew the couple getting married. Perhaps they were friends of Nathaniel. He was from Cana. Maybe they were old family friends. But based on what happens next, we can assume that Mary had a significant role to play in the wedding. When a problem arose, Mary was the one who took some responsibility for solving it. Look at verse 3. “When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’”
That was a big deal. The groom was charged with providing enough wine for the wedding party, which lasted about a week. It was as if the wedding planner came to you at your reception and said, “Well, we made it halfway, but the food’s all gone.” You’d have some disappointed guests, and you’d be so embarrassed. But for this young couple, it was more than just an embarrassment. In those days, this was grounds for a lawsuit from the wedding guests. It was that big of a deal. Their new life together was threatened. Instead of entering into it with joy, they might now enter into it with a great burden. Mary did not come to Jesus with a minor inconvenience; she came with a crisis.
But why did Mary go to Jesus at all? Well, Jesus wanted to know that too. Verse 4, “And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.’”
Jesus’s response is really interesting. The translation you have will determine the level of confusion you have over the way Jesus responds. The New Living Translation and the older version of the NIV, for example, say Jesus responded with something like, “Dear woman.” The ESV and others, however, puts it more accurately. “Woman.” Now, I don’t know where you came from, but if I spoke to my mother like that, I might not speak again. If my kids spoke to my wife like that, no more YouTube time for a good, long while. So what’s the deal here? Was Jesus disrespectful? We know Jesus never sinned, so we need to understand his response.
The way he says it is not as bad as it sounds to our ears. This is how Jesus speaks to Mary later in John’s gospel when he’s hanging on the cross, and there was nothing but love from Jesus on the cross. We know that.
So why does he say it this way? What he says next helps us understand. “My hour has not yet come.” Whenever Jesus refers to his “hour,” he means the time of his death. So, Mary says to Jesus, “They have no wine,” and Jesus responds, “It’s not my time to die.” Isn’t that interesting? What’s going on? Jesus is distancing Mary’s wishes from his mission. Given the misconceptions about the coming Messiah he’s already experienced in his week in public ministry, Jesus knows now is not the time to reveal himself to the world as the Messiah. His hour has not yet come, so he distances himself from her, letting her know what time it really is. Jesus wasn’t Mary’s huckleberry. He wasn’t a mama’s boy, doing whatever she wanted. He answered to God’s plan only, and no one else would be his boss. His mission superseded his familial relationships. The driving force of Jesus’s life was faith, not family.
However, Mary didn’t seem too discouraged. She humbly submitted to Jesus and said to the servants in verse 5, “Do whatever he tells you,” Which, by the way, is the best advice ever given. Mary believed Jesus could and would do something. Mary got the point. She would not push him to the spotlight, but if Jesus would do something, she didn’t want the servants to miss the opportunity. D.A. Carson points out that in these two verses, we see two Marys. The Mary as mother and the Mary as believer. “In 2:3 Mary approaches Jesus as his mother, and is reproached; in 2:5, she responds as a believer, and her faith is honored.” Jesus is not our errand boy. He wasn’t for his mother, and he won’t be for us. But if we come to him by faith, we are rewarded. As Carson says, “These two verses, as difficult as they are, help to shape this account of Jesus’ first miracle, and ensure that the focus is on Jesus’ glory, not Mary’s, and on the disciples’ faith, including Mary’s.”
We now reach the story’s climax, where Jesus’s glory is revealed. The details John includes are important. Verse 6 says, “Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.” These jars were a symbol of the Old Testament law and ritual. They were stone because it was believed stone could not contract uncleanness. These were ceremonial washing jars used by the Jews as they went in to worship. They would symbolically wash with water proclaiming their sinfulness and their need for cleansing. In the story’s context, they represent the old way of Jewish law and ritual that Jesus is about to replace with something else. Everything Jesus does here points beyond the mere facts of the story. Through his actions, he tells the story of the Bible, the Messiah coming to fulfill the law to usher in the new age of grace. As Craig Blomberg says, this is a “vivid illustration of the transformation of the old ‘water’ of Mosaic religion into the new ‘wine’ of the kingdom.”
The jars held a lot of liquid, about twenty or thirty gallons each. That’s anywhere from 120 to 160 gallons. Verse 7 says, “Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim.” There was no room for a magic trick here. It wasn’t as if Jesus would add a little wine to the water and trick the palate. He was going to turn pure water into pure wine. The time for the ceremonial purification is complete. Now, the wine of the new age is beginning, and it comes through Jesus, and it’s not just a little to get us by. It’s overabundant. That’s just like Jesus, isn’t it?
In one of the greatest verses in the Bible, God says through Isaiah in Isaiah 55:1, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” This is what Jesus is doing. He’s taking their nothing and giving his everything. This is what Jesus always does, isn’t it? He says to us, “Bring your dirty purification water to me, and I’ll make it something new. Bring that old-time religion that never got you anywhere, and I’ll give you the new wine of the gospel that changes the heart and saves the soul.” We can fill our spiritual pots to the brim, but until Jesus puts his miraculous touch upon us, all we will ever have is water, but when he touches us, we will have the best wine.
Now, look at verse 8. Jesus said, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” The master of the feast was like the head waiter. When he tasted it, he was amazed. He didn’t know where the wine came from. John is careful to state that. Only the servants, his disciples, and, we presume, Mary knew what happened. This is an undercover miracle. So the master of the feast called the bridegroom—not Jesus—and said in verse 10, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
Apparently, Jesus makes some good-tasting wine. Why? Because this is more than just a small-town miracle to save a wedding. This is a manifestation of glory to reveal the Messianic Age. Like all the best wine, Jesus’s was aged. It had all the Old Testament promises and expectations. It held all the sweetness of joy and hope of the Messiah. It carried the aroma of Christ. It sang of notes of the patriarchs and the prophets. It was aged in the parchments of the Scriptures and poured out of the glory of heaven. It was the wine of the promised age, the wine of the Kingdom of God. And it’s to that Kingdom of God we now look.
That’s the story. Now let’s consider the sign.
Verse 11 says, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.”
Here’s the whole reason John wrote about this. He didn’t write it because it’s a cool little party-trick Jesus of Nazareth performed a long time ago. It’s not a novelty act. It would be a big mistake if we only saw the miracle and not the miracle worker.
Notice that John doesn’t even call this a miracle. It is a miracle, but that’s not how John describes it. He calls it a sign. Why? What does a sign do? It points to something. You see a sign on the road that says Nashville, 20 miles, and you know what’s up ahead. The sign orients you. Or, if you’re Dustin, you see a sign that says, “Vinyls Records for Sale,” and you get giddy with excitement, not over the sign itself but over what the sign signifies.
John is orienting us here. Not only is this a sign, but this is Jesus’s first sign. Kind of an odd first one, right? Turning water into wine. Couldn’t he have raised someone from the dead? Couldn’t he have healed someone? Why this one first?
Well, maybe it has something to do with the fact that the Bible opens with a wedding (Genesis 2) and ends with a wedding (Revelation 19). The wedding theme runs prominently throughout the Bible, and that helps us understand this passage. What was Jesus doing at the wedding? Well, he was performing this miracle, and before that, he was just an invited guest. But what do you think he was thinking about?
Tim Keller asks this question, and I think it’s absolutely brilliant. I’m so indebted to him for these next insights. Well, I’m indebted to him for so much more….
Anyway, have you ever been to a wedding as a young, single adult? What were you thinking about then? You were probably thinking about your future wedding. Maybe you wondered when it would come or if it would ever come. Well, what if Jesus was thinking about his wedding that day? What would that tell us about what he’s doing here?
Here’s what. Throughout the Old Testament, God refers to himself as the Bridegroom of his people. We see this, for example, in Isaiah 62, Hosea 2, Ezekiel 16, and Jeremiah 2. Then, in the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as the bridegroom in places like Matthew 9, Luke 5, Mark 2, Ephesians 5, and Revelation 21. The image of God as his people’s bridegroom runs the entire length of the Bible.
Think about it. Why was Jesus even there that day at Cana in Galilee? Not because he just happened to be born at that time and around that particular place, and he just happened to get in because of family connections. No, he chose that time and place. He was there because about 30 years earlier, he came down in a deliberate act on a mission to save his people from their sins and to wed them to himself. Jesus performed this sign at this wedding not only because it was a tragedy that he could fix but, more truly, because it was a foretaste of the kind of wedding he would throw later on. He was thinking about his wedding day with his bride, the Church. He was thinking about the wine on that day, after the last drink at the last supper, when he said he wouldn’t drink it again until he did so with his people in his Father’s kingdom. He was thinking about what it would cost and how it wasn’t too high for him. He was thinking about his death so that he could gain his bride. He was thinking of the wedding supper of the Lamb, where the restored universe would be set right, and he would make his dwelling with his people, and he would wipe every tear from their eye, and there would be no more pain, no more sorrow, and no more death ever again. His bride would never break his heart because, in him, they would now be perfect. And he would never break theirs because his love for them spurred the whole story to start with.
Maybe this sounds like a stretch. It did to me at first, too. But think about it. Everything Jesus did that day pointed to that day later on. Why did he use those ceremonial jars? That’s not a normal place to put wine. Couldn’t he have just refilled the old wineskins? No, because their filling was to say the law was fulfilled, and the new wine was now ready. The saving of the best for last was to say that the marriage of Jesus and his bride would be the best of all things. The belief it gave to his disciples was the gift that brought his people in. Jesus was signifying far more than a neat trick that God can do. He was signifying the gospel story from the days of old that was now at hand with his coming. Here is the true Bridegroom longing for his bride, looking forward to what he would do to set things right, looking forward to his wedding still out ahead, looking forward to the consummation in the age to come.
Jesus was at the wedding thinking of his wedding, and his heart was filled with longing for his bride. He wanted to show her how thoroughly, how completely, how abundantly, how graciously he would fulfill all things.
If you read the Bible, you can’t avoid this kind of martial language between Jesus and his Church. Jesus longs for us and provides for us with the love of a bridegroom. Jesus does not moderately love his bride. He adores her. He longs for her. He cannot wait to finally have her with him forever.
So what does this mean for you? First, if you are a believer, it means that day at Cana in Galilee, Jesus was thinking of you. What he did that day was to show you the kind of groom he is. If you are not a believer, it means that day at Cana in Galilee, Jesus was doing this so that you might come to faith in him. He wants you to see that he is what you’ve been longing for. All your failed attempts at purity can become real in him. All your shame in life can be washed away in his gospel wine. All your desires for a love that will never end, a joy that will never fade, the wine that will never run out, can be yours. At a wedding, where two people become one new family, Jesus takes the Old Covenant law and weds it to himself to make New Testament wine. He does it there at Cana because he will do it one day in heaven. And he wants you to see that.
Jesus is signifying the newness he’s bringing into the world by showing that his newness is good because it’s aged in the oldness of the gospel promises. He is the true bridegroom who has come to wed his sinful people to himself and save his bride by giving her a new name in himself. He will spare no expense. You will not get part of him but all of him. You will not get wine mixed with water in some dirty pot. You will get the Scripture-aged and glory-infused wine of the kingdom of God. You will receive a husband who always saves the best for last, who doesn’t just hope to make a good impression but who will love and care and provide for you for eternity. You will get a new start on a new life that, with him at the center, will never disappoint. You will get the real, 100-proof Jesus. He makes the end of the party better than the beginning. He takes tragedy and turns it into triumph. He takes sorrow and turns it into joy.
How do we know this is true? Because in John 16:20, Jesus told his disciples about his coming death. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament…You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.” How will their sorrow turn into joy? Because on the cross, Jesus would give himself up for his people. He would lay his life down for his bride. His blood would become the wine we partake of in Holy Communion, which reminds us of his dying love. His blood is the wine that sustains us, cleanses us, remakes us, and saves us until that day we are with him and sit down at the wedding supper of the lamb to drink the wine of the Father’s kingdom with him.
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible now to Colossians 3. Today, we’re looking at 3:22-4:1. What we have here is a theology of work. Let’s read it now.
22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.
1 Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.
We’ve seen the past couple of weeks how Paul takes us inside the Christian home with instructions to husbands, wives, parents, and children. But there is another group in that ancient household Paul also addressed: bondservants. Other translations say “slaves” or “servants.” It’s the same word. There were about 60 million slaves in Paul’s day, about one-half of the entire population. Slaves did most of the work in those days. That was their entire purpose. They were viewed as tools—animate ones, but nothing more. So what Paul said to them addressed the very heart of their existence.
This is a passage, first and foremost, about work, but we can’t ignore that these words are directed toward slaves and slave masters, which makes this difficult. So before we look at what Paul has to say about work, I want first to say something about slavery.
A WORD ABOUT SLAVERY
Paul’s address to husbands, wives, parents, and children addresses God-ordained and God-blessed social structures. In this address to slaves, Paul is stepping into a social construction of oppression that God does not condone. Some wonder why Paul didn’t attack the institution of slavery head-on. Why give instructions rather than condemnation? Because radical social change never happens in an instant, and in the meantime, the gospel has something to say to everyone in any situation. Paul is applying the gospel to this reality, showing how the fullness of Christ makes a difference today amid everything going on.
It’s important, I think, to point out that this passage should never be viewed as the Bible’s approval of slavery. Like anything, to understand what the Bible says about a topic, we have to take the Bible as a whole. If we take the totality of what the Bible says, we could never conclude God is pro-slavery. In fact, the Bible is the very reason we have any anti-slavery ideas at all. Passages like ours today introduced a new idea to the world. No one else was saying anything remotely close to this. It was the idea that slaves were inherently equal to their masters, just as wives were to husbands and children to parents. Paul destroyed the normative social constructs as he brought the fullness of Christ to bear upon their lives. This was a radical new idea. Paul turned his modern world’s view of humanity on its head. If we do away with the Bible because we believe its views of human equality are too backward, we are cutting off the branch we’re sitting on. The only reason we have those ideas of human equality at all is because the Bible quite literally gave them to us. No one in the ancient world talked to slaves as inherent equals to masters. Only Christians did that. Luc Ferry is a French philosopher. He is not a Christian. Some years ago, he wrote a book called A Brief History of Thought. Here’s what he said about Christianity.
“Christianity was to introduce the notion that humanity was fundamentally identical, that men were equal in dignity - an unprecedented idea at the time….This idea may seem self-evident, but it was literally unheard of at the time, and it turned an entire world-order upside down.” (Pp. 72-73)
Without Christianity’s idea of human equality found in the gospel of Christ, we would never have our modern ideas of social equality. The Civil Rights Movement would never have happened without Jesus breaking into the world with this new vision of humanity. Christianity changed the social game. So, just because Paul addressed slaves doesn’t mean he’s falling in line with the social norm. By addressing slaves as human beings with moral agency and being on the same level as masters was quite literally a new thing. God is the first abolitionist. He’s the originator of the Civil Rights Movement throughout the world.
The Bible has some amazing verses about this. One we’ve already seen in Colossians 3:11. “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” Pauls said almost the same thing in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” In the Christian church, there is no room for sexism or racism, or any other social separation into upper and lower classes. We are all one in Christ Jesus. We are used to that idea today, but that’s only because the Bible gave us that idea. Every person who has ever fought for social equality has done so because the Bible gave them the framework of understanding. The moral ground for every civil rights movement is the Bible. God gave us these ideas. This is just one of a million ways Christianity changed the world.
We see this play out early in the Church’s history. Inside the Colossian church sat at least one slave that we know of. His name was Onesimus. The house in which the Colossian church met was likely owned by a man named Philemon. Philemon also owned Onesimus. One day, Onesimus escaped and ran to Rome. He apparently stole something from Philemon on the way out and was hoping to hide in the big city. But by God’s providence, he came into contact with Paul, heard the gospel, and was saved. Later, Paul wrote a letter to Philemon. We have it in our Bible. In it, he appealed to Philemon in Christ to receive Onesimus back not as a bondservant but as a beloved brother (16). He asked Philemon to receive Onesimus as he would receive Paul and promised to repay any debts Onesimus owed. It was a radical thing to ask. No one else in the ancient world would ask such a thing. It’s the kind of thing only the gospel makes possible.
The Christian gospel speaks to all people in every situation all the time. You cannot get any socially lower than a slave. But Jesus doesn’t ignore the lowly. He speaks directly to them. This is nothing new for God. Remember in Exodus when Israel was in slavery? God heard their groanings. Fast forward thousands of years, and here is a slave in the Colossian church wondering how what Paul is saying applies to his life in bondage. He was seen as equal to a tool with no rights or dignity, and then he hears this: “Bondservants….” Jesus is speaking to him. That’s glorious. In the hands of our Savior, even the lowliness of slavery can be a glorious calling in Christ. I don’t say that flippantly. I say it because the Bible says it. Slaves are not nobodies to Jesus. They are somebodies on the same level as the richest man.
So that’s my brief word on slavery.
Now, what does this passage have to say to us today?
LISTENING TO THIS TODAY
Looking at just about any commentary on this passage, past or present, it jumps into how this applies to the workplace. What Paul says to slaves can be applied to employees, and what Paul says to slave masters can be applied to employers. This is not an apples-to-apples comparison. Our modern workplace and slavery are not the same situations. But what Paul says about how one is to work and the attitude one is to take toward his or her workers should be applied to our modern workplace. He’s not so much talking about slavery as he is talking about work itself.
This is more amazing than I think we might see at first glance. Just as Jesus cares about the husband-wife relationship and the parent-child relationship, he cares also about our work relationships. That’s amazing. Our lives are split basically into thirds. We spend a third sleeping, a third working, and a third doing everything else, and most of that is filled with other types of work. Isn’t it comforting to know that Jesus cares about all of our life? He doesn’t only care about the “sacred” parts. It’s all sacred to him. He is deeply involved in the entirety of our life.
We can get so bogged down in the day-to-day details, but Paul lifts us up and shows us what Jesus thinks about our work. So let’s look at three truths Jesus wants us to know as we work.
1. There is a higher master (22-23)
2. There is a great inheritance (24)
3. There is a just reward (25-1)
THERE IS A HIGHER MASTER (22-23)
Look at verse 22. “Bondservants.” Let’s stop there. We might expect Paul to start a different way. Why address the slaves before the masters? But this is how Paul arranged the entire section. Why not the husbands before the wives? Why not the fathers before the children? Paul started with the powerless because the powerful are always first. He started where there is the least natural hope. There is grace and mercy in even the arrangement of the verses. God’s word is amazing.
Paul tells the bondservants to “obey in everything those who are your earthly masters.” This is similar to his command to children. Of course, as Dustin has said previously, Paul is not condoning sinful behavior. Bondservants are not to be disobedient to their masters, but if their masters ask them to do something sinful, they have a higher master. They are to obey their earthly masters, but they are to fear the Lord. Jesus not only limits the slave master’s authority but also frees the slave to disobey when morally necessary. Their earthly master is only earthly. Jesus is the big boss.
We all have an earthly boss. Someone demands our time and attention. How are we to obey? How are we to work? “Not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.” There are two things here—a positive and a negative. Negatively, we can’t slack off when no one’s looking. Jesus’s eye is ever upon us. Positively, we don’t have to hope someone notices our hard work. Jesus’s eye is ever upon us. Both of these are good news. There isn’t a meaningless moment. The King of the Universe is right there with you. When the King notices you, you can’t slack off. You don’t want to. When the King notices you, you need no other praise. His is enough. Someone once asked G.K. Chesterton, “If the risen Christ suddenly appeared at this very moment and stood behind you, what would you do?” Chesterton looked them squarely in the eye and said, “He is.”
So when you’re sitting at your desk, tempted to slack off, remember Jesus is watching. Your work matters to him. How you work matters to him. He wants you to work hard because that is how his people work. It’s like the Patriot way or the Yankee way. There is a certain way Christians go about their work. It looks like Jesus—always about his Father’s business. And when you’re sitting at your desk, wishing someone noticed the care you put into every task, remember Jesus is watching. He sees the effort, and he rejoices in it. That care you put into your work is putting the glory of Jesus on display as you devote yourself and your work to him.
This changes our Mondays, doesn’t it? As we serve our earthly masters, we are serving the Lord himself. We are working, most truly, for him. Verse 23, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” This is the fullness of Christ for the worker. Some of us work joyless jobs. All of us have some joyless tasks in our jobs. But Jesus is saying it doesn’t matter what you do. “Whatever you do.” Our work, no matter how small, isn’t too small for Jesus. Our work matters because it matters to him. He is that involved with us. Our little work life isn’t so little. Even the slave’s work is cherished by Jesus and received by him as unto him. That’s amazing.
We all have earthly masters. Some of them are good bosses. Some are not. But we all have a higher master who is good and does good, and he is who ultimately matters. What kind of boss is Jesus? He’s a good one, I promise you. He’s forgiving. He’s gracious. He’s merciful. He’s kind. He expects a lot. He doesn’t coddle us. But he cares for us. He asks us to work hard. Working as unto the Lord means the work actually gets harder—no eye-service, no people-pleasing—but it’s far more rewarding. Jesus makes even the most menial task an important one—not because of what we’re doing but because of who we’re doing it for. We won’t slack off because his eye is always upon us. And he will send his help by the power of his Spirit to give us energy for the task. He will give us rest at night after a hard day. He will give us peace during the tough parts. He will be all we need anyone to be for us and far more. He may ask us to do hard things, but he won’t be hard on us. No matter our current situation, the deepest truth about our work is that Jesus is over it and in it all. His gospel goes everywhere.
And on top of all that, there is another truth to remember in our work: there is a great inheritance.
THERE IS A GREAT INHERITANCE (24)
Look at verse 24. We are to work hard, “knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”
Here is a truth we know and a promise we receive. Because we are in Christ, who is all in all, who is the firstborn of all creation, we know that from him, we will receive something: an inheritance. Paul calls this the reward. Then, he connects that with another truth. You are serving the Lord Christ. You may serve your boss, but if you are a Christian, you serve Jesus first and foremost. Nothing in your life is outside your relationship with him. He’s all in. He wants you to know that, and he seals it with a blood-bought promise of a heavenly inheritance.
I can’t help but think of the slave’s situation here. Think of the suffering at work. Every task reminds them of their status. 1 Peter 1:3-4 comes to mind. “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” There is gospel hope! A slave has no hope of an inheritance in this world. He has only to work and then die. Then Jesus comes along and says, “No, dear one. There is a reward for you in me. You can work hard here because this life isn’t all there is. One day you will be with me in my glory and share in all I have. You are a co-heir with me, the Son of the living God. All I ask is that you trust me now. Follow me. I will lead you to paradise. And I will show you that your work was not in vain.”
How do you think that changes the way we spend our days? And because our days are made up of so much work, mustn’t it also change how we work? We don’t need to scratch for a dollar hoping to build a life of ease and comfort and security in this world. Let me let you in on a little secret: no amount of money is ever enough to secure you from your greatest fears. Work must be about more than money. So what about status? Our work is important. It can define who we are. But let me let you in on a little secret: no status is greater than the one we are given freely in Christ—child of God. You receive the heavenly inheritance not by merit but by grace. And that changes everything. All you need work to do for you is already given freely by the grace of Christ. If you rest in that, then you’ll start doing your work as he intended all along. It will suddenly satisfy you in a way it never could before. Only when you receive the grace of Christ for your work will you ever be able to find contentment in work. Jesus has already given you all the riches of heaven, all the status of a child of God, all the comfort of abundant life, all the security of eternity.
When you realize what you’ve been given by Christ, you actually are then free to do your best work. You can serve without fear. You can work hard knowing rest is coming. You can accomplish tasks you deem beneath you because Jesus asked you to do them, and how can you say no to him? Who knows what he might do with even the smallest task done unto him? He can change the world through that. He has many times before. Our work is not a wilderness where we go looking for God. It is a garden God gives us to cultivate for his sake. He comes walking in it with us. You need to know that.
J.R.R Tolkien feared he would never finish The Lord of the Rings. In that despair, he wrote a short story called Leaf by Niggle. Niggle, whose name means “to work in a fiddling or ineffective way,” was a painter commissioned to paint a grand tree. He never could get it out on the canvas. All he could manage was to paint a single leaf. He comes to the end of his life with nothing more than that leaf. It’s hung in a museum as Leaf: by Niggle. A few people see it. Was it all a waste?
Niggle then goes to the afterlife. On his journey, he hears two voices. One is the voice of Justice that reprimands him for wasting so much time. The other is the voice of Mercy, who is much kinder, promising a reward. As he nears the destination, he notices something. “Before him stood the Tree, his Tree, finished; its leaves opening, its branches growing and bending in the wind that Niggle had so often felt or guessed, and yet had so often failed to catch. He gazed at the Tree, and slowly he lifted his arms and opened them wide. ‘It is a gift!’ he said.”
Here’s the point. The leaf wasn’t a waste of time. It was a request not from his earthly boss but from Jesus himself. Part of Niggle’s reward was the completion of the task. His life’s work was but a leaf on Jesus’s great tree. Your work is like that too, and one day you will see the fullness of it. One day, you will enter God’s rest. One day, you will receive the inheritance because you are serving the Lord Christ.
Now, one more thing to see in verse 25 and extending into chapter 4, verse 1. There is a just reward for our work.
THERE IS A JUST REWARD (25-1)
All we’ve seen so far has been directed at the workers. In 4:1, the attention is turned to the masters. But verse 25 is a bit ambiguous. Look at it. “For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.” Is it directed at workers or masters? I think it’s directed at both. Both parties can do wrong, and the wrongdoer will be repaid for his wrong. In God, there is no partiality. It doesn’t matter if you are powerful and can get away with something. It doesn’t matter if you are so lowly no one will notice you not working as you ought. God sees and knows everything, and he doesn’t care who you are in this world. Everyone is below him. And he is just. He’s the perfect Judge. Home plate umpire Pat Hoberg had a perfect game in the World Series the other night. He called every pitch perfectly. All true strikes were strikes. All true balls were balls. That’s the kind of judge God is. It doesn’t matter if it’s the clean-up hitter in the box or the ace on the mound. He calls it as it is.
That’s actually really comforting, isn’t it? No one is getting away with anything. This truth gives hope to the servant as it gives a warning to the master. You might feel taken advantage of, but if you are, God knows about that. You might think something is unfair, but if it is, God sees it. No one is getting away with anything. All that is wrong will come to light and be made right in the end because God’s eye is perfect. From heaven’s perspective, earthly masters and slaves are in the same boat: all under God.
Now, chapter 4, verse 1, is clearly written to masters. “Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.” Notice how Paul connects the logic of who God is to who masters ought to be. God is a Master, and he’s a certain kind of Master. He goes about his business justly and fairly. He expects his under-masters to do the same. Masters may be masters, but they have a Master too. As masters expect their workers to obey, Jesus expects masters to obey.
This means masters cannot be harsh with their servants. Bosses can’t be harsh with their employees. They are to be fair and just. This sounds easier than it is. When someone works for us, it is far too easy to think too lowly of them, to assume the worst rather than the best, to pass the work you are supposed to do down to those who have other, more important tasks, and to over-burden and under-resource and discourage the worker. The boss has a lot of responsibility, but none greater than to treat those under him or her well. Jesus is watching how we treat those under our supervision.
Of course, Jesus is our model here, just as he is our power to live it out. He is our Lord. What kind of Master is he? How do we need to change in light of who he is? He will forgive us for our failures, and he will empower us to do it his way.
We will all one day fall under the judgment of God for how we lived our lives. If we are in Christ, even our greatest and most damning sins will be wholly forgiven. If we are not, even our greatest deeds will be condemned. Our only hope is to find ourselves hidden in Christ. And when we are, as the author of Hebrews says, “God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name” (Heb. 6:10). On that great and final day, we want to hear that we did well with what he had given us.
Alongside that, our work displays the glory of Jesus in this world. Think of what the Roman world would have seen in the master-slave relationship inside the Christian church! How different it was from the world’s way. How honoring to Jesus. Their work was bound up in his work. The world was seeing a different way to live—a gospel way.
CONCLUSION
I’ll close with this.
Jesus is saying to us today that the motivation for our good, hard work is not to be noticed by him but comes from already being noticed by him. We are under his kind watch. He is not only infusing our work with his grace to honor and glorify him and provide goods and services to others that help them flourish, but he is also receiving all our work unto himself as service to him. No task is meaningless. How could it be? Jesus is in it.
Isn’t that amazing? Is there an area of life that the gospel does not change? There isn’t. That’s the point. Even slaves have meaning now. Even tasks no one else notices are holy moments of service to the King of the Universe. He sees it. He honors it. He rewards it.
So, let’s go and do it, looking to Jesus and trusting him moment by moment.
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible now to Colossians 3:12-17. The old self is dead, and the new self is now alive in Christ. One of the gifts of that new self is a new way to live together, and that’s our subject today.
Let’s read the passage now.
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
This is God’s word.
INTRODUCTION
In his book The Church Before the Watching World, Francis Schaeffer said (page 62):
One cannot explain the explosive dynamite of the early church apart from the fact that they practiced two things simultaneously: orthodoxy of doctrine and orthodoxy of community in the midst of the visible church, a community which the world could see. By the grace of God, therefore, the church must be known simultaneously for its purity of doctrine and the reality of its community.
In Colossians 3, we see the gospel culture that gospel doctrine creates. Gospel doctrine is what we believe: the gospel, the message of God’s grace for the undeserving. Gospel culture is the lived experience that doctrine creates. As Ray Ortlund says, “Gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture. The message of grace creates a culture of grace.” (Ortlund, The Gospel, page 21) When a church has gospel doctrine plus gospel culture, that church is a powerful witness to the watching world. The true test of a gospel-centered church is the doctrine it says it believes plus the culture it actually experiences.
Now, a wonderful thing about God is that what he asks of us, he also gives us the power to do. When we come to a passage like this, prescriptive in nature, we must come to it under the same terms of grace that we come to all of Scripture. God’s call is high, and his grace matches the call. God can create a gospel culture in any church that will simply open themselves to his amazing grace.
In our passage today, Paul exhorts us to put on the new clothes of the gospel to live out a gospel culture. It all starts with where we find our identity. Because we are in Christ, we have his characteristics. This is not something we achieve; it is something God gives. Because we are new people, we have new clothes to wear, which display our new nature and lead to a new community.
So we can break the passage down into three simple points:
1. Our new identity
2. Our new nature
3. Our new community
OUR NEW IDENTITY
In verse 5, Paul commanded us to put to death what is earthly in us. In verse 12, he commands us to put on something new. The grimy clothes of sin are to be exchanged for the glorious clothes of the gospel. God has done something transformational in us. We have a new self. This new self supersedes all other selves. We are Christians now.
So Paul says in verse 12, “Put on then….” Now what he says next matters so much. Everything flows from it. If we don’t let the truth of these next few words settle deep in our hearts, we will never be able to live out the rest of the passage. “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved….” Here is the miracle of Christianity for all who believe. Chosen. Holy. Beloved.
We are chosen, holy, and beloved because of the cross of Christ. Jesus paid for our sins and gave us his righteousness. He reconciled us to God on the cross. He didn’t do that for a nameless bunch of people. He did that for you. Why? Because you are God’s chosen one. Because you are his chosen, he made you holy. Because you are chosen, you are his beloved. You didn’t deserve that. You deserved God’s wrath. But in his grace and mercy, he chose you to be his forever. He did all that was necessary to save you from the domain of darkness and transfer you into the kingdom of his beloved son (Col. 1:13). No matter what else you are: a parent, a businessman, an American, whatever, you are first and foremost a Christian—one chosen by God.
This is so massively important to the rest of the passage. It’s Exhibit A that gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture. When we find ourselves wonderfully in the love of God, only then will we be able to truly live out his call on our lives. When we see who we are to God, only then will we be able to live as he desires. When we understand that we are his, by his choice, we can live freely with others. We have to see the grace of this doctrine. We have to understand this isn’t because we knew the right people or paid the set dues or earned our spot on the team. God simply chose us and brought us in by his grace.
So much goes wrong when we are trying to fight up the hill of holiness in our own strength. But when we see that we are made holy in Christ, the weight of the world drops off our shoulders. So much goes wrong when we constantly pine to be loved deep down. But when we see that we are loved by God, and his love took Jesus to the cross, we find peace. Being loved changes us more than anything else. It gives us the power to live as God asks us to live more than anything else.
Paul says on the front end that we are loved by God, by his choice. We are not coercing God to love us. He loves us because he loves us. If God loved us because of something he saw that was loveable in us, we would never have peace. How could we? We might change. We might disappoint him. He might get sick of us at some point, and like we’ve experienced so many times with human love, he might decide to leave us. But that’s not how God’s love for us works. Nothing in us compelled God to love us, so nothing in us can compel him to unlove us. God loves us despite our sins. God loves us despite our failures. God loves us because he loves us, and all God asks us to do is accept his love. We don’t have to earn it. We just have to accept it with the empty hands of faith. All the holiness and love we desire deep down is ours for the taking by the grace of God in the Spirit of God by the cross of Christ.
The motivation for the rest of what Paul wants to say to us is grounded in this one simple truth of the gospel: all in Christ are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved. Try as we may, we will never live out the rest of this passage if we don’t ground it all in the gospel doctrine of the deep love of God for the undeserving. And conversely, when this gospel doctrine settles on our hearts and keeps settling on our hearts moment by moment as we look to Jesus, the rest of the passage comes naturally. After all, we are new creations in Christ. God’s only asking us to be who we already are in Christ.
It all starts with who you are. Who you are determines what you do. If you are a Christian, you can live as God calls because your identity is a miracle already. The hard part is done. Jesus died to make you holy. The call of all that comes next may sound impossible to live out, but “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32)
We are new people now. We are Christians. We are the chosen, the holy, the beloved.
This new identity leads to our new nature. Let’s look at what that is now.
OUR NEW NATURE
We see the new nature beginning in verse 12. It includes certain attributes: compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Verse 13 tells us to bear with and forgive one another. Verse 14 tells us to put on love. Verses 15 and 16 call us to be thankful in all we do. This is all in the context of community. The beauty of the gospel becomes visible to the world in part through the beauty of our relationships with one another. One way we know Jesus is real and living is through the culture of life he creates in his churches.
Paul is paralleling the negative attributes listed in verses 5 and 8. Our old nature was filled with sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk. The new clothes are the antithesis of the old clothes, bearing witness to what only God can do among his people.
Now, here’s the amazing thing about this new nature. All these virtues are associated with Jesus himself. When we put on these new clothes, we are putting on Christ. Jesus is not only all these wonderful things for us; he also makes all these wonderful things a reality in us and among us.
Compassionate hearts make us deeply sensitive to the needs and sorrows of others (Wright). Literally translated, it means the “bowels of mercy” (Moo). 1 John 3:17 says, “If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?” That’s the logic of the new nature. We cannot see someone in need and not feel deeply moved as Jesus does. Remember when the leper came to Jesus? “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, [Jesus] stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” (Mark 1:40-41). We may not be able to heal with a touch like Jesus, but he’s asking that we care with his compassion—the compassion that takes us close to the weak and needy.
Kindness makes us Christlike toward others, loving them as we love ourselves. We are good to one another like Jesus is to us. He bends down to the children and welcomes them (Matt. 19:14). He makes room for the outsiders and the outcasts (Mark 2:13-17). He goes to the well to talk to the woman no one else would dare be seen with (John 4). He extends kindness. That can be exhausting, but when we wonder if we can go on, Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heaven laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 28:11). We have a kind savior who creates and sustains kind people.
Humility is the beauty of self-forgetfulness, where we consider others more important than ourselves. It is the low place Jesus took when he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:7-8). We don’t have to be impressive. We can stoop low because Jesus did.
Meekness means we stop jockeying for position. We are not impressed by our own self-importance. The word could be translated as “gentle.” Jesus is the most magnificent person in the universe, yet he is gentle and lowly at heart (Matt. 11:29). A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench (Isa. 42:3; Matt. 12:20). In a world of harshness, we are to be meek and gentle, like Jesus.
Patience means we bear with one another. We don’t pressure each other to change quickly but give time and safety under the gospel to let Jesus change us from one degree of glory to another in his timing, not ours. Jesus was patient with his disciples, who, again and again, just didn’t get it. But he knew they would when he was lifted up on the cross and resurrected on the third day. Gospel truth compels us to be patient and let God do his work. Where would you be without the patience of God? I know some people are difficult to live with. They grate on our nerves, and sometimes we just wish they’d go away. We don’t click with everyone. But Jesus can click with any personality type. And for his sake, he calls us to bear with one another. Like a tapestry made of many parts, the beauty of the gospel is seen in the varied people God unites.
Our new nature gives us the power to forgive. The forgiveness he lavishes on us flows out to others. As Jesus said in the parable of the unforgiving servant, we are not to hold others’ sins against them but to forgive them freely and fully as the Lord has forgiven us. Jesus’s forgiveness is not only our example but also our power.
I was recently reminded of this power. My family and I just got back from Washington, D.C. We went to the Holocaust Museum and learned about the horror of Hitler’s Nazis in the 1930s and 40s. I remember a story from Corrie Ten Boom, who, with her family, was sent to a concentration camp for hiding Jews in their home. Her father was killed. Her sister, Betsie, also died in the camp. Corrie survived. One day after the war, she spoke on forgiveness at a church. Afterward, one of the guards at the concentration camp came forward to greet her. Here’s what she said about that day.
It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there – the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face.
He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. ‘How grateful I am for your message.’ He said. ‘To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!’
His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who preached so often to the people the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.
Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.
I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness.
As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.
And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on his. When he tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.
That’s the new nature of the gospel. Perhaps nothing shows it as powerfully as forgiveness.
Then there is love. Love is what binds this all together. Without love, it's all just clanging symbols, a bunch of noise (1 Cor.13:1). Forgiveness might be the most shocking of the new nature, but love is the key that drives it all. It’s the outer garment that holds it all together. In every interaction, love is to set the tone. Love is to lead. It was love that compelled God to send his Son. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son” (John 3:16). Only when love is real will unity be real, and that is Paul’s aim. As Jesus said, they will know us by our love (John 13:35). Love from God flows into God’s beloved, and love from the beloved flows out to others. It’s a river of love, sweeping others into its flow.
Finally, our new nature makes us thankful in everything we do. Jesus was the perfect model of this. He thanked his Father for everything constantly. He accepted with thanksgiving every good thing and every hard thing. He only asks us to do the same. And shouldn’t we? All we want most deeply is ours in Christ and will be forever. Christ has saved us! Jesus has restored our fortunes. He has paid for our sins. He has promised abundant life. He is coming again to restore this broken world. He is going to make everything sad come untrue. He is our Lord and Savior, and he will never leave us nor forsake us. He will love us when we’re unlovable. He will be gracious and merciful forever. He will care for us in all our needs and sorrows. He will go before us in all our trials. He will stand with us when no one else will. He will be for us even though the world is against us. He will be all we need anyone to be for us and more. The new nature is kind of like Whoville. The Grinch can take what he wants, but he can’t take our joy. He can’t take our thankfulness. He can’t take our song.
That’s the new nature our new identity creates. Now, the new community that flows from it all.
OUR NEW COMMUNITY
Our new identity and our new nature create a new community. Gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture. All that Paul has said applies to each one of us individually, but when individuals like that gather, God creates among them a radiant community centered on his gospel and sustained by his love. God calls that a church.
The key verse is verse 15. “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” Our way forward in beauty and unity and radiance in the gospel is by letting the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. The Greek word for “rule” refers to “umpire.” What do umpires do? They render a verdict on situations. They call balls and strikes. They call safe or out. They interpret the rules and apply them. In baseball, it is the official rule book that is the decisive factor. In the church, it’s the peace of Christ.
When the peace of Christ rules in a church, that church shines bright for all the world to see. Have you noticed how unpeaceful the world is? You can’t open social media without witnessing a fight. How many office meetings tomorrow morning will be filled with tension? How many ex-coworkers and ex-friends and ex-whatevers in the world will be created just in this next week? But inside the church, as we let the peace of Christ rule, we find a way forward even when the light ahead is dim. We have been united by Christ, and his kingdom is a kingdom of peace. He is a ruler of peace. Whatever our disagreements may be, however much we may be suspicious of others, we are to deal with it all in terms of the peace Christ has made. He has reconciled us to God. Can he not bring peace among us? We do not have a dead savior. In all our disputes, he is living and active.
Verse 16 helps us see one way the peace of Christ can rule in our hearts. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly….” The word of Christ means, essentially, the gospel. The Bible is front and center. It’s where we see the gospel in black and white. It’s on the authority of the Bible that we teach and admonish one another. But notice also what else Paul mentions: singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Then, to expand it even further, he says in verse 17, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.” In other words, Paul is presenting a community in which the message of the gospel of Christ is preeminent, where Christ is all in all in the Church’s individual and corporate experience. The gospel must go deep in us and wide among us.
When the gospel goes deep and wide, God creates a radiant community that proves the gospel is true. Now, the gospel is true whether we act like it or not. We don’t make the gospel true; God does. But we can bear witness to it. We can say to the watching world, “Here’s what Jesus can do.” The church is where the gospel is field-tested for real life (Ray Ortlund, The Gospel, page 66).
The church is the model house in the new neighborhood God is building in this world. We have a message of grace that frees captives from sin and death. We have a Savior who loves and cares and saves the undeserving. The center of the church must be Jesus and Jesus alone. And we must never leave him nor stray from his message.
When we put on the new clothes of Jesus, we become in God’s gracious hands the kind of community everyone in this world longs for. A place where they can be loved and forgiven and find freedom and peace and safety. Here’s how we get there. We look to Jesus alone, and we never stop looking. We let him define us, and we stop defining ourselves. We let him be the center and stop putting ourselves there in that sacred circle where only he belongs. We live a life of faith, moment by moment, letting the peace of Christ rule and letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly, and we become in his merciful hands a thoroughly thankful community that looks like an outpost of heaven on earth.
It’s not easy, but it is possible because we aren’t who we once were. We’re new creations in Christ, empowered by his Spirit to live as he desires. In all our needs, he is there. In all our failures, he is our success. All we have to do is humbly submit to his way of life, and then we will see what only God can do, and it will be radiant, and it will say to this world, “Jesus is beautiful. Come and see.” And we will be happy beyond our wildest dreams. It won’t be easy. Living for Jesus never is. But it will be glorious. And, really, what choice do we have? It’s who God has made us to be. Isn’t that amazing? Who could ask for a more glorious community? That’s what God is granting. All we have to do is accept it and live into it, by his power, for his glory, and for our joy.
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible to Colossians 2:16-23. Last week, Paul exulted in our life in Christ, who has overcome all earthly and demonic opposition. Today, Paul fleshes out what it means for us to live as new creations now that Christ has triumphed over all other powers.
Let’s read it now.
COLOSSIAN 2:16-23
16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
INTRODUCTION
Here’s an important question we must all answer at some point. How do you know you are truly a Christian?
How do you know?
Are there certain things you do? Certain things you don’t do? Certain things you know that others don’t?
How do you know you’re a Christian?
That was the question the Colossians faced. Someone was questioning their Christianity, judging them, and deeming them religiously insufficient. They were told they needed Jesus, plus something: the proper ascetic lifestyle and religious rule-following. But Jesus, plus something, though it may be a religion, is not Christianity. Jesus, plus anything, is a distortion of the gospel. It is an offense to the free grace of God in Christ.
Listen to what Jesus says in John 6:63. “The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh is no help at all.” Did Jesus say the flesh is some help? He said the flesh is no help at all. We cannot define our Christianity by what we do in the flesh. It is no help at all. We must define our Christianity by what God has done for us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The gospel is news we receive, not a badge we earn. The gospel is not Jesus plus; it is Jesus only.
The gospel does not come to us in our Father’s wisdom to say, “Here’s an outline of life if you’d like to use it for yours.” The gospel does not come to us from the nail-pierced hands of Jesus our Savior and say, “Here’s my body and blood to give you a boost.” The gospel is not spoken to the deep places of our hearts by the Spirit to say, “You can do it, and here’s a little internal motivation.” No, the gospel proclaims over us, “You are redeemed by God finally and fully, for God’s glory and by his grace. The only thing you contributed to this finished work is the sin that made salvation necessary. But that is taken care of in the cross of Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
There is the temptation to come to God with more than empty hands, but he asks for nothing more. Listen to what the Bible says. In Isaiah 55:1-2, God speaks through his prophet, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” In Matthew 28:11, Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” We don’t bring our resumes. We don’t list our achievements. We come with nothing. In fact, to come with anything but nothing is to not come at all.
There are no conditions we must meet. As Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:15, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Charles Spurgeon said, “Between that word ‘save’ and the next word ‘sinners,’ there is no adjective. It does not say, ‘penitent sinners,’ ‘awakened sinners,’ ‘sensible sinners,’ ‘grieving sinners,’ or ‘alarmed sinners.’ No, it only says, ‘sinners.’” The only qualification we need for the salvation of Christ is our need. We need only be a sinner. We bring the sin. He provides the saving. No need to qualify yourself through deeds. No need to clean yourself first. There is only the call to come. The gospel call of God is a simple one. I might say even an easy one. It is a light one. It is an inviting one. It is a promise to save all who merely come to him, who go straight to him with the empty hands of faith. Nothing else is needed. When we come, we find in him the fullness of salvation, with all the benefits we could ever have in Christ, now and forever, fully and freely given to us.
Some people in Colossae believed that was good enough for a start, but it doesn’t take you to the deep end. Some people today believe that too. But the gospel isn’t merely the start of our journey. It’s not just the doorway but the pathway. The gospel is not something we graduate from and then go on to get our Ph.D. in spirituality by other means. The way to a deeper spirituality is to dive into the gospel deeps. The deeper in we go, the bigger it gets, and the more holy we become. Not because of what we are doing, but because of what Jesus is doing in us.
So to the question, “How do you know you are a Christian?” the answer is not more difficult than saying boldly by faith, “Because Jesus saved me.” True spirituality does not consist of outward appearances by inward reality with Christ.
To encourage these Colossian believers, Paul wants to confront the false teachers and break the bonds they attempted to tie around the church. Paul does this in three exhortations.
1. Only God can judge you (16-17)
2. Only God can qualify you (18-19)
3. Only God can free you (20-23)
ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE YOU (16-17)
Inside the Colossian church was a self-appointed jury that looked out on others with judgment upon their spiritual lives. There was an Inner Ring claiming the inside scoop on true spirituality.
So far in Colossians, we haven’t heard exactly what the false teaching was, but we see some specifics starting in verse 16. It included abstaining from certain food and drink and observing certain days: festivals, new moons, and the Sabbath. This sounds like Jewish law. Most scholars don’t believe this was purely a Jewish heresy, but whatever it was, it included Jewish elements. Regardless of its roots, the false teachers set the boundaries of true spirituality around these doctrines and judged others accordingly. Paul wants both parties, especially those who cling to Jesus as their only hope, to know that this judgment is wrong. No man can judge another. Only God can judge. And God has already passed his judgment on these Christians on the cross of Christ.
As we saw last week, God forgives our trespasses and cancels our debt by nailing it to the cross. Jesus was perfect in every way. He never sinned. But on the cross, Jesus was judged for our sins as if they were his sins, as our substitute. This is why the cross is called the great exchange. All our sin was placed on Jesus, and in return, all his righteousness was granted to us. So now it is not only just as if we never sinned but also as if we have always obeyed.
If that’s true, who is left to judge these Colossians? If God has judged and acquitted in Christ, there is no higher court of appeal. That’s Paul’s point. No one can judge you now because, in Christ, you have been judged and found not guilty by grace. That’s not only true when you first believe, but it remains true for the rest of your life. Every day, you are as free as if Jesus died for you yesterday.
Now, in fairness, perhaps the false teachers would agree Jesus paid for our sins, but they still held to a certain path as the way to true spirituality. But that is only a new law. Like the Old Testament law, it’s only a shadow of the things to come. As Paul said in Romans 7:4, when Christ died, “You also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead.” If we have died to the law, what good is it to live to it again, as if it can give something Jesus can’t?
Paul says these false teachers are merely chasing shadows. They’re after the old age, but the new age has come. The law was a shadow of the good things to come (Heb. 10:1). The substance belongs to Christ. He is the fulfillment of the law, and we have that fullness now in him. Why then go back to the law?
The problem can be boiled down to one word: legalism. Legalism is the idea that we earn favor with God through works. Obedience is important. God requires it. But it does not gain us favor with him. We have all the favor we will ever need in Christ by grace. Our works add nothing to that, any more than the works of your children add to your love for them. You love them because you love them, and for those in Christ, God loves you because he loves you.
Maybe you’re a child with many siblings, and you know your parents love you, but you’re the black sheep of the family. No way your parents love you like your all-star brother or sister. I doubt that’s true, but let’s just grant for a moment it is. Is that how God loves? With degrees of affection? No. He loves you as he loves Christ. The doctrine of the adoption of God means we are adopted as sons and daughters in Christ. As Jesus prayed in John 17:23, “You…have loved them even as you have loved me.” You have the fullness of God’s love and favor in Christ freely and fully.
But legalism says you don’t. Legalism establishes requirements of moral conduct beyond what the Bible teaches and then sets the boundaries of true spirituality and acceptance dependent upon adhering to those requirements. In its ugliest form, legalism forces that theology on others. The only way someone is fully “in” is to fully obey their rules, and faith becomes a side-bar issue. Works are what really matter. This is what happened to the Colossians. Legalists were excluding Christians from the Church. The problem is, they aren’t in charge. Jesus is.
One of my favorite phrases is “the finished work of Christ.” When Jesus died on the cross, he did not say, “My part is done, now your turn.” No. He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Jesus lived the perfect life we failed to live and, on the cross, atoned for all our sins to set us right with God now and forever. He finished that work and was raised on the third day. What Jesus has accomplished and filled up on our behalf, he does not also ask us to do to earn his favor. What God has deemed finished, let no man continue.
God asks us to obey him, yes, but out of his fullness of grace, not as a path to it. We obey because we are loved, not to be loved. We obey because we have spiritual life in him, not to gain it. True spirituality is found in Christ alone, in communion with him, in living inside his gospel promises, in going into the gospel deeps, not in eating or drinking the right things or observing the right days, but in loving the Savior and following him only.
That’s God’s judgment, and only he can judge you. Secondly, only God can qualify you.
ONLY GOD CAN QUALIFY YOU (18-19)
Paul cast off their judge in verses 16 and 17, and in verses 18 and 19, he goes after their self-appointed referee, who proclaimed they violated the rules of the game and therefore were disqualified. Whereas before it was a matter of dos and don’ts, now it is a matter of whos and whats. Who do they worship, and to what are they holding fast?
They insist on asceticism, which is a Greek word for humility. They thought themselves humble for their actions, but it was a false humility. True humility doesn’t hold others to its standard. It goes to the low place. Their humility lifted them above others as judges and referees. It puffed them up. In the area of worship, they venerated angels. This was common in the ancient world. The author of Hebrews confronted something similar. They also go on about their visions. They are puffed up by a sensuous mind. In a word, they are misfocused, looking at things other than Jesus.
The key for these false teachers is this mysticism that seems spiritual and supposedly leads one to the “fullness of life” but is not Christ-centered. Too many other things are crowded in with him. Jesus may have a seat at the table, but he’s one of the board members, not the one head.
That’s an easy reality for us to fall into. We can crowd our lives with all kinds of “spiritual” things, but the one true source of spiritual health is Jesus and him alone. True spirituality is found only in Christ because the fullness of deity dwells in him (2:9). Fullness is not found in the angels. It’s not found in mysticism. It’s not found in asceticism. It’s found in Jesus alone. Anything done apart from holding fast to Jesus is a dead end. It may claim spirituality, but it is the opposite. The only truly spiritual people are those who hold fast to the Head because the body is nourished and knit together with growth from God.
Francis Schaeffer said, “This is where true worship is found: not in stained-glass windows, candles, or altarpieces, not in contentless experiences, but in communion with the God who is there—communion for eternity, and communion now, with the infinite-personal God as Abba, Father.”
It comes down to one simple thing, communion with God. That’s why Paul says in verse 19 that the problem with all this extra stuff is that it leads to a puffed-up mind. It doesn’t do anything at all to connect one to Jesus. Whether one is a Christian is not their observance of dietary laws of observance of days or even their super-spiritual lifestyle but whether one belongs to Jesus. It’s not about a certain experience but a certain reality—reality with Christ. Jesus must be not only a board member but the only leader of your life.
Paul uses the illustration of a body in verse 19. A body has only one head, and for the church communally and the Christian individually, that is Jesus. We are nourished by him. We are knit together through joints and ligaments, and the growth is from God himself, apart from all other things. If you are in Christ, you are a part of his body. A body part does not qualify itself. Merely being joined is enough.
True spirituality is Jesus reigning and ruling and guiding and leading and caring and providing and nourishing our life. If we have him, he will take us to the deep places of true spirituality. If we leave him, no matter how spiritual we may look on the outside, we are but whitewashed tombs inside.
Jesus joined us to himself. Let’s not cut ourselves off. No one can say to a body part, “You don’t belong.” Let no one say it to you, either.
Only God can judge you. Only God can qualify you. And third, only God can free you.
ONLY GOD CAN FREE YOU (20-23)
Verse 20 takes us into the crux of Paul’s argument. It is the same as what we saw last week. It all hinges on the death of Christ and our death in him at the cross. Notice the logic Paul uses. Everything the false teaching did was only enslavement to the things of this world. But “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations?” The false teaching said if you would only do these things and not do these other things, you will find spiritual freedom. But that was a lie. It looks good, but it’s ineffective. Rules and regulations can never free you. Only God can free you.
True spirituality is not a negative reality but a positive one. Galatians 5:1 says, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” God’s desire is not our continued enslavement to this world or the powers of this world but rather freedom in Christ to live as we were made to live. So many people look at religion and see only shackles. I understand why they do. If we define our spirituality in terms of dos and don’ts, I don’t know why anyone would ever want it. But if we define our spirituality in terms of freedom in Christ, I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want it.
So what does it mean to be free in Christ? Let’s just think about that for a little while as we close this sermon.
To be free in Christ means we are dead to everything unholy in this world. We are no longer slaves to our sinful desires. We may not always win the battle, but Jesus won the war for us. Sin may tempt us and sometimes even trip us, but it can never rule again.
To be free in Christ means we are dead to the law, which, though a gift of grace from God, was only our schoolmaster to keep us until the coming of Christ who can free us. Because Jesus obeyed the law perfectly and gave his perfection to us in his sacrifice on the cross, we now have the power to obey in a way we never did before. It’s not just a clean slate; it’s the righteousness of Christ that is ours for the taking.
To be free in Christ means we don’t need to be impressive because we are fully known and yet deeply loved. Everyone in this world is afraid of being found out. But God sees and knows everything in your life, and all it did was give him even more reason to save you. God knows your deepest fears and longings and regrets and temptations and all the rest, and he lavishes his love and grace and mercy upon you in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, moment by moment.
To be free in Christ means you are fully qualified for heaven right now. You didn’t earn it because you couldn’t. God gave it freely in Christ. He earned it for you. He is your entry ticket. More than that, he is your life. Your life is bound up with his. You are hidden in him. You are seated with him. All you want most deeply is found in him and can never be lost and will never fade. Your future is incredibly bright, and you nor anyone else can do anything to change that. No one can snatch you from his hands.
To be free in Christ means more than we can even say here today. It will take eternity for us to plumb the depths, and there will still be more.
In Christ, you have all you will ever need. Cling to him. Don’t chase shadows. Hug the substance. Don’t cut yourself off. Hold fast to the Head. Don’t live for this world. Rejoice in your death in Christ. Even more, rejoice in your life in him.
Let’s pray.
INTRODUCTION
Let’s open the Bible now to Colossians 1:15-20.
Last week, we saw Paul’s prayer that the Colossian Christians would be filled and strengthened with the knowledge of God. Then, as if answering his prayer, Paul praises Jesus through words that can’t do anything but fill us and strengthen us in the knowledge of God.
Some scholars believe this passage is a quotation from an ancient Christian hymn. Maybe some of your Bibles even have it formatted as poetry. That may be true. Whatever the case, we’ve moved beyond introductions now, and Paul launches into a description of Jesus that stands as one of the most majestic in all of the Bible.
The most important person in existence is lifted up, and like a diamond, he is turned so that we see his many facets of glory.
So, let’s read it now.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
This is God’s word.
Here’s how a passage like this really helps us. We live our days mired in the details of life. We go to work, take the kids to school or go to school ourselves, do our chores, watch TV, and so on. Throughout our day, we are bombarded with news and information and so forth. We walk around with our heads down. We look at our screens. We look at what’s in front of us. And all the stuff of life starts to weigh heavy upon us. Our vision gets small and focused. Before long, we start redefining our life according to what we see in front of us. That can lead to several problems. Small things become big things. Anxiety grows. Wrong, inflated views of ourselves increase. We start to define life on our terms. The more inward-focused we get, the more out of focus ultimate reality gets. We start to believe something other than Jesus is at the center of the universe.
Then we come to a passage like this, and we are confronted with a God so big and mighty and glorious that we start to rethink what really matters. We start to see that ultimate reality is not what we make it. Ultimate reality is who God is. So who is he?
We’ll organize the passage this way:
1. The Supremacy of Jesus (verses 15-17)
2. The Leadership of Jesus (verse 18)
3. The Reconciliation of Jesus (verses 19-20)
Just so you know, my first point is as long as the final two points. So when you look at your watch when we get to point 2, don’t worry.
THE SUPREMACY OF JESUS (verses 15-17)
Let’s not forget our context. The Colossians were confronted with destructive teaching about Christianity. Paul writes this letter to defeat that wrong teaching. So how did he do that? By lifting Jesus up for the church to see. That’s always the best way. When we see Jesus, it’s easy to see wrong theology. But when we take our eyes off Jesus, all kinds of wrong things can slip into our minds and find a home there. What these Colossians needed, and what we need, is a big vision of the glorious Jesus. We need to see how sufficient he really is. We do not need anything else. Jesus is enough. When we start thinking something else is better, something else is needed, we need to come back and stare at Jesus.
So let’s start staring at him.
We’ll take it bit by bit. Look at the first half of verse 15. “He is the image of the invisible God.”
This is not the only place in the Bible we see this language. John said something similar in the opening chapter of his gospel. “No one has ever seen God. God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known” (John 1:18). The author of Hebrews uses a similar phrase when he refers to Jesus as “the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus himself said in John 14:9, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
So what does it mean that Jesus is the image of God? It means Jesus represents God. He shows us who God is. How does he do that? I have four children. Two take after me, and two look like Sarah. Andy, for example, is basically the spitting image of me at his age. Is that what Paul means—that Jesus looks like his Father? Well, yes, and no. We can’t say that in the physical sense because God the Father is invisible. So Jesus must image him in another way. What way? In his essence. In his righteousness, goodness, wisdom, power, holiness—in all the invisible attributes.
Now, in a way, I think this helps us see the point even more clearly. If my son looks like me, you can say he is an image of me, but that’s only surface level. Do we share the same temperament? Are we the same person underneath our skin? With Jesus, the answer is yes. Everything that God is, Jesus is. He just puts a face on God in the incarnation. Jesus shows us God because—and here’s the point—he is God. When we look at Jesus, we are looking at God.
In Jesus, God becomes very definite to us. In Jesus, we can point to a specific person who lived in real space and time. The name “god” is used all the time, but how do we know we’re all talking about the same god? The answer is who do we say Jesus is. Is he God? If the god we talk about doesn’t look like Jesus, then it isn’t the true God we’re talking about. The Bible makes it clear: if you accept Jesus, you accept God; if you don’t accept Jesus, you don’t accept God. No more than any other person, God is not someone we get to define. He defines himself, and he reveals himself in the visible Jesus.
Now, Jesus is also the image of God in another way. Think back to the beginning of the Bible when God created everything. In what way did he create man and woman? In his image. Our sin kind of messed that up. We’re not very good image-bearers, are we? But what about Jesus? The Bible tells us he never sinned. But in the incarnation, as the eternal God stepped into our world and took on flesh, he became the perfect image of God in the Genesis sense as well. He became the perfect image-bearer we failed to be.
So Jesus is both the image of the invisible God and the perfect image of humanity, made in God’s image.
Therefore, we have a double blessing as we behold Jesus. We see God as he truly is, and we see ourselves as we will one day truly be. We see God because Jesus is God. We see ourselves as we will one day be because Jesus, in his humanity, became the perfect image-bearer and showed us who we will become in him by the power of his resurrection. So as we follow Jesus, we are following God, and he is making us more our true selves. Jesus does not remove our humanity from us. He gives it back, redeemed and restored. By the way, this is how we find our truest self—by following Jesus and letting him mend our broken humanity.
Paul goes on. Look at the second half of verse 15. Jesus is “the firstborn of all creation.”
This is an easy phrase to misunderstand. What is Paul really saying? Is he saying Jesus is the first created being? That’s what Jehovah’s Witnesses say today. But that’s not a new heresy. It’s an old one.
In the 4th century, there was a man named Arius who denied the deity of Jesus by asserting there was a time when the Son did not exist. In his desire to protect monotheism, he said that while God has always existed, the Son has not. There was a point at which the Father became a Father. He didn’t deny the holiness of Jesus, just the infinity and equality of Jesus with God. Now, the Bible clearly presents God as a Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But to Arius, the Trinity was not an eternal reality.
This heresy, known as Arianism, spread around the ancient world until, eventually, at the council of Nicaea in 325 AD, the Church officially distinguished between two words that Arius smushed together to mean the same thing. Those two words were “begotten” and “made.” Begotten is a biblical word. You recognize it from maybe the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…” Does that mean God made Jesus? Arius thought so. But if that is true, it means Jesus isn’t really God because he is a creation of God, and the created can never be the creator. There is a difference in nature. But the Bible does not distinguish the nature of the Son from the nature of the Father nor from the nature of the Spirit. The Triune God is one in nature.
So how did the council of Nicaea resolve this? They resolved it by expounding on the word begotten and how it related to God the Father and God the Son. The key distinction comes down to a doctrine known as the eternal generation of the Son. That’s a good five-dollar theological word for you. Obviously, to be a son means to be from a father. But when talking about God, does it mean the Father created the Son, or does it mean something else? In God, this generation is an eternal act, not as an act of creation but as an act of eternal reality in himself. If Jesus was never sent into the world to save it, he would still be the Son because his sonship does not depend on creation at all. He is the eternal Son from the Father regardless of creation. Jesus has always existed as God, with God. There was never a time when the Father was not the Father, and there was never a time when the Son was not the Son, and there was never a time when the Spirit was not the Spirit. The Son is called the Son because he is eternally generated from the Father, not as a different creation of him, but from the same eternal, infinite, immutable, impassible, divine essence of God. To affirm Jesus as he really is requires we affirm his whole divinity—he is of the same essence as God the Father and God the Spirit.
They hashed all this out at the council of Nicaea. Whatever we might think of ancient people, we can’t say they were dumb, can we? This is hard stuff!
At the council of Nicaea, they wrote the Nicene Creed. It is one of the most important statements of faith in Church history. That creed says Jesus is “the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”
Now, in a way, that’s a sidebar to our text today, but it’s important we understand Jesus was not made. Jesus is the eternal God. There are other clues in our text today that affirm this. For example, I couldn’t help but notice a phrase in verses 15, 17, and 18—“he is.” He is the image of God. He is before all things. He is the head of the body. Jesus is. Not he was or he will be, but he is. He has existed eternally with God, as God, in the person of the Son. He is as the Father is, the great I AM.
So if Paul isn’t saying Jesus is the first created being, then what is he saying? He’s using firstborn language in the sense of priority. In the ancient world, if you were the firstborn, everything was yours by right. That’s what Paul means. Everything belongs to Jesus by right as the eternal Son, and because he is God, he is the ruler and creator of it all.
That’s why Paul says in verse 16—notice the prepositions—“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” If all things were created by him and through him, he cannot be among those things created because then it wouldn’t be all things. It would be almost all things. But Jesus stands above all.
Notice that Paul includes heaven and earth, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities. He doesn’t leave anything out, does he? As Abraham Kuyper said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” Jesus is supreme over it all. Jesus rules heaven just as he rules earth. Jesus rules over things we can’t even see, just as he rules over what we can see. There are things in the depths of the ocean and in the expanse of space we haven’t yet seen, but Jesus is lord of those things too. There is no power anywhere that Jesus isn’t supreme over.
We owe all we have and all we see and all we are and all that is to Jesus, the Son of God, the King of the universe, the Lord of all. So, as Paul says in verse 17, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Without Jesus, this entire universe ceases to exist. As John Calvin once said, “If God should withdraw his hand a little, all things would immediately perish and dissolve into nothing.”
I want you to see one more thing before we move on. Notice it says all things were created not only by him and through him but also for him. Let’s personalize this a minute. You were created for Jesus. He cares about you because you belong to him. Your life has meaning, and that meaning is not defined by you; it is defined by Jesus. You are not ultimately in charge of your life, and that is very good news because you—the real you—were created for Jesus. He loves you.
Jesus is supreme. He will always be enough. If you are a Christian, there is nothing else you need but Jesus. If you are not a Christian, there is nothing else you need but Jesus. He is the goal and purpose and joy of life.
So that’s the supremacy of Jesus. Next, the leadership of Jesus.
THE LEADERSHIP OF JESUS (verse 18)
Jesus is not only the creator and ruler of all. He is also the leader of worldwide redemption.
In verse 18, we zoom in from all of creation to a specific new creation in Jesus, the church. Paul picks up on a common biblical metaphor for the church: a body. Jesus is the head of that body.
This is fascinating to me. The glorious Jesus, who is supreme over all created things, takes shape in this world in a specific body. What is that body? It’s the Church. Isn’t that fascinating? Of all things he could inhabit, Jesus chose the church. Think of all the governments with worldwide influence. Think of all the famous people. Think of all the nations expanding throughout the world. Think of all the power structures. And what does Jesus choose to be the head of? What body is his? It is the Church.
Here's what that means. If you are a member of Christ’s church, you are a member of Christ’s body, which means you are joined to the One Supreme Lord of all, and he has chosen you to be a part of his cosmic plan in his own body. Your very small, very regular, very ordinary church life is not so small and regular and ordinary as you think. It is as big as Jesus is.
We have to keep reading to see what this means. “He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.”
Again, we have this firstborn language. What does it mean here? In coming to earth, Jesus was bringing something new into the world. Something of which he would be the first of, the beginning of. What was it?
Think of the storyline of the Bible. God created the world and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and then what happened? They sinned. They cut themselves off from God, and God banished them from the Garden. From that day forward, the world continued in sin. But God did not give up on his people. He planned to send the Son to redeem and restore this broken world and to create a new creation called the Church through which his plan of redemption would flow into the darkness of the world.
How did that new creation come about? When Jesus came to earth, he came as the new Adam. The Bible talks about this. Ladies, you’ll see it in your Bible study when you get to Romans 5. As the new Adam, Jesus came to undo the fall. When he went into the wilderness after his baptism, what did he do? He cast Satan out by the power of the word. He did what Adam should have done in the Garden. When Jesus touched the sick and healed them, what was he doing? He was undoing the effects of sin and death. When Jesus rejected temptation and stayed faithful to God, what was he doing? He was living the life no other human ever did.
Theologians call that the active obedience of Christ. Without it, we have no hope. But there is another obedience of Christ to which this passage pushes us, the passive obedience of Christ—his death on the cross. When Jesus went to the cross, what was he doing? He was fulfilling the sacrificial system, dying on our behalf to pay for our sins and bring us back to God. Then, three days later, he rose from the grave and became the firstborn from the dead. That doesn’t mean he was the first to be raised from the dead. Jesus raised Lazarus. It means Jesus was the first raised from the dead in this way: in perfection and in glory and in the finished work of the cross. The new creation God was creating came through the death of Christ.
As the firstborn of the dead, Jesus ushered in the new age of man—one where glorified bodies do not grow sick or weary or die, where the life we were intended to have in the beginning is given back but now better than before because of the story that’s now been told. This is not a zombie Jesus merely coming back from the dead to live in a half-life kind of existence. This is the redeeming Jesus ushering in new, abundant life as it was meant to be.
Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of the new creation. It is the spark that sets the world on fire. And what did it take? It took his death. The preeminence of Jesus comes not only from who he is in himself but also from the work he has done in his death and resurrection. No one can beat him now. Sin couldn’t do it. Satan couldn’t do it. Death couldn’t do it. Jesus rules. And Jesus leads his new creation, the Church, using his body to bring the gospel to a dying world.
That big gospel story is reflected in the Church. Your little church life isn’t so little, is it?
So that’s the leadership of Jesus. Now, our final point: the reconciliation of Jesus.
THE RECONCILIATION OF JESUS (verses 19-20)
Here is the end to which this passage takes us: the reconciliation of everything to Jesus Christ.
We have not left the earthly work of Jesus in these verses. They are still firmly in mind. “In him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” The past tense doesn’t mean the fullness of God no longer dwells in Jesus. It does and always has and always will. But the work of Jesus on earth in his life, death, and resurrection is the focus. Jesus came with the fullness of God’s will and mission and purpose to do the work of reconciliation.
What is Jesus reconciling to himself? Verse 20 says “all things.” The gospel of Jesus is that big. It’s bigger than you and me. Its effects reach all the way to everything in creation. The Bible tells us that creation waits in eager expectation and that creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth (Romans 8:19,22). But Jesus is reconciling it all to himself. How? This is really important. Listen to this. Jesus reconciles all things to himself by reconciling us to himself. It starts with setting humanity right with God. We are The great problem in the world. When humanity fell, the world fell. All of creation was affected by our sinfulness. For the ground and the trees and the animals and planets and everything else to be made right again, we must be made right. Jesus must reconcile us to himself, and as he does, all things come along too.
But this reconciliation doesn’t just happen. Something must occur for it to come to pass. What is it? The cross of Christ. Jesus made peace by the blood of his cross.
Why his blood? It seems drastic, doesn’t it? Jesus is over all things. Could he not bring reconciliation about another way? The answer must be no because the cross stands at the center of history. The path to heaven is paved by the blood of Jesus.
It had to be this way. We needed Jesus’s blood to atone for our sins. It had to be God’s initiative. It had to be God’s work. We could never attain reconciliation by ourselves. Our blood isn’t sufficient to atone for our sins. The blood of bulls and goats isn’t sufficient to atone for our sins. Only the blood of Jesus, the perfect man, was enough. The only way we could be set right with God is for God to do exactly what he did in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It is not that this was merely the best way; it was the only way. There is no other. Our sin is that big. Only Jesus could pay the price.
The reconciliation of Jesus not only brings things back into proper order also gives us something else that we can take hold of right now. Look at the end of verse 20, “making peace by the blood of his cross.” We have peace with God. We were under the wrath of God, but the full measure of that wrath was poured out on Jesus at the cross, and he no longer stands against us because of our sin. In Christ, God has declared peace over us. He has brought us back to himself. Our only part in that peace treaty is the acceptance of the death and resurrection of Jesus on our behalf.
So here’s what that means for all who trust in Christ today. We all have many sins. But each of us has at least one sin that nags at us still. We can’t seem to get over it. We struggle to accept forgiveness. It looms so large in our minds. It’s the reason we sometimes believe the gospel for others but not for ourselves. It’s the sin we don’t want to think about, but we can’t help thinking about it, usually at night when we can’t sleep. You’re probably thinking of it right now, and a twinge of guilt and shame rises to the surface of your heart.
What has God done with that great big sin? He has paid for it on the cross of Christ. He has forgiven it on the cross of Christ. By that sin, you disconnected yourself from God. But by the blood of Jesus, God reconnected you to himself. He reconciled you to himself. It is not only as if that sin never existed, it is now as if you always obeyed just as Jesus did. You are loved like Jesus, by Jesus, for Jesus’s sake. You are as secure as Christ is. Jesus reconciled you by his blood, and your sin is paid in full.
But the gospel is bigger than just me and you. It is Christ reconciling the world to himself. The Bible says that one day, “Every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, [will say], ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’” (Revelation 5:13). Isaiah says, “The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” (Isaiah 55:12). As we are reconciled to Christ, creation is reconciled to Christ, and it rejoices. I don’t know what it looks like for the trees to clap. Maybe there really are Ents in this world (Lord of the Rings fans). Whatever that looks like, I can’t wait to see it. In Christ, this broken world will be restored better than before as he reconciles all things to himself.
There is nothing in this world so broken that Jesus can’t mend it. That’s what it means to say he’s a redeemer. Jesus fixes things. He restores things. He renews things. Because he is Lord over all things, and all things are being reconciled to himself. He is God, and he will bring it all to pass.
Thanks for staring at Jesus with me this morning. He’s good, amen?
Let’s pray.
INTRODUCTION
Let’s open the Bible now to Ruth, chapter 2. We’re looking at this little book in the Old Testament because we need constant reminders of the faithfulness of God. When the hope of redemption seems to get dim, God provides in surprising ways. Ruth is a poor, widowed, foreign woman from whom the Savior came. This is a story of what only God can do.
But the story doesn’t start out hopeful, as we saw last week.
In his novel This Tender Land, William Kent Krueger tells the story of orphan brothers, Odie and Albert. They are sent to a training school primarily for Native Americans in the 1930s. The people running the school are hard and mean, but they act under the veil of the Bible. In one instance, the headmaster reads from Psalm 23 and puts himself in the shoes of the shepherd and the children as the sheep. Odie sees through it, but he’s not yet given up that what God says is true. Maybe God does care, despite his current circumstances.
One night back in the dormitory, as they lie listening to the lonely cries of a child in the darkness, Odie and Albert have a conversation. Albert, the older brother, lives in fear of having to leave Odie behind. Albert says,
“I’m afraid I’ll get taken from you, and who’d look after you then?”
“Maybe God?” [Odie replied]
“God?”
He said it as if I were joking.
“Maybe it really is like it says in the Bible,” I offered. “God’s a shepherd and we’re his flock and he watches over us.”
For a long while, Albert didn’t say anything. I listened to that kid crying in the dark because he felt lost and alone and believed no one cared.
Finally Albert whispered, “Listen, Odie, what does a shepherd eat?”
I didn’t know where he was going with that, so I didn’t reply.
“His flock,” Albert told me. “One by one.”
I wonder if that’s how Naomi felt. She felt the bitterness of God toward her. She felt consumed by his anger, not comforted by his love. I wonder if in her darkest moments she would agree with Albert. Was the shepherd eating his flock one by one? Her husband was gone. Her sons were gone. Orpah was gone. Only she and Ruth remained. Was their time coming soon?
As we step through the doorway of chapter 2, we enter a new land at harvest time. Bethlehem is beaming with fullness after a long famine. The barley harvest had just begun, and empty bellies were filling up.
But Namoi’s and Ruth’s belly still grumbled. Did God hear? Did he care? Their circumstances would shout that he didn’t. But there are whispers of grace rumbling through the pages of this chapter. God is changing their fortunes. We see no miracles as we do in the Exodus or the victories of the Judges. Instead, we see a course of seemingly normal events. A girl gleaning on the edges of a field. A man coming from the city to check on his work. A harvest in full force. It’s in everyday life that God does most of his work. It was true for Naomi and Ruth, and it’s true for you and me. God is always doing 10,000 things in our lives and we might see only a few. We might feel his absence, but he is ever-present. We might wonder if he cares, but he’s working now for our good. We might ask why our lives aren’t better, but he’s preparing a home for us out ahead.
Following God doesn’t always feel like a straight line upward to glory. Sometimes our circumstances push us way down low. But the low place is where we find our Savior. He was born in a manger. He had no place to lay his head. He died condemned on a cross. But he is called the King of Glory. In God’s economy, the low place is the high place. The story of Ruth reaffirms that truth. It makes sense. Jesus came from this lowly woman—this poor outsider is the ancestral mother of the King.
Naomi had complaints in chapter 1. But what God shows Naomi, and through her what he shows us, is that behind the bitter circumstances is a sweetness of a Savior. So let’s read chapter 2 now, and let’s pay attention to the sweetness of God in the bitterness of life.
1 Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. 2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” 3 So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech. 4 And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!” And they answered, “The Lord bless you.” 5 Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” 6 And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the young Moabite woman, who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. 7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.’ So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.”
8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. 9 Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” 10 Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” 11 But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. 12 The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” 13 Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”
14 And at mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain. And she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over. 15 When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. 16 And also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.”
17 So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. 18 And she took it up and went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied. 19 And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” 20 And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.” 21 And Ruth the Moabite said, “Besides, he said to me, ‘You shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’ ” 22 And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, lest in another field you be assaulted.” 23 So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
Did you notice the sweetness of God in this chapter?
The bitterness of chapter one begins to be counteracted by the sweetness of chapter two. Through what appears at first a random set of events, we see three truths about the sweetness of God.
The sweet providence of God (2:1-7)
The sweet protection of God (2:8-13)
The sweet provision of God (2:14-23)
Nothing happens in our lives that is not a result of God working in our lives. The events of Ruth 2 are proof.
Ruth and Naomi came from Moab to Naomi’s old home of Bethlehem. Ruth is a Moabite, as we are constantly reminded throughout the book. That’s an important detail to remember because it helps us understand her position. Moab is infamous in the Old Testament for being an enemy of Israel. Naomi is poor, husbandless, food-less, and everything-else-less. But she’s at least a true Israelite. Ruth is a Moabite. Naomi has a lot going against her, but Ruth has even more. But they have God on their side, and that makes all the difference. The author wants us to see that God is behind everything that happens in this story, just as he is in everything that happens in your story.
In verse 2, Ruth has an idea. “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” Here we already see the sweet providence of God. Ruth and Naomi are in the land of Israel, a place ruled by God’s law, which made provision for poor women like them. God’s law allowed for poor people and foreigners to glean from the fields by restricting landowners from scraping out every possible grain. The edges were for the hungry. Leviticus 19:9-10 says, “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.” Here is the sweetness of God revealed in his law. When setting up Israel’s economy, God provided for the poor.
Not only that, but God also commanded his people should protect widows and aliens. Exodus 22:22, “Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry.” Deuteronomy 10:18 says, “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.” Psalm 146:9 says, “The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow.” God cares about people like Naomi and Ruth, and Ruth takes a step of faith knowing this is God’s land, and this is God’s field, and if there is a godly man running it, she will find food.
Let’s linger here a moment. There was no one less worthy of care from an economic, social, political, or otherwise standpoint than an aging widow and her foreign, also widowed, daughter-in-law. They could be nothing but a burden on society. But God cares about them. God cares about those whom no one else has any reason to care about. Here is the mighty heart of God. Naomi and Ruth deserved, from a social standpoint, nothing. But God was not too busy to care for them. He was not too great to notice them. His eye was upon them. He knew their comings and goings. He saw all Naomi’s bitterness toward him and yet loved her anyway. He knew Ruth was a Moabite, yet she found a place in God’s heart. Here’s the implication. If you feel low and overlooked as Ruth and Naomi felt, God is not too great to notice you; he’s too great not to. God is not too busy to care for you; he’s doing it already, even if you can’t yet feel it. God is not too distant to know the details of your life; he knows them all, down to the number of hairs on your head. He feels every stomach grumble. He hears every sigh of desperation. He knows every kind of suffering. And he cares.
One way God cares is through his providence. What is God’s providence? We often think of it in terms of his sovereignty. The Bible says, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Ps. 115:3). God has the right and the power to control all things. But that is different from his providence. Providence is the use of that sovereignty for the specific purpose of caring for this world and using his sovereignty for his wise purposes. One definition I found put it this way, “The providence of God is the working of God’s sovereignty to continually uphold, guide, and care for his creation.” [Helm]
God’s providence is all over this book, and all of this chapter of this book. I want to hone in on one phrase first and then step back to examine the whole. In verse 3, the author says, “So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.”
Did you notice those words there in the middle of that sentence? She happened to come. The Hebrew literally says, she “chanced to chance” or “her chance chanced.” She “happened to come” upon the part of the field Boaz owned. What a coincidence! Here is a widowed foreigner who just so happens to come to the part of this big field owned by someone who understands the heart of God’s law and knows how to care for someone like her.
The author intends us to see the irony of this. Ruth comes to the one part of the field in all of Israel where she could find the help she needed, the protection she needed, the provision she needed. Here is the sweetness of God. God is working behind the scenes to bring about his purposes. There is nothing random or left to chance about life. There is only the providence of God.
So we zoom out a bit and we see the providence of God laying all over these verses. Ruth not only came to the one part of the field most accepting of her but that field was also owned by a certain man. Look again at verse 1. Boaz was a relative of Naomi’s husband. We find out later that means he’s one of their redeemers. We’ll look at that more in the future. For now, it’s enough to know that means Boaz can help pull Ruth and Naomi out of their plight by redeeming them—marrying Ruth and redeeming Elimelech’s old land. God made provision for this also in his law. This is all the more remarkable because when Ruth told Naomi she was going to glean, Naomi offered no direction. If God is not in this, how did Ruth get to this part of the field under the care of this man?
Boaz’s introduction is also important. In verse 1, he’s called “a worthy man.” Other translations of that phrase are “a man of standing,” “a man of valor,” and my favorite because of who comes from Boaz and Ruth, King David, “a mighty man.” Boaz is not just some nice guy. He’s a God-loving, Spirit-empowered, Redeemer-producing, kind-hearted man of standing, valor, and might who just so happens to come to the field while Ruth is there gleaning. After the darkness of chapter 1, Boaz is like the morning sun, full of hope. Look at verse 4. “And behold [the author wants us to see the providence here], Boaz came from Bethlehem [the field was outside the city].” Notice even his greeting of his workers. “The Lord be with you!” Apparently, Boaz’s faith wasn’t a private affair. He took his Christianity into the office with him. Then, Boaz did something amazing. He noticed Ruth, an unnoticeable, and he was impressed with her. The servant in charge of the reapers told Boaz about her. Ruth took the initiative to care for Naomi. She humbly asked to glean. She worked hard all day without rest. She has the qualities of a Proverbs 31 woman. And Boaz took notice. Ruth hoped to find someone kind enough to let her glean. In God’s sweet providence, she found a future husband who would redeem Naomi’s house. Not bad for a day’s work!
Here’s the point: where you go and what you do is not left to mere chance. It is the result of the sweet providence of God. It may not always feel sweet at first, but it is leading ultimately to something glorious. It was for Ruth. It was for Boaz. It was for Naomi. If you love God, it is for you too.
Now that we’ve seen the sweet providence of God, let’s look at the sweet protection of God.
Not only did God providentially lead Ruth to a field, but he also lead her to a kind protector. Notice how Boaz jumped into the relationship with Ruth in verses 8 and 9. He knew who she was, and he knew how vulnerable she was. He didn’t sit back and wait. He didn’t let things play out before he acted. He took the initiative to help. He commanded her not to leave his field for another. He gave her the right to stay close to his young women. He gave her permission to go after his servants who are reaping, getting the best of what’s left over. And he charged his men not to touch her. When she was thirsty, she could go and drink from his wells. He built fences around her to ensure her safety in a world that was not naturally safe, especially for people like her. Boaz used all he had for Ruth’s protection. The sweet providence of God is taking form in the sweet protection he offers through Boaz.
What is Ruth’s response? Humble amazement. Verse 10 says she fell on her face and bowed to the ground in astonishment that Boaz would do this for her. Everything in her life indicated a continual struggle for survival. She didn’t leave Moab with Naomi because she saw a better life in Bethlehem. It was guaranteed to be harder for someone like her, a foreign widow. But she went anyway. She could not possibly have had any great expectations, so when Boaz noticed her and cared for her, and invited her inside his circle, she could not believe it. She knew who she was. And Boaz knew who she was, and to Boaz, she was impressive.
Boaz answered her question in verse 11. “Why am I doing this? Because I heard about all you did for your mother-in-law. I know you left your father and mother and your native land and came to these people that you did not know, not because you were in search of a better life, but because you had steadfast love for Naomi. You were unwilling to let Naomi go it alone.” Because he saw that, Boaz was unwilling to let Ruth go it alone now.
But there was something else Boaz saw that impressed him more than all the rest. He saw Ruth’s faith. Of all the places she could have gone and all the gods she could have worshipped, she came to Israel and to the God of Israel. She took refuge under God’s wings. So Boaz prayed a prayer of protection over her in verse 12. “The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” Remember what Ruth said to Naomi when she vowed to stay with her? It was not only her love for her friend and mother-in-law that compelled her. She took Naomi’s God as her own. Ultimately, faith drove Ruth to Bethlehem. Faith drove Ruth to stay with Naomi. Faith drove Ruth to Boaz’s field. When her life fell apart, she sought refuge under the wings of God by faith. Ruth esteemed God’s protection as the only true protection, though at the time she could probably barely see how it could possibly play out for good. God was her hope and her joy. Therefore, she was “repaid” and “rewarded” as Boaz puts it. Not in some kind of justification by works but in the blessing of her hope in God’s work on her behalf. She trusted God, and he did not let her down. She came under the mighty and safe and protective wings of God, and he carried her along.
Ruth points the way forward for us all. When your life falls apart, God’s wings are spread to protect you. Nothing can ultimately harm you there in that safe place. That won’t mean days won’t be hard. You might even die. But if you love God, you will not die again. You will live. You will be resurrected. You will find the wings of God are the only true shelter.
Come under the wings of God and you will live. Come under the wings of God and you will find protection from all that scares you in the world. Come under the wings of God and you will find a refuge for your soul, a safe place for your life, a shelter from the storm. Why? Because One like Boaz is there, able to save. When Jesus came to Jerusalem, he looked out over it and said, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Jesus is not the holdout. The only requirement for the sweet protection of his wings is the willingness to go under them.
When you are tired and needy and weak and wounded, and when life gets so hard you can’t see the way forward, draw near to God in Christ. Go under his wings. How will he respond? He will pull you in tight—so tight that you might even hear his heartbeat. Finding refuge under God’s wings might mean you can’t see much else around you. He might hug you that tight. But you can trust him. Perhaps your hard circumstances are for this reason only—to be pulled closer to the heart of Christ. Have you ever had those moments? You sense God is carrying you somewhere, but you can’t see the path, and when you arrive you don’t even know why you’re there. How did it turn out?
Hiding under the wings of God might feel pretty dark, but there is no brighter place to be. You can trust him.
There’s one more thing to see in this chapter: the sweet provision of God.
Ruth the widowed Moabite who left her homeland with an empty stomach now finds a fullness she could never have imagined. Boaz not only gave her permission to glean from her field and to protect her as she does but he also filled her to the brim with food both then and later. He invited her to eat bread and dip it in the wine. How long had it been since Ruth tasted something that grand? She sat beside the reapers, among Boaz’s people. Not behind them, but beside them. He elevated and invited her inside his inner circle. He passed roasted grain to her. He passed it to her. She ate from his hand until she was satisfied. And just like the apostles of Jesus after the feeding of the multitudes, there was some left over. She was given permission to get up and glean again with a full belly and more strength than when she came, and he told his men to let her take not only the crumbs but the sheaves, and he pulled out some food from the bundles they had already reaped and left it on the ground for her to find. Boaz provided abundantly for this dear woman. This is God’s sweet provision through his servant Boaz. This is a vision of the kind of fullness God offers all who come to him.
When your life falls apart, there is a field to which you can come with an owner that will care for you. There is a God who owns all this world who has a man who came to this world to find us poor outsiders reaching for crumbs on the ground. He sees us. He knows us. He invites us to his table. He feeds us from his hand—more than that, from his very body, which was broken for us to atone for our sin. He lifts us up to an honorable place with him. His eye is on the one no one else notices. His heart is big enough for all our needs. His field is big enough for all our hunger. His wings are wide enough for all who need refuge. His house is big enough for all who need a room. He is a Redeemer not only of our earthly lives but of our eternal souls. He is a complete Savior with complete love and care, with sweet providence and protection and provision that never ends, never fades, never fails, and never runs out. You are not forsaken.
What happened to Ruth that day is a picture of what happens to all who come to Christ. He lifts us up. He cares. He provides. His eye is upon you right now, and everything in your life is leading you to a place of glory and fullness and redemption in him.
Remember what Odie said to Albert? I think he was right. It really is like it says in the Bible. God’s a shepherd and we’re his flock and he watches over us. Isn’t Ruth proof? Isn’t your life proof? If you don’t believe that yet, why not take a chance with God? He can prove himself to you. When your belly starts to rumble; when the pain just doesn’t seem to end; when the tears won’t dry; when the land is barren; when despair is a constant friend; when almost no one is left to care for you; when life feels bitter; wait for the sweetness to come. Jesus will pull you in tight under his wings. He will be your redeemer. He will shepherd you and watch over you, and you will eat from his table.
Let’s pray.
The Death of Jesus
33 And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 35 And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” 36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” 37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
40 There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
Jesus Is Buried
42 And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. 45 And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. 46 And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.
John Calvin said, “In the cross of Christ, as in a splendid theatre, the incomparable goodness of God is set before the whole world.” In his classic book The Cross of Christ, John Stott said, “If we are looking for a definition of love, we should look not in a dictionary, but at Calvary.”
The ultimate expression of both God’s glory and God’s love is found in the cross of Christ. On the cross, God glorified himself. His justice became manifest. His wrath was satisfied. His grace and mercy exploded. On the cross, Jesus atoned for our sin, paid for our failures, bled for our transgressions, and died for our iniquities. He reconciled us to himself, cleansed us of our filth, redeemed us from slavery, rescued us from hell, reinstated us into communion, and restored us to life. On the cross, Jesus substituted his life for ours, taking our sin and giving his righteousness. As the church father, Irenaeus, said, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” On the cross, Jesus died to make us fully alive.
Today, let’s marvel at this collision of God’s glory and God’s love for us revealed at the cross of Christ. Let’s see the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:18).
Jesus is not a part-time lover. John 13:1 says Jesus loved us to the end. I need a love, and you need a love, that doesn’t stop halfway. We’ve all had enough halfway love in our lives. We need a love that goes all the way to the end. A kind of love that reaches all the way down into the darkest corners of our hearts and brings the light in where we didn’t even know we needed it. A halfway love brings a halfway salvation, but an all-the-way love, as we find in Christ, brings an all-the-way salvation. Jesus loved us to the end: to death.
God didn’t do this begrudgingly, like a parent helping their child out of frustration do something the child could easily do themselves. We couldn’t do it ourselves. He’s not angry that it took this drastic measure. He’s not regretting the cost to himself. It was for the joy set before him that Jesus endured the cross (Heb. 12:2). In fact, as our intercessor now in heaven, he’s still saving us. The way the author of Hebrews says it, he loves to the “uttermost” (Hebrews 7:25). Jesus loves us to the uttermost of our need, to the uttermost of our sin, to the uttermost of his divine capabilities. Jesus is the only one who can perfectly say, “I love you to death.”
That is not to say that the death of Jesus isn’t something to look at soberly. Before the light of the resurrection, there is the darkness of the cross. We see three things in this passage.
The Darkness On the Earth
The Darkness Over the Son
The Darkness In the Grave
It’s not hard to see that something is deeply wrong with the world. But it wasn’t always this way. When God created the world, he said it was good. So what happened to God’s good creation? The tragedy started in a garden. Adam and Eve listened to the lies of Satan and rebelled. From there, sin went viral, passed down from generation to generation. We’ve all contracted this sickness unto death. It darkens all we do, even the good things we take part in. The Puritan William Beveridge put it this way.
I cannot pray, but I sin. I cannot hear or preach a sermon, but I sin. I cannot give an alms or receive the sacrament, but I sin. Nay, I cannot so much as confess my sins, but my confessions are still aggravations of them. My repentance needs to be repented of, my tears want washing, and the very washing of my tears need still to be washed over again with the blood of my Redeemer.
Sin is pervasive in us, and therefore in the world. We are not good people who occasionally do bad things. We are evil people proving it all the time. Sin separates us from God. Sin separates us from other people. Sin separates us from creation. Sin separates us from ourselves. The shadow of sin stands over this world because we have rejected God. As a result, here is Jesus on the cross.
By this point in Mark’s gospel, Jesus has been on the cross for three hours. At noon, the sixth hour, the very heart of the day, darkness covered the whole land until 3PM, the ninth hour. Some scholars try to write this off as just a solar eclipse—nothing special. But solar eclipses don’t last three hours. They last about seven minutes. This was an act of God. He was showing us the darkness of sin that placed Christ on the cross. The physical darkness represented our spiritual darkness.
The Old Testament prophets talked about the darkness of the “Day of the Lord,” which was like biblical-code language for Judgment Day. For example, Jeremiah said, “I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light” (Jeremiah 4:23). The Old Testament tells repeatedly of how God’s people broke God’s covenant, dimming the light and ushering in the darkness. Our sin prevents us from seeing the true depth and tragedy of our real plight, our real condition, of what we truly deserve, of the judgment it requires. The prophet Isaiah said, “We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men” (Isaiah 59:10). God tells Isaiah that no one can lead themselves out of their own darkness, so God will strap on the armor himself and save them. The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem (Isaiah 59:15-20). Here is the fulfillment of that prophecy: their Redeemer, hanging on a cross, going under the darkness for his people.
Amid the darkness all around, the spotlight is on the cross. There, our savior hangs, mangled and marred. It’s messy and it’s bloody because it must be. This is the only way of forgiveness. The Bible says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22) and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Nothing less than Christ’s cross can save us. The only hope of any light at all is by the Light himself going under the darkness for us, dying in the darkness for our darkness, letting the darkness engulf him and take him down, which is our second point.
Jesus felt the darkness that day. Verse 34 says Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark includes both the Aramaic version Jesus actually spoke and the Greek translation for his readers. According to verse 35, some thought he was calling for Elijah. The Aramaic words misheard certainly could sound like it, and in Jewish thought, Elijah, who had not died but had been lifted into heaven, would come back to help God’s people. In verse 36, they took sour wine to him, fulfilling the prophecy of Psalm 69:21, “for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” This isn’t the wine with myrrh offered to Jesus on the way to the cross. This wasn’t meant dull his pain but to prolong his life, to see if Elijah would come. But Elijah wasn’t coming. He wasn’t crying out for Elijah anyway. He was crying out for another reason—not for someone to save him but to show the kind of salvation he’s securing.
His cry was the first verse of Psalm 22. Why that Psalm? Because there the Psalmist David laments the feeling of forsakenness. The first two verses say, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.” Do you know that feeling? Have you felt forsaken? Have you felt abandoned? On the cross, that’s how Jesus felt as the darkness came over him. He wants us to know he identifies with us. His cry is our cry because our cry is his cry. Dane Ortlund, in his book Gentle and Lowly, says this.
New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham notes that while Psalm 22:1 was originally written in Hebrew, Jesus spoke it in Aramaic and thus was personally appropriating it. Jesus wasn’t simply repeating David’s experience of a thousand years earlier as a convenient parallel expression. Rather, every anguished Psalm 22:1 cry across the millenia was being recapitulated and fulfilled and deepened in Jesus. His was the true Psalm 22:1 of which ours are the shadows. As the people of God, all our feelings of forsakenness funneled through an actual human heart in a single moment of anguished horror on Calvary, an actual forsakenness…The world’s Light was going out.
As the Bible says, he who knew no sin was becoming sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). All our darkness was placed on him. As the prophet Isaiah said, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-6). On the cross, all the iniquity of all God’s people throughout all history past, present, and future was laid upon his Son and God’s wrath was poured out on him. And it killed him. Jesus did not die a normal death of mere physical expiration; Jesus died the extraordinary death of spiritual expiation. He made amends for our guilt. He atoned for our sins. By his death, Jesus set us right with God. He went into God’s courtroom of Divine Justice as our substitute and received a guilty verdict. He was led to the place of slaughter and executed for our sins. Jesus hung there, covered in darkness, physically and spiritually, experiencing the very Hell we deserve to give us the very heaven we long for.
So when Paul says in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus” it means there is therefore now no condemnation for any who receive this offer of salvation from Jesus! Right now, you are free from the eternal punishment of sin. Right now, you are free from condemnation. You might condemn yourself, but God won’t condemn you because he condemned Jesus instead. Right now, God fully approves of you because Jesus paid it all—not some: all. There is therefore now no condemnation. You are utterly and eternally free forever. This is the grace of God. Grace is like looking behind you and realizing God isn’t chasing you down with a hammer to condemn; grace is looking ahead and seeing the nail-pierced hands of Jesus welcoming you.
All you need to do to receive this gift of grace is accept it with the empty hands of faith. I love what Gerhard Forde said.
We are justified freely, for Christ’s sake, by faith, without the exertion of our own strength, gaining of merit, or doing of works. To the age-old question, “What shall I do to be saved?” the confessional answer is shocking: “Nothing! Just be still: shut up and listen for once in your life to what God the Almighty, creator and redeemer, is saying to his world and to you in the death and resurrection of his Son! Listen and believe!”
We see something of this in the Centurion’s reaction to Jesus’s death. Verse 39 says when Jesus made a loud cry and gave up his spirit, the Centurion said, “Truly, this man was the Son of God!” This is the first time in Mark’s gospel a human voice refers to Jesus as the Son of God. The centurion saw the struggle of Jesus on the cross. He saw the darkness descend. He heard the words uttered. This professional executioner noticed something different was happening.
On the cross, Jesus represented his people. The Greek used for “loud cry” is what the author of Hebrews used when he said, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death” (Hebrews 5:7). The context there is Jesus’s learning obedience through what he suffered. So then the cry on the cross was a cry of obedient suffering. Why was he obeying? Because we needed him to. His cry was our cry. His obedience was our obedience. His suffering was our suffering. His forsakenness was our forsakenness. Like Isaac taken up the mountain by his father, Jesus is there as a sacrifice, but this time the Father will not relent. The knife is plunged. The Son dies.
When he died, verse 38 says the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. That’s important because it tells us another result of the cross. Where there was once separation between man and God in the very heart of God’s temple, there is now open access. The Great High Priest has gone behind the curtain and offered himself as the final sacrifice. When his flesh was torn, the temple curtain came down with it. No more separation. No other mediator between God and man is needed. By his blood, we now have all the access to God we will ever need (Hebrews 10:19-22). We can come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). God will hear us now because on the cross Jesus wasn’t heard. We will never be forsaken because on the cross he was.
Psalm 22 starts with lament, but it ends in praise for God’s deliverance. Jesus cried verse 1 to give us the rest of the Psalm. He asked for our deliverance through him, and we received it! Satan can’t condemn us. The world can’t destroy us. We can’t even ruin ourselves anymore. Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice conquered it all!
Jesus endured the darkness of our sin on our behalf. Then, he entered the darkness of the grave. Let’s look at that now.
Why does Mark record the burial of Jesus? Throughout history, this has been a contested point of the story. Some say Jesus didn’t really die on the cross. Maybe he passed out, was taken down, and recovered somewhere. Muslims say he was taken to heaven before he died on the cross. Others say dogs ate his body. But from the earliest of days, the burial of Jesus was an important and well-recorded point. All four gospels record his burial, and the earliest Christian creed, the Apostles’ Creed, includes it.
But why does his burial matter so much? Because only a dead Jesus saves. Only a dead and buried Jesus experienced the full wrath of God against our sin. Only a dead and buried Jesus can resurrect. If he wasn’t really dead and truly buried, the resurrection couldn’t have happened, it was only for show, and if the resurrection didn’t happen then, as Paul said, “our preaching is in vain and our faith is in vain.”
The details Mark includes lead us to the conclusion that Jesus really did die, and he really was buried. Verses 42-43 tell us that by evening, because it was the day of Preparation, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin council, took courage and went to Pilate to ask for the body. Those details matter because of what comes next. Verse 44 says Pilate was surprised to hear Jesus was already dead. Crucifixion could take days. Jesus was dead in a few hours. So he called the centurion who oversaw the death. After confirming, Pilate gave Joseph his body. This wasn’t normal practice. Usually, to complete the humiliation of crucifixion, the body was thrown in the trash heap. So why did Pilate give the body to Joseph? Mark doesn’t say. All he says is that he did, and that’s important because it’s different from the normal way of things. It’s the kind of thing that is only written down if it’s true.
But it’s important for other reasons too. It’s a fulfillment of prophecy. The Old Testament prophesied this kind of burial for the Messiah. Joseph was a rich man—only a rich man had a tomb like this prepared. Isaiah said the Messiah would have his grave made with a rich man in his death (Isaiah 53:9) and that the tomb would be cut out of a rock (Isaiah 22:16). Even more amazing, John says in his account that this tomb was in a garden (John 19:41). Remember, that’s where the tragedy of this world’s darkness began. The Puritan commentator Matthew Henry puts it this way, “In the garden of Eden death and the grave first received their power, and now in a garden they are conquered, disarmed, and triumphed over. In a garden Christ began his passion, and from a garden he would rise, and begin his exaltation.” In his death, Jesus is undoing the terrible events of the Garden of Eden. In his burial, he is planted to become the first fruits of the resurrection. If you’re in Christ, his burial represents your burial. As Paul says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.” That’s important because of what he says next. “In order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). In other words, when that stone was rolled over Jesus’ grave, he took your sin in there with him. He buried it away in his death, which means you don’t have to bear the punishment anymore. Yes, you still have some darkness in you, but there is also now a new light. His death purchased it and his burial sealed it. Your sins are there in that grave, dead and gone in the sight of God, never to be resurrected.
But on the third day, Jesus was resurrected. His body came back to life, and he became for us the first fruits of what we will one day be in him. Paul says in Romans 4:25, “[Jesus] was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Though the wages of our sin is death, the wages of Jesus’s death is our resurrection. God accepts Jesus’s payment, and in him promises us newness of life. As dark as this world is, as dark as your heart is, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).
This is the good news of the gospel. It is available to all who will accept it. You might think you’re not worthy, but the cross says you can’t be too low for Jesus. In fact, the cross was the lowest form of death, the most humiliating kind of execution ever invented. Jesus came all the way down to be visible to those at the very bottom.
Did you notice Mark’s inclusion of the women in verses 40-41? Why mention them? Because women were the lowest of all in those days. They were watching from afar because Jewish convention demanded it. Their witness didn’t even matter in court, but they were witnesses to God’s salvation. When almost nothing else was, God was available to them. His salvation was for them. They saw Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. God was using them—the lowest—to tell his story. He always does.
Even if you watch from afar, the cross is God’s action that draws you near. You might think, “Okay, but what if I mess up? I mean really mess up. Isn’t there some point at which this salvation can’t be true for me anymore?” John Bunyan was a man who knew this feeling well, and he spoke the gospel to himself to assure his heart. He wrote a book called Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ. It was devoted to one verse in John 6:37 which, in the KJV Jesus, says, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
But I am a great sinner, you say.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I am an old sinner, you say.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I am a hard-hearted sinner, you say.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I am a backsliding sinner, you say.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I have served Satan all my days, you say.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I have sinned against light, you say.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I have sinned against mercy, you say.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I have no good thing to bring with me, you say.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
The very place where you see yourself as most undeserving is the very place at which Jesus’ cross says to you, “Come to me.” You say, “But when does his welcome end?” The cross says, “Never.” Jesus has the final word with us. His salvation is not temporary. His sacrifice is not for a limited time. This is a permanent deal.
Let’s pray.
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
The words “pray” or “prayer” are used in every verse, a total of seven times in the passage. The big idea is obvious to us. As James winds down his letter, he wants us to see that true Christianity is fueled by praying faith. The heart of God is open to every aspect of our life through prayer. We not only have a God to worship; we have a Father who cares.
This passage takes us deep into God’s grace. It tells us the good news that God is for us, not against us. Now, he has every reason to be against us. We have sinned and rebelled and turned away from him. But what is his response? In the face of our weakness and sin, God’s response in the cleansing blood of Christ is an open door to heaven by prayer. He could slam the door of his throne room. He has every right to. Instead, he calls us to come boldly before him with all our needs, promising his throne of grace is never closed.
Before we go too far into this passage, let’s just marvel at the grace of prayer. We have the privilege to come to God, and he listens to us and responds! That is astounding. The God of the universe cares about your little life. It’s not little to him. He made your life. He sustains your life. He cares about your life. God gives you your good days. God does not stand aloof on your bad days. God doesn’t shame you for your failures but redeems you from the slavery of sin. God does not regret getting involved with you. He delights to care for you as only he can. He provides a way to healing and peace, though none of us deserve it. The God who created and rules all we see and know sees and knows us at the deepest possible level, and he calls us to himself to find provision for all that ails us and a fitting end for all that delights us.
What does God want us to see about prayer in this passage? At least two things:
When we pray
Why we pray
Muslims pray five times a day. Buddhists pray three times a day. Hindus pray at least once a day. But the Bible calls Christians to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:16-18). Why? Because the God we serve is a God who is near. Yes, he is transcendently above us, but he is also immanently near to us. He is always with us. We can pray any time. We don’t have to face Mecca. We don’t have to bow before hand-made idols. We don’t have to be in a temple or in deep meditation. Our God is always available to us moment by moment throughout our day. God’s ears are always open. His throne-room door is never shut, and the only access we need is faith in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit who is freely given to all who believe. We don’t have to wait until we get our act together. We don’t have to find the right words first. All we must do is come.
Jesus told us not only to come but to come often, to pester God in prayer, to knock on his door no matter the hour. As Tim Keller once said, “The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.” But unlike a father who might eventually get tired of being woken up, God will never grow frustrated. Every earthly father has a limit. God doesn’t. He’s perfect for needy people like us. High-maintenance people like us are perfect for God. Our need doesn’t turn him off, it energizes him to draw ever nearer. He doesn’t grow annoyed or overwhelmed. He calmly and gently and lovingly receives us and cares for us.
James highlights this access to God beginning in verse 13. “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.” When do we pray? When life hurts. When life feels good. Prayer is an outlet for everything that happens. Nothing is too insignificant. Are you suffering? Pray. James doesn’t qualify the type or amount of suffering. Sometimes we tend to think things need to be really bad before we go to God. We think, “This is hard, but I should be able to handle it. I should know the answer. I should be better at dealing with hard things. I should, I should, I should.” We should all over ourselves, and we don’t seek the help we need. But James doesn’t say, “Pray as the last resort.” He doesn’t say, “Pray when things are so hard you can’t do anything else.” He doesn’t say, “Pray when suffering reaches more than you can handle.” He doesn’t put a qualification on our suffering. God cares. He’s there. He will help you. In suffering, you always feel alone. The gospel says you never are. Jesus suffered like us that we might have a merciful and faithful high priest. He’s there, always. If life hurts for whatever reason, you should pray.
And the opposite is also true. When life is going well, praise. Andrew Peterson has a great song that really helps me grasp this point. It’s called Don’t You Want To Thank Someone. Here are just a few lyrics.
Don't you ever wonder why
In spite of all that's wrong here
There's still so much that goes so right
And beauty abounds?
'Cause sometimes when you walk outside
The air is full of song here
The thunder rolls and the baby sighs
And the rain comes down
And when you see the spring has come
And it warms you like a mother's kiss
Don't you want to thank someone?
Don't you want to thank someone for this?
This world, for all its fallenness, still holds beauty that takes our breath away. Poet Gerard Manley Hopkins said, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” When we wake up and the sun is shining and the air is crisp and the coffee is good and the day is open and available and we get to do meaningful work and our heart swells with the good things, what do we do with that gratitude? We praise God. Prayer and praise are the same things. Praise rightly directed is prayer. It’s the heart’s cry to its Maker, “Thank you!”
So, generally and individually, we pray when something bad or good happens to us. Now, James moves from the general to the specific, from individual to small group in verse 14. “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”
Here's another time to pray. When sickness overwhelms us and takes us into the shadow of death. James is not talking about a common cold—though we should pray then as well—but about those particularly bad illnesses that leave us wondering if life will go on. The sick person can call the elders of the church, and they can come and pray over them, and anoint them with oil. This is not an “I’ll try anything” shot in the dark but a humble seeking of God’s help, letting God minister through the prayers of your pastors. When you are down and out, God still provides. He has ministers to help you by prayer.
James gives specific instructions to the elders. They pray and anoint the sick person’s head with oil. What does this oil do? In the Roman Catholic church, there is the sacrament of unction, where the dying is anointed with oil to remove remnants of sin and get the soul ready to die. This is not what James means. He also doesn’t mean the oil holds some special healing power. It’s not medicinal in nature. Rather, the oil consecrates and sets the person apart to God. It’s a symbol that the elders are bringing this specific person and this specific request for healing to God.
Verse 15 speaks of this kind of prayer’s result. “And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.” This is a tricky verse. Some people have used it as God’s promise that all who pray the “prayer of faith” will be healed. So when the person isn’t healed it’s usually blamed on a lack of faith. The elders didn’t believe enough. Or, as it often goes, the sick person doesn’t have enough faith. But is that what James means when he talks about the prayer of faith? Does it sound like God to require a certain strength from us to bless us? Did Jesus come to us with demands that we measure up to his standard? Did he rebuke the man who said, “I believe, help my unbelief?” Did he recoil when Thomas sought to touch his scars after his resurrection? Or did he stoop low and humble himself to our level? Did not Jesus come gentle and lowly, with his heart open to the weak and sinful and doubting? Would God then be so cruel as to keep his blessing from those whose faith he deemed insufficient, even as they looked to him for help? Would God withhold his power until we mustered up the right amount of faith?
If the prayer of faith means all who believe enough are healed and only those who believe enough are healed then why was Paul’s thorn not taken away? Why did Paul have to leave a sick friend behind on his missionary journeys as we see in the book of Acts? Did Paul lack faith? Lack of healing cannot be because of a lack of faith. When God says no, it must be for a reason we can’t yet see.
Conversely, Jesus healed some not because of their faith, but to stimulate their faith. In John 9, Jesus healed a man born blind. The man didn’t ask for healing. But Jesus healed him anyway. In that instance, faith was a result of healing, not a prerequisite for it.
Here’s the point. Healing is a gift, not a reward. We are not in charge of God, pulling the lever of his healing powers by the right kind of prayer, working the angles, and mustering up enough faith like coins for the vending machine. We humbly trust God and ask for healing, but we leave the result in his hands, in his will. The prayer of faith is not faith that something we want—even desperately think we need—will be granted if we pray hard enough. It is laying our lives in God’s hands, consecrating ourselves to him, and trusting his will by the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s truly looking to God, not to anything else, for help.
That doesn’t mean physical healing always comes now. It also means God can heal despite our doubting. It’s not the strength of our faith that matters. What matters is the one in whom we have faith. God knows what he’s doing, and we need only to trust his will. Maybe he will heal. Maybe he won’t. But we know, ultimately, no matter what the answer to our prayer is right now that one day those who pray with such faith will be healed. We all must die, but those in Christ will be raised again. We will have perfect, glorified bodies in the new heavens and the new earth.
How do we get this glorious new body? James goes on, “And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” Healing has more than a physical dimension. Confession of sin heals. Not every sickness is a result of sin. That’s not what James means. But sickness can be a result of sin. We barely believe that today, but the Bible does link sin and sickness. Jesus healed the paralytic by saying his sins were forgiven (Luke 5:20). Paul told the Corinthians some were sick because they abused the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:30). Confession of sin heals us as we pour out our souls to our gracious and merciful God. And sometimes we can’t do that on a normal day. Sometimes sickness is the means by which we are humbled enough to confess and seek God’s face. And notice what James says. “He will be forgiven.” God is faithful to forgive our sins because Jesus, our substitute, took the penalty for them on the cross. And God is faithful to raise us up because Jesus, our redeemer, conquered the grave. Our big issue with this passage shouldn’t be trying to figure out exactly what the prayer of faith is, but to figure out the God who calls us to have faith in him, and leave our lives in his hands, humbly confessing and trusting his perfect will.
James then takes us a step further—from individual prayer to small group prayer to corporate prayer. Look at verse 16. “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” The exhortation to confession and prayer isn’t reserved only for the sick. It is for everyone. Confession is like removing the oxygen from sin’s lungs. It heals. And when others listen and then pray on our behalf, they help us find the healing of forgiveness.
Now, in context, James may have in mind those who have mutually sinned against one another and harmed the church body. Sins against God are confessed to God. But sins against God and others are confessed to God and to others. We do that carefully and humbly. God wants us to be right with one another. So, James says, “Confess your sins to one another.” He doesn’t say “confess one another’s sins.” What does he say? “And pray for one another.” Just as there is a command to the sinner to confess, there is the responsibility of the one hearing to pray, intercede, take the matter to God, and move forward. James doesn’t say, “embarrass one another” or “shame one another” but “pray for one another.” What we really believe about God is seen in this interaction when sins are confessed. If we believe in the free grace and forgiveness of God in Christ, we will freely forgive others, because we have experienced such grace ourselves. Do you see the beauty in that? This is how deep fellowship is birthed in God. In this simple but profound practice, we cultivate a gospel culture built on the gospel doctrine of grace in Christ. This is a path to corporate healing, anytime we need it.
So that’s when we pray. God invites us to prayer because he cares about our lives, and the specifics in this passage reaffirm that.
Now, why we pray.
God not only coaches us on when to pray, but he also shows us why we pray. We’ve seen it already. We pray because, by prayer, God heals and forgives. But there is more. In the second part of verse 16, James says, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” Then he jumps into an example of Elijah in verses 17 and 18. “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” Elijah is an example of the righteous person’s powerful prayer that works. So, at the most basic level, we pray because God says prayer works.
We know Elijah as a prophet in the Old Testament. But the reason James chose Elijah as an example is not that he was an extraordinary prophet, someone so far “above” us. James says Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. It is the ordinariness of Elijah that James wants us to see. He was just a man, but his prayers worked. Why?
If we go back to the Old Testament, we see that Elijah’s prayers are not out of nowhere. He wasn’t sitting there one day thinking, “You know, I’m going to pray for no rain and that’ll show ‘em.” No. In Deuteronomy 28, God told Moses to tell the Israelites, “If you do not obey the Lord your God…these curses will come upon you…The Lord will strike you…with scorching heat and drought…the sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder.” Elijah lived in a day of Israel’s rebellion against God. He was praying God’s words after him. That’s why it worked. Working prayer is asking God to do what he has already said he would do. Elijah is the righteous person aligning his prayers will the promises of God. Elijah is praying the prayer of faith, prayer aligned with the will of God, asking God to do what he has said he would do. We pray, ultimately, because God is true to his word, and when our prayers are aligned to his word, we have confidence he will do what he said he would do.
Elijah prayed because God had spoken. We pray because God has spoken. Prayer is not a string of empty words to a wordless God but a pointed plea to a speaking Savior. We know what God plans to do in this world because he has told us. We know his purposes. We know his intentions. We have the Bible as our ever-present Word from God about his plans for our lives and for this world. And in the Bible we have examples like that of Elijah, of people who prayed, asking God to do what he said he would do, and God answered those prayers. We pray not because it’s our idea or because it makes us feel better but because God has ordained that the prayers of his people bring about his purposes. By prayer, God invites us into his work. Charles Spurgeon said, “Prayer moves the arm that moves the world.” Just as Elijah’s prayers directed the rain, your prayers—if you are in Christ—direct the world. Yes, God is sovereign and can do what he will without us, but he chooses to use our prayers. The Bible sees no contradiction there. Your prayers matter. You’re just like Elijah. You’re weak. You’re not enough. You’re powerless. But your prayers are not powerless because God is not powerless. Prayer is not magic incantations thrown to the wind but faith put in the God whose arms are not short, whose hands are not weak, and whose power upholds the universe. Your prayers, like Elijah’s, are powerful because you’re praying to a powerful God.
How does this relate to what James has said before? In our lives, we pray because God is involved. He is near. He is with us. He cares. We take our hard things and our good things to him as their proper landing place inside a love that is too great to give us what we deserve but instead gives us grace and peace and a secure place to stand in this ever-shifting world. We pray for healing and confess our sins because we know God has promised to heal and to save. Even if our physical healing must wait until heaven, the healing of forgiveness is available right now. Romans 8:1 is always true. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” We know, because of Jesus, that there is a glorious new life out ahead for all who love him.
How do we know that? Because like Elijah, Jesus was made a human just like us. The author of Hebrews says in chapter 2, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things…he had to be made like his brothers in every respect.” In the incarnation, Jesus became like us. He lived a human life, with human suffering, with human prayers. He entered our world in order to save us by living the life we should have lived and dying the death we are owed because of our sin. Jesus became a man like us to save us. Because of that, when he rose from the grave three days after the cross, he put a “Yes!” at the end of every one of God’s promises. Because of Jesus, we will be raised one day. We will be healed. We will be forgiven. We will find that the deepest prayers of our hearts are granted as God plants his word in us, not because we deserve it, not even because we prayed the right prayers, but because God will bring all his good promises to pass, and not one word of all that he promises will fail. We pray because prayer aligned with God’s word works.
Prayer draws us closer to God, closer to his gospel, closer to his word, closer to his heart. In prayer, God is inviting us into reality with him as we await the day we see him face to face. What is better than that?
Let’s pray.
1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
This is God’s word.
Here’s a problem we all face: we talk a lot. We never shut up. If you have young kids, you know this without me even proving it. But let me try to prove it anyway. Some research reports the average American speaks 700 times a day. 700! Even if we think that’s way too high, let’s just say it’s 100. What else do you do 100 times a day? Other research says we spend about one-fifth of our life talking. If we wrote down all your words just from today, it would be about a 50-page book. Just one day!
No wonder the Word of God has something to say about our words. Our passage today isn’t the first time James mentions the subject. In 1:19, he exhorted us to be slow to speak. In 1:26, he said our use of the tongue is one indicator of true religion. In chapter 2, it’s our tongue that reveals our partiality and proclaims our faith. James isn’t done talking about our talking either. He’ll bring it up again, as we will see in the weeks to come.
All this shows that God cares a lot about how we speak. The Bible tells us God is a speaking God. Unlike idols, God opens his mouth. One of the names of Jesus is literally “The Word of God.” Hebrews says he upholds the universe by his powerful word. God spoke the world into existence. God created us in his image with his words, and part of that image is the ability to communicate through speech. So it makes sense that God would care deeply about how we use our words in his world. Words have immense power. We can use words to create a culture of safety and trust and love, to nurture and build a radiant culture, or we can use words to burn it all down.
One of the greatest tragedies is how we abuse our tongues. In the fall, Adam blamed Eve (Gen. 3:12). The Psalms refer to those whose throat is an open grave, whose tongues deceive, and whose mouths are full of curses and bitterness (Ps. 5:9, 10:7, 140:3; Rom. 3:13-14). Isaiah sensed the weight of words when he saw a vision of God’s throne room and responded with woe over his unclean lips (Is. 6:5). Proverbs 18:21 tells us death and life are in the power of the tongue and Proverbs 12:18 says words are like sword thrusts. Jesus says in Matthew 12:36 that we will give account for every careless word. Our tongue is one of the most important things about us.
You know the saying, “Sticks and stone may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” I have no idea who came up with that. It’s simply not true at all. No one stays in a hospital with a broken bone forever, but the couches of counselors are dented by those who sit week after week searching for healing from harmful words. Some of the things you hate about yourself most are things others have said to you, probably when you were young and didn’t know how to handle them. Words can damage the soul. Or how about this saying, “I’m rubber and you’re glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you.” Another lie. Words don’t only stick to us, they bury themselves deep in our hearts. Commentator Derek Kidner wrote, “What is done to you is of little account beside what is done in you.” Words go deep, and they shape our lives.
Our speaking God wants us to understand the proper use of the tongue he gave us. This passage is his gracious gift to us, to help us build the gospel culture he wants us to have here at Refuge, where we take seriously the way we speak, with awareness that our words deeply matter.
We’re going to see three things God wants us to understand about our tongues:
The Tongue is Powerful (1-5a)
The Tongue is Dangerous (5b-6)
The Tongue is Untamable (7-12)
One way to think of the book of James is as the Proverbs of the New Testament. It’s filled with wisdom. There are about 90 proverbs about speech, which is more than it says about money or sex or family or anything else. Isn’t that fascinating? Apparently to live wisely and well requires we learn a lot about the power of the tongue, more so than the power of any other bodily desire or function. When Paul said to glorify God in your bodies, James says that starts with your tongue [1].
It gets uncomfortable right from the start for me. In verse 1, James directs attention to those who teach. So here I am, standing in front of you to teach, and by reading this passage I’m inviting judgment on myself. Teachers must be careful with their words. Because they say more and talk to more people, it’s vital they use thoughtful and intentional words, with life and conviction and purpose. By nature of the position, teachers hold a lot of power to do a lot of good or a lot of bad. And while James is primarily talking about those who teach in the church, we can expand that even to our parenting. We parents teach all the time, don’t we? We must be careful when doing so. Our words hold immense weight. How we use them shapes our children. We can build up or tear down, announce forgiveness or bring condemnation, proclaim the gospel that saves or the law that kills. God is listening.
But you don’t have to be a teacher to fall into sins of speech. James opens is up in verse 2, saying we all stumble with our tongue. No one is exempt, teacher or not. James says, “If anyone doesn’t stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.” So let me ask: do we have any perfect people among us today? Is there anyone who is so in control of their tongue that they have no regrets, have caused no past wounds, have no words they want to take back? We all stumble, don’t we? As one teacher (Rabbi Joseph Telushkin) put it, “If you cannot go for twenty-four hours without drinking liquor, you are addicted to alcohol. If you cannot go for twenty-four hours without smoking, you are addicted to nicotine. Similarly, if you cannot go for twenty-four hours without saying unkind words about others, then you have lost control over your tongue.”
The problem with an uncontrolled tongue is the immense power it holds. It has the ability to move our entire lives in one direction or another. James uses some illustrations to help us get the point. The tongue is really small but incredibly powerful. A bit in a horse’s mouth moves the massive animal wherever it wills. A rudder on a ship beats out the winds and waves. Likewise, the tongue is small, but it boasts of great things.
One commentator refers to the tongue as the master key of our bodies. It determines everything else, moving us either positively or negatively. Our tongue takes us places. But, of course, the tongue is only as good as the heart guiding it, just as the bit in a horse’s mouth is only as good as the rider, and the rudder on the ship is only as good as the pilot. In other words, when we talk about the tongue, we’re really talking about the heart. James does this a lot. He points to outward actions as revelations of inward reality. Who we are is what we say. We never truly speak out of character, we only reveal our true character. Our words show our cards. We might not say all we really think but, what we say, we really think. We can never truly say, “I didn’t mean it.” We always mean it, and usually, we mean much more than we actually say. Jesus said that out of the heart, the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45). That’s enough to condemn us all, isn’t it? That’s why though the tongue is small and maybe we’re small too, the weakest among us can still cause devastating harm. We’re all like Spiderman: with great power comes great responsibility.
So that’s the first thing James wants us to understand: the power of the tongue. Next, he wants us to see the danger of that power.
A friend once heard about a woman in LA who took her own life. Her suicide note read only this: “They said.” Don’t you feel the weight of that? Isn’t so much of our life determined by “They said”? Perhaps worse still, we have contributed to the “They said” moments of others.
No wonder James says in verse 5, “How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire.” No wonder Proverbs 18:21 says, “death and life are in the power of the tongue.” The tongue can kill. All it takes is a spark: one bit of gossip, one explosion of anger, one biting remark, one lie, one word. A small fire sets a forest ablaze.
Our words don’t even have to be intentionally murderous to do great harm. All it takes is a little carelessness. Not too long ago, there was a wildfire raging through Southern California that burned 22,000 acres, eating up homes and businesses. How did it start? From a smoke bomb used in a gender reveal party. The party was held on September 5th. The flames were finally extinguished on November 16th.
Closer to home, maybe you remember the videos of the wildfire in Gatlinburg not long ago. I remember people driving down the mountain with fire raging on both sides of the street. It looked like hell. It was the deadliest wildfire in the state in 100 years. How did it start? Two kids were playing with matches on the Chimney Tops Trail. The fire killed 14 people and destroyed 2,400 buildings. Our words can be like that.
No wonder James says, “The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.” The tongue holds continents of bad things. John Calvin said the tongue is “a slender portion of flesh [that] contains the whole world of iniquity.” Just take the Ten Commandments, for example, and see how we break them with our tongues. We worship other gods, we praise idols, we take the Lord’s name in vain, we profane the sabbath, we verbally dishonor our mother and father, we murder through angry speech, we commit adultery through lustful words, we steal the truth by our lies, we complain about things we don’t have but others do. That’s the character of our tongue.
The tongue also has immense influence not only communally but personally as well. Look at verse 6, “Staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life.” James said earlier that pure religion is unstained from the world, but the tongue pollutes the rest of our bodies, affecting the whole of our life, from beginning to end, and everything in between. So not only is the tongue a fire that sets ablaze the forest of others, it sets ablaze our own. How many times has our stupid mouth gotten us in trouble? Our tongues reveal how weak our flesh truly is.
But worse still, there is something underneath it all playing with our weakness of flesh. Maybe we think, like Billy Joel, that we didn’t start the fire. But someone did. Who? James tells us at the end of verse 6. It is set on fire by hell. The word he uses is Gehenna. The only other use of the word in the New Testament is from Jesus when he described the place of ultimate judgment and condemnation where Satan lives. Do you see what James is saying? He’s saying no less than Satan himself works with the evil of our tongues. He lit the fire. He is the Father of lies. He is walking to and fro with his torch of mischief, lighting our tongues like wicks of a bomb, watching and enjoying the explosions that result.
In our sinfulness, we comply all too easily. The tongue houses a universe of potential evil greater than Darth Vader and his stormtroopers, where planets of sin dance around the fires of hell, and sparks of lies and gossip and all kinds of unrighteousness burn down people and houses and companies and countries and churches. The tongue is a dangerous weapon, and we must know the power each one of us has that can be so easily used for evil. Sticks and stones may break bones, but words pierce the soul. Words stick like glue.
Unfortunately, the news doesn’t get much better yet. Not only is the tongue powerful and dangerous, but it is also untamable.
Think back to the illustrations James used of a horse and a bit. A horse is wild and majestic, but it is tamable with a bit in its mouth. In fact, James says in verse 7, every kind of beast and bird and reptile and sea creature can be tamed. Siegfried and Roy tamed tigers (kind of). Eagles are trained to fly into a stadium on command during the National Anthem. Snake charmers tame aggressive and venomous snakes. Have you ever seen what they can do with sea lions or seals or dolphins? It’s amazing. Humans have the extraordinary ability to train and tame even the wildest of animals. I heard a story the other day from Buck Showalter, now the manager of the New York Mets, who said one of his teams once brought monkeys in from the zoo to throw batting practice!
Mankind can tame any kind of animal. But in verse 8 James says there is one thing no human being can tame: our tongue. Isn’t that an amazing statement? How can that be? Didn’t our mama raise us right? We say please and thank you. We have manners. But we cannot get out from under the gaze of Scripture. God knows us better than we know ourselves. We cannot tame the tongue. We can cage it a bit. But we can’t tame it. We can teach it some tricks, but we can’t take the wildness out. We can defang it, but we can’t remove the venom. “It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison,” James says.
Bible translator J.B. Phillips shows the word restless in verse 8 means “always liable to break out.” It’s in there, just biding its time until all hell breaks loose. One bad look from someone. One piece of gossip we can’t keep in. One tirade played out in a bit of weary frustration. One thoughtless word slipping through the filter. A single word and the fire rages, the lion is loose and hungry, the snake slithers into the garden with the lie, and the dragon opens its mouth to devour. It’s a restless evil. What we can do with wild beasts we cannot do with the little bitty tongue in our own mouth. We can’t tame it.
There’s a further problem. The same tongue with which we use bless our Lord and Father we can also use to curse people made in his image. “These things ought not to be so,” James says in verse 10. This is hypocrisy. Those who come on Sunday and sing praise to God then go out to lunch and share the latest gossip. Those who say their morning prayers and then go into their work with an agenda to get ahead by putting others down. Those who have their quiet time with the Lord and then hop on social media to like the post from the guys on “their side.” Blessing and cursing, all with the same tongue.
James asks how this can be. Look at the natural world. Can two different things come from the same source? Look at verses 11 and 12. A spring can’t produce both fresh water and saltwater. A fig tree only produces figs. An olive tree only produces olives. A grapevine only produces grapes. James is taking us back to a theme of his. He talks a lot about being double-minded. The spiritual person is single-minded. They do not bless God and curse his image-bearers at the same time. It should not be possible to bless God and curse his image-bearers with the same tongue. That is an anti-Christian thing. It is an evil thing. As it praises God it curses him for his people. How can that be?
And that’s all James says here. No follow-up with “Seven Ways to Tame Your Tongue.” Just the tension of needing to tame it and the inability to do so. The logic that two different things can’t come from the same source, but the reality that with us, that happens too often.
So we’re stuck with this great need to tame the tongue because it is our duty to do so as followers of Jesus. But at the same time, James says it’s impossible for us to tame it. We must tame it, but we can’t tame it.
So, to conclude, what do we do with this? How do we resolve the tension?
Look again at verse 8. James says no human being can tame the tongue. But he doesn’t say no one can. You can’t tame your tongue, but the one who made it can. My third point is only right from a certain perspective. The tongue isn’t ultimately untamable. It’s just untamable by us. We can’t tame the tongue, but Jesus can.
After all, it was Jesus who told us in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” He didn’t say the flesh is some help. He said it is no help at all. We cannot rely on ourselves. If we need living water, we need Jesus to provide it. If we need pure fruit, we need Jesus to grow it. If we need control of the tongue, we need Jesus to tame it. He is our only hope because the only way to transform the tongue is to change the heart, and the only one who can change the heart is the one who made it.
We cannot hope for self-improvement. We cannot act our way out of this. But the same tongue that we misuse, we can also use to repent. We can turn to Jesus with the empty hands of faith and trust him for help.
Why can we trust him? Because on the cross, Jesus did more than die a painful death. He died as a guilty man for sin he never committed. Jesus never said a wrong word to anyone. He was the only human to ever tame his tongue. But on the cross, he took upon himself all our wrong words as if they were his wrong words. He put himself in our place under the wrath of God.
And God accepted Jesus’s sacrifice. Because of the cross of Christ, God does not look down on us now and think, “You failures. You just can’t shut up, can you? You can’t figure out how to tame that little bitty tongue in your mouth. Well, this is the last you’ll hear from me.” God does not cut us out of his conversation. He still talks to us because on the cross he stopped talking to his Son.
We’ve said a lot of bad and wrong things, but Jesus spoke a better word by his blood. He took our words and gave back his Father’s. Our words condemn, but his word proclaims, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.” Jesus covered the cost of every wrong word we’ve ever said or will ever say. Every bit of gossip, every put-down, every curse, every lie, every complaint, every angry word. Every sinful thing we’ve ever uttered out of the darkness of our fallen heart stuck to Jesus like glue on the cross, and he died for those sins—our sins.
But Jesus didn’t stay dead. The Word of God rose again and conquered Satan’s torch that sets our tongues on fire. We have a new speechwriter now. We have fire from heaven. All he’s asking us to do is give ourselves over to him, to turn to him in repentance and faith, to let him renew us deep within.
If we just keep listening to the Word of God and his gospel, he will keep renewing our hearts and his word will go deeper and deeper into us. And like a spring of living waters bursting forth, our powerful tongue can be used by God’s grace to bring life instead of death, hope instead of despair, the beauty of heaven instead of the fire of hell. Jesus can change our hearts and tame our tongues, and all we need to do is ask him. We can ask him to not let anything come out of our mouths that isn’t of him. We can ask him that as we drive to work tomorrow morning, as we pick up the kids from school tomorrow afternoon, and as we come to church next week. As we go about our days, we can give ourselves fully to Jesus and let his words be ours. If we do that simple and humble thing, Jesus can use us to bring shalom to this broken and tired and hurting world. Will we let him?
Let’s pray.
[1] Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., Preaching the Word: Proverbs—Wisdom That Works, ed. R. Kent Hughes (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 132.
This morning we are looking at an old, familiar story of an infant born of glory. He is the Son of God and the Son of Man. God come down to us. And what I want to do this morning is very, very simple. I want us to gather around and lean in to hear the story of who Jesus is and why he came. I want to behold Jesus together this morning, considering his might and glory, his humility and love, and his presence and peace.
So let’s read the passage together now.
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
Yesterday morning, we woke to the destruction of storms. Our house was fine, but my kids and I watched videos of Mayfield, Kentucky, leveled by a tornado. A few minutes later, my five-year-old came down and asked me if the earth could end. I told him that God keeps it going, so it doesn’t end. Then he asked a really good question, “Why didn’t God stop the tornado?”
I don’t have an answer for that, of course. No one does. I told him God could stop the tornado. The Bible says God is Lord over the storm. As powerful as the winds and rain are, God is infinitely greater. All the oceans are but a drop in his almighty hand. But he didn’t stop the storm that night. Bad things happen in this world because of sin. When Adam and Eve fell, the earth was cursed, and began to groan for our redemption. But while we can’t say why God let the tornado come, we can say it’s not because he doesn’t care. We know he cares because of our passage today. Christmas is proof that God will not let sin get the better hand. He will not forsake us. He comes to break the curse. We don’t know all the answers to our questions of suffering, but we do know, because of Christmas, that there is an end to them.
Christmas is the answer to our deepest pains. It is heaven’s cry that God has not abandoned us. Some things in life just don’t make sense from our viewpoint. It’s always been that way. Think of all that Joseph didn’t understand in our passage today. When life doesn’t make sense, when it is hard and confusing and even painful, it helps to know that there is a God above who hears our groans and sees our tears. And he has an answer. It’s a surprising one. When this world by its sin declared war on God, the Lord of Armies sent a baby.
It’s that baby to whom we look right now. He’s more than we imagined, and he’s all that we need. He’s God. He’s man. And he’s Immanuel—God with man.
One of the difficulties of Christmas passages is that we’re so familiar with them, they lose their impact. But let us try to hear this with unjaded ears. The baby in Mary’s womb was not just another baby boy born long ago. The baby in Mary’s womb was divine. Matthew tells us plainly, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.” We hear the same again when the angel told Joseph, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” The weight of these words is magnificent. From the Holy Spirit. Birth is always miraculous, but this was truly unique. The baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit. This was a divine child. God was coming.
Perhaps we think this was an easy thing for Joseph to hear. But we need to understand how difficult and mind-boggling this was for him. Joseph was a Jew. God coming like this wasn’t something that fit neatly into his theological construction. If he were a Greek or Roman and not a Jew, he may have accepted it easier. Those gods disguised themselves as humans and came into the world. But Jews did not have a category for this kind of thing. God was personal but infinite. He was the Creator of all, the Sustainer of all, above everything and over everything, transcendent. The glory and majesty of God was so fearful that Jews wouldn’t even say Yahweh or spell it because it was considered so holy. And here is an angel telling Joseph in a dream that this transcendent God is coming down to earth in the form of a human baby.
To get an idea of the magnitude, think of all that Scripture says about God. I love how Ray Ortlund put it in a sermon once.
Think of the names of God in the Bible: Yahweh, the one who is near; El Shaddai, the Almighty; El Elyon, the Most High; Adonai, Master; El Olam, the Everlasting God; El Qanna, the Jealous God; Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide; Jehovah Sebaoth, the Lord of Armies; Jehovah Ropheka (Rof-a-ka), the Lord who heals you; Jehovah Tsidkenu (Sid-ke-new), the Lord our righteousness.
Think of the images of God in the Bible: king, shepherd, warrior, rock, refuge, shield, father, maker, judge, lawgiver, comforter, savior, lion, lamb, and many more.
Think of the attributes of God in the Bible: living, powerful, shrewd, just, merciful, pure, honest, faithful, joyful, patient, rich, sovereign, kind, and above all, loving.
Christmas means that glorious God came down to us in Jesus. Perhaps it’s difficult to accept Jesus is God. It’s easier to think of him as semi-God, something like God but less than. I mean, could glory like that inhabit flesh like ours? Perhaps our Jesus is too small. But think of what the Bible says about him. Just for starters…
John equated and identified Jesus with God in John 1:1,14, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Paul confessed Christ as God in Colossians 2:9, “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”
The author of Hebrews exalted Jesus as God in Hebrews 1:3, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.”
Jesus himself spoke of the glory he shares with the Father in John 17:5, “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”
Previously in John 10:30 Jesus identified himself with God, as God, “I and the Father are one.”
In John 14:1, Jesus called people to “Believe in God; believe also in me.” No wonder the Jewish leaders charged him with blasphemy (John 5:16-17). He proclaimed himself equal with God because he is God.
Jesus told Thomas that to know him is to know the Father (John 14:6-9). He said no one can come to the Father except through him (John 6:44). He claimed the same knowledge as God in Matthew 11:27 when he said, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Christmas is not about another baby boy born in humble beginnings who grew into merely a great teacher, or great healer, or great orator, or great leader. Christmas is about the God of glory coming down from heaven to save his people from their sins. It is the one who is the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Revelation 1:8).
In Jesus, God came into the world. And Joseph was to be his father. Of course, not in the traditional sense. He was to be the adoptive father. There is a reversal of sorts here. Notice Joseph didn’t choose to be the father of the incarnate God. Joseph didn’t choose Jesus. Jesus chose him. The child adopted the father. This is the way of God. Starting way back in the Old Testament, Jesus chose a family for himself to whom he would one day come. As one ancient writer put it, “Among men, fathers adopt whomever they wish to be their sons. This son, however, adopted fathers whom he chose for himself. Among men, sons receive the honor of birth from their fathers. But in Christ’s case, the fathers received honor from the son.”
Why did God choose Joseph? Because way back in 2 Samuel 7, God promised King David one of his sons would rule forever. The angel calls Joseph, “Son of David.” In other words, Joseph had the lineage God promised to bless. More was at stake with Joseph accepting God’s call than another child born into the world. This was the everlasting king promised long ago, coming to rule as foretold. This was God coming to his people to fulfill his promises. This was God being God: coming, speaking, choosing, acting, loving, saving.
It turned Joseph’s world upside down. It turned the whole world upside down. The baby in a manger was the Lord of lords and King of kings. The one for whom there was no room in the inn makes room in heaven for sinners. The child who was born like us gave new birth that we may be like him. The boy in the barn was the glory of heaven. We have been visited not by a vision of God, not by an apparition of God, not even by a messenger of God, but by God himself.
This is the great hope in which we live. God has come. He stepped into our mess, into our lives, into our experience, into our hopelessness, and brought his light. He came to us to bring us to himself. And he did it not from heaven but from earth. It’s to that we now turn.
In verse 21, the angel told Joseph that Mary would “Bear a son...”
Here’s how J.I. Packer put it.
God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child…The babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation.
C.S. Lewis tried to help us grasp the humility of this.
The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a foetus inside a woman’s body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab.
Jesus is God. He is also man. Just as Jesus is not something like but less than God, he is not something like but less than man. He is fully man even as he is fully God. He is one of us. He was born just like you were. He grew up just like you did. His body changed and developed and matured. He had to learn how to walk, how to talk, how to do things for himself. He lived a human life just like you live. He ate food. He drank water. He laughed. He cried. He felt the coolness of the breeze on a summer day and the chill of night after the sun went down. He knew how good it felt to sit down and take your shoes off at the end of a long day’s work. He felt the comfort of friendship. He experienced the joy of life at weddings and parties. He also experienced the pain of life. He got splinters in his hands. He lost friends to illness and death. He felt betrayal. He bled. He died. He went through it all. The only difference between your human life and his is that he never sinned. Of course, that doesn’t mean he didn’t feel the effects of sin. He certainly did. Nowhere more than on the cross where he took upon himself all the wrath of God our sin was due.
Jesus is God. Jesus is also man. Fully both. That means God understands your life. He understands you. He’s been in your shoes.
He even had a name like you do. In verse 21, God gave Joseph the responsibility of every father, naming his son. “And you shall call his name Jesus.” I love the dignity and responsibility God places on Joseph here. Yes, he revealed the name, but he gave Joseph the responsibility of giving him that name. No one else knew it. He wrote the name on the birth certificate. He shared it with everyone who asked. He named his son.
And the name meant something. “The Lord saves.” “And you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” This boy had a mission. He had a purpose. His name bore witness to it. He was to save his people. What was he to save them from? From their enemies? God’s people had many throughout the ages. From their suffering? There is plenty of that in this world. Maybe he would save them from disease or accidents or storms or disasters? But it wasn’t any of those things. He was to save them from their sins. The greatest enemy to God’s people is not anything outside of themselves. It is who they are, the sin they are born with. The most tragic thing about us is not what happens to us but what happens in us: sin. That doesn’t mean terrible things don’t happen to us. They do. But it does mean that we too are guilty of our own sin. As much as we may need salvation from others, we need salvation from ourselves—from our sins.
Jesus came on a mission, with a purpose to save. But why did God have to become man to save us from our sins? He’s God, after all. Couldn’t he save us without leaving heaven? In Hebrews 9:22, the author tells us, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” In Old Testament times, God instituted the sacrificial system in Israel to give them a pathway to forgiveness from sins by sacrificing bulls and goats. But in Hebrews 10:4 the author says, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” So, what’s the deal? Did God give a sacrificial system that wasn’t good enough? Yes. Because it was only pointing to what was to come in Jesus. The Bible tells us the wages of sin is death. Our sin deserves the death penalty. God in his mercy provided a way of forgiveness in the sacrificial system, but it was only temporary. The blood of animals could never satisfy the penalty of our sin. Man’s sin requires man’s blood. The only way our sins can be dealt with is if we shed our blood or if someone shed their blood for us. Jesus offered his blood for ours. After living a perfect life we could never live, he died a guilty death he never deserved. That’s how he saved us from our sins.
But that’s not the only reason he came. He came for so much more. He came not only to pay for our sins but to welcome us into his arms. He came not just to fix our problems but to give us peace. He came not just to save us but to redeem us. He came not just to deal with us but to be with us, and that’s our third point.
Look at verses 22 and 23. “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).” Jesus is his name, the Lord saves. Immanuel is his nature, God with us.
Here’s why this matters so much. At some point we all ask: has God abandoned me? Sometimes we suffer so profoundly that we wonder if God has forsaken us. Our Bedford Falls turns into Pottersville. Our childhood dreams of BB guns never arrive on Christmas morning. Our Cousin Eddies are the only ones who show up, lugging their junk along with them, making our embarrassment greater and our seasons harder. Our Christmas is stolen, and there is no song around the tree in the morning because the Grinch actually knew how to strike our hopes. There is no miracle on 34th street or any other street. We are left home alone, and no one is looking for us. Life sometimes feels that way, doesn’t it?
What does Christmas say to those feelings? It says God is with us!
That doesn’t mean life is easy. It doesn’t mean we don’t have to live through Pottersville. It doesn’t mean our hopes aren’t sometimes disappointed. It doesn’t mean others don’t cause us problems. It doesn’t mean what is precious to us isn’t stolen. But it does mean you aren’t alone. Your life is not limited to what this world can give. It is not limited to what you can achieve. It is not limited to what you can get through your hard work and sacrifice. Your life is defined by a miracle. God is with you. “They shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us).”
It is so easy for us to believe God is against us. He has every reason to be, doesn’t he? Our sins are many. Our failures pile up before us. Our weaknesses shine brighter than our strengths. But Christmas says God is not against us but with us.
I just want that to settle on your heart today. Christmas means God is with you. Jesus makes this a reality. He entered this very real world you and I live in right now. He came into this darkness. He came into this situation. He came into this difficulty. He came into this life of suffering. He came into this judgey world with its constant demands and never-ending criticisms and unwavering conflict. God is with you.
God is so with you that there is not a single second when he turns from you. He never gets weary of you. He hears your cries. He knows your need. He sees your sin, and instead of turning away, he comes to save. He is your ally when you feel abandoned and alone. He is your defender when you are guilty. He is your justifier when you have no excuses. He is your surety when there is only uncertainty. He is the anchor of your soul when your life hangs in the balance. He is personally involved with you. Jesus is more than an action he accomplishes—salvation. He is also a presence—with you. Jesus came to be your savior and your friend. Isn’t that amazing?
This wasn’t our idea. It was his. We would never imagine such a thing—us friends with God? We think we need to earn him, but he gives himself to the undeserving. He didn’t wait for us to come around. He didn’t wait for our strength to compel him. He didn’t measure our success before stepping down from heaven. He came to our weaknesses and our failures and our unworthiness. He entered our darkness with his light. He made himself our friend when we were his enemy. He turned our life around, and he keeps doing it. In a way this Christmas we’re seeing in Matthew’s gospel is only the start of many Christmases. Christmas is a constant reality because Jesus is ever with us. We know this is true because of what Jesus says at the end of Matthew’s gospel, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Jesus didn’t come for a visit. He came for a lifetime—for your eternity.
Still, perhaps we think we need to be a certain way, act a certain manner, join a certain club for Jesus to save us. But look at the line Jesus comes from. They’re not impressive moral specimens. They are murderers, adulterers, liars, backstabbers, lawless, sinful, guilty. Sam Allberry says, “The family Jesus comes from anticipates the family he has come for.” Jesus himself said he came not for the righteous but the sinner, not for the well but the sick. All we need to have Jesus is need. Our sin and weakness that we believe disqualifies us actually qualifies us for his grace. Jesus came to the lowly for the lowly. He’s not just with the cool kids. He’s with all who are weary and need rest, all who mourn and long for comfort, all who feel worthless and wonder if God even cares, all who fail and desire strength, all who sin and need a Savior. He is Immanuel. God with us.
Still, we may wonder how this will all turn out. I mean, just give us enough time. Won’t we mess this all up? In a sense we can sabotage our lives with ongoing sin, but not ultimately. If we trust in Jesus’s work on our behalf and keep turning to him with the empty hands of faith, we will see that the good work God began, he will complete. His promises are sure. Christmas proves it. He will raise our dead body to new life at the end of this age. We will live and rule and reign with him forever, and not even our sin can make that untrue now. He died for our sin. He rose for our justification. He oversees our sanctification. And one day, with him, we will receive our glorification. Christmas means nothing can stop us now because nothing can stop Immanuel.
There is an expiration date on all this world’s brokenness, on all our brokenness. Christmas guarantees it. Pottersville will be no more. Bedford Falls will be restored. All your deepest, craziest hopes for love and peace and joy are yours right now in this baby boy, Jesus, Immanuel.
Let’s pray.
Let’s open to the Bible to Romans 3:21-26.
Whenever we pick up a book, we want to know what that book is about. A novel isn’t about everything and it’s not about nothing. It’s about a specific something an idea, a theme—it has a point. A biography isn’t about everyone; it’s about someone. A textbook doesn’t cover the whole of school but only one subject. If a book is written well, we can funnel it down to the central point of the book from one paragraph—the center of it all.
So, when we open the Bible, where do we go to find that paragraph? I’ve heard others put it this way. What’s the most important book in the world? The Bible. What’s the most important book in the Bible? The book of Romans. What’s the most important chapter in the book of Romans? Chapter 3. What is the most important paragraph in chapter 3? Verses 21-26.
So that makes our passage today the most important paragraph ever written in all human history. Now I know that sounds perhaps too much. But it’s really hard to argue against it. This paragraph holds within it the entire message of the Bible. It tells us who we are, what has happened to us, and what God has done to save us. The great Reformer Martin Luther said it’s “the chief point, and the very central place of the epistle, and of the whole Bible.”
So today I want us to look at this central passage and think about what implications it has for us as a church. Our church is not here because we have some good ideas we’d like to explore together. We’re not here because we want to do things “our way” in rejection of those others down the road. We’re not here because we’re looking for a new angle or a different path. We’re here because the gospel has been proclaimed, and the Triune God has gathered us as for one mission under one Savior, for his glory in our day. We aim to be a gospel-centered church—not the only gospel-centered church in town, but one of them. And we want to see one in every community throughout our region.
The gospel must be the biggest thing in the church because only the gospel is big enough for the church. It’s the only thing that will sustain us over the long haul. If we ever abandon the gospel as the centering point—no matter how good a thing we replace it with—we will have failed to remain faithful, and God must bring us to repentance or shut our doors.
After all, a gospel-centered church is really the only kind of church there is. A church without the gospel is something else—a social club or political action committee or a rallying point for pet projects or hobby horse hermeneutics. Those are man-centered things. And they can’t last. Every man-made institution ends in tears. But the gospel ends with a party. The gospel is good news of great joy. William Tyndale, the man who translated the Bible into English in the 16th century, said:
Evangelion (what we call “the gospel”) is a Greek word, signifying good, merry, glad and joyful news, that makes a man’s heart glad and makes him sing, dance and leap for joy.
I love that. That’s what we’re after at Refuge: deep happiness in God. Nothing takes us there but the gospel. We can’t add to it. We can’t improve it. We can only accept it and enjoy in it.
So in the time we have today, let’s consider what it means to be a gospel-centered church from Romans 3:21-26. Now, before we read it, let me just set the stage very briefly. The bulk of the first three chapters of Romans is filled with bad news. The Apostle Paul explains how everyone is a sinner. We all inherit sin from our parents, and we all add our own sins on top. We’re all guilty and accountable to God. We deserve judgement. But then, Paul explains what God has done for sinners like us. Let’s read it now.
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Let’s break this passage down into three points to see what Paul says about the gospel and draw some applications for us here at Refuge.
Look at verse 21: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it.”
It’s hard to read the Bible and not see that a major theme is the need for obedience to God’s law. In fact, many people boil it down to just that: God’s rule book. The law tells us what God expects and what happens if we fail to obey. It’s clear God calls us to righteous living, and he doesn’t leave it up to us to determine what that means. He tells us in his law. But the problem is we can’t obey as we ought. And so, a question remains: how will we get the righteousness God requires? Paul has an answer in verse 21.
The righteousness of God—that is, “God’s way of righteousness”—has been manifested (revealed) to us. It’s been revealed “apart from the law.” What does that mean? Our path to righteousness isn’t and never could be obedience to the law. The law cannot save. It only shows how far we are from the perfection God requires. That doesn’t mean the law is bad; it’s from God, it can’t be bad. It just means we must, as Paul said in Galatians 3:24, see the law as our schoolmaster pushing us toward Christ. We’re justified not through obedience to the law but by trusting Christ, who is our righteousness, according to 1 Corinthians 1:30.
Now, all this comes as quite a surprise if you read the first two and a half chapters of Romans. Paul explained how everyone had fallen short of God’s holy standard. Reading Romans 1-3 leaves you breathless, totally exposed, without excuse. Some people go into self-justification mode, others into depression. But Paul wants to take us elsewhere. He wants to take us into the heart of God. He wants to show that the gospel is a glorious interruption. We’re headed toward hell, and we can’t blame anyone but ourselves, and then God breaks in.
The gospel interrupts our regularly scheduled activities. Martin Luther experienced this. He was a monk in the 16th century, trying really hard to obey God but constantly failing. He read the Bible and all he saw were laws to obey. And he looked at himself and all he saw was disobedience. He tried to obey. He tried really hard. But he just couldn’t find any freedom. He always felt condemned, never forgiven. No matter how hard he tried to obey, he saw that there were new layers of sin in his heart. He confessed so often and to such minutia that his priest told him to go away and come back when he had real sin to confess. By outward appearances, he seemed obedient, but his conscience told him otherwise.
Then he started teaching through the book of Romans, and God interrupted his regularly scheduled thoughts. He saw with new eyes how God justifies. God didn’t justify based on Luther’s obedience. God justified based on Christ’s obedience. His heart was freed. He saw the Bible was not the story of God waiting on his people to get their act together but rather the story of God coming to us in Jesus to give us the righteousness we could not attain on our own. The Bible is God’s story about God’s actions for his people. God’s way of righteousness wasn’t in the law, though the law was good and reflected God’s glory. The way of righteousness was in himself, in Christ. Luther realized this is what the whole Bible is about. All along, God shows our imperfection so that we’ll trust his perfection. The law condemns us so that we’ll flee to Christ for rescue.
The Bible is not basically about us, but Jesus. It’s not the story of man reaching God but of God coming down to man. Jesus is the hero, and his gospel is the center. We see this everywhere from Genesis to Revelation. Jesus is the meaning of every miracle. He’s the redeemer of every rescue. He’s the Savior of every song. He’s the promise of every prayer. He’s the Christ in every crisis. We need to see that, rejoice in it, search for it, dig it out, and grab hold of it on every page. The Bible is about Jesus and the gospel he came to proclaim.
That changes absolutely everything, doesn’t it? It changes even what we say to ourselves. If the Bible isn’t about us but about Jesus, then when we say to ourselves, “I can’t be saved,” Jesus says to us, “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden” (Matthew 11:28). When we say to ourselves, “Woe is me!” Jesus says to us, “If you confess your sins, I am faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). When we say to ourselves, “I’m too sinful” Jesus says to us, “I do not deal with you according to your sins, but according to my grace” (Psalm 103). When we say, “But Jesus, you don’t know what it’s like” Jesus says to us, “Oh, but I do. I can sympathize with your weaknesses and temptations; I was like you but without sin. I can save you though no one else can” (Hebrews 4:14-16). We can’t argue with him; we can only fall before him and worship him.
That’s a gospel-centered life. That’s a gospel-centered church. One where Jesus gets to set the rules. Where his story is the only story. Where his grace rules. Where his mercy reigns. Where his glory dwells. What more could we want? There are a lot of things a church could be about but show me something else that deals with sinners the way Jesus does, that brings the dead to life, that restores every broken heart, that redeems every wounded life.
Let’s be people about the gospel where the central story of the Bible is the central story of our life together.
When it is, we see yet another way the gospel changes us.
We can’t argue with Jesus. He gets the final word. But that doesn’t mean he flatters us. Our problem usually isn’t our low thoughts of ourselves but our high ones. What most of us need to see before we come to Jesus is our utter need for salvation. The gospel is good news, but it includes some bad news. Paul puts it bluntly in verses 22-23.
For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
That’s so offensive to our well-put-together ideas of ourselves, isn’t it? All have sinned (past tense) and fall short of the glory of God (present tense). We are all liable to divine judgment.
A proper understanding of sin is necessary for a proper understanding of the gospel. The gospel is good news, but it includes bad news. It tells us that without the Triune God’s intervention, we have no hope of heaven. We have no righteousness on our own.
The gospel makes us really honest people. We live in a city that likes to look good. From our dress to our cars to our homes, we’re all very Instagramable. But the gospel takes the filter off. It shows us who we really are. And when it does, we have a choice to make: we can be impressive or we can be known.
In a gospel-centered church, where the risen Christ’s good news is ever-present, we can take a risk of being known. We can trust Jesus with our sin, and we can trust his people to help us find forgiveness and freedom. The gospel says we aren’t impressive, and that’s embarrassing. But the gospel also says we’re known deeper than we thought possible and overwhelmingly loved by Christ. When we step inside that circle of honesty with Jesus, we actually become far more impressive than the best of this world. We radiate with the glory of Jesus.
An important trait of a gospel-centered church is a culture of honesty before God and one another. Why? Because total honesty is the way we grow. When we get honest with our sins and struggles, we find help and freedom and forgiveness. Don’t we all want that? Don’t we know deep down that we’re just not okay? If we’ll just admit that and come to Jesus, we will find in him a friend who understands. He is a faithful and merciful high priest in the service of God. He is for you even when you can’t be for yourself. He has covered your sins and failures by his blood.
Here’s what Jesus is asking all of us. 1 John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” You see, we have good arguments. Yes, we sinned but here’s why. But the truth is, there is no excuse good enough to explain our sinful hearts. Sin has no justification. And Jesus doesn’t want to hear our sob story for why we did what we did, or thought what we thought. He’s saying to us, “you can stay in the shadows and let me bring your sin into the light, or you can bring your sin into my light and let me hide is behind my cross.”
If we bring our sin into the light of Jesus, he will cleanse us. That’s what 1 John 1:7 says. Not he might cleanse us. Not one day he’ll cleanse us. He will cleanse us.
And all he’s asking us to do is walk out in his light, to trust him with all our life, and to find cleansing by his blood.
Now, that feels risky. It’s risky to live inside a gospel-centered church because it means we don’t set the rules. We can’t limit God. He can go to places in our heart that we’d be fine never entering. But what God wants for us is total renewal, and you can’t get there without him messing with you, opening you up, bringing you into his light where we can’t hide, but we can repent. And when we do, we find we’re not alone. In a gospel-centered church where we’re walking together into the light of Jesus, trusting him for cleansing, we find lots of friends because there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
When we allow God inside, we become new people. There is no place for boasting in a gospel-centered church. We boast only in Christ. We stop comparing ourselves to one another because we realize Jesus is our only hope. None of us are getting to heaven by being better than someone else. We’re getting to heaven by receiving the finished work of Christ on the cross.
The Devil would love for us to live in a constant state of comparison. If he can get us to do that, he can keep us far from God and the gospel. Satan can use pride just as well as he can use guilt. But God calls us all to humility because before him, we all fall short. But in him, we’re all one—righteous in Christ. A church can be a place of constant one-up-manship where no one is safe or it can be a place of constant safety where everyone, no matter how sinful and lowly, can find the Savior who died for them. As pastor Tim Keller says, “The church is not a museum for pristine saints, but a hospital ward for broken sinners.”
When God gathers a group of people and those people open their hearts before him and, by his grace, keep them open, nothing about anybody surprises us anymore. We realize we’re one before the cross of Christ—sinners in need of a savior, which leads to our third and final point.
Look again at verses 23-26.
For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Since there is no distinction in terms of sin, there is, therefore, no distinction in terms of salvation. We are saved through faith alone by grace alone in Christ alone for God’s glory alone. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. No one is higher. No one is lower. No one is more saved than another. In Christ, we’re equally saved through him.
How does this salvation occur? Paul uses three words to explain it: justification, redemption, and propitiation.
Justification is a courtroom metaphor. It means God has declared us righteous, forgiven, acquitted of our crimes against him for the sake of Christ, given freely by his grace. God forgave us and set us right because he wanted to, not because we deserved it. Christ earned it for us.
Redemption is a word reaching far back into the Old Testament. It means a release from captivity, like what God did for Israel when he brought them out of Egypt. Our redemption is “in Christ Jesus.” We’re redeemed because God put us in Christ and carried us out of sin by his death and resurrection.
Propitiation is a great theological word. Tim Keller says it means “the Lord pays the debt to justice himself.” In other words, what we owe to God, God pays on our behalf in himself, in the person of his Son. God both offers the sacrifice and accepts the sacrifice. Christ’s death satisfies God’s wrath, meets his just requirements for sin, and offers the free gift of salvation to all who believe.
In sum, here’s the logic of the gospel. All sinned and stood hopeless before God. But Jesus paid the penalty for those sins by his substitute’s death. Now, all who believe in his finished work are saved through him. This was the plan all along. Way back in Genesis, when Adam and Eve fell into sin, God promised to send a savior. That promise is reiterated throughout the Bible. That’s so important to see. God doesn’t ignore the sins of his people. He pays for them with Christ’s blood. God is both just and the justifier. He forgave sins in the past because Jesus was coming to set it all right. God doesn’t forgive by overlooking his law. He forgives by fulfilling it in Christ and offering his perfection for our imperfection. At the cross, Christ suffered what we deserved, in our place. On the cross, God exchanged our sin for Christ’s righteousness. Our moral debt was paid in full, and Christ’s perfect obedience was granted to us in full. Theologian P.T. Forsyth puts it well. “The prime doer in Christ’s cross was God. Christ was God reconciling. He was God doing the very best for man, and not man doing his very best for God.”
In verse 24, Paul calls this a gift. What do you do with a gift? Do you boast in it as if you purchased it yourself? No. What do you do? You receive it and rejoice in it. Think of a kid at Christmas. A gift is placed in his hands. He didn’t earn it. He just woke up and there it was, waiting for him. He tears the paper and there it is in all its glory. His eyes grow big. His mouth falls open. He’s speechless. Slowly, he starts smiling as he realizes what’s just happened. He’s beholding the gift, then he starts rejoicing in it. He shows it off to everyone in the room as if they didn’t just see him open it. He can’t get over it. He’s floored. Thanksgiving pours out of his heart. That’s who we are when the salvation of Christ is given to us. We’re overwhelmed with gratitude. We didn’t deserve this, but now, somehow, it’s ours.
So here we are at the end of my sermon, and I’ve said a lot of things and it’s all for me to say this one thing: All we must do to maintain and cultivate a gospel-centered church is to never get over the fact that we’re saved. Let’s just never get bored of Jesus. Let’s never let the scandal of salvation wear off. Let’s enjoy the gift together.
My friend Jared Wilson says, “What every believer in every age is challenged to do is resist the innate compulsion to flatten out the expansive love of God.” The gospel is big and deep, wide and expansive, rich and glorious. The gospel never gets old. It never goes out of style. There is grace for every need, mercy for every sin, forgiveness for every sinner, redemption for everything broken, restoration for everything taken, glory for everyone who comes. The further in we go, the bigger Jesus’s gospel gets. Like the ocean, we haven’t yet seen the bottom. Let’s keep going in, moment by moment, together. Let’s see just how far Jesus can take us. Let’s see the gospel deeps.
Let’s pray.
Today, we’re going to be in various passages in the book of Proverbs. You can think of this as a topical sermon. We’re going to talk about friendship.
Why friendship? Well, in a recent report, the Survey Center on American Life published their latest findings on friendship in America.
Coming out of a once-in-a-generation global pandemic, Americans appear more attuned than ever to the importance of friendship. However, despite renewed interest in the topic of friendship in popular culture and the news media, signs suggest that the role of friends in American social life is experiencing a pronounced decline. The May 2021 American Perspectives Survey finds that Americans report having fewer close friendships than they once did, talking to their friends less often, and relying less on their friends for personal support.
They go on to report that in 1990 only 3% of people reported no close friends. In 2021, that number rose to 12%. Even on the positive end, in 1990 33% said they had 10 or more close friends. In 2021, that was down to 13%.
They note reasons for this. People are marrying later and move around more. Parents spend more time with their children than previous generations making less room for friends. People are working more and traveling more for work. And, of course, there is the global pandemic where 59% of young women and 52% of young men report losing touch with friends during the pandemic. The numbers aren’t much better the older you get. In fact, while most young people reported losing touch with friends, they also reported making new friends during the same period. That isn’t the case for older folks. “Seniors are considerably less likely to have made a new friend during that period, with only 41 percent reporting they had done so. Nearly one-third (31 percent) of seniors say it has been at least five years since they developed a new friendship.”
In all, I think it’s safe to say two things. One, we need friendship, and two, we’re not very good at it. The study I’ve quoted is just one of many studies done of the past few years that shows America is growing increasingly lonely. A survey by Cigna, the health insurer, found that 54% of adults feel like no one knows them well. And, it appears, the younger you are, the worse it is. So we’re not trending well.
I wonder, how many of us have the kind of friendships our heart longs for? At Refuge Church, we want to be gospel friends. So I want to explore that today because as we continue in this pandemic, though many signs are pointing in the right direction, we might need some help in this area after the year or so we’ve had.
What does God have to say about this? It’s surprisingly a lot, actually. Throughout the Bible, from the Old to the New Testaments, we see the importance of friendship. From David and Jonathan to Jesus and John to Paul and Silas and so on, the Bible tells implicitly and explicitly about the importance of friendship. But perhaps no book tells us more explicitly than the book of Proverbs. Commentator Hugh Black says, “the book of Proverbs might almost be called a treatise on friendship – there is no book, even in classical literature, which so exalts the idea of friendship and is so anxious to have it truly valued and carefully kept.”
We often think of Proverbs as a book of wisdom. It is. And so maybe it surprises us that it would include so much about friendship. But if we define wisdom as the Bible does, as skill for living when there is no rule book to go by, we see how friendship fits into that. Friendship doesn’t come with a rule book. It’s easy to mess up. How many ex-friends do you have right now because of a lack of wisdom years ago? And when it goes wrong, over time, some of us just shut down that part of our heart. Who wants to be hurt again? But wisdom doesn’t urge us to shut down. Wisdom helps us come alive.
God wants his people to have deep, meaningful friendships because God is a Triune Friend—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that friendly heart radiates out toward us. Jesus said, “No longer do I call you servants…but I have called you friends.” To be a servant of God is a glorious thing. The prophets were servants. But it is more glorious to be God’s friend. In Exodus 33 we read, “The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man to his friend.” Only Moses got that close to God. But now, through Christ, God’s brought every believer into that reality. To every believer, God says in Christ, “No longer servant but friend.”
Jesus, Lord of lords and King of kings, became the Friend of sinners. Friend isn’t a term God just throws around. It took the cross to gain that friendship. Friendship is a God-originated wonder confirmed at the cross. Friendship began in heaven and comes down to beautify our lives.
So, God doesn’t take friendship lightly, and wisdom says we shouldn’t either. From the book of Proverbs, I want to consider three truths about friendship:
Friendship is discovered in God’s grace.
Friendship is forged with God’s wisdom.
Friendship is powered by God’s love.
In his essay on friendship, C.S. Lewis says friendship starts out like this, “What? You too? I thought I was the only one.”
Friendship is one of those amazing discoveries God planted in the world from the beginning that makes life enjoyable. Friendship is like fruit in your life. Isn’t fruit amazing? It grows from a tree or a bush. It’s filled with flavor and sweetness. Imagine the first person to find a peach. Have you ever had a summer-time Georgia peach? It’s the most perfect food in the world. You bite into it, and it’s so juicy and flavorful and tender. What a discovery! God made that!
Friends are like that Georgia peach. They’re placed in this world for you to find. One day, we’re just walking along, and suddenly we stumble into someone and find in them something that resonates with our heart. We find a friend. God made that!
Now, in our busy lives, we tend to treat friendship as optional. After all, friendship is one of those things you can live without. C.S. Lewis says, “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself.”
You can live without friendship just like you can live without fruit and art and philosophy. But doesn’t it make life better? Lewis goes on to say, “[Friendship] has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which gives value to survival.” We don’t need friends to live, but that doesn’t mean God wants us to live without friends. It’s not good for man to be alone.
In his grace, God planted the desire for friendship in our heart so that we would discover the joy of friendship in our life. Proverbs 27:9 helps us see this. “Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.”
How did they get oil and perfume in ancient times? They didn’t make it. They discovered it. And that discovery made the heart glad. When the book of Proverbs was written, nobody had refined sugar to add to their food. Sweet food had to be discovered. Someone went along, found this honeycomb thing hanging from a tree, took a bite and realized it was sweet. That’s how friendships are made. They’re discovered. And when they’re discovered, they sweeten life.
But sweeteners do more than add flavor. Did you know, for example, that sugar does more than sweeten. It stabilizes, texturizes, leavens, deepens color and flavor, and adds crunch. A cookie isn’t a cookie if you just sprinkle sugar on top when it comes out of the oven. A cookie is a cookie because the sugar went deep. Sugar is to a cookie what a friend is to your life. Real friendship is baked in. It goes deep. It’s a discovery that changes you, sweetens you.
Friendship is measured by the true friends baked into you, not the so-called friends sprinkled all around you. When the Bible talks about friendship, it doesn’t mean your Facebook friends or your Twitter followers. It doesn’t mean acquaintances. Friendship is measured by quality, not quantity. You may only have a couple of close friends. That’s okay. Those friends make up who you are. You aren’t you without them. Proverbs 18:24 says, “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Many companions won’t get us far. But a friend that sticks closer than a brother will.
Friendship always surprises us. We never can imagine at the beginning the kind of effect it will have on us in the end. Here we are, living our life the best way can. A friend comes along, and we have some fun together. But then life takes a turn. Something happens, and we feel terribly alone and forgotten. Then, our friends show up. The old pastor J.C. Ryle puts it this way: “The world is full of sorrow because it is full of sin. It is a dark place. It is a lonely place. It is a disappointing place...Friendship halves our troubles and doubles our joys.”
The Hebrew word for “sticks” is cleave. It’s commitment. A friend is even better than a sibling. A sibling is stuck with you because you’re family. They love you because you’re family. But a friend chooses you and sticks with you because they love you. They’re a picture of the love of Jesus, who loves us because he loves us.
I remember a time this verse resonated with me in a profound way. I was struggling with the weight of life. It wasn’t one thing, it was all the things. I felt depressed and lonely. So my wife told me one night, “You need to go out.” She knew I needed time away from the craziness of our household to read and think and pray.
I was sitting at a coffee shop, feeling all down and alone. I picked up my phone and texted one of my best friends. “Would you pray for me tonight? I’m feeling absolutely depleted and anxious. It’s nothing in the grand scheme of things, but it’s a struggle to rejoice and trust God has good purposes for me right now.” His response: “I absolutely will, brother. Getting alone right now to pray for that very thing, that the deep settling peace of God would be upon you.”
When he responded that way, I started crying right there in Frothy Monkey. I was undone. Why did that matter so much to me? Because he didn’t need more information. He didn’t rebuke me. He didn’t try to make me feel better. And he didn’t ignore me. He took responsibility for me and brought me to Jesus.
It’s not that my sibling wouldn’t do that for me. I have an amazing sister who would. It’s just that my friend did it without any reason at all other than the fact that he loves me. Friends love you without any previous responsibility to do so. When you discover one—hold on tight.
Friends show us how Jesus loves: with absoluteness. They’re there when life is going well and they’re there when life isn’t. What we discover in a friendship is that people can know who we really are—the good, the bad, and the ugly—and without any obligation at all, love us anyway.
But friendship isn’t just a discovery. Friendships also need to be forged, which is our second point.
Friendships require wise effort. They require forging. Proverbs has a lot to say about this. In his commentary, Derek Kidner has a little section where he highlights what a good friend is, according to Proverbs. The good friend has constancy, candor and counsel, and carefulness.
First, Constancy.
A friend is always with you. A friend is committed. He sticks closer than a brother.
Maybe you think, “I’m not sure I’ve discovered that kind of friend.” Well, maybe you haven’t. But it’s very easy to say that as if there’s something wrong with others without admitting maybe there’s something wrong with you. Friendship begins with you.
Let me ask a very uncomfortable question: What kind of friend are you? Are you the kind of friend who sticks closer than a brother? Are you a constant friend? Proverbs doesn’t just help us recognize true friends; it helps us become one.
Proverbs 20:6 says, “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?” Is there a difference between the kind of friend you say you are and the kind of friend you actually are?
Proverbs points out that superficial friends don’t stick around when times are bad. Proverbs 19:4 says, “Wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend.” Proverbs 19:7 says, “All a poor man’s brothers hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him! He pursues them with words, but does not have them.”
But real friends are constant. Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
What kind of friend are you?
The best way to find a faithful friend is to be a faithful friend. Do you seek others out? Are you available for friendship? Do others even know you’re available? And when you find a friend, are you there for them?
British pastor Vaughan Roberts wrote a little book called True Friendship. He says something really profound.
Perhaps we are confident that if a friend was truly in need, we would be there for them. But would anyone think of turning to us in such circumstances? Have we kept our friendships in good shape in better times so that they are prepared for the moment when a crisis occurs?
Maybe the reason you don’t have the friends you need is that you haven’t yet learned to be the friend you need. Proverbs 27:10 tells us not to forsake our friend. We all need a constant friend. And that starts by being a constant friend to others.
Second, Candor and Counsel
We are sinners in need of help. We have blind spots. And Friends are God’s gift to help us repent and change and move forward.
Real friends don’t just humor or flatter. Real friends deal honestly. They give meaningful input. They sharpen. They make us wise.
So, let me ask you: do you have a friend in your life who can sharpen you? Do you have a friend who can tell you the cold, hard truth when necessary? Who can speak God’s word into your life with power?
Furthermore, are you that kind of friend?
Proverbs 29:5 says, “A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.” Friends don’t butter one another up. They shoot straight because they don’t want to see their friend ensnared later on. They want their friend free from sin, free from pain. Why? Because in a way, your happiness is tied to theirs. If your friend hurts, you hurt. That’s one way know you have real friendship—how much you feel what happens to them. But even more than that, we want to stir up one another to love and good works for Jesus’ sake. Our friendships are accountable to Jesus. Are we obeying him? Are we allowing him to use us as he desires in the life of our friends? Or are we ignoring his call to go deep?
You know you have a friend when you can say to them—and they can say to you—what no one else could get away with. Friends don’t hide how they feel. They say what they must without hiding their love. Proverbs 27:5-6 says, “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” Friends wound with love. They don’t kiss with flattery.
Oscar Wilde said, “A true friend stabs you in the front.” That’s a harsh way of putting it, but there’s some truth to it. Friends see what we can’t see about ourselves, and their blunt honesty can save us.
That candidness opens the door for counsel. Real counsel is candid. Remember Proverbs 27:9, “the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.” Earnest counsel isn’t just “do this, don’t do that.” It’s not detached. As commentator Charles Bridges says, earnest counsel is “the counsel of his soul.” A friend puts themselves in our shoes and counsels as he would wish to be counseled. A friend isn’t just a prophet speaking truth in the face of sin but also a priest bringing you to Jesus for help. If you have a friend who is candid with counsel, you will grow in wisdom.
Do you have such friends? Are you such a friend?
Third, Carefulness.
Real friends are candid and give counsel, but their love keeps it from being reckless. Real friends are careful with one another. They don’t want to push you away; they want to bring you nearer to themselves and to Jesus.
This is why friendship requires so much wisdom. God wants us to be careful with what we say and how we say it. Is it helpful? Is it necessary? What impact will it make? As Proverbs 18:21 tells us, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
So, Proverbs teaches us to avoid three friendship killers: gossip, aloofness, and grudges.
First, we must not be gossips, and we must not make friends with gossips.
Gossip is to friendship what adultery is to marriage. It destroys trust and fractures the relationship. Proverbs 16:28 says, “A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer [gossip] separates close friends.” Proverbs 20:19 says, “Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler.” Gossip is poison. Avoid it at all costs.
Jesus doesn’t gossip. When he speaks of his friends, he has only good things to say because their faults are not talking points for him. He’s not interested in the dark side of your life. He’s bringing you to glory.
Second, we must not be aloof to our friends.
A friend isn’t detached or unsympathetic. Proverbs 25:20 says, “Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda.” Singing happy songs to a heavy heart isn’t just wrong, it’s mean. Real friends know when to weep and when to rejoice. Real friends can read the mood and apply the right balm. They know how to be present in the circumstance.
And sometimes, being a friend means knowing when to not be there at all. Proverbs 25:17 says, “Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house, lest he have his fill of you and hate you.” Proverbs 27:14 says, “Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, will be counted as cursing.” We all need space. A friend understands that. A friend knows when they’re wearing out their welcome.
But most of all, a friend is earnest in friendship, treating others with respect and honor. A friend doesn’t deceive. Proverbs 26:18-19 says, “Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, ‘I’m only joking!’” Friends bring the right word at the right time with the right posture. They don’t treat others lightly, but with the weight of glory others deserve. Yes, you joke around, but the joking doesn’t have a mean streak. No one should question after the comment, “What do they really think of me?” Friends open others up, not shut others down.
Jesus is the perfect model. He doesn’t stand aloof. He entered humanity. He knows what it’s like to live in this world. He knows what you need and comes in mercy and grace to give help when you need it. He’s calling us to do the same for one another.
Third, we mustn’t hold grudges.
Friends are forgiving. Proverbs 17:9 tells us, “Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.” Every friend will disappoint us, and we will disappoint every friend. But wisdom says, “Okay, you’ve been disappointed. Now what? Now, cover that offense. Seek love. Don’t bring it up again.”
The word “repeats” means to bring it up only a second time. That’s all it takes—one more time. Proverbs 28:13 says, “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” If your friend has not concealed but confessed, don’t bring it up again. God doesn’t keep bringing our sins to the forefront. He covered them with his love at the cross. If we don’t do the same with our friends, things can get out of hand. As Proverbs 17:14 says, “The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks.” Proverbs 18:19 says, “A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarreling is like the bars of a castle.” Proverbs 11:12 says, “Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.” You might be in the right, but is your rightness worth the friendship? A friend knows when to cover the offense, when to quit fighting, when to shut up and forgive.
Jesus doesn’t hold a grudge against you. He’s forgiven you completely. He’s paid for all your sins. He won’t bring them up again. Why would he? When he said, “It is finished,” he meant it.
Forging a friendship is hard. But it’s worth it. It takes effort and wisdom. But there is a power from on high fueling friendship, which is our third point.
Tim Keller summarizes a friend as one who always lets you in and never lets you down. That’s certainly the kind of friend Jesus is, but how doable is it for people like us? How can we always let people in and never let them down?
The answer is found in our perfect mutual friend, Jesus Christ. When you see who Jesus is for you, you’re set free from the fear of failure. You can always let others in because Jesus knows you completely and loves you anyway. No one can find out something another Friend doesn’t already know. And you can avoid letting others down because the strength and wisdom you need to be a friend comes from your Friend, Jesus. Jesus enables you to be a friend, not only by befriending you but by being another friend in your friendships. In every Christian friendship, there are always three people involved: the two friends and Jesus. You don’t have what you need? Jesus does. Let him be the Friend you need so you can be the friend your friend needs. Jesus’ friendship powers our other friendships.
Go back to the night before Jesus died, when he explained what he was about to do on the cross. In John 15 he said to his disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends…No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends.”
The relationship Jesus has with his people is not Master-Servant. It’s Friend-Friend. Why does that matter? Think of the kind of friend we are to Jesus. We’ve ignored his counsel time after time. We’ve proclaimed our steadfast love only to be unfaithful. We’ve deserted him. We’ve failed to love him at all times. We’ve wounded him.
And what is his response? His response is the cross. His response is to cover our offense with his love.
Do you see how important that is? Jesus shows us what’s possible in our friendships.
We’re miserable failures as friends to God, and in response to our failure, God gave the cross—not to unfriend us but to befriend us forever.
On the cross, Jesus proved he’s the friend who sticks closer than a brother. He didn’t stop loving us in our failures. He loved us to death. He loves at all times. He’s a brother born for adversity. He’s a true friend who totally accepts you, totally forgives you, totally knows you, and doesn’t walk away from you. He laid his life down for you at the cross. He’s faithful even when you aren’t. He’s loyal even though you’re disloyal. He took your offense and buried it in the tomb. And on that resurrection day, he walked out with all the power of love we will ever need. He has made you his friend, and no matter how often we show up in his house, no matter how many times we offend him, no matter how often we fail him, he will never cast us out, he will always forgive us, he will never fail us.
John Newton’s great hymn One There is, Above All Others captures the wonder of this love:
Could we bear from one another what He daily bears from us?
Yet this glorious Friend and Brother loves us, though we treat Him thus.
Though for good we render ill, He accounts us brethren still.
If we have that kind of friend—if we have one who always lets us in and never lets us down—we have the kind of Friend with us in our other friendships powering them by his love.
In conclusion, let me say this. Maybe you’re not the friend you should be. Maybe you don’t have the friends you wish you did. But look around you right now. Those are friends of Jesus, and he’s willing to share them with you. Will you accept his offer?
At Refuge Church we want to be gospel friends. Jesus has brought us together, and he intends to form friendships deeper than perhaps we’ve ever experienced before.
How can we be sure that’s true? Because no matter how much we think we choose our friends, that’s not exactly right. C.S. Lewis helps us see this.
In reality, a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses…the accident of a topic being raised or not raise at a first meeting—any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of the Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends, “You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.”
God has brought us all together in this church for a purpose. And part of that purpose is for the creation of deep friendships. So, if you’re sitting there thinking, “I wish I had friends, but I don’t.” Well, here’s your invitation. There are people here who want to befriend you. They’re sitting in front of you and behind you. They’re in your community group and your Bible study. They’re here every week. And all that keeps us from diving deeper in is our hesitancy. Well, let’s forget about all that. Let’s dive in because Jesus Christ, our Great Friend, our Master of Ceremonies, has summoned us here. He’s here to reveal new friends in his grace, forge them with his wisdom, and power them by his love. Let’s go make some friends.
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible to Ephesians 2. We’re going to look at verses 8-10.
Today we’re going to think about one of the most important questions in all of life: how is one saved? Thankfully, God has not left that question open. There is an answer, and it can be found throughout the Bible. We’re going to look at one place the question is answered in Ephesians 2:8-10.
Some background is helpful as we fly into these verses. Ephesians is a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the ancient church. In the first chapter, Paul introduces himself and talks about the immense spiritual blessings we have in Christ. Flowing from that, as he opens the second chapter of Ephesians, he takes the first 10 verses to explain the greatest spiritual blessing of salvation in Christ. In verses 1-6, he tells us what happens when God saves: God brings us from death to life. In verse 7, he tells us why God saves: so that in the coming ages God could show us the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. And verses 8-10, he tells us how God saves, and that’s what we will focus on today.
Let’s read it now. Ephesians 2:8-10:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Remember the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty? An evil witch curses a princess into a deep sleep and nothing can wake her but a kiss from her prince.
Indulge me for a moment and imagine you’re the princess and you’ve been awakened from a deep sleep by this kiss. You know everyone watches everything to royal family does, and they’ve been following this story. All the news outlets want an interview, and you agree to a press conference, and the first question they ask is, “How was the curse broken?” What would you say?
You couldn’t say, “Well, I just thought about it and decided, ‘It’s time to wake up!’” You couldn’t say, “Well, I just claimed the victory for myself.” You also couldn’t say, “I asked the prince to come and he came.” You couldn’t say any of that. You were asleep! You were cursed!
So what would you say?
You’d say, “I didn’t break the curse. The prince did. You’ll have to ask him that question.”
Well, in a way, we are the princess and Jesus is our prince. Although it’s not only a curse of sleep but the curse of sin that incapacitated us. What Paul is saying in Ephesians 2:8-10 is the answer to the press’s question. How did we break the curse? We didn’t. God did in Christ. It was the Prince’s kiss. But, to make the story even more remarkable, we weren’t a sleeping beauty. We were a lifeless corpse. God had to make us alive, not just wake us up.
Let’s consider that kiss of grace verse by verse.
God saves us by grace through faith in Christ (v. 8)
God saves us by Christ’s merit, not ours (v. 9)
God saves us by making us a new creation in Christ (v. 10)
Look at verse 8: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
Two words stand out in this phrase: grace and faith.
What is grace? Grace is unmerited favor. Grace is God’s kind disposition toward sinful people who can't get their act together and can’t obey and can't find their way to him. Grace is God’s consistent provision for his people who can’t provide for themselves. Grace is God’s activity of good to those whose activity is bad. Grace is not grading on a curve—bumping a letter grade to a student who tried really hard. Grace is giving an A to a student who rarely showed up, who never passed a test, who never got any question right. Grace is being good to the undeserving. It’s not adding sprinkles to a wonderful cupcake. It’s making a stone into a cupcake. Grace is an outpouring of good when only wrath is deserved.
The theme of grace runs throughout the Bible. When Adam and Eve sinned, they saw with new eyes how far they’d fallen. They were afraid so they ran and hid. Before they were naked and unashamed, but after they covered themselves with fig leaves. God came to speak with them, and what did he say? Yes, there is a word of consequence for both the man and the woman, but their judgment isn’t the end of the story. In a great twist of grace, God said he would crush the serpent’s head by the seed of the woman. Don’t miss it: the offspring of the sinners would crush the serpent’s head. They sin and God makes promises of salvation. Then he clothes them, covering their newfound nakedness, replacing their tattered fig leaves with animal skins. That’s God’s grace. It's as big as crushing Satan’s head and as small as a pair of pants. It's God’s kindness and care bringing life where death reigns. Grace is Jesus saving the undeserving. Grace is what we’re saved by.
So, what about that other word, faith? If grace is the basis of salvation, faith is the instrument of salvation. Faith is what lays hold of grace. It’s the hand that reaches out and grabs. It’s proof that grace has come. Faith is both trusting God will crush Satan’s head and the action of putting on the pants God provides.
Faith is not a leap in the dark, where we don’t know what’s on the other side, and we just hope it’ll turn out ok. Faith understands that though God is invisible, his promises are certain, because we’ve seen them in Jesus Christ. Faith is the rock-solid surety of God’s promises based on God’s character. It’s looking to God and trusting that his grace is sufficient to save because it always has been. It’s believing that God has never once failed one man or woman who has trusted him and he’s not going to start with me and you.
Now, look at the last phrase of verse 8, “And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” Here’s what Paul is saying, and it’s what the entire New Testament says, the totality of our salvation is God’s gift. The prime mover in our relationship to God is God. Nothing inside us compels God to save us. God saves us because God wants to save us.
Here’s how this is good news. If your salvation was up to you, you would never have it. You can’t muster up enough faith apart from God’s grace to believe. You can’t receive grace without God giving it. Grace, by definition, is unmerited favor. How can dead people merit anything?
Some people will say it’s up to us to choose, and that’s true—those who take hold of grace by faith do choose God. But how do we choose God? Ephesians 2:1-3 says we can’t choose God and we won’t choose God on our own. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2:4-7 says God must make us alive to him first. God must do something in us before we can make any move toward him. Before God acts in our hearts, we don’t want him. We are led by the Devil and by our own sinful passions. To want God, we need to be alive to God. That’s what God’s grace does. It grants life so that we can have faith. When the Holy Spirit gives us a new nature, we then naturally do what our new nature wants: we come, we believe, we repent, and we trust God.
God’s grace comes before faith, not the other way around. God must grant the gift of faith by grace. Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” A few verses later, Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” We are completely unable to bring about our own salvation. We are totally dependent on God to do it. We are like Lazarus in the tomb. We need Jesus to call to us, “Come out!”
Do you ever wonder if your faith is strong enough to save you? Do you wonder if there’s a point at which God is just going to write you off? There’s sin in your life you haven’t beat. There’s a past you can’t get over. There’s a future that seems too uncertain. Here’s what Jesus says about that, “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37). Maybe you feel weak in faith, but if you’ve come to Jesus, you’ve come to safety. You don’t need to worry about the amount of faith you have. The amount of your faith is not the key; the object of your faith is. You don’t need to worry if your faith is strong enough to save you, you just need to worry if Jesus is strong enough to save you. And Jesus is very strong. He can hold you up when you can’t hold yourself up. He knows what you need before you need it. The faith that endures is the faith placed in Jesus for safekeeping. Jesus won’t cast you out. He can’t. He was cast out for you.
By grace you have been [past tense] saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. If you’re in Christ, you are as secure as Christ is. Your sin can’t kick you out of God’s love because your righteousness never put you in it. God saves by grace through faith. It’s a gift. All you must do is receive it.
Look at verse 9: “not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
There’s a story from the 20th-century pastor Pastor Harry A. Ironside that illustrates this verse. He tells of an older Christian who was asked to give his testimony. The old man told how God had sought him out and found him, for God had loved him, called him, saved him, delivered him, cleansed him, and healed him—a great witness to the grace, power, and glory of God.
After the meeting, another Christian took him aside and criticized his testimony. He said, “I appreciate all you said about what God did for you. But you didn't mention anything about your part in it. Salvation is really part us and part God. You should have mentioned something about your part.”
The older Christian responded. “Oh, yes, I apologize for that. I really should have said something about my part. My part was running away, and his part was running after me until he caught me.”
That’s the story of every Christian. There are no self-made men or women, only God-made men and women. God saves us by Christ’s merit, not ours. Not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Now, why does Paul say this—that it’s not a result of works, so that no one may boast? Because in every other religion and in nearly every other area of life, what you do is what you get. You work hard, and you’ll get promoted. You pay your dues and you’ll be accepted. But in Christianity, it’s completely different. No one has ever become a Christian by their own effort. The only way we become Christians is by the work of Christ on our behalf. If you want to think you’re saved by works, that’s fine as long as you realize it’s not your works that saved you; it’s Jesus’s works. We can’t boast in ourselves for something another accomplished.
Paul is warning of the danger of pride because often it's not our badness that keeps us from God; it's our goodness. The sinners flocked to Jesus. But think of the Pharisees. They were model citizens. You'd want them as role models for your kids. But they killed Jesus.
We must never forget our deadness to God before his life-giving grace. It’s so easy for us to believe we had some part in our salvation but the truth is we just didn’t. We want to be winners. So we’re tempted to lift ourselves up on the stilts of pride, but the gospel knocks those stilts out from under us. Jesus doesn’t just save the world’s winners. He saves the world’s losers. He saves those completely unable to save themselves.
Paul knew the stilts of pride are still in the garage of our heart and we’re tempted to take them for a spin around the block. But you must not do it because it’s a false view of things. You’re not really that tall. You didn’t lift yourself up. Jesus did. He deserves the glory.
And this helps us in our evangelism. Our message is not one of self-accomplishment but of total salvation by God. You don’t need a certain amount of goodness for God to save you, he works only with deadness. The gospel is good news we hear, not a task list we accomplish. The gospel is the good news that though we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, God has saved us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Where is our part in that? The sin that made it necessary, but that’s it! So how can we boast?
This is good news for you and for your neighbor who doesn’t believe. When an unbeliever asks, “How does God save?” your answer isn’t, “become like me.” It’s, “look to Jesus.” If you made yourself a Christian, your neighbor must become like you to be saved. But salvation is not based on works, so you can’t boast. This knocks the feet out from under all classicism, all racism, all forms of superiority. The gospel makes beggars of us all. It shows us we’re all equal. No one does good; no, not one. The only way any of us will ever make it to God is if God in grace comes to us.
Our works can’t overcome our sin. Only God’s grace can. All praise goes to him. When we accept that with the empty hands of faith, we enter a new reality so different from our past that the only way to describe it is a new birth, which leads us to verse 10.
Look at verse 10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2 starts with us walking in our trespasses and sins. This great section ends with us walking in the good works God has prepared for us. Do you see the radical change? God saves us and recreates us in Christ. We are born again. By God’s grace, we go from darkness to light—not as a result of works but for works. It’s all of God. We are his workmanship. The word Paul uses here for workmanship is a word that denotes art, it’s where we get our word poem, for example. Every Christian is a work of art created by God in his image.
Great art is always incredibly intentional. For example, when Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, he went to great lengths to get it just right. In fact, he was so concerned about getting it perfect that he never actually finished it. He was still working on it when he died. He kept it with him, moving it from city to city, never giving it to the man who commissioned it, because he was never done perfecting it. He painted undergarments no one would ever see so the right texture was visible on the outer garments. He found corpses and studied lip muscles to get her smile just right. He didn’t consider it “done” until the painting attained a specific and intentional character.
Here’s the point. God is doing that with you. You are his workmanship. He’s telling a story through your life with every stroke. He knows what he’s doing.
Even more, God is telling a story about himself through you. Art always says something about the artist. The Mona Lisa tells us about Leonardo. Redeemed people say something about God. You are not just something nice God wants to hang on his wall. A good painting is never displaying only a picture. It’s saying something beyond the picture. It’s saying something about the world of the artist and about the artist himself. Every good piece of art is a message beyond itself. It’s a portal into another world.
You are God’s message to the watching world of what God does to sinners by grace. As you do the good works God has prepared beforehand, you’re a message of how God raises the dead and brings life into the world. You’re a message of what redemption looks like. You’re a message of God’s goodness and grace. Even if you don’t feel like it today, you’re a message of the faithful follower. If you’re suffering, you’re saying Jesus is better than suffering. If you’re joyful, you’re saying Jesus is the cause of joy. Whatever you’re facing, your walk with God is a message to the world that whatever it is, Jesus is better.
Every Christian is a new creation in Christ, a masterpiece of God’s redemptive story. We don’t boast in our good works. How could we? God created them. We’re just walking into what he created. He’s telling his story through every Christian—a story of grace and mercy, of making dead people alive again.
Let me close with this. Do you know how valuable the Mona Lisa is? We don’t exactly know because it’s not for sale, but in 1962, it was insured for $100 million, the highest at the time. In today’s money, that would be somewhere around $700 million. That’s an insane price tag for a canvas and some paint.
As far as we know, the Mona Lisa is still in the shape it was in when Leonardo left it. It has no slashes, no major injuries. It’s old, but still intact. But none of us is that way. We’re all slashed by sin. We’re all a little smudged here with a gash over on that side and a wound that won’t heal on its own. Maybe we started out as priceless originals but look at us now. Far from mint condition. What could we possibly be worth?
The gospel gives the answer. Marred as we might be, we’re still God originals. God isn’t throwing us out. He’s coming to redeem and restore. But it’s costly. Every restoration is.
Jesus is God’s purchase price. The price was not American dollars. Because of our sin, it was the blood of his only Son. The only way to restore dead sinners is for the sinless one to die. There is no higher price God could pay.
It wasn’t an easy price to pay. Do you remember how the prince of Sleeping Beauty got to the princess? The evil witch kidnapped him. He had to fight his way out. He had to take the Sword of Truth and the Shield of Virtue and fight the evil witch now turned into a huge fire-breathing dragon. He flings the sword and pierces the dragon’s heart, killing her. In his victory, he pursues the princess, finds her, and kisses her awake.
That’s a fairy tale. But Christianity is the true fairy tale. Jesus allowed himself to be kidnapped in flesh, making himself like us, yet without sin. Satan constantly harassed him, and on the cross, he was tied up, nailed, and hung to die. He didn’t fight for his life. He fought for yours. The fire-breathing dragon did his best, but the dragon’s victory didn’t last. The sword was thrust into his heart at the resurrection.
The surprising twist of the gospel is that the triumph was a cross. Death was the only way to life. And on that first Easter, the Holy Spirit broke the stone holding death in place, and Jesus walked out in victory. Where did he go? He went to find you. He went to wake you up. He went to kiss you with grace and wed you to himself. You didn’t break the curse. Jesus did. And now you’re utterly changed from the inside out. You’re his, finally and fully and securely. And he’s making you into a bride fit for him. You’re his workmanship.
This story is far more than a children’s fairy tale. It’s the true story of the real Prince who came to the wrong side of town to find his bride and wake her up and take her home.
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible now. We’re going to be in Matthew 11:28-30, and we going to look at this amazing passage of scripture that tells us who Jesus is for us. It’s such an important thing to see because we carry around so many wrong or incomplete thoughts of who Jesus is, about how he thinks about us, interacts with us, treats us, and so forth.
If you were to describe to someone who didn’t know Jesus what the heart of Jesus is like, what would you say? Well, Matthew 11:28-30 is one really good answer.
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
This is God’s word.
If you’ve been around Refuge Church for a while, you know we begin every worship service the same way.
To all who are weary and need rest;
To all who mourn and long for comfort;
To all who feel worthless and wonder if God even cares;
To all who fail and desire strength;
To all who sin and need a savior;
This church opens wide her doors with a welcome from Jesus.
Why do we say that every week? Because before we do anything else together, we want to bring our deepest needs to Jesus, and sometimes we just need someone else to call out those needs for us. I’m always moved by those words. They always speak of something going on deep inside my heart. We can think of those words as our confession that we are always needy for grace and mercy. No matter what it looks like on the outside, we come weary and heavy laden just by living in this broken world. We come in need of a rest we cannot give ourselves, longing for gentleness in a yoke only found in Jesus, an easy one where the burden is light, and the rest is eternal.
Jesus offers himself to the real us, not some future version of ourselves, not some cleaned-up image of ourselves, but just plain old us. Weary. Mournful. Depressed. Anxious. Failing. Sinful. We come to him as we are, without any pretense, without anything in our hands to offer but need, asking him to convert our longing into reality, transform sorrow into joy, remove the guilt of sin by his blood, and give new life to those barely hanging on.
These three verses we’re looking at today are perfect for people like us because they show us the kind of heart Jesus has for us. Charles Spurgeon once pointed out that in all the gospels, this is the only place that Jesus himself speaks of what his own heart is like. Gentle and lowly. Not harsh and reactionary. Not easily put out and frustrated. Not ready to strike you down. He is the most understanding person in the world. As author Dane Ortlund says, “The posture most natural to him is not a pointed finger but open arms.” Gentle and lowly. Gentle enough for the worst of us and lowly enough for the humblest of us. We can’t actually be too needy for Jesus. He’s not put off by our neediness. I mean, we can think ourselves too good for Jesus, but we can never be too bad for him.
So, as we continue our season of prayer and “reset” as a church, I want us to just listen to who Jesus is—what his heart is for us. So let’s listen to his heart for us, which is his heart for our city, for our neighborhood, for our workplace, for our school, for this world. As we listen, we hear three things:
The invitation to Jesus (v. 28)
The pathway of Jesus (v. 29a)
The promise from Jesus (vv. 29b-30)
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
“Come to me…” Jesus doesn’t say “work toward me.” He doesn’t say, “earn me.” He doesn’t say, “deserve me.” He says, “come to me.”
What does it mean to come to Jesus? In this verse, the word come isn’t only a command; it’s also an exclamation. Pastor Ray Ortlund puts it this way. Jesus is saying something like, “Hey guys, I’m over here!” We’re running around everywhere, going from one place to another, trying to make our life work, and we’re just not noticing the gentle and lowly Savior sitting right before our eyes offering everything we’re longing for. The truth is, Jesus isn’t hard to find. He’s made himself available. And he wants to get our attention because who he is is the one thing we most need.
“Come” is a present tense command here. Jesus isn’t asking us to come tomorrow or the next day or someday out in the future, but today. Come today. Leave your self-reliant efforts today. Leave your sins today. Leave your burdens today, and come. Rest is here right now for you. Just come. In a world that demands our learning, our doing, our working before anything else, Jesus asks only first for our coming. Our new life begins right there—just by coming to him.
Yet even still, we find a way to complicate this, don’t we? We imagine some hard conditions, some preliminary work, some qualifications or prerequisites, but Jesus asks us only to come as we are, with all that we are. If we were to write this on his behalf, I think we might be tempted to put a filter after that first phrase, wouldn’t we? How would you write it? “Come to me ____.” Now, maybe we put a filter on that for others, but often we put a filter on it for ourselves. We think we can’t possibly come to Jesus. How could we? Look at us! But who gave us the right to add to God’s word, to change God’s word? What does Jesus say? “Come to me, all…” Jesus uses a word here big enough to include every type of sinner in the world, every type of sufferer in the world, a word so big and so inclusive that everyone who has ever lived fits inside of the “all.” The gospel Jesus brings is a worldwide invitation. It has no cultural limits or national limits or even sin limits.
Here are the only qualifications: “All who labor and are heavy laden…” Other translations read “All who are weary and heavy laden.” That’s a good translation too. If you’re working yourself to death trying to fix your life (labor) or if your life is weighed down by something outside your control (heavy laden) (Ortlund), Jesus calls you to himself. Isn’t that amazing? Here’s Jesus, the Lord of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things, the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power, offering himself to who? The worn out and pressed down, the weary and burdened. The needy. I mean, he could go anywhere. He could go to the powerful, the impressive, the mighty. But where does he go? To the needy. To the lowly. To the people who can’t figure life out and don’t know what else to do or where else to go. To the very people he must call to attention because they can’t seem to slow down enough to look his way. You and me. Us.
Here’s one amazing truth about the gospel that runs counter to every other religion: the needier you are, the more perfect you are for Jesus. There are no self-made Christians. There are only needy people who collapse at the feet of Jesus and let him lift them up.
If you are exhausted from working only to fail, from obeying only to sin again, from pushing the rock up the hill only to have it fall back on top of you, you are invited to Jesus. If you feel a heaviness on your heart that you want to be free of, sin or sorrow or anxiety or remorse or memories or uncertainties or whatever, you are invited to Jesus. The qualifications you need are weariness and weightiness. Your need is not a problem for Jesus. You are not adding some burden to him. He is there to unburden you. In fact, your burden is the very thing that delights him. He loves to care for you. You can trust him with who you really are because this passage tells us who he really is: gentle and lowly at heart.
So you can come to Jesus. And when you come to Jesus and entrust yourself into his care, he gives you something no one else can. Look again at verse 28. “Come to me…and I will give you rest.” Jesus says here something that actually only God can say. In fact, God did say it through the prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament (35:21), “I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.” God didn’t just say something like that one time, he said it multiple times throughout the Old Testament. Here’s what Jesus is saying: he’s saying he is the God of Jeremiah, the God of the Old Testament, he is the God who promised rest and now has come to earth to accomplish the plan of salvation and give it in fullness to his people. Jesus isn’t asking you to deserve it—not way back when you first followed him or right now or ten years in the future when you still fall into sin. This entire passage rests on who Jesus is, not on us. He’s the one making promises. He’s just asking us to trust him, to come to him.
So when your life falls apart, this is a verse you can come to. When you can’t find rest anywhere else, here is Jesus your savior saying, “Come to me.” When all else fails, he never will. It’s an offer we can’t refuse. We’d be crazy to refuse it.
And as we come, Jesus never leaves us in the same place he found us. He always takes us on a journey with him, which is our second point.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart…
Now, given what we just saw, this verse is a bit surprising, isn’t it? Jesus offers rest and then immediately says, “Take my yoke upon you.” He didn’t say “Take my seat” or “Take my bed” or “Take my vacation.” He said, “Take my yoke.” What’s a yoke? A yoke is an agricultural term. Farmers place a yoke on animals to use their strength to plow fields. So, wait a minute. How does this make sense? How is a yoke the natural outflow of the rest that Jesus gives?
Well, notice how he calls it his yoke. Not a yoke. Not the law’s yoke. Not some other yoke. His yoke. “Take my yoke upon you.” The yoke of Jesus is vastly different from every other yoke. In verse 30 we see his yoke is easy. It’s not heavy. It’s light.
Now, we need to get something straight right away. There is no such thing as a yoke-less life. It’s just a matter of what we’re yoked to. Coming to Jesus is not a yoke-less life. One look at the Sermon on the Mount or his parables or the Great Commission should rid us of that thought. When we come to Jesus, we come to Jesus as we are, but he changes us into who he is. The yoke we receive from him is not like the yoke of the Pharisees who demanded strict obedience to man-made laws. It’s not the yoke of the world that demands constant change and evolution of views or else. Jesus’s yoke is easy; it’s light.
Jesus’s yoke is light for at least two reasons.
First, his yoke comes along with his teaching. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.” To have his yoke means you will be working, and that’s a good thing, despite how it may sound at first. Work is not a result of the Fall. God gave Adam work before he sinned. It actually is part of who we are. We’re designed this way. As commentator Dan Doriani says, “The cure for a heavy burden is not to have no burden, but a light burden, the right burden. Jesus knows the right burden. He offers rest not by inviting us to do nothing, but by leading us to the right activities.” As we move forward as a church together Jesus will call us to work. He’ll call us to do hard things for him, even suffer for him. But isn’t working with Christ even in suffering better by far than living without him?
Second, his yoke isn’t heavy because of who he is. “For I am gentle and lowly in heart.” Here is what separates Jesus from everyone else. He is gentle and lowly.
The word gentle means pleasant, mild, soothing, friendly. It’s the opposite of rough, hard, and violent. Jesus is not out to get you. His most foundational disposition is not to destroy you, but you save you; not to strike you but to comfort you; not to do violence, but to be gentle. When we go the wrong way, he gently redirects. He doesn’t shame us. He doesn’t embarrass us. He gently leads us back to himself, back to the right path, to learn afresh from him, to see him again for who he is, and to fall in love with him all over again through how he loves us.
He’s also lowly. Jesus doesn’t need to be seen as impressive. He is impressive. So lowliness doesn’t bother him. The word lowly means weak, insignificant, servile. This was not a virtue even in Jesus’s day. It was looked down upon. Who in their right mind would be this way? Well, Jesus would. At his deepest core, Jesus is a servant. He came to serve and not to be served because that’s who he is at heart. He doesn’t mind stooping down to our level, getting inside our messes, dying for our sins. His heart is not limited to what we deserve; it rejoices to serve the unworthy, the guilty, the sinful, the wayward, his children.
We were made to be with God. So when we come to Jesus and take his yoke upon us, what we actually find is the kind of life we long to live, and we find it together. He becomes not just my savior or your savior but our savior. He joins us together and he begins to use us for his glory. We start getting involved in things we never could have imagined before for his sake. He shows us how to live for him. He carries the load, but he deploys us in mission. He sends out into his fields ripe for harvest to do his work in the world. He’s patient. He’s tender. He’s open. He’s accommodating. He’s understanding. When we stumble, he picks us up. When we can’t go on, he carries us. When we doubt him, he proves himself. When we fail, we get his success. When we sin, he’s already paid the penalty.
Here’s the amazing thing: Jesus is willing to be yoked to us, and we aren’t holding him back. Even more, he’s happy to be so. He longs to be so. Nothing in him shies away from us. No sin is too great. No weakness too much. No failure too excessive. He comes down to our low place and takes us to his high place. And he doesn’t mangle us on the way. He’s gentle. He knows our frame. He knows because he’s been in the weakness of flesh. But he never sinned, so his strength is far greater than ours. He knows the path, and he will teach us.
Jesus isn’t just talking the talk. He walked the walk. He entered in. He came. Would we imagine God would get down in the field with us and pull the plow? Would we imagine Jesus would make himself nothing to bring us to the Father? Would we imagine the gentleness and lowliness of God would be enough to save us from the strength and stronghold of sin? But so it is. The gentle and lowly Jesus is our Savior. He’s offering his yoke to teach us his ways, and he’s making a promise, which is our third point.
…and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Here is the second time Jesus mentions rest. The first rest was an immediate rest from coming to him. This rest is the rest after the rest. The first rest is given, the second discovered. Yes, given also, but discovered along the way. The first is instant relief. The second is a lifelong journey. It’s the rest of a learner. The rest of the one who after receiving now serves alongside his master.
It’s not a physical rest. After all, there is a yoke involved. There is learning involved. Neither is easy. It demands something of us. Jesus doesn’t offer rest for our bodies. What he offers is rest for our souls.
Maybe we’d prefer rest for our bodies. So much of our life is driven by how our body feels. We fall asleep at night because our bodies can’t take any more. I don’t know about you, but even though I fall asleep, I’m always tired. I just got back from vacation. Hours in the car with four kids. Not easy. Laying down in my own bed for the first time in a week was like laying on clouds. My body needed it. But when my dog woke me up in the middle of the night and those thoughts that come out only in the darkness invaded my heart, it didn’t matter how my body felt. My soul needed rest. Yours does too.
Deep inside my soul, there is a need no amount of physical rest can alleviate. There are memories in my past that I don’t want to think about but from time to time they rise to the surface, reminding me that I’m not good at all. There are things I said, or things I didn’t say but should have. There are regrets that won’t fade away. There are wounds that time won’t heal. You know what I’m talking about because you have these things too.
What does Jesus have for us in the midst of that? Rest—at the deepest possible level, at the soul-ish level. Maybe we can’t live with ourselves after what we’ve done, but Jesus paid the penalty for us on the cross, and he’s not holding our sins over our heads. Maybe we can’t forget the pain of the past, but Jesus says that doesn’t have to be our future. He is preparing a place for us in our Father’s house. Maybe we can’t turn off the anxiety of another uncertain day, but Jesus says, “I’m already out there ahead of you. I know how this will end, and no matter what comes, no one can snatch you from my hands.”
We need a rest that stretches further than today. We need eternal rest. We need to know that we can’t ruin this some time out in the future. We need peace of heart—peace with God that lasts. We need a clear conscience. We need the removal of guilt. We need shame to disappear. And Jesus, through his life, death, and resurrection, offers it all. His salvation is total and complete, right now, for us!
Looking forward to Christ’s cross, in Jeremiah 31:34, God tells us what he thinks about his people because of Christ’s atonement. “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” God is not holding our sins over our heads. Jesus’s yoke is easy. Do you see the kindness in this? In fact, the word easy means kind. Jesus is kind to us. His yoke is therefore a kind of non-yoke. It’s not burdensome. It’s easy, kind. It’s the kind of thing that we just long to do—to come under him, to be shepherded by him, to follow him.
Who doesn’t need kindness? How kind Jesus our savior is! His kindness is seen most clearly in the cross. We were weighed down by the burden of sin. We could never obey God perfectly. In fact, we ruined our shot at perfection before we even had the capacity to understand what we did.
So what then is our hope? It’s Jesus! He came to be our substitute. When Jesus lived on earth, he obeyed God perfectly. He was the one single person in all history to actually earn God’s blessing by his obedience. And what did he do with it? He went to the cross to take God’s curse for sin. He did that for you. If Christ’s cross wasn’t at the center of history, there could be no offer of rest. If Jesus didn’t know for certain he would trade his blessing for our cursing, he would have been the greatest liar in the world to offer rest like this. But he could offer rest then and he can offer rest now because the wrath of God we’re owed for our sin has been fully satisfied in Christ on the cross. He has paid it all. And by coming to him, by accepting Jesus, you are free from the penalty for your sin. All that you deserve was given to Jesus on the cross, so all that Jesus deserves is given to you. Jesus earned eternal rest, and he graciously gives it to you and me just by coming to him.
You can have peace with God! Even if all the world stands against you, you can lay down at night and sleep well because God is for you. He takes great delight in you. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)
Once Jesus has become your Lord and Savior when those terrible memories pop up again, you can boldly apply the gospel to them. You don’t have to think about them anymore. You don’t have to keep beating yourself up. Maybe you need to apologize to someone, but because of Christ’s cross, you are at peace with God the moment you repent and come to Jesus by faith. You’re free from the past. You’re free in the present. You will be free in the future. You have rest for your soul.
That’s why Jesus says his yoke is easy and his burden is light. He’s not saying life won’t be hard. There is still a cross to be carried. There will be trials. Jesus promised us that. We have battles to fight and hardships to bear and sufferings to endure. Jesus is not discounting that. What he is saying is that the comforts of the gospel outweigh them all.
Jesus offers rest we never thought possible. When we come to him, we come to the answer of our life’s pursuit. It’s him. The most loving, accessible, approachable, kind, gentle, and lowly person in the universe. He’s our Savior. He’s our Lord. He’s our rest.
So let me close with this. Why am I talking about this in this season that we’re in as a church? Simply this: coming to Jesus moment by moment is the only future we have together. How could it be otherwise? He’s our leader. He’s our Savior. He’s our Lord. He’s our master. He’s the one we follow. We go where ever the Lamb leads.
If we don’t receive the real Jesus in his own words, we will be harsh, unkind, and restrictive. It’s just who we naturally are. Thankfully, we are not that way here at Refuge, but let’s not think we couldn’t be.
If we continue to receive the real Jesus in his own words and keep receiving him moment by moment together, there is no end to the joy and love and peace and harmony and risk-taking and cross-bearing that we can experience together with him.
Also, next week we are celebrating new life through baptism. If you’ve never been baptized maybe this passage will compel you to come to Jesus for new life.
All he’s asking is for us to come. Just stop running everywhere else and come to him. Let’s take his yoke upon us, for he is gentle and lowly at heart. The rest we never thought possible is ours in Christ our Savior.
Let’s pray.
4 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.
What is greater than knowing Jesus is on your side? When everything else falls away and you’re left alone and exposed wondering how you’ll endure, what is greater than knowing you are accepted by the King of the universe, by God himself? You’re not accepted because of what you’ve done or because of who you have become on your own but because God has graciously set his love upon you and sent Jesus to save you. Though excluded by this world, you are chosen by God. You are safe and secure in the love of Christ, with all the power of the Holy Spirit living inside you. You have been joined to Christ, and though he died, he now lives so when you die you too shall live forever with him.
What is greater than that?
That changes everything, the entire purpose of our life.
But it also puts us at odds with this world, and that’s hard for us. Following Jesus means some people won’t like us, and Peter wants to show us how to navigate life when we suffer for following Jesus.
The great German pastor and author Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” We die to self. We die to the world. We die to all that we once loved more than God. But death is not the final answer. It never is with God. Death gives way to resurrection life. Christ bids us come and die so that we might live.
There is no resurrection without death and there is no death without suffering. So how do we suffer well, following Jesus to resurrection life? That’s where Peter wants to take us.
How will he take us there? By giving three hopes we can cling to in the dark times.
Jesus arms us with a way of thinking (vv. 1-2)
Jesus changes us from the inside out (vv. 3-4)
Jesus saves us from a wasted life (vv. 5-6)
Following Jesus does not make for an easy life. Glory never comes easily. Christ suffered. He suffered in the flesh. His body bore the marks, and still bears the marks today. And if we are to follow him in this world, we need to be ready to suffer with him so that we might be glorified with him. Following Jesus is dangerous.
So what is our hope? What does Jesus give us to endure? Peter explains in verses 1 and 2. “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.”
Notice the logic. Peter says, “Since therefore.” Whenever we see therefore in the Bible, we need to ask what it’s there for. Peter is making sure we aren’t mistaken. We aren’t following a Savior who refused to walk the walk. Jesus suffered, and his suffering wasn’t theoretical; it was real and physical, in the flesh. That’s why the author of Hebrews says Jesus is sympathetic toward us. He knows what it’s like to suffer in the flesh. He knows us intimately because he came to us incarnationally. He lived a human life.
But suffering didn’t break Jesus. The Bible says, “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). Christ’s suffering was his pathway to glory (Schreiner). Jesus prepared himself to suffer. He wasn’t surprised by it. He knew it would come. And he wants us to know it will come because of him. Remember what Jesus said of the Apostle Paul before he saved him on the Damascus road, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:16). Suffering for Christ is part of the Christian life. Following Jesus is dangerous.
But Jesus isn’t sending us out unarmed. He’s a good general, and he makes provision for the soldiers in his army. What does he give? He gives an attitude. “Arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.”
Jesus arms us with a way of thinking. What is it? I’ve used the Ugandan pastor Festo Kivengere as an illustration before. In 1977, he fled Uganda after his Archbishop was murdered by the dictator Idi Amin. A reporter asked Kivengere, “If you were in a room with Idi Amin, and you had a gun, what would you do?” He answered, “I would give the gun to him and say, ‘This is your weapon. My weapon is the love of Jesus.’”
That is arming yourself with this way of thinking. It’s more than intellectually agreeing with the truth of the gospel. Mere intellectual agreement doesn’t make us give up our guns. Only real transformation can do that. We will either truly believe the gospel and arm ourselves with the love of Christ or we will say we believe the gospel but look for other options just in case. It comes down to what we really believe. Can we suffer? Can we leave it all in God’s hands? Is he good enough? Can Jesus really be trusted with our life or is he just a good insurance plan?
Let’s think it through some more. What did Jesus do for you? Here’s what the gospel says. You wrecked your life by your sin. You rebelled against God. You looked at his law and said, “No, thanks,” and turned to your own way. You didn’t do that just because you wanted to but because that sinful urge was already inside of you when you were born. As the Bible says, you were born in sin. But you added sin to sin and went your own way. So Jesus came to live the life you should have lived but never could. He came to obey God perfectly on your behalf. And as he did that, he was ridiculed. He was maligned. He was disbelieved and dishonored. But he never gave in. He never stopped loving. As he approached Jerusalem, the city that would kill him, he wept over it out of love. Then he went to the cross. On the way, people lied about him. They beat him. They ripped out his beard. They spit on him. They scourged him. Then they nailed him to a cross and left him to die. And on that cross, he took upon himself every sin you ever committed and will ever commit—all the sins you know about and the sins you aren’t even aware of. The wrath of God was poured out on him and it killed him. That’s the love of Jesus. His weapon was love. Jesus is arming his disciples with the same love, and it’s cross shaped. He suffered in the flesh, dying to save you.
When the gospel lands on you and seeps into your heart by God’s grace and you believe it deeply, it changes you. You have a new way of thinking that transforms everything. You have a new distaste for sin. A new resolve to live for Christ. Suddenly suffering for him becomes not just a painful experience but a new way to live before God and bear witness to his gospel. That’s not to say suffering is downplayed. Only those who never suffer can downplay suffering. Jesus never does that. But he does transform it. Suddenly, there is a purpose, and we see the purpose. It’s making us like him. It’s taking us closer to him. He suffered, and now in our suffering, we’re joining with him in ways we never could before. When we are rejected by others because we follow him, we find the friendship of Jesus deeper than we otherwise could. When we are left out because we won’t do what others do, we find a welcome at the Savior’s table.
Peter goes on to say, “Whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.” He doesn’t mean suffering makes us perfect. There is no perfection this side of eternity for us. What he means is that our suffering scorn and mockery for Jesus’s sake shows that we have a new master, a better one. We have broken with sin and we see now whose side we’re really on. That’s good for us to see. We’re not living for human passions anymore but for the will of God, and though the whole world may leave us and forsake us because of it, Jesus never will. He suffered and died for this. He’ll never give you up. We shouldn’t fear suffering because Jesus redeemed suffering by his death and resurrection.
Believing this not only arms us with a way of thinking, it shows us how deeply and profoundly we’ve been changed, how Jesus changed us from the inside out, which is our second point.
Our lives have a social context. Every action we take and every decision we make has a social consequence. And it’s often there that the rubber meets the road, where we find out who we really are, who we really follow. Are we really following Jesus, or do we just say we do? Our lives answer that question.
So in verses 3 and 4 Peter says, “For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you.”
I’m not sure if you’re aware of this but throughout this letter Peter has been talking to party animals. I find this so amazingly hopeful. These were not people predisposed to following Jesus. They were not goody two shoes. Look at Peter’s list! Sex, drugs, and rock n roll. But they no longer do what they used to do. Their friends saw the change, and they didn’t like it, so they let them hear about it. In other words, they were humiliated.
But is that humiliation bad? Is public malignment the worst that can happen to us? Peter doesn’t think so. Humiliation actually works in our favor because as the world begins to no longer recognize us by our actions, we start to see something has begun to change deep within, and it’s not because it’s what we want, but because of what Jesus is giving. We would rather fit in. We’d rather go with the flow. Who wants to be disinvited to the party? Who wants to stay at home while everyone else has fun? Who wants their friends to point and laugh?
But being humiliated like this helps us see something. It shows us whose side we’re on now. Something comes up and suddenly we realize we just can’t do that anymore. We can’t even stomach the thought. What was once second nature is now foreign. This is really good for us. We’re being changed.
Of course, just because Jesus is changing us doesn’t mean we’re suddenly bold and courageous all the time. We have weaknesses. We don’t want to be embarrassed or singled out or left out. We want to blend in. More than that, there are some sins we’re just not ready to give up. We’re like Augustine who prayed, “Grant me chastity, but not yet.” So we need Peter’s words in verse 3. As one translation puts it, “You have spent time enough in the past doing what pagans like to do.” It’s time to change. We need a clean break. How do we get there? By repentance. Repentance is turning from our sin to God. It’s a redirection. How do we go from party animal to church goer? We turn to Jesus and let him change us. And when Jesus gets involved, he always does far more than we think at first. I love how C.S. Lewis put it.
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
You’re no longer who you once were. Jesus lives in you now. He’s changing you from the inside out, and you don’t mind one bit. You wouldn’t want it any other way. It’s a surprising change, one you couldn’t make on your own. Only Jesus can do it. That’s why Peter says we meet surprise when we don’t join them in the same flood of debauchery.
Repentance, though, isn’t easy, is it? In fact, it’s humiliating. It’s a confrontation with who we really are, not who we tell ourselves we are. Actually, it’s when it’s really embarrassing, really humiliating, that we know we’re truly repenting. And what does the Lord Jesus Christ do with us then? Does he shame us? No. He welcomes us. 1 John 1:7 says, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Walking in the light with Jesus is the place of cleansing, not the place of judgment.
So where is the place of judgment? Peter tells us. It’s out there in the world. Peter assumes his readers once lived like the Gentiles did—living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. But when we they came to Christ and no longer did those things out of obedience to Jesus, their old friend made fun of them. Judgment came not from Jesus—he took all the judgment they’d ever experience from God on himself at the cross. Judgment came from their former friends. They were humiliated before them, but it no longer mattered. Maybe they weren’t at the cool kids’ table anymore. But who cares? That’s fleeting. Sin is fleeting. It’s gone in a moment like the wind, but it leaves a mess like a tornado.
Through repentance, and by looking to Christ, these dear Christians found new life. They were changed from the inside out. No longer did they follow their sinful passions and desires. Instead, they armed themselves with the suffering of Christ and boldly followed him. And we can too.
How can we do that? Well, for starters, we can create an environment in which that can take place. Right here at Refuge Church, we can arm ourselves with this thinking by the way we live among one another.
For example, here’s a great formula we could all use. Gospel + Safety + Time. Here’s what we all need. We need lots of gospel, lots of safety, and lots of time. We need the good news for bad people through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. We need it again and again, all the time. We need safety to confess our sins, to repent, to live in a non-accusing, non-embarrassing, non-manipulative, non-oppressive, non-condescending community where real sinners bring their real sin into the light and find fellowship with other sinners in the light of Christ. We need lots of time with no pressure to change quickly, no deadlines on our growth, no limits to our growth, no simple answers for complicated people like us but plenty of time to rethink our lives at the deepest possible levels in light of the gospel before our patient God.
Now the world looks at that and sees weakness. There is no power there, they think. No joy. No fun. But they’re wrong. Because this is the way to the power of the resurrection. This is the path to true joy. This is, counter-culturally, the most fun we could possibly have because we’re following Jesus, our truest friend, greatest defender, and everlasting hope. And where he takes us is into a land of glory, which is our next point: Jesus saves us from a wasted life.
Though Jesus is arming us with a new way of thinking and changing us from the inside out, we still hear the world questioning our lives. Maybe we are wasting it. I mean, we only live once, right? We think, “Well, why not continue partying? Why not live however I want? I mean, what’s the real harm? Why not eat, drink, and be merry while we’re still here?” In the words of one famous Tik Tok personality, why not “lighten up, get laid, go bowling?”
Here’s why. Look at verses 5 and 6. “But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.”
Our problem isn’t that we take ourselves too seriously, but that we don’t take the Lord of the universe seriously enough. We’re down here playing in the slums while God is offering an eternal life of joy. Here’s Peter’s point: Jesus isn’t taking our good life away from us; he’s giving us the life we really long for. We actually don’t know what’s best for us. We need our Maker to show us how to live a truly full and satisfying life. That’s why the gospel is preached to us. That’s why the gospel was preached to those who came before us, who are now dead. This world is filled with temptations. It’s filled with amazing things, and in our sinful hands, we can take even the most innocent of things and abuse them and use them for our own sinful purposes. But Jesus saves us from that. We can enjoy good things without making them more than they are. Through the power of the gospel, we can live now and forever. We aren’t banking on our best life being here and now. We’re looking out ahead to that great day when Jesus returns and restores this broken world by his marvelous grace. He’s promised pleasures forevermore, pleasures that last longer than any pagan orgy ever could. Our life in Christ is not a pursuit of joyless perfection through abstention but a pursuit of holy joy through repentance and life in Christ. Jesus is leading us to true joy. Unbelievers won’t understand that, so they might make fun of us. They might malign us. They might even hurt us. But we can endure it all because Jesus did, and he lives. And because he lives, we will too.
Following Jesus is dangerous. It is humiliating. But following Jesus is also glorious. As we accept unjust suffering, as Jesus did, and as Peter is calling us to do, we find something amazing begin to happen. What did the suffering of Jesus bring to this world? Redemption. Remember the centurion standing at the foot of the cross when Jesus breathed his last? What did he say? “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:54). The suffering of Christ made an impact on that man. In the death of Jesus, he saw something glorious, something he hadn’t seen anywhere else.
What have we seen? Is it not the same thing? “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.” As we look to Christ together, as we create a gospel culture where safety to confess sin and time to change is a way of life, as we suffer unjustly because of our rejection of this world’s idea of truth and cling to Truth himself, his redemption will spread through us to others.
When we suffer unjustly at the world’s hands, when we are misunderstood and misjudged, we have an opportunity to show the kind of Savior Jesus is, the kind of redemption he brings through suffering. By our non-freak-out response to our enemies, we bear witness to the love of Christ to us, his enemies once upon a time. After all, it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us. The cross brought us to God. It can bring others to him as well. And maybe God wants to use us for that very purpose, and maybe our suffering will be the way, and others will look upon us and find a repentant community of people, suffering for the sake of their Savior, and they’ll enter and ask questions and one day look upon the cross and say, “Truly this is the Son of God!” We have answers to all the pain, hope for all the hopeless, love for all our enemies. We have Jesus, the Savior of the world, and all are invited to his party.
And to those who won’t come and refuse to worship Jesus, well, they will one day stand before God and give an account to him for their life. They will be judged. So, if we are judged by them in the flesh, well, what of it? We know that we are alive in the spirit. We can accept unjust suffering because Jesus did, and he used it to spread redemption to others.
Let’s pray.
13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.
There’s a hymn with the words:
I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;
I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause;
I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame.
I’d rather be true to his Holy name.
We resonate with those words, don’t we? We long for faith that stands for Christ in a world that stands against him. But how do we get there? How does that boldness so capture our heart that it defines our life? That’s what we’re going to talk about today.
Peter shows growth into Christlikeness includes an ability to suffer well, including suffering persecution. Jesus suffered, and servants are not above the master. If he suffered, we will suffer too.
Suffering well for Christ is courageous. Yet to many of us, it might seem impossible. When we are alone, and the questions come, and we start feeling the pressure—how do we stand for Jesus? What do we have in that moment that makes the difference? Peter shows us three truths to encourage us.
1. Blessing from Christ never fades (vv. 13-14)
2. Honoring Christ constantly prepares (v. 15)
3. Living for Christ always shines (vv. 16-17)
We live in a time and place where Christian persecution hasn’t yet been widespread. Peter’s audience was in a similar situation. The persecution that would come in the years ahead was still on the horizon, but Peter wanted them to be ready, to understand that even in the midst of persecution, blessing from Christ never fades. In fact, it’s the times of persecution that highlight the blessing the greatest. So in verses 13 and 14 he said, “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled.”
Remember from last week’s sermon on verses 10-12. Peter quoted Psalm 34 which says God’s favor is on the righteous, but evildoers will be punished. David, the psalmist, was suffering. We don’t want to suffer. But we might. Who isn’t at least a little afraid of that? But fear of it cannot keep us from preparing for it.
So flowing from Psalm 34, Peter asks an important question in verse 13—he wants us to think through the implications. “Who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?” Peter enters our thought process. No matter what we tell ourselves about suffering, our default is to connect a life of health and peace to God’s blessing and a life of suffering to his displeasure. But is that what the Bible says?
Peter presses us to think biblically and eternally. As we see persecution out ahead, what should we conclude about the blessing of God? If we look only to today, we might conclude it isn’t worth it. It’s far too painful. But if we’re looking to that great and final day when we stand before the Lord and enter his presence, no matter the living hell our persecutors put us through, what blessing from Christ can they take from us now as we enter heaven? In fact, all their efforts only made this day all the more wonderful as we enter the presence of the one who never stopped loving us, whose very sufferings became our peace, whose embrace is all our heart ever longed for, and who, in our sufferings, became to us our only hope. Rather than taking Jesus from us, our suffering for him showed us he was all we ever needed and all we ever really had. Peter says, “Even if you should suffer for righteousness’s sake, you will be blessed.”
This is how the Bible trains us. True blessing from Christ never fades, no matter what this world might do to us. This was the conclusion David came to in Psalm 34. David was among Israel’s great enemy, the Philistines, where he acted crazy in front of their king to avoid being harmed. Why was he there in the first place? Because Israel’s king, Saul, drove him out of Jerusalem. The king at home wanted him dead. The king of the Philistines did too. Who was there to harm him? It seemed everyone. Yet David said, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Rather than rejecting God, David leaned into him all the more. He found protection in God. He said, “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.”
By faith, David saw beyond his current circumstances into the truth of God’s future for him. He saw “those who take refuge in the Lord are blessed. Those who fear him have no lack.” That doesn’t mean their life is easy, yet David ended the Psalm with, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous. but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” David was suffering for one reason and one reason only: he was God’s chosen king. He was suffering because God loved him. In this world, that’s the kind of crazy stuff that happens. People might hate us because God loves us. David was stripped of all he had—his house, his office, his family—but when everything was taken, he found himself richer in God than ever. In fact, throughout the Bible, it is the sufferings of saints that brings them closest to God.
David did not deny the reality of suffering for righteousness’ sake. He just looked deeper into it. By faith, he looked to what God has for his people in suffering, and what he found is what Peter urged us to dare to believe. In the Christian life, suffering and blessing are not on opposite ends of a spectrum. They move together. Blessing does not mean no suffering, and suffering does not mean no blessing. There is blessing in the suffering, and no matter how much suffering takes from us, blessing from Christ never fades. The more this world hurts us because of Christ, the more Christ comforts us by his Spirit.
So when Peter asks, “Who can harm you?” he’s getting to the very heart of our functional beliefs. We tend to think suffering is the removal of Christ’s blessing, but the Bible says it’s the opposite. Really, our persecutors might even be doing us a favor. As they hurl insults and our reputation takes a hit, we realize the smile of Christ was all we ever needed anyway. As they take our opportunities away, we realize our true work was to love the Lord anyway. As we lose power and control, we find comfort in God’s sovereignty and let go of the reins on our life. Without even realizing it, our persecutors push us deeper into God. He becomes our true reputation. He becomes our true wealth. He becomes our true power and comfort and security.
And we know this is true, not because we want it to be, but because Jesus showed us this truth. Was Jesus blessed? Yes, of course, he was. Did Jesus suffer? Yes, of course, he did. Jesus suffered yet was blessed. Jesus was blessed yet suffered. No one had more afflictions than him, but he was the Beloved Son in whom God was well pleased. If suffering was good enough for Jesus, is it not good enough for us?
Jesus told us what would happen when we suffer for his name. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.” Jesus knew the world would be a scary place for his people. But he gave us something sure and steady to hold us in those stormy times. “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). No one can ultimately harm us. The worst they can do is kill us, and as Jesus said even they are not to be feared. “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matt. 10:28). As Paul said in Romans 8:31, “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
In Christ, even our times of suffering are made into times of blessing, and blessing from Christ never fades. There is no expiration date to fear. There is no harmful substance to ruin it. Put Christians in a raging fire and they’re refined like precious metal in God’s care. The pain of this world is only temporary. The blessing of God is eternal life in Christ. Your future in Christ is incredibly bright. So have no fear, nor be troubled. Christ is yours!
But still, the fire does burn. How can we stand when the heat is turned up. That’s our next point.
We can agree with what we just heard but still wonder how we will stand for Christ in the day of testing. So Peter addresses that next in verse 15. This is the key to the entire passage. “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.”
Verse 14 ended with a command. “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled.” And verse 15 opens with the alternative to fear, “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.” The way out of fear is honoring Christ.
What does it mean to honor Christ? Think of the Lord’s prayer. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Hallow is the same word Peter uses for honor. To hallow Christ is to honor him. In biblical language, it means to, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” Everything else in the Christian life becomes possible when that becomes a reality. And that becomes a reality as we behold the glory of Jesus in the gospel, as we see the holy one step out of heaven and come down to earth to save his people.
Maybe we think of the gospel only as the doorway that gets us saved. But the gospel isn’t only the doorway; it’s the pathway. The further in we go, the bigger it gets. The call of Christ is to follow deeper and deeper down the gospel’s path. We need, as my friend Jared Wilson calls it, the “gospel deeps.” We need the deep, deep love of Christ to fill our deep, deep need.
We tend to flatten the gospel, making it one-dimensional. Jesus constantly expands it, creating a whole world in which we live and move and have our being. And in a passage like this, he’s asking us to walk way down the path to a place this world will never understand but one Christians throughout history know well. As we walk down the path of suffering for the gospel, we find the Suffering Servant ready to welcome us at the end, now fit for him in ways only suffering can provide.
How do we walk down that path? How do we honor Jesus as holy? It’s all about beholding. Have you ever noticed how often the Bible calls us to “Behold!”? Why does it do that? Because we’ll never see the depths of the gospel until we behold it, and we can’t behold it unless we are looking at it. As Ray Ortlund says, “Stare at the glory of God until you see it.” Beholding God’s glory in the gospel is the thing that changes everything.
But how do we do this? How do we behold Christ in the gospel? Maybe your view of it is smudged. It gets that way in this world of sin. But Jesus washes the feet of sinners, so he can clear your vision too. It starts with asking him to give us eyes to behold. And then we look at him. How? Well, the Bible is a great place to start. Find a verse of scripture that just blows you away with the glory of Jesus. Here’s one for me. Hebrews 1:3. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” I mean, wow! The Bible is filled with things like that. Behold!
One of the problems with us is that it’s easy to look at Jesus without seeing him. We do it all the time—at least I do. We read our Bible and can’t remember what we read. We come to church and can’t remember the sermon text an hour later. We’re seeing but not beholding. It’s like if I asked you what a quarter looks like. You’d say yes. But what’s written on it? You know what it looks like because you’ve seen it, and so you think you know what it is, but you haven’t beheld it, so you don’t really know it at all. We can be like that with Jesus. But we can’t move ahead properly without first beholding clearly.
There’s an example from the world of psychological science. “Researchers asked a group of college students to look up at either a tall building or a grove of eucalyptus trees for one minute. The students who studied the trees experienced more feelings of awe—a sense of wonder and of being in the presence of something larger than oneself. Afterwards, when one of the experimenters pretended to accidentally drop a bunch of pens, the students who had seen the trees and felt awe helped pick up more pens than those who had looked at the building.” (https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_trees_can_make_you_happier)
Awe changes us. If staring at trees can make students more generous and helpful, what can staring at the glory of God do?
The glory of Christ is far more awe-inspiring than trees. Jesus died for us! Who else has done that? More than that, he rose for you, promising a renewed and restored world with him forever. As we walk down the gospel’s path, we behold Jesus in his glory, and we honor him as we praise his redemption by his blood, as we consider him as our greatest good, his salvation as our greatest need, his way as supreme. Then we are ready for what Peter commands next. “Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”
What is our hope? It’s Jesus himself. It’s his salvation of our souls. We aren’t hoping for an easy life but for a holy one. We’re aren’t hoping for happiness at all costs but for Jesus and his righteousness. We’ve felt the sorrow and the shame and the guilt of sin and looked to Jesus for rescue. And in mercy and grace, he took upon himself all our sins and bore the wrath of the Father on our behalf. He forgave us by his blood. No more sin. No more shame. No more guilt. We are free. Jesus is our hope—our only hope. So when persecution comes and we’re asked about the reason for our hope, it’s not the precise theological answers or seminary degree dissertation that we’re asked to give. It’s Jesus. We tell of what we’ve seen—the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died.
See from His head, His hands, His feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down
Did ever such love and sorrow meet?
Or thorns compose, so rich a crown?
Suffering breaks us open, doesn’t it? What’s really inside comes gushing out. So as we honor Christ deep within as holy, when suffering comes and breaks our heart, what comes out but the Lord Jesus himself? When this world rejects you and beats you and cracks you open, because you have been honoring Christ the Lord as holy, as they attempt to break your spirit, they find His.
As you continue to look to Jesus, you are more prepared than you realize. And if you feel as if you aren’t because you haven’t ever really beheld him in his glory, you can start today. Just ask him to help. He will.
When we deeply accept the love of Jesus, not only does he prepare us to make a defense, but he also makes us shine as we live for him, which is our third point.
Now, look at verses 16 and 17. “Having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.”
After urging us to boldness for Christ, Peter doesn’t let us forget that it’s a humble boldness that Jesus calls us to. A life of humility compliments our bold stand.
President Woodrow Wilson once told of his experience at a barber shop that illustrates the power of humble boldness. Here’s what he remembered.
“While sitting in a chair…I became aware that a personality had entered the room. A man had come quietly in upon the same errand as myself and sat in the chair next to me. Every word he uttered…showed a personal and vital interest in the man who was serving him.”
Wilson went on to share more of that experience. He realized later the man sitting next to him was the great evangelist D.L. Moody. Moody was a holy man, one who lived for Christ, and spoke boldly for Christ. He was willing to be reviled without reviling in return. He was willing to be slandered without slandering in return. He was willing to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. And here, in Wilson’s words, was the effect of Moody’s life.
“I was aware that I had attended an evangelistic service, because Mr. Moody was in the next chair. I purposely lingered in the room after he left and noted the singular effect his visit had upon the barbers in that shop. They talked in undertones. They did not know his name, but they knew that something had elevated their thought. And I felt that I left that place as I should have left a place of worship.”
What can any enemy ultimately say about such a man? Living for Christ always shines. It did in the life of D.L. Moody, and it does in yours as you live for him. It starts way down deep inside us, in our hearts as we honor Christ the Lord as holy, and it expresses itself outward in our deeds and actions as we live our very normal life. D.L. Moody went to get a haircut and left an impression on a president. You have no idea what your little, faithful life with Jesus will do. You have no idea who you will impress.
So you might suffer. You might be slandered. You might be reviled. But it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. Have a good conscience. Live for Christ and let his light shine through you. Who can harm you then? Even if they kill you, your life in Christ will have an effect. Your hope will linger. It will stick in their shoe like a rock, pestering them and bothering them, unable to leave their mind. And who knows? Perhaps God will use you to bring another son or daughter into the kingdom. Who else but the Lord Jesus Christ can make times of persecution into opportunities to witness to his grace and mercy?
In your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy. Everything flows from that one important decision. If we will decide, moment by moment, to honor Christ deep in our hearts, he will never fail us.
As the hymn says,
I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I'd rather be His than have riches untold;
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands.
I’d rather be led by His nail pierced hands.
Let’s pray.
13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
One day a group of Pharisees and Herodians came to Jesus with a coin and asked him, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” (Mark 12:13-17). The two groups were bitter enemies, but they joined that day to trap Jesus. Was he loyal to God or Caesar? If his answer was “Yes, pay the tax,” he angered the Jews who refused to pay because it seemingly affirmed the inscription on the coin, “Son of divine Augustus.” If he said no, it would anger the government, who saw the tax as their due. But Jesus didn’t fall for the trap. He answered, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” In a sentence, Jesus legitimized the Roman government without de-throning God. It was a stunning answer. We can obey the government without compromising our Christianity. Obligations to church and state are not necessarily in conflict.
Government may not be explicitly Christian, but it is still good. It derives its goodness from God, even it if doesn’t formally recognize him. Government is a deeply biblical idea. When God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, he told them to subdue the earth. Government is one way to fulfill that command. The Bible continually reinforces the basic goodness of government. Israel became a nation. When in exile, Jeremiah said, “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf.” Paul said in Romans 13:1, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” There is a way to live a distinctly Christian life in relation to government. Jesus said so. Jeremiah said so. Paul said so. And here Peter says so too.
Peter is starting a new section of his letter. So far, he’s talked about God’s mercy, starting in 1:3—“According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again”—and running to 2:10—“But now you have received mercy.” Now Peter aims to show how that mercy has a practical impact in the Christian life.
Peter hasn’t told us to do very much so far, but that changes here. And what he commands isn’t easy. You can see the difficulty right from the start. The first two words of verse 13, “Be subject.” Isn’t that an awful word? Who wants to submit? Peter knows this is a hard pill for us to swallow. That’s why he says in verse 11, “Beloved, I urge you…” He’s urging us, on the basis of God’s mercy, to live as fully formed Christians, to make a positive difference in the world for the glory of God. That includes voluntary submission and obedience.
Simply put, Peter commands God’s people to civil obedience. That’s an unpopular theme in our day. Civil disobedience is popular. Civil obedience is not. Rebellion is cool. Adapting, making it work, submitting, contributing to the solution alongside those we disagree with isn’t cool. Especially in this country, where we do as we please and are accountable to no one except ourselves, submission is the sign that we’ve given up. We’ve handed over our freedom. Our liberties are gone, and all that remains now is to be ruled by others. Submission is a deeply anti-American quality. But it is a distinctly Christian one. Knowing who he was and what he came to so, Jesus submitted himself to others (Clowney). He’s our example.
Peter is expanding on his call in verse 12 to keep our conduct honorable. The same word used for honorable is used in other parts of the Bible to mean beautiful, noble, praiseworthy, pleasing, excellent. As we engage with our world in matters of government, it is this call to honorable-ness that should mark us. The more our world spirals down into political division and partisanship and rage and cancellation, the more we Christians have an opportunity to publicly display the kind of peace Jesus brings into bitter fights and disagreements. As the world looks at Christians in the public square, what should they find? Should they find unreasonableness, unwillingness to cooperate, hostility, and fear? If so, we have lost our way. The proper path leads to more and more people thinking to themselves (and maybe even saying out loud) “These Christians are really making this world better.” When that starts happening, we’ll know we’re living out what Peter is calling us to. We are sojourners and exiles here, but we’re still here—and because we’re here, God wants us to live as well as we can for his sake.
So how do we get there? Only by the finished work of Christ on the cross and in the power of the Holy Spirit. God gives three truths to help in this passage.
Our motivating theme: “For the Lord’s sake” (vv. 13-14)
Our secure foundation: “The will of God” (v. 15)
Our great advantage: “Live as people who are free” (v. 16)
Look again at verses 13 and 14, “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.”
Why is Peter talking about this? If I was writing this letter, I’m not sure I’d start my section on submission with this. But Peter has been going on about how we’re sojourners and exiles. He called us a chosen race and a holy nation and God’s possession. So we might start thinking, “You know, this world doesn’t matter. Why should I have any allegiance to it at all?” But Peter doesn’t want us to go there. We have a dual citizenship. We are both citizens of heaven and earth, and we have a responsibility to live well here, as a witness to the mercy of God. We are God’s ambassadors, and we should take that responsibility seriously.
So, Peter says, “Be subject.” Now, we need a motivator for that command, don’t we? Peter provides one. The key phrase setting the tone for the entire passage is found right after those words in verse 13: for the Lord’s sake. The call to submission is grounded in the privilege of doing it for the Lord’s sake. I love how pastor John Piper put it. “Christians do not submit to human institutions simply because they feel like it, or because they have compliant personalities or because the institutions have coercive powers. We do not look first at ourselves to see what we feel like doing, nor do we look first at the institution to see if it there are consequences for not submitting. We look first to God…we submit for his sake.”
God must have known we’d need this in 2021. Could this be more relevant to our day? How we act in relation to the government says something about the God we serve. What do you think the world hears from the Christians in politics today? I can’t help but think about the events of January 6 as those Christian Nationalists invaded the Capitol building, bringing the name of God along with them as they constructed nooses outside while offering prayers in the chambers after terrorizing our country’s lawmakers. That is not what Peter had in mind.
Of course, that’s an extreme example. Most of our objections to government authority don’t rise to riots and invasions. They’re far more subtle. They’re Facebook posts and unkind words and talk radio and Fox News and CNN. It’s not hard to find reasons not to submit to the government.
But if we find it difficult to live this passage out in our day, let’s remember the context in which Peter wrote. The rulers of Peter’s day were not easy men to respect. There was Nero, the Roman emperor who led a great persecution against the Christians. There was Pontius Pilate who handed Jesus over to be crucified. There was Felix who imprisoned Paul. Those were not easy days. Peter wrote in very difficult circumstances under very difficult-to-submit-to leaders. And he didn’t call for a culture war. He called us to fit in, to cooperate, to positively contribute to the world of civic duty and responsibility. Why? Not for the sake of the political leaders, good or bad, nor for his own sake or the sake of his fellow Christians, but for the Lord’s sake. Therein lies all our motivation. The Lord is asking us to do this. How can we deny him?
Christians obey the government out of their obedience to Jesus, not because of the government’s greatness but because of Jesus’s. Jesus gave us our government, and even if it isn’t as great as it could be, almost any government is better than no government. Almost any government provides some semblance of civil order. Almost any government, as Peter says, “punishes those who do evil and praises those who do good.” God created government for the good of the world, and we submit to it for his sake, because he is Lord of all and he’s asking us to.
But why would he ask us to? Because as we submit to our political leaders, we say something about the God we serve. In the 1950s in East Africa, a pastor named Festo Kivengere lived through a time of intense political turmoil. There was constant conflict and war. In his book Revolutionary Love, he tells a story about the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya aimed at turning the whole Kikuyu tribe into freedom fighters against the British using brutal guerrilla warfare. They required all members to take an oath to murder. The Christians in the country agreed that Kenya should have freedom, but they wouldn’t kill to make it happen. What was the response? The Christians were killed. Kivengere says, “Christian resisters were quietly strangled on the path or chopped up with machetes at night in their homes.” The government officers assumed they must be allies. So they offered them guns for self-protection. Their answer was “No, thank you. We love you and we love our Kikuyu brothers as well. How can we tell the ones in the forest about the love of God if we are holding guns?”
A few years later, one of the Mau Mau fighters had come to Christ. Here’s how it happened.
“I was one who led a group of fighters to attack a Christian family at night. We were ordered to do it because they were ‘hard-cord resisters.’ But to my surprise, that man loved us. He said that he was not at all afraid to die, for he would immediately be with Jesus. Then he pleaded with us, not for his life, but for ours, that we awake and repent while there was still time. We killed him, but he died praying, ‘Father, please forgive them and give them time to turn about.’ We went back to the forest, but the face of that man and his love never left me. At last his Jesus found me, and now I want to tell everyone about him.”
Kivengere writes, “How do you destroy Christians like that? You beat them; they love you. You put them to shame; they think you have given them an opportunity to be creative. You kill them and they win you!”
“Be subject for the Lord’s sake.” Demanding our way doesn’t wow the world, but following our brothers and sisters of Kenya can, in God’s hands, save souls. Which path should we take?
When more and more people start respecting Jesus because of the actions of his followers we will know we’ve entered truly Christian politics. That is the upward call of Christ upon his people. For the Lord’s sake, not ours. For the name of Jesus, not our own name.
And as we do this, we find a surprisingly secure foundation: God’s will.
Submitting to the government is not a step outside of Christianity; it’s a step inside of God’s will. Look at verse 15. “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.” That is the secure foundation we stand upon.
In Peter’s day, Christians had a bad reputation. They were a new upstart group that wasn’t easily classified into the existing religious groups. By way of a misunderstanding of communion, there were rumors that they got together and ate human flesh. When ordered to stop preaching the gospel, they didn’t listen, saying they had to obey God rather than man. Countless Christians were imprisoned, and just imagine the reputation that earned the entire group. In more than one way, the word on the street was that Christians were up to no good. They were the rebels, the outliers, the problem children of the empire. They needed to be dealt with and dealt with harshly.
So what good does submission do in circumstances like that? Well, for starters, it is a great apologetic against the popular view of Christians as socially harmful. Notice, Peter says “by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.” People think they know what Christians are like, but as we live in submission to Jesus, we surprise them, just like those Kenyans in the 1950s. We show the world that we have a higher authority, and he doesn’t stand against this world at all costs. He came into this world to save it. Where we can, we are more than happy to go along. In fact, we will go further than you might think. This world is full of people looking to take as much as they can, but Christians are that crazy counterculture looking to give as much as they can, for Jesus’s sake. Submitting to governing authorities isn’t opposed to our faith, in fact, it’s part of it. It’s God’s will.
This is so important in our day, just as it was for Peter’s. What do you think the prevailing reputation is of evangelical Christians in America today?
It’s so easy for us Christians to live in fear of the next president or the next vote or the next policy proposal. But fear is not the way God asks us to live our public life. We have here a general truth. Christians should submit and obey in most situations in relation to governing authorities. And, in fact, we go even further. Ours isn’t a weak obedience, disengaged from the real people occupying those offices. We pray for them. We speak well of them as best we can. In a word, we love them, even if they don’t love us. Why? It’s the will of God.
Another example from the life of Festo Kivengere. He lived in Uganda in the 1970s when a Muslim dictator names Idi Amin took power. He was an awful human being. But God was brining revival to East Africa and was changing hearts. What was the response from Kivengere, an Anglican pastor, to Idi Amin, the violent Muslim dictator? He wrote a book called I Love Idi Amin. He got a lot of flak for that book, but he didn’t recant. He meant it. Idi Amin was terrible, but Kivengere was going to love him for Jesus’s sake because he knew it was God’s will. What can a nation say about Christians who do such things? They’re put to silence by their goodness, for the Lord’s sake, because they’re living inside his will.
Christian goodness in this area stands as an apologetic for the gospel. Reasonableness stands against the prevailing image of unreasonableness. Real love for political leaders—even awful ones—silences the accusers of God’s people. If we throw ourselves into the good things of politics with an overwhelmingly positive voice of submission to authority and willingness to come alongside as peacemakers, with a message of the love of Christ, we confound the accusers of the church and God’s name is honored.
Of course, we have freedom, and in our country more than others. But how we use that freedom proves our true submission. Jesus taught us that freedom is for serving, liberties are for laying down, not taking up at all costs. We can live as people who are free because, in Christ, we are free. We don’t have to demand it; we already have it, even if the government won’t recognize it. And that leads us to our third point.
Look at verse 16. “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”
We have an advantage non-Christians don’t. We can live as people who are free. Why? Because we are free. The Bible says, “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1). “For you were called to freedom, brothers” (Galatians 5:13). “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). Non-Christians don’t have that kind of freedom. They live for the approval of man because they don’t know the approval of God in Christ. They live in fear because their life exists here and here alone.
But Christians are different. They are free, and it’s not because they have no limitations. I mean how can you look at this passage and not see limitations? Freedom is defined in our day as the removal of all limitations. It’s being totally free from anybody or anything. No rules. No lines. No boundaries at all. But that’s false freedom. We can never be free like that. Why? Because we were designed for a particular purpose, and only inside those lines can we find the freedom we long for. The best illustration I’ve ever heard for this comes from a book by Charles Hummel called Becoming Free. I’ve never read that book, but I’ve heard Tim Keller discuss it, so he gets the credit here.
Here’s how he puts it.
“Imagine a fish. The fish is in the water. “Ah,” the fish says. “I hate being confined and restrained to the water. That’s not fair. I don’t like this restriction. I am free.”
So the fish says, “I’ve never been out there on the land. I’m going to go…” He gets up on the land, and the next thing you know…He’s flopping around and gasping and dying. Why? Because the fish isn’t designed for the land. But put the fish back in the water, with a flick of his tail, he’s darting around like lightning. Why? Because he’s in the environment he was built for.
When he’s restricted to the water, he’s free. All of his potential is released. All of the things he couldn’t possibly do on the land he can now do in the water. If you believe in a God who created all things, he created you for himself. What that means is the only true water for your soul…is full service to him.”
We are like the fish. God created us and put us in this world and gave us the limitations of his Word. Many people see the Bible as incredibly restrictive. They think, “Who would want to live like that?” But the truth is God’s Word, with its limitations, gives us ultimate freedom. When we operate inside of his commands, we are free to do a thousand things we couldn’t otherwise do. We’re free from uncontrollable emotions and desires. We’re free from fear of circumstance. We’re free to serve, to love, to submit, to obey, to do a thousand good things we cannot do otherwise. We’re free to do everything God calls us to and to be everything God is making us into in Christ by his Spirit. It’s in the Bible where we find the will of God for our lives, even in passages like this. And when we know we’re operating inside of God’s will, we’re the freest people on the planet.
Of course, this is a paradox. The only way for us to find this freedom is by coming under the rule of Christ. the Bible actually uses the word slave. We must become a slave of Christ. The Bible says everyone is a slave to something. We’re either slaves to sin or slaves to Christ. If we’re slaves to sin, we’re held captive to sin’s passions and desires. It doesn’t matter what we tell ourselves about how free we are, we’re not free at all. Circumstances rule us. Bodily passions rule us. Fear drives us. We do whatever sin wants us to do. We can’t do the good things we want because sin is always crouching at the door. You want to help someone, but you also want the credit. You want to love someone, but you want your needs met first. You want to sacrifice for the greater good but only if enough is in it for you on the other side.
But when we become slaves to Christ, we find the freedom we’ve looked for everywhere else. We’re free to do the good we want to do because we don’t care anymore if we get the credit. We realize we can only do it anyway because God’s Spirit is in us to carry it out. We humble ourselves so that God gets the glory. We give without wanting anything back. We serve without needing anything in return. We’re free to honor others and respect authority. When we come under God’s spiritual authority, we find the liberation of his restrictions. We find true freedom. We finally have the freedom to do what is right, no matter what that means for us. Because in the end, this life we live we live to God, and because we’re doing his will, he will get the glory and he will take care of us.
Peter wraps up this paragraph in verse 17 with four commands. “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” We can use our freedom as a pretext for abusive, non-submissive talk or we can use it as a foundation for honor. God wants the latter. He’s asking us, for his sake, to honor everyone, to speak well of them without selfish motive, to treat them with dignity and respect because we’re all created in God’s image. Honor is one way we love the brotherhood. When we treat everyone with the dignity that God places on them, we experience the felt presence of his Spirit.
But notice what Peter says about God and the emperor. “Fear God. Honor the emperor.” That’s interesting. The call to fear God is placed in contrast to honoring the emperor. The emperor is to be shown respect due his office, but he is not to be feared. God alone is to be feared.
We know where ultimate authority lies. So no matter how powerful the government is, we know their power is but a splinter compared to the forest of God’s. We can honor them, but we must not fear them. They have much say in our lives, but not ultimate say. This leaves room for civil disobedience. When the government asks you to do something that God forbids, you must obey God, not the government. Like our Kenyan brothers and sisters, we do not murder in the name of freedom. We would rather suffer.
And that’s where we find ourselves in this world, isn’t it? Suffering. That’s where Jesus found himself. And what did do? Look down at verse 23. “He continued entrusting himself to God who judges justly.” Moment by moment, as we submit to God and look to him, he gives us his power to carry on, to do crazy things like submitting to the government and honoring everyone and loving the brotherhood and fearing God.
Peter’s words are not a pathway out of suffering, as if submission to the government will relieve the church of suffering. But it is a beacon of hope to a suffering world. The church of Christ has a power that the world does not. We have a freedom the world does not. We have a sort of invincibility the world does not. We can live in less-than-ideal circumstances and not lose hope because our hope is found in Christ alone. We are not imprisoned by our own security because, in this world, there really isn’t any. We look beyond, to God, and find our security in him, purchased by the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
By submitting to Christ, we can bless the nation we live in. We can provide a refuge for those lost and lonely. We can be a place of healing and liberation and hope. We can, in God’s mighty hands, be an outpost of heaven. And as we engage according to God’s will in the world of politics, and God’s name is no longer defamed in public for our less-than-Christian actions, we shine as a bright light to the watching world, offering a hope beyond this world that makes an impact on this world.
Let’s pray.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
We are broken people living in a broken world, and there is no path without suffering for people like us in a world like that. Ever since Adam sinned so long ago in the Garden of Eden, we’ve been looking for salvation. Only a second Adam can undo what that first Adam did. And he has come and done it. Jesus saved us. But we’re not physically with him yet. We’re still here in this world and we’re still us—tired, inadequate, limited, more sinful than we wish we were. And we still suffer here—the pains of a broken world, the pains of our own sin, the pains of persecution—but we’re trusting Christ and looking to him alone for salvation. We know he will bring us to himself. The Bible says so.
The message of the gospel, that Jesus Christ came to live and die and rise again to save us from all that’s broken us is the story of the Bible from front to back. It was foretold in the Garden after Adam and Eve sinned, and it was prophesied by the prophets so long ago in the Old Testament. We stand today as recipients of the story in a privileged place. That’s what Peter wants us to see. We are privileged to live in this time of redemptive history. We see a more complete picture than even God’s prophets of old saw. This is the same thing Jesus wanted Peter to see. Jesus said to his disciples, “Blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it\" (Matthew 13:16-17).
So we today, just as Peter and his original audience, live in a time of great privilege. We see the substance of what the prophets saw in shadows. We live in the time of the New Testament. We have seen the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah where the prophets could only imagine it. In our day, with all our suffering, we have something more than so many who lived before us. We have the complete revelation of God in Christ in the Bible, preserved and given to us by his Holy Spirit.
Yes, we live in hard days. We endure suffering. But we also rejoice in our suffering because we know that God has saved us, is saving us, and will save us on that great and final day. This isn’t a vague prediction; it’s a signed, sealed, and delivered promise guaranteed by the blood of Jesus and his resurrection.
The link between our passage today and what we saw last week is the word salvation. In verses 8-9 Peter said, “Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Salvation is a result of the new birth and is our living hope. Peter now wants to add an exclamation point before moving on. You see in verse 10, “Concerning this salvation.” He’s saying to us now, “Let’s talk about that salvation a minute because it’s been the plan all along and now you, dear readers, have unprecedented insight into it.”
So let’s think about what this salvation is, and we can do that by seeing three big truths.
Salvation is about Grace
Salvation is from Christ
Salvation is for Us
Look at verse 10. “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully…”
Now that Peter has re-emphasized the subject of salvation, the next keyword we see is the word grace. This salvation is about grace.
What is grace? The classic definition is “unmerited favor.” So, we start with what it is not. Grace is not something we deserve. Positively, though, it is something given freely. It is forgiveness for our sin. It is God’s help for our life. It is salvation for the undeserving.
Grace is the mega-theme of the Bible. The Bible is a big book, and lots of people have lots of thoughts about it. Maybe you have an idea of what the Bible is about. Maybe you say it’s about God and his laws. Maybe you say it’s about how to live a good life. Maybe you say it’s a historical book of interest because it shows us where we came from. All of those things are true. But the Bible is first and foremost a book about the grace of God.
Yes, the Bible shows us how to avoid sin and live a holy life, but it’s not what it’s about. The Bible is not for avoiding sin but for gaining Christ. It’s not a big law book but a massive love story. It is God coming to us and revealing his deepest heart for us. It’s the story of salvation for sinners. It is God’s love pouring over us though we don’t deserve it. It’s grace.
Understanding the Bible is about grace changes not only how we understand it but also gives new motivation to read it and study it. I mean, who wants to read a law-book? I love history, but at some point, it’s a memorization game. So-and-so was born in this year and lived this long. That people group warred against that people group. And so on. If the Bible is only a law book or historical narrative, it has limits. It influences our life, but it can’t sit on top of our life. But if the Bible is the story of God’s grace coming to sinners like us, if it’s the story of how the all-Holy God above redeemed our souls, if it’s about the most glorious person in existence bringing dead people to life in him, if it’s about the Lover of our souls not letting the romance die, then it matters more than any other book. It’s endlessly fascinating because it is the place where we see most clearly the kind of heart God has for us.
I mean think about it. If I told you that God wrote a book about how he felt about you, about what he was going to do for you, about how his love was going to overcome your dead heart and bring life to your dead body and restore all that your sin took from you and give you the deepest possible joy and satisfaction, wouldn’t that be worth reading? What if God were to say to us each morning that his massive love will overcome all of today’s failures and undo all of yesterday’s pain? What if God were to say to us each evening that all the sorrow of today will be swallowed up by his mercy? What if God were to say to us each day that his joy is our strength, that his mercy is ours forever, that underneath every second of our lives are his everlasting arms? Wouldn’t we want to read that book? Well, that’s what the Bible is. It’s a story of grace for all our life. That changes everything—even our suffering, especially our suffering. Our entire life is one of grace, even the hard parts.
Grace is what the prophets saw. As they looked at the Bible, all they could see was grace. Even in those hard-to-read books like Leviticus, all they saw was grace. After all, why did God tell his people how to live before him? Why all the cleanliness laws and ceremonial laws and all the rest? Because God is creating a holy people so that he himself can live among them. But we’re not holy, are we? So he has to tell us what we must become. Even more, though, Leviticus isn’t just a rule book of what we should be, it’s a promise book of what we will, in Christ, become. God will live among his people and they will be holy just as he is because Christ will sacrificially take our uncleanness and freely give us his righteousness. It’s a promise. It’s grace.
No wonder the prophets searched and inquired carefully. When they started to see this, by God’s grace, they couldn’t believe it. God showed them what he was going to do—how he was going to save the world, how he was going to redeem his people. What is this salvation? What is this grace? How far does it go? How will the Savior come to restore what’s broken? Will he come and rule as king? Will he lead us to the Promised Land as it was meant to be? Will he redeem what is destroyed? When will he come? What will he be like? What will it mean for us?
They searched and inquired carefully because they knew that of all things demanding attention in this world, the grace of God and his salvation demands the most. It is the answer to all our problems. It is the vaccine to all our illnesses. It is the home we’re all looking for. God is breaking into this broken world to undo all our sin and to bring us back to himself. He’s not asking us to accomplish it, he’s telling us he will. He’s not requiring our perfect obedience; he’s doing it himself. Our salvation is about grace—God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
What else in all this world should draw our attention more than the grace of God in salvation?
Salvation is about grace, and it comes from Christ. That’s where we go next.
Look at verse 11. “Inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.”
God began giving clarity as the prophets searched out the plan of God. They saw a Savior would come. So they asked more questions. Who was he? When would he come? What would he be like? What would he do?
Those questions were not just questions that came from their reading of the Bible, but were given, Peter says, by the Spirit of Christ. Jesus himself, through the Holy Spirit, helped them. He indicated certain things to them. He gave insight into God’s word. He led them to the right questions, to the right connections, to the right passages. Their search was not a dead-end job. It was a divinely inspired calling.
So what did they find? Well, they found predictions of the coming Christ. The word Christ means Anointed One. They saw in the Bible an anointed one coming that would bear not simply the name of Christ but the mantle of Christ, the Anointed One to fulfill God’s promises.
But what they saw was probably surprising to them. They expected a Christ of glory, but the Spirit showed them the Christ would first suffer. A suffering Messiah? A suffering Christ? Unthinkable! Even when Jesus lived, the popular view was that God’s Christ would be the king that would lead the nation of Israel to what it was designed to be all along. He would conquer kingdoms and establish his rule on the earth. And, of course, Jesus did do just that and will do it fully at the end of this age. But the Spirit revealed to the prophets the Christ would not only have his glory, but he would also first suffer.
Now, that probably really helped them. Here’s why. The prophets’ lives weren’t easy. They were persecuted. They faced the wrath of an unbelieving society. They couldn’t have fully understood everything they wrote, but as they heard of the suffering Christ and then looked at their own suffering, they must have smiled. He was going to be like them. Their suffering wasn’t an irregularity, it was a model of his suffering, a foreshadowing of his suffering. And if their suffering was that, then what would his glory be if not a promise of their own in him?
The prophets saw that God’s salvation wasn’t coming like some magic spell—a few words and all is set right. It was coming through suffering. It was coming at a great cost. Why? Because to undo our sin is not a costless task. Our sin created a gulf not so easily rejoined. Our sin isn’t a misstep; it’s an over-step. It’s transgression. Our sin isn’t a collection of mistakes, it’s a rebellion against God. Sin doesn’t just harm our relationship with God; it separates us from him. Sin isn’t just a blemish on our skin; it’s death in our hearts. Sin is costly and can only be overcome through costly measures. We see this play out in the Old Testament sacrifices. How is man forgiven? By the shedding of blood. An animal is slain, and its blood sprinkled on the altar and over the people. We come back to God under sacrificial blood.
Well, what the prophets saw was that the blood sacrifice was to be perfected in the coming Savior. For example, the prophet Isaiah saw this. In chapter 53 of his book is the breathtaking prophecy of God’s Suffering Servant. He would bear our griefs and carry our sorrows. He would be smitten by God and afflicted. He would be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. Upon him would be lain the iniquity of us all. By his wounds, we would be healed.
Fast forward to the cross of Christ. We look at Jesus’s cross and we look at Isaiah 53 and we know Isaiah wasn’t making this up. Jesus is the Suffering Servant. Isaiah saw beforehand what would come to pass. He saw Jesus before Jesus came. He saw that salvation is about the grace of God and salvation is from Christ. It is through Jesus that God causes it to come to pass.
But that wasn’t all he saw. Yes, he saw the suffering of Christ, but he also saw the subsequent glories. In verse 10 he said, “When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” Not only suffering but also subsequent glories. Jesus will see his offspring. God will prolong his days. Resurrection is coming.
Our salvation is not coming from out of something within us. We are not pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We are not earning our salvation; we are receiving our salvation from Christ. He did the work. He accomplished it. He secured it. It’s from him. He who knew no sin became sin for us. The Christ came and suffered. Not only did that help the suffering prophets but think of the impact this would have on Peter’s suffering audience. Their life mirrored the life of Christ, full of suffering, on the way to glory. And you, dear suffering Christian, have the same hope. This is your story, wrapped up in His story.
We don’t just have salvation; we have a Savior, Jesus. He saved us. He lived the life we should have lived but didn’t and died the death we should die but now won’t, and he rose to new life to give us this living hope, this great salvation. Salvation is from Jesus. Suffering and the subsequent glory. The cross and then the crown. Death then life. That’s the grace of God from Christ.
So salvation is about grace, and it’s from Christ, but Peter wants us to make sure we don’t miss that—our third point—salvation is for us.
Look at verse 12. “It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.”
As the prophets poured over the scriptures, discerning the salvation of God and the Christ who was to come, they realized they weren’t doing all this work for themselves. They were doing it for future generations—for you and me. “It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you.” I find this absolutely stunning. Do you hear that? The prophets knew they wouldn’t see what we now see. As they searched the scriptures, they had us in mind because Jesus himself had us in mind, and he put us on their mind as part of their motivation to keep going. Isn’t that stunning?
Remember back in verse 10, Peter said, “the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours.” The grace they prophesied about was our grace. It was our inheritance. We are heirs of all the Old Testament hopes and dreams, all their promises. This salvation is for you.
And not only the prophets knew this, but so also did the evangelists—those who shared the gospel with you. We all have someone in our life who shared the gospel with us. Well, how did they get to you? Peter has an answer. Do you know why those people shared the gospel with you? Look at the middle of verse 12. “In the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.” Those people shared the gospel with you not only because they wanted to but because God wanted to. God himself came to you. The Spirit of God was sent from heaven to bring the gospel to you, to bring grace to you, to save you!
And God wants you to share that message of grace with others as well. If you’re in Christ, you’re part of the grand Story now. Your little life isn’t so little anymore. As Eugene Peterson once said, “The Christian faith matures only when it is comprehended in the longer perspectives.” Here’s the longer perspective—God told long ago about this salvation, and Christ fulfilled it, and you’re wrapped in it. It’s what the prophets saw. It’s what the evangelists knew. It’s what God wants you to take hold of. Salvation has come by grace, in Christ, for you!
Now, in case we don’t get it, there’s something more Peter wants us to see. Look at the end of verse 12. This salvation is so big, the angels long to look into it.
In the 16th century, the Italian artist Tintoretto painted Last Supper. It’s not as famous as da Vinci’s but it’s remarkable in its own way. It’s a very natural and human-looking painting with a lot going on. Da Vinci’s Last Supper is very bright. Tintoretto’s is darker but light appears in two primary places. It’s brightest in the halo around Jesus’s head. And then we notice light again in the top left, where angels are emanating from a lantern. Why are the angels there? To look into this amazing event—Jesus feeding his disciples the last supper, his body and blood that we remember each week in the taking of communion. The angels are looking down at what’s happening. That’s what Peter is saying they do. They long to look into this salvation. Why? Well, the angels are not recipients of the gospel. It’s not for them. The angels in Tintoretto’s painting don’t have halos. The disciples do—all but Judas. It is the disciples who are becoming holy by the hand of Christ. The angels are there to see sinners become saints.
The angels are fascinated by the gospel. Here’s why. We know that some angels long ago sinned and fell from heaven. Satan is chief among them. But he’s not alone. There is a countless number of fallen angels. Now, angels are real beings, with real emotions. We can see that in the good angels in their praise to God and from verses like this. Those angels who remain in heaven with God look at their fellow fallen angels and then look at what God has done for us in the gospel and they realize the same hope of salvation is not extended to their fallen counterparts. They can’t stop looking at the gospel because it is a message of grace that is reserved only for us, and to them it’s beautiful. It’s not for them. It’s for us alone. Wow.
Let’s be sure not to miss this massive point. This salvation is for us. It’s for us. Peter wants that to sink in, because it makes a real difference in our lives, especially as we face suffering. We will be able to endure to the degree to which we understand that God loves us and saves us by grace in Christ. When we deeply receive that, we find it not only possible to suffer but also glorious to do so for him.
We find it that way because we start to understand that we don’t deserve this privilege. We don’t deserve to be so close to God. We don’t deserve to be saved from our suffering. In fact, we deserve the suffering. But what God does for us in our suffering now as Christians is transform it into glory. That’s what happened to Jesus. It was suffering and the subsequent glory. That story of the gospel is playing out in every life of every Christian. Our suffering is not an aberration, it’s not a problem, it’s not an interruption, it’s a proclamation of the gospel itself. Your life as you suffer in this world under the grace of God is a living example of the grace of God. Your life speaks to the watching world, it retells the gospel story of God’s grace and salvation. As you suffer with Christ, you bear witness to his grace and others see it and they start asking questions. And who knows? Maybe God wants to use your suffering to bring others into the kingdom. Would it not be worth it all if one day 10 trillion years from now in the New Earth you walked into a room and suddenly realized that everyone there was there because they saw the way you suffered and looked to Christ and they looked to him as a result?
When we heard the gospel and gave our life to Christ, that was our entrance into this great story that God’s been telling since the world began. In fact, it began before the world began. The Bible says the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). So that means before God even spoke the first creative word, his plan was to save you by grace in Christ. If that doesn’t astound you, I don’t know what will. God saved you before you knew you needed saving. He sent Christ to die for you before your sin even killed you. God did what you cannot do on your behalf without your request for your good and for his glory. You are saved right now because God decided before the foundation of the world that he wanted you in his family, and all history proves it out.
As you and I read the Bible, we are reading not only a great historical narrative but our historical narrative. That doesn’t mean the Bible is about me and you—it’s about Jesus. But it does mean that we ought to receive it as from him to us. He is holy and worthy of worship, and he has saved us unto himself.
The salvation of God has come by grace in Christ to us, and God wants us to have it all. He’s not leaving anything out. We have a whole salvation in a complete Savior. No sin is left unforgiven. No pain is left uncomforted. No tear is left unwiped by his loving hand. This salvation is as whole as anything will ever be. Receive it. Accept it. It changes everything. What can you not endure if your salvation is that secure?
Let me close with this thought experiment from my friend Dane Ortlund.
Let's say (1) all your past, present, and future sins are forgiven and thrown into the sea; (2) you are guaranteed to reach an unending [paradise in] heaven; (3) a Father who loves you more than you love yourself is tending to and overseeing every detail of your life; and (4) every pain big or little that washes into your life can only contribute to your final radiance and glory.
How would you live differently today?
That’s Peter’s point.
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible now to 1 Peter. You can find it toward the end of your Bible. It’s a letter from the apostle Peter to various churches in the ancient world.
We’re starting a brand-new series through this great little book. Today, we’re going to look at just the first two verses, and I want to use those two verses, as Peter does, to introduce the letter.
Let’s read it now.
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
We’re starting a series on 1 Peter because it unlocks a door into the wisdom of how to suffer well. And in these hard days, that’s something we all need.
Peter wrote to Christians who were suffering and were about to suffer even more. As Christians living as exiles in non-Christian world, these people needed the reminder that suffering isn’t an aberration but an expectation. And, given to God, suffering can produce gold rather than ashes.
Peter is the perfect guide for this journey. His life included great suffering. But his life also included great attempts to avoid suffering. For example, in Matthew 16, Jesus asked his disciples who people said he was. Some people said he was John the Baptist, others said Elijah, and others Jeremiah or another prophet. Then Jesus asked who his disciples say he is. Peter piped up. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus confirmed Peter’s confession, saying it was from God, and it was the confession upon which his church would be built.
Then, just after that, Jesus told his disciples he must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die. Peter didn’t like that. Surely that wasn’t the way this would go. He blurted out, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” Jesus responded, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Peter didn’t understand that the way to the glory of Christ was the suffering of the cross. He didn’t understand that salvation of man came from the sacrifice of Jesus. He didn’t have the proper category for glorious suffering built out in his mind. How could Jesus suffer? How could he die? The better question in this sinful, broken world is how could he not?
Jesus then turned to his disciples and said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” The cross and then the crown. Life through death. Suffering then glory. That is the Christian life.
Fast forward to the night of Jesus’ arrest. Peter famously denied Jesus three times. Why? Well, if they were doing that to Jesus, what would they do to him? Then fast forward to Peter and Paul in Galatia. Some Jews arrive for dinner, some of Peter’s friends. But they don’t want to eat with those unclean Gentiles in the church. So they separated themselves, and Peter went with them. Why? Because he didn’t want to stick his neck out for them.
Peter’s life is a great example of what it looks like to avoid suffering, even suffering for Jesus. But in the Christian life, suffering is not optional but required. Remember Paul’s words in Romans 8:17, “If [we are] children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”
So we need to know how to suffer well.
When we come to this letter and this author about the topic of suffering well, we are hearing from a man who had to learn the lesson himself. He is a perfect guide because not only did he learn to suffer but he suffered well. He learned to look to Jesus during those hard trials, and he learned that lesson because Jesus didn’t give up on Peter. In fact, after his resurrection, on the beach at breakfast, Jesus restored him by asking him three times if he loved him—the same number of times Peter denied knowing him. After restoring him, Jesus told Peter to feed his sheep.
This letter is Peter feeding the sheep. But, like the rest of the Bible, these aren’t merely Peter’s human words. These are the words of Jesus himself. As an apostle, Jesus used Peter to feed his sheep. If Jesus could use a man like Peter for a purpose like that, can his grace not reach down into your life and do something miraculous too?
So this book is going to really help us. And as we start it off today, we see that Peter’s opening words are more than a greeting. They are insight into what he found in God in times of suffering and what we can find in him too. This book is for people who look at the prospect of suffering for Jesus and then look for the exit door, for people who want the shortcut if it’s available, who understand the reality of suffering but have no idea how to do it well. And really, that’s all of us.
So, as he begins, Peter gives insight into how God thinks about us. Peter learned these things himself, so it’s not just high-brow theology. This is in-the-pit-of-despair truth. In these two opening verses to suffering people, Peter shows at least three things we can find in God—things hard to believe in times of suffering, but vital to believe.
God deeply loves us
God hasn’t forgotten us
God is totally for us
Where am I getting that? Look at verse 1. Who is Peter writing to? “To those who are elect…” We’re going to stop right there for a minute. “To those who are elect…” What does that mean?
The first important word we come to is elect. Here we have the doctrine of election, or of God’s choosing. Now, for many people this is a difficult doctrine because it tells us that God chooses some while not choosing others. Some people look at that and think, “Well, God can’t be like that.” It’s very easy to get totally caught up in God’s not-choosing and therefore becomes very easy to downplay his choosing. It becomes very easy to misplace the shock of election.
Should God choose to save anyone? That is the question. Is there anyone deserving? Is there anyone worthy? Is there anyone spotless and righteous and without sin that deserves to be in the presence of the holy God for eternity? The answer, of course, is no. The Bible says, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” We all have fallen short of the glory of God. We’ve all sinned. And not just one time, but many, many times. In fact, we were born that way.
It’s January now, so probably some of us are taking another stab at reading through the Bible. You’re probably somewhere in Genesis, because every plan starts there. And you’re probably at least through the Fall of man in the Garden and onto at least the time of Noah. Remember what God said about the world back then? Genesis 6:5, “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” God created man and put him in paradise and gave him a woman to love and care for, put him in charge of the entire world—literally had world-domination—and gave it all up for a bite of fruit, for a chance at some knowledge he didn’t have. And a few generations later, it’s so bad that, as God looks out at the world that he once called “good,” he can now only see evil continually in the heart of man. No one deserved God’s grace. Everyone was wicked.
But we read on, “Noah found favor in the eyes of God” (Gen. 6:8). Wait a minute. Was Noah better than everyone else? No, the Bible doesn’t say that. It just says Noah found favor in God’s eyes. In other words, God looked upon Noah favorably, despite his sin. Noah deserved judgment just like the rest who drowned in the flood, but God chose to save him. Noah didn’t do anything to deserve it; God gave it. And we look at that and think, “Wow. God is overwhelmingly gracious.” That’s election. That’s God choosing who he will—not because they deserve it but because he has desired to set his saving love upon some, though the entire world is only wicked and deserving of judgment.
Noah believed in God not because he decided one day to have faith but because God decided to come to Noah. God gave Noah his faith. God chose Noah, elected him out of the world to survive the flood. And he’s been doing that ever since man was created. God chooses, and that choosing isn’t a problem, it’s a point of praise. The fact that God chooses to save anyone in this evil world, any one of us evil people, for that’s what we truly are, is such an astounding act of grace that Peter actually says in verse 12 the angels long to look into it. The angels in heaven, who’ve seen God face to face, look at the gospel and cannot get over the fact that God chose to save sinners. They are still gobsmacked by the gospel.
Maybe some of us can’t sort this out in our mind. We still object to the doctrine of election because we can’t fathom anyone wanting Christ but not getting him because God didn’t choose them. But nowhere in the Bible do we see that is the case. Instead, we see the gospel go out to everyone. Anyone who wants Jesus can have him. The problem isn’t wanting Jesus and not getting him. That’s not the problem at all. The problem is in the wanting. It’s the fallen human heart that rejects him.
Now here’s why this matters to us right now. We have a very deep tendency to doubt the love of God, especially in our suffering. When our life begins to fray at the edges and the starts to bottom out and leaves us breathless, doubts creep into our mind that maybe God doesn’t love us as much as we thought. But the doctrine of God’s election tells us exactly the opposite. If he chose us, he must love us. We’re not a disappointment to him. He’s not checking the return policy. We didn’t surprise him with our sin. He overcame it on the cross of Christ and chose us to be in his family.
Peter used this word intentionally because we need to know in times of suffering that suffering is not proof God doesn’t love us. In fact, Peter will go on to show it’s proof he does love us. In 3:14, he says, “Even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed.”
“To those who are elect.” We will pick this up again in just a minute, as Peter expounds on it in verse 2, but the main point right now to grasp is that God deeply loves us, and, our second point, he hasn’t forgotten us.
Look again at verse 1. Who is Peter writing to? “To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.”
So here is a group of people living in Roman provinces in what is modern-day Turkey. But beyond that, who are they? Well, some people look at that word “Dispersion” and say it must be Jewish people of the Jewish dispersion, when they were driven out of Jerusalem. But most commentators agree Peter is writing not to Jews but to Gentiles.
Now, here’s why that’s important. We’ve already talked about how Peter called them elect. By calling them elect, Peter used Old Testament language. Who was God’s elect in the Old Testament? Israel. But Gentiles are not Jews. They’re not part of the nation of Israel. Yet these people are God’s elect, his chosen people. Peter is saying that it’s not the nation of Israel but the Church of Christ that are God’s elect in this world!
Now imagine you’re living in the ancient world, as these people were. You don’t have the internet. What happens in Jerusalem isn’t live-Tweeted. You’ve heard the gospel and come to Christ and worship him alone. Yes, there is a church you are a member of but it’s the only church in town. Most people around you don’t know Jesus, don’t want to know him, and think the whole Christianity thing is ludicrous. It wouldn’t be hard to feel alone in the world, would it? It wouldn’t be hard to feel out of place, to be discouraged, to be tempted to think that though you know you’re connected to a larger group throughout the world, maybe God has forgotten you in your little corner. I mean, shouldn’t life be better than this now that you’ve been saved?
Peter addressed that by calling them exiles, for that’s what they were. This is a really important theme in the letter—one we will explore more as we go along. God’s people are pilgrims, sojourners, exiles on earth. Peter’s readers were exiles because when they came to Christ, they suddenly realized that their home was no longer their home. Their true home was in heaven with God. Their life was dramatically and forever changed, but not everyone around them believed as they did. They were exiles in their own homeland. They were exiles in their own families. They were exiles in their places of work. They were exiles in their neighborhoods. Everywhere they went, they were different because of Jesus, and people noticed. Life was not easy for them, and it was about to get harder—not just generally harder, but specifically because of their faith. Persecution was going to come, and they needed to get ready. That’s why Peter includes so much theology in this opening address. As A.W. Tozer said, “What comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” We better be sure we’re thinking rightly about God because it determines how we live.
In a situation like Peter’s audience, living as exiles, it’s not hard to think maybe God just forgot you. I mean, here you are away from the central hub of Jerusalem where it all started, in your little church with your little people, and life is hard. But God didn’t forget them. This letter was proof! It was his grace coming to them. His peace multiplying to them, as Peter says at the end of verse 2. Peter wrote to them, as he said in 4:19, to encourage them to endure suffering by giving themselves to God. Life is hard and full of suffering, but God is faithful and he will preserve them. Not only that, he will vindicate them in the end. As foolish as they look to the world right now, as much as they live as exiles now, it is they who will inherit the earth when Jesus returns.
Living as exiles means suffering for faith in a world that finds faith off-putting and weird. It’s not easy to live that way, is it? Maybe you know something of what that’s like. Our world isn’t much different than theirs. Peter’s original audience lived in what we could call a “pre-Christian” world, and some say we live now in a “post-Christian” world.
We live in a day very similar to Peter’s, but on a different end of the spectrum. In their day, Christianity was just starting to spread. It was not yet a mainstream religion. And the world didn’t understand them. The Christians and their insistence on Jesus as King made no sense. Their way of life made no sense. After all, who follows a crucified king? Who claims victory in a cross? What God loses to win?
Today, we live in an increasingly post-Christian world. The Christianity of our culture’s past is fading into the background of a secular age. Some things still remain, of course, but we are, especially in the American South, more Christ-haunted than Christ-filled. It’s the memory of a Christian past instead of a vital Christian life that surrounds us. We live among a vague Christianity with no set boundaries, no real call to obedience, no real religious activity. It’s a vague God-is-only-love religion where, bless your heart, all you gotta do to get to heaven is die. God isn’t holy and he’s not worthy of worship because, if he’s there at all, he’s there for us.
But increasingly the idea seems plausible that, probably, he’s not there at all. Heaven is there, because that makes us feel better about things, but it’s best not to talk too much about God, and certainly not to act as if he has real lordship over your life, requires anything from you, or wants you to live a certain way that would go against your own sense of truth.
Do you ever wonder why it’s so hard to live as a Christian in today’s world? Why you often feel so weird and out of place in your non-Christian circles? Sociologist Charles Taylor wrote a big book called “A Secular Age.” In the introduction, he says, “The shift to a [secular age]…consists, among other things, of a move from a society where belief in God is unchallenged and indeed, unproblematic, to one in which it is understood to be one option among others, and frequently not the easiest to embrace.”
In other words, in our day, Christianity is still an option, but it’s not the best one, and certainly not the easiest one. In Peter’s day, Christianity was barely even an option. In our day, it’s an option because it’s part of our cultural history, but it’s not a good option. We’ve gone from a society in which it was, as Taylor says, “virtually impossible not to believe in God, to one in which faith, even for the staunchest believer, is one human possibility among others.”
In our day, the possibilities are endless, and true Christianity isn’t the most attractive option to our flesh. Waiting on God doesn’t work well for impatient people. We have all kinds of fleshly gospels to choose from today, from the prosperity gospel where God wants us to be healthy and wealthy to the victim gospel where God wants to coddle us to Christian nationalism like we saw at the Capitol building on Wednesday. But to live the truly Christian life of faith in Christ alone is to live as an exile in this world. To be strangers in a strange land. It always has been, and it always will be. Embrace it.
The easy to miss encouragement of a letter like this to people like this is that the God who saves us and deeply loves us never forgets us. We may feel forgotten, but God doesn’t forget his people. We may feel alone, but we never are. We may feel at the end of our endurance, but God has more to give. Times will come when life gets hard because of our faith, when our lives fall apart and things start to get uncomfortable, and we listen to the world around us and find they don’t validate our faith, don’t respect our God, and offer a “better way.” How do we live a life of faith when things get hard because of our faith in a world in which belief in God is, as Charles Taylor said, is one option among other,s but not the easiest to embrace?
The best way is to remember that the God who remembers us. We are his people. He loves us. He hasn’t forgotten us. And, our third point, he’s totally for us.
What we’ve been talking about so far isn’t just a feel-good pep-talk. It’s grounded in the reality that God is for us. Verse 2 shows us that.
With this verse, we’re back to election. Peter expounds on God’s total involvement in salvation. Verse 2 shows us the Father, the Spirit, and the Son all intimately involved in the salvation of his people. Look at verse 2. To those who are elect exiles…“According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.”
Now, you see all three persons of the Triune God at work here. So quick refresher on the doctrine of the Trinity. It’s massively important to get this right. The doctrine of the Trinity says there is one God in three persons. There is one God. The Father is God. The Spirit is God. The Son is God. The Father is not the Son or the Spirit. The Spirit is not the Father or the Son. The Son is not the Father or the Spirit. There are not three gods, but one Triune God. Got it? Okay, great. Moving on...Of course, this is a mind-boggling truth, but it’s important to know that our God is bigger than we are. If we can’t understand him fully, that just means we aren’t him. That’s ok. He tells us all we need to know, and in verse 2, we have so much comforting truth to take hold of—all of God is all for us.
So let’s just take it a phrase at a time.
First, “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” Here is God the Father’s part. The word foreknowledge takes us back to the world elect. It’s the same idea. Foreknowledge could mean only that God foresaw whom would be his elect, but it’s more than that. Look down at verse 20. Peter is talking about Jesus, and he says Jesus was “foreknown before the foundation of the world.” It’s the same word.
Commentator Tom Schriener puts it this way.
“Peter was not merely saying that God foresaw when Christ would come, though that is part of his meaning. He was also saying that God foreordained when Christ would come. Indeed, God had to plan when he would come since Christ was sent by God. Christ’s coming hardly depends on human choices. Therefore, when Peter said that believers are elect “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,” he emphasized God’s sovereignty and initiative in salvation. Believers are elect because God the Father has set his covenantal affection upon them.”
So God the Father initiates our salvation with his divine plan of saving those whom he has chosen, his elect.
Then, secondly, “In the sanctification of the Spirit.” Here is the Holy Spirit’s part. Not only does the Father foreknow whom he will elect, but the Spirit is the source of their sanctification (Schriener). Sanctification refers to our progressive growth in Christ, our becoming like him, our transformation from one degree of glory to another.
When we became Christians, God did not say, “Great. Take it from here and I’ll see you on the other side. Just read my Bible and you’ll know what to do.” No, in fact, Jesus in John’s gospel gives us great insight into the Spirit’s role in our lives. He said God abides with us by his Holy Spirit (John 14:16), reminds us of God’s word (John 14:26), convicts us of sin (John 16:8), and guides us to the truth (John 16:13). Paul says the Spirit helps us in our weakness (Rom. 8:26-27). God dwells with us by his Spirit, sanctifying us. We are never without God. Isn’t that an amazing thought? In your deepest suffering, God is right there with you, by his Spirit, groaning in prayer too deep for words.
Third, the Son’s part. “For obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.” Here’s a two-parter. It starts with “for obedience.” Whose obedience? Well, not Jesus’s obedience, though that’s an important biblical truth, but our obedience to Jesus, our sprinkling with his blood. So it’s a two-folded encouragement. We are to obey Jesus, and we can do so because he has sprinkled us by his blood.
The sprinkling of blood points back to the Old Testament. In Exodus 24, God inaugurated his covenant with Israel with sacrifices, and the blood was sprinkled on the altar. In response, Israel promised obedience to God and his covenant. Then, Moses sprinkled the people with blood and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you.” That blood signified forgiveness and cleansing to be at peace with God. They entered the covenant through obedience and the cleansing blood sprinkled on them.
Peter picks up that Old Testament passage and applies it to God’s people now. They’ve been sprinkled by the blood. It’s through the blood of Jesus that God’s covenant with us is secured. We can obey God in our suffering because Jesus suffered and died, shed his blood to save us from our sins. These Gentile Christians are now God’s people—not because they’re part of Israel, but because they’re part of Christ’s Church. To belong to the people of God means to belong to the Son of God, to be sprinkled with his blood.
Peter is very clear: this is all God’s work. Our Christian lives are miracles of God’s grace. God elected. God determined the place and time in which they lived. God foreknew them. God sanctifies them. God shed his blood for them. God made a covenant with them to save them. Their only part is to trust and believe, and to follow God wherever he leads.
God in all his being is totally for his people. No matter what our circumstances may suggest, God is for us. He is with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. The blood of the covenant is upon us. God’s blood is sprinkled on us. We could not be more secure. So, why not trust him, even when it’s hard?
Finally, let’s consider just for a minute the last phrase of verse 2. “May grace and peace be multiplied to you.”
Why does Peter tell us all this right up front? Because to those who feel the scorn of the unbelieving world, the grace and peace of God rests upon you, and you need to know that when you wake up in the morning. Not only that, his grace and peace will be multiplied to you. But it comes in a surprising way. The grace and peace of God comes through trials and suffering of this world. The furnaces of this world, in the hands of God, produce only gold.
Yes, we are exiles here. But we are elect exiles. God deeply loves us. God hasn’t forgotten us. And God is totally for us. We’re going to be okay.
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible now to Psalm 126. We’re taking time today to look at this psalm because I think it’s a perfect meditation as we begin the new year. It’s incredibly insightful into our emotional life as Christians and how we deal with our good memories of the past and expectations of the future.
126 A Song of Ascents.
1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
3 The Lord has done great things for us;
we are glad.
4 Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like streams in the Negeb!
5 Those who sow in tears
shall reap with shouts of joy!
6 He who goes out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
bringing his sheaves with him.
So, here we are in 2021. How does it feel? Maybe you have some plans for the year, some goals, some things you’d like to do. And that’s all great. After the year we’ve had, we’re all hoping for something far better, for a restoration of sorts, aren’t we?
Psalm 126 is perfect for a day and time like ours. It’s the story of a group of people remembering a time of great joy and hoping for it again. But they’re currently experiencing a time of weeping and sorrow. Their life isn’t as great as it once was, and they’re looking to God to do something that they cannot do for themselves. They’re looking for a great turn-around, a great restoration.
And you are too, aren’t you?
This Psalm is us. It’s a view into our life: joy and sorrow. We have both. No one has only joy, and no one has only sorrow. We all have both. As we enter 2021, life is still not “normal.” We think back just a year ago and it feels like a different world. I look at the plans I made in January 2020 and have to just laugh so I don’t cry. I want to go back to that kind of world—one without a pandemic and all its effects, one without the suffering of 2020, one without the removal of so much that made life feel full. Entering 2021 is a great joy, but here we are three days into it and I don’t feel restored yet. Do you?
Psalm 126 helps us with that feeling. Tim Keller says it, “is a perfect emotional map for a person who believes in God. It’s a picture, an overview, of the emotional life that the life of faith brings.” I think that’s true. This psalm can be our guide as we enter this year, helping us discern the feelings of hope we don’t want to lose while living inside the reality we can’t wait to get out of. It’s a Psalm for people looking for a restoration, a release, a joyful return. As we enter 2021, let’s just all admit it: we’re looking for a miracle.
Well, let’s start with the good news. If you’re a Christian, you are a miracle. Your conversion was a restoration of fortunes, a miraculous release from captivity, and a joyful homecoming. But over time, life gets boring and stale, and less than we hoped. We want the good times back. More than that, we want a future of greater glory.
Israel felt the same thing. Their once-great city was a shadow of its former self, and they anticipated the hopeful restoration of Zion. But they didn’t just hope for a prosperous city—they looked forward to a reigning king, the promised Messiah. They looked forward to the time when, after the anticipation and the hope, after the promises and the prophecies, Jesus would come. The savior who, we know now, would do more than restore a broken city but would live and die and rises again to save his people from their sins.
But even the historical work of Jesus is not the end of the story. The Bible concludes not with a deep sigh of rest but cries out in desperate anticipation, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20). God’s people aren’t home just yet. We have miles to go before we sleep. Psalm 126 tells us that there is a proper place to put our sadness over dashed dreams and our hope for future dreams.
So, let’s explore this Psalm and see how it can help us. We will organize it in three points.
Longing for Better Days (vv. 1-3)
Learning to Live Here (v. 4)
Looking Ahead to the Harvest (vv. 5-6)
We don’t know the context here. Verse 1 alludes to something but no one is sure exactly what. “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.” Some say that’s referring to their return from exile in Babylon. Others say it’s not. It doesn’t matter. Even without knowing the context, it’s easy to it speaks of an Israelite restoration so grand that even the surrounding nations remembered it. Look at verses 2 and 3. “Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad.”
We don’t know what those great things were, but whatever it was, it was like a dream. You know what that’s like, don’t you? Some deliverance that seems too good to be true? For these people, that day was the happy day from which all others orbited, evoking laughter and joy, like Job after his suffering (Job 42:10). And the psalmist wanted another hopeful and joyous restoration just like it. The Lord had done great things for them, and they were glad. But that gladness faded, as it tends to do. We need more than memories of great things done, don’t we? We need the hope of great things to come. Our past, as great as it was, is the past. Who doesn’t want a brighter future?
An initial reading of this psalm can leave us with the impression that nostalgia weighed the psalmist down—remembering “the good ole days” that are now long gone. Is the Psalmist a poetic Uncle Rico, wanting to re-live his high school football days, wishing for just one more minute? Many people have thought so, but that’s not quite the tone. This isn’t nostalgia. It’s biblical hope and faith—looking back to look forward.
Sometimes it’s good to know where words come from. This is one of those times. Nostalgia first appeared as a word in the 1770s, springing from the combination of the Greek words nostos, meaning “homecoming,” and algos, meaning “pain.” In the 1800s, encyclopedias of medicine listed nostalgia as a disease: “severe homesickness.”
Isn’t that what we all are, to some degree or another? Homesick.
Israel sure was, even at home. So are we. We’re homesick for God, for what only he can provide. We’re homesick for final freedom, forgiveness, refuge, victory, and peace.
Nostalgia is a common feeling. It’s understandable. Looking back on the glory days isn’t a bad thing to do. But the problem with nostalgia is it takes us half-way home; it takes us back to the place of our former blessing, but it can’t take us to future hope. Like the glory days of old, only God can take us to that future blessing. Only God can gather us together with lasting joy, like Israel bringing in plenty during the harvest (Ps. 126:5-6).
What the entire world experienced in 2020 is a world that looks like home without the satisfaction of home. You can’t see the pandemic swirling around outside like an invading army. Everything looks normal out there, but it is very abnormal. Christians are actually really used to this reality. We live as citizens of heaven, as Paul showed us in our series on Philippians we just finished. We can make a home here but can never fully be at home here. C.S. Lewis put it perfectly, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
We are made for smother world, but we’re in this one now, and we must learn to live here, which is our next point.
Verse 4 is kind of the hinge point like the door that opens from the past to the present and on to the future.
“Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negeb!”
Far from a disease bringing one down, the memory of Psalm 126 is actually a hopeful one. This is a psalm of ascent, a hopeful song about God’s future deliverance. Today may not be like yesterday, but God doesn’t intend to take us back to what was. He intends to bring us forward to what will one day be. Of course, we’re not in either place yet, are we? We’re stuck in the middle. Hoping for more but experiencing that same old thing. Not as good as it once was, and not good enough yet.
But that’s the story of the Bible. Even the Garden of Eden, as perfect as it was, wasn’t the home God prepared for his people in the future. The Garden of Eden was a pointer to—not the culmination of—the glory to come. God’s gift of your future is better than the varied gifts of your past. In the end, even all the revivals of history will pale in comparison to the great revival coming on the clouds when Jesus comes again. What we need to reclaim as we head into 2021 is that walking with Jesus is a journey of hope!
So this psalm is not a great and longing sigh; it’s a new and hopeful song. Yes, there is a plea for restoration, as verse 4 makes clear, but it’s not a cry of desperation. It’s a cry of expectation. It’s a cry for God to do it again, grounded in faith that he will. If the first three verses are a wonderful memory, beginning in verse 4 is the start of a prayer. The memory is turned into prayer. And it’s no small prayer.
Notice the phrase in the second line, “like streams in the Negeb.” What does that mean? The Negeb is a desert. Streams do not flow in the desert. In fact, the name Negeb means dry or parched. The Psalmist is asking for the kind of restoration that feels like a watering of the driest desert. A sudden and satisfyingly refreshing outpouring of grace. It’s the kind of thing only God can do. We cannot bring it to pass, only God can. And the Bible tells us, one day, he will do something just like that. One day, the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. Our lives may be more like a desert right now, but God can bring the rain.
The lesson is that learning to live here is more than coping with a happy memory, it’s rejoicing in a coming glory. That doesn’t mean homesickness is easier to bear. It means, given to Christ, nostalgia points us homeward to glory rather than backward to the Garden.
Jesus reverses nostalgia’s direction. With him, as good as our past was, the best is yet to come, which takes us to our third and final point.
As glorious as the future is, that future glory doesn't make the present angst disappear. Life is full of disappointments. So God gave us the Psalms—as Tim Keller says—to pray our tears. You see that in verses 5 and 6.
“Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.”
Weeping in the Christian life is not a problem. Lament isn’t a problem. Crying out to God for something more isn’t a problem. It’s thoroughly biblical. Throughout the Old Testament, other than sin, it’s about all God’s people do. They cry out. They lament. They ask God to do what only God can do. Psalm 126 shows that our tears are an investment—those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! Only those who sow in tears can reap with shouts of joy. Only he who weeps brings sheaves home.
God is not asking us to live on our great memories of the past. He’s not asking us to go back to the revivals of history and let those be enough to sustain us. He’s not asking us to let our own personal times of refreshing nourish us into the future. No single event of past blessing is enough to fill us forever. We forget. We weaken. We falter. We fall. We cry and we weep and we lament.
The question is, where do we put those tears? Do we invest them?
The truth is, we need a hope bigger than we can even imagine. How many of us are looking for a restoration of the old normal? We’d be happy with that right? But God is always preparing us for a greater hope. In fact, the Bible says God prunes the fruitful branches in our lives so he can do something new and better, bringing even more fruit than before. The entire Bible and our entire lives are preparing us for a resurrection hope. That's why God sent his Sower to sow gospel seeds into our lives (Mark 4:1-20). But that seed doesn't grow instantly. Cultivating takes time we don’t want to spend. It takes watering when we don’t want to. It takes, in a word, maturing, and no one matures easily. There are tears involved. But we can invest those tears wisely, hopefully, God-wardly.
Learning to pray our tears is the maturing process by which we prepare for a greater harvest. As we weep toward God, he takes our tears and plants them in his garden of grace. They take root and grow. But the harvest comes later—as late as the resurrection.
In Matthew’s gospel, we see Mary Magdalene and the other Mary go to the tomb of Jesus the day after his crucifixion (Matthew 28:1-10). Imagine their sadness, weeping as they walk. What a joy it was to know Jesus, to be by his side as he taught, as he healed, as he filled the world with happiness and hope. But that was yesterday. That sad day, their tears were with him in the grave, buried in the ground.
As they approached the garden tomb, the earth quaked and the stone rolled away. Someone stood before them, his appearance like lightning, his clothing white as snow. He seemed to know their tears. “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen.”
Then, Jesus appeared and said, “Greetings!”
They fell and worship. Then they rose and went to tell his disciples that they too will see him.
In other words, they went home with shouts of joy.
Sally Lloyd-Jones captures this joyful mood in The Jesus Storybook Bible. Mary runs,
And it seemed to her that morning, as she ran, almost as if the whole world had been made anew, almost as if the whole world was singing for joy—the trees, tiny sounds in the grass, the birds . . . her heart.
Was God really making everything sad come untrue? Was he making even death come untrue?
She couldn’t wait to tell Jesus’ friends. ‘They won’t believe it!’ she laughed.
She laughed! Her mouth was filled with laughter, as Psalm 126:2 says, because the Lord had done great things for her, as Psalm 126:3 says. But not only for her. The Lord had done great things for all his people, for all his friends, for all of us.
How did those great things come to us? They didn’t come without tears. In fact, they came by way of death. That’s the Christian life: first the cross, then the crown. It's the planting that produces the harvest, the death that produces life. As Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).
Jesus is the proof that buried hope grows into glorious reality. The tears of the cross bore the fruit of the resurrection. He went out weeping, bearing his life for sowing; he came home with sheaves (Ps. 126:6), bringing many sons to glory (Heb. 2:10).
Israel’s story was a good one, but a better one was yet to come. And there’s a better one coming for us, as well.
One day, the Lord will restore our fortunes. We will be with him, without the sin that ruined us and created this problem in the first place. The first earth will pass away, and the holy city, the New Jerusalem, will come down out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
We will receive our glorified bodies on the new heaven and new earth, and God will say to all his people, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man” (Rev. 21:1-4). He will wipe every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more!
No more mourning. No more crying. No more pain.
The former things will have passed away.
We’ll finally be home.
So as we enter this new year, let’s just remember that everything coming in our lives is an investment in that great and final day. Psalm 126 is a psalm of ascent. Yes, there is sorrow in life, but we Christians are on our way to unending joy. We are, whether it looks like it or not, always ascending with the Lord. He himself is bringing us home to him. Maybe some things won’t be restored to us as we hope with the turning of a new year, but we can be sure, no matter what, that the promises of God for his people are sealed and guaranteed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
God can turn dry places into rivers. He can turn sorrow into joy. He can bring flowers from tears. He will restore our fortunes. We will reap with shouts of joy. God will make it so. Maybe not today. Maybe not even tomorrow. But certainly in eternity where every day will be better than the last. Every moment will be brighter than the one before it. Everything your heart most longs for—that miracle of perfect peace and love and hope and joy and everything else—is yours forever in Christ. All you have to do is receive it and wait for it.
Maybe you’re weeping today. That’s ok. Plant those tears in God’s promises. You will reap with shouts of joy.
Let’s pray.
Let’s open the Bible now to Isaiah 9:1-7, a prophecy about Jesus and one of the great Christmas passages in all the Bible.
9 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
2 The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
3 You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
4 For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
One of the things so remarkable about Christmas is that there is no other season for which we have an entire genre of music. Culturally, it’s a big deal. It’s a big deal in our home too. We start listening to Christmas music around October 1st. Maybe you’re one of those people who wait until after Thanksgiving. That’s fine, my last sermon was about how to disagree well, so we can still be friends.
Of course, there are all types of Christmas songs. There are the classic Christmas carols about Jesus, and then there are what I call seasonal cultural songs—songs like Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, and All I Want for Christmas. And then there’s this one, What Christmas Means to Me. Do you know that one?
Candles burning low
Lots of mistletoe
Lots of snow and ice
Everywhere we go
Choir singing carols
Right outside my door
It’s all about the feel-good nature of Christmas—the snow and the mistletoe and the carols. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but by the end of the song, you realize what Christmas means to the singer has nothing to do with Jesus and everything to do with a feeling. It’s happy, upbeat, very Instagrammable. It’s the Christmas card with the family, even the dog, in the Santa hat in front of the barn on the farm you don’t live on but visited sometime in October when it was still so hot the sweater you wore lived up to the name. You had to bribe the kids with ice cream afterward in return for a half-decent smile. That’s what Christmas means to so many. It’s a feeling. It’s not supernatural. It’s all very natural. Earthy, even.
But what if the meaning of Christmas is actually much darker? What if Christmas isn’t to highlight the joys of life but to shine light on the darkness of it? In the Bible, Christmas comes not on the triumphant shoulders of our put-together life but shines into the gloom of the darkness we can’t get ourselves out of. What Christmas means to our Christmasy culture can actually be quite different than what it means in the Bible.
Just like our music, Christmas is split between two groups of people. There are those that enjoy it because, I mean, what’s not to enjoy about it? And there are those who need it because it speaks of a hope beyond this world that came into this world to change this world. It’s the difference, ultimately, in where our hope lies: in ourselves and our feelings or in God and his promises.
What does Christmas mean to you?
To the prophet Isaiah, it meant hope—the hope of a child shining light in the darkness.
We can summarize the passage this way.
The hope of Christmas described (vv. 1-3)
The hope of Christmas explained (vv. 4-7)
The context of the light of Isaiah 9:1-7 is the darkness of the circumstances of God’s people. They were facing judgment. You see in verse 1, Isaiah talks about gloom and anguish and contempt. What is that about? Well, God’s people were in trouble. The great nation of Assyria was threating to invade. These were not nice people. They were like the ISIS of their day, known for their brutality. They were coming, ultimately, as God’s judgment on the nation for their unfaithfulness.
But even in the midst of judgment, Isaiah had a word from God to the faithful remnant that remained inside the largely unfaithful nation. That word was about a light coming in the darkness. Not all was lost. Circumstances weren’t good but no need to wring their hands in worry. God was at work.
This chapter opens with the word “But.” “But” is a great word in the Bible. It always comes in just the right places. When God tells us about something awful, usually because of our own sin, he often follows it with a “but” of the gospel. That’s just how his heart works. We are unfaithful, but God is faithful. We are sinful, but God saves sinners. We are in darkness, but light is coming. In the former time, there was gloom. But in the latter time is glory. From gloom to glory. That’s the gospel.
But God’s people in Isaiah’s day had to wait. However, what’s interesting in this passage is that it is written as if it has already come. This is a prophecy, meaning it’s talking about something to come in the future, but the future is written as something which has already happened. This isn’t a “maybe” from God. This is an assurance. God is saying to them—and to us—that their hopeful future in Christ is already complete. The victory is already won.
God isn’t asking them for anything; He’s telling them what’s coming. All they had to do was see it by faith. The eye of faith sees what God is doing behind the present bitter circumstances; it sees the light in the darkness. We have two options, even today. We can look at our world and, seeing the darkness, find only hopelessness and shattered dreams and conclude that God has forgotten us. Or we can look at our present darkness and remember God’s past mercies, his present grace, and his future promises. Yes, there is real darkness. But the darkness isn’t the realest reality. Behind even the darkest of nights stands the bright light of Jesus Christ.
Verse 2 describes the light. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” Notice, they’re walking in darkness. They don’t just see the darkness, they’re walking inside it. They feel it.
Who are these people walking in darkness? Verse 1 says it’s those in “the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.” Geography lesson. Israel was hemmed in on the east and west by the sea and the mountains so whenever foreign armies attacked Israel, they went first to Galilee in the north. The nations entered there. Galileans didn’t just have a tough day, they had a tough life. They knew what it was to suffer. Isaiah is saying hope would come first to those who suffered most. Those who took the brunt of every invasion would be the first to see the light dawning out ahead. And as we look to the New Testament, where is it that Jesus begins his ministry? Galilee (Matthew 4:12-17). Those walking in darkness found themselves ushered into the light of Christ. Jesus went to Galilee first, Matthew says, so that this prophecy would be fulfilled. Jesus was saying that he is the light of Isaiah 9.
Now, Isaiah says that light spreads. Verse 3: “You have multiplied the nation…” This remnant, in God’s care, grows and grows until we see in Revelation that it’s “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages … crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” Way back in Genesis 17:5, God promised Abraham that he would multiply his children into a nation of people. From Abraham to all tribes and peoples and tongues. God is keeping his promise. God takes a suffering remnant and grows it into a global party.
No wonder that as the light spreads, so does the joy. As the light spreads, the gloom and the darkness is replaced by joy and rejoicing. “You have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.” What is this joy? Isaiah uses two metaphors. First, the joy of farmers at harvest, a big payout for all the toil—like a Christmas bonus you never imagined. Second, the joy of soldiers dividing the spoil, the joy of victory after battle. And—this is important—they didn’t do anything to achieve this. They didn’t accomplish it through their hard work. In fact, they didn’t have a hand in it at all. Notice the first two phrases of verse 3 begin with “You”—“You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy.” All the activity is on God’s side. God does it, and his people rejoice. God plants, and his people harvest. God fights, and his people get the spoils. God in grace wins the prize for them.
God’s people walked in darkness. But the hope of Christmas shines bright beyond their circumstances.
How does that hope come? Verses 4-7 explain.
Verses 4, 5, and 6 begin with the word “For.” In other words, here’s how the hope just described is coming.
Look at verse 4. “For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.” What does that mean? God wants to illustrate the kind of surprising victory he’s going to achieve. Remember Gideon? He was an unlikely hero, wasn’t he? Gideon was a Judge in Israel during the time when the nation of Midian ruled over them. Judges were to fight on Israel’s behalf, but Gideon didn’t want the job. We first see him beating out wheat in the winepress to hide from the Midianites (Judges 6:11). The angel of the Lord came to him and said, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” It’s laughable. Mighty men of valor don’t hide from their enemies. When Gideon finally got around to obeying God’s command to fight, God first scaled his army back from 32,000 to only 300 men. Why? To prove this was the Lord’s battle; he can win against impossible odds. Gideon shouldn’t have won, but his little army in God’s mighty hands caused such a panic that the Midianites killed each other! That’s the kind of miraculous victory God will work for his people again.
But he won’t stop there. Look at verse 5. “For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.” God will not only win the war for us, he will end war itself. The warrior will no longer need his battle boots. There will be no more garments rolled in blood. It will be put to an end. How will it be put to an end? Not by Israel’s strength, but by God’s. This victory is not their accomplishment, nor is it ours. It is God’s. We step onto the battlefield after the victory is won. We celebrate his victory as if it is our victory because in Christ, by grace, it is.
Now, verse 6 is the climax. What we find, finally, is the answer to all that has ever made us afraid. Every anxiety we’ve carried, every fear we’ve nursed, every difficulty we’ve faced is answered in one single person: a child. Look at verse 6. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
This is not what we expect, is it? There is nothing in this world weaker than a human child. Animal offspring are more self-sufficient. Think of the baby sea turtles. They hatch on the beach and immediately are thrust into a life and death race to the waters. Before they even have time to look around the world, they’re off and running. But a human child? It lays in a crib, crying for milk, sleeping twenty hours a day (of course, not in a row because that would be too convenient). It’s utterly vulnerable. Anything could happen and it would have no defense. How is it that when God waged war on this world he sent a baby? In what universe does that make any sense at all?
What is God doing? He’s overturning our expectations. God has ordered the world such that weakness overcomes power, foolishness overcomes wisdom, a child defeats all evil. It’s an unlikely, improbable, incredible story. When everything else in this world fails, when all our best plans are found wanting, when we’ve reached the very end of what we can do, unto us a child is born. There is a baby in a manger to set it all right again. We like to think we’re strong and mighty, capable of conquering it all on our own, or at least collectively, but it turns out God doesn’t need us at all; we need him. And in this child, we have him: the baby born in a manger 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ our Savior.
Isaiah says the government shall be upon his shoulder. What does that mean? It means, first, that the government of this world doesn’t ultimately land on us but on Jesus. Jesus is Lord of lords and King of kings. He rules and reigns over all.
But, of course, anytime power is centralized, we become suspicious. Can we trust the leader? Can we trust Jesus? What kind of government will he bring? Isiah tells us. Jesus will be a “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Jesus governs with wisdom. We aren’t his counselor; he is ours.
Jesus governs with strength. He’s not just any child; he’s also almighty God.
Jesus governs as a father. He cares for us with the affection of a tender father.
Jesus governs in peace. Peace at every level—vertically with God, horizontally with others.
I love the succinctness of Ray Ortlund. “As the Wonderful Counselor, he has the best ideas and strategies. Let’s follow him. As the Mighty God, he defeats his enemies easily. Let’s hide behind him. As the Everlasting Father, he loves us endlessly. Let’s enjoy him. As the Prince of Peace, he reconciles us while we are still his enemies. Let’s welcome his dominion.”
Isaiah 9:1-7 is the story of how God wins our salvation for us. Our lives are hard—really hard. Our sin is great—really great. Our need is immense—so immense. But God’s grace in Christ is greater still. There is no end to his supply for our need. That’s why Isaiah says in verse 7, “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.” Do you know what that means? Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. The reign of Christ will not come and be; it will come and increase. He will not rule only Israel—some no account little nation in the Ancient Near East. He will rule the world, the galaxy, the cosmos! And his rule will not be like that of the Assyrians, war after war after war. Once he conquers all evil, it will be one of peace. His kingdom spreads through peace, and of that peace there will be no end. There will be no pockets of rebellion. His victory will be total and complete. His kingdom has no end. It fulfills all promises. When established, it’s upheld. It’s just and righteous. It will last forever.
This is really good news especially to those living in oppression and injustice. All that evil is coming to an end in Christ. So, beware, all workers of injustice in this world. The light has shone, and your time is running out.
Jesus is the perfect King. A king of justice and peace without end. If we accept Jesus as our great King, we have nothing to fear in him. He will always be for us, no matter how great or small we are. In fact, the smaller, the better. The needier the better. The more humble, the better. Jesus is the King and Savior to all who need him.
We will never reach the limit of Jesus’s strength. We will never exhaust his storehouses of grace. We will never out-sin his patience. We will never run so far that he can’t find us. We will never fail so hard that he can’t redeem us. We will never fall so deep he can’t rescue us. His empire of grace will expand and expand and expand and expand until the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). Every single moment with Jesus is and will forever be better than the moment before. He will increase, and we will be with him enjoying his increase.
But how can we be sure this will happen? I mean, it’s a big world. History is long and messy. Doesn’t even God’s patience run out? Here’s the amazing thing about these verses: God’s people are not the subject of any of the verbs; God is. God is doing this. He’s doing it without their help, and he’s doing it for their good. They couldn’t do it if they tried. This is the kind of thing that only God can do. Christmas is a time to remember God loves to do for his people what they cannot do for themselves. His own mighty heart will accomplish this because it’s what his own massive love wants.
Look at the end of verse 7. Here is the seal of the promise. “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” Do you know what that means? It means that God’s passion for his own glory is driving this. He isn’t getting tired of saving. He’s just getting started. The more he has to triumph over evil, the more his grace is seen and known. The needier you and I are for his mercy, the greater his desire is to provide. Like a father with a child, who loves for no other reason than because he loves, the All-Holy, Eternal, Everlasting Father God loves you with all of his massive heart. That’s why he gave his child, and that’s why the child went to the cross. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
So here’s what Christmas ultimately means: the promise of a light shining in the darkness, a child given to us.
In the end, there are only two groups of people in this world. There are those who need this child and those who don’t. If you’re doing just fine on your own; if you win victory after victory with no trouble at all; if you don’t even see the darkness because your future is so bright you need shades, maybe the gospel isn’t yet for you. Maybe you need to first experience the darkness.
But if you feel the darkness; if you are weary and need rest; if you mourn and long for comfort; if you feel worthless and wonder if God even cares; if you fail and desire strength; if you sin and need a savior; this light is for you.
We don’t deserve the light. We just receive the light. Here’s how we do that. When Jesus came to Galilee so long ago to fulfill this promise, he opened his ministry saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” That was an invitation to all who have a heap broken dreams, unkept promises, shattered hopes, disordered desires, and a pile of sins you can’t believe you committed. The entry into his glorious kingdom, into his marvelous light, is as simple as needing Jesus. You might be an absolute mess, especially in this hard year of 2020, but you can be Jesus’s mess. He would love that.
By coming to us in Christ, God has put his salvation so low that anyone can reach it. There’s really just one catch. You have to forsake self-assurance. You have to lay aside the pride that won’t accept being saved by a baby in a manger.
Maybe this Christmas, more than ever before, we need to accept with the empty hands of faith the overwhelming grace of God. Maybe this Christmas you need to stop trying so hard to save yourself and instead let your Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace do it for you. But you say, “I’ve been unfaithful, and I’m just not sure God can accept me back yet again. My repentance never seems to last. My sins never seem to end. My wandering heart never seems to rest.” Well, come anyway. God’s not asking you to deserve Jesus. He’s asking you to receive him. For to you a child is born, to you a son is given.
Let’s pray.
Throughout the letter, Paul urged his readers to unity. In chapter 1, he prayed their love might abound more and more (1:9) as they stood firm in one spirit and of one mind (1:27). In chapter 2, he urged them to be one in spirit and purpose (2:2). In chapter 3, he reminded them of their shared citizenship in heaven (3:20). And now here in chapter 4, he gets right to the point about the problem in the church. He wants to address a disagreement among them.
So, this passage is about Christian relationships. It shows the difference Jesus and his gospel makes among us. Let’s read it now.
1 Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
2 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. 3 Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
C.S. Lewis used a phrase I think about a lot: chronological snobbery. He meant we tend to look at people of the past and turn our noses up at them because, I mean, look at us, we’ve come so far. But I think it’s also true in reverse when we look at the early church. We’re the degenerate ones now. We say things like, “I want a New Testament church.” There is some merit to that. The early church was magnificent. But that doesn’t mean they were inherently better than us. This passage is a good example.
Paul had to address a problem. Two women couldn’t agree on something. We don’t know what it was, but the disagreement was so big it was threatening the church’s unity at the very time when they needed it most. Instead of standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel (1:27), they were bickering and fighting. Paul urged them to stop. And without taking sides in the disagreement, he marshaled the rest of the church to help these women come together in the Lord because whatever their disagreement was, it was not bigger than the wrap-around reality of their salvation in Christ and his mission for them in this dying world.
So, Paul entreated them to agree. He asked for the church to help. Because there was some rejoicing to do, and they needed to get on with it.
We have three points today:
The gospel gives us something to agree on that’s bigger than our disagreements.
Jesus’s grace makes us all helpers in making peace.
When all else fails, rejoicing in Jesus is our point of agreement.
We don’t know what the disagreement was between these two ladies in Philippi. But that doesn’t matter. We can fill in the blanks with our own experiences. We know what disagreements are like, and many of us know all too well the kind of disruption a deep disagreement inside a church can have.
Here’s an important truth. How we deal with disagreements shows what we believe way deep down about the primacy and sufficiency of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And how we help others navigate disagreements shows what we believe way deep down about the unity and uniqueness of Christ’s church. Are our disagreements just a step on the path to our inevitable separation or are they an opportunity to, by faith, let Jesus unify the un-unifiable?
In his book, The Mark of a Christian, Francis Schaeffer said, “In the midst of the world, in the midst of our present culture, Jesus is giving a right to the world. Upon his authority, he gives the world the right to judge whether you and I are born-again Christians on the basis of our observable love toward all Christians.”
In other words, what’s at stake in our life together inside the church is nothing less than the glory of God before the watching world. Our relationships really matter. Jesus says they do. And because they matter, he puts little passages like this in our Bible to help us see how we can move closer together when everything is pushing us further apart. How we handle our disagreements shows the watching world what we really think about Jesus and the kind of reconciliation he offers in the gospel.
I wonder how many stories of church injuries due to disagreements you’ve heard. How many have you experienced? What’s the solution? The solution cannot be withdrawal or retreat. Leaving the church will not make your life or anyone else’s life better. Separating the believer from the family only increases the pain.
The only solution is a commitment to loving the way Christ loves. That means we love even when we don’t feel it. We love even when we disagree. We love because we promised to and because it isn’t based on our feelings but on the promise that Christ gives—to overcome our sin by his grace and unite us despite our differences. In Christ, our differences—including our disagreements—are not points of separation but proof of his unifying glory.
Thankfully, I’m not aware of any deep disagreements causing unrest within Refuge. May the Lord keep it so. But many churches are struggling right now. We’re fresh off an election cycle. It’s never pretty, but this time around, it felt more intense. Both candidates received more votes than any other candidate in our nation’s history, which means two sides (including Christians) stand on opposite ends and their number is not small. Seventy million-plus on each side. Our country is—and many churches are—bitterly divided right down the political middle, and as we look to the future, some see hope and others see despair, and even if we’re on the hopeful side, we’re just four years away from another potential disruption.
And as if the election wasn’t enough, we also have COVID-19 raging through our country, separating families and friends as we’re forced to quarantine and social distance. But we’re not satisfied with an illness, are we? No, we have to mix in a bit of disagreement on mask-wearing and proper protocols to the elixir of suffering and isolation. Isn’t it amazing? When something terrible rushes in, standing together in agreement is not our default. We love to disagree. It drives us. It motivates us. It riles us up and gets us moving toward the post button on social media to find like-minded friends and “own” our dim-witted enemies.
We find disagreement everywhere. Fox News vs. CNN. Republicans vs. Democrats. Maskers vs. Anti-maskers. Public school vs. Private school vs. Home school. Jordan vs. LeBron. University of Tennessee vs. Alabama (as if that’s a real rivalry). We don’t even care what it is. We will disagree and argue over anything. My kids can’t even agree on a pizza place on Friday night. It’s deeply in us to seek disagreement and fight on that front until we win.
Why do we do that? Because we all have very sincere beliefs. The reason you disagree and are willing to stand on one side against another is because things deeply matter to you. And, of course, there are things in this world worthy of our deep disagreement and our most courageous and ardent fight. For example, when the gospel is truly at stake, it’s worth fighting for. When wolves slip in in sheep’s clothing, spreading heresy against Jesus Christ and his cleansing blood, that’s worth going to battle over. But how many of our disagreements reach that level? How many will we even still care about in twenty years?
Here’s the real danger. It’s not our disagreements. It’s possible to disagree and remain close to one another. We know that. The real danger is fighting the wrong battle with the same intensity that should be used only for the right battle. We see this in the Pharisees of the New Testament. What was their problem? They loved God. Jesus was God. How could they not then love him? I’ll tell you why. Moral fervor.
Do you know what moral fervor is? Morals are those things we believe are right. Fervor is our intensity of feeling. Combine them, and we have intense feeling of what is right. And therein lies the real potential danger. If we feel intensely right about the wrong things, we’ll be intensely wrong but think we’re right. That was the problem with the Pharisees. They were intensely wrong about the rightness of their view of God’s law. Looking at the letter, they missed the Savior. Their moral fervor was their deepest evil. It was their intention to serve God without crucifying their flesh first. They felt virtuous, as if they were the ones truly serving God when, in reality, they were the ones who killed him. Believing they were the defenders of the holy, they crucified the Holy One. And they felt good about it.
We must be deeply suspicious of our moral fervor. How can we do that? We can do it by looking to Jesus and his gospel. That’s what Paul did before getting to chapter 4. Look at the first word of verse 1, “Therefore.” What is “therefore” there for? To say, “In light of all the gospel truth I just explain, do this...” Before Paul entreated Euodia and Syntyche to agree in the Lord, he told them about the Lord. Before he asked for the church to help them agree in the Lord, he told them about the Lord. Before he exhorted them to rejoice in the Lord, he told them about the Lord. Our path away from moral fervor and into gospel fervor is the gospel itself. It’s looking to Jesus and letting his truth so saturate our minds and hearts that we’re able to see what is worth fighting over and what is worth getting over.
We have many disagreements. We always will. But the gospel gives us something to agree on that’s bigger than our disagreements. Let’s not complicate that. Let’s not let other, lesser things slip in and cause disruption. Let’s keep the gospel front and center. Jesus is a bigger rallying point than anything else this world has to offer. He’s calling us to himself, and as we cast our eyes upon him moment by moment, he will create in us a unity that shocks the world.
And more than that, he will deploy us all inside his church to be peacemakers for his glory, which is our second point.
Francis Schaeffer makes a profound observation about disagreements inside the church.
I have observed one thing among true Christians in their differences in many countries—what leaves a bitterness that can last for twenty, thirty or forty years (or for fifty or sixty years in a son’s memory)—is not the issue of doctrine or belief which caused the differences in the first place. Invariably it is lack of love—and the bitter things that are said by true Christians in the midst of differences… It is these things—these unloving attitudes and words—that cause the stench that the world can smell in the church of Jesus Christ among those who are really true Christians.
In other words, how we disagree has long-term implications. Live long enough with anyone and you’re bound to disagree with them. Which marriage doesn’t have disagreements? Which friendships don’t? The mark of a good marriage or a good friendship or a good church culture is not the absence of disagreement but how those disagreements are handled.
A gospel culture includes wisdom in disagreeing well at all levels. In every disagreement, there aren’t just sides to take but people to bring together for Jesus’s sake. Every disagreement is an opportunity to be a peacemaker in the house of God.
How can we make peace? Well, look back at this passage. Paul not only gave the how, but he also modeled the way. Paul disagreed with the disagreement between Euodia and Syntyche. He also knew there was a certain way to disagree with their disagreement, a way that had a high chance of bringing peace instead of adding fuel to the fire. How did he do that? Look at verse 1. He front-loaded this with his love for them. He wanted them to know that despite his disagreement with their disagreement, what mattered most to him was his love for them—and not just them, but the entire church.
Look at the words he used in verse 1: My brothers (by which Paul also means sisters—a footnote in your Bible), whom I love and long for, my joy and crown…my beloved. This is the most affectionate language Paul used anywhere in all his letters. It’s familial. They were his brothers and sisters whom he deeply loved and rejoiced in. He saw them as his reward and his crown. This church, with all their problems, was Paul’s proof that he had not labored in vain.
Remember, Paul was an apostle. He could have wielded that apostolic authority by making commands. But he didn’t. Instead, look at what he did. He said in verse 2, “I entreat…” Rather than command them to shape up, he entreated them to agree. Instead of standing over them, he came alongside them. When Paul addressed the disagreement, he let his deepest feelings for them set the tone. We don’t always do that. We lead off with our momentary feelings of anger or disappointment. But what might happen if we let our love speak first?
Paul wanted them to agree. But not just via some mild compromise. Notice the kind of agreement he urged upon them: “agree in the Lord.” Paul used this phrase “in the Lord” three times in these four verses. Throughout his NT writings, he used some variation of it about 160 times. It was important to him. What does it mean? Theologians call it union with Christ. When Christ saves us, he unites us to himself. We are now one with him, as our bodies with our head (1 Corinthian 12), as a wife with her husband (Ephesians 5), as branches with the vine (John 15). That changes everything. Our whole reality is different because of it. For example, maybe you feel weak, but the truth is that because you are united to Christ, you have the industrial-strength Jesus holding you up. Maybe you feel insecure in your relationship with God, but the truth is because you are united to Christ, you are as secure as Christ is. Whatever he is you are now by this union. You cannot think of yourself apart from him. You are united to him forever, by his grace and for his glory.
Now, that has an impact on how we disagree with one another, doesn’t it? If I’m in Christ and you’re in Christ and we disagree, the nature of our disagreement is not like the disagreements we find out in the world. How could it be? We’re members together in Christ's body! How does your hand disagree with your leg so that it cuts it off because it disagrees? That’s unthinkable. So it is between two believers in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We disagree on different terms entirely. The gospel knows nothing of cancel culture. Paul urged these ladies to let what was most true about them—their union with Christ—overcome whatever separated them. He wanted them to get on the same page with one another for Jesus’s sake and for the advancement of the gospel. He wanted them to think with the Lord’s mind, not theirs. As he said in 2:2, “Complete my joy by being of the same mind.”
We have something holy joining us together because the Holy One has joined us to himself. That changes things. It means we don’t have an option to disagree without seeking peace. Paul knew all too well that it’s possible for our disagreements to so get in the way that there isn’t another option but separation. But that shouldn’t be the norm. Too often we just give up way too easily, and too often those watching just let it happen. After all, in our day, there is another church down the road. But one day, Jesus will cleanse us totally and remake us entirely and we will live in harmony with one another for eternity. If he will do that then, can he not give us a taste of it now as we look to him for the grace to help?
Paul wanted them to also see that they weren’t alone. He had words for others in the church as well. Look at verse 3. This is a community project. He asked others to get involved in the disagreement. “Yes (yes, it’s their responsibility to agree, but…), I ask you also, true companion, help these women.” Now, we don’t know who this “true companion” is. But we can see Paul wanted these women to agree so much that he leveraged other relationships in the church to help repair this one. He recruited peacemakers.
Why would he do this? Because these women mattered greatly not only to Paul but to the whole church. Their disagreement rippled out to the edges of their community. They weren’t just two random women, as some have said, “bickering as women do.” First, that’s incredibly sexist, and second, it’s just not true. The church in Philippi consisted of some amazing women who served in gospel ministry at various biblical capacities. Notice Paul said Euodia and Syntyche labored side by side with him in the gospel. Literally, he said they fought with him as soldiers advancing side by side. These were impressive, fearless, courageous, bold, gospel-saturated women. They served, Paul said, “together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.”
Maybe you’ve witnessed two respected Christian people disagree with one another. It's rattling, isn’t it? You look at each and think, “I know they love Jesus. I know they understand the gospel. I’ve seen their life. I admire each of them. But they can’t get along. What’s going on?”
When that happens, we tend to do one of two things. We tend to take sides or withdraw. But Paul says there’s a third option. Instead of taking sides, and instead of withdrawing, he entreated the two ladies to agree in the Lord and he enlisted the church to help them do so.
Because Jesus cares about our relationships with one another, he gathers us as the Church to help one another. You can’t see it as clearly in English as you can in Greek, but Paul used the word with repeatedly. The true companion is to “yoke with” Paul in helping them. The help given is to “hold with” them because they have “contended with” Paul for the gospel and they are part of a group of fellow workers who “work with” Paul. There is a with-ness in the church created and sustained by Jesus. We’re in this together. Disagreements may mark the world, but with-ness ought to mark the church.
In Christ's church, we have something binding us together far beyond our shared goals or aspirations. What binds us together is the grace of God found in Jesus Christ. Look at the end of verse 3. Paul talked about this binding together by referring to something literally bound together, a book. Why should this church help these ladies agree in the Lord? Because their names are, together, “in the book of life.” Why did he mention this “book of life”? The same reason he asked them to agree “in the Lord.” He leveraged their future for their present, reminding them that what binds them together is far greater than what pulls them apart.
This is so important to remember when we disagree with another Christian. Because your name, beloved, is written in God’s book of life, securing your spot in heaven with him forever, the name that sits on another page in the same book will also be there with you and him in heaven forever. So why not agree now? Why not let that future day impact this present day? Why not find in Jesus Christ so much to agree on that you forget what you ever disagreed about?
When we continue our disagreements, as Schaeffer said, leaving a lasting bitterness, we’re saying to Jesus, “You don’t really matter in this.” But when we seek peace together in the face of disagreement, we say to Jesus, “You matter above all.” Don’t we want to say that to him?
This is not easy. I’m not saying it is. Paul didn’t say it was. But it is possible. And with a church family reminding one another of the immense worth of Jesus Christ, we can find a way through even the sharpest disagreement and find joy in the Lord.
Look at verse 4. This is an amazing verse. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” Why did Paul say this after entreating them to agree and calling upon the church to help them? Because the thing that will get us through the hardest of times is rejoicing in the Lord.
As my friend TJ Tims at Immanuel Church once said, this verse shows the difference that Jesus makes. Here it is. When we are in the middle of our most bitter disagreements, there is a mutual focus of rejoicing that can bring us together because Jesus Christ is reconciling all things in himself, as Colossians 1:2 says, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Rejoicing isn’t always easy, of course. But Paul knew that. Karl Barth, the famous 20th-century theologian, said “joy” in Philippians is a defiant “Nevertheless!” Nevertheless, “Rejoice!” Despite the circumstances, rejoice. Whatever is happening, rejoice. This is a biblical imperative that, as theologian R.C. Sproul said, leaves no room for not rejoicing. We are to rejoice not sometimes, not periodically, not when we feel like it, not when things go our way, not when we finally get relief, but always. And in case we don’t get it the first time, Paul says it twice. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”
Now, this is a bit troubling for someone like me. I don’t always rejoice. Sometimes I rejoice. Mostly, though, I’m just anxious. Anxiety is a battle I'm constantly fighting, and it’s a great joy-stealer. But I love the way R.C. Sproul explains how this can be true even for me.
How is it possible to remain joyful all the time? Paul gives us the key: “Rejoice in the Lord always” (emphasis added). The key to the Christian’s joy is its source, which is the Lord. If Christ is in me and I am in Him, that relationship is not a sometimes experience. The Christian is always in the Lord and the Lord is always in the Christian, and that is always a reason for joy. Even if the Christian cannot rejoice in his circumstances, if he finds himself passing through pain, sorrow, or grief, he still can rejoice in Christ. We rejoice in the Lord, and since He never leaves us or forsakes us, we can rejoice always.
Nevertheless, rejoice!
Okay. That’s all well and good, but how does this connect to Paul’s entreaty above? It connects like the engine to the car. It’s the thing that moves us. Two passengers are seated, going in a common direction and something comes between them. But they’re still moving because the engine is still running. That’s what rejoicing in the Lord does. It keeps us moving toward our destination together. If the engine is still humming, we’re still making progress. We might wish we were going faster. But we’re moving. Jesus is taking us there.
Rejoicing in the Lord is the engine that moves us along together toward him. When we struggle to find common ground on other things, we can always find common ground in him. Why? Because he died to join us together in him.
Maybe we don’t think of that in the heat of disagreement, but we should because it’s what’s most true about us. Whatever our differences, the gospel is one mega-truth that unites us. The reconciliation Jesus bought by his blood is not up to our moods; it’s up to his grace. And if he’s swept us up in him together, well, we can argue if we want to, but we cannot overcome his love. We can only yield.
How do we yield? By rejoicing. When we rejoice in Christ, especially together, we’re saying something magnificent about who he is. We’re saying that Jesus matters more than what divides us. We can’t fix our issues, but Jesus can.
You know, if anyone ought to disagree with us, shouldn’t it be God himself? After all, we rebelled against him. We sinned against him. We disagreed with his word and said to him, “You’re not good enough for me.” Shouldn’t he abandon us as we’ve abandoned him? But what did he do instead? He gave his only begotten Son. He entered our mess in Christ. He lived the life we should have lived and died the death we were owed to bring us back. He overcame our disagreement with him by making peace with us on the cross. He did that for me. He did that for you. He did that for all who look to him by faith and accept his offer of reconciliation.
So, you and I may disagree on things from time to time, but can we at least agree on the glory of Jesus Christ? If we can, we’re already getting more traction with one another than we might realize.
Let’s just lookout ahead. One day, we will stand side by side with the other believers saved by Jesus. We will rejoice as we never have before. And we might remember the disagreements that separated us here, but more than that, we will look at one another on that day and think, “Can you believe we’re here together? What grace!” And we will rejoice and rejoice and rejoice. So, why not start that now and see where the grace of Jesus can take us?
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”
Let’s pray.
Earlier in chapter 2, Paul presented Jesus as an example of humility and sacrifice. Verses 19-30 read like a travelogue. It feels different. But if we look deeper, we’ll see the connection: two men who exemplify the Christ-like qualities he spoke of earlier. The Lord is our model; and Timothy and Epaphroditus are model Christians. Let’s read it now.
19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. 20 For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. 21 For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. 23 I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, 24 and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.
25 I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, 26 for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. 27 Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. 29 So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, 30 for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me
After Paul’s words about the beauty of Jesus’s humble sacrifice, a question rises to the surface: can I expect to find that same beauty among his followers? I mean, after all, if it’s Jesus’s church, shouldn’t his humble, sacrificial service mark the church through and through? Paul says it does, and in this passage, he presents Exhibit A and B, proving the preceding gospel doctrine of Jesus isn’t just something good to think about but creates a beautiful gospel culture to live inside.
Timothy and Epaphroditus are proof that the gospel is real. I mean why else work so hard and suffer and put others’ interest above your own?
Here’s the lesson: our lives bear witness to the fact that Jesus suffered and died. If others see in us the same kind of Christ-centered self-sacrifice, they can see the truth of the gospel. That doesn’t mean when we fail, the gospel is less true. It’s true no matter what. But it can be seen in the way we sacrifice, serve, and care for one another.
Of course, we can’t do it without Jesus. That’s the other lesson. Christ not only shows us the way, he is the way. He not only commands us to go and live likewise; he invites us into himself, comes to us by his Spirit, and empowers us to live self-sacrificial lives.
Paul wants us to see in Timothy and Epaphroditus the kind of whole-hearted Christian life that Jesus our Savior creates. So my sermon today is pretty simple, outline-wise: Paul’s two examples, and what those examples mean for us.
In verses 19-25, Paul relays Timothy’s plans. Timothy was coming to get a first-hand report of the condition of the church—to report to Paul the status of the disagreement within. Paul hoped that report would encourage him, that his letter would have had an impact, helping them agree in the Lord in all humility and joy.
Who was Timothy, and why was he being sent?
Chapter 1, verse 1 says this letter is from Paul and Timothy. Acts 16 says Timothy was a convert of Paul who went on to be Paul’s companion and right-hand man on many of his missionary journeys. His name means, “one who honors God,” and from all accounts, he lived up to that name. The Philippians knew him well. He planted the church with Paul. In fact, he helped plant many churches, raising up men and women to serve those churches, and leaving to go to the next city to start all over again, pouring himself out for the sake of the gospel.
Why would Timothy do this? What possesses a man to give up a normal life with a regular 9-5 job with a steady salary and good benefits and paid time off and plenty of time on the weekend to hang out with the family, work in the yard, and watch football? Church planting is incredibly taxing one time, but he did it repeatedly. Pastoring is trying, but he was tireless. What compels a man to do this? Jesus does. When Timothy came to Christ, Christ sent him out, and Timothy willingly went.
Timothy read and accepted the beginning of Philippians 2 about the example of Jesus. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant…he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross…”
Timothy knew those weren’t just beautiful words, they were beautiful words about his beautiful savior. Jesus did that for him, and he did it for others, and he was willing to suffer so others would know.
Timothy was the right man for the job. He might not have looked like it on first impression. In other parts of the Bible, Paul talks to him about his timidity. Timothy was just a regular guy, whom Jesus saved and Paul discipled, that was willing to put all his chips on Jesus’s square. And Jesus took him around the ancient world, planting churches and pastoring people and pouring himself out for the sake of the gospel. Timothy is a perfect example of the biblical truth that God exalts the humble.
Timothy was a man who deeply accepted the lordship of Jesus. He let Jesus set the boundaries of his life because he saw in Jesus the kind of Lord who could be trusted. Jesus made himself nothing for nobodies like Timothy. Jesus emptied himself, taking the form of Timothy’s servant so that he might save him from his sins and usher him into an eternal kingdom. Timothy was a humble man whom God used in his mighty hands for his mighty purposes because he simply looked to Christ by faith and trusted him with his life.
What does that service look like?
Well, look at verse 20. Paul says he has no one like Timothy who “will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.” John Stott says the word genuinely contains the idea “as a birthright.” Timothy served with Paul as a son with a father. He took upon himself the responsibility to care, alongside Paul, for the church, as a responsibility from Jesus. He thought to himself, “I’m responsible for them. I want to care for them as much as I care for myself. I’m committed because Jesus is committed to them.” Do we take responsibility for one another as Timothy did, for Jesus’s sake? Do we serve one another in this way? Do we have a genuine concern for the welfare of our brothers and sisters inside the church?
There seems to be nothing forced or artificial about Timothy’s care. It came naturally to him. Or, rather, it came supernaturally to him. Jesus so changed his heart that he couldn’t not love his brothers and sisters. That’s the key to it all. If we want to care as Timothy cared, we must let Jesus change us. We must deeply accept not only the salvation of Jesus but also the calling of Jesus. What he commands is hard, and to love people is the hardest of all, but whatever Jesus commands he also gives. He gave it to Timothy. He can give it to you too.
We see how this gift reveals itself in verse 21. “For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.” Who is “they” that seek their own interests? Probably others Paul could have sent. Timothy is different. He’s a truly humble man. Not a bone in his body wants something for himself.
And the Philippians could see this. Paul says in verse 22 Timothy was a proven commodity. He was faithful, steady, and sure. He had a good reputation. Over the years, he proved he wasn’t out for himself. He wanted, like Paul, to see Christ formed in them.
Like Jesus, Timothy put the interests of others above his own. That’s the true measure of a servant-hearted person. Timothy was a mature Christian. Compared to the important people of the world, he wasn’t much. But inside Jesus’s Church, he was mighty because he knew how to care. When we get outside of ourselves and care for others for the sake of Christ, we know we’re gaining traction in our Christian life.
Now, Paul can’t send Timothy immediately. He says in verse 23 he wants to wait until he knows what his fate will be. Then Timothy can bring that word as well. And since Timothy couldn’t leave immediately, he sends Epaphroditus back to them, and in doing so, gives us the second example of the kind of self-sacrificial life Jesus creates.
Epaphroditus was a Philippian sent by the church to care for Paul in prison, and to bring him the gifts Paul thanks them for in chapter 4. But it wasn’t an easy trip. You see in verses 27-30 that he nearly died from an illness. So Paul sent him back. But as he sent him back, he honored him. Look at verse 25: brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier, messenger and minister.
First, Paul calls him a brother. They’re not just friends; they’re brothers because of Christ. I’m not sure we think about this enough. Look at our world. Look at the divisons. If you were to come from another planet and watch our cable news, would you ever get the idea that there was any love possible in this world? The early church lived in a world with the same divisions we face: political, racial, and ethnic. But the gospel of Jesus united these previously separate people, not into an organization but into a family. Many of their differences remained but they simply overlooked them for the sake of Jesus.
Paul saw Epaphroditus as his brother. We see that in his concern for his well-being. He was anxious about his illness and feared his death. That’s how brothers react when things go wrong. Do you see your church family the same way? Does your concern for one another rise to the level of brotherhood and sisterhood?
Second, Paul calls Epaphroditus a fellow worker. Isn’t that interesting? He wasn’t merely a good Christian; he was a good Christian worker. He worked for the Lord, for the sake of the gospel. He worked hard. Hard work for Jesus’s sake is an honorable thing. It’s important, though, to understand that, like Epaphroditus, we don’t work for our salvation. We receive that freely by grace through faith apart from all our works. But when Jesus saves us, he does deploy us.
Third, Paul calls Epaphroditus a fellow soldier. Here we think back to Philippians 1:27 where Paul exhorts them to live worthy of the gospel, to strive side by side for the sake of the gospel. Epaphroditus did that alongside Paul. He fought against the opposition to Christ’s work in the world. The work you do for Jesus is more like a battle than it is a job. We’re in a spiritual war. The enemy is trying to steal hearts away from Jesus.
Fourth, Paul calls Epaphroditus a messenger and minister. The church sent him to Paul to serve and care for him on their behalf. Unfortunately, he got seriously ill, near death. Adding to his illness was his homesickness. In verse 26, Paul says Epaphroditus had been longing for the Philippians, and he was distressed because they knew he was sick. He was there as a minister to Paul, but he was still ministering to the Philippians. He was still putting their interests above his own. He didn’t want them worrying about him—not because he didn’t think himself important enough to worry about but because he loved them so much, he hated the fact that his health caused them concern. He was more concerned about their reaction to his illness than he was about his illness itself.
So Paul sends him back home. Why? We could interpret it was because he just couldn’t hang with Paul and Timothy, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Paul explains in verse 28. He’s eager to send him so that they may rejoice in seeing him. They missed him, and he missed them. Just having him back would bring joy. Paul was also anxious to send him back because he knew Epaphroditus would better minister to them than he would to him. Now we see Paul putting their interest over his own. Paul certainly needed help and comfort but he knew the Philippians needed Epaphroditus more than he did. He would serve them in Christ in a way that they needed, with all the spiritual resources springing from a life of service and sacrifice in Christ.
So, there are the two examples. But what does it mean for us? What can we do in response to this passage?
The final two verses of the passage give us insight into how we can respond. When Paul sent Epaphroditus back, he told the Philippians in verses 29 and 30 to “receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.”
Here we see three applications:
Joyful Reception
Honor
Care
Joyful Reception
Paul tells them to receive Epaphroditus with all joy. But notice the phrase before it: “receive him in the Lord.” How can we receive someone with all joy? We do so in the Lord. What does that mean? I don’t know about you, but my joy in others often feels so limited. But you know whose joy isn’t limited? The Lord’s. Paul is telling the Philippians to receive him as the Lord himself would, with open arms and an open heart.
You know, Jesus could have come down as a “Here I Am” person, drawing attention to himself, boasting of his divinity. Instead, he came down as a “There You Are” person, always on the lookout for those he could serve. Throughout the Bible, we see the Lord taking the initiative at great cost to himself. How can we, as his followers, do anything less?
We can’t do this without humility. Don’t we just hate putting others first? Don’t we just hate when we are the ones giving attention rather than receiving? Our great problem in living the Christian life is our deep tendency to re-insert ourselves into that sacred place where only Jesus belongs. When we put Jesus first, by repentance and faith, we have his power to love and rejoice in others.
The secret to the self-giving life you long for in Christ is not up so high that you can’t reach it. God has put it way down low among us in Christ, and by his Spirit, we can go down there with Jesus and take hold. All we have to do is humble ourselves—just get out of our own dang way and stop making everything about us all the time.
The way to the beauty of Christ is the way of Christ—humble service for the glory of God. The gospel takes us there. God came down to us. He came not to grind us in the dirt for our sin but to take our sin upon himself in Christ at the cross. His humility is our salvation. If Jesus went there, are we too good to go there too?
Honor
“Honor such men.” This simple command holds a world of power. We know what honor looks like here at Refuge, don’t we? We love Romans 12:10, “Outdo one another in showing honor.”
Too many Christians live on a starvation diet of affirmation. When was the last time you met someone that was too encouraged?
What does it mean to honor one another? Well, it’s not flattery. The world loves flattery–I say something nice to you, about you, so that you will say something nice to me, about me. Flattery is self-serving. Honoring is Christ-focused.
To honor someone is more than recognizing their efforts, as honorable as they may be. Honoring someone is looking at the work of the Holy Spirit in that person. It’s honoring the Lord for what he’s doing through that person. That’s why it can be competitive: it is boasting in the Lord. We should outdo one another in honoring what the Lord is doing through us.
So recognize the work of the Lord in someone else. Most likely, they have no idea that God is doing anything through them. They feel weak and sinful, and they are, but they are also strong and glorious in Christ.
Here’s how you can take action on this today. Did you know October is Pastor Appreciation Month? I don’t know who made it up, but I’m glad they did. Pastors ought to be appreciated. I remember Ray Ortlund saying once, “If your pastor loves the Lord, is faithful to his wife, preaches Jesus from the Bible, don’t hassle him. Who can flourish under that scrutiny? Instead, get down on your knees and thank God. He gave you your pastor.”
Now, I believe we love Dustin really well, so I’m not trying to correct us in any way. Rather, this is a pep talk. Let’s keep at it. I pay attention to the pastoral world, and I see how this year has just absolutely beat pastors up, as it has all of us. Well, here’s our opportunity to live out Paul’s call to honor such men.
God gave us Pastor Dustin. He gave you Pastor Dustin. How can you honor him this month?
I’m so glad I get to say this today. I want you to know that you have a Lead Pastor who deeply cares for you. He serves you relentlessly, often in ways you can’t even see. But I see it, and more importantly, the Lord himself sees it. And the Lord Jesus Christ is the reason Dustin does it anyway. Honor such men.
Care
Francis Schaeffer wrote an essay called 2 Contents, 2 Realities. He offered four things that mark gospel-centered churches: sound doctrine, honest answers to honest questions, true spirituality, and the beauty of human relationships. Schaeffer also said once that the watching world has the God-given right to judge the church on that last reality—the beauty of human relationships, its care for one another. He said, “If we do not show beauty in the way we treat each other, then in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of our own children, we are destroying the truth we proclaim.”
Do you notice how care is jam-packed throughout this passage? Everything Paul says flows from it and is directed toward it. He and Timothy care about the Philippians as they care about them. He is anxious and concerned for Epaphroditus’s health and well-being. He’s sending him back not because he’s failed or is too weak but because he knows he will be strengthened at home in the Philippian church and they will be strengthened too.
Selfless care is laced throughout this passage. We love the opening passages of Philippians 2 for its high theology of Jesus. Rightly so. But do we understand the kind of people that makes us into? Do we understand the kind of joyful reception and honor and deep care we are to give to one another for Jesus’s sake? How life-giving this is! How dignifying and humanizing it is to be cared for and to care for one another!
But it’s not easy. How can we stay in a place of other-centeredness? How can we have the capacity to care deeply for one another when it so often feels as if no one cares as deeply for us? Here’s how. Cast your eyes upon Jesus.
That’s where Paul starts all this anyway. You and I will never care well for others until we first see how Jesus cares us. We can give only what we have. We deeply need to see the kind of care Jesus has for us. Jesus not only models care for us, he cares for us., and through his care, we have something to give. That’s why we can never outgrow the gospel. Every day, I wake up needing a fresh dose of gospel, and you do to. Every day, I wake up feeling unloved, uncared for, unable to do what I know I should. So I need to come to Jesus. I need to behold his love in the gospel. I need to see that every need I have he has provision in abundance for in himself. As I receive care from the Lord, I have care to give to others. Our path forward is constantly beholding Jesus.
Timothy and Epaphroditus and Paul and Dustin were and are great pastors, but they’re nothing compared to Jesus. He’s the pastor who not only nearly dies in your service but actually did. He died to save you from your sins. He died to give you his kingdom, his righteousness, his very life. Look to him, and keep looking to him, and then look to him some more. Then, and only then, can you live the kind of Christian life he calls you to live.
Let’s pray.
27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
Pastor Tim Keller says, “Because the gospel is endlessly rich, it can handle the burden of being the one ‘main thing’ of a church.” The Apostle Paul believed that. Just so far, we’ve seen his joy from their partnership in the gospel (1:4-5), his desire to defend and confirm the gospel by his life (1:7), his view of suffering as an advancement of the gospel (1:12), and as a platform from which the gospel was boldly preached (1:14). And here in this passage, he calls the church to a life worthy of the gospel and to strive side by side for the faith of the gospel (1:27). The endlessly rich gospel is to be the center of everything in the church.
So what is the gospel, and how is it so endlessly rich? The gospel is the news that our Creator God has taken our sin upon himself in his Son and granted us new life by his Spirit. How is the gospel so endlessly rich? Because it’s the message of the endlessly rich Savior. Jesus is inexhaustible. His grace is never-ending. His mercy is never-fading. His glory is never-ceasing. His love is never-failing. Jesus will never leave us, won’t ever forsake us, and promises to complete the work he began in us. Jesus is big enough for all our sin and failure. He unites us despite our differences, leads us despite our foolishness, serves us despite our unworthiness, and loves us despite our rebellion. Jesus forgives us completely because he saved us utterly, cleanses us thoroughly because he redeemed us wholly, and sanctifies us perfectly because he atoned for us sacrificially. In Christ, your salvation is secure and complete now and forever. What else is worthy of being the main thing in the church?
Only Jesus and his gospel is big enough to stake our entire life on, and that’s what Paul wants the Philippians to do—stand firmly upon the rock of Jesus Christ and never leave, showing the world just how big the gospel really is.
Of course, this isn’t easy. So much demands our attention and calls us away from Jesus alone. And when opposition and persecution and suffering confront us, as it did the Philippians, it takes courage to keep the gospel central. A gospel-centered church needs gospel-centered courage. As we continue to cultivate our gospel culture here at Refuge, we need to cultivate gospel-centered courage. That courage is formed in at least three ways.
A Courageous Church Stands Together as Citizens of Heaven
A Courageous Church Strives Together for the Faith of the Gospel
A Courageous Church Suffers Together for the Sake of Christ
Look at verse 27. “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit.”
See the word “only” at the beginning? As Paul sat in his jail cell writing the Philippians, he thought, “You know, I might not make it out of here. If I don’t, what must they know about their life?” He said it’s this. “Whatever becomes of me or you, here’s the one thing that matters: live worthy of the gospel of Christ.”
What does it mean to live a life worthy of the gospel? How could anyone be worthy of the gospel? Isn’t the gospel about grace for the undeserving? Is Paul saying we can deserve the gospel? No, of course not. That would go against everything he said everywhere else. The Bible is clear: we do not earn our salvation; God gives it freely in Christ by his Spirit. So what is Paul saying? He’s saying we ought to live a life that, no matter what happens, is living proof that Jesus’s Kingdom is real—that Jesus is on his throne, everything is going his way, and he loves us—and come what may, we’re following him and him alone.
A church’s manner of life is worthy of the gospel when Jesus and his gospel is the biggest thing in the church. That happens by living as redeemed people—as citizens of heaven. That’s what the phrase “let your manner of life” means. It’s a Greek word Paul uses in Philippians 3:20, where it’s translated as citizenship. “But our citizenship is in heaven.” As John Piper summarizes, Paul is saying, “Bring your life into conformity with your true homeland: heaven.”
The Philippians understood this concept. They laid their head down at night in Philippi, but Philippi was a Roman colony, and Roman colonies had Roman citizenship. They were 800 miles from Rome and even further from heaven, but they’re citizens of both, and one wins over the other because it’s most truly their home.
Living as citizens of heaven is easier said than done, of course. It wasn’t so hard to stand as a Roman citizen. That afforded certain protections and rights. Paul was a Roman citizen, and that citizenship often got him out of trouble. But standing together as citizens of heaven required immense courage. Why? Because as Francis Schaeffer said, “The early Christians were not persecuted because they worshiped Jesus. They were persecuted because they worshiped Jesus only.”
The Roman Emperor claimed divinity and didn’t much care for King Jesus stealing his spotlight. But for the Christian, there’s no God but God alone. So in the face of demands for worship, the Philippians had to hold their ground as citizens of heaven. They couldn’t wait on Paul to arrive to be courageous for them. So Paul says to “stand firm.” That phrase was used of warriors or gladiators, spearmen fighting in close ranks who must stick together. And they must stand “in one spirit” which likely refers to the Holy Spirit, based on Paul’s use of the same phrase elsewhere.
Here’s the point. When other people demand our allegiance and our utmost affections, we must remember whose we are, that Jesus alone is worthy of our worship. We may be citizens of the U.S. just as they were citizens of Rome, but this is just our earthly home. We’re foreigners in a foreign land. We may love our country, but we can’t worship our country. We may align with one political party more than another, but neither can save us. We must refuse to let anything become bigger in our lives and in our church than Jesus and his gospel, and these days that takes courage, just as it always has. We may not live in ancient Philippi or in a kingdom where the King demands worship. But we live in a world with enough altars to foreign gods at every corner. We live in a day where our beliefs are increasingly viewed not as merely disagreeable but oppressive and evil, where our insistence upon justice is seen as too woke and our insistence upon traditional marriage is seen as too hateful. But we’re not against anyone, even if they’re against us. We’re just following Jesus. He’s the King. He sets the rules. He has the right. He’s God.
In our overly politicized world, the Church where the gospel is the biggest thing cannot find a home. That’s ok. We already have one. One day the Republicans and the Democrats will fade, this world will be rolled up like a garment, but Jesus and his gospel will remain. Politicians can be voted out, but Jesus can’t. Empires rise and kingdoms fall but the word of the Lord stands forever.
As this world continues to draw dividing lines between us, forcing us to take sides one against the other, Jesus and his gospel unite sinners into one Church, not because we naturally think alike or have a common background but because we share in one Spirit who makes us citizens of Christ’s kingdom. So we stand firm, courageous, back straight, smile on our face, proud of our homeland, ready to welcome more immigrants in to the only One who can never fail us and will always love us, Jesus our Savior.
Look at verse 27 again. “With one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.”
We not only stand together; we move together. Jesus doesn’t call us to a holy huddle, inside the walls of some fortified city. He pushes us outward. Like a football team, the church advances by lining up side by side and running the play Jesus calls, and it works really well when everyone does their part.
So what are we advancing? We’re advancing the gospel! We’re taking Jesus’s message of life to a dying world. We’re infusing grace into a merciless society. In the same way a football team has a common goal and runs a play everyone knows, the church has a common goal and shares the same knowledge. That’s why Paul says they strive side by side for the faith of the gospel.
The word faith doesn’t refer to personal, subjective belief but to the objective truth of the Bible. So we look at the Bible and draw our marching orders from there. There may be some second or third degree areas of disagreement, but we agree on the most important doctrine—on how we are saved—and we lift Jesus high and advance his gospel. We do it in a million different ways. Some serve children. Some go to work faithfully and work hard. Some manage employees. Some share Jesus with Muslims. Some walk across the yard to the neighbors. And on and on. But mostly, you just let God love you and change you and do his work in and through you as you just say, “Yes” to his overwhelming grace and follow his specific call on your life.
We’re all called to some different specific ministries, but we are all also called to one mega-ministry, the advancement of God’s kingdom in this world by making Jesus and his gospel the center of our life. By letting his light shine in us, by focusing on him and him alone, by his grace and for his glory, we are a prophetic voice to the watching world that Jesus is alive, grace is real, and anyone (I mean look at us) can get in on it.
We do that side by side because we’re strongest that way. “Teamwork makes the dream work,” right? In a courageous, gospel-centered church, there are no passengers. We’re all involved. Yes, some unbelievers may be among us, checking Jesus out, and, yes, some people need to come in and rest for a while. But there is a big difference between a church that has pastors on staff to do the ministry and a church doing the ministry. Dustin and I love to preach the gospel, but you are fully equipped to preach the gospel where you live, work, learn, and play. Christ is in you! You don’t need to wait for us to go serve and love your neighbor for Jesus’s sake. You don’t need our permission to gather with another person and study the Bible. We want to lay out some pathways and make it easy for you to jump in, and we want to help you in any way we possibly can, but because the Holy Spirit lives in you, you are ready right now to take that next step, whatever it is. You do not have to ride the bench on Jesus’s team. He’s sending us all out on the field. We all matter for him!
Taking that next step will be scary, and that’s ok. That’s how you know you’re following Jesus! He takes us outside our comfort zone. But your brothers and sisters of Refuge Church are with you. We will help one other courageously follow Jesus. And maybe the faith in me is weak today, but it’s strong in you. And as I look at you courageously following him, my courage strengthens and I stand up and walk alongside. We move outward and upward, following Jesus and letting his grace and mercy go out into this tired world.
What we’ve looked at so far is the positive side of things: being together for the gospel. But there is also a negative side: standing against our intimidating foes.
Soldiers standing firm and a football team advancing the ball will get beat up along the way. They will suffer losses. That’s just to be expected. It’s no different with the church. Anything good done in this evil world will cost something. It cost Jesus something. It will cost us too. The Bible says, “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).
Living a life worthy of the gospel means persecution. Jesus is up front with us about that. He says following him is taking up our cross. He wasn’t talking about the little cross on your necklace but the wooden beam that they nailed you to and left you to die on. As the Philippians lived out their citizenship, the Roman world tried to force them to worship another. When they wouldn’t, the Romans wanted them gone, and if they had to kill them, well, they killed Jesus, didn’t they? This world, since the Fall, has been in rebellion against God. There is simply no way to follow Jesus without suffering. But Jesus went first, and we know where he’s leading us. So Paul says, “Don’t panic. Relax. Jesus is with you.”
So a courageous church suffers together. But, as Paul says in verse 28, we don’t need to be frightened. The word frightened means “an uncontrollable stampede of startled horses.” Can you imagine what that looks like? Horses running wherever they can. Scattering. Not unified. Every horse for himself. Absolutely panicked. Paul says not to be like that. He says don’t be frightened at all. Be courageous. How? Well, as we forge ahead trusting Jesus, something becomes clear. Look at the second sentence of verse 28. “This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.” We tend to think that suffering means our destruction. But Paul says that’s not true. Suffering can’t ultimately destroy us; it destroys them—those who persecute us. When you suffer for Jesus’s sake, it is a sign of your salvation from God. It’s a sign that God is with you, not against you. That’s why Paul says in Romans 5:3, “We rejoice in our sufferings,” and in Romans 8:17 that as we suffer with him, it proves we’re his children and we will be glorified with him. The Apostles rejoiced that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for his name (Acts 5:41).
Even as we move out from the Bible, we have a lot of history to draw from that the Philippians didn’t. Think about it. Where is that mighty Roman Empire today? They took a local rabbi and nailed him to a cross because he was claiming to be King. Because of their power, he was easy to dispose of. But what about now? Because of his power, Jesus’s movement is still advancing. And the Roman Empire? It’s nothing.
We see this in the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s final speech, just hours before being shot. He didn’t know what came next, but he said, “Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop…I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
Seeing the glory of the Lord changes you. The powers of this world are intimidating but as we stand for Jesus in a world that stands against him, we don’t have to fear what they can do to us. We’ve seen what Jesus can do with death! They killed him and he got up three days later!
We don’t go looking for persecution or pick fights. Jesus told us to love our enemies, not hate them. As Dr. King said, we meet the forces of hate with the power of love. Maybe one day, we’ll go to jail for our stand for Jesus. If we do, let’s honorably grace the jail with our presence for him. Let’s joyfully follow Jesus, and when suffering comes at the hands of outsiders, let’s stand our ground with one spirit and one mind fixed our Savior and offer the gospel, and they will see in us something they don’t have within themselves. For example, John Chrysostom was a pastor in the 4th century. The Empress threatened him with banishment. Here’s how he responded.
“You cannot banish me, for this world is my Father’s house.”
“But I will kill you,” she said.
“No, you cannot, for my life is hidden with Christ in God.”
“Then I will take away your treasures.”
“No, you cannot, for my treasure is in heaven, and my heart is there.”
“But I will drive you away from your friends, and you will have no one left.”
“No, you cannot, for it have a Friend in heaven from whom you cannot separate me. I defy you, for there is nothing you can do to harm me.”
That’s biblical courage. She thought he was weak and she was strong but it was the opposite, and as she spoke to him, she saw it.
Or remember The Avengers: Endgame. The great and final battle between the Avengers and Thanos. Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor are beat up. Then a portal opens and Black Panther steps through. Then Dr. Strange. Then Spiderman. And so on. Then that great part where Captain America says, “Avengers! Assemble.” That’s a great picture of the courageous church. Standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side, not frightened, living out their calling as citizens of heaven. We’re on the battlefield. Jesus has called us there. And we aren’t losing even if we’re dying. The powers on the earth can do nothing to those in whom the power of the resurrection dwells!
We don’t want to suffer persecution, but because this world has set itself against God, we know in following him, it’s inevitable. When it comes, where does our courage come from? Look at verse 29. “It has been granted…” That word granted means graced. “That for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” God’s given us two things. First, to believe in him. Second, to suffer for him. We don’t deserve either, but both are part of the life worthy of the gospel of Christ. Our faith in Christ is a gift of his grace and our suffering for him is also a gift of his grace, and it’s our belief in him that prepares us to suffer for him. So when he calls, we answer because he’s swept us up in his redemptive story, and we—amazingly—have a part to play.
There’s one more thing I want to point out in closing. Our courage really grows when we realize one mega-truth. Look at verse 29 again and notice what Paul repeats. “It has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” God lifted your life up to his purposes. Your life matters for his sake. Do you realize that? You matter for Jesus Christ and, more importantly, to Jesus Christ. This world looks at each of us for what it can get out of us. Politicians want our vote. Companies want our dollars. Employers want our labor. HOAs want our dues. Maybe they care about you beyond that, but not like Jesus. Jesus wants you. He’s placed you in the great battle he’s fighting for his glory in this world, to save sinners and sufferers by his gospel.
As we just live into that, we see we’re just like Paul and the Philippians. Look at verse 30, “Engaged in the same conflict.” This isn’t only a physical battle; it’s spiritual. Satan deeply wants you to believe that you don’t matter and your life doesn’t matter. Through fear, he’s trying to intimidate you out of living a life worthy of the gospel. But a regime that rules by fear also lives in fear. As the devil looks at you, he sees Jesus in you, and he knows that means his destruction. He’s seen what Jesus can do. He’s seen his redemption of sinners. He saw Jesus come down as a baby to live a perfect life and undo the mess we’ve made of ours. He saw Jesus faithfully endure the cross and die to pay the penalty for our sins. He watched Jesus get out of the grave to grant new life and ascend to heaven to await his return. Your life in Christ—your courage to take the next step in discipleship to him, to live as citizens of heaven—terrifies him. He knows what Jesus can do through a church that lifts him high. He knows he might lose soldiers in his army to the army of Light. So he fights. But you will win, because Christ won. He knows his days are numbered. Your life in Christ is living proof of that reality.
So take courage. Jesus Christ is in you. He’s in us as a church. There is a Promised Land he’s bringing down one day. We’re citizens there today, and as we let that settle upon us, and fix our eyes on him, the author and finisher of our faith, we become in his mighty hands a band of brothers and sisters of whom this world is not worthy.
Let’s pray.
Today, we’re looking at Philippians 1:9-11. You may remember from last week’s sermon, Paul says in verse 4 that he joyfully prays for this Philippian church. What did he pray for them? We find out in verses 9-11.
You know, I’m not sure if the church—ours and the big “C” Church—has ever in our lifetime needed this prayer more than it does today. With so much against us—so much disagreement, so much tribalism, so much politicization of everything, even inside too many churches—this is the kind of prayer God can use to cut through all the mess and create the kind of radiant counter-culture Jesus’s Kingdom calls us to. This is a really important prayer. Let’s read it now.
9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
This letter is the result of a friendship between Paul and the church in Philippi. Paul is personal and emotional, and he’s not sorry about it. He said in verse 7, “It’s right for me to feel this way about you.” And in verse 8 he said he “yearns” for them. Why is it right? Why does he yearn? Because when he was in the toughest spots of his life, they stood by him. As he sat on death row, they still loved him and cared for him. As Pastor Matt Chandler said, “He considers the Philippians not just sheep in his care but friends in his heart.” They were not a perfect church. They had their problems, as we will see later on in our series. But they were a loving church, and they loved Paul.
Part of his love back to them was this prayer. It’s not a prayer for material needs or healing or a big decision or anything like that. It’s not wrong to pray about those things. Paul does so in other parts of scripture. But this prayer isn’t that. This prayer is about their Christianity, about their life together with Jesus. This is a gospel-centered prayer for spiritual vitality. He’s praying, as we often do here at Refuge, for God to grant a gospel culture formed from the gospel doctrine of Jesus Christ.
So, this is a prayer you can pray for Refuge. Yes, we need a long-term facility. We need to become fully financially self-sustaining. We desire to see more conversions. We have many needs. But is there a greater need than what we find in these verses? What if God saw fit to answer this prayer in us—that our love would abound to the glory of God? Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that? We long for this kind of ever-increasing, ever-maturing, ever-abounding gospel culture. So, let’s pray for it!
But first, let’s think it through. The prayer comes to us in three movements.
The aim: abounding love (v. 9)
The hope: radiant beauty (v. 10)
The goal: God’s glory (v. 11)
“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment.”
Acts 16 tells how this church started. The founding members were a rich fashionista, Lydia, and her family, a formerly demon-possessed girl, and a hardened prison guard and his family. Not exactly who I would think are the perfect union in which love would abound more and more. The truth is, they didn’t have any special makeup that made loving easy for them. They just had the gospel, and they let Jesus, through the gospel, transform their heart. They were very different people, but their church was a gospel culture.
A gospel culture is a culture of deeply shared love, created by and centered on Jesus, that beautifies a church. Remember how Jesus said people would know we are his disciples? John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Not all churches have this. I’ve heard some say they learned church is the last place to ever open up. The judgment is too hard to bear. Relationships are too fragile. Sharing your real story is seen as a threat or a problem to be solved.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. When a church opens itself wholly to Jesus and rallies around him, it finds itself swept off its feet by his grace, and they find a new way to live together, a new reason to live together. When Jesus sweeps a church into his arms and his gospel becomes the soundtrack to all they are and do together, that church abounds in love more and more. That church becomes a place where people of all backgrounds can come and find Jesus. A place where he isn’t hard to find because barriers aren’t built but destroyed. Where everyone is so low before Jesus that he’s really easy to see. Where there is no competitive spirit other than outdoing one another in honor. Where there is no reason to not confess sin because no sin is shocking and no sin is unforgivable and Jesus is ready to cleanse us all. Where you don’t find a retracting hand but a warm embrace. Where the response to your confession is, “Dear one, Jesus can save you,” and real help and prayer follows. A place where others weep with you and rejoice with you. Where honesty is so common it’s shocking. Where true friendships blossom and grow, sustained by the Spirit. Where God’s glory is the goal and everyone is so happy in him they can barely stand it, and more and more people who are looking for Jesus are finding him and being rejoiced over and with. Who doesn’t need that place?
So, how is that place created? It’s created by prayer. John 3:27 says, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.” We must pray this into existence. We might be a loving congregation right now, but so were the Philippians and Paul still prayed their love would abound more and more. Why? Because, for the Christian, there is no end to growth in love. As John Chrysostom said, “Paul desires that the debt of love should always be owing.” Romans 13:8, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other.” Love is the debt we’ll always owe and the one cost we’ll never regret paying.
It only makes sense that Christian love can continuously grow. I mean, think of the love of God. Deep in God’s heart is a love so big that it can never be exhausted. It can never be fully plumbed. Even as we spend all eternity with him we will, every day, find new oceans of his love we’ve never noticed before. Every moment of our eternal existence with him will be a new moment of such profound love that we will never not feel loved ever again. We will never, for one second in his presence think, “You know, I need more from you.”
Your future, by Christ’s grace and for his glory, is a future of the deepest possible felt experience of love that Almighty God has to offer. You are so loved right now and you will be so loved for forever. Jesus is proof. Who else has died for you? Jesus did. And he’s not sad about it. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2). And Paul is praying that present love and that future love comes crashing into our shared experience right now, moment by moment.
Now, this is not worldly love. It’s emotional but not only emotional. It’s not basically a feeling but a determination. This world places limits on love. Worldly love has a fine print. Once the feeling dies, it’s over. But God’s love in Christ isn’t like that. God’s love is covenantal. It’s forever and ever, amen. And when he joins us together, he infuses us with his sustaining love so that as we live together, outsiders look at our love and think, “Where in the world did that come from?” And we get to tell them the answer!
How does this love abound? Well, not by chance but in knowledge and discernment, as we see in verse 9. It’s not just feelings but informed feelings.
The word “knowledge” means a personal knowledge of God, a mature grasp of the gospel. As we grow closer to God personally, that has an impact corporately. The more we know God, the more reasons we find to love God, and that love pushes us closer to him, which also pushes closer to one another. Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love God and love your neighbor. The degree to which you love God is the degree to which you will love your neighbor. The second springs from the first. Have you ever noticed that the most godly people in your life are also the most loving people in your life? That’s no accident. When Jesus changes a heart and grows and cultivates a heart by his Spirit, he creates a love that can’t help but move toward others.
Along with knowledge, this love abounds by “discernment.” That’s a Greek word used only here in all the New Testament. But in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it’s used 22 times in the book of Proverbs, which gives us good insight into what Paul means. He means love that is able to practically see what’s right and wrong, that gives positive improvement in our discipleship to Jesus, that knows how to love. It’s wise love.
What is wise love? Here’s an example. How do we deal with sin—the sins of others and of our own? How do you respond when someone sins against you? Is your first instinct to react out of your unfiltered thoughts and feelings or does it first consider what God has said in his Word about forgiveness and mercy? Does your love cover a multitude of sins or does it expose even more? When you sin, do you ignore it and downplay it or consider it as serious as when someone sins against you? Do you seek to make it right in humility and honesty?
Another example: disagreements. How do we disagree with one another? Can we disagree and remain brothers and sisters, or do our tribal allegiances run too deep?
Another example: encouragement. Do we do it? Do we look for reasons to encourage? Are our eyes open to catch one another doing good and honoring one another for it, as we give glory to God for the fruit?
We know we’re abounding in love more and more when we begin to look at each situation and think, “How does Jesus want me to move toward this person?” We abound in love more and more when we stop withholding love. How many of our problems result from withheld love? When is there not a reason to love? It’s always just a matter of how, not if. When we abound in love more and more, we find reason to come together, and in this world, that’s a counter-culture.
How do we get this kind of love? By praying for it in all humility. Only God can give it, and he will do so as we ask him, moment by moment.
So that’s the aim of Paul’s prayer: abounding love.
“So that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.”
There’s a hope attached to this prayer for abounding love: that they approve what is excellent and be pure and blameless. In other words, that they’ll become a radiantly beautiful community as they follow Jesus.
Again, this only comes from God. We pray this into existence. God alone is pure and blameless, and he alone makes us so and tells us what is truly excellent.
Paul prays the Philippians become profoundly Christian people. No half-hearted, hard-to-read people among them. Just full-bodied, Spirit-filled, real-deal Christians, pure and blameless for the day of Christ, by his grace alone.
Paul prays the Lord makes them the model home for the new neighborhood he is creating out of this broken world—not perfect and sinless but pure and blameless because of Christ, as they follow him.
As they follow, they are able to approve what is excellent because they’ve seen it in Jesus. Not only does this impact the big decisions of life but the small, every day decisions. It’s a whole new value system and set of priorities of the heart and mind that gets us moving in Jesus’s direction more and more. Where the priorities of our spiritual life no longer take a back seat because we know the true value. Where we actually live into our calling as Christians, our citizenship in heaven, our likeness to Christ. Where we stop skipping our Bible reading for a little extra sleep. Where we don’t see prayer as an impediment to productivity. Where we don’t miss church because something better came up. Now, the truth is we’re all a little spiritually lazy at time. That’s in all of us. Paul knows that, because it was in him too, and so he prays about it: that the Philippians would, day by day, shed more layers of worldliness that keeps them from following Jesus whole-heartedly. Don’t we all need that? I do. I wake up in the morning with a profound need for grace. You do too. And the good news of the gospel is that God has an abundance of grace for us every single day. Use up all you need. There’s always more.
We need grace to be able to approve what is excellent, but it also doesn’t just happen automatically any more than we wake up able to run a marathon one day. We must grow in Christ in love with knowledge and discernment to approve what is excellent. We must love and know excellence to approve it.
So Paul prays for right doctrine. A culture of love can only come from the Person of Love. So what do we believe about God? Where did we get those beliefs? Did they come from the Bible, or did we just pick them up along the way? A.W. Tozer said the most important thing about us is what comes into our minds when we think about God. Are our thoughts about God biblical? Is our truth the Bible’s truth or is it “our” truth. We need to be able to discern. When we hear something true about the God of the Bible, even when we don’t initially like it, we must learn to approve that excellency. Likewise, when we hear something that sounds good, we need to make sure it’s true according to God. We need to approve what is excellent.
So how do we get there? We choose Jesus time and time again. This week, someone asked the question on Twitter: “Tell me why you’re still a Christian in 5 words or less.” There were a lot of great responses, but the best came from my friend Jared who simply said, “Jesus.” In another tweet, he added this.
Sundar Singh [Indian Missionary] was once asked what it was he found in Christianity that he did not find in the Sikh religion of his upbringing. He said, ‘Jesus.’ His interviewer replied, ‘Yes, but what principle or concept in the religion?’ Singh replied, ‘What I have found is Jesus.’
When we find Jesus, we find what is excellent. When we learn from him, we learn to approve what is excellent, because we see it in him. And as we come to him, he changes us. The thing that transforms a group of people from a social club into a church is Jesus. When a whole church finds Jesus, that church becomes radiantly beautiful. They don’t become beautiful because they become all of a sudden perfect and sinless, but because they come to the One who is. They don’t become beautiful because they find new principles or concepts that make life suddenly manageable but because they find the One who overcame the world. The bigger Jesus gets in the church, the better the church gets. They’re transformed. They approve what is excellent because Excellence himself if with them.
It’s like when Moses went up the mountain to be with God. Do you remember that story? When he came down, the skin of his face shone (Exodus 34:29-35). But Moses didn’t know it. He wasn’t showing off; he was just transformed by glory. Everyone saw his face and knew he’d been with God. He was radiant—not because he made himself that way but because he was in the presence of God. We don’t manufacture this on our own. We can’t fake our way into a radiantly beautiful church. We can get it only by being with God. And he’s available right now. We only have to go—to whole-heartedly, by faith, open ourselves to God. That’s the kind of pure and blameless life Paul means.
“Pure” means unmixed, as in substances. Transparent purity. We follow Jesus and Jesus alone. We’re not hypocritical, saying we follow without following, imperfectly but truly. We affirm who he is, according to the Bible’s historical witness and the Spirit’s internal witness. We don’t mix our biblical doctrine with other ideas or philosophies, fashioning a Jesus of our liking. We want the real Jesus, and him alone. By praying for their purity, Paul prays the Philippians become and remain transparently pro-gospel, pro-grace, pro-Jesus, what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of folk. He wants the Philippians to not be hard to read, to be people of conviction, centered on Jesus.
“Blameless” literally means “without stumbling.” Paul wants them to stand tall, faithful, free in Christ. He wants them to look at the options of the world and look at Jesus and come to the conclusion, time after time, that Jesus is better. Here-I-Stand kind of people.
Paul’s hope is that they approve excellence in purity and blamelessness “for the day of Christ.” More literally, “with a view to the day of Christ.” In verse 6, we saw Paul’s confidence that the One who began a good work in them would complete it. He maintains that confidence here. Because they will stand pure and blameless before Jesus on that great and final day, they can live like those people right now. He’s not threatening them, he’s encouraging them. “You’re already seated in the heavenlies with Christ! You have access to divine love, so act like it! Show this tired, broken world how beautiful the Savior is. Live wide open to him. Let him transform your life, moment by moment. Choose him time and time again. Come to Jesus. He will make you radiantly beautiful.”
This is a prayer for revival. We never outgrow this prayer; we can only grow into it. It’s that big.
“Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
Here’s the goal of Paul’s prayer: the glory and praise of God. How is God glorified and praised in this world? John 15:5, 8, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit…By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”
Your life in Christ is the fruit by which God is glorified in this world. Isn’t that crazy? When you live open before God, following the Lamb wherever he goes, you live a life of radiant beauty in his eyes. Your life—slowly, perhaps, but surely enough—becomes filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. What is that fruit? It’s outward acts of kindness and service. The “good works” of Ephesians 2:10 “which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” It the things Jesus does in and through you.
Paul is saying that when Christ returns, he wants the Philippians to be like fruit trees at harvest-time. Their branches full. Their good deeds overflowing for Christ. Their whole life a witness to the grace of God, to what only God can do.
In the end, Paul is praying for a God-glorifying life for his people. What a prayer! Is there anything greater?
It’s easy, I think, to read this and think, “Ok, so how do I glorify God?” Here’s one way you can: learn to pray this prayer and depend on God to bring about what he wants. Open your life completely to him.
Paul wrote this in a letter, but we read it as Holy Scripture. You know what that means? It means this prayer isn’t only what Paul wanted for the Philippians; it’s what God wants for every church. He had Paul write it down and preserved it over the centuries so that we, today, could read it and begin to pray it so that he could do this miracle in little old us. Isn’t that amazing?
We might not be great pray-ers. I’m not. God isn’t asking us to be. I mean, he’s given us the words to pray. All he’s asking us to do is repeat after him. He’s got the power if we’ll just open up. James Montgomery Boice illustrated it this way.
When Lawrence of Arabia was in Paris after World War I with some of his Arab friends, he took some time to show them the sights of the city: the Louvre, the Arch of Triumph, Napoleon’s tomb. They found little interest in these things. The thing that really interested them was the faucet in the bathtub of their hotel room. They spent much time there turning it on and off; they thought it was wonderful. All they had to do was turn the handle, and they could get all the water they wanted.
When they were ready to leave Paris and return to the East, Lawrence found them in the bathroom trying to detach the faucet. “You see,” they said, “it is very dry in Arabia. What we need are faucets. If we have them, we will have all the water we want.” Lawrence had to explain that the effectiveness of the faucets did not lie in themselves but in the immense system of water works to which they were attached.
This prayer is the faucet attached to the immense system making our lives together effective. All we have to do is open it and let him flow through. God is glorified in that.
What might God do if we learned to pray this prayer? What kind of people might he make us? What kind of church might he make us? What abounding love would we have? What radiant beauty? What purity of heart and blamelessness in Christ? What fruit of righteousness?
If you pray this and find your love lacking and someone pops into your mind that maybe you haven’t loved as you ought, reach out to them. Love them. Let your love abound more and more.
If you pray this and find a renewed desire to grow in your knowledge of Christ, we have Bible studies available. It’s never been easier to get involved. You don’t even have to leave your house. It’s all on Zoom, thanks to the pandemic.
If you pray this and find a need for discernment so you may approve what is excellent, we have community groups that meet all nights of the week. There are people there who’ve walked with Jesus for a long time. You can learn from them, as they learn from Jesus.
If you start praying this and find a renewed desire for God’s glory, well, you will have become the answer to Paul’s prayer.
The life we long for together—that we’ve tasted already—is not hard to get. All we have to do is ask. All we have to do is open the faucets.
So, let’s pray.
Father, it is our prayer that our love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that we may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Amen.
We’re at the end of our series on the book of Ecclesiastes. After all the roads Solomon has taken us, we finally arrive at the one destination where we need to be. We not only arrive at a settled place, but that place also lifts us up into the presence of God where we see the true value of our life. We’re going to look at only the final two verses of the book, 12:13-14.
13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
Your life is eternally significant.
This world under the sun won’t tell you that. Only God can. This world builds you up only to let you down. With your eyes focused only on things under the sun, you can’t but help think you don’t really matter in the end. But with your eyes focused on God, he shows just how meaningful you truly are, by his grace and for his glory. Every moment. Every emotion. Every joy. Every pain. Every trial and error. Every sin and sorrow. Every start and stop. Every act of obedience, great and small. It all has meaning. Because God is watching, you have eternal value.
As commentator Phil Ryken says, “The final message of Ecclesiastes is not that nothing matters in the end but that everything matters in the end.” And the proof is here in these two verses. One day, you will stand before God and give an account. He will bring every deed into judgment. It’s only right that he will. He created you. He cares about what happens in your life, and what you do with your life, and he has the right to judge the outcome of your life. One day, very soon, you will report in to him to receive his judgment. Because that day is coming, every day matters for that day.
This is a sobering thought, isn’t it? But we see here a truth proclaimed throughout the Bible—that God will judge in the end. Just a few examples:
Psalm 96:13 - For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.
2 Corinthians 5:10 - For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Acts 17:31 - He has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
How we live this day, as every day, will matter on that great and final day.
Think of it this way. When you pick up a biography to read, every day of that person’s life matters. Each day they are becoming the person they ended up being. We go all the way back to their childhood to understand how they were brought up. We want to know who they studied under to see how they thought. We want to read the boring details of their diary because, in the end, none of it is really boring at all. All of it says something of who they are, when they lived, how they lived.
Maybe no one will write a biography of your life for publication on the shelves at Barnes and Noble. But God is writing your biography for publication before him. One day, it’ll be read. And it will reveal what you did with your God-given opportunity to live for him.
So before saying goodbye, Ecclesiastes wants us to consider just how meaningful our lives are. And since we have three sentences, we might as well have three points.
It’s time to decide (v. 13)
It’s time to obey (v. 14)
It’s time to live (v. 15)
Verse 13: “The end of the matter; all has been heard.”
Throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, we’re confronted with the seeming meaninglessness of life. Solomon was the richest and wisest of his time, and he set his heart to search out what this life has to offer. We want to know the same thing, don’t we? So we go looking. But Solomon did this already, and he gave us the book of Ecclesiastes so we don’t have to. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul described some people as “always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). We don’t want to be like that. That’s why we have the book of Ecclesiastes.
Solomon summarized what this world offers in chapter 1: vanity—all is vanity. Everything under the sun is fading quickly away. It won’t last. So why keep reaching for it? We have an alternative: life under the hand of God. And here at the end of the book, it’s time to become decisive for him. God is asking, “What are you waiting for? You have the information you need to make a decision. Why not follow me? You’ve seen the alternative. Am I not better?”
At some point, we have to make up our mind. Will we keep searching for meaning in this world or will we accept our meaning from God? We have to land on one side or the other. We want to think it through and weigh the options, but we can’t sit on the fence forever. We gotta make up our mind—how are we going to live this one life we have?
Maybe some of us aren’t sure where we land yet. Maybe you’re at the beginning of your journey with God. You’re still reading. You need time to think it through. So do it, and ask the Lord for help. You’re on this journey because he’s calling you to it, so he’ll help you.
But maybe some of us are just refusing to commit. We want to keep our options open. We want to be spiritual but not committed. So we only let God so far. I trust God can overcome that, and maybe today is that day.
After all, why not follow God? This world’s offers are shiny; they look good. But they’re empty in the end. A mist. Vain. Solomon proves that to us, and we’ve lived long enough to feel it. But look at God’s offer in the gospel. Just one example, John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” When has the world ever offered that? God so loved the world that he gave his only Son to grant eternal life.
If you’re looking for a meaningful life, here it is. King Jesus left his heavenly throne to come down here to the wrong side of town where we undeserving people live. He came to get us back. We ruined our lives but Jesus came to restore them. He established his kingdom through his death and resurrection, taking all our sin upon him on the cross and paying every ounce of debt we owed. In return, he gave us all the righteousness he earned. Jesus did not stay non-committal about you. He was all in. He still is. And now he’s asking the same of you, for his glory alone. This world disappoints every day, but God won’t. He can’t. He’s God.
You’re looking for something lasting in this life. Something satisfying. Something that won’t let you down sooner or later. Something you won’t have to say goodbye to. Well, here’s God offering himself.
We go looking in this world because we want to matter. So many of our problems stem from that deep desire. You sense you do matter somehow, that you’re made for more than just this world. But this world beats into you that it’s just an illusion. You’re expendable.
But with the eyes of faith, we can see the reason for that longing, for that sense of meaning. It’s found in the love of God. God cares about you. Of course you have meaning! And since God is love, as the Bible says, then you matter for more than mere passing interest. You really matter. At the core of everything in existence is a love too big to leave your life meaningless. God is watching your life! He’s invested. He’s all in. Will you be all in for him now?
Here at the end of this book, God wants you to become decisive for him. You, like I, have sinned and rejected God in the past, but he wants you to receive his offer of complete forgiveness and eternal life because—this is amazing—he wants you in heaven with him forever. You! Little you! Messed-up sinner you! Stumbling-forward you! You!
Maybe you’ve searched this world and done some things you regret. Maybe you wonder if God can love you after all you’ve done and all you’ve become. His answer, in Christ, is a definitive, “Yes!” God can love you today, and he can love you tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that, on into eternity. All you have to do is receive that love with the empty hands of faith. He’ll do the work required in you. His grace will save you. He’s not asking for perfection—he has that for you in Christ. He’s only asking for openness. Can you give him that?
You matter so much to him that he’s offering you eternal life with him in heaven. That offer stands open right now. But one day, after you die, it will be closed if you haven’t yet accepted. That will be a kind of judgment you do not want to endure. You will face eternal hell. But you don’t have to go there. You can keep searching this world, but we already know the answers we’ll find. Why not have heaven, with Jesus forever, instead? “The end of the matter; all has been heard.” It’s time to decide.
Verse 13: “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
Becoming decisive for Christ is to learn to fear and follow him. There is a proper order: first fearing, then following. Obedience comes from fear. Conduct springs from worship. Knowing God leads to following God. We can’t reverse it. God does not say to us. “Obey and I’ll save you.” He says, “Obey because I’ve saved you.” We obey because we see in God something so wonderful, we can’t imagine not following him.
We think of fear primarily as synonymous with scared. While that’s one meaning of the word, the Bible primarily means something else. Fearing God is more reverence and awe than terror and fright. Pastor Tim Keller says, “When the Bible talks about the fear of God, it means an inner state, an inner condition of awe and amazement and wonder before the magnitude of the love and the power and the greatness of God. It’s an inner condition of awe and respect, of fear and trembling, of amazement before not only the power and the holiness but the love and the mercy of God…The fear of God means to have God look so huge, so glorious, so wonderful, to in a sense bow under the weight of the magnitude of his greatness, that it gets your mind blessedly off of yourself and finally you’re free.”
This world holds us in bondage to itself and it’s rules and regulations and limitations. But God frees us to live before him as we were made to. To fear God is to come to a realization that God is the one you’ve been looking for all your life. He’s all you need. In him is the totality of everything your heart longs for. In the KJV, Proverbs 28:14 says, “Happy is the man that feareth...” We think fearing God will lead to dread, but the Bible says fearing God leads to happiness. No wonder, then, obedience follows fearing God. We do what we want, and when we want God, we want what God wants. So we obey. We obey not to be our own savior but to please our Savior.
Fearing God means making him the centering point for your life. And when he’s first in your affections, he’s also first in your plans. He sets the tone for your life. Fearing comes first and obedience follows. Fearing God means keeping his commandments.
This is central to Christianity. Notice what verse 13 says, “This is the whole duty of man.” Fearing and following God is what we are made for. His commandments seem difficult to us, overbearing at times, but following him is the life we really want. It infuses our life with meaning. We’re not just floating around doing what we feel like. We’re following and serving the living God! Yes, it might be uncomfortable at times. He’ll take us some scary places, but not one of them will be bigger than him. He will ask of us more than we want to give, but he’s the one who gives more than we could ever imagine. He will require of us more than we have right now, but he’s the one who provides everything we need anyway. And in the end, as we follow him imperfectly but truly, we find in him all that we look for everywhere else and then some. We find the fullest life possible. This is wisdom. This is the path to life. This is the path to joy.
In the gospel, we find a God so big that he defeated our greatest enemies without stumbling once. We stand in awe of him, in fear of him. And that kind of gospel fear translates into loving obedience. God knows the right way to live, and he’s offering us his life right now, today. That leads us to our third and final point, it’s time to live.
Verse 14: “For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
Now we’re back to where we started: the judgment of God. We hate the word judgment don’t we? But it’s in the judgment of God that we find meaning in absolutely everything.
The judgment of God is not something we can avoid—the Christian nor the non-Christian. You see it right there in verse 14: God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. All of our life falls under the judgment of God.
When is this judgment? The Bible says, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). But, you might say, “I’m a Christian. My judgment day took place 2,000 years ago on Christ’s cross.” That’s true. You won’t face the judgment of condemnation. But there are different kinds of judgment. Think of the shows we watch on TV with judges. One person’s act is judged better than another’s. That judgment doesn’t condemn the lesser, it just evaluates both and grants a reward accordingly.
There are two different kinds of judgment: condemnation and evaluation. For those outside of Christ, who reject his offer in the gospel, the final judgment will be a judgment of condemnation and banishment to hell, away from God’s presence. But for those in Christ, the final judgment will not be a judgment of condemnation because Christ took that for you on the cross. It will instead be a judgment of evaluation. And in that evaluation, he will look at our sins and our obedience and evaluate our life by his holy standard. He will take us through each day and we will give an account for each.
What will that day be like for us who love God? Look again at verse 14. Every deed. Every secret thing, whether good or evil. Do you know what that word every means here? Every. All. Each one. The entirety. Nothing is hidden from God. He sees every secret thing, whether good or evil.
So let’s just consider this. First, the negative: our evil deeds. In his systematic theology book, Louis Berkhof says, “It is sometimes objected that the sins of believers, which are pardoned, certainly will not be published at that time; but Scripture leads us to expect that they will be–though they will, of course, be revealed as pardoned sins.” Jesus won’t embarrass you, but he won’t flatter you either. He will be honest with you, because in the end isn’t that what we all want? Jesus will on that day be perfectly just. Your sins will be presented, but as pardoned sins. You won’t pay the penalty for them because he already did, but they will be revealed, highlighting the grace of Christ in your life even greater.
But he will also do something else, and this is amazing: he will judge our good deeds. We see what that looks like in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 4:5. “Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.” On that day you won’t be punished for your sins but you will be commended for your obedience. Isn’t that so like God? So, if you’re in Christ, your judgment will be, in the end, a judgment of commendation.
There are acts of obedience you do each day out of love and reverence for Jesus that this world has no clue about. Maybe even your spouse doesn’t see it. When you reject the lustful thought that comes crashing in. When you pray a silent prayer for the person you see struggling. When you give to the needy and your left hand doesn’t see what the right hand is doing. When you fast and anoint your head with oil so as not to be seen fasting. When you wake up and just ask the Lord for help to make it through. When you suffer quietly and profoundly, trusting the Lord to set things right in the end. When you love your kids even when it’s hard, and love your co-workers even when it’s not easy, and love your spouse when they’re at their most unlovable. Every day, because the Holy Spirit lives in you, you are obeying Jesus in sincerity of heart, and Jesus will not overlook that. The Bible says, “God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do” (Hebrews 6:10). You will, one day, receive a divine high five for every good deed you’ve ever done. You will, in the light of Jesus, sparkle before all heaven for those acts, even as all your evil deeds are forgiven by the blood of Jesus.
Do you see what this means for us? If every day will be judged on that day, then every day matters. Jesus is watching. He knows what our days are really made of. Nothing is hidden. So, that secret sin you’re protecting, why not hand it to Jesus now to find forgiveness and healing? He knows it anyway, so what are you really hiding? Why not confess it and be rid of it. And that secret good deed you wish others new about, why not forget the praise of men and move on to the next good deed? Jesus saw it, and he’ll commend you for it.
So here’s how we live: low before Jesus, totally open to him. We just fear and follow and live open to his grace and mercy. One day, to our utter amazement, we will see how meaningful our life really was. And we’ll see that it’s all of grace. In Christ, we can live a life of success in his eyes as we just say yes to him time and time again. He’s not making this too hard for us. He’s just asking us to be needy—he’ll provide the rest. It’s like the father who prepares all the son’s steps, clearing the path for success, and then praising him for the work at the end. The son only walked; the father worked, but he’s praising nonetheless.
Life under the sun only is,“Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” But life under the hand of God is not meaningless. Your life in Christ is more meaningful than you know. So let’s get living it for him now because it matters today and will matter tomorrow and will matter for eternity.
I’ll close with the words of Ray Ortlund, who taught me so much about this passage.
You don’t know the true value of your story; but God knows, and God himself will make sure your story is told. And when you give your account to him, in those moments when you feel like saying, “Lord, my life was a disaster,” he will gently correct you: “Dear one, don’t you remember this? And let me remind you of that. I want you to know that, because you kept turning to me, I used your seemingly little moments of obedience to push historical dominoes over in all directions, so that you contributed to the next Billy Graham, the next Elisabeth Elliot, the next Great Awakening. Indeed, you hastened the second coming of Christ. Your life was essential to my plan for history. You so mattered. But you had no idea. And you didn’t need to know, because you had all you needed in fearing me and obeying my commands day by day. Well done, good and faithful servant.”
So here it is. The end of the matter. It’s time to decide. It’s time to obey. And it’s time to live for God now. Let’s get ready to report in. If you’ve made a decision for Christ and are doing your best to follow him, for his sake and for his glory, just keep going. And if you think, “But I’m a mess right now.” Just hand your mess over to Jesus. Fear him and follow him, and he will show you on that day how eternally significant that moment was. That’s life under the hand of God.
As we’re seeing, the book of Ecclesiastes doesn’t hold back. Instead of dancing around the issues of greatest importance, the Preacher goes right after them. He highlights the bad parts to show us how great our need is, and he highlights the good parts to show us how great our life can be. Both reveal God’s grace. We have a great need, and God has great grace. Both/and, not either/or. We find meaning in our life right in the middle of that tension. Jesus is not silent about what’s really going on in our lives at the level of our emotions and thoughts and actions. He knows us, and Ecclesiastes is proof. Ecclesiastes is Jesus saying to us that in all this crazy difficult world, there is a purpose to it. Life does have meaning. It is going somewhere. We just need to know where to look to find it.
We spend too much of our days looking in the wrong direction. God is calling us back. Like the parent constantly herding the kids down the hallway out the door, God turns us moment by moment in the right direction. But we can ignore his prodding. We can make a turn into the wrong doorway, looking for a snack when he’s promised to take us out to dinner. He doesn’t want us to do that. That’s why we have the book of Ecclesiastes. Jesus gets right in the middle of our everyday life and infuses his wisdom, asking the hard questions maybe we’re too afraid to ask. He doesn’t want us to waste our life.
And you don’t want to waste your life. That’s why you’re listening to this today. You want the wisdom of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. You don’t want to keep turning into the wrong doorways. You want to let him lead you down the right path to the right place. Still, sometimes his leading feels a bit murky. Where are we going? Why is everything so disappointing? Where is the enjoyment I thought I’d have? When can I finally just get a little rest and peace of mind? With Jesus leading us, we’ll go through the valleys of the shadow of death, but how else are we going to get to the green pastures and still waters?
Ecclesiastes is Jesus saying to us that while in some ways the answers to our questions leave us with more questions than answers, he is on the field with us, he’s calling the plays, he’s pointing out the right path, and he’s exposing longings in our hearts. He does that not so we’re awake enough to be disappointed further, but so we’re aware enough to look beyond this world and trust him for what’s coming far out ahead. He exposes so he can provide. He’s the wind blowing against our cold, vulnerable bodies, and he’s the shelter calling us inside his safe abode. Wisdom is knowing how to get home.
So today, from 5:10-6:12, we’re going to see three lessons of wisdom from Jesus through the Preacher of Ecclesiastes.
Don’t ask of this life more than it can give (5:10-17)
The power to enjoy is a gift from God (5:18-6:6)
This world is no place to rest (6:7-6:12)
10 He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. 11 When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? 12 Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.
13 There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, 14 and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. 15 As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. 16 This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? 17 Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger.
This world offers a lot, doesn’t it? There are so many amazing things. For example, I’m not a big gamer, but I saw this week Sony held a big press conference to reveal the new PlayStation 5. You don’t have to be a gamer to look and that and think it’s incredible. And that’s just the surface. Did you see Elon Musk send that rocket to space? You can buy your way into that soon.
This world offers a lot of really amazing things. But how far does that amazingness take us? How far toward satisfaction can we go? Many of us are still trying to answer that question. We’re still working hard, shooting for promotions, for the next big deal, and so forth. And that’s not all wrong. We ought to work hard. The Bible tells us to. We should make money and provide for our families. But there is a difference between earning money and loving money, and this world makes that really hard to do.
The Preacher, like Jesus, shows us we cannot love both God and money. The life we most want is in danger of being lost by our misplaced pursuits. It’s really so easy for us to start asking money to do what only God can do. We ask money to make us secure, to give us comfort, to preserve us in bad times. But money can’t do all that we ask of it. And, more broadly, the things of this world, under the sun, cannot do all we ask of it. Too often, we ask of life more than it can give. For example, a promotion is out ahead. We know it could be ours. We daydream of the impact an extra bit of income will have on our life. The renovation of the outdated house. The hot new car. The dream vacation. We just know it will satisfy us. Who isn’t looking for a little extra? Okay, yes, we sense that it’s not going to solve all our problems, but it’s going to solve some of them! And in this life, isn’t even a little better worth shooting for?
Verse 10 warns us. “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money.” You say, “Well, I don’t love money.” Okay. What about stuff money gets? Look again. “Nor he who loves wealth (goods and possessions) with his income (hope of further income); this also is vanity.” What’s the Preacher saying? Simply this: you can’t satisfy covetousness. Wealth is not the answer, no matter how many problems it solves. It always creates new ones. You can’t ask of this life more than it can give. It can’t give you ultimate satisfaction.
In case we don’t believe him, the Preacher continues. Verse 11: “When goods increase, they increase who eat them.” Who’s “they”? Kids. Taxes. Hangers-on. Increasing wealth attracts increasing collectors. The Notorious B.I.G. was a prophet: “Mo’ money, mo’ problems.” Promotion anticipated is better than promotion achieved. When we reach that new status, we find more problems, not less. The best we can hope for is to at least see it as it goes into our hands and into another’s. The simple laborer sleeps really well, but not the rich.
We don’t think of it this way, but the Preacher says money is dangerous. Jesus told us the same thing. Like Jesus, the Preacher is a storyteller. He uses parables to drive home his point. “Okay, reader, so you aren’t the rich man. But imagine you were…” In verses 13-17, he makes another of his famous “observations under the sun.” What does he see? Verse 13: “Riches were kept by their owner to his hurt.” It’s a story of riches kept and lost, hurting the owner physically, emotionally, and relationally. There is a cost to this, he says. And it’s not just time we spend toiling. It spreads.
Verses 14-17 explain further. Verse 14 says the riches were lost in a bad venture. Maybe it was his fault. Maybe it wasn’t. We can lose through wisdom just as we can through folly. Wisdom only points to the best way of things, but it doesn’t prevent disaster. Even worse, he has a son, but this bad venture cost him all he had. His son receives no inheritance. Though he worked hard, he came into the world naked, and he will depart naked. He “shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.” All he has left is all he is—nothing that he has. Nothing to hand to his son. His whole life’s work—gone.
Verse 16 says toiling for money’s sake is toiling for the wind. It’s a miserable life. Verse 17 says he eats in darkness, in misery; in much vexation, full of cares and frustrations; and sickness, physical strain; and anger, thwarted plans, and so forth. In the end, toiling for money alone is tragic on every level. It doesn’t deliver on the promises it makes. He was asking too much from it. By making money his life, he was asking of life more than it can give. Money and possessions and wealth cannot give security and comfort and peace of mind because it does not possess it and cannot buy it.
The Preacher’s point is not that we ought not to earn money. His point isn’t even that we ought not to try and earn more. If God gives us a lot, there’s a reason for it. He means for us to use it for his glory in advancing his kingdom. The point is that it’s all too easy to make the pursuit of money into your life. It doesn’t happen all at once. It’s a subtle shift here and there. But doing so is simply asking too much of it. It’s not hard to make money an Emporer, but that Emporer has no clothes. Only one Emporer has what we need, and his name is Jesus. Everything we’re looking to money to provide is actually found in Jesus Christ. Only Jesus comforts, satisfies, provides, and gives the life that we’re really looking for everywhere else—abundant, joyful, never-ending. Money is a great tool but it’s not lord. Don’t ask it to be.
So lesson one, obvious but difficult: don’t ask of this life more than it can give.
Lesson two, non-obvious but available:
18 Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. 19 Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. 20 For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.
6 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: 2 a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. 3 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. 4 For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. 5 Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. 6 Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place?
Here’s something non-obvious but available: the enjoyment we want in life isn’t lying out beyond our grasp, but given graciously by the hand of God if we’ll take it. But we don’t always see that, do we? We scratch and claw our way for another dollar, asking this life to give more than it can. But what if the life we really want isn’t expensive at all? What if it’s as free as the grace of God? Well, good news. It is! It’s as free as the grace of God because it is the grace of God. The life we most want is the life that is most freely given, coming from God’s own hand. All the satisfaction we’re looking for everywhere else is found in simple openness to God moment by moment. Isn’t that so cool? God’s not making this too hard for us. He’s saying to us right now, “This world looks amazing. That’s because I created it. But because of sin, it’s dangerous. Don’t ask of it more than it can give. Instead, receive what I can give.”
In verse 18, the Preacher makes a turn to help us see this truth. The word “Behold” means he’s redirecting our attention away from the toil under the sun to the grace under God. He’s seen something else, something “good and fitting,” literally “a good thing which is beautiful.” And it’s surprising because, on the surface, it doesn’t look all that impressive. What is it? Look again at verse 18. “To eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil…”
The opposite end of life’s continuum is not a life void of toil. He’s not giving us the false dichotomy of toil vs. no toil. The difference is between a life of non-enjoyment vs. a life filled with enjoyment in the toil. If 5:10-17 shows us the covetous and unhappy life, 5:18-20 show us the content and happy life. What makes the difference? Verse 19 is the key. “Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and the power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God.”
If I asked you, “What is the gift of God in your toil?” how would you answer? Would you stop at enjoyment? But that’s the Preacher’s answer. Do you see what the Preacher is saying? When we ask of life more than it can give, we rip the enjoyment of anything out of our life. What good is a great steak when there’s another better somewhere? What good is a dream vacation when it’s over? But what if every day you held the same enjoyment as a day at the beach? Wealth is separate from the power to enjoy. They do not go hand in hand. God may give you wealth, but has he given you enjoyment? He can.
I can’t help but think of my four-year-old son, Andy. Many of you know him. He’s the personification of joy. We were at the McDaniel’s the other night and their new puppy, Happy, was running around the yard with Andy. It was as if his personality was running alongside him. He walks into a room with a smile. There’s this great verse in Malachi about those who love the Lord go out leaping like calves from the stall. That’s Andy. He leaps through life. I came into the room one day, and his treasure-box was broken. Part of the side had come off. I asked him what happened, anticipating his sadness. He said, “Oh, it broke. But that’s okay. Now it has a window!” When life gives that boy lemons…
Verse 20 says that kind of person “will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.” The toil and vexation remain, but the grace of God gives the power to enjoy the good in life. To press the point further, not everyone has this gift of enjoyment. As he opens chapter 6, he says, “There is an evil that I have seen under the sun.” Again, this is observable. You’ve probably seen it too. Verse 2: “A man to whom God gives wealth, possession, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them.” It’s possible to have it all and fame on top of it and still have a miserable life.
This is far more significant than we realize. Enjoyment is a gift from God. That power comes from him! But it’s not alloted to all. Some of us need to ask him for it.
Did you watch The Last Dance, the ESPN documentary about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls? During the 1997-1998 season, the Bulls allowed a camera crew special access to their season.
One night, the camera crew knocks on Michael Jordan’s hotel door. He lets them in. He talks about the questions swirling about his post-season retirement. Will he really do it? Why would he? He’s at the top of his game. He says, “This isn’t one of those lifestyles that you envy, where you’re confined to this room. I’m ready for getting out of this life. You know when you get to that point. I’m there. With no reservations at all.”
The life many of us could only imagine living is a living hell for the person actually living it. How can that be? Because the power to enjoy it comes from God and nowhere else. And here’s the secret to the universe: the power to enjoy your life right now also comes from God. You may not have much, or least all you wish you had, but you can have joy!
Remember the story of Mary and Martha? Mary sat at the feet of Jesus while Martha anxiously worked. Martha grows impatient with Mary, but Jesus says Mary is the one doing the right thing. Jesus says, “You are anxious and troubled about many things” (Luke 10:41). In other words, Jesus says that our anxious toiling is not his heart for us. We can ruin our own enjoyment by forgetting one amazing reality: God is with us. We’re so focused on bearing the world’s burdens that we forget the One who overcame it all is with us.
We don’t have to over-think this. The Preacher of Ecclesiastes is incredibly real about the hardness of life. But he’s also incredibly real about how much enjoyment fills life. God is offering us right now our regular life infused with his divine joy. That gift of his power comes from his hand to all in Christ. Who are we to reject that gift?
In verses 3-6, the Preacher tells the story of a man who did reject it. He fathers a hundred children and lives many years—literally, thousands of years. But his soul isn’t satisfied. Furthermore, when he dies, there is no burial. He’s despised and unmourned. His end is so bad that a stillborn baby is better off. The Preacher isn’t making light of stillborn babies. He knows the heartache of that. God cares about those deep wounds. He means the baby at least avoids the toil and enters rest. He’s saying a life void of the joy of God is a life not worth living, and some of us are living that. I’ve lived it too often.
Ecclesiastes is that odd book that says to us both, “Yes, this life stinks,” and, “Yes, this life rocks.” We cry, and we laugh. As Ray Ortlund says, “The tears are inevitable, but the joys we might neglect.” Let’s not neglect the joys. They’re a gift from God. Right now, in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God is asking all of us just to chill out, to enjoy his amazingness, this life’s amazingness. Yes, the world is falling apart, but your morning coffee still tastes good. The sun still shines. The wind on a summer day still feels amazing. The gospel is still good news. There is so much to enjoy. So enjoy it! When the side of your treasure box falls off, God’s giving you a window to better see him through it. Don’t neglect that.
So lesson number two, non-obvious but available: the power to enjoy.
Finally, the third lesson, uncomfortable but necessary:
7 All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. 8 For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? 9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.
10 Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. 11 The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? 12 For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?
Though there is real joy to be found, the Preacher knows this world is no place to rest. That’s an uncomfortable but necessary truth. In the previous passage, he talked about the Christian and the gift of joy from God. Here, he considers the purely secular man and his quest for answers. He’s never satisfied because he’s looking only to things under the sun. Verse 7 points that out in the simplest of ways. “All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.”
Where is that satisfaction he seeks? The Preacher leads us on further. He asks in verse 8, “What advantage the wise man has over the fool?” It doesn’t seem like much in the end. They both end up dead. Both forgotten. The wise avoid a lot of bad through their wisdom, but they can’t outwit death. The fool suffers more than he ought in life, but in the end, even he finds rest from the toil.
So the Preacher says, “Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite.” In other words, be content with what we do have rather than wandering inwardly for what we do not. That’s the best we can do, right? Just shut down our desires. Ignore the longings.
But even the most secular person protests. Surely this can’t be it! Surely there’s meaning to it all! We see so much moral fervor in our day. People protest online and in the streets. So many call for change in our broken society. But what’s the point if nothing ever really can change? Who’s to say it’s broken anyway? If this whole world is just one big, fat accident, then it doesn’t really matter what happens to it or what happens to us.
Even we feel this at times, don’t we? So we take our protest to God. But verses 10 and 11 warn us that won’t go well. God made it this way, and we’re not able to dispute with one stronger than us. “The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man?” We’re like Job, arguing with God who sees everything from our tiny island of limited vision. We cannot change the basic character of life—this toil and difficultly and is-ness of it all.
Verse 12 summarizes the question for us, “For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?” Here the Preacher takes us to the end of the secular imagination. Who can know what is right and wrong? No one. We’re just here, and that’s the way things are. Just get on with life.
But what if we can’t just get on with life? What if we sense that there must be something more than this life here under the sun? We sense deep inside that there is something more, don’t we? We long for another world. And that, friends, is because we’re made for one. The secular man throws up his hands and decides to just rest while he can. But the Preacher says this world is no place to rest because the rest we seek is found only in God, and only in eternity with him. As Saint Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
We spend so much of life asking difficult questions. Our life is a mess at times. As we look at our life and say, “Man, I have problems,” God looks at us in the face of Jesus Christ and says, “Yes, but I am your joyous remedy.” When we come to the end of ourselves and to the very end of what we can make of this world, we find not a vast, empty nothingness but an infinite, loving God.
The Preacher gives the gift of seeing life through secular eyes so that we can see what life is truly like apart from the grace of God. But in the gospel, Jesus provides the answer to our big questions. Is there a right way to live? Yes, and Jesus lived it. Is there more than what I can see with my eyes? Yes, and Jesus showed it. Is there life after this? Yes, and Jesus proved it by his death and resurrection.
We can finally stop asking this world to give us the satisfaction that only God can provide. We can enjoy him, as he gives us the power to, and we can look to eternal life with him, knowing this world isn’t our final resting place.
“Who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?” Jesus can. Come to him for the answer.
Let’s pray.
33 And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 35 And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” 36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” 37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
40 There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
42 And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. 45 And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. 46 And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.
If you’re like me, you wonder, “Does God really love me?” I’m look at me! So much grumbling, so much resentment, so much uncleanness. But Jesus knows all of it. In fact, he sees the ugly parts of me I can’t even see. When I find it hard to believe that God could love me, a passage like this gets up in my face and says, “Oh, let me show you the extent of my love!”
The way John 13:1 says it is so comforting, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” I need a love, and you need a love, that doesn’t stop halfway. I’ve had enough halfway love in my life. I need a love, and you need a love, that goes all the way to the end. A kind of love that reaches all the way down into the darkest corners of my heart and brings the light in where I didn’t even know I needed it. A halfway love brings a halfway salvation, but an all the way love, like we find in Christ, brings an all the way salvation. Jesus loved us to the end: to death.
God didn’t do this begrudgingly, like a parent helping their child out of frustration do something the child could easily do themselves. We couldn’t do it ourselves. He’s not angry that it took this drastic measure. He’s not counting the cost to himself. He’s happy with his work. In fact, as our intercessor now in heaven, he’s still saving us. The way the author of Hebrews says it, he loves to the “uttermost” (Hebrews 7:25). Jesus loves us to the uttermost of our need, to the uttermost of our sin, to the uttermost of his divine capabilities. Jesus is the only one who can perfectly say, “I love you to death.”
That is not to say that the death of Jesus isn’t something to look at soberly. It is, as is every death. There was a reason he had to die. Our darkness drove him there, and that’s what we need to look at today.
Before we see the newness of life that comes Easter morning, we must first see the darkness of Good Friday, the darkness of the death of Jesus. We will do that under three headings:
The Darkness On the Earth
The Darkness Over the Son
The Darkness In the Grave
It’s not hard to see today that something is deeply wrong with the world. When a virus spreads so quickly that even a handshake could be a greeting of death, we cannot say the world is okay. What happened to God’s good creation? The Bible tells us that the goodness of God wasn’t enough for our original parents. Instead, Adam and Eve listened to the lies of Satan and took matters into their own hands. No one was going to tell them how to live.
From there, sin went viral, passed down from generation to generation. We’ve all contracted this sickness unto death. It shadows all we do. The Puritan William Beveridge put it this way.
I cannot pray, but I sin. I cannot hear or preach a sermon, but I sin. I cannot give an alms or receive the sacrament, but I sin. Nay, I cannot so much as confess my sins, but my confessions are still aggravations of them. My repentance needs to be repented of, my tears want washing, and the very washing of my tears need still to be washed over again with the blood of my Redeemer.
In other words, we are not good people who occasionally do bad things. We are evil people proving it all the time. Sin separates us from God. There is a chasm so large no one can bridge it on their own. Sin separates us from other people. Maybe it’s difficult during this quarantine to find peace in your home. Sin separates us from the creation. Right now, there is a virus spreading around the globe, seeking to kill and destroy. And sin separates us from ourselves. Our own flesh fights against our desires. Maybe you’re seeing that these days too. The shadow of sin stands over this world because we have rejected God. As a result, here is Jesus on the cross.
By this point in Mark’s gospel, he’d been there for three hours. At noon, the sixth hour, the very heart of the day, darkness covered the whole land until 3PM, the ninth hour. Some scholars try to write this off as just a solar eclipse—nothing special. Do you remember the eclipse we had a few years ago? The darkness lasted maybe fifteen minutes. This was three hours. This was an act of God. He was showing us the darkness of sin that placed Christ on the cross.
The Old Testament prophets talked about the darkness of the “Day of the Lord,” which was like biblical-code language for Judgment Day. For example, Jeremiah said, “I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light” (Jeremiah 4:23). The physical darkness represented our spiritual darkness.
The Old Testament tells repeatedly of how God’s people broke God’s covenant, dimming the light and ushering in the darkness. Our sin prevents us from seeing the true depth and tragedy of our real plight, our real condition, of what we truly deserve, of the judgment it requires. One author I read (Bolt) points to the prophet Isaiah’s words, “We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men” (Isaiah 59:10). God sees that no one can lead them out of their own darkness, so he will strap on the armor himself and save them. The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem (Isaiah 59:15-20). Here was their Redeemer, hanging on a cross, going under the darkness for them.
What hope do we have in our darkness? We have the cross. It’s messy and it’s bloody because it has to be. The Bible says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22) and “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Nothing less than Christ’s cross can save our soul. The only hope of any light at all is by the Light himself going under the darkness for us, dying in the darkness for our darkness, letting the darkness engulf him and take him down, which is our second point.
Jesus felt the darkness that day. Verse 34 says Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark includes both the Aramaic version Jesus actually said and the Greek translation for his readers. According to verse 35, some thought he was calling for Elijah. The Aramaic words misheard certainly could sound like it, and in Jewish thought, Elijah, who had not died but had been lifted into heaven, would come back to help God’s people. In verse 36, they took sour wine to him, fulfilling the prophecy of Psalm 69:21, “for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” This isn’t the wine with myrrh offered to Jesus on the way to the place of crucifixion. This wasn’t to dull his pain but to prolong his life, to see if Elijah would come. But Elijah wasn’t coming. He wasn’t crying out for Elijah anyway. He was crying out for another reason—not for someone to save him but to show the kind of salvation he’s offering. His cry was the first verse of Psalm 22. Why that Psalm? Because there the Psalmist David laments the feeling of forsakenness. The first two verses say, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.” Do you know that feeling? Have you felt forsaken? Have you felt abandoned? On the cross, that’s how Jesus felt. Dane Ortlund, in his book Gentle and Lowly, says this.
New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham notes that while Psalm 22:1 was originally written in Hebrew, Jesus spoke it in Aramaic and thus was personally appropriating it. Jesus wasn’t simply repeating David’s experience of a thousand years earlier as a convenient parallel expression. Rather, every anguished Psalm 22:1 cry across the millenia was being recapitulated and fulfilled and deepened in Jesus. His was the true Psalm 22:1 of which ours are the shadows. As the people of God, all our feelings of forsakenness funneled through an actual human heart in a single moment of anguished horror on Calvary, an actual forsakenness…The world’s Light was going out.
He who knew no sin was becoming sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). All our darkness was placed on him. As the prophet Isaiah said, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-6)
On the cross, all the iniquity of all God’s people throughout all history past, present, and future was laid upon his Son. And it killed him. Jesus did not die a normal death of mere physical expiration; Jesus died the extraordinary death of spiritual expiation. In other words, by his death, Jesus set us right with God. He went into God’s courtroom of Divine Justice as our substitute and received a guilty verdict. He was led to the place of slaughter and executed for our sins. Jesus hung there, covered in darkness, physically and spiritually, experiencing the very Hell we deserve. Why? To give us the very heaven we long for. This was a legal transaction—he took our sin and in return gave us his righteousness.
Here’s one result. When Paul says in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus” it means there is therefore now no condemnation! Right now, you are free from the eternal punishment of sin. Right now, you are free from condemnation. You might condemn yourself but God won’t condemn you. Right now, God fully approves of you because Jesus paid it all—not some: all. There is therefore now no condemnation for you who are in Christ Jesus. You are utterly and eternally free forever. And all you have to do to receive this amazing gift is accept it with the empty hands of faith. I love the way Gerhard Forde says it.
We are justified freely, for Christ’s sake, by faith, without the exertion of our own strength, gaining of merit, or doing of works. To the age-old question, “What shall I do to be saved?” the confessional answer is shocking: “Nothing! Just be still: shut up and listen for once in your life to what God the Almighty, creator and redeemer, is saying to his world and to you in the death and resurrection of his Son! Listen and believe!”
We see something of this in the Centurion’s reaction to Jesus’ death. Verse 39 says when Jesus made a loud cry and gave up his spirit, the Centurion said, “Truly, this man was the Son of God!” This is the first time in Mark’s gospel a human voice refers to Jesus as the Son of God. That matters because he was confessing who Jesus really is—no more mocking. The centurion saw the struggle of Jesus on the cross. He saw the darkness descend. He heard all the words uttered. He noticed something significant was going on.
What did he see? He saw Jesus representing his people. The Greek Mark uses for “loud cry” is what the author of Hebrews uses when he says, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death” (Hebrews 5:7). The context there is Jesus learning obedience through what he suffered. So the cry on the cross was a cry of obedient suffering. Why was he obeying? Because we needed him to. His cry was our cry. His obedience was our obedience. His suffering was our suffering. His forsakenness was our forsakenness. Like Isaac taken up the mountain by his father, Jesus is there as a sacrifice, but this time the Father will not relent. The knife is plunged. The Son dies.
When he died, verse 38 says the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. That’s important because it tells us another result of the cross. Where there was once separation between man and God in the very heart of God’s temple, there is now open access. The Great High Priest has gone behind the curtain and offered himself as the final sacrifice. When his flesh was torn, the temple curtain came down with it. No more separation. No other mediator between God and man is needed. By his blood, we now have all the access to God we will ever need (Hebrews 10:19-22). We can come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). God will hear us because on the cross Jesus wasn’t heard. We will never be forsaken because he was. Psalm 22 starts with lament, and that’s what he cried out, but it ends in praise for God’s deliverance. Jesus cried verse 1 to give us the rest of the Psalm. He asked for our deliverance through him, and we received it! Satan can’t condemn us. The world can’t destroy us. We can’t even ruin ourselves anymore. Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice conquered it all!
Jesus endured the darkness of our sin on our behalf. Then, he entered the darkness of the grave. Let’s look at that now.
Why does Mark record the burial of Jesus? Throughout history, this has been a contested point of the story. Some say Jesus didn’t really die on the cross. Maybe he passed out, was taken down, and recovered somewhere. Muslims say he was taken to heaven before he died on the cross. Others say dogs ate his body. But from the earliest of days, the burial of Jesus was an important and well-recorded point. All four gospels record his burial, and the earliest Christian creed, the Apostles’ Creed, includes it.
But why does his burial matter so much? Because only a dead Jesus saves. Only a dead and buried Jesus experienced the full wrath of God against our sin. Only a dead and buried Jesus can resurrect. If he wasn’t dead and buried, the resurrection couldn’t have happened, and if the resurrection didn’t happen then, as Paul said, “our preaching is in vain and our faith is in vain.”
The details Mark includes lead us to the conclusion that Jesus really did die and he really was buried. Verses 42-43 tell us that by evening, because it was the day of Preparation, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin council, took courage and went to Pilate to ask for the body. Those details matter because of what comes next. Verse 44 says Pilate was surprised to hear Jesus was already dead. Crucifixion could take days. Jesus was dead in a few hours. So he called the centurion who oversaw the death. After confirming, Pilate gave Joseph his body. This wasn’t normal practice. Usually, to complete the humiliation of crucifixion, the body was thrown in the trash heap. So why did Pilate give the body to Joseph? Mark doesn’t say. All he says is that he did, and that’s important because it’s different from the normal way of things. It’s the kind of thing that is only written down if it’s true.
But it’s important for other reasons too. It’s a fulfillment of prophecy. The Old Testament prophesied this kind of burial for the Messiah. Joseph was a rich man—only a rich man had a tomb like this prepared. Isaiah said the Messiah would have his grave made with a rich man in his death (Isaiah 53:9) and that the tomb would be cut out of a rock (Isaiah 22:16). We know from John’s gospel that this tomb was in a garden (John 19:41), and that also points to a profound truth. The Puritan commentator Matthew Henry puts it this way, “In the garden of Eden death and the grave first received their power, and now in a garden they are conquered, disarmed, and triumphed over. In a garden Christ began his passion, and from a garden he would rise, and begin his exaltation.” In his death, Jesus is undoing the terrible events of the Garden of Eden.
And he’s undoing something deep in his people. If you’re in Christ, his burial represents your burial. As Paul says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.” That’s important because of what comes next. “In order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). In other words, when that stone was rolled over Jesus’ grave, he took your sin in there with him. He buried it away in his death, which means you don’t have to bear the punishment anymore. Yes, you still have some darkness in you, but there is also now a new light. His death purchased it and his burial sealed it.
Your sins are there in that grave, dead and gone in the sight of God, never to be resurrected.
Here’s the amazing thing: this good news is available to anyone who will come. All you need is desire. You might think you’re not worthy, but the cross says you can’t be too low for Jesus. He came all the way down to be visible to those at the very bottom. Did you notice Mark’s inclusion of the women in verses 40-41? Why them? Because they were the humblest of them all in those days. They were watching from afar because Jewish convention demanded it. Their witness didn’t even matter in court, but they were witnesses to God’s salvation. When almost nothing else was, God was available to them. His salvation was for them. They saw Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. God was using them—the lowest—to tell his story. He always does.
Still, you might think, “Okay, but what if I mess up? I mean really mess up. Isn’t there some point at which this can’t be true for me anymore?” John Bunyan was a man who knew this feeling well. He wrote a book called Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ. It was devoted to John 6:37, where in the KJV Jesus says, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Bunyan confronts these thoughts with God’s word.
But I am a great sinner, say you.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I am an old sinner, say you.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I am a hard-hearted sinner, say you.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I am a backsliding sinner, say you.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I have served Satan all my days, say you.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I have sinned against light, say you.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I have sinned against mercy, say you.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
But I have no good thing to bring with me, say you.
“I will in no wise cast out,” says Christ.
The very place where you see yourself as most undeserving is the very place at which Jesus’ cross says to you, “Come to me.” You say, “But when does his welcome end?” Never. The salvation of the cross is not temporary. This is a permanent deal.
We’re living in what everyone calls “uncertain times.” But Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). His salvation is certain. If he saved you then, he’ll save you today, and he’ll save you forever. You won’t fall through the cracks. You can’t. The dying love of Christ is holding you. He will in no wise cast out! How could he? He was cast out for you! There is no mess he can’t handle. He bore it all. He loves you to the end.
Let’s pray.
Jesus Before the Council
53 And they led Jesus to the high priest. And all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together. 54 And Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he was sitting with the guards and warming himself at the fire. 55 Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. 56 For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. 57 And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, 58 “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’ ” 59 Yet even about this their testimony did not agree. 60 And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” 61 But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” 62 And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” 63 And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? 64 You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death. 65 And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to strike him, saying to him, “Prophesy!” And the guards received him with blows.
Peter Denies Jesus
66 And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came, 67 and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” 68 But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you mean.” And he went out into the gateway and the rooster crowed. 69 And the servant girl saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” 70 But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.” 71 But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.” 72 And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept.
Mark’s gospel opens with this. “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” It doesn’t say, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a great teacher.” It doesn’t say, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a great man.” It says, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus is not just another important guy from history. From the very beginning, Mark presents Jesus as God’s very son who came to live, die and rise again to save us from sin and death.
Now, in some ways, all we’ve seen since that opening verse has been hurtling toward this passage today, where Jesus stands trial for claiming to be the Son of God. But that’s not all that’s happening. There’s also the story with Peter. As Jesus stands trial in the high priest’s house, Peter stands trial in the courtyard. He’s put himself there, trying to make good on his promise never to leave Jesus. But when the fire gets hot, he can’t stand the heat. Neither event was a surprise to Jesus. He knew his end in Jerusalem, and he predicted Peter’s failure in the courtyard. In both, we see the power of the gospel—Jesus standing firm for failures like Peter.
So there are two primary story-lines to consider.
The Judge Who Was Judged
The Disciple Who Denied
In an essay called “God in the Dock,” C.S. Lewis says:
The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge: if God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war, poverty and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God’s acquittal. But the important thing is that Man is on the Bench and God in the Dock.
I agree with Lewis in principle. But the Bible presents ancient man doing the same as modern man. Adam and Eve approached God as judge only after their fall into sin. Before, they put him in the dock in the garden, eating the forbidden fruit in disobedience. Cain struck down his brother Abel, and when God confronted him, he dared to ask if he was his brother’s keeper. Throughout Israel’s history, they wrestled with God, rejected his rule, and fought his grace. There are certainly bright spots along the way, but by and large, these ancient people did not approach God as the accused person approaches his judge. Quite the opposite. In the sinful man’s mind, God is always on trial; he must always prove himself. So I agree with Lewis that modern man puts himself on the Bench and God in the dock, but I say it’s always been that way. And that’s how we end up here in Mark 14 with Jesus on trial.
Now, how can this happen? I mean, Jesus on trial? Ask our modern world what they think about Jesus, and they’ll say he was a good man, even a great man. Amazing teacher. Had a heart for the poor. Loving and kind. And taught his followers to be the same. All that’s true. So then why was he tried, convicted, and crucified? Who kills someone so good and wonderful, and for what reason?
The truth is, sinful people always find reasons to kill God. It’s actually not hard to do at all. We have all kinds of things against him. We deeply believe all our problems are his fault. We’re doing the best we can, and we’re weak, so if we fail from time to time, that’s to be expected. We’re only human! But God? If he’s there at all, he can do anything, right? So why can’t he fix my life? Why did he let those bad things happen to me? Why do I suffer? Why is coronavirus spreading? Why did my loved one die? Why is my life so disappointing? Either God’s not there at all, or if he is, he’s not good. He’s got some explaining to do. Putting God in the dock is just what sinful humans do.
So to find Jesus on trial is not really all that surprising. We can debate about what the original sin is—is it pride or unbelief or something else—but what sin does is first and foremost put us on the bench and God in the dock.
We all do this. With every sin we commit, we put him in the dock. We say to him, “You know, I’m just not sure you’re really what I need right now.” God takes that seriously as an offense against himself. And yet, instead of wiping this world out, here is Jesus standing before a court of accusers.
In verses 53-65, Jesus is brought before the Jewish Sanhedrin (the ruling court of the day). It’s not a fair trial. They’ve made up their mind. Jesus is guilty. All they need to do is provide a few witnesses to prove it and call it a night. But verse 55 tells us they couldn’t find anything, and verse 56 says the witnesses couldn’t even agree on their lies. But they won’t let that get in their way. Since his early ministry in Galilee, they’ve plotted his death (Mark 3:6). As Jesus entered the temple after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, his behavior drove his enemies to a breaking point. They couldn’t wait to kill him (Mark 14:2). And now that Judas has delivered him so easily, they’re well on their way to achieving their goal.
What is so threatening about Jesus? Why is his death the only acceptable outcome? Maybe it’s his actions. He was just so welcoming to people who didn’t belong. Maybe it was jealousy. He was taking their followers away. That was part of the hatred, yes, but it wasn’t what got him killed. So what was it? It was that Jesus claimed to be God. They did not have eyes to see the truth of who he was. But, okay, so they didn’t believe him. Still, why kill him? Because they loved God so much? Maybe. But if they did, why didn’t they see that Jesus as God? What’s going on?
Jesus was a theological threat and a political threat. Theologically, he claimed to be God. Politically, he rejected their leadership. Both were a problem. If he wasn’t God but says he is, he deserves death. And if he rejects their leadership, he’s against God, because this is the temple leadership we’re talking about.
But there’s also something deeper going on. This wasn’t a government trial; it was religious. It shows us what happens to people who serve God in theory without knowing him in reality. The Sanhedrin had something more important to them than following God. They had their political and religious power. They had their life, and they didn’t want God messing that up. When Jesus entered the temple, he made it clear from Scripture that their leadership wasn’t God’s will. But they didn’t care. It gave them what they wanted, and isn’t that the point anyway? Oh yes, sure, it’s all about God, but when God showed up, it was really all about them. J.I. Packer says it well. “What is sin’s essence? Playing God, acting as if you and your pleasure were the end to which all things, God included, must be made to function as a means.” Didn’t Jesus know God was a means to their end?
Who is Jesus to you? Is he God? Or is he merely a means to your ends? Are you saying with your mouth that God’s glory is all that matters while using him to establish your kingdom? That’s far easier to do than we imagine, and if we don’t yield to his lordship now, we might find ourselves sitting among his accusers tomorrow.
They could have bowed before Jesus in worship. Instead, they convicted him as a criminal. There was a darkness in them. Sin had taken root and grown to the point of not recognizing God when he stood before them. Their reaction shows the true tragedy of sin—how the devil joins our sinful nature to convict God. When Jesus comes around, the evil in us and the evil in the spiritual world go crazy. They have to because if they don’t, they will be destroyed. Jesus exposes who we really are, and that’s threatening. Our world isn’t big enough for both of us. One has to go. We’d rather be the evil person we’ve always been than the redeemed person Jesus wants to make us.
That’s the tragedy of sin. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Have you noticed how often Jesus pleads with these people throughout the gospels? In Matthew 23:37, he said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”
Jesus might destroy your kingdom, but he offers another—a perfect one with a perfect King. Jesus offers joy, so why hold on to our misery? He offers a glorious life we’ve always wanted, so why do we try so hard to keep control of our life? When has that ever worked out? Instead of fighting his grace, why not yield instead?
The Sanhedrin hated him, not because he was a threat to God—after all, he was God—but because he was a threat to them. So they fought him. And let’s just admit that we have too. Maybe some of us are right now. What is Jesus’ answer to that? This is the surprise of the gospel. Look at what happens.
As they brought charges, Jesus didn’t even respond, and that drove them crazy. Look at verse 60. “And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, ‘Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?’” Jesus didn’t answer that either. Verse 61. “But he remained silent and made no answer.” The prophet Isaiah predicted this. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). He suffered in silence. Under the judgment of sinners, the sinless lamb, the suffering servant, remained quiet.
Throughout Mark’s gospel, Jesus was silent about his identity. He told the demons not to make him known (1:23-26, 32-34; 3:11-12). He told the healed leper not to tell anyone who he was (1:40-45). He asked Jairus not to reveal him after he brought his daughter back to life (5:41-43). He told the blind man to go home and not talk to anyone about him (7:33-37). To his disciples that saw his transfiguration, he asked them not to talk about it yet (9:9-10). When he entered Galilee, he told his disciples not to tell anyone he was there (9:30-32). But the word got out anyway. People talked about Jesus being the Son of God and the Messiah, but up until now, he had not explicitly stated his identity himself.
But in verse 61, the high priest asks him a direct question. “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” He’s on the spot now. There are two parts to this question. First, “Are you the Christ?” In other words, “Are you the Messiah—the figure the prophets of old said would come to restore God’s world and lead his people into his kingdom?” Secondly, “Are you the Son of the Blessed?” In other words, “Are you saying you’re not only the Messiah but also God’s own son?” By bringing these two questions together into one, he’s asking Jesus pointedly if this is truly his self-understanding.
Jesus answers in verse 62. It’s a really important moment in Mark’s gospel. It’s the moment when he says explicitly who he really is. No shrouded messages. No hidden meanings. “And Jesus said, ‘I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.’”
With this answer, Jesus combined two Old Testament passages: Daniel 7 and Psalm 110. Weaving these together creates an even more powerful image than either contains in itself. Jesus is saying the Son of Man coming with the clouds of Daniel 7 is the Messiah seated at the right hand of God of Psalm 110, and that person is the one standing before them. In the Old Testament, riding on the clouds is reserved only for God. Jesus is saying he is God. And the one sitting at his right hand is the one with the highest honor. In other words, he’s saying that the one they are judging is the Judge of all the earth. There is the irony. The Judge is being judging. God is in the dock. But it will not always be that way. He wants them to know who he is. One day the Judge will come back with the clouds to do the judging, but not yet. John 3:17 says, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him.” But they condemned him, and they slapped him and spit on him and struck him.
Do you see what’s happening? Do you see the irony? The judge is being judged. He who came to save is being killed. And it’s all part of the plan. The world will be saved not first by the Judge’s judgment of the world but by the world’s judgment of him! In a great reversal, he’s getting what they deserved!
Why did God do this? Well, I think we see that best by looking at the story of Peter, the disciple who denied.
Back in verse 54, we see that Peter followed the arresting party into the courtyard. Earlier in the chapter, Peter told Jesus he’d never leave him. He’d die with him. He’d never deny him. Following Jesus into the courtyard was Peter making good on that promise. But Jesus knew something about Peter that Peter did not yet know. He predicted Peter would deny him three times that night. Peter was there to prove him wrong.
Verses 66-72 tell us the story.
As Jesus stands trial in the house, Peter stands trial in the courtyard. But his council is much less intimidating. In fact, it was as non-threatening as possible. A servant girl was his first accuser, merely stating that he had been with Jesus. But he denies. She says it again, and he denies again. Then the bystanders hear it and say, “Yeah, I recognize you.” Then Peter, for the third time, denies knowing Christ. But more than that, he rains down curses on himself—a very serious thing to do.
What happened? How did Peter go from slinging a sword at Jesus’s captors to crumbling before a little servant girl? And could it happen to you? Could it happen to me? We all want to stand for Christ. Christ himself calls us to that high honor. But what if we don’t? What happens when we waiver in our faith? Perhaps right now, as our world spirals downward with coronavirus, we feel weaker than we thought we were. What hope do we have when our faith is less than we thought it was?
Peter is a good example. He was a man who thought he was stronger than he really was. And in a moment of crisis, he found out how weak he really was. Isn’t that how it always goes? We’re weakest when we think we’re strong.
What happened to Peter? Mark gives us some of the details, but the other gospels color it even more. Luke says when Peter denied Jesus the third time, the Lord looked at him (Luke 22:61). Can you imagine that look? No wonder Peter broke down and wept. He denied his friend and his Lord. And Jesus saw it!
John’s gospel tells us the fire they warmed themselves with in the courtyard that night was made of charcoal (John 18:18). There is only one other time the Bible mentions a charcoal fire. Do you know when that is? It’s after Jesus is resurrected. The apostles have gone back to their day jobs, fishing. Jesus arrives on the shore and tells them where to cast their nets. They bring in a haul, and Peter knows it’s Jesus. He jumps out of the boat and swims to shore. He’s still eager old Peter. When he gets there, Jesus has a fire going, cooking breakfast. Do you know what the fire is made of? Charcoal (John 21:9). Studies show our sense of smell is closely linked with memory, more so than the other senses. Jesus knew what he was doing. Peter’s mind likely flashed back to the courtyard—the moment of his greatest sin and shame.
What was Jesus going to say to him? Peter had put Jesus in the dock that night. When push came to shove, it was Jesus who had to go, not Peter. But here Jesus is, resurrected. He’s made it through death. Peter saw the empty tomb with his own eyes. As we will see in a couple of weeks, when the women get to the empty tomb, the angel tells them, “Go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee.” (Mark 16:7) It seems Jesus wanted to say something to Peter. What would it be? Here was the risen Judge coming to find him. What was his attitude?
The surprise of the gospel is that Jesus doesn’t come looking for his people in vengeance. We expect Jesus to say, “Go tell those losers who abandoned me that I’m coming for them.” But Instead, as Matthew records it, he says, “Go tell my brothers…they will see me” (Matthew 28:10). That’s how far his grace goes.
How can that be? How can he love like that? How can he forgive like that? There was a time when Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone who sinned against him. He proposed seven times. Jesus’s answer was seventy times seven (Matthew 18:22). Peter wanted to limit grace. Jesus expanded it. He always does. When we think it’s the end of the rope, Jesus says he’s just beginning. There is no end to his grace. Don’t worry about using it all up today, there’s always plenty for tomorrow.
How can that be? Because the Judge was judged. He went under judgment for us, and as a result, we’re clean. We’re free. We’re righteous. On the cross, Jesus absorbed all of our sins—all of Peter’s denial—as if it was his own, as if he denied God. On the cross, God accepted Jesus as our substitute. He accepted the offer of his life in place of ours. That’s why Jesus could forgive Peter. That’s why God can forgive us. The Bible says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22). Someone’s gonna bleed for our sins. They’re that serious. And God says, it’s either us or Jesus. That’s why he became human. Jesus put himself in the dock, he put himself before the council, he put himself in the path of condemnation. We deserved it, but he received it. He took it for us. He was the representative of Israel, the Son of Man from Daniel 7, the divine Messiah from Psalm 110, and he humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross for us! He stood on behalf of all who would believe, bearing condemnation so we wouldn’t have to.
God traded his blood for ours. And in that exchange, God settled the accounts, but he did more than that. Jesus not only took our sin away, but he also gave us all his righteousness. When we trust in his saving work, his righteousness is granted to us so that in God’s eyes, it’s not only as if we’ve never disobeyed but that we’ve always obeyed. In God’s eyes, because of Christ, it’s as if Peter not only never denied him but always stood faithful to him.
That’s why Jesus could call Peter to him to breakfast that day. He didn’t see him as the sinner he was, but as the saint he had made him. He restored Peter that day on the shore. And if you’ve failed Jesus, he can restore you too. It’s what he does. And he loves to do it. He’s a redeemer! He loves to take hopeless cases like us and transform us into glorious trophies of his grace.
Peter was the disciple who denied Jesus, but Jesus was the Judge who was judged for his denial. He cleaned him by his cross. Not that sin alone but all his sin. He does that for you too. And all you have to do is, like Peter, swim to the shore where he sits waiting for you. Yes, there might be a charcoal fire. Some memories might come back. They will probably be painful. But as you look into his face, you’ll not see a frown. You’ll find a smile. His kindness will lead you to repentance. And you might just need to sit there with him for a while. You might not know what to say. That’s ok. Peter didn’t. So Jesus asked the questions. For each denial, Jesus asked Peter if he loved him. Three times he had the opportunity to say yes (John 21:15-19).
Jesus loves to restore people. Peter never got over that experience. He wrote about it later on in one of his letters. He said, “After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” (1 Peter 5:10).
If you need the same grace Peter received, you can have it. It will require your repentance and humility, but that’s it. Jesus paid the rest. The Judge was judged for you. All you have to do is receive that grace with the empty hands of faith.
Let’s pray.
Mark 13 is in the Bible because Jesus answered a question. He told his disciples the temple would be torn down. But the temple didn’t look in danger. It was huge, ornate, impressive. Furthermore, it was the place of God’s presence. How could it be destroyed? What would that mean? And, the question Jesus answers, when would it happen? Beginning in verse 5, and running throughout the rest of the chapter, Jesus answered.
Now, organizationally, it helps to view the passage in two sections with two parts.
Section 1: Short-Term Future
Part 1: The Abomination of Desolation, verses 14-23.
Part 2: The Lesson of the Fig Tree, verses 28-31.
Section 2: Future to Come
Part 1: The Coming of the Son of Man, verses 24-27.
Part 2: No One Knows the Day or Hour, verses 32-37.
Viewed this way, we can see how Jesus moves back and forth from the short-term to long-term future.
The Abomination of Desolation
14 “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let the one who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter his house, to take anything out, 16 and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. 17 And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! 18 Pray that it may not happen in winter. 19 For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be. 20 And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days. 21 And then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. 23 But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand.
The Coming of the Son of Man
24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
The Lesson of the Fig Tree
28 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
No One Knows That Day or Hour
32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. 35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”
How do you think about the future?
Culturally, books and movies present it bleakly, with destruction and war and suffering. George Orwell, in 1984, had O’Brien say to Winston, “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.”
Is that our future? What does Jesus say? As Jesus answered the disciples’ question about the timing of the temple’s destruction, he wasn’t an Orwellian science-fiction novelist, heightening uncertainty for dramatic effect. Rather, he spoke pastorally. He was honest about the tough road ahead but also promised he was coming back one day. The boot stamping of the enemy has an end date, and Jesus will oversee it.
The tone of Mark 13 is like when my kids have to face something uncertain, and they grow anxious. Their minds go to the darkest extreme and their anxiety heightens. They start asking questions: What will it feel like? What will I see? What do I do? So what do I tell them? Do I highlight details to scare them? Do I sensationalize events to come? No, of course not. But I am honest with them and set expectations because I want them to feel prepared.
We don’t know what the future holds. We can’t even guess. Who of us would have imagined we’d end up where we are today? For all the good, there is also bad, and as we grow older and we suffer, and some of the dreams we dreamed begin to die out, we start to wonder if God even cares. Does he care about my future? Is there anything good out ahead for me? Am I forgotten?
Mark 13 says you are not forgotten. Jesus’ love is big enough to include you and your future. You are, by his grace and for his glory, in his heart forever, and he promised in his death and resurrection to care for you all your days. Mark 13 is in the Bible to prove that to you. As uncertain as your future is, you can take heart that God is reigning and ruling over it and his purposes for his people are always good, no matter how bleak today looks and no matter how uncertain tomorrow is. In the words of my friend Ray Ortlund, “We don’t know what the future holds except for this: we will always be stepping into one more moment after another of the love of God. Forever.”
Mark 13 is part of that promise and, better yet, Jesus himself is the proof. He died and rose for you, and he’s coming again for you. He loves you to the uttermost—deeper than you can imagine and longer than you can see. In the gospel, we have the promise of eternal love today and eternal love tomorrow.
So let’s consider the future under three headings:
The future is in God’s hands, so we know he cares
The future is part of God’s plan, so we don’t despair
The future is given beforehand, so we can prepare
The old African-American spiritual song got it right. “He’s got the whole world in his hands.” But how do we know that’s true? This passage is a master class. For starters, look at verse 14. “When you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand)…” What is Jesus talking about?
We can’t predict the future, but God can and did. Mark’s parenthetical note about letting the reader understand is a way of saying, “Remember Daniel.” 600 years before Jesus, God told the prophet Daniel an abomination of desolation was coming—that a devastating rejection of God was coming in the very place God should be found and accepted. Something so sacrilegious was out ahead that God’s people would feel desolate and devastated when it came. Jesus said it would come, “where he ought not to be”—in the temple sanctuary. Way back in the sixth-century BC, God knew what was to come, and Jesus picks that up and says, “It’s close.”
Jesus came to a religious establishment that abandoned God and rejected his Son. We saw in the preceding chapters, how the temple leaders treated Jesus. They ignored God’s presence and expelled him from their minds and hearts. The temple became the opposite of what it was meant to be. Rather than a place where God was worshiped, he was ignored. When the Son of God came, they rejected him. So rather than a hopeful future of a glorious, holy city, Jerusalem and her temple will be destroyed. A structure cannot stand without its cornerstone.
That abomination of desolation that God foretold came to pass in the year AD 70 when the Roman Titus seiged Jerusalem. The temple was burned and destroyed. But it began to fall well before that. The temple leaders were not who they should have been. They left God long before that fateful day of the siege. His people were forsaken by their leaders and Daniel’s prophecy came true. The future is in God’s hands. What he says will come to pass.
So how does this show God cares? Well, we see here that God cares on two levels. He cares on the level of his glory and our good.
First, he cares about his glory. His temple will not be desecrated forever. He will not dwell with people who do not want him. The temple’s destruction was God’s judgment of what the temple and its leaders became. He gave his glory to his Son and they rejected him. He will not give his glory to another. They should have repented. They could have repented. Jesus said in verse 30, “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” Between his crucifixion and the temple’s destruction stood 37 years of gospel preaching. But instead of repenting, they continued sinning. God cares about his glory. An institution claiming his presence without his word or his heart cannot stand.
God also cares about our good. Evidence of that care is woven throughout. Foretelling the destruction, he told his people what to do. In verse 14 he said, “let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” For forever, Jerusalem was the place of ultimate refuge. But not anymore. Rather than fleeing to it, Jesus’ people are to flee from it. Ordinarily, the wilderness was not a place of safety. Safety was found inside the well-fortified city walls. But when the siege came, scores of people—Jews who rejected Jesus as savior—died because they ran into the city. But the Christians didn’t die because they listened to Jesus’ word.
We keep reading. Look at verse 20. “If the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days.” Notice this is past tense: he shortened the days. Everything up to this point has been future tense because it hadn’t happened yet, but because the future is in God’s hands, it’s as good as done. Before it happens, Jesus wants his people to know that God’s sovereign hand is over it all. He’s overseeing this and he will care for his people during it. The entire siege lasted about five months. God stopped it for the sake of his people. That means the future is not a vague possibility but a determined hope you can stake your life on. God knows definitively what will happen. And he knows his people. He determined before the foundation of the world to care for them all their days and for all eternity. That means, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God cares about you too. He’s overseeing all of this for his glory and your good.
And he doesn’t want anyone distracting his people from following him. Look at verses 21-22. Jesus says not to listen to those who say, “Here is the Christ!” Why would people even say that? To delay them and keep them in the city. He doesn’t want his people to be fooled, so in verse 23 he said, “Be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand.” There will be no surprises for God’s people. They know what’s coming. The only question is when. So in verses 28-31, Jesus uses an illustration of the fig tree. When the fig tree is green, summer isn’t only coming; it’s very near. That’s the lesson. Historical evidence shows that around 66 or 67 BC, the Christians in Jerusalem started to see the tree turn green and fled. When the siege came, the Christians weren’t there because they listened to Jesus. He told them all things beforehand because he knows what’s coming and he cares about his people.
But that specific event is in the past, so how does all this help us today? The way God deals with his people in the past is a really good indicator of how he deals with his people today, which is why our second point is so important.
There is a subtext in the disciples’ question—something that runs through our minds too. “Will we be okay?”
If the future is in God’s hands, it means the future is part of God’s plan, which means not only that he cares but also that we don’t have to despair. There is a God above who loves and saves. If God has the whole world in his hands, then little me and you fit firmly in his grip.
What happened as those Christians fled the city into the wilderness? Well, what always happens when God drives his people into the wilderness? He goes with them. Like the shepherd of Psalm 23, he takes them through the valley of the shadow of death only to bring them to green pastures and still waters. He was not only with them, he used them to spread his kingdom. As those early Christians fled, they took the gospel of Jesus with them. In the midst of bad news, they took good news to a dying world, to all the nations. He had a purpose of glory for those people.
If he had a purpose of glory for his people long ago, he has a purpose of glory for you and me today. Because of Christ’s cross, you are part of God’s glorious plan. Your future, as undetermined and unpredictable as it seems, is not left to chance. Your future is planned by God himself. God is already out there ahead of you, and he will be there to welcome you into that future day and carry you through it to himself. Even if we must flee all we’ve ever known, Jesus will give us all we’ll ever need. You may see only destruction, but Jesus will build something glorious out of the ruins.
So while Jesus is answering the disciples’ question about the coming events, he’s also answering eternal questions. That’s what verses 24-27 are about. Look at verse 24. “But in those days, after that tribulation…” Jesus transitions to a day far-out ahead when he returns. Using the words of the prophets, he said the sun will be darkened, the moon won’t give light, the stars will fall, and so on. Then, look at verse 26, “they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.” The language reminds us of the way God was present with his people in the Old Testament, especially in the days of the wilderness after the Exodus, where God’s presence is described as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Jesus is saying he will make a powerful and glorious return. As surely as he came the first time, he will come a second time.
But there are some differences between that first time and this second time. When Jesus first came, he came weak and humble. He came to lay down his life. In John 12:47, Jesus says, “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” His first coming was a mission of salvation by way of the cross, upon which he was judged for his people. But his second coming will be a mission of salvation by way of power and glory, by which he will bring judgment rather than take it. When he comes again he will judge those who reject him and save those who accept him. And the emphasis here is on the saving. Look at verse 27. “And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.”
If you look closely at verses 26 and 27, you notice that every action belongs to Jesus. If history has been a great boot stamping on the face of his people, which it has, Jesus is coming to put those enemies under his feet once and for all. He is not outsourcing this job. He’s bringing his people home himself. Jesus will come and he will gather his people. And he knows where his people are—even you.
We don’t know when this will happen. We’re not meant to know. But we can know this: If you are his, your future is determined, and you don’t need to despair the days to come. Yes, some days will be hard, but those hard days will lead you into more of God’s glory, deeper into the well of his promises. Part of the gospel hope is that as we suffer, rather than falling further from God, we grow closer to him. Paul said in Romans we become heirs with Christ as we suffer with him. We fear suffering will ruin us, but God says, in Christ, suffering will glorify us.
The older I get the more I see that my future days will hurt. I just don’t see a way around it. People will get sick and die. Parents and children will be taken. Marriages will end. Tragedies will pop up, as we just saw with Kobe Bryant’s death. And one day I will suffer something that I cannot right now see that will flatten me. I know it’s out there. And it’s out there for you too. And some of us have already suffered that. The wound is so deep and still so raw that we wonder if it will ever heal. We doubt it can. Some of us have had unspeakable things done to us, and it’s not our fault but here we are left to deal with not only our sad past but also our uncertain future.
How does a passage like this help us? It helps because the return of Christ says that place of your deepest pain and your deepest shame where that wrong done to you lives on will one day find the justice it seeks. When he comes in clouds with great power and glory, he will come to set everything right. From the deepest part of your heart that only God can see, you may cry out, “How long, O Lord?” That’s an honest cry that God takes seriously. In Revelation, the martyrs cry that out (Revelation 6). It feels like he’s taking so long. Will he ever come? In the gospel, God’s answer is a definitive, “Yes.” No qualifications but that we faithfully wait. The Son will bring justice. He’s on the way!
When he comes, we will be like Sam in the Lord of the Rings upon seeing Gandalf at the end of it all.
“Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What's happened to the world?\"
“A great Shadow has departed,\" said Gandalf, and then he laughed and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count.”
A day is coming, friends, when that pure sound of merriment will never end as everything bad comes untrue.
So what do we do in the meantime? We trust God. We trust that Jesus will not only remove our suffering like some cosmic eraser but he will redeem our suffering as only a Savior can. He will make all things new.
Right now, we can trust God with our greatest suffering and our greatest fears about suffering. We can trust him because we’ve seen what God can do with suffering. We’ve seen the cross, that great instrument of torture and despair and humiliation, become an instrument of redemption, a doorway into heaven, a grave that leads to life. If he can do that, what can he not do?
We might not have all the answers we’d like about the future. What we do have, though, is Jesus. An unknown future with a known Savior is better than a known future without a known Savior. We can look to the crucified Christ and see the dying love of God on our behalf. Jesus is trustworthy and your future is part of his plan. You need not despair—not as long as Jesus is alive. The days of laughter are coming.
And to help us get there, we have Mark 13 in our Bibles, which leads us to our final point.
The second coming is mentioned 300 times in the New Testament—one of out every 13 verses. It’s always presented as a sudden event. It will not be like the events of AD 70, where preparations can be made in the days immediately ahead. Preparation must be life-long. So in verses 32-37, Jesus sums the main takeaway: stay awake, be ready. In fact, he says “stay awake” four times in these six verses. Tim Keller points out that there are only two things that we can be sure about regarding the second coming: First, it’s definitely going to happen. Second, there is absolutely no way to predict when.
So we must stay awake because no one knows the day or hour, not even the Son. Now, the Son not knowing has caused some problems over the years. But, basically, it’s saying that, in his humanity, Jesus doesn’t have that knowledge. It’s his way of identifying with us as those who must live by faith, trusting and obeying God all our days.
To illustrate this trusting and obeying, Jesus tells a parable of a man going on a journey. He puts his servants in charge and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake because no one knows when the man will return, only that he will. The point of the parable is clear: we are to be about the Master’s work, doing what he’s called us to do and watching for his return. He told us he’s coming so we can prepare to meet him. We do that through repentance and faith, through trust and obedience.
What Jesus said to his disciples, he said to all. So, let me ask the same question we asked last week. Are you ready to meet Jesus? Let me ask it another way: is his coming for you a problem or a promise?
Let me speak first to those for whom it’s a problem.
There are at least two kinds of people in this group. Some of you have been running from Jesus. His coming would mean the end, and that doesn’t sound like good news. Well, let me ask a few questions. Are there things about this world that make you angry—injustices and wrongs you see that no one stops? Have you or someone you love suffered things that ought not to have been done? Are you afraid the future is just another boot stamping? The gospel says when Jesus comes back, he will right all those wrongs. The injustice you’re rightly angry about will be dealt with.
But what about the injustices you’ve committed? Let’s be honest, we’ve all stamped on someone along the way—most of all, God’s image in us. What will happen to you? Unless you repent, when Jesus comes to set things right, he’ll have to set you right too. But if you’ll accept his offer of forgiveness in the gospel, you will see that on the cross, Jesus paid for all the wrongs you’ve committed as if they were his wrongs. He will take your sin and give you his righteousness and you will have the peace of Christ. Jesus’ return will turn from a problem of impending judgment to a promise of eternal hope.
So here’s what you can do right now. You can settle accounts with God. Say to him, as honestly as you know how, “Jesus, I don’t know you, but I want to. Will you show yourself to me and forgive me?” Then you tell someone else you said that and let them help you find answers to your questions. The Lord will not turn you away. Your presence here this morning is proof of his welcoming arms.
The other kind of person in this group would say something like this. “Well, I think I’m a Christian, and I think I’m going to heaven when I die, but who can really know? I try to do my best but I’m never sure I’m good enough. So, yeah, this second coming talk is a bit of a problem. I’m not sure I’ll make the cut.”
If you will give that doubt over to Jesus, he will help you. He will receive it as he received the doubts of his disciple Thomas and he will come to you by his Spirit and make himself visible and touchable. He wants you to have assurance. He wants you to see that it’s not your goodness but his goodness that gets you to heaven. All he’s asking is faith in his sufficiency for all your need. The entire Bible and the gift of the Holy Spirit bear witness to that. Talk to him about it and then talk to someone else to find answers to your deep and honest questions.
Now, to those for whom this is a promise. Rejoice that Jesus is coming again to make all things new! Hold fast to this hope and stay awake. Heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will not. Cling to them. He is surely coming. Follow him wherever he leads. Trust him moment by moment by his grace and for his glory. He’s preparing a place for you, and he’s coming again to take you to it.
Conclusion
I’ll close with this. There’s a PBS Kids show called Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. It’s a spin-off of Mister Rogers. Daniel Tiger was one of his puppets, and they made an animated show out of him and his friends. Anyway, in one episode, Daniel and his friends are starting school and they’re worried about their parents leaving. Each episode has a catchy little song to help kids grasp the message of that particular show. The song this time was simple: Grown-ups come back.
When kids start school, they need to know their parents care enough about their future to come back and get them. They don’t want to be forgotten. In some sense, we never really outgrow that, do we?
When our kids want to know what’s ahead, and when we wonder about our future, we’re really wondering if we will be left to face this harsh world alone. The second coming of Jesus says we will not be. Like Daniel Tiger’s parents, God is saying to us this morning that he will be back.
That truth can sustain us our whole life. We don’t know if he’ll be back to tomorrow or ten thousand years from now and, really, it doesn’t matter because though he’s absent in body, he’s with us in his Holy Spirit right now and forevermore.
The future is uncertain, and we know some days will be hard. Shakespeare’s Richard II says, “Cry woe, destruction, ruin, loss, decay: The worst is death, and death will have his day.” That’s true. But we can also say, “Cry woe, destruction, ruin, loss, decay: The best is Christ, and Christ will have his day.” The world is hard and it may get harder still, but take heart, Jesus has overcome the world. He’s coming in the clouds with great power and glory, to gather and repair, to save his elect, to redeem his chosen. He will come.
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
3 Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
5 For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
What happens when a church is filled with Psalm 100 people? What happens when a joyful noise of praise and thanksgiving rises from them? What happens when singing isn’t forced, it’s barely contained?
When a church is filled with Psalm 100 people, two things happen. First, the people are really happy and free. Second, outsiders see that and want in. We want to be Psalm 100 people so we need two key insights.
Why we thank God (vv. 3, 5)
How we thank God (vv. 1, 2, 4)
Look at verses 3 and 5. There are 7 reasons why we thank God:
Verse 3: who God is and who we are
1. He is God
2. He made us
3. We are his people
4. We are the sheep of his pasture
Verse 5: our favored relationship with God
5. He is good
6. His steadfast love endures forever
7. His faithfulness endures to all generations.
In other words, God is on his throne, everything is going his way, and he loves us.
Knowing that is the ground of all thanksgiving. Every problem begins when we forget it. When Paul drilled down to the very heart of sin in Romans 1:21, he said, “Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.” A thankless heart isn’t just a problem. It’s a sin against God who is good and does good (Psalm 119:68). Every kind of evil begins there. Francis Schaeffer said, “A heart giving thanks at any given moment is the real test of the extent to which we love God at that moment.” Thanking God is loving God. So thankfulness is not an optional add-on to the Christian life; the Christian life cannot be lived without thanksgiving.
That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Paul called this world the “present evil age” (Galatians 1:4). It’s not easy to thank God with a broken heart or a tragic diagnosis. It’s not easy to thank God in the depths of anxiety and depression. It’s not easy to thank God in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep, and you don’t know what’s coming tomorrow, but you think it’s more than you can bear. Nowhere does the Bible say thanking God is easy. But nowhere does the Bible say thanking God is optional, only for the good times.
Though we may not be thankful for our sufferings, we are to thank God in our sufferings. The Bible says, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5). The Bible says, “rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:13). And glory there shall certainly be. “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).
The pain of this world is itself a reason to thank God. There is an end to it. Glory is coming. For the Christian, this world is as close to hell as you’ll ever be. Even when this world is killing you, and you can barely breathe from the pain, God is in heaven filling eternity with reasons to be thankful. The best is yet to come. Earth has no sorrow that heaven can’t heal.
The Bible says, “If there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8). And these are the things Psalm 100 people know. Our God is the only God. We are his people. His creation. He’s our Good Shepherd, and even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, it’s so he can take us to the green pastures and still waters we long for. We know this because he’s been faithful for generations. God has never disappointed one person who trusted him.
We know these things ultimately because of Jesus Christ. He’s the reason for our greatest thanks. All the promises of God find their Yes in him (2 Corinthians 1:20). Every promise in the Bible God made, every hope in the Bible God gave, every joy in the Bible God promised find their Yes in Jesus. Because after thanking God, Jesus took the bread, his body, and broke it, and took the wine, his blood, and poured it out on the cross to restore God’s unthankful people.
Yes, life is still hard and still hurts, but in Christ, even death is now a portal into a better world with him. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good (Romans 8:28). We have victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57). We’ve been rescued!
When Psalm 100 people give thanks, they find hope for tomorrow because there is hope for tomorrow. As Ray Ortlund said, “God has designed reality in such a way that we praise our way into a better future.” Thanksgiving moves us closer to God’s heart and a better tomorrow.
Now, second, how we thank God.
Our thanksgiving can be too reserved. We can let those around us affect the way we thank God. After all, we don’t want to downplay real pain and sorrow with seemingly shallow thanksgiving. But thanking God is never shallow. How could it be? Whoever saw a child run to his parents with arms wide open and a smile on his face and a big, loud “thank you” bursting from his mouth and thought, “Okay, that’s enough. No need to be all showy about it.”
Verses 1, 2, and 4 show how to thank God.
First, verse 1, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord.”
The meaning here isn’t that we should come up to God and shake his hand, look him square in the eye, and express a mild but firm, “Thank you.” No, it means we should be effusive. We need to get over our reservations and let loose. And not just every now and then.
A joyful noise is loud and raucous. Like an underdog college football team at home against a big-name rival. The underdog wins. The crowd goes nuts. The band plays and dances. The fans storm the field. It’s impossible not to smile. It’s an unexpected victory, just like our salvation in Christ. That’s a joyful noise.
A “joyful noise” was how ancient Israel welcomed their king. Psalm 100 people parade into church celebrating the exaltation of King Jesus. They come in rowdy and ready to party. The big game has been won upon the cross. His resurrection proved it. We’re on the winning side! And now, we’re in that in-between time, basking in the afterglow of the victory before the big party later on, and we can’t stop talking about the final play that sealed the game. We keep replaying it in our minds and telling everyone we see. A joyful noise!
Second, verse 2, “Serve the Lord with gladness.”
How do Psalm 100 people serve the Lord? With gladness. They aren’t lazy. They’re hard workers because they know whom they serve, and that makes all the difference. Psalm 100 people don’t view serving God as a chore but a privilege. They serve the Lord with gladness out of response to his goodness.
Psalm 100 people are like the underdog football team before the big game. Nothing about it will be easy. It’ll demand their all. It’ll hurt and be hard. They’ll have to get dirty and sweaty and bloody. So what? They run out on the field. Psalm 100 people know they don’t belong there—not based on their merit—but here they are, loved by God, ready to serve out sheer gladness.
Third, verse 2, “Come into his presence with singing.”
This means we come with a song of praise on our lips to God. We sing about what we delight in. That’s why so many songs are about love and lovers. Psalm 100 people sing loudly to God because they delight in him.
Fourth, verse 4, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!”
I love how commentator Derek Kidner explains it. “The simplicity of this invitation may conceal the wonder of it, for the courts are truly his, not ours, and his gates are shut to the unclean. Yet not only his outer courts but the Holy of Holies itself are thrown open ‘by the new and living way’, and we are welcome.”
We have unfiltered access to God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. As Tim Keller puts it, “The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.”
We come into the courts of God through the gates of God not on our own merit but through Christ’s. We are those at the Great Banquet who are poor, crippled, lame, and blind (Luke 14:15-24). We are blessed, and we cannot repay our Holy Host. All we can do is thank him. All we can do is enter in amazement that of all places we could be and should be, we are in the presence of God Almighty. More than that, he’s adopted us as his children. Our fate is sealed by Jesus’ blood, and his Holy Spirit is our guarantee. The Father himself loves us. And if we have the Father’s love, we have everything we’ll ever need because he’s a good Father. Don’t you want to thank him for this?
Let me close with C.S. Lewis. I love how he shows us this isn’t some holy chore but a pathway to joy.
I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with…The catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.
And so it is with thanksgiving. When we give thanks, we complete the joy.
Let’s be Psalm 100 people who see what God has done, and respond. Let’s enter his gates with thanksgiving—not because we’ve somehow worked up enough gratitude, but because we’ve seen so much of God that we can’t help it.
Let’s pray.
NOTE: This sermon is probably better listened to than read. While the preaching of it was very closely tied to the manuscript, there are some exhortations and pleadings included in the recorded sermon that you will not find in the text below.
28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Mark 12:28-34
“You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
What does it mean to “not be far from the kingdom of God”? In the past few weeks, we’ve seen groups of people debating with Jesus in the temple court. The Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadduccees all prove they’re far from the kingdom of God. But here we have a scribe, likely a member of the Pharisees, whom Jesus says is not far from the kingdom of God. He came closer than all the others. But, of course, being not far does not mean being in, and being in is what matters.
So what brings a person into the kingdom? Is it one’s knowledge of God’s word? It is one’s agreement with God’s law? Or is it something else entirely? That’s what we’re going to think about today.
All who debated with Jesus that day knew God’s law. The Pharisees certainly did. They were the teachers of Israel. The Sadducees knew it as well—at least well enough to know what they didn’t like about it. And this scribe certainly did. He was a recognized expert in God’s law, employed for his ability to transcribe it. So we have here a bunch of really smart people who knew their Bibles way better than probably all of us combined yet not a single one was in the kingdom of God.
That’s a bit surprising, isn’t it? These are the type of whom we’d say, “Man, they really know their Bible.” But their knowledge of the Bible didn’t do them any good when standing before the Word made flesh. Their knowledge of the Bible didn’t translate into being in God’s kingdom. Why is that? The scribe is a great case study. Perhaps better even than all the others we’ve seen. He wasn’t combative. He wasn’t trying to trap Jesus. He didn’t treat Jesus as a threat. He cames to ask a question because he saw how well Jesus answered everyone else. So here’s a guy who knows his Bible and doesn’t hate Jesus. He’s a good example because he represents the way so many people treat Jesus.
Look at his question. He has an important theological question to ask. “Which commandment is the most important of all?” That question was a hotly debated issue in his day. It would have been the theological trending topic on Twitter, with all the seminary professors and pastors and lay people jumping in with their opinion. The scribes identified 613 laws in the Old Testament. That’s a lot of laws! And as with any complex system, some laws were considered light and some heavy. But could you summarize it? Lots of people tried. For example, a famous rabbi who taught twenty years before Jesus’ ministry said, “What you would not want done to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the essence of the law. Everything else is mere commentary on it.” (Rabbi Hillel) But that seems a bit lacking, doesn’t it? It doesn’t even mention God’s name! Well, Jesus has a better answer in verses 29-31: love God and love your neighbor.
The scribe loved this answer because it was deeply rooted in the Old Testament, and it highlighted two important passages. The first is from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 about loving God. This was something every Israelite knew by heart. They recited it every day. The most important command was, first, to love God with all that you are.
The second passage Jesus combined with Deuteronomy 6 is the “love your neighbor” passage from Leviticus 19:18. This combination summarized the law in a way that actually made sense. It captured the whole thing. God wants both love for him and love for others. But one comes first. Loving others as yourself flows from loving God with all you are.
Now, this is massively important, and there are entire sermons we could preach (and will preach) on loving God and loving others. But the main focus in this passage is on the interaction between Jesus and the scribe. What Mark wants to show us is the danger mere knowledge can be. The scribe only wanted to know what Jesus thought rather than live what Jesus taught. His interest was entirely theological. It was not spiritual. Great knowledge of God’s law alone only brings one near, not in, the kingdom.
That doesn’t mean God doesn’t want us to have knowledge. He wants us to think through the Bible. He wants us to reason with him (Isaiah 1:18). He wants us to think over what he’s said (2 Timothy 2:7). He wants us to come to logical conclusions and reasonable answers to hard questions. In no uncertain terms, he wants us to know him, and knowing him means we must know about him. Knowledge, in fact, is part of what the New Testament writers urge all believers to achieve about God’s word. Knowing that we are saved by Christ grants so much assurance in the Christian life.
God gave us a mind so that we could think deeply about him. But that mind must be given over to him and used in humble submission before him. That’s why Jesus says part of loving God is loving him with all your mind. The scribe didn’t do that. Instead, he used his mind as a way to avoid God’s real call. He was a really smart guy, but he kept is on the surface, as theory alone. He didn’t hand his mind over to God. He didn’t use his knowledge to get him closer to God but to win an argument, to settle a debate, to notch some theological precision points into his belt.
But God wants us to use our mind not for our pride but for his glory. Mere knowledge of God’s word isn’t enough to bring us into the kingdom of God. Why not? Because knowledge for knowledge’s sake can be used for all kinds of misguided purposes. Knowing your Bible isn’t proof of salvation. I hope we all know our Bibles. There’s a reason we teach it each week. We want you to know it! But it’s not enough. The devil and his demons know the Bible but it doesn’t save them! Paul said knowledge puffs up. Knowledge is a great garden for pride. And as our pride grows, our felt need for God dies. This scribe shows us it is possible to stand before the very Son of God and because of the desire for knowledge miss the entire point of it!
Do you know God or do you only know about God? That’s the all-important distinction. It is possible to know God’s words inside and out but it does us no good at all if we don’t know Jesus. Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). Knowing our Bible isn’t enough. If all we do is know it, we will be not far from the kingdom but not in the kingdom. We must have more.
So, what about agreement with God’s law? That’s the second thing to consider.
There was another problem with this scribe. He not only knew God’s law, he also agreed with it. How’s that a problem? It’s a problem because he stopped there. Though he agreed with God’s law on a surface level, he didn’t allow it to change him. His interest was intellectual, not spiritual. He agreed with Jesus’ answer but did not go on down the path to actual obedience.
He was like some people who think they’re Christians but are really only interested in theology. They like to use their mind to think about God but never really give their mind over to God. Theology becomes merely a hobby. It remains theoretical. It’s a point of conversation and debate. It doesn’t settle down into the heart. The scribe is like so many others who treat God as an object of study rather than an object of worship. The danger is that knowledge remains theoretical because it’s merely agreement.
Look how the scribe applauded Jesus’ answer in verses 32-33. He agreed with Jesus. Moreover he seemed to know and agree with the intention of the law—that God wants men and women to obey him from a pure heart rather than merely with outward actions. But did the scribe apply this? Was he not doing the very opposite here? He applauded Jesus’ answer, but as Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “The law is not to be applauded; it is to be applied.” Agreement with God’s law doesn’t save. The law is not something only to be considered and thought about or even agreed with. The law is something to be applied to one’s life.
As smart as he was, he didn’t think hard enough. If he loved God with all his mind, he would have taken the journey Paul took in his thinking. Remember the letters to the Romans and the Galatians, where Paul thinks through the implications of the law. He concludes that the law is good because it shows us we are bad. He understands how to use the law rightly. It shows how disobedient we truly are. It grows in us a need for a rescue, for a savior. It prepares us for Jesus. The law came not to save but to show that we need to be saved!
If the scribe had stopped discussing it for a minute and started trying to obey it, maybe he would have asked Jesus a different question. It’s when we try to obey God’s law that it begins to work its purpose out in our lives. Let’s just consider what it would mean to obey the law as Jesus set it forth here. What does it mean to love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength? Well, for starters, it means that we must give all our ourselves over to God. He doesn’t want just a part of us, he requires the whole thing—heart, soul, mind, and strength—full tilt all the time without fail. God must come first in everything we feel, think, and do. It must all be done for his glory alone out of a pure love for him. That’s a high calling isn’t it? It requires not just a Sunday morning worship service or a Tuesday night community group but our fully devoted life of love to God. Can you do that? Can you obey his law?
What about loving your neighbor as yourself? If the first doesn’t show us how far we’ve fallen, this surely will. J.P. Moreland puts the command in context for us. He says, “In the context of Leviticus 19:13-17, we are warned not to oppress ([the word “oppress” means] to keep someone in hardship; to cause distress, anxiety, or discomfort)” our neighbor, judge our neighbor unjustly, slander our neighbor, hate our neighbor in our hearts, and take revenge or bear a grudge against our neighbor. Rather, we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, implying that self-love is first…In Romans 13:9, Paul repeats Leviticus 19:18 and simply adds in verse 10 that love ‘does no harm to a neighbor,’ presumably because one would not do a wrong to oneself.” That’s a high mark to achieve! And to make it even harder, when asked, “Who is my neighbor?” in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus says our neighbor is even our enemy; it is anyone who needs our love, which is a way of saying everyone in the world.
What’s so difficult about this is that Jesus frames the law in such positive terms and actions. We tend to think of laws as what we’re not supposed to do. And that’s true. They are prohibitive, but they are also call to action. They not only tell us to avoid some things but to pursue other things, and that’s what makes it so hard to obey.
And if you don’t yet believe me, let me use a couple of examples from the Ten Commandments. God said, “You shall not murder.” Okay. I think we can all obey that today, can’t we? No one has plans to murder tonight, right? Good. But in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said the true meaning of that commandment isn’t only to avoid the physical act of murder but to avoid the inward act of anger and hatred toward another. To hate is to commit murder in God’s eyes.
Let’s try another. The Ten Commandments tell us “You shall not commit adultery.” Okay. I bet a lot of us will make it through life without committing adultery on our spouse. But again, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says if you lust in your heart after another, you’ve committed adultery in God’s sight. Who of us aren’t in danger of doing that very thing today?!
God isn’t only calling us to avoid negative actions, he’s demanding from us loving, positive actions that spring from a pure heart. That’s God’s law! Have you obeyed that law? Can you obey that?
Of course, the answer is no. No one has obeyed. The Bible is very clear on that. And therefore we all stand condemned before God. We do not love God with all that we are and we do not love our neighbor as ourself. We may agree with Jesus on what the most important law is—and many do—but until we obey that law all our life without fail, our agreement means nothing.
Do you see how sweeping a condemnation this is? The scribe liked Jesus’ answer because he kept it merely as a theological interest rather than a matter of personal, spiritual application. We must not treat God that way. If your Christianity is something other than a desire to be like Jesus and is instead only for pursuit of theological correctness, repent of your self-righteousness. No one has nor can obey the law. It is condemning. It is damning. God meant for it to be. But the scribe never seems to get here, does he? He never seems to realize that the kingdom of God isn’t entered merely by what you know but through who you know. What should this scribe have done? Should he not have fallen at Jesus’ feet and cried out, “I can’t obey that! Who will save me?” But he didn’t say that, and if we never do either, we’ll remain near to the kingdom but not in the kingdom.
The kingdom of God is not entered through theological knowledge and agreement alone. It is entered another way, which is our third point.
The scribe made a great first move. He came to Jesus. But he didn’t come close enough. He came to Jesus to ask a question but he didn’t draw close enough to see the true answer. If he had, he would have seen that Jesus not only knew God’s law but obeyed God’s law. He would have seen Jesus wasn’t only a teacher but a savior, a man like himself in appearance but unlike him in divinity. He would have seen a perfect man there before him who loved God with all he was, who never disobeyed for a second, and loved his neighbor as himself, headed to the cross to prove it. But the scribe didn’t see that because he didn’t come to Jesus as a sinner in need of saving but as a scribe in need of a theological answer. How have you come to him?
The difference between being near and being in the kingdom of God is simple, though I admit, not easy. It comes down to this: What do you do with Jesus? Is he a teacher or a savior? Can you see him for who he is and what he did or do you merely admire him for what he taught?
Standing before Jesus, the scribe never saw him for who he truly was. He who transcribed the Old Testament events about God’s glory coming into the temple didn’t see it when glory stood before him. He never saw the crushing weight of the law. He never realized the man before him was a Rescuer, the Son who, as Paul said in Galatians 4, “God sent forth…born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Jesus was there to pull him from under the law by taking his place. The scribe remained a slave to the law, but how close he was to being a son! How close he was to finding in God not only a great law-giver but a loving Father! Jesus was there for that very reason, but he missed it! And because he missed it, he was outside the kingdom. He wasn’t far, that’s true, but to be not far is to be altogether out.
Please, let’s not miss Jesus. Let’s beware of standing in the presence of God and missing the hope of the gospel. Let’s beware of our knowledge and agreement shielding us from repentance and belief. Let’s not merely discuss matters with Jesus but fall down in worship before him, crying out for rescue. There is only one way to enter the kingdom of God, and the Bible is clear from cover to cover that the one way is faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone.
So here’s the hope for any of us that feel not far from the kingdom but want in. As great as his teaching was, Jesus did not come only to give you tips on how to live. He did not come merely to show you how to be kind to others. He came to rescue you from sin and death. He came to save you from the crushing weight of the law. He came, as he said in John 10, to be the door by which you enter the kingdom of God. He came to have his flesh torn open so that by his blood you find cleansing and hope. He suffered the separation on the cross that you deserve to give you the peace of God that you don’t deserve.
So if you want to be a citizen of his kingdom, all you have to do is ask him to bring you in. He will gladly do it. If you’re tired of trying to obey a law you’ve already failed and you’re tired of gaining more knowledge for knowledge’s sake and you’re tired of just agreeing with God and you’re ready to lay it all down at his feet and ask for new life, he’s ready to welcome you. How do I know? Because he said he would. To all who are weighed down by their sin and their failed attempts at obeying the heavy yoke of the law, Jesus says this morning, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The kingdom of God is not for high-achievers. It is for repenters. If you can repent and admit your need for Jesus, the kingdom of God can be yours. If you see the law is killing you, Jesus will be your life.
I want you to know about God and I want you to agree with everything God says, but that alone won’t get you into heaven. And, in fact, the first step is knowing and agreeing with God that you’re a sinner in need of a savior. You enter God’s kingdom by coming to Jesus as your only hope and laying every other merit down at his feet. Your hope cannot be in your obedience. It cannot be in your character. It cannot be in your knowledge or agreement with God or anything else. Your hope must be placed in the power of Jesus Christ crucified, raised, ascended, glorified, and coming again. If it is anywhere else—even God’s law—you stand outside the kingdom looking in. But you must be in. Life is in there!
That’s not a matter of theological debate. It’s the truth of the gospel—something to rejoice in and enter into. And if you’ve not come in yet, well, the door is still open. Hurry inside.
Let’s pray.
Last week, we saw from Mark 11:1-11 the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. I wonder if you remember a little interesting thing in verse 11. After the worshipful coronation, that triumphal entry, Jesus “went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.” Kind of weird, huh? Didn’t do anything. Just looked around. Why did he do that? Well, here’s the rest of the story. Let’s pick it up in verse 12.
Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.
The Lesson from the Withered Fig Tree
20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Every year, we take a trip to Kansas City to visit our best friends. They have a bowl of pears on the coffee table in the living room. And if you look closely, they all have teeth marks. A few years ago, our youngest son hungry for pears went to the bowl every time he saw it, picked one up, and bit in. They looked so good to him. He can now tell you, though, that no matter how good they look, they’re fake. Every one of them. But they look real. And he didn’t know until he bit in and found no taste.
That’s what Jesus saw when he entered the temple. It looked good. It looked alive. But it wasn’t, at least not alive to God. It was like the fig tree—full of leaf but without fruit. Like the fake pears for my son, this passage is a lesson in how to spot the real thing. In this case, it’s true worship. And since we’re already talking about food, this passage comes at us like f a sandwich in three parts: fig tree/temple/fig tree.
So let’s look at each part, and notice how to spot the real thing—how to spot true worship of God.
True worship bears fruit for God (vv. 12-14)
True worship promotes life with God (vv. 15-19)
True worship has faith in God (vv. 20-25)
These first couple of verses serve as the opening illustration into the main point later on. So we need to understand what Jesus was doing.
Jesus was hungry. He saw a fig tree in leaf, but when he got to it, he saw no figs. So he cursed it, saying, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”
If you think this is a bit odd, you’re not alone. Some scholars had real trouble with it. Why did Jesus take out his anger on the poor fig tree? Why curse it? Commentator William Barclay said this story “does not seem worthy of Jesus. There seems to be a petulance in it.” New Testament scholar T. W. Manson said, “It is a tale of miraculous power wasted in the service of ill-temper.” Bertrand Russell, the philosopher who wrote an essay called “Why I Am Not A Christian,” used this narrative as one reason he didn’t believe. He said it shows Jesus as a furious man unable to control his anger, not worthy of the supposed “Son of God.”
Add in the fact that Mark said it wasn’t the time for figs, and it does seem a bit out of character, doesn’t it? In fact, it’s the only time in the Gospels where Jesus uses miraculous power for wounding rather than healing. What’s going on? Was it a divine overreaction? Was Jesus hangry? The fact is, he didn’t really harm the tree at all. All he did was state a truth about it.
There are two kinds of fruit that a fig tree bears. As the leaves came in, the tree would grow little nubs. Pre-figs, as it were. You could eat these, and travelers often did. And, of course, later on, it would grow ripe figs. So it wasn’t the season for figs, but the leaves indicated it was the season for these little nubs. But the tree didn’t even have that.
Jesus saw what everyone would have seen upon close inspection: this tree was dead. It looked okay from a distance. But it wasn’t doing what it was supposed to do. By cursing the tree, Jesus simply stated the obvious. It’s a dead tree, no matter how full the leaves are.
Throughout the Old Testament, the fig tree held spiritual value as a symbol for Israel, serving as a metaphor for their standing with God. And like Adam and Eve after the fall, this fig tree, though full in leaf, was useful only to cover nakedness. The temple in Jerusalem was much the same. What appeared full of life was actually lifeless. Jesus wants his disciples to see this. Why? It is possible to be outwardly religious and inwardly dead. But we need reality with Jesus, not the appearance of reality with him. We need the real thing. We need intimacy. We need fruit. We need life.
So why did Jesus go the the temple with his disciples, look around, and leave only to go back the next day? Because there was this hypocritical fig tree in Bethany that was going to serve as an object lesson about the hypocritical temple in Jerusalem.
True worship bears fruit, and the temple, though it looked good from afar, didn’t, which leads to our next point.
The fig tree illustration is important because what he says to the tree becomes true the next day. It withers. No one eats from it again. It proves once again that Jesus is God. That matters because as he goes into the temple, it’s not just another man going there. God has come. It’s the fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi 3:1-2. “And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?”
Who can endure? Who can stand? That’s the question. When God comes inside the hollow religious heart of Israel, what happens?
Now, this story is really interesting from a historical perspective. So much is packed in here. You can do a whole study of the meaning of Israel as the fig tree and the purpose of the temple. We don’t have time to do all that. But let’s take this out of the merely historical realm because this applies to us too.
We can look at the temple and see the hypocrisy. We have the advantage of hindsight. We know what the temple leaders were really like. We know what the religious authorities did to Jesus and his followers. We can see that this elaborate buying and selling and money-changing operation is a scam to make money off poor worshipers who only want to meet with God—much like the prosperity gospel preachers of our day. And though we can see that clearly now, it wasn’t so easy to see in Jesus’ day. Hollow religion is actually hard to spot, especially when the focus is turned on ourselves. We have an amazing capacity for self-deception and self-justification.
Andy Gullahorn is a Nashville songwriter. About ten years ago, he released a song called “I Haven’t Either.” It starts off lighthearted, but the point it makes is profound.
Have you ever been so selfish
that you let your baby cry
While you finished up a video game?
I haven’t either
That’s pretty bad
But have you ever stretched the truth
telling stories to your friends
So they’d be a little bit more amazed?
I haven’t either
I’d never do that
But there are some people out there
Who aren’t completely sincere
What they show in the daylight
Is not exactly what’s inside
It’s a form of protection
From being rejected
But you and I can be so glad
We are not like that
What happens when Jesus shows up to people like that? He shows us that we are like that. But he doesn’t only reveal what’s there; he does something about it. He cleans things out. He drives out what shouldn’t be there. He overturns what doesn’t belong. He blocks more harm from getting in. He brings God’s glory in.
When Jesus went back to the temple that day, he went on a mission. He was done looking. It was time to act. The temple was the center of life and worship. It was where the sacrifices were made to grant purification and forgiveness. Where sinners met with God. Where God dwelt on earth. It was the place to worship. It’s deadness is not a problem Jesus could ignore. He had to confront it. God’s glory was at stake. Sinners couldn’t get close to God.
The British pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “every institution tends to become it’s opposite.” The temple became a place where it was hard to find God. This can happen inside a church too. When a church becomes a place where it’s hard to find God, it becomes something other than what God intends. That’s why Jesus says in verse 17, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” Where was it written that it should be a house of prayer? Isaiah 56:7. What’s going on in Isaiah 56? Isaiah 56 is about the nations coming to God. It’s about God’s heart for all people—the Jews and the Gentiles. The temple had four main sections. Jesus stood in the outer court of the temple, the only place Gentiles could go to find God. The leaders should have been there to help but their heart wasn’t in it. They made it a den of robbers by establishing costly buying and selling and money-changing procedures for the sacrifices. They made a profit on the worship of God. The place that was meant for finding freedom in God became a place where it was hard to find God. Who can worship God in a Wal-Mart?
How did the temple get to this point? It didn’t happen all at once. Nothing like this ever does. It happens one compromise at a time. We don’t have to set up elaborate trading floors with international exchange rates. We just have to fail to welcome people, fail to make it easy to find Jesus. We just have to let our preferences set the agenda, let our feelings rule our interactions, let God’s word about loving one another for Jesus’ sake become mild suggestions rather than holy commands.
There’s a great example of this from the 1960s. Chuck Smith was a pastor of a little church in Costa Mesa, California. God did something powerful. He started to call a lot of young people to himself. They started coming to church. But they came straight from the beach, without shoes and without shirts. They didn’t know any better.
The church had just installed new carpet and new pews. On the beach, there were oil deposits. When they were stepped on, they stuck to the bottom of their feet. These new God-seekers walked into the church building with oil on their feet and it got all over the carpet.
One day, Chuck Smith showed up to find a sign hanging on the door. “Shirts and shoes please.” He took it down, and after church met with the church leaders. They decided, together, that they would rip up the carpet and the pews before they would again hinder one of these young beach kids from worshiping God. That’s the heart of Jesus.
Do you know what happened to that little church? God brought revival. He poured out his Spirit. They chose not to put up a barrier and God brought the people. What if they had kept that sign up? It wasn’t a big thing, right? Is it too much to ask of people to wear shoes to church? Well, no, but it’s also not necessary. Show me the verse about shoes!
We have two options: we can make rules to exclude or remove barriers to include. If God’s church is a house of prayer—a house of worship—then everyone is welcome. Everyone has a chance to meet Jesus. This is something Jesus is willing to fight for, and ultimately, die for. This act of cleansing the temple cost Jesus. Look at verse 18. “The chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him.”
Jesus cared so much about removing barriers to worship that he lost his life over it. How much do we care? The test of true worship is not merely how we’re feeling about God. It’s about how open we are to God, and how open we’re making things for others. The test of true worship doesn’t reside in showy religiosity but in God-glorifying life. And just as it cost Jesus, it might cost us. We will have to lay down some of our preferences. We will have to open our hearts to those not like us. We will have to let Jesus rule in our church. But we know the kind of good King he is, don’t we? Give me one reason not to do church his way.
Let me propose something for us here at Refuge. How about we make a commitment this morning, united together, to never establish any barrier that would keep others from Christ? Yes, there are certain biblical commands and requirements we must obey. Those aren’t up for discussion. But those usually aren’t our biggest problem. If people leave the church because the Bible makes it hard for them to worship God, that’s between them and God. But if they leave the church because we make it hard for them to worship God, that’s between God and us. Do we realize what God has done in Jesus Christ? How free we are? How open the kingdom is? That’s why he returns to the fig tree, which is our next point.
The fig tree represented the temple, especially her leaders. They were hypocrites. As a result, the temple was dead and worthless. It withered. The Old Testament said this would happen (Isaiah 34:4, Joel 1:7-12, Amos 4:9). So when they passed by the fig tree again and it had withered away to its roots. Peter pointed it out, and Jesus responded in a really interesting way. Look again, beginning with verse 22. “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
What? This is not the kind of response I expect. It doesn’t even seem to make sense, does it? Why is he talking about faith and prayer and moving mountains and forgiving? How does it have any relation to the fig tree and to the temple?
Here’s the point. We have a hunger for true worship, and if we go to a dead temple looking for spiritual fruit, we’re going to be disappointed and left hungry. We need another way—another tree from which to eat. How are we going to get that?
Jesus’ answer is to have faith in God. For what? Look at verse 23. “Whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.” Here’s another object lesson, like the fig tree. Cresting the Mount of Olives in Bethany, they saw a citadel built by Herod the Great for refuge in case of war. He had actually removed a hill in order to build it. If Herod could move a hill to establish a place of refuge, could God not move a mountain?
But what is this mountain? Notice Jesus doesn’t say “a” mountain. He says “this” mountain. What mountain is that? The mountain of dead worship they saw in the temple. How can Jesus move the mountain of dead worship in the temple? Well, in Mark 13, Jesus said not one stone of the temple will be left on another. In John 2, Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). The temple was 46 years in the making. How could Jesus raise it up again in three days?
The temple was an amazing place. But it wasn’t God’s final solution for communion with him. In the temple, there was no direct access to God for everyone. There were four layers, each one a step closer to God. The Gentiles could enter the outer court. The Jews could enter the next level. But only the priests could go inside the Holy Place. Only the High Priest inside the Most Holy Place, and that was only once a year, on the day of Atonement. And there was a curtain separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, representing the distance between the Holy God and sinful man. The temple was amazing. It was a gift. It was where God dwelt on Earth with man. But it wasn’t his final resting place. He had something better.
The fig tree symbolizes the deadness of Israel’s worship. We have a hunger for true worship, but a dead tree doesn’t bear fruit. So God gave us Jesus. We need another tree from which to eat. Jesus is the Tree of Life we need. His leaves never whither and his fruit never fades for those who need it.
Jesus becomes the very center of our life and worship. He is the meeting place. He is the worship center. He is the sacrifice to grant forgiveness. He is where sinful men and women meet with the Holy God. Jesus was there in Jerusalem for that very purpose. And he doesn’t need a fancy temple. All he needs is a cross.
As Jesus’ body was torn on the cross, the temple curtain was also torn, as Matthew tells us “from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:51), meaning, God tore it. Here’s why that’s so significant. Jesus replaced the temple as the object of faith in God. When Jesus died, the temple died too. The temple was defiled, but Jesus can’t be defiled. With Jesus as our access point to God, we can be sure it will never be compromised. Jesus can’t be ruined. He remains pure no matter what we bring to him. And from his purity, he makes us clean. Restoring true worship cost nothing less than the life of Jesus.
Why did God do that? Because you and I have a great need to be near to God. And, believe it or not, he actually wants to be near to us. C.S. Lewis said, “We were made not primarily that we may love God…but that God may love us.” That’s what worship is: getting close enough to God to let him love you. He doesn’t care about how you come to him. He cares only that you come. And in Jesus, it could not be easier. He is available to us all, right now, and every moment from now until we stand before him in heaven. The only thing keeping some us from him right now is our prideful religiosity, our false conception of ourselves, our self-righteousness. But we can give that up. Why settle for anything less when we can have real righteousness?
How can we get that? Jesus tells us right here. Verse 24, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” This isn’t a promise to grant our every wish. Jesus isn’t putting himself in a genie’s bottle. He’s doing something much better. It’s an offer to find total cleansing before God, in him alone. This is Jesus’ offer to come into your dead religious heart and drive out what doesn’t belong.
Maybe you’ve made your heart a den of robbers. Who of us hasn’t? But that doesn’t have to keep him from coming in and changing your story. He won’t reject an open heart. We need only look to the cross to find that truth. By his death that day on the cross, Jesus brought a robber to heaven. He can bring you too, no matter how far you are from true worship right now. He showed us the kind of forgiving heart God has. God loves to bring sinners to himself. The only question remaining is simple: do you want to come?
Showy religion is so boring. But true worship of God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit is life giving. Christianity is not about dreary outward appearances but fruit bearing life the makes us rejoice and brings glory to God. That’s what Jesus wants for his disciples. That’s what he wants for you. So ask him for it, and he will give it!
I’m not saying this is easy. I’m just showing you what’s available. It will take some heart-searching for us to get to Jesus. That’s why I’m thankful for a song like Andy Gullhorn’s “I Haven’t Either.” C.S. Lewis talked about how fairy stories (and in this case songs) have a way of getting past our “watchful dragons”—those dragons prevent truths from getting through to our heart. But stories and songs trick them and go around—kind of like Jesus’ stories and lessons. Gullahorn’s song ends like this, showing just how foolish our self-deception is.
Have you been so full of doubt that you
just can’t pray to God
Because you wonder if He even exists?
I haven’t either
Have you ever felt compelled to get a weight off of your chest
But can’t follow through because you are ashamed?
I’ve heard that you can tell the ones who truly open up
Their lives are marked with freedom and with peace
I don’t have either
No I haven’t either
Maybe you came here this morning and didn’t even know you had this mountain of religiosity blocking your worship. And now Jesus has shown up. Maybe he’s cleaning some of us out right now.
That can sound scary, but it’s really a wonderful thing. Jesus doesn’t love hollow religiosity. But he does love sinners. God loves to revive his people. And you don’t even have to deserve it. When you come to God, you don’t get everything you deserve. You get everything Jesus deserves. You get his life of obedience. You get his atoning death. You get his resurrection life.
All you need is honesty and openness to admit that your Christianity has been a show, and ask him for the real thing. He will come to you not with cursing but with blessing. Your sin isn’t too big for him. He’s bigger than your sin.
And when he saves you, he cleanses you, and sends his Spirit to live inside you. And you know what that makes you? A temple fit for true worship.
Let’s pray.
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” 28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
In Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade, Indiana’s father searches for eternal life. He’s after the Holy Grail. But he’s lost during his search. So Indy goes to find him. Through obstacles that include Nazis and snakes, he finally makes his way into the presence of the Grail. But it’s hidden among dozens of false grails. Only by drinking from it can he find the true one. A drink from a false grail leads to instant death. Indiana Jones must choose wisely.
Of course, there is no Holy Grail in a cave somewhere. But there is a reason a movie was made out of that idea. The entire world is looking for a fountain of youth, a Holy Grail, life eternal. And the world is full of deadly false hopes.
The gospel of Mark is something like Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade. There is a search, there are snakes, there are those who are lost and those who are found, and there is a man on a journey to find eternal life. And we meet him here in Mark 10. In fact, he appears in all three synoptic gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Matthew tells us he’s young. Luke tells us he’s a ruler. All three tell us he’s rich, and show us this search for eternal life is an ancient one.
This man met Jesus face to face to ask about eternal life. We’re going to explore that meeting today under three headings.
The path of eternal life. (vv. 17-22)
The impossibility of eternal life. (vv. 23-27)
The promise of eternal life. (vv. 28-31)
Have you heard the story of the blind men? They stand beside a large object, describing it to one another by touch. The first says, “It’s long and slender.” The second says, “It’s short and thick.” The third says, “It’s small and fluffy.” What are they touching? An elephant. The first touches its trunk. The second, a leg. The third, the tail. But they touch the same thing. The moral is they’re all right but think the others are wrong. We have limited perspective and subjective experiences, all of which may be equally true.
That’s how our culture describes the path to heaven. All roads lead there. Listen to almost any funeral sermon and you come away thinking the only requirement to get to heaven is to die. Everyone’s going. Why? Because they were a good person. They did more good than bad. It doesn’t matter what they believed. Hell is only for really bad people.
That’s not what the Bible says. Not all who think they’re going to heaven will get there. It’s not a wide path; it’s a narrow one. Not a wide but a narrow door. Some claiming to know Jesus will meet him at the end to find he never knew them. We cannot make our own way. We must follow God’s way, and his way is through faith and trust in Jesus alone. If we refuse him, we lose eternal life. Enter the example of the rich young man of Mark 10, a man searching for a way into heaven.
Now, he came to the right person, didn’t he? And verse 17 shows he came the right way—he ran and knelt before him. He respected Jesus. He was like so many who came to Jesus before, falling at his feet, begging for help. But he comes not for a cure to an illness, nor for an exorcism. He comes for a different reason. He has a question. “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
He was spiritually troubled. For all his works thus far in life, he still sensed a lack. I wonder if you’ve been there? Maybe that’s why you’re here this morning. You’ve been a good person. You’ve followed the rules, obeyed the laws, loved others as best you can. You want to please God, and you want heaven when you die, because who wants hell? Yet, there’s a lack, an ache, an uncertainty that you can’t quiet or still. What do you do with that? Where can you find an answer to that longing? “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
It’s easy to think those first in this world have answers to life that the rest of us don’t, as if youth, wealth, and status remove certain needs. But this man proves you can have all this world has to offer yet still lack hope.
Tom Brady is the NFL’s greatest all-time quarterback, with six Super Bowl championships and accomplishments that run a full page long. In 2005, after his third Super Bowl victory, 60 Minutes did an interview with him. During that interview, Brady said, “There’s times where I’m not the person that I want to be. Why do I have three Super Bowl rings, and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, ‘Hey man, this is what is.’ I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think: ‘it’s gotta be more than this.’ I mean this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be. I mean I’ve done it. I’m 27. And what else is there for me?”
The interviewer asked, “What’s the answer?”
Brady responded, “I wish I knew. I wish I knew.”
“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Everyone asks that question. As much as we like the idea of everyone finding their own path, too few find it. We need certainty that only God can give. Until then, no matter how much we have, all we can see is our lack. That’s all this rich young man saw. He was the Tom Brady of his day, still not the person he wanted to be.
Jesus saw his lack as well. And, ultimately, that lack is the reason verse 22 says the man walked away sorrowful. Other translations say grieved. How did he get there? How did he go from optimism to disheartening so quickly? Here’s how: he came to Jesus to ask a question, but he wouldn’t follow him to find an answer. Do you see the difference? At the trailhead of eternal life’s path, he turned away. He came to the right person in the right way but wouldn’t repent and believe because he was looking for something to do, not someone to follow. He wanted to make his own way, but there is only one way into eternal life, and Jesus was there to show him. But he didn’t see it because he trusted in himself rather than Jesus.
Like so many others he called him “Good Teacher.” Many people do that. They like his example. You know, morality, loving people, and so on. They respect him as a good teacher, but that’s it. So Jesus asked why he called him that. Doesn’t he know only God is good? Jesus isn’t saying he isn’t God. He’s testing him. Does he really think he’s a good teacher? Can he still call him that when the answer to his question comes? You can’t call Jesus a good teacher until you’re ready to accept him as God. Was this man ready?
We see soon enough that he isn’t. He looked for some spiritual something to add to his life—like an advanced degree, or a new, healthy lifestyle. Just add a little Jesus, get some sleep, all better in the morning. But Jesus doesn’t work like that. Jesus doesn’t point you on the way; Jesus is the way. He’s not an addition—more like a destruction. He will destroy your life and remake it in himself. That’s why Jesus says it’s like being born again. Christianity isn’t an add-on; it’s a whole new life. If you want eternal life, it comes only through the life God gives by his Son through his Spirit. You must surrender your righteousness for his.
So, Jesus deconstructs this man’s idea of himself. He wants to know what to do. Jesus tells him. Look at their conversation in verses 19-20. “You know the commandments” Jesus lists some, summarizing God’s law. The man says he’s obeyed them from his youth. Notice what Jesus doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “No, you haven’t.” He doesn’t say that at all. If this man were a really bad guy, Jesus probably would’ve pointed that out. But he wasn’t a bad guy. By outward appearances, he did obey. He was a good guy. And that was his problem. He was trusting in his goodness, and he thought there was some other good he could do to inherit eternal life.
So Jesus plays by his rules. He says, “Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Go. Sell. Give. Come. Follow. Here’s his path. But it’s a hard one because it’s an explosion of his entire life. How so? Well, he says he obeyed the law. Fine. But he lacked one thing. What thing?
What’s the most important law? What’s the first commandment? “You shall have no other gods before me.”
“So,” Jesus says, “If you’ve obeyed, obey this. If you call me Good and only God is Good, obey this. Make me your only possession. Attach your life to me alone. Go. Sell. Give. Come. Follow. Then you’ll have eternal life because you’ll have me. I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”
Jesus laid out the path before him. It’s the same for us all. We come with nothing, in total dependence on God, like a child coming to his father, knowing he will provide. But he couldn’t do it. It was too much for him. He was disheartened, sorrowful, grieved. Why? Because he had great possessions. He wanted life abundant but couldn’t part with the abundance in his life. Pastor Tim Keller says, “When Jesus called this young man to give up his money, the man started to grieve, because money was for him what the Father was for Jesus. It was the center of his identity. To love his money would have been to lose himself.” But that’s exactly what Jesus calls us to do. We must lose our self to have Jesus.
The path opened before this young man. The answer to his question was there. And he couldn’t go. Why? Well, that takes us to our next point.
If that entire episode disturbs you, good. It should. It’s a warning. Jesus looked at his disciples and said, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. Money was a sign of God’s blessing. How could this man’s money be his problem?
But lest we take this as some rejection of the wealthy, Jesus expands his comment. “Children [Notice the assuring address], how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! [Notice: no wealth mentioned] It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished. They asked, “Then who can be saved?”
Now maybe you’ve heard that Jesus is referring to a narrow entry gate into Jerusalem called the Eye of the Needle. A camel could get through it, but it had to bend down and squeeze through. It was difficult, but it was possible. That’s not what Jesus meant. A camel was the biggest animal in Israel. The eye of a needle was the smallest opening. Jesus is saying, “You know what’s absolutely impossible? That big camel fitting through that tiny hole. You know what’s even more impossible? Someone getting into heaven.”
What?
What is Jesus doing? He’s telling us that salvation is not something man can accomplish. No matter how much we do, we can never gain heaven. We’re a big, smelly camel trying to fit through the narrow holiness God requires. And we just can’t do it. We’re too fat with sin, too lumpy with unrighteousness. It’s impossible to squeeze ourselves into heaven.
Our best and brightest, our most valuable gifts, our most righteous works amount next to God’s holiness as nothing, even less than nothing. Our bigness doesn’t buy heaven. It’s not for sale.
So sell it all. Downsize. Minimize. Simplify. Make our life as small and laser-focused as a thread. Then perhaps we can make it through that needle’s eye. But our smallness doesn’t let us slip through heaven’s doors either.
Our hearts are hard, and our sin runs deeper than our actions; it lives in our blood. It’s hereditary. As Paul realized after his conversion, outward obedience to the law is nothing compared to inward disobedience (Phil. 3:6). There is no earthly cure; only a heavenly one. “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” What things?
Things like making fishermen fishers of men.
Things like casting out an unclean spirit to make a man clean.
Things like healing all who are sick and demon-possessed in one night of miraculous power.
Things like touching an untouchable and making him clean.
Things like telling a paralytic to rise and walk.
Things like collecting a tax collector into the kingdom of God.
Things like restoring a withered hand.
Things like calming a storm at sea.
Things like healing a man with a demon.
Things like drying a discharge of blood that no one could stop for twelve years.
Things like raising a little girl to silence those who doubt.
Things like taking a few loaves and fishes and making a feast in the desert for thousands.
Things like walking on water.
Things like restoring hearing to the deaf and sight to the blind and a right mind to a boy with an unclean spirit.
Things like upholding God’s law, teaching with authority, and calling sinners to repentance.
Things like that, which we have seen so far in Mark’s gospel and show that for all our impossibility Jesus has storehouses of possibility. Jesus came to make a way. With man it is impossible, but not with God. Not with Jesus.
“Then who can be saved?” You can.
But before you can be saved, Jesus must deal with you—the real you, not the dressed-up you. He’ll strip you down first. C.S. Lewis illustrates in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. (Narnia series)
Eustace is in love with his treasures. One night, he falls asleep with a gold bracelet on his arm and transforms into a dragon, becoming an outward manifestation of his inward self. The bracelet gets tighter and tighter, and he can’t get it off. He’s driven from humanity and in a moment of loneliness begins to cry. Aslan, the lion, the Jesus figure, arrives and asks Eustace to follow him.
They go down to a well. The water clear and inviting. Eustace senses the well can heal him. But before getting in, Aslan tells him to undress. Of course, dragons don’t wear clothes. But dragons are kind of like snakes. He realizes Aslan meant he must shed his skin first. So he starts scratching and scratching. He says, “And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bath.”
But his scales grew back. So he goes through the exercise again. But it grows back again and again. Aslan says, “You will have to let me undress you.” Eustace was afraid, but he saw the task was impossible in his own hands.
“I was afraid of his claws,” Eustace said, “but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.
“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off...
“Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off — just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt — and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me — I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on — and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again...
“After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me...in new clothes.”
The rich young man was Eustace of his day. He needed to be de-dragoned. We all do. Jesus has to strip us to save us. He has to remove to redeem. He saves the us underneath the stuff we put on top to protect. He saves as we really are, not as who we want to be. He removes our false savior—our false Holy Grail—and replaces it with himself. Jesus is our only hope of heaven.
That was the offer Jesus made to this young man. But he didn’t trust Jesus enough to lay down and let him tear deep. But you can.
With you it is impossible. But not with God. Not with Jesus. Why not lay down all we have built up—all our monuments of righteousness, all our grand obedience and good deeds, our wealth and possessions, and let Jesus tear deep. It might feel like you’ve entered hell, but he’s giving you heaven, which leads to our third point.
The disciples were nervous. Look at verse 28. Peter says, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” He’s saying, “What about us, Jesus? Do we have eternal life?” Jesus cuts him off. When we start down the path of “But God, have I done enough?” we need Jesus to interrupt us. Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.”
Jesus isn’t angry with Peter. He comforts him. Remember what Jesus said to the rich young man. He promised treasures in heaven (v. 21). But then Jesus does something interesting. He responds to Peter not first with the treasures to come, but with treasures to be enjoyed now. The promises of God always have both present and future implications. When we follow Christ, we lack nothing, no matter how much we give up. We cannot out-give God.
And He doesn’t say, “Well, just wait, and you’ll get your reward one day.” Though that’s true—we will receive an inheritance in the life to come that will outshine the brightest treasure of earth—what Jesus says is that we will receive in this life far more than what we gave up. When we give something up for Jesus, Jesus gives something back to us that is better than whatever we sacrificed. We have a hard time believing that, don’t we?
We left our house? God gives his church. We left our brothers and sisters and mother? God gives us one another, brothers and sisters, and mothers in Christ. We left our land where we were comfortable? God provides wherever we go. What did he say to the Apostle Paul when he faced persecution? “Do not be afraid…for I have many in this city who are my people.” (Acts 18:9-10)
Jesus is promising us something—that eternal life is as real as your real life right now.
But, of course, eternal life will be better by far, and we should look forward to it. What we have here is weighed down by sin. Though Jesus saves us and remakes us in his image now, we’re not fully there yet. We won’t be until the resurrection. In this world, even the sanctified things are old and used up. But one day our treasures in heaven will be revealed. I like how Ray Ortlund puts it. “There will be nothing old, dilapidated, impure, or worn out in the radiant kingdom of Christ. We will encounter nothing that has a sad memory associated with it. Everything we experience, every new association and memory, will exponentially increase, purify, and intensify our joy forever, since it all comes from the hand of God.”
But, you say, it might be costly. It hurts to give things up now. It does. When Jesus listed the things we give up and the things we get back, he does something really interesting. He took one thing away and added one thing in. “There is no one who has left father…” He took that away. “Who will not receive a hundredfold…persecutions.” He added that in. Why? That doesn’t sound like good news. But it is! They correspond to one another. If we leave our father to follow Jesus, we don’t lose a father; we gain a new one—a heavenly one, the one all in Christ share. And if we follow Jesus, we will have persecutions. Paul says in Romans 8 that all who are led by God’s Spirit are sons of God who cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit bears witness that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Here’s the point: the persecutions we face as followers of Jesus prove we have a heavenly Father above. In Christ, we lose nothing, even if things are stripped from us by persecution. Suffering for Christ’s sake and for the gospel proves we truly belong to God. It’s the way of Jesus.
Others will persecute us. They will think we are fools. But the only fool is the one who refuses to follow Jesus. The only fool is the one who turns away from eternal life for this half-rate life we live now.
In 1956, Jim Elliot proved who a fool really is. As a promising young man he left his family and ministry opportunities in what he called the “well-fed” American church to share the gospel with an unreached people group in Ecuador. He knew the danger. Before he even had a chance to sit down with them, they met him at the river bank and thrust a spear into his heart, killing him. A few months before he went, he wrote this sentence in his journal. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
“See, we have left everything and followed you.” Did Jim Elliot waste his life?
When we follow Jesus, even in giving up everything, we lose nothing. John D. Rockefeller built an empire. He was one of the world’s richest men. When he died, someone asked his accountant, “How much did he leave?” His reply: “He left all of it.” As missionary C.T. Studd said, \"Only one life, 'twill soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last\". “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
Do you know why, ultimately, the young man walked away sorrowful? Because he walked away from Jesus. But you don’t have to.
Before we end, look back at verse 21. There’s a little phrase I kind of skipped over. After the man said he’d kept the law—look what it says—“Jesus, looking at him, loved him.”
Why did Jesus love him? Or rather, when did Jesus love him? Did he love him when he came in reverence, falling at his feet? Did he love him after he called him Good Teacher? Well, yes, Jesus loved him then, but that’s not when Mark mentions it. He mentions it after the man said he obeyed the law. Why then? Because Jesus loves us in our most vulnerable place. The very place where you’re the farthest from God is the very place Jesus loves you most, because he came to die for that sin. He came to redeem you from it. Aslan came to Eustace when he was thick with skin.
You know, nothing here tells us this young man was even aware of Christ’s love for him. Are you aware of his love for you? This man thought God was waiting for him to achieve something else. But while he sought another road to earn heaven, God sent a Redeemer to give heaven. He had no idea how close he was to the Kingdom. Jesus was there before him, full of gospel love. All he had to do was follow, and life would be his.
So, how do you get eternal life? You look to Jesus, the path, the possibility, and the promise. You lay down and let him save you, placing yourself in his care, following him in repentance and faith. And though it makes you last in this world, he makes you first in his.
Here’s what I know: Jesus loves you. It may seem like he’s pushing you away with his call to follow. His word is hard for sinners like us. But he’s not pushing you away. He’s calling you in. He’s stripping hell away. He’s offering heaven, if you’ll have it.
Let’s pray.
Please open your Bibles to Romans 3:21-26.
For the month of August, we’re taking a break from preaching through the book of Mark to focus on the four values of Refuge Church: Gospel, Community, Mission, and Multiplication.
Why are we doing this? Because this month, Refuge Church turns three years old!
So as we launch into our fourth year of ministry together, we want to remind ourselves of who we are.
Our topic today is the gospel. The gospel comes first because it is the most important. Nothing that follows matters if we don’t have the gospel at the forefront, powering it all. We are a gospel-centered church, and we’re asking God to keep us one.
So, first, what is the gospel?
The gospel is the good news that God saves his sinful people from his wrath through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, promising to share his glory with them in a renewed creation forever—all to the praise of the glory of his grace.
A gospel-centered church is a church where people rejoice in the good news of the gospel. That church is centered on nothing else—not the gospel plus something but the gospel alone.
William Tyndale, the man who translated the Bible into English in the 16th century, said:
Evangelion (what we call “the gospel”) is a Greek word, signifying good, merry, glad and joyful news, that makes a man’s heart glad and makes him sing, dance and leap for joy.
I love that. That’s what we’re after at Refuge: deep happiness in God. Nothing takes us there but the gospel. We can’t add to it. We can’t improve it. We can only accept it.
Our church is not here because we have some good ideas we’d like to explore together. We’re not here because we want to do things “our way” in rejection of those others down the road. We’re not here because we’re looking for a new angle or a different path. We’re here because the gospel has been proclaimed, and the Triune God has gathered us as one family for one mission under one Savior, for his glory in our day. We’re not the only gospel-centered church in town. We don’t want to be. But we’re one of them, and we want to see one in every community throughout our region.
A gospel-centered church is really the only kind of church there is. A church without the gospel fails to be a church. It’s something else—a social club or political action committee or a rallying point for pet projects or hobby horse hermeneutics. Those are man-centered organizations. And they can’t last. They make us sad. Maybe not immediately, but ultimately. Every man-made institution ends in tears. But the gospel ends with a party. It’s good news of great joy.
The gospel must be the biggest thing in the church because only the gospel is big enough for the church. The church is a prophetic witness to the watching world of how God saves sinners; an outpost of heaven, showing the world what only God can do.
Three years ago, we planted Refuge Church with that desire: to see what only God can do. We wanted to see God’s salvation sweep through our city. We wanted to see many come to faith. We wanted people to find refuge in Jesus. We still want that. How will we get the privilege of seeing what only God can do?
Many of you know that Refuge was planted out of Immanuel Church. Immanuel’s pastor, Ray Ortlund, wrote a great little devotional book on the book of Romans. In the afterward of that book, he says this:
A wave of authentic revival sweeps over the church when three things happen together: teaching the great truths of the gospel with clarity, applying those truths to people’s lives with spiritual power, and extending that experience to large numbers of people. We evangelicals urgently need such an awakening today. We need to rediscover the gospel...
We should not think, “Well, of course we have the gospel. The Reformation recovered it for us.” Such complacency will cost us dearly. Every generation of Christians must be retaught afresh the basic truths of our faith. The church is always one generation away from total ignorance of the gospel, and we today are making rapid progress toward that ruinous goal. Rather than carelessly assume the gospel, we must aggressively, deliberately, fully and passionately teach and preach the gospel. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ. If we do not intentionally search them out, we will miss them.
I believe Ray is right. What will sustain us over the long haul is constant dependence upon God. A rugged commitment to his message of grace. A recurring rediscovery of his gospel. If we ever abandon the gospel as the centering point of this church—no matter how good a thing we replace it with—we will have failed to remain faithful, and God must bring us to repentance or shut our doors.
Our faithfulness to the primacy of the gospel is the issue, the pulse that proves we’re still alive. The degree to which we keep the gospel at the center is the degree to which we will see what only God can do.
So in the time we have today, let’s behold the gospel, to see what a gospel-centered church rallies around. And let’s see how we can maintain and cultivate this gospel- centeredness.
Romans 3:21-26 will be our tour guide. Let’s read it now.
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
The book of Romans is a great place to see the gospel. Paul wrote it to introduce himself and the gospel he preached to a group of people in Roma he hadn’t met, proving himself as a brother and minister of the same God and gospel that they believed and proclaimed.
The first three chapters are filled with bad news. Paul explains how everyone is a sinner: the man with the Bible, the man without the Bible, and the man who doesn’t even know what the Bible is. No one has escaped the tragic start of sin nor the tragic trajectory of sin. We’re all guilty and accountable to God.
It’s a pretty depressing opening. But understanding the tragedy of sin is vital to understanding the gospel. Theologian D.A. Carson says “until people know they’re lost, they don’t ask to be found. Until they know they’re under sentence of death, they don’t ask for life. Until they know that they’re under the wrath of God, the love of God won’t mean anything to them. Until they know that they’re guilty, they won’t ask for pardon. Paul himself spends almost three chapters getting there before he spends six verses on explaining the solution.”
Romans 3:21-26 is the solution. It’s where the answer to the deepest need of our heart and the deepest need of this world is found. The way bad people like us are set right with the holy God above is by the blood of Jesus Christ. We cannot be justified any other way. We can never be good enough. We can never undo what we’ve done. We can never reach God on our own. Our only hope is God coming down to us. And he has in Jesus.
So let’s break this down into three points to see what Paul says about the gospel and draw some applications for us here at Refuge.
Look again at verse 21: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it.”
Paul is saying something significant. He’s saying the righteousness of God—that is, “God’s way of righteousness”—has been manifested (revealed) to us. It’s been revealed “apart from the law.” What does that mean? We’re justified not through obedience to the law but by trusting Christ.
That’s a surprise. Paul interrupts his path of sin explanation to talk to God’s propitiation. He spent so much time explaining how we all fail the law. Reading Romans 1-3 leaves you breathless, totally exposed, without excuse. Some people go into self-justification mode, others into depression. But Paul wants to take us elsewhere. He wants to take us into the heart of God. He wants to show that the gospel is a glorious interruption. We’re headed toward hell, and we can’t blame anyone but ourselves, and then God breaks in.
The gospel is always an interruption. Jared Wilson says, “It interrupts our lives, our sinful habits, our selfishness and rebellion, redirecting our attention away from ourselves to God and his work and Word. Sometimes the gospel even interrupts our ways of ‘doing church’.”
Martin Luther experienced this. He was a monk in the 16th century, trying really hard to obey God but constantly failing. His “way of doing church” wasn’t working.
What was his way? He read the Bible and all he saw were laws to obey. And he looked at himself and all he saw was disobedience. He tried to obey. He tried really hard. But he just couldn’t find any freedom. He always felt condemned, never forgiven. No matter how hard he tried to obey, he saw that there were new layers of sin in his heart. He confessed so often and to such minutia that his priest told him to go away and come back when he had real sin to confess. By outward appearances he seemed obedient, but his conscience told him otherwise.
Then he started teaching through through the book of Romans, and God broke through. God interrupted him. He saw with new eyes how God justifies. God didn’t justify based on Martin’s obedience. God justified based on Christ’s obedience. His heart was freed. Then, he started the Reformation. The gospel gives freedom that changes the world.
As Luther thought it through, he saw what Paul was saying. He had misread the entire Bible. He was looking for what he must do when all along it was telling him what God had done. God’s way of righteousness wasn’t in the law, though the law was good and reflected God’s glory. God’s way of righteousness was in himself, in Christ. God’s people wouldn’t be saved by God’s law but by God’s gift—the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ.
He realized this is what the whole Bible is about. All along, God shows our imperfection so that we’ll trust his perfection. The law condemns us so that we’ll flee to Christ. This passage encapsulates the whole. Luther said it’s “the chief point, and the very central place of the epistle, and of the whole Bible.” The gospel is the center of the Bible, the main point. So, it must be our center too.
The Bible is not a disassociated collection of tales but a unified story in four movements—Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration—where Jesus is the hero, and his gospel is the center. We see this everywhere from Genesis to Revelation. Jesus is the meaning of every miracle. He’s the redeemer of every rescue. He’s the Savior of every song. He’s the Christ in every crisis. He’s the provision to every prayer. God’s big story of redemption runs throughout the Bible. We need to see that, rejoice in it, search for it, dig it out, and grab hold of it on every page.
When we read something in the Old Testament, we should ask how the passage moves the story along. How does it help us anticipate Jesus? How do we see God fulfilling his promises? How does this connect with the ministry of Jesus?
As we read the New Testament, we should ask how it fulfills something of the Old Testament. Does it answer questions posed way back there? Does it clarify a story, a promise, an event?
When we read the Bible that way, it comes alive. We see that the heart of God’s holy book is God’s amazing news of grace to the undeserving. That gets us going. That opens us up. That spurs us on. When we see that God doesn’t hate us but love us with an everlasting love that sent his Son to die upon the cross, we change from the inside out. We become new people with hearts ablaze for God. We find ourselves caught up in his story. We still have things to do and not do. Obedience matters to God. But Christian obedience flows from a forgiven heart, not toward a forgiven heart.
As we learn to read the Bible through this lens, God uses us to maintain and cultivate a gospel-centered church. No matter where we are in the Bible, the gospel is the main point. So we preach it that way. We teach it that way. We talk about it that way. The gospel is God’s big story, so it must be ours too. We talk about it in our Bible studies, our community groups, hanging out at the coffee shop— wherever we are.
When we start seeing the gospel in all the Bible, we start to see the gospel in all our life, and in the life of others. The Bible gives us permission to put ourselves in it’s story. It only says we’re not the main character. God is. And God lifts us up to his place of honor and glory, and we get to share that with those around us. So let’s talk about that. Let’s be people about the gospel where the central story of the Bible is the central story of our life together.
When it is, we see yet another way the gospel changes us.
Paul puts it bluntly in verses 22-23.
For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
That’s so offensive to our well put-together ideas of ourselves, isn’t it? All have sinned (past tense) and fall short of the glory of God (present tense). We are all liable to divine judgment.
A proper understanding of sin is necessary for a proper understanding of the gospel. The gospel is good news, but it includes bad news. It tells us that without the Triune God’s intervention, we have no hope of heaven. We have no righteousness on our own.
The gospel makes us really honest people. We live in a city that likes to look good. From our dress to our cars to our homes, we’re all very Instagramable. But the gospel takes the filter off. It shows us for who we really are. And when it does, we have a choice to make. We can choose either to be impressive or to be known. What will we choose? In a gospel-centered church, where the risen Christ’s good news is ever-present, we can take a risk of being known. We can trust Jesus with our sin, and we can trust his people to help us find forgiveness and freedom. The gospel says we aren’t impressive, and that’s embarrassing. But the gospel also says we’re known deeper than we thought possible, and loved for Christ’s sake. When we step inside that circle of honesty with Jesus, we actually become far more impressive than the best of this world. We radiate with the glory of Jesus.
The most important trait of a gospel-centered church is a culture of honesty before God and one another. Why? Because total honesty is the only way we grow. Only when we get honest with our sins and struggles will we find help and freedom and forgiveness. Don’t we all want that? Don’t we know deep down that we’re just not okay? If we’ll just admit that and come to Jesus, we will find in him a friend who understands. He is a faithful and merciful high priest in the service of God. He is for you even when you can’t be for yourself. He has covered your sins and failures by his blood. And all he’s asking us to do is walk out in his light, to trust him with all of our life, and to find cleansing by his blood.
It’s risky to live inside a gospel-centered church because it means we don’t set the rules. We can’t limit God. He can go to places in our heart that we’d be fine never entering. But what God wants for us is total renewal, and you can’t get there without him messing with you, opening you up, knocking you around a bit.
C.S. Lewis put it well.
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.
When we allow God inside, we become new people. We stop comparing ourselves to others. We love to make comparisons and come out on top, don’t we? But God says there is no distinction between us and others. God sees not as we see. Before God, we all stand condemned. God sees not how we compare to another sinner. God sees how we compare to him. And before that holy standard, we all fail.
We think comparison makes us winners. But in God’s eyes, it proves we’re losers because it proves we’re self-justifiers, unwilling to trust his justification by Christ. We’re using others to make us feel better, to give ourselves a boost. That kind of attitude—which we’re all prone to—is a red flag that we’re not trusting the gospel. We’re not taking our sin seriously. We take some sin seriously, but only those we don’t struggle with.
The Devil loves for us to live like that—comparing ourselves to others, always coming out ahead. If he can get us to do that, he can keep us far from God and the gospel. One way we can fail to be a gospel-centered church is by failing to take our personal sins seriously. We can preach the gospel, teach the gospel, share the gospel, but if we fail to take our personal sins seriously, bringing them to the throne of grace for forgiveness, we will say we have a gospel-centered church that even the Devil himself can love. We will say we trust Christ while avoiding him.
But if we get honest with ourselves and stay honest with ourselves about our real need, about our real sin, about our real problem of unrighteousness in our self, we have a chance at maintaining and cultivating a gospel-centered church. God loves a humble people. Ray Ortlund taught me that Isaiah 57:15 says God lives in two places: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit.” He’s way up high where we can’t go, and way down low where we can go. But he doesn’t live in the middle, where okayness is the status quo. A church filled with people who know they’re sinners is a place where God abides, where his gospel shines brighter than anything else. As pastor Tim Keller says, “The church is not a museum for pristine saints, but a hospital ward for broken sinners.”
Making ourselves feel better than others doesn’t free us. What frees us is letting Christ give us his righteousness. When God gathers a group of people and those people open their hearts before him and, by his grace, keep them open, nothing about anybody surprises us anymore. We realize we’re one before the cross of Christ—sinners in need of a savior, which leads to our third and final point.
Let’s look again at our passage.
For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
Since there is no distinction in terms of sin, there is, therefore, no distinction in terms of salvation. We are saved through faith alone by grace alone in Christ alone for God’s glory alone. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. No one is higher. No one is lower. No one is more saved than another. In Christ, we’re equally saved through him.
How does this salvation occur? Paul uses three words to explain it: justification, redemption, and propitiation.
Justification is a courtroom metaphor. It means God has declared us righteous, forgiven, acquitted of our crimes against him for the sake of Christ, given freely by his grace. God justified us without cost to us and without anything in us that caused him to do it. God forgave us and set us right because he wanted to, not because we deserved it. Christ earned it for us.
Redemption is a word reaching far back into the Old Testament. It means a release from captivity, like what God did for Israel when he brought them out of Egypt. Our redemption is “in Christ Jesus.” We’re redeemed because God put us in Christ and carried us out of sin by his death and resurrection.
Propitiation is a great theological word. Tim Keller says it means “the Lord pays the debt to justice himself.” In other words, what we owe to God, God pays on our behalf in himself, in the person of his Son. God both offers the sacrifice and accepts the sacrifice. Christ’s death satisfies God’s wrath, meets his just requirements for sin, and offers the free gift of salvation to all who believe.
In sum, here’s the logic. All sinned and stood hopeless before God. But Jesus paid the penalty for those sins by his substitute’s death. Now, all who believe in his finished work are saved through him. This was the plan all along. Way back in Genesis, when Adam and Eve fell into sin, God promised to send a savior. That promise is reiterated throughout the Bible. That’s so important to see. God doesn’t ignore the sins of his people. He pays for them with Christ’s blood. God is both just and the justifier. He forgave sins in the past because Jesus was coming to set it all right. He’s utterly holy and also the one who provides the way to forgiveness in Christ. God doesn’t forgive by overlooking his law. He forgives by fulfilling it in Christ and offering his perfection for our imperfection. At the cross, Christ suffered what we deserved, in our place. There on the cross, God exchanged our sin for Christ’s righteousness. Our moral debt was paid in full and Christ’s perfect obedience was granted to us in full.
The gospel is simply this: God saves sinners. It’s all grace. Theologian P.T. Forsyth puts it well. “The prime doer in Christ’s cross was God. Christ was God reconciling. He was God doing the very best for man, and not man doing his very best for God.”
In verse 24, Paul calls this a gift. What do you do with a gift? Do you boast in it as if you purchased it yourself? No. What do you do? You rejoice in it. Think of a kid at Christmas, opening that one package that you can’t wait for him to open. He tears the paper and there it is in all it’s glory. His eyes grow big. His mouth falls open. He’s speechless. Slowly, he starts smiling as he realizes what’s just happened. He’s beholding the gift, then he starts rejoicing in it. He shows it off to everyone in the room as if they didn’t just see him open it. He can’t get over it. He’s floored.
That’s who we are when the salvation of Christ is given to us. We can’t believe it. All we have to do to maintain and cultivate a gospel-centered church is to never get over the fact that we’re saved. All we have to do is enjoy the gift. We proclaim what the gospel proclaims: Jesus Christ saved me, and he can save you too!
When the talk of our church is the salvation of God in Christ, we’re a gospel- centered church. When we recognize that we didn’t save ourselves and can’t save ourselves and we’re banking it all on God’s gospel, we place ourselves in the path of divine blessing. We are not on a self-salvation project plan. We’re fully saved right now in Christ. We’re just awaiting the final consummation of that on the great and final day when we stand before the Lord in glory. We’re here not to make ourselves better bit by bit through some sort of vague spirituality. We’re here to rejoice in our salvation in Christ and to offer that to as many as we can. All God’s asking us to do to be a gospel-centered church is simply to never get over the fact that we’re saved.
Let me close with this. The Reformation sprung from this kind of awe. Martin Luther never got over the fact that God saved him. Another guy, John Bunyan, never did either. He too felt the same sense of condemnation before God that Luther experienced. And he experienced the same freedom in the gospel. In his book, The Pilgrim’s Progress, he captures what it’s like in telling of the main character’s conversion.
Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty because of the load on his back. He ran thus till he came to a place somewhat ascending. And upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulcher. So I saw in my dream that just as Christian came up to the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders and fell from off his back and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulcher, where it fell in, and I saw it no more. Then was Christian glad and lightsome and said with a merry heart, “He hath given me rest by His sorrow and life by His death.” Then he stood still awhile to look and wonder, for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked therefore and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks.
Can we not do that together? Can we not join Christian before the cross, awestruck by grace?
To be a gospel-centered church is really very easy. All it takes is watching our burden fall from our back and turning to God in wonder. If we will do that together, all our days, maybe the springs in our head will send the waters down our cheeks. Maybe others will come and stand by us and behold the same thing. Then we will see what only God can do.
Let’s pray.
8 In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3 And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” 4 And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” 5 And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 6 And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7 And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8 And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. 10 And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.
Mark loves to talk about the miracles of Jesus. He includes eighteen in total, thirteen in the first seven chapters, and a fourteenth here in chapter 8. This feeding of the four thousand is very similar to the feeding of the five thousand back in chapter 6. Some scholars think they’re the same event. Maybe Mark got confused, or put it in twice to make some point. But that can’t be. The Bible doesn’t include mistakes and it doesn’t tell us things happened that didn’t just to make a good story.
The feeding of the four thousand and the feeding of the five thousand, while similar, are two separate events. Compare them, and the details prove it. And if that’s not enough, Jesus himself refers to them as separate events in Mark 8:19-20. But if we read the whole Bible, this story doesn’t surprise us. Throughout the Bible God provides for his people time and time again.
For example, remember back in the Old Testament when God brought Israel out of Egypt? In the wilderness without food, what did God do? Every day he dropped a brand new food, called Manna, from heaven. God worked this miracle every day.
Fast forward about 600 years and in an event eerily similar to the feeding of the four thousand, a man brought twenty loaves of bread to the prophet Elisha. Elisha commanded him to give it to the hundred men before him to eat. The man, rightly, wondered how so little could feed so many, But he obeyed, and as he set it before them, God multiplied the loaves, they all ate, and had some left over.
So what we have here in Mark 8 isn’t just a retelling of Mark 6. It’s a retelling of Exodus 16 and of 2 Kings 4 and all the other times throughout the Bible when God provided for his people. What Jesus is doing is proving he’s from God and, more deeply, that he is God.
Jesus didn’t perform a new kind of miracle with these four thousand. He didn’t intend to. What he intended to do was to do for this crowd what he’s done for so many throughout history. He intended to tie this event in with the whole witness of Scripture that screams to us all: God cares for his people!
When we read the Bible, we can’t argue with that truth. It’s just so clear. But when we think about applying that truth to ourselves, I wonder, do we believe it? Do you believe God cares for you? I find it so easy to believe God cares for someone else. But me? I know myself. I know I’m not lovable—not really.
Yet I want to be loved. I want to be cared for. So do you. Well, God considers that desire, when it’s turned toward him, requirement enough to lavish himself upon you. He will take that need and multiply it into a glorious future.
But here’s our problem. We forget Jesus is the one who can fill us up. Like his disciples, we can stand with Jesus and forget Jesus at the same time. So passages like this help us see how wonderful Jesus really is. This is the kind of passage that clears our view, that wipes away the grime from off the windshield and lets the sun in.
So let’s consider it in three parts:
The compassion of Jesus
The provision of Jesus
The satisfaction of Jesus
Look at verse 2. Jesus says something really interesting. “I have compassion on the crowd.”
It’s interesting because Jesus doesn’t often tell us what he’s feeling. The authors of the gospels give us insight via commentary, but it’s rare to have Jesus’ own words explain his emotional state. In fact, this is the only time where Jesus speaks of his own compassion toward a group of people.
This is striking for a few reasons.
First, because of who’s in the crowd. We know from the end of chapter 7 that Jesus was in the region of the Decapolis, which means he was beyond the Jewish world of Galilee and in Gentile territory. I’m sure some Jews were among them. After all, Jesus’ going tells us it wasn’t off limits. But by and large these weren’t good, church-going people. They were idol worshipers and pagans. But they heard of Jesus, and when he came to town, they went out to a desolate place to listen to him. It’s these people upon whom Jesus has compassion.
The word Mark used for “compassion” comes from a word meaning entrails or vital organs. It means to be moved deeply within, in the very seat of emotions. One commentator says this word “is not used of people for whom one would naturally feel compassion (such as friends or compatriots), but for those far removed and even offensive: lepers (1:41), revolutionaries (6:34), Gentiles (8:2), and demon-possessed (9:22).” (Edwards, J. R.)
So we see again that Jesus has compassion on the undeserving. He loves the unlovable. That’s really good news because it opens him up to us all. If Jesus had compassion on that crowd, maybe he could have compassion on this crowd. Maybe our past doesn’t define us but Jesus’ compassion does. Maybe his compassion is for all kinds of people with all kinds of sin because his love is too great to be limited to what we deserve (Ray Ortlund).
But that doesn’t mean Jesus’ compassion comes to people who don’t want it. Notice why Jesus had compassion on them. Look again at verse 2. “Because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.”
That phrase “have been with me” (other translations say “remain”) means more than just attendance. It means they’ve been paying great attention to him. Commentator R. Allen Cole said, “they had not merely sought him for the food that he would give…This audience had proved their sense of spiritual values by three days of eager listening to the preaching of Jesus first. It was not merely that they were hungry, but that they had become hungry in God’s service, and so theirs was to be an experience of ‘seek first his kingdom…and all these things shall be yours as well.’…For such a people, Jesus would work a miracle, and give them the food that they had not sought first.”
They weren’t there to see a show. They were there to see Jesus, to listen and learn and grow. Mark doesn’t often paint the crowds in a positive light, but he does here because they’ve come to see Jesus and Jesus only. They weren’t there for a miracle, and that’s why they got one.
So these people didn’t do anything to draw out Jesus compassion. The only reason they received it is because they stayed with him. Isn’t that amazing? They didn’t give him anything. They didn’t perform for him. All they did was remain with him and listen to him. Some were Gentiles and some were probably Jews, but that didn’t matter. Some were probably healthy and some were probably sick, but that didn’t matter. Some were probably wealthy and some were probably poor, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that they were still there after three days even with nothing to eat.
This is so convicting! I find it hard to remain with Jesus for a few minutes, much less three whole days. Have we not all left Jesus for far less than a starving belly? Our phone beeps and it’s more urgent than Jesus. Something catches our eye or ear and we turn away from him. Small things interrupt us while our big God is before us. But these people stuck with Jesus even as their bellies rumbled and their bodies grew weak. Some came from far away, and we find it difficult to come to church on Sunday morning. They were willing to journey to the desolate place just to be with Jesus. That’s the kind of heart that gets Jesus’ attention—the open heart, the listening heart, the heart needy for a word from God.
Jesus had compassion on the crowd and wanted to give them something before they went away. He didn’t want them to faint. So he summoned his disciples—a phrase Mark often used to indicate Jesus is about to do something special. He saw their need and prepared to provide. The compassion of Jesus always leads to the provision of Jesus, which is our second point.
The crucial point of the passage comes in verse 4. It’s crucial because it gives insight into Jesus’ disciples that becomes a major theme in the next half of Mark’s gospel. And it’s crucial because it give insight in our attitude toward God far too often.
Look at it again. After Jesus says he has compassion on the crowd and wants to feed them, the disciples answered, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?”
This is astounding. Have they forgotten what just happened in the feeding of the five thousand a mere two chapters ago? Apparently. Here are fewer people and two more loaves than before, yet the disciples still wonder how they’ll be fed.
They only see an impossibility, not an opportunity. They’re not even thinking about what Jesus could do. The literal reading of this question is more like, “Who in this desolate place can satisfy their hunger?” The emphasis is on the “who” and the “satisfaction.” Having experienced his provision in a setting just like this before, they have no idea who in the world could possible provide for these hungry people.
We just want to scream, “What idiots!” But we can’t, can we? Aren’t they just like us? Don’t we forget the past provision of God? Don’t we factor God out of the equation in so many of our problems? Even when he’s made himself so apparent throughout our life, even though he’s rescued us from our sin, when we’re faced with a difficulty, it’s hard to trust God can do something we can’t see.
The Reformer John Calvin put it this way. “There is not a day on which a similar indifference does not steal upon us; and we ought to be the more careful not to allow our minds to be drawn away from the contemplation of divine benefits, that the experience of the past may lead us to expect for the future the same assistance which God has already on one or more occasions bestowed upon us.”
The biggest sin in our life is not the one most obvious to us. We focus on lust or jealousy or something else, but God says our biggest sin, the sin underneath every other, is our forgetfulness of him as God. That’s why the first of the Ten Commandments is, “You shall have no other gods before me.” We break all the other commandment only after we break the first one.
We forget who God is so quickly. God knows that, so on the front end of the Ten Commandment, in Exodus 20, he reminds Israel who he is. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Before God commands, he reminds. Why? Because if we have any hope to obey him at all, we must remember what he’s done in the past. This is part of what makes the gospel so unique. God doesn’t save us after we’ve earned it. God saves us before. Grace comes before the law, even in the Ten Commandments. The Bible says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
The greatest sin for which Christ died is this sin of forgetting that God is God. This is the mega-sin God’s people have always been guilty of. Israel committed this sin time and time again. One day, the prophet Isiah was sent to rebuke them. Isaiah 42:18 says, “Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind that you may see!” God is blunt with Israel. “You’re deaf. You’re blind. I’ve done so much for you in the past but you can’t—or you won’t—hear or see.” Israel turned their back on God. They forgot who he was. They couldn’t hear his miraculous works and couldn’t see his miraculous provision. When everything was on the line, they looked at the world and wondered who would save them. And here in this desolate place with Jesus standing before them the disciples wonder the same thing. They, of all people, should have heard Jesus’ words and smiled at one another, knowing something great was coming, but instead they questioned him as if he was just another man with a good idea. Why do tend to treat Jesus as if he’s just another voice among the many? As if he has some good ideas, he has something to say, but he has no power to provide. Jesus was preparing a coming miracle and all the disciples heard was a problem. What do we hear when Jesus speaks? Do we hear his promise or do we only see our problems?
The disciples show us that it is possible—oh, this is terrifying—it is possible to be with Jesus, even listening to Jesus, and not hear what he’s saying. It’s possible to be standing with Jesus and forgetting Jesus at the same time. These disciples are proof and, as Calvin said, they are a warning to us to not allow our mind to be drawn away from what God has done in the past as we look at the present and into the future.
So how can we be the opposite of the disciples in this passage and stick close to Jesus, expect much of him, and consider him in all our troubles? Well, how did it happen for the deaf and blind people of Isaiah’s day? A few verses after calling them deaf and blind, God says this, “But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1). The only hope we have is God coming to us again in mercy and grace. Our only hope is that God has redeemed and called us by name and made us his. If you’re in Christ, your deafness and blindness does not define your future; Christ’s provision does. Though we forget Jesus, Jesus never forgets us. Our sins, they are many, but his mercy is more!
Jesus helps us grow and change, forgiving us and bringing us back to himself. The disciples are proof. Look at what Jesus does with them. Why did he summon them? He needed supplies. He asked how many loaves they had. “Seven.” He asked how many fish. “A few small ones.” (Actually, they were like sardines, that’s the word there.) At what point do you think their eyes and ears began opening? When do you think they realized what Jesus intended to do? We don’t know, but as they brought their resources to him—look at verse 6—“he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to”—what?—“to set before the people.”
What’s Jesus doing? He’s providing food for the crowd, yes. But he’s doing something else too. He’s providing for his disciples. He’s reminding them of who he is for his people. He’s reminding them that he cares for his people—he even cares for them, deaf and blind as they are. And the fact that he put the miraculous bread in their hands to deliver to the people proves he hasn’t given up on them. That he is the God who blots out their transgressions for his own sake, and will not remember their sins (Isaiah 43:25).
We are deaf and blind but God has made us for purposes of glory. He knows our frame, that we are dust, but he keeps using us because he keeps summing us to himself for another miracle. And when we awake afresh to him, he deploys us for his glory. Jesus uses normal things like bread and fish and you and me to work miracles in this world.
Jesus did not ask the disciples to create the miracle. That was his job. All he asked them to do was deliver the miracle to those who needed it. That’s what he’s asking of us as well. There is no miracle this world needs that Jesus won’t provide in himself. He’s simply asking us to trust him enough to take what he’s provided to those who need it. We are merely servants of the King—the kind of king that has compassion on a crowd that no one else would want and forgives disciples that others would abandon. He not only cares, he provides.
All we must do to enter that wonderful reality is yield to the Spirit of God moving right now. To trust him, no matter what we face, and see what only God can do for people like us. Our greatest fear is that Jesus can’t, or won’t provide. Let’s deny that thought. Let’s lift our eyes to Jesus who can wash away our sins and make us new, who can multiply loaves and fish in the desert, who can raise the dead. Let’s lift our eyes to the God who has already done so much for so many and dare to believe he can do it for us right now. A.W. Tozer said it well. “Unbelief says: Some other time, but not now; some other place, but not here; some other people, but not us. Faith says: Anything He did anywhere else He will do here; anything He did any other time He is willing to do now; anything He ever did for other people He is willing to do for us! With our feet on the ground, and our head cool, but with our heart ablaze with the love of God, we walk out in this fullness of the Spirit, if we will yield and obey.”
You know, we don’t know how Jesus performed this miracle. Seven loaves and a few sardines shouldn’t feed four thousand people. But that’s what make him God and us not. There’s no scientific explanation for this. Who cares? That’s not the point. The point is that we have a king who doesn’t look at a crowd and wish he could do something. We have a King who looks at a crowd and creates a feast in a desolate place with more left over.
All he’s asking of us right now is to believe him and follow him all the way to the end. What else does he need to prove before we trust him? He became the King who was crucified, the Savior who suffered, the man of sorrows who endured the cross to save us and forgive us and set us right with him forever.
When we come to Christ, we find he not only provides but also satisfied, which is our third point.
Look at verse 8. “And they ate and were satisfied.” Oh, I love that sentence. The provision of Jesus is not just an okay meal. What Jesus gives is satisfying.
But he doesn’t just satisfy. He more than satisfies. Look at verse 8. “They took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.” These weren’t to-go boxes. These were big baskets. This is the same word Luke used in Acts 9 to describe the kind of basket Paul was put in to lower him over the wall. These were man-sized baskets!
When it comes to Christ, my friend Jared Wilson says, “We are not marginally satisfied—steadying the rumble in our tummies—but joyously full! In Christ, we are eternally satisfied, abundantly satisfied, mightily satisfied. And because the miracles are not ends in themselves but signs pointing to Jesus himself, we are reminded here that we are not merely saved but eternally saved, abundantly saved, mightily saved.”
When Jesus provides, he gives more than we were expecting. When we come to him for forgiveness, we expect a cleaning of the slate. But Jesus does more than that! He gives us his slate, full of his perfect righteousness. When we come to him for peace, we expect a relief of anxiety. But Jesus does more than that! He gives a peace that passes all understanding and guards our heart and mind in him. When we come to him for spiritual strength, we expect a mild pick me up. But Jesus does more than that! He gives far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. Whatever you need from Christ, he over-provides. He totally, and fully, satisfies.
But maybe you’re thinking about a need right now. Maybe you feel like you’re in the desolate place. You’ve come and listened to him. You want him, but you’re not sure what else to do. You need a break-through. You need King Jesus to do something new in your life. Well, listen, Jesus can do that for you. His eye is upon you. You are not here by accident. You are here by divine providence. He sees all your needs, even down to the rumble of the belly that’s gone too long without food. He knows your need before you ask for provision. He has compassion on you, and though it may feel like a long time coming, Jesus is going to fully satisfy your every need.
But Jesus hasn’t promised to satisfy our every longing today. We aren’t home yet. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have enough bread to get you home today without fainting. He will provide what you need as you go where he leads. His mercies are new every morning.
Jesus sent these people away full, but he knew it wasn’t a fullness that would last forever. We can’t live on one meal. We can’t live on one memory. We need constant nourishment. We need a constant miracle.
So Jesus did something more than anyone that day could have imagined. In Mark’s gospel, this is near the end of his presentation as Jesus as the long-awaited King. He’s about to pivot to present the King’s cross. Jesus left that desolate place and walked toward another, to satisfy a wrath that hung over our head since the day Adam and Eve fell in the Garden. To care for his people.
As Jesus went, his ministry became more public, the opposition became more intense, death’s shadow stretched out over him. But he had compassion on his people, and he aimed to provide the satisfaction they needed.
The deepest meaning of this miracle is not the bread and fish that the people ate that day. The deepest meaning of this miracle is that through his death on the cross, Jesus became the bread of life given for us. He became, as the Apostle Paul said, the one bread that we all—Jew and Gentile alike—partake of (1 Corinthians 10:17) and find life in.
Way back in the Garden of Eden, surrounded by food, the Devil came to Adam and Eve and said, “Take, and eat.” That taking and that eating was in rebellion against God because it was the one tree they from which they shouldn’t have taken and eaten. That was a devastating meal. It left them emptier than ever before and more unsatisfied than they ever imagined they could be.
What was God’s response? Thousands of years later, Jesus stood and said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger” (John 6:35). He said, “Take, and eat.” In that taking from Jesus’ hand and eating of Jesus’ bread, he undid the work of Satan. He reversed the curse and put his people back in the Garden with him. He satisfied his people. But while he offered the bread of peace, he knew to accomplish it, he must be broken. Because of our sin, the wrath of God hung over us. He was not satisfied yet. But in Christ, he would soon be. Jesus went from the last supper, where he commanded us to remember his dying love, and he turned to the cross to accomplish that dying love.
The cross is the greatest miracle of all. Jesus took our sin to the desolate place, and upon the cross, the Bread of Heaven was broken for us. Jesus lost the Father’s compassion so we could have it forever. Jesus lost the Father’s provision so we never would. On the cross, Jesus satisfied God’s wrath to satisfy our need of forgiveness.
The Bread of Life died on the cross, but as a seed planted in the ground, from the grave grew a glorious provision. Our greatest need, our greatest desire, our deepest longing is not for another full belly; it’s for a full life—the life we lost long ago, the life we wonder if we’ll ever get back, the life we know we should have but cannot get on our own. We’re so tired of getting hungry. We’re so tired of hurting. We’re so tired of sinning. We’re so tired of being tired. We long for a satisfaction that only a good resurrection can give. Well, Jesus has one for you. It’s coming soon. How’s that for satisfaction?
The only thing you need for this story to become your story is to want Jesus. When you come to Christ with empty hands of faith, he turns to you in compassion and fills them to the brim.
Let’s pray.
14 King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” 15 But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” 16 But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” 17 For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her. 18 For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19 And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, 20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.
21 But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. 22 For when Herodias’s daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.” 23 And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” 24 And she went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” 25 And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” 26 And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. 27 And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison 28 and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. 29 When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
The Bible says, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John” (John 1:6). What does it mean to be sent from God? We saw the beginning of it last week, as Jesus sent out his twelve apostles. Why did they go? To spread the word that King Jesus is here, and everything is different now! But then, Mark makes what seems to be a diversion to talk about the death of John the Baptist. It’s not until verse 30 that he tells us about the apostles coming back from their mission. So we have what commentators call a Markan sandwich. Jesus sending the twelve in verses 7-13 and receiving the twelve back in verse 30 are the pieces of bread, and the story of John the Baptist’s death is the meat that makes it a meal. It tells us, in blunt and honest terms, what it means to be sent from God. It tells us about the cost of discipleship.
In calling his first disciples, Jesus made certain they understood the cost of following him. He said that God’s kingdom, for God’s people, must be the first priority.
Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” (Luke 14:25-32).
He also said, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:23).
He said, “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).
One day a scribe came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.” (Matthew 8:18-22).
He said, “In the world you will have tribulation.”
So to be sent by God is to be sent into hardship. On the front end of it all, he calls us to deeply accept that as part of the deal. We saw last week how Jesus prepared the twelve to go out. He prepared them for hardship, but he gave them his power. He does the same for us. It’ll be hard, but we’ll be with Jesus, and doing anything with Jesus, no matter the hardship, is a privilege we do not earn. Even suffering for Christ is undeserved grace. And we are not suffering pointlessly. When we suffer for Christ on his mission, we’re suffering for the sake of all who will hear. We are, in a small way, playing out the very gospel story that we preach. That’s why the apostle Paul said, “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake” (Colossians 1:24).
When we suffer with Jesus, we are standing right smack-dab in the middle of historical Christianity. We are standing with the apostles, who gladly suffered for Jesus’ sake. We’re standing with the Reformers who risked their lives to bring the gospel back to the central place in the church. Today is Mother’s Day, and throughout history the suffering labor and love and prayers of mothers has shaped the world for God’s glory. Augustine’s mom never gave up praying for his salvation, weeping over him, pleading him to come to Christ. Amy Carmichael, who for years despite poor health and no biological children became a spiritual mother to hundreds of rescued kids in India. Alberta King taught her son, Martin Luther, that his “somebodiness” in Christ was something glorious. Her words stuck in his ears as he fought an unjust racial system in America. Elizabeth Elliot, after losing her husband to the natives he went to share the gospel with, went back with their small children to finish the mission. What we’re talking about is not something reserved for super Christians, it is basic discipleship.
So when we talk about the cost of discipleship, we are not throwing a pity party, nor are we boasting as little heroes. We’re talking about it because it’s normal Christianity, and we wouldn’t want it any other way. If we want to see the world come to Jesus—and we do—then we’re going to have to suffer because in a world at war with God, there is simply no other way. And we want to say right now, that’s just fine with us. We want to fight for Christ.
There’s a scene in the WWII mini-series Band of Brothers where two soldiers are talking about the day’s events. Dick Winters says to Lewis Nixon after he returns from an airplane jump, “You’re probably the only man in the 101st with three combat stars over his jump wings.”
Nixon replies, visibly frustrated, “Not bad for someone who’s never fired his weapon in combat, huh?”
Winters can’t believe he’s never fired even a round. Nixon then tells him how after he jumped, the plane took a direct hit and all others were lost. He doesn’t seem happy to still be alive. Instead, he seems angry and depressed. Why? Because in his mind, he was never really in the fight. He never fired a round, and maybe he’d never get to. He wasn’t feeling sorry for himself because he was in the war, he was sorry because he never actually was.
We Christians are like that. When we, by grace, are drafted into God’s holy army, we want to be in the fight, to be on the front-lines sharing the gospel, taking our shots, because Jesus is there saving people, redeeming the world, doing what only he can do. It’s where the glory is.
We don’t want to reach the end of our life without firing a shot for Jesus! There’s an old hymn that says:
Shall I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?
What we’re talking about today is basic discipleship to Jesus, being willing to suffer so that others may hear. And God doesn’t want us to be surprised, so he gave Mark the story of the death of John the Baptist to prepare us for the road ahead.
What does it prepare us for? Three things:
Discipleship to Jesus is costly, but repentance gets us there
Discipleship to Jesus is costly, but there is a higher cost
Discipleship to Jesus is costly, but the road is already paved
The first of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses says, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said ‘Repent,’ he meant that the entire life of believers should be repentance.” Why? Because we cannot follow Jesus anywhere without it. Our pride is strong, and the only way to break it down is through daily repentance.
What is repentance? Here’s how the Westminster Shorter Catechism defines it: “Repentance unto life is a saving grace by which a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does, with grief and hatred of sin, turn from it toward God, with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.”
In other words, repentance is simply turning from ourselves to God, asking him to help us obey. All we have to do to repent is trust that God has more mercy than we have sin.
Repentance is part of the good news of the gospel. It’s how we get free. And we need that kind of freedom over and over again. Repentance is saying, “I was wrong” every time we sin to the One who has never been wrong and cannot sin, and, therefore, can help us get out of the mess we’re in. And God is not a “told you so” disappointed father, waiting for us to shuffle home so he can tell us how it really is. No, the gospel shows that when we come to our senses and leave the pig sty for the Father’s house, he runs to meet us with a party and a fatten calf and a robe and ring. He treats us as if we never left and gives us what we never deserve.
Repentance gets us into God’s grace. But it’s not only seeking forgiveness. True repentance is also seeking to obey from a forgiven heart. We are not after what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace.” Cheap grace is being forgiven without changing directions. “Cheap grace,” Bonhoeffer says, “is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance…Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.”
Bonhoeffer goes on to say the grace we need, and the grace Jesus offers, is costly grace. “Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his son: You were bought with a price, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.”
The way we experience the costly grace of Jesus is through true repentance. It’s one of the sweetest graces God offers to us in Christ, by his Spirit. As we stop coddling our sin and turn to Christ, we find his smile upon us. And he sends us out to find others who need that smile. God calls his people to repentance because he’s sending us heralds of the King, and the message we carry is best expressed from forgiven sinners, not prideful do-gooders. Repentant sinners show the watching world the kind of king Jesus is. Repentant sinners invite others in because they just can’t get over his grace. They’ve heard the good news and they must share it, whatever the cost. The world must know of this Savior who went to such lengths to save a wretch like me!
Repentant sinners are contagious, spreading the aroma of Christ wherever they go. That’s all God’s asking us to do. Discipleship to Jesus is costly, but repentance will get us there because in repentance we’re laying down our pride for his grace.
Here’s what a repentant sinner looks like. Remember Romans 7? Paul said, “I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Jared Wilson wrote about this in his book, The Imperfect Disciple.
Every day, I wake up into Romans 7. Every dadgum day. My alarm goes off and I sit up in bed, gearing up for sins—both of omission and of commission. I’m engaged in the flesh before I even get my feet on the carpet.
And yet, right there beside me, laid out like the day’s outfit for school, are new mercies. Romans 8 lies right there, spooning Romans 7 in a full-size bed, no wiggle room.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.” (Romans 8:1-3)
Every day you drift naturally into Romans 7. You don’t need any help with that. It’s just that your wheels are naturally out of alignment. You’re just wobbly, okay? So here’s what you do.
As early in the day and as often as you can, you turn on the light of Romans 8. You bring Romans 8 into Romans 7 and you say, “look what I found, everybody!” You’re the gal who’s brought your fiance home to meet the family, and it turns out he’s a much better catch than anybody, including yourself, ever thought you’d end up with. He’s a rich doctor-slash-fighter pilot who spends his summers digging wells for orphans in the Congo or something, okay? And Aunt Bitterness is sitting over there in the corner of the living room strewing away, ready to take you on a trip down angry memory lane, and you’re like, “Aunt Bitterness, I’d like you to meet my fiance, Dr. Gospel. Isn’t he dreamy?” And there’s Uncle Lazy sitting at the table medicating his feelings with three Egg McMuffins, and you bring Dr. Gospel over, and Uncle Lazy instantly perks up and realized how embarrassing he looks in the face of such accomplishment. And there’s your twin sister Pride sitting there in the middle of the room, like she owns the place, but when Dr. Gospel walks up to her, she gets up and offers him her seat without a word.
It’s a little like that. You introduce the truth of Romans 8 to every corner of the room, every dark place in your heart, as often as you can, as much as you can, as fiercely as you can.
Every day. It has to happen every day.”
God is not calling perfect people to be his ambassadors in this world. There wasn’t a perfect man among the twelve apostles. There is only one kind of disciple Jesus really has, and that’s an imperfect one trusting in his perfection. If you’re so weak you can’t get out of the bed in the morning without wondering who will deliver you from this body of death, but you’re turning to Jesus for the strength you need, you’re the perfect disciple for Jesus! You are exactly the kind of person Jesus is looking for, exactly the kind of person Jesus will use, and is using. You are not only tolerated by Jesus, you are accepted by him. He is not ashamed to call us his brother or sister. He can’t wait to introduce you to everyone else.
And he will introduce you. That’s why he sends you. But he won’t send you before you’re repentant. Cheap grace sends no one. But costly grace does. Romans 7 people floored by the Romans 8 God have something to say to the world, and are willing to die to get it to them.
Jesus commissions repentant people because they understand the fight is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces. They understand the person on the other side isn’t an enemy, but they have one, and they’re trying to introduce them to Jesus so he can save them from the spiritual evil they can’t yet see.
That’s what we see in John. Why did he go to Herod proclaiming repentance? Because John himself was a repentant man. Herod was not his enemy. He wanted Herod to be his friend. But more than that, he wanted Herod to be Jesus’ friend. John’s call to repentance came from a heart of repentance, and it took him places.
Discipleship to Jesus is costly, but repentance gets us there.
Second…
What does all this talk about repentance have to do with the death of John the Baptist? Everything, actually. Mark 1:4 says John proclaimed “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” John never forgot his mission. He never outgrew it. He endured to the end. He just happened to run into someone who didn’t want to hear it and did something about it. And here we see a profound truth: There is something more costly than following Jesus, and that is not following Jesus. We see this truth in John and Herod. John followed Jesus. Herod didn’t. And as much as John paid, Herod paid more.
Who was Herod? Herod Antipas was the 7th son of Herod the Great. When his father died, he split his territory among his children. Mark calls him “King Herod,” but he wasn’t really a king. He wanted to be, and got into trouble later in life because he pushed that matter too far. Mark might actually be using that label as a kind of a dig at Herod. He was too big for his breeches. He was no king. He was just an administrator under Roman rule..
When Herod heard what was happening in the name of Jesus, he believed it was the resurrected John. Why? Look up at verse 12, when Jesus sent the apostles, what did they do? “They went out and proclaimed that people should repent.” He’d heard that message of repentance before from John. It worried him because what he did to John was wrong, and he knew it.
Mark tells us what happened in verses 17-20.
17 For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her. 18 For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19 And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, 20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.
Herod’s life was like a soap opera, full of marriage and adultery and divorce and remarriage. And John the Baptist came saying, “No! You can’t do that. You’re violating the law of God.”
Herod didn’t want to obey God. So he didn’t. He didn’t want to turn from sin. So he didn’t. And eventually his little sins grew into big sins, as they always do. He made a life with his new wife. But John wanted to obey. So he did. And he suffered for it. Both suffered, but only one found peace.
Look what happened to Herod. He had multiple opportunities to repent, but he wouldn’t. And one night, he had a party. All the important people were there. Herodias’s daughter came and danced (probably not one safe for prime-time TV), and it pleased them. So, he said, “Ask me for whatever you want, up to half my kingdom, and I’ll give it.” Of course, the kingdom wasn’t his to give. His pride inflated what he truly had.
The girl runs to her mother to see what she should ask for. It’s like she was waiting for this opportunity. She replied immediately, “The head of John the Baptist.” Herodias didn’t like John’s call to repentance. She wanted freedom from this man of God.
And because Herod refused to fear God, he feared man. He didn’t want to kill John. Verse 26 says, “the king was exceedingly sorry.” But even more, he didn’t want to disappoint his guests. So he sent the executioner and that was it for John.
Who paid the ultimate cost? John was imprisoned but his conscience was free. Herod was on the throne but his conscience was troubled. Through repentance John found a message of grace while Herod found a stumbling block. When John died, his disciples came and took his body and cared for it, laying it in a tomb. When the party was over, all Herod’s important guests left him, without a thought or care for his soul. John paid the cost for following Jesus, but Herod paid a greater one for not. Herod’s little sins grew into one big sin, and his heart hardened even more. John paid in this life, but Herod in the life to come.
Here’s the point: when you follow Jesus, even if you die, you live. But when you don’t follow Jesus, even when you live, you die. We cannot escape the reality that we gotta follow somebody. Herod wouldn’t follow Jesus, but that doesn’t mean he followed no one. He followed his father the devil and he led him to death. John followed Jesus, and even in death, he led him to life. We gotta follow somebody. So let’s make sure it’s somebody who can take us through death to life on the other side.
The cost of following Jesus is high, but there is a higher cost. And the path we walk isn’t a lonely one. It’s well paved, which is our third point.
I read somewhere that in the 1680s in England, there were three books read in every Christian home: the Bible, John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, and Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Needless to say, they were probably not surprised by suffering for Jesus. Our homes have a Bible but what about the other two? Is suffering for Christ’s cause a conversation in our house?
I know for many of us it is, and for that I’m thankful. This church wouldn’t be here without it. But one thing I know: we need more, because we will not make an impact on this world for Jesus without paying a price. No one ever has. History bears that out.
John Bunyan was imprisoned for preaching the gospel. His release was contingent on his promise not to preach in public anymore. His reply was, “If I was out of prison today, I would preach the gospel again tomorrow by the help of God.” Why? Because when Christ opens a mouth, not even prison can shut it.
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs tells of a man set for execution for his faithfulness to Christ. His son went to him, begging for him to recant so he would not be fatherless the rest of his life. Here was his response. “A good Christian is bound to relinquish not only goods and children, but life itself, for the glory of his Redeemer: therefore I am resolved to sacrifice every thing in this transitory world, for the sake of salvation in a world that will last to eternity.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the author of The Cost of Discipleship, which I quoted earlier, was hanged by the Nazi’s in 1945 because while everyone else followed Hitler, he followed Jesus. He said, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
Moreover, Jesus isn’t asking us to pay any cost he wasn’t willing to pay himself. That’s another reason Mark includes this story here. It’s a foreshadowing of the sufferings of Christ.
John’s confrontation wasn’t Herod’s last chance to repent. God’s word came to him again, this time in the flesh. Jesus was on trial. Herod could have saved him but, as with John, he didn’t. Luke tells us about it.
“When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. And Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate.” (Luke 23:6-11)
When Herod ordered John to be executed, he was exceedingly sorry. Maybe he had some Romans 7 thoughts. But when Romans 8 walked through the door, he didn’t step into the light; he turned it off. Instead of seeing a Savior, he sought a sign. He had another chance to turn to God and instead turned God away to the cross.
We live in a world that will reject Jesus. But that didn’t stop Jesus from coming, and it doesn’t stop Jesus from sending us out. Some we find will accept him. Even at the cross, there was one centurion who, when Jesus breathed his last, said, “Truly, this man was the Son of God.”
Jesus wants us to know following him means cost-paying—maybe even death—but it’s worth it because he’s in it. Our cost is not his. He paid the full penalty of our sin, and all he’s asking in return is to tell people that he’s that kind of Savior—the love of Christ compels us. His grace motivates us. He’s paid for our sins on his cross and he’s given us his life in his resurrection, and our life isn’t really ours anymore. It belongs to him, and if he wants to use us to bring his gospel to the world, who are we to say no to that honor?
In conclusion, here’s what this means. Two things.
First, we must be repentant people. We need to get low before God. Maybe we need to discover the gospel again. When we do, he’ll send us as heralds of his grace, and we will never be happier.
Second, let’s go where Jesus sends. You belong to him, and he has fully authorized you to share his gospel. So where is he sending you? Let’s go faithfully into the places we work, live, learn, and play. Maybe he’ll call some of us to global missions in the future. But I know he’s calling us all right here, right now. It’ll be costly, but Jesus is with you. All the reward you need is in him.
Paul called suffering “a light momentary affliction preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). The cost may not feel light or momentary, but one day, when we’re with Jesus in the New Earth a trillion years from now, we’ll look back on it all and agree: it was light and momentary, but this glory is eternal. Maybe we’ll look across the room and our eyes will meet with another’s who is there because we accepted the cost of discipleship and shared the gospel with them. Then we’ll look at Jesus, and he’ll know what we’re thinking, and he’ll come around, put his arm around us, and with a smile say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Let’s pray.
21 And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. 22 Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet 23 and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.
” 24 And he went with him.
And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. 25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
35 While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” 36 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” 37 And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. 38 They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” 40 And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. 41 Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” 42 And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. 43 And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Mark’s gospel is like the highlight tape of Jesus. His greatest hits. It’s short, fast-paced, and to the point. But that doesn’t mean it’s simple. It has layers, like the rest of the Bible. It’s simple enough for a child yet so deep we’ll never reach the bottom.
Our passage today has layers, like a sandwich. Two stories in one. And you can’t break it apart. You need the whole thing to make a meal. Together, they teach one biblical mega-lesson. What’s the lesson? This: the most crucial element of our life is faith.
So, what is biblical faith?
Someone once asked Billy Graham that question. He said first, you must believe that God exists, and that he loves you so much that he sent Jesus to save you. Second, you must trust wholly in Christ’s salvation, put your life into his hands, and believe Jesus not only can save you but will save you.
So, biblical faith is complete trust in God for your entire life.
As Martin Luther said, “Faith is a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it.”
Biblical faith is not a leap in the dark. It’s not hoping something is there on the other side to catch you. Biblical faith is a complete trust in the trustworthy God who is there and who is not silent.
We see here how faith took Jairus from a life of fear to peace. We see how faith took the woman from a life of suffering to healing. But faith does more than just makes us feel better. It connects us to Jesus.
And right now, every one of us is on a faith journey—on a spectrum ranging from unfaith to faith.
On the one end, unfaith says, “You know, Jesus was a good guy. Great teacher. Did some cool stuff. I like him. But God? The Bible? Nah. Not taking that leap. I’ll follow his teachings, but I won’t call him Lord.”
On the other end, faith says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69).
And in the middle, there are two groups. They’re the maybes. Maybe Jesus is trustworthy. Maybe he isn’t. Maybe I’ll follow. Maybe I won’t. Some in that group are making their way to Jesus with an honest heart. Some are just there for an interesting conversation.
Where are you on that spectrum?
This passage helps us determine our place. But it does more than that. It also shows us the place Jesus wants us to move to. And it does that by showing us three movements of faith.
First, through circumstances.
Circumstances summon faith
Life isn’t easy. Things happen. Look at Jairus. Mark tells us in verse 22 he was “one of the rulers of the synagogue.” He was a community leader. Everyone knew him. He was well-off. He probably didn’t need a lot from others. Then his daughter got sick. And as time went on, she grew worse and worse until she was at the point of death. As he looks out his window, he sees a crowd. He sees Jesus has come to town. He looks back at his dying twelve-year-old daughter and decides to run to Jesus for help. He falls at his feet and says, “My little daughter is at the point of death.” It was an urgent plea. She was at death’s door. Hospice wasn’t just called in; they were preparing for the final moments. He needs Jesus’ help right now. “Jesus, will you help me?”
Then there is this poor, suffering woman. For twelve years, she suffered a constant flow of blood. It’s made her ceremonially unclean, preventing her from worshiping in the temple. She’s a social outcast. Even if she was once well-to-do, she’s now destitute. She’s flat-broke from doctor bills and no better for it. She’s tried all medicine has to offer and suffered not only from the disease but also from the cures. She’s at the end of her rope. And as she sits in the street, she sees the crowd coming her way, and the one whom she’s heard about is among them. She thinks, “He can help me.”
In both cases, their circumstances were beyond their control. Both reached at a breaking point. Both desperate for help beyond what this world could offer. Their circumstances crashing on top of them summoned something from within, something that, no doubt, surprised each, something that led them running toward Another whom they believed had what they needed. Their circumstances summoned a faith that even they probably were previously unaware of. When Jesus came walking by, they came to him, trusting him for something everyone else was powerless to do.
That’s the beginning of biblical faith—simply looking at Jesus as One who can help and coming to Jesus for that help. But often it takes overwhelming circumstances before we’re ready to come. The first step of biblical faith is actually a negative one. It’s becoming desperate enough to come to Jesus. It’s letting go of pride. It’s saying to yourself, finally, “I just don’t have what it takes. I can’t do this. I need help. But I need a kind of help this world can’t offer. I need supernatural help.”
That’s the first movement of faith. But it’s not the last. Circumstances summon faith, but honesty forges faith, which is our second point.
Honesty Forges Faith
After Jairus’ plea, Jesus agrees to go with him. They move slowly because the crowds press in around them. Why are the crowds there? To see a great show! To see a miracle! Jesus has done it before. He’s about to do it again! They can’t wait.
But the crowd was about to get more than they bargained for. They were about to get not only a miracle, but also a lesson in biblical faith. They were about to see what honesty before God does to a heart.
Now the suffering woman takes center stage. Here is important Jairus whose daughter is dying. He’s racing to his house with Jesus, hoping there’s enough time before she passes. And now, out of the blue, they’re being held up by some woman.
As I said, she was ritually unclean because of her disease. She had been for twelve years. She’s used to being an outcast. She’s a nobody and knows it.
But here she is, weak and out of options, but just strong enough to come, which is all the strength Jesus requires. As she makes her way through the crowd, everyone she touches becomes unclean because of her. Then she reaches out her hand, touches the edge of Jesus’ garment and something happens.
You know, lots of people touched Jesus that day and nothing happened. Just being around Jesus isn’t enough. Proximity doesn’t change things. A lot of people think it does. A lot of people think nearness to Jesus, nearness to the church, nearness to other Christians is enough, like the holiness just rubs off. But it doesn’t work that way. Proximity isn’t enough. There is a way of touching Jesus without really touching him. There’s a way of touching Jesus without receiving his power. A lot of people touched Jesus that day in that crowd, but only the woman got his power after the touch.
So, what unlocks his power? Just this: personal need of a savior and the empty hands of faith.
That’s all this woman had. And that’s all she needed. So many in the crowd that day were just excited about what Jesus might do for others. This woman was desperate for what he could do for her. That’s the difference. It’s the difference between seeing Jesus as spectacle and seeing Jesus as Savior. Until you understand your personal need for Jesus, his power will be withheld from you. But when you come to the end of your rope, when you come to him with the empty hands of faith, desperate for salvation, his power races toward you.
So, if all you have is need, that’s fine with Jesus. In fact, it’s all he’s asking for. Isn’t that the grace of God? Jesus is saying to us all, “If you need me, come to me.”
And don’t worry about how you come to him. You can’t defile him, but he can cleanse you. The woman is proof. When she touched him, her touch didn’t make him unclean; Jesus’ power made her clean.
After her touch, Jesus stops. He has something to say to her. He asks, “Who touched me?” I think he knew who it was, but she doesn’t yet know how profound her touch truly was. Others need to hear about this. All those around him need to know the kind of touch that touches Jesus’ heart.
You can imagine the fear welling up inside the woman. She came to Jesus. She touched him. He healed her disease. Isn’t that enough?
Not for Jesus. Her faith was true faith but there was a healing this woman had not yet received from Jesus that only confession could bring about.
So, Jesus looks around, waiting. I wonder how long that wait was? For the woman—and for Jairus—it was an eternity, no doubt.
And then she comes. Look at verse 33. “The woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling…” Why was she scared? Why wouldn’t she be! Here she is, an unclean woman, a social outcast, speaking up in front of all these men. They would know she touched many of them on her way to Jesus. They would be disgusted with her. What would they do to her?
But that wasn’t the true depth of her fear. She was face to face with Jesus, with God. She knew who she was. And she knew who he was. What would he do to her?
Isn’t that a fear inside us all? Don’t we all fear what God will do to us in those moments when he’s calling us to confession? Will he turn me away? Will he punish me?
But she came, didn’t she? She knew what had happened to her, she knew she was the one who touched him, and she was ready to own it. Yes, she was scared. Yes, she was unsure of what would happen. But she was sure she was healed. She could not deny that. He had done what she hoped he would. So she could not deny the call of Jesus. She was afraid, but she trusted him.
And what does she do? Look again at verse 33. She “came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and”—what—“told him the whole truth.”
What did she tell him? Probably everything that happened to her. That’s how Mark knows her story. She told of all her struggles, all her pain and suffering, all her feelings of shame and despair, all her attempts at finding a cure. She told about seeing him, coming to him, touching him, trusting in his power to help her. She told it all. She probably said more. Who knows the depths she went to, we have only a summary. And there were things she didn’t say that Jesus knew anyway. No wonder she trembled! This was costly confession, which is really the only true kind of confession.
There’s a lesson here for us. Jesus is no gum-ball machine god. He is not there to give us what we think we need. He’s there to give us what he knows we need. But to give us that, he’s going to ask a lot of us. He’s going to ask more of us than we planned on sharing. He’s going to ask for brutal honesty. Why? Because brutal honesty is the only freeing kind of honesty. The only way you ever have the assurance of faith you need is if you tell him your whole truth. And when you do, he responds.
Look at verse 34. It’s the climax of this story inside the story. What will Jesus say in response to her? He lost power because of her. He was delayed in saving a dying little girl because of her. What will he say?
“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
What? Is that what she expected from Jesus? Is that what we expect from Jesus?
When we come to Jesus by faith and reach out for his healing, he will turn to us in his grace. He wants a conversation with us, not to shame us but to assure us. He wants to hear the whole truth like a father who wants to comfort his child after a long, difficult journey. He wants the whole truth because he wants to give whole healing. And when we tell it all, he gives us his peace. Why? Because we’ve come to him in faith, in total trust. When we come to Jesus as our only hope, he accepts that as faith worthy of new life.
This woman will, from this moment on, always be free. She will have a new relationship with Jesus—a relationship she could not have had if she didn’t pour her heart out to him. From this moment on, because of her relationship with Jesus, she will have access to his power forever. She will no longer need a hurried touch in a crowd. She will have moment by moment access to his power, to his grace, to his mercy, to his cleansing, to him.
She didn’t treat Jesus like the crowds did. She didn’t touch him like they did. She treated him as her only hope. She touched him by faith. And now she has him by faith forever.
And you can too.
All it takes is the empty hands of faith reaching for Jesus who heals.
Do you need him right now? Reach for him! He’s passing by.
He’ll call you to honesty, and that might terrify you, but it’s the only way he can heal the parts of you that really need healing. Like putting you in the fire to refine, your honesty before the Lord forges your faith. The assurance you need comes through telling him the whole truth. And when you do, you will have stumbled into true spirituality. He is completely trustworthy, and he wants you to know it beyond an initial touch. He wants you to have his power moment by moment.
Circumstances summon faith. Honesty forges faith. And finally, Jesus directs faith.
God Directs Faith
Isn’t this a strange story? Don’t you wonder why all this happened the way it did? Jairus’ daughter was near death, but surely she had been ill for some time. This woman was sick for twelve years. And as soon as Jairus came running, this woman came touching. Why did it happen this way? How did these two events happen simultaneously?
Here’s how: God directed it.
As Jesus walked through the village that day, he was not merely out for an afternoon stroll. In eternity past, God orchestrated a series of events that would lead not only to miracles but to life that day. Circumstances summon faith, but God determines our circumstances. Honesty forges faith, but God brings us to the breaking point. God directs it all.
When we come to God, it’s not because we’ve finally understood all the answers and passed the test. It’s because he’s come to us—and has been coming to us all along—to give us faith. Yes, we sincerely believe at the deepest level of our heart, but Jesus made the first spark. Yes, our faith connects us to him, but he made the first move. Yes, our faith is truly ours, but it’s in his hands all along. Faith, like everything in the Christian life is a gift from the Holy God above.
In directing the woman’s faith, he was directing the faith of the disciples and of Jairus and of us. That’s why she appears when she does. Can’t you just imagine how frustrated the disciples were that Jesus stopped and took time to call her out? Can’t you imagine how anxious Jairus was as he knew his daughter was dying and Jesus was taking his sweet time?
Jairus knew time was short. And it was indeed. Look at verse 35. “While he [Jesus] was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?”
Jesus’ delay caused the girl’s death! How Jairus’ heart must have broken! Why did Jesus delay?
Jesus was teaching something about himself that Jairus couldn’t see otherwise, that the disciples couldn’t see otherwise, that even we can’t see otherwise.
The woman began the lesson with her story, and Jesus advanced it with Jairus’. Let me ask you a question. When has God ever worked on your time line? The Bible says over and over again that we must wait on the Lord. Why? Because his clock doesn’t work like ours! We’re impatient. He is not. We want his gifts now. But he knows we need more than that. We don’t need his gifts. We need him. And sometimes it takes a long time for us to realize that. So he makes us wait.
As the song says, “You can’t hurry love.” And the Bible says God is love. So you can’t hurry him. You may want to, but you can’t. You’ll just have to wait.
What happens in the waiting? Well, Jairus broke even more. He only thought he was at the end of his rope as his daughter lay dying. Now that she’s dead, he sees a new bottom.
Had Jesus failed him? Had he trusted in the wrong person?
Of course not.
Jesus isn’t shocked by the news of the girl’s death. He knew it was coming. And in response he said—look at verse 36—“But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.”
He overheard what they said but ignored it. It didn’t matter to him. What’s the difference between illness and death to Jesus? This was part of the plan all along. “Don’t fear, Jairus. Only believe. I haven’t failed you. I never will.”
Can you imagine how difficult that was? “Believe what, Jesus? Believe that everything will be okay now that my daughter is dead? Believe that you’re enough for me with this gaping hole in my heart? Believe that my desperation that you threw to the side for some unclean woman was just an overreaction? What in the world, Jesus?”
Now, I don’t know that Jairus responded that way. Mark doesn’t say he does. But have you reacted like that before? I have.
What’s God teaching us in those moments? We react that way because we think we deserve something from him—a good life, or at least an easy one. Maybe we’ve come to him in desperation and he hasn’t met our expectations. But we don’t deserve anything but hell because of our sin. We don’t have a claim on him. He has a claim on us. And what does he do with that power? He gives himself to us in greater measure through the waiting. So it might take a little while longer than we’d like. Is that really a problem? A little time for all his grace?
The woman gave us the first lesson of faith—coming in honesty. Jairus’ story gives us another layer—sticking through hardship.
After all, doesn’t the woman have the easier path here? She comes, touches, is healed, receives assurance, goes in peace. Jairus comes, begs, gets Jesus to come, is delayed, his daughter dies, and Jesus turns and says, “Don’t worry about it. Just believe.” What gives? Faith not only comes, faith stays when all seems lost, because in Jesus all is never lost.
No doubt Jairus reached a new low. But Jesus was there at the very bottom to catch him. He’ll be there for you too.
Yes, Jairus had exercised faith already. He had come. But now Jesus came to him in a new way. He directed his faith beyond his circumstance to the God who ordained them.
When God surprises us—even frustrates us—with his time lines, we break through to new realities with him. Trusting him for the first miracle is good, but we need to trust him for the long haul, for the resurrection. Remember, biblical faith trusts God with your whole life.
Jairus could have walked away. He could have turned from Jesus after he heard his daughter was dead. But he didn’t. When Jesus said, “Do not fear; only believe.” By God’s grace, Jairus did! He went with Jesus! Faith goes with Jesus no matter how unbelievable it may seem at the moment. Just as Abraham hoped against hope that he would be the father of many nations, so Jairus hopes against hope that Jesus has something more for him. That’s the kind of faith counted as righteousness; the kind of faith that saves.
When Jesus arrives at Jairus’ house, the mourners are there. The girl is dead. Everyone knows it. She’s not mostly dead. She’s all the way dead. So when Jesus says in verse 39, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping,” the point is totally lost on them. They laugh at him. But he knew what he was saying. Death to Jesus is no unconquerable enemy.
He enters the room, takes the child by the hand, and says to her, “Talitha, cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And she gets up immediately. She is healed. She eats, proving she’s really alive. This is no illusion.
When his little girl died, did Jairus’ faith die with her? Biblical faith is more than trusting Jesus for physical healing. Biblical faith is trusting Jesus for resurrection healing. Jairus was looking for a quick fix to his crisis. Jesus was directing a lasting hope, a resurrection hope. Jesus will ask more us than we may want to give, but he’ll give more than we could ever imagine.
The faith God looks for in us is the faith he’s directing toward himself. And every circumstance in your life, in God’s hands, becomes a building block of faith in him. He is faithful, and he will never fail you, no matter what the circumstances may say. “Do not fear; only believe!”
That’s the lesson Jairus learned that day, but it was just a foretaste of the lesson to come. A little while after Jesus raised that little girl from death, he faced his own death. As he hung on the cross, I imagine if Jairus and that poor woman were there to behold him, they knew something more than death was happening. They saw life on that cross passing from him to them. When you look at the cross by faith, that’s what you see. You see power going out from Jesus into you. It’s the power that created the world, that orchestrated your circumstances, that broke your heart open, that directed your life’s story, that brings you into God’s kingdom. And that power comes walking out of the grave in resurrection life to you, by faith.
Biblical faith is no leap into dark uncertainty; it’s a leap into the light of Jesus where we find cleansing. And he’s asking us all right now to step in.
Let’s pray.
1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that
“ ‘they may indeed see but not perceive,
and may indeed hear but not understand,
lest they should turn and be forgiven.’ ”
13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
Mark 4:1-20
So far in Mark’s gospel, we’ve seen Jesus bringing God’s kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. The lame walk, the sick are well, the blind see, the tax collector and the sinner are righteous. The promise stretching way back to the Garden of Eden is being fulfilled. Jesus is undoing the effects of sin and making all things new.
Part of that newness comes through his teaching. And in chapter 4, we begin a section of teaching called the parables. A parable is a story that makes a point. What’s the point of this one? Simply this: how we listen to God really matters.
This is not a new reality for God’s people. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden with a command to listen. God’s law required careful listening. In the Old Testament, the daily prayers of God’s people began with the words of Deuteronomy 6, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years due to their failure to listen. They endured 400 years of God’s silence before Christ came because they would not listen to his word.
So it should come as no surprise that Jesus opens his teaching in verse 3 with a command to listen. It’s a very strong word. It’s an imperative. It’s a command. Our attention is mandatory. And our response to the command makes all the difference. Will we pay attention?
Jesus knew not everyone gathered on that beach would really hear his message. He knew some had already made up their mind about who he was—or wasn’t. They were listening without listening, hearing without hearing. The words went in one ear, through the predetermined filter, and landed on the rock-hard surface of their heart. For others, the hearing wasn’t as dull. Life appeared to take root. But what began couldn’t last. For yet others, the message bore fruit. What made the difference? To find the answer, we must look at this parable in two major parts. First, we must consider the sower who sows the seed. Second, we must understand the types of soil.
A sower went out to sow. What does he sow? Jesus says in verse 14 the sower sows the Word of God.
Who is the sower? Well, the sower is anyone who sows the word of God. The sower is you and me, the preacher on Sunday morning, the missionary in the third-world country, the employee at lunch with co-workers, the parent telling the bedtime story. The sower is anyone who shares God’s word, spreading the seed as he goes.
But at the most foundational level, Jesus is the Sower, fulfilling and encompassing the totality of the role. He is, in the Apostle John’s language, “The Word,” God himself made manifest to us (John 1:1). He spreads the seed of the word, calling all to repent and believe, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
How does the sower sow the seed? Well, we see in the opening verses that Jesus taught this parable on the shore for all to hear, sowing the seed of the word on all kinds of soil. The seed is spread indiscriminately, far and wide on all kinds of ground. Some falls on the hard path; some falls into good soil. But the field is covered. In the ancient world, a farmer sowed, then plowed. Some seed went to unproductive places. That’s just how it was. Some seed fell on the path. Some fell among rocks and thorns. A farmer couldn’t make his field perfect before spreading. Sometimes what appeared to be good soil turned out to be useless. But he spread his seed throughout his field, doing what he could to prepare for an abundant harvest. Then he waited to see what the seed would yield.
Simple enough, right? But that doesn’t mean everyone understood. In fact, for some, the parables only complicated matters. Look at verses 10-12.
10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that “‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’”
What is Jesus saying? Is he saying he speaks in parables to make sure that some people won’t hear the truth of the kingdom? Yes.
Now to some degree, we all understand that, don’t we? The Bible often talks of having ears to hear. Not everyone who hears the gospel will really hear the gospel. The Apostle Paul says, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Only those who have ears to hear will be able to understand the power of the story.
But that doesn’t make this statement easier to accept. We may think it unfair. Why would Jesus say things in such a way as to hide it from those who really needed it?
We see in verse 12 that Jesus quotes something. What is it? It’s a quote from Isaiah 6. What’s going on there? Isaiah 6 is that great passage where Isaiah is caught up in a vision, and God forgives his sin and sends him out to preach to the hard-hearted people of Israel. Isaiah’s prophetic mission is to tell his generation that they won’t listen to God because they haven’t been listening to him. And since they won’t listen, their window into God’s kingdom is closing. It’s going to get harder for them to understand what God is saying. God will still speak of what’s to come. He’ll still prophecy about Jesus. But they won’t understand it because they don’t want to. They’ve made themselves sermon-proof.
And now Jesus is in the same situation. Some won’t understand even when they hear. Some won’t perceive even when they see. Why? Because they won’t accept him. We’ve seen it throughout Mark’s gospel. Everywhere Jesus goes, he runs into opposition. And if they’re going to question everything he says, he’s not going to let them complicate his message for everyone who wants to hear. He’ll speak in a way that the spiritually-abled can hear.
It doesn’t mean those outside are denied belief. It just means that they are denied further insight into the kingdom as long as unbelief continues. As long as they’re alive, there’s an opportunity to repent and believe. That’s why Jesus came! But until they do, Jesus will go to the ones who draw near.
Think of the parables like a filter. Some people are really interested in Jesus, some are pretending to be, and some aren’t at all. And the parables sort them out. How do you know what kind of person you are? Well, we need to keep going. The answer lies in the different kinds of soil.
For all the questions we ask of the Bible, the Bible also asks questions of us. And it is the questions the Bible asks of us that should claim our attention before anything else. Yes, we can ask God whatever we need to, but our questions don’t come first. Until we’ve placed ourselves under God’s microscope, we’ve failed to take him seriously. Until we’ve allowed God to question us, we have no right to question him. After all, it was not Adam who after sinning littered God with questions. It was God who came looking for Adam asking, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). It was not Job’s insistence that God answer him that changed his heart during his suffering. It was God’s question of him that turned the tide (Job 38:3). This parable, then, is not merely a story of a sower sowing seed. It is a question from God to us all. When the sower sows his seed, what will the seed find to rest on? What kind of soil is our heart made of?
Jesus presents four types of soil, but there are ultimately only two kinds. There is the soil of unfaith and the soil of faith. The first three are bad. The last one is good.
So present four types? Because whenever the seed of the Word is sown, all four types are present. In fact, we’ve seen all four in the first three chapters of Mark, as we will see in a moment. Whenever the gospel is preached, nothing never happens. There is no neutral response to God’s word. There is only a negative or positive response. This truth is evident in this parable. That’s why we have four types of soil—because there are different ways to respond to God’s word, and we’re all responding in some way.
So, here are the four types, from Jesus’ explanation of the parable in verses 15-20.
Hard and Dry (v. 15)
Shallow and Rocky (vv. 16-17)
Crowded and Anxious (vv. 18-19)
Soft and Open (v. 20)
Let’s briefly consider each.
First, the hard and dry heart.
Look at verse 15. “And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.”
Who have we seen so far in Mark’s gospel with this kind of heart? The Pharisees. They don’t accept Jesus as their Lord. They oppose him as their enemy. The more Jesus speaks, the more he heals, the more he teaches, the harder their heart gets.
It’s the scariest heart of all. It’s completely closed to Jesus. It’s uninterested in hearing him and therefore unable to hear him. This is the natural man Paul speaks of, and it doesn’t matter how religious they appear on the outside. Their heart tells the truth.
What happens to this kind of heart? When they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes the word away. He snatches it up before it sinks in. C.S. Lewis picks up on this in his great fictional book The Screwtape Letters. It’s a series of letters of counsel from one senior demon, Screwtape, to a junior demon, Wormwood. Wormwood has been assigned a man to keep from coming to faith in Christ. In one letter, Screwtape says, “It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.”
In context, Screwtape is talking about prayer. “Do all you can, dear Wormwood, to keep our man from praying! Take out the desire!” Satan wants to take away your desires for God, no matter how small they may be. One prayer can do him in! That’s why Peter tells us to “be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
Satan has a million methods of taking the seed away. He’s really good at distracting us from God. Think about it. Doesn’t the bed always feel better than the Bible? Isn’t the conversation on social media more interesting than prayer? Doesn’t self-justification feel better than repentance? Isn’t Netflix better than nightly meditation on God’s word? Aren’t you tempted right now to check your phone, to plan your week, to make your grocery list, to check out for a little while? Where do you think that comes from? He’s seeking someone to devour! Don’t let him! Be watchful!
I have a former atheist friend who is reading the Bible for the first time. In sharing this parable with him, he said something really insightful. He said, “I know what that hard heart is like. But once I began exploring Christianity, I realized that there is a point of no return. The heart can get so hardened that it doesn’t want to hear from God. Thankfully, I heard before I reached that point. But not everyone does. That place of no return is terrifying, and one day it will be too late to listen.”
Please, don’t let your heart get to that place.
And if you sense a hardness now, please consider that perhaps the reason you’re here today is for Christ to grind that stone away. Since the parables come from the mouth of Jesus, they contain the power to open ears. The Bible says “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
Second, the shallow and rocky heart.
Look at verses 16 and 17. “And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.”
We see this kind of heart in the crowds that follow Jesus. Like Twitter followers that see he’s trending, they jump on the bandwagon. They love him for his miracles but leave him for his exclusive claims. They don’t stick with him because their heart just isn’t open enough. They say they believe but don’t endure, proving they don’t really believe. They’re merely interested in the hot thing. When following him gets uncomfortable, inconvenient, discouraging, risky, they leave. They didn’t sign up for hardship.
This is the kind of heart that treats Jesus not as the savior he really is, but as the spiritual pixie dust we want. This is the kind of heart that treats Jesus as a guru to give us life tips, as the genius bar to fix our broken toys, as spiritual co-pilot to bless our not-so-bad life. It happens when we treat him only as the positive and encouraging Jesus who never steps on our toes, never calls us to commitment, never asks us to deny ourselves and take up our cross to follow him.
With this heart, things are good for a while but because we’ve never considered his word, we’ve never chewed on it, we’ve never really thought it through, we’ve kept it shallow like so many spring gardens set in the hot sun, and it dies. When things get tough, we leave him for something else. When we treat Jesus in mere pragmatic terms, as soon as he no longer “works” for us, we look for someone else that will. This is the heart that’s tried Jesus and found he’s just alright, but not alright enough.
Third, the crowded and anxious heart.
Look at verses 18 and 19. “And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”
If I were to caution us from one of these first three kinds of heart, this is the one I would highlight today. I think it is the bad soil we in our context and culture are most prone to.
This kind of heart is just too crowded. It has too many things at the same level of importance. It upholds social status, comfort and security, and personal desires alongside the things of God. It’s the heart of anxiety, worried about things out of our control because we’ve let so many things control us.
Now, let me say that I’m not trying to discourage any who struggle with anxiety. I struggle with it myself. Some of you have walked with me through those anxious days. Some of us need to get help. Some of us need to take some medicine. Some of us need to talk to a professional. And some of us just need to realize that the cause of our anxiety isn’t merely mental; it’s a problem of the heart. We have too many competing loves inside, and as Shakespeare said, “These lovers seek a place to fight.”
Ray Ortlund illustrates this reality with a profound image of our heart as a boardroom.
Big table. Leather chairs. Coffee. Bottled water. Whiteboard. A committee sits around the table. There is the social self, the private self, the work self, the sexual self, the recreational self, the religious self, the childhood memories self, and others. The committee is arguing and debating and voting. Constantly agitated. Divided. Upset. Rarely can the committee within come to a unanimous, wholehearted decision.
One way we might falsely “accept Jesus” is just to invite him onto our committee. Give Jesus a seat at the table. Give him a vote too. Let him make his case, and then the rest of “us” will decide for or against. But, if this is how we accept Jesus, then he is just one influence among others, easily offset by the other voices, which yell and demand and threaten.
We see this kind of heart in Jesus’ family. They worry about the scene he makes. Their reputation matters. They grow anxious about what he says, what he does, what might happen to them if he doesn’t shut up. No wonder that leads to anxiety! How can we ever please so many competing selves?
Here’s what we need. We need Jesus to come in and fire all the board members. We need Jesus as the sole ruler of our heart. And in his grace, all it takes to receive that freedom is openness to him. But it means total openness. It means we hold nothing back. It means we hand over all of our life to him. No hidden corners. No locked doors.
If we will accept that, we will find the way into the only good type of heart Jesus presents in this parable—the soft and open heart—that Jesus alone can create.
Fourth, the soft and open heart.
Look at verse 20. “But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
This is the heart of Jesus’ disciples. They accept his word. They follow him when it’s hard. They stick with him when they don’t understand. They draw near. They lean in. They want Jesus. And to them are given the secrets of the kingdom of God. They get not only knowledge of his kingdom; they get his kingdom. They enter the experience.
The soft and open heart is the heart of every Christian. It is the heart that has accepted Christ and listened to his word.
What kind of soil is our heart? Hard and dry? Shallow and rocky? Crowded and anxious? Or soft and open? Do we have a heart of unfaith or a heart of faith?
Here’s how we can know: look at the fruit.
In the spring of 2010, my wife and I planted our first tomato plants. A few weeks later was the great Nashville flood. Our little plants were covered. As we rebuilt from the flood throughout the summer, we watched the tomato plants grow taller than we ever imagined. But they never produced tomatoes. They looked great, but the fruit wasn’t there.
Now, not everyone in Christ will yield a hundredfold. But all in Christ will yield something. It’s the way we know the seed has taken root in our life. The seed sown in good soil bears fruit. Three soils are bad. One soil is good. And even if it looks good on the surface, the fruit is all that matters.
So here’s the question. How do we get the good soil? Do we get it by being a good person? If so, good by what standard? Do we get it by removing the rocks underneath? If so, how can we see down far enough? Do we get it by pulling out the weeds in our life? If so, how can we be sure we got the root? Self-care won’t produce what we need. We can never be good enough. We can never remove all the rocks. We can never pull out enough weeds. We need another way.
Interestingly, the only gospel account that doesn’t include this parable is John’s. But the truth it proclaims is very present. As Jesus makes a turn toward Jerusalem and, ultimately, the cross, he tells his disciples about his upcoming death by saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).
What’s Jesus saying? Even agriculture points to the gospel! He’s saying the power of the gospel is in his death. The power of the gospel is the seed planted in the ground. Jesus is not only the Sower. He’s God’s seed. And the fruit we need grows out of his grave.
But is a seed really that powerful? Can it really break hard-hearted sinners? G. Campbell Morgan once told about a tomb in an Italian cemetery he visited. There was an enormous granite slab on top of a grave. But sometime between the burying of the man and the placement of the granite slab, an acorn fell into the ground between the two. The acorn grew, and it split the granite slab, and between the two pieces stood an oak tree.
Is a seed really that powerful? A seed is so weak you can crush it. And that’s what Satan thought he did to Jesus on the cross. But not one of his bones was broken. In his death, Jesus wasn’t a crushed seed; he was a planted seed. He fell into the earth and died, and three days later, his power was released.
Why did he do that? Why did Jesus become a seed? Tim Keller points out that if he came with a sword, he’d cut us to pieces. If he came with fire, he’d burn us to ashes. So he came as a seed to be planted for us. That’s the secret of the kingdom.
When you see that, something happens deep inside. Your heart of stone cracks open to Jesus. And once he’s inside, his word grows and grows. There is a power that comes into your life. It’s the power of the seed, the power of the word of God, the power of the Sower. And it has the power to transform the soil of your heart.
Let me close with this.
You know, we all start out the same way. We’re all born sinners separated from God. We can thank Adam for that. But God’s seed is more powerful than our unbelief. And perhaps this morning you’re considering Christ in a new way. If so, the seed of the gospel is being sown. Maybe you walked in here not wanting Christ, and you’re going to walk out wanting him. What happened? God broke the granite slab.
But it started way before today. When God planted the trees at creation, he had the cross in mind. When the first seed died, the resurrection was already planned. When your heart cracks open to Jesus, your salvation was already sealed in eternity past. That’s the kind of God we have—one who loves us enough to break us, who dies to save us, who rises to give us life.
If we won’t listen to that message, what will we listen to?
Let’s pray.
As Mark shows us the authority of Jesus over everything, he includes the conflict with the religious leaders that authority created. We saw one of those last week and we’re going to see three more of them today. Let’s read it now.
Jesus Calls Levi
13 He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
15 And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
A Question About Fasting
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath
23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: 26 how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” 27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
For some in Jesus’ day, his kingdom drawing near was not a comfortable sight. While the sinners and tax collectors find a home with Jesus, the Pharisees and other devout Jews struggle to reconcile Jesus’ mercy with his holiness. The word Pharisee means “separated one.” There were really “religious.” They cared a lot about the rules, even if that meant separating themselves from others, even those who they knew needed God. Religion has a way of doing that, doesn’t it?
So here are these religious Pharisees thinking, “How can this man, this rabbi, this one who claims to forgive sins—how can he recline with sinners and allow his disciples to do what is not lawful? How can this man be the Christ?”
But Mark makes it clear that Jesus is just that. He is the King of God’s Kingdom. He was misunderstood by the religious leaders, but Mark goes to great lengths to make Jesus clear to us.
So what is Mark making clear to us here? Well, through these interactions we see that there are two ways to welcome Jesus. We can welcome him with total openness or with total scrutiny. We can accept his salvation on his terms or we can reject his salvation because of his terms. There is no in-between. But the good news for all who will hear is that his terms are the best deal for sinners this world will ever see. And we’re all sinners—even the best behaved among us. His offer is total forgiveness for our total sin, if only we’ll have him.
In a way, these Pharisees and devout Jews do us all a great favor. In observing Jesus and questioning him, they give us further insight into the kingdom of God. More than merely theological debates, these stories are revelations of the radical, even scandalous, nature of the kingdom of God.
What are those revelations? There are at least three.
The kingdom of God is for sinners (vv. 13-17)
The kingdom of God is radically new (vv. 18-22)
The kingdom of God is for you (vv. 23-28)
Jesus goes down by the sea and calls Levi the tax collector to follow him. Soon after, Jesus is sitting in Levi’s house, reclining at table with his friends. The Pharisees want to know “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus’ answer is simple. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” It’s a common-sense answer, a proverbial quote known far and wide. A doctor must go to the sick. What good is a doctor who never does? But coming from the mouth of Jesus to the Pharisees in front of his new tax collector and sinner friends, it had a different slant. It posed a question even as it affirmed a truth. It was as if he was saying, “Do you understand your sickness? Do you understand the sickness of sin? Do you understand the illness of the soul? Do you understand that no good you’ve done or could ever do will remove the evil of sin from your heart? Do you understand my salvation?”
We are all—every one us—diagnosed with a sickness unto death. And the sinners and tax collectors he sat among saw it. They saw their sickness. So they welcomed the Physician.
But the Pharisees didn’t. They were concerned with the optics of it all. How could a rabbi sit with those people? Jesus says he can because it’s the entire reason for his coming: to call not the righteous, but sinners. In reclining with the tax collectors and sinners, while it proved to be bad optics for his budding ministry, was the precise reason for his ministry. He was not there for those who had no need of him. He was there for those who had a great need for him.
So here’s the question we need to answer this morning: Do we sense a personal need for Christ or do we think we’re doing just fine? Do we need a Physician or can we heal ourselves?
The Bible makes it quite clear that no one is righteous. But there is a difference between affirming that biblical truth and feeling the need for a rescue. A religious person can recognize the evil inside while thinking better behavior will atone for it. But the one for whom Christ came recognizes no good from within can atone for the sins of the heart. The Bible is screaming to us from Genesis 3 onward that we need a rescue, we need a Savior.
There are really only two types of people in this world, no matter the religion. There are those who know their need for a savior and those who see no need for one. And the kingdom of God exposes both.
We see the difference in the narrative. There are two sets of people. We have Levi and his buddies on the one side and the Pharisees on the other.
What do we know of Levi? We know from other parts of the Bible that he’s also called Matthew, the author of the gospel. We also know from this passage that he was a tax collector. Tax collectors in that day were seen as unclean people. Many of them around there were Jews, and to get the job, they bid the amount of tax revenue they could take in to the Roman government. The open jobs went to the highest bidder. Some taxes were fixes and you couldn’t charge more than the going rate, but others had looser definitions. Tax collectors would take advantage, collecting their quota and pocketing the excess. They were traitors to the Jewish people they extorted.
The Pharisees would have nothing to do with such men. They avoided fellowshipping with such people to maintain their ritual purity. And they considered reclining with those unversed in the Law, such as these “sinners” to be a disgrace. But Jesus didn’t seem to mind. Apparently, they were the ones for whom he came.
The Pharisees didn’t like that. They are the bad guys in this story, no doubt. But is there not a Pharisee in us all? Somewhere, deep in our heart, there is a prejudice against others. Yes, the Pharisees didn’t associate with sinners and tax collectors, but the sinners and tax collectors didn’t associate with them either. They were of separate worlds, and that was fine with each. In every one of us, there is a world in which we live and world in which “those people” live, isn’t there? And if “those people” were to come in this room right now, their presence would make us uncomfortable.
But in God’s kingdom, there aren’t us and them. There’s just us and Jesus, and we have to deal with the mercy he’s shown to all. Notice Mark says the disciples were with Jesus in Levi’s house. I wonder what they thought about Levi when Jesus called him? I wonder what they thought about entering his house with all those tax collectors? Remember, the first disciples of Jesus were fishermen. They worked hard to make a living. Remember, too, that it was beside the sea working in his booth that Jesus called Levi. That must have taken the disciples back to their fishing days when they would come to shore, and a man like Levi—maybe even Levi himself—sat in his booth, taxing the fish they caught. And now here is this man among them—one who, if he had not extorted them, his certainly friends had. What would they do with this? What kind of rabbi is this Jesus?
Well, it turns out, he’s the kind that saves sinners. What we see in the calling of Levi is Jesus’ continued call of the unclean, unwanted, even despised people into his kingdom. Levi was not a man any other rabbi would have wanted. The Pharisees didn’t. But Jesus did! So he went and got him.
In response, Levi invited Jesus home for dinner. When you realize Jesus doesn’t just tolerate you but wants you, it changes everything. For a man cast outside the religious circles of his day, a rabbi who wanted him to follow him was unthinkable. When Jesus came along, Levi couldn’t help but invite him among his friends. And Jesus wasn’t above attending.
Years later, another sinner, this time a Pharisee, would understand Jesus. In speaking to his disciple, Timothy, the Apostle Paul said that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom—notice this personal pronoun—“of whom I am the foremost.” Charles Spurgeon notes that between that world saves and that word sinners, there is no adjective. It matters not that you are a tax collecting sinner or a murderous sinner or an obedient-to-tradition sinner. All that matters is that sinners are in the world and you are among them. That’s what Jesus is saying! He came for the sick, are you sick enough for Jesus?
We need not simply better behavior; we need a rescue. We need a Savior. We need one who will dine with sinners and befriend them. And that’s who we have in Jesus.
We have two options before us. We can stand at the door questioning Jesus’ methods or we can join his party raging inside. We can be like the elder boy in the parable of the prodigal son, angry that we’ve always obeyed but never received, or we can be the prodigal enjoying the welcome home. Jesus is saying, “Your brother has come. It’s fitting to celebrate and be glad. The dead are alive! The lost are found! Come, join the party.” Jesus came not to call the righteous, but sinners.
Are you sick enough for the Good Doctor, Jesus? If so, rejoice! The kingdom of God is at hand, and it’s coming for you! And when you get inside, you’ll see that it’s something radically new from what this tired world has been giving.
Once we see that the kingdom of God is for sinners, we begin to see how radically new it truly is. Since the fall, the kingdom of God has been attacked from outside and inside. Even the law of God was misused. By the time Jesus arrived, the Jewish world in that day was weighed down with laws. Some were from God. Those were to be obeyed. But some were from the Jews themselves, additions to the law of God that, in the end, distorted God’s law and had the reverse effect of his original intention. That’s how it always is with us, isn’t it? We have an amazing ability to complicate the purposes of God.
When Jesus appeared, the Jews expected him to fall in line with the status quo. And when he didn’t, it proved troublesome. It angered the Pharisees, and it confused the common Jew. That’s what we see in verses 18-22. It’s not the Pharisees who question Jesus but the “people.” They want to know why the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Jesus’ don’t.
God’s law really only required one fast—on the day of Atonement. But over the years, other fasts were added to the calendar: important holidays and so forth. And if you were a Pharisee, you were so holy that you fasted twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. And they must have made a show of it because later on, Jesus told his disciples, “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.”
But Jesus’ disciples didn’t fast at all, and that was confusing. So Jesus answered by appealing to a cultural norm. “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?” No, he says. They cannot. That wouldn’t be right. When something joyous occurs, no one thinks of avoiding food. When something joyous occurs, everyone wonders what’s for dinner! How are we going to celebrate? Weddings in Israel were not an afternoon affair. They lasted a full week. All week long, everyone would eat and drink. No one was fasting. Everyone was celebrating. Jesus is saying his disciples are doing the same.
He didn’t say his disciples would never fast. Indeed, a time would come when they must—when the bridegroom is taken. But while he is here, it makes no sense to fast. Jesus is merely saying his disciples know the time of things. They’re aware the feasting is here, even if the fasting will come later. He’s saying to them that something new has come, and as long as the new is here, the old way of things cannot be forced to work.
To illustrate, Jesus uses two brief parables. “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins”
Both parables serve the same purpose: the new cannot fit with the old. You can’t sow a new patch of cloth on an old garment without creating more harm. Why? Because the old is shrunk down by washing. A new piece of cloth isn’t. When it’s washed, it’ll shrink and tear a hole greater than the one it patched. In the same way, you can’t put new wine into old wineskins without them bursting. The expansive, fermenting new wine will cause the skin to stretch and burst.
What’s he saying? You can’t fit the kingdom of God into old religious forms. Man-made traditions and ceremonies and outdated religious structures are simply not suitable for the new wine of the gospel. It’s too expansive. The joy is too great. It’s growing too fast. You can’t put it into the status quo. God’s kingdom isn’t just for Jews; it’s for Gentiles too. It’s for the unclean, the ungodly, the tax collectors and sinners, the losers of this world! Christ has come, and he’s filling God’s purposes up. He’s the new patch. He’s the new wine. The times, they are a-changin’!
Jesus is not the poster boy for old-time religion. He’s not the Bible Belt co-pilot. He’s not the post-modern homeboy. Jesus is the covenant-making God filling up the old in himself and pouring out the newness we long for. He’s the perfect Jew, obeying the law to the fullest as it was originally intended. And that’s so radical, and so different-looking, that everyone wonders, “Who is this guy?” Well, he’s the King of God’s coming kingdom, that’s who. Doesn’t his kingdom look better than the one you’ve been living in—the one where you never measure up, where you never find a place, where you never have peace, where you never have joy? Well, forget all that now! Yes, there’s a time to fast, but even then, with Jesus, the joy is deep. No gloom! God’s kingdom is a happy one! The gospel is fermenting, and it tastes good!
Here’s the question: will we hold onto the status quo or will we make room for Jesus and join the wedding celebration?
To hold on to man-made religion when the entire purpose of religion is standing before you is to reject the pure, living water for the sewer. It’s to make mud pies in a slum instead of accepting Jesus’ offer of a holiday at sea. It’s to miss the point entirely. And Jesus is here, saying to us this morning, “Don’t miss me! I’m here for you!”
The call of the gospel is actually mind-blowingly simple. It seems too good to be true, but it’s the truest thing in this world. As we swim in the ocean of counterfeits, Jesus stands to proclaim the good news of the gospel, and it’s so real it takes us aback. Jesus Christ has come to save sinners, and you can’t fit that inside any man-made religion. It just doesn’t work. All that we need to do, Jesus did. All that we needed to avoid, Jesus avoided. All that we need to be, Jesus was and is. So give it up your self-salvation project and come to him. You will never be successful, but he already has been! He will justify you by his life, death, and resurrection. All you have to do is accept his free gift of grace!
One theologian (Gerhard Forde) puts the shock of the gospel this way.
“We are justified freely, for Christ’s sake, by faith, without the exertion of our own strength, gaining of merit, or doing of works. To the age-old question, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’ the confessional answer is shocking: ‘Nothing! Just be still; shut up and listen for once in your life to what God the Almighty, creator and redeemer, is saying to his world and to you in the death and resurrection of his Son! Listen and believe!'”
When we accept that, we start to look like people having too much fun. We free up. Yes, we still struggle. Jesus never promised a life with him apart from suffering. Quite the opposite, actually. But he also promised a joy and peace that surpassed understanding—to ourselves and to the watching world, especially to stiff religious people.
So, do we look like people freed from something? A church where people are freed from something is compelling. It makes people wonder what’s going on. And when they ask, we get to say, “Jesus is here!” That’s it! His newness has come and filled up all our sadness, cleansed all our sin, removed all our excuses.
We are professionals at building barriers between God and us, but God is a professional at tearing them down. Way back in the Old Testament, he told the prophet Isaiah to “remove every obstruction from my people’s way.” The prophet Malachi said the Great Day of the Lord for God’s people would make them like “calves leaping from their stalls” (Malachi 4:2). Don’t we want that freedom, that joy?
Let’s refuse to put weights on our already weighty life. Let’s refuse to add rules where God is silent. Let’s refuse to make following Jesus a burden. We’re here to enjoy the journey with him together!
That’s so maddening to serious religious people. A joyous church, full of the Spirit’s freeing power, following the Lamb wherever he goes is a threat to the status quo. Fine! Let’s be that threat! Jesus was. So if we’re following him, I guess we will be too! Okay by me. How about you?
All it takes is to enjoy the savior. If you do that, you’ll find our third point to is true, that the kingdom of God is for you.
In verses 23-28, the Pharisees come again. This time they’re mad about Jesus’ disciples breaking the Sabbath. The Pharisees worked really hard to obey, and Jesus and his disciples just don’t seem to care. To avoid doing any work on the Sabbath, the Pharisees created a list of 39 different activities that one could not do on the Sabbath. Strange way to avoid working, huh?
Among those 39 activities were probably are least two that Jesus’ disciples were breaking. They probably violated the “Sabbath-day journey” and they certainly reaped grain. The Sabbath-day journey was defined as less than 2,000 paces. So if you walked any more than a little over half a mile, your were a Sabbath-breaker. Presumably, Jesus’ disciples went further. And along their way, they picked grain and as they rolled it in their hands, they harvested it. So they “did what was not lawful on the Sabbath.”
In response to the Pharisees’ question, Jesus uses an old Pharisaical device. He appeals to Scripture. “Haven’t you read your Bibles?” he asks. Of course they have! But they missed something. David did this same kind of thing. He went into the temple on the Sabbath when he was on the run from Saul, and he took the showbread. You can go back and read this in 1 Samuel 21. The point is this: Jesus is saying, “David did this, and something greater than David is here.”
But David didn’t just take the showbread for himself. He took and gave it to his men with him. In the same way, Jesus gave the grain to his disciples. How can he do such a thing? Because he knew the original intention of the Sabbath. How did he know that? Because he is Lord of the Sabbath. See that in verse 28?
Now that’s just an absolutely astounding thing to say. We saw last week Jesus say he had the authority to forgive sins. Here he says he has the authority to say what the Sabbath is for because he’s Lord of it. Jesus is once again claiming deity.
Jesus knows what the Sabbath is for. “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” When he made it, there were no rules about walking 2,000 paces, or reaping grain, or healing the lame (as we’ll see next week). We were not made to be slaves to the Sabbath. The Sabbath was given as a good gift from God for our restoration.
And so we see in this a very simple but life-altering truth. We can complicate the kingdom of God all we want. We can put restrictions on it. We can make it hard to get in to. We can make it burdensome. But when we do that, we make it the opposite of the kingdom of God. We make it the kingdom of this world. Just as the Sabbath is for our rest, so too is the kingdom of God! In bringing the kingdom, Jesus is not adding a burden to our already weighty life, he is bringing relief and restoration!
In bringing the kingdom, he’s bringing the Sabbath rest we long for. The author of Hebrews tells us that “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.” (Hebrews 4:9-10) How do we enter God’s rest? By entering his kingdom. How do we enter his kingdom? Through Jesus Christ. When Jesus says he is Lord of the Sabbath, he means that he is the Sabbath. Jesus is our rest. And he’s rested from his works. You can rest from yours. Stop trying to save yourself! Enter God’s rest in Christ!
Everyone on the planet is either currently on or has been on a self-salvation project. But Jesus says, “Forget about that. I’m here to complete that project for you. You can’t do it, but I can, and I have.”
Here’s Christ’s kingdom offer: all our striving and trying for all his finished and accomplished. That’s not for the “good” people over there somewhere, because they don’t exist. It’s not for the people who achieve some great state of perfect obedience, because they don’t exist either. It’s for people like you and me: sinners in need of a savior. To our weary, worn out, self-justified-out hearts, Jesus Christ’s call is simple. “Come to me, and I will give you rest.”
So, why do his disciples do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? Wrong question. Rather, why do the Pharisees make God’s Sabbath law into a chore? Why do we work so hard for love that is freely given in Christ? Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. Following him is doing what is lawful. Total openness to Jesus is obedience.
Jesus doesn’t do away with the law. He fills it up in himself so that as we follow him, as we draw life from him, as we live in his kingdom, we find the rest we’ve longed for. For the first time in our lives we actually obey the law in him.
Do you need that rest? Then go to the only One who can give it because he is it. Go to Jesus. His kingdom is for you, my dear sinner. And, amazingly, it’s for me too.
Let’s pray.
Last week, we saw Jesus say in Mark 1:15, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” What is the kingdom of God? It’s God’s presence coming to all peoples and cultures, pressing into the brokenness of the world, fulfilling God’s promise to restore all things. It means things will finally be done on earth as they are in heaven. God will rule and his people will be glad. We pick up the story now to see what life in God’s kingdom looks like.
Jesus Heals a Man with an Unclean Spirit
21 And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. 22 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. 23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28 And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.
This passage includes at least two things almost no one believes in anymore: authoritative teaching and spiritual warfare.
And there are two primary way of ignoring them. One is to deny their existence outright. That’s what the Enlightenment thinkers told us to do. They said modern people must question all authority. They said all tradition, all revelation, all external authority must be put under the microscope of personal reason and submitted to the moral authority of the Self.
Part of that subjection to reason was a rejection of the supernatural—not only the supernatural miracles of God but even the person of God. Skepticism replaced faith.
So today’s passage, in today’s world, is just about as crazy as you can get. Here we have the God-Man, Jesus, teaching not with suggestions for a better life but with the authority of the living God. And we have a demon-possessed man healed, the unclean spirit cast out, and everyone left awestruck. Could you imagine an event like this making the front page of the news websites today with any level of seriousness?
The other way is no less a denial but a much more subtle one. And it’s the one we swim in, primarily, in our area today. Our culture really likes Jesus. But the popular Jesus is a far cry from the biblical Jesus. He fits squarely into the mold Self-centered thinking. Instead of accepting the Jesus of the Bible with all his claims of lordship and exclusivity, many have accepted a half-Jesus, which is really no Jesus. It’s a Jesus fashioned out of the selfish mind, perfectly contoured to personal desires and felt needs. He has all the encouragement and good vibes we want without the lordship and salvation we need.
We can call this half-Jesus “Jesus Jr.” Who is Jesus Jr.? Jesus Jr. is a phrase I learned from Ray Ortlund at Immanuel Church. Jesus Jr. Is a sanitized version of the real Jesus. Jesus Jr. doesn’t surprise us, astonish us, or amaze us. Jesus Jr. does not cause us to say, “What is this? A new teaching with authority!” Jesus Jr. is safe, comfortable, manageable. Jesus Jr. never disagrees with us. But, as pastor Tim Keller says, “If your God never disagrees with you, you might just be worshiping an idealized version of yourself.” If your Jesus never stuns you with his glory, if he never causes you to fall down at his feet in worship, if you never realize before him you are undeserving of his love and cry out for mercy only to find within him storehouses of grace, you are deprived of the only One who can really do something glorious in your life.
The problem with both of these views is that neither accepts the authoritative lordship of Jesus Christ. Both are a rejection of the King of the kingdom that has drawn near. You can’t be saved in a world without Jesus, but you can’t be saved in a world with Jesus Jr., either.
So we need the real Jesus who can do something about our sin. We need the real Jesus who takes matters into his own hands. We need the real Jesus who teaches, heals, reshapes, recreates, raises the dead. We need the authoritative Jesus of the Kingdom of God. And that’s the Jesus we have, if we’ll take him.
So let’s look at this real, authoritative Jesus of the Kingdom of God by considering three things.
1. Jesus teaches with authority (vv. 21-22)
2. Jesus heals with authority (vv. 23-26)
3. Jesus saves with authority (vv. 27-28)
JESUS TEACHES WITH AUTHORITY (vv. 21-22)
Look at verses 21 and 22.
21 And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. 22 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.
What astonishes the world? That’s hard to say, isn’t it? We live in a day when everything is amazing. How many “amazing” videos did you see on Facebook just this week?
But amazing isn’t astonishing. To be amazed is to be entertained with something better than what you could do. To be astonished is to be floored by what you never thought anyone could do. And that’s what we see here in these verses. Mark tells us what astonished the world. What is it? Christian doctrine. What is Christian doctrine? Doctrine just means teaching. So Christian doctrine is the teaching of Jesus Christ.
But it wasn’t doctrine alone that astonished the world. It was doctrine taught with the authority of Jesus. It wasn’t just what was said but who said it and how he said it.
The congregation in Capernaum noticed a difference between Jesus and every other teacher. In those days, the leaders of the synagogues were primarily administrators, not teachers. So each Sabbath day, they would identify someone who could read and comment on the Scriptures. And in a primarily illiterate society like theirs, sometimes the only qualification needed was the ability to read. You can imagine, then, that many of these teachers didn’t have personal authority.
Every now and then, though, the synagogue would host a legitimate teacher, a scribe. But even those scribes taught not with personal authority but with secondhand theology. Their teaching was comprised of quotations. “You know, so and so rabbi says this.” And, “So and so rabbi has said this…”
But Jesus didn’t rely on other teachers. He had no quotes. Again and again in the gospels Jesus says, “You’ve heard that it was said…but I say to you.” He spoke not in secondhand quotes but with firsthand authority. The word, “authority,” means “out of the original stuff.” When Jesus spoke, he spoke as the author of the words, but more than that as the author of the truth he spoke. It came out of the original stuff. As Tim Keller says, “He didn’t just clarify something that they already knew, or simply interpret the Scriptures in the way the teachers of the law did. His listeners sensed somehow that he was explaining the story of their lives as the author, and it left them dumbfounded.”
This is authoritative teaching. This is astonishing. No one else could author the story. Only Jesus. Christian doctrine astonishes the world because the author, Jesus, is at the very center. When truly heard, we all become the Samaritan woman at the well, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” It’s astonishing.
That day, Jesus drew his hearers out as a fisherman draws fish out of water. They were left breathless on the shore, flipping and flopping in disturbance. That’s the effect of the authoritative teaching of Jesus!
So when we open the Bible and hear the teaching of Jesus, we encounter not just another good, moral teacher but the author of life itself. As Jesus spoke in the synagogue, he spoke as the author of their very experience! His authority reached far beyond the pulpit, it reached their hearts. He knew what was going on inside each of them.
And inside of one of them was something far more than appeared on the surface. There was evil lurking, and the call to repent and believe, the drawing near of the kingdom of God became too much. The authoritative teaching of Jesus was tested, which leads to our second point.
JESUS HEALS WITH AUTHORITY (vv. 23-26)
Look at verses 23-26.
23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.
In light of this authoritative teaching, who would you expect to be the first to respond? Maybe the synagogue leader? Maybe the long-time congregants? What about a demon?
There’s something profound about the fact that a demon was the first to respond. Something deeper was going on that what anyone could see on the surface. Outside, the world went on as it always had as Jesus and the demonic realm did battle in a synagogue in Capernaum.
We don’t know how this “one with an unclean spirit,” arrived in the synagogue. Maybe he was there all along. If so, what does that say about the spiritual state of the people? Perhaps he came in a little later, sensing somehow that Jesus was near. Whatever the case, it seems this unclean spirit heard the teaching of Jesus, because what he does next is in response to that teaching.
The unclean spirit had seized control of the man. His personality was affected by this demonic presence. He cried out, resistant and defiant, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”
What’s he saying here? These words reach all the way back into the Old Testament. It’s a formula of disassociation. The demon wants Jesus to go away and leave him alone. He’s not asking as much as he’s proclaiming. He’s saying, “You have nothing to do with us, and I have nothing to do with you. Be gone, Jesus!” He treats Jesus as an invader in this world that for so long was controlled by Satan and his minions. But Jesus is not invader, the demons are. Jesus is coming to reclaim his people in the fullness of time.
The unclean spirit speaks not only for himself. Notice, he says “us.” “What have you to do with us?” “Have you come to destroy us?” Why does he do that? There are a few different possibilities.
● It could be that a legion of demons inhabited this man. We see that elsewhere in the Bible. But Mark calls this a man with an unclean spirit, singular, not plural.
● It could be that the demon is grouping everyone in the congregation together with him. He’s speaking on their behalf. And while it is true that everyone is far from Jesus and his authoritative teaching struck them all with a certain violence, I don’t think this is what he means.
● Rather, I think the demon is referring to the entirety of the demonic realm. We see in the gospels that when Jesus came to earth, all hell broke loose. The demons went on attack. And so this unclean spirit says not, “What do you have to do with me?” but “What do you have to do with us—all us demons?” Jesus is a major threat to every demonic power. They all recognized it, and sought a coordinated effort to undermine his authority.
The unclean spirit recognized the authority of Jesus. He knew who Jesus was and what Jesus was doing. And so he does something really interesting. He mentions Jesus’ name twice. “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”
What’s he doing there? Think back to the Old Testament story of Jacob wrestling with the angel. After wrestling all night, Jacob demanded a blessing. So the angel asks Jacob his name. Why? Because revealing your name to an opponent was an act of submission. Jacob was admitting who he was, and coming under the authority of the angel. So when the unclean spirit shouts Jesus’ name, it was an attempt to unveil his identity to defeat him, to cause him to submit. He was saying, in effect, “I know who you are. You can’t fool me.”
If someone stood up right now and said, “I know who you are, David McLemore,” something in me would pause. I would shudder a little bit. What do they know? One of our great fears is being found out. As soon as someone says they know me or you, they’re making a claim. That’s what this demon was doing.
But did it work? Did the demon have more authority than Jesus? Was Jesus afraid of being found out? What sin or weakness or insufficiency was there in Jesus that struck fear in his heart? Nothing!
This demon knew his end was near. He saw better than anyone else what was happening spiritually as Jesus taught. Hearts were changing. Chains were falling. The world was being set free from slavery to sin, from captivity to Satan, from the evil that raged within.
Jesus was not a normal exorcist, using another’s authority. Jesus is the authority. The prophecy of Zechariah 13:2 was being fulfilled. God was removing the unclean spirits from the land. This particular unclean spirit seemed to know what it truly meant that the kingdom of God was at hand. What have demons to do with the kingdom of God? Better fight back now while he has the chance!
But try as he may, the demon’s tactics are no use. He may be powerful, but he’s not authoritative. As G.K. Chesterton said, “If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatever.” Jesus sees the rhinoceros and rises to assure him he has no authority. He says, “Be silent, and come out of him!” We can see the strength of that statement there in our Bibles. But the original language shows it’s even stronger. What Jesus said would not be considered polite. He said, essentially, “Shut up. Come out of him. I’ve heard enough from you.” It would hold the authority of a father correcting a wayward child, an officer of the law correcting a criminal, a judge sentencing the guilty. It was a silencing statement, one the unclean spirit was helpless against.
Then, “the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.” The cry was one last attempt at defeating Jesus, but Jesus did not flinch. The unclean spirit could not get out from under the authority of Jesus. The kingdom of God was at hand. Jesus bound the strong man to let his people free. And he was successful.
Now, that’s just absolutely fascinating. Even the demons know Jesus and shudder. Even they obey his voice.
It’s easy, I think to look at this and get so focused on the unclean spirit that we miss the man whom he inhabited. What happened to him?
He was healed.
That’s absolutely radical. It’s proof that Jesus’ authority wasn’t just a claim. He actually had the power he said he had. The kingdom of God truly was at hand. No one else could drive the unclean spirit away. No one else had the authority of Jesus.
Now, how does this apply to us today? It’s something we say often here at Refuge because it’s such a foundational truth. No one is too far gone for God to save. Because the kingdom of God is at hand, even the demon-possessed have a chance!
It also means this: Jesus has the authority to change you. Maybe you’re here today and wondering if your life is almost over. Your dreams are fading. Your sin is growing. Your desires as waning. Your hope is lost. Jesus has the authority to heal you.
Jesus’ authority isn’t a removed authority; it’s a personal authority with personal implications. Jesus doesn’t only have authority over the world in some general sense, he has authority over each of our hearts in a very personal sense. Whatever mess you’ve made of your life, here’s the gospel truth: Jesus came to save sinners. Maybe you can’t imagine offering anything to Jesus but your absolute mess of a life. Okay. Bring it. That’s no problem for Jesus. You have a devil inside you? Don’t we all! Jesus Christ came to seek and save the lost. He has authority to heal you!
Martin Luther said, “The life of Christianity consists in possessive pronouns.” It’s one thing to say, “Christ is Lord.” It’s another to say,” Christ is my Lord.” Any devil can say the first. Only the Christian can say the second. What do you say?
What you say to that determines your future. It determines all that ultimately matters in the end. And because that question is all important, I want to consider one final thing from this passage: Jesus saves with authority.
JESUS SAVES WITH AUTHORITY (vv. 27-28)
Look again at verses 27-28.
27 And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28 And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.
They were all amazed. The “all” is emphasized. No one in that synagogue sat unimpressed. “What is this?” they asked. Even the unclean spirits obey. The word “even” there tells us it was more than just the teaching that caught their attention. It was what the teaching accomplished that was so remarkable. To teach as Jesus did was impressive. But what was more impressive was that even the demons could not resist him. Jesus’ teaching had an effect. Think about it: Jesus saved a man from a devil inside him. Who else can do that?
What do you make of this kind of authority? Jesus’ teaching was—and is—astonishing, but Jesus proved himself to be more than just a great moral teacher. So many today want to limit him to only that. Jesus can fit inside the Enlightenment view if he’s stripped of authority. He can become Jesus Jr. if we treat his class as merely one we audit for no grade. But with Jesus that’s simply not possible. In the synagogue that day, Jesus claimed to be more than a teacher. He claimed to be the authoritative King of God’s kingdom.
C.S. Lewis helps us see this in his great book Mere Christianity. Talking about Jesus’ radical claim to forgive sins, Lewis says:
I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg – or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
A few years ago, I met a woman at the Starbucks I go to regularly. Over the course of a few months, we often talked about religion, about Jesus, about her spirituality. She was, in her own words, “a very spiritual person.” She went to churches, synagogues, Buddhist temples, and anywhere else that could offer spiritual condiments for her life. She asked really great questions about Christianity, and I answered as best I could. I wanted to make Jesus attractive and compelling, because he is.
One day, she began talking about how much she liked Jesus and his teaching. She said she thought Jesus was a great teacher, but not the only way to salvation. I pressed in a little bit. I wanted to know where she got this? I wanted to know how she could accept his teaching about loving others but reject his teaching on his lordship. She didn’t have a great answer, so I said to her as gently as I could that Jesus doesn’t leave open the option of accepting his teaching piecemeal. We must swallow him whole. We cannot have his teaching apart from his lordship. He is an exclusive Savior.
Unfortunately, that was the end of our months’ long conversation. She didn’t like the idea of authority. But, really, I’m not sure that’s true. She didn’t have a problem with authority. None of us really do. What we have a problem with is someone else’s authority. We like authority just fine as long as it’s ours.
But personal authority can never save us. Only Jesus can. For the Enlightenment thinkers, that’s absurd. To the Jesus Jr. worshiper, it’s unnecessary. But to all alike, it’s a command: let Jesus be the Lord of your life. And human hearts like ours, another’s authority is a scary thing. We’ve seen such abuses.
So in the time we have left, let’s think though this question: what about Jesus’ authority is to be feared?
Let’s just notice how Jesus acts throughout this passage. He takes his newly called disciples into the synagogue. He opens the Scripture and begins teaching. He speaks words of life, not from the mouths of others but out of his own mouth, as the author of it all. A demon stands to oppose him. What could he have done in that moment? He could have destroyed the whole person, couldn’t he? He could have killed the man and demon all at once. Did he do that? No, he cast the demon out and healed the man. He could have strutted out of that synagogue, boasting of his own power, pushing himself up the ranks of the Jewish social order. But did he do that? No, he went quietly away. His fame grew not because of his great PR team but because of his undeniable authority.
What did Jesus do with his authority? Did he lord it over others? No, the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
We may fear the authority of others, but if we come to him, we have nothing to fear in the authority of Jesus. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, and what does he do with it? He uses it for our good. He goes to the cross. He died on our behalf. He saves our soul! And with that same authority, he rises again, bringing many sons to glory!
That’s really good news, because if you’re like me, you just can’t seem to get your act together. If my salvation was dependent on me keeping up, I would never make it. But it’s not dependent on me. It’s dependent on Jesus. Jesus has authority over me. And he has authority over you, too.
● When you can’t seem to get any better, Jesus has authority to save you from yourself.
● When you fall into the trap of the enemy’s temptation, Jesus has authority to set you free from darkness.
● When your heart is broken, he has the authority to bind it up again.
● When you feel hopeless and in despair, he has authority to put hope deep in your heart
● He has authority to make your restless soul still.
● He has authority to restore your fortunes.
● He has authority to turn your ashes into beauty.
● And when you fall into the sleep of death someday in the future, he has authority to raise you up again.
● Jesus has the authority to fix everything in the deepest part of your being and no one can stop him.
There is so much to be afraid of in this world. But the authoritative Jesus says to us all, “Take heart; I have overcome the world.”
The only reason to fear Jesus’ authority is if you are unwilling to come to him. If you won’t come to the most wonderful person in the world, you will end up like the demon. You will shriek and cry out and you will be cast from his presence. But if you’ll let him melt your heart with his love, you will be like the man from whom the unclean spirit departed. You will be made clean again. You will stand up straight, with eyes clear, beholding your Savior. You will have your life back, and no demon or anyone else can take it from you again. Why? Because no one has more authority than Jesus. When Jesus saves you, he saves you all the way. He’s a complete Savior. There are no half-salvations in the kingdom of God. There are only Spirit-filled, blood-washed, dead-raised salvation of the authoritative King Jesus.
What’s so scary about him? Why not rather fall down at his feet in worship? Why not be amazed at this new teaching with authority? Why not spread his fame throughout the land?
There is no other Savior. The demons may try to make their claim on you, just as they did on Jesus, but don’t worry, there is one more powerful. And when he sets you free, you are free indeed.
Forget about Jesus Jr. Jesus Christ is here.
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Introduction
What happened that first Christmas? You know the story. Who came? Jesus, the Son of God. When? About 2,000 years ago. Where? In the little town of Bethlehem. How? Being conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Why? To save his people from their sins.
Those are the facts, every one of them found in the Bible. If you want to understand an event, you need the facts. It helps even more if you have the motive, the why. But if you really want to understand something, you must know what the people involved were thinking as they acted. That’s what the Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, gives us in Philippians 2. It tells us not only what happened at Christmas, not only why Christmas matters, but what Jesus was thinking that first Christmas.
If you understand what Jesus was thinking that first Christmas, you understand the true meaning of Christmas. And if you understand the true meaning of Christmas, you understand the true intentions of God. And if you understand the true intentions of God, you understand everything else that matters most, and you’ll never be the same.
So, what was Jesus thinking that first Christmas? Philippians 2:1-11 shows us three things:
1. Jesus was thinking humbly (vv. 3-7)
2. Jesus was thinking obediently (v. 8)
3. Jesus was thinking eternally (vv. 9-11)
Jesus was thinking humbly (vv. 3-7)
Look at verses 3 and 4. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but people are selfish and conceited. I mean, you’re not. But, you know, people are. Paul had some of those people in the church in Philippi. There was not peace on earth and good will toward men. There was selfish ambition and vain conceit. There was division—a lot like our world today.
But Paul says that’s not how a church should act. The church is the body of Christ, and Christ is the head of the church. So, it’s Christ’s mind that should rule and control the church, and his mind is thoroughly humble. But this church is acting as if that weren’t true. They’re looking out for themselves, trying to position themselves higher than others because they truly think they’re better.
Flannery O’Connor illustrates this reality in her short story “Revelation.” The main character, Ruby Turpin, sits in a doctor’s waiting room, looking at everyone around her. The story opens with this sentence. “Mrs. Turpin always noticed people’s feet.” This is O’Connor’s way of saying Mrs. Turpin looks down on everyone she meets. Her great sin is pride. But it’s not just that she think she’s better than everyone else—even those just like her—it’s that she actually thinks she’s humble.
Mrs. Turpin is blind to who she really is and to how she really lives. She’s a pig farmer who says at one point that her pigs, “are not dirty and they don’t stink.” Near the end of the story, Mrs. Turpin says to the woman beside her, “When I think who all I could have been besides myself and what all I got, a little of everything, and a good disposition besides, I just feel like shouting, ‘Thank you, Jesus, for making everything the way it is…Oh thank you, Jesus, Jesus, thank you!’”
The very next sentence is: “The book struck her directly over her left eye.” Mrs. Turpin got humbled by a little girl reading a book who’d heard enough from her.
We all have a Mrs. Turpin inside of us. In the waiting room of life, we’re sitting there wondering what in the world is wrong with everyone else, and thanking God we’re not like them. Our pride uses others to bolster our own self-esteem, to prove to ourselves that we matter.
Theologian Lewis Smedes summarized it this way. He said every time you meet a new person, you are unconsciously wondering, “How can this person contribute to my need to prove that I count?”
Now, at one level, this is understandable because we were made to matter, and we want to know we matter. But because sin ruined us all, we walk around with what Paul calls “selfish ambition.” Instead of accepting God’s word that we matter, we go around using others to prove it. Why do we do that? Because of that word conceit. Some translations read “vain conceit.” It means that, because of our sin, we’re essentially glory-empty and therefore glory-hungry. We hunger for honor, respect, assurance. We long to matter, and so in nearly everything we do, there is a self-referential aspect. We’re always pointing things back to ourselves.
In other words, we think pridefully. And those prideful thoughts not only separate us from one another, they separate us from God. But God looked down at the pride of man and did something about it. Christmas is God’s response to our pride. In Christ, we see a different way to live.
Look at verse 5. On the heels of exhortation, Paul directs our attention to Jesus—not only to what Jesus did, but to what Jesus thought. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.”
On that first Christmas, Jesus entered humanity without selfish ambition, without vain conceit. And in doing so, we saw the mind of Christ. We saw what Jesus was thinking, and in return, Paul says, “Think like that.”
So, what was Jesus thinking? Not as Mrs. Turpin or you and I think, that’s for sure. Look at verses 6 and 7. Here’s what Jesus was thinking that first Christmas. “Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”
Jesus emptied himself! Think of that! That’s what Christmas is—the emptying of Jesus on our behalf! The Bible says the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. The incarnation was no backup plan. It wasn’t plan B. The Triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit—who deserves all praise, who alone is worthy of all our attention, created us with this plan in mind. And after sin broke the world, the Son entered our world to humbly live as our servant to save us.
Pastor H.B. Charles captures some of the wonder:
• He could have declared that his GLORY was too precious to disrobe for sinners.
• He could have declared that his POSITION was too high to condescend to sinners.
• He could have declared that his POWER was too great to lay aside for sinners.
• He could have declared that his HEAVENLY POSSESSIONS were too valuable to part with for sinners.
• He could have declared that his BLOOD was too good to shed for sinners. • He could have declared that his HANDS were too holy to be pierced for sinners.
• He could have declared that his LIFE was too sacred for him to surrender for sinners.
But he didn’t do that! The incarnation is an act of humility far beyond anything this world has seen. Amazing as it sounds, when Jesus came, he wasn’t thinking of the glory he gave up; he was thinking of the glory he could give us.
We walk into a room thinking, “Here I am!” But Jesus came into the world thinking, “There you are!” We’re “Here I am” people. Jesus is a “There you are” person. The mind of Christ is others’-centered, self-emptying, humble. Jesus entered the world thinking, “I am gentle and lowly in heart.” We try to get as high as we can in this world. Jesus desired to go as low as he could in this world. That’s who Jesus is. It’s how he thinks. It’s how he thought on the first Christmas, and it’s how he’s thought for eternity.
Now, of course, if anyone had reason to look down on us, certainly Jesus did! And that’s basically what Paul says—he could have, but he didn’t. Look at verse 6 again. “Though he was in the form of God…”What? What did he do? He didn’t look down on us. He didn’t enter the world thinking, “You losers.” No. What did he do? “Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.” That doesn’t mean Jesus gave up his divinity. That first Christmas morning, Jesus was just as much God as he always was. If Jesus stopped being God, God would cease to exist. God can’t be God without all persons of the Trinity present.
It just means he added humanity and therefore voluntarily gave up some of his divine privileges. When he took “the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men,” Jesus didn’t clutch his divine rights like treasure to be retained at all costs. When Jesus came down as man, he came all the way down. He came into our experience of humanity with all the weaknesses and limitations. Why? Because the lower he goes in humility, the more people he can save. Jesus went as low as possible so that even the lowest human on earth is not outside the saving circle of Jesus.
C.S. Lewis puts this humbling act of Jesus bluntly. “The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a fetus inside a woman’s body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to became a slug or a crab.”
That first Christmas, Jesus came from heaven to earth. He came from glory to humility. He came from praise to pain. He came from equality to emptiness. He came from lordship to servanthood. He came from eternal life to death on a cross. He did nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. He counted you as more significant than himself. He looked to your interests, not his own!
Jesus was thinking humbly. He was also thinking obediently, our second point.
Jesus was thinking obediently (v. 8)
The humility of Jesus’ thoughts led to obedience because true obedience is humble and true humility is obedient. Look verse 8. “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
The true test of humility is how far you’re willing to obey. Christmas shows us the extent of Christ’s obedience. He came down to Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and spent nine months in a womb. He was born a baby like any other baby. He grew up slowly, learning to walk, to talk, to think, to reason, to work, to follow, to lead, and to listen and obey. And that path of obedience took him all the way to death, even death on a cross.
Christmas is not only a celebration of life in the incarnation; it’s also a pointer to the death of Christ that was to come. Jesus didn’t enter our world to just see what it was like to be man. It was no magic trick. It was no experiment. It was a mission. Jesus Christ came on a mission to save his people from their sins. And throughout his life, he was thinking about that mission, doing everything necessary to achieve it. Christmas is about more than baby Jesus coming; it’s about the man Jesus dying—the successful mission of the cross of Christ.
Notice that verse 8 mentions death twice. The first time refers to Jesus’ obedience to the Father. The second time refers to his sacrifice for us.
His obedience to the Father was perfect. That first Christmas, and forevermore, the thoughts of Jesus were thoroughly obedient. Think about how difficult that must have been. For example, every one of us knows our birthday, but none of us know our deathday. But Jesus knew both—beforehand! Not only that, he knew the kind of death he would die. He knew the cost. He knew the difficulty, He knew the suffering. He knew the pain. He knew the affliction. He knew the sorrow. And he obeyed anyway.
Since he was God, death had no claim on him. But since he was man, death came for him. He didn’t use his divinity to deny his death. He submitted to his humanity and experienced death. He had enough power to avoid it but in obedient humility he endured it.
Why? To become a sacrifice for you and me. Verse 8 highlights the kind of death Jesus died: death on a cross. The cross was as low a type of death as you could get. It was reserved for criminals and slaves. On the cross, Jesus experienced not only the pain of death but also the shame of death. Theologian Fleming Rutledge captures it well:
Crucifixion . . . was supposed to be seen by as many people as possible. Debasement resulting from public agony was a chief feature of the method, along with the prolonging of agony. It was a form of advertisement, or public announcement—this person is the scum of the earth, not fit to live, more like an insect than a human being. The crucified wretch was pinned up like a specimen. Crosses were not placed out in the open for convenience or sanitation, but for maximum public exposure.
Jesus humbled himself to obey that earthly destiny, to be publicly exposed as worthless, a sham, a person not worth saving.
Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—that’s how deep his obedience went. Even death on a cross—that’s how far his obedience went. The depth and distance of Christ’s obedience is not a minor theme of the Christmas story. It is the Christmas story. You cannot separate the birth of Christ from the death of Christ. Jesus is the only man born on a mission to die! And that mission was on his mind from the cradle to the cross.
But that’s not all that was on his mind. He was thinking beyond the grave. He came to give us more than a cross. He came to give us glory. Jesus was thinking humbly and obediently. He was also thinking eternally, which is our third point.
Jesus was thinking eternally (vv. 9-11)
Look at verses 9-11. “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
The “therefore” in verse 9 means that Jesus proved a biblical truth that we deeply don’t believe—that he who humbles himself will be exalted. We see this both implicitly and explicitly through the Bible. But we have a really hard time believing it. We think if we go too low, we’ll miss out on what we really deserve. But God’s kingdom is an inside-out kingdom where down is up, low is high, humility leads to exaltation.
We have a hard time trusting God with humility because we struggle to have an eternal view. We don’t see the eternal glory of humility. But Jesus did. He came into the world knowing this world isn’t ultimate. He knew no matter how low he had to go, there was glory on the other side. And he wants us to know that too.
Christmas is proof that this world isn’t all there is. There is another world coming, and we’ve seen the first fruits of it in Christ. He knew that the arrogance of this world is a dead end, and that gospel humility is the path to true exaltation.
But if you’re like me, at the very core of your heart, you deeply think that God has forgotten you, because you know other people have. And therefore you think you need to make yourself visible. But God has not forgotten you! No, no, no! Christmas is proof that God has eternally remembered you! As great as God is, his eye is upon you. His heart beats for you. As Ray Ortlund said, “God is not too great to notice you. God is too great to overlook you.” Christmas is proof.
Christmas says we have not been overlooked. We’ve been noticed for eternity by the One who matters more than any other. In Jesus, we see, as C.S. Lewis said, “the door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last.”
We all want to matter. And we go from place to place trying to open that door. But earthly success won’t open it. Self-esteem won’t open it. Only Jesus will.
Christmas is the open door to the life we’ve always wanted: unending life with God. And when we find that life, we find that inside the door there is something far greater than any praise or glory we could ever get. There’s a glory beyond anything we could imagine. There’s a glory we partake in by praising. There’s a glory that makes us truly humble, because humility is found in praising another. And that’s where Christmas takes us: to the eternal praise of Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. One day, every knee will bow before him, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
The glory of God and praise of Christ and fellowship of the Holy Spirit is the motivation and conclusion for absolutely everything in the Christian life. And we get that by thinking eternally of the eternal God, like Jesus.
Jesus thought of his eternal glory, the eternal glory of God the Father. So he came in humble obedience to death, even death on a cross because the greatest glory is found in someone giving up his glory to save another. If we see what Christmas truly is, how can we not praise this glorious God?
The true meaning of Christmas, the true intention of God is to bring his people to their eternal home. Jesus entered our world so that we could enter his. He was thinking eternally on our behalf, to save us from our sins once and for all, and to usher us into the presence of the glorious God.
Conclusion
In closing, what should we think in response?
Well, we must think as Jesus thought. We need the mind of Christ. The only way we will ever make it into his kingdom, the only way we will ever have the salvation he came to give, is if we have the humility he had—total and utter dependence on God.
How do we get that? By seeing the true meaning of Christmas. That Christ’s humble, obedient, eternal heart beats with love for the undeserving. It beat all the way to the cross, and it beats all the way into eternity.
Christmas proves we do not have within ourselves what is needed for salvation. That’s why Jesus came. And Christmas proves that only through humility can we accept the gift of Christmas, the gift of Christ. And the only way we can get that kind of humility—that kind of mind—is if Jesus comes to give it to us. And the only way he can give it to us is by becoming like us and dying for us. The humility we need for salvation was purchased by the humble savior on the cross.
When you really see that—when you really see what Jesus has done for you—you’ll never be the same. You’ll become the kind of humble person God can save. And when God saves you, everything changes. Maybe this Christmas God wants to give you the gift of himself for the very first time. Will you accept?
And if you’ve known him for years, don’t worry, there is still more to behold. Maybe you’re having a hard time seeing him, rejoicing in him, even wanting him. Well, if that’s you, can I humbly suggest that your problem is pride. May I suggest that you repent of it this morning? It’s worth it. He died for it. He won’t hold it against you. He’ll just show you himself and make you happy.
And if you’ve known him for years and rejoice in him now, well, that’s a taste of heaven. That’s why Jesus came at Christmas.
Let’s look to Christ now, wherever we are, and see that he is good news of great joy for all the people.
Introduction
We’ve spent the last few weeks looking at various topics from the book of Proverbs. Today, we’re looking at Friendship. Now, as with previous weeks, we’ll be looking at a lot of verses, so it’ll be easiest to follow along with the screens.
So, why friendship? Two reasons: we have a need and God has provision.
We need friendship, and today, we’re not very good at it. Study after study shows that America is growing increasingly lonely. A survey by Cigna, the health insurer, found that 54% of adults feel like no one knows them well. And, it appears, the younger you are, the worse it is.
I wonder, how many of us have the kind of friendships our heart longs for? At Refuge Church, we want to be gospel friends.
Well, God has something for us in Proverbs. Commentator Hugh Black said, “the book of Proverbs might almost be called a treatise on friendship – there is no book, even in classical literature, which so exalts the idea of friendship and is so anxious to have it truly valued and carefully kept.”
It’s fitting that this book of wisdom would talk so much about friendship. Wisdom is skill for living when there is no rule book to go by, and friendships don’t come with a rule book. It’s easy to mess up. How many ex-friends do you have right now because of a lack of wisdom years ago? And when it goes wrong, over time, some of us just shut down that part of our heart. Who wants to be hurt again? But wisdom doesn’t urge us to shut down. Wisdom helps us come alive.
God wants his people to have deep, meaningful friendships because God is a Triune Friend—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that friendly heart radiates out toward us. Jesus said, “No longer do I call you servants…but I have called you friends.” To be a servant of God is a glorious thing. The prophets were servants. But it is more glorious to be God’s friend. In Exodus 33 we read, “The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man to his friend.” Only Moses got that close to God. But now, through Christ, God’s brought every believer into that reality. To every believer, God says in Christ, “No longer servant but friend.”
Jesus, Lord of lords and King of kings, became the Friend of sinners. Friend isn’t a term God just throws around. It took the cross to gain that friendship. Friendship is a God-originated wonder confirmed at the cross. Friendship began in heaven and comes down to beautify our lives.
So, God doesn’t take friendship lightly, and wisdom says we shouldn’t either. From the book of Proverbs, I want to consider three truths about friendship:
1. Friendship is discovered in God’s grace.
2. Friendship is forged with God’s wisdom.
3. Friendship is powered by God’s love.
Friendship is discovered in God’s grace
In his essay on friendship, C.S. Lewis says friendship starts out like this, “What? You too? I thought I was the only one.”
Friendship is one of those amazing discoveries God planted in the world from the beginning that makes life enjoyable. Friendship is like fruit in your life. Think of fruit. Isn’t it amazing? It grows from a tree or a bush, and it’s filled with flavor and sweetness. Imagine the first person to find a peach. Have you ever had a summer-time Georgia peach? It’s the most perfect food in the world. You bite into it, and it’s so juicy and flavorful and tender. What a discovery? God made that!
Friends are like that Georgia peach. They’re just placed in this world for you to find. One day, we’re just walking along, and suddenly we stumble into someone and find in them something that resonates with our heart. We find a friend. God made that!
Now, in our busy lives, we tend to treat friendship as optional. After all, friendship is one of those things you can live without. C.S. Lewis says, “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create)…Friendship is…the least instinctive, organic, biological…and necessary.”
You can live without friendship just like you can live without fruit. But doesn’t it make life better? Lewis goes on to say, “[Friendship] has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which gives value to survival.” We don’t need friends to live, but that doesn’t mean God wants us to live without friends. It’s not good for man to be alone.
In his grace, God planted the desire for friendship in our heart so that we would discover the joy of friendship in our life. Proverbs 27:9 helps us see this. “Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.”
How did they get oil and perfume in ancient times? They didn’t make it. They discovered it. And that discovery made the heart glad. So too the sweetness of a friend. Pastor Tim Keller points out that when the book of Proverbs was written, nobody had sugar yet. Why does that matter? Because you couldn’t just add sugar and sweeten food like we do today. Sweet food had to be discovered. Someone went along, found this honeycomb thing hanging from a tree, took a bite and realized it was sweet. That’s how friendships are made. They’re discovered. And when they’re discovered, they sweeten our life.
I learned just this week that apparently when baking, sugar does more than just sweeten. Sugar stabilizes, texturizes, leavens, deepens color and flavor, and adds crunch. A cookie isn’t a cookie if you just sprinkle sugar on top when it comes out of the oven. A cookie is a cookie because the sugar went deep. Sugar is to a cookie what a friend is to your life. Real friendship is baked in. It goes deep. It’s a discovery that changes you, sweetens you.
Friendship is measured by the true friends baked into you, not the so-called friends sprinkled all around you. When the Bible talks about friendship, it doesn’t mean your Facebook friends. It doesn’t mean acquaintances. Friendship is measured by quality, not quantity. You may only have a couple of close friends. That’s okay. Those friends make up who you are. You aren’t you without them. Proverbs 18:24 says, “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Many companions won’t get us far. But a friend that sticks closer than a brother will.
The Hebrew word for “sticks” is cleave. It’s commitment. A friend is even better than a sibling. A sibling is stuck with you because you’re family. They love you because you’re family. But a friend chooses you and sticks with you because they love you. They’re a picture of the love of Jesus, who loves us because he loves us.
This verse resonated with me in a new way a few weeks ago. I was struggling with the weight of life. It wasn’t one thing, it was all the things. I felt depressed and lonely. So my wise wife told me one Sunday night, “You need to go out.” She knew I needed time away from the craziness of our household to read and think and pray.
I was sitting at a coffee shop, feeling all down and alone. I picked up my phone and texted one of my best friends. “Would you pray for me tonight? I’m feeling absolutely depleted and anxious. It’s nothing in the grand scheme of things, but it’s a struggle to rejoice and trust God has good purposes for me right now.” His response: “I absolutely will, brother. Getting alone right now to pray for that very thing, that the deep settling peace of God would be upon you.”
When he responded that way, I started crying right there in Frothy Monkey. I was undone. Why did that matter so much to me? Because he didn’t need more information. He didn’t rebuke me. He didn’t try to make me feel better. He just accepted where I was and prayed. He took responsibility for me and brought me to Jesus. That’s a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
It’s not that my sibling wouldn’t do that for me. I have an amazing sister who would. It’s just that my friend did it without any reason at all other than the fact that he loves me. Friends love you without any previous responsibility to do so. When you discover one—hold on tight.
Those friends show us how Jesus loves. Jesus loves us, as Ray Ortlund says, with absoluteness. John 13:1 says, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” You find a friend when you find another person who knows who you really are and doesn’t walk away. They stick close.
But friendship isn’t just a discovery. Friendships also need to be forged, which is our second point.
Friendship is forged with God’s wisdom
Friendships require wise effort. They require forging. Proverbs has a lot to say about this. Derek Kidner, in his commentary, has a little section where he highlights what a good friend is, according to Proverbs. The good friend has constancy, candor and counsel, and carefulness.
First, Constancy.
A friend is always with you. A friend is committed. He sticks closer than a brother.
Maybe you think, “I’m not sure I’ve discovered that kind of friend.” Well, maybe you haven’t. But it’s very easy to say that as if there’s something wrong with others without admitting maybe there’s something wrong with you. Friendship begins with you.
Let me ask a very uncomfortable question: What kind of friend are you? Are you the kind of friend who sticks closer than a brother? Are you a constant friend? Proverbs doesn’t just help us recognize true friends; it helps us become one.
Proverbs 20:6 says, “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?” Is there a difference between the kind of friend you say you are and the kind of friend you actually are?
Proverbs points out that superficial friends don’t stick around when times are bad. Proverbs 19:4 says, “Wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend” Proverbs 19:7 says, “All a poor man’s brothers hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him! He pursues them with words, but does not have them.”
But real friends are constant. Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
What kind of friend are you?
The best way to find a faithful friend is to be a faithful friend. Do you seek others out? Are you available for friendship? Do others even know you’re available? And when you find a friend, are you there for them?
British pastor Vaughan Roberts wrote a little book called True Friendship. He says something really profound.
Perhaps we are confident that if a friend was truly in need, we would be there for them. But would anyone think of turning to us in such circumstances? Have we kept our friendships in good shape in better times so that they are prepared for the moment when a crisis occurs?
Maybe the reason you don’t have the friends you need is because you haven’t yet learned to be the friend you need. Proverbs 27:10 tells us not to forsake our friend. We all need a constant friend. And that starts by being a constant friend to others.
Second, Candor and Counsel
We are sinners in need of help. We have blind spots. And Friends are God’s gift to help us repent and change and move forward.
Real friends don’t just humor or flatter. Real friends deal honestly. They give meaningful input. They sharpen. They make us wise.
So, let me ask you: do you have a friend in your life who can sharpen you? Do you have a friend who can tell you the cold, hard truth when necessary?
Furthermore, are you that kind of friend?
Proverbs 29:5 says, “A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.” Friends don’t butter one another up. They shoot straight because they don’t want to see their friend ensnared later on. They want their friend free from sin, free from pain. Why? Because in a way, your happiness is tied to theirs. If your friend hurts, you hurt. That’s one way know you have real friendship—how much you feel what happens to them. But even more than that, we want to stir up one another to love and good works for Jesus’ sake. Our friendships are accountable to Jesus. Are we obeying him? Are we allowing him to use us as he desires in the life of our friends? Or are we ignoring his call to go deep?
You know you have a friend when you can say to them—and they can say to you—what no one else could get away with. Friends don’t hide how they feel. They say what they must without hiding their love. Proverbs 27:5-6 says, “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” Friends wound with love. They don’t kiss with flattery.
Oscar Wilde said, “A true friend stabs you in the front.” That’s a harsh way of putting it, but there’s some truth to it. Friends see what we can’t see about ourselves, and their blunt honesty can save us.
That candidness opens the door for counsel. Real counsel is candid. Remember Proverbs 27:9, “the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.” Earnest counsel isn’t just “do this, don’t do that.” It’s not detached. As commentator Charles Bridges says, earnest counsel is “the counsel of his soul.” A friend puts themselves in our shoes and counsels as he would wish to be counseled. A friend isn’t just a prophet speaking truth in the face of sin but also a priest bringing you to Jesus for help. If you have a friend who is candid with counsel, you will grow in wisdom.
Do you have such friends? Are you such a friend?
Third, Carefulness.
Real friends are candid and give counsel, but their love keeps it from being reckless. Real friends are careful with one another. They don’t want to push you away; they want to bring you nearer to themselves and to Jesus.
This is why friendship requires so much wisdom. God wants us to be careful with what we say and how we say it. Is it helpful? Is it necessary? What impact will it make? As Proverbs 18:21 tells us, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
So, Proverbs teaches us to avoid three friendship killers: gossip, aloofness, and grudges.
First, we must not be gossips, and we must not make friends with gossips.
Gossip is to friendship what adultery is to marriage. It destroys trust and fractures the relationship. Proverbs 16:28 says, “A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer [gossip] separates close friends.” Proverbs 20:19 says, “Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler. ” Gossip is poison. Avoid it at all costs.
Jesus doesn’t gossip. When he speaks of his friends, he has only good things to say because their faults are not talking points for him. He’s not interested in the dark side of your life. He’s bringing you to glory.
Second, we must not be aloof to our friends.
A friend isn’t detached or unsympathetic. Proverbs 25:20 says, “Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda.” Singing happy songs to a heavy heart isn’t just wrong, it’s mean. Real friends know when to weep and when to rejoice. Real friends can read the mood and apply the right balm. They know how to be with present in the circumstance.
And sometimes, being a friend means knowing when to not be there at all. Proverbs 25:17 says, “Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house, lest he have his fill of you and hate you.” Proverbs 27:14 says, “Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, will be counted as cursing.” We all need space. A friend understands that. A friend knows when they’re wearing out their welcome.
But more than that, a friend is earnest in friendship, treating others with respect and honor. A friend doesn’t deceive. Proverbs 26:18-19 says, “Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, ‘I’m only joking!’” Friends bring the right word at the right time with the right posture. They don’t treat others lightly, but with the weight of glory others deserve. Yes, you joke around, but the joking doesn’t have a mean streak. No one should question after the comment, “What do they really think of me?” Friends open others up, not shut others down.
Jesus doesn’t stand aloof. He entered humanity. He knows what it’s like to live in this world. He knows what you need and comes in mercy and grace to give help when you need it.
Third, we mustn’t hold grudges.
Friends are forgiving. Proverbs 17:9 tells us, “Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.” Every friend will disappoint us, and we will disappoint every friend. But wisdom says, “Okay, you’ve been disappointed. Now what? Now, cover that offense. Seek love. Don’t bring it up again.”
The word “repeats” means to bring it up only a second time. That’s all it takes—one more time. Proverbs 28:13 says, “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” If your friend has not concealed but confessed, don’t bring it up again. God doesn’t keep bringing our sins to the forefront. He covered them with his love at the cross. If we don’t do the same with our friends, things can get out of hand. As Proverbs 17:14 says, “The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks.” Proverbs 18:19 says, “A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarreling is like the bars of a castle.” Proverbs 11:12 says, “Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.” You might be in the right, but is your rightness worth the friendship? A friend knows when to cover the offense, when to quit fighting, when to shut up and forgive.
Jesus doesn’t hold a grudge against you. He’s forgiven you completely. He’s paid for all your sins. He won’t bring them up again. Why would he? When he said, “It is finished,” he meant it.
Forging a friendship is hard. But it’s worth it. It takes effort and wisdom. But there is a power from on high fueling friendship, which is our third point.
Friendship is powered by God’s love
Tim Keller summarizes a friend as one who always lets you in and never lets you down. That’s certainly the kind of friend Jesus is, but how doable is it for people like us? How can we always let people in and never let them down?
The answer is found in Jesus Christ. When you see who Jesus is for you, you’re set free from the fear of failure. You can always let others in because Jesus knows you completely and loves you anyway. No one can find out something another Friend doesn’t already know. And you can avoid letting others down because the strength and wisdom you need to be a friend comes from your Friend, Jesus. Jesus enables you to be a friend, not only by befriending you but by being another friend in your friendships. In every Christian friendship, there are always three people involved: the two friends and Jesus. You don’t have what you need? Jesus does. Let him be the Friend you need so you can be the friend your friend needs.
Jesus’ friendship powers our other friendships.
Go back to the night before Jesus died, when he explained what he was about to do on the cross. In John 15 he said to his disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends…No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends.”
The relationship Jesus has with his people is not Master-Servant. It’s Friend-Friend. Why does that matter? Think of the kind of friend we are to Jesus. We’ve ignored his counsel time after time. We’ve proclaimed our steadfast love only to be unfaithful. We’ve deserted him. We’ve failed to love him at all times. We’ve wounded him.
And what is his response? His response is the cross. His response is to cover our offense with his love.
Do you see how important that is? Jesus shows us what’s possible in our friendships.
We’re miserable failures as friends to God, and in response to our failure, God gave the cross—not to unfriend us but to befriend us forever.
On the cross, Jesus proved he’s the friend who sticks closer than a brother. He didn’t stop loving us in our failures. He loved us to death. He loves at all times. He’s a brother born for adversity. He’s a true friend who totally accepts you, totally forgives you, totally knows you and doesn’t walk away from you. He laid his life down for you at the cross. He’s faithful even when you aren’t. He’s loyal even though you’re disloyal. He took your offense and buried it in the tomb. And on that resurrection day, he walked out with all the power of love we will ever need. He has made you his friend, and no matter how often we show up in his house, no matter how many times we offend him, no matter how often we fail him, he will never cast us out, he will always forgive us, he will never fail us.
John Newton’s great hymn One There is, Above All Others captures the wonder of this love:
Could we bear from one another what He daily bears from us?
Yet this glorious Friend and Brother loves us, though we treat Him thus.
Though for good we render ill, He accounts us brethren still.
If we have that kind of friend, if we have one who always lets us in and never lets us down, we have the kind of Friend with us in our other friendships powering them by his love.
Conclusion
In conclusion, let me say this. Maybe you’re not the friend you should be. Maybe you don’t have the friends you wish you did. But look around you right now. Those are friends of Jesus, and he’s willing to share them with you right now. Will you accept his offer?
At Refuge Church we want to be gospel friends. Jesus has brought us together, and he intends to form friendships deeper than perhaps we’ve ever experienced before.
How can we be sure that’s true? Because no matter how much we think we choose our friends, that’s not exactly right. C.S. Lewis helps us see this.
In reality, a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses…the accident of a topic being raised or not raise at a first meeting—any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of the Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends, “You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.”
God has brought us all together in this church for a purpose. And part of that purpose is for the creation of deep friendships. So, if you’re sitting there thinking, “I wish I had friends, but I don’t.” Well, here’s your invitation. There are people here who want to befriend you. They’re sitting in front of you and behind you. They’re in your community group and your Bible study. They’re here every week. And all that keeps us from diving deeper in is our hesitancy. Well, let’s forget about all that. Let’s dive in because Jesus Christ, our Great Friend, our Master of Ceremonies, has summoned us here. He’s here to reveal new friends in his grace, forge them with his wisdom, and power them by his love. Let’s go make some friends.
Introduction
Let’s open the Bible to Revelation 3:7-13, the letter from Jesus to the church in Philadelphia.
As you’re turning, the other day, a friend pointed to this story published in the NY Times in 2011 about a stone tablet on the coast of Japan.
“The stone tablet has stood on this forested hillside since before they were born, but the villagers have faithfully obeyed the stark warning carved on its weathered face: “Do not build your homes below this point!”
Residents say this injunction from their ancestors kept their tiny village of 11 households safely out of reach of the deadly tsunami that wiped out hundreds of miles of Japanese coast and rose to record heights near here. The waves stopped just 300 feet below the stone.
“They knew the horrors of tsunamis, so they erected that stone to warn us,” said the village leader.
Hundreds of so-called tsunami stones, some more than six centuries old, dot the coast of Japan, silent testimony to the past destruction that these lethal waves have frequented upon this earthquake-prone nation.”
I find that fascinating. Messages from the past serving those living in the present.
When we approach these letters to the churches (and the entire Bible, really) we have something similar. But instead of messages from unknown ancestors warning of tsunamis from the sea, we have a message from Jesus about how he’s saved us from the tsunami of sin. We have his word speaking to us, warning, correcting, and in the case of our passage today, encouraging and comforting. These letters stand like Tsunami stones in the landscape of the Bible, and each sends a certain urgent message relevant in some way to every church.
So, what’s the message in this particular letter? To endure suffering, stay close to Jesus,. Keep his word, and you can withstand anything.
Let’s hear this message from Revelation 3:7-13 now.
7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.
8 “ ‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. 10 Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. 11 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. 12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
This is God’s word.
Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. It appears the ancient church took that name to heart. They loved Jesus, and Jesus was not ashamed to call them brothers (Hebrews 2:11). Out of the seven churches, only this church and the church in Smryna received unqualified praise and approval. They deeply pleased Jesus.
So who was this church? Well, Philadelphia was a strategically located trade town in Asia. It stood between Rome and the eastern world and was known as “little Athens” because of it’s many gods and idols. But though it was filled with idolatry, the church remained faithful to Jesus. They had little power, as Jesus mentions in the letter. They also faced persecution from the Jews, which we see in verse 9. But despite weakness and opposition, they trusted his word and remained faithful to him. In a world filled with idolatry, they listened to Jesus alone, and that was their greatest achievement. That’s our call today—listen to and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scriptures must be the centering point of every church.
We must listen to the great Tsunami Stone himself, Jesus Christ, who is more than worthy of our ears. Listen to how Jesus introduces himself in verse 7. “The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.”
We have in that single verse a four-fold description of Christ.
1) He’s the holy one. This is the distinctive attribute of God. He’s set apart, perfect, pure.
2) He’s true. He cannot lie. He keeps his word. He’s fully trustworthy at all times and in every way.
3) He has the key of David. Keys and locks and doors are a sign of power and official authority. Jesus holds the key not to Philadelphia but to the house of David. Remember, God told David that he would establish his kingdom and his son would reign on the throne forever. Jesus is that Son who takes the seat, the eternal throne.
4) He is the one who opens and shuts the doors. He’s sovereign over all. He’s powerful, able to open and shut.
These four marks show Christ worthy of our attention. He’s the pure one, the right one, the key to every door. How could we not listen to him?
We need this message today because at some point our faith will be tested, just as the Philadelphian church was, and when it is, we need the everlasting word of Jesus to help us stand like oaks of righteousness.
So, to that end, let’s consider three truths about the word of Jesus from this passage:
1. The word of Jesus is an open door for his humble people (v. 8).
2. The word of Jesus is a sure foundation for his suffering people (vv. 9-10).
3. The word of Jesus is a promise for his enduring people (v. 11-12).
The word of Jesus is an open door for his humble people (v. 8)
Look again at verse 8 “I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”
Jesus opens every letter with his knowledge of each church. What does he know about this particular church? That they have but little power. That’s not an insult or rebuke. It’s just an acknowledgment that they had very little influence in their culture. They were small in size. Even more, they were persecuted by the Jews who were stronger than them, as we see in verse 9. Yet in the face of opposition, they did not deny their faith in Christ.
Jesus wants them to know that the opposition was not their fault. Their suffering wasn’t a result of their lack of faith or anything else. They kept his word. They stood firm. He knows their heart of faith toward him and their love for him. So, to encourage them, Jesus says he set before them an open door, which no one is able to shut.
Now, there is some debate on what exactly this open door is. Often in the New Testament, an open door is a way of saying God provides an evangelistic opportunity. Some think that’s the meaning here. They argue that in verse 9, when he says the Jews will come bow at their feet, he’s opening the door of evangelism to them. But there is another meaning of “door” in the New Testament: entrance into the kingdom of God. Jesus refers to himself as “the door” in John 10:9, “I am the door of the sheep... If anyone enters by me, he will be saved.” So Jesus is the doorway into salvation. In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” The door symbolizes the need for a decision. It’s the entryway into Christ or the barrier keeping one from Christ. So, the door in this context seems to be entrance into Christ’s kingdom.
Here’s the point: this little church had no power, they suffered, and Jesus saved them. In other words, it doesn’t matter what the outward circumstances show. They’re inheritors of the kingdom of God because Jesus opened the door for them, and no one can shut it. No greater power can shut them out. No amount of opposition can suffer them away. Jesus holds them. They’re on the way to eternal life with him. Go ahead, world, do what you will, you can’t take away what Jesus gives!
This is so Jesus! Remember what he said in John 10: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.” The focus is on the power of God. So what if this church has little power? Their God has all the power!
We must understand that it’s God’s power that determines our future. Our salvation and commendation from him is not based on the great things we do but on the great things Jesus has done. All he’s asking of us is to humbly keep his powerful word. He’ll do the rest.
When suffering comes, it’s our reliance on Jesus in the midst of suffering that gives us such strong confidence in him. When Jesus is all we have, we realize Jesus is all we need.
This church’s faith caused them to rise above their own strength and lay hold of the strength of God. That’s what we need too. We need the strong word of God for our little-power lives. We need the mighty hand of Jesus to hold us firm when everything else feels as if it’s falling away.
Which takes us to our second point.
The word of Jesus is a sure foundation for his suffering people
Look at verses 9 and 10: “Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth”
When Jesus opens the door of salvation, we realize that his everlasting word, the word that has proved true throughout history, the word that says he’s coming soon, is the most solid foundation in the entire world. The church in Philadelphia knew that. That’s why they stood firm in the face of persecution. They held fast to Jesus’ promise to give them eternal life.
Suffering shows us who we really are. When we suffer with Jesus, we see how Christian—or not—we really are. Without the closed doors of our world seen our suffering, we often never really see the open doors of Jesus in his world seen in his grace. We never enter because we never see a need. But when things don’t go as planned, we realize we need more than our resources. We need more than our wisdom. We need more than what we can gain by our work. We need a savior to rescue us. We need a foundation beneath us stronger than the happy platitudes of this world. We need the rock of the Bible.
It’s that rock of the Word of God that sustained these Christians in Philadelphia. We see in verse 9 that the Jews in the synagogue of Satan have caused harm to the church. These Jews, Jesus says, are not really Jews, but lie. What does that mean? It means what Paul meant in Romans 2 when he said no one is a Jew outwardly but inwardly, by the Spirit. These Jews didn’t love God. They loved themselves and their power and their status and their self-perceived righteousness. A true Jew would not persecute Christ’s church, he would join Christ’s church!
But these Jews didn’t trust Jesus. They, like Satan, set themselves against him. So Jesus will show them how wrong they are and how right the church is. Jesus will bring about the vindication the church longs for. Jesus always makes things right. It might not be in the time we would choose, but it’s coming in his time! And in his timing, the Jews will not only see from afar how wrong they were, they will see close up how much Jesus loves his church, and the Jews will bow at their feet in confession of their error.
This would have been a remarkable event in the early church. We know the story of the Jews. They were the religious elite, the official establishment. They even had the backing of Rome in some areas of the world. They thought they held the keys to the kingdom, but Jesus is that key, and if they reject him, they never gain entrance.
And now, this upstart band of misfits who claim Jesus as Lord are withstanding persecution from the Jews and enduring. And Jesus is about to show them how much he loved this little church. See what he says. “Behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.”
Oh, let’s not race over that phrase. “I have loved you!” Jesus loves his church! If we just look to him and hold out our empty hands of faith, confessing that we need his salvation, he places in our empty hands his full heart of love.
If we’ve come to Christ in repentance and faith, everything in our life—all the good and all the bad and everything in between—is a witness to the dying love of Jesus. We may know his love but one day the whole world will see that he has loved us. The Bible says he will present us to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27). It doesn’t matter how much the world roughed you up. On that day, he will wash us clean and show the cosmos how he has loved us.
No one can take that from you. The world may say you’re worthless but Jesus died on the cross to prove otherwise. The world may say you’re ignorant but Jesus says your true knowledge is in him. The world may say you’re wasting your life but Jesus is just getting you ready for the wedding feast, for entrance into abundant, eternal life.
So, church, keep his word with patient endurance, because he rewards those who do. See that phrase there in verse 10? “Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth”
What does it mean to keep the word about patient endurance? Commentator Leon Morris points out that the original language reads more like, “the word of my steadfastness.” What steadfastness was that? The steadfastness to endure the cross. That’s the call of God on our life—to follow the steadfastness of Jesus. Are you doing that? Are you beholding him so that you can follow him?
If you are, you’ll find something amazing. Look at the second phrase in verse 10. “I will keep you from the hour of trial…” That little word keep is the same word kept earlier in the verse. As you keep Christ’s word, you find that Christ keeps you!
Here’s why this matters. You may worry if you can keep Christ’s word. You may wonder when suffering will be too much. Well, if you’re in Christ, if you believe he is your all in all, you don’t have to worry about that because it’s Christ who keeps you so that you can keep his word. Jesus is not saying, “Do this, then I’ll do that.” He’s saying, “I’ve done this so that you can do that.”
For this little church in Philadelphia, their faith in Christ not only helped them endure the persecution they already faced, it would help them endure the wider persecution to come. Jesus would keep them from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole word, to try those who dwell on the earth. Here’s how this helps us. As we suffer with Christ, we learn how to face future suffering. Suffering teaches us the answer to the test of life—and the answer is Jesus Christ. As we stand on his unchanging word, we find a sure foundation for our suffering, which helps us endure to the end, which is our third and final point.
The word of Jesus is a promise for his enduring people (vv. 11-12)
Look at verses 11 and 12. “I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.”
Jesus is coming soon. Therefore, he says, hold fast. He means to hold on—to keep a firm grasp on. No one can steal their crown. Why not? Because Jesus traded in the crown of thorns for the crown of glory, and he gives that crown of glory to all his people suffering the thorns of this world. No one takes what he freely gives. He holds the keys. He is the door. So Jesus is not infusing doubt here. He’s not saying, “Worry about losing your crown.” Instead, he’s saying, “Don’t give it up. It’s coming soon. Endure! Hold fast! Trust me!”
Think of it this way. We’re all running a race. That’s what life is. The Bible uses that imagery over and over again. You’ve all watched a race, cheering for a winner. What do you cheer? You don’t say, “Ease up now, you’re almost there!” No! What do you say? “Go! Go! Go! Run! Run! Run! You’re almost there!” The closer we get to seeing Jesus, the harder we must push to get there, to finish our race. We can never ease up. Why? Because the prize is so close to being ours! Our best life is out there, in eternity with Jesus. Run to him! Never stop running to him! It’ll be hard. Every race is. And as we get closer to the end, it gets hard still. But Jesus ran his so that you can run yours. Take heart. Go!
“To the one who conquers,” Jesus says, “I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.” We know from history that Philadelphia suffered a major earthquake in 17 AD, and there were others as well. It’s hard for a pillar to stand when the ground beneath it shakes, but Jesus promises to make his church into an immovable pillar. The world may knock you down in this life, but in the life to come, no one will have that power. Jesus will give every Christian a permanent place in the structure of God’s kingdom. The faithful are not only included in the kingdom of God in some general sense, as some extra in the film of eternity; they’re people of prominence in his kingdom. They’re pillars. Your future in Christ is incredibly solid.
And it’s and unending future. “Never shall he go out of it,” Jesus says. No one can come in and undo the work of Jesus. He will reign forever. No one will out vote him and he’ll never resign. His people will live forever in the presence of God as the people of God for the glory of God.
But there’s more! “I will write on him the name of my God.” That means we’ll belong to God. We’ll be marked as God’s people, renamed for his glory.
“And the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven.” We’ll have permanent citizenship in this kingdom. And this kingdom will not be far off. It will feel like home because it will be home. It will come down from God out of heaven and make its place on earth. The earth will be recreated, made new into heaven. But it won’t feel like a foreign country. We will be more fully home there than we are even now!
“And my own new name.” A new name in the Bible means a new status, a new function. What is this new name? We’re not sure, but whatever it is, it’s the name above every name. The name before whom everyone will one day bow. It’s the name of Jesus, the Redeemer, the Savior, the Lamb who was slain, the Lion of Judah, the Christ, the True One, the Holy One, God himself—and maybe there’s another name so glorious we can’t know it until we reach the other side. But whatever that name is, it’ll be written on us, marking us as his enduring people, claimed by him for all time.
Jesus said, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Conclusion
Let me close with this.
What can we take from this letter? We can take the assurance that the people we desperately want to be, the God whom we desperately want to please, the place where we desperately want to live is coming. All we have to do is hold fast to the word of Jesus. Let’s stake it all on that unchanging, never-failing Word.
Look at verse 13. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” The word of Jesus is our promise. It is the Tsunami Stone testifying to what’s coming. All we have to do is heed his word and we will be more than okay. We will be glorious. Can you hear that word today?
Let’s pray
Introduction
Let’s open the Bible to Proverbs, chapter 3. We will read verses 13-18 in a minute, but first, let me remind you where we are. We’re spending some weeks looking at the mega-themes of the book of Proverbs.
Last week, we considered the first part of Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” We saw that the fear of the Lord is a humble, reverent awe that helps us escape evil and find refuge in Christ. Today, we’re looking at what the fear of the Lord leads to: wisdom.
We need wisdom to navigate this complicated world. Alexa and Siri don’t have all the answers. There are just so many things you can’t Google. We run into so many difficulties in life. We need more than a rule book. We need something for all the gray areas, to help us choose between two good options, two bad options, and everything in between. There are so many things we could do, and we need wisdom to know what we should do, moment by moment. So, in the face of our great need, God offers his wisdom in the book of Proverbs.
So, today, through chapters 3 and 9, we’ll consider wisdom in three parts:
1. Wisdom is a gift from God that anyone can receive.
2. Wisdom creates a culture of life for the whole community.
3. Wisdom calls us to forsake folly and follow Jesus.
Wisdom is a gift from God that anyone can receive.
We saw last week in Proverbs 2:5 that if we fear the Lord, we will find the knowledge of God. One verse later, verse 6 tells us what we find is what God gives. “For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” In other words, the wisdom we need does not rise up from within us; it comes down from the wise God above as we seek him out. God offers his wisdom from his book for his people.
Look at Proverbs 3:13-18.
13 Blessed is the one who finds wisdom,
and the one who gets understanding,
14 for the gain from her is better than gain from silver
and her profit better than gold.
15 She is more precious than jewels,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.
17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;
those who hold her fast are called blessed.
Verse 13 says the one who finds wisdom is blessed. Well, if we want that blessing, we need to understand what wisdom is.
We saw a few weeks ago from chapter 1 that the book of Proverbs uses some synonyms for wisdom.
· Wisdom is related to instruction. That is, training, a hard-won aspect of our character, as endurance to an athlete.
· Wisdom is related to understanding, insight, and wise dealing: practical knowledge of what to do in the hard-to-understand aspects of life.
· Wisdom is learning or knowledge, which Proverbs 2:5 and 3:6 tell us isn’t merely about facts but about a Person, about God himself, from whom wisdom originates.
So Proverbs shows that wisdom is more than a single thing—it’s a multitude of things that, together, define wisdom. We see this in the wise characters of our popular stories: Yoda, Dumbledore and Gandalf and so on. Why are they wise? Because they have a combination of all the necessary things: experience, knowledge, prudence, instruction, learning.
Everyone else in the story seeks their wisdom. But as wise as they are, Jesus is clearly the wisest man the world has ever seen. Up until his coming, Solomon, the author of many of these Proverbs, was. But when Jesus came, he said, “One greater than Solomon is here.” And unlike finding Yoda, you don’t have to travel to a different planet to access his wisdom. He’s promised to be with us by his Spirit. So the wisdom we need is not something unobtainable. It’s part of the deal God made in Christ. When we know Christ, we get wisdom—and anyone willing to repent of their sin and trust Christ can get in on this.
Look again at chapter 3, verse 13: blessed is the one who finds wisdom. The Hebrew word for one is the generic word for man or human being. God’s wisdom is available to anyone willing to come to God. The New Testament author James says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all.” There is no caveat in that: if any of you. Not if any of you super-smart people, any of you Ph.D.s. You—whoever you are, if you lack wisdom, ask God and he’ll give it. God does not make this too hard for us! You just have to be alive and open to God. You just have to pay attention to his teaching, to his gospel message, and wisdom flows down from heaven. And when it flows down, we realize that what we search for in so many other things is found in getting wisdom.
Look at verses 14-16. “For the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.”
God says compare wisdom with anything else you can get, and wisdom is better because wisdom helps us know what to do with what we get. You might think you need more money, but maybe you just need wisdom to know what to do with the money you have. Get wisdom, and you’ll make the amount of money right for you. Get money only, and you might miss out on both wisdom and money in the end. Remember, King Solomon wrote this. He wasn’t a poor man! He was one of the wealthiest kings in Israel’s history. He spared no expense on his life, but in the end, he realized the best thing he had was the wisdom he got from God.
We live in a part of the world where there is more concentrated wealth than in just about any place in the history of the world. We have jobs that pay well. We have houses full of comfortable things. We have cars that rarely break down. We have vacation spots we visit annually. But do we have wisdom? What’s fancy food on the table without laughter to enjoy it? What’s a nice house that isn’t a home? What’s a family without unity? What’s a retirement plan without a reason to live? All the world’s goods without wisdom is like the Dragon Smaug in Tolkien's The Hobbit: a cave full of treasure but sleeping on it alone!
God offers a better way through wisdom. Look at verses 17-18. “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed.”
Wisdom keeps us from wasting our life on important but not ultimate things. What we need is not the weight of the world’s treasures but the lightness of God’s wisdom. We reach too low for “the good life.” God wants more for us than what this world can offer. He wants to free us from the chains of this world. That means God will ask us to give certain things up, not because he wants less for us, but because he wants far more for us. He wants pleasantness and peace of a good conscience before him, of a life well lived in his presence by his wisdom granted on terms of grace.
But gaining wisdom might not always feel like pleasantness and peace. But wisdom teaches us to look beyond our feelings. In fact, it helps to see the verses leading into this passage. Verses 11-12 show us that if we want God’s wisdom, it comes through his discipline. “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.”
Why does he tell us not to despise the Lord’s discipline? Because he knows we’re prone to despise it! Why? Because it’s hard! Who wants discipline?
Every parent knows without discipline the child never grows up right. But with the proper discipline, the potential of the child is huge. We are to accept God’s discipline because it’s one channel through which God’s wisdom comes down to us. When he corrects us, we learn. When he reproves us, we grow. We tend to think of God’s discipline as his disappointment in us, but that’s not how the Bible presents it. The Bible says God’s discipline is his investment in us.
Wisdom teaches us that everything in our life is an investment in us from the good God above. He may take us through some really rough passages, but in every adventure, there is a bridge you don’t want to cross. And when you put your foot on the creaking board, and it sways a little more than you’d like but it holds you up, you realize the adventure God has for you is better than the one you dreamed up for yourself. It’s far more dangerous but far more exciting, and he’s leading you to something far more glorious than you ever imagined. He’s taking you from the silly life you’d live in foolishness to the full life you’ll live in wisdom.
All you have to do to go on the journey to wisdom is say yes to God. And when you do, when you say yes and follow him wherever he leads, you find that, ultimately, no matter what happens, his purposes for you are good because he’s your Father, and father’s don’t abandon their children, they invest in them. Sometimes the best gifts are ones we don’t think we need, and sometimes wisdom comes through things we’d rather not face. But he who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
God’s investment is his delight in you. And when you know you’re delighted in by God, he works through you for the good of others, which is our second point.
Wisdom creates a culture of life for the whole community
Saint Augustine said, “I've read in Plato sayings that are wise, but I've never read in one of them: Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.” True wisdom is more than clever words; it’s the life-creating heart that lies behind them. When God’s wisdom comes down into a church, we get more than just right thinking; we get right thinking plus a life-giving culture. Which means life-giving culture is not an optional add-on to wisdom. A life-giving culture is the result of wisdom. It’s what God, by wisdom, created at the very beginning, and has sustained throughout time.
Look at Proverbs 3:19-20. “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew.”
By wisdom God founded the earth. He not only founded the earth and established the heavens, he created the method to create the rain and give the dew each night. God’s wisdom wasn’t just a good idea; it was a life-giving good idea. He created a world in which life multiplies. And in verses 22-27, he shows us how his wisdom gives life to us so that we can take his wisdom to give life to others.
It starts in verse 21. God calls us to keep wisdom: “My son, do not lose sight of these—keep sound wisdom and discretion,”
Now, in verses 22-26, we see how that wisdom beautifies our life.
22 and they will be life for your soul
and adornment for your neck.
23 Then you will walk on your way securely,
and your foot will not stumble.
24 If you lie down, you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
25 Do not be afraid of sudden terror
or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes,
26 for the LORD will be your confidence
and will keep your foot from being caught.
God’s wisdom gives life and adornment. It creates a straight path. It grants peace, removes fear, instills confidence. God’s wisdom beautifies our life, and when we receive that gift from God, God calls us to move it from an inward reality to outward action.
Look at verse 27. Here’s the gospel motivation for gaining wisdom: “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.” The alternative translation of that verse is “Do not withhold good from its owners.” In other words, if there is good we can do to another, they own that good, not you!
Ray Ortlund talks about this in his commentary.
“If you have good you can do for somebody, then legally you own it, but morally they own it. The state has no right to force you to be generous. And no one can walk into your house and start helping themselves to your things and say, “The Bible says I own it.” What the Bible says to them is, “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15). But what the Bible says to you is, “You shall not withhold.” We sin against each other not only by the bad things we do but also by the beautiful things we withhold. Withheld love is a life-depleting sin. It is a sin to tell ourselves, “I’m not doing anybody any harm.” The question is, what good are you withholding? Jesus withheld no good thing from you. Okay, now we know how to build a culture of life, by his power. A culture of life is where people love each other openly and eagerly with the love of Jesus. All around us are opportunities to breathe life into more people. We cannot do everything. But we can do something, for his sake. If we have the ability, they have the ownership. And we owe it today, not tomorrow.”
When God’s wisdom rules your heart, your desire to give life to those around you increases in urgency.
Proverbs 3:28-29 says,
28 Do not say to your neighbor, \"Go, and come again,
tomorrow I will give it\"—when you have it with you.
29 Do not plan evil against your neighbor,
who dwells trustingly beside you.
Wisdom removes selfishness and infuses generosity. Wisdom protects from evil and creates trust. By wisdom, God gives life not only to you but to the community around you through you.
A wise community says so much about the person and work of God because a wise community shows this foolish world what shalom looks like, what true peace is. But even more than that, wisdom shows this world where true peace is—in Jesus Christ alone, which leads us to our third and final point.
Wisdom calls us to follow Jesus and forsake folly
Let’s jump ahead a few chapters. Turn with me to Proverbs 9. We see two options open before us, personified in two women in two houses. Let’s read verses 1-6, then jump down to 13-18.
Verses 1-6 show us Lady Wisdom.
1 Wisdom has built her house;
she has hewn her seven pillars.
2 She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine;
she has also set her table.
3 She has sent out her young women to call
from the highest places in the town,
4 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
To him who lacks sense she says,
5 “Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.
6 Leave your simple ways, and live,
and walk in the way of insight.”
Now, verses 13-18 show us Lady Folly.
13 The woman Folly is loud;
she is seductive and knows nothing.
14 She sits at the door of her house;
she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,
15 calling to those who pass by,
who are going straight on their way,
16 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
And to him who lacks sense she says,
17 “Stolen water is sweet,
and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
18 But he does not know that the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
So, Wisdom stands at her door. She’s built a great house, with seven pillars—beautiful perfection. She’s made all the proper arrangements. She has meat. The wine is mixed, that doesn’t mean it’s watered down, it means t’s spiced up and therefore better. The table is set. And she goes out to the streets to call all who will come to dine at her table, with her, forever.
And Folly is at her door. She’s loud and incompetent. She’s seductive, a temptress. She doesn’t stand at the door of her house; she sits because she’s lazy. She didn’t build her house; she just occupies it. But her house does sit at the high place of town, so it looks impressive. She didn’t prepare the meal, she stole it, and it’s not meat and wine, it’s bread and water. Folly’s is the loud house party that looks fun from afar, but get close enough, and it turns your stomach.
Wisdom offers ever-increasing life. Folly tricks her guests into death.
The contrast couldn’t be more stark. But there is one commonality between the two. Look at verse 4 and verse 16. They’re the same. “’Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!’” Wisdom and Folly call the same people. What does that mean? Both Wisdom and Folly are open right now to anyone who will come. These verses push us to a decision point. Which house will we choose—the house of Wisdom or the house of Folly? We can’t have both, and there is no third option.
The right answer is obvious, isn’t it? So why is it so hard to walk through Wisdom’s door? Because we’re complicated people. Sin complicates our otherwise obvious choice. Our hearts are like vinyl records. Over the years, sin creates deep grooves in our soul, and the needle of the world always finds the groove to play it’s sad, lonesome song. What we need is a new song in our heart. And that’s what God gives by his grace in Christ. God’s gospel song that he sings over you changes the song of your heart from cheap pop music to Mozart. When that happens, we see the house of Folly for the loser she is and run to the house of Wisdom as fast as we can.
And when we get there, we find not merely a virtue to take back with us into the world; we find a Person to go with us into the world. The Bible presents Wisdom as more than a Personified Lady. The Bible presents Wisdom as the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is Proverbs incarnate. In the choice between Wisdom and Folly, we’re choosing between life with Jesus and life without him—it’s that simple.
Look at verse 6. Part of Wisdom’s invitation is, “Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.” Now look down at verse 17. What comes after Folly’s invitation? Nothing! There is no offer of life and insight because there is no life and insight with Folly. All that’s there are the dead ones, the ones wasting their life, dead even before they die.
The Bible calls Jesus the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). And Wisdom stands at the door of his house calling all who will turn in to him.
When Christ as Wisdom calls us to eat and drink, he’s calling us to more than a meal at the Sage’s house. On the night before he died, he stood before his disciples at the last supper and “took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’”
After that, Wisdom gave himself up to die on the cross. He was condemned unjustly to execution, beaten senselessly to exhaustion, nailed ruthlessly to a cross, crucified mercilessly to death. And it was no accident! It was the plan of God!
That looked like a foolish plan to the world. But the foolishness of God is wiser than men! The Bible says, “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Why is it the power of God? Because by the cross Jesus won our heart. He purchased our salvation. He paid for our sins. He gave us his righteousness. He saved our soul! As the old hymn says,
“No more let sin and sorrow grow
Nor thorns infest the ground:
He comes to make his blessings flow
Far as the curse is found!”
Joy to the world, the Lord is come! It’s ain’t Christmas yet, but we’re close enough now to start singing!
Conclusion
Let’s close with this.
Jesus is not only the Sage we need; he’s the Savior we need. The wisdom of God is more than just right thinking; it’s the glories of his righteousness and the wonders of his love.
Here’s the point: the wisdom of God is not the obvious choice to fools like us. But the Wisdom of God is not an unreachable thing for fools like us! Why? Because Christ came to take upon himself our foolishness at the cross. And when he died, what looked like folly to the world was the wisdom of God three days away from bursting forth in new life for all of God’s people for all time.
Wisdom calls us to forsake folly and follow Jesus. And we find the power to do that by beholding the wisdom of the cross where the Prince of glory died. The risen Christ is calling us to more than a meal at his house. He’s calling us to salvation in his kingdom. The only question remaining is: will we go?
Let’s pray.
Introduction
Open your Bible to Proverbs 2. We’ll bounce around a bit, but we will begin there.
We’re continuing our look at the mega-themes of the book of Proverbs. This week and next, we are looking at two themes that go hand in hand. We see both in Proverbs 9:10. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Today, we’re looking at the fear of the Lord. Next Sunday, we’ll look at wisdom.
Proverbs is about wisdom for life, given to us by Jesus Christ himself. And Jesus wants to make sure we don’t make a crucial mistake at the beginning. So on the path to wisdom, he points out that the very beginning is a matter of humble faith—a matter of fearing the Lord. The fear of the Lord is not just the first stone we cross on our journey, it’s the first and controlling principle without which we cannot keep walking with God. The fear of the Lord is the shoes on our feet as we walk with God along the rocky path of life. We cannot walk far without it. But with it, we can go as far as God will take us.
I took my kids to the Adventure Science Center yesterday. They have this room with a display of all the planets and a screen with facts about each. As I read, I was caught up in how big the universe is. Earth is just a speck in space, and yet it’s filled with you and me and billions of others that God loves and cares for.
Hebrews 1 says Jesus upholds the universe by the word of his power. A God that can do that is a God that must be bigger than the expanse of space. As I stood in awe of the bigness of space, I was reminded of how much more I should stand in awe of the bigness of the God who created it and upholds it with a word, a mere breath. No wonder David, writing in Psalm 8, said, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”
Should we not stand in awe of the one who, as Isaiah 40 says, measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales? Should we not fear the one who gave us life with a breath, and can take it away with another? We not only should, we must fear the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the gateway and the pathway of wisdom. We can never leave it behind.
But what does it mean to fear the Lord? C.S. Lewis captures the idea in his book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Mr and Mrs Beaver talk to the children about their coming encounter with Aslan, the Great Lion of Narnia, the Jesus figure. Susan and Lucy are, understandably, afraid of meeting a lion.
“ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and no mistake” said Mrs Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
As you read the Bible, you encounter a God who cannot be classified as safe. How can someone so powerful feel safe to us? But as you read the Bible, you also encounter a God who cannot be classified as anything but good. Everyone who encounters God walks away loving and fearing him. In the Bible, we have a God before whom we tremble because of his glory yet find rest in because of his goodness. We find the King, and it’s his goodness that causes us to tremble. How can one be so good to a people so bad? How can the cross of Christ be the pinnacle of the storyline? How can the King do that for us?
The fear of the Lord is more than being afraid of him. There is a kind of frightened trembling that happens before God’s holiness and glory, but the fear of the Lord the book of Proverbs calls us to is more than terror. Sinclair Ferguson defines it as, “that indefinable mixture of reverence, fear, pleasure, joy, and awe which fills our hearts when we realize who God is and what he has done for us.” As Paul says in Romans 8:15, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” The fear of the Lord is reverent awe of God as a child before their father, not as a kid before the playground bully. God is for us, not against us. The cross is all the proof we need.
The cross also proves that the fear of the Lord is not an optional add-on to life, it is the necessary first and abiding step of true obedience. The night before Jesus endured the cross, he prayed the cup of God’s wrath would pass him over. But it couldn’t. That wasn’t the story that was written. Jesus in his humanity feared the cross. Who wouldn’t? But Jesus in his humanity feared God more. Isaiah 11:3 said of the coming Messiah, “his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.” If Jesus left the fear of the Lord behind, he would not have been the perfect man to make the perfect sacrifice. The fear of the Lord, then, is an inward condition of reverent awe that affects the way you live. The fear of the Lord has practical implications for how we live.
For Jesus, delight in the fear of the Lord overpowered fear of the death. The Bible says for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. The fear of the Lord is not ultimately about being afraid. The fear of the Lord is ultimately pursuing joy. Jesus Christ proved it, and now he’s asking us all to believe him, to fear him, and to follow him.
So what does the book of Proverbs tell us about the fear of the Lord? Here’s a sentence to sum it up. The fear of the Lord is the humble attitude of the child of God whereby God provides an escape from evil and a welcome into abundant life with him.
More succinctly, we can say it in three points:
1. The Fear of the Lord is a Hopeful Humility
2. The Fear of the Lord is an Escape from Evil
3. The Fear of the Lord is a Road to Refuge
The Fear of the Lord is a Hopeful Humility
The very first step in the fear of the Lord is a hopeful humility that God is for us, not against us, that he wants us to know him, and to know him is first to fear him. Look at Proverbs 2:1-5.
1 My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
Do you see the logic of the passage? Notice the word “if”: “If you receive my words,” “if you call out for insight,” “if you seek it like silver.” Those “if” statements are funneling down to the “then” statement of verse 5 where the fear of the Lord is found. We cannot reach the “then” without the “if”, but we cannot reach the “if” without humility. In the pursuit of the fear of the Lord, humility comes first. Our hope begins with the realization of who God is and who we are.
And who are we, really? Verse 1 tells us: “My son.” That’s not a throw-away phrase. The book of Proverbs is a gift from the open-hearted Father to his open-hearted children. God offers us freely, through Christ, a place in his heart. The question for us is simple: will we go there?
If we will, the passage shows us what to do: “receive … treasure up … making your ear attentive … inclining your heart … call out … raise your voice … seek … search …” God calls us to humble, hopeful action.
Now, you might say, “Wait a minute. Isn’t that works-based?” No! As Dallas Willard said, “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.”
Do my sons earn their way onto the family walk at night? No! They’re in just for being my children. But to be with me on the walk, they must put their shoes on and come. That’s what the wisdom of Proverbs offers us—a chance to walk with God, a hopeful humility that assures us God will take us where we long to be with him. But we must put our shoes on. We must listen to him, open our heart to him, revere him for who he is. God is not the hold out!
If we want to understand the book of Proverbs, we must understand that wisdom isn’t automatic, and the fear of the Lord isn’t either. God is making the first, and most significant, move, but he’s asking us to respond. If we want to get traction with God, if we want to grow in his grace, if we want to go further with Christ than we’ve ever gone before, here’s what we must do. We must humble ourselves as his beloved children who know his purposes toward us are good. We must receive his word. We must treasure it up. We must listen. We must incline our heart. We must call out to him. We must seek and search. And if we’ll do that, we’ll understand the fear of the Lord because we’ll begin to see him as he really is. In fact, we’ll find the knowledge of God. We will see his grandeur and majesty. We’ll behold his glory. And the heart of every child of God longs for that.
The first step in fearing the Lord is humility. Humility is the currency of God’s kingdom, not because it’s easier to get but because it’s more joyous to have—and God’s kingdom is a kingdom of joy. True humility is true freedom because it looks beyond one’s self to the only Wise Person in existence. Pride says you don’t need God. Humility says you can’t live without him. Pride says you must learn the ropes of this world if you want to succeed. Humility says this world isn’t ultimate, because God has something better out ahead for us. Pride is cynical. Humility is hopeful.
When Jesus comes back to restore this broken world, we will live in a humble, hopeful state of the fear of the Lord that leads to perfect wisdom forever because we’ll draw forever from the fountain of Wisdom itself in Jesus Christ, and Jesus just wants us to get a head start right now.
I can’t help but notice that Proverbs often shows that humility and the fear of the Lord are parallel terms—they go hand in hand. For example, Proverbs 15:33, “The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.” Honor is not ours for the taking. What is honorable about us apart from Christ? Honor is ours for the receiving. It’s the result of humility and the fear of the Lord because we receive honor by beholding the honorable, by being in the presence of Majesty. When we put ourselves in the low place before God where we belong, he lifts us to the high place with him where we only belong because of his grace.
As it always is with God, we get more than we deserve. Proverbs 22:4 says, “The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.” God is no miser. He’s a big spender on his children. And he never runs out of riches and honor and life for you because Jesus’ victorious resurrection opened the door to it all. The Bible says all things are yours, whether the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s (1 Corinthians 3:22). How is that so? Because Christ humbled himself to the point of death on a cross for you. “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)
In Jesus we see that he not only gives wisdom, he fulfilled Wisdom in his earthly life. He lived the only truly humble life full of the fear of the Lord for us so that we, by the power of his Spirit, can have the life he came to give.
When we see that, when we really see it, we have the fear of the Lord, because it's impossible to behold the dying love of Christ for you and not feel it, not revere him, not be in awe of him.
And when we humble ourselves and see things as they really are, we find God’s provision is not only for the future, it’s for the present. The evil we face can be escaped through the fear of the Lord.
So, the second point.
The Fear of the Lord is an Escape from Evil
If the first step in fearing the Lord is humble awe, no wonder Proverbs 3:7 says, “Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.” The opposite of humble awe is personal wisdom, which, if you notice, the Proverb equates with evil.
Here’s our problem. By nature, we are wise in our own eyes. And our own eyes say we don’t need Christ’s work. We think, “Well, that was bad. But not that bad.” We categorize sin. We justify sin. We downplay sin. God doesn’t.
Jonathan Edwards helped us see in his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
“The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.”
Talk about the fear of the Lord! If we don’t fear the Lord, it’s not as if our life is just less full than it could be. If we don’t fear the Lord, our life is in mortal danger. If we don’t fear the Lord, our life will be full of evil, and the Bible makes it really clear what happens to evil in the end.
But the danger is even larger than we might initially think. Even if we can avoid personal actions of evil, there is still a draw to envy those who don’t. So Proverbs 23:17 warns, “Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day.” Why all the day? Because at any point from sun-up to sun-down we’re faced with the temptation to turn from the fear of God to envy sinners. Who doesn’t want comfort? Who doesn’t want their flesh to feel good? Who doesn’t want to have another look at the beautiful woman or skim a little more off the top for a rainy day? But wisdom says, “Run!” There is more to life than what feels good. There is more to life than what is pleasing only to you. Find what’s pleasing to God and you will find the life you really want. You won’t find that unless you have a healthy fear of God, unless you revere him and desire to please him above all else.
When we have the humility to see the evil lurking all around us, it fosters in us a healthy fear of the Lord. We don’t want to sin but we can’t help but see not only the temptation to sin but the sin that already resides within. That’s why Paul, thinking through this same thing in Romans 7, cries out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Paul found the answer in Jesus Christ. But it began with the fear of the Lord. Paul saw his sin for what it was, and cried out for salvation. That’s wisdom. And Jesus came to save him. He can do the same for you.
And when Jesus comes and saves, he changes the way we think about sin. It becomes less desirable to us. The fear of the Lord grants us God’s heart toward sin. What is that? Proverbs 8:13 says, “The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.” We reject what we hate, don’t we? So Proverbs 16:6 says, “By the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil.” God hates evil, and by fearing him we learn to hate it too.
When we taste and see that the Lord is good, we taste and see that sin is evil, and we long for the escape from it found in the nearness of God.
We must remember, however, the fear of the Lord is an escape from evil not primarily because we’ve learned to hate and reject it, though that’s true. It’s an escape from evil primarily because of what Jesus has done. In the fear of the Lord, Jesus rejected evil all his life. He never sinned. But at the cross, Jesus took upon himself all the evil of this world to conquer it in his death and resurrection. As we behold the King of Glory taking upon himself our evil, we see the wisdom of God in salvation. We see what it is to fear the Lord. Evil isn’t a light thing. Our evil is the reason the cross exists.
No wonder, then, when we learn to fear the Lord, we realize it’s foolish to mourn the loss of the invite to this world’s party. This world is fading away, and all the evil with it. But the party in heaven is just getting started, and the garments we need for entrance were purchased for us on the cross of Christ, and his resurrection power surges through this world to bring us to himself where we find refuge, which is our third, and final, point.
The Fear of the Lord is a Road to Refuge
The safest place in the entire world is found firmly in the fear of the Lord. Why? Because when we fear the Lord we come to the One who holds the whole world in his hand. We become like the Israelites on the road out of Egypt, with all the terror of Pharaoh’s horses coming quickly behind. We wonder, “how will God get us out of this?” We’ve seen his wondrous works, and we’ve obeyed him down to the shore of the Sea blocking our way. Now we need to see another miracle. Well, God’s got plenty left! What is a little sea to the one who holds the oceans in the hollow of his hand? He will fight for us, and we have only to be silent.
As Proverbs 10:27 says, “The fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short.” When we fear the Lord, we don’t receive a fading crown from the world. We receive the unfading crown of glory from above. We come into the refuge of his preserving care. We walk on the dry land in the midst of our pursuers, safe in God’s hands while the evil ones perish in his justice.
If you and I commit today to live the rest of our days in the fear of the Lord, what will happen to us? Proverbs 14:26-27 tells us. “In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death.” Do you hear that? The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. It keeps us from the snares of death. That doesn’t mean we won’t die. Everyone will die. It just means we won’t die before we die. We won’t waste our life. Our life will have meaning and significance that reaches beyond us.
Fearing the Lord today shows our children what it is to be a Christian, and who is worthy of worship: the Redeemer and Savior of the world, the Refuge we all need, Jesus Christ.
That may be all we have to give them. Well, God says that’s enough. Proverbs 15:16 says, “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it.” How is that so? Proverbs 19:23 is the answer. “The fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm.”
Who doesn’t need satisfied rest? Fearing the Lord is the road, because it’s the road to Refuge, it’s the road to Jesus Christ. And when we come to him, we find what Susan and Lucy found in Narnia. We find the Lion of Judah there to protect us from all evil. No, he’s not really safe—not in the way we might think. He’s far safer. He’s good. And God’s goodness is the safety we need more than anything. How do we get there? Fear the Lord. It’s the beginning of wisdom.
As you know, we normally preach through books of the Bible, but today is a special day. Today is Membership Sunday at Refuge Church. We’re accepting our first group of members.
So this Membership Sunday, I want to consider church membership under three headings:
Church membership is God’s glorious idea
Church membership is revealed in God’s Word
Church membership matters to God and is good for us
So, what church membership is, where we find church membership in the Bible, and why church membership matters so much in our moment.
1. Church membership is God’s glorious idea
What is church membership? Simply put, church membership is a commitment to join Christ on his mission with his people for his glory.
Jonathan Leeman defines it this way:
“Church membership is a formal relationship between a local church and a Christian characterized by the church’s affirmation and oversight of a Christian’s discipleship and the Christian’s submission to living out his or her discipleship in the care of the church.”
Now that’s a good, formal definition. It would be good to look at this in your community groups this week.
But what does it mean practically? It means that as an individual, you’re saying to Jesus and his Church, “Jesus, I’ve counted the cost, and I know what you’re asking me to do as your follower. You call me to love God and to love others as myself. I’m ready now to join your local, definable people to live that out. I take responsibility for them, and them for me. I’m not here only to receive but also to give. I want to receive care, but I also want to extend care to others. I want to grow in you, and I want to help others grow in you. I want others to know me and help me when I sin, and I want to know and help others. I want to submit to godly leadership. I want to be all in with Christ’s church. I want more than a taste. I want the real thing.”
In other words, church membership is more than scrolling down and hitting “Agree” on the pop-up screen to proceed. Church membership is a considered step toward Christ and his people. It is a full-hearted agreement with his call to community and a full-bodied involvement with his people.
The apostle Peter helps us see this. Though he’s not directly addressing church membership, in 1 Peter 2:9-10, he helps us think rightly about it. He says,
“You [Church] are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
“You are a chosen race.” So, a church member is a member of God’s chosen race, an offspring of Abraham, a descendant of the called out family of God.
“A royal priesthood.” A church member is a member of God’s royal family. Though we are children of God, we are more than mere passive children. We are active priests to one other, able to minister to all around us, bringing the gospel to bear upon our lives.
“A holy nation.” A church member is a member of God’s holy nation—the people set apart to himself for blamelessness and spotlessness, for his own glory.
“A people for his own possession.” A church member is a member of God’s family—one who has forsaken the ownership of the world for the care of Jesus, the one and only God.
“That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” A church member is a herald of the King, a bringer of the gospel, a witness to the grace of God, a soldier in Christ’s army fighting against the darkness and spreading the radiance of his marvelous light, displaying the many excellencies of Christ.
“Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” A church member is one who was once not a people but who now is, one who once had not received mercy but now has, one whom God has gathered together into a gospel family.
As Pastor Kevin DeYoung says, church membership:
1. Identifies us with Christ.
2. Distinguishes us from the world.
3. Guides us into the righteousness of Christ by presenting a standard of personal and corporate righteousness.
4. Acts as a witness to non-Christians.
5. Glorifies God and enables us to enjoy his glory.
6. Identifies us with God’s people.
7. Assists us in living the Christian life through the accountability of brothers and sisters in the faith.
8. Makes us responsible for specific believers.
9. Protects us from the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
So, understanding how important it is for our souls and the advancement of the mission of God, church membership is not an optional add-on to the Christian life. If anything in this world calls us to commitment it is Jesus Christ. He not only calls, but he also takes the first step. He stepped out of heaven to join us in our flesh. He stepped into obedience where we only ran the other way. He stepped into Pilate’s court as the crowd released Barabbas. He stepped onto the cross. He stepped into the grave, and three days later he stepped out of the grave so he could step toward us in newness of life. Jesus Christ was committed to us, and he’s calling us to be committed to him by becoming members of his church.
But you may say, “That’s a fine description of church membership. I even agree to a certain point. But I have my doubts. Where is this in the Bible anyway?”
Well, I’m glad you asked. Let’s look.
2. Church membership is revealed in God’s word
The entire New Testament speaks not only of the church but to the Church.
One of the reasons it may be hard to understand today why church membership matters is because, at least for us here in the Southeastern U.S., there is very little risk associated with church. But it was not always so, and it’s not so today in other parts of the world. The early Christians risked their lives to join the church. Luke tells us in Acts 5:12-13: “Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.”
Why did the rest not dare join them? Because it was a social risk! It could cost their lives. But the Christians watching had no qualms about joining. In the early church, Christians were only found in the local church.
I wish we had time to look at all the biblical reference, but we don’t, so we’ll just look at a few.
My friend Nathan Rose, a pastor in Kansas City, organizes it under three headings, which I’m borrowing this morning.
First, the early church kept track of its members.
In Acts 2:41, Luke tells us, “those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”
Added to who? Added to the church, of course.
In 1 Timothy 5:9-12, Paul says: “Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works.”
So there were rolls in the early church.
Second, certain commands assume meaningful church membership.
The author to the Hebrews tells us in 13:17, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
How can we obey our leaders and submit to them, and how can they watch over our souls if we have not committed to one another.
Furthermore, how are leaders held accountable for people who haven’t covenanted with them? If we don’t have meaningful membership and Dustin and I go off the rails with heresy and sin, who will cast us from among you?
Third, church discipline can only work if church membership is in place.
What happens when sin enters the church? How is it handled? Jesus and Paul told us what to do. Church discipline is a biblical call, but it can’t happen apart from church membership.
In Matthew 18:15-17 Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
Furthermore, in 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 Paul says, “For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
It is those inside, not outside, the church that are to be judged. How can one determine insiders and outsiders without formal membership? If I leave Jesus to pursue sin, how can you hold me accountable if we haven’t committed to one another in membership?
Church membership is thoroughly biblical. We could go on and on, but we don’t have time. We have one more topic to discuss, one of utmost importance.
3. Church membership matters to God and is good for us
Why does church membership matter? Isn’t it just a formal structure we can take or leave? What’s the big deal?
You may say, “I can be part of Christ’s cosmic church without joining a local church.” To that, I would say, “Try it.” Try being a sideline-Christian. Try saying to your fellow Christians that you worship with week-in and week-out, sit in a community group with, fellowship with, and say, “I really love you, but I don’t want to covenant with you. I don’t want to commit to you. You never know, another church down the road might give me more of what I’m looking for. I want to keep my options open.”
You might not say those words with your mouth, but your unwillingness to enter the church body says it with your actions.
More importantly, you’re saying to Jesus, “I love you, but I don’t love your church.” Theologian Russell Moore says,
“Saying ‘I love Jesus’ but hating the church is as irrational as saying to your best friend, ‘I like you–I just can’t stand being around you.’ Your attitude toward the church tells you–simply–your attitude toward Jesus.”
Now, I’m not trying to pile on anyone. I’m simply trying to express how important this is. After all, Jesus does call his Church his Bride. Commitment matters to him.
Church membership matters because it is the Church that Christ promised to build. It matters because it is the Church that is on the offensive against the gates of hell and the gates of hell will not prevail. We all know an army is stronger than an individual soldier. A Church is stronger than a Christian.
The world is a dark place, isn’t it? What’s God’s answer to this present darkness? It’s the Church! My friend Jared Wilson says, “The Church is God’s Plan A for the world, and there is no Plan B.” If you want to join Christ in pressing his light into the darkness, you cannot do it apart from the Church. The Church is where he works. The Church is where he saves. The Church is where he builds. The Church is where he moves. The Church is who he’s coming back for. When you join the church, you’re saying, “I will not let the darkness overcome the light. I will join Christ’s army for his glory. I will join my brothers and sisters not with a noncommittal I’ll-make-it-if-I-can attitude but with a firm I’ll-stand-by-you-and-die-for-you conviction worthy of the risen Christ.”
And as we do that, we find that through his gospel doctrine, God creates a gospel culture. And as we follow the Lamb wherever he goes, he creates a gospel family on mission together to evangelize the world for his glory alone.
Conclusion
In closing, you may be thinking, “Well, that sounds great, but I’m not sure I can do it. Sometimes I even wonder if I’m a Christian. Sometimes I fail to obey. Sometimes I struggle with intimacy with God.”
Well, Jesus said he did not come for the righteous, but for sinners. You may come in some days needing your fellow members to carry you on a stretcher. That’s fine with Jesus. He came to heal the paralytic. You may come some days so blinded by the world that you can’t see. Well, Jesus gives sight to the blind. You may come in so discouraged and lifeless that you’re not sure you can sing praises to God. Well, you’ve got brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers who will lift your faith up with their faith.
And those days you come in feeling good and ready to praise the Lord, it’s your job to pick up those limping in. You can’t fix them, but Jesus can! And maybe they need your help for years. Fine. Keep taking them to Jesus as they keep taking you to him. We’re in this together, guys!
Can we do that?
I know we can because Jesus died for his Church. He hung on the cross., and he took all our sin with him into the grave. And on that third day, he rose victoriously, and came walking toward us, gathering people in every city, in every country, in every nook and cranny of the world into local churches, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against the work of God. Sorry, Devil, Christ’s Church is here, and we’re going to be triumphant in him!
We can have meaningful church membership because what Jesus died for, he will give life to. Jesus died for the church. He will give life to it.
Church membership is God’s idea, it’s revealed in his Word, it matters to God, and goodness knows, it’s good for us.
Last week, we saw from the first 6 verses of chapter 1, the beginning of the story of Jonah. Jonah was a prophet who fled God’s call to warn Nineveh of the coming judgment. He foolishly hopped a boat to Tarshish instead of obeying, and in response, God hurls a great storm upon the ship. We pick up the story in chapter 1, verse 7.
Let’s read the rest of chapter 1 now, starting in verse 7.
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 12 He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” 13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” 15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Whew, Jonah is in a mess. And we think, “Well, he got himself into this.” He did. But we shouldn't be too smug about it. Consider your life. Who hasn't run from God? Okay, maybe we haven’t actually hopped a boat to Tarshish, but we’ve run from God, if not physically, certainly in our heart. I’ve run from God this week.
We are all Jonah. Jonah is not an anomaly. He's the norm. God gives Jonah not merely as a bad example to learn from but as a window into our soul. We’re all fugitives on the run from God.
How can I say that? Because the Bible says we’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That means no one is outside the need of God’s grace—not moral Jonah nor immoral Nineveh. No one is so good that they don’t need God’s grace, and no one is so bad that they can’t get God’s grace. God is saying to us today, as he does throughout the Bible, that our sin is uglier than we can imagine, and his grace is greater than we can hope.
So what can we learn from Jonah here in 1:7-17? At least three things.
1. Your sin will find you out (vv. 7-10)
2. Your sin will have consequences (vv. 11-16)
3. God will swallow your sin (v. 17)
There’s a deep truth running through the world—evil exists, and evil is exposed. It’s really hard to deny that. It’s just so obvious.
The Bible calls evil sin. But it’s not as easy for everyone to recognize sin as evil living within each of us. We like to think we’re basically good people who do bad things from time to time. But the Bible says otherwise. We’re really bad people who do good things from time to time, by God’s grace. Jonah is a classic example. Here is a prophet—one of the godliest men in his nation—and he’s running from the presence of God because he doesn’t want God to be merciful to his enemies.
We look at Jonah’s life and we’re probably all a little amazed at how unconcerned he seems to be. He’s asleep in the ship, for goodness sake! How could he sleep knowing what he’s done? Well, at this point, he didn’t yet see the evil of what he’d done. No one else even knew about it. It didn’t seem to be a problem. After all, the ship was there, ready to go. Why did God make it so easy to run if he didn’t want him to?
Here’s the problem: sin is deceptive. And part of the deceptive power of sin is convincing us that we’re really not that bad. That’s why Jonah could lay down and go to sleep. When we’re deceived by sin, we’re not bothered by sin. In fact, it’s possible to be so deceived that we actually feel justified in our sin. Sin questions God. It whispers, as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, “Did God really say?” That’s how Jonah felt—as if he were right and God was wrong. “Mercy for the Ninevites?! No way that's God’s will. They're the evil empire!” And they were. They were really bad people. But apparently, God loves really bad people: Nineveh and Jonah.
My guess is Jonah’s plan for his life didn’t include running from God. Who's does? But over time, Jonah put up walls around the word of God. When God called him to Nineveh, Jonah wouldn’t obey because long before he put up a wall of nationalism. Jonah limited what God could ask of him. He drifted from God. He didn’t see the drift, because we never see the drift. He floated away slowly, but he could still see the shore. So he still felt he operated within his calling. He wasn’t cheating on his wife, he wasn’t stealing, he was being a good Israelite. But over time, he drifted far enough away that when God asked him to go beyond his own land to his enemies, he could not and would not do it. Not only that, he was appalled that God would even ask it of him. I wonder, are there some things God asks that are appalling to us?
Drifting happens when two evils coincide: we neglect God’s word and we accept an alternative message. That’s what happened to Jonah. He ignored God’s word to go to Nineveh and accepted an alternative word that God should judge, not forgive Nineveh. Jonah turned the most merciful Person in the world into an unforgiving Judge. And he thought he was justified in doing so. If we projected all our thoughts about God from this past week onto this screen behind me, what would he look like? Would he resemble the God of the Bible?
When we refuse to listen to all of God’s word and substitute other, more palatable messages instead, we set ourselves on a path to sin big-time. And we might not even see the depth of it until something extraordinary comes along and wakes us up—something like a storm at sea and a group of pagan sailors pleading with us to pray for salvation.
The storm forced out of Jonah more than an inward consideration of his failings. It forced his failings to his mouth before many witnesses. Jonah thought he ran from God’s presence. He thought his sin was his own personal issue. But his sin found him out. God knows, no matter where you are, if you're faithful or not. Others may not know your sin yet, but God does.
Look at the narrative. Verse 7 says the sailors cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Casting lots was an old way of answering an unanswerable question. Roll the dice and let God (or in this case, the gods, as the pagan sailors believed) decide where it falls. For it to fall on Jonah means this was no mere coincidence; it was divine providence. God used these pagan sailors to confront the prophet with his sin. Oh, the irony! Pagan sailors doing what the prophet should have done!
So they confront him in verse 8. “What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”
Jonah answers in verse 9. “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
It’s an interesting response. Jonah is technically right about who he is and who God is. He’s a Hebrew, an Israelite. God is the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. But there seems to be a disconnect in the middle, doesn't there? Does Jonah fear the Lord? It doesn’t look like it.
Jonah got the questions right doctrinally, but he was wrong relationally. Here’s a question for us: Does our doctrine line up with our life? Are we proclaiming one thing about God while relating to him differently? Do we claim to fear the Lord while riding the fleeing boat of rebellion?
Jonah obviously has some realization of bus situation because there’s one question he didn't answer. Do you see it? “What is your occupation?” He was a prophet. But he didn’t tell the sailors that, did he? I wonder why? He was awakening to the cost of his sin. He couldn't be a prophet if he failed to speak God’s word.
By this point, the sailors understood Jonah’s sin. During the conversation, he told them he was running from God. They knew then the reason the storm was so strong. Verse 10 says they became exceedingly afraid. Literally, they feared a greater fear. Jonah said he feared God, but it’s the pagan sailors who act like God-fearers. They cry out, “What is this you have done!” that isn’t a question. It’s an accusation. There is no question mark. It's an exclamation point. When our sin finds us out, it's shocking.
Jonah's sin found him out, and he was about to face the consequences, which is our second point.
Look at verse 11. The sailors ask, “’What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?’ For the sea grew more and more tempestuous.” Notice the language—what shall we do to you. Jonah’s sin required something to be done to him.
Sin requires something to be done. It can’t just be passed over. It must be paid for. Sin is costly. And here we see Jonah’s sin involved the sailors merely by their proximity to him. So it’s costly not only to us but those around us.
Until Jonah’s sin was dealt with, the storm only grew in intensity. Isn’t that how sin goes? The longer we delay confession, the more horrible the storm becomes.
Jonah knew the solution. Verse 12, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” Jonah realized for the sailors to be saved, he must sacrifice himself.
Now, imagine the sailors’ position. The only way out is by throwing him overboard? No wonder in verse 13 the men rowed hard to get back to dry land. But their rowing was in vain. Literally, it says of their rowing, they dug in their oars. Just as Jonah dug in his oars to Tarshish instead of to Nineveh. Sin urges us to dig in our oars against God’s purposes. But God won't allow it. It says of the sailors, “they could not” get to dry land. We can never go further from God than he will allow. As Ray Ortlund says, “God has more ways of confronting us than we have ways of evading him.”
When the sailors realized the rowing was in vain, their response was to cry out to the Lord. Jonah, the prophet of God, wouldn’t turn to God, but these heathen sailors did! They turned to prayer, asking God not to hold what they were about to do against them. Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard. Jonah’s sin faced its consequence. And the sea was calm.
Storms are a normal part of life but calming a storm at sea like this is a miracle. The calmness of the sea led to a new awareness among the sailors. Look at verse 16. “Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.” That fear is the kind of reverent awe that befalls those who’ve seen the Lord. They thought to themselves, “Who is this God that can calm the storm?” In a time when they too faced the consequences of their sin, they found at the end a calm by way of Jonah’s sacrifice.
But what about Jonah? He must have felt useless. He threw it all away, and it was time to face the Judge once and for all. At some point in our life, we’re going to face a similar situation. We’re going to see our sin for what it is, and we’re going to have to face the consequences. What will that time be like?
As Jonah fell to the sea, he knew it was what he deserved. But when he hit the water, he got something he didn’t deserve, and that’s our final point.
Look at verse 17. “And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”
Jonah didn’t deserve this fish, did he? He deserved God’s wrath. But God gives his people better than what they deserve. With God—as amazing as it sounds—our sin is swallowed by his grace. As the waves swallowed Jonah, God’s grace came to the sailors. And as Jonah was swallowed by the fish, God’s grace came to him as well.
When did God’s grace come to you? Has it yet? Maybe you need to see your sin first. Maybe you need to suffer the consequences of your sin first. I know that sounds terrifying, but we can trust God with it. There’s a deep spiritual truth that we can affirm from Scripture but that it difficult for us to believe. When we cover our sins in the darkness, God will drag them into the light. Jonah is proof of that. But when we drag our sins into the light, God will cover them with the cross.
We can keep running from God, or we can stop and face him. I wonder: what about this passage proves God isn’t faithful? What about this passage proves that he’s not worth trusting? What about this passage proves we can avoid him? Our only hope is casting ourselves upon his mercy and grace. Our only hope is turning away from our sin and toward him.
And what will happen when we do that? What will we find?
The greatest commentary on the Old Testament is the New Testament. And in the New Testament, in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus commented on this verse.
The Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign to prove himself. “But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”
Jesus affirms Jonah’s prophetic voice—that Jonah speaks of Jesus. Jonah is a type of Christ. Of course, Jesus didn’t sin like Jonah. Jesus didn’t say, “Another Jonah is here.” He said, “One greater than Jonah is here.”
How is Jesus greater?
● Jonah heard God’s call and said, “Not your will but mine.”
● But Jesus heard God’s call and said, “Not my will but thine.”
● Jonah showed no care for the lost. He didn’t care about the sailors on the ship. He didn’t care about the Ninevites in their sin. The compassion of God didn’t melt his heart, it angered him.
● But Jesus came to seek and save the lost. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
● Jonah fought against God’s heart.
● But Jesus is God’s heart.
● Jonah brought news of God’s grace.
● But Jesus is God’s grace.
● Jonah was thrown overboard for his own sins.
● But Jesus was thrown overboard for the sins of others.
● Jonah’s sacrifice caused the storm at sea to cease.
● But Jesus’ sacrifice caused the storm of God’s wrath to cease.
● Jonah was swallowed by the great fish that saved him from death.
● But Jesus swallowed sin on the cross to save his people from death.
● God loved the Ninevites enough to send Jonah.
● But God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Do you see the difference? Everything thing and everyone but Jonah is obeying God in this story! But Jesus went willingly into the weakness of flesh, to make himself like us so he could save us. Jesus came to find our sin out on the cross and to pay the consequences of our sin in his death.
Here’s God’s promise to us this morning. When we face our sins, openly and honestly, and turn to God with open hands of faith, God will swallow our sins in Christ. He will not throw us overboard because Christ has already been thrown overboard. He endured the wrath for us. And we can now have the storehouses of his mercy and grace. The grave could not hold him. And if you believe in the One greater than Jonah, the grave can’t hold you either. That’s way better than we deserve, isn’t it? It turns out that when we hurl ourselves into the ocean of God’s justice, we find at the bottom God’s mercy and grace.
Yes, we’ll have to change our lives. We’ll have to run wherever he says to run. But where did running on our own ever get us? Why not try listening to God for a change?
We see so much of ourselves in Jonah, don’t we? But the Apostle John says in 1 John 3, “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” Yes, we’re like Jonah. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, when we say yes to Christ, we are becoming like him.
If you feel more like Jonah than Jesus, don’t worry. God will send storms into your life. He uses them as interventions to show us who we are. And when our sin finds us out, and we face the consequences, God has a word for us that blows us away. God looks us square in the eye, without coddling us, without downplaying our sin, and presents his answer to our sin. There is One greater than Jonah who speaks a better word. His sacrificial blood can clean your sinful heart, and his resurrected life can grant you the newness you need. All you must do is listen to his word. Don’t let the Ninevites rise at the judgment and condemn you. Come to Christ now and find life!
The sign of Jonah is this. Jesus swallows your sin by his cross. Sin may belong to us, but salvation belongs to the Lord.
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Over the past two weeks, we’ve seen how the Christian marriage is a picture of the Christian gospel. Today, we are going to see how the Christian family is a picture of the Christian gospel.
When the gospel lands on us, we begin to change in surprising ways. Jesus lived and died and rose again not to make our lives a little more tolerable but to change us entirely into his image. And throughout the letter to the Ephesians, we see how pervasive that transformation is. Here in Ephesians 6:1-4, the focus is how Christ transforms the child-parent relationship.
This passage flows out of the command in 5:18 to be filled with the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit means we actually live as Christians, that our Christianity actually has an impact on our relationships. That’s what we want, isn’t it? So, in his kindness, God shows us what it looks like to live as Christians in our families.
But when we talk about families, there can be a lot of complications. Families bring much joy, but they can also bring much pain. And I think it’s possible for us to believe Christ can transform the world over before how could transform our families. But that kind of thinking limits God. It means we’re willing to believe in Christ’s redemption only so far, and then we stop. We think, “God could never change this.” We may not say it, but our actions and our inactions say it loud and clear. And I wonder in light of this passage today, how many of us stop believing in Christ’s redemption when it comes to our families? How many of us believe Christ can change the world but can’t do much in our own living room?
The call of Christ is to follow him. And part of that following means going out on mission to the world. But part of that following is staying home and living as if Christ is real in your own homes, with your own families. And that’s the goal Paul is aiming for in this passage—Christians actually living as Christians in the home. That’s not easy. I should know. I’m not good at this! And maybe you’re not either. But Christ is here to help.
So this passage gives us two insights, one for children and one for parents.
1) Christian children love God by honoring their parents.
2) Christian parents love God by discipling their children.
Look at verses 1-3.
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”
What does that mean? The key word in verse 1 is obey. To obey means to both hear and respond to the hearing. The idea is of someone hearing a knock on a door and going to listen to the one who knocks. It’s hearing and doing.
Obedience isn’t easy, is it? It’s an interruption of our regularly scheduled life. It means we must do something, often something we don’t want to do. And when Paul uses that word children, he’s talking to young children living in the home under their parents’ care. So all the kids still living at home that are here today, this is a word from God to you, “Obey your parents in the Lord.”
But there’s more to it than just blind obedience. God isn’t asking children to obey just because. Look at the phrase at the end of verse 1, “in the Lord.” What does that mean? It means the obedience children show their parents as Christians is their obedience to God. When they seek to obey because it’s God’s command, they seek to follow God. It’s the way young children bring their Christianity to bear on their relationship to the parents. Christian children obey their parents because in doing so they’re obeying God, their true Father.
This is really remarkable. God gives every Christian child in every home a way to live out their Christian life. If you’re young, you don’t have to wait to live for Christ. You can do it now, today, by obeying your parents. That’s not easy. Following Christ is never really easy. But it’s glorious. Following Jesus is the best possible life.
Now, of course, a child must not obey anything contrary to Christ’s commands—that’s another aspect of the phrase in the Lord. If your parents ask you to disobey Christ, you must say no to them. But Paul is speaking to a Christian family here, so this text doesn’t prompt us to answer commands parents may make that would be anti-Christ. That’s another conversation for another day. But in a Christian family, God’s mission for children is to trust and obey your parents because it’s a reflection of trust and obedience to God.
Paul then goes on to say obedience is right. Why is it right? Well, no matter where you go in the world, obedience to parents is the norm. But it is right for a Christian in a different way. It’s right for a Christian because it is connected to an old command. Look at verse 2, “Honor your father and mother.” Do you notice the quotation marks there? Paul is quoting the Old Testament—Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16—the fifth commandment of the Ten Commandments. With this quote, he shifts from young children in the home to all children everywhere. The Ten Commandments are binding on us all. They’re the basic structure of a good life that God established from the beginning.
Now, see that parenthetical phrase in verse 2? “(this is the first commandment with a promise)”. Some say that’s not right. They say there’s a promise in the second commandment. Well, there is something like a promise there, but it’s not what Paul’s referring to. The second commandment includes a universal promise applying to the whole law, but this is the first to include a promise tied to a single commandment. What was the promise? Look at verse 3. “That it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”
What does that mean? Well, let me tell you what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean honoring your parents is a way to earn a long life. Some wonderful children have short lives. Furthermore, honor can’t be in view of a reward at all. It isn’t honor if it’s done to gain something. We call that flattery. Flattery is where I say or do something to you or for you so that I’ll get something in return. That’s not honor. Honor is respecting another because of who they are, not because of what you can get. Honor focuses on another. Flattery focuses on yourself.
So if obedience is a way of honoring your parents when you’re young, and if your parents tell you not to run into the street and you disobey and get hit by a car, you won’t have a long life. But what about something less dramatic? What about just a general disposition of disobedience to your parents? Will life go well for you? If you reject the discipline and instruction of your parents, you won’t learn to live, and you won’t have a good, long life. Not because your parents are geniuses with all the answers but because your obedience to parents is training for obedience to Christ, and if you can’t obey Christ, you will not have a good life. God calls young children to obey as a way of honoring because it’s training for the future, and your parents can look at you all grown up and see their work wasn’t in vain. They raised you imperfectly but they raised you right.
Now as we grow, the primary way we honor isn’t obedience. Honoring our parents take on other forms. This is easier for some than it is for others. Some parents aren’t very honorable. And though Paul is speaking to a Christian family, if you were raised by non-Christians, or even parents who claimed Christ but didn’t live like it, it’s very hard to know how to apply this command. It may be hard for you to honor them. But God doesn’t put a qualifier on the parents, does he? He doesn’t say, “Honor your Christian father and mother.” He just says, “Honor your father and mother.” The qualifier belongs to the children, “honor your parents in the Lord.”
Christ changes our relationships. Even if he doesn’t change the warmth between us, he changes us, and we respond differently. When God calls us to honor our parents, he, of course, knows that some parents are hard to love, some are hard to admire, some are hard to accept. But you can honor your parents even if it’s really hard to love them or admire them or accept them because if God commanded it, he will provide a way to obey it. And I will say, as you honor your parents, don’t be surprised if those feelings of love, admiration, and acceptance also come. They may not be there now, but God can create them. And for many of us, it’s at least possible the reason we don’t feel as we ought toward our parents isn’t that our parents are any worse than us. It’s just because we haven’t let Christ go there yet. Maybe we need to.
So how do we honor our parents? Well, here are three ways.
First, treat your parents with the proper value and weight they deserve. You can’t treat them as if they don’t matter. They do. Recognize them as significant. Tell them they are. Tell them they matter to God and they matter to you. When something good happens for children, most parents fill with pride and joy. Let them enjoy those moments. Share your life with them. Let them see the impact they had on you.
I know many of us had parents who didn’t show their love or speak of their love for you—and both matter. So we don’t say what we should because we don’t know how it’ll be received. Well, maybe he wants you to make the first move. Honoring your parents means not withholding love.
Second, forgive them. This isn’t easy. But Jesus doesn’t call us to easy things. But he does promise to be with us and to help us. Your bitterness and resentment are not honoring to your parents. Jesus wants to free you from it. Will you let him?
Third, free yourself and your parents from your need for their approval. How many of us won’t ever feel validated in this world, no matter how successful we are in other areas, until we get the approval of our parents? And I wonder how many of us actually withhold honor to our parents because we’re waiting on some undefined approval from them.
You can let go of your need for their approval because all the approval you long for, all the approval you’ll ever need, all approval for eternity is yours in Christ. The gospels show us various times in the life of Jesus when God the Father broke through the clouds and said, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” Do you know what the gospel says? The gospel says you’ve been adopted by the Heavenly Father and those are his words about you.
Do you see how freeing that is? You’ll never honor your parents until you see how completely you’re approved in Christ. You’ll never forgive them until you see your forgiveness in Christ. You’ll never honor them until you see the value and weight God has placed on them for your good.
I know it can be hard, but a Christian child loves God by honoring their parents, because Christ can redeem everything. Let’s not limit God at this point. Let’s let him be God and let’s be his obedience children.
Now, an insight for parents.
Look at verse 4. “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
God calls parents to disciple their children. You can’t make your children Christians, but you can make it easy to love Jesus in your home. You can endeavor to make your home ring with gospel joy. You can endeavor to make your family not only a family of Christians, but a Christian family—sold out for Christ and his cause.
God has more for us than the hum-drum life of work, rest, and entertainment. He has more for your children than extra-curricular activities and college scholarships and good jobs. He has the storehouses of grace and glory for your family. And our problem is, as C.S. Lewis famously said, we’re far too easily pleased. We settle for mud pies when a holiday at sea is there for the taking.
Though Paul uses the word “fathers” here, these words apply to fathers and mothers. But in Paul’s day, the children were under the father’s complete control. He could have them killed or sell them into slavery. No law stood in his way. And we think the command to obedience and honor is difficult to hear! It’s easy to see in that kind of culture how a child would be provoked to anger. Who wouldn’t be provoked living in an unjust home?
But Christ brings justice. He sets things right. That’s why Paul begins with a negative command, “Do not provoke your children to anger.” Now we may not live as the first century did, but this is still a frightening statement because it’s saying that there is a possibility for a parent to create in their children a settled anger and resentment that lasts for a very long time. Now, of course. there will be times a child gets angry. Who doesn’t get angry? But there’s a big difference between intermittent anger and deep, abiding anger as a result of your upbringing.
How does that happen? Well, one the one hand, parents can be too hard. They can give unnecessary commands, be too heavy-handed, or just down-right mean. They can be easily frustrated and lash out at small things where all bad behavior is treated equally. They don’t care about discipling and training the child. They just want the child to fall in line.
King Saul was like that. In 1 Samuel 20, they were at dinner and Saul noticed David wasn’t there as he should be. He asked his son Jonathan where he was. Now, Jonathan knew Saul was mad at David, wanting to kill him, and helped him avoid the dinner. Jonathan was doing the right thing, but Saul didn’t care. He wanted him to fall in line. Saul said to his son, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman.” Then went on to command David be brought so he could be killed. When Jonathan asked what David had done, Saul thrust his spear at him. So Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger. And rightly so.
That’s a parent who is too hard and mean. But it’s also possible for a parent to be too soft. For example, in Genesis 37, we see the failures of Jacob as a father. What was it? He was too soft on his son Joseph. He favored him above the others, and it led to the anger of his other sons. Eventually, they sold Joseph into slavery.
The point is it’s easy to provoke our children to anger. We don’t have to be evil King Saul. We can be kind father Jacob and do just as much damage. When we fail to treat our children as a stewardship from the Lord and instead view them as servants for our agenda or necessities for our emotional state, we provoke either them or our other children to anger.
A Christian parent doesn’t see their children as either an annoyance or an emotional crutch but instead understands them to be a stewardship from the Lord, for his sake, and seeks to bring up their kids in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. That last phrase is so important. Most parents are good, and will raise their children with discipline and instruction. But a Christian parent notices those last three words, “of the Lord.” It’s not our discipline and instruction that matters. It’s Christ’s. It’s our duty to help our children follow Jesus.
This means parents must be aware of the rhythms of life. How is your week structured? How much of a priority is Jesus in your family life? Is church a checklist item on Sunday morning or is it an anticipation on Saturday night? Is youth group dependent on the children’s sports practice or it is the reason you have to call the coach to explain their absence? Your rhythms of life either prove or disprove the reality of God. If you never pray or read the Bible in front of or with your kids, if you never talk about Jesus in any regular, open way, if you never invite others into your home for the sake of the gospel, if you never serve Jesus together as a family, if you never ask your kids about who they think Jesus is, if you’re just thankful you’re a Christian and going to heaven but your Christianity hasn’t made an impact on the way you raise your kids, you haven’t yet realized the glory your family is missing with Christ.
It’s all too easy to just let life come at us, but a Christian parent loves God by helping their children follow Jesus. A Christian parent is active, treating them as a stewardship from the Lord. Like Jesus, a Christian parent pursues. You can’t save them, but you can point them to the Savior. You can make the Savior real in your home.
Let me close with this. Some of us didn’t grow up in a Christian family. Even if our parents were Christians, they didn’t parent us that way. And some of us were really bad children, and we’ve never made things right. We love Jesus but we haven’t yet decided to honor our parents. And some of us are not the parents we should be now, and we’re not sure how to change. So what do we do now? Well, here’s a question I’ve been considering this week. It applies to this verse and to everything else in life. Do I believe that Jesus is a redeemer? I respect him as king—one who watches over me. I listen to him as prophet—one who speaks with power. But do I trust him as Redeemer—one who makes all things new? When we trust him that way, we stop quenching the Spirit, and he starts working in our lives. Jesus can change the story of your family and my family, starting today. And he’s asking us, “Will you let me?”
Do you need redemption in your family? It’s yours in Christ. Do you need grace to honor your parents? It’s yours in Christ. Do you need help valuing and forgiving your parents? It’s yours in Christ. Do you need moment by moment help to parent your children? It’s yours in Christ. Everything you need is yours in Christ Jesus because Christ Jesus gave himself for you.
That Jesus is a redeemer means no family is too far gone. You may think, “We’re a mess.” Well, ok. We all are. All you have to do today is say to Christ, “I’m your mess.” And he’ll come in and clean it up. None of us is perfect, but if we’re waiting for perfection or nothing, we’ll get nothing every time. Let’s trust Christ and say yes to the next right thing. The Triune God is at work in our life to bring redemption. And in that Trinity we have the Son who loves and honors the Father perfectly, and the Father who never provokes to anger and knows how to discipline and instruct, and the Spirit who sustains it all. The whole God is invested in the whole you. And he’s asking us today, will we trust him or will we limit him?
Let’s decide right now to trust him. Who knows? Our crazy families just might prove to other crazy families how wonderful God is.
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Ephesians has two major sections. Chapters 1-3 presents gospel doctrine—right thinking about God. Chapters 4-6 presents gospel culture—right living before God. Right thinking leads to right living; gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture.
To maintain gospel culture, we need a constant dose of gospel doctrine. Somehow, we continually forget the best news in the world. That’s why the Reformer Martin Luther said we need to beat the gospel into our heads continually. If we don’t drink constantly from the fountain of God’s love in the gospel, we will not experience a gospel culture because culture is a manifestation of what we think. Thinking and doing go together. We need constant continuing education in Christ’s school.
So, Paul takes us to school.
The “therefore” in verse 1 indicates Paul is continuing a thought. That thought is what Pastor Dustin wonderfully preached last week from 4:25-32. Gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture. Christianity doesn’t look like a cleaner version of our regular life. Christianity is a whole new life. Christianity is imitating God and walking in love, as Jesus did. Christianity is following the footsteps of Jesus out of the horror of the cross into the glory of the new life. And we have not only the perfect model, we have the perfect power who works in us, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
So in Ephesians 5:1-2, Paul gives two commands and two reasons for the Christian life: two commands to live by and two reasons to live by them. So let’s look at the commands first, then the reasons, because that’s how Paul wrote it.
Look at the beginning of verse 1: “Therefore be imitators of God.”
The goal of the Christian life is perfect imitation of God. The apostle John said that one day, “we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” So, really, the whole of the Christian life is summed up right here: be imitators of God.
What are we doing when we imitate God? We’re trying to become the greatest good in existence. God is the perfect person. He’s full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And God made us to imitate. Go back to the very beginning. When God created us, he said, “Let us make man in our image.” In the law he said, “Be holy as I am holy.” Jesus said, “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” So when we imitate God, we’re doing what we’re designed to do, we’re imaging God, being holy as he is holy, pursuing perfection. The fact that we have and will continue to fail is no excuse out of this command. It’s all the more reason we need it. God continually calls us to himself, showing and giving the holiness we need.
At the most basic level, to imitate God means to mimic him. How do we mimic someone? We watch them. We pay close attention to them. And then we do what they do.
As I was watching the NBA Finals the other night, I thought of Kobe Bryant. He was an all-time great basketball player. But he wasn’t the best ever. Michael Jordan was (sorry LeBron fans). When Kobe came into the league, it was obvious that he was imitating Jordan. His mannerisms, the way he carried himself on the court, even the way he celebrated. Kobe imitated the details because we imitate in specifics, not in generalities. To be great, Kobe watched specific greatness. He knew he could imitate Jordan, so he did. And he won championships and is a sure Hall of Famer.
I know it sounds crazy, but you can imitate God. Not everyone has the skills to imitate Michael Jordan, but every Christian has the ability to imitate God. Kobe wanted to be like Mike, but he was on his own. Jordan never sat down to show him how to play the game. All Kobe had to go on was tape. We were made to be like God, and God came down in Christ to show us the way. He gave and preserved the Bible where we see his work and wisdom. He sent his Spirit to dwell within. Your Divine Coach gives everything you need to live the full Christian life. You can imitate God.
But let’s understand our place. We are children of God. We are not God. We’re called to imitate God, not to be God. Kobe Bryant could never walk onto the court at United Center in Chicago and expect the applause reserved for Jordan. He could imitate him, but he couldn’t be him. God has certain attributes—all-powerful, all-knowing, self-existent—that we can’t imitate. He has others—holiness, kindness, love—that we can imitate.
When we try to put ourselves in the position of God, trying to be God instead of imitating him, we fail, we sin. We imitate what we face, and it’s hard to look at God when you think you are God. But when you know you’re his child? Well….we’ll get to that in a minute.
First, let’s consider the other command.
Look at the beginning of verse 2: “And walk in love.”
Pastor Tim Keller points out that Paul doesn’t say sprint in love, he says walk in love. I bet you could sprint in love if you had to. It’d take some effort, but you could do it. But it’d be short lived. The point Paul’s making is love shouldn’t be something short lived and occasional, like sprinting. It should be natural and consistent, like walking. Anyone can love once, but can you love constantly? That’s the question.
What kind of love, you might ask. Well, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13. It’s a famous passage at weddings, but Paul didn’t write it for weddings. He wrote it for the church.
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”
That’s the kind of love Paul’s talking about. So, how are you doing? Does love define your life? Paul says it should. And he doesn’t say only super-Christians should live this way. He presents this as ordinary Christianity. The unmistakable sign of Christianity is a life of walking in love. This is not optional for the Christian. Jesus himself said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
For most of us, walking is a natural part of life. But it wasn’t always so. When you were a baby, you couldn’t roll off the couch and walk around the block. You had to be picked up, placed in a stroller, and pushed around by someone else. But now you can walk. And you learned by imitating others. You held the hand of your parents. You were picked up when you fell down.
So what do you need if love isn’t the way you walk? You need to realize you’re a baby who needs help. You need Christ. You need him to come and pick you up, put you in his stroller, and take you for a walk. He’ll show you what love looks like. He’ll take away your excuses and give you reasons.
Look again at verse 1: “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.”
Children imitate their parents. You don’t have to tell them to do it. It just happens. Why? Because they’re the biggest influence in their life. They’re their hero. They’re perfect in their eyes.
But earthly parents fail to live up to the test of time. They disappoint. So we distance ourselves. We orphan ourselves to avoid pain. Many of us even transfer parental disappointment onto God. But that’s not fair. Your father may not have been all he should, but God will never let you down. In fact, if you view God like a more distant version of your earthly parents, you will never imitate him. Why would you? To imitate God, you need to be like a child caught up in the wonder of your Father. And unlike some of our earthly parents, God constantly tells us of his love for us.
Don’t orphan yourself. Accept your childhood. So many of your problems result from forgetting that you are a child of God.
Jack Miller, the Presbyterian pastor, thought a lot about this. He put together a chart to diagnose how we view ourselves in relation to God.
On the left, is the mindset of the orphan. On the right, is the mindset of the child of God.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/abf36190c28f2e5b-orphan-vs.-child-ZWwy3cTGujd1SfkpSPIMfjBVMWDc7V.png\")
\n \n\nWhich describes you?
The Bible calls all Christians “beloved children.” Romans 8:15 says God has given us the Spirit of sonship and by him we cry, “Abba, Father!” When Jesus taught us to pray, he taught us to say, “Our Father.” Paul says in Galatians 4 we are children of the promise. John says Jesus gave us the right to be called children of God.
If you’re in Christ, God relates to you not like a king to a servant or a boss to an employee but as a father to a child, with warmth and depth, tenderness and care, attention and intention. You’re not an orphan! You’re a child of God! So, Paul says, be like your Father!
This wasn’t any easier for the apostles than it was for us. So on his way to the cross, Jesus made a promise: “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” He knew his leaving would trouble his followers. So he assured them they wouldn’t be alone. God would send the Holy Spirit to be and abide with them, to confirm what he taught them, to tell them they were children of God.
What’s true of them is true of us. You, Christian, are a child of God. He’s not just the Father. He’s your Father. And he wants you to understand his massive heart of love for you. He sent Jesus to show it, and he gives his Spirit to seal it. The triune God is at work right now to communicate his love to you!
The Puritan Thomas Goodwin understood this so well. In his book The Heart of Christ, he talked about what Jesus meant in John 16 when he said that whatever the Spirit hears he will speak.
“All his speech in your hearts will be to advance me, and to greaten my worth and love unto you, and it will be his delight to do it. And he can come from heaven in an instant when he will, and bring you fresh tidings of my mind, and tell you the thoughts I last had of you, even at that very minute when I am thinking of them…So that you shall have my heart as surely and as speedily as if I were with you.”
In other words, those moments when you believe the word of God, when you feel loved by him, those moments are not just coincidental, they are not merely emotional. Those moments when you think, “my Father loves me,” are the precise moments when your Father is thinking of you, and he’s communicating his love to your heart by his Spirit who dwells within you.
So if you believe God’s love for you right now it’s not because I’m telling you it’s true, it’s because he’s telling you it’s true!
And when you listen and believe, you then have a responsibility to those of us who feel like orphans. You must imitate God and walk in love toward us, showing us what it’s like to be a child of God, reminding us of the honor, helping us see our Father in new ways, with new eyes. That’s what Paul means in 4:29 when he says we must speak so as to build one another up, that it may give grace to those who hear. We’re family, and we need one other’s faith to build faith.
Be imitators of God, as beloved children.
But there’s more.
Look again at verse 2: “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
The Bible says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus is not only the model of perfect love, he’s the reason for all Christian love. That’s why Paul, when discussing right living, includes right thinking. Right living flows from right thinking. Christ’s death on the cross reconciled us to God. It’s the supreme act of love. And if we’re ever going to have a chance at walking in love, it’s going to be in response to God’s love.
I love what John Stott said about Jesus, “What dominated his mind was not the living but the giving of his life.” Jesus knew what he was doing as he walked the road to the cross. He said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected… and be killed.” That knowledge didn’t turn him away. He walked on, bound by his love for God and for us. He let the mission of God determine the path he walked. He wasn’t surprised when it all started going down. He knew Judas would betray him. He knew his trial would go bad. He knew the cross was coming. And he accepted it in love for us. Gospel love is that bold. It’s that risky.
What’s your love like?
A character in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina said, “I imagine the main spring of all our actions is self-interest.” Wow, isn’t that true? But in a gospel culture, the main spring of all our actions is the interests of others. “Let each of you,” Paul said, “look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” To walk in love is to seek the good of others even at the expense of self.
Are we really living for God, or are we pretending to live for God while we pursue all our hopes and dreams, fitting God in on the side?
Jesus really lived for God and for us. It wasn’t theoretical. Jesus did not withhold love. Are we aware that withheld love is a sin? Jesus loved us and gave himself up for us. Love gives. What do you need to give in love? You’re thinking of someone right now, someone you need to love better. What are you going to do about it?
We won’t just stumble into this kind of love. Gospel love is intentional. Gospel love walks at the pace of Jesus, imitating God with each step, no matter the circumstances. We must choose gospel love as Christ chose it. He trusted the Father’s plan, resolved to do the Father’s will, and did the Father’s work. Will we?
The Bible makes a big deal of this. Jesus said, “if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Apparently, walking in love before God is a bigger deal than making an offering to God. Walking in love is an offering to God.
We see that in that last little phrase of verse 2: a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. That’s Old Testament language. You know that wonderful smell of meat cooking on the grill or in the kitchen? That’s what the Old Testament temple smelled like as a sacrifice burned on the altar. The aroma went up to heaven, and the Bible says God accepted it as pleasing when it came from a sincere and wholehearted worshiper. No one was ever more sincere or wholehearted than Jesus. And his offering on the cross was a pleasing smell to the Father because he walked the road there in love. Gospel love smells good to God.
In love, Jesus offered himself to God for us. What dominated his mind was the giving not the living of his life. Why? Because we blew it. We sinned. And we could never make up for our sin. Our sin required blood, and not the blood of goats and bulls. Our sin required man’s blood. So Jesus took on flesh and gave his blood on our behalf as an offering to God. And the Father accepted it. His offering reconciled us to God.
This, Paul says, is walking in love. Therefore, to imitate God means we’re going to have to die a little. We’re going to have to deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow Jesus.
But please see that he’s not saying, “live this way or else.” He’s saying, “live this way because.” When we see the dying love of Christ for us, it motivates us to live the same way. If you don’t walk in love, it’s because you haven’t yet really been grasped by the gospel. You may be able to love big-time every once in a while, but only by believing in the dying love of Jesus can you ever have a consistent, routine lifestyle of love.
Jesus’ life of love smelled good to God, and his sacrifice was accepted. Does your life smell good, or is it kind of stinky?
Mine is too often stinky. But here’s the hope for all of us stinky Christians: Jesus loved you and gave himself up for you! When God makes commands of us, he always provides for us. Christ’s sacrifice was a fragrant offering. The Bible says of Christ, “you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” If we stinky Christians will just give our stinky lives to Christ, we will get his oil of gladness, his fragrance. Jesus will cover our stinkiness because that’s what love does. “Love covers a multitude of sins.”
God is not calling us to this just to be a nice person. God is calling us to this because he cannot call himself to us and not make us like him, not make us loving. To be with him is to become like him.
Let me ask this in closing: What if we took this call seriously, with no hold outs, and no limitations? What might God do in and through us?
We might just look like God and love like God. It might look like God came to town, like heaven on earth.
The Reformer John Calvin said we must embrace one another with the love with which Christ embraces us. Jesus loved us and gave himself up for us. Real love includes giving ourselves up. Real love is costly. Real love stretches. It stretched Christ out on the cross. Are you being stretched with him? Imitating God doesn’t only mean his attributes but also his sufferings. Who are you suffering for for Jesus’ sake?
The test that gospel doctrine has settled down deep is the visibility of gospel culture: marked by joyful, sacrificial living—not just your time or money, but your self. Jesus didn’t just give up his possessions. He gave up himself. The test of faithfulness is not merely the amount of your tithe or the fullness of your schedule, it’s your openness to others for Jesus’ sake. Life-giving love from the life-giving God goes through personal sacrifice.
So, that’s the call. Will we trust Christ with it?
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Well, these are urgent words, aren’t they? So, let’s be urgent with them.
The Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, tells us three things:
1. Christians live with wise urgency (vv. 15-17)
2. Wise urgency comes from the Spirit (v. 18)
3. The Spirit creates a wise culture (vv. 19-21)
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
When Christ calls us to himself, he calls us immediately. There is no ramp-up period. We don’t ease into new life with Christ. He starts his work immediately, and he never lets up.
C.S. Lewis captures that idea in his book Mere Christianity.
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.
When God comes down to live in our house, we begin living with increased attention, increased urgency. Life with God is like living in a construction zone in the middle of a war. He’s building something beautiful, and we have a great hope that one day it’s going to be far more than we could ever imagine, but the enemy seeks to destroy. God doesn’t want us to be ignorant of that. He wants us to live with wise urgency, as a soldier at war. The time to obey Jesus is now.
How aware are we of spiritual danger in the world? Paul was aware. He talks about it throughout Ephesians. In chapter 2 he said unbelievers follow “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” In the passage we saw last week, he urged us “not to take part in the unfruitful works of darkness.” In chapter 6, he says “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Spiritual warfare was part of Paul’s theology because the evil one still roams. And though he lost us to God, he’ll do all he can to make us ineffective Christians.
Too many of us assume the days are harmless because most days look so nice. We aren’t careful because the threat doesn’t seem large. But Satan doesn’t have to persecute us into ineffectiveness. We can be beat on the front of pleasure just as easily as the front of pain. In fact, pleasure may be easier. And I think that’s where we are today in America. The enemy is crafty, and he’s on the attack. And as he props up the appealing images, we drool our way into his hands. We forget God’s wise path to life because the path of darkness looks brighter at the start. But it’s a lie. It’s a trap.
So Paul says we must live with wise urgency. How do we do that? Well, we pay attention to our steps, moment by moment. Do our steps land in line with God’s word? We must be wise. Biblical wisdom is someone skilled in finding what’s pleasing to God. We must make the best use of time. The Greek language here means to purchasing a slave’s freedom – buying up the time, redeeming the time. We are to understand what the will of the Lord is. That sounds complicated but it’s really not. The Bible tells us God’s will. It’s to make us like Christ, to redeem the world, to bring heaven down, to grant eternal life.
And Paul warns us here to pay attention. It’s far too easy to step off this path and go back into darkness.
So what’s our hope? Jesus is our hope. In the fullness of time, God waged war against the evil of this world. What was his weapon of choice? It was a baby. He sent his Son into the world to redeem the world. Jesus lived with wise urgency. He looked carefully how he walked, obeying the law perfectly. He was wise, the beloved Son in whom God was well pleased. He made the best use of time. At the pinnacle of his battle, he gave himself up for us on the cross. He bought up the evil days and purchased our freedom. Why? Because he understood the will of the Lord. He prayed, “not my will but yours.” And he’s asking us all to pray the same. That’s the wise urgency we must have, living in a moment-by-moment relationship with God, trusting he knows best, listening to him, and following even when the path seems crazy.
No one looked at the cross that first Good Friday and saw good news. It looked like utter failure. But what looks like failure to the world is the wisdom of God. Jesus’ resurrection was the historical proof that God’s way is not crazy; God’s way is wise. On the cross, Jesus defeated satan even as satan thought he defeated Jesus. God turned the tables on the devil. Jesus exchanged sin for righteousness and reconciled sinners to the Holy God. Death brought about life.
Every other path may look bright and be loud and flashy, but it leads to death. God’s path looks stupid, like death on a cross, but it leads to life. Are we willing to listen to that wisdom?
Satan doesn’t want you to. He doesn’t want you on the front lines. Redeemed sinners are a threat to his power. He wants you hiding in the ditch alone. But God never leaves us alone, and he never makes ineffective Christians. We might end up in the ditch sometimes, but he’s there with us. And when we’re with him, we’re always on the front lines of the battle of this world. We might not be able to move out of bed, but we’re fighting with Christ, for Christ. And the best news of all is that he’s fighting for us. In fact, he already fought for us. And he won. And he gives us his Spirit now, granting the wisdom we need. The devil hates that. He freaks out about that. A Spirit-filled you is too much for him! But a Spirit-filled you is God’s plan!
You are not a problem Christ has to figure out how to solve. You are a strategy he’s seeking to deploy. There is no time to waste. The devil isn’t resting. Neither is God. Are you?
Death looms over this world, and the only way to make it through is to follow the One who’s already conquered death. If you’re in Christ, the truth is, you’re already dead. And if you’re in Christ, the truth is, you’re already alive. The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. Will you accept that and live as if it’s true?
If we say yes to that call, we find a second amazing reality: wise urgency comes from the Spirit. Our second point.
18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit
How are we going to live with wise urgency? By being filled with God himself.
When we come to Christ, God gives us an inexhaustible resource of fullness. The concept of “filling” is really important to Paul in Ephesians. In 1:23, he says the church is Christ’s body, “the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” In 3:19, he prays that we “may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” In 4:10 he says Jesus “ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.” In 4:13 he says God put gifts in the church to “become mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” And now here, in 5:18, Paul says to be filled with the Spirit.
God did not create a world full without him. He created a world to be filled with him. We were made to be filled with God. But when sin entered the world, we turned from God to idols. Sin didn’t remove our need for filling; it just redirected our gaze from the one who can satisfy to worthless fillers, like junk food on a Saturday night.
So, Paul gives us two opposite ways we can be filled: with wine or the Holy Spirit.
The seems like a strange choice of options, doesn’t it? Get wine-filled or Spirit-filled! But this isn’t the first time the Bible mentions these two together. We see in the book of Acts, when the Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, that some of those watching thought the disciples were drunk. So, there must be something to that comparison. The word Paul uses for drunk means to be soaked, saturated with, dominated by. Being drunk is to be controlled by the alcohol. To be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by him. But the Spirit takes control in an opposite way from alcohol. He makes you better, not worse.
To be drunk with wine is debauchery. The Greek means spilled out. It’s what Jesus used in the parable of the Prodigal Son, when he said the younger son went out and spent all his money on riotous living. He spilled it out. He wasted it. He squandered it. He spent all his inheritance and got nowhere. That’s what being drunk on wine does. It spends you and gets you nowhere. But being filled with the Spirit is the opposite. When filled with the Spirit, we aren’t wasters. We’re buyers. Those drunk with wine waste their time. Those filled with the Spirit buy up the time God gives, they make the most of it.
Pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jones understood this. He was a medical doctor before he became a pastor. He says:
“Wine, pharmacologically speaking, is not a stimulant. It’s a depressant. Further, it depresses first and foremost the highest centers of the brain that controls everything that gives self-control, wisdom, understanding, discrimination, judgment, balance, the power to assess everything; in other words, everything that makes a man behave at his very best and highest.
The Holy Spirit has the exact opposite effect. If it were possible to put the Holy Spirit into a textbook of Pharmacology, I would put him under the stimulants, for that is where he belongs. He really does stimulate. He stimulates our every faculty: the mind and the intellect, the heart and the will.”
Being filled with the Spirit is a life of mental, emotional, and psychological stimulation. It’s being alive in the most wonderful way—alive to God.
But maybe you say, “Well, I’m not a drunkard.” That’s fine. Replace wine with any other idol. It’s the same thing. It leads to debauchery. It leads to exhaustion. Riotous living might not look like a keg party every Friday night. It might look like a normal Williamson County life, void of the Spirit of God and full of the spirit of the age, pursuing comfort, security, and the good life. The question for us today is: do we factor God into our life or is our life too full for him?
God is saying we must empty our lives and be filled with the Spirit because that’s what we’re made for. We spend so much of our life going from one thing to another never being satisfied. And God is commanding all of us today, “Stop it! Stop filling yourself with emptiness. Let me fill you.”
When you say yes to that call, the Holy Spirit will lift you far higher and for far longer than anything else. Everything else is fleeting. The Spirit abides.
The Spirit’s filling is part of the gospel promise. In John 7, Jesus stood at a feast and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” And John says, “This he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive.”
Do you understand what that means? In the gospel, God promises to continually fill us with the Spirit as we come to him and drink. So, here’s the command today: go to Christ and drink! Fill yourself up with him, and he will fill you up with himself. You don’t have to pay for him. He’s free. You don’t have to earn him. He’s all of grace. You don’t have to maintain him. He’s self-existent. You don’t have to perform for him. He’s not impressed with you, anyway. He’s impressed with Christ. But you must go to him. And when you do, he floods with living waters. So, what are you waiting for? Why put life on hold for one more second? Go to Christ!
When you go to him, the Holy Spirit flows in, and he flows out, creating a wise culture, which Paul shows us in verses 19-21.
The Spirit creates a wise culture (vv. 19-21)
19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
There’s an entry from the journal of John Wesley that shows these verses in action. Wesley was one of the key men God used in the 18th century revival known as the Great Awakening. He was aboard a ship to America with a group of Moravian Christians when a strong storm arose. The difference between his reaction and that of the Moravians changed him. Here’s what he said.
At seven I went to the Germans [Moravians]. I had long before observed the great seriousness of their behavior. Of their humility they had given a continual proof, by performing those servile offices for the other passengers, which none of the English would undertake; for which they desired, and would receive no pay, saying, “it was good for their proud hearts,” and “their loving Saviour had done more for them.” And every day had given them occasion of showing a meekness which no injury could move. If they were pushed, struck, or thrown down, they rose again and went away; but no complaint was found in their mouth. There was now an opportunity of trying whether they were delivered from the Spirit of fear, as well as from that of pride, anger, and revenge. In the midst of the psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the main-sail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured in between the decks, as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible screaming began among the English. The Germans [Moravians] calmly sung on. I asked one of them afterwards, “Were you not afraid?” He answered, “I thank God, no.” I asked, “But were not your women and children afraid?” He replied, mildly, “No; our women and children are not afraid to die.”
From them I went to their crying, trembling neighbors, and pointed out to them the difference in the hour of trial, between him that fears God, and him that fears him not. At twelve the wind fell. This was the most glorious day which I have hitherto seen.
Do you see the wise culture the Spirit created? The Moravians stood in the storm as Wesley shrank away. They praised as the waves crashed. Why? Because they lived with wise urgency. Because they were filled with the Spirit. They were there to worship God! They didn’t do it out of a desire to be loved. They did it because they were loved. There was no difference in their faith in the sunshine vs. their faith in the storm. We often think wise urgency matters only when the storm comes, but these Christians show us wise urgency matters in the sunshine before it matters in the storms. It was their way of life in the mundane that struck Wesley at first. And when the storm came, what he saw only confirmed the strength of their faith. If you don’t have wise urgency in the sunshine, the storms won’t bring it out. Who you are in secret proves the wisdom or foolishness in which you’re walking.
The Moravians stood to sing before the storm came. When it came and threated life, they sang on. Their singing addressed Wesley, as verse 19 commands. As their voices rang out to God, they made melody in their hearts, as verse 19 commands. And they gave thanks always and for everything, as verse 20 commands. The Spirit flowed from them and filled Wesley’s heart.
Now, some would say they’re stupid for singing in that kind of storm, but it was the will of God. Don’t be surprised if your walk with God looks stupid to the world. The wisdom of God was death on a cross!
Be filled with the Spirit, look carefully how you walk, and see what God will do. Your faith today will lead to singing in a storm. And God might use you to encourage the next John Wesley and spur the next Great Awakening!
The Moravians humbled themselves. They served where others wouldn’t. They were filled with the Spirit. And through them, the Spirit filled Wesley. And what was his response? It was to submit himself to them, as verse 21 commands. He saw their faith and it cut him to the heart, and he went to his English brethren and pointed out the difference between him that fears God and him that fears him not.
Do you see the kind of wise culture the Spirit creates? He brought heaven down to that ship. But it wasn’t easy, was it? There was a storm. There was danger. But God was in it!
When God gets involved, it doesn’t mean everything will be safe. It just means everything will matter! God wants that in your life right now, today. There are no insignificant moments! Live with Spirit-filled wise urgency!
Conclusion
We opened with C.S. Lewis, so let’s close with him. In his book The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Mr. Beaver talks with Susan about their troubles with the evil White Witch. It’s rumored Aslan, the Jesus-figure, is on the move. Mr. Beaver assures Aslan can help, but when Susan realizes Aslan is a lion, she says,
\"Oh. I'd thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion\"
\"Safe?\" said Mr. Beaver. \"Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”
When King Jesus comes, of course he isn’t safe. How can holiness be safe to our sinfulness? But the wonder of the gospel is that this King puts himself on the cross instead of us. This King gives his holiness to sinners. This King destroys evil by redeeming us. It’ll be painful. It’ll be trying. But it’ll be glorious because this King is good. And when the King comes, I tell you, he creates something beautiful. No decent little cottage for you. He’s building a palace.
1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. 6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
As we transition from chapter 2 to chapter 3, Paul is moved to prayer because he’s in awe of God’s work in Christ in creating the global church. But as he began praying, he realized he said something that could sound discouraging to his readers. He didn’t want that. So he cut himself off to clarify. Notice the dash at the end of verse 1? With that dash, he began, basically, a mini-sermon on the joy of suffering for the cause of Christ.
Why does he do this? Because God has called the Church to be an outpost of the Kingdom in this world. And in this world of sin and rebellion, it should not surprise us that God’s Church and God’s people encounter suffering. For Paul, that isn’t a discouragement. It’s validation that God is at work in the world because the gospel isn’t a add-on option to life. It’s a life-changing, world-shaking, history-defining truth for life. The gospel is a revolution, and no revolution is easy. For Paul, hardship was something to rejoice in because Jesus is in it. This is the pastoral Paul, proving that joy and suffering go together in the Christian life.
Joy and suffering don’t normally fit. But the Bible shows that in the Christian life, suffering and joy can be friends because Jesus, the Suffering Servant, made them so. When God gets involved, his revealed purpose colors all our suffering, changing the tint from darkness to light. That doesn't mean our hardships are less painful or difficult. But God gives us the grace to endure, revealing along the way the larger purpose behind his work. In our suffering, we see more of Jesus and his purposes than we can on the clearest of days. The Lord is near to the broken-hearted.
Here in Ephesians 3, Paul wants to be very clear: he was not surprised by his suffering; he was surprised by his joy in his suffering. Suffering for Christ isn’t easy, but it’s worth every hardship because Jesus has swept us into the only cause that will last for eternity.
So, today, I want to consider suffering for the cause of Christ in three parts.
First, God gets involved in the hardships of life.
Second, God has a purpose for life’s hardships.
And third, God’s purpose is greater than life’s hardships.
The Bible is honest about life. When we live for Christ, we will suffer because we live in a sin-stained world in rebellion against God. But the Bible does more than say, “Life is hard. Suck it up.” It reasons with us on how to respond.
In John 16:33, Jesus said life wouldn't be easy. \"In the world, you will have tribulation.\" All who live for Christ discover that truth. But that’s not all Jesus said. He said, Yes, you will have trouble, \"But take heart; I have overcome the world.\" As we journey with Christ, we should expect two things simultaneously. We should expect trouble. And we should expect Christ’s sustaining victory.
That was Paul’s mindset. Look at verse 1. “For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—”
Paul wrote from prison—he had trouble. He began his prayer with this truth. But he cut himself off to engage his readers about it, showing that, “Yes, my life includes hardships, but there’s no reason for discouragement. Jesus is here. He’s the defining truth in my life.”
The book of Acts says Paul was imprisoned in Rome under Caesar. But that isn’t how Paul explains his imprisonment, is it? Look what he says. “I, Paul, a prisoner of”-- of who? of “Christ Jesus.\" Paul does not consider himself a prisoner of Caesar nor Rome. He considers himself a prisoner of Christ Jesus! He saw things for what they really were. Yes, men had locked him up, but Jesus directed their steps. Jesus was in control of his life. Trough those eyes, Paul’s imprisonment stopped being a hardship and became a ministry. That's what a Redeemer does: he turns hardships into ministry. \"In the world, you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world!\"
When we face suffering for the sake of Christ, it’s hard to see with those eyes, isn’t it? Suffering takes the heart out of us—it's disheartening. In suffering, we need more than a pep talk. When suffering comes because of faithfulness to Jesus, here's what you need to know: Jesus will put your heart back. He will sustain you. But more than that—he can give you joy in the suffering because he has overcome the world. You know how this story ultimately ends, and it’s not a tragedy.
If you are his, even if you’re imprisoned by this world, your deepest reality is that you’re a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and in his prison, you’re the freest person in the world. Our present circumstances are not indications of God’s faithfulness or unfaithfulness. God’s faithfulness is present in all our circumstances.
God is not aloof to your suffering. How could he be? He knows what it's like. He's the one person who knows how hard life really is. He never sinned. He never gave in to temptation. He never called it quits. He obeyed to the point of death, even death on a cross. He did it for you because you needed a victory you could not win. He did it for the Church he saved before the foundation of the world. “For the joy set before him, he endured the cross.”
And because he won, when you suffer, you have with you the greatest and most victorious Sufferer the world has ever seen. His suffering was not purposeless. So your suffering can’t be purposeless either, which is our second point.
Why is Paul in prison? Because God has a purpose for Paul’s life. Look at the end of verse 1: Paul is in prison “On behalf of you Gentiles.”
Think of a mother who just endured a hard labor. She holds the baby in her arms. She's out of breath, bleeding, emotional. She's exhausted, hungry, thirsty. Nearly every earthly need is before her, and now another person needs all she has. You look at her face, and she’s smiling through the pain. It's all been worth it. The pain is already forgotten. She's endured all this on behalf of the child. There is nothing but gladness in her heart. That's Paul's tone. He's a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of the Gentiles. Like a mother after labor, he’s beaming. Could life get any better? Discouraged, dear reader?! No way! Not with this life!
How did Paul get here? When Jesus called him, he said, “he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” Saul the Jew abandoned his life of Judaism for the life of a Gentile missionary and took his Greek name, Paul. He was bound to a people not his own so Jesus would make them his own through the gospel. Paul laid aside all the privilege the Jewish world could offer and became like the unprivileged that he might save some. That’s what dying to self and following Christ looks like—a willingness to sacrifice privilege for the sake of others. And he didn’t regret it for a second.
Paul showed by example what he preached in chapter 2. Unity in the church comes when suffering on behalf of one another becomes not just a risk we’re willing to take, but the life-giving privilege that only Jesus can offer.
It all centered around a mystery that Jesus revealed to Paul. Look at verses 2-5. “2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.”
God revealed a mystery to Paul. When we hear the word mystery, we think of something we must find out for ourselves. But the New Testament means something once hidden that has now been revealed. It’s an open secret. Paul explains the mystery in verse 6. “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” God was joining the Gentiles with the Jews to create one family.
We’ve looked at this unity of the body already, so Paul isn’t really breaking new ground. Instead, he’s reminding his readers it’s his job from Jesus to proclaim this mystery—to share the open secret—and that’s why he’s in prison. The Jewish world did not like that message. Paul sympathized with them. He was once one of the unbelievers. But Jesus showed him the truth—the mystery—and sent him to proclaim it and implore others to enter God’s kingdom through the preaching of the gospel. The Jewish response was to have Paul arrested on trumped up charges and locked away.
Notice Paul says it’s a new revelation. When Paul says in verse 5 that the mystery has been revealed now as it wasn’t previously, he doesn't mean the Old Testament didn't have a category for worldwide redemption. He means the way in which that redemption would come was not expected. The gospel says salvation comes apart from our works by the grace of Christ. God forgave us by the blood of Christ's cross and raised us to new life in his resurrection. We are saved by grace through faith, as we saw in Ephesians 2:8-10. Everyone thought the way the Gentiles would come in would be by essentially becoming Jews. What they could never have imagined was God making a way into his covenant where there was previously no way. But that’s exactly what God did in Jesus Christ. He broke down the dividing wall and brought the Gentiles and Jews together in himself. His righteousness is imputed to believers by faith and they are proclaimed clean, as if they always obeyed the law. There is now one trans-ethnic, trans-national people called the Church that will go on forever, and all people inside the Church will worship the one true God together for eternity.
Through the gospel, Jesus joins us so thoroughly to one another that Paul uses three terms to describe this mystery in verse 6. “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” The Greek text points to unity better than our English translations can. Paul uses the term “fellow” three times. So literally, he says the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the same body, and fellow partakers of the promise. There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile. It is not that the Gentiles are attached loosely to God’s people now. They are attached as joints are to a body. They are the same in their worship and experience of the One True God.
Paul gave his life to that truth, and he suffered for it. But that’s okay with Paul because God had a purpose, and that purpose was greater than the hardships, which is our third point.
God did something so massive and unexpected, and even offensive, in the world that the world’s only solution was to lock Paul up. Paul said, “Fine, world. Beat me, flog me, stone me, chain me up, but no matter how firmly you bind me, ‘The word of God is not bound!’” (2 Timothy 2:9)
True grace gives us the backbone to stand up for God’s purpose in the world. We become willing to suffer for the cause of Christ because Christ is the purpose of all human history. He’s the only thing ultimately worth living for. Spreading his gospel of freedom is worth all the bondage of this world.
Paul suffered for the Gentiles. But he wasn’t sad about it. He tells the Corinthians, “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls” (2 Corinthians 12:15). He was God’s gift to them. You too are a gift to someone to show there is a God above who loves and saves and sustains and heals and brings his children home to a world without sin and pain. God is calling us to suffer on behalf of them.
What’s our motivation? It’s that, like Paul, God has revealed the mystery of the gospel to us. Paul’s ongoing motivation wasn’t that face to face encounter he had with Jesus. It was the ongoing relationship he had with him through the Spirit. It was understanding the implications of the mystery of Christ. Well, God has given us that same revelation. We know the secret to the universe. We have Jesus. Paul’s words in Ephesians 3:1-6 are our biography now. We are prisoners of Christ Jesus on behalf of others! And this mystery is ours to share.
We live in an age of God-minimization. Christianity is too often explained as what sociologist Christian Smith calls \"moralistic therapeutic deism,” where God is basically a cosmic therapist or divine butler, ready to help when needed. But we know he's far greater than that. He’s the lover of our souls. He doesn’t just help us through life with tips and life-hacks, he heals all that’s wrong with us deep inside. He’s there in the big and small things, calling us to himself for himself and his purposes. We are made in his image, and we have no right to create him in ours. The gospel is not merely a call to morality; it’s a call to a person, to Jesus Christ our Lord. He came to serve but he is not a butler. He’s the Lord God Almighty who is in the heavens and does whatever he pleases. And his pleasure is to get involved with the real you for his real purposes of glory.
God is greater and more glorious than who many of our neighbors and co-workers believe. I'm not saying we're better than anyone. We're not! Paul didn't believe he was. He says in verse 8 he's the very least of the saints. Our attitude is not that we are better, but that Jesus is better than every other possible alternative. Life with Christ is the very best life possible. Who do you know who needs to hear that? Who needs to experience the life-giving wonder of the gospel in the church?
God is calling us to lay down our lives for them: to lay aside every preference, every prejudice, every comfort, every vain pursuit, every selfish ambition. He's asking us to gladly and boldly do all we can to make room for more and more people in his kingdom. He may ask us to move. He may ask us to rearrange our schedule. He may ask us to give more than we think we're able. He may call some of us out into the world, and some of us home with our children. But if the gospel is true, if anyone can be saved by God in Christ, why would we ever hold that message back? Why would we put up any walls to keep anyone out?
All we must do right now to get involved in God’s plan for the world is just say yes to him because “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” He’s not asking us to figure this out. He’s telling us to follow. There is not one man or woman in the history of the world who said yes to Christ and lived to regret it. When we say yes to Christ, we are saying yes to joy no matter what happens. By grace, you and I are swept up in God's eternal plan for the world!
Before we leave this passage, we need to see what will keep us going when it feels like we can’t. It's summed up in those final six words of verse 6. \"In Christ Jesus through the gospel.\"
When Paul says, “in Christ” he’s talking about what theologians call “union with Christ.” Union with Christ is the major theme in all Paul’s writing. Union with Christ means that who Christ is we are. It means we are one with him like our body is one with our head, like you are one with your spouse, like the vine is one with the branch. It means we are surrounded by him, drawn up into him, supported by him, placed deep inside him, shielded by his strength, upheld by his grace, rescued by his mercy, included by his love, protected by his sovereignty, ensphered by his holiness, bound up in his life, cleansed by his blood, forgiven by his death, saved by his cross, raised by his Spirit, made right by his righteousness, kept by his intercession, rescued by his mighty hand, preserved until the end. There’s not one second he forgets us, not one minute we’re alone, not one hour he leaves us, not one day he doesn’t come home, not one week he doesn’t carry us, not one month he doesn’t provide for us, not one year he doesn’t shepherd us, not one decade he doesn’t bring us closer. Our union with Christ means we are irrevocably, unendingly, unceasingly, to the uttermost his, and he is ours. And when we follow him and suffer for him, he is suffering with us, and we know the glory his suffering produces.
“In Christ Jesus through the gospel.” What is the gospel? It's the good news that “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” The gospel is that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” It’s that “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It’s that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” It’s the vision John saw in Revelation of the one who is worthy: “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” It’s the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew and the Greek.
Paul says in Romans 10, “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” The gospel is the news the world needs to hear, and we’re the heralds God called and commissioned. So let’s go. The world is waiting, and Jesus is ready to make himself more real to you than ever before. It’ll include hardships. Okay. But it’ll also include Jesus.
The greatest fear of suffering is that we would ultimately lose what we value most, and we would lose all hope and joy. But because of our union with Christ, God has given the one thing we need most and can never lose. Suffering cannot rip is from God because on the cross Christ bound us to him. The greatest joy we can experience is out ahead of us, no matter what we face now.
It is more blessed to give than to receive. Giving intensifies joy. And in a brilliant twist—in a mysterious revelation—God says, “that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” In Jesus, suffering and joy have become friends because Joy himself joined us in suffering. And now Joy has called us to a great purpose beyond ourselves, giving that we might be blessed.
\"For this reason,\" says Paul. You have a reason too because of Christ. Walk in it and be gladly spent for others’ souls.
In Ephesians 2:1-10, Paul explains salvation. Verses 1-6 tell us what happens when God saves: bringing us from death to life. Verse 7 tells us why God saves: so that in the coming ages God could show us the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. And verses 8-10, our text today, tells us how God saves. So let’s read it now.
Ephesians 2:8-10:
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Remember the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty? A princess is cursed into a deep sleep and nothing can wake her but a kiss from the prince. Let’s imagine you’re the princess and you’ve been awakened from a deep sleep. It’s a huge story. All the news shows want an interview, and the first question they ask is, “What did you do to break the curse?”
What would you say?
You couldn’t say, “Well, I just thought about it and decided, ‘It’s time to wake up!’” You couldn’t say, “Well, I just claimed the victory for myself.” You also couldn’t say, “I asked the prince to come and he came.” You couldn’t say any of that. You were asleep! You were cursed!
So what would you say?
You’d say, “I didn’t break the curse. The prince did.”
That’s what Paul is saying in Ephesians 2:8-10. How did we break the curse of sin? We didn’t. God did in Christ. It was the Prince’s kiss. But we weren’t a sleeping beauty. We were a lifeless corpse. God had to make us alive, not just wake us up.
So today, let’s consider that kiss of grace—how God saves us.
I have three points:
1. God saves us by grace through faith in Christ (v. 8)
2. God saves us by Christ’s merit, not ours (v. 9)
3. God saves us by making us a new creation in Christ (v. 10)
Look verse 8: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
By grace you have been saved through faith. Two words stand out in this phrase: grace and faith.
What is grace? Grace is unmerited favor. Grace is God’s kind disposition toward sinful people who can't get their act together and can’t obey and can't find their way to him. Grace is God’s consistent provision for his people who can’t provide for themselves. Grace is God’s activity of good to those whose activity is bad. Grace is not grading on a curve—bumping a letter grade to a student who tried really hard. Grace is giving an A to a student who rarely showed up, who never passed a test, who never got any question right. Grace is being good to the undeserving. It’s not adding sprinkles to a wonderful cupcake. It’s making a stone into a cupcake. Grace is an outpouring of good when only wrath is deserved.
And grace runs throughout the Bible. When Adam and Eve sinned, God said he would crush the serpent’s head by the seed of the woman—the woman who had just caused the fall of creation. Immediately after, what does God do? He clothes Adam and Eve, covering their newfound nakedness. That’s God’s grace. It's as big as crushing Satan’s head and as small as a pair of pants. It's God’s kindness and care bringing life where death reigns. Grace is Jesus saving the undeserving. Grace is what we’re saved by.
So, what about that other word, faith? If grace is the basis of salvation, faith is the instrument of salvation. Faith is what lays hold of grace. It’s the hand that reaches out and grabs. It’s the proof that grace has come. It’s both trusting God will crush Satan’s head and the action of putting on the pants God provides.
The book of Hebrews defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” So faith is forward looking. Our future hope creates present faith. Faith is not a leap in the dark, where we don’t know what’s on the other side, so we just hope it’ll turn out ok. That’s not biblical faith. Biblical faith looks at the world and sees God’s hand all over. Faith understands that though God is invisible, his promises are certain, because we’ve seen then in Jesus Christ. R.C. Sproul says, “The idea is this: I don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring, but I know that God knows what tomorrow is going to bring. So if God promises that tomorrow will bring something, and if I trust God for tomorrow, I have faith in something I have not yet seen.”
Faith is the rock-solid surety of God’s promises based on God’s character. It’s looking to God and trusting that his grace is sufficient to save because it always has been. It’s believing that God has never once failed one man or woman who has trusted him and he’s not going to start with me.
Now, look at the last phrase of verse 8, “And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” Here’s what Paul is saying, and it’s what the entire New Testament says, the totality of our salvation—by grace through faith—is God’s gift. The prime mover in your relationship to God is God. Nothing inside us compels God to save us. God saves us because God wants to save us.
Here’s how this is good news. If your salvation was up to you, you would never have it. You can’t muster up enough faith apart from God’s grace to believe. You can’t receive grace without God giving it. Grace, by definition, is unmerited favor. How can dead people merit anything? As Dustin said last week, before God’s activating grace, we were like the dry bones of the valley in Ezekiel. We need the Spirit to blow through and give us life.
Some people will say it’s up to us to choose God. But Ephesians 2:1-3 says we can’t choose God and we won’t choose God—not on our own. Ephesians 2:4-7 says God must make us alive to him first. God must do something in us before we can make any move toward him. Before God acts in our heart, we don’t want him. We are led by the Devil and by our own sinful passions. To want God, we need to be alive to God. That’s what God’s grace does. It grants life so that we can have faith. When the Holy Spirit gives us a new nature, we then naturally do what our new nature wants: we come, we believe, we repent, and we trust God.
God’s grace comes before faith, not the other way around. God must grant the gift of faith by grace. Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” A few verses later, Jesus says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” This whole passage is written to show us this truth: we are completely unable to bring about our own salvation. We are totally dependent on God to do it all. We are like Lazarus in the tomb. We need Jesus to call to us, “Come out!”
This truth gives us the ground of all assurance before God. Do you see that? Do you ever wonder if your faith is strong enough to save you? Do you wonder if there’s a point at which God is just going to write you off? There’s sin in your life you haven’t beat. There’s a past you can’t get over or there’s a future that seems too uncertain. Here’s what Jesus says about that, from John 6:37, “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” That verse and John 6:44 about the Father drawing you to Jesus go hand in hand. It’s both. You come but you come because God draws you. And when you come to Jesus, you come to safety. The totality of your salvation is found in God.
You don’t need to worry about the amount of faith you think you need. The amount of your faith is not the key; the object of your faith is. When you come to Jesus you’re placing your faith in him. You’re placing your life in his hands. You don’t have to worry if your faith is strong enough to save you, you just have to worry if Jesus is strong enough to save you! And Jesus is very strong. He can hold you up when you can’t hold yourself up. He knows what you need before you need it. The faith that endures is the faith placed in Jesus for safe-keeping. Jesus won’t cast you out. He can’t. He was cast out for you. How could you lose him now?
By grace you have been [past tense] saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. If you’re in Christ, you are as secure as Christ is. And where is Christ now? He’s seated at the right hand of the throne of God. What greater assurance do you need?
Your sin can’t kick you out of God’s love because your righteousness never put you in it. God saves by grace through faith. It’s a gift. All you must do is receive it.
Look at verse 9: “not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
I love this story from Pastor Harry A. Ironside about an older Christian who was asked to give his testimony. He told how God had sought him out and found him, for God had loved him, called him, saved him, delivered him, cleansed him, and healed him—a great witness to the grace, power, and glory of God. But after the meeting a rather legalistic Christian took him aside and criticized his testimony. He said, “I appreciate all you said about what God did for you. But you didn't mention anything about your part in it. Salvation is really part us and part God. You should have mentioned something about your part.”
“Oh, yes,” the older Christian said, “I apologize for that. I really should have said something about my part. My part was running away, and his part was running after me until he caught me.”
How do you explain your part in salvation?
Christianity is the only religion that doesn’t include any self-made men or women. It only includes God-made men and women. God saves us by Christ’s merit, not ours. Not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Why does Paul bring this up? Because in every other religion and in nearly every other area of life, what you do is what you get. You work hard, and you’ll get promoted. You pay your dues and you’ll be accepted. But in Christianity, it’s completely different. No man or woman has ever become a Christian by their own effort. The only way we become Christians is by the work of Christ on our behalf. You are saved by works, but not your own. You’re saved by Jesus’ works. We can’t boast in ourselves for something another accomplished.
Paul is warning of the danger of pride because often it's not our badness that keeps us from God; it's our goodness. The sinners flocked to Jesus. But think of the Pharisees. They were model citizens. You'd want them as role models for your kids. But they killed Jesus.
We must never forget our deadness to God before his life-giving grace. The sin we've been saved from—both inside and outside us—supports itself on the stilts of pride. Self-esteem is so important to the world. We want to be winners. But the gospel knocks those stilts out from under us. Jesus doesn’t just save the world’s winners. He saves the world’s losers. He saves those completely unable to save themselves. Paul knew the stilts of pride are still in the garage of our heart and we’re tempted to take them for a spin around the block. But you must not do it because it’s a false view of things. You’re not really that tall. You didn’t lift yourself up. Jesus did. He deserves the glory.
That’s why the gospel is good news we hear, not a task list we accomplish. The gospel is the good news that though we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, God has saved us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Where is our part in that? The sin that made it necessary, but that’s it!
So how can we boast?
Paul is a great example. Before Jesus saved him, Paul knew a lot about boasting. He recounts this in Philippians 3. We don’t have time to read it all, but in he Judaism Paul really did good things but none of them gained him an inch with God. His good deeds added up to a mere ant-hill of righteousness compared to the Mount Everest of righteousness God required. And Paul really did good things after Jesus saved him, but he doesn’t boast in them. Why? Because it’s not his works that gained him God. It’s Christ’s works that did. That’s why Paul’s one aim was to preach Christ and him crucified. The redeemed soul loves to sing of the Redeemer.
This is good news for you and for your neighbor who doesn’t believe. When an unbeliever asks, “How does God save?” your answer isn’t, “become like me.” It’s, “look to Jesus.” If you made yourself a Christian, your neighbor must become like you to be saved. But salvation is not based on works, so you can’t boast. This knocks the feet out from under all classicism, all racism, all forms of superiority. The gospel makes beggars of us all. It shows us we’re all equal. No one does good; no, not one. The only way any of us will ever make it to God is if God in grace comes to us.
Our works can’t overcome our sin. Only God’s grace can. All praise goes to him. When we accept that with the empty hands of faith, we enter into a new reality so different from our past that the only way to describe it is a new birth, which leads us to verse 10.
Look at verse 10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Why can't we boast in the Christian life? Because we didn't make ourselves Christians. We are his workmanship. Literally, we are God’s poem.
Remember how this chapter started. We walked in trespasses and sins. Notice how it ends. We walk in the good works God has prepared for us. Do you see the radical change? How did it happen? God saved us and recreated us in Christ. That’s why Jesus talked about the need to be born again in John 3. We need God to rebirth us. When he does, we put away the evil works we once walked in and walk in the good works God prepared beforehand. By God’s grace, we go from darkness to light—not as a result of works but for works.
So, what are these good works? Paul doesn’t say here, but he spends chapters 4-6 of Ephesians describing them. So we will have plenty of time in the days ahead to discuss those. Let me just say this. One way you know you’re a Christian is that you have a new desire to do good works and you actually do them. Christians are busy people—not because they’re working for their salvation but because they’ve been saved.
But Paul’s main point right here is that those good works result from being made alive in Christ. Being comes before doing. Paul’s wants us to see the artistry of God.
Leonardo da Vinci is arguably the greatest painter to ever live. His Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world. But did you know he never actually finished it? He was still working on it when he died. He kept it with him, moving it from city to city, never giving it to the man who commissioned it, because he was never done perfecting it. He even painted the undergarments so that the right texture was visible on the outer garments. He researched lip muscles on corpses to get the smile just right. He didn’t consider it “done” until the painting attained a specific and intentional character. That’s how God is with you.
But God’s work is more glorious than Leonardo’s. Leonardo began with a blank canvas and created something beautiful, but God takes a slashed and defaced original and restores it to beauty. That’s why after we come to faith we still feel a little broken. We’re not finished yet. We’re not condemned anymore, we aren’t under sin’s rule anymore, but we’re not totally free from sin yet either. We’ll be free from sin’s presence when we die, but for now, we’re still suffering the effects and still cutting ourselves up. And he’s still putting us back together.
Good art always has a purpose beyond the product. A good painting isn’t displaying only a picture. It’s saying something beyond the picture. It’s saying something about the world of the artist and about the artist himself. Every good piece of art is a message beyond itself. It’s a portal into another world. It’s very real image has transportational power.
God is a good artist, so what’s his message? You are his message to the watching world of what God does to sinners by grace. As you do the good works God has prepared beforehand, you’re a message of how God raises the dead. You’re a message of what redemption looks like. You’re a message of God’s goodness and grace. Even if you don’t feel like it today, you’re a message of the faithful follower. If you’re suffering, you’re saying Jesus is better than suffering. If you’re joyful, you’re saying Jesus is the cause of joy. Whatever you’re facing today, your walk with God is a message to the world that whatever it is, Jesus is better. You are his workmanship! No piece of art creates itself. No one boasts in the brilliance of Mona Lisa. They boast in the brilliance of Leonardo. When you walk with God, God uses you to show the brilliance of his workmanship.
Do you know how valuable the Mona Lisa is? We don’t exactly know because it’s not for sale, but in 1962, it was insured for $100 million, the highest at the time. In today’s money, that would be somewhere around $700 million. That’s an insane price tag for a canvas and some paint.
Let me close with this. How much more valuable are you—a God original? The gospel gives the answer.
The gospel is the news of God’s purchase price. The price was not American dollars. It was the blood of his only Son, Jesus Christ. There’s no higher price God could pay.
But it wasn’t an easy transaction for Jesus. Do you remember how the prince of Sleeping Beauty got to the princess? It wasn’t easy. The evil witch kidnapped him. He had to fight his way out. He had to take the Sword of Truth and the Shield of Virtue and fight the evil witch now turned into a huge fire-breathing dragon. He flings the sword and pierces the dragon’s heart, killing her. In his victory, he pursues the princess, finds her, and kisses her awake.
That’s a fairy tale. But Christianity is the true fairy tale. Jesus allowed himself to be kidnapped in flesh, making himself like us, yet without sin. Satan constantly harassed him, and on the cross, he was tied up, nailed and hung to die. He didn’t fight for his life. He fought for yours. He let the fire-breathing dragon kill him. But the dragon’s victory didn’t last. The sword was thrust into the dragon’s heart at the resurrection.
Today, Palm Sunday, is the reminder of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The surprising twist of the gospel is that the triumph was a cross. But that first Easter, the Holy Spirit broke the stone holding death in place, and Jesus walked out in victory. Where did he go? He went to find you. He went to wake you up. You went to kiss you with grace and wed you to himself.
How were you saved? You didn’t break the curse. Jesus did.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/8bf97f9c3fceaf3b-image-asset-smrhFoxwvjpDc1E8N7qgriAZzCd9dI.jpeg\")
Photo by Ron Smith on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\n3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
God’s purpose for every believer is reconciliation in Christ for all time. Therefore, if you’re in Christ, your life is absolutely massive, with a glorious destiny. I wonder if you believe that?
This world minimizes us, selling a cheap version of everything. We’re surrounded by the trivial and phony and misleading, rushing us from one distraction to another. We grow tired and disappointed. After a while, we begin to wonder what life amounts to. We trust Jesus and do our best, but we still fail. Sometimes we feel weak and worthless. But the Christian should abound in hope. How can we do that? We need to see the glorious things God has done for us, and the ultimate end to which he’s taking us. In these verses, Paul helps us see that.
Now, I know many people find the doctrines of God’s election and predestination very difficult. Many godly Christians have differing views. But we are not saved by our perfect understanding of these doctrines. We aren’t saved by a doctrine at all. We’re saved by a person, Jesus Christ.
You may have questions about these doctrines, and we won’t answer all those today. After all, this passage is not a treatise on election and predestination. It is about the end to which they lead: that we should be holy and blameless before God, and our adoption through Christ, to the praise his glorious grace. But if you have questions you’re wrestling through, we’re a church that wants to help satisfy those questions. We all want to know as much about God as we can. So, Dustin and I and your community group leaders are available anytime.
Now, we have three verses, so we have three points.
God makes us holy and blameless
God adopts us through Christ
God blesses us to praise his glorious grace
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
God, the Father, chose us, his people, in him, Jesus Christ. In verse 3, Paul says God blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and the first blessing he highlights is that of election. So what is election? Election is God’s sovereign choice of his people unto salvation.
Paul isn’t introducing a new doctrine. It’s one that runs throughout the whole of Scripture. Paul also doesn’t make an argument for election here, he merely affirms it to drive us to its purpose. What is our election for? “That we should be holy and blameless before him.” To be holy and blameless means, in the simplest terms, to be like God. The Bible is very clear that God is holy. His holiness is not a part of who he is; it is who he is. Holiness means wholeness, completeness, perfection in every moral sense. To be holy is to possess ultimate purity. It is also to lack all pollution. So God is blameless, spotless, with no impurity, no stain, no reason for shame. And Paul says our election is so that we might be like that. He’s showing in the strongest terms what God means to do to us: he aims to make us like himself.
Now, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but humanity struggles with holiness and blamelessness. We can’t seem to get our act together—individually or corporately. And every time we try to do better, we end up failing. That’s a big problem. Remember God’s words to Moses, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” That’s because man is unholy. The author of Hebrews says without holiness no one will see the Lord. So, holiness is not merely a nice addition to our lives. It’s a requirement for our future life in God’s presence.
So, what’s the hope for us? Is it that one day we’ll figure it out on our own? One day we’ll find the right rule book or attend the right class or find enough willpower? Well, many people think that, but no one’s ever found it. Some truths are so deep they have to be revealed. And that’s what God does in the gospel: he reveals himself.
If salvation is left in our hands, we will certainly fail. Just think back to that New Year’s resolution you made this year. We have trouble keeping promises to ourselves. How much more do we have trouble keeping promises to God? But what sets Christianity apart as a religion is that our salvation is not dependent upon what we do or choose. It’s dependent upon what God does and who God chooses. A Christian is holy because God chose them. They are not chosen because they are holy.
When you realize how unholy you really and how holy God really is, you are floored that he would love you. When you realize that despite all the times you’ve rejected him, refused him, rebelled against him, run from him, he still saved you, you fall in worship before him. You realize how deserving of wrath you are, and you see how wonderful the grace and mercy of God is.
When you really grasp this, there is no doctrine as comforting. When you really see that the only reason you’re a Christian is that God in mercy and grace chose you before the foundation of the world, you begin to realize you’re not on shaky ground with God. You don’t have to wonder if he’s going to love you tomorrow. He’s loved you before the foundation of the world! If he chose you back then and done all he’s done to save you in Christ, is he going to give you up now when you’re so close to being with him for eternity?
God is changing us to be holy and blameless before him because God never planned to accept us just as we are. That’s not good enough for him and it’s not good enough for us. To be before him, we must be changed. But he’s not asking us to change ourselves. He took the initiative. He did the work on our behalf, without our permission, to bring us to himself through the cleansing blood of Jesus who lived, died, and rose again. His perfect blood washes us holy, and his perfect righteousness makes us blameless.
Why did God do this? Because he loves you. And as C.S. Lewis said, love wants to enjoy its object. To enjoy you, and for you to enjoy him, God must make you holy and blameless. And he does through the perfect work of Jesus Christ.
Paul wants us to understand how deeply God loves and saves us, so he uses another image: God adopts us through Christ.
In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will
There is some debate about where the little phrase “in love” belongs. The Greek text is totally ambiguous. Many translations, including the ESV, begin verse 5 with it. It could modify the end of verse 4. We just can’t be sure. But it fits either place, because God’s love effects our holiness and blamelessness and our predestination for adoption. So, we’ll just take it where it is in the ESV.
Now, what’s the difference between election and predestination? Election tells us that God chooses whom he will. Predestination says whom God chooses, he adopts. In other words, God doesn’t choose and set aside. God chooses and brings in. One great theme of Ephesians is God’s reconciliation of all things in Christ. How does that happen? Well, it starts with God’s adoption of sons and daughters, tongues and tribes, into his family.
Now, why does God adopt us? Notice what Paul says. According to the purpose of his will. God adopts us because he wants to. There is no other reason: not your goodness, not your potential, only the purpose of God’s will. When you meet someone truly alive to God, one thing you can’t help but notice is they can’t get over the fact that God wants them. They accept it wholeheartedly, but they’re amazed. One way you can know how alive you are to God is what you think about being his child. When you see the wonder of it, you can’t help but be amazed. God wants us?! Though nothing in us is remotely attractive, by his Spirit in Christ, God brings about his predestined purpose of adoption. He brings us home to himself.
What does Paul mean by adoption? The Old Testament doesn’t mention it much. But the New Testament does often. J.I. Packer says adoption is “the highest privilege the gospel offers.” And when you realize what it means, it’s life-changing, as all adoptions are.
Paul’s concept of adoption comes from his Roman culture. The father had ultimate authority over the family. He could even kill a family member without it being considered murder. Often, an important father would have only daughters and no one to carry on the family line, to inherit his property, and so forth. So, he would adopt a son. He would seek a child he wanted and adopt him from his natural home into his home. The adoptee received all the blessings and inheritance of his new family. He has a new status, a new name, new privileges. This was a common practice, for example, with Emperors. Augustus was adopted into the royal family. He was from a poor family and became the Emperor of Rome through adoption. So, when Paul says that God has predestined us to adoption through Jesus Christ, he’s saying that though we are like Augustus, once from a destitute and poor family, we’re now placed into the royal family. We were sons of disobedience and children of wrath because we are sinners, but God in Christ has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. We are God’s children now, and no one else has any claim on us. No one else has any power over us. Satan has no rule, no claim, no right to influence our lives one bit. We are God’s children, and we will always be so! No one can snatch us from his family.
But in ancient Rome, adoption was costly. Every adoption is, including the Christian’s adoption. What was the cost? The cost was the Son of God, Jesus Christ, our big brother. The whole Trinity is involved in our salvation, their plan before the foundation of the world was to adopt us at the cost of the Son into the family of God. Tim Keller says, “Jesus, when he died on the cross; Jesus, when he poured himself out; Jesus, when he opened not his mouth even when he was slaughtered, was brothering you so God could father you. Adoption is not something that happens naturally. Adoption takes a choice. Adoption takes a legal activity, and that is the marvelous claim of Christianity. Through Christ, at Christ’s expense through the redemption of his blood, you can be adopted. The reason you’re in the family is because of the redemption of his blood.”
You are not another child butting into Jesus’ happy only-child existence. You’re the little brother or sister Jesus always wanted. He wanted you so much he didn’t merely bring you in, he joined you to himself. He made you co-heir with him.
Your life may not feel all that glorious, but if you’re a Christian, the glorious God has done this glorious work for you. He chose you and predestined you to be his child. Like the younger son in the parable of the Prodigal Son, our sin cut us off from the Father. Unlike the elder son in the parable, Jesus sought us out and brought us home, and the Father came running to us. Our adoption means we’re back in the family, guys. We’re home, and it feels so good.
Adoption means you could not be more loved. And our response to this saving love is praise. Look at verse 6.
to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Throughout chapter 1, there is a goal. Three times, in verses 6, 12, and 14, is a call to praise God for his grace. I wonder what you think of that. I wonder if it sounds a strange goal to you? It certainly did to C.S. Lewis. He couldn’t understand why God would save people to praise him. I mean, who wants to be around someone who always wants praise? But as he thought through the problem in the Psalms, he realized something.
“The most obvious fact about praise – whether of God or anything – strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise . . . The world rings with praise – lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game – praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. . . . praise almost seems to be inner health made audible. . . . I had not noticed that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: 'Isn't she lovely? Wasn't it glorious? Don't you think that magnificent?' The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us what we delight to do, what indeed we can't help doing, about everything else we value.”
Christians are on the path toward inner health made audible, to complete fulfillment and enjoyment of the one person whom our heart longs for the most. We are racing toward the presence of God, and one day we will get there. And our response will be praise.
I wonder if this sounds as good to us as it should. I think to really get it, we need to back up and consider two words in verse 4 that we kind of raced over before. God chose us that we should be holy and blameless before him.
If we want to understand why the goal is the praise of God, we must understand the weight of it means to be before him. God is and will forever be the most glorious person. Our enjoyment of him will be complete as we praise him. Our deepest desires will find their fullest satisfaction. Just as you had to contain your heart from exploding on your wedding day, standing before God in holiness and blamelessness will be a complete inability to keep your mouth shut. All your greatest desires will pour out in praise, your greatest joys will find their end, your deepest longings will be totally satisfied before him. You will have no further wants, no further needs. You will be whole in a way you can barely imagine right now. You will wonder how your heart can take it all in, but it can, because God will give you an even greater heart to bear it—a heart holy and blameless. In this world, we constantly encounter cheap imitations of the real thing. But one day, we will be brought to ultimate reality himself.
So, what will that day be like? The Bible tells us a little about it.
Isaiah 25:8-9
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
Revelation 7:13-17
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
“Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Revelation 21:3-7
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
Revelation 22:3-5
No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
You might have noticed how many times wiping the tears from our eyes appeared in these verses. Why is that? Because our unholiness and blame created our tears. With every sin we commit and is committed against us, we die a little more inside. But when we are before him, we will behold Life itself. We will no longer have any reason to cry over our little death because the pierced hands of Jesus will remind us of the life we have in him. He will wipe away every tear every sin ever made us cry and we will be reminded that he was the one who took them all upon himself for us. He will give us our life back, we will feel finally at home, and his love will place a smile on our face. We will be made white in the Lamb’s blood. The injustices committed against us will be made right. Every single thing our heart truly longs for will be ours for eternity in him, and the increase of that joy will never end. Every day will be better than last. You were chosen and predestined in Christ for that future! And everything God is doing right now in your life is to get you ready for that day when he will present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. And when we finally arrive, we will explode with praise for eternity.
So we can endure with hope, can’t we? Our life is absolutely massive because we’re on our way to the massive presence of God. And in his glorious wisdom, God calls us to share this journey with others. He calls us to invite others in. That person you’re thinking of right now who doesn’t know him and doesn’t want him might join us on the journey one day. Why not tell them where you’re going and see if they’ll come along?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/c11da948e4bf561f-image-asset-Ko8Ww6tcr2tNztIOCjhmTJhIV9YK0Q.jpeg\")
\n \n\nHebrews 1:1-3
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Introduction
Christmas exists because long ago Adam and Eve sinned. They thought God was holding out on them and took a bite of fruit from a tree he told them not to touch. They lost their closeness to God and couldn't get it back on their own merit. And on the saddest day in history, God cast them out of his presence into a world now broken by sin where, as C.S. Lewis said, it’s always winter but never Christmas. A world waiting and longing for redemption.
And as we were born, we added our sin to the world's need. But God was not silent. He promised to send a Savior. And that first Christmas day was God's shout to the world that the Savior is here to reclaim what we lost and to redeem what we broke.
But for too many, the greatness of Jesus’ birth has been silenced by a commercial offering of Christmas happiness that kind of floats above the deep realities of Christmas joy. I see it in the shows that dominate TV this time of year, where everyone’s celebrating the most wonderful time of the year. But what's so wonderful about it if Jesus has become the silent reason for the season rather than the explicit joy of the world? The most wonderful thing to ever happen was God sending his Son to live and die and rise again!
So the book of Hebrews helps us because it was written to a group of Christians who, like Adam and Eve, and you and me, sometimes have a hard time listening to Jesus.
To compel us to listen, the author highlights seven messages God sends in Jesus in the opening verses. When so many other things try to push their way into the space that belongs to Jesus only, Hebrews reminds us that Jesus is better than everything else. Will we listen to him?
So in the short time we have together, I want us to hear three things: That God has spoken finally and fully in his Son. And I want to collect the messages God has sent in his Son into two major headings: Jesus is fully God and Jesus is fully man. He's the complete Savior.
So first, and very briefly, God has spoken to us finally and fully in his Son.
God Has Spoken
Our greatest need is to hear from God. Without his voice we are lost, wondering what life is all about. We don’t know who we are, why we’re here, or what we’re for. But God is not silent. He has been speaking since the foundation of the world. And what he’s been telling us all along is that he is God, we are his people, and he loves us despite everything that seems to prove otherwise.
Look at verses 1 and 2. “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he’s spoken to us by his Son.”
So, God spoke through two big eras, that we separate by the Old and New Testaments. The difference between these two eras is the difference between receiving a letter in the mail about a visitor coming one day and receiving that visitor on your doorstep in the flesh. In Jesus, the world received her king—the one she groaned for throughout the ages. What God has said beforehand in text messages and emails and phone calls, he said in finality in person.
Jesus is the answer the world has looked for all its life. He’s the answer to every question. He’s end of every thought. He’s the period to every sentence. Jesus is the whole message of the whole God for the entirety of the human race.
So what does he say? Well, the author tells us seven things God says in Jesus, showing him as all the Savior we'll ever need: fully God and fully man.
Jesus is Fully God
Part one of God's message is that Jesus is not merely from God. Jesus is God. At Christmas, when Jesus was born, God added humanity without losing divinity.
And the author of Hebrews highlights Jesus’ divinity through four messages.
The first message: Jesus is Creator. Verse 2: “Through whom also he created the world.”
In the beginning God created everything, and what he made was good. But we messed that up with our sin. And the Bible says we are dead in our sins. So we can’t just add a little Jesus to our life, like sprinkles on the cupcake of who we are. We need nothing less than a re-creation.
Well, wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was someone who could create life where there was none? Well, what about Jesus? What if we not only had a creator back then but have a creator right now?
God is so brilliant. If sin leads to death, and we are all sinners, how in the world are we going to become alive again? The same way he made us alive in the beginning! Through the Son! God doesn’t change! When we sinned, God didn’t give up and retreat to some far-off place in the sky. He worked his plan.
What was his plan? Well, you were his plan. You were created through Jesus. And even though your sin broke the relationship between you and him, he sought you out in his grace, and—if you’ve trusted in Christ for salvation—he recreated you. You are a living miracle! Your life is so important that Jesus left his home to come to this dumpy world and live and die and rise again for you.
So, don’t think the you that you are right now is a problem for him. The you you are right now—with all your doubts and flaws and imperfections—is the you Jesus delights in because you are his creation. “Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’” Don’t argue with him! Just as he created Mary in her circumstances and chose to use her for his glorious purposes, he can use you.
But you may say, “Me? No. I’m too bad. I’ve messed up too big.” Stop that! Nothing in your life is outside the creative power of God. He can use you! He’s the creator!
So, will you listen to him?
The second and third messages go together. Jesus is Radiator and Imprint. Verse 3: “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.”
In the Old Testament, God’s glory is represented in terms of radiant brilliance. And when Jesus came down, he brought with him the glory of God because he was God. That’s why on the Mount of Transfiguration, “his face shone like the sun.” It’s not that Jesus has some of God in him, like a lantern that may go out. He has the fullness of God’s glory because he is God. Who Jesus is, God is, and who God is, Jesus is.
He’s also the exact imprint of his nature. His character is the character of God. Jesus is the “very nature of God,” “the image of the invisible God.” We don’t have just information about God in Jesus. We have God in Jesus.
I don't know what else to say. As amazing as it sounds, when Jesus was born, God came down. And he brought with him God’s radiance and imprint. Which means, we don’t have to wonder what God is like. We know what he’s like because he revealed himself in Jesus.
For example—this is amazing—in Matthew 11, Jesus tells us about his heart. “I am gentle and lowly in heart.” Is that what you thought the heart of God was like? Well, it is, because “no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
So, when we hear of Jesus’ heart, he’s revealing God’s whole heart to us. God is so gentle that “a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench” (Isaiah 42:3) And he’s so humble that he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). And these aren’t just words. This is the glory of God: gentle enough for all your weakness and humble enough for all your need.
So I ask again, will you listen to him?
The fourth message: Jesus is Upholder. Verse 3: “He upholds the universe by the word of his power.”
Oh, I love this phrase. What does it mean that Jesus upholds the universe? It means he’s got the whole world in his hands.
He’s got the itty bitty baby in his hands.
He’s got you and me brother in his hands.
He’s got you and me sister in his hands.
He’s got the whole world in his hands.
All things included. The depths of the earth, the heights of the mountains, the valleys of the ocean, the brightness of the stars, the warmth of the sun. Every planet, every comet, and every galaxy swirl in his great, big, giant palms.
But it’s not just the big things. His eye is on the sparrow. Every one of your tears is bottled up as he keeps count of your tossings and turnings, and one day he’s going to wipe every single drop from your face and replace it with unspeakable joy.
He’s so big he spins the galaxies by his word and so near that he knows the sorrows and joys you walked in here with today.
Jesus’ upholding both supports and sustains “by the word of his power.” The Greek emphasizes the spoken word. The utterances of Jesus keep the world afloat.
You know, sometimes we wonder why God isn’t speaking, but the truth is that he never stops speaking! If he did, the world would crumble. So, if you can’t hear him, it’s not because he’s not talking, it’s because you’re not listening.
Jesus’ upholding is not like Atlas holding the world on his shoulders. He’s not holding it up as much as he’s carrying it along, taking it where he wants it to go. It’s not weighty in his hand. It’s like a feather. It’s easy for him. He doesn’t grow weary. He’s full of energy. So, your need is not a problem for him. It’s an opportunity for his grace to shine forth. He’s upholding the universe by the word of his power, so when you need him, nothing stands in his way of coming to you.
So, Jesus is fully God: Creator, Radiator, Imprint, Upholder.
Are you listening yet?
In case you aren't, the author gives more: Jesus is also fully man.
Jesus is Fully Man
Christmas is awe-inspiring not just because God came down. In fact, God came down throughout the ages. He walked in the Garden with Adam and Eve. He talked with Moses as with a friend. He was with Israel as a cloud and pillar of fire. His glory came down to the temple. He walked through the fire with Daniel’s friends. Christmas inspires awe because in Jesus God came down in a new way. In Jesus, God came down as man.
Here in Hebrews 1, the author highlights Jesus’ humanity, giving us three more messages.
The fifth message: Jesus is Inheritor. Verse 2: “Whom he appointed the heir of all things.”
The best things in our culture image who God is. Those things are not human inventions, they are God’s gifts to humanity so that when God explains himself to us, we have categories by which we can understand him. So when the author speaks of Jesus being the heir, we understand what he means. Everything the father has, the Son has. And although Jesus is Creator, through his finished work God also appointed him the heir of all. He alone is worthy to inherit the Father’s kingdom.
So what is Jesus the inheritor of? Well, in Psalm 2, God says to the Son, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.” The New Testament says, “all things were created for him,” and “to him are all things.” So Jesus inherits the world and everything in it.
But there’s a deeper insight the author wants us to see. There is good news for us here. When Jesus became a man and therefore inheritor, he brought with him the possibility of us inheriting something of God as well. The author highlights this in chapter 2, quoting from Psalm 8—a Psalm about mankind. “You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now, the Psalmist says that’s who you are.
But wait a minute. That doesn’t sound right does it? You probably don’t feel like you’re crowned with glory and honor, do you? You don’t see everything in subjection under your feet. You can’t tame the storms. You can’t even tame your heart. But Jesus can. And Psalm 8 is ultimately about you because it’s ultimately about Jesus. Because Jesus inherits all things, including you. And when he inherits you, and grants you faith, he places you in himself and you get what he has, which includes, amazingly, glory and honor and rule over the world. This doctrine reminds us that every promise God has made will come to pass in and through and for Jesus Christ.
See, Jesus doesn’t lord his inheritance over you. He serves you with it, giving you a portion along with him. Why? Because he loves you! You aren’t his property like a slave. You’re his joy like family.
When we’re saved, Jesus unites us to himself and makes us, as Paul says in Romans 8, co-heirs with Christ. But that happens because Jesus first united himself to us, making himself human. For all the good things Jesus inherited, when he came to earth, he inherited something else—our inheritance from Adam. Now, he was conceived of the Holy Spirit, so he wasn’t born with original sin like we are. But by becoming human, Jesus willingly partook of the same things as us, and on the cross the Father gave him the inheritance due to us so that in the resurrection he could give us the inheritance due to him.
He is the heir of all things, and that all things includes you, but to get you he had to pay for your sins. And on the cross he did.
Listen to him!
The sixth and seventh messages go together: Jesus is Purifier and Ruler. Verse 3: “After making purification for sins he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
Hebrews makes a big deal about Jesus being our High Priest. Sin dirties us in the sight of God. And if we are to be with the holy, pure God, we cannot waltz into his presence as we are. We must be cleansed. And God’s appointed way for cleansing is through the shedding of blood by the priestly sacrifices.
In the Old Testament, a priest would sprinkle the blood of a spotless lamb on the altar symbolizing that the blood of perfection must be shed for the forgiveness of sins. But the blood of an imperfect animal could never bring about the kind of cleansing we need. Man’s sin requires man’s blood. But if we shed our blood for all our sins, how can we live? We can’t! Our sin is too great. One sin against God is worthy of eternal damnation. How could we ever pay for all the sins we’ve committed?
Well we can’t. But Jesus can. And at Christmas, Jesus became the only person ever born on a mission to die. He became the only priest to ever walk the road of a sacrificial lamb.
He lived the perfect life on our behalf, obeying God every step of the way. And when he reached the end, he obeyed to the point of death on a cross. He set aside all his rights as God and God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus did not die because he was sinful. Jesus died because we were sinful. He was spotless. We were stained. He was our sacrifice. We are the forgiven.
By his single offering Jesus perfected us for all time, making purification for sins by his blood. What Christmas began, the cross ended.
And after the finished work of the cross, Jesus sat down in the presence of God! Old Testament priests never sat down in God’s presence. The work was never finished. More sin always needed forgiving. But in Christ, all the sin of all God’s people was forgiven once for all. And he sat down. There is no question about your salvation if you are his.
And just as important as his sitting is the place of his sitting. When he finished, Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high—the spot of exaltation—to rule the universe.
And what’s more amazing is he isn’t sitting there as a spirit. Even in death, Jesus never gave up his body. Jesus’ resurrection was a bodily resurrection. He rose in the same kind of glorified body he will one day give all believers in the great and final day of the resurrection. That means there is a God-Man ruling the universe, and his name is Jesus, the one who came so long ago to save his people from their sins.
No one will vote him out and no one will overthrow him. He’s secure. And if you’re in Christ, you are as secure as he is. How's that for a Christmas present?
These seven messages show us that we have a complete savior. Jesus is Creator, Radiator, Imprint, Upholder, Inheritor, Purifier, and Ruler.
Conclusion
But he’s much more than that. I want to close with a few more things God says in Jesus. Here’s what the rest of Hebrews says about him.
· He’s worthy of worship
· The lover of righteousness
· The hater of wickedness
· The everlasting conqueror of all enemies
· Crowned with glory and honor
· The founder of salvation
· Our brother
· The destroyer of death and deliverer from the fear of death
· Merciful
· Faithful
· Our high priest
· The propitiation for sins
· Our hope
· The giver of rest
· Sharper than any two-edged sword
· Piercing
· Dividing
· Discerning
· All-seeing
· A sympathizer
· Sinless
· The giver of grace and mercy
· The source of eternal salvation
· Just
· Honest
· Unchangeable
· Convincing
· An anchor of the soul
· Our forerunner
· The King of righteousness and peace
· The owner of an indestructible life
· The giver of promises
· The guarantor of a better covenant
· Able to save to the uttermost
· Holy
· Innocent
· Unstained
· The once for all sacrifice
· The purifier of our consciences from dead works
· The giver of the eternal inheritance
· The end of the offering for sin
· The opener of the new and living way to God
· The repayor of evil
· The rewarder of those who seek God
· The designer and builder of the city that has foundations
· The resurrector of the dead
· Greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt
· The founder and perfecter of our faith
· The endurer of the cross
· The despiser of shame
· A discipliner
· A reprover
· A lover
· The shaker of heaven and earth
· The giver of an unshakable kingdom
· A consuming fire
· He never leaves and never forsakes
· He’s the same yesterday and today and forever
· The great shepherd of the sheep
· The equipper of everything good
· The one who works in us
· And the recipient of honor and glory forever and ever, amen
All of that is in just 300 verses in the book of Hebrews. And that’s not even all! I shortened it because the sermon was getting too long! I wonder, what do the remaining 28,000 verses of the Bible say?
God has spoken to us in his Son. So I ask a final time: are you listening?
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/f27b58e16d6a1f41-image-asset-SMpn1W0C7ubmi7eJpfYNcs0x8VG8Lj.jpeg\")
Photo by Jed Adan on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nIdolatry is the most widespread and contagious sin throughout human history, and the only hope we have of a cure is found in Jesus Christ.
Idolatry is not one sin among many; it is the ancestor of every other sin, inherited through the ages to every person, originating with our father Adam and descending to every child in the nursery down the hall. There is not a problem the Bible deals with more frequently. So, this is not a small matter to God. Every single one of us is an idolater, and unless God does something about it, every single one of us is damned because of it.
Though this verse seems an odd way to end his letter, John’s final words are some of the most important in the entire book. He drills to the core of our heart—what, or who, do we worship? If we ignore these words, whatever we heard about Jesus from the previous 104 verses will be of no value because idols cannot coexist with Jesus. And if we don’t keep ourselves from idols, we are in big trouble.
So, this morning, I want to consider three things, and we’re going to work backward through the verse to see them. First, the seriousness of idolatry. Second, the command against idolatry. Third, God’s salvation from idolatry.
The reformer Martin Luther said that we don’t ever commit any other sin without first breaking the first of the ten commandments, “You shall have no other gods before me.” That means that every sin we commit is a sin first of idolatry.
God created every human with a built-in worship center, called the heart. And that’s a good thing because when we worship the right object, our heart comes alive. But our problem is that we often don’t worship the right thing. We should worship God, but instead, we worship idols. Idols aren’t only little statues people bow down to, or something segregated to a certain historical period or a particular group of people. An idol is anything more important to you than God. It can be a bad thing, such as sexual perversion or the love of money. But more often, an idol is a good thing that turns into an ultimate thing, such as family or career. An idol is anything that captures your heart more than God and asks of you what only God rightly deserves. Pastor Erik Raymond defines it in terms of robbery and perversion. It’s robbery because we take what is due to God and give it to something else. And it’s perversion because we give the devotion God rightly deserves to other things.
Idolatry is something we’ve all actively participated in. And it’s not because we lack something from God. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the Garden, they did not do it because they lacked anything from God. They did it because they wanted to be God. An idol formed in their heart and the sacrifice it required was a disobedient bite of fruit and a denial of their Maker. All it took to push them over the edge was the devil slithering in and asking, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” That’s not what God said! He gave them all the trees in the Garden but the one, but that’s not what they focused on because they wanted more than what God gave. Do you see how easy that is? All it takes is one question and Boom! Humanity has lost its purity. And every time we consider something else to be better than God, even for a moment, we are guilty of the same thing.
Idolatry is a sin against God, it’s an abandonment of him, an assault on him, a denial of his goodness. Idolatry is evil because it says to God, “You are unworthy.”
So, you may be asking the question now: how do I find my idols? One way to find them is to fill in the blanks to these statements with the first thing that comes to mind because our default answer often reveals our true answer.
● “More than anything, I want ____”
● “I need ____”
● “I fear ____”
● “I’m love ____”
● “I’m seeking ____”
● “I’m trusting ____”
● “I’m taking refuge in ____”
Whatever fills in those blanks that isn’t found in Christ is an idol.
What do you think about when nothing else demands your attention? Where do you spend most of your money? What, if you lost it, would make life feel worthless? What, if you gained it, would make life feel complete? Any answer not named Jesus is an idol, no matter how good of a thing it is, and often it will be a very good thing. But as the church father Augustine said, our hearts are restless, until they find rest in God. Idols dominate our lives, but they never satisfy.
So what is the form of idolatry is John addressing here in verse 21? He doesn’t say here, so we have to read this in the context of the entire letter. We know the Gnostic influence was profound in this church, preaching a secret knowledge and denying Jesus’ humanity. And there are a few places John addresses idolatry, without using the word “idol.” For example, in 2:15-17, John tells us not to love the world or the things in the world. In 3:7-10, he tells us not to be deceived by our flesh, to practice righteousness and flee from sin. In 4:1-6, he tells us to test the spirits because some are of the devil. In each case, John warns us because the idols these activities create are terrifyingly alluring, and they’re incredibly deadly. Idolatry is deadly serious. It denies Christ his glory, his people their love, and the church its unity.
That’s pretty bad news, isn’t it? But one thing I want us to notice right now, and come back to later, is this. In each of these verses where John highlights some form of idolatry, warning us against it, including the verse we are considering today, he begins with either the words “little children,” or “beloved.” John is talking tenderly to us, helping us see ourselves so that we can see Christ more clearly. He’s helping us identify our idols so that when he gives the command against them we understand, which leads to our second point.
John tells us what we need to do: keep yourselves from idols. The word keep in the original language means guard. We must guard our heart from idols. But how do we do that? Well, as we’ve said throughout this series, John’s letter is about both how gospel doctrine creates gospel culture. When the good news of the gospel is preached and believed, God creates among his people a gospel culture, where the gospel’s reality is seen and felt. The guard rails he’s giving us are twofold. The first one is found in the doctrine God gives in the gospel, and the second is found in the culture God creates by the power of the gospel.
David Powlison, the Christian counselor, helps us see that the Bible presents two categories of idols—one internal and one external, one about gospel doctrine, the other about gospel culture. The first category, the internal, the doctrinal, is idols of the heart. These are idols at the level of our personal beliefs. They spring from this line of thinking, “Jesus, you’re a pretty decent guy, but you’re just not giving me everything I want. It makes me wonder if really love me. So, I’m going to add this other thing to my life, because it offers what I’m not getting from you.” Now, we might not be so bold to actually say that out loud, but whenever we worship something other than Jesus, whenever we make something more important than him, this is functionally what we’re saying. We’re believing a false message and denying Jesus’ lordship.
The antidote to the idols of the heart is gospel doctrine—the good news of Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. We worship idols because we long to worship, and what we need is to be re-centered on Jesus and his gospel. The way to fight the idols of the heart is to replace them with the glory of Jesus in the gospel. The gospel says to us that everything we’re looking for in every idol we’ve ever fashioned is found only in Christ. When we believe the gospel, God uproots idols from our heart and plants himself in their place.
The other category of idolatry the Bible offers is external, at the social level, the cultural aspect. In John Bunyan’s classic book, The Pilgrim’s Progress, he tells the story of a man named Christian on his way to the Celestial City. He must pass through a place called Vanity, and in the town of Vanity there is a fair, called Vanity Fair. This is Bunyan’s allegory of the world. Vanity Fair has everything the flesh longs for, and anything can be had, and no one will shame you because they’re all partaking. But it’s a hell on earth because only idols live there, and idols lie, enslave, and murder. They deny who God is and destroy what God gives. They rob God of glory and rob us of joy.
Bunyan helps us see that even if we try to flee from the idols of our heart, we must also flee from the idols of the world. If we don’t, our heart will start making new idols. In the world, it’s normal to worship your job or your spouse or your kids or your money or your college football team or your political party or your ego or sex or cars or houses or whatever. It’s so normal no one even notices they’re not worshiping Jesus.
Now, what happens when a church is plopped down in the middle of Vanity Fair? What happens when Jesus starts saving the citizens of Vanity Fair? What happens when sinners are plucked out of idolatry and placed inside of Christ, when the things of the Fair matter less because Christ matters more?
I can think of two things. First, the rulers of Vanity Fair might grow angry, and they’ll come up with a strategy. They’ll make the temptations more enticing. They’ll strip more clothes off. They’ll up the prize money. They’ll do whatever it takes not to lose business. Second, the church will start looking more attractive than Vanity Fair because the people inside the church will have answers to the questions everyone at the Fair is asking and never finding in their idols. And maybe—just maybe—Jesus will save them too.
Here’s the point I want to make. Idolatry is both personal and communal. What we surround ourselves with influences what, or who, we worship. John knew this. That’s why he shows us how gospel doctrine (the good news of Jesus) creates a gospel culture (the shared reality of that good news in the church). We all fashion our own personal idols, but the company we keep either reinforces them or poisons them. Idolatry is a problem rooted in denying gospel doctrine which prevents gospel culture.
So, be careful where you live. Vanity Fair is deadly.
What God does through the preaching of gospel doctrine, which John has been giving us throughout this letter, is create a gospel culture. And inside a gospel culture, idols don’t stand a chance. Not because the people in the church are so strong and powerful. They’re actually very weak—so weak that they had to be rescued. They’re weak enough to know that they need someone as strong as Jesus to keep them from idols. And when the object of worship at a social level has been transferred to Jesus, individual idols start crashing down all around as they’re confronted with the true God. As Jesus said, “when I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).
As the gospel is proclaimed and believed, the shared reality of God’s grace creates an environment that isn’t safe for idols. That’s what we’re asking God to build and increase here at Refuge—a place where the gospel constantly exposes idolatry for the sham that it is, a place where everyone has the safety to open their heart and reveal what they really worship, where everyone has enough time to re-evaluate everything and come clean about what’s really going on in their life so that God can heal. We need a family who knows us inside and out, who is walking the same path toward Jesus as we are, and who has committed to loving us wholeheartedly for Jesus’ sake. We can’t be too scared to confess where our trust really lies because the only way to kill an idol is to bring it into the light of Jesus, and sometimes, we need other Christians to help us carry the heavy thing and throw it at the Savior’s feet. Gospel culture helps us repent of our idols and believe in Christ, and we all need that.
We will flee from idols to the degree that we—at an individual level and at a corporate level—believe and trust that Jesus is better than everything else. And the way that happens, according to the Bible, is through the preaching of gospel doctrine and through the Spirit’s formation of gospel culture.
And here’s the really good news: it's something God does! He's not commanding something too hard for us because he's commanding something he wants to give, and nothing is too hard for him! All we have to do is admit we need him. That’s what John’s been telling us all along. We need the real Savior, not the one we'd wish Jesus to be.
Now, here’s the problem. Our church still resides in the county lines of Vanity Fair. And if we’re not careful, we will slip back into town to worship other gods. We will forsake Jesus because another message will slip in and we’ll pursue it, thinking Jesus isn’t really all he’s cracked up to be. We’ll sell our home in the church for a nice, big place in the city, filled with new idolatrous treasures. But as Tim Keller says, “What you treasure will ultimately require you die for it, Jesus is the only treasure that died for you.”
So, we need to consider one final thing—the treasure that died for you. We need to consider God’s salvation from idolatry.
Within verse 21’s six words lies not only a biblical command but also a gospel promise. Without Jesus, we have no hope of obeying, but with Jesus, we have all the hope we will ever need. John Calvin said our hearts are idol factories. But Jesus can turn our factories of sin into a home for himself. That’s what a redeemer does.
Every time we worship an idol, we cheat on God. The second commandment says our God is a jealous God, and because he is, he won’t simply coexist with the idols of his elect. He will do something about them. He’s like a husband who will not stand to see another man with his wife. Ray Ortlund captures the imagery well. “What would you think of a husband who said to his wife, ‘I don’t care who gets into our bed. Just keep the noise down so that I can get my sleep’? God takes our idolatries personally, the way a husband would feel about the adulteries of his wife. Do you realize how important your love for Jesus is to Jesus?”
God’s jealousy is an aspect of his love, reflecting the intensity of his love and care for his people. And his jealousy led Jesus into this world to save us. God takes idolatry among his people so seriously that he gets personally involved. We can't save ourselves, so Jesus saves us.
God takes our idolatry seriously because he takes himself seriously, and because he takes our joy seriously. God is not one god among many. He is the only God and the only good. We were made for him alone. Every other thing claiming deity, claiming worship, claiming our heart is an idol. And God hates them all.
But he doesn’t hate his children, and do you remember what I said before? Throughout this letter, every time John warns us, and even in this verse we’re considering today, he begins by calling us “beloved” or “little children.” Though this verse is a call to everyone in the world, this verse is a special call to God’s children—those whom he has saved. We tend to see a verse like this as a great weight that God hangs about our neck. We feel the difficulty of the task. But what we often miss is that what God commands he also grants. We see this in the verse immediately before this, in verse 20, “We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true.” What God commands he grants in his Son.
I want to go back a little further to something John says in 1 John 3:1-2. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are…Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”
Do you know what that means? Here’s a profound insight that I learned from scholar G.K. Beale. He says that we become what we worship. So if our idol is pride, we become prideful. If our idol is lust, we are driven by our sexual desire. If our idol is work, we lose ourselves in our job. What we worship becomes our identity. That's why idolatry is so dangerous. We were made in the image of God, to be like him, and idols make us like them instead.
So here’s how this verse is not only a biblical command but also a gospel promise. In Christ, we are God’s children. And as we worship our Father and his Son by the Spirit, we become like God. Moment by moment, as we worship God, he is bringing us closer to our inevitable future, where he will free us from this idol-infested problem with his glory-filled solution. He will wipe every tear from our eye, remove every pain from our heart, and restore everything that we lost. He’ll make us new, and we will never be able to ruin ourselves again. You can’t kill idolatry by simply removing idols. We are worshipers, and we will find something to worship. Idolatry is killed by replacing idols with God, and that’s the work God does for us in the gospel.
Idolatry is a big deal. But Jesus is a bigger deal. Idols don't love us, but Jesus does. He let God crush him so that when he crushes our idols he doesn’t have to crush us along with them.
So, what is our next step? Here’s John’s answer, 1 John 1:7: “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Our way out of idolatry and into the fullness of Christ is actually pretty simple. All we must do is confess, and Jesus will replace our idols with himself. But it will cost us something: we will have to give up building our lives on things other than Jesus, and that might hurt. But if we want freedom, we’re going to have to admit to ourselves, to God, and to others who we really are. Your idol will probably tell you if you take that step, you’re going to be all by yourself, but it’s lying. You won’t be alone. How do I know? Because Jesus is in the light. And even if everyone else runs and hides, you’ll have Jesus. Is the Savior of the world enough for you?
But of course, Jesus is saving so many people that we won't have only him, we'll have our brothers and sisters in Christ too. What if we spent this week in our community groups walking in the light of Jesus, revealing our idols for the ugly creeps they really are? What if God gave us this verse this week, as we head into Thanksgiving, to get free from the sins of idolatry that have been keeping us from rejoicing in Christ? Why not take that step in just a moment, before you come forward for communion? Jesus is offering freedom right now! Whatever you’re worshiping that is killing you can be replaced by the Giver of Life this very moment.
Your idols don’t want that to happen, and the devil is scared because he knows that some of you might just take that step. Let’s just all decide right not to make the devil mad! Let’s lay down our pride, admit our need, and let Jesus save us. Idols offer what we think we want. Jesus gives us what he knows we need. Idols never keep their promises. But Jesus does.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Run to Christ instead.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/30e6cc8dc67df095-image-asset-otHjzZHjA7rM7aFUaiOO6bTVnisBgF.jpeg\")
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\n1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Introduction
We live in a spiritual world. But the supernatural is not always divine.
Last Sunday night, in the middle of a concert, a man unable to discern the error of the spirit he followed fired guns into a crowd on the Las Vegas strip, killing 58 and injuring over 500 people. He followed a false prophet, and the results were disastrous.
In 1838, a man named Joseph Smith claimed to find tablets in a cave. But he couldn’t read them. He claimed and angel gave him special glasses to understand the foreign language, which, according to his Book of Mormon, is the true story of God’s work. He believed the Bible was corrupt and insufficient—a popular message still today. He placed himself above the Scriptures, literally re-writing the Bible. Today, nearly 15 million people follow his errors.
In this passage, John tells us “do not believe every spirit\" because some spirits are liars. Some manifest in semi-automatic weapons; others in a smiling man in a white shirt and tie on a bicycle. Every false spirit leads to death, either in the pull of a trigger or the slow decay of bad doctrine. Do not believe every spirit.
But this passage is not only about not believing false spirits. It’s also about believing the true Spirit.
The true Spirit is God, the Holy Spirit—the third person of the Trinity. Equal to the Father and Son in power and glory but sent from them to indwell God’s people, regenerating hearts and granting the new birth. He inspired the writing of the Bible.
Here’s how good the Holy Spirit is. Before Jesus died, he told his disciples he was leaving them. He then comforted them saying it was to their benefit that he goes so that he might send the Comforter—the Holy Spirit. He’s our guide who speaks to us the things of God through the scriptures. He glorifies Jesus by taking what is his and declaring it to us. He’s so good, Jesus said it was better for him to leave so the Spirit could come! God is with his people now in the person of the Holy Spirit.
In the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, then, John writes to tell us there is such thing as truth and error, and that we can tell the difference. Christians know this to be true. But decades ago, the post-modern worldview crashed into America, claiming truth as relative. If it’s true for you, then it’s true. Everyone define their own truth. But eventually, that philosophy breaks down. Now we live in the age of what some call post-truth. Truth doesn’t matter. Feelings matter. We see this in today’s rhetoric—just look at Facebook. Emotions rule. And that kind of world is, perhaps, more dangerous for the promulgation of false spirits than John's day. Whatever makes us feel good becomes truth. But listen: if you just follow your feelings, you will believe every spirit that sounds good, even if it isn’t biblical. False spirits don’t care about your heart, but they will use your heart against Christ. They’ll lead you along, making you feel right as Christ is denied.
But Jesus doesn’t treat us that way. He doesn’t trick us into error; he sends us the Spirit of truth. And in this passage, John is showing us what that means. Every age has its own false spirits. But in every age, the Holy Spirit is there, giving discernment to his people and prevailing over the false spirits.
So, let’s consider three things. First, we must not believe every spirit. Second, we must test the spirits. Third, we must prevail over the false spirits.
We Must Not Believe Every Spirit
There is a spirit behind every religious message. John tells us it’s either from God or from the Antichrist. What should we believe? Such an important question, isn’t it? What we believe forms what we worship, and what we worship forms who we become. So, John tells us not to believe every spirit.
But so many sound so good. For example, “Every religion is a valid path to God.”
We’re tempted to believe this because then we don’t have to preach about the need to come to Christ. We see people as generally good people, doing their best, so our mouth stays shut, thinking they’ll be fine in the end. But to keep our mouths shut and watch people follow a false spirit is to watch them die without Christ. It is like refusing oxygen to a diver in the depths of the sea or denying medicine to a sick child. No one is fine without Christ. He’s the only Savior.
Another example, the prosperity gospel: “God wants his children to be healthy, wealthy, and happy.”
We’re tempted to believe this because isn’t a life of prosperity is what we all want? My guess is most in this room deny the prosperity gospel as right doctrine, but do we functionally live as if it’s true? In other words, are you saying God is not some magical ATM dispensing healthy hearts, large paychecks, and buckets of smiles, yet living as if he does? When things go wrong, do you grow anxious, frustrated, angry, accusing God of not being good?
I think we are tempted to believe at least a version of the prosperity gospel more than we realize, especially here in Franklin, TN. I’m speaking broadly here, and also to myself, but too often, we want what we want, not what God wants. So we spend our money on material things in hope of attaining the good life, all the while the things of God are given the standard monthly fee. But that’s a dangerous message to follow.
It’s not that God doesn’t want good things for us; he certainly does. The Bible says, “It’s your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” But what God defines as good is himself. Everything else just gets in the way.
Many eat false spirits like candy. They sound good. But we must be careful. Jesus warned us in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” We must always compare the version of the good life the false spirits offer with the glorious life Jesus offers. The candy coating makes it go down easy, but it’s poison inside.
Are you believing any false spirits today? What are you building your life on? Can you find it in the Bible? Do not believe every spirit.
So, secondly, we must test the spirits. How do we do it?
We Must Test the Spirits
The Scottish pastor, Eric Alexander said, “The only way I know to cultivate a spirit of discernment and true wisdom in being able to tell the difference between truth and error…is a concentrated commitment to the study of Scripture.” He’s right. If we are to begin discerning between true and false spirits, we must ground ourselves in the Bible, because it’s the source of all truth, the supreme authority in all spiritual matters, containing everything necessary for salvation and spiritual life.
To test the spirits, John points to God’s word through his prophets and apostles in the Bible. Look at verse 6, “We are from God [the apostles are from God]. Whoever knows God listens to us.” But “Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
So, discernment begins with the Bible. We test the spirits by reading the Scriptures in the power of the Holy Spirit with diligence and prayer so that it may be stored in our hearts and practiced in our lives. By the Bible, we discern the genuineness of every spirit. As John MacArthur said, “Federal agents don’t learn to spot counterfeit money by studying the counterfeits. They study genuine bills until they master the look of the real thing. Then when they see the bogus money they recognize it.” That’s why we teach and preach the Bible here at Refuge. We want to equip you to discern truth from error. The more familiar you are with truth, the more you recognize error.
So, quick side bar: how do we know the Bible is true? Well, how do we know anything is true? We test it, don’t we? That’s what John is telling us to do with the false spirits, because he’s writing to Christians. But if you’re here and wondering why we believe the Bible to be true, let me challenge you to test it. Don’t say you will, but actually do it. Test it against other historical records, archeology, and science. Test it for rationality. Does it make sense logically? Is it coherent? What do the older passages say about future passages? One thing remarkable about the Bible is its prediction of future events. Finally, if you really want to know, ask God to help you believe. You’re going to believe something. We all do. So why not try to believe the Bible? After all, God is a person who gave us this book. It’s not the book who proves itself as much as God who proves the book. He can prove himself to you too. End of side bar.
Now, how do we test the spirits? Ask where they lead. What do they say about Jesus? Do they take you further into him or further from him? Answer this carefully because, as Martin Luther said, “Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your god.”
The Holy Spirit confesses the truth of Jesus Christ. The false spirits don’t. The object of the message makes the difference.
Look at verse 2, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.” Now, look at verse 3, the false message, “and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming and now is in the world already.” So, there is the Spirit of God and there is the spirit of the antichrist. The Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit. The spirit of the antichrist is reference to the person in whom the denial of Jesus reaches its ultimate expression. There is one yet to come to fulfill that, but the spirit is here today in all false doctrine. The Holy Spirit confesses Jesus. The spirit of the antichrist does not.
Now, what does it mean to confess Christ? In Greek, the word confess means “to say the same thing as.” It’s not a mere acknowledgment, like a head nod when someone speaks. It’s repeating after God the same words with the same conviction.
False spirits don’t do that. In Mark’s gospel when Jesus entered a Synagogue, a man with a demon cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” He seems to confess Jesus, doesn’t he? He recognizes him as the Holy One of God. But he also seems mad at Jesus, “What have you to do with us? Have you come to destroy us?” The tone is one of animosity. This is not the kind of confession of Jesus John refers to as true confession. The demon knew who Jesus was but that did not mean he would worship him. Unless the confession is accompanied by heartfelt reverence and submission to Christ, it’s just words.
So that’s false confession. What is true confession?
After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his apostles. But Thomas, wasn’t there, and upon hearing what happened, he doubts. After all, who can rise from the dead? “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” Eight days later, Jesus comes again to his disciples, this time with Thomas present. Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
Thomas sees Jesus and confesses him as the Savior, as his Lord and God. The false spirits don’t confess that truth. They nod their head in recognition of Jesus but they don’t worship him.
The false spirits’ messages take many forms. In John’s day, some said Jesus wasn’t really human; he just seemed to be human. But you cannot strip away the humanity of Jesus and still have Jesus. He could not have saved us if he wasn’t the God-Man. If he wasn’t truly human, he didn’t truly obey God’s law on our behalf. He wasn’t truly beset with our weakness of flesh. He was a pretender, forging his way through this world. But also, if Jesus wasn’t human, the crucifixion was fake. His suffering wasn’t real. It just seemed real. So, he can’t really help us in our suffering. He can’t sympathize with us because he doesn’t know what it’s like to be really tempted, to really cry, to really bleed. Furthermore, we don’t have a real resurrection. And if the resurrection isn’t real, then, in the words of the apostle Paul, “Your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”
But the Bible says Jesus was a real man. He became like us in every respect to obey God’s law perfeclty and to pay the penalty of sin for his people. He experienced the same things we experience, who thirsted and hungered and got tired, who slept and bled and died, who felt betrayal and loneliness and oppression, who got blisters on his feet and splinters in his hands and sweat in his eyes, who wondered about his future and thought about his past and lived in the limitations of the present, who obeyed God and followed God and became our substitute…if that Jesus is the real Jesus, then the author of Hebrews is right: we do have a sympathetic high priest, who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. We can confidently approach the throne of grace in our time of need…because Jesus understands what it’s like to be in need!
Do you see? The Holy God, who is in the heavens and does whatever he pleases, chose to enter our world, take on flesh, live our life so that he could experience everything we experience except sin, to die and rise from death to save us. Every spirit should run through the Jesus test. What do the spirits say about Jesus?!
We should ask two questions of every message:
1) If I believe this, what confession about Christ is entering my heart?
2) If I believe this, what confession about Christ will come out of my mouth?
The false spirits are trying to put their false message into your heart so that their lies will come out of your mouth. But we must test them. We must prevail over the false spirits, which is my third point.
We Must Prevail Over the False Spirits
We must prevail over the false spirits, but John isn’t saying we must do that in our own strength. Look at verse 4. “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them [false spirits], for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
Notice the tender words, “little children.” God is not asking us to prevail over false spirits on our own. He knows we can’t! We are not super men and women. We are little children, in need of our Father to take our hand and walk us in the right direction. So, as a good Father, God grants what we need. He gives himself to us, giving us the capacity to believe truth and deny error, constantly adjusting our heart to its proper orientation. Not believing the false spirits and believing the true Spirit is a matter of a changed heart. It’s not purely intellectual, though there is reasoning involved. It’s actually more about who we know than what we know. It’s the difference between knowing the character of a person and knowing facts about a person. It’s the difference between knowing your spouse and knowing someone else’s spouse. We can know doctrine, but unless the Lord has changed our heart, granting repentance and belief, we could confess Jesus and still follow false spirits. It comes down to affection before it comes down to intellect. Our hearts are stronger than our minds. That’s why God renews our minds but first recreates our heart. We don’t learn our way into God. We love our way into God. More precisely, God loves us into himself, and we respond to his love with love. We’re captivated by him, born again into him. We are no longer our own. We have been bought with a price. We belong to God now. And he was victorious over the false spirits in the cross and resurrection. Do you think, after all that, he’s going to give you up to false spirits?
Believers don’t lose the war with the false spirits because the God cannot lose any war. But on the cross 2,000 years ago, he did choose to lose one battle, because it was the only way to win our salvation. Jesus received what we deserved. Three days later, the Holy Spirit raised his lifeless body. The same Spirit who, as Paul says in Romans 8:11, now lives inside of every Christian. If that’s true, you need not fear any false spirit. God will protect you.
In the Old Testament book of 2 Kings, the king of Syria waged war on Israel. God sent word to Israel of the location of the Syrian army through his prophet Elisha. Embarrassed, the king of Syria was convinced one of his men was a traitor. How else could Israel have known where they were? But all his men denied it. Instead, they pointed to Elisha, Israel’s man of God, who seemed to know everything they discussed in private. So he sent his army to Elisha’s house.
The next morning, Elisha’s servant awoke to an angry Syrian army all around. Frightened, he ran to Elisha, “What shall we do?” Elisha said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” But the servant didn’t understand, what he saw with his eyes didn’t match what Elisha just said. Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around. God’s angelic army had been there all along.
What Elisha’s servant couldn’t see is what John is illuminating for us now—God’s strength is greater than his enemy’s. And we today have something greater than God’s angelic army. We have God himself in the person of the Holy Spirit living within. We must prevail over the false spirits, and we will, praise be to God! It doesn’t matter what false spirits are circling your house because, if you’re a Christian, you have the Spirit of truth living deep inside, and he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. You’re not alone. You never have been. God is with you now and until the end of the age.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/cc1371305e3e4be3-image-asset-5Kd2y5g5EZML94XlrCVtW7GT3OeY9f.jpeg\")
\n \n\n15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15-17)
In his High Priestly Prayer, Jesus said, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” Jesus was going to the cross and leaving the world. He was the life made manifest, who was seen and heard and touched. He was the one to pay for the sins of the world—to accomplish the single most important event in history, far greater than anything the world had ever seen or would ever see again. And he did it.
But the evil one says what Jesus did wasn’t that impressive. He says the world and all that’s in it matters more. And as long as we’re in the world, we’re tempted to believe him. And he’d be right if Jesus stayed in the grave. But he didn’t. His resurrection changed everything.
Our passage today is important because we cannot love both the world and the Father simultaneously. Love for the world crowds out love for the Father, and love for the Father crowds out love for the world.
The main point of this passage is “Do not love the world; love the Father.” But that’s much easier to read than it is to live. We can see the world. We can’t see the Father. And given those two options, we tend to gravitate toward what we can see.
John recognizes the danger, so he commands us not to love the world. Then, he gives two reasons why: the world is opposed to the Father, and the world is passing away.
Let’s consider first the command in verse 15.
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
This is not a suggestion. It’s a command. “Do not love the world.”
Through his Apostle John, the God of the universe is speaking. With his authority as ruler and creator, in his sovereignty, he has the right to command us.
But God’s commands never come apart from his grace. Whatever he commands, he grants the ability to obey. That’s why we believe gospel doctrine (what we believe about God) creates a gospel culture (how we live before God). He always creates what he wants to see.
John mentions “the world” six times in these three verses. What is the world? It’s the entire system of rebellion against God and his rule. Commentator F.F. Bruce says, “Worldliness…does not lie in things we do or in places we frequent; it lies in the human heart, in the set of human affections and attitudes.” This is so important. If you don’t get this, you won’t get the passage. John is not saying the world God made was bad. He’s saying the way we relate to what God made can be bad. To John, worldliness is thinking the world is all that ultimately matters—placing it above the Father. What makes the world bad is not the stuff in it—which came from God—but how we treat that stuff. We cannot love the world (view it as ultimate) and love the Father (view him as ultimate) at the same time. One comes first in our heart. John says it should be the Father.
My guess is we know we shouldn’t love the world. But its pull is strong, and we are tempted. The world never stops making offers, and our flesh never stops window shopping. John recognizes this. So, he gives us reasons not to love the world.
Let’s look at the first reason now, from verse 16
“For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.”
The mindset that says the world is ultimate originated from the world. When sin entered in, we replaced God for God’s creation. We distorted and twisted God’s good gifts into our ultimate hope.
To help us understand, John gives three categories of worldliness: “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life.”
Notice the word desire. This matters so much in understanding this passage. What we love is all about what we desire. The Greek word John uses is epithumia. It means “an intense desire for some particular thing.” It’s not simply a preference but a deep-desire for something—desiring it above everything else.
This word is used 38 times in the New Testament. It’s a word that can have both a positive or a negative connotation. But on three of the 38 uses are positive. That’s interesting to me. I wouldn’t expect John to use this kind of word here. Some translations use the word “lusts” instead of “desires”. That’s more like what I expect. I can’t think of a good connotation of lust. But the ESV uses desires. So, I looked up the three good uses of this word, and here’s what I found.
The first is from Luke 22:15. Jesus’s last supper before he goes to the cross. He says to his disciples, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” In other words, Jesus deeply desired to dine with them before his suffering. Why? Their presence reminded him of his mission and became to him the joy set before him to endure the cross.
The second instance is Philippians 1:23. Paul says to live is Christ and to die is gain. He’s hard pressed between the two. He says, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” Paul’s deep desire is to be with the Lord. And that deep desire propels him to submit his circumstances to Jesus and obey him, whatever the cost.
The third instance is 1 Thessalonians 2:17. Paul says, “Since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face.” He’s been separated from the Thessalonians and longs to see them again. His deep desire is to be with God’s people.
Here’s why I focus on this. John isn’t using this word on accident. The fact that we are capable of such desires means something. What does it mean? The Puritan pastor, Jonathan Edwards, said “to create men with a capacity [for great happiness] which [God] never intended to fill..would have been to have created a large capacity when there was need but of a smaller…hence we learn that there is undoubtedly a future state after death, because we see they do not enjoy so great glory in this world.”
Do you understand what he’s saying? If we have the capacity for such strong desire, it must be because God himself created it. Why did he create it? To go unmet? Of course not. To be wasted on the passing things of the world? No way! He created it to fill it with himself. Why? Because he’s the most satisfying being in the universe. And by creating us with desire, he gave us the capacity to really experience him and find the deepest happiness of our lives.
So, to focus our desire on the world rather than on Father is to focus on what could never satisfy. We need to stop dumpster diving for the treasures of the world and mine the immeasurable riches of Christ. It’s in him that we’ll find our desires satisfied.
When John says “the desires of the flesh,” he’s talking about the wrong focus of that desire on things you can see, touch, and feel—things like food, drink, leisure, sex, rest, enjoyment, comfort—anything that appeals to how you feel in the body.
By desires of the eyes, he means beauty, attractiveness, glamour, what appeals to our sight—when you see something you just have to have. For some, it’s pornography, lusting after what we should never look at. For others, it’s the “Instagrammable” life, looking great on the outside even if you’re dying inside.
Then there is the pride of life—self-exaltation, thinking what you have and what you are is of your own doing, pride in possessions, financial means, property, livelihood.
Pride of life is the result of the other two, and becomes the means by which we keep the other two alive. It is the culmination of the sin of idolatry, when we love what we’ve accomplished or accumulated or attained more than anything else.
The more we focus our desires on the world, allowing the world’s mindset to take root and grow, the more we push God to the edges of our heart.
You might be thinking, “Ok, I get it. I shouldn’t desire the world. But how do I stop desiring? I can’t change what I want!” No, you can’t. But God can. He created your heart. You think he can’t change the desires of it?
If helping us diagnose our desires isn’t a good enough reason, John gives us another: if we love the world, we’re going to pass away with the world. Look at verse 17.
“And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
In the world, it’s those who reach the top who make a splash. By design, it’s exclusive and hard to reach. Not just anyone can make it. But no matter how high you climb, the world’s ladder is always wobbly. One bad investment, one big mistake, and it’s all over. And when you die, as the Preacher of Ecclesiastes said, all is left to another. Every worldly desire turns into a dead end.
But in the Kingdom of God, whoever does the will of God abides forever. You don’t have to reach the top of this world. You can be on the bottom. The world hates the lowly and humble, but God loves them. Whoever comes to God with a heart longing for his grace will find it. Every godly desire ends up in heaven.
Don’t misunderstand me. You can be wealthy and close to God and you can be poor and close to God. This is not about material wealth. It’s about how you relate to material wealth—what you’re building your identity on. If you build your life on the passing things of the world, you will pass along with it. You’ll waste your life. But if you build your life on the will of God, you and what you lived for will abide forever.
Jesus taught this in John, chapter 6. He fed the five thousand, and after he leaves, they come looking for him the next day. Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
The crowds liked Jesus for their full bellies. But a full belly is only a pointer to the grace of God, it is not God. Their desire was for more than bread. It was for God. They just couldn’t see that yet. Here’s the point. When we make the world ultimate in our heart, we grow hungry and thirsty no matter how much we eat. When we make the Father ultimate in our heart, he gives us Jesus who said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
What is the will of God that abides? It’s treasuring Jesus and believing in him for eternal life—looking to him for everything: all satisfaction, all worth, all joy, all peace, all hope.
John isn’t asking you to evaluate over a period of time and make a plan for change. He’s calling for immediate response. Why are you looking to Jesus? To give you more bread or to give you himself? What do you believe matters most?
You can know by looking at what you do. For example, how do you spend your money, your time, your effort? How much of what you have do you attribute to Jesus vs yourself? How much energy do you spend on the things of God?
If you’re like I was this week, realizing you love the world far too much, what is the path forward? It helps to go back to verse 15. “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” The phrase, “the love of the Father,” occurs only here in the NT. It means love toward the Father generated by the Father’s love toward us. John is not calling us to create love for the Father on our own. We could never do that! Our love for God is generated from his love for us. “We love because he first loved us.” It is the Father’s love coming down to us through the person of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit that transforms us from world lovers into God lovers.
What did Jesus say in John 6? “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” He gives us what we need. Everything in the world has a price. But in the gospel, God says, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” All we have to do is come to him. Will we?
Here’s how we can. Go back to 1 John 1:7. “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Our path forward is not bootstrapping it. It’s confessing it. When the pull of the world grows strong, cut the chains with regular and earnest confession.
If we confess our sin to Jesus, how will he respond? Will he beat us? Will he cast us out? No! He’ll cleanse us. When we bring our mess ups to the world, it shames us. When we bring our sins to Jesus, he saves us.
Are you starting to see how important this passage is?
Martin Luther said we need to live from the perspective of eternity. We need to live today in light of what we will experience ten billion years from now. In ten billion years, you’re not going to care one lick about what you looked like on Sunday, September 3rd, 2017. You’re not going to care that your house needed a coat of paint or that your car is run down or your bank account is empty or that you couldn’t take that vacation to Hawaii or that you’re unknown to most of the world. You’re not going to care that you purchased your dream house or that you finally got the promotion at work you spent all those hours accruing.
You’re not going to care about any of that stuff in ten billion years. Why do you care so much now? Because it’s what you can see and feel and touch. And our fixation on it grows our desire for it. And if you don’t have it, and others do, what will come of your life!
Well, if you belong to God, glory awaits. The world and all that’s in it possess away while the crown of glory shines brightly forever. Missing out on this world’s best will feel like suffering in the present. But the Bible says the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
What do you love most? The world or the Father?
Remember in Acts, when Luke tells us about the early church? “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” They devoted themselves. They were living for Christ in the midst of the world. And what happened? “Awe came upon every soul.” And “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
Christians ask themselves, “What am I doing, what am I a part of, what am I involved in that will still matter ten billion years from now?” A leisurely pancake breakfast on Sunday morning after a world-filled week tastes good, but if it tastes better to you than worshiping God with his people, you need to ask yourself, “Do I love the world or the Father?”
That sounds radical, doesn’t it? Well, it is! The gospel is radical! The death of Christ on the cross is radical! The resurrection is radical! God’s salvation is radical. Who but God would love us?
The world teaches us to de-radicalize, to fall in line. But when a church let’s gospel doctrine create a gospel culture, Jesus sets the rules, not the world. Christ’s massive weight of grace leads us out of the land of slavery into the land of freedom. We become a different kind of community—one centered on Jesus and rooted in joy, where confession of sin is common, repentance is a way of life because we have nothing to hide anymore, and loving one another is the natural outflow of our deep desire for the Lord. The world doesn’t understand it because it’s not of this world. It’s of God. We will look a strange to them. Who cares? We have God! And you know what? Some will find that attractive, because God gave them a desire so big that only he could fill it.
Not loving the world means we won’t get our best life now. That’s ok. That was our plan, not God’s. Why? Because to give us our best now, while we’re battling sin, is to give us a living hell. And God loves us too much to do that. He wants more for us than we even want for ourselves. We would settle for everything we desire in this world right now but God won’t let us have it—and that’s grace.
We’re all looking for a miracle to make our life complete. And the miracle we’re looking for has come. “For God so loved the world he gave his only Son.” God did not leave us on our own, wandering our way through life, hoping we’ll find what we need. He entered in. We fell in love with what we could see and touch. So he became see-able and touch-able. He looked at us and said, “I don’t care what they’ve made of themselves. I want them! But they’re blinded by the evil one and the world and their own flesh! They can’t come to me. So I’ll go to them!” The world and its temptations offered him everything and he turned it down. Why? He was on a mission to save. For too long, we wasted our God-given desire on the world, never finding what our heart longed for. So Jesus obeyed the Father on our behalf, and when he triumphed over the world, brought us to the One who could satisfy our heart.
He gave himself for you. What has the world given for you?
We will lose everything we have at the end of our life, but if we have Christ we will have everything we longed for for eternity. Our path out of worldliness is to travel further into the love of God. Jesus is not asking us to sacrifice joy. He’s commanding us to enter it. The Bible promises us that whatever it may cost us in this life, it’ll be a trade we won’t regret for all eternity. As we obey this command, we will face tribulation in this world. But take heart; Jesus has overcome the world!
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/f327018c63137c67-image-asset-47b9bxSDBnwnWzb9AInZjpqmnk67sP.jpeg\")
\n \n\nThe later chapters of Acts show Paul’s journey to Jerusalem, which led to his arrest. Last week, we saw how dangerous it became. Forty men wanted him dead. So, Paul was moved from Jerusalem to Caesarea, and in Acts 24, appeared before the Roman governor, Felix. The Jews hired a lawyer, Tertullus, and made three serious but false accusations. He was tried and imprisoned without receiving a verdict. Then, Paul and Felix have an interesting conversation. Let’s read it now.
24 And after five days the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and a spokesman, one Tertullus [the Jews’ lawyer]. They laid before the governor their case against Paul. 2 And when he had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him [in the proper court etiquette of the day], saying:
“Since through you we enjoy much peace [which wasn’t true; the Jews had a terrible relationship with him and both parties knew it], and since by your foresight, most excellent Felix, reforms are being made for this nation, 3 in every way and everywhere we accept this with all gratitude [he’s laying it on thick]. 4 But, to detain you no further, I beg you in your kindness to hear us briefly. 5 For we have found this man a plague [and here are the three accusations against Paul], one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.6 He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him. 8 By examining him yourself you will be able to find out from him about everything of which we accuse him.” [Essentially, “Felix, there is no way you can find him innocent and still be on our side politically.”]
9 The Jews also joined in the charge, affirming that all these things were so. [Furthering the pressure on Felix to comply]
10 And when the governor had nodded to him to speak, Paul replied: [Paul makes his defense now]
“Knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation [so he should be aware of the events and relationships], I cheerfully make my defense. 11 You can verify that it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem [hardly enough time to do everything they accused him of], 12 and they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd, either in the temple or in the synagogues or in the city. 13 Neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me. 14 But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers [he’s a faithful Jew, following God’s word all the way to Jesus], believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, 15 having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. 16 So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man. [he’s following God as best he can, not doing anything else] 17 Now after several years I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings. 18 While I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple [not defiled or defiling the temple], without any crowd or tumult [not causing a scene]. But some Jews from Asia— 19 they ought to be here before you and to make an accusation, should they have anything against me. [His accusers weren’t even present for the hearing, which should lead to doubt their accusations] 20 Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the council, 21 other than this one thing that I cried out while standing among them: ‘It is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you this day.’” [Paul admits to only one thing: being a Jewish believer in God]
22 But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the Way, put them off, saying, “When Lysias the tribune comes down, I will decide your case.” [He knew there was no case, but didn’t want to decide because it wasn’t politically expedient.] 23 Then he gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in custody but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs.
24 After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, [Drusilla was Felix’s third wife. She was only about 20 years old. He had seduced her and she left her first husband to be with Felix.] and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus.25 And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.” [Felix was alarmed because the three things Paul mentions are the three big sins of his life. He wasn’t righteous in marrying Drusilla. He wasn’t self-controlled in his lust or his desire for fame and money. He wasn’t prepared for the coming judgment because he himself wasn’t just. He was confronted with his sins but was unwilling to repent] 26 At the same time he hoped that money would be given him by Paul. So he sent for him often and conversed with him. 27 When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. And desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.
This is God’s word.
Why is this in the Bible? It doesn’t have lots of doctrine. It seems to merely progress the story. Yet 27 verses are spent here. Clearly, God wants to show us something. The Bible says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (1 Timothy 3:16). So, what is profitable here?
This passage is the story of two trails: the obvious one, Paul’s trial in verses 1-23, and the easy-to-miss-one, Felix’s trial in verses 24-27. But this also shows us the reality of two spiritual trials: how we put God on trial, and how God puts us on trial. So, that’s what we’re going to look at today.
1. Trial #1: Us v. God
2. Trial #2: God v. Us
Trial #1: Us v. God
Paul is standing trial, but at the most basic level, it’s not Paul who’s on trial. It’s Jesus. And before you think, “how could they,” realize that this is all of us. We’ve all put Jesus on trial. We all indict God by our sin. We say he’s infringed upon our rights. So, we bring him into the courtroom of our heart and place him in the defendant’s chair, asking him to prove his worth.
From the Garden of Eden, God has been accused. The Devil asked, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’? You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1,4) Adam and Eve said, in effect, “That’s right, God is holding out on us. We’ll show him.” From that day forward, the world has been at war with God, accusing him for the things gone wrong, even though it’s all our fault.
The story of Israel in the Old Testament is an album of the testing of God. One trial after another. Can we trust him? Will he be faithful? Will he protect us? Will he provide for us? Will he be there? In the New Testament, Jesus’ disciples show not much changed. Peter proclaimed him as the Christ only to deny him three times. We try Jesus, and the trials extend to his people.
So, here is Paul, standing trial for being, essentially, a faithful Jew. He looked at the Old Testament and followed it all the way to Jesus. When he looked at the Old Testament and then looked at the gospel message, he didn’t see any contradictions. He saw completion. But the Jews missed it because they wouldn’t accept a gospel of free grace. So, they stood before the Roman governor and instead of proclaiming the good news, they put the good news on trial.
You may have noticed when we read the passage that this sounds an awful lot like the trail Jesus endured at the end of his days: trumped up charges, no evidence, Roman cowards unwilling to take a stand. That’s no accident. Luke is writing it this way on purpose. He means to link Paul’s trial with Jesus’. Because this is really where we all start: putting Jesus on trial.
We try Jesus constantly. How many times have we accused him? If he’s so good, why is this happening to me? If he’s so sovereign, why can’t he stop this? If he’s really there, why isn’t he talking to me? If he’s really God, why doesn’t he fix everything right now?
Our sinful default is exactly the same as Adam and Eve’s. We assume God is holding out on us. We assume he’s against us. We limit him and shrink him down to fit inside our small ideas. And unless God breaks through to us, that’s where we’ll stay until the end of our days: resistant to God and his purposes, and ultimately resistant to God’s people as well. And that’s how Paul got here.
The Jews didn’t know they were resistant to God. But because they failed to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, they persecuted his followers, and in doing so, persecuted God himself. Remember what Jesus said to Paul when he appeared to him on the road to Damascus, “Paul! Paul! Why are you persecuting me?” Paul wasn’t raging his fist at Jesus, seeking to arrest him. He thought Jesus was already dead. But Jesus wasn’t dead. Jesus was alive! And he had been saving people throughout the world. So, for Paul to persecute Jesus’ people was to persecute Jesus. And that’s what these Jews were doing in Acts 24.
Jesus identifies with his people so deeply that to stand against his people is to stand against him. That means we must be very careful what we say about other Christians. It might be that we are wrong in our assumption of God. He might be bigger than we think he is.
The only truly faithful Jew in this passage is Paul. The others’ problem was that they shrunk God to fit inside their worldview. They let their religion dictate their god instead of letting their God dictate their religion. They missed the marvel of the cross because they were looking for the ordinariness of a king. So, they missed the Crucified King that became the Resurrected King, who earned the title King of kings. These Jews from Acts 24 should have modeled the Berean Jews from Acts 17, “receiving the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Let’s not let our thoughts or expectations overrule God’s word. If we do, we may stand against God and his people without even realizing it.
Paul was in this courtroom because he stood for Jesus, and in a world at war with Jesus, his people face hardship. Jesus said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” (John 15:18) “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (John 15:20) “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” (Matthew 12:30). There are no neutral parties when it comes to God. There are only those for God and those against God. That’s it. Even now, as we look at this passage, something is happening in every one of us. We’re either softening to God or hardening to him. But the one thing that’s not happening is nothing. Something is going on inside.
So, what’s going on inside you? Where does God stand in the courtroom of your heart?
Now, let’s hear the second case Luke brings before us.
Trail #2: God v. Us
We don’t hear Paul’s verdict because Felix delays and keeps him imprisoned as a favor to the Jews. Instead of a verdict, we see another trial. This time, Paul puts Felix on trial. The judge becomes the defendant. The defendant becomes the prosecutor. And the Lord becomes the judge, because, really, he’s always the judge. We see this in verses 24 and 25. Felix and Drusilla come to Paul and Paul talks about faith in Christ, reasoning about righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgement. Felix becomes alarmed because Paul hits home with these sins. So, he sends Paul away, talking to him later only hoping to get a bribe. Don’t miss the implications here. He heard the gospel from the Apostle Paul and had an opportunity to repent but instead chose to ignore. He could have been free of all his sin and gained all God’s righteousness. But all he wanted was a bribe. He didn’t want God.
So, what do you want?
In the gospel, God is offering us something more valuable than the meager sum we can attain in this world. He’s offering us the greatest joy for the longest amount of time for the best price anywhere in the world. He’s offering himself forever.
In the gospel, God takes us to court. He presents the charges against us: Sin. And afterward, asks us how we plea. We have two options: guilty or not-guilty. If we plead not-guilty, we can either defend ourselves in silence and ignorance, like Felix, or in defiance and cross examination, like the Jews. Either way, we’re going to lose because God has all the evidence he needs to convict us. He can call witness after witness. He can submit proof after proof. We may think we are getting away with it now, but one day we will die and stand before him once and for all, and we will have no case to make. No amount of good we did can outweigh the bad we were, and we will be condemned to hell forever because we failed to admit our sin and our need for forgiveness from God.
Now, it would make sense to plead not guilty and fight the case if we were unsure of what the guilty plea meant. But the gospel is God’s news of the trial. It’s the only case we know the outcome of before we step into the courtroom.
If we plead guilty, hoping God will be merciful, something surprising happens. We would never expect this. This is why the gospel is good news. Here’s what happens.
Your sin is a great, big collective felony against God. Your day in court has arrived. You stand before the judge, who happens to be the one against whom you have committed this crime. You have no other option than to plead guilty. You just feel guilty before him. The penalty is death, there is no way around it, but you know it’s just. Now, imagine, before you’ve even begun your defense, the judge leans forward in his chair, looks straight into your eyes, and says that the penalty has been paid and you are free to go.
The gospel says that’s what’s happens because of the work of Jesus on your behalf. Jesus already stood trial on your behalf and was condemn for your sin. He paid the penalty of death that you were owed. You put Jesus on trial by your sin and instead of building a case against you, he stood in your place and took the punishment you deserved. He didn’t look for a way out. Instead, like a lamb that is lead to the slaughter, he opened not his mouth. He lost his voice in his trial so he could speak for you in yours. He endured the silence and paid your penalty before you even realized you needed him to. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Because of him it’s as if you always obeyed.
It turns out God was always there, being faithful to us when we were being unfaithful to him. He was making plans for us before we even knew we needed him. Without your permission, Jesus came down to earth, was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, obeyed the law, fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament, was convicted of a crime he did not commit, and was executed on the cross. This is what the judge is talking about. Your punishment has been paid already. You are free. The banner hanging over your head is no longer “Sinner, condemned”, but “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” In that moment, you know your guilt and you accept God’s salvation in repentance and faith.
That’s what Paul was offering Felix. That’s what God is offering us today. The only question remaining is, what will we do with his offer?
Let’s go back to the courtroom. God has just declared you innocent. The courtroom erupts. Some are angry. Some are overjoyed. You are floored. What just happened? You know your own guilt. How can this be? You look up at him with bulging eyes, at a loss for words. You utter a shaky, “thank you.” That’s all you can muster. And then he cracks a smile. It’s a smile unlike any you’ve ever seen. It’s like the smile of a friend who hasn’t seen you in a long time and has no idea what a mess you’ve made of your life. It’s an innocent smile, a pure smile. It is the smile of God for you.
Then, he gets out of his chair and comes down, puts his arm around you, and leads you back to his chambers. He rejoices with you, and there is no indication that he ever plans to let you go. You start to think that maybe he intends to give you your life back, except this time it’s the life you always wanted rather than the mess you made. The relationship feels so warm that it’s as if God has adopted you as his own child, which, you soon find out, he has.
You behold the one who died for you. He's not angry for having to pay your penalty. He’s overjoyed that you’re there. He says you were the joy set before him for which he endured the cross. He welcomes you unlike anyone ever has because only a resurrected Savior could love like this. Nothing hinders his love. This is more than a declaration of innocence. It’s a declaration of righteousness. You have been reconciled to God.
And though you remain on earth, God sends his Holy Spirit to dwell within. You are a new creation in Christ. You are a child of God. You can endure whatever trials you face because the most important trial has already been decided, and no one can overturn God’s verdict. There is no higher court. That’s why Romans 8 says,
Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:33-39)
Paul knew this truth and now as he stands before the Roman governor, he’s offering the same to him. That’s what being set right with God does: it turns us into evangelists in our moments of greatest trial. And here, Paul lives out his calling, preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. But Felix doesn’t take it. Will you?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/57f6d0f93c03e0fd-image-asset-k4v74A8of9lIwjz3FklUCR9Gdc93hH.jpeg\")
\n \n\n21 And when we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. 2 And having found a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. 3 When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload its cargo. 4 And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. And through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. 5 When our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey, and they all, with wives and children, accompanied us until we were outside the city. And kneeling down on the beach, we prayed 6 and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home.
7 When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, and we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for one day. 8 On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. 9 He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied. 10 While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” 12 When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.”
15 After these days we got ready and went up to Jerusalem. 16 And some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, bringing us to the house of Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we should lodge.
We are on the home stretch of Paul’s third missionary journey. Last week, we saw Paul’s final goodbye to the Ephesian elders as he set sail for Jerusalem. He’s led by God the Holy Spirit to go, even though it will include suffering. This week, we see the continuation of that journey, where me made two important stops at Tyre and Caesarea, and received a word from the Spirit at each. So, let’s look at each stop and draw some applications for us.
Tyre (vv.1-6)
The Christians in Tyre told Paul through the Spirit not to go to Jerusalem. Paul said in Acts 20:23 he’d experienced in every city that the Holy Spirit testified to him that imprisonment and afflictions awaited him in Jerusalem. So, same message, different city, this time with people urging him not to proceed. We don’t know what the conversation was like, but at the end of seven days, they all went to the beach, prayed together, and Paul boarded the ship and left, disregarding their pleas.
Caesarea (vv.7-14)
In Caesarea, Paul met the prophet Agabus, who appeared in Acts 11 where he prophesied a famine. Here in Acts 21, he took Paul’s belt (where he kept money and other items), bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’”
Afterwards, those watching pressed Paul not to go to Jerusalem. This urging included everyone, even Paul’s traveling companions. Verse 12 says, “When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem.” But Paul plans to proceed, saying, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” And since he wouldn’t be persuaded, they ceased and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.”
Now, let’s think this through. Two prophecies, in two cities, with Christians who said the same thing: Paul, don’t go to Jerusalem! Two questions come to mind. (1) What did the Spirit say? (2) Did Paul obey or disobey?
We have a few interpretive options:
1. The Spirt initially misspoke when he told Paul to go to Jerusalem. We must reject this outright because accepting this premise creates big problems. Acts 19 says Paul “resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and to go to Jerusalem.” In Acts 20, Paul says, “Behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit.” So, if the Spirit gives a different word now, God would be a liar, but the Bible says he’s not (Titus 1:2).
2. Paul’s friends incorrectly labeled their revelation as a prophecy from the Holy Spirit. If we say this, we’re saying Luke, the author of Acts, was inaccurate for saying it was from the Spirit. Then, we have a problem with inerrancy. It would mean the Scripture can be broken, but that can’t be true because Jesus said in John 10:35 that it couldn’t be.
3. Paul disobeyed the Spirit. This is very unlikely because we see in the book of Acts the close relationship Paul has with the Spirit. For example, in Acts 16, Paul wanted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus didn’t allow him to. He was so sensitive to the Spirit then, it’s highly unlikely he’d be so distant now.
4. There are different levels of prophecy in the New Testament – (1) infallible prophecy and (2) prophecy that’s generally true, but wrong in the details. The problem is that nothing in the passage indicates two levels of prophecy. Luke treated all prophecies all the same. For example, nothing in this passage is different from the way Luke spoke of Agabus’s famine prophecy in Acts 11.
However, if we keep reading, we see that Agabus’s prophecy here didn’t play out exactly as described. Paul got to Jerusalem and met with James, the Jewish Christian leader of the Church there. Paul went into the temple, and the Jews claimed he took a Gentile with him, so they arrested him, but they didn’t bind him. Paul was bound by the Romans (Gentiles), not the Jews. And it was actually the Romans (Gentiles) who rescued Paul from the Jews. So, what do we make of this? Well, if we keep reading until the end of Acts, Paul’s words in 28:17 help us see that Agabus was correct. Paul said to them, “Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.” So, Paul says that he was handed over to the Gentiles by the Jews. It’s in the macro view that the prophecy comes true. So, there is one, and only one, type of prophecy in the New Testament.
5. The Spirit told Paul to go to Jerusalem, and Paul alone applied the prophecy correctly. This is the best option. Paul knew what the Lord called him to and others’ application of the prophecy didn’t dissuade him, because what they said wasn’t a new word. They all said the same thing. “Paul, you’re going to suffer in Jerusalem.” It wasn’t a new word; it was just a plea not to follow through. They heard this word from God and thought, “Paul, are you crazy? You can avoid this! Don’t go. Stay here. Don’t suffer!” But Paul heard the word and thought, “God, I’m constrained by you to go. It’s going to include suffering. Everyone tells me that. You tell me that. But I’m willing to go if that’s where you want to take me.” Paul’s friends were right in saying trouble would come, but they were wrong in thinking that because trouble would come, Paul shouldn’t go. His friends couldn’t see why Paul would risk imprisonment and afflictions if they could be avoided by avoiding Jerusalem. Paul couldn’t see how he could avoid Jerusalem without avoiding Jesus.
So, the Spirit told Paul to go to Jerusalem, and Paul obeyed.
Therefore, we can apply this to ourselves in two ways.
1. First, we must help one another follow the Lord in their life, no matter the destination.
2. Second, we must follow the Lord in our life, no matter the destination.
First, we must help one another follow the Lord in their life, no matter the destination.
We’re not all called to face what Paul faced, but we’re all going to face something. Psalm 34 says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” Every call of God is hard because every call of God takes us to the end of our strength and into God’s strength. We need help and encouragement from the body of Christ along the way. So, we need to learn how to help well.
Sometimes well-intentioned people can be wrong about what God desires. It’s especially hard when someone we love faces a call that includes suffering, as Paul’s did. So, we must be careful not to dismiss or proclaim a verdict too soon. We don’t want to be like the people in this passage, giving quick application to a complex issue that we have not taken time to pray or think through.
Let’s not dull the sensitive listening to the Spirit because of fear for safety. What’s safe about the Christian life here on earth? Was Jesus safe? Let’s be a church who believes in Jesus so ferociously that we become and encourage risk-taking, Spirit-led people who, by God’s grace, make an impact on the world around us. Why else has God called us to plant this church? It’s not so we can find comfort in these fold-out chairs. It’s so we can find God in these fold-out chairs and then pack them in the trailer and go out into the world as ambassadors for Christ.
We need to be humble listeners who engage with one another’s Christian life. We need to ask questions, pray, get clarification, give encouragement with gentleness and kindness, give advice (when necessary), follow up, walk alongside, weep with one another, and rejoice with one another. We need to be gospel-soaked and Spirit-filled. We should share our hesitations and help them think it through but if after much of that, we’re still worried about someone's destination, but we see a mature, prepared, and thoughtful decision from the one being called, we must, like Paul’s companions, say in the end, “The will of the Lord be done.” It’s not our place to walk another’s road. It’s our place to encourage and help them along the way, trusting that the Lord knows what he’s doing. Here’s the truth, God loves them more than we have the capacity to! He’ll be with them.
We see this play out in verse 16. Some of the people from Caesarea went with Paul to the house of Mnason. Why? Because Paul didn’t go by ship to Mnason’s house, he went on horseback, and it was a dangerous path. They wanted to be sure Paul got there safely, even if they didn’t believe he’d be safe once he got there. Isn’t that beautiful? Brothers and sisters stick together through it all! They don’t want him to go, but they trusted God’s sovereignty and supported him even still. That’s our role: to support and encourage. Leave the rest up to God.
Second, we must follow the Lord in our life, no matter the destination.
So, how can we know what God is calling us to? Discerning this isn’t easy, but few principles help.
1. Walk closely with the Lord. Read your Bible, pray, meditate on Scripture. There you’re find what God allows, what he asks of you, and the power to proceed.
2. Know your gifting. We all have some gift from God to be used for the advancement of his kingdom. What’s yours? What can you do? What do you enjoy doing? Do others affirm it?
3. Be in community. Being in fellowship with other Christians is the way God will deploy you.
But let’s not over-complicate it. Let’s not fail to do anything because we’re waiting on God’s unmistakable voice to burst through the clouds. Let’s live our lives for Christ right now, where we are, trusting his guidance. He might call some of us to a far-off place, but not everyone in Acts 21 went to Jerusalem. Most stayed home and lived for the Lord where they were. That’s one way the gospel spreads: through Christians sharing the gospel where the Lord has them. Are you living for Christ where you are? By God’s grace, you can!
Wherever God calls us, we must follow him, no matter the destination. Do you know why Paul was going to Jerusalem? He was taking an offering to poor Jews that he took up on all his journeys among the Gentiles. We see the details of this in Romans 15. Now, that seems like a weak reason to face imprisonment and afflictions, but Paul set his face like flint to go. Why? Because it wasn’t merely an offering. It was a statement. Money is worthless unless we say something with it. And God wanted Paul to say something about his kingdom through this Gentile gift to the Jews.
Do you understand the implications of that? The proud Jews despised the heathen Gentiles. Historically, the Jews faced great persecution from the Gentiles. The Jews were God’s people. The Gentiles weren’t. But it was always God’s plan to save both Jew and Gentile on the same basis: by grace through faith in Christ. Acts 15 shows us how controversial it was when the gospel starts spreading to the Gentiles. The apostles debated one another over the matter! But they finally saw that God was indeed saving the Gentiles by grace through faith in Christ. Enemies were now family.
So, this offering from the outsider Gentiles to the insider Jews was a visible display of the unity Christ created in his church. It was proof that the gospel is true. Jesus really is the Prince of peace, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, unifying every tribe, tongue, and nation. Paul was the Jewish Christian apostle appointed by God to take the gospel to the Gentiles. He felt weight of what Jesus was doing and he wanted the Jews in Jerusalem to feel it too. God was reconciling the world! What Paul took to Jerusalem was more than just himself. It was a visible display of the gospel. He was so convinced of the worth of Jesus that he was willing to die to bring the love of the Gentiles into the Church of the Jews. Just like Jesus, Paul was willing to die to unite the church.
Paul did this because Paul believed in the lordship of Christ. He believed God had authority over his life, to determine his role in the grand gospel cause. He didn’t know how it’d turn out, but he looked at the sovereignty of God and followed the command of God. Many of us want to rest in the sovereignty of God’s care and protection but we don’t want to yield to the sovereignty of God’s commands. But if we really believe in the sovereignty of God, it results in following God’s call on our life, no matter the destination, because we trust him. His sovereignty will go with you! Paul went to Jerusalem because he didn’t want to hear Jesus say to him, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46). Do you want to hear that?
We spend our lives wondering what we should do, and when we feel God’s call, we grow afraid of what it means. But here’s what God says. It’s the same thing he said to Moses. Theologian John Frame helped me see this. God told Moses to stand before Pharaoh and demand he set the Israelites free. Moses asked, “Who am I to go?” And God answered, “I will be with you.” That’s a weird answer, isn’t it? “I will be with you” isn’t an answer to the question, “Who am I?” But, of course, it’s the only answer for the Christian. Who are you? You are the one whom God is with. Moses stood in front of Pharaoh because God was with him, and Paul went to Jerusalem because God was with him. What are you going to do because God is with you?
God will call us into hard places, but as we go, he’s going with us. We’re never alone in this life. Not as long as God is alive. And he’s already defeated death, so what’s going to take him away now? Every Christian is called to deny himself and take up his own cross. Jesus endured it. We shall too. But as we do, we will experience in our suffering the blessing of God falling on others. Hear what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” Do you see that? God uses our trials to bring comfort to others because in our trials we find comfort in God. Like an explorer, our various calls reach deep into God and uncover treasures from which others benefit. By denying ourself, taking up our cross, and following Jesus, we become ministers scattered throughout the world: in the office, the home, the neighborhood, the school, everywhere! Every obstacle we face, every pain we suffer, every affliction we endure, Jesus uses as a testimony to his grace. All we have to do is follow him, whatever the call, and he uses our obedience to display his glory in the world.
In closing, let’s consider verse 13. “I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
Paul didn’t throw his life away. He gave his life away to the only one who could sustain it in the end. Do you know what happened when Paul was eventually arrested? He told us in Philippians, “I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.” In his imprisonment, the gospel was proclaimed! Guys, this life is not all we have. One day, Jesus is going to make all things new. He’s going to come back and restore the world. He will dwell here with us in our resurrected bodies. Glory awaits! But if he calls us to suffering for him now, isn’t all our suffering worth it if just one person hears the gospel and comes to faith in Christ? Is it not worth it to stand next to that brother or sister for eternity worshipping the Lamb?
You can’t help but see what Paul did here is like what Jesus did in his final days. He set his face toward Jerusalem, knowing what awaited him there. He prophesied his own death and met opposition from his friends. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus endured what the Father had waiting for him. He went to Jerusalem, and to the cross, and saved the world.
But while the comparison is there, we shouldn’t take it too far. Paul wasn’t Jesus. Paul followed Jesus. The only reason Paul went to Jerusalem was because Jesus already had. The only reason Paul was willing to do the hard thing God asked was because Jesus had already done the hardest thing and came out the other side. It wasn’t easy for Paul, but Jesus stood by him when everything was on the line. He told us so in 2 Timothy 4:17, “The Lord stood by me and strengthened me.”
And it’s the same for every Christian who follows God down the hard, narrow road. In those moments as we trust God and take the next step, we’re doing the same thing Paul was doing, and that Jesus was doing. We’re following the Spirit to testify to the gospel of God’s grace. And whatever happens to us, we can say, as Paul did in 2 Timothy 4:18, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/5cd70e7281c242d1-image-asset-EzowYOJglChhIiPlPClHYJ9FUeHIOp.jpeg\")
\n \n\n17 Now from Miletus he [Paul] sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. 18 And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 22 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. 24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 25 And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. 26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. 32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. 34 You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. 35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” 36 And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. 37 And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, 38 being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.
God gave us the book of Acts to show his vision of worldwide gospel expansion. It’s his explanation of the Spiritual reality we can’t see laying on top of the visible reality we can see. Most of the book is written to explain how the gospel got to unbelievers. But this passage in Acts 20 is given to an entirely Christian audience. It’s Paul’s handoff of ministry responsibility to the Ephesian elders before he departs for Jerusalem. And though he speaks to elders here, I think it speaks to all of us because we’re all involved in ministry at some level. It shows us that God gave Paul a message and a mission that created a ministry. So, we can break it down this way.
Paul’s Message (vv.17-21)
Paul’s Mission (vv. 22-27)
Our Ministry (vv. 28-35)
Paul’s saying his final goodbye to the elders. He’s spent three hard and wonderful years with them. But now he’s heading to Jerusalem, and he wants to exhort them one last time. So, he calls them to him at Miletus, about a day’s journey away.
Paul begins his speech in verse 18, and he uses how he lived with them as the example of how to minister. He’s not boasting. He’s explaining. And in verses 19-21, he explains what he means. Ministering means serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials, boldly teaching everyone publicly and privately of repentance and faith.
This is a holistic ministry. It wasn’t only what Paul said when he preached the gospel, but also the life he lived that proved the truth of the gospel. When he was with them, the Ephesian elders didn’t see an inconsistency in his message compared to his life. That means how we preach the gospel matters. What we believe matters, and what we do with what we believe matters because it’s possible to unsay with our actions what we preach with our mouths. Paul fought hard not to do that. He rested in Christ and humbled himself.
Now, Paul wasn’t always humble. Before his conversion, he served the Lord in pride, not humility. He never wept over his lack of righteousness. He believed he was righteous for keeping the law. He was free from the trials Christians faced because he was the one persecuting them! Then, Jesus saved him, and his life changed forever.
Jesus sent Paul out to preach and plant churches, and Paul obeyed with intensity, investing to the point of tears. And Paul doesn’t regret these tears. He speaks of them as a proof of his ministry. It sounds strange, but one sign of a vibrant ministry is the presence—not absence—of tears, because gospel ministry doesn’t harden our hearts. It cracks our heart open to God and to others. We begin to feel what others feel and weep with those who weep. It means our heart’s being transformed, that God’s doing work of restoration and healing. So, as Refuge Church grows, don’t be surprised to shed tears. Don’t be surprised if it seems like we’re getting worse—it means God is making us better!
Tears are a result of trials, and Paul faced plenty. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:32 that the Ephesians were like beasts to him, the verses before this passage tell us of a riot over Paul’s message, and the Jews opposed him as he preached the Gospel. But he endured. He embraced it for the sake of Christ because everything good and worthwhile is also hard and trying. That’s ok. When we’re serving the Lord, we embrace tears and trials because Jesus is worth it.
But why is he worth it? Because the gospel is true! Jesus saves, and everyone needs to know it! That’s why Paul preached the gospel all the time, as he says in verse 21, preaching repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are the two pillars of Christian belief. To repent means to change our mind, to turn from sin to God. Faith is looking to Christ for righteousness. We can’t separate these two. We can’t repent without faith, and faith reveals itself in the fruit of repentance.
Here’s how it works. When God shares himself with us in the gospel, we come face to face with our own sin, and we feel the emptiness inside. Our guilt and shame sits on our heart like a lump of steel. When we’re exposed to God’s holiness, we see our need for a righteousness we don’t have and can’t achieve. We see that we actually deserve the wrath of God. We deserve hell. But the gospel tells us that everything we’re seeing in that moment can be taken away in Christ. Our failure can be replaced with Christ's success. Hell can be replaced with heaven. Guilt and shame can be replaced with peace and joy. When we see ourselves as sinful as we really are, we’re finally ready to accept the love God gives. So, our sinfulness leads us to repentance, and God’s love leads us to faith. Then we see that God saves sinners by the power of the Holy Spirit testifying to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But believing this isn’t easy for us. That’s why we need lots of exposure to the gospel in lots of places over lots of time. We need the safety to re-think our lives and see God in new ways. That’s why we want Refuge Church to be a church where anyone can grow. We believe the Bible’s message is the only message that really changes us. So, we have all kinds of ways to learn the Bible, both publicly and privately. From one-on-one discipleship to community groups to Sunday sermons.
These verses show us that Paul believed the gospel was the only hope for the world. So, he gave all he had. Do you believe that? Or do you hold the gospel dear to your heart in some sentimental way but don’t feel the urgency of it for others? Paul felt the urgency, and not because he worked it up within himself. He looked to God and God sent him into the world because the gospel message always creates a gospel mission.
When God chose to use Paul in his gospel mission, Paul forsook all earthly achievements to reach for what only God could do. He tells the elders he’s going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen, only that imprisonment and afflictions await. But it’s worth it to him because he’s running his race for the Lord. It’s just another leg of his mission.
Paul had a holy ambition to spread the gospel, whatever the cost. He preached the whole counsel of God, even the parts that might offend others, because it’s better to be offended by God’s word for what it says than arrive ignorant at the end of our life. He says he was “constrained by the Spirit,” meaning he didn’t wake up in the morning asking himself, “What do I want to do today?” He woke up in the morning asking the Lord, “What do you want me to do today?” Paul allowed God to lead him because he loved and trusted him. That’s all it really takes to live in spiritual reality with God: to love and trust him. Do you love and trust God? Or is your hope placed in other gods?
Every day you and I face an ambush of other gods wooing us to worship them instead of Jesus. And they look appealing because they offer ease and comfort and power and importance. But their promises don’t come through. They work us to the bone without any lasting reward. God, on the other hand, promises us his kingdom if only we’ll stick with him. But we face one of two obstacles within, where other gods can jump in front of Jesus. We think we’re either too good for him or too bad for him. So, we follow idols of pride or idols of pity rather than Jesus. Who we follow will determine the mission we’re on.
Sometimes we think we’re too good to need Jesus. We have enough good grades on the spiritual scorecard. That was Paul’s pre-conversion problem—he was too religiously successful. So, his mission became self-focused. When we fail to see our need for Jesus, thinking we’ve attained righteousness on our own, we become people who don’t see others’ need for Jesus. But the path to spiritual reality with God is in forsaking our self-righteousness. We don’t reach up and grab hold of God, God bends down and grabs hold of us. That’s what Paul experienced and that’s what he’s asking us to experience along with him. Have you given up your record for Jesus’? Or are you still clinging to your own righteousness, presenting your achievements as qualifications? Only when we see that our self-righteousness is not an entry fee, but a barrier to Jesus’ grace will we become the kind of Christians that set the world on fire because only then will see others’ need of Christ because we finally see our need of him.
Some of us don’t have a bag of achievements to bring to Christ. We only have failures. We feel so inadequate and disqualified. We wonder how God could ever love us. But when you expose yourself to God as you really are, he won’t say no to you because he’s already said yes to Christ. Your sin is no longer an obstacle to his love, it’s a reason for him to love you because Jesus died to make you clean. Isn’t that how you know someone loves you—when you expose yourself in all that you are and they don’t say no to you? Satan comes and says we’re too weak for God’s power but Jesus comes and says he makes his power perfect in our weakness. It was when Paul was knocked to the ground at the sight of Jesus’ glory and lost all his earthly medals that he became useful to God. So, you’re weak. Big deal! God uses weak people for his glory!
When we feel the love of God, our life changes. We start obeying him. But that doesn’t mean what God asks of us will be easy. We’ll talk about this more next week, but let me just say this. God the Holy Spirit tells Paul to go to Jerusalem but only tells him enough to know it’ll be hard. I wondered about this. How many of us long to know the details of our trials? But God doesn’t tell us. Why do you think that is? Because if we knew what God knows we’d need God less. If he were to tell us, we’d think, “there’s no way I can do that!” We’d hesitate and make excuses. So, God in his grace reveals the details step by step as we trust him. And when we’ve walked the hard road, we’ll look back in amazement at what he’s done in and through us, and he gets all the glory and we get all the joy.
When we throw ourselves into God’s mission because we believe with all our heart God’s message, we find that we can say, along with Paul, verse 24: “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” This is the glue that holds this whole passage together. Jesus is not asking us to give our lives to him when we feel like it. He’s asking us to give our lives to him right now and trust him for the sanctifying adventure that awaits. And if we’ll learn to follow God in this way, we’ll come to the end of our lives and think, “Man, it was hard, and it cost something, but I didn’t waste my life. I felt God’s love. I served Jesus, and I shared the gospel, and I saw him save and change people. I saw his glory in this world!” When we become all-in Christians, we find that God brings us in and cleans us up and sends us out with his power residing within. He uses us in ways we could never imagine.
Paul didn’t waste his life. He believed the gospel and was relentless, never shrinking from the responsibility the Lord gave him. And he’s urging the Ephesian elders, and us today, to follow his example. We are not our own. We were bought with a price. Let’s live like it.
In verse 28, Paul stops talking about his ministry and begins talking about ours. When the gospel message creates gospel mission it leads to gospel ministries. The church is not some random group of people who have joined together for a good cause. It’s a family of believers who have been purchased by the blood of Jesus. They’re set apart for his work in the world, showing what God’s kingdom will look like in the future. But every ministry flock faces the danger of a wolf attack. Wolves come in the front door and the back door. Some come into the church from outside and some rise up from inside to twist God’s words and draw people away. So, we have to pay attention to the gospel we believe and the mission we’re on. We have to keep a close watch on how we think about God. Let’s not let wolves in and let’s not become wolves ourselves. Let’s stick to what the Bible says and follow God there, laying aside our preference for his word.
This requires alertness. Paul uses hyperbole to communicate the urgency of gospel ministry, saying he didn’t cease day or night to admonish everyone with tears. We are so frail, so fragile, prone to wander from God. We need the gospel all the time, and we need one another to remind us of it. But we must do it in the right way: with urgency but with tenderness, pleading. It’s hard to be a rigid religious beast with tears. Paul was a tender father, watching out for his children in the faith, ensuring they have everything they need. He protected the flock with his rod, and led them with his staff.
How can we do this? The same way Paul did. In verse 32, Paul commends the elders to the person of God and to the Word of God. Though Paul is leaving, they’re left with the same resources Paul had: God and his word. Earthly ministers come and go, but God remains forever. They need to hear this because God is asking them to pour themselves out for his flock. That’s why Paul reminds them of Jesus’ words, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” It’s interesting: Jesus doesn’t say this in any of the gospels, but it’s something that Paul remembers and attributes to Jesus. And didn’t Jesus prove the truth of it?
Last Sunday, my four-year-old went to his bookshelf and pulled out The Giving Tree. Do you know it? It’s a story of a boy’s life-long relationship with a tree. The tree loved the boy. He’d gather her leaves and climb and eat apples. The boy grew up and he left, coming back only when he needed something. First, he wanted money to buy things and have fun. The tree didn’t have money, so she gave her apples for him to sell. Then, the boy wanted a house. The tree didn’t have a house but gave him her branches to build one. Then, the boy wanted a boat to sail away and be happy. The tree didn’t have one, but she gave her trunk. Then, one last time, the boy came back, but he was too old and tired for anything. The tree was only a stump. She had given him all of herself. “I don’t need very much now,” said the boy. “Just a quiet place to sit and rest. I am very tired.” “Well,” said the tree, straightening herself up as much as she could, “Well, an old stump is good for sitting and resting. Come, Boy, sit down. Sit down and rest.” And the boy did. And the tree was happy.
The tree gave her life to the boy, and the last word is “happy.” It’s more blessed to give than to receive. Jesus said this because Jesus lived this. He came down from heaven for this very purpose: to give his life to you. Do you know how much God loves to give? Do you sometimes have the thought that maybe he doesn’t want to hear from you again—not this sinner, not this screw-up? Listen, he doesn’t sigh when you come to him; he rejoices when you come to him. Why? Because Jesus is the giving tree. Your need makes him happy. What did he not give for you? He allowed himself to be cut down to bring us to God. And when we get too tired to carry on, he doesn’t look at us as poor excuses for a Christian, he looks at us like the tree looked at the boy: with gladness in his heart. Jesus doesn’t expect us to be powerful and smart and wise. He is powerful and smart and wise for us. All he expects of us is to have a great need for him. So, if you have a great need for Jesus then you are perfect for him. He dances when you come walking up because he can’t wait to give you what he has. He gave his life on the cross, but he rose from the grave, so he still has more to give, and his giving doesn’t deplete him, it energizes him. So, go to him as often as you need. Use up all the grace you can. There’s always more!
Our giving God creates gospel givers. That’s what ministry is, and he’s calling all of us into ministry. So, what is God calling you to? There are no unemployed Christians. Every one of us has a ministry from God to someone.
At the end of The Giving Tree, we get the sense that the Boy isn’t happy. Why? Because all he’s ever done is take. But the tree is happy as a stump because all she’s ever done is give. Doesn’t that say something to us about the truth of giving? The difference between happiness and sadness is in giving. We tend to think that giving will exhaust us, and in some sense, it will, but we need to see how, really, it fill us. As we give our lives over to God’s message and mission, we share in the ministry of happiness in Christ. Life with Jesus is happier the more we give, because as we give, we experience more of his grace. When we run low, he fills us up with new blessing. His mercies are new every day. Haven’t you experienced that? When you’re at your lowest, your most tired, most depleted—isn’t that when Jesus is most real to you? And when Jesus is most real to you isn’t that when you’re happiest?
Paul closes his speech by kneeling in prayer, and they all cry. Why? Because they’ve formed a spiritual friendship. They realize they will never see one another again on this earth, and that’s a sad reality. Luke uses a word here—sorrowful—in verse 38. That’s a very graphic word. It means to experience deep pain—he uses that word when Mary and Joseph can’t find Jesus on their trip home from Jerusalem in Luke 2. Ministry is painful. All life-giving things are. But there’s a beauty in it that nothing else provides. There’s a rawness and realness to it that brings tears. Did you notice that tears are mentioned three times in this passage? Isn’t that something? Life is filled with tears. They are nothing to be ashamed of. They are the sign that something meaningful has taken place. Jesus wept. We too weep. But no matter how many tears we shed here on earth, God will one day wipe them all from our face. We give ourselves to God, entrust our lives to him, and wait for him to set it all right. In between, we labor and love and serve and give, and as we do, we experience what only God can do inside of us, inside our community, and, we pray, outside in the world around us.
And one day, we’ll stand in glory, looking with a smile and say, “it was all worth it.” And we will be happy.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/1e5fa707bdfb7488-image-asset-a6N7op3ZK7Tn5zixAUtBGriYrPqMUN.jpeg\")
\n \n\n1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
I found this, from a real news story.
Hundreds of sheep followed another off a cliff in eastern Turkey, while shepherds looked on in dismay. Four hundred sheep fell 15 meters to their deaths in a ravine but broke the fall of another 1,100 animals who survived. Shepherds from a nearby village neglected the flock while eating breakfast, leaving the sheep to roam free.
The shepherds were off eating breakfast as their sheep followed one another off a cliff. Amazing.
When we read in Psalm 23 that God is our shepherd, I wonder: do you picture your life like these sheep? In other words, do you imagine God is like that Shepherd away at breakfast, and you’re doing the best you can, but who knows when the cliff will come, and when it does, who knows if you’ll be among the 400 who die or the 1,100 who live? Put more pointedly, do you believe that God really cares for you? Or do you believe that maybe he cares enough to claim you but not enough to not leave you for breakfast?
Psalm 23 is David’s proof of God’s compassionate nature in two metaphors. First, he shows us that God is not a distant, breakfast-enjoying Shepherd but a never-leaving, never-neglecting, caring one. Secondly, he’s a Friend, welcoming us into his lavish home. So, the Lord shepherds us and the Lord welcomes us.
Everything in the Psalm flows from the first phrase, “The Lord is my shepherd.” David knows something about shepherding. Before he was King of Israel, he was a shepherd in his father’s field.
Now, the Lord is not just some generic shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is David’s shepherd. He personalizes his relationship to God, referring to himself seventeen times throughout the Psalm. He is dependent upon God. God leads, and David follows. That’s the relationship.
Shepherding isn’t easy. It requires constant attention and care: providing, leading, healing, and protecting. It's humble service to animals far below intellectually. And this is the metaphor that David uses. In fact, the Bible uses this metaphor throughout. It's one of God's favorite ways to show us who he is, and who we are, and how he relates to us.
So, God is our shepherd, which makes us the sheep. The story I opened with proves that sheep need a Shepherd. They can’t take care of themselves. You can’t put sheep in a pasture and wait for them to flourish. They’ll die. They get caught up in the frenzy of mob mentality. If one sheep gets spooked, the others will too. They’re bound to their fears and their timidity. They’re at the same time stubborn and stupid. How do you like that? It’s a humbling comparison.
Sheep are helpless, but a good shepherd meets every need, and David knows God’s a good shepherd. That’s why he says, “I shall not want.” What does he mean? Want doesn’t mean desire. It means lack—I shall not lack. Shall not lack what? Anything the Shepherd thinks is good for me.
If you don’t shear a sheep, he may fall over with the weight of his wool. If you don’t dip a sheep in insecticide, he may be overcome by flies. Sheep don’t like either of these activities but without them they could die. A good shepherd always has his sheep’s best interest in mind. That means that whatever you have in your life right now is put there by the Shepherd himself because he deems it to be the best possible thing for you. The problem is not what he gives but what we think we need. You may want something else, but you don’t need something else. A good shepherd knows his sheep by name. And God knows you, down to the number of hairs on your head. He knows you thoroughly: your temperaments, desires, temptations. God looks out at his flock and asks, “What do they need? What does that one need?” Then he gets to work. God really likes caring for you.
This should calm our heart. It’s why David uses the imagery in verse 2 of laying down in green pastures and beside still waters. Sheep only lie down if they’re belly is full and their fears are stilled. But, of course, sheep can’t provide sustenance or peace themselves. They can experience it, but they can't create it. The environment for sheep to flourish must be created by the shepherd. And David says that’s what God provides. We lack nothing.
You might hear this and say, “Well, this is a great idea. I love the concept, but I feel so dry and lifeless. If there are green pastures, I can’t see them.” That’s why David includes the phrase, “He restores my soul.” Since God is a good shepherd, he knows we need restoring.
To restore does not mean to replace. We could translate it, “He refreshes my soul.” When you restore an old piece of furniture, you take something beat up and renew it. You don’t throw it away. You fix it up and put it in the front room to show it off. And that’s what Jesus does with us. He freshens us up. He gives us new life. He buffs out the stains and mends the broken frames. That’s why he’s a Redeemer. He takes tattered things and renews them into treasures fit for his kingdom.
To all who feel a dryness of soul and wonder where the vitality of Christ is, hear this: God can restore your soul. All you have to do is look up from the grass and behold the Shepherd standing watch over you. When you do, you’ll see that he’ll take you exactly where you need to be along the well-worn paths of righteousness.
We have to ask the question. Why would he do this? What does the Shepherd gain from re-energizing sheep? Well, David answers that question in verse 3. The Shepherd leads us in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Now, this takes us into a deep truth embedded within every page of the Bible. God leads us into righteousness because in giving us joy he gains glory. He shepherds us because it’s who he is. A good shepherd is most satisfied when his sheep are so cared for that they lie down and ruminate. It’s the sign of a good shepherd, and others see it and recognize it.
Did you know that a shepherd adores the sight of his sheep at rest? So many of us grew up with the image of God as a demanding Father that we find it hard to believe that he’s a Good Shepherd. We work so hard to please him that we never sit down to enjoy him. As I studied this passage this week, I noticed something missing. There is not one call for us to do anything: not one exhortation or command or even implication. God isn’t asking us to work for him. He’s asking us to rest in him. That’s the gospel: we can’t get ourselves to God, God must come to us. And when he does, he shows the world what a good shepherd he is, and others see it and give glory to him. He proves that he is the Good Shepherd able to meet every need.
So, what about verse 4? “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil.” That sounds quite a bit different from green pastures and still waters. How does that calm us? How can we rest in the valley of the shadow of death? We hear this verse at funerals, but David isn’t talking about clinical death. In the metaphor, he’s referring to those dangerous passes through which the shepherd takes his herd. Why does he do that?
A good shepherd will lead his sheep to another pasture when he must, even if the sheep don’t understand why. Left in one pasture too long, sheep will destroy it. They won't grow as they should. They’ll lose the vitality that a fresh pasture provides. One pasture may offer too many dangers so another is sought. Sheep may not stay where they should, so the Shepherd makes some changes. Whatever the case, moving pastures can be difficult and dangerous. Even so, a good shepherd presses on out of concern for the well-being of his sheep. Sheep will follow, but the shadow that falls overhead is disconcerting.
Some of us may know what this experience is like, where God leads through difficult terrain. Perhaps it’s due to our own destruction of the pasture, perhaps it’s because the Shepherd decides it’s time for us to move on. Whatever the case, the time will come to journey through the valley.
My friend, Jared Wilson, shares about one desperate night when he was in the valley.
I was taken back to the smell of the guest bedroom carpet, where my nose had been many hours of many nights, my eyes wetting the fabric as I cried out to God. You ever groaned? If you have, you’d know. I planted my face in that floor and prayed guttural one-word prayers til I couldn’t speak any more. The lullaby music from my daughter’s room across the hall haunted me. I felt alone, unloved, unaccepted, and unacceptable. But I knew I deserved it all, so I was trying to be as submissive to God’s discipline as I could. But it hurt. Oh God it hurt.
I was clinging to the hem of Christ’s garment in desperation in those days, beyond begging him for the restoration of my marriage, beyond begging him for forgiveness of my sins, beyond begging him to take away my thoughts of suicide. I just wanted to know he was there.
Jared couldn’t see it, and when you face it, you can’t see it either, but that shadow falling overhead doesn’t foretell condemnation. It forecasts satisfaction. The shepherd is leading to a place of flourishing. We won’t get there on our own. We don’t know the way. But God does.
Here’s where this Psalm transitions from comfort due to peaceful circumstances to comfort in the middle of trouble. We even see a shift in David’s pronouns here. In verses 1-3, he says, He leads, He restores. But in verse 4 he uses a different pronoun: You.
The Christian life is not always green pastures and still waters. Dark valleys are real. But see what David says here. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me.” Do you see that? The Shepherd is there. The strength to endure times of trouble is the presence of the Shepherd.
Why? Because he is prepared. He has a rod and staff. The rod to drive away danger and keep the sheep in line. The staff to rescue if any should fall away. His protection comforts, not in a sympathetic way, but in an encouraging way. When life gets most unsure, God comes closest. He’s not there only before and after. David says, “Even though.” He’s there during the darkness.
Jared spent more than one night on that floor, crying out to the Lord. And one night, God broke through in a moment that Jared calls gospel wakefulness. His soul was refreshed, and he saw that his Shepherd was there all along. If you’re in a valley right now, just hold on. Just keep following. Your Shepherd is there. He hasn’t forgotten you. He’s caring for you, even if that’s hard to understand.
The thing about shepherding is that it’s a long process. Seasons come and go. Sheep grow and mature and give birth. Life doesn’t all happen at once. And so it is with us and our Shepherd. As one shepherd says, “landscapes like ours are the sum total and culmination of a million little unseen jobs.” The environment you’re in is not a problem to overcome but a pasture prepared by a million unseen jobs by your Heavenly Shepherd. You have no need that your Shepherd can’t meet. He’s been preparing for you since the foundation of the world.
Whatever valley you’re in, and whatever valleys are in your future, know this: The Lord is never absent. He’s always right there, even if the shadows have darkened your view. You may have shadowy days but he’s holding you, and in due course you will step into the sunlight and lie down in green pastures and beside still waters. The soul that was shaken shall be restored. After all, why would a shepherd lead sheep through the valley of the shadow of death? Isn’t the only reason to get to a better place?
And what is that better place? Look now at verses 5-6.
In verse 5, David switches metaphors. He shows that the Lord welcomes us. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” The image is a traveling guest arriving at a full table in the home of a rich friend, where he’s refreshed with oil after a long, dry journey.
Now, here’s what’s amazing. Where is this table is prepared? In the presence of his enemies. God doesn’t need to wait until the coast is clear to prepare the table. He is not bound to earthly circumstances. He works inside of them. David’s enemies are either so helpless that they can’t touch him, or they’re held captive. Whatever the case, God’s presence makes them impotent. Here’s the point: when we are firmly in the love of God, the scary world outside is transformed into a refuge in his presence. We don’t have to wait until the coast is clear. God can come into the danger and create peace. He can come into your worry and turn it into joy. He can come into your fear and turn it into singing. He can come into your trouble and turn it into safety. Not only can he do this; he yearns to do it!
David says God lavishes him with oil and an overflowing cup. With this metaphor, David is declaring his trust in God, and calling us to trust in him too. The more we trust him, the safer we’ll feel, and every moment will become a holy moment in his presence.
But you’ll never feel this if you believe God is stingy with you, if you think God is holding out on you. Psalm 23 shows us that God isn’t an unconcerned third party. Only when you really see this and understand your place as a sheep in his fold and as a guest at his table will you find the peace your heart is looking for. God doesn’t hold back. We hold back. God gives us his best. He gives us himself. All he’s asking in return is for us to stay with him.
He doesn’t merely invite us in for a visit. He welcomes us in forever. This is the better pasture we’re being led into. Look at verse 6. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” See that word follow there? That's a bit misleading. The Hebrew is more intense. David is saying that God's goodness and mercy pursue him. God chases after him.
These two metaphors (God as Shepherd and God as Host) show us the comprehensive care of God. Whatever is going on in your life, God knows about it and cares about it. He will take you through it and care for you in it. And even as comforting as Psalm 23 is, God gave us something even clearer by sending Jesus into the world.
It's interesting: Psalm23 comes immediately after Psalm 22 in our Bible. That’s no accident. Jesus quotes Psalm 22 on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Charles Spurgeon put it this way.
The position of this Psalm is worthy of notice. It follows the twenty-second, which is the Psalm of the Cross. There are no green pastures, no still waters on the other side of the twenty-second psalm. It is only after we have read, \"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?\" that we come to \"The Lord is my Shepherd.\" We must by experience know the value of blood-shedding, and see the sword awakened against the Shepherd before we shall be able truly to know the Sweetness of the good Shepherd's care.
Psalm 23 is comforting to the degree to which you understand and believe the reality of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. Did you know that sheep learn their shepherd's voice? He can call out in a mixed herd, and his sheep will come to him. That means that Psalm 23 is not a Psalm for everyone. It only applies to the sheep of God’s flock. So, don’t think that this is just a nice, feel-good Psalm that anyone can pick up and find comfort in. It’s only for those who hear God’s call. Have you heard it? Do you trust in this Shepherd? Here’s why you should.
The reason God can be with us even in the valley of the shadow of death is because he has been in the valley himself. Every other guide, every other shepherd must turn back at some point. Jesus alone can escort you all the way through death because Jesus alone has been through it and come out the other side. When all others must stop, Jesus walks on—all the way to the resurrection.
And that’s where the real comfort of this Psalm resides: in the person of Jesus Christ. Hear what Jesus said in John 10.
14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
Do you see that? Jesus says he’s the Good Shepherd David was talking about! Furthermore, he’s saying there are still some of his sheep out there that haven’t heard his voice yet, but they will. So, if you’ve been sitting here wondering if this good news can be your good news, but you don’t believe in Jesus Christ as your savior, now is your chance to hear his voice. Listen to him! If you can hear it, you can be saved! Just ask him now to come to you and shepherd you.
And if Jesus is your Shepherd, you do not have one single thing in all the world to fear. Jesus goes on to say in John 10, “I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” Jesus has authority over his own life, how much more does he over yours?
Here’s what he did with his authority. The night before he died, he prepared a table for his disciples in the presence of his enemies. When he was in danger he didn’t leave. And hours later, he put himself in the hands of his enemies so that he could save us from ours. He let the sheep slaughter the Shepherd. He laid his life down on the cross and bore the penalty of our sins. He allowed sin and wrath to catch up to him so that goodness and mercy would pursue us all our days. He left the house of God so that we could dwell there forever. He used his authority for your good. He let the wolves tear him apart to save his sheep. But God raised him up and gave him all authority in heaven and earth.
Jesus humbled himself, taking the form of a sheep and followed the Father perfectly so that when we go near the edge of the cliff, Jesus has the power to pull us back. When we see that, we will begin to understand the true comfort of Psalm 23. We will begin to understand the goodness of our Shepherd, and all fear will melt away.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/0737605da48fa41d-image-asset-HqbwqqmX8YIR3QSeiIY2kuhFgC8XEs.jpeg\")
\n \n\nCreate in Me a Clean Heart, O God
51 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Introduction
It all started with a parable.
“There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had very large flocks and herds, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised her, and she grew up with him and with his children. From his meager food she would eat, from his cup she would drink, and in his arms she would sleep. She was like a daughter to him. 4 Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.” (2 Samuel 12:1-4)
Nathan, the prophet, shared that parable with King David. The injustice outraged David, and rightly so, but it’s nothing compared to what David did.
He sent his armies into battle but stayed home. One day, as he was taking a walk, he saw his friend Uriah’s wife bathing. He sent for her, committed adultery, and she became pregnant. David called Uriah home from the battle and tried to cover his sin by sending him to his wife. But Uriah's loyalty to his brothers in combat kept him away. So, David wrote a letter to his commander and sent it back with Uriah. Inside the letter, which Uriah never opened, were David’s instructions to set Uriah in the front line, draw back, and let him die. David committed adultery, committed murder, and went on about life. But God saw, and God knew.
Almost a year later, God sent Nathan with a parable to confront David about his sin. David was struck to the heart and cried out, “I have sinned against the Lord.” As a result, David didn’t die, but his son with Bathsheba did.
What do you do when you know you’ve done something wrong but you don’t know the path forward. You feel helpless and lost. You can’t undo what you’ve done but you can’t live with it either. What do you do? You repent.
Psalm 51 is David’s prayer of repentance. And it tells us two things: What repentance is and what repentance does.
First, what repentance is.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines repentance as “a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.”
Repentance is not only turning from your sin. It is turning to God. It’s not just feeling sorry. It’s being convicted, becoming inwardly humbled and visibly reformed. It’s a directional change in your life from sin to God.
It’s one of the foundations of Christianity. It’s mentioned over 60 times in the NT. Jesus’ first words in his ministry were “Repent, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). You can’t understand Christianity without it.
For those of you who trust Christ for salvation, this isn’t new. But as the Reformer, Martin Luther said, the whole of the Christian’s life is to be one of repentance.
For those who don’t yet trust Jesus for salvation, let me ask you, what do you do with your guilt? What do you do with the bad things you’ve done and thought? How are you going to change? The Christian gospel has the answer. I’m pleading with you, listen to David’s story, David’s words, and David’s Lord.
So, what repentance is. Repentance is three things.
First, repentance is turning from sin.
Look at verses 1-5.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
It’s not just adultery and murder that separate us from God. Every sin is treason against our Creator. So, lest we think we are better than David, let us see that our sin is just as wicked in God’s eyes.
Seeing the sins of others is easy. But seeing our own sin is hard. It took David nearly a year and a prophet from God to see it. When he does, he uses strong words about himself. He turns. He refuses to blame-shift, or make excuses. He owns up. In verses 1-5 he admits his sin: “my transgressions,” “my sin,” “my iniquity.” In transgressing, he knowingly steps over the law. In sin, he misses the mark of righteousness. In iniquity, he twists what God has made straight. He calls these acts what they are: evil. In verse 5, he admits he’s always been a sinner. He was born with it.
Repentance begins when we start using I and my. Personalizing our sin creates sorrow over it. And we start hating our sin when we see what it does to our relationship with God. You’ll never turn from a sin you don’t hate.
So, we need to see that sin is always first against God. Every sin you’ve committed is because you loved something else more than God. That’s why in verse 4 David says his sin is against God alone. God is right to judge him. Notice what he’s saying. David committed adultery with Bathsheba, but the first sin of adultery he committed was against God.
David didn’t go from perfection to murder. It never happens that way. We sin step by step, smaller to greater. The first step is always cheating on God. What if David repented of his lust before he sent for Bathsheba? What if he repented of his self-assurance before he stayed home alone? What if he repented of his pride before he overlooked the city he ruled? The earlier we repent, the safer we will be.
Second, repentance is turning to God.
If we think of repentance as only turning from sin, we won’t ever do it. We can’t. It’s too ingrained. What we need is a power greater than our sin. 19th-century pastor, Thomas Chalmers said we need the expulsive power of a new affection. We need a greater love to drive out our love of sin. And there is no greater love than God’s love.
We need to understand God’s heart toward sinners. David understood. That’s why he could come to God in this moment of brokenness and plead, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love and abundant mercy.” He’s not demanding something from God but pleading something from God. He pleads God’s own promises using covenant language, God’s “steadfast love”—the love he promised to have for his people for all time. He pleads for God’s abundant mercy, the kind of tenderness a mother has with her child.
The lower we go in repentance, the clearer we see God. Sin clouds our vision. Repentance cleans the window. In repentance, we position ourselves under the grace of God, waiting on him to pour it out. Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke comments, “Standing in the deep, dark hole of his sin, David looks up and sees stars of God’s grace that those who stand in the noonday sunlight of their own self-righteousness never see.”
Verses 6-12:
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
In repentance, God doesn’t abandon. He heals. But it’s not painless. In C.S. Lewis’s book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, there is a selfish boy named Eustace. He loved his treasures more than anything else, and one night he falls asleep with a gold bracelet on his arm, so happy to have it. He transforms into a dragon, becoming an outward manifestation of his inward self. He’s driven from humanity and in a moment of loneliness begins to cry. Aslan, a great lion, the Jesus figure, arrives. He offers to help Eustace remove his dragon-ness by removing the dragon skin. Eustace tries himself but to no avail. Aslan offers to help.
“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off...
Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off — just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt — and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me — I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on — and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again...
After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me...in new clothes.”
To repent is to be de-dragoned, to be de-sinned. In repentance, we’re not asking God to be anything he isn’t. Aslan wasn’t unwilling to clean. It was Eustace who wanted to do things on his own. When Eustace finally asked for help, it flooded in. In repentance, we’re asking God to be all that he promises to be to us: heart-cleanser, spirit-renewer, Holy Spirit-giver, joy-restorer, life-upholder, sin-remover. When God washes us in his grace, we’re whiter than snow. He blots out our iniquities, cutting it out of the official record book and throwing it away. He keeps us and recreates us. The bones that are broken don’t just mend, they dance. As soon as we admit to ourselves who we are and what we’ve done, we feel God drawing near. We see his truth coming down to us, teaching us things that we could not otherwise know.
Repentance itself is a grace. God came as unexpectedly to David as David did to Bathsheba. Both encounters held serious consequences. But whereas David’s actions led to death, God’s actions led to life. That’s how he always works. You may not see what you need to repent of right now. But in God’s timing, he will reveal it. The prime mover in your relationship with God is God, and he loves you too much to let you remain unrepentant. God created you; he loves you; he’ll bring you back to himself.
Third, repentance is believing the gospel.
Repentance always moves us close to God. That’s why we must do it constantly. The gospel alone compels us to repent and has the power to change us. Only in the gospel do we have a message that says, “I know you’ve sinned, but your sin can’t keep my love from you because I paid the penalty for it.” We can deny our sin, we can beat ourselves up over our sin, or we can believe the gospel that God’s love has covered our sin. The greatest power for change is always love. So, here’s the goal. Let’s be a church staring at the love of God. As we hear the word of God in scripture and from one another, he’ll call us to repentance, and we’ll have to think it through, and we’ll have to change, but we’ll have a power to change because the gospel never changes.
Second, what repentance does.
Verses 13-19.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Repentance does two things.
First, repentance changes us.
I left something out of the story at the beginning. Immediately after David said, “I have sinned against the Lord,” Nathan replied, “The Lord has put away your sin.”
That’s a problem. What kind of God puts away the sin of adultery and murder? Surely, a righteous God wouldn’t put that sin away without penalty. We know God’s wrath burns hot against sin. So, what gives? Why wasn’t David killed? God forgave him. How?
David had no idea what it would cost God to forgive him, but a thousand years later, Jesus entered the world, lived the life David should have lived, and died the death he should have died. God didn’t demand payment from David because he planned before the foundation of the world to pay it himself in Jesus Christ. The only way to escape the wrath of God is to accept the free gift of grace in Jesus Christ.
So, how did Jesus pay the penalty?
Jesus was perfect in his life. He didn’t look upon a woman and see something he could take. He looked upon a woman and saw something he could give. We see Jesus, in John 4, with the woman at the well. She was married five times, and the man she was living with was not her husband. She was not a sexually closed woman. But Jesus asked nothing but a drink of water that he could use it as an opportunity to give her living waters that would never dry.
Jesus was sacrificial in his death. He didn’t send a letter to the commander in the field, demanding the army to shrink back so that we would be killed. Jesus is a letter from God, going into the field and standing on the front lines to give his life, making his enemies his friends.
Jesus didn’t lay down in the bed of sin to gratify his desires but bore the wrath of sin upon the cross to grant forgiveness. He became what David was, and what we are, so that David, and we, could become what he is.
The problem is solved in the person and work of Jesus Christ! God passed over David’s sins because he planned to lay them upon Jesus at the cross. In the end, he didn’t pass over any sins at all. By faith, David was joined to Christ, and on the cross, he died with him, and in the resurrection, he rose with him. By faith, we do the same! If David was forgiven, we can be too!
Now we have a new problem. What kind of love is this? What category do we put this in? That God himself would pay the penalty for David’s sin—for our sin? Oh, how great the love of God! He cares! He saves! He justifies! He forgives! He unites! The joy that sin robbed you of is restored by the hand of God! Why? Because he delights in you! Jesus did not do this begrudgingly. He did it in love. For the joy set before him he endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2). The Joy!
Now let me talk to my Christian brothers and sisters for a moment. You may think you are unlovable, and maybe you’ve done things that only confirm that thought. But listen to me, look at me—God delights in you because he delights in Jesus, and you are in Jesus. He has paid for every single sin and you are completely free. God delights in you.
Now, to my non-Christian friends. You may think you’re unlovable as well. And maybe you’ve done things to confirm that thought. But God created you. All you have to do to get your joy back is humble yourself beneath his saving hand. He is not unwilling to save you. You are unwilling to be saved. You don’t have to do a thing to find salvation in Christ but accept the free gift of grace. Accept it! Please, for the sake of Jesus, accept it! You won’t find a better love if you search the universe a million times over.
We can turn from our sin because the God we turn to is so much better than the sin we’re leaving behind. Jesus showed how far God’s love will go on the cross. Jesus was separated from the Father—the punishment you deserve—so you never would be. And in his resurrection, he has newness of life for you.
We will always find new layers of sin to repent of, but when we come to God with our repentant heart, we find not an angry judge but a happy Father because our sin has been paid—all of it: past, present, and future. When we come to him in repentance, he runs toward us in forgiveness. He’ll not only accept us; he’ll throw a party for us. There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance (Luke 15:7). Don’t be too good to repent. Come to the party!
But repentance isn’t easy. Even though forgiveness from God comes instantly, it may take a while for healing to come. That's ok. If you are in a season of repentance, you might be quiet. David was. Look at verse 15, \"O Lord, open my lips.\" His lips were closed. He lost credibility. He was so ashamed that he couldn’t speak. When the Holy God confronts us with our sin, that's the appropriate response.
We expect God to despise us. But if we will be honest with him about who we really are, and plead with him for mercy and grace, we find that he doesn’t shame us. He redeems us. He does the opposite of what we expect because God is not like us. The heart God loves is the broken heart, the contrite heart, the honest heart. You can’t make up for your sin through sacrifices. Stop trying to save yourself. Offer yourself to God. Let Jesus save you!
A broken and contrite heart is the posture of a Christian. It sounds frightening until you realize that the one before whom you are broken is the one who was broken for you. You’re not falling into a pit of despair. You’re falling into an ocean of God’s love. And in those deep waters, we change from one degree of glory to another. The yoke of our sin is heavy. The yoke of Jesus is easy, and his burden is light (Matthew 11:30).
In a gospel culture, like we're asking God to build among us here at Refuge, we give each other lots of space to repent. Everyone needs time to just be before God. We don’t change quickly. But we can change! The Lord will heal us in his timing, and he’ll use us in due course, but we can’t rush it. If you need to be here and heal, that’s perfect. You don’t have to have it together. Just hear the gospel and be with the Lord.
Second, repentance changes our community.
The kingdom of God is built through repentance. Psalm 51 is proof. Can you imagine having your greatest sins recorded and read forever? But can you imagine the Bible without Psalm 51?
Through repentance, we become experts in the mercy and grace of God. Through repentance, God builds up the walls of Jerusalem where penitent sinners find refuge. Being forgiven individually creates an environment of life in Christ. A forgiven sinner is contagious. They’re like oxygen. In a gospel culture, God’s people unite with God to extend grace to penitent sinners. To do otherwise is to separate gospel culture from gospel doctrine. In the end, both suffer. But when sinners come into a gospel culture with a foundation of gospel doctrine, the inevitable result is praise. Sin always ends in sorrow, but repentance always ends in praise. How could it not? God has saved us!
A gospel culture believes in grace for all—especially the most undeserving. Here at Refuge Church, your sin is not something you have to hide but something you can bring into the light. You can’t scare God with your sin, and you can’t scare us with your sin. We are a church filled with sinners of all kinds. Bring it out into the light. Confess it away. Repent it to death. The Lord has put away your sin!
By grace, he will create us into a refuge for other sinners. By grace, we become arrows in his quiver piercing through the darkness, establishing a beachhead of refuge for the beat-up world coming in from the seas. The very sin that you feel takes you furthest from God and others is the very sin that God will forgive to bring you near to his heart and comfort to the hearts of others. God uses our repentance to change the world!
Conclusion
One final thought. What did David do to get this grace? He didn’t work his way into it. He couldn’t bring Uriah back from the dead. He couldn’t bring his son back from the dead. He couldn’t undo the adultery he had committed with Bathsheba. He couldn’t change anything in his past. He couldn’t do anything in the future to make up for it. All he could do was go low enough before God to be forgiven by him. And that’s exactly what happened.
What that means for us is that there is never a point in which we have sinned our way so far from God that we can’t return to him. We are never so far or so bad to be saved by Christ. Because that's what he does. He saves sinners. And so, what we must do to be saved by God is admit that we’re sinners, and plead for his grace. If we’re willing to do that—if we’re willing to go to the low place, to call ourselves evil, to identify in the first person with David, that we have sinned—then we can receive with David the same grace that David received from God, and we can have the joy of salvation. Jesus always meets sinners with grace. The only sinners he ever turns away are those who have no need for him. Through repentance, God will create us into a refuge for other sinners just like us that can come to God. We will bring the word of God to others who may or may not know him, but need him.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/a611568f97539e2f-image-asset-Yvp4tSFnxV6JtVrA57Mvsno92JqQRq.jpeg\")
\n \n\nPhilippians 3:1-21
3 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.
2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. 18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Introduction
Well, 2016 has ended. We’ve witnessed terrorism, wars, ISIS, and public injustice. We’ve suffered the deaths of loved ones. We’ve welcomed babies. Some of us have moved to a new city, started new jobs, bought new houses. God has planted this church that we gather with today. He’s made us more like Christ. 2016 wasn’t easy for many, but God was clearly at work. We may have been roughed up a little by the past year, but in the hands of God we aren’t forgotten or abandoned.
So, as we stand on the first day of 2017, what should we be thinking? Philippians 3 shows us. This really is for every day, not just today. It’s summarized for us in verse 14: “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ.”
Church traditions says Paul wrote this from prison, in which case his future doesn’t look bright. But he’s not deterred by that. It’s a setback, but not devastating. The life he used to live was devastating. He’s leaving something behind and pressing toward something else. Not even prison stops the pressing on.
We can break this passage down into three points:
What Paul left behind
What Paul pressed toward
How we can follow Paul’s model
What Paul Left Behind
Verses 4-6 show us how Paul had built his life on being a good Jew.
4 I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
But we know this life wasn’t the life he ended up with. It was interrupted by Jesus.
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
Paul built his house the wrong way. He didn’t just need a few modern upgrades. He needed an entire renovation. Maybe we, too, need to leave behind some wrong ways of living.
For some, we need to leave behind a legalistic worldview. We use the word legalism a lot, and often incorrectly. Legalism is not obeying God. We should obey God, and we should desire to obey God. In fact, that’s one of the blessings of the reborn heart: a desire to obey. The law is written on our hearts now.
Legalism is trying to earn salvation by obedience. That’s what Paul’s former life was all about. Then Jesus came to him, and he obeyed not out of duty but out of love. Maybe some of us need that kind of change too. Are you obeying God because you think that gets you right with God?
The gospel tells us that we can never obey perfectly. We will never get to God that way. He must come to us. Christmas is about our inability to save ourselves. Jesus has intervened. He obeyed for us and paid the penalty for our sins. Now, we are free to obey knowing that we are justified by God. We’re not under his wrath anymore. We’re under his smile.
Others of us need to leave behind a worldview of license. Some of us don’t obey enough. We think the gospel doesn’t call us to live a holy life. So, we drink too much, or watch things we shouldn’t, or say unwise things, or fail to be good stewards of God’s provision. Grace isn’t freedom to sin. It’s freedom to obey.
Paul’s change wasn’t a change from legalism to license, but a change from legalism to gospel. Jesus took hold of him and everything was different. He didn’t unbundle his life and do whatever he wanted. He bundled up his life even tighter, but this time under the kind care of Jesus who justified him. Jesus had taken hold of him and in response he presses on toward the one who loved him and gave himself for him.
We could list a hundred things we need to leave behind, but our problems start here: what we believe about our standing with God. Everything else is a symptom of that belief. The question is how do we get the righteousness of God? How we answer will determine how we start 2017.
We can think of it as the difference between stairs and the elevator. With the stairs, you are getting there by your own effort. With the elevator, you are letting something else take you up. The righteousness of God is getting in the elevator of faith in Christ and letting his work take you up. Righteousness isn’t something you do, it’s something Jesus does and you receive.
So, what do you need to leave behind?
Now, let’s see what Paul pressed toward.
What Paul Pressed Toward
Look at verses 10-14: “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
What is the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus? Paul already said it in verse 10: to know Jesus and the power of his resurrection. That’s the goal Paul presses toward. That word, “presses,” is the same Greek word used for “persecute.” Isn’t that interesting? Paul chooses a violent word here. He’s not playing around. He’s laser-focused on Jesus, because Jesus is laser-focused on him.
Pastor Tim Keller puts it this way, “What Paul is saying…is the Christian life is caused by and results in a spiritual ferocity, a spiritual laser beam…There’s a laser beam that causes your Christianity, and then a laser beam is what you become. There’s a holy violence. There’s a spiritual aggressiveness. There’s a vehement, sweet, humble ferocity that is brought to bear on you that makes you a Christian and then elicits the same response in you. A laser beam causes you and makes you into its own likeness.”
Do you have a spiritual ferocity? Are you a spiritual laser beam? Do you press on toward the goal of knowing Jesus and the power of his resurrection, to make it your own?
What’s the motivation for this? Look at the end of verse 12: “I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” Do you realize what has happened in your conversion? Jesus has made us his own! He loves us so much that he came, lived, died, rose, and now intercedes for us, and one day will return to us. He loves us with the same kind of ferocious love that he’s calling us into. Jesus’s life was a spiritual laser-beam, and his focus was you: the joy set before him. Now, we press on to know him because he pressed on to know us.
How We Can Follow Paul’s Model
So, how can we follow Paul’s model? We need to realize that the gospel isn’t one part of our life. When we become a Christian, everything changes. The gospel applies to everything – to every aspect. Our entire life is bundled up and set apart to God. That means he may take us to unimaginable places for his glory.
There was a missionary to the South Pacific Islands in the 1800s named John G. Paton. Twenty years earlier, a group of missionaries there were killed and eaten by cannibals. One older friend tried to persuade him not to go, shouting, “you will be eaten by cannibals!” Paton replied, “Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms.”
John Paton went. He labored to translate the Bible into the people’s language, and when he came upon the word “faith,” he couldn’t think of an appropriate word. Then he heard someone in the village cry out for help, “Please, may I come and lean heavily upon you?” He had found it! Faith is leaning heavily upon Christ.
This leaning results in a different kind of life: a life in response to the grace of God. When we lean on Jesus, he upholds us and empowers us. He presses his love into us more and more. We are weaker than we want to admit. If we’re going to endure 2017, we must lean all our weight on Jesus.
This passage calls us to a grace-driven effort, a gospel grittiness, a spiritual ferocity. What we need in 2017 is to go to a deeper place with Jesus than we’ve ever gone before. Most of us can’t jump straight from unbelief to John Paton-like life-giving. It’s gradual. We grow day by day, year by year. Even Paul says he hasn’t obtained it yet nor is he already perfect. But he’s growing. He’s pressing. He’s leaning.
So, are there weights you have not yet rested upon Jesus? Are there things you’re carrying around in pride or shame? Lean it all on Jesus. Are there successes you’re taking credit for? Paul counts all his fleshly accomplishments as nothing. The weight of our success will crush us as easily as the weight of our failures if they stay on our shoulders. But in Christ, our failures are covered by his death and our successes are empowered by his resurrection.
Paul says there’s one thing he does now: know Jesus. Paul did lots of things, but one thing defined him, and one thing only. And he’s calling us to imitate him. The most important thing we can do this year is to know Jesus.
There are lots of good things you should do in 2017. Read the entire Bible. Read great gospel-centered books. Increase room for personal prayer and meditation on Scripture. We’re going to hold membership classes soon. Join the church. We have multiple community groups. If you’re not in one, join. If you’re in one, invest. Go deeper together than you ever have before. Start meeting with another person or small group of people (men with men, women with women) on a weekly basis for mutual encouragement in the gospel. Begin discipling someone, or be discipled. Invest in the mission of Refuge Church.
But do one thing first: give yourself to Jesus. Open your life completely to him because he opened his life completely to you. It might be a good idea, if you’re one to make a list of goals or resolutions for the new year, to write on top of the page this one thing: Know Jesus. Let that define 2017.
Conclusion
In conclusion, look at verses 20-21, “20 Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”
Despite who Paul once was, Jesus sought him out and saved him. Now his worry is not righteousness with God – he has that – but pressing to know God. We could spend 2017 working and worrying about our life. Or we could give it wholly over to Jesus and subject it to his power. We can lean heavily upon him. He’s strong enough for all our mess.
We are on a journey toward the restoration of all things, to eternity with Jesus. Let’s press on. What would be worth our lives if it all ended at the end of this year? Let’s do those things. Let’s follow the Lamb wherever he goes. Let’s see what only God can do.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/7c54272cf2f9f6dd-image-asset-5cS19bxbrgfdZIiighMxiucW1JoFan.jpeg\")
\n \n\nPaul and Barnabas in Lystra and Derbe
Acts 14:19-23
19 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. 20 But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. 21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. 23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
Introduction
Imagine a summary of your life that goes like this:
Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
Those are Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 11. Can you imagine?
Maybe your life hasn’t included stoning or shipwreck but maybe it has included other struggles like a firing from your job, the loss of a spouse or a child or grandchild, the danger of domestic abuse, the reality of sleepless nights, a medical diagnosis that left you feeling alone and afraid.
Maybe you’ve known the suffering that being faithful to Christ brings. You’ve lost friendships. Family relationships have been strained. Perhaps you’ve been warned at work not to talk about Jesus anymore. Maybe you’ve been pushed out of churches because Jesus was no longer central, and faithfulness to him became a problem. Maybe you’ve had mean things said about you, or to you, or false witness has been spoken of you because of your faith. Those things are real, and they are really hard to face.
Such was the case with what we see in our text today. The passage we come to in Acts 14 shows us what suffering in the name of the gospel looks like.
This passage gives us three insights into the Christian life:
The Christian Life Includes Suffering
Paul and Barnabas were sent out on a missionary journey to spread the gospel to the Gentiles. They went first to this area, Lystra and Iconium and Antioch. They had travelled more than 100 miles, which would have been a good deal back then, and along the way they ran into one problem after another. But they pressed on because the gospel compelled them to share the news.
So let’s just do a quick review of chapter 14 to see how difficult this journey has been for Paul and Barnabas:
It was true for Paul, and it's true for us. And because it’s true, that leads us to our next point.
The Christian Life Requires Endurance
Look at verses 20-23,
“20 But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. 21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
So, after Paul is dragged out of the city and left for dead God somehow restores him. He then gets up and walks back into the same city that just stoned him. That’s incredible! We can sense the boldness and courage in this action. What endurance for the sake of Christ! There is a great need in the Christian life for this kind of endurance.
What Paul experienced he now shares. When he and Barnabas go back to the churches they have planted, what do they do? Verse 22: they strengthen the souls of the disciples and encourage them to continue in the faith. This is a call to endurance. How do we get this? How could we follow Paul's example?
First, we need our souls strengthened. We need something more powerful than our own flesh to support us in suffering. We need the gospel. We need to be reminded of the dying love of Jesus. We need the kind of strengthening that can only come from the gospel – grace for the undeserving. One way we as a church can do this is in our Community Groups. We can strengthen each other’s hearts by speaking the gospel to one another every time we meet.
See, when we hear the good news, as believers, it’s like a shot of medicine to our heart. It lifts us up. It distances us from the selfishness that clings so closely. It reminds us that this life is not our own. We were bought with a price and the king of the universe is calling us into the fullness of who he is, and into his mission in this world. Hearing the gospel is like a divine hug – comforting us and reminding us that we’re loved. Despite the sin, failure, and suffering we’ve experienced, God still loves us and still died for us.
Second, we need encouragement to continue in the faith. We get that from listening to good preaching, reading the Bible, meeting together, reading good books, and so forth. At times we want to give up. Sometimes, let’s be honest, the Christian life just doesn’t seem worth it. It seems we’re giving up too much. But when that thought starts entering our mind we need to seek out encouragement to continue in the faith.
Third, We need to be reminded of the worthiness of Christ. Where else are we going to go? If we leave Jesus who else is going to save us? Who will keep us? Who will care for us?
We need this when we start to wonder if Jesus is worth it anymore. But ask yourself this.
What is there in Jesus that is so revolting? What do you not like about him?
Whatever the answer is is the very point at which we need to be encouraged to continue in the faith. And the good news is that if we bring all our need to him – all of it – he will meet us there in mercy and grace. He will be there when we can’t go on because he understands what it’s like to need endurance in this life. He understands tribulation. Don’t run from him. Run to him and find all that you need in his grace. He may not give you the answer as to why your suffering exists, but he will uphold you in the fiery furnace as the flames get hotter. He will stand with you and for you because he has saved you!
We need endurance because it is through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. That’s not a “maybe” that’s a certainty. We will suffer. And that’s normal Christianity. But we didn't get into this because it was the easiest option. Nothing in the Bible presents Christianity as the easy way out. We got into this because the grace of God was irresistible to us. We couldn't not follow him. We got into this because our hearts long to see what only God can do.
And the good news is that when we feel our weakest, Jesus is as strong as ever. He kept Paul, and he’ll keep you too.
But you might ask, how can I know that for sure?
Verse 19 says they dragged Paul out of this city and left him for dead. Do you know who else was dragged out of the city? Jesus. But he wasn’t just left for dead, he was nailed to a cross by professional executioners who ensured that he was dead. He was an innocent man, here to spread the good news of the kingdom of God. He never harmed anyone or did anything wrong, and yet he was crucified upon the cross as the vilest sinner. What happened to him was the greatest injustice in history, but it was the plan of God. Doesn’t that tell us something about how God works? What men mean for evil, God means for good. God can bring about good from suffering in ways that we could never imagine. Just look at the cross for proof.
The cross isn't just proof of God's love on good days, but on all days. When we realize that God didn’t remove himself from suffering for the gospel but allowed himself to be dragged out of the city and killed, then we will have the endurance we need if we are dragged out of the city and stoned.
What if Jesus had not suffered? What if, as he was praying in the garden before his arrest, he refused to submit to the will of the Father? What if he looked out at the road ahead and said, “No, I can’t do this! It’s just too hard. It will cost too much.” If he had done that, we would not be redeemed. The gospel would not be spread because there would have been no good news to share.
But Jesus did endure the suffering of the cross. He wrestled with God the night before, sweating blood in his prayers, but he got up and walked the road God marked out for him in the morning. Why? The Bible says, “For the joy set before him.” You know what that joy was? It certainly wasn’t the trial. It wasn’t the abuse. It wasn’t even returning to heaven as it was before. The joy set before him was you! He endured the cross because by doing so he saved you from the wrath of God. He redeemed you by his blood, and in so doing accomplished what all of history was waiting for. His death was the only way, so he came and went to the cross and didn’t look back.
And Paul, as he awoke from his stoning, must have remembered this. That’s why he got up and went back into the city. He wasn’t crazy. He was loved. He was loved by a Savior whose mission was successful, whose purpose is glorious, whose intention is grace. And that gave him the endurance he needed to finish his race.
And you know what else Paul knew? He knew that Jesus is worth everything.
Jesus is Worth Everything
Reading through chapter 14 you may come to the conclusion that this journey was just a mess. It was a failure. It started with mass confusion, and ended in stoning. But as Paul awoke surrounded by the disciples, there is a face he would have seen there. A man named Timothy. We know him from the Bible because he accompanied Paul, and because Paul wrote two letters to him. In Acts 16:1 it says,\" Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived.\"
Timothy became a disciple because Paul and Barnabas went on that trip. What if they had considered the cost too great to go? It wasn’t a failure. It was a success, because with God there is never failure – even though it looks like it sometimes.
Because of the gospel, Paul was willing to suffer with Christ to bring the good news to people who did not yet know it. This was his first missionary journey. The rest of Acts tells us about all the others. He never gave up, because Jesus never gave up. Therefore, we too should be willing to suffer to bring the gospel to others. How much is one soul worth? How much suffering is too much for an eternity with Jesus?
What is happening when we suffer for the gospel is that we are playing out the gospel story ourselves. The gospel is a message of life out of death. Death comes before resurrection. The cross before the crown. And that’s worth everything. In the end we gain nothing less than eternal life with Jesus, if he uses us others will be there with us that we lead to Jesus.
Our suffering won’t be wasted, because the suffering of Jesus wasn’t wasted. It is God’s way of salvation, so let’s walk in it.
Conclusion
So to wrap this up, I just want to encourage us. Here’s the truth about our future. We who believe are on our way to heaven. And the more people that we bring the good news to in our lifetime only sweetens the experience. We want to see as many people as possible come to love Jesus because he is worth it. All the suffering we endure for his sake is worth it. We are here because we are willing to lay down our lives so that others may find Jesus.
We have been joined to Christ when we come to faith in him, and his strong grip won’t let us go. So when we endure many tribulations we can know without a shadow of a doubt that God’s goodness is still good, his purposes are still glorious, and his kindness is still overflowing. Only he can take a cross and make it a crown.
So let's rejoice in the good news that even though our suffering isn't good, it serves a good purpose. It serves to bring us closer to him. As we suffer in this life we find out how much we really love Jesus. We start to see that what we need, and what we want, more than anything is God. In the end, we will be with him and all the suffering we endured here on earth will feel like but a shadow passing over us or a ripple in the great ocean of his love. We will be forever caught up in his joy, and everything we endured as his people will just strengthen that joy.
See, we are on the winning side of eternity! We can endure suffering because we already know the end of the story. We will still be with Jesus. We will never be sad. We will never hurt. We will never suffer. We will be forever happy. In 10 trillion years we will still be more fully alive than we are right now. And if God gives us favor there will be others there because we were willing to follow Jesus in his mission in this world. Isn’t that hope worth clinging to? Isn’t that motivation to keep pressing the gospel forward? It is. Oh, it certainly is.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/d98d33768de470ba-image-asset-A6fjRsZt69vP83yCv7bZ4kglCAkpCp.jpeg\")
\n \n\n
Introduction
The passage we come to in Acts today is long, and because it’s so long, I’m not going to read all of it right now. Instead, I’m going to summarize for us what takes place first, and then we will refer to specific verses throughout the sermon today.
It’s basically a theological debate, and the outcome represented the official Church verdict on a very important issue.
Paul and Barnabas are on their first missionary journey and some Jews show up saying that the Gentiles must be circumcised in order to be saved.
Paul and Barnabas disagree with them. The gentiles are saved by faith alone. They do not need to be circumcised to be saved.
The debate rises to such a level that they depart to Jerusalem to get the biggest voices in the early church to weigh in.
They gather everyone, including Peter and James, and debate the issue.
Peter stands up and says he has witnessed the Gentiles coming to faith by grace and that they do not need the yoke of the law for salvation.
Paul and Barnabas then share what has happened among the Gentiles on their journey, confirming Peter’s statement.
Then James says that this testimony of Peter, Paul, and Barnabas fits with the prophecy of the Old Testament that the Gentiles would be brought into God’s kingdom.
And he suggests that the Gentiles do not need to become obedient to all of the Old Testament laws in order to be included in the church, but he does suggest that they write to them to abstain from 4 things, which we will talk about later.
So they send Paul and Barnabas off to the Gentile believers with a letter.
They read the letter and there is much rejoicing because it is clear to everyone that Jews and Gentiles can live in peace together under Christ, because he has saved them all through grace.
So this is a huge event in the early church.
This Great Debate gives us three insights:
How the gospel saves (vv. 7-11)
How the gospel frees (vv. 28-29)
Where the gospel leads (vv. 30-31)
How the Gospel Saves
Look at verses 7-11.
“7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
So after the disciples and apostles have been at it for a while, Peter stands up and makes a short speech that begins clarifying the entire issue for everyone. And what he’s saying, essentially, is that we know how the gospel saves.
So how does the gospel save?
First, by bearing witness to our heart through the gift of the Holy Spirit (v. 8). How were you saved? Did you perform certain rituals that lead to belief? Did you say a magic formula that created a new heart? Did you convince yourself? Or did the message come to your heart and just explode in truth? We believe the gospel because God comes to our heart and reveals the good news to us. It’s not a routine or a formula, it’s God giving us eyes to see and ears to hear.
This happens through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Notice that word “gift.” We might be prone to think that Peter was saved because of the work he did for Christ. Paul as well. They were apostles. So their actions must have given them favor with God, but that’s not true. Peter and Paul were both saved because God showed up to them and gave himself to them.
Isn’t that a wonderful picture? God comes to us! The heart is the center of our body, it represents the innermost part of us. It’s where our thinking, our willing, and our decisions all originate. The heart is where our most basic and deepest convictions are held. And that’s where God comes – to our truest self. He doesn’t come and modify our behavior, he changes the very part of us that controls everything. He saves us. He cleanses our hearts by faith.
Salvation is a miracle of God. We can’t save ourselves! Only God, in his grace, can set us right with him.
So, second, the gospel saves us by the grace of Christ (v.10-11). Notice Peter's words in verses 10 and 11, \"why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
What is he saying?
You have to realize that most of the first Christians were Jewish. They had grown up in a culture that was devoted to the Mosaic law. Circumcision, for instance, was the sign of the covenant with Abraham. It was a marker that you were in the family of God. And there were all kinds of other laws to obey too – so many that it was impossible to obey them all the time. You were always failing and in need of a sacrifice to bring forgiveness.
He's saying that the law was something no one could ever obey perfectly. It was a heavy yoke. But when Jesus shows up he calls out to the world, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Jesus’ yoke is easy because he obeyed the law perfectly, fulfilling the requirement for us. And after he lived the perfect life he laid it down in sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. We failed, but Jesus succeeded and he’s giving all his success to us. All we need to do to be saved is receive the gift he’s offering. He did the work; we get the prize. Salvation is a gift. It’s grace.
Even if the Gentiles were to be circumcised and follow the rest of the law of Moses, it wouldn’t guarantee their salvation, because salvation is not, and has never been, about works, but about faith. Paul says in Galatians, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”
And the Gentiles have faith. They believe the gospel. Their hearts have been cleansed by faith. In a culture that emphasized cleanliness in order to come before God, Peter is saying these gentiles are perfectly clean. God has cleansed their hearts by faith! There is no cleaning work left to do! They are saved, and adding law won’t do anything to change that.
It’s the great news of the gospel – that Jesus Christ has given us free justification. That is to say, we have been set right with God and counted innocent because on the cross Jesus took all our sin and gave back all his righteousness. And the Holy Spirit bears witness to this truth in our hearts.
And as we receive that inward revelation to the heart and experience salvation by grace we start to see something else – that the gospel frees us.
How the Gospel Frees
Look at verses 28-29.
The Jerusalem council drafts a letter and sends it to the Gentile believers. It says,
28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
They decide the Gentiles do not have to come under the yoke of the Mosaic law. There is freedom in the gospel. But how does the gospel free us? And if it frees us, why do they include these other requirements?
It’s confusing, so let’s look at each part.
First, the gospel frees us from saving ourselves. Some Jews had wanted to put the burden of the law of Moses, especially the ceremonial law, upon these Gentile believers. But to place upon men what God has removed in Christ is to reverse the grace of God into law. We are not saved by our works, but by our faith.
When James stands up and delivers the verdict from the Jerusalem council, what we see is that they agree the Gentiles do not need to become Jews in order to become Christians. The gospel has freed them from pursuing a relationship with God based on the ceremonial law.
What makes the gospel such good news is that our salvation is completely dependent on God and not on us. You can’t be saved by obeying God, you can only be saved by receiving the free gift of grace. Jesus obeyed God and he’s giving his obedience to all of us disobedient people.
So here’s what that means for us today. We’re always having this debate in our mind. We’re always trying to add law where God puts grace. (PAUSE) One of the reasons we need to hear the gospel constantly is because we always slip back into self-salvation mode. But we can’t save ourselves! If you had to save yourself, how could you ever be sure you were good enough? How could you ever know you obeyed enough? How could you have any assurance at all? You couldn’t! (PAUSE)
But God saves us by grace in Christ. So it doesn’t depend on you anymore. It depends on God. What happens when you believe the gospel is you are saying, “God, I can’t save myself. I need you to save me.” And he does!
So why don’t the gentiles have to come under the law? Because in Christ they’ve already come under the law and been judged by it. They were hidden in Christ, and one the cross he bore the punishment they deserved, and in his resurrection gave back the life they now have. What happened on the cross wasn’t just a pardon from God, it was full acceptance by him. It’s as if you have always obeyed. You are not just forgiven, but welcomed.
Now, what about those 4 requirements listed there? I thought the gospel frees? It does!
The gospel also frees us to obey God. You can’t read this passage and not scratch your head at verse 29. There we see 4 specific requests for obedience. Why? Aren’t the Gentiles free from the law? Yes, they are. But the gospel is more than just an unburdening from the law, it’s also a releasing to obey.
The first three requirements help the Gentiles create unity with the Jewish believers and any unbelieving Jews that may become believers in the future. Obeying removes the stumbling block. They center around food and one of the greatest community events happens around the dinner table. Jews still observe these dietary laws. So if the Gentiles and Jews are going to eat together, for the sake of unity they’re are asked to obey these requirements even though this does nothing to merit their salvation. The last one, sexual immorality, is a moral law, and the moral law of God is something we should always obey as Christians. So it’s not obeying to be justified, it’s obeying out of love for God and one another.
Until you are saved you can never really obey God. Why? (PAUSE) Because until you see that you are only saved by the grace of God apart from all your works, you are constantly working to earn your salvation. So you’re always anxious and afraid. But as soon as you see the free grace of God for you something happens. You begin to have a power to obey that you didn’t have before. Now you’re not obeying to earn salvation, you’re obeying out of love to God. You’ll never obey until you know you’re loved. You might outwardly follow rules, but you’re heart won’t have joy or peace until you know you are utterly loved.
The gospel says the full wrath of God has fallen on Jesus instead of on us. So our sins no longer hang over our head. God is alive in us! We can obey him because he is with us and empowering us. And when you start to love God rightly, you can then love others rightly as well. And as we obey we see that the gospel is leading us somewhere.
Where the Gospel Leads
Verses 30-31 say,
30 So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. 31 And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement.
This council meeting could have gone terribly wrong. What was a divisive issue could have split the early church between a Jewish conservative church and a Gentile liberal church. But it didn’t. Because the gospel leads somewhere. It leads to the unity of the church.
In Christ disunity cannot reside. We have differences, sure, but if we all open ourselves to the Holy Spirit he will create unity within this church and all other Bible-believing, Christ-honoring churches.
So as the gospel keeps us together it also pushes us out to others. From time to time very serious issues are raised that the church must address. And we have here in Acts 15 the biblical model for how to handle such issues: fierce obedience to Jesus Christ and his gospel and rejoicing in one another. Those two, Jesus first, community second, leads into the mission.
If we will remain faithful to the biblical gospel and protect and spread that good news among ourselves in community, God will give us opportunities for mission. More and more people will come to faith by the grace of God and enter into our churches. They will be welcomed, Jew or Gentile, Black or White, Poor or Rich, because the grace of God has made us all one in Christ. We will see, and experience ourselves, the great unburdening that comes only from the gospel. We will see people freed in ways that can only be explained by grace.
The spread of the gospel is, and should be, a cause for great joy among God’s people.
Conclusion
J. Gresham Machen, the early 20th century theologian, explained the situation like this:
“These Jews said that a man (1) believes on Christ and (2) keeps the law of God the best he can, and then (3) is justified. Paul said that a man (1) first believes on Christ, (2) then is justified before God, (3) then immediately proceeds to keep God’s law.”
See, when we realize the proper order of the gospel we are utterly stunned. When we realize that we believe first, then are justified, then keep the law, we are stunned into silence at the free gift of grace. The gospel says, look at what was done for you and receive the good things by trusting Jesus, then, and only then, can you obey at all.
Look at verse 12, “And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.”
Here we see silence in the middle of the debate. Why?
Because they all recognize the wonder of the gospel. And what do they do? They listen to Paul and Barnabas tell of the wonderful work God has been doing among them. When we are grabbed by the gospel we sit in amazement at the work of God. Becoming a Christian is not coming to a set on ideas or behaviors. It’s coming to a person. Have you ever noticed how many times the Bible retells the story of God’s work among his people? Why is that? It’s because no matter how many times we hear it the grace of God never gets old.
If we as a church will be so open to God that we fall silent in wonder and awe and rejoice always in his grace, then we will find that not only do others unlike us have a place in the family of God, but we will see just how much we fit into the family of God as well. One of the tests for your love of God is how much you rejoice in the salvation of others. If you believe salvation is free, you'll rejoice. If you don't, you won't.
But as we open our hearts to God in the gospel we find all the reasons in the world to rejoice, and all the reasons in the world to have hope, and all the reasons in the world to love one another.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/4b942bff730cfe88-image-asset-ONCCPwgV153svx4r1Bm8pWwEy9S0lN.jpeg\")
\n \n\n1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. 5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. 9 And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
Introduction
How clearly do we see the gospel?
When we see the gospel clearly, we see everything else differently.
C.S. Lewis said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
What we believe about Jesus will determine what we believe about everything else. The clearer we see the gospel, the clearer we see the world as it really is.
So how clearly do we see the gospel?
To see the gospel clearly, we need to see Jesus clearly.
So in that pursuit, my aim today to show you the gospel in two ways: 1) that Jesus is the Christ and 2) that Jesus turned the world upside down.
Jesus is the Christ
Paul and Silas are on this journey because the world looks differently to them now. The gospel has opened their eyes to who God is and what he’s doing. They realize something new has arrived – a new kingdom with a new King. So they come to Thessalonica, and go to the Jewish synagogue for three weeks to prove from the Bible that Jesus is the Christ.
Paul gets to work and verse 4 says that some were persuaded – that’s another way of saying their eyes were opened. They saw things differently now. The gospel became clear. How did that happen? Look at verses 2 and 3 and notice three words: “reasoned”, “explaining”, and “proving”. Paul reasoned with them, he explained the Bible to them, and he proved something from the Bible.
What did he prove? Verse 3: “That it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”
Why does he need to prove that? Because they are waiting for the Christ to come. And Paul looks at the life of Jesus and looks at the Old Testament scriptures and he’s convinced that Jesus fit the job description.
But the Jews resisted the idea of a suffering Christ, even though it appears throughout the Old Testament. And we resist the need for Jesus to suffer too, especially if we start talking about him suffering for us. “No, don’t suffer. There’s no need. I haven’t done anything that bad,” we say.
This is because we don’t understand who we really are. We don’t see how desperately we need to be saved. We don’t think our sin is that bad, and so surely Jesus shouldn’t suffer on our behalf. We use words like “mistake” and “slip up” instead of sin. But – look at me – we are sinners, and the fact that we are gentle with our sin proves how much we love it. A single sin against an infintely holy God is worthy of eternal damnation. But God has a plan to fix it, but he can’t fix it without the suffering of Christ. It was the only way to reconcile the world to God.
So what did Paul say to persuade them? Well, we don’t know exactly because Luke doesn’t record that for us. But that’s ok because we have the same Bible that Paul had, and so we can look back into the Old Testament ourselves and see what Paul saw. Throughout the Old Testament we can see that God has a redemption plan, and it centers on Christ.
The first part of that plan included the suffering of Christ.
Christ had to suffer because sin came into the world through Adam, and spread to us, separating us from God. If he doesn’t suffer, we can’t be reconciled.
Christ had to suffer because sin requires a penalty: “the wages of sin is death.\" So God laid on him the iniquity of us all. If he doesn’t suffer, the penalty isn’t paid.
Christ had to suffer because true life only comes through death. Jesus himself said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24) If he doesn’t die, the fruit of the gospel will never bud.
On the cross, Jesus absorbed all our sin and let it crush him completely, and because he did that willingly, without sin, God raised him up. Which was part two of God’s redemption plan.
Christ had to rise from the dead because death can only be defeated by going through it, not around it. If he isn’t raised, we have no life.
Christ had to rise from the dead because God cannot give us his best until our worst is killed. If he isn’t raised, we have no hope.
Christ had to rise from the dead to show us the good news of the gospel. A crucified Messiah is a failed Messiah unless he rises again. Then he’s the Savior of the world, and all things will be made new. If he isn’t raised, the gospel has no power.
The gospel is good news of a King who came and died for his people. It is good news of the King who rose from the grave to reign forever. It is good news that Jesus is better than we thought the Christ would be. God never intended to save us just for this lifetime, but for eternity.
The Resurrection proved God is more gracious than we are sinful. You cannot out sin the grace of God. Do you realize how patient God is? Luke says it was Paul’s custom to go to the synagogues first when he entered a city. Why? Because God is patient with his people. If you feel far from God, like he’s about to give up on you, stop thinking. He is patient and he’s ready to prove himself to you. Just breathe and listen to him.
God’s redemption plan was a declaration to the watching world that he is just to penalize sin and merciful to forgive it. And Jesus was the center of it all.
And this Jesus is the Christ! Jesus is what the Old Testament promised him to be.
He is the seed of the woman, the new Adam, obedient that we would be made righteous.
He is Abraham’s offspring through whom all the nations are blessed.
He is the leader of the better Exodus, not out of Egyptian slavery, but out of eternal hell.
He is the manna in the wilderness, the bread of life, given daily to all who are hungry.
He is the Rock in the desert judged before his people, out of whom flows rivers of living water.
He is the one who suffered temptation in the wilderness and never sinned.
He is the fulfillment of the Law, coming not to abolish, but to fulfill it.
He is the conquering warrior who has trodden the winepress alone, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.
He is the radiance of the glory of God, the high priest whose ministry never ends, the final Word from heaven. Like the bronze serpent in the desert, he was lifted up so that whoever would look upon him would find healing and forgiveness.
He is the son of David, leading his people from the everlasting throne.
He is the Good Shepherd who leaves the many to find the one - who faces the lions in the fields, laying his life down for the lost.
He is the one who faced the shadow of death and did not shrink back because we were the joy set before him.
He is the temple of God, come down to dwell in glory with his people.
He is the wisdom of God that looks like foolishness to man, calling out from the streets the good news of the gospel, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!” “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
He is the suffering servant of Isaiah - despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. He is the one who bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we were healed.
He is the Son of Man, the Ancient of Days who shatters the horns of the earthly kingdoms.
He is the Passover Lamb who was slain to protect us from the Angel of Death.
He is the one who lived the perfect life and suffered for it.
He is the one who bore the penalty for our sin on the cross so that we might become the righteousness of God.
He is the one who suffered the separation from the Father so that we never would.
He is the one who drank the cup of God’s wrath upon the cross and gave up his spirit – ushering in the new covenant by his body and blood.
He is the once for all sacrifice; the scape-goat sent out of God’s presence.
He is the one who lived the perfect life, died the guilty death, and rose to defeat sin, Satan, and death.
He is the one who crushed Satan’s head because he rose to an incorruptible body.
He is the one who faced every evil thing in this world and our hearts and came out victorious.
He is the Christ. He’s the savior - the sun of righteousness, who will rise with healing in his wings.
Look at any passage of the Old Testament, and you can smell the aroma of Christ, you can see the movement toward the Messiah, you can hear the song of the Savior.
On the cross, all the failures of the world met in the only one who ever succeeded. Jesus suffered the weight of it all, and he saved us through it. It was necessary that he suffer and rise. What looked like failure on the cross was actually victory. The life of his people is wrapped up in him – it always has been, and always will be.
Paul would have seen something like that. And some were persuaded. I wonder, are you?
This message has world-shaking implications. That’s the entire point of the book of Acts. The world pre-Jesus is not the same world post-Jesus. Everything is different because the King has come! And that’s the third part of God’s redemption plan: a kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Which leads us to our next point.
Jesus Turned the World Upside Down
Look at verses 5-7.
5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”
How can a few men turn the world upside down? They aren’t barging into cities, taking over by a military coup. They’re not like ISIS recruiting people from across the world to attack. They’re heralds of the King.
Isn’t it crazy? The men who have turned the world upside down are men that bring with them nothing but news – good news. That’s all they have. They have no power in themselves. They have no weapons. They have a message of a King who has come to die for his people and rise again from the grave. All they do is talk about Jesus wherever they go, and the world is turned upside down!
Now, how does this world turning happen? There’s a micro side and a macro side.
It starts inside the believer. Every time someone believes the gospel, their world is turned upside down.
It’s like becoming a parent. One day you’re free to sleep in, go wherever you want, have free time. Then you have a baby, and your entire world is turned upside down. You’re up all hours of the night. You're completely exhausted. The baby constantly needs you. But you don't mind it one bit because the baby has transformed you – given you new life, new purpose, new meaning. You gladly give up your rights for the good of your child.
Believing the gospel is something like that. Our world has to turn upside down before it can be built right side up. When you’re grappling with what the gospel says, and what it means for your life, it can get pretty uncomfortable. It means releasing the grip on your life and handing it over to Jesus, a man who lived and died and rose a long time ago.
But when you hand your life over to Christ you realize you haven’t given up anything but you’ve gained everything. You’ve been adopted into God’s family, and no one can snatch you out of his hand. You have peace. You have hope. You have joy that cannot be taken. You’re in a new Kingdom.
Paul saw the world as it really is. Caesar was king of Rome, but Caesar wasn’t the kind of king Jesus is. Caesar was a king of a temporal empire. Jesus is the King of an eternal universe. Jesus is the true king – an upside down King, who stoops low to bring us high. The true Kingdom is cross-shaped, where death comes before life, not the other way around.
Jesus left his throne in heaven. He was willing to have his life destroyed so that you could have his best. Like a good parent, he gave up who he once was to gain the joy of having you. He’s the kind of King this broken world needs. And he’s the kind of King we have. Believe in him and you can have all this. All it takes is small faith placed in this big God.
Paul and Silas have already endured a lot, and much more was ahead. It wasn’t easy to take the message of the gospel to a hostile world. You know, following Christ means our world is constantly being turned upside down. It doesn’t end after we believe. It’s constant, because following Jesus is an adventure. He’s on the move and he’s bringing us along.
So working out the implications of the gospel on your life is no easy task. That’s ok. Live in the tension. Jesus said we have to lose our life to find it. That means it’s not easy do to. Let’s be open to that – whatever his call is. You're going to live under some king, why not the one who’s proven his kindness: the good King Jesus?
If he sends you he’ll be with you. Trust him. He’s proven himself.
So that’s the micro upside down turning of the world. And there’s a macro side. The more individual lives are turned upside down, the more the world at large is turned upside down.
Remember what Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
The normal working of God is to take small things and grow them into big things. The kingdom of God spreads and grows, sometimes quickly, as in times of revival, but usually slowly, as a tree grows. And year after year, more and more people are saved, and the kingdom gets fuller and fuller, until one day people from every tribe and tongue and nation are brought in.
Why are we planting this church? Because our worlds have been turned upside down, and that’s what we’re praying for God to do that to Franklin. We’re asking God to send the Holy Spirit to empower and mobilize missionaries, pastors, churches, and Christians of all walks of life. The Bible says, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14) There is no end to this spread!
And what if it happened here in Franklin? What if the world got turned upside down?
Let’s be ready. When our neighbor’s world is turned upside down as we share the gospel, let’s be ready to help them see Jesus through the Bible. Let’s prepare our homes and our church to receive them. Let’s stay close to Jesus. By God’s grace, let’s create a gospel culture that is open to anyone who would come!
Conclusion
You may be thinking, “Man, I don’t know. I can’t turn anyone’s world upside down. I’m too shy. I don’t know my Bible well enough. I’m not very bold.” Well, all we need is an open heart before God. We live in an upside-down Kingdom now. He uses unimpressive people to prove his power. We don’t have to know the Bible like a seminary graduate, or have the natural boldness of Paul. All we need to be is open to Jesus and speak when he gives us opportunity.
The greatest news in the history of the universe is sitting right here in front of us in the pages of our Bibles. The Kingdom of God is at hand. We’ve been saved, not just from our sin, but into a new kingdom. Who you once were is not who you are now. You are a herald of the King!
We, like Paul and Silas, have the Bible, so we’re prepared. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
So let’s strive to see the gospel clearly, and let's spread this message that has the power to turn the world upside down. I think our world could use a good shake-up, and there's no better shake than the kind the gospel brings. Let’s be faithful. Let’s open our mouths. Let’s prepare a place. Let’s let God grow our small faith into a church for this city, and more churches for more cities. Step by step, in sync with the Savior, he will lead us where he wants us to be.
Small things change the world.
Babies turn the world upside down.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/3e4c2017444c9014-image-asset-C1wN47owtlq9O9MXE4C4oSt9hEFwuY.jpeg\")
\n \n\nWe will be looking at verses 20-31, with most of our time being spent on verse 31.
I just want to remind us of where we are in the book of Acts. Last week, we saw the conversion of Saul from Acts 9:1-19. And we are going to pick up immediately after that historic event and see what the Lord is doing in the world and in the church through his Word. We will pick it up in verse 20.
20 And immediately he [Saul] proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” 21 And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” 22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.
23 When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, 25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.
26 And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. 28 So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. 30 And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
Introduction
Here’s the truth about us: we are not here by accident or without purpose, but we are here because of the work of Jesus.
The book of Acts has been preaching that message to us, and tonight we come to a passage that shows us two things:
Jesus is building and multiplying the church, and
The church Jesus builds is founded on gospel-doctrine and shaped into gospel-culture.
What I want to do is simple. I just want us to look at each of these two points, and explain from this passage what the Lord has for us today.
1st Point – Jesus is building and multiplying the church
So first, Jesus is building and multiplying the church.
As we’ve looked at Acts this year we’ve seen that Jesus is working. The gospel is spreading deep down and far out. Jesus is saving people and relocating them into the church.
And when we get to Acts 9:31, we have a break in Luke’s story that provides a clear indication that what Jesus said would happen is happening.
This is a common feature in Acts – it happens 6 times. You could even say Acts is broken up into 6 separate acts. At the end of each act is a summary statement. And these are all basically the same. Let’s look at them together.
6:7 – And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
9:31 – So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
12:24 – But the word of God increased and multiplied.
16:5 – So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.
19:20 – So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.
28:30-31 – He [Paul] lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.
So what does this tell us? It tells us that what Jesus set out to do he is accomplishing. Jesus is building and multiplying the church.
He builds his church by raising up pastors and leaders to preach the word (Peter, John, and Paul). This is how the Word of God increases.
He builds his church by saving sinners to labor faithfully in ministry (Barnabas). This is how the churches are strengthened in the faith.
He builds his church by giving wisdom to organize and to build seminaries and to create networks of church planters, and so forth. This is how the Word of God multiplies.
There is no end to his building of the church, which means you have a place, and a purpose!
And we see that he multiplies his church as he saves people – even surprising people like Saul, far from God, who are fighting against God and his people. He saves people every single day! He multiplies the church because he made a promise to Abraham thousands of years ago that his children would outnumber the stars in the sky and the sand on the beaches, and he won’t stop until the work is done!
Jesus is still building and still multiplying the church.
We are an example. We’re starting a new church. Not only that, we’re a plant in the Acts 29 Network. Why Acts 29? If you look, Acts only has 28 chapters. Because Jesus isn’t done working! More acts are still taking the stage in the world. So we are looking at the Great Commission Jesus gave in Matthew 28, to make disciples and teach them, and we’re going, because God has many people in this city that he has not yet saved. And he’s using us to bring the good news through the church!
We are doing this because God put it in our heart to see the church multiply. We have that desire because it is his desire, and he is accomplishing the work.
In fact, we aren’t building anything. Jesus is building everything, and he’s simply asking us to move along with him. Anything we build in our own strength while claiming divine authority is worthless and a hindrance - even an offense - but anything the Lord builds through people open to him is beautiful and life-giving, and we long to see what only God can do. So let’s be a people who, as Revelation 14:4 says, “follow the Lamb wherever he goes.” He will lead us as he has led his church throughout history – even as he led Saul and Barnabas and the apostles.
Point #2 – The Kind of Church Jesus is Building
So my second point: The church Jesus builds is founded on gospel-doctrine and shaped into gospel-culture.
I want to explain what we mean by those two terms. We believe Jesus is building a certain kind of church – the kind of church we see in the book of Acts: a church founded on gospel-doctrine and shaped into a gospel-culture.
First, a church founded on gospel-doctrine. We see gospel-doctrine throughout the book of Acts, and we see it in verses 20-30 in what Saul preaches and teaches.
Doctrine is what we believe. Gospel-doctrine is belief in the message of the gospel. What is that? It is the message of man’s sin and separation from God conquered by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the hope of glory when Jesus returns. It’s a grace-filled message. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from all our works, for the glory of God alone. That’s gospel-doctrine. It's what happened to Saul – grace for the undeserving.
Saul believed gospel doctrine. We see in verse 20 he proclaims Jesus as the Son of God; in verse 22 that Jesus is the Christ; and verse 28 he preaches boldly in Jesus’s name. That’s a big shift for Saul! Just a few verses before he was trying to stop this message from spreading. Now he’s spreading it himself! How did this happen? He saw Jesus, and was changed. He explains it, after he is renamed Paul, in 2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Gospel doctrine is belief in that Jesus - the Jesus revealed to us in the Bible. Gospel-doctrine humbles us and reorients us, because it is a revelation to us. Listen to what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15, “I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.” He was what he was, and what he was was what Jesus made him into. In Christ, our past doesn’t define us, Jesus and his gospel define us.
The apostles believed gospel-doctrine. Just look at Peter’s sermons in the book of Acts. Look at John’s gospel, and so forth.
And because Saul and the apostles and the rest of the early church believed the gospel-doctrine, Jesus built a gospel-culture.
So I want to spend the rest of my time on gospel-culture.
Luke describes two things the church should be marked by in verse 31.
Walking in the fear of the Lord, and
Walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
What he’s describing sounds a lot like what we call gospel-culture. Let me explain.
Here’s a definition of gospel-culture.
Gospel-culture is God-worshiping, Jesus-loving, Holy Spirit-empowered people trusting in Christ alone, loving one another for Jesus's sake.
It’s a culture of peace and openness and joy because we have been redeemed and we have good news to share – so we share it all the time! It’s a place where people are set free from their past to walk in newness of life because Jesus has set them free in his death and resurrection. It’s a place where we don’t pressure one another to change quickly, but help one another walk the hard path of life, looking to Jesus as the only savior. We are needy people with an all-sufficient Christ.
A gospel-culture is a place where Jesus is revered and honored. Luke uses the phrase “walking in the fear of the Lord.”
A gospel culture is a place where real sinners experience real comfort. Luke uses the phrase “walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.”
The result of the gospel-doctrine is the reality of gospel-culture. That’s what Jesus is building and multiplying because that’s the future of the world.
When Jesus returns, we will live for eternity in a gospel-culture that will never end. But it starts now! “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). This can be a present reality even as it will be our glorious future, not because of our amazing ability or obedience, but because of his wonderful mercy and grace – because of his steadfast love and faithfulness. The early church experienced this, and we can too!
Look up at verses 26-27. The disciples were afraid of Saul. Rightly so. He was the one ravaging the church. How should they react to this changed man?
Barnabas goes to Saul and brings him to the apostles. Barnabas sticks his neck out to bring Saul into the church. Why? Because Barnabas understood from the gospel-doctrine that no one is too far from God’s grace. Jesus died to pay for every kind of sin in the world – even murderers and opponents of the church. The same message that saved him had saved Saul. The gospel-doctrine Barnabas believed led him to take Saul by the hand and bring him into the church. Saul went from enemy to a brother.
That's what gospel-culture does – it reaches out to the broken world with the only true hope and brings sinners into the kingdom where there is safety and joy for eternity in Jesus. People of any class or level of society are equally welcomed into the church.
What if Barnabas had kept his distance? Gospel-doctrine leads us to gospel-culture where sinners of shocking pasts (and who doesn’t have one?) are welcomed and brought in.
A gospel-culture has a big heart for bad people, because God has a big heart for bad people. Gospel-culture welcomes others into the church because the kingdom of God only grows sweeter the more people he saves.
It’s possible for us to believe the right things about the gospel intellectually without letting those beliefs affect how we live relationally. But that is hypocrisy. A gospel-culture, like we are experiencing here, is so open to the Lord that we are not only willing but happy to be surprised by him. It is a place where Jesus is revered and loved and treated as the savior that he is. It’s a place where anyone seeking Jesus can find a home - people like you, and people like me, and people like Saul.
If we here at Refuge Church continue to walk in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, we will find that God is with us and he will use us, and he will bring more and more people into this community because it is a safe place for sinners to find Jesus. It’s a safe place where everyone is treated in such a way that it is evident as the Psalmist says, “the sweetness of the Lord” is upon us (Ps 90:17, JB).
If we will be open to Jesus under his grace we will find that gospel-doctrine creates a gospel-culture that, as John Piper says, is \"God-exalting, Christ-admiring, Spirit-filled, Bible-enjoying, grace-preaching, convenience-defying, cross-embracing, risk-taking, selfishness-crucifying, gossip-silencing, prayer-saturated, future-thinking, outward-reaching, and beautifully human congregation where the undeserving can thrive.” And every single bit of this comes to us free through the pierced hands of the risen savior.
Sub Point # 1 – The Fear of the Lord
So what does it mean to walk in the fear of the Lord?
The Greek words used here indicate reverence, respect, and honor given to Christ in the sense of a deep and reverential awareness of accountability to him. Are we aware of our accountability to God? As created beings we are accountable to God. We need to respond to his grace.
Now, if you’re here and don’t believe the gospel doctrine you need to really consider it. God made us and we are accountable to our maker, and I think you’ll be surprised at how good the news actually is. Talk to me or Dustin or the person who you came with about this. Do not wait. The Bible says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Here’s one thing it means for us as a church. What the Lord has entrusted to us in the gospel-doctrine as revealed in the Bible we are accountable before him to share with others, and to protect and nourish within our church. It's his good news, and we share it and spread it among one another freely and often. We can't take this lightly. Through the work of Jesus, we have been given eternal life! The news is too good and freeing for it not to permeate every single aspect of our lives together.
What the Lord is building here among us, as he did among the early church, is a gospel-culture where he is in charge and we gladly submit to his leading. We are not a group of smart people making big strategic moves to make God look good. We are a bunch of needy people following Jesus. We are a collection of sinners that have been redeemed by Jesus and we’re just following him wherever he wants to take us. If you don’t mind joining us in that journey with Jesus, then come along – the more the better! But he’s the king, and he always will be.
Sub Point # 2 – The Comfort of the Holy Spirit
So what about walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit? What does that mean?
First, let’s understand who the Holy Spirit is. He’s a Person, not an It. He’s the third person of the trinity. He is God. His purpose is to comfort us and to remind us of all that Jesus said and did. When we become a Christian – when we put our trust in Jesus as our only savior and accept the forgiveness of our sins and the glory of our future life – we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and he reminds us that we are loved. We have been brought near to God through the blood of Christ.
As we look at the book of Acts we see his work among the early church, comforting them in suffering. He gives us himself in the Holy Spirit to assure us of his everlasting love and grace. We are safe in him. Saul is proof. He goes from the comfort of social status to the fear of death in a matter of days. But with that change comes the comfort of the Holy Spirit, so it’s a step forward, not back. There's nowhere God leads us where he won't be with us.
One reason God gives us gospel-culture is because we tend to forget this. This is a community project. God often works through other people to comfort us. You don’t have to live the Christian life on your own. In fact, you can’t! God made us to need other people. And as we open ourselves up to others we find that they help us stay in this sweet zone of the fear of the Lord and comfort of the Holy Spirit. That’s why we emphasize community groups so heavily.
Tying it Together
So we walk in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit when we are open to God. Really, that’s all it takes – openness. So much of the Christian life is openness to God. What if Barnabas had closed himself to Saul? What if Ananias had ignored God’s call to go find Saul? What if Stephen had not preached the gospel in his dying moments? God uses open hearts for the advancement of the gospel in this world.
He can accomplish works without us, no doubt, but he chooses to use us. And the kind of heart he loves to use is a heart wide open to him.
Conclusion
Later in life, the apostle John was given a vision into heaven and sees Jesus in his glory. He tells us about it in in Revelation 1:17, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not.’” Reverent amazement of Jesus and comfort from him in the message of the gospel. That’s walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
You know, what the Lord is willing to give us here at Refuge is way bigger and way better than what we can even imagine.
The kind of church Jesus is building is founded on gospel-doctrine and shaped into gospel-culture. And as we fall down at his feet in amazement of who he is, he will reach out his right hand and comfort us through his Spirit. We can experience gospel-doctrine and gospel-culture together because Jesus is alive and active. We can walk in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit if we will be open to the Lord. God fills open hearts with himself.
The world is mean and cruel, but it won’t last forever. Jesus will return soon, and when he does we will experience eternity in terms of gospel-doctrine and gospel-culture. Why would we want to miss out on a foretaste of it now if Jesus is offering it?
So let’s stay humble and open and expect great things from God because he has proven himself worthy. And as we do, we will see him building and multiplying his church throughout our city and our region, founded on gospel-doctrine and shaped into gospel-culture.
May it be said of Refuge Church, “So the church throughout all Franklin and Nashville and Middle Tennessee had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/e23651ac9f58cc83-image-asset-ZGpZU4yHoD0M0i10k3GclJKiVqP5FZ.jpeg\")
\n \n\nA Psalm for giving thanks.
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
Introduction
Well, we’ve just finished thanksgiving, and we’re at the end of our 30 days of thanks series here at Refuge. And if you’re like me, you wish thanksgiving arose in your heart more often.
There’s this great quote from, A.A. Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh. “Piglet noticed that even though he had a very small heart, it could hold a rather large amount of gratitude.”
My heart is relatively bigger than Piglet’s, and yet I wonder how much gratitude it can hold. So, what a great thing it is to have a day set aside to give thanks. But for the Christian, giving thanks should be a way of life.
Today I want to show us from Psalm 100 how we can make thanksgiving a way of life. But since the Psalms are poems, we need to do a little bit of work to understand the structure to see the whole. We have a slide for this.
Here’s the structure. Look at it in stanzas - verses 3 and 5 are supporting statements underneath verses 1, 2, and 4. Verses 3 and 5 are like pillars of truth holding up the commands of this psalm.
We can break it down into three points.
To live with thanksgiving, we need truth to support it (vv. 3, 5).
To live with thanksgiving, we need feelings to spur it (v. 4).
To live with thanksgiving, we need actions to complete it (vv. 1, 2).
The order here is important. It’s what makes Christianity unique. We receive truth first, then feelings of thanksgiving start to burn, then we express those feelings through actions. What makes Christianity unique is that we receive everything by grace. We don’t work to earn it. We receive salvation by faith alone through Christ alone. Then once we’ve received that, we realize how thankful we are and we respond in good works. That’s how thanksgiving works. It’s a response to something given. So, our first point.
To live with thanksgiving, we need truth to support it (vv. 3, 5).
3 Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
5 For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
Oxford Dictionary has a new word of the year for 2016. Know what it is? “Post-truth.” Definition: “Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Doesn’t that sum up 2016?
But our feelings will change. They’ll let us down if it’s all we have. Christians don’t live post-truth lives. Our feelings don’t drive truth and action; truth drives feelings and action. Francis Schaeffer said that Christianity is true truth – it’s absolute truth. If you drill all the way down to the bedrock bottom of the universe what you find is the truth of who God is and what he says.
Notice the first word in verse 3, know. That word indicates certainty. If there is a word in this Psalm that supports all the others, it’s this word know. Knowing is the prerequisite for everything else in the Psalm. To live with thanksgiving, we need truth to support it.
So, what should we know? As if he’s preparing the Thanksgiving feast, the Psalmist lists seven things to know about God, so let’s get a little helping of each.
1. He is God (v. 3)
This is the main dish – the turkey in the center of the table, if you will. It’s the first thing we must know – that God is God.
In 1 Kings 18 God was put to the test by the prophets of Baal, a pagan god. Elijah, God’s prophet, came to the people of Israel and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”
Elijah and the prophets of Baal then have a showdown. All 450 of the prophets of Baal pray and wait for Baal to send fire down upon the alter. Nothing comes. Then Elijah asks for the alter to be flooded with water. If the fire comes, it’ll have to be a miracle. Elijah prays. “Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.”
He’s not one god among many. He’s the only true God. If we get this right everything else falls into place.
2. He made us (v. 3)
We are not accidents. We have divine intention. We were made by God, in his image. David expresses this in Psalm 139 when he says, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.”
Humanity is not formed by throwing a group of molecules into a stretch of time and a bundle of chance. We are knitted with careful attention to detail. The you that you are is no accident. You were created by God. You were thought of before the foundation of the world. You have significance, even glory, because God made you!
3. We are his people (v. 3)
He not only made us but wants us. We’ve done enough sinning to be eternally separated from God. But he still calls us his. He wants us. He wants you.
How can we know that? Because he came for us. In sin, we turned our back on him, but in grace, he turned his face toward us. Jesus left his home in heaven, pushed out, as it were, by his great love for us. He accomplished the work of salvation because his heart beat for his people. He couldn’t have it any other way. He wouldn’t abandon us. The Bible says His people are the apple of his eye (Ps. 17:8).
4. We are the sheep of his pasture (v. 3)
He’s not a benevolent but distant father. No, he’s in the field with us. He shepherds us. This imagery shows God’s loving care. He leads. He protects. He disciplines. He guides. We’re not left to ourselves. We’re under the kind watch of the Good Shepherd. If we stray, he comes to get us!
Psalm 23 comes to mind. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
5. He is good (v. 5)
For the Lord is good. Who is good but God alone? (Luke 18:19) He is good and does good (Ps. 119:68). The Lord is good to all, and his mercies are over all his works (Ps. 145:9). For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon you (Ps. 86:5). But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:11-12).
Who secures an eternal redemption for his people except for the one who is good? He’s not just good to some; he’s good to you.
6. His steadfast love endures forever (v. 5)
The Hebrew word used for steadfast love is chesed. This is God’s loyal love. It’s the love that he bound himself to by his covenant promises. It’s a never-ending, ever-present, eternally-increasing, constantly-shaping, fiercely-protective love. It’s the love that kept a remnant of Israel throughout their sinful life. It’s the love that pushed Jesus down into our world. It’s the love that bound him to human skin. It’s the love that empowered him to fight temptation and remain sinless. It’s the love that compelled him to endure the cross for the joy set before him. (Hebrews 12:2) And we are that joy! If he was willing to endure all of that, how can we doubt his steadfast love now? He won’t give up on you!
7. His faithfulness endures to all generations (v. 5)
When we are unfaithful, he remains faithful (2 Tim. 2:13). He never runs out of faithfulness. He didn’t for Israel and he won’t for you. You fit inside the “all generations” of this verse. Micah 2:5 says, “My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.” And one day, Christ will return. “And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory” (1 Peter 5:4).
So, the table has been set with the knowledge of God and his heart toward us. To live with thanksgiving, we need truth to support it. We also need feelings to spur it (v. 4)
To live with thanksgiving, we need feelings to spur it (v. 4).
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
Feelings matter. They aren’t all that matter, but they certainly matter. The Christian life is not emotionless and anyone who says so doesn’t understand it. But the emotions are based on truth and therefore have a foundation to really exist – they can last.
Years ago, I was serving with my church at the Nashville Rescue Mission. It was a cold Friday night. I had finished serving food and sat down by one man. By God’s providence, he wanted to talk about God. “This is great!” I thought. No need to find a way to bring God into the conversation. He just jumped right in!
“How do you enter the gates of God?” He asked. I searched my mind and found what I thought was a reasonable answer. “With joy,” I said. “Nope,” he replied. “With praise?” I shot back. “Wrong!” he shouted. We went back and forth like this for what felt like forever. He finally said, “Aha! I’ve caught you not reading your Bible!”
Psalm 100, verse 4 says, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving.” He was waiting for the word thanksgiving.
Here was a homeless man, receiving food he didn’t buy from a man he didn’t know, in a room full of other homeless men escaping the winter weather. And he had treasure I didn’t know about. Of all the things he could have brought up, he wanted to talk about thankfulness to God.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you.” He had learned how to give thanks in all circumstances. He understood that he was among the people of God. He was in. And when we realize we’re counted as one among the people of God, we respond the same way. We can’t contain our thanksgiving.
The gates and courts of God here in this verse refer to the temple where Israel worshiped. To enter his gates and courts was to enter God’s presence. The temple had a structure. It had rules and degrees of separation based on the kind of person you were. For example, there was a place called the Most Holy Place. It was separated from the other sections by a big, thick curtain. Only the High Priest could enter that room once a year, the Day of Atonement, because it was the earthly dwelling place of God. But no matter who you were or where you could go, the command stood – enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Why? Because they have access to the God of the universe! He dwells with his people!
Do we realize how much more access to God we have than these Israelites? When Jesus died on the cross, that big, thick curtain was ripped in two – from top to bottom! The Bible says, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:19-22)
God tore that curtain because Jesus’ sacrifice was perfect for all time. No more separation! We’ve been made clean, washed by the blood of Christ! We’re no longer hoping for salvation. It has come fully and perfectly in Jesus Christ! By the power of the purifying gospel of Jesus Christ we sinners can come to God. Every need you have you can take fully and openly to the King of the universe. God doesn’t just dwell with us in a temple somewhere. He now dwells inside of us by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are never without God’s presence!
When we have rock-solid truth that shows us who God is and what he’s done it creates overwhelming feelings of thanksgiving. He has come to us and made us his! That we, sinful as we are, would be made clean by this holy God, oh the wonder!
The degree to which you see the truth of the gospel is the degree to which feelings of thanksgiving will arise in your heart.
When we see how loved we really are, how utterly saved and redeemed we really are, how great God’s love and care for us really is, feelings of thanksgiving well up and spur us on.
You know, I think a heart filled with thanksgiving is the most restful a heart can be. It’s not trying to prove anything. It’s not trying to earn anything. It’s just happy to be in the presence of the one who gave it all.
So, we have the solid food of truth that fills us to create feelings of thanksgiving that spur us, and lead, finally, to actions to complete it (vv. 1-2).
To live with thanksgiving, we need actions to complete it (vv. 1, 2).
Notice the inscription right under the heading of this Psalm, “A Psalm for Giving Thanks.” The Hebrew word that we translate “giving thanks” means to praise or to give public acknowledgment. It indicates that we are to tell others what God has done. The thanksgiving this Psalm is speaking of is a public thanksgiving. That’s why we did our 30 days of thanks series of videos and photos. We wanted to publicly praise and acknowledge God. We give thanks to God through the action of praise. Praise reveals who we’re thankful to.
Biblical thanksgiving looks like this, verses 1-2.
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
We have three public actions here:
Make a joyful noise
Serve the Lord
Come into his presence
Let’s look briefly at each.
1. Make a joyful noise
College football is the best example I can think of. An underdog team at home against a big-name rival. The underdog wins, and the crowd goes wild. The band plays. The fans storm the field. It’s impossible not to smile. That’s a joyful noise.
A joyful noise is never aimless. There’s always a direction. Notice the direction of the joyful noise here. Make a joyful noise to the Lord. That phrase “Make a joyful noise” in verse one is a cry of celebration as one would give to a king.
This Psalm instructs us to parade into church as if we’re celebrating the exaltation of a great King. It’s an invitation to get rowdy in the presence of the Lord. The big game has been won. The underdog claimed victory upon the cross. His resurrection proved it. Now, we’re in that in-between of the afterglow before the big party later on where we can’t stop talking about that final play that sealed the game. We can’t seem to replay it enough or tell enough people about it.
2. Serve the Lord
So, we make a joyful noise to the Lord. Second, we “Serve the Lord.” But how do we serve the Lord? Serve the Lord with gladness. The word, “serve,” indicates we are doing work, accomplishing things for God. But there are two primary ways we can do that. One is to do it begrudgingly. The other is to do it with gladness. How are you serving God? Do you see it as a chore or as a joy? Thankful hearts serve the Lord with gladness out of response to his goodness. There is a settled-ness to it. It’s not an anxious serving. It’s restful.
Serving with gladness is serving loved, not serving to be loved.
3. Come into his presence
How do we come into his presence? With singing. The best illustration I can think of is the way my middle child, Luke, comes into the room when his baby brother, Andy, is already there. He will often look at him, smile, and sing out his full name Andrew David McLemore! He comes into the presence of his brother with singing. Why? Because he delights in him. And for my three-year-old, that’s expressed best with singing. We sing about what we delight in. Do we come into God’s presence the same way?
To live with thanksgiving, we need actions to complete it. Praising God is the final step in the giving of thanks.
Conclusion
Let me close with C.S. Lewis. He puts it this way in his book Reflections on the Psalms.
“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with…The catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”
And so it is with thanksgiving. When we give thanks, we complete the joy.
When we see what God has done, we respond in thanksgiving and praise. We enter his gates with thanksgiving not because we’ve worked up enough gratitude to do so, but because we’ve seen enough of God that we can’t help but do so. Thanksgiving is all about responding.
Our hearts may be very small but they can hold a large amount of gratitude.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/afb7903302c47bed-image-asset-ZHfj2WdSwVUckZXvOO9PRHB2d0x5n3.jpeg\")
\n \n\n“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8
This short verse from Paul’s letter to the Romans gives us insight into the love of God. What is God’s love like? How does God love? Who does God love, anyway? Does he love me? There are some verses in the Bible that hold more power than a nuclear bomb. This is one of those verses. These 18 words are some of the most glorious in the entire Bible. If you’re wondering about the love of God, this verse explains it.
My goal is to preach the gospel. Martin Luther, the great reformer, said, “I preach the gospel to my people every week because they forget it every week.” Tim Keller, a pastor in New Yokr City, said recently, \"One of the signs you may not grasp the unique radical nature of the gospel in that you're certain you think you do.\" We are forgetful people. We are a proud people. But we have a God who humbles himself to remind us of his love. He is not far from any of us. Let’s open in prayer, coming to him and asking for his blessing on our time together.
What Jesus did to save us is the most loving action that has ever taken place in the universe. What took place on the cross was a once in history-type event. It has happened but the effects of it are ongoing. It didn’t just change history; history was created for it. It didn’t just accomplish something in the past, but has power to change the future. There is nothing like it. But let us not lose the wonder of it. Let us not lose the taste for the beauty in the hideous death of Christ on our behalf. Let us not lose the meaning of the cross. Let it be always treasured by our hearts. We must fight against losing the truth of this verse, because the apex of all history has already happened and we have seen the love of God for us on a scale that should blow us away.
What do you believe about the love of God? Most often we think about the love of God in two categories: either we are too good for it (“Of course God loves me, he’s God! God loves all of his creation. But I’m not sure I actually need his love. I do just fine on my own.”) or we are too bad for it (“I’ve sinned my way out of God’s love. Perhaps I could try and get it back, but my sin has overtaken me. I’m really a lost cause at this point. I want to love God but I’m just not sure he could love me.”) But the truth is we are actually worse than we think we are and yet we are more loved than we could ever imagine. That’s what the Bible says about us.
So, there is a third way to think about the love of God. It’s the gospel way, which tells us we are too bad for his goodness, but we can have him anyway through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The gospel humbles the proud and lifts up the humble. The love of God is transformative. We don’t deserve it, yet we can have it. We need it to live, and he gives it to us without cost. What we think about the love of God will determine everything about how we live. What kind of love does God have for us? “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Your life includes the story of sacrificial death on your behalf. God died for you. You are loved so much that God was willing to nail his own Son to a cross to gain you back. My prayer for us today is that every single one of us walks out fully convinced that God loves us. Truly, the way to salvation is not in what we do, but in whom we trust. What do you believe about the love of God? Your answer determines your fate.
Paul tells us here in Romans 5:8 that God has shown us his love in the death of Christ. The One who created the heavens and the earth, the One who rules over all, the One who is in the heavens and does whatever he pleases—this One has shown his love to us in the death of his only Son. John 3:16 rings in our ears, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”
This verse explains what Jesus said in John 15:13 when he told his disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” What Jesus says in John 15 he accomplishes at the cross in John 19 and Paul explains it to us here in Romans 5. This is the most important story the world has ever known. The scale of this sacrifice is still being weighed today. In fact, for all eternity we will see that the cost and the prize do not seem to balance, but there is glory in this gospel that fills up the throne room of heaven and shoots joy down to our hearts like lightening. This is a surprising gospel.
Romans 5:8 explains this surprising gospel by revealing how God shows his love to us in a surprising way, to a surprising people, and at surprising cost.
I want us to linger here for a few minutes. Let this sink in, because this is glorious. God shows. God is not a quiet, reserved, no-big-deal king. He’s not afraid to shake the world. He’s ambitious and he’s bold and he loves wildly. The very heavens declare the glory of God. Why else do stars exist? Why are sunsets as beautiful as they are? What purpose do they serve outside of lighting your heart on fire? God puts on display his love.
These two words, \"God shows\", speak to both camps of people, those who think they are too good and those who think they are too bad for the love of God. We are confronted here with what God does. He shows. He is a relentless lover. He is always pursuing us, not just so that we will agree at an intellectual level that we are loved, but to feel deep in our hearts that we are loved. It's as if he is saying, \"Look. I know some of you think you don’t need me. Where will you get your righteousness? Some of you think you can't have me. What made you doubt my love?\"
Do you realize the way in which God loves?
He doesn’t stop with words, he doesn’t stop with parting seas, he doesn’t stop at pillars of fire, or clouds of glory, he doesn’t stop with breaking down walls at the sound of trumpets, he doesn’t stop with voices from heaven or angels standing before us. He doesn’t stop with a promise. He doesn’t stop with a king. He doesn’t stop with one nation. He doesn’t stop with only one people group. He doesn’t stop with “good enough”. He doesn’t stop with perfect teaching or with amazing miracles. No, he stops with the death of the Son on the cross. God the Father loves so intensely that he could not give anything less than the absolute best that he had to offer: himself in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son.
God shows his love to us in a multitude of ways but the supreme way he shows his love to us is in the death of Christ for us. What greater love is there? You, in all your sin and all your messiness – you – were loved enough by God that he would die for you. He didn’t just tell us that. He showed it two thousand years ago at 3:00 in the afternoon on a hill outside of Jerusalem. And, even more surprising, he still shows his love in the death of Christ. These words are in the present active tense. God, today, in this moment, is showing us the love he has for us through the death of his Son, Jesus Christ. What we see right here in our Bibles – this black text on a white page – is lifting Jesus up before us right now so that we can see with the eyes of our heart the very love of God for us. Do you see it? Oh, I pray you do! Father, open our eyes!
Now that’s the kind of love we need and that’s the kind of love God has. Isn’t that surprising to you?
God’s people have been struggling for millennia to understand the love of God. They have misunderstood him, taken him for granted, ignored him, and sinned against him, but he has never stopped showing his love to them. Ultimately, Jesus left his throne in heaven to come and show us once and for all how deep the love of God is for us. You have to believe that. You have to acknowledge the love of God for you. That’s my greatest prayer. The way to your salvation is by trusting the God that tells this story. You can have love like this and it doesn’t even matter that you’re a sinner, because Christ died for sinners. In fact, he died only for sinners. So, if you see your need for a love like this, you qualify for that love. You can come to him and he will not cast you out because God shows his love to a surprising people.
The kind of person that God shows his love to is surprising. He shows his love to sinners. The text is plain, \"while we were still sinners\". If we had the all-seeing eye of God, we would be appalled at not only the sin we see in each other but the sin we see in our own hearts. I’d venture to say we are aware of about 5% of our sin. But God sees all of it. We need to understand what our sin looks like to God. Our sins aren’t mistakes. We like to use that word. It softens it. But the Bible uses words like evil and wickedness in regards to our sin. How often have you called yourself evil or wicked? But you are! We are all a mess. Our sin has ruined us. Every one of us has experienced this. Every one of us has done something that we don’t even want to think about. And yet God looks down at us in that condition, in that sin, and says I’ve died for that sin. You are free. For freedom Christ has set us free.
In fact, our sin is our only qualification. Look at the verse again. God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It is in the midst of our sin that Christ saves us. Our sin is the ONLY qualification, and we must still be in that sin to qualify, which of course we are. But this is insane. Look at the way Paul writes this phrase. God shows, present tense. Christ died, past tense. The death of Christ still shows the love of God. That one event was enough to show us for all time his love because of the magnitude of the one who died and who he died for. God died for his enemies. Our sin qualifies us and our faith justifies us through the work of Christ on the cross.
Even the way Paul words this is fascinating. What he’s saying here is that there has been a changing of the guard. Something has come in and something has gone out. The Greek text here is saying that in the death of Christ, we sinners have been redeemed. Even the syntax of the sentence is showing the gospel! Not just the words, but how the words are arranged.
God shows his love to us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Why did Jesus die for us? The simple answer is because he loved us and to love us till the end he had to die. But, you may say, “There must have been another way. Surely someone didn’t have to die in order to save me!” The Bible says that God saves sinners and the only way to save sinners is for the sin to be paid for by someone. And the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. Therefore, there are two options: either we die for our sins or someone else does. In God’s mercy, the gospel tells us that someone else has died in our place. But what does this look like? Is the Father an angry God who only wants blood while Jesus is the loving, kind-hearted Son who desperately wants his Father’s heart to change? By no means! God is not unjust and he is not unloving. But for justice and love to remain fully compatible a death had to occur.
D.A. Carson, one of today's most important theologians, helps here when he says,
“God demonstrates his love in that Christ died for us. You must not think that God stands over against us while Christ stands for us, as if the Father and Son are somehow at odds, so that the Father takes it out on his Son. God demonstrated his love by sending Christ. This is bound up with the very nature and mystery of the incarnation and the Trinity. This is the triune God’s plan. It hurts the Father to lose his Son, but he does it because he loves us. And the Son demonstrates his love for us by listening to and conforming to his Father’s own wonderful plan so that this plan of the triune God is worked out in God’s justice being secured and protected by virtue of the fact that Christ bears our sins and God’s just standards are preserved even while we stand free and go forgiven. God demonstrates his justice in the cross. Do you want to see the greatest evidence of the love of God? Go to the cross. Do you want to see the greatest evidence of the justice of God? Go to the cross. It is where wrath and mercy meet. Holiness and peace kiss each other. The climax of redemptive history is the cross.”
It hurts the Father to lose his Son, but he does it because he loves us. The death of Jesus was costly. He is the most glorious person in existence. He was there from the beginning – not the beginning of the world, but from the beginning of eternity past. It was he through whom and by whom and for whom all things were created. It is he who upholds the universe by the word of his power. It is he who is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. It is he who was promised and he who has come and he who has died and he who is reigning now and will reign forever. It is he to whom every knee shall one day bow. It is he, of whom the prophet Isaiah says, “he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength.” It is also he of whom Isaiah says, “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for or iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” It is he that has given us access to the throne of grace. This is Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of Lords. The Son of God, the Son of man, the alpha and the omega, the one who was and is and is to come, the Messiah, the Christ. This is your savior! This is God. And there was no greater pain in the universe than the moment that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the elect. In that moment the Father turned his face away from the Son and gave him over to death so he might bring us who believe to glory. It cost something to gain us back. It cost the most valuable person in all existence. It cost God himself. You are bought with a price. God isn’t angry with you because he has done everything he needs to do to be happy with you forever. The price has been paid in the midst of your sin so that you can be free from the consequences of your sin. That is surprising!
THAT IS LOVE!
That is the gospel!
So if you are prone to think you are too good for God's love: can you now see that you are a sinner in need of Christ's saving work? Only when you see this need can you have the righteousness you long for.
And if you are prone to think you are too bad for God's love: can you now see that God saves sinners and sinners alone? Only when you see that will you be able to have the joy you long for.
Let's all lean into the third way of the gospel: God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners (we are worse than we think), Christ died for us (we are more loved than we imagined).
Let me close with these words from Charles Spurgeon, 19th century preacher,
“If today you feel that sin is hateful to you, believe in Him who has said, ‘It is finished.’ Let me link your hand in mine. Let us come together, both of us, and say, ‘Here are two poor naked souls, good Lord; we cannot clothe ourselves,’ and He will give us a robe, for ‘it is finished.’ . . . ‘But must we not add tears to it?’ ‘No,’ says He, ‘no, it is finished, there is enough.’ Child of God, will you have Christ’s finished righteousness today, and will you rejoice in it more than you ever have before?”
Receive this good news. Come to Christ. See what he has done for you. Come and live. God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8
This short verse from Paul’s letter to the Romans gives us insight into the love of God. What is God’s love like? How does God love? Who does God love, anyway? Does he love me? There are some verses in the Bible that hold more power than a nuclear bomb. This is one of those verses. These 18 words are some of the most glorious in the entire Bible. If you’re wondering about the love of God, this verse explains it.
My goal is to preach the gospel. Martin Luther, the great reformer, said, “I preach the gospel to my people every week because they forget it every week.” Tim Keller, a pastor in New Yokr City, said recently, \"One of the signs you may not grasp the unique radical nature of the gospel in that you're certain you think you do.\" We are forgetful people. We are a proud people. But we have a God who humbles himself to remind us of his love. He is not far from any of us. Let’s open in prayer, coming to him and asking for his blessing on our time together.
What Jesus did to save us is the most loving action that has ever taken place in the universe. What took place on the cross was a once in history-type event. It has happened but the effects of it are ongoing. It didn’t just change history; history was created for it. It didn’t just accomplish something in the past, but has power to change the future. There is nothing like it. But let us not lose the wonder of it. Let us not lose the taste for the beauty in the hideous death of Christ on our behalf. Let us not lose the meaning of the cross. Let it be always treasured by our hearts. We must fight against losing the truth of this verse, because the apex of all history has already happened and we have seen the love of God for us on a scale that should blow us away.
What do you believe about the love of God? Most often we think about the love of God in two categories: either we are too good for it (“Of course God loves me, he’s God! God loves all of his creation. But I’m not sure I actually need his love. I do just fine on my own.”) or we are too bad for it (“I’ve sinned my way out of God’s love. Perhaps I could try and get it back, but my sin has overtaken me. I’m really a lost cause at this point. I want to love God but I’m just not sure he could love me.”) But the truth is we are actually worse than we think we are and yet we are more loved than we could ever imagine. That’s what the Bible says about us.
So, there is a third way to think about the love of God. It’s the gospel way, which tells us we are too bad for his goodness, but we can have him anyway through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The gospel humbles the proud and lifts up the humble. The love of God is transformative. We don’t deserve it, yet we can have it. We need it to live, and he gives it to us without cost. What we think about the love of God will determine everything about how we live. What kind of love does God have for us? “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Your life includes the story of sacrificial death on your behalf. God died for you. You are loved so much that God was willing to nail his own Son to a cross to gain you back. My prayer for us today is that every single one of us walks out fully convinced that God loves us. Truly, the way to salvation is not in what we do, but in whom we trust. What do you believe about the love of God? Your answer determines your fate.
Paul tells us here in Romans 5:8 that God has shown us his love in the death of Christ. The One who created the heavens and the earth, the One who rules over all, the One who is in the heavens and does whatever he pleases—this One has shown his love to us in the death of his only Son. John 3:16 rings in our ears, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”
This verse explains what Jesus said in John 15:13 when he told his disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” What Jesus says in John 15 he accomplishes at the cross in John 19 and Paul explains it to us here in Romans 5. This is the most important story the world has ever known. The scale of this sacrifice is still being weighed today. In fact, for all eternity we will see that the cost and the prize do not seem to balance, but there is glory in this gospel that fills up the throne room of heaven and shoots joy down to our hearts like lightening. This is a surprising gospel.
Romans 5:8 explains this surprising gospel by revealing how God shows his love to us in a surprising way, to a surprising people, and at surprising cost.
I want us to linger here for a few minutes. Let this sink in, because this is glorious. God shows. God is not a quiet, reserved, no-big-deal king. He’s not afraid to shake the world. He’s ambitious and he’s bold and he loves wildly. The very heavens declare the glory of God. Why else do stars exist? Why are sunsets as beautiful as they are? What purpose do they serve outside of lighting your heart on fire? God puts on display his love.
These two words, \"God shows\", speak to both camps of people, those who think they are too good and those who think they are too bad for the love of God. We are confronted here with what God does. He shows. He is a relentless lover. He is always pursuing us, not just so that we will agree at an intellectual level that we are loved, but to feel deep in our hearts that we are loved. It's as if he is saying, \"Look. I know some of you think you don’t need me. Where will you get your righteousness? Some of you think you can't have me. What made you doubt my love?\"
Do you realize the way in which God loves?
He doesn’t stop with words, he doesn’t stop with parting seas, he doesn’t stop at pillars of fire, or clouds of glory, he doesn’t stop with breaking down walls at the sound of trumpets, he doesn’t stop with voices from heaven or angels standing before us. He doesn’t stop with a promise. He doesn’t stop with a king. He doesn’t stop with one nation. He doesn’t stop with only one people group. He doesn’t stop with “good enough”. He doesn’t stop with perfect teaching or with amazing miracles. No, he stops with the death of the Son on the cross. God the Father loves so intensely that he could not give anything less than the absolute best that he had to offer: himself in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son.
God shows his love to us in a multitude of ways but the supreme way he shows his love to us is in the death of Christ for us. What greater love is there? You, in all your sin and all your messiness – you – were loved enough by God that he would die for you. He didn’t just tell us that. He showed it two thousand years ago at 3:00 in the afternoon on a hill outside of Jerusalem. And, even more surprising, he still shows his love in the death of Christ. These words are in the present active tense. God, today, in this moment, is showing us the love he has for us through the death of his Son, Jesus Christ. What we see right here in our Bibles – this black text on a white page – is lifting Jesus up before us right now so that we can see with the eyes of our heart the very love of God for us. Do you see it? Oh, I pray you do! Father, open our eyes!
Now that’s the kind of love we need and that’s the kind of love God has. Isn’t that surprising to you?
God’s people have been struggling for millennia to understand the love of God. They have misunderstood him, taken him for granted, ignored him, and sinned against him, but he has never stopped showing his love to them. Ultimately, Jesus left his throne in heaven to come and show us once and for all how deep the love of God is for us. You have to believe that. You have to acknowledge the love of God for you. That’s my greatest prayer. The way to your salvation is by trusting the God that tells this story. You can have love like this and it doesn’t even matter that you’re a sinner, because Christ died for sinners. In fact, he died only for sinners. So, if you see your need for a love like this, you qualify for that love. You can come to him and he will not cast you out because God shows his love to a surprising people.
The kind of person that God shows his love to is surprising. He shows his love to sinners. The text is plain, \"while we were still sinners\". If we had the all-seeing eye of God, we would be appalled at not only the sin we see in each other but the sin we see in our own hearts. I’d venture to say we are aware of about 5% of our sin. But God sees all of it. We need to understand what our sin looks like to God. Our sins aren’t mistakes. We like to use that word. It softens it. But the Bible uses words like evil and wickedness in regards to our sin. How often have you called yourself evil or wicked? But you are! We are all a mess. Our sin has ruined us. Every one of us has experienced this. Every one of us has done something that we don’t even want to think about. And yet God looks down at us in that condition, in that sin, and says I’ve died for that sin. You are free. For freedom Christ has set us free.
In fact, our sin is our only qualification. Look at the verse again. God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It is in the midst of our sin that Christ saves us. Our sin is the ONLY qualification, and we must still be in that sin to qualify, which of course we are. But this is insane. Look at the way Paul writes this phrase. God shows, present tense. Christ died, past tense. The death of Christ still shows the love of God. That one event was enough to show us for all time his love because of the magnitude of the one who died and who he died for. God died for his enemies. Our sin qualifies us and our faith justifies us through the work of Christ on the cross.
Even the way Paul words this is fascinating. What he’s saying here is that there has been a changing of the guard. Something has come in and something has gone out. The Greek text here is saying that in the death of Christ, we sinners have been redeemed. Even the syntax of the sentence is showing the gospel! Not just the words, but how the words are arranged.
God shows his love to us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Why did Jesus die for us? The simple answer is because he loved us and to love us till the end he had to die. But, you may say, “There must have been another way. Surely someone didn’t have to die in order to save me!” The Bible says that God saves sinners and the only way to save sinners is for the sin to be paid for by someone. And the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. Therefore, there are two options: either we die for our sins or someone else does. In God’s mercy, the gospel tells us that someone else has died in our place. But what does this look like? Is the Father an angry God who only wants blood while Jesus is the loving, kind-hearted Son who desperately wants his Father’s heart to change? By no means! God is not unjust and he is not unloving. But for justice and love to remain fully compatible a death had to occur.
D.A. Carson, one of today's most important theologians, helps here when he says,
“God demonstrates his love in that Christ died for us. You must not think that God stands over against us while Christ stands for us, as if the Father and Son are somehow at odds, so that the Father takes it out on his Son. God demonstrated his love by sending Christ. This is bound up with the very nature and mystery of the incarnation and the Trinity. This is the triune God’s plan. It hurts the Father to lose his Son, but he does it because he loves us. And the Son demonstrates his love for us by listening to and conforming to his Father’s own wonderful plan so that this plan of the triune God is worked out in God’s justice being secured and protected by virtue of the fact that Christ bears our sins and God’s just standards are preserved even while we stand free and go forgiven. God demonstrates his justice in the cross. Do you want to see the greatest evidence of the love of God? Go to the cross. Do you want to see the greatest evidence of the justice of God? Go to the cross. It is where wrath and mercy meet. Holiness and peace kiss each other. The climax of redemptive history is the cross.”
It hurts the Father to lose his Son, but he does it because he loves us. The death of Jesus was costly. He is the most glorious person in existence. He was there from the beginning – not the beginning of the world, but from the beginning of eternity past. It was he through whom and by whom and for whom all things were created. It is he who upholds the universe by the word of his power. It is he who is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. It is he who was promised and he who has come and he who has died and he who is reigning now and will reign forever. It is he to whom every knee shall one day bow. It is he, of whom the prophet Isaiah says, “he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength.” It is also he of whom Isaiah says, “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for or iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” It is he that has given us access to the throne of grace. This is Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of Lords. The Son of God, the Son of man, the alpha and the omega, the one who was and is and is to come, the Messiah, the Christ. This is your savior! This is God. And there was no greater pain in the universe than the moment that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the elect. In that moment the Father turned his face away from the Son and gave him over to death so he might bring us who believe to glory. It cost something to gain us back. It cost the most valuable person in all existence. It cost God himself. You are bought with a price. God isn’t angry with you because he has done everything he needs to do to be happy with you forever. The price has been paid in the midst of your sin so that you can be free from the consequences of your sin. That is surprising!
THAT IS LOVE!
That is the gospel!
So if you are prone to think you are too good for God's love: can you now see that you are a sinner in need of Christ's saving work? Only when you see this need can you have the righteousness you long for.
And if you are prone to think you are too bad for God's love: can you now see that God saves sinners and sinners alone? Only when you see that will you be able to have the joy you long for.
Let's all lean into the third way of the gospel: God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners (we are worse than we think), Christ died for us (we are more loved than we imagined).
Let me close with these words from Charles Spurgeon, 19th century preacher,
“If today you feel that sin is hateful to you, believe in Him who has said, ‘It is finished.’ Let me link your hand in mine. Let us come together, both of us, and say, ‘Here are two poor naked souls, good Lord; we cannot clothe ourselves,’ and He will give us a robe, for ‘it is finished.’ . . . ‘But must we not add tears to it?’ ‘No,’ says He, ‘no, it is finished, there is enough.’ Child of God, will you have Christ’s finished righteousness today, and will you rejoice in it more than you ever have before?”
Receive this good news. Come to Christ. See what he has done for you. Come and live. God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/fea29ec26199819b-image-asset-hP2usDUHHEkVXv7yWzorsXMcTxJGgj.jpeg\")
\n \n\n6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
(Romans 5:6-11)
If you believe in Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul you are eternally secure in his overwhelming love for you. You have nothing to fear in this life or the next. If Jesus is your greatest treasure, then you have been transferred into a different kingdom. Nothing is the same. Everything is wonderfully different. The person you once were is gone, a new person has been created. You are alive and on your way to even greater life – abundant life. You are fully saved, without one reason to doubt your eternal security. That’s what trusting in Jesus gives you.
Here’s the truth about all who believe in Jesus for their salvation: God has declared you righteous in his sight and has drawn near to you in a new kind of relationship. You are infinitely worse than you ever imagined yet loved infinitely more than you ever dreamed. And your future salvation is as secure as the seat you are sitting on. We can be sure of that, and Romans 5:9-10 shows us why.
God’s love did not stay a mere emotion tucked away in his heart. No, God’s love moved him to action. Every single one of us in this room is a sinner. Because of our sin, we lost our love for God. We don’t see him clearly. Our view is like that of a mud splashed windshield. We may see well enough to continue driving, but we’re missing the beauty of what’s around. We need the mud washed away so that we can see again. Maybe some of us have just gotten so used to the mud that we don’t even notice it anymore. Maybe it’s caked on so thick that even the rains of corporate worship and private Bible reading and prayer have failed to wash it thoroughly because we’re still coming into those meetings with the wrong view of God. Paul wants to clear all of that up for us here in this passage in his letter to the Romans, and he does that by explaining in the most amazing terms the length that God has gone to bring his love to us, and how he’s going to keep us wrapped in that love forever. We fail to grasp God’s love. He aims to help us understand. We are often anxious about our future when God holds us firmly in his heart. We need not worry, and Paul is out to establish that truth in our hearts.
Notice two words in these two verses: blood (v. 9) and death (v. 10). These are not typically good words. Blood makes me queasy. Death makes me sorrowful. Put together and I’m just plain sick, and so are you. And this is exactly what we deserve because of our sin. The wages of sin is death. But when these two words are placed in God’s hands and taken upon himself in the person of Jesus they transform into life giving means of grace sent down to us so to wipe our sin-stained hearts clean. The blood of Christ was spilled on the cross in his death. It was no accident that he ended up there. Love took him there. The reason Jesus died was because in the heart of God there is a love that cannot stop until everything is set right, no matter the cost – even if that cost is the very Son of God. He counted you more worthy than himself and made himself nothing so that he might bring you back to life. Our sin separated us from God. He became our enemy. His love brought us back to God. He became our friend.
So we see that God has shown his love. He sent Jesus Christ to live the perfect life we failed to live and die the guilty death we don’t want to die so that the love of God could be plainly seen. This didn’t happen in some tucked away corner of the universe. This happened 2,000 years ago in one of the grandest empires the world has ever seen, the Roman Empire, in one of the most famous cities ever, in Jerusalem. It as an historical fact on our historical timeline. It was visible and plainly seen by many, many people who wrote about it and reported on it. What does the death and resurrection of Jesus accomplish for us?
Romans 5:9-10 shows us three things about how God saves us:
My first point, He has set us free by justification.
Notice the word Paul uses in verse 9. He says, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood…” Notice that word “justified”. That’s a biblical term, and it is important to understand biblical terms. So what does it mean? Imagine you have committed a felony and your day in court has arrived. You stand there before the judge, who happens to be the very one against whom you have committed this crime. You have no other option than to plead guilty, for you yourself see the guilt within, and there is indisputable video evidence of the crime. You stand there for what feels like forever awaiting the response from the judge who holds within his next few words the sentence over your life. The penalty is death, there is no way around it. Now, imagine the judge leaning forward in his chair, looking straight into your eyes, and saying that the penalty has been paid and you are free to go. How would you react?
That’s what has happened because of the work of Jesus on your behalf. Let’s remember why Jesus died. He died with purpose. His purpose was to set you free. His purpose was to pay the penalty for your sin. You had so many offenses against you and there was no question as to your guilt. It was obvious to everyone, to you and to God. Now, when Jesus hung on the cross and yielded up his spirit, he died. When he died as the sinless man for sinful men, he died to pay the penalty that you don’t want to pay. But this payment was only good because he had first lived the perfect life that you failed to live. Jesus, without your permission, came down to earth, was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, obeyed the law, fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament, was convicted of a crime he did not commit, was dragged to the cross, was nailed to that cross, was lifted high on that cross, and died on that cross. This is what the judge is talking about. Your punishment has been paid already. You are free to go. Can you believe that?!
Because Jesus was your substitute – doing the things you failed to do and dying the death you should have died – you can now stand before the holy God and be declared innocent of all charges. More than that, you are declared righteous. God not only forgives you of your sins, because of the perfect life of Christ, you now have all of the righteousness that is in Jesus. He has given it over to you. The banner hanging over your head is no longer “Sinner”, but “Child of God, Holy and Beloved One”. It is now not only as if you never sinned but as if you always obeyed. Justification before God means that you are an obedient child of God, loved by him from the foundations of the world.
If you believe in Jesus, the cross moves your judgment day from the future to the past. Your punishment has been handed down and satisfied in the death of Jesus. You have no reason to fear future punishment for your sin, because the full payment has been handed over in the death of Jesus on the cross.
But could God do all of that – forgive us and declare us righteous – and still hold us at arm’s length? Well, I think we are prone to see him that way. We are often anxious about our standing with God. Perhaps we tend to think that because of the work of Jesus God does forgive us but those sins of our past aren’t really forgotten. They are there to be brought up again if needed. The offense is not fully blotted away. But that’s not what the Bible says. The Bible says, “I will remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31:34). God has justified us in Christ and that means that even the remembrance of our sins is gone. God looks at us and all he sees is the righteousness of Christ for us rather than our sin-stained past. Sin created distance between us and God but the distance that sin put between us and God has been taken away. No more distance, no more enmity, no more hostility. And that means something utterly astounding for us.
Paul, then, wipes away a little more mud from the windshield in verse 10 when he says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” Notice now the word “Reconciled”.
This brings me to my second point – God has drawn us near to him in reconciliation.
Justification is a legal term. It means to be set right legally. Reconciliation is a relational term. It means to be set right relationally. Here’s the difference. Let’s imagine we’re back in that courtroom. God has just leaned forward, looked into your eyes, and declared you innocent. The courtroom erupts. Some may be angry, some may be overjoyed. You are floored. What has just happened? You knew your own guilt. How can this be? You look up at him with bulging eyes, at a loss for words. You might just utter a shaky, “thank you.” That’s all you can muster. And then something else happens that is absolutely unbelievable. It’s so unbelievable that if you didn’t experience it you wouldn’t believe it could happen. He’s there, looking into your eyes, receiving your thanksgiving, and then he cracks a smile. But it’s a smile unlike what you’ve seen before. It’s like the smile of a friend who hasn’t seen you in a long time and has no idea about what a mess you’ve made of your life. It’s an innocent smile, a pure smile. It is the very smile of God for you.
Then he does something else. He gets out of his chair (his throne, as it were) and he comes down to you, puts his arm around you, and leads you back to his chambers to rejoice with you. You are now sitting with him, in his home, engulfed in his happiness over you. He is literally rejoicing over you. You can’t believe it. Then he just talks to you. He helps you. He doesn’t leave you. He guides you and supports you and welcomes you. He brings you near to him and there is no indication whatsoever that he ever plans to let you go. You are floored, once again. You realized, all of a sudden, that he intends to give you your life back, except this time, it’s the life you always wanted rather than the mess you had made. Something has happened. The relationship feels so warm that it’s almost as if God has adopted you as his own child, which, you soon find out, he has.
More than that, you see that Jesus, the one who died in your place, is there as well. He's not angry at you for having to pay your penalty. He’s overjoyed that you are there with him. He tells you (and you believe him) that you were the joy set before him that helped him endure the cross. Knowing he would give you eternal life by his death gave him joy to endure the humiliation and punishment. He welcomes you unlike anyone ever has.
This is what reconciliation feels like. It feels like the way you felt in the happiest, safest time of your life but infinitely better. If feels as if everything bad is going to be set right. You feel a nearness. It’s nearly inexplicable. Our words just won’t do. You smile, and you rest, and you laugh, and you weep, and you have a joy that reaches down into the pit of your soul and lifts you up. You have been reconciled to God. You look around you and think through your life and, really, nothing much has changed circumstantially, but everything seems to have changed deep in your heart. You have been reconciled.
You were God’s enemy. And now you are his friend. Like – a real friend. No bad blood between the two of you. Total forgiveness. Total reconciliation. Total peace. Total joy. Total happiness. Total rest. Total trust. Total…everything good. You have been justified and you have been reconciled.
But there’s more…which brings me to my third point: he is saving us forever by the life of Christ.
Oh, the gospel doesn’t stop with past justification and reconciliation. You can be justified and reconciled and that’s all great and fine but what we poor sinners need is an ongoing assurance that what we just experienced will be there tomorrow when we’re back in the midst of regular life, even in the midst of our backsliding, still-sin-stained life. Now, God is not out to assure us that we will be safe in his arms if we fail to be astonished by his grace. We will not be ok in the end if we take what we just experienced in our justification and reconciliation with a shrug and a “that was a nice little memory” reaction. No, God intends for that memory to stick with us, to sink deep down into our hearts. He intends for us to continually be bowled over by it. So he gives us more tastes of it as we go along, and each time we come back to him with utter joy and thanksgiving. That’s how the Christian life works. The Christian life is not a life focused on obeying God now that he’s set us right. The Christian life is a life focused on worshiping and praising God now that he’s brought us near. Our anxiety melts away as we see the length of the love of God.
So what about tomorrow? What about the next time you sin? What happens then? What about your future? How can you be sure that what has happened to you will stick?
What God has given us in the gospel is justification and reconciliation and assurance that because of our justification and reconciliation by the death of Jesus, we will be tucked squarely away in his good graces until the day we die. How can we be sure of that? Because the one who died for us 2,000 years ago lives for us now in heaven. Jesus died on the cross. That is an undeniable historical fact. But he didn’t stay dead. He rose! His resurrection that first Easter Sunday was the confirmation that everything Jesus set out to do was accepted by God the Father. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”
Let me try to illustrate this “much more” of the gospel. Tomorrow comes and we sin again. We are grieved over it and seek to repent and we drag ourselves back into that courtroom. We find the devil there, with the world behind him, condemning us. Yet the scene looks and feels different. We aren’t on trial anymore. Jesus is there before the Father and through the Holy Spirit confirms to our hearts that the blood of Jesus paid for this sin too. We can’t be condemned now, not after all that Jesus has done for us. We are still as free as we were before. Our heart explodes again. We have new power to love God – even deeper this time! Jesus has paid the penalty for us.
The hardest thing in the world for God to do was to put us poor sinners back into right relationship with him. It cost Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity his very life. He entered in and lived a perfect life and suffered and died to save us. He has already done the hardest, most complicated thing. Now all he has to do is keep you. What Paul is saying here essentially is, “Since God has already done the hardest thing, why would he not do the easier thing of keeping you? God tore his son to pieces for you, why would he not now give you everything else you need?”
Our justification is past and unchanging. Our reconciliation is past, present, and future. Joy in the Christian life is constant joy because we have been set free from our past, kept in the present, and hopeful for the future. At this very moment, Jesus is seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father sending his Holy Spirit down to us to confirm to us in this moment that he lives. You can be sure without a doubt in your mind that you will be saved until the end because the sinless savior lives. The resurrection of Jesus put the confirmation upon your life that everything that needed to happen has happened. You have all the salvation you will ever need in the person and work of Jesus Christ. His life is your life. The New Testament proclaims this throughout. Let these words wash over you and confirm to your heart that what Paul says here in Romans 5:9-10 is utterly true, and that you are safe in the pierced hands of Christ, the everlasting arms of the Savior.
“9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” Romans 5:9-10
This teaching comes from a series taught on Wednesday nights in early 2025 at Immanuel Church in Nashville, TN.
We’re continuing our series on friendship.
So far, we’ve focused on the positives. Who doesn’t need help learning how to be a better friend? But we also have wounds from past friendships that can make us hesitant to pursue deeper connections. It’s been said that friendship doubles our joys and halves our sorrows. But when things go wrong, it can double our sorrows and halve our joys.
So, tonight we’re going to talk about broken friendships.
Bob Dylan has a prophetic song called “Everything Is Broken.” Here’s a verse.
Broken bottles, broken plates
Broken switches, broken gates
Broken dishes, broken parts
Streets are filled with broken hearts
Broken words never meant to be spoken
Everything is broken
In this sin-stained world, everything is broken, even our friendships.
If you have a broken friendship in your life, you’re not alone. Far from it. A recent survey found that 68% of Americans have decided to end a friendship and followed through. 52% say a friend has ended the friendship with them.[1] Broken friendships are not uncommon at all. If anything, they’re far too common.
Thankfully, the Bible is not silent on this important topic. God has good news for us: We have a Savior who understands brokenness and can help us. The author of Hebrews describes Jesus as a sympathetic high priest who knows our wounds. He was misunderstood, offended, rejected, and betrayed. If anyone understands broken friendships, it’s Jesus.
Yet on the cross, Jesus died to heal every broken thing. In fact, he died to secure us as his friends, and through his friendship, he now offers his divine help to mend our broken friendships with one another. For all the grief and pain of our fractured friendships, a gospel hope flows down from heaven from the heart of our Redeemer and Restorer, our Friend of Sinners. As Ray would say, Jesus has industrial-strength grace for us. He can make our sad friendships come untrue. It takes honesty and courage on our part. It won’t be easy. But who ever said life was easy anyway?
Here’s my agenda. First, I want to show you God’s template for restoring broken friendships. Second, I want to proclaim God’s good news for your broken friendships. So, we have very practical help from Jesus and a very comforting reality from Jesus.
I find it amazing how practical the Bible can sometimes be. It’s not just stories and rules; it’s real help for our real lives. As I researched this topic, I was struck by a verse in Luke 17. In it, Jesus teaches his disciples how to deal with one another when they sin against one another and lead others to sin. In the middle of this, he provides what I’m calling a template for restoring broken friendships.
Let’s look the whole passage, and then I want to zero in on one verse. Luke 17:1-4.
1 And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! 2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
In its entirety, this passage teaches us to avoid personal sin and to avoid leading others into sin. There are severe consequences for leading others into sin, as verse 2 shows us. But Jesus is a realist. He knows we’re going to sin against one another, and we’re going to be tempted to sin in return. So, in the first part of verse 3, Jesus tells us to pay attention to ourselves. We can’t let our sinful instincts take over. How many friendships have been further harmed because sin was added to sin?
Then, in the second part of verse 3, Jesus says something I find so helpful about maintaining friendships and dealing with broken ones. Look at it again.
“If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.”
This is remarkable. Jesus gives a template we can use. I like to think of it in a formula.
Sin + Rebuke + Repentance + Forgiveness = Restored Friendship
So, there are two parts for each party. Sin and Repentance go together. Rebuke and Forgiveness go together.
Here’s what I think this is so helpful. It’s straightforward. It’s forthright and honest. Most of us, I think, tend to dance around the issues. We often over-complicate it; instead of dealing with it head-on, we hope it will go away. But sin never just goes away. It must be dealt with. Jesus knows that. Think of our relationship with him. When we sin, we feel a distance, don’t we? And what does he call us to do? A verse we love at Immanuel 1 John 1:7: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Jesus calls us to be honest with him and one another so we’re free to grow. Part of that honesty is honesty toward one another when sin occurs, both personally and interpersonally.
We might not have many good examples of this, so here’s what it might look like between two Christian friends. We’ll call them the Repentant Friend and the Forgiving Friend.
Repentant Friend sins against Forgiving Friend, and Forgiving Friend lovingly confronts.
Forgiving Friend: “Friend, I hate to do this, but I love you, and I want our friendship to be free of bitterness, so we need to talk about something. Do you remember when you said that thing about me the other night at dinner? That hurt me. I’ve prayed about it and asked God to help me understand why it hurt, and I see now that it hurt me because I think it was wrong of you to say. Can you help me understand why you said it?”
Repentant Friend: “Oh, I hate to hear that. You know, I felt bad about it as soon as the words left my lips. I’ve been praying about it, too, and asking God to help me make it right. I shouldn’t have said that. That was a sin against you. I have no excuse. Thank you for saying something. I understand why you were hurt. I would have been, too. I’m so sorry. Will you forgive me?”
Forgiving Friend: “Yes, I forgive you. How could I not? Look how Jesus has forgiven me! Thank you for responding that way. I respect you so much.”
Repentant Friend: “And I respect you. Hey, let’s grab a bite to eat.”
Of course, it won’t always go that smoothly, but Jesus offers a template to help us here. It takes honesty, humility, and a lot of carefulness and restraint. It takes continually examining yourself before God to determine what you can do to make peace.
In fact, there’s this great passage in Romans 12:18 that I think about often that hits on this point. Sam and I were just talking about it the other day.
“If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”
One of the things I often talk to my staff about at work is the need to take ownership. We all have responsibilities, and we want to steward those well. So, we should always be thinking, “What else can I do?” We can’t control so much, but we can control ourselves with God’s help.
Paul is saying that we all have a part to play. “So far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” There is immense wisdom there. “What else can I do to make peace in this situation?” That’s a godly response to friendship conflict.
Now, Jesus has more for us in Matthew’s gospel. There is a passage for the Repentant Friend and a for the Forgiving Friend.
For the Repentant Friend, we have Matthew 5:23-24.
“If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
When we are at fault, Jesus calls us to make it right as quickly as we can. He takes that so seriously that he says we should leave our gift before the altar and go make peace. To the original audience, that would mean leaving their animal sacrifice at the temple to find their friend and make peace, then returning and making the offering. That wasn’t easy when you couldn’t text or drive. It took some effort. Today, this would mean it’s more important to reconcile with our friend than it is to go to church. So, if we are on our way to church, and we are troubled by the thought that we offended our friend, Jesus says we shouldn’t shrug that off. We should go make peace right then! “As far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”
Now, I think it’s important to note that Jesus says you should do this when you remember that your brother has something against you. In other words, you’ve actively sinned against them, and they know about it. I’ve had friends in the past who have come to me to confess a sinful thought they had about me of which I was unaware. I can’t say that was helpful. It actually complicated things. I don’t think Jesus is calling us to confess our thoughts in this passage. We can take those to God and ask for forgiveness, but here, Jesus is calling us here to make things right that we know have hurt our friends.
So, let’s imagine we’re ready to do this. What should we say to our friend?
Honestly confess the sin. Don’t sugarcoat it.
Acknowledge the wound you inflicted.
Apologize. Express regret, and don’t try to justify yourself.
Be honest about your need for repentance and desire to change.
Ask for forgiveness, but don’t demand forgiveness. Forgiveness is granted, not earned.
That takes humility, and that’s hard for us. But if it’s so important to Jesus that we postpone coming to the altar, he will be there to help us obey. Whatever God commands, he also grants.
Now, for the Forgiving Friend, we have Matthew 18:15.
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.”
I think this is actually the harder of the two commands. When we are sinned against, it’s hard to confront our friend. But Jesus says we should. Letting it stay inside only tends to increase the pain, and the Enemy can use that to grow resentment and bitterness in us. We don’t want that.
Now, we must be careful. We need to really think it through and pray about the situation. We need to discern why we were hurt. Notice that Jesus is speaking about sin against us. Did they sin, or did our feelings get hurt? Did they say something true that we don’t want to accept because of pride? We may need to accept the offense, and ask God to forgive us and help us change.
But if, after prayer and reflection, you determine that your friend did sin, Jesus says we are to go to them. We are to take responsibility to reconcile even if we are the ones sinned against. Is that surprising? Jesus doesn’t say, “Sit and wait for them to apologize.” He says, “Go.” Why? Because going and addressing it is better for our friendship than stewing on it and talking to others about it. Going and addressing it isn’t only good for us, it’s good for our friend. If we fail to rebuke the sinner, we are only enabling them to continue in sin. Confronting is not only a healing path for you, but also for the friend. Don’t you want your friend to be healed?
When you go, Jesus says to tell him his fault. The word there is reprove. Dan Doriani says this term is used in two realms: “the realm of investigation and inquiry and the realm of proof and conviction…Investigation comes first. If the investigation uncovers a problem, the facts are essential to reproof of the sin.” [2]
In other words, we don’t come with guns blazing. We come inquisitively, hopefully, honestly. Once we know the facts, then we can rebuke if necessary.
In Galatians 6:1, Paul describes what this looks like.
“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.”
We are to go in a spirit of gentleness because that’s how Jesus is with us. He’s our model. When did we ever feel beat up by him? His conviction is sweet, gentle, kind.
Now, if we take this important step, we must go ready to forgive. We have a good reason to, and an incredible power in the gospel. Here’s what Paul says in Colossians 3:12-13: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
Again, Jesus is our model. Actually, not only our model but also our power to forgive. Have we not been forgiven much? That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Forgiveness never is. It’s actually very costly. Tim Keller helps us see what it means in his book Forgiveness.
“You promise (1) not to constantly bring the sin up to the wrongdoer in order to browbeat and punish them, (2) not to constantly bring the sin up to other people in order to hurt the wrongdoer’s reputation and relationship with others, and (3) not to constantly bring the sin up to yourself—not to keep the anger hot, not to replay the video of it in order to cherish the feeling of nobility and virtue that comes from having been treated unjustly.”
I love what R.C. Sproul once said: “When I think I’m unfairly hated, I try to remember that I’m unfairly loved.” The power to do this comes from the forgiveness we have in Jesus. He doesn’t bring up our past. He doesn’t gossip. Jeremiah 31:34 and Hebrews 8:12 tell us he remembers our sins no more. We are to follow him in that.
So, that’s God’s template for restoring broken friendships.
Now, God’s gospel for when friendship breaks your heart.
Some friendships are so broken and painful that we need more than a path forward; we need a place to collapse. Some of us have been betrayed, and we can’t forgive our ex-friend in part because they aren’t repentant. Thankfully, the Bible isn’t silent on this form of broken friendship either.
One of the great things about the Bible is that when our emotions get intense, God has given us the Psalms as his approved words when we’re too emotional to find the words ourselves.
I have been meditating recently on Psalm 55. It’s a Psalm of David, and although we don’t know the specific details regarding the timing or the individuals he refers to, we know he’s in deep distress. He faces an attack and cries out to God for help. He says his heart is in anguish. He’s afraid and trembling, overwhelmed by horror.
In verses 12-14, we find out the cause of such distress.
12 For it is not an enemy who taunts me—
then I could bear it;
it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me—
then I could hide from him.
13 But it is you, a man, my equal,
my companion, my familiar friend.
14 We used to take sweet counsel together;
within God’s house we walked in the throng.
David was betrayed, and now his ex-friend was attacking him.
Eugene Peterson phrased it this way.
This isn’t the neighborhood bully
mocking me—I could take that.
This isn’t a foreign devil spitting
invective—I could tune that out.
It’s you! We grew up together!
You! My best friend!
Those long hours of leisure as we walked
arm in arm, God a third party to our conversation.
We don’t know which friend David is referring to. It doesn’t matter because the Psalms are universal. This could apply to any friend for anyone. We know it was a dear friend. Notice how he describes him, as his equal. The king’s equal! David treated him as an extension of himself, elevating him to some degree to his status and sharing his life with him. They worshiped God together, and as many of us know, that creates a bond that’s not easily broken. But this friend broke that sacred bond. He became David’s enemy, and David grieved the shock and the loss.
In verses 20 and 21, David tells us more.
20 My companion stretched out his hand against his friends;
he violated his covenant.
21 His speech was smooth as butter,
yet war was in his heart;
his words were softer than oil,
yet they were drawn swords.
Notice the emotion. Everything he thought he knew about his friend was a lie. Some of us know what that’s like. What does God offer in those hard days? David tells us in verse 22.
22 Cast your burden on the Lord,
and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
the righteous to be moved.
When a friend breaks your heart, and you don’t know where else to go, you can go to God. You are not alone in your suffering. Betrayal is so disorienting. You might feel like you’re sinking, but there is a rock underneath that you can rest on. He will sustain you.
That doesn’t, however, deal with the injustice done to us, does it? Yes, we have a place to collapse where we will be sustained, but our heart cries out for justice. Verse 23 speaks to that longing.
But you, O God, will cast them down
into the pit of destruction;
men of blood and treachery
shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in you.
These parts of the Psalms are difficult for us to understand until we’ve been done an injustice. We need a God who cares enough to do something about evil in this world. Our friend that betrayed us may never repent, and we may lose them forever. We will rightly be angry and sad. Some friends will do us wrong not because they hate us so much but because they hate God. They have not only betrayed us but also their Maker. They have not only lost our friendship but also his. And they will be judged for that unless they repent. If they won’t have Jesus, they will have his wrath. That’s a biblical doctrine.
But vengeance doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to God. Our part is to trust him. He will work all things out. We can leave it in his capable hands. And as we do, we can rest on his care for us. We might not feel like we’ll be okay again, but because of God, we will be.
Here’s how I know we will be.
One of the best ways to read the Psalms is to hear them as the songs of Jesus. When we go to the Psalms to find words for our emotions, we find not just words but the Word. We find Jesus himself, speaking on our behalf. David wasn’t the only one who faced betrayal. You aren’t the only one who faced betrayal. Jesus faced betrayal, too. He knows what it’s like from the inside.
We know the story of Judas, one of Jesus’s apostles, who betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver. But Judas wasn’t the only one to betray Jesus. Not even the only apostle. Peter was part of the inner circle—one of the three to whom Jesus revealed his life in the most profound ways. Peter was Jesus’s defender. He was completely committed to him. He jumped out of the boat to reach him. He drew his sword when the guards came to take him away. Yet, when it was all on the line—when Jesus was being prepared for the cross—Peter denied knowing him, not just once, but three times, even to a little girl. He was afraid, and to protect himself, he forsook his friend.
I don’t mean to pick on Peter. Mark 14:50 says that during his arrest in Gethsemane, “They all left him and fled.” No one was ever as friendless as Jesus in that moment. He stood alone to face his suffering. He faced his trial alone, with Peter’s denial the soundtrack of the night. He hung on the cross alone. He died alone. In his moment of greatest need, Jesus’s disciples didn’t see being his friend worth the cost. They betrayed him, denied him, and abandoned him.
We have abandoned him, betrayed him, and denied him, too. We do it every day. We may read Psalm 55 with pain in our hearts about the betrayals of our friends, and that’s a right reading. God gave it to us for that. But we should also read it with pain in our hearts that we have betrayed our Best Friend, Jesus. We deserve verse 23. We deserve to be cast down. We deserve the pit of destruction. But in him, we don’t get what we deserve because he is the friend cast down for us, who pulls us out of the pit of destruction.
The most significant broken friendship in all our lives is the one we broke with Jesus. But Jesus didn’t let it stay broken. John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus considered the cost of being our friends worth it—even to the point of death on a cross. In his death, he reconciled us to himself. He forgave our sins and transgressions and iniquities. He saved us not only from the penalty of sin but also welcomed us into his eternal friendship.
In a world of good-till-it’s-too-hard friends, where we can’t stay awake to pray for one another, can’t show up for one another when and how we’re needed, where we sin against one another and betray one another and fail one another and deny one another and abandon one another and do all sorts of half-hearted gestures trying to prove we actually care, we have a friend in Jesus who is the exact opposite of all that.
As Jared Wilson said in his book Friendship With the Friend of Sinners:
“There is no friend truer in than Jesus…no friend so real as Jesus…no friend closer than Jesus…no friend so comforting as Jesus…no friend so unbothered as Jesus…no friend more loyal than Jesus…no friend more honest than Jesus…no friend so generous as Jesus…no friend as perfectly present as Jesus…no friend so saving as Jesus.”
Whatever friendship broke you, Jesus’s can heal you.
Not only can he heal you, but he can help you.
Maybe you’ll get a chance to forgive a repentant friend who betrayed you so horrifically. Jesus loves to reconcile people for his glory. But you might not get that chance. If you don’t, is the friendship of Jesus enough for you?
Maybe you need the forgiveness of a friend you betrayed. It weighs on you so heavily. Jesus loves to reconcile people for his glory. Maybe you’ll get that chance to apologize and ask for forgiveness and be forgiven. But you might not get that chance. If you don’t, Jesus will forgive you. Is his forgiveness enough for you?
I don’t know your exact situation. I don’t have to. Jesus does. I can offer some advice, sure. But Jesus can offer all the advice. More than that, he can empower you to do whatever it is that you need to do to attempt to restore your broken friendships. Even more than that, he will be the friend you need not only for this life but for eternity.
What I’m trying to say is that the gospel speaks a better word than our broken friendships. If we will just trust in God, we will find that his gospel tells us that when we feel friendless, Jesus is our friend. When our friends betray us, the one whom we’ve betrayed comes to our side with forgiveness and grace and mercy. In all our failing, broken friendships, we can take great solace in knowing there is a perfect Friend who can help us navigate these rough waters. He’s not sleeping in the boat. He’s at his throne of grace. He’s been through it all. He knows what it’s like, and one day, he will set everything right.
In fact, I want to close with that idea.
One of the best books I read last year was The Mythmakers by John Hendrix. It’s a graphic novel about the friendship of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. In the book, Aslan and Gandalf take us through the friendship of their makers. Now, I’m not sure if you know much about their friendship, but it wasn’t always strong. Tolkien was often jealous of his friendship with Lewis and didn’t like others getting close to him. They had some different theological convictions. Later in life, after a series of disagreements and offenses, Lewis and Tolkien were estranged and never fully reconciled before death. They still hung out, but they avoided the “Deep Wounds.”
Here's what I love about Hendrix’s book. He doesn’t end it with their broken friendships. Instead, he envisions Lewis and Tolkien reconciling in the twilight of their lives during a final “Golden Session,” as Lewis used to call their meetings.
It’s a beautiful picture that conveys two truths. The first is the reality of broken friendships. We hurt one another, and sometimes even the closest friends are not reconciled in this life. The second truth is that there is always hope for Christian friends, even if all we can do right now is imagine it. As Lewis reminds us in his chapter on friendship in The Four Loves, within every Christian friendship, there is a third party that unites us. It is he who gathers, he who hosts, and I will add, he who can and one day will restore all that the deep wounds took away.
We may grieve our losses now, but heaven is coming. Just as a parent grieves a lost child or a child grieves a lost parent, a friend who grieves a lost friend in Christ will find them in heaven, where sin will no longer reign and where there is an eternity to make up for lost time. Somehow, in heaven, our fractured friendships with fellow Christians will be restored, and this will only adorn God’s gospel, and we will have eternity to make up for lost time.
I think Bob Dylan was right. Everything is broken, but not forever. Jesus is alive, and he will be your Friend in the waiting, and he will be your Friend in eternity, and he will restore your broken friendships with his other friends in heaven. Let’s put our hope in that.
[1] https://today.yougov.com/society/articles/45676-americans-ended-friendship-breakups-poll
[2] Daniel M. Doriani, Matthew & 2, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, vol. 2, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2008), 151.
The following is a seminar taught at my church, Refuge Church Franklin. You can download the full document, which includes the full seminar manuscript and all additional attachments, or you can listen to the seminar audio, which is around an hour long.
In the 5th century, as Rome was nearing the end of its grand empire, St. Augustine wrote a book called The City of God which was the world’s first attempt at telling the story of history. Augustine broke it down into two primary groups. There was the City of God, the Church, and the City of Man, the world. Rome blamed Christianity for its downfall, but Augustine told a different story to prove that Rome was itself to blame. The city of man needs no help in falling down. Through that book and in light of the revelation of Scripture, Augustine told a better story of Rome than Rome could tell of itself. He understood the culture and spoke directly to it.
This seminar is my attempt at helping us all do the same thing today. The title is “Where are we and how can we help? Sharing the gospel in our cultural moment.” The goal is to give a brief overview of the current cultural landscape and then talk about how we, as Christians, might step into that world with a compelling gospel witness.
This is a challenging topic on either end. It’s difficult to describe our current world briefly, and it feels almost impossible for many of us to find any way to be a bold witness for Christ. There are two challenges I want to explore. The first is expressive individualism. The second is post-Christendom. Expressive individualism provides the soil in which post-Christendom prospers. The good news is that the gospel has an answer to both.
Expressive individualism is an idea that sprung from the Romantic era of the late 1700s and early 1800s when thinkers launched a search for what philosopher Charles Taylor called “The age of authenticity…the authentic way of living or expressing themselves.”[1] The term “expressive individualism” is often attributed to Robert Bellah and his team of sociologists, who wrote a deeply profound and insightful book called Habits of the Heart. Over six years, from 1979-1984, Bellah and his team interviewed over 200 people to understand how and why they live the way they do—what makes them tick. Their starting point was the hypothesis that individualism is among America’s deepest values, something they noticed in the French social philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville’s analytical look in the 1830s, Democracy in America.
Bellah and his team saw the early stages of what has today blossomed into the defining issue. We live in a day and age where the prevailing belief is that we get to define ourselves. Our individualism takes us on a journey inward to discover who we are, and then we come out and express that “true” self to the world. You can hear the spirit in the slogans behind the movement. “You be you.” “Be true to yourself.” “Follow your heart.” “Find yourself.”[2]
We live in a cultural moment where, as Carl Trueman says in his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, “To put it bluntly: we are all expressive individualists now.”[3] In a lengthy article on The Heritage Foundation’s website, Trueman summarized expressive individualism this way:
The modern notion of self…lies at the heart of current cultural conflicts, including abortion, pornography, the ethics of life and death, radical racial politics, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. Expressive individualism holds that human beings are defined by their individual psychological core, and that the purpose of life is allowing that core to find social expression in relationships. Anything that challenges it is deemed oppressive.[4]
As Alexis de Tocqueville observed, the United States was founded upon the idea of individualism. It led our forefathers to throw off the weight of the monarchy. One of our most treasured documents, The Declaration of Independence, screams for the right of the individual to live as they see fit. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Early Americans believed equality would be the lasting and prevailing value, but as Tocqueville perceptively noticed, individualism was to win the day.
However, individualism is not a uniquely American way of life. It also swept through Europe, as seen in the massive social disruption, such as in the French Revolution. What began among the philosophers filtered down to the masses and changed how we lived.[5] Writing in the 1980s, Robert Bellah said something that could be written today. “We believe in the dignity, indeed the sacredness, of the individual. Anything that would violate our right to think for ourselves, judge for ourselves, make our own decisions, live our lives as we see fit, is not only morally wrong, it is sacrilegious.”[6]
This emphasis on the self has significant implications for our current apologetical approach, and it is doubly difficult because before we can see how to help others, we must first recognize the problem in ourselves. As Trueman said, we are all expressive individualists now. No one is exempt.
In his book Making Sense of God, Tim Keller discusses the “problem of the self.” The ultimate question we are all trying to answer is, “Who am I? What is my identity?” He contrasts two fundamental identity-creating structures: the traditional identity and the modern identity. In a traditional identity, your community gives you your identity. In modern identities, you define yourself. In either case, Keller says, our identity consists of at least two things. “First, it consists of a sense of self that is durable…To have an identity is to have something sustained that is true of you in every setting.\" The second aspect of the self is “a sense of worth, an assessment of your own value.” These two things— a sense of self and worth—compose our identity.[7]
Keller summarizes the ethos. “The modern message is: Don’t try to get affirmation from others. Affirm yourself because you are doing what you want to do. Be who you want to be, and it doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks. That is the heart of modern Western expressive individualism.”[8] As Charles Taylor put it, we live in a culture “in which people are encouraged to find their own way, discover their own fulfillment, ‘do their own thing.’”[9]
Australian pastor and writer Mark Sayers summarizes the thinking in his book Disappearing Church.
1. The highest good is individual freedom, happiness, self-definition, and self-expression.
2. Traditions, religions, received wisdom, regulations, and social ties that restrict individual freedom, happiness, self-definition, and self-expression must be reshaped, deconstructed, or destroyed.
3. The world will inevitably improve as the scope of individual freedom grows. Technology —in particular the internet—will motor this progression toward utopia.
4. The primary social ethic is tolerance of everyone’s self-defined quest for individual freedom and self-expression. Any deviation from this ethic of tolerance is dangerous and must not be tolerated. Therefore social justice is less about economic or class inequality, and more about issues of equality relating to individual identity, self-expression, and personal autonomy.
5. Humans are inherently good.
6. Large-scale structures and institutions are suspicious at best and evil at worst.
7. Forms of external authority are rejected and personal authenticity is lauded.[10]
Expressive individualism has spread across the entire Western world. It is so deeply ingrained in our thinking that we don’t even notice it as something to push against. Instead, we deeply resonate with it. But we need to see it for what it is. We need the lenses to identify it within ourselves and in the broader culture.
To understand what a culture values, look at its art. Taylor Swift is today’s most popular musical artist. One of her biggest hits is an anthem for our age. “Shake it Off” gets at the heart of how modern people think of themselves. When the haters hate, we shake it off because no one can tell us who we are. We will prove everyone wrong. We define ourselves. No one else has the right. Life's true success is the journey from a traditional to a modern identity.
That message has made its way even into our children’s movies. Disney does this all the time. Moana and Frozen are just two examples. Consider the song “Let It Go” from Frozen. Elsa runs away from her responsibilities after coronation day. Her traditional identity has been a burden all her life. She has a power no one can understand, and she’s tired of trying to be the good girl toeing the societal line. So, she breaks free and sings.
It’s time to see what I can do.
To test the limits and break through.
No right, no wrong, no rules for me,
I’m free!
Elsa now has a modern identity.[11] She has gone inside herself and come out with who she really is. But she isn’t truly free at all. She can’t ever be free living that way. Why? Because any identity we form on our own can’t ultimately satisfy us.
In 2017, Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City held a conference called Gospel Identities. Tim Keller gave the keynote lectures, and in the first session, entitled “Modern Identities,” he presented six problems.[12]
1. The Modern Identity is incoherent. If there is nothing and no one outside of us who can tell us who we are, we are pushed deep inside ourselves, relying on our feelings to determine our identity. But our feelings are filled with contradictions. How can we decide which is the real us? When our feelings change, we have to rethink our whole lives. And what if what we chose was good for yesterday but not today? Our wants don’t make sense and don’t harmonize. We want and don’t want things at the same time. Our feelings are not a way to create an identity. They’re incoherent.
2. The Modern Identity is fragile. In traditional identities, the family gives us our identity. We know what it means to be a part of it, to play a role. We don’t have the same freedom in that environment. We can’t do everything we want to do. But if our parents say we are great, then we are great. There is a decisive validator outside of us. But in the modern identity, we are the decisive validator. Of course, the problem is that we cannot ultimately validate ourselves. We are social beings, so we must have someone outside ourselves validate us. But if we never deputize someone to that, we will constantly look for validation from everyone and grow angry or despondent when they don’t. There is no room for disagreement because disagreement equals a lack of validation, and that’s a tragedy. With a modern identity, you can never be sure who you are. It’s fragile.
3. The Modern Identity is crushing. Traditional identity is about fitting in. Modern identity is about standing out. You decide who you are and then go out and realize it. The problem is the pressure is crushing. We might have a hard time living up to an outside evaluator, but we can’t even live up to our internal critic. If we derive who we are from deep inside us, we will crush ourselves. We will have an identity crisis.
4. The Modern Identity is fragmenting. Robert Bellah said, “Communities are eroding. Families, neighborhoods, and even the polity is falling apart. People are less willing to participate and do their part. They are less trusting of others, and indeed of any institutions and any authority of any kind.” The modern identity destroys community because it’s all individualistic. If you don’t affirm me, I get to walk away from you. Happiness is never sacrificed for the greater good. The modern identity does not allow for any compromise between your self-identified truest self and the needs of others. It’s totally fragmenting.
5. The Modern Identity is exclusive. Any identity based on achievement is competitive. No one can ever come alongside you. Lines are constantly drawn to put yourself on the exclusive side and everyone else on the outside. Greatness becomes defined by not being like someone else. You find out who you are by not being like the outsiders. So, if you are a workaholic, you bolster your ego by looking down on “lazy” people. You have to, because your identity is tied up into working hard. Politics is rife with this. A Republican is not a Democrat and vice versa.
6. The Modern Identity is an illusion. No one really lives this way. We can’t ultimately define ourselves. Everything we do comes through a cultural grid. We don’t really get who we are from inside of us. We always get it from outside. The moral grid of our culture always influences us more than we realize. For example, a man walking down the street a thousand years ago who looks in his heart and sees aggression and says, “That’s me.” And he also sees a certain sexual urge in his heart, he would never say. “That’s me.” Because a thousand years ago no one would think about their sexual urge in terms of identity. But today, that’s reversed. The modern identity is an illusion. No one truly makes themselves.
As a result of the utter failure of the modern identity to satisfy, we live in a culture of despair. Everyone is sad and without ultimate answers. In his book, Making Sense of God, Keller says that most modern people are so unhappy that it takes years to discover how unhappy they truly are.[13] In large part, our despair stems from the individualism that plagues us. We don’t know who we are. There’s no objective standard. How do we know we've arrived if we’re all making our own way? How do we have any sense of peace that who we are and what we’re doing right now is the right thing and who we truly are? We don’t.
What is the solution? We need a stronger identity that can make sense of our lives, won’t break under pressure, and connects us to others. We need affirmation that affirms us and assures us, and we can’t be the ones to define that. In other words, we need God to tell us who we are. There is no other way. The only ultimate answer to the problem of expressive individualism is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The only ultimate solution to a modern and traditional identity is a gospel identity where we are hidden with Christ in God, as secure as Jesus is. (See Appendix A.)
If Carl Trueman is right about us all being expressive individualists now, the only way to fight against that is to let the gospel speak a better word. We must let Jesus be our Lord. Only he has that right. Let’s let him have the final word. We will be much happier that way.
Not only will we be happier, but we will also be better positioned to help others. You can only really help someone if you are secure. Otherwise, your help will always be influenced by a subtext of “Do they like me?” But when you know that even if others don’t like you, Jesus does, you are free to live for Jesus alone and serve others selflessly. You no longer look to other people for validation and peace. You already have it. You can serve out of a place of rest. When we befriend unbelievers living in a world like this, we can be there with a word of hope when they inevitably struggle to find their identity. We will talk more about how we can help in a moment, but first, let’s consider another challenge facing our world today.
Tim Keller says, “Today’s culture believes the thing we need salvation from is the idea that we need salvation.”[14] We live in a culture that lacks the foundational Christian understanding of previous generations. At the same time, we live in a culture deeply and foundationally influenced and shaped by Christian values. Our modern world has what the Scottish Professor James Eglinton calls a “love-hate relationship with Christianity,”[15] simultaneously shaped by and offended by the claims of the Church. Christianity both attracts and repels modern people. Many refer to this as a “post-Christian” culture. In his book Biblical Critical Theory, Christopher Watkin explains this paradoxical environment.
We live at a peculiar moment in history when our culture’s assumptions and values retain a deeply Christian imprint but when the teachings of the Bible are largely unknown, misunderstood, or condemned. This makes for a strange and at times amusing situation in which society increasingly sets itself against Christianity but does so by using distinctively Christian arguments and assumptions.[16]
Apologist Glen Scrivener argues that the Western world has been so deeply shaped by the Christian worldview that it is simply the air we breathe, though many have no idea their values spring from Christ.[17] Values such as equality, justice, compassion, consent, freedom, and even individuality find their basis in Christianity. But without the Christian understanding combined with expressive individualism, we end up with unequal equality, unjust justice, uncompassionate compassion, nonconsensual consent, and unfree freedom. Everything separated from God eventually becomes its opposite.
Post-Christianity combined with expressive individualism makes for a very complex and paradoxical world in which you can have someone deeply devoted to the idea of sexual consent as a fundamental value but also very affirming of others’ freedom to express themselves sexually any way they want. So, on the one hand, they firmly believe certain sexual relationships are off-limits because they are fundamentally non-consensual, such as situations in which one party is influenced by the power dynamic of the relationship, compromising willing consent. On the other hand, they are firmly committed to individual expressive sexual freedom. But you can’t have both. Suppose you rightly hold to the importance of consent. In that case, you must denounce some sexual activity, but if you confirm expressive individualism, how can you deny that person’s right to express themself? There is a dissonance.
It’s worth asking where this person got their idea of consent in the first place. It came from Christianity. In the first century, a man had total power over women. But when the Christian sexual ethic flooded the world, Paul said things like 1 Corinthians 7:4, “Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” Historian Kyle Harper comments. “The social assumptions of pre-Christian sexual morality, such as the casual exploitation of the bodies of [powerless] non-persons, seem incomprehensible [to us today] precisely because the Christian revolution so completely swept away that old order.”[18] The modern person deeply believes in consent but has no idea that value was born of God.
This goes for a value like justice as well. Without the biblical social ethic, there is no modern understanding of justice. Leviticus 19:15 says: “You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” Deuteronomy 16:19 says: “You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous.” Jesus showed up and went after the powerful religious leaders, cleansing the temple they defiled with their injustice. His brother told us in James 2 not to show partiality or favoritism. Justice is a biblical idea.
But you cannot simply say to many people, “Justice is a Christian value.” They won’t believe you. The Church, of course, hasn’t helped with this. The Church has carried out many injustices throughout history. Even today, we see so many inside the church pushing against the idea of social justice, claiming it is a Marxist ideology. What was once an obvious connection between a Christian value and a publicly shared value is now severed. People can no longer connect the dots. With no shared language for God and no obviously Christian influence, many people find it difficult to understand what we are talking about when we talk about Christianity. To many, it’s just another religion they are ready to lop off, not understanding in many significant ways that it is the branch they are sitting on.
So, how can we help? Tim Keller asked this question in an article written a couple of months before his death called “Lemonade on the Porch – The Gospel in a Post-Christendom Society.” I will discuss it in detail because it is the most compelling discussion I’ve read on the topic.
Keller combined two similar ideas. First was the idea of the front porch. Many of us don’t even have front porches today, but historically, the front porch served as the meeting place between the home and the street. You could invite a neighbor up to the porch for a glass of lemonade and get to know them. It was a good halfway point. Not in the house, but not on the street either. The second idea was drawn from the Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper. In the early 1900s, Kuyper discussed the European relationship between Christianity and culture.
Kuyper argued that for centuries, the cultural institutions of European countries had a “Christianizing” effect on most people in the population. General beliefs in a heaven and hell, in a personal creator God, the authority of the Bible, the need for forgiveness of our sins, sexual fidelity within marriage—all these and more were instilled in the general populations. Genuine, born-again Christians were only a fraction of any European society at the time, but Kuyper in no way despised the nominal Christians who constituted the majority. When nominal Christians came into church to hear the gospel preached, they had been prepared for it all their lives. The message did not sound completely, utterly confusing, or radically contradictory to their moral sensibilities because they had been “on the porch” of Christianity.
European culture was, to use Kuyper’s metaphor, a “forecourt” or porch for the church. It was a half-way place between complete unbelief on the one hand (the “street”) and fervent, heart-faith on the other (the “sanctuary”). On the porch were people friendly and respectful toward Christianity.[19]
Kuyper went on to point out that the culture was changing. The church’s forecourt, or porch, was disappearing. “The large number of people in western societies who were unconverted but who nonetheless had traditional values and a respect for Christianity were melting away.”[20] Years after Kuyper wrote this about Europe, the United States seemed to be proving an exception. But as Keller saw in New York City, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Kuyper’s observations about a post-Christian Europe began to show up in America. New York is typically ahead of places like Nashville, but that gap is closing. Nashville is growing into a major city in this nation, and along with all the good that means, it also means we will experience more of the big city ethos that we see in places such as New York.
What is the impact of this shift? Keller explains.
Suddenly, especially in the minds of younger Americans, Christians were the immoral ones, the cruel ones, the enemies of democracy, freedom, and compassion. In most parts of the country, church growth and church planting became far more difficult. Christians found themselves public targets of criticism for their views, especially on sex and gender. Then the pandemic emptied the churches. And since public services began again, most churches to this day have not yet recovered their former congregations. The American forecourt was emptying; Kuyper’s prediction was coming true even in the United States.[21]
That means we live in a culture that is increasingly losing our Christian language, and, therefore, most unconverted people lack the fundamentals for hearing and responding to the traditional gospel presentation. Keller explains those fundamental beliefs:
1) there is a personal God who created us and who judges us, 2) there is some kind of objective moral standard by which we are judged, 3) no one lives up to that standard perfectly and so we need forgiveness, 4) there is an afterlife, a heaven and hell.
Those are the basic building blocks of evangelism. “If you think for a moment of these beliefs as ‘dots,’” Keller says, “then evangelism for centuries in the West has consisted of simply connecting the dots.”[22] Unfortunately, the post-Christian world can no longer connect the dots because they lack a fundamental Christian understanding. Our work just got much harder. Keller presents the problem.
Most non-believers cannot quickly hear a gospel presentation and be asked if they want to receive Christ. Rather, like the early church and the church throughout the non-western world, congregations in the West must learn to create their own porches or forecourts where people can enter a relational process and be prepared to hear and understand and perhaps embrace the gospel… The vast majority of churches continue to reflexively work as if there was still a cultural forecourt. Their ministries and messages implicitly still assume that non-believers will be brought by friends or will simply show up in church and understand what is being preached. Some may, but this will increasingly not be so. This is a lethal kind of spiritual blindness and is a contributing factor to the decline in the church that we are seeing now in the U.S.[23]
The punch line is this: Churches can no longer rely on the culture to provide the front porch. We must build our own. How do we do that? Keller offers some advice.
On porches people are regularly exposed to Christianity in at least three ways: (1) They are enabled to see it. This happens when it is modeled in the lives of individual Christians, but it may also consist of visible expressions of Christianity, whether it be a service in the community (such as caring for the poor), art (such as literature, music, or theater) or in education (such as a Christian school). (2) They must be encouraged to question it. This happens when Christians in the space listen intently, patiently, and with great respect to non-believers’ doubts and questions, and respond with humility and thoughtfulness. Of course the questioning goes both ways. On porches, the powerful and unquestioned cultural narratives—“we are only intolerant of intolerance” and “you always have to be true to yourself” are patiently interrogated. (3) Finally, they must be enabled to hear it. This happens when Christianity is presented in their own language and vocabulary (instead of Christians’ insider jargon), and as answers to the questions that are most on their hearts, fulfilling their greatest aspirations and hopes better than their own intuitions and beliefs.
Keller ended his article by teasing a second part that would include practical tips on building porches. Unfortunately, Keller didn’t live to write the second installment of the article. However, Keller’s conversation partner on this topic, James Eglinton, attempted to flesh out three practical ways to help in the follow-up article, “Lemonade on the Porch – Why and How to Build Porches: The Gospel in a Post-Christendom Society.”[24] He proposed three things: hospitality, cultural apologetics, and forgiveness (to which I will add repentance). I agree with all three, and I will discuss each one, but first, I want to add another one that is the foundation upon which the others are built.
As we have seen, the only way to avoid the despair of our modern age is to deeply accept the gospel identity Jesus can give us. That includes not only a proclamation over you but also the offer of reality with Christ within you.
To help others in any way, we must have a vibrant personal life with Jesus. He must be more than a theory for us. He must be more than a talking point, more than an argument, more than an approach to society's ills. He must be our personal Lord and Savior, deepest Friend, and nearest Companion. If we are not cultivating our relationship with Jesus, we will not be much help to our hurting and lost culture. How could we? We will draw our identity from the same wells as the world. We will suffer the same despair. We will adopt the same talking points. We will draw lines between “us” and “them.” The only way we can truly help is if we are personally walking with Jesus—if we experience reality with him moment by moment, by his grace.
We live in a world where it is common to close doors instead of opening them. We define ourselves by enemies as much as our friends. Whom we fight against tells the story of what we believe. Person X believes that, so I believe this. We see this attitude most clearly in politics, where issues are defined in black and white, Republican and Democrat, but it appears nearly everywhere today. It’s impossible to be hospitable with that attitude.
Modern identities are fragile and competitive, and so they struggle with hospitality.[25] Our mindset isn’t pure. We aren’t welcoming, especially to those unlike us. But recovering the Christian practice of hospitality can speak a powerful word to our world. Listen to author Rosaria Butterfield’s exhortation on what she calls “radically ordinary hospitality.”
Engaging in radically ordinary hospitality means we provide the time necessary to build strong relationships with people who think differently than we do as well as build strong relationships from within the family of God. It means we know that only hypocrites and cowards let their words be stronger than their relationships, making sneaky raids into culture on social media or behaving like moralizing social prigs in the neighborhood. Radically ordinary hospitality shows this skeptical, post-Christian world what authentic Christianity looks like.[26]
Pastor Michael Keller believes that the way to fight against the weakening cultural bonds and fragmentation we experience is to invest more deeply in joyful hospitality.
A church that celebrates, a church that does meals for those inside the church, but also those outside the church becomes a curious space. Christians should be the best at hosting parties and celebrating others as we have every reason in the world to have joy about the coming kingdom, including present “wins” whether they are simple birthdays that highlight the created-ness of others, or milestones of our neighbors’ achievements.[27]
Hospitality is one thing we can all do to build porches. All it takes is willingness to open the door.
According to The Gospel Coalition’s Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics, “We’re living amid the largest religious transformation in American history. Forty million Americans have left the church in the last 25 years. Many other Western countries have already seen similar declines. But that’s not the only challenge. After the fall of Christendom, believers in Western countries now face a strange mixture of apathy and antagonism toward the gospel. Many of our neighbors view Christianity as yesterday’s news but also as the source of today’s problems.”
Hospitality is good. It can show unbelievers what Christianity looks like. But despite what you may have heard, we cannot preach the gospel at all times through deeds and only use words if necessary.[28] We must use words. But which words? Eglinton, again, is helpful. “Cultural apologetics deals with explaining the history, workings, and shortcomings of secular modernity to the people who depend on it most but think about it least: secular Westerners.”[29] Collin Hansen defines cultural apologetics as apologetics that “helps unbelievers want the gospel to be true even before they may fully understand this good news. We offer the beauty of the lordship of Christ as opposed to the ugliness of the lordship of the principalities and powers (Eph. 6:12).”[30] Ted Turnau says, “The job of apologetics is to build a bridge between hope and the non-Christian.”[31]
Cultural apologetics proposes engagement with unbelievers using their own language and values (their culture) to show them how Christianity is the true truth, the spring from which it all flows, and to show them how it fulfills human longings. Both the Bible and church history are filled with this type of cultural engagement. Jesus used illustrations from every day life that made sense to his hearers. Peter at Pentecost and Paul on Mars Hill speak to their specific audiences in their cultural languages. Justin Martyr’s First Apology and St. Augustine’s City of God spoke to the Roman empire in their specific cultural moments. Cultural apologetics understands that every culture expresses itself in ways that lead to an opening to Jesus and his gospel. Our job is to help unbelievers connect the dots.
Dan Strange calls this “subversive fulfillment.”[32] Keller explains it this way.
When the gospel is rightly preached, it not only confronts but attracts. It not only appeals and compels, it offends. It says, “the plot-lines of your life will only come to a happy ending in Jesus Christ.” Subversive fulfillment is both affirming and contradicting. It challenges people, but on their own terms. And it means offering them, on gospel terms, what all human hearts rightly need—a meaning that suffering can’t take away, a satisfaction not based on circumstances, a freedom that doesn’t destroy love and community, an identity that doesn’t elude you, crush you, or lead you to exclude others, a basis for justice that doesn’t turn you into a new oppressor, a relief from shame and guilt without resorting to relativism, and a hope that can enable you to face anything with poise, even death.
This means, first, that on the church porch we are seeking to win the respect of non-believers and to affirm some of their beliefs. We are not merely saying, “We are right and you are wrong.” Rather, we affirm some of their beliefs and reason in this way, “If you believe (rightly) this – then why do you inconsistently believe that?” And then we attract them by showing how the things they seek can only be found in Christ.[33]
Eglinton points out that hospitality needs to be accompanied by cultural apologetics, and forgiveness holds the two together.
The existential power of forgiveness holds together the porches of hospitality and cultural apologetics. If we have no capacity to forgive, hospitality is impossible. Forgiveness is hospitality’s constant assumption—and when hospitality has to give an apologetic for its own existence, sooner or later, it will have to talk about forgiveness. But forgiveness also has to provide its own apologetic: why forgive, rather than be indifferent to wrongs, or bear grudges, or mete out your own revenge?[34]
In a cancel-culture world, we have lost the ability to forgive. We have lost, in many instances, even the possibility of forgiveness. We not only withhold it, but we heap condemnation on top of condemnation. The transgressor is not simply wrong; they are evil. There are no mistakes, only evil hearts proving themselves.
The Bible has something to say about that, doesn’t it? No one is good, not even one (Rom. 3:10-12). Yet the God of the Bible does not leave us in that hell. He brings heaven down in his Son to offer forgiveness freely and fully. That vertical reality affects our horizontal relationships. Christians must show that to the world. Other things may bring people onto the porch, but the doctrine and practice of forgiveness will get them in the house.
The precursor to forgiveness is repentance, and that starts with us too. We will sin, and when we do, we must repent and ask for forgiveness. Instead of doubling down, we need to humble ourselves. In his book Losing Our Religion, Russell Moore says, “As the prophet Ezekiel was told to dramatically enact carrying “exile’s baggage” as a way of showing Israel their coming judgment (Ezek. 12:1-16), maybe what the church is most called to do in this moment is not, first, to preach repentance but to embody what repentance looks like so that a culture seeking forgiveness will know what the words even mean.”[35]
We live in a complex world. There are no easy answers. Hopefully, through this seminar, you have a better understanding of where we are and how you can help. The goal is not to find the silver bullet answer. The goal is to be formed by Christ to live for him in this world. The goal is to let him work through us, and that begins by humbling ourselves, acknowledging our weaknesses, and trusting him for the grace to help.
We will end with James Eglinton’s exhortation.
The goal of the forecourt is to offer something that secular Westerners need as human beings (made in the image of God), and to an extent still partially intuit (in the confused heritage of post-Christendom), but that they cannot get to on their own.[36]
We have news to share. We have a Savior to invite them to know. We have salvation to offer.
There is much to do, and it may feel, at times, impossible. But with God, all things are possible, especially with the God that will step out of heaven to find us. The Church is his house, and he has welcomed us in. Now, in response, will we go out to the porch and invite others in?
[1] Charles Taylor, A Secular Age, page 473.
[2] See Trevin Wax, “Expressive Individualism: What Is It?”, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/expressive-individualism-what-is-it/
[3] Carl R. Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution, page 25.
[4] Carl Trueman, “How Expressive Individualism Threatens Civil Society,” https://www.heritage.org/civil-society/report/how-expressive-individualism-threatens-civil-society
[5] See chapter 6 of Habits of the Heart by Robert Bellah.
[6] Robert Bellah, Habits of the Heart, page 142.
[7] Tim Keller, Making Sense of God, page 118.
[8] Tim Keller, Making Sense of God, page 119.
[9] Charles Taylor, A Secular Age, page 299.
[10] Mark Sayers, Disappearing Church, page 16.
[11] See Tim Keller’s talk on Modern Identities, https://gospelinlife.com/downloads/gospel-identity-conference/.
[12] Tim Keller, “Modern Identities,” https://gospelinlife.com/downloads/gospel-identity-conference/. The keynote sessions can be listened to for free.
[13] Tim Keller, Making Sense of God, page 80.
[14] Tim Keller, How to Reach the West Again, page 7.
[15] See Eglinton’s talk “The Church and Society,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5SGaIt0-GE
[16] Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory, page 15.
[17] Glen Scrivener, The Air We Breathe, page 12.
[18] Kyle Harper, “The First Sexual Revolution”, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2018/01/the-first-sexual-revolution
[19] Tim Keller, “Lemonade on the Porch (Part 1): The Gospel in a Post-Christendom Society,” https://quarterly.gospelinlife.com/gospel-in-a-post-christendom-society/
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Ibid.
[24] James Eglinton, “Lemonade on the Porch – Why and How to Build Porches: The Gospel in a Post-Christendom Society,” https://quarterly.gospelinlife.com/lemonade-on-the-porch-part-2/
[25] Ibid.
[26] Rosaria Butterfield, The Gospel Comes with A House Key, page 13.
[27] Michael Keller, “Lemonade on the Porch: Redeemer Pastors Suggestions,” https://rpc-download.s3.amazonaws.com/Lemonade_on_the_Porch_Redeemer_Pastors_Suggestions.pdf
[28] A quote often (wrongly) attributed to St. Francis of Assisi.
[29] Ibid.
[30] Collin Hansen, “What is Cultural Apologetics?” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-cultural-apologetics/
[31] Ted Turnau, Popologetics.
[32] See Daniel Strange, “For Their Rock Is Not as Our Rock: The Gospel as the ‘Subversive Fulfillment’ of the Religious Other.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 56/2 (2013) 379–95. https://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/56/56-2/JETS_56-2_379-395_Strange.pdf
[33] Tim Keller, “Lemonade on the Porch (Part 1): The Gospel in a Post-Christendom Society,” https://quarterly.gospelinlife.com/gospel-in-a-post-christendom-society/
[34] James Eglinton, “Lemonade on the Porch – Why and How to Build Porches: The Gospel in a Post-Christendom Society,” https://quarterly.gospelinlife.com/lemonade-on-the-porch-part-2/
[35] Russell Moore, Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America, page 201.
[36] Ibid.
The following is a seminar taught at my church, Refuge Church Franklin. You can download the full document, which includes the full seminar manuscript and all additional attachments, or you can listen to the seminar audio, which is around an hour long.
The Intercession of Christ Full Document
Throughout history, Christian theologians have spoken of “the threefold offices of Christ.” Jesus is Prophet, Priest, and King. God established these three offices in Israel to bring God’s word, mediate God’s forgiveness, and rule over God’s people. Various men held these offices at various times and in various ways, but Jesus fulfilled each office finally and completely. He is the perfect prophet who brings the final word from God (Heb. 1:1). He is the perfect priest who makes the final sacrifice for sins (Heb. 10:1-18). He is the perfect king who rules justly over the world (Eph. 1:20-21).
That could be a whole seminar in itself. Perhaps one day we will do that, but today we are zooming in on one of those offices of Christ, his priesthood, and specifically, on one aspect of that office, his intercession.
Why this topic? I believe this is a tragically underemphasized doctrine, and without it, our spiritual lives are diminished. Let me explain by way of experience.
You’ve been a Christian and have been for some time. Maybe a year. Maybe decades. You know at the deepest level of your being that Christ has saved you obedient life and substitutionary death and has granted you new life in his resurrection. You know the doctrine of justification and believe it. But you still have besetting sins that you can’t seem to beat. Guilt plagues you. Assurance wanes. You want so desperately to be as free as you know you should be in your relationship with God, but you feel shame weighing you down and keeping you from him. You pray, but your prayers feel listless. You seek God, but you feel as if you can’t open the door to his presence. When you consider your spiritual life, anxiety is more prominent than joy. You are discouraged and disappointed, and though you know God is for you, sometimes it’s hard to really feel it.
How do you get out of that rut? How do you remain encouraged through all life’s valleys? How do you experience the freedom and joy that you know is available? The intercession of Christ answers those questions and relieves those worries. You are not a burden to him. You are a joy to him (Heb. 12:1). When you can’t pray for yourself, your Savior prays for you. When you feel as if the door is shut, Christ is there to keep it open. His heart beats with love, mercy, and grace for you, and it never wanes even for a second. When you feel dead inside, the living Christ is in heaven, intervening for you.
Understanding Christ’s intercessory work assures you that your ongoing sin is mediated and forgiven. It proclaims that your relationship with God is still open and safe despite your ongoing sins and failures. It reminds you that all the benefits Christ purchased on the cross are still yours by grace. It comforts you that Christ continues his priestly work by bringing you into God’s presence. Deep reality with God is possible through Christ’s intercession.
In our day, there has been a good and right emphasis on the justifying work of Christ on the cross. I am thankful for that. But the gospel does not end with death; it extends to new life in the resurrection, to the ascension of Jesus into heaven, to his current intercession on our behalf, and all the way to his glorious return, where he will renew and restore this broken world. If we stop only at the cross, we will have truncated the gospel to our great detriment.
Hear what the Puritan pastor John Bunyan said about this very thing.
“Since Christ is an intercessor, I infer that believers should not rest at the cross for comfort. Justification they should look for there; but being justified by his blood, they should ascend up after him to the throne. At the cross you will see him in his sorrows and humiliations, in his tears and blood; but follow him to where he is now, and then you shall see him in his robes, in his priestly robes, and with his golden girdle about his breast. Then you shall see him wearing the breastplate of judgment, and with all your names written upon his heart. Then you shall perceive, that the whole family in heaven and earth is named by him, and how he prevails with God, the Father of mercies, for you. Stand still a while, and listen, yea, enter with boldness into the holiest, and see your Jesus, as he now appears in the presence of God for you; what work he makes against the devil, and sin, and death, and hell, for you. Ah, it is brave, following Jesus Christ to the holiest! The veil is rent, you may see with open face, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord.”[1]
Let’s heed Bunyan’s exhortation, and let’s follow Christ into the holiest to behold the glory of the Lord.
To that end, I aim to do the following in this seminar.
1. Define Christ’s intercession.
2. Explain the benefits of Christ’s intercession.
3. Apply the doctrine of Christ’s intercession so that we may rejoice in the truth.
Let’s being with a definition. To intercede means to intervene on someone’s behalf. It means to entreat, to argue, to plead, and to stand in the gap between two people with a view of reconciliation. Intercession is prayer but of a specific kind. There is much that is mysterious about Jesus’s intercession, but the Bible and great theologians of church history offer some clarity. Referring to Christ’s intercession, the Puritan John Owen defined it as “his continual appearance for us in the presence of God, by virtue of his office as the ‘high priest over the house of God,’ representing the efficacy of his oblation [offering], accompanied with tender care, love, and desires for the welfare, supply, deliverance, and salvation of the church.”[2]
In other words, by virtue of his all-sufficient atoning sacrifice, Jesus stands at the Father's right hand in heaven, working and praying for us to accomplish our full salvation.
That begs a question. Is our salvation not already secured upon the cross of Christ? Why do we need hi intercession? It is true that Jesus’s death on the cross accomplished our full salvation and justification. All in Christ have been finally and fully set right with God because Jesus paid the penalty for all his people’s sins, satisfying God's wrath for those sins in his death. Our legal standing with God is settled. We are righteous in Christ. The work is finished (John 19:30). Thus, the author of Hebrews says, “When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb. 10:12). Sitting down represents the completion of the work. All in Christ are “perfected for all time” (Heb. 10:14), meaning no further sacrifice is necessary. We can rest assured that, by grace, God will preserve us forever.
But the finished work of Christ on the cross does not mean Jesus no longer works on our behalf. Yes, the work of justification is finished, but the work of sanctification is ongoing, and the work of glorification is still out ahead. Though assured, they are still “in progress,” as it were, and Jesus’s intercession is God’s means by which they come to completion.
We can think of it this way. The cross is the point of our justification, and his intercession is the ongoing application of that justification. Jesus’s intercession is one of God’s means of preserving us. As the Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck said, “In his intercession his sacrifice continues to be operative and effective.”[3] Reformer John Calvin said, “He appears before God for the purpose of exercising towards us the power and efficacy of his sacrifice. . .. Christ's intercession is the continual application of his death to our salvation.\"[4]
Christ’s intercession applies the benefits of justification moment by moment, assuring us that our ongoing sins are also forgiven by the cross and inviting us to draw near to God to enjoy continual fellowship with him.
What does this heavenly intercession look like? John Owen summarized it in three parts. First, there is the presentation of his person before the throne of God on our behalf (Heb. 9:24). Second, there is the representation of his death, offering, and sacrifice for us as “a lamb standing as though it had been slain” (Rev. 5:6). Third, there is the intercession in prayer “interceding for us with groanings too deep for words” (Rom 8:26).[5]
Through this presentation, representation, and intercession, the blood of Jesus effectually and continually cleanses his people from all their sins and secures their place in the kingdom of God. Rather than hoping we are okay in the end, the intercession of Christ assures us that we will be because Christ is working to complete our salvation (Phil. 1:6).
Inside the heavenly courtroom, “the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as our forerunner,” as the book of Hebrews calls it (Heb. 6:19-20), Jesus stands in God’s presence praying for us. Gavin Ortlund helpfully summarizes the content of these prayers.
Christ prays for the salvation of the elect (Psalm 2:8), their furtherance in grace (John 17:11, 17, I John 2:1), their protection from all evil (John 17:15) and especially the accusations of Satan and devils (Zechariah 3:1-5), the restoration of broken communion between them and God (Micah 6:7, Isaiah 54:7-8), their deliverance from temptation (Hebrews 2:18), their daily cleansing and washing from the polluting effects of sin (I John 2:1, Hebrews 10:22), the sanctification and cleansing of their service and worship (Ephesians 2:18, Hebrews 4:14-16), the giving of the Spirit to them (John 14:16), their unity (John 17:20-22), and their final perseverance unto glory (Luke 22:32, John 17:24, Romans 5:10, Hebrews 7:25).[6]
We can find the doctrine throughout the biblical storyline. It is prefigured in the Old Testament in the offerings of sacrifices and incense in the Holy Place inside the temple (Exod. 30:1-10) and on the Day of Atonement detailed in Leviticus 16. Zechariah 3:1-5 tells of the vision of the high priest standing between the Lord who defends and Satan who accuses. We find shadows in Micah 7:9, “I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication.” And we hear the prophecy in Isaiah 53:12, “Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”
In the New Testament, we see the doctrine portrayed during Christ’s earthly ministry in his high priestly prayer in John 17. It is found in Christ’s defense of Peter through prayer in Luke 22:32, where Jesus says Satan demanded to have him but that Jesus had prayed for him that his faith may not fail. We even see it as Jesus hangs on the cross. He intercedes for those crucifying him, \"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do\" (Luke 23:34). We hear it boldly stated in Romans 8:34. “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” The Apostle John speaks of our advocate in 1 John 2:1-2. “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
In the book of Hebrews, we find the most extensive exposition of the priesthood of Christ, which paves the foundation for his intercession. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 6:19-20 says, “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”[7] And in the clearest of all verses, Hebrews 7:25 says, “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
Not only does Hebrews show us the priesthood of Christ more clearly than any other book, but it is also the only place we find explicit reference to Jesus as a “high priest.” The role was reserved in the Old Testament for men appointed by God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins on behalf of men in relation to God (Heb 5:2). As Commentator Peter O’Brien says, “The title is applied to him ten times: he is a high priest in the order of Melchizedek (5:6, 10; 6:20), who accomplished atonement (2:17; 7:26; 8:1), and the ‘high priest of the good things that are now already here’ (9:11). Jesus is the ‘great priest over the house of God’ whom believers ‘have’ (10:21), the one whom ‘we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest’ (3:1), and who has ascended into heaven (4:14-15).”[8]
The priesthood of Christ is wonderfully true for all of God’s people, but—this is important to note—it is only for God’s people. He does not intercede for everyone in the world. He intercedes only for the elect. The old Scottish Presbyterian minister William Symington said, “As it is unreasonable to suppose Christ to make atonement for any for whom he does not intercede, so it were preposterous to allege that he intercedes for any but those for whose sins he has atoned, or that the matter of his intercession includes anything not purchased with his blood.”[9] He intercedes not only for those who currently believe but for the full number of the elect, including those who do not yet believe but one day will. As Jesus prayed in his High Priestly Prayer, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word” (John 17:20).
The intercession of risen Christ means the elect of God have the highest priestly office serving them in an endless ministry in heaven. Theologian Robert Letham summarizes the doctrine well. “Christ, having ascended to the right hand of the Father, blesses his church by his presence in heaven and by the Holy Spirit who he has sent. In this he sends us help when we need it, conveys the blessings of the covenant, and enables us to experience and enjoy union and communion with him.”[10]
The bottom line is this. Jesus is not sitting idly in heaven, twiddling his thumbs between the resurrection and his return. He is working for his people as their Great High Priest upon his throne of grace (Heb. 4:16), advocating on their behalf and applying his atonement to their lives, moment by moment. His intercession proves how personal his love is and how tender and warm his heart is for his people. Jesus is not aloof from the reality of life. He is not unconcerned or uninvolved. He is in heaven right now, interceding on behalf of his people, and his glorious intercession grants several benefits. Let’s consider those now.
For this point, we will go deeper into one verse, Hebrews 7:25. Aside from being one of my favorite verses in my favorite book in all the Bible, this single verse more fully explains the character of Jesus’s current priestly ministry than any other.
The book of Hebrews is 13 chapters long, but the heart of the book is found in chapters 7-10. The heart of the heart of the book is found in Hebrews 7:25. It’s the main point the author wants to make. “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
Let’s consider the verse, phrase by phrase, starting with the very first word, “Consequently.” In the preceding verses, the author argues for the validity of Jesus’s priesthood. His priesthood is a better one because it is an endless one. Jesus meets all priestly qualifications and has perfectly fulfilled all the requirements. Therefore, he can perfectly fulfill the office. (For more on this, see Appendix B- Jesus’s Qualifications as Our High Priest.) The logic is this: “because Jesus is the perfect high priest, he can do the following.”
The first thing he can do is save to the uttermost. Our default assumption is that Christ is able to save some, but not all, and sometimes, but not always. Charles Spurgeon gets up in our faces at this point in his comments on 1 Timothy 1:15, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Spurgeon said, “Between that word ‘save’ and the next word ‘sinners,’ there is no adjective. It does not say, ‘penitent sinners,’ ‘awakened sinners,’ ‘sensible sinners,’ ‘grieving sinners,’ or ‘alarmed sinners.’ No, it only says, ‘sinners.’”[11]
We must never put an adjective where God does not. We all have really good arguments as to why Christ cannot save us, but who are we to argue with God? He is able to save to the uttermost.
The verb translated “to be able” is related to the powerful activity of Christ. The author of Hebrews uses the same word when referring to Jesus’s ability to help (Heb. 2:18) and his ability to sympathize with our weaknesses (Heb. 4:15). Commentator Peter O’Brien puts it bluntly, “Nowhere in Hebrews does the verb denote a mere possibility.”[12] As William Lane says, this truth is a certainty at each critical moment in our lives.[13] In other words, there is never a time when our need meets his capacity. His capacity always exceeds our needs. Super-exceeds, in fact. There is no deficiency in Jesus. He is able to do everything he desires to do. If he desires to save, nothing in this world can stop him. He can even overcome our unbelief (Eph. 2:8-9).
His salvation isn’t reserved only for “back then” when we were good enough to deserve it. That day never existed, and it never will. We are never deserving of his salvation, and that’s perfect, because he only saves the undeserving. If you have trusted Christ before but find yourself now barely hanging on to faith, he can save you still. He will save you still if he ever saved you then. He doesn’t save sometimes, but all the time, not to the least, but to the uttermost.
“To the uttermost” is only one word in the original Greek, indicating completeness. Another translation is “at all times.” It’s an expansive word. The more our need, the more Christ’s ability to save. There is not a time, a season, nor a second of our life that Jesus is not able to save us. As we have seen, his power is limitless.
In his book Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund explains, “We are to-the-uttermost sinners. We need a to-the-uttermost Savior.”[14] He continues, “‘To the uttermost’ in Hebrews 7:25 means: God’s forgiving, redeeming, restoring touch reaches down into the darkest crevices of our souls, those places where we are most ashamed, most defeated. More than this: those crevices of sin are themselves the places where Christ loves us the most. His heart willingly goes there. His heart is most strongly drawn there. He knows us to the uttermost, and he saves us to the uttermost, because his heart is drawn out to us to the uttermost. We cannot sin our way out of his tender care.”[15]
This means that what Corrie Ten Boom wrote is true. “There is no pit so deep, that God's love is not deeper still.” Christ’s perfect priesthood and effectual intercession assures us he is able to save to the uttermost. We never need to fear falling through the cracks. He’s in heaven holding us tight.
The second thing he can do is bring us near to God. This call first comes to us in Hebrews in 4:16 where the author calls us to draw near to the throne of grace with confidence. Commentator William Lane points out that Greek indicates coming to God with a “bold frankness.” [16] Because of Christ’s intercession, we can bring our real selves and our real needs to God. We have what the Old Testament saints did not. Under the New Covenant, we have immediate access to God and the freedom to draw near to his throne continually because we have a perfect and eternal high priest who made a perfect and eternal sacrifice who forever stands in the presence of God and holds the door open for us to come inside. We don’t need to work ourselves up to come to him. We don’t need to feel a certain amount of guilt first. We don’t need to bring an offering or a sacrifice. All the work is done. Our only part is to come through the door of Christ.
Without Christ’s intercession, drawing near to God would be a frightful thing. “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). But because Christ was consumed on the cross for our sin, that holy fire burns for our benefit. His light shines in the darkness, welcoming us inside.
From time to time, we may still wonder if we can come. Haven’t we compromised our access by our behavior? But the truth is that because we are in Christ, we are already in, obedient or not, because Christ’s obedience is our entry. Our drawing near is a present reality that Jesus is simply asking us to recognize. In the Old Testament, the high priest would carry the names of Israel into the presence of God upon his breastplate, identifying himself with the people (Ex. 28:10-12). Jesus does this now. Everyone whose name is written in the lamb’s book of life (Rev. 13:8) enters upon his breastplate into the Holy of Holies, in the throne room of heaven. We can draw near to God only through Christ, our high priest. There is no other way. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
We have unrestricted an unhindered access to God. He will always welcome us. Tim Keller once said, “The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.”[17] Because of Christ’s intercession, we can come whenever we need God. Christ’s intercession grants us this access, assuring us we will never find a locked door or empty room.
The key phrase is right here—he lives to make intercession. Everything depends on the resurrection. If Jesus died on the cross but did not rise, our faith is futile, and we are still in our sins (1 Cor. 15:17). But Christ did rise! And in his resurrection, he is bringing many to glory (Heb. 2:10). All that we’ve seen before this phrase is predicated on the fact that Jesus lives. Because he lives, all that we’ve seen so far is real and available to all his people.
The Scottish pastor Robert Murray M’Cheyne once said, “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.” But even more than prayer, William Symington points out that the grammar of the phrase “includes every form of acting on behalf of another…it denotes mediating in every possible way in which the interests of another can be promoted.”[18] Our sin—past, present, and future—is covered because there is a high priest in heaven praying for us, and he will never leave. There’s never a moment when we want to come to God that he will not be there to receive us because of Christ. He lives for this. Think about that. Christ lives to intercede for you!
Whatever you face, how can you not endure with him on your side? Whatever you feel, how can you not look up to his throne of grace and find the help you need to press on?
Now having seen some benefits of this doctrine, let’s consider a few applications.
Whenever we approach a biblical doctrine, there is the temptation to leave it in the realm of the intellectual. But it is good to consider how the doctrine applies to our lives. How does what we now know of Christ’s intercession make our hearts burn within us (Luke 24:32)?
Here I will make three primary applications.
Though we are justified in Christ for all time when we first trust his saving work, we do not stop sinning until the age to come when we are with him in glory. Though we know the truth of God’s love, we still have low thoughts of God, disbelieving, mistrusting, and doubting him. Though we know we are saved by Christ’s works, not our own, we still fall into the old ruts of our self-salvation projects, denying the power of his life, death, and resurrection. Our fleshly desires may wane, but they do not disappear, and we continue to use God’s good gifts for improper ends. Who will save us from this body of death (Rom. 7:24)? Jesus, by the power of his intercession.
John Bunyan wrote a whole book about Hebrews 7:25 called Christ a Complete Savior. In that book, he said,
“Many there be that begin with grace, and end with works, and think that this is the only way…But to be saved and brought to glory, to be carried through this dangerous world, from my first moving after Christ, until I set my foot within the gates of paradise, this is the work of my mediator, of my high priest and intercessor. It is he that fetches us again when we are run away; it is he that lifts us up when the devil and sin have thrown us down; it is he that quickens us when we grow cold; it is he that comforts us when we despair; it is he that obtains fresh pardon when we have contracted sin; and he that purges our consciences when they are loaded with guilt…We are saved by Christ; brought to glory by Christ; and all our works are no otherways made acceptable to God, but by the person and personal excellences and works of Christ.”
Christ’s intercession is there to save us from the sin that remains. God did not expect us to become perfect and never again struggle after our conversion. He factored our ongoing fight against sin into the equation and provided the intercession of Christ to preserve and encourage us. That shows how great the love of Christ is for us sinners. Why would he intercede if he didn’t care? Why would we be continually on his mind if he did not love us? As a parent loves a child and thinks about them all the time, so Christ considers us and always thinks of our good. He prays on our behalf. He takes our prayers and rewords them on the way up (Rom. 8:26). He holds the door to heaven open for us. He is more committed to our salvation than we are, and he will never leave us nor forsake us. He cares for us and sends affirmations of that care to us by his Spirit.
The Puritan Thomas Goodwin spoke of 1 Corinthians 2:16, where Paul says we have the “mind of Christ.” You know those moments when you sense a word from the Lord, a verse of Scripture, or a reminder of the love of Christ, those seemingly invasive thoughts that remind you of God’s love? Those are Spirit-sent thoughts from Jesus himself. They are sent down from heaven to tell us what he is thinking of us and for us in that very moment. Those are holy moments with our interceding Christ.
And in those moments when we find ourselves weak and wounded because of sin, when we long for a holy moment but fear we have blown it big-time, we must remember his intercession. We must remember his heart for sinners and sufferers, how gentle and careful he is with us. Hear Goodwin describe it.
“Your very sins move him to pity more than to anger…For he suffers with us under our infirmities, and by infirmities are meant sins, as well as other miseries…Christ takes part with you, and is so far from being provoked against you, as all his anger is turned upon your sin to ruin it; yes, his pity is increased the more towards you, even as the heart of a father is to a child that has some loathsome disease, or as one is to a member of his body that has leprosy, he hates not the member, for it is his flesh, but the disease and that provokes him to pity the part affected more. What shall not make for us, when our sins, that are both against Christ and us, shall be turned as motives to him to pity us the more?
The greater the misery is, the more is the pity when the party is beloved. Now of all miseries, sin is the greatest; and while you look at it as such, Christ will look upon it as such also. And he, loving your persons, and hating only the sin, his hatred shall all fall, and that only upon the sin, to free you of it by its ruin and destruction, but his affections shall be the more drawn out to you; and this as much when you lie under sin as under any other affliction. Therefore fear not.”[19]
In other words, our sins do not turn Jesus away from us but rather move him closer to us. As a parent moves closer to a hurting child, so Christ moves closer to his hurting people. Maybe that’s hard to believe, but hasn’t Jesus always proven to be the “friend of sinners” (Matt. 11:19; Luke 7:34)? After all, Jesus knows what it is like down here. “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things” (Heb 2:14). We always fear our sins will eventually ruin our relationship with him, but his intercession is the very proof that they can’t.
Intercession is what Christ does for us always, for our general needs. Advocacy is a particular form of intercession he takes up for specific needs.
Luke 22:31-32 shows on way this advocacy works. Jesus told Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” He was talking about the events leading up to Jesus’s crucifixion. Peter would deny Christ three times, and perhaps Satan wanted that sin to destroy Peter. But Jesus interceded and then told Peter about it to preserve his faith through the trial.
Consider how amazing this is. Before Peter knew about the trial, Jesus covered it in prayer. Before Peter felt the heat from the fire, Jesus prepared the extinguisher. Before Peter fell into sin, Jesus secured his salvation. Peter’s Advocate stood for him even though Peter wouldn’t later return the favor in Jesus’s hour of need.
1 John 2:1 says that if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. It doesn’t say we will have an advocate, but that we have an advocate. We don’t need to dial him up like we would our lawyer. He’s there when we need him, even before we know we need him, defending us against the Accuser, applying his blood to our sins, giving us his righteousness. He’s a skillful advocate who knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows our needs before we do. He is a holy advocate. He is a tender advocate. He is a sympathetic advocate. In every sense of the word, he is a perfect advocate.
In his Systematic Theology, theologian Louis Berkhof said, “It is a consoling thought that Christ is praying for us, even when we are negligent in our prayer life; that He is presenting to the Father those spiritual needs which were not present to our minds and which we often neglect to include in our prayers; and that He prays for our protection against the dangers of which we are not even conscious, and against the enemies which threaten us, though we do not notice it. He is praying that our faith may not cease, and that we may come out victoriously in the end.”[20]
Jesus is the advocate we need. By grace, we are “hidden in him” (Col. 3:3). He is more than our representative, he is our very life. If our life is hidden with Christ, and Christ lives forever, how can we not also live forever with him? Who can defeat his advocacy? Who can overcome the argument of his atonement? No one. Not you. Not Satan. Not even God himself, for it is his very grace that brought it about.
The doctrine of intercession shows us how deeply God is committed to us. He’s on our side. Always.
The classical definition of grace is “unmerited favor.” With Christ our Savior serving as our Intercessor, the grace of God is multiplied to us many times over. We have the saving grace of Christ and the preserving grace of Christ. We have the justifying grace of Christ and the sanctifying grace of Christ. We have the grace of newness of life and the grace of ongoing cleansing. Whatever we may face in this life, with Christ as our intercessor, we can always count on grace.
Hebrews 4:14-16 says we have a great high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. He calls us to draw near to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Here’s what that means. It means that if Jesus is really a savior—if he’s not just a mentor, or a self-help guru, or an example, or merely a judge—he will get down in the mess with you, and save you in time of need because he perfectly understands you. He will be there in the grossness, the desperation, the deepest temptation, and the hottest part of the battle. He is not just a counselor for the after-party when the high has worn off. He’s the hero running into the war with you. His throne is not the bench to approach to pay your fine after the infraction. His throne is a wartime walkie-talkie that you can call when the battle gets hot. He’s there for the dark moments, the moments you don’t even like to think about. He’s there with grace and mercy. He is not aloof to your real life and your real sins. He intercedes for the real you, not the Instagram you.
Jesus was tempted as we are but remains perfect and sinless, so he knows the real cost of holiness. And his perfection is not a platform from which he condemns but from which he saves. As Romans 8:34 says, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” When you are caught in the act, he won’t condemn you because he was condemned for you, and his intercession assures that you will remain safe in the arms of his salvation.
Your most desperate need when you are most desperate is not to get your act together so you can come to him; it is to simply come to him and receive from his deep wells of grace upon grace. Only then will you even have a chance at getting your act together.
The applications of this doctrine are endless. For more, see Appendix A, but we must stop now. So, we will end with this. With Jesus Christ, you are never without an intercessor that can overcome all your enemies, comfort all your wounds, advocate for all your needs, and sustain even the greatest of doubts and the weakest moments of faith. You are covered in his grace from this day until the very last. You may feel weak and unworthy, but take heart, Jesus lives for you!
[1] John Bunyan, The Intercession of Christ, pages 27-28.
[2] John Owen, Exposition of Hebrews, vol. 5, page 541.
[3] Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 3, page 478.
[4] John Calvin, Commentary on 1 John, page 243.
[5] John Owen,, Exposition of Hebrews, vol. 5, page 541.
[6] Gavin Ortlund, https://gavinortlund.com/2010/04/26/christs-intercession-exposition/
[7] I owe much of these references to Gavin Ortlund, https://gavinortlund.com/2010/04/26/christs-intercession-exposition/
[8] Peter T. O’Brien, God has Spoken in His Son: A Biblical Theology of Hebrews, page 66.
[9] William Symington, The Atonements & Intercession of Jesus Christ, page 269.
[10] Robert Letham, “The Intercessory Work of Christ,” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/intercessory-work-christ/.
[11] C. H. Spurgeon, “None but Jesus,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 7, page 108.
[12] Peter T. O’Brien, The Letter to the Hebrews, page 274.
[13] William Lane, Hebrews: A Call to Commitment, page 111.
[14] Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly, page 82.
[15] Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly, page 83.
[16] William Lane, Hebrews: A Call to Commitment, page 77.
[17] Tim Keller, https://twitter.com/timkellernyc/status/569890726349307904?lang=en
[18] William Symington, The Atonement & Intercession of Jesus Christ, page 262.
[19] Thomas Goodwin, The Heart of Christ, pages 155-156.
[20] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, page 403.
The following is a seminar taught at my church, Refuge Church Franklin. You can download the full document, which includes the full seminar manuscript and all additional attachments, or you can listen to the seminar audio, which is around 45 minutes long.
1After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
Genesis 15
“After these things.” In Genesis 14, Abram faced two battles. One was external, fighting the enemy to rescue his nephew Lot. The other was internal, fighting the enemy to bless God. Abram won both battles, a testament to his faith in God and proof that God was fighting for him.
In Genesis 15, after rejecting the earthly goods from the King of Sodom and accepting the blessing from Melchizedek, Abram received his reward. That is not to say this event came immediately afterward. The formula “after these things” typically indicates a hard break between two events in the book of Genesis. Even still, Abram’s past plays an important role in his future, as it does for us all.
So now, in chapter 15, God comes to him to confirm the promise. This time, with a covenant. Here we have the first recorded conversation between Abram and God. Previously, we’ve seen only God’s words to Abram as Abram obeyed. Now, we enter a dialog—one of several in Abram’s life (17:18, 18:23-33; 22:11). Throughout, we see God answers the questions of Abram by assuring him with his covenant promise.
Abram sees the word of the Lord in a vision. Abram here has become not merely a follower but also a seer. Later, he is referred to as a prophet (20:7). This “seeing” the word was significant and rare. It indicates God doing something spectacular, out of the ordinary, confirming the truth of his word in a radical way. The only other person to “see” the word of God was Balaam in Numbers 24. There, Balaam saw that it pleased to Lord to bless Israel. Abram sees the same thing here. Abram’s “prophet-hood” is a major deal to the original readers of this book, those wondering if God is really for them. That what God showed Abram has come to pass is no small matter. Abram would be seen not only as Israel’s father but also their first great prophet.
But for now, the focus is on the promise, not the prophet. God says, “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” Here, many questions arise. Why is Abram afraid? What is the reward? The answers to these questions come from what Abram says next. He gad grown fearful the promises of God would not come to pass. In all these days of following him, God has yet to give him a son. He’s wondered when Sarai would come to him with the good news. But nothing so far.
In other words, Abram grew afraid, as we all do while waiting on God’s promises. But Abram didn’t silently accept God’s word; he engaged God’s word. He asked questions. We see the need for faith to speak back to God, to take our doubts and our fears to the one who can handle them.
“O Lord God” is, literally, “Sovereign Lord,” a rare title of God used when pleading with him. In Abram’s pleading, he did not compromise his role as God’s servant. He didn’t ask for exceptions, for more power in the relationship. If anything, he added dependence to dependence. Verse 6 assures us that his pleading was the kind of pleading faith we see Jesus command in his teaching, such as in the parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:7). Abram’s complaint is the complaint of faith—laying hold of God’s promises and pleading with him to bring them to pass. Only the faithful can pray such prayers. Abram had no doubt God would grant his request. He just didn’t know how God would grant it. His fear wasn’t that God wouldn’t provide but that God wouldn’t provide soon, and the waiting is so hard.
Furthermore, perhaps he misunderstood it all along. Maybe it wouldn’t be his own son. Maybe it would be a member of his household. Perhaps Eliezer would be the heir. If Abram remained childless, who else could it be? But, no, that’s not the plan of God, God assures him. The word of the Lord came, “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” Then, as if putting his arm around his shoulder, God led him outside to look at the night sky. “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them. So shall your offspring be.”
God said this before, only about sand on the seashore. His promise has not changed. As Abram looks to the heavens with questions, God answers with the stars. “Yes, Abram, you will have a son. I am with you, and I will not let you down.”
Though Abram doesn’t yet hold the promised child, he holds the promise. He believed the Lord, and God counted it as righteousness. Abram went to bed that night full of trust in God. That’s the life of faith—living in between the promise and the fulfillment.
Abram couldn’t see how it would happen, but he trusted God that it would happen. That’s faith. As Bruce Waltke says, “Faith is living in imagination in God’s word when the situation by sight seems impossible.” He looked at his aged body, at Sarai’s aged body, and then again at the promise of God and placed his hope not in what he could see but what he couldn’t see. He found that no matter what the circumstances, the word of the Living God is greater than any situation may say. If God made the stars of the sky in the past, hanging them and naming them all, then he could give Abram a child in the future. Abram believed that, and it was counted to him as righteousness (15:6).
It is difficult to overstate how important Genesis 15:6 is in the landscape of the Bible. Paul quotes it in Romans 4:3, 22 and Galatians 3:6. James quotes it in James 2:23. The most urgent question in the world is this: how are we justified before God? The answer is here in Abram’s story.
We tend to think of belief as a loose hope that something will come to pass. But Abram’s (and the Christian’s) belief is no such loose thing. It is a solid thing. Abram trusted. He considered God true and reliable. He knew God would get the job done, not only because of his ability to do so, but aslo because of his desire to bring about the promise he made. Abram’s faith was a faith in the character of God, not simply the workings of God.
And that trust was credited to Abram as faith. Therefore, Abram was justified before God. As Paul says in Romans 4:18-22, “In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was ‘counted to him as righteousness.’”
To be reckoned righteous means to be counted as one committed to a covenant relationship with the Holy God. As we will see in the next few verses, a covenant is indeed on the mind of God. This confirmation of Abram’s justification, then, becomes the backdrop for the rest of the story. So it is with every believer—our justification by faith is the backdrop from which the rest of the story makes sense. God’s covenant with us shines brighter than any stars Abram saw that night. It is the sun standing in the middle of the sky, illuminating everything else. And we see, as Abram saw, that it was not what we brought to the relationship but what God gave to the relationship that made it work. Justification by faith, though it is our real faith, is God’s work in our heart. He takes weak people like you and me and Abram, with no ability to save ourselves and saves us by himself, for himself. Our justification means the promises of God are based solely on grace, not merit. Therefore, even in our doubts we cannot fall outside the promise of God. He does not go looking for another. He does the miracle work of faith in our heart, granting what we do not have to give us what we could never imagine. And he does that on the front-end of the relationship, on the crust of our sins and failures, so that as we go deeper with him, we see this justifying grace cover every shred of guilt and shame we carry.
If God does that at the beginning, how could we not trust him with the future? What is the promise of a child to one who justifies a former moon worshiper by showing him the stars?
John Sailhamer points out that the opening phrase, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess” is nearly identical to the opening statement of the Sinai covenant in Exodus 20:2. These words are a refrain God speaks to his people throughout his relationship with them. These are words to Abram as much as they are to his promised seed. And, as there in Exodus, it is important to note the covenant opens with grace. “I am the Lord who brought you out.” God’s grace comes first in his relationship with his people. The covenants of God are made not to perfect people who have something to give but to imperfect people who have only need. God makes covenants with former slaves whom he miraculously rescues. He frontloads the relationship with total newness in him, complete forgiveness through Christ, and utter comfort by his Spirit. The covenant making God proves himself worthy of worship.
In Abram’s life we see the covenant isn’t a baseless promise. There are attachments. He will give Abram the land to possess. Naturally, Abram wants to know how this might happen. After all, he’s a sojourner. He’s wealthy and his herds and people are large in number, but he’s no conqueror. How can God give him this inhabited land? Who will drive away the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites?
Abram complains to God, but those complaints are not acts of unfaith. A faith that questions is a faith that, in God’s hands, grows strong. As Bruce Waltke says, “Complaint and faith are not antithetical; complaint is based on taking God seriously.” Abram doesn’t understand. How could he?
So God shows him the future, making him a prophet for the seed to come. But before that, he makes a covenant to establish the promise. During ancient covenant-making ceremonies, two parties would take animals, cut them in half, and each party would walk through the separated pieces of flesh. Each was essentially saying, “If I break my promise, I’ll become like these animals.” It was an agreement to uphold their end of the deal or die.
But Abram then falls asleep. Or, rather, a deep sleep falls on Abram. He was, as it were, caught up in a vision. Abram becomes a prophet like the many Israel would have in the days to come. God appears to him with a word about the future. At the time when both parties would traditionally walk through the separated flesh together, God walks alone through the flames. It is as if God is saying, “If I break my covenant, I alone will be torn like these animals. You Abram, are not held responsible for this promise. This is mine to bring about. You are the benefactor, not the guarantor.”
Do you see the grace in this? God is not asking Abram to hold up some end of the deal. He’s not expecting Abram not to fail. He’s not waiting for Abram to complete some stipulated set of duties. God makes the promise alone, seals the covenant alone, and becomes the guarantor alone. As the author of Hebrews says, “When God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.” (Hebrews 6:17-18) God and his promise: two unchangeable things. Abram received both.
And God’s promise to Abram was a promise beyond Abram. It was a promise to his offspring, to his seed. In the vision, Abram becomes a prophet, speaking of the future of his people. God will send them to a land that is not theirs to be servants for four hundred years. He will bring them out and give them the land he promised to Abram. All of this will happen. It is not vague promise, and the readers of this narrative at the time of its writing would look around them and see what God said to Abram had been done as it was foretold.
Abram lived inside the story God is creating for his people out in the future. In a sense, we all do. The promises of God in the Bible are not mere hopes of a better future; they are guarantees sealed by the Spirit of what is to come. No one can alter the plans of God. And he aims to prove it, even if he must do so over and over again to our wondering hearts.
The boundaries are set before the people of the land are driven away. How can this be? Because God is sovereign over them all. No one goes where he forbids, and no one leaves where he commands. The people around Abram are as under the control of God as Abram himself, though they do not know it and do not recognize it. Truly, God has the whole world in his hands.
Centuries later, Joshua would lead God’s people through the conquest of the land. But it was not to be a second beforehand. Why? Because God is patient, and he’s asking us to be so as well. Though our story may include slavery, if we look to God it will also include salvation. Maybe people are dwelling in the land that will be ours. Maybe it’s because God is giving them a window to repent. We all need that. God’s kingdom is at hand. As Jesus said, repent and believe.
And centuries from now, all the promises of God will be consummated in the coming Christ. He will bring heaven to earth, and all the tears we wept wondering if God would keep his word will be wiped away by the nail-pierced hand of Jesus. We will see him as he is, and we will be like him. All the questions of our heart will be satisfied in a moment. We will be like Abram: safe in the covenant-making God’s hands.
1 In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, 2 these kings made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). 3 And all these joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea). 4 Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled. 5 In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, 6 and the Horites in their hill country of Seir as far as El-paran on the border of the wilderness. 7 Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh) and defeated all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who were dwelling in Hazazon-tamar.
8 Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out, and they joined battle in the Valley of Siddim 9 with Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar, four kings against five. 10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled to the hill country. 11 So the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way. 12 They also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who was dwelling in Sodom, and his possessions, and went their way.
13 Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner. These were allies of Abram. 14 When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsman Lot with his possessions, and the women and the people.
17 After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) 19 And he blessed him and said,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
20 and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. 21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.” 22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ 24 I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me. Let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share.”
Genesis 14 holds the first war in the Bible. It’s a large one, international in scope, four against five. The four made up the coalition from the east. For twelve years, five kings from the west paid tribute to the eastern kings. But they decided those days were over. It was rebellion time.
The rebellion only makes the pages of the Bible because of Lot’s presence in Sodom. He moved from the outskirts of the city to the center sometime between chapters 13 and 14. When the rebellion came, Lot was taken captive. Then, Abram had a choice to make. He could intervene, or let Lot go. He chooses to intervene, a choice that proves his valor and leads him to a blessing.
Lot chose in Genesis 13 to take the valley near the city of Sodom. He saw the promise it held and moved away from God’s promised land to live among sinners. It is no surprise, then, that a chapter later we find Lot in deep trouble. In the midst of a war, he and his family are taken captive. Kent Hughes captures the tragedy Lot faced.
Lot and everything he possessed was carted off to who knows where. Turkey? Lot had seen agonizing deaths and rapes, the traditional wake of ancient victory. Perhaps he had lost children and loved ones. Perhaps a daughter was now the prize of some Hittite. As he trudged across the Transjordan toward Canaan’s borders, all his hopes were dead.
As Lot’s hopes died, Abram sat far away, uninvolved. Then a captured man escaped and ran Abram’s way, involving him.
Abram faced a choice. He could think, “Well, you know, Lot got himself into this mess by moving over there. He should have stayed out of the city. I love him, but I’m God’s chosen man to bring blessing to the world. I can’t risk my neck in this war. Besides, I’m a shepherd, a wanderer, not a soldier.”
But Abram didn’t think that. Verse 14 says, “When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.” The Hebrew language captures what our English translations can’t. Abram “drew them out.” More than merely leading forth the trained men, he drew them out as you would a sword from its sheath. These men weren’t merely drafted; they were motivated. Abram wasn’t a reluctant leader. He was the William Wallace character, putting the heart in his men, preparing them for battle. Abram, the wanderer, became Abram, the general.
Abram risked his life for his nephew Lot. He knew the choices Lot made, and he pursued him anyway. His pursuit was successful, bringing them all back. Lot was restored thanks to Abram’s valor.
What about this story makes it “Bible-worthy”? It’s a long-forgotten war. Abram was successful. Lot didn’t die. But it shows us more than mere facts about war. It points beyond itself. Abram’s actions point to another, greater, braver One. Abram rescued Lot the way Jesus rescues us. As the knowledge of our plight rises to heaven, Jesus does not sit still. He springs into action to save and redeem. It was a risk. It was painful. Jesus not only could have died; he did die. As far as Abram went, Jesus went further still. This story is here because it shows us the heart of Christ. When we get into trouble, we have someone better than a brave uncle. We have the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, the Mighty One on our side.
On his return to the land, he met two kings on the way: the king of Sodom and the king of Salem, Melchizedek. The contrast between these two kings could not be greater. The king of Sodom ruled over a sinful people. Melchizedek was not only a king but also a priest of God Most High.
The narrative points to Melchizedek making the first move. He blessed Abram and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” As God’s priest, he did not hesitate to bless God’s chosen servant. He recognized Abram for who he truly was. He brought out bread and wine—royal fare—showing goodwill and generosity. No doubt he had heard his name in his own land. And when meeting him here, he worshiped God with him. In response, Abram gave him a tenth of everything, tithing to God via his priest.
Then came the king of Sodom. “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.” Here we see that as difficult as the battle may have been to rescue Lot, the real battle is here in the Valley of Shaveh with these two kings. Derek Kidner explains:
For Abram the harder battle begins, for there is a profound contrast between the two kings who come to meet him. Melchizedek, king and priest, his name and title expressive of the realm of right and good (see Heb. 7:2), offers him, in token, a simple sufficiency from God, pronounces an unspecified blessing (dwelling on the Giver, not the gift), and accepts costly tribute. All this is meaningful only to faith. The king of Sodom, on the other hand, makes a handsome and businesslike offer; its sole disadvantage is perceptible, again, only to faith. To these rival benefactors Abram signifies his Yes and his No, refusing to compromise his call.
Such a climax shows what was truly at stake in this chapter of international events. The struggle of kings, the far-ranging armies and the spoil of a city are the small-change of the story; the crux is the faith or failure of one man.
At this distance we can see that this is no artificial judgment. More hinged on this than on the most resounding victory or the fate of any kingdom.
Here stands Abram between two kings, between two worlds. The king of Sodom represents the world and all its unfaith. The king of Salem represents the kingdom of God and all its faith. The king of Sodom doesn’t understand the things of God. What he witnesses between Melchizedek and Abram is totally lost on him. His offer of worldly goods seems far greater in worth than the blessing of a priest.
What does Melchizedek understand that the King of Sodom doesn’t? Just this: Abram’s victory wasn’t his; it was God’s. As Melchizedek blesses Abram, his praise flows not only horizontally but also vertically.
Abram, for his part, gave instead of took. True faith has that effect. When given the two choices of giving God the glory or take the spoils of war, the man of faith glorifies God. “I have lifted my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’” Abram knew where his riches truly came from.
Though his time in the Bible is brief, Melchizedek is more than his short time seems to say. He’s mentioned in only three places throughout the Scriptures: here in Genesis 14, Psalm 110, and the book of Hebrews. But his inclusion in the book of Hebrews proves his value.
Melchizedek’s titles held an unusual combination: king and priest. The law, which was given to Moses on Mt. Sinai years after this event, established the priesthood and the kingship as two distinct, mutually exclusive offices of leadership in Israel. For the two offices to be combined, the author of Hebrews says, indicates a superior priesthood.
The author of Hebrews mentions Melchizedek in chapter 5, then picks him up again in chapter 7. In teaching his readers about the priesthood of Christ, he looks all the way back to Genesis 14 to find one who is like him. Hebrews 7:3 says of Melchizedek, “He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.” Melchizedek is an outlier on the landscape of God’s priesthood. But he resembles the Son of God. This is the key connection that the author of Hebrews intends to draw out. Jesus, by his lineage in relation to Israel, coming from the kingly tribe of Judah, not the priestly tribe of Levi, cannot be a priest according to the law. So, he must be a priest of a different order. To make sense of this, the author went back to the Old Testament and what he found was a man named Melchizedek, mentioned only twice in the Scriptures who existed before Christ so that we could understand Christ when he came.
Hebrews 7:4-10 continues the discussion, highlighting the superiority of Melchizedek in two ways. First, he is superior to Abraham. “See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils!” (v. 4) Abraham is the patriarch of the entire Jewish race. Therefore, for Abraham to be submissive to someone indicates that everyone flowing from Abraham is also in subordination to him. Second, he is superior to the Levitical priests. “One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.” (Heb. 7:9-10) We see again how Abraham is representative of the entire Jewish race, including the priesthood. Melchizedek is superior to Levi, and therefore, to the Levitical priests. It’s not to that Melchizedek himself is superior; it’s the office that he holds. The Levitical priesthood had its problems. The Melchizedekian priesthood resolved those problems, namely of eternity and continuity. His was a priesthood of a higher order.
This matters to the author of Hebrews because he’s highlighting the change in priesthood Jesus brought. He did what the Levitical priests could not do. There were limitations to the Levitical priesthood. Perfection was not attainable (Heb. 7:11). Therefore, the law was inadequate to do what God ultimately wanted (Heb. 7:12). Legal requirements and bodily descent cannot lead to everlasting life (Heb. 7:16). It was weak and useless (v. 18). It was insufficient to bring us as near to God as God desired (Heb. 7:19). There was no oath from God regarding this priesthood (Heb. 7:20). The priests were many in number and prevented by death from continuing in office (Heb. 7:23).
The Old Testament was pregnant with a better hope for God’s people. The Levitical system was not a system leading to perfection. It was a placeholder for the coming Son who would bring a more effective priesthood – one that his people need for all time. And, surprisingly, Abram met one like him way back in the beginning.
Melchizedek wasn’t Jesus. But the priest Abram met all those years ago was a type of the one to come—the priest he and we need, the eternal mediator between God and us. When we look to him by faith, we find in him the mercy and grace sufficient for our unfaith. We find in him the salvation we need. Jesus, the priest of a higher order, is ours. And he was Abram’s, too.
That day in the Valley, Abram found what all in Christ find to be true: our perfect priest is better than everything else. “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
1 So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.
2 Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord. 5 And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, 6 so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, 7 and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.
8 Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.” 10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. 12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.
14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 18 So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.
Genesis 12 showed us the beginning of God’s work in Abram’s life. He called him out of darkness to go to a land that he would show him later. He promised to bless him and to make him a blessing to the world. Abram believed God and went. By faith, he followed God’s call.
The next event we see is that of faithful Abram making decisions of unfaith in Egypt. He lies to save himself, forgetting that God is in control of everything. His lies save him, and even gain him wealth, but put his wife in danger. Worried about the promises of God coming to pass, Abram exchanges God’s word for his own and follows his heart into dangerous territory. He went down to Egypt a sojourner with a bright future. He came back humbled and exposed.
What would come of Abram now? Genesis 13 tells us God has more than one new beginning for his people. We see that God’s promises are not dependent upon our ability to make them come to pass; they are dependent on God alone. After Egypt, Abram saw that in a new way, and that new way led him to repentance and faith once again. That’s the path of the Christian life: faith, repentance, faith. The cycle of repentance and faith is what each of us can expect from now until the day we stand before the Lord in glory.
So in Genesis 13, we find faithful Abram returning to the land God gave him, humbling himself to give up what could be his, and finding the expansive promise of God to be the only stable thing he needs in life.
1 So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.
2 Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord.
After the failure in Egypt, Abram returned a shell of who he was. Exposed and saddened, he saw himself in a new light. But God didn’t. God knew who he was when he called him. He knows who we all are when he calls us. We don’t surprise him, even if we surprise ourselves. We are all, like Abram, a mixture of self-righteous sinner and faithful follower. God knows that. Our righteousness didn’t get us in, and our failures don’t throw us out. It is God who is faithful through and through.
In his return to the Promised Land, Abram retraced his previous path as he considered the faithfulness of God. He went into the Negeb and on to Bethel. It was a pilgrimage back to his first love. It was a walk of repentance, recapturing the wonder of his previous walk with God. He came finally to the altar he built all those days before. He called on the name of the Lord, exalting him again in the land of pagans, proclaiming the goodness of the God who brought him out of Egypt.
What can we learn about this return? Simply this: God is faithful to his promises. Abram messed up in Egypt, but his mess-ups couldn’t retract the promise of God. As we saw at the end of Genesis 12, God miraculously delivered Abram and Sarai out of Egypt. As Abram sat despondently, God was working. So it is in our life as well.
As John Piper said, “God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.” That was Abram’s experience. He was aware of the promise. He was aware of his current situation. He was aware of his failure. But God was doing more than what he could see. He always is.
Piper elaborates:
Not only may you see a tiny fraction of what God is doing in your life; the part you do see may make no sense to you.
You may find yourself in prison, and God may be advancing the gospel among the guards, and making the free brothers bold. (Philippians 1:12–14)
You may find yourself with a painful thorn, and God may be making the power of Christ more beautiful in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:7–9)
You may find yourself with a dead brother that Jesus could have healed, and God may be preparing to show his glory. (John 11:1–44)
You may find yourself sold into slavery, accused falsely of sexual abuse, and forgotten in a prison cell, and God may be preparing you to rule a nation. (Genesis 37–50)
You may wonder why a loved one is left in unbelief so long, and find that God is preparing a picture of his patience and a powerful missionary. (Galatians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:12–16)
You may live in all purity and humility and truth only to end rejected and killed, and God may be making a parable of his Son and an extension of his merciful sufferings in yours. (Isaiah 53:3; Mark 8:31; Colossians 1:24)
You may walk through famine, be driven from your homeland, lose husband and sons, and be left desolate with one foreign daughter-in-law, and God may be making you an ancestor of a King. (Ruth 1–4)
You may find the best counselor you’ve ever known giving foolish advice, and God may be preparing the destruction of your enemy. (2 Samuel 17:14)
You may be a sexually pure single person and yet accused of immorality, and God may be preparing you as a virgin blessing in ways no one can dream. (Luke 1:35)
You may not be able to sleep and look in a random book, and God may be preparing to shame your arrogant enemy and rescue a condemned people. (Esther 6:1–13)
You may be shamed and hurt, and God may be confirming your standing as his child and purifying you for the highest inheritance. (Hebrews 12:5–11)
Seeing the depth and breadth of God’s care for his people in the Bible leads us to worship him for the unseen things now in our life. Abram began to see that what he couldn’t see of God was bigger than what he could see. The promise was stronger than he imagined. The God he followed wasn’t making the plan up as he went. The road was paved, and though Abram thought the pavement would end out ahead, God proved otherwise.
This massive love of God leads us to worship, like Abram. He worshiped in verse 4 at the altar at Bethel and built a new altar in verse 18 at Hebron. The worship of God bookends Genesis 13. Abram is teaching us that it should be so in our lives as well. Yes, we may not know what God is doing in our life, but God is always worthy of worship. Whatever may look stronger in the world, God’s promise and character is stronger still.
5 And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, 6 so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, 7 and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.
8 Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.” 10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. 12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.
We see one result of the great wealth Abram accumulated in Egypt. There wasn’t room enough for him and Lot to coexist. Today, if you’re wealthy, your money is tied up in invisible things like stocks and other investments. A bank holds your money. But in Abram’s day, wealth was carried around from place to place, taking the form of animals and people.
The solution to the problem was to split up, Abram going one way and Lot the other. Here is another test for Abram. He has the right to claim the land he wants. He can take what God has promised him. Lot was just along for the ride. God didn’t speak to him, making him the blessing to the nations. That was Abram’s role. But it’s what Abram did about the problem that shows his repentance was real and his faith was strong.
Beginning in verse 8, Abram says to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.”
Abram gave Lot the pick of the land. Verse 10 tells us “Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar.” From their vantage point, Lot saw the fertile land before him, and he wanted it. So he journeyed East, just as Adam and Eve did when God cast them from the Garden of Eden. He settled near Sodom, where the author of Genesis hints at what is to come: “This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.” It was fertile but tempting and full of sin.
Do you blame Lot for taking that portion of the land? It was near the cities. It was fertile. It was well watered. It was perfect for raising a flock. It held prospects of gaining even more wealth because there would be an abundance of people and traders. He chose the obvious place.
There is more to Lot’s choice than the obvious, however. Lot wasn’t just going to the place that looked the best. Something spiritual was going on. He was going to the place that touched a spiritual nerve, a sense of longing, a homesickness. Lot wanted good land, yes, but deeper than that, he wanted the Garden of Eden. He wanted paradise. We all do. The question this passage forces us to ask is this: where is paradise in this post-fall world?
When Lot goes east, he’s doing what we all do naturally. He’s searching for the thing that will make his life matter. Abram, however, gave that up. Abram saw the same land. He could have taken it. Instead, he gave Lot first choice. He must have known what Lot would choose. In giving Lot first dibs, Abram was taking the land of Canaan. Why did he do that? Because Abram knew the land of Canaan was the Promised Land, even if it looked less than promising. Lot was trying to get back into the Garden. Abram knew he was already there. Derek Kidner says, “Lot, choosing the things that are seen, found them corrupt and insecure; choosing selfishly, he was to grow ever more isolated and unloved. Abram, on the other hand, found liberation.”
We live in a world filled with the tension of choosing what is seen for what is not. What will we choose? The contrast between Abram and Lot instructs us on the nature of trusting God. Lot chose by sight; Abram by faith. Lot moved to the edges, Abram to the center. Lot found corruption and temptation; Abram found assurance and peace. Lot was spiritually compromised; Abram was spiritually alive. Lot moved in with sinners; Abram moved in with God. Lot built no altars; Abram built them all. Lot chose by sight alone, and that is always a mistake.
14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 18 So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.
After Lot separates from Abram, we hear the voice of God again. John Calvin doesn’t allow us to race over that fact. Calvin comments. “There is no doubt that the wound inflicted by that separation was very severe, since he was obliged to send away one who was not less dear to him than his own life. When it is said, therefore, that the Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, the circumstances should be noted. It is as if Moses said that the medicine of God’s word was now brought to alleviate Abram’s pain. And thus he teaches us that the best remedy for sadness is in the word of God.”
God’s word was well-placed, assuring Abram as he watched Lot fade into the distance. As Lot lifted his eyes to the valley, God told Abram, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward.” God has Abram look all around. What does he see? Does he see paradise?
God continued, “for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.” The land Abram had wasn’t the choicest land. But it was God’s land—the land of promise. It was God’s gift to Abram, and he wanted him to explore it, to get to know it, to call it his own. “Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”
So Abram walked, and he built an altar to worship God again. All of Abram’s life was worship. That’s the result of believing God’s promise. Worship flows from trusting God. And when worship becomes your attitude, any land you’re in is the land of God. It’s a sanctuary, even if it’s a little dustier than the well-watered valleys.
In Genesis 13, Lot goes to the Garden while Abram stays in the wilderness. It sounds familiar to the early part of the gospels, where Jesus is driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. At one point, “the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” (Luke 4:5-7).
Jesus faced what Abram faced: a shortcut to the kingdom of God. Jesus wouldn’t take it, and neither did Abram. Instead, they believed the word of God and placed all their hope on that sufficient promise. “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” Like Jesus, Abram’s response was worship. There was an altar in Hebron to bear witness.
Unlike Abram, though, Jesus didn’t need to learn the lesson of failure before he tasted the sweetness of faith. His faith kept him from failure. And Abram, though he never saw Christ, saw the redemption he would bring that day on the mountain overlooking the valley. He knew that the promise of God was strong enough to sustain him in the chosen land. He knew God’s grace and mercy forgave his sins in Egypt. He knew what paradise looked like and he found it in the word of God, in the presence of God, in the worship of God. He knew—somehow—the promise of God sprang from the wilderness.
It is the same for us all. But what Abram saw by faith, we see now in history. Jesus came. Jesus lived and died and rose again. And like the thief on the cross, if we trust in him, when we die we go to be with him in paradise. Jesus brought the promise to pass for us all. Abram shows us how to trust in it today.
10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.
Lest we get the wrong impression about Abram from his initial obedience, Genesis 12:10-20 shows us that he was all too human, even in his redeemed state. It is so with us all. None is hero but Jesus. We are all, as Martin Luther said, simul justus et peccator, simultaneously just and sinner.
Abram’s obedience to God’s call was to be commended and imitated, but the next event we see in his life is to be condemned and avoided. Seeking relief from the famine, he goes down to Egypt. That in itself was not a problem. Though Egypt was a place to avoid in Israel’s future, it is not thus so yet. The problem with Abram’s journey to Egypt is not the going; it’s the leaving behind. He went to Egypt without seeking God’s input. He didn’t deny God. He just forgot him. How often we do the same!
In Genesis 12:10-20, we see what often happens in the life of faith: faith is often followed by famine, famine can lead us far from God, but God brings us back in his mercy and grace.
Abram was faithful to God. He followed his call, leaving his home, his family, his father’s house, and going to the land God would show him later.
Verse 10 opens the passage simply enough. “Now there was a famine in the land.” We would think Abram’s obedience would be rewarded with favor in the land. He would arrive at fertile fields, much food and water, easy passage and comfortable dwelling. But that was not so. In the life of faith, it rarely is. Faith is not about what we deserve. Faith is about trusting God. We cannot call faith that which we do only for a meager earthly reward. We call faith that which trusts God in the famine for an eternal reward to come.
Abram had true faith. That is not in question. But Abram was also a human. He sinned, even as he was justified before God. That’s who we are. We will never become perfect in this life. As long as we live, sin will cling to us, causing us to fall, though it no longer has ultimate power over us. But we can fight it, and at times, the fight is made all the harder by our circumstances, like famine in the midst of your mission.
Psalm 62:8 says “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.” What Abram is learning—and what the entire Bible is teaching us today—is that trusting God is the foundational structure from which all of life must be lived. If we don’t learn to trust God, we will fail to know anything else about life.
Faith is trust. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” In other words, trust. Faith is no leap in the dark. It is not a baseless hope in “something good.” Faith is standing tall and straight on the character of God. Faith is looking at God and seeing in him the promise that all will come to pass. When we look to God by faith, we look at one who never tires of us because he made us and saved us, never runs out of supply for us because our need energizes him, and never turns away from us because Jesus made us righteous in him at the cross.
So what’s going on with Abram here? First of all, nothing abnormal. Abram isn’t a model for how to handle the anomalies of life. He’s the model for how to handle the regularities in life. God’s regular way of working is to give his people famines in the midst of their faith. The Bible says our faith is tested. The tests may not come immediately after a great act of obedience, but they will surely come. That’s why James wrote, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4). Peter said, “do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12). Proverbs 17:3 says, “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts.” Testing will come. The Christian is to “remain steadfast under trial” (James 1:12).
We can question this method of God’s. We can wonder why he tests us. But we cannot go around the fact that Jesus, God himself, was tested in his earthly life. After Jesus’ baptism, “the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.” (Mark 1:12-13). Jesus experienced his own famine in the midst of his mission. The author of Hebrews tells us Jesus was “made perfect through suffering” (Hebrews 5:7-10).
So though we can wonder why God works this way, we cannot get around the fact that he does. Jesus experienced it. We will too. Faith is often followed by famine. It’s what we do in the famine that determines the path forward.
The famine is more than an event in Abram’s life. The famine in the land caused a famine in his own heart. Abram experienced the deep love of God. He had the protection of God, the leading of God, the nearness of God. He knew who he was deep down and saw that God loved him anyway. He was a real Christian with a life-giving faith. He believed the gospel. I hope you do too. But it is possible for us to stop believing all of that at any moment. It’s possible to convert trust in the Lord to trust in yourself. We may still look like Christians, doing the right things, but we are far from the heart of Christ. As Abram searched for food, he strayed from God.
How did Abram’s straying happen? Francis Schaeffer helps us understand with an illustration of two chairs.
According to the biblical view, there are two parts to reality: the natural world-that which we see, normally; and the supernatural part…I would suggest that this may be illustrated by two chairs. The men who sit in these chairs look at the universe in two different ways. We are all sitting in one or other of these chairs at every single moment of our lives. The first man sits in his chair and faces the total reality of the universe, the seen part and the normally unseen part, and sees truth against this background. The Christian is a man who has said, ‘I sit in this chair.’ The unbeliever, however, is the man who sits in the other chair. He sees only the natural part of the universe, and interprets truth against that background. Let us see that these two positions cannot both be true. One is true, one is false. If indeed there is only the natural portion of the universe, with a uniformity of natural causes in a closed system, then to sit in the other chair is to delude oneself. If, however, there are the two halves of reality, then to sit in the naturalist’s chair is to be extremely naïve and to misunderstand the universe completely…
However, to be a true Bible-believing Christian, we must understand that it is not enough simply to acknowledge that the universe has these two halves. The Christian life means living in the two halves of reality: the supernatural and the natural parts…
Being a biblical Christian means living in the supernatural now, not only theoretically but in practice. If a man sits in the one chair, and denies the existence of the supernatural portion of the world, we say he is an unbeliever. What shall we call ourselves when we sit in the other chair but live as though the supernatural were not there? Should not such an attitude be given the name ‘unfaith?’ ‘Unfaith’ is the Christian not living in the light of the supernatural now. It is then Christianity that has become simply a ‘good philosophy.’
In Genesis 12:1-9, Abram sits in the chair of faith. I would argue that even in Genesis 12:10, he still resides in the chair of faith. There was nothing wrong with going down to Egypt because of the famine. He had to feed his family. But along the way, somewhere between the leaving of the land and the entering into Egypt, Abram jumped to the chair of unfaith. Why do I say that? Because in verse 11, we see a shift. The first time we hear Abram speak, it’s a word of unfaith. “Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.”
Famine can lead us far from God. We care so much about our circumstances. Rightly so. Where we are matters. We are physical beings. Comfort and security matter. We have needs. God knows that. His trials are not ultimately threats to our comfort and security, only threats to the idols we’ve established that look like them. Our ultimate comfort is in the love of Christ. Our ultimate security is in his cross-secured salvation. But when we face a famine and then face a Pharaoh, we feel threatened. And if we turn from God’s face, we jump from the chair of faith to the chair of unfaith.
How did this happen? It’s simple. Abram didn’t deny God. Abram forgot God. When faced with the threat of Sarai’s beauty in Pharaoh’s kingdom, he didn’t consider the promises of God. He took matters into his own hands. He looked around and saw only the natural world, not the supernatural providence and protection of God. How often do we do the same?
Sarai was extremely beautiful. At sixty-five years old, she captured the eyes of those who saw her. Abram knew this, and he assumed that when the Egyptians saw her, they would plan to eliminate Abram as his competition, take Sarai, and go on with life.
So Abram devised a plan. It was a good one. He planned to have Sarai say she was his sister. That was only half-false. She was his half-sister (Genesis 20:2). If she’s his wife, eliminating him is the simplest solution. But if she’s his sister, they can’t merely remove him. They must negotiate with him. As Kent Hughes explains, “Abram was playing off the well-known custom of fratriarchy, as Nahum Sarna has explained: ‘Where there is no father, the brother assumes legal guardianship of his sister, particularly with respect to obligations and responsibilities in arranging marriage on her behalf. Therefore, whoever wished to take Sarai to wife would have to negotiate with her ‘brother.’ In this way, Abram could gain time to plan escape.’”
Abram was trying to buy time to get out. He wasn’t giving Sarai up, but he wasn’t trusting God with his marriage either. He looked at the promises of God, then looked at his situation, and decided that if something happened to him, God’s promises were compromised. So, he had to save himself. This act of unfaith—this jumping to the other chair—was a functional denial of the God who called him out of Ur. It was Abram saying, in effect, that God doesn’t exist, he isn’t ruling and reigning, he can’t control what happens in Egypt. But Abram can, so he will.
His plan wasn’t strong enough, though. He planned for the regular Egyptians, but he didn’t plan for Pharaoh. A normal Egyptian would negotiate with him for Sarai. Pharaoh does not need to. He takes what he wants. When he hears she’s his sister, he simply takes her into his harem. Now Abram has a real problem. The promise of God is in jeopardy.
To top it off, the famine turned to riches. Pharaoh gave Abram significant remuneration for Sarai. How many of us fail in the famine? How many more fail in the surplus? Abram’s great swing in fortune must have been extremely trying. He was in a tough spot. He was rewarded in earthly goods for a spiritual blunder. He sat surrounded by riches while Sarai sat worried in Pharaoh’s harem. What a disaster.
The famine led Abram far from God, but it wasn’t the famine’s fault. It was what he did during the famine that mattered most. So it is with us all. When faced with trials, the question is not, “Is God faithful?” The question is, “Will I trust him?” In which chair will I sit when everything is on the line: the chair of faith or unfaith?
It’s striking that the first time we hear Abram’s voice, it’s the voice of unfaith. Contrast that with his Savior, whose first recorded words int he gospels are heard firmly in the chair of faith. “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” (Luke 2:49).
God is not placing all his plans on our shoulders. He’s placed those plans on Christ’s shoulders. As damaging to our pride as it may be, it doesn’t depend on us. It depends on God who raises the dead. We are not left to our own devices. The messes we get ourselves into have real, earthly consequences, but God has ways of releasing us from ultimate punishment. After all, it is his story we’re in, and the characters cannot ruin the storyteller’s tale.
Abram knew that, but as he entered Egypt, he made up his own plan. He thought he was saving his life, but now he had to be wondering if he’d lose it trying to save his wife.
Then God broke in. “But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife” (Genesis 12:17). The language points to the severity of the affliction. The household was overwhelmed. Sarai alone was untouched.
Pharaoh saw what was going on. He called Abram, rebuked him, and sent him away. Abram leaves with his wife but not before public condemnation. Abram entered Egypt a man full of hopes and dreams. He left as a man fully exposed for the sinner he is. What would come of him? Pharaoh sent him away with all his riches. Those riches, however, would continue to cause Abram trouble in life. It caused Abram and Lot to separate upon returning to the land. It’s possible Hagar, the servant of Sarai with whom Abram would have a child in another act of unfaith, came from Pharaoh. Abram experienced the reality of more money, more problems. His act of unfaith caused long-term problems. It always does.
Abram’s plan failed. Our plans always do. But God’s plan didn’t fail. It never does. The Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 3:16 that it was not ultimately to Abram that the promises were made. They were made instead to Jesus. “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ.” Try as he may, Abram cannot ultimately thwart the plan of God. The promise would come to pass despite this and many other acts of unfaith along the way.
Abram did not deserve to be brought back. But God doesn’t treat us as we deserve. He treats us with grace and mercy. When everything is on the line and we who have believed God take the wrong road, God is there to bring us back. We will face the earthly consequences of our sin, but we will not face the ultimate consequences. Jesus faced them for us. On the cross, Jesus died for Abram’s lack of faith in Egypt. He died for your lack of faith this morning. He died for my lack of faith right now.
The Bible says we are in Christ. That means that no matter where we go, our eternal place with God is not compromised. In Christ, we are secure. In Christ, we are held. In Christ, though we prove unfaithful, God proves faithful to the end. We are sinners, yes, but we’re justified by Christ.
What is Abram’s way back? It’s the same as ours: to look by faith to God who gives us what we don’t deserve, makes promises to those who can only fail, and who saves us by himself, for himself, to himself, for the glory of himself. When we see that, we can sit forever in the chair of faith, knowing that it’s the God who reigns and rules that is in control of it all. When famines come, they need not compromise our faith. They may just build it.
27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
When Paul looked in the Old Testament for the model of faith, he didn’t choose Moses or David or Isaiah. He chose Abraham. “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.’” (Romans 4:3). What was it that Abraham believed? Paul says in Galatians 3:8 that it was the gospel. “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’”
In Genesis 11:27-12:9, we see the beginning of Abram’s life of faith. Abram believed God’s word, followed God’s call, and exalted God’s name.
Genesis 11:27-32 is more than a genealogy. It’s a status update on humanity. We’re at a dead end. Genesis 1-11 is the story of beginnings. It takes us from the creation of the world down to Abram’s family. As the Bible zeroes in on Abram, we find not a God-fearing family thriving in their land but a pagan family barely making it. It’s a hopeless scene. Even Sarai, Abram’s wife, is barren, and he’s an old man.
It shouldn’t have been this way. Go back far enough in Abram’s family line, and you’ll find faithful Noah. Keep going, and you’ll find Enosh, the son of Seth, who called upon the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:26). But by the time we find Abram, we see a family far from God. Joshua tells us, “Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods” (Joshua 24:2). Somewhere along the way, Enosh’s kids stopped calling upon the name of the Lord.
The once-bright future is now a darkening present, and no one can do anything about it. Commentator Walter Brueggemann says, “The barrenness of Sarah is an effective metaphor for hopelessness. This text tells us there is no foreseeable future. There is no human power to invent a future. The human race and human history have just hit a dead end. It’s over. And then God speaks, and there’s hope again.”
Genesis 12:1 shows us what happens when God speaks to a man. Before God speaks, deadness and darkness; after God speaks, life abundant. Abram’s redemption—like every believer’s—began with God speaking. No one comes to saving faith apart from God’s effective call.
We see that call in verse 1. In the midst of darkness, God speaks to Abram and calls him into his marvelous light. But it isn’t easy. God’s call is to go, to leave, to follow God wherever he leads. It is a call to abandon his father’s gods and place his faith in him alone.
The Bible gives us the facts here, but we can imagine this wasn’t an easy decision for Abram. Terah, Abram’s father, took his family away from Ur to the land of Canaan. But they stopped in Haran and settled there. That was a problem. The land of Haran was not the land the Lord had for his people. They needed to go onward. It was time for Abram to leave his country, his family, his father’s house. It was time to follow God. Terah took him only so far. But God’s call on Abram’s life was to go further. He says simply, “Go.” The King James version says, “Get thee out.” The language is strong. God is saying to Abram, “Your father won’t go, so you go. Get yourself out of here. Now.”
The call wasn’t an easy one. God called him away from everything he knew without telling him where he would end up. As John Calvin says, the call was, “I command you to go forth with closed eyes, and forbid you to inquire where I am about to lead you, until, having renounced your country, you shall have given yourself wholly to me.” The call was void of specifics. It was a naked call. It was the kind of call that caused Abram to rely wholly upon God. And even in the face of hopelessness, that’s a scary thing. Sometimes the miserable life you know is better than the unknown life you fear.
Tim Keller helps us see the internal struggle Abram must have faced. His family descended from the faithful, and though his father never heard the word of God, Abram did. Nominal belief no longer worked.
Abram basically is having a conversation, and he’s saying, “Well you know, God, I’ve come halfway. This is as far as Dad and everybody else wants to go. You know, Nahor and all the guys … I just can’t get them … They like it here, and they don’t want to go any farther. I’ve come halfway.” So what is God saying? “Then come yourself.”
Keller goes on to apply this to us all.
[God] is saying, “It’s not good enough to be part of a Christian ethos.” It’s not good enough for you to say, “Well I’m in a Christian family, and I’ve always joined a church,” or “I’m from Scotland, and I feel at home in a Presbyterian church,” or “I’m Italian, and I feel at home in a Roman Catholic church,” or “I’m Mississippian, and I’m at home in a Southern Baptist church.” It’s not enough to be part of the ethos. It’s not enough just to be part of the environment.
“Yes, of course, I feel very good around Christians…” Have you met God yourself? Have you gotten out yourself? Have you encountered him yourself, in your own self? Has it penetrated you as an individual? Have you made the personal commitment? Do you see that? That’s the first thing. It’s personally radical. You can’t come in on anybody else’s coattails. It has to be your faith.
How does one’s faith become one’s own? By believing God’s word at the deepest personal level. When what God says stops becoming a theory and becomes a reality, when you stop thinking about obeying and begin to obey, when you forsake your plans for your life and accept God’s, you know you’ve stepped across the line from unfaith to faith. When you hear God’s word as a word for you, you step over the line of unbelief into belief. That’s what Abram does in Genesis 12:1-9. He steps over the line. Abram becomes a believer.
Of course, verses 2 and 3 show us God’s call isn’t only sacrificial; it is also promissory. It always is. The gospel is not merely a call away from sin; it’s a promise of righteousness. The gospel is a message of what God has done in Christ for his people. And though Abram didn’t hear the good news of what God did in Christ, he heard the news of what God would do for him. God calls Abram from three things, but he isn’t asking him to abandon those good things forever. He will restore them in himself with a three-fold promise. In leaving his country, he was leaving part of his identity. But God promised to make of Abram a great nation. In leaving his kindred, he was leaving his name behind. But God promised to give Abram a great name. In leaving his father’s house, he was leaving any blessing he could receive. But God promised Abram he would be a blessing. God called him away from the lesser to give him the greater. That is the normal way of God. Yes, he calls us away, but he gives abundance in himself.
The abundance of God comes in part in this life, but in fullness only later. When we step over the line from unbelief to belief, we’re stepping into a hope that extends beyond this world. We’re stepping into an eternal hope. Abram realized this. Though he trusted God’s promises, he didn’t live to see them come to pass entirely. Hebrews 11:39 says, “And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised.” Abram was made into a great nation, but he didn’t see it. He was given a great name, but he didn’t hear it. He was a blessing to the world, but he didn’t know it. Such is the life of faith—following God to the Promised Land when that land cannot be seen, trusting God for a great name when you’re despised, hoping for a home as aliens in the world.
Still, God’s call goes forth, and we all stand where Abram stood wondering if we should follow.
The text is to the point, “So Abram went.” Hebrews 11:8-10 says, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to received as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations.”
The life of faith is the life of a pilgrim. This world is not our home. We are journeying onward to God’s celestial shore. Kent Hughes comments on this reality.
That idea is radical because it challenges “the dominant ideologies of our time which yearn for settlement, security and placement” (Brueggemann). Everything around us tells us to hunker down, save everything, hedge ourselves about with every protection. Our natural desires are for more comforts. Our culture celebrates great homes and dynastic families. But God’s Word says otherwise, instructing us to “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:1–4).
Abram went because the Lord told him to do so. Believing God’s word led Abram to follow God’s call. As we’ve said, the call was mysterious. God said, “Go to the land that I will show you.” He gave no details. He rarely does. The call of God to follow and obey is never as specific as we wish.
Imagine explaining to everyone where he’s going. “I don’t know.” What will you find when you get there? “I don’t know.” What will come of you in the new land? “I don’t know.” What did Abram know? He knew God and that he must be good. That was it. The rest was waiting—waiting on God to make good on his promises, to prove himself true to his word.
Following God is waiting on God. And Abram proves that waiting on God is hard but ultimately worth it. As Ray Ortlund says, “The life of Abraham shows us how God builds waiting into our lives. He makes us promises, and then he keeps us waiting, to deepen us. A major way we ‘bear the cross’ is by accepting God’s excruciating delays. We hate waiting. But he really is worth the wait. So, okay.”
Abram waited a long time. His waiting started the second he believed God for the very first time. The waiting continued as he started walking. Verse 4 is not as shocking to us as it would have been to the original readers. That Abram left his country, his kindred, and his father’s house is unremarkable to us. We live in an age and culture where leaving those things is easy. But in Abram’s day, it was scandalous. The family was everything. Leaving wasn’t an option. Unless God called.
And at the age of seventy-five, Abram traveled a route of 800 miles. It wasn’t short or easy. In all, he made three moves in the first nine verses of chapter 12. He went from Haran to Canaan, from Canaan to Bethel, and, finally, from Bethel to the Negeb.
Traveling from Haran to Canaan, he passed through to the place at Shechem. Shechem would become a familiar crossroads for the people of God. Located in central Palestine, it was the place of decision for Israel throughout their history. Derek Kidner comments, “Here the Israelites would be assembled to choose between blessing and cursing (Deut. 11:29, 30), here Joshua would give his last charge (Josh. 24), and here the kingdom of Solomon would one day break in two (1 Kgs 12).”
And here Abram stood, far from home, in a foreign land among foreign people, clinging to the word of God. He came to the Oak of Moreh, a place where pagan prophets would listen to the oracles of their gods sending their messages in the rustling of the leaves. Abram knew the true voice of the true god. He knew the emptiness of pagan worship and the fullness of Yahweh worship. He followed God this far. And now he faced a choice: would he keep following the God who called him out of darkness or would he find a home among the pagans? Would he praise the gods of the land or would he praise the name of the one true God? God was faithful thus far, but how far does the goodness of the Lord extend? We all have the same choice. In pagan places, who will we worship? When everything is on the line, who will we follow?
“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3). As Psalm 33:1 says, “Praise befits the upright.” So it is only right that standing in the middle of a pagan place, Abram exalted God’s name. Why? Because in the middle of Canaan, Abram heard God’s voice again (12:7)—the same voice that called him away from home in the first place. He heard the word of God and believed God’s word. In response, he exalted God’s name. That’s how it always goes. As we hear God’s word, he gives us the grace to believe his word and to worship him. Praise isn’t merely obligatory. It is fitting. It is beautiful. It is the only right response to God’s gracious word.
God’s word to Abram was a promise. “To your offspring I will give this land.” It’s as if he’s saying to Abram at that moment, “Yes, it appears this land belongs to pagans. Yes, it appears they have a culture here, a stronghold on the land. But, no, it will not last forever. I have other plans for this land. It will belong to your offspring. Trust me.”
So, in response, Abram built an altar. Then he left and went to Bethel, and he built an altar there as well. Kent Hughes says that as Abram journeyed from place to place “the only architecture that remained from Abram’s life were altars.” How beautiful! Abraham left this world without ever having a home, but he left this world with altars everywhere to his God. What will remain after we leave? Only in God’s providence could the pilgrim become the builder—and not in an inconsequential place, either. Abram, the pilgrim, built altars to God in the very places pagans lived and worshiped! The faith he had surpassed any fear. God’s fame ruled his heart. Praise befitted him because God made him upright in his righteousness.
We who are righteous should follow Abram’s example: to build altars to God in pagan places. Yes, it may look hopeless. But God is on his throne. Everything is going his way. And he has purposes for this place far beyond what we can think or imagine. This is God’s world, and one day everyone in it will worship him. Why not start now?
When Abram reached Bethel, 12:8 says he “called upon the name of the Lord.” Martin Luther translated it as “preached.” As Abram journeyed to the Promised Land, he preached the good news of the God who called him. No one was wondering who this wanderer praised. Yes, God had promised to make Abram’s name great, but Abram’s response is to make God’s name great. He was more concerned with God’s glory than his own.
How did all of Abram’s life become worship, and how can it become so in yours? Tim Keller says, “You’re not a Christian until you’ve taken your hands off your life.” In other words, as long as you cling to the life you want to live, you’ll never live the life God wants you to live. You’ll never learn to worship until you stop pretending to be your own God. You’ll never follow the God who calls if you don’t let go of the life you want. Abram had a life. He had a country. He had a family. He had a responsibility to his father’s house. But when God called, he followed. Keller says, “Abraham didn’t just live life. Life didn’t just happen to him. He didn’t just go with the flow of events. He happened to life…What made Abraham great was the call of God.” He took his hands off his life. He listened to the call of God. What could Life do to a man like that? What can Life do to a man like you, living under the call of God?
But this is only the beginning of Abram’s journey. As he goes, he will learn again and again to take his hands off his life. The life of faith is learning to trust God. Trusting God doesn’t come in theoretical concepts but in the warp and woof of life. We learn to trust God as we follow him. When we’re faced with pagan worship and choose to exalt God’s name, we learn to trust him. When we get bad news and hope in the eternal promises of God, we learn to trust him. When we are despised and disparaged, left with a bad reputation and sullied name but look to the one who blesses, we learn to trust him.
Radical obedience doesn’t come all at once. It comes step by step as we follow God in the small things that lead to big things. We wonder how Abraham obeyed God in Genesis 22, taking Isaac up the mountain to sacrifice him according to God’s command. He obeyed then because he obeyed in the beginning. His faith didn't start in the few days before the mountain trek. It started way back in Ur when God called and he went. Sacrifice wasn't uncommon to him. And it shouldn’t be to us.
The New Testament uses Abram over and over again as the model for true faith. No, he wasn’t the perfect man. Jesus was. And it was to him that he looked. Jesus himself said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” How did he see it? By faith.
By faith, Abram believed the word of God. By faith, he followed God’s call. By faith, he built altars in pagan lands. By faith, he exalted God’s name. By faith, he lived his life. Life didn’t just happen to him. He happened to life. Why? Because God happened to Abram, and God is Life. Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6), and whoever comes to him he will never cast out (John 6:37). Abram went to him. And his life is proof that all who come to Christ are never let down. What’s keeping you from coming to him today?
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/22a43305846ba314-image-asset-XyFy4LNqfQVci05LxYLM9Ckty2GXjP.jpeg\")
Photo by Naassom Azevedo on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nIn the parable of the persistent widow, Jesus shows us why we should pray—God is not an unjust judge, but the righteous Father who loves his elect and will bring justice. In the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Jesus shows us how we should pray—not with pride, comparing ourselves to others, but in humility, needy for God’s mercy. Putting the two together, Luke aims to show us that we both ought to pray and never lose heart and that there is a certain heart that knows how to pray, and a heart that doesn’t.
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a Tax Collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this Tax Collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the Tax Collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The two men in Jesus’s parable are worlds apart. The Pharisee was the model citizen. He was Bible-saturated, law-abiding, tithe-giving, just, true to his wife, and righteous before men. The Pharisees owned the best reputation in Israel. The Jewish historian of the time, Josephus, described them as “a certain sect of the Jews that appear more religious than others, and seem to interpret the laws more accurately.” No one looked at the Pharisee and saw a problem that needed to be corrected. No one, that is, except Jesus.
The Tax Collector, on the other hand, was the opposite of the Pharisee. If the Pharisee was the model citizen, the Tax Collector was the criminal avoiding arrest. Commentator Kent Hughes describes the Tax Collector. “In today’s culture, the closest social equivalent would be drug pushers and pimps, those who prey on society, who make money off others’ bodies and make a living of stealing from others.” He didn’t have one shred of righteousness in himself. He couldn’t look to what he was or what he did and thank God for any of it.
When compared, the Pharisee is obviously the better person. We would want him as out neighbor. We would turn to him if we needed help. We wouldn’t mind walking by him on the street. The Tax Collector, on the other hand, is someone we’d avoid. We’d shudder to see him approaching our house. We’d disassociate ourselves with him. We often forget the difference between these two persons. Those of us who have heard so much bad about the Pharisees forget that many of them were the kinds of guys we’d want our kids to look up to. Make no mistake, the Pharisee was the good guy, the Tax Collector the bad guy.
But we only see the outside of a man. God sees the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). In this parable, Jesus redefines goodness and badness, not based on the outward actions but on the inward relationship to God. He uses these two opposites to reveal what we miss when looking only at the outside.
Jesus told this to “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.” Because of that, I believe he’s talking to all of us, for which of us is sinless in this area? We all trust in ourselves to some degree and treat others with contempt, or we have done so in the past. These words, therefore, are words for us all to heed.
What was wrong with the Pharisee? Often, it is assumed this Pharisee was a legalist. I’m not sure he is. Legalism is one who tries to earn his salvation by his good deeds. The Pharisee doesn’t do that. He believes his good deeds are given to him by God. He says as much in his prayer, “God, I thank you…” He’s recognizing that God is the one who gave him his righteousness. The problem with the Pharisee is not legalism. It is that he looked to and trusted in that righteousness—his righteousness—for salvation. He didn’t believe he earned it, but he was very proud of his righteousness. And that was his problem before God. He believed God’s gift of his personal righteousness—making him the way he was—was all he needed to be justified before God.
But is that how we are justified? Are we righteous before God because he gave us the ability to do good things? Or are we righteous before God because Jesus is righteous before God and we are in him? It comes down to one question: whose righteousness is it that saves?
The Pharisee believed his righteousness what the key. Notice, aside from addressing God at the beginning of his prayer, he spends the rest of the time talking about himself. He trusted in himself that he was righteous. He wasn’t happy that he was making progress. He thought he’d already arrived. The thing about trusting in oneself for righteousness is that it always leads to treating others with contempt. When we believe our goodness is what makes God smile, we see everyone else’s faults and treat them accordingly. It’s only when we see ourselves as sinners, righteous in Christ alone, that we can be free from the contemptuous outlook of the Pharisee.
The Tax Collector, on the other hand, was banking everything on the righteousness of God. He wouldn’t enter the temple. There were societal reasons for this, but Jesus is highlighting his humility. Even if he was welcomed in, he didn’t feel as if he belonged. He stood far off, away from others, not as the Pharisee but with deep sorrow for his sins. His prayer is simple. He does not refer to anyone else. He is not boasting about his righteousness because he has none. He is not explaining his badness. He is pleading for mercy. He calls himself who he truly is, “a sinner.” He would not even lift his eyes toward heaven—significant for his time since prayers were offered standing upright and looking to the skies. He beat his breast in grief. In fact, in the Greek, his plea is for more than forgiveness. Literally, his plea for mercy is a plea to “be propitiated.” He wasn’t asking for anything less than God’s anger to be removed from him. He knows what he deserves, and he pleads for what only God can give.
The Pharisee was condemned. The Tax Collector justified. Be warned, Jesus says, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
We are not justified because God gives us our own personal righteousness. We are justified because God gives us Christ’s righteousness. It comes down to this: where are you looking? Are you looking away from yourself to Christ? Or are you looking from Christ to yourself? The direction of your gaze makes all the difference.
In Jesus’s day, public prayers were often offered in the temple. But private prayers were offered too, and in this parable, we see two private prayers. Jesus focuses on this because who we are in our private prayers is who we really are. Our prayers can reveal what we believe is the origin of our salvation. Does God grant us his righteousness and save us on that basis or does he grant us our own righteousness and save us on that basis? The Pharisee obviously believed the latter. The Tax Collector was banking on the former.
The Pharisee was grateful God made him so well. He not only obeyed the law, he super-obeyed it. The law commanded one fast, on the Day of Atonement, but this guy fasted twice a week, the law required tithing ten percent of one’s income, but this guy tithes even his herbs. He thanked God for making him this way, but his righteousness was not the reason for his righteousness. In fact, it made him unrighteous. His goodness clouded his ability to see Jesus’ goodness on his behalf. As William Plummer said, “He glances at God, but contemplates himself.” We can do the same anytime our prayers are made of who we are rather than who God is.
This parable drives us to one big evaluation of our personal prayer life. When we approach God, are we like the Pharisee or the Tax Collector?
If we are like the Pharisee, how can we change?
Right doctrine helps. Is God our divine helper, granting us the ability to become good, or is he our Divine Savior, granting us his goodness? If God gives us our own personal goodness and accepts us based on that, it makes sense for us to look down upon others. But if God gives us righteousness through his Son, and only through his Son, then we have no right to look down upon others. We are all equal. We all need the righteousness of Christ.
The gospel tells us not that God gives us our own personal righteousness but that he gives us Christ’s righteousness. The theological term is imputation. Imputation means to attribute something to one’s account. This is what God does to us with Christ’s righteousness. John Piper clarifies.
\"Imputation\" is different from \"impartation.\" God does \"impart\" to us gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, so that we have them and they are in us growing and they are ours. But all of that gracious impartation through the Spirit is built on an even more firm foundation, namely, imputation - the work of God outside of us: God's own righteousness, not imparted to us, but imputed to us. Credited to us, as Romans 4:6 and 11 say. Put to our account. Reckoned to be ours.
The Bible tells us of three imputative events throughout history. First, Adam imputes his sin to all mankind. Second, God imputes the sins of the elect to Christ. Third, God imputes the righteousness of Christ to the elect.
Paul explains this in Romans 5:12-21.
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We see here imputation at work. Adam imputes sin to mankind, God imputes the sins of the elect to Jesus, God then imputes the righteousness of Jesus to the elect. This helps us see the importance of another theological term, federalism. Federalism means one person acts as a representative for one or more persons. In the biblical view, God has appointed two representative heads: Adam and Jesus. Sin came into the world through Adam. Righteousness came into the world through Jesus.
Some people struggle with the idea of federalism, especially when it comes to accepting Paul’s words in verses 12-14. It’s hard for some to accept that they inherited sin. Some people believe man is basically good, and from time to time does bad things. But that’s not what the Bible says. Because Adam sinned, we are all born in sin. The theological term is Original Sin. Our Original Sin is a birth defect, and no amount of scientific or meritorious effort can change that which with we were born. Sin stained us from the womb because of our federal head, Adam.
But federalism works to our advantage, if we trust in Christ. Sure, it’s a bummer that we’re born into sin because of Adam. It may seem we don’t even get a fair shake at life. But give us enough time, and we would sin our way out of God as well, especially now that we have the law to show us what sin is. We don’t merely miss the mark with our sin; we stomp on top of the law on our way to sin. Whether we are born sinners or not, no one can look at his life now and declare righteousness apart from God. So, to be represented by Adam helps us understand from where we came. Adam was a terrible representative, yes, but he is our representative, and to deny that truth is to put ourselves in more danger, not less. Federalism is to our advantage because if it’s true that in Adam we all sinned, then it can also be true that in Jesus we are all made righteous.
Commentator Douglas Moo says, “The universal consequences of Adam’s sin are the assumption of Paul’s argument; the power of Christ’s act to cancel those consequences is its goal.” Paul has labored to prove the universality of sin. Now he is working to show the universal character of justification for those who believe. If sin condemns all in the church through one man, it makes sense that through one man all are justified. If Adam got us into the war, Jesus got us out.
Adam, as the first man, represented all humanity to follow. The result of his life is, therefore, universal and inescapable. In Adam, all die. But in Christ, all live. Paul calls the benefits of Christ the “free gift.” He mentions this free gift five times in verses 15-17. The point is exactly what it sounds like: the righteousness of Christ is both free, meaning we don’t have to do anything to earn it, and it is a gift, something we receive. Some gifts are a result of hard work. (Think of a Christmas bonus for employees at a company.) But other gifts are given because of love. (Think of a Christmas gift to a child in a home.) The righteousness of Christ is of the latter kind. God gives the full benefits of Christ’s perfect record to his children because he loves them. All we must do is receive the free gift with the empty hands of faith.
It would be appropriate to compare ourselves in Adam to a poor family that has made ruin of life. We started out well, with plenty of money in the bank, a beautiful house on a hill, abundant resources, and friends abounding. Then, out of sheer defiance, we decided we didn’t need what got us here anymore. We didn’t get there on our own, but we decided we could make it her on out on our own. We left the one who provided it all to blaze our own trail. In doing so, we cut ourselves off. In an instant, we lost the money. Over time, we lost the house. In the end, we found ourselves on the streets, wandering from town to town just trying to survive. As the generations were born, they didn’t realize the plight. They were born into this family. It just seemed to fit. Then one day a generous donor comes and says he understands what has happened to us and he would like to make it right. He aims to restore all that we squandered. He says he came into some money and it was more than he needed. He wants to share it. So, he gets out his pen and checkbook and writes the check to cover all the debts plus enough to meet every need from here on out.
We are in this family that squandered and lost it all. And then Jesus comes and begins to make all things new. He tells us of his righteousness, shows us his holiness, and grants us his forgiveness. In a moment of realization that came from somewhere outside our own heart, we believe him, give up our rags and follow him.
That’s what happened to the Tax Collector. He went home justified because his Federal Head, Jesus, imputed his righteousness to him. And the Pharisee went home unjustified because he thought the gift of God was his own personal righteousness. But he was wrong. We aren’t saved because we are good. We are saved because Jesus is, and in grace, God gives us his goodness.
Be careful, then, how you pray, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/b71e8d381a1aabc8-widow-bApRcvmZ5j6KCsey1ZFcwHzXpzKxEt.jpg\")
Photo by Chris Brignola on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nThe Jews believed in limiting prayer as to not weary God. Daniel’s example of three times a day (Daniel 6:10) was considered the maximum. But as he talks about his second coming, Jesus speaks against that belief. God cannot be wearied. Jesus says the days ahead are going to be hard, especially for those who follow a crucified and risen savior. They’re going to run into opposition, hardship, and trials of every kind. But they won’t be left alone, and Jesus will come again to restore it all. Whatever they face in the days ahead, God will bring vengeance in the end. But the waiting will be difficult, and we’ll want to pray the same thing repeatedly, “Lord, how long?” Jesus says that’s ok, and, furthermore, don’t ever give up on that prayer. We don’t have to limit our prayers. Instead, we ought always to pray and not lose heart. Jesus invites us to bother God in prayer because our prayers, as it turns out, don’t bother God at all.
But our prayers don’t all receive an immediate answer. And our prayer for God’s return, where he’ll bring final justice to the earth will be one of those delayed-answer kinds of prayers. We want things done at a certain time and in a certain way, but God operates the world on his economy. As Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3:8, “Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
But God’s delay should not lead to our failure to pray. Rather, Jesus is telling us we should always pray but we should do so with patience, trusting God knows best. We must tap into the child-like ability to ask the same thing a million times but do so with the wisdom of an adult who knows, sometimes, it’s best not to answer immediately.
1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’ ” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Jesus uses the story of a wicked man—a judge—and a helpless woman—a widow. The judge “neither feared God nor respected man.” He thought only of himself and did only what was to his advantage, an ironic thing for a judge who should be about justice in every way. But the widow cared not for the judge’s feelings. She cared not for his selfishness. She cared not for even his godlessness. She cared for justice, and she knew he was the only man in town who had the power to set right the wrong done to her. But she had no standing in the community, no husband to fight on her behalf, no money to bribe him with. All she had was her request. And so, with that request, she went, and she went, and she went. She went until he became tired of her. Then, desiring to be rid of her, he gave in. He granted her request, giving her justice. If the unjust judge would do that for a widow, won’t God do that for his elect?
Jesus is making a “how much more” point. If the unrighteous judge who neither fears God nor respects man will grant justice, how much more will God grant justice to his elect? As Leon Morris says, “If a wicked man will sometimes do good, even if from bad motives, how much more will God do right!”
God is not uncaring. He is not unconcerned. It’s not that he doesn’t know what to do or simply doesn’t want to think about the situation. God knows everything. He sees everything. But God doesn’t answer us according to our wishes. He answers according to his wisdom, and, sometimes, his wisdom requires a delayed response. Sometimes, the work God must do takes place over a long period of time. Sometimes, God asks us to labor in prayer for a long season for the work he has planned.
It seems odd to compare God to an unjust judge, but Jesus does so for a very important reason. We are tempted to distrust God when our prayers are not immediately answered. We think maybe he is an unjust judge, even if we’d never admit that to ourselves. It shows up in our prayer life. When we give up on the prayer of justice, we give in to thinking God isn’t for us. We believe we’re lower than the widow in this story, and God doesn’t care about justice.
We ought always to pray, Jesus says, because in our praying, God acts. The world may look gloomy and dark, but God is at work in it now, saving more and more, preparing for the return of Christ. In the in-between time of Christ’s first and second comings, the trials of his saints are hard, but they are coming to an end. God will grant his people justice. Let’s not fail to pray about it.
So how do we pray such a thing when it feels as if God is unwilling to answer? David shows in Psalm 13.
1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
David feels like the widow, voiceless before the judge. The first two verses are filled with both sorrow
and dismay that God would not answer. David considered it a personal offense, as if it was a friend shunning him rather than a distant judge delaying his response. He has real, urgent needs. God cannot remain silent forever. It was always this way with David. As Derek Kidner says, “Awareness of God and the enemy is virtually the hallmark of every psalm of David; the positive and negative charge which produced the driving-force of his best years.”
The enemy constantly surrounded David, and in their midst, he had a choice to make. He could trust God’s promises or not. Verse 5 gives us the answer, he would trust God’s steadfast love. Kidner comments, “However great the pressure, the choice is still his to make, not the enemy’s; and God’s covenant remains. So the psalmist entrusts himself to this pledged love, and turns his attention not to the quality of his faith but to its object and its outcome, which he has every intention of enjoying.”
David faced the same problem we all face: will God bring justice? So David did what David does, he prayed. Before Jesus showed up to tell us we ought always to pray, David was praying. He turned his doubts into prayers, letting his prayers rise on the wings of faith to find the bountiful dealings God has with man. God will not only grant what we need, he will do so in a way far beyond what we could ask or think.
Of course, David prayed similar prayers throughout his life. Psalm 13 was not the only one. The biblical model is consistent prayer for God’s provision. It, apparently, even stretches beyond this life into the heavens. Revelation 6 tells of the opening of the seven seals. When the fifth seal is opened, John says, “I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, ‘O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.” (Revelation 6:9-11)
The heavenly saints are following Jesus’s call to always pray. Their prayer is the same as the widows: they want justice. As Leon Morris says, “The first Christians found a problem in the fact that God does not punish sin here and now. They saw part of the answer in the cross. The cross does not mean the abolition of judgment. It means that people will be judged by their attitude to the sacrificial love of God shown on Calvary. But the cross also shows that God has no truck with evil. Finally, it will be totally overthrown. God waits and the number of martyrs grows to its completion. But the final destruction of evil is certain. It is not a question of ‘Whether?’ but of ‘When?’.”
So Jesus commands us to always pray because God hears our prayers, and he will not disappoint. The end of the age is coming, and the justice we long for will come, and, in fact, as God always does, it will come in greater measure than we can ask or think. It is not a matter of ‘if’, only a matter of ‘when.’ God is not an unjust judge. He’s far better.
William Still pastored a church in Scotland for 52 years. During an early season of his pastorate, he met regularly with a group of pastors to pray for revival. Over the course of three years, they met weekly and offered up prayer to God that he would pour out his Spirit on their land. They went about their days with their eyes open, awaiting God’s answer. Why would he not grant their request? At the end of the third year, they all felt a collective release of their burden, though none of them visibly saw any signs of revival. They had been the persistent widow, approaching God’s throne regularly, and now, it seemed to them, God was saying, “that’s enough.” But he didn’t answer.
Nearly twenty years went by and the pastors continued preaching the gospel and shepherding their churches. A new generation had risen, and many began coming into their churches, longing for the gospel. Older men, too, had been coming in droves—men in their 40s and 50s, with gospel vigor. William Still and his fellow pastors realized something as they heard the stories of these men. Those many years ago, as they met for prayer, God was hearing and answering. Many of these men were born during those years. The older men were converted during those years. It took around twenty years for Still and his fellow pastors to see God’s answer, but he had heard and had responded with a “Yes.” But it was a yes they couldn’t see for a couple of decades.
What are you praying for right now? What request is constantly before the Lord? He’s not required to answer it simply because we bring it, but are you bringing anything? Too often, our prayers are too little, too infrequent, and too mild. God loves a bold pray-er. He loves to hear grand prayers, prayers that reach out beyond our sphere of influence. He loves prayers for world-wide justice, for global evangelization, for his name to be spread far and wide. God longs to grant the glory-filled prayers of his people. But, Jesus knows, we are tempted to give up on prayer. We are tempted to throw in the towel, move on, to simply stop. Jesus urges us to do no such thing. If God granted William Still’s prayers for the revival of his part of Scotland, why would he not grant our prayers for revival of our land, or of our country, or of our world? In fact, he will, even if it takes until the end of the age for the “yes” to come. It may look as if he will never come back, but he will. In God’s timing, Jesus will return to set all things right, to restore the universe, to make all things new. Are we praying to that end?
The widow had no rights before the judge. She had no money for a bribe, no husband for support, no social status for influence. She had only a request, and that was enough for her. If such a woman could have her request granted, how much more will God’s elect children have their requests heard? If the poor, outcast widow could not lose heart, how is it that we could? Jesus tells us to persevere. Do not grow tired of praying, for God hears his children’s voices.
The problem Jesus is confronting is not the issue of God’s silence in the face of small matters or issues of preference. God cares about the entirety of our lives, but Jesus is not addressing what we do with silence in temporary decisions. He is addressing how we make it through the time between Jesus’s first and second comings. His disciples are wondering what to do to endure till the end. And the answer Jesus gives is, “Pray, and keep praying.”
We all know how difficult it is to continue in the same direction for a long period of time. God knows too. But what we encounter as we wait on God is the same thing saints have encountered throughout the ages. Abraham was brought to the Promised Land without the promised child. He tried to help God out a few times, but that didn’t work. So he had to wait. He and Sarah grew old—so old that when God came to them with the promise of a child, they both laughed. But in the course of time, God’s promise proved true. No matter what Abraham did to compromise it, God stayed true to his word. And in the end, Isaac was born.
David was anointed King of Israel years before he ascended to the throne. He worked in the house of Saul, dodging spears as Saul became angry and envious. David was driven into the desert, hiding in caves. One day, as Saul searched for his enemy, he came down to David’s cave to relieve himself. David could have killed him then, but he stayed his hand. On another occasion David stood above Saul’s sleeping body with a spear in his hand but gave the order not to kill. He would not touch God’s anointed king, even if he was the heir. God would bring him up in due course. Time was not his to control. It was God’s.
The widow had no rights before the judge. But we are not like the widow before the unjust judge. We are like children before the Father. We are like Abraham and David, whom God protected and provided for. We are God’s elect, his chosen people. Though our prayers be long and labored, though they be stretched across times and seasons, though we grow tired and impatient, we should not lose heart because God is for us, and if God is for us, who can be against us?
The widow’s persistence proved her faith. She believed that in the end, justice would be granted. Her faith drove her before the judge’s bench. Jesus calls us to have the same kind of faith. What do we need from the Lord? We long for justice. We long for his name to be glorified. We long for the end of suffering. We long for the provision of his mercy and grace. So since we long, we should pray. And we should never stop praying, even when the road gets hard. God is not worse than the unjust judge who finally granted this widow’s request. He is far better. Shall not the judge of the earth do right (Gen. 18:25)? The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether (Ps. 19:9). He is righteous in all his ways (Ps. 145:17). He exercises loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for he delights in them (Jer. 9:24).
So Jesus ends this parable with a question. “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” What is this faith that Jesus asks about? Surely it is not something we do. If it’s in our hands, we will fail, and Jesus will find no one to bring home when he returns. Faith does not spring up from within; it is placed deep inside from without. God himself grants it. Jesus is not saying otherwise. He is simply asking us what faith does. Faith holds on to the promises of God’s goodness. Faith never gives up. And faith never gives up because God never lets us go. Augustine said, “If faith fail, prayer perishes.” Faith and prayer are joined together. The faithful pray and faith fuels prayer. Our prayer lives are good indicators of our faith, and Jesus is using this question to further spur us on to pray and not give up. Faithful Christians never give up on God because God never gives up on them.
Think of this: Jesus came to earth to show us how God’s story ends—with resurrection, restoration, renewing! He tells us beforehand that the latter days will be difficult. He tells us we will be prone to giving up. He tells us we must keep pressing on. He urges us to always pray! Why? Because it’s good for us to bang our head on a wall? Because he delights to see us wrestle with things larger than us? No! He urges us to pray because, in the praying, we are entering into the Father’s heart. We are pleading with God for God’s vision. We are asking for what God is going to grant. Jesus will come again, and no matter how dark the night is right now, the light has come into the world, and one day, he will come again. We should all be like the widow: needy, persistent, and faithful.
We are not left without an example of such faithful prayer. Jesus himself is our model. Look at the way he prayed to the Father in John 17.
1 He looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
Jesus didn’t pray this in a corner of the world. We don’t have to wonder if he really prayed this way. He prayed this at the last supper with his apostles. He wants us to know that the prayer of the widow was the prayer of the Son. How much more then should it be our prayer as well?
Jesus was the most faithful man to ever live, and his faith caused him to pray. But notice who he prays for: he prays for us. He prays that we will continue to know the Father and the Father’s love. Truly, he prays the Father’s love becomes our love. And with a love like that, Jesus will find faith when he returns.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/551503be0ad3e0e5-money-5m2Dp0H4T6IfZkjDTUt7IOZjkJz2SX.jpg\")
Photo by Vitaly on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nIn Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” He longs for us to bring our greatest troubles and lay them on his shoulders. But Jesus also said some difficult things—some things that make us wonder how his yoke is easy and his burden is light.
For example, Jesus talked about our relationship with money quite often, always in radical terms. Eleven of his thirty-nine parables are about our handling of money. Tim Keller says that at least 28% of the time Jesus opened his mouth, he spoke about money. His words land on us differently. For some, we feel conviction. We know we don’t steward our money well, and we may even feel condemnation. Others of us harden our heart. We love our money more than we think, and when someone speaks to it, we find resistance. Jesus knows this. But Jesus is never afraid to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted, and he can’t do either if he never speaks to us the hard things in shocking ways.
But here’s the wonderful truth about the hard things Jesus says. When we listen and accept his teaching, we find the freedom we’ve longed for, and the joy we never knew was possible. This kind of faith if risky. But in following Jesus, we leave what we’ve known to follow the man who died for us. If he did that, surely, he knows best.
So how do you relate to money? Is it merely a means to an end, or is it an end in itself? Do you guard it closely or spend it liberally? What does your money say about what you believe about security, about comfort, about God?
1 He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
The 20th-century Presbyterian leader, J. Gresham Machen said Christians can do three things when encountered with the culture around them, which includes our handling of money. Machen said we could run from the culture, give in to the culture, or consecrate the culture, bringing it under Christ’s redemption.
This helps us understand the overarching point Jesus is making. What are we to do with our money? We are to use it wisely. Let’s not run from it, trusting in a theology of poverty to gain righteousness. Let’s not give in to it, trusting in a theology of prosperity as proof of God’s love. Let’s consecrate it to the Lord and use it wisely, making friends for ourselves.
So how do we do that? Surprisingly, Jesus uses a story of a manager doing under-the-table deals. In doing so, he makes friends for himself as he nears a time when he’ll really need them. He’s using money as more than a currency for material goods. He’s using it as relational currency. Jesus then tells his disciples to be like that: to use money to make friends for themselves. That sounds problematic, doesn’t it? It sounds manipulative, as if he’s telling us to become liars and cheats. But surely Jesus isn’t telling us to do something wrong. No, he’s not. But this parable is one of the most difficult parables to interpret. So let’s walk through it now.
There is a rich man who employed a manager. This manager controlled all the rich man’s affairs. He spent his money, invested his money, managed his land and assets. Over time, the rich man got word (presumably from his friends in the community) that the manager wasn’t doing his job well. He was wasting his master’s possessions. Jesus uses the same word for waste as he used in the parable of the prodigal son for what the younger son did with his money. He mismanaged it. So the boss called him to account. The story was filled with tension. The manager said nothing in response, and as the master asked him to turn in the books, he fired him. The manager’s silence was a guilty plea. He made no defense. But he still had the books in his possession because he hadn’t brought them with him to the meeting. So, he quickly devised a plan to buy friends for himself before the books are out of his hands. He knew he couldn’t do manual labor, and he didn’t qualify to beg for money, so he needed a plan to find another job in his field. What will he do without a steady income? He looked for someone else who would “bring him into his house,” giving him another job at another estate.
The manager wasted no time. He went out and settled debts with people who owed his master. He cut their debt in half, requiring only that they repay instantly. They accepted the terms, happy to climb out from under the weight of their obligation. As manager, he had full authority to do this. They think something must have changed since the terms of the contract changed so drastically, but the manager had the right to do this as he worked on on behalf of the master. This favor of reduced debt was welcome. And one day soon, the manager would need the favor returned.
Jesus is not saying what the manager did was good. It was sinful. Instead of repenting and pleading for mercy before his master, he added sin to sin. He changed the terms of the contracts. He lost money for his master to gain friends for himself.
And his plan worked. You can imagine the joy in the community as debts were reduced and settled one by one. What can the master to do at this point? When he saw the books and what the manager did, he had two options. Kenneth E. Bailey explains them.
First, legally he can go to the village and explain that the reductions were not authorized, the steward had been fired at the time he made them, indeed he had no legal right to do anything, and the original amounts must be paid in full. But such an action would turn the party in progress that was praising his generosity into a gripe session attacking him as unreasonable and unfair. Or, second, the master can remain quiet, pay the price of this clever rascal’s salvation and continue to enjoy his reputation as a generous man, which is enhanced by this ruse but not created by it. He is a generous man because he dismissed the steward but did not jail him. Furthermore, he could have sold the steward and his family as slaves to recoup his losses, yet he did not. His generous nature led him to refrain from both actions.
Though the manager didn’t repent before him, he trusted the mercy of his master to not imprison him, sell him, or kill him. And in the end, the master was impressed with his shrewdness. He didn’t only make friends for himself, he made friends for the master too. He rewound the bad feelings of crushing debt and played a new song of relief. For actions that should have led to more trouble for the manager, he’s instead commended. T.W. Manson says of the master’s attitude, “There is all the difference in the world between ‘I applaud the dishonest steward because he acted cleverly’ and ‘I applaud the clever steward because he acted dishonestly’…we must take the purport of the speech to be: ‘This is a fraud; but it is a most ingenious fraud. The steward is a rascal; but he is a wonderfully clever rascal.’” Tom outsmarted Jerry once again. Robin Hood stole from the rich to make friends with the peasants. The risk yielded a reward, and the master paid the price.
After Jesus tells this story, he then says to his disciples, “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”
What? How is what the manager does a model to God’s children? He thinks his life through. He’s reached the point of realization that unrighteous wealth has let him down. He sees there are more important things, more urgent things. So he gets to work wielding the sword of money for a different purpose: to make friends. Money never lasts. Its entire purpose is to be used up. But friends can last forever. They keep giving even when the bank account is dry. If secular people understand that wealth can be used in a variety of ways, one of which is to gain influence and friendships among others, Christians need to be even more aware of money’s usefulness. Money is a terrible master, but in the hands of the Master, it can be of great worth.
Ray Ortlund opens up the heart of this parable in his sermon on the passage.
What Jesus understands, what nearly everyone understands, but what we Christians tend not to understand, is the shrewd and wise and smart use of money – to win friends, to earn people’s good will, to serve them and help them and gain influence among them. Does that embarrass you? Does it seem like an ulterior motive? It isn’t wrong, as long as there are two other motives that the Bible also alerts us to. Our ultimate motive with money, as with all things, is to honor God – that is, to make his presence wonderfully obvious here in this God-denying and God-insulting world. Our next motive, beneath God, is to love others, to show them that they matter to God, because they don’t believe that, not enough to be set free by it. So we owe them living proof that God is love. But here in Luke 16 the Lord himself calls us to a third motive as well. Smart Christians use their money to increase their circle of friends – for the glory of God, for the benefit of others, but also this: “… make friends for yourselves.”
When we think about it, it does make sense. Don’t you want to live now in such a way that, at your funeral, people will weep? Of course you do. Well, extend your thinking one step further, beyond the grave. When you walk into heaven, fully qualified by the righteousness of Christ alone, wouldn’t it be wonderful to be greeted by friends and rejoiced over and thanked? Here in verse 9, Jesus is talking about heaven in a very concrete way – “… they may receive you into eternal dwellings.” Do not think of heaven in a mystical way. Eternity in heaven is very connected with this life on earth. People you know, people you influence for Jesus in this life, will recognize you. They will welcome you. They will say to you, “Thank you for caring about me, opening your home to me, providing a church for me. You rearranged your life to move over and make room for me. Thank you for sending that missionary to my part of the world. You made the difference for me and my people. What you did was how God got through to me.” So, how can we live right now such that ripples of impact flow out into people’s lives for eternity? Are we thinking about that? Are we budgeting for that? Isn’t this clear biblical reality enough to start a new revolution of gospel generosity sweeping over our wealthy city today, starting with us?
In grace, Jesus has entrusted so much to us. What are we doing with it? The unrighteous are clever. Are we? The unrighteous plan and devise and take risks. Do we? If not, why not? How can the unrighteous be more active in the world than we who have all the Father’s riches at our disposal? The world has schemes; we have scripture. The world has mountains of money; we have Christ’s immeasurable riches. The world has worldly wisdom; we have the wisdom of Jesus. How far is the kingdom advancing in our sphere? Push hard, Jesus says. The unrighteous know how to do this. Do we?
When you think about using money, what goes through your mind? Do you think if you had more money you’d give more away? Well, what do you give now? Do you give sacrificially? If not, what will change when more deposits into your account?
We all know that ministry is costly, and that cost is provided through sacrificial giving of God’s people. It demands our time and our comfort. We open our homes and confess our sins and rearrange our schedules. But too often, we keep our wallets shut. We are like the dishonest manager, wasting the master’s money. We must see that we are stewards of money that isn’t ours. What if we were like the manager, being called to account, how would our spending habits change? Why not do that now?
God is not surprised that ministry is costly. He has placed us in this world that operates inside economies with stock markets and housing bubbles and material needs. Jesus’s disciples lived in the world as well, and when he looks at how they use their money he sees a problem. They have the right eternal perspective when it comes to salvation, but their eternal perspective isn’t showing through on their use of temporary resources like money. They’re living in light of heaven but missing an opportunity to bring earth up to heaven. God has given them the most valuable resource in the world (himself) and in response, they’re using the temporal resources ineffectively. They need to learn to be smart, to be shrewd, to be wise in the ways of the world.
Jesus is telling us not to be financial morons. Let’s not remove ourselves from the world and let’s not pour our heart into the world. Let’s consecrate the world to God. Let’s use what he’s given as he would want us to use it, because we are all stewards of money that is not ours. We are all the manager in this parable. We have all mismanaged the master’s possessions, and he is calling us all to account. Are we even thinking through what to do next? Or are we so out of touch that we don’t even care? How can God ever give us more if we are unwilling to do as much as we can with little?
Francis Schaeffer understood how to use what little God gave him. His ministry started with just his family moving into a small chalet in Switzerland. It grew from there into a worldwide ministry impacting thousands of lives. But it was costly. In one place, he wrote about the cost of running his ministry.
It’s a costly business to have a sense of community. L’Abri cannot be explained merely by the clear doctrine that is preached; it cannot be explained by the fact that God has been giving intellectual answers to intellectual questions. I think those two things are important, but L’Abri cannot be explained if you remove the third. And that is, there has been some community here. And it has been costly.
In about the first three years of L’Abri all our wedding presents were wiped out. Our sheets were torn. Holes were burned in our rugs. Indeed once a whole curtain almost burned up from somebody smoking in our living room. All races came to our dinner table. Everybody came to our table. It couldn’t happen any other way. Drugs came to our place. People vomited in our rooms…. If you have been married for years and years and had a home or even a room and none of this has ever occurred, if you have been quiet especially as our culture is crumbling around us, if this is so – do you really believe that people are going to hell? We fight the liberals when they say there is no hell. But do we really believe people are going to hell?
Schaeffer understood the urgency of his day. He saw that God was soon calling everyone to account. And he, for one, was going to do something about it. So he got to work, spending what he had for the sake of others. God used him, and there will be hundreds of people in heaven who will one day walk up to him and say, “I’m so grateful for what you did for me. God used you to get me here. Thank you.”
Who will say that about you? What friends are you making?
What’s our path forward? It’s not easy to discern, is it? This parable is about as clear as a muddy window. But Jesus doesn’t leave us with a question mark for too long. He provides the answer in himself. What does it mean to make friends for yourself? Look to Jesus. How did he do it?
Jesus said, “I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” Jesus doesn’t say money might fail us. He says it will fail us. Everything in this world ultimately does. Everything breaks. Everything dies. Everything rebels against us. So if we put our hope in things here below, we will be disappointed. It’s a matter of when, not if.
So when it fails us, we can look to the one who made friends of unrighteous wealth. What did Jesus do? He took up the unrighteous wealth of flesh. He entered the dumpy town of Bethlehem. He rested his head on a common rock, one he created centuries before. He let dust get on his feet. He washed the dirty feet of his apostles. He walked the bloody road to Calvary. He died upon the cross. He used all the unrighteous things the world gave him to make us his friends. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
Jesus Christ knew how to use what God gave him. He emptied all he had to turn his enemies into his friends. He was the ultimate steward of God’s riches, and he poured them all out on us in his life, death, and resurrection. He not only reduced our debt by half, he paid it in full. He paid the highest cost himself, so that out the reward for his suffering, he could call us to lay our burdens upon him and find rest. Our response to that saving love cannot be to huddle up and retreat from the world. It cannot be to rush head-first into the world’s ways. It must be, for the sake of Christ, to consecrate it all to God. We must use what we have been given for the advancement of his kingdom. We must make friends for ourselves, because in doing it in the power of the Spirit, God uses us to make friends for himself. And one day, we will enter eternity and find others there who will welcome us because we welcomed them. They will welcome us into the eternal dwellings. And who knows, they might be there with us as we meet Jesus face to face for the first time. What dollar do you have that isn’t worth that?
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/a1a1d8c833d54949-prodigal-e77K9EbmCQOTzi3M5Ru0DvDGdeRfp0.jpg\")
The Prodigal Son by Rembrandt [/caption] \n \n\nWe sin because we are sinners, and everyone is a sinner. But depending on the perspective, not everyone looks like one. Sin is deceptive. We learn to be self-justifiers, self-righteous, and self-affirming. But to be those things is to walk the path away from God. That is a path Jesus came to save us from.
In chapter 15 of his gospel, Luke tells the tale of two groups of people. Group One, the tax collectors and sinners, are evil and know it. Group Two, the Pharisees and scribes, are evil and don’t know it. Group One knows they don’t deserve Jesus but they seek him out anyway. Group Two thinks they’re better than Jesus so they judge his every move. They run him up the scales, weighing his actions against their many laws. He measures up to better than a sinner but worse than a Pharisee. He’s an in-between, not as bad as he could be, but far from perfect.
Group One is always welcomed by Jesus. He never shoos them away, hurrying to the next event. He lingers with them, asking for a drink of water from a well, entering their home for dinner, attending to their various illnesses. And Jesus’s patience with this group angers Group Two. But Group Two is always welcomed by Jesus as well. They, however, don’t really want him around. To them, he’s an interloper, a problem, a nuisance. He receives sinners and eats with them. He intentionally dirties himself in their presence, taking upon himself their filth. But what they don’t see is that the same Jesus who eats with sinners talks with the Pharisee. He comes into their space, enters their world, and calls all equally to repent and believe. Jesus receives all. Only one group, however, receives Jesus.
So Jesus takes his chance to show the heart of God to those who don’t know they need him. He tells them stories to sneak past their guarded hearts. And in so doing, he reveals to us today the massive heart of Christ for sinner and saint, for tax collector and rule-follower. He shows us how big the love of God really is.
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
The parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin are basically the same story. In each, something is lost, searched out, and found. Jesus is making a simple point. He came to search and find the one. He came to restore that which was lost. Charles Spurgeon put it this way, “The truth here taught is just this—that mercy stretches forth her hand to misery, that grace receives men as sinners, that it deals with demerit, unworthiness, and worthlessness; that those who think themselves righteous are not the objects of divine compassion, but the unrighteous, the guilty, and the undeserving, are the proper subjects for the infinite mercy of God; in a word, that salvation is not of merit but of grace.”
Since salvation is not of merit but of grace, God’s heart toward sinners is different than our heart often is. He’s not waiting for them to turn their lives around, he’s out there searching for them to bring them home. He’s on the move, even if they’re stuck in a cave or lost in the floorboards. He is not content on merely finding the lost one, he rejoices over its restoration. God searches for and finds the lost, one by one, until all his children are tucked safe in their eternal rooms. Then, he throws a heavenly party. Who would spend such time on one sheep or one coin? It seems excessive, doesn’t it? God’s love is like that: excessive, extravagant, lavish.
The sinners and tax collectors gathered around must have understood Jesus was referring to them. They were the lost sheep, the lost coin. Jesus had come looking for them, and they had been found! How many in the crowd had dined with him? How many had he healed? How many had received his smile, felt his touch, been warmed by his presence? And yet it was not to this group that Jesus directed his parables that day. He was not instructing the sinners. He was instructing the self-righteous Pharisees and scribes. The sinners and tax collectors had been found by Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes were still running from him.
They knew the law, but they did not know God. They looked at the letter and found rules to obey without seeing the heart to love. They ventured into the world with their Sunday best, shirt starched as stiffly as possible, Bible in hand, with a smile ready to produce. But their hearts were far from God because their hearts trusted in their good deeds rather than God’s good grace. Their mind was too occupied with obedience to see need. They were too full of themselves to be needy for Christ. They were lost and needed to be found. But they didn’t know it.
And Jesus was asking them a simple question: how far does God’s grace go? How far does his love stretch? How deep does it plunge? To the worst sinner? To the deepest depravity? To the best Pharisee? To the smartest scribe?
In each of these parables, Jesus includes two characters. The first is that which is lost. The second is the one who seeks. The lost must be found. But in each instance, the lost do not know they are lost. We have no indication the sheep understood his plight. He had no awareness of danger. He thought he was fine. The coin has no ability to see, it cannot understand, it doesn’t think. Each is lost, and each matters so much that the seeker leaves much to find the one.
The one who seeks wastes no time. The shepherd abandons the ninety-nine to look for the one. The woman sweeps the house over to uncover the coin. Time is not mentioned. Cost is not counted. All that matters is the one being returned to the many. And when it is, a party is thrown. It is not the sheep who stayed or the coins in the bank that were the cause of the party. It was the sheep that wandered, the coin that was lost. And everyone was invited to rejoice.
The Pharisees and scribes don’t know how to rejoice. Instead, when they see sinners coming to Jesus, they blame Jesus for being too lenient, not for being too gracious. They miss the wonder of his mercy thinking they deserve the party instead.
What about you? Can you rejoice in bad people being made good in Christ? Is there a certain test, designed by you, administered by you, and graded by you that one must pass to be included in God’s kingdom? The Pharisees and scribes had such a test, and Jesus couldn’t even pass it. Would your test exclude Jesus as well?
Jesus is calling the self-righteous to account in these stories. He’s showing us what his brother, James, said years later, “Judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:13).
11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” ’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”
The parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin prepare us for the parable of the prodigal son. Here, something again is lost. But we gain more insight. The lostness of the younger son is no accident. It is willful. He sins his way out of the house. But this story is about more than the son who left and came back. It’s a story also about the son who stayed and never entered. It’s a story in two parts, with two different ways of living, both taking us far from the Father’s heart.
The first way to live is seen in the younger brother. His is the way of rebellion. He leaves home, demanding his share of the inheritance early, a shocking request of his father, and to anyone else who heard. An inheritance is given at death, not during life. As the younger of two brothers, he would have been entitled to one-third of the father’s land and possessions. He’s basically saying to his dad, “I wish you were dead. I want my share now. I’m leaving.” And perhaps the most shocking thing of all is that the father gives it to him.
The younger brother’s way of living is what Tim Keller calls “self-discovery.” He says, “This paradigm holds that individuals must be free to pursue their own goals and self-actualization regardless of custom and convention. In this view, the world would be a far better place if tradition, prejudice, hierarchical authority, and other barriers to personal freedom were weakened or removed.”
The second way to live is seen in the older brother. His is the way of self-righteous obedience. It is not obedience out of love for another, but selfish obedience hoping to gain something from another through good works. This way of living despises the father just as much as the rebellious life, but it doesn’t look like it. Outwardly, it is composed, obedient, good. But inside, it is a storm of manipulation and selfishness. This way of living doesn’t care about the father. It cares about the father’s stuff, just like the rebellious life. “Give me what I’ve earned,” it says, even though earning has never been the father’s intention.
Tim Keller summarizes the two kinds of living for us.
What did the younger son want most in life? He chafed at having to partake of his family’s assets under the father’s supervision. He wanted to make his own decisions and have unfettered control of his portion of the wealth. How did he get that? He did it with a bold power play, a flagrant defiance of community standards, a declaration of complete independence.
What did the older son most want? If we think about it we realize that he wanted the same thing as his brother. He was just as resentful of the father as was the younger son. He, too, wanted the father’s goods rather than the father himself. However, while the younger brother went far away, the elder brother stayed close and “never disobeyed.” That was his way to get control. His unspoken demand is, “I have never disobeyed you! Now you have to do things in my life the way I want them to be done.”
The hearts of the two brothers were the same. Both sons resented their father’s authority and sought ways of getting out from under it. They each wanted to get into a position in which they could tell the father what to do. Each one, in other words, rebelled—but one did so by being very bad and the other by being extremely good. Both were alienated from the father’s heart; both were lost sons.
Do you realize, then, what Jesus is teaching? Neither son loved the father for himself. They both were using the father for their own self-centered ends rather than loving, enjoying, and serving him for his own sake. This means that you can rebel against God and be alienated from him either by breaking his rules or by keeping all of them diligently.
It’s a shocking message: Careful obedience to God’s law may serve as a strategy for rebelling against God.
The younger brother is rebellious. His actions in the story are very bad, without any justification to lessen the offense. He essentially tells his father he’s dead to him, and he wants his stuff so he can go far away from his dull life. And the father gives him what he wishes.
Let’s not let the weight of that pass over us. The father would have had most of his money wrapped up in land. To give the son what he demanded meant he must sell a portion of his land. Handing his money to the son meant watching another man move onto his old property. Who knows how long it took him to gain it? Had it been in the family for centuries? What would it cost him socially?
The younger son does not care. He cares only about getting out of this dumpy town and getting to the big city. He wants to spend his inheritance living life his way. So he does. And it’s a disaster. He goes through the money relatively quickly and finds himself in a pig sty longing for the kind of food the pigs have. His way of living didn’t pan out the way he hoped. Our fantasies of wild living never do. Sin is painful, even if at the beginning it feels good.
Eventually, the younger brother comes to himself. His senses become ordered rightly, perhaps for the first time in his life. His desires are altered, his wants unhinged and rehung. He wakes up and sees how far he’s come. The mud of the sty becomes too much, and he begins walking home.
In his desire to get out of his father’s house, he risked every relationship at home for the false joy of living life on his terms. But it didn’t work. He had some laughs. He enjoyed some good times. But in the end, it brought him lower than the unclean animals. He ran as far as he could, and it still wasn’t far enough. The memories of his father’s house wouldn’t fade. Now, he knows he can never be a son again, but he understands. If only he can be a servant, he will be glad. He rises and goes. He wants to see his father.
What was the sin of the younger brother? Was it squandering his inheritance on wild living? Was it spending everything his father gave? Yes, those are sins for sure. But those were symptoms of another, deeper sin: the sin of wanting to be his own god. The younger brother’s deepest, most damning sin was his insistence on living without God. But in grace, the father would not allow his son’s sins to keep him from being his son. He covered them with his very own robe, bringing him back without even hearing his plea for mercy. He runs to him—a no-no for men of his stature in that day. He welcomes him home and throws a party. He was lost, and now he is found.
The older brother would never do such a dishonorable thing to his father. But that’s not because he doesn’t want the same thing the younger brother wants. He’s just too cowardly to be so bold. His sins are subtle. He works long hours in the office, brings home enough atta-boys to keep his self-esteem high. But all the while, the same selfish desire for the father’s things rages inside. He’s awaiting his time to take hold, gladly accepting the role of the responsible one until the day draws near. The older brother is no better than the younger brother on the inside, though on the outside he appears obedient and loving. His sin is the same: he wants to be his own god. We see this in his conversation with the father as the party goes on inside.
Why did he serve his father? It wasn’t out of love for him. It was out of love for himself. His obedience was merely the gateway to the father’s things, not the pathway to the father’s heart. He was playing a game, one we all play at some time or another. We fall in line, doing what we must, paying our dues until the time comes at which we can grasp what we’ve always wanted. What we do is not done for the joy of doing it for the father. It’s done for the joy that will come when the father finally hands us his stuff. Tim Keller uses a story to illustrate this point.
Once upon a time there was a gardener who grew an enormous carrot. So he took it to his king and said, “My lord, this is the greatest carrot I’ve ever grown or ever will grow. Therefore I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you.” The king was touched and discerned the man’s heart, so as he turned to go the king said, “Wait! You are clearly a good steward of the earth. I own a plot of land right next to yours. I want to give it to you freely as a gift so you can garden it all.” And the gardener was amazed and delighted and went home rejoicing. But there was a nobleman at the king’s court who overhead all this. And he said, “My! If that is what you get for a carrot—what if you gave the king something better?” So the next day that nobleman came before the king and he was leading a handsome black stallion. He bowed low and said, “My lord, I breed horses and this is the greatest horse I’ve ever bred or ever will. Therefore I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you.” But the king discerned his heart and said thank you, and took the horse and merely dismissed him. The nobleman was perplexed. So the king said, “Let me explain. That gardener was giving me the carrot, but you were giving yourself the horse.”
It is possible to serve others—even God—in order to serve ourselves.
There is a striking change in this parable when compared to the other two. In the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, each lost thing is sought out. In the parable of the prodigal son, that element is missing. The younger son leaves home, and the father watches him go. No one goes looking for him. He comes home of his own accord.
Who should have searched for him? I believe that’s a question Jesus is raising. The Pharisees and scribes stood there with all the knowledge of the Bible without any of the evangelistic zeal of the Bible. They left the sinners to themselves when they held the good news of God’s grace and mercy at their fingertips. Why would they not reach out? Probably for the same reason the elder son wouldn’t. They didn’t want God as much as they wanted his stuff—in this case, the stamp of righteousness.
Jesus did not have to engage the Pharisees and scribes. He could have ignored them, left them, refused to speak to them. But he didn’t. Instead, he called them to repentance, not seeking that any should perish. But they wouldn’t listen. They had hardened their heart and would not yield to the Father’s wooing through his Son. Instead, they packed up their things and went to a foreign land. They refused to enter the party, wondering how those people could ever get in. They turned down the Father’s offer for the devil’s pledge.
As all grace does, the father’s grace to the older son is meant to push him into the house. But the son refuses. He doesn’t want to have a heart like his father’s because his heart has room only for himself. It’s not about what others deserve or don’t deserve as much as it’s about what he deserves and therefore what others cannot have.
These three parables show us one overarching truth: God loves sinners. And because he does, he sends his Son into the world to seek out and find the lost. Without God’s initiating love, we have no hope. We will either run from him in rebellion or stick close to him in self-righteousness, but we will never have salvation on our own. We may live within his walls but unless God comes to us in love and changes our heart we will never truly be home.
But Jesus is the shepherd looking for his lost sheep. He is the woman sweeping the house for the lost coin. He is the true elder brother leaving the father’s house to come look for the prodigal. He reaches all the way to the lowest, dirtiest sin, and all the way to the highest, ugliest self-righteousness. This parable is telling us one thing. When Jesus gets involved, no one stands a chance. He can clean anyone, from the self-righteous scoffer to the pigsty-dwelling rebel.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/6acf0e271fec75dd-feast-FwE3AazG6iNG9NWoShpuVTwhNzS5hT.jpg\")
\n \n\n1 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they could not reply to these things.
Jesus taught in the synagogue and, in Jewish custom, was invited to the home of the leading Pharisee for dinner. Following the script, Jesus attended. But he was watched closely by this group of legalists, and as he approached the house, he found a man with dropsy, a disease causing fluid build-up in the body tissue. He was swollen, with failing organs, and in intense pain. Jesus went to him, turned to the Pharisees and asked a question: “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” They remained silent. What can they say? If they say no, they prove to be unmerciful. But if they say yes, they violate their own law. They were trapped, and wholly dependent on whatever Jesus did next.
We are always in the same corner—dependent on Jesus’s next move. And here, something was rumbling beneath the surface. This was not only about physical illness that needed healing. It was also about spiritual sickness that required the Savior’s touch. The Pharisees saw the man with dropsy as a test. Jesus saw him as a need. The Pharisees wanted to see what Jesus would do so they could trap him. Jesus wanted to see what the Pharisees would do so he could teach them. The Pharisees saw a problem. Jesus saw an opportunity. Pride uses people. Humility serves them. And that is the spiritual sickness Jesus diagnosed at the doorstep. The Pharisees were sick but they didn’t see it. They felt fine, but the disease raging in their heart was more dangerous than dropsy. It wouldn’t only cut them off from human relationships on earth. Left unattended, it would cut them off from God in eternity.
7 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Notice the shift here. No one seems to be thinking of the man with dropsy, or of the miracle that just occurred. Instead, they’re worried about where they’ll sit at the dinner. They’re worried about what people think of them, who honors them, who respects them. And Jesus sees it all, recognizing it for the spiritual sickness it is. Pride is not a character flaw. It is an accusation about the goodness of God. It is saying to God, “Yes, your gifts are good, but I deserve more. I can’t wait around for your blessing to spring out of the low place. I want it now, so I’ll take the high place on my own.” But to do that is to cut the cord of blessing and begin living life on your own. And we know that never works out well.
That’s why we need the gospel to orient us at every moment, even at a dinner party. The gospel of Christ, when believed wholeheartedly, does not lift a man above others, it humbles him to the proper place among others. That’s hard to grasp. We are so like the Pharisees. We long to be exalted, and we deeply fear we never will be. So, when we have an opportunity, we squeeze our way into the front of the line, worried that if we don’t do it, no one ever will. We start conversations, not out of love for others but out of love for ourselves, hoping they’ll be able to help us climb to the top. We mill around the high places, wishing to be noticed, and, at the very least, to be included when it matters most. We all know pride comes before the fall. But that never stops us. We exalt ourselves and await greater exaltation.
As Jesus walked to the head of the table, everyone rushed to their seat. He saw the side-eyed glances, heard the huffed breath of frustration, felt the pressure rise in the room. He saw what they couldn’t. Their pride was running the show. Everyone was drunk on himself, angling for what they believed they deserved. They didn’t think again about the man with dropsy. They didn’t care that the Messiah was among them. They cared only for the honor they could attain, not for the honor they could bestow on another. And so, they were all on a path to disappointment that night. But even more, they were on the road to perdition.
Jesus saw the danger. Pride rages in the heart like a fire, burning down anyone standing in the way. It’s only goal is self-exaltation. But that is not the way we are to live. It never satisfies. When we are prideful, no matter how much others honor us, it will never be enough because in our mind we are worthy of so much more. It also never works. When we try to gain importance, we lose it. Someone of greater importance arrives and we hang our head as we take a lower seat. Even our most common events in life, such as a dinner party, are watched by the Lord, and he knows our heart. Who can love another or receive love from another when the only thought is who will win in the end? When what others think of you is all that matters, love is undercooked, and the dinner is sickening.
The kingdom of God is an upside-down kingdom. Up is down. Down is up. Humility exalts. Pride degrades. In our sin, we believe honor comes from what we do or who we become. So, when the opportunity arises, we throw ourselves at it. But honor can never be taken. It can only be received. What we think we’re doing in seeking honor will bring shame, and what we do in seeking the low place, away from the spotlight, will often return honor. Taking the low place gives room to be brought up. But taking the high place gives room only to go down.
As we walk into a room, there are two ways to think. One way is to think selfishly. It’s the “here I am” posture, where you’re just waiting for everyone to notice you. You think only of yourself, getting the highest seat at the table near the host, receiving dinner first, telling the funniest joke, receiving the warmest reception, noticing all the ways others are honored above you. The “here I am” posture is exhausting. It was the default posture of the Pharisees.
The other way is the “there you are” posture, where you’re looking for someone to bless. You think of others before yourself. You find the one who seems lost at the event and strike up a conversation. You sit at the low place because you want the high places for others. You are patient as the meal is served. You listen more than speak. You engage more than react. You honor all without expecting anything in return. The “there you are” posture is life-giving. It is the default posture of Jesus.
It’s hard to think of only yourself when you’ve set your mind to think of others. Though no one can see our heart as we walk in the room, over time, everyone will find it out. What we say, how we act, what we expect to receive will come out in how we treat everyone else. And if we think only of ourselves, everyone sees the ugliness inside, and we are shamed. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. The world sees this as upside down. But in the kingdom of God, it’s right side up.
In Philippians 2:3-11, the apostle Paul shows us how this works, using the life of Jesus as exhibit A.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
There is a difference between a person who appears to be humble and a humble person. There is true and false humility. The person who appears to be humble is only a different strain of the posturing people at this party. He is the one who sits at the low spot and awaits the place of honor, playing the game of humility when the end goal is exaltation. This is what the wicked do. They use the things of God as currency in the economy of their ego. But a humble person does no such thing. A humble person will sit at the low spot not expecting a place of honor, but so that he can honor those with and above him. He takes his place below because he understands he is no better than another. He takes his place among his brothers, not lording himself over them. He counts others more significant than himself, looking not to his own interests but to the interests of others.
We can see the difference in Jesus Christ. If he was merely appearing to be humble, he wouldn’t have come as a baby. He would have come on his white horse. He wouldn’t have submitted himself to shame. He would have come as a warrior, slaying his enemies. He wouldn’t have been patient with his apostles. He would have been hard with them for not recognizing him for who he was. He wouldn’t have endured the cross. He would have crucified his enemies. He wouldn’t have become nothing. He would have demanded everything. But Jesus didn’t merely appear to be humble. He was humble. And because he was, he endured the cross to save all of us self-exalting hypocrites. He emptied himself to make us full. He took the form of a servant to wash our feet. He was born as a man to save mankind. He obeyed to the point of death to undo the disobedience we’ve walked in forever. And because of all that—because he humbled himself—God highly exalted him. And if we are ever to find humility, we must look for it in Jesus Christ’s example. His gospel tells us we already have all the honor we need. God approves of us. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).
We already have all we need. When we believe the gospel, we become before the Lord merely servants of his cause. In the summer of 1966, Doug Nichols was working for Operation Mobilization, stationed in London. Each year, they hosted a large conference, and this year, he was working the clean-up crew. Tim Challies tells the rest of the story.
One night at around 12:30 AM he was sweeping the steps at the conference center when an older gentleman approached him and asked if this was where the conference was being held. Doug said that it was, but that just about everyone had already gone to bed. This man was dressed very simply and had just a small bag with him. He said that he was attending the conference. Doug replied he would try to find him a place to sleep and led him to a room where about 50 people were bunked down on the floor. The older gentleman had nothing to sleep on, so Doug laid down some padding and a blanket and offered a towel for a pillow. The man said that would be just fine and that he appreciated it very much.
Doug asked the man if he had been able to eat dinner. It turns out that he hadn’t eaten since he had been traveling all day. Doug took him to the dining room but it was locked. He soon jimmied the lock and found some cornflakes and milk and bread and jam. As the man ate, the two began to talk. The man said that he and his wife had been working in Switzerland for several years, where he had a small ministry that served hippies and travelers. He spoke about his work and spoke about some of the people he had seen turn to Christ. When he finished eating, both men turned in for the night.
Doug woke up the next morning only to find out that he was in big trouble. The conference leaders came to him and said, “Don’t you know who it was that you put on the floor last night? That’s Francis Schaeffer! He’s the speaker for this conference! We had a whole room set aside for him!”
Doug had no idea that he was sleeping on the floor next to a celebrity, that he had told a man to sleep on the floor who had a profoundly important ministry. He had no idea that this man had helped shape the Christian church of that day, and really, the church of our day. And Schaeffer never let on. In humility he had accepted his lot and been grateful for it.
Francis Schaeffer was one of the most well-known Christian leaders in the world. He already had the honor of speaking at the conference. But when he walked in that night, he did not look for the suite upstairs. He took what he was given because, to him, the mat on the floor was the proper place for a servant. And he was exalted in the end, both at the conference and in the story. This is a testament that the gospel doctrine Schaeffer preached was the gospel culture he lived. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
12 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
By this point, everyone at the party is offended by Jesus. He turns his attention now to the host. The guests were greedy honor grabbers, but the host is no better. Each person was invited for a reason, and the reason wasn’t love for them. It was love for himself. He was seeking the very thing they were all seeking: honor. He would receive it as each person walked through the door and subtly fought for a position next to him. The host may have looked forward to the meal, but his real appetite was for honor.
So, Jesus tells him not to invite his friends or brothers or relatives or rich neighbors to his party. If he does, they might invite him in return. That doesn’t sound bad, does it? In many places, inviting the host to your place is considered a kind gesture. It shows that you’re grateful for the invitation and want to bless in return. But if your party is filled with the movers and shakers of your world, an invitation to another’s party can be simply a selfish move, attracting attention from the right people to further your agenda. This was, apparently, what the Pharisee was doing here. He was more concerned with flattery than honor.
We are almost unable to think long-term. We think primarily in short-term gains and losses, hoping short-term gains turn into long-term success. And so, when the host crafts his guest list, he does it with the hopes of being repaid very soon. Because of that, his guest list includes all those who can do something for him. But Jesus says to think about short-term repayments is to forget the long-term repayments of great value. The true repayment comes far out in the future, even in the resurrection.
The point of this parable is to get us thinking, as all of Jesus’s parables do. Of course, Jesus isn’t commanding us to never eat with our friends, family, or neighbors. Instead, he’s asking a very pointed question: when was the last time you did something for someone that can do nothing for you? Furthermore, when was the last time you did something for someone that can do nothing for you, especially when it will cost you something for which you can never be repaid?
If we serve God only in the public square, where the trumpet sounds our good deeds, calling all to praise us, beware. It’s possible we’ve received all the reward we will ever get. But if we serve God in the alleys and side-streets, sitting in the dirt with those who need a friend, we may not be seen by others, but we will be seen by God, and his rewards are more precious than gold.
Jesus brought to this party more than anyone could have expected—all of it offensive. From the healing at the doorstep on the Sabbath to the parables offending both the guests and the host, Jesus was the ultimate party pooper. But, from time to time, we need such party-pooping. There are dynamics at play in us and in others that we’re so used to we can’t even see them. And it is grace when they’re revealed for what they really are.
If Jesus threw the party who would he have invited? That’s how the story wraps up, with a parable we’ve already considered in previous weeks, the parable of the great banquet. A man throws a great banquet and invites many. But when the time comes, the many don’t arrive. They all have excuses. So he sends his servant out to invite the poor, crippled, and lame. And they come. Those who refused before can’t find a seat at the table if they change their mind. They missed their chance.
Here’s the point: if we don’t humble ourselves before the Lord, accepting what he has offered, we will find ourselves on the outside looking in when we had a chance to be inside as the party went long into the night. Our pride will rip our ticket in two only to find that what we long for is inside the banquet hall.
What kind of people does Jesus invite to his party? Everyone, but few will come. The ones who will are the ones who are happy just to be included. They are those who can give nothing because they have nothing. They are those who find the door shut in their face, who see others cross the road when they approach, who rarely have the privilege of meeting another person’s eyes with love. They are the forgotten, the outcast, the down-hearted. They have none of this world’s honor. They own all this world’s shame. Their life is a mess, and they have nothing left to give. So when Jesus comes, they run to the man who told them all they ever did. And they find the Christ.
What do you make of yourself? Do you hold yourself in high regard, expecting the high place of honor at the table? Or do you see yourself rightly, as merely a servant happy to be involved? Do you see yourself to be as poor, pitiful, needy as you truly are, or has your inflated ego ballooned to such a size that you cannot see around it? If the Son of Man were to walk past you in shabby clothes, would you even want to be near him? Or would you pass to the other side as the rich man comes strolling down the sidewalk?
At this party, Jesus is making an invitation to guest and host alike. Will you come to the party I’m throwing? It’s not the kind you’re attending now. The rules are different. A man with dropsy might be there too. But don’t worry, he won’t sit next to you. He’ll be at my right hand. Will you still come?
It may be that God leads you to a dinner party where everyone is so full of pride that your ego can’t find a seat. Then Jesus will walk in the room and show you what’s really going on, and you’ll gladly take a seat at the end of the table just for the privilege of dining with Christ. It is a grace that Jesus teaches us to be humble, and an even greater grace that he keeps us when we’re not.
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/c32ce49fe124e351-image-asset-tWHkKQbg2mtXXfQ6kSl6SeFMQ8Pi5L.jpeg\")
Photo by Frederic Audet on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nThe Parable of the Barren Fig Tree - Luke 13:1-9
1 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” 6 And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
William Earnest Henley penned the following poem in 1875.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
That’s a ridiculous poem. But it is very famous and well-loved by many because they believe they are the captain of their soul. Our culture looks upon such people as brave, courageous. But we are not as in control of our lives as we like to think. We are, no matter what we do, fragile, always a breath away from death. And when tragedy strikes and people die in a sudden, shocking manner, we see we aren’t ultimately the master of our fate or the captain of our soul. We cannot stop the death that is coming for us, no matter the circumstances. And especially when death is tragic, as we saw in Las Vegas this past weekend, many wonder: who sinned? Why did it happen to them? What did they do wrong?
That’s the context of the parable of the fig tree. Jesus is answering questions about how to interpret tragic events. When disaster falls unexpectedly, how do we think about them? What should the response be? Jesus uses it as an opportunity to teach us about the constant need for repentance. What do we do in the face of tragedy? Repent.
Who is the captain of your soul? That is the question Jesus is asking. William Earnest Henley got the answer wrong. He was not his own master. If he was, he would still be alive. But death comes for us all. And in death’s dark night, what will be your response? What is it now, while the daylight still shines? If it’s not repentance, you’re doing it wrong.
Martin Luther opened his 95 Theses with, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” Repentance, to Martin Luther and to Jesus, was not one part of the Christian life, relegated to the first of many steps in the Christian’s path to glory. It was, rather, the ground upon which one walked to glory—not merely a stone to be climbed at the beginning but the pebbles leading the way.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines repentance as “a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.”
Repentance is not only turning from your sin. It is turning to God. It’s not just feeling sorry. It’s being convicted, becoming inwardly humbled and visibly reformed. It’s a directional change in your life from sin to God.
It’s one of the foundations of Christianity, mentioned over 60 times in the NT. Jesus’ first words in his ministry were “Repent, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). You can’t understand Christianity without it.
Repentance is three things. It is turning from sin, turning to God, and believing the gospel. Let’s consider each briefly.
Turning from Sin
We can never begin to repent unless we first see our need to repent. Our need to repent is seen most clearly when we see our sin clearly. When confronted with the ugliness inside, we see a need for righteousness that we cannot achieve on our own merit. We see the stain of sin, the guilt of sin, the brokenness of sin, and we want with all our heart to turn from it.
We do not sin in generalities. We sin specifically. Therefore, it helps to be specific with our sin in repentance. Repentance begins when we see the specifics, when we stop generalizing and begin specifying. When we begin using I and my in relation to our sin, we step onto the road to repentance. Personalizing our sin creates sorrow over it, and we start hating our sin when we see what it does to our relationship with God. You’ll never turn from a sin you don’t hate.
Sin is always first against God. Every sin you’ve committed is because you loved something else more than God. And it doesn’t all happen at once. We sin step by step, smaller to greater. The earlier we repent, the safer we will be. That’s the point Jesus is making. When bad things happen, use them as an opportunity to repent. See your need before God and turn from sin.
Turning to God
If we think of repentance as only turning from sin, we won’t ever do it. We can’t. It’s too ingrained, too powerful, too alluring. What we need is a power greater than our sin. 19th-century pastor, Thomas Chalmers said we need the expulsive power of a new affection. We need a greater love to drive out our love of sin. And there is no greater love than God’s love.
We need to understand God’s heart toward sinners. King David understood this well, and he records it for us in Psalm 51. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love and abundant mercy.” He’s not demanding something from God but pleading something from God. He pleads God’s own promises using covenant language, God’s “steadfast love”—the love he promised to have for his people for all time. He pleads for God’s abundant mercy, the kind of tenderness a mother has with her child. In David’s fall into sin, he pleaded for God to be God to him. He turned to God to find the remedy for his sinful heart. The lower we go in repentance, the clearer we see God. Sin clouds our vision. Repentance cleans the window. In repentance, we position ourselves under the grace of God, waiting on him to pour it out. Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke comments, “Standing in the deep, dark hole of his sin, David looks up and sees stars of God’s grace that those who stand in the noonday sunlight of their own self-righteousness never see.”
Repentance is often view negatively. It is the thing we do when we sin or something bad happens. But Jesus doesn’t want us to repent only in the bad times. He wants us to repent in the good times too, because in the good times, we often attribute the goodness to ourselves. We think we’ve done something right, something deserving. But that is dangerous as well. We are not worthy of one single good thing in our life. If something good happens, it is because the Lord is being gracious and merciful to us. So, when something bad happens, repent. When something good happens, repent. We’re never free from the need to repent. We must always turn to God.
Believe the Gospel
In repentance, God doesn’t abandon. He heals. But it’s not painless. In C.S. Lewis’s book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, there is a selfish boy named Eustace. He loved his treasures more than anything else, and one night he falls asleep with a gold bracelet on his arm, so happy to have it. He transforms into a dragon, becoming an outward manifestation of his inward selfishness and greed. He’s driven from humanity and in a moment of loneliness begins to cry. Aslan, a great lion, the Jesus figure, arrives. He offers to help Eustace remove his dragon-ness by removing the dragon skin. Eustace tries himself but to no avail. Aslan offers to help.
“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off...
Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off — just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt — and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me — I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on — and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again...
After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me...in new clothes.”
To repent is to be de-dragoned, to be de-sinned. In repentance, we’re not asking God to be anything he isn’t. Aslan wasn’t unwilling to clean. It was Eustace who wanted to do things on his own. When Eustace finally asked for help, it flooded in. In repentance, we’re asking God to be all that he promises to be to us: heart-cleanser, spirit-renewer, Holy Spirit-giver, joy-restorer, life-upholder, sin-remover. When God washes us in his grace, we get our humanity back, we transform from dragon to boy. He blots out our iniquities, cutting it out of the official record book and throwing it away. He keeps us and recreates us. The bones that are broken don’t just mend, they dance. As soon as we admit to ourselves who we are and what we’ve done, we feel God drawing near. We see his truth coming down to us, teaching us things that we could not otherwise know.
Repentance itself is a grace. You may not see what you need to repent of right now. But in God’s timing, he will reveal it. The prime mover in your relationship with God is God, and he loves you too much to let you remain unrepentant. God created you; he loves you; he’ll bring you back to himself. And if you build your life on repentance before God, no matter what happens—good or bad—you will find yourself coming continually back to God in humility, and if some tragedy befalls you, you will have the pure conscience of one who lived open before God, honest with him about who you are and who he is. Repentance always moves us close to God. That’s why we must do it constantly. The gospel alone compels us to repent and has the power to change us. Only in the gospel do we have a message that says, “I know you’ve sinned, but your sin can’t keep my love from you because I paid the penalty for it.” We can deny our sin, we can beat ourselves up over our sin, or we can believe the gospel that God’s love has covered our sin. The greatest power for change is always love.
Until we understand repentance, we will not understand the parable of the fig tree. After answering the questions of the crowd regarding the two tragedies (Pilate’s murder and the Tower of Siloam), Jesus reinforces his message with the parable of the fig tree.
A man plants a fig tree in his vineyard, but it never produces fruit. He comes year after year, for three years, to harvest and finds nothing each time. So, he says to the vinedresser, “Cut it down.” But the vinedresser asks for another year to cultivate fruit. If it fails another year, he’ll cut it down. The parable is short. It’s simple. But what is it telling us?
We can see the truth of the parable by looking back at the truth of Israel in the Old Testament. In fact, the fig tree imagery was used throughout. Hosea 9:10, for example, says, “Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved.” Israel failed to bear fruit as they should. They even bore some fruit, but they failed to bear what they should have.
Israel’s lack of fruitfulness was not due to any lack in the provisions of God. They were not planted in the wrong spot, as it were. They were planted by streams of living water and yet still found a way to fail. God gave them every spiritual advantage. He gave his word, his covenant promises, his sacrificial system, his prophets and kings and priests. And yet Israel failed to bear fruit. Now, in the presence of Jesus, Israel stands side by side with the Messiah. Will they finally bear the fruit they should?
This barren fig tree was a problem for the owner of the vineyard. It was taking up space. That space could have been used for another tree, another plant, something that would bear fruit and bring prosperity to the owner. As it was, the fig tree was using the ground, the soil, and the vinedresser’s time that could be better used elsewhere. After all, what good is a fig tree without figs? Should he not cut it down and use the resources for some other purpose?
In the same way, what good is a man without an open heart toward God? What good can come of an unrepentant sinner? Should not God cut the man down and spend his resources elsewhere? The logic is sound, and Jesus uses this to send a message to his audience. “Do not worry about what sins these people had,” Jesus says. “Instead, worry about your own heart before God. Are you fruitful in repentance? If not, perhaps God will cut you down as well, and use the space you’re taking up for some other purpose. Do not look at these tragedies and wonder about their souls. Look at these tragedies and wonder about your own soul. Repent, for you know not when God will end your days.”
This is a sobering message—one we must not ignore. Jesus is not saying we do not matter. We are image bearers, his creation. But as his creation, we must do what he has commanded: love him and love our neighbor. This parable drives us to an evaluation of our own life. Are we fruitful? Are we bearing the good fruit of repentance? Are we growing, changing, sprouting forth new chutes? Or are we scrawny, fruitless, barren? It is not wrong to do such searching within. Many Christians avoid introspection because they feel it may lead to self-condemnation or poor self-esteem. Indeed, it may. But understanding ourselves as we truly are is not anti-Christian. A lack of looking within is anti-Christian. To go along assuming you’re fine and nothing in your life needs to change is anti-Christian. Christians should seek to live a life fully pleasing to God (Colossians 1:10). How can we do that if we never evaluate our heart before the one whom we are to please?
Of course, it is possible to focus so much on yourself that you become a motionless paralytic in your Christian life. We are sinners, that is true. But a Christian is a redeemed sinner. God is at work in our life, and to refuse to accept his growth strategy for us is to lop off our own limbs. We are not in control of our growth—God is—but we must not hinder his work of grace in our life. We must stay low before him in repentance.
When you look at your life, do you see fruit? If so, what do you see? If not, why not? What’s going on in your life that hinders fruitfulness? What do you need to repent of?
There is a very important aspect of this parable. Our focus on repentance is right. It is, after all, Jesus’s main point. But we must not look at this parable as a hopeless, merely terrifying example of what may happen. We must also see the grace and mercy residing within. Notice: the vinedresser is given another year to work fruit out of the fig tree. He gets to work, putting manure around it, cultivating it for fruit. Time remains. What will happen with it?
We are all fruitless to some degree, are we not? Even if we are doing well in one area, there are other areas of failure, or fruitlessness. But God is not calling us to account right now. We have this moment before him. What will we do with it? He may call us to account five minutes from now, but right now we’re here, alive, with an opportunity to live for him.
We don’t often think that way, do we? We see some moments as opportunities to live for God, but, by and large, we see the ordinary moments as stepping stones to the next big thing. We even have phrases (which I hate), “killing time” or “wasting time,” as if we have any to kill or waste. Every second of our life is a second to either live for God or not. What are you doing with the time you have? If God came now to examine your branches, would he find fruit or would he command the saw?
Let not the weight of this parable pass over you. Feel it. Let it sink in. Repent. The window of our life is not open forever. One day, death will make its dreadful call to our house. He will enter and unapologetically remove us from this world. But that time has not yet come. What will we do with the time that remains?
God is patient with us. He gives us time to think through our life. He warns us, giving us minds to understand and ears to hear his word. But we must act. We must respond to him. We cannot go through our life with the knowledge we’ve been given through the Bible and remain unchanged. We should seek to live before the Lord, fully pleasing to him.
Of course, we must remember that we cannot create fruit on our own any more than the fig tree can command itself to bear figs. But we can respond to the working of our vinedresser. We can allow him to do his work in our life.
What is Jesus doing in your life right now? Whatever it is, it probably isn’t easy to endure. Our sin makes God’s work in our heart feel painful. We create idols that God must kill. We have sin that must be surgically removed. The work of grace is wonderful, but it hurts. And even when we believe things are going well, God doesn’t stop at “good enough.” He aims for glory, and he’s bringing us there, step by step, throughout this life. That means even the branches with fruit may be cut off if God sees fit. His work is the work of the Divine Vinedresser, and he knows what he’s doing. We are merely the tree. We don’t know what’s best for us. But God does. So, in his grace and mercy, he will take measures that seem harsh to us but, in the end, are glorious.
In John 15, Jesus told us,
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
Every branch that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. That means that no matter what the Divine Vinedresser finds when he comes to us, we will not remain the same. He will cut us down completely or cut fruitful parts away, but we will not remain unchanged. Therefore, every single moment before the Lord is a moment of repentance. And when he takes even the fruitful branches away, we can be certain that his purposes are good. He’s giving us more time to live for him and to bear more fruit. So we accept his work with gladness and ask the Lord to search our heart that we may live in openness before him all our days. After all, we are merely a fig tree, planted in this world by the owner of it. We have no right not to bear fruit for him. We have every advantage to produce what is pleasing in his sight. And, the best news of all, even when we mess it up, the Divine Vinedresser is there to cultivate in us what he longs for us to be. We are never hopeless. We are never alone, without help. We are always in the presence of the one who can mend our broken heart, prune our branches, till our soil, and feed our soul.
In Christ, our soul has been conquered by his grace. Our head is bowed before his mercy. Our fears are stilled by his love. We are not the master of our fate nor the captain of our soul. We are instead the tree planted in his field, his to do what he sees fit. There is no better place to be.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/f7459d7f2d3d5e7e-image-asset-P3HdZDh78IBNLqfVSsT3diAIuJAwDJ.jpeg\")
\n \n\n25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Luke 10:25-37 contains two conversations. The first occurs in verses 25-28. The lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responds with his own question. “Lawyer, what does the law say you must do?” The lawyer answers with God’s word from Deuteronomy 6:5. Jesus responds, “Do this, and you will live.” These questions are both about what one must do to inherit life.
The second conversation takes place in verses 29-37, and it expands on the first. The lawyer asks Jesus another question. “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus responds, once again, with a question, “Which of these proved to be a neighbor?” The question is set up by the parable. The lawyer answers, “the one who showed mercy proved to be the neighbor.” Jesus responds, “You go, and do likewise.” In other words, to inherit eternal life (by the way, how can one inherit anything? Inheritance is given, not gained) all the lawyer must do is love God and his neighbor without fail for the entirety of his life. Go, and do that, Jesus says.
Of course, the lawyer can’t do this. No one can. The Bible says our sinful heart is inherited, and therefore the only path out of sin is through Jesus Christ, the new Adam (Romans 5:12-21). If we are to inherit eternal life, it can’t be anything that we do. It must be done for us. Try as we may, we can never attain the righteousness required to reach everlasting life.
Is Jesus contradicting that teaching? Is he saying if we do good deeds we will gain heaven? Hardly. He’s reinforcing the teaching. The lawyer should see that he could never live up to such a high standard. But instead of falling on his knees before Christ and asking for mercy, he rises once again to ask another question. “Fine. I see the requirement. Who then is my neighbor that I must love? Let’s settle that, and I’ll be on my way.”
This question was one of self-justification. Luke tells us as much in verse 29, “But he, desiring to justify himself…” Justification is the entryway into eternal life. The lawyer knew he couldn’t stand before God in his sin. So if his sin is shed and justification achieved through loving God, which he obviously does, then all he has to do is love his neighbor as himself, which he probably does. Then, he can waltz into everlasting life like he owns the place.
Or can he?
A few Old Testament texts would have given the lawyer an idea of who this neighbor may be. Leviticus 19:18 says, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” So, is the neighbor the one “among your people?” Leviticus 19:33-34 says, “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” Is he the stranger come in among God’s people? He could be either. And this lawyer knows that, and he’s loved both of those people.
So when Jesus answers the lawyer with the parable of the good Samaritan, it is not only a surprise, it’s a scandal. The Samaritans and Jews did not get along. They were not sons of Israel or strangers dwelling among them. They were outsiders, made that way by their own doing. They were people of Israelite and foreign descent. Therefore, the Jews saw them as disobedient to God’s law and condemned. And the Samaritans had no love in their heart for the Jew either. They used a different Pentateuch as their Bible. They worshipped on a different mountain. They had not only ethnics lines, but religious as well.
So, the lawyer was surprised, and probably a little confused. Go and love my neighbor who may be my enemy? The lawyer may have thought, “Wait, what about God’s word in Psalm 139:21-22? ‘Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.’ Aren’t there some lines, Jesus?”
Lines, yes, of course. We draw them all the time. But what we draw in permanent marker is erasable in God’s hand. For whom did Jesus come? For his friends or his enemies? The answer provides the insight.
The lawyer, seeking to justify himself, asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” He was attempting to limit his love. Jesus aimed to broaden it. And so, he told a story.
There was a man going down from Jerusalem who fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and left. We don’t know who this man is, but traditionally, it has been assumed he is a Jew. That would make sense given Jesus’s radical intent. It wasn’t uncommon for violence to spring up on the Jericho road. It was one of the most dangerous roads in the history of the world. But it was a direct route to Jerusalem, so it was often traveled. And here goes this man, probably Jewish, down this dangerous road, and he falls among robbers. Robbers didn’t make it a habit of beating people who didn’t resist. Most likely, this man resisted the robbery. Thus, he was beaten and left for dead.
Then, along comes a priest.
The priest would have been coming from Jerusalem, his priestly duties finished for the time being. God’s law forbade him from touching a dead man. It would make him unclean and require a week-long process of ceremonial purification—no doubt an unwelcome prospect to a tired man longing for home.
It would have been the priest’s duty to care for this Jewish man. But as it was, he could not determine his ethnicity. He was stripped and beaten. So, instead of reaching down to help, he refused to touch him at all, passing instead to the other side of the road. He saw and did nothing. For the priest, the risk versus the reward was too high.
Then, along comes a Levite.
The Levite is in the same boat as the priest, although to a lesser degree. They functioned, basically, as assistants to the priests. Kenneth Bailey, in his book, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, says perhaps the Levite was merely following the priest’s precedent.
This particular Levite probably knew that a priest was ahead of him on the road and may have been an assistant to that same priest. Since the priest had set a precedent, the Levite could pass by with an easy conscience. Should a mere Levite upstage a priest? Did the Levite think he understood the law better than the priest? Furthermore, the Levite might have to face that same priest in Jericho that night. Could the Levite ride into Jericho with a wounded man whom the priest, in obedience to his understanding of the law, had opted to ignore? Such an act would be an insult to the priest!
Instead of doing the right thing, the Levite followed his priestly leader in doing the wrong thing. It is never a good idea to ignore the opportunity to love that God sets before us just because others have passed by. But the Levite saw, and did nothing, passing to the other side.
Then, along comes a Samaritan.
It’s not the priest or the Levite who stops to help the fallen man. It is a Samaritan. We don’t understand the shock value of this because we simply don’t have a group of people we hate as much as the Jews hated the Samaritans. Everyone listening would have expected the third man to be a Jewish layman. A Jew helping a Jew made perfect sense if he could tell he was a Jew. But Jesus doesn’t say that. Instead, he includes a Samaritan—so shocking that the audience probably gasped.
The Samaritan’s cost was high. He had to use all his available resources. Oil and wine were often used together for medicinal purposes, but they were not cheap. He used his own clothes to wash him and bind him—cloth, no doubt, to be used for other things. He set him on his own animal, meaning he’d have to walk slowly through the most dangerous road in the world. It was slow, energy-zapping, and resource-draining.
But he didn’t stop there. He carries the wounded man into a village, to an inn, where other Jews would have seen him. What must they have thought as he walked beside his beast holding a wounded Jew? Upon his arrival at the inn, he gave the innkeeper a promise to repay any expense related to the wounded man. Who knows how long it would take to heal? It could mean he’d lose everything. Helping required much, yet he did all he could, doing what the priest and the Levite should have. He undoes the robbery of the thieves by spending his own money on his restoration. Why? He had compassion. The Samaritan doesn’t merely love his neighbor; he loves his enemy.
The lawyer wants self-justification. “Fine,” Jesus says, “Go, and do likewise. Do this, and you’ll live.”
But can he do it? Can we?
Each of us is traveling down some road. It may not be the dangerous way to Jericho. If it is, then you can feel the need. Every person along the way needs something. But most of us don’t travel down treacherous paths. We travel instead down newly paved streets with cool air conditioner blowing in our face. We drive into our garages and walk into our homes much of world would find astonishing. We sit down on our couch at the end of the day and let the images of consumeristic propaganda tell us the lies that more stuff will lead to more joy. We fall to sleep from the light of our smartphone as we allow the enemy to sing the demented lullaby that world isn’t ok, but it’s out there, not in here. We become like Hezekiah, sleeping easily. “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?” (1 Kings 20:19)
We are more like the priest than we want to believe. We serve God during the day, in the light of the temple, and on the way home with our private thoughts, we focus our love on ourselves. We have as many reasons for not stopping as the priest did. It’s been a long day. We need the rest. It will put us off course. And so on.
We are the Levite, too. Seeing the failures of others but not recognizing them as such. The norm of our leaders becomes to us the way of our life. We feel no guilt because there is no guilt to be felt—not from above, anyway, and isn’t that what really matters?
And too often, we are not the good Samaritan. We pass by the other side instead of bending down low to raise up high. We want to love, but we haven’t yet put ourselves in the place where love is the only path forward. Ignoring need, or even helping from afar is not the way to love, it’s the veneer of love, ready to crack at the slightest unpredictable movement. Love can only be real when it becomes part of the foundation—steady, constant, upholding, immovable.
So, what is our path forward? Why did Jesus tell such a parable? Well, he told it because a lawyer wanted self-justification, and used his opportunity with Jesus to get it. But Jesus doesn’t use this opportunity with this man to ease his conscience. He troubles it instead. A troubled conscience can be a gift from God, cracking the veneer of love to show the truth behind the wall. Do we love the people God loves? Do we serve the “least of these,” or do we pass by the other side? It will cost us. Are we willing to pay the cost? The Scottish pastor of the 1800s, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, puts it bluntly.
“I fear there are some Christians among you to whom Christ cannot say ‘Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.’ Your haughty dwelling arises in the midst of thousands who have scarce a fire to warm themselves at and have but little clothing to keep out the biting frost, and yet you never darkened their door. You heave a sigh perhaps at a distance, but you do not visit them. Ah my dear friends, I am concerned for the poor, but more for you. I know not what Christ will say to you on the great day. You seem to be Christians, and yet you care not for his poor. Oh, what a change will pass upon you as you enter the gates of heaven! You will be saved, but that will be all. There will be no abundant entrance for you. ‘He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly.’
And I fear that there may be many hearing me who may know well that they are not Christians, because they do not love to give. To give largely and liberally, not grudging at all, requires a new heart. An old heart would rather part with its life-blood than its money. Oh my friends, enjoy your money. Make the most of it. Give none of it away. Enjoy it quickly, for I can tell you, you will be beggars throughout eternity.”
Many have wondered (and you may have as well) why Jesus didn’t refer to himself in his answer to the lawyer. After all, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). When the lawyer asked how to inherit eternal life, why would Jesus not say, “Come to me”?
This lawyer was not a civil lawyer. He was a theological lawyer. He knew God’s law. And he came to Jesus with a test, not a request. His motives were not pure. He tried to bring Jesus down. And in his attempt to lower Jesus, Jesus set the bar of righteousness higher.
Jesus asked him a question the lawyer would know the answer to. Jesus had summarized the law in Matthew 22:37-39 the same way. Perhaps this lawyer knew that. At any rate, Jesus affirms the lawyer’s answer from Deuteronomy 6:5 and then tells him, do this, and you’ll live. The lawyer answers Jesus with the law of God. Jesus didn’t point to himself directly in his response to the lawyer because the lawyer wasn’t trying to point to Jesus in his question. He was trying to trap Jesus. So, Jesus traps the lawyer. He affirms his checklist of righteousness and adds to it an overwhelming requirement: love this much. Jesus drives the lawyer beyond the simple answer into the heart of God’s true answer—the law is not what we can do. Rather, it is what only God can do in us by his Spirit. Jesus didn’t point to himself as the way to eternal life because the lawyer wasn’t looking for the way of the Messiah. He was looking for the way of the theologically precise rule follower.
But of course, if we have eyes to see, Jesus did, in fact, point to himself. He did it indirectly. He calls the lawyer to self-sacrificial love, and in doing so, calls him to himself, for only in Christ can such sacrificial love take root and grow.
In this parable, who is the good Samaritan?
The lawyer isn’t.
We aren’t.
Jesus is.
He didn’t pass us by. He couldn’t pass us by. He looked upon a dying world and not only stopped to help us as he was passing through, he passed through for the very reason of saving us. Without his passage, there is no hope. Without the blessed Savior bending down and pouring oil and wine on us, putting us on his back, carrying us to an inn where we are provided for and paying the full cost of our healing, we are left for dead in the ditch, and no one else is coming by. He’s the Great Helper. He’s the one with great Compassion. He’s the Great Binder of Wounds. He’s the Great Healer. He’s the Great Provider. He’s our Great God. He’s everything we needed when we were wounded by our own sin, lying in a pool of our own blood completely unconscious of what our true state was. He came. He helped. He lifted us up and placed us in the Great Inn of his Father because he is the Great Neighbor. Because Jesus went and did likewise, we can now come and be healed by his love.
And through his mercy and grace, in the power he provides, we can go and do likewise. But we cannot do it on our own. We cannot do anything to inherit eternal life. All we can do is die to the life of doing so that we may rise with Christ to the life of love. Most love isn’t the doing of anything. Most love is about presence, not action. It’s about being with, not doing for. And until we’ve seen the great work of Christ and realize his presence with us by his Spirit, we will never have the love for our neighbor to be the good Samaritan. We will always count the cost, always weigh the options, always pass to the other side, because we cannot bear the call. But when we come to Christ with our wounds, and he binds us up, we have a new power within, giving us new eyes to see real needs. And we press on with the Spirit-given love where we can “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).
Without Christ, the true good Samaritan, we have no hope. Without him, we can do nothing. Without him, we cannot go and do likewise. We must have him, and he must come to us.
Jesus’s work doesn’t remove this call to go and do likewise; it frees us from the condemnation of failing to do it, and gives us the power to go. Jesus Christ is the engine behind all true acts of mercy. We see that we do this because the Lord our God has shown mercy to us. The gospel tells us that Jesus has saved us from our wretchedness. He's saved us from our selfishness and sent us out into the good works that he’s prepared beforehand (Ephesians 2:10). In Christ, we are propelled into a new world that isn’t like the old. It’s full of mercy and grace, and we have the privilege of serving the least of these. Let us no longer do it out of a sense of duty or obligation. That never drives us to true service. Only love can. And love has come down to us in Christ. In the fullness of his joy, then, and to the praise of the glory of his grace, let us go and do likewise.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/7b007b8625f74102-image-asset-ctviWlILfi28lAsFYWOUGIBzppU1XF.jpeg\")
\n \n\n13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
In his sermon on this passage, Bishop Hugh Latimer began by repeating the phrase, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness” three times. Then, he said, “What if I should say nothing else?” Tim Keller begins his sermon on this passage with the reading of the text, followed by “This is God’s word…unfortunately.”
Obviously, this passage is hard for us to hear. Especially for Western, wealthy ears, this message is not only hard but vital. What we do with these words will set us on the course toward the kingdom of heaven or away from it.
Talking about money is never easy in the church. Maybe in other parts of the world it’s different, but in America, talking about money in the church is something pastors know they should do, but often rarely do. There may be one Sunday a year set aside to address it, and even that is a struggle. But Jesus talks about money a lot. In fact, eleven of Jesus’s thirty-nine parables were about our handling of money. Tim Keller says that at least 28% of the time Jesus spoke, he talked about money. But money is a topic most of the church in America ignores from the pulpit and Bible study.
Today, we can’t ignore it.
Our life on earth does not last long. When we’re young, we like to believe we have many years to sort everything out. But the reality is, we have almost no time at all. Our life is a breath. Neglecting to put first things first is not merely a misappropriation of our priorities; it is a denial and rejection of the call of Christ. If we do not listen to God now, we cannot be assured we will listen to him later. “Later” may never come. God may call us to account tonight. Therefore, our time to make a dent in church history is right now, today.
So, who is Jesus talking to?
In Luke 12, Jesus speaks to his disciples as a crowd of many thousands gathers around to listen. He tells them to beware the leaven of the Pharisees, not to fear or be anxious, to acknowledge Christ before men. Then, a man from the crowd butts in to ask a question. “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But Jesus doesn’t answer him. Instead, he responds, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?”
The parable of the rich fool is not a response to the man who asked this question. Jesus didn’t tell the man—or the crowds—the parable. Notice verse 15 says, “And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Jesus doesn’t respond to the man with a bit of wisdom. He uses the man’s folly as the opportunity to teach his disciples. Jesus was not going to judge his case; he was going to teach his people. This wasn’t a word for the crowds, but they gathered around, trampling on one another to listen in.
So, what does Jesus tell them? And in the story, what is he telling us? He’s telling us three things: take care, be aware, be rich.
This parable is launched out of an example of covetousness. Jesus warns us to take care, to be on guard, because we tend to make our lives about the abundance of possessions. We don’t mean to, but it seeps in. We begin thinking the next thing is the final thing, but it never is. It’s only one more thing in the line of many others. Over time, we cram our lives so full of the stuff of the world that we begin to call wants needs and needs become expectations.
We know at the intellectual level that possessions do not make up the most important part of our life. But that knowledge doesn’t do anything to stop us. It’s not a knowledge problem, after all. It’s a heart problem. What we’re seeking when we seek possessions is the security that only comes from Christ, and until we bank all our hope on Christ’s storehouses of grace, we will stuff our lives—even build larger storehouses—with things of the world. And we will do it in the name of responsibility. We will do it in the name of prudence. We will do it in the name of care. But what is it that we’re taking care of? Jesus says it’s not our heart, and that’s the problem.
When Jesus tells his disciples that a man’s life doesn’t consist in the abundance of his possessions, he’s saying that a man does not exist in his possessions. This man from the crowd is asking Jesus to divide his brother’s wealth with him and in so doing asking Jesus to give him what he believes to be his life. But Jesus won’t do it because that’s not his job. His job isn’t to be a judge between two men and their money. His job is to tell us what life really is—what it truly consists of. It’s not the money that grants one a full life. It’s Jesus who does that.
Then he tells them a parable, calling them to a life of taking care. There was a rich man who was highly successful. His fields yielded much more than he needed to get by. They produced a hundred-fold, you might say.
He must have taken care of the land. He seeded when he needed to seed. He fertilized when he needed to fertilize. He harvested when he needed to harvest. It wasn’t only the planting and the watering, it was the caring for the field that yielded such a crop. But he ignored the more important things of life. Thinking life consisted of the things he could make, sell, and own, he exchanged the glory of the immortal god for stuff. He took care of his stuff and ignored the heart that wanted the stuff. Take care, Jesus said. Be on guard, Jesus warned. One’s life does not consist of what he has but in what he is.
The rich man knew what he had. He didn’t know who he was. He saw his wealth and understood his life to be one of protecting it. But it was not his possessions that defined him. It was his heart toward them that did that. And Jesus says his heart is like a wild field, captured by the weeds choking the life out of everything good. But he can’t see it. He’s too busy taking care of his stuff to take care of his heart. His work of building bigger sheds distracts him from doing the soul-work required to build God’s kingdom.
His possessions comprised the whole of his life. He lost sight of who he was because all he could see was what he had. And what he had, though he believed it gave him ultimate security, was the most dangerous thing in his life. It would have been better for him to lose it all, for in losing it, he may have gained the world. He thought he existed in his possessions, but Jesus said he existed in who he was before God. And it’s who he was that sat behind the column of his stuff that obstructed his view. He saw in part. Jesus says we must see in whole. We must take care because to fail to do so is to miss out on the life God intends to give.
If we are to take care and be on guard, we must be aware of what’s going on inside. Our heart will lie to us. We must ask God to reveal what’s truly going on. What is the narrative in our head? Who’s doing the talking? Who is getting the advantage in your plans for the future? Who is honored in what you one day will accomplish? If we aren’t aware of what or who we’re working for, we will find it was all a grand rouse to boost our own ego, our own estate, our own platform. We will find ourselves working for dying things when the opportunity to receive living things stood before us.
The parable drives to a sharp conclusion. This man spent his time thinking about himself, building for himself, and talking to himself. But his life was cut shorter than he imagined. He didn’t even finish his work, and the Lord called him to account for his life. The rich man did all the talking in the beginning and middle, but in the end, it is God who speaks, “You fool!” The rich man wasn’t aware God was watching, listening, hearing his conversations to himself. He probably thought himself wise for planning ahead. But God saw him as a fool. Why?
The rich man was a fool not because he had wealth but because he loved his wealth. He was rich but not toward God. To live a rich life not directed toward God is to be a fool. No matter the wealth, a time is coming soon when it will all be left behind and only what we did for God in this world will be taken with us.
The rich man was blinded by his wealth. It consumed his thoughts and his time. Money and possessions can do that to us. It’s not easy being rich. It requires a lot of work not only to gain it but to keep it. And when our minds are focused on the things of the world, we can begin to forget that the world isn’t all that exists. There is a spiritual realm, and it’s the spiritual realm that matters in the end. We focus on what we can see, but the Bible calls us to focus on what we can’t see.
The fool says to himself, “I’m doing well. I have enough, and I’m getting more. The real problem in my life is what to spend my money on.” But the wise man says to himself, “I’m doing well. God, thank you for this opportunity to live for you. I want to steward what you’ve given well, and I need your help to do that. How can I live not rich toward myself but rich toward you?” The fool seeks to enhance his own life. The wise seek to enhance the lives of others.
We all tend toward foolishness. If we didn’t, Jesus wouldn’t have used this opportunity to tell the parable. He would have moved on. Luke wouldn’t have recorded it. Since we bend toward selfishness and building our lives on the abundance of our possessions, Jesus gives us this story to make us aware of what’s really going on inside. We are always talking to ourselves. Do we realize it? It’s our internal dialogue that is so dangerous because no one else can hear it. No one else knows what we really think, what we really say, what our longings really are. But God does. What does he hear?
God is not against rich people because they are rich. Too often, rich people are against God because they are rich. Their money blinds them to their spiritual poverty because their physical needs are all exceeded with comfort and security. As the bank account grows, the need for God decreases. When all the world’s toys and gadgets can be added with the click of a button, what do you not have that is required for a good life?
But the same can be said for poor people. God is not for poor people because they are poor. Too often, poor people are against God because they are poor. Their lack of money blinds them to the spiritual fullness available because their physical needs are so lacking in comfort and security. As the bank accounts near zero, faith in God’s provision subsides. What all the world’s toys and gadgets are desired above God himself, it doesn’t matter what you have, you’ll never have the good life. You’ll have a shell of it, an empty bucket to fill with things that rust and rot.
This parable is less about being rich or poor as it is about being a certain kind of rich—a kind of rich that we can all be, if we have ears to hear.
After deeming the rich man a fool, and showing God’s calling him to account, Jesus ends the parable with the words, “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” Everyone not rich toward God is a fool. It’s a simple as that.
Very few rich people are unintelligent. It’s often their intelligence that gains them wealth. They can play the stock market, start businesses, run companies. But if they cannot use their money wisely in God’s eyes, though the world may call them smart, they are fools in eternity.
The rich man in this parable had a problem: he was rich and getting richer. His fields were already fruitful, and they produced more than he imagined they would. It was this excess that consumed him. What would he do with the extra that came in? His storehouses weren’t big enough. He must build more, he decided. But he had other options before him. What’s so striking about this parable is his internal dialogue. He talks to no one else. This is common to us but was uncommon in his time. In a community-based society, every decision one makes is discussed with friends and family before acting. But this man apparently either had no one to talk to or chose to talk only to himself. Either case was a tragedy.
What should he have done with his surplus? St. Augustine says, “He did not realize that the bellies of the poor were much safer storerooms than his barns.” Augustine’s teacher, Ambrose, said, “The things that we cannot take away with us are not ours…Compassion alone follows us.” The rich man should have invested his surplus into the people around him, not into his barns. But he didn’t. He believed his surplus gave him the life he needed, but it instead ripped his life from him. He thought he was growing full when he was starving.
Charles Spurgeon said one way you know that Jesus Christ is precious to you is that nothing else is. He’s not saying nothing matters, only that Jesus matters above everything else. All we have is seen through the lens of what Christ Can do with it. We open our bank accounts and see money not for our use but for Gods. We enter our homes at the end of the day and see a dinner table not merely for our retreat but for our neighbor. We lay in our bed at night and feel not only the warmth of the covers but a pricking of our heart for the cold. Our jobs become platforms from which to serve. Our homes become outposts of heavenly retreat. Our cars become vehicles ready to be muddied with the boots of the poor rather than luxury sedans protected from the slightest scuff. All we have becomes to us a resource to be used for the advancement of the kingdom. To do otherwise isn’t merely an oversight; it’s to live a foolish life.
If one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions, to elevate our possessions above God is idolatry. He can call us to account at any moment, and in his grace, he’s giving us this parable to do it before he does it. He’s waking us up to a spiritual reality that we call a normal life and giving us an opportunity to repent and believe. We can be two kinds of rich. We can be either rich toward ourselves, or rich toward God, but we can’t be both.
Being rich toward God is not giving all your money away so that you become a burden to others. Rather, it is stewarding what you have well so that your needs and the needs of others are met. Notice, the rich man was rich before the field yielded extra. The extra was not his; it was for others. He just didn’t see that. Do you?
In the parable of the rich fool, Jesus lets us listen in on his conversation with his disciples. But in his life, he sent an unmistakable message to the watching world.
When Jesus came to earth can began his public ministry, many of the Jews believed he was the Messiah that was finally going to set the world right. They believed he would establish the kingdom of God in Jerusalem and reign from a throne like his father David. They believed he would overthrow Rome and put God’s house in order. But he didn’t do that—at least not yet.
Instead, Jesus became the fool from heaven. He didn’t build any storehouses on earth to keep his wealth. He had no earthly wealth. He didn’t speak to himself as if he was the only one that mattered. He spoke to his Father in great dependence, not moving a muscle without talking to him. He didn’t look out at what he had built in his short life-time and think, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” He didn’t lay up any goods to last many years. Instead, he poured himself out.
Jesus became a different kind of rich fool—the rich fool from heaven. He left the heavenly riches his Father had lavished on him to give his life for fools of every kind who could never find him on their own. He left the crown for the cross, the throne for the grave, everlasting life for temporary death, praise for shame, justification for condemnation, righteousness for wickedness. He left is all for us.
Jesus came to us rich fools on earth to become the rich “fool” of heaven. But the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man (1 Cor. 1:25). Jesus left his home to do the work of his Father, and instead of building storehouses for his wealth on earth, he left by way of the cross because in his Father’s house are many rooms. He will come again and take us to that place (John 14).
Because of Christ, we can become fools in the world because the rich fool of heaven staked it all on grace. And he won. We can trade our riches for his, and though it may look like failure here on earth, the reward in heaven will be as big as Christ is.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/0bbd93dd1dd71f21-image-asset-JEjdGhWCyqxfdA8U3s9rLLJGkwBHQd.jpeg\")
\n \n\nJesus Christ is coming back. It’s an inevitability. He will come in person, with glory and power, to end the present age and usher eternity into being. The dead will rise. The wicked will be judged. The “how long, O, Lord” cries will turn into victory shouts. The tears will be wiped away. Heaven will come down to earth, and all things will be made new.
But that hasn’t happened yet, and it’s this delay of Christ’s return that Christ himself addresses before he begins the first leg of his journey beyond earthly life. His people are to wait and ready themselves. They are not to be slothful, but work as if the day is tomorrow, because, who knows, it could be.
1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7 Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. 11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ 12 But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ 13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
There are two ways to live: foolish or wise. Matthew, more so than the other New Testament writers, pits these two groups against one another many times. In the parable of the ten virgins, he does so once again. The girls are split into two groups, with five comprising each party. One group is wise. The other is foolish.
Weddings in our day are a grand event. But ours pale in comparison to the first century. It was a very grand affair, lasting much longer than today’s weddings. The bridegroom would travel to his bride’s home (or wedding location), which could take days. The bride’s party would go out to meet the bridegroom. Torches were used to create an impressive procession as the bridegroom arrives, usually at night. There was much waiting and great anticipation, and it’s this waiting that Jesus focuses on. We can wait wisely or foolishly, and Jesus tells us to be wise. To do so, we must both be ready and prepared.
Both groups were ready. But not all were prepared. They had their torches and took their place awaiting the bridegroom. They even all slept. But before that, five of the girls brought extra oil for their lamps and five did not. The five who did were wise. The five who didn’t were foolish. When the bridegroom came, they proved they were unprepared to meet him. They ran off to buy more oil, missing their chance to walk with him, and finding a closed door upon their arrival.
As Christians, we live in the “already-but-not-yet” of the kingdom. Jesus has already come, inaugurating the Kingdom, but he hasn’t come again to fully establish it, ending this present world. This parable is about living in this in-between time, how we live awaiting the second coming of our Savior. Matthew spends multiples pages and many words recording Jesus’s teaching about the last days. Throughout, he urges them to watch, to be ready, and to be prepared, because they never know when it will happen. This is one reason the early church lived with such anticipation regarding the second coming of the Lord. They never knew when it could happen.
So, in this parable, we find the bridegroom representing Jesus, the virgins representing us, and the marriage feast the end of the age. Are we ready for the bridegroom? Do we even know?
Very few Christians today live with urgency and awareness of the coming kingdom. It has been thousands of years since Christ ascended into heaven. The delay has been long, and we find it hard to believe he will be back soon. So, we go about our lives, becoming far too interested in things on earth. It’s not that we don’t care, it’s that we’re not prepared. We’re there. We’re waiting. We have our lamp. But we have no oil. We have whatever was given to us at the start, but we haven’t reached out beyond to find what we need for the future. We lack preparation, thinking someone can help us out when the time comes. And it’s this attitude that Jesus confronts in this parable. We should live as people who are prepared for his arrival. We may sleep, but when he rouses us, we must be ready to meet him and go with him into the feast.
Readiness is a life-long pursuit. It's not glamorous or easy. It’s moment by moment, one day at a time, through trials and tribulations. It’s not something anyone else can do for us. It was not wrong for the five wise virgins to deny the five foolish virgins a bit of their oil. In the procession, it would be an embarrassment for the torches to run out before arriving. Better to have five good, strong torches than ten dim. After all, they were ready. It was not their responsibility to bring enough for others, only enough for themselves. Jesus is saying it’s up to us to be ready and prepared. How we prepare shows how much we love him—or don’t love him. It proves what we think about his return.
So, how do we prepare? Unfortunately, Jesus doesn’t tell us. He just tells us to be ready. But we do know salvation, according to Christianity, is not about works. We are saved by faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from all our works. This brings glory to God, because it is wholly his work that saves us.
But salvation, according to Christianity, is also not a state of beinglessness. We passively receive the grace of God but must actively respond to it. The Christian life is, therefore, a life of active-passivity. It is one where real people do real things in response to real grace received, by the power of real love from above. So, to prepare, we must be responding to the grace of God. We must put on Christ and walk in him.
Perhaps it helps to see how we should be prepared by looking at how five of these virgins weren’t. In other words, the lack will help us see the way.
John Piper helps us understand the problem.
Five of them did not take seriously their calling to give light, and they neglected the only means by which they could do what they were called to do. They took no oil. They only had lamps. Their job was to provide light, and they had lamps without oil. Candles without wicks. Torches without fire. Light bulbs without electricity. The outward form of religion and no internal power. They liked their position, otherwise they would have left. But they did not have a passion to use the necessary means to fulfill their point of their position. Light! Their foolishness was to think that the mere form of a religious lamp would be sufficient. Or, perhaps, that the power to light a lamp could simply be borrowed at the last minute. In fact, it can’t be borrowed at all.
Do you see what they lacked? They lacked the seriousness for which the task required. They took their lamps, but they didn’t take what the lamp needed. It wasn’t that they couldn’t get it. They wouldn’t get it.
In his earthly life, Jesus had the same spiritual resources we have today. He had the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit, and prayer. He used them. And by using them, he saved the world. The Father has given us the same resources, and what he requires of us is to come to him with all he provides. The lamps are useless without the oil, just as oil without a lamp is useless. But together, they light the way. What we need to be prepared is to use the gifts God has given us in Christ, by the indwelling of his Holy Spirit.
If we aren’t using God’s gifts, we may reach the end of our days, or the return of Christ, with a lack that we cannot cram in. We can’t get back the wasted time, the spurned gifts, the neglected hours. We are left in that moment with only what we’ve decided to take along with us—and that decision was made a long time ago. These virgins did not decide to take no oil that night. They decided during the day, and it was the decision of the past that ruined the present and damned the future. What we do with our life now matters for what we will be able to do in the future. This is not works righteousness. This is godly wisdom. It is the one who sows who will reap a harvest. It is the one who works who will see a reward. It is the one who invests who will return a profit. But those who neglect the call of Christ find themselves lacking at the time of his coming. But that need not be the case! He’s provided the way. Let’s walk in it.
If we fail to walk with the Lord all our days, we will reach the end and hear the words, “I do not know you.” The warning is clear. Temporary zeal cannot replace life-long faithfulness. Just as the lamps required regular filling of oil, so too our souls require regular filling of the gospel. We must use all the means of grace God grants. We must know Christ personally, living in reality with him. We cannot merely rest in our association with those who do. No one can have faith for us. And the longer the wait, the more we need faith. In the gospel, he’s given us the lamp, are we tending it or neglecting it?
14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Jesus tells another parable, in case we don’t get it the first time. The Lord loves us deeply, and he provides for us immensely, but he doesn’t coddle us. He tells us like it is, with power and authority. We are to work for him while he’s gone. We are not to be idle. Idleness proves we don’t love him. Hard works proves we do.
From the start, we must say this parable is not about works righteousness. The work doesn’t come before the call. The call comes before the work. But the work is vital, and it is proof of the call. So, let’s lay down our ideas of works righteousness. Let’s not let those thoughts muddy the living waters Jesus is speaking to us now.
So, we have three servants who are given three different amounts—all of them very large sums of money. Each is given his amount based on his ability. God knows what we are capable of, and he graciously gives us gifts of which we are to use for advancement. He knows our limitations. He made us that way. He’s like a good coach, happy with the player who lives up to his potential, even if he never becomes a superstar. Two of these servants double the money, proving they’re good servants, always about the Master’s business. The third buries it in the ground, proving he’s a bad servant, concerned only for himself. He doesn’t lose anything, but he doesn’t gain anything either. And in that, he fails.
The parable of the ten virgins taught us to be prepared for the bridge groom’s arrival. As he delays, we must be ready whenever he comes. The parable of the talents teaches us what to do as he delays—how we should work and serve as we wait. We must work diligently on his behalf now. We aren’t guaranteed a great investment opportunity later on. And if we fail to do what we should, we will find ourselves unprepared when he arrives.
The Lord is not looking for us to make a big splash in the world on our own. He’s giving us his gifts and asking us to steward them well. If we make a splash, that’s great. If we don’t, at least we tried with what he gave us. Ultimately, it’s up to him what happens. We are his responsibility. All he asks of us is to do the best with what we’ve been given.
We all admire the first two servants. And we should. They lived their life in the in between time well. They grew the Master’s estate. But the third servant is the focus. He doesn’t do anything, and that’s a real threat to all of us. We are at risk of burying what the Lord has given in the ground because we take him to be a harsh master, and no matter what we do, we feel as if we can’t win. Try and lose? Condemned. Try and win? He takes it. So, why try at all? Just maintain the status quo and give back to him what he gave you. But that is not the Christian life. It’s the non-Christian life—blaming God no matter what the outcome.
The word “talent” often throws us off course in interpreting this parable today. We think of talents as abilities or gifts. But a talent in Jesus’s time was a weight of money. A denarius was a day’s wage for a common laborer. A talent was about six thousand denarii, depending on the type of metal it was made of. All three men were given huge sums of money. Undoubtedly the first two servants have greater skill and talent than the third, but Jesus gives a great sum to all, expecting all to return more than he gave.
And here we must understand something. We are not independent beings. We are slaves, bound to someone. And when we came to Christ, we did not come as an employee able to negotiate his salary and benefits nor as a union worker able to strike when we want. We came as slaves to sin looking for redemption. And when we came to Jesus, he brought us under a different kind of slavery—slavery to righteousness. As Paul says in Romans 6:16-18, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”
Our slavery to Jesus means we don’t have the right not to work on his behalf. We don’t have the right to say no to him. Instead, we have the opportunity to work on his behalf. And even if that means suffering, we have an eternal weight of glory awaiting.
Do you see the implications? All who have been saved by Christ belong to Christ, not in that we are associates but in that we are slaves to him, our Master. If we follow the third servant and fail to do what he asks of us, we will show not only that we don’t care about his word but that we don’t love him at all. We will prove what our heart really believes—that God is not good, and we can’t trust him.
The third servant’s talent is taken from him and given to the first servant. Furthermore, the relationship between the master and servant is severed. The message is clear. As we await Jesus’s return, we should not be passive. We should be about our Master’s business, seeking to advance his cause. It will be hard. All life-giving things are. But it will be worth it because Jesus is worth it. If we listen to him, do what he asks, and follow, we will have a great life. It will be like receiving a bag of money and having to figure out what to do with it. It’ll be full of joy because the King has a glorious purpose for it all. As you work, you’re working on behalf of him, and joy fills your heart, even in times of suffering. But if you sit it out and play it safe, you’ll perhaps have an easier go of it here and now, but the “not yet” of the Kingdom is coming, and your life of ease will shame you on that day.
To our modern ears, this talk of slaves and masters sounds hard and worldly. But Jesus isn’t asking us to bring the world into the Kingdom. He’s asking us to take the Kingdom into the world. Why? Because the Kingdom of God is heaven coming down to earth. It is the greatest joy one could ever gain. It is the ultimate hope of all our longings. It is the presence of Jesus.
In his physical absence, Jesus is asking his followers to be heralds of his good news. He’s asking us to use all the resources he’s given to advance his kingdom. He’s asking us to raise our voice and shout to the watching world, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/2d6b6ecf6a75da5a-image-asset-aNKFfUZ51V3LQubGPxFZHyBXXq9I7L.jpeg\")
Photo by Nils Stahl on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nAs Matthew nears the end of his account of Jesus’s public ministry, he records three more parables. Jesus has reached Jerusalem. The Jewish leaders approach, questioning him. So, he speaks to them in stories to reveal who they are and what they’re doing.
The Parable of the Two Sons
28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. 30 And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.
As Jesus enters Jerusalem on his way to the cross, he encounters the Jewish leaders. They don’t like him. Jesus is a threat to their authority. He teaches with power. He heals effectively. He has baffling insight and wisdom. And on top of it all, he claims to be the Messiah. Their pride can’t handle this combination. Before them stands Jesus, the Son of God, and instead of bowing down to him, they interrogate him.
Jesus knew his Bible, so he was not surprised to meet such opposition from the leaders of God’s people. It was always this way—God would send a messenger and Israel would persecute them. Claiming to be on God’s side, they’d prove otherwise by their actions towards God’s mouthpiece. Without fully realizing what they were doing, their violence toward the prophets was a foreshadowing of the violence toward God himself in Jesus Christ. That’s why Jesus dies with the words, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
What we do with God’s word is a pointer to what we would do with God himself. If we treat his word as worthless, disgusting, imposing, violating, or offensive, then we will also treat God himself that way. When, for example, something like the Nashville Statement seeking to reaffirm biblical values on sexuality meets such outrage from within Christianity, we must begin to think how we would react to Jesus if he were here today.
When saying what the Bible says about a topic creates such debate, we must wonder how the wider church views the Bible—if the God presented there is the God known to the masses. Or, perhaps, we’ve created a new God, one that has the semblance of holiness but is disguised as an angel of light. How we treat God’s word is how we treat God. The only thing preventing us from killing him is that the first century Jews already did.
And here is Jesus, standing before them, on trial before he goes to trial, the prophet before his hard-hearted congregation. The old saying, “actions speak louder than words,” would be an apt title for this parable. This parable shows us the importance of doing what is right, not merely talking about doing what is right. The Jewish leaders talked a good game, but no matter how much they studied the playbook, they always ran the wrong play. The Divine Coach had them on the field, and they trusted their intuition more than the Coach’s word.
The parable of the two sons is the setup for the next two parables, but before we move on, we must be sure to understand this one. This parable teaches two primary lessons on two different levels.
Lesson one, level one: the one who listens and obeys God is the one who does God’s will.
Lesson two, level one: the one who listens but disobeys God is the one who fails to do God’s will.
Lesson one, level two: anyone can come to Jesus, all you must do is listen and obey.
Lesson two, level two: whoever comes to Jesus must truly want to listen and obey, not merely pretend to.
Level one is what we see in the story itself. Level two is what we see in Jesus’s words after the parable. The Christian life, from beginning to end, is comprised of listening to God’s word and walking in obedience to it. We won’t be perfect, but what we do with what God says will prove how we really view God. We may say we follow him, but our arrival in the vineyard is the only ultimate proof that we actually do.
Since Adam and Eve sinned and lost their home in the Garden of Eden, the world has been inhabited by sinners, the nation of Israel not excluded. Some were easier to spot. They were the tax collectors, extorting their fellow citizens on behalf of Rome. They were the prostitutes, violating their bodies and the bodies of others for money. Sin consumed their daily life, unable even go to work without marring their soul. They were the wicked, outcast, despised. But they also repented and believed Jesus when he came to them. It was not hard for others to see their sin, and it was not hard to see it themselves. Their problem was not knowledge of sin but what to do with that sin. They’d been banished and left to their own devices. So, when the Physician comes, they ask for healing. Their response to the gospel was the proper one, even if their life before showed no openness to God. This group comprised lesson one. They initially refused to listen to God, but later changed their mind. Jesus came to them, and they decided to stick around.
But there was another group of sinners in Israel. They didn’t look the part. They were those who read the Bible and prayed and went to the temple for feasts and sacrifices. They were the ones who appeared close to God. But their heart betrayed them. When God came to them, they didn’t draw near. The tax collectors and prostitutes begged for mercy; the Pharisees and scribes thought they already had it. And in their arrogance, they found themselves not fighting for God but fighting against him. It is never enough to make promises to God, or to say you believe, or to memorize the right words. What ultimately matters is that our heart truly desires God. The outside can be clean, but as Jesus said, it could be merely a whitewashed tomb.
Jesus didn’t have to engage the Jewish leaders—he knew who they were even if they couldn’t see it—but he engaged them anyway because God’s word of grace goes out to all, even to the God-haters. Anyone who repents can have God. Jesus was giving them a chance to see themselves and to repent of their sin. But they wouldn’t, or couldn’t, do it. All they had to do was obey his voice, but what went out pure as the newly fallen snow, fell to their dirty heart and became a mud so thick they couldn’t wash it off. Not only couldn’t they, but they also wouldn't even try. Instead, they plotted in their heart against the Son who came to save. They listened to the Father and said, “Sure, I’ll go,” then turned their back and plotted murder.
Which way are you turning? How you respond to the Word of God is how you respond to God. Not everything in the Bible is easy to accept, but if we refuse it as an outdated interpretation or backward view of life, we will find ourselves walking out of the presence of God and into the presence of Satan. We will side with the enemy and post ourselves in the fortress of defiance. But the gospel goes even there. God never stops shooting his arrows of light. The question is, what kind of target is he going to find? One of flesh, easily penetrable, or one of stone, impenetrable? When Jesus sends his armies of grace, let’s wave the white flag.
The Parable of the Tenants
33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“ ‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 46 And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.
The parable of the two sons was the soil from which the parable of the tenants grew. It was the necessary first step. What we do with God’s word is what we do with God.
When God created the world, he gave Adam and Eve everything they needed for flourishing. But what God provided soon appeared lacking to them. So, they sinned and found themselves in the wild world beyond the Garden. When God brought Israel out of slavery and into the Promised Land, he gave them everything they needed for flourishing. He provided land flowing with milk and honey, gave them his law to show them the way, showered his love and grace and mercy from above. He was with them, appearing as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He made his dwelling place among them, in the inner court of the temple. What did they lack? Apparently, to them, a lot.
Israel wandered far further than around the desert. They wandered in their heart, attaching their affections to other gods, other nations, other idols. They turned from the One who set them free to that chains that would bind again. And they did it happily. They were crazy, and Jesus wants to show them how crazy they were. So, he tells them a parable, explaining more fully what their ancestors have done and what they’re about to do.
This parable is allegorical. The owner of the vineyard represents God. The tenants represent Israel. The servants represent God’s prophets. The events of the story seem, as a standalone, outrageous. Why would the tenants kill the servants? He’s merely doing the job of the owner. In fact, he’s doing the job of any good servant, collecting the fruit of the vineyard, which doesn’t belong to the tenants but the owner. But what sounds outrageous in the parable is the very outrageous life Israel has lived. When boiled down to a simple story, it reveals the human heart as extraordinarily wicked.
But perhaps the most extraordinary detail is the owner who keeps sending servants. He keeps losing what, I would imagine, were good, hard working people to this band of evil tenants. This tells us something of the heart of God. We see God as short-tempered and impulsive. We read the Old Testament, for example, through the lens of our confused, one sitting read-through instead of the lens of God’s long-suffering patience.
For example, in a famous passage of Joshua 10, Israel is fighting the Amorites, and God causes the sun to stand still, giving his armies enough time to destroy the entire nation. Many people have a problem with that. In fact, the New Atheists often use these bouts of genocide in the Old Testament as proof against the goodness of God. But what happens in Joshua 10 is not before God’s word in Genesis 15:16. God tells Abraham in a dream that his people will be slaves in a foreign land, but he will bring them back to the Promised Land one day. That day is not yet, however, because “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
What we perceive as impatience in God is actually long-suffering of which we are unable to imagine. And here, in this parable, Jesus is reminding the Jewish leaders of God’s patience not with the wicked nations but with his chosen nation. Israel’s iniquity is not yet complete. But the finish line is approaching. The clock is running out, and in a last-minute hail-mary pass, the Father is sending the Son. Surely, they will respect him.
But, of course, the tenants do not respect the Son. Instead, they see their chance at finally attaining ownership themselves. The rebellion reaches its fever pitch as they slay not merely another messenger but the beloved son. What Jesus tells as a story is about to happen in real life in a matter of days. And Jesus knows it’s coming! Oh, the patience and grace and mercy of Christ! To stand there, telling the story of his impending death to the very ones who are to commit the murder. How great the love of God for the world!
But the love of Christ had no impact on his audience. They heard the message—it was not unclear. And instead of repenting, they listened as Jesus pronounced woes upon them. Their response was a greater desire to kill him, but they feared the crowds because they held him to be a prophet. And a prophet he was, but not merely. He was the Son.
The Parable of the Wedding Feast
22 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.” ’ 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Though our Bible breaks the narrative into a new chapter, Jesus has not yet left his audience. He speaks to them again in parables, this time with the parable of the wedding feast. He’s still talking to the Jewish leaders, teaching them through this story what may happen at the end of their life if they refuse to accept his invitation.
My oldest son, Jack, was five-years-old, he attended a wonderful Christian preschool that takes the Bible seriously. At the end of the year, every five-year-old and their parents are invited to a special year-end party: the marriage supper of the lamb. The children and relatives dress in white. They gather in a room, with a throne before them, and each child, when called by name, comes and lays his or her crown at the feet of Jesus. Then, with the joy and playfulness of a child, gives Jesus a high five or fist bump. There is joy and wonder. There is singing and rejoicing. There is hope and longing. They’re invited, and as only a child could, they go with unhindered joy.
But for those who’ve grown up in the world, the sense of innocent wonder is reduced to cynical critique. Invitations are not accepted with wholehearted joy; they’re evaluated against the next best option. And here in this parable, Jesus is showing us the inevitable end of our world. It’s a great party the Father will throw for the Son. To be included in that will be, truly, the greatest honor of which anyone could ever want. But here and now, the invitation is going out. Will we accept?
As Jesus made clear in the parable of the sower, his gospel seed is spread far and wide on all kinds of soil. Even the hard path receives a showering. But the hard path is unable to accept the seed because it has hardened itself again it. The soil is ruined. These Jewish leaders are the ruined path. But that doesn’t stop Jesus from sowing.
Here in this parable, Jesus is spreading the seed, showing the kind of heart the King has. He sends out invitations to the wedding feast and those who receive it RSVP no. The king, giving them the benefit of the doubt, offers the invitation a second time, thinking perhaps there was a misunderstanding. Everything is prepared. Come!
But the guests paid no attention. They weighed the options and chose another path. This was not only rude, it was unheard of. Who would refuse an invitation into the king’s home? Dan Doriani puts it this way.
To sense the depth of this insult, imagine receiving an invitation to an intimate event hosted by the president or prime minister of the nation. This is neither a publicity stunt nor a photo opportunity, but an entire day with government leaders, including an hour with the president or prime minister himself, discussing policy. We accept the invitation and arrange to go. But when the day comes, we change our mind. It is a beautiful day for a round of golf or a long hike with a friend, so we skip the flight. Suppose that the president’s staff is tracking the flights of all his guests and learns that we are not on the appointed flight. Thinking the best, a staffer calls and says, “We see that you missed the flight. I have reserved a seat on the next flight from your airport. It is scheduled to leave in an hour, but the plane will wait for you.” If we still do not come, what must the president think? If we choose golf or a hike over a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet with the president, he must be dismayed as he concludes that we think nothing of him and scorn his office.
There is a dismay in Jesus’s tone. Why would the guests not attend the wedding feast? How are their reasons valid for ignoring such a generous offer?
On the heels of the parable of the two sons—where the word of the owner is ignored—and the parable of the tenants—where the messengers are killed—Jesus is saying to the Jewish leaders, “How can this be?” How can you who’ve been waiting for the Messiah ignore him, reject him, and refuse him when he stands before you? What else are you waiting for?
In the parable of the wedding feast, it’s not merely a refusal of the offer. Some are angry the king would invite them at all. They seize the servants and kill them. The king is, justifiably, very angry. So he sends his troops to destroy them. Is Jesus’s message not clear?
Isaiah 5 helps us understand his meaning. God has prepared a vineyard named Israel. But they have born no fruit. God asks, “What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!”
Some religious people are like these Jewish leaders or this barren vineyard. They appear to be on God’s side, but when the day of the invitation comes, they refuse to accept God on his terms. No matter how gracious he is, they will not enter his presence. He is not what they expected, and in their sin, he becomes to them not only insignificant but repulsive.
But others will come, and it is to those Jesus turns to at the end of the parable. These people can’t believe the offer. “Me? To the King’s house?” But they come, even though it’s beyond their wildest dreams. This parable, then, is not that different from the parable of the two sons. The Jewish leaders won’t come, but the unworthy will.
So we are back to the beginning. What will we do with the word of God? Will we heed his word or merely pretend to? God is granting us time to decide. But the time is coming to an end. There will be a reckoning. We may think we can sneak in—go in the back door, as it were. This parable shows us that cannot be the case. Once the party begins, a man finds his way inside. But he isn’t dressed for the occasion. He’s missing the proper garment. His stay is short. He’s thrown out. He missed his chance. He was called but not chosen.
His plight is easy to understand. He missed his chance. Game over. No more coins. But the others accepted the invitation, come to the party, and wore the garment—the sign that they belonged. How did they receive it and what does it represent? Let’s work backward because it’s in the representation that we find the path to receiving.
The wedding garment can represent one of two things according to the book of Revelation. It can be the righteousness of Christ (Rev. 7:9-14) or it can be the righteous deeds of the saints (Rev. 19:8). In other words, Revelation presents it as both. How can this be?
Think back to the parable. The invitations go out. The first group refuses to come, but the second comes. The second hear the invitation and accept. But they do more than just that. They come to the party. They change their plans. They rearrange their life. They dare to believe that they, of all people, are invited to dine with the King. They come, and in coming, they prove who they are. They’re the invited.
To be a true believer in Christ we must not only accept the invitation, but we must also come to commune with him. Our coming is the proof that the invitation has indeed come and has been accepted. In other words, the wedding garment of those at the feast is given through the righteousness of Christ, but you have to put it on, and in the putting on it becomes the righteous deeds of the saints. The garment proves that you are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that you should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).
Salvation is by grace alone, accepted by faith alone. Jesus invites us. All we do is show up. He provides the rest: the garment, the meal, the party, the enjoyment, everything. He even provides the desire to come. But we must come. And herein lies the true message of these parables: God’s final invitation has come in Christ. Will we come to the party?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/365aa83d43216a88-charcoal-uG730E8ZJBbjcqPB8jJeY8fCq3KvRg.jpg\")
\n \n\nDays after Jesus died on the cross, Peter said to few other disciples, “I am going fishing.” They said, “We will go with you.” So, they boarded a boat, like they had many times before, and picked up the job they left years before. Their Lord had died, so they might as well go back to fishing. They set out to the Sea of Tiberias and caught nothing all night.
In the morning, a voice came from the shore. “Children, do you have any fish?” “No,” they replied. “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some,” the voice said. So, they did, and their net grew full. John recognized the voice. “It is the Lord!” Peter threw himself into the sea and headed for shore. Could it be?
As Peter arrived winded from his swim, he found Jesus there with a charcoal fire. Fish and bread were spread out. Breakfast was ready. He looked at Peter and said, “Come and have breakfast.” They sat down and dined with the risen Christ.
The Apostle John’s record of these events near the end of his gospel account shows us the depth of God’s forgiveness. For Peter, something more was going on than a simple meal. A story of redemption was playing itself out. There was one other time that John mentions a charcoal fire. It's when Jesus is in the court of the High Priest before his crucifixion (John 18). The servants and officers make a charcoal fire to warm themselves in the cold night. It is there before that distinctive smell where Peter denies his Lord.
Luke tells us that after the third denial, the Lord looked at Peter, and Peter went out and wept bitterly (Luke 22:61). And here is Jesus again before Peter with the smell of charcoal in the air. But, this time, there are no tears. There is no denial. There is no impending death. It is only Jesus bidding Peter, and the rest, to come and have breakfast.
Jesus and Peter had a hard conversation after that. But Jesus granted Peter forgiveness because he paid for his sins. He was now free to love him. No matter how hard the night was, Jesus was there in the morning inviting him into his presence.
Peter’s life is a testimony to the mercy of God. He’s a bold sinner. Of all the apostles, he’s the one in whom we see the dirtiest side. It is he who denies the Lord. It is he who Paul confronts in Antioch. It is he who speaks on Satan’s behalf, rebuking the Lord when he should have walked with him. And here, in Matthew 18, we have Peter asking Jesus a question. “How often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Peter is trying to see how far forgiveness must go, and in so doing shows us that even in our most generous thoughts, we cannot grasp the depth and breadth of God’s call to forgiveness. We need the Lord himself to show us.
To explain forgiveness, Jesus doesn’t just tell us a story. He tells us our story. He shows us his redemption for our sin. He breaks into our experience and does something in our heart. Then, in grace, he sends us out to show mercy to others. He forgives us, and in so doing, gives us the power to forgive others. When we do, we follow him into the hard things of the world and bring redemption. When we don’t, we prove how little of his forgiveness we understand.
21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
In Matthew 18, Jesus is teaching his disciples what life is like in the family of faith. He’s showing us how gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture. It includes some hard things because all life-giving things are hard. Among them is this act of forgiveness.
Jesus’s answer to Peter’s question is extreme. How many times should we forgive our brother who sins against us? Not seven times, but seventy-seven times. This is one of the many extreme things Jesus says in Matthew 18. He tells us to cut off our hand and gouge out our eye if it causes us to sin. We must become like children to enter the Kingdom of God. He says we will temptation will come, but those who lead others into temptation would be better off drowning in the sea. So, when he answers Peter’s question, his reply is as radical as the rest of his teaching. Apparently, we are to be radical with forgiveness toward others because God is radical with it toward us. Just as there are no limits to the actions we should take in avoiding sin, so also there should be no limits to the extent of our forgiveness of a brother.
Theoretically, forgiveness is wonderful. Realistically, it’s nearly impossible. When sin comes charging at us, harming us in ways we could have never imagined, and the sinner is there before us, unable to undo the damage, how can we grant forgiveness? Even more, how can we do it again and again and again. This parable isn’t about one-time forgiveness. It’s about life-long forgiveness. And that’s where the trouble really comes.
Peter’s question comes after Jesus instructs us how to handle those who sin against us. In other words, how to conduct church discipline. First, we are to go alone and tell him his fault. If he repents, great, you’ve gained a brother. If he doesn’t repent, take someone else, so others witness his unrepentance. If he is still unyielding, bring him before the church. Then, and only then, if he refuses to repent even before the church, you are to cast him out. Dan Doriani helps us understand what Peter is asking Jesus in light of this teaching.
The process of church discipline raises two questions. First, if it does not work, will we have the stomach to continue? Second, if it does work, are we then required to forgive the offender? When Peter asked, “How many times shall I forgive my brother?” (Matt. 18:21), he was proposing the second question. The second question has a corollary: if we forgive, must we “forget”? Must we act as if it nothing happened? We can enlarge Peter’s question in this way: “I understand that if my brother sins against me, I must confront him. I also know how to proceed if he refuses to listen. But what if the first step works, so that he listens? I presume I must forgive him. But what if he offends me repeatedly? How many times do I have to forgive? Up to seven times?” (18:21).
Do you see the problem Peter sees? If the brother does repent, that’s wonderful, but there is still the matter of forgiving him. The onus moves from him to you. Now that what you hoped has occurred, it’s your turn to do the hard heart work of forgiving. And no matter what we believe about the need for forgiveness, the act is always harder. Especially, as in Peter’s example, when the sin is repeated. Here in the parable of the unforgiving servant we have a problem: the problem of forgiveness. And inside the church, forgiveness isn’t optional. Forgiveness is required.
We can break the parable into three scenes. First, verses 23-27.
23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
The story, like all of Jesus’s parables, has an easily understandable plot. A king is trying to balance his books and, therefore, settling debts. He calls a man who owes him ten thousand talents. This man is a slave, given the fact that when he can’t repay, the king plans to sell him and his family, probably both as a punishment and to regain some of the lost money. The servant, of course, cannot pay such a large sum. So he begs for forgiveness.
It’s important here to understand how large the sum was. A talent was worth six thousand denarii. A denarius was a day’s wage for a common laborer. Therefore, the math tells us one talent was worth about twenty years’ wages. Ten thousand talents, then, would equal 200,000 years’ wages. Obviously, that’s an incredible amount of money, one this servant could not repay.
But the servant asks for time to repay the debt. How he accrued it we are not told. Regardless, we can see that his request for patience to repay is ridiculous. No one could pay such a debt. He’s at the end of his rope. He’s begging for patience, hoping that the king gives him time to make it up. But he doesn’t. The king does something far greater instead. He forgives him entirely and releases him. In this first meeting between the servant and king, the king grants radical forgiveness.
This forgiveness is meant to sound radical. Jesus is showing us the kind of grace and mercy he shows towards those who’ve racked up a massive debt against him. To understand the shock and scandal of this radical forgiveness, we need to understand the shock and scandal of what God does in forgiving our debts against him, for this is the point of the parable. We become forgiving people to the extent to which we understand God’s forgiveness of us.
You and I are sinners from birth. We can thank Adam for that fallen condition. It doesn’t take us long to prove our sin, either. As we grow, our sin begins to feel normal. It becomes a part of who we are, how we think of ourselves, what we expect from ourselves. But normalcy of sin doesn’t make sin less than it is. Sin is treason against the King. It is an offense to the God who created us. It is a serious matter. Alexander Maclaren defined sin this way. “Sin is rebellion, the uprising of the will against rightful authority - not merely the breach of abstract propriety or law, but opposition to a living Person, who has right to obedience. The definition of virtue is obedience to God, and the sin in sin is the assertion of independence of God and opposition to His will.”
Our sin is not a small matter between God and us. It is the issue that separates us. It is the problem in our life. It is the limiting factor in us attaining holiness, finding God, reaching heaven. It is the core issue of our life. And unless our sin is dealt with—unless our sin is forgiven—we can find no way around it, we cannot clean it up, we cannot undo it. We are broken. We need a Savior.
Throughout the Bible, when people find themselves before the Lord, they always find themselves soiled with sin in his presence. For example, Isaiah pronounces woes on himself (Isaiah 6:5). Before God’s holiness, we find nothing good in us. We cannot stand before him. We need a massive cleaning from God, or we will have no way to stand before him when he calls us to account. Fleming Rutledge says, “From beginning to end, the Holy Scriptures testify that the predicament of fallen humanity is so serious, so grave, so irremediable from within, that nothing short of divine intervention can rectify it.”
And divine intervention we have in Jesus Christ. What we receive in Christ’s justification on the cross is not mere forgiveness of sins. It is a restoration of the relationship. It is a setting right. On the cross, in his death, Jesus pays the penalty for our sins on our behalf. What he does, then, is bigger than forgiving our iniquity. He is paying the penalty for our sins in his perfection, trading his goodness for our evil. That great exchange grants us a right standing before God. We become as Jesus is because he became as we were.
In the parable’s second scene, the servant goes from his forgiveness from the king to oppression of another servant.
28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.
We should find this repulsive. Jesus wanted us to. But more than that, he wanted us to see our own heart before God’s forgiveness. Are we just as repulsive? What do we do with the forgiveness God has granted? Do we, in turn, forgive others? Or do we still expect justice? How forgiving are we?
This parable pushes us to a deep evaluation of our own heart. We can be so unforgiving of those who sin against us. So much of our unforgiveness we’re unaware of. But like poison, it will ruin us. When we withhold forgiveness, we are saying to the world that Jesus’s grace is sufficient to clean us, but not good enough to clean others.
Are we going from Sunday service to a troubled Sunday night dinner with the family? Are we harboring unforgiveness towards someone who can never undo their sin? Are we expecting something from others that we hope no one ever expects of us? Are we willing to forgive, or do we just talk about the idea of forgiving?
Whatever we say about our view of forgiveness, what we really believe shows up in how we act toward others. We will either let them go with a smile in our heart or we will throw them in jail with bitterness in our heart. There is no such thing as moderate forgiveness. There is radical forgiveness or radical unforgiveness. Which are you?
In the third scene, the servant’s actions reveal his true heart to the king.
31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Earlier in the story, Matthew records Jesus’s words in 6:14-15, “If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” James says it this way, “Judgment by God is without mercy to those who have shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:13). No matter how you slice it, the Bible makes it clear: if we are to be forgiven, we must also forgive others.
We see it here in the parable as well. The other servants witness this gross injustice and run to tell the king what they’ve seen. The king summons the servant once again, but this time mercy has run out. It’s time for judgment.
No one listening or reading this parable looks upon the king as the one in the wrong. He is just to condemn the servant for his unforgiveness. If we live our lives in unforgiveness, we alone will be surprised to stand before the King and be judged. Everyone else will see what we said we believed was only a nice thought we had, not a reality we lived.
The entire purpose of this parable is to answer Peter’s question, “How many times should I forgive my brother who sins against me?” Jesus’s answer is, forever. This means our forgiveness must be real, from the heart, and abiding. How can we do this?
Tim Keller helps us understand.
“Most of the wrongs done to us cannot be assessed in purely economic terms. Someone may have robbed you of some happiness, reputation, opportunity, or certain aspects of your freedom. No price tag can be put on such things, yet we still have a sense of violated justice that does not go away when the other person says, “I’m really sorry.” When we are seriously wronged we have an indelible sense that the perpetrators have incurred a debt that must be dealt with. Once you have been wronged and you realize there is a just debt that can’t simply be dismissed— there are only two things to do.
The first option is to seek ways to make the perpetrators suffer for what they have done. You can withhold relationship and actively initiate or passively wish for some kind of pain in their lives commensurate to what you experienced. There are many ways to do this. You can viciously confront them, saying things that hurt. You can go around to others to tarnish their reputation. If the perpetrators suffer, you may begin to feel a certain satisfaction, feeling that they are now paying off their debt.
There are some serious problems with this option, however. You may become harder and colder, more self-pitying, and therefore more self-absorbed. If the wrongdoer was a person of wealth or authority you may instinctively dislike and resist that sort of person for the rest of your life. If it was a person of the opposite sex or another race you might become permanently cynical and prejudiced against whole classes of people. In addition, the perpetrator and his friends and family often feel they have the right to respond to your payback in kind. Cycles of reaction and retaliation can go on for years. Evil has been done to you— yes. But when you try to get payment through revenge the evil does not disappear. Instead it spreads, and it spreads most tragically of all into you and your own character.
There is another option, however. You can forgive. Forgiveness means refusing to make them pay for what they did. However, to refrain from lashing out at someone when you want to do so with all your being is agony. It is a form of suffering. You not only suffer the original loss of happiness, reputation, and opportunity, but now you forgo the consolation of inflicting the same on them. You are absorbing the debt, taking the cost of it completely on yourself instead of taking it out of the other person. It hurts terribly. Many people would say it feels like a kind of death.
Yes, but it is a death that leads to resurrection instead of the lifelong living death of bitterness and cynicism. As a pastor I have counseled many people about forgiveness, and I have found that if they do this— if they simply refuse to take vengeance on the wrongdoer in action and even in their inner fantasies— the anger slowly begins to subside. You are not giving it any fuel and so the resentment burns lower and lower. C. S. Lewis wrote in one of his Letters to Malcolm that “last week, while at prayer, I suddenly discovered— or felt as if I did— that I had really forgiven someone I had been trying to forgive for over thirty years. Trying, and praying that I might.” 1 I remember once counseling a sixteen-year-old girl about the anger she felt toward her father. We weren’t getting anywhere until I said to her, “Your father has defeated you, as long as you hate him. You will stay trapped in your anger unless you forgive him thoroughly from the heart and begin to love him.” Something thawed in her when she realized that. She went through the suffering of costly forgiveness, which at first always feels far worse than bitterness, into eventual freedom. Forgiveness must be granted before it can be felt, but it does come eventually. It leads to a new peace, a resurrection. It is the only way to stop the spread of the evil.
When I counsel forgiveness to people who have been harmed, they often ask about the wrongdoers, “Shouldn’t they be held accountable?” I usually respond, “Yes, but only if you forgive them.” There are many good reasons that we should want to confront wrongdoers. Wrongdoers have inflicted damage and, as in the example of the gate I presented earlier, it costs something to fix the damage. We should confront wrongdoers— to wake them up to their real character, to move them to repair their relationships, or to at least constrain them and protect others from being harmed by them in the future. Notice, however, that all those reasons for confrontation are reasons of love. The best way to love them and the other potential victims around them is to confront them in the hope that they will repent, change, and make things right.
The desire for vengeance, however, is motivated not by goodwill but by ill will. You may say, “I just want to hold them accountable,” but your real motivation may be simply to see them hurt. If you are not confronting them for their sake or for society’s sake but for your own sake, just for payback, the chance of the wrongdoer ever coming to repentance is virtually nil. In such a case you, the confronter, will overreach, seeking not justice but revenge, not their change but their pain. Your demands will be excessive and your attitude abusive. He or she will rightly see the confrontation as intended simply to cause hurt. A cycle of retaliation will begin.
Only if you first seek inner forgiveness will your confrontation be temperate, wise, and gracious. Only when you have lost the need to see the other person hurt will you have any chance of actually bringing about change, reconciliation, and healing. You have to submit to the costly suffering and death of forgiveness if there is going to be any resurrection.”
![\"](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/a8f6110945f595cf-image-asset-qpSvHsMbofj09rMHlLyDnoLn61Gs7B.jpeg\")
Photo by Thomas Kirchberger on Unsplash [/caption] \n \n\nIn chapter 13 of his gospel account, Matthew includes seven parables, one after another, focused on the kingdom of God. We’ve reached the end of this section, where Jesus leaves the crowds and speaks to his disciples in private. Today, we will consider three parables: the hidden treasure, the pearl of great value, and the net.
The Parable of the Hidden Treasure – Matthew 13:44
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Here we have a simple parable. A man finds a treasure in a field, covers it up, sells all he has, and buys the field, buying also the treasure within. Simple though it is, this parable raises many questions. Why would someone bury treasure in a field? When he found it, was the man ethical in covering and then purchasing the field? What does the treasure represent? Interpretations have varied throughout church history. And while those are important things to consider, I’d like to summarize the answers quickly so that we can consider what I believe to be the real power of the parable.
In Jesus’s day, no one put their money in a bank. If they needed to keep it safe, they would bury it in the ground. We see this in the parable of the talents, where the man with one talent is fearful of losing it, so he buries it until the Master returns (Matthew 25:25). To find treasure in the ground would not have been surprising to Jesus’s audience. Furthermore, the man would not have been considered unethical for covering it and purchasing the field. Jewish law stated, basically, whatever you find outside someone’s house is yours—finders keepers.
Now, what is the treasure? This is the big question of the parable. What is worth so much that the man sells everything he has and, in joy, buys the field? Here in chapter 13 of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus tells parables to explain the Kingdom of God (kingdom of heaven, in Matthew’s words). Considering the context, we must force ourselves to stay inside the kingdom lines and listen to what Jesus is saying. He who has ears, let him hear (Matthew 13:9).
Jesus is telling us, in no uncertain terms, that the kingdom is very valuable. It is also, apparently, very accessible. The man who found the treasure did not travel to a far away galaxy. He didn’t change his situation. He went about his day and, to his surprise, dug up the treasure.
Out of these seven parables of Matthew 13, four of them feature a field as its location. Coming after the sower, the weeds, and the mustard seed, Jesus must want to communicate something about the kingdom using fields. What is it? Tim Keller talks about the ordinariness of the ways of God. Just before Jesus tells these parables, he has miraculously healed people. That’s not ordinary. But when he gets to his teaching about the Kingdom of God, he puts away talk of miracles and begins speaking about ordinary things. Why? Because the normal working of God is found in the ordinary. He can work outside of that, but his normal workings are inside of everyday life.
A field is something we take for granted. We pass by them all the time, and we give almost no thought to what’s inside. The kingdom of God is like that. It’s always around but seldom on our mind. In these parables, Jesus is bringing the Kingdom of God to the forefront of our mind. He’s telling us what it’s like and how important it is.
At this point, some commentators would say the parable is about the cost of discipleship. Jesus is, after all, talking to his disciples, having left the crowds and entered a house (v. 36). I believe there is much to be said about following Jesus from this parable, but I do not believe that is Jesus’s primary concern. His focus is on the Kingdom of God. That includes discipleship, but something must happen before you give your life to Christ. You have to find something, and that’s what Jesus is telling us about here: what it’s like to find. Finding comes before life-giving. When we find a treasure like God’s Kingdom, the cost to follow becomes insignificant. This means the parable isn’t so much about what we’re willing to give up to gain the kingdom but that the kingdom is worth losing everything to gain it. That may sound the same, but in a world at war with God, coming under his rule is not like paying dues to the country club. It’s more like suffering the abuse of the world. Paul puts it this way in Philippians 3:7-8, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” Those aren’t the words of a man who lost anything. He found something worth suffering everything. This parable is not about losing. This parable is about gaining.
So, what are we to gain? When God created the world, he did not blast it from his finger and step away. He is no remote, unconcerned God. He created it with care, and he oversees it with the same care. “He upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrew 1:3). One way God reveals himself is through his creation. “His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:20). Therefore, God, in creation, placed us in our home on Earth as a Father would his child in a house, where the pictures on the wall remind us of whose world we live in. We are his creation living inside his creation.
But being on the planet is no guarantee we are in the Kingdom of God. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they stepped outside of God’s care and into Satan’s destruction. Their eyes became dull. Their God-sense broke. They entered death and all that comes with it. Before, they walked with God in the cool of the day. After, they were banished from the Garden. From that moment on, the Kingdom was veiled from our eyes. It became hard to see the glory of God due to the darkness of sin. That’s why, when Jesus begins speaking in parables, he tells us repeatedly, “he who has ears, let him hear.”
The Kingdom of God is less about location and more about rule. Who reigns over your life? Whoever it is, that’s whose kingdom you live in. Because of this, the Kingdom of God is a kingdom that costs you everything and nothing. It costs you everything—you’re completely changed, altered from the inside out. It costs you nothing—the price has already been paid. Let me explain.
The Kingdom of God costs you everything because, when you find it, you can’t stay who you once were. Your life is radically changed. Your loves are altered. Your purpose is different.
The Kingdom of God costs you nothing because Jesus paid the price to give it to you. He gave you the right to be called a child of God (John 1:12). Now, because of him, it's your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32).
This parable has been misunderstood from time to time. Some think it’s telling us we can purchase the kingdom. They use it to preach works righteousness. That’s not what Jesus is saying. Throughout, the Bible talks about the free gift of grace (Romans 5:15). Isaiah called out to God’s people, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” (Isaiah 55:1). What Jesus accomplished on the cross was not only salvation from sin. It was also the entrance into the Father’s house. He paid the price on our behalf. All we do is stumble into it like a man digging in a field.
Gaining the Kingdom doesn’t cost us anything. Receiving the Kingdom costs us everything. And it’s a happy trade-off. Everything we’ve ever longed for is inside. In his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value – Matthew 13:45-46
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Again, Jesus tells us what the Kingdom of God is like. Here, it’s like a merchant in search of pearls. Unlike the man who, to his surprise, found the hidden treasure as he was going about his work digging in the field, this merchant is seeking something valuable. He’s on the hunt.
In many ways, this is like the parable of the hidden treasure. Both include men finding something worth more than everything they have. But their circumstances are different. Why does Jesus use these two men? One reason is because these two parables show us two ways people find the kingdom of God. One way is totally surprising. The kingdom appears in a flash, unexpectedly. Another way is less surprising. The merchant is looking for something valuable; he just had no idea he could find something this valuable. Both ways transform your life.
Everyone you know is looking for spiritual truth. Some don’t know they’re looking, and they just go about their life one day at a time, waiting for something to happen. Others are in pursuit, traveling to far off places in search of the meaning of life. Spiritual truth seems elusive to so many. But Jesus is saying the truth is here. All we need to do is recognize it when we see it.
Do you know what’s so amazing about both of these parables? The man found a treasure in a field. How many others walked by that field without thinking anything of value could be hidden there? The man who purchased the pearl bought it from someone. Why could no one else see its value? Jesus is telling us the spiritual truth we’re looking for is here, in this world, around us now. All we need is the eyes to see and the ears to hear. Here is Jesus, God incarnate, bringing God’s word about God’s kingdom of God’s grace to earth. He’s surrounded by so many but not all can recognize him. He’s telling us not to miss out. Pay attention.
Jesus is telling us the kingdom of God is something like finding a treasure in a field or a pearl worth everything we own. But the truth is, the kingdom of God is better than either of those things, or both of those things combined. The Kingdom of God, as Jesus describes, is far better than we could ever imagine. The question for us is, do we see it that way?
At the beginning of the explanation of the parable of the weeds, Matthew tells us that Jesus left the crowds and entered a house. Inside that house, Jesus was surrounded by his disciples who asked him to explain the weeds. It’s immediately after that explanation that Jesus tells his disciples these two parables. Why put them here?
Imagine being there in the first century. You’ve heard Jesus’s teaching. You’ve seen his miracles. You know the Old Testament scriptures. You’re convinced he’s the Christ. You’re hoping he’s going to lead the rebellion against Rome and establish God’s kingdom on earth. Now, you’ve just heard his parables, and what he’s saying sounds like the kingdom isn’t coming quickly. It sounds like slow growth over a long time, not a rapid overthrow of the emperor. You’re not sure about this. Your hopes are a little dashed, like receiving socks on Christmas.
Then, Jesus draws you near and tells you that the kingdom that is coming, and, in fact, is already here, is as good as you always hoped. No, it’s better. Far better, indeed. It’s like a treasure in a field that you suddenly found. It’s like a pearl of great value that you never knew existed. The slow, methodical growth is not a decline to letdown; it’s a build up to consummation. God’s patience is part of his grace and mercy, spreading through the world in ways we would never think of. He’s using the ordinary to do the extraordinary. He’s leading people to the treasure and placing pearls of great value all over the world. And people are finding it. Can you see it?
The thing about God’s kingdom is that it’s not relegated to one area of the world. There are no boundary lines. It’s as big as the universe. That means the kingdom we’re saved into is the kingdom above all others. It’s a new reality in the midst of our current reality, where the joy of heaven can be experienced in the pains of this world, which God then uses as a witness to his grace in order to save more people. He could have overthrown Rome in a moment, but if he did, Jesus would’ve never died on the cross. We might have the kingdom we always wanted on this earth but we’d miss out on the one God wants for us. And if we know anything about God, it’s that his way is best.
Earthly kingdoms are always established by the rich and powerful. Even if the over-throwers start out poor and oppressed, they never stay that way. We position ourselves in hierarchies and castes. But in God’s kingdom, the King became poor and friendless on the cross. And when he was raised again to life, he took his position on the throne but of a different kind. His throne became for us a throne of grace, where the King himself helps us in our time of need. He became the one leading us to the treasure, placing the pearl before our eyes.
The Kingdom of God is unlike any this world has ever seen. But it’s not because it’s other-worldly. It’s present now. It always has been. It’s thoroughly worldly—ordinary, in fact. And so, it’s ordinariness causes us to overlook it. We miss the treasure in the field simply because we’d never imagine we could find God there. We go looking for pearls of some value never dreaming something of such great value exists. The Kingdom of God is the only kingdom we don’t have to fight our way into. There’s no admission test, no entry fee, only grace upon grace accepted in humility. Every other religion’s god says, “This is the way, work toward it.” Jesus alone says, “I am the way, come to me.” And when we come, like the man in the field and the merchant in the marketplace, we gladly leave what we have because of what he is.
The Parable of the Net – Matthew 13:47-50
47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. 48 When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus closes his parables of the kingdom with the parable of the net. No matter what our response to the parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great value is, Jesus remains king, and in the end, he will have the final say. That’s the purpose of the parable of the net.
The kind of net Jesus refers to is a dragnet, which stretches across a wide area of the water, gathering whatever comes in its boundaries. This was a common fishing method in the region Jesus was visiting, but more than that, it’s a comment about the way the end of the age will occur. Jesus is saying even if you don’t receive the kingdom, you’re still going to be gathered at the end. On that day, you want to be found a good fish, not a bad one. So, be sure you’re a good fish.
This parable reminds us of the parable of the weeds, where the weeds are allowed to grow up with the wheat. Only at the time of harvest is there a great sorting of good and bad. In context, Jesus is warning us not to miss receiving the joy of the kingdom right now. We don’t know when the Fisherman will drop his net. The time to ensure you’re found in good standing is today. He who has ears, let him hear.
This parable can concern us, especially those of us who hold to the doctrines of grace. It sounds like Jesus is telling us to make ourselves a good fish. But how can we make ourselves good fish? Jesus doesn’t tell us. All he says is at the end of the age, he will sort the good from the bad. We have to take the rest of the chapter into consideration to determine the kind of fish we are.
Think back to the two preceding parables. How did each man receive the treasure? One found it, one searched for it. But how did they find it? It was placed before them. How did that happen? Lucky circumstance, perhaps. But if that’s the case, why didn’t all the others who passed by the field or ran the pearl through their hands notice the great value? How could so many miss it but these two see it? Something else happened to them. Not only was the treasure placed before their eyes, they were also given the eyes to see it. They had, to use Jesus’s phrase, ears to hear, so they heard.
In the parables of the kingdom, Jesus is not telling us to purchase our way in. He’s not telling us to sort ourselves out to become wheat or good fish. He’s not telling us to make sure we cultivate good soil on our own. He’s telling us the kingdom has come and all we must do to receive it is hear what he’s saying. All we need is the humility to lay aside our expectations of God and receive the grace of God. If we can see it, we can have it. The kingdom is here. The end of the age is approaching. It’s time to enter. Will we?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/e51e660860191787-image-asset-jsH3PmHej9499jLNTJCULsYka4dGIP.jpeg\")
\n \n\nAll learning begins with storytelling. A series of facts means nothing apart from the story that brings it to life. God understands this because he created it. And since he created it, he is, therefore, the very best story teller. It’s no wonder, then, that when Jesus came to earth, he brought with him a collection of stories (which we call parables), revealing to us hidden aspects of ourselves and ushering us into the deep things of God. Telling us the kingdom is coming is one thing. Showing us how is another thing entirely.
The first of Jesus’s parables was the parable of the Sower, which we looked at last week. This was the first of a group of parables we could call Parables of the Kingdom. After the parable of the sower, Jesus tells the crowd gathered around a few more. In the parable of the weeds, the mustard seed, and the leaven, the point is simple, but the stories provide more than a simple point. They show us the expansion of God’s kingdom while revealing the quiet, sometimes hidden way in which God grows it.
Since the moment of the fall, God’s promise was to send a Messiah to rescue his people and establish God’s rule. That expectation grew into a hope of a political overthrow in military fashion. As you can imagine, history filled itself with people claiming to be the Messiah. And for a while, some of these men looked the part. But when Jesus showed up, he began doing things no one had ever seen before. He began performing miracles, healing people born blind and removing the lepers’ spots. He began teaching with a new authority, proclaiming things about God and interpreting God’s law in a way no one else ever had. He said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). And the people listening took him to heart. They thought God’s man had finally come. They were preparing for the consummation of the kingdom. But it never came. And as Jesus lived longer, it became more and more apparent that he wasn’t the political or military leader they imagined he would be. He was entirely different from their expectations. And that’s the point of these parables: to give us the right expectation of God’s kingdom. Jesus is showing us how God’s plan is different from our plan, and how, in the end, God’s plan is bigger than we could have imagined.
24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
All who accepted Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah anticipated the coming of the kingdom of God. They had lived long under the rule of other nations, presently under the heavy hand of Rome. Jesus was the one to break the chains. He was the one to lead the uprising. He was the one to conquer the badlands and turn them back into the promised land. So, when was he going to do it? That’s the question Jesus steps into with this parable of the weeds.
Upon realizing the bad seed had been sown in the field, the servants in the parable asked, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?” The question is serious. “Jesus, I thought what you created was good. How did evil get here and why is it growing like the good seed? How can the world have weeds when you’re in charge?” This question is the perennial question of the existence of evil. If God is good, why can’t he stop it? The simple answer is, he can. The biblical answer is, he won’t—not yet, anyway. And, as we will see, that is a significant grace of God.
Jesus makes it clear that the good seed will grow. The bad seed won’t stop it. That was never the enemy’s plan, anyway. The bad seed was planted to discredit the Sower, not to destroy the good seed. The enemy doesn’t care about the good seed at all. He cares about the reputation of the Sower. If the good seed is harmed along the way, that’s fine with him, but it’s not the point. He’ll harm only if it brings shame to the Son of Man. The Son understands this ploy, and he won’t fall into the trap of destroying the good seed just to destroy the bad. So he allows the bad to grow alongside the good so he can be good to the good seed. He will not cut it down in youth because he wants it to grow into maturity.
The enemy is sneaky, coming at night, sowing the bad seed in the Good Sower’s field. This bad seed looks like the good seed. In the parable, Jesus uses a word for “weed” referring to a plant that looks identical to wheat, except for a small difference in leaf size. Only once the plant grows and bears grain does it distinguish itself from wheat. One thing is certain, the Son of Man is not responsible for the bad seed. He only plants good seed.
The story does not end with bad triumphant over good. It ends as we hope it will, with the bad being gathered up and burned. What begins as a story of the enemy getting the better of the Master ends with the Master defeating the enemy.
The psalmist of Psalm 73 understood the tension of this parable. He sings, “Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” (Ps. 73:1-4)
The wicked do seem to prosper in this life, do they not? This parable doesn’t deny that truth. But the psalmist, and we, are often short-sighted. Like Great Britain during World War II, we are constantly under the bombardment of the enemy, and for a time it looks like they might win, but we have an ally coming to our aid. In a little while, the enemy will be fought back. We will claim victory.
What we need is the proper perspective—the eternal, cosmic perspective of God. And that’s why Jesus gives this parable as he teaches about the kingdom of God. Our expectation is that Jesus will fix everything immediately. And what we really mean by that is he will fix everything in and relating to us immediately. But Jesus says he’ll fix it when it’s time. And we don’t know the time. In fact, Jesus even said he didn’t (Matthew 24:36).
To understand this seems like a wearisome task. That’s why we need to enter the sanctuary of God with the psalmist of Psalm 73, where we can see the ultimate end of the enemy. “For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.”
The story includes evil because the world includes evil. But the focus isn’t the evil living in the world. The focus is on the kingdom of God overcoming the world. So, if the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and we must repent, when is the Kingdom coming? When will the door to Narnia appear? When can we enter? How do we get in?
31 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
33 He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”
To further answer the question of the kingdom, Jesus gives two more parables. First, a parable of the mustard seed. Second, the parable of the leaven. Each makes the same point with different images. The kingdom of God is growing and spreading, but you can’t see it, and that’s how God wants it.
A grain of mustard seed is not the smallest seed on earth. Jesus wasn’t making a technical statement about which seed is the smallest. Rather, he was making a statement about which seed, being the smallest in use in farming in that day, grew to be the largest relative to its small start. The parable of the leaven teaches the same principle. It is a small thing that, when put inside something, grows into a large thing.
God has always worked this way. Unlike the ways of the world, where the loudest and most impressive receive the limelight, God goes after the small and insignificant. He chose Abraham of Ur and gave him his blessing. Out of Abraham, he created a nation that, even at its peak, was an unimpressive kingdom relative to the world. He chose a remnant out of Israel to preserve his gospel. He chose Mary, a virgin, to bear his Son. He chose a carpenter to father the Savior. He chose Nazareth to raise the Lord. From the smallness of the world grew the largeness of the kingdom. From weakness, his power comes.
This would have encouraged his disciples. They were nothing in their day: fisherman and tax collectors. But to them was given the keys to the kingdom. Even after their years with Jesus, they were considered by outsiders to be common, uneducated men. Their only authority was that they had been with Jesus. And that was all they needed. It’s all any of us need. That’s why Jesus tells us these stories—to show us how deeply he is with us, or, rather, how deeply we are with him.
Jesus was the ultimate pastor, and in his shepherding, he brings us into the depths of God’s purposes. He shows us God’s heart. He is not unconcerned with evil. He is against it. But his view is long-term, not short-sighted. His kingdom has come, his will is being done, and earth will one day transform into heaven. But that day has not yet appeared in its fullness. God is still being patient, not wishing that any would suffer eternal death.
In his incarnation, Jesus endured what God should never have to face. He did it in no small corner of the world. He became the most famous person of his day and the most famous person of all time, but he did not start that way. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, through the womb of a virgin to a crib in a stall. He worked in the shadows, using the enemy’s strategy against him, coming in the veil of night whereby a star led his worshippers to his manger. On that Christmas Day, God’s armies of angels praised him, the war cry of heaven, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14). When God waged war on the evil of this world, he sent a baby.
And that baby grew in wisdom and stature, like any baby before or after him—as a mustard seed would, or a bit of leaven in a lump of bread. Jesus brought the kingdom of God in the most fitting way possible: slowly, intentionally, effectively. He grew alongside his enemies, awaiting the time of harvest. But his harvest came early. The enemy would not wait for the end. He acted beforehand, according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23). After the last supper, Judas went out to commit his sin, and it was night (John 13:30). And God was in control of it all.
Like an eclipse, the darkness overwhelmed the Son, nailing him to a cross. He hung there in condemnation, a Savior bearing the sins of the world. With a final gasp, he died. He was buried in the tomb of a friend. And he was gone. But the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5).
What the enemy believed to be victory was, in fact, defeat. Without his knowledge, the mustard seed had grown, and like bread too big for the pan, Jesus burst forth from the grave. The enemy may have had some whips and nails, but the Son had life, and his life outlasted the enemy’s death. There was Jesus, in his glorified body, shining like the sun in the kingdom of his Father. His present reality became the future hope of his people and the ultimate dread of his enemies.
What is the kingdom of God like? It’s like wheat growing among weeds, like a mustard seed in the ground, like a little leaven in a lump. The kingdom of heaven is the rumble underneath the earth, waiting for the time of eruption. It’s growing by leaps and bounds, swallowing up the world, until that final day when Jesus returns and makes all things new. Until then, we remain, practicing patience. We may not be shining yet, but we have the Son himself to lean on. Evil may still remain rooted in this world, but we have the Savior granting us the strength to carry on, giving us hope that his kingdom is swelling, and one day, at the end of the age, all will be set right.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/0d07d8103b2612fe-image-asset-diLwWiDvUCNSp8dmksUQiFgnfubg2t.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIn the year that King Uzziah died, God lifted the prophet Isaiah in a vision to the holy throne room. He saw the Lord sitting high and lifted up, surrounded in praise by the angels. In response, Isaiah cried out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5)
In a moment of clarity, Isaiah saw himself as he really was. He saw his people as they really were. He saw God as he really is. And in response, he fell on his face before the Lord. He was humbled and repentant. He understood the wickedness of his sin. He felt his depravity. He would have accepted his condemnation. But he received forgiveness. An angel flew to him, and with a burning coal from the altar, touched his mouth and made him clean. His guilt was gone. His sin atoned. Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord, and it freed him.
God then needed a man who understood forgiveness to go to his people preaching of forgiveness. Who would he send? Isaiah pipes up, “Send me!” So God does. But Isaiah was given a tough assignment.
“Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9-10)
God’s prophet takes God’s word to God’s people, but they are unable to hear. The greatest task of their lives is one they fail to accomplish because they’ve traded the glory of God for the glory of man. They have exalted themselves above the Lord, and in so doing, have failed to attain the glory they seek.
The world Isaiah stepped into was a world at war with God. Jesus stepped into the same world. But the war was subtle. Shots weren’t fired all at once. Time was still pregnant, awaiting the fullness when all hell’s fury swelled toward the cross. God came offering peace, but the Israelites of Isaiah’s day, and the Israelites of Jesus’s day, refused to accept the terms. Instead, they waged war.
All Isaiah’s hearers had to do was listen and repent. But they couldn’t. Can you?
1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that
“ ‘they may indeed see but not perceive,
and may indeed hear but not understand,
lest they should turn and be forgiven.’ ”
13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
Jesus takes to the floating pulpit as his congregation gathers on the shore. The time has come to teach about his Father’s kingdom. He’s miraculously healed their diseases with his hands; now it’s time to touch their hearts with his words.
What Jesus’s first-century audience needed is the same thing we need today: to be confronted with God’s Word. We need the Holy God to break through our world, our heart, our experience, and shake the very ground upon which we stand. We cannot come alive to him on our own. We need him sounding the alarm. We need an awakening.
In the gospels, we receive such an awakening. We have Jesus Christ bringing not only God’s word to earth, but bringing God himself to earth. He became nothing in this world to bring everything down from heaven. He humbled himself to death on the cross so we could see how massive the love of God really is.
That day so long ago, Jesus opened his teaching ministry with a sharp command, “Listen!” As a parent would call out to get a child’s attention, our Lord is demanding us to heed his words. Our teaching today rarely begins with such an imperative, but perhaps it should. After all, listening to the word of God is the primary task of the Christian. It is the path in which we walk side by side with the Lord. It is the divine classroom, the heart searcher, the wisdom producer. When God speaks, we should listen. But we must be careful how we listen. We must not be passive. Our listening must be active. The words coming in can’t swirl aimlessly. They must find a spot to land.
Jesus knew not everyone gathered on that beach would hear the message he was proclaiming. He knew some had already made up their mind about who he was—or wasn’t. They were listening without listening, hearing without hearing. The words went in one ear, through the predetermined filter, and landed on the rock-hard surface of their heart. For some, the hearing wasn’t as dull. They enjoyed the entertaining story. It impacted them. It changed their mood. Life appeared to take root. But what began couldn’t last. For others, the message was heard and received. The seed fell into the soft soil of the heart and began to grow. What made the difference? To find the answer, we must look at this parable in two parts. First, we must consider the sower and the seed. Second, we must understand the types of soil.
The parable is simple on the surface. A sower went out to sow. Jesus tells us the sower sows the Word of God. The image of God sowing his word is not a new one to Jesus’s audience. Mark’s gospel draws heavily on the book of Isaiah. Even in this parable, in verse 12, Jesus quotes from Isaiah 6:9-10. Isaiah uses sowing imagery to prophecy that God’s seed would not return empty.
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
(Isaiah 55:10-11)
Seven hundred years later, Jesus showed up speaking the same language. God sent his word out into the world, and it will accomplish his purposes. Jesus was another man in a long line of men who appeared bringing God’s word to a hard-hearted people. But Jesus was unique. He was not a man in need of God’s forgiveness. He was the one to bring God’s forgiveness. His parables held the authority of a sinless man. They are not simply stories with a moral application, or tales holding a life lesson. They are the seed of God’s word sowed in expectation of harvesting.
But reading the parables is no easy task. Many have gone too far in their interpretation, others not far enough. In our interpretation, we much watch for the danger of allegory, finding significance in every detail of the story, which can distract from the main point. But in this case, the parable is allegorical because Jesus himself provides the interpretation, and his interpretation is allegorical. It is not only that the sower went out to sow but that Jesus himself is the sower sowing as he’s speaking. He is, in the Apostle John’s language, “The Word,” God himself made manifest to us (John 1:1). Jesus speaks for himself, by himself, on behalf of himself, with the very words that point back to himself. Everything Jesus says in this parable is self-referential though he makes himself the minor character in the plot. Though the sower goes out to sow, it is neither the sower nor the word that is the focal point. It is the soil, which we will consider in a moment.
First, we must consider the sower who sows the word (Mark 4:14). The sower is anyone who sows the word of God. He is you and me. He is the preacher on Sunday morning. He is the evangelist in the third-world country. He is the employee at lunch with his co-workers. He is the parent telling the bedtime story. He is anyone who shares God’s word, spreading the seed as he goes. But it is also true is that Jesus is, in a cosmic sense, the sower, fulfilling and encompassing the totality of it. He spreads the seed of the word, calling all to repent and believe, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
It is this call to all that is so striking in the parable. The sower sows the seed indiscriminately, spreading it far and wide on all kinds of ground. By modern farming techniques, this would be considered wasteful. But in the ancient world, it was common. A farmer could not rid his field completely of rocks. He could dig a foot in the ground, but without modern tools, going deeper would be difficult and time-consuming. What appeared to be good soil could have been rocky ground without him knowing. So, he spread his seed throughout his field, doing what he could to prepare for an abundant harvest. Then he waited to see what the harvest would yield.
For the many souls gathered on that beach, and for the many gathered around this parable throughout the centuries in church congregations, Bible studies, and personal devotions, the Divine Sower does his work. He spreads the word of God far and wide, reaching into the places others would find bordering on the edge of stupidity. He goes to the ones forgotten, trod down, pushed out, and removed, just as he goes to the ones in the castle, on the throne, in the public eye, and loved by many. The sower does not care where the seed lands because every inch of dirt is an opportunity for growth in God’s kingdom. This parable and this Sower and this seed are features of the Kingdom of God, come now to earth to do the Father’s work. The sower is going out to sow his seed. What will the harvest find?
The focal point of the parable is neither the sower nor the seed. Each is vital—without them the ground lays unfarmed—but, primarily, Jesus is driving us to an evaluation of four types of soil.
“Some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” (Mark 4:4-8)
Jesus explains these four types of soil for us.
“And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” (Mark 4:15-20)
For all the questions we ask of the Bible, the Bible also asks questions of us. And it is the questions the Bible asks of us that should claim our attention before anything else. It is true, we can ask God whatever we must, we can seek and search, but our questions don’t come first. Until we’ve placed ourselves under God’s microscope, we’ve failed to take the Bible seriously. Until we’ve allowed God to question us, we have no right to question him. After all, it was not Adam who, after he sinned, littered God with questions. It was God who came looking for Adam asking, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). It was not Job’s insistence that God answer him that changed his heart during his suffering. It was God’s questions of him that turned the tide. “I will question you” (Job 38:3). This parable, then, is not merely a story of a sower sowing seed. It is a question from God to all of us. What kind of soil is our heart made of? When the sower sows his seed, what will the seed find to rest on?
It is after this parabolic question that Jesus’s disciples draw near for clarity. They heard his words, but does it mean what they think? There are four types of soil. Which types are good and which are bad? In his grace and mercy, Jesus gives us the answer. Though the parable presents four types of soil, there are ultimately only two kinds. There is the soil of unfaith and the soil of faith. Three are bad. One is good. Why, then, present four types? Because in our experience of sowing the seed of the word, we find all four. This parable helps us see why. It peels back the layers, showing what’s beneath the surface, helping us understand the various responses.
Tim Keller points out that if you read the first three chapters of the book of Mark, you find these first three types of soils reflected. The soil on the path is the group of Pharisees—the religious leaders. They who should have understood the word of God fail to receive it because it comes from outside their preconceived ideas. The soil on the rocky ground is the crowd gathered around Jesus. They’re extremely pleased with him, enjoying his miracles. But when the word falls on their heart, they have no depth. They wanted a show when they needed a savior. The soil with thorns is Jesus’s family. They’re embarrassed and ashamed of Jesus because he’s making a spectacle of himself with his crazy talk. They’re allowing the cares of the world to choke the good news he’s preaching. The soils are responding to the seed, and for theses first three types it’s a disaster. Nothing lasts long. Death is overtaking the life. That’s how it was for Jesus in his life—death lurked.
There is, however, is one type of good soil. Who is that in the story of Mark’s gospel? The good soil is anyone who follows Jesus for who he really is—not only for what he’s done in his miracles but for who he is in himself. They are the ones who accept Jesus wholeheartedly. They follow him, willing to go all the way to the end. In the story of Mark thus far, this is seen best in the disciples. They’re a mess. They’re sinners. They’re unsure of some things. But they’re seeking Jesus. They don’t hear the parable and say, “Well, that’s a nice story. Ok, what else you got?” Instead, they seek him out and press in further. They’re the fertile soil ready to swallow the seed. In short, they want Jesus for who he is, not for what he can do. When presented with the story of the kingdom of God, they press in because they want to become a citizen.
So we may approach Jesus with questions: “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews” (Matthew 2:2)? “Could this be the Christ” (John 4:29)? “What shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ” (Matthew 27:22)? But it is not the questions we ask of Jesus but the questions Jesus asks of us that determine our future. And here the parable of the sower serves as Jesus’s opening question, plowing the field of the world. What kind of soil are we?
The answer is not elusive. We can know what kind of soil we are. Furthermore, now is the time to evaluate! Jesus quotes from Isaiah 6, describing the hard-heartedness of Israel, not to hide the answer but to warn us to seek the answer. The time is at hand. There is still time to repent. Will we? Will we listen to the Lord or will we turn our noses up at him, walking away with our pride intact and our soul in danger?
If you’ve been following Jesus, the surest way to find out the kind of soil you are is to look at the fruit of your life. That’s what Jesus tells us to do. The good soil produces a harvest. Not all of us will yield a hundredfold, but all who trust in Jesus yield something. How much is up to him. If you’ve not yet followed Jesus, the surest way to gain the good soil is to ask him for a new heart. All we must do is offer our heart as the soil in which he plants his seed. He’ll do the rest, which leads us into the deepest truth of this passage.
If only one soil is good, how do we get it? Is it being a good person? If so, good by what standard? Is it by pulling out the weeds in our life? If so, how can you be sure you got the root? Is it by removing the rocks underneath? If so, how can you see down far enough? It can’t be any of that. It must be another way.
Interestingly, the only gospel account that doesn’t include this parable is John’s. Throughout the first eleven chapters, Jesus continually says his time has not yet come. But in the 12th chapter, Jesus turns and begins saying his time has now come. He enters Jerusalem to a singing, palm branch-waving crowd. The King has arrived in his city. But it was not the throne to which he was going. It was the cross. This surprising turn of events has to be explained to his disciples. So, he says to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).
With these words, Jesus shows us the truth embedded in the parable of the sower. For the seed to take root and grow, death must occur. When it dies, it can grow. This isn’t only the way God created agriculture to work. It’s the way he created the Christian life to work. Christianity is not basically about achieving the life required to attain heaven. Christianity is about dying to the life keeping you from heaven, and accepting the life Jesus alone gives. Christianity is about death before it’s about life. If you want the heart made of good soil but realize you can’t create it on your own, you’ve entered the truest part of Christianity. You can’t create the fertile heart. Only God can. And the news we call good news, the gospel, is that God not only can give you the good heart, but will give it to you. All we must do is ask.
The deepest truth about the words John records, and the most profound truth about the parable of the sower is that Jesus is the sower who became the seed. He denied himself and took up his cross, enduring the suffering for the splendor beyond. He fell to the earth and died. And in his crucifixion, he tilled the heart within our breast, transforming stone into flesh. Then, glory of all glories, the seed planted in the earth rose to bear much fruit, blossoming through the world.
The way to the good soil is not anything of our own doing. It’s the work of Jesus Christ. He’s the sower creating the soil and sowing the seed. As we place ourselves beneath his question, our great hope is not that we can root out all hindrances from our heart, cultivating the good soil on our own. Our great hope is that we have a great Sower with a powerful seed that can grow in the hardest of hearts because he’s powerful enough to break the hardest ground. The good soil becomes good because of the supernatural work of the Good Sower. We embrace the seed of the word because Jesus gives us a new heart. All we have to do is admit our need. Jesus will provide the rest. He’s purchased on our behalf what we could never create on our own. He prepares the soil to receive the seed; all we do is enjoy the growth.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/695335407b764f68-image-asset-5cC492a2RwhEnNikYEqcrwizg9ouie.jpeg\")
\n \n\nReturning to the example of Abraham, Paul launches into an allegorical look at the two sons of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac. This is considered by many to be the letter’s most difficult passage. Paul addresses those who desire to be under the law. Do they even understand the law? If they did, they’d see that by desiring to be under the law they desire to come under something that can and will judge them and condemn them. Why would they want condemnation when they could have freedom? Why be the son of slavery when they could be the son of freedom?
Galatians 4:21-31
21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,
“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than those of the one who has a husband.”
28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
Sin makes us illogical. It muddies our mind, causing us to choose things contrary to the right path. Paul highlights this lack of logic in selecting the law over Christ. This passage is difficult to understand because Paul is using allegory. He’s looking back into the Old Testament and finding the hidden meaning in this story. Hagar was an Egyptian slave of Abraham. Sarah was the rightfully married wife of Abraham. There is a stark contrast between the two sons they bear.
Hagar Sarah
Ishmael Isaac
Slave Free
“According to the flesh” “Through the promise”
Old Covenant New Covenant
Mount Sinai Mount Zion
Present Jerusalem Heavenly Jerusalem
In these contrasts, Paul is showing the difference between associating ourselves with the law vs. the gospel. Hagar was part of Abraham’s house as a slave, not as a recipient of the law. Sarah, however, was Abraham’s wife, one flesh with Abraham in the promise and, as the mother of the Jewish race, the eventual recipient of the law through her progeny. It is Hagar, however, whom Paul associates with the law rather than Sarah. Why is this? Paul aims to show the spiritual reality that lies underneath our attempts to take matters into our own hands. Paul’s point is less about the persons of Sarah and Hagar, or even Isaac and Ishmael. It is more about the calamity of what results when we take the reigns of our life. When we step into the promise God has made, hurrying it along to fulfillment, we undercut the glory and birth tragedy.
Remember the story. God promises Abraham and Sarah a son. But it feels to them as if God is taking too long. Rather than patiently waiting, as they’ve been doing, they decide it’s time to help God bring about the promise. Their mindset is, as Timothy George has pointed out, “the result of the outworking of the philosophy that God helps those who help themselves.”
Paul is showing us that whenever we believe we must help God achieve his promises, we ruin them. Whenever we step in with our ability, we step out of the place of blessing and into the place of destruction. We trade freedom for slavery. We must be careful how we treat the promises of God. We may treat them like a grand potential rather than a divine grace. This isn’t a slight deviation from faith, nor is it a truer definition of it. Rather, it is the repudiation of faith altogether. It’s our prideful conclusion that God needs us to bring about his divine purpose.
But God doesn't need our assistance to fulfill his promises. Abraham and Sarah's interference resulted in Ishmael, a child of the slave, the father of the Arab race, the opponent of God’s people. When Abraham and Sarah decided they’d help God do what God said he’d do, they undercut the promise and birthed a problem.
Therefore, when we believe adding our works to God’s grace gives us extra credit on his salvation test, our perfect score turns into a failing one. The gospel, if it shows us anything at all, proves God needs only himself to fulfill the promises. The only thing we add to the salvation story is the sin that makes it necessary, not the remedy that makes it achievable.
The false teachers in Galatia stand in a long line of works righteousness soldiers. They believed the same thing as the Jews in the days of John the Baptist. When John the Baptist appeared to prepare the way for Christ, he confronted the Jews, “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.” The Jews rested in their lineage, thinking an association was enough to save when it took a new birth altogether. It’s not physical lineage but spiritual lineage that matters. These Jews, thinking they were Isaac’s brothers were, in fact, Ishmael's.
The truth is, we are all either an Ishmael or an Isaac. We are either a child of slavery or a child of freedom. How we relate to God’s word determines which we are. If we, like Paul, hold to the gospel message as God himself first proclaimed it in the person of Jesus Christ, we are Isaac. But if we, like the false teachers, believe the gospel needs our works to gain full righteousness before God, we are Ishmael.
In Galatians 4, however, Paul isn’t talking primarily to the false teachers who were unwilling to throw off the law for grace. He was talking to the Isaacs of the church. The emphatic word in verse 28 is you. Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. Their identification with Isaac runs the full gamut. Not only are they inheritors of the promise, but they are also persecuted by those who aren’t. Ishmael troubled Isaac when he was a child. In adulthood, his progeny continued the persecuted. All the way down to the present day, Ishmael’s pestering influence is felt. But we know how the story turned out. We know where the place of blessing resides. It’s in the child of the promise, not the slave. We can expect the same treatment from Ishmael that Isaac received. Even so, we can also expect the same treatment from God Isaac received. The world will hate us, but God will love us. Are we ok with that?
Galatians 5:1-15
1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!
Throughout the letter, Paul is emphasizing freedom in the gospel of Christ. He makes the point again in 5:1. The freedom Paul is explaining here is not so much the freedom from sin regarding bondage but regarding conscience. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that the blood of Christ purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14). Paul’s emphasis is the same—Christ has set us free from a guilty conscience. We do not have to go back under the slavery of the law, performing works to ease our troubled mind. We can take our troubled mind to Jesus and experience his cleansing effect, a cleansing far more thorough than we could ever achieve by obedience to the law.
By telling us not to submit again to a yoke of slavery, Paul is speaking against the false teachers and speaking to those who have passively allowed their rules to weigh them down. Christ did not come to place a heavier yoke on us. He came to remove the yoke. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Jesus’ yoke is indeed easy and his burden light, but his anger toward those who would convince otherwise is hard and heavy. When Jesus entered the temple and found the money-changers and various sellers of goods, he became enraged. He drove them out of the temple court with a whip made with his own hands (John 2:15). The outer court, where these peddlers sat, was the only place in the temple Gentiles could enter. It was there that the Jewish priests should have gone out to the Gentiles, helping them find their way to God. But when Jesus came, he saw no priests helping the Gentiles. Instead, he saw them hindering. They were placing obstacles in the way, saying to them, “Oh, I’m so glad you’re here. Let me sell you an offering that will surely set you right with God.” They complicated things. But Jesus wouldn’t have it. He didn’t come to complicate, but to simplify. He came to remove the barriers to God, and his anger at those in the temple is the same Paul has with the false teachers in Galatia because their methods are the same. They sought to complicate the Gentiles’ coming to God through Jesus by placing the law on top of the gospel of grace. Circumcision and law abiding became for them the oxen, sheep, and pigeons in the court, the sacrifices pleasing to God.
Paul homes in on the issue at hand. These false teachers said the only way to truly come to God is through circumcision. Paul would not have it. John Stott comments:
The slogan of the false teachers was: ‘Unless you are circumcised and keep the law, you cannot be saved’ (Acts 15:1, 5). They were thus declaring that faith in Christ was insufficient for salvation. Circumcision and law-obedience must be added to it. This was tantamount to saying that Moses must be allowed to finish what Christ had begun.
To add circumcision is to lose Christ. Seeking justification by the law is losing justification by grace. The law cannot be parsed, obeying parts and ignoring others. It must be followed entirely or not at all. There is no middle ground. And due to its high standard, no one can fully keep it. God gave it as a driver to God’s grace, yet these false teachers aim to use it as a ladder to him.
We all like the idea of working our way into something. But working out way into Christ is not an option. We can’t achieve our salvation; we must receive our salvation. Like a drowning man in the ocean, we need not just swim harder. We need a rescuer. So, we wait for salvation by faith. “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” If we are in Christ, it does not matter if we are circumcised or uncircumcised. What matters is if we’ve allowed Jesus to set us right with God. If we have, we can disregard the false teacher’s call to justification by law-keeping and rest in the gospel’s call to justification by grace.
Contrary to what we often believe, it is through this right understanding of salvation by grace that produces the proper kind of obedience to the law. Faith works itself out through love. The Spirit given to us in our redemption creates in us a heart that longs to obey God out of love for him and for others. The false teachers’ attempt to get the Galatians to fall in line takes them further from obedience. Paul’s insistence that they come to Christ by grace takes them further in.
We may think a little law is good for us. We shouldn’t get too obsessed with grace. But you can’t add a little law to grace and it all turn out ok in the end. Like adding leaven to a lump, it spreads. The addition of law doesn’t add flavor to the Christian life. It changes the entire form of the Christian life. It looks different, tastes different, is different.
This different gospel the false teachers are spreading is no small problem. They’re ruining the entire church. Paul’s anger burns, and he wishes that those who hold circumcision up as the path toward God would go ahead and cut it all off. If you can gain righteousness by such an act, why not go all in? Why stop there with circumcision. Cut it all away and become super-righteous, if that’s what you think God requires.
Every message is both received and preached. When it comes to religion, there are two, and only two, options. Either we are preaching, and therefore receiving, law, or we are preaching and therefore receiving grace. There is no middle ground. Those who seek it are as lost as the false teachers. You don’t have to emasculate yourself to come to God, but you do have to emasculate the demands of the law as your path to righteousness. Cut it away and receive the healing touch of Jesus.
Galatians 5:13-15
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
What is true freedom? In our day, everyone wants it, but no one can find it. To some, it means the ability to choose who you love and marry. For others, it means living apart from dependence on the government. For yet others the definition is fluid: the autonomy to do whatever you want without any hindrance whatsoever. But Christianity alone offers the path to freedom. And, surprisingly to many, that freedom comes through submitting yourself to the rule of Christ. The truth of the matter is this: no matter what we may believe about our experience of freedom, until we have given ourselves as slaves to Christ, we will be bound to the slavery of our desires. We are not wonderful masters. We are oppressors. What we need is an exodus out of slavery—even the slavery of our own making.
What we need is not the fulfillment of our desires but the crucifixion of our desires. We need the Holy Spirit to awaken us to God, and in doing so, awaken us to real freedom—the freedom of God himself. When that happens, we stop treating other people are stepping stones to our freedom and begin serving other people in humility that they might experience the same freedom we’ve found in Christ.
Many misunderstand the freedom Christianity offers. Law-keepers see grace as the pathway to sin. But the Christianity is not freedom to sin. Christianity is freedom from sin. It is possible to use our freedom as a soldier would a base of operations. We can use the freedom we’ve gained as an excuse to go on the offensive, hurtling ourselves toward whatever we want. But to use our freedom in that way is to use freedom as the launch pad back into slavery. If a fish bound to the ocean chooses to use his freedom to jump onto the shore, he will become a slave to the air, and he will begin to die. If he stays inside the ocean, however, he can go and do whatever he wants. Real freedom is not the absence of all boundaries. Real freedom is the presence of proper boundaries. And the only place we can find proper boundaries is in the person who created the borders of the universe.
The false teachers’ self-righteous law-keeping persecuted the believers in the church, including Paul. Since they could not grasp the grace of Christ and the freedom thereof, they captured the Galatians in the snare of the law. Thinking they were obeying it, they instead violated it. They wanted only to make much of themselves, and so they used the members of the church as stepping stones to their personal glory. They took the second table of the law and smashed it on the heads of their fellow church members. To obey the law is to love your neighbor as yourself. They loved only themselves. Whatever good intentions they had, they disobeyed the law because they failed to love others.
The gospel has logic to it, though this isn’t apparent to the merely moral man. The moral man wants only to obey the rules so that he feels good about himself. He aims at the end of his life only to look back and be able to say, “I was a good man. I did some good—more good than bad. I earned my way. I am ok.” But morality is not the life Jesus came and died to give.
The logic of the gospel tells us that our goodness cannot come from us. Adam ruined or chance before we were born. But Jesus Christ entered our world, lived the obedient life we couldn’t live, died the guilty death we deserved, and rose to new life, showing us our future glorification if we will only follow him. The gospel says that we can’t obey because our heart is of the wrong sort. We need a new one. By grace, Jesus has purchased the new heart for us and through the Spirit, regenerates us, removing our hardened heart of stone and replacing it with a tender heart of flesh. This new heart has new capacities of love and obedience the stoney heart could only hope for.
This new heart not only longs to obey God (and since it’s God-given, it has God’s instincts included), it also longs to love others because in doing so, we fulfill the law. The redeemed heart does not despise obedience to God. The redeemed heart is the only heart that truly wants to obey God because its desire is born of God. The unredeemed heart, no matter how “good” the intentions, leads to biting and devouring because only one man can stand on top. But the redeemed heart is willing to lose it all because he has already gained Christ. He needs not bite and devour but humble and serve. In doing so, he finds not a loss of joy but the discovery of it. He’s following his Master’s footsteps all the way to glory.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/d0d2afb1eccea866-image-asset-of5dPempYhPZ91i9hTmCb6nLcadA8i.jpeg\")
\n \n\nGalatians 5:16-26
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
There is a grittiness every Christian needs. But this grittiness isn’t self-made. It’s God-given. The gospel puts steel in our bones, giving us an invincibility against the flesh that once killed us with every breath. We need this ruggedness because we daily face an internal conflict. The desires of the flesh cry out to be satisfied while the Holy Spirit calls out to be obeyed. Moment by moment, we have a choice. Will we obey the Lord or our flesh?
In the battle, the gospel is comforting, reminding us of forgiveness in the face of our sin. But it is also a call to holiness, commanding us to wage war on our sin. As Jesus comforts us with his grace, he calls us to stand tall next to him in combat. He leads us, and he arms us. Will we walk by the Spirit or will we gratify the desires of the flesh? We can’t do both.
What have we been doing? Our lives bear witness. The flesh leads to enslavement. Our desires show up in how we treat our bodies and one another. Is our sexuality out of control? Is our heart following idols of selfishness? Are our relationships strained and divided? If so, our story these past few days, months, or years has been one living under the passions of the flesh. Now is our moment to repent and trust Jesus for a better way. In our new birth, God gave us the Holy Spirit. He gave us gospel grit.
Gospel grit means we obey God in the face of our flesh crying out for satisfaction. It means we look to him for strength, knowing, in the end, he will give us more joy than the fleeting pleasures of this world. We don’t run from the battle. We face the enemy within and slay him.
We all experience this war inside. At the intellectual level, we understand the strategy. But at the heart level, we struggle to follow orders. We struggle not only with the big things. We struggle in the little moments. We can’t keep ourselves clean. We slack off on exercise. We sleep in and miss opportunities. We pause on the Instagram photo a little too long. We refuse to rejoice with a brother over good news he received. It’s the little things, moment by moment, that give way to a life drifting from Jesus.
But it doesn’t have to be this way! The Holy Spirit has been planted in our heart, and if we will listen to him, follow him, and let him lead us, we will find that his fruit will begin to grow. Our whole life could change. We could find more joy than we’ve ever experienced, more freedom than we knew was available, more peace than we could ever understand.
So, what’s the path forward? Paul tells us in verses 24-25. “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” There are two things. First, we are to crucify the flesh. Second, we are to keep in step with the Spirit. Die to self. Live to God.
The Christian life is not easy. It’s messy, bloody, sacrificial. It is a constant walking our sin toward the cross, offering the flesh, nailing it to the wood, and leaving it until it suffocates. It’s horrifyingly ugly and breathtakingly beautiful because it’s the same path that Jesus walked. What he did for us, he’s calling us to do for his sake. As he said in his own words, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).
We need gospel grit because the flesh doesn’t die all at once. It dies day by day, moment by moment. As John Brown says, “Crucifixion…produced death not suddenly but gradually…True Christians…do not succeed in completely destroying it while here below; but they have fixed it to the cross and they are determined to keep it there till it expire.”
We will never witness the complete crucifixion of all our sin in this life. But by God’s grace, keeping in step with the Spirit, we can crucify it little by little over the course of our life. Before we will take that step, however, we must see sin as destructive as it truly is. We can’t play with it. It’s not a harmless friend. It’s an enemy of joy. It is not what makes life interesting. It’s what takes life away. As Jackie Hill Perry says, “You won’t put to death what you believe is keeping you alive.”
John Stott shows us that rejection of our old nature is to be pitiless, painful, and decisive.
“So, Paul says, if we crucified the flesh, we must leave it there to die. We must renew every day this attitude towards sin of ruthless and uncompromising rejection…The first great secret of holiness lies in the degree and the decisiveness of our repentance. If besetting sins persistently plague us, it is either because we have never truly repented, or because, having repented, we have not maintained our repentance. It is as if, having nailed our old nature to the cross, we keep wistfully returning to the scene of its execution. We begin to fondle it, to caress it, to long for its release, even to try to take it down again from the cross. We need to learn to leave it there. When some jealous, or proud, or malicious, or impure thought invades our mind we must kick it out at once. It is fatal to begin to examine it and consider whether we are going to give in or not. We have declared war on it; we are not going to resume negotiations. We have settled the issue for good; we are not going to re-open it. We have crucified the flesh; we are never going to draw the nails.”
So, we crucify our flesh, day by day, moment by moment. But we also keep in step with the Spirit. In our relationship, God takes the initiative. He’s asking us to nail our sin to the cross, but he’s showing us that he did it first. By his Spirit, he’s giving us a view into the saving work of Christ, and through his Spirit, he’s giving us the power to follow. All we must do is walk with him. We don’t have to know the way. We don’t have to understand the path. We don’t have to know the future. All we must know is that he’s better than every alternative. Like a sheep that trusts his shepherd, we must trust our Good Shepherd and follow him even through the valley of the shadow of death.
Galatians 6:1-10
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.
6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Paul has just called us to crucify the flesh and walk by the Spirit. Now, he’s helping us see how this personal reality with God creates communal reality with God—how gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture.
Sin is enslaving. It comes from the Devil himself, from the world around, and springs up from the heart within. It is deceiving and thorny. And many are caught in its snare. When that happens, there is a way forward, but it takes the community of spiritual believers to rescue. At any moment, any of us can come back to God in repentance. His grace is that available. But before we can come back, we must see that we need to come back. That’s why we need one another—to see ourselves when sin has captured us.
But we must be gentle in our attempt to bring our brother home. Like a foot caught in a trap, you cannot pull it free. You must pry it open, remove it slowly, preserving the flesh and bone. We should not be rough with one another. We should be gentle in restoration.
Not every Christian has yet learned gentleness. That’s why Paul says “you who are spiritual” should do this. Christian relationships should be marked by service to one another. We should not exalt ourselves above one another but humble ourselves before one another. That does not mean we lay down, allowing others to walk over us. It means we should lay down, not allowing ourselves to walk over others.
The Lord cares for us, and he wants us to cast our cares on him (1 Peter 5:7). But, as John Stott says, “one of the ways in which he bears these burdens of ours is through human friendship.”
American men today know very little of this kind of friendship. A recent study showed that the biggest threat facing middle-aged men isn’t smoking or obesity. It’s loneliness. No one sets out to isolate themselves, but as we age and get more involved in our jobs and family, we have less and less time for friendships. Before we realize it, we are on an island with no one to hear our cry. In fact, we’ve forgotten how to cry altogether. We may feel the heaviness but can’t find the cause and certainly can’t find the cure. But Galatians 6 makes no sense apart from friendships. In fact, much of the Christian life cannot be lived without others. Jesus saves us individually but connects us to a community where burden sharing is the norm.
At Refuge Church, we want to fight the American pastime of loneliness. We want to push against the cultural call to isolation and push into the gospel call to loving our neighbor. The Christian life is hard enough as it is. Isolation makes it only harder.
So, who is bearing your burdens? Whose burdens are you bearing? Who are you confessing sin to? Who is confessing their sin to you? What other man really knows what’s going on inside you? Who actually knows you—not facts about you but the real you—the you kept hidden from so many others?
What if the Lord began creating friendships among us at Refuge Church such that anyone walking through our doors on Sunday morning wouldn’t find just a collection of Christians assembled for a common cause but a group of Christian friends living life together for Christ? What change could that bring to our city?
This is hard. We are busy people. We are also selfish, and our selfishness gets in the way of all kinds of things. That’s why Paul talks about sowing and reaping. Our thinking is mixed up. For example, at work, all of us push hard. We want to do the best we can to reach the level we desire. We know we can’t just wait for it to happen. We have to go after it. But in our personal life—friendships, worship, etc.—we just let life come at us. What we sow at work we expect to reap in time. Why not also everywhere else?
Part of God’s call to holiness is a call to the life of the church. It starts with our repentance before God and our willingness to crucify the flesh and walk by the Spirit. But it doesn’t stop with us. Paul tells us we should pay our pastors in verse 6—we should share with him. He commands us not to be deceived, not to grow weary of doing good, not to give up, to do good to everyone, especially those in the church.
God’s grace is amazing and all-encompassing. But the joyful, full-bodied Christian life is not something we can drift into. It is something we press into. Every opportunity to do good, to be known, to love well is available to us. Whatever we sow we will reap. What are we sowing? What do we expect to reap?
We can be three types of people within the church. We can be false teaching negatives, neutral attenders, or gospel positives. The line isn’t to be drawn between the false teachers and neutral attenders. The line between good and bad is drawn between neutral attenders and gospel positives. Let’s actively fight anti-gospel doctrine and anti-gospel culture and stir up one another into gospel positives. It doesn’t always take much to destroy a church, especially when the false teachers have so many neutral attenders to influence. But when a church is brimming with gospel positives, even the strongest false teachers struggle to win a battle.
God has more blessing for us than we often realize. What he offers us in gospel doctrine is the never-ending love of God for the undeserving. What he offers us in gospel culture is the continuing experience of that love embodied in an entire community. Why would we say no to that? Why not take a chance, risk being known, and step into the light where Jesus is with his people? Why not reclaim our pursuit of joy, placing it in the only hands that will never let us down?
Galatians 6:11-18
11 See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. 12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. 14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16 And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
17 From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.
Paul ends his letter with a summation of his main point. His urgency is evident. He’s writing this ending with his own hands rather than relying on dictation. He wants them to feel his heart.
The false teachers are pushing circumcision for one reason: they don’t want to bear the persecution of Jesus. They don’t want to follow Jesus to the cross at the hands of angry Jews. So, if they add a little Jewishishness to their lives, they can claim Judaism and Christianity in some disfigured hybrid. They don’t mind deforming God as long as they aren’t deformed themselves.
The Christian life does not consist in what we do or don’t do. It consists in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What he accomplished is the only boast we have. We need no other. The world has been crucified to us and us to the world. We are more than conquerors through him who loves us.
The cross of Christ may be our boast but it is an offense to the world. It tells us all that we are so evil Jesus had to die to save us. It puts our pride on the ground and stomps it until it’s dust. Our only hope is that dust is swallowed in the blood of Christ’s cross. When he cleanses us, we become a new creation—no longer the person we were but the person God has made us. Our personal boast is broken as Christ’s cross is lifted up.
The Christian life will lead to persecution. That is no new revelation. Jesus himself told us it would be so. Paul understood the cost, but he could not deny his Lord. It was painful being beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, maligned, slandered. But when the scars healed he bore on his body the marks of Jesus. He became a living witness to the gospel of his glorious grace. The wounds hurt but Jesus healed them all. More than that, he put them on display before the watching world, proclaiming his good news of salvation. We may struggle through this life, but the marks we bear on our body will one day match the marks Jesus bore on his. And when we enter eternal life we will find, amazingly, we have the garment necessary for entrance into his kingdom. It wasn’t easy, but we went to war with Jesus and watched him slay the giant on our behalf. It was glorious, and we have the rest of time to enjoy the spoils.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/62a7c8775e06465a-image-asset-aKZrdTDiPykoQpcktYKXuqYKBVFHg8.jpeg\")
\n \n\nSalvation comes to us as a free gift from God, not as a result of our works. Paul’s labor in the book of Galatians is to prove this theological point, and in so doing, to drive out all false teachers who seek to enslave via the law where Christ frees by his grace. Paul continues this argument in chapters 3 and 4, using the Old Testament as proof of the New Testament reality. The Bible is one, grand story of God’s grace from beginning to end. And what we see in the past can help us see the truth in the present.
Galatians 3:15-22
15 To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. 16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. 17 This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. 18 For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
In 1970, Chicago released a song called, “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” It’s a song about the rat race of life, everyone hurrying as if there’s not enough time to do what really matters. In the middle of his letter, Paul asks the same question. The Galatians are hurrying to obey the law, but they’ve forgotten that the law is not the binding agent in their lives. Christ is. They’ve forgotten that the promise came before the law—430 years before, to be precise. Why then are they living as if the law came before the promise? Why are they being held captive to something the promise preceded and superseded in freedom? Does anybody in Galatia really know what time it is?
Every Christian must understand the times in which they are living. Christ came, fulfilled the law, and rose to grant new, abundant life. But the hope of the resurrection is still out in the future. We live in the in-between time—the already but not yet. We are post-law people in a pre-resurrection state. We live in the age of grace, the time of freedom. For freedom, Christ set us free (Galatians 5:1).
Failing to recognize the time will inevitably lead to a failure to live as full-bodied Christians. That’s the problem facing the Galatians, and the problem facing many still today. When we bring the law to bear upon our justification, we undo the work of Christ on the cross and minimize the glory of God’s grace. We misunderstand how God communicates to us—from the past to the present and into the future. The truth is, the promise prevails over the law since the promise came sooner. God has always communicated to his people first by promise, then by law. The promise is preeminent. When we forget that, or let the law eclipse it, we reduce the blessing pouring into our lives, shielding the glory of Christ’s work. Let’s take off the glasses of the law and look full in the face of the fulfilled promise in Jesus Christ.
The false teachers in Galatia loved to appeal to Moses. But Paul reminds them that there was something before the law of Moses—the promise to Abraham. God related to each man differently. To Abraham, he gave a promise. To Moses, he gave the law. John Stott shows us the difference.
What is the difference between them? In the promise to Abraham God said, “I will…I will…I will…” But in the law of Moses God said, “Thou shalt…thou shalt not…” The promise sets forth a religion of God—God’s plan, God’s grace, God’s initiative. But the law sets forth a religion of man—man’s duty, man’s works, man’s responsibility. The promise (standing for the grace of God) had only to be believed. But the law (standing for the works of men) had to be obeyed. God’s dealings with Abraham were in the category of “promise,” “grace,” and “faith.” But God’s dealings with Moses were in the category of “law,” “commandments,” and “works.”
The conclusion to which Paul is leading is that the Christian religion is the religion of Abraham and no Moses, of promise and not law; and that Christians are enjoying today the promise which God made to Abraham centuries ago.
Immediately, this passage raises several questions. How is it that the same God related to Abraham one way and Moses another? What does Paul mean by using the singular “offspring” rather than the plural “offsprings?” Paul doesn’t seem to answer his question, “Why then the law?”, does he? What does he mean that Scripture imprisoned everything under sin?
Paul begins by pointing to man-made covenants. When one makes a promise from person to person, he does not change it after ratification. He’s referring to a will, similar to a person’s last will and testament. Once someone has passed, no one else can come in and alter the will. What the deceased set forth beforehand comes to pass as surely as the dawn breaks in the morning. It is unalterable. No matter the circumstances, another cannot write you out of your ancestor’s will.
If human covenants work in this manner, how much more must God’s covenants? That’s Paul’s point: God’s promises hold steady. They are unalterable. No one can write you out of his will. No one can erase your name and replace it with someone else’s. No one can deny you your inheritance. No one can remove your assurance. The false teachers were trying to hit delete on the Galatian’s salvation unless they came under the Mosaic law. But no matter how hard they tried, God’s preserving grace (including the writing of this letter) hid the Backspace from view, substituting Enter instead: Covenant ratified! Listen no more to those who would shake your confidence in God. Not even God’s law can undo the promise he made, so why would anyone say it could?
The will Paul describes is the same kind Jesus describes in the parable of the prodigal son. When the younger son asks for his inheritance, the father gives it to him because it was already set aside for him, and he could do nothing to alter that will. The younger brother then goes out and squanders it all, ending up in a pig sty, wondering what it would be like to be a servant in his father’s house. So, he rises and heads home, crafting his apology. But when he arrives, the father runs to him and embraces him, places a ring on his finger, and throws a party. He welcomes him home. No matter how far the Galatians have strayed from the gospel, and no matter how far we have strayed, all we must do is make our way back to the Father’s house, and we can gain the true inheritance back. We may squander our mercy every day, but God’s mercies are new every morning. Use up all the grace you can. There is always more. The promise never runs dry for those who really want God.
But to whom was the promise made? Genesis shows us it was to Abraham. What was the promise? It was the land of Canaan and a lineage of blessing to the world. But, of course, as Paul points out, it was made ultimately to one offspring, not to many. The promises were made through Abraham to Jesus, Abraham’s greatest descendant. It is the promises of God to himself in which we find our greatest hope, for who can undo the promises God makes to his Son?
Paul’s point is precisely this. God cannot change his promise, even in the giving of the law. The Law came 430 years after the promise to Abraham, and what has come along that far down the timeline cannot replace what has come before it. The false teachers would have the Galatian’s believe that God changed the rules, that he was expecting obedience before granting righteousness. No one earns their inheritance. Inheritance is given. “God gave it to Abraham by a promise.” The false teachers were changing the Bible’s chronology, altering the path to God, but God’s promise of righteousness came first. You can re-interpret history, but you can’t change it.
The false teachers’ instruction on the law and grace is shocking to Paul, and contrary to the Bible, but it is commonplace among us even now. Many read the Old Testament and see not the promise to Abraham but the law of Moses, propped up throughout the thirty-nine books as the standard we must reach if God is to love us. But to look at the Bible through that lens is to miss the point of the law altogether. The law was not given to provide a platform from which to boast in our righteousness but to give us cause the fall to our knees in repentance. If we see only the law in the Old Testament and use that as a means by which we set ourselves apart to God, we will miss the gospel entirely. The law was a pointer to our failure, not a ladder to our inheritance. The proper response is to fall on our knees, not rise on wings of self-righteousness.
Why then the law? We needed to understand sin. “It was added because of transgressions.” Paul explains this in more detail in Romans. “Through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). “Where there is no law there is no transgression” (Romans 4:15). “If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin” (Romans 7:7). Romans 5:20 says, “The law was added so that the trespass might increase.” Timothy George comments on this.
In Romans the word for “added” means literally “came in by a side road.” The main road is the covenant of promise—inviolate, irrevocable. The law has the character of something additional, a side road intended to carry extra traffic and excess baggage and, if we may anticipate Paul’s argument, designed not to lead to a separate destination but to point its travelers back to the main road.
In his grace, God gave the law to show us how far we’ve fallen. But what God gave as a view into the fallen heart, we tend to construct into a ladder to God. We seek to prove ourselves holy when God intends to prove us needy. Therefore, how we understand the law determines how we understand grace, and ultimately, how we understand the gospel. What is good about news of salvation if you believe you can attain it on your own?
Under the strict watch of the law, our failure is highlighted, which prepares us for grace. Martin Luther said, “The principal point of the law is to make men not better but worse; that is to say, it shows their sin, that by the knowledge thereof they may be humbled, terrified, bruised and broken, and by this means may be driven to seek grace, and so to come to that blessed Seed.
Galatians 3:23-29
23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
John Stott says, “Everybody is either held captive by the law because he is still awaiting the fulfillment of the promise or delivered from the law because he has inherited the promise. More simply, everybody is living either in the Old Testament or in the New, and derives his religion either from Moses or from Jesus…he is either ‘under law’ or ‘in Christ’.”
The false teachers of Galatia were living in the Old Testament. They had heard the gospel message and rejected it as unbiblical. They could not stomach the thought of God justifying sinners apart from their obedience to the law. So, instead of opening their hearts to God’s free gift and accepting his grace, they set themselves apart from him, clinging to their misunderstanding of the law of Moses. But the problem, as it is with every heretic, is they thought they were being faithful to God. However, any theology that minimizes the need for Christ’s death is not only bad theology, it is dangerous theology—anti-biblical.
Paul, on the other hand, lived in the New Testament, a land flowing with milk and honey. His journey there is as important as his citizenship now. Paul did not land in the New Testament without first traveling through the Old Testament. He did not inherit salvation without first finding condemnation in the law. He walked through the valley of the shadow of eternal death and found Jesus’ hand reaching out for him. When he grabbed hold, Jesus transferred him to a new land.
So it must be for all of us. We must journey through the law to find grace. That’s why Paul says before faith came, we were held captive under the law. The law was our guardian until Christ came, helping us see our need. But when the need has been met fully in Christ, we no longer need to go back under the law again. We can reside in the land of the living, leaving the valley of dry bones to rot in the sun.
In this new land of the New Testament, there is no separation between us. We are united to Christ and therefore to one another. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; there is no male and female. There is one people of God, indistinguishable from one another because we share in Christ’s righteousness. In the land of the false teachers, a caste system remains, with levels of justification. But in Christ’s kingdom, there is Jesus, our head, and us, his body.
I want to focus on one important topic. Remember Galatians 2:11-14, when Paul opposed Peter to his face. Why did Paul oppose him? When certain Jews came from Jerusalem, Peter withdrew from eating with the Gentiles to eat with the Jews. Peter, who knew the gospel, stepped outside the gospel with his racism. Paul rightly saw this as an anti-gospel move and called Peter out on it. Peter’s racism wasn’t a private problem, it was a public heresy. He spurned the unity Christ created between the Gentiles and Jews in his gospel. He didn’t realize what he was doing, but Paul did. Paul understood Christ demolished racism at the cross by saving all men the same way. There is no Jew nor Greek, black nor white, superior nor inferior. We are all one.
Our country needs this message. Our racist history bleeds into our present. We may all live on the same street, but the ghost of white supremacy haunts the alleys, so we build our walls and bar our windows. But Christ destroys those barriers with his gospel. That’s why in our day, with so much racial tension, we see racism as a gospel issue. We cannot proclaim Christ as Lord on Sunday, propping up our white skin up as preeminent on Monday. We must not erase the colors, but rather see all colors as equal inheritors of the blessing of Christ. We are one—now and forever.
Unfortunately, racism is still an issue in the church. We don’t like to think that’s true, but if Peter fell into it, and we who live in a country with such profound racism find ourselves unable to fall into it, we aren’t being wise as serpents nor innocent as doves. We’re being wolves in the midst of sheep, persecuting our minority brothers and sisters with a false appearance of unity when Jesus calls us to the real thing. We must not only admit our racial bias inside, we must take active steps of reconciliation as we follow Jesus into the hard things of our world. It’s true, this shouldn’t even be an issue, and I wish it weren’t. One day it won’t be. But here, today, we must face the truth of the racist inside us all because the gospel is at stake. What we say we believe can be undone with what we do with what we believe. For example, consider the picture below.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/72c573a3d2df95c2-image-asset-oOoh5SXNQvrkOciFdMSQ8rhnyMOsQJ.jpeg\")
\n \n\nWe may wonder how this picture can exist. Can’t they see the obvious problem? Of course they can’t. If they could, the banner would not hang or their hoods would fall. But they hung the banner, believing the truth of it, while donning the hood and posed for the camera. The problem of their racism is obvious to us and oblivious to them. If Paul had a camera, he may have taken a similar picture of Peter and his Jewish friends in Antioch.
Galatians 3:28 is clear. Paul does not diminish the racial tension. He defeats the racial tension with Christ’s cross. He looks it full in the face and brings the gospel to bear on it. We need nothing less today. We are all one in Christ Jesus. But we can understate Paul’s point far too easily. He’s not calling us to racial diversity in our churches. He’s calling us to racial reconciliation in our churches.
Racial reconciliation is not less than racial diversity—you can’t reconcile unless you’re in the same room—but it is far more than racial diversity. Racial reconciliation is a positive movement of love toward Christians of another race, just as Paul’s move toward the Gentiles was one of love and the Gentiles’ move toward Paul and all other Jews was one of love. We will face opposition as soon as we do this. The enemy hates racial reconciliation, but Jesus died for it. So whatever the cost, we must endure, resting in the Spirit’s power to help and direct. When we move together positively toward Jesus, we find that he moves us together positively toward one another. In his grace, Christ will separate us from the world, but he will unite us to our brothers and sisters in him, regardless of skin color.
We may be an accidental racist, or we may be a proud one. Whatever the case, the gospel calls us to lay our personal preferences and wicked sins at the foot of Christ’s bloody cross. When we’re ready to do that, moment by moment, over the course of our life, we will find that Jesus not only cleanses us from all sin, he brings us into fellowship with one another. The beauty of the gospel shines when people of all races live together in unity before Christ. After all, it’s our future. Why not live it out today and show the world what God’s grace can really do?
“I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Revelation 7:9-12)
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/1586becd2c4fe1b0-image-asset-rddjgamXQNFjoAmzWy3ornM1sjjPRr.jpeg\")
\n \n\nHow radically freeing is the gospel? When Jesus fulfilled the law, what did he do on our behalf? How do we get the benefits of Christ’s work in our life? These questions lay behind Paul’s purpose in the book of Galatians. Those who’ve been set free by Christ have been set free from all the punishment the law can muster. They have been released to live for Christ, and for him alone. The law brought death. Jesus brings life. Why, then, is it so hard to stay away from the law?
Galatians 4:1-7
1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Imagine God sitting you down at the beginning of your life. You somehow have the capacity to reason and understand all his words. He says to you, “I’m going to give you some rules to live by because in your immaturity and ignorance you’re going to need them. Without them, you’ll go down the wrong path. But you won’t be under these rules forever, only for a portion of your life. They will serve you and prepare you for the gift I’m giving you when you reach the proper age. When that time comes, the rules will not stand as walls to keep you inside, I will write them on your heart to go with you wherever I send you, and you can walk into the freedom you will have wished you had all your life. Will you trust me? Will you follow me all the way to maturity, allowing me to set the rules both now and then? Living under these rules for so long may make it hard for you to come out from under them when you reach maturity, but will you trust me then just as you’ve trusted me all along? Listen to me now—you have a great promise, but first, you must be trained. When you receive the promised gift, don’t despise the training, and don’t act as if the training is the purpose of your life. The inheritance is worth the wait.”
That is, in essence, what God said to his elect nation of Israel when he brought them out of slavery and gave the law on Mt. Siani. He made a promise to their father, Abraham, that through him a seed would come that would be a blessing to the whole world. They are his offspring, awaiting to promised seed. And God gives his people Moses to liberate from Egypt and enslave to God. Though it has been difficult in slavery to the Egyptians, and though it will be difficult now to be a slave to the law of God, they must hold on to God’s promise, trusting that one day the Seed is coming. The promise is on its way to fulfillment.
All throughout the Old Testament, God reminds his people of his promise. His law stands, as strong as ever, as the world races towards the fullness of time. But when the fullness of time comes, and God sends his Son and his Spirit into the world, the Galatians falter on their journey at the hand of the Jews who had received the promise. They listened to the sirens along the path, following them into slavery when God was calling them into freedom. The false teachers couldn’t understand God’s purposes. They couldn’t get beyond the law. They couldn’t see how God could grant them righteousness apart from their merit. What they didn’t understand is what Paul understood so clearly because, for Paul, it was not a new message. It was the old message, spoken by God at the very beginning. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)
God is under no slavery to the law. He is free to himself. His intention for his children is no less. Paul doesn’t disparage God’s law, as the false teachers accuse. He understands the proper place of the law for the Christian. The law was a guardian, keeping God’s people until the fulfillment of the promise in Jesus. In light of the fulfillment, Paul was in a hurry to move into the land of promise. Why go back to slavery when the kingdom of God is at hand?
We are too often tempted to sell our sonship for slavery. That’s where our heart leads when we forget the gospel. It’s all part of Satan’s scheme to ruin God’s plan. He knows our pride. Though we have received the gift of righteousness apart from the law, he aims to convince us the law will only add to God’s love for us. In doing this, he’s twisting God’s word, as he always has. When we believe him, and begin adding our works to Christ’s, we tear down Christ’s work for us and prop up our work for him. Satan doesn’t mind our obedience to the law of God—though he is against it—if it means we abandon faithfulness to Jesus.
And if we won’t use the law as a ladder to God, Satan will use God’s law, not as a provocation toward wanting God’s righteousness, as God intends, but as a gun to shoot his fiery darts of damnation. What God designed to be used to drive us to see our need for a Savior, Satan will use to convince we’re too evil to be saved. Whatever he needs to do, he will endeavor to ruin Christ’s name. He seeks to minimize the cross. But God aims to highlight it. That’s why, in the fullness of time, God gave us two gifts: his Son and his Spirit.
Jesus entered the world just as we all have: born of a woman. He didn’t skate around the law; he was born under the law to redeem all who were under it. Satan did his best to lead Jesus into temptation, but where we failed in following God, Jesus succeeded to the very end. This is the gospel—that Jesus entered our world, lived the perfect life on our behalf, and gave his life as a ransom for many. John Stott summarizes.
The divinity of Christ, the humanity of Christ and the righteousness of Christ uniquely qualified him to be man’s redeemer. If he had not been man, he could not have redeemed man. If he had not been a righteous man, he could not have redeemed unrighteous man. And if he had not been God’s Son, he could not have redeemed men for God or made them the sons of God.
In his work of redemption, Jesus made us children of God. As Tim Keller says, “The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.” How do we use our access? God sends the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, giving us his own voice. He provides us with a part of himself, so that when we need him, we have him calling out on our behalf, and he can never deny himself.
Only a fool would leave God’s house to build a shack to impress him.
Galatians 4:8-11
8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
The hardest question to answer about anything is “why?” It gets to the heart of every matter. It is the question to diagnose every ill. It is the starting point for every remedy. And that’s Paul’s question to the Galatians (and to us). Why would you turn back on God? Why trade your sonship for slavery?
The problem, as with most problems, is the Galatians don’t see it as being all that dramatic. They’re likely saying, “Come on, Paul! You’re making way too big of a deal about this. We’re just trying to be good Christians! Why would you prevent us from obeying God’s law? Isn’t that what he wants? What’s the harm?” The harm, as Paul has already pointed out, is that to use the law as a ladder to God is to cut the power cord of grace flowing from the risen Christ. We are saying, in effect, “I know what you did, Lord, but can’t you see what I’ve done? Look at my achievements! Love me for them!” To say that is to deny grace. It is to turn God’s gift into our wages. But the only wages we ever earned are death (Romans 6:23).
We like to think of ourselves as law-abiding people. We feel good about ourselves the more we obey. But we can easily turn our obedience into a platform from which we demand God’s grace instead of seeing our disobedience as a need for God’s grace. We climb the platform thinking our good works gained us the spotlight only to realize that guillotine awaits. We deserve death, not life. Jesus deserved life but got death. Jesus made a terrible trade deal that worked to our benefit. Do we want to make a worse deal by spurning his offer?
The biggest “Why?” question we must answer is this. Why are we reluctant to rest in God’s finished work? Why do we insist that we have our hand in our salvation? Why would we, who have never succeeded fully at anything in our lives, want to put our dirty hand into the purifying work of God?
Paul feared he labored over the Galatians in vain. He feared his work of gospel preaching led only to law pursuit. He was astonished they left the gospel of freedom for the law of slavery. And it’s the same for every pastor since Paul. There is always the danger of a church turning from grace to law, and it can happen in an instant. When it does, not only have they abandoned Jesus, they turn on one another, biting and devouring, stepping on one another as they make their way toward God. That’s why, often, the first sign that a church is losing its first love is the way they treat one another. Here in Galatia, they’re treating Paul as a nuisance instead of giving him the honor he is due. He’s the one who first shared the gospel with them, bringing the news of salvation, but you’d think he brought a brood of vipers instead. They’re saying, “Come on, Paul. Leave us alone. Quit talking about Jesus so much.”
Paul labored on anyway, shepherding from afar, worried he labored over them in vain, but having enough faith to write to them still. After all, it’s not man’s gospel, it’s God’s, and if God’s, then it’s always the most practical thing in the world, the most urgent thing, the only thing.
Galatians 4:12-20
12 Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. 13 You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, 14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. 15 What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
You can sense Paul’s love for the Galatians in this passage. Whatever righteous anger boiled inside, it was because of love. Paul feared he labored over them in vain, and he wasn’t going to let them slide away. He was going after their hearts, even if they’d never give it to him. Paul refers to the Galatians as brothers and children—tender words from a loving father. Paul loves them enough to say hard things, but also to tell them of his love for them. It takes both. Hard words without loving words are oppressive. Loving words without hard words are baseless. Both together are biblical.
What bothered Paul was not a nameless, faceless group of people that had abandoned the gospel. It wasn’t “that church over there.” What bothered Paul was the individuals he knew and loved that had abandoned the gospel. It was “these people that I pastored.” He wasn’t a distant theologian but a caring pastor. He pleads with them to become as he is, for he also has become as they are. He’s said the hard things he needs to say. Now, it’s time to plead with them to repent. He aims to make them feel his love. All of this should cause us pause. Do our friends and family with whom we discuss the gospel know we love them, and that’s why we boldly speak into their lives? Do our words match Paul’s both in fatherly firmness and fatherly tenderness?
John Stott said:
In seeking to win other people for Christ, our end is to make them like us, but the means to that end is to make ourselves like them. If they are to become one with us in Christian conviction and experience, we must first become one with them in Christian compassion.
Paul, a Jew of Jews, became like a Gentile, as one who doesn’t have the law, so that he could both share and show the gospel to them. Paul was a free man, despite the chains that often held him in prison. He knew at the deepest level his righteousness before God because of Jesus Christ, and this is the freedom of heart he desperately wanted for all of his sheep. He became like them so that they could become like him. He gave up some of who he was so he could give all that Jesus was. And it worked! They responded in faith. They did not scorn or despise him but received him as Christ Jesus. So what happened?
They once cared deeply about him, listening to his message despite his appearance due to an illness. We don’t know what the illness was, but it must have been significant. It perhaps altered his physical appearance and was a trial to the Galatians. But Paul’s message of grace prevailed. Jesus saved the Galatians through the weakness of his servant. Paul had many problems, but his gospel overcame all barriers to pierce the hearts of his hearers. What mattered most was not the messenger but the message.
So, Paul wants to know how these new messengers overshadowed God’s message. How can this turn of events take place so quickly? How could they ever outshine the beauty of God’s gospel? This man they once received so completely that they would have given their eye to him has now become their enemy because he persists in telling them the truth. What happened to their love?
Paul knows from where this contempt came. It was “those people,” the false teachers. They’ve ruined not only the message of the gospel but the hearts of the recipients as well. Whereas Paul came to them in weakness and infirmity, and instead of making them sick along with him, made them well in the gospel, these false teachers have come to them in strength and health, and instead of making them well in the gospel, have made them sick with the law. But Paul won’t give up. He knows the false teachers only want followers for themselves. He wants followers of Jesus. They want to use the Galatians. Paul wants Jesus to save the Galatians. He knows who will win in the end, that’s why he writes. He’s laboring for Christ to be formed in them. That’s the heart of a true pastor. He doesn’t want fame or fortune or followers for himself. The Spirit-led pastor cares only about Jesus and his glory.
None of us have empty hearts. All of us are accepting something, or someone, all the time. So, what, or who, is being formed in you? Paul writes and labors because he longs for it to be Jesus, but he fears it’s the false teacher’s message of self-sufficiency.
When we’re saved we are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God. It’s instantaneous. There is no waiting period. It just happens. That’s our justification—our innocence before God. But our sanctification—our growth in Christ—is different. It’s not instantaneous. It’s life-long. We are becoming like Christ moment by moment, over the course of our life until we reach glorification. During that time, Christ is being formed in us. We are becoming less ourselves and more like Jesus, and when that happens, we actually become more like the person God intended for us to be. Our growth in Christ isn’t a threat to our individuality. It is the ultimate end of our individuality. When Christ is formed in us, we become who God wants us to be such that the particular God-created aspects of our personhood are highlighted in redemption to bring glory to Christ. We can die to ourselves now because doing so allows God to recreate us into who we’ve wanted to be all along.
When Christ is formed in us, God changes our desires. We become the kind of people who will lovingly accept an ugly, deformed man preaching the gospel of Christ over a put-together charlatan peddling the law as easy steps toward God. We become the kind of people joyfully willing to gouge out our own eyes to hand to another. We become the kind of people ready to die to ourselves so that others might hear the message of grace. We become the kind of people able to lay aside our preferences and become as others are so that they might become as we are. We become the kind of free people we long to be as we come under the rule of Christ over all our lives. We become God loving risk-takers willing to stake it all on Jesus.
When Christ is formed in us, God, who we never wanted, becomes the only purpose of our lives. When that happens, we place all our hope in the one person who will never let us down and we refuse any other message and any other person that would stand in the way of us gaining more of Christ. More than that, we become the kind of people who stand together as witnesses of the grace of Christ and our lives matter forever. We become the cloud of witnesses helping others run their faithful race of Christianity. In short, we become Christians, and everything changes inside us and Jesus uses us to change the world.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/76660686f75b3aa9-image-asset-3Q1wGTF0yXTimifyzF48UirGYGoeWo.jpeg\")
\n \n\nPaul spends most of chapters 1 and 2 defending his ministry and message. After establishing his authority to speak to them, he shifts his focus to the Galatians. He is shocked that they have so quickly abandoned the gospel for another, false gospel preached by false teachers. They have left their first love. Paul aims to call them home.
Galatians 3:1-9
1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
As J.B. Philips puts it in his translation, verse 1 says, “O you dear idiots of Galatia…surely you can’t be so idiotic?” Paul is not nice in Galatians 3:1. He can’t be. To turn away from the gospel is not an innocent mistake that we can laugh off. It’s an abandonment of God of which we should repent. Paul could have said, “It’s no big deal. We all get off course a little here and there. Just make your way over here, and it’ll all be ok.” Instead, he used harsh language to awaken them to their danger. You can be sure, if someone calls me an idiot or foolish, they’re going to have my attention.
The problem, as Paul sees it, is they have been bewitched. He’s not saying those who practice witchcraft have cast a spell over them, but the false teachers certainly have. And behind their words is the father of lies, the Devil himself. They have been spellbound by the enemy of God. But they shouldn’t have been. They received the real gospel at the beginning, and it’s more shocking than any news they’ve ever heard. Christ has been crucified. How can “Christ crucified” be replaced with “Yeah, but do this, and you’ll really have God”?
When we hear the phrase, “Christ crucified,” what comes to our mind? For many, familiarity has softened the shock. We know it as truth. We believe it. But does it move our heart? As John Stott says of the gospel, “It is not a general instruction about the Jesus of history, but a particular proclamation of Jesus Christ as crucified.” And that’s the message Paul took to the Galatians: Jesus Christ has been crucified! But they turned to works of the law as if it could ever produce the kind of life-changing salvation that faith did.
Paul uses their own experience to prove his point. In verse 2, he asks them how they received the Spirit. What is what they did or what they heard and therefore believed? They know the answer. They weren’t saved based on what they did but on what they heard. The message of Christ crucified changed their heart. The Holy Spirit entered and saved them. If, then, they began their Christian life by the Spirit, are they going to perfect themselves by works of the law now? If salvation means they have been granted a perfect standing with God, what could they add on top to make God accept them more?
These Galatians are so much like us. God's Spirit saves us through the work of Christ in the providence of God, and afterward, we slip into rule-following as if that’s where the real Christians gain their medal. But when we abandon God’s gift of grace for our effort, it’s a complete disaster.
Paul uses their own experience of salvation but also uses the Bible’s testimony of salvation to press his point further. The false teachers wanted to use Moses and the law God gave him as the ladder to God’s grace. But Paul wants to go back further to Abraham and show that it’s not the ladder we climb to God but the dimension he travels to us that mediates his grace.
Paul quotes from Genesis 15:6. Abraham had just received the covenant promise from God. “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” (Genesis 15:5). Abraham was an old man, far beyond childbearing years. His wife, Sarah, was just as old. But Abraham looked at his circumstances and then at the promise of God and trusted God’s promise. That’s faith. Faith is seeing beyond the outward appearances to the object of God standing behind it all. That’s how we’re saved. We can’t atone for our sins. We must trust that Christ atoned for them on our behalf. We can’t reconcile ourselves to God. We must believe that God has reconciled us to himself in Christ. We can’t change our heart. We must believe that the Holy Spirit has been given to us and is transforming us from one degree of glory to another. That’s what Abraham did when he believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
Faith has always been God’s method of salvation. And God has always been growing his faith family. That’s why Paul says in verse 8 that all the nations will be blessed because of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that the Gentiles would come to faith in Christ, and Abraham became their father. The blessing of God is not found in obedience to the law, but in faith in Christ. Once we have the blessing, then we can obey with a purified heart, which means we’ll obey as pleases God.
The false teachers in Galatia thought the way to please God was to combine God’s law with God’s gospel. But what God has filled up in the gospel, let no man empty with the law. That is not to say we should not obey. Paul never promoted disobeying God. But Paul also never (in his Christian life, anyway) advocated coming to God based on our merit. What Paul preached was Christ crucified, not Christ crucified plus works of the law. The gospel produces obedience, but obedience never produces the gospel. When the gospel comes first in our message, obedience flows from it. When obedience comes first in our message, the gospel becomes a side dish rather than the entire meal.
This passage confronts us with what we believe about the Christian life. Timothy George puts it well.
The true children of Abraham are those who believe, literally, those who ground their relationship with God and thus their very existence itself on the basis of faith. Paul’s argument resonates with the discussion Jesus held with the Jewish leaders of his day concerning their status as children of Abraham. If Abraham were your real father, Jesus said, you would act more like him, you would embody his characteristics—rather than those of the devil to whom you really belong (John 8:31-47). Paul already had hinted at the presence of the Evil One in Galatia (cf. the “bewitcher” of 3:1). Now he suggested that those who seek to be right with God through physical lineage or human effort will at the end of the day be found outside the people of God altogether, locked up forever in “this present evil age” of darkness and sin (1:4).
So, the question for us is this. Whose children are we? Do we rest in Christ, or are we climbing the ladder of our own righteousness.
Galatians 3:10-14
10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” 12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
What we rely on for our justification determines if we are blessed or cursed. If we rely on faith, we find the blessing of Abraham. If we rely on the works of the law, we find the curse of all who have tread that toilsome path before us. We can’t be justified by the law no matter what we do because we’ve all failed to obey it perfectly. Furthermore, Christ died upon the cross to redeem us from the curse of the law, so why keep climbing when God has come down to us to destroy the ladder?
Timothy George helps us see Paul’s purpose in this passage.
The curse of the law, announced in v. 10, will find a remedy in the countercurse of v. 13, Christ’s redeeming death on the cross. In between Paul sandwiched two verses both containing a quotation from the Old Testament, the first from the Prophets (Hab. 2:4) and the second from the Law (Lev. 18:5), two texts that seem on the surface to offer two alternative ways of salvation. The two quotations are linked by a common verb, “will live,” but the two subjects form another of Paul’s antitheses: the one who is righteous by faith versus the one who does the things of the law.
If we want to live by the works of the law, we will work ourselves to the bone and still fail. Our sin runs so deep that we even sin in our obedience. We need a new heart before we can do anything good. And that’s what Jesus came to give. The gospel is good news because it is the story of what God has done. John Stott puts it beautifully, “The gospel is not good advice to men, but good news about Christ; not an invitation to us to do anything, but a declaration of what God has done; not a demand, but an offer.”
The law made demands. It said to us, “Obey, or else.” But the gospel silences those demands with the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. We who were cursed because of our failure were redeemed by Christ who became a curse so that we could have his blessing.
Paul uses Deuteronomy 21:23 to prove it that Christ became a curse for us. In the Old Testament, when a criminal was executed, he was hanged on a tree, or fixed to a wooden stake, after his execution to display that God rejected him for his crime. So when Paul points this out, he’s saying that Jesus, by hanging on the cross, was cursed by God. This was a big deal, and one of the many reasons Jews rejected Jesus as Messiah. How can one follow a man who was cursed by God in his death? As John Stott points out, “The fact that Jesus died hanging on a tree remained for Jews an insurmountable obstacle to faith, until they saw that the curse He bore was for them. He did not die for His own sins; He became a curse ‘for us.’”
The punchline of the gospel is that Jesus became a curse for us. What we don’t deserve, God freely gave. We deserve what Jesus received on the cross. But because of the love with which God loves us, we receive what Jesus earned because he took what we were owed. Paul puts it another way in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Martin Luther reflected on this truth in a letter.
\"Therefore, my dear brother, learn Christ and him crucified. Learn to pray to him and, despairing of yourself, say: \"Thou, Lord Jesus, art my righteousness, but I am thy sin. Thou hast taken upon thyself what is mine and hast given to me what is thine. Thou has taken upon thyself what thou wast not and hast given to me what I was not.\" Beware of aspiring to such purity that you will not wish to be looked upon as a sinner, or to be one. For Christ dwells only in sinners. On this account he descended from heaven, where he dwelt among the righteous, to dwell among sinners. Meditate on this love of his and you will see his sweet consolation. For why was it necessary for him to die if we can obtain a good conscience by our works and afflictions? Accordingly you will find peace only in him and only when you despair of yourself and your own works. Besides, you will learn from him that just as he has received you, so he has made your sins his own and has made his righteousness.\"
Far too often our spiritual problem is due to avoiding consciousness of our sin. We start thinking we’re pretty good. But being good little Christians, adding the law where God frees us from it, is to reject spiritual life with God for spiritual death with the Evil One. It’s when we see how far we are from God’s standard of holiness that we can begin to see the wonder that he would bridge the gap for us, without us moving a muscle. In the gospel, God doesn’t make us a little bit better; he brings us all the way home—all the way to his holiness.
We should not wallow in our sin, but if we are unwilling to see sin residing in our hearts, we will not be able to lift our eyes high enough to see Christ. We will begin to think he is on our level, perhaps even beneath us. But Christ is not equal or below. He is above. It would do our hearts well to see him where he truly is—above us as our head, seated on the throne, at the right hand of the Majesty on high, exalted above all. Banking our spiritual life on the works of the law is to suck the oxygen from the lungs. But viewing Christ by faith in his proper place gives life to our spirit, and like a rocket we shoot toward the sky, rising to meet him on his throne of grace.
Let us beware of letting our works of the law replace God’s free gift of grace. If we lose God’s grace in the gospel, we don’t just lose the booster in our life; we lose our life.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/7eaa1eed63fa1e35-image-asset-esQeQAxE4b3f7Ld7wBkZWzcUVqjmiW.jpeg\")
\n \n\nPaul wrote the letter to the Galatians because the real gospel is about Jesus alone. He saves us by his grace, without our effort, for his glory alone. But that’s hard for us to accept and believe, and over time it’s possible for us to start adding things to our Christianity that destroys our Christianity. This happened in Galatia. False teachers came in after Paul left and started spreading a gospel of Jesus plus circumcision. The way to justification, they said, was to accept the grace of Jesus while adding obedience to the law of Moses. We saw in chapter 1 Paul’s defense of the gospel and his gospel ministry. Chapter 2 continues that conversation and the passage we come to today is one of the most tense in all the New Testament.
Galatians 2:11-14
11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
John Stott says of this passage:
This is without doubt one of the most tense and dramatic episodes in the New Testament. Here are two leading apostles of Jesus Christ face to face in complete and open conflict…When Paul visited Jerusalem, Peter (together with James and John) gave him the right hand of fellowship (verses 1-10). When Peter visited Antioch, Paul opposed him to the face (verses 11-16).
This exchange between Peter and Paul shows us what happens when the gospel culture we’re creating goes against the gospel doctrine we proclaim. It’s possible to unsay with our actions what we say with our mouths, and that’s hypocrisy. It’s common, and every time it happens it’s a disappointment to those around us. But inside the church, it’s more than a disappointment. It’s heresy. It’s a denial of the good news. It’s a refutation of the work of Jesus Christ.
That’s why Paul opposes Peter to his face. It wasn’t that Peter was merely following a preference. He was sending a statement. He was telling the Gentiles in Antioch that they could not be set right with God unless they were to abstain from certain foods. He was adding law on top of grace, which erased grace entirely. Peter wasn’t just mistaken. He was out of step with the truth of the gospel.
Peter knew better. In Acts 10, he received a vision in which was commanded to rise, kill, and eat all kinds of animals. He didn’t understand it at first, but God told him that what he had made clean, do not call common. According to the law of Moses, certain animals were unclean, not to be eaten. But in Christ’s perfection, God had freed his people from the law. Peter understood when, at the same time, men sent by Cornelius, a Gentile, came and asked him to come to their city. Peter went proclaiming, “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” (Acts 10:34-35) God used animals to reveal to Peter that Gentiles are acceptable. Peter believed Gentiles were animals, but God says they’re his children now. Peter’s racism ran deep. It took nothing less than a vision from God to break the narrative dominating his mind.
But that narrative still lived on in Peter’s mind. So, when Peter was in mixed company in Galatia, he chose the path of least resistance to his own heart. He chose to separate himself from the Gentiles in favor of the Jews. He knew the Gentiles were accepted by God as they were. They did not have to become Jews to become Christians any more than Peter had to become a Gentile to become a Christian. But what Peter knew didn’t stop him from acting on what he felt.
Ray Ortlund gets to the heart of this issue.
Peter probably had an excuse. He was probably thinking, “Well, let’s not take the grace of God too far. And who am I to offend these people from Jerusalem? Their feelings matter too. So we should probably take the gradual approach. Yes, the gradual approach will avoid controversy. We’ll meet in the middle somewhere. And this whole thing will blow over.” In other words, Peter chose not to keep in step with the gospel but to walk in lockstep with the legalists. But he had no right to settle for that false peace. What was at stake here was not a matter of degree or process or nuance. What was at stake here was the same thing at stake in every church all the time. Here it is: Who is an insider, and who is an outsider, and on what basis can we rightly distinguish one from the other? It’s a simple question. It’s not a matter of compromise. It’s an either/or. Either the Gentiles were insiders, or they were outsiders. It couldn’t be a little bit of both, with one foot in and the other foot out. Who is a legit member of the Body of Christ? What is it that makes a fully approved member of the Body of Christ? Paul answered that question by looking at Jesus. What does his gospel say? Justification by faith alone clearly says that the blood of Jesus is enough to make anyone an insider. If you have put your sins onto Christ crucified, you’re clean, you belong. If you belong to Jesus, you belong to us, no matter what your background might be, whatever your culture or your ethnicity or your politics or any other human identity. You might or might not be mature.
You might or might not be ready for leadership. But Jesus says, you belong, whoever you are. In fact, it’s even more glorifying to Jesus when our diversity makes his inclusivity obvious. Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, bring it all. If it’s sin, Jesus will cover it by his blood. If it’s unfixable, Jesus will replace it with something better. But if you’re coming to Jesus with the empty hands of faith, he receives you, and so do we.
Galatians 2:15-21
15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Being born a Jew provided certain benefits and privileges. Peter and Paul were born into the family of God. They didn’t have to wait to hear God’s word. It was spoken over them at birth. As they grew, they learned the law. They were taught what is kosher and what is unclean. They were brought up in the community of God’s chosen people. But they knew that wasn’t what saved them. Jesus Christ saved them. It wasn’t their obedience to the law. It was Christ’s.
Since Jesus made these Jews righteous by faith, the same remedy would cure the Gentile sinners. In these two verses, Paul pits the false teachers’ doctrine of justification by works against the gospel’s doctrine of justification by faith. Here Paul introduces justification by faith alone in the greatest detail thus far.
Peter’s actions denied the truth of the gospel. He knew everyone is made righteous based on Christ’s finished work, but he acted as if it was the law that set one right with God. That’s why Paul launches into this heavily doctrinal section. What we believe must determine how we act, and when we act out of step from what we believe, we need to circle back to that belief and reinforce it.
If we are justified by “works of the law,” we have lots of work to do. The Jewish rabbis counted 613 laws in the Old Testament. So, if we are to be justified by the law, we have 613 laws to obey, without skipping any, and without failing at any point. That’s a ridiculous requirement, yet these false teachers believed that’s how God set us right, a little grace from him and a lot of effort from us. And you and I say the same thing any time we believe something other than justification by faith alone. John Stott says, “It has been the religion of the ordinary man both before and since. It is the religion of the man-in-the-street today. Indeed, it is the fundamental principle of every religious and moral system in the world except New Testament Christianity. It is popular because it is flattering. It tells a man that if he will only pull his socks up a bit higher and try a bit harder, he will succeed in winning his own salvation.”
But Paul says it’s impossible to win our own salvation. “By works of the law no one will be justified.” The only way we will ever be set right with God is by the work of Jesus Christ. This goes against every instinct we have, every impulse to earn, every theory to attain. Instead, it gives us a view of God’s love that we can only see in hints inside the law. If God justifies us by faith in Jesus Christ, it means our okayness before God has been taken out of our hands and placed entirely in the hands of Jesus.
How is this good news? How can Martin Luther call justification “the chief article of Christian doctrine”? John Calvin said justification is “the main hinge on which religion turns.” It seems that to understand the gospel, we must understand justification.
That’s why Paul stands up to Peter. That’s why he writes this letter with passion. Justification is not one doctrine among many, on the same level as other issues. It is the issue we must get right to understand the heart of God. Justification by faith takes us into the beating-heart of God’s desire for us. How much does he want his people? Enough to give them everything they need to gain him.
The law was never the path to justification. It was always the rulebook of how to live before God now that righteousness has come. But in our sinfulness, we take the law book and turn it from a gift of God into a ladder to God. We looked at it and thought, “Gosh, this is a lot to do, but here’s how we can fix all that we’ve messed up. Here’s our way to God!” But to do that is to pursue a dead end. Instead, we should look at the law and think, “Gosh, here is God’s kindness to show us how we can love him. He’s done so much for us. He’s saved us and set us right with him even though we’ve messed it all up. For him to help us see how to live now is so kind.”
So, here’s how much God does for his people. God is holy and we are sinful. Therefore, a separation of cosmic proportions exists. We cannot reach up to him. Our only hope is that he would come down to us. In the person of Jesus Christ, that’s what he did. God came down and dwelt among us. He was the second Adam, obeying the law where we failed. He was the seed of Abraham through whom all the nations would be blessed. He was the Son of David who would never lose his Kingdom. He was the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, by whose wounds we are healed. He was our substitute, standing trail on our behalf, being found guilty of our sin, dying under the wrath of God. He was raised on the third day, defeating death, Satan, and sin. He ascended to the right hand of the Father to await the day in which he will make all things new.
This is Jesus, the one who justifies us. How does he justify? Through our obedience? No, through his obedience. All we do is believe in his work and his work becomes our work. And here’s the craziest part of all: we are justified by faith—a faith that we can’t work up ourselves. The saving faith we need is the saving faith God graciously gives. We wouldn’t even believe without him placing belief in our heart. Our justification is not part our work and part God’s work. It is all God’s work because the whole of history has always been his work and the whole of the future will be his too.
If we get this wrong, we get the gospel wrong. And that’s why Paul opposes Peter to his face. That’s why he rages against the false teachers.
The heart that gets the gospel right is the heart that resonates with verse 20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” This is the Christian life summed up in one verse. If this is true of you, there is no truer thing in the world about you. This is the sum of your identity. This is the greatest hope of your life.
Who lives for something that they’ve already died to? Paul says he’s died to the law so that he might live to God. He’s saying it is impossible to seek justification through some mash-up of law and grace. It is one or the other. It is either works of the law or through faith, but it cannot be both at the same time. As Martin Luther said, “If you want to live to God, you must die to the law; but if you want to live to the law, you will die to God.”
Luther goes on to help us see how this truth works itself out within.
When the law accuses us and shows us our sins, our conscience soon says, “You have sinned.”
If we then take hold firmly of what Paul teaches here, we can answer, “I admit I have sinned.”
“Then God will punish you.”
“No, he will not do that.”
“Why? Doesn’t God’s law say he will?”
“I have nothing to do with that law.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I have another law that strikes this law dumb—that is, freedom.”
“What freedom is that?”
“The freedom of Christ, for by Christ I am utterly freed from the law. Therefore, the law that remains a law for the wicked is freedom for me and binds the law that wants to condemn me. In this way the law that wants to bind me and hold me captive is now firmly bound itself and is held captive by grace and liberty, which is now my law. It says to that accusing law, ‘You shall not hold this person bound and captive, for this person is mine; but I will hold you captive and bind your hands so that you do not hurt this person who now lives for Christ and is dead to you.”
The gospel frees. The law binds. When you look at God, what do you feel? If you don’t feel freedom, return to the message of the gospel until you do. Throw off the law. Pay no attention to its demands. Cling to Christ and his free gift of grace. Who lives to what he’s died to?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/71184efc5e479f43-image-asset-KSchwphPL32yq7pucDvqEERCsVl85I.jpeg\")
\n \n\nThe book of Galatians shows us the importance of the truth of the gospel. The truth is that we are saved by faith alone apart from all our works. We are saved on the merit of Christ’s righteousness, not on the merit of our own. Wherever Paul went, he faced backlash for the gospel he preached. In Galatia, the church was being attacked from within by false teachers who sought to change the subject from Jesus’ finished work to man’s additional requirements. But to change the subject from Jesus to man is to leave Jesus altogether. Paul writes the book of Galatians to preserve the truth of the gospel and to defend the flock against these false teachers who attacked both the gospel Paul preached and the man Paul was.
1 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. 2 I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. 3 But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. 4 Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— 5 to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
We saw in chapter 1 Paul’s defense of his ministry and message. He continues this defense in chapter two as he details his visit to Jerusalem. The accusation from these false teachers in Galatia was that Paul’s gospel wasn’t the real gospel. They believed the real gospel was Jesus plus works. Paul’s gospel began and ended with Jesus. Works played no part in justification, according to Paul, because it was only the work of Jesus that had the power to justify. We get in by believing in his work, not by trusting in our own.
To these false teachers, Paul’s gospel just didn’t hold up. God could never accept us as we are: unchanged by works. Jesus’ work was good, but he required a little effort on our part to complete salvation. But to Paul, this wasn’t just a slight deviation from the gospel. This was a complete repudiation of the gospel. This was a desertion of God.
Paul heard this gospel from the risen Christ himself. It was not any man who revealed it to him. It was God the Father in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, what Paul preached wasn’t some made-up, ear-tickling, live-however-you-want-now-that-grace-has-come gospel. It was the full-bodied, everlasting, glory-infusing gospel of God. He would never budge on it because to do so would be to diminish Christ. That’s what these false teachers were: Christ reducers. Who needs a savior when your works do just as well?
So, Paul went to Jerusalem, but he waited fourteen years. This is the second time Paul mentions going to Jerusalem in this letter. The first time was in 1:18, where he talks about visiting Peter to get acquainted with him. He spent only fifteen days there on that first visit. Now, he goes up to Jerusalem again, this time because the Lord tells him to go, “because of a revelation.” When he got there, he didn’t demand a public hearing before the apostles. He went privately, quietly. He wasn’t out to prove anything before men. He was out to partner with the apostles for the sake of God’s world-wide mission.
He met with “those who seemed influential.” He’s not saying they weren’t influential. They were! He’s merely saying that their influence didn’t matter to him. He needed no approval or validation for his gospel message or for his ministry. Jesus himself had given him that a long time ago.
He took two men with him to the meeting. Barnabas, a Jew, whom they knew, and Titus, a Gentile, whom they didn’t know. Titus is perhaps the most important person at the meeting. Being a Gentile, he was not circumcised. But he had heard the gospel and believed in Jesus Christ. He was a Christian, but he had never been a Jew.
Why did Paul take Titus? Most likely because he was an example of the gospel Paul preached to the Gentiles. In verse 2, Paul says he “Set before them the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles.” He did this to be sure he wasn’t running in vain, meaning to be sure he wasn’t wasting his time unifying the church if the Jerusalem leaders weren’t going to accept non-Jewish Christians. Paul was going to continue his mission, but here he sought the unity of Christ among the nations.
So, Paul brought the gospel he preached to the Gentiles and a real-live Gentile as proof of the power of Christ’s salvation in that gospel. Titus was exhibit A. How would they treat him? Would they demand that he be circumcised, or would they accept him as he was as a brother in Christ?
Today, so far removed from this situation, we find it difficult to understand the enormity of this event. This was a major point in the history of the Church. If the Jerusalem apostles forced circumcision on Titus, proclaiming it was necessary for salvation, the entire foundation of justification by faith alone would crumble and the gospel would lose its power.
But the gospel prevailed! Titus was not forced to be circumcised because they all agreed Jesus Christ saved him by faith alone. It was not a mark on his body that justified, it was the marks on Jesus’ body that justified. It was the person and work of the Savior who set his people right with God. This was a major success. The years Paul spent laboring in the mission field were accepted as valid and together they all rejoiced in what the Lord had done.
Of course, not everyone was happy. Whenever the gospel goes out and people are saved, there will always be some who frown. In this instance, false brothers weaseled their way in to spy on the situation. They wanted to steal their freedom in Christ and capture them in slavery, because accomplishing that would give them the power that Jesus rightly owned. That’s what heresy always does. It strips power from Jesus and puts it into the hands of the adversary. Yet Paul prevailed because Jesus prevailed. And in his preservation the gospel was preserved for all generations.
Now, there is a warning for us here in this passage. What we do with the gospel message matters for more than our family, or our church, or our generation. How we treat God according to the gospel has long-lasting impact. In fact, it may stretch down through the halls of history to come and change the way the world interacts with God’s gospel. That’s why Paul instructs us to pay close attention to our doctrine. (1 Timothy 4:16.)
What these false teachers wanted was not to preserve the gospel. They wanted to change the gospel. They wanted to undo what Jesus had done in his finished work. They wanted to put a comma where God put a period. That’s always a danger, even for us.
Here’s how you can know how you’re relating to the gospel of God’s grace. How do you live in light of the gospel? How you live helps you see what you really believe. For example, when you sin, what thoughts flood into your mind about God? Do you believe you must clean yourself up before coming to him for forgiveness, or do you run to him with conviction in your heart and cling to Christ’s righteousness alone? When others sin, what thoughts flood your mind about God? Do you believe they can find freedom in Christ right then, or are you secretly holding them to some other external standard? In other words, is God’s grace sufficient for you in both what you believe and how you live? What about for others?
These false teachers were holding others to a different standard, and it was a standard that they themselves set. I wonder why they set that standard? I think it’s probably because it was achievable. They themselves could do it. They held the pen in their hands, marking the boundaries and waiting for others to get their act together. But that’s not the grace of God! The false teachers drew the line and keep others out. But God erases those lines and with the blood of Jesus draws a wider circle around the whole world, encompassing all people groups of all backgrounds—whoever will believe in him—and includes people these false teachers would never even think of including. God reaches into the hell-hole of this world and grabs handfuls of hopeless sinners and puts them on top in his kingdom. Why does he do that? Because grace that big points to something so wonderful that only God can be in it.
So, are you holding the pen and drawing lines or are you resting inside the bloodline Jesus has drawn?
6 And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. 7 On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised 8 (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), 9 and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
The false teachers were put down. The gospel prevailed. More than that, unity was found among the apostles of Jesus. This is unsurprising to us today because we have the New Testament to show us it all worked out just fine. But place yourself in their shoes, in Paul’s shoes. His gospel was God-given. He had no doubts. But he didn’t know how it would turn out with the other apostles. Would they accept the gospel or would they be deceived as well?
Paul uses a rhetorical device that sounds as if he’s downplaying the apostles’ leadership and importance when he says they “seemed to be influential” and “what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality.” But Paul isn’t downplaying anyone’s importance. He’s merely saying God’s grace levels us all. It does not matter to Paul who Peter, James, and John once were. All that matters to him is the gospel they proclaim, which is the same gospel he proclaims. He is not intimidated by their status because they stand together as one preaching the only good news that saves sinners.
The Jerusalem apostles added nothing to Paul’s message. They did not force Titus to be circumcised. They did not alter his message or correct his gospel. They listened and accepted it as the same revelation they had from Jesus. They recognized Paul’s ministry as effective and valid. Paul took the gospel to the uncircumcised. Peter took the gospel to the circumcised. Same message, different people groups, Jesus unifying the world around his good news. That’s what was happening then, and that’s what happens still today as the true gospel is proclaimed throughout the world.
So, they all agree. But how did they get there? We know from Galatians 1 that this isn’t man’s gospel; it’s God’s gospel. God gives his gospel to whom he wants, and Paul, Peter, James, and John all received it for the purpose of preaching and spreading it throughout the world. Look at the language Paul uses. In verse 7, he says he had been “entrusted” with the gospel just as Peter had. In verse 8, he says God worked through Peter just as he worked through him. In verse 9, he points to the “grace that was given” to him. What does this language indicate? It indicates at least three things. First, gospel ministry is a stewardship for kingdom advancement, not a job for market-share increase. Second, gospel ministry is God’s work done through us, not our work done for God. Third, the gospel of grace is a gift from God, not an achievement by man.
We saw in Galatians 1:16 that God was pleased to reveal his Son to Paul. Paul is referring to his conversion. That’s what happens when we believe the gospel: the Son is revealed to us. We finally see him in his glory, as he really is, for all that we really are. Paul goes on to say in 1:16 the purpose for which God revealed the Son to him, “in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles.”
In saving Paul, God entrusted a ministry to him for the purpose of kingdom advancement. He didn’t give him a job do as much as he gave him a ministry to steward. Think about that: the all-Holy God above entrusts his world-wide salvation project to a fallen, sinful man with limitations and weaknesses and inadequacies. Does that sound like a good idea to you? Of course not! But that’s how God works. He saves his people through the finished work of Christ on the cross and in resurrection power places himself within their hearts in the person of the Holy Spirit, commissioning them to the ends of the earth with his good news. He takes messed up people, washes them in the blood of Christ, and sends them out for his glory. That’s the God we serve!
God’s plan was always to save the Jews and the Gentiles by his grace. When Jesus rose from the grave, that rescue plan ramped up for the Gentiles, and Paul was God’s appointed evangelist to begin that work with a full-court press. Peter was God’s appointed evangelist to continue that work with the Jews.
Paul’s point in Galatians, in order to refute his detractors, was to say that he and Peter we both merely pass-throughable vessels used by God. It was not Paul’s gospel any more than it was Peter’s gospel. It was God’s gospel. They were merely the messengers in the same way the Old Testament prophets were God’s mouthpiece.
Of course, they kept their personalities. Paul wrote like Paul and spoke like Paul. Peter wrote like Peter and spoke like Peter. God doesn’t change us into robots. He redeems us in total, including our personalities. Then, he uses who we are to spread his gospel in ways that he made us to.
The good news of the gospel is that God saves us apart from our work. Christ’s work saves. So, as we work as ambassadors for him, our work is done not as extra points on the justification scale but as the proper response to his saving grace. Gospel ministry is not our work done for God. It’s God’s work done through us. Therefore, it is God who gets all the glory, as it should be.
Paul knows who he is. He’s a man saved by God and set apart for his gospel ministry. He told us in Galatians 1 about his surprising conversion. He was not a man primed to accept justification by grace alone. He spent his life in obedience to the law. He rose the ranks of Judaism, notching righteous marks by his actions. But when Jesus appeared to him and gave him his gospel, Paul received it as a gift. Jesus transferred him from a persecutor to a preacher.
The gospel is a gift. That’s why Paul’s boast wasn’t in his achievements among the Galatians. His only ambition was for the Lord. So, when the false teachers came in and sowed discord and brought up fake charges, Paul used all the zeal he once persecuted Christians with to fight for them before these wicked men. Paul’s only motivation was the glory of God’s gospel. What’s ours?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/f2feca30c9b54ded-image-asset-wY4iFYhpuyXgqT2EEhfI1yyvCcef2h.jpeg\")
\n \n\nThe book of Galatians is Paul’s defense of his ministry and message. The gospel was hijacked by false teachers who twisted God’s word and presented a different message as if it was the true gospel. Paul’s righteous anger drives him to write this letter to the churches he planted in Galatia. 1:1-10 set the tone. 1:11-24 continues the defense.
Galatians 1:11-17
11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
There were some in Galatia who said Paul got his gospel from the apostles, and like a game of “Password,” Paul had slightly changed the message along the way. We’re not really saved by grace alone. Obedience to the law justifies us along with God’s grace. Paul wants to make something crystal clear. He uses the phrase “For I would have you know.” This is a rhetorical device that recurs throughout Paul’s letters when he wants to stress a point. The point here is that the gospel he preached was not man’s invention but God’s revelation. The message came down from heaven in the person of Jesus Christ and was given as a revelation of his grace to Paul and to the Galatians.
Why does this matter? Because if it was man’s gospel, changing the message makes sense. More information, more insight, more time to think it over may provide valid reasons for altering the message. But Paul got his message from Jesus, not from man. Therefore, it is unchangeable because God is unchangeable. As John Frame says, “If God sets the standards, we may not argue with him. For us to debate with God is as ridiculous as for clay to debate with its potter (Isa. 45:9-11).” And arguing is exactly what these Galatian false teachers were doing. They were arguing not with Paul, but with God.
After all, Paul was a zealous Jew. If anyone was unwilling to bend the law at any point, it was Paul. He would have loved a gospel that came alongside the law, helping the law justify a sinner. But that’s not what the gospel does. It doesn’t sidle up to the law like a friend in an AA meeting. It comes in like a doctor to a patient on the operating table. Paul’s message was that radical, and his radical life-change gave credence to his message.
There was nothing in Paul’s past that set him up for a favorable reception of the gospel. He includes part of his story in verses 13-17 to show us the shift in his life. He was sincere in his Jewish faith but sincerely wrong in his conclusions. Rather than covering those sins, Paul writes them down for everyone throughout history to see! That’s the kind of change Jesus creates in the gospel. We become people willing to share our shameful past because of the bright future Jesus has given to us. When God reveals his gospel to us, we become honest about our past and use our story to help others understand God’s story. Only freedom in Christ can create such honesty.
Paul’s Judaism led him to persecute the church of God. What Paul was doing was an attack on the people he thought he was protecting: God’s elect. His desire for the purity of God’s word drove him to approve the killing of God’s people because he believed they were redefining the boundaries of Israel by following Jesus. He had no idea that Jesus had redefined the boundaries for them. It wasn’t their message. It was God’s. Paul just hadn’t heard it yet. When Paul did hear the gospel, he experienced a complete life change.
First, God set Paul apart from birth to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Martin Luther comments.
God has sanctified, ordained, and prepared him. God has appointed, when Paul was still in his mother’s womb, that he who raged against his church would afterwards by God’s grace alone be mercifully recalled from this cruelty and blasphemy into the way of truth and salvation. In short, when Paul was not yet born, he was an apostle in God’s sight; and when the time came, he was declared an apostle before the whole word.
Thus Paul removes all thought of merit and gives glory to God alone, and to himself only shame and confusion. This is like saying, “All the gifts, both small and great, both spiritual and physical, that God intended to give me, and all the good things that at any time in all my life I would do, God himself had already arranged when I was still in my mother’s womb, where I could neither wish, think, nor do any good thing. Therefore, this gift came to me by the predestination and free mercy of God before I was born. After I was born, he reached out to me who was loaded with innumerable and most horrible iniquities. And in order to make very plain the unutterable and inestimable greatness of his mercy to me, he solely by grace forgave my abominable and infinite sins and moreover replenished me with such abundant grace that I not only knew what was given to us in Christ but also preach it to others.”
Our faith is not some divine accident. It is God’s predestined plan.
Second, Paul was called by God in his grace. Because Paul was set apart before birth to the gospel cause, in due course, Paul was called by God’s grace to believe the gospel. There are thousands of pounds of theological weight here. It was God’s electing grace that saved Paul, not Paul’s ability to achieve salvation on his own. If we boil the gospel down to the basic ingredients, this is one of them. We are called by God to repent and believe. How does this happen? By God’s gift of repentance and faith through his divine call. God overcomes our resistance to him by wooing us to himself and causing love to rise from our heart to him because his love has come into us and transformed us from God-haters into God-lovers.
Third, God was pleased to reveal his Son. This language shows us the beauty of God’s love. It’s not that God is compelled by Jesus’ sacrifice to now do something for his people that he wouldn’t otherwise desire to do. No, God the Father is pleased to reveal his Son, Jesus Christ. This shows us that the gospel is, at the foundational level, a story of God’s love. It is an exaltation of love in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Like a Father who has a surprise for his child hidden behind the couch, God the Father cannot wait to reveal his Son to Paul. He ushers him into the room, turns on the lights, and with a smile, brings Jesus out from the shadows. And Paul’s heart grows three sizes that day, as he beholds the Son in his glory. God is pleased to give us himself. And when he gives himself to us, he gives our joy to others as we share the gospel.
Galatians 1:18-24
18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. 20 (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.
In these verses, Paul continues his defense of the origins of his ministry. As Timothy George says, “The whole argument in this passage hinges on the threefold use of the adverb then (1:18, 21; 2:1). In the previous sentence, Paul informed us of his immediate whereabouts following his conversion, an itinerary that involved preaching in Damascus and a sojourn in Arabia, but not a trip to Jerusalem. Now, extending that clarification, he wanted to specify precisely when he did go to Jerusalem and what the nature of his visit there was. Each of the three “then” clauses forms a crucial link in his alibi against the false charges of his Galatian adversaries.”
Paul went to Jerusalem after three years to visit Peter. The grammar Paul uses indicates he went to get to know Peter, not to get to know Peter’s message. They already both received the same message. He didn’t seek any kind of authorization or validation. He already had that from Jesus himself. While there, he didn’t see anyone else other than James. Once again, his message came from God, not man.
Paul then swears that what he’s saying is true. He does this because his opponents in Galatia had done so much damage to his reputation that he must use the strongest terms possible to prove his truthfulness. He is no rogue disciple. He is in accordance with all the apostles of Jesus, with one message of God’s grace. What he preached is not some derived gospel message. It is the only gospel message. God justifies us by grace alone through faith alone apart from all our works in the person of Jesus Christ alone.
Paul then went from Jerusalem into Syria and Cilicia. He includes this because it shows Paul’s ministry began. He didn’t sit and wait for any kind of commissioning. He had already received it from the Lord Jesus. So, he got to work. But where he worked was not where the big shots of his day would have worked. God often calls his people to labor in obscurity for a long time. Timothy George comments, “God sometimes calls his servants to labor in obscure places and under difficult circumstances in order to make them ready for some particular task or assignment unknown to them at the time. It may well be that Paul would not have had the wisdom to write Romans, or the equanimity to deal with the fractious Corinthians, or the courage to withstand the false teachers of Galatia, or the endurance to face arrest in Jerusalem and martyrdom in Rome had it not been for the ten years or so he spent laboring in little-known places with results difficult to quantify.”
But Paul’s life change was a news story. Though they didn’t know all the details, people did hear about the man who once persecuted the church now preaching and laboring on behalf of the church. Paul’s conversion had an effect. It showed the world something of God’s glory: “And they glorified God because of me.”
Paul’s desire was to glorify God. It was always his desire, even in his Judaism. But to glorify God, Paul had to be destroyed. His righteousness had to be slain and replaced with Jesus’ righteousness. Paul thought he could glorify God by obeying the law and rising the ranks of the Judaism of his day. He thought he could glorify God by persecuting and destroying the sect of Judaism following Jesus, whom they labeled as the Messiah. But Paul was wrong. It was not in his exaltation or good works that he would glorify God, but in his humility. It was in his death to Judaism and life to Christ that Paul was to bring God’s glory to the forefront.
How does God glorify himself in your life? Much the same way. Let me use myself as an example. I came awake to the gospel in a college dorm room in 2003. I had said the “sinner’s prayer” a long time ago on my couch in my parent’s house, but it wasn’t until a winter day in Lexington, Kentucky that I realized I was a hopeless sinner in need of God’s grace. When I saw that, I finally saw Jesus.
I had arrived on the fuel of my own hopes and desires. I departed a few months later in the arms of Jesus. I had no great fall that brought me down. I simply found Christian friends that followed Jesus as Lord and God used them to change my life. I saw that Jesus was real. God was pleased to reveal his Son to me, and I believed.
My former life was filled with sinfulness, much of it unspeakable. It wasn’t only my actions, it was my thoughts and desires. I was ungodly in every sense of the word. I wanted nothing of what God wanted. I wanted what I wanted, and mainly, that was to feel as good as possible. I wanted to be desired, but not by God. I wanted to be loved, but not by Jesus. I wanted to be meaningful, but not in humility.
So, here I was: a college freshman with an out of control sexual lust but with no physical outlet. So, the internet became my gateway into fantasy. I lived there for longer than I wanted to but I couldn’t get out. I sought relief in things that could never relieve any true desire. I pursued pleasure in unpleasurable things. Such is the life without God.
Then, something happened. God broke through and revealed his Son to me. It was primarily through a sermon on Romans 5:1-5. I have no idea who preached the sermon, and I have no idea why it was so meaningful, but God used it as a cataclysmic shift in my heart. I went back to my dorm and I read the Bible. I skipped classes to read the New Testament. I found Jesus in those pages. I found joy. I found life. My heart was changed, but it took a long time for my actions to change. Sinfulness doesn’t fall off like hair does during a haircut. It’s not that simple. It lingers like a bad cold—better some days, worse on others. It sticks around until the power of grace has gotten into the bloodstream. And even then, it never fully dies. It’s always there, rising to the surface, keeping us in constant need of Jesus.
Here’s my point. God saved me. He didn’t then use me in some world-changing way. In fact, this story isn’t about me at all. It’s about God. It’s about that preacher whose name I don’t know, in a city I lived in for only eight months, in a dorm room of which I can’t even remember the name. God saves people. We don’t save ourselves. And when we are saved, he gives us himself in totality. The same message that Paul received as a revelation from God is the message that we receive as a revelation from God through the Scriptures.
What glorifies God? A changed heart. When God is pleased to reveal his Son, he changes a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. He saves a sinner from his wrath. He transfers those dwelling in the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved Son. Saving sinners glorifies God because it’s all his work for people who work against him. He overcomes our heart with his grace so that from the heart we praise his grace. We become what we could never achieve so that we can see what only God can do.
So, how were you saved? What gospel did you believe?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/e5cfed4246a34a53-tornado-pCqmteYLLdfX1eRfk0vX3n4A5aKu5i.jpg\")
\n \n\nTheologian Timothy George says Galatians is a tornado warning. It is not only an ancient letter; it is a present message. Like the clouds forming to the west, it announces storms upon the theological landscape. We know Paul wrote this letter, but we aren’t sure of the outcome. That means we should heed its message as if we’re the first to hear it. What is that message? It’s the gospel. In the book of Galatians, Paul tells us what the gospel is and what it isn’t so that we stick close to it. Who would stray from the gospel, you may ask? You and I, that’s who. The storms are always forming on the horizon. Let’s beware lest we deny the message that saved us.
1 Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
We are introduced immediately to the letter’s author, the Apostle Paul. An apostle is one who is sent in the service of another. Paul’s use of antithesis highlights his source of authority. Jesus Christ and God the Father gave him what he has not man. Therefore, no man can add to it or take from it. He needed no greater authority. Paul is eager to identify himself not only as the author but as the qualified author. This matters because there was a problem in Galatia. The gospel Paul proclaimed, and that the Galatians quickly accepted, has been distorted by another message. Someone has added to the gospel of God’s grace and, consequently, become something less than grace. The attack came on two fronts. On the one side was the attack on the gospel message, seen in verse 6. On the other side was the attack on the gospel messenger, Paul, as we see in verse 1.
Paul begins this letter with his qualification as an approved messenger of the gospel. It was not men who called him. It was Jesus Christ and God the Father who called him. And heaping qualification upon qualification, Jesus is the one whom God raised from the dead. Paul is pointing to a historic person and a historic event. It is not from some unknown god that Paul received his message, and it is not from some impressive-but-mortal man. It is from the risen Christ, the God-Man. If a dead man rises from the grave and grants his authority, you’ve got something better than a diploma from seminary. You have a divine appointment. As John Stott said, “What Paul spoke was Christ's message on Christ's authority. So he defended his apostolic authority in order to defend his message.”
Though Paul was called individually as an apostle, he did not stand alone in his work. He also writes with the voice of the brothers standing with him. These are the brothers who have watched his life and doctrine. They can testify to the grace of God in his life and in their own. Proclaiming the gospel is not a lone-ranger activity. It is a brotherhood on mission as heralds of the King. God lends credibility to his message by joining many around himself.
So, it is Paul, the qualified apostle, empowered by Jesus Christ and God the Father, along with his brothers who penned this letter to the churches of Galatia. Paul took the gospel to Galatia on his second missionary journey. Luke records in Acts 16:5 that the churches grew daily in numbers, so we know the gospel found success. He’s writing to an area that received the gospel gladly and wholeheartedly. They were not on the fence, awaiting additional proof.
In verse 3, Paul adds his traditional greeting of grace and peace. As Timothy George says, “Galatians begins and ends with ‘grace.’” George defines grace as, “God’s unmerited goodwill freely given and decisively effective in the saving work of Jesus Christ.” He defines peace as, “a state of wholeness and freedom that the grace of God brings.” Martin Luther said, “These two words, grace and peace, include all that belong to Christianity. Grace releases sin, and peace makes the conscience quiet. The two fiends that torment us are sin and conscience. But Christ has vanquished these two monsters and has trodden them underfoot, both in this life and in the life to come…The words are simple; but during temptation, to be convinced in our hearts that we have forgiveness of sins and peace with God by grace alone is the hardest thing.” It is fitting that Paul would begin his message with these two words, grace and peace, for it is these two that the Galatians need most. It is what we all need. If Paul is to make any headway whatsoever with the hard things he must say, they (and we) need the grace and peace of God to hear it.
Grace and peace come from nowhere but God. That’s why Paul goes on to explain the God who grants it, “God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” It is the gospel message from this gracious God of peace that the Galatians so desperately need to rediscover.
To understand the gospel and the grace of God, we must understand who Jesus Christ is. He is the one who gave. Martin Luther sums it up, “Gave what? Not gold or silver or animals or paschal lambs or an angel, but himself! What for? Not for a crown or a kingdom or our holiness and righteousness, but for our sins. These words are great thunderclaps from heaven against all kinds of righteousness.” By righteousness, Luther means self-righteousness. It is not our goodness that causes our salvation. It is the death of Christ on the cross because of our wickedness that grants our salvation from God. That’s why Paul says he’s delivered us from this evil age. Luther goes on to say, “The force and power of sin is made quite clear by these words: who gave himself for our sins. Here we must note the infinite price given for our wickedness, and then it will be clear that its power is so great that it could not be put away by any means except by the Son of God giving himself for it.”
Our sin is our downfall. With it, we have lost all closeness to God. We cannot atone for our sin, and we cannot come to him with any gift to make us right. We must rely solely on the grace of Christ. And it is his grace that we can have in the gospel message. It is only there, and nowhere else. That is the problem Paul is confronting. It is as if the gospel of the free grace of God that was originally preached and accepted has been hijacked by other “teachers” who would add onto it a bit of the law to perfect the Christians in the sight of God. This angers Paul because to add to the gospel is to destroy the gospel and to set the believer back to an uncertain future with God. What God has given as a certainty who is man to come in and cast doubt?
Luther helps us see something in verse 4 that we are prone to overlook. Who is it that Jesus gave his life for? Luther says, “Consider very carefully every word of Paul, and especially note the pronoun our, for the effect consists altogether in the correct application of the pronouns that are found in the Scriptures…It is easy, in general and without the pronoun, to say how great was the benefit of Christ—that he was given for our sins, but for other people’s sins, worthy people’s sins. But when it comes to this pronoun our, our weak nature and reason recoil and dare not come near God, nor promise that so great a treasure shall be freely given to us; and therefore we will have nothing to do with God unless we are pure and sinless first. Therefore, although we read the words who gave himself for our sins, we do not apply the pronoun our to ourselves, but to others whom we deem worthy and holy; as for ourselves, we will wait until we are made worthy by our own works…In short, human reason wants to present to God not a real sinner but a pretend one, unafraid of anything, without any feeling of sin. It wants to bring to God one who is well, not one who needs a physician; and when it feels no sin, then it wants to believe that Christ was given for our sins.”
Of course, we gospel-centered people know we cannot make ourselves worthy by our own works. It is only the work of Christ that makes us worthy. But that doesn’t stop us from trying. Our flesh wants so badly to justify ourselves that we take any small proof of goodness to his throne as if it makes up for the whole of our sin. But to do this is to deny the gospel and refute the grace of Christ. What we need is to forsake our righteousness and cling to the grace of Christ with all our heart. As Ray Ortlund says, “What is it about this present age that’s evil? That’s a strong word, “evil.” What is evil about our era of history? Primarily, as we’ll see in Galatians, the most evil thing about this world is its righteousness. A brokenhearted whore clinging to Jesus is closer to God than the most upright solid citizen who does so much good that he’s too good for Jesus. That is what’s evil about this world – false righteousness.”
Therefore, let’s deny our self-righteousness and cling to Christ alone. But some of us look at this and laugh. We could never think of ourselves as righteous. We are wicked. We not only know it, we feel it. We feel it so deeply, in fact, that we believe God could never save us. Why would he want such a failure? But before we throw ourselves down Pity Lane, let’s see that this is just another form of self-righteousness. Are we the only sinner in the world so great that God couldn’t save us? How could we think so highly of ourselves such that we deny God’s grace in our life alone? This was Martin Luther’s problem. He couldn’t reach God’s righteousness, so he hated himself and God because he thought God hated him. But when he finally saw God’s grace, he refused to let anyone tell him it wasn’t for him.
“I have often proven by experience, and I continue to find out every day, how hard it is to believe, especially during conflicts of conscience, that Christ was given not for the holy, righteous, worthy, and those who were his friends, but for wicked sinners, for the unworthy, and for his enemies who deserved God’s wrath and everlasting death.
“Let us therefore arm ourselves with these and similar sentences of the Holy Scriptures, so that when the devil tells us we are sinners and therefore damned, we may answer, “Because you say I am a sinner, I will be righteous and saved.” Then the devil will say, “No, you will be damned.” And I will reply, “No, for I fly to Christ who has given himself for my sins. Therefore, Satan, you will not prevail against me when you try to terrify me by telling me how great my sins are and try to reduce me to heaviness, distrust, despair, hatred, contempt, and blasphemy. On the contrary, when you say I am a sinner, you give me armor and weapons against yourself, so that I can cut your throat with your own sword and tread you under my feet, for Christ died for sinners. Moreover, you yourself preach God’s glory to me, for you remind me of God’s fatherly love toward me, that ‘he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). And whenever you object that I am a sinner, you remind me of the benefit of Christ my Redeemer. It is on his shoulders, not mine, that all my sins lie, for ‘the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all … for the transgression of my people he was stricken’ (Isaiah 53:6, 8). So when you say I am a sinner, you do not terrify me but comfort me immeasurably.”
Satan loves this present evil age. But Jesus has delivered us from it because it was the Father’s will. Let us not think that it is Jesus who twisted the Father’s arm to accept us. It was the Father and Son together who set out to save our souls. And when they accomplished the work, they smiled from the throne and poured out the Holy Spirit so that we could behold their happiness. As J.B. Lightfoot says, “The gospel is a rescue, and emancipation from a state of bondage.” This present age is evil, and we still have much evil residing inside our own heart of sin. But Jesus has delivered, is delivering, and one day will deliver us finally and fully from it all. God’s rescue plan isn’t done yet. He’s still got more to give. All we must do is stay in the center of his grace, and we will inherit it all. It is this gospel of God’s grace that Paul earnestly desires to protect. And it is this gospel of God’s grace that compels him to write the bold letter to the Galatians.
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. 10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
African Scholar, Samuel Ngewa, comments on Galatians 1:6.
On May 10, 2004, a headline in the East African Standard read, “Illegally Imported Fake Drugs Flood Kenya”. Traders were smuggling in suitcases full of counterfeit pills, which they sold at a much lower price than the legal drugs. Those who sold the legal drugs lost much of their business, and the buyers were not helped by taking pills that contained only chalk dust. There was an urgent need to warn the public to beware of cheap pills. This portion of Galatians could equally well be entitled, “Illegally Imported Fake Gospel Floods Galatia.” Paul writes to warn the Galatians that a fake gospel will not save them. Only the true one will do that. He is no longer defending his apostleship as he did in 1:1–5, but is defending the gospel he preached. This gospel is under attack, and some of the Galatians are beginning to swallow what the attackers are saying about the gospel and about Paul. Paul responds by showing the Galatians what they are doing, describing the activities and motives of the false teachers, and setting out the true nature of the gospel.
Paul is astonished that the Galatians are so quickly deserting the gospel. It is not just a new layer of the gospel that they are focusing on. It is a complete denial of the gospel because they are adding law on top of Jesus for salvation. Paul’s charge is that they’re deserting not only truth but the Person of Truth. They’re deserting God. More than mere desertion, however, Paul says this is the activity of a turncoat. This is what traitors do. But Paul hasn’t completely given up on them yet. The verb he uses in verse 1, for the phrase “so quickly deserting,” indicates they are in the process of leaving, but they haven’t yet fully left God. There is still hope, and that hope is why Paul writes the letter. They need a re-centering on the gospel. Paul aims to give it to them.
There is only one gospel, but there are many distorters. The gospel is good news of God’s grace, and God’s grace, strangely, is very hard for us to handle. We struggle with the idea of salvation without merit. So, some come up with alternative messages that join God’s grace with human effort and preach it as gospel, distorting the message Jesus came to live, die, and rise for. This has two effects. On the one hand, it gives extra credibility to those who can live up to the “gospel plus” doctrine. On the other hand, it keeps down those who can never obey. In the end, what Jesus has loosed in heaven has been bound on earth again.
Because there is only one gospel but many distorters, the Galatians must be careful not to accept any preaching other than that which they first received. It was Paul who brought the gospel to them, but even if he is to return and preach a different message and call it “the gospel,” they should reject it outright. The gospel is not a message to be replaced, no matter who preaches it or what it sounds like. To preach another gospel leads to being cursed by God.
As Samuel Ngewa says, “The Galatians are behaving like children who have inherited some family treasure and are now listening to someone who is encouraging them to exchange it for something that looks like the original but is actually a fake.”
For the Galatians, only a few years had passed since Jesus rose from the grave. Such a recent mammoth event should keep the hearers of this news rapt in attention. But that they entertained new ideas and messages helps us see just why the gospel is so urgent. Sin dulls our sense of God. Though Jesus lived the perfect life on our behalf, we still make up new laws to add righteousness to righteousness. Though he says we are saved by faith alone, we still sprinkle something on top to make it more appetizing to the fallen mind. Though he rose from the dead to defeat death and sin and Satan on our behalf, we scheme and strategize ways to continue the battle on our own. We desperately want to be our own saviors. That’s why we need the gospel daily.
The final destination of the gospel is the glory of God. Being glory-hungerers ourselves, we find it hard to pursue his glory above our own. Can’t we have both, as some maintain? Can’t God have his glory and we have ours? Can’t we share the attention? Paul’s answer is a resounding “No!” Jesus stands alone in the spotlight of history. It is his work alone that brings redemption.
Paul is serving God, not man. Therefore, he has a power in the message of God that no man can have by creating his own, and that no man can remove through denial of the truth. Timothy George says, “Paul was reminding the Galatians that the gospel was not a product to be peddled on the marketplace of life. It has no need of shrewd salesmen to make it more palatable to modern tastes. The gospel has its own self-generating, dynamic authority and need not be propped up by artificial means, however sophisticated or alluring.”
Serving Christ and pleasing men are mutually exclusive pursuits. To please Christ is to invite the wrath of fallen man, and to please man is to invite the wrath of the risen Christ. We must pay attention to whom we work. Are we shaving off the radical edge of the gospel to fit the worldview of fallen man, or are we sharpening the radical edge of the gospel to cut off the self-righteousness of fallen man? The gospel is the most outrageous message the world has ever heard. None but God accepts sinners so freely. None but God brings life out of death. None but God gives righteousness to the unrighteous. Why would we want to change the message of the gospel that has come to us through the person of Jesus Christ? Only fools would trade the assurance of the free gift of grace for the uncertainty of meritorious righteousness. Are we such fools?
If Timothy George is correct in saying the book of Galatians is a tornado warning, what then should we pay attention to? We live in an age of false gospels. We seem never to cease from creating new ones. But it is the pure gospel of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ who saves all his people on the same basis of grace through faith that endures throughout the ages. Let’s not add anything to it or take anything away from it. Let it stand on its own two feet and watch as it knocks out of its way every enemy that would advance toward the children of God. Watch the one who refused to save himself use his resurrection power to save the world.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/0189330cd2db0a4c-image-asset-qEBDwuJOs5ng9K9meN8AFsL2zLUrXk.jpeg\")
\n \n\nThe gifts of God are varied. He gives us marriage to remind us of the mystery that is the gospel. He gives us children to unlock our fatherly heart. And he gives us government to perceive his restraining control on the world. How we relate to government matters, as all things do, because it shows us how we relate to God. It is not the sum total, but it is a number in the equation. Furthermore, God gives us a new heart. That heart is a gift unlike any other, and with it we can not only submit to the government but can also love others as Christ does. In Romans 13, Paul helps us think through how to approach government and its role in our life, and how love for others and Christ compels our lives to be lived differently.
1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
In these verses, Paul begins tackling the issue of the Christian and public life. What kind of citizens do Christians make? He’s crystal clear, Christians should be among the best citizens, not causing any unnecessary problems for the government because they recognize that their authorities are God’s appointed rulers. Christians shouldn’t resist governmental authorities. They should submit to them. This has always been a difficult passage for Christians to understand, especially those with bad rulers. The church father, Origen, said, “I am disturbed by Paul’s saying that the authority of this age and the judges of the world are ministers of God.” Leander Keck said that the problem with Romans 13:1-7 is not its opaqueness but its clarity, its plain and unqualified call for submission. So, if this passage is hard to hear, you are not alone.
Here’s the main point Paul is pressing. Christians are not anarchists. They’re basically law-abiding citizens. And government is a good gift from God. Douglas Moo says, “Governments are more than a nuisance to be put up with; it is an institution established by God to accomplish some of his purposes on earth.” We see this truth in the pages of the Bible. Cyrus released the exiles. Nebuchadnezzar promoted Daniel. For many in the ancient world, too much government was not the problem. It was sometimes too little government where anarchy ruled that made life hard.
None of that takes away the difficulty of Paul’s words here in Romans for the Roman Christians. Remember, the Romans are the inventors of the torturous death instrument called the cross. Christianity claims Jesus is Lord, and that poses a problem in the public square, especially when that public square trades in Caesar-faced coins. The Roman authorities were not upset that Christians claimed Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. They were upset that Christians claimed Jesus as Lord of all.
Paul is not ignorant that his letter might go beyond the walls of the church in Rome. He’s a public figure by this point, with a reputation that precedes him. That’s why he’s writing this letter before he arrives. He’s already been imprisoned, and he’s known outside the church. Paul knows this letter would be read by rulers in Rome. Therefore, what he says shows that Christians may proclaim another King over all, but they recognize that their King placed the local king in his place. They’re not against him, because God has appointed him.
But this probably didn’t go over well with the Roman Christians. Paul’s message is one of peace, even to those who crucify Christians and put them in the arenas to be eaten by lions for entertainment. How can this be? John Piper helps us see.
I think he wants to say to Christians, “Being wronged by a government sends nobody to hell, but being rebellious and angry and bitter and spiteful does send people to hell. And so it is a much greater evil for you to be rebellious than of the government to mistreat you. Much greater evil for you, that is.”
Now, you might object. Surely there is an appropriate place for civil disobedience. I think both Paul and Piper would agree that there are cases for that, but for the regular, day in, day out life of a Christian, submission to government is to be the norm.
There is, however, a time when civil disobedience is appropriate. We even have biblical precedent for it. In Acts 5, Peter and the apostles are arrested for preaching the gospel in a public space. During the night, an angel opens the prison doors and tells them to go stand in the temple and preach again. So, they go. And the authorities come and take them back and question them, saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching.” Peter then answers, “We must obey God rather than men.” Peter and the apostles disobeyed. Did they go against Paul’s words here in Romans 13? Who should we imitate?
To complicate the matter more, let’s look at two more biblical examples of civil disobedience. In the book of Exodus, Pharaoh sends out a decree to kill all male Hebrew children. But the Hebrew midwives don’t obey. Instead, in just one instance, they take Moses and put him in a basket and send him down the river. They refuse to kill. In another case, Daniel is told by the King not to bow down and worship anyone else. But Daniel doesn’t obey. Instead, he continues bowing before the Lord alone. Are these people sinning against God by not obeying earthly rulers?
What do these three examples show us? I think this: all authorities have superiority and should normally be submitted to, but Jesus has ultimate authority, and in matters where his lordship is at stake, Jesus is to be obeyed above all. That means, when God asks us to spread the gospel, we spread the gospel, even if it means punishment from governments. We do it honestly. We do it carefully. We do it obeying all the laws we can. But if they ask us to shut our mouths, we simply cannot abide. Jesus’ name is at stake. Furthermore, if the government asks us to kill babies, we should be the first in line to save them. If the government asks us to worship someone other than Jesus, we should straighten our back and refuse. Where the name and fame of Jesus is concerned, we disobey if we must. In all other cases, we submit. Submission to government has a limit. Submission to Jesus has none. As John Stott said, “whenever laws are enacted which contradict God’s law, civil disobedience becomes a Christian duty.”
Christians don’t have it easy in this world. Humility is not a virtue. The silent go unnoticed and the meek get trampled. But what the Kingdom of God values is different from the what the world values. And in a world of political outrage where the battle intensifies with every tweet, Christians have a hope that the world cannot see. Christians have Jesus ruling and reigning over all. Therefore, Christians can obey their leaders because in doing so, they are obeying the true Leader. To submit to the government is not outside of Christian orthodoxy. It’s firmly inside it. So, when the left and right go to war, the Christian can be the calm, obedient citizen awaiting his reward not in the next election, but in the ages to come.
After all, while Christians reside in houses on this earth but their citizenship is in heaven, and heaven will never be conquered. Jesus will never lose his crown. It’ll only grow brighter as the days go by. If this is true, then Christians have the only government that will really matter in the end. They’re the ones who will win in the final analysis. Their kingdom will outlast all others. So, obey the government whenever you can. Disobey only when God’s name requires you to.
8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Paul is preparing us here for something he will go on about at length in chapters 14-15. He sets us up now with this talk of love. What kind of love is he talking about? We can call it costly love—love that requires selflessness and sacrifice. It’s love that bears with one another for the sake of Christ. It’s love that gets involved with others for the good of the church.
In his book, The Mark of the Christian, Francis Schaeffer said, “In the midst of the world, in the midst of our present culture, Jesus is giving a right to the world. Upon His authority, He gives the world the right to judge whether you and I are born-again Christians on the basis of our observable love toward all Christians.”
A lack of love toward one another, even in our differences, is how the Christian witness to the watching world is marred. More than that, it is the reason many Christians find it hard to live among other Christians inside the church. How many stories of church injuries have you heard? How have you been wounded yourself by the church? What is the solution? It is not withdrawal or retreat. Leaving the church will not make your or anyone else’s life better. Separating the believer from the family only increases the pain. The only solution is a commitment to loving the way Christ loves—covenantally. That means we love even when we don’t feel it. We can disagree and still love because we have already made a promise with the other person in the future to be there. We can love because it isn’t based on our feelings but on the promise that Christ gives.
Schaeffer goes on to say,
I have observed one thing among true Christians in their differences in many countries—what leaves a bitterness that can last for twenty, thirty or forty years (or for fifty or sixty years in a son’s memory)—is not the issue of doctrine or belief which caused the differences in the first place. Invariably it is lack of love—and the bitter things that are said by true Christians in the midst of differences. These stick in the mind like glue. And after time passes and the differences between the Christians or the groups appear less than they did, there are still those bitter, bitter things we said in the midst of what we thought was a good and sufficient objective discussion. It is these things—these unloving attitudes and words—that cause the stench that the world can smell in the church of Jesus Christ among those who are really true Christians.
We live in an age of differences. If you follow Christian Twitter, for example, you will see disagreement every day over what appears to be a minute detail. I can't keep up with the outrage. I often step back and ask myself, “Where is the love in this discussion? Where is the place for real disagreement with real unity in Christ? Must I choose one side in order to belong?” In those cases, where the disagreement is over a small matter, love must prevail. The strong does not judge the weak and the weak must not judge the strong.
There are sometimes cases where Christians will have disagreements over larger issues. How can we move forward without compromising orthodoxy and yet displaying love? How can we find the exit before the train goes down the tunnel of darkness?
Here, Schaeffer provides valuable insight.
What happens, then, when we must differ with our brothers in Christ because of the need also to show forth God's holiness either in doctrine or in life? In the matter of life, Paul clearly shows us the balance in 1 and 2 Corinthians. The same thing applies in doctrine as well.
First, in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 he scolds the Corinthian church for allowing a man who is an active fornicator to stay in the church without discipline. Because of the holiness of God, because of the need to exhibit this holiness to a watching world, and because such judgment on the basis of God's revealed law is right in God's sight, Paul scolds the church for not disciplining the man.
After they have disciplined him, Paul writes again to them in 2 Corinthians 2:6-8 and scolds them because they are not showing love toward him. These two things must stand together...
A very important question arises at this point: how can we exhibit the oneness Christ commands without sharing in the other people's mistakes? I would suggest a few ways by which we can practice and show this oneness even across the lines where we must differ.
First, we should never come to such difference with true Christians without regret and without tears…The world must observe that when we must differ with each other as true Christians, we do it not because we love the smell of blood, the smell of the arena, the smell of the bullfight, but because we must for God’s sake. If there are tears when we must speak, then something beautiful can be observed.
Second, in proportion to the gravity of what is wrong between true Christians, it is important consciously to exhibit an observable love to the world. Not all differences among Christians are equally serious. There are some that are very minor. Others are overwhelmingly important [Know the difference.]...
Third, we must show a practical demonstration of love in the midst of the dilemma, even when it is costly. The word love should not be just a banner. In other words, we must do whatever must be done, at whatever cost, to show this love. We must not say, “I love you,” and then—bang, bang, bang...
Fourth, approach the problem with a desire to solve it, rather than with a desire to win. We all love to win. In fact, there is nobody who loves to win more than the theologian. The history of theology is all too often a long exhibition of a desire to win. But we should understand that what we are working for in the midst of our difference is a solution—a solution that will give God the glory, that will be true to the Bible, but will exhibit the love of God simultaneously with his holiness...
Fifth...keep consciously before us and help each other to be aware, that it is easy to compromise and to call what is wrong right, but that is equally easy to forget to exhibit our oneness in Christ. This attitude must be constantly and consciously developed--talked about and written about in and among our groups and among ourselves as individuals. In fact, this must be talked about and written about before differences arise between true Christians. We have conferences about everything else. Who has ever heard of a conference to consider how true Christians can exhibit in practice a fidelity to the holiness of God and yet simultaneously exhibit in practice a fidelity to the love of God before the watching world?
Before a watching world, an observable love in the midst of difference will show a difference between Christians’ differences and other men’s differences. The world may not understand what the Christians are disagreeing about, but they will very quickly understand the difference of our differences from the world’s differences if they see us having our differences in an open and observable love on a practical level.
At the end of the day, do you sigh in exasperation or with love? What are we saying to the watching world? Is there unity among us? Is there a seeking of peace? If not, we need to listen to the Apostle Paul's words in Romans 13:8-10.
We should owe no one anything, except love. Paul’s message is otherworldly. He’s actually telling us to go into debt, but only in one case. He tells us to rack up mountains of debt in the category of love. Love doesn't mean approving or accepting all views. It means, for the sake of Christ, loving others as you would love yourself and showing that love in a multitude of ways. One of those ways may be the correction of bad theology. Another may be in the hug after a hard conversation involving discipline. Yet another may be the reception and giving back of that hug with the one who disciplined you.
Is your mountain of love-debt so high that only Christ can pay it?
11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Love is the norm for the Christian, and a lack of love can distract us from knowing the time. If we are caught up in our disagreements and disputes, we are failing to understand the times in which we live. Who cares if the strategy on the eastern flank failed on the battlefield when the war has been one? Christ has come and died and been resurrected. In just a little while, he will return. It is time we wake from our sleep and clean up our lives to become fit for his return. Paul wants us to prepare for the victory march.
He’s calling us to a change. We can think of it as a change of clothes, a garment, perhaps. Once upon a time, we wore the garment of darkness, where orgies, drunkenness, sexual immorality, sensuality, quarreling and jealousy were the badges we pinned to our chest. But in Christ, we have been given a new garment—the garment of light. Inside its warm embrace we cannot make any provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires, because we have been taken up into a love greater than any other. The Lord Jesus Christ has lifted us out of the darkness and placed us into his kingdom of light. Who would put mud on that three-piece suit? We live now as in broad daylight, even if the darkness lingers a little while longer in this world. Douglas Moo says, “we are consciously to embrace Christ in such a way that his character is manifested in all we do and say.”
The two garments are polar opposites. The garment of darkness is the negative life. The garment of light is the positive life. Put side by side, the Christian has an easy answer. It’s clear every moment the garment we should pick up and put on. But we know we don’t always put on the right one. Why is that? Because we forget who Jesus is and what he’s done for us.
Losing focus on the gospel leads us not just to apathy but into darkness. Our sinful hearts will cling to fleshly passions if we don’t cling instead to the divine love of God in Christ. If we forget his goodness, we will go look for some goodness on our own. The problem is, we can never find anything truly good. We find sewer water and drink our fill even while Jesus is offering rivers of living water that will never run dry.
Though we still fall, the Christian does have a new power within that makes the darkness taste bad. So we run from it to Jesus. And that’s what Paul is asking us to do here. He’s asking us to run away from the darkness and into the light. The greater your sense of the love of God is, the quicker you’ll be able to run.
We must not be lulled to sleep. If we are, we will fall right back into our old ways. A new, God-given heart is awake. It is not only pursuing Christ but also fleeing sin. As Michael Bird says, “In my experience, you can tell a lot about a person by learning not just what they are willing to fight for, but what they are eager to flee from.” Being a Christian is an either/or life. We either live for Christ or we live for self.
Living for self never results in happiness. You would think by now we would know that, but the human heart is deceptive. What we need among us is a willingness to fight the good fight of faith. We need the Holy Spirit-enabled heart to stand for Christ and against sin. And we can do that by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. After all, it is his righteousness that saves, not our own.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/814cf761cfbe67bb-image-asset-kDHwhYfmb91uTqi2NiGSADoWuo2efW.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIn Romans 1-11, Paul explained the gospel in all its glory. In chapters 12 and 13, he shifted from gospel doctrine to gospel culture. Then, in chapter 14 he took all he’s explained already and applied it to one specific case to show how the gospel transforms the individual and the community at the same time. Paul shows how gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture.
1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” 12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
There is more than one reason Paul is writing this letter to the Roman church. One of those reasons is to explain to them how Christians of all backgrounds live with one another in unity. Specifically, he writes to help the Jews and Gentiles understand how to live in peace with one another while holding the truth of the gospel as of first importance. He wants to be sure the gospel isn’t mistaken for something less than what it is, and that the gospel creates a community that can expand to fit all kinds of backgrounds.
The issue here in Romans 14 is centered around the observance of the Torah. Some background makes this chapter clearer. The gospel spread to Rome after Jesus’ resurrection. Many Jews and Gentiles heard and believed. But we see in Acts 18:2 that the message of the gospel caused such a great disturbance in the synagogues that Claudius kicked the Jews out of Rome in A.D. 49. When the Jews returned to Rome in A.D. 54, they entered a church that was all Gentile. The Torah dietary laws were no longer observed, and that caused a problem for the Jews. So, Paul writes this letter to pastor them from afar.
Paul is bringing the gospel to bear on this disagreement between the “strong” (Gentile) and “weak” (Jew). The Jews are holding onto the food laws, while the Gentiles are ignoring them, as they’ve always done. Like so many other disagreements between Jew and Gentile in the Bible, the question is whether or not the Gentiles must become Jews in order to become Christians. His call is a call to welcome and to not quarrel over opinions. In the Kingdom of God, our opinions no longer matter. What God says matters. Ultimately, Romans, like the rest of the Bible, is about the lordship of Christ. He sets all the rules. We follow.
The argument is simple enough: since God has welcomed both parties, they should welcome one another. But we all know that simple solutions never work for sinful people. We always find a way to create a mountain out of a molehill. The danger, in this situation, is that the weak would pass judgment over the strong because the strong didn’t obey the Jewish food laws, and the strong would pass judgment over the weak because they were obeying an obsolete law.
Paul uses God’s justifying act of grace as the litmus test. Those whom God has welcomed, that is, those who are truly Christians, are to be welcomed by all. Disagreements over non-primary issues should be set aside for the sake of unity. After all, it is before God that each person will stand or fall, and the Lord alone is able to make him stand. In other words, on those non-primary issues we can live in peace and leave the matter of the conscience up to God. He is far more powerful to change a mind than we are, if he sees fit to do so.
“Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” This is the great hope of peaceful community. Each Christian has entrusted himself to the Lord. Therefore, every other Christian can do the same. Each person must be fully convinced, following his own conscience before God. For secondary and tertiary issues, what matters in the end is less the conclusion one comes to as the heart toward God as one decides. Is the purpose the glory of oneself or the glory of God?
As Douglas Moo says, “Divisions in the church over nonessentials diverts precious time and energy from its basic mission: the proclamation of the gospel and the glorifying of God.” Therefore, Christians are not to argue over every small thing but to give themselves wholly to God, showing how their life together displays Jesus’ preeminence. Jesus alone has the power to take a group of different people and unify them so deeply that they become one family. What God has joined together, let no man separate.
We see so clearly here how gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture. An understanding of the gospel leads to a change in the way we relate to one another. The order is important. Gospel doctrine comes first. If we don’t have gospel doctrine, we won’t have a gospel culture. We will have another culture, founded differently, with different values and meaning. And the gospel doctrine must be preached and taught and discussed at length all the time. There’s a reason Paul spends 11 chapters on the gospel and only 5 on culture in Romans. As Martin Luther said, “The gospel cannot be beaten into our ears enough or too much. Yes, though we learn it and understand it well, yet there is no one who takes hold of it perfectly or believes it with all his heart, so frail a thing is our flesh and disobedient to the Spirit.”
Ray Ortlund helps us understand how gospel doctrine leads to a gospel culture in his book, The Gospel.
A gospel culture is harder to lay hold of than gospel doctrine. It requires more relational wisdom and finesse. It involves stepping into a kind of community unlike anything we’ve experienced, where we happily live together on a love we can’t create. A gospel culture requires us not to bank on our own importance or virtues, but to forsake self-assurance and exult together in Christ alone…
The primary barrier to displaying the beauty of Jesus in our churches comes from the way we re-insert ourselves into that sacred center that belongs to him alone. Exalting ourselves always diminishes his visibility. That is why cultivating a gospel culture requires a profound, moment by moment “unselfing” by every one of us. It is personally costly, even painful…So much is set against us, within and without. But the triumph of the gospel in our churches is still possible, as we look to Christ alone. He will help us.
So many of our problems show up not at the level of doctrine but at the level of culture. We unsay with our culture what we say we believe with our doctrine. We have a personal fear, and we let that fear speak louder in our heart than the freedom found in Christ. So we make a choice to judge another over a small issue and separate ourselves from them as we sit and read Calvin’s Institutes. It’s very easy to have good doctrine and a bad culture because we never let the doctrine infect how we relate to others culturally. We short-circuit the power of the gospel when we refuse to welcome one another with the love of Christ.
And not one single bit of this is softness. Paul is not asking anyone to become lenient on the matter of doctrine. Doctrine matters! But he is asking all of us not to let our personal preferences overshadow the rock-solid truth of the gospel. It’s not that we need to adjust the gospel. We all need to adjust to the gospel. As Ray Ortlund says, “Jesus is all the Savior anyone will ever need. He is our tree of Life. He is enough to keep us alive forever, and he is freely available to everyone on the same basis.”
13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. 16 So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
Foregoing judgment on non-primary issues is serving Christ because in doing so you are serving his people. We all have so many stumbling blocks in coming to the gospel. We trip over our own feet as we approach the altar. The more hindrances others place in front of us along the way, the harder it will be to get to Jesus. What we must do is not build new obstacles but to take a sledge hammer to the existing ones. The goal of Christian community should be to destroy anything that would stand in the way of another brother or sister in Christ from getting to Jesus. We do not have to agree on everything to create this loving environment. We only have to agree on one thing: the truth of the gospel. Andrew Wilson recently made an observation on Twitter that helps us understand this passage. He pointed out that we see Paul write elsewhere on two occasions the phrase, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” First, in Galatians 5:9, Paul uses this phrase for people saying something is essential when it isn’t. Second, in 1 Corinthians 5:6, he uses it for people denying something is essential when it is. Both cases are problematic. So, we must be sure we know what is essential, and what isn’t. We need to be able to do theological triage to discern what we should hold with a closed hand and what we should hold with an open hand.
So, here we must remember the gospel that Paul preached in Romans 1-11. We must remember that everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and that everyone in Christ has been freely justified by his work, not our own. It is the grace of God that saves. If grace, then it cannot be by works, otherwise grace would not be grace. Only then can we all seek to stand firmly in the grace of the gospel every time we meet. Let us not judge one another over nonessentials. Let us welcome. If we are to judge at all, let us judge whether we are placing a stumbling block in another’s way.
But how can we do theological triage? A good starting place is the Bible itself. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as you read, to give you insight to behold the gospel. We can also look to the historic creeds such as the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed, where the essential doctrines are laid out for us. We should also look to our church doctrinal statement, or statement of belief.
Michael Bird helps us by giving five helpful principles. First, learn to differentiate between areas of conviction and areas of command. Second, don’t major on minor doctrines or minor on major doctrines. Third, exercise your convictions to build others up, not to tear them down. Fourth, do not exchange freedom in Christ for slavery to human tradition. Fifth, in all times act in love and carry each other’s burdens.
The goal is to walk in love, as Paul outlines in verse 15. If another is grieved by what you eat, you are not walking in love. That means we should care what the other person feels when we do something that we know is against their conscience. Even if our conscience is free, we set aside our desires for the good of the other person. Isn’t that what Jesus did for us? He set aside his glory to humble himself in the form of a servant. He took on skin to veil his radiance and live the life we should have lived to die the death we don’t want to die and save us from our sins. If Jesus was willing to do that, can we not give up one meal for the sake of another? Must we always win, even in the small things?
“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Paul’s words here are so clarifying. He’s gospel-centered through and through. He lets nothing get in the way of the gospel mission they’re all on. We love to argue. We love to set up tribes, or camps, or factions, separating ourselves from those with different opinions over small matters. But Jesus did not come and die for such nonsense. He came and died to save sinners and unify his people. How were you brought into the kingdom? By eating the right thing and observing the right day? Or by the shed blood of Christ on the cross, re-coagulated in the risen King? If you were brought in by his grace, welcome others brought in the same door. Welcome, and do not cast out. Whoever does this serves Christ and finds approval from other men (v. 18).
Splitting over small matters destroys the work of God (v. 20). We are given the stewardship from God to either create a beautiful community of unity or to establish pillars of our own self-righteousness. God is an includer. We are excluders. But Christ can change us into includers. He can re-direct our hearts. He can change us. But if he doesn’t change our convictions over what we eat or drink (or our view of baptism or any other non-primary issue), we must do what is in accordance with our conscience before God. We must be men who walk in faith because faith matters above all. The heart with which we approach God matters to God, and he will accept us or reject us based on the way in which we come to him.
We see this most clearly in verse 23. “But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” This is such a sweeping statement. Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin in that whatever is not done out of a willing heart submitted openly to God is sin for the person doing it. How can we then know if what we’re doing is sin? When so many freedoms are available, how can we be sure we’re doing the right thing? Here’s how. How do you feel before God about it? Can you partake with joy, or do you feel guilt or shame as a result? If you can’t thank God for the goodness of it out of a heart devoted to him, then you should not do it. Find something else to do. In sum, we all have our differences, but one thing remains above all: do everything you do with an open heart to God. He will fill it up. Remove the barrier and let his grace fall in.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/11c76dcad9931e69-image-asset-ngttnrWpd9GQgUm6sgzbrF04pRT3cb.jpeg\")
\n \n\nMichael Bird says, “I like to think of Romans 15:1-13 as Paul’s graduating address for readers going through the ‘Christ College’ of 12:1-15:13.” The first 13 verses do feel very much that way. Paul is wrapping up what the gospel culture he’s been expounding. Then, in the second half of chapter 15, he is explaining more his reasoning for writing to the Romans and gives us valuable insight into his mission and how that impacts our mission.
1 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.” 10 And again it is said, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” 11 And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.” 12 And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.” 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Paul puts the burden of building and maintaining gospel culture on the shoulders of the strong. He is not excusing the weak. He’s simply telling the strong that they set the tone. They should bear the failings of the weak. In this instance, he’s referring to the “strong” Gentiles who enjoy the freedom in Christ to eat all foods and ignore Jewish festival days, and to the “weak” Jews who still follow the Torah laws. Paul is not calling the strong merely to tolerate the weak. He’s telling them to indulge them at the expense of themselves. They should bend over backward for them precisely because they understand freedom in Christ.
And what are the grounds for such a command? Jesus Christ himself. His work of humility is the foundation and power from which the strong can draw from. Paul uses Psalm 69:9 as proof of Jesus bearing the failings of the weak, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” As the strong bend down to help the weak, they replay the humility of Christ bending down to help us all. Their death to preference leads to new life for those for whom they die. That’s the power of the gospel. It frees us from our personal likings and comforts to serve others with love beyond this earth. To do this is to fulfill the command of Paul in verse 2, “Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.” A gospel culture knows nothing of pithy putdowns and mindless insults. It knows much of humble service and gospel encouragement.
We can only go so far in our own power. A car cannot run without fuel, but the car cannot create the fuel. Likewise, we cannot run without the fuel of the Holy Spirit, but we cannot create the fuel. God must give himself. And the good news of the gospel is that he has, and he does, and he will continue to do so. He does this in a variety of ways. One way is through the reading of the scriptures. Paul gives us insight into how he read the Bible and how he expects us to read as well in verse 4. “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The Bible is not just a historical record. It is a historical record leading us to the living God. We can look to it to find instruction on how to live as holy people. Furthermore, we can find in it encouragement and hope. How is this so?
The Bible is our primary source for the workings of God throughout history. And we know that living the Christian life is a high calling. Jesus did not rise from the grave to give us a mediocre existence. He rose from the grave to give us his best. But his best is hard for us to hold in our two hands. We lose our way. We get sidetracked and confused. So, God in his grace gave us the Bible to help in times of need. We have before us all the information the God of the universe deemed good for us to know. We would be foolish to ignore it. We would be wise to search it. Scripture endures. Scripture encourages. Scripture gives us hope. When it gets hard to live the Christian life, we can turn to the Scriptures to find the supreme example of humility in the person of Jesus Christ. We can see what he did and what he gives to find the strength we need to build a gospel culture that radiates Christ’s beauty.
In all this, Paul has one goal he’s striving toward. It’s the same goal the entire Bible is striving toward: the glory of God. Paul prays the first prayer since Romans 1:9-12. He prays that God would give them the endurance and encouragement to live in harmony with one another so that with one voice they may glorify God. He’s not praying that they would all learn to think alike but that they would all learn to love alike with the aim of glorifying God. Despite all our differences in ethnicity, race, culture, age, etc. God is uniting his people so that the sound coming from the church building throughout the world is the song of praise of the glory of his grace. It is one voice singing to one God who has made his varied people one people in his Son.
The glorious reality we have walked into when we came into Christ is the reality that in him we are welcomed completely. Jesus has welcomed us, and he calls us to welcome all his people. “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” The word Paul chose to use for “welcome” is the image of pressing into the heart. When another Christian walks into our church, our response should be to press that person into our heart. We accept them wholly, as Christ has accepted us. Can you imagine the beauty that would radiate from the community if that was the default reaction? How can the world ignore that?
After all, the work of Jesus benefited the whole word. It is fitting, therefore, that the whole world would see his glory. Paul uses several Old Testament scriptures to prove this point. The gospel was preached throughout the scriptures—the plan was always to bring the Gentiles in. Paul wrote this letter to the church in Rome filled with Gentiles. As Paul looks back over the Old Testament, he sees the fulfillment of God’s promises and this church is proof. Think of the joy that must have filled his heart? That’s why he prays in verse 13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” The Christian life leads to abounding hope. We serve and follow a God of hope that gives out joy and peace to his children. The path all in Christ are walking down is one that leads to an abundance of happiness. And the more people included, the happier it is.
Community is hard. A joyful and peaceful community is even harder. But God can create it through the gospel. And that’s why Paul is writing this letter. He aims to join Jew and Gentile. Michael Bird gives us a vivid illustration of how this may have looked.
Imagine a group of Gentile Christians in Rome, perhaps a mixture of slaves and artisans, sitting at the back of a leather-worker’s shop one night, huddled around a candle, singing a hymn, recounting their day, and sharing what little food they had. One of the slaves is a scribe and is able to read from a notebook a few verses from Psalm 69. Then in walks Herodion, a Jewish freedman, who had returned to Rome from Alexandria some weeks ago. Herodian turns to Rufus, the leader of the house church, and says, “greetings and peace.” Rufus has not seen Herodion for six years and when they had last met there had been a ferocious debate about drinking wine. Herodion had visited Rufus’s shop to explain why drinking pagan wine was wrong; it was defiled by its use in libations, so God-worshipers must avoid it or risk God’s judgment. Rufus wasn’t convinced and Herodion stormed off cursing Rufus and his pagan drink.
Now, however, Rufus looks at Herodion; he looks weak and malnourished. Perhaps his master has cast him out for his Christian faith. Everyone in the group looks at Rufus to see what he will do. Rufus rises, kisses Herodion on the cheek, sits him down, and gives him some bread and a few turnips and pour him a cup of water. He looks at Herodion and says, “Eat! For we all belong to the same Lord.” That is why Paul wrote Romans.
14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. 15 But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. 18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; 20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, 21 but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”
22 This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. 23 But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, 24 I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. 25 At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. 26 For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. 27 For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. 28 When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. 29 I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.
30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, 31 that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. 33 May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Despite what we may be led to believe about the health of this community, Paul is actually satisfied with them. He recognizes that they are “full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.” He gives them credit where credit is due. But Paul has a reason for writing this letter, and we are now about to see that more clearly. Paul has not held back on saying hard things. He’s an apostle, after all. But he said these things as reminders, not as new information. Paul did not plant this church nor he has visited them. But he plans to come soon, and when he does, it will be the launch pad for his next phase of ministry.
He is living out the grace that Jesus gave him. That grace manifests itself in three actions: (1) Paul is a minster of Jesus to the Gentiles, (2) he has a priestly duty to preach the gospel, and (3) he brings the offering of the Gentiles to God. This is Paul’s ministry: to take the gospel to the Gentiles, pressing the heart of God to the edges of the world.
Paul is an ambitious man. That’s a phrase that sounds anti-gospel. Paul says elsewhere he boasts only in Christ, showing humility. How can he be both ambitious and humble? Paul is ambitious in the right way. He is ambitious for the Lord’s sake. He is jealous for the glory of God. His heart burns for the gospel to go forth into the world and change lives.
Paul looks to Isaiah 52:15 for both confirmation of his ministry and encouragement to continue his ministry. “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.” In context, Isaiah is talking about the Servant being announced before the world, leaving them without words at his glory. The engine the powers Paul’s life is the glory of God going out to the nations. His goal is to preach to those who have not yet heard, but he can’t do that without also preaching to those who have heard.
In verse 24, we see that Paul’s plan is to go to Spain. Spain had a very small number of Jews and no Christians. So, preaching the gospel in Spain is, in Paul’s mind, to take the gospel to the edges of the world. Isaiah talks about the coastlands and islands hearing the good news. Paul aims to fulfill that Scripture, but he needs the Romans’ help.
But before Paul can go to Spain, he must go to Jerusalem. He is bringing an offering to the Jews there who desperately need it. And this is more than just a simply offering. This is an offering from the Gentiles. We see this in Acts 24:17. As Michael Bird says, “The collection was more than mere charity; it was symbolic for the reciprocal unity of common fellowship that Paul has sketched out in Romans 3-4, 9-11, and 14:1-15:13.” Paul’s life bears witness to his message: the gospel has the power to break down all walls that divide us. Jesus’ good news is big enough to cover any bad news we can muster.
Paul then asks for prayer in verse 30-33. Like any missionary, he needs the prayers of others. Specifically, he requests prayer for deliverance from unbelievers in Judea and that his service for Jerusalem would be accepted. These two things going well will provide an easy transition to Rome. We know from history that Paul did eventually make it to Rome but not in the way he wanted. He was arrested in Judea because of the Jews. This seems like an unanswered prayer until we realize that this arrest likely saved him from the death the Jews were planning (Acts 22-28). The offering was accepted (Acts 24:17), however. And he did finally make it to Rome, although not in the joy and anticipated refreshment he had hoped. He went instead in chains, bound to a guard that heard the gospel from him (Acts 28:13). You can imprison Paul’s body, but you can’t imprison his message. He never made it to Spain, but the gospel made it beyond those shores, and one of the ways was through the writing of Paul, especially the book of Romans.
There is much to be gained from a study of the history of Paul’s life, and the history of the other New Testament authors and first-century missionaries. But to learn from their history should move us to action. N.T. Wright puts it powerfully, “Just as the principle and ultimate goal of all historical work on J.S. Bach ought to be a more sensitive and intelligent performance of his music, so the principle and ultimate goal of all historical work on the New Testament ought to be a more sensitive and intelligent practice of Christian mission and discipleship.”
Jim Eliot understood this missionary heart, and he did something about it. He left and shared the gospel with those who had never heard. When asked why he didn’t stay at home and preach there, he replied,
You wonder why people choose fields away from the States when young people at home are drifting because no one wants to take time to listen to their problems. I’ll tell you why I left. Because those Stateside young people have every opportunity to study, hear and understand the Word of God in their own language, and these Indians have no opportunity whatsoever. I have had to make a cross of two logs, and lie down on it, to show the Indians what it means to crucify a man. When there is that much ignorance over here and so much knowledge and opportunity over there, I have no question in my mind why God sent me here. Those whimpering Stateside young people will wake up on the Day of Judgment condemned to worse fates than these demon-fearing Indians, because, having a Bible, they were bored with it, while these never heard of such a thing as writing.
God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.
Paul didn’t write Romans to merely make us feel better. He wrote Romans to spur us to action. He wrote Romans so we would, by the power of the gospel, break down dividing walls and unite as one people for one purpose: the glory of God. Paul wrote Romans to get to Spain. It could be said, as N.T. Wright has put it, “One of the most important lessons in Romans 15 might be put thus: God allowed Paul to dream of Spain in order that he might write Romans.” Paul’s desire to journey to Spain via Rome gave the world the most theologically rich book ever written. The book of Romans is proof that God works all things for the good of those who love him, even when we the path we planned seems to have been erased. You can bind a man in chains, but you cannot bind his message.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/53bd76aaf0fa4b99-image-asset-EdeCWGB1TW91mUQPYQntCdsuq8iyHU.jpeg\")
\n \n\nPaul is nearly finished with his letter to the Romans. Before he signs off for good, he sends some greetings and a final exhortation.
1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, 2 that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.
3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. 5 Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. 6 Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. 7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. 8 Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. 9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. 10 Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. 11 Greet my kinsman Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. 12 Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. 13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. 14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. 15 Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. 16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.
Paul’s list of greetings begins with a commendation of Phoebe, the one bringing this letter to the Roman Church. As the messenger between these two parties, she’s serves a very important role. This is all the more amazing because of the social status of women during this time. Paul obviously has great trust in her. Christianity does not knock women down, it lifts them up. Just as there is unity between Jews and Gentiles, so also the genders find common ground beneath the cross of Christ.
In fact, Paul includes several women in his list, all of them helpful to him in ministry. Phoebe is a deacon and Paul’s benefactor (v.1). Prisca is a co-worker who risked her neck for the sake of Paul (v. 3). Mary works hard on the behalf of others (v. 6). Junia is a fellow Jew and prisoner (v. 7). Tryphaena, Tryphosa, and Persis are women who work hard in the Lord. Finally, the mother of Rufus cares for others with motherly affection (v. 13). All of these women were not to be looked down upon but to be elevated for their service and sacrifice to Paul and the rest of the church. The bottom line: women have a tremendous role to play in the life of the church!
Aside from this observation, it’s hard to know what to do with a catalog of people in the Bible. We don’t know most of them beyond this record, and even if we do, we know very little. But a list like this does show us two things. First, there is great diversity in the Kingdom of God. Second, there is great affection among the great diversity in the kingdom of God.
First, there is great diversity in the Kingdom of God: slaves, women, Gentiles, Jews, people of prominence, and those of low status. Paul refers to as many as five different house churches, all composed of various types of people. The gospel is not for one segment but for all. God intends to save people of all walks of life, all races, all ethnicities, all social statuses.
Second, there is great affection among the great diversity in the Kingdom of God. Paul urges them to greet one another with a holy kiss. Paul is urging them to welcome one another intimately. They are not to act cold toward one another. We don’t kiss often in church today, but the point is to greet one another warmly.
As we saw throughout Romans 12-15, Paul shows how gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture. How we interact with one another shows what we believe about how God acts toward us. Francis Schaeffer said,
Now, if we are called upon to love our neighbor as ourselves when he is not a Christian, how much more should there be beauty in the relationships between true Bible-believing Christians, something so beautiful that the world would be brought up short! We must hold our distinctives. Some of us are Baptists; some of us hold to infant baptism; some of us are Lutheran, and so on. But to true Bible-believing Christians across all the lines, in all the camps, I emphasize: if we do not show beauty in the way we treat each other, then in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of our own children, we are destroying the truth we proclaim.... My favorite church in Acts and, I guess, in all of history is the church at Antioch.... It was a place where something new happened: the great, proud Jews who despised the Gentiles ... came to a break-through. They could not be silent. They told their Gentile neighbors about the gospel, and suddenly, on the basis of the blood of Christ and the truth of the Word of God, the racial thing was solved. There were Jewish Christians and there were Gentile Christians, and they were one! ... The church at Antioch on the basis of the blood of Christ encompassed the whole. There was a beauty that the Greek and the Roman world did not know—and the world looked.
The diverse church shows the world what only God can do—that the gospel has the power to break down walls and reconcile the unreconcilable. Like a master weaver, God applies the good news to our hearts individually and entwine it with a community of believers to create the most beautiful fabric.
That beautiful fabric praises God with one voice and brings heaven down to earth so that even outsiders can see it and feel it. When a church so diverse praises God so mightily no brother or sister in Christ is an outsider. Everyone belongs and everyone sees the glory of God. Malcolm Muggeridge talks about this kind of experience in Russia.
In Kiev, where I found myself on a Sunday morning, on an impulse I turned into a church where a service was in progress. It was packed tight, but I managed to squeeze myself against a pillar whence I could survey the congregation and look up at the altar. Young and old, peasants and townsmen, parents and children, even a few in uniform—it was a variegated assembly. The bearded priests, swinging their incense, intoning their prayers, seemed very remote and far away. Never before or since have I participated in such worship; the sense conveyed of turning to God in great affliction was overpowering. Though I could not, of course, follow the service, I knew little bits of it; for instance, where the congregation say there is no help for them save from God. What intense feeling they put into these words! In their minds, I knew, as in mine, was a picture of those desolate abandoned villages, of the hunger and the hopelessness, of the cattle trucks being loaded with humans in the dawn light. Where were they to turn for help? Not to the Kremlin, and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, certainly; nor to the forces of progress and democracy and enlightenment in the West.... Every possible human agency found wanting. So, only God remained, and to God they turned with a passion, a dedication, a humility, impossible to convey. They took me with them. I felt closer to God then than I ever had before, or am likely to again.
17 I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. 18 For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. 19 For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. 21 Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen. 22 I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. 23 Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you.
Paul wants to end his letter now, but one more topic rises to his mind. He wants to warn them of wolves who come in among the sheep and scatter. Those who cause divisions and create obstacles are to be avoided. They serve themselves, not the Lord. The problem is they seem holy. They look like they want what the Lord wants. They use religious language and do religious things. But their heart is far from God because they seek to scatter what he has gathered.
It’s not easy to spot this. But Paul exhorts the Romans to be on guard. As long as we live in this world, we will encounter those who come into the church to destroy the church. He is not calling for a witch hunt. He’s calling for wisdom and gospel-centeredness. Most people don’t need to be thrown out for bad doctrine. They just need to be taught. But there are some who are unteachable and instead seek to teach others another message altogether. Colin Smith gives a simple checklist to recognize counterfeit Christianity:
All it takes is one person to ruin the entire church. What might this look like? Ray Ortlund helps us see in an article he entitled “How to Wreck Your Church in Three Weeks.”
Week One: Walk into church today and think about how long you’ve been a member, how much you’ve sacrificed, how under-appreciated you are. Take note of every way you’re dissatisfied with your church now. Take note of every person who displeases you. Meet for coffee this week with another member and “share your heart.” Discuss how your church is changing, how you are being left out. Ask your friend who else in the church has “concerns.” Agree together that you must “pray about it.”
Week Two: Send an email to a few other “concerned” members. Inform them that a groundswell of grievance is surfacing in your church. Problems have gone unaddressed for too long. Ask them to keep the matter to themselves “for the sake of the body.” As complaints come in, form them into a petition to demand an accounting from the leaders of the church. Circulate the petition quietly. Gathering support will be easy. Even happy members can be used if you appeal to their sense of fairness – that your side deserves a hearing. Be sure to proceed in a way that conforms to your church constitution, so that your petition is procedurally correct.
Week Three: When the growing moral fervor, ill-defined but powerful, reaches critical mass, confront the elders with your demands. Inform them of all the woundedness in the church, which leaves you with no choice but to put your petition forward. Inform them that, for the sake of reconciliation, the concerns of the body must be satisfied.
Whatever happens from this point on, you have won. You have changed the subject in your church from gospel advance to your own grievances. To some degree, you will get your way. Your church will need three or four years for recovery. But at any future time, you can do it all again. It only takes three weeks.
Wolves don’t always come in with the heretic badge hanging out of their front pocket. Often, they appear normal, they know their Bible and seem religious, but what they say and do is not gospel-soaked or forgiveness-driven. They aren’t Jesus-exalting. They’re self-promoting. In Acts 20:29-31, Paul calls the Ephesian elders to alertness, saying, “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.”
25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— 27 to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.
Paul finally comes to the end of his letter, and what an end it is! He ends in prayer for God’s strength. That strength is the gospel. After all, the gospel is the power of God for salvation to all who believe. The gospel is the revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We are not longer waiting on our Messiah. He has arrived and accomplished the work of salvation. Now we await the final resurrection. We wouldn’t have thought of this. Only God could. He alone is wise. To him be the glory forever.
As Isaac Watts wrote:
To God the only wise,
Our Saviour and our King,
Let all the saints below the skies
Their humble praises bring.
’Tis His almighty love,
His counsel, and His care,
Preserves us safe from sin and death,
And every hurtful snare.
He will present our souls
Unblemished and complete
Before the glory of His face,
With joys divinely great.
Then all His faithful sons
Shall meet around the throne,
Shall bless the conduct of His grace,
And make His wonders known.
To our Redeemer, God
Wisdom and power belongs,
Immortal crowns of majesty,
And everlasting songs.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/1840689235f4566f-image-asset-mRgBlCd9FpqucYVAb0cALr0mLNHAEU.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIn Romans 10, Paul continues his discussion of Israel’s place in the Kingdom of God now that Christ has come. How does Israel, and all their privileges and promises, fit into the story line? The Gentiles are being saved and brought into God’s Kingdom by faith in Jesus Christ. But Israel seems to be ignorant that the covenant promises have been fulfilled in Jesus. They’re still clinging to the law, pursuing righteousness through it. What is happening? What must Israel do? Paul uses the Old Testament as the building blocks for his argument. Paul is a biblical theologian. He understands how to read the Bible through the Jesus lens, and in so doing, highlights both the problems with Israel’s self-understanding and the remedy for salvation in Christ.
30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
God saves Gentiles as Gentiles. They do not have to become Jews to become Christians. And that is difficult for the Jews. As a theocratic nation, Israel was sent into the world to be a light to the world. Anyone could come in, but they must come into the Jewish culture as well. But now God is bringing the Gentiles into his kingdom without first initiating them into the nation of Israel.
Israel continued to pursue righteousness through obedience to the law. They refused to see the other option available to them: justification by faith. Paul shows that the Gentiles have attained righteousness even though they did not pursue the law, because pursuing the law doesn't matter if you seek it the wrong way. Israel pursued the law thinking they could obey it and through their obedience, God would grant righteousness. The law is good, but men are bad. Bad men can never fully obey a good law. Sin gets in the way. But the Gentiles, who made no attempt to come under the law, are now coming into the Kingdom of God and attaining righteousness. How? By faith. God set forth Jesus as the fulfillment of the law that led to righteousness. But Israel stumbled over him.
Paul quotes Isaiah 28:16 in verse 33. In context, this passage speaks of salvation in the aftermath of judgment. God is placing a stone in the midst of his people that outsiders will stumble on. But whoever believes in this stone will not be put to shame. It is those who don’t believe who are put to shame. Fast-forward 400 years and here is Israel receiving the stone and stumbling all over it. The same rock that Israel is stumbling over is the same rock that is saving the Gentiles. As Michael Bird says, “The root of Israel’s failure is Christological; their failure to believe in their own Messiah has caused their current misstep. As such Israel’s tragedy is that they have stumbled over the very source of their salvation and have taken offense at what could save them from shame.”
John Piper helps us understand a vital point that Paul is making.
\"Here in Romans 9:30–10:10 Paul goes a long way to answering why Israel has rejected her Messiah, Jesus Christ. One explanation which he rejects decisively is that Christ and the law are at odds with each other. That is, he repudiates the notion that Jews rejected Jesus because they were faithful to the law, while Christ contradicted the law. The explanation Paul puts forward is that Israel had misunderstood and therefore misused the law so that when Christ, the goal and fulfillment of the law, arrived, they also misunderstood and misused him. Christ was rejected precisely because he stood for the true meaning of the law, not because he differed so much from it.\"
Paul uses the Old Testament as his foundation for his argument. First, he references Leviticus 18:5 in verse 5. “You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.” In context, Moses is talking about not living like the Egyptians or Canaanites but like the children of God. God’s law gave life both now and into the future. But humans are unable to fulfill the law. Sin always gets in the way. It gives the conditions for life but not the power to live. So, how then do we get the power to obey?
Paul answers this question by quoting Deuteronomy 30:11-14. “This commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, \"Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?\" Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, \"Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?\" But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.”
The word very near to you is the gospel. Paul says as much in verses 8 and 9, immediately after quoting from Deuteronomy. “But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.\" The righteousness needed for justification before God always came from God's gift of obedience, not from human ability to obey.
The problem was a misappropriation of the law. God never intended for the righteousness of his people to be obtained by pursuing the law but by pursuing God through the law. In other words, it’s not the obedience to the law that justified but the faith in the God who gives the law that justifies. Deuteronomy 30:6, just a few verses earlier, helps us see this truth. \"The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.\" It has always been God’s gift of a new heart that has given us the ability to obey from the heart. The commandment is not too hard because God in grace has given the word we need in the person of Jesus Christ, sent down from heaven to live among us. Obedience is not too hard because even though Jesus is now back in heaven with the Father, he did not leave us as orphans. He has poured out the Holy Spirit to dwell within his people, granting the power to obey.
But because the Jews twisted the law from a pointer to God into a ladder to God, when Christ appeared, Israel stumbled over him because they had always stumbled over the law. Jesus was not stepping outside the law to overrule it but stepping inside of it to fulfill it. Now, Christ has both fulfilled the law and given his righteousness to his people. He has not ended the law in that it is terminated or removed or abolished but that he is the goal and climax of it. Jesus ended the law by filling up all the requirements of it on our behalf because of the love he has for us. The only thing remaining is to accept it.
There are basically two ways to live. The righteousness based on the law looks to obedience to God’s law for okayness. The righteousness based on faith looks to Christ and his obedience to God’s law for okayness.
We have two options: make it on our own or accept God's help. The answer, at this point, is obvious. But how exactly do we accept the offer of Jesus? Paul tells us in verse 9. \"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.\" To confess with your mouth is to publically identify with Jesus. To believe in your heart is to be fully convinced of the gospel. This is what it means to be a Christian: to identify with Christ and believe in his gospel—to accept the lordship of Christ and receive his grace. With the heart, we believe and are set right with God. With the mouth, we confess and are set free from the rule of sin.
For whom, then, is this message? Who can get in on this? Romans 9 shows us that, ultimately, this is God's decision. He chooses to whom he will show mercy. We cannot see inside his choice. He chooses people over every tribe, nation, and tongue. His mercy extends to all the earth. Therefore, Paul can say in verse 11 that \"everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.\" This is not a new revelation. Paul is quoting the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 28:16) and applying it to his current audience comprised of Jew and Gentile. He circles back to a statement he made in 3:22, that there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. All have fallen into sin, and all are saved by grace. The same Jesus is Lord of all. Everyone who calls on his name will be saved.
The gospel is an explosive message in every age. Writing this to Romans living under the strong hand of Emporer Nero, this statement is enough to condemn them to death. It was against the Roman law to proclaim another King other than Nero. But that’s what Jesus is. He’s a king—the King of kings—and he will not be removed from his throne.
That's better news when we consider that the greatest threat to our coming to God is not a Roman Empire but the Prideful Self. We are our own greatest enemy. How good it is then that we have a God who can overcome our own heart! Believing the gospel is more than just agreeing with the premise; it is being confident in God’s work, not in our work. This isn’t too hard for us because it’s God’s work for us given to us and worked within us.
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” 19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” 20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” 21 But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
The gospel is the most important message ever sent into the world. All it takes to have our sinful soul saved for eternity is to call upon Jesus. But how will people call on him if they have not believed? And how will they believe if they have not heard of him? And how will they hear of him if no one is sent to preach the gospel to them?
It is not that Israel did not hear the words of the gospel. They were privileged beyond all others. They experienced God in their midst. They were recipients of his covenantal promises. But none of that mattered because they now refused to believe in Jesus whom God has sent to fulfill those promises. They would rather cling to the law from Saini than bow to the Savior at the cross. Paul preaches to Jews as Isaiah once did, to a disobedient and contrary people. But Paul’s heart does not deaden. It still rages within and compels him to plead with his Jewish family to come to Christ.
The great need of our day, and of every day, is to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. We should never stop pressing the gospel outward and onward. But we also must recognize that there are many among us who have not heard the message of the gospel. There is a kind of hearing that Paul is talking about here. It's not merely intellectual ascent. Lots of people intellectually understand the gospel. Rather, Paul is talking about the kind of hearing that penetrates the heart. He's talking about obeying the gospel, as he says in verse 16. We often think of obedience only concerning the law, but the gospel is something to be obeyed as well. To obey the gospel, we must obey Jesus Christ.
Jesus did not leave his throne in heaven to take the form of a baby, endure a life of suffering in righteousness, be rejected by men, die upon a cross, rise from the grave, and ascend back to heaven to await his second coming so that we could look at his message and have a nice, warm feeling in our heart that we’re loved. We may have that nice, warm feeling. In fact, we should feel the gospel goodness. But if it is only that then we’ve not obeyed the gospel. You can feel loved without doing anything in response to that love. But that’s not a life change, and the gospel is a life-changing event.
Jesus gave up his glory to put on skin so that we could become more than long-distance loved ones. He accomplished his work to call us into righteousness. He finished his work to give us a new life. To obey the gospel is to follow Jesus wholeheartedly. It is to forsake all earthly treasures for the joy of gaining eternal riches in Christ. It is smashing the idols of our hearts to lift up the Lord of Life. It is mortifying the sin we love to savor the Savior. Hearing the gospel is nothing unless we obey the gospel. We must follow him. We must come to him. We must lay down all our righteousness and allow him to put his robe on our shoulders.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/1f773d41eea68d9d-image-asset-DU2cSvAfCEh7WozkH8rR3OTLWJ2Z5D.jpeg\")
\n \n\nSo much of the Bible is about Israel’s past. When we get to the New Testament, the story line shifts to focus on the Gentiles. But the Jews are still around, mostly causing problems. How then does Israel’s future fit into the plan of God? Paul takes up this question in Romans 11.
1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” 4 But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” 9 And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; 10 let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”
Paul poses the question, has God rejected his people? The answer is, by no means! What’s the proof? Paul himself. Paul is a Jew who has become a Christian. Therefore, it cannot be that God has rejected all his people, even if some are rejecting Jesus. Paul is Exhibit A that God still has grace for some Jews.
God preserves a remnant in every age from Israel. In verse 2, Paul quotes from both Psalm 94:14 and 1 Samuel 12:22, which make the same point with similar wording. God has not rejected his people. Paul adds “whom he foreknew” to show that God’s preservation of his people is his preservation with those children of Abraham that are inheritors of the promise, according to Romans 8-9. It is his chosen number that is preserved. In this age, it is no different. God keeps his people.
Paul identifies with Elijah, whom he quotes in verses 3-4, referencing 1 Kings 19. Elijah was a prophet in Israel. Queen Jezebel drove him out of Israel after his showdown with the prophets of Baal. In his distress, Elijah believed he was the only faithful Israelite remaining. But God told him there were seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. By grace, there was a faithful remnant, even if Elijah could not yet see them. It was so in the days of Elijah, and it was so in the days of Paul. It is so in our day as well.
But not all of Israel has believed. Many have rejected Jesus. They sought righteousness but put righteousness to death when they crucified Christ. Those who rejected him were hardened. Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 29:4 and Isaiah 29:10 in verse 8. These passages, with the same meaning and wording, give biblical precedent for Paul’s statement of hardening. Psalm 69:22-23, which Paul quotes in verse 10 makes the same point. Israel has rejected God. Therefore, their hearts are hardened. Even when the Messiah shows up on their doorstep, they reject him (Luke 4:24). In their disobedience to God, they did not just remain the same but drifted further and further from God. They became immune to God’s word because they refused to listen to it. The references to Deuteronomy and Isaiah are the Bible’s anticipation of what Paul is now witnessing. Israel has so closed her ears to God that they can’t hear him when he speaks to them in the flesh inside their own homes. This blindness and deafness are a judgment on their unbelief.
But the remnant remains, and it’s all due to God’s mercy and grace. He remains faithful to his people, the children of Abraham. What Paul is talking about throughout this passage is God’s unconditional election. It is not the works of Israel that will save them, and it’s not their lack of works that will condemn them. It is the divine election of God that will save them, just as it is for the Gentiles. The remnant is preserved because God preserves them. It is not according to works. It is according to grace. Paul is proof.
11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!
13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 16 If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.
The Israelites have failed to obtain righteousness through the law. And their rejection of Jesus Christ as their long-awaited Messiah only piles more trespass on top of their growing mound of sin. But what is the future for Israel? Will they always stay outside God’s kingdom or will God do something to woo them back to himself?
Paul tells us that through Israel’s trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles. That makes Israel jealous, and that’s a good thing. Why? Because when the Jews see the Gentiles enjoying the benefits of their blessings, they will be roused to jealousy and come back to the Lord. In God’s grace, this will lead not to jealousy on the other side, but joy for the Gentiles. If Israel, the receiver of God’s promises, sinned and failed, and through that God brought the Gentiles in, how many more amazing things will happen as a result of God saving the Jews? When the prodigals come home, they’ll find a Father with open arms, and the Jews and the Gentiles will enjoy the party afterward. Because of this, it cannot be true that God’s purpose for Israel’s stumbling was their permanent fall into destruction but a temporary fall so that the Gentiles might be brought in. It's impossible for us to understand how it all works, but in God's economy, the ledgers always balance.
Speaking of the Gentiles, Paul turns his attention to them in verse 13. He wants to ensure that they do not become boastful. Just because the Jews have stumbled and the Gentiles have come in does not mean that they are now superior. The Gentiles have the present and the future, but the Jews have the whole shebang: past, present, and future.
Furthermore, if Israel’s loss is the Gentiles’ gain, what will be the super-gain when Israel succeeds in coming to Christ? When Israel comes to Christ, the only proper metaphor Paul can come up with is resurrection. “For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?”
Resurrection is a fitting metaphor. Whether Jew or Gentile, we are all dead in our trespasses and sins. We need not a coach to help us reach our potential but a Savior to bring us back from the dead. Paul warns the Gentiles in verses 17-24 not to be arrogant as if they brought themselves into the kingdom. If God brings in outsiders, such as themselves, he can surely bring back insiders who made themselves outsiders through their sin. Gentile inclusion doesn’t mean Israel has been replaced as much as it means the Gentiles have been added to the foundation already laid. They were not the first to receive God’s grace, so they shouldn’t act like it. It was the promise God made to Abraham, the father of the Jews, which led to Gentile inclusion. So, Gentile, remember your fathers and praise the Father that he remembers them too.
“So do not become proud, but fear,” Paul says. He then makes four conditional statements. The danger here is that the Gentiles will do the same thing the Israelites have done. Namely, they will become boastful of their salvation and as a result, lose the foundation of their salvation. Their pride will harden their hearts, and they will forget the grace that saved them. We humans have a tendency to make humbling doctrines into grounds for boasting in ourselves. The Gentiles (and we today) must be aware of that danger and flee from it. We did not save ourselves. God saved us on the coattails of the Jews.
John Piper helps us see the intensity of this passage. “The central concern here is: ‘Do not become proud.’ Do not boast over the broken off branches. Do not speak of unbelieving Israel in a way that exalts you. Speak of them in a way that shows you tremble with fear and awe at the freedom of God’s grace in saving you. Don’t be proud, but fear — stand in trembling awe that you are saved by mercy alone.”
This naturally leads to the question of how the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints fits into this passage. Why does the Bible use these kinds of warnings if God wants us to have assurance of our salvation? Because these warnings are one of the means that God uses to preserve us. Warnings serve us, even if they scare us. Here’s how Charles Spurgeon puts it.
“But,’ says one, ‘You say they cannot fall away.’ What is the use of putting this ‘if’ in, like a bugbear to frighten children, or like a ghost that can have no existence? My learned friend, ‘Who art thou that repliest against God?’ If God has put it in, he has put it in for wise reasons and for excellent purposes. Let me show you why. First, O Christian, it is put in to keep thee from falling away. God preserves his children from falling away; but he keeps them by the use of means; and one of these is, the terrors of the law, showing them what would happen if they were to fall away. There is a deep precipice: what is the best way to keep any one from going down there? Why, to tell him that if he did he would inevitably be dashed to pieces. In some old castle there is a deep cellar, where there is a vast amount of fixed air and gas, which would kill anybody who went down. What does the guide say? ‘If you go down you will never come up alive.’ Who thinks of going down? The very fact of the guide telling us what the consequences would be, keeps us from it. Our friend puts away from us a cup of arsenic; he does not want us to drink it, but he says, ‘If you drink it, it will kill you.’ Does he suppose for a moment that we should drink it. No; he tells us the consequences, and he is sure we will not do it. So God says, ‘My child, if you fall over this precipice you will be dashed to pieces.’ What does the child do? He says, ‘Father, keep me; hold thou me up, and I shall be safe.’ It leads the believer to greater dependence on God, to a holy fear and caution, because he knows that if he were to fall away he could not be renewed, and he stands far away from that great gulf, because he knows that if he were to fall into it there would be no salvation for him.”
So the warnings serve us as God saves us by helping us cling to him for our righteousness. The Gentiles have been saved by faith alone in Christ alone. They did not do this themselves. God did it in Christ. Israel can be saved too if they will come to faith in Christ. Not only is God willing to save them, but he is also able to save them as well. And he might just use the Gentiles, and warnings, to do it. Whatever it takes, God will save his people, and through this struggling with him he will bring great assurance.
25 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; 27 “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
28 As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. 32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Paul doesn't want his audience to be ignorant of these things. He wants to be clear about what is happening. There is a mystery he wants to explain. In the Bible, a mystery is not something unknown to us in the present. It is a truth previously hidden that is now revealed. What is the mystery Paul wants us in on? There is a partial hardening of Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. The mystery is that God has planned for both Jews and Gentiles to be co-heirs with Christ. But the way that happens is different than the way we would expect because the Jews rejected Jesus and had him crucified. How then can we understand Israel's future?
Paul wants to help us. The language he uses in verse 25 about the fullness of the Gentiles points us back to the words of Jesus in Luke 21. There, Jesus prophecies the destruction of the temple and he gives the sign of the times. “They will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24) Paul’s message is that there is a time in redemptive history when God focuses on the Jew and a time when God focuses on the Gentiles.
The big question before us is whether Israel has a future or not. And in verses 25-36, three important questions regarding Israel are raised that help us answer that one big question. First, who constitutes “all Israel”? We know from Paul’s previous words in chapter 9 that it is not all ethnic Israel because “not all offspring of Abraham are children of Abraham.” So, then, it must be only the elect within Israel that are saved. Second, when does Israel get saved? There are three primary options: over time as the church reaches out to evangelize Jews, immediately before the second coming of Christ, or during the second coming of Christ. How you answer depends a bit on your eschatological view, but all three options are valid. Third, how does Israel get saved? This is where the rubber meets the metaphorical road. Is Israel saved by returning to the law and obeying it perfectly? Of course not. They could never do such a thing. The only way Israel is saved is the only way anyone can be saved: faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah.
In verse 26, Paul uses a combination of Old Testament verses to show us one thing: Israel will be saved because God predicted it in the Old Testament and God always keeps his promises, even if, for now, his people are stumbling over his Promised One. God’s knowledge of future things is based on the fact that he ordered those future things, and for the Jews, he ordered that they would be saved in the end. Their future is bright, even if their present is dim. And Paul tells us here the mystery of what’s happening.
Paul can have such confidence because he believes in God’s divine election. If God was waiting for the Jews to turn around, he’d wait forever. But if God has elected some and can bring about their salvation by divine act of grace, then he can make promises like this and bring them about in ways that seem surprising to us, but that are just a day in the life of God.
Verse 29 is a comforting verse to all sinners—Jew and Gentile. “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” That means that though our sins never cease in this life, God doesn’t take back his free gift of grace. We are always recipients of it. The proof is that we love him. If a promise like that applies to us as individuals, how then does it not apply to Israel as God’s chosen corporate people?
God plans to overcome the evil in the hearts of Israel by his overwhelming grace. He will say no to their sin and cause their hearts to say yes to Christ. As Paul has told us before, \"all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Therefore, we stand as one human race, equal before God so that God can save all of us equally in Christ Jesus. The same mercy that saves the Gentile will save the Jew. He will have mercy on us all.
Paul caps this section off in verses 33-36 with what R.C. Sproul calls “a holy groan.” Paul’s emotions overtake him. He longs for his fellow Jews to come to Christ and in seeing the plan of God—the mystery, once hidden, now revealed—his words turn from teaching to praise. Paul fears God and what follows is a doxology because all theology done rightly leads to doxology prayed passionately.
We cannot see the bottom of the ocean. There are depths no one has ever plumbed. Even more so, we cannot see the bottom of God. He is so deep that even in eternal life we will never reach his end. So, when we think of the things of salvation, it should be no surprise to us that we reach our limits of understanding and step into the praise of God who saves. If our thinking about these things leads us further from God, we need to go back to him and become awestruck once again. These passages should lead us up to him in wonder, not away from him in confusion. Our limit of understanding is not a deterrent to coming to God but the precise requirement to coming to him. He is Lord of all, and we need a God greater than our own heart to overcome our heart and bring us to himself. No one deserves his grace. If we have it, we should rejoice and plead with others to get it.
We cannot know the mind of God, but praise him that he can know ours better than we can. And his heart causes him to come to us in mercy and grace. We cannot give God advice because our foolishness knows no end, but praise him that the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man. We cannot give anything to God or be repaid by him, but praise him that he gives freely of himself and does not demand to be repaid. Let us then rejoice that the God we have is bigger than us. That’s not a problem. It’s the solution to our problems.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/40c8d3c0b9162f28-image-asset-pN8ZIlTLVfdQMRzNkh46XRxdp6u5Ds.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIn Romans 1-11, Paul lays out the foundation for gospel doctrine. In Romans 12, he begins to explain how that gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture. It starts with an amazing word, therefore. If you understand the truths of Romans 1-11, the inevitable result is the reality of Romans 12 and following. Paul is saying, “If you really understand the gospel, this is how you will then live.” So, we turn now from gospel explanations to gospel implications.
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Paul transitions from the high exaltation of God’s glory in election and preservation to the implications of following God. Christians are marked by how they live. They don’t live like people on their way to death; they live like people on their way to life. The body may wear down but the spirit soars to new heights as the gospel comes to bear.
Paul begins by appealing to us to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God. In verse 1 he says, “I appeal to you.” That’s interesting. Paul is an apostle. He could command us. But he doesn’t. He urges us. The gospel he just proclaimed provides the platform from which he can urge rather than command. Obedience is a response to grace, and Paul knows the love of Jesus will inspire a new way of living. The law and its commands creates outward obedience but inward ugliness. The gospel and its grace creates inward obedience and outward beauty.
So, what is he urging us to do? “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” What we believe shows up in what we do, even in our bodies. How we live is a statement on what we believe. Paul is helping us see how to live the Christian life. It is one of sacrifice, but not of the Old Testament kind. We don’t offer our lives up to God so that he can slay us, but so that he can empower us. We are taking our hands off our life so that God can put his hands on our life.
We’re called to be a living sacrifice. But the problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the alter. As Tim Keller says,
See, the old sacrifices were no problem. You killed it, and then that was it. They burned and it was over. A living sacrifice means every day, every hour, every moment, right now you have to deliberately, consciously, continually, and perpetually offer yourself to him. It’s constant. It’s never over. It’s intense... You’re not living the Christian life unless you put to death the idea that you have a right to live as you choose. I can’t believe I’m saying this in the middle of America. I can’t believe I’m actually pointing out to you that there probably has never been a culture in the history of the world more averse to the very essence of what it means to live a Christian life. Do you hear that?
What it means to live a Christian life is that you put to death the right to live life as you choose. You put to death the idea that you belong to yourself. You put to death the idea that you know best what should happen in your life. You put that to death, and you give it to God. It feels like a death to really say, “You know best, and I just trust you. Here’s what you say in your Word, and I don’t like it, but I’m going to do it. I don’t choose anymore.”
It feels like a death, but on the other side it’s life. That’s why it’s a living sacrifice. It’s a sacrifice that leads to life.
And that life is a life of worship. As Nijay Gupta says, “What Paul is calling for in Romans 12:1 is an invitation to live out the freedom of Christ (especially freedom from unrestrained passions) by surrendering oneself wholly, especially bodily, to God in worship.” To be a living sacrifice is to worship God with all your life, and that’s the entire point of Romans 1-11—to lead you into worshipping God. Our lives—the way we live, think, act, and feel—are to point to the God worthy of worship. That’s why Paul tells us not to be conformed to the world but to be transformed by the renewal of our mind. We are either being conformed by the world or we are allowing God to transform us. To have our minds renewed means to shift away from a debased mind—a mind of the flesh—and shift toward the way of the Spirit. It is to be transformed into the image of Christ where we are able to recognize the things of God, appreciate the things of God, love God and his people, and desire God’s thoughts more than our own. It is to take our hands off our lives and ask for God to never remove his.
When we take our hands off our life, our sacrifice shows up in how we sacrifice and serve other people. Paul shows us this beginning in verse 3. The for at the beginning of the verse indicates what follows is an implication and proof of verses 1-2. If Romans 12:1-2 is the way of life, the fruit is humility. Michael Bird says, “Gospel transformation requires a modest view of self and a generous view of others.” But achieving that modest view of self and generous view of others is a constant act of humbling ourselves. Just as we must give ourselves over to the Lord moment by moment, we must give ourselves over to others moment by moment.
Humility was not an ancient virtue. So, by pursuing humility, the church was setting itself apart from the world. It was an outpost of heaven, where the King reigns in exaltation because he was first humbled on Earth. And in this Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, the people pursue what the world despises because it’s what the King loves.
Pursuing humility doesn’t mean not using the gifts you’ve been given. It means using those gifts in humility. Each one needs to know how God made him: what he can and cannot do. And he should pursue to use those gifts accordingly. Though the church is many, we are one body in Christ. When everyone serves according to the measure of faith that God has assigned to each, God creates out of that service a radiant community that shines as an outpost of Heaven.
Romans 12:9-21
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Love sets the tone for the Christian. Everything done is propelled by love of God and others. The church father, Tertullian, said, “See how they love one another is what pagans should be saying when they observe an authentic Christian family.” The question before us now is, do we see that love among us? If so, how?
Paul gives us a list here in this passage of ways love shows up in a community. I want to focus on just one, found in verse 10, “outdo one another in showing honor.”
This may be the only competitive verse in the Bible. Paul is calling us to outdo one another. Unlike the competitive nature of the world, as in politics or the boardroom, Paul’s charge is to outdo one another in building up, not tearing down. This is a call to recognize in another person that which is worthy of commendation, that which is worthy of honor.
It is not flattery. The world loves flattery – I say something nice to you, about you, so that you will say something nice to me, about me. Flattery is self-serving. Honoring is Christ-focused.
To honor another person is more than recognizing their efforts, as honorable as those may be. Honoring someone is looking at the work of the Holy Spirit in that person. It is honoring the Lord for what he has done, or is doing, through one of his children. That’s why it can be competitive: it is boasting in the Lord. We should outdo one another in honoring what the Lord is doing through us.
Are we a people known for encouragement? Do we look beyond ourselves to others, honoring one another?
We look for good words said about us, but too often fail to say good words about others. To honor one another is the Christian’s rebellion against the status quo of the cynical world. It is our war cry of grace into the misery of strife and accusation.
To be a Christian is to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. That means that within us is the most honorable person in the universe. He is working in us and through us. He is accomplishing his work through weak sinners like you and me. He is advancing the gospel. He is saving the world. He is rescuing people out of darkness. He is bringing people into the light. Christians who are open to him are honorable people because they are allowing the Lord to do his work through them.
So, outdo one another in showing honor. Recognize the work of the Lord in someone else. Most likely, they have no idea that God is doing anything through them. They feel weak and sinful, and they are, but they are also strong and glorious in Christ. Call that out in them for the glory of God and the building up of his church.
Outdo one another in showing honor.
Who's first?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/d60258299c2cd780-image-asset-jWupcgEIq8FM6ReUYTSfF79XrihhLE.jpeg\")
\n \n\nThe problem facing Paul in Rome was not that he took the gospel to the Gentiles. It was always in the heart of God to accept outsiders (Leviticus 19:33, Jonah 3:1, Matthew 1:5-6, Genesis 17:4, 22:18, Psalm 2:8, Isaiah 42:1, 6; 49:6). The problem was the gospel that Paul took to the Gentiles. Paul claimed there was no distinction between Jew and Gentile for salvation. A Gentile did not need to become a Jew to be saved. That was the problem. It wasn’t one of inclusion, per say. It was one of how that inclusion comes about—the free gift of grace.
Paul makes a shift in chapters 9-11. Romans 1-8 is one large unit, Romans 9-11 is another large unit, and Romans 12-16 concludes with a third unit. Some have trouble seeing how Romans 9-11 fits in with the larger corpus. If Paul had gone from Romans 8 to Romans 12, many think that would have been understandable and more cohesive. But Paul takes time in Romans 9-11 to address something that would have been at the forefront of the Romans’ mind.
Without these chapters, the book fails to address the question on everyone’s mind. If God has saved the Gentiles in the gospel, what has he then done with Israel, his chosen people? Has he abandoned them? Has he relegated them to a lesser status? If Israel isn’t saved according to God’s promises then what hope do we have that God will remain faithful in the gospel? Is the good news of Romans 8 in limbo, waiting for God to change his mind like he has seemingly done with Israel in the coming of Christ?
Romans 9-11 is not easy to grasp, but if you are willing to work through the initial pushback, you’ll find behind these words a big God. And as Michael Bird says, “If you wrestle with a big God, you will begin to develop big faith muscles.”
Romans 9:1-18
1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
Paul begins his argument with sorrow—real sorrow. He is “speaking the truth in Christ” and he is “not lying.” His “conscience bears witness in the Holy Spirit.” Why say this? Because the charge against Paul was that he, though being a Jew himself, did not care about the Jews any longer since he was commissioned as the apostle to the Gentiles. But we have evidence to the contrary in the Scriptures. Whenever Paul entered a city, he began his ministry in the synagogues (Acts 13:5, 14-16; 14:1; 17:1-3, 10, 17; 18:1-4, 19; 19:8-10). Paul never forsook the Jews to evangelize the Gentiles. He always did both, but the Gentiles responded in repentance. The Jews responded in persecution. Paul felt deeply the distance between his people and Jesus, and he took it personally.
Paul identifies himself with his Jewish brethren the same way Moses did in Exodus 32:30-34 after the Israelites craft the Golden Calf and sin against God. Moses intercedes on his peoples’ behalf, begging God to remove him from grace in order that they may be restored. Paul prays the same prayer here in Romans 9:3. Paul’s heart for his Jewish family beats with the blood of Christ. He pleads with them to come to him and prays on their behalf.
God gave Israel eight privileges, listed in verses 4 and 5: adoption, glory, covenants, the law, worship, promises, patriarchs, and the messianic lineage. It is not as if God has abandoned his people! So, what has happened? Has the word of God failed?
Of course not. God’s word proved faithful. The question is, what word proved faithful? God’s promise to save Israel remains. The problem was the understanding of the promise. Was the promise to Israel a blanket promise covering anyone inside of Israel or was it a particular promise covering a selection of Israel?
Paul is clear, “not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.” How so? Paul’s argument is not new. It is biblical. He looks back at the narrative of Genesis and from it draws out how God has always related to both his people, in particular, and to the world at large.
God’s promise started with one man, Abraham. That one man was promised one child, though his wife was barren. But Sarah was impatient and convinced her husband to have a child with her servant, Hagar. Ishmael was born but it was not Ishmael that God had promised. So, he gave Isaac to Abraham and Sarah. Isaac was the child of the promise. Ishmael was the child of the flesh. But if we stopped there, it could be said that Ishmael was not the inheritor of mercy because he only shared the flesh of Abraham, not Sarah. So, Paul goes further down to Isaac’s children, Jacob and Esau. They shared one mother, Rebekah, and were twins born minutes apart. Esau, the older, did not receive the promise. It was the younger Jacob who received it despite his seemingly more despicable immoral life. But as it is written in Malachi, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
What do we do with this statement? On the one hand, the argument Paul makes is clear. God’s saving purposes run through Israel but do not include all ethnic Israel. On the other hand, we seemingly have a problem where God hates some of his people. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part?
The answer, of course, is “by no means!” Paul’s proof is found in the Old Testament book of Exodus. First, he quotes Exodus 33:19. Moses asks to see God’s glory, and what he reveals is his heart. God is the God of mercy and compassion. This comes right after the Israelites trade in the real God for an idol in the form of a Golden Calf. Moses intercedes for them, asking God to forgive, and he does. They rejected God but God did not reject them. Here’s the implication. If you’re in Christ, you’re in Christ not because of what you did or didn’t do to deserve him but because God wanted you. That means that he will never stop loving you because what you deserve wasn’t his reason in the first place, and he doesn’t change the rules mid-course.
Second, he quotes from Exodus 9:16. Here we see what every human deserves: the judgment of God. Pharaoh in Egypt has enslaved the Israelites. He is no better than they are, and they are no better than he is, but God shows mercy on Israel and judges Pharaoh. In the end, he is used by God as an instrument to display his power and glory. He has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills.
Here’s the point: God is God, and we are not. His mercy is not influenced by what we think we deserve; he gives it freely to whom he chooses. Is that bad news? Hardly. It means that we don’t have to deserve his mercy to receive his mercy.
Here’s why this is hard for us to accept. When we look at verse 13, we’re not shocked that God loved Jacob. We’re shocked that God hated Esau. But the real shock is not in the second statement, it’s in the first. God is not obligated to do anything we want him to do. He is God. It would not be unjust of God to condemn every sinner to hell for their sin. But he doesn’t. Some he chooses—some like Jacob, who are terrible in so many ways yet receive the love of God. God has the right to choose his friends. And he does.
God has not failed us. We have failed God. The only remedy is his mercy. How do you know you can get it? Do you want it? If so, grab hold and never let go. Get as much of God as you can. You’ve received his mercy. Put your hope only in God, not in what you can or can’t do. Look beyond yourself to the crucified Christ—dead for your sins and alive now for your justification. Believe his work sets you right and you’ve received the mercy of God.
Romans 9:19-29
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.”
God’s mercy is hard for us to understand. Furthermore, it’s hard for us to accept. We want to look at God like a mathematical formula, adding the pieces up to see the sum. But we are not God and therefore cannot see all of him. The objection Paul raises is understandable. Why does God judge us for what he controls? But Paul doesn’t answer the question. Instead, he rebukes it.
Paul’s rebuke comes not from fear of losing God if the question is answered, but from a desire to show who God really is in his glory. We can’t understand all of him. There is a tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. We want to remove the tension because it makes us uncomfortable. Do we have free will? Yes, we do. But it’s not ultimately self-determining. Our free will isn’t bigger than God’s will. We have free will to choose God, but something is going on underneath our free will. God chooses us and then woos us with our own heart to himself. How does this work? We don’t know. We can’t know. We’re not God. Is that a problem?
Ray Ortlund helps us see how this isn’t a problem, but a great hope.
If we are the clay, and we are, and God is the potter, and he is, then people like us who are out of control have a hope beyond ourselves. You’re at home with your wife and you criticize her and find fault with her, and you don’t even know how to have a good fight so that something redemptive comes of it, because you never saw it in your home when you were a kid, and all you know is dysfunction, but you don’t like it and you tell yourself that as a Christian you should be better but you aren’t, and you’ve tried to change but you can’t, and you’re beginning to fear you never will, and you sit there in front of the TV surfing the channels with the remote because you don’t even know how to restart the conversation with your wife, and you sit there on the sofa as a lump – you see the word “lump” there in verse 21 – you sit there as a lump of defeatedness and sadness and confusion – God is standing before you today to say, “You have a hope.” There is a Savior God who, like a potter, can reshape you into a magnificent husband, for his glory. Whoever you are, whatever you’re facing, when you can’t bring yourself under control, God can. Look to him, put your hope in him, submit to the hand of the Potter, and he will make you a vessel for honorable use. We don’t understand how this works. There is mystery here, and we all know that. But it does work, because God makes it work. He promises mercy to the weak, the broken, the guilty, who turn to him. What a wonderful hope we have in a God who is not under us, not competing with us, but over us in mercy and power! That’s reality with God. It’s who we really are, and it’s who God really is.
God is in control of everything. We see in verses 22-23 that God desires to show something of himself. What does he desire to show? His wrath, power, patience, glory, and mercy. How does he show this? He does so by sovereignly choosing to show mercy to some sinners while allowing other sinners to reach the inevitable result of their sin. The word “prepared” in verse 22—“vessels of wrath prepared for destruction”—is a passive verb. The words “he has prepared” in verse 23—“vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory”—is an active verb. Here’s what’s happening. God doesn’t create evil, and so the fact that sinners end up in hell is not his fault. The fault is entirely their own.
But God can use evil—like he did with Pharaoh in Egypt—to show something of himself. God can use evil to bring about good, which means that God must be bigger than the evil in the world. He must be bigger than the evil inside you or me. That’s good news, because if God was on the same level as evil, we would wonder who is going to win in the end. But if God is bigger than evil, using it to show something of himself, then we can lay down our weapons and join his army. We can come under the One who endured the most evil humanity could muster and came out victorious on the other end. We can find mercy in God because God has shown through evil the mercy that resides in his heart for evil people.
You and I are just a lump of clay. We are shapeless in ourselves. We are hard, resistant to being formed. We are idle and unable to make something of value out of ourselves. What we need is someone to come and make something of us. And that’s what God does. We see in verses 24-29 God making something of us.
Paul quotes from the Old Testament. First, he reminds us of what the prophet Hosea said. Israel is worthy of judgment because of her adultery. We are all spiritual adulterers, turning from God to other lovers. So, what does God do? He doesn’t turn us over to our sin. Instead, he comes to us in our sin, and like the prophet Hosea, purchases us out of a life of slavery that our adultery has led to and marries us. The very thing that disqualified us from God he enters to make us his own.
Left to ourselves, we will become living embodiments of Sodom and Gomorrah. We will follow our sinful impulses all the way to the bitter end of God’s wrath. But in mercy, God chooses to send a Savior to take us by the hand and drag us out at just the right time. On the cross, Jesus experienced the full wrath of God’s anger toward sin. God’s rain of justice fell fully on him so God’s rain of mercy would fall fully on those who believe.
What will we say then to God who molded us? Why did you make me this way? Shouldn’t we rather be amazed he made us into anything worthy of him?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/9b3555d91b398534-image-asset-mfXivUQO8RULO1IEfx5XbEyv3qxWBl.jpeg\")
\n \n\nThere is a question in all our minds. “Will I lose God?” The battle between sin and righteousness wages inside, and we wonder, who is going to win? God knows this. That’s why he gave us Romans 8 to drill the assurance of his love and care into our heart. Faith will succeed where the law failed because the life of faith is lived in the Spirit of God, and nothing can defeat him.
Romans 8:1-17
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
The law failed to reform our sinful hearts. But God in mercy sent Jesus to save us, and in his salvation, he gave us the Holy Spirit. His presence in our life creates a new reality as he reminds us of the sufficiency of God to save. All our failures are undone by Jesus’ successful work. In return, all Jesus’ success is given to us failures. As a result, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because there is no longer any condemnation for Jesus. He was condemned on the cross as our substitute, but in his resurrection, he threw off condemnation, rising to glory. The law of the Spirit of life has set us free from sin and death. Yet we wonder if our salvation is secure. And for good reason.
We took the law of God and weakened it by our sinful flesh. It couldn’t do the work of making us holy because something was deeply wrong with our heart. So, Jesus took the situation in his hands and by willingly allowing those very hands to be pierced, hung on the cross to cleanse our sin-stained heart. Jesus made himself like us and stumbled to the cross with the weight of the world so that we could strut into heaven with the weight of glory. He picked us up and placed us on a new path. He gave us a new way of life. He did this for us, without consulting us, because he loves us. He broke into our world to give us a new way to live. The old way just wasn’t working.
But the new way holds promise. The way of the flesh leads to sin and death. The way of the Spirit leads to joy and life. The mindset of the flesh is a mindset hostile to God (v. 7) and cannot please God (v. 8). Even good things done in the flesh are against God. But the mindset of the Spirit is not hostile to God. It loves God. What’s the difference? Those in the flesh lack the indwelling of God himself in the person of the Holy Spirit. We receive him not by mere will-power and not by obeying the law, but by grace from God himself. Salvation is a passive work on our end because of the active work on God’s end. We are recipients of new life.
Being a recipient of new life doesn’t create lazy Christians. It creates hard-working Christians because we now have a power to obey. We have a new mentality—one that reaches for the things of God above the things of the flesh. To be saved is not only to be saved from sin. It is also to be saved to God. And we have no small power churning our engine. We have the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. Every Christian is like a nuclear bomb walking around on earth. We have the most explosive, most life-giving, most powerfully creative life force in existence. We have God. We have everything we will ever need—all acceptance, all approval, all satisfaction, all joy, all of God right in the center of our being. We’ve been remade!
But it’s not natural. Living in the flesh comes naturally. Living in the Spirit comes supernaturally. One kills us. The other kills what kills us. Which, then, is more lovely? Which deserves our utmost? To whom are we debtors? To the flesh or to God? Who follows what is dead? Christians follow a living Savior.
By grace, our future is staked not on the dead lineage of Abraham, but on the living Fatherhood of God. We’ve been adopted into his family, and adoption doesn’t happen by chance. It is carefully thought out, planned for, and legally obtained. So it is with our salvation. God chose you, sent Jesus for you, and paid the price for you.
We could not be more loved. But in moments of sin, we wonder if we’re going to make it. And in that moment, God has not left us as orphans. In fact, the word Paul uses in verse 16 for “children” refers to a nuance of adoption in the ancient world where an adopted son received an inheritance that even biological children might not receive. In God’s adoption, he comes to dwell with us inside our heart. When we doubt his love, his love lives on inside to bear witness to us that we are his children. We can cry, “Abba, Father!” We are his children, not just legally on paper, but relationally in the heart. We not only have God as Father, we also have our big brother, Jesus, graciously giving us his inheritance. We’ve gone from the poverty of slavery to sin to the riches of life in Christ.
The key to enjoying God more is not to look deeper into ourselves. There we only find massive failure because of sin or false success due to pride. We must look upward to God and see in the gospel the fullness that he is, and all that he’s freely given to us. Enjoying God is beholding God, and in beholding God we forget about our self-defeat or self-worth and start remembering the banner God raised over our head—“No condemnation!”
Romans 8:18-30
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
The world is suffering, but God grants hope. Hope lifts our eyes to God, and God never lets us down. A resolution to all the evil inside of us and all around us is coming. It is inevitable because Jesus has come to begin the effort of undoing evil in his life and death. This sin-stained world is being washed by the blood of Christ. We believers are the first fruits of that great work. What we long for is on its way. Jesus is coming back to restore the world. His plan is cosmic. And as he restores it all, creation will stop groaning and start clapping in joy.
But we remain weak people. The law, which was once our master, gave no help in our weakness. When we failed, the law condemned. But Christ, our new Master, doesn’t condemn (v. 1), he frees (v. 2). Paul returns to this idea now. How far does Christ free us?
In verse 26, Paul says the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. In those moments when words fail, tears stream, and groans abound, God himself is there groaning alongside with us in the language of the Almighty’s heart. He says the things we cannot say to the one who we cannot imagine loves us so that we can receive the comfort we cannot obtain on our own.
We can’t know everything about God, but one thing we can know is summed up in verse 28, “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” This verse is not a verse for everyone in the world. It is a verse for God’s chosen people. The way we know we’re chosen is if we love God. And if we love him we love him enough to entrust our lives to him. He is wiser than we are. He knows what’s best. And what’s best doesn’t always look like it’s best. But that’s because our view is so limited. From God’s vantage point, everything is working for our good.
God even uses the bad things that happen in our lives for our good. That’s the kind of God he is. He’s a redeemer. He’s a savior. He’s a storyteller. And the story he’s telling of your life includes some bad things. But his plan for you is glorious, and in his glory, he will flip all the bad you experience into good in the end. That’s hard to believe, but that’s why he asks us to trust him. If we will trust him, he will prove himself. Verse 30 shows us how. “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
All in Christ are on their way to Christ-likeness. He foreknew us, predestined us, called us, justified us, and will glorify us. This is all one unbroken chain. Every one is true, not just some of them. The end is glorification. The answer to the great question of our heart is, “Yes, I am safe in Christ.”
God’s foreknowledge is not seeing our obedience in advance and therefore loving us. It is his predetermining before the foundation of the world to create us, love us, and redeem us. It is his choosing of us at an individual level, before we could do anything good or bad. He started all this for our good and he’ll end it all for our good.
God’s predestination is not a fatalistic inevitability. It is a loving decision to conform us to the image of his Son in love. He decided beforehand through his foreknowledge to bring us to himself, and he’ll do what it takes to get us there.
God’s calling is not a question to see if we’re interested. It’s a changed heart to save us. It’s a rescue as we’re drowning in sin. He calls, we hear, and he saves as we trust him. It’s his work that involves our work by his sovereign hand.
God’s justification is not a legal document that can be appealed later. It is his setting us right with him once for all. In the cross of Christ, he paid the penalty for our sin and poured out all his wrath. In the resurrection of Christ, he accepted the payment and cleared our record. We are as secure as Christ is.
God’s glorification is not a baseless promise. It is the inevitable result of all that has come before. Amazingly, we are glorified now through our union with Christ. We are seated in Franklin, TN but we are also seated with Christ in heaven. And our future is not left in limbo. We’re given assurance. Since we’ve seen all the rest, he will in the end fully glorify us as well. One day we will be like Christ, free from sin to live with God forever. God’s aim is to conform us into the image of his Son.
This chain is unbreakable because it is held in the heart of God. No one can break in and steal what he has determined because no one can overrule him. The only thing we have to fear is sin, but even that has been paid for at the cross. We’re left with nothing but God’s best, hand delivered to us by his Spirit.
Romans 8:31-39
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Try as we may, there is no objection before these great promises of God. What can we say? God loves us. And because God loves us no one can do anything about our path to glory. Verse 32 is the greatest argument in the Bible for assurance of salvation. God has done the hardest work already. He won’t hold back now. He gave his Son to gain us. Why would he let go?
Not only is our future guaranteed, or present trials are mitigated. We face an onslaught of accusation each day. Our flesh tries to condemn us through sin. Satan attempts to twist God’s own words to destroy our faith. The world offers every kind of evil on a silver platter with a smile. But who can bring any charge against us before God? God has justified. The greatest person in the universe has looked deeper inside us than even we can ourselves and has proclaimed over us “JUSTIFIED!” J.I. Packer says, “Nobody can produce new evidence of your depravity that will make God change his mind. God justified you with his eyes open.” Who then can condemn?
Jesus has done all, is doing all, and will do all that is required to usher us home. And because Jesus is the most trustworthy person in the universe, we can safely rest in his promises. He died for us, he rose for us, he intercedes for us, he’s not going to get tired of us and give up now. Nothing will separate us from God because God himself wants us, and God always gets what he wants.
Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword may all come our way. But no matter what power they use against us, there is another power greater standing within us. All they can do is kill our body. They can’t kill the soul God has saved. The dying love of Jesus is our great hope, our great joy, and our great assurance. Take heart, he has overcome the world.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/929b9bf03de40135-image-asset-68HIYjCwDMOHCkzKEpA2YdAXiDvyfc.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIf Paul were writing the recipe for the gospel in the book of Romans, chapters 6-7 would be the break before the main course where the chef walks the dinner guests through the cooking process. Just as certain foods break down at the right points to create such outstanding flavor, the Christian’s relationship with sin breaks down so that the beauty of union with Christ appears. We have been remade into a new creation in Christ, and chapter 7 helps us understand that change to a greater degree.
Romans 7:1-6
1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
The tension is palpable in this passage. Paul's Jewish audience would be sitting on the edge of their seat. He is telling them that their entire life devoted to the Mosaic law no longer has any bearing on their relationship with God. That's a lot of good news that sounds at first like bad news. A death has occurred. Life has changed.
Paul is elaborating on his point in 6:14, that we are no longer under the law but under grace. He wants to show them the logic of the break with the law that Jesus has made. The illustration is one of marriage. Two people are married to one another until one of them dies. Then, upon that death, the remaining spouse is released from the bond of marriage. Likewise, death severs one’s bondage to the law. It is the releasing point.
Verse 4 is the main point of the passage. Paul is presenting the transfer of masters. Those in Christ have died to the law through the body of Christ so that union with him can become a reality. The law hasn't died. The believer has died. But in death, the believer went into life with Christ.
Before the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we had no hope. We could never obey the law. We could never reach God’s holy standard. Because we have a desire for rebellion against God, the law incites our flesh against him. The law arouses sin in the flesh rather than subdues. The law condemns. It offers no hope if we don’t measure up. If we are to be right with God, we need another way to him.
And so, we died with Christ. In that death, the law released its grasp on our heart, and we were set free. We have the new way of the Spirit. The written code is of help to us now as a guide to holy living, but it was never the power for holy living. Now that we've died to it, we walk in newness of life in Christ, and we have the power to obey. In Christ, we have everything the law could never give us. We have peace with God.
The law was universally binding but deadly. Jesus is selectively binding but life-giving. We can perish under the law, or we can come under the grace of Christ.
Ray Ortlund comments.
We were married to Mr. Law. He was a good man, in his way, but he did not understand our weakness. He came home every evening and asked, “So, how was your day? Did you do what I told you to? Did you make the kids behave? Did you waste any time? Did you complete everything I put on your To Do list?” So many demands and expectations. And hard as we tried, we couldn’t be perfect. We could never satisfy him. We forgot things that were important to him. We let the children misbehave. We failed in other ways. It was a miserable marriage, because Mr. Law always pointed out our failings. And the worst of it was, he was always right! But his remedy was always the same: Do better tomorrow. We didn’t, because we couldn’t.
Then Mr. Law died. And we remarried, this time to Mr. Grace. Our new husband, Jesus, comes home every evening and the house is a mess, the children are being naughty, dinner is burning on the stove, and we have even had other men in the house during the day. Still, he sweeps us into his arms and says, “I love you, I chose you, I died for you, I will never leave you nor forsake you.” And our hearts melt. We don’t understand such love. We expect him to despise us and reject us and humiliate us, but he treats us so well. We are so glad to belong to him now and forever, and we long to be “fully pleasing to him” (Colossians 1:10)!
Being married to Mr. Law never changed us. But being married to Mr. Grace is changing us deep within, and it shows.
Romans 7:7-25
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Commentator Douglas Moo points out that Romans 7:7-25 has two primary purposes. The first is to vindicate the law from any suggestion that it is sinful or evil (v.7). The second is to show how, despite this, the law has come to be a negative force in the history of salvation (v. 8). The law itself is not sinful. After all, it comes from God, who cannot sin. But the law does bring knowledge of sin. There is a connection between the law and sin, but they are not connected to one another. Mankind stands in the gap, serving as the link.
Sin seized an opportunity to act as it came face to face with the law. When we see the law, we know what we are not supposed to do and what we should do instead. The law awakens us to sin because it shows us what sin is in explicit terms. We can see it there on the paper before us. \"Do not…\" \"Do…\" We see it, and our flesh cries out against it. As soon as we are told what not to do, we want to do that very thing. Like a child who is told not to touch the stove, we want to rest our hand upon it just to test the warmth.
Sin multiplies. We not only commit the one sin but multiply it into a thousand different flavors of sin. Before the giving of the law, sin was not active in the same way. But after the law, sin grew in power because sin became obvious. Our heart is so wicked that before the law of God we run toward more sin, not less. Our hearts are like mold spores looking for water. The law is like a continuous faucet. The more water, the more mold.
Sin seizes an opportunity through the law to multiply, deceive, and ultimately kill. Where sin lives, people die. Where sin dies, people live. But the law does not destroy sin. Sin must die another way. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death (v. 10). The law doesn't change the heart. It exposes the heart. As St. Augustine said, \"God commands what we cannot do that we may know what we ought to seek from him.\" The path forward is not stricter obedience, but a new heart from God.
There are strong opposing views on who Paul is speaking about in 7:7-25. I will spare you the debate points now and say that I take the view that this is Paul speaking of himself in the present. That is, Paul, a Christian, is talking about the struggle with sin that exists in the Christian’s life. With that assumption, then, let’s look ahead.
Tim Keller provides a good synopsis of this passage.
All of life is a battle between two selves, but there’s a different war before you become a Christian from the war that happens after you become a Christian…What Paul is trying to show us here is there’s a war between the selves that happens before you meet Christ, and then there’s a war between the selves that happens after you meet Christ. The war between the selves before you meet Christ is a world without hope. You cannot win…The war after you meet Christ you cannot lose.
In verses 7-13, we see the battle that we cannot win. It's a fight against the law of God. In verse 7, Paul points to the last of the Ten Commandments, \"You shall not covet.\" He knows that he's failed to live up to that commandment. Paul, being a devout Jew all his life, has always been knowledgeable of the law. He's not talking about a new commandment, but a new experience with that commandment. He’s talking about that experience of awakening to the law and its demands. Before the law of God, we all fall short. It stands over us with a whip. Anytime we don’t live up it beats us. Before the law of God, we face a battle we cannot win because we have a heart that cannot obey.
But in verses 14-25, Paul tells us of the battle that we cannot lose. Everyone has a moral compass. We know what we should do. The problem is that we can't do what we know we should do. We do the opposite. It's a losing battle. But for the Christian, a change has taken place. We face the battle with a new weapon. We don’t face it alone, naked before the law. We face it in the power of Christ, alive to God because of him.
In Romans 7:7-13, Paul talks about the Christian as if he is two people in one body. There is the Moral Self with a high moral compass, wanting to obey the law. Then there is the Law-Breaking Self who breaks the law. Before coming to Christ, we are both of these selves. We are slaves to our desire to live the \"right\" life, and yet we are slaves to our desire to make our flesh feel good.
But when Christ comes to us, we are changed from the heart. The old self in two parts was doomed. The Moral Self wants to obey the law, but the Law-Breaking Self hates the law since it impedes fulfilling fleshly desires. What we need is not for the Moral Self to grow and overpower the law-breaking self. We can never get there. The two selves destroy one another. So, no matter how hard you work on the Moral Self over against the Law-Breaking Self, the Law-Breaking Self will always counter-attack. You might take two steps forward, but you'll always take another step back.
So, what we need is an end. The Law-Breaking Self needs to die. But the Moral Self isn't the one to do the job. It just isn't sufficient. What we need is not fertilizer for the Moral Self, but poison for the Law-Breaking Self. We need a new birth. We can’t do what we want to do. We delight in the law in our inner being, but we see another law waging war against God and capturing us in sin. Who will deliver us?
The answer, of course, is Jesus Christ. In his life, he became the Moral Self unlike anyone else ever has. He obeyed all the way through. He never gave in to the Law-Breaking Self. He was more alive to God than any human who has ever lived. But that alone wasn't enough to save. We didn't just need to see another person live the perfect moral life; we needed someone to kill the law-breaking self for us because we can't do it.
Jesus Christ becomes our peacemaker at the cross. There, the ultimate Moral Self lays it all aside and puts on the Law-Breaking Self. He becomes what he has never been so that he can kill what we can never kill. He does the work on our behalf and gives us victory in his resurrection.
Paul breaks out in thanksgiving in verse 25, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” He has delivered us from this body of death and given us newness of life. He has become the wretched man so that we can become the righteous man. Before coming to Christ, we are in a battle we cannot win. The Law-Breaking Self will always slay the Moral Self. After coming to Christ, we are in a battle we cannot lose. Though the war rages on inside, there is a new power that overtakes both of our selves. Jesus Christ obeyed on our behalf and became for us the law-breaker so that we don’t have to rely on our Moral Self and we aren’t condemned by our Law-Breaking Self. We are a new creature altogether.
That’s why, as we enter Romans 8, Paul can say there is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. The battle in our heart doesn’t matter as much anymore because Jesus has won the war on our behalf. Skirmishes may break out, but we know the victory party is coming soon.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/e282ba83ea6e11a9-image-asset-7puU4TKNx5ikHoWAhiUBR8zHS2fdlm.jpeg\")
\n \n\nRomans 1-3 is Paul’s exposition of the fall of mankind into sin. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (3:23). But while the news is bad, there is good news that is greater than the bad news. God saves us by the work of Jesus Christ. All we must do is receive the free gift of grace. If we will accept Paul’s words of our death in Roman 1-3 and receive his words of life in Romans 4-5, we will be ready to look at the map of Romans 6 to understand where we are and how we should proceed. As it turns out, God’s grace not only justifies us, it also changes us.
Romans 5:20-6:14
20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
One of the great wonders of the Christian life is reconciling who you are now in Christ with who you once were without him. We are like one who marvels as he sees his empty bank account become one with an infinite sum. Life will never be the same. For the Christian, however, our lives have not simply been enhanced as the rich man but resurrected as the dry bones of the valley (Ezekiel 37). We have passed from death into life.
John Piper says, “Romans 6 deals with the kind of life that leads to eternal life: What it is and how to live it.” When we placed our faith in Christ and trusted his finished work to set us right with God, we received his grace. What do we then do with that grace? In Romans 6, Paul points out two opposing options. We can use grace as an excuse for sin, or we can use it as a power for obedience.
There are two key words throughout this chapter: death and life. Sin leads to death, and grace leads to life. If we choose to use that grace to sin more so that grace might multiply, we have misunderstood the purpose of grace. Grace doesn’t increase because we seek sin, but because we pursue God. As we see God in light of the law, we perceive more of our sin. But we also see more grace covering our sin. That leads to more obedience to God, not less. Life in Christ is stronger than death in Adam. Grace saves us from sin and to obedience. Life is found in and lived through Jesus.
But when preached rightly, the gospel of grace leads to a charge sounding something like this. “So, you’re telling me that it doesn’t matter what I do. Jesus has paid for it all. If that’s true, then why not sin?” Should we continue in sin so that grace may abound? No way! How can we who died to sin still live in it? As Michael Bird says, “The problem with remaining in sin is the absurdity of the thought. It is kind of like asking whether one should remain stuck at the bottom of a well even while a rope has been lowered down to us. Grace is designed to get us out of that situation, not to make us feel more comfortable within it!”
Paul gives us five implications of this grace that leads us out of death and into life.
First, we are united to Christ (v. 5). If there was a theme to Paul’s writing, it might be this idea of union with Christ. The Christian doesn’t merely follow in the footsteps of Jesus; he weds Jesus. What he is, we are. What he experienced, we experienced. Since God unites us with Jesus in his death, he shall indeed unite us with him in resurrection. The boundless hope of our life is not that we will bring ourselves from death to life, but that by being joined to Christ, he will do it for us.
Second, our old self was crucified (v. 6). The cross is the center of the Christian story. Upon the cross, Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins. It was not merely a nice gesture or a symbolic act. It was real punishment leading to real death for real sin. On the cross, Jesus, the sinless man, had the entire weight of sin placed upon him. He paid for it all. Since we are united with him, when he was crucified, we were crucified. Sin’s reign in our life is over.
Third, we are set free (v. 7). Sin runs the course of life. David confesses he was born with it (Psalm 51:5). Sin’s reign is mighty and pervasive. It wire-taps our brain, reading our desires and offering the latest high. It infests our flesh, pushing us toward comfort and satisfaction in forbidden choices. But in the crucifixion of Christ, being united to him, we are set free from the rule of sin.
Fourth, we will live with Christ (v. 8-9). If the first event (dying with Christ) has happened, the second event (living with Christ) follows. God keeps his promises. If we have died with Christ, we will also live with him. Sin is irrevocably defeated. In Jesus’ resurrection, our relationship to sin is fractured.
Fifth, we are alive to God (v. 10-11). Once upon a time, we were alive to sin and dead to God. But now we are dead to sin and alive to God. Jesus’ once for all death lead to his resurrection life. We join him in that. We don’t have to wait for it, either. We join him right now in part as we await the fullness of what is to come. We should consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God this very moment.
If 6:1-11 tells us what is true, 6:12-14 tells us what to do with that truth. We are not under the rule of sin anymore. It can allure us, tempt us, call out to us from the streets, but it has no power to make us obey. Sin has no dominion over us. We are under grace, and that grace leads us away from sin and into obedience. We can say no to sin and yes to Jesus. We can do this (and succeed in doing it) because the words of 6:1-11 are true.
The question that remains is not “will we receive grace?” but rather “what will we do with the grace we received?” There are two options before us. We can use grace as an excuse to sin or we can use grace as power to obey. Paul urges us to present ourselves to God (v. 13). Sin has no dominion over us. We are under grace. That means the grace we need to grow in holiness is the grace that comes from our union with Christ. We must never stop drinking from this fountain. Let’s present ourselves to God and let his grace rule.
Romans 6:15-19
15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
Romans 6:1 asks, “Should we sin to gain more grace?” Romans 6:15 asks, “Should we sin because of grace?” The answer to both is an emphatic “No!” We have come to Christ with all our need and placed it at his feet. We have pleaded with him to forgive our sins, and he has shown on the cross that he paid the penalty. More than that, he has granted new life with him. The grace he gives comes at the cost of his finished work. How could we treat it as a poker chip to be gambled?
Tom Schreiner says, “One is either God’s slave or sin’s slave. Those who think that freedom is attained by jettisoning obedience to God opt for sin as their lord.” Real freedom is not the absence of all rule. It is the presence of right rule. We cannot be free by throwing off all lordship. To do so is to be under the lordship of sin. You find the escape hatch by becoming a slave to God. True freedom is found living under the lordship of Christ.
We are slaves to the one whom we obey, and we all obey someone or something. Our lives are thousands of little decisions to obey either sin or God. One leads to death, the other to righteousness. Before coming to Christ, our master, Sin, led us to death. Every act of sin brought us closer to the grave and further from the Father. But after coming to Christ, our Master, Jesus, has so thoroughly cleansed and changed our heart that we no longer desire to obey sin. We desire to obey Jesus.
Paul says we have become “obedient from the heart” (v. 17). Heart obedience is different from behavioral obedience. To obey from the heart is to obey out of your deepest self. We have not done this on our own, finding our way to God like a pilgrim stumbling upon the New World. We have come to these blissful shores by the blood-stained path of Jesus. God brought us here. He emancipated our soul. He purchased our life. He became our Lord. Our former master beat us daily, slowly killing us. Our new master heals us moment by moment until we look like him.
We have the ability now to love God because of the great love with which he loved us. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The man who loves because he has been made free by God is the most revolutionary man on earth. He changes all values. He is the most explosive material of human society.” In an age where sin still enslaves, the man saved by God and following God in righteous is the most revolutionary man in town. If we will be open to God and follow him, letting him change us moment by moment, he will use us to spread this gospel of grace.
Romans 6:20-23
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Verse 23 is the summation of all that Paul has been saying throughout the chapter. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We earn death, but God gives life. That is the message of the gospel in seven words. The simplicity of it should not deceive us. There are depths here that we will never fully plumb. At the cross, we died. In the resurrection, we rose.
N.T. Wright says, “The Messiah’s resurrection means that those who are ‘in the Messiah’ now stand, and must walk, on resurrection ground.” When we see the miracle of the grace we have received, we stop thinking it as cheap and start seeing it as precious. We look and see the golden path to follow. The free gift is free because Jesus paid the ultimate price. It is free because he bore the wrath of God on our behalf. If we ever begin to think we earned grace, we have misunderstood it. If we ever begin to use grace as an excuse for sin, we have misappropriated it. If we ever start to grow tired of grace, we have lost the marvel of it.
Grace for the Christian brings a new power to obey. Jesus gave us life in exchange for death. The greatest treasures in the world stacked on top of one another and handed to us with a golden certificate of authentication would not be worth one ounce of grace dripping from the throne room of God. If we have one dew drop of the grace of God, we have enough treasure to fill the oceans a thousand times over. Would we ever think of wasting earthly treasures on rusty experiences and worthless thrills? How then could we think of spending God’s grace any differently?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/eebcba8e9c87c281-image-asset-Wd7ewpANzkUWYNYTZxBLbcDlKZ4xMV.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIn the opening chapters of Romans, Paul is making a case for justification by faith. We are set right with God by faith in what Jesus Christ has done, not based on what we do. We can see “therefore” laced throughout Chapter 5, in verses 1, 9, 12, and 18, indicating that Paul is now giving us the implications, or applications, or consequences of the theological truths he’s laid out for us in chapters 1-4.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
In verses 1-5, Paul is leading us to one place: God’s love. Justification by faith grants us access to God in a new way. Thus, there are four big advantages that the Christian now has.
First, we have peace with God (v. 1). Paul has put forth a convincing argument that we are sinners worthy of the wrath of God. We, who were made by God for his glory, have rebelled against God and declared open war on him. He loved us into existence, and at the first opportunity, we raged back at him in sin. But that doesn’t stop God’s love from coming to us. He justifies us through Jesus Christ, granting peace with God. When God waged war against our sin, he didn’t unleash the full storehouse of his wrath upon us. He sent a baby to Bethlehem. He sent a boy out of Egypt. He sent a man to a cross. He did this to save us completely—so completely that it extends to our present reality and our future hope. We have genuine peace with God because Jesus bore the wrath we deserved.
Second, we stand in the grace of God (v. 2). Through Christ, we have obtained access by faith into grace. Notice the present tense-ness of it. The Christian life actually exists in three tenses. In the past, God saved from the guilt of our sin. In the present, God saves from the power of sin. In the future, God will save from the presence of sin. We tend to understand the past salvation fairly well. We also tend to comprehend the future salvation well, though we cannot fully imagine it. The real battle is our present salvation from the power of sin. In the life of a Christian, there is always a struggle. Martin Luther said Christians are simul justus et peccator, meaning we are simultaneously justified and sinful. As sinners, we need to behold our justification as we wage war against sin. It there that we experience the grace of God.
We need more than a vague awareness of the love of God for us in the past or the future. We need a present reality with God, moment by moment. We need to see the wonder of Christ’s blood forgiving us and transforming us right now. Every moment of the Christian’s life is a time of present standing in grace. The same power that saved us is the power by which we can live. We have the grace of Christ. Francis Schaeffer says that to understand this is to have the key to the Christian life.
Third, we can rejoice (v. 2-3). We may want to say that the benefit is that we can now rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. But that is not the full advantage. We can also rejoice in our sufferings. We can rejoice no matter what is happening in our lives. We have a great hope of glory—we will be glorified in heaven one day—and we have a great hope of endurance, no matter what suffering comes our way we can endure it. How?
Justification allows us to rejoice in the hope of glory because we have lost our condemnation. But it also helps us rejoice in sufferings because we know nothing can snatch us out of God’s hand. We realize that nothing can ruin the relationship we have with God now. Our sin wasn’t powerful enough to separate us, so how can suffering severe the bond? We can know that God isn’t punishing us because our justification says that we’ve been put right with him. He can’t punish us for sins that have already been paid for and forgiven. That would mean our justification wasn’t real, it was just theoretical, and God doesn’t deal in theories. He deals in realities. We have peace with God (v. 1). So, the worst that can now happen in our suffering is that we grow more in the hope of glory. During the pain, God is drawing us nearer to himself.
In suffering, we can experience reality with God. The theoretical ideas die and what remains is the raw reality of our relationship with God. Personal relationship replaces the mechanical Christian life. Our sufferings produce endurance. Endurance produces character. Character produces hope. As you suffer with Christ, you grow in Christ. He who has experienced all the pain this world has to offer, he who suffered the full wrath of God against sin will stand with you and for you as you endure the hardships of life. He will prove, moment by moment, the worthiness of his sacrifice and the unfading crown of glory awaiting you in heaven. The result of suffering for the Christian is a greater hope than ever before. Apart from Christ, we can only wallow in sadness. This world is the best we will ever get. But with Christ, we can rejoice in hope. This world is the worst we will ever get.
Fourth, we have the Holy Spirit (v. 5). This is the greatest benefit of all. We have God living within us now. It was always the plan of God to dwell with his people, and through the Spirit, by way of the justifying work of Jesus, he makes residence inside us. The Father justifies us, the Son reconciles us, and the Spirit testifies to us. The triune God thoroughly saves us and keeps us.
These four benefits point us to one overarching reality: the love of God. That’s the goal toward which Paul is racing. This supports his statement in 1:16 about not being ashamed of the gospel. We are unashamed of the gospel when we see that everything from God leads us to God. When we see the glory of the gospel, we become willing to endure anything. The Christian has merely believed his way to the point of eternal life. We are the patient on the deathbed. Jesus is the doctor healing our soul.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
The totality of salvation creates in the Christian a robust trust in God to protect and provide. Though it may include suffering, Paul wants to show us that our suffering should not discourage us from trust. The argument in 5:6-11 is this. God has already done the hardest thing in saving you through Jesus’ coming, living, dying, and rising. And he did that when you were in love with sin. How then can he not do the easier thing of keeping you safe and secure for eternity? He’s earned the fortune. What can stop him from spending it now on you?
God didn’t wait until we became savable. He’s not like us, weighing the options, trying to decide if action is rational at this point or that point. God had a plan for the world, and he worked out that plan. It was when we were still sinners that Jesus died for us. It was not when we were cleaned up or even when we became repentant enough. We offer him nothing but our trust in him.
Paul continues to drive home his central point of God’s love. How does God show his love for us? In dying for us. When does he show this? When we’re still sinners. The love of God would not be as clear if he died to save good people who make some bad mistakes from time to time. The love of God is most explicit when we see that he died to save bad people who never can do enough good to find their way to him.
That’s the theological truth. God saves sinners. In verse 9, he shows us the result. Since God justified us, he will keep us for eternity. Notice the verb tenses in verses 9-11. Past tense: “we have been justified by his blood.” Future tense: “much more shall we be saved by him.” Past tense: “we were reconciled to God.” Future tense: “much more shall we be saved by his life.” Present tense: “more than that, we also rejoice in God.” Past tense: “through whom we have now received reconciliation.” Paul uses prior justification for present and future hope.
Paul is showing us how to live the Christian life. When things pop up, how do we respond? We can look to the past justification of God, and from it draw implications that inform and transform our current circumstances. If God has justified us in the past, he must be able to keep us in the future. God doesn’t save partially. He saves entirely. He’s not giving us a get out of jail free card only to put us back in the world to see how we do now. He’s giving us an eternal hope. In moments of trial, we can look to the past reality of our justification to enjoy the present and future hope of glory on that basis. God showed his love at the cross, it is experienced in the present, and is kept in endless storehouses for us in the future. Whatever our need is at any moment, meditating on the justification we have received in Christ sustains us.
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Paul now deals with what we may call “federalism.” Federalism means one person acts as a representative for one or more persons. In the biblical view, God has appointed two representative heads: Adam and Jesus. Sin came into the world through Adam. Righteousness came into the world through Jesus.
Some people struggle with the idea of federalism, especially when it comes to accepting Paul’s words in verses 12-14. It’s hard for some to accept that they inherited sin. Some people believe man is basically good, and from time to time does bad things. But that’s not what the Bible says. Because Adam sinned, we are all born in sin. The theological term is Original Sin. Our Original Sin is a birth defect, and no amount of scientific or meritorious effort can change that which with we were born. Sin stained us from the womb because of our federal head, Adam.
But federalism actually works to our advantage, if we trust in Christ. Sure, it’s a bummer that we’re born into sin because of Adam. It may seem we don’t even get a fair shake at life. But give us enough time, and we would sin our way out of God as well, especially now that we have the law to show us what sin is. We don’t merely miss the mark with our sin; we stomp on top of the law on our way to sin. Whether we are born sinners or not, no one can look at his life now and declare righteousness apart from God. So, to be represented by Adam helps us understand from where we came. Adam was a terrible representative, yes, but he is our representative, and to deny that truth is to put ourselves in more danger, not less. Federalism is to our advantage because if it’s true that in Adam we all sinned, then it can also be true that in Jesus we are all made righteous.
Commentator Douglas Moo says, “The universal consequences of Adam’s sin are the assumption of Paul’s argument; the power of Christ’s act to cancel those consequences is its goal.” Paul has labored to prove the universality of sin. Now he is working to show the universal character of justification for those who believe. If sin condemns all in the church through one man, it makes sense that through one man all are justified. If Adam got us into the war, Jesus got us out.
Adam, as the first man, represented all humanity to follow. The result of his life is, therefore, universal and inescapable. In Adam, all die. But in Christ, all live. Paul calls the benefits of Christ the “free gift.” He mentions this free gift five times in verses 15-17. The point is exactly what it sounds like: the righteousness of Christ is both free, meaning we don’t have to do anything to earn it, and it is a gift, something we receive. Some gifts are as a result of hard work. (Think of a Christmas bonus for employees at a company.) But other gifts are given because of love. (Think of a Christmas gift to a child in a home.) The righteousness of Christ is of the latter kind. God gives the full benefits of Christ’s perfect record to his children because he loves them. All we have to do is receive the free gift with the empty hands of faith.
It would be appropriate to compare ourselves in Adam to a poor family that has made ruin of life. We started out well, with plenty of money in the bank, a beautiful house on a hill, abundant resources, and friends abounding. Then, out of sheer defiance, we decided we didn’t need what got us here anymore. We didn’t get there on our own, but we decided we could make it her on out on our own. We left the one who provided it all to blaze our own trail. In doing so, we cut ourselves off. In an instant, we lost the money. Over time, we lost the house. In the end, we found ourselves on the streets, wandering from town to town just trying to survive. As the generations were born, they didn’t realize the plight. They were born into this family. It just seemed to fit. Then one day a generous donor comes and says he understands what has happened to us and he would like to make it right. He aims to restore all that we squandered. He says he came into some money and it was more than he needed. He wants to share it. So, he gets out his pen and checkbook and writes the check to cover all the debts plus enough to meet every need from here on out.
We are in this family that squandered and lost it all. And then Jesus comes and begins to make all things new. He tells us of his righteousness, shows us his holiness, and grants us his forgiveness. In a moment of realization that came from somewhere outside our own heart, we believe him, give up our rags and follow him.
Joseph Hart, the 18th-century English pastor, put it this way.
I can feelingly say, he hath proved himself stronger than I and his goodness superior to all my unworthiness. He tells me (and enables me to believe it) that I am fair, and there is no spot in me. Though an enemy, he calls me his friend; though a traitor, a child; though a beggared prodigal, he clothes me with the best robe and has put a ring of endless love and mercy on my hand. And though I am sorely distressed by spiritual and internal foes, afflicted, tormented and bowed down almost to death with the sense of my own present barrenness, ingratitude and proneness to evil, he secretly shows me his bleeding wounds and softly and powerfully whispers to my soul, “I am thy great salvation.” His free distinguishing grace is the bottom on which is fixed the rest of my poor weary tempted soul. On this I ground my hope, often times when unsupported by any other evidence, save only the Spirit of adoption received from him. When my dry and empty barren soul is parched with thirst, he kindly bids me come to him and drink my fill at the fountain head. In a word, he empowers me to say with experiential evidence, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Amen and Amen.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/37c34ecb12afcea4-image-asset-0sJzvFRwrCs4HdIrx5segS9bGVQfus.jpeg\")
\n \n\nThe author of Hebrews has been exalting Jesus. We have a high priest who has accomplished the necessary work. He has fulfilled the requirements, made the sacrifice, and entered his heavenly holy place. He has purchased the church with his blood (Acts 20:28). With that shed blood, he parted the sea of our sin to make a path to the Father. Chapters 7-10 are the heart of this book, and we have now approached the final point.
1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”
8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
In 10:1-18, the author focuses on the benefits of Christ’s work. Under the Old Covenant, the worshipers would draw near to God through imperfect sacrifices. Under the New Covenant, Jesus invites to draw near to God through his perfect sacrifice. The law was insufficient to save sinners. It was only the shadow, not the substance. This was an important point for this original audience tempted to retreat into Judaism. Perfection could not be attained by the law (7:11). It took a perfect sacrifice from the perfect priest to make sinful people perfect.
Our sins create in us a desire for forgiveness. We don’t want to live under the consequences of our sin anymore. We need someone to save us from the mess that we have made of our lives. God provided the Day of Atonement as an annual event to forgive the sins of the people, including unintentional sins. It was cleansing, but not an eternal cleansing. It was more a reminder of sins than a remover of sins. That it was repeated annually was proof that it was insufficient. If we are to have our conscience purified, we need more than the blood of goats and bulls. We need human blood to atone for human sin.
We tend think that some sort of sacrifice or offering on our part is sufficient to take away our guilt. “I sinned? Fine, let me just make up for it by this good deed.” But in verses 5-7, the author uses Psalm 40:6-8 to show us that it’s not the sin offering or the burnt offering that removes guilt. Jesus told the Pharisees in Matthew 9:13, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” God doesn’t want our acts without our heart. He wants our heart, and he’ll grant the acts. When we realize we’re sinners, we realize the separation is too far. We need a savior. We need a new body. One with a new heart prepared to do the will of God.
Jesus understood that the Old Testament sacrificial system was not the call of God upon his life. He was not to make sacrifices of bulls or goats but to offer his own life. Jesus gave his heart fully to God. That’s what he wants: obedience born out of a Godward heart.
God prepared a body for Jesus so that he could fulfill the new covenant promises. The eternally begotten Son of God entered human flesh to perfect sinners lost in this world. Since Jesus has accomplished God’s will (and delighted to do it!), he was perfect for the offering God always wanted: a single, sinless offering of an obedient body from a willing heart out of love for him. We could never do that. We needed a forerunner. We needed a savior. We needed someone to come and do the will of God so that we could be restored.
Jesus is the savior and high priest that we need. He stepped out of the shadow of the law and in his perfection willingly laid his life down as payment for our sins. By his work, we are saved once for all. No more sacrifices. His was enough. The will of God provided the body of Christ who was obedient to the point of death on the cross for us. Jesus changed the rules in his sacrifice. He cleansed our consciences. He brought us near. He made us holy. He saved us.
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” 17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Under the Old Covenant, if you sinned, you had to make a sacrifice. You had to bring an offering to the priest, and he had to spill the blood of the animal to cleanse you before God. No matter how many times you did this, it never stopped. You never stopped needing a sacrifice because you could never have a clean conscience. So, the priest was there, standing ready to perform his duties, day after day. No Levitical priest ever sat down in God’s presence. There was too much work to do.
But when Christ offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. The work had ended. The blood of goats and bulls was never able to qualify God’s people for complete fellowship. But through the offering of his body as a willing sacrifice, Jesus qualified us. We no longer visit a standing priest at a temple because we have a sitting priest in heaven. He took away our sin forever.
We must realize that we have a real problem. Our sin has created separation between God and us. We are active rebels who have waged war against God. That sin leads to guilt. That sin and guilt can’t just be overlooked. It must be dealt with completely if we are to be near God. The blood of goats and bulls can’t take away our sin because they aren’t sufficient to do so. They are not a replacement for us. They don’t willingly give their lives. They’re forced to die. Furthermore, our sacrifices toward God are never going to be sufficient to please him. Why? Because what sinners do to atone for their sins is never good enough. A murderer can never give back the life he stole, no matter how deeply he apologizes.
What we need is not a simple removal of guilt. We don’t need our guilty slate wiped clean but a new slate altogether. Our problem is not one of degree, with some being more guilty than others. Our problem is one of kind. We have the wrong kind of heart. We need a new one. But how do we get one?
Here’s where the good news shines. Being a Christian is not about what you do. It’s not about your effort. You will never make the necessary sacrifice, no matter how long you try. Only your blood would satisfy the wrath of God that your sin invoked. But Jesus willingly sacrificed himself on our behalf. He lived the perfect life so that he could offer the perfect sacrifice. He was a sufficient replacement for us because his blood was human yet without sin. Therefore, by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
This changes everything. In the perfect sacrifice of himself, Jesus brought us something that the law could never bring. He completely satisfied the wrath of God, and he changed our hearts. Jeremiah 31:33-34, which the author quotes in verses 16-17, shows us how. There are two primary blessings. First, we will obey the law because it will be put within our hearts rather than forced upon us from outside via the law. Our heart will be transformed to obey God out of love for him in response to his love to us. Second, all the sin separating us from God has been removed and the only person still remembering them as a barrier to God is us. In God’s sight, our sin is dealt with. It is removed. We can come to him unhindered, without sacrifice, because Jesus has paid it all. He no longer holds it against us. We are free.
“Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” The Old Covenant sacrifices have been shattered. It’s gone because it has been completed in Christ. The constant flow of blood in the sacrifices was a visible display of our brokenness. Jesus ended the constant flow. The sacrifice of Christ offers an eternal forgiveness of sins. His sacrifice was a visible display of our restoration. By his wounds, we have been healed.
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
“Therefore” in verse 19 means we need to consider the entirety of chapters 7-10. Considering what the author has said, we come to this conclusion. Jesus is superior in both his person and his work. He’s changed the rules. He’s completed the work. We can stop obeying God ritually. We can start obeying him out of love. We can stop trying to impress God by our sacrifices and start being impressed by God for his.
The Old Covenant provided for proximity to God without nearness to him. The New Covenant, with all its blessings, allows us to draw near to God continually because the price for our sin has been paid in full. These Hebrew Christians wanted to worship God, but they were looking for a way to do it without controversy and danger. Abandoning Christianity and retreating into Judaism may have removed them from earthly danger, but it would have entered them into eternal danger. How we worship God matters. What we do with sacrifices matters. Under the Old Covenant sacrificial system, we determined the sins we atoned for. Under the New Covenant, Jesus atones for all our sins for all time. Do we control the forgiveness God grants or do we accept the forgiveness Jesus grants?
In Christ, we have the authorization to draw near to God the Father. We don’t get this by our achievement. We receive this by God’s grace. The temporary sacrifices have ended. Jesus paid it all. The blood of goats and bulls will never do, not when the blood of Christ speaks a better word.
Do you remember what happened when Jesus died on the cross? Matthew 27:51 tells us, “And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.” The curtain was constructed to separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. One person was allowed inside once a year and not without taking blood. The curtain represented the distance between God and man. But the moment Jesus died on the cross, the curtain was torn in two. It was not torn by man. It was torn by God, “from top to bottom.” The way to God has been opened by the torn flesh of Jesus. There is no distance, no need for any more blood, nothing separating you and God. Jesus has brought you near.
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 10:26-31 provides another warning. Considering the person and work of Christ, what happens to those who refuse to believe Jesus?
The author reminds us that we aren’t dealing with earthly adversaries. We are dealing with the one who “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (1:3). Jesus is waiting from the time of his ascension until the end of time when his enemies shall be made a footstool for his feet (10:13).
But we don’t have to be his enemies anymore. He has done the will of the Father. He has obeyed perfectly, fulfilling the law for us, and died to pay the penalty for our sin. He’s ascended into heaven, and he’s there now, at the right hand of the Father, sitting, ruling, reigning, and serving us as our great high priest. He has accomplished all the work to bring us near. If just listen to him, we will find in him a friend, one made like us to help us in our need.
If we refuse him, the Bible is clear. There no longer remains a sacrifice for sin (v. 26). There is a fearful expectation of judgment (v. 27). There is a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries (v. 27). There is a worse punishment than there was under the law (v. 28-29). The Holy Spirit is outraged (v. 29). “For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” There is one way to God– through the blood of Jesus Christ. Every other way is not only a dead end but an offense to the One who gave his life for you.
The author wants his readers to not only hear his words and heed them but to press these words into one another. In verses 24 and 25 he says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
The word used for “stir up” is the same word Luke uses in Acts 15:39 when talking about the strong disagreement between Paul and Barnabas. That’s the negative connotation. Here in Hebrews is the positive connotation. What he’s calling us to is not a “don’t be hard on yourself,” “give yourself some grace,” “life gets busy, I understand,” “we miss you, it’d be great to have you back when you are able” kind of encouragement. He’s calling us to a robust, durable encouragement that has a bite to it. What you and I need is not merely a pep talk or to get off the hook. We need an exhortation. We need a warning as if we’re on the edge of a cliff that we can’t see. We need to look one another in the eye and communicate that no less than the glory of God is at stake. We need strong words because we are weak people. We need strong words from one another because the glory of Jesus is too wonderful to miss out on. That can’t happen if we isolate ourselves. It can only happen when we intentionally meet together. If you want more of the assurance of God in your life, you must be in regular community with other believers.
Therefore, let’s not let one another miss out on the grace of God. Let’s not let one another fail to draw near to God. Let’s not let one another sin in secret. Let’s not let one another fail to stand for Christ. Let’s encourage one another all the more as the Day draws near.
32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; 38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
Christians have need of endurance. The Christian life is not easy. To stay faithful to Jesus is not easy. It demands that we put ourselves aside for God’s greater glory. In a world at war with God, sometimes it is costly to side with God. But we are not alone and our inheritance is coming. When hard times come, remembering the former days of God’s faithfulness gives us strength. The author constantly calls us to look forward to our better and abiding possession of Jesus Christ. He will restore everything one day. Today might be hard, but heaven is coming. Hold fast. You have been brought near to the only One who ultimately matters. “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay”
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/ab0da5d8260ba616-image-asset-a9i5bGYoSm94ettEWRZlFFWljNCDLw.jpeg\")
\n \n\nHebrews 11 is a famous passage of Scripture. The author highlights the faith of the Old Testament saints to instruct us about faith. This audience has struggled. They’ve faced persecution and will face more in the future. They’re wondering if Jesus is worth it anymore, but they’re hanging on. They’re clinging to Jesus when it seems crazy to do so. It is this context in which the author takes us into chapter 11, where the Old Testament saints speak. William Lane outlines it the following way:
I. The celebration of faith (11:1-2)
II. The role of faith (11:3-38)
I. Creation to Noah (11:3-7)
II. The Patriarchs (11:8-22)
III. Moses to the Conquest of Jericho (11:23-31)
IV. Triumphs over opposing powers (11:32-35a)
V. Sufferings in life and death (11:35b-38)
III. The importance of faith (11:39-40)
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation.
The word “faith” is used 25 times throughout chapter 11. In the first two verses, the author defines faith for us in two ways:
1. “The assurance of things hoped for.”
Faith is forward looking. Our future hope creates present faith. Faith isn’t a leap in the dark. It has an object that is solid and sure.
2. “The conviction of things not seen.”
Faith is the present understanding of the invisible realities around us. Faith looks at the world and sees God’s hand all over. Faith understands that though God is invisible, his promises are certain.
Remember the author’s words in chapter 2. He tells us that God has put everything gin subjection to mankind. But we don’t see that right now. We are weak, sinful, and helpless to stop the world from raging against us. “But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone (Hebrews 2:9). We have seen the end in Jesus Christ. In him, we have a rock-solid foundation to hope in the life we can’t see right now. Just because we can’t see it doesn’t mean it can’t be there. It is there because Jesus is there. We may waver, but Jesus never wavers. Faith is his gift to us. We can believe despite the way things look because we have been given truth beyond this world.
Remember these pictures from the 90s?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/b692930718a244ab-image-asset-skHKQCaq4oNCkOfc0wWJ0a7ZFvp6F7.png\")
\n \n\nJohn Piper uses the illustration of faith as looking at a Magic Eye image. To some, it looks like color and chaos. But to those who have eyes to see, they can see through the image to the picture behind it. That’s faith. It sees through the mess of the world to the everlasting arms underneath it all.
The Magic Eye is all about focus. You must train yourself to unfocus on the details to focus on the picture. The problem with these Hebrews is one of focus. They were looking at themselves, not at the glory of Christ. In the face of suffering and persecution, it can become difficult to stay faithful. But faith creates deep courage that focuses on Jesus when everything is on the line. As William Lane says, “Christian courage is holding on a moment longer while we wait for the advent of Christ.”
Francis Schaeffer, in his book, True Spirituality, talked about the Christian life as “active passivity.”
“If we are to bring forth fruit in the Christian life, or rather if Christ is to bring forth this fruit through us by the agency of the Holy Spirit, there must be a constant act of faith, of thinking: Upon the basis of Your promises I am looking for You to fulfill them, O my Jesus Christ; bring forth Your fruit through me into this poor world.”
Schaeffer goes on to say,
“Consciously the power must not be of myself. It is the power of the crucified, risen, and glorified Christ, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, by faith.”
The author of Hebrews is asking for active passivity: actively put your faith in Christ and trust in his work alone. It is in this spirit that he chooses the Old Testament heroes to highlight. He uses these saints to show how faith acts. We do what God asks us to do trusting that in doing his work he will provide. Tom Schreiner says, “Faith…does not see the end at the beginning. Faith always trusts in the promises of God, even when it looks as if they won’t be fulfilled. The readers should do the same: they must cast themselves entirely on God and believe he will give them the final inheritance.”
Let’s read through this amazing chapter now.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. 5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. 20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. 21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.
23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.
29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
There are so many insights in this chapter, but there is one, overarching, theme to it all. The kind of life God is calling us to is a life of faith in the promises of God in Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Each Old Testament saint mentioned found peace with God by trusting him. They looked at their circumstances and in the hardness of them considered God’s promises to be more real than their current situations. The life of faith is a life clinging to the hope that God offers. It is listening to his word and trusting him over all the other options of the world.
The author shows us that in the life of faith there can be two realities, and both can result from true faith. There is a path of earthly victory and there is a path earthly defeat.
Verses 33-35a highlight earthly victory. The saints conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, receive back their dead by resurrection. On the other hand, verses 35b-38 highlight earthly defeat. The saints were tortured, refused to accept release, suffered mocking and flogging, suffered chains and imprisonment, stoned, sawn in two, killed with the sword, went about destitute, afflicted, mistreated, wandered about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves.
Notice that these results are not a difference of faith but a difference of circumstance. The faith is the same because the faith is put in the same God. God has no obligation to give us happiness, material wealth, good circumstances, and so on in this life. The blessing of God is primarily future oriented. True faith sees beyond circumstances. No matter what happens – in victory or in defeat – faith reaches into heaven and draws salvation from the throne of God.
The question Hebrews 11 asks is this: is Christianity a good philosophy or is it a wholly new way of life? Faith in Jesus causes us to leave behind the shadow of the Old Testament and cling to the realities of the New Testament. Our journey is not to an earthly promised land, but to a heavenly home prepared for us by Jesus. Will we believe in the promises of God and let those promises inform and transform our lives, or will we live as if what Jesus accomplished is a good thing but ultimately insufficient?
Hebrews 11:39-40 concludes this section,
39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
For these Christians who were facing persecution, looking back to those who have come before (the great cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1)) served as encouragement that faith can endure. Some were victorious, some were defeated, but all were faithful. All of them saw the universe as it really is. As Gareth Cockerill says, “All, like Abel, will die without the fullness of what God has promised. All, like Enoch, are promised triumph over death.” No matter what happens here, all in Christ receive life in the end.
For us today, so far removed from these people, we can see the faithfulness of God to them and see the importance of our faith. The Christian life is a pilgrimage. Abraham was called to leave his home and his family and go “to the land that I will show you” (Geneses 12:1). As Abraham left, so we must leave. God is calling us all to his heavenly home, and until we get there, we follow him wherever he takes us - no matter the cost and no matter the place.
After bringing us into God’s hall of fame in chapter 11, the author then reminds us that none of these received what was promised in their lifetime. None of them reached the rest spoken of in chapters 3 & 4. None of them saw the priest who would come after the order of Melchizedek spoken of in chapters 5 & 7. None of them lived under the New Covenant spoken of in chapters 8, 9, and 10. God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
We need forerunners. We need heroes. In Christ, we are united with all the saints that have lived before us and all who will live after us. The Lord is creating a story of redemption and faith through his people. Abraham did not know it in Genesis 12 but his trust in God still speaks to us today. Who will your life speak to because you trusted God when everything was on the line?
In love, God is delaying the consummation of history because as great as those people were, the story of God extends to us today. One day, just as the Lord has taken us back through the lives of these saints, he will take them through our lives of faith. And we will stand amazed together before the Lord who was faithful to us all.
But what if we struggle to believe? How should we respond to this chapter?
D.A. Carson preached a sermon once entitled, “The Ground of All Human Assurance Before God.” In it, he describes what faith is and how faith works.
Picture two Jews, by the name of Smith and Brown. Remarkably Jewish names. The day before the first Passover they’re having a little discussion in the land of Goshen, and Smith says to Brown, “Boy, are you a little nervous about what’s going to happen tonight?”
Brown says, “Well, God told us what to do through his servant Moses. You don't have to be nervous. Haven’t you slaughtered the lamb and dobbed the two door posts with blood—put blood on the lintel? Haven’t you done that? You’re all ready and packed to go? You’re going to eat your whole Passover meal with your family?”
“Of course I’ve done that. I'm not stupid. But, it’s still pretty scary when you think of all the things that have happened around here recently. You know, flies and river turning to blood. It’s pretty awful. And now there’s a threat of the first-born being killed, you know. It’s all right for you. You’ve got three sons. I’ve only got one. And I love my Charlie, and the Angel of Death is passing through tonight. I know what God says; I put the blood there. But it’s pretty scary, I’ll be glad when this night is over.”
And the other one responds, “Bring it on. I trust the promises of God.”
That night, the angel of death swept through the land. Which one lost his son?
And the answer of course is: neither. Because death doesn’t pass over them on the ground of the intensity, or the clarity, of the faith exercised. But on the ground of the blood of the lamb. That’s what silences the accuser.
The blood silences the accuser of the brothers as he accuses us before God. He silences our consciences when he accuses us directly. How many times do we writhe in agony asking if God can ever love us enough, if God can ever care for us enough after we have done such stupid, sinful, rebellious things after being Christians for 40 years? What are you going to say, “Oh, God, I tried hard, you know. I did my best. It was a bad moment”? No, no, no.
I have no other argument! I need no other plea! It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me! We overcome him by the blood of the lamb. There is the ground of all human assurance before God. There is the ground of our faith. Not guaranteeing intensity of faith—so fickle are we. It’s not the intensity of our faith but the object of our faith that saves. They overcome him on the ground of the blood of the lamb.
The Old Testament saints in Hebrews 11 simply trusted God. It was not the measure of their faith but the object of their faith that sustained. It will be so for us as well. Our faith may rise and fall, but Jesus sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high. He has taken us with him into the inner court of heaven. He’s the anchor of our soul.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/1c73e91f7bfe636f-mountains-996gNV8KP9mipZg0hmIdOYYokYSLQe.jpg\")
\n \n\nThe Christian life is not easy. Like a good pastor, the author of Hebrews has been shepherding his flock to stick with Jesus. First, he convinces them that Jesus is superior as the Son of God. Then he convinces them that Jesus is superior in his ministry as High Priest. Now, he is showing them how that helps Christians endure during hard times. If we have ears to hear, he’s shepherding us to the same green pastures.
One of the ways the Lord shepherds is by warning. The author transitions from Chapter 11’s “hall of faith” to give one of the sharpest warnings in all of the Bible in Chapter 12, about discipline and repentance. The author uses a combination of exhortation and motivation to move us to a place of openness before the Lord. He startles our soul to wake us up so that he can calm us with the gospel. Sometimes we just need to be disturbed and reoriented. Our hearts drift from God, and we need a sharp poke to get us back to him.
John Piper summarizes chapter 12 this way, “If you look at the whole chapter, there are what you might call four peaks and four valleys. The peaks are exhortation (or right-doing), and the valleys are motivation (or right-knowing) - reasons to act this way.”
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/6ac64d0fb2a96994-image-asset-5joDaeUnG7kGXZeMDA0bgkKdzO9VHe.png\")
\n \n\n
What we need before entering this chapter is a humility that comes only from God. So, stop and pray now before continuing.
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Imagine your life is a race held inside an arena. The gun cracked at your birth and the rest of your life, up until your death, consists of the race. You are not alone, but you cannot depend on anyone else to run your race for you. Obstacles litter the lane. You must jump over, go under, or slide around them. Some of them you have to face and conquer through force. You can’t stop running, and you can’t go back. You can’t see what’s up ahead, but onward you go, trusting that the prize awaits.
That’s the image the author of Hebrews is conjuring. The Christian life is a race toward God. What do we need to get there? We need two things. First, we need to lose the extra cargo. Second, we need to focus.
We all carry cargo that slows us down. The author gives us two examples: weights and sins. If you watch a runner before a race, you notice that he removes every unnecessary piece of clothing. He doesn’t want anything in his way. Clothes aren’t bad, but in a sprint, all they do is hinder. Weights are the extra cargo we’re carrying around that isn’t sinful but isn’t helpful.
Weights slow us down. Sins stop us cold. They push us backward, like dropping the baton. What the author is calling us to is a removal of all things that keep us from running the race the Lord has set out for us.
But simply removing things won’t keep our legs moving. We need motivation to keep going. The Christian life is not made up primarily of avoiding sin. It is made up primarily of running toward Jesus. We aren’t running away from something; we’re running toward someone.
Hebrews 11 gave us many examples of lives of faith. Those examples speak to us today. But the author has one more example above all the others: Jesus. His race was filled with obstacles. In the end, he faced unimaginable suffering at the cross. He faced separation from the Father he had known for eternity. He faced sin that ruined the world. But he did not fail, and he did not stop running. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. And what was that joy? It was you and me. It was the saints that he has loved and saved.
Jesus’ successful race is the model the author calls us to follow. He’s the trailblazer paving the way. But Jesus isn’t merely an example for us to follow, he’s the entire point of the race. He always has been. That’s what Chapter 11 is about: people running toward Jesus. The cloud of witnesses fill the stands in the arena of our lives, cheering us on toward the goal of Jesus Christ. We are not the first to do this.
The author is not discounting the difficulty of life. But he knows that we will respond to the hardness of life depending on our focus. If we focus, then we will want to lay aside every weight and sin.
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
We long to be in green pastures and beside still waters. We want our lives filled with peace and joy. But so much of life is just hanging on. So much of life feels like an exhausting race that will never end and will only increase in pain. So, how do we endure when our lives are falling apart before the Lord?
What we need in desperate times is to behold the love of God in Jesus Christ. We need to remember the exhortation that addresses us as sons. What do good fathers do? They discipline their children. They lead them out of foolishness and into maturity. Discipline is painful, and no one who has experienced it can deny that. So, when we are under God’s discipline, he is just being our Father. To make it through life without discipline reveals not God’s blessing but God’s absence. If you’ve never been disciplined by God, the question you should ask is not “how is my life so good?” but “does God even love me?” Every good father disciplines his son.
Jesus himself was disciplined, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). If Jesus, being perfect needed it, we need it as well. Discipline is God’s grace conforming us to Christ’s likeness. It helps us grow in obedience. We, like Jesus, learn obedience through what we suffer. In that suffering, God is not giving us up. He’s bringing us in. Even painful suffering inflicted upon Christians by outsiders cannot prevent God’s purposes of grace in sanctification. It only serves his purposes. “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). Our lives are transformed as we see that God’s discipline is not done out of anger from God but out of love. “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves” (12:6).
There’s a poem that I love. Unfortunately, we do not know the author’s name, but that’s ok because we don’t know who wrote the book of Hebrews, either. The truth remains.
When God wants to drill a man
And thrill a man
And skill a man
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part
When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him
And with mighty blows converts him
Into shapes and forms of clay
Which only God can understand.
How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes
How He uses whom He chooses
And with mighty power infuses him
With every act induces him
To try His splendor out —
God knows what He’s about.
At times, we feel the hand of God heavy upon our life. We long for relief. But God knows what is best for us, just as we know what is best for our children. If we trust our earthly fathers to discipline us for our good, how much more should we trust our Heavenly Father?
Viewed biblically, discipline is a cause for rejoicing, not lamenting. God is moving us toward holiness. He’s bringing us closer to his heart. It hurts at first, but it yields fruit in the end. To understand that difficulty in your life is used by God for his purposes is to rest deeply in the reality of Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Do not despise the discipline of God. If you’re on his anvil, stay on his anvil. Jesus did, and he saved the world.
12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
After encouraging us to accept the discipline of God, the author then gives us 6 exhortations in 12:12-17.
John Piper says, “All of these commands for us to do something are rooted in something God is already doing for us and in us. So just like chapter 11 taught us, we are to do these things \"by faith\" - that is, with the assurance that God is for us and is working for those who trust him. We are not being commanded here in this text to do things that will get God to adopt us as his children. We are being commanded to act like people who are utterly persuaded that we are already adopted through faith, and that our omnipotent Father loves us, and that the most painful adversities of our lives are expressions of his loving discipline and not his hateful vengeance.”
But there is a warning here in this passage, as well. There is a common thought that goes something like this, “I don’t need to get right with God now. I just need to do what makes me happy. I’ll get right with God later.” That’s foolish. You cannot determine the point at which you come to God. God determines that. Therefore, if you live an unrepentant and unapologetic life, it is possible to reach a point when you are unable to repent. Your heart will simply be too hard. You will have spurned God your entire life. You heard the news. You just denied the truth. If these Hebrew readers continue to ignore the revelation from God in the person of Jesus Christ, if they return to the slavery of the law, if they do not persevere with Christ, they will find themselves on the wrong side.
To be clear, God will save anyone with a truly repentant heart, no matter how good or bad their actions. But there is a kind of heart that doesn’t really want to be forgiven by God. The desires are all wrong. They don’t want God, they want something else, and see God as the pathway rather than the destination. There is a sin that leads to death (1 John 5:16). For Esau, this deadly sin was present. He allowed his earthly desires to spurn the grace of God in his life. He gave away his birthright for a bowl of soup.
The thought, “I’ll wait to make peace with God,” says you want the gifts God gives but not God himself. But the gospel does not allow for that. The great prize of the Christian life is not the gifts of God but God himself.
The Hebrews readers faced temptation. Craig Koester says, “Esau gave up the promise in order to ease his physical discomfort, listeners might consider giving up the promise in order to ease their social discomfort.” Will we cave on doctrine to fit in? Will we abandon gospel issues for a life of popularity? Do we see eternal things as less important than temporal things? Is the persecution we’re facing the end-all-be-all? Is the suffering we must endure the greatest anyone has ever faced? Is not God better than all trials? Is not Jesus better than all Saviors? Is not the Holy Spirit the guarantee of all hope?
This warning should startle us, but it should not cause us despair, especially if we trust in Christ for our salvation. If you do not trust Christ, may this serve as a warning to turn to God in repentance while you still can. A soft heart is a gift from God. Do not waste it.
18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
The author exhorts us for the final time not to refuse God who is speaking to us through the person of Jesus Christ. There is a difference between our experience of coming to God and that of Israel. There is no central place of worship. We come to a heavenly city. It is all invisible. It is spiritual, and therefore omnipresent. We can go to God at any time. The seriousness of coming to God remains. But we have something that Israel did not have, namely, a perfect high priest mediating for us. We do not have to worry about not touching the mountain because we’ve been given access to the throne room. The blood of Jesus does not speak condemnation to us who believe but speaks mercy and grace and acceptance instead.
We may be thinking, “How in the world am I supposed to run this race?” That’s a good question to wrestle with. God is not opposed to wrestling through it with you. Jacob’s life proves that. But here’s what we must know: God is a good trainer. Therefore, our hardships are not haphazard. They are purposeful. God is a good father. Therefore, our hardships are not unloving. They are kind and merciful. And God is a good God. Therefore, our hardships are not punishment. Jesus took all the punishment our sin required upon himself at the cross. Our race is wrapped up in his race. And he won. That means we just might win too.
One day, there will come a great earthquake, and all that is shakable will be shaken and destroyed. Only that which will remain forever will stand. Though you and I feel so weak and feeble, in Christ we have been reborn and granted eternal life. Only eternal things will survive that great day. If we put our hope in earthly things, we will be disappointed in the end no matter how well life goes. If we put our hope in eternal things, we will rejoice in the end no matter how bad our life goes. If we focus our eyes on Jesus and run the race he has set out for us, when all is shaken, we will remain.
So, we can draw near to the one who made us righteous, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. His blood speaks a better word than the blood of goats and bulls. His blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. His blood is not crying out for justice. It is crying out for mercy. He has purchased our eternal forgiveness. He took upon himself the responsibility to be his brother’s keeper, and he is not ashamed of you.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/19b6a88ac5aebf61-city-ov4XomChxpJKXvS6C9bnHRZBzrWpkB.jpg\")
\n \n\nThe author concludes his letter with some final words of exhortation to these Hebrew Christians fighting to trust Jesus. He has taken his audience a long way. He has compared Jesus to everything and proven that Jesus is always better. He has highlighted the worthiness of Christ, especially in his priestly role, able to help us when we need him most. He has encouraged us, warned us, exhorted us, comforted us, and afflicted us. He has compelled us to persevere with Jesus. Now he is ready to close this book with some final exhortations and a final blessing.
1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
In his classic book, The City of God, St. Augustine shows us how to think about the world. There are two cities: the City of God and the City of Man. These cities are founded on two loves. Augustine explains:
Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men; but the greatest glory of the other is God, the witness of conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, “Thou art my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.”
Hebrews 13 is about two cities, with the focus on the City of God. How does the City of God live? The residents, sustained by Jesus, persevere in love. They remember those in prison, hold marriage in honor, stay free from love of money, and remember that the Lord is their helper. By nature, the City of Man is opposed to the City of God because love of God has replaced love of Self, and Self never dies easily. The City of God operates under different rules, powered by the Holy Spirit. Whereas the City of Man looks for the easy way out, maximizing comfort and affluence, the City of God looks for the righteous way out, maximizing love and care.
Because the City of Man hates the City of God, the original audience would have known people imprisoned for their faith. The author is asking his readers to identify with them in their suffering because Christians comprise one body. Undoubtedly, that would have included watching over their spouses and children. The unity of the believers means not only that they are part of one church but that they stick their neck out for one another, even if that leads to suffering. After all, they’re following a man who died for the ones he loved. That’s not an easy call, but what in the Christian life is easy when living in the City of Man?
When it comes to holy living, the City of God never lets up. The joy of the Lord is their strength. So, naturally, the author moves from the hard to the harder. He calls his readers to two things in verses 4-5: marriage must be held in honor, and we must be content. The author has repeatedly warned us not to drift from God. One way we could fall away from the faith is to give ourselves over to sexual sin. Another way is to give ourselves over to greed.
Sexual immorality and greed are often closely linked. Discontentment leads to sexual sin, and sexual sin leads to discontentment. It is as true today as it was in the ancient world. Our disordered desires cause our downfall. But in the City of God, citizens are content with what God has provided because they’ve already received the deepest desire of their heart. They have God, the one who fulfills all longings.
We drift from God because we believe the Devil’s lie that God is holding us back. We are like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, considering the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge Good and Evil when the Tree of Life has been provided. Therefore, we fight sexual temptation and discontentment by considering Jesus Christ. Christ keeps us tied to the harbor of the gospel. He holds us in the throne room of heaven. We may feel the wind and the rage of the storms, but we cannot be lost at sea because the anchor holds.
To endure, we need reminders of the sovereign power of God. Here in Hebrews 13, the author quotes Psalm 118 as comfort and motivation for holy living. “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Our motivation to keep the marriage bed undefiled and remain content is the goodness of God. He will not leave us nor forsake us. He is our helper. The logic of the gospel tells us that all our greatest fears have been conquered in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. If the Lord grants us victory over our foes of sin and death, how much more will he grant victory over sexual temptation and greed? Is God holding out on us, or are we holding out on him? In which City do we have our citizenship?
7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. 19 I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.
Verse 8 is the key verse in this passage: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Inside the City of God, no matter who rules the world around us, we know that Jesus is the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power (Heb. 1:3). We have no election to fret over. We have no takeover to worry about. We have no party to apologize for. God is on his throne, everything is going his way, and he loves us.
Leadership change can be disruptive to an organization, ushering in uncertainty and fear. We grow to love those who have led and pastored us for years, and when they go, we fear what the next leader will do. But there is a great hope that the City of God has that the City of Man can never know. Men die. God lives forever. Leadership change in the City of Man almost guarantees strife. Leadership change in the City of God reminds us of the true Leader, Jesus. With Jesus as our head, all godly leaders lead under him. Though the leaders may change, Jesus never does. It’s like the Vice President being changed after four years. Would we notice a difference in the direction of leadership?
Leadership change in the church should not be a cause for alarm. It should be a cause for rejoicing. But every Christian must have their eyes peeled for wrong doctrine. Leadership change is dangerous when the gospel is compromised. That’s why the author urges them not to be led away by diverse and strange teachings. As long as they follow those who preach the same gospel message, they will find the same gospel grace.
Some leaders have passed on to be with the Lord, and others rise to take their place, but Jesus sustains his church because he is the same yesterday and today and forever. We can submit to our Jesus-loving leaders because they are led by Jesus himself, and he always remains faithful.
But it won’t be easy. Jesus’ leadership is not accepted by the City of Man. If we are to follow him, we should expect the same kind of treatment that he received. He was dragged outside of the city. We should not be surprised if we are as well. In fact, the author of Hebrews calls us to voluntarily go outside the camp. We must leave the City of Man to come to the City of God. It is better to be mistreated with the people of God than to be lavished with all the riches of the world. We have treasures the world cannot understand.
20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
22 I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. 23 You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. 24 Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. 25 Grace be with all of you.
The City of Man causes unrest for the City of God, but God is the God of peace. There is no need to fear because God has brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus. The worst they could do was kill him, but even that didn’t have the desired effect. What they meant for evil God meant for good. The resurrection of Jesus was not only a miracle; it was the confirmation that the citizens of the City of God are going to be ok. The City of Man may have their crosses and spears, but the City of God can bear them as they wait for God to turn the spears into plowshares.
The peace of God reigns through the person of Jesus. He is the great shepherd of the sheep. He himself told us this in John 10. He isn’t a shepherd who merely keeps us from trouble, but one who endured the greatest trouble the City of Man had to offer. Because he came out the other side, we can believe his words: No one can snatch us out of his hands (John 10:28). Through his shed blood, he offers us an eternal covenant. We can endure the hard times because this covenant offers better promises. We may wonder if we will make it through, but Jesus will equip us with everything good that we may do his will.
The author closes by telling us his purpose. This has been a “word of exhortation.” That means this has been a sermon. And what do all good sermons do? They lift Jesus up and usher the listeners (in this case, readers) to behold his glory. He has written this to Christians wondering if Jesus is worth it anymore.
After all that he has taken us through – the Sonship, the Priesthood, the New Covenant, the warnings - what we should see at the end is the worthiness of Jesus. He is able to save.
What the author of Hebrews gives is not a job description to adhere to but a savior to unite to. What we need as we close this book is exactly what God has been giving us through this book all along: grace. It is the grace of God that saves, sustains, and brings us home. Grace is in all and through all because Jesus Christ has set his face toward us in love. So, therefore, grace be with all of you.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/69b1277837e3449c-image-asset-xxnHwZ1SVirXNg3bf9N2zgz1cwWaz7.jpeg\")
\n \n\nA good preacher lifts the gospel, takes a scalpel, and cuts it wide open, letting the guts fall out to reveal the insides. What we need is not a surface level understanding of the best news the world has ever heard. We need to see it all, guts and everything. That’s what Paul does in the book of Romans. He cuts deep into the gospel of Jesus Christ and shows us the glory within.
Since it’s writing, Romans has been used by God to launch revivals, both personal and global. In 386, Augustine found in chapter 13 the antidote to an immoral life. In 1515, Martin Luther found grace upon grace in chapter 3 as he struggled with the unsatisfiable law of the God he was growing to hate. In 1783, John Wesley thought he was a Christian. Then one day, as he sat among friends in a small group, he listened as one of them read the words of Luther’s commentary on Romans. His heart warmed, and he was changed. For centuries, God has used these 16 chapters to change the course of individual hearts that in turn changed the course of the world around them. What might he do in us and through us today?
Every Christian must understand the logic of Romans. In it, we find life. So many of our questions, be they existential, philosophical, theological, etc., can be answered with the logic of Paul’s magnum opus. Martin Luther said, “This Epistle is really the chief part of the New Testament and the very purest Gospel, and is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul. It can never be read or pondered too much, and the more it is dealt with the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes.”
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul introduces himself as a servant of Christ Jesus. Some translations say a slave of Christ. That’s an accurate translation. Francis Schaeffer points out that in doing this, Paul “introduces a theme central to Romans: that after accepting Jesus as our Savior, we are to live for him.” He has been set apart – that is, he has been separated from his old life and separated to Jesus. His words are the words of any man who has been brought into a relationship with Christ. Who we once were is gone. We are his now.
Therefore, the book of Romans isn’t about Paul. It’s about God. It’s not Paul’s message. It’s God’s message. That’s why Paul wastes no time getting to the news of the gospel. He explains that the gospel isn’t new news. It’s old news now fulfilled. It’s an ancient message, written into the fabric of the Genesis narrative. It’s a story of a Son, promised in history, come in the fullness of time to save his people. He is the Son of God in power who was resurrected after being crucified and gives life to all who will come to him. The message of the gospel is basically this, “You are worse than you think you are, but God is better than you think he is, and as he shows that to you, you are set free by his love.” You and I would not dare to mark ourselves with the title of Saint. But God does because God loves bad people into perfection in Jesus Christ.
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
The first thing Paul does, after presenting the gospel, is give thanks to God for these people. Gratitude is so woven into Paul’s heart that he cannot begin thinking about a group of people, despite all their troubles and flaws, without first giving thanks that God has saved them. That’s what the gospel does. It connects us with all believers throughout the world and transforms us into grateful people. We may be different, and those differences may cause tension, but in Christ peace has been downloaded from heaven into the software of our heart.
Every Christian has something to give to another Christian because every Christian has been touched by God, and God always has more to give. That’s why Paul talks about mutual encouragement in verse 12. Paul’s faith encourages the Romans, and the Romans’ faith encourages Paul. In salvation, God did not exile us to an island. He brought us into a community. It is there, among the people of God, where faith rubs against faith and the fire of something bigger begins to burn. The world will never notice the church until the church starts noticing one another. The gospel drags us out into the light and, to our surprise, doesn’t shame us but cleans us. We can be known in our flaws because we’ve become righteous in God’s grace.
That means the community of God is a collection of individuals saved by one God sent out for a cooperative mission. Though we are one community, we have individual callings. Paul was called to both Greeks and barbarians, to wise and foolish. As a gospel preacher and church planter, he was eager to preach the gospel. There is a lesson for us there. Paul is not eager to merely be among the saints of Rome. He has a purpose of going: to preach the gospel. The preaching of the gospel is the sharing of the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, “One word of truth outweighs the whole world.” It’s that word of truth that he wants to share with everyone. Nothing contains more truth than the gospel.
But preaching the gospel can feel crazy. After all, we’re not doing anything. Shouldn’t the church do something? Gospel proclamation is talk – but not merely talk. The gospel is simply good news. It’s nothing more, and certainly nothing less. But news can make all the difference. In our individualized, Western, modern culture, productivity, materialism, and consumerism have so infiltrated our lives that preaching the gospel has become, if not a bore, a relic of the past. We are pushed to become relevant – to reach out and bring in by all means possible. But the work of the church, the occupation of the Christian, is to preach the gospel and let God do the rest of the work. That’s Paul’s purpose in Romans.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Francis Schaeffer said Romans is split into two sections: chapters 1-8 and chapters 9-16, and the key to understanding the first section is Romans 1:16-17. John Chrysostom summarized these verses this way, “It is the righteousness of God that is revealed here, not yours but God’s, a righteousness both abundant and easily accessible. For you do not receive it by toils and labors, but you receive it by a gift from above contributing one thing only from yourself, namely, ‘believing.’” If he is right, how could anyone be ashamed of the gospel? What else in the world has the power to change us so thoroughly simply by believing?
The gospel is a powerful message, but there are a lot of powerful messages in the world. What makes it unique? Michael Bird explains it this way, “The gospel is a speech-act, in that it not only announces the way of salvation, but actualizes salvation in those who hear it with faith. The same power of God manifested in raising the Son, in creation, in the divine acts of redemptive history, in keeping covenant promises, and in miraculous events is also infused into the gospel. The gospel manifests God’s death-defeating, curse-reversing, evil-vanquishing, devil-crushing, sin-cleansing, life-giving, love-forming, people-uniting, super- über-mega-grace power that results in ‘salvation.’” In short, the gospel is not only powerful in message but also powerful in action. Powered by God himself, the gospel does something even as it says something.
As powerful as the gospel is, we can somehow still become ashamed of it. That’s how deep our sin is. The very message that saved our soul is the same message that we can be embarrassed by. Jesus warned us about this. In Luke 9, Jesus tells us, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me… whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” We have a choice: embrace the shame of the cross, or become ashamed of the cross. In God’s Kingdom, laying down your life gives life back, and holding on to life takes it away. The choice seems obvious, but it must be made moment by moment.
Paul is proud of the gospel, but it does make him appear odd to the world. He doesn’t mind. Do we? Michael Bird gives us a brief list as a checkpoint:
I am ashamed of the gospel when I am afraid to tell it.
I am ashamed of the gospel when I’m too intimidated to uphold it.
I am ashamed of the gospel when I’m too lazy to teach it.
I am ashamed of the gospel when I’m too selfish to live a life worthy of it.
I am ashamed of the gospel when I make other things the center of fellowship.
I am ashamed of the gospel when I affirm any political, economic, or social position that denies
what the Lord Jesus taught about the poor, the orphan, the sick, the elderly, or the
homeless.
I am ashamed of the gospel when I make excuses for the unchristian behavior of my political
heroes.
I am ashamed of the gospel when I spend more money on chocolate than charity.
I am ashamed of the gospel when my social life becomes more important than my church life.
I am ashamed of the gospel when I spend more time combing my hair than active in prayer.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
We don’t like to talk about the wrath of God. But without understanding the wrath of God, we cannot understand the grace of God. And if we are ever to be saved, we must understand the grace of God. What we need as we dive into these murky waters of the early chapters of Romans is a willingness to truly look at ourselves. We need to see how muddy we really are. Once we’ve seen that, we will be prepared to see how clean Christ makes us.
Since God is righteous, he cannot accept unrighteousness. Therefore, his wrath is an outflow of his righteousness. In order to understand his goodness, we must understand our badness. But notice the first thing Paul mentions here. He doesn’t jump right to homosexuality or murder or gossip. He begins with suppression of the truth because that’s the first pigsty we all roll around in.
Our problems stem not from the things we do externally but from the reasons we do them internally. We have a heart problem before we have an action problem. God has not hidden himself in the shadows of history. He has not taken his place upon his throne as he watches from behind the veil of clouds and sky. He has placed himself in the center of the universe, and all creation points upward to him. Our problem is not that God is unknowable but that we are unwilling to know him. We would rather deny his existence than bow at his feet. Worshipping God is a selfless event. We cannot worship both ourselves and God. So, when push comes to shove, we suppress the truth of God for the exaltation of ourselves. The problem is we don’t really know what we want. We just think we do.
Paul starts with creation. God is made plain through what he has made. Whittaker Chambers was a Soviet spy who became, “the most important American defector from Communism.” He married a woman who was an anarchist, and she became pregnant. He assumed they would have an abortion because so many of his party believed it was more evil to bring a child into this terrible world than it was to kill the baby inside the womb. His wife would not consent, and they had the baby. In his book, Witness, Chambers recalls his former atheism as he gazed upon his little girl.
“I was sitting in our apartment on St. Paul Street in Baltimore.... My daughter was in her high chair. I was watching her eat. She was the most miraculous thing that had ever happened in my life. I liked to watch her even when she smeared porridge on her face or dropped it meditatively on the floor. My eye came to rest on the delicate convolutions of her ear—those intricate, perfect ears. The thought passed through my mind: “No, those ears were not created by any chance coming together of atoms in nature.... They could have been created only by immense design.” The thought was involuntary and unwanted. I crowded it out of my mind.... I had to crowd it out of my mind. If I had completed it, I should have had to say: Design presupposes God.”
Though Chambers eventually came to saving faith, in this instance, he suppressed the truth. His daughter clearly pointed to God’s existence, but that was too much for him to handle. It went against everything he believed. So, instead of changing, he just put it out of his mind. This blunt explanation is the sin Paul is describing. It is not that God is hard to find. Like the child ignoring the “F” on his report card, we just don’t want to acknowledge him.
We all believe in something. Some of us believe in God. Some of us don’t. But the difference is not in believing or not believing. We all believe. For the truth-suppressor, the belief leads to foolishness, thought they think it is wisdom. They believe they know the way to life. The way of the world is the path of foolishness that leads to heartbreak and disappointment. No matter how bold the signs may be along the way, we ignore them, cover them up, or mock them. We dance our way into hell, and only when we arrive are we willing to recognize that our heart longed for something more all along. It’s not that we never knew, it’s that we never wanted to know. We all believe something. The question is: what do we believe? Are we God, or is God God?
To be out for ourselves is to sin, and sin separates us from God. If we sin long enough, boldly enough, with enough violence against the throne in open defiance, God just might give us over to that which we love so much. The proof is found in verses 21-23, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
When we fail to honor God, or give thanks to God, or exchange the glory of God for other things, we place ourselves in mortal danger. God might give us up. The abandonment of God to ourselves is the very worst thing that could ever happen. To suffer a thousand crucifixions but to be with God would be better than to enjoy the physical pleasures of sin in this world but to be without God.
Some of us may be walking the tightrope of sin, thinking that we can jump off whenever we want. That’s foolishness. If you’re relishing in sin on Saturday and singing to God on Sunday, you’re not worshipping. You’re mocking. And that mocking will end one day. If you want God, you can have him. But you cannot have God and sin together. No one can serve two masters. If you want the master of sin, God might let you have it, but Paul is here to tell you that you don’t want it, and you don’t have to have it. There’s a much better alternative.
But before we can see the alternative, we must first see the fullness of our sin. Look at verse 32, “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” We live in this reality today. Most of us are heterosexual, but the pressure is on to accept every sexual orientation as worthy and honorable. Lady Gaga sings at half-time of the Super Bowl,
It doesn't matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M
Just put your paws up 'cause you were born this way, baby
My mama told me when I was young
We are all born superstars
\"There's nothing wrong with loving who you are\"
She said, \"'Cause he made you perfect, babe\"
\"So hold your head up girl and you'll go far,
Listen to me when I say\"
I'm beautiful in my way
'Cause God makes no mistakes
I'm on the right track, baby I was born this way
No matter gay, straight, or bi
Lesbian, transgendered life
I'm on the right track baby
I was born to survive
God makes no mistakes, that’s true. But you and I do. In fact, we don’t make “mistakes,” we make sin. Let’s call it what it is, because only in truth telling will we find the truth teller. Mistakes imply innocence, but none of us is innocent. Our sin damns us to hell. Will we go there on the 50-yard-line dance floor, flaunting our made-for-TV identities, or will be bow before the King on his throne and accept the weakness of the flesh with the power of the gospel?
For every person who flaunts their sin, there is a grandstand of supporters who may enjoy a different flavor but cheer others on in their pursuit of happiness. Maybe you’re not a bold sinner. That’s good. But are you an encourager of those who are? Do you give approval where you should give warning? To always love is not to always accept. It does matter who you love and how you love. True love without real warning is only abandonment to creaturely tastes. True love includes real warning. Do you feel warned? Then Paul – and God – must really love us.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/ef0e0cffd3984e56-image-asset-rtWGctegYaTjHAAE4OCGW92hQwJzPY.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIn chapter 1, Paul leaves us with bad news. He speaks to the Man without the Bible and proves that he is under the wrath of God because he suppresses the truth. God is obvious yet sinful man ignores him. He does what he wants to do, even if it violates what he knows to be true. Furthermore, others not only partake of the same things but also give approval to these sinful acts.
In chapter 2, Paul continues speaking about the wrath of God, but this time he speaks to the man with the Bible. It is not only the Gentiles who have a problem with God. The Jews do as well. Whereas in chapter 1 Paul condemns those who do and approve sin, in chapter 2 he condemns those who do and condemn sin. Chapter 1 confronts the liberal relativists (no rules, no law to obey), while Chapter 2 confronts the conservative hypocrites (lots of rules, law unobeyed).
Here in Chapter 2, Paul makes his argument as a diatribe (a rhetorical speech against an imaginary opponent), conversing with a hypothetical man and responding to his questions and objections. Michael Bird summarizes the message this way, “There is no superiority for the Jewish opponent by presiding in judgment (vv. 1-11), possessing the Torah (vv. 12-16), privileged ethnicity (vv. 17-24), or partaking of circumcision (vv. 25-29) …Paul’s point is that the Jews have no right to boast over their pagan neighbors because, while God is faithful to Israel, he is also impartial in his judgment against Israel. So, in the end, Gentiles and Jews both stand before God ‘without excuse’ on account of their sin.”
Because Paul uses an imaginary man to converse with, I will use the generalized “he” throughout. It is for you to decide if your name should replace him.
1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
Let’s pretend our friend – Paul’s imaginary opponent - read chapter 1 and concluded, “Whew, I’m glad I’m not like those guys!” Paul has some bad news for him. He doesn’t have an excuse, either. Everyone who judges condemns himself because the judge does the same things. Francis Schaeffer illustrates this.
It is as if each of us were born with a small tape recorder around our neck, and that tape recorder records all our moral judgments against others – “he is wrong…she is wrong…he is wrong” – throughout our whole life. Then, at the final judgment, God simply plays the tape back and we hear in our own voice the moral judgments we have made and God asks, “Have you kept those standards yourself?” Obviously, we would all have to answer no. There have been ample occasions in each of our lives when we have deliberately chosen to do something we knew to be wrong. Even if God erased from the tape all the situations where we could offer a logical excuse for our actions, He would still be justified in judging us for the times we have deliberately done wrong.”
In Jonathan Edwards’s famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, he says, “O sinner, can you give any reason why since you have risen from your bed this morning God has not stricken you dead?” The hard-hearted man is spurning God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience. Instead of storing up treasures in heaven, he stores up wrath from God. For him, it will be life sentence upon life sentence apart from the Lord that he must endure, unless he repents.
The most loving thing God can do for this man is to bring him to repentance. That means he must be humbled. We are so much worse than we ever imagined we could be. To see ourselves in God’s light can be a liberating experience. He shows us ourselves (though not all of ourselves) so that we can see how much we need him. If God sets his heart to save us, his revelation may hurt, but it won’t damn. It will save. It is his kindness. Whereas this man looks down in judgment upon those he thinks he’s better than, God, who is truly better than, looks down in kindness on this man. That should lead him to repentance.
6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality.
God will hold the world to account – all of it. He will render each one according to his works. Michael Bird helps us see this argument using a behavior/result diagram.
Bird goes on to say, “Paul is saying that those who do good and seek God will be rewarded in due course with a spate of benefits including immortality and divine honors. In contrast, Paul says, those who do evil and reject the truth will, in turn, receive a mix of human misfortune and divine rage.”
R.C. Sproul says, “No matter how many groups we are members of, there is one thing we must keep before our eyes constantly: in the final analysis, when we stand before Almighty God, we stand alone. I cannot appeal to the righteousness of my father, or to the righteousness of my mother, or to the righteousness of my sister, or to the greatness of the church to which I belong. I have to answer for my life by myself before the throne of God.”
Paul’s imaginary opponent may be resting in his lineage. After all, he was born into the right kind of family, a Jewish one. His Mama raised him right, and he would never do the things those other people do. But is he righteous just because he was born at the right time, into the right family, with the right upbringing? Even the Jews will stand before God in judgment for their works, and has he really obeyed the law? Paul is making a startling claim. It’s one that Jesus made to the Jewish leaders as well, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). Having the Bible doesn’t matter unless we know the person behind the Bible. Following the rules – even God’s rules – will not gain us righteousness if we leave God behind. Loving God that makes the rules matter. And as we love God, our heart goes from judging others to pleading with others to be reconciled to him.
In Romans 2, the Jew, the Man with the Bible, stands alongside the Gentile, the Man without the Bible. Both stand guilty before God. The question is, what will he do about it? Any attempt at gaining righteousness apart from Jesus Christ will only condemn him. He may think he knows what’s best for the world, but has he listened to what God says is best? Has he ignored God for the advantage of feeling better about himself? Furthermore, is he willing to repent?
12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18 and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
All with the law + all without the law = universal sin. Gentiles obey the law even though they’ve never heard the law. Jews disobey the law even though they’ve heard the law. It is not the hearers but the doers that are justified by the law. The problem is no one obeys all the time. Therefore, no one is justified by the law.
Martin Luther said, “The Law gives occasion to sin unless there is the assistance of divine grace, and the heart, mind and will are divinely directed toward keeping the law. The human will by nature always goes against the law; it would rather do the opposite of its demands, if only it could, even if outwardly man does what the law commands. Wherever the law prevails, man is moved by it to sin more than he is moved to fulfill it.”
Paul’s opponent must be careful. He is not just in his judgment because he will be judged under God’s law. People may fail his subjective standard, but he fails God’s objective standard. He has heard the law his whole life – after all, he was brought up among the people of God – but has he obeyed the law with his whole life?
Francis Schaeffer tells a story of when he was a pastor visiting homes. “I would always read the Bible before I left, and would ask, ‘Do you have a Bible?’ Often, they would reply, ‘Yes, we have a Bible,’ and they would start trying to find it. They would look all over their bookshelf and reach around behind it. If there had been a snake hiding there it would have bitten them! Yes, they had a Bible – to record their children’s names and press flowers in. But why bother? If they never even read their Bible, why not record their children’s names in some other book! There’s nothing magic in just owning a Bible if you don’t believe and obey it.”
Tim Keller shows us what the Jews of Paul’s day were proud of. “All this boils down, basically, to a pride in their moral decency and virtue.”
Paul’s argument is not a case for justification by works. After all, he already told us in 1:16-17 that we are saved by faith, not works. Paul’s argument is that the Jew has become like the Gentile. The Man with the Bible is as guilty before God as the Man without the Bible because he has failed to believe and obey God. Even some of the Gentiles live better lives than some Jews. The Man without the Bible finds a way to live a more righteous life than the Man with the Bible. How can this be? The question Paul is setting up is, “How is God going to save both the Jew and the Gentile?”
God will judge the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. Who the Jew is doesn’t matter as much as who God makes the Jew. Paul is stripping away any foundation for assurance of salvation resting on anything other than the grace of God. Even if outward obedience is evident, inward disobedience resides, and God sees the heart. Grace rejected leads to conviction and damnation. And the one who accomplished the work of the gospel will carry out judgment on those who reject the gospel. There is a binary choice: be saved by Jesus or be punished by Jesus.
John Bunyan said, “The punishments are by the lashes of his [Jesus’] wrath, which will issue from his mouth like a stream of burning brimstone, ever kindling itself upon the soul. Thou must know this by the Word, and fly from it, or thou shalt know it by thy sins, and lie and cry in it.”
25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. 28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
Paul anticipates an objection from his opponent, “I have been circumcised!” But it is not circumcision that validates obedience to the law; it is obedience to the law that validates circumcision. The problem is that he hasn’t fully obeyed the law. “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it” (James 2:10).
If Paul’s opponent continues to put his confidence in his obedience to the law, he will continue to stand guilty before God, because no matter how hard he tries, he can’t impress God with his morality. He has failed to keep God’s standard. Even his circumcision – the mark of the covenant on his body – is worthless. Here’s the lesson: if we place our hope of righteousness on the things we do or don’t do, even if we bear the scars of our duty, we will fail to obtain eternal life because eternal life is given only in Jesus Christ. The proof is an inward change, regardless of an outward mark. The true mark of the Christian is so deep inside that no eye can see. It’s a change of the heart, by the Spirit. Paul is hinting at what he will explain later, namely, that righteousness before God comes from God by the Spirit through Jesus Christ. We cannot attain it on our own. We must receive it. And if we will receive it, we will have a righteousness in Christ that will never fade or falter.
John Bunyan, in his book, Christ, A Complete Savior, said,
“Many there be that begin with grace, and end with works, and think THAT is the only way. Indeed works will save from temporal punishments, when their imperfections are purged from them by the intercession of Christ; but to be saved and brought to glory, to be carried through this dangerous world, from my first moving after Christ till I set my foot within the gates of paradise, this is the work of my Mediator, of my high priest and intercessor; it is he that fetches us again when we are run away; it is he that lifts us up when the devil and sin has thrown us down; it is he that quickens us when we grow cold; it is he that comforts us when we despair; it is he that obtains fresh pardon when we have contracted sin; and he that purges our consciences when they are laden with guilt…We are saved by Christ; brought to glory by Christ; and all our works are no otherwise made acceptable to God but by the person and personal excellencies and works of Christ.”
Paul is pushing his opponent toward a decision. What will he do with the message of the gospel? How will he see and understand the person and work of Jesus? Bunyan says later on in his book, “[Jesus] justifies us, not either by giving laws unto us, or by becoming our example, or by our following of him in any sense, but by his blood shed for us. His blood is not laws, nor ordinances, nor commandments, but a price, a redeeming price. He justifies us by bestowing upon us, not by expecting from us; he justifies us by his grace, not by our works. In a word, thou must be well grounded in the knowledge of what Christ is, and how men are justified by him, or thou wilt not come unto God by him.”
In the gospel, God found a way to accept us and keep his standards. Will we have him under the terms of the gospel, or will we refuse his grace in our attempt to justify ourselves?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/72b67a57bb9ba572-image-asset-jBKdafpHlumMPJemsylqW5ZeFXRuJT.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIn the first two chapters of Romans, Paul has placed every person on the same level. All are sinful and deserving of the wrath of God. Though he began his letter with good news, it has been all bad news since 1:18. In chapter 3, Paul explains the advantage the Jew has over the Gentile. It is the same advantage Christians now have over the unbeliever: the Bible.
1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3 What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”
5 But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) 6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7 But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.
Just as in chapter 2, Paul continues conversing with his imaginary Jewish opponent. The argument has funneled down to this: If chapter 2 is true – that the Jew is as condemned as the Gentile because of their actions – then what’s the point of being among the people of God? Why did God choose Israel if there is no advantage in relation to God? Paul answers: there is an advantage.
There is value in Jewishness, but that value is not found in the Jew himself. It is found in the God who chose him. Particularly, it is found in the “oracles of God,” the Scriptures, which the Jews were entrusted with. The oracles of God are the promises of God. Throughout the history of Israel, God gave them promise after promise. But the promises were all pointing to one thing – the coming of the Messiah. If the Jews ignore the Messiah, they ignore the Scriptures. They prove themselves unfaithful.
Paul asks the question: what if some of the Jews were unfaithful to God, as they obviously have been? What then? Does the faithlessness of the Jews nullify the faithfulness of God? In other words, does the faithlessness of the Jews ruin the reputation of God in the world? By no means!
There is a formula at work here that doesn’t seem to equate properly but in God’s economy, it sums to glory. God’s covenant + Israel’s unfaithfulness = God’s faithfulness. Paul’s point is that when the Old Testament speaks of God being true, it means that he is true to his word. He is reliable and trustworthy in contrast to Israel. The great hope of the world is not Israel. The great hope of the world is Jesus. God simply chose Israel to be the nation from which Jesus appeared to the world. In the same way that our country, or our people, does not nullify the truth of who we are, Israel does not nullify the faithfulness of God. If anything, it proves his faithfulness to his word. He will send a Savior, and that Savior will save his people.
Paul quotes Psalm 51:4, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.” Whenever a New Testament author quotes the Old Testament, he is not alluding to only the quoted portion. He is alluding to the entire passage, the entire context. Psalm 51 is David’s confession. He committed adultery with Bathsheba. He had her husband killed. He stained the office of the King. Above all, he sinned against the Lord. Did David’s sin nullify the grace of God? Did David’s sin alter the great hope of the world? Did David’s sin obstruct the coming King of Kings? By no means!
David’s sin was punished. The child conceived with Bathsheba died shortly after birth. David’s sin was broadcast throughout the world. He was humbled. He came face to face with his transgressions and sins before the Lord. Paul quotes this verse from Psalm 51 because it is about God being true in his judgment of sin, and this is such a striking example. God’s truthfulness includes his judgment, not only his salvation. God doesn’t hold back on fulfilling any of his promises – good or bad. And in his judgment, he is keeping his word all the way to Jesus.
Paul continues, “If our unrighteousness (or David’s) serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us?” Once again, by no means! All things serve God’s purposes – even our unrighteousness. God is the judge of the world. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Genesis 18:25).
If our sin brings about God’s purposes, then why not sin? That’s the objection Paul faces. Why does it matter what we do if God is going to bring about his purposes anyway? Why not do evil that good may come? After all, isn’t that what Paul is teaching – that the law has no place in the Christian life? He’s not saying that at all. He is not tearing down the need for obedience but building the case for it. If God is just, all disobedience down to the smallest point will be judged by him. Belief in the truth of God’s righteousness leads to greater obedience, not less. But until we see the fullness of God in the person of Jesus Christ – including the wrath he poured out on him at the cross – we will not understand the urgency of making peace with God.
Robert Murray McCheyne, the 19th-century Scottish pastor, puts it bluntly,
“Dear brethren, I pray you in God’s name to think of this. If punishment comes from the righteousness of God, then there is no hope. If it were out of passion, then it might pass away. Often you observe a man whose face is red and swollen with passion, but it passed away. But ah! God’s wrath is not out of passion. If it were out of passion, surely God would have some pity when he saw the sufferings of the lost for many ages; but ah! no. From what then does it proceed? It proceeds from the rectitude of God. If God can cease to love righteousness, then the fire may be quenched. But as long as he is a righteous God, that fire will never be quenched. Oh! brethren, it is a foolish hope you entertain that the fire will be quenched. I have seen some on their death-bed thinking that the fire may be quenched. Ah! it is a vain hope, sinner. God will never cease to be a righteous God. God will do anything to save a sinner, but he cannot part with his rectitude in order to save you. He parted with his Son in order that he might gain sinners, but he cannot part with his righteousness. He cannot part with his government. He would need to call good evil and evil good first.”
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
While Jews have the advantage of the Scriptures, it does them no good if they do not believe and obey them. In that way, they are no better off because that are under sin just like the Gentiles. Being under sin is more than simply doing bad things now and then. Being under sin is being captive to sin. It is to be unable to not sin. Paul explains in verses 10-18 with quotations from the Old Testament. What he’s saying is not new news. It is old news applied to the present day.
Paul is ensuring we understand what sin is. He needs us to know the pervasiveness and devastating result of sin. Michael Bird helps us understand this.
“Paul has a lot to say about sin, its origins, its appearance, and its consequences. According to Romans, sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam, with the result of introducing condemnation and death to all of humanity and of constituting Adam’s progeny as sinners (5:15, 16, 19). As a result everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (3:23). Furthermore, because humans rejected God, God gave them over to sinful desires (1:24). In this economy of sin and judgment the wages of sin is death (6:23). On either side of the Jew/Gentile divide we find sin because sin was in the world before the law (5:13), those who sin apart from law will perish, and those under the law will have their sins judged by the law (2:12) since the law brings knowledge of our sin (3:20). Sin even uses the law to arouse sinful passions and to foster lawless behavior (7:5-7). Inevitably, then, Jews and Gentiles are both under the power of sin (3:9). Finally, faith is the antithesis of sin since whatever does not come from faith is sin (14:23).”
The law has been clearly broken by every human who has ever lived, with only one exception. When faced with that reality, our mouths are shut. We have no righteousness in ourselves to claim. There is no defense for what we have done against God. We have no excuses. We are guilty – all of us. We are held accountable to God. God is both the one offended and the judge.
Because of sin, obedience to the law isn’t something that exists. It can’t be done. Therefore, obeying the law for gaining righteousness isn’t possible. So, why put our hope in our obedience, as the Jews have?
Do you understand the depth of your sin? Do you see your guilt before God? Are you trying to justify yourself by works of the law? Paul is removing every ground for standing before God except for the grace of Jesus Christ alone. Only God can grant forgiveness. Is he willing to do so?
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Notice the transition in verse 21 – “But now.” Always pay attention to the “buts” in the Bible! Paul makes a shift beginning in verse 21. He shifts from sin to salvation. Our long nightmare is ending.
Martin Luther struggled to love God. He felt condemned before him. He tried to obey God. He tried really hard. But no matter how hard he tried, he saw that there were new layers of sin in his heart. He would confess so often and to such minutia that the priest told him to go away and come back when he had real sin to confess. Though he appeared to be ok before God, his heart told him he was condemned. He could not shake the feeling of unrighteousness.
As his struggle continued, he began teaching through the book of Romans. He came upon this passage in chapter 3 and God broke through. He saw in a fresh way how God justifies. His heart was freed. Then, he started the Reformation. Justification creates freedom that changes the world.
Luther called Romans 3:21-26 “the chief point, and the very central place of the epistle, and of the whole Bible.” While this sounds like an overstatement, it is hard to argue against him. Romans 3:21-26 may very well be the most important paragraph ever written.
Thus far, Paul has labored to bring us to this point: Are we right with God? Ray Ortlund summarizes Paul’s point this way.
“Let me ask you right now, have you factored out of your relationship with God all the good you think you have coming to you and factored in all the good Christ has coming to him? Are you adding Jesus to your obedience, or are you trusting Jesus for his obedience? The Father said of him, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 17:6). God has said that about no one else, and God said that wholeheartedly and publicly so that everyone could hear it and re-center our existence on Jesus alone. God is offering us his life, his obedience, his heroism. You can trade in your record for a better one. Will you let go of your mixed record and receive the perfect record of Jesus as your only claim to fame? It is so freeing to be right with God again –without having to measure up on your own.”
The law acted as a stage from which God unfolded his plan of salvation in Jesus. We needed to see our depravity before we could receive God’s saving grace. We are so dense that it takes disaster before we will reach for redemption. If everyone stands under the wrath of God as equals, then what God offers in the gospel is for everyone equally as well. We all need to be justified by God in Christ. We don’t just need a little Jesus added to our lives. We need a new life altogether. We need to be re-centered around him.
All have sinned and therefore cannot be righteous on their own merit. So, God in his mercy and grace justifies those who believe at the moment of their belief through the gift of faith in the successful work of Jesus on the cross. In the atoning sacrifice, all who once were condemned now are justified if they believe that God is gracious enough to forgive. The logic is clear: all sinned, Jesus paid the penalty for all sins; therefore all who believe in his work are justified by his work. The death of Jesus on the cross upheld God’s own righteous character in punishing sins and in being gracious to his people. Our only contribution to the gospel is our sin. EVERYTHING ELSE IS OF GOD!
PT Forsyth, in his book, The Cruciality of the Cross, said, “The prime doer in Christ’s cross was God. Christ was God reconciling. He was God doing the very best for man, and not man doing his very best for God.” No matter how hard we try, we will never reach the perfection God requires. We need God’s best, and that’s exactly what he gives in Jesus Christ. Why would we not say yes to him?
John Bunyan understood the same sense of condemnation before God that Martin Luther experienced. In his novel, The Pilgrim’s Progress, he tells us of the main character’s conversion.
“Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty because of the load on his back. He ran thus till he came to a place somewhat ascending. And upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulcher. So I saw in my dream that just as Christian came up to the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders and fell from off his back and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulcher, where it fell in, and I saw it no more. Then was Christian glad and lightsome and said with a merry heart, “He hath given me rest by His sorrow and life by His death.” Then he stood still awhile to look and wonder, for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked therefore and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks.”
27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
If we are saved by Christ alone, apart from all our works, how in the world can we boast about what we’ve done? The law of works leads itself to boasting in obedience. But the law of faith excludes boasting because it is not our obedience at all. It is Christ’s obedience.
God passed over former sins committed under the law, but he has balanced the books in the death of Christ. The law does not – and never did – justify. Faith in God justifies. Here’s the great hope: no matter how awful you are, you can be saved by God because God saves awful people. He is the God of every person and saves all under the same grace. The law doesn’t die. The law is fulfilled because the law pushed us to Jesus. The world has been reconciled. God is a genius!
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/359a9ec6b298589f-image-asset-jGBhdL7AypR7NEwIMUaV0REY2zb75f.jpeg\")
\n \n\nJustification is the heart of Paul’s message in Romans 1-8. To be justified is to be declared legally righteous in God’s eyes. It is not only just as if we never sinned; it is just as if we always obeyed. In Romans 1-3, Paul has level-set his audience – all have sinned, some under the law, some without the law. Therefore, all are deserving of the wrath of God.
The message of the gospel is that God has set us right through the finished work of Christ on the cross. But here’s the scandal: we didn’t do anything to deserve it, and we didn’t do anything to earn it. Furthermore, we can’t do anything to lose it. God gave it to us. All we do is believe him. It is this gift of justification by faith that is so controversial, both in 1st century Rome and 21st century America. The gospel removes all boasting in works and tears down the walls we erect to keep others out.
Romans 4 is all about justification by faith, and Paul’s argument is that’s what the Bible is all about too. How are we set right with God? By faith in Christ. How can we know? Because the Bible tells us so – Paul, as well as the Old Testament.
1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, 12 and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
Paul is confronting the Jewish notion that Abraham was justified by his works. He says Abraham was justified by faith. For proof, Paul simply returns to the Scriptures. “For what do the Scriptures say?” (3:3) The biblical precedent is that justification is by faith and excludes any self-righteousness at all. Genesis 15:6 is Paul’s proof-text, and Abraham is his best example of justification by faith. Why Abraham?
Genesis 1-11 shows us the creation of the world. As Genesis 12 begins, we see the world funnel down to one man, chosen by God to receive his promise. We aren’t told why God chose Abraham, but we know it wasn’t because of his righteousness. He came from a family of idolaters. He was chosen for the same reasons all who believe are chosen: because God wanted to.
We see the call of Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3, where God speaks and commands him to leave his home, and he will make out of him a great nation that will bless the world. Genesis 12:4 tells us Abraham went as the Lord had told him.
We see the sins and trials of Abraham’s life in Genesis 12-14. He enters Egypt fearful of his life and hands his wife over to Pharaoh claiming she is his sister. We see he and his nephew, Lot, separate and take different lands. We see him rescue Lot in a dramatic battle. We see him encounter Melchizedek, the high priest of God on his return and turn down worldly riches for a heavenly blessing.
Then, in Genesis 15, we see God’s covenant with Abraham. It has been years since he left his home. He has been waiting on God’s promise to come through. He’s an old man, and Sarah is an old woman. How can God give them a son? Genesis 15:1-6 tells us of their conversation. God promises Abraham a child. Despite all circumstances that cry out against it, Abraham believes. And God counted it to him as righteous.
In Genesis 16, we see Sarah become impatient. She gives her servant, Hagar, over to Abraham. He sleeps with her, and they have a child. Then, finally, in Genesis 17, Abraham is circumcised – the covenant sign of God’s people.
Now, let me ask you a question. Was it circumcision that earned Abraham’s favor with God?
All Paul is doing is showing us the chronology of the Bible. How was Abraham justified? By his works? No! By his faith? Yes! Works are not part of the equation for justification. What makes Abraham right before God is not his righteous deeds but his belief in God’s promises, in God himself. It’s after his believing that he was circumcised.
Abraham lived about 500 years before the law was given to Moses. After the law had come, surely the rules changed, right? At that point, people we justified by their deeds. To refute this objection, Paul quotes David’s words from Psalm 32. David lived 500 years after the law was given. How was David justified? By works of the law or by faith? What does Psalm 32 say? “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” David has lawless deeds, not law-full deeds. He’s a sinner who doesn’t deserve the grace of God. Justification by faith isn’t Abraham’s experience alone. It is David’s as well. Therefore, it must be the experience that spans all generations of the people of God. The covenant God made was always on terms of faith.
In Genesis 15:7-20, we are told of the covenant God made with Abraham. In that time, covenants were sealed with an animal sacrifice. The animal would be cut in half, and the two parties would walk together through the two pieces, symbolizing the consequence that each would face if they broke their end of the deal. But we notice in the covenant God made with Abraham that only one person walked between the torn animal. Only one person promised to be torn if the covenant was broken. And that person was not Abraham. It was God. God put Abraham to sleep, and in a dream showed him this covenant promise. God alone walked through the sacrifice because God alone would keep the promise and bring it to fulfillment.
And years later, after Abraham’s offspring have multiplied into a nation, and that nation has drifted from God time after time, God keeps his promise. He continues to come to them, continues to care for them, continues to call them his people. And then Jesus comes that Christmas morning and begins to make all things new. Abraham believed, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
To summarize, the argument of Romans 4:1-12 is that righteousness comes through faith in God alone. Our works add nothing to our righteousness nor take anything from our righteousness. All who believe are justified by faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from all works, to the glory of God alone. Salvation is of God, by God, through God, and for God. We are beneficiaries of his grace. We didn’t convince him, persuade him, or impress him. We rebelled against him, but he saved us anyway because he is the promise keeper.
13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Let’s return to the call of Abraham. He’s standing at the peak of his city. He looks out beyond the walls and sees nothing but wilderness. Has God called him to go into that? He didn’t even give the destination. He said he would show him in due time. Should he go? How could he not go? This God is different from the rest. He seems trustworthy. His promises have power. His heart feels different as he hears from him. That promise…how can he refuse that promise?
The word “promise” is mentioned five times in these verses. God promised Abraham he would make him into a great nation. But a nation can’t start and end with one man. Abraham needed a son. Through that son, God would eventually save the world. But that son was to be born to a man 100 years-old and a woman 90 years-old. That’s crazy. But is it any crazier than God creating the world out of nothing? Abraham’s faith is his trusting God’s promises.
To be saved, we must come face to face with the promises of God in the person of God. We don’t obey our way into the Kingdom. We believe our way into the Kingdom. It is not a baseless, blind, leap-in-the-dark faith. Such faith does not exist. Faith relies on something sound and sure. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith for us as “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
As Abraham considered the future, he saw his boy laughing as his mother once laughed at the silliness of God’s promise. A man and woman who should be great-grandparents by now giving birth? The life-long barren one will have a child?
But how could it be? It could not come from anything inside of Abraham. He could not bring forth a child in his own power. It is God who gives life. We should never look to our goodness, or obedience, or power to save us. We should always look to the goodness of God. Why would we return to the impossible when Jesus has already accomplished the impossible on our behalf? Abraham couldn’t provide God’s promise no matter what rules he obeyed or disobeyed. Sarah was barren, and he was old. There was no changing that. God had to do it, or it would not be done.
Notice the logic of verse 16. “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring.” The “it” is the promise. The promise depends on faith. It does not depend on works. If it did, it would not be grace. It would be wages. The only wages we deserve is death (Romans 6:23). But if the promise depends on faith in the one who makes the promise, then the one who receives the promise receives it by grace. Furthermore, the promise is so pervasive and expansive and everlasting that it extends to the offspring of the one to whom it was originally given. Abraham, the believer of God, became the father of all who would later believe in God. How? By the great work he did in creating his son in his old age? No! By believing the God who gave him a son in his old age. Our justification – our righteousness before God – is made up entirely of believing in God.
Abraham saw his old age. Why couldn’t God have come earlier? Why now? How can this happen? These days, he felt the creaks as he rose from his bed. He saw the wrinkles on Sarah’s face. They had never known anyone as old as they give birth to a child. Could it be?
In hope Abraham believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations. The promise didn’t seem reasonable, yet Abraham saw God as trustworthy and therefore believed. When God came to him and promised a child, he looked at all the circumstances and believed God beyond them. Why? Because he saw God as trustworthy. He believed the promises of God because he believed the person of God.
Abraham did not allow his feelings to inform his doctrine. He let God’s doctrine inform his feelings. When he felt hopeless, he looked to God for hope. When he felt as if this promise would never come to pass, he looked to God and knew that God would do what he said. As Abraham gave glory to God, he grew strong in his faith. Though circumstances said otherwise, when Abraham considered God he believed more in his promises, not less. He became fully convinced that God could do what he had promised. That’s why he was justified. Not because he did a lot of good deeds but because he believed in the Good God.
For us today, what must we believe to be saved? Paul summarizes it in verses 24 and 25. “It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Justification will be counted to those who believe in God who raised Jesus from the dead – the very Jesus who died for our sins upon the cross and was resurrected on the third day. The resurrection became the proof that the sacrifice of Christ was accepted. The penalty had been paid. If you believe in this gospel, you are saved. You are justified before God. You believe his promises. You trust in him alone. You love him and follow him and obey him because you cannot do otherwise.
We have God above all circumstances who can create a child from an old man and life from death and righteousness from unrighteousness. What are you facing that you can’t trust God during? If your salvation was based upon what you do or don’t do, you would never feel secure. How could you? You can’t even obey the rules you give yourself each day. But if it is God that declares us righteous, who acquits us and creates in us new hearts, how can we not feel secure? God is not running the calculations in heaven to see if we add up to righteousness. He is reckoning us righteous in Christ and imputing the merit of Christ upon us to make us worthy of him.
Real faith gives us a sure standing when everything else feels like it’s falling away. Real faith is realizing that no matter what the world says, no matter what our heart says, no matter what our circumstance says, we are as secure as Christ is.
After all those years, Abraham finally heard the cry of new life. He looked and there lie his boy in his mother’s arms. He was here! After all those tense moments of wondering. After all the questions, spoken and unspoken. After all the tears, all the miles, all the ridicule. Here was Isaac – the promised child!
And then there is Isaac, the one whom God has asked Abraham to sacrifice. Here they are, together on the road to Mt. Moriah. He’s not sure what God is going to do, but he knows God’s promise will remain. Even if the boy does die, somehow God will provide. Even if it means resurrection, God will provide. So, come what may, he walks on.
Michael Bird summarizes Abraham this way, “What made Abraham unique was that he put his faith where his fear was.” Real faith transforms and overcomes real fear. Wherever in our lives we have fear, faith in God is the remedy. George Muller said, “Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends.”
Many years later, another man walked out of the city to the sacrificial mountain. He took no one with him. He had followed God perfectly his entire life. No sin entered his life and no sin would until that moment he bore the weight of man’s awful sin.
And so it is with our justification. Do you want to be set right with God? Then look to God. When you’ve come to the end of yourself, when you can’t obey any longer, when you see that you cannot do anything truly good and deserve only the wrath of God, lift your eyes to the cross and see the righteousness of God flowing down. Behold the Son of God dying on your behalf, becoming the sacrifice pleasing to God. See the resurrection and know that you, by faith alone in his work, have been justified by Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. If you throw yourself upon God, no matter how far the fall or how great the impact, he will always catch you in the arms of Jesus. After all, it depends on his promise. In all human history, he has not yet failed one person who has trusted in him. How can he fail you now?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/f96d8662f48708f7-image-asset-6CLmaOE5Rk4cpEp1B0a8S14fXIwEJJ.jpeg\")
\n \n\nThe teaching of the priesthood of Christ is what makes Hebrews unique and fascinating. It would have been so for the original audience, as well. They wanted to retreat into Judaism, in part, because they would have a priest to intercede for them. There was comfort in that. We saw in 2:17 that Jesus became for us a merciful and faithful high priest. Then, the author explains each one of these two attributes in reverse order. First, he focuses on the faithful high priest in 3:1-4:15, which we just saw. Second, he focuses on the merciful high priest in 4:15-5:10.
1 For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. 3 Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. 4 And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; 6 as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
The priesthood is an institution of mercy from God. It brings us close to God through atonement for our sins. With it, we find peace. Without it, we have only separation. It is not true to say it is no longer needed. It is truer to say we need a different kind of priesthood: an eternal one.
To explain the eternal priesthood of Christ, the author takes us back to the temporary priesthood of Israel. He explains the office of the priesthood (v. 1), the connection between the priest and the people (v. 2-3), and the call from God (v. 4). Then, to explain how Jesus compares, he explains Jesus’ priesthood in reverse order. Notice the “So also” in verse 5. Jesus had a call from God (v. 5-6), there is a connection between Jesus and the people (v. 7-8), and he has fulfilled the office of the priesthood (v. 9-10).
Jesus did not come to do away with the law or the priesthood. He came to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). He entered our world and made himself like us, taking the form of his people’s institutions and customs. Jesus didn’t come in like a wrecking ball, tearing down the temple with violent actions. He replaced it with himself. Because of him, the temple and the priesthood could be destroyed without us losing God. Once the curtain was torn in the temple, it was no longer needed. When it fell years later, what collapsed was a building, not the presence of God in the world.
The mention of Jesus as a priest after the order of Melchizedek means Jesus is an eternal high priest (we will discuss this in more detail in future weeks). That has important implications. This means that the priesthood existed in the Old Testament because it gave us the categories by which we could understand Jesus. Jesus wasn’t made to fit into an existing priesthood; the priesthood was made to explain Jesus.
Though Jesus never sinned, he did expose himself to weakness. The experience of Jesus included suffering. Look at verses 7-8. “7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” How did Jesus learn obedience through what he suffered?
When my oldest son, Jack, was three years old he took three things with him everywhere he went: his blanky and two stuffed dogs named Be-yo and Other Be-yo. One Sunday morning as we were getting ready for church he found a backpack and asked if he could fill it with toys to take in the car. I said yes. He went about filling it and soon was ready to go. I had a class to teach that morning, and we were already running a bit behind.
As we were driving down the street, Jack took out each toy. About ten minutes away from home he asked with worry in his voice, “Dada, did you get blanky and Be-yos?” I replied, “No, I you always get them.” With his lower lip dipping a bit now, he asked, “Can we go back?” But we didn’t have time to go back.
I wanted to go get them, but we couldn’t. I also knew he would be ok without them. A few minutes later I looked back at him and saw tears welling in his eyes. But he didn’t make a sound. He sat there, silently obeying my words. He didn’t fight back or negotiate. He learned obedience through what he suffered.
It is possible to learn obedience through suffering without our sin being the result of the suffering. Some things will come into our lives like a forgotten Be-yo, and we will wonder what happened. How did we get here? What must we have done? The answer may be that we’ve done nothing extraordinarily sinful, but there is a lesson to be learned. If Jesus, being perfect, had to learn, we, being sinful, must learn too.
In suffering, we learn obedience. We learn what it’s like to trust in the goodness and love of God. We learn to trust him in all things – not only in good things. In the darkness, God can be trusted because he is working all things together for our good (Romans 8:28). Though some terrible things may be included in that “all things,” taken together with the whole of our life, God will work it ultimately for our good and his glory.
So, when suffering comes, as it inevitably will, we can suffer under the mercy of God. And somehow through it all, he’s bringing us to a closer experience of himself. When we suffer, our heart breaks open to God in ways that it can’t otherwise. And what has Jesus given us at a time such as that? A throne of grace.
In verse 10, the author mentions Melchizedek. By doing this, he begins his ascent into what he really wants to say. Then he interrupts himself. It’s as if he takes a timeout, calls the team over to the sidelines, and lets them know what’s on his mind. They’re about to hear something that is vitally important but right now they’re just not listening. He realizes we only listen when we want to. So he labors to make them want to listen.
Like a coach rallying his team in the final seconds of the big game, he huddles them up, looks in their eyes, and tells them exactly what he sees, beginning with discouragement but ending with some of the most encouraging words in the entire letter. Commentator Gareth Lee Cockerill breaks the argument into sections: the author shames the readers (5:11-6:3), warns them (6:4-8), encourages them (6:9-12), and then assures them (6:13-20).
11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits.
What’s going on here? Remember the context of this audience. They are facing persecution. In doing so, they are beginning to fall back. They aren’t standing for Christ when it matters most. They are looking out at the world and, like the Israelites on the edge of the Promised Land, saying, “There are giants in the land. We cannot win. Let’s retreat.”
They can’t do this! Christ means too much. The gospel is too valuable. Their lives are too precious. Christ has saved them. It’s time to act like it, and in doing so, see how God might advance the gospel. Jesus said, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28).
To awaken his readers, the author says some hard things in Hebrews 5:11-14:
They knew better. These Christians were not untaught. They were not without understanding. They had received and learned the doctrines of Christianity. Their problem wasn’t a matter of knowledge; it was a matter of the heart.
“Let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity” is not a call to abandon the foundational truths of the Christian faith. It is not a call to “move on” from the gospel. That’s impossible. What the author is urging is for these Christians to go deeper with Christ than they have ever gone before. They need to use their knowledge.
A solider at war cannot act as if he does not know how to operate his gun. He knows. The question is whether he will use it. Will he advance the front line or will he fall back? The one thing a soldier must never do is retreat, but just as bad as retreating is staying still. Holding the line is one thing, there is courage in that, but hanging in the background while the fighting rages is a disgrace to the one you’re fighting for.
Jesus has saved us from something and to something. In between our salvation and our glorification, there is a battle to be fought. Are you fighting? Are you following your captain? Is Jesus worth it to you? Are you listening to him? He has considered you worthy to be his. Accept the call.
Hebrews 6:4-8
4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
Two questions arise immediately: Is the author saying one can lose their salvation? Who is he describing here?
If we keep the whole Bible in mind, we know that it is impossible for anyone who is saved by God to lose their salvation. There are simply too many texts that proclaim eternal salvation. (Psalm 138:8; Isaiah 46:4; Jeremiah 32:40; Romans 11:29; Philippians 1:6; 2 Timothy 4:18; John 6:39-40, 10:27-29; Romans 8:28-31, 8:35-39; Hebrews 7:25, 10:14)
Therefore, we can look at these verses without hesitation and without fear that our doctrine of the perseverance of the saints might be destroyed. God is not a capricious God. He is unchangeable. If you have been saved, you have been saved before the foundation of the world. There is a book of life that was written before the world was created and your name is in that book (Revelation 13:8). The question is not “can I lose my salvation” but “do I have salvation”? As Paul says, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5).
Now, who is he describing? The author is clearly writing to Christians. We know that without a doubt. Therefore, he’s writing to Christians to warn them of what would happen were they to leave Christ. Christ will not be re-crucified. If you reject him, there is no hope.
Let’s look at the text. Notice how he describes these people. They have once been enlightened (v. 4). They tasted the heavenly gift (v. 4). They shared in the Holy Spirit (v. 4). They tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come (v. 5). Then they have fallen away (v. 6).
John Owen, the great Puritan pastor, helps us understand this passage.
“It is clear they are not true and sincere believers. There is no mention of faith or believing. There is nothing which makes us think they have any special relation to God in Christ. They are no where described as ‘being called according to God’s purpose.’ They are not described as having been born again. They are not described as being justified, or sanctified, or united to Christ, or the sons of God by adoption.
On the other hand, they are described as ground on which the rain often falls, but which bears nothing but thorns and briers (v. 7). But this is not true of real believers, for faith itself is a herb especially grown in Christ’s enclosed garden. The writer of this epistle, describing true believers, distinguished them from apostates. In believers he is confident of finding better things, things that accompany salvation (v. 9). Believers are known by their ‘work and labor of love’, because it is true faith alone which works by love (v. 10). But not one of these things is said of the apostates.
Of believers, the writer of this epistle asserts their eternal preservation because of the righteousness and faithfulness of God, and because of the immutability of his counsel concerning them (vv. 10, 17, 18). In all these and in many other ways, believers are distinguished from apostates.”
Stuart Olyott, the British pastor and author, urges us to keep Jesus’ parable of the sower in mind.
“A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. (Matthew 13:3-8)\"
The author of Hebrews uses the same agricultural imagery. When he wants to tell us how to distinguish between a true believer and a faker, he uses imagery of rain falling on land in verses 7-8. The land that produces a crop receives a blessing. They are proving that they are saved. The land that bears only thorns and thistles is worthless and will be burned in the end. They are proving that they are not saved. Our faith is proven. The fruit we bear will reveal the true state of our heart. Bearing fruit is not the way to God. Fruit doesn’t create faith; it just proves that the faith is real.
These verses have been provided as a sharp warning for what would happen if any were to abandon the faith they have said to hold. If they depart and want nothing to do with Christ, they are putting their souls in utter peril. Jesus has died once. He will not die again for sins. You cannot crucify again the Son of God.
Warnings are necessary in the Christian life. Because we are prone to drift, we need one another to encourage and exhort us along the way. We don’t need subtle hints. We need dramatic warnings. Charles Spurgeon helps us understand the necessity of warnings in the Christian life:
“If God has put it in, he has put it in for wise reasons and for excellent purposes. Let me show you why. First, O Christian, it is put in to keep thee from falling away. God preserves his children from falling away; but he keeps them by the use of means; and one of these is, the terrors of the law, showing them what would happen if they were to fall away. There is a deep precipice: what is the best way to keep any one from going down there? Why, to tell him that if he did he would inevitably be dashed to pieces. In some old castle there is a deep cellar, where there is a vast amount of fixed air and gas, which would kill anybody who went down. What does the guide say? ‘If you go down you will never come up alive.’ Who thinks of going down? The very fact of the guide telling us what the consequences would be, keeps us from it. Our friend puts away from us a cup of arsenic; he does not want us to drink it, but he says, ‘If you drink it, it will kill you.’ Does he suppose for a moment that we should drink it. No; he tells us the consequences, and he is sure we will not do it. So God says, ‘My child, if you fall over this precipice you will be dashed to pieces.’ What does the child do? He says, ‘Father, keep me; hold thou me up, and I shall be safe.’ It leads the believer to greater dependence on God, to a holy fear and caution, because he knows that if he were to fall away he could not be renewed, and he stands far away from that great gulf, because he knows that if he were to fall into it there would be no salvation for him.”
Hebrews 6:9-12 ends this section on a positive note.
9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
The author is saying to them, “You are real Christians. I’ve seen the fruit. Don’t hide it. Show it to everyone. Though it may cost your life, Jesus is worth it. Jesus Christ was not ashamed to call you his brother. He took on flesh to save you. Don’t despise him. Don’t hold him up to contempt. Don’t ignore him. Listen to him and see all that he is for you.”
Hebrews 6:13-20
13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
These verses end the brief interlude with a reminder of how Abraham trusted God. Abraham was old. Sarah was old. They were well beyond child bearing years. But Abraham believed God. He looked at himself and despite what he saw he trusted God. True faith looks at what the world is and sees through it to the mighty hand of God who can do impossible things.
Do you realize that God desires to show convincingly to you the unchangeable character of his purpose? Jesus is the final proof of that. He didn’t stop with his life on earth. He continues with his life in heaven. Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest, is the anchor of our soul, sure and steadfast. He has entered the inner place, heaven, behind the curtain. He did this on our behalf so that we would know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God’s purposes are for our good. God loves us so much that he created a world in which he could show it and a story in which he could say it.
Hebrews 4:14-16 show us the mercy of our Great High Priest. Hebrews 6:13-20 show us the certainty of God’s promise. In between there are expositions and warnings and encouragements, but the bookends are the goodness of God. Jesus is for you. He wants to help you. Listen to him. Consider him. Trust him. Fall in love with him all over again.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/57ec13d6b493138b-image-asset-7pIWs5kOINPCtbNj6hzctGxAChz2cx.jpeg\")
\n \n\nIn 4:15 the author of Hebrews begins his ascent into the heart of his message. But he interrupts himself in 5:11-6:20 to give a sharp warning to his audience. He’s about to expound on the priesthood of Christ but he needs their full consideration. So, the hard words of chapter 6 are the gateway into next section. Hebrews 7:1-10:18 is the heart of the epistle. A better priesthood has arrived.
A priest atones for the sins of the people to restore the connection between a holy God and sinful man. But God is not satisfied with a mere sacrificial system, where we do something and he responds. God moves toward us. So, he makes covenants with his people. He puts himself on the line for us. When a covenant was made, like the one between God and Israel in the Old Testament, an animal would be taken and cut in half and the parties of the covenant would walk between the halves of the animal. This ceremony was symbolically saying “May I be torn in half and killed just like this animal if I am not faithful to this covenant.”
Israel was unfaithful, and you and I have been unfaithful. God has not been unfaithful. So, what should happen? Under the covenant terms we should be torn in two. But God has provided a way for us to still be near to him when we sin. That way is through the sacrificial priesthood. The comparison the author begins in 5:10 he now restates and explains. Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. He’s a better priest – the one we always needed, and now finally have.
Chapter 7 is one big unit. Stuart Olyott breaks it down into five major sections:
1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. 3 He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.
4 See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils! 5 And those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers, though these also are descended from Abraham. 6 But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7 It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. 8 In the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. 9 One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, 10 for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.
Who is Melchizedek? He first appears in Genesis 14. The king of Elam and his allies raid Sodom and plunder the city. They carry off captives, including Abraham’s nephew, Lot. Abraham pursues them, overpowers them, and defeats them, rescuing Lot. On his return home, he is met by Melchizedek and his ally in battle, the king of Sodom. The next few verses are the backdrop for Hebrews 7.
17 After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley). 18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) 19 And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. 21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.” 22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ 24 I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me. Let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share.” (Geneses 14:17-24)
Melchizedek is described as both “king of Salem” and “priest of God Most High”. This is an unusual combination. The law, which was given to Moses on Mt. Sinai years after this event, established the priesthood and the kingship as two distinct, mutually exclusive offices of leadership in Israel. So for the two offices to be combined points to the superiority of this priesthood over the Levitical priesthood.
Melchizedek’s name means “king of righteousness” and his title is “king of peace” (v. 2). He is the first priest mentioned in the Bible. This occurs well before the official priesthood is established among Israel through Aaron. Much is unknown about him but one thing is clear: Abraham honored him as priest. We see from the account of Genesis 14 that Abraham refused the offer from the King of Sodom but he accepted the blessing and gave tithes to Melchizedek, indicating that he recognized his priesthood from God.
Verse 3 further highlights the uniqueness of Melchizedek as priest. “He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.” The Bible does not record his genealogy at all. Therefore, we do not know where he came from or who came from him. In the Levitical priesthood, this would be a problem because lineage was everything.
“Having neither beginning of days nor end of life” seems to be saying he’s eternal. But that’s not the case – this is not a suggestion of immortality but a deviation from the way in which the rest of the Bible presents the priesthood, with distinctive succession. Melchizedek is clearly an outlier.
His existence can only be made sense of as a pointer to the person of Christ. There is no other explanation for him. The author of Hebrews indicates this in the phrase “resembling the Son of God” (v. 3).
The interpretative key to the life of Melchizedek is that “he continues a priest forever” (v. 3). This is the key connection that the author intends to draw out. Jesus, by his lineage in relation to Israel, coming from the kingly tribe of Judah, not the priestly tribe of Levi, cannot be a priest according to the law. So, he must be a priest of a different order. To make sense of this, the author went back to the Old Testament and what he found was a man named Melchizedek, mentioned only twice in the Scriptures who existed before Christ so that we could understand Christ when he came.
7:4-10 continues the discussion regarding Melchizedek showing his superiority in two ways:
This is not to say that Melchizedek himself is superior, but the office that he holds is. The Levitical priesthood had its problems. The Melchizedekan priesthood resolved those problems, namely of eternity and continuity. It was a priesthood of a higher order.
Hebrews 7:11-19
11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? 12 For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. 13 For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.
15 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, 16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it is witnessed of him, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” 18 For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.
Melchizedek shows up in Genesis 14, disappears, and doesn’t resurface again until Psalm 110, and there in only one verse. “The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” (Ps. 110:4)
Melchizedek disappears again until chapter 5 of Hebrews. Without the book of Hebrews, this reference to Melchizedek in Psalm 110 would be an incomplete revelation. Jesus ties up the loose ends of the Spirit’s inspired word to David. Now that Jesus has appeared, we can understand what Melchizedek was pointing us to, namely, the office of an eternal high priest.
Jesus brought a change in the priesthood. This was radically important. There were several limitations to the Levitical priesthood: Perfection was not attainable (v. 11). Therefore, the law was inadequate to do what God ultimately wanted (v. 12). Legal requirements and bodily descent cannot lead to everlasting life (v. 16). It was weak and useless (v. 18). It was insufficient to bring us as near to God as God desired (v. 19). There was no oath from God regarding this priesthood (v. 20). The priests were many in number and prevented by death from continuing in office (v. 23).
The Old Testament was pregnant with a better hope for God’s people. The Levitical system was not a system leading to perfection. It was a placeholder for the coming Son who would bring a more effective priesthood – one that his people need for all time.
Hebrews 7:20-22
20 And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, 21 but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’” 22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.
Let’s look back at the covenant God made with Abraham in Genesis 15. God has called Abraham out of his city and promised him land, children, and that he would be a blessing to the nations. Abraham believed, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
What do we notice about the covenant God made with Abraham? Only one person walked between the torn animal. Only one person promised to be torn if the covenant was broken. Only one person put his life on the line. And years later, after Abraham’s offspring have multiplied into a nation, and that nation has drifted from God time after time, God keeps his promises. He continues to come to them, continues to care for them, continues to call them his people. And then Jesus comes that Christmas morning, and begins to make all things new.
The guarantor is one who guarantees that the covenant terms will be met. If one party refuses to pay, the guarantor will pay on their behalf. Jesus is the guarantor of the new covenant on our behalf. And he didn’t wait for us who live now to fail him. He paid for our failures in advance. He made himself like us to fulfill the requirements of the law in his perfect life. Then, because God is gracious and kind, Jesus became not just the payment for us but the mediator on our behalf. He became a high priest that would offer the sacrifice by becoming the sacrifice.
Now what he gives us is the freedom to come before God knowing that we have been fully cleansed and cleared of all wrong doing. And to guarantee that this is the case, Jesus is alive now interceding on our behalf before the Father. When you come to God in your sinfulness, the Father looks to his right hand and sees the Great Reconciler sitting there presenting his wounds for your life. The covenant is better because it is guaranteed by the Son of God to be eternally effective. The priesthood of Christ firmly established.
Hebrews 7:23-25
23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Hebrews 7:25 is the heart of the message. There is not greater point that the author wishes to make. This is the climax, the supreme word from God to these people through this author.
“Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
We need a high priest like this – an enduring priest. The Levitical priests could not accomplish the deepest desire of God for his people. We need a high priest who is radiantly holy and completely innocent and eternally effective to bring us to be with the Father. Jesus is the perfect priest.
“He is able to save to the uttermost.” Another translation for “uttermost” is “at all times.” It an expansive word. The more our need, the more Christ’s ability to save. There is not a time, not a season or second of your life that Jesus is not able to save you. His power to save is limitless. The grace of God in Christ extends further than you can imagine to the deepest, most outrageous sin that you have ever committed. Never believe the lie that you are beyond saving. Satan brings guilt to the uttermost. Jesus saves to the uttermost. He will save the unsaveable.
“Those who draw near to God through him.” One of the key responsibilities of a priest is atoning for the sins of the people to bring them back into right relationship to God the Father. Jesus does this perfectly. We go to God through the person of Jesus Christ. He is our merit. He is our entry fee. He is the one who brings us into God’s glory.
“He always lives to make intercession for them.” Jesus is alive in heaven at the right hand of the majesty on high. His purpose is to pray for you. I remember someone asking the question, “What would you do if you knew Jesus was in the next room praying for you?” Hebrews 7:25 tells us Jesus is in the next room praying for you. Your sin – past, present, and future – is covered because there is a high priest in heaven praying for you. And he will never leave. There’s never a moment when you want to come to God that he will not be there to receive you because of Christ. Jesus’ priesthood is always successful.
John Bunyan said,
“Many there be that begin with grace, and end with works, and think that this is the only way…But to be saved and brought to glory, to be carried through this dangerous world, from my first moving after Christ, until I set my foot within the gates of paradise, this is the work of my mediator, of my high priest and intercessor. It is he that fetches us again when we are run away; it is he that lifts us up when the devil and sin have thrown us down; it is he that quickens us when we grow cold; it is he that comforts us when we despair; it is he that obtains fresh pardon when we have contracted sin; and he that purges our consciences when they are loaded with guilt…We are saved by Christ; brought to glory by Christ; and all our works are no otherways made acceptable to God, but by the person and personal excellences and works of Christ.”
Hebrews 7:26-28
26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. 28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.
The author has been drawing a comparison between the Levitical priests and Jesus. He wraps it up now.
Jesus, our great High Priest, is fitting for people with as great a need as us. The original audience was facing an uncertain future. There was another person who faced an uncertain future. Her name was Mary, the mother of Jesus. Luke tells us in 1:26-38 that the angel Gabriel appeared to her and promised God would give her a child, conceived by the Holy Spirit. His name would be Jesus, and he would be the savior of the world. In that announcement, the angel uses a particular name for God, “Most High.”
There may be many reasons he used that name, but I think one reason is because it was used in Genesis 14. There someone else faced an uncertain future. We saw this already. Abraham didn’t have the covenant yet. He just had a promise and a hope. He’s offered worldly riches from the king of Sodom. But he has another choice: the blessing of God Most High through the priest, Melchizedek. Abraham spurns the worldly riches to be blessed by the priest. In accepting the angel’s words, Mary was forsaking any worldly riches she may have hoped for. She embraced the priest of God.
And when that priest was born, he too faced an uncertain future. He had the weight of the universe upon his shoulders. He was God incarnate, sent to save the world. How would he make it through? How would he succeed? He was offered the riches of the world. Satan himself brought that temptation (Matthew 4:8). But he refused to seek his own comfort and instead put himself under the kind care of God Most High. He could not deny himself. And because he succeeded, he cannot deny you, either.
The Hebrews faced an uncertain future. And, in many ways, we do as well. What do we really face when we consider the misty road ahead? We face a choice. Will we trust God or will we seek alternative routes? Here’s what we can know, even if we can’t know all that is ahead. If we choose the path of God, we will always end up with Jesus. Abraham’s acceptance of God’s word resulted in offspring that turned into a nation that funneled down to a man, Jesus. Mary’s acceptance of God’s word placed Jesus in her womb. What will your acceptance of God’s word place in you?
Hebrews 7:1-10:18 is the heart of the book. The author is explaining what he began in 5:10: that Jesus is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. In chapter 8, he begins to make a shift from the person of Jesus to the ministry of Jesus. He has proved the supremacy of Jesus as the Son. Now he’s going to prove the supremacy of Jesus as priest.
1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. 5 They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” 6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
A good communicator will make sure his message is getting through. In verse one, our author wants to make sure the message is clear. “Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest.” Jesus fits the mold of Melchizedek that we see in Genesis 14. He is the promised priest of Psalm 110. He is the one who has fulfilled the priestly promises in making an eternal sacrifice for his people. Now, he is seated in the heavens – the true tent. The covenant he mediates is better. It has better promises. It is more excellent.
The author uses the tabernacle in the Old Testament as an explanation of Jesus’ ministry in the new covenant. The tabernacle is no longer necessary, but it did have value. It pointed to the ministry of Jesus. Like everything else the author has shown us in the Old Testament, the tabernacle was given to God’s people so that they could understand Jesus when he showed up.
The author highlights the job of a priest in verse 3. “Every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices.” The primary job of a priest is to make a way for a sinful man to come into the presence of the Holy God. That is done through sacrifices according to the law. Jesus did not make sacrifices in his earthly life. He made one big sacrifice in his death. In his ascension to the right hand of the Father afterwards, he took his post as high priest in heaven. Jesus is not a priest as set forth in the Mosaic Law. He is the priest the Mosaic Law anticipated. He’s the perfect priest who made a perfect sacrifice by becoming the sacrifice to reconcile all things to God.
Then what of the earthly tabernacle? It was a copy and a shadow (v. 5). When Moses was instructed to build the tabernacle and all that was in it, God told Moses in Exodus 25:40, “See that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain.” God is saying what Moses will construct is patterned after the heavily realities he has just shown him. The earthly could not be all that the heavenly is, although it did perform the same function.
Let’s think this through. Here’s a picture of my son, Jack.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/be2aa0ae8a51ec97-image-asset-JAN9cHrWKvAl9RLdBYb9C7MNkeO2Mv.jpeg\")
\n \n\n
What do we know of Jack based on this shadow? He’s animated. He has a personality. He has a body, head, arms, and legs. We can see the form of him, but we don’t see his hair color, or his face, or his eyes, or so many other things. We can’t tell what his disposition is. We only have a shadow.
So, that’s the shadow. What about the substance? Here’s another picture of 3-year-old Jack.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/87c19418df30d3f9-image-asset-iPW9mGwDrZIuDtpaQhDyRTKZ3LH8kW.jpeg\")
\n \n\n
Now, what do we know about Jack? He has blond hair. He’s happy. We can see his face. We can read his eyes and find gentleness and playfulness.
We cannot hug the shadow of a person. We cannot behold a shadow and understand exactly what or who it is. Shadows are indicators of something but they are not the something. What the shadows do is point to the reality that exists to cast the shadow.
The shadow gives us the form but not the substance. We can see the outline, but the fullness is absent. But when the shadow fades and he appears, we find the true person. So it is as Jesus enters the world on Christmas. The shadows of the Old Testament fade away. The substance has come.
A friend of mine tells about a documentary movie called, “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.” In one part, the director does not allow the film crew around a certain corner despite the fact that they are promised amazing things are back there. They are left in suspense, knowing something is there but not able to turn the corner and see it. For many of us, the Old Testament feels like that. We’re promised amazing things – things about God and salvation and the Savior – but we can’t go around the corner because of all these laws. Only Aaron could enter the Most Holy Place. No one else is allowed. Then Jesus comes, and as John says in John 1:16-18, “16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.” Jesus brings us around the corner. He shows us the amazing things that lie just beyond the veil. He consummates the anticipation.
Jesus brings something better – a new covenant. The reason it’s better is because it was established with better promises. We now have eternal cleansing from an eternal high priest who brings us to an everlasting nearness with God the Father.
Jesus obtained this ministry (8:6). He did not luck into it, or stumble into it, he obeyed into it. He did all the work required of the old covenant in order to obtain this ministry that has made us clean. We tend to downplay the life of Jesus as if his work was easy because he was God. It was not easy because he was also man. What Jesus obtained was costly and difficult. Let us rejoice in his work but let us not diminish his accomplishment.
The problem wasn’t with the terms God has set forth in the Old Covenant. The problem was us. To fix the problem, we had to be fixed.
8 For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” 13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
The old covenant has passed away. The new covenant has come. John Piper explains these verses in the following way.
“What was wrong? What was the flaw? There are two ways to answer that question. From the human side and from God's side. From the human side the problem was unbelief and hard-heartedness (Hebrews 3:8,15,19; 4:7). From God's side the problem was that God withheld the sovereign enablement of his Spirit.
Listen to Deuteronomy 29:4. Moses is speaking as he looks back over forty years of rebellion in the wilderness: \"To this day the LORD has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.\" That was the ultimate reason why the old covenant was inadequate. God had lessons he meant to teach in the Old Testament and they involved enduring generations of stubbornness and rebellion and hard-heartedness until the time the new covenant should come.
But now it comes with Jesus Christ, the Mediator of a new covenant. He says three things about this new covenant: First, the will of God is going to be written not just on stone tablets or white Bible paper, but in the mind and on the heart. Second, the new covenant will establish a relationship of ownership of us by God: \"I will be their God and they will be my people.\" And finally, the new covenant will be personal and intimate. When it is perfected we won't have to exhort each other to know the Lord, because we will know him intimately and personally. \"All shall know me from the least to the greatest.
Christ is the Mediator of this new covenant, according to Hebrews 8:6. What does that mean? It means that his blood—the blood of the covenant (Luke 22:20; Hebrews 13:20)—purchased the fulfillment of these promises for us. It means that God brings about this inner transformation by the Spirit of Christ. And it means that God works all this transformation in us through faith in all that God is for us in Christ. The new covenant is purchased by the blood of Christ, effected by the Spirit of Christ and appropriated by faith in Christ.”
In Jesus, the shadows of the Old Testament have faded away. Jesus is the founder of the new covenant. The terms he brings are different, they are more gracious and more merciful.
It is not that the old covenant was not gracious. It was. For example, the Ten Commandments are preceded by grace. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2). But under the old covenant Israel had to keep the law in order to be blessed, and if they failed they were under the curse of God (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 26-28). Clearly, it was insufficient because sinful men can never hold to the law of God. Our hearts are too hard without him. We need the softening that only comes through Holy Spirit-enabled regeneration.
The goal of both covenants was the same: knowledge of God. The problem under the old covenant was that we didn’t want to know God. As Paul says in Romans 1, we suppress the truth. Our hard hearts push God away from us. Until God does his work to soften the heart, we cannot, and will not, know him. The author quotes Jeremiah 31 (the longest OT quotation in the NT) to prove the fault was with man, not with God.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
Jeremiah is talking about the new covenant. This is groundbreaking. Nowhere else does the Old Testament speak of a new covenant. This is brand new language.
To bring about this new covenant two things had to happen:
Notice that both are the work of God for us. The old covenant gave us the stipulations by which we should live, but it did not provide the power by which to live it. But in the new covenant, the Holy Spirit is given to all believers to empower them and make them new. We have new hearts by the blood of Christ. We are washed, cleansed, remade. Ezekiel’s prophecy in 36:26-27 has come true, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
Matthew 26:26-29 shows us what Jesus did right before his crucifixion.
26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.”
What Jesus did during that last supper was more significant than serving bread and wine. He prophesied the work he was about to accomplish. Some manuscripts insert the word “new” before the word “covenant” in verse 28. Regardless of that word being there, we should read it that way, because that’s what Jesus was doing. He was instituting the new covenant. His body and blood were the covenant promises. His life was the covenant guarantee. What no one could have imagined was that God would come as a man and die on behalf of his people. But that’s exactly what Jesus did.
Jesus, our high priest, took the sacrifice into the presence of God and presented it for the atonement of his people’s sins. Jesus did not break the old covenant in order to bring about the new, he fulfilled it perfectly down to every jot and tittle (Matthew 5:18). He left nothing out. He satisfied God’s desire for the law so that he could satisfy our need to be made righteous.
What makes Hebrews 7-8 so powerful is that it proclaims to us the reality that the priest we need is the priest we have, forever and always. Jesus, our great high priest, has accomplished his work to offer the perfect sacrifice, and to become the perfect sacrifice, and has entered his priestly ministry in heaven now interceding on our behalf. Our life in Christ is safe because Christ is keeping us safe in heaven.
We don’t have return to slavery under the law, trying to earn our way into his favor. We have his favor because every sin—past, present, and future – has been forgiven at the cross of Christ. We are free. Now it’s time to live like it.
We are halfway through the heart of this book (chapters 7-10). The author continues to show us how Jesus is not only superior as the Son but also superior in his ministry. That superiority leads to his death, and the author shows us why Jesus had to die. He takes us into the Old Testament, as he always does, to see the shadows that pointed to Jesus. Then he shows us Jesus in his glory. He has accomplished something amazing for us.
1 Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. 2 For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, 4 having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. 5 Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.
6 These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, 7 but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. 8 By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing 9 (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, 10 but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.
The point of detailing the structure of the tabernacle and the regulations for the priestly sacrifice on the Day of Atonement is to draw out the reality of the distance between God and man. There was not freedom to come to God whenever. A sacrifice had to be made to bring them near.
Up until this point, there have been hints and allusions to the costly sacrifice of Christ on the cross but nothing explicit. The mention of blood in verse 7 sets the stage for the discussion about the bloody sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
In verses 8-10 the author shows us two ways in which the old priesthood was insufficient for our needs. First, as long as barriers exist between God and man, there can be no direct access to the presence of God. Second, the priestly sacrifices under the old covenant were insufficient to clear the consciences of the people. Their sin was never fully dealt with. It haunted them. Let’s look at each of these insufficiencies.
First, the distance. Under the tabernacle (and temple) system, there was no direct access to God by the people. Only the priests could enter the inner room in the tabernacle, the Holy Place. Only the high priest could enter the second room in the tabernacle where God dwelt on Earth, the Most Holy Place, and only once per year. There was a curtain separating the two rooms.
This was a huge problem for sinful people who needed access to the forgiving God. God provided priests to the people to offer sacrifices for their sins. Yet even what the priests offered was incomplete to purify for an extended period. The priests made daily and annual sacrifices. But what they did was never good enough to bring God’s people close enough. There was always distance because there was never full, everlasting forgiveness.
Now, the second insufficiency: conscience. God’s people need more than the blood of animals, they need a clean conscience. The tabernacle system was instituted by God to provide a way to deal with the sins of the people. Blood had to be shed to pay for the penalty of sins. So, the priest had to take blood with him into the Most Holy Place. But the blood that he took – the gifts and sacrifices – were not sufficient to perfect the conscience of the worshiper.
The problem was a guilty conscience. If this system did anything, it provoked guilt feelings within the people, rather than took them completely away. They were witnesses to the bloody sacrifice that their sin required. They saw it and felt it. Their guilt was a constant foe, and therefore only enhanced the felt distance between them and God.
There was a day, the Day of Atonement, that was ordained by God to deal with guilt. It was instituted to make a sacrifice for the unintentional sins of the people. But the fact that the Day of Atonement was an annual event was proof that the sacrifice was insufficient to cleanse for all time. Something more was needed.
Many today will say that there is no need to feel guilty about anything. We define who we are. Our mistakes are nothing to worry over. Our problem isn’t real guilt, it’s only guilt feelings. In other words, we have nothing to feel bad for. If we have hurt people, it’s only because we’ve been hurt. If we have been hurt, we can’t be blamed for anything. We are all victims, never the victimizer. Therefore, guilt is a myth. It’s all in our head, just think better of yourself and you’re ok!
But the reality is that we do have guilt. It’s not just feelings. It’s real, moral guilt. We have committed sin and therefore are guilty of that sin. There is no way around it. The Bible is clear.
Shakespeare helps us understand this. Macbeth receives a prophecy that he will one day become King of Scotland. Ambition rises within him. He aims to realize this hope. When King Duncan stays in his house one evening, Macbeth and his wife conspire to kill him and take the throne. But neither he nor his wife can eliminate the guilt of their murder. Shakespeare, in poetic terms, shows us the guilty conscience in one scene where Lady Macbeth sleepwalks, rubbing her hands to remove the stain.
Enter Lady Macbeth, with a taper.
Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise; and,
upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.
Doctor
How came she by that light?
Gentlewoman
Why, it stood by her. She has light by her
continually; 'tis her command.
Doctor
You see, her eyes are open.
Gentlewoman
Ay, but their sense is shut.
Doctor
What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs
her hands.
Gentlewoman
It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus
washing her hands. I have known her continue in
this a quarter of an hour.
Lady Macbeth
Yet here's a spot.
Doctor
Hark! she speaks. I will set down what comes
from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more
strongly.
Lady Macbeth
Out, damned spot! out, I say!—One: two: why,
then, 'tis time to do't.—Hell is murky!—Fie, my
lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we
fear who knows it, when none can call our power
to account?—Yet who would have thought the old
man to have had so much blood in him?
Doctor
Do you mark that?
Lady Macbeth
The thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now?—
What, will these hands ne'er be clean?—No more o'
that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with
this starting.
Doctor
Go to, go to; you have known what you should
not.
Gentlewoman
She has spoke what she should not, I am sure
of that; heaven knows what she has known.
Lady Macbeth
Here's the smell of the blood still. All the
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this
little hand. O, O, O!
Doctor
What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely
charg'd.
Gentlewoman
I would not have such a heart in my bosom
for the dignity of the whole body.
Doctor
Well, well, well.
Gentlewoman
Pray God it be, sir.
Doctor
This disease is beyond my practise; yet I
have known those which have walked in
their sleep who have died holily in their beds.
Lady Macbeth
Wash your hands, put on your nightgown;
look not so pale.—I tell you yet again, Banquo's
buried; he cannot come out on's grave.
Doctor
Even so?
Lady Macbeth
To bed, to bed! there's knocking at the gate:
come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What's
done cannot be undone.—To bed, to bed, to bed!
Exit Lady.
We have all felt this sense of nagging guilt, at least at some level. The memories roll over our minds, condemning us. As P.T. Forsyth says, we are “not even stray sheep, or wandering prodigals merely; we are rebels taken with weapons in our hands.” We are active sinners with real guilt. And the guilt haunts.
We long for the memory to fade but it never does. What are we supposed to do with this? The problem isn’t that we’re just feeling guilty. The problem is that we are guilty. We need someone to take this away. We need a conscience purifier.
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. 16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. 18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
The author highlights a difference – the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. We can summarize it this way:
With all those differences, there is one that stands out above all the rest. Eternity.
The Levitical high priests entered the Most Holy Place, offered the sacrifice of the blood of bulls and goats, turned and walked out only to walk back in a year later with another sacrifice. Jesus entered the true Most Holy Place in heaven, offered the sacrifice of his own blood, and never went back to offer another sacrifice. The author is making a sharp distinction. The offering that Jesus has made is better than all others. It is eternally effective.
Imagine you are a Jew under the old covenant. The Day of Atonement was yesterday. You sinned a lot today and need the Day of Atonement-type sacrifice for forgiveness. But you have to wait a year. The sacrifice yesterday was temporary and ineffective for today’s sin. Under the law, we could never be sure of our forgiveness at any single point other than the moment of the Day of Atonement sacrifice. The law stood to condemn. But under the new covenant we can be utterly certain of our forgiveness because we have a high priest who has made the ultimate atonement for all our sin. The sacrifice was eternal and fully effective. The New Covenant is our promised eternal inheritance (v. 15). What assuring language!
The author then draws the conclusion that the reason that this sacrifice of Jesus is fully effective to cleanse us completely, even our consciences, is because he offered himself through the eternal Spirit without blemish.
Mere animal blood could never bring about the kind of cleansing that we needed. Our sin was too great for the blood of an imperfect animal to atone for. Man’s sin requires man’s blood. Man’s sin + man’s blood = reconciliation. There is no other way.
So, when Jesus offers himself, sinless as he is, his offering is the perfect sacrifice to purify us. And because he is sinless his offering is eternally effective. The perfect obedience of Christ guaranteed that his offering would be fully accepted by God as our payment. Through the blood of Christ, we are saved – and only by his blood. By faith we have been sprinkled, purified.
A will and testament is only a piece of paper until death occurs. At that point, it becomes effective. Those who are written in as beneficiaries receive the inheritance. God wrote us into his will, but until the death of Jesus occurred we could not have our inheritance. It was only a piece of paper until the final breath.
Jesus had to die. It was the only way to bring about the new covenant. He was the covenant sacrifice and his death made it effective. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Jesus shed his blood. Therefore, there is forgiveness of sins through him.
The author then sums it up in verses 22-28:
23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
We see that there are three great assurances for us in this chapter, and which the author has been stressing throughout the book.
All of this was designed to urge us to look to Jesus as the founder and perfecter of our faith (12:2) and the one in which whom all our assurance rests. We are safe in Christ. No need to fear now. We have been redeemed.
Imagine you are a Christian under the new covenant. Jesus died on the cross two thousand years ago. You sinned a lot today and need the Day of Atonement-type sacrifice for forgiveness. You don’t have to wait for it. It has already come fully and finally. The sacrifice two thousand years ago was eternal and effective for today’s sin. Jesus made a once for all sacrifice. Under the new covenant, we can be sure of our forgiveness at every point. The greatest problems of the old covenant are gone. We have no more distance and we have no more troubled conscience. Jesus has removed both. The cross stands as a symbol of his grace.
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/489737227530d5e6-image-asset-QrQhe65eSLKORCgV48zRlFt7Dc35qy.jpeg\")
\n \n\nHow do we hear from God?
Some would tell us to go on a journey. God is everywhere, and when we search for him, we find him. The more in touch with the world we become, the more we will hear from God.
Others would tell us to look inward. We’re good at heart, and our problem is that we have lost the connection to our goodness. The more in touch we get with our true selves, the more we will realize that the power of God is within.
But what does the Bible say?
The Bible says we hear from God not through connections to creation or ourselves but in connection to the Scriptures. Hebrews 1:1 says, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.” The Old Testament Scriptures reveal God to us. But they don’t reveal all of God to us. He also gave us the New Testament because to understand God to the extent he desires we need to see him in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 1:2 says, “but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” When we open our ears to what the Bible says, we hear God.
Jesus is the final word from God because Jesus is God. So, to hear clearly from God we need to hear clearly from Jesus. And Hebrews is all about Jesus. It presents to us the person and work of Christ in clear words to people with stopped ears. The people this author is preaching to are wondering, “Is Jesus worth it anymore?” Nothing could be more relevant to our times.
So how can we be sure Jesus is worth following all the way to the end? We have to hear from God. The author works hard to prove to us that Jesus is better than every other alternative. He’s the complete savior for complete sinners. He’s always there when we need him. His work is eternally sufficient. His grace is never-endingly free.
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
These first four verses are the foundation from which the rest of the book is built. This is not the typical introduction we find in other New Testament letters. This is the start of a sermon. Here’s a breakdown of what the author is saying:
The main point is that God has spoken definitively and finally through the person of Jesus Christ.
Let’s notice two things here: 1) Who Jesus is and 2) How Jesus is better.
First, who Jesus is. As you look over these first four verses, you can draw out all kinds of attributes and qualities of Jesus. Here are some that I notice:
We will see this throughout the book. The author delights in Jesus, and so he often heaps phrase upon phrase and praise upon praise when referring to him. The entire Bible is like this. Wherever you turn, God is getting the glory. May it be so in our lives as well!
Second, how Jesus is better.
5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? 6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God's angels worship him.” 7 Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.” 8 But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” 10 And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; 11 they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, 12 like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.” 13 And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? 14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
In verses 5-14 the author includes seven Old Testament quotations. This is common throughout Hebrews. George Guthrie said he counted “roughly thirty-seven quotations, forty allusions, nineteen cases where OT material is summarized, and thirteen where an OT name or topic is referred to without reference to a specific context.” That’s a lot of supporting information!
What’s the point of these quotations? He’s making a comparison: Jesus is better than the angels. There was at that time a high view of angels. Angels, after all, were the ones who mediated the law to Moses (Deut. 33:2; Ps. 68:17; Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19). They were held in high regard among these primarily Jewish Hebrews. But to equate Jesus with the angels is to miss the uniqueness of the Son. So the author looks back into the Old Testament to find supporting documentation that Jesus is better because his title exalts him above the angels rather than making him the greatest of the angels. The focus is on the name: Son.
All seven of these quotations center around the superior name that the Son has inherited.
Psalm 2:7 (1:5) – Jesus is Kingly Son of God promised to rule for eternity.
2 Samuel 7:14 (1:5) – Jesus is the promised Davidic Son that will reign forever – the house that God builds for David.
Deuteronomy 32:43 (1:6) – Jesus is the firstborn Son worthy of worship by angels.
Psalm 104:4 (1:7) – Angels are not sons, only messengers. Jesus is a Son, not merely a messenger.
Psalm 45:6,7 (1:8,9) – Jesus is not only Son but also God. He is the Son, and he is God. He is God’s Son.
Psalm 102:25-27 (1:10-12) – Jesus is Lord, creator, everlasting Son.
Psalm 110:1 (1:13) – Jesus is the Conquering King.
What do you notice about these seven quotations? Five are from the Psalms. One is from the Davidic covenant passage in 2 Samuel. One is from the song of Moses found in Deuteronomy. The author is not choosing these passages at random. The Psalms were their songbook. 2 Samuel 7 is one of the most famous passages in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 32 is a well-known song. The author of Hebrews is looking back into the Old Testament and pulling out the songs and memories of these people to prove that even their most well-known passages prove the supremacy of the Son above angels. They’ve been singing about this and hoping for this all along!
Jesus, as the Son of God, is superior to angels in every way. He’s not a new law, or merely a new word, mediated from God to man through a created being. He’s the creator of everything who now brings God down to his creation. He’s bridging the gap, not standing in it. He’s bringing us to God by way of himself, not telling us about God from a lofty-but-removed position. He’s bending down, picking us up, and bringing us in his arms to the Father in heaven. He does this by way of suffering, death, and resurrection. Jesus is better than the angels because Jesus is the Son, the Savior, the prophetic, priestly, king of the world.
Jesus is who we’ve always needed. We don’t need merely another word from God. We need God. We don’t need an idea. We need a person. We don’t need to find our way to God. We need God to come down to us. The Old Testament Scriptures pointed to Jesus and are fulfilled in Jesus.
For these Hebrews, there was a problem of listening. They listened to the law of God but were reluctant to listen to the Son of God. Are we that way too? Do we seek to justify ourselves by works, or are we resting in the final word of God in Christ?
The entire work of redemption has been accomplished. Paul says in Romans 1:4 that Jesus was “declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.” The resurrection didn’t make Jesus the Son; he was always the Son of God. What it did was prove the power the Son wielded. Now Jesus isn’t just the Son in title – which would be enough – but he’s also the Son in power. He has defeated sin and death utterly and completely. He has accomplished the work. And when he was done, he sat down. The work is finished. So, we don’t have to work our way into God’s favor. God gave his favor to us in Christ.
All this talk about angels can leave us thinking, “So what?” We know angels aren’t higher than Jesus. But there is something here for us. Notice how this chapter ends in verse 14, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”
What’s the author’s point here? Not only is Jesus, the Son of God, the final word from God who has accomplished the work of God for his people, but there are heavenly beings that help us see that. Do you realize that the entire universe that God created – both the earthly wonders and heavenly beings – are designed to put on display his glory and prove to us that he is there and that he is good? Why do angels exist? They exist to worship Jesus, because he is worthy of all worship, and they exist to help you and me because we need lots of help. They are sent out to serve those who are to inherit salvation. Who is that? Anyone who would believe in the Son of God. So, if you believe today, you have not only the finished work of Christ “upholding the universe by the power of his word” but also the ongoing work of Christ through heavenly beings. They are supporting you along the way, as John Piper, says, to “serve you and bring you safely home.”
We have no mediocre savior in some limited world. We have a complete savior with all the resources in the world – and above it – at his disposal. We could not be more loved, and we could not be more saved. Jesus is the final word from God, come down to us for our joy. Will we listen to him?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/3c59104a6a4002ed-image-asset-CiO8L6clRqrvYvhhoUl7EuHIReAbMl.jpeg\")
\n \n\nChapter 1 raised a question: will we listen to Jesus? He’s better than the angels, and the angels were important. They mediated the law from God to man through Moses. Their words proved true. Will the words of Jesus prove true? Can Jesus lay claim to our attention?
Every book is written for a purpose, and we begin to see the purpose of this book as chapter 2 opens. The problem is that for some of these sluggish, second-generation Christians their thoughts of Jesus have stooped too low. They’ve stopped listening and started wondering if Jesus was worth it anymore. That makes this book thoroughly relevant to our times.
Surprisingly, the author doesn’t begin his book by articulating the problem. Instead, we have only seen the solution to the problem, namely, looking at Jesus. Chapter 2 begins to zero in on the issue at hand: we must pay attention.
This book is a call to consider Jesus. He has spoken. We must listen.
1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
“We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”
The message Jesus has brought is non-ignorable. We must pay close attention. At every moment, we are vacillating between two realities. We are either tightening our grip to the anchor in heaven, or we are loosening our grip on the anchor. We are never neutral. If we aren’t tightening, we’re drifting.
How do we drift? Let’s think that through. We don’t drift because we set out to drift. We drift because we set out not to not drift. We drift because we become sluggish (Heb. 6:12). We drift because, though we know the gospel and we have Bibles and we belong to a church, we sit on the sidelines, satisfied to get our weekly fix of a sermon and some songs as we segment our spiritual lives from our “regular” lives. We who should be teachers by now are like babies (Heb. 5:11-12) still asking for a simple Christianity, as if there ever was such a thing.
We can drift for a long time and never know it. And then suffering comes and we’re shaken awake and we wonder how we got where we are. We wonder why God doesn’t seem real to us. Instead of growing stronger in faith through suffering, we begin to waver in the face of suffering (Heb. 12:3-4). Jesus seems distant and mythical, if not distant and mean.
Drifting happens as we begin to take our eyes off Jesus and onto something else. The Greek word is pararuomen. It describes a boat which is allowed to drift away aimlessly, missing the landing point. If we allow ourselves to drift, we are allowing ourselves to walk in danger.
I love “lost at sea” stories. In each of these stories, it is vitally important that you know which direction you’re heading and that you stay pointed in that direction. You don’t want to drift off course. Why? Because to do so could cost you your life. You have only so much food and water in reserves. The sun beats down relentlessly. You have no help coming. Sharks are circling, just waiting for you to fall overboard. It’s a perilous situation. To stray could mean to die.
When you’re lost at sea, or lost in life, and you begin to drift, you aren’t staying neutral. There is no such thing as neutral in life. You are moving further, not closer, to your destination. To drift is to lose your way. And even if you were to realize you’re drifting and make course corrections, you can’t simply pick up from where you left off. You must get back to where it all went wrong and then make headway. You’ve lost ground, and the path is all the harder now.
That’s what the author is trying to communicate. We need a moment by moment awareness of our standing with God. We need moment by moment reality with him. We can’t simply sit on the sidelines of the Christian life. Jesus didn’t call us into that. He called us into a life that must be lost to be found, a life that requires bearing a cross daily. To follow Jesus is serious business. Therefore, to drift from him is serious business.
(Let me just break in here and say a few words on warnings in the Bible. We can get pretty weird around them. Biblical warnings are kind of like annual reviews at your job. You don’t want to think about it, then it pops up so you have to think about it, then you just try to endure it and hope for the best. But we don’t have to think that way about these portions of scripture. We will have more to say on this in the future because the book of Hebrews has five major “warning passages”, but for now let me just say this: we have no need to fear these passages. They are not trying to leave us with less assurance, but are trying to give us more. Let’s press on, and I think this will become clear.)
So how did these people drift? Two ways. One way is to neglect the truth. The author exhorts us not to neglect such a great salvation. That word “neglect” is the same Greek word Jesus uses in Matthew 22:5 in his parable about those who failed to attend the wedding banquet because they had other things to do. The second way we drift is to allow a substitute message to enter in. When truth vanishes, something will fill the void.
Here’s what the author is saying in bold, clear terms: Pay attention! Don’t drift! Don’t ignore the message that has come to us in the Son of God! What God said through the angels was reliable! How much more so is the message from his Son. We can’t neglect this. It’s too important. Keep listening. Consider Jesus.
These Hebrews run the risk of staking their future on something unstable and untrue. They need to reorient their hearts to see Christ for who he is and what he has done. Raymond Brown says, “The gospel is not only genuine and reliable, but also distinctive. In almost every period of Christian history there have been those who have offered a substitute message.” They, like we, need to flee the substitute message and cling to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We must fight the drift. But how do we do that? First, identify the substitute messages taking us captive. Second, turn our attention to someone who can help.
This book is presenting to us the Savior of the world. He’s not just a good man, or a good idea, or a great hope for the future. He’s a kingly priest who, through his prophetic word, has proclaimed salvation to our hearts. What are we doing with plugs in our ears?
But just telling you, “Jesus can help,” is not the same as showing you that Jesus can help, and that’s what the author begins to do now in verses 2-5, which is a quotation from Psalm 8:
5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? 7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, 8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Psalm 8 is interesting. If we were to turn there now, we’d be surprised to see that this Psalm isn’t messianic – at least not in the way we typically think. It’s more man-centered than God-centered (in as much as the Bible can be man-centered rather than God-centered). Psalm 8 is about mankind. It is a proclamation of the human race – its history, purpose, and future. The problem is it seems wrong. It doesn’t sound like what we see.
We don’t see mankind crowned with glory and honor. We don’t see everything in subjection under our feet. This world seems to shout back, “Nonsense!” We can’t tame the storms. We can’t tame our hearts. We can’t tame our desires. How can Psalm 8 be speaking of us? God made all things good, and through one bite of a forbidden fruit, it was all spoiled. Adam destroyed us all.
So why quote this Psalm here? Because the author wants us to see how the person and work of Jesus is bringing reality to the promises of God for mankind. Jesus is undoing what Adam destroyed.
The author uses Psalm 8 as a passageway into the humanness of Jesus. We may not see the totality of Psalm 8 in our life right now, but we can see something of it in Jesus.
8 Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
We are far from rulers over the world. And yet, at the same time, we can see that, because of Christ, we, in fact, are rulers over the world. How do we know? Because we can see him. Who is this him? Interestingly, this is the first time the author has used the name “Jesus.” Everything he’s said so far has been building to this crescendo. Jesus, the earthly name of the Son of God, is the one through whom the human race gets its life back. We receive the blessing of God not from some ethereal spirit in the sky, but through a flesh and blood brother come down from heaven. We get our lives back through the God-man, Jesus.
We can see Jesus, and in him, see that one day everything will be in subjection to us. One day, we will be crowned with glory and honor. One day, we will no longer be lower than the angels, we will judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3)!
Nothing is outside of our control because nothing is outside of the control of Christ. He upholds the universe by the word of his power (1:3). We have seen what God plans for mankind in sending Jesus to earth as a man on our behalf. He has entered in. He has been made like us so that we can see where we are headed. Our salvation was made visible in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
What Psalm 8 says about mankind came true – and is coming true more fully in the future – because Christ has suffered and died to give it to us. We ruined it. Jesus redeemed it. He was made perfect through suffering. We are made perfect through his suffering. He sanctifies. We are sanctified. He came from God and went back to God. We came from God and are going back to God because of him. He is not ashamed to call us brothers because he has done all that is necessary to restore us and to redeem us. As Tim Keller says, Jesus is the King that gets involved with us and he’s the brother who is proud of us.
Our life matters now and forever because Jesus made himself like us so that he could bring us to glory. That’s not simply a theory. That’s a loving, visible action. That’s not a formula. That’s a story of love and loss, and life and death, and sin and redemption. That’s something to pay attention to and to listen to and to believe. That’s what the book of Hebrews is about. We are being awakened from our slumber. We are rousing from our sluggishness and beholding the worthiness of Christ.
10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” 13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.”
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
We see in these verses how heroic Jesus, our older Brother, is.
Psalm 8 is coming true, but not without a cost. The price was the sufferings of Christ. But we must not think Jesus did this begrudgingly. “For the joy set before him he endured the cross.” (Heb. 12:2) He suffered because of the great love with which he loved us.
His suffering was not a mistake. It was purposeful. Whether you realize it or not, the suffering of Jesus in his earthly body is some of the greatest help that you will ever receive, because in his suffering he was made the perfect high priest and the perfect savior. He can sympathize because he has been there.
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplication, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered” (Heb. 5:7-8).
The school of Christ’s suffering has become the nursery for your wounded heart. Where he was hurt, you can be healed. Jesus allowed his flesh to be broken so that when ours breaks his pierced hands can put us back together.
No matter what you compare Jesus to, he always comes out better. He entered human flesh to show us that he is better in every situation, at every turning point, in every crisis. He came in human form as the prophetic Son to become the Great High Priest that the angels could never be. Because of that, he was exalted to the King we’ve always needed. Jesus is our heroic brother.
Most of us live with some sense of shame and a strong pull toward temptation. Those feed off of one another. The more tempted we are, the more shameful we feel, and the more shameful we feel, the more tempted we are. In Christ, that cycle can be broken.
We need someone who can help us. We need someone to reach down into or mess – into our shame and temptation cycle – and like Moses, to lead us out of Egypt. We need our own emigration out of sin, slavery, and death. Who can provide such an exodus? Jesus. Only Jesus can help because he himself has suffered when tempted. Therefore, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
The Christian life is not easy. Distractions are everywhere. We are prone to drift. But Jesus is our great Captain – when the ship of our faith begins to drift, he is there to bring us to glory. Let’s listen to this warning. Let it awaken us to the glory of Christ and see that in him our salvation is complete. Perhaps what we need this morning is to hear afresh this word from God and respond, like Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” (John 6:68)
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/912949072564da91-desert-4ZBfx2NtiXSzgbPoo7vRwFapXjf1An.jpg\")
\n \n\nSo far, we’ve seen how the author of Hebrews establishes the foundation of the superiority of Christ over everything, including angels. We’ve seen that Jesus, as divine Son, entered human flesh to become a merciful and faithful high priest for us. We’ve seen that Jesus is our heroic older brother, going before us to conquer death, and because he has suffered when tempted he is able to help us when we are tempted. We now turn our attention to a comparison to Moses and how Jesus’ exodus from death leads us into a better promised land of deeper rest than what Moses could offer.
First, we need to revisit 2:14-18 to set the stage for chapters 3 and 4.
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
We see in verse 17 that Jesus, through his life of suffering and experience, became for us a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God. What the author does next is take up each one of these two adjectives of the high priest in reverse order. First, he focuses on the faithful high priest in 3:1-4:15.
1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
Just like the start of chapter 2, the author calls us to consider Jesus. There is a rhythm in this book. First, he tells us about Jesus, then calls us to consider him, and warns us of what will happen if we refuse him. He wants us to avoid sluggishness in our pursuit of Christ. Jesus is better than everything else. He deserves to be first in our lives. If we listen, we will find that we are inheritors of great blessing.
Let’s consider him together now.
What do we see about Jesus in these first 6 verses?
Jesus is an apostle, High Priest, faithful, appointed, worthy of more glory, worthy of honor, builder of the house of God, builder of all things, Son, and our hope.
Notice verse 1. The author gives us two descriptions of Jesus: apostle and high priest. What do these descriptions mean?
Apostle – one who speaks for God
High Priest – one who mediates for God
John Piper says, “Jesus is a word from God and a way to God.” These two descriptions sum up the presentation of Jesus in 1:1 – 2:18. He is the ultimate word from God, and through his death and resurrection has become the way to God. By becoming the true Psalm 8 man, Jesus has led us out of sin and death in a new, better exodus.
The author now continues his method of comparison. He wants to prove that Jesus is better. So in verses 2-6 he compares Jesus to Moses. But once again, we see that Jesus is better. What’s the difference between the two?
The interpretive key to these 6 verses is faithfulness. William Lane says, “Faithfulness on the part of a servant is required; faithfulness in a son is an expression of pure love.” The faithfulness of Christ in service to God as the son over God’s house (the church) is another building block in the author’s argument that Jesus can be trusted. They already trusted Moses. Will they now trust Jesus?
Jesus has been faithful. The love that Jesus has for the Father is the engine for his faithfulness to him, which means that the love of the Son for the Father is the key to understanding how he has saved us. In love, Jesus saves – both in obedience to the Father who desires to save and in response to our need to be saved.
This faithfulness on the part of Jesus fulfills the Old Testament promise of a faithful high priest. “And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever.” (1 Samuel 2:35)
The author connects us to this image of the house in verse 6, “We are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” In doing so, the author is asking an insightful question. Jesus has been faithful. Moses was faithful. Will you be faithful? Or will you harden your heart?
What do we do with that word “if” in verse 6? “If we hold our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” The author is pushing us to consider our faith. The author is not pushing toward becoming something as much as he is pushing us toward being something. John Piper helps us see that in his wonderful sermon entitled “Do Not Harden Your Heart in the Day of Trouble.” (http://www.desiringgod.org/sermons/do-not-harden-your-heart-in-the-day-of-trouble)
It might sound as if the author is questioning the security of our salvation. But he’s not! Instead, he’s using this language to prove that our salvation is secure, and giving us a way to know that it’s secure. Your present faith is the best indicator of your future faith – not as much because you are faithful, but because Jesus is faithful. After all, he’s the faithful Son who built the house. He’s the founder and perfecter of your faith (Heb. 12:2). Do you believe right now that Jesus is your savior? Then you are secure!
Verse 6 becomes the evidence of your faith rather than an enemy to your faith. It grants more assurance, not less. As Piper says, “Everything in chapter 3 is written to encourage and empower you to be earnest and vigilant and focused in the fight to maintain strong assurance in Christ.”
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”
We see the author quote from the Old Testament again, just like chapters 1 and 2. He’s a master artist with the brush of the Old Testament, painting the picture of God’s faithfulness as grounds for continued faith today. Verses 7-11 are a quotation of Psalm 95.
Psalm 95 served as the call to worship for the Jewish people. Each time they met in the Synagogue on the Sabbath day they would hear this Psalm. It was a reminder to listen, a reminder of those who refused to listen, and a reminder of the tragedy that not listening becomes. Let’s turn to Psalm 95 and read the entire Psalm.
1 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”
To understand verses 7-11 in both Psalm 95 and Hebrews 3, we must understand the context surrounding the events recorded in the book of Numbers, particularly in chapters 13-14. But before that, it is helpful to go back to Exodus 17 and find out what Meribah and Massah are.
The Israelites have just been led out of Egypt though ten miraculous plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. They’re now in the desert and ask for food. God gives them manna from heaven. Then, they grumble some more and ask for water. God tells Moses to strike a rock and water will flow. He does, and they drink.
Let’s read Exodus 17:1-7
1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
So Meribah and Massah are allusions to the event where the Israelites quarrel with the Lord. Then later, in Numbers 13-14, we see them testing God on the border of the Promised Land.
What is happening in Numbers 13? Spies are sent into the Promised Land to scout it out. The spies return and report that the people are strong and well-fortified and they cannot defeat them. Only Caleb and Joshua stand against their claims and, in doing so, stand for God. They trust God’s promise.
What is happening in Numbers 14? The people rebel against God. They do not believe Joshua and Caleb and instead give into the fear that the other spies have described. Moses intercedes for the people because they have despised God and he is ready to destroy them. God spares them but promises judgment. They will not see the land he promised their fathers. After hearing the judgment, the people decide they’ll go and fight after all. Moses warns them not to, saying they will be defeated. But in their stubbornness, they go anyway. They are defeated. Their unbelief leads to their destruction. They missed out on the rest they could have had because they refused to listen to God. And so, once again, the author warns his readers to listen to God, and we come to the second major warning in the book.
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Hebrews 3:12-19 serves as an exhortation to us. Once again, we see the author present Jesus to us and then turn and tell us to pay attention. The problem is hardness of heart. How is the heart hardened?
First, by the deceitfulness of sin (3:13). Archibald Alexander said, “All sin takes its origin from false views of things.” John Calvin said nothing is easier than for our heart to be deceived. What we believe about God matters. Our deep need is to see the gospel clearly. When our vision gets blurry, sin seems a better option.
Second, our hearts are hardened because we have an evil, unbelieving heart (3:12). As we give in to sin, our heart stops believing God and begins believing something else – a false view of things.
Third, our hearts are hardened because we drift (2:1). Once we have given in to sin once, the subsequent temptations become easier to fall into. Before we realize it, we are drifting away.
How could sin seem a better option? Because sin bends our hearts toward sin. We are not good people who do bad things from time to time. We are bad people who do good things by the power of the Spirit. Apart from God, we cannot do anything good. “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all” (John 6:63).
What is the way to a soft heart? It is by sitting at the feet of Jesus. Only there will we find any power at all to fight sin. Only there will our evil, unbelieving heart be exposed. Only there will our hearts be transformed through mercy and grace. Only there will we see the faithfulness of Jesus.
The faithfulness of Jesus is our great hope. His heart is the defense against our heart. His heart pushed him into our world. It pushed him into human skin. It pushed him to the cross. It pushed him to take all our sin in himself and to defeat it in his perfect righteousness.
Notice the problem with the Israelites. It was not that God abandoned them. It was that they abandoned God. They didn’t enter God’s rest because of their unbelief. Psalm 95 says of the Israelites, “they always go astray in their hearts.” Tom Schreiner says, “The word ‘always’ indicates that Israel’s wondering from the Lord was not temporary or occasional but was the constant refrain of their lives.” What is the constant refrain of your life? Is it to always go astray or is it to always draw near?
The question Jesus posed to his disciples applies to us now: “where is your faith?” (Luke 8:25)
Jesus asked that question as he calmed the storm. The wind and waves were crashing into their boat. They were professional sea men and yet they were afraid. And as they looked at Jesus they saw him asleep in the midst of the storm. Didn’t he care about them? Wasn’t he concerned? Could he not be bothered to rouse from his sleep now? So they go to him and shout out, “Master, master, we are perishing!” And Jesus awakes and rebukes the storm. And after the waves still and the wind dies, he turns and asks, “Where is your faith?” They didn’t know God cares for them even in the middle of a hurricane.
This author is asking the same question. He’s doing what he encourages them to do to stick close to Jesus, namely, to “exhort one another every day.” These Hebrews were facing intense suffering and persecution. And their pastor looks them in the eye and asks them pointedly, “where is your faith?”
So, where is yours? Is it in the one who not only calms earthly winds and waves but also the fear of death? Is it in the one who not only awakes from sleep to save but also sends the winds and waves for our good? What are you facing that Jesus is incapable of handling? What are you facing that is greater than the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power?
![\"\"/](\"https://dfffeqlelhqvpfhd.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/archive/media/ac819e7e8ab44cac-image-asset-tdQjDyx69yLKPLDLI3UkuzZvmxZL9r.jpeg\")
\n \n\nChapter 4 continues the conversation that the author began in chapter 3. Using Psalm 95 as the launch pad, he warns his audience not to be like the wilderness generation of Israel who failed to enter God’s rest because of their unbelief. He brought them to the edge of the Promised Land. All they had to do was walk in but they wouldn’t.
Unbelief is not some small sin. It is the sin underneath all sin. Before we sin in any other way, we stop believing God and start believing something else. And so this good pastor is warning his readers about the real danger of unbelief. They’re on the verge of the Promised Land, too. But this time, it’s eternal realities at stake rather than an earthly dwelling place. He urges them to hold fast to their confession of faith. Don’t let go of Jesus now, not when the rest of God is so close at hand.
1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.”
6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Once again, the author is using comparison to make his point. But this time, instead of comparing Jesus to someone or something, he’s comparing his audience (us) to the generation of Israel in the wilderness in the years before Joshua’s conquest in the Promised Land.
This passage is about rest. The word “rest” appears 10 times in 4:1-13. So let’s break it down into two questions: 1) What is this rest? 2) How do we get there?
First, what is this rest? Verse 1 tells us it is his rest. That is, it’s God’s rest. It is the Sabbath rest of God, not merely more of the kind of rest we experience. It is the comprehensive satisfaction of completed work. What kind of work? It can’t be ongoing work because God still works in the world. It is the work that received a “Good” verdict at the end. The work, then, is work that makes us good: justification. We are called to enter our justification. The work of the law has ended. We don’t have to prove ourselves. We don’t need to go back to the Jewish law. The work of grace fulfilled it. Rest.
It is also future (4:1, 6, 9, 11). This rest an eschatological rest. The book of Hebrews points us to the future for present faith, while at the same time using our present faith as assurance for the future. Therefore, this rest is a promise that still stands. It has not yet come in its fullest form. How do we know? Because the Promised Land wasn’t the final rest (4:8). The Davidic reign and kingdom wasn’t the final rest (4:9). The earthly ministry of Jesus wasn’t even the final rest (4:11). The final rest must then be yet to come.
God still has his best awaiting his people. We who are here now have not missed out on the rest that he intends. But we could miss out, and that’s the whole point of this passage. If we abandon Jesus, we will be just like those Israelites in the desert who turned their back on the Promised Land in fear. We must hold fast to Jesus. The call of Psalm 95 not to harden our hearts today is vitally important. We must stay soft-hearted toward Jesus.
Second, how do we get there? Hebrews 4:11 says, “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest.” How do we strive to enter rest? To understand this, we must return to chapter 3 and consider once again two things:
The faithfulness of Jesus presented in Chapter 3 gives these Christians, and us today, the grounds for trusting God. If Jesus was faithful in his earthly ministry, how will he not be faithful in his heavenly ministry now as high priest? Jesus is the ultimate proof of the faithfulness of God to his people. He entered in. He suffered. He died. He rose. He ascended. He’s done everything but come back. What else are we waiting for to trust him?
We strive to enter the rest of God by looking faithfully to Jesus all our days. We hold fast to him. We consider him. We compare him to everything and anything else and find him superior in every case. We draw near to him when we’re being tempted. We turn our face to him instead of our back. We listen to his voice above all others. The degree to which we listen to Jesus is the degree to which we strive to enter his rest. He has accomplished the work. Our striving, then, is not work toward salvation but rest in salvation. All we need to do to strive to enter God’s rest is to forsake all else and follow Jesus. He’s leading the way, let’s just walk with him. To do so takes intense diligence. We are drifters by nature. We must fight the drift.
Perhaps the most famous passage in Hebrews is 4:12-13,
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
Why put these verses here? They seem out of place, but they are brilliantly used by this literary genius. It’s reminding us, once again, of the circumstances embedded in Psalm 95. I think no one says it better than William Lane.
“The sharp warning in verses 12-13 supplies a supporting reason for diligence. Here the pastor appeals to the character of the word of God as “living and effective.” Once more he draws attention to the experience of Israel at Kadesh, when he describes God’s word as “sharper than any double-edged sword.” God has said to the Israelites, “You shall not enter the land.” But the people, in essence, said to Moses, “We have made a tragic mistake. Let’s take up our weapons and enter the land. We are now prepared to believe God” (Num. 14:39-40). Moses warned them not to go. Entrance into the land now would be an act of presumption, inviting defeat: “You will fall by the sword of the Amalekites and Canaanites” (Num. 14:41-43). But they disregarded his warning and entered the high hill country, unaccompanied by Moses or the ark of the covenant. There they fell by the double-edged sword of the Amalekites and the Canaanites (Num. 14:44-45).”
“The description of God’s word as “sharper than any two-edged sword” in verse 12 is a sober reminder that these Christians were not dealing with Amalekites and Canaanites, but with God. When we are confronted by God’s word we are confronted by God himself.”
When we open the Bible, we are confronted not just with words on a page but a person speaking through a page. We are confronted by God himself. To read the Bible is a risky thing. We cannot read it, put it down, and claim ignorance. We have been enlightened through the Scriptures to the reality of God. To open the Bible is to expose ourselves.
This sounds terrifying. And, in many ways, it is. But it’s also terrifying in a wonderful way. We need to be exposed. We need to stand naked before God. We cannot hide there. He knows all. It’s what he does with that knowledge that surprises us. We think, like the Israelites who were afraid of the Amalekites and Canaanites, that God will slay us quickly and mercilessly. But that’s not what he does. He does wound but only to bind. He does hurt but only to heal. To be exposed before God is not to lose face with God but to gain peace with God. He saves through exposure, like a surgeon who must cut to get the tumor out.
So how does this help us with unbelief and striving toward rest? The more we are exposed to God the more assurance we will have of both his reality and the hope of rest. We tend to think our lives will be best if we don’t think too much about the future. But the Bible says we need to think about the future far more often. It is there, in the hope of glory, that we find the hope we need for today’s difficulties.
We’ve talked about hearing God, but what are we to hear? Look at verse 2, “good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.” What is the good news? It is the gospel! The Israelites heard the gospel – the grace of God coming to them – but did not believe it. The message they heard did not benefit them. They didn’t listen. So the question for us: are we listening?
Today we have an opportunity to enter God’s rest. So hold fast. Strive to enter his rest. Keep listening. Keep believing. Keep pressing on. When we get there, we will find not only rest for our weary bodies but God himself, Rest personified.
We now have a problem. We must enter God’s rest but we feel so unrestful. How do we take the eschatological rest and dump that great hope like a bucket all over our present experience and soak ourselves in it? In other words, how do we have the peace of God today? We know we have peace with God through our justification. But how does that translate into the peace of God?
We saw in 2:17 that Jesus became for us a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God through his life of suffering and experience. What the author does next is take up each one of these two features of the high priest in reverse order. First, he focuses on the faithful high priest in 3:1-4:15, which we just saw. Second, he focuses on the merciful high priest in 4:15-5:10.
14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
The author presents the mercy of Jesus as further reason why we can trust him. Whereas 3:6-4:13 calls us to stick with Jesus, 4:14-5:10 shows us how Jesus sticks with us. Ultimately, our salvation rests in Christ alone. He’s done all the work. We must believe in him who has accomplished that work. We are like the Israelites following Joshua into the Promised Land, doing what he commands as he faithfully leads
These three verses hold some of the richest descriptions of the priesthood of Jesus in all the Bible. He is a great high priest in heaven (v. 14) who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses (v. 15). He has been tempted as we are in every respect yet without sin (v. 15). Through him we can draw near to God’s throne of grace where we can receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need (v. 16).
Because of this, we have something unheard of in the Old Testament. We have a sinless priest who is able to make the perfect sacrifice to end all sacrifices. Though he was tempted, he never sinned. Therefore, he is able to help us whenever we need him. He’s ready at all times. He has no need to cleanse himself first.
This raises an important question that we must answer. If Jesus never sinned, is it possible that he can actually sympathize with us? Doesn’t it take someone who has “been there” to sympathize with those who are there? How does a sinless Christ help us in our temptation?
C.S. Lewis helps us here in this passage from Mere Christianity.
“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”
Because Jesus has entered the Most Holy Place (Heaven), we now have unprecedented access to God. The Levitical priest entered the Most Holy Place, but alone and with a rope tied to his leg in case he was to die. No one else could enter. It was exclusive and costly. But in Christ’s priesthood, the curtain separating us from God has been torn. We didn’t tear it, God tore it (Matthew 27:51). We are now invited to draw near to God’s throne whenever we need help, that is, at all times! “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace” (v. 16). We can go with confidence – no fear of rejection because Christ has given us ultimate acceptance through the imputation of his righteousness.
The throne of God is not a throne of punishment or judgment or condemnation for those in Christ. It is a throne of grace. We approach God’s throne, where he rules and reigns and where we can find help for our various needs. The Greek text indicates “bold frankness” in this drawing near to God. We can come to him, exactly as we are with all our need. We can say what we really need to say to the one who can really help. He is not afraid of our deep need. Jesus made himself like us. He “partook of the same things” (2:14). Jesus feels the pain you feel. He has made himself co-sufferer with you, for you.
So here’s what that means in real time. You know those moments when you’re giving into temptation? Those moments when you’re in the midst of sin and you surprise even yourself? What do you do at that moment? Here’s what we tend to do. We tend to put off repentance. We feel too guilty. We think Jesus will cleanse us afterward but not during. And we beat ourselves up, and we work ourselves into guilt. We might go and confess our sin to a brother in Christ. Then, at some point, we get around to asking God’s forgiveness. But that’s not the kind of help Jesus is offering here. It’s more instant than that.
Those moments of awareness in the midst of our sin – those moments where we are surprised by our actions or thoughts – are moments of grace from the throne. Here’s what we can do at that moment. We can cry out to Jesus to save us! Notice the words of verse 16, “that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” When is our time of need? Is it not when we’re in the midst of need? Doesn’t that include sin?
Think of a soldier at war. He needs help not at the point of recovery from the battle only, but also in the midst of battle. He needs another gunner to take out the enemy that he can’t see. He needs a friend that sticks close. He needs an ally to fight for him. When a soldier cries out in war, he is not ignored. When you cry out in sin, you are not ignored. Jesus is there with in your need, not only before or after the need. Help is help only when it comes on time. Jesus is never late.
The #1 New York Times bestselling memoir of U.S. Navy Seal Chris Kyle, and the source for Clint Eastwood’s blockbuster movie which was nominated for six academy awards, including best picture.
From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. His fellow American warriors, whom he protected with deadly precision from rooftops and stealth positions during the Iraq War, called him “The Legend”; meanwhile, the enemy feared him so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle, who was tragically killed in 2013, writes honestly about the pain of war—including the deaths of two close SEAL teammates—and in moving first-person passages throughout, his wife, Taya, speaks openly about the strains of war on their family, as well as on Chris. Gripping and unforgettable, Kyle’s masterful account of his extraordinary battlefield experiences ranks as one of the great war memoirs of all time.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062238863", "ISBN-10": "0062238868", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Taking God at His Word: Why the Bible Is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me", "Author": "Kevin DeYoung", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 138, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, christian living", "Summary": "Can we trust the Bible completely?
Is it sufficient for our complicated lives?
Can we really know what it teaches?
With his characteristic wit and clarity, award-winning author Kevin DeYoung has written an accessible introduction to the Bible that answers important questions raised by Christians and non-Christians. This book will help you understand what the Bible says about itself and the key characteristics that contribute to its lasting significance.
Avoiding technical jargon, this winsome volume will encourage you to read and believe the Bible--confident that it truly is God's Word.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433542404", "ISBN-10": "1433542404", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Hebrews, 1-8", "Author": "William L. Lane", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Commentary", "Pages": 211, "Tag": "bible_commentaries_n. t. hebrews", "Summary": "Examines the biblical book of Hebrews focusing on chapters nine through thirteen. In each phrase of every verse, analyzes Judaic thought and language, and points out shifts of syntax and vocabulary from Old Testament times to the days of the early church when Hebrews was written.", "ISBN-13": "9780849902468", "ISBN-10": "0849902460", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Holy Spirit", "Author": "Kevin DeYoung", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 30, "Tag": "religion, christian ministry, pastoral resources", "Summary": "The Holy Spirit is perhaps the least understood, and least acknowledged, member of the Trinity, but his work in the gospel is indispensable. In this new booklet from the Gospel Coalition, Kevin DeYoung looks to Scripture to outline fundamental doctrine about the personhood and work of the Holy Spirit.
DeYoung describes the Holy Spirit as our ultimate gift. Jesus promised his followers that a \"helper\" would be given to them. It is through this helper that we actively experience the power and presence of God. In this booklet DeYoung notes the activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives, including his role in conviction, conversion, glorification, and the imparting of spiritual gifts.
The Holy Spirit offers a thoughtful explanation for point 9 of the Gospel Coalition's confessional statement. The Gospel Coalition is an evangelical renewal movement dedicated to a scripture-based reformation of ministry practices.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433527678", "ISBN-10": "1433527677", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Doctrine of Repentance", "Author": "Thomas Watson", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 122, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "\"'The Doctrine of Repentance is probably one of the most needed books, not only for us as ministers, but for our people, because repentance is so trivialized today. [This book] stresses the need for ongoing repentance, a daily repentance, a lifestyle of repentance. Like Luther said, \"God will have his people repenting all life long.\" Watson shows you how to do that.' -- JOEL BEEKE. A good case could be made out for believing that 'repentance' is one of the least used words in the Christian church today.\" --", "ISBN-13": "9780851515212", "ISBN-10": "0851515215", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Gospel and Kingdom", "Author": "Graeme Goldsworthy", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, new testament", "Summary": "In an engaging and straightforward style, Graeme Goldsworthy explains the nature and content of the Old Testament as seen in relation to the Bible as a whole, and sets out clear principles for accurate interpretation.", "ISBN-13": "9781842277911", "ISBN-10": "184227791X", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper", "Author": "Howard E. Wasdin, Stephen Templin", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "History", "Pages": 368, "Tag": "history, military, special forces", "Summary": "The New York Times bestselling book that takes you inside SEAL Team Six – the covert squad that killed Osama Bin Laden
In this dramatic, behind-the-scenes chronicle, Howard E. Wasdin takes readers deep inside the world of Navy SEALS and Special Forces snipers, beginning with the grueling selection process of Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S)—the toughest and longest military training in the world. After graduating, Wasdin saw combat in Operation Desert Storm as a member of SEAL Team Two. Then the Green Course: the selection process to join the legendary SEAL Team Six--a secret unit tasked with counterterrorism, hostage rescue, and counterinsurgency. As a member of Team Six, sniper school followed and Wasdin became one of the best snipers on the planet.
Soon he was fighting for his life. The mission: capture or kill Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. From rooftops, helicopters, and alleys, Wasdin hunted Aidid and killed his men whenever possible. But everything went quickly to hell. The Battle of Mogadishu, as it become known, left eighteen American soldiers dead and seventy-three wounded. Wasdin's tale is one of the most thrilling and inspiring military memoirs in years.
A repackaged edition of the revered author's classic work that examines the four types of human love: affection, friendship, erotic love, and the love of God—part of the C. S. Lewis Signature Classics series.
C.S. Lewis—the great British writer, scholar, lay theologian, broadcaster, Christian apologist, and bestselling author of Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Chronicles of Narnia, and many other beloved classics—contemplates the essence of love and how it works in our daily lives in one of his most famous works of nonfiction. Lewis examines four varieties of human love: affection, the most basic form; friendship, the rarest and perhaps most insightful; Eros, passionate love; charity, the greatest and least selfish. Throughout this compassionate and reasoned study, he encourages readers to open themselves to all forms of love—the key to understanding that brings us closer to God.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062565396", "ISBN-10": "0062565397", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey Into Christian Faith", "Author": "Rosaria Champagne Butterfield", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Memoir", "Pages": 191, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, religious, religion", "Summary": "\"Rosaria, by the standards of many, was living a very good life. She had a tenured position at a large university in a field for which she cared deeply. She owned two homes with her partner, in which they provided hospitality to students and activists that were looking to make a difference in the world. In the community, Rosaria was involved in volunteer work. At the university, she was a respected advisor of students and her department's curriculum. And then, in her late 30s, Rosaria encountered something that turned her world upside down -- the idea that Christianity, a religion that she had regarded as problematic and sometimes downright damaging, might be right about who God was. That idea seemed to fly in the face of the people and causes that she most loved. What follows is a story of what she describes as a train wreck at the hand of the supernatural. These are her secret thoughts about those events, written as only a reflective English professor could.\"--Back cover.", "ISBN-13": "9781884527807", "ISBN-10": "1884527388", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "To Kill a Mockingbird", "Author": "Harper Lee", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 384, "Tag": "fiction, classics, legal", "Summary": "The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.Over 250,000 Copies Sold
What is the gospel? It seems like a simple question, yet it has been known to incite some heated responses, even in the church. How are we to formulate a clear, biblical understanding of the gospel? Tradition, reason, and experience all leave us ultimately disappointed. If we want answers, we must turn to the Word of God.
Greg Gilbert does so in What Is the Gospel? Beginning with Paul's systematic presentation of the gospel in Romans and moving through the sermons in Acts, Gilbert argues that the central structure of the gospel consists of four main subjects: God, man, Christ, and a response. The book carefully examines each and then explores the effects the gospel can have in individuals, churches, and the world. Both Christian and non-Christian readers will gain a clearer understanding of the gospel in this valuable resource.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433515002", "ISBN-10": "1433515008", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Love Into Light: The Gospel, the Homosexual and the Church", "Author": "Peter Hubbard", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 175, "Tag": "religion, christian living, family & relationships", "Summary": "
Over ten thousand copies sold
\"Powerfully insightful book. . . . I am not aware of a more valuable first resource to help shape our thinking on this very contemporary issue.\" --Dr. Fred G. Zaspel, Calvary Baptist Seminary
Homosexuality is one of the most controversial moral issues of our day. Headlines teem with stories of athletes \"coming out,\" politicians changing positions, and courts handing down same-sex marriage rulings.
Sadly the church has often been afraid to talk about homosexuality. Many Christians feel confused and divided between the call to love and the call for truth. And many who struggle with unwanted same-sex attraction feel alone and alienated by the church.
The time is ripe for God's people to think and speak about same-sex attraction in a way that is both biblical and beneficial. We must reject our fears and misunderstandings and see ourselves together in need of the grace of Jesus. Love Into Light is designed to move the church toward that end.
Written from the heart of a pastor with a love for people and a sensitivity to our culture, Love Into Light is your next step toward becoming more faithfully and helpfully engaged with people in your families, in your church and in your neighborhood.
", "ISBN-13": "9781620202227", "ISBN-10": "1620202220", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Art of Neighboring: Building Genuine Relationships Right Outside Your Door", "Author": "Jay Pathak, Dave Runyon", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Ministry", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "family & relationships, friendship, religion", "Summary": "What if Jesus meant that we should love our actual neighbors?NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * 2015 Christian Book Award winner * Nabeel Qureshi describes his dramatic journey from Islam to Christianity in this expanded edition with new bonus content and reflections.
\"My friend Nabeel Qureshi was courageous enough to chase down the truth with intellectual integrity, no matter the personal cost,\" --Lee Strobel, bestselling author of The Case for Christ.
Providing an intimate view into a loving Muslim home, Qureshi shares how he developed a passion for Islam before discovering, almost against his will, evidence that Jesus rose from the dead and claimed to be God. Unable to deny the arguments but not wanting to deny his family, Qureshi struggled with an inner turmoil that will challenge Christians, Muslims, and all those who are interested in two of the world's greatest religions and the quest for truth.
Qureshi--with great courage and intimacy--wrote this book with three major purposes in mind:
Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus is more than the memoir of a man's pursuit of answers to the most important issues of life and faith. Ultimately, it's the story about the transformative grace and mercy of the one true God.
This edition has been expanded to include:
What does effective church leadership look like?
In this conversational book, pastor Jeramie Rinne sets forth an easy-to-understand \"job description\" for elders drawn from the Bible's teaching on church leadership.
Offering practical guidance for new elders and helping church members better understand and support their spiritual leaders, this succinct volume will encourage elders to embrace their calling with grace, wisdom, and clarity of vision.
Part of the 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches series.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433540875", "ISBN-10": "1433540878", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Called to the Ministry", "Author": "Edmund P. Clowney", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 96, "Tag": "religion, christian ministry, counseling & recovery", "Summary": "What is Christ's calling to you? You may be seeking an answer; you may be avoiding the question, but when the Lord calls, he will be answered. God's call came suddenly to Elisha; he was plowing a field when Elijah cast the prophet's mantle on him. Levi was in a toll booth, and Peter held a fishing net when Jesus called them. But how does the Lord call today? You have not been blinded by a heavenly light on the road to Damascus, but you are ready to say with Saul of Tarsus, \"Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?\" How does the Lord answer that question? - Introduction.", "ISBN-13": "9780875521442", "ISBN-10": "0875521444", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 336, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, christian living", "Summary": "Renowned pastor and New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet Timothy Keller explores the power of prayer.Praying is a problem for many people. Christians often go through the motions of prayer because it is expected of them, but they are often left wondering, \"Did God hear me? Does he even care?\"
In his book Praying the Lord's Prayer, an excerpt from Growing in Christ, J. I. Packer presents a powerful truth: prayer is a natural activity between the Heavenly Father and his children. As Packer works through each phrase of Christ's pattern of prayer, readers will begin to grasp the basic principles and guidelines of prayer. As readers apply the truths of this book to their prayer lives, they will experience intimate communication with God and will strengthen their own conversations with their Father in heaven.
", "ISBN-13": "9781581349634", "ISBN-10": "1581349637", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": 1776, "Author": "David McCullough", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "History", "Pages": 386, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, historical, military", "Summary": "America’s beloved and distinguished historian presents, in a book of breathtaking excitement, drama, and narrative force, the stirring story of the year of our nation’s birth, 1776, interweaving, on both sides of the Atlantic, the actions and decisions that led Great Britain to undertake a war against her rebellious colonial subjects and that placed America’s survival in the hands of George Washington.What do you do when you're at the end of your rope?
For Christians, there is only one simple yet profound answer: turn to the triune God. Born out of lessons learned during one of the most spiritually challenging periods of his life, Experiencing the Trinity by pastor Joe Thorn contains 50 down-to-earth meditations on God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Overflowing with scriptural truth, pastoral wisdom, and personal honesty, this book reflects on common experiences of doubt, fear, and temptation--pointing readers to the grace that God provides and the strength that he promises.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433541681", "ISBN-10": "1433541688", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Learning Evangelism from Jesus", "Author": "Jerram Barrs", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 288, "Tag": "religion, biblical criticism & interpretation, new testament", "Summary": "Studying Jesus's conversations with diverse people in his day, Jerram Barrs draws lessons and principles for attractively communicating the gospel to unbelievers in our day.
Living in a culture that is opposed to Christianity tempts God's people to conform, to retreat, to be silent. But Jesus showed the way to live faithfully before an unbelieving world.
As the greatest evangelist, Jesus exemplified how to attract people to the gospel. He modeled how to initiate spiritual conversations full of grace and truth. Christian evangelism, then, both in theory and practice, must be shaped by his pattern.
Seeking to articulate the passions and principles present in Christ's life and words, longtime L'Abri staff member Jerram Barrs has studied Jesus's diverse encounters with people throughout the Gospels. Each chapter of Learning Evangelism from Jesus recounts one of those stories, draws useful lessons for readers' lives and communication of the gospel, and concludes with questions for further reflection and application. This highly practical book will guide Christians in how to live before unbelievers and how to love them into the kingdom, just as Jesus did.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433503184", "ISBN-10": "1433503182", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides", "Author": "Scott Sauls", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 288, "Tag": "religion, christian living, social issues", "Summary": "Whether the issue of the day on Twitter, Facebook, or cable news is our sexuality, political divides, or the perceived conflict between faith and science, today's media pushes each one of us into a frustrating clash between two opposing sides. Polarizing, us-against-them discussions divide us and distract us from thinking clearly and communicating lovingly with others. Scott Sauls, like many of us, is weary of the bickering and is seeking a way of truth and beauty through the conflicts. Jesus Outside the Lines presents Jesus as this way. Scott shows us how the words and actions of Jesus reveal a response that does not perpetuate the destructive fray. Jesus offers us a way forward--away from harshness, caricatures, and stereotypes. In Jesus Outside the Lines, you will experience a fresh perspective of Jesus, who will not (and should not) fit into the sides.", "ISBN-13": "9781496400932", "ISBN-10": "1496400933", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Everyday Church: Gospel Communities on Mission", "Author": "Tim Chester, Steve Timmis", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 173, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, new testament", "Summary": "\"This book is not a commentary. Instead, we want to offer some missional reflections on 1 Peter, to explore what the Holy Spirit would say to the Western church today through this portion of God's Word. Above all, we have tried to write a practical book that shows what everyday church and everyday mission might look like on the ground. In calling the church to everyday mission, we recognize that this is what many, many Christians are already doing: being good neighbours, colleagues, family members, doing good in the face of hostility, bearing witness to Christ in the context of ordinary life. Our aim is not to dismiss this. Quite the opposite. We want to celebrate it and put it back at the centre of the church's mission. And perhaps also give it more direction and show how it can be more intentional.\"--Introduction, page 11.", "ISBN-13": "9781433532221", "ISBN-10": "1433532220", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays", "Author": "Marilynne Robinson", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Essays", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "literary collections, essays, religion", "Summary": "A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
A New York Times Bestseller
A New York Magazine Best Book of the Year
An Economist Best Book of the Year
Pulitzer Prize–Winning Author of Gilead
Marilynne Robinson has built a sterling reputation as a writer of sharp, subtly moving prose, not only as a major American novelist, but also as a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist.
In When I Was a Child I Read Books she returns to and expands upon the themes which have preoccupied her work with renewed vigor.
In \"Austerity as Ideology,\" she tackles the global debt crisis, and the charged political and social political climate in this country that makes finding a solution to our financial troubles so challenging. In \"Open Thy Hand Wide\" she searches out the deeply embedded role of generosity in Christian faith. And in \"When I Was a Child,\" one of her most personal essays to date, an account of her childhood in Idaho becomes an exploration of individualism and the myth of the American West. Clear-eyed and forceful as ever, Robinson demonstrates once again why she is regarded as one of our essential writers.
In How the Gospel Brings Us All the Way Home, Dr. Derek W.H. Thomas explores Romans 8, which he calls \"the best chapter in the Bible.\" Here he finds an exposition of the steps through which God leads His people in the process of their salvation, but also loving counsel on such topics as prayer and resisting the Devil, as well as exhortations and comforts for weary pilgrims. Dr. Thomas begins at Romans 8:1 with \"the best news imaginable\"--believers' just and deserved condemnation before God has been taken away by Jesus Christ's work on the cross. He then contrasts earthly minded and spiritually minded people, showing that only those who are spiritually minded know life.
In Romans 8:29-30, he explores several steps in the process of salvation--foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and, finally, glorification--which show God's invincible purpose in redemption. Finally, he unfolds the powerful promise of the final few verses of Romans 8: nothing can separate those God has redeemed from His saving love. How the Gospel Brings Us All the Way Home is a powerful exploration of the manifold gifts the heavenly Father has lavished upon His people-and a preview of the greater inheritance that lies ahead.
", "ISBN-13": "9781567692563", "ISBN-10": "1567692567", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", "Author": "J. K. Rowling", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 320, "Tag": "juvenile fiction, action & adventure, family", "Summary": "Harry Potter has never been the star of a Quidditch team, scoring points while riding a broom far above the ground. He knows no spells, has never helped to hatch a dragon, and has never worn a cloak of invisibility.All he knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley - a great big swollen spoiled bully. Harry's room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn't had a birthday party in eleven years.But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to an incredible place that Harry - and anyone who reads about him - will find unforgettable.For it's there that he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic in everything from classes to meals, but a great destiny that's been waiting for him... if Harry can survive the encounter.", "ISBN-13": "9780590353403", "ISBN-10": "0590353403", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Why We Pray", "Author": "William Philip", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 112, "Tag": "religion, christian living, prayer", "Summary": "Pray is essential to the Christian life, but sometimes it seems hard. Written by a pastor with years of teaching and counseling experience, Why We Pray doesn't simply tell us why we should pray, but instead focuses on four blessing-filled reasons that will help us want to pray.
Rather than feeling discouraged and disheartened by your inconsistency in prayer, you'll feel reinvigorated to approach God with confidence and joy, delighted by the privilege of talking directly to our loving heavenly Father.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433542862", "ISBN-10": "1433542862", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", "Author": "J. K. Rowling", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 352, "Tag": "juvenile fiction, action & adventure, fantasy & magic", "Summary": "Award-winning artist Jim Kay illustrates year two of Harry Potter's adventures at Hogwarts, in a stunning, gift-ready format.Get ready for adventure in this deluxe special edition of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire! J.K. Rowling's complete and unabridged text is accompanied by full-color illustrations throughout and eight paper-engineered interactive elements: Readers will explore the Weasleys' tent at the Quidditch World Cup, reveal the Dark Mark in the sky, follow Harry into the Lake at Hogwarts, and more.
This keepsake edition is an impressive gift for Harry Potter fans of all ages, a beautiful addition to any collector's bookshelf, and an enchanting way to share this beloved series with a new generation of readers.
", "ISBN-13": "9781338878950", "ISBN-10": "0439139600", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Encounters with Jesus: Unexpected Answers to Life's Biggest Questions", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "religion, spirituality, biblical studies", "Summary": "New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet Timothy Keller explores how people are changed by meeting Jesus personally—and how we can be changed encountering him today.Biblically and practically instructs church members in ways they can labor for the health of their church.
What Is a Healthy Church Member? takes its cue from Mark Dever's book What Is a Healthy Church?, which offered one definition of what a healthy church looks like biblically and historically. In this new work, pastor Thabiti Anyabwile attempts to answer the natural next question: \"What does a healthy church member look like in the light of Scripture?\"
God intends for us to play an active and vital part in the body of Christ, the local church. He wants us to experience the local church as a home more profoundly wonderful and meaningful than any other place on earth. He intends for his churches to be healthy places and for the members of those churches to be healthy as well. This book explains how membership in the local church can produce spiritual growth in its members and how each member can contribute to the growth and health of the whole.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433502125", "ISBN-10": "1433502127", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership That Matters", "Author": "Albert Mohler", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "religion, leadership, christian ministry", "Summary": "Leadership Principles from a Renowned Agent of ChangeOver 100,000 Copies Sold
Winner of the 2014 ECPA Book of the Year Award
\"Everything Kevin DeYoung writes is biblical, timely, and helpful for both life and ministry. You can't afford to miss what he says here.\" --Rick Warren, #1 New York Times best-selling author, The Purpose Driven Life
\"I'M TOO BUSY!\" We've all heard it. We've all said it. All too often, busyness gets the best of us.
Just one look at our jam-packed schedules tells us how hard it can be to strike a well-reasoned balance between doing nothing and doing it all.
That's why award-winning author and pastor Kevin DeYoung addresses the busyness problem head on in his book Crazy Busy--and not with the typical arsenal of time management tips, but rather with the biblical tools we need to get to the source of the issue and pull the problem out by the roots.
Highly practical and super short, Crazy Busy will help you put an end to \"busyness as usual.\"
", "ISBN-13": "9781433533389", "ISBN-10": "1433533383", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus", "Author": "J. Mack Stiles", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, christian ministry, evangelism", "Summary": "Evangelism is more than a program.
Every few years, churches jump into the latest evangelistic fad. Leaders administrate the new program, and members go on a raid. But picture a church where evangelism is simply part of the culture. Leaders share their faith consistently and openly. Members follow, encouraging one another to make evangelism an ongoing way of life.
Such is the way of evangelism presented by this brief and compelling book. No program here. Instead, it just might give your church a new way to live and share the gospel together.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433544651", "ISBN-10": "1433544652", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 356, "Tag": "medical, pain management, religion", "Summary": "New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet Timothy Keller—whose books have sold millions of copies to both religious and secular readers—explores one of the most difficult questions we must answer in our lives: Why is there pain and suffering?Christianity Today Beautiful Orthodoxy Book of the Year Finalist
If we want to know who God is, the best thing we can do is look at Christ.
If we want to live the life to which God calls us, we look to Christ. In Jesus we see the true meaning of the love, power, wisdom, justice, peace, care and majesty of God.
Michael Reeves, author of Delighting in the Trinity, opens to readers the glory and wonder of Christ, offering a bigger and more exciting picture than many have imagined. Jesus didn't just bring us the good news. He is the good news. Reeves helps us celebrate who Christ is, his work on earth, his death and resurrection, his anticipated return and how we share in his life.
This book, then, aims for something deeper than a new technique or a call to action. In an age that virtually compels us to look at ourselves, Michael Reeves calls us to look at Christ. As we focus our hearts on him, we see how he is our life, our righteousness, our holiness and our hope.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830840229", "ISBN-10": "0830840222", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", "Author": "J.K. Rowling", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 672, "Tag": "england_fiction, fantasy fiction, magic_fiction", "Summary": "The war against Voldemort is not going well; even the Muggles have been affected. Dumbledore is absent from Hogwarts for long stretches of time, and the Order of the Phoenix has already suffered losses.New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet and nationally renowned minister Timothy Keller exposes the error of making good things \"ultimate\" in this book, and shows readers a new path toward a hope that lasts.
Success, true love, and the life you've always wanted. Many of us placed our faith in these things, believing they held the key to happiness, but with a sneaking suspicion they might not deliver. No wonder we feel lost, alone, disenchanted, and resentful. There is only one God who can wholly satisfy our cravings—and now is the perfect time to meet Him again, or for the first time.
In Counterfeit Gods, Timothy Keller shows how a proper understanding of the Bible reveals the unvarnished truth about societal ideals and our own hearts. This powerful message cements Keller's reputation as a critical thinker and pastor, and comes at a crucial time—for both the faithful and the skeptical.
HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.
'Fifteen men on the dead man's chest -Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!'
When young Jim Hawkins finds an old map showing the location of a hoard of buried treasure, he joins the crew of the Hispaniola who set sail to find it. But they soon have a mutiny on their hands, led by the duplicitous pirate Long John Silver. As the quest turns murderous, Jim's bravery is put to the test, and he discovers much about friendship, loyalty and betrayal on this daring voyage.
Treasure Island was serialised in the children's magazine Young Folks before being published in 1883. It has come to be regarded as one of the greatest adventure stories ever told.
", "ISBN-13": "9780008195564", "ISBN-10": "0008195560", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-centered Ministry in Your City", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 395, "Tag": "religion, christian ministry, evangelism", "Summary": "Practical and Gospel-centered thoughts on how to have a fruitful ministry by one of America's leading and most beloved pastor.
Many church leaders are struggling to adapt to a culture that values individuality above loyalty to a group or institution. There have been so many \"church growth\" and \"effective ministry\" books in the past few decades that it's hard to know where to start or which ones will provide useful and honest insight.
Based on over twenty years of ministry in New York City, Timothy Keller takes a unique approach that measures a ministry's success neither by numbers nor purely by the faithfulness of its leaders, but on the biblical grounds of fruitfulness.
Center Church outlines a balanced theological vision for ministry organized around three core commitments:
\"Between a pastor's doctrinal beliefs and ministry practices should be a well-conceived vision for how to bring the gospel to bear on the particular cultural setting and historical moment. This is something more practical than just doctrine but much more theological than \"how-to steps\" for carrying out a ministry. Once this vision is in place, it leads church leaders to make good decisions on how to worship, disciple, evangelize, serve, and engage culture in their field of ministry--whether in a city, suburb, or small town.\" -- Tim Keller, Core Church
", "ISBN-13": "9780310494188", "ISBN-10": "0310494184", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Hebrews: A Call to Commitment", "Author": "William L. Lane", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 188, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, christian church", "Summary": "By surpassing most traditional commentaries, Lane's work unveils Hebrews as a sermon rendered by a concerned \"preacher\" to his Roman church, which is under persecution and dangerously close to rejecting the faith. As an exposition of encouragement and exhortation, Hebrews addresses the central concerns of our contemporary church as well: the felt absence of God, a climate of uncertainty and insecurity, the tension between secular conformity and spiritual maturity and the treat of societal perversion and materialism to a Christian commitment. Christians are called upon to express a faith that is rooted in the future and to continue this life of pilgrimage with a radical new view of reality, which is based on sure confidence in the intervention of God in daily life. Tracing the writer's development thought by thought, rather than verse by verse, careful attention is paid to the cultural and historical background. This work is useful as a study guide for groups and individuals, or for any reader who wishes a mature understanding of the book of Hebrews.", "ISBN-13": "9781573832953", "ISBN-10": "1573832952", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Life of Pi: A Novel", "Author": "Yann Martel", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 326, "Tag": "fiction_psychological, fiction_action & adventure", "Summary": "NOW ON BROADWAY
", "ISBN-13": "9781594483493", "ISBN-10": "1594483493", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right where You are", "Author": "Ann Voskamp", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 237, "Tag": "religion, christian life, spiritual growth", "Summary": "
MORE THAN ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD
New York Times bestselling author Ann Voskamp invites you to embrace everyday blessings and embark on the transformative spiritual discipline of chronicling God's gifts.
Just like you, Ann Voskamp hungers to live her one life well. Forget the bucket lists that have us escaping our everyday lives for exotic experiences. \"How,\" Ann wondered, \"do we find joy in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama, and daily duties? What does the Christ-life really look like when your days are gritty, long - and sometimes even dark? How is God even here?\"
In One Thousand Gifts, Ann invites you to discover a way of seeing that opens your eyes to ordinary amazing grace, a way of living that is fully alive, and a way of becoming present to God that brings you deep and lasting joy. It's only in the expression of gratitude for the life we already have, we discover the life we've always wanted . . . a life we can take, give thanks for, and break for others. We come to feel and know the impossible right down in our bones: we are wildly loved - by God.
Let Ann's beautiful, heart-aching stories of the everyday give you a way of seeing that opens your eyes to ordinary amazing grace, a way of being present to God that makes you deeply happy, and a way of living that is finally fully alive. Come live the best dare of all!
For extended study into the One Thousand Gifts message, Ann has also created the One Thousand Gifts video study and study guide, a One Thousand Gifts devotional, and a special gift edition. This title is also available in Spanish, Millar de Obsequios.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310321910", "ISBN-10": "0310321913", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Green Ember (The Green Ember Series Book 1)", "Author": "S. D. Smith", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 247, "Tag": "children's fiction, fiction, action & adventure", "Summary": null, "ISBN-13": "9780986223525", "ISBN-10": "B00QZ6BYNA", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life", "Author": "Donald S. Whitney", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 352, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "Over 600,000 copies sold!The Number One best-selling, epic true-life story of one of the most notorious maritime disasters of the 19th century, beautifully reissued alongside Philbrick's new paperback, Sea of Glory.
The sinking of the whaleship Essex by an enraged spermwhale in the Pacific in November 1820 set in motion one of the most dramatic sea stories of all time: the twenty sailors who survived the wreck took to three small boats (one of which was again attacked by a whale) and only eight of them survived their subsequent 90-day ordeal, after resorting to cannibalising their mates.
Three months after the Essex was broken up, the whaleship Dauphin, cruising off the coast of South America, spotted a small boat in the open ocean. As they pulled alongside they saw piles of bones in the bottom of the boat, at least two skeletons' worth, with two survivors - almost skeletons themselves - sucking the marrow from the bones of their dead ship-mates.
", "ISBN-13": "9780006531203", "ISBN-10": "0006531202", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "From the Resurrection to His Return", "Author": "D. A. Carson", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 64, "Tag": "christian books & bibles, christian living, inspirational", "Summary": "From one of America's freshest, most daring, and truly original playwrights! Marked by biting wit, hilarious parody, revealing characters, and a pastiche of pop culture, the plays of Christopher Durang have garnered Obie awards, acclaim, controversy, and a devout following.
Join author and minister David Murray as he introduces you to Jesus through the lens of the Old Testament.
When you think of a son trudging uphill, carrying wood for his own sacrifice because his father has decided to give him up to death, what biblical event does this bring to mind? Is it Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22, or is it Christ's passion in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? The kinship between these two stories is deeper than mere coincidence, and the similarities don't end there. In fact, Murray argues that Christ isn't just present in the story of Abraham and Isaac--he's present on every page of the Old Testament.
In Jesus on Every Page, Dr. Murray guides the reader down his own Road to Emmaus, describing how the Scriptures were opened to him, revealing Jesus from Genesis 1 all the way through Revelation 22. Dr. Murray shares his ten simple ways to seek and find Christ in the Old Testament, diving deep into:
Recognizing Jesus in the full breadth of scripture is important for every Christian. In this step-by-step guide to discovering Jesus in the Old Testament, Dr. Murray provides a framework that will help you start practicing this wonderful way of enjoying Jesus throughout the Bible.
Whether you are preaching Jesus through Old Testament readings or just beginning to discover the reality of Christ in the Old Testament, Jesus on Every Page is an accessible guide to getting to know the Old Testament for what it truly is: full of Jesus.
", "ISBN-13": "9781400205349", "ISBN-10": "1400205344", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Interpreter of Maladies: Stories", "Author": "Jhumpa Lahiri", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "fiction, anthologies (multiple authors), classics", "Summary": "INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE * PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD WINNER.
With a new foreword by Domenico Starnone, this stunning debut collection flawlessly charts the emotional journeys of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations and generations.
With accomplished precision and gentle eloquence, Jhumpa Lahiri traces the crosscurrents set in motion when immigrants, expatriates, and their children arrive, quite literally, at a cultural divide.
A blackout forces a young Indian American couple to make confessions that unravel their tattered domestic peace. An Indian American girl recognizes her cultural identity during a Halloween celebration while the Pakastani civil war rages on television in the background. A latchkey kid with a single working mother finds affinity with a woman from Calcutta. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession.
Imbued with the sensual details of Indian culture, these stories speak with passion and wisdom to everyone who has ever felt like a foreigner. Like the interpreter of the title story, Lahiri translates between the strict traditions of her ancestors and a baffling new world.
", "ISBN-13": "9780358213260", "ISBN-10": "0358213266", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Gospel Deeps: Reveling in the Excellencies of Jesus", "Author": "Jared C. Wilson", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "religion, christian living, inspirational", "Summary": "While pastoring for the past fifteen years, Jared Wilson has become known in contemporary evangelicalism for his passionate, gospel-centered writing and teaching. Following Wilson's well-received publication of Gospel Wakefulness, he writes Gospel Deeps as a \"next step\" to establishing the need for astonishment, which begins by looking at the astonishing things God has done in and through Christ. Wilson holds up the gospel like a diamond and examines it facet by facet, demonstrating the riches of its implications. This book serves as a valuable contribution to the emerging canon of gospel-centered literature, in the spirit of John Piper's Pleasures of God and Tim Keller's emphasis on a \"robust gospel,\" and continues in the glory-reveling legacy left by Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, and the like. The distinctiveness of Gospel Deeps is found in Wilson's winsome and frequently ecstatic writing voice, as well as his unique approach to showcasing the gospel's beauty.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433526404", "ISBN-10": "1433526409", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "A Faith Worth Sharing: A Lifetime of Conversations about Christ", "Author": "C John Miller", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 160, "Tag": "religion, christian living, christian ministry", "Summary": "In these warm reflections on his own growth as a witness to the faith, written in the final weeks of his life, Jack Miller tells how he learned to share Good News with others--and how you can too.", "ISBN-13": "9780875523910", "ISBN-10": "0875523919", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles", "Author": "Steven Pressfield", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Psychology", "Pages": 165, "Tag": "psychology, creative ability, self-help", "Summary": "A succinct, engaging, and practical guide for succeeding in any creative sphere, The War of Art is nothing less than Sun-Tzu for the soul. hat keeps so many of us from doing what we long to do? Why is there a naysayer within? How can we avoid the roadblocks of any creative endeavor-be it starting up a dream business venture, writing a novel, or painting a masterpiece? Bestselling novelist Steven Pressfield identif ies the enemy that every one of us must face, outlines a battle plan to conquer this internal foe, then pinpoints just how to achieve the greatest success. The War of Art emphasizes the resolve needed to recognize and overcome the obstacles of ambition and then effectively shows how to reach the highest level of creative discipline. Think of it as tough love . . . for yourself. Whether an artist, writer or business person, this simple, personal, and no-nonsense book will inspire you to seize the potential of your life.", "ISBN-13": "9781936891023", "ISBN-10": "1936891026", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Why I Am a Christian", "Author": "John Stott", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 140, "Tag": "religion, christian theology, apologetics", "Summary": "Why Jesus? Perhaps you have had the funny feeling that God wants to get your attention. Or maybe you're intrigued with what you've heard about Jesus. Or maybe you're simply looking for meaning and direction in your life. John Stott spent a lifetime wrestling with questions about Jesus both personally and in dialogue with skeptics and seekers around the globe. Now in Why I Am a Christian he provides a compelling, persuasive case for considering the Christian faith. If you take an honest look at Jesus, you will discover that following him gives you the purpose, identity and freedom you've been searching for—and far more than you have ever imagined.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830836857", "ISBN-10": "0830836853", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Satin Island", "Author": "Tom McCarthy", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 173, "Tag": "fiction", "Summary": "A novel for our times, from the Booker-shortlisted 'master craftsman who is steering the contemporary novel towards exciting new territories' (Observer).Community within the church today is hemorrhaging. Attention spans are dwindling, noise levels are increasing, and we can't seem to find time for real relationships.
The answer to such social fragmentation can be found in small groups, and yet the majority of small groups--at least in the traditional sense--are often not the intentional, transformational community we really want and need. Somehow we need to get our groups off life support and into authentic community.
Pastor Brad House helps us to re-imagine what gospel-centered community looks like and shares from his experience leading and reproducing healthy small groups. With wisdom and candor, House challenges us to think carefully about our own groups and to take steps toward cultivating communities that are able to glorify Jesus, bless one another, and participate in the mission of God.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433523069", "ISBN-10": "143352306X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "How to Read the Bible as Literature", "Author": "Leland Ryken", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, biblical criticism & interpretation", "Summary": "Why the Good Book Is a Great Read If you want to rightly understand the Bible, you must begin by recognizing what it is: a composite of literary styles. It is meant to be read, not just interpreted. The Bible's truths are embedded like jewels in the rich strata of story and poetry, metaphor and proverb, parable and letter, satire and symbolism. Paying attention to the literary form of a passage will help you understand the meaning and truth of that passage. How to Read the Bible as Literature takes you through the various literary forms used by the biblical authors. This book will help you read the Bible with renewed appreciation and excitement and gain a more profound grasp of its truths. Designed for maximum clarity and usefulness, How to Read the Bible as Literature includes * sidebar captions to enhance organization * wide margins ideal for note taking * suggestions for further reading * appendix: \"The Allegorical Nature of the Parables\" * indexes of persons and subjects
", "ISBN-13": "9780310390213", "ISBN-10": "0310390214", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Trellis and the Vine", "Author": "Colin Marshall, Tony Payne", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 196, "Tag": "religion", "Summary": "All Christian ministry is a mixture of trellis and vine. There is vine work: the prayerful preaching and teaching of the word of God to see people converted and grow to maturity as disciples of Christ. Vine work is the Great Commission. And there is trellis work: creating and maintaining the physical and organizational structures and programs that support vine work and its growth. Colin Marshall and Tony Payne dig back into the Bible's view of Christian ministry, and argue that a major mind-shift is required if we are to fulfill the Great Commission of Christ, and see the vine flourish again. --from publisher description.", "ISBN-13": "9781921441639", "ISBN-10": "1921441631", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/416J9aofdIL.jpg" }, { "Title": "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim", "Author": "David Sedaris", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Humor", "Pages": 272, "Tag": "humor_form_essays", "Summary": "David Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters. He goes on vacation with his family. He gets a job selling drinks. He attends his brother's wedding. He mops his sister's floor. He gives directions to a lost traveler. He eats a hamburger. He has his blood sugar tested. It all sounds so normal, doesn't it? In his newest collection of essays, David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface. His world is alive with obscure desires and hidden motives -- a world where forgiveness is automatic and an argument can be the highest form of love. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is another unforgettable collection from one of the wittiest and most original writers at work today.", "ISBN-13": "9780316143462", "ISBN-10": "0316143464", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "My Father's Tears and Other Stories", "Author": "John Updike", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 292, "Tag": "fiction, literary, short stories (single author)", "Summary": "A beautiful, moving collection of short stories, in many of which Updike revisits the haunts of his childhood from the vantage point of old age. In 'Fiftieth' old friends reconnect at a class reunion, and one of them is left wondering, 'What does it mean- the enormity of having been children and now being old, living next to death.' In the story 'The Full Glass' the protagonist describes somewhat ruefully the rituals of old age. Before going to bed, he raises his nightly water glass 'drinking a toast to the visible world, his impending disappearance from it be damned.' In 'Varieties of Religious Experiences' a grandfather, visiting his daughter in Brooklyn Heights, watches the tower of the World Trade Centre fall, and his view of a God is forever altered.
Again and again in these memorable stories, Updike strikes to the heart, giving words to what is so often left unsaid. He is at once witty, devastatingly observant, touching - and, of course, a consummate storyteller. This is a collection that will be admired and cherished.
", "ISBN-13": "9780241144596", "ISBN-10": "0241144590", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants", "Author": "Malcolm Gladwell", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Sociology", "Pages": 352, "Tag": "psychology, social psychology", "Summary": "Malcolm Gladwell's provocative new #1 bestseller -- now in paperback.No person in history has provoked more difference of opinion than Jesus of Nazareth. Some say He was a cunning fraud, while others say He must have been out of His mind. In many cases, His story is altered to suit people's agendas.
While there are many ideas about Jesus, to truly understand Him, we must go to the Bible. In this booklet, Dr. R.C. Sproul presents a compelling portrait of Christ as the Son of God as he examines the biblical account.
The Crucial Questions booklet series by Dr. R.C. Sproul offers succinct answers to important questions often asked by Christians and thoughtful inquirers.
", "ISBN-13": "9781642890365", "ISBN-10": "1642890367", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Good News About Satan: A Gospel Look at Spiritual Warfare", "Author": "Bob Bevington", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "For authentic Christians, the bad news of Satan and the kingdom of darkness, while serious, is overshadowed by the good news of Jesus and the Kingdom of God. Yes, there is a cosmic clash. Yes, we are in the middle of it. Yes, we need to become equipped to recognize and resist the enemy. But those who are united to Christ by genuine faith need not fear Satan. Not now. Not ever. The truth can be summed up in this simple statement: The good news about Jesus, the victorious one, far outweighs the bad news about Satan, the evil one. Good News About Satan is a short, reader-friendly text that cites no extra-biblical sources. Instead, it walks the reader through the plain teachings of Scripture regarding Satan, demons, and spiritual warfare, at all times from an explicitly gospel-centered perspective that exalts the sovereignty of God and the finished work of Christ as paramount. Because of this focus, the book, while treating our enemy soberly and seriously, is devoid of the unfruitful speculations and illegitimate extrapolations so common to this topic. For these and other reasons, we believe this book differs significantly from nearly every other book on the subject.", "ISBN-13": "9781936760671", "ISBN-10": "1936760673", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Citizen: An American Lyric", "Author": "Claudia Rankine", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Poetry", "Pages": 160, "Tag": "literary collections, essays, poetry", "Summary": "* Finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry *
* Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry * Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism * Winner of the NAACP Image Award * Winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize * Winner of the PEN Open Book Award *
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR:
The New Yorker, Boston Globe, The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, NPR. Los Angeles Times, Publishers Weekly, Slate, Time Out New York, Vulture, Refinery 29, and many more . . .
A provocative meditation on race, Claudia Rankine's long-awaited follow up to her groundbreaking book Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric.
Claudia Rankine's bold new book recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. Some of these encounters are slights, seeming slips of the tongue, and some are intentional offensives in the classroom, at the supermarket, at home, on the tennis court with Serena Williams and the soccer field with Zinedine Zidane, online, on TV-everywhere, all the time. The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person's ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging, Rankine argues, as are our assumptions and expectations of citizenship. In essay, image, and poetry, Citizen is a powerful testament to the individual and collective effects of racism in our contemporary, often named \"post-race\" society.
A forceful and accessible discussion of Christian belief that has become one of the most popular introductions to Christianity and one of the most popular of Lewis's books. Uncovers common ground upon which all Christians can stand together.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060652920", "ISBN-10": "0060652926", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Between the World and Me", "Author": "Ta-Nehisi Coates", "Year Read": 2015, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 176, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, personal memoirs, social science", "Summary": "#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENTIt does have many very sad episodes. So sad, in fact, that I recommended my wife not read it. It depicts the harshness of war and makes me long for the return of Jesus. But if you can handle heartbreak in a book, this is well worth your time.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The God who is There: Speaking Historic Christianity Into the Twentieth Century",
"Author": "Francis August Schaeffer",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Apologetics",
"Pages": 189,
"Tag": "20th century, apologetics, christianity",
"Summary": "Francis A. Schaeffer shows how historic Christianity fearlessly challenges the competing philosophies of the modern world and ultimately meets the deepest needs of men and women.",
"ISBN-13": "9780340128473",
"ISBN-10": "034012847X",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81yRSRh+tcL._SL1500_.jpg"
},
{
"Title": "Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest",
"Author": "Stephen E. Ambrose",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "History",
"Pages": 336,
"Tag": "history, military, wars & conflicts",
"Summary": "Stephen E. Ambrose’s classic New York Times bestseller and inspiration for the acclaimed HBO series about Easy Company, the ordinary men who became the World War II’s most extraordinary soldiers at the frontlines of the war's most critical moments. Featuring a foreword from Tom Hanks.
They came together, citizen soldiers, in the summer of 1942, drawn to Airborne by the $50 monthly bonus and a desire to be better than the other guy. And at its peak—in Holland and the Ardennes—Easy Company was as good a rifle company as any in the world.
From the rigorous training in Georgia in 1942 to the disbanding in 1945, Stephen E. Ambrose tells the story of this remarkable company. In combat, the reward for a job well done is the next tough assignment, and as they advanced through Europe, the men of Easy kept getting the tough assignments.
They parachuted into France early D-Day morning and knocked out a battery of four 105 mm cannon looking down Utah Beach; they parachuted into Holland during the Arnhem campaign; they were the Battered Bastards of the Bastion of Bastogne, brought in to hold the line, although surrounded, in the Battle of the Bulge; and then they spearheaded the counteroffensive. Finally, they captured Hitler's Bavarian outpost, his Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden.
They were rough-and-ready guys, battered by the Depression, mistrustful and suspicious. They drank too much French wine, looted too many German cameras and watches, and fought too often with other GIs. But in training and combat they learned selflessness and found the closest brotherhood they ever knew. They discovered that in war, men who loved life would give their lives for them.
This is the story of the men who fought, of the martinet they hated who trained them well, and of the captain they loved who led them. E Company was a company of men who went hungry, froze, and died for each other, a company that took 150 percent casualties, a company where the Purple Heart was not a medal—it was a badge of office.",
"ISBN-13": "9781501179402",
"ISBN-10": "1501179403",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Escape from Reason",
"Author": "Francis August Schaeffer",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Philosophy",
"Pages": 96,
"Tag": "philosophy, history & surveys, modern",
"Summary": "Tracing trends in 20th-century thought, Francis A. Schaeffer shows that Christianity offers meaning where there is purposelessness and hope where there is despair.",
"ISBN-13": "9780851112312",
"ISBN-10": "0851112315",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41oxyGbAzKL._SY466_.jpg"
},
{
"Title": "He is There and He is Not Silent",
"Author": "Francis August Schaeffer",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Apologetics",
"Pages": 96,
"Tag": "christianity, philosophy, knowledge, theory of",
"Summary": "Tyndale celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of this twentieth-century spiritual classic with a special commemorative edition featuring new foreword by Chuck Colson and introduction by Dr. Jerram Barrs, director of the Schaeffer Institute. He Is There and He Is Not Silent discusses fundamental questions about God, such as who he is and why he matters.",
"ISBN-13": "9780340163832",
"ISBN-10": "0340163836",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51L0ahkBBWL._SL1243_.jpg"
},
{
"Title": "Back to Freedom and Dignity",
"Author": "Francis August Schaeffer",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 48,
"Tag": "religion, theology",
"Summary": "Book by Francis A. Schaeffer",
"ISBN-13": "9780877844396",
"ISBN-10": "0877844399",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41OpDjFIU0L.jpg"
},
{
"Title": "Silas Marner",
"Author": "George Eliot",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 73,
"Tag": "eliot, george, 1819-1880",
"Summary": "Get your \"A\" in gear!
They're today's most popular study guides-with everything you need to succeed in school. Written by Harvard students for students, since its inception SparkNotes™ has developed a loyal community of dedicated users and become a major education brand. Consumer demand has been so strong that the guides have expanded to over 150 titles. SparkNotes'™ motto is Smarter, Better, Faster because:
· They feature the most current ideas and themes, written by experts.
· They're easier to understand, because the same people who use them have also written them.
· The clear writing style and edited content enables students to read through the material quickly, saving valuable time.
And with everything covered--context; plot overview; character lists; themes, motifs, and symbols; summary and analysis, key facts; study questions and essay topics; and reviews and resources--you don't have to go anywhere else!",
"ISBN-13": "9781586634384",
"ISBN-10": "1586634380",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Animal Farm",
"Author": "George Orwell",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 176,
"Tag": "fiction, classics, political",
"Summary": "75th Anniversary Edition—Includes a New Introduction by Téa Obreht
George Orwell's timeless and timely allegorical novel—a scathing satire on a downtrodden society’s blind march towards totalitarianism.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned—a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.
When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.",
"ISBN-13": "9780451526342",
"ISBN-10": "0451526341",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Genesis in Space and Time: The Flow of Biblical History",
"Author": "Francis August Schaeffer",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 167,
"Tag": "religion & spirituality",
"Summary": "***Genesis in Space and Time: The Flow of Biblical History*** 1973 by Francic A. Schaeffer.",
"ISBN-13": "9780340156117",
"ISBN-10": "0340156112",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/813Bkkh3E2L._SL1500_.jpg"
},
{
"Title": "No Final Conflict: The Bible Without Error in All that it Affirms",
"Author": "Francis August Schaeffer",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 46,
"Tag": "religion & spirituality",
"Summary": null,
"ISBN-13": "9780340202616",
"ISBN-10": "0340202610",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51hQ0UWHSkL.jpg"
},
{
"Title": "The Rise of Christianity: How to obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force ....",
"Author": "Rodney Stark",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 272,
"Tag": "religion",
"Summary": "
This \"fresh, blunt, and highly persuasive account of how the West was won—for Jesus\" (Newsweek) is now available in paperback. Stark's provocative report challenges conventional wisdom and finds that Christianity's astounding dominance of the Western world arose from its offer of a better, more secure way of life.
\"Compelling reading\" (Library Journal) that is sure to \"generate spirited argument\" (Publishers Weekly), this account of Christianity's remarkable growth within the Roman Empire is the subject of much fanfare. \"Anyone who has puzzled over Christianity's rise to dominance...must read it.\" says Yale University's Wayne A. Meeks, for The Rise of Christianity makes a compelling case for startling conclusions. Combining his expertise in social science with historical evidence, and his insight into contemporary religion's appeal, Stark finds that early Christianity attracted the privileged rather than the poor, that most early converts were women or marginalized Jews—and ultimately \"that Christianity was a success because it proved those who joined it with a more appealing, more assuring, happier, and perhaps longer life\" (Andrew M. Greeley, University of Chicago).
", "ISBN-13": "9780060677015", "ISBN-10": "0060677015", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "John Adams", "Author": "David McCullough", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 752, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, presidents & heads of state, history", "Summary": "The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling biography of America’s founding father and second president that was the basis for the acclaimed HBO series, brilliantly told by master historian David McCullough.HBO also used this book to create the miniseries John Adams, which I recommend as well.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Martian: A Novel",
"Author": "Andy Weir",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 416,
"Tag": "fiction, science fiction, action & adventure",
"Summary": "#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
A mission to Mars. A freak accident. One man’s struggle to survive. From the author of Project Hail Mary comes “a hugely entertaining novel that reads like a rocket ship afire” (Chicago Tribune).
“Brilliant . . . a celebration of human ingenuity [and] the purest example of real-science sci-fi for many years . . . utterly compelling.”—The Wall Street Journal
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.
Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.
But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?
NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE
“A hugely entertaining novel [that] reads like a rocket ship afire . . . Weir has fashioned in Mark Watney one of the most appealing, funny, and resourceful characters in recent fiction.”—Chicago Tribune
“As gripping as they come . . . You’ll be rooting for Watney the whole way, groaning at every setback and laughing at his pitchblack humor. Utterly nail-biting and memorable.”—Financial Times",
"ISBN-13": "9780553418026",
"ISBN-10": "0553418025",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Wright Brothers",
"Author": "David McCullough",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 320,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, historical, science & technology",
"Summary": "#1 New York Times bestseller
Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize David McCullough tells the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly: Wilbur and Orville Wright.
On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe what had happened: the age of flight had begun, with the first heavier-than-air, powered machine carrying a pilot.
Who were these men and how was it that they achieved what they did?
David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, tells the surprising, profoundly American story of Wilbur and Orville Wright.
Far more than a couple of unschooled Dayton bicycle mechanics who happened to hit on success, they were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity, much of which they attributed to their upbringing. The house they lived in had no electricity or indoor plumbing, but there were books aplenty, supplied mainly by their preacher father, and they never stopped reading.
When they worked together, no problem seemed to be insurmountable. Wilbur was unquestionably a genius. Orville had such mechanical ingenuity as few had ever seen. That they had no more than a public high school education, little money and no contacts in high places, never stopped them in their “mission” to take to the air. Nothing did, not even the self-evident reality that every time they took off in one of their contrivances, they risked being killed.
In this thrilling book, master historian David McCullough draws on the immense riches of the Wright Papers, including private diaries, notebooks, scrapbooks, and more than a thousand letters from private family correspondence to tell the human side of the Wright Brothers’ story, including the little-known contributions of their sister, Katharine, without whom things might well have gone differently for them.",
"ISBN-13": "9781476728742",
"ISBN-10": "1476728747",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Ordinary Grace: A Novel",
"Author": "William Kent Krueger",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 307,
"Tag": "fiction, literary, mystery & detective",
"Summary": "NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE 2014 EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL
WINNER OF THE 2014 DILYS AWARD
A SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF 2013
From New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger, a brilliant new novel about a young man, a small town, and murder in the summer of 1961.
“That was it. That was all of it. A grace so ordinary there was no reason at all to remember it. Yet I have never across the forty years since it was spoken forgotten a single word.”
New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at the soda counter of Halderson’s Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder.
Frank begins the season preoccupied with the concerns of any teenage boy, but when tragedy unexpectedly strikes his family—which includes his Methodist minister father; his passionate, artistic mother; Juilliard-bound older sister; and wise-beyond-his-years kid brother—he finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal, suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his years.
Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.",
"ISBN-13": "9781451645859",
"ISBN-10": "1451645856",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Newton on the Christian Life: To Live Is Christ",
"Author": "Tony Reinke",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 288,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, cultural, ethnic & regional, religious",
"Summary": "
John Newton is famous for his legendary hymn \"Amazing Grace.\" Many have celebrated his dramatic conversion from a life in the slave trade to his eventual work to end it. But often overlooked are Newton's forty years as a pastor ministering to parishioners and friends unsettled by the trials, doubts, and fears of life.
Newton is perhaps the greatest pastoral letter writer in the history of the church. He took up his pen day after day to help others fix their eyes on Christ, which, he writes, is the underlying battle of the Christian life. Through a careful study of scores of letters, Tony Reinke brings together Newton's brilliant vision of the Christian life in one accessible place.
Widely recognized as a pillar of 20th-century evangelicalism, J. I. Packer has had a profound impact on millions of Christians living today. Now in his late eighties, Packer still exerts an enormous influence on pastors and laypeople around the world through his many books, articles, and recorded lectures--works that overflow with spiritual wisdom related to the Christian life. In the latest addition to Crossway's growing Theologians on the Christian Life series, well-known pastor Sam Storms examines Packer's legacy when it comes to the Christian and sanctification. Whether exploring Packer's insights into prayer, Bible study, the sovereignty of God, or the Christian's fight against sin, this accessible book offers readers the chance to learn from the best of Packer's thinking on what true godliness really entails.
The importance of Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck to Reformed theology is difficult to overstate. Bavinck's comprehensive four volume systematic theology, Reformed Dogmatics, is a modern classic that has influenced countless pastors and theologians over the past 100 years. In Bavinck on the Christian Life, scholar John Bolt brings the great Dutch theologian's life and work to bear on following Jesus in the 21st century. By practically applying Bavinck's systematic works to the Christian life and looking at the life of the man himself, this book shows the direct connection between robust theology, practical holiness, and personal joy.
John Owen is widely hailed as one of the greatest theologians of all time. His many works--especially those encouraging Christians in their struggle against sin--continue to speak powerfully to readers today, offering much-needed spiritual guidance for following Christ and resisting temptation day in and day out. Starting with an overview of Owen's life, ministry, and historical context, Michael Haykin and Matthew Barrett introduce readers to the pillars of Owen's spiritual life. From exploring his understanding of believers' fellowship with the triune God to highlighting his teaching on justification, this study invites us to learn about the Christian life from the greatest of the English Puritans.
Part of the Theologians on the Christian Life series.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433539718", "ISBN-10": "1433539713", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "This was the first of the Theologians on the Christian Life books I've read. And perhaps that's a good thing. This book is simply wonderful. If you want to understand the ministry of John Newton and his impact on the world, this book succeeds. I found myself highlighting so much that I wonder why I didn't just put a big mark on the cover saying, \"Visit Often\".Reinke both understands Newton well and is himself a wonderful writer. This book is fantastic. It is a diagnostic for the soul. It is helpful and beautiful. I can't recommend it enough.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel", "Author": "Harper Lee", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 288, "Tag": "fiction, literary, classics", "Summary": "
A historic literary event: the publication of a newly discovered novel, the earliest known work from Harper Lee, the beloved, bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, To Kill a Mockingbird.
Originally written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman was the novel Harper Lee first submitted to her publishers before To Kill a Mockingbird. Assumed to have been lost, the manuscript was discovered in late 2014.
Go Set a Watchman features many of the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird some twenty years later. Returning home to Maycomb to visit her father, Jean Louise Finch—Scout—struggles with issues both personal and political, involving Atticus, society, and the small Alabama town that shaped her.
Exploring how the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird are adjusting to the turbulent events transforming mid-1950s America, Go Set a Watchman casts a fascinating new light on Harper Lee’s enduring classic. Moving, funny and compelling, it stands as a magnificent novel in its own right.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062409850", "ISBN-10": "0062409859", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "My favorite novel of all time is To Kill a Mockingbird. I've loved it since I was a child. It's the only novel I've read more than 3 times. It's an American masterpiece. And so, when it was announced that Mockingbird's sequel was going to be released, I was, naturally, very excited. But the reviews tempered my excitement. I bought the book on June 9, 2015 (thanks, Amazon purchase history) but didn't read it until February of 2016. I kept putting it off because I was afraid to lose Atticus Finch, the protagonist of To Kill A Mockingbird. I shouldn't have waited so long.Yes, this book fails to reach masterpiece status. But I wasn't expecting a masterpiece. What I got was a really good book – even with its flaws. As a stand-alone, this book would have disappointed. But as a sequel to a well-loved book, it pleased me. It didn't please because Atticus is revealed to have racial biases. I, like the rest of America, am disappointed by that. But to be able to be disappointed in a fictional character, to me, proves the genius of the creation. A complex, fictional man with moral inconsistencies is a man far more real than most novelists can dream up.
This book made me think about my own life and my own moral and value complexities. And I'm not sure what more you could ask of a novel.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Franklin and Winston",
"Author": "Jon Meacham",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "History",
"Pages": 512,
"Tag": "social sciences, history, american history",
"Summary": "NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this “beautifully written and superbly researched dual biography” (Los Angeles Times Book Review), Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Jon Meacham “paints a powerful portrait of the enormous friendship between World War II allies [Franklin] Roosevelt and [Winston] Churchill” (Vanity Fair). “Intense and compelling reading.”—The Washington Post Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were the greatest leaders of “the Greatest Generation.” In Franklin and Winston, Jon Meacham explores the fascinating relationship between the two men who piloted the free world to victory in World War II. Born in the nineteenth century and molders of the twentieth and twenty-first, Roosevelt and Churchill had much in common. In their own time both men were underestimated, dismissed as arrogant, and faced skeptics in their own nations—yet both magnificently rose to the central challenges of the twentieth century. Theirs was a kind of love story, with an emotional Churchill courting an elusive Roosevelt. The British prime minister, who rallied his nation in its darkest hour, standing alone against Adolf Hitler, was always somewhat insecure about his place in FDR’s affections—which was the way Roosevelt wanted it. A man of secrets, FDR liked to keep people off balance, including his wife, Eleanor, his White House aides—and Winston Churchill. Meacham’s sources—including unpublished letters of FDR’ s great secret love, Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, the papers of Pamela Churchill Harriman, and interviews with people who were in FDR and Churchill’s joint company—shed light on the characters of both men as he engagingly chronicles the hours in which they decided the course of the struggle. Charting the personal drama behind the discussions of strategy and statecraft, Meacham has written the definitive account of the most remarkable friendship of the modern age.",
"ISBN-13": "9781588363299",
"ISBN-10": "1588363295",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Fool's Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion",
"Author": "Os Guinness",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 270,
"Tag": "religion, christian theology, apologetics",
"Summary": "2016 Christianity Today Book of the Year in Apologetics/Evangelism
One of Desiring God's Top 15 Books of 2015
Hearts & Minds Bookstore's Best Books of 2015, Social Criticism and Cultural Engagement In our post-Christian context, public life has become markedly more secular and private life infinitely more diverse. Yet many Christians still rely on cookie-cutter approaches to evangelism and apologetics. Most of these methods assume that people are open, interested and needy for spiritual insight when increasingly most people are not. Our urgent need, then, is the capacity to persuade—to make a convincing case for the gospel to people who are not interested in it. In his magnum opus, Os Guinness offers a comprehensive presentation of the art and power of creative persuasion. Christians have often relied on proclaiming and preaching, protesting and picketing. But we are strikingly weak in persuasion—the ability to talk to people who are closed to what we are saying. Actual persuasion requires more than a one-size-fits-all approach. Guinness notes, "Jesus never spoke to two people the same way, and neither should we." Following the tradition of Erasmus, Pascal, G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, Malcolm Muggeridge and Peter Berger, Guinness demonstrates how apologetic persuasion requires both the rational and the imaginative. Persuasion is subversive, turning the tables on listeners' assumptions to surprise them with signals of transcendence and the credibility of the gospel. This book is the fruit of forty years of thinking, honed in countless talks and discussions at many of the leading universities and intellectual centers of the world. Discover afresh the persuasive power of Christian witness from one of the leading apologists and thinkers of our era.",
"ISBN-13": "9780830836994",
"ISBN-10": "0830836993",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "A History of Western Philosophy and Theology",
"Author": "John M. Frame",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Philosophy",
"Pages": 875,
"Tag": "philosophy, religion, christian theology",
"Summary": "Christians should evaluate philosophy by biblical criteria. This will shed greater light on the developments in the history of philosophy and better prepare us for the intellectual challenges of our time. The fall of Adam brought intellectual as well as moral corruption on the human race, and the effects of the fall can be seen in the work of philosophers, most of whom try to understand the world autonomously--through reasoning apart from God's revelation. Some philosophers have appealed to God's revelation, but their work has often been compromised with the wisdom of the world. Revelation should inform reason, and not the other way round. In the past, even Christian theology was corrupted by the movement toward intellectual autonomy, creating the tradition of liberalism, which has unhappily dominated academic theology down to the present day. But there is hope--a new generation of Christian thinkers take God's Word seriously. Frame's unique new contribution augments that process.",
"ISBN-13": "9781629950846",
"ISBN-10": "162995084X",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "Man, I'm thankful for John Frame. He takes really complex ideas and says them simply. I have no education at all in philosophy and I feel so behind in the philosophical ideas that have shaped the Western world. Frame's big book made me feel competent. He surveys the landscape of Western philosophy and theology from as far back as he can go with the Greeks all the way to the 21st century. If you're like me and need some help understanding these things, this book is the answer. It is the best I've seen.
Just a helpful tip on big books like this. I take them 10 pages at a time. For example, last year I read John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. It's massive, and one of those books I feel I have to read. 10 pages a day had me finishing that mammoth in three months. If I can do it, you can too.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Unparalleled: How Christianity's Uniqueness Makes It Compelling",
"Author": "Jared C. Wilson",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 240,
"Tag": "religion, christian theology, apologetics",
"Summary": "How Christianity's Unmatched Truth Answers the Deepest Longings of Every Human Heart
To the popular objection Aren't all religions basically the same? pastor and author Jared Wilson answers with an enthusiastic No! Christianity is not merely one among many similar options. It is categorically different--and it's these differences that make it so compelling.
In Unparalleled, Wilson holds up the teachings of the Bible to the clear light of day, revealing how Christianity rises above every other religion and philosophy of the world, and how its unmatched truth answers the deepest longings of every human heart. He provides an overview of Christianity's key claims showing how, from top to bottom, it is distinct from all other competing ideologies, religious and secular. Christians will come away with a fresh sense of the truth of their faith and nonbelievers will be compelled to consider the relevant claims of Christianity in a drastically new light.",
"ISBN-13": "9780801008597",
"ISBN-10": "080100859X",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "Full disclosure, Jared is one of my best friends. Even if he wasn't, though, this book would make the list. It's absolutely wonderful. It's an apologetics book without the rigidity. I would classify it as a devotional apologetics book. Maybe that category doesn't exist and, if not, Jared created it. It is the perfect balance of solid truth wrapped in loving adoration. The reader feels Jared's love for Jesus, and, honestly, there is no better apologetic than that.
The last chapter is, through my most objective lens possible, a masterpiece. Jared is one of, if not the, best pure writers in the Christian world. If you haven't read him, do yourself a favor and do so immediately. If you’re a Christian, you can't read this book and not love Jesus more. And if you’re not a Christian, maybe this is the book that can help you understand why so many people love Jesus.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "On Writing Well", "Author": "William Zinsser", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Writing", "Pages": 336, "Tag": "reference, writing skills", "Summary": "
On Writing Well has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity and the warmth of its style. It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet. Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you fundamental priciples as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher. With more than a million copies sole, this volume has stood the test of time and remains a valuable resource for writers and would-be writers.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060891541", "ISBN-10": "0060891548", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites...and Other Lies You've Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media", "Author": "Bradley R.E. Wright Ph.D.", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 254, "Tag": "religion, christian living, christianity", "Summary": "According to the media, the church is rapidly shrinking, both in numbers and in effectiveness. But the good news is, much of the bad news is wrong. Sociologist Bradley R. E. Wright uncovers what's really happening in the church: evangelicals are more respected by secular culture now than they were ten years ago; divorce rates of Christians are lower than those who aren't affiliated with a religion; young evangelicals are active in the faith. Wright reveals to readers why and how statistics are distorted, and shows that God is still effectively working through his people today.", "ISBN-13": "9780764207464", "ISBN-10": "0764207466", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon", "Author": "Bryan Chapell", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 400, "Tag": "religion, christian ministry, preaching", "Summary": "This complete guide to expository preaching teaches the basics of preparation, organization, and delivery--the trademarks of great preaching. With the help of charts and creative learning exercises, Chapell shows how expository preaching can reveal the redemptive aims of Scripture and offers a comprehensive approach to the theory and practice of preaching. He also provides help for special preaching situations.If the apostle Paul had not punctuated his words with images of the armor of God or the racecourse, would we so easily remember his instruction? The march on Washington might have become nothing more than a ragged hike across a majestic mall if Martin Luther King, Jr. had not led us through a \"dream\" and onto a \"mountaintop.\"
Such is the power of illustrations. They contain a hidden dynamic of living that captures our attention and furthers our understanding in a way that no other sermonic tool can match. Can they be overused and their purpose abused? Yes--and by many they are. But to eliminate them completely would be unwise, maintains Bryan Chapell.
Instead, he responds to those concerns by reviewing the theory behind illustrations, sharing why they're important, and demonstrating how you can use them effectively in your biblical preaching. This book clearly affirms that illustrations are integral to powerful preaching--not because they entertain but because they expand and deepen applications in the lives of your listeners. They infuse your words with life without comprising the message, making the truth of the Word ring clearly in people's hearts long after your sermon is done.
", "ISBN-13": "9781581342642", "ISBN-10": "1581342640", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "In Other Words", "Author": "Jhumpa Lahiri", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Memoir", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, literary figures, personal memoirs", "Summary": "In Other Words is a revelation. It is at heart a love story of a long and sometimes difficult courtship, and a passion that verges on obsession: that of a writer for another language. For Jhumpa Lahiri, that love was for Italian, which first captivated and capsized her during a trip to Florence after college. Although Lahiri studied Italian for many years afterwards, true mastery had always eluded her.Seeking full immersion, she decided to move to Rome with her family, for 'a trial by fire, a sort of baptism' into a new language and world. There, she began to read and to write - initially in her journal - solely in Italian. In Other Words, an autobiographical work written in Italian, investigates the process of learning to express oneself in another language, and describes the journey of a writer seeking a new voice.Presented in a dual-language format, this is a wholly original book about exile, linguistic and otherwise, written with an intensity and clarity not seen since Vladimir Nabokov: a startling act of self-reflection and a provocative exploration of belonging and reinvention.", "ISBN-13": "9781408866115", "ISBN-10": "1408866110", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability", "Author": "Roger Connors, Tom Smith, Craig Hickman", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Business", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "business & economics, management, production & operations management", "Summary": "The definitive book on workplace accountability by the New York Times bestselling authors of How Did That Happen?This book takes you through the life of two brothers from India whose closeness is ruptured by a move to America and a sudden death. It is a story that engrosses you in their lives, takes you inside their homes, and shows you the feelings of their heart. It accomplishes all that a great novel should.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society",
"Author": "Eugene H. Peterson",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 216,
"Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth",
"Summary": "As a society, we are no less obsessed with the immediate than when Eugene Peterson first wrote this Christian classic. If anything, email and the Internet may have intensified our quest for the quick fix. But Peterson's time-tested prescription for discipleship remains the same--a long obedience in the same direction. Tucked away in the Hebrew Psalter, Peterson discovered \"an old dog-eared songbook,\" the Songs of Ascents that were sung by pilgrims on their way up to worship in Jerusalem. In these songs (Psalms 120-134) Peterson finds encouragement for modern pilgrims as we learn to grow in worship, service, joy, work, happiness, humility, community and blessing. This 20th anniversary edition of A Long Obedience in the Same Direction features these Psalms in Peterson's widely acclaimed paraphrase, The Message. He also includes an epilogue in which he reflects on the themes of this book and his ministry during the twenty years since its original publication.",
"ISBN-13": "9780830822577",
"ISBN-10": "0830822577",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Ministering to Problem People in Your Church",
"Author": "Marshall Shelley",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Ministry",
"Pages": 208,
"Tag": "social sciences, religion, christianity",
"Summary": "Do you face well-intentioned dragons?
Every church has them--sincere, well-meaning Christians who leave ulcers, strained relationships, and hard feelings in their wake. They don't intend to be hostile; they don't consciously plot destruction or breed discontent. But they often do undermine the ministry of the church and make pastors question their calling.
Ministering to Problem People in Your Church will guide you in dealing with these challenging people. Based on real-life accounts of battle-scarred veterans, this book helps you go beyond just tolerating problem people to limiting their damage and showing them God's love. You'll discover effective strategies to turn dissidents into disciples.
This time-tested book by the editor-in-chief of Christianity Today's Leadership Journal has new chapters on using social media and caring for those with mental illness. It will help you not only preserve your sanity (and maybe your job), but minister more effectively, even to those who make life difficult.",
"ISBN-13": "9781441262851",
"ISBN-10": "0764211447",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Start Next Now: How to Get the Life You've Always Wanted",
"Author": "Bob Pritchett",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Self-Help",
"Pages": 128,
"Tag": "general interests & hobbies, self-help, self-help general",
"Summary": "You have permission to do something incredible. Whether you'd like to start a different career, earn greater income, or perhaps accomplish something unrelated to your job, you can do it! And now is the time to start. In Start Next Now, successful entrepreneur Bob Pritchett shares his guiding principles, which have grown his company to over 440 employees today. You won't find mere inspirational puffery here. This fast-paced book provides you with an actual plan to start achieving your goal before you even finish reading. So what are you waiting for? It's time to start next now.",
"ISBN-13": "9781577996460",
"ISBN-10": "1577996453",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Business for the Glory of God: The Bible's Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business",
"Author": "Wayne Grudem",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 96,
"Tag": "religion, christian living, calling & vocation",
"Summary": "
Can business activity in itself be morally good and pleasing to God? Sometimes business can seem so shady--manipulating the \"bottom line,\" deceiving the consumer, or gaining promotions because of whom you know.
But Wayne Grudem introduces a novel concept: business itself glorifies God when it is conducted in a way that imitates God's character and creation. He shows that all aspects of business, including ownership, profit, money, competition, and borrowing and lending, glorify God because they are reflective of God's nature. Though Grudem isn't naïve about the easy ways these activities can be perverted and used as a means to sin, he knows that Christians can be about the business of business.
This biblically based book is a thoughtful guide to imitating God during interactions with customers, coworkers, employees, and other businesses. See how your business--and your life in business--can be dedicated to God's glory.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433581342", "ISBN-10": "1433581345", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Allure of Gentleness: Defending the Faith in the Manner of Jesus", "Author": "Dallas Willard", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "religion, christian theology, apologetics", "Summary": "The revered Christian author whose bestselling classics include The Divine Conspiracy and The Spirit of the Disciplines provides a new model for how we can present the Christian faith to others.
When Christians share their faith, they often appeal to reason, logic, and the truth of doctrine. But these tactics often are not effective. A better approach to spread Christ’s word, Dallas Willard suggests, is to use the example of our own lives. To demonstrate Jesus’s message, we must be transformed people living out a life reflective of Jesus himself, a life of love, humility, and gentleness.
This beautiful model of life—this allure of gentleness—Willard argues, is the foundation for making the most compelling argument for Christianity, one that will convince others that there is something special about Christianity and the Jesus we follow.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062114082", "ISBN-10": "0062114085", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Great Gatsby", "Author": "F. Scott Fitzgerald", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 180, "Tag": "fiction, classics, literary", "Summary": "The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.God has provided a way for all people, not just scholars, to know that the Bible is the word of God. John Piper has devoted his life to showing us that the glory of God is the object of the soul's happiness. Now, his burden in this book is to demonstrate that this same glory is the ground of the mind's certainty.
God's peculiar glory shines through his word. The Spirit of God enlightens the eyes of our hearts. And in one self-authenticating sight, our minds are sure and our hearts are satisfied. Justified certainty and solid joy meet in the peculiar glory of God.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433552632", "ISBN-10": "1433552639", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Gospel & Religious Liberty", "Author": "Russell D. Moore, Andrew T. Walker", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "political science, political freedom, religion", "Summary": "One nation, under God.\"The lordship of Christ should include an interest in the arts,\" writes Francis Schaeffer. \"A Christian should use these arts to the glory of God, not just as tracts, mind you, but as things of beauty to the praise of God.\" Many Christians, wary of creating graven images, have steered clear of artistic creativity. But the Bible offers a robust affirmation of the arts. The human impulse to create reflects our being created in the image of a creator God. Art and the Bible has been a foundational work for generations of Christians in the arts. In this book's classic essays, Francis Schaeffer first examines the scriptural record of the use of various art forms, and then establishes a Christian perspective on art. With clarity and vigor, Schaeffer explains why \"the Christian is the one whose imagination should fly beyond the stars.\"
", "ISBN-13": "9780830834013", "ISBN-10": "083083401X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power", "Author": "Jon Meacham", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 800, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, presidents & heads of state, history", "Summary": "#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Jon Meacham, “a big, grand, absorbing exploration of not just Jefferson and his role in history but also Jefferson the man, humanized as never before” (Entertainment Weekly)I'm not usually much for post-apocalyptic novels. I had this on the shelf for a while before I finally picked it up, and I'm glad I did. The pace is quick, the story is evolving, and the resolution is satisfying. If you're into this kind of end-of-the-world story, this is for you.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "No Little People", "Author": "Francis A Schaeffer", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 304, "Tag": "religion, christian living, christian church", "Summary": "
16 Encouraging Sermons on Human Weakness and God's Sufficiency by Francis Schaeffer
Most Christians take an honest look at themselves and conclude that their limited talents, energy, and knowledge mean that they don't amount to much. Some even ask, Can I really make a difference? Francis A. Schaeffer counters this claim with truth from the Bible, arguing that with God there is no such thing as little people.
No Little People contains sixteen sermons from Schaeffer that explore the weakness and significance of humanity in relationship to the infinite and personal God. The focus of this collection is the lasting truth of the Bible, the faithfulness of God, the sufficiency of the work of Christ, and the power of the Spirit. Readers will be encouraged by the value that God places on each person made in his image to accomplish his redemptive plan.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433573088", "ISBN-10": "1433573083", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "On Pastoring: A Short Guide to Living, Leading, and Ministering as a Pastor", "Author": "H B Charles Jr", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "religion, christian rituals & practice, christian ministry", "Summary": "\"Ministry is harder than I thought it would be...\"
No pastor is ever fully prepared for the ministry. For pastors just starting out, those needing a little rebalancing, or those growing tired in the trenches, a handbook on the basics is a welcome relief.
In On Pastoring, veteran pastor H. B. Charles gives 40 quick chapters on the practical aspects of pastoral ministry. Covering the devotional life, spiritual leadership, and public ministry of the pastor, he provides advice on topics like:
Being a pastor means wearing many hats, weathering lots of pressure, and bearing great responsibility. Let H. B. Charles be a trusted advisor as you do the hard work of shepherding a flock of God.
I’ve been asked by several people which book of Schaeffer’s I would recommend. This is always the first book I suggest. I'm forever changed by his writing ministry as a whole, but this book helped me see the way of the spiritual Christian life. It’s not mysticism. It’s biblical. It’s not inward looking. It’s outward, and upward-looking, to Christ. Not all of it was new to me, but the totality of it helped me more than any other book this year. If you want to know what the moment-by-moment-ness of the Christian life looks like, this will show you. Schaeffer wrote many great books, but this is the one I give to people who want to read him.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The New Super-Spirituality", "Author": "Francis A. Schaeffer", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 29, "Tag": "spirituality", "Summary": "Book by Francis A. Schaeffer", "ISBN-13": "9780877843184", "ISBN-10": "087784318X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41LhUgBxBPL.jpg" }, { "Title": "Two Contents, Two Realities", "Author": "Francis A. Schaeffer", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 48, "Tag": "religion & spirituality", "Summary": "\"There are Four things which I think are absolutely necessary if we as Christians are to meet the need of our age and the overwhelming pressure we are increasingly facing. They are Two Contents and Two Realities 1. Content 1 - Sound Doctrine 2. Content 2 - Honest Answers to Honest Questions 3. Reality 1 - True Spirituality 4. Reality 2 - The Beauty of Human relationships", "ISBN-13": "9780340192290", "ISBN-10": "0340192291", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/817HXqQ23VL._SL1500_.jpg" }, { "Title": "Church History 101: The Highlights of Twenty Centuries", "Author": "Sinclair B. Ferguson, Joel R. Beeke, Michael A. G. Haykin", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 99, "Tag": "religion, christian living, christianity", "Summary": "
Church history is important because it shows us how God's faithful dealings with His people in the Bible continue in the ongoing life and work of Christ in our world. If you have ever wished for a short book highlighting church history's most important events that will enlighten your mind and peak your interest, this is the one you ve been waiting for. Three prolific church historians collaborate their efforts in Church History 101 to present you with a quick read of church history's high points.
", "ISBN-13": "9781601784766", "ISBN-10": "1601784767", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "When Worlds Collide: Where Is God When Terror Strikes?", "Author": "R. C. Sproul", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 96, "Tag": "religion, christian living, christian theology", "Summary": "Where is God when worlds collide?
Name any catastrophic event in the course of history, and it seems as if God has abandoned the human race. Where was He while the Israelites groaned in oppressive slavery for 400 years? Where was He during the Holocaust when millions of people died horrific deaths? Where was He on 9/11, when thousands lost their lives because of terrorists? It sometimes seems that God is silent, watching the horrors of life on earth without pity or concern.
R. C. Sproul presents a challenging analysis that no Christian can afford to ignore. Only when we begin to understand the nature of God can we hope to trust in His sovereignty during times of terror or sorrow. Only when we trust in His sovereignty can we confidently say, \"Though He slay me, yet will I trust . . .\"
", "ISBN-13": "9781433527531", "ISBN-10": "1433527537", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "I Wish Jesus Hadn't Said That: Finding Joy in the Inconvenience of Discipleship", "Author": "Steve Timmis", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 140, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, biblical meditations", "Summary": "All too often, Christians have bought the world's definition of what is necessary, reasonable, and worthy. In I Wish Jesus Hadn't Said That, Steve Timmis highlights ten sayings of Jesus that challenge---at a fundamental level---these worldly values, sounding a call to Christians to consider what it truly means to be his disciple.A monumental work that draws on specially collected oral history to fully portray the person, work, and teaching of one of the most important figures in modern Christianity.
Nearly twenty-five years after his death, Francis Schaeffer's impact as one of the foremost shapers of modern Christianity still reverberates within the church and contemporary culture. A pastor, apologist, best-selling author, and activist whose work and ministry reached around the world, Schaeffer also managed to deeply and personally influence people of every age and position--men, women, youth, and children; the schooled intellectual and the common laborer, the scientist and the artist, the doubting Christian and the skeptical non-believer--in a way that few others have.
His impassioned, genuine life is the focus of Colin Duriez's authoritative biography, which draws on over 150,000 words of oral history in addition to personal interviews and other resources to portray not just the man and his relationships but his spiritual formation and the development of his ideas, creative works, and worldview.
From his working-class childhood in Pennsylvania, to the founding of L'Abri, his personal crisis of faith, and his latter years as a compassionate controversialist in the worldwide spotlight, all the eras of Schaeffer's life unfold within these pages. But Duriez, who studied under and interviewed Schaeffer, also takes a deeper look, revealing those distinct life phases, as well as Schaeffer's teachings and his complexities as a person, within their historical context so that contemporary readers may better understand all of who Schaeffer was-and why he still matters today.
Filling an important void in Schaeffer literature, this full-length biography illuminates the complex journey of one whose relentless passion for truth, reality, a full-orbed faith, and meeting the needs of people made him not just a giant within evangelicalism but a shining example of what every Christian in every generation strives after: An Authentic Life lived to the glory of God.
", "ISBN-13": "9781581348576", "ISBN-10": "1581348576", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History", "Author": "S. C. Gwynne", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "History", "Pages": 371, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, cultural, ethnic & regional, indigenous", "Summary": "In the tradition of \"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,\" Gwynne presents a stunningly vivid historical account of the 40-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all.", "ISBN-13": "9781416591061", "ISBN-10": "1416591060", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "This book was flat-out captivating. The Comanche Native American tribe was harsh, violent, and tragic. Gwynne tells the story as if it was a novel. It's amazing that any of it is real. The vividness of the events takes you inside the terror this tribe could illicit.Just a warning: don't read right before bed. It has staying power.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child", "Author": "Jack Thorne, J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 336, "Tag": "drama, european, english, irish, scottish, welsh", "Summary": "
The Eighth Story. Nineteen Years Later. Based on an original story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne, a play by Jack Thorne.
It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son, Albus, must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: Sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.
The playscript for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was originally released as a \"special rehearsal edition\" alongside the opening of Jack Thorne's play in London's West End in summer 2016. Based on an original story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne, the play opened to rapturous reviews from theatergoers and critics alike, while the official playscript became an immediate global bestseller.
", "ISBN-13": "9781338216660", "ISBN-10": "133821666X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "In the Presence of Fear: Three Essays for a Changed World (The New Patriotism Series, Vol. 1)", "Author": "Wendell Berry", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Essays", "Pages": 44, "Tag": "political science", "Summary": "In this first volume of The New Patriotism Series, prolific author Wendell Berry reflects deeply on the current sources of world hope and despair.Hans Rookmaaker's impact on the arts in the twentieth century was enormous. His wide range of intellectual and cultural concerns led him to explore many aspects of art, music, and philosophy during his lifetime, and he made important contributions as an art historian, professor, mentor, thinker, and author.
Laurel Gasque examines Rookmaaker's life and shows how he incorporated his biblical beliefs into his teaching, writing, and interaction with the arts and individuals. She also explores the development of Rookmaaker's friendship with Francis A. Schaeffer and how each influenced the other, especially in grasping the vision that became L'Abri Fellowship.
Gasque has rich material to draw from, including personal memories of her mentor and friend, conversations with Rookmaaker's family members, and the body of work he left behind. Her careful research and engaging writing style make this book an outstanding contribution to the world of Christian biography.
", "ISBN-13": "9781581346947", "ISBN-10": "1581346948", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Johnstown Flood", "Author": "David McCullough", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "History", "Pages": 304, "Tag": "floods_pennsylvania_johnstown (cambria county), pennsylvania_history", "Summary": "The stunning story of one of America’s great disasters, a preventable tragedy of Gilded Age America, brilliantly told by master historian David McCullough.Flourishing people are strong and weak. Two common temptations lure us away from abundant living—withdrawing into safety or grasping for power. True flourishing, says Andy Crouch, travels down an unexpected path—being both strong and weak. We see this unlikely mixture in the best leaders—people who use their authority for the benefit of others, while also showing extraordinary willingness to face and embrace suffering. We see it in Jesus, who wielded tremendous power yet also exposed himself to hunger, ridicule, torture and death. Rather than being opposites, strength and weakness are actually meant to be combined in every human life and community. Only when they come together do we find the flourishing for which we were made. With the characteristic insight, memorable stories and hopeful realism he is known for, Andy Crouch shows us how to walk this path so that the image of God can shine through us. Not just for our own good, but for the sake of others. If you want to become the kind of person whose influence leads to healthy communities, someone with the strength to be compassionate and generous, this is the book for you. Regardless of your stage or role in life, whether or not you have a position of leadership, here is a way to love and risk so that we all, even the most vulnerable, can flourish.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830844432", "ISBN-10": "0830844430", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer", "Author": "James L. Swanson", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "History", "Pages": 464, "Tag": "history, biography & autobiography, criminals & outlaws", "Summary": "The murder of Abraham Lincoln set off the greatest manhunt in American history -- the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth. From April 14 to April 26, 1865, the assassin led Union cavalry and detectives on a wild twelve-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia, while the nation, still reeling from the just-ended Civil War, watched in horror and sadness.
At the very center of this story is John Wilkes Booth, America's notorious villain. A Confederate sympathizer and a member of a celebrated acting family, Booth threw away his fame and wealth for a chance to avenge the South's defeat. For almost two weeks, he confounded the manhunters, slipping away from their every move and denying them the justice they sought.
Based on rare archival materials, obscure trial transcripts, and Lincoln's own blood relics, Manhunt is a fully documented work, but it is also a fascinating tale of murder, intrigue, and betrayal. A gripping hour-by-hour account told through the eyes of the hunted and the hunters, this is history as you've never read it before.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060518493", "ISBN-10": "0060518499", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Schaeffer on the Christian Life: Countercultural Spirituality", "Author": "William Edgar", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, religious, religion", "Summary": "Francis Schaeffer was one of the most influential apologists of the twentieth century. Through his speaking, writing, and filmmaking, Schaeffer successfully transformed the way people thought of the Christian faith, from a rather private kind of piety to a worldview that addresses every sphere of life. This volume--written by a man converted from agnosticism within days of meeting Schaeffer--is the first book devoted to exploring the heart and soul of Schaeffer's approach to the Christian life, and will help readers strive after the same kind of marriage of thought and life, of orthodoxy and love.
Part of the Theologians on the Christian Life series.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433531392", "ISBN-10": "1433531399", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Waste Land and Other Poems", "Author": "T.S. Eliot", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Poetry", "Pages": 113, "Tag": "education, teaching, language arts", "Summary": "Poetry. Winner of the 2011 Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. John Beer's first collection, THE WASTE LAND AND OTHER POEMS, employs the wit of a philosopher and the ear of a poet to stage ways of reading that are political, personal, and theoretical. The speaker of these poems also brings humor to the dissecting table, to prod the legacies of great works of the imagination while balancing irony and affection.", "ISBN-13": "9780982237649", "ISBN-10": "0982237642", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Gilead: A Novel", "Author": "Marilynne Robinson", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 247, "Tag": "fiction_christian_general, iowa_fiction, clergy_fiction", "Summary": "2005 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction 2004 National Book Critics Circle Winner In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. Ames is the son of an Iowan preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition: He \"preached men into the Civil War,\" then, at age fifty, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle. Reverend Ames writes to his son about the tension between his father--an ardent pacifist--and his grandfather, whose pistol and bloody shirts, concealed in an army blanket, may be relics from the fight between the abolitionists and those settlers who wanted to vote Kansas into the union as a slave state. And he tells a story of the sacred bonds between fathers and sons, which are tested in his tender and strained relationship with his namesake, John Ames Boughton, his best friend's wayward son.The Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Harry S. Truman, whose presidency included momentous events from the atomic bombing of Japan to the outbreak of the Cold War and the Korean War, told by America's beloved and distinguished historian. The life of Harry S. Truman is one of the greatest of American stories, filled with vivid characters—Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Wallace Truman, George Marshall, Joe McCarthy, and Dean Acheson—and dramatic events. In this riveting biography, acclaimed historian David McCullough not only captures the man—a more complex, informed, and determined man than ever before imagined—but also the turbulent times in which he rose, boldly, to meet unprecedented challenges. The last president to serve as a living link between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, Truman's story spans the raw world of the Missouri frontier, World War I, the powerful Pendergast machine of Kansas City, the legendary Whistle-Stop Campaign of 1948, and the decisions to drop the atomic bomb, confront Stalin at Potsdam, send troops to Korea, and fire General MacArthur. Drawing on newly discovered archival material and extensive interviews with Truman's own family, friends, and Washington colleagues, McCullough tells the deeply moving story of the seemingly ordinary \"man from Missouri\" who was perhaps the most courageous president in our history.
When we as Christians open our homes to friends and strangers, set the table, put on a meal, and break bread together, we invite God's blessing. This pattern of hospitality is at the heart of the gospel. Food for the body and food for the soul can and does belong together.
Table fellowship fits into the New Testament narrative so unobtrusively that we can almost miss it. Jesus used simple hospitality and meal time conversations to share some of the most profound truths of the gospel.
Our Faith is often squeezed into a corner of life reserved for church services and Bible study groups. But God desires to be at the center of our ordinary, every-day life together and never more so than in a home open to others.
Table grace is food for the mind, a metaphor for communion with God.
Table grace is food for the body, a means for sustaining physical strength.
Table grace is food for the soul, a method for understanding God's values
Table grace is food for the hungry, a model for serving Christ and his Kingdom.
The classic work available in paperback for the first time: The Renowned Bible scholar, Anglican bishop, and bestselling author N. T. Wright breaks down the barriers that prevent us from fully engaging with the story of Jesus in the Bible to reveal a breathtaking vision of Christ that matches the needs and complexities of our time.
We have grown used to the battles over Jesus—whether he was human or divine, whether he could do miracles or just inspire them, whether he even existed. Much of the church defends tradition, while critics take shots at the institution and its beliefs. But what if these debates have masked the real story of Jesus?
Wright summarizes a lifetime of study of Jesus and the New Testament in order to present for a general audience who Jesus was and is. In Simply Jesus, we are invited to hear one of our leading scholars introduce the story of the carpenter’s son from Nazareth as if we were hearing it for the first time.
\"Jesus—the Jesus we might discover if we really looked,\" explains Wright, \"is larger, more disturbing, more urgent than we had ever imagined. . . . It is we, the churches, who have been the real reductionists. We have reduced the kingdom of God to private piety; the victory of the cross to comfort for the conscience; Easter itself to a happy, escapist ending after a sad, dark tale. Piety, conscience, and ultimate happiness are important, but not nearly as important as Jesus himself.\" As the church faces the many challenges of the twenty-first century, Wright presents a vision of Jesus that more than meets them.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062084408", "ISBN-10": "0062084402", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Simply Good News: Why the Gospel Is News and What Makes It Good", "Author": "N. T. Wright", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, new testament", "Summary": "The bishop, Bible scholar, modern heir to C. S. Lewis, and revered author of Simply Christian and Simply Jesus offers a fresh look at the Gospel, explaining why Jesus’ message is “good news” and why it is more timely and transforming today than we know.
The Gospel means good news. But if the message has been around for 2,000 years, what makes it significant today? What’s so “good” about stories involving damnation, violence, and a God who sacrifices his only son?
Noted Bible scholar N.T. Wright shows us how Christians today have lost sight of what the “good news” of the gospel really is. In Simply Good News, he takes us back in time to reveal how the people of the first-century—the gospel’s original audience—would have received Jesus’ message. He offer a clear and thoughtful analysis of what the “good news” really is, and applies it to our lives today, revealing its power to transform us.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062334343", "ISBN-10": "0062334344", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was & Is", "Author": "N. T. Wright", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 202, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, new testament", "Summary": "Today a renewed and vigorous scholarly quest for the historical Jesus is underway. In the midst of well-publicized and controversial books on Jesus, N. T. Wright's lectures and writings have been widely recognized for providing a fresh, provocative and historically credible portrait. Read his thoughts in this original edition, or get the most recent edition for even more insight with an all-new introduction by the author. Out of his own commitment to both historical scholarship and Christian ministry, Wright challenges us to roll up our sleeves and take seriously the study of the historical Jesus. He writes, \"Many Christians have been, frankly, sloppy in their thinking and talking about Jesus, and hence, sadly, in their praying and in their practice of discipleship. We cannot assume that by saying the word Jesus, still less the word Christ, we are automatically in touch with the real Jesus who walked and talked in first-century Palestine. . . . Only by hard, historical work can we move toward a fuller comprehension of what the Gospels themselves were trying to say.\" The Challenge of Jesus poses a double-edged challenge: to grow in our understanding of the historical Jesus within the Palestinian world of the first century, and to follow Jesus more faithfully into the postmodern world of the twenty-first century.", "ISBN-13": "9780830822003", "ISBN-10": "0830822003", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Church Before the Watching World : A Practical Ecclesiology", "Author": "Francis A. Schaeffer", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Apologetics", "Pages": 105, "Tag": "apologetics_history, liberalism (religion), christianity and culture", "Summary": "The Church Before the Watching World : A Practical Ecclesiology", "ISBN-13": "9780877845423", "ISBN-10": "0877845425", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91KcNKPTjVL._SL1500_.jpg" }, { "Title": "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis", "Author": "J. D. Vance", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Memoir", "Pages": 288, "Tag": "social sciences, sociology, rural", "Summary": "Hillbilly Elegy recounts J.D. Vance's powerful origin story...
From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate now serving as a U.S. Senator from Ohio and the Republican Vice Presidential candidate for the 2024 election, an incisive account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America's white working class.
THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
\"You will not read a more important book about America this year.\"—The Economist
\"A riveting book.\"—The Wall Street Journal
\"Essential reading.\"—David Brooks, New York Times
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for more than forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.'s grandparents were \"dirt poor and in love,\" and moved north from Kentucky's Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.'s grandparents, aunt, uncle, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his chaotic family history.
A deeply moving memoir, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062872258", "ISBN-10": "0062872257", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "This book got a lot of airplay this year, and for good reason. It's very well-written. Vance is in his early thirties - even he admits that's an early age for a memoir - but his life and insight demand an audience. He never mentions our current political climate (the book was released before the rise of Trump), but if you want to understand how we got here, this book helps us see.Focusing on a largely forgotten and ignored people group in America, especially in Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio, Vance takes us inside the complex history and present reality of the subgroup of Americans known as the hillbillies. They’re simple people in some ways, and extremely complicated in others. Vance’s place in the family of such people gives the story a first-hand account, and what he reveals is fascinating.
Tragic, enlightening, insightful, and captivating, this is one of those books that stays with you. Along with Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me, I think this should be required reading for all Americans. If you want to understand our times, pick it up.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations Through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus", "Author": "Zack Eswine", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 272, "Tag": "religion, christian living, inspirational", "Summary": "
Dear Pastor,
Desire burns within you. You've trained and dreamt of doing large things in famous ways as fast as you can for God's glory. But pastoral work keeps requiring your surrender to small, mostly overlooked things over long periods of time.
You stand at a crossroads. Jesus stands with you. You were never meant to know everything, fix everything, and be everywhere at once. That's his job, not yours.
So what now? Let the apprenticeship begin.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433549335", "ISBN-10": "1433549336", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "If you're a pastor, or serving heavily in church leadership, this book is like a fresh drink of water. It's so soul-refreshing. None of us are the perfect leader. We all have limits and ministry takes us to those limits on a regular basis. How do you rest in your limitedness while serving Christ? How do you follow Jesus closely while serving people tirelessly?This is one of those books that can serve two purposes really well: it feeds pastors, and it helps church members understand the pastorate. So even if you're not in church leadership it is worth reading to better help you pray for your leaders.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Between the World and Me",
"Author": "Ta-Nehisi Coates",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Memoir",
"Pages": 176,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, personal memoirs, social science",
"Summary": "#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT
Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone)
NAMED ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY • NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY • AN OPRAH DAILY BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE PAST TWO DECADES
ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, O: The Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, People, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, New York, Newsday, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly
In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.",
"ISBN-13": "9780812993547",
"ISBN-10": "0812993543",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Mark of the Christian",
"Author": "Francis A. Schaeffer",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 63,
"Tag": "religion, christian ministry, discipleship",
"Summary": "
\"It is possible to be a Christian without showing the mark, but if we expect non-Christians to know that we are Christians, we must show the mark.\" Christians have not always presented an inviting picture to the world. Too often we have failed to show the beauty of authentic Christian love. And the world has disregarded Christianity as a result. In our era of global violence and sectarian intolerance, the church needs to hear anew the challenge of this book. Decades ago Francis Schaeffer exhorted, \"Love--and the unity it attests to--is the mark Christ gave Christians to wear before the world. Only with this mark may the world know that Christians are indeed Christians and that Jesus was sent by the Father.\" More than ever, the church needs to respond compassionately to a needy world. More than ever, we need to show the Mark.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830834075", "ISBN-10": "0830834079", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Death in the City", "Author": "Francis August Schaeffer", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 127, "Tag": "religion, christian theology, apologetics", "Summary": "Few Christians had greater impact during the last half of the twentieth century than Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer. A man with penetrating insight into post-Christian, post-modern life, Schaeffer also cared deeply about people and their search for truth, meaning, and beauty. If there is one central theme throughout Schaeffer's work, it is that \"true truth\" is revealed in the Bible by \"the God who is there,\" and that what we do with this truth has decisive consequences in every area of life.
Death in the City was Schaeffer's third book and is foundational to his thinking. Written against the backdrop of the sixties countercultural upheaval, it reads today with the same ring of truth regarding personal, moral, spiritual, and intellectual concerns. Especially in light of 9/11, Schaeffer seems disturbingly prophetic. The death that Schaeffer writes about is more than just physical death--it is the moral and spiritual death that subtly suffocates truth and meaning and beauty out of the city and the wider culture.
What is the answer that Schaeffer offers in response? It is commitment to God's Word as truth--a costly practice in the midst of the intellectual, moral, and philosophical battles of our day. It is compassion for a world that is lost and dying without the Gospel. It is yielding our lives to God and allowing Him to bring forth His fruit through us.
Few have demonstrated this commitment to truth and \"persistence of compassion\" so consistently as Schaeffer did. And because of this, few who begin reading these pages will come to the end without having their life profoundly changed.", "ISBN-13": "9780851103471", "ISBN-10": "0851103472", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I could put about five more Schaeffer books here but this book really helped me. It is prophetic. Written 30+ years ago, this book shows us what a post-Christian world looks like. If you want to understand the age we live in now, visit this book from the past. It will show you what's going on. If someone released it today I would be amazed at their insight into our modern plight. That it was released in a different century altogether amazes me.", "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/418vYGdAJ8L.jpg" }, { "Title": "Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know", "Author": "Wayne A. Grudem", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 160, "Tag": "religion, christian living, christian theology", "Summary": "Christian Essentials Made Plain and Simple God doesn't call every Christian to go off to seminary, but there are certain matters of doctrine---that is, the church's teaching---that every Christian simply must know. Theology is important because what we believe affects how we live. If you're a relatively new believer in Jesus, or if you're a more mature Christian looking for a quick brush-up on basics of the faith, Christian Beliefs is for you. This readable guide to twenty basic Christian beliefs is a condensation of Wayne Grudem's award-winning book on systematic theology, prized by pastors and teachers everywhere. He and his son, Elliot, have boiled down the essentials of Christian theology for the average layperson and made them both clear and applicable to life. You will learn about the Bible, the characteristics of God, what it means that we are created in the image of God, what God has done for us in Christ, the purpose of the church, and much more. Each chapter includes questions for personal review or group discussion. These truly are twenty basic beliefs that every Christian should know. Wayne Grudem is a master teacher with the ability to explain profound truths in simple language. He is a man of deep conviction and theological passion---and those who read this book will be both educated and encouraged in the faith. R. Albert Mohler Jr., President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky Based on Systematic Theology, this summary will certainly help beginners with Christ to get the hang of their faith. J. I. Packer, Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia As Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology contracts into a compact book, I do not lose my enthusiasm for the truth he loves and the clarity of his words. John Piper, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota", "ISBN-13": "9780310255994", "ISBN-10": "0310255996", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Great Evangelical Disaster", "Author": "Francis August Schaeffer", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "religion & spirituality", "Summary": "Examines the position of the evangelical church in American society and argues that the morality of Christianity has been compromised", "ISBN-13": "9780860653417", "ISBN-10": "0860653412", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31fxymoHyUL.jpg" }, { "Title": "Pollution and the Death of Man", "Author": "Francis A. Schaeffer", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 157, "Tag": "christian books & bibles, christian living, religion & spirituality", "Summary": "Francis Schaeffer analyzes the philosophical relationship of man to nature by examining prevalent worldviews, contrasting them with the belief system of Christianity.", "ISBN-13": "9781856840279", "ISBN-10": "1856840271", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/611IIKXX-fL._SL1500_.jpg" }, { "Title": "Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel", "Author": "Ray Ortlund", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, christian living, love & marriage", "Summary": "
Marriage reveals something of eternal significance. From the beginning, God designed marriage to convey a greater reality--the passionate, unfailing, redeeming love of God for sinners, the eternal romance between Christ and his bride.
In this volume, Ray Ortlund traces marriage throughout Scripture--from the first marriage in the garden of Eden to the ultimate marriage in the book of Revelation--laying out a transcendent vision of marriage that dignifies our own imperfect unions as a display of the gospel. This book offers insight and hope to every married person today.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433546877", "ISBN-10": "1433546876", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Ray was my pastor for 7+ years, he's my dear friend, and he's written perhaps the finest book available on Paul's words in Ephesians 5:32, \"This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.\"Ray is insightful and pastoral, as always. This book not only puts on display the beauty of marriage but also the beauty of Christ, the one who makes all things beautiful. I loved my wife more after reading this and I loved God more. This book is a theological juggernaut. It's short enough to read in one sitting and profound enough to think on for a lifetime. It is a fresh word for an ancient gift.
Oh, and by the way, I don't know anyone whose marriage I want to emulate more than Ray and Jani's. They're the real deal. For that reason, too, I can read this book without even a question in my mind as to his heart on this subject.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Grace of Repentance", "Author": "Sinclair B Ferguson", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 64, "Tag": "religion, christian living, personal growth", "Summary": "
\"When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said 'Repent, ' he meant that the entire life of believers should be one of repentance.\" -- Martin Luther, 1517
Is that how we think about repentance? Or do we instead think of it as something we are glad to have behind us, never to be repeated? In today's churches, you may find it assumed that such repentance is unnecessary for sanctification or that we can even become Christians without first repenting.
By contrast, our forefathers were convinced that repentance is so central to the gospel that without it there can be no salvation, much less a spiritual life marked by transformation. Sinclair Ferguson helps us to see how repentance can regain rightful prominence in our own lives and that of our churches, leading us ultimately to the grace found in confession.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433519833", "ISBN-10": "1433519836", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture", "Author": "Francis A. Schaeffer", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "History", "Pages": 360, "Tag": "history, world, religion", "Summary": "Francis Schaeffer's Classic Analysis of the Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture
As one of the foremost evangelical thinkers of the twentieth century, Francis A. Schaeffer long pondered the fate of declining Western culture. Profoundly aware of the similarities modern culture shares with societies that came before, Schaeffer embarked on a journey to uncover the movements that gave rise to modern culture and resulted in the decline of the Christian worldview.
Forty years later, his classic book How Should We Then Live? is as relevant today as it was when it was first published. Schaeffer argues that the erosion of society begins with a shift away from biblical truth. To support this claim, he walks readers through history, beginning with the fall of Rome, through the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, and up to the twentieth century. This latest edition analyzes the reasons for modern society's state of affairs and presents the solution: living by the Christian ethic, fully accepting God's revelation, and affirming the morals, values, and meaning of the Bible.
The setting is Japan in the 17th century. Jesuit missionaries sail the ocean to find another priest who supposedly has apostazied. On their jounrey to find their friend, they visit village after village to find Christians in each. Japan is rife with persecution. Christians are being killed left and right. When these priests encounter the mastermind behind all the terror, they too have a choice to make. Will they stay faithful, or will they lose their faith? Can the gospel take root in the swamps of Japan, or will it rot?
It is incredibly well-written and deeply insightful. It has many layers, and therefore is not a book to pick up and read quickly and thoughtlessly. I wish I had read it slower.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Hidden Christmas: The Surprising Truth Behind the Birth of Christ",
"Author": "Timothy Keller",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 160,
"Tag": "religion, holidays, christmas & advent",
"Summary": "From pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller comes the perfect gift for the Christmas holiday—a profoundly moving and intellectually provocative examination of the nativity story
Even people who are not practicing Christians think they are familiar with the story of the nativity. Every Christmas displays of Baby Jesus resting in a manger decorate lawns and churchyards, and songs about shepherds and angels fill the air. Yet despite the abundance of these Christian references in popular culture, how many of us have examined the hard edges of this biblical story?
In his new book Timothy Keller takes readers on an illuminating journey into the surprising background of the nativity. By understanding the message of hope and salvation within the Bible’s account of Jesus’ birth, readers will experience the redeeming power of God’s grace in a deeper and more meaningful way.",
"ISBN-13": "9780735221659",
"ISBN-10": "0735221650",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Alexander Hamilton",
"Author": "Ron Chernow",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 832,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, political, history",
"Summary": "The #1 New York Times bestseller, and the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical Hamilton!
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow presents a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation.
\"Grand-scale biography at its best—thorough, insightful, consistently fair, and superbly written . . . A genuinely great book.\" —David McCullough
“A robust full-length portrait, in my view the best ever written, of the most brilliant, charismatic and dangerous founder of them all.\" —Joseph Ellis
Few figures in American history have been more hotly debated or more grossly misunderstood than Alexander Hamilton. Chernow’s biography gives Hamilton his due and sets the record straight, deftly illustrating that the political and economic greatness of today’s America is the result of Hamilton’s countless sacrifices to champion ideas that were often wildly disputed during his time. “To repudiate his legacy,” Chernow writes, “is, in many ways, to repudiate the modern world.” Chernow here recounts Hamilton’s turbulent life: an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, he came out of nowhere to take America by storm, rising to become George Washington’s aide-de-camp in the Continental Army, coauthoring The Federalist Papers, founding the Bank of New York, leading the Federalist Party, and becoming the first Treasury Secretary of the United States.Historians have long told the story of America’s birth as the triumph of Jefferson’s democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton. Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism and a stubborn will to build the foundations of American prosperity and power. His is a Hamilton far more human than we’ve encountered before—from his shame about his birth to his fiery aspirations, from his intimate relationships with childhood friends to his titanic feuds with Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Monroe, and Burr, and from his highly public affair with Maria Reynolds to his loving marriage to his loyal wife Eliza. And never before has there been a more vivid account of Hamilton’s famous and mysterious death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July of 1804.
Chernow’s biography is not just a portrait of Hamilton, but the story of America’s birth seen through its most central figure. At a critical time to look back to our roots, Alexander Hamilton will remind readers of the purpose of our institutions and our heritage as Americans.",
"ISBN-13": "9780143034759",
"ISBN-10": "0143034758",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Whatever Happened to the Human Race?",
"Author": "Francis A , KOOP, C. Everett SCHAEFFER",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": null,
"Tag": "religion & spirituality, politics & social sciences, women's studies",
"Summary": "\"If a mother can kill her own children, then what can be next?\" Mother Teresa once asked. What indeed? Once the value of human life has been depreciated, as in Roe v. Wade and the Baby Doe Case, no one is safe. Once \"quality of life\" is substituted for the absolute value of human life itself, we all are endangered. Already respected scientists are calling for a time period following birth (a week or so) to decide if newborns have \"sufficient quality of life\" to be allowed to live. Already committees of \"medical professionals\" would like to decide whether the \"quality of life\" of the elderly or anyone seriously ill is high enough to allow them to go on living. In this moving book, the renowned pediatric surgeon and Surgeon General of the United States, C. Everett Koop, M.D., joins with one of the leading Christian thinkers of our day, Francis A. Schaeffer, to analyze the widespread implications and frightening loss of human rights brought on by today's practices of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. They see the present as a crucial turning point. Choices are being made that undermine human rights at their most basic level. Practices once labeled \"unthinkable\" are now considered acceptable. The destruction of human life, young and old, is being sanctioned on an ever-increasing scale by the medical profession, by the courts, by parents, and by silent citizens. \"But what can I do?\" you ask. \"I'm just one person.\" You can start by reading this book. Yes, it will shock you. And it will make you weep. But it will also help you see how you can actually make a difference.",
"ISBN-13": "9780551008304",
"ISBN-10": "055100830X",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61ChSHiIB7L.jpg"
},
{
"Title": "A Christian Manifesto",
"Author": "Francis August Schaeffer",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 157,
"Tag": "religion, inspirational, christianity",
"Summary": "It happened so subtly that few people noticed at first. Little by little, morality and freedom started to crumble. It came first in government, in education, in the media--and finally it began to shake our families and our own lives.
Something fundamental has changed. Law and government no longer provide a foundation of justice and morality but have become the means of licensing moral perversions of all kinds. Education has become the enemy of religious truth and values. And the media have provided the means for propagating the change.
In this explosive book, Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer shows why this has happened. First, he shows how we have failed to understand the problem--to see that the whole foundation for society has shifted radically from its original Judeo-Christian heritage. Second, Dr. Schaeffer calls for a massive movement--in government, law and all of life--to reestablish the Judeo-Christian foundation and turn the tide of moral decadence and loss of freedom.
\"A Christian Manifesto is literally a call for Christians to change the course of history--by returning to biblical Truth and by allowing Christ to be Lord in all of life. To do this, Schaeffer says, will involve a head-on confrontation with the false view that material or energy, shaped by chance, is the final reality.
Schaeffer's provocative conclusion is that when the state directly defies the absolute law of God, its authority becomes illegitimate. In this case, the Christian is bound to resist the state by whatever means necessary--through direct legal and political action, and possibly through massive demonstrations of civil disobedience.",
"ISBN-13": "9780891072331",
"ISBN-10": "0891072330",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Broken Way: A Daring Path Into the Abundant Life",
"Author": "Ann Voskamp",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Psychology",
"Pages": 288,
"Tag": "psychology, emotions, religion",
"Summary": "
A New York Times bestseller! Brokenness doesn't only find us in the big things--things like illness, hardship, or grief. It can find you in the everyday. Learn to walk in a way that glorifies Jesus and receive freedom, not beyond your fear and pain, but within it.
We are fragile and we know it. Sometimes, living with Christ in a messed-up world feels less like victory and more like walking uphill. Ann Voskamp, the New York Times bestselling author of One Thousand Gifts, sits at the edge of her life and her own unspoken brokenness and asks: What if you really want to live abundantly before it's too late What do you do if you really want to know abundant wholeness
This one's for the lovers and the sufferers. This one's for the busted ones who are ready to bust free, the ones ready to break molds, break chains, break measuring sticks, and break all this bad brokenness with an unlikely good brokenness. You could be one of the Beloved who is broken--and still lets yourself be loved.
Ann desperately wants you to know:
The Broken Way is simple in presentation, written in Ann's unique style--a new way for desperate Christians in need of a fresh revelation of the grace of God.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310318583", "ISBN-10": "0310318580", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History", "Author": "Brian Kilmeade, Don Yaeger", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "History", "Pages": 272, "Tag": "history, united states, 19th century", "Summary": "When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, America was deeply in debt, with its economy and dignity under attack. Pirates from North Africa’s Barbary Coast routinely captured American merchant ships and held the sailors as slaves, demanding ransom and tribute payments far beyond what the new country could afford.
For fifteen years, America had tried to work with the four Muslim powers (Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco) driving the piracy, but negotiation proved impossible. Realizing it was time to stand up to the intimidation, Jefferson decided to move beyond diplomacy. He sent the U.S. Navy and Marines to blockade Tripoli—launching the Barbary Wars and beginning America’s journey toward future superpower status.
Few today remember these men and other heroes who inspired the Marine Corps hymn: “From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli, we fight our country’s battles in the air, on land and sea.” Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates recaptures this forgotten war that changed American history with a real-life drama of intrigue, bravery, and battle on the high seas.
2016 Winner of the Gospel Coalition Book Awards
\"If everyone in the United States had the same qualities of loyalty and care and concern for others that Larry Taunton had, we'd be living in a much better society than we do.\" Christopher Hitchens
At the time of his death, Christopher Hitchens was the most notorious atheist in the world. And yet, all was not as it seemed. \"Nobody is not a divided self, of course,\" he once told an interviewer, \"but I think it's rather strong in my case.\" Hitchens was a man of many contradictions: a Marxist in youth who longed for acceptance among the social elites; a peacenik who revered the military; a champion of the Left who was nonetheless pro-life, pro-war-on-terror, and after 9/11 something of a neocon; and while he railed against God on stage, he maintained meaningful--though largely hidden from public view--friendships with evangelical Christians like Francis Collins, Douglas Wilson, and the author Larry Alex Taunton.
In The Faith of Christopher Hitchens, Taunton offers a very personal perspective of one of our most interesting and most misunderstood public figures. Writing with genuine compassion and without compromise, Taunton traces Hitchens's spiritual and intellectual development from his decision as a teenager to reject belief in God to his rise to prominence as one of the so-called \"Four Horsemen\" of the New Atheism. While Hitchens was, in the minds of many Christians, Public Enemy Number One, away from the lights and the cameras a warm friendship flourished between Hitchens and the author; a friendship that culminated in not one, but two lengthy road trips where, after Hitchens's diagnosis of esophageal cancer, they studied the Bible together. The Faith of Christopher Hitchens gives us a candid glimpse into the inner life of this intriguing, sometimes maddening, and unexpectedly vulnerable man.
\"This book should be read by every atheist and theist passionate about the truth.\"
--Michael Shermer, publisher, Skeptic magazine
", "ISBN-13": "9780718022174", "ISBN-10": "0718022173", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "A fascinating look into a man who spewed hate – especially hate towards Christians. Taunton was a good, and surprising, friend of Hitchens. Their friendship revolved around debates but went much deeper. Hitchens would defend the character of his friend even if he could not defend his faith. Hitchens had no time for fakers but he did make time for sincere believers – even though he hated all that they believe.What Taunton relates in these pages garnered lots of attention. Many thought he was intimating a death-bed conversion of Hitchens. He does not such thing. Instead, he shows us a man who was thinking things through as he neared death but who never would believe. He’s the example of the hardened heart. He dies without accepting Christ. If you want to see what a man looks like who refuses to believe and the hopelessness that creates, this book will show you.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life",
"Author": "Clive Staples Lewis",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Memoir",
"Pages": 252,
"Tag": "anglican converts",
"Summary": "Surprised by The Shape of My Early Life Lewis, C. S.",
"ISBN-13": "9788272780959",
"ISBN-10": "B0G14FK6WL",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Redeployment",
"Author": "Phil Klay",
"Year Read": 2016,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 304,
"Tag": "fiction, short stories (single author), war & military",
"Summary": "Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction
\"Redeployment is hilarious, biting, whipsawing and sad. It’s the best thing written so far on what the war did to people’s souls.” —Dexter Filkins, The New York Times Book Review
Selected as one of the best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post Book World, Amazon, and more
Phil Klay's Redeployment takes readers to the frontlines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, asking us to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned. Interwoven with themes of brutality and faith, guilt and fear, helplessness and survival, the characters in these stories struggle to make meaning out of chaos.
In \"Redeployment\", a soldier who has had to shoot dogs because they were eating human corpses must learn what it is like to return to domestic life in suburbia, surrounded by people \"who have no idea where Fallujah is, where three members of your platoon died.\" In \"After Action Report\", a Lance Corporal seeks expiation for a killing he didn't commit, in order that his best friend will be unburdened. A Morturary Affairs Marine tells about his experiences collecting remains—of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers both. A chaplain sees his understanding of Christianity, and his ability to provide solace through religion, tested by the actions of a ferocious Colonel. And in the darkly comic \"Money as a Weapons System\", a young Foreign Service Officer is given the absurd task of helping Iraqis improve their lives by teaching them to play baseball. These stories reveal the intricate combination of monotony, bureaucracy, comradeship and violence that make up a soldier's daily life at war, and the isolation, remorse, and despair that can accompany a soldier's homecoming.
Redeployment has become a classic in the tradition of war writing. Across nations and continents, Klay sets in devastating relief the two worlds a soldier inhabits: one of extremes and one of loss. Written with a hard-eyed realism and stunning emotional depth, this work marks Phil Klay as one of the most talented new voices of his generation.",
"ISBN-13": "9780143126829",
"ISBN-10": "0143126822",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "I had this one on my list for a few years. Finally, I saw it on sale for Kindle and picked it up. In the same vein as Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried (which also makes my list – see below), Redeployment is a series of stories of soldiers making their way in the world during and after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The stories are compelling and well-told. This book won the National Book Award in 2014, and I now see why. My only regret is that I waited so long to read it.
The heartbreak of war doesn’t end when the last gun is fired. It comes home with the men and women who were sent. We would do well with so many veterans in our midst, and without a war big enough to call most of our country into its battlefields, to know what these few brave soldiers face on a daily basis.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Revival", "Author": "David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Martyn Lloyd-Jones", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 316, "Tag": "religion, christian living, inspirational", "Summary": "
In every era the church needs revival--certainly today as much as ever. And in the heart of every committed Christian there is the longing for personal revival--to know the quality and depths of spiritual reality, and the presence of God in one's personal life.
This was the deepest desire of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, one of the great 20th-century Bible expositors. It was also the purpose behind this series of messages which were first given on the 100th anniversary of the Great Revival which started in Wales, and swept across England and throughout the United States and to the far corners of the world. As Dr. Lloyd-Jones recognized, it is a rare time in the history of the church when there is a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit-- and a time of special interest of every Christian who longs for revival today.
As Dr. J. I. Packer writes in his foreword, Dr. Lloyd-Jones believed in \"the necessity of revival--that is, a quickening divine visitation--as the only vent that can avert ultimate spiritual disaster. The thrustful urgency of the sermons in this book testifies to the depth of his conviction that without revival in the church there is really no hope for the Western world at all.\"
Dr. Lloyd-Jones deftly draws principles from the lives of Old and New Testament characters as well as expounding some of the great prayers of the Bible. Clearly and forcefully, he presents a masterful exposition of the circumstances accompanying revival in the past, why each generation needs it, and how it will come about today. We must come to the sovereign God, forsake our sin, and wait upon Him for this special, essential outpouring. God, bring us revival!
", "ISBN-13": "9780891074151", "ISBN-10": "0891074155", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Purity Principle: God's Safeguards for Life's Dangerous Trails", "Author": "Randy Alcorn", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 96, "Tag": "family & relationships, love & romance, religion", "Summary": "For thirty years Randy Alcorn has been encouraging people-young and old-to pursue the rewards of sexual purity. Too often we settle for a compromised Christianity that's just a baptized version of the world's sad existence, rather than the abundant life to which God calls us. This book deals with - raising children to embrace sexual purity - providing an example of purity in the home - protecting purity in dating (at any age) - and maintaining purity in marriage. Biblical, practical, and concise, The Purity Principle is a one-stop handbook for individuals, families and churches.#1 New York Times Bestseller
The inspiration for the Netflix series premiering March 20!
“A revealing look at life inside the White House. . . it’s Downton Abbey for the White House staff.” — The Today Show
A remarkable history with elements of both In the President’s Secret Service and The Butler, The Residence offers an intimate account of the service staff of the White House, from the Kennedys to the Obamas.
America’s First Families are unknowable in many ways. No one has insight into their true character like the people who serve their meals and make their beds every day. In her runaway bestseller, former White House correspondent Kate Andersen Brower pulls back the curtain on the world’s most famous address. Full of stories and details by turns dramatic, humorous, and heartwarming, The Residence reveals daily life in the White House as it is really lived through the voices of the maids, butlers, cooks, florists, doormen, engineers, and others who tend to the needs of the President and First Family.
These dedicated professionals maintain the six-floor mansion’s 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, 28 fireplaces, three elevators, and eight staircases, and prepare everything from hors d’oeuvres for intimate gatherings to meals served at elaborate state dinners. Over the course of the day, they gather in the lower level’s basement kitchen to share stories, trade secrets, forge lifelong friendships, and sometimes even fall in love.
Combining incredible first-person anecdotes from extensive interviews with scores of White House staff members—many speaking for the first time—with archival research, Kate Andersen Brower tells their story. She reveals the intimacy between the First Family and the people who serve them, as well as tension that has shaken the staff over the decades. From the housekeeper and engineer who fell in love while serving President Reagan to Jackie Kennedy’s private moment of grief with a beloved staffer after her husband’s assassination to the tumultuous days surrounding President Nixon’s resignation and President Clinton’s impeachment battle, The Residence is full of surprising and moving details that illuminate day-to-day life at the White House.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062476012", "ISBN-10": "B017R5FBFE", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "So intriguing. I read this because I couldn’t think of anything else to read at the time. Turns out, it’s the Downton Abbey of books. I had no idea the White House staff (butlers, cooks, maids, etc.) stayed on from administration to administration. But they do. And the stories they tell, which are actually quite few due to their vow of silence and regard for privacy of the families, are incredibly interesting. This book humanizes the presidents in a way very few other things could do for me. To see these folks love one president only to see him move out a few years later and then accept another family made me feel their anguish, and wonder at their determination and resilience in their work. This book shows their sacrifice and humanity. Turns out Washington is filled with humans after all.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Made for His Pleasure: Ten Benchmarks of a Vital Faith", "Author": "Alistair Begg", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "Are you living for God's pleasure or for your own?
Pleasing God is not a matter of personal choice, but an imperative that must be taken seriously. In a world of self, we must give way to the priority of God if we want to experience His joy.
In this popular book, Alistair identifies ten benchmarks from Scripture that will prove invaluable as you seek to live a life that is pleasing to God. His clear, personal message will challenge and revitalize your faith.
Spiritual fitness is not a series of straight, 100-yard sprints. Rather, it's a lifelong cross-country run of endurance and perseverance. The life that is truly fulfilling gives back to God the talents and abilities He has given us to be used for His glory.
\"Delightful, insightful teaching on God's Word\" -- Max Lucado
\"Alistair compels us clearly and biblically to know the joy of pleasing God in our relationships, successes and failures, and other strategic aspects of our lives.\" -- Joseph M. Stowell
", "ISBN-13": "9780802418272", "ISBN-10": "0802418279", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Things They Carried", "Author": "Tim O'Brien", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 233, "Tag": "literature & fiction, classics, genre fiction", "Summary": "A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. Taught everywhere_x0097_from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing_x0097_it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing.", "ISBN-13": "9780618706419", "ISBN-10": "0618706410", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "The best book on war I've read. A friend loaned this to me over a year ago, and I finally picked it up. O’Brien writes on the complexities of war: the glory, the horror, the comradery, the ugliness, the beauty, the heartbreak, and the lasting effects. The events take place during the Vietnam War. It’s not about the war itself as it is about the men who fought it. Taking us inside the soldier’s mind is a hard thing to do, but O’Brien does it well. As much as I was able, I felt like I was standing there beside him.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Grief Is the Thing with Feathers: A Novel", "Author": "Max Porter", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "family & relationships, death, grief, bereavement, parenting", "Summary": "Here he is, husband and father, scruffy romantic, a shambolic scholar--a man adrift in the wake of his wife's sudden, accidental death. And there are his two sons who like him struggle in their London apartment to face the unbearable sadness that has engulfed them. The father imagines a future of well-meaning visitors and emptiness, while the boys wander, savage and unsupervised.
In this moment of violent despair they are visited by Crow--antagonist, trickster, goad, protector, therapist, and babysitter. This self-described \"sentimental bird,\" at once wild and tender, who \"finds humans dull except in grief,\" threatens to stay with the wounded family until they no longer need him. As weeks turn to months and the pain of loss lessens with the balm of memories, Crow's efforts are rewarded and the little unit of three begins to recover: Dad resumes his book about the poet Ted Hughes; the boys get on with it, grow up.
Part novella, part polyphonic fable, part essay on grief, Max Porter's extraordinary debut combines compassion and bravura style to dazzling effect. Full of angular wit and profound truths, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers is a startlingly original and haunting debut by a significant new talent.
In this engagingly witty, wise, and heartfelt memoir, Martin Short tells the tale of how a showbiz-obsessed kid from Canada transformed himself into one of Hollywood’s favorite funnymen, known to his famous peers as the “comedian’s comedian.”
Martin Short takes you on a rich, hilarious, and occasionally heartbreaking ride through his life and times, from his early years in Toronto as a member of the fabled improvisational troupe Second City to the all-American comic big time of Saturday Night Live and memorable roles in movies such as ¡Three Amigos! and Father of the Bride. He reveals how he created his most indelible comedic characters, among them the manic man-child Ed Grimley, the slimy corporate lawyer Nathan Thurm, and the bizarrely insensitive interviewer Jiminy Glick. Throughout, Short freely shares the spotlight with friends, colleagues, and collaborators, including Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, Gilda Radner, Mel Brooks, Nora Ephron, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Paul Shaffer, and David Letterman.
But there is another side to Short’s life that he has long kept private. He lost his eldest brother and both of his parents by the time he turned twenty, and, more recently, he lost his wife of thirty years to cancer. In I Must Say, Short talks for the first time about the pain that these losses inflicted and the upbeat life philosophy that has kept him resilient and carried him through. In the grand tradition of comedy legends, Martin Short offers a show business memoir densely populated with boldface names and rife with retellable tales: a hugely entertaining yet surprisingly moving self-portrait that will keep you laughing—and crying—from the first page to the last.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062309525", "ISBN-10": "0062309528", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Unashamed", "Author": "Lecrae Moore", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Memoir", "Pages": 212, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, cultural, ethnic & regional, music", "Summary": "If you live for people's acceptance, you'll die from their rejection.In 1955 an American family moved into a chalet on the side of a steep Swiss alp. They did not know exactly why God had brought them there, what He wanted them to do, or even where the money to live on would come from. But He began opening doors, and people with questions about life's meaning began finding the way to their home.
Edith Schaeffer, wife of Dr. Francis Schaeffer, tells the remarkable story of how God led them step by step, as that one small chalet grew into a whole community. It took the name L'Abri (French for shelter). Day by day, God faithfully provided for their family, and eventually for the entire community.
The Schaeffers believed that truth must be demonstrated as well as debated. They wanted to show the world through the transformed lifestyle of a believing community that the personal-infinite God is really here in our generation. In a society losing the ability to distinguish between Christian and non-Christian values, truth and untruth, good and evil, L'Abri equipped people to make that distinction.
For more than thirty years, people have come to L'Abri from all walks of life and from many countries, searching for truth and reality. There they find someone who cares for them personally, who listens carefully to their questions, and who gives them answers based on an uncompromising commitment to Biblical truth. L'Abri now has branches in several other countries and has affected the lives of literally thousands of people around the world.
", "ISBN-13": "9780891076681", "ISBN-10": "0891076689", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War", "Author": "Lynsey Addario", "Year Read": 2016, "Category": "Memoir", "Pages": 368, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, personal memoirs, artists, architects, photographers", "Summary": "“An unflinching memoir . . . [that] offers insight into international events and the challenges faced by the journalists who capture them.” —The Washington Post
War photographer Lynsey Addario’s memoir is the story of how the relentless pursuit of truth, in virtually every major theater of war in the twenty-first century, has shaped her life. What she does, with clarity, beauty, and candor, is to document, often in their most extreme moments, the complex lives of others. It’s her work, but it’s much more than that: it’s her singular calling.
Lynsey Addario was just finding her way as a young photographer when September 11 changed the world. One of the few photojournalists with experience in Afghanistan, she gets the call to return and cover the American invasion. She decides to set out across the world, face the chaos of crisis, and make a name for herself.
Addario finds a way to travel with a purpose. She photographs the Afghan people before and after the Taliban reign, the civilian casualties and misunderstood insurgents of the Iraq War, as well as the burned villages and countless dead in Darfur. She exposes a culture of violence against women in the Congo and tells the riveting story of her headline-making kidnapping by pro-Qaddafi forces in the Libyan civil war.
As a woman photojournalist determined to be taken as seriously as her male peers, Addario fights her way into a boys’ club of a profession. Rather than choose between her personal life and her career, Addario learns to strike a necessary balance. In the man who will become her husband, she finds at last a real love to complement her work, not take away from it, and as a new mother, she gains an all the more intensely personal understanding of the fragility of life.
Watching uprisings unfold and people fight to the death for their freedom, Addario understands she is documenting not only news but also the fate of societies. It’s What I Do is more than just a snapshot of life on the front lines; it is witness to the human cost of war.
Harper Lee has a worthy successor. Wolk is a big new talent - The Times
Annabelle has lived in Wolf Hollow all her life: a quiet place, still scarred by two world wars. But when cruel, manipulative Betty arrives in town, Annabelle's calm world is shattered, along with everything she's ever known about right and wrong.
When Betty disappears, suspicion falls on strange, gentle loner Toby. As Wolf Hollow turns against him, and tensions quickly mount, Annabelle must do everything in her power to protect Toby - and to find Betty, before it is too late.
Powerful, poignant and lyrical, Wolf Hollow is an unforgettable story.
", "ISBN-13": "9780552574297", "ISBN-10": "0552574295", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "This was the first book I read in 2017. It was also one of my favorites. I was interested as soon as I saw it compared to To Kill A Mockingbird. While I wouldn’t go that far, it is a great book. It centers around an eleven-year-old girl named Annabelle living in a rural Pennsylvania town during the height of Wold War II. While the war rages on thousands of miles away, she must fight her own battle with the new girl, Betty. Then, mysteriously, Betty goes missing. Everyone points to the local homeless man, Toby (the Boo Radley of the story, as it were). Annabelle believes Toby is a good man, even if no one else does. And she’s right.Wolk’s novel, though one intended for a youthful audience, brings to light issues of injustice in ways similar to Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. But whereas Lee’s focus was on the injustice done in the sphere of racism, Wolk’s is done in the sphere of classism. Thoroughly relevant for our times, this book is beautifully written and one of my favorites of the year.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners", "Author": "John Bunyan", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 160, "Tag": "religion, christian rituals & practice", "Summary": "Composed and published while John Bunyan (1628-1688) was in prison for his religious principles, Grace Abounding is an extraordinary spiritual autobiography. It was written in an age when religious radicalism was regarded as socially subversive, and is a haunting, often harrowing and ultimately inspiring account of his inner life: his long struggle with and eventual triumph over doubt and despair, his spiritual regeneration and his subsequent emergence as a preacher and writer of great imaginative power. God and Satan are the chief protagonists in Bunyan's drama, existing not as theological concepts but as terrifyingly immediate adversaries in the competition for his soul. Yet he finds his spiritual defences in the Bible, and Grace Abounding charts his passionate and imaginative involvement with this ultimate source of wisdom.", "ISBN-13": "9780140432800", "ISBN-10": "0140432809", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I try to take an author each year and read all of his or her works. This year, I attempted to read all of Bunyan’s books. But life got too busy and Bunyan wrote too much for me to keep up. So I abandoned this dream. But I didn’t abandon it before I read Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, and I’m so glad I didn’t.
Bunyan’s testimony of God’s grace is told in beautiful prose and heart-piercing honesty. Bunyan understood what it was to be lost, and he understood what it meant to fight for assurance. In fact, for a long time, Bunyan didn’t see how God could love him. He believed he had committed the unpardonable sin and God was therefore just to condemn him. But God didn’t condemn. God covered his sin with grace. Where Bunyan’s sin abounded, God’s grace abounded more. How did Bunyan know this? By wrestling with God. And in the end, God blessed him and all of us who read his words.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Jerusalem Sinner Saved", "Author": "John Bunyan", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 410, "Tag": "religion & spirituality", "Summary": "
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
", "ISBN-13": "9780469377639", "ISBN-10": "0469377631", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Brown Girl Dreaming", "Author": "Jacqueline Woodson", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Poetry", "Pages": 368, "Tag": "juvenile nonfiction, biography & autobiography, literary", "Summary": "NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The acclaimed author of Red at the Bone tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing poems.The Road is the story of a father and son making their way down a dangerous road, avoiding cannibals, thieves, and other assorted bad guys. It’s a simple story, really—one of survival. But deeper than that, it’s the story of a father’s love for his son, and a son’s love for his father. McCarthy’s writing is piercing at this point, plunging to the deep parts of the heart. There were many times I had to stop reading for a while. I have three boys of my own, and the writing was so moving, I couldn’t bring myself to continue until the sun rose on the next day.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Greatness of the Soul and Unspeakableness of its Loss Thereof",
"Author": "John Bunyan",
"Year Read": 2017,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 238,
"Tag": "literature & fiction, contemporary, religion & spirituality",
"Summary": "Product Description John Bunyan's The Greatness of the Soul and Unspeakableness of its Loss Thereof (1682) defines soul by giving it various names and elucidates the greatness and salvation of the soul as well as the loss of it. Giving the causes of the loss of soul, Bunyan presents a comprehensive Christian discourse on the purity and usefulness of soul with the description of Hell and Heaven and the teachings of Bible. About the Author John Bunyan, author of the great Christian allegory Pilgrim's Progress, was born into a tinker family. As a youth, he was tormented by fits of depression, dreams of fiends trying to fly away with him, and voices telling him to _x0093_sell Christ._x0094_ He joined and preached to a Baptist society in Bedford, for which he was arrested and jailed for nearly 12 years. While in prison he wrote Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and began his allegorical masterpiece.",
"ISBN-13": "9781427057273",
"ISBN-10": "1427057273",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Biblical Authority after Babel: Retrieving the Solas in the Spirit of Mere Protestant Christianity",
"Author": "Kevin J. Vanhoozer",
"Year Read": 2017,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 288,
"Tag": "religion, christian theology, apologetics",
"Summary": "How the Five Solas Can Renew Biblical Interpretation
In recent years, notable scholars have argued that the Protestant Reformation unleashed interpretive anarchy on the church. Is it time to consider the Reformation to be a 500-year experiment gone wrong?
World-renowned evangelical theologian Kevin Vanhoozer thinks not. While he sees recent critiques as legitimate, he argues that retrieving the Reformation's core principles offers an answer to critics of Protestant biblical interpretation. Vanhoozer explores how a proper reappropriation of the five solas--sola gratia (grace alone), sola fide (faith alone), sola scriptura (Scripture alone), solus Christus (in Christ alone), and sola Deo gloria (for the glory of God alone)--offers the tools to constrain biblical interpretation and establish interpretive authority. He offers a positive assessment of the Reformation, showing how a retrieval of \"mere Protestant Christianity\" has the potential to reform contemporary Christian belief and practice.
This provocative response and statement from a top theologian is accessibly written for pastors and church leaders.",
"ISBN-13": "9781587433931",
"ISBN-10": "1587433931",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Sense of an Ending",
"Author": "Julian Barnes",
"Year Read": 2017,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 150,
"Tag": "fiction, classics, literary",
"Summary": "The story of a man coming to terms with the mutable past, Julian Barnes's new novel is laced with his trademark precision, dexterity and insight. It is the work of one of the world's most distinguished writers. Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they navigated the girl drought of gawky adolescence together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they swore to stay friends forever. Until Adrian's life took a turn into tragedy, and all of them, especially Tony, moved on and did their best to forget. Now Tony is in middle age. He's had a career and a marriage, a calm divorce. He gets along nicely, he thinks, with his one child, a daughter, and even with his ex-wife. He's certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer's letter is about to prove. The unexpected bequest conveyed by that letter leads Tony on a dogged search through a past suddenly turned murky. And how do you carry on, contentedly, when events conspire to upset all your vaunted truths?",
"ISBN-13": "9780099564973",
"ISBN-10": "0099564971",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Zeal Without Burnout: Seven Keys to a Lifelong Ministry of Sustainable Sacrifice",
"Author": "Christopher Ash",
"Year Read": 2017,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 123,
"Tag": "religion, christian education, christian ministry",
"Summary": "
Exhaustion and burnout is experienced by many people who are involved in Christian ministry, sometimes to the extent that they simply cannot carry on.
Christopher Ash knows this experience all too well. As a pastor of a growing church, and in his role training people for ministry, he has been on the edge of burnout a number of times, and has pastored many younger ministers in similar situations.
His wisdom has been distilled into this short, accessible book, in which he reveals seven keys to avoiding burnout that flow from recognizing our human fragility and the necessity of depending on God. His practical and biblical guidance will help enthusiastic Christians gain the mindset and lifestyle to protect themselves from burnout and serve Jesus for the long term in a sustainable way.
Who is this book for?
Here is Christopher's answer from the introduction:
\"I write for all zealous followers of Jesus. Perhaps especially for pastors and Christian leaders ~ to those entrusted with pastoral oversight under God. Some of us have the privilege of being set free from other jobs to devote ourselves to this work; others combine pastoral leadership with \"normal\" secular work. But I write also for the many keen Christian men and women who, in addition to \"normal\" life (busy jobs, parenthood, and so on) labor sacrificially to serve in their local churches.\"
From the foreword by Alistair Begg
\"Christopher brings to this important subject, not just a personal experience of burnout, but a keen eye to the Bible, and wise pastoral insight into the pressures many of us face as we live for Jesus.\"
At night we ride through the mansions of glory in suicide machines
Sprung from cages out on highway nine,
Chrome wheeled, fuel injected, and steppin' out over the line
H-Oh, Baby this town rips the bones from your back
It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we're young
`Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run
You know the rest. Born to Run is a classic American rock song, and Springsteen is a classic American rocker. I’ve always admired his writing through song, and here he gives us his writing through prose in his story. As he says, “Writing about yourself is a funny business…But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these pages, I’ve tried to do this.”
Perhaps the most enjoyable part for me was the way he related to his band. He was the man. There was no doubt about that. But what makes Springsteen Springsteen is the band standing behind him. It’s Clarence Clemons’s saxophone, Max Weinberg’s drums, Steve Van Zandt’s guitar, Patti Scialfa’s vocals. And you can tell Bruce loves them. To hear this musical genius talk about all the other musical geniuses alongside and behind him (and even those out in front of him that gave him a chance) makes one appreciate the artist even more. Springsteen is a hard-working rock-star what never seemed to take anything for granted. He came from nothing to make his mark on the music world. In America, we think we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, and many look at Springsteen as a model for that. But like his famous song, Born in the U.S.A., the popular understanding isn’t the truth. The truth is it takes a band—in this case a world class one—to make an American classic.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance--Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters", "Author": "Sinclair B. Ferguson", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "religion, christianity, history", "Summary": "
Since the days of the early church, Christians have wrestled with the relationship between law and gospel. If, as the apostle Paul says, salvation is by grace and the law cannot save, what relevance does the law have for Christians today?
By revisiting the Marrow Controversy--a famous but largely forgotten eighteenth-century debate related to the proper relationship between God's grace and our works--Sinclair B. Ferguson sheds light on this central issue and why it still matters today. In doing so, he explains how our understanding of the relationship between law and gospel determines our approach to evangelism, our pursuit of sanctification, and even our understanding of God himself.
Ferguson shows us that the antidote to the poison of legalism on the one hand and antinomianism on the other is one and the same: the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ, in whom we are simultaneously justified by faith, freed for good works, and assured of salvation.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433548000", "ISBN-10": "1433548003", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Sinclair Ferguson’s book made many top books of 2016 lists. But I didn’t read it until the beginning of 2017. I see now why it made those lists.Ferguson’s writing is both heart-lifting and educational all at the same time. He explains the controversy in terms any layman can understand without toning down the theological nuances that made it what it was. Every generation has a time when theology starts to feel mushy, when churches and Christian organizations make compromises that cut out the glory of the gospel. Being aware of how this was done in the past helps us see how it might be happening in the present and gives us tools to fight it in the future.
Who knew that a modern book about another, 250-year-old book, Edward Fisher’s The Marrow of Modern Divinity, could be so relevant today and be written in such a way as to inform and transform? Ferguson must have, for he has written it. The key point of contention in the Marrow Controversy was this a common one. What comes first: repentance or grace? Refuting both legalism and antinomianism, Ferguson shows us how we need the whole gospel from the whole Christ to have the whole of salvation.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America",
"Author": "Nancy Isenberg",
"Year Read": 2017,
"Category": "History",
"Pages": 496,
"Tag": "history, united states, social history",
"Summary": "
The New York Times Bestseller, with a new preface from the author
“This estimable book rides into the summer doldrums like rural electrification. . . . It deals in the truths that matter.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“This eye-opening investigation into our country’s entrenched social hierarchy is acutely relevant.”—O, The Oprah Magazine
“White Trash will change the way we think about our past and present.”
—T. J. Stiles, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Custer’s Trials
In her groundbreaking bestselling history of the class system in America, Nancy Isenberg, co-author of The Problem of Democracy, takes on our comforting myths about equality, uncovering the crucial legacy of the ever-present, always embarrassing—if occasionally entertaining—poor white trash.
“When you turn an election into a three-ring circus, there’s always a chance that the dancing bear will win,” says Isenberg of the political climate surrounding Sarah Palin. And we recognize how right she is today. Yet the voters that put Trump in the White House have been a permanent part of our American fabric, argues Isenberg.
The wretched and landless poor have existed from the time of the earliest British colonial settlement to today's hillbillies. They were alternately known as “waste people,” “offals,” “rubbish,” “lazy lubbers,” and “crackers.” By the 1850s, the downtrodden included so-called “clay eaters” and “sandhillers,” known for prematurely aged children distinguished by their yellowish skin, ragged clothing, and listless minds.
Surveying political rhetoric and policy, popular literature and scientific theories over four hundred years, Isenberg upends assumptions about America’s supposedly class-free society––where liberty and hard work were meant to ensure real social mobility. Poor whites were central to the rise of the Republican Party in the early nineteenth century, and the Civil War itself was fought over class issues nearly as much as it was fought over slavery. Reconstruction pitted poor white trash against newly freed slaves, which factored in the rise of eugenics–-a widely popular movement embraced by Theodore Roosevelt that targeted poor whites for sterilization. These poor were at the heart of New Deal reforms and LBJ’s Great Society; they haunt us in reality TV shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty. Marginalized as a class, white trash have always been at or near the center of major political debates over the character of the American identity.
We acknowledge racial injustice as an ugly stain on our nation’s history. With Isenberg’s landmark book, we will have to face the truth about the enduring, malevolent nature of class as well.",
"ISBN-13": "9780143129677",
"ISBN-10": "0143129678",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Christ a Complete Saviour: The Intercession of Christ and Who Are Privileged in It",
"Author": "John Bunyan",
"Year Read": 2017,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 112,
"Tag": "religion, christian theology, christology",
"Summary": "John Bunyan praises the many merits of the intercession of Christ. He defines intercession as \"the finishing work of a sinner's salvation.\" Justification and preservation are examined as the benefits of Christ's intercession. Newly awakened Christians, backsliders, and sincere Christians are analyzed as people interested in coming to Christ. The eternal nature of Christ is safety and certainty for the believer. The reader is exhorted to diligently learn and teach others the truth of Jesus Christ. This is the George Offor text with his Introduction and notes.",
"ISBN-13": "978-1935626190",
"ISBN-10": "1935626191",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike",
"Author": "Phil Knight",
"Year Read": 2017,
"Category": "Memoir",
"Pages": 400,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, personal memoirs, business",
"Summary": "NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands.
Young, searching, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year, 1963. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is more than a logo. A symbol of grace and greatness, it’s one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world.
But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. Now, in a memoir that’s surprising, humble, unfiltered, funny, and beautifully crafted, he tells his story at last. It all begins with a classic crossroads moment. Twenty-four years old, backpacking through Asia and Europe and Africa, wrestling with life’s Great Questions, Knight decides the unconventional path is the only one for him. Rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, something new, dynamic, different. Knight details the many terrifying risks he encountered along the way, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors, the countless doubters and haters and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs and narrow escapes. Above all, he recalls the foundational relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers.
Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the redemptive, transformative power of sports, they created a brand, and a culture, that changed everything.",
"ISBN-13": "9781501135910",
"ISBN-10": "1501135910",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "Some books are surprising. You pick them up out of curiosity and then you find yourself enjoying it so much you never want it to end. This was my experience with Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog. Growing up, I was a big fan of Nike products. I still have a Nike hat I received for Christmas. It has a pocket on the side that I used to tote things around in, mostly my brand new pocket knife. As I grew, I became less brand-loyal, but I’ve always admired Nike’s products and design. Now, thanks to this book, I’m going to be wearing my first new pair of Nike’s in a long time.
The most surprising thing about Shoe Dog is that it stops early in Nike’s story. We never hear how Michael Jordan took the brand to new levels. But we do hear about how Nike started, and what it took to get it to someone like Jordan’s caliber. It wasn’t easy. No business is. But it worked because everyone involved cared enough about the product to make it as good as it could be. They weren’t selling a brand. They were selling, at first anyway, a shoe—a running shoe. And that running shoe was going to be the best in the world. In the end, even if all their racers didn’t win gold medals, Nike won the world.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "News of the World: A Novel", "Author": "Paulette Jiles", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "fiction, historical, literary", "Summary": "
National Book Award Finalist—Fiction
It is 1870 and Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, giving live readings to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. An elderly widower who has lived through three wars and fought in two of them, the captain enjoys his rootless, solitary existence.
In Wichita Falls, he is offered a $50 gold piece to deliver a young orphan to her relatives in San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa raiders killed Johanna’s parents and sister; sparing the little girl, they raised her as one of their own. Recently rescued by the U.S. army, the ten-year-old has once again been torn away from the only home she knows.
Their 400-mile journey south through unsettled territory and unforgiving terrain proves difficult and at times dangerous. Johanna has forgotten the English language, tries to escape at every opportunity, throws away her shoes, and refuses to act “civilized.” Yet as the miles pass, the two lonely survivors tentatively begin to trust each other, forging a bond that marks the difference between life and death in this treacherous land.
Arriving in San Antonio, the reunion is neither happy nor welcome. The captain must hand Johanna over to an aunt and uncle she does not remember—strangers who regard her as an unwanted burden. A respectable man, Captain Kidd is faced with a terrible choice: abandon the girl to her fate or become—in the eyes of the law—a kidnapper himself. Exquisitely rendered and morally complex, News of the World is a brilliant work of historical fiction that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062409201", "ISBN-10": "0062409204", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Underground Railroad: A Novel", "Author": "Colson Whitehead", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 320, "Tag": "fiction, literary, historical", "Summary": "Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, the #1 New York Times bestseller from Colson Whitehead, a magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. Now an original Amazon Prime Video series directed by Barry Jenkins.In
Reading Scripture with the Reformers, Timothy George takes readers through the exciting events of the sixteenth century, showing how this dynamic period was instigated by a fresh return to the Scriptures. George immerses us in the world of the Reformation, its continuities with the ancient and medieval church, and its dramatic upheavals and controversies. Most of all, he uncovers the significant way that the Bible shaped the minds and hearts of the reformers.This book shows how the key figures of the Reformation read and interpreted Scripture, and how their thought was shaped by what they read. We are invited to see what the church today can learn from the fathers of the Reformation, and how these figures offer a model of reading, praying and living out the Scriptures.
Join Dr. Timothy Keller as he opens up the first half of the book of Romans in this accessible commentary.
Edited from the study by Timothy Keller, this resource takes you through the first seven chapters of Romans, showing how the gospel message of righteousness received by faith changes our perspective of God, our lives, and our eternity.
Combining close attention to the text with Timothy Keller's trademark gift for clear explanation and compelling insights, this is a uniquely flexible resource written for people of every age and stage, from new believers to pastors and teachers.
You can read through this accessible commentary as a normal book, work through it devotionally, or use it as you prepare for teaching or preaching a passage. As you read, you'll pay close attention to the text and clean insights into the original historical, cultural, and biblical context while gaining clear and grounded application for Christians today.
", "ISBN-13": "9781908762870", "ISBN-10": "190876287X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "My Escape from Slavery, and Reconstruction", "Author": "Frederick Douglass", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 48, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, personal memoirs", "Summary": "Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, 1818-1895) was an African- American, born into slavery, who became an editor, orator, author, publisher, statesman and reformer. Douglass was among the most prominent African-Americans of his time, and one of the most influential lecturers and authors in American history. His most well-known work is his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845). Critics frequently attacked the book as inauthentic, not believing that a black man could have produced so eloquent a piece of literature. It was an immediate bestseller. He went on to write a second autobiography; My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), his most accomplished account of his life on literary and philosophical terms.", "ISBN-13": "9781409918042", "ISBN-10": "1409918041", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "When Breath Becomes Air", "Author": "Paul Kalanithi", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, personal memoirs, philosophy", "Summary": "#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLDWith a foreword by Eric Metaxas, best-selling author of Bonhoeffer and Amazing Grace.
The enthralling biography of the woman writer who helped end the slave trade, changed Britain's upper classes, and taught a nation how to read.
The history-changing reforms of Hannah More affected every level of 18th-Century British society through her keen intellect, literary achievements, collaborative spirit, strong Christian principles, and colorful personality. A woman without connections or status, More took the world of British letters by storm when she arrived in London from Bristol, becoming a best-selling author and acclaimed playwright and quickly befriending the author Samuel Johnson, the politician Horace Walpole, and the actor David Garrick. Yet she was also a leader in the Evangelical movement, using her cultural position and her pen to support the growth of education for the poor, the reform of morals and manners, and the abolition of Britain's slave trade.
Fierce Convictions weaves together world and personal history into a stirring story of life that intersected with Wesley and Whitefield's Great Awakening, the rise and influence of Evangelicalism, and convulsive effects of the French Revolution. A woman of exceptional intellectual gifts and literary talent, Hannah More was above all a person whose faith compelled her both to engage her culture and to transform it.
", "ISBN-13": "9781400206254", "ISBN-10": "1400206251", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Tyndale: The Man who Gave God an English Voice", "Author": "David Teems", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 303, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, religious, religion", "Summary": "It was an outlawed book, a text so dangerous \"it could onlybe countered by the most vicious burnings, of books and men and women.\" Butwhat book could incite such violence and bloodshed The year is 1526. It is theage of Henry VIII and his tragic Anne Boleyn, of Martin Luther and Thomas More.The times are treacherous. The Catholic Church controls almost every aspect ofEnglish life, including access to the very Word of God. And the church will do anythingto keep it that way.
Enter William Tyndale, the gifted, courageous \"heretic\" whodared translate the Word of God into English. He worked in secret, in exile, inperil, always on the move. Neither England nor the English language would everbe the same again.
With thoughtful clarity and a reverence that comes throughon every page, David Teems shares a story of intrigue and atrocity, betrayal andperseverance. This is how the Reformation officially reached English shores--andwhat it cost the men who brought it there.
Praise for David Teems' previous work Majestie
\"Teems . . . pulls together the story of this enigmatic king[ James] with humor and pathos . . . [A] delightful read in every way.\" --PUBLISHERSWEEKLY
", "ISBN-13": "9781595552211", "ISBN-10": "1595552219", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Finished Work of Christ: The Truth of Romans 1-8", "Author": "Francis August Schaeffer", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 239, "Tag": "religion, biblical commentary, new testament", "Summary": "The Book of Romans, with its compact yet all-encompassing summary of the Christian faith, has greatly influenced the church through the centuries. Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Wesley all trace their spiritual renewal to a reading of Romans. Great revivals in church history have been sparked by studying it. And the doctrinal truths within Romans are foundational to all of the late Dr. Francis Schaeffer's work.
Now available for the first time ever in print, Schaeffer's landmark commentary on the first eight chapters of Romans--drawn from his recorded talks to a group of students more than three decades ago--provides fresh insight into Schaeffer's thinking and the message of this most remarkable epistle, as well as an arresting perspective on our own times.", "ISBN-13": "9781581340037", "ISBN-10": "1581340036", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Evil and the Justice of God", "Author": "Nicholas Thomas Wright", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Philosophy", "Pages": 117, "Tag": "philosophy, good & evil, religion", "Summary": "
This is a fascinating analysis and response to the fundamental questions that face any believer today. Sadly becoming daily more topical, this book explores all aspects of evil - our contemporary and theological understanding, and the ways in which evil presents itself in society today. Fully grounded in the bible, Evil and the Justice of God is sparkling, erudite, provocative and particularly relevant in the wake of new global terror attacks.
Accounts of cruelty, death and terrorism hit us every day. We are forced to ask fundamental questions about God and the nature of evil, which demand a theological resolution that is mature, profound and never glib.
N. T. Wright explores these pivotal questions with a fresh and engaging approach, combining the virtues of detailed scholarship with an accessible style. He neither ducks the awkward, nor avoids the unpalatable, but instead offers a new, often surprising perspective in his search for a meaningful response to the problem of evil.
\"The Rt Revd Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham . . . is that rare breed of teacher who can reach people of all levels of understanding, despite working not at the 'coalface', but largely as an academic theologian.\"
Daily Telegraph
Romans 8 is a favourite of many Christians. Verse after verse is pure spiritual gold. It opens up to us the power of God's goodness. In this thoughtful and perceptive book Ray Ortlund delves deeply into Romans 8. Our appreciation and understanding of the chapter will be thoroughly revitalised.
", "ISBN-13": "9781857926941", "ISBN-10": "1857926943", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I’ve read parts of this book before and I’ve heard Ray preach through Romans 8. But when I was teaching Romans earlier this year at church, I picked this up to read all the way through for the first time. I knew what was inside but what’s inside of Ray’s books never get old. No one proclaims the truths of God’s grace quite like Ray. Attending Immanuel Church for years, I had the privilege of not only hearing these glorious truths proclaimed but seeing the man who proclaimed them lay hold of God moment by moment. It’s that reality with God Ray has that gives his books even more power. This is not a theological treatise as much as it’s a “can you believe this?!” evangelistic endeavor.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "On Preaching: Personal & Pastoral Insights for the Preparation & Practice of Preaching", "Author": "H.B. Charles, Jr.", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Ministry", "Pages": 160, "Tag": "social sciences, religion, christianity", "Summary": "Preaching Magazine's 2015 Book of the Year
If you are a pastor, you know the importance of preaching. You have spent time learning and refining the art of preaching because it is vital to the life of God's people—including the preacher. But you probably also find it challenging.
On Preaching is a masterful resource that will refresh your soul and revitalize your preaching ministry.
Drawing upon Scripture and years of preaching experience, H. B. Charles offers a practical resource for pastors, seminarians, church planters, and Bible teachers that is full of energy and wonderfully enjoyable. He gives tips like, "Avoid indecent exposure—get your wife's permission before using your family in the message" and "Illustrate! A good illustration is like a window on a house. It helps your listeners see in or out."
Written in a very clear and concise manner, this resource is formatted into 30 short chapters that can easily be read as a devotional. On Preaching will encourage seasoned preachers to dig deeper into the basics as they pause and reflect on the effectiveness of their ministry. It will also serve as a spring board for those who are just beginning a preaching ministry.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802490988", "ISBN-10": "0802490980", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus", "Author": "Jonathan Leeman", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 144, "Tag": "religion, christian living, christian church", "Summary": "Why should you join a church?
Becoming a member of a church is an important, and often neglected, part of the Christian life. Yet the trend these days is one of shunning the practice of organized religion and showing a distaste or fear of commitment, especially of institutions.
Jonathan Leeman addresses these issues with a straightforward explanation of what church membership is and why it's important. Giving the local church its proper due, Leeman has built a compelling case for committing to the local body.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433532375", "ISBN-10": "1433532379", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", "Author": "Mark Twain", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "fiction, action & adventure, classics", "Summary": "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by Mark Twain, first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885. Commonly named among the Great American Novels, the work is among the first in major American literature to be written throughout in vernacular English, characterized by local color regionalism. It is told in the first person by Huckleberry \"Huck\" Finn, a friend of Tom Sawyer and narrator of two other Twain novels (Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective). It is a direct sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.The book is noted for its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River. Set in a Southern antebellum society that had ceased to exist about twenty years before the work was published, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an often scathing satire on entrenched attitudes, particularly racism.", "ISBN-13": "978-1503214958", "ISBN-10": "1503214958", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Heart of Darkness", "Author": "Joseph Conrad", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 116, "Tag": "fiction, classics, historical", "Summary": "Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. It is widely regarded as a significant work of English literature and part of the Western canon. The story tells of Charles Marlow, an Englishman who took a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a ferry-boat captain in Africa. Heart of Darkness exposes the myth behind colonization while exploring the three levels of darkness that the protagonist, Marlow, encounters--the darkness of the Congo wilderness, the darkness of the European's cruel treatment of the natives, and the unfathomable darkness within every human being for committing heinous acts of evil. Although Conrad does not give the name of the river, at the time of writing the Congo Free State, the location of the large and important Congo River, was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver. However, his more pressing assignment is to return Kurtz, another ivory trader, to civilization, in a cover-up. Kurtz has a reputation throughout the region. This symbolic story is a story within a story or frame narrative. It follows Marlow as he recounts from dusk through to late night, to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the Thames Estuary his Congolese adventure. The passage of time and the darkening sky during the fictitious narrative-within-the-narrative parallel the atmosphere of the story.", "ISBN-13": "978-1936594146", "ISBN-10": "1936594145", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23", "Author": "W. P. Keller", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 176, "Tag": "religion, biblical meditations, old testament", "Summary": "Travel the Shepherd's path to the green pastures and cool, refreshing waters of Psalm 23. As a shepherd himself, W. Phillip Keller shares his insights into the life and character of sheep--and of the Good Shepherd who loves and cares for them. A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 will give new meaning to the ageless Shepherd Psalm, enriching your trust in and love for the Lord who watches closely over you.
Keller infuses new hope into our relationship with Christ. This timeless classic:
As we lie down in green pastures or walk through the shadowy valley, we're assured that whatever our path, whatever our stumbling, the Shepherd will lovingly guide, carry, and protect us. We can depend on His goodness and mercy all the days of our lives. Readers will find comfort, guidance, and reassurance with A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310274414", "ISBN-10": "0310274419", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Art of War", "Author": "Sunzi", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "History", "Pages": 68, "Tag": "history, military", "Summary": "Twenty-Five Hundred years ago, Sun Tzu wrote this classic book of military strategy based on Chinese warfare and military thought. Since that time, all levels of military have used the teaching on Sun Tzu to warfare and cilivzation have adapted these teachings for use in politics, business and everyday life. The Art of War is a book which should be used to gain advantage of opponents in the boardroom and battlefield alike.", "ISBN-13": "978-1599869773", "ISBN-10": "1599869772", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Another Brooklyn: A Novel", "Author": "Jacqueline Woodson", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "fiction, african american & black, cultural heritage", "Summary": "A Finalist for the 2016 National Book Award
New York Times Bestseller
A SeattleTimes pick for Summer Reading Roundup 2017
The acclaimed New York Times bestselling and National Book Award–winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming delivers her first adult novel in twenty years.
Running into a long-ago friend sets memory from the 1970s in motion for August, transporting her to a time and a place where friendship was everything—until it wasn’t. For August and her girls, sharing confidences as they ambled through neighborhood streets, Brooklyn was a place where they believed that they were beautiful, talented, brilliant—a part of a future that belonged to them.
But beneath the hopeful veneer, there was another Brooklyn, a dangerous place where grown men reached for innocent girls in dark hallways, where ghosts haunted the night, where mothers disappeared. A world where madness was just a sunset away and fathers found hope in religion.
Like Louise Meriwether’s Daddy Was a Number Runner and Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina, Jacqueline Woodson’s Another Brooklyn heartbreakingly illuminates the formative time when childhood gives way to adulthood—the promise and peril of growing up—and exquisitely renders a powerful, indelible, and fleeting friendship that united four young lives.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062359988", "ISBN-10": "0062359983", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Romans", "Author": "Michael F. Bird", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Bibles", "Pages": 576, "Tag": "bibles, religion, biblical criticism & interpretation", "Summary": "A new commentary for today's world, The Story of God Bible Commentary explains and illuminates each passage of Scripture in light of the Bible's grand story.
The first commentary series to do so, SGBC offers a clear and compelling exposition of biblical texts, guiding everyday readers in how to creatively and faithfully live out the Bible in their own contexts. Its story-centric approach is ideal for pastors, students, Sunday school teachers, and laypeople alike.
Each volume employs three main, easy-to-use sections designed to help readers live out God's story:
--Romans--
Romans is a letter that has had monumental impact in the history of Christian thought. Delving into Romans helps us see more clearly the biblical story of how God reveals his salvation to both Israel and the nations and compels us to read the Old Testament with a hermeneutical lens which identifies Jesus as the centerpiece of Israel's redemptive history.
Edited by Scot McKnight and Tremper Longman III, and written by a number of top-notch theologians, The Story of God Bible Commentary series will bring relevant, balanced, and clear-minded theological insight to any biblical education or ministry.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0310327189", "ISBN-10": "0310327180", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Jane Eyre", "Author": "Charlotte Brontë", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 111, "Tag": "literary criticism, european, english, irish, scottish, welsh", "Summary": "The most supportive, easy-to-use and focussed literature guides to help your students understand the texts they are studying at GCSE and A Level
", "ISBN-13": "9780582823051", "ISBN-10": "0582823056", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Leadership Lessons of Gregg Popovich: A Case Study on the San Antonio Spurs' 5-Time NBA Championship Winning Head Coach", "Author": "Leadership Case Studies", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Business", "Pages": 40, "Tag": "sports & recreation, basketball", "Summary": "Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs have won 5 NBA championships between 1999 and 2014. To achieve consistent success, the Spurs have built an organization with a team-first mindset where all of the players, staff and management are focused on the same goals. How do they do it? How does head coach Gregg Popovich create strong relationships with his players? How did he get his team to bounce back from a devastating loss in the 2013 NBA Finals to come back one year later and to win it all? How does he create a team culture where players from around the world are able to work together towards a common goal? In this brief leadership case study, we analyze the methods and ideas that Gregg Popovich uses to get his team performing at a high level. By reading how a 3x NBA Coach of the Year manages his team, you'll learn the following lessons: - How to create solid, trustworthy relationships with your players and staff. - How to exploit advantages and untapped resources before your competition- Why it's essential to build a strong foundation and not skip any steps in your development. - What are the specific steps to focus on in order to persevere and bounce back from setback. Although Gregg Popovich is an expert at coaching basketball, this case study isn't focused on his playbook. Rather, it highlights the strategy, culture, and organizational development style of the San Antonio Spurs. Basketball coaches will find it useful for developing their squads, but other team coaches, managers, and leaders in all industries will find the lessons useful as well. The lessons can be applied to any business or organization looking to create a strong team culture and achieve continuing success.", "ISBN-13": "9781973287971", "ISBN-10": "1973287978", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging", "Author": "Sebastian Junger", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Nonfiction", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "social science, violence in society, history", "Summary": "Now a New York Times bestseller
As human beings, we long to know that our lives will unfold in ways that we will find pleasant and rewarding. As Christians, we have a different focus--we want our lives to be pleasing to God. Thus, we ponder His will and worry that we are not doing what He wants us to do.
In this Crucial Questions booklet, Dr. R.C. Sproul outlines timeless principles for discovering and applying the will of God in day-to-day decisions. He then illustrates how these principles should inform two of the most significant decisions we face in life--the choice of a career and the choice of a spouse. Here is valuable guidance for those who are passionate to follow God.
", "ISBN-13": "9781567691795", "ISBN-10": "156769179X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "What Is a Healthy Church Member?", "Author": "Thabiti M. Anyabwile", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, christian living, christian life", "Summary": "Biblically and practically instructs church members in ways they can labor for the health of their church.
What Is a Healthy Church Member? takes its cue from Mark Dever's book What Is a Healthy Church?, which offered one definition of what a healthy church looks like biblically and historically. In this new work, pastor Thabiti Anyabwile attempts to answer the natural next question: \"What does a healthy church member look like in the light of Scripture?\"
God intends for us to play an active and vital part in the body of Christ, the local church. He wants us to experience the local church as a home more profoundly wonderful and meaningful than any other place on earth. He intends for his churches to be healthy places and for the members of those churches to be healthy as well. This book explains how membership in the local church can produce spiritual growth in its members and how each member can contribute to the growth and health of the whole.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433502125", "ISBN-10": "1433502127", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Is There Anybody Out There? A Journey from Despair to Hope", "Author": "Mez McConnell", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 144, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, religious, personal memoirs", "Summary": "Since the publication of 'A child called \"it\"' by Dave Pelzer there hasn't been a story like this. But this is not just another harrowing story about an excruciating childhood and the ravages on a life it produces. The difference is that Mez not only escaped from his 'trial by parent' but he discovered a hope that has transformed his life. He in turn has helped others find hope in their lives. Mez's story is told with a frankness and wit that hides much of the pain and despair that was his everyday experience. Do you like happy endings? Mez still suffers from his experiences but you'll be amazed at how far you can be restored from such a beginning.
", "ISBN-13": "9781845507732", "ISBN-10": "1845507738", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration", "Author": "Isabel Wilkerson", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "History", "Pages": 640, "Tag": "history, united states, 20th century", "Summary": "NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S FIVE BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY • LOS ANGELES TIMES’S #1 NONFICTION BOOK OF THE LAST 30 YEARS • AN OPRAH DAILY BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE PAST TWO DECADESThis book, however, is not all hopeless. The reality of their lives were sad, but the insight into their hearts could help us all as we look beyond ourselves. Wilkerson’s real gift may not be only in the retelling of the massive migration of the twentieth century. It may be in opening the eyes of the majority culture who didn’t even know it was happening. Read it and weep, for the reality of our history is the reality of our future if we refuse to learn and change.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together",
"Author": "Jared C. Wilson",
"Year Read": 2017,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 240,
"Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth",
"Summary": "Too many discipleship books are written for clean, perfect people who know all the right Sunday school answers. The Imperfect Disciple is for the rest of us--people who screw up, people who are weary, people who are wondering if it's safe to say what they're really thinking.
For the believer who is tired of quasi-spiritual lifehacks being passed off as true, down-and-dirty discipleship, here is a discipleship book that isn't afraid to be honest about the mess we call real life. With incisive wit, warm humor, and moving stories, Jared Wilson shows readers how the gospel works in them and in their lives when
- they can't get their act together
- they think God is giving them the silent treatment
- they think church would be better without all the people
- they're not happy with the person in the mirror
- and much more
Wilson frees readers from the self-doubt and even the misplaced self-confidence they may feel as they walk with Jesus down the often difficult road of life. The result is a faith that weathers storms, lifts burdens, and goes forth to make more imperfect disciples.",
"ISBN-13": "9780801018954",
"ISBN-10": "0801018951",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "I can’t get my act together, so this book is applicable to me just from the title. But knowing Jared, I know what he means about not getting one’s act together. In many ways, he can’t either. Who of us can before the holiness of God? But that is not a cause for despair. Jesus comes to all who have given up on their best laid plans and have fallen into his saving grace. He lifts us up and gives us legs to follow him. Discipleship can be a wrong-headed endeavor unless one understands that the discipler is only a disciple of Christ himself. He needs from Jesus the same thing he wants others to have.
Jared’s gospel is a little sweaty and ragged around the edges. It’s well worn. It’s smudged. It’s an old hymn. It broadcasts on a different frequency. It’s been both a welcome mat and a place mat. It’s burning a hole in his pocket. It’s a Narnian wardrobe. It sometimes feels as light as a feather. It’s a handful of crumbs. But, as he says at the beginning of each chapter, it’s much more than all of that. It’s bigger than we imagine and deeper with grace than the grave our sin can dig. No one exults in the gospel like Jared. Trust me. I know. I’ve seen him do it in writing and in person for over a decade.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Fire Next Time",
"Author": "James Baldwin",
"Year Read": 2017,
"Category": "Nonfiction",
"Pages": 128,
"Tag": "political science, civil rights, social science",
"Summary": "NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The book that galvanized the nation, gave voice to the emerging civil rights movementin the 1960s—and still lights the way to understanding race in America today. • \"The finest essay I’ve ever read.” —Ta-Nehisi Coates
At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document from the iconic author of If Beale Street Could Talk and Go Tell It on the Mountain. It consists of two \"letters,\" written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism.
Described by The New York Times Book Review as \"sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle … all presented in searing, brilliant prose,\" The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of literature.",
"ISBN-13": "9780679744726",
"ISBN-10": "067974472X",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "Have you ever read James Baldwin? You have to read James Baldwin. There’s nothing more to say. Buy this book and read it. Today. If you want to understand so much of today’s discourse, from the NFL protests to black lives matter to #MAGA, this book will help.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race",
"Author": "Jesmyn Ward",
"Year Read": 2017,
"Category": "History",
"Pages": 226,
"Tag": "history, african american & black, literary criticism",
"Summary": "\"National Book Award-winner Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwin's 1963 examination of race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a jumping off point for this groundbreaking collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time. In light of recent tragedies and widespread protests across the nation, The Progressive magazine republished one of its most famous pieces: James Baldwin's 1962 \"Letter to My Nephew,\" which was later published in his landmark book, The Fire Next Time. Addressing his fifteen-year-old namesake on the one hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Baldwin wrote: \"You know and I know, that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon.\" Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward knows that Baldwin's words ring as true as ever today. In response, she has gathered short essays, memoir, and a few essential poems to engage the question of race in the United States. And she has turned to some of her generation's most original thinkers and writers to give voice to their concerns. The Fire This Time is divided into three parts that shine a light on the darkest corners of our history, wrestle with our current predicament, and envision a better future. Of the eighteen pieces, ten were written specifically for this volume. In the fifty-odd years since Baldwin's essay was published, entire generations have dared everything and made significant progress. But the idea that we are living in the post-Civil Rights era, that we are a \"post-racial\" society is an inaccurate and harmful reflection of a truth the country must confront. Baldwin's \"fire next time\" is now upon us, and it needs to be talked about. Contributors include Carol Anderson, Jericho Brown, Garnette Cadogan, Edwidge Danticat, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Mitchell S. Jackson, Honoree Jeffers, Kima Jones, Kiese Laymon, Daniel Jose Older, Emily Raboteau, Claudia Rankine, Clint Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Wendy S. Walters, Isabel Wilkerson, and Kevin Young\"--",
"ISBN-13": "978-1501126352",
"ISBN-10": "1501126350",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "When you get done with Baldwin’s book, pick this one up. I wonder if you’ve ever heard of any of the contributors? If not, why not?",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America",
"Author": "Ibram Kendi",
"Year Read": 2017,
"Category": "History",
"Pages": 592,
"Tag": "history, united states, social science",
"Summary": "The National Book Award winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society.
Some Americans insist that we're living in a post-racial society. But racist thought is not just alive and well in America--it is more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues, racist ideas have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit.
In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. He uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to drive this history: Puritan minister Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, W.E.B. Du Bois, and legendary activist Angela Davis.
As Kendi shows, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. They were created to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation's racial inequities.
In shedding light on this history, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose racist thinking. In the process, he gives us reason to hope.
Praise for Stamped from the Beginning:
\"We often describe a wonderful book as 'mind-blowing' or 'life-changing' but I've found this rarely to actually be the case. I found both descriptions accurate for Ibram X. Kendi's Stamped from the Beginning... I will never look at racial discrimination again after reading this marvellous, ambitious, and clear-sighted book.\" - George Saunders, Financial Times, Best Books of 2017
\"Ambitious, well-researched and worth the time of anyone who wants to understand racism.\" --Seattle Times
\"A deep (and often disturbing) chronicling of how anti-black thinking has entrenched itself in the fabric of American society.\" --The Atlantic
No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama.
For all the ten years of her life, HÀ has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by . . . and the beauty of her very own papaya tree.
But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. HÀ and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, HÀ discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape . . . and the strength of her very own family.
This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.
", "ISBN-13": "9780061962783", "ISBN-10": "0061962783", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic", "Author": "Sam Quinones", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "History", "Pages": 400, "Tag": "nonfiction, health & daily living, drugs, alcohol, substance abuse", "Summary": "Journalist Sam Quinones chronicles how, over the past 15 years, enterprising sugar cane farmers in a small county on the west coast of Mexico created a unique distribution system that brought black tar heroin -- the cheapest, most addictive form of the opiate, 2 to 3 times purer than its white powder cousin -- to the veins of people across the United States. Communities where heroin had never been seen before -- from Charlotte, North Carolina and Huntington, West Virginia, to Salt Lake City and Portland, Oregon -- were overrun with it. Local police and residents were stunned. How could heroin, long considered a drug found only in the dense, urban environments along the East Coast, and trafficked into the United States by enormous Colombian drug cartels, be so incredibly ubiquitous in the American heartland? Who was bringing it here, and perhaps more importantly, why were so many townspeople suddenly eager for the comparatively cheap high it offered? Quinones weaves together two tales of American capitalism: The stories of young men in Mexico, independent of the drug cartels, in search of their own American Dream via the fast and enormous profits of trafficking cheap black-tar heroin to America's rural and suburban addicts; and that of Purdue Pharma in Stamford, Connecticut, determined to corner the market on pain with its new and expensive miracle drug, Oxycontin; extremely addictive in its own right. Quinones illuminates just how these two stories fit together as cause and effect: hooked on costly Oxycontin, American addicts were lured to much cheaper black tar heroin and its powerful and dangerous long-lasting high. Embroiled alongside the suppliers and buyers are DEA agents, local, small-town sheriffs, and the U.S. attorney from eastern Virginia whose case against Purdue Pharma and Oxycontin made him an enemy of the Bush-era Justice Department, ultimately stalling and destroying his career in public service.", "ISBN-13": "9781620402528", "ISBN-10": "1620402521", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness & Homosexuality", "Author": "Wesley Hill", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 221, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, lgbtq, religion", "Summary": "Wesley Hill's personal experiences and biblical reflections offer insight into how a nonpracticing gay Christian can \"prove, live out, and celebrate\" the grace of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.
For many who are on this path, it's a lonely one. The reality of loneliness and isolation of the celibate homosexual Christian is something that Hill lives and takes seriously in his pursuit of the gospel-centered life. To those on a similar journey, it's often a life of uncertainties and questions.
In Washed and Waiting, Hill explores the three main struggles that have been part of his daily effort to live faithfully:
Interspersed throughout these main sections are character sketches and stories of people who have experienced this journey's trials and triumphs.
Hill offers wise counsel that is biblically faithful, theologically serious, and oriented to the life and practice of the church. As a celibate gay Christian, he gives us a glimpse of what it looks like to wrestle firsthand with God's \"No\" to same-sex sexual intimacy and contemplate serious and difficult questions.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310534198", "ISBN-10": "0310534194", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right", "Author": "Arlie Russell Hochschild", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "History", "Pages": 395, "Tag": "history, americas (north, central, south, west indies), political science", "Summary": "The National Book Award Finalist and New York Times bestseller that became a guide and balm for a country struggling to understand the election of Donald Trump
\"A generous but disconcerting look at the Tea Party. . . . This is a smart, respectful and compelling book.\"
--Jason DeParle, The New York Times Book Review
When Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, a bewildered nation turned to Strangers in Their Own Land to understand what Trump voters were thinking when they cast their ballots. Arlie Hochschild, one of the most influential sociologists of her generation, had spent the preceding five years immersed in the community around Lake Charles, Louisiana, a Tea Party stronghold. As Jedediah Purdy put it in the New Republic, \"Hochschild is fascinated by how people make sense of their lives. . . . [Her] attentive, detailed portraits . . . reveal a gulf between Hochchild's 'strangers in their own land' and a new elite.\" Already a favorite common read book in communities and on campuses across the country and called \"humble and important\" by David Brooks and \"masterly\" by Atul Gawande, Hochschild's book has been lauded by Noam Chomsky, New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu, and countless others.
The paperback edition features a new afterword by the author reflecting on the election of Donald Trump and the other events that have unfolded both in Louisiana and around the country since the hardcover edition was published, and also includes a readers' group guide at the back of the book.
", "ISBN-13": "9781620973493", "ISBN-10": "1620973499", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father", "Author": "Thomas S. Kidd", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 278, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, political, history", "Summary": "A major new biography, illuminating the great mystery of Benjamin Franklin's faithNamed one of the most important nonfiction books of the 21st century by Entertainment Weekly' Slate' Chronicle of Higher Education' Literary Hub, Book Riot' and Zora
A tenth-anniversary edition of the iconic bestseller--one of the most influential books of the past 20 years, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education--with a new preface by the author
It is in no small part thanks to Alexander's account that civil rights organizations such as Black Lives Matter have focused so much of their energy on the criminal justice system.
--Adam Shatz, London Review of Books
Seldom does a book have the impact of Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. Since it was first published in 2010, it has been cited in judicial decisions and has been adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads; it helped inspire the creation of the Marshall Project and the new $100 million Art for Justice Fund; it has been the winner of numerous prizes, including the prestigious NAACP Image Award; and it has spent nearly 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
Most important of all, it has spawned a whole generation of criminal justice reform activists and organizations motivated by Michelle Alexander's unforgettable argument that we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it. As the Birmingham News proclaimed, it is undoubtedly the most important book published in this century about the U.S.
Now, ten years after it was first published, The New Press is proud to issue a tenth-anniversary edition with a new preface by Michelle Alexander that discusses the impact the book has had and the state of the criminal justice reform movement today.
", "ISBN-13": "9781620971932", "ISBN-10": "1620971933", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Message of Galatians", "Author": "John Stott", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 204, "Tag": "religion, biblical commentary", "Summary": "
To enclaves of young converts tucked away in the mountains of Asia Minor, Paul wrote what is perhaps the oldest document in the New Testament--the letter to the Galatians. What problems were they facing? Among a variety of religious authorities espousing different teachings, how were they to know who was right? How were men and women to be put right with God? How could Christians in the midst of a pagan culture live lives truly pleasing to God? 'Only one way--' answered Paul, 'through Jesus Christ.' His answer holds true for us as well. The details of our struggle have changed since Paul's day, but the principles he sets forth are as timeless as the Lord he exalts. In this book John Stott helps us to understand and apply the message of Galatians in the face of contemporary challenges to our faith.
", "ISBN-13": "9780877842880", "ISBN-10": "0877842884", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "This year marked the 500th year of the Reformation. And no book was a pivotal during the Reformation as Galatians. Perhaps one would expect to see Luther’s commentary on Galatians in this list. It is a remarkable book, but one I didn’t read all the way through this year. Stott’s commentary is a worthy replacement.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming", "Author": "Henri J. M. Nouwen", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 160, "Tag": "religion, christian ministry, discipleship", "Summary": "With over a million copies sold, this classic work is essential reading for all who ask, “Where has my struggle led me?”
A chance encounter with a reproduction of Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son catapulted Henri Nouwen on an unforgettable spiritual adventure. Here he shares the deeply personal and resonant meditation that led him to discover the place within where God has chosen to dwell.
As Nouwen reflects on Rembrandt’s painting in light of his own life journey, he evokes a powerful drama of the classic parable in a rich, captivating way that is sure to reverberate in the hearts of readers. Nouwen probes the several movements of the parable: the younger son’s return, the father’s restoration of sonship, the elder son’s resentfulness, and the father’s compassion. The themes of homecoming, affirmation, and reconciliation will be newly discovered by all who have known loneliness, dejection, jealousy, or anger. The challenge to love as God loves, and to be loved as God’s beloved, will be seen as the ultimate revelation of the parable known to Christians throughout time, and is here represented with a vigor and power fresh for our times.
Why can’t our political leaders work together as threats loom and problems mount? Why do people so readily assume the worst about the motives of their fellow citizens? In The Righteous Mind, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores the origins of our divisions and points the way forward to mutual understanding.
His starting point is moral intuition—the nearly instantaneous perceptions we all have about other people and the things they do. These intuitions feel like self-evident truths, making us righteously certain that those who see things differently are wrong. Haidt shows us how these intuitions differ across cultures, including the cultures of the political left and right. He blends his own research findings with those of anthropologists, historians, and other psychologists to draw a map of the moral domain, and he explains why conservatives can navigate that map more skillfully than can liberals. He then examines the origins of morality, overturning the view that evolution made us fundamentally selfish creatures. But rather than arguing that we are innately altruistic, he makes a more subtle claim—that we are fundamentally groupish. It is our groupishness, he explains, that leads to our greatest joys, our religious divisions, and our political affiliations. In a stunning final chapter on ideology and civility, Haidt shows what each side is right about, and why we need the insights of liberals, conservatives, and libertarians to flourish as a nation.
If God is in control of everything, can Christians sit back and not bother to evangelize? Or does active evangelism imply that God is not really sovereign at all? J. I. Packer shows in this new edition to the popular IVP Classics how both of these attitudes are false. In a careful review of the biblical evidence, he shows how a right understanding of God's sovereignty is not so much a barrier to evangelism as an incentive and powerful support for it. With over 100,000 copies in print, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God is truly a classic that should be read by every Christian.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0830837991", "ISBN-10": "083083799X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking", "Author": "Malcolm Gladwell", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Science", "Pages": 288, "Tag": "business & economics, decision-making & problem solving, self-help", "Summary": "The landmark book that has revolutionized the way we understand leadership and decision making -- from #1 bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell.Winner of the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize
Winner of the 2014 Costa Book of the Year Award
Shortlisted for the 2014 Duff Cooper Prize
Shortlisted for the 2014 Thwaites Wainwright Prize
'In real life, goshawks resemble sparrowhawks the way leopards resemble housecats. Bigger, yes. But bulkier, bloodier, deadlier, scarier, and much, much harder to see. Birds of deep woodland, not gardens, they're the birdwatchers' dark grail.'
As a child Helen Macdonald was determined to become a falconer. She learned the arcane terminology and read all the classic books, including T. H. White's tortured masterpiece, The Goshawk, which describes White's struggle to train a hawk as a spiritual contest.
When her father dies and she is knocked sideways by grief, she becomes obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk. She buys Mabel for �800 on a Scottish quayside and takes her home to Cambridge. Then she fills the freezer with hawk food and unplugs the phone, ready to embark on the long, strange business of trying to train this wildest of animals.
'To train a hawk you must watch it like a hawk, and so gain the ability to predict what it will do next. Eventually you don't see the hawk's body language at all. You seem to feel what it feels. The hawk's apprehension becomes your own. As the days passed and I put myself in the hawk's wild mind to tame her, my humanity was burning away.'
Destined to be a classic of nature writing, H is for Hawk is a record of a spiritual journey - an unflinchingly honest account of Macdonald's struggle with grief during the difficult process of the hawk's taming and her own untaming. At the same time, it's a kaleidoscopic biography of the brilliant and troubled novelist T. H. White, best known for The Once and Future King. It's a book about memory, nature and nation, and how it might be possible to try to reconcile death with life and love.
", "ISBN-13": "9780224097000", "ISBN-10": "0224097008", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Kill 'em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul", "Author": "James McBride", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 232, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, cultural, ethnic & regional, african american & black", "Summary": "National Book Award winner James McBride goes in search of the \"real\" James Brown after receiving a tip that promises to uncover the man behind the myth. His surprising journey illuminates not only our understanding of this immensely troubled, misunderstood, and complicated soul genius but the ways in which our cultural heritage has been shaped by Brown's legacy.Logos Bookstores' Best Book in Spirituality/Devotional
Christianity Today Book of the Year
Honorable Mention, Best Book of the Year from Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Bookstore
As Christians, we're squeamish about desire. Isn't wanting sinful and selfish? Aren't we supposed to find and follow God's will rather than insisting upon our own?
The story of each person is a story of want—desires unmet, hopes dashed, passions pursued and ambitions fulfilled. Our wants cannot be ignored. But when desire is informed by Scripture and re-formed by our spiritual practices, it can root us more deeply in the fundamental belief that God is good and generous and can invite us into active kingdom participation.
Jen Pollock Michel guides us on a journey of understanding who we are when we want, and reintroduces us to a God who gives us the desires of our hearts. That same good God calls us into a new reality in which we seek first his kingdom and righteousness, and we discover our disordered desires burned away while our truest longings are happily fulfilled and purified. The disciples asked Jesus to \"Teach us to pray.\" This book asks, \"Teach us to want.\"
", "ISBN-13": "9780830843121", "ISBN-10": "0830843124", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus", "Author": "Mark Dever", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, christian ministry, discipleship", "Summary": "What does it look like to help others become more like Christ?
In this concise guide, pastor Mark Dever outlines the who, what, where, when, why, and how of discipling--helping others follow Jesus.
Following the pattern found in Scripture, this book explains how disciple-making relationships should function in the context of the local church, teaching us how to cultivate a culture of discipling as a normal part of our everyday lives.
Part of the 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches series.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433551222", "ISBN-10": "1433551225", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "On the Christian Life", "Author": "John Calvin", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 56, "Tag": "christian books & bibles, theology, religion & spirituality", "Summary": "Book Description:Most of us find evangelism hard. There is great hostility towards Jesus. But there is also great hunger for Jesus and there is no greater joy than seeing people come to know him.
This realistic and humorous book by Rico Tice will help prepare and encourage you to be honest and bold in your evangelism, presenting the gospel fully and properly, even when it's tough.
",
"ISBN-13": "9781909919396",
"ISBN-10": "190991939X",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Dream Team\" How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever",
"Author": "Jack McCallum",
"Year Read": 2017,
"Category": "Sports",
"Pages": 400,
"Tag": "sports & recreation, basketball, biography & autobiography",
"Summary": "NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum delivers the untold story of the greatest team ever assembled: the 1992 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Team. As a writer for Sports Illustrated, McCallum enjoyed a courtside seat for the most exciting basketball spectacle on earth, covering the Dream Team from its inception to the gold medal ceremony in Barcelona. Drawing on fresh interviews with the players, McCallum provides the definitive account of the Dream Team phenomenon. He offers a behind-the-scenes look at the controversial selection process. He takes us inside the team’s Olympic suites for late-night card games and bull sessions where superstars like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird debated the finer points of basketball. And he narrates a riveting account of the legendary intrasquad scrimmage that pitted the Dream Teamers against one another in what may have been the greatest pickup game in history. In the twenty years since the Dream Team first captivated the world, its mystique has only grown. Dream Team vividly re-creates the moment when a once-in-a-millennium group of athletes came together and changed the future of sports—one perfectly executed fast break at a time.
With a new Afterword by the author
“The absolute definitive work on the subject, a perfectly wonderful once-you-pick-it-up-you-won’t-be-able-to-put-it-down book.”—The Boston Globe
“An Olympic hoops dream.”—Newsday
“What makes this volume a must-read for nostalgic hoopsters are the robust portraits of the outsize personalities of the participants, all of whom were remarkably open with McCallum, both then and now.”—Booklist (starred review)",
"ISBN-13": "9780345520494",
"ISBN-10": "0345520491",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "Everyone remembers the Dream Team: the 1992 USA Men’s basketball team that went to the Olympics and took the world by storm. But how well do you really remember the Dream Team? It was made up of all kinds of personalities and talent. I love sports books, and this was my favorite this year. Not the best written one I read, but the one that I, for whatever reason, enjoyed the most.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America",
"Author": "Joe Posnanski",
"Year Read": 2017,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 304,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, sports",
"Summary": "
When legendary Negro League player Buck O'Neil asked Joe Posnanski how he fell in love with baseball, the renowned sports columnist was inspired by the question. He decided to spend the 2005 baseball season touring the country with the ninety-four-year-old O'Neil in hopes of rediscovering the love that first drew them to the game.
The Soul of Baseball is as much the story of Buck O'Neil as it is the story of baseball. Driven by a relentless optimism and his two great passions—for America's pastime and for jazz, America's music—O'Neil played solely for love. In an era when greedy, steroid-enhanced athletes have come to characterize professional ball, Posnanski offers a salve for the damaged spirit: the uplifting life lessons of a truly extraordinary man who never missed an opportunity to enjoy and love life.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060854041", "ISBN-10": "0060854049", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Struck: One Christian's Reflections on Encountering Death", "Author": "Russ Ramsey", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 176, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "\"When my doctor told me I was dying, I came alive.\" What happens when you come face-to-face with your mortality? When your body fails you, what happens to your faith? Russ Ramsey was struck by a bacterial infection that destroyed his mitral valve, sending him into heart failure and requiring urgent open-heart surgery. As he faced the possibility of death, he found himself awakened to new realities. In the critical days and months that followed, Ramsey came to see the world through the eyes of affliction. He grappled with fear, anger, depression, and loss, and yet he experienced grace through the suffering that filled him with a hope and hunger for the life to come. This profoundly eloquent memoir gives voice to the deepest questions of the human condition. In the midst of pain, we can see glimpses of eternity.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830844944", "ISBN-10": "0830844945", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "What a beautiful book. For all who suffer, this book will take you inside the mind and heart of a sufferer to find that God is nearer than ever. Ramsey encountered a serious illness a few years ago, and out of the crucible of that affliction came the beauty of this book. Only God could use such things.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Salvation Through Judgment and Mercy: The Gospel According to Jonah", "Author": "Bryan D. Estelle", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 157, "Tag": "religion, biblical commentary, old testament", "Summary": "Though simple enough for a child to grasp, the book of Jonah is an extremely subtle and complex work full of wonderful literary artistry mixed with many layers of meaning. This study presents the book of Jonah as part of the unfolding, unified story of redemption pointing to Christ. Pastors, seminarians, and thoughtful readers interested in how the Old Testament points to Christ will appreciate this new study of Jonah.", "ISBN-13": "9780875526560", "ISBN-10": "087552656X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different from Us (and Why That's a Good Thing)", "Author": "Jen Wilkin", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 176, "Tag": "religion, christian living, women's interests", "Summary": "Over 100,000 Copies Sold
God is self-existent, self-sufficient, eternal, immutable, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, sovereign, infinite, and incomprehensible.
We're not.
And that's a good thing.
Our limitations are by design. We were never meant to be God. But at the root of every sin is our rebellious desire to possess attributes that belong to God alone. Calling us to embrace our limits as a means of glorifying God's limitless power, Jen Wilkin invites us to celebrate the freedom that comes when we rest in letting God be God.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433549830", "ISBN-10": "1433549832", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Jen Wilkin is such a gifted Bible teacher. My wife has benefited from her, and over the Thanksgiving break I picked up this book and read it in one day. Wilkin finds a way to say eternal things in fresh ways. She doesn’t have any new ideas but explains God’s ideas very well. If you want a book that takes you inside of who God is, this book will do it.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Alive in Him: How Being Embraced by the Love of Christ Changes Everything", "Author": "Gloria Furman", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, biblical criticism & interpretation", "Summary": "Discover the Immeasurable Love of Christ
God's grand plan for the redemption of his creation has been in motion since before time began. The book of Ephesians lays out this glorious vision, revealing what Christ's redemptive work means for the people of God and showing us how we should live in light of that reality.
Alive in Him draws us into the main themes in the book of Ephesians, showing us how the blessings we have received in Christ empower our obedience and love for God. Designed to be read alongside an open Bible, Alive in Him helps us apply Paul's letter to our daily lives, reminding us of our purpose on earth and directing our gaze to the love of Jesus Christ--a love that has the power to transform how we live.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433549779", "ISBN-10": "1433549778", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Supernatural Power for Everyday People: Experiencing God's Extraordinary Spirit in Your Ordinary Life", "Author": "Jared C. Wilson", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "body, mind & spirit, supernatural (incl. ghosts), reference", "Summary": "Acclaimed writer and pastor Jared C. Wilson reveals how God has a plan for you that involves doing the ordinary, mundane stuff of life in a supernatural way.
Would it change your life to know that there is a way to live your everyday life supernaturally Most of us would say \"yes,\" and Jared C. Wilson's new book reveals how. For the homemaker wondering how to get through the stress of washing dishes and making meals nobody seems to appreciate; for the cubicle jockey punching her time-card every day wondering if what she does really matters; for the teacher or leader wondering if he is making an impact; for the student afraid of the future; for every believer struggling to get through daily life, Supernatural Power for Everyday People offers the hope of meaning and purpose, and also the promise of power. We can get beyond just \"getting by.\" We can prevail and live a life of far more joy, contentment, and peace than we ever thought possible.
A practical book written in a devotional tone, Supernatural Power for Everyday People shows readers how to rely more fully on the power of the Holy Spirit for growth and satisfaction in their lives.
", "ISBN-13": "9780718097509", "ISBN-10": "0718097505", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "This book isn’t even out yet, but I found a copy in Jared’s office when I was visiting this fall and he told me to take it. I’m glad the world will soon receive this gift. We all want to live in the power of Christ. How do we do it? This book will help us see that it’s really not as mysterious as we want to make it. God has given what we need.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Married for God: Making Your Marriage the Best It Can Be", "Author": "Christopher Ash", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 176, "Tag": "religion, christian living, family & relationships", "Summary": "A Good Marriage Begins with God.
It is our natural tendency to seek personal happiness and satisfaction in marriage. We often give our own needs, wants, and goals first priority. But what is God's design for our marriages? With clarity and conviction, Christopher Ash turns us away from marriage for ourselves and toward marriage in the service of God. With practical applications for everyday life, Ash shows us God's purposes and patterns for every part of the marriage relationship.
By realigning our hopes, expectations, and goals for marriage according to the Bible, we will discover the deep joy and lasting fulfillment that comes from a God-centered marriage.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433550782", "ISBN-10": "1433550784", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Marriage books are in no short supply. I’ve read many of them, and this one is near the top of the list. Ash helps us see the importance of having God at the center of our marriage. If he isn’t, we will certainly be, and we know how well that turns out, don’t we?", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life", "Author": "Tish Harrison Warren", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 184, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "Christianity Today Book of the Year
In the overlooked moments and routines of our day, we can become aware of God's presence in surprising ways. How do we embrace the sacred in the ordinary and the ordinary in the sacred?
Framed around one typical day, this book explores life through the lens of liturgy—small practices and habits that form us. In each chapter, Tish Harrison Warren considers a common daily experience—making the bed, brushing her teeth, losing her keys. Drawing from the diversity of her life as a campus minister, Anglican priest, friend, wife, and mother, Warren opens up a practical theology of the everyday. Each activity is related to a spiritual practice as well as an aspect of our Sunday worship.
Come and discover the holiness of your every day.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830846788", "ISBN-10": "0830846786", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Warren’s book won the Christianity Today Book of the Year award. It’s well deserved. No book I read this year helped me personally as much. It caused me to slow down, to notice God, and to worship him in the everydayness of my life. It’s not a complex book. The simplicity of it is what’s so striking. It’s honest and devotional. I loved it.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family", "Author": "Paul David Tripp", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "family & relationships, parenting, religion", "Summary": "Winner of the ECPA Book of the Year Award for Christian Living
Over 100,000 Copies in Print
What is your calling as a parent?
In the midst of folding laundry, coordinating carpool schedules, and breaking up fights, many parents get lost. Feeling pressure to do everything \"right\" and raise up \"good\" children, it's easy to lose sight of our ultimate purpose as parents in the quest for practical tips and guaranteed formulas.
In this life-giving book, Paul Tripp offers parents much more than a to-do list. Instead, he presents us with a big-picture view of God's plan for us as parents. Outlining fourteen foundational principles centered on the gospel, he shows that we need more than the latest parenting strategy or list of techniques. Rather, we need the rescuing grace of God--grace that has the power to shape how we view everything we do as parents.
Freed from the burden of trying to manufacture life-change in our children's hearts, we can embrace a grand perspective of parenting overflowing with vision, purpose, and joy.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433551932", "ISBN-10": "1433551934", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Humble Roots: How Humility Grounds and Nourishes Your Soul", "Author": "Hannah Anderson", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Psychology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "psychology, religion, christian living", "Summary": "Feeling worn thin? Come find rest.
The Blue Ridge Parkway meanders through miles of rolling Virginia mountains. It's a route made famous by natural beauty and the simple rhythms of rural life.
And it's in this setting that Hannah Anderson began her exploration of what it means to pursue a life of peace and humility. Fighting back her own sense of restlessness and anxiety, she finds herself immersed in the world outside, discovering a classroom full of forsythia, milkweed, and a failed herb garden. Lessons about soil preparation, sour mulch, and grapevine blights reveal the truth about our dependence on God, finding rest, and fighting discontentment.
Humble Roots is part theology of incarnation and part stroll through the fields and forest. Anchored in the teaching of Jesus, Anderson explores how cultivating humility--not scheduling, strict boundaries, or increased productivity--leads to peace. \"Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden,\" Jesus invites us, \"and you will find rest for your souls.\"
So come. Learn humility from the lilies of the field and from the One who is humility Himself. Remember who you are and Who you are not, and rediscover the rest that comes from belonging to Him.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802414595", "ISBN-10": "0802414591", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I noticed this book making the rounds when it came out. Anderson is a wonderful writer in the line of Wendell Berry. Her style is easy to read. Her insight into Jesus’ humility and our union with him as the way toward humility is practically helpful at every level. If we aren’t right at the root, we’ll never be right, and the only way to get right at the root is to be uprooted from this world and rooted in Christ.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Last Lion: Volume 1 Winston Churchill Visions of Glory 1874 - 1932", "Author": "William Manchester", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 992, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, presidents & heads of state, history", "Summary": "The first volume in William Manchester's masterful, magnum opus account of Winston Churchill's life. The Last Lion: Visions of Glory follows the first fifty-eight years of Churchill's life--the years that mold him into the man who will become one of the most influential politicians of the twentieth century.Unknown to many, increasing numbers of conservative evangelicals are denying basic tenets of classical Christian teaching about God, with departures occurring even among those of the Calvinistic persuasion. James E. Dolezal's All That Is in God provides an exposition of the historic Christian position while engaging with these contemporary deviations. His convincing critique of the newer position he styles \"theistic mutualism\" is philosophically robust, systematically nuanced, and biblically based. It demonstrates the need to maintain the traditional viewpoint, particularly on divine simplicity, and spotlights the unfortunate implications for other important Christian doctrines--such as divine eternality and the Trinity--if it were to be abandoned. Arguing carefully and cogently that \"all that is in God is God Himself,\" the work is sure to stimulate debate on the issue in years to come.
", "ISBN-13": "9781601785541", "ISBN-10": "1601785542", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For", "Author": "David McCullough", "Year Read": 2017, "Category": "History", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "history, united states, essays", "Summary": "A New York Times Bestseller
Though the apostle Paul boldly proclaimed \"Christ crucified\" as the heart of the gospel, Fleming Rutledge notes that preaching about the cross of Christ is remarkably neglected in most churches today. In this book Rutledge addresses the issues and controversies that have caused pastors to speak of the cross only in the most general, bland terms, precluding a full understanding and embrace of the gospel by their congregations.
Countering our contemporary tendency to bypass Jesus' crucifixion, Rutledge in these pages examines in depth all the various themes and motifs used by the New Testament evangelists and apostolic writers to explain the meaning of the cross of Christ. She mines the classical writings of the Church Fathers, the medieval scholastics, and the Reformers as well as more recent scholarship, while bringing them all into contemporary context.
Widely known for her preaching, Rutledge seeks to encourage preachers, teachers, and anyone else interested in what Christians believe to be the central event of world history.
A forceful and accessible discussion of Christian belief that has become one of the most popular introductions to Christianity and one of the most popular of Lewis's books. Uncovers common ground upon which all Christians can stand together.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060652920", "ISBN-10": "0060652926", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Aeneid", "Author": "Virgil", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 464, "Tag": "literature & fiction, classics, genre fiction", "Summary": "\"Fitzgerald's [translation] is so decisively the best modern Aeneid that it is unthinkable that anyone will want to use any other version for a long time to come.\" —New York Review of BooksIn this humorous and perceptive exchange between two devils, C. S. Lewis delves into moral questions about good vs. evil, temptation, repentance, and grace. Through this wonderful tale, the reader emerges with a better understanding of what it means to live a faithful life.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060652937", "ISBN-10": "0060652934", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", "Author": "Lewis Carroll", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 272, "Tag": "fiction, classics, fantasy", "Summary": "The Penguin English Library Edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis CarrollWritten with love, humility, and faith, this brief but poignant volume was first published in 1961 and concerns the death of C. S. Lewis's wife, the American-born poet Joy Davidman. In her introduction to this new edition, Madeleine L'Engle writes: \"I am grateful to Lewis for having the courage to yell, to doubt, to kick at God in angry violence. This is a part of a healthy grief which is not often encouraged. It is helpful indeed that C. S. Lewis, who has been such a successful apologist for Christianity, should have the courage to admit doubt about what he has so superbly proclaimed. It gives us permission to admit our own doubts, our own angers and anguishes, and to know that they are part of the soul's growth.\"
Written in longhand in notebooks that Lewis found in his home, A Grief Observed probes the \"mad midnight moments\" of Lewis's mourning and loss, moments in which he questioned what he had previously believed about life and death, marriage, and even God. Indecision and self-pity assailed Lewis. \"We are under the harrow and can't escape,\" he writes. \"I know that the thing I want is exactly the thing I can never get. The old life, the jokes, the drinks, the arguments, the lovemaking, the tiny, heartbreaking commonplace.\" Writing A Grief Observed as \"a defense against total collapse, a safety valve,\" he came to recognize that \"bereavement is a universal and integral part of our experience of love.\"
Lewis writes his statement of faith with precision, humor, and grace. Yet neither is Lewis reluctant to confess his continuing doubts and his awareness of his own human frailty. This is precisely the quality which suggests that A Grief Observed may become \"among the great devotional books of our age.\"
", "ISBN-13": "9780060652739", "ISBN-10": "006065273X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Great Divorce", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 160, "Tag": "religion, spirituality, fiction", "Summary": "C. S. Lewis takes us on a profound journey through both heaven and hell in this engaging allegorical tale. Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis introduces us to supernatural beings who will change the way we think about good and evil.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060652951", "ISBN-10": "0060652950", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Abolition of Man", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, spirituality, christian theology", "Summary": "C. S. Lewis sets out to persuade his audience of the importance and relevance of universal values such as courage and honor in contemporary society.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060652944", "ISBN-10": "0060652942", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Leonardo da Vinci", "Author": "Walter Isaacson", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 624, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, artists, architects, photographers, science & technology", "Summary": "Now a docuseries from Ken Burns on PBS!In the spirit of Steve Jobs and Moneyball, Elon Musk is both an illuminating and authorized look at the extraordinary life of one of Silicon Valley’s most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneurs—a real-life Tony Stark—and a fascinating exploration of the renewal of American invention and its new “makers.”
Elon Musk spotlights the technology and vision of Elon Musk, the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, who sold one of his Internet companies, PayPal, for $1.5 billion. Ashlee Vance captures the full spectacle and arc of the genius’s life and work, from his tumultuous upbringing in South Africa and flight to the United States to his dramatic technical innovations and entrepreneurial pursuits.
Vance uses Musk’s story to explore one of the pressing questions of our age: can the nation of inventors and creators who led the modern world for a century still compete in an age of fierce global competition? He argues that Musk—one of the most unusual and striking figures in American business history—is a contemporary, visionary amalgam of legendary inventors and industrialists including Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs. More than any other entrepreneur today, Musk has dedicated his energies and his own vast fortune to inventing a future that is as rich and far-reaching as the visionaries of the golden age of science-fiction fantasy.
Thorough and insightful, Elon Musk brings to life a technology industry that is rapidly and dramatically changing by examining the life of one of its most powerful and influential titans.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062301239", "ISBN-10": "0062301233", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You", "Author": "Tony Reinke", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "computers, hardware, cell phones & devices", "Summary": "Do You Control Your Phone--Or Does Your Phone Control You?
Within a few years of its unveiling, the smartphone had become part of us, fully integrated into the daily patterns of our lives. Never offline, always within reach, we now wield in our hands a magic wand of technological power we have only begun to grasp. But it raises new enigmas, too. Never more connected, we seem to be growing more distant. Never more efficient, we have never been more distracted.
Drawing from the insights of numerous thinkers, published studies, and his own research, writer Tony Reinke identifies twelve potent ways our smartphones have changed us--for good and bad. Reinke calls us to cultivate wise thinking and healthy habits in the digital age, encouraging us to maximize the many blessings, avoid the various pitfalls, and wisely wield the most powerful gadget of human connection ever unleashed.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433552434", "ISBN-10": "1433552434", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "2,000 Years of Christ's Power Vol. 1: The Age of the Early Church Fathers", "Author": "Nick Needham", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 456, "Tag": "religion, christianity, history", "Summary": "Where have we come from?
Covering the 1st Century AD to the start of the Middle Ages, the first volume of 2000 Years of Christ's Power, this period in history establishes the foundations of what we take for granted today.
Every generation has an uncanny tendency to view themselves as more enlightened than those that have gone before. Looking at the early church, by being honest about their mistakes and drawing inspiration from their motivation, mission and momentum, Needham demonstrates that our ancestors offer valuable insights for us to glean from.
Delve into the works of Saint Augustine of Hippo and witness the first apologetic ever penned.
Featuring:
* The Jesus Movement - Christianity through the era of the Apostles
* The Apostolic Fathers, persecution, and apologetics
* Gnostics, Catholics and Montanists
* African Christianity
* The fall of Rome and Constantinople
Volume one of five. Academically reliable, the accessible humorous style and accompanying glossary means church history is a subject for everyone to benefit from.
\"It is a brave historian who tackles the extremely challenging task of writing the 2000-year history of the church. Nick Needham has more than risen to the challenge... well worth the wait\" - Michael A.G. Haykin, Professor of Church History, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
", "ISBN-13": "978-1781917787", "ISBN-10": "1781917787", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Passionate Preaching of Martyn Lloyd-Jones", "Author": "Steven J. Lawson", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 188, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, religious, religion", "Summary": "From the pulpit at Westminster Chapel in London, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones set a new standard for faithful and passionate preaching, a standard that continues to be relevant today. Lloyd-Jones was a physician by training and had begun a promising career in medicine before sensing an irresistible call to preach. Surrounded by theological liberalism, he began a pulpit ministry that would exert profound influence on both sides of the Atlantic.
", "ISBN-13": "9781567696387", "ISBN-10": "1567696384", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Problem of Pain", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 144, "Tag": "suffering_religious aspects, pain_popular works, good and evil", "Summary": "The author explores the intellectual questions raised by mental and physical suffering", "ISBN-13": "9780684823836", "ISBN-10": "0684823837", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "From Weakness to Strength: 8 Vulnerabilities That Can Bring Out the Best in Your Leadership", "Author": "Scott Sauls", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": null, "Tag": "religion & spirituality, christian books & bibles, churches & church leadership", "Summary": "Product Description\"I would like to write a beautiful prayer,\" writes the young Flannery O'Connor in this deeply spiritual journal, recently discovered among her papers in Georgia. \"There is a whole sensible world around me that I should be able to turn to Your praise.\" Written between 1946 and 1947 while O'Connor was a student far from home at the University of Iowa, A Prayer Journal is a rare portal into the interior life of the great writer. Not only does it map O'Connor's singular relationship with the divine, but it shows how entwined her literary desire was with her yearning for God. \"I must write down that I am to be an artist. Not in the sense of aesthetic frippery but in the sense of aesthetic craftsmanship; otherwise I will feel my loneliness continually . . . I do not want to be lonely all my life but people only make us lonelier by reminding us of God. Dear God please help me to be an artist, please let it lead to You.\"
O'Connor could not be more plain about her literary ambition: \"Please help me dear God to be a good writer and to get something else accepted,\" she writes. Yet she struggles with any trace of self-regard: \"Don't let me ever think, dear God, that I was anything but the instrument for Your story.\"
As W. A. Sessions, who knew O'Connor, writes in his introduction, it was no coincidence that she began writing the stories that would become her first novel, Wise Blood, during the years when she wrote these singularly imaginative Christian meditations. Including a facsimile of the entire journal in O'Connor's own hand, A Prayer Journal is the record of a brilliant young woman's coming-of-age, a cry from the heart for love, grace, and art.
To be human is to long for home. Home is our most fundamental human longing. And for many of us homesickness is a nagging place of grief. This book connects that desire and disappointment with the story of the Bible, helping us to see that there is a homemaking God with wide arms of welcome—and a church commissioned with this same work. \"Many of us seem to be recovering the sacred, if ordinary, beauty of place,\" writes author Jen Pollock Michel. \"Perhaps we're reading along with Wendell Berry, falling in love with Berry's small-town barber and Jayber Crow's small-town life. . . . Or maybe we're simply reading our Bibles better, discovering that while we might wish to flatten Scripture to serve our didactic purposes, it rises up in flesh and sinew, muscle and bone: God's holy story is written in the lives of people and their places.\" Including a five-session discussion guide and paired with a companion DVD, Keeping Place offers hope to the wanderer, help to the stranded, and a new vision of what it means to live today with our longings for our eternal home.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830844906", "ISBN-10": "0830844902", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition", "Author": "Chistine D. Pohl", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 205, "Tag": "religion, christian living, family & relationships", "Summary": "Although hospitality was central to Christian identity and practice in earlier centuries, our generation knows little about its life-giving character. Making Room revisits the Christian foundations of welcoming strangers and explores the necessity, difficulty, and blessing of hospitality today.Madeleine L'Engle's ground-breaking science fiction and fantasy classic, now a major motion picture.
It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.
\"Wild nights are my glory,\" the unearthly stranger told them. \"I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I'll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.\"
A tesseract (in case the reader doesn't know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L'Engle's unusual book. A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg's father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.
A Wrinkle in Time is the winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal. It is the first book in The Time Quintet, which consists of A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time.
A Wrinkle in Time is now a movie from Disney, directed by Ava DuVernay, starring Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling.
This title has Common Core connections.
Praise for A Wrinkle in Time:
“A Wrinkle in Time is one of my favorite books of all time. I've read it so often, I know it by heart. Meg Murry was my hero growing up. I wanted glasses and braces and my parents to stick me in an attic bedroom. And I so wanted to save Charles Wallace from IT.” —Meg Cabot
“A book that every young person should read, a book that provides a road map for seeking knowledge and compassion even at the worst of times, a book to make the world a better place.” —Cory Doctorow
Books by Madeleine L'Engle
A Wrinkle in Time Quintet
A Wrinkle in Time
A Wind in the Door
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Many Waters
An Acceptable Time
A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Madeleine L'Engle; adapted & illustrated by Hope Larson: A graphic novel adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's ground-breaking science fiction and fantasy classic.
Intergalactic P.S. 3 by Madeleine L'Engle; illustrated by Hope Larson: Visit the world of A Wrinkle in Time in this standalone story!
The Austin Family Chronicles
Meet the Austins (Volume 1)
The Moon by Night (Volume 2)
The Young Unicorns (Volume 3)
A Ring of Endless Light (Volume 4) A Newbery Honor book!
Troubling a Star (Volume 5)
The Polly O'Keefe books
The Arm of the Starfish
Dragons in the Waters
A House Like a Lotus
And Both Were Young
Camilla
The Joys of Love
An impeccable inquiry into the proposition that supernatural events can happen in this world. C. S. Lewis uses his remarkable logic to build a solid argument for the existence of divine intervention.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060653019", "ISBN-10": "0060653019", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Four Quartets", "Author": "T. S. Eliot", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Poetry", "Pages": 64, "Tag": "poetry (poetic works by one author)", "Summary": "39 PP 1943 HARCOURT HARDCVR/DJ, BLACK/WHITE COVER", "ISBN-13": "9780156332255", "ISBN-10": "0156332256", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Home: A Novel", "Author": "Marilynne Robinson", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 325, "Tag": "fiction, literary, christian", "Summary": "Hundreds of thousands were enthralled by the luminous voice of John Ames in Gilead, Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel. Home is an entirely independent, deeply affecting novel that takes place concurrently in the same locale, this time in the household of Reverend Robert Boughton, Ames's closest friend.
Glory Boughton, aged thirty-eight, has returned to Gilead to care for her dying father. Soon her brother, Jack—the prodigal son of the family, gone for twenty years—comes home too, looking for refuge and trying to make peace with a past littered with tormenting trouble and pain.
Jack is one of the great characters in recent literature. A bad boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold a job, he is perpetually at odds with his surroundings and with his traditionalist father, though he remains Boughton's most beloved child. Brilliant, lovable, and wayward, Jack forges an intense bond with Glory and engages painfully with Ames, his godfather and namesake.
Home is a moving and healing book about families, family secrets, and the passing of the generations, about love and death and faith. It is Robinson's greatest work, an unforgettable embodiment of the deepest and most universal emotions.
Home is a 2008 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction.
", "ISBN-13": "9780374299101", "ISBN-10": "0374299102", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Housekeeping: A Novel", "Author": "Marilynne Robinson", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "fiction, literary, family life", "Summary": "A modern classic, Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, their eccentric and remote aunt. The family house is in the small Far West town of Fingerbone set on a glacial lake, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck, and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. It is a town \"chastened by an outsized landscape and extravagant weather, and chastened again by an awareness that the whole of human history had occurred elsewhere.\" Ruth and Lucille's struggle toward adulthood beautifully illuminates the price of loss and survival, and the dangerous and deep undertow of transience.
", "ISBN-13": "9780312424091", "ISBN-10": "0312424094", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer", "Author": "C.S. Lewis", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 132, "Tag": "prayer_christianity, christian life_anglican authors", "Summary": "In the form of warm, relaxed letters to a close friend, Lewis meditates on many puzzling questions concerning the intimate dialogue between man and God. Lewis also considers practical and metaphysical aspects of private prayer, petitionary prayer, the Lord_x0092_s Prayer, and other forms of prayer.The New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award
National Book Award Finalist
A new American classic from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gilead and Housekeeping
Marilynne Robinson, one of the greatest novelists of our time, returns to the town of Gilead in an unforgettable story of a girlhood lived on the fringes of society in fear, awe, and wonder.
Lila, homeless and alone after years of roaming the countryside, steps inside a small-town Iowa church-the only available shelter from the rain-and ignites a romance and a debate that will reshape her life. She becomes the wife of a minister, John Ames, and begins a new existence while trying to make sense of the life that preceded her newfound security.
Neglected as a toddler, Lila was rescued by Doll, a canny young drifter, and brought up by her in a hardscrabble childhood. Together they crafted a life on the run, living hand to mouth with nothing but their sisterly bond and a ragged blade to protect them. Despite bouts of petty violence and moments of desperation, their shared life was laced with moments of joy and love. When Lila arrives in Gilead, she struggles to reconcile the life of her makeshift family and their days of hardship with the gentle Christian worldview of her husband which paradoxically judges those she loves.
Revisiting the beloved characters and setting of Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead and Home, a National Book Award finalist, Lila is a moving expression of the mysteries of existence that is destined to become an American classic.
A repackaged edition of the revered author’s essays in which he deliberates on contemporary issues, from the moral to the spiritual to the practical.
C. S. Lewis—the great British writer, scholar, lay theologian, broadcaster, Christian apologist, and bestselling author of Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Chronicles of Narnia, and many other beloved classics—was one of the foremost religious philosophers of the twentieth century; a thinker whose far-reaching influence on Christianity continues to be felt today.
Demonstrating Lewis’s wide range of interests, Present Concerns includes nineteen essays that reveal his thoughts about democratic values, threats to educational and spiritual fulfillment, literary censorship, and other timely topics, offering invaluable wisdom for our own times.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062643599", "ISBN-10": "0062643592", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team", "Author": "Wayne Coffey", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Sports", "Pages": 304, "Tag": "sports & recreation, winter sports, hockey", "Summary": "The true story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team and the Miracle on Ice, which Sports Illustrated called the greatest moment in sports history—with a new afterword by Ken Morrow for the fortieth anniversary of the Miracle on IceFor readers of The Glass Castle and Wild, a stunning new memoir about family, loss and the struggle for a better future
#1 International Bestseller and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
Tara Westover was seventeen when she first set foot in a classroom. Instead of traditional lessons, she grew up learning how to stew herbs into medicine, scavenging in the family scrap yard and helping her family prepare for the apocalypse. She had no birth certificate and no medical records and had never been enrolled in school.
Westover's mother proved a marvel at concocting folk remedies for many ailments. As Tara developed her own coping mechanisms, little by little, she started to realize that what her family was offering didn't have to be her only education. Her first day of university was her first day in school--ever--and she would eventually win an esteemed fellowship from Cambridge and graduate with a PhD in intellectual history and political thought.
", "ISBN-13": "9781984854858", "ISBN-10": "1984854852", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Westover’s life has been nothing short of remarkable. Growing up in a Mormon home separated from the world, she never went to school until the stepped foot on the campus of BYU. She taught herself enough to score a high mark on the ACT and parlayed that into a stint at Cambridge and Harvard. Westover is the America Dream in action, rising above her circumstances to achieve great things. But this story is not about her achievements. The title of the book is a bit misleading as well. You would think it’s about how she educated herself and arrived in the world. Instead, it’s a story of family and struggle. It’s about the hard things of life and how those hard things cut families off from one another and bring them back together. It’s a sad story in many ways, with hope sprinkled in when most needed. It’s a great book that takes you inside the family dynamics that can result when a father is an end-time prepper and the family is beset with mental illness.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?: Larry Norman and the Perils of Christian Rock", "Author": "Gregory Alan Thornbury", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": null, "Tag": "biographies & memoirs, arts & literature, composers & musicians", "Summary": "Product Description In 1969, in Capitol Records' Hollywood studio, a blonde-haired troubadour named Larry Norman laid track for an album that would launch a new genre of music and one of the strangest, most interesting careers in modern rock. Having spent the bulk of the 1960s playing on bills with acts like the Who, Janis Joplin, and the Doors, Norman decided that he wanted to sing about the most countercultural subject of all: Jesus. Billboard called Norman \"the most important songwriter since Paul Simon,\" and his music would go on to inspire members of bands as diverse as U2, the Pixies, Guns 'N Roses, and more. To a young generation of Christians who wanted a way to be different in the American cultural scene, Larry was a godsend-spinning songs about one's eternal soul as deftly as he did ones critiquing consumerism, middle-class values, and the Vietnam War. To the religious establishment, however, he was a thorn in the side; and to secular music fans, he was an enigma. In Why Should the Devil Have all the Good Music?, Gregory Alan Thornbury draws on unparalleled access to Norman's personal papers and archives to narrate the conflicts that defined the singer's life, as he crisscrossed the developing fault lines between Evangelicals and mainstream American culture-friction that continues to this day. About the Author Gregory Alan Thornbury has been a college professor, dean, and president of The King's College in New York City. A popular writer and speaker on philosophy, religion, and contemporary culture, he currently serves at the New York Academy of Art.Stephen R. Thorne is a professional actor and a member of the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island. He has played Hamlet, Henry V, and Tom Joad, among many other roles. Stephen has narrated over fifty audiobooks.", "ISBN-13": "9781977313461", "ISBN-10": "1977313469", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I had no idea who Larry Norman was until I read this. His story is amazing and tragic and confusing. The book was written so well I forgot I was reading a biography. I felt like I was living life alongside Larry Norman. When I reached the end I was sad it was over and wished so many things had worked out differently for him.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Pearl", "Author": "John Steinbeck", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": null, "Pages": 86, "Tag": "1848", "Summary": "One of a series of top-quality fiction for schools, this is Steinbeck's story about a Mexican Indian pearl-diver who finds the greatest pearl in the world, but loses his happiness.", "ISBN-13": "9780435120252", "ISBN-10": "0435120255", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Julius Caesar", "Author": "William Shakespeare", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Poetry", "Pages": 288, "Tag": "drama, shakespeare, european", "Summary": "Folger Shakespeare Library
A repackaged edition of the revered author’s treasury of essays and stories which examine the value of creative writing and imaginative exploration.
C. S. Lewis—the great British writer, scholar, lay theologian, broadcaster, Christian apologist, and bestselling author of Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Chronicles of Narnia, and many other beloved classics—presents a well-reasoned case for the importance of story and wonder, elements often ignored by critics of his time. He also discusses his favorite kinds of stories—children’s stories and fantasies—and offers insights into his most famous works, The Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062643544", "ISBN-10": "0062643541", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Only Killers and Thieves", "Author": "Paul Howarth", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 416, "Tag": "fiction, historical", "Summary": "Tommy McBride and his brother Billy return to their isolated family home to discover that their parents have been brutally murdered. Haunted and alone, Inspector Noone and his Queensland Native Police - an infamous arm of colonial power whose sole purpose is the 'dispersal' of indigenous Australians in protection of settler rights. The retribution that follows will leave a lasting mark on the colony and the country it later becomes. It will also devastate Tommy - and destroy his relationship with his brother, forever.", "ISBN-13": "9781911590057", "ISBN-10": "1911590057", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer", "Author": "Christian Wiman", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, religious, personal memoirs", "Summary": "Eight years ago, Christian Wiman, a well-known poet and the editor of Poetry magazine, wrote a now-famous essay about having faith in the face of death. My Bright Abyss, composed in the difficult years since and completed in the wake of a bone marrow transplant, is a moving meditation on what a viable contemporary faith—responsive not only to modern thought and science but also to religious tradition—might look like.
Joyful, sorrowful, and beautifully written, My Bright Abyss is destined to become a spiritual classic, useful not only to believers but to anyone whose experience of life and art seems at times to overbrim its boundaries. How do we answer this \"burn of being\"? Wiman asks. What might it mean for our lives—and for our deaths—if we acknowledge the \"insistent, persistent ghost\" that some of us call God?
One of Publishers Weekly's Best Religion Books of 2013
Garrow’s biography of MLK won the Pulitzer Prize in 1897. So it comes with substantial critical acclaim. It is well deserved, from what I can tell. Garrow tells the story of King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) through a compelling narrative. King was a man marked by conviction. He believed in non-violent action more firmly than anyone else of his era. He stood tall and that standing cause many to hate him. Eventually, it led to his assassination. King was a complicated man, as all men are. He was not perfect. No man is. But his legacy of fighting for justice lives on today. And one day, though it won’t come easy or quickly. His dream will come to life in fullness.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Paul: A Biography", "Author": "N. T. Wright", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 480, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, new testament", "Summary": "
In this definitive biography, renowned Bible scholar, Anglican bishop, and bestselling author N. T. Wright offers a radical look at the apostle Paul, illuminating the humanity and remarkable achievements of this intellectual who invented Christian theology—transforming a faith and changing the world.
For centuries, Paul, the apostle who \"saw the light on the Road to Damascus\" and made a miraculous conversion from zealous Pharisee persecutor to devoted follower of Christ, has been one of the church’s most widely cited saints. While his influence on Christianity has been profound, N. T. Wright argues that Bible scholars and pastors have focused so much attention on Paul’s letters and theology that they have too often overlooked the essence of the man’s life and the extreme unlikelihood of what he achieved.
To Wright, \"The problem is that Paul is central to any understanding of earliest Christianity, yet Paul was a Jew; for many generations Christians of all kinds have struggled to put this together.\" Wright contends that our knowledge of Paul and appreciation for his legacy cannot be complete without an understanding of his Jewish heritage. Giving us a thoughtful, in-depth exploration of the human and intellectual drama that shaped Paul, Wright provides greater clarity of the apostle’s writings, thoughts, and ideas and helps us see them in a fresh, innovative way.
Paul is a compelling modern biography that reveals the apostle’s greater role in Christian history—as an inventor of new paradigms for how we understand Jesus and what he accomplished—and celebrates his stature as one of the most effective and influential intellectuals in human history.
", "ISBN-13": "9780061730597", "ISBN-10": "0061730599", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Out of the Silent Planet (Space Trilogy, Book One)", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Subjects", "Pages": 240, "Tag": "fantasy, fiction, space", "Summary": "Written during the dark hours immediately before and during the Second World War, C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, of which Out of the Silent Planet is the first volume, stands alongside such works as Albert Camus's The Plague and George Orwell's 1984 as a timely parable that has become timeless, beloved by succeeding generations as much for the sheer wonder of its storytelling as for the significance of the moral concerns. For the trilogy's central figure, C. S. Lewis created perhaps the most memorable character of his career, the brilliant, clear-eyed, and fiercely brave philologist Dr. Elwin Ransom. Appropriately, Lewis modeled Dr. Ransom after his dear friend J. R. R. Tolkien, for in the scope of its imaginative achievement and the totality of its vision of not one but two imaginary worlds, the Space Trilogy is rivaled in this century only by Tolkien's trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Readers who fall in love with Lewis's fantasy series The Chronicles of Namia as children unfailingly cherish his Space Trilogy as adults; it, too, brings to life strange and magical realms in which epic battles are fought between the forces of light and those of darkness. But in the many layers of its allegory, and the sophistication and piercing brilliance of its insights into the human condition, it occupies a place among the English language's most extraordinary works for any age, and for all time.\"Free at last!\" It has been more than thirty years since Martin Luther King Jr. shouted those words to a crowd gathered in Washington, D.C. His speech, \"I Have a Dream,\" is now familiar, even famous. But has his dream been realized? In Free at Last? Carl Ellis offers an in-depth assessment of the state of African-American freedom and dignity within American culture today. Updating and expanding his examination (previously published as Beyond Liberation) for a new generation of readers, Ellis stresses how important it is for African-Americans to know who they are and where they have been. So he begins by tracing the growth of Black consciousness from the days of slavery to the present, noting especially the contributions of King and Malcolm X. He also pays particular attention to traces of a \"theological soul dynamic,\" an authentic manifestation of Christianity in Black culture, which runs through American history. It is this dynamic faith, says Ellis, that promises true freedom--the realization of King's dream--for African-Americans today.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830816873", "ISBN-10": "0830816879", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "If you want to understand the African-American experience in the church, read this book. I saw my friend Jared Wilson post a picture of this on his Instagram account a while ago. I added it to my wish list that day and forgot about it until I had some Amazon money to spend. A year ago I decided to diversify my reading population to include more authors of color. I realized I was living inside a white bubble, and I didn’t know how to break out. So I started reading. Through that reading, I’ve learned to see the black experience in America with new eyes. I have not experienced what they have, but I believe them when they say it’s hard. And this book helped me see the gospel in the African-American experience. It should be required reading.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation", "Author": "Rod Dreher", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 262, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, religious, political science", "Summary": "A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER\"Already the most discussed and most important religious book of the decade.\" --David Brooks
In this controversial bestseller, Rod Dreher calls on American Christians to prepare for the coming Dark Age by embracing an ancient Christian way of life.
From the inside, American churches have been hollowed out by the departure of young people and by an insipid pseudo-Christianity. From the outside, they are beset by challenges to religious liberty in a rapidly secularizing culture. Keeping Hillary Clinton out of the White House may have bought a brief reprieve from the state's assault, but it will not stop the West's slide into decadence and dissolution.
Rod Dreher argues that the way forward is actu-ally the way back--all the way to St. Benedict of Nur-sia. This sixth-century monk, horrified by the moral chaos following Rome's fall, retreated to the forest and created a new way of life for Christians. He built enduring communities based on principles of order, hospitality, stability, and prayer. His spiritual centers of hope were strongholds of light throughout the Dark Ages, and saved not just Christianity but Western civilization.
Today, a new form of barbarism reigns. Many believers are blind to it, and their churches are too weak to resist. Politics offers little help in this spiritual crisis. What is needed is the Benedict Option, a strategy that draws on the authority of Scripture and the wisdom of the ancient church. The goal: to embrace exile from mainstream culture and construct a resilient counterculture.
The Benedict Option is both manifesto and rallying cry for Christians who, if they are not to be conquered, must learn how to fight on culture war battlefields like none the West has seen for fifteen hundred years. It's for all mere Chris-tians--Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox--who can read the signs of the times. Neither false optimism nor fatalistic despair will do. Only faith, hope, and love, embodied in a renewed church, can sustain believers in the dark age that has overtaken us. These are the days for building strong arks for the long journey across a sea of night.",
"ISBN-13": "978-0735213296",
"ISBN-10": "0735213291",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy, Inside the Mind of a Manager",
"Author": "Buzz Bissinger, H. G. Bissinger",
"Year Read": 2018,
"Category": "Sports",
"Pages": 287,
"Tag": "sports & recreation, baseball, history",
"Summary": "Three Nights in August' shows thrillingly that human nature - not statistics - dictates ballgames' outcomes. We watch from the dugout as a spectacular series unfolds between the Cardinals and their archrivals, the Cubs, and we uncover surprising truths about the pathology of slumps, the psychology of the clutch, the complex art of beanball retaliation, the rise of video, and the innumerable eccentricities of pitchers. The greatest players of our time grace the lineup - Albert Pujols, Sammy Sosa, Scott Rolen, Mark Prior, and more. Through twenty-five years of managing, Tony La Russa has won more games than any current manager. He's the most strategically adept, and arguably the smartest, man in a baseball uniform. For all his intellectual attainments, he's also an antidote to the number-crunching mentality that has become so modish in baseball. As this book proves, he has built his success on the conviction that ballgames are won not by the numbers but by the hearts and minds of those who play. 'Three Nights in August' is underpinned by La Russa's forty years in baseball and by Bissinger's swinging prose and laser-beam focus. Drawing on unprecedented access to a manager and his team, Bissinger brings the same revelatory intimacy to major league baseball that he did to high school football in the classic Friday Night Lights.",
"ISBN-13": "9780618710539",
"ISBN-10": "0618710531",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen",
"Author": "Christopher McDougall",
"Year Read": 2018,
"Category": "Sports",
"Pages": 304,
"Tag": "sports & recreation, running & jogging, travel",
"Summary": "NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The astonishing and hugely entertaining story that completely changed the way we run. An epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt?
“Equal parts quest, physiology treatise, and running history.... The climactic race reads like a sprint.... It simply makes you want to run.” —Outside Magazine
Isolated by Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets. In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America’s best ultra-runners against the tribe. McDougall’s incredible story will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.
Look for Born to Run 2, out now!",
"ISBN-13": "9780307266309",
"ISBN-10": "0307266303",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "An American Marriage",
"Author": "Tayari Jones",
"Year Read": 2018,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 306,
"Tag": "family & relationships, marriage & long-term relationships, fiction",
"Summary": "An explosive love story about a marriage interrupted.
Could you put your life on hold for twelve years? A stunning love story about family, injustice and marriage, and three people at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control.
Newlyweds, Celestial and Roy, are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. They are settling into the routine of their life together, when they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit.
Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. As Roy's time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy's conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.
An American Marriage is a masterpiece of storytelling, an intimate look into the souls of people who must reckon with the past while moving forward - with hope and pain - into the future.
'Tayari Jones is blessed with vision to see through to the surprising and devastating truths at the heart of ordinary lives, strength to wrest those truths free, and a gift of language to lay it all out, compelling and clear.'
- Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
'A stunning, epic love story filled with breathtaking twists and turns, while bursting with realized and unrealized dreams.'
- Edwidge Danticat, author of Breath, Eyes, Memory
'A heartbreaking and genuinely suspenseful love story in which nobody's wrong and everybody's wounded.'
- Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children",
"ISBN-13": "9780143789604",
"ISBN-10": "0143789600",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds",
"Author": "Michael Lewis",
"Year Read": 2018,
"Category": "Science",
"Pages": 368,
"Tag": "science, cognitive science, biography & autobiography",
"Summary": "“Brilliant. . . . Lewis has given us a spectacular account of two great men who faced up to uncertainty and the limits of human reason.” —William Easterly, Wall Street Journal
Forty years ago, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of breathtakingly original papers that invented the field of behavioral economics. One of the greatest partnerships in the history of science, Kahneman and Tversky’s extraordinary friendship incited a revolution in Big Data studies, advanced evidence-based medicine, led to a new approach to government regulation, and made much of Michael Lewis’s own work possible. In The Undoing Project, Lewis shows how their Nobel Prize–winning theory of the mind altered our perception of reality.",
"ISBN-13": "9780393354775",
"ISBN-10": "0393354776",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Autumn",
"Author": "Ali Smith",
"Year Read": 2018,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 288,
"Tag": "fiction, literary, cultural heritage",
"Summary": "SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 MAN BOOKER PRIZE
A NEW YORK TIMES AND GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF 2017
From the 2015 Baileys Prize-winning author of How to Be Both: An unconventional love story playing across the boundaries of time and history. . .
The first of four novels in a shape-shifting series, wide-ranging in timescale and light-footed through histories. Fusing Keatsian mists and mellow fruitfulness with the vitality, the immediacy and the colour-hit of Pop Art—via a bit of very contemporary skulduggery and skull-diggery—Autumn is a witty excavation of the present by the past. The novel is a stripped-branches take on popular culture, and a meditation, in a world growing ever more bordered and exclusive, on what richness and worth are, what harvest means. Autumn is part of the quartet Seasonal: four stand-alone novels, separate yet interconnected and cyclical (as the seasons are), exploring what time is, how we experience it, and the recurring markers in the shapes our lives take and in our ways with narrative.",
"ISBN-13": "9780143197898",
"ISBN-10": "0143197894",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Interpreting Scripture with the Great Tradition: Recovering the Genius of Premodern Exegesis",
"Author": "Craig A. Carter",
"Year Read": 2018,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 304,
"Tag": "religion, christian theology, biblical studies",
"Summary": "The rise of modernity, especially the European Enlightenment and its aftermath, has negatively impacted the way we understand the nature and interpretation of Christian Scripture. In this introduction to biblical interpretation, Craig Carter evaluates the problems of post-Enlightenment hermeneutics and offers an alternative approach: exegesis in harmony with the Great Tradition. Carter argues for the validity of patristic christological exegesis, showing that we must recover the Nicene theological tradition as the context for contemporary exegesis, and seeks to root both the nature and interpretation of Scripture firmly in trinitarian orthodoxy.",
"ISBN-13": "9780801098727",
"ISBN-10": "0801098726",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "I enjoyed this book as much as any other I read this year. I always like reading about the Bible and how one preaches the Bible, but what Carter offers is more than just that. It’s a look at the historical importance of preaching Christ from all of Scripture. He opens with the question of if one can be faithful to preach Jesus as the suffering servant in Isaiah 53. He goes on to present a case as to why that’s the only way to preach it. But through the pages, he takes us down the paths of those who would argue against it, and he shows why they’re wrong not only because of their hesitancy to see Christ but because they’re being intellectually dishonest even as they seek intelligence. Carter’s work is a gift to the church and to every gospel preacher.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World",
"Author": "Rosaria Butterfield",
"Year Read": 2018,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 240,
"Tag": "cooking, entertaining, religion",
"Summary": "
Winner of the 2019 Christianity Today Book Award in the Christian Living & Discipleship Category
\"This book is going to shake us all up in the most wonderfully destabilizing way.\" --Ray Ortlund, Lead Pastor, Immanuel Church, Nashville, Tennessee
What did God use to draw a radical, committed unbeliever to himself? Did God take her to an evangelistic rally? Or, since she had her doctorate in literature, did he use something in print? No, God used an invitation to dinner in a modest home, from a humble couple who lived out the gospel daily, simply, and authentically.
With this story of her conversion as a backdrop, Rosaria Butterfield invites us into her home to show us how God can use this same \"radical, ordinary hospitality\" to bring the gospel to our lost friends and neighbors. Such hospitality sees our homes as not our own, but as God's tools for the furtherance of his kingdom as we welcome those who look, think, believe, and act differently from us into our everyday, sometimes messy lives--helping them see what true Christian faith really looks like.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433557866", "ISBN-10": "143355786X", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "What an important book! I’ve loved Rosaira Butterfield since the day she came and spent the weekend with us at Immanuel Church a few years ago. Her faith is real, and it is evident. She’s warm and hospitable in conversation and her words to the church are as important as ever. If we are to make a mark on the world with the love of Christ, we must cultivate homes to house that love and invite others into them. Hospitality is a gospel command—one we’ve too long ignored.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Unstuck: Breaking Free from Barriers to Your Productivity", "Author": "Matt Perman", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 288, "Tag": "religion, christian living, professional growth", "Summary": "How to Get Unstuck introduces readers to the ten core principles at the heart of becoming an effective person whose life genuinely flourishes and impacts others positively.
Bad news first: we all get stuck. It's a fact of life. But the good news is that it is possible to get unstuck and overcome the obstacles to doing great work and getting the right things done. The question becomes: How do you get \"unstuck\" in your productivity in both work and life--and how to do it in a spiritually healthy way
Matt Perman--author of What's Best Next and director of career development at The King's College, NYC--has spent his career helping people learn how to do work in a gospel-centered and effective way, combining theological substance with practical self-management. In How to Get Unstuck, he will walk you step-by-step through the core principles that free you to be more effective in everything you do by helping you:
Drawing on the wisdom of the Bible and on the best of today's research, How to Get Unstuck shows believers and non-believers alike how to live productive, integrated lives and develops a poignant portrayal of true effectiveness.
*Included is a detailed plan for getting started using the principles and applying them to real life situations.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310526810", "ISBN-10": "0310526817", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel", "Author": "Amor Towles", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 480, "Tag": "fiction, historical, literary", "Summary": "The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers • A New York Times “Readers’ Choice: Best Books of the 21st Century” PickWhat does the church believe?
Every church has a driving confession, but what is the confession of a true and biblical church?
The Heart of the Church answers with the gospel. It explains the story of the gospel, its basic doctrines, and God's work in salvation. Fresh yet consistent with classic expressions, it helps churches reclaim their essential identity and return from distracting pursuits.
Useful for training in membership classes, discipleship groups, and elder boards--and even for devotional reading--The Heart of the Church is at once theological, practical, and experiential. Readers will not simply be informed, but led to believe in, rejoice in, and be transformed by the truth of God for His gathered people.
Without the gospel, the church does not exist. This book is Thorn's full and detailed exploration of the message that is indispensable to the church's life and identity. For any church lacking power, any Christian feeling dry, or any person seeking truth, The Heart of the Church brings relief, direction, and light, leading to worship.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802414700", "ISBN-10": "0802414702", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Character of the Church: The Marks of God's Obedient People", "Author": "Joe Thorn", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 1, "Tag": "religion & spirituality, christian books & bibles, christian living", "Summary": "Product DescriptionIt was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation.
Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer, and Robert Mapplethorpe would direct his highly provocative style toward photography. Bound in innocence and enthusiasm, they traversed the city from Coney Island to Forty-second Street, and eventually to the celebrated round table of Max's Kansas City, where the Andy Warhol contingent held court. In 1969, the pair set up camp at the Hotel Chelsea and soon entered a community of the famous and infamous—the influential artists of the day and the colorful fringe. It was a time of heightened awareness, when the worlds of poetry, rock and roll, art, and sexual politics were colliding and exploding. In this milieu, two kids made a pact to take care of each other. Scrappy, romantic, committed to create, and fueled by their mutual dreams and drives, they would prod and provide for one another during the hungry years.
Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late sixties and seventies and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to fame.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060936228", "ISBN-10": "0060936223", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Horse and His Boy", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "christian books & bibles, literature & fiction, classics & allegories", "Summary": "\"This is the story of an adventure that happened in Narnia and Calormen and the lands between, in the Golden Age when Peter was High King in Narnia and his brother and his two sisters were King and Queens under him. It is during this glorious era in Narnian history that Shasta, a young boy living in Calormen with a cruel man who claims to be his father, dreams of traveling to the unknown North. One night he overhears his \"father\" offering to sell him as a slave, and Shasta decides that now is the time to begin his Journey. When he meets Bree, a Talking Horse of Narnia who is a slave himself, the two decide to escape together. The pair soon encounters Aravis, a highborn girl escaping a forced marriage, and Hwin, another Talking Horse. The travelers must combine their wits and all their strength to reach the freedom they long for. And when they discover a Calormene plot to conquer Narnia, they must also race against time.\"--", "ISBN-13": "9780064471060", "ISBN-10": "0064471063", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Christian Reflections", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 240, "Tag": "literary collections, essays, religion", "Summary": "Shortly after his conversion in 1929, C. S. Lewis wrote to a friend, \"When all is said (and truly said) about the divisions of Christendom, there remains, by God's mercy, an enormous common ground.\" From that time on, Lewis thought that the best service he could provide for his unbelieving neighbors was to explain and defend the faith that has been shared by nearly all Christians at all times.A repackaged edition of the revered author’s moving theological work in which he considers the most poetic portions from Scripture and what they tell us about God, the Bible, and faith.
In this wise and enlightening book, C. S. Lewis—the great British writer, scholar, lay theologian, broadcaster, Christian apologist, and bestselling author of Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Chronicles of Narnia, and many other beloved classics—examines the Psalms. As Lewis divines the meaning behind these timeless poetic verses, he makes clear their significance in our daily lives, and reminds us of their power to illuminate moments of grace.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062565488", "ISBN-10": "0062565486", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It", "Author": "Lawrence S. Ritter", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Sports", "Pages": 384, "Tag": "sports & recreation, baseball, history", "Summary": "Baseball was different in earlier days—tougher, rawer, more intimate—when giants like Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb ran the bases. In the monumental classic The Glory of Their Times, the golden era of our national pastime comes alive through the vibrant words of those who played and lived the game.
", "ISBN-13": "9780061994715", "ISBN-10": "0061994715", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Faithful and Virtuous Night", "Author": "Louise Glück", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Poetry", "Pages": 80, "Tag": "english & college success, english, poetry", "Summary": "WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
Winner of the National Book Award for Poetry
A luminous, seductive new collection from the \"fearless\" (The New York Times) Louise Glück, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
Louise Glück is one of the finest American poets at work today. Her Poems 1962–2012 was hailed as \"a major event in this country's literature\" in the pages of The New York Times. Every new collection is at once a deepening and a revelation. Faithful and Virtuous Night is no exception.
You enter the world of this spellbinding book through one of its many dreamlike portals, and each time you enter it's the same place but it has been arranged differently. You were a woman. You were a man. This is a story of adventure, an encounter with the unknown, a knight's undaunted journey into the kingdom of death; this is a story of the world you've always known, that first primer where \"on page three a dog appeared, on page five a ball\" and every familiar facet has been made to shimmer like the contours of a dream, \"the dog float[ing] into the sky to join the ball.\"
Faithful and Virtuous Night tells a single story but the parts are mutable, the great sweep of its narrative mysterious and fateful, heartbreaking and charged with wonder.
It seemed impossible that there could be a rival for her heart. Yet two years later, driven by obsessive jealousy and grief, Bendrix sends Pakris, a private detective, to follow Sarah and find out the truth.", "ISBN-13": "9780140184952", "ISBN-10": "0140184953", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "This is a story of hate—at least that’s what our narrator, Mr. Bendrix proclaims in the opening pages. But whom is the focus of the hate? Well, that all depends on where you are in the story. It begins with a hatred for a husband, then turns to a hatred for a mistress, and ends with a hatred for God—or at least that’s what Mr. Bendrix would lead you to believe. A hate-filled story this is not, though it does include plenty of it. Rather, this is the story of one adulterous woman’s way to God and the man who loves her is left to deal with the after-effects. He tells God he hates him. But that’s quite the change from before. At least he recognizes someone there to hate. One has to wonder whether he even understands his story of hate. He got it wrong so many times before. Perhaps he’s wrong again.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Milk and Honey", "Author": "Rupi Kaur", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Poetry", "Pages": 204, "Tag": "body, mind & spirit, poetry", "Summary": "Watch rupi kaur live now on Prime Video.
\"Rupi Kaur is the Writer of the Decade.\" - The New Republic
A hardcover gift edition of milk and honey, the #1 New York Times bestselling poetry and prose collection by rupi kaur, which has sold over 3 million copies worldwide. milk and honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity.
This clothbound edition features deckled edge paper, a woven ribbon marker, and a foreword written by the author. The book is divided into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache. milk and honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.", "ISBN-13": "9781449496364", "ISBN-10": "1449496369", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Murder in the Cathedral", "Author": "Thomas Stearns Eliot", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Poetry", "Pages": 88, "Tag": "drama, american, european", "Summary": "
T. S. Eliot's most famous drama, a retelling of the murder of the archbishop of Canterbury
Murder in the Cathedral, written for the Canterbury Festival in 1935, was one of T. S. Eliot's first dramatic achievements, and it remains one of the great plays of the century. It takes as its subject matter the martyrdom of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, depicting the events that led to his assassination, in his own cathedral church, by the knights of Henry II in 1170. Like Greek drama, the play's theme and form are rooted in religion, ritual purgation and renewal, and it was this return to the earliest sources of drama that brought poetry triumphantly back to the English stage at the time.
\"The theatre is enriched by this poetic play of grave beauty and momentous decision.\" --The New York Times
", "ISBN-13": "9780156632775", "ISBN-10": "0156632772", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Versed", "Author": "Rae Armantrout", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Poetry", "Pages": 136, "Tag": "poetry, american", "Summary": "A double collection from one of the most brilliant poets of her generation
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (2010)
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award (2009)
Finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry (2009)
Rae Armantrout has always organized her collections of poetry as though they were works in themselves. Versed brings two of these sequences together, offering readers an expanded view of the arc of her writing. The poems in the first section, Versed, play with vice and versa, the perversity of human consciousness. They flirt with error and delusion, skating on a thin ice that inevitably cracks: \"Metaphor forms / a crust / beneath which / the crevasse of each experience.\" Dark Matter, the second section, alludes to more than the unseen substance thought to make up the majority of mass in the universe. The invisible and unknowable are confronted directly as Armantrout's experience with cancer marks these poems with a new austerity, shot through with her signature wit and stark unsentimental thinking. Together, the poems of Versed part us from our assumptions about reality, revealing the gaps and fissures in our emotional and linguistic constructs, showing us ourselves where we are most exposed. A reader's companion is available at http://versedreader.site.wesleyan.edu/
The four Pevensies help Capsian battle Miraz and ascend his rightful throne.",
"ISBN-13": "9780064409445",
"ISBN-10": "0064409449",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Jayber Crow: A Novel",
"Author": "Wendell Berry",
"Year Read": 2018,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 384,
"Tag": "fiction, small town & rural, southern",
"Summary": "“This is a book about Heaven,” says Jayber Crow, “but I must say too that . . . I have wondered sometimes if it would not finally turn out to be a book about Hell.” It is 1932 and he has returned to his native Port William to become the town's barber.
Orphaned at age ten, Jayber Crow’s acquaintance with loneliness and want have made him a patient observer of the human animal, in both its goodness and frailty.
He began his search as a “pre–ministerial student” at Pigeonville College. There, freedom met with new burdens and a young man needed more than a mirror to find himself. But the beginning of that finding was a short conversation with “Old Grit,” his profound professor of New Testament Greek.
“You have been given questions to which you cannot be given answers. You will have to live them out—perhaps a little at a time.”
“And how long is that going to take?”
“I don't know. As long as you live, perhaps.”
“That could be a long time.”
“I will tell you a further mystery,” he said. “It may take longer.”
Wendell Berry’s clear–sighted depiction of humanity’s gifts—love and loss, joy and despair—is seen though his intimate knowledge of the Port William Membership.",
"ISBN-13": "9781582431604",
"ISBN-10": "1582431604",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "Whew. This book has been on my “to read” list for a long time. I’ve never heard a bad review. I see why. It’s beautifully written. The story is compelling without being overwhelming. The truth laced throughout is poignant and profound. Jayber Crow is the town barber, and if you want to know the truth of the world, it’s best to go sit in his shop for a while. You can’t get much better than this novel. It’s worth a re-read for me, probably next year.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "How to Read and Understand the Biblical Prophets",
"Author": "Peter J. Gentry",
"Year Read": 2018,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 144,
"Tag": "religion, biblical studies, biblical criticism & interpretation",
"Summary": "
A Concise Guide to Reading the Prophetic Books
The Prophetic Books of the Bible are full of symbolic speeches, dramatic metaphors, and lengthy allegories--a unique blend of literary styles that can make them hard to comprehend. How can we know if we are reading them the way God intended them to be read?
In this accessible guide, leading Old Testament scholar Peter Gentry identifies seven common characteristics of prophetic literature in the Bible that help us understand each book's message. With illustrations and clear examples, Gentry offers guidance for reading these challenging texts--teaching us practical strategies for deeper engagement with the biblical text as we seek to apply God's Word to our lives today.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433554032", "ISBN-10": "1433554038", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "It's a Long Story: My Life", "Author": "Willie Nelson", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 400, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, music, entertainment & performing arts", "Summary": "One of the most beloved popular musicians of our time tells the story of his extraordinary life.\"From the Trade Paperback edition.\"", "ISBN-13": "9780307268815", "ISBN-10": "0307268810", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment", "Author": "Hannah Anderson", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Philosophy", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "philosophy, aesthetics, religion", "Summary": "
Winner of the 2018 TGC Book Award for Christian Living
\"And God saw that it was good...\"
Look out over the world today, it seems a far cry from God's original declaration. Pain, conflict, and uncertainty dominate the headlines. Our daily lives are noisy and chaotic--filled with too much information and too little wisdom. No wonder we often find it easier to retreat into safe spaces, hunker down in likeminded tribes, and just do our best to survive life.
But what if God wants you to do more than simply survive? What if he wants you to thrive in this world, and be part of its redemption? What if you could rediscover the beauty and goodness God established in the beginning?
By learning the lost art of discernment, you can. Discernment is more than simply avoiding bad things; discernment actually frees you to navigate the world with confidence and joy by teaching you how to recognize and choose good things. When you learn discernment and develop a taste for all that's good, you will encounter God in remarkable new ways. Come, discover the God who not only made all things, but who will also make all things good once again.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802418555", "ISBN-10": "0802418554", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Made for Friendship: The Relationship That Halves Our Sorrows and Doubles Our Joys", "Author": "Drew Hunter", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "family & relationships, friendship, religion", "Summary": "God made you for friendship.
Friendship is one of the deepest pleasures of life. But in our busy, fast-paced, mobile world, we've lost this rich view of friendship and instead settled for shallow acquaintances based on little more than similar tastes or shared interests.
Helping us recapture a vision of true friendship, pastor Drew Hunter explores God's design for friendship and what it really looks like in practice--giving us practical advice to cultivate the kinds of true friendships that lead to true and life-giving joy.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433558191", "ISBN-10": "143355819X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Storm-Tossed Family: How the Cross Reshapes the Home", "Author": "Russell Moore", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 320, "Tag": "family & relationships, parenting, child rearing", "Summary": "Christianity Today \"Beautiful Orthodoxy\" Book of the Year in 2019.\"Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference.\" -Frederick Douglass, 1845
The prophets of old were not easy to listen to because they did not flatter. They did not cajole. They spoke hard words that often chafed and unsettled their listeners. Like the Old Testament prophets, and more recent prophetic voices like Frederick Douglass, Dr. Eric Mason calls the evangelical church to a much-needed reckoning. In a time when many feel confused, complacent, or even angry, he challenges the church to:
Be Aware - to understand that the issue of justice is not a black issue, it's a kingdom issue. To learn how the history of racism in America and in the church has tainted our witness to a watching world.
Be Redemptive - to grieve and lament what we have lost and to regain our prophetic voice, calling the church to remember our gospel imperative to promote justice and mercy.
Be Active - to move beyond polite, safe conversations about reconciliation and begin to set things aright for our soon-coming King, who will be looking for a WOKE CHURCH.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802416988", "ISBN-10": "0802416985", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom", "Author": "David W. Blight", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 912, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, historical, history", "Summary": "* Selected as One of the Best Books of the 21st Century by The New York Times * Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History *What would happen if a leadership expert were willing to distill everything he’s learned in his 30+ years of experience into a handful of life-changing principles just for you? It would change your life.
Internationally-recognized leadership expert and bestselling author John C. Maxwell wrote his million-seller The 21 Laws of Leadership over ten years ago. Now, this expanded and updated edition of one of the most trusted and referenced leadership books features revised content that is fundamental to any leader.
Maxwell provides new learnings that makes his original bestseller bigger and better including:
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership features insights learned from Maxwell’s 30-plus years of leadership successes and mistakes with observations from the worlds of business, politics, sports, religion, and military conflict.
The result is a revealing study of leadership delivered as only a communicator like Maxwell can. Follow these laws of leadership and people will follow you.
", "ISBN-13": "9781400236169", "ISBN-10": "1400236169", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Prodigal Prophet: Jonah and the Mystery of God's Mercy", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 272, "Tag": "religion, christian living, inspirational", "Summary": "An angry prophet. A feared and loathsome enemy. A devastating storm. And the surprising message of a merciful God to his people.What is the role of corporate prayer in the church?
Prayer is as necessary to the Christian as breathing is to the human body--but it often doesn't come quite as naturally. In fact, prayer in the church often gets subtly pushed to the side in favor of pragmatic practices that promise tangible results.
This book focuses on the necessity of regular prayer as a central practice in the local church--awakening us to the need and blessing of corporate prayer by examining what Jesus taught about prayer, how the first Christians approached prayer, and how to prioritize prayer in our congregations.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433559471", "ISBN-10": "1433559471", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "John O’s book on prayer is simply exceptional. It helped me think about the way I pray—or don’t pray—with my church. Focusing not only on personal prayer but corporate prayer, he shows us that God has more for us than the stale prayers we tend to pray together. God has all the storehouses of his grace for us, and if we’ll learn to pray together, we’ll grow together in Christ.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers", "Author": "Maxwell King", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 320, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, entertainment & performing arts, performing arts", "Summary": "\"Every weekday for decades, a kind man named Mister Rogers stepped through a door in his TV house, spoke directly into the camera while he changed from street clothes into a cardigan and sneakers, and sang, \"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.\" Offering unconditional love, this soft-spoken icon was a household name for tens of millions of children, as well as their parents who grew up with this friendly neighbor themselves. Fred Rogers (1928-2003) was an enormously influential pioneer in the history of television for almost forty years. As the creator and star of public television's Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, he was a champion of compassion, equality, and kindness. Rogers was fiercely devoted to children and to taking their fears, concerns, and questions about the world seriously. The Good Neighbor, the first full-length biography of Fred Rogers, tells the story of this unique and enduring American figure. Based on original interviews, oral histories, and archival documents, The Good Neighbor traces Rogers's personal, professional, and artistic life through decades of work, including a surprising decision to walk away from the show in 1976 to make television for adults, only to return to the neighborhood with increasingly sophisticated groups of episodes, created in collaboration with experts on child development, about complex issues such as divorce, discipline, mistakes, anger, and competition. Rogers's work and his messages still resonate with parents and children today, especially in a world where the human values he championed are too often forgotten or neglected. Taking readers beyond the gentle man in the sweater, The Good Neighbor is the definitive portrait of a beloved figure, cherished by multiple generations.\"--Jacket.", "ISBN-13": "978-1419727726", "ISBN-10": "1419727729", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been", "Author": "Jackie Hill Perry", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "religion, christian living, family & relationships", "Summary": "“I used to be a lesbian.”Everyone seems to say that Christmas is about love. It's in the songs we hear as we shop for presents and in the adverts we see on TV. It's in the cards we send and on the gift tags we write.
And Christians can agree. Christmas really is about love, because love came down at Christmas in the person of Jesus Christ.
This Advent devotional contains 24 daily readings from 1 Corinthians 13. Sinclair B Ferguson brings the rich theology of the incarnation to life with his trademark warmth and clarity. We'll see what \"love\" looked like in the life of Christ and we'll be challenged to love like him.
Each day's reading finishes with a question for reflection and a prayer.
However you're feeling, your heart will be refreshed as you wonder again at the truth that love came down at Christmas.
", "ISBN-13": "9781784982898", "ISBN-10": "178498289X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 356, "Tag": "medical, pain management, religion", "Summary": "New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet Timothy Keller—whose books have sold millions of copies to both religious and secular readers—explores one of the most difficult questions we must answer in our lives: Why is there pain and suffering?Discover why the fundamentals of the Reformation still matter today
Why do people get so excited about a bunch of Latin phrases, that some guys in Europe came up with 500 years ago? Sure, those five Latin phrases have defined Protestantism for those 500 years, but why do they matter today? To my church? For my life? What's the big deal about all these solas anyway? These ones:
Sola scriptura-Scripture alone
Sola fide-Faith alone
Sola gratia-grace alone
Solus Christus-Christ alone
Soli Dei Gloria-To the glory of God alone?
Sola is a winsome, inspiring introduction to these five pillars of the Reformation, showing not just what they are but why they're important for the Christian life today. Edited and compiled by Jason Allen, Sola will illuminate these core truths that have been reforming the church all along. And it may just get you excited about nerdy Latin phrases too.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802418739", "ISBN-10": "0802418732", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "How to Grow: Applying the Gospel to All of Your Life", "Author": "Darryl Dash", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "Are you dissatisfied with your spiritual life?
Do you feel stuck or stagnant? Are you tired of going through the motions of faith? Do you want to make real progress in your life, but not know where to start? How to Grow is a book for people who want to grow spiritually and help others grow as well.
We often see the gospel as the starting point of the Christian life, rather than the main point of all of life. But the truth is that the gospel is the key to all ongoing growth in our lives. As Galatians 2:14 says, we are called to live our whole lives \"in step with the truth of the gospel.\" In How to Grow, Darryl Dash will walk you through a practical, habit-based approach to spiritual growth.
Join Darryl as he unpacks the gospel, shows how it applies to every area of your life, and helps you evaluate your current stage of growth so you know what steps to take next. You'll learn why habits are important, how to build them, and which ones to focus on first. Plus, you'll discover the roles that joy and desire play in our spiritual growth journey.
Practical without being formulaic, How to Grow offers actionable ideas to facilitate spiritual growth in the lives of regular, messy people--people like you and me.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802418197", "ISBN-10": "0802418198", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age", "Author": "Alan Noble", "Year Read": 2018, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "religion, christian living, social issues", "Summary": " ★ Publishers Weekly starred review
We live in a distracted, secular age. These two trends define life in Western society today. We are increasingly addicted to habits—and devices—that distract and \"buffer\" us from substantive reflection and deep engagement with the world. And we live in what Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor calls \"a secular age\"—an age in which all beliefs are equally viable and real transcendence is less and less plausible. Drawing on Taylor's work, Alan Noble describes how these realities shape our thinking and affect our daily lives. Too often Christians have acquiesced to these trends, and the result has been a church that struggles to disrupt the ingrained patterns of people's lives. But the gospel of Jesus is inherently disruptive: like a plow, it breaks up the hardened surface to expose the fertile earth below. In this book Noble lays out individual, ecclesial, and cultural practices that disrupt our society's deep-rooted assumptions and point beyond them to the transcendent grace and beauty of Jesus. Disruptive Witness casts a new vision for the evangelical imagination, calling us away from abstraction and cliché to a more faithful embodiment of the gospel for our day.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR:
Washington Post | Maureen Corrigan, NPR | Paste | Seattle Times | Entertainment Weekly | Esquire | Slate | Buzzfeed | Jezebel | Philadelphia Inquirer | Publishers Weekly | Kirkus Reviews | Library Journal | Bustle | Mother Jones | Real Simple | Crime Reads | Book Riot | Bookish | Amazon | Barnes and Noble |Hudson Booksellers New York Public Library | Chicago Public Library
Winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards for Nonfiction | SCIBA Book Award Winner | Finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime | Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence
The haunting true story of the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California during the 70s and 80s, and of the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case—which was solved in April 2018.
Introduction by Gillian Flynn • Afterword by Patton Oswalt
“A brilliant genre-buster.... Propulsive, can’t-stop-now reading.” —Stephen King
For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.
Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called \"the Golden State Killer.\" Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Utterly original and compelling, it has been hailed as a modern true crime classic—one which fulfilled Michelle's dream: helping unmask the Golden State Killer.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062319784", "ISBN-10": "0062319787", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "So Brave, Young, and Handsome", "Author": "Leif Enger", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 304, "Tag": "english & college success, english, fiction", "Summary": "“An almost perfect novel” of yearning, adventure, and redemption in the dying days of the Old West from the bestselling author of Peace Like a River (St. Louis Post-Dispatch). Minnesota, 1915. With success long behind him, writer, husband, and father Monte Becket has lost his sense of purpose . . . until he befriends outlaw Glendon Hale. Plagued by guilt over abandoning his wife two decades ago, Hale is heading back West in search of absolution. And he could use some company on the journey. As the modern age marches swiftly forward, Becket agrees to travel into Hale’s past, leaving behind his own family for an adventure that will test the depth of his loyalties and morals, and the strength of his resolve. As they flee the relentless former Pinkerton Detective who’s been hunting Hale for years, Becket falls ever further into the life of an outlaw—perhaps to the point of no return. With its smooth mix of romanticism and gritty reality, So Brave, Young, and Handsome examines one ordinary man’s determination to risk everything in order to understand what it’s all worth, in “an old-fashioned, swashbuckling, heroic Western . . . [An] adventure of the heart and mind (The Washington Post Book World).", "ISBN-13": "9781555848491", "ISBN-10": "B005BCVBKK", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Leadership In Turbulent Times", "Author": "Doris Kearns Goodwin", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "History", "Pages": 496, "Tag": "history, united states, 20th century", "Summary": "From Pulitzer Prize–winning author and esteemed presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, an invaluable guide to the development and exercise of leadership from Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball. Following the low-budget Oakland Athletics, their larger-than-life general manger, Billy Beane, and the strange brotherhood of amateur baseball enthusiasts, Michael Lewis has written not only \"the single most influential baseball book ever\" (Rob Neyer, Slate) but also what \"may be the best book ever written on business\" (Weekly Standard).
\"I wrote this book because I fell in love with a story. The story concerned a small group of undervalued professional baseball players and executives, many of whom had been rejected as unfit for the big leagues, who had turned themselves into one of the most successful franchises in Major League Baseball. But the idea for the book came well before I had good reason to write it--before I had a story to fall in love with. It began, really, with an innocent question: how did one of the poorest teams in baseball, the Oakland Athletics, win so many games?\"
With these words Michael Lewis launches us into the funniest, smartest, and most contrarian book since, well, since Liar's Poker. Moneyball is a quest for something as elusive as the Holy Grail, something that money apparently can't buy: the secret of success in baseball. The logical places to look would be the front offices of major league teams, and the dugouts, perhaps even in the minds of the players themselves. Lewis mines all these possibilities--his intimate and original portraits of big league ballplayers are alone worth the price of admission--but the real jackpot is a cache of numbers--numbers!--collected over the years by a strange brotherhood of amateur baseball enthusiasts: software engineers, statisticians, Wall Street analysts, lawyers and physics professors.
What these geek numbers show--no, prove--is that the traditional yardsticks of success for players and teams are fatally flawed. Even the box score misleads us by ignoring the crucial importance of the humble base-on-balls. This information has been around for years, and nobody inside Major League Baseball paid it any mind. And then came Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland Athletics.
Billy paid attention to those numbers--with the second lowest payroll in baseball at his disposal he had to--and this book records his astonishing experiment in finding and fielding a team that nobody else wanted. Moneyball is a roller coaster ride: before the 2002 season opens, Oakland must relinquish its three most prominent (and expensive) players, is written off by just about everyone, and then comes roaring back to challenge the American League record for consecutive wins.
In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Michael Lewis shows us how and why the new baseball knowledge works. He also sets up a sly and hilarious morality tale: Big Money, like Goliath, is always supposed to win...how can we not cheer for David?
", "ISBN-13": "9780393324815", "ISBN-10": "0393324818", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred", "Author": "George F. Will", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 223, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, personal memoirs, history", "Summary": "The New York Times-bestselling history of America's most beloved baseball stadium, Wrigley Field, and the Cubs' century-long search for World Series gloryIn A Nice Little Place on the North Side, leading columnist George Will returns to baseball with a deeply personal look at his hapless Chicago Cubs and their often beatified home, Wrigley Field, as it enters its second century. Baseball, Will argues, is full of metaphors for life, religion, and happiness, and Wrigley is considered one of its sacred spaces. But what is its true, hyperbole-free history?
Winding beautifully like Wrigley's iconic ivy, Will's meditation on \"The Friendly Confines\" examines both the unforgettable stories that forged the field's legend and the larger-than-life characters--from Wrigley and Ruth to Veeck, Durocher, and Banks--who brought it glory, heartbreak, and scandal. Drawing upon his trademark knowledge and inimitable sense of humor, Will also explores his childhood connections to the team, the Cubs' future, and what keeps long-suffering fans rooting for the home team after so many years of futility.
In the end, A Nice Little Place on the North Side is more than just the history of a ballpark. It is the story of Chicago, of baseball, and of America itself.", "ISBN-13": "9780385349314", "ISBN-10": "0385349319", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership", "Author": "James Comey", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 312, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, political, political science", "Summary": "
In his book, former FBI director James Comey shares his never-before-told experiences from some of the highest-stakes situations of his career in the past two decades of American government, exploring what good, ethical leadership looks like, and how it drives sound decisions. His journey provides an unprecedented entry into the corridors of power, and a remarkable lesson in what makes an effective leader.
Mr. Comey served as director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017, appointed to the post by President Barack Obama. He previously served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the U.S. deputy attorney general in the administration of President George W. Bush. From prosecuting the Mafia and Martha Stewart to helping change the Bush administration's policies on torture and electronic surveillance, overseeing the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation as well as ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, Comey has been involved in some of the most consequential cases and policies of recent history.
", "ISBN-13": "9781250192455", "ISBN-10": "1250192455", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "A Man Called Ove: A Novel", "Author": "Fredrik Backman", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 337, "Tag": "fiction, humorous, literary", "Summary": "“You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll feel new sympathy for the curmudgeons in your life.” —People'This well-written page-turner is the definitive biography of the genius of Robin Williams, whose life redefines the highs and lows of the American dream' - Steve Martin
'Tenderly written . . . frequently hilarious' - Sunday Times
From his rapid-fire stand-up comedy riffs to his breakout role in Mork & Mindy and his Academy Award-winning performance in Good Will Hunting, Robin Williams was a singularly innovative and beloved entertainer. He often came across as a man possessed, holding forth on culture and politics while mixing in personal revelations - all with mercurial, tongue-twisting intensity as he inhabited and shed one character after another with lightning speed.
But as Dave Itzkoff shows in this revelatory biography, Williams's comic brilliance masked a deep well of conflicting emotions and self-doubt, which he drew upon in his comedy and in celebrated films like Dead Poets Society; Good Morning, Vietnam; The Fisher King; Aladdin; and Mrs Doubtfire, where he showcased his limitless gift for improvisation to bring to life a wide range of characters. And in Good Will Hunting he gave an intense and controlled performance that revealed the true range of his talent.
Robin by Dave Itzkoff shows how Williams struggled mightily with addiction and depression - topics he discussed openly while performing and during interviews - and with a debilitating condition at the end of his life that affected him in ways his fans never knew. Drawing on more than a hundred original interviews with family, friends and colleagues, as well as extensive archival research, Robin is a fresh and original look at a man whose work touched so many lives.
______________
'[Itzkoff] has written a book about the truth and the pain that lies in comedy, and the price paid by a sensitive soul' - Amy Poehler
'An amazing read' - Patton Oswalt
It’s a well-written love story, written as a memoir. Full of insight and wisdom, you can tell the man writing understands the gospel knows how to apply it to life.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload",
"Author": "Daniel J. Levitin",
"Year Read": 2019,
"Category": "Psychology",
"Pages": 528,
"Tag": "psychology, cognitive psychology & cognition, business & economics",
"Summary": "The information age is drowning us in an unprecedented deluge of data. At the same time, we’re expected to make more—and faster—decisions about our lives than ever before. No wonder, then, that the average person reports frequently losing car keys or reading glasses, missing appointments, and feeling worn out by the effort required just to keep up.
But somehow some people become quite accomplished at managing information flow. In The Organized Mind, Daniel J. Levitin, Ph.D., uses the latest brain science to demonstrate how those people excel—and how readers can use these methods to regain a sense of mastery over the way they organize their homes, workplaces, and lives.
With lively, entertaining chapters on everything from the kitchen junk drawer to health care to gambling in Las Vegas, Levitin reveals how new research into the cognitive neuroscience of attention and memory can be applied to daily life. His practical suggestions call for relatively minor changes that require little effort but will have remarkable long-term benefits for mental and physical health, productivity, and creativity.
This Is Your Brain on Music showed us how to better play and appreciate music through an understanding of how the brain works. The Organized Mind shows us how to navigate the churning flow of information in our daily lives with the same neuroscientific perspective.",
"ISBN-13": "9780143189442",
"ISBN-10": "0143189441",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical",
"Author": "Timothy Keller",
"Year Read": 2019,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 336,
"Tag": "religion, christian living, spirituality",
"Summary": "We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives?
In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.",
"ISBN-13": "9780525954156",
"ISBN-10": "0525954155",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Gospel-Driven Church: Uniting Church Growth Dreams with the Metrics of Grace",
"Author": "Jared C. Wilson",
"Year Read": 2019,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 240,
"Tag": "religion, christian church, administration",
"Summary": "
Many evangelical churches face the problem of the open \"back door\"--even as new people arrive, older members are leaving, looking for something else. Combined with this problem is the discipleship deficit, the difficult truth that most evangelicals are not reaching the unchurched at the rates they think they are. In fact, many of the metrics that we often \"count\" in the church to highlight success really don't tell us the full story of a church's spiritual state. Things like attendance, decisions, dollars, and experiences can tell us something about a church, but not everything.
To cultivate a spiritually healthy church we need a shift in our metrics--a \"grace-shift\" that prioritizes the work of God in the lives of people over numbers and dollars. Are people growing in their esteem for Jesus? Is there a dogged devotion to the Bible as the ultimate authority for life? Is there a growing interest in theology and doctrine? A discernible spirit of repentance? And perhaps most importantly, is there evident love for God and for our neighbors in the congregation?
Leading a church culture to shift from numerical success to the metrics of grace can be costly, but leaders who have conviction, courage, and commitment can lead while avoiding some of the landmines that often destroy churches. Wilson includes diagnostic questions that will help leaders measure--and lead team transparency in measuring as a group--the relative spiritual health of their church, as well as a practical prescriptive plan for implementing this metric-measuring strategy without becoming legalistic.
Most attractional church models can lean heavily on making changes to the weekend worship gatherings. And while some of these changes can be good, thriving grace-focused churches are driven by a commitment to the gospel, allowing the gospel to inform and shape the worship service and the various ministries of the church.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310577874", "ISBN-10": "031057787X", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I think I have one of Jared’s books on this list every year. That’s a testament to two things. First, Jared writes a lot. Second, all of his books are very good.I’ve known Jared a long time—before he had a book published! As one of my best friends, it’s easy to include him on the list of my favorite reads of the year. But it’s not just because I love him. It’s because his writing deserves every top book list.
The Gospel-Driven Church is Jared’s attempt at helping others move their church from one of pragmatism to gospel-centeredness. It’s an important work. If you’re a leader in a church, it’s a must have. if you’re a part of a church, it’s a must have. If you love the church, it’s a must have.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Where the Crawdads Sing",
"Author": "Delia Owens",
"Year Read": 2019,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 400,
"Tag": "fiction, literary, coming of age",
"Summary": "NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE—The #1 New York Times bestselling worldwide sensation with more than 18 million copies sold, hailed by The New York Times Book Review as “a painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature.”
New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life—until the unthinkable happens.
Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.",
"ISBN-13": "9780735219106",
"ISBN-10": "0735219109",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Pastor and Counseling: The Basics of Shepherding Members in Need",
"Author": "Jeremy Pierre, Deepak Reju",
"Year Read": 2019,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 160,
"Tag": "religion, christian ministry, counseling & recovery",
"Summary": "
A Step-By-Step Guide for Pastors
Pastors spend much of their time counseling people in crisis--a delicate task that requires one to carefully evaluate each situation, share relevant principles from God's Word, and offer practical suggestions for moving forward. Too often, however, pastors feel unprepared to effectively shepherd their people through difficult circumstances such as depression, adultery, eating disorders, and suicidal thinking.
Written to help pastors and church leaders understand the basics of biblical counseling, this book provides an overview of the counseling process from the initial meeting to the final session. It also includes suggestions for cultivating a culture of discipleship within a church and four appendixes featuring a quick checklist, tips for taking notes, and more.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433545122", "ISBN-10": "1433545128", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Peace Like a River", "Author": "Leif Enger", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 312, "Tag": "fiction, sagas, religious", "Summary": "A \"reminder of why we read fiction to begin with\" (San Francisco Chronicle), Peace Like a River is Leif Enger's extraordinary debut novel--a heroic quest, a tragedy, a love story, and a haunting meditation on the possibility of magic in the everyday world--with over one million copies sold
Raised on tales of cowboys and pirates, eleven-year-old Reuben Land has little doubt that miracles happen all around us, and that it's up to us to \"make of it what we will.\" Reuben was born with no air in his lungs, and it was only when his father, Jeremiah, picked him up and commanded him to breathe that his lungs filled. Reuben struggles with debilitating asthma from then on, making him a boy who knows firsthand that life is a gift, and also one who suspects that his father is touched by God and can overturn the laws of nature.
The quiet Midwestern life of the Lands is upended when Davy, the oldest son, kills two marauders who have come to harm the family; unlike his father, he is not content to leave all matters of justice in God's hands. The morning of his sentencing, Davy-a hero to some, a cold-blooded murderer to others-escapes from his cell, and the Lands set out in search of him. Their journey is touched by serendipity and the kindness of strangers-among them a free spirit named Roxanna, who offers them a place to stay during a blizzard and winds up providing them with something far more permanent. Meanwhile, a federal agent is trailing the Lands, convinced they know of Davy's whereabouts.
With Jeremiah at the helm, the family covers territory far more extraordinary than even the Badlands where they search for Davy from their Airstream trailer. Sprinkled with playful nods to biblical tales, beloved classics such as Huckleberry Finn, the adventure stories of Robert Louis Stevenson, and the westerns of Zane Grey, Peace Like a River unfolds like a revelation.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802139252", "ISBN-10": "0802139256", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I had heard of this book. I had been told to read this book. I had let this book sit on my shelf for years. This year, I finally picked it up and read. Why did I wait so long?
I’ve never heard a bad word about this novel. I’ve never heard anyway say, “You know, I read it and it was just okay.” I’ve never heard anything but praise. I now see why. It’s perhaps the perfect novel. The story is captivating, but it’s the way it’s told that makes it great. It’s full of intrigue and hope and suspense and surprise. It has everything a great novel must without anything it doesn’t need.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Be a New Christian All Your Life",
"Author": "Raymond C. Ortlund",
"Year Read": 2019,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 192,
"Tag": "religion, christian living",
"Summary": "Book by Ortlund, Raymond C.",
"ISBN-13": "9780800753689",
"ISBN-10": "0800753682",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41MuLUMliYL.jpg"
},
{
"Title": "The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr",
"Author": "Martin Luther King (Jr.)",
"Year Read": 2019,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 400,
"Tag": "king, martin luther, jr., 1929-1968, african americans_civil rights, united states_race relations",
"Summary": "Celebrated Stanford University historian Clayborne Carson is the director and editor of the Martin Luther King Papers Project; with thousands of King's essays, notes, letters, speeches, and sermons at his disposal, Carson has organized King's writings into a posthumous autobiography. In an early student essay, King prophetically penned: \"We cannot have an enlightened democracy with one great group living in ignorance.... We cannot have a nation orderly and sound with one group so ground down and thwarted that it is almost forced into unsocial attitudes and crime.\" Such statements, made throughout King's career, are skillfully woven together into a coherent narrative of the quest for social justice. The autobiography delves, for example, into the philosophical training King received at Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University, where he consolidated the teachings of Afro-American theologian Benjamin Mays with the philosophies of Locke, Rousseau, Gandhi, and Thoreau. Through King's voice, the reader intimately shares in his trials and triumphs, including the Montgomery Boycott, the 1963 \"I Have a Dream Speech,\" the Selma March, and the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. In one of his last speeches, King reminded his audience that \"in the final analysis, God does not judge us by the separate incidents or the separate mistakes that we make, but by the total bent of our lives.\" Carson's skillful editing has created an original argument in King's favor that draws directly from the source, illuminating the circumstances of King's life without deifying his person. --Eugene Holley Jr.",
"ISBN-13": "9780446524124",
"ISBN-10": "0446524123",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Cost of Discipleship",
"Author": "Dietrich Bonhoeffer",
"Year Read": 2019,
"Category": "Philosophy",
"Pages": 316,
"Tag": "philosophy, religious, religion",
"Summary": "NEW FOREWORD BY ERIC METAXAS
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the most important theologians of the twentieth century, illuminates the relationship between ourselves and the teachings of Jesus in this classic book on living as a Christian.
What can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the laborer, or the government worker? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between \"cheap grace\" and \"costly grace.\" \"Cheap grace,\" Bonhoeffer wrote, \"is the grace we bestow on ourselves...grace without discipleship....Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the girl which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know....It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.\"
The Cost of Discipleship is a compelling statement of the demands of sacrifice and ethical consistency from a man whose life and thought were exemplary articulations of a new type of leadership inspired by the Gospel, and imbued with the spirit of Christian humanism and a creative sense of civic duty.",
"ISBN-13": "9780684815008",
"ISBN-10": "0684815001",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Mere Hope: Life in an Age of Cynicism",
"Author": "Jason G. Duesing",
"Year Read": 2019,
"Category": "Psychology",
"Pages": 192,
"Tag": "psychology, emotions, religion",
"Summary": "How are Christians to live in such difficult times?
Unique of all people, Christians are called to embrace a hopeful outlook on life. Mere Hope offers the core, Christ-centered perspective that all Christians share, and that Christians alone have to offer a world filled with frustration, pain, and disappointment. For those in darkness, despair, and discouragement, for those in the midst of trials, suffering, and injustice, mere hope lives.
The spirit of the age is cynicism. When our leaders, our families, and our friends let us down at every turn, this isn't surprising. But we need another perspective; we need hope. Rather than reflecting resigned despair or distracted indifference, author Jason Duesing argues, our lives ought to be shaped by the gospel of Jesus--a gospel of hope.",
"ISBN-13": "9781462786602",
"ISBN-10": "146278660X",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative",
"Author": "Austin Kleon",
"Year Read": 2019,
"Category": "Self-Help",
"Pages": 160,
"Tag": "self-help, creativity, body, mind & spirit",
"Summary": "You don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself. That’s the message from Austin Kleon, a young writer and artist who knows that creativity is everywhere, creativity is for everyone. A manifesto for the digital age, Steal Like an Artist is a guide whose positive message, graphic look and illustrations, exercises, and examples will put readers directly in touch with their artistic side.
When Mr. Kleon was asked to address college students in upstate New York, he shaped his speech around the ten things he wished someone had told him when he was starting out. The talk went viral, and its author dug deeper into his own ideas to create Steal Like an Artist, the book. The result is inspiring, hip, original, practical, and entertaining. And filled with new truths about creativity: Nothing is original, so embrace influence, collect ideas, and remix and re-imagine to discover your own path. Follow your interests wherever they take you. Stay smart, stay out of debt, and risk being boring—the creative you will need to make room to be wild and daring in your imagination.",
"ISBN-13": "9780761169253",
"ISBN-10": "0761169253",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "In the Presence of Fear: Three Essays for a Changed World (The New Patriotism Series, Vol. 1)",
"Author": "Wendell Berry",
"Year Read": 2019,
"Category": "Essays",
"Pages": 44,
"Tag": "political science",
"Summary": "In this first volume of The New Patriotism Series, prolific author Wendell Berry reflects deeply on the current sources of world hope and despair.
Berry's powerful \"Thoughts in the Presence of Fear\", written in response to the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, originally appeared on OrionOnline, and has since been reprinted in 73 countries and seven languages.
Orion has now made it available in print form, along with two related essays by Berry previously published in Orion Magazine. Together, they provide a much-needed road map to a full cultural recovery.",
"ISBN-13": "9780913098608",
"ISBN-10": "0913098604",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Jesus, Justice, and Gender Roles: A Case for Gender Roles in Ministry",
"Author": "Kathy Keller",
"Year Read": 2019,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 45,
"Tag": "social sciences, religion, christianity",
"Summary": "
In this original digital short, author and co-founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church Kathy Keller recounts her experience growing up in \"gender-neutral\" home.
\"My first encounter with the ideas of [male] headship and [female] submission,\" she writes, \"was both intellectually and morally traumatic.\"
Yet Keller came to adopt the view that men and women have different roles in marriage and ministry, and that fulfilling such roles pleases God and leads to greater personal fulfillment.
In this unapologetic but nuanced piece, Keller presents a caring and careful case for biblical gender differences and the complementarian view of women in ministry. At the same time, she encourages women to teach and lead in the church in ways that may startle some complementarians. Readers on both sides of this hot-button topic will be challenged by her ministry-tested and thoroughly Scriptural perspective.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310498186", "ISBN-10": "031049818X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Friendship: An Exposé", "Author": "Joseph Epstein", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Sociology", "Pages": 288, "Tag": "friendship in literature", "Summary": "Just as his best-selling Snobbery argued that contemporary American snobbery isn’t what it used to be, Friendship: An Exposé begins with Joseph Epstein’s feeling that friendship, too, is somehow different today. From the idealization of “family time” to the acceptance of gender equality, from technological leaps like e-mail and instant messaging to the (very recent) assumption that your husband or wife will be your best friend, Epstein charts the unexpected and surprising forces that have put pressure on and reshaped friendship.
This definitive biography of Henry (Hank) Aaron—one of baseball's immortal figures—is a revelatory portrait of a complicated, private man who through sports became an enduring American icon.
“Beautifully written and culturally important.” —The Washington Post
“The epic baseball tale of the second half of the 20th century.” —Atlanta Journal Constitution
After his retirement in 1976, Aaron’s reputation only grew in magnitude. But his influence extended beyond statistics. Based on meticulous research and extensive interviews The Last Hero reveals how Aaron navigated the upheavals of his time—fighting against racism while at the same time benefiting from racial progress—and how he achieved his goal of continuing Jackie Robinson’s mission to obtain full equality for African Americans, both in baseball and society, while he lived uncomfortably in the public eye.
Sexuality was a part of God's good creation from the beginning. But with sin came a world filled with sexual brokenness. Thankfully, God is always in the business of restoration.
This book offers hope for both the sexually immoral and the sexually victimized, pointing us all to the grace of Jesus Christ, who mercifully intervenes each moment in our lifelong journey toward renewal. Author David Powlison casts a vision for the key to deep transformation, better than anything the world has to offer--not just fresh resolve, not just flimsy forgiveness, not just simple formulas, but true, lasting mercy from God, who is making all things new.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433556142", "ISBN-10": "1433556146", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Can We Trust the Gospels?", "Author": "Peter J. Williams", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 160, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, new testament", "Summary": "Is there evidence to believe the Gospels?
The Gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke, John--are four accounts of Jesus's life and teachings while on earth. But should we accept them as historically accurate? What evidence is there that the recorded events actually happened?
Presenting a case for the historical reliability of the Gospels, New Testament scholar Peter Williams examines evidence from non-Christian sources, assesses how accurately the four biblical accounts reflect the cultural context of their day, compares different accounts of the same events, and looks at how these texts were handed down throughout the centuries. Everyone from the skeptic to the scholar will find powerful arguments in favor of trusting the Gospels as trustworthy accounts of Jesus's earthly life.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433552953", "ISBN-10": "1433552957", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Olio O", "Author": "Tyehimba Jess", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Poetry", "Pages": 235, "Tag": "music, history & criticism, poetry", "Summary": "Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry\"Compelling reading, not only because of its intellectual rigor but also because of its honest, empathetic humanity.\" --John C. Lennox
Named the 2020 Beautiful Orthodoxy Book of the Year by Christianity Today
Christianity is the most widespread global belief system, and promises to remain so well into the future. But for many educated westerners, biblical Christianity is a dangerous idea--challenging some of their deepest beliefs.
Channeling state-of-the-art research, personal stories, and careful biblical study, Confronting Christianity explores 12 questions that keep many of us from considering faith in Christ. Look more closely, McLaughlin argues, and the reality of suffering, the complexity of sexuality, the desire for diversity, the success of science, and other seeming roadblocks to faith become signposts. Jesus becomes not a relic from the ancient world, but our modern world's best hope.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433564239", "ISBN-10": "1433564238", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Echoes of Exodus: Tracing Themes of Redemption Through Scripture", "Author": "Alastair Roberts, Andrew Wilson", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "History", "Pages": 176, "Tag": "history, jewish, political science", "Summary": "The exodus--the story of God leading his chosen people out of slavery in Egypt--stands as a pivotal event in the Old Testament. But if you listen closely, you will hear echoes of this story of redemption all throughout God's Word.
Using music as a metaphor, the authors point us to the recurring theme of the exodus throughout the entire symphony of Scripture, shedding light on the Bible's unified message of salvation and restoration that is at the heart of God's plan for the world.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433557989", "ISBN-10": "1433557983", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy", "Author": "John Piper", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 116, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "A guided group study that focuses on John Piper’s DVD teaching regarding how to fight for true delight in Christ and obtain proper affections for God.Does the command to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind really obligate us to enjoy God above all things? Joy and delight are emotions after all, so isn’t such love simply a decision of the will, not a feeling?According to John Piper, in this companion to the When I Don’t Desire God DVD, emotions are commanded everywhere in Scripture. They’re not just instructions to think a certain way but to feel a certain way. And though we don’t have complete control of our emotions, eternity hangs on the presence of proper affections for God. Therefore, the fight for joy is not optional. It is essential.This study guide—focused on Piper’s powerful teaching on DVD—explores the necessity and strategies of delighting in Christ in an eight-session, guided group study. Each guide features helps for reflection, penetrating questions, and five daily assignments per week. Along with the DVD, it is an ideal package that will lead groups of any size in the all-important fight for joy.", "ISBN-13": "9781433502538", "ISBN-10": "1433502534", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Faith Among the Faithless", "Author": "Mike Cosper", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "social sciences, religion, christianity", "Summary": "Encounter a timeless story of evil, awakened faith, and hope for good in a world where God seems absent. Can Christianity survive a secular age? Can Christians live without compromise in an increasingly hostile society? And what if they’ve already given in to that society’s vision and values? In this revelatory and provocative new book, Mike Cosper answers these questions by pointing out the parallels between our world and the story of Esther. A tale of sex, ego, and revenge, the book of Esther reveals a world where God seems absent from everyday life—a world not unlike our own. Far from the gentle cartoon we often hear in Sunday school, the story of Esther is a brutal saga of people assimilated into a pluralistic, pagan society, embracing its standards. Yet when threatened with annihilation, they find the courage to turn to God in humility. A call to spiritual awakening and to faith in an age of malaise and apathy, Faith Among the Faithless is an invitation to remember the faithfulness of God, knowing that in dark times—as in the days of Esther or our own—God may be hidden, but he is never absent.", "ISBN-13": "9780718097486", "ISBN-10": "B072TPXKWN", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life", "Author": "Tish Harrison Warren", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 184, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "Christianity Today Book of the Year
In the overlooked moments and routines of our day, we can become aware of God's presence in surprising ways. How do we embrace the sacred in the ordinary and the ordinary in the sacred?
Framed around one typical day, this book explores life through the lens of liturgy—small practices and habits that form us. In each chapter, Tish Harrison Warren considers a common daily experience—making the bed, brushing her teeth, losing her keys. Drawing from the diversity of her life as a campus minister, Anglican priest, friend, wife, and mother, Warren opens up a practical theology of the everyday. Each activity is related to a spiritual practice as well as an aspect of our Sunday worship.
Come and discover the holiness of your every day.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830846788", "ISBN-10": "0830846786", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Virgil Wander", "Author": "Leif Enger", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 300, "Tag": "fiction, humorous, literary", "Summary": "The first novel in ten years from award-winning, million-copy bestselling author Leif Enger, Virgil Wander is an enchanting and timeless all-American story that follows the inhabitants of a small Midwestern town in their quest to revive its flagging heartMidwestern movie house owner Virgil Wander is \"cruising along at medium altitude\" when his car flies off the road into icy Lake Superior. Virgil survives but his language and memory are altered and he emerges into a world no longer familiar to him. Awakening in this new life, Virgil begins to piece together his personal history and the lore of his broken town, with the help of a cast of affable and curious locals--from Rune, a twinkling, pipe-smoking, kite-flying stranger investigating the mystery of his disappeared son; to Nadine, the reserved, enchanting wife of the vanished man, to Tom, a journalist and Virgil's oldest friend; and various members of the Pea family who must confront tragedies of their own. Into this community returns a shimmering prodigal son who may hold the key to reviving their town.
With intelligent humor and captivating whimsy, Leif Enger conjures a remarkable portrait of a region and its residents, who, for reasons of choice or circumstance, never made it out of their defunct industrial district. Carried aloft by quotidian pleasures including movies, fishing, necking in parked cars, playing baseball and falling in love, Virgil Wander is a swift, full journey into the heart and heartache of an often overlooked American Upper Midwest by a \"formidably gifted\" (Chicago Tribune) master storyteller.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802128782", "ISBN-10": "0802128785", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "While I was reading Peace Like A River, Enger’s latest book showed up in the mailbox. I picked it up as soon as I could. To my surprise, I liked it just as much as Peace Like A River. I didn’t think I would. I was wrong.
Virgil Wander is of a different sort from Peace Like a River. It’s a character study, but not a boring one. The same excellent writing style is present here, and it gives the same feeling as you read it—as if you’re reading something that will outlast these times and reach into the next.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The River: A Novel", "Author": "Peter Heller", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 253, "Tag": "fiction, action & adventure, thrillers", "Summary": "A NATIONAL BESTSELLER
\"A fiery tour de force... I could not put this book down. It truly was terrifying and unutterably beautiful.\" -Alison Borden, The Denver Post
From the best-selling author of The Dog Stars, the story of two college students on a wilderness canoe trip--a gripping tale of a friendship tested by fire, white water, and violence
Wynn and Jack have been best friends since freshman orientation, bonded by their shared love of mountains, books, and fishing. Wynn is a gentle giant, a Vermont kid never happier than when his feet are in the water. Jack is more rugged, raised on a ranch in Colorado where sleeping under the stars and cooking on a fire came as naturally to him as breathing. When they decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate long days of leisurely paddling and picking blueberries, and nights of stargazing and reading paperback Westerns. But a wildfire making its way across the forest adds unexpected urgency to the journey. When they hear a man and woman arguing on the fog-shrouded riverbank and decide to warn them about the fire, their search for the pair turns up nothing and no one. But: The next day a man appears on the river, paddling alone. Is this the man they heard? And, if he is, where is the woman? From this charged beginning, master storyteller Peter Heller unspools a headlong, heart-pounding story of desperate wilderness survival.", "ISBN-13": "9780525521877", "ISBN-10": "0525521879", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Christ Crucified", "Author": "Stephen Charnock", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 145, "Tag": "religion", "Summary": "In this work of four discourses by the puritan Stephen Charnock, he will take you through the importance and implication of the crucifixion of Christ. A good for those wanting to mine the depths of what Jesus accomplished on the cross.", "ISBN-13": "9781941129678", "ISBN-10": "1941129676", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Why Can't We Be Friends? Avoidance Is Not Purity", "Author": "Aimee Y Byrd", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 248, "Tag": "family & relationships, friendship, religion", "Summary": "The conservative church has stood firm on many issues of sexuality--but capitulated in one key area by reducing men and women to little but their sexuality. This error threatens the New Testament picture of the church, damages our witness to the watching world, and introduces fear to our relationships as we treat each other primarily as threats to our purity, rather than as brother and sisters in Christ. How did this happen? Aimee Byrd shows how we came to exchange God's teaching on male-female relationships for Hollywood's view. As we delve into Scripture, we discover that the challenges of our relationships are different from what we might expect, and the blessings much greater. Men and women are distinct from each other, but neither church nor society should reduce us to our distinctions. Learn who you are, who your siblings are, and how to flourish alongside them.", "ISBN-13": "9781629954172", "ISBN-10": "1629954179", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Biblical Theology: How the Church Faithfully Teaches the Gospel", "Author": "Nick Roark, Robert Cline", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 160, "Tag": "religion, christian ministry, pastoral resources", "Summary": "
Throughout the history of the church, Christians have always had to contend with the influence of unbiblical teachings related to God, humanity, and salvation. One of the most important safeguards against all forms of heresy is a robust appreciation for biblical theology--reading the Bible in a way that takes into account the whole storyline of redemptive history. Exhorting pastors and other church leaders to prioritize biblical theology in their own congregations, this book explains basic principles for reading the Bible that help pastors teach the big story of the Bible from every text. Understanding the Bible in Christ-centered terms shapes the church's teaching and mission, and protects the truth of the gospel around the world.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433556067", "ISBN-10": "1433556065", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World", "Author": "David Epstein", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Psychology", "Pages": 368, "Tag": "psychology, developmental, business & economics", "Summary": "The #1 New York Times bestseller that has all America talking—with a new afterword on expanding your range—as seen on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, Morning Joe, CBS This Morning, and more.Beware. This isn’t an easy read. But it’s a necessary one.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Beartown: A Novel", "Author": "Fredrik Backman", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 418, "Tag": "fiction, fiction, humorous", "Summary": "\"From the New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry, and Britt-Marie Was Here, comes a poignant, charming novel about a forgotten town fractured by scandal, and the amateur hockey team that might just change everything. Winning a junior ice hockey championship might not mean a lot to the average person, but it means everything to the residents of Beartown, a community slowly being eaten alive by unemployment and the surrounding wilderness. A victory like this would draw national attention to the ailing town: it could attract government funding and an influx of talented athletes who would choose Beartown over the big nearby cities. A victory like this would certainly mean everything to Amat, a short, scrawny teenager who is treated like an outcast everywhere but on the ice; to Kevin, a star player just on the cusp of securing his golden future in the NHL; and to Peter, their dedicated general manager whose own professional hockey career ended in tragedy. At first, it seems like the team might have a shot at fulfilling the dreams of their entire town. But one night at a drunken celebration following a key win, something happens between Kevin and the general manager's daughter--and the next day everything seems to have changed. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected. With so much riding on the success of the team, the line between loyalty and betrayal becomes difficult to discern. At last, it falls to one young man to find the courage to speak the truth that it seems no one else wants to hear. Fredrik Backman knows that we are forever shaped by the places we call home, and in this emotionally powerful, sweetly insightful story, he explores what can happen when we carry the heavy weight of other people's dreams on our shoulders\"--", "ISBN-13": "9781501160769", "ISBN-10": "1501160761", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I had bookmarked this book in 2018 when I saw it make some top book lists for novels. It intrigued me but the library copy was checked out and the wait list was long. Then i forgot about it. When I remembered it, I found several others I knew had recently read it and recommended it. So I picked it up and blazed through it. The writing is superb but it’s the story in this one that grips. It’s not an easy read (it’s about the rape of a teenage girl), so beware entering into it. But in our moment, it does a good job (I think) of showing the systems and powers that keep a story of rape under wraps for so long and the difficulty of being believed in a world that would rather protect the abuser than the victim.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Surprised by Paradox: The Promise of \"And\" in an Either-Or World", "Author": "Jen Pollock Michel", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 216, "Tag": "religion, christian theology, apologetics", "Summary": "
Word Guild Awards Shortlist — Apologetics/Evangelism
Word Guild Award — Best Book Cover Award
Christianity Today's Book of the Year Award of Merit - The Beautiful Orthodoxy
What if certainty isn't the goal?
In a world filled with ambiguity, many of us long for a belief system that provides straightforward answers to complex questions and clarity in the face of confusion. We want faith to act like an orderly set of truth-claims designed to solve the problems and pain that life throws at us.
With signature candor and depth, Jen Pollock Michel helps readers imagine a Christian faith open to mystery. While there are certainties in Christian faith, at the heart of the Christian story is also paradox. Jesus invites us to abandon the polarities of either and or in order to embrace the difficult, wondrous dissonance of and.
The incarnation—the paradox of God made human—teaches us to look for God in the and of body and spirit, heaven and earth. In the kingdom, God often hides in plain sight and announces his triumph on the back of a donkey. In the paradox of grace, we receive life eternal by actively participating in death. And lament, with its clear-eyed appraisal of suffering alongside its commitment to finding audience with God, is a paradoxical practice of faith. Each of these themes give us certainty about God while also leading us into greater curiosity about his nature and activity in the world.
As Michel writes, \"As soon as we think we have God figured out, we will have ceased to worship him as he is.\" With personal stories and reflection on Scripture, literature, and culture, Michel takes us deeper into mystery and into worship of the One who is Mystery and Love.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830845644", "ISBN-10": "083084564X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Us Against You: A Novel", "Author": "Fredrik Backman", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 448, "Tag": "fiction, literary, sports", "Summary": "Instant New York Times Bestseller! The author of A Man Called Ove returns with “a lyrical look at how a community heals, how families recover, and how individuals grow” (The Washington Post).The tender and moving novella from the author of A Man Called Ove and Anxious People
'I read this beautifully imagined and moving novella in one sitting, utterly wowed, wanting to share it with everyone I know' Lisa Genova, New York Times bestselling author of Still Alice
_________
Grandpa and Noah are sitting on a bench in a square that keeps getting smaller every day.
As they wait together on the bench, they tell jokes and discuss their shared love of mathematics. Grandpa recalls what it was like to fall in love with his wife, what it was like to lose her. She's as real to him now as the first day he met her, but he dreads the day when he won't remember her.
Sometimes Grandpa sits on the bench next to Ted, Noah's father - Ted who never liked maths, prefers writing and playing guitar, and has waited his entire life for his father to have time for him, to accept him. But in their love of Noah, they have found a common bond.
Grandpa, Ted and Noah all meet here, in this peculiar space that is growing dimmer and more confusing all the time.
And here is where they will learn to say goodbye, the scent of hyacinths in the air, nothing to fear.
_________
'Winsome, bittersweet . . . Wise and heartbreaking, Backman's slim novella celebrates the joy of connecting even in the midst of letting go' People Magazine
", "ISBN-13": "9781405937832", "ISBN-10": "1405937831", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Bluest Eye: A Novel", "Author": "Toni Morrison", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 205, "Tag": "african americans_fiction, fiction_coming of age, ohio_fiction", "Summary": "The chronicle of the tragic lives of a poor black family in 1940s America. Every night Pecola, unlovely and unloved, prays for blue eyes like those of her white schoolfellows. She becomes the focus of the mingled love and hatred engendered by her family's frailty and the world's cruelty.", "ISBN-13": "9780307278449", "ISBN-10": "B000TWUTYQ", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Money, Possessions, and Eternity", "Author": "Randy Alcorn", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 503, "Tag": "business & economics, personal finance, money management", "Summary": "This practical and refreshing theology of money contains topical and Scripture indexes, a study guide, and five helpful appendixes.Safe and Sound by best-selling author David Powlison guides readers to see the normality of their struggles with themselves, the world around them, and the powers of darkness.
Counselors tend to be interested in what they can easily describe: psychological dynamics, social influences, and physiological givens. But how does the uncanny power of darkness fit in with the more accessible factors in a person’s life?
By carefully unpacking Ephesians 6 with vivid case studies and biblical wisdom, Powlison helps readers humanize those struggles and bear the relevance of the love of God in Christ for those struggles.
In this helpful guide, Powlison addresses many questions with gospel answers regarding the reality of spiritual warfare, including “What is spiritual warfare?” and “How does Ephesians disciple us in spiritual warfare?”
Safe and Sound presents Ephesians as a book about our conflict with darkness—within ourselves, with other people, and with the spiritual forces of evil. Powlison demonstrates how the message of Christ’s triumph over all that is evil, dark, and deadly rings true, and how spiritual warfare is our participation in the Lord’s cosmic war with darkness.
To stand up against evil, Powlison encourages readers to pray pointedly and listen to Scripture intently, standing with other brothers and sisters in Christ and relying on the strength God himself gives.
", "ISBN-13": "9781948130738", "ISBN-10": "1948130734", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Case for the Psalms: Why They Are Essential", "Author": "N. T. Wright", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, wisdom literature", "Summary": "Widely regarded as the modern C. S. Lewis, N. T. Wright, one of the world’s most trusted and popular Bible scholars and the bestselling author of Simply Christian and Surprised by Hope, presents a manifesto urging Christians to live and pray the Bible’s Psalms in The Case for the Psalms.
Wright seeks to reclaim the power of the Psalms, which were once at the core of prayer life. He argues that, by praying and living the Psalms, we enter into a worldview, a way of communing with God and knowing him more intimately, and receive a map by which we understand the contours and direction of our lives. For this reason, all Christians need to read, pray, sing, and live the Psalms. By providing the historical, literary, and spiritual contexts for reading these hymns from ancient Israel’s songbook, The Case for the Psalms provides the tools for incorporating these divine poems into our sacred practices and into our spirituality itself.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062230508", "ISBN-10": "0062230506", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts", "Author": "James K. A. Smith", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "religion, spirituality, christian living", "Summary": "★ Publishers Weekly starred reviewHave you been there? The 4th century Bishop of Hippo, Saint Augustine, has. He didn’t have a car, but that didn’t stop him from going, and he has something to say to all who wander.
That is what James K.A. Smith wants us to see in his latest book, On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts. He wants to hop in the car with us, but he’s bringing a friend along for the ride. And he’s not just any friend. He’s “a prodigal who’s already been where you think you need to go” (xi).",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making",
"Author": "Andrew Peterson",
"Year Read": 2019,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 224,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, music, reference",
"Summary": "From the bestselling author of The Wingfeather Saga and award-winning musician and storyteller, Andrew Peterson.
Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, WORLD Magazine each named Adorning the Dark as one of their books of the year.
Making something beautiful in a broken world can be harrowing work, and it can't be done alone.
Over the last twenty years, Andrew Peterson has performed thousands of concerts, published four novels, released ten albums, taught college and seminary classes on writing, founded a nonprofit ministry for Christians in the arts, and executive-produced a film--all in a belief that God calls us to proclaim the gospel and the coming kingdom using whatever gifts are at our disposal. He's stumbled along the way, made mistake after mistake, and yet has continually encountered the grace of God through an encouraging family, a Christ-centered community of artists in the church, and the power of truth, beauty, and goodness in Scripture and the arts.
While there are many books about writing, none deal first-hand with the intersection of songwriting, storytelling, and vocation, along with nuts-and-bolts exploration of the great mystery of creativity. In Adorning the Dark, Andrew describes six principles for the writing life:
This is one of those books I’ll re-visit, and with as many books as there are to read in the world, onyl a few rise to the level of re-visit-worthy.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Disappearing Church: From Cultural Relevance to Gospel Resilience", "Author": "Mark Sayers", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 176, "Tag": "religion, christianity, history", "Summary": "
Why our churches are shrinking:
\"In the discomfort between orthodox Christian faith and twenty-first century western dogma, we are tempted to do what it takes to make the pressure go away, to acquiesce on the beliefs that grate against contemporary sensibilities. For Christians raised under the ethic of relevance--the desire to prove believers can be both holy and cool--the pressure is too much. Some compartmentalize their beliefs into an orthodox/secularist mashup; others simply disappear into the ghostly embrace of secularity.\" - Mark Sayers
Disappearing Church is a direct answer to the most pressing question facing church leaders today: How do we make disciples who stay the course?
Full of real stories and actionable insights, Disappearing Church is a guide for disciple-making in a highly secularized society. God will grow His church and protect its purity, but He will use us to do it. Are you up for the challenge?
", "ISBN-13": "9780802413352", "ISBN-10": "0802413358", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems", "Author": "Mary Oliver", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 109, "Tag": "fiction, literary collections, essays", "Summary": "\"On the subject of writing poetry, Oliver is the most enlightened and enlightening author I have read.\" -Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times
From the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award comes Winter Hours, Mary Oliver's most personal book yet. And never more so than in this extraordinary and engaging gathering of nine essays, accompanied by a brief selection of new prose poems and poems.
With the grace and precision that have won her legions of admirers, Oliver talks here of turtle eggs and housebuilding, of her surprise at an unexpected whistling she hears, of the \"thousand unbreakable links between each of us and everything else.\" She talks of her own poems and of some of her favorite poets: Poe, writing of \"our inescapable destiny,\" Frost and his ability to convey at once that \"everything is all right, and everything is not all right,\" the \"unmistakably joyful\" Hopkins, and Whitman, seeking through his poetry \"the replication of a miracle.\" And Oliver offers us a glimpse as well of her \"private and natural self--something that must in the future be taken into consideration by any who would claim to know me.\"
", "ISBN-13": "9780395850879", "ISBN-10": "0395850878", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "What is a Girl Worth? My Story of Breaking the Silence and Exposing the Truth about Larry Nassar and USA Gymnastics", "Author": "Rachael Denhollander", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 334, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, women, personal memoirs", "Summary": "\"Who is going to tell these little girls that what was done to them matters? That they are seen and valued, that they are not alone and they are not unprotected?\"Have you lost your joy?
Do you feel like you have to prove yourself? Does your Christian life feel routine and performance oriented, driven by duty and obligation?
The letter of Galatians was written to Christians who had lost their joy-- confronted with false messages about rules and regulations they needed to follow. Similar false messages provoked the start of the Protestant Reformation, and have continued to threaten the joy of Christians ever since. Exploring how the sixteenth-century Reformation was a return to the gospel joy originally preached to first-century Galatia, this book was written to help today's Christians rediscover the path to true freedom and lasting joy in Jesus.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433558429", "ISBN-10": "1433558424", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Fair Ball: A Fan's Case for Baseball", "Author": "Bob Costas", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Sports", "Pages": 220, "Tag": "sports & recreation, baseball", "Summary": "From his perspective as a journalist and a true fan, Bob Costas, NBC's award-winning broadcaster, shares his unflinching views on the forces that are diminishing the appeal of major league baseball and proposes realistic changes that can be made to protect and promote the game's best interests.Restless for rootedness, many Christians are abandoning Protestantism altogether.
Many evangelicals today are aching for theological rootedness often found in other Christian traditions. Modern evangelicalism is not known for drawing from church history to inform views on the Christian life, which can lead to a \"me and my Bible\" approach to theology. But this book aims to show how Protestantism offers the theological depth so many desire without the need for abandoning a distinctly evangelical identity.
By focusing on particular doctrines and neglected theologians, this book shows how evangelicals can draw from the past to meet the challenges of the present.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433565267", "ISBN-10": "1433565269", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Here’s a book you’ll want on your shelves if for no other reason than to remind you that our current moment isn’t the only important one. As an Evangelical, this book helped me reach back in time to church history to find common friends who wrestled with many of the same things we wrestle with today. It’s so easy to disconnect ourselves from the past thinkers, but that is to distant ourselves from the blessings of God that they were. We need retrieval. And we need it more today than perhaps ever before. Gavin gives us a road map here. ", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Let Justice Roll Down", "Author": "John Perkins", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 223, "Tag": "religion", "Summary": "His brother died in his arms, shot by a deputy marshall. He was beaten and tortured by the sheriff and state police. But through it all he returned good for evil, love for hate, progress for prejudice and brought hope to black and white alike. The story of John Perkins is no ordinary story. Rather, it is a gripping portrayal of what happens when faith thrusts a person into the midst of a struggle against racism, oppression and injustice. It is about the costs of discipleship the jailings, the floggings, the despair, the sacrifice. And it is about the transforming work of faith that allowed John to respond to such overwhelming indignities with miraculous compassion, vision and hope.", "ISBN-13": "9781930871663", "ISBN-10": "193087166X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31lEfJpFaSL.jpg" }, { "Title": "Your Mind Matters: The Place of the Mind in the Christian Life", "Author": "John Stott", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 93, "Tag": "religion, christian living, personal growth", "Summary": "\"Knowledge is indispensable to Christian life and service,\" writes John Stott. \"If we do not use the mind which God has given us, we condemn ourselves to spiritual superficiality.\" While Christians have had a long heritage of rigorous scholarship and careful thinking, some circles still view the intellect with suspicion or even as contradictory to Christian faith. And many non-Christians are quick to label Christians as anti-intellectual and obscurantist. But this need not be so. In this classic introduction to Christian thinking, John Stott makes a forceful appeal for Christian discipleship that engages the mind as well as the heart.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830834082", "ISBN-10": "0830834087", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones", "Author": "James Clear", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Business", "Pages": 320, "Tag": "business & economics, organizational behavior, psychology", "Summary": "The #1 New York Times bestseller."A transfixing book on how to sustain peak performance and avoid burnout" — Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Option B, Originals, and Give and Take
"An essential playbook for success, happiness, and getting the most out of ourselves." — Arianna Huffington, author of Thrive and The Sleep Revolution
"I doubt anyone can read Peak Performance without itching to apply something to their own lives." — David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of The Sports Gene
A few common principles drive performance, regardless of the field or the task at hand. Whether someone is trying to qualify for the Olympics, break ground in mathematical theory or craft an artistic masterpiece, many of the practices that lead to great success are the same. In Peak Performance, Brad Stulberg, a former McKinsey and Company consultant and writer who covers health and the science of human performance, and Steve Magness, a performance scientist and coach of Olympic athletes, team up to demystify these practices and demonstrate how you can achieve your best.
The first book of its kind, Peak Performance combines the inspiring stories of top performers across a range of capabilities — from athletic, to intellectual, to artistic — with the latest scientific insights into the cognitive and neurochemical factors that drive performance in all domains. In doing so, Peak Performance uncovers new linkages that hold promise as performance enhancers but have been overlooked in our traditionally-siloed ways of thinking. The result is a life-changing book in which you can learn how to enhance your performance via myriad ways including: optimally alternating between periods of intense work and rest; priming the body and mind for enhanced productivity; and developing and harnessing the power of a self-transcending purpose.
In revealing the science of great performance and the stories of great performers across a wide range of capabilities, Peak Performance uncovers the secrets of success, and coaches you on how to use them. If you want to take your game to the next level, whatever "your game" may be, Peak Performance will teach you how.
Informative and honest, Finding Quiet validates the experiences of believers struggling with mental illness, provides spiritual and psychological tools for defeating anxiety and depression--and will reassure you that you can thrive again.
In May 2003, prominent philosopher, author, and professor J. P. Moreland awoke in the middle of the night to a severe panic attack. Though often anxious by temperament and upbringing, Moreland had never experienced such an incident before. Thus began an extended battle with debilitating anxiety and depression.
More than a decade later, Moreland continues to manage his mental illness. Yet along the way he's moved from shame and despair to vulnerability and hope. In Finding Quiet, Moreland comes alongside fellow sufferers with encouragement and practical, hard-won advice--a distillation of the very best and most helpful things he discovered about dealing with anxiety and depression from his personal experiences and extensive research.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, nearly 20 percent of Americans suffer from mental illness, and Christians are not immune. J. P. Moreland (who studied philosophy under Dallas Willard) explores the spiritual and physical aspects of mental illness, pointing readers toward sound sources of information, treatment, and recovery from both secular and Christian experts.
Finding Quiet is perfect for:
For the First Time in English, a Foundational Work of One of the Church's Most Important Theologians
As some point in life, we all wonder: Who am I? What is the world, and what is my place within it? Only Christianity offers answers to these questions in a way that meets our truest needs and satisfies our deepest longings.
In this important book, translated into English for the first time, Herman Bavinck provides a framework for understanding why the Christian worldview is the only solution to the discord we feel between ourselves, the world, and God.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433563195", "ISBN-10": "1433563193", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The How of Happiness: A Practical Guide to Getting the Life You Want", "Author": "Sonja Lynbiomorsky", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Self-Help", "Pages": 384, "Tag": "self-help, personal growth, happiness", "Summary": "The How of Happiness' is about how to find lasting happiness - how to become and remain a happier person. Based on scientific research and trials, this book charts new territory in popular psychology.", "ISBN-13": "9780316733366", "ISBN-10": "0316733369", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir", "Author": "Frank McCourt", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Memoir", "Pages": 364, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, cultural, ethnic & regional, historical", "Summary": "A Pulitzer Prize–winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, Angela’s Ashes is Frank McCourt’s masterful memoir of his childhood in Ireland—now with a new introduction by Patrick Radden Keefe.Could you be getting in your way of producing great work? Have you started a project but never finished? Would you like to do work that matters, but don't know where to start?The answer is Do the Work, a manifesto by bestselling author Steven Pressfield, that will show you that it's not about better ideas, it's about actually doing the work. Do the Work is a weapon against Resistance - a tool that will help you take action and successfully ship projects out the door.
Picking up where The War of Art and Turning Pro left off, Do The Work takes the reader from the start to the finish of any long-form project-novel, screenplay, album, software piece, you name it.
Do The Work identifies the predictable Resistance Points along the way and walks you through each of them. No, you are not crazy. No, you are not alone. No, you are not the first person to \"hit the wall\" in Act Two.
Do The Work charts the territory. It's the stage-by-stage road map for taking your project from Page One to THE END.", "ISBN-13": "9781936891375", "ISBN-10": "1936891379", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "When The Game Was Ours", "Author": "Larry Bird, Earvin Johnson, Jackie MacMullan", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Sports", "Pages": 369, "Tag": "biological sciences & nutrition, health, activities & sports", "Summary": "The New York Times bestseller from Hall of Fame basketball legends Larry Bird and Earvin Magic Johnson. From the moment these two players took the court on opposing sides, they engaged in a fierce physical and psychological battle. Their uncommonly competitive relationship came to symbolize the most compelling rivalry in the NBA. In Celtic green was Larry Bird, the hick from French Lick, with laser-beam focus, relentless determination, and a deadly jump shot, a player who demanded excellence from everyone and whose caustic wit left opponents quaking in their high-tops. Magic Johnson was Mr. Showtime, a magnetic personality with all the right moves. Young, indomitable, he was a pied piper in purple and gold. And he burned with an inextinguishable desire to win. These were the basketball epics of the 1980s — Celtics vs Lakers, East vs West, physical vs finesse, Old School vs Showtime, even white vs black. Each pushed the other to greatness — together Bird and Johnson collected eight NBA Championships, six MVP awards and helped save the floundering NBA at its most critical time. When it started they were bitter rivals, but along the way they became lifelong friends. With intimate, fly-on-the-wall detail, When the Game Was Ours transports readers to this electric era of basketball and reveals for the first time the inner workings of two players dead set on besting one another. From the heady days of trading championships to the darker days of injury and illness, we come to understand Larry’s obsessive devotion to winning and how his demons drove him on the court. We hear him talk with candor about playing through chronic pain and its truly exacting toll. In Magic we see a young, invincible star struggle with the sting of defeat, not just as a player but as a team leader. We are there the moment he learns he’s contracted HIV and hear in his own words how that devastating news impacted his relationships in basketball and beyond. But always, in both cases, we see them prevail. A compelling, up-close-and-personal portrait of basketball’s most inimitable duo, When the Game Was Ours is a reevaluation of three decades in counterpoint. It is also a rollicking ride through professional basketball’s best times.", "ISBN-13": "9780547416816", "ISBN-10": "0547416814", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I was too young to watch Larry and Magic play. Their classic NCAA finals game happened before I was born. They both won an NBA Finals before I was born. By the time of the Dream Team in 1992, both were on the back-end of their careers. So I grew up a Jordan kid. Forever, the epitome of basketball greatness is the image of His Airness. But I also knew Larry and Magic were great players. I just didn’t ever really know their stories until this book. Since then, I’ve been teaching my two basketball-playing boys about them. We’ve watched YouTube videos of highlights. I’ve stopped clicking through the TV channels as I see Larry or Magic on NBA TV talking about the glory days. If you don’t know much about how great they were, this book seems to do it justice. It’s enjoyable to read and one of those rare sports memoirs that are worth your time.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction", "Author": "Justin Whitmel Earley", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "religion, christian living, personal growth", "Summary": "
ECPA Christian Book Award Finalist
Christianity Today Book of the Year Award
Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year
Habits form us more than we form them.
The modern world is a machine of a thousand invisible habits, forming us into anxious, busy, and depressed people. We yearn for the freedom and peace of the gospel, but remain addicted to our technology, shackled by our screens, and exhausted by our routines. But because our habits are the water we swim in, they are almost invisible to us. What can we do about it?
The answer to our contemporary chaos is to practice a rule of life that aligns our habits to our beliefs. The Common Rule offers four daily and four weekly habits, designed to help us create new routines and transform frazzled days into lives of love for God and neighbor. Justin Earley provides concrete, doable practices, such as a daily hour of phoneless presence or a weekly conversation with a friend.
These habits are “common” not only because they are ordinary, but also because they can be practiced in community. They have been lived out by people across all walks of life—businesspeople, professionals, parents, students, retirees—who have discovered new hope and purpose. As you embark on these life-giving practices, you will find the freedom and rest for your soul that comes from aligning belief in Jesus with the practices of Jesus.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830845606", "ISBN-10": "0830845607", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart", "Author": "Harold L. Senkbeil", "Year Read": 2019, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 312, "Tag": "religion, christian theology, christian ministry", "Summary": "2020 Christianity Today Book Award Winner for Church/Pastoral LeadershipNothing beats the feeling of giving, or receiving, the perfect gift.
The most meaningful gifts we receive make us feel known, loved and valued. And when we give a gift like that, it's like we're putting ourselves in our present. And at Christmas, that's exactly what God did.
This light-hearted and lively book explores how our gift-giving traditions show us a glimpse of a giving God. Evangelist Glen Scrivener helps readers to celebrate the gift of life in a world brimming with beauty, before taking us to John 3:16 to unwrap the Christmas gift that can give us what we've always wanted, and what we really need.
",
"ISBN-13": "978-1784983741",
"ISBN-10": "1784983748",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art",
"Author": "Madeleine L'Engle",
"Year Read": 2019,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 197,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, literary figures, religion",
"Summary": "In Walking On Water, Madeleine L'Engle addresses the questions, What makes art Christian? What does it mean to be a Christian artist? What is the relationship between faith and art? Through L'Engle's beautiful and insightful essay, readers will find themselves called to what the author views as the prime tasks of an artist: to listen, to remain aware, and to respond to creation through one's own art.
",
"ISBN-13": "978-0865474871",
"ISBN-10": "0865474877",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Oxford Shakespeare: The Two Gentlemen of Verona",
"Author": "William Shakespeare",
"Year Read": 2020,
"Category": "Poetry",
"Pages": 190,
"Tag": "drama, european, english, irish, scottish, welsh",
"Summary": "This edition of The Two Gentlemen of Verona offers a complete consideration of all aspects of the text. It interprets the play less as a contribution to a Renaissance literary debate between love and friendship (the traditional academic view) than as a dramatization of competing kinds of love - a theatrical counterpart to Shakespeare's Sonnets. It analyzes the lyrical language with which these kinds of love are expressed, and explores the tension between lyricism and the violence of some of the play's events, notably the concluding attempted rape scene. It also provides further evidence that The Two Gentlemen is Shakespeare's earliest surviving play, and proposes a new actor for whom the principal comic role of Lance may have been designed. This is the only edition to offer a setting of the song 'Who is Silvia?', prepared by Guy Woolfenden from an Elizabethan source, and is therefore the only edition on the market to provide a complete text for performance.",
"ISBN-13": "9780198123675",
"ISBN-10": "0198123671",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Disappearing Earth: A Novel",
"Author": "Julia Phillips",
"Year Read": 2020,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 432,
"Tag": "fiction, literary, thrillers",
"Summary": "One of The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year
National Book Award Finalist
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize
Finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
Finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award
National Best Seller
Splendidly imagined . . . Thrilling --Simon Winchester
A genuine masterpiece --Gary Shteyngart
Spellbinding, moving--evoking a fascinating region on the other side of the world--this suspenseful and haunting story announces the debut of a profoundly gifted writer.
One August afternoon, on the shoreline of the Kamchatka peninsula at the northeastern edge of Russia, two girls--sisters, eight and eleven--go missing. In the ensuing weeks, then months, the police investigation turns up nothing. Echoes of the disappearance reverberate across a tightly woven community, with the fear and loss felt most deeply among its women.
Taking us through a year in Kamchatka, Disappearing Earth enters with astonishing emotional acuity the worlds of a cast of richly drawn characters, all connected by the crime: a witness, a neighbor, a detective, a mother. We are transported to vistas of rugged beauty--densely wooded forests, open expanses of tundra, soaring volcanoes, and the glassy seas that border Japan and Alaska--and into a region as complex as it is alluring, where social and ethnic tensions have long simmered, and where outsiders are often the first to be accused.
In a story as propulsive as it is emotionally engaging, and through a young writer's virtuosic feat of empathy and imagination, this powerful novel brings us to a new understanding of the intricate bonds of family and community, in a Russia unlike any we have seen before.",
"ISBN-13": "9781984892225",
"ISBN-10": "1984892223",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "In Our Time",
"Author": "Ernest Hemingway",
"Year Read": 2020,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 160,
"Tag": "american fiction (fictional works by one author), adams, nick (fictitious character)_fiction, fiction_short stories (single author)",
"Summary": "A strikingly original collection of short stories and accompanying vignettes that marked Ernest Hemingway’s American debut.
When In Our Time was first published in 1925, it was widely praised for its simple and precise use of language to convey a wide range of complex emotions, and earned Hemingway a place among the most promising American writers of that period. In Our Time contains several early Hemingway classics, including the famous Nick Adams stories “Indian Camp” and “The Three Day Blow,” and introduces readers to the hallmarks of the Hemingway style: a lean, tough prose, enlivened by an ear for the colloquial and an eye for the realistic. His writing suggests, through the simplest of statements, a sense of moral value and a clarity of vision.
Now recognized as one of the most important short story collections of twentieth-century literature, In Our Time provides key insights into Hemingway’s later works.",
"ISBN-13": "9780684822761",
"ISBN-10": "0684822768",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Topeka School: A Novel",
"Author": "Ben Lerner",
"Year Read": 2020,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 304,
"Tag": "fiction, literary, coming of age",
"Summary": "
FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR
A TIME, GQ, Vulture, and WASHINGTON POST TOP 10 BOOK of the YEAR
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award
Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize
Winner of the Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award
ALSO NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: Esquire, NPR, Vogue, Amazon, Kirkus, The Times (UK), Buzzfeed, Vanity Fair, The Telegraph (UK), Financial Times (UK), Lit Hub, The Times Literary Supplement (UK), The New York Post, Daily Mail (UK), The Atlantic, Publishers Weekly, The Guardian (UK), Electric Literature, SPY.com, and the New York Public Library
From the award-winning author of 10:04 and Leaving the Atocha Station, a tender and expansive family drama set in the American Midwest at the turn of the century: a tale of adolescence, transgression, and the conditions that have given rise to the trolls and tyrants of the New Right
Adam Gordon is a senior at Topeka High School, class of ’97. His mother, Jane, is a famous feminist author; his father, Jonathan, is an expert at getting “lost boys” to open up. They both work at a psychiatric clinic that has attracted staff and patients from around the world. Adam is a renowned debater, expected to win a national championship before he heads to college. He is one of the cool kids, ready to fight or, better, freestyle about fighting if it keeps his peers from thinking of him as weak. Adam is also one of the seniors who bring the loner Darren Eberheart—who is, unbeknownst to Adam, his father’s patient—into the social scene, to disastrous effect.
Deftly shifting perspectives and time periods, The Topeka School is the story of a family, its struggles and its strengths: Jane’s reckoning with the legacy of an abusive father, Jonathan’s marital transgressions, the challenge of raising a good son in a culture of toxic masculinity. It is also a riveting prehistory of the present: the collapse of public speech, the trolls and tyrants of the New Right, and the ongoing crisis of identity among white men.
God Is Love vs. Love Is God
Our culture's view of love--with no boundaries or judgments or conditions-- justifies whatever our hearts want and whatever our hearts feel, rejecting any authority that gets in the way. Falsely heralded as the only path to true selfexpression and self-realization, this kind of love diminishes--if not completely redefines--the holy love of God revealed in the Bible.
In this book, Jonathan Leeman directs us toward a biblical definition of love by answering critical questions: How is love commonly misunderstood? What is God's love like and why is it offensive? And how does all of this relate to the church? In an age of consumerism, individualism, and tribalism, Leeman demonstrates how God showcases his holy love and authority to a watching world through the lives of his people living in true community with one another as the church.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433559631", "ISBN-10": "1433559633", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Lying Awake", "Author": "Mark Salzman", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 181, "Tag": "fiction, literary, psychological", "Summary": "In a Carmelite monastery outside present-day Los Angeles, life goes on in a manner virtually un-changed for centuries. Sister John of the Cross has spent years there in the service of God. And there, she alone experiences visions of such dazzling power and insight that she is looked upon as a spiritual master.#1 New York Times Bestseller
#1 USA Today bestseller
The ultimate guide on leadership from the bestselling co-author of Extreme Ownership.
In the military, a field manual provides instructions in simple, clear, step-by-step language to help soldiers complete their mission. In the civilian sector, books offer information on everything from fixing a leaky faucet to developing an effective workout program to cooking a good steak.
But what if you are promoted into a new position leading your former peers? What if you don’t get selected for the leadership position you wanted? How do you overcome imposter syndrome, when you aren’t sure you should be leading? As a leader, how do you judiciously dole out punishment? What about reward? How do you build trust with your both your superiors and your subordinates? How do you deliver truthful criticism up and down the chain of command in a tactful and positive way?
These are all questions about leadership—the most complex of all human endeavors. And while there are books out there that provide solid leadership principles, books like Extreme Ownership and The Dichotomy of Leadership, there is no leadership field manual that provides a direct, situational, pragmatic how-to guide that anyone can instantly put to use.
Until now. Leadership Strategy and Tactics explains how to take leadership theory, quickly translate that theory into applicable strategy, and then put leadership into action at a tactical level. This book is the solution that leaders at every level need—not just to understand the leadership game, but also how to play the leadership game, and win it.
There are few parts of Scripture over which so many battles—theological, scientific, historical, and literary—have been fought as the book of Genesis. In this classic work, Derek Kidner not only provides a verse-by-verse exegetical commentary but also lucidly handles the tough issues that Genesis raises. Focusing on the study of Genesis on its own terms, as \"a living whole,\" he highlights the theological themes of the nature of God, humankind, and salvation. In this volume, formerly part of the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries series, Kidner's clear prose and theological insight will expand readers' understanding of God's character and of humanity's nature and destiny.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0830829361", "ISBN-10": "0830829369", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Their Eyes Were Watching God", "Author": "Zora Neale Hurston", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "fiction, literary, classics", "Summary": "One of the most important works of twentieth-century American literature, Zora Neale Hurston's beloved 1937 classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is an enduring Southern love story sparkling with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom. Told in the captivating voice of a woman who refuses to live in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams, it is the story of fair-skinned, fiercely independent Janie Crawford, and her evolving selfhood through three marriages and a life marked by poverty, trials, and purpose. A true literary wonder, Hurston's masterwork remains as relevant and affecting today as when it was first published -- perhaps the most widely read and highly regarded novel in the entire canon of African American literature.
", "ISBN-13": "9780061120060", "ISBN-10": "0061120065", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Titus Andronicus", "Author": "William Shakespeare", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Poetry", "Pages": 320, "Tag": "drama, shakespeare, european", "Summary": "The authoritative edition of Titus Andronicus from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers.“...one of the most eloquent and even moving evocations of the conservative tradition in Western politics, philosophy and culture I have ever read...the ideal primer for those who are new to conservative ideas...” —Richard Aldous, Wall Street Journal
A brief magisterial introduction to the conservative tradition by one of Britain’s leading intellectuals.
In Conservatism, Roger Scruton offers the reader an invitation into the world of political philosophy by explaining the history and evolution of the conservative movement over the centuries. With the clarity and authority of a gifted teacher, he discusses the ideology's perspective on civil society, the rule of law, freedom, morality, property, rights, and the role of the state. In a time when many claim that conservatives lack a unified intellectual belief system, this book makes a very strong case to the contrary, one that politically-minded readers will find compelling and refreshing.
Scruton analyzes the origins and development of conservatism through the philosophies and thoughts of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith and Milton Friedman, among others. He shows how conservative ideas have influenced the political sector through the careers of a diverse cast of politicians, such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Disraeli, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. He also takes a close look at the changing relationship between conservative politics, capitalism, and free markets in both the UK and the US. This clear, incisive guide is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand Western politics and policies, now and over the last three centuries.
Bill Bryson’s bestselling biography of William Shakespeare takes the reader on an enthralling tour through Elizabethan England and the eccentricities of Shakespearean scholarship—updated with a new introduction by the author to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death
William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself. His Shakespeare is like no one else's—the beneficiary of Bryson's genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivaled in our time.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062564627", "ISBN-10": "0062564625", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Revolutionary Love", "Author": "Festo Kivengere", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 32, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, religious, religion", "Summary": "\"Revolutionary love\" sounds like an oxymoron. Revolution is usually a negative, violent, and destructive change, while love is positive, peaceful, and contented. But true love always changes people. And Christ's love brings the most revolutionary change of all. Festo Kivengere (1919-88) experienced both kinds of revolution. He escaped Uganda when the brutal regime of Idi Amin seized power. But he could not escape the pursuit of Jesus, who came into his life with radically transformative grace. In Revolutionary Love, Kivengere tells his story of learning to freely receive Christ's love and freely share it with others.", "ISBN-13": "978-1882840038", "ISBN-10": "1882840038", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Possibility of Prayer: Finding Stillness with God in a Restless World", "Author": "John Starke", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 200, "Tag": "religion, christian living, prayer", "Summary": "The world clamors for efficiency and productivity.
But the life of prayer is neither efficient nor productive. Instead, as we learn in the psalms, prayer calls us to wait, to watch, to listen, to taste, and to see. These things are not productive by any modern measure—but they are transformative.
As a pastor in Manhattan, John Starke knows the bustle and busyness of our society. But he also knows that prayer is not just for spiritual giants. Prayer, he writes, is for each of us—not because we are full of spiritual wisdom and maturity, but because we are empty. Here is an invitation to discover, via the church's ancient rhythms and with Starke's clear, practical guidance, the possibility of prayer. Here is a book about prayer that is really a book about the whole Christian life.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830845798", "ISBN-10": "0830845798", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "On Death", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, christian living, biblical studies", "Summary": "From New York Times bestselling author and pastor Timothy Keller, a book about facing the death of loved ones, as well as our own inevitable deathPastor Dane Ortlund Explores Jesus's Heart to Reveal His Tender Love for Sinners and Sufferers
Christians know that God loves them, but can easily feel that he is perpetually disappointed and frustrated, maybe even close to giving up on them. As a result, they focus a lot--and rightly so--on what Jesus has done to appease God's wrath for sin. But how does Jesus Christ actually feel about his people amid all their sins and failures?
This book draws us to Matthew 11, where Jesus describes himself as \"gentle and lowly in heart,\" longing for his people to find rest in him. The gospel flows from God's deepest heart for his people, a heart of tender love for the sinful and suffering.
These chapters take us into the depths of Christ's very heart for sinners, diving deep into Bible passages that speak of who Christ is and encouraging readers with the affections of Christ for his people. His longing heart for sinners comforts and sustains readers in their up-and-down lives.
\"This is a wise and needed book.\"
-- Russell Moore, President, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention
In theology, just as in battle, some hills are worth dying on and others are not. But how do we know which ones? When should doctrine divide, and when should unity prevail? Just as a medic on a battlefield treats the severely wounded first and then moves on to the less serious injuries, we must prioritize doctrine in order of importance. Pastor Gavin Ortlund implores us to cultivate humility as we prioritize doctrine into four ranks--essential, urgent, important, and unimportant--so that we will be as effective as possible at advancing the gospel in our time.
Published in partnership with the Gospel Coalition.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433567421", "ISBN-10": "1433567423", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Envy: The Seven Deadly Sins", "Author": "Joseph Epstein", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Humor", "Pages": 109, "Tag": "humor, form, essays", "Summary": "Malice that cannot speak its name, cold-blooded but secret hostility, impotent desire, hidden rancor and spite--all cluster at the center of envy. Envy clouds thought, writes Joseph Epstein, clobbers generosity, precludes any hope of serenity, and ends in shriveling the heart. Of the seven deadly sins, he concludes, only envy is no fun at all.Writing in a conversational, erudite, self-deprecating style that wears its learning lightly, Epstein takes us on a stimulating tour of the many faces of envy. He considers what great thinkers--such as John Rawls, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche--have written about envy; distinguishes between envy, yearning, jealousy, resentment, and schadenfreude (\"a hardy perennial in the weedy garden of sour emotions\"); and catalogs the many things that are enviable, including wealth, beauty, power, talent, knowledge and wisdom, extraordinary good luck, and youth (or as the title of Epstein's chapter on youth has it, \"The Young, God Damn Them\"). He looks at resentment in academia, where envy is mixed with snobbery, stirred by impotence, and played out against a background of cosmic injustice; and he offers a brilliant reading of Othello as a play more driven by Iago's envy than Othello's jealousy. He reveals that envy has a strong touch of malice behind it--the envious want to destroy the happiness of others. He suggests that envy of the astonishing success of Jews in Germany and Austria may have lurked behind the virulent anti-Semitism of the Nazis.As he proved in his best-selling Snobbery, Joseph Epstein has an unmatched ability to highlight our failings in a way that is thoughtful, provocative, and entertaining. If envy is no fun, Epstein's Envy is truly a joy to read.", "ISBN-13": "9780195158120", "ISBN-10": "0195158121", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Handle with Care: How Jesus Redeems the Power of Touch in Life and Ministry", "Author": "Lore Ferguson Wilbert", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 264, "Tag": "religion, christian living, family & relationships", "Summary": "Whether it's fearful side hugs on one side or sexual abuse on the other, both the culture and the church aren't doing very well with touch. Singles are staying single longer, dating is wrought with angst over purity, and marriages struggle to not interpret all forms of touch as sexual. Even the Bible seems to have endless rules about not touching things. There is simply no place where touch doesn't seem threatened or threatening.
But a curious thing happens when Jesus comes into His ministry: He touches. Jesus touches the sick and the outcast, the bleeding and the unclean.
What could it mean for families, singles, marriages, churches, communities, and the world to have healthy, pure, faithful, ministering touch? Somewhere in the mess of our assumptions and fears about touch, there is something beautiful and good and God-given. As Jesus can show us, there is ministry in touching.
", "ISBN-13": "9781535962339", "ISBN-10": "153596233X", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World", "Author": "John Mark Comer", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 304, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "ECPA BESTSELLER • A compelling emotional and spiritual case against hurry and in favor of a slower, simpler way of life—from the New York Times bestselling author of Practicing the WayThe baseball is an amazing plaything. We can grip it and hold it so many different ways, and even the slightest calibration can turn an ordinary pitch into a weapon to thwart the greatest hitters in the world. Each pitch has its own history, evolving through the decades as the masters pass it down to the next generation. From the earliest days of the game, when Candy Cummings dreamed up the curveball while flinging clamshells on a Brooklyn beach, pitchers have never stopped innovating.
In K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, Tyler Kepner traces the colorful stories and fascinating folklore behind the ten major pitches. Each chapter highlights a different pitch, from the blazing fastball to the fluttering knuckleball to the slippery spitball. Infusing every page with infectious passion for the game, Kepner brings readers inside the minds of combatants sixty feet, six inches apart.
Filled with priceless insights from many of the best pitchers in baseball history including twenty-two Hall of Famers--from Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, and Nolan Ryan to Greg Maddux, Mariano Rivera, and Clayton Kershaw--K will be the definitive book on pitching and join such works as The Glory of Their Times and Moneyball as a classic of the genre.",
"ISBN-13": "9780385541015",
"ISBN-10": "0385541015",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Message of Ecclesiastes: A Time to Mourn, and a Time to Dance",
"Author": "Derek Kidner",
"Year Read": 2020,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 110,
"Tag": "religion, biblical commentary, old testament",
"Summary": "What is life about? In the end, does it all amount to a wisp of vapor, a puff of wind, a mere breath---nothing you can get your hands on--the nearest thing to zero? So says the Preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes. But is this the whole message of Ecclesiastes?With imagination and clarity, Derek Kidner introduces this Old Testament book which speaks so powerfully to our generation. His love of Hebrew poetry and his understanding of biblical mind shine through in his careful passage-by-passage exposition. The full biblical text is included.",
"ISBN-13": "9780851107288",
"ISBN-10": "0851107281",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Calypso",
"Author": "David Sedaris",
"Year Read": 2020,
"Category": "Humor",
"Pages": 272,
"Tag": "humor, form, essays",
"Summary": "David Sedaris returns with his most deeply personal and darkly hilarious book.
If you've ever laughed your way through David Sedaris's cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you're getting with Calypso. You'd be wrong.
When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it's impossible to take a vacation from yourself.
With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny--it's a book that can make you laugh 'til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris's powers of observation have never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you realize that the story of your life is made up of more past than future.
This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumor joke. Calypso is simultaneously Sedaris's darkest and warmest book yet--and it just might be his very best.
",
"ISBN-13": "978-0316392389",
"ISBN-10": "0316392383",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports",
"Author": "Jeff Passan",
"Year Read": 2020,
"Category": "Sports",
"Pages": 384,
"Tag": "sports & recreation, baseball, health & safety",
"Summary": "
Yahoo’s lead baseball columnist offers an in-depth look at the most valuable commodity in sports—the pitching arm—and how its vulnerability to injury is hurting players and the game, from Little League to the majors.
Every year, Major League Baseball spends more than $1.5 billion on pitchers—five times more than the salary of every NFL quarterback combined. Pitchers are the game’s lifeblood. Their import is exceeded only by their fragility. One tiny band of tissue in the elbow, the ulnar collateral ligament, is snapping at unprecedented rates, leaving current big league players vulnerable and the coming generation of baseball-playing children dreading the three scariest words in the sport: Tommy John surgery.
Jeff Passan traveled the world for three years to explore in-depth the past, present, and future of the arm, and how its evolution left baseball struggling to wrangle its Tommy John surgery epidemic. He examined what compelled the Chicago Cubs to spend $155 million on one arm. He snagged a rare interview with Sandy Koufax, whose career was cut short by injury at thirty, and visited Japan to understand how another baseball-mad country treats its prized arms. And he followed two major league pitchers, Daniel Hudson and Todd Coffey, throughout their returns from Tommy John surgery. He exposes how the baseball establishment long ignored the rise in arm injuries and reveals how misplaced incentives across the sport stifle potential changes.
Injuries to the UCL start as early as Little League. Without a drastic cultural shift, baseball will continue to lose hundreds of millions of dollars annually to damaged pitchers, and another generation of children will suffer the same problems that vex current players. Informative and hard-hitting, The Arm is essential reading for everyone who loves the game, wants to keep their children healthy, or relishes a look into how a large, complex institution can fail so spectacularly.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0062400376", "ISBN-10": "0062400371", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Surprised by Oxford: A Memoir", "Author": "Carolyn Weber", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 480, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, religious, education", "Summary": "When Carolyn Weber set out to study Romantic literature at Oxford University, she didn't give much thought to God or spiritual matters--but over the course of her studies she encountered the Jesus of the Bible and her world turned upside down. Surprised by Oxford chronicles her conversion experience with wit, humor, and insight into how becoming a Christian changed her.
Carolyn Weber arrives at Oxford a feminist from a loving but broken family, suspicious of men and intellectually hostile to all things religious. As she grapples with her God-shaped void alongside the friends, classmates, and professors she meets, she tackles big questions in search of truth, love, and a life that matters.
From issues of fatherhood, feminism, doubt, doctrine, and love, Weber explores the intricacies of coming to faith with an aching honesty and insight echoing that of the poets and writers she studied. Surprised by Oxford is:
Weber eloquently describes a journey many of us have embarked upon, grappling with tough questions and doubts about the meaning of faith--and ultimately finding it in the most unlikely of places.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0849921834", "ISBN-10": "084992183X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Henry IV", "Author": "William Shakespeare", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Poetry", "Pages": 288, "Tag": "drama, shakespeare", "Summary": "The finest, most representative instance of what Shakespeare can do' Harold Bloom Christianity Today Book Award
The Gospel Coalition Book Award
\"I believe he descended to the dead.\"
The descent of Jesus Christ to the dead has been a fundamental tenet of the Christian faith, as indicated by its inclusion in both the Apostles' and Athanasian Creeds. Falling between remembrance of Christ's death on Good Friday and of his resurrection on Easter Sunday, this affirmation has been a cause for Christian worship and reflection on Holy Saturday through the centuries.
At the same time, the descent has been the subject of suspicion and scrutiny, perhaps especially from evangelicals, some of whom do not find support for it within Scripture and have even called for it to be excised from the creeds.
Against this conflicted landscape, Matthew Emerson offers an exploration of the biblical, historical, theological, and practical implications of the descent. Led by the mystery and wonder of Holy Saturday, he encourages those who profess faith in Christ to consider the whole work of our Savior.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830852581", "ISBN-10": "0830852581", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Epistle to Diognetus", "Author": "Church History, Incorporated", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 56, "Tag": "literary criticism, religion", "Summary": "The Epistle to Diognetus was not known until Henricus Stephanus published it in 1592. It was found in a thirteenth-century manuscript, the sole witness of its text, later lost in a fire. The title simply reads \"To Diognetus.\" The same manuscript stated that its author also wrote an oration called \"To Greeks.\" Stephanus attributed both works to Justin Martyr; however, most scholars have rejected Justin's authorship. A seventh-century Syriac manuscript ascribes \"To Greeks\" to a nobleman named Ambrosius. This is the only hint to the author's identity. It is unlikely that the work was addressed to Diognetus, Marcus Aurelius's tutor, for the opening phrase claims that the recipient was extremely interested in Christianity, which does not fit his character. Hence, an unknown Roman magistrate named Diognetus remains as mysterious as the author himself. The probable place of composition is Athens, like the Apology of Aristides, both works maintaining a simple but profound understanding of the faith, and both date from same period.The Didache, or \"teaching\", is a treasured gem in the crown of Christian writings, being as close a link as there is to Jesus' original teachings.
Written in the first or second century A.D. by early Jewish followers of Jesus, it mysteriously disappeared in the fifth century only to reappear again 1400 years later, in 1873. The Didache's remit was to disseminate early Christian ethics and rules of conduct to the gentiles, although it was never included in the canon of the New Testament. It is a short work in four parts: the first section, Chapters 1-6, are moral guidelines for converts; the second part gives advice on Christian ritual - such as baptism, fasting, and the Eucharist (Chapters 7-10); the third centres on the ministry and how to treat apostles, prophets, bishops, and deacons (Chapters 11-15); and the final section (Chapter 16) is eschatological in nature and speaks of Christ's second coming.
This easy-to-read translation by Hitchcock and Brown was the first English translation to be published and comes with both an introduction and notes.
", "ISBN-13": "9781911405948", "ISBN-10": "1911405942", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America", "Author": "Michael O. Emerson, Christian Smith", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "race relations_religious aspects_christianity, evangelicalism, united states_race relations", "Summary": "In recent years, the leaders of the American evangelical movement have brought their characteristic passion to the problem of race, notably in the Promise Keepers movement and in reconciliation theology. But the authors of this provocative new study reveal that despite their good intentions, evangelicals may actually be preserving America's racial chasm.The Epistle of Polycarp is usually made a sort of preface to those of Ignatius, for reasons which will be obvious to the reader. Yet he was born later, and lived to a much later period. They seem to have been friends from the days of their common pupilage under St. John; and there is nothing improbable in the conjecture of Usher, that he was the \"angel of the church in Smyrna,\" to whom the Master says, \"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.\" His pupil Irenæus gives us one of the very few portraits of an apostolic man which are to be found in antiquity, in a few sentences which are a picture: \"I could describe the very place in which the blessed Polycarp sat and taught; his going out and coming in; the whole tenor of his life; his personal appearance; how he would speak of the conversations he had held with John and with others who had seen the Lord. How did he make mention of their words and of whatever he had heard from them respecting the Lord.\" Thus he unconsciously tantalizes our reverent curiosity. Alas! that such conversations were not written for our learning. But there is a wise Providence in what is withheld, as well as in the inestimable treasures we have received.
", "ISBN-13": "978-1643734019", "ISBN-10": "1643734016", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Polycarp's Letter to the Philippians & His Martyrdom The Early Christians", "Author": "Church at Smyrna, St. Polycarp", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 38, "Tag": "religion, christianity, catholic", "Summary": "Glory to God for the men of old who endured the persecutions of this world with joy and faith. Much can be learned from those who have looked death in the face and yet remained true to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Polycarp was such a man who learned from the great apostle John. Even under the threat of death, he remained true to his beloved bridegroom, Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, amen! Even today, some 2000 years later, we have his own words and are able to learn from his wisdom. May you be blessed as you read this book. Amen.", "ISBN-13": "9781541021310", "ISBN-10": "1541021312", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Redemptive Reversals and the Ironic Overturning of Human Wisdom", "Author": "Gregory K. Beale", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "literary criticism, humor, religion", "Summary": "\"But many who are first will be last, and the last first.\"
--Matthew 19:30
The Bible is full of ironic situations in which God overturns the world's wisdom by doing the opposite of what is expected--people are punished by their own sin, the persecution of the church is the catalyst for its growth, Paul claims to have strength through weakness, and more. In this book, biblical scholar G. K. Beale explores God's pattern of divine irony in both judgment and salvation, finding its greatest expression in Jesus's triumph over death through death on a cross. Unpacking this pattern throughout redemptive history, Beale shows us how God often uses what is seemingly weak and foolish to underscore his own strength and power in the lives of his people today.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433563287", "ISBN-10": "1433563282", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Built to Win: Inside Stories and Leadership Strategies from Baseball's Winningest General Manager", "Author": "John Schuerholz, Larry Guest", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Sports", "Pages": 272, "Tag": "sports & recreation, coaching, baseball", "Summary": "In 2005, the Atlanta Braves won their unprecedented 14th straight National League East title. Behind this success has been the genius of John Schuerholz, whose anti-Moneyball philosophies kept the Braves among the elite teams in baseball for over a decade", "ISBN-13": "9780446578684", "ISBN-10": "0446578681", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament", "Author": "Sandra L. Richter", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 263, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, old testament", "Summary": "Does your knowledge of the Old Testament feel like a grab bag of people, books, events and ideas? How many times have you resolved to really understand the OT? To finally make sense of it?
Perhaps you are suffering from what Sandra Richter calls the \"dysfunctional closet syndrome.\" If so, she has a solution. Like a home-organizing expert, she comes in and helps you straighten up your cluttered closet. Gives you hangers for facts. A timeline to put them on. And handy containers for the clutter on the floor. Plus she fills out your wardrobe of knowledge with exciting new facts and new perspectives.
The whole thing is put in usable order--a history of God's redeeming grace. A story that runs from the Eden of the Garden to the garden of the New Jerusalem. Whether you are a frustrated do-it-yourselfer or a beginning student enrolled in a course, this book will organize your understanding of the Old Testament and renew your enthusiasm for studying the Bible as a whole.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830825776", "ISBN-10": "0830825770", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon", "Author": "David Grann", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 339, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, adventurers & explorers, history", "Summary": "A grand mystery reaching back centuries. A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon.Is Your Biggest Ministry Obstacle Writer's Block?
As an active member in ministry, writing is usually inevitable. Perhaps you approach these opportunities with excitement--or maybe you procrastinate to avoid the task altogether, your pages remaining forever blank. No matter how you feel about writing, approaching a project can be overwhelming. Knowing what to say can be as confusing as knowing where to begin.
Perhaps for you, the first step in the writing process is simply to demystify the writing process, to realize that you are capable of accomplishing your projects. If so, then Writing for Life and Ministry is for you. Seasoned writer and writing coach Brandon J. O'Brien examines the obstacles that often inhibit ministry leaders from thriving as writers. Most importantly, he simplifies the writing process, so it is both accessible and flexible to fit your style.
Don't let the craft of writing keep you from flourishing in your ministries. With this resource, you'll learn how to plan, draft, and revise. The included exercises will enable you to hone your craft and develop your skills. Best of all, you'll be ready to tackle that writing project you've been putting off with confidence.
Eugene H. Peterson speaks to Christians who realize the necessity for prayer and yearn for it but who find their prayer unconvincing and unsatisfying. Addressing the causes of this dissatisfaction, Answering God offers guidelines for using the Psalms as dynamic tools for prayer.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062046697", "ISBN-10": "0062046691", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Christ and Calamity: Grace and Gratitude in the Darkest Valley", "Author": "Harold L. Senkbeil", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 168, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "2021 Christianity Today Beautiful Orthodoxy Award of Merit
Lord, do you not care if we perish?
That's what the frightened disciples shouted to Jesus as he slept in the stern of a storm-tossed boat. In the midst of suffering and uncertainty, we're all prone to think that God has forgotten us, he doesn't care, or he's powerless to do anything.
In Christ and Calamity, Harold L. Senkbeil speaks pastorally to our suffering and uncertainty. Senkbeil shows God's constant and faithful grace to us. With Paul he encourages us: \"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you\" (1 Thess 5:16-18).
Calamities come in many different sizes, and God addresses them all in his word and by his Spirit. Even when we don't see or feel it, God is always faithful.
\"If I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me\" (Ps 139:9-10).
The disciples' faith in the midst of the storm may have been weak, but Jesus was mighty to save. And he will save you, too. No matter how small your faith, you can count on him to hear your anguished cry and to answer.
", "ISBN-13": "9781683594437", "ISBN-10": "1683594436", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Compassion (&) Conviction: The AND Campaign's Guide to Faithful Civic Engagement", "Author": "Justin Giboney, Michael Wear, Chris Butler", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 160, "Tag": "religion, religion, politics & state, political science", "Summary": " Christian Book Award® program
Outreach Resource of the Year
Have you ever felt too progressive for conservatives, but too conservative for progressives?
Too often, political questions are framed in impossible ways for the faithful Christian: we're forced to choose between social justice and biblical values, between supporting women and opposing abortion. As a result, it's easy for Christians to grow disillusioned with civic engagement or fall back into tribal extremes. This state of affairs has damaged Christian public witness and divided the church.
The authors of this book represent the AND Campaign, which exists to educate and organize Christians for faithful civic and cultural engagement. They insist that not only are we called to love our neighbors through the political process but also that doing so requires us to transcend the binary way the debates are usually framed. In simple, understandable language, they lay out the biblical case for political engagement and help Christians navigate the complex world of politics with integrity, from political messaging and the politics of race to protests, advocacy, and more. The book includes a study guide for classroom use and group discussion.
When we understand our civic engagement as a way to obey Christ's call to love our neighbor, we see that it is possible to engage the political process with both love and truth—compassion and conviction.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830848102", "ISBN-10": "083084810X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "My Vanishing Country: A Memoir", "Author": "Bakari Sellers", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 226, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, historical, political", "Summary": "New York Times Bestseller
What J. D. Vance did for Appalachia with Hillbilly Elegy, CNN analyst and one of the youngest state representatives in South Carolina history Bakari Sellers does for the rural South, in this important book that illuminates the lives of America's forgotten black working-class men and women.
Part memoir, part historical and cultural analysis, My Vanishing Country is an eye-opening journey through the South's past, present, and future.
Anchored in in Bakari Seller's hometown of Denmark, South Carolina, Country illuminates the pride and pain that continues to fertilize the soil of one of the poorest states in the nation. He traces his father's rise to become, friend of Stokely Carmichael and Martin Luther King, a civil rights hero, and member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) , to explore the plight of the South's dwindling rural, black working class--many of whom can trace their ancestry back for seven generations.
In his poetic personal history, we are awakened to the crisis affecting the other \"Forgotten Men & Women,\" who the media seldom acknowledges. For Sellers, these are his family members, neighbors, and friends. He humanizes the struggles that shape their lives: to gain access to healthcare as rural hospitals disappear; to make ends meet as the factories they have relied on shut down and move overseas; to hold on to precious traditions as their towns erode; to forge a path forward without succumbing to despair.
My Vanishing Country is also a love letter to fatherhood--to Sellers' father, his lodestar, whose life lessons have shaped him, and to his newborn twins, who he hopes will embrace the Sellers family name and honor its legacy.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062917454", "ISBN-10": "0062917455", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "For Heaven's Sake", "Author": "Peter Kreeft", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 191, "Tag": "religion, christian living", "Summary": "Book by Kreeft, Peter", "ISBN-13": "9780840754943", "ISBN-10": "0840754949", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61e1OHhul7L._SL1500_.jpg" }, { "Title": "They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South", "Author": "Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "History", "Pages": 296, "Tag": "history, united states, 19th century", "Summary": "Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History
A bold and searing investigation into the role of white women in the American slave economy
“Compelling.”—Renee Graham, Boston Globe
“Stunning.”—Rebecca Onion, Slate
“Makes a vital contribution to our understanding of our past and present.”—Parul Sehgal, New York Times
Bridging women’s history, the history of the South, and African American history, this book makes a bold argument about the role of white women in American slavery. Historian Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers draws on a variety of sources to show that slave‑owning women were sophisticated economic actors who directly engaged in and benefited from the South’s slave market. Because women typically inherited more slaves than land, enslaved people were often their primary source of wealth. Not only did white women often refuse to cede ownership of their slaves to their husbands, they employed management techniques that were as effective and brutal as those used by slave‑owning men. White women actively participated in the slave market, profited from it, and used it for economic and social empowerment. By examining the economically entangled lives of enslaved people and slave‑owning women, Jones-Rogers presents a narrative that forces us to rethink the economics and social conventions of slaveholding America.
", "ISBN-13": "9780300218664", "ISBN-10": "0300218664", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Telling the Truth: Evangelizing Postmoderns", "Author": "D. A. Carson", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 416, "Tag": "social sciences, religion, christianity", "Summary": "\"A pre-modern baseball umpire would have said something like this: 'There's balls, and there's strikes, and I call 'em as they are.' The modernist would have said, 'There's balls, and there's strikes, and I call 'em as I see 'em.' And the postmodernist umpire would say, 'They ain't nothing until I call 'em.'\" With that humorous quote, Ravi Zacharias illustrates the challenge postmodernism poses to Christians passionate about evangelism. How do you communicate truth to a world that isn't sure what truth is--or even if truth is? How do you commend spiritual absolutes to people who insist there are none? If you've puzzled, even struggled, over such questions, the book you hold in your hands is required reading, Telling the Truth provides informed insights on the heart of the Gospel, the soul of postmodern culture, and their complex interface. This book is a compilation of thoughts and strategies from twenty-nine prominent practitioners of contemporary evangelism. Originating at a three-day conference held at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Telling the Truth draws on knowledge gained in the trenches by Ravi Zacharias, Kelly Monroe, D.A. Carson, Ajith Fernando, and other notables. It will open your eyes to how the contest for souls is fought, guerilla-style, at a multitude of fronts: relationships, the university, ethnicity, reason and emotion, the pulpit, communications . . . in short, the broad spectrum of human experience and values. You'll be challenged to discern between the unchanging Gospel and the flexible means by which we communicate it. Telling the Truth can help you lay the groundwork necessary to point biblically uninformed, postmodern men and women toward an encounter with non-negotiable truth -- an absolute revealed in the Bible that points to the reality of sin and the need for a Savior.", "ISBN-13": "9780310860426", "ISBN-10": "0310860423", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen", "Author": "Jose Antonio Vargas", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, personal memoirs, social science", "Summary": "THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER
“This riveting, courageous memoir ought to be mandatory reading for every American.” —Michelle Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of The New Jim Crow
“l cried reading this book, realizing more fully what my parents endured.” —Amy Tan, New York Times bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club and Where the Past Begins
“This book couldn’t be more timely and more necessary.” —Dave Eggers, New York Times bestselling author of What Is the What and The Monk of Mokha
Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, called “the most famous undocumented immigrant in America,” tackles one of the defining issues of our time in this explosive and deeply personal call to arms.
“This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book––at its core––is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in. This book is about lying and being forced to lie to get by; about passing as an American and as a contributing citizen; about families, keeping them together, and having to make new ones when you can’t. This book is about constantly hiding from the government and, in the process, hiding from ourselves. This book is about what it means to not have a home.
After 25 years of living illegally in a country that does not consider me one of its own, this book is the closest thing I have to freedom.”
—Jose Antonio Vargas, from Dear America
", "ISBN-13": "9780062851352", "ISBN-10": "0062851357", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Write Better: A Lifelong Editor on Craft, Art, and Spirituality", "Author": "Andrew T. Le Peau", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Writing", "Pages": 272, "Tag": "language arts & disciplines, writing, nonfiction (incl. memoirs)", "Summary": "Christianity Today 2020 Book of the Year Award, Culture and the Arts
Writing is not easy. But it can get better.
In this primer on nonfiction writing, Andrew Le Peau offers insights he has learned as a published author and an editor for over forty years, training, guiding, and cheering on hundreds of writers. Here are skills that writers can master—from finding strong openings and closings, to focusing on an audience, to creating a clear structure, to crafting a persuasive message.
With wide-ranging examples from fiction and nonfiction, Le Peau also demystifies aspects of art in writing such as creativity, tone, and metaphor. He considers strategies that can move writers toward fresher, more vital, and perhaps more beautiful expressions of the human condition.
One aspect of writing that rarely receives attention is who we are as writers and how writing itself changes us. Self-doubt, fear of criticism, downsides of success, questions of authority, and finding our voice are all a part of the exploration of our spirituality as writers found in these pages. Discover how the act of writing can affect our life in God.
Whether you're a veteran writer, an occasional practitioner, a publishing professional, or a student just starting to explore such skills, Le Peau's wit and wisdom can speed you on your way.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830845699", "ISBN-10": "0830845690", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship", "Author": "Gail Caldwell", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 190, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, women, editors, journalists, publishers", "Summary": "\"It's an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too.\"With characteristic eloquence and insight, Buechner presents a three-part series of reflections that probe, through the course of one day, the innermost mysteries of life. Blending an artist's eye for natureal beauty, the true meaning of human encounters, and the significance of occurances (momentous or seemly trival), with a wealth of personal, literacy, biblical, and spiritual insights, he offers a matchless opportunity for readers to discover the hidden wisdom that can be gleaned through a heightened experience of daily life.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060611798", "ISBN-10": "0060611790", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Wild Iris", "Author": "Louise Glück", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Poetry", "Pages": 63, "Tag": "poetry, american", "Summary": "The poems in this collection are written in the language of flowers. Louise Gluck received the Pulitzer Prize for The Wild Iris in 1993, and has also received the National Book Critics Award for Poetry and the Poetry Society of America's Melville Kane Award.", "ISBN-13": "9781857542233", "ISBN-10": "1857542231", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope", "Author": "Esau McCaulley", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, exegesis & hermeneutics", "Summary": " Christian Book Award® program
Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Finalist
Outreach Resources of the Year
Christianity Today Book Award
The Gospel Coalition Book Award
Emerging Public Intellectual Award
Growing up in the American South, Esau McCaulley knew firsthand the ongoing struggle between despair and hope that marks the lives of some in the African American context. A key element in the fight for hope, he discovered, has long been the practice of Bible reading and interpretation that comes out of traditional Black churches. This ecclesial tradition is often disregarded or viewed with suspicion by much of the wider church and academy, but it has something vital to say.
Reading While Black is a personal and scholarly testament to the power and hope of Black biblical interpretation. At a time in which some within the African American community are questioning the place of the Christian faith in the struggle for justice, New Testament scholar McCaulley argues that reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition is invaluable for connecting with a rich faith history and addressing the urgent issues of our times. He advocates for a model of interpretation that involves an ongoing conversation between the collective Black experience and the Bible, in which the particular questions coming out of Black communities are given pride of place and the Bible is given space to respond by affirming, challenging, and, at times, reshaping Black concerns. McCaulley demonstrates this model with studies on how Scripture speaks to topics often overlooked by white interpreters, such as ethnicity, political protest, policing, and slavery.
Ultimately McCaulley calls the church to a dynamic theological engagement with Scripture, in which Christians of diverse backgrounds dialogue with their own social location as well as the cultures of others. Reading While Black moves the conversation forward.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830854868", "ISBN-10": "083085486X", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Dispatches from the Front: Stories of Gospel Advance in the World's Difficult Places", "Author": "Tim Keesee", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 240, "Tag": "religion, christianity, history", "Summary": "China, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq . . .
God is at work. Christians are testifying. The gospel is advancing.
In this captivating travelogue, a veteran missions mobilizer leads readers to experience global Christianity, exploring the faith and lives of Christians living in some of the world's most perilous countries.
The incredible accounts recorded here--stories that span the globe from China to Afghanistan--highlight the bold faith and sacrificial bravery of God's people. Ultimately, this book magnifies Christ's saving work in all the earth and encourages Christians to joyfully embrace their role in the gospel's unstoppable advance!
", "ISBN-13": "9781433540691", "ISBN-10": "143354069X", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul", "Author": "Eddie S. Glaude (Jr.)", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "History", "Pages": 274, "Tag": "history, united states, 21st century", "Summary": "A powerful polemic on the state of black America that savages the idea of a post-racial society.Preaching's 10 New Books Every Preacher Should Read
\"At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD\" (Genesis 4:26 ESV).
From this first mention of prayer in the Bible, right through to the end, when the church prays \"Come, Lord Jesus!\" (Revelation 22:20), prayer is intimately linked with the gospel—God's promised and provided solution to the problem of human rebellion against him and its consequences.
After defining prayer simply as \"calling on the name of the Lord,\" Gary Millar follows the contours of the Bible's teaching on prayer. His conviction is that even careful readers can often overlook significant material because it is deeply embedded in narrative or poetic passages where the main emphases lie elsewhere.
Millar's initial focus is on how \"calling on the name of the Lord\" to deliver on his covenantal promises is the foundation for all that the Old Testament says about prayer. Moving to the New Testament, he shows how this is redefined by Jesus himself, and how, after his death and resurrection, the apostles understood \"praying in the name of Jesus\" to be the equivalent new covenant expression. Throughout the Bible, prayer is to be primarily understood as asking God to deliver on what he has already promised—as Calvin expressed it, \"through the gospel our hearts are trained to call on God's name\" (Institutes 3.20.1).
This New Studies in Biblical Theology volume concludes his valuable study with an afterword offering pointers to application to the life of the church today.
Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830826391", "ISBN-10": "0830826394", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Anxious People: A Novel", "Author": "Fredrik Backman", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 352, "Tag": "fiction, humorous, literary", "Summary": "An instant #1 New York Times bestseller, the new novel from the author of A Man Called Ove is a “quirky, big-hearted novel….Wry, wise, and often laugh-out-loud funny, it’s a wholly original story that delivers pure pleasure” (People).\"I eagerly commend this series.\"
-- R. Albert Mohler Jr., President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Election seasons can cause division on a variety of issues. But what happens when you disagree with someone in your local church community? Authors Jonathan Leeman and Andy Naselli propose that Christians should learn how to disagree on such issues with a spirit of gracious understanding by recognizing the importance of what binds us together as a local church body--the gospel of Jesus Christ.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433571794", "ISBN-10": "143357179X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Book Your Pastor Wishes You Would Read But Is Too Embarrassed to Ask", "Author": "Christopher Ash", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, christian education, christian living", "Summary": "What do you think about your pastor? Do you chew over his sermons and wonder if they are clear and helpful? Do you feel he spends enough time with you? In fact, do you ever catch yourself wondering what he does all day?
The truth is, often we think, \"What can my pastor do for me?\" Far less often do we think, \"What can I do for my pastor?\"
Seasoned former pastor, Christopher Ash, urges church members to think about pastors not just in terms of what they do - how they lead and pray and preach and teach and so on - but about who they are. He encourages us to remember that pastors are people and to pray for them as they serve us.
Caring for our pastor will create a culture of true fellowship in our church family which will benefit everyone.
", "ISBN-13": "9781784983635", "ISBN-10": "1784983632", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Missions: How the Local Church Goes Global", "Author": "Andy Johnson", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, christian ministry, evangelism", "Summary": "Who is responsible for global missions?
Even though most Christians will never move overseas, the Bible enlists every Christian and every local church in the grand project of global missions. The local church is the engine of world missions. But where should a church begin?
Churches don't need a complicated missions program. They need the Bible and the wisdom to know how to apply it. This book points to Scripture and offers practical steps for training and supporting missionaries, forming international partnerships, sending short-term teams, and engaging the nations both at home and abroad.
Part of the 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches series.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433555701", "ISBN-10": "1433555700", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: It's Impossible to Be Spiritually Mature, While Remaining Emotionally Immature", "Author": "Peter Scazzero", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Psychology", "Pages": 231, "Tag": "psychology, psychopathology, compulsive behavior", "Summary": "MORE THAN 1 MILLION COPIES SOLD!
A road map for discipleship with Jesus that is powerfully transformative.
Peter Scazzero learned the hard way: you can't be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. Even though he was the pastor of a growing church, he did what most people do--avoid conflict in the name of Christianity; ignore his anger, sadness, and fear; use God to run from God; and live without boundaries.
Eventually God awakened him to a biblical integration of emotional health and the spiritual practice of slowing down and quieting your life for to experience a firsthand relationship with Jesus. It created nothing short of a spiritual revolution in Scazzero, in his church, and now in thousands of other churches.
In this updated edition, Scazzero shares new stories and principles as he outlines his journey and the signs of emotionally unhealthy spirituality. Then he provides seven biblical, reality-tested steps to become emotionally mature:
Plus, check out the full line of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality books dedicated to many different key areas of life. Workbooks, study guides, curriculum, and Spanish editions are also available.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310348498", "ISBN-10": "0310348498", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Devoted to God's Church: Core Values for Christian Fellowship", "Author": "Sinclair B. Ferguson", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 187, "Tag": "religion, christian church", "Summary": "Being a Christian is not an individualistic or isolated activity. Believing also involves belonging. Being a Christian, by definition, involves belonging to the church. This is not a book full of ideas about how your church ought to change or what it needs to do in order to grow or to be successful. Rather it is about how we fit into our own church. There are hallmarks of church life that should be stamped on all our churches because they are applicable everywhere and anywhere -- New Testament values for any size of church, in any part of the world, at any time. Devoted to God's Church will serve to help new Christians understand what it is to be part of a church, and will also be a refreshing reminder to every Christian of what it should look like to belong to the family of God.", "ISBN-13": "9781848719767", "ISBN-10": "1848719760", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Is This Anything?", "Author": "Jerry Seinfeld", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 480, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, entertainment & performing arts, performing arts", "Summary": "The first book in twenty-five years from Jerry Seinfeld features his best work across five decades in comedy.We live in a world full of shiny distractions, faced with an onslaught of viral media constantly competing for our attention and demanding our affections. These ever-present visual \"spectacles\" can quickly erode our hearts, making it more difficult than ever to walk through life actively treasuring that which is most important and yet invisible: Jesus Christ. In a journalistic style, Tony Reinke shows us just how distracting these spectacles in our lives have become and calls us to ask critical questions about what we're focusing on. The book offers us practical steps to redirect our gaze away from the addictive eye candy of the world and onto the Ultimate Spectacle--leading to the joy and rest our souls crave.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433563812", "ISBN-10": "1433563819", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Silence : A Novel", "Author": "Don DeLillo", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Art", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "art, history, contemporary (1945-)", "Summary": "Don DeLillo completed this novel just weeks before the advent of Covid-19. The Silence is the story of a different catastrophic event. Its resonances offer a mysterious solace. It is Super Bowl Sunday in the year 2022. Five people, dinner, an apartment on the east side of Manhattan. The retired physics professor and her husband and her former student waiting for the couple who will join them from what becomes a dramatic flight from Paris. The conversation ranges from a survey telescope in North-central Chile to a favorite brand of bourbon to Einstein's 1912 Manuscript on the Special Theory of Relativity. Then something happens and the digital connections that have transformed our lives are severed. What follows is a dazzling and profoundly moving conversation about what makes us human. Never has the art of fiction been such an immediate guide to our navigation of a bewildering world. Never have DeLillo's prescience, imagination, and language been more illuminating and essential.", "ISBN-13": "9781529057096", "ISBN-10": "1529057094", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Washington Black: A Novel", "Author": "Esi Edugyan", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 352, "Tag": "fiction, african american & black, historical", "Summary": "ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • “A gripping historical narrative exploring both the bounds of slavery and what it means to be truly free.” —Vanity FairMarilynne Robinson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, returns to the world of Gilead with Jack, the latest novel in one of the great works of contemporary American fiction
Jack tells the story of John Ames Boughton, the beloved, erratic, and grieved-over prodigal son of a Presbyterian minister in Gilead, Iowa. In segregated St. Louis sometime after World War II, Jack falls in love with Della Miles, an African American high school teacher who is also the daughter of a preacher--discerning, generous, and independent. Their fraught, beautiful romance is one of Robinson's greatest achievements.
The Gilead novels are about the dilemmas and promise of American history--about the ongoing legacy of the Civil War and the enduring impact of both racial inequality and deep-rooted religious belief. They touch the deepest chords in our national character and resonate with our deepest feelings.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0374911034", "ISBN-10": "0374911037", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Leave the World Behind: A Novel", "Author": "Rumaan Alam", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 241, "Tag": "fiction, action & adventure, fantasy", "Summary": "A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!
Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award (Fiction)
One of Barack Obama's Summer Favorites
A Best Book of the Year From: The Washington Post * Time * NPR * Elle * Esquire * Kirkus * Library Journal * The Chicago Public Library * The New York Public Library * BookPage * The Globe and Mail * EW.com * The LA Times * USA Today * InStyle * The New Yorker * AARP * Publisher's Lunch * LitHub * Book Marks * Electric Literature * Brooklyn Based * The Boston Globe
A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong.
From the bestselling author of Rich and Pretty comes a suspenseful and provocative novel keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped--and unexpected new ones are forged--in moments of crisis.
Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation: a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter, and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they've rented for the week. But a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. Ruth and G. H. are an older couple--it's their house, and they've arrived in a panic. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city. But in this rural area--with the TV and internet now down, and no cell phone service--it's hard to know what to believe.
Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple--and vice versa? What happened back in New York? Is the vacation home, isolated from civilization, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one other?
", "ISBN-13": "9780062667632", "ISBN-10": "0062667637", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Gospel According to Satan: Eight Lies about God That Sound Like the Truth", "Author": "Jared C. Wilson", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "religion, biblical criticism & interpretation, christian living", "Summary": "Not every lie sounds untrue.
Some lies are repeated so often they seem to be common sense. That's why lies about God are so dangerous. The Gospel According to Satan examines eight lies the enemy wants us to believe and provides eight lies of counterattack against them. The lies include:
Jared C. Wilson reveals why these lies appeal to us, shows how they harm us, and provides ways to counteract them. We can renounce Satan's counterfeit gospel, but first we must see it for what it is.
\"Enumerates the major ways the Devil uses his cunning and calculating ways of luring us off the narrow road of God's grace. We will all do well to read this book and confront the lies we are being sold.\"--Kyle Idleman, senior pastor of Southeast Christian Church and author of Not a Fan and Don't Give Up
\"A unique, compelling, and even witty look at the devil's current greatest hits--lies we urgently need to unmask.\" --Sam Allberry, speaker for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and author of 7 Myths About Singleness and Why Does God Care Who I Sleep With?
\"One of the most thought-provoking writers in the Christian world today... He doesn't just describe the tantalizing falsehoods of our age, he exposes how they've slithered into our hearts.\"--Matt Smethurst, managing editor at The Gospel Coalition and author of Before You Open Your Bible
", "ISBN-13": "9781400212040", "ISBN-10": "1400212049", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Plugged In: Connecting Your Faith with Everything You Watch, Read, and Play", "Author": "Daniel Strange", "Year Read": 2020, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "religion, christian education, christian living", "Summary": "Whether it's TV boxsets, Instagram stories or historical novels, we all consume culture. So it's important that we are neither bewitched by it--buying into everything it tells us--or bewildered by it--lashing out in judgment or retreating into a Christian bubble.
Dan Strange encourages Christians to engage with everything they watch, read and play in a positive and discerning way. He also teaches Christians how to think and speak about culture in a way that plugs in to a bigger and better reality--the story of King Jesus, and his cosmic plan for the world.
It's possible to watch TV and read novels and play video games in a way that actually feeds our faith, rather than withers it. It's even possible for you--yes, you--to be that person who starts off talking to a mate about last night's football and ends up talking about Jesus.
So be equipped to engage with culture in a way that helps your relationship with Christ and points others to him.
", "ISBN-13": "9781909919419", "ISBN-10": "1909919411", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Help! I'm Married to My Pastor: Encouragement for Ministry Wives and Those Who Love Them", "Author": "Jani Ortlund", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, christian living, women's interests", "Summary": "Ministry is hard. And every ministry wife needs--and deserves--encouragement.
A woman marries a man, not his ministry. But all too often her husband's calling complicates their life together. What if ministry life isn't what she bargained for? What happens when her children make mistakes? How does she deal with church gossip, or even slander?
As a pastor's wife of almost fifty years, Jani Ortlund addresses these questions, along with many others, as she offers encouragement and guidance to ministry wives. Jani reminds readers that God works out his delightfully good purposes in and through their sacrifices.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433569777", "ISBN-10": "1433569779", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World", "Author": "Tara Isabella Burton", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 288, "Tag": "social science, sociology of religion, religion", "Summary": "A sparklingly strange odyssey through the kaleidoscope of America's new spirituality: the cults, practices, high priests and prophets of our supposedly post-religion age.Whereas much of the current literature on pastoring stresses up-to-date training and new techniques stemming from the behavioral sciences, Eugene Peterson here calls for returning to an \"old\" resource--the Bible--as the basis for all of pastoral ministry.
Originally published in 1980 and now being reprinted to meet continuing demand, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work shows how five Old Testament books provide a solid foundation for much of what a pastor does:
Christianity Today Book Award
\"Wynn is my son. No little boy could be more loved by his parents. Inquisitive, fiercely affectionate, staunchly opinionated, he sees the world through eyes of wonder and has yet to become jaded by society's cruelty. I know he'll grow up with stories of having been made to feel 'other' because of the color of his skin. I want to teach him that, though life's unfair, he still has incomparable value in the eyes of his heavenly Father. I know this wondrous little person has the potential to change the world—and I want him to know it too.\"
In Mother to Son, Jasmine Holmes shares a series of powerful letters to her young son. These are about her journey as an African American Christian and what she wants her son to know as he grows and approaches the world as a black man. Holmes deals head-on with issues ranging from discipleship and marriage to biblical justice. She invites us to read over her shoulder as she reminds Wynn that his identity is firmly planted in the person and work of Jesus Christ, even when the topic is one as emotionally charged as race in America.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830832767", "ISBN-10": "0830832769", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Prayer in the Night", "Author": "Tish Harrison Warren", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "social sciences, religion, christianity", "Summary": "ECPA Christian Book of the Year; Christianity Today Book of the Year An Honest, Prayerful Approach to the Difficulty of Ordinary Life How can we trust God in the dark? Tish Harrison Warren, author of Liturgy of the Ordinary, explores themes of human vulnerability, suffering, and God's seeming absence. When she navigated a time of doubt and loss, the prayer was grounding for her. She writes that practices of prayer \"gave words to my anxiety and grief and allowed me to reencounter the doctrines of the church not as tidy little antidotes for pain, but as a light in darkness, as good news.\" In Prayer in the Night, you'll find: An exploration of the real struggles of everyday life, framed around a nighttime prayer of Compline Discussion questions to jumpstart group conversations, and Practices that offer practical, achievable ways to put Tish's wisdom into action. Where do you find comfort when you lie awake worrying or weeping in the night? This book offers a prayerful and frank approach to the difficulties in our ordinary lives at work, at home, and in a world filled with uncertainty.", "ISBN-13": "9780830846801", "ISBN-10": "0830846808", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Warren is a fantastic writer. She writes with a heart that feels deeply for the things of God and with a mind that thinks deeply about him too. This book on suffering is one I will revisit as my life shifts and shapes, because no matter what happens in life, suffering is a friend that visits us often. ", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity", "Author": "Eugene H. Peterson", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 137, "Tag": "religion, christian living, inspirational", "Summary": "American pastors, says Eugene Peterson, are abandoning their posts at an alarming rate. They are not leaving their churches and getting other jobs. Instead, they have become \"a company of shopkeepers, and the shops they keep are churches.\" Pastors and the communities they serve have become preoccupied with image and standing, with administration, measurable success, sociological impact, and economic viability.Africa has played a decisive role in the formation of Christian culture from its infancy. Some of the most decisive intellectual achievements of Christianity were explored and understood in Africa before they were in Europe. If this is so, why is Christianity so often perceived in Africa as a Western colonial import? How can Christians in Northern and sub-Saharan Africa, indeed how can Christians throughout the world, rediscover and learn from this ancient heritage? Theologian Thomas C. Oden offers a portrait that challenges prevailing notions of the intellectual development of Christianity from its early roots to its modern expressions. The pattern, he suggests, is not from north to south from Europe to Africa, but the other way around. He then makes an impassioned plea to uncover the hard data and study in depth the vital role that early African Christians played in developing the modern university, maturing Christian exegesis of Scripture, shaping early Christian dogma, modeling conciliar patterns of ecumenical decision-making, stimulating early monasticism, developing Neoplatonism, and refining rhetorical and dialectical skills. He calls for a wide-ranging research project to fill out the picture he sketches. It will require, he says, a generation of disciplined investigation, combining intensive language study with a risk-taking commitment to uncover the truth in potentially unreceptive environments. Oden envisions a dedicated consortium of scholars linked by computer technology and a common commitment that will seek to shape not only the scholar's understanding but the ordinary African Christian's self-perception.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830837052", "ISBN-10": "0830837051", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life", "Author": "Walter Isaacson", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 590, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, historical, political", "Summary": "In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Einstein and Steve Jobs, shows how the most fascinating of America's founders helped define our national character.In this groundbreaking book, Murthy argues that loneliness is the underpinning to the current crisis in mental wellness and is responsible for the upsurge in suicide, the opioid epidemic, the overuse of psych meds, the over-diagnosing and pathologizing of emotional and psychological struggle. The good news is that social connection is innate and a cure for loneliness. In Together, the 19th Surgeon General will address the importance of community and connection and offer viable and actionable solutions to this overlooked epidemic.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0062913296", "ISBN-10": "0062913298", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "A Burning in My Bones: The Authorized Biography of Eugene H. Peterson, Translator of the Message", "Author": "Winn Collier", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 368, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, religious, religion", "Summary": "This essential authorized biography of Eugene Peterson offers unique insights into the experiences and spiritual convictions of the iconic American pastor and beloved translator of The Message.\"In the time of a generation-wide breakdown in trust with leaders in every sphere of society, Eugene's quiet life of deep integrity and gospel purpose is a bright light against a dark backdrop.\"--John Mark Comer, author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
\"This hunger for something radical--something so true that it burned in his bones--was a constant in Eugene's life. His longing for God ignited a ferocity in his soul.\"
Encounter the multifaceted life of one of the most influential and creative pastors of the past half century with unforgettable stories of Eugene's lifelong devotion to his craft and love of language, the influences and experiences that shaped his unquenchable faith, the inspiration for his decision to translate The Message, and his success and struggles as a pastor, husband, and father.
Author Winn Collier was given exclusive access to Eugene and his materials for the production of this landmark work. Drawing from his friendship and expansive view of Peterson's life, Collier offers an intimate, beautiful, and earthy look into a remarkable life.
For Eugene, the gifts of life were inexhaustible: the glint of fading light over the lake; a kiss from his wife, Jan; a good joke; a bowl of butter pecan ice cream. As you enter into his story, you'll find yourself doing the same--noticing how the most ordinary things shimmer with a new and unexpected beauty.",
"ISBN-13": "9780735291621",
"ISBN-10": "0735291624",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "Each year I try to take an author and read through their corpus. The past two years have been interrupted by life, so I haven’t been able to stick with that plan. I didn’t even pick an author in 2021, but throughout the year i realized I was reading a lot of Eugene Peterson. I had never read anything by him before, so everything felt new and fresh to me. Then this great biography came out and I picked it up. What I found was a book that was about Peterson but also read like him. Some biographies tell you about the subject. Good ones helps you see the subject’s importance in the world. Great ones introduce to the subject himself. This one is the latter kind.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Deep Discipleship: How the Church Can Make Whole Disciples of Jesus",
"Author": "J. T. English",
"Year Read": 2021,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 224,
"Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth",
"Summary": "Everyone is being discipled. The question is: what is discipling us?
The majority of Christians today are being discipled by popular media, flashy events, and folk theology because churches have neglected their responsibility to make disciples. But the church is not a secondary platform in the mission of God; it is the primary platform God uses to grow people into the image of Jesus. Therefore, as church leaders, it is our primary responsibility to establish environments and relationships where people can be trained, grow, and be sent as disciples.
There are three indispensable elements of discipleship:
In this groundbreaking book, Keith Law, baseball writer for The Athletic and author of the acclaimed Smart Baseball, offers an era-spanning dissection of some of the best and worst decisions in modern baseball, explaining what motivated them, what can be learned from them, and how their legacy has shaped the game.
For years, Daniel Kahneman's iconic work of behavioral science Thinking Fast and Slow has been required reading in front offices across Major League Baseball. In this smart, incisive, and eye-opening book, Keith Law applies Kahneman's ideas about decision making to the game itself.
Baseball is a sport of decisions. Some are so small and routine they become the building blocks of the game itself--what pitch to throw or when to swing away. Others are so huge they dictate the future of franchises--when to make a strategic trade for a chance to win now, or when to offer a millions and a multi-year contract for a twenty-eight-year-old star. These decisions have long shaped the behavior of players, managers, and entire franchises. But as those choices have become more complex and data-driven, knowing what's behind them has become key to understanding the sport. This fascinating, revelatory work explores as never before the essential question: What were they thinking?
Combining behavioral science and interviews with executives, managers, and players, Keith Law analyzes baseball's biggest decision making successes and failures, looking at how gambles and calculated risks of all sizes and scales have shaped the sport, and how the game's ongoing data revolution is rewriting decades of accepted decision making. In the process, he explores questions that have long been debated, from whether throwing harder really increases a player's risk of serious injury to whether teams actually \"overvalue\" trade prospects.
Bringing his analytical and combative style to some of baseball's longest running debates, Law deepens our knowledge of the sport in this entertaining work that is both fun and deeply informative.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062942722", "ISBN-10": "0062942727", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness", "Author": "Eugene H. Peterson", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 207, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, christian living", "Summary": "Like Eugene Peterson's other books on pastoring, Under the Unpredictable Plant is full of stimulating insights, candid observations, and biblically grounded prescriptions. Yet this book emanates with a special poignancy out of Peterson's own crisis experience as a pastor.Fear is one of the strongest human emotions, and it is one that often baffles Christians.
\"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.\" --Proverbs 1:7
Fear is one of the strongest human emotions--and one that often baffles Christians. In the Bible the picture can seem equally confusing: Is fear a good thing or a bad thing? And what does it mean to \"fear the Lord\"?
In Rejoice and Tremble, Michael Reeves clears the clouds of confusion and shows that the fear of the Lord is not a negative thing at all, but an intensely delighted wondering at God, our Creator and Redeemer.
Also available as a concise version: What Does It Mean to Fear the Lord?
", "ISBN-13": "9781433565328", "ISBN-10": "1433565323", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "R. C. Sproul: A Life", "Author": "Stephen J. Nichols", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 400, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, religious, religion", "Summary": "Introducing the First Biography of the Life and Ministry of R. C. Sproul
R. C. Sproul (1939-2017) was a pastor, a professor, an author, and the founder and president of Ligonier Ministries. His contributions in the areas of biblical studies, theology, worldview and culture, Christian living, and church history continue to be held in high regard.
In this book, Stephen J. Nichols offers an in-depth look at Sproul's life and ministry--his childhood; his formative seminary education; his marriage and partnership with his beloved wife, Vesta; his influence on broader American evangelicalism; and his many friendships with key figures such as James Montgomery Boice, John MacArthur, John Piper, J. I. Packer, and Chuck Colson. This biography details the profound impact Sproul had on the lives of many during his lifetime, and highlights the various ways his legacy continues to influence countless pastors and students worldwide.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433544774", "ISBN-10": "1433544776", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Practicing Thankfulness: Cultivating a Grateful Heart in All Circumstances", "Author": "Sam Crabtree", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 144, "Tag": "religion, christian living, personal growth", "Summary": "Christians are called to be thankful.
What we believe about God is evident in how we exhibit thankfulness for all he has done. In this book, pastor Sam Crabtree encourages us to express glad-hearted thankfulness for God's unending provision in all circumstances. Through the daily practices of expressing gratitude--saying \"thank you\" to a neighbor, serving others in practical ways, or simply thanking God for his many gifts--we recognize the absolute and total lordship of God and his sovereignty over all things.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433569319", "ISBN-10": "1433569310", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "All the Pretty Horses: Border Trilogy 1", "Author": "Cormac McCarthy", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 320, "Tag": "fiction, literary, westerns", "Summary": "NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The first volume in the Border Trilogy, from the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Road\"Well done, good and faithful servant.\" Every ministry leader wants to hear these words when they meet their Lord. But what does successful ministry look like?
There are many books on leadership strategies and church structures, but this one looks at what matters most: the character and attitude of church leaders. It recognizes that the spiritual health of the church leaders in large part determines the spiritual health of the congregation and therefore the success of the ministry.
In this short, punchy, challenging and at times surprising book, Rico Tice draws on decades of experience in church leadership to call fellow pastors and others with oversight of areas of church ministry to define success biblically, fight their sin, lead themselves and serve their churches.
A must-read on pastoral leadership for pastors, elders, worship leaders, youth leaders and anyone else with a leadership role in church ministry.
", "ISBN-13": "9781784985806", "ISBN-10": "1784985805", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Dreaming the Beatles: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole World", "Author": "Rob Sheffield", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Memoir", "Pages": 384, "Tag": "music, history & criticism, biography & autobiography", "Summary": "NPR Best Book of 2017
Winner of the 2017 Virgil Thomson Award for Outstanding Music Criticism
“This is the best book about the Beatles ever written” —Mashable
Rob Sheffield, the Rolling Stone columnist and bestselling author of Love Is a Mix Tape offers an entertaining, unconventional look at the most popular band in history, the Beatles, exploring what they mean today and why they still matter so intensely to a generation that has never known a world without them.
Dreaming the Beatles is not another biography of the Beatles, or a song-by-song analysis of the best of John and Paul. It isn’t another exposé about how they broke up. It isn’t a history of their gigs or their gear. It is a collection of essays telling the story of what this ubiquitous band means to a generation who grew up with the Beatles music on their parents’ stereos and their faces on T-shirts. What do the Beatles mean today? Why are they more famous and beloved now than ever? And why do they still matter so much to us, nearly fifty years after they broke up?
As he did in his previous books, Love is a Mix Tape, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, and Turn Around Bright Eyes, Sheffield focuses on the emotional connections we make to music. This time, he focuses on the biggest pop culture phenomenon of all time—The Beatles. In his singular voice, he explores what the Beatles mean today, to fans who have learned to love them on their own terms and not just for the sake of nostalgia.
Dreaming the Beatles tells the story of how four lads from Liverpool became the world’s biggest pop group, then broke up—but then somehow just kept getting bigger. At this point, their music doesn’t belong to the past—it belongs to right now. This book is a celebration of that music, showing why the Beatles remain the world’s favorite thing—and how they invented the future we’re all living in today.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062207661", "ISBN-10": "0062207660", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I used to think the Beatles were overrated. The popish songs of their early days felt cheap and shallow. But maybe the problem was I just never met a real Beatles fan. If I had, maybe seeing the band from a fan’s eyes would open mine. Sheffield is about as big of a fan as one could find. This book is really nothing more than a series of essays on his love for the Beatles. I picked it up while on vacation in Florida and read it in between shuffling the kids from the beach to the pool. It was the perfect beach read. Easy. Light. Funny. Engaging. And now I listen to the Beatles a lot. One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year was McCartney’s newly released book of lyrics.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Eat a Peach: A Memoir", "Author": "David Chang, Gabe Ulla", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 304, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, culinary, cooking", "Summary": "NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the chef behind Momofuku and star of Netflix’s Ugly Delicious—an intimate account of the making of a chef, the story of the modern restaurant world that he helped shape, and how he discovered that success can be much harder to understand than failure.Davis brings cultural and historical colour to the task of interpreting one of the most studied parts of the Bible. The lessons in 2 Samuel from the life of Israel, and David in particular, have obvious modern parallels. Davis writes with a pastor's heart AND the incisive brain of a respected theologian specialising in the Old Testament texts.
", "ISBN-13": "9781845502706", "ISBN-10": "1845502701", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Living the Resurrection: The Risen Christ in Everyday Life", "Author": "Eugene H. Peterson", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 151, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, new testament", "Summary": "God Made You for Resurrection LifeCharles Spurgeon, widely hailed as the \"Prince of Preachers,\" is well known for his powerful preaching, gifted mind, and compelling personality. Over the course of nearly four decades at London's famous New Park Street Chapel and Metropolitan Tabernacle, Spurgeon preached and penned words that continue to resonate with God's people today.
Organized around the main beliefs that undergirded his ministry--the centrality of Christ, the importance of the new birth, the indwelling of the Spirit, and the necessity of the Bible--this introduction to Spurgeon's life and thought will challenge readers to live their lives for the glory of God.
Part of the Theologians on the Christian Life series.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433543876", "ISBN-10": "1433543877", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Hearers and Doers: A Pastor's Guide to Making Disciples Through Scripture and Doctrine", "Author": "Kevin J. Vanhoozer", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 296, "Tag": "religion, christian living, christian ministry", "Summary": "The foundation of discipleship is sound, scriptural doctrine.ECPA Christian Book Award Finalist
YourBattle againstPornIsn'taboutPorn. It'saboutHope.
Pornography may seem inescapable, but God can free us from its destructive power. The gospel replaces the dehumanizing lies of pornography with this surprising truth: God created us as royalty. How then can we reclaim our God-given identity to take a stand against—and ultimately starve—the predatory porn industry?
In The Death of Porn, Ray Ortlund writes six personal letters, as from a father to his son. Ideal for individuals and small groups, it will give hope to menwho have been misled by porn into devaluing themselves and others. Through Scripture and personal stories, Ortlund assures readers that God loves them the most tenderly in their moments of deepest shame. The Death of Porn inspires men to come together in new ways to fight the injustice of porn and build a world of nobility for every man and woman—for the sake of future generations.
One of the most terrifying stories of the twentieth century, Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” created a sensation when it was first published in The New Yorker in 1948.
\"Power and haunting,\" and \"nights of unrest\" were typical reader responses. Today it is considered a classic work of short fiction, a story remarkable for its combination of subtle suspense and pitch-perfect descriptions of both the chilling and the mundane.
The Lottery and Other Stories, the only collection of stories to appear during Shirley Jackson's lifetime, unites \"The Lottery\" with twenty-four equally unusual short stories. Together they demonstrate Jackson's remarkable range—from the hilarious to the horrible, the unsettling to the ominous—and her power as a storyteller.
\"God's eternal plan for us involves our body. We can't write off our physical life as spiritually irrelevant.\" --Sam Allberry
There's a danger in focusing too much on the body. There's also a danger in not valuing it enough. In fact, the Bible has lots to say about the body. With the coming of Jesus, \"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us\"--flesh that was pierced and crushed for the sins of the world.
In What God Has to Say about Our Bodies, Sam Allberry explains that all of us are fearfully and wonderfully made, and should regard our physicality as a gift. He offers biblical guidance for living, including understanding gender, sexuality, and identity; dealing with aging, illness, and death; and considering the physical future hope that we have in Christ.
In this powerfully written book, you'll gain a new understanding for the immeasurable value of our bodies and God's ultimate plan to redeem them.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433570155", "ISBN-10": "1433570157", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life", "Author": "Steve Martin", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, entertainment & performing arts, performing arts", "Summary": "The riveting, mega-bestselling, beloved and highly acclaimed memoir of a man, a vocation, and an era named one of the ten best nonfiction titles of the year by Time and Entertainment Weekly.There's a strong biblical connection between people and trees. They both come from dirt. They're both told to bear fruit. In fact, arboreal language is so often applied to humans that it's easy to miss, whether we're talking about family trees, passing along our seed, cutting someone off like a branch, being rooted to a place, or bearing the fruit of the Spirit. It's hard to deny that trees mean something, theologically speaking.
This book is in many ways a memoir, but it's also an attempt to wake up the reader to the glory of God shining through his creation.
One of the first commands to Adam and Eve was to \"work and keep\" the garden. Award-winning author and songwriter Andrew Peterson, being as honest as possible, shares a story of childhood, grief, redemption, and peace, by walking through a forest of memories: \"I trust that by telling my story, you'll encounter yours. Hopefully, like me, you'll see that the God of the Garden is and has always been present, working and keeping what he loves.\"
Sometimes he plants, sometimes he prunes, but in his goodness he intends to reap a harvest of righteousness.
You've heard people say, \"Who you are matters more than what you do.\" But does the Bible really teach us that Join pastor and bestselling author John Mark Comer in Garden City as he guides twenty- and thirty-somethings through understanding and embracing their God-given calling.
In Garden City, John Mark Comer gives a surprisingly countercultural take on the typical \"spiritual\" answer the church gives in response to questions about purpose and calling. Comer explores Scripture to discover God's original intent for how we're meant to spend our time, reshaping how you view and engage in your work, rest, and life.
In these pages, you'll learn that, ultimately, what we do matters just as much as who we are. Garden City will help you find answers to questions like:
Praise for Garden City:
\"In Garden City, John Mark Comer takes the reader on a journey--from creation to the final heavenly city. But the journey is designed to let each of us see where we are to find ourselves in God's good plan to partner with us in the redemption of all creation. There is in Garden City an intoxication with the Bible's biggest and life-changing ideas.\"
--Scot McKnight, Julius R. Mantey Professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary
", "ISBN-13": "978-0310337348", "ISBN-10": "0310337348", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Love Me Anyway: How God's Perfect Love Fills Our Deepest Longing", "Author": "Jared C. Wilson", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "There may be no more powerful desire in the human heart than to be loved. And not just loved, but loved anyway. In spite of what we've done or left undone, in spite of the ways we have failed or floundered. We long for an unconditional, lavish love that we know intrinsically we don't deserve.\"Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.\" --2 Peter 3:18
How do Christians grow? Few question the call of the Bible to grow in godliness, but the answer to exactly how this happens is often elusive.
In this book, Dane Ortlund points believers to Christ, making the case that sanctification does not happen by doing more or becoming better, but by going deeper into the wondrous gospel truths that washed over them when they were first united to him.
Drawing on wisdom from figures throughout church history, Ortlund encourages readers to fix their gaze on Jesus in the battle against sin, casting themselves upon his grace and living out their invincible identity in Christ.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433573996", "ISBN-10": "1433573997", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Canterbury Tales", "Author": "Geoffrey Chaucer", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 1328, "Tag": "fiction, anthologies (multiple authors), classics", "Summary": "One of the greatest and most ambitious works in English literature, in the original Middle EnglishPaperback: 320 pages Publisher: Inter Varsity Press ? Language: English ISBN-10: 0851109551 ISBN-13: 978-0851109558 Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
", "ISBN-13": "9780851109558", "ISBN-10": "0851109551", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Lead: 12 Gospel Principles for Leadership in the Church (with Study Questions)", "Author": "Paul David Tripp", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "religion, christian ministry, pastoral resources", "Summary": "Leadership Principles for Pastors and Leaders Navigating the Challenges of Pastoral Ministry
The church is experiencing a leadership crisis. For every celebrity pastor exiting in the spotlight, there are hundreds of lesser-known pastors leaving in the shadows. Why are so many pastors leaving the ministry? Bestselling author Paul David Tripp suggests that lurking behind the failure of a pastor is a weak leadership community.
Turning to Scripture for guidance, Tripp presents readers with 12 leadership-community principles necessary for a gospel-centered leadership model. Here is a book with a message for those new to ministry as well as those experienced in it--God's abiding presence is your hope in leadership.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NEW YORK
\"An enjoyable romp that vividly captures the manic ups and downs of the remarkable group of funny folk who gave us a golden age of small and big screen comedy, from SNL to Groundhog Day.\"--Peter Biskind, author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
Wild and Crazy Guys opens in 1978 with Chevy Chase and Bill Murray taking bad-tempered swings at each other backstage at Saturday Night Live, and closes 21 years later with the two doing a skit in the same venue, poking fun at each other, their illustrious careers, triumphs and prat falls. In between, Nick de Semlyen takes us on a trip through the tumultuous '80s, delving behind the scenes of movies such as National Lampoon's Vacation, Beverly Hills Cop, The Blues Brothers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and dozens more. Chronicling the off-screen, larger-than-life antics of Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, John Belushi, John Candy, and Rick Moranis, it's got drugs, sex, punch-ups, webbed toes, and Bill Murray being pushed into a swimming pool by Hunter S. Thompson while tied to a lawn chair. What's not to like?
Based on candid interviews from many of the stars themselves, as well as those in their immediate orbit, including directors John Landis, Carl Reiner, and Amy Heckerling, Wild and Crazy Guys is a fantastic insider account of the friendships, feuds, triumphs, and disasters experienced by these beloved comedians. Hilarious and revealing, it is both a hidden history of the most fertile period ever for screen comedy and a celebration of some of the most popular films of all time.
Praise for Wild and Crazy Guys
\"Eminently readable . . . Children of the 1980s, take note: this is a fond, engrossing look back at the making of movies that became cultural touchstones.\"--Booklist (starred review)
\"Nick de Semlyen smartly charts the pinballing career paths of the stars of this new comic wave. . . . His punchy, nonstop narrative . . . tells a [story] where art and commerce smash hard against each other, sometimes causing destruction, but sometimes making sparks fly.\"--The Sunday Times (UK)",
"ISBN-13": "9781984826640",
"ISBN-10": "1984826646",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Hidden Christmas: The Surprising Truth Behind the Birth of Christ",
"Author": "Timothy Keller",
"Year Read": 2021,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 160,
"Tag": "religion, holidays, christmas & advent",
"Summary": "From pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller comes the perfect gift for the Christmas holiday—a profoundly moving and intellectually provocative examination of the nativity story
Even people who are not practicing Christians think they are familiar with the story of the nativity. Every Christmas displays of Baby Jesus resting in a manger decorate lawns and churchyards, and songs about shepherds and angels fill the air. Yet despite the abundance of these Christian references in popular culture, how many of us have examined the hard edges of this biblical story?
In his new book Timothy Keller takes readers on an illuminating journey into the surprising background of the nativity. By understanding the message of hope and salvation within the Bible’s account of Jesus’ birth, readers will experience the redeeming power of God’s grace in a deeper and more meaningful way.",
"ISBN-13": "9780735221659",
"ISBN-10": "0735221650",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis",
"Author": "Alan Jacobs",
"Year Read": 2021,
"Category": "History",
"Pages": 256,
"Tag": "history, wars & conflicts, world war ii",
"Summary": "By early 1943, it had become increasingly clear that the Allies would win the Second World War. Around the same time, it also became increasingly clear to many Christian intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic that the soon-to-be-victorious nations were not culturally or morally prepared for their success. A war won by technological superiority merely laid the groundwork for a post-war society governed by technocrats. These Christian intellectuals - Jacques Maritain, T. S. Eliot, C. S. Lewis, W. H. Auden, and Simone Weil, among others - sought both to articulate a sober and reflective critique of their own culture and to outline a plan for the moral and spiritual regeneration of their countries in the post-war world. In this book, Alan Jacobs explores the poems, novels, essays, reviews, and lectures of these five central figures, in which they presented, with great imaginative energy and force, pictures of the very different paths now set before the Western democracies. Working mostly separately and in ignorance of one another's ideas, the five developed a strikingly consistent argument that the only means by which democratic societies could be prepared for their world-wide economic and political dominance was through a renewal of education that was grounded in a Christian understanding of the power and limitations of human beings. The Year of Our Lord 1943 is the first book to weave together the ideas of these five intellectuals and shows why, in a time of unprecedented total war, they all thought it vital to restore Christianity to a leading role in the renewal of the Western democracies.",
"ISBN-13": "9780190864651",
"ISBN-10": "0190864656",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Harlem Shuffle: A Novel",
"Author": "Colson Whitehead",
"Year Read": 2021,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 336,
"Tag": "fiction, literary, thrillers",
"Summary": "NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, this gloriously entertaining novel is “fast-paced, keen-eyed and very funny ... about race, power and the history of Harlem all disguised as a thrill-ride crime novel\" (San Francisco Chronicle).
\"Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked...\" To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver's Row don't approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it's still home.
Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time.
Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn't ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn't ask questions, either.
Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the \"Waldorf of Harlem\"—and volunteers Ray's services as the fence. The heist doesn't go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes.
Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs?
Harlem Shuffle's ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It's a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem.
But mostly, it's a joy to read, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Colson Whitehead.",
"ISBN-13": "9780385545136",
"ISBN-10": "0385545134",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World",
"Author": "Alan Noble",
"Year Read": 2021,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 232,
"Tag": "religion, christian living, social issues",
"Summary": "
The Gospel Coalition Book Awards Honorable Mention
\"You are your own, and you belong to yourself.\"
This is the fundamental assumption of modern life. And if we are our own, then it's up to us to forge our own identities and to make our lives significant. But while that may sound empowering, it turns out to be a crushing responsibility—one that never actually delivers on its promise of a free and fulfilled life, but instead leaves us burned out, depressed, anxious, and alone. This phenomenon is mapped out onto the very structures of our society, and helps explain our society's underlying disorder.
But the Christian gospel offers a strikingly different vision. As the Heidelberg Catechism puts it, \"I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.\" In You Are Not Your Own, Alan Noble explores how this simple truth reframes the way we understand ourselves, our families, our society, and God. Contrasting these two visions of life, he invites us past the sickness of contemporary life into a better understanding of who we are and to whom we belong.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830847822", "ISBN-10": "0830847820", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Alan Noble understands our age. He gets inside one of the common messages we hear every day, “you are not your own.” He counters, of course, with scripture. But before he gets there, he lays the foundation of the world in which we live so that when we hear God’s word in the face of our current situation, we’re ready for answers. It’s a book well worth reading and thinking about for a while.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Show Your Work! 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered", "Author": "Austin Kleon", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Writing", "Pages": 215, "Tag": "business & economics, business communication, entrepreneurship", "Summary": "In his New York Times bestseller Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon showed readers how to unlock their creativity by stealing from the community of other movers and shakers. Now, in an even more forward-thinking and necessary book, he shows how to take that critical next step on a creative journey getting known. Show Your Work! is about why generosity trumps genius. It s about getting findable, about using the network instead of wasting time networking. It s not self-promotion, it s self-discovery let others into your process, then let them steal from you. Filled with illustrations, quotes, stories, and examples, Show Your Work! offers ten transformative rules for being open, generous, brave, productive. In chapters such as You Don t Have to Be a Genius; Share Something Small Every Day; and Stick Around, Kleon creates a user s manual for embracing the communal nature of creativity what he calls the ecology of talent. From broader life lessons about work (you can t find your voice if you don t use it) to the etiquette of sharing and the dangers of oversharing to the practicalities of Internet life (build a good domain name; give credit when credit is due), it s an inspiring manifesto for succeeding as any kind of artist or entrepreneur in the digital age.\"", "ISBN-13": "9780606356398", "ISBN-10": "0606356398", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "God of All Things: Rediscovering the Sacred in an Everyday World", "Author": "Andrew Wilson", "Year Read": 2021, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "religion, christian living, devotional", "Summary": "Abstract theology is overrated. In the contemporary West, we're desperately in need of rediscovering God through ordinary, physical things we see in the world around us. Jesus did it all the time. He mentioned a lily, sparrow, sheep, coin, fish, harvest, banquet, lamp, stone, seed, and vineyard to teach about the kingdom of God. In the Old Testament, too, God repeatedly describes himself and his saving work in relation to physical things such as a rock, horn, eagle, shelter, cedar, lion, shield, wave, ox, and so on. \"Ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you\" (Job 12:7-8). In God of All Things, pastor and author Andrew Wilson explores glimpses of the sacred in created things, finding in them illustrations of the character and gospel of God. As humans, we encounter glory through stars and awe through storms. We learn about humanity through dust and about Jesus's death on our behalf through trees and bread and wine. Ultimately, we meet God in his creation. It is a gallery full of sketches, paintings, and portraits revealing our Maker and Savior. Wilson presents a variety of created marvels--from figs and galaxies to viruses, pigs, and honey--that reveal the gospel in everyday life and fuel worship and joy in God. --", "ISBN-13": "9780310109082", "ISBN-10": "0310109086", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "An Authentic Narrative Of Some Remarkable And Interesting Particulars In The Life Of John Newton", "Author": "John Newton, Richard Cecil", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 512, "Tag": "literature & fiction, literary", "Summary": "
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
This work is in the \"public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
", "ISBN-13": "9781017756098", "ISBN-10": "1017756090", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Interior Chinatown: A Novel", "Author": "Charles Yu", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 288, "Tag": "fiction, asian american, cultural heritage", "Summary": "NOW A HULU ORIGINAL SERIES • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • “A shattering and darkly comic send-up of racial stereotyping in Hollywood” (Vanity Fair) and a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.Preaching Magazine's Year's Best Book for Preachers
Creation in six days
Woman from the side of man
\"Sons of god\" taking \"daughters of men\"
A massive disaster and an animal rescue boat of biblical proportions
Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and the ongoing saga of a dysfunctional family
These are just a few of the episodes that Genesis conjures up. But we miss the point if we focus on what seems strange to us. And we distort the message if we demand that this book answer questions that are strange to it. To read Genesis intelligently, we must consider the questions, the literature and the times in which Genesis was written.
In How to Read Genesis Tremper Longman III provides a welcome guide to reading and studying, understanding and savoring this panorama of beginnings--of both the world and of Israel. And importantly for Christian readers, we gain insight into how Genesis points to Christ and can be read in light of the gospel.
", "ISBN-13": "9780877849438", "ISBN-10": "0877849439", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Last Best Hope America in Crisis and Renewal", "Author": "George Packer", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Sociology", "Pages": 240, "Tag": "social science, social classes & economic disparity, political science", "Summary": "One of The New York Times's 100 notable books of 2021
\"[George Packer's] account of America’s decline into destructive tribalism is always illuminating and often dazzling.\" —William Galston, The Washington Post
Acclaimed National Book Award-winning author George Packer diagnoses America’s descent into a failed state, and envisions a path toward overcoming our injustices, paralyses, and divides
In the year 2020, Americans suffered one rude blow after another to their health, livelihoods, and collective self-esteem. A ruthless pandemic, an inept and malign government response, polarizing protests, and an election marred by conspiracy theories left many citizens in despair about their country and its democratic experiment. With pitiless precision, the year exposed the nation’s underlying conditions—discredited elites, weakened institutions, blatant inequalities—and how difficult they are to remedy.
In Last Best Hope, George Packer traces the shocks back to their sources. He explores the four narratives that now dominate American life: Free America, which imagines a nation of separate individuals and serves the interests of corporations and the wealthy; Smart America, the world view of Silicon Valley and the professional elite; Real America, the white Christian nationalism of the heartland; and Just America, which sees citizens as members of identity groups that inflict or suffer oppression.
In lively and biting prose, Packer shows that none of these narratives can sustain a democracy. To point a more hopeful way forward, he looks for a common American identity and finds it in the passion for equality—the “hidden code”—that Americans of diverse persuasions have held for centuries. Today, we are challenged again to fight for equality and renew what Alexis de Tocqueville called “the art” of self-government. In its strong voice and trenchant analysis, Last Best Hope is an essential contribution to the literature of national renewal.
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
*Includes an interview with James Hollis*
“Provocative and appealing . . . Well worth your extremely limited time.” —Barbara Spindel, The Wall Street Journal
There’s a good reason why everyone has been talking about Oliver Burkeman’s New York Times bestseller, Four Thousand Weeks. Nobody needs to be told there isn’t enough time. Whether we’re starting our own business, or trying to write a novel during our lunch break, or staring down a pile of deadlines as we’re planning a vacation, we’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and ceaseless struggle against distraction. We’re deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient and life hacks to optimize our days. But such techniques often end up making things worse. The sense of anxious hurry grows more intense, and yet the most meaningful parts of life seem to lie just beyond the horizon. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks, the average length of a human life.
Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern obsession with “getting everything done,” Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing that many of the unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time aren’t inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we’ve made as individuals and as a society—and that we can do things differently.
Foreword by Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson
From a top mental conditioning coach--\"the world's best brain trainer\" (Sports Illustrated)--who has transformed the lives and careers of elite athletes, business leaders, and military personnel, battle-tested strategies that will give you tools to manage and overcome negativity and achieve any goal.
He knows how to win.
More, he knows the many ways-subtle, brutal, often self-inflicted-we lose.
As the most trusted mental coach in the world of sports, Trevor Moawad has worked with many of the most dominant athletes and the savviest coaches. From Nick Saban and Kirby Smart to Russell Wilson, they all look to Moawad for help finding or keeping or regaining their competitive edge. (As do countless business leaders and members of special forces.)
Now, at last, Moawad shares his unique philosophy with the general public. He lays out lessons he's derived from his greatest career successes as well as personal setbacks, the game-changing wisdom he's earned as the go-to whisperer for elite performers on fields of play and among men and women headed to the battlefield.
Moawad's motivational approach is elegant but refreshingly simple: He replaces hardwired negativity, the kind of defeatist mindset that's nearly everybody's default, with what he calls \"neutral thinking.\" His own special innovation, it's a nonjudgmental, nonreactive way of coolly assessing problems and analyzing crises, a mode of attack that offers luminous clarity and supreme calm in the critical moments before taking decisive action.
Not only can neutral thinking raise your performance level-it can transform your overall life. And it all starts, Moawad says, with letting go. Past failures, past losses-let them go. \"The past isn't predictive. If you can absorb and embrace that belief, everything changes. You'll instantly feel more calm. And the athlete-or employee or parent or spouse-who's more calm is also more aware, and more times than not ... will win.\"
", "ISBN-13": "9780062947123", "ISBN-10": "0062947125", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Infinite Baseball: Notes from a Philosopher at the Ballpark", "Author": "Alva Noë", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Philosophy", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "philosophy, ethics & moral philosophy, religion", "Summary": "Baseball is a strange sport: it consists of long periods in which little seems to be happening, punctuated by high-energy outbursts of rapid fire activity. Because of this, despite ever greater profits, Major League Baseball is bent on finding ways to shorten games, and to tailor baseball to today's shorter attention spans. But for the true fan, baseball is always compelling to watch -and intellectually fascinating. It's superficially slow-pace is an opportunity to participate in the distinctive thinking practice that defines the game. If baseball is boring, it's boring the way philosophy is boring: not because there isn't a lot going on, but because the challenge baseball poses is making sense of it all.In this deeply entertaining book, philosopher and baseball fan Alva No� explores the many unexpected ways in which baseball is truly a philosophical kind of game. For example, he ponders how observers of baseball are less interested in what happens, than in who is responsible for what happens; every action receives praise or blame. To put it another way, in baseball - as in the law - we decide what happened based on who is responsible for what happened. Noe also explains the curious activity of keeping score: a score card is not merely a record of the game, like a video recording; it is an account of the game. Baseball requires that true fans try to tell the story of the game, in real time, as it unfolds, and thus actively participate in its creation.
Some argue that baseball is fundamentally a game about numbers. Noe's wide-ranging, thoughtful observations show that, to the contrary, baseball is not only a window on language, culture, and the nature of human action, but is intertwined with deep and fundamental human truths. The book ranges from the nature of umpiring and the role of instant replay, to the nature of the strike zone, from the rampant use of surgery to controversy surrounding performance enhancing drugs. Throughout, Noe's observations are surprising and provocative.
Infinite Baseball is a book for the true baseball fan.
",
"ISBN-13": "9780190928186",
"ISBN-10": "0190928182",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Suffering Wisely and Well: The Grief of Job and the Grace of God",
"Author": "Eric Ortlund",
"Year Read": 2022,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 192,
"Tag": "religion, biblical criticism & interpretation, biblical studies",
"Summary": "
Why Suffering Exists: God's Purpose for Pain in the Life of Job and throughout Scripture
Why does God allow suffering? The pain of suffering can be overwhelmingly mysterious, but the Bible does provide answers. Throughout Scripture, God allows trials in order to accomplish specific purposes in the lives of his people. When faced with suffering they experience spiritual growth; repentance from sin; or, as in the Old Testament story of Job, the chance to demonstrate devotion to God in the face of inexplicable agony.
In Suffering Wisely and Well, Eric Ortlund explores different types of trials throughout Scripture, revealing the spiritual purpose for each and reassuring readers with God's promise of restoration. The majority of the book focuses on Job, one of the most well-known yet misunderstood stories of suffering. Ortlund thoughtfully analyzes the text chapter by chapter, including the doubt of Job's friends, God's response to Job's questions, and the meaning behind important imagery including references to Leviathan and Behemoth. Suffering Wisely and Well shows readers how to deepen their relationship with God during painful experiences in their own lives and how to comfort others who are hurting.
More than 100,000 sold
NFL head coach Mike Smith lead one of the most remarkable turnarounds in NFL history. In the season prior to his arrival in 2008, the Atlanta Falcons had a 4–12 record and the franchise had never before achieved back-to-back winning seasons. Under Smith’s leadership, the Falcons earned an 11–5 record in his first season and would go on to become perennial playoff and Super Bowl contenders earning Smith AP Coach of year in 2008 and voted Coach of Year by his peers in 2008, 2010 and 2012.
You Win in the Locker Room First draws on the extraordinary experiences of Coach Mike Smith and Jon Gordon—consultant to numerous college and professional teams—to explore the seven powerful principles that any business, school, organization, or sports team can adopt to revitalize their organization.
Step by step, the authors outline a strategy for building a thriving organization and provide a practical framework that give leaders the tools they need to create a great culture, lead with the right mindset, create strong relationships, improve teamwork, execute at a higher level, and avoid the pitfalls that sabotage far too many leaders and organizations.
In addition to sharing what went right with the Falcons, Smith also transparently shares what went wrong his last two seasons and provides invaluable lessons leaders can take away from his victories, success, failures and mistakes.
Whether it’s an executive leadership team of a Fortune 500 company, a sports team, an emergency room team, military team, or a school team successful leaders coach their team and develop, mentor, encourage, and guide them. This not only improves the team, it improves the leaders and their relationships, connections, and organization.
You Win in the Locker Room First offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at one of the most pressure packed leadership jobs on the planet and what leaders can learn from these experiences in order to build their own winning team.
", "ISBN-13": "9781119157854", "ISBN-10": "1119157854", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success: Building Blocks For a Better Life", "Author": "John Wooden, Jay Carty", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 168, "Tag": "religion, christian life, personal growth", "Summary": "Legendary college basketball coach John Wooden and Jay Carty know that when it comes down to it, success is an equal opportunity player. Anyone can create it in his or her career, family and beyond. Based on John Wooden’s own method to victory, Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success reveals that success is built block by block, where each block is a crucial principle contributing to life long achievement in every area of life. Each of these 32 daily readings takes an in depth look at a single block of the pyramid, which when combined with the other blocks forms the structure of the pyramid of success. Join John Wooden and Jay Carty to discover the building blocks and key values from confidence to faith that have brought Coach to the pinnacle of success as a leader, a teacher and a follower of God.", "ISBN-13": "9780830737185", "ISBN-10": "0830737189", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It", "Author": "Ethan Kross", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Self-Help", "Pages": 288, "Tag": "self-help, personal growth, psychology", "Summary": "NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An award-winning psychologist reveals the hidden power of our inner voice and shows how to harness it to combat anxiety, improve physical and mental health, and deepen our relationships with others.More than 200,000 sold
We are not positive because life is easy. We are positive because life can be hard. As a leader, you will face numerous obstacles, negativity, and tests. There will be times when it seems as if everything in the world is conspiring against you and your vision seems more like a fantasy than a reality. That’s why positive leadership is essential! Positive leadership is not about fake positivity. It is the real stuff that makes great leaders great. The research is clear. Being a positive leader is not just a nice way to lead. It's the way to lead if you want to build a great culture, unite your organization in the face of adversity, develop a connected and committed team and achieve excellence and superior results.
Since writing the mega best seller The Energy Bus, Jon Gordon has worked and consulted with leaders who have transformed their companies, organizations and schools, won national championships and are currently changing the world. He has also interviewed some of the greatest leaders of our time and researched many positive leaders throughout history and discovered their paths to success. In this pioneering book Jon Gordon shares what he has learned and provides a comprehensive framework on positive leadership filled with proven principles, compelling stories, practical ideas and practices that will help anyone become a positive leader.
There is a power associated with positive leadership and you can start benefiting yourself and your team with it today.
", "ISBN-13": "978-1119351979", "ISBN-10": "1119351979", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy", "Author": "Jon Gordon", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Business", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "health & fitness, mental health, business & economics", "Summary": "More than 1.5 million sold
Fuel your life with positive energy with this bestselling fable
It's Monday morning and George walks out of the front door to his car and a flat tire. This is the least of his problems. His home life is in shambles and his team at work is in disarray. With a big product launch coming in two weeks, he has to find a way to get it together or risk losing his marriage and job. Forced to take the bus to work, George meets a unique bus driver and an interesting cast of characters who, over the course of two weeks, share the ten rules for the ride of his life. In the process, they help him turn around his work and life, saving his job and marriage from destruction.
The Energy Bus, an international bestseller, takes readers on an enlightening and inspiring ride that reveals ten secrets for approaching life and work with the kind of positive, forward thinking that leads to true accomplishment—at work and at home.
For managers and team leaders or anyone looking to turn negative situations into positive outcomes, The Energy Bus provides a powerful plan for overcoming common life and work obstacles and bringing out the best in yourself and your team. When you get on The Energy Bus, you'll enjoy the ride of your life.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0470100288", "ISBN-10": "0470100281", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Adventure of Living", "Author": "Paul Tournier", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Psychology", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "spiritual life_christianity, god, self-actualization (psychology)", "Summary": "Paul Tournier, who now lives actively in retirement, was a general practitioner in Geneva for nearly fifty years. Although he never had a specialist training in psychiatry and disclaims the title of psychiatrist, his own experiences, and his discovery that many of his patients needed help going deeper than drugs or surgery, led him to develop and practise what he calls 'the medicine of the person', in which medical knowledge, understanding and religion are combined. His books include A Doctor's Casebook in the Light of the Bible, Escape from Loneliness, Learning to Grow Old, Marriage Difficulties, The Meaning of Persons, The Person Reborn, A Place for You, The Strong and the Weak and What's in a Name? A Tournier Companion is being published in 1976. Of The Adventure of Living the Church Times wrote: 'This author's own immense zest for living infects his writing, while his religious sincerity makes very moving his appeal for a closer walk with God as the only thing which can finally unlock the door to happiness. This is a book to be warmly commended to the thoughtful reader and one which, incidentally, should do much to encourage those who are often depressed by the apparent incompatibility between Christian faith and modern science.'", "ISBN-13": "9780334000099", "ISBN-10": "0334000092", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Ballplayer", "Author": "Chipper Jones, Carroll Rogers Walton", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Sports", "Pages": 392, "Tag": "sports & recreation, baseball, essays & writings", "Summary": "Atlanta Braves third baseman and National Hall of Famer Chipper Jones—one of the greatest switch-hitters in baseball history—shares his remarkable story, while capturing the magic nostalgia that sets baseball apart from every other sport.So, yeah, I loved this book because I love Chipper Jones, the baseball player.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Welcome to Dunder Mifflin: The Ultimate Oral History of The Office",
"Author": "Brian Baumgartner, Ben Silverman, Benjamin Silverman",
"Year Read": 2022,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 444,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, entertainment & performing arts, humor",
"Summary": "
New York Times Bestseller
\"The ultimate behind-the-scenes account.\" --Washington Post
\"The definitive history of the landmark TV show.\" --USA Today
Join the entire Dunder Mifflin gang on a journey back to Scranton: here's the hilarious and improbable inside story behind the beloved series.
Based on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with the cast and creators and illustrated with 100 behind-the-scenes photographs, here, at last, is the untold inside story of The Office, featuring a foreword by Greg Daniels, who adapted the series for the U.S. and was its guiding creative force, and narrated by star Brian Baumgartner (aka \"Kevin Malone\") and executive producer Ben Silverman..
In Welcome to Dunder Mifflin, the entire Office gang reunite after nearly a decade to share their favorite untold stories, spill secrets, and reveal how a little show that barely survived its first season became the most watched series in the universe. This ultimate fan companion pulls back the curtain as never before on all the absurdity, genius, love, passion, and dumb luck that went into creating America's beloved The Office.
Featuring the memories of Steve Carell, John Krasinkski, Jenna Fischer, Greg Daniels, Ricky Gervais, Rainn Wilson, Angela Kinsey, Craig Robinson, Brian Baumgartner, Phyllis Smith, Kate Flannery, Ed Helms, Oscar Nunez, Amy Ryan, Ellie Kemper, Creed Bratton, Paul Lieberstein, Ben Silverman, Mike Schur, and many more.
", "ISBN-13": "9780063082199", "ISBN-10": "0063082195", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Sometimes you just need to read a book that isn’t too heavy. This one certainly qualifies. That’s not to say it doesn’t have poignant moments. If you’ve ever watched The Office, you know how they can sneak some meaningful moments amid hilarity.This book is basically an oral history of the show. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at all the actors and actresses and writers, and staff members that made the show so great. The one thing that constantly stood out throughout the book was Greg Daniels’s impact. There are some nuggets of leadership held in this book that surprise and make you laugh.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "For the Good of the Game: The Inside Story of the Surprising and Dramatic Transformation of Major League Baseball", "Author": "Bud Selig", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Sports", "Pages": 336, "Tag": "sports & recreation, baseball, biography & autobiography", "Summary": "
Foreword by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The longtime Commissioner of Major League Baseball provides an unprecedented look inside professional baseball today, focusing on how he helped bring the game into the modern age and revealing his interactions with players, managers, fellow owners, and fans nationwide.
More than a century old, the game of baseball is resistant to change—owners, managers, players, and fans all hate it. Yet, now more than ever, baseball needs to evolve—to compete with other professional sports, stay relevant, and remain America’s Pastime it must adapt. Perhaps no one knows this better than Bud Selig who, as the head of MLB for more than twenty years, ushered in some of the most important, and controversial, changes in the game’s history—modernizing a sport that had remained unchanged since the 1960s.
In this enlightening and surprising book, Selig goes inside the most difficult decisions and moments of his career, looking at how he worked to balance baseball’s storied history with the pressures of the twenty-first century to ensure its future. Part baseball story, part business saga, and part memoir, For the Good of the Game chronicles Selig’s career, takes fans inside locker rooms and board rooms, and offers an intimate, fascinating account of the frequently messy process involved in transforming an American institution. Featuring an all-star lineup of the biggest names from the last forty years of baseball, Selig recalls the vital games, private moments, and tense conversations he’s shared with Hall of Fame players and managers and the contentious calls he’s made. He also speaks candidly about hot-button issues the steroid scandal that threatened to destroy the game, telling his side of the story in full and for the first time.
As he looks back and forward, Selig outlines the stakes for baseball’s continued transformation—and why the changes he helped usher in must only be the beginning.
Illustrated with sixteen pages of photographs.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062905956", "ISBN-10": "0062905953", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "East of Eden", "Author": "John Steinbeck", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 691, "Tag": "american fiction (fictional works by one author), california_fiction", "Summary": "A masterpiece of Biblical scope, and the magnum opus of one of America’s most enduring authorsYou Can Learn to Handle the Onslaught of Internal and External Pressures
Does anxiety get in the way of your ability to be an effective leader? Is your inability to notice when you and those around you are anxious keeping you \"stuck\" in chronic unhealthy patterns? In Managing Leadership Anxiety, pastor and spiritual growth expert Steve Cuss offers powerful tools to help you move from being managed by anxiety to managing anxiety.
You'll develop the capacity to notice your anxiety and your group's anxiety. You will increase your sensitivity to the way groups develop systemic anxiety that keeps them trapped. Your personal self-awareness will increase as you learn how self gets in the way of identifying and addressing issues.
Managing Leadership Anxiety offers valuable principles to those who are hungry to understand the source of the anxiety in themselves and in the people with whom they relate. Readers will be empowered to take back control of their lives and lead in mature and vibrant ways.
", "ISBN-13": "9781400210886", "ISBN-10": "1400210887", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "As a leader at my company, in my church, and inside my home, anxiety is a constant enemy. I have my ups and downs, my good times and bad times. Anxiety, for me, is basically a constant, but certain times are far worse than others. This book helped give me some tools for managing it and understanding the effect it has on others—and the effect others’ anxiety has on me.If you’re a leader, this is a must-read.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Simply Trinity: The Unmanipulated Father, Son, and Spirit",
"Author": "Matthew Barrett",
"Year Read": 2022,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 368,
"Tag": "religion, christian theology, systematic",
"Summary": "What if the Trinity we've been taught is not the Trinity of the Bible? In this groundbreaking book, Matthew Barrett reveals a shocking discovery: we have manipulated the Trinity, recreating the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in our own image.
With clarity and creativity, Barrett mines the Scriptures as well as the creeds and confessions of the faith to help you rediscover the beauty, simplicity, and majesty of our Triune God. You will be surprised to learn that what you believe about the Trinity has untold consequences for salvation and the Christian life. To truly know God, you must meet the One who is simply Trinity.",
"ISBN-13": "9781540900074",
"ISBN-10": "154090007X",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "If you were around Twitter in 2016, you might remember a bit of debate raging on your timeline. No, I’m not talking about the Presidential election. I’m talking about the Trinity.
I followed the debate as closely as I could, but honestly, I just didn’t have the proper vocabulary or understanding at the time. I felt as if I was constantly playing catch-up as I listened and read these wise pastors and scholars discuss.
Matthew Barrett was one engaging during that time, and this book is, in part, a result of that. It is clear and engaging. You don’t need to be a scholar to understand it, but you’ll feel like one when you’ve read it.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "This is Life", "Author": "Dan Rhodes", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 423, "Tag": "fiction, humorous, literary", "Summary": "* 'This is Life' is a missing baby mystery and an enchanted Parisian adventure. Hand in hand with lovable heroine Aurelie Renard, you will see life as you've never seen it before, discover the key to great art, witness the true cost of love, and learn how all these things may be controlled by the in-breath of a cormorant.\"", "ISBN-13": "9780857862457", "ISBN-10": "0857862456", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis", "Author": "Leon Kass", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Philosophy", "Pages": 700, "Tag": "philosophy, religion, biblical commentary", "Summary": "Imagine that you could really understand the Bible...that you could read, analyze, and discuss the book of Genesis not as a compositional mystery, a cultural relic, or a linguistic puzzle palace, or even as religious doctrine, but as a philosophical classic, precisely in the same way that a truth-seeking reader would study Plato or Nietzsche. Imagine that you could be led in your study by one of America's preeminent intellectuals and that he would help you to an understanding of the book that is deeper than you'd ever dreamed possible, that he would reveal line by line, verse by verse the incredible riches of this illuminating text -- one of the very few that actually deserve to be called seminal. Imagine that you could get, from Genesis, the beginning of wisdom. The Beginning of Wisdom is a hugely learned book that, like Genesis itself, falls naturally into two sections. The first shows how the universal history described in the first eleven chapters of Genesis, from creation to the tower of Babel, conveys, in the words of Leon Kass, \"a coherent anthropology\" -- a general teaching about human nature -- that \"rivals anything produced by the great philosophers.\" Serving also as a mirror for the reader's self-discovery, these stories offer profound insights into the problematic character of human reason, speech, freedom, sexual desire, the love of the beautiful, pride, shame, anger, guilt, and death. Something as seemingly innocuous as the monotonous recounting of the ten generations from Adam to Noah yields a powerful lesson in the way in which humanity encounters its own mortality. In the story of the tower of Babel are deep understandings of the ambiguous power of speech, reason, and the arts; the hazards of unity and aloneness; the meaning of the city and its quest for self-sufficiency; and man's desire for fame, immortality, and apotheosis -- and the disasters these necessarily cause. Against this background of human failure, Part Two of The Beginning of Wisdom explores the struggles to launch a new human way, informed by the special Abrahamic covenant with the divine, that might address the problems and avoid the disasters of humankind's natural propensities. Close, eloquent, and brilliant readings of the lives and educations of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob's sons reveal eternal wisdom about marriage, parenting, brotherhood, education, justice, political and moral leadership, and of course the ultimate question: How to live a good life? Connecting the two \"parts\" is the book's overarching philosophical and pedagogical structure: how understanding the dangers and accepting the limits of human powers can open the door to a superior way of life, not only for a solitary man of virtue but for an entire community -- a life devoted to righteousness and holiness. This extraordinary book finally shows Genesis as a coherent whole, beginning with the creation of the natural world and ending with the creation of a nation that hearkens to the awe-inspiring summons to godliness. A unique and ambitious commentary, a remarkably readable literary exegesis and philosophical companion, The Beginning of Wisdom is one of the most important books in decades on perhaps the most important -- and surely the most frequently read -- book of all time.", "ISBN-13": "9780743242998", "ISBN-10": "0743242998", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I love reading Bible commentaries. I know that makes me a nerd, but I don’t care. When it comes to commentaries, I like things that are thorough and well-researched. I like my commentaries to have insight I can’t get anywhere else—not because it’s heretical, but because it just goes where others don’t or can’t.
Leon Kass’s commentary on Genesis checks all of those boxes. Kass is not a Christian himself. He is a Jew. But what he does helps us understand what the book of Genesis is saying from a historical and literary perspective. He doesn’t make connections Christians would. There is no talk of Jesus. In that regard, there is much to be desired. But that doesn’t mean we can discount the immense value of the work. If you’re a fan of the book of Genesis, as I am, this is a must-read for you. You will find it fascinating. ", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "4 Essential Keys to Effective Communication in Love, Life, Work--Anywhere! Including the 12-Day Communication Challenge!", "Author": "Bento C. Leal III, Bento C. Leal (III.)", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Business", "Pages": 112, "Tag": "family & relationships, marriage & long-term relationships", "Summary": "
How would you like to greatly improve ALL your relationships at home, work, anywhere--in your marriage, family, business, with customers, anyone? If so, this book is for you!
4 Essential Keys to Effective Communication in Love, Life, Work--Anywhere! is an excellent 'How-To Guide' for practicing the key skills that will help you listen and speak more effectively, identify and overcome communication barriers, and achieve relationship success with the important people in your life--your spouse or partner, young, teen or adult child, parents, siblings, friends, co-workers, customers--everyone! Plus, there are Self-Review Questions and Action Items at the end of several of the chapters.
In this book you will learn:
You will also get the 12-Day Communication Challenge! This Action Guide at the end of the book will help you practice a particular skill step each day thus growing in confidence and ability as you do.
If you want to help improve your marriage or relationship through communication skills, get this book!
CLICK ON THE \"ADD TO CART\" BUTTON ABOVE and start growing your skills to strengthen your marriage, family, and all your relationships right away!
", "ISBN-13": "9781546581734", "ISBN-10": "1546581731", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Nothing Like I Imagined", "Author": "Mindy Kaling", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Humor", "Pages": null, "Tag": "1848", "Summary": null, "ISBN-13": "9781713554882", "ISBN-10": "B08HCFC1PN", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Retrieving Augustine's Doctrine of Creation: Ancient Wisdom for Current Controversy", "Author": "Gavin Ortlund", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 264, "Tag": "religion, christian theology, history", "Summary": "How might premodern exegesis of Genesis inform Christian debates about creation today?
Imagine a table with three people in dialogue: a young-earth creationist, an old-earth creationist, and an evolutionary creationist. Into the room walks Augustine of Hippo, one of the most significant theologians in the history of the church. In what ways will his reading of Scripture and his doctrine of creation inform, deepen, and shape the conversation?
Pastor and theologian Gavin Ortlund explores just such a scenario by retrieving Augustine's reading of Genesis 1-3 and considering how his premodern understanding of creation can help Christians today. Ortlund contends that while Augustine's hermeneutical approach and theological questions might differ from those of today, this church father's humility before Scripture and his theological conclusions can shed light on matters such as evolution, animal death, and the historical Adam and Eve.
Have a seat. Join the conversation.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830853243", "ISBN-10": "0830853243", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "What Are Christians For? Life Together at the End of the World", "Author": "Jake Meador", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "religion, religion, politics & state, christian living", "Summary": "What does a Christian political witness look like in our day?
Politics ought to be defined by fidelity to the common good of all the members of society. But our modern Western politics are defined by a determination to bend the natural world and human life to its own political and economic ends. This wholesale rejection of the natural order is behind the dominant revolutions in our history, and defines our experience in Western society today—our racialized hierarchy, modern industry, and the sexual revolution.
In What Are Christians For?, Jake Meador lays out a proposal for a Christian politics rooted in the givenness and goodness of the created world. He is uninterested in the cultural wars that have so often characterized American Christianity. Instead, he casts a vision for an ordered society that rejects the late modern revolution at every turn and is rooted in the natural law tradition and the great Protestant confessions. Here is a political approach that is antiracist, anticapitalist, and profoundly pro-life. A truly Christian political witness, Meador argues, must attend closely to the natural world and renounce the metallic fantasies that have poisoned common life in America life for too long.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830847365", "ISBN-10": "0830847367", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Swerve: How The World Became Modern", "Author": "Stephen Greenblatt", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "History", "Pages": 368, "Tag": "history, europe, renaissance", "Summary": "Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction • Winner of the National Book Award • New York Times BestsellerHow do art and faith intersect How does art help us see our own lives more clearly What can we understand about God and humanity by looking at the lives of artists
Striving for beauty, art also reveals what is broken. It presents us with the tremendous struggles and longings common to the human experience. And it says a lot about our Creator too. Great works of art can speak to the soul in a unique way.
Rembrandt Is in the Wind is an invitation to discover some of the world's most celebrated artists and works and how each of them illuminates something about God, people, and the purpose of life. Part art history, part biblical study, part philosophy, and part analysis of the human experience, this book is nonetheless all story.
From Michelangelo to Vincent van Gogh to Edward Hopper, the lives of the artists in this book illustrate the struggle of living in this world and point to the beauty of the redemption available to us in Christ. Each story is different. Some conclude with resounding triumph while others end in struggle. But all of them raise important questions about humanity's hunger and capacity for glory, and all of them teach us to love and see beauty.
\"The artists featured in these pages--artists who devoted their lives and work to what is good, true, and beautiful--remind us that we can, and should, do the same.\" --Karen Swallow Prior, author of On Reading Well
", "ISBN-13": "978-0310129721", "ISBN-10": "0310129729", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I like to think I like art, but really, I don’t “get it.\" Maybe you’re that way too. If so, Ramsey’s book will help you understand some of the greatest works of art in the world. In addition, he will help you see the connection of art to Christianity. Many of the greatest works of art are explicitly Christian works, and the artists were intentional in their artistry.Here is a book that’s worth picking up and savoring. Don’t read it too fast, and take time to look up the works to truly grasp the wonder of it all. ", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis: How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind", "Author": "Jason M. Baxter", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 176, "Tag": "religion, christianity, literature & the arts", "Summary": "
C. S. Lewis had one of the great minds of the twentieth century. Many readers know Lewis as an author of fiction and fantasy literature, including the Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy. Others know him for his books in apologetics, including Mere Christianity and The Problem of Pain. But few know him for his scholarly work as a professor of medieval and Renaissance literature. What shaped the mind of this great thinker? Jason Baxter argues that Lewis was deeply formed not only by the words of Scripture and his love of ancient mythology, but also by medieval literature. For this undeniably modern Christian, authors like Dante and Boethius provided a worldview that was relevant to the challenges of the contemporary world. Here, readers will encounter an unknown figure to guide them in their own journey: C. S. Lewis the medievalist.
", "ISBN-13": "9781514001646", "ISBN-10": "1514001640", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "C.S. Lewis is objectively one of the greatest writers and thinkers to walk this earth. How did he get that way? One way is his deep understanding of Medieval times. I know that sounds weird, but this book makes the argument, and it succeeds. Lewis understood the great books. He was more than conversant in them. They swam around in his head all the time and permeated his thinking. If you love Lewis as I do, this book will help you understand him more. ", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Dorothy and Jack", "Author": "Gina Dalfonzo", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "social sciences, religion, christianity", "Summary": "What happens when we push past the surface and allow real, grounded, mutually challenging, and edifying friendships to develop? We need only look at the little-known friendship between eminent Christian thinkers Dorothy L. Sayers and C. S. Lewis to find out. Born out of a fan letter that celebrated mystery novelist Sayers wrote to Lewis as his star was just beginning to rise, this friendship between a married woman and a longtime bachelor developed over years of correspondence as the two discovered their mutual admiration of each other's writing, thinking, and faith.Understand How God Banishes Your Sin, So You Can Let It Go Too
Every Christian has experienced days or even seasons of feeling extreme guilt over past or present sins, thinking that God is angry or disgusted with them--sometimes even wondering if they're truly saved. This often happens when believers fixate on their sins while forgetting what Christ has already done on their behalf at the cross. Sam Storms explains it this way: \"What consumes us is what we have done by sinning. What ought to consume us is grateful meditation on what God has done with our sinning.\"
In his latest book, Storms addresses this anxiety over sin by reminding believers of the good news of the gospel. Beginning with an explanation of the glory of penal substitution, he walks through 12 things God did with their sin, including forgiving it, passing over it, and casting it into the depths of the sea. He also explains 3 things God will never do with their sin, such as counting it against them. Walking through the Bible's teaching, Storms helps believers find freedom, joy, and peace in knowing what God has done (and will never do) with their sin through the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus.
\"Carl Trueman explains modernity to the church, with depth, clarity, and force. The significance of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self . . . is hard to overstate.\"
-- Rod Dreher, from the Foreword
Modern culture is obsessed with identity. Since the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision in 2015, sexual identity has dominated both public discourse and cultural trends--yet no historical phenomenon is its own cause. From Augustine to Marx, various views and perspectives have contributed to the modern understanding of the self.
In this timely book, Carl Trueman analyzes the development of the sexual revolution as a symptom--rather than the cause--of the human search for identity. Trueman surveys the past, brings clarity to the present, and gives guidance for the future as Christians navigate the culture in humanity's ever-changing quest for identity.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433556333", "ISBN-10": "1433556332", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Truman’s book made a lot of “best of” lists last year, but it took me a year to pick it up. Some books help us understand our times a little better. Truman’s work certainly does that. He dives into the LGBTQ+ issues and explains where the social thinking behind them came from. Taking you back into the history of philosophy, you’ll walk away from this book with a better understanding of our times that will equip you to think more clearly about what’s going on because you understand how we got here.One critique I have about the book is that I wish he spent more time providing some solutions to our modern age. But that’s probably another book of the same length. This is step one: understanding.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life",
"Author": "David Brooks",
"Year Read": 2022,
"Category": "Sociology",
"Pages": 384,
"Tag": "social science, sociology, social theory",
"Summary": "#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Everybody tells you to live for a cause larger than yourself, but how exactly do you do it? The author of The Road to Character explores what it takes to lead a meaningful life in a self-centered world.
“Deeply moving, frequently eloquent and extraordinarily incisive.”—The Washington Post
Every so often, you meet people who radiate joy—who seem to know why they were put on this earth, who glow with a kind of inner light. Life, for these people, has often followed what we might think of as a two-mountain shape. They get out of school, they start a career, and they begin climbing the mountain they thought they were meant to climb. Their goals on this first mountain are the ones our culture endorses: to be a success, to make your mark, to experience personal happiness. But when they get to the top of that mountain, something happens. They look around and find the view . . . unsatisfying. They realize: This wasn’t my mountain after all. There’s another, bigger mountain out there that is actually my mountain.
And so they embark on a new journey. On the second mountain, life moves from self-centered to other-centered. They want the things that are truly worth wanting, not the things other people tell them to want. They embrace a life of interdependence, not independence. They surrender to a life of commitment.
In The Second Mountain, David Brooks explores the four commitments that define a life of meaning and purpose: to a spouse and family, to a vocation, to a philosophy or faith, and to a community. Our personal fulfillment depends on how well we choose and execute these commitments. Brooks looks at a range of people who have lived joyous, committed lives, and who have embraced the necessity and beauty of dependence. He gathers their wisdom on how to choose a partner, how to pick a vocation, how to live out a philosophy, and how we can begin to integrate our commitments into one overriding purpose.
In short, this book is meant to help us all lead more meaningful lives. But it’s also a provocative social commentary. We live in a society, Brooks argues, that celebrates freedom, that tells us to be true to ourselves, at the expense of surrendering to a cause, rooting ourselves in a neighborhood, binding ourselves to others by social solidarity and love. We have taken individualism to the extreme—and in the process we have torn the social fabric in a thousand different ways. The path to repair is through making deeper commitments. In The Second Mountain, Brooks shows what can happen when we put commitment-making at the center of our lives.",
"ISBN-13": "9780812993264",
"ISBN-10": "0812993268",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Why Bother with Church?",
"Author": "Sam Allberry",
"Year Read": 2022,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 95,
"Tag": "religion, christian education, christian living",
"Summary": "
The church is widely viewed in the world at large as being outdated, boring, irrelevant and filled with backbiting hypocrites.
How different that picture is to how the Bible talks about the new family that Jesus has gathered. It is a precious bride, a sparkling jewel, a lifeboat for forgiven sinners that is precious and holy; nurturing and warm; filled with truth, friendship and all embracing, forgiving love.
Sam Allberry understands the collision between these two views, and how, even as Christian believers, we can lose sight of how truly wonderful church is and what a privilege it is to be part of.
In this brief, accessible but thorough guide to church, Sam outlines what church is and why we need it. And how, when we have got it wrong, we can move closer to what a true church should be.
Part of the Questions Christians Ask series: a range of short, simple books designed to help Christians grapple with the contemporary issues.
", "ISBN-13": 9781909559141, "ISBN-10": 1909559148, "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "A Brief History of Thought: A Philosophical Guide to Living", "Author": "Luc Ferry", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Philosophy", "Pages": 304, "Tag": "philosophy", "Summary": "Eight months on the bestseller lists in France!
From the timeless wisdom of the ancient Greeks to Christianity, the Enlightenment, existentialism, and postmodernism, Luc Ferry’s instant classic brilliantly and accessibly explains the enduring teachings of philosophy—including its profound relevance to modern daily life and its essential role in achieving happiness and living a meaningful life. This lively journey through the great thinkers will enlighten every reader, young and old.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062074249", "ISBN-10": "0062074245", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I won’t say this is a great beach read because I don’t think people read books like this on the beach. But I did. Ferry takes us through the history of Western thought and shows how we got to where we are. Combined with Truman’s work, it really helped me understand the foundations of modern philosophy. His chapter on Christianity is worth the price of the book. Though not a Christian himself, he cannot deny the immense impact Christianity has had on the world for good. Christianity simply answers the deepest longings of our soul better than any other philosophy ever has. Pick up this book to learn more. ", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Power and the Glory", "Author": "Graham Greene", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 221, "Tag": "fiction, classics, literary", "Summary": ""Graham Greene's masterpiece" —John Updike)Sex. Race. Scripture. Sovereignty. The book of Ruth entails them all. So readers shouldn't be fooled by its age, says Pastor John Piper. Though its events happened over 3,000 years ago, the story holds astounding relevance for Christians in the twenty-first century.
The sovereignty of God, the sexual nature of humanity, and the gospel of God's mercy for the undeserving-these massive realities never change. And since God is still sovereign, and we are male or female, and Jesus is alive and powerful, A Sweet and Bitter Providence bears a message for readers from all walks of life. But be warned, Piper tells his audience: This ancient love affair between Boaz and Ruth could be dangerous, inspiring all of us to great risks in the cause of love.
The Old Testament book of Ruth is understandably a firm favorite in the church for small-group study and preaching: a heart-warming story of loyalty and love, a satisfying tale of a journey from famine to fullness. In the academy, the book has been a testing ground for a variety of hermeneutical approaches, and many different ways of interpreting it have been put forward. However, the single interpretative lens missing is the one that is most beneficial for the church: biblical theology. While commentaries have adopted a biblical-theological approach of one form or another, there has not been a detailed treatment of the themes in Ruth from that perspective. Lau and Goswell's valuable New Studies in Biblical Theology volume aims to fill this gap. First, they focus on the meaning of the text as intended by the author for the original readers, but are mindful that the book is set within the wider context of Scripture. This context means not only the books surrounding Ruth in the canon, or even a particular section of Scripture, but also the rest of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Second, they discuss selected themes in Ruth, including redemption, kingship, mission, kindness, wisdom, famine, and the hiddenness of God. Within the overarching narrative of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, these themes can be viewed as different threads within the same cloth, or can be heard as different instrumental 'voices' within a symphony. Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830826421", "ISBN-10": "0830826424", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Friendship in the Hebrew Bible", "Author": "Saul M. Olyan", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 191, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, old testament", "Summary": "The first comprehensive study of friendship in the Hebrew BibleAn invitation to readers from every walk of life to rediscover the impractical splendors of a life of learning
In an overloaded, superficial, technological world, in which almost everything and everybody is judged by its usefulness, where can we turn for escape, lasting pleasure, contemplation, or connection to others? While many forms of leisure meet these needs, Zena Hitz writes, few experiences are so fulfilling as the inner life, whether that of a bookworm, an amateur astronomer, a birdwatcher, or someone who takes a deep interest in one of countless other subjects. Drawing on inspiring examples, from Socrates and Augustine to Malcolm X and Elena Ferrante, and from films to Hitz's own experiences as someone who walked away from elite university life in search of greater fulfillment, Lost in Thought is a passionate and timely reminder that a rich life is a life rich in thought.
Today, when even the humanities are often defended only for their economic or political usefulness, Hitz says our intellectual lives are valuable not despite but because of their practical uselessness. And while anyone can have an intellectual life, she encourages academics in particular to get back in touch with the desire to learn for its own sake, and calls on universities to return to the person-to-person transmission of the habits of mind and heart that bring out the best in us.
Reminding us of who we once were and who we might become, Lost in Thought is a moving account of why renewing our inner lives is fundamental to preserving our humanity.
Leadership is hard. Pastoring through divisive times is even harder. How do we lead well when criticized? How do we keep loving the church when hurt by her? What does it look like to remain committed to the gospel in cultural division?
Seasoned pastor Jonathan Dodson comes alongside struggling pastors and ministry leaders to guide them into the comfort of Christ. But he doesn't stop there. Full of wisdom drawn from 2 Timothy, this book will equip you to lead the church with grace, charity and spiritual power through divisive times.
Great for pastors and ministry leaders who need encouragement and insight, or are wrestling with their calling. Makes a thoughtful gift.
", "ISBN-13": "9781784987657", "ISBN-10": "1784987654", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "This Tender Land: A Novel", "Author": "William Kent Krueger", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 464, "Tag": "fiction, literary, historical", "Summary": "INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!Long before there were creative-writing workshops and degrees, how did aspiring writers learn to write? By reading the work of their predecessors and contemporaries, says Francine Prose.
In Reading Like a Writer, Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters. She reads the work of the very best writers—Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Austen, Dickens, Woolf, Chekhov—and discovers why their work has endured. She takes pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breathtaking paragraphs of Isaac Babel; she is deeply moved by the brilliant characterization in George Eliot's Middlemarch. She looks to John Le Carré for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue, to Flannery O'Connor for the cunning use of the telling detail, and to James Joyce and Katherine Mansfield for clever examples of how to employ gesture to create character. She cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which literature is crafted.
Written with passion, humor, and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060777043", "ISBN-10": "0060777044", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Everything Sad Is Untrue (A True Story)", "Author": "Daniel Nayeri", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 368, "Tag": "juvenile fiction, biographical, family", "Summary": "Winner of the Michael L. Printz AwardHere’s my take. I was just too young and stupid. I remember Ray Ortlund saying he tried reading the books when they first came out, but he didn’t find them interesting. Then he picked them up years later and couldn’t put them down. He realized the books hadn’t changed at all, but he had. He had lived enough to give meaning to Tolkien’s epic story.
I won’t say any more about the others immediately after. I included all three books on The Best list this year. How could I not?", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement", "Author": "Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Jeff Cox, David Whitford", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Business", "Pages": 384, "Tag": "business & economics, fiction, literary", "Summary": "Written in a fast-paced thriller style, The Goal is the gripping novel which is transforming management thinking throughout the Western world. The author has been described by Fortune as a 'guru to industry' and by Businessweek as a 'genius'. It is a book to recommend to your friends in industry - even to your bosses - but not to your competitors.", "ISBN-13": "9780566086649", "ISBN-10": "0566086646", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Translating Myself and Others", "Author": "Jhumpa Lahiri", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Memoir", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "language arts & disciplines, translating & interpreting, biography & autobiography", "Summary": "
Luminous essays on translation and self-translation by the award-winning writer and literary translator
Translating Myself and Others is a collection of candid and disarmingly personal essays by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jhumpa Lahiri, who reflects on her emerging identity as a translator as well as a writer in two languages.
With subtlety and emotional immediacy, Lahiri draws on Ovid’s myth of Echo and Narcissus to explore the distinction between writing and translating, and provides a close reading of passages from Aristotle’s Poetics to talk more broadly about writing, desire, and freedom. She traces the theme of translation in Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks and takes up the question of Italo Calvino’s popularity as a translated author. Lahiri considers the unique challenge of translating her own work from Italian to English, the question “Why Italian?,” and the singular pleasures of translating contemporary and ancient writers.
Featuring essays originally written in Italian and published in English for the first time, as well as essays written in English, Translating Myself and Others brings together Lahiri’s most lyrical and eloquently observed meditations on the translator’s art as a sublime act of both linguistic and personal metamorphosis.
Begin your journey into Middle-earth... The inspiration for the upcoming original series on Prime Video, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
The Two Towers is the second part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic adventure The Lord of the Rings.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in a battle in the Mines of Moria. And Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape, the rest of the company was attacked by Orcs. Now they continue the journey alone down the great River Anduin—alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go.
This continues the classic tale begun in The Fellowship of the Ring, which reaches its awesome climax in The Return of the King.
", "ISBN-13": "9780547952024", "ISBN-10": "0547952023", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "I'm a Christian--Now What? A Guide to Your New Life with Christ", "Author": "Aaron Armstrong", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 168, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "Where to begin when you've begun with Christ
If you are a new Christian, you are on a new path. But where are you going and how do you get there? As an adult convert, Aaron Armstrong had to face these questions himself. In I'm a Christian--Now What? A Guide to Your New Life With Christ, Aaron helps you take those important first steps, including:
You probably have a lot of questions. You might not even know which questions to ask. This practical and friendly book helps make sense of your new life with Jesus. It ends with suggestions for how you can take the next step by helping other new Christians.
I'm a Christian--Now What? is a perfect handbook for new believers and those who want to disciple them.
", "ISBN-13": "9781683596714", "ISBN-10": "1683596714", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Return Of The King", "Author": "J.R.R. Tolkien", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 432, "Tag": "english & college success, english, fiction", "Summary": "Begin your journey into Middle-earth. The inspiration for the upcoming original series on Prime Video, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The Return of the King is the third part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic adventure The Lord of the Rings. One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. The Dark Lord has risen, and as he unleashes hordes of Orcs to conquer all Middle-earth, Frodo and Sam struggle deep into his realm in Mordor. To defeat Sauron, the One Ring must be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. But the way is impossibly hard, and Frodo is weakening. The Ring corrupts all who bear it and Frodo’s time is running out. Will Sam and Frodo succeed, or will the Dark Lord rule Middle-earth once more?", "ISBN-13": "9780547952048", "ISBN-10": "054795204X", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Science of Hitting", "Author": "Ted Williams, John Underwood", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Sports", "Pages": 88, "Tag": "sports & recreation, baseball", "Summary": "Ted Williams is our greatest living expert on how to hit a baseball -- the last baseball player to hit .400 in the major leagues. Williams's career hitting statistics will stand forever as a monument to his complete mastery of the single most difficult thing to do in sport: .344 lifetime batting average, 521 home runs, 1839 RBI and 2654 hits. The Science of Hitting has reigned as the classic handbook on hitting since being published in 1971 -- and now it's even better! Ted's hitting advice has been updated, and exciting new color graphics and photos have been added to enhance your reading pleasure. The Gallery of Great Hitters has been expanded to include Ted's choices for the best hitters of the '70s and '80s: look inside to see who made the cut! You'll still find all of Ted's great advice on how to improve your turn at bat and become the best hitter possible. Learn: * How to think like a pitcher and guess the pitch * The three cardinal rules for developing a smooth line-drive swing * The secrets of hip and wrist action * Pitch selection * Bunting * Hitting the opposite way And much more! Whether you play the game or simply enjoy reading about it, you'll find The Science of Hitting an unforgettable addition to your sports library.", "ISBN-13": "9780671208929", "ISBN-10": "0671208926", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91b0qLdAZ5L._SL1500_.jpg" }, { "Title": "Talking Points: Transgender Christian Compassion, Convictions and Wisdom for Today's Big Issues", "Author": "Vaughan Roberts", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 75, "Tag": "religion, christian living, social issues", "Summary": "There's been huge cultural change in the last few decades. Same-sex marriage would have been unthinkable 20 or 30 years ago. Now it's almost universally accepted in the Western world. Now suddenly the issue of transgender is the next big social, cultural issue that has dominated the headlines.
Vaughan Roberts surveys the Christian worldview and seeks to apply these principles to the many complex questions surrounding gender identity. This short book gives an overview and a starting point for constructive discussion as we seek to live in a world with different values, and love, serve and relate to transgender people.
Talking Points is a series of short books designed to help Christians think, talk and relate to others with compassion, conviction and wisdom about today's big issues.
", "ISBN-13": "978-1784981952", "ISBN-10": "1784981958", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18", "Author": "Joseph Loconte", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "social sciences, religion, christianity", "Summary": "NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Deepen your insight into and appreciation for the writings J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis as you explore the untold story of how the First World War shaped their lives, faith, and writings.
Had there been no Great War, there would have been no Hobbit, no Lord of the Rings, no Narnia—perhaps even no conversion to Christianity by C.S. Lewis.
The First World War laid waste to a continent and permanently altered the political and religious landscape of the West. For a generation of men and women, it brought the end of innocence—and the end of faith. Yet for J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, the Great War deepened their spiritual quest. Both men served as soldiers on the Western Front, survived the trenches, and were forever changed by the experience.
In A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War you will delve into the profound impact of World War I on Tolkien and Lewis, illuminating how the horrors of the Western Front shaped their faith and the timeless tales of Middle-earth and Narnia. Witness how the Great War not only tested their faith but also ignited their remarkable Christian imaginations. Unlike many of their contemporaries who lost faith amidst the chaos, Tolkien and Lewis used their experiences to infuse their epic stories with themes of guilt and grace, sorrow and consolation.
In A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War you will:
Don't miss this opportunity to explore the fascinating intersection of history, faith, and literature. Read A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War today and embark on a journey that will deepen your appreciation for these literary giants and their extraordinary legacy.
", "ISBN-13": "9780718021771", "ISBN-10": "0718021770", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "It's Not Luck", "Author": "Eliyahu M. Goldratt", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Business", "Pages": 283, "Tag": "business & economics, human resources & personnel management, management", "Summary": "There has been a shift of policy at board level. Cash is needed and Alex Rogo's companies are to be put on the block. Alex faces a cruel dilemma. If he successfully completes the turnaround of his companies they can be sold for the maximum return: if he fails they will be closed down. Either way Alex and his team will be out of work. It looks like lose-lose, both for Alex and for his team. And as if he doesn't have enough to deal with, his two children have become teenagers. As Alex grapples with problems at work and at home, we begin to understand the full scope of Eli Goldratt's powerful techniques. It's Not Luck reveals more of the Thinking Process-techniques that consistently produce win-win solutions to seemingly impossible problems.", "ISBN-13": "9780566076275", "ISBN-10": "0566076276", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "A Non-Anxious Presence: How a Changing and Complex World Will Create a Remnant of Renewed Christian Leaders", "Author": "Mark Sayers", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "religion, christian living, social issues", "Summary": "For much of recent history individuals and institutions could plan, execute, and flourish with their visions of a better world. Volatile, complex forces could be addressed and confronted with planning and management. But crisis is a great revealer. It knocks us off our thrones. It uncovers the weaknesses in our strategies and brings to light our myths and idols. Our past strategies run aground, smashed by unpredictable and chaotic waves. Yet in the midst of the chaos of a crisis comes opportunity. The history of the church tells us that crisis always precedes renewal, and the framework of renewal offers us new ways forward. A Non-Anxious Presence shows how that renewal happens and offers churches and leaders strategic ways to awaken the Church and see our culture changed for Christ.", "ISBN-13": "9780802428578", "ISBN-10": "0802428576", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "J.R.R. Tolkien: The Making of a Legend", "Author": "Colin Duriez", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 240, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, entertainment & performing arts, literary figures", "Summary": "Long before the successful The Lord of the Rings films, J.R.R. Tolkien's creations, imagination, and characters had captured the attention of millions of readers. But who was the man who dreamt up the intricate languages and perfectly crafted world of Middle-earth.
Tolkien had a difficult life, for many years: orphaned and poor, his guardian forbad him to communicate with the woman he had fallen in love with, and he went through the horrors of the First World War.
An intensely private and brilliant scholar, he spent over fifty years working on the languages, history, peoples and geography of Middle-earth, with a consistent mythology and body of legends inspired by a formidable knowledge of early northern European history and culture. J.R.R. Tolkien became a legend by creating an imaginary world that has enthralled and delighted generations.
This delightful and accessible biography brings him to life. Colin Duriez has appeared as a commentator on DVDs of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings, and BBC television's The Worlds of Fantasy. He is also the author of The Inklings Handbook (with the late David Porter), J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis: The Story of Their Friendship, and Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings, and has contributed to definitive reference works, The Tolkien Encyclopedia and a number of other tomes relating to Tolkien.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0745955148", "ISBN-10": "0745955142", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Oxford Inklings: Lewis, Tolkien and Their Circle", "Author": "Colin Duriez", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 288, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, literary figures, history", "Summary": "The Oxford Inklings tells the story of the friendships, mutual influence, and common purpose of the Inklings - the literary circle which congregated around C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Meeting in pubs or Lewis's college rooms, they included an influential array of literary figures. They were, claimed poet and novelist John Wain, bent on 'the task of redirecting the whole current of contemporary art and life'.
Tolkien and Lewis expert Colin Duriez unpacks the Inklings' origins, relationships, and the nature of their collaboration. He shows how they influenced, encouraged, and moulded each other. Duriez also covers the less celebrated Inklings, neglected, he claims, for too long.
What did they owe - and offer - to the more acknowledged names? What brought them together? And what, eventually, drove them apart from their initial focus upon each other's writings?
", "ISBN-13": "9780745956343", "ISBN-10": "0745956343", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Redemption Accomplished and Applied", "Author": "John Murray", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "religion, bible, theology", "Summary": "Murray explores the biblical passages dealing with the necessity, nature, perfection, and extent of the atonement, and goes on to identify the distinct steps in the Bible's presentation of how the redemption accomplished by Christ is applied progressively to the life of the redeemed.", "ISBN-13": "9780802811431", "ISBN-10": "0802811434", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "juvenile fiction, fantasy & magic, action & adventure", "Summary": "They open a door and enter a world.", "ISBN-13": "9780064404990", "ISBN-10": "0064404994", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Prince Caspian", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 240, "Tag": "juvenile fiction, classics", "Summary": "The four Pevensies help Capsian battle Miraz and ascend his rightful throne.", "ISBN-13": "9780064409445", "ISBN-10": "0064409449", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Silmarillion", "Author": "J. R. R. Tolkien", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 458, "Tag": "fiction_fantasy_epic, middle earth (imaginary place)_fiction, british and irish fiction (fictional works by one author)", "Summary": "Tales and legends chronicling the world's beginnings and the happenings of the First Age set the stage for Tolkien's other classic works and focus on the theft of the Elves' jewels by Morgoth, first dark Lord of Middle-earth", "ISBN-13": "9780606013710", "ISBN-10": "0544338014", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader", "Author": "Clive Staples Lewis", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 219, "Tag": "christian books & bibles, literature & fiction, classics & allegories", "Summary": "Lucy and Edmond, accompanied by their peevish cousin Eustace, sail to the magic land of Narnia, where Eustace is temporarily transformed into a green dragon because of his selfish behavior and skepticism.", "ISBN-13": "9780590254793", "ISBN-10": "0590254790", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/910KFW6ouaL._SL1500_.jpg" }, { "Title": "The Silver Chair", "Author": "Clive Staples Lewis", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 217, "Tag": "fantasy", "Summary": "Two English children undergo hair-raising adventures as they go on a search and rescue mission for the missing Prince Rilian, who is held captive in the underground kingdom of the Emerald Witch.", "ISBN-13": "9780590254809", "ISBN-10": "0590254804", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/21akW86enyL.jpg" }, { "Title": "The Horse and His Boy", "Author": "Clive Staples Lewis", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "christian books & bibles, literature & fiction, classics & allegories", "Summary": "\"This is the story of an adventure that happened in Narnia and Calormen and the lands between, in the Golden Age when Peter was High King in Narnia and his brother and his two sisters were King and Queens under him. It is during this glorious era in Narnian history that Shasta, a young boy living in Calormen with a cruel man who claims to be his father, dreams of traveling to the unknown North. One night he overhears his \"father\" offering to sell him as a slave, and Shasta decides that now is the time to begin his Journey. When he meets Bree, a Talking Horse of Narnia who is a slave himself, the two decide to escape together. The pair soon encounters Aravis, a highborn girl escaping a forced marriage, and Hwin, another Talking Horse. The travelers must combine their wits and all their strength to reach the freedom they long for. And when they discover a Calormene plot to conquer Narnia, they must also race against time.\"--", "ISBN-13": "9780590254779", "ISBN-10": "0590254774", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81ix36yuABL._SL1500_.jpg" }, { "Title": "Authentic Ministry: Serving from the Heart", "Author": "Michael Reeves", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Ministry", "Pages": 115, "Tag": "subjects", "Summary": "
In Acts 20, Paul spoke to the elders of the church at Ephe- sus, charging them: \"Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood\" (v. 28).When thinking about Christian ministry, or preparing students for it, it is all too easy to think only about Paul's second command here: to pay attention to the flock and how we might best serve others. This is an easy shortcut, one that allows us to focus on growing our pastoral skills and our biblical knowledge, all the while leaving our own hearts unsearched. It leaves the door open to hypocrisy and hollow professionalism. It ushers in a horde of troubles, from burnout to bullying, from anxiety to isolation.But Paul's second exhortation builds upon the foundation of the first: \"Pay careful attention to yourselves.\" Only when we first do that can we have an authentic ministry that is able—from a position of health—to care rightly for all the flock of God. The simple aim of this little book is to help you pay attention to yourself and so cultivate the inner fitness necessary for outward service of the church.
Learn to see God's remarkable works in the everyday ordinary of your life.
Your remarkable life is happening right here, right now. You may not be able to see it--your life may seem predictable and your work insignificant until you look at your life as Frederick Buechner does.
Named \"the father of today's spiritual memoir movement\" by Christianity Today, Frederick Buechner reveals how to stop, look, and listen to your life. He reflects on how both art and faith teach us how to pay attention to the remarkableness right in front of us, to watch for the greatness in the ordinary, and to use our imaginations to see the greatness in others and love them well.
Pay attention, says Buechner. Listen to the call of a bird or the rush of the wind, to the people who flow in and out of your life. The ordinary points you to the extraordinary God who created and loves all of creation, including you. Pay attention to these things as if your life depends upon it. Because, of course, it does.
As you learn to pay attention to your life and what God is doing in it, you will uncover the plot of your life's story and the sacred opportunity to connect with the Divine in each moment.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310351900", "ISBN-10": "0310351901", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery", "Author": "Ross Douthat", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, personal memoirs, medical (incl. patients)", "Summary": "NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • In this vulnerable, insightful memoir, the New York Times columnist tells the story of his five-year struggle with a disease that officially doesn’t exist, exploring the limits of modern medicine, the stories that we unexpectedly fall into, and the secrets that only suffering reveals.A Biblical Case for the Importance and Goodness of Being \"Evangelical\"
The term evangelical is often poorly defined and frequently comes with cultural and political baggage. As the label has become more controversial, many Christians have begun to wonder if they should abandon it altogether.
Michael Reeves argues from a global, scriptural, and historical perspective that, while it's not necessary to discard the label altogether, Christians must return to the root of the term--the evangel, or \"gospel\"--in order to understand what it truly means. He identifies the theology of evangelicalism and its essential doctrine--the Father's revelation in the Bible, the Son's redemption in the gospel, and the Spirit's regeneration of the heart--calling believers to stand with integrity as people of the gospel.
This is a book that I carry with me all the time and refer back to. It’s marked up like you wouldn’t believe. I open it about once a week and flip through the pages. It now sits on my shelf next to Ray Ortlund’s The Gospel because these two books just make such a great pair.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Why I Wake Early: New Poems",
"Author": "Mary Oliver",
"Year Read": 2022,
"Category": "Poetry",
"Pages": 96,
"Tag": "poetry, women authors, american",
"Summary": "The forty-seven new works in this volume include poems on crickets, toads, trout lilies, black snakes, goldenrod, bears, greeting the morning, watching the deer, and, finally, lingering in happiness. Each poem is imbued with the extraordinary perceptions of a poet who considers the everyday in our lives and the natural world around us and finds a multitude of reasons to wake early.",
"ISBN-13": "9780807068793",
"ISBN-10": "0807068799",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "House of Light",
"Author": "Mary Oliver",
"Year Read": 2022,
"Category": "Poetry",
"Pages": 96,
"Tag": "poetry, women authors, american",
"Summary": "This collection of poems by Mary Oliver once again invites the reader to step across the threshold of ordinary life into a world of natural and spiritual luminosity.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
—Mary Oliver, \"The Summer Day\" (one of the poems in this volume)
Winner of a 1991 Christopher Award
Winner of the 1991 Boston Globe Lawrence L. Winship Book Award",
"ISBN-13": "9780807068113",
"ISBN-10": "080706811X",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Speaking of Race: Gospel Hope for Hard Conversations about Racism",
"Author": "Isaac Adams",
"Year Read": 2022,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 240,
"Tag": "family & relationships, prejudice, reference",
"Summary": "
Conversations about racism are as important as they are hard for American Christians.
Yet the conversation often gets so ugly, even among the faithful who claim unity in Jesus. Why is that the case Why does it matter Can things get better, or are we permanently divided
In this honest and hopeful book, pastor Isaac Adams doesn't just show you how to have the race conversation, he begins it for you. By offering a fictional, racially charged tragedy in order to understand varying perspectives and responses, he examines what is at stake if we ignore this conversation, and why there's just as much at stake in how we have that discussion, especially across color lines--that is, with people of another ethnicity. This unique approach offers insight into how to listen to one another well and seek unity in Christ. Looking to God's Word, Christians can find wisdom to speak gracefully and truthfully about racism for the glory of God, the good of their neighbors, and the building up of the church.
Some feel that the time for talking is over, and that we've heard all this before. But given how polarized American society is becoming--its churches not exempt--fresh attention on the dysfunctional communication between ethnicities is more than warranted. Adams offers an invitation to faithfully combat the racism so many of us say we hate and maintain the unity so many of us say we want. Together we can learn to speak in such a way that we show a divided world a different world.
Talking About Race points to the starting line, not the finish line, when it comes to following Jesus amid race relations. It's high time to begin running.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310124429", "ISBN-10": "0310124425", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Authority", "Author": "D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 94, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "There is a crisis of authority in society today. All inherited authority is suspect, being regarded as incompatible with man's freedom. Yet what has resulted is a disordered and dehumanized society. But the source of this confusion lies in the church itself. The authority of the Bible has been called in question and commonly today the church is left without any sense of divine authority. Dr. Lloyd-Jones faces this issue as he discusses the only road to recovery. We must reassert the divine authority of Christ, of his Word and of his Spirit or face 'the blackness of darness forever'.", "ISBN-13": "9780851513867", "ISBN-10": "0851513867", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Beautiful People Don't Just Happen: How God Redeems Regret, Hurt, and Fear in the Making of Better Humans", "Author": "Scott Sauls", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "religion, christian living, personal growth", "Summary": "Find the freedom from regret, hurt, and fear that God wants for you while discovering joy, relief, and hope as you become the beautiful human he created you to be.
We all carry regret, hurt, and fear. These are burdens that weigh us down and make us feel trapped.
In twenty-five years of pastoral ministry, Scott Sauls has come alongside countless individuals and communities through weary seasons and circumstances. From his own seasons of regret, hurt, and fear--including battles with anxiety and depression--he knows what it's like to be unfinished and on the mend under Jesus' merciful, mighty healing hand.
Beautiful People Don't Just Happen reads like a field guide that can help you:
Dare to embrace the contentment, hope, and fullness God wants for you--offered to all who will receive it.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310363446", "ISBN-10": "0310363446", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "1776 : America and Britain at War", "Author": "David McCullough", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "History", "Pages": 600, "Tag": "united states, history, revolution, 1775-1783", "Summary": "America's most acclaimed historian presents the intricate story of the year of the birth of the United States of America. 1776 tells two gripping stories: how a group of squabbling, disparate colonies became the United States, and how the British Empire tried to stop them. This book destroys many popular myths about the wars of independence and reveals in fact how many Americans wished to remain British, and how many British had profound doubts about a military solution to the revolt. It shows that many of those fighting knew those on the other side well, and as the great decisions and battles of 1776 unfolded and attitudes hardened, the truly fratricidal nature of the conflict became clear. A must read. This exhilarating book is one of the great pieces of historical narrative.", "ISBN-13": "9780713998634", "ISBN-10": "0713998636", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Confronting Jesus: 9 Encounters with the Hero of the Gospels", "Author": "Rebecca McLaughlin", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "religion, christian ministry, discipleship", "Summary": "Award-Winning Author Rebecca McLaughlin Explores Who Jesus Really Is in This Follow-Up to Confronting Christianity
Jesus is the most famous human being in all of history. But while many people have a basic sketch of Jesus in their minds, comparatively few have taken time to read the four biographies of his life in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
In Confronting Jesus, Rebecca McLaughlin shares important biblical context to help all readers see why the Gospels should be taken seriously as historical documents. Exploring eyewitness testimony about Jesus, McLaughlin points to him as a first-century Jewish man who is the Son of God, King of the Jews, mighty healer, greatest teacher, lover of sinners, suffering servant, perfect sacrifice, and universal Lord. This follow-up to her first book, Confronting Christianity, helps readers understand the message of the Gospels and explore who Jesus really is. Individuals and groups can work through the book together with the Confronting Jesus Study Guide and the Confronting Jesus Video Study.
Common Sense is the timeless classic that inspired the Thirteen Colonies to fight for and declare their independence from Great Britain in the summer of 1776. Written by famed political theorist Thomas Paine, this pamphlet boldly challenged the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy to rule over the American colonists.
By using plain language and a reasoned style, Paine chose to forego the philosophical and Latin references made popular by the Enlightenment era writers. As a result, Paine united average citizens and political leaders behind the central idea of independence and transformed the tenor of the colonists’ argument against the British. As the best-selling American title of all time, Common Sense has been eloquently described by historian Gordon S. Wood as \"the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era.\"
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) was an English-American political activist, philosopher, and revolutionary. As one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, he authored the most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution and inspired the colonists to declare independence from Great Britain in 1776. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era rhetoric of transnational human rights and the separation of church and state. He has been called a corset-maker by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination.
", "ISBN-13": "9780692625200", "ISBN-10": "0692625208", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Mark of the Christian", "Author": "Francis A. Schaeffer", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 63, "Tag": "religion, christian ministry, discipleship", "Summary": "\"It is possible to be a Christian without showing the mark, but if we expect non-Christians to know that we are Christians, we must show the mark.\" Christians have not always presented an inviting picture to the world. Too often we have failed to show the beauty of authentic Christian love. And the world has disregarded Christianity as a result. In our era of global violence and sectarian intolerance, the church needs to hear anew the challenge of this book. Decades ago Francis Schaeffer exhorted, \"Love--and the unity it attests to--is the mark Christ gave Christians to wear before the world. Only with this mark may the world know that Christians are indeed Christians and that Jesus was sent by the Father.\" More than ever, the church needs to respond compassionately to a needy world. More than ever, we need to show the Mark.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830834075", "ISBN-10": "0830834079", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "True Spirituality", "Author": "Francis August Schaeffer", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Philosophy", "Pages": 180, "Tag": "philosophy, religious, religion", "Summary": "Does believing in Jesus really make a difference?Written just after the American Revolution, Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow are two thoroughly American tales of fantasy and the supernatural.
Rip Van Winkle follows the strange adventure of a Dutch-American villager in colonial America. He meets mysterious Dutchmen in the Catskill Mountains, imbibes their liquor, and falls asleep. He awakes twenty years later to a very changed world, having missed the American Revolution.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow features Ichabod Crane, a schoolteacher who lives in a village on the Hudson River. A suggestible man, Ichabod believes the ghost stories about the place, particularly the tale of a headless horseman. When he begins courting the beautiful Katrina Van Tassel, a rival suitor, Brom Bones, begins playing tricks on the schoolmaster. Late one night as Ichabod rides home from Katrina's house, he is pursued by the legendary headless horseman. The specter hurls at him a round object that he takes to be a head but is later revealed to be a pumpkin. The schoolmaster is never seen in Sleepy Hollow again.
These two gothic masterpieces are among the earliest examples of American fiction with enduring popularity.
", "ISBN-13": "978-1434104861", "ISBN-10": "1434104869", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Calvin on Sovereignty, Providence, and Predestination", "Author": "Joel R. Beeke", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 70, "Tag": "religion", "Summary": null, "ISBN-13": "9781952599118", "ISBN-10": "B097562RGM", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/819KLp1c87S._SY522_.jpg" }, { "Title": "The Reading Life: The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others' Eyes", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Essays", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "literary criticism, books & reading, comparative literature", "Summary": "The revered teacher and bestselling author reflects on the power, importance, and joy of a life dedicated to reading books in this delightful collection drawn from his wide body of writings.
More than fifty years after his death, revered intellectual and teacher C. S. Lewis continues to speak to readers, thanks not only to his intellectual insights on Christianity but also his wondrous creative works and deep reflections on the literature that influenced his life. Beloved for his instructive novels including The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, and The Chronicles of Narnia as well as his philosophical books that explored theology and Christian life, Lewis was a life-long writer and book lover.
Cultivated from his many essays, articles, and letters, as well as his classic works, The Reading Life provides guidance and reflections on the love and enjoyment of books. Engaging and enlightening, this well-rounded collection includes Lewis’ reflections on science fiction, why children’s literature is for readers of all ages, and why we should read two old books for every new one.
A window into the thoughts of one of the greatest public intellectuals of our time, this collection reveals not only why Lewis loved the written word, but what it means to learn through literature from one of our wisest and most enduring teachers.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062849977", "ISBN-10": "0062849972", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Run with the Horses: The Quest for Life at Its Best", "Author": "Eugene H. Peterson", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 213, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "In Jeremiah 12:5 God says to the prophet, \"If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?\" We all long to live life at its best—to fuse freedom and spontaneity with purpose and meaning. Why then do we often find our lives so humdrum, so unadventuresome, so routine? Or else so frantic, so full of activity, but still devoid of fulfillment? How do we learn to risk, to trust, to pursue wholeness and excellence—to run with the horses in the jungle of life? In a series of profound reflections on the life of Jeremiah the prophet, Eugene Peterson explores the heart of what it means to be fully and genuinely human. His writing is filled with humor and self-reflection, insight and wisdom, helping to set a course for others in the quest for life at its best.", "ISBN-13": "9780830837069", "ISBN-10": "083083706X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Small Things Like These", "Author": "Claire Keegan", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 116, "Tag": "fiction, historical, 20th century", "Summary": "It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him - and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church. 0The long-awaited new work from the author of Foster, Small Things Like These is an unforgettable story of hope, quiet heroism and tenderness.0'[Claire Keegan] creates luminous effects with spare material, so every line seems to be a lesson in the perfect deployment of both style and emotion.'0Hilary Mantel.", "ISBN-13": "9780571368686", "ISBN-10": "0571368689", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I saw someone whose literary taste I admire talk about this book on Twitter. If Twitter ever fails, this is one of the things I will miss most—finding books I would never know to pick up.Keegan’s little novel is a Christmas story about the small things that make a big difference. It’s a short read—only 70 pages. I read it in one sitting but carried it with me for far longer. It is one that I will re-read every now and then simply for the beauty of the prose and the story.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Wisdom of Each Other: A Conversation Between Spiritual Friends", "Author": "Eugene H. Peterson", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 112, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, religious, family & relationships", "Summary": "
An illuminating example of friendship as a vital way God answers our need for guidance, encouragement, affirmation, and correction.
Most of the time, what we need to help us through the struggles in our lives is not the advice of an expert but the wisdom of a friend. Through this series of eloquent letters written to a life-long friend, author Eugene Peterson demonstrates friendship as a means to Christian maturity.
The topics covered in this warm and highly personal correspondence are broad and varied, but one thing comes through with constancy and clarity: there is great value in a wise, experienced friend to help us see more clearly and to strengthen our growth in faith and godliness.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310242475", "ISBN-10": "0310242479", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Heart of Anger: How the Bible Transforms Anger in Our Understanding and Experience", "Author": "Christopher Ash, Steve Midgley", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "religion, christian living, personal growth", "Summary": "How should Christians understand anger, evaluate it, and respond for good?
We all struggle with anger at times: Our plans suddenly fall through, we lose a prized possession, or our reputation is called into question. More often than not, when anger knocks at the doors of our hearts we easily allow it to take over. But what if getting to the heart of our anger also reveals the way to transform it?
Christopher Ash and Steve Midgley address this question by bringing to bear what the whole Bible has to say about sinful anger--revealing that anger is the sinful response when something we value more than God is taken away or threatened. They reflect on biblical portraits of human anger, God's righteous anger, and how only the gospel of Jesus Christ brings true freedom--transforming a heart of anger into a heart filled with the love of God.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433568480", "ISBN-10": "1433568489", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I don’t consider myself an angry person, but like everyone, I get angry sometimes. What is going on during those times? Ash helps us understand by taking us inside God’s word on the matter. There is righteous anger. There is sinful anger. And it’s hard to know the difference sometimes. Even more, it’s hard to know how to deal with our anger properly.If you struggle with anger or want to understand it better, this is the book for you.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Wit: A Play", "Author": "Margaret Edson", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 85, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, entertainment & performing arts, drama", "Summary": "
Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, and the Oppenheimer Award.
Adapted to an Emmy Award-winning television movie, directed by Mike Nichols, starring Emma Thompson.
Margaret Edson's powerfully imagined Pulitzer Prize–winning play examines what makes life worth living through her exploration of one of existence's unifying experiences—mortality—while she also probes the vital importance of human relationships. What we as her audience take away from this remarkable drama is a keener sense that, while death is real and unavoidable, our lives are ours to cherish or throw away—a lesson that can be both uplifting and redemptive. As the playwright herself puts it, \"The play is not about doctors or even about cancer. It's about kindness, but it shows arrogance. It's about compassion, but it shows insensitivity.\"
In Wit, Edson delves into timeless questions with no final answers: How should we live our lives knowing that we will die? Is the way we live our lives and interact with others more important than what we achieve materially, professionally, or intellectually? How does language figure into our lives? Can science and art help us conquer death, or our fear of it? What will seem most important to each of us about life as that life comes to an end?
The immediacy of the presentation, and the clarity and elegance of Edson's writing, make this sophisticated, multilayered play accessible to almost any interested reader.
As the play begins, Vivian Bearing, a renowned professor of English who has spent years studying and teaching the intricate, difficult Holy Sonnets of the seventeenth-century poet John Donne, is diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer. Confident of her ability to stay in control of events, she brings to her illness the same intensely rational and painstakingly methodical approach that has guided her stellar academic career. But as her disease and its excruciatingly painful treatment inexorably progress, she begins to question the single-minded values and standards that have always directed her, finally coming to understand the aspects of life that make it truly worth living.
Every Riven Thing is Christian Wiman’s first collection in seven years, and rarely has a book of poetry so borne the stamp of necessity. Whether in stark, haiku-like descriptions of a cancer ward, surrealistic depictions of a social order coming apart, or fluent, defiant outpourings of praise, Wiman pushes his language and forms until they break open, revealing startling new truths within. The poems are joyful and sorrowful at the same time, abrasive and beautiful, densely physical and credibly mystical. They attest to the human hunger to feel existence, even at its most harrowing, and the power of art to make our most intense experiences not only apprehensible but transfiguring.
", "ISBN-13": "9780374150365", "ISBN-10": "0374150362", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Winners", "Author": "Fredrik Backman", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 688, "Tag": "fiction, action & adventure, humorous", "Summary": "I utterly believed in the residents of Beartown, and felt ripped apart by the events in the book' JOJO MOYESWhat would it look like to genuinely love God with our head AND our heart? To have a faith marked by right thinking AND right feeling? To know God deeply AND worship him passionately?
Too often, Christians act as though these things are at odds with one another. But what if God intends for us to possess a Christianity that is radically committed to biblical truth, in a way that did not diminish the life of the heart, but actually intensified it?
Adam Ramsey invites us to engage both our minds and our emotions in our walk with God as we gaze at him until our hearts sing. He sums it up like this:
\"My hope in these following pages is to paint a biblical portrait of what God is actually like, so that we can gaze upon him together until our hearts can't help but sing. To behold him in such a way that our daily experience is transformed with a deepened awareness of who it is we pray to, who it is that is with us, and who it is that we are loved by. To let God's truth set our hearts on fire.\"
If you yearn for God but desire a clearer biblical picture of this God whom you love, or if you have been walking with God for a while now, but your experience of him has become settled or dry, then this book is for you.
", "ISBN-13": "9781784986483", "ISBN-10": "1784986488", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson", "Author": "Jeff Pearlman", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 960, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, cultural, ethnic & regional, african american & black", "Summary": "A New York Times Bestseller
By the author of Showtime--the source for HBO's Winning Time--the definitive biography of mythic multi-sport star Bo Jackson.
\"A legendary tome on a legendary athlete.\" --Chris Herring, author of Blood in the Garden
From the mid-1980s into the early 1990s, the greatest athlete of all time streaked across American sports and popular culture. Stadiums struggled to contain him. Clocks failed to capture his speed. His strength was legendary. His power unmatched. Video game makers turned him into an invincible character--and they were dead-on. He climbed (and walked across) walls, splintered baseball bats over his knee, turned oncoming tacklers into ground meat. He became the first person to simultaneously star in two major professional sports, and overtook Michael Jordan as America's most recognizable pitchman. He was on our televisions, in our magazines, plastered across billboards. He was half man, half myth.
Then, almost overnight, he was gone.
He was Bo Jackson.
Drawing on an astonishing 720 original interviews, New York Times bestselling sportswriter Jeff Pearlman captures as never before the elusive truth about Jackson, Auburn University's transcendent Heisman Trophy winner, superstar of both the NFL and Major League Baseball and ubiquitous \"Bo Knows\" Nike pitchman. Did Bo really jump over a parked Volkswagen? (Yes.) Did he actually run a 4.13 40? (Yes.) During the 1991 flight that nearly killed every member of the Chicago White Sox, was he in the cockpit trying to help? (Oddly, yes. Or no. Or ... maybe.)
Bo Jackson isn't Jim Thorpe.
He's not Deion Sanders, either.
No, Bo Jackson is Paul Bunyan.
The Last Folk Hero is the true tale of Bo Jackson that only \"master storyteller\" (NPR.org) Jeff Pearlman could tell.
", "ISBN-13": "9780063268166", "ISBN-10": "0063268167", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Wish It Lasted Forever: Life with the Larry Bird Celtics", "Author": "Dan Shaughnessy", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, sports, sports & recreation", "Summary": "From award-winning Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy, an “entertaining” (The Wall Street Journal) and nostalgia-filled retelling of the 1980s Boston Celtics’ glory years, which featured the sublime play of NBA legend Larry Bird.But here’s at least something new from Dylan. He calls it a philosophy of modern song, but it’s more accurate to say it’s Dylan riffing on some great tunes. Of course, he dips into philosophical items from time to time, but there doesn’t seem to me to be a cohesive philosophy springing from the pages. It doesn’t matter. Dylan’s insight into these classic songs and his retelling of them in his unique personification is worth every penny. ", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Faith in the Wilderness: Words of Exhortation from the Chinese Church", "Author": "Hannah Nation, Simon Liu", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "religion, christian living, inspirational", "Summary": "2022 Christianity Today Award of Merit, Missions & Global Church
\"a powerful and moving collection of sermonic letters\" --Tim Challies
\"If we want revival in our communities, then let us learn from those being revived.\" For many Western Christians, the experience of suffering and persecution is remote. For Chinese Christians, on the other hand, persecution is a regular aspect of the Christian life. If a Christian from the West was transported to a Chinese house church, the topic of suffering would be ever-present in preaching and conversation. With decades of persecution under government oppression and a rich theology of suffering, the Chinese house church movement has much to contribute theologically to the global church.
In Faith in the Wilderness, editors Hannah Nation and Simon Liu pull together the insights of the Chinese church for the West. These sermonic letters from Chinese Christians pull back the curtain on the pastoral heart and the hope behind the house church's remarkable faithfulness, awakening readers to the reality of the gospel--the ground of our hope--in the midst of darkness. Readers will be convicted, encouraged, and edified by the testimony of these Chinese Christians.
\"Let us learn from the witness of our Chinese brothers and sisters so that we can stand fast all the better as we face trials wherever we live.\" --Timothy Keller (from the foreword)
", "ISBN-13": "9781683596042", "ISBN-10": "1683596048", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Sometimes it’s good to hear from different parts of the world. We can get so caught up in what’s happening here. I understand why that happens. But every now and then, we need to look outward and listen to Christians from other, more difficult parts of the world.Here’s a book that does just that. Taken from sermons from Chinese pastors during the COVID pandemic, this book will encourage you to look to Jesus as your only hope. I listened to this book, which I always recommend if books are a complication of sermons. Throughout, I found myself convicted and encouraged. You will be too.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy", "Author": "David D. Burns", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Science", "Pages": 466, "Tag": "family & relationships, psychology, psychopathology", "Summary": "This national bestseller, reissued with a new Introduction from the author, presents a highly successful, clinically proven, drug-free treatment for depression. Recommended by mental health professionals to patients suffering from depression.", "ISBN-13": "9780380718030", "ISBN-10": "0380718030", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Princess and the Goblin", "Author": "George MacDonald", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "juvenile fiction, classics, fairy tales & folklore", "Summary": "
The enchanting story of The Princess and the Goblin, brilliantly introduced by Ursula Le Guin, author of the Earthsea quartet.
Princess Irene lives in a castle in a wild and lonely mountainous region. One day she discovers a steep and winding stairway leading to a bewildering labyrinth of unused passages with closed doors - and a further stairway. What lies at the top? Can the ring the princess is given protect her against the lurking menace of the boglins from under the mountain?
", "ISBN-13": "9780141332482", "ISBN-10": "0141332484", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now", "Author": "James K. A. Smith", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "religion, spirituality, christian living", "Summary": "2023 Christian Book Award® Winner (Christian Living)\"Abide in my love.\" --John 15:9
As followers of Christ, we long to grow in godliness, but we often find ourselves stuck. Sin runs deep, we continue to fail, and we are easily tempted to give up. It doesn't have to be that way.
In How Does God Change Us?, Dane Ortlund explains how those united to Jesus Christ do not need to look anywhere but to Christ himself for real growth. We change by going deeper into the same truths that saved us in the first place. With timeless counsel from historical Christian figures, Ortlund shows you how to get traction in your spiritual walk, experience real change, and live out your invincible identity in Christ.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433574030", "ISBN-10": "1433574039", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "1919, Poems", "Author": "Eve L. Ewing", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "History", "Pages": 74, "Tag": "history, african american & black, poetry", "Summary": "NPR Best Books of 2019
Chicago Tribune Best Books of 2019
Chicago Review of Books Best Poetry Book of 2019
O Magazine Best Books by Women of Summer 2019
The Millions Must-Read Poetry of June 2019
LitHub Most Anticipated Reads of Summer 2019
The Chicago Race Riot of 1919, the most intense of the riots comprising the nation's Red Summer, has shaped the last century but is not widely discussed. In 1919, award-winning poet Eve L. Ewing explores the story of this event--which lasted eight days and resulted in thirty-eight deaths and almost 500 injuries--through poems recounting the stories of everyday people trying to survive and thrive in the city. Ewing uses speculative and Afrofuturist lenses to recast history, and illuminates the thin line between the past and the present.
Winner of the National Jewish Book Award · New York Times Bestseller
\"A brilliant and heart-wrenching book, with universal and timely lessons about the power of information--and misinformation. Is it possible to stop mass murder by telling the truth?\" -- Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
A complex hero. A forgotten story. The first witness to reveal the full truth of the Holocaust . . .
Award-winning journalist and bestselling novelist Jonathan Freedland tells the astonishing true story of Rudolf Vrba, the man who broke out of Auschwitz to warn the world of a truth too few were willing to hear.
In April 1944, Rudolf Vrba became one of the very first Jews to escape from Auschwitz and make his way to freedom--among only a tiny handful who ever pulled off that near-impossible feat. He did it to reveal the truth of the death camp to the world--and to warn the last Jews of Europe what fate awaited them. Against all odds, Vrba and his fellow escapee, Fred Wetzler, climbed mountains, crossed rivers, and narrowly missed German bullets until they had smuggled out the first full account of Auschwitz the world had ever seen--a forensically detailed report that eventually reached Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and the Pope.
And yet too few heeded the warning that Vrba had risked everything to deliver. Though Vrba helped save two hundred thousand Jewish lives, he never stopped believing it could have been so many more.
This is the story of a brilliant yet troubled man--a gifted \"escape artist\" who, even as a teenager, understood that the difference between truth and lies can be the difference between life and death. Rudolf Vrba deserves to take his place alongside Anne Frank, Oskar Schindler, and Primo Levi as one of the handful of individuals whose stories define our understanding of the Holocaust.
", "ISBN-13": "9780063112339", "ISBN-10": "0063112337", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Some stories are so amazing you can barely believe they are real. This is one of those stories. Enslaved in Auschwitz, Walter Rosenberg was one of the few who escaped and lived to tell his story. Along with another man, he found a way to warn the world of what was really going on. The problem was, no one did anything about it. The story is wild and heartbreaking and a warning all at once. It’s one of those Holocaust stories that should be told and retold again and again.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Air We Breathe: How We All Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality", "Author": "Glen Scrivener", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 240, "Tag": "religion, biblical criticism & interpretation, biblical studies", "Summary": "Is Christianity history? Or is Christian history the deepest explanation of the modern world?
Today in the west, many consider the church to be dead or dying. Christianity is seen as outdated, bigoted and responsible for many of society's problems. This leaves many believers embarrassed about their faith and many outsiders wary of religion. But what if the Christian message is not the enemy of our modern Western values, but the very thing that makes sense of them?
In this fascinating book, Glen Scrivener takes readers on a journey to discover how the teachings of Jesus not only turned the ancient world upside down, but continue to underpin the way we think of life, worth, and meaning. Far from being a relic from the past, the distinctive ideas of Christianity, such as freedom, kindness, progress and equality, are a crucial part of the air that we breathe. As author Glen Scrivener says in his introduction: \"The extraordinary impact of Christianity is seen in the fact that we don't notice it\".
This is a book for both believers and sceptics--giving Christians confidence to be open about their faith and showing non-Christians the ways in which the message of Jesus makes sense of their most cherished beliefs. Whoever you are, you'll gain a deeper appreciation for the values you hold dear as you discover the power and profundity of Jesus and his revolution.
", "ISBN-13": "9781784987497", "ISBN-10": "1784987492", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Some books come along that are must reads. This is one of them. If you want to understand how we got where we are, Scrivener will help you see. The air we breath is thoroughly Christian, even if our culture denies that permeating past. Our modern sense of freedom, justice, equity, and all the rest finds its roots in the Bible. We can ignore the Bible if we want, but we can’t deny its influence.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Overcoming Apathy: Gospel Hope for Those who Struggle to Care", "Author": "Uche Anizor", "Year Read": 2022, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "religion, christian living, personal growth", "Summary": "Understanding Apathy and How to Combat It
For many Christians, apathy can feel inescapable. They experience a lack of motivation and a growing indifference to important things, with some even struggling to care about anything at all. This listlessness can spill over into our spiritual lives, making it difficult to pray, read the Bible, or engage in our communities. Have we resigned ourselves to apathy? Do we recognize it as a sin? How can we fight against it?
In Overcoming Apathy, theology professor Uche Anizor explains what apathy is and gives practical, biblical advice to break the cycle. Inspired by his conversations with young Christians as well as his own experiences with apathy, Anizor takes a fresh look at this widespread problem and its effect on spiritual maturity. First, he highlights the prevalence of apathy in our culture, using examples from TV, movies, and social media. Next, he turns to theologians, philosophers, and psychologists to further define apathy. Finally, Anizor explores causes, cures, and healthy practices to boldly overcome apathy in daily life, taking believers from spiritual lethargy to Christian zeal. This short book is an excellent resource for those struggling with apathy as well as parents, mentors, and friends who want to support someone in need.
I don’t have a cowboy hat because, living in Nashville, I couldn’t wear one and not look like a tourist, but if I lived almost anywhere else, I’d wear one regularly. My family owns a 350-acre farm with about a hundred head of cattle. We have a farm hand who looks after them and, honestly, he has my dream job.
Instead, I read and watch Westerns. Thankfully, the Western has had a long, glorious run as a genre, and I don’t think it’ll die anytime soon.
The Sisters Brothers was one of the first books I read in 2023, and it was one of my favorites. It’s not a typical Western. It includes far more humor than most. The story is 100% Western, though. It’s plenty violent. It has the good guys and the bad guys, and it’s hard to tell who is who most of the time. If you’re looking for an entertaining novel, Western or not, this one will scratch that itch.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Messi Vs. Ronaldo: One Rivalry, Two GOATs, and the Era that Remade the World's Game", "Author": "Jonathan Clegg, Joshua Robinson", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 320, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, rich & famous, sports", "Summary": "
Essential World Cup Reading | Featured in The New York Times' 'What to Read During the World Cup'
Wall Street Journal reporters Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg offer a deeply reported account of the intertwined sagas and legacies of two of the greatest soccer players of all time--Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo--examining how their rivalry has grown from a personal competition to a multi-billion-dollar industry, paralleling the stunning rise, overwhelming excesses, and uncertain future of modern international soccer.
For over fifteen years, almost any conversation about international soccer has always come back to two players--Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo--undoubtedly the greatest of their generation but with styles, attitudes, and fanbases that couldn't be more different. For millions of people around the world \"Messi or Ronaldo?\" isn't simply a barroom argument, or an affirmation of fandom, so much as a statement of philosophy, of values, of what global soccer is today and of what it will be tomorrow.
Now Wall Street Journal reporters and co-authors of The Club, Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, unite the stories of Messi and Ronaldo into a single modern epic of global sports, detailing how one rivalry changed both the game and the business of international soccer--forever. Based on dozens of firsthand accounts and years of original reporting, Messi vs. Ronaldo weaves together the stakes, color, and characters at the heart of each man's story, going inside the locker rooms and boardrooms where their legends were forged and revealing off-field drama as gripping as anything that happened on it. From their contrasting origin stories to their divergent career arcs and their conflicting reputations, these players have built their successes on opposite paths, yet each, in his own way, offers a riveting tale of triumph and excess. Taken together, their story embodies the astronomical growth of international soccer, how social media has revolutionized the power of sports celebrity, and how the desire to capitalize on the billions of dollars these players represent electrified some of the most storied clubs in Europe--Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Manchester United among them--and cost them almost everything.
With the 2022 World Cup almost certain to be the last for both of these figures, Messi vs. Ronaldo offers a deeply researched look at their legacy and grapples with the impact that their talents have had on the game for better and for worse. Much more than a retelling of the dual accomplishments of these great players, this is truly a biography of a rivalry, one that has become a crucial lens for understanding the past, present, and future of global soccer.
", "ISBN-13": "9780063157170", "ISBN-10": "0063157179", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again", "Author": "Robert D. Putnam, Shaylyn Romney Garrett", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "History", "Pages": 465, "Tag": "history, united states, 20th century", "Summary": "From the author of Bowling Alone and Our Kids, a “sweeping yet remarkably accessible” (The Wall Street Journal) analysis that “offers superb, often counterintuitive insights” (The New York Times) to demonstrate how we have gone from an individualistic “I” society to a more communitarian “We” society and then back again, and how we can learn from that experience to become a stronger more unified nation.Working Backwards is an insider's breakdown of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and best practices from two long-time Amazon executives—with lessons and techniques you can apply to your own company, and career, right now.
In Working Backwards, two long-serving Amazon executives reveal the principles and practices that have driven the success of one of the most extraordinary companies the world has ever known. With twenty-seven years of Amazon experience between them—much of it during the period of unmatched innovation that created products and services including Kindle, Amazon Prime, Amazon Studios, and Amazon Web Services—Bryar and Carr offer unprecedented access to the Amazon way as it was developed and proven to be repeatable, scalable, and adaptable.
With keen analysis and practical steps for applying it at your own company—no matter the size—the authors illuminate how Amazon’s fourteen leadership principles inform decision-making at all levels of the company. With a focus on customer obsession, long-term thinking, eagerness to invent, and operational excellence, Amazon’s ground-level practices ensure these characteristics are translated into action and flow through all aspects of the business.
Working Backwards is both a practical guidebook and the story of how the company grew to become so successful. It is filled with the authors’ in-the-room recollections of what “Being Amazonian” is like and how their time at the company affected their personal and professional lives. They demonstrate that success on Amazon’s scale is not achieved by the genius of any single leader, but rather through commitment to and execution of a set of well-defined, rigorously-executed principles and practices—shared here for the very first time.
Whatever your talent, career or organization might be, find out how you can put Working Backwards to work for you.
'In a crowded field of life advice and even life advice based on scientific research, Schulz and Waldinger stand apart' Angela Duckworth, author of Grit
What makes for a fulfilling and meaningful life? A good life?
Based on findings from the 80-year-long Harvard Study of Adult Development, this landmark book reveals the simple yet surprising truth: the stronger our relationships, the more likely we are to live happy, satisfying and overall healthier lives.
Revealing the ground-breaking research behind the world's longest study on happiness, programme directors Dr Robert Waldinger and Dr Marc Schulz bring together scientific precision, traditional wisdom, incredible real-life stories and actionable insights to prove once and for all that our own wellbeing and ability to flourish is absolutely within our control.
'An outstanding book. It combines the longest and richest study of human lives anywhere with two remarkable authors of extraordinary breadth' Richard Layard, author of Can We Be Happier?
'This captivating, powerful book shows us scientifically and practically how to define, create and most importantly live the good life' Jay Shetty
'That is the great marriage swap, or joyful exchange, of the gospel. Christ, our great Bridegroom, has taken all our sin, death, and judgement, borne it on the cross, and drowned it in his blood. He has then given to us all his righteousness, blessedness, and beloved status before his Father.'How do we become right with God? Michael Reeves warmly and clearly introduces what the Bible teaches about justification by faith alone. For anyone who does not know Christ or is lacking confidence in their salvation, the Bible has good news of comfort and joy.
Derived from Michael Horton's recently released The Christian Faith, this digital short presents a full theological investigation into the biblical concept of union with Christ. Horton covers the nature of this union, exegetical development of the concept, and both historical visions and contrasting paradigms of it. He also draws connections between a Christian's ongoing union with his or her Savior and grace, ontology, essence and energies, and covenant—an altogether masterful sketch of a beautiful and mysterious spiritual reality.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310496304", "ISBN-10": "0310496306", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Thrill of Orthodoxy: Rediscovering the Adventure of Christian Faith", "Author": "Trevin Wax", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 240, "Tag": "religion, christian theology, christianity", "Summary": "Christianity Today Book Award of Merit—Popular Theology
The Gospel Coaltion Award of Distinction—Popular Theology
Every generation faces the temptation to wander from orthodoxy—to seek out the jolt that comes with false teaching, and to drift with cultural currents. And so every generation must be awakened again to the thrill of orthodoxy, and experience the astonishment that comes from stumbling afresh upon the electrifying paradoxes at the heart of the Christian faith.
In The Thrill of Orthodoxy, Trevin Wax turns the tables on those who believe Christian teaching is narrow and outdated. Returning to the church's creeds, he explains what orthodoxy is and why we can have proper confidence in it, and lays out common ways we can stray from it. By showing how heresies are always actually narrower than orthodoxy—taking one aspect of the truth and wielding it as a weapon against others—Wax shows us that false teaching ultimately proves bland and boring, and that orthodoxy is where true adventure can be found.
", "ISBN-13": "9781514005002", "ISBN-10": "151400500X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness", "Author": "Steve Magness", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Business", "Pages": 308, "Tag": "business & economics, careers, personal finance", "Summary": "National Bestseller
\"In Do Hard Things, Steve Magness beautifully and persuasively reimagines our understanding of toughness. This is a must-read for parents and coaches and anyone else looking to prepare for life's biggest challenges.\" -- Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers and Talking to Strangers and host of the Revisionist History podcast
From beloved performance expert, executive coach, and coauthor of Peak Performance Steve Magness comes a radical rethinking of how we perceive toughness and what it means to achieve our high ambitions in the face of hard things.
Toughness has long been held as the key to overcoming a challenge and achieving greatness, whether it is on the sports field, at a boardroom, or at the dining room table. Yet, the prevailing model has promoted a mentality based on fear, false bravado, and hiding any sign of weakness. In other words, the old model of toughness has failed us.
Steve Magness, a performance scientist who coaches Olympic athletes, rebuilds our broken model of resilience with one grounded in the latest science and psychology. In Do Hard Things, Magness teaches us how we can work with our body - how experiencing discomfort, leaning in, paying attention, and creating space to take thoughtful action can be the true indications of cultivating inner strength. He offers four core pillars to cultivate such resilience:
Smart and wise all at once, Magness flips the script on what it means to be resilient. Drawing from mindfulness, military case studies, sports psychology, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, he provides a roadmap for navigating life's challenges and achieving high performance that makes us happier, more successful, and, ultimately, better people.
", "ISBN-13": "9780063098619", "ISBN-10": "006309861X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Brave Companions", "Author": "David McCullough", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "History", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "history, united states, 19th century", "Summary": "From Alexander von Humboldt to Charles and Anne Lindbergh, these are stories of people of great vision and daring whose achievements continue to inspire us today, brilliantly told by master historian David McCullough.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
This work is in the \"public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
", "ISBN-13": "9781017591033", "ISBN-10": "1017591032", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture", "Author": "Christopher Watkin", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 672, "Tag": "religion, biblical criticism & interpretation, biblical studies", "Summary": "*With a foreword from Tim Keller*
A bold vision for Christians who want to engage the world in a way that is biblically faithful and culturally sensitive.
In Biblical Critical Theory, Christopher Watkin shows how the Bible and its unfolding story help us make sense of modern life and culture.
Critical theories exist to critique what we think we know about reality and the social, political, and cultural structures in which we live. In doing so, they make visible the values and beliefs of a culture in order to scrutinize and change them.
Biblical Critical Theory exposes and evaluates the often-hidden assumptions and concepts that shape late-modern society, examining them through the lens of the biblical story running from Genesis to Revelation, and asking urgent questions like:
Informed by the biblical-theological structure of Saint Augustine's magisterial work The City of God (and with extensive diagrams and practical tools), Biblical Critical Theory shows how the patterns of the Bible's storyline can provide incisive, fresh, and nuanced ways of intervening in today's debates on everything from science, the arts, and politics to dignity, multiculturalism, and equality. You'll learn the moves to make and the tools to use in analyzing and engaging with all sorts of cultural artifacts and events in a way that is both biblically faithful and culturally relevant.
It is not enough for Christians to explain the Bible to the culture or cultures in which we live. We must also explain the culture in which we live within the framework and categories of the Bible, revealing how the whole of the Bible sheds light on the whole of life.
If Christians want to speak with a fresh, engaging, and dynamic voice in the marketplace of ideas today, we need to mine the unique treasures of the distinctive biblical storyline.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310128724", "ISBN-10": "0310128722", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Christopher Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory is the best book I read this year. I’ve recommended it to several people, and I plan to revisit it often. It’s a big book, but it doesn’t feel like it to me. Reading it, I didn’t want it to end. I wished it kept on exegeting our modern culture for a thousand more pages.A lot of people might be turned off by the title, thinking it’s some woke thing. It’s not. Watkin helps us see that what we think we know about modern life and culture finds its grounding and reality in the Bible. The scriptures help us understand everything, and with Watkin’s guidance, we can start to understand that in new ways.
If you’re looking for a book that helps you understand our world through the eyes of the Bible, this is the book for you. Don’t be intimidated by its size or title. Instead, dive in head first. You’ll come out wiser than before.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "My Sixty Years on the Plains: Trapping, Trading, and Indian Fighting",
"Author": "William T. Hamilton",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "History",
"Pages": 264,
"Tag": "history, united states, state & local",
"Summary": "In these days, when the experience of living right up against nature is fast becoming a thing of the past, the story of the mountain men is of special interest. These pioneers as a class were unique. Life itself had little value in their estimation. They were adventurous and fearless men, who pushed the boundaries of what it meant to be alive and thought nothing of laying down their lives in the service of a friend. Theirs was a brotherhood in which one man’s life was entirely at the service of any of its members, regardless of friendship or even of acquaintanceship. Often equipped with nothing but their skill and endurance, a horse, a gun or two, and enough provisions to see them until tomorrow, they set out to make their way through a vast wilderness that held all the terrors of the unknown.
William “Bill” Hamilton recounts his life as a free trapper and mountain man in the last days of their remarkable time. Hamilton’s writing is simple and straightforward, a mirror image of the man himself. If you want an excellent autobiography of a hard man who trapped the creeks and streams of the far West, lived with and fought against Indians, and helped settlers come west to make a new life, this is the book for you. Drop that paperback Western and pick up the real story—history with the bark still on it.
Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.",
"ISBN-13": "9781629143835",
"ISBN-10": "1629143839",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Nine Years Among the Indians, 1870-1879: The Story of the Captivity and Life of a Texan Among the Indians",
"Author": "Herman Lehmann",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 235,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, historical, history",
"Summary": "
Here is a genuine Little Big Man story, with all the color, sweep, and tragedy of a classic American western. It is the tale of Herman Lehmann, a captive of the Apaches on the Southern Plains of Texas and New Mexico during the 1870s. Adopted by a war chief, he was trained to be a warrior and waged merciless war on Apache enemies, both Indian and Euro-American. After killing an Apache medicine man in self-defense, he fled to a lonely hermitage on the Southern Plains until he joined the Comanches. Against his will, Lehmann was returned to his family in 1879. The final chapters relate his difficult readjustment to Anglo life.
Lehmann's unapologetic narrative is extraordinary for its warm embrace of Native Americans and stinging appraisal of Anglo society. Once started, the story of this remarkable man cannot be put down. Dale Giese's introduction provides a framework for interpreting the Lehmann narrative.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0826314178", "ISBN-10": "0826314171", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation", "Author": "Collin Hansen", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 320, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, religious, philosophy", "Summary": "The untold story of the people, the books, the lectures, and ultimately the God who formed and shaped the life of the late Timothy Keller.
Millions have read books and listened to sermons by Timothy Keller. But who impacted his own thinking, and what shaped his spiritual growth and ministry priorities With access to Keller's personal notes and sermons--as well as interviews with family members and longtime friends--Collin Hansen takes readers behind the scenes of one of the 21st century's most influential church leaders.
For the first time, Hansen introduces readers to Keller's early years: the home where he learned to tell stories from the trees, the church where he learned to care for souls, and the city that lifted him to the international fame he never wanted.
This unique biography will allow you to:
The story of Timothy Keller is the story of his spiritual and intellectual influences, from the woman who taught him how to read the Bible to the professor who taught him to preach Jesus from every text to the philosopher who taught him to see beneath society's surface.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310128687", "ISBN-10": "0310128684", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "There isn’t enough space to write about Tim Keller’s influence on me. I wrote a little about it on the day he died.I was really looking forward to Colin Hansen’s “biography” of Keller since I first heard about it some time last year. I put biography in quotes because it’s not the kind of biography you’re used to. Yes, it tells the story of Keller’s life, but it is, fittingly, not Keller-centric. Rather than focusing on Keller himself, we learn about the people who influenced him. We see how he became who he was and how he was formed spiritually and intellectually.
It’s a brilliant idea. To understand a person, you have to understand the people that shaped them. From C.S. Lewis to Richard Lovelace to Edmond Clowney to Barbara Boyd, you get to see the minds that shaped the mind that touched the hearts of so many of us. ",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Mining Towns in the Wild West: The History of the Construction and Abandonment of the Frontier's Most Famous Sites",
"Author": "Charles River",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "History",
"Pages": 136,
"Tag": "history, modern, 19th century",
"Summary": "*Includes pictures
*Includes a bibliography for further reading
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, notwithstanding its merits as a feat of exploration, was also the first tentative claim on the vast interior and the western seaboard of North America by the United States. It set in motion the great movement west that began almost immediately with the first commercial overland expedition funded by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company and would continue with the establishment of the Oregon Trail and California Trail.
The westward movement of Americans in the 19th century was one of the largest and most consequential migrations in history, and as it so happened, paths across the West were being formalized and coming into use right around the time gold was discovered in the lands that became California in January 1848. Located thousands of miles away from the country's power centers on the East Coast at the time, the announcement came a month before the Mexican-American War had ended, and among the very few Americans that were near the region at the time, many of them were Army soldiers who were participating in the war and garrisoned there. San Francisco was still best known for being a Spanish military and missionary outpost during the colonial era, and only a few hundred called it home. Mexico's independence, and its possession of those lands, had come only a generation earlier.
Everything changed almost literally overnight. While the Mexican-American War technically concluded with a treaty in February 1848, the announcement brought an influx of an estimated 90,000 \"Forty-Niners\" to the region in 1849, hailing from other parts of America and even as far away as Asia. All told, an estimated 300,000 people would come to California over the next few years, and while the California Gold Rush brought about the first major mining towns and established Los Angeles and San Francisco as major cities, other boomtowns would be built almost overnight alongside the discovery of other mineral deposits like silver. Perhaps the most famous was Tombstone, a frontier boomtown in Arizona that came to symbolize everything about the Wild West. In many ways, Tombstone fit all the stereotypes associated with that era in American history. A dusty place on the outskirts of civilization, Tombstone brought together miners, cowboys, lawmen, saloons, gambling, brothels, and everything in between, creating an environment that was always colorful and occasionally fatal. Those characteristics might not have distinguished Tombstone from other frontier outposts like Deadwood in the Dakotas, but some of the most famous legends of the West called Tombstone home for many years, most notably the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday. And ultimately, the relationships and rivalries forged by those men in Tombstone culminated in the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881.
The West's most famous fight all but ensured that Tombstone would be the epicenter of Western lore, but that did nothing to stop the dwindling of the city's population at the end of the 19th century. Fires, the negative environmental effects of so much mining, and the closing of the frontier all made sure that the populations in such places never grew back to anything resembling their peaks in the late 19th century, and today, the remains of such mining towns tend to be objects of curiosity and tourism sites than anything else.
Mining Towns in the Wild West: The History of the Construction and Abandonment of the Frontier's Most Famous Sites profiles some of the most important events and camps that popped up in response to mineral discoveries, their history, and how they were often left behind nearly as quickly as they peaked. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the West's mining towns like never before.",
"ISBN-13": "9781701797901",
"ISBN-10": "1701797909",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Saved from What?",
"Author": "R. C. Sproul",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 128,
"Tag": "religion, christian theology, soteriology",
"Summary": "
Christians speak of \"being saved,\" but all too often don't follow the phrase to its logical reply: \"Saved from what?\" How do we answer this question when we share the gospel with others? Far from being a matter of semantics, the issue holds critical importance for believers and non-believers alike. Is it really sufficient to say that we are saved from our sins?
R. C. Sproul uses Scripture to show that the question, in its most important sense, should be phrased, \"Saved from whom?\" The answer: God himself. God, in righteous wrath, stands against us in our sin. But the glory of the gospel is that the one from whom we need to be saved is the very one who saves us. It is when we truly grasp the significance of Christ's redeeming work that we begin to understand the serious demands and joys of repentance. Thoughtful readers will be strengthened and challenged by this insightful volume. Now available in paperback.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433513428", "ISBN-10": "1433513420", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Willing to Believe: The Controversy over Free Will", "Author": "R. C. Sproul", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 221, "Tag": "free will and determinism, evangelicalism", "Summary": "In Willing to Believe, R.C. Sproul traces the free-will controversy from its beginning in the fifth century to the present, delineating the nuances separating the views of Protestants and Catholics, Calvinists and Arminians, Reformed and Dispensationalists .", "ISBN-13": "978-0801011528", "ISBN-10": "0801011523", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West", "Author": "David McCullough", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "History", "Pages": 352, "Tag": "history, united states, 19th century", "Summary": "The #1 New York Times bestseller by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important chapter in the American story that’s “as resonant today as ever” (The Wall Street Journal)—the settling of the Northwest Territory by courageous pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on ideals that would define our country.The Ascension is essential to the gospel
The good news of Jesus includes his life, death, resurrection, and future return--but what about his ascension? Though often neglected or misunderstood, the ascension is integral to the gospel.
In The Ascension of Christ, Patrick Schreiner argues that Jesus' work would be incomplete without his ascent to God's right hand. Not only a key moment in the gospel story, Jesus' ascension was necessary for his present ministry in and through the church. Schreiner argues that Jesus' residence in heaven marks a turning point in his three-fold offices of prophet, priest, and king. As prophet, Jesus builds the church and its witness. As priest, he intercedes before the Father. As king, he rules over all.
A full appreciation of the ascension is essential for understanding the Bible, Christian doctrine, and Christ's ongoing work in the world.
This book answers foundational questions: Who wrote the Bible? What is its message? Why is it thought to be a \"holy\" book? How does one read and interpret it? Best of all, though, you'll broaden your vision of Jesus Christ, the focal point of Scripture. How? By better understanding the geographical, religious, and historical concerns that shaped the world in which he lived. You'll see Jesus as never before: both as a man of his times and culture, and as the culmination of a divine providence that prepared the way for the ministry of the Messiah. Written by renowned preacher, writer, and apologist John Stott, this new, expanded edition includes - Questions at the beginning of each chapter to help you focus - New, up-to-date maps for the chapters on history and geography - An index to help you speedily access areas of interest.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310414315", "ISBN-10": "0310414318", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Epic Story of the Bible: How to Read and Understand God's Word", "Author": "Greg Gilbert", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 176, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, biblical criticism & interpretation", "Summary": "A User-Friendly Introduction to Interpreting and Understanding God's Word
Many Christians view the Bible as a book that they know they should read, but it can be hard to know where to start. If they spend time regularly reading it, it can often feel like a chore to be checked off for the day. What many miss is that the Bible is a sweeping story full of narrative, poetry, and letters--something to be marveled at and enjoyed.
In The Epic Story of the Bible, Greg Gilbert aims to teach Christians--or those interested in Christianity--what the Bible is and how to study it. Explaining the various genres and major themes woven throughout Scripture, Gilbert helps readers appreciate the word of God with less confusion and greater confidence. Adapted from the ESV Story of Redemption Bible.
WINNER OF THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
\"An elegant meditation on the complexities of the American South--and thus of America--by an esteemed daughter of the South and one of the great intellectuals of our time. An inspiration.\" --Isabel Wilkerson
An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South--and a revelatory argument for why you must understand the South in order to understand America
We all think we know the South. Even those who have never lived there can rattle off a list of signifiers: the Civil War, Gone with the Wind, the Ku Klux Klan, plantations, football, Jim Crow, slavery. But the idiosyncrasies, dispositions, and habits of the region are stranger and more complex than much of the country tends to acknowledge. In South to America, Imani Perry shows that the meaning of American is inextricably linked with the South, and that our understanding of its history and culture is the key to understanding the nation as a whole.
This is the story of a Black woman and native Alabaman returning to the region she has always called home and considering it with fresh eyes. Her journey is full of detours, deep dives, and surprising encounters with places and people. She renders Southerners from all walks of life with sensitivity and honesty, sharing her thoughts about a troubling history and the ritual humiliations and joys that characterize so much of Southern life.
Weaving together stories of immigrant communities, contemporary artists, exploitative opportunists, enslaved peoples, unsung heroes, her own ancestors, and her lived experiences, Imani Perry crafts a tapestry unlike any other. With uncommon insight and breathtaking clarity, South to America offers an assertion that if we want to build a more humane future for the United States, we must center our concern below the Mason-Dixon Line.
A Recommended Read from: The New Yorker * The New York Times * TIME * Oprah Daily * USA Today * Vulture * Essence * Esquire * W Magazine * Atlanta Journal-Constitution * PopSugar * Book Riot * Chicago Review of Books * Electric Literature * Lit Hub
", "ISBN-13": "978-0062977373", "ISBN-10": "0062977377", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living", "Author": "Alan Noble", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 120, "Tag": "religion, christian living, personal growth", "Summary": "We aren't always honest about how difficult normal human life is.
For the majority of people, sorrow, despair, anxiety, and mental illness are everyday experiences. While we have made tremendous advancements in therapy and psychiatry, the burden of living still comes down to mundane choices that we each must make—like the daily choice to get out of bed.
In this deeply personal essay, Alan Noble considers the unique burden of everyday life in the modern world. Sometimes, he writes, the choice to carry on amid great suffering—to simply get out of bed—is itself a powerful witness to the goodness of life, and of God.
", "ISBN-13": "9781514004432", "ISBN-10": "1514004437", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Creative Act: A Way of Being", "Author": "Rick Rubin", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Self-Help", "Pages": 432, "Tag": "self-help, creativity, music", "Summary": "The #1 New York Times bestseller.The book is broken into chapters by what Rubin calls “78 Rules of Thought.” He aims to get inside the internal dialogue of the creator where self-doubt and insecurity run rampant. If you’re a creator (which Rubin says we all are), you will enjoy this book.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America's Future",
"Author": "Jean M. Twenge",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Sociology",
"Pages": 560,
"Tag": "social science, anthropology, demography",
"Summary": "A groundbreaking, “lavishly informative” (The New York Times) portrait of the six generations that currently live in the United States and how they connect, conflict, and compete with one another—from the acclaimed author of Generation Me and iGen.
Upending the conventional theory that generational differences are caused by major events, Dr. Jean Twenge analyzes data on 39 million people from robust national surveys—some going back nearly a century—to show that changes in technology are the underlying driver of each generation’s unique makeup. In this revelatory work, Twenge outlines key shifts in attitudes and lifestyle choices that define each generation regarding gender, income, politics, race, sexuality, marriage, mental health, and much more.
Surprising, engaging, and informative, Generations “gets you thinking about how appreciating generational differences can, ironically, bring us together” (Angela Duckworth, New York Times bestselling author). It will forever change the way you view your parents, peers, coworkers, and children, no matter which generation you call your own.",
"ISBN-13": "9781982181628",
"ISBN-10": "1982181621",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "When I picked this book up, I thought, “What a great idea for a book!” Generations are a bit difficult to pin down. Where does one end and another begin? I’m on the front edge of Millennials, but i don’t seem to resonate with those of my generation that came after me. Does that mean I’m not one of them?
Twenge helps us understand the differences between the generations. Starting with the Silent Generation, she takes us all the way up to babies today. Each generation has its own quirks. Each has a reaction to the ones before them. Some of these things are obvious. Some are more subtle. And for people like me, kind of in the middle between the boomers and the babies, this book helps me understand that large gap of people. Of course, not everyone falls into the stereotypical generational buckets, and Twenge knows that. But she helps us understand the cultural aspects that, in part, define each group. She takes us inside their thought life, their dreams and fears, their mindset and approach to life.
If you want to better understand the people around you, this is a book that will get you there.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Christ from Beginning to End: How the Full Story of Scripture Reveals the Full Glory of Christ",
"Author": "Trent Hunter, Stephen Wellum",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 288,
"Tag": "religion, biblical studies, biblical commentary",
"Summary": "
Fully grasp how every part of Scripture fits together to point to and reveal the glory of Christ Jesus.
From beginning to end, the Bible reveals the glory of Jesus. But for many Bible readers, it doesn't seem that simple. We're often unsure how the Bible's many stories, characters, events relate together and connect to Jesus. Some are tempted to force the pieces of the Bible together, making superficial jumps to him. Others give up trying to understand the Bible altogether.
Christ from Beginning to End is written to help Christians understand just how the different stories and parts of Scripture fits together to reveal the glory of Christ Jesus. In Part 1, Wellum and Hunter reintroduce us to the Bible--what it is, how it comes to us, and what it's centrally about. Then, in Part 2, they walk from one side of the Bible's story to the other, carefully tracing its storyline from Genesis to Revelation.
As readers see how our triune God's plan unfolds through his covenants, they will be equipped for a lifetime of seeing Christ's glory in Scripture. From this book, you'll learn how to:
You will also see the Bible's multi-layered story and how it is held together by the one plan of God to glorify himself in salvation. You'll come away with a greater awareness of our need as sinners, of the triune God in all of his grace, and of Jesus as the incarnate Son in all of his glory.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310536543", "ISBN-10": "0310536545", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading", "Author": "Eugene H. Peterson", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 200, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, exegesis & hermeneutics", "Summary": "Eat This Book challenges us to read the Scriptures on their own terms, as God s revelation, and to live them as we read them. With warmth and wisdom Peterson offers greatly needed, down-to-earth counsel on spiritual reading. In these pages he draws readers into a fascinating conversation on the nature of language, the ancient practice of lectio divina, and the role of Scripture translations; included here is the inside story behind Peterson s own popular Bible translation, The Message.", "ISBN-13": "9780802864901", "ISBN-10": "0802864902", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "7 Things I Wish Christians Knew about the Bible", "Author": "Michael F. Bird", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 240, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, biblical criticism & interpretation", "Summary": "Answers to the most common questions and misconceptions about the Bible
Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew about the Bible is a short and readable introduction to the Bible--its origins, interpretation, truthfulness, and authority.
Bible scholar, prolific author, and Anglican minister Michael Bird helps Christians understand seven important \"things\" about this unique book:
Seven Things presents a clear and understandable evangelical account of the Bible's inspiration, canonization, significance, and relevance in a way that is irenic and compelling. It is a must read for any serious Bible reader who desires an informed and mature view of the Bible that will enrich their faith.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310538851", "ISBN-10": "0310538858", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Knowing Scripture", "Author": "Robert Charles Sproul", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 125, "Tag": "religion, biblical criticism & interpretation", "Summary": "R. C. Sproul helps us dig out the meaning of Scripture for ourselves. He lays the groundwork by discussing why we should study the Bible and how our own personal study relates to interpretation. Then he presents in simple, basic terms the science of interpretation and gives practical guidelines for applying this science. Here is a basic book for both beginning Bible readers and those who have been at it for a long time.", "ISBN-13": "9780877847335", "ISBN-10": "0877847339", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 320, "Tag": "religion, christian living, leadership & mentoring", "Summary": "Pastor, preacher, and New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet Timothy Keller shares his wisdom on communicating the Christian faith from the pulpit as well as from the coffee shop.WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE * WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
New York Times Readers' Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century * An Oprah's Book Club Selection * An Instant New York Times Bestseller * An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller * A #1 Washington Post Bestseller * A New York Times \"Ten Best Books of the Year\"
\"Demon is a voice for the ages--akin to Huck Finn or Holden Caulfield--only even more resilient.\" --Beth Macy, author of Dopesick
\"May be the best novel of [the year]. . . . Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, this is the story of an irrepressible boy nobody wants, but readers will love.\" --Ron Charles, Washington Post
From the acclaimed author of The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees and the recipient of the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, a brilliant novel that enthralls, compels, and captures the heart as it evokes a young hero's unforgettable journey to maturity
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.
Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.
", "ISBN-13": "9780063251984", "ISBN-10": "0063251981", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "If it wins a Pulitzer, it’s probably a pretty good book. Kingsolver’s novel Demon Copperhead is worthy of the prize. It’s the story of an Appalachian boy born into poverty in a culture addicted to opioids. His life is representative of so many like him. There are hopes and dreams that lift and inspire, and then there is the hard reality of life in the real world that brings you back down.Piggybacking off Charles Dickens, Kingsolver transports the Victorian novel to the American South, showing that times haven’t changed much, even if many years have passed. It’s a story that sticks with you, as all great novels should.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Aloha Rodeo: Three Hawaiian Cowboys, the World's Greatest Rodeo, and a Hidden History of the American West",
"Author": "David. Wolman, Julian Smith",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "History",
"Pages": 256,
"Tag": "history, united states, 20th century",
"Summary": "
The triumphant true story of the native Hawaiian cowboys who crossed the Pacific to shock America at the 1908 world rodeo championships
Oregon Book Award winner * An NPR Best Book of the Year * Pacific Northwest Book Award finalist * A Reading the West Book Awards finalist
\"Groundbreaking. ... A must-read. ... An essential addition.\" --True West
In August 1908, three unknown riders arrived in Cheyenne, Wyoming, their hats adorned with wildflowers, to compete in the world's greatest rodeo. Steer-roping virtuoso Ikua Purdy and his cousins Jack Low and Archie Ka'au'a had travelled 4,200 miles from Hawaii, of all places, to test themselves against the toughest riders in the West. Dismissed by whites, who considered themselves the only true cowboys, the native Hawaiians would astonish the country, returning home champions--and American legends.
An unforgettable human drama set against the rough-knuckled frontier, David Wolman and Julian Smith's Aloha Rodeo unspools the fascinating and little-known true story of the Hawaiian cowboys, or paniolo, whose 1908 adventure upended the conventional history of the American West.
What few understood when the three paniolo rode into Cheyenne is that the Hawaiians were no underdogs. They were the product of a deeply engrained cattle culture that was twice as old as that of the Great Plains, for Hawaiians had been chasing cattle over the islands' rugged volcanic slopes and through thick tropical forests since the late 1700s.
Tracing the life story of Purdy and his cousins, Wolman and Smith delve into the dual histories of ranching and cowboys in the islands, and the meteoric rise and sudden fall of Cheyenne, \"Holy City of the Cow.\" At the turn of the twentieth century, larger-than-life personalities like \"Buffalo Bill\" Cody and Theodore Roosevelt capitalized on a national obsession with the Wild West and helped transform Cheyenne's annual Frontier Days celebration into an unparalleled rodeo spectacle, the \"Daddy of 'em All.\"
The hopes of all Hawaii rode on the three riders' shoulders during those dusty days in August 1908. The U.S. had forcibly annexed the islands just a decade earlier. The young Hawaiians brought the pride of a people struggling to preserve their cultural identity and anxious about their future under the rule of overlords an ocean away. In Cheyenne, they didn't just astound the locals; they also overturned simplistic thinking about cattle country, the binary narrative of \"cowboys versus Indians,\" and the very concept of the Wild West. Blending sport and history, while exploring questions of identity, imperialism, and race, Aloha Rodeo spotlights an overlooked and riveting chapter in the saga of the American West.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062836014", "ISBN-10": "0062836013", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Secret Place of Thunder: Trading Our Need to Be Noticed for a Hidden Life with Christ", "Author": "John Starke", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "religion, christian living, personal growth", "Summary": "Why do we feel like we are always performing Where does this impulse come from
As John Starke shows in The Secret Place of Thunder, our modern world has internalized the idea that the markers of having an admirable and successful life are primarily visible. It leads us to believe that a sense of self-worth and identity are metrics to be displayed. The performance of the self has become more important than the reality. We live as if the most important things about us are to be performed before others; that our deepest happiness will come from being who others think we ought to be.
But when Jesus says, \"Do not practice your righteousness before others,\" he is leading us to believe that the most important things about us are hidden. How does the Bible lead us to live primarily before God How does Jesus lead us to wholeness
Jesus teaches us to live, not for the eyes of others or even for ourselves, but in the secret place where our Father in heaven sees and rewards.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0310139843", "ISBN-10": "0310139848", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Intercession of Christ Christ: A Complete Saviour", "Author": "John Bunyan", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, christian living, prayer", "Summary": "Biographical Introduction by William S. Barker. Bunyan wrote extensively on topical theological and practical matters, issues that faced the church in his time, which face us still. The Intercession of Christ is one of these works. In it Bunyan traces the nature of Jesus' intercession, who it should affect, the benefits it gives us and how effective that intercession is. Bunyan is also keen to show the interferences of the doctrine on such subjects as backsliding, how Christ's intervention is affected when we continue to sin, and there sins of God's people worse than the sins of others.
", "ISBN-13": "9781845505448", "ISBN-10": "1845505441", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Finding Quiet: My Story of Overcoming Anxiety and the Practices That Brought Peace", "Author": "J. P. Moreland", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, religious, psychology", "Summary": "Informative and honest, Finding Quiet validates the experiences of believers struggling with mental illness, provides spiritual and psychological tools for defeating anxiety and depression--and will reassure you that you can thrive again.
In May 2003, prominent philosopher, author, and professor J. P. Moreland awoke in the middle of the night to a severe panic attack. Though often anxious by temperament and upbringing, Moreland had never experienced such an incident before. Thus began an extended battle with debilitating anxiety and depression.
More than a decade later, Moreland continues to manage his mental illness. Yet along the way he's moved from shame and despair to vulnerability and hope. In Finding Quiet, Moreland comes alongside fellow sufferers with encouragement and practical, hard-won advice--a distillation of the very best and most helpful things he discovered about dealing with anxiety and depression from his personal experiences and extensive research.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, nearly 20 percent of Americans suffer from mental illness, and Christians are not immune. J. P. Moreland (who studied philosophy under Dallas Willard) explores the spiritual and physical aspects of mental illness, pointing readers toward sound sources of information, treatment, and recovery from both secular and Christian experts.
Finding Quiet is perfect for:
Pastor Dane Ortlund Explores Jesus's Heart to Reveal His Tender Love for Sinners and Sufferers
Christians know that God loves them, but can easily feel that he is perpetually disappointed and frustrated, maybe even close to giving up on them. As a result, they focus a lot--and rightly so--on what Jesus has done to appease God's wrath for sin. But how does Jesus Christ actually feel about his people amid all their sins and failures?
This book draws us to Matthew 11, where Jesus describes himself as \"gentle and lowly in heart,\" longing for his people to find rest in him. The gospel flows from God's deepest heart for his people, a heart of tender love for the sinful and suffering.
These chapters take us into the depths of Christ's very heart for sinners, diving deep into Bible passages that speak of who Christ is and encouraging readers with the affections of Christ for his people. His longing heart for sinners comforts and sustains readers in their up-and-down lives.
Christianity is declining in the West. Churches in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe are closing their doors at an accelerating rate.
How will the church respond? In this short but sweeping manifesto, New York Times bestselling author and pastor Timothy Keller argues that this decline should prompt us to rethink evangelism from the ground up. Using the early church as our guide, churches and individual Christians must examine ourselves, our culture, and Scripture to work toward a new missionary encounter with Western culture that will make the gospel both attractive and credible to a new generation.
", "ISBN-13": "9780578633756", "ISBN-10": "0578633752", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions", "Author": "Gregory Koukl", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 207, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "In a world indifferent or even opposed to Christian truth, followers of Christ must be better equipped to communicate the timeless of the Christian faith. But how do you have a conversation with someone who is intent on proving you wrong and won't accept the Bible as a source of authority?
In Tactics, Gregory Koukl demonstrates how to artfully regain control of conversations, keeping them moving forward in constructive ways through thoughtful diplomacy. You'll learn how to maneuver comfortably and graciously through the minefields of a challenging discussion, how to stop challengers in their tracks, and how to turn the tables on question or provocative statement. Most importantly, you'll learn how to get people thinking about Jesus.
Drawing on extensive experience defending Christianity in the public square, Koukl shows you how to:
Tactics provides the game plan for communicating the compelling truth about Christianity with confidence and grace.
X
", "ISBN-13": "9780310282921", "ISBN-10": "0310282926", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing", "Author": "Elena Ferrante", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 111, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, literary figures, literary collections", "Summary": "A NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER
A BEST BOOK OF 2022 (Air Mail)
Four new and revelatory essays by the author of My Brilliant Friend and The Lost Daughter.
In 2020, Claire Luchette in O, The Oprah Magazine described the beloved Italian novelist Elena Ferrante as \"an oracle among authors.\" Here, in these four crisp essays, Ferrante offers a rare look at the origins of her literary powers. She writes about her influences, her struggles, and her formation as both a reader and a writer; she describes the perils of \"bad language\" and suggests ways in which it has long excluded women's truth; she proposes a choral fusion of feminine talent as she brilliantly discourses on the work of Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, Ingeborg Bachmann, and many others.
Here is a subtle yet candid book by \"one of the great novelists of our time\" about adventures in literature, both in and out of the margins.
\"Everyone should read everything with Elena Ferrante's name on it.\"--The Boston Globe
There must be something more to life.
The modern world is a place of great distraction, and it can be difficult to make sense of our human existence. But at some point in our lives, we may experience particular moments that prompt us to search for something deeper. Sociologist Peter Berger described these hints and clues as \"signals of transcendence\" that awaken us to unseen realities.
Os Guinness tells stories of people who experienced signals of transcendence and followed them to find new meaning and purpose in life. Notable figures such as Leo Tolstoy and C. S. Lewis as well as lesser-known individuals experienced a variety of promptings that signaled to them that life could not continue as they had thought. Through unsatisfied longings or disillusionments that yet yielded glimpses of beauty or joy, these moments drew people toward epiphanies of transformation. And the same can be true for us, should we have the courage to follow the signals wherever they may lead.
Listen for the signals. And discover what more awaits those with ears to hear.
", "ISBN-13": "9781514004395", "ISBN-10": "1514004399", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Directed by James Burrows :Five Decades of Stories from the Legendary Director of Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, Will & Grace, and More", "Author": "James Burrows", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Nonfiction", "Pages": 400, "Tag": "performing arts, television, direction & production", "Summary": "“Being directed by the Jimmy Burrows, while on Friends, was like hitting the jackpot. I’m delighted that everyone can now share in his incredible insight with this book.”—JENNIFER ANISTONSometimes, you just need a nice, light read about show business. I do, anyway. I like to sprinkle one in every now and then. I’m currently reading a book about The Big Bang Theory, which, as it just so happens, Burrows directed both pilots for (yes, there were two pilots, and they are vastly different from one another).
Burrows tells his story of becoming a director and stumbling into all these great shows. Part of his luck was the right place, right time kind of thing working in the golden ages of television. Nowadays, with so many streaming options, it’s hard to imagine a show reaching the heights of any of Burrows’s greatest hits. That makes this book part nostalgia for those of us who remember those golden ages, and it’s a trip down memory lane told by someone on the inside that makes this book so wonderful.
I’m sure you watched at least one of his shows. Who didn’t in the 80s and 90s? So, I’ll go out on a limb and say you’ll probably find something enjoyable in these pages.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Depression, Anxiety, and the Christian Life: Practical Wisdom from Richard Baxter", "Author": "Richard Baxter", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Psychology", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "psychology, psychopathology, anxieties & phobias", "Summary": "
Practical wisdom for dealing with depression.
Depression--whether circumstantial and fleeting or persistent and long term--impacts most people at some point in their lives. Puritan pastor Richard Baxter spent most of his ministry caring for depressed and discouraged souls, and his timeless counsel still speaks to us today. In this book, psychiatrist Michael S. Lundy and theologian J. I. Packer present Baxter's writings in order to comfort, instruct, and strengthen all who struggle with depression.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433542060", "ISBN-10": "1433542064", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "If anything plagues our times, depression and anxiety do. It’s been well documented. I don’t know many people who don’t struggle with one or both to some degree. So what should a Christian think about it? There have been a few books written on the topic, and I’ve read several of them, but this one was the most helpful to me, perhaps because it does not come from our times. Sometimes, it’s yesterday that can speak life into today.Richard Baxter is best known for his book The Reformed Pastor. He was an insightful pastor himself who knew how to help the suffering. The collected wisdom of this book will help your soul sort things out if you suffer from depression or anxiety. It helped me. ",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America",
"Author": "Russell Moore",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 272,
"Tag": "religion, christian living, social issues",
"Summary": "Former Southern Baptist pastor and Christianity Today editor-in-chief Russell Moore calls for repentance and renewal in American evangelicalism
American evangelical Christianity has lost its way. While the witness of the church before a watching world is diminished beyond recognition, congregations are torn apart over Donald Trump, Christian nationalism, racial injustice, sexual predation, disgraced leaders, and covered-up scandals. Left behind are millions of believers who counted on the church to be a place of belonging and hope. As greater and greater numbers of younger Americans bleed out from the church, even the most rooted evangelicals are wondering, “Can American Christianity survive?”
In Losing Our Religion, Russell Moore calls his fellow evangelical Christians to conversion over culture wars, to truth over tribalism, to the gospel over politics, to integrity over influence, and to renewal over nostalgia. With both prophetic honesty and pastoral love, Moore offers a word of counsel for how a new generation of disillusioned and exhausted believers can find a path forward after the crisis and confusion of the last several years. Believing the gospel is too important to leave it to hucksters and grifters, he shows how a Christian can avoid both cynicism and complicity in order to imagine a different, hopeful vision for the church.
The altar call of the old evangelical revivals was both a call to repentance and the offer of a new start. In the same way, this book invites unmoored and discouraged Christians to step out into an uncertain future, first by letting go of the kind of cultural, politicized, status quo Christianity that led us to this moment of reckoning. Only when we see how lost we are, we can find our way again. Only when we bury what’s dead can we experience life again. Only when we lose our religion can we be amazed by grace again.",
"ISBN-13": "9780593541784",
"ISBN-10": "0593541782",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "Russell Moore is a gift to the Church. He’s been through the wringer, too. As a lifelong Southern Baptist pastor and convention leader, he was at the forefront of some of the toughest times the denomination ever faced. And he faced it as a Christian should, with full integrity and faith.
But that doesn’t mean it was easy. It wasn’t at all, as he explains in this book. In his own voice, Moore helps us see the problems evangelical America faces and the path forward by God’s grace.
If you feel a bit denominationally lost, this book will help you find your way. If you worry about the state of evangelicalism, this book will both affirm and comfort your worries. If you need a shot of reality, this book will give you the proper dose. It’s honest and real, and that’s what we need right now. Like an altar call, Moore invites us into a new life with God. ",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World",
"Author": "Tom Holland",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "History",
"Pages": 624,
"Tag": "history, world, religion",
"Summary": "From the crucifixion of Jesus to the birth of modern morals, this \"marvelous\" account from an award-winning historian shows how the Christian Revolution forged the Western imagination (The Economist).
Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable. It was this that rendered it so suitable a punishment for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion-an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus-had been a god. Dominion explores the implications of this shocking conviction as they have reverberated throughout history.
Today, the West remains utterly saturated by Christian assumptions. Our morals and ethics are not universal. Instead, they are the fruits of a very distinctive civilization. Concepts such as secularism, liberalism, science, and homosexuality are deeply rooted in a Christian seedbed. From Babylon to the Beatles, Saint Michael to #MeToo, Dominion tells the story of how Christianity transformed the world.",
"ISBN-13": "9780465093502",
"ISBN-10": "0465093507",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "Some books are best described as a tome. This is one of those books. It is 600 pages, which, in a way, doesn’t sound like a lot, but I promise it’s a lot. Holland takes us through history, all the way back to Jesus, and shows us how thoroughly Christian our Western world is. Yes, perhaps we are secularizing in some big ways, but the light of Christianity still illuminates our thinking. The Christian ethic deeply shapes us. Where else did our modern ideas of justice, equality, science, and liberalism come from? Christianity has done more to influence, and still does more to influence, our modern world than anything else. This book explains why that’s true.
If you want to understand our world better, read this book and Christopher Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory alongside it. ",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Nineties: A Book",
"Author": "Chuck Klosterman",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Sociology",
"Pages": 384,
"Tag": "social science, popular culture, history",
"Summary": "An instant New York Times bestseller!
From the bestselling author of But What if We’re Wrong, a wise and funny reckoning with the decade that gave us slacker/grunge irony about the sin of trying too hard, during the greatest shift in human consciousness of any decade in American history.
It was long ago, but not as long as it seems: The Berlin Wall fell and the Twin Towers collapsed. In between, one presidential election was allegedly decided by Ross Perot while another was plausibly decided by Ralph Nader. In the beginning, almost every name and address was listed in a phone book, and everyone answered their landlines because you didn’t know who it was. By the end, exposing someone’s address was an act of emotional violence, and nobody picked up their new cell phone if they didn’t know who it was. The 90s brought about a revolution in the human condition we’re still groping to understand. Happily, Chuck Klosterman is more than up to the job.
Beyond epiphenomena like \"Cop Killer\" and Titanic and Zima, there were wholesale shifts in how society was perceived: the rise of the internet, pre-9/11 politics, and the paradoxical belief that nothing was more humiliating than trying too hard. Pop culture accelerated without the aid of a machine that remembered everything, generating an odd comfort in never being certain about anything. On a 90’s Thursday night, more people watched any random episode of Seinfeld than the finale of Game of Thrones. But nobody thought that was important; if you missed it, you simply missed it. It was the last era that held to the idea of a true, hegemonic mainstream before it all began to fracture, whether you found a home in it or defined yourself against it.
In The Nineties, Chuck Klosterman makes a home in all of it: the film, the music, the sports, the TV, the politics, the changes regarding race and class and sexuality, the yin/yang of Oprah and Alan Greenspan. In perhaps no other book ever written would a sentence like, “The video for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was not more consequential than the reunification of Germany” make complete sense. Chuck Klosterman has written a multi-dimensional masterpiece, a work of synthesis so smart and delightful that future historians might well refer to this entire period as Klostermanian.",
"ISBN-13": "9780735217959",
"ISBN-10": "0735217955",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Popologetics: Popular Culture in Christian Perspective",
"Author": "Ted Turnau",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 346,
"Tag": "religion, christian living, christian theology",
"Summary": "
It's everywhere . . . all around us . . . so widespread it's like part of the air we breathe. Some people love it, some people hate it, and some just try to shrug it off or pretend it's not there. But, like it or not, notice it or not, popular culture plays a huge role in our day-to-day lives, often influencing the way we think and see the world.
Some people respond by trying to pull away from it altogether, and some accept it without question as a blessing. But Ted Turnau reminds us that the issue is not so black-and-white. Popular culture, like any other facet of society, is a messy mixture of both grace and idolatry, and it deserves our serious attention and discernment.
Learn how to approach popular culture wisely, separating its gems of grace from its temptations toward idolatry, and practice some popologetics to be an influence of your own.
\"Ted Turnau does a great service toward helping Christians engage their culture with both conviction and open-mindedness . . . and offers excellent practical application for how to both appreciate pop culture and fairly critique it.\"
-Brian Godawa, Hollywood Screenwriter, Author of Hollywood Worldviews
\"This is one of the freshest and most original books I have read in ages. . . . A fine blend of worldview apologetics and cutting-edge cultural analysis. . . . I thoroughly commend it.\"
-Richard M. Cunningham, CEO, Intervarsity UK
\"Turnau recognizes the vitality of popular culture and knows that because God has spoken in Scripture we have a plumb line by which to uncover the idolatries that seek to seduce us away from the truth.\"
-Denis D. Haack, Director, Ransom Fellowship
\"A tour-de-force. Written incisively, with appropriate humor, and especially using up-to-date examples from the field of popular culture . . . there is nothing remotely like it in print today. I recommend it enthusiastically.\"
-William Edgar, Professor of Apologetics, Westminster Theological Seminary
", "ISBN-13": "9781596383890", "ISBN-10": "1596383895", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Wonderful Works of God: Instruction in the Christian Religion According to the Reformed Confession", "Author": "Herman Bavinck", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 659, "Tag": "religion", "Summary": "110 years after its original publication, The Wonderful Works of God remains one of the finest single-volume systematic theologies ever written. Adapting the magisterial systematic theology found in his four-volume Reformed Dogmatics, this is perhaps Bavinck's most eminently practical work a single, accessible volume for the college classroom and the family bookshelf. Previously published in America as Our Reasonable Faith, this book has had a deep and lasting influence on the growth and development of Reformed theology. It is the publisher s hope that in its new form, this book continues to astonish readers with the wonderful works of God, and provide a deeper knowledge of their triune God--From Amazon.com.", "ISBN-13": "9781733627221", "ISBN-10": "1733627227", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I didn’t read all this book this year. I finished this book this year. I actually started it in 2020, reading alongside a friend of mine. We would read a chapter and then discuss it over a Zoom call over lunch. Those were weird times, weren’t they?But now that I’ve finished the book, it can finally go on the list. Here’s the best endorsement I can give of it. It’s the single best one-volume systematic theology ever written. Okay, I haven’t read all of them, but I’d read plenty, and even if I hadn’t, it would be hard to imagine a better one.
Why not buy this book and read a little each day? I promise you won’t regret it.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture", "Author": "Lesslie Newbigin", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 156, "Tag": "religion, biblical commentary, christianity", "Summary": "In this book, Lesslie Newbigin attempts to look at modern Western culture through the eyes of an outsider and to ask, \"What would it mean to confront this culture with the gospel?\" Newbigin looks first at the broad issues raised by any cross-cultural communication of the gospel. He then focuses his discussion on modern Western culture, examining its essential features and the present signs of its disintegration. This leads to the main thrust of the book--the question of how biblical authority can be a reality for those who are shaped by this culture. Newbigin goes on to consider what would be involved in the encounter between the gospel and modern science, politics, and economics. Finally, he discusses the task of the church in bringing about this missionary encounter.", "ISBN-13": "9780802801760", "ISBN-10": "0802801765", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Talking Points: Transgender Christian Compassion, Convictions and Wisdom for Today's Big Issues", "Author": "Vaughan Roberts", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 75, "Tag": "religion, christian living, social issues", "Summary": "
There's been huge cultural change in the last few decades. Same-sex marriage would have been unthinkable 20 or 30 years ago. Now it's almost universally accepted in the Western world. Now suddenly the issue of transgender is the next big social, cultural issue that has dominated the headlines.
Vaughan Roberts surveys the Christian worldview and seeks to apply these principles to the many complex questions surrounding gender identity. This short book gives an overview and a starting point for constructive discussion as we seek to live in a world with different values, and love, serve and relate to transgender people.
Talking Points is a series of short books designed to help Christians think, talk and relate to others with compassion, conviction and wisdom about today's big issues.
", "ISBN-13": "9781784981952", "ISBN-10": "1784981958", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Multi-Directional Leader: Responding Wisely to Challenges from Every Side", "Author": "Trevin Wax", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 88, "Tag": "religion", "Summary": "Today's threats come from every direction. How can we faithfully respond? Many church leaders assume the most dangerous threats to God's people will emerge from one side of the field. But when they scan for attacks in only one direction, they leave Christians vulnerable to different dangers. The church needs what Trevin Wax calls multi-directional leadership-leaders who combine dexterity and discipline. In short, leaders today must demonstrate faithful versatility. Wax applies multi-directional leadership to the most contentious issues facing churches right now. Unity and truth can still triumph in a divided age.", "ISBN-13": "9781733458580", "ISBN-10": "1733458581", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Secular Creed: Engaging Five Contemporary Claims", "Author": "Rebecca McLaughlin", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 107, "Tag": "social science", "Summary": "Black lives matter. Love is love. Gay rights are civil rights. Women's rights are human rights. Transgender women are women. You may have seen signs like this in your neighborhood. They offer us an all-or-nothing package deal--in short, a secular creed. In this book, Rebecca McLaughlin helps us disentangle the beliefs Christians gladly affirm from those they cannot embrace, and invites us to talk with our neighbors about the things that matter most. Far from opposing love across difference, McLaughlin argues, Christianity is the original source and firmest foundation for true diversity, equality, and life-transforming love.", "ISBN-13": "9780999284308", "ISBN-10": "0999284304", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Renewal as a Way of Life: A Guidebook for Spiritual Growth", "Author": "Richard F. Lovelace", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 206, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spirituality", "Summary": "Lovelace begins by focusing on our need to develop a God-centered, kingdom-centered life. He then details the dangers and strategies of the world, the flesh and the devil. Individually we are renewed as we grow in Christ, who accepts us, frees us from bondage to sin, and lives in us through the Holy Spirit. Corporately we are renewed as we pray, participate in community life, increase our theological depth, and reach out with the gospel in word and deed.", "ISBN-13": "9780877845942", "ISBN-10": "0877845948", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/21+KtcTMcCL.jpg" }, { "Title": "Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness", "Author": "Andrew Murray", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Psychology", "Pages": 112, "Tag": "psychology, religion, christian living", "Summary": "\"Flee to Jesus and hide yourselves in Him, until you are clothed with His humility. That alone is holiness.\"I always love finding a single book to recommend on a topic. On the topic of Humility, this is the book. Every Christian should buy a copy and read it, and then buy a copy and hand it out. ", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Weight of Glory", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "religion, spirituality, christian theology", "Summary": "
Selected from sermons delivered by C. S. Lewis during World War II, these nine addresses offer guidance and inspiration in a time of great doubt.These are ardent and lucid sermons that provide a compassionate vision of Christianity.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0060653200", "ISBN-10": "0060653205", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Right with God", "Author": "Michael Reeves", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 60, "Tag": "subjects", "Summary": "'That is the great marriage swap, or joyful exchange, of the gospel. Christ, our great Bridegroom, has taken all our sin, death, and judgement, borne it on the cross, and drowned it in his blood. He has then given to us all his righteousness, blessedness, and beloved status before his Father.'How do we become right with God? Michael Reeves warmly and clearly introduces what the Bible teaches about justification by faith alone. For anyone who does not know Christ or is lacking confidence in their salvation, the Bible has good news of comfort and joy.
We are currently experiencing the largest and fastest religious shift in US history.
It is greater than the First and Second Great Awakening and every revival in our country combined...but in the opposite direction. Yet precious little rigorous study has been done on the broad phenomenon of dechurching in America. Jim Davis and Michael Graham have commissioned the largest and most comprehensive study of dechurching in America by renowned sociologists Dr. Ryan Burge and Dr. Paul Djupe.
The Great Dechurching takes the insights gleaned from this study to drill down on how exactly people are dechurching with respect to beliefs, behavior, and belonging.
This book gives the church in America its first ever deep dive into the dechurched phenomenon. You'll learn about the dechurched through a detailed sketch of demographics, size, core concerns, church off-ramps, historical roots, and the gravity of what is at stake. Then you'll explore what can be done to slow the bleed, engage the pertinent issues winsomely and wisely, and hopefully re-church some of the dechurched.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310147435", "ISBN-10": "0310147433", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "You have likely heard about people leaving the church. Who are they? Jim Davis and Michael Graham, with the research help of Ryan Burge, tell us who they are. By looking at certain nuanced stereotypes and using real data to extrapolate across a wider spectrum, they show us how certain types of people view the church today. Many are leaving, yes, but not all hope is lost. It turns out that those who have left would come back if one thing happened. What is that thing? Read the book to find out.Just kidding, it wouldn’t hold that back. The one thing is so simple it’s almost insulting to our intelligence. Most of those people would return to church if someone they knew invited them. Isn’t that amazing? You don’t need all the answers to our culture’s hot topics. You don’t need to be a great apologist. You just need to be kind and welcoming.
But, as with everything, being prepared certainly helps. This book will prepare you and equip you. It will help you understand and motivate you to make a difference. In a day when the church is losing people all the time, what if we took 2024 as the year to invite them back in?", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die: Musings from the Road", "Author": "Willie Nelson", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 192, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, composers & musicians, entertainment & performing arts", "Summary": "
You won't see no sad and teary eyes
When I get my wings, and it's my time to fly
Just call my friends and tell them
There's a party, come on by
So just roll me up and smoke me when I die
In Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die, Willie Nelson muses about his greatest influences and the things that are most important to him, and celebrates the family, friends, and colleagues who have blessed his remarkable journey. Willie riffs on everything: music, wives, Texas, politics, horses, religion, marijuana, children, the environment, poker, hogs, Nashville, karma, and more. He shares the outlaw wisdom he has acquired over eight decades, along with favorite jokes and insights from friends and others close to him. Rare family pictures, beautiful artwork created by his son Micah Nelson, and lyrics to classic songs punctuate these charming and poignant memories. Willie Nelson has touched millions, and none more deeply than his family, friends, and bandmates, several of whom share, for the first time, intimate stories about the Red Headed Stranger.
From teaching a granddaughter to play the guitar to touring with the Highwaymen, from picking cotton while growing up in Texas to being home with the tribe on Maui, Willie takes you on the tour bus and, through candid observations and vivid recollections, gives you a front-row seat to his remarkable world. But beware: \"You know you shouldn't be reading this BS, it could ruin you for all time to come,\" he says. \"You could end up a social outcast like me, an outlaw!\"
At once a road journal written in his inimitable, homespun voice and a fitting tribute to America's greatest traveling bard, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die—introduced by Kinky Friedman, another favorite son of Texas—is a deeply personal look into the heart and soul of a unique man and one of the greatest artists of our time, a songwriter and performer whose legacy will endure for generations to come.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0062193643", "ISBN-10": "0062193643", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Grand Tour: The Life and Music of George Jones", "Author": "Rich Kienzle", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 400, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, music, entertainment & performing arts", "Summary": "In the vein of the classic Johnny Cash: The Life, this groundbreaking work explores the wild life and extraordinary musical career of “the definitive country singer of the last half century” (New York Times), who influenced, among others, Bob Dylan, Buck Owens, Emmylou Harris, John Fogerty, George Strait, Alan Jackson, and Garth Brooks.
In a masterful biography laden with new revelations, veteran country music journalist/historian Rich Kienzle offers a definitive, full-bodied portrait of legendary country singer George Jones and the music that remains his legacy. Kienzle meticulously sifted through archival material, government records, recollections by colleagues and admirers, interviewing many involved in Jones’s life and career. The result: an evocative portrait of this enormously gifted, tragically tormented icon called “the Keith Richards of country.”
Kienzle chronicles Jones’s impoverished East Texas childhood as the youngest son of a deeply religious mother and alcoholic, often-abusive father. He examines his three troubled marriages including his union with superstar Tammy Wynette and looks unsparingly at Jones’s demons. Alcohol and later cocaine nearly killed him until fourth wife Nancy helped him learn to love himself. Kienzle also details Jones’s remarkable musical journey from singing in violent Texas honky tonks to Grand Ole Opry star, hitmaker and master vocalist whose raw, emotionally powerful delivery remains the Gold Standard for country singers.
The George Jones of this heartfelt biography lived hard before finding contentment until he died at eighty-one—a story filled with whiskey, women and drugs but always the saving grace of music.
Illustrated with eight pages of photos.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062370402", "ISBN-10": "0062370405", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Providence", "Author": "John Piper", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 752, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, biblical meditations", "Summary": "New from Bestselling Author John Piper
From Genesis to Revelation, the providence of God directs the entire course of redemptive history. Providence is \"God's purposeful sovereignty.\" Its extent reaches down to the flight of electrons, up to the movements of galaxies, and into the heart of man. Its nature is wise and just and good. And its goal is the Christ-exalting glorification of God through the gladness of a redeemed people in a new world.
Drawing on a lifetime of theological reflection, biblical study, and practical ministry, pastor and author John Piper leads us on a stunning tour of the sightings of God's providence--from Genesis to Revelation--to discover the all-encompassing reality of God's purposeful sovereignty over all of creation and all of history. Piper invites us to experience the profound effects of knowing the God of all-pervasive providence: the intensifying of true worship, the solidifying of wavering conviction, the strengthening of embattled faith, the toughening of joyful courage, and the advance of God's mission in this world.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433568343", "ISBN-10": "1433568349", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Here’s another big book. It’s one you should have on your shelf. In his classic style, Piper dives deep into the waters of God’s providence, bringing the Bible with him. Perhaps the thing that strikes you the most as you read is how many scripture passages help us see God’s providence. If you want to understand how God works, this book will help you. It’s not one man’s opinion. It’s grounded in the Bible. Piper serves as our tour guide, pointing out all the ways we can find God’s wonderful work in this world and our lives.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "How Does God Change Us?", "Author": "Dane Ortlund", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 96, "Tag": "religion, christian living, personal growth", "Summary": "\"Abide in my love.\" --John 15:9
As followers of Christ, we long to grow in godliness, but we often find ourselves stuck. Sin runs deep, we continue to fail, and we are easily tempted to give up. It doesn't have to be that way.
In How Does God Change Us?, Dane Ortlund explains how those united to Jesus Christ do not need to look anywhere but to Christ himself for real growth. We change by going deeper into the same truths that saved us in the first place. With timeless counsel from historical Christian figures, Ortlund shows you how to get traction in your spiritual walk, experience real change, and live out your invincible identity in Christ.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433574030", "ISBN-10": "1433574039", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Shootist", "Author": "Glendon Swarthout", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 186, "Tag": "west (u.s.)_fiction, children's fiction", "Summary": "THE SHOOTIST is John Bernard Books, a man of principle and the only surviving gunfighter in a vanishing American West.It’s a classic Western story. If you like the genre, you’ll like this book. ", "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81I-krnam-L._SL1500_.jpg" }, { "Title": "The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business", "Author": "Clayton M. Christensen", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Business", "Pages": 286, "Tag": "business & economics, customer relations, management", "Summary": "
In this revolutionary bestseller, Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen says outstanding companies can do everything right and still lose their market leadership -- or worse, disappear completely. And he not only proves what he says, he tells others how to avoid a similar fate.
Focusing on \"disruptive technology\" -- the Honda Super Cub, Intel's 8088 processor, or the hydraulic excavator, for example -- Christensen shows why most companies miss \"the next great wave.\" Whether in electronics or retailing, a successful company with established products will get pushed aside unless managers know when to abandon traditional business practices. Using the lessons of successes and failures from leading companies, The Innovator's Dilemma presents a set of rules for capitalizing on the phenomenon of disruptive innovation.
Find out:
Sharp, cogent, and provocative, The Innovator's Dilemma is one of the most talked-about books of our time -- and one no savvy manager or entrepreneur should be without.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060521998", "ISBN-10": "0060521996", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Friendship with the Friend of Sinners: The Remarkable Possibility of Closeness with Christ", "Author": "Jared C. Wilson", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "The Bible calls Jesus the friend of sinners, but it's hard to imagine what friendship with Jesus really looks like. We so often don't even know how to do friendship with the people around us, despite all the options we have to connect. So how are we supposed to feel that close to a holy, perfect, and invisible God? How do we see Jesus as the real person he is? And how do we experience true friendship with him when we struggle to maintain true friendship on earth?Jared is a great writer, which undersells him quite a bit. He’s the best. And his books are always the best because they come from a heart that loves Jesus and knows him well. In this book, Jared writes about his friend Jesus and helps us revel in the glory of knowing him as our friend.
Some of us feel beat up by life. Some of us wonder if Jesus even likes us. But in the Bible, Jesus calls us his friends. If you want to know what that means, this book is for you. ",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "A River Runs Through It, and Other Stories",
"Author": "Norman Maclean",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 232,
"Tag": "fiction, biography & autobiography",
"Summary": "From its first magnificent sentence, \"In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing\", to the last, \"I am haunted by waters\", A River Runs Through It is an American classic.
Based on Norman Maclean's childhood experiences, the title novella has established itself as one of the most moving stories of our time; it captivates readers with vivid descriptions of life along Montana's Big Blackfoot River and its near magical blend of fly fishing with the troubling affections of the heart.
The paperback edition is now available with an evocative new cover by acclaimed Montana painter Russell Chatham.
\"A masterpiece. . . . This is more than stunning fiction: It is a lyric record of a time and a life, shining with Maclean's special gift for calling the reader's attention to arts of all kinds—the arts that work in nature, in personality, in social intercourse, in fly-fishing.\"—Kenneth M. Pierce, Village Voice
Norman Maclean (1902-90), woodsman, scholar, teacher, and storyteller, grew up in the Western Rocky Mountains of Montana and worked for many years in logging camps and for the United States Forestry Service before beginning his academic career. He retired from the University of Chicago in 1973.",
"ISBN-13": "9780226500577",
"ISBN-10": "0226500578",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Moviegoer",
"Author": "Walker Percy",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 241,
"Tag": "fiction, classics, literary",
"Summary": "Winner of the 1961 National Book Award
The dazzling novel that established Walker Percy as one of the major voices in Southern literature is now available for the first time in Vintage paperback.
The Moviegoer is Binx Bolling, a young New Orleans stockbroker who surveys the world with the detached gaze of a Bourbon Street dandy even as he yearns for a spiritual redemption he cannot bring himself to believe in. On the eve of his thirtieth birthday, he occupies himself dallying with his secretaries and going to movies, which provide him with the \"treasurable moments\" absent from his real life. But one fateful Mardi Gras, Binx embarks on a hare-brained quest that outrages his family, endangers his fragile cousin Kate, and sends him reeling through the chaos of New Orleans' French Quarter. Wry and wrenching, rich in irony and romance, The Moviegoer is a genuine American classic.",
"ISBN-13": "9780375701962",
"ISBN-10": "0375701966",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Elon Musk",
"Author": "Walter Isaacson",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 656,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, business, science & technology",
"Summary": "
Do autor de Steve Jobs e outras biografias de sucesso, livro relata a impactante história do mais fascinante e controverso inovador do nosso tempo
Durante a infância, Elon Musk sofria muito bullying. Após ter levado uma surra especialmente violenta, precisou ficar no hospital por uma semana. As cicatrizes e os ferimentos físicos, porém, não foram nada comparados à reação de seu pai, um engenheiro delirante e carismático, mas também perverso. Apesar das tentativas de Musk de banir a figura paterna — física e psicologicamente — da própria vida, sua psique sofreria os impactos por muito tempo.
Ao longo da vida, o humor de Musk alternaria entre luz e trevas, severo e brincalhão, desapegado e emotivo. Desse contexto, desenvolveu uma aura que às vezes o fazia parecer quase alienígena, como se a missão para Marte fosse apenas um sonho de voltar para casa e o desejo de construir robôs humanoides, uma busca por conexão. Ao mesmo tempo, sua infância também o fez bastante humano e vulnerável, com uma tolerância perigosamente alta para o risco, uma sede de fortes emoções e um grandioso sentido de missão de salvar o planeta e nos levar para o espaço.
No início de 2022, após a SpaceX colocar trinta e um foguetes em órbita, a Tesla vender milhões de carros e Musk se tornar o homem mais rico do planeta, ele reconheceu sua compulsão por drama: “Preciso mudar minha mentalidade e sair do modo de crise, no qual estou há pelo menos 14 anos, ou possivelmente pela maior parte da minha vida”, disse.
Ao mesmo tempo que fazia essa reflexão, porém, ele estava secretamente comprando o Twitter. Embora tenha recebido a oferta de um cargo de liderança na empresa, concluiu que não seria o suficiente, pois é da sua natureza desejar o controle total. Então, após um voo até Vancouver para encontrar a ex-esposa, a cantora Grimes, e passar a noite em claro jogando videogame, ele fez uma oferta agressiva para comprar a rede social.
No decorrer dos anos, sempre que estava em um momento sombrio, Musk se lembrava dos horrores de ser agredido na infância; agora ele tinha a chance de contra-atacar.
A biografia Elon Musk chega ao Brasil pela Intrínseca, em lançamento simultâneo com os Estados Unidos. Durante dois anos, Walter Isaacson, o biógrafo mais importante da atualidade, acompanhou de perto a rotina de Musk, participando de reuniões, caminhando ao lado dele por suas fábricas e entrevistando não apenas o biografado, mas também sua família, seus amigos, colegas de trabalho e adversários. O resultado é uma obra reveladora, repleta de histórias de triunfo e incerteza, pontuadas pela mesma questão: os demônios que impulsionam Musk são aquilo que é preciso para se chegar à inovação e ao progresso?
", "ISBN-13": "9786555606454", "ISBN-10": "6555606452", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "If there is one man who is transforming our world more than anyone else today, it is Elon Musk. He’s an odd guy, which I think you have to be to do what he does. He’s super-smart. He takes incredible risks. He uses all he has to do what he thinks is best for the world. He’s as innovative as anyone in history, if not more so. From Tesla to SpaceX to X, formerly known as Twitter, Musk has his hands in a lot of different areas.How did he get there? This book by the great biographer Walter Isaacson shows us how. He tells us the amazing parts, the good parts, and the bad parts. It’s an honest biography, which is all we can really ask for.
Musk is a transformative figure, and knowing those transformative figures is important, I think. So, if you’re looking for a biography to read in the new year, why not pick this one up? I don’t think you’ll regret it. ",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase",
"Author": "Mark Forsyth",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Writing",
"Pages": 208,
"Tag": "language arts & disciplines, writing, reference",
"Summary": "From classic poetry to pop lyrics and from the King James Bible to advertising slogans, Mark Forsyth explains the secrets that make a phrase - such as 'Tiger, Tiger, burning bright', or 'To be or not to be' - memorable. In his inimitably entertaining and witty style he takes apart famous lines and shows how you too can write like Shakespeare or Oscar Wilde. Whether you're aiming for literary immortality or just an unforgettable one-liner, The Elements of Eloquence proves that you don't need to have anything to say - you simply need to say it well.",
"ISBN-13": "9781785781728",
"ISBN-10": "1785781723",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Steve Jobs",
"Author": "Walter Isaacson",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 630,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, business, business & economics",
"Summary": "Walter Isaacson’s “enthralling” (The New Yorker) worldwide bestselling biography of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs.
Based on more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than 100 family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. Isaacson’s portrait touched millions of readers.
At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.
Although Jobs cooperated with the author, he asked for no control over what was written. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. He himself spoke candidly about the people he worked with and competed against.
His friends, foes, and colleagues offer an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.
His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.
Steve Jobs is the inspiration for the movie of the same name starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, and Jeff Daniels, directed by Danny Boyle with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin.",
"ISBN-13": "9781451648539",
"ISBN-10": "1451648537",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out",
"Author": "Amanda Ripley",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Sociology",
"Pages": 368,
"Tag": "business & economics, decision-making & problem solving, family & relationships",
"Summary": "When we are baffled by the insanity of the “other side”—in our politics, at work, or at home—it’s because we aren’t seeing how the conflict itself has taken over.
That’s what “high conflict” does. It’s the invisible hand of our time. And it’s different from the useful friction of healthy conflict. That’s good conflict, and it’s a necessary force that pushes us to be better people.
High conflict is what happens when discord distills into a good-versus-evil kind of feud, the kind with an us and a them. In this state, the brain behaves differently. We feel increasingly certain of our own superiority, and everything we do to try to end the conflict, usually makes it worse. Eventually, we can start to mimic the behavior of our adversaries, harming what we hold most dear.
In this “compulsively readable” (Evan Osnos, National Book Award-winning author) book, New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist Amanda Ripley investigates how good people get captured by high conflict—and how they break free.
Our journey begins in California, where a world-renowned conflict expert struggles to extract himself from a political feud. Then we meet a Chicago gang leader who dedicates his life to a vendetta—only to realize, years later, that the story he’d told himself about the conflict was not quite true. Next, we travel to Colombia, to find out whether thousands of people can be nudged out of high conflict at scale. Finally, we return to America to see what happens when a group of liberal Manhattan Jews and conservative Michigan corrections officers choose to stay in each other’s homes in order to understand one another better, even as they continue to disagree.
All these people, in dramatically different situations, were drawn into high conflict by similar forces, including conflict entrepreneurs, humiliation, and false binaries. But ultimately, all of them found ways to transform high conflict into good conflict, the kind that made them better people. They rehumanized and recategorized their opponents, and they revived curiosity and wonder, even as they continued to fight for what they knew was right.
People do escape high conflict. Individuals—even entire communities—can short-circuit the feedback loops of outrage and blame, if they want to. This is an “insightful and enthralling” (The New York Times Book Review) book—and a mind-opening new way to think about conflict that will transform how we move through the world.",
"ISBN-13": "9781982128579",
"ISBN-10": "1982128577",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "The wide variety of books that exist never ceases to amaze me. There are books on topics I’ve never even considered. This is one of those books. Amanda Ripley defines High Conflict as what happens when conflict goes from mere disagreement to us vs. them, good vs. evil thinking. Basically, it is what we see in modern politics. What we find on cable news. What we overhear in our local coffee shop, where the conservatives hang out with the conservatives and the liberals hang out with the liberals.
But it’s more than high-brow politics. It reaches across cultures. It affects street gangs. It affects how Jews in New York and conservative communities in Michigan interact (yes, that’s a real example used in the book).
If you want to understand the high conflict of our age, this is the book to explain it. I found it fascinating, and I think you will too. ", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Cattle Kingdom: The Hidden History of the Cowboy West", "Author": "Christopher Knowlton", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "History", "Pages": 426, "Tag": "business & economics, industries, agribusiness", "Summary": " A revolutionary new appraisal of the Old West and the America it made
The open range cattle era lasted barely a quarter-century, but it left America irrevocably changed. These few decades following the Civil War brought America its greatest boom-and-bust cycle until the Depression, the invention of the assembly line, and the dawn of the conservation movement. It inspired legends, such as that icon of rugged individualism, the cowboy. Yet this extraordinary time and its import have remained unexamined for decades.
Cattle Kingdom reveals the truth of how the West rose and fell, and how its legacy defines us today. The tale takes us from dust-choked cattle drives to the unlikely splendors of boomtowns like Abilene, Kansas, and Cheyenne, Wyoming. We venture from the Texas Panhandle to the Dakota Badlands to the Chicago stockyards. We meet a diverse array of players--from the expert cowboy Teddy Blue to the failed rancher and future president Teddy Roosevelt. Knowlton shows us how they and others like them could achieve so many outsized feats: killing millions of bison in a decade, building the first opera house on the open range, driving cattle by the thousand, and much more. Cattle Kingdom is a revelatory new view of the Old West.",
"ISBN-13": "9780544369962",
"ISBN-10": "0544369963",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture",
"Author": "Wendell Berry",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Essays",
"Pages": 240,
"Tag": "social science, essays",
"Summary": "A landmark work of environmental writing that powerfully argues that our estrangement from the land through industrial farming is a cultural and spiritual crisis
Since its publication in 1977, The Unsettling of America has been recognized as a classic of American letters. In it, Wendell Berry argues that good farming is a cultural and spiritual discipline. Today’s agribusiness, however, takes farming out of its cultural context and away from families. As a result, we as a nation are more estranged from the land—from the intimate knowledge, love, and care of it.
Sadly, his arguments and observations are more relevant than ever. Although “this book has not had the happy fate of being proved wrong,” Berry writes, there are people working “to make something comely and enduring of our life on this earth.” Wendell Berry is one of those people, writing and working, as ever, with passion, eloquence, and conviction.",
"ISBN-13": "978-1619025998",
"ISBN-10": "161902599X",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West",
"Author": "Andrew Wilson",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "History",
"Pages": 384,
"Tag": "history, world, civilization",
"Summary": "
How 7 Transformational Events in 1776 Paved the Way for Today's Post-Christian West
With dizzying social transformations in everything from gender to social justice, it may seem like there's never been a more tumultuous period in history. But a single year in the late 18th century saw a number of influential transformations--or even revolutions--that changed the social trajectory of the Western world. By understanding how those events influenced today's cultural landscape, Christians can more effectively bear witness to God's truth in a post-Christian age.
In Remaking the World, Andrew Wilson highlights 7 major developments from the year 1776--globalization, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the Great Enrichment, the American Revolution, the rise of post-Christianity, and the dawn of Romanticism--and explains their relevance to social changes happening today. Carefully examining key documents and historical figures, Wilson demonstrates how a monumental number of political, philosophical, economic, and industrial changes in the year of America's founding shaped the modern West into a \"WEIRDER\" society: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic, Ex-Christian, and Romantic. This thoroughly researched yet accessible book offers a unique historical perspective on modern views of family, government, religion, and morality--giving Christians the historical lens they need to understand today's post-Christian trends and respond accordingly.
Widely regarded as the modern C. S. Lewis, N. T. Wright, one of the world’s most trusted and popular Bible scholars and the bestselling author of Simply Christian and Surprised by Hope, presents a manifesto urging Christians to live and pray the Bible’s Psalms in The Case for the Psalms.
Wright seeks to reclaim the power of the Psalms, which were once at the core of prayer life. He argues that, by praying and living the Psalms, we enter into a worldview, a way of communing with God and knowing him more intimately, and receive a map by which we understand the contours and direction of our lives. For this reason, all Christians need to read, pray, sing, and live the Psalms. By providing the historical, literary, and spiritual contexts for reading these hymns from ancient Israel’s songbook, The Case for the Psalms provides the tools for incorporating these divine poems into our sacred practices and into our spirituality itself.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062230508", "ISBN-10": "0062230506", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Jesus the Great Philosopher: Rediscovering the Wisdom Needed for the Good Life", "Author": "Jonathan T. Pennington", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 240, "Tag": "religion, christian living, biblical studies", "Summary": "Many of us tend to live as though Jesus represents the \"spiritual part\" of our lives. We don't clearly see how he relates to the rest of our experiences, desires, and habits. How can Jesus, the Bible, and Christianity become more than a compartmentalized part of our lives?How the Habitat of Internet Technology Undermines Christian Wisdom
With advancements in internet technology, people can get instant answers to just about any of their questions, connect long distance with family and friends, and stay informed with events around the world in real time.
In Digital Liturgies, tech-realist Samuel D. James examines the connection between patterns in technology and human desires. Everyone longs for a glimpse of heaven; James argues they are just looking for it in the wrong place--the internet.
This accessible book exposes 5 \"digital liturgies\" that prohibit people from contemplating big truths, accepting the uncomfortable, and acknowledging God as their Creator. It then calls readers to live faithfully before Christ, finding wisdom through Scripture and rest in God's perfect design.
\"THE ULTIMATE DINOSAUR BIOGRAPHY,\" hails Scientific American: A thrilling new history of the age of dinosaurs, from one of our finest young scientists.
A New York Times Bestseller • Goodreads Choice Awards WINNER
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Smithsonian, NPR Science Friday, The Times (London), Popular Mechanics, Science News, Library Journal, Booklist, and Chicago Public Library
\"A masterpiece of science writing.\" —Washington Post
\"This is scientific storytelling at its most visceral, striding with the beasts through their Triassic dawn, Jurassic dominance, and abrupt demise in the Cretaceous.\" —Nature
The dinosaurs. Sixty-six million years ago, the Earth’s most fearsome creatures vanished. Today they remain one of our planet’s great mysteries. Now The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs reveals their extraordinary, 200-million-year-long story as never before.
In this captivating narrative (enlivened with more than seventy original illustrations and photographs), Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field—naming fifteen new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies and fieldwork—masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and new history of the dinosaurs, drawing on cutting-edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy. Captivating and revelatory, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a book for the ages.
Brusatte traces the evolution of dinosaurs from their inauspicious start as small shadow dwellers—themselves the beneficiaries of a mass extinction caused by volcanic eruptions at the beginning of the Triassic period—into the dominant array of species every wide-eyed child memorizes today, T. rex, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, and more. This gifted scientist and writer re-creates the dinosaurs’ peak during the Jurassic and Cretaceous, when thousands of species thrived, and winged and feathered dinosaurs, the prehistoric ancestors of modern birds, emerged. The story continues to the end of the Cretaceous period, when a giant asteroid or comet struck the planet and nearly every dinosaur species (but not all) died out, in the most extraordinary extinction event in earth’s history, one full of lessons for today as we confront a “sixth extinction.”
Brusatte also recalls compelling stories from his globe-trotting expeditions during one of the most exciting eras in dinosaur research—which he calls “a new golden age of discovery”—and offers thrilling accounts of some of the remarkable findings he and his colleagues have made, including primitive human-sized tyrannosaurs; monstrous carnivores even larger than T. rex; and paradigm-shifting feathered raptors from China.
An electrifying scientific history that unearths the dinosaurs’ epic saga, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs will be a definitive and treasured account for decades to come.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0062490421", "ISBN-10": "0062490427", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History", "Author": "Elizabeth Kolbert", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Science", "Pages": 319, "Tag": "nature, ecology, natural disasters", "Summary": "Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions of life on earth. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. Elizabeth Kolbert combines brilliant field reporting, the history of ideas and the work of geologists, botanists and marine biologists to tell the gripping stories of a dozen species - including the Panamanian golden frog and the Sumatran rhino - some already gone, others at the point of vanishing. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy and Elizabeth Kolbert's book urgently compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.", "ISBN-13": "978-1408851210", "ISBN-10": "1408851210", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "God and Race in American: Politics A Short History", "Author": "Mark A. Noll", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "History", "Pages": 209, "Tag": "history, united states, religion", "Summary": "Religion has been a powerful political force throughout American history. When race enters the mix the results have been some of our greatest triumphs as a nation--and some of our most shameful failures. In this important book, Mark Noll, one of the most influential historians of American religion writing today, traces the explosive political effects of the religious intermingling with race.
Noll demonstrates how supporters and opponents of slavery and segregation drew equally on the Bible to justify the morality of their positions. He shows how a common evangelical heritage supported Jim Crow discrimination and contributed powerfully to the black theology of liberation preached by Martin Luther King Jr. In probing such connections, Noll takes readers from the 1830 slave revolt of Nat Turner through Reconstruction and the long Jim Crow era, from the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s to \"values\" voting in recent presidential elections. He argues that the greatest transformations in American political history, from the Civil War through the civil rights revolution and beyond, constitute an interconnected narrative in which opposing appeals to Biblical truth gave rise to often-contradictory religious and moral complexities. And he shows how this heritage remains alive today in controversies surrounding stem-cell research and abortion as well as civil rights reform.
God and Race in American Politics is a panoramic history that reveals the profound role of religion in American political history and in American discourse on race and social justice.
", "ISBN-13": "9780691125367", "ISBN-10": "0691125368", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "How Do We Look: The Body, the Divine, and the Question of Civilization", "Author": "Mary Beard", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "History", "Pages": 240, "Tag": "history, civilization, art", "Summary": "From prehistoric Mexico to modern Istanbul, Mary Beard looks beyond the familiar canon of Western imagery to explore the history of art, religion, and humanity.Why bother refuting your opponents, when you can just take away their platform or career?
Greg Lukianoff was one of the first to raise the alarm about the troubling social and psychological consequences of the growing intolerance of opposing viewpoints on university campuses in America; a phenomenon which then swept through the English-speaking world.
In this new book, he teams up with Rikki Schlott to show how this trend has spread to a wide range of workplaces and cultural spaces, which are giving up on a culture of free speech in favour of cancel culture. Drawing on original research and data, along with hundreds of new examples from publishing to psychotherapy, comedy, science and medicine, this book shows how the left and the right both work to silence their enemies in different ways. It's not simply a matter of Twitter spats; people are losing their jobs, livelihoods and sometimes their lives over it.
Eye-opening, urgent and transformative, The Canceling of the American Mind argues that cancel culture is not merely a moral panic, but a dysfunctional way in which people battle for power, status and dominance: moving us away from being able to argue productively, listen generously and ultimately be civil when we disagree. This book offers concrete steps towards reclaiming a culture of free speech, with materials specifically tailored for parents, teachers, business leaders and all those who use social media. It shows how we can all harness intellectual humility to become more resilient and open minded.
In this book, he dives into the cancel culture plaguing today's society. He shows the danger it poses and how it affects people all along the political spectrum. Conservatives are as prone to it as liberals. It’s a shocking reality that feels too common.
If you are concerned about cancel culture and want to explore how we can get out of it, this book is for you. ",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Small Things Like These",
"Author": "Claire Keegan",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 116,
"Tag": "fiction, historical, 20th century",
"Summary": "It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him - and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church. 0The long-awaited new work from the author of Foster, Small Things Like These is an unforgettable story of hope, quiet heroism and tenderness.0'[Claire Keegan] creates luminous effects with spare material, so every line seems to be a lesson in the perfect deployment of both style and emotion.'0Hilary Mantel.",
"ISBN-13": "9780571368686",
"ISBN-10": "0571368689",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Story of Science: From The Writings Of Aristotle To The Big Bang Theory",
"Author": "Susan Wise Bauer",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Science",
"Pages": 320,
"Tag": "science, history",
"Summary": "A riveting road map to the development of modern scientific thought.
In the tradition of her perennial bestseller The Well-Educated Mind, Susan Wise Bauer delivers an accessible, entertaining, and illuminating springboard into the scientific education you never had. Far too often, public discussion of science is carried out by journalists, voters, and politicians who have received their science secondhand. The Story of Western Science shows us the joy and importance of reading groundbreaking science writing for ourselves and guides us back to the masterpieces that have changed the way we think about our world, our cosmos, and ourselves.
Able to be referenced individually, or read together as the narrative of Western scientific development, the book's twenty-eight succinct chapters lead readers from the first science texts by Hippocrates, Plato, and Aristotle through twentieth-century classics in biology, physics, and cosmology. The Story of Western Science illuminates everything from mankind's earliest inquiries to the butterfly effect, from the birth of the scientific method to the rise of earth science and the flowering of modern biology.
Each chapter recommends one or more classic books and provides entertaining accounts of crucial contributions to science, vivid sketches of the scientist-writers, and clear explanations of the mechanics underlying each concept. The Story of Western Science reveals science to be a dramatic undertaking practiced by some of history's most memorable characters. It reminds us that scientific inquiry is a human pursuit—an essential, often deeply personal, sometimes flawed, frequently brilliant way of understanding the world.
The Story of Western Science is an \"entertaining and unique synthesis\" (Times Higher Education), a \"fluidly written\" narrative that \"celebrates the inexorable force of human curiosity\" (Wall Street Journal), and a \"bright, informative resource for readers seeking to understand science through the eyes of the men and women who shaped its history\" (Kirkus).
Previously published as The Story of Science.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0393243260", "ISBN-10": "0393243265", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Faithful Theology: An Introduction", "Author": "Graham Arthur Cole", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, exegesis & hermeneutics", "Summary": "Everyone has thoughts about God. But how do we know if our thoughts are true?
If we want to know the truth about God, we need a sound approach to incorporating what the whole Bible teaches. In this concise introduction to systematic theology, theologian Graham A. Cole explores how we move from Scripture to doctrine in order to shape what we believe, what we value, and how we live. He shows us the importance of having the right method: rooted in the word of God, consistent with church history, in the context of a broken world, dependent on divine wisdom, and ultimately aiming at pure worship.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433559112", "ISBN-10": "1433559110", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Wolf Hall", "Author": "Hilary Mantel", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 560, "Tag": "english & college success, english, fiction", "Summary": "WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION
In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel's New York Times bestselling Wolf Hall is \"a darkly brilliant reimagining of life under Henry VIII. . . . Magnificent.\" (The Boston Globe).
The basis for the TV series on BBC and PBS Masterpiece starring Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell.
England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?
The bad drawings are just a gimmick. The drawings aren’t that bad. They stem from Orlin’s teaching days where he would use his bad drawing to communicate the mathematical concepts to his students. It lightened things. It engaged them. And he’s turned that into a series of popular books and blogs on math. Fascinating.
Orlin explores why the triangle is the strongest shape and how that impacts everything we use every day, like our houses. He explains why we can’t trust statistics. He talks about Ted Wiliams, the last man to hit .400 in a season. He talks about probability and insurance and the lottery and all kinds of other things that are mathematical, even though we don’t think of them simply in those terms.
I don’t know who this book is for. I didn’t think it would be for me. So, if you’re just looking for something interesting, why not give this a try? I really think you’ll like it. ",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family's Story of Hope and Survival in the American South",
"Author": "Esau McCaulley",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 240,
"Tag": "social science, social classes & economic disparity, biography & autobiography",
"Summary": "From the New York Times contributing opinion writer and award-winning author of Reading While Black, a riveting intergenerational account of his family’s search for home and hope
“Powerful . . . McCaulley uses examples of his own family’s stories of survival over time to remind readers that some paths to the promised land have detours along the way.”—The Root
A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
For much of his life, Esau McCaulley was taught to see himself as an exception: someone who, through hard work, faith, and determination, overcame childhood poverty, anti-Black racism, and an absent father to earn a job as a university professor and a life in the middle class.
But that narrative was called into question one night, when McCaulley answered the phone and learned that his father—whose absence defined his upbringing—died in a car crash. McCaulley was being asked to deliver his father’s eulogy, to make sense of his complicated legacy in a country that only accepts Black men on the condition that they are exceptional, hardworking, perfect.
The resulting effort sent McCaulley back through his family history, seeking to understand the community that shaped him. In these pages, we meet his great-grandmother Sophia, a tenant farmer born with the gift of prophecy who scraped together a life in Jim Crow Alabama; his mother, Laurie, who raised four kids alone in an era when single Black mothers were demonized as “welfare queens”; and a cast of family, friends, and neighbors who won small victories in a world built to swallow Black lives. With profound honesty and compassion, he raises questions that implicate us all: What does each person’s struggle to build a life teach us about what we owe each other? About what it means to be human?
How Far to the Promised Land is a thrilling and tender epic about being Black in America. It’s a book that questions our too-simple narratives about poverty and upward mobility; a book in which the people normally written out of the American Dream are given voice.",
"ISBN-13": "978-0593241080",
"ISBN-10": "0593241088",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "Over Thanksgiving, my friend Kelsey asked to borrow a memoir. I found the one she wanted on my shelves and gave it to her, and then she asked if I’d read Esau McCaulley’s latest book. I hadn’t, though it was on my to-read list. She told me I had to move it up the list. So I did. I listen to Kelsey. She’s wise and smart and insightful and one of my favorite people in this world.
Her recommendation did not disappoint. Esau is a great writer, and his story is one that I’m glad he told. Writing about one's life can’t be easy. There is always so much pain and sorrow, even if it’s a good life with a lot of happy moments. But those who share in a hopeful, Christ-centered way help us see that, in many profound ways, we’re all alike. We all sin. We all are sinned against. We all need Jesus, and he offers himself to everyone.
His experience as a black man in America is not my experience. He faced things I will never face. I hurt for him in those experiences. But he also shares my common humanity. He wrestles with what it means not to be defined by what we do but by who God says we are. We all have a family history that is complicated and wonderful at the same time, and it takes some people a lifetime to come to terms with it all, if they ever do. Esau shows us how we can do it.
If you want to read a great memoir this year, this is the one I recommend. Listen to Kelsey. She knows what she’s talking about. ",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Isaac Newton",
"Author": "James Gleick",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 288,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, science & technology, science",
"Summary": "Isaac Newton was born in a stone farmhouse in 1642, fatherless and unwanted by his mother. When he died in London in 1727 he was so renowned he was given a state funeral—an unheard-of honor for a subject whose achievements were in the realm of the intellect. During the years he was an irascible presence at Trinity College, Cambridge, Newton imagined properties of nature and gave them names—mass, gravity, velocity—things our science now takes for granted. Inspired by Aristotle, spurred on by Galileo’s discoveries and the philosophy of Descartes, Newton grasped the intangible and dared to take its measure, a leap of the mind unparalleled in his generation.
James Gleick, the author of Chaos and Genius, and one of the most acclaimed science writers of his generation, brings the reader into Newton’s reclusive life and provides startlingly clear explanations of the concepts that changed forever our perception of bodies, rest, and motion—ideas so basic to the twenty-first century, it can truly be said: We are all Newtonians.",
"ISBN-13": "9781400032952",
"ISBN-10": "1400032954",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "C. S. Lewis in America: Readings and Reception, 1935–1947",
"Author": "Mark A. Noll",
"Year Read": 2023,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 176,
"Tag": "religion, christianity, literature & the arts",
"Summary": "
Perhaps no other literary figure has transformed the American religious landscape in recent history as much as C. S. Lewis. Even before the international publication and incredible success of his fictional works such as The Chronicles of Narnia or apologetic works like Mere Christianity, Lewis was already being read \"across the pond\" in America. But who exactly was reading his work? And how was he received?
With fresh research and shrewd analysis, this volume by noted historian Mark A. Noll considers the surprising reception of Lewis among Roman Catholic, mainline Protestant, and evangelical readers to see how early readings of the Oxford don shaped his later influence.
Based on the annual lecture series hosted at Wheaton College's Marion E. Wade Center, volumes in the Hansen Lectureship Series reflect on the imaginative work and lasting influence of seven British authors: Owen Barfield, G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Dorothy L. Sayers, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams.
", "ISBN-13": "9781514007006", "ISBN-10": "1514007002", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Searching for Grace: A Weary Leader, a Wise Mentor, and Seven Healing Conversations for a Parched Soul", "Author": "Scotty Smith, Russ Masterson", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "\"Searching for Grace invites you into the kind of relationship that we all long for deep in our hearts. The relationship between Scotty and Russ is scary, vulnerable, painful, but gorgeously loving and drenched in grace.\" --Paul David Tripp, author of New Morning Mercies\"A book you will want to read and read again.\" -- Eugene Peterson
Afterword by Bono.
How can you find a more transparent, resilient, and fearless life of faith
Open and Unafraid by David Taylor takes readers on a profound journey through the book of Psalms, which has been a central pillar for God's people for millennia, across all walks of life and cultural contexts. In reading it, we discover that we are never alone in our joys, sorrows, angers, doubts, praises, or thanksgivings. In it, we learn about prayer and poetry, honesty and community, justice and enemies, life and death, nations and creation.
As a professor, pastor, author, and producer of the short film Bono and Eugene Peterson: The Psalms, David Taylor has created an accessible guide to the psalms that resonates deeply with first-time and long-time Bible readers, poets and artists, devout believers and spiritual seekers alike. Open and Unafraid shows you how to read the psalms in a fresh, life-giving way, and so access the bottomless resources for life and experience the presence of God--in order to deepen discipleship and worship.
Endorsements:
\"David Taylor's take is 'open and unafraid' alright. He really goes there, exposing himself before God in the most beautiful way. He might have called the book Naked, because if you don't find your own self feeling a little exposed here, it might be time to take some armor off.\" -- Bono, from the Afterword
\"A book that you will want to read and read again, and yet again, in order to discover the wisdom of the Psalms that shows us how to walk in the life-giving way of Jesus.\" -- Eugene Peterson, from the Foreword
\"A winsome, accessible entry into the Book of Psalms...Connects the poetry of the psalms to real-life wonders and struggles.\" -- Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary
\"Taylor reads these biblical prayers with Dr. Seuss, rappers, and other poets, along with theologians and the daily news....Guides readers in tracing out patterns of holy speech that have the potential for healing our hearts and our communities.\" -- Ellen F. Davis, Duke Divinity School
\"I have always loved the psalms--for their defiant devotion, their deep joy, and their brutal yet beautiful honesty. And after reading this fantastic book about them, I love them even more.\" -- Matt Redman, worship leader and song writer
\"In these fraught and fearsome days, we need the psalms more than ever. And we need more faithful artists and thinkers like David Taylor to mine the infinite gifts the psalms offer across the ages.\" -- Karen Swallow Prior, author of Fierce Convictions
", "ISBN-13": "9781400210510", "ISBN-10": "1400210518", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Architecture of Happiness", "Author": "Alain de Botton", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 280, "Tag": "architecture, criticism, design, drafting, drawing & presentation", "Summary": "Bestselling author Alain de Botton has written about love, travel, status and how philosophy can console us. Now he turns his attention to one of our most intense but often hidden love affairs: with our houses and their furnishings. He asks: What makes a house truly beautiful?Why are many new houses so ugly?Why do we argue so bitterly about sofas and pictures � and can differences of taste ever be satisfactorily resolved?Will minimalism make us happier than ornaments?
To answer these questions and many more, de Botton looks at buildings across the world, from medieval wooden huts to modern skyscrapers; he examines sofas and cathedrals, tea sets and office complexes, and teases out a host of often surprising philosophical insights. The Architecture of Happiness will take you on a beguiling tour through the history and psychology of architecture and interior design, and will forever alter your relationship with buildings. It will change the way you look at your current home � and help you make the right decisions about your next one.
", "ISBN-13": "9780141015002", "ISBN-10": "0141015004", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments", "Author": "Joe Posnanski", "Year Read": 2023, "Category": "Sports", "Pages": 416, "Tag": "sports & outdoors, baseball, miscellaneous", "Summary": "NEW YORK TIMES bestseller“The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!”
“Here’s the pitch by Downing. Swinging. Here’s a drive into left center field. That ball is gonna be … outta here! It’s gone! It’s 715! There’s a new home run champion of all time, and it’s Henry Aaron.”
Baseball is the best. There’s just no way I won’t ever believe that. Baseball has given me more joy than any other sport ever has, and there isn’t a close second. Baseball has also given me more pain than any other sport ever has, and there isn’t a close second. I’m a Braves fan, after all.
But let’s forget about the pain. Let’s talk about the great moments. That’s what Posnanski does in this wonderful book. (Though it is ironic that the best moments are also someone else’s worst moments, but let’s not think about that right now.)
The title promises 50 great moments, but there are actually 108. Posnanski can’t help himself, and I love him for that. I wish this book were twice as long. To relive some of these moments was great. Some I never knew. Some I wasn’t born for. Some I remember like they were yesterday.
If you are a baseball fan, this book belongs on your shelf. You’ll love it. I sure did. ",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "How to Read a Book",
"Author": "Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Nonfiction",
"Pages": 426,
"Tag": "language arts & disciplines, literacy, reading skills",
"Summary": "With half a million copies in print, How to Read a Book is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader, completely rewritten and updated with new material.
A CNN Book of the Week: “Explains not just why we should read books, but how we should read them. It's masterfully done.” –Farheed Zakaria
Originally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them—from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Readers will learn when and how to “judge a book by its cover,” and also how to X-ray it, read critically, and extract the author’s message from the text.
Also included is instruction in the different techniques that work best for reading particular genres, such as practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science works.
Finally, the authors offer a recommended reading list and supply reading tests you can use measure your own progress in reading skills, comprehension, and speed.",
"ISBN-13": "9780671212094",
"ISBN-10": "0671212095",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series",
"Author": "Jessica Radloff",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Nonfiction",
"Pages": 528,
"Tag": "performing arts, television, direction & production",
"Summary": "
The definitive, behind-the-scenes look at the most popular sitcom of the last decade, The Big Bang Theory, packed with all-new, exclusive interviews with the producers and the entire cast - from journalist and the host of The Official Big Bang Theory Podcast, Jessica Radloff.
The Big Bang Theory is a television phenomenon. To the casual viewer, it's a seemingly effortless comedy, with relatable characters tackling real-life issues, offering a kind of visual comfort food to its millions of dedicated fans. But the behind-the-scenes journey of the show from a failed pilot to a global sensation is a fascinating story that even the most die-hard fans don't know in its entirety.
The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series is a riveting, entertaining look at the sitcom sensation, with the blessing and participation of co-creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, executive producers Steve Molaro and Steve Holland, as well as Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, Melissa Rauch, Mayim Bialik, and more. Glamour senior editor Jessica Radloff, who has written over 150 articles on the series (and even had a cameo in the finale!), gives readers an all-access pass to its intrepid producing and writing team and beloved cast. It's a story of on-and-off screen romance told in hilarious and emotional detail, of casting choices that nearly changed everything (which even some of the actors didn't know until now), of cast members bravely powering through personal tragedies, and when it came time to announce the 12th season would be its last, the complicated reasons why it was more difficult than anyone ever led on. Through hundreds of hours of interviews with the sitcom's major players, Radloff dives into all this and much more. The book is the ultimate celebration of this once-in-a-generation show and a must-have for all fans.
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A USA TODAY BESTSELLER
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2022 BY GLAMOUR
\"Talking with Jessica, I realized how easy it had been for me to kind of put all 12 years of my time on Big Bang Theory under one general umbrella, as it were. The questions she asked and the information she'd reveal to me from someone else she'd interviewed forced me into a frame of mind where each season - and sometimes each episode - became it's own, separate entity again. . . Frankly, it turned into a version of therapy I hadn't realized I'd needed and couldn't have known how much I'd enjoy.\" --Jim Parsons
", "ISBN-13": "9781538708491", "ISBN-10": "1538708493", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Blue Horses: Poems", "Author": "Mary Oliver", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Poetry", "Pages": 96, "Tag": "poetry, subjects & themes, animals & nature", "Summary": "In this stunning collection of new poems, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has defined her life’s work, describing with wonder both the everyday and the unaffected beauty of nature.Publishers Weekly starred review - Christianity Today Book Award Winner - ECPA Top Shelf Book Cover Award Winner - Illumination Book Awards Gold Medal Winner - Southwestern Journal of Theology Book of the Year Honorable Mention
\"This is a stunning book, so rare and so beautiful. I cannot recommend it highly enough.\" --Matthew A. LaPine
Suffering has been made holy by Christ's proximity to it.
This is the story of Christ's nearness to my own suffering--my mental breakdown, my journey to the psych ward, my long, slow, painful recovery--and how Christ will use even our agony and despair to turn us into servants and guests of the mercy offered in his gospel.
We cannot answer suffering. And yet suffering demands an answer. If Jesus is the answer to suffering, what kind of answer is Jesus? Everything that could be taken from a person was taken from him. The worst things a person could be made to see and feel were seen and felt by Christ. All of this came to a point in the nails driven into his hands and became a word that cannot be unspoken--his body broken and his blood poured out for us. Suffering has been made holy by Christ's proximity to it.
", "ISBN-13": "9781683597049", "ISBN-10": "1683597044", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Boys of Summer", "Author": "Roger Kahn", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Sports", "Pages": 512, "Tag": "biological sciences & nutrition, health, activities & sports", "Summary": "\"A moving elegy . . . [to] the best team the majors ever saw . . . the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s.\" — New York Times The classic narrative of growing up within shouting distance of Ebbets Field, covering the Jackie Robinson Dodgers, and what’s happened to everybody since. This is a book about young men who learned to play baseball during the 1930s and 1940s, and then went on to play for one of the most exciting major-league ball clubs ever fielded, the team that broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson. It is a book by and about a sportswriter who grew up near Ebbets Field, and who had the good fortune in the 1950s to cover the Dodgers for The Herald Tribune. This is a book about what happened to Jackie, Carl Erskine, Pee Wee Reese, and the others when their glory days were behind them. In short, it is a book about America, about fathers and sons, prejudice and courage, triumph and disaster, and told with warmth, humor, wit, candor, and love.", "ISBN-13": "9780062089984", "ISBN-10": "0062089986", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Oh, I adore a good baseball book. If that good baseball book is written by a great writer, well, that’s about as good as a book gets. Roger Kahn is a great writer, and he knows baseball. The Boys of Summer is Kahn’s classic book about the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s, written by a man who loved the team and the players. He covered them early in his career, and as they all grew and separated, Kahn reconnected with each of them to see how life turned out. It contains nostalgic recollections, life advice, baseball glory, and post-baseball struggles. From Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color barrier to the classic 1955 World Series win against the mighty Yankees, this book will take you deep into mid-century baseball—baseball as it is in every boy’s memory, whether you lived through those years or not. Oh, how i wish the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, and Ebbets field was still standing!", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir", "Author": "Beth Moore", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 416, "Tag": "biographies & memoirs, memoirs, religion & spirituality", "Summary": "An incredibly thoughtful, disarmingly funny, and intensely vulnerable glimpse into the life and ministry of a woman familiar to many but known by few.
\"It's a peculiar thing, this having lived long enough to take a good look back. We go from knowing each other better than we know ourselves to barely sure if we know each other at all, to precisely sure that we don't. All my knotted-up life I've longed for the sanity and simplicity of knowing who's good and who's bad. I've wanted to know this about myself as much as anyone. This was not theological. It was strictly relational. God could do what he wanted with eternity. I was just trying to make it here in the meantime. As benevolent as he has been in a myriad of ways, God has remained aloof on this uncomplicated request.\" - Beth Moore
New York Times best-selling author, speaker, visionary, and founder of Living Proof Ministries Beth Moore has devoted her whole life to helping women across the globe come to know the transforming power of Jesus. An established writer of many acclaimed books and Bible studies for women on spiritual growth and personal development, Beth now unveils her own story in a much-anticipated debut memoir.
All My Knotted-Up Life includes:
· 8 pages of photos
· An exploration of Beth's childhood, love, marriage, and motherhood
· Insights on what it was like when she was \"waist-deep in a season of loss\"
· A discussion of her 2018 break with the Southern Baptist movement
· Details on the origins of Living Proof Ministries
All My Knotted-Up Life is told with surprising candor about some of the personal heartbreaks and behind-the-scenes challenges that have marked Beth's life. But beyond that, it's a beautifully crafted portrait of resilience and survival, a poignant reminder of God's enduring faithfulness, and proof positive that if we ever truly took the time to hear people's full stories ... we'd all walk around slack-jawed.
", "ISBN-13": "9781420523201", "ISBN-10": "1420523201", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Being Henry: The Fonz ... and Beyond", "Author": "Henry Winkler", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, entertainment & performing arts, personal memoirs", "Summary": "The instant New York Times bestseller.
Winner of 'Humour' - Goodreads Choice Awards, Best Books of 2023.
Henry Winkler, launched into prominence by his role as 'The Fonz' in the beloved Happy Days, has transcended the role that made him who he is.
Brilliant, funny, and widely-regarded as the nicest man in Hollywood (though he would be the first to tell you that it's simply not the case, he's really just grateful to be here), Henry shares in this achingly vulnerable memoir the disheartening truth of his childhood, the difficulties of a life with severe dyslexia, the pressures of a role that takes on a life of its own, and the path forward once your wildest dream seems behind you.
Since the glorious era of Happy Days fame, Henry has endeared himself to a new generation with roles in such adored shows as Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation, and Barry, where he's revealed himself as an actor with immense depth and pathos, a departure from the period of his life when he was so distinctly typecast as 'The Fonz', he could hardly find work.
Filled with profound heart, charm, and self-deprecating humor, Being Henry is a memoir about so much more than a life in Hollywood and the curse of stardom. It is a meaningful testament to the power of sharing truth and kindness and of finding fulfillment within yourself.
'Smart and entertaining' - New York Times
The reporter who broke the Houston Astros' cheating scandal reveals how a baseball team could so dramatically descend into corruption, with never-before-told details of a broken management culture, the once-revered leaders who enabled it and the scandal itself.
Baseball, that old romantic game, has been defaced and consumed by corporate America. As Moneyball-thinking and Ivy League graduates grabbed hold of the sport, the Astros set out to build a cost-efficient winning machine on the principles of the outside business world, squeezing every dollar out of every transaction, player and employee.
In less than a decade, ex-Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow helped revolutionize the game. He created an environment that led to one of the worst cheating scandals in baseball history, a Shakespearean tragedy of innovation and failed change management. Through years of extensive interviews, former Houston Chronicle beat writer Evan Drellich, now a national writer for The Athletic, delivers the definitive account of baseball's most controversial franchise and how a modern baseball team truly works--without the usual myth-spinning.
Drellich reveals the rise and fall of the Astros to be a collision of subcultures. The team's top boss was a former McKinsey consultant who lived on the bleeding edge with no guardrails. He hired outsider after outsider to change the organization as quickly and cheaply as possible. The wins piled up, and so did the cash for the billionaire owner with a checkered business past. But not even a World Series title could cover up the rot.
All of it came at a cost to fans, employees, and the sport on a whole. But as Winning Fixes Everything makes clear, \"The Astros Way\" isn't going anywhere. Drellich uses the saga of the Astros' scandal to detail the evolution of baseball itself.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0063049048", "ISBN-10": "006304904X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Remains of the Day", "Author": "Kazuo Ishiguro", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "fiction, literary, historical", "Summary": "BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, here is “an intricate and dazzling novel” (The New York Times) about the perfect butler and his fading, insular world in post-World War II England.What does God have to do with mathematics?
Everything.
In this book, Vern Poythress argues that the harmony of abstract mathematical truths, the physical world of things, and the personal world of our thinking depends on the existence of the Christian God. Poythress shows that these distinct \"perspectives\" on mathematics cohere because all three find their origin in God's consistent character and nature.
Whether it's simple addition and subtraction or more complex mathematical concepts such as set theory and the nature of infinity, this fascinating book lays a theistic foundation for all mathematical inquiry.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433541100", "ISBN-10": "1433541106", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Human Chain Poems", "Author": "Seamus Heaney", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Poetry", "Pages": 96, "Tag": "poetry, european, english, irish, scottish, welsh", "Summary": "A Boston Globe Best Poetry Book of 2011
Winner of the 2011 Griffin Poetry Prize
Winner of the 2011 Poetry Now Award
Seamus Heaney's new collection elicits continuities and solidarities, between husband and wife, child and parent, then and now, inside an intently remembered present--the stepping stones of the day, the weight and heft of what is passed from hand to hand, lifted and lowered. Human Chain also broaches larger questions of transmission, of lifelines to the inherited past. There are newly minted versions of anonymous early Irish lyrics, poems that stand at the crossroads of oral and written, and other \"hermit songs\" that weigh equally in their balance the craft of scribe and the poet's early calling as scholar. A remarkable sequence entitled \"Route 101\" plots the descent into the underworld in the Aeneid against single moments in the arc of a life, from a 1950s childhood to the birth of a first grandchild. Other poems display a Virgilian pietas for the dead--friends, neighbors, family--that is yet wholly and movingly vernacular.
Human Chain also includes a poetic \"herbal\" adapted from the Breton poet Guillevic--lyrics as delicate as ferns, which puzzle briefly over the world of things and landscapes that exclude human speech, while affirming the interconnectedness of phenomena, as of a self-sufficiency in which we too are included
", "ISBN-13": "9780374173517", "ISBN-10": "0374173516", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed", "Author": "Lori Gottlieb", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 448, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, social scientists & psychologists, women", "Summary": "INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
*Paperback includes an exclusive interview with the author and a reader's guide*
\"Rarely have I read a book that challenged me to see myself in an entirely new light, and was at the same time laugh-out-loud funny and utterly absorbing.\" -- Katie Couric
\"This is a daring, delightful, and transformative book.\" -- Arianna Huffington, founder, Huffington Post, and founder & CEO, Thrive Global
\"Wise, warm, smart, and funny. You must read this book.\" -- Susan Cain, New York Times best-selling author of Quiet
From a New York Times best-selling author, psychotherapist, and national advice columnist, a hilarious, thought-provoking, and surprising new book that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist's world--where her patients are looking for answers (and so is she)
One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.
As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients' lives--a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can't stop hooking up with the wrong guys--she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell.
With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is revolutionary in its candor, offering a deeply personal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly revealing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.
", "ISBN-13": "9780358299233", "ISBN-10": "0358299233", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Belong: Loving Your Church by Reflecting Christ to One Another", "Author": "Barnabas Piper", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, christian education, christian theology", "Summary": "Author Barnabas Piper states in the first chapter of his book:
\"We are looking for something personal, something deeply meaningful, something with which we can identify. And this book is an invitation to find that in the church, because God wants us to ...Part of God's perfect strategy is offering hurting, tired, worn out, needy sinners like you and me a place to belong in ... A place in which to encounter the profound, transformative, healing, restoring grace of Jesus Christ.\"
This book explores how you can help to create a church where everybody feels at home: a place where fellow believers build genuine, honest, meaningful Christian relationships and enjoy deep fellowship as a community of believers.
Readers will come to see that belonging to a church is a good gift from God, the outworking of our identity as brothers and sisters in Christ, and worth your time, love and commitment.
", "ISBN-13": "9781784988227", "ISBN-10": "1784988227", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Piper’s book is part of the Love Your Church series published by The Good Book Company. I think it’s the best of the series. I have the privilege of knowing Barnabas. He is one of my pastors at Immanuel Church. I don’t think my knowing him influences this book’s position on my list other than the fact that I feel its truths deeper for knowing him. It is true, nonetheless. Immanuel Church, where Piper serves, is the best church I know for experiencing Christian belonging. We call it gospel culture. If you want to taste what that is, this book is for you. Who doesn’t need a greater sense of belonging? That deep desire can be satisfied, and this book can help you.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Bewilderment: A Novel", "Author": "Richard Powers", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 278, "Tag": "fiction, literary, political", "Summary": "
The astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos while single-handedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin, following the death of his wife. Robin is a warm, kind boy who spends hours painting elaborate pictures of endangered animals. He's also about to be expelled from third grade for smashing his friend in the face. As his son grows more troubled, Theo hopes to keep him off psychoactive drugs. He learns of an experimental neurofeedback treatment to bolster Robin's emotional control, one that involves training the boy on the recorded patterns of his mother's brain...
With its soaring descriptions of the natural world, its tantalizing vision of life beyond, and its account of a father and son's ferocious love, Bewilderment marks Richard Powers's most intimate and moving novel. At its heart lies the question: How can we tell our children the truth about this beautiful, imperiled planet?
", "ISBN-13": "9780393881141", "ISBN-10": "0393881148", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness", "Author": "Tracy Kidder", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 277, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, cultural heritage, medical", "Summary": "Tracy Kidder, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of the bestsellers The Soul of a New Machine, House, and the enduring classic Mountains Beyond Mountains, has been described by the Baltimore Sun as the “master of the non-fiction narrative.” In this new book, Kidder gives us the superb story of a hero for our time. Strength in What Remains is a wonderfully written, inspiring account of one man’s remarkable American journey and of the ordinary people who helped him–a brilliant testament to the power of will and of second chances.What does it mean to be a woman or a man created in the image of God?
Many Christians don't have a good grasp of what their sexuality means. Many women in the church don't feel like their contributions matter.
Why is this?
The church is sadly still confused about what it means to be a man or a woman. While secular society talks about sexuality in terms of liberation, many in the church define manhood and womanhood in terms of reductive roles that rob us of the dignity of personhood, created in the image of God.
In her poetic, theologically contemplative style, Aimee Byrd invites you to enter the rich treasure trove of the Song of Songs as its lyrics reveal how our very bodies are visible signs that tell us something about our God. This often-ignored biblical book has much to teach us about Christ, his church, man, and woman. And what it teaches us is not a list of roles and hierarchy. It is a love song.
As it unfolds throughout the canon of Scripture, the meaning of our sexuality extends beyond biology, nature, and culture to give us a glimpse of what is to come. This meaningfulness reinforces our discipleship as we participate in the eschatological song.
In The Sexual Reformation, you will discover the beautiful message that our bodies--and our whole selves--are part of the greater story in which Christ received the gift of his bride, the church. Within the context of that story, you'll rediscover your sexuality as a gift.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310125648", "ISBN-10": "0310125642", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Welcome: Loving Your Church by Making Space for Everyone", "Author": "Jen Oshman", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 144, "Tag": "religion, christian education, christian theology", "Summary": "Walking into church can be intimidating, whether for the first time or after a period of absence, whether you are a non-believer or a believer. Wouldn't it be wonderful if your church was a place where everyone received a warm welcome? A place where newcomers can quickly feel at home and where non-believers receive the welcome of God's people alongside the welcome of Jesus?
This warm, practical book by Jen Oshman explores what the Bible says to help readers discover how to make space for others, however different they are to them, in their church and in their lives. She also gives practical advice, drawing on good practice from churches around the world in a range of situations. In a world of division, individualism and isolation, readers will see that their church can witness to Christ by being a place of welcome, community and connection.
Whether you're a pastor looking to encourage your congregation to welcome others or a church member wanting to see unbelievers come to faith and help everyone feel part of the family, this resource is for you.
", "ISBN-13": "9781784988289", "ISBN-10": "1784988286", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Serve: Loving Your Church with Your Heart, Time and Gifts", "Author": "Steve Robinson", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, christian education, christian theology", "Summary": "
This book looks at the gospel of Jesus and the example of Jesus to motivate us to serve our church family sacrificially with our energy, time and gifts.
This is a great book for Christians who have grown weary over time, those who need help in identifying their gifts and gaining the confidence to offer them, and church members who are lacking the motivation to get started.
As we look to the example of Jesus, who \"came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many\" (Mark 10:45), we will be excited and equipped to use what God has given us to serve others with a renewed sense of purpose and joy. We will also see that we do not need to have any particularly impressive gifts or emulate anyone else in order to answer Jesus' call to love one another.
", "ISBN-13": "9781784989163", "ISBN-10": "1784989169", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Gather: Loving Your Church As You Celebrate Christ Together", "Author": "Tony Merida", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 144, "Tag": "religion, christian education, christian theology", "Summary": "
Why do we meet on Sundays?
Now that technology allows us to access services remotely, many see little need to meet face to face every week. Others think that because we have a personal relationship with Jesus as Christians, church is an optional add-on. For some, they know deep down that there is a reason why gathering on Sundays is important, but they are weary and don't feel excited about it. So what is the purpose of corporate worship, and what is our role in it?
In this book, Tony Merida highlights how in-person Sunday gatherings are central to God's plans and to our faith and joy. He reminds believers of their privileges as citizens of heaven, members of God's family and stones in God's temple.
Readers will see how each part of a church service (preaching, praying, singing, baptism, Lord's Supper and building each other up in conversations) are ways to enjoy and share God's grace, and are therefore essential for spiritual endurance. You'll also be reminded that your presence in corporate worship matters because you have a part to play in encouraging your brothers and sisters and spurring them to love and good deeds.
Read this book to renew your understanding and enjoyment of going to church and to be excited by the ways in which your presence can encourage others.
", "ISBN-13": "9781784988272", "ISBN-10": "1784988278", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race", "Author": "J. Daniel Hays", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 240, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, history & culture", "Summary": "\"After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language . . .\" (Revelation 7:9). The visions in the book of Revelation give a glimpse of the people of God at the consummation of history—a multiethnic congregation gathered together in worship around God's throne. Its racial diversity is expressed in a fourfold formula that first appears in Genesis 10. The theme of race runs throughout Scripture, constantly pointing to the global and multiethnic dimensions inherent in the overarching plan of God. In response to the neglect of this theme in much evangelical biblical scholarship, J. Daniel Hays offers this thorough exegetical work in the New Studies in Biblical Theology series. As well as focusing on texts which have a general bearing on race, Hays demonstrates that black Africans from Cush (Ethiopia) play an important role in both Old and New Testament history. This careful, nuanced analysis provides a clear theological foundation for life in contemporary multiracial cultures and challenges churches to pursue racial unity in Christ. Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830826162", "ISBN-10": "0830826165", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Resurrection Hope and the Death of Death", "Author": "Mitchell L. Chase", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 176, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, biblical commentary", "Summary": "A Biblical Theology of Resurrection Hope from Genesis to Revelation
Death is a powerful and sobering reality. While everyone must face death, it is not the end for those united with Christ. Followers of Jesus Christ have resurrection hope--the proclamation that Christ has defeated death and the promise that believers shall share in his victory. The resurrection is essential to the Christian faith and is rooted in the faithfulness of God.
With scholarly insight, Mitchell L. Chase traces the theme of resurrection hope throughout Scripture, walking through each section of the Bible from the Law to Revelation. Having a proper understanding of death and resurrection will not only stir up our soberness for the reality of sin and death, but it will also motivate our praise to God.
An Introduction to the Theology and Themes of 2 Corinthians by Dane C. Ortlund
Best known for its interpersonal, emotionally raw, and pastorally distressed tone, 2 Corinthians is one of Paul's most distinctive epistles. In this letter to his complicated church in Corinth, Paul aims to expand on the deeply paradoxical nature of the Christian life. The importance of understanding this key doctrine makes 2 Corinthians an ideal study for believers today.
In this volume of the New Testament Theology series, bestselling author Dane Ortlund explores 2 Corinthians to reveal the core arguments presented by Paul. Through clear and engaging theological examinations, Ortlund expounds two predominant themes--inaugurated eschatology and strength through weakness--and connects various other motifs traced throughout this epistle. Readers will learn how Christ's resurrection ushered in the new realm--one where life and ministry are flipped upside down, and God's power is intertwined with human weakness.
Practical Advice for Weary Leaders Who Want a Gospel-Centered Culture for Their Church
Being a pastor is hard. Whether it's relational difficulties in the congregation, growing opposition toward the church as an institution, or just the struggle to continue in ministry with joy and faithfulness, the pressure on leaders can be truly overwhelming. It's no surprise that pastors are burned out, tempted to give up, or think they're going crazy.
While we're quick to assert what the gospel says, we're often too slow to admit what the gospel should do for our churches: reflect Christ's beauty through a godly, grace-filled culture.
In this practical guide, seasoned pastors Ray Ortlund and Sam Allberry help weary leaders renew their love for ministry by equipping them to build a gospel-centered culture into every aspect of their churches. Emphasizing the importance of healthy doctrine, they explain that failing to also nurture a healthy culture can be frustrating, polarizing, and even unbiblical. This encouraging guide features Scripture-focused advice on honesty, honor, preaching, leadership, and mission to support leaders and help them regain a beautiful, Christ-centered vision for their ministries.
After his martyrdom at the hands of the Gestapo in 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer continued his witness in the hearts of Christians around the world. His Letters and Papers from Prison became a prized testimony to Christian faith and courage, read by thousands. Now in Life Together we have Pastor Bonhoeffer's experience of Christian community. This story of a unique fellowship in an underground seminary during the Nazi years reads like one of Paul's letters. It gives practical advice on how life together in Christ can be sustained in families and groups. The role of personal prayer, worship in common, everyday work, and Christian service is treated in simple, almost biblical, words. Life Together is bread for all who are hungry for the real life of Christian fellowship.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060608521", "ISBN-10": "0060608528", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness", "Author": "Jonathan Haidt", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Sociology", "Pages": 385, "Tag": "computers, internet, social media", "Summary": "From New York Times bestselling co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind, an essential investigation into the collapse in youth mental health--and a scientifically proven path to health and strengthThere is no bigger public health story now than the collapse in youth mental health. The numbers are terrifying and dominate our headlines. There has been much debate over how we got here, and what to do next, and bestselling author and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt is at the white-hot center of that discourse. Haidt has spent his career speaking wisdom and truth into the most difficult landscapes--communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the perfect storm contributing to a public health emergency for Gen Z.
For the cohort that hit puberty around 2009, their sense of self developed as the threads of three dramatic technological and social changes unspooled: smartphones and life with the constant companionship of a screen, front-facing cameras and the bevy of apps that thrived on selfie-culture, and social networks that reduced engagement and affirmation to likes and hearts alone. But phones aren't the only villain here; the ground for this crisis was seeded by a decades long shift from play-based childhoods to ones defined by over-supervision, structure, and fear.
The Anxious Generation is a penetrating and alarming accounting of how we adults began to overprotect children in the real world while giving essentially no protection in the brutal online world. Haidt documents the four fundamental harms of the phone-based childhood: sleep deprivation, social deprivation, cognitive fragmentation, and addiction. He then shows the unique harms affecting boys, and the unique harms affecting girls. In the last section of The Anxious Generation, he offers concrete and scientifically based advice with separate chapters addressed to parents, schools, universities, governments, and to teens themselves. He draws on ancient wisdom and modern psychology to help everyone understand what healthy development would look like in the digital age.",
"ISBN-13": "9780241647660",
"ISBN-10": "0241647665",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "Here is a book on many “Best of” lists this year, and rightly so. Jonathan Haidt sounds the alarm on what is happening with our children. Technology is a great gift and creates many wonderful opportunities, but we can’t let it rule us. The consequences are dire. Mental health among children and teens nose-dived in the early 2010s—right around the rise of social media and smartphone usage among that same group. Play-based childhoods are fading, and technology is filling the gaps. Children are more distracted, less rested, and more connected, but they are more troubled than ever. Anxiety is at a high point. Haidt offers not only the data supporting his thesis but also some potential solutions. This is a book well worth your consideration.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The White Darkness",
"Author": "David Grann",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 160,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, historical, adventurers & explorers",
"Summary": "'A riveting, exciting and thoroughly compelling tale of adventure' JOHN GRISHAM on David Grann's The Lost City of Z
'A wonderful story of a lost age of heroic exploration' Sunday Times on The Lost City of Z
'Marvellous ... An engrossing book whose protagonist could out-think Indiana Jones' Daily Telegraph on The Lost City of Z
DAILY MAIL BOOK OF THE WEEK
One man's perilous quest to cross Antarctica in the footsteps of Shackleton.
Henry Worsley was a devoted husband and father and a decorated British special forces officer who believed in honour and sacrifice. He was also a man obsessed. He spent his life idolizing Ernest Shackleton, the 20th-century polar explorer, who tried to become the first person to reach the South Pole and later sought to cross Antarctica on foot. Shackleton never completed his journeys, but he repeatedly rescued his men from certain death and emerged as one of the greatest leaders in history.
Worsley felt an overpowering connection to those expeditions. He was related to one of Shackleton's men, Frank Worsley, and spent a fortune collecting artefacts from their epic treks across the continent. He modelled his military command on Shackleton's legendary skills and was determined to measure his own powers of endurance against them. He would succeed where Shackleton had failed, in the most brutal landscape in the world.
In 2008, Worsley set out across Antarctica with two other descendants of Shackleton's crew, battling the freezing, desolate landscape, life-threatening physical exhaustion and hidden crevasses. Yet when he returned home he felt compelled to go back. On November 2015, at age 55, Worsley bid farewell to his family and embarked on his most perilous quest: to walk across Antarctica alone.
David Grann tells Worsley's remarkable story with the intensity and power that have led him to be called 'simply the best narrative nonfiction writer working today'. Illustrated with more than 50 stunning photographs from Worsley's and Shackleton's journeys, The White Darkness is both a gorgeous keepsake volume and a spellbinding story of courage, love and a man pushing himself to the extremes of human capacity.
Praise for David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon:
'A riveting true story of greed, serial murder and racial injustice' JON KRAKAUER
'A fiercely entertaining mystery story and a wrenching exploration of evil' KATE ATKINSON
'A fascinating account of a tragic and forgotten chapter in the history of the American West' JOHN GRISHAM
'Disturbing and riveting...Grann has proved himself a master of spinning delicious, many-layered mysteries that also happen to be true...It will sear your soul' DAVE EGGERS, New York Times Book Review
'An extraordinary story with extraordinary pace and atmosphere' Sunday Times
'A marvel of detective-like research and narrative verve' Financial Times",
"ISBN-13": "9781471178023",
"ISBN-10": "1471178021",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "I Cheerfully Refuse: A Novel",
"Author": "Leif Enger",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 330,
"Tag": "fiction, fantasy, action & adventure",
"Summary": "
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A BARNES & NOBLE BOOK CLUB PICK * A career defining tour-de-force from New York Times bestselling, award-winning and \"formidably gifted\" (Chicago Tribune) author of Peace Like a River Leif Enger.
\"A rare, remarkable book to be kept and reread--for its beauty of language, its gentle wisdom and its steady, unflagging hope.\" -- Laurie Hertzel, Minneapolis Star Tribune
A storyteller \"of great humanity and huge heart\" (Minneapolis Star Tribune), Leif Enger debuted in the literary world with Peace Like a River which sold over a million copies and captured readers' hearts around the globe. Now comes a new milestone in this boldly imaginative author's accomplished, resonant body of work. Set in a not-too-distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of a bereaved and pursued musician embarking under sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. Rainy, an endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs and remote islands of the inland sea. Encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, Rainy finds on land an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, crumbled infrastructure and a lawless society. Amidst the Gulliver-like challenges of life at sea and no safe landings, Rainy is lifted by physical beauty, surprising humor, generous strangers, and an unexpected companion in a young girl who comes aboard. And as his innate guileless nature begins to make an inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy's private quest for the love of his life grows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike in his strengthening wake.
I Cheerfully Refuse epitomizes the \"musical, sometimes magical and deeply satisfying kind of storytelling\" (Los Angeles Times) for which Leif Enger is cherished. A rollicking narrative in the most evocative of settings, this latest novel is a symphony against despair and a rallying cry for the future.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802162939", "ISBN-10": "0802162932", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Here’s a good rule to live by: if Leif Enger writes it, you should read it. Enger has the ability to combine intriguing adventure and profound emotion together in ways few authors can. I Cheerfully Refuse is a story of a man who has loved and lost much refusing to fall into the pit of despair.Enger’s writing is beautiful. His stories are gripping. Again, if he writes it, read it. I think every book I’ve read by him ends up on my best of list.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "A Carnival Of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety",
"Author": "Donald Hall",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 224,
"Tag": "poets_biography, hall, donald, 1928-2018, old age",
"Summary": "“Hall lived long enough to leave behind two final books, memento mori titled ‘Essays After Eighty’ (2014) and now ‘A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety.’ They’re up there with the best things he did.” —Dwight Garner, New York Times
From the former poet laureate of the United States, essays from the vantage point of very old age
Donald Hall lived a remarkable life of letters, one capped most recently by the New York Times bestseller Essays After Eighty, a “treasure” of a book in which he “balance[s] frankness about losses with humor and gratitude” (Washington Post). Before his passing in 2018, nearing ninety, Hall delivered this new collection of self-knowing, fierce, and funny essays on aging, the pleasures of solitude, and the sometimes astonishing freedoms arising from both. He intersperses memories of exuberant days—as in Paris, 1951, with a French girl memorably inclined to say, “I couldn’t care less”—with writing, visceral and hilarious, on what he has called the “unknown, unanticipated galaxy” of extreme old age.
“Why should a nonagenarian hold anything back?” Hall answers his own question by revealing several vivid instances of “the worst thing I ever did,\" and through equally uncensored tales of literary friendships spanning decades, with James Wright, Richard Wilbur, Seamus Heaney, and other luminaries.
Cementing his place alongside Roger Angell and Joan Didion as a generous and profound chronicler of loss, Hall returns to the death of his beloved wife, Jane Kenyon, in an essay as original and searing as anything he's written in his extraordinary literary lifetime.",
"ISBN-13": "9781328826343",
"ISBN-10": "1328826341",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s",
"Author": "Doris Kearns Goodwin",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 480,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, historical, literary figures",
"Summary": "The #1 New York Times bestseller from “America’s historian-in-chief” (New York magazine).
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America’s most beloved historians, artfully weaves together biography, memoir, and history. She takes you along on the emotional journey she and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin embarked upon in the last years of his life.
Dick and Doris Goodwin were married for forty-two years and married to American history even longer. In his twenties, Dick was one of the brilliant young men of John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier. In his thirties he both named and helped design Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and was a speechwriter and close advisor to Robert Kennedy. Doris Kearns was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student when selected as a White House Fellow. She worked directly for Lyndon Johnson and later assisted on his memoir.
Over the years, with humor, anger, frustration, and in the end, a growing understanding, Dick and Doris had argued over the achievements and failings of the leaders they served and observed, debating the progress and unfinished promises of the country they both loved.
The Goodwins’ last great adventure involved finally opening the more than three hundred boxes of letters, diaries, documents, and memorabilia that Dick had saved for more than fifty years. They soon realized they had before them an unparalleled personal time capsule of the 1960s, illuminating public and private moments of a decade when individuals were powered by the conviction they could make a difference; a time, like today, marked by struggles for racial and economic justice, a time when lines were drawn and loyalties tested.
Their expedition gave Dick’s last years renewed purpose and determination. It gave Doris the opportunity to connect and reconnect with participants and witnesses of pivotal moments of the 1960s. And it gave them both an opportunity to make fresh assessments of the central figures of the time—John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and especially Lyndon Johnson, who greatly impacted both their lives. The voyage of remembrance brought unexpected discoveries, forgiveness, and the renewal of old dreams, reviving the hope that the youth of today will carry forward this unfinished love story with America.",
"ISBN-13": "9781982108663",
"ISBN-10": "1982108665",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "Here is a book that qualifies in the category of “great author, regardless of the subject.” I’ve read Goodwin on presidents, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and now on her marriage to Dick Goodwin. Dick was on JFK’s team as he prepared for a presidential run. His speechwriting was monumental during the 1960s, and this book is largely a history. It was written by someone who was not only heavily involved in the major political lives at the time but was married to someone who was also. It’s a story of a marriage that lasted more than 40 years, written based on letters and diaries revisited long after their writing—a time filled in with wise and profound reflection that can only come by age.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "A Season in the Sun",
"Author": "Roger Kahn",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Sports",
"Pages": 175,
"Tag": "baseball",
"Summary": "In 1976 Roger Kahn spent an entire baseball season, from spring training through the World Series, with players of every stripe and competence. The result is this book, in which Kahn reports on a small college teamâ€s successes and hopes, a young New England ball club, a failing major league franchise, and a group of heroes on the national stage.",
"ISBN-13": "9780060122461",
"ISBN-10": "0060122463",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81qzoURBw+L._SL1500_.jpg"
},
{
"Title": "The Church Between Temple and Mosque: A Study of the Relationship Between Christianity and Other Religions",
"Author": "Johan Herman Bavinck",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 209,
"Tag": "religion, spirituality",
"Summary": "In this influential posthumous masterpiece, Dutch missiologist J. H. Bavinck guides readers in a candid, eloquent, and eye-opening exploration of religion, revelation, and the distinctness of the Christian faith in the context of global religions. Bavinck’s five ‘magnetic points’ (cosmic relationship, religious norm, the riddle of existence, our craving for salvation, and our awareness of a supreme power) are a transformative rubric for bringing Christ to the world, including those identifying as religious “nones.” Now for the first time in hardcover, with a luminary introduction by Daniel Strange, a new generation of Christians, pastors, and theologians can benefit from J. H. Bavinck’s must-read study of the contrast between Christianity and world religions.",
"ISBN-13": "9781955859059",
"ISBN-10": "1955859051",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig",
"Author": "Jonathan Eig",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 420,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, sports, medical",
"Summary": "Lou Gehrig was the Iron Horse, baseball's strongest and most determined superstar -- struck down in his prime by a disease that now bears his name. But who was Lou Gehrig, really? What fueled his ferocious competitive drive? How did he cope with the illness that abruptly ended his career and drained him of his legendary power? Drawing on dozens of new interviews and hundreds of pages of Gehrig's personal and previously unpublished letters, this definitive biography gives us a deeper, more intimate understanding of the life of an American hero.
Lou Gehrig is regarded as the greatest first baseman in baseball history. A muscular but clumsy athlete, he grew up in New York City, the sole survivor among four siblings. He idolized his hardworking mother and remained devoted to her all his life. Shy and socially awkward, especially around women, Gehrig was a misfit on a Yankee team that included drinkers and hell-raisers, most notably Babe Ruth. Gehrig's wife, Eleanor, was an ambitious young woman who pursued him and persuaded him to embrace his growing stardom. For years, rumors have persisted that she and Ruth had an affair, and that this was the event that ended the friendship between the two ballplayers.
Gehrig and Ruth formed the greatest slugging tandem in baseball history. They were the heart of the first great Yankee dynasty. After Ruth's retirement, Gehrig and a young Joe DiMaggio would begin a new era of Yankee dominance. But \"Luckiest Man\" reveals that Gehrig was afflicted with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) much sooner than anyone believed, as early as the spring of 1938. Despite the illness, he didn't miss a game that year, keeping intact his astonishing consecutive-games streak, which stood for more than half a century.
After he was diagnosed, Gehrig's doctors allowed him to believe he had a fifty-fifty chance of surviving what they knew to be a fatal illness. The same doctor who wrote him encouraging letters secretly wrote Eleanor Gehrig to tell her the terrible truth. But even as his body deteriorated and Gehrig realized he was dying, he never despaired. In his final months Gehrig proved himself truly to be the Iron Horse. The man who spoke spontaneously from the heart when he gave his great speech at his farewell in Yankee Stadium continued to sound the same themes: that he'd led a good life and had much to be thankful for.
In \"Luckiest Man\" Jonathan Eig brings to life a figure whose shyness and insecurity obscured his greatness during his lifetime. Gehrig emerges on these pages as more human and heroic than ever.",
"ISBN-13": "9780743245913",
"ISBN-10": "0743245911",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Lament for a Son",
"Author": "Nicholas Wolterstorff",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Memoir",
"Pages": 111,
"Tag": "family & relationships, death, grief, bereavement, parenting",
"Summary": "Well-known Christian philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff has authored many books that have contributed significantly to scholarship in several subjects. In Lament for a Son he writes not as a scholar but as a loving father grieving the loss of his son.
In brief vignettes Wolterstorff explores with a moving honesty and intensity, all the facets of his experience of this irreversible loss. Though he grieves \"not as one who has no hope,\" he finds no comfort in the pious-sounding phrases that would diminish the malevolence of death.
The book is in one sense a narrative account of events--from the numbing telephone call on a sunny Sunday afternoon that tells of 25-year-old Eric's death in a mountain-climbing accident, to a graveside visit a year later. But the book is far more than narrative. Every event is an occasion for remembering, for meditating, for Job-like anguish in the struggle to accept and understand.
A profoundly faith-affirming book, Lament for a Son gives eloquent expression to a grief that is at once unique and universal--a grief for an individual, irreplaceable person. Though it is an intensely personal book, Wolterstorff decided to publish it, he says, \"in the hope that it will be of help to some of those who find themselves with us in the company of mourners.\"",
"ISBN-13": "9780802802941",
"ISBN-10": "080280294X",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Summer of '49",
"Author": "David Halberstam",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Sports",
"Pages": 384,
"Tag": "sports & recreation, baseball, history",
"Summary": "
With incredible skill, passion, and insight, Pulitzer Prize–winning author David Halberstam returns us to a glorious time when the dreams of a now almost forgotten America rested on the crack of a bat.
The year was 1949, and a war-weary nation turned from the battlefields to the ball fields in search of new heroes. It was a summer that marked the beginning of a sports rivalry unequaled in the annals of athletic competition. The awesome New York Yankees and the indomitable Boston Red Sox were fighting for supremacy of baseball's American League, and an aging Joe DiMaggio and a brash, headstrong hitting phenomenon named Ted Williams led their respective teams in a classic pennant duel of almost mythic proportions—one that would be decided in an explosive head-to-head confrontation on the last day of the season.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060884260", "ISBN-10": "0060884266", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "King: A Biography", "Author": "David Levering Lewis", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 468, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, cultural, ethnic & regional, african american & black", "Summary": "This edition updates Lewis's notable assessment of Martin Luther King, Jr., a book acclaimed by leading historians and critics when it appeared shortly after King's death. Published a decade after the civil rights activist's assassination, this edition includes new information and speculations on FBI harassment of King, the Senate findings on intelligence operations and law abuse, and the sinister implications of various conspiracy theories surrounding his tragic death. This biography skillfully wends through the corridors in which the \"prince of peace\" held court, posing the right questions and providing a keen measure of the man whose complex career and misunderstood mission continue to enthrall scholars and general readers.NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From Jane Leavy, the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Boy and Sandy Koufax, comes the definitive biography of Babe Ruth—the man Roger Angell dubbed \"the model for modern celebrity.\"
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR:
The Boston Globe | Publishers Weekly | Kirkus | Newsweek | The Philadelphia Inquirer | The Progressive
Winner of the 2019 SABR Seymour Medal | Finalist for the PEN/ESPN Literary Sports Writing Award | Longlisted for Spitball Magazine’s Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year | Finalist for the NBCC Award for Biography
“Leavy’s newest masterpiece…. A major work of American history by an author with a flair for mesmerizing story-telling.” —Forbes
He lived in the present tense—in the camera’s lens. There was no frame he couldn’t or wouldn’t fill. He swung the heaviest bat, earned the most money, and incurred the biggest fines. Like all the new-fangled gadgets then flooding the marketplace—radios, automatic clothes washers, Brownie cameras, microphones and loudspeakers—Babe Ruth \"made impossible events happen.\" Aided by his crucial partnership with Christy Walsh—business manager, spin doctor, damage control wizard, and surrogate father, all stuffed into one tightly buttoned double-breasted suit—Ruth drafted the blueprint for modern athletic stardom.
His was a life of journeys and itineraries—from uncouth to couth, spartan to spendthrift, abandoned to abandon; from Baltimore to Boston to New York, and back to Boston at the end of his career for a finale with the only team that would have him. There were road trips and hunting trips; grand tours of foreign capitals and post-season promotional tours, not to mention those 714 trips around the bases.
After hitting his 60th home run in September 1927—a total that would not be exceeded until 1961, when Roger Maris did it with the aid of the extended modern season—he embarked on the mother of all barnstorming tours, a three-week victory lap across America, accompanied by Yankee teammate Lou Gehrig. Walsh called the tour a \"Symphony of Swat.\" The Omaha World Herald called it \"the biggest show since Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey, and seven other associated circuses offered their entire performance under one tent.\" In The Big Fella, acclaimed biographer Jane Leavy recreates that 21-day circus and in so doing captures the romp and the pathos that defined Ruth’s life and times.
Drawing from more than 250 interviews, a trove of previously untapped documents, and Ruth family records, Leavy breaks through the mythology that has obscured the legend and delivers the man.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062380227", "ISBN-10": "0062380222", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Another baseball book. This time, on the greatest baseball player to ever live. Sure, you can argue other players have come along with equal talent, but I’m not sure I can buy an argument that anyone surpasses Ruth. Part of that is because of the way he changed the game, ushering in the live ball era where home runs ruled the game, but part of it is the personality behind the bat. Ruth was an all-time great with a personal and professional life that has kept him in the American consciousness for over 100 years. If, after that long, others in your field are still compared to you, you know you’ve reached the top.Biographies abound on Ruth, and this book isn’t novel in that regard. But Leavy's writing always feels fresh. She centers the story on a point in time and writes around it, bringing in the full history. That approach helps us feel as if we are at dinner with the subject, listening to old stories over the course of the evening, drawing us into the personality behind the lore.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook",
"Author": "Hampton Sides",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 432,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, adventurers & explorers, history",
"Summary": "NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A \"thrilling and superbly crafted\" (The Wall Street Journal) account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook's death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day.
One of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: THE NEW YORK TIMES, TIME, THE ECONOMIST, NPR, THE NEW YORKER, THE SMITHSONIAN, AND KIRKUS REVIEWS
\"In this masterly history, Sides tracks the 18th-century English naval officer James Cook's third and final voyage across the globe, painting a vivid and propulsive portrait.\"--The New York Times Book Review
On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution. Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment?
Hampton Sides' bravura account of Cook's last journey both wrestles with Cook's legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration in the 1700s. Cook was renowned for his peerless seamanship, his humane leadership, and his dedication to science. On previous expeditions, Cook mapped huge swaths of the Pacific, including the east coast of Australia, and initiated first European contact with numerous peoples. He treated his crew well and endeavored to learn about the societies he encountered with curiosity and without judgment.
Yet something was different on this last voyage. Cook became mercurial, resorting to the lash to enforce discipline, and led his two vessels into danger time and again. Uncharacteristically, he ordered violent retaliation for perceived theft on the part of native peoples. This may have had something to do with his secret orders, which were to chart and claim lands before Britain's imperial rivals could, and to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Whatever Cook's intentions, his scientific efforts were the sharp edge of the colonial sword, and the ultimate effects of first contact were catastrophic for Indigenous people around the world. The tensions between Cook's overt and covert missions came to a head on the shores of Hawaii. His first landing there was harmonious, but when Cook returned after mapping the coast of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, his exploitative treatment of the Hawaiians led to the fatal encounter.
At once a ferociously-paced story of adventure on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities and consequences of the Age of Exploration, THE WIDE WIDE SEA is a major work from one of our finest narrative nonfiction writers.",
"ISBN-13": "9780385544764",
"ISBN-10": "0385544766",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City",
"Author": "Kevin Baker",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Sports",
"Pages": 528,
"Tag": "sports & recreation, baseball, history",
"Summary": "A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • Sports Illustrated #1 Book of 2024 • A hugely entertaining history of baseball and New York City, bursting with larger-than-life figures and fascinating stories from the game’s beginnings to the end of World War II.
\"You’re going to beg for extra innings. Without missing a scandal or a sensation, with an eye on how assimilation transforms the picture, Kevin Baker has written a buoyant, double coming-of-age story. \"—Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
Baseball is “the New York game” because New York is where the diamond was first laid out, where the bunt and the curveball were invented, and where the home run was hit. It’s where the game’s first stars were born, and where everyone came to play or watch the game. With nuance and depth, historian Kevin Baker brings this all vividly back to life: the still-controversial, indelible moments—Did the Babe call his shot? Was Merkle out? Did they fix the 1919 World Series? Here are all the legendary players, managers, and owners, in all their vivid, complicated humanity, on and off the field.
In Baker’s hands the city and the game emerge from the murk of nineteenth-century American life—driven by visionaries and fixers, heroes and gangsters. He details how New York and its favorite sport came to mirror one another, expanding, bumbling through catastrophe and corruption, and rising out of these trials stronger than ever.
From the first innings played in vacant lots and tavern yards in the 1820s; to the canny innovations that created the very first sports league; to the superb Hispanic and Black players who invented their own version of the game when white baseball sought to exclude them. And all amidst New York’s own, incredible evolution from a raw, riotous town to a new world city. The New York Game is a riveting, rollicking, brilliant ode to America’s beloved pastime and to its indomitable city of origin.",
"ISBN-13": "9780375421839",
"ISBN-10": "0375421831",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Life We're Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World",
"Author": "Andy Crouch",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 240,
"Tag": "social science, technology studies, religion",
"Summary": "A deeply reflective primer on creating meaningful connections, rebuilding abundant communities, and living in a way that engages our full humanity in an age of unprecedented anxiety and loneliness—from the author of The Tech-Wise Family
“A unique exploration of tech’s effect on relationships. Andy is one of my favorite living writers, and I would consider this his best book.”—John Mark Comer, New York Times bestselling author of Practicing the Way and The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
Our greatest need is to be recognized—to be seen, loved, and embedded in rich relationships with those around us. But for the last century, we’ve displaced that need with the ease of technology. We’ve dreamed of mastery without relationship (what the premodern world called magic) and abundance without dependence (what Jesus called Mammon). Yet even before a pandemic disrupted that quest, we felt threatened and strangely out of place: lonely, anxious, bored amid endless options, oddly disconnected amid infinite connections.
In The Life We’re Looking For, bestselling author Andy Crouch shows how we have been seduced by a false vision of human flourishing—and how each of us can fight back. From the social innovations of the early Christian movement to the efforts of entrepreneurs working to create more humane technology, Crouch shows how we can restore true community and put people first in a world dominated by money, power, and devices.
There is a way out of our impersonal world, into a world where knowing and being known are the heartbeat of our days, our households, and our economies. Where our vulnerabilities are seen not as something to be escaped but as the key to our becoming who we were made to be together. Where technology serves us rather than masters us—and helps us become more human, not less.",
"ISBN-13": "9780593237342",
"ISBN-10": "059323734X",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Entrances and Exits",
"Author": "Michael Richards",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 440,
"Tag": "biography & autobiography, entertainment & performing arts, personal memoirs",
"Summary": "A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
As seen on The Today Show, The View, and Jesse Watters
The man who brought the kavorka to the Seinfeld show through one of the most remarkable and beloved television characters ever invented, Kramer, shares the extraordinary life of a comedy genius—the way he came into himself as an artist, the ups and downs as a human being, the road he has traveled in search of understanding.
“The hair, so essential, symbolizes the irrational that was and is and always will be the underlying feature not only of Kramer but of comedy itself. This seemingly senseless spirit has been coursing through me since childhood. I’ve been under its almighty influence since the day I came into this world. I felt it all within myself, especially the physical comedy, the body movements, so freakish and undignified, where I bumped into things, knocked stuff down, messed up situations, and often ended up on my ass.
“This book is a hymn to the irrational, the senseless spirit that breaks the whole into pieces, a reflection on the seemingly absurd difficulties that intrude upon us all. It’s Harpo Marx turning us about, shaking up my plans, throwing me for a loop. Upset and turmoil is with us all the time. It’s at the basis of comedy. It’s the pratfall we all take. It’s the unavoidable mistake we didn’t expect. It’s everywhere I go. It’s in the way that I am, both light and dark, good and not-so-good. It’s my life.”
—Michael Richards, from Entrances and Exits",
"ISBN-13": "978-1637589137",
"ISBN-10": "1637589131",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Four Gospels, One Jesus? A Symbolic Reading",
"Author": "Richard A. Burridge",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Bibles",
"Pages": 224,
"Tag": "bibles, religion, biblical biography",
"Summary": "In this modern classic Richard Burridge offers an engaging introduction to the New Testament Gospels. Using the ancient visual symbols for the Gospels — human face, lion, ox, and eagle — Burridge presents a clear interpretation of each Gospel author's portrait of Jesus.
This new edition contains updated suggestions for further reading and a substantial new Afterword in which Burridge reflects personally on his book's genesis, development, and positive reception over the years. Four Gospels, One Jesus? in this third edition will continue to be appreciated by teachers, students, pastors, and other readers wanting to understand Jesus more fully.",
"ISBN-13": "9780802871015",
"ISBN-10": "0802871011",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Storied Life: Christian Writing as Art and Worship",
"Author": "Jared C. Wilson",
"Year Read": 2024,
"Category": "Writing",
"Pages": 224,
"Tag": "language arts & disciplines, writing, composition",
"Summary": "
When writers write, they are getting in touch with the image of God in them. This is true in some way of all artistry, but writers especially create worlds, characters, histories, and transformation--all ex nihilo (\"out of nothing\").
In The Storied Life, veteran author Jared C. Wilson explores the ins and outs of writers and writing, exploring the myriad ways the craft is more about transformation than simply communication. From decades of experience and with his signature wit, Wilson brings well-earned insight, autobiographical reflections, and meaningful meditations to the topic of writing as a way of life and as a way of worship, showing how the concept of Story--our personal stories and God's grand story of redemption--shapes fiction and non-fiction writers alike.
Chapters focus on topics like:
Whether you're a long-time writer or a beginning author, a daily journaler or an occasional dabbler, The Storied Life will help you improve your craft. It will lead you to think more deeply about the disciplines and dispositions needed to write for transformation.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310155737", "ISBN-10": "0310155738", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "It wouldn’t be a best-of-list without Jared making an appearance. Here is a book for writers about writing by one of the best writers around. What makes Jared’s books so good is not just what he writes about (mostly Jesus) but how he writes. There is a craft to it. Every word matters. The style says something about the subject. Good writing adorns the gospel, and no one does it better than Jared.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Radical Disciple: Some Neglected Aspects of Our Calling", "Author": "John Stott", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 144, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "What is a life of radical discipleship? At the root, it means we let Jesus set the agenda of our lives. We aren't selective. We don't pick and choose what is congenial and stay away from what is costly. No. He is Lord of all of life. In the last book by the leading evangelical churchman of the twentieth century, John Stott opens up what it means to truly be a follower of Jesus. In a refreshing and accesible style, he explores eight aspects of Christian discipleship which are too often neglected and yet deserve to be taken seriously: non-conformity, Christ-likeness, maturity, creation-care, simplicity, balance, dependence and death. Here, including the last public sermon he ever preached, Stott offers wisdom gained from a lifetime of consistent Christian commitment. In addition, he poignantly reflects on his last years of life and ministry. The message is simple, classic and personal: Jesus is Lord. He calls. We follow.", "ISBN-13": "9780830838479", "ISBN-10": "0830838473", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies", "Author": "N. T. Wright, Michael F. Bird", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "religion, christian living, social issues", "Summary": "An urgent call for Christians everywhere to explore the nature of the kingdom amid the political upheaval of our day.
Should Christians be politically withdrawn, avoiding participation in politics to maintain their prophetic voice and to keep from being used as political pawns? Or should Christians be actively involved, seeking to utilize political systems to control the levers of power?
In Jesus and the Powers, N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird call Christians everywhere to discern the nature of Christian witness in fractured political environments. In an age of ascending autocracies, in a time of fear and fragmentation, amid carnage and crises, Jesus is king, and Jesus's kingdom remains the object of the church's witness and work.
Part political theology, part biblical overview, and part church history, this book argues that building for Jesus's kingdom requires confronting empire in all its forms. This approach should orient Christians toward a form of political engagement that contributes to free democratic societies and vigorously opposes political schemes based on autocracy and nationalism. Throughout, Wright and Bird reflect on the relevance of this kingdom-oriented approach to current events, including the Russian-Ukraine conflict, the China-Taiwan tension, political turmoil in the USA, UK, and Australia, and the problem of Christian nationalism.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0310162247", "ISBN-10": "0310162246", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "No Country for Old Men", "Author": "Cormac McCarthy", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 309, "Tag": "fiction, action & adventure, literary", "Summary": "Llewelyn Moss, hunting antelope near the Rio Grande, instead finds men shot dead, a load of heroin, and more than $2 million in cash. Packing the money out, he knows, will change everything. But only after two more men are murdered does a victim's burning car lead Sheriff Bell to the carnage out in the desert, and he soon realizes how desperately Moss and his young wife need protection. One party in the failed transaction hires an ex-Special Forces officer to defend his interests against a mesmerizing freelancer, while on either side are men accustomed to spectacular violence and mayhem. The pursuit stretches up and down and across the border, each participant seemingly determined to answer what one asks another; how does a man decide in what order to abandon his life? A harrowing story of a war that society is waging on itself, and an enduring meditation on the ties of love and blood and duty that inform lives and shape destinies.", "ISBN-13": "9780307387134", "ISBN-10": "0307387135", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "Author": "Mark Twain", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 352, "Tag": "juvenile fiction, classics, historical", "Summary": "They're Puffin Classics for a reason, it's because they're the bestA Powerful Defense of The Protestant Tradition.
Winner of the 2024 Christianity Today Book of the Year Award and Popular Theology category; Winner of Credo Magazine's Award in Theological Retrieval
There's a movement among evangelicals of exploring the more sacramental, liturgical, and historically-conscious church traditions, including Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. This hunger for historical rootedness is welcome--but unfortunately, many assume that this need can only be met outside of Protestant contexts.
In What it Means to Be Protestant, Gavin Ortlund draws from both his scholarly work in church history and his personal experience in ecumenical engagement to offer a much-needed defense of the Protestant tradition.
Retrieving classical Protestant texts and arguments, he exposes how many of the contemporary objections leveled against Protestants are rooted in caricature. He shows how historic Protestantism offers the best pathway forward and to historical rootedness for Christians today.
In his charitable style, Ortlund demonstrates that the 16th century Reformation represented a genuine renewal of the gospel. This does not entail that Protestantism is without faults. But because it is built upon the principle of semper reformanda (always reforming), Protestantism is capable of reforming itself according to Scripture as the ultimate authority.
\"I find it hard to overstate the importance of this book for every pastor/minister, elder, and serious Bible student that I know. . .This book automatically becomes my new go-to resource explaining Protestantism. It is fantastic, and I thank God for it. . .\" --Bobby Harrington, co-founder of RENEW.org and Discipleship.org, founding pastor Harpeth Christian Church
", "ISBN-13": "9780310156321", "ISBN-10": "0310156327", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "One of the great joys of 2024 was getting to know Gavin and his family. In doing so, I got an up-close look at the brilliance that is Gavin Ortlund. I don’t know anyone else who is doing what he does. His YouTube channel, Truth Unites, is outstanding. He defends Protestantism so well, with courage, intelligence, and great care. This book is a distillation of a lot of his YouTube content. It’s a heady read but a really great one. ", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Apologetics at the Cross: An Introduction for Christian Witness", "Author": "Joshua D. Chatraw, Mark D. Allen", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 336, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "2019 Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year: Apologetics * 2018 The Gospel Coalition Book Award: Evangelism & Apologetics
Apologetics at the Cross describes a much-needed approach to defending Christianity that uses Jesus as a model and the letter of 1 Peter as a guiding text.
This is a guidebook for how to defend Christianity with Christ-like gentleness and respect toward those who persecute the faith, making you a stronger witness to the good news of the gospel than many other apologetics books that focus on crafting unbreachable arguments.
Joshua D. Chatraw and Mark D. Allen first provide an introduction to the rich field of apologetics and Christian witness, acquainting students and lay learners with the rich history, biblical foundation, and ongoing relevance of apologetics. Unique in its approach, Apologetics at the Cross:
But their approach pays special attention to the attitude and posture of the apologist, outlining instructions for the Christian community centered on reasoned answers, a humble spirit, and joy; rather than anger, arrogance, and aggression. Chatraw and Allen equip Christians to engage skeptics with the heart as well as the mind.
Conversational in tone and balanced in approach, Apologetics at the Cross provides a readable introduction to the field of apologetics. You'll be informed and equipped for engaging a wide range of contemporary challenges with the best in Christian thought.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310524687", "ISBN-10": "0310524687", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Faithful Theology: An Introduction", "Author": "Graham Arthur Cole", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, exegesis & hermeneutics", "Summary": "Everyone has thoughts about God. But how do we know if our thoughts are true?
If we want to know the truth about God, we need a sound approach to incorporating what the whole Bible teaches. In this concise introduction to systematic theology, theologian Graham A. Cole explores how we move from Scripture to doctrine in order to shape what we believe, what we value, and how we live. He shows us the importance of having the right method: rooted in the word of God, consistent with church history, in the context of a broken world, dependent on divine wisdom, and ultimately aiming at pure worship.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433559112", "ISBN-10": "1433559110", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Hidden with Christ in God: A Theology of Colossians and Philemon", "Author": "Kevin McFadden", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 112, "Tag": "religion, biblical commentary, new testament", "Summary": " An Introduction to the Theology of Colossians and Philemon by Kevin W. McFadden
Is our hope in the gospel of Christ sufficient for our every need? After reflecting on this question during periods of difficult earthly circumstances, Paul wrote two letters to the church at Colossae to express the hidden hope \"laid up for you in heaven\" (Colossians 1:5) and found in the person of Christ.
In this volume of the New Testament Theology series, author Kevin W. McFadden focuses on the specific teachings of Paul to examine the theology and themes of Colossians and Philemon. While reading this comprehensive yet concise study, believers will learn what it means to live a Christ-centered life as they explore Christ as hope, our knowledge of God, and our life above in heaven and here on earth.
In the midst of family life, most days are too busy to think far into the future. Then once the children are grown, family life can feel like mostly memories, often tinged with regrets. And the future? More worries and fears, laden with unknowns.
But you and your family right now, whatever your ages, whatever you're facing, are living within a much larger story than you might realize. Your faithful efforts today matter. They are how God himself shapes the future. His heart can create in your home a culture of faith that will strengthen your family To the Tenth Generation.
Sound impossible? Ray and Jani Ortlund help bring such unimaginable thoughts down into the everyday ordinary of home and marriage and parenting--even grandparenting. With refreshing honesty and wise counsel, they invite you to experience the greatness that God can accomplish through a Christian family. It can happen, yes, in your family--now and for many, many, many years to come.
Also available, a picture book for children and families: Your Family Is God's Plan: His Mercy from Generation to Generation.
Many extraordinary things happen in the Bible. People walk on water. People touch handkerchiefs and are healed. People disappear into the sky. Did these events really happen? What was their purpose?
And do miracles happen today? How do we respond if someone says they've seen a miracle happen? Should we hold healing services? What can I say to a child about praying for healing? How should we react when prayers for healing aren't answered?
In this warm and accessible book, Tim Chester looks at the Bible's view of the existence and purpose of miracles and gives a careful and balanced view on whether healings and other miraculous things happen today.
It will help Christians to explore these questions and others regarding miracles, signs and wonders, and know how to pray.
Includes additional questions on:
* Why did Jesus tell people not to tell others about his miracles?
* How should I respond when I hear a claim that a miracle has happened?
* Should we hold healing services?
* What can I say to a child about praying for healing?
A Practical Devotional Guide to What It Means to Be \"In Christ\"
Followers of Jesus refer to themselves primarily as \"Christians,\" but the New Testament frequently used a more meaningful term: \"in Christ.\" Disconnected from this deeper understanding of the gospel, believers today can miss out on the significance of unity with the Lord and its power to enrich every area of their lives.
In One with My Lord, Sam Allberry examines the doctrine of union with Christ through a rich study of New Testament scriptures. Each chapter is short enough to be read as a devotional, giving believers a fresh lens to view the gospel daily as they pursue holiness, resist sin, build community, and worship God. In a time when people are searching for a place to belong, One with My Lord reminds believers that they have a perfect home in Christ.
It’s difficult to imagine today—when the Super Bowl has virtually become a national holiday and the National Football League is the country’s dominant sports entity—but pro football was once a ramshackle afterthought on the margins of the American sports landscape. In the span of a single generation in postwar America, the game charted an extraordinary rise in popularity, becoming a smartly managed, keenly marketed sports entertainment colossus whose action is ideally suited to television and whose sensibilities perfectly fit the modern age.
America’s Game traces pro football’s grand transformation, from the World War II years, when the NFL was fighting for its very existence, to the turbulent 1980s and 1990s, when labor disputes and off-field scandals shook the game to its core, and up to the sport’s present-day preeminence. A thoroughly entertaining account of the entire universe of professional football, from locker room to boardroom, from playing field to press box, this is an essential book for any fan of America’s favorite sport.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0375725067", "ISBN-10": "0375725067", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "The NFL is the biggest sports league in the country. Nothing compares to it in terms of revenue earned, influence produced, and eyeballs attracted. How did it get that way? This book tells the story. If you want to know how the NFL grew from a cute little league barely making it to the behemoth it is today, this is it.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Why We Love Football: A History in 100 Moments", "Author": "Joe Posnanski", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Sports", "Pages": 416, "Tag": "sports & recreation, football, cultural & social aspects", "Summary": "INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLERJane Leavy, the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy, returns with a biography of an American original—number 7, Mickey Mantle. Drawing on more than five hundred interviews with friends and family, teammates, and opponents, she delivers the definitive account of Mantle's life, mining the mythology of The Mick for the true story of a luminous and illustrious talent with an achingly damaged soul.
Meticulously reported and elegantly written, The Last Boy is a baseball tapestry that weaves together episodes from the author's weekend with The Mick in Atlantic City, where she interviewed her hero in 1983, after he was banned from baseball, with reminiscences from friends and family of the boy from Commerce, Oklahoma, who would lead the Yankees to seven world championships, be voted the American League's Most Valuable Player three times, win the Triple Crown in 1956, and duel teammate Roger Maris for Babe Ruth's home run crown in the summer of 1961—the same boy who would never grow up.
As she did so memorably in her biography of Sandy Koufax, Jane Leavy transcends the hyperbole of hero worship to reveal the man behind the coast-to-coast smile, who grappled with a wrenching childhood, crippling injuries, and a genetic predisposition to alcoholism. In The Last Boy she chronicles her search to find out more about the person he was and, given what she discovers, to explain his mystifying hold on a generation of baseball fans, who were seduced by that lopsided, gap-toothed grin. It is an uncommon biography, with literary overtones: not only a portrait of an icon, but an investigation of memory itself. How long was the Tape Measure Home Run? Did Mantle swing the same way right-handed and left-handed? What really happened to his knee in the 1951 World Series? What happened to the red-haired, freckle-faced boy known back home as Mickey Charles?
\"I believe in memory, not memorabilia,\" Leavy writes in her preface. But in The Last Boy, she discovers that what we remember of our heroes—and even what they remember of themselves—is only where the story begins.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060883522", "ISBN-10": "0060883529", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "History of the Ancient World: From The Earliest Accounts To The Fall Of Rome", "Author": "Susan Wise Bauer", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "History", "Pages": 800, "Tag": "history, civilization", "Summary": "A lively and engaging narrative history showing the common threads in the cultures that gave birth to our own.This is the first volume in a bold series that tells the stories of all peoples, connecting historical events from Europe to the Middle East to the far coast of China, while still giving weight to the characteristics of each country. Susan Wise Bauer provides both sweeping scope and vivid attention to the individual lives that give flesh to abstract assertions about human history.
Dozens of maps provide a clear geography of great events, while timelines give the reader an ongoing sense of the passage of years and cultural interconnection. This old-fashioned narrative history employs the methods of “history from beneath”—literature, epic traditions, private letters and accounts—to connect kings and leaders with the lives of those they ruled. The result is an engrossing tapestry of human behavior from which we may draw conclusions about the direction of world events and the causes behind them.
", "ISBN-13": "9780393059748", "ISBN-10": "039305974X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering", "Author": "Malcolm Gladwell", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Sociology", "Pages": 368, "Tag": "business & money, marketing & sales, marketing", "Summary": "Twenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with \"curiosity and humor\" in this New York Times bestseller that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light (Shannon Carlin). The bestselling author of Alienated America traveled the country asking families and experts the same two questions: Why is parenting so hard now And why are the results so bad
Our culture tells parents there's one best way to raise kids: enroll them in a dozen activities, protect them from trauma, and get them into the most expensive college you can. If you can't do that, don't bother.
How is that going Record rates of anxiety, depression, medication, debts, loneliness and more. In Family Unfriendly, bestselling author and Washington Examiner columnist Timothy P. Carney says it's time to end this failed experiment in overparenting.
Have more kids, have more fun, cancel the travel soccer games, let your kids wander off, and give them deeper sources of meaning than material success.
This is an old-fashioned view, but every day the evidence validates it. Drawing on rigorous research--both as a reporter and as a dad of six--Carney demonstrates why modern parenting is so misguided. The high standards set for modern American parenting are unrealistic and setting parents--and our kids--up to fail.
Researched over three years and written in between rec baseball games and church picnics where nobody was watching the kids, Family Unfriendly is deeply wise, energetically told, and destined to be the most consequential book about parenting in years.
Beyond a mere introduction to great art, Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart is about loving to learn what art has to teach us about the wonder and struggle of being alive.
Did you know that:
These stories--and many more--shaped the work these artists left behind. In their art are lessons common to the human experience about the wonder and struggle of being alive: dreams lost, perspectives changed, and humility derived through suffering.
In Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart, Russ Ramsey digs into these artists' stories for readers who may be new to art, as well as for lifelong students of art history, to mine the transcendent beauty and hard lessons we can take from their masterpieces and their lives. Each story from some of the history's most celebrated artists applies the beauty of the gospel in a way that speaks to the suffering and hope we all face.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0310155577", "ISBN-10": "0310155576", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero", "Author": "David Maraniss", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 416, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, cultural, ethnic & regional, sports", "Summary": "Discover the remarkable life of Roberto Clemente—one of the most accomplished—and beloved—baseball heroes of his generation from Pulitzer Prize winner David Maraniss.How can Christians today interact with those around them in a way that shows respect to those whose beliefs are radically different but that also remains faithful to the gospel? Join bestselling author Timothy Keller and legal scholar John Inazu as they bring together illuminating stories to answer this vital question.
In Uncommon Ground, Keller and Inazu bring together a thrilling range of artists, thinkers, and leaders to provide a guide to living faithfully in a divided world, including:
With varied and enlightening approaches to reaching faithfully across deep and often painful differences, Uncommon Ground shows us how to live with confidence, joy, and hope in a complex and fragmented age.
Praise for Uncommon Ground:
\"For anyone struggling to engage well with others in an era of toxic conflict, this book provides a framework, steeped in humility, that is not only insightful but is readily actionable. I'm grateful for the vulnerability and wisdom offered by each of the twelve leaders who contributed to this book. The task of learning to love well--neighbors and enemies alike--is long and urgent, and it can be costly. And yet, as this book shows us because it is the work of Jesus, we can pursue this love with great hope.\"
--Gary A. Haugen, founder and CEO, International Justice Mission
", "ISBN-13": "9781400221455", "ISBN-10": "1400221455", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect", "Author": "John D. Inazu", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 199, "Tag": "family & relationships, conflict resolution, law", "Summary": "Are you discouraged by our divided, angry culture, where even listening to a different perspective sometimes feels impossible? If so, you're not alone, and it doesn't have to be this way. Learning to Disagree reveals the surprising path to learning how to disagree in ways that build new bridges with our neighbors, coworkers, and loved ones--and help us find better ways to live joyfully in a complex society.
In a tense cultural climate, is it possible to disagree productively and respectfully without compromising our convictions? Spanning a range of challenging issues--including critical race theory, sexual assault, campus protests, and clashes over religious freedom--highly regarded thought leader and law professor John Inazu helps us engage honestly and empathetically with people whose viewpoints we find strange, wrong, or even dangerous.
As a constitutional scholar, legal expert, and former litigator, John has spent his career learning how to disagree well with other people. In Learning to Disagree, John shares memorable stories and draws on the practices that legal training imparts--seeing the complexity in every issue and inhabiting the mindset of an opposing point of view--to help us handle daily encounters and lifelong relationships with those who see life very differently than we do.
This groundbreaking, poignant, and highly practical book equips us to:
If you are feeling exhausted from the tattered state of dialogue in your social media feed, around the country, and in daily conversations, you're not alone. Discover a more connected life while still maintaining the strength of your convictions through this unique, often-humorous, thought-provoking, and ultimately life-changing exploration of the best way to disagree.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310368014", "ISBN-10": "0310368014", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Riders of the Purple Sage", "Author": "Zane Grey", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 304, "Tag": "fiction, classics, literary", "Summary": "Born in 1875, Pearl Zane Grey was raised in Zanesville, Ohio, a town founded by his mother s family, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1896. His father was a dentist in Ohio, and Grey followed him in that profession, but in New York City. His passion for the American West was aroused in 1907 when Grey had an opportunity to tour the West with Buffalo Jones, a longtime hunter and adventurer. Under Jones guidance Grey traveled through the desert, chased wild horses and hunted cougars. His journals of the time were filled with glowing passages about the beauty of the land. With the publication of Riders of the Purple Sage Grey found his audience and went on to publish a total of 85 books. In 1937, now a wealthy writer with homes in California, Arizona and Tahiti, he suffered a stroke while fishing for steelhead on the Rogue River in Oregon. He recuperated sufficiently to go on a fishing expedition to Australia but suffered a heart attack and died on October 23, 1939 at his home in Altadena, California.", "ISBN-13": "9780760757550", "ISBN-10": "0760757550", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "An Infinite Fountain of Light: Jonathan Edwards for the Twenty-First Century", "Author": "George M. Marsden", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "History", "Pages": 176, "Tag": "history, united states, colonial period (1600-1775)", "Summary": "Christians need to pause once in a while to get their bearings. For perspective on our own times and how we got here, it helps to listen to wise guides from other eras. In An Infinite Fountain of Light, the renowned American historian George Marsden illuminates the landscape with wisdom from one such mentor: Jonathan Edwards.
Drawing on his deep expertise on Edwards and American culture, Marsden explains where Edwards stood within his historical context and sets forth key points of his complex thought. By also considering Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield, two of Edwards's most influential contemporaries, Marsden unpacks the competing cultural and religious impulses that have shaped our times. In contrast, Edwards offered us an exhilarating view of the centrality of God's beauty and love. Christians' love for God, he taught, can be the guiding love of our lives, opening us to transformative joy and orienting all our lesser loves.
\"There is an infinite fullness of all possible good in God, a fullness of every perfection, of all excellency and beauty, and of infinite happiness,\" wrote Edwards. \"This infinite fountain of light should, diffusing its excellent fullness, pour forth light all around.\"
With Marsden's guidance, readers will discover how Edwards's insights can renew our own vision of the divine, of creation, and of ourselves.
", "ISBN-13": "9781514006627", "ISBN-10": "1514006626", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created", "Author": "Santi Elijah Holley", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 308, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, cultural, ethnic & regional, african american & black", "Summary": "A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' PICK
An NPR Best Book of the Year * Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
Longlisted for the 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence
\"Magnificent.... A uniquely intimate history of Black liberation.\" - Los Angeles Times
The long overdue story of the Shakurs, persistent fighters in the U.S. struggle for racial justice, and one of the most prominent, influential and fiercely creative families in recent history
For over fifty years, the Shakurs have inspired generations of activists, scholars, and music fans. Many people are only familiar with Assata Shakur, the popular author and thinker, living for three decades in Cuban exile; or the late rapper Tupac. But the branches of the Shakur family tree extend widely, and the roots reach into the most furtive and hidden depths of the underground. Whether founding one of the most notorious Black Panther chapters in the country, spearheading community-based healthcare, or engaging in armed struggle with systemic oppression, the Shakurs were at the forefront.
They have been celebrated, glorified, and mythologized. They have been hailed as heroes, liberators, and freedom fighters. They have been condemned, pursued, imprisoned, exiled, and killed. But the true and complete story of the Shakur family--one of the most famous names in contemporary Black American history--has never been told.
An Amerikan Family is a history of the fight for Black liberation in the United States, as experienced and shaped by the Shakurs. It is a story of hope and betrayal, addiction and murder, persecution and revolution. Drawing from hundreds of hours of personal interviews, historical archives, court records, transcripts, and other rare documents, An Amerikan Family tells the complete and often devastating story of Black America's long struggle for racial justice and the nation's covert and repressive tactics to defeat that struggle. It is the story of a small but determined community, taking extreme, unconventional, and often perilous measures in the quest for freedom.
In short, the story of the Shakurs is the story of America.
", "ISBN-13": "9780063312647", "ISBN-10": "0063312646", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder", "Author": "Salman Rushdie", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, personal memoirs, survival", "Summary": "NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, a searing, deeply personal account of enduring—and surviving—an attempt on his life thirty years after the fatwa that was ordered against him\"Masterful. . . Effortlessly blending fantasy and reality.\" (BCCB, starred review)
Through narrative and comic panels, Hendrix chronicles Lewis and Tolkien's near-idyllic childhoods, then moves on to both men's horrific tour of the trenches of World War I to their first meeting at Oxford in 1929, and then the foreshadowing, action, and aftermath of World War II.
He reveals the shared story of their friendship, in all its ups and downs, that gave them confidence to venture beyond academic concerns (fantasy wasn't considered suitable for adult reading, but the domain of children), shaped major story/theme ideas, and shifted their ideas about the potential of mythology and faith.
The Mythmakers also shows the camaraderie and the importance of the social/literary circle of friends called the Inklings, and how the friendship of these two great men fell apart and came together again. Hendrix concludes describing how the writings of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien had re-enchanted the 20th century, after two World Wars.
In writing aimed at scholars, adults, and young people, these two tweedy academics altered the course of storytelling and embraced the concept that fantasy writing for an adult audience was an accepted form of literature.
The format is similar to The Faithful Spy: prose interspersed with images and narrative comics. The narration is often conversations between a knowledgeable wizard and a comical lion. Through brisk conversation between these two friends, they explain some of the bigger ideas in an approachable and entertaining way.
Throughout the story, there are \"gateways\" that lead readers to the back matter where certain themes, such as how myth/fantasy evolved or the art of world-building, are discussed more fully. This device keeps the main story flowing quickly and smoothly for those readers not interested in the more academic ideas behind the narrative.
Among the ideas covered in the narrative and back matter:
- Tolkien's world-building
- The \"Theology of Creation\" linking their faith to their writings
- The meaning of real friendship
- Notions of modernity and mythology
- The value of fantasy
- The power of a creative community
- An exploration of the different kinds of storytelling in Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, both relying on \"the Myth\" as a storytelling device, but differing in the use of allegory vs. symbolism
- The creative differences of Lewis and Tolkien: the high standards of Tolkien's fiction and the faster and more immediate approach of Lewis's
- Logos vs. Mythos: Lewis created from images, Tolkien created from language
- The mixing of mythologies
Also included are an author's note, endnotes, bibliography, and index.", "ISBN-13": "9781419746345", "ISBN-10": "1419746340", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Here is a book I would normally never pick up. It’s a graphic novel, which isn’t my cup of tea. But this one is different. For one thing, it’s about two of my favorite authors: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Hendrix tells the story of their friendship from the early days of the first meeting to the Inklings and eventually to the strain their relationship faced near the end. It’s a wonderful story that keeps you turning the pages. It’s also beautifully written and illustrated. And I promise, especially for Lewis and Tolkien fans, the final chapter is worth the journey.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Surprising Genius of Jesus: What the Gospels Reveal about the Greatest Teacher", "Author": "Peter J. Williams", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 144, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, new testament", "Summary": "
How the Story of the Prodigal Son Illuminates Jesus's Genius
When someone thinks of Jesus, \"genius\" is not likely the first word that comes to mind. But when studied in detail, Jesus's teachings and interactions with others combined high levels of knowledge and insight, verbal skill, and simplicity--showing his genius.
In The Surprising Genius of Jesus, Peter J. Williams examines the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15 to show the genius, creativity, and wisdom of Jesus's teachings. He used simple but powerful stories to confront the Pharisees and scribes of the day, drawing on his knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures to teach his audience through complex layers and themes. Williams challenges those who question whether Jesus really was the source of the parables recorded in the Gospels, pointing readers to the truth of who Jesus is and why that matters for them today.
TGC 2024 Book Award Winner
Death teaches us how to live.
When Whitney K. Pipkin's mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she wasn't ready. How could she be? She searched for resources that could help her walk through this heavy yet sacred time in her life. But she struggled to find the guidance she longed for in a season of anticipatory grief.
We Shall All Be Changed is a companion for those experiencing the lonely season of suffering and death. In this book, Whitney reaches across the pages to hold the hand of the caregiver. Walking through death with a loved one can be incredibly isolating and unsettling. This book reminds us that we can experience God's very presence in life's dark and deep valleys. As Whitney draws from her own experience, she sheds light and hope. She shows that we are not alone. And she reveals the mysterious way that God ministers to and transforms us through death and suffering.
Beautifully honest and theologically rich, Whitney invites us to consider death so that we might understand life and how to live it.
Rather than wanting to run from discussions of death--as I did for so long--I now want to press into them, to wring from one of the hardest trials life has to offer every drop of sanctification and glory. I see now that having a front seat to my mom's final days has forever changed the ones I have left to live. --Whitney Pipkin
A book for those who are caring for the sick and dying . . . for those who will care for parents, family, or friends in their last days . . . and for those who have already walked this journey. This book is for us.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802431721", "ISBN-10": "0802431720", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "No Greater Love: A Biblical Vision for Friendship", "Author": "Rebecca McLaughlin", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 176, "Tag": "religion, christian living, family & relationships", "Summary": "Greater love has no one than this: that he lay down his life for his friends. -John 15:13
Our culture idolizes romance and the love of parents for their children. But Jesus said there was no greater love than sacrificial friendship love. What's more, He issued a command to His disciples that they live into this kind of love. Christian friendship isn't just a nice-to-have. It's vital. But it's also dangerous.
Friends can pull us up when we're knocked down, embrace us with their love, and spur us on to follow Jesus better. But friends can also grind us to the ground, exploit, or invite us into sin.
In No Greater Love, Rebecca McLaughlin walks us through the highs and lows of friendship love--a love that's been neglected and malnourished in our modern world. She draws especially on Jesus in the Gospels and on Paul to show how powerful and precious Christian friendship is and how we can walk through the hurt, loss, and disillusionment that comes from broken friendship trust. Beginning with the words of Jesus on the night he was betrayed and abandoned, she points us to His battle-tested love as the unending source of our best love for one another.
Male or female, single or married, joyful or lamenting, lonely or embraced, we all need friendship love. This book will help us give and receive it in a way that calls us back to Jesus's commandment: that we love each other just like He loves us.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802428929", "ISBN-10": "0802428924", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Covenant Foundations: Understanding the Promise-Keeping God of the Bible", "Author": "Alec Motyer", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 136, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, old testament", "Summary": "Esteemed scholar, Alec Motyer, presents a salvation pledge on display in this introduction to Old Testament covenant theology.
Signs, laws, sacrifices, kings, priests: How do they all fit together? Alec Motyer answers with five lectures that intricately trace God's covenant from its origins in the narrative of Noah and Abraham, through the establishment of the law, towards its climax in Christ.
From the beginning of time, God has been making his ways and nature known to his people. Unpack the purpose of signs, make sense of Passover and look beyond the insufficient sacrifices and failing monarchy. Through approaching the Old Testament with a fresh appreciation of the covenant meta-narrative, the lines of covenant theology are seen to converge with salvation as their ultimate focal point.
Join Motyer on a journey that connects the dots across God's carefully orchestrated redemptive history to glimpse a greater vision of the salvation masterplan brought to fulfilment by the promise-making, promise-keeping God
", "ISBN-13": "9781527111004", "ISBN-10": "1527111008", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Let's Hang Out", "Author": "Chris Duffy", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": null, "Pages": null, "Tag": "1848", "Summary": null, "ISBN-13": "9780241409480", "ISBN-10": null, "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": "https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRvhdEQDaqa0iMyH__9v_57vt8PsnAPCiWTEr44tEyud1xNIeeMKCTtwMhueRSAu601E7lRWo0Ms-fPLTVfr75G01u-ftw4pn6ES1Xzu5s7&s=10" }, { "Title": "My Friends", "Author": "Hisham Matar", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 455, "Tag": "fiction, action & adventure", "Summary": "My Friends by Fredrik Backman Published: 2025 My Friends is a heartfelt and witty novel by bestselling author Fredrik Backman. The story explores friendship, human connection, and the challenges of life, blending humor and emotion in Backman's signature style. Through its engaging characters and poignant moments, the book celebrates the bonds that shape our lives and the small joys that make life meaningful. Perfect for fans of heartwarming contemporary fiction and Backman's previous works like A Man Called Ove and Beartown.", "ISBN-13": "9798999245434", "ISBN-10": "1982112824", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Hisham Matar won a Pulitzer Prize for his book The Return in 2017. He’s back now with a new novel about a man named Khaled who leaves his home country of Libya to go to school in London. While there, he and a fellow countryman make a decision to attend a protest that changes their lives forever. Through a series of friendships, Khaled learns to live his unexpected life away from his family but close to friends he wouldn’t otherwise have had. Matar shows us what friendship can do and how it can create in us a good life even when the life we imagined is lost forever.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Answer Is No", "Author": "Fredrik Backman, Elizabeth DeNoma", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": null, "Tag": "short story, fiction, humor", "Summary": null, "ISBN-13": "9781662526527", "ISBN-10": "B0D5JLH3RJ", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Another truism: if Fredrik Backman writes it, read it. That’s what I do. While waiting for his forthcoming novel in 2025, the great people at Amazon published this short story about how a frying pan changed a person’s life. It’s short, funny, moving, and well worth the little time it takes to read it.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness", "Author": "Vivek Murthy", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Psychology", "Pages": 352, "Tag": "psychology, mental health, interpersonal relations", "Summary": "In this groundbreaking book, Murthy argues that loneliness is the underpinning to the current crisis in mental wellness and is responsible for the upsurge in suicide, the opioid epidemic, the overuse of psych meds, the over-diagnosing and pathologizing of emotional and psychological struggle. The good news is that social connection is innate and a cure for loneliness. In Together, the 19th Surgeon General will address the importance of community and connection and offer viable and actionable solutions to this overlooked epidemic.
", "ISBN-13": "978-0062913296", "ISBN-10": "0062913298", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Doctrine of the Word of God", "Author": "John M. Frame", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 720, "Tag": "religion, christianity, protestant", "Summary": "John Frame's A Theology of Lordship series has been greeted with acclaim, The Doctrine of God receiving an ECPA Gold Medallion Award. This fourth and final volume in the series discusses God's word in modern theology and how God's word comes to us as his controlling power, meaningful authority, and personal presence. Dr. Frame says that God's speech to man is real-like one person speaking to another \"God speaks so that we can understand him and respond appropriately. Appropriate responses are of many kinds: belief, obedience, affection, repentance, laughter, pain, sadness, and so on. God's speech is often propositional: God's conveying information to us. But it is far more than that. It includes all the features, functions, beauty, and richness of language that we see in human communication, and more. So the concept I wish to defend is broader than the 'propositional revelation' that we argued so ardently forty years ago, though propositional revelation is part of it. My thesis is that God's word, in all its qualities and aspects, is a personal communication from him to us.\" Book jacket.", "ISBN-13": "9780875522647", "ISBN-10": "0875522645", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession", "Author": "Michael Finkel", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 240, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, criminals & outlaws, true crime", "Summary": "#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first century • “The Art Thief, like its title character, has confidence, élan, and a great sense of timing.\"—The New YorkerHe pulled off more than 200 heists, often in crowded museums in broad daylight.
His girlfriend served as his accomplice.
His collection was worth an estimated $2 billion.
He never sold a piece, displaying his stolen art in his attic bedroom.
He felt like a king.
Until everything came to a shocking end.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "In All the Scriptures: The Three Contexts of Biblical Hermeneutics", "Author": "Nicholas G. Piotrowski", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 304, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, exegesis & hermeneutics", "Summary": "
Biblical Foundations Book Awards Finalist
No one reads the Bible without some interpretive principles, or hermeneutics, in place. The question every student of Scripture needs to ask, then, is this: Are your interpretive principles and methods legitimate and ethical?
In this accessible introduction to biblical hermeneutics, Nicholas G. Piotrowski presents an approach that explores three layers of context: literary, historical, and christological. Because no text exists in the abstract, interpreters must seek to understand a passage's ecology: the flow and argument of the entire biblical book, the world of the original author and audience, and the movement of redemptive history that culminates in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Careful interpretation is both a science and an art, Piotrowski argues, and it has powerful implications for what we believe and how we apply God's Word. Featuring numerous examples, further reading lists, and a glossary, In All the Scriptures equips students, pastors, and thoughtful readers to build a solid foundation for interpreting the Bible.
", "ISBN-13": "9781514002186", "ISBN-10": "1514002183", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "You Dreamed of Empires: A Novel", "Author": "Álvaro Enrigue", "Year Read": 2024, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 240, "Tag": "literature & fiction, genre fiction, historical", "Summary": "A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF 2024#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War in this 'riveting reexamination of a nation in tumult' (Los Angeles Times).
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fuelled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter.
Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln's election and the Confederacy's shelling of Sumter - a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were 'so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them'.
At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter's commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardour at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between both. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous Secretary of State, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable - one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans.
Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink - a dark reminder that we often don't see a cataclysm coming until it's too late.
", "ISBN-13": "9780008681753", "ISBN-10": "0008681759", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Honoring the Son: Jesus in Earliest Christian Devotional Practice", "Author": "Larry W. Hurtado", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 96, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, history & culture", "Summary": "Before the New Testament or the creeds of the church were written, the devotional practices of the earliest Christians indicate that they worshipped Jesus alongside the Father.In this positive and practical book, Gavin Ortlund looks to the Scriptures to discover a way in which to disagree with others that leads to greater understanding, peace and love--and that shows a watching world something of Jesus.
This is a much-needed message in a society that is losing the ability to disagree well. Whether over politics, religion, culture, or the more everyday issues of normal life, points of view tend to be held with a polarizing intensity. Too often we view disagreements as must-win contests or we simply do our best to avoid them altogether.
Looking to Jesus' example of courage and kindness, readers will be given a framework for engaging in intense disagreements with a love that furthers relationships instead of hindering them.
So, whether you tend to fight or flee, learn how to keep calm and stay friends--even when you disagree.
", "ISBN-13": "9781802541403", "ISBN-10": "1802541403", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Social media used to be a fun place to hang out. There were jokes, memes, banter. I even learned things from time to time. Now, it's filled with disagreement. I can't even look at it.If anyone knows how to navigate such disagreement without disengaging, it is Gavin Ortlund. I have seen close-up how he approaches conversations with those of differing views. His YouTube channel, Truth Unites, is a master class in this area.
If you want to know how to grow closer to someone while disagreeing with them (and who doesn't need that?!), this book will help you. It's such an important book for our day--relevant, practical, and pastoral.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary (Volume 1, Introduction: Christ and the Psalms)", "Author": "Christopher Ash", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 464, "Tag": "religion, biblical commentary, old testament", "Summary": "
Standalone Commentary from Christopher Ash Sets Out a Deeply Christian Study of the Psalms
While reading Psalms, it is common for commentaries to focus on Old Testament meaning, without connecting it deeply to Christ's fulfillment in the New Testament. By studying Scripture this way, believers miss out on the fullness of God's word. The key to experiencing authentically Christian worship is learning a Christ-focused approach to praying and singing the Psalms.
In this in-depth, 4-volume commentary, Christopher Ash provides a thorough treatment of all 150 Psalms, examining each psalm's significance to David and the other psalmists, to Jesus during his earthly ministry, and to the church of Christ in every age. The first volume in the set is a detailed handbook that explains how to interpret the Psalms with Christ at the center. Perfect for pastors, Bible teachers, and students, this commentary helps readers sing and pray the Psalms with Christ in view.
From the “Friendship Explainer,” a definitive step-by-step guide to understanding the fundamental mechanics of friendship
Modern friendships can be painfully ambiguous. But they don’t have to be. Journalist Anna Goldfarb has your back. “It’s understandable if your friendships are floundering. You’re up against historically new forces that we, as a culture, have no precedent for navigating,” she says. With Modern Friendship, Anna shares a manual for understanding what is pushing our friendships to the brink and provides actionable advice for forming authentic, enduring connections today.
It’s never been easier to shed friendships, which is precisely why we need a new approach to keeping them strong. Anna argues that we need to update our approach to friendships in a way that accounts for the hyper-fluid society we live in. The key to forming a lasting bond is what Anna calls “Wholehearted Friendship”—proven strategies to enhance enthusiastic connection.
Blending keen insights, cutting-edge social research, and intuitive practical tools, she invites you to explore:
• Why modern friendships are so ambiguous—and how to get clarity
• How desire influences friend selection, why friendships fail, and how to hone your friendship intuition
• Mattering to others—establishing boundaries, being flexible, having fun, and setting up your friendships for success
• Tools for the tough times—exercises, prompts, scripts, and advice on keeping friendships active even when life gets hectic
• Practicing Wholehearted Friendship—how to be caring, curious, appreciative, and supportive to a friend in any situation
• Trying a 14-day Friendship Cleanse—two weeks of actionable advice to clarify your wishes in friendship and strengthen your connections, both old and new
Grasping the mechanics of friendships will liberate you from the prison of self-doubt. “Your friendships are precious. They’re vital. They matter. So let’s understand, cultivate, and harness their incredible power,” says Anna. With Modern Friendship, you’ll discover how to be a more self-assured and empowered friend to the most meaningful people in your life. Let Anna show you how.
Friends for a Season?
There's something wrong with your friendship, but you can't figure out why. Is everything in your head? Unfortunately, toxic friendships happen to everyone, but we seldom identify the underlying issues while we battle confusion or the friendship breaks up.
Maybe you're left bewildered in the friendship's wake, paralyzed to move forward.
After wading through several difficult friendships, Mary DeMuth reveals the seven different types of toxic relationships and empowers you to identify the messiest relationships causing you the greatest anguish.
You'll gain a new relationship with Jesus as you trust him to be your confidant, healer, and life-giving friend.
", "ISBN-13": "9780736974868", "ISBN-10": "0736974865", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth", "Author": "Gordon D. Fee, Douglas K. Stuart", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 287, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, christianity", "Summary": "Your Guide to Understanding the Bible Understanding the Bible isn't for the few, the gifted, the scholarly. The Bible is accessible. It's meant to be read and comprehended by everyone from armchair readers to seminary students. A few essential insights into the Bible can clear up a lot of misconceptions and help you grasp the meaning of Scripture and its application to your 21st-century life. More than half a million people have turned to How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth to inform their reading of the Bible. This third edition features substantial revisions that keep pace with current scholarship, resources, and culture. Changes include: *Updated language *A new authors' preface *Several chapters rewritten for better readability *Updated list of recommended commentaries and resources Covering everything from translational concerns to different genres of biblical writing, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth is used all around the world. In clear, simple language, it helps you accurately understand the different parts of the Bible---their meaning for ancient audiences and their implications for you today---so you can uncover the inexhaustible worth that is in God's Word.", "ISBN-13": "9780310246046", "ISBN-10": "0310246040", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Friendship with the Friend of Sinners: The Remarkable Possibility of Closeness with Christ", "Author": "Jared C. Wilson", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "religion, christian living, spiritual growth", "Summary": "The Bible calls Jesus the friend of sinners, but it's hard to imagine what friendship with Jesus really looks like. We so often don't even know how to do friendship with the people around us, despite all the options we have to connect. So how are we supposed to feel that close to a holy, perfect, and invisible God? How do we see Jesus as the real person he is? And how do we experience true friendship with him when we struggle to maintain true friendship on earth?\"If you are in ministry, this book is a must-read for you and your ministry team--not just once, but once a year.\" -Paul David Tripp
How do we keep from drifting away from what makes us who we are How do we even know we're drifting
In this provocative new book, Jared C. Wilson discusses the potentials and problems with evangelical departures from gospel-centrality. In a variety of ways, on both \"the left\" and \"the right,\" Wilson outlines these threats from angles sometimes imperceptible at first glance.
As you read Lest We Drift, you will recognize the signs of drift in the faith and teaching, and learn to navigate the five particular dangers prevalent in the church today:
With biblical wisdom and cultural insight, this book will help you identify these potential hazards in your own Christian life and church; becoming better alert to the need to \"pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it\" (Heb. 2:1).
", "ISBN-13": "9780310155768", "ISBN-10": "0310155762", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "What happened to the gospel-centered movement? That's what Jared Wilson tackles in this book, and I'm not sure there is a better person to do it.Jared has been beating the gospel-centered drum for as long as I've known him, which is, at this point, a very long time. What better message do we have to offer the world than the gospel of Jesus Christ? Why drift from that message and only that message?
So many other things demand attention and try to get us to hop on the hobby horse, but the gospel is the only thing big enough to be the one main thing of any church, any community, and life.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "How to Read Daniel", "Author": "Tremper Longman III", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 200, "Tag": "religion, biblical criticism & interpretation, old testament", "Summary": "
Beyond the familiar lions' den and fiery furnace, much of the book of Daniel seems baffling to modern readers. The first half recounts stories full of ancient Near Eastern protocol and imperial court drama; the second half features apocalyptic visions of monstrous beasts and cosmic conflict. Many Christians misunderstand or simply avoid the book. But failing to read Daniel well means missing a critical part of God's message to us.
According to Tremper Longman III, when we read Daniel on its own terms and in its original context, we'll discover that all of the book is easier to understand than we might think. In this volume of the popular How to Read Series, Longman brings his expertise as an Old Testament scholar and teacher to orient readers to a proper engagement with Daniel. He examines the book's genre, structure, historical background, and major theological message before diving deeper into each of the stories and visions.
As we learn how to enter the world of Daniel, we find a message not only for his generation but also for ours: even in hostile circumstances, God is in control, and he will have the final victory. Longman draws out this theme of Daniel for the twenty-first century, finding help for faithful living in a toxic culture and hope in a troubled world. How to Read Daniel is the perfect starting point for anyone studying, teaching, or seeking a reliable guide to this ancient book.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830853205", "ISBN-10": "0830853200", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Daniel", "Author": "Iain M. Duguid", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 236, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, biblical commentary", "Summary": "The book of Daniel is both familiar and unfamiliar to many Christians. The stories of the fiery furnace and Daniel in the lion's den are the staples of children's' Bible storybooks and Sunday school classes. Yet the latter chapters of Daniel's vision are more unfamiliar and daunting to most believers, who may have been exposed to a variety of end-times speculations constructed from an amalgam of these texts and others drawn from elsewhere in the Bible. But Iain M. Duguid reminds Christians that Daniel gives us more than moral lessons or a prophetic timetable. The whole of the book points us to Christ, whether as the one greater than Daniel who has perfectly lived an exilic life of service and separation for us or as the exalted heavenly Son of Man who took flesh amongst us.", "ISBN-13": "9781596380684", "ISBN-10": "1596380683", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Message of Daniel", "Author": "Dale Ralph Davis", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 173, "Tag": "religion, biblical commentary, old testament", "Summary": "Preaching's Preacher's Guide to the Best Bible Reference
From former pastor and professor Dale Ralph Davis, this replacement volume in the Bible Speaks Today Old Testament commentary series offers a reliable exposition of the visionary book of Daniel for pastors and lay commentary readers. Explaining the background to Daniel, he sifts through interpretive issues and then offers a faithful exposition of the book's message.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830824380", "ISBN-10": "0830824383", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "What Is Biblical Theology?: A Guide to the Bible's Story, Symbolism, and Patterns", "Author": "James M. Hamilton Jr.", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, biblical studies, christian theology", "Summary": "How Do You Read the Bible?
The Bible recounts a single story--one that began at creation, encompasses our lives today, and will continue till Christ's return and beyond. In What Is Biblical Theology?, Jim Hamilton introduces us to this narrative, helping us understand the worldview of the biblical writers so that we can read the Old and New Testaments as those authors intended. Tracing the key patterns, symbols, and themes that bind the Bible together, this book will help you understand Scripture's unified message and find your place in the great story of redemption.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433537714", "ISBN-10": "1433537710", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Round House: A Novel", "Author": "Louise Erdrich", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 368, "Tag": "english & college success, english, fiction", "Summary": "Winner of the National Book Award • Washington Post Best Book of the Year • A New York Times Notable Book
From one of the most revered novelists of our time, an exquisitely told story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the wake of a terrible crime that upends and forever transforms his family.
One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface because Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.
While his father, a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the official investigation and sets out with his trusted friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to get some answers of his own. Their quest takes them first to the Round House, a sacred space and place of worship for the Ojibwe. And this is only the beginning.
The Round House is a page-turning masterpiece—at once a powerful coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a tender, moving novel of family, history, and culture.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062065261", "ISBN-10": "0062065262", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Mere Christianity", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "religion, spirituality, christian theology", "Summary": "A forceful and accessible discussion of Christian belief that has become one of the most popular introductions to Christianity and one of the most popular of Lewis's books. Uncovers common ground upon which all Christians can stand together.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060652920", "ISBN-10": "0060652926", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Screwtape Letters", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "religion, spirituality, fiction", "Summary": "In this humorous and perceptive exchange between two devils, C. S. Lewis delves into moral questions about good vs. evil, temptation, repentance, and grace. Through this wonderful tale, the reader emerges with a better understanding of what it means to live a faithful life.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060652937", "ISBN-10": "0060652934", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Great Divorce", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 160, "Tag": "religion, spirituality, fiction", "Summary": "C. S. Lewis takes us on a profound journey through both heaven and hell in this engaging allegorical tale. Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis introduces us to supernatural beings who will change the way we think about good and evil.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060652951", "ISBN-10": "0060652950", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Good News at Rock Bottom: Finding God When the Pain Goes Deep and Hope Seems Lost", "Author": "Ray Ortlund, Jr.", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 160, "Tag": "religion, biblical criticism & interpretation, christian living", "Summary": "Meeting the Man of Sorrows Where We Need Him Most
We all long for a life worth living. So when we receive news of a frightening diagnosis, suffer heartbreaking loss in our family life, or get trapped in a cycle of our own sin, we might wonder about God. Where is he when we need him most? With wisdom from Isaiah 57:15, Good News at Rock Bottom helps readers discover that Jesus is hard to find in the comfortable lives we prefer. Instead, he meets us at rock bottom--where he is waiting for us with open arms.
With grace and empathy, author Ray Ortlund opens a door for readers to go deeper with God and get closer to faithful friends when life is hard to bear. You will discover that, at rock bottom, Jesus is more satisfying than any comfortable life without him.
It's classic Ray Ortlund. It's comforting. Relatable. Worshipful. Encouraging. Needed in this broken world.
It's short, too, which is what someone at rock bottom needs.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Who Is God? Key Moments of Biblical Revelation",
"Author": "Richard Bauckham",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 128,
"Tag": "religion, biblical studies, biblical criticism & interpretation",
"Summary": "Internationally respected scholar Richard Bauckham offers a brief, engaging study of divine revelation in Scripture. He probes the deep meaning of well-known moments in the biblical story in order to address the key question the Bible is designed to answer: Who is God?
Accessible for laypeople and important to scholars, this volume begins by exploring three key events in the Bible in which God is revealed: Jacob's dream at Bethel (the revelation of the divine presence), Moses at the burning bush (the revelation of the divine Name), and Moses on Mount Sinai (the revelation of the divine character). In each case, Bauckham traces these themes through the rest of Scripture. He then shows how the New Testament builds on the Old by exploring three revelatory events in Mark's Gospel, events that reveal the Trinity: Jesus's baptism, transfiguration, and crucifixion.
This book, now in paperback, is based on the Frumentius Lectures for 2015 at the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology in Addis Ababa and on the Hayward Lectures for 2018 at Acadia Divinity College, Nova Scotia.
\"A short, powerful book on a huge, vital topic.\"--N. T. Wright, University of St. Andrews; Wycliffe Hall, Oxford",
"ISBN-13": "9781540961907",
"ISBN-10": "1540961907",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The First World War",
"Author": "John Keegan",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "History",
"Pages": 528,
"Tag": "history, wars & conflicts, world war i",
"Summary": "The definitive account of the Great War and national bestseller from one of our most eminent military historians, John Keegan.
The First World War created the modern world. A conflict of unprecedented ferocity, it abruptly ended the relative peace and prosperity of the Victorian era, unleashing such demons of the twentieth century as mechanized warfare and mass death. It also helped to usher in the ideas that have shaped our times--modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, radical thoughts about economics and society--and in so doing shattered the faith in rationalism and liberalism that had prevailed in Europe since the Enlightenment.
The First World War probes the mystery of how a civilization at the height of its achievement could have propelled itself into such a ruinous conflict and takes us behind the scenes of the negotiations among Europe's crowned heads (all of them related to one another by blood) and ministers, and their doomed efforts to defuse the crisis. Keegan reveals how, by an astonishing failure of diplomacy and communication, a bilateral dispute grew to engulf an entire continent.
But the heart of Keegan's superb narrative is, of course, his analysis of the military conflict. With unequalled authority and insight, he recreates the nightmarish engagements whose names have become legend--Verdun, the Somme and Gallipoli among them--and sheds new light on the strategies and tactics employed, particularly the contributions of geography and technology. No less central to Keegan's account is the human aspect. He acquaints us with the thoughts of the intriguing personalities who oversaw the tragically unnecessary catastrophe--from heads of state like Russia's hapless tsar, Nicholas II, to renowned warmakers such as Haig, Hindenburg and Joffre. But Keegan reserves his most affecting personal sympathy for those whose individual efforts history has not recorded--\"the anonymous millions, indistinguishably drab, undifferentially deprived of any scrap of the glories that by tradition made the life of the man-at-arms tolerable.\"
By the end of the war, three great empires--the Austro-Hungarian, the Russian and the Ottoman--had collapsed. But as Keegan shows, the devastation ex-tended over the entirety of Europe, and still profoundly informs the politics and culture of the continent today. His brilliant, panoramic account of this vast and terrible conflict is destined to take its place among the classics of world history.",
"ISBN-13": "9780375700453",
"ISBN-10": "0375700455",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament",
"Author": "Sandra L. Richter",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 263,
"Tag": "religion, biblical studies, old testament",
"Summary": "
Does your knowledge of the Old Testament feel like a grab bag of people, books, events and ideas? How many times have you resolved to really understand the OT? To finally make sense of it?
Perhaps you are suffering from what Sandra Richter calls the \"dysfunctional closet syndrome.\" If so, she has a solution. Like a home-organizing expert, she comes in and helps you straighten up your cluttered closet. Gives you hangers for facts. A timeline to put them on. And handy containers for the clutter on the floor. Plus she fills out your wardrobe of knowledge with exciting new facts and new perspectives.
The whole thing is put in usable order--a history of God's redeeming grace. A story that runs from the Eden of the Garden to the garden of the New Jerusalem. Whether you are a frustrated do-it-yourselfer or a beginning student enrolled in a course, this book will organize your understanding of the Old Testament and renew your enthusiasm for studying the Bible as a whole.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830825776", "ISBN-10": "0830825770", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Biblical Theology: How the Church Faithfully Teaches the Gospel", "Author": "Nick Roark, Robert Cline", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 160, "Tag": "religion, christian ministry, pastoral resources", "Summary": "Throughout the history of the church, Christians have always had to contend with the influence of unbiblical teachings related to God, humanity, and salvation. One of the most important safeguards against all forms of heresy is a robust appreciation for biblical theology--reading the Bible in a way that takes into account the whole storyline of redemptive history. Exhorting pastors and other church leaders to prioritize biblical theology in their own congregations, this book explains basic principles for reading the Bible that help pastors teach the big story of the Bible from every text. Understanding the Bible in Christ-centered terms shapes the church's teaching and mission, and protects the truth of the gospel around the world.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433556067", "ISBN-10": "1433556065", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Expectation Gap: The Tiny, Vast Space Between Our Beliefs and Experience of God", "Author": "Steve Cuss", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 176, "Tag": "religion, christian living, personal growth", "Summary": "Learn how to quiet your inner critic, confront chronic anxiety, and relax into God's perfect presence.
Do you truly experience the promises Jesus gave to those who follow him--the benefits of peace, freedom, and love? The fact is that many of us struggle with a gap between what we believe about God and how we encounter him in our everyday lives. We don't want our faith to be merely conceptual--we want to experience it viscerally--and yet we often come up against one or more of these major gaps:
In The Expectation Gap, Steve Cuss--pastor and founder of the leadership organization Capable Life--offers tangible tools for engaging with God in a deeper, more soul-satisfying way. You'll unveil harmful expectations and patterns that keep you spiritually stuck so that you can replace them with habits and practices that will lead to a more vibrant faith life.
\"This is the most helpful book I've read in my thirty-five years of ministry when it comes to recognizing, naming, and bridging the gap between what we believe about God and what we experience from God.\" --Christine Caine, founder of A21 and Propel Women
", "ISBN-13": "9780310156376", "ISBN-10": "0310156378", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "1-2 Thessalonians", "Author": "G. K. Beale", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 279, "Tag": "religion, biblical commentary, new testament", "Summary": "Fascination with the end times is not just a recent phenomenon. The young church at Thessalonica, having taken root during Paul's brief stay there, pondered when the end might come as well. Paul, in order to instruct them more fully, wrote them two letters, which taken together expound the \"already-and-not-yet\" character of the end times. His instruction and counsel can serve us well today. Throughout this commentary, G. K. Beale explains what each letter meant to its original hearers and its application for us today.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830840137", "ISBN-10": "0830840133", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness", "Author": "Andy McCullough", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 400, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, sports, sports & recreation", "Summary": "This \"outstanding\" biography of Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw examines the genesis of his brilliance, his epic quest to win the World Series, and his singular place within the evolving baseball landscape--based on exclusive interviews with Kershaw and more than 200 others (The Los Angeles Times).A Topic-by-Topic Look at Tim Keller's Best Teaching on Christian Living
Pastor and author Timothy Keller (1950-2023) built a lasting legacy in Christian ministry, planting Redeemer Presbyterian Church and cofounding the Gospel Coalition. With sharp biblical insight that has shaped countless church leaders, along with counsel on the Christian life that has stirred and strengthened audiences worldwide, Keller's teaching promises to influence generations to come.
Synthesizing Keller's work topic by topic, each chapter of this book highlights a key aspect of the Christian life--covering his views on prayer, suffering, friendship, vocation, intimacy with God, and more. Written by pastor Matt Smethurst, Tim Keller on the Christian Life draws from Keller's nearly 50 years of sermons, conference messages, and books to share practical theological insight that will galvanize leaders and laypeople alike.
Since the days of the early church, Christians have wrestled with the relationship between law and gospel. If, as the apostle Paul says, salvation is by grace and the law cannot save, what relevance does the law have for Christians today?
By revisiting the Marrow Controversy--a famous but largely forgotten eighteenth-century debate related to the proper relationship between God's grace and our works--Sinclair B. Ferguson sheds light on this central issue and why it still matters today. In doing so, he explains how our understanding of the relationship between law and gospel determines our approach to evangelism, our pursuit of sanctification, and even our understanding of God himself.
Ferguson shows us that the antidote to the poison of legalism on the one hand and antinomianism on the other is one and the same: the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ, in whom we are simultaneously justified by faith, freed for good works, and assured of salvation.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433548000", "ISBN-10": "1433548003", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader's Guide to Solving Hard Problems", "Author": "Frances Frei, Anne Morriss", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Business", "Pages": 210, "Tag": "business & economics, decision-making & problem solving, economics", "Summary": "Bestselling authors and cohosts of the TED podcast Fixable, Frances Frei and Anne Morriss reinvent the playbook for how to lead change--with a radical approach that moves fast, builds trust, and accelerates excellence.
Speed has gotten a bad name in business, much of it deserved. When Facebook made \"Move fast and break things\" an informal company motto, it fueled a widely held belief that we can either make progress or take care of people, one or the other. A certain amount of wreckage is the price we have to pay for inventing the future.
Leadership experts Frances Frei and Anne Morriss argue that this belief is deeply flawed--and that it keeps you from building a great company. Helping executives and entrepreneurs solve their toughest problems over the past decade, Frei and Morriss learned that the trade-off between speed and excellence is false. The best change leaders solve hard problems with fierce urgency while making their organizations--employees, customers, and shareholders--even stronger. They move fast and fix things.
Based on their work with fast-moving companies such as Uber, Riot Games, and ServiceNow, Frei and Morriss reveal the five essential steps to moving fast and fixing things. You'll learn to:
With a one-week plan to fix your problems on a fast cycle time of one step per \"day,\" this book is your guide to maximizing impact and reinventing your approach to change. By the end of the week, you won't just have a road map for solving your company's toughest problems--you'll already be well on your way, improving your company at exhilarating speed.
", "ISBN-13": "9781647822873", "ISBN-10": "1647822874", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "A Light on the Hill: The Surprising Story of How a Local Church in the Nation's Capital Influenced Evangelicalism", "Author": "Caleb Morell", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 352, "Tag": "biographies & memoirs, leaders & notable people, religious", "Summary": "God's Faithfulness on Display in an Engaging Church Biography
Capitol Hill Baptist Church, located just blocks away from the center of American power, has a rich 150-year history. Its members have participated in significant world events, advocated for religious freedoms, and spoken out against the moral failings of the times. There's no doubt this church has had a unique impact on evangelicalism from a significant location. But these lively characters and their unique experiences only tell part of this engaging narrative.
Through real-life stories, A Light on the Hill reveals how God works through church bodies and remains faithful during times of uncertainty. Exploring themes such as pastoral ministry, faithfulness, courage, racial reconciliation, church and politics, and more, this book will help readers see the long-term effects of faithful church ministries. Ultimately they will be encouraged to invest in a local church and preserve the gospel for the next generation.
AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A #1 TORONTO STAR BESTSELLER
AN INSTANT USA TODAY AND INDIE BESTSELLER
A GLOBE AND MAIL BESTSELLER
From one of the hottest stand-up comedians, Nate Bargatze brings his everyman comedy to the page in this hilarious collection of personal stories, opinions, and confessions.
Nate Bargatze used to be a genius. That is, until the summer after seventh grade when he slipped, fell off a cliff, hit his head on a rock, and \"my skull got, like, dented or something.\" Before this accident, he dreamed of being \"an electric engineer, or a doctor that does brain stuff, or a math teacher who teaches the hardest math on earth.\" Afterwards, all he could do was stand-up comedy.* But the \"brain stuff\" industry's loss is everyone else's gain because Nate went on to become one of today's top-grossing comedians, breaking both attendance and streaming records.
In his highly anticipated first book, Nate talks about life as a non-genius. From stories about his first car (named Old Blue, a clunky Mazda with a tennis ball stick shift) and his travels as a Southerner (Northerners like to ask if he believes in dinosaurs), to tales of his first apartment where he was almost devoured by rats and his many debates with his wife over his chores, his diet, and even his definition of \"shopping.\" He also reflects on such heady topics as his irrational passion for Vandy football and the mysterious origins of sushi (how can a California roll come from old-time Japan?).
BIG DUMB EYES is full of heart. It will make readers laugh out loud and nod in recognition, but it probably won't make them think too much.
*Nate's family disputes this entire story.
In the late 1960s and on into the next decade, the American pastor and bestselling author Francis Schaeffer regularly received requests from evangelicals across North America seeking his help to replicate his innovative learning community, L'Abri, within their own contexts. At the same time, an innovative school called Regent College had started up in Vancouver, British Columbia, led by James Houston and offering serious theological education for laypeople. Before long, numerous admirers and attendees of L'Abri and of Regent had launched Christian \"study centers\" of their own—often based on or near university campuses—from Berkeley to Maryland. For evangelical baby boomers coming of age in the midst of unprecedented educational opportunity and cultural upheaval, these multifaceted communities inspired a generation to study, pray, and engage culture more faithfully—in the words of James M. Houston, \"to think Christianly.\"
In this compelling and comprehensive history, Charles Cotherman traces the stories of notable study centers and networks, as well as their influence on a generation that would reshape twentieth-century Christianity. Beginning with the innovations of L'Abri and Regent College, Cotherman elucidates the histories of
Each of these projects owed something to Schaeffer's and Houston's approaches, which combined intellectual and cultural awareness with compelling spirituality, open-handed hospitality, relational networks, and a deep commitment to the gospel's significance for all fields of study—and all of life. Cotherman argues that the centers' mission of lay theological education blazed a new path for evangelicals to fully engage the life of the mind and culture.
Built on a rich foundation of original interviews, archival documents, and contemporary sources, To Think Christianly sheds new light on this set of defining figures and places in evangelicalism's life of the mind.
", "ISBN-13": "9781514004289", "ISBN-10": "1514004283", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Some books are great because they make you think about what could be, and this book did that for me.I live in a big city, Nashville, that doesn't have a seminary. It's a shame that we don't. Yes, we have remote campuses and things like that, but not a full on seminary. Well, this book helped me see there might be another option. God has used study centers to grow Christians for decades.
Maybe he wants to do that here in Nashville too.
Maybe I can be a part of it.
Maybe you can too.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again",
"Author": "Jake Tapper, Alex Thompson",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 352,
"Tag": "literature & fiction, humor & satire, satire",
"Summary": "THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
\"Superbly reported . . . Reads like a Shakespearean drama on steroids.\" — Los Angeles Times
\"Explosive.\" —The New York Times
\"[The] most significant book to date about Biden’s cognitive decline.\" — The Atlantic
\"Destined to stand alongside classics like Theodore White’s The Making of the President 1960 and even Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward’s All the President’s Men as one of the great books about American electoral politics.” — Richard Aldous, Persuasion
From two of America’s most respected journalists comes an unflinching and explosive reckoning with one of the most fateful decisions in American political history: Joe Biden’s run for reelection despite evidence of his serious decline—amid desperate efforts to hide the extent of that deterioration.
In Greek tragedy, the protagonist’s effort to avoid his fate is what seals his fate. In 2024, American politics became a Greek tragedy.
Joe Biden launched his successful 2020 bid for the White House with the stated goal of saving the nation from a second Trump presidential term. He, his family, and his senior aides were so convinced that only he could beat Trump again, they lied to themselves, allies, and the public about his condition and limitations. At his debate with Trump on June 27, 2024, the consequences of that deception were exposed to the world. It was shocking and upsetting.
Now the full, unsettling truth is being told for the first time. Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson take us behind closed doors and into private conversations between the heaviest of hitters, revealing how big the problem was and how many people knew about it. From White House staffers at the highest to lowest levels, to leaders of Congress and the Cabinet, from governors to donors and Hollywood players, the truth is finally being told. What you will learn makes President Biden’s decision to run for reelection seem shockingly narcissistic, self-delusional, and reckless—a desperate bet that went bust—and part of a larger act of extended public deception that has few precedents. The story the authors tell raises fundamental issues of accountability and responsibility that will continue for decades.
The irony is biting: In the name of defeating what they called an existential threat to democracy, Biden and his inner circle ensured it, tossing aside his implicit promise to serve for only one term, denying the existence of health issues the nation had been watching for years, dooming the Democrats to defeat. The decision to run again, the Original Sin of this president, led to a campaign of denial and gaslighting, leading directly to Donald Trump's return to power and all that has happened as a consequence. Rarely does hubris meet nemesis more explosively. Wherever you stand on the political spectrum, Original Sin is essential reading.",
"ISBN-13": "9798217060672",
"ISBN-10": "B0DTYKCJC9",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump",
"Author": "Molly Worthen",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "History",
"Pages": 464,
"Tag": "history, historical study & educational resources, science & math",
"Summary": "What happens when Americans lose faith in their religious institutions—and politicians fill the void? From the Puritans to Donald Trump, this sweeping history will change your understanding of the forces that create leaders and hold their followers captive.
“Elegant and insightful, Spellbound is an important contribution to the urgent project of understanding America in our time.”—Jon Meacham
Everyone feels it. Cultural and political life in America has become unrecognizable and strange. Firebrands and would-be sages have taken the place of reasonable and responsible leaders. Nuanced debates have given way to the smug confidence of yard signs. How did we get here?
In Spellbound, historian Molly Worthen argues that we will understand our present moment if we learn the story of charisma in America. From the Puritans and Andrew Jackson to Black nationalists and Donald Trump, the saga of American charisma, Worthen argues, stars figures who possess a dangerous and alluring power to move crowds. They invite followers into a cosmic drama where hopes are fulfilled and grievances are put right—and these charismatic leaders insist that they alone plot the way.
The story of charisma in America reveals that when traditional religious institutions fail to deliver on their promise of a meaningful life, people will get their spiritual needs met in a warped cultural and political landscape dominated by those who appear to have the power to bring order and meaning out of chaos. Charismatic leaders address spiritual needs, offering an alternate reality where people have knowledge, power, and heroic status, whether as divinely chosen instruments of God or those who will restore national glory.
Through Worthen’s centuries-spanning historical research, Spellbound places a crucial religious lens on the cultural, economic, and political upheavals facing Americans today.",
"ISBN-13": "9780593729007",
"ISBN-10": "0593729005",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Confess Your Sins: The Way of Reconciliation",
"Author": "John Stott",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 116,
"Tag": "religion, christianity, catholic",
"Summary": "
An evangelical classic for a new generation of Christian readers
Back in print for the first time in many years, John Stott's classic treatise on confession discusses a neglected Christian practice. Though the Bible clearly teaches that confession is a necessary part of the redemption story, many Christians are uncertain how and to whom they should confess their sins. Stott offers vital answers in Confess Your Sins: The Way of Reconciliation.
After presenting the necessity of confession, Stott distinguishes between three types of confession--in secret to God, in private to a person whom our sin has injured, and in public in the presence of a Christian congregation. He shows how this threefold distinction is biblically grounded, and he critically examines the practice of confessing to a priest. Offering assurance of forgiveness to Christians, this little book opens the door to fruitful conversation about the practice of confession.
A Business Week, New York Times Business, and USA Today Bestseller
\"Ambitious and readable . . . an engaging introduction to the oddsmakers, whom Bernstein regards as true humanists helping to release mankind from the choke holds of superstition and fatalism.\"
—The New York Times
\"An extraordinarily entertaining and informative book.\"
—The Wall Street Journal
\"A lively panoramic book . . . Against the Gods sets up an ambitious premise and then delivers on it.\"
—Business Week
\"Deserves to be, and surely will be, widely read.\"
—The Economist
\"[A] challenging book, one that may change forever the way people think about the world.\"
—Worth
\"No one else could have written a book of such central importance with so much charm and excitement.\"
—Robert Heilbroner author, The Worldly Philosophers
\"With his wonderful knowledge of the history and current manifestations of risk, Peter Bernstein brings us Against the Gods. Nothing like it will come out of the financial world this year or ever. I speak carefully: no one should miss it.\"
—John Kenneth Galbraith Professor of Economics Emeritus, Harvard University
In this unique exploration of the role of risk in our society, Peter Bernstein argues that the notion of bringing risk under control is one of the central ideas that distinguishes modern times from the distant past. Against the Gods chronicles the remarkable intellectual adventure that liberated humanity from oracles and soothsayers by means of the powerful tools of risk management that are available to us today.
\"An extremely readable history of risk.\"
—Barron's
\"Fascinating . . . this challenging volume will help you understand the uncertainties that every investor must face.\"
—Money
\"A singular achievement.\"
—Times Literary Supplement
\"There's a growing market for savants who can render the recondite intelligibly-witness Stephen Jay Gould (natural history), Oliver Sacks (disease), Richard Dawkins (heredity), James Gleick (physics), Paul Krugman (economics)-and Bernstein would mingle well in their company.\"
—The Australian
Designed for the pastor and Bible teacher, the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament features today's top New Testament scholars and brings together commentary features rarely gathered together in one volume. With careful analysis and interpretation of the Greek text, the authors trace the flow of argument in each New Testament book, giving readers the tools they need to properly understand and communicate the meaning of the text.
Commentary on each passage follows a clear structure to help readers grasp the flow and meaning of the text:
The Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament series is the go-to resource for pastors and Bible teachers looking for deep but accessible study that equips them to connect the needs of Christians today with the biblical text.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310244004", "ISBN-10": "0310244005", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Perfect Priest for Weary Pilgrims: A Theology of Hebrews", "Author": "Dennis Edward Johnson", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 216, "Tag": "christian books & bibles, education, adult", "Summary": "An Introduction to the Biblical Theology of Hebrews
The book of Hebrews can be intimidating for modern-day Christians due to its connection to Old Testament text. However, once understood, this New Testament epistle offers great insights into the superiority and sufficiency of Jesus--rightly justifying his place as high priest.
In this addition to the New Testament Theology series, scholar Dennis E. Johnson highlights the main biblical-theological themes of Hebrews. Johnson explores how Jesus fulfills perfect priesthood by becoming the covenant mediator and the trailblazer who leads his people into a better inheritance. Hebrews calls Christian believers, both of the early church and today, to hold fast to their faith even when faced with persecution and exclusion. It reminds us to cling to the eternal Son who offered his body and blood as the everlasting sacrifice for our sin.
Formerly distributed by Eerdmans Publishing Co., InterVarsity Press is pleased to begin offering this series as a compliment to the popular Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (TOTC). Like the TOTCs, the TNTC volumes are designed to help readers understand what the Bible actually says and what it means. The aim throughout is to get at the true meaning of the Bible and to make its message plain to readers today.",
"ISBN-13": "9780830829941",
"ISBN-10": "0830829946",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Hebrews: A Call to Commitment",
"Author": "William Lane",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 188,
"Tag": "religion, biblical commentary, biblical criticism & interpretation",
"Summary": "By surpassing most traditional commentaries, Lane's work unveils Hebrews as a sermon rendered by a concerned \"preacher\" to his Roman church, which is under persecution and dangerously close to rejecting the faith. As an exposition of encouragement and exhortation, Hebrews addresses the central concerns of our contemporary church as well: the felt absence of God, a climate of uncertainty and insecurity, the tension between secular conformity and spiritual maturity and the treat of societal perversion and materialism to a Christian commitment. Christians are called upon to express a faith that is rooted in the future and to continue this life of pilgrimage with a radical new view of reality, which is based on sure confidence in the intervention of God in daily life. Tracing the writer's development thought by thought, rather than verse by verse, careful attention is paid to the cultural and historical background. This work is useful as a study guide for groups and individuals, or for any reader who wishes a mature understanding of the book of Hebrews.",
"ISBN-13": "9781573832953",
"ISBN-10": "1573832952",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Repentance",
"Author": "J. C. Ryle",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 64,
"Tag": "social sciences, religion, christianity",
"Summary": "Except you repent, you will all likewise perish. – Luke 13:5
It is indifference that leaves people alone and allows them to go their own way. It is love, tender love, that warns them and raises the cry of alarm. The cry of “Fire! Fire!” at midnight might sometimes rudely, harshly, and unpleasantly startle a person out of his sleep, but who would complain if that cry was the means of saving his life? The words Except you repent, you will all likewise perish might at first seem stern and severe, but they are words of love, and they could be the means of delivering precious souls from hell.
1.The nature of repentance: What is it?
2.The necessity of repentance: Why is repentance needful?
3.The encouragements to repentance: What is there to lead people to repent?",
"ISBN-13": "9781622457472",
"ISBN-10": "B08XY3RMB3",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "A Crazy, Holy Grace: The Healing Power of Pain and Memory",
"Author": "Frederick Buechner",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 141,
"Tag": "medical, pain management, reference",
"Summary": "
When pain is real, why is God silent
Frederick Buechner has grappled with the nature of pain, grief, and grace ever since his father committed suicide when Buechner was a young boy. He continued that search as a father when his daughter struggled with anorexia. In this essential collection of essays, including one never before published, Frederick Buechner finds that the God who might seem so silent is ever near. He writes about what it means to be a steward of our pain, and about this grace from God that seems arbitrary and yet draws us to his holiness and care. Finally he writes about the magic of memory and how it can close up the old wounds with the memories of past goodnesses and graces from God.
Here now are the best of Buechner's writings on pain and loss, covering such topics as the power of hidden secrets, loss of a dearly beloved, letting go, resurrection from the ruins, peace, and listening for the quiet voice of God. And he reveals that pain and sorrow can be a treasure--an amazing grace.
Buechner says that loss will come to all of us, but he writes that we are not alone. Crazy and unreal as it may sometimes seem, God's holy, healing grace is always present and available if we are still enough to receive it.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310349761", "ISBN-10": "0310349761", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World", "Author": "James Davison Hunter", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 368, "Tag": "religion, philosophy, social science", "Summary": "The call to make the world a better place is inherent in the Christian belief and practice. But why have efforts to change the world by Christians so often failed or gone tragically awry? And how might Christians in the 21st century live in ways that have integrity with their traditions and are more truly transformative? In To Change the World, James Davison Hunter offers persuasive--and provocative--answers to these questions. Hunter begins with a penetrating appraisal of the most popular models of world-changing among Christians today, highlighting the ways they are inherently flawed and therefore incapable of generating the change to which they aspire. Because change implies power, all Christian eventually embrace strategies of political engagement. Hunter offers a trenchant critique of the political theologies of the Christian Right and Left and the Neo-Anabaptists, taking on many respected leaders, from Charles Colson to Jim Wallis and Stanley Hauerwas. Hunter argues that all too often these political theologies worsen the very problems they are designed to solve. What is really needed is a different paradigm of Christian engagement with the world, one that Hunter calls \"faithful presence\"-an ideal of Christian practice that is not only individual but institutional; a model that plays out not only in all relationships but in our work and all spheres of social life. He offers real-life examples, large and small, of what can be accomplished through the practice of \"faithful presence.¨Such practices will be more fruitful, Hunter argues, more exemplary, and more deeply transfiguring than any more overtly ambitious attempts can ever be. Written with keen insight, deep faith, and profound historical grasp, To Change the World will forever change the way Christians view and talk about their role in the modern world.", "ISBN-13": "9780199730803", "ISBN-10": "0199730806", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Basketball 100", "Author": "The Athletic, David Aldridge, John Hollinger", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 240, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, sports & recreation, basketball", "Summary": "
A celebration of basketball by way of the 100 greatest players to ever grace the court in the history of the NBA--from The Athletic's foremost basketball writers and analysts the game has to offer. With a foreword by Charles Barkley.
Over the course of 100 luminous player profiles, the best sports newsroom on the planet paints vivid portraits of the game's most compelling characters. There's George Mikan, who was cut from his high school team because he wore glasses, then went on to become the fledgling NBA's first transcendent star. Gary Payton, called \"The Glove\" for his skintight defense, who talked as much trash to his teammates as he did to his opponents on the court. Dennis Rodman, who started playing basketball at age 20, and in a few short years went from working as a janitor at the airport to being one of the strangest superstars that sport has ever known. Allen Iverson, who drew inspiration from hip hop for his inimitable style and swagger, on and off the court. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was so dominant in the paint that they changed the rules--and Steph Curry, who was so dominant outside it that he seemed to expand the very boundaries of the court.
The Basketball 100, edited by award-winning reporters David Aldridge and John Hollinger, also answers the game's toughest, most important questions: How should we weight championship rings, versus statistical profiles, versus the \"eye test\"? Were the great players of yesteryear, like Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, propelled by the inferior athleticism of their competition or would they have been transcendent in any era? And of course, who's the GOAT--MJ or LeBron? Speaking of GOATs, for the book, Hollinger (inventor of the statistical metric PER) has created a new benchmark, GOAT Points.
Wonderfully written, authoritative, and full of joy, The Basketball 100 is a fitting tribute to the greatest sport in the world.
", "ISBN-13": "9780063329126", "ISBN-10": "0063329123", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I love books like this. Partly because it's a great debate partner--is that guy really one of the best 100 players ever?It's a fun read. Not much thinking necessary.
Like a bunch of buddies sitting around making their top player ever list. Endlessly fascinating.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "What Did the Cross Achieve?", "Author": "J. I. Packer", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 136, "Tag": "religion, christian living, christian theology", "Summary": "
A Classic Essay on Penal Substitutionary Atonement from Theologian J. I. Packer
Penal substitutionary atonement--the belief that Jesus's death on the cross satisfied God's wrath against sin--is central to the Christian faith, but frequently debated. Is it just to punish an innocent person in place of the guilty? How can the temporary death of one substitute for the eternal death of many? Why doesn't the cross grant Christians unlimited permission to sin?
In this famous essay, late theologian J. I. Packer analyzes Scripture and the works of early Reformers to defend the truth of Christ's substitutionary suffering and death, the heart of the Christian gospel. Considered one of the most significant short works on penal substitutionary atonement from the 20th century, this careful, concise essay has influenced prominent theologians and is essential reading for students, pastors, and laypeople.
Burning pyres, nuns on the run, stirring courage, and comic relief: the Protestant Reformation is a gripping tale, packed with drama. But what motivated the Reformers? And what were they really like?
The Unquenchable Flame, a lively, accessible, and fully informative introduction to the Reformation by Michael Reeves, brings to life the movement's most colorful characters (Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, The Puritans, etc.), examines their ideas, and shows the profound and personal relevance of Reformation thinking for today.
Also included are a lengthy Reformation timeline, a map of key places in the Reformation, further reading suggestions, and, in this U.S. edition, a new foreword by 9 Marks Ministries president Mark Dever.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433669316", "ISBN-10": "1433669315", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Are We Together? A Protestant Analyzes Roman Catholicism", "Author": "R. C. Sproul", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 129, "Tag": "religion, christianity, catholic", "Summary": "In recent years, some evangelical Protestant leaders have signed statements pledging themselves to joint social action with Roman Catholics. Others have refused to participate, declaring that, in their view, the statements went too far, touching on the gospel, which remains a point of disagreement between Protestants and Roman Catholics. Many evangelical Christians have found themselves confused by the different directions taken by their leaders.
In Are We Together? A Protestant Analyzes Roman Catholicism, R.C. Sproul takes his stand for the cardinal doctrines of Protestantism in opposition to the errors of the Roman Catholic Church. Sproul, a passionate defender of the gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, cites the historic statements of the Protestant Reformers and the Roman Catholic authorities, then references modern doctrinal statements to show that the Roman Catholic Church has not altered its official positions. In light of this continuing gap, he writes, efforts by some in the evangelical camp to find common ground with Rome on matters at the heart of the gospel are nothing short of untrue to biblical teaching. In Sproul's estimation, the Reformation remains relevant.
Are We Together? is a clarion call to evangelicals to stand firm for the gospel, the precious good news of salvation as it is set forth in Scripture alone.
", "ISBN-13": "9781567692822", "ISBN-10": "1567692826", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Baseball 100", "Author": "Joe Posnanski", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 880, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, sports, sports & recreation", "Summary": "NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Winner of the CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the YearIf God is in control of everything, can Christians sit back and not bother to evangelize? Or does active evangelism imply that God is not really sovereign at all? J. I. Packer shows in this new edition to the popular IVP Classics how both of these attitudes are false. In a careful review of the biblical evidence, he shows how a right understanding of God's sovereignty is not so much a barrier to evangelism as an incentive and powerful support for it. With over 100,000 copies in print, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God is truly a classic that should be read by every Christian.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830837991", "ISBN-10": "083083799X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI", "Author": "David Grann", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "History", "Pages": 416, "Tag": "true crime, murder, history", "Summary": "#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history, from the author of The Wager and The Lost City of Z, “one of the preeminent adventure and true-crime writers working today.\"—New York Magazine • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NOW A MARTIN SCORSESE PICTUREFrom the telegraph and telephone in the 1800s to the internet and social media in our own day, the public has welcomed new communication systems. Whenever people gain more power to share information, the assumption goes, society prospers. Superbloom tells a startlingly different story. As communication becomes more mechanized and efficient, it breeds confusion more than understanding, strife more than harmony. Media technologies all too often bring out the worst in us.
A celebrated commentator on the human consequences of technology, Nicholas Carr reorients the conversation around modern communication, challenging some of our most cherished beliefs about self-expression, free speech, and media democratization. He reveals how messaging apps strip nuance from conversation, how \"digital crowding\" erodes empathy and triggers aggression, how online political debates narrow our minds and distort our perceptions, and how advances in AI are further blurring the already hazy line between fantasy and reality. Even as Carr shows how tech companies and their tools of connection have failed us, he forces us to confront inconvenient truths about our own nature. The human psyche, it turns out, is profoundly ill-suited to the \"superbloom\" of information that technology has unleashed.
With rich psychological insights and vivid examples drawn from history and science, Superbloom provides both a panoramic view of how media shapes society and an intimate examination of the fate of the self in a time of radical dislocation. It may be too late to change the system, Carr counsels, but it's not too late to change ourselves.
", "ISBN-13": "9781324064619", "ISBN-10": "1324064617", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Nicene Creed: What You Need to Know about the Most Important Creed Ever Written", "Author": "Kevin DeYoung", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 96, "Tag": "religion, christianity, history", "Summary": "Bestselling Author Kevin DeYoung Explores the History, Meaning, and Importance of the Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed is a fundamental text that Christians have memorized and recited in church services and personal prayers for centuries. Despite its deep roots, many believers today recite the creed as a routine, often without fully understanding its meaning and significance.
Part of the Foundational Tools for Our Faith series, this book delves into the origins, theological meaning, and modern relevance of the Nicene Creed. Each chapter provides insightful analysis of key terms and phrases within the creed. By examining the truths the creed affirms and the errors it opposes, bestselling author Kevin DeYoung aims to help readers recite this essential statement of faith with understanding and clarity.
The government is a vast, complex system that citizens pay for, rebel against, rely upon, dismiss, and celebrate. It's also our shared resource for addressing the biggest problems of society. And it's made up of people, mostly unrecognized and uncelebrated, doing work that can be deeply consequential and beneficial to everyone.
Michael Lewis invited his favourite writers to find someone doing an interesting job for the government and write about them in a special in-depth series for the Washington Post. The stories they found are unexpected, riveting, and inspiring, including a former coal miner devoted to making mine roofs less likely to collapse, saving thousands of lives; an IRS agent straight out of a crime thriller; and the manager who made the National Cemetery Administration the best-run organization, public or private, in the entire country. Each essay shines a spotlight on the essential behind-the-scenes work of exemplary federal employees.
Whether they're digitizing archives, chasing down cybercriminals, or discovering new planets, these public servants are committed to their work and universally reluctant to take credit. Expanding on the Washington Post series, the vivid profiles in Who Is Government? blow up the stereotype of the irrelevant bureaucrat. They show how the essential business of government makes our lives possible, and how much it matters.
", "ISBN-13": "9780241778876", "ISBN-10": "0241778875", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being", "Author": "Neil Theise", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Science", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "body, mind & spirit, inspiration & personal growth, science", "Summary": "\"An electrifying introduction to complexity theory, the science of how complex systems behave--from cells to human beings, ecosystems, the known universe, and beyond--that profoundly reframes our understanding and illuminates our interconnectedness. Nothing in the universe is more complex than life. Throughout the skies, in oceans, and across lands, life is endlessly on the move. In its myriad forms--from cells to human beings, social structures, and ecosystems--life is open-ended, evolving, unpredictable, yet adaptive and self-sustaining. Complexity theory addresses the mysteries that animate science, philosophy, and metaphysics: how this teeming array of existence, from the infinitesimal to the infinite, is in fact a seamless living whole and what our place, as conscious beings, is within it. Physician, scientist, and philosopher Neil Theise makes accessible this \"theory of being,\" one of the pillars of modern science, and its holistic view of human existence. He notes the surprising underlying connections within a universe that is itself one vast complex system--between ant colonies and the growth of forests, cancer and economic bubbles, murmurations of starlings and crowds walking down the street. The implications of complexity theory are profound, providing insight into everything from the permeable boundaries of our bodies to the nature of consciousness. Notes on Complexity is an invitation to trade our limited, individualistic view for the expansive perspective of a universe that is dynamic, cohesive, and alive--a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Theise takes us to the exhilarating frontiers of human knowledge and in the process restores wonder and meaning to our experience of the everyday\"--Publisher's website.", "ISBN-13": "9781954118256", "ISBN-10": "1954118252", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Does God Desire All to Be Saved?", "Author": "John Piper", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 64, "Tag": "religion, christian living, christian ministry", "Summary": " Are There Two Wills in God?
Divine Election and God's Desire for All to Be Saved
In this short, theological essay, John Piper builds a scriptural case that God's unconditional election unto salvation is compatible with God's genuine desire and offer for all to be saved. Helping us to make sense of this seemingly paradoxical relationship, Piper wisely holds both truths in tension as he explores the Bible's teaching on this challenging topic, graciously responds to those who disagree, and motivates us to passionately proclaim the free offer of the gospel to all people.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433537196", "ISBN-10": "1433537192", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71Zla1PWy0L._SL1500_.jpg" }, { "Title": "The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth", "Author": "Zoë Schlanger", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Nature", "Pages": 290, "Tag": "nature, plants, psychology", "Summary": "NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The New Yorker's Best Books of 2024 * TIME's 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024 * New York Magazine's 10 Best Books of the Year * Washington Post's 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction of 2024 * Smithsonian's 10 Best Science Books of the Year * A Best Book of the Year: Boston Globe, Scientific American, New York Public Library, Christian Science Monitor, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly * An Amazon Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
Longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Nonfiction Prize * Finalist for the Chautauqua Prize * Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize * Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History
\"A masterpiece of science writing.\" -Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass
\"Mesmerizing, world-expanding, and achingly beautiful.\" -Ed Yong, author of An Immense World
\"Rich, vital, and full of surprises. Read it!\" -Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White Sky and The Sixth Extinction
Award-winning Atlantic staff writer Zoë Schlanger delivers a groundbreaking work of popular science that probes the hidden world of the plant kingdom, \"destabilizing not just how we see the green things of the world but also our place in the hierarchy of beings, and maybe the notion of that hierarchy itself.\" (The New Yorker)
It takes tremendous biological creativity to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. In recent years, scientists have learned about their ability to communicate, recognize their kin and behave socially, hear sounds, morph their bodies to blend into their surroundings, store useful memories that inform their life cycle, and trick animals into behaving to their benefit, to name just a few remarkable talents.
The Light Eaters is a deep immersion into the drama of green life and the complexity of this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges our very understanding of agency, consciousness, and intelligence. In looking closely, we see that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a parallel system. What is intelligent life if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing and make its way toward it? Zoë Schlanger takes us across the globe, digging into her own memories and into the soil with the scientists who have spent their waking days studying these amazing entities up close.
What can we learn about life on Earth from the living things that thrive, adapt, consume, and accommodate simultaneously? More important, what do we owe these life forms once we come to understand their rich and varied abilities? Examining the latest epiphanies in botanical research, Schlanger spotlights the intellectual struggles among the researchers conceiving a wholly new view of their subject, offering a glimpse of a field in turmoil as plant scientists debate the tenets of ongoing discoveries and how they influence our understanding of what a plant is.
We need plants to survive. But what do they need us for--if at all? An eye-opening and informative look at the ecosystem we live in, this book challenges us to rethink the role of plants--and our own place--in the natural world.
", "ISBN-13": "9780063073852", "ISBN-10": "0063073854", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Sometimes I read books that, when I tell people I'm reading them, just sound weird. This is one of those.Have you ever wanted to read a book about plants? I didn't either, but then I picked this one up and I was fascinated. God's creation is just unbelievably cool. The way he created this world is, literally, awesome.
Plants are such a big part of this world and modern people spend so little time thinking about them, paying attention to them, or even growing and cultivating them. But they are vital to our life.
They are also so, so cool. It's almost like they have a brain, senses like us, maybe even emotions! That's what this book explores.
Is the grass outside your window more than just carpet? I just might be.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout",
"Author": "Cal Newport",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "Business",
"Pages": 256,
"Tag": "business & economics, time management, skills",
"Summary": "A New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and IndieBound bestseller
\"Brilliant and timely\" — Oliver Burkeman
~ Do Fewer Things. Work at a Natural Pace. Obsess over Quality. ~
From the New York Times bestselling author of Digital Minimalism and Deep Work, a groundbreaking philosophy for pursuing meaningful accomplishment while avoiding overload
Our current definition of “productivity” is broken. It pushes us to treat busyness as a proxy for useful effort, leading to impossibly lengthy task lists and ceaseless meetings. We’re overwhelmed by all we have to do and on the edge of burnout, left to decide between giving into soul-sapping hustle culture or rejecting ambition altogether. But are these really our only choices?
Long before the arrival of pinging inboxes and clogged schedules, history’s most creative and impactful philosophers, scientists, artists, and writers mastered the art of producing valuable work with staying power. In this timely and provocative book, Cal Newport harnesses the wisdom of these traditional knowledge workers to radically transform our modern jobs. Drawing from deep research on the habits and mindsets of a varied cast of storied thinkers – from Galileo and Isaac Newton, to Jane Austen and Georgia O’Keefe – Newport lays out the key principles of “slow productivity,” a more sustainable alternative to the aimless overwhelm that defines our current moment. Combining cultural criticism with systematic pragmatism, Newport deconstructs the absurdities inherent in standard notions of productivity, and then provides step-by-step advice for cultivating a slower, more humane alternative.
From the aggressive rethinking of workload management, to introducing seasonal variation, to shifting your performance toward long-term quality, Slow Productivity provides a roadmap for escaping overload and arriving instead at a more timeless approach to pursuing meaningful accomplishment. The world of work is due for a new revolution. Slow productivity is exactly what we need.",
"ISBN-13": "9780593544853",
"ISBN-10": "0593544854",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America",
"Author": "Kostya Kennedy",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "History",
"Pages": 304,
"Tag": "history, americas, united states",
"Summary": "
USA Today Bestseller
Timed for the 250th anniversary of one of America’s most famous founding events: Paul Revere’s heroic ride, newly told with fresh research into little-known aspects of the story Americans have heard since childhood but hardly understood
On April 18, 1775, a Boston-based silversmith, engraver, and anti-British political operative named Paul Revere set out on a borrowed horse to fulfill a dangerous but crucial mission: to alert American colonists of advancing British troops, which would seek to crush their nascent revolt.
Revere was not the only rider that night, and indeed, he had completed at least 18 previous rides across New England and other colonies, disseminating intelligence about British movements. But this ride was like no other, and its consequences in the months and years to come—as the American Revolution morphed from isolated skirmishes to a full-fledged war—became one of our founding legends.
In The Ride, Kostya Kennedy presents a dramatic new narrative of the events of April 18 and 19, 1775, informed by fresh primary and secondary source research into archives, family letters and diaries, contemporary accounts, and more. Kennedy reveals Revere’s ride to be more complex than it is usually portrayed—a loosely coordinated series of rides by numerous men, near-disaster, capture by British forces, and finally success. While Revere was central to the ride and its plotting, Kennedy reveals the other men (and, perhaps, a woman with information about the movement of British forces) who helped to set in motion the events that would lead to America’s independence.
Thrillingly written in a dramatic, unstoppable narrative, The Ride re-tells an essential American story for a new generation of readers.
The reality is that we will only be as full as the well we drink from, and many of us drink from very shallow wells indeed. This book is an invitation to every thirsty Christian, however weary and flat you are feeling, however weak and unworthy you consider yourself, to come to the waters and drink deeply.
You will do this as you contemplate the sight, the vision, that transforms from glory to glory.", "ISBN-13": "9781738432462", "ISBN-10": "1738432467", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Sola: How the Five Solas Are Still Reforming the Church", "Author": "Jason K. Allen", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 144, "Tag": "religion, christianity, protestant", "Summary": "
Discover why the fundamentals of the Reformation still matter today
Why do people get so excited about a bunch of Latin phrases, that some guys in Europe came up with 500 years ago? Sure, those five Latin phrases have defined Protestantism for those 500 years, but why do they matter today? To my church? For my life? What's the big deal about all these solas anyway? These ones:
Sola scriptura-Scripture alone
Sola fide-Faith alone
Sola gratia-grace alone
Solus Christus-Christ alone
Soli Dei Gloria-To the glory of God alone?
Sola is a winsome, inspiring introduction to these five pillars of the Reformation, showing not just what they are but why they're important for the Christian life today. Edited and compiled by Jason Allen, Sola will illuminate these core truths that have been reforming the church all along. And it may just get you excited about nerdy Latin phrases too.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802418739", "ISBN-10": "0802418732", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "What Is Wrong with the World? The Surprising, Hopeful Answer to the Question We Cannot Avoid", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 240, "Tag": "religion & spirituality, christian books & bibles, christian living", "Summary": "Beloved pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller offers a hope-filled answer to the question beneath every devastating headline and personal loss: What is wrong with the world?
Everywhere we look, we see brokenness--wars, cruelty, and heartache. We feel it in the world around us and in our own lives. How did it get to be this way?
During his tenure as founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, Timothy Keller explained on a weekly basis how the Bible provides the most comprehensive and sophisticated response to the fundamental questions of life. In What Is Wrong with the World?, based on a series of teachings given at Redeemer, Keller answers the title's pressing question by revealing that the only thing that can account for the world's pain and chaos is what the Bible calls sin. This clear-eyed and ultimately hopeful book reveals how sin is not simply a \"bad\" thing we do but something much more subtle and complex, affecting our relationships, our thinking, and every aspect of our existence. And only when we recognize sin for what it is can we find the profound, life-transforming answer our souls long for. What Is Wrong with the World? is for anyone who:
Today's battles across the globe and in our own hearts are not the end of the story. As Keller writes, \"If we stand any chance of answering the question of what is wrong with the world . . . we must begin with understanding the complexity and multifaceted nature of sin, and end with understanding the unfailing love of a God who chooses to save us from it. This book will show you how.\"
", "ISBN-13": "9780310370161", "ISBN-10": "0310370167", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Keller's latest comes posthumously, based on a sermon series about sin.Perhaps not the most popular topic, the doctrine of sin is vitally important to understanding our world and how the gospel of Christ makes a difference.
This is classic Keller, and it made me so happy to read a book with his name on it again. I've read or listened to some of these sermons before, but to have it all compiled into a book like this gives the world yet another great resource.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Counseling Under the Cross: How Martin Luther Applied the Gospel to Daily Life", "Author": "Bob Kellemen", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "religion, christian living, personal growth", "Summary": "
Martin Luther was not only a theologian, a writer, and a preacher, he was a pastoral counselor who longed for peace with God. Now, 500 years after he posted his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church, his teachings on gospel-centered and cross-focused pastoral care can transform our approach to soul care, and teach us that daring faith in Christ alone can change our life today and give us peace forever.
In Counseling Under the Cross, biblical counselor and noted author Bob Kellemen mines the riches of Luther's letters of spiritual counsel to give readers a new understanding of how Luther engaged in the personal ministry of the gospel. He guides pastors, counselors, lay leaders, and friends toward a deeper understanding of the gospel that will directly impact their personal ministry to others. Through lively vignettes, real-life stories, and direct quotes from Luther, readers will be equipped to apply the gospel to themselves and others, and learn that pastoral care is what every believer does in one-another ministry.
As one of the most influential figures in Christian history, Luther was not only the father of the Reformation, he was also the father of \"gospel-centered counseling.\" As sons and daughters in the faith, we have much to learn from him. Counseling Under the Cross equips us to apply the gospel richly, relevantly, and robustly to suffering and sin so that we find our hope and help in Christ alone.
", "ISBN-13": "9781945270215", "ISBN-10": "1945270217", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Martin Luther is not only one of the most important people in history, but also one of the most fascinating. By the end, he said some things I wish he didn't in ways I wish he hadn't, but he also said some things no one else could say in quite the same way.We know Luther as the great Reformer--that courageous and bold man that stood against the Catholic Church and her indulgences and for salvation through faith alone by grace alone in Christ alone.
But Luther was also a pastor. A good one. He cared about people.
The Reformation happened because he cared about people. He couldn't stand to see his parishioners believing their salvation hinged on such things as indulgences paid. So he pastored people closely and carefully, and counseled people all the time.
Kellemen's gift to us in this book is his distillation of Luther's counsel. It's a book you can't read once, because we don't live life all at once. It's one I plan to revisit often.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification",
"Author": "R. C. Sproul",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 264,
"Tag": "religion, biblical meditations, christian living, reformation, faith, sola fide",
"Summary": "What must you do to be right with God? The Reformers broke with the Roman Catholic Church when they insisted people are justified by faith alone. But today many Protestants fail to grasp that keystone of faith. In Faith Alone, a Gold Medallion finalist, R. C. Sproul explains why Protestantism and Roman Catholicism split over justification in the first place and why that division remains an uncrossed chasm. Protestants must understand the biblical, Reformation view of the doctrine of justification to grasp the power of the gospel and proclaim it far and wide today. This repacked edition of a classic offers a new generation of Christians a clear explanation of the vital doctrine of salvation.",
"ISBN-13": "9780801019494",
"ISBN-10": "0801019494",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Case for Traditional Protestantism: The Solas of the Reformation",
"Author": "Terry L. Johnson",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 182,
"Tag": "religion, christianity, protestant",
"Summary": "This is a timely piece of writing that argues passionately and persuasively for a serious reconsideration of the great scriptural principles that undergirded the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. Far from being outdated and irrelevant to the church today, Terry Johnson shows that these very principles are the essence of biblical Christianity. Sadly, the term 'Protestantism' has been rendered virtually redundant by years of misuse and abuse. it is seen as being antiquated and irrelevant in this present age of open-mindedness and political correctness. But Terry Johnson demonstrates that there is a powerful strong case to be made for the church to rediscover what this 'unpopular' and 'unfashionable' term really stands for. Using the great 'Reformation watchwords', he focuses our attention on Scripture, Christ, faith, grace and the glory of God in all aspects of daily life. Here is a well-written book, attractively presented and full of rich Bible teaching interspersed with thrilling illustrations from church history.",
"ISBN-13": "9780851518886",
"ISBN-10": "0851518885",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "What Is Reformed Theology? Understanding the Basics",
"Author": "R. C. Sproul",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "Theology",
"Pages": 272,
"Tag": "religion, christian theology, systematic",
"Summary": "An introduction to the distinctives of Reformed theology
There are a lot of misconceptions in popular culture and the church regarding Reformed theology. Some references to it are positive, some negative. It's time for a full, understandable explanation of what it really is and why it matters.
In this insightful book, R. C. Sproul walks you through:
● the foundations of the Reformed doctrine
● how the Reformed belief is centered on God, based on God's Word, and committed to faith in Jesus Christ
● the five points of Reformed theology, summarized by the popular acrostic TULIP
● the reality of God's amazing grace
What Is Reformed Theology? is an accessible introduction to the set of beliefs and concepts that have been immensely influential in the evangelical church.",
"ISBN-13": "9780801018466",
"ISBN-10": "0801018463",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence",
"Author": "Zeinab Badawi",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "History",
"Pages": 532,
"Tag": "history, africa, north",
"Summary": "
Already a major international bestseller, Zeinab Badawi's sweeping and much-needed survey of African history traces the continent's extraordinary legacy from prehistory to the present from the African perspective.
\"Equal parts gripping and galvanizing. . . . Researched across more than 30 countries, it brings the dazzling civilizations of pre-colonial Africa vividly to life. A book that feels both long-overdue--and wholly worth the wait.\" --British Vogue
Everyone is originally from Africa, and this book is therefore for everyone.
For too long, Africa's history has been dominated by western narratives of slavery and colonialism, or simply ignored. Now, Zeinab Badawi sets the record straight.
In this fascinating book, Badawi guides us through Africa's spectacular history--from the very origins of our species, through ancient civilizations and medieval empires with remarkable queens and kings, to the miseries of conquest and the elation of independence. Visiting more than thirty African countries to interview countless historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and local storytellers, she unearths buried histories from across the continent and gives Africa its rightful place in our global story.
The result is a gripping new account of Africa: an epic, sweeping history of the oldest inhabited continent on the planet, told through the voices of Africans themselves.
", "ISBN-13": "9780063335417", "ISBN-10": "0063335417", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "God's Healing for Life's Losses: How to Find Hope When Your're Hurting", "Author": "Robert W. Kellemen", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, christian living, death, grief, bereavement", "Summary": "Subtitled \"How to Find Hope When You're Hurting,\" the book provides real, raw, honest and hopeful conversation about suffering, loss and grief from a Christian perspective. The author is a seminary graduate as well as a trained counselor and educator, and the text of this 114-page gift-sized hardback reflects a solid underpinning of biblical truth and Trinitarian theology to its practical advice and keen insights. The book is endorsed by GriefShare, an organization which conducts Christ-centered grief support groups in thousands of communities. The author, Robert Kellemen, served more than a dozen years as chair of the Master of Arts in Christian Counseling and Discipleship department at Capital Bible Seminary, where he is now professor-at-large. In his three pastoral ministries, Kellemen has ministered to hundreds of grieving parishioners. He is also founder and CEO of RPM Ministries.", "ISBN-13": "9780884692706", "ISBN-10": "0884692701", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Certainty of Faith", "Author": "Herman Bavinck", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 90, "Tag": "religion, spirituality", "Summary": "\"When the intoxication in which we so often and so long live has passed, when joy is silenced and the conscience is awakened, when the mystery of life or the pain of suffering overtake us—then the thought of death and the grave, of judgment and eternity, impresses itself upon every mind; then none can persevere in their indifference or continue to hide behind a shield of neutrality. In this respect, men are better than we are sometimes inclined to think; there are no atheists, no men without heart or conscience. Or, to put it more accurately, God does not leave himself without a witness to anyone. Whether in the form of blessings or trials, God speaks to the conscience of each and every person.\" - from Bavinck's introduction. Over 100,000 Copies Sold Worldwide!
Preaching Survey of the Year's Best Books for Preachers
Why is God love? Because God is a Trinity.
Why can we be saved? Because God is a Trinity.
How are we able to live the Christian life? Through the Trinity.
In this lively book, we find an introduction to Christianity and the Christian life that is from start to finish rooted in our triune God—Father, Son and Spirit. Not only do we understand the person and work of Christ through the Trinity, but also prayer, the church and every aspect of our faith.
With wit and clarity, Reeves draws from church history down to the present referencing a wide range of notable teachers and preachers. Here is a rich and enjoyable portrayal of the basic beliefs of Christianity that opens up the profound and life-changing truths of our faith.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830839834", "ISBN-10": "0830839836", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "On Death", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 128, "Tag": "religion, christian living, biblical studies", "Summary": "From New York Times bestselling author and pastor Timothy Keller, a book about facing the death of loved ones, as well as our own inevitable deathThe Trinity is truly a mystery. This doctrine teaches that the God of Christianity is one in His essence but three in His persons--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Though the word Trinity is not found in the Bible, there is no doubt that the Scriptures teach this triune nature of God. Yet the concept still challenges our finite minds.
In this Crucial Questions booklet, Dr. R.C. Sproul carefully explains the doctrine of the Trinity, stressing that Christians worship one God who manifests Himself in three distinct persons. He shows what the Bible teaches and outlines the chief errors on this doctrine that have afflicted the church. Above all, he affirms that while this truth is difficult to understand, it is not contradictory. Rather, it is a beautiful expression of the biblical teaching on the nature of God.
", "ISBN-13": "9781567692594", "ISBN-10": "1567692591", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Luke 1-13: the Year of the Lord's Favour", "Author": "Dale Ralph Davis", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 264, "Tag": "religion, biblical commentary, new testament", "Summary": "Esteemed biblical scholar Dale Ralph Davis examines the treasure to be found in Luke's gospel. His humor and love for his Saviour shine through in this addition to the Focus on the Bible series. Taking a few verses at a time, the exegesis draws the reader into the fascination that Luke has for this man Jesus. Volume one covers chapters 1-13 of Luke, while volume two covers chapters 14-24.
", "ISBN-13": "9781527106383", "ISBN-10": "1527106381", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Luke 14-24: On the Road to Jerusalem", "Author": "Dale Ralph Davis", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 256, "Tag": "religion, biblical commentary, new testament", "Summary": "This layman's commentary on the gospel of Luke will encourage you to take a fresh look at what can feel like a very familiar book. Let Dale Ralph Davis to guide you through Luke's investigation into the man Jesus, who has come to seek and to save the lost. Following on from volume one, this book picks up at the beginning of chapter 14 and includes a number of Jesus' parables, as well as his crucifixion and resurrection.
", "ISBN-13": "9781527106420", "ISBN-10": "152710642X", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Personality and Worldview", "Author": "Johan Herman Bavinck", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Psychology", "Pages": 208, "Tag": "psychology, personality, religion", "Summary": "An Examination of Worldview, Worldvision, and the Soul by Dutch Reformed Theologian J. H. Bavinck, Translated into English for the First Time
Modern evangelicals differ on their concept of \"worldview.\" Many have varying definitions of it and some even consider it to be a wholly unhelpful term in understanding the world around them. This volume by Johan Herman Bavinck examines the relationship between the soul, each human's unique personality, and worldview--acknowledging the importance of worldview while recognizing the dangers if worldviews are misapplied.
Personality and Worldview by J. H. Bavinck, nephew and student of Dutch Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck, creates a distinction between a worldvision (which all people have) and a worldview (which only few have in a mature and wise way). Profoundly influenced by the works of St. Augustine, Bavinck challenges readers to allow the gospel to reshape their worldviews and their personalities as they pursue godly wisdom. Translated into English for the first time by James Eglinton, Bavinck's accessible prose, personal applications, and more will greatly serve pastors, students, and laypeople alike.
A National Bestseller
\"A modern classic, one we very much need right now.\" -George Saunders
From the acclaimed author of The Shepherd's Life, a magical work of nonfiction in which James Rebanks reflects on a life-changing summer spent on a remote island off the coast of Norway, where his only companion was an old woman who practiced the ancient tradition of collecting eiderdown from birds that nest on this remarkable landscape each year
We are all in need of lights to follow.
One afternoon many years ago, James Rebanks met an old woman on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild Eider ducks and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich but had long been in decline. Still, somehow, she seemed to be hanging on.
Back at home, Rebanks couldn't stop thinking about the woman on the rocks. She was fierce and otherworldly--and yet strangely familiar. Years passed. Then, one day, he wrote her a letter, asking if he could return. Bring work clothes, she replied, and good boots, and come quickly: her health was failing. And so he travelled to the edge of the Arctic to witness her last season on the island.
This is the story of that season. It is the story of a unique and ancient landscape, and of the woman who brought it back to life. It traces the pattern of her work from the rough, isolated toil of bitter winter to the elation of the endless summer light, when the birds leave behind their precious down for gathering, like feathered gold.
Slowly, Rebanks begins to understand that this woman and her world are not what he had previously thought. What began as a journey of escape becomes an extraordinary lesson in self-knowledge and forgiveness.
", "ISBN-13": "9780063434172", "ISBN-10": "0063434172", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Like the book on plants, here is another book that sounds weird when you tell people you're reading it.It's about a duck woman on the islands of Norway.
Yes, a duck woman in Norway.
Rebanks is a great nature writer, and in his latest, he takes us away from his English fell-land and into the small but important life of a Norwegian woman who spends her days caring for ducks.
Like Rebanks's family, this woman's ancestors passed down a certain life--one caring for ducks that come to nest for a few weeks on islands. They harvested the feathers to make down blankets and such.
It sounds like an odd thing to write a book about, but it's less about the ins and outs of duck-caring and more about the way life takes us to surprising places, and how the small things are actually the big things, how a life devoted to caring for other things ends up being a life that others care about knowing.
Rebanks is a great writer, and this is a great book.
It might be my favorite I read this year.", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Zorrie: A Novel", "Author": "Laird Hunt", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 176, "Tag": "fiction, family life, small town & rural", "Summary": "Finalist for the 2021 National Book Award (Fiction) “A virtuosic portrait.” –New York Times Book Review “A tender, glowing novel.” –Anthony Doerr, Guardian, “Best Books of the Year” “Pages that are polished like jewels.” –Scott Simon, NPR, \"Books We Love\" \"Lit from within.” -Mark Athitakis, Los Angeles Times, “Best Fiction Books of the Year” \"A touching, tightly woven story from an always impressive author.\" -Kirkus (starred review), “Best Fiction of the Year” “Radiates the heat of a beating heart.” –Vox “A poignant, unforgettable novel.” –Hernan Diaz From prize-winning, acclaimed author Laird Hunt, a poignant novel about a woman searching for her place in the world and finding it in the daily rhythms of life in rural Indiana. “It was Indiana, it was the dirt she had bloomed up out of, it was who she was, what she felt, how she thought, what she knew.” As a girl, Zorrie Underwood's modest and hardscrabble home county was the only constant in her young life. After losing both her parents, Zorrie moved in with her aunt, whose own death orphaned Zorrie all over again, casting her off into the perilous realities and sublime landscapes of rural, Depression-era Indiana. Drifting west, Zorrie survived on odd jobs, sleeping in barns and under the stars, before finding a position at a radium processing plant. At the end of each day, the girls at her factory glowed from the radioactive material. But when Indiana calls Zorrie home, she finally finds the love and community that have eluded her in and around the small town of Hillisburg. And yet, even as she tries to build a new life, Zorrie discovers that her trials have only begun. Spanning an entire lifetime, a life convulsed and transformed by the events of the 20th century, Laird Hunt's extraordinary novel offers a profound and intimate portrait of the dreams that propel one tenacious woman onward and the losses that she cannot outrun. Set against a harsh, gorgeous, quintessentially American landscape, this is a deeply empathetic and poetic novel that belongs on a shelf with the classics of Willa Cather, Marilynne Robinson, and Elizabeth Strout.", "ISBN-13": "9781635575378", "ISBN-10": "1635578434", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Zorrie is a novel that came out in 2021 and became a finalist for the National Book Award. It's deserving of that honor.
I read this over Thanksgiving break, and found myself up at night lingering over the story--not because it's remarkable but because it's ordinary.
It's the story of one woman's life in rural Indiana. As with all small towns, everyone is connected, and everyone matters. At times, it's heart-wrenching, because, at times, life is heart-wrenching. But overall, it's a beautiful story of one life in one town, and such stories captivate us because no matter who it is or where they live, there is something about everyone's story that is also our story.
Hunt's writing is wonderful. There is a simplicity and brevity to the book that pushes the story along so that we don't get bogged down in every detail. Yet there were times I wanted more. I didn't want the story to progress so rapidly. Life is like that sometimes too, isn't it? Some days, we wish it would slow down. Some days, we wish never happened. Some days never end because the events never leave you. And at the end of our life, we have a number of days spent in a number of ways--a whole life. And life, fictional or not, is beautiful.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "History Matters",
"Author": "David McCullough",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "History",
"Pages": 192,
"Tag": "history, americas, united states",
"Summary": "In this posthumous collection of thought-provoking essays—many never published before—Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and bestselling author David McCullough affirms the value of history, how we can be guided by its lessons, and the enduring legacy of American ideals.
History Matters brings together selected essays by beloved historian David McCullough, some published here for the first time, written at different points over the course of his long career but all focused on the subject of his lifelong passion: the importance of history in understanding our present and future. Edited by McCullough’s daughter, Dorie McCullough Lawson, and his longtime researcher, Michael Hill, History Matters is a tribute to a master historian and offers fresh insights into McCullough’s enduring interests and writing life. The book also features a foreword by Jon Meacham.
McCullough highlights the importance of character in political leaders, with Harry Truman and George Washington serving as exemplars of American values like optimism and determination. He shares his early influences, from the books he cherished in his youth to the people who mentored him. He also pays homage to those who inspired him, such as writer Paul Horgan and painter Thomas Eakins, illustrating the diverse influences on his writing as well as the influence of art.
Rich with McCullough’s signature grace, curiosity, and narrative gifts, these essays offer vital lessons in viewing history through the eyes of its participants, a perspective that McCullough believed was crucial to understanding the present as well as the past. History Matters is testament to McCullough’s legacy as one of the great storytellers of this nation’s history and of the lasting promise of American ideals.",
"ISBN-13": "9781668098998",
"ISBN-10": "1668098997",
"TopReads": "Yes",
"TopReadNotes": "David McCullough has been gone for a few years now, so it was great to hear some things he'd written that didn't make it into any of his many books.
McCullough was a great historian, and a great writer. It's the writing aspect of this book that I loved so much. It's a book about writing, even though it's a book about history.
McCullough wrote a lot about writing even as he went about writing. He loved it. He considered it the best job in the world. He couldn't wait to get to work every day. No wonder his books sold so well. People love a work that's been loved into creation.
This is a short book with short essays. It gives us another chance to hear from one of America's great historians--this time more about himself than anyone else.",
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck",
"Author": "Sophie Elmhirst",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "Biography",
"Pages": 256,
"Tag": "parenting & relationships, biographies & memoirs, survival",
"Summary": "THE RUNAWAY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER & ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2025
“This is nonfiction that reads like fiction – the best kind. Elmhirst’s retelling is a triumph, second only to the seemingly impossible feat of Maurice and Maralyn themselves. You won’t be able to put it down.” – USA Today
“Remarkable… I found myself, alternately, holding my breath as I read at top speed, wandering rooms in search of someone to read aloud to, and placing the book facedown, arrested by quiet statements that left me reeling with their depth.” – The New York Times
“Such an emotionally vivid portrait of a couple in isolation that I was shocked it wasn’t fiction. How could a writer get so deeply into the minds of two real people in such extraordinary circumstances? … So brilliantly depicted.” – Elle, Best Books of Summer
“A beautiful meditation on endurance, codependence, and the power of love. A dazzling book.” – Patrick Radden Keefe
“An enthralling, engrossing story of survival and the resilience of the human spirit.” —Bill Bryson
An instant New York Times bestseller, this is the electrifying true story of a young couple shipwrecked at sea: a mind-blowing tale of obsession, survival, and partnership stretched to its limits.
Maurice and Maralyn make an odd couple. He’s a loner, awkward and obsessive; she’s charismatic and ambitious. But they share a horror of wasting their lives. And they dream – as we all dream – of running away from it all. What if they quit their jobs, sold their house, bought a boat, and sailed away?
Most of us begin and end with the daydream. But in June 1972, Maurice and Maralyn set sail. For nearly a year all went well, until deep in the Pacific, a breaching whale knocked a hole in their boat and it sank beneath the waves.
What ensues is a jaw-dropping fight to survive in the wild ocean, with little hope of rescue. Alone together for months in a tiny rubber raft, starving and exhausted, Maurice and Maralyn have to find not only ways to stay alive but ways to get along, as their inner demons emerge and their marriage is put to the greatest of tests. Although they could run away from the world, they can’t run away from themselves.
Taut, propulsive, and dazzling, A Marriage at Sea pairs an adrenaline-fueled high seas adventure with a gutting love story that asks why we love difficult people, and who we become under the most extreme conditions imaginable.",
"ISBN-13": "9780593854280",
"ISBN-10": "0593854284",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Pilgrim's Progress",
"Author": "John Bunyan",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "Fiction",
"Pages": 236,
"Tag": "fiction, christian classics",
"Summary": "An allegorical account of Christian's journey toward heaven or hell",
"ISBN-13": "9781948481120",
"ISBN-10": "194848112X",
"TopReads": null,
"TopReadNotes": null,
"Cover URL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape",
"Author": "James Rebanks",
"Year Read": 2025,
"Category": "Nature",
"Pages": 304,
"Tag": "nature, animals, mammals",
"Summary": "
The New York Times bestseller and International Phenomenon
One of the Top Ten Books of 2015, Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times.
\"It's bloody marvelous.\" - Helen Macdonald, New York Times bestselling author of H IS FOR HAWK
\"Captivating... A book about continuity and roots and a sense of belonging in an age that's increasingly about mobility and self-invention. Hugely compelling.\" - Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Some people's lives are entirely their own creations. James Rebanks' isn't. The first son of a shepherd, who was the first son of a shepherd himself, his family have lived and worked in the Lake District of Northern England for generations, further back than recorded history. It's a part of the world known mainly for its romantic descriptions by Wordsworth and the much loved illustrated children's books of Beatrix Potter. But James' world is quite different. His way of life is ordered by the seasons and the work they demand. It hasn't changed for hundreds of years: sending the sheep to the fells in the summer and making the hay; the autumn fairs where the flocks are replenished; the grueling toil of winter when the sheep must be kept alive, and the light-headedness that comes with spring, as the lambs are born and the sheep get ready to return to the hills and valleys.
The Shepherd's Life the story of a deep-rooted attachment to place, modern dispatches from an ancient landscape that describe a way of life that is little noticed and yet has profoundly shaped the landscape over time. In evocative and lucid prose, James Rebanks takes us through a shepherd's year, offering a unique account of rural life and a fundamental connection with the land that most of us have lost. It is a story of working lives, the people around him, his childhood, his parents and grandparents, a people who exist and endure even as the culture - of the Lake District, and of farming - changes around them.
Many memoirs are of people working desperately hard to leave a place. This is the story of someone trying desperately hard to stay.
Dive into the godly wisdom of Proverbs with Zack Eswine's guide to living well.
The biblical book of Proverbs exemplifies how to live life on this earth in the best way possible. However, rather than giving us step-by-step instructions on how to live a more efficient, productive, and successful life, the ancient book of Proverbs encourages us to meditate on the person, posture and pace of wisdom.
In our pursuit of wisdom as Christians, we find that ultimate wisdom is embodied in Christ. We must pursue wisdom as we would a person, relationally and with love. The posture of wisdom is one of humility and teachability, and the pace of wisdom encourages meditation rather than immediate action.
In this valuable book, Zack Eswine shows us how these things play out in our everyday lives. He emphasizes the importance of relating wisely to people, including to ourselves, before considering how to grow wiser in life skills. But to grow wiser of heart, whether with people or with life skills, wisdom invites us to prayer and community. Biblical wisdom invites us to seek wiser hearts in communal rather than lonely ways.
This book is a treasure for anyone seeking to live life more wisely.
Contents
Introduction
Part 1: Relationally Wiser with Jesus
Part 2: Skillfully Wiser with Jesus
Postscript
", "ISBN-13": "9781527112230", "ISBN-10": "1527112233", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Land of Sweet Forever: Stories and Essays", "Author": "Harper Lee", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "literature & fiction, classics, genre fiction", "Summary": "From one of America's most beloved authors, a posthumous collection of newly discovered short stories and previously published essays and magazine pieces, offering a fresh perspective on the remarkable literary mind of Harper Lee.
Harper Lee remains a landmark figure in the American canon - thanks to Scout, Jem, Atticus, and the other indelible characters in her Pulitzer-winning debut, To Kill a Mockingbird; as well as for the darker, late-'50s version of small-town Alabama that emerged in Go Set a Watchman, her only other novel, published in 2015 after its rediscovery. Less remembered, until now, however, is Harper Lee the dogged young writer, who crafted stories in hopes of magazine publication; Lee the lively New Yorker, Alabamian, and friend to Truman Capote; and the Lee who peppered the pages of McCall's and Vogue with thoughtful essays in the latter part of the twentieth century.
The Land of Sweet Forever combines Lee's early short fiction and later nonfiction in a volume offering an unprecedented look at the development of her inimitable voice. Covering territory from the Alabama schoolyards of Lee's youth to the luncheonettes and movie houses of midcentury Manhattan, The Land of Sweet Forever invites still-vital conversations about politics, equality, travel, love, fiction, art, the American South, and what it means to lead an engaged and creative life.
This collection comes with an introduction by Casey Cep, Harper Lee's appointed biographer, which provides illuminating background for our reading of these stories and connects them both to Lee's life and to her two novels.
", "ISBN-13": "9780063460515", "ISBN-10": "0063460513", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Pastoral Song: A Farmer's Journey", "Author": "James Rebanks", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Biography", "Pages": 294, "Tag": "biography & autobiography, historical, history", "Summary": "The acclaimed chronicle of the regeneration of one family's traditional English farm
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Winner of the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing * Named \"Nature Book of the Year\" by the Sunday Times * New York Times Editors' Choice * Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize * A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Sunday Times, Financial Times, New Statesman, Independent, Telegraph, Observer, and Daily Mail
\"Superbly written and deeply insightful, the book captivates the reader until the journey's end.\" -- Wall Street Journal
The New York Times bestselling author of The Shepherd's Life profiles his family's farm across three generations, revealing through this intimate lens the profound global transformation of agriculture and of the human relationship to the land.
As a boy, James Rebanks's grandfather taught him to work the land the old way. Their family farm in England's Lake District hills was part of an ancient agricultural landscape: a patchwork of crops and meadows, of pastures grazed with livestock, and hedgerows teeming with wildlife. And yet, by the time James inherited the farm, it was barely recognizable. The men and women had vanished from the fields; the old stone barns had crumbled; the skies had emptied of birds and their wind-blown song.
Hailed as \"a brilliant, beautiful book\" by the Sunday Times (London), Pastoral Song (published in the United Kingdom under the title English Pastoral) is the story of an inheritance: one that affects us all. It tells of how rural landscapes around the world were brought close to collapse, and the age-old rhythms of work, weather, community and wild things were lost. And yet this elegy from the northern fells is also a song of hope: of how, guided by the past, one farmer began to salvage a tiny corner of England that was now his, doing his best to restore the life that had vanished and to leave a legacy for the future.
This is a book about what it means to have love and pride in a place, and how, against all the odds, it may still be possible to build a new pastoral: not a utopia, but somewhere decent for us all.
[Published in the United Kingdom as English Pastoral.]
", "ISBN-13": "9780063073272", "ISBN-10": "0063073277", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Float Up, Sing Down: Stories", "Author": "Laird Hunt", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 224, "Tag": "fiction, literary, short stories (single author)", "Summary": "Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
Laird Hunt's “revelatory (NYT)” story collection capturing one summer's day in the Indiana community where the beloved National Book Award Finalist Zorrie bloomed.
Candy Wilson has forgotten to buy the paprika. Turner Davis needs to get his zinnias in. Della Dorner told her mother she was going to the Galaxy Swirl, but that's not where she's really headed on her new Schwinn five-speed.
Float Up, Sing Down is the story of a single day. But in that day, how much teeming life! The residents of this rural town have their routines, their preferences, their joys, grudges, and regrets. Gossip is paramount. Lives are entwined. Retired sheriffs climb corn bins and muse on lost love, French teachers throw firecrackers out of barn windows, and teenagers borrow motorcycles to ride the back roads.
Each of the fourteen stories of Float Up, Sing Down follows one character's day in the life in one of Hunt's most beloved and enduring landscapes. In the tradition of Willa Cather, Sherwood Anderson, Elizabeth Strout, and Edward P. Jones, this is a symphony of souls, a masterful portrait of both loneliness and community by one of our great limners of American experience.
Even after Christendom, our culture is fertile ground for gospel renewal. We need apologetics for the whole church tailored to this moment.
Since the fall of Christendom, Christians in Western countries can no longer assume their neighbors share basic familiarity with the Bible or even a sense for God. We now face a strange mixture of apathy and antagonism toward the gospel. Some people view Christianity as yesterday's news. For others, it's the source of today's problems. Lately, though, more and more are open to the idea that Christianity may be tomorrow's hope.
Amid these confusing and conflicting shifts, we need apologetics for the whole church and not just for those who enjoy arguing. Cultural apologetics can help uncover opportunities to proclaim the gospel as the only way to fulfill longings for truth, beauty, and goodness. Churches that embrace this approach can be strengthened and renewed as they demonstrate an appealing and convicting way of life that stands out in the world.
In The Gospel after Christendom, scholars and practitioners from the Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics define cultural apologetics, explain its biblical and historical grounding, and demonstrate its importance for the church today. Their diverse viewpoints, united in the gospel, offer a balanced approach that can guide Christians to share the Good News with their neighbors in this challenging but exciting time.
With contributions from:
William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar’s life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments: marriage into a “proper” family estranges him from his parents; his career is stymied; his wife and daughter turn coldly away from him; a transforming experience of new love ends under threat of scandal. Driven ever deeper within himself, Stoner rediscovers the stoic silence of his forebears and confronts an essential solitude.
John Williams’s luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world..", "ISBN-13": "9781590171998", "ISBN-10": "1590171993", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "I'm not sure I've read a more well-written book, and I couldn't leave it off my best of list. I'm also not sure I love the story. Stoner is a man too stoic to be likable yet too realistic to be unfamiliar. He's a hero of the ordinary—a man who wanted more than life would give him, who didn't know how to articulate what his heart wanted, though his very occupation was steeped in literature. He lived a disappointed and disappointing life that, by the end of it, had a beauty that made it all worth it. The question we're left with at the end is Stoner's question to himself, \"What did I expect?\" In life, that's the question we are so often left with. As a Christian, this story is too steeped in stoicism for it to ring true to my heart, but there is an Ecclesiastes-ish wisdom in it. In the end, what is there to a life? For many, it's the moments along the way, the book that was written, the love that was had, the friends that were made. Does all that ultimately mean anything? Well, what do you expect? Stoner got what life could give him and no more. For those without God, that's the best they can hope for. But in Christ the answer is different. What do we expect? Far more than this life can give us. This is the kind of book that can, with the right focus, lift your eyes to the One who can fulfill the desires of your heart. ", "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "A Christmas Carol", "Author": "Charles Dickens", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 106, "Tag": "fiction, holidays, christmas, classics, ghost, british fiction", "Summary": "A new, beautifully laid-out, easy-to-read edition of the 1843 Charles Dickens classic.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a timeless holiday classic that has been enjoyed for generations. It tells the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly old man who is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve. Through this spiritual journey, Scrooge learns to let go of his past and embrace the joys of the holiday season. This beloved story is sure to bring warmth and cheer to readers of all ages. With its timeless message of redemption and joy, A Christmas Carol is the perfect book to bring out the spirit of the holidays.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English writer, novelist, and social critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time, having written some of the most famous works in the English language, such as A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and Oliver Twist. His works have been translated into more than 100 languages, and his stories have been adapted into countless plays, films, and television shows.
Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England, and lived in London for much of his life. He was the second of eight children and had a difficult childhood. He was forced to leave school at the age of twelve and start working at a factory to help support his family. Despite his difficult circumstances, Dickens was an avid reader and a talented writer. He began publishing his works in 1833, and quickly gained fame and popularity.
Throughout his career, Dickens wrote some of the most influential works of the 19th century, exploring themes of morality, poverty, and social justice. He was also an outspoken critic of Victorian-era injustices, particularly those experienced by the poor. His works were often seen as critiques of the social and political issues of his time.
Dickens' popularity has endured over the years and his works are still widely read today. His novels have been adapted and re-imagined countless times, and his characters and stories have become part of the English literary canon. He is remembered as one of the most influential authors of all time, and his works have shaped generations of readers.
", "ISBN-13": "9781712674215", "ISBN-10": "1712674218", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "The Correspondent: A Novel", "Author": "Virginia Evans", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Fiction", "Pages": 304, "Tag": "literature, fiction, episolatory", "Summary": "NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Discover the word-of-mouth hit hailed by Ann Patchett as “A cause for celebration”—an intimate novel about the transformative power of the written word and the beauty of slowing down to reconnect with the people we love.
“Masterful is the pace at which Evans fills in the blanks of her protagonist’s life.”—Frank Bruni, The New York Times
“I cried more than once as I witnessed this brilliant woman come to understand herself more deeply.”—Florence Knapp, author of The Names
LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE • A PBS TOP SUMMER BOOK • LIBRARYREADS PICK OF THE MONTH
“Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle. . . . Isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?”
Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime.
Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.
Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.
Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.", "ISBN-13": "9780593798430", "ISBN-10": "0593798430", "TopReads": null, "TopReadNotes": null, "Cover URL": null }, { "Title": "Everything is Never Enough", "Author": "Bobby Jamieson", "Year Read": 2025, "Category": "Theology", "Pages": 288, "Tag": "old testament, ecclesiastes, commentary, spiritual growth", "Summary": "WINNER OF THE CHRISTIANITY TODAY BOOK AWARD AND THE GOSPEL COALITION BOOK AWARD • How can you be happy? Who can show you the path to happiness? Pastor Bobby Jamieson shatters our illusions of what will make us happy and blazes a surprisingly simple trail to resilient joy.
“Bobby Jamieson brings an ancient text to bear on the challenge of living fully. The result is fresh, direct, and enlivening.”—Matthew B. Crawford, New York Times bestselling author of Shop Class as Soul Craft
Does it feel like you should be happy, and want to be happy, and try to be happy, but somehow you just can’t be happy? One way to be unhappy is not getting what you most want. Another way is to get all you could possibly want…only to discover that everything is not enough.
The writer of Ecclesiastes did it all. He had money, education, possessions, sex, and power—everything the modern world promises will bring joy—and yet he was never satisfied. And from his discontent, we benefit and find a surprisingly simple trail to lasting joy.
In this thoughtful exploration of Ecclesiastes, which speaks to all of us who feel restless and unfulfilled, Pastor Bobby Jamieson:
• teaches us how placing life on an eternal horizon empowers us to experience joy no matter our circumstances
• puts Ecclesiastes into dialogue with profoundly insightful critics of modernity to show that life in the modern West is a conveyor belt toward burnout
• helps us dismantle our false hopes one by one, clearing ground for true satisfaction
Poetic yet straightforward, philosophical yet accessible, Everything Is Never Enough frees us to stop grasping at broken promises and start receiving life as a gift of God’s grace.", "ISBN-13": "9780593601310", "ISBN-10": "0593601319", "TopReads": "Yes", "TopReadNotes": "Jamieson's latest wont the Christianity Today book award, and for good reason. Ecclesiastes is one of the most difficult to understand books in the Bible, but one of the most rewarding when understood rightly. Jamieson takes us inside the mind of the Preacher of Ecclesiastes and the wisdom he shares. This is a book well-worth your time that will help you grow in the Lord and in wisdom.", "Cover URL": null } ], "legacyTopReads": [ { "Year": 2020, "Title": "Midnight in Chernobyl", "Author": "Adam Higginbotham", "Category": "Nonfiction / History", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2020, "Title": "Revolutionary Love", "Author": "Festo Kivengere", "Category": "Theology / Christian Living", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2020, "Title": "The Possibility of Prayer", "Author": "John Starke", "Category": "Theology / Spiritual Formation", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2020, "Title": "Gentle and Lowly", "Author": "Dane Ortlund", "Category": "Theology / Christology", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2020, "Title": "Finding the Right Hills to Die On", "Author": "Gavin Ortlund", "Category": "Theology", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2020, "Title": "Handle with Care", "Author": "Lore Wilbert", "Category": "Theology / Ministry", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2020, "Title": "The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry", "Author": "John Mark Comer", "Category": "Christian Living", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2020, "Title": "The Message of Ecclesiastes", "Author": "Derek Kidner", "Category": "Bible Commentary", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2020, "Title": "He Descended to the Dead", "Author": "Matthew Emerson", "Category": "Theology", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2020, "Title": "Divided by Faith", "Author": "Michael Emerson & Christian Smith", "Category": "Sociology / Race", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2020, "Title": "The Epic of Eden", "Author": "Sandra Richter", "Category": "Biblical Studies", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2020, "Title": "The Lost City of Z", "Author": "David Grann", "Category": "Narrative Nonfiction", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2022, "Title": "Suffering Wisely and Well", "Author": "Eric Ortlund", "Category": "Theology / Suffering", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2022, "Title": "Ballplayer", "Author": "Chipper Jones", "Category": "Sports Memoir", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2022, "Title": "Welcome to Dunder Mifflin", "Author": "Baumgartner & Silverman", "Category": "Pop Culture", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2022, "Title": "East of Eden", "Author": "John Steinbeck", "Category": "Fiction", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2022, "Title": "Managing Leadership Anxiety", "Author": "Steve Cuss", "Category": "Leadership", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2022, "Title": "Simply Trinity", "Author": "Matthew Barrett", "Category": "Theology", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2022, "Title": "The Beginning of Wisdom", "Author": "Leon R. Kass", "Category": "Philosophy / Bible", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2023, "Title": "The Sisters Brothers", "Author": "Patrick deWitt", "Category": "Fiction", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2023, "Title": "Biblical Critical Theory", "Author": "Christopher Watkin", "Category": "Theology / Culture", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2023, "Title": "Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation", "Author": "Collin Hansen", "Category": "Biography", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2023, "Title": "The Creative Act", "Author": "Rick Rubin", "Category": "Creativity", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2023, "Title": "Generations", "Author": "Jean M. Twenge", "Category": "Sociology", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2024, "Title": "How to Know a Person", "Author": "David Brooks", "Category": "Psychology / Relationships", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2024, "Title": "The Boys of Summer", "Author": "Roger Kahn", "Category": "Sports / Baseball", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2024, "Title": "Belong", "Author": "Barnabas Piper & Ray Ortlund", "Category": "Church / Community", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2024, "Title": "The Anxious Generation", "Author": "Jonathan Haidt", "Category": "Psychology / Culture", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2024, "Title": "I Cheerfully Refuse", "Author": "Leif Enger", "Category": "Fiction", "Notes": "Best" }, { "Year": 2024, "Title": "How to Read a Book", "Author": "Adler & Van Doren", "Category": "Reading / Education", "Notes": "Rest" }, { "Year": 2024, "Title": "The Big Bang Theory (Definitive Story)", "Author": "Jessica Radloff", "Category": "Pop Culture", "Notes": "Rest" }, { "Year": 2024, "Title": "Blue Horses", "Author": "Mary Oliver", "Category": "Poetry", "Notes": "Rest" } ], "recommendations": [ { "Title": "18 Words: The Most Important Words You Will Ever Know", "Author": "J. I. Packer", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Gospel Doctrine", "Tag": "Foreign Language Study, Hebrew, Ancient Languages, Language Arts & Disciplines, Linguistics, Religion, Biblical Reference, Language Study, Christian Living, Theology", "Location": null, "Pages": 208, "Summary": "
If the modern world can be characterised by one thing it is probably the enormous increase in the number of words around - but that increase has also been accompanied by a seemingly corresponding decrease in understanding.
J. I. Packer is a master wordsmith. He is also gifted with the ability of showing where truth lies in complicated reasoning. These skills combine to make 18 Words a fascinating read - and a life-changing one.
Where have we come from?
Covering the 1st Century AD to the start of the Middle Ages, the first volume of 2000 Years of Christ's Power, this period in history establishes the foundations of what we take for granted today.
Every generation has an uncanny tendency to view themselves as more enlightened than those that have gone before. Looking at the early church, by being honest about their mistakes and drawing inspiration from their motivation, mission and momentum, Needham demonstrates that our ancestors offer valuable insights for us to glean from.
Delve into the works of Saint Augustine of Hippo and witness the first apologetic ever penned.
Featuring:
* The Jesus Movement - Christianity through the era of the Apostles
* The Apostolic Fathers, persecution, and apologetics
* Gnostics, Catholics and Montanists
* African Christianity
* The fall of Rome and Constantinople
Volume one of five. Academically reliable, the accessible humorous style and accompanying glossary means church history is a subject for everyone to benefit from.
\"It is a brave historian who tackles the extremely challenging task of writing the 2000-year history of the church. Nick Needham has more than risen to the challenge... well worth the wait\" - Michael A.G. Haykin, Professor of Church History, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
", "ISBN-13": "9781781917787", "ISBN-10": "1781917787", "ASIN": "1781917787", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "2,000 Years of Christ's Power Vol. 2 The Middle Ages", "Author": "Nick Needham", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Church History", "Tag": "Religion, Christianity, History, Theology, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 504, "Summary": "Were the Dark Ages as dark as we've dubbed them?
Exploring the hardship, oppression, crusades, and clergy of the Middle Ages (7th to 15th Century), Needham brings to light another side of the Middle Ages where Christ's power shines through. Christ's kingdom continues to be built through key figures such as Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas à Kempis, and John Wycliffe,
Far from stalled, stagnant, or stationary, this fiery season in church history is what sparked the Reformation.
Featuring:
Volume two of five. Academically reliable, the accessible, humorous style and accompanying glossary make church history a subject for everyone to benefit from.
\"It is a brave historian who tackles the extremely challenging task of writing the 2000-year history of the church. Nick Needham has more than risen to the challenge... well worth the wait\"- Michael A.G. Haykin, Professor of Church History, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
", "ISBN-13": "9781781917794", "ISBN-10": "1781917795", "ASIN": "1781917795", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "2,000 Years of Christ's Power Vol. 3 Renaissance and Reformation", "Author": "Nick Needham", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Church History", "Tag": "Religion, Christianity, History, Theology, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 616, "Summary": "
Colourful, divisive, and radical
Focussing in on the 16th Century, Needham shows us the progression of the Reformation era and the daring bravery of its figures. It's a period of history from which there are many lessons to be learnt--not least of all, the vibrancy of people's lives and the courage with which they faced death.
As the series continues, Neeham uncovers how attitudes of the Middle Ages provoked the Renaissance from which the passionate Reformation debates emerged. Follow the convictions and debates of key voices such as John Calvin, John Knox, Ulrich Zwingli, Martin Luther, William Tyndale and Ignatius of Loyola. Catholics, Calvinists, Lutherans, Anabaptists - our present-day divisions are rooted in the front-page headlines of the Reformation.
Featuring:
* The Renaissance
* The Reformation
* The English and Scottish Reformations
* The Catholic Counter-Reformation
* The Eastern Orthodox World
Volume three of five. Academically reliable, the accessible, humorous style and accompanying glossary make church history a subject for everyone to benefit from.
\"It is a brave historian who tackles the extremely challenging task of writing the 2000-year history of the church. Nick Needham has more than risen to the challenge... well worth the wait\"- Michael A.G. Haykin, Professor of Church History, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
", "ISBN-13": "9781781917800", "ISBN-10": "1781917809", "ASIN": "1781917809", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "2,000 Years of Christ's Power Vol. 4 The Age of Religious Conflict", "Author": "Nick Needham", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Church History", "Tag": "Religion, Christianity, History, Theology, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 688, "Summary": "
Turning the world upside down is a messy business.
Universal uncertainty was the aftermath of the Reformation. The Renaissance and Reformation were exciting times of learning and discovery - they pushed the boundaries of accepted thought. The centuries-old status quo had been turned on its head. Nothing was stable anymore. Conflict ensued.
This next instalment of 2,000 Years of Christ's Power spans from the 16th to the 18th century, Needham documents the birth and coming of age of English Protestantism, Scottish Presbyterianism, and French Catholicism. Perhaps few eras have had such a direct impact on the characteristics of our own period of history.
Featuring:
* Germany and the Lutheran Faith
* The Thirty Years' War
* The Arminian Controversy and the Synod of Dort
* Puritanism
* The Glorious Revolution
* Persecution in France
* Missionary movements
Volume four of five. Academically reliable, the accessible humorous style and accompanying glossary make church history a subject for everyone to benefit from.
\"It is a brave historian who tackles the extremely challenging task of writing the 2000-year history of the church. Nick Needham has more than risen to the challenge... well worth the wait\"- Michael A.G. Haykin, Professor of Church History, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
", "ISBN-13": "9781781917817", "ISBN-10": "1781917817", "ASIN": "1781917817", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "2,000 Years of Christ's Power Vol. 5 The Age of Enlightenment and Awakening", "Author": "Nick Needham", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Church History", "Tag": "Religion, Christianity, History, Theology, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 664, "Summary": "
How does man think?
Into the Age of Reason came the Evangelical revival through the voices of George Whitefield, John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards. Despite a societal cooling, the work of God through evangelical Preachers awakened and warmed the hearts of many. In every age, Christ's kingdom continues to conquer.
Needham brings us close to our most recent church history and uncovers the shifts in thought that radically altered society's relationship to reason and faith. With the Enlightenment, came a tide of social, economic, and political change that deeply affected the spiritual climate.
Featuring:
* Scientific Revolution
* Immanuel Kant: The philosopher of the Enlightenment
* The French Revolution
* Calvinist-Arminian controversy
* Presbyterianism in the Scottish Highlands
* The Great Awakening
* Russian Orthodoxy
The fifth and final volume. Academically reliable, the accessible humorous style and accompanying glossary makes church history a subject for everyone to benefit from.
\"It is a brave historian who tackles the extremely challenging task of writing the 2000-year history of the church. Nick Needham has more than risen to the challenge... well worth the wait\"- Michael A.G. Haykin, Professor of Church History, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
", "ISBN-13": "9781527109735", "ISBN-10": "1527109739", "ASIN": "1527109739", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "7 Myths about Singleness", "Author": "Sam Allberry", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Practical Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Christian Ministry, Counseling & Recovery, Pastoral Resources", "Location": null, "Pages": 176, "Summary": "
If marriage shows us the shape of the gospel, singleness shows us its sufficiency.
Much of what we commonly assume about singleness--that it is primarily about the absence of good things like intimacy, family, or meaningful ministry--is either flat-out untrue or, at the very least, shouldn't be true. To be single, we often think, is to be alone and spiritually hindered.
But the Bible paints a very different picture of singleness: it is a positive gift and blessing from God. This book seeks to help Christians--married and unmarried alike--value singleness as a gift from God so that we can all encourage singles to take hold of the unique opportunities their singleness affords and see their role in the flourishing of the church as a whole.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433561528", "ISBN-10": "1433561522", "ASIN": "1433561522", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "A Body of Divinity (Body of Practical Divinity)", "Author": "Thomas Watson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Reformed Theology", "Tag": "Theology, DOCTRINAL_HISTORY_17TH CENTURY", "Location": null, "Pages": 316, "Summary": "Makes up, with The Ten Commandments and The Lord's Prayer, Watson's Body of Practical Divinity.", "ISBN-13": "9780851513836", "ISBN-10": "0851513832", "ASIN": "0851513832", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael", "Author": "Elisabeth Elliot", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Biography", "Tag": "Biography, Religious, Women, Religion, Christian Ministry, Missions", "Location": null, "Pages": 384, "Summary": "Be inspired by a woman who dared to follow GodIs it possible we don't see God working in mighty ways because we don't ask him to work in mighty ways Throughout history, God has used revival to build and renew his church. God-Sized Vision challenges us to pray expectantly to see his work in our own day. God can bring revival again to our community, our country, and our world. Our faith grows stronger when we learn how God worked in the past. The historical stories of worldwide revivals in this book enlarge our hearts and expand our minds as we see God at work in human history with a power that is still available to the faithful today. Here scholars Collin Hansen and John Woodbridge recount the fascinating details of world-changing revivals, beginning with biblical events and continuing through the Reformation, the Great Awakenings, the Welsh and Korean revivals, the East Africa Revival of the 1930s, and more recent revivals in North America and China. What did these revivals have in common How can we prepare for--and expect--revival in our own culture With accessible language and gripping examples, Hansen and Woodbridge explore these questions and more, strengthening our understanding of God's work while deepening our faith in the possibility of revival--right where we are.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310519294", "ISBN-10": "0310519292", "ASIN": "0310519292", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "A History of Western Philosophy and Theology", "Author": "John M. Frame", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Philosophy", "Tag": "Philosophy, Religion, Theology, History", "Location": null, "Pages": 875, "Summary": "Christians should evaluate philosophy by biblical criteria. This will shed greater light on the developments in the history of philosophy and better prepare us for the intellectual challenges of our time. The fall of Adam brought intellectual as well as moral corruption on the human race, and the effects of the fall can be seen in the work of philosophers, most of whom try to understand the world autonomously--through reasoning apart from God's revelation. Some philosophers have appealed to God's revelation, but their work has often been compromised with the wisdom of the world. Revelation should inform reason, and not the other way round. In the past, even Christian theology was corrupted by the movement toward intellectual autonomy, creating the tradition of liberalism, which has unhappily dominated academic theology down to the present day. But there is hope--a new generation of Christian thinkers take God's Word seriously. Frame's unique new contribution augments that process.", "ISBN-13": "9781629950846", "ISBN-10": "162995084X", "ASIN": "162995084X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "A Lifting Up for the Downcast", "Author": "William Bridge", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Puritan Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Death, Grief, Bereavement, Christian Ministry, Counseling & Recovery", "Location": null, "Pages": 384, "Summary": "These thirteen sermons on Psalm 42:11, preached at Stepney, London, in the year 1648 are the work of a true physician of souls. In dealing with believers suffering from spiritual depression, Bridge manifests great insight into the causes of the saints' discouragements such as great sins, weak grace, failure in duties, want of assurance, temptation, desertion and affliction. A correct diagnosis is more than half the cure but Bridge does not leave his readers there. He gives directions for applying the remedy. For example in dealing with 'great sins' he says, 'If you would be truly humbled and not be discouraged; not be discouraged and yet be humbled; then beat and drive up all your sin to your unbelief, and lay the stress and weight of all your sorrow upon that sin.' The general causes of spiritual depression are the same in every age. Downcast Christians of the twenty-first century can find help here as surely as did past generations.", "ISBN-13": "9781848716858", "ISBN-10": "1848716850", "ASIN": "1848716850", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "A Meal with Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community, and Mission Around the Table", "Author": "Tim Chester", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Community", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, New Testament, Jesus, The Gospels & Acts, Christian Living, Family & Relationships, Christian Ministry, Evangelism, Missions", "Location": null, "Pages": 144, "Summary": "The meals of Jesus represent something bigger. They represent a new world, a new kingdom, a new outlook.
Tim Chester brings to light God's purposes in the seemingly ordinary act of sharing a meal--how this everyday experience is really an opportunity for grace, community, and mission. Chester challenges contemporary understandings of hospitality as he urges us to evaluate why and who we invite to our table. Learn how you can foster grace and bless others through the rich fare being served in A Meal with Jesus.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433521362", "ISBN-10": "1433521369", "ASIN": "1433521369", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World", "Author": "Paul E. Miller", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Prayer", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Personal Growth, Prayer", "Location": null, "Pages": 304, "Summary": "More than 500,000 copies sold! Updated and expanded!Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life offers a groundbreaking treatment of the Puritans' teaching on most major Reformed doctrines, particularly those doctrines in which the Puritans made significant contributions.
The book addresses Puritan teachings on all six loci of theology, covering fifty areas of doctrine. The book explores Puritan teachings on biblical interpretation, God, predestination, providence, angels, sin, the covenants, the gospel, Christ, preparation for conversion, regeneration, coming to Christ, justification, adoption, church government, the Sabbath, preaching, baptism, heaven, hell, and many other topics. It ends with eight chapters that explore Puritan \"theology in practice.\"
Some chapters highlight the work of a specific theologian such as William Perkins, William Ames, John Owen, Stephen Charnock, or Thomas Goodwin on a specific topic. Other chapters survey various authors on a particular subject. The goal of A Puritan Theology is to increase knowledge in the mind and godliness in the soul. It was written for theologians, historians, pastors, and educated laymen who seek to learn more about Puritan theology.
", "ISBN-13": "9781601781666", "ISBN-10": "1601781660", "ASIN": "1601781660", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life", "Author": "J. I. Packer", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Discipleship", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Christianity, History, Christian Ministry, Discipleship, Inspirational, Theology, Pastoral Resources", "Location": null, "Pages": 576, "Summary": "A Rich Vision for Christian Living from Great Puritan Leaders
A Quest for Godliness explores the depth and breadth of Puritan spiritual life. Drawing on a lifetime of study, renowned evangelical theologian and church leader J. I. Packer surveys the lives and teachings of great Puritan leaders such as John Owen, Richard Baxter, and Jonathan Edwards. He examines the Puritan view of the Bible, spiritual gifts, the Sabbath, worship, social action, and the family. The Puritans' faith, Packer argues, stands in marked contrast with the superficiality of modern western Christianity.
In a time of failing vision and decaying values, this powerful portrait of the Puritans is a beacon of hope that calls Christians to radical commitment and action, both of which are desperately needed today. Beautifully written, A Quest for Godliness is a moving and challenging exploration of Puritan life and thought.
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year
A Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A Tablet Best Book of the Year
Winner of a Christianity Today Book Award
“One finds big nuggets of insight, useful to almost anybody with an interest in the progress of human society.” —The Economist
What does it mean to say that we live in a secular age? Almost everyone would agree that we—in the West, at least—largely do. And clearly the place of religion in our societies has changed profoundly in the last few centuries. In what will be a defining book for our time, Charles Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean—of what, precisely, happens when a society in which it is virtually impossible not to believe in God becomes one in which faith, even for the staunchest believer, is only one human possibility among others.
Taylor, long one of our most insightful thinkers on such questions, offers a historical perspective. He examines the development in “Western Christendom” of those aspects of modernity which we call secular. What he describes is in fact not a single, continuous transformation, but a series of new departures, in which earlier forms of religious life have been dissolved or destabilized and new ones have been created. As we see here, today’s secular world is characterized not by an absence of religion—although in some societies religious belief and practice have markedly declined—but rather by the continuing multiplication of new options, religious, spiritual, and anti-religious, which individuals and groups seize on in order to make sense of their lives and give shape to their spiritual aspirations.
What this means for the world—including the new forms of collective religious life it encourages, with their tendency to a mass mobilization that breeds violence—is what Charles Taylor grapples with, in a book as timely as it is timeless.
Many Christians struggle with prayer even though it's an essential part of the Christian life. \"What should I pray for?\" they may wonder. \"How should I pray?\" \"What if my mind wanders?\" \"What if I get stuck praying the same thing every day?\"
When asked by his barber and good friend Peter Beskendorf for some practical guidance on how to pray, Martin Luther responded by writing this brief treatise, first published in 1535. This edition is a modern translation that brings us Luther's practical instruction, using his ITCP method:
This method anchors prayer in the catechism or other biblical texts, but allows the Holy Spirit to prompt thoughts via the Word, which may be chased more freely by the mind at prayer. Readers will find their prayer lives refreshed and invigorated as they become more comfortable raising supplications to God.
", "ISBN-13": "9780758640338", "ISBN-10": "0758640331", "ASIN": "0758640331", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997", "Author": "Wendell Berry", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Poetry", "Tag": "Fiction, Small Town & Rural, Religious, Family Life", "Location": null, "Pages": 240, "Summary": "Berry’s Sabbath Poems embrace much that is elemental to human life—beauty, death, peace, and hope. In his preface, Berry writes about the growing audience for public poetry readings. While he sees poetry in the public eye as a good thing, Berry asks us to recognize the private life of the poem. These Sabbath Poems were written \"\"in silence, in solitude, and mainly out of doors,\"\" and tell us about \"\"moments when heart and mind are open and aware.\"The massive diversity and complexity of the Bible can make it a daunting project for anyone to tackle. Getting a grasp on the unity of the Bible, its central message from Genesis to Revelation, helps immensely in understanding the meaning of any one book or passage. That is the goal of this book by Graeme Goldsworthy.
Goldsworthy answers these questions with an integrated theology of both Old and New Testaments that avoids unnecessary technicalities. Concise, pithy chapters featuring dozens of charts, highlighted summaries and study questions make According to Plan an enormously useful book for understanding how the Bible fits together as the unfolding story of God's plan for salvation.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830826964", "ISBN-10": "0830826963", "ASIN": "0830826963", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Addictions-A Banquet in the Grave: Finding Hope in the Power of the Gospel", "Author": "Edward T. Welch", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Addiction", "Tag": "Psychology, Psychopathology, Addiction, Religion, Christian Living, Inspirational, Self-Help, Substance Abuse & Addictions, Alcohol", "Location": null, "Pages": 298, "Summary": "A worship disorder: this is how Edward T. Welch views addictions. Will we worship ourselves and our own desires, he writes, or will we worship the true God? With this lens the author discovers far more in Scripture on addictions than passages on drunkenness. There we learn the addict's true condition: like guests at a banquet thrown by the woman Folly, he is already in the grave (Prov. 9:13-18). Can we not escape our addictions? If we're willing to follow Jesus, the author says we have immense hope hope in God's forgiving grace, hope in God's love that is faithful even when we are not, and hope that God can give power so that we are no longer mastered by the addiction. Each chapter concludes with Practical Theology, guidance As You Face Your Own Addictions and As You Help Someone Else.", "ISBN-13": "9780875526065", "ISBN-10": "0875526063", "ASIN": "0875526063", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches", "Author": "Russell Moore", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Adoption", "Tag": "Family & Relationships, Adoption & Fostering, Religion, Christian Living, Social Issues, Sexuality & Gender Studies, Christian Ministry, Children", "Location": null, "Pages": 256, "Summary": "The doctrine of adoption--God's decision to adopt sinful men and women into his family--stands at the heart of Christianity. In light of this, Christians' efforts to adopt beautifully illustrate the truth of the gospel. In this popular-level and practical manifesto, Russell Moore encourages Christians to adopt children and to help other Christian families to do the same. He shows that adoption is not just about couples who have struggled to have children. Rather, it's about an entire culture within evangelicalism--a culture that sees adoption as part of the Great Commission mandate and as a sign of the gospel itself.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433549212", "ISBN-10": "1433549212", "ASIN": "1433549212", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making", "Author": "Andrew Peterson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Art", "Tag": "Biography, Music, Reference, Instruction & Study, Theory, Religion, Christian Living, Personal Growth, Theology, Systematic, Self-Help, Creativity", "Location": null, "Pages": 224, "Summary": "From the bestselling author of The Wingfeather Saga and award-winning musician and storyteller, Andrew Peterson.Now with a new foreword by Rosalie De Rosset.
C. H. Spurgeon writes, \"Only God can justify the ungodly, but He can do it to perfection. He casts our sins behind His back; He blots them out. He says that though they be sought for, they shall not be found.\"
In an age of limited travel and isolated nations, C.H. Spurgeon preached to over 10,000,000 people in person--sometimes up to 10 times per week. It is in this classic work that Spurgeon most clearly presents the message of salvation--man's ultimate need and God's unique provision--both simply and sincerely, for honest seekers and zealous witnesses alike.
Winner of the 2018 TGC Book Award for Christian Living
\"And God saw that it was good...\"
Look out over the world today, it seems a far cry from God's original declaration. Pain, conflict, and uncertainty dominate the headlines. Our daily lives are noisy and chaotic--filled with too much information and too little wisdom. No wonder we often find it easier to retreat into safe spaces, hunker down in likeminded tribes, and just do our best to survive life.
But what if God wants you to do more than simply survive? What if he wants you to thrive in this world, and be part of its redemption? What if you could rediscover the beauty and goodness God established in the beginning?
By learning the lost art of discernment, you can. Discernment is more than simply avoiding bad things; discernment actually frees you to navigate the world with confidence and joy by teaching you how to recognize and choose good things. When you learn discernment and develop a taste for all that's good, you will encounter God in remarkable new ways. Come, discover the God who not only made all things, but who will also make all things good once again.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802418555", "ISBN-10": "0802418554", "ASIN": "0802418554", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "All Things for Good", "Author": "Thomas Watson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Puritan Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, New Testament, Paul'S Letters, Christian Living, Sermons, Christian", "Location": null, "Pages": 128, "Summary": "Thomas Watson's book All Things For Good provides the biblical answer to the contemporary question; Why do bad things happen to good people? Thomas Watson, the 17th century minister of St. Stephen's Walbrook, believed he faced two great difficulties in his pastoral ministry. The first was making the unbeliever sad, in the recognition of his need of God's grace. The second was making the believer joyful in response to God's grace. He believed the answer to the second difficulty could be found in Paul's teaching in Romans 8.28: God works all things together for good for his people. First published in 1663 (under the title A Divine Cordial), the year after Watson and some two thousand other ministers were ejected from the Church of England and exposed to hardship and suffering, All Things For Good contains the rich exposition of a man who lived when only faith in God's Word could lead him to such confidence. Thomas Watson's exposition is always simple, illuminating and rich in practical application. He explains that both the best and the worst experiences work for the good of God's people. He carefully analyses what it means to be someone who 'loves God' and is 'called according to his purpose'.", "ISBN-13": "9781800401068", "ISBN-10": "180040106X", "ASIN": "180040106X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "An Introduction to the New Testament", "Author": "D. A. Carson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Bible Introduction", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, New Testament, Biblical Studies", "Location": null, "Pages": 781, "Summary": "An Introduction to the New Testament focuses on 'special introduction' that is historical questions dealing with authorship, date, sources, purpose, destination, and so forth. This approach stands in contrast to recent texts that concentrate more on literary form, rhetorical criticism, and historical parallels---topics the authors don't minimize, but instead think are better given extended treatment in exegesis courses. By refocusing on the essentials, An Introduction to the New Testament ensures that the New Testament books will be accurately understood within historical settings. For each New Testament document, the authors also provide a substantial summary of that book's content, discuss the book's theological contribution to the overall canon, and give an account of current studies on that book, including recent literary and social-science approaches to interpretation. This second edition reflects significant revision and expansion from the original, making this highly acclaimed text even more valuable. * A new chapter provides a historical survey examining Bible study method through the ages. * The chapter on Paul has been expanded to include an analysis of debates on the 'new perspective.' * The discussion of New Testament epistles has been expanded to form a new chapter. This new edition will help a new generation of students better grasp the message of the New Testament.", "ISBN-13": "9780310238591", "ISBN-10": "0310238595", "ASIN": "0310238595", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "An Introduction to the Old Testament", "Author": "Tremper Longman", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Bible Introduction", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, Old Testament, Biblical Studies", "Location": null, "Pages": 528, "Summary": "This second edition of An Introduction to the Old Testament integrates and interacts with recent developments in Old Testament scholarship. Several distinctive set it apart from other introductions to the Old Testament: * It is thoroughly evangelical in its perspective * It emphasizes 'special introduction'---the study of individual books * It interacts in an irenic spirit with the historical-critical method * It features points of research history and representative scholars rather than an exhaustive treatment of past scholarship * It deals with the meaning of each book, not in isolation but in a canonical context * It probes the meaning of each book in the setting of its culture Including callouts, charts, and graphs, this text is written with an eye on understanding the nature of Old Testament historiography. This upper-level introduction to the Old Testament offers students a solid understanding of three key issues: historical background, literary analysis, and theological message.", "ISBN-13": "9780310263418", "ISBN-10": "0310263417", "ASIN": "0310263417", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Apologetics: A Justification of Christian Belief", "Author": "John M. Frame", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Apologetics", "Tag": "Religion, Theology, Apologetics", "Location": null, "Pages": 328, "Summary": "Renowned theologian John Frame sheds much-needed light on the message and method of genuinely Christian apologetics in this landmark title. He insightfully examines apologetics in terms of proof, defense, and offense and clarifies the relationships of reason, proofs, and evidences to faith, biblical authority, and the lordship of Christ. Two subjects of particular note are Frame's fresh look at probability arguments and a stimulating investigation into the problem of evil. Some of the most valuable elements of this book are Frame's extensive use of Scripture and his presentation of specific lines of argument. There is also a model dialogue in the concluding chapter that shows how these lines of argument work in conversation. This is an extensively redeveloped and expanded version of Frame's previous work, Apologetics to the Glory of God.", "ISBN-13": "9781596389380", "ISBN-10": "1596389389", "ASIN": "1596389389", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Apologetics at the Cross: An Introduction for Christian Witness", "Author": "Joshua D. Chatraw", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Apologetics", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Christian Ministry, Evangelism, Theology, Apologetics, Pastoral Resources, Faith", "Location": null, "Pages": 336, "Summary": "2019 Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year: Apologetics * 2018 The Gospel Coalition Book Award: Evangelism & Apologetics
Apologetics at the Cross describes a much-needed approach to defending Christianity that uses Jesus as a model and the letter of 1 Peter as a guiding text.
This is a guidebook for how to defend Christianity with Christ-like gentleness and respect toward those who persecute the faith, making you a stronger witness to the good news of the gospel than many other apologetics books that focus on crafting unbreachable arguments.
Joshua D. Chatraw and Mark D. Allen first provide an introduction to the rich field of apologetics and Christian witness, acquainting students and lay learners with the rich history, biblical foundation, and ongoing relevance of apologetics. Unique in its approach, Apologetics at the Cross:
But their approach pays special attention to the attitude and posture of the apologist, outlining instructions for the Christian community centered on reasoned answers, a humble spirit, and joy; rather than anger, arrogance, and aggression. Chatraw and Allen equip Christians to engage skeptics with the heart as well as the mind.
Conversational in tone and balanced in approach, Apologetics at the Cross provides a readable introduction to the field of apologetics. You'll be informed and equipped for engaging a wide range of contemporary challenges with the best in Christian thought.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310524687", "ISBN-10": "0310524687", "ASIN": "0310524687", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Augustine of Hippo: A Biography", "Author": "Peter Brown", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Biography", "Tag": "Biography, Religious, History, Ancient, World, Religion, Christianity, Antiquities & Archaeology", "Location": null, "Pages": 548, "Summary": "This classic biography was first published forty-five years ago and has since established itself as the standard account of Saint Augustine's life and teaching.World-renowned preacher John Stott in this book clearly defines both the fundamental claims of Christianity and the proper out-workings of those basic beliefs in the daily lives of believers. Stott's Basic Christianity is a sound, sensible guide for anyone seeking an intellectually satisfying presentation of the Christian faith.
Named one of the Top 100 Books of the Millennium by World magazine and listed among Christianity Today's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century, Basic Christianity has informed the faith of countless readers worldwide.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802875518", "ISBN-10": "0802875513", "ASIN": "0802875513", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Belong: Loving Your Church by Reflecting Christ to One Another", "Author": "Barnabas Piper", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Community", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Education, Theology, Ecclesiology, Christian Ministry, Pastoral Resources, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 128, "Summary": "Author Barnabas Piper states in the first chapter of his book:
\"We are looking for something personal, something deeply meaningful, something with which we can identify. And this book is an invitation to find that in the church, because God wants us to ...Part of God's perfect strategy is offering hurting, tired, worn out, needy sinners like you and me a place to belong in ... A place in which to encounter the profound, transformative, healing, restoring grace of Jesus Christ.\"
This book explores how you can help to create a church where everybody feels at home: a place where fellow believers build genuine, honest, meaningful Christian relationships and enjoy deep fellowship as a community of believers.
Readers will come to see that belonging to a church is a good gift from God, the outworking of our identity as brothers and sisters in Christ, and worth your time, love and commitment.
",
"ISBN-13": "9781784988227",
"ISBN-10": "1784988227",
"ASIN": "1784988227",
"Genre": "Christianity",
"Recommended For": null,
"CoverURL": null
},
{
"Title": "Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture",
"Author": "Christopher Watkin",
"FormatID": null,
"Format": null,
"Reading Level": "Advanced",
"Category": "Worldview",
"Tag": "Religion, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, Biblical Studies, Exegesis & Hermeneutics, Christian Education, Christian Living, Social Issues, Theology, Apologetics, Social Science, Sociology Of Religion",
"Location": null,
"Pages": 672,
"Summary": "
*With a foreword from Tim Keller*
A bold vision for Christians who want to engage the world in a way that is biblically faithful and culturally sensitive.
In Biblical Critical Theory, Christopher Watkin shows how the Bible and its unfolding story help us make sense of modern life and culture.
Critical theories exist to critique what we think we know about reality and the social, political, and cultural structures in which we live. In doing so, they make visible the values and beliefs of a culture in order to scrutinize and change them.
Biblical Critical Theory exposes and evaluates the often-hidden assumptions and concepts that shape late-modern society, examining them through the lens of the biblical story running from Genesis to Revelation, and asking urgent questions like:
Informed by the biblical-theological structure of Saint Augustine's magisterial work The City of God (and with extensive diagrams and practical tools), Biblical Critical Theory shows how the patterns of the Bible's storyline can provide incisive, fresh, and nuanced ways of intervening in today's debates on everything from science, the arts, and politics to dignity, multiculturalism, and equality. You'll learn the moves to make and the tools to use in analyzing and engaging with all sorts of cultural artifacts and events in a way that is both biblically faithful and culturally relevant.
It is not enough for Christians to explain the Bible to the culture or cultures in which we live. We must also explain the culture in which we live within the framework and categories of the Bible, revealing how the whole of the Bible sheds light on the whole of life.
If Christians want to speak with a fresh, engaging, and dynamic voice in the marketplace of ideas today, we need to mine the unique treasures of the distinctive biblical storyline.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310128724", "ISBN-10": "0310128722", "ASIN": "0310128722", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments", "Author": "Geerhardus Vos", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Biblical Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, Theology", "Location": null, "Pages": 426, "Summary": "The aim of this book is no less than to provide an account of the unfolding of the mind of God in history, through the successive agents of his special revelation. Vos handles this under three main divisions: the Mosaic epoch of revelation, the prophetic epoch of revelation, and the New Testament. Such an historical approach is not meant to supplant the work of the systematic theologian; nevertheless, the Christian gospel is inextricably bound up with history, and the biblical theologian thus seeks to highlight the uniqueness of each biblical document in that succession. The rich variety of Scripture is discovered anew as the progressive development of biblical themes is explicated.--", "ISBN-13": "9781848714328", "ISBN-10": "1848714327", "ASIN": "1848714327", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Biblical Theology: How the Church Faithfully Teaches the Gospel", "Author": "Nick Roark", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Biblical Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Ministry, Pastoral Resources, Theology, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 160, "Summary": "Throughout the history of the church, Christians have always had to contend with the influence of unbiblical teachings related to God, humanity, and salvation. One of the most important safeguards against all forms of heresy is a robust appreciation for biblical theology--reading the Bible in a way that takes into account the whole storyline of redemptive history. Exhorting pastors and other church leaders to prioritize biblical theology in their own congregations, this book explains basic principles for reading the Bible that help pastors teach the big story of the Bible from every text. Understanding the Bible in Christ-centered terms shapes the church's teaching and mission, and protects the truth of the gospel around the world.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433556067", "ISBN-10": "1433556065", "ASIN": "1433556065", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The 1662 Book of Common Prayer", "Author": "Samuel L. Bray", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Prayer", "Tag": "Religion, Prayerbooks, Christian, Christianity, Anglican, Christian Rituals & Practice", "Location": null, "Pages": 832, "Summary": "IVP Readers' Choice Award
The Book of Common Prayer (1662) is one of the most beloved liturgical texts in the Christian church, and remains a definitive expression of Anglican identity today. It is still widely used around the world, in public worship and private devotion, and is revered for both its linguistic and theological virtues.
But the classic text of the 1662 prayer book presents several difficulties for contemporary users, especially those outside the Church of England. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Edition gently updates the text for contemporary use. State prayers of England have been replaced with prayers that can be used regardless of nation or polity. Obscure words and phrases have been modestly revised—but always with a view towards preserving the prayer book's own cadence. Finally, a selection of treasured prayers from later Anglican tradition has been appended.
The 1662 prayer book remains a vital resource today, both in the Anglican Communion and for Christians everywhere. Here it is presented for continued use for today's Christians throughout the world.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830841929", "ISBN-10": "083084192X", "ASIN": "083084192X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Bringing the Gospel Home: Witnessing to Family Members, Close Friends, and Others Who Know You Well", "Author": "Randy Newman", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Evangelism", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Family & Relationships, Christian Ministry, Evangelism, Missions", "Location": null, "Pages": 224, "Summary": "Jesus is off limits for a lot of families and friends--or at least that's how it appears sometimes. Why does sharing the good news with a stranger often feel less frightening than telling those you love most?
For the vast majority of Christians, evangelism does not come naturally. We find ourselves sounding like someone we're not or beating ourselves up for not being bold enough, smart enough, or quick enough.
Randy Newman understands the complexity and consequences of this all-important task. As a messianic Jew who has led several family members to Christ, he gives insights from the Scriptures, stories of others who have learned some lessons along the way, and specific steps you can take to make progress in engaging with others.
Bringing the Gospel Home will help any Christian seeking to guide loved ones into the family of God.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433513718", "ISBN-10": "1433513714", "ASIN": "1433513714", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Can We Trust the Gospels?", "Author": "Peter J. Williams", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Biblical Apologetics", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, New Testament, Jesus, The Gospels & Acts, Christian Church, Canon & Ecclesiastical Law, Theology, Apologetics", "Location": null, "Pages": 160, "Summary": "Is there evidence to believe the Gospels?
The Gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke, John--are four accounts of Jesus's life and teachings while on earth. But should we accept them as historically accurate? What evidence is there that the recorded events actually happened?
Presenting a case for the historical reliability of the Gospels, New Testament scholar Peter Williams examines evidence from non-Christian sources, assesses how accurately the four biblical accounts reflect the cultural context of their day, compares different accounts of the same events, and looks at how these texts were handed down throughout the centuries. Everyone from the skeptic to the scholar will find powerful arguments in favor of trusting the Gospels as trustworthy accounts of Jesus's earthly life.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433552953", "ISBN-10": "1433552957", "ASIN": "1433552957", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books", "Author": "Michael J. Kruger", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Biblical Apologetics", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, New Testament, Christian Church, Canon & Ecclesiastical Law, Theology", "Location": null, "Pages": 362, "Summary": "This study of the New Testament canon and its authority looks deeper than the traditional surveys of councils and creeds, mining the biblical text itself for direction in understanding what the original authors and audiences believed the canon to be. Canon Revisited distinguishes itself by placing a substantial focus on the theology of canon as the context within which the historical evidence is evaluated and assessed. In effect, this work successfully unites both the theology and the historical development of the canon, ultimately serving as a practical defense for the authority of the New Testament books.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433505003", "ISBN-10": "1433505002", "ASIN": "1433505002", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Cardiphonia, Or the Utterance of the Heart In the Course of a Real Correspondence", "Author": "John Newton", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Practical Theology", "Tag": "Biography, Self-Help, Motivational & Inspirational, Christian Living", "Location": null, "Pages": 436, "Summary": "Excerpt from Cardiphonia, or the Utterance of the Heart: In the Course of a Real CorrespondenceFarther, he finds, that between an increase of engagements on the one hand, and the unavoidable effects of advancing years on the other, he can expect but little leisure or ability for writing letters in future, except upon necessary business. By this method of sending to each of his correspondents many letters at once, he takes leave of them with the less regret, persuaded that he thus communicates the substance of all he could offer, if he was able to write to them severally as often and as much at large as in times past.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.", "ISBN-13": "9781332541157", "ISBN-10": "1332541151", "ASIN": "1332541151", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-centered Ministry in Your City", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Church", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Ministry, Evangelism, Missions, Pastoral Resources, Christian Church, Growth, Christian Living, Leadership & Mentoring", "Location": null, "Pages": 395, "Summary": "
Practical and Gospel-centered thoughts on how to have a fruitful ministry by one of America's leading and most beloved pastor.
Many church leaders are struggling to adapt to a culture that values individuality above loyalty to a group or institution. There have been so many \"church growth\" and \"effective ministry\" books in the past few decades that it's hard to know where to start or which ones will provide useful and honest insight.
Based on over twenty years of ministry in New York City, Timothy Keller takes a unique approach that measures a ministry's success neither by numbers nor purely by the faithfulness of its leaders, but on the biblical grounds of fruitfulness.
Center Church outlines a balanced theological vision for ministry organized around three core commitments:
\"Between a pastor's doctrinal beliefs and ministry practices should be a well-conceived vision for how to bring the gospel to bear on the particular cultural setting and historical moment. This is something more practical than just doctrine but much more theological than \"how-to steps\" for carrying out a ministry. Once this vision is in place, it leads church leaders to make good decisions on how to worship, disciple, evangelize, serve, and engage culture in their field of ministry--whether in a city, suburb, or small town.\" -- Tim Keller, Core Church
", "ISBN-13": "9780310494188", "ISBN-10": "0310494184", "ASIN": "0310494184", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Chosen by God", "Author": "R. C. Sproul", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Election", "Tag": "Philosophy, Free Will & Determinism, Religion, Christian Living, Christian Ministry, Discipleship, Theology, Apologetics, Soteriology, Christianity", "Location": null, "Pages": 213, "Summary": "Nearly 200,000 copies sold!Church discipline is essential to building a healthy church. So how exactly do we practice church discipline?
Jonathan Leeman helps us face the endless variety of circumstances and sins for which no scriptural case study exists, sins that don't show up on any list and need a biblical framework to be corrected appropriately in love.
Here is a contemporary and concise how-to guide that provides a theological framework for understanding and implementing disciplinary measures in the local church, along with several examples of real-life situations and the corresponding responses.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433532337", "ISBN-10": "1433532336", "ASIN": "1433532336", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History", "Author": "Eusebius Pamphilus", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Church History", "Tag": "Religion, History", "Location": null, "Pages": 200, "Summary": "All ten books of Eusebius' famous church history are presented here complete in a superb and authoritative translation.Over 330,000 copies sold. This is the story of the church for today's readers.
Bruce Shelley's classic history of the church brings the story of global Christianity into the twenty-first century. Like a skilled screenwriter, Shelley begins each chapter with three elements: characters, setting, plot. Taking readers from the early centuries of the church up through the modern era he tells his readers a story of actual people, in a particular situation, taking action or being acted upon, provides a window into the circumstances and historical context, and from there develops the story of a major period or theme of Christian history. Covering recent events, this book also:
For this fifth edition, Marshall Shelley brought together a team of historians, historical theologians, and editors to revise and update this father's classic text. The new edition adds important stories of the development of Christianity in Asia, India, and Africa, both in the early church as well as in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It also highlights the stories of women and non-Europeans who significantly influenced the development of Christianity but whose contributions are often overlooked in previous overviews of church history.
This concise book provides an easy-to-read guide to church history with intellectual substance. The new edition of Church History in Plain Language promises to set a new standard for readable church history.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310115960", "ISBN-10": "0310115965", "ASIN": "0310115965", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus", "Author": "Jonathan Leeman", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Church", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Christian Church, Administration, Growth", "Location": null, "Pages": 144, "Summary": "Why should you join a church?
Becoming a member of a church is an important, and often neglected, part of the Christian life. Yet the trend these days is one of shunning the practice of organized religion and showing a distaste or fear of commitment, especially of institutions.
Jonathan Leeman addresses these issues with a straightforward explanation of what church membership is and why it's important. Giving the local church its proper due, Leeman has built a compelling case for committing to the local body.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433532375", "ISBN-10": "1433532379", "ASIN": "1433532379", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Commentary on Galatians", "Author": "Martin Luther", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Commentary", "Tag": "Religion, Christianity, Lutheran", "Location": null, "Pages": 174, "Summary": "Martin Luther was one of the most influential men of the last millennium, and the man most responsible for the Reformation that split the Catholic Church in the 16th century. A German theologian, Luther wrote at length criticizing the Church and sparked the Reformation, all while being one of the most read authors on the continent in his lifetime. His teachings included important departures from Church dogma, including the claim that absolution of sin could not be purchased. Today his 95 Theses are among the most famous works in the world.", "ISBN-13": "9781519516916", "ISBN-10": "1519516916", "ASIN": "1519516916", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament", "Author": "G. K. Beale", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Commentary", "Tag": "Bible, INTERPRETATION, ETC._N. T.", "Location": null, "Pages": 1280, "Summary": "Christianity Today 2008 Award of Merit (Biblical Studies)\"Compelling reading, not only because of its intellectual rigor but also because of its honest, empathetic humanity.\" --John C. Lennox
Named the 2020 Beautiful Orthodoxy Book of the Year by Christianity Today
Christianity is the most widespread global belief system, and promises to remain so well into the future. But for many educated westerners, biblical Christianity is a dangerous idea--challenging some of their deepest beliefs.
Channeling state-of-the-art research, personal stories, and careful biblical study, Confronting Christianity explores 12 questions that keep many of us from considering faith in Christ. Look more closely, McLaughlin argues, and the reality of suffering, the complexity of sexuality, the desire for diversity, the success of science, and other seeming roadblocks to faith become signposts. Jesus becomes not a relic from the ancient world, but our modern world's best hope.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433564239", "ISBN-10": "1433564238", "ASIN": "1433564238", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Conversion: How God Creates a People", "Author": "Michael Lawrence", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Conversion", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Christian Ministry, Discipleship, Evangelism, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 144, "Summary": "How Does Understanding Conversion Shape Ministry?
The way a church operates says a lot about how they believe people are saved. When a church truly embraces the Bible's teaching on conversion, they will call people to repentance and faith--not just one-time decisions, therapeutic healings, or moral lifestyles.
This short book was written to help churches rightly understand the difference that a biblical doctrine of conversion should make for teaching, evangelism, discipling, membership, and every other facet of the life of a local church.
Part of the 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches series.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433556494", "ISBN-10": "1433556499", "ASIN": "1433556499", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Corporate Worship: How the Church Gathers as God's People", "Author": "Matt Merker", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Worship", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Rituals & Practice, Worship & Liturgy, Theology, Christian Ministry, Pastoral Resources, Christian Living, Leadership & Mentoring", "Location": null, "Pages": 176, "Summary": "In this addition to the 9Marks Building Healthy Churches series, Matt Merker explores the biblical understanding of corporate worship as an activity where God gathers the church by his grace, unto his glory, for their mutual good, and before the world's gaze.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433569821", "ISBN-10": "1433569825", "ASIN": "1433569825", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Counseling Under the Cross: How Martin Luther Applied the Gospel to Daily Life", "Author": "Bob Kellemen", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Counseling", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Personal Growth", "Location": null, "Pages": 256, "Summary": "Martin Luther was not only a theologian, a writer, and a preacher, he was a pastoral counselor who longed for peace with God. Now, 500 years after he posted his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church, his teachings on gospel-centered and cross-focused pastoral care can transform our approach to soul care, and teach us that daring faith in Christ alone can change our life today and give us peace forever.
In Counseling Under the Cross, biblical counselor and noted author Bob Kellemen mines the riches of Luther's letters of spiritual counsel to give readers a new understanding of how Luther engaged in the personal ministry of the gospel. He guides pastors, counselors, lay leaders, and friends toward a deeper understanding of the gospel that will directly impact their personal ministry to others. Through lively vignettes, real-life stories, and direct quotes from Luther, readers will be equipped to apply the gospel to themselves and others, and learn that pastoral care is what every believer does in one-another ministry.
As one of the most influential figures in Christian history, Luther was not only the father of the Reformation, he was also the father of \"gospel-centered counseling.\" As sons and daughters in the faith, we have much to learn from him. Counseling Under the Cross equips us to apply the gospel richly, relevantly, and robustly to suffering and sin so that we find our hope and help in Christ alone.
", "ISBN-13": "9781945270215", "ISBN-10": "1945270217", "ASIN": "1945270217", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Idolatry", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Biblical Studies", "Location": null, "Pages": 248, "Summary": "New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet and nationally renowned minister Timothy Keller exposes the error of making good things \"ultimate\" in this book, and shows readers a new path toward a hope that lasts.
Success, true love, and the life you've always wanted. Many of us placed our faith in these things, believing they held the key to happiness, but with a sneaking suspicion they might not deliver. No wonder we feel lost, alone, disenchanted, and resentful. There is only one God who can wholly satisfy our cravings—and now is the perfect time to meet Him again, or for the first time.
In Counterfeit Gods, Timothy Keller shows how a proper understanding of the Bible reveals the unvarnished truth about societal ideals and our own hearts. This powerful message cements Keller's reputation as a critical thinker and pastor, and comes at a crucial time—for both the faithful and the skeptical.
The CSB Study Bible is designed to help you know and be transformed by God’s Word, keeping the beauty and majesty of Scripture primary on every page.
This robust and well-crafted study Bible features an immersive, full-color, illustrated design and the ECPA award-winning Holman study system, with more than 16,000 study notes, word studies, articles, and other tools from respected Bible scholars presented on the same page as the biblical text they refer to. For both deep study and daily reading, this study Bible is an ideal resource for lifelong discipleship.
FEATURES:
The CSB Study Bible features the highly readable, highly reliable text of the Christian Standard Bible® (CSB). The CSB captures the Bible’s original meaning without sacrificing clarity, making it easier to engage with Scripture’s life-transforming message and to share it with others.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433648090", "ISBN-10": "1433648091", "ASIN": "1433648091", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Daily Doctrine: A One-Year Guide to Systematic Theology", "Author": "Kevin DeYoung", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Reformed Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Devotional, Meditations, Theology, Systematic, Christian Education, Adult", "Location": null, "Pages": 432, "Summary": "Learn Important Systematic Theology Topics Each Day with This Accessible One-Year Devotional
All thoughtful Christians want to better understand the Bible, its author, and its influence on their beliefs. In short--whether they recognize it or not--they want to understand theology. But many find the subject matter too academic, dense, or difficult to understand, and they lack proper study resources to help expand their knowledge of God and his written word.
Designed to make systematic theology clear and accessible for the everyday Christian, this devotional walks through the most important theological topics over the course of a year. Each month is categorized into broad themes, starting with the study of God and concluding with the end times. Written by bestselling author and associate professor of systematic theology Kevin DeYoung, each concise daily reading contains verses for meditation and application, building upon each other and easing readers into the study of systematic theology.
How Can Deacons Mobilize Service in the Church?
Deacons are essential to a church's health--yet confusion abounds regarding their biblical job description. What's their God-given role in a local congregation and how do they relate to the church's overall mission?
In this short book, Matt Smethurst makes the case that deacons are model servants called to meet tangible needs, organize and mobilize acts of service, preserve the unity of the flock, and support the ministry of the elders. Clearing away common misconceptions, Smethurst offers practical guidance for deploying deacons and helping churches to flourish.
Download eighteen free sample questions for deacon candidates.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433571626", "ISBN-10": "1433571625", "ASIN": "1433571625", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners", "Author": "Dane Ortlund", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Sanctification", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Personal Growth, Christian Ministry, Discipleship, Theology, Soteriology, Systematic, Christianity, Presbyterian", "Location": null, "Pages": 192, "Summary": "\"Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.\" --2 Peter 3:18
How do Christians grow? Few question the call of the Bible to grow in godliness, but the answer to exactly how this happens is often elusive.
In this book, Dane Ortlund points believers to Christ, making the case that sanctification does not happen by doing more or becoming better, but by going deeper into the wondrous gospel truths that washed over them when they were first united to him.
Drawing on wisdom from figures throughout church history, Ortlund encourages readers to fix their gaze on Jesus in the battle against sin, casting themselves upon his grace and living out their invincible identity in Christ.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433573996", "ISBN-10": "1433573997", "ASIN": "1433573997", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Defending Your Faith: An Introduction to Apologetics", "Author": "R. C. Sproul", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Apologetics", "Tag": "Christian Living, Bible, Ministry & Evangelism, Theology, Religious Studies, Philosophy", "Location": null, "Pages": 208, "Summary": "Apologetic Primer Explains How Reason Supports Christianity's Claims
From the classroom to mainstream media, Christians regularly find their fundamental beliefs discounted by opponents who consider faith to be incompatible with reason. Faith is viewed as subjective, emotional, and a crutch for those who find the real world too hard. The late R. C. Sproul, however, claims faith reveals just how rational Christianity truly is.
This book surveys the history and fundamentals of apologetics to demonstrate how reason and scientific inquiry actually support Christianity's claims--thus equipping believers to defend the existence of God and the Bible's authority. The defense of the faith is not a luxury or an intellectual vanity. It is a task appointed by God to give reason to your eternal hope as you bear witness before the world.
Over 130,000 Copies Sold Worldwide!
Why is God love? Because God is a Trinity.
Why can we be saved? Because God is a Trinity. How are we able to live the Christian life? Through the Trinity.
In this engaging book, Michael Reeves offers an introduction to Christianity and the Christian life that from start to finish is rooted in our triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit. Through the Trinity we understand not only the person and work of Christ but also prayer, the church, and every aspect of our faith. With wit and clarity, Reeves draws from church history down to the present, referencing a wide range of notable teachers and preachers.
For over a decade, Delighting in the Trinity has provided a rich, enjoyable portrait of basic Christian beliefs, opening up the profound and life-changing truths of our faith. It is now part of the IVP Signature Collection, which features special editions of iconic books in celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of InterVarsity Press.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830847075", "ISBN-10": "0830847073", "ASIN": "0830847073", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Depression, Anxiety, and the Christian Life: Practical Wisdom from Richard Baxter", "Author": "Michael S. Lundy", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Counseling", "Tag": "Psychology, Psychopathology, Anxieties & Phobias, Depression, Religion, Christian Living, Christian Ministry, Counseling & Recovery, Pastoral Resources, Self-Help, Mood Disorders", "Location": null, "Pages": 192, "Summary": "Practical wisdom for dealing with depression.
Depression--whether circumstantial and fleeting or persistent and long term--impacts most people at some point in their lives. Puritan pastor Richard Baxter spent most of his ministry caring for depressed and discouraged souls, and his timeless counsel still speaks to us today. In this book, psychiatrist Michael S. Lundy and theologian J. I. Packer present Baxter's writings in order to comfort, instruct, and strengthen all who struggle with depression.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433542060", "ISBN-10": "1433542064", "ASIN": "1433542064", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist", "Author": "John Piper", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Practical Theology", "Tag": "Christian Living, Bible, Ministry & Evangelism", "Location": null, "Pages": 368, "Summary": "John Piper Explores the Ultimate Source and Object of Pleasure, Satisfaction, and Lasting Joy
\"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.\" This simple but powerful statement has been a cornerstone of John Piper's ministry for nearly 40 years. Laying out the principles behind this \"Christian Hedonism\" Desiring God has proved to be a source of rich theological insight for countless readers through the years, guiding them to the fullness of joy found in Christ.
In this foundational work, John Piper addresses profound questions about the purpose of life and the human pursuit of pleasure. Drawing wisdom from Scripture and insights from church history, Piper challenges the belief that believers must sacrifice joy in order to please God. Instead, finding delight in God does not diminish his glory; rather, it magnifies it and fulfills the deepest desires of our souls.
No man will get anywhere in life without discipline--and growth in godliness is no exception.
Seasoned pastor R. Kent Hughes's inspiring and bestselling book Disciplines of a Godly Man--now updated with fresh references and suggested resources--is filled with godly advice aimed at helping men grow in the disciplines of prayer, integrity, marriage, leadership, worship, purity, and more.
With biblical wisdom, memorable illustrations, and engaging study questions, this practical guide will empower men to take seriously the call to godliness and direct their energy toward the things that matter most.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433561306", "ISBN-10": "1433561301", "ASIN": "1433561301", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus", "Author": "Mark Dever", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Discipleship", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Ministry, Discipleship, Pastoral Resources", "Location": null, "Pages": 128, "Summary": "What does it look like to help others become more like Christ?
In this concise guide, pastor Mark Dever outlines the who, what, where, when, why, and how of disciplinghelping others follow Jesus.
Following the pattern f", "ISBN-13": "9781433577383", "ISBN-10": "1433577380", "ASIN": "1433577380", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Dispatches from the Front: Stories of Gospel Advance in the World's Difficult Places", "Author": "Tim Keesee", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Missions", "Tag": "Religion, Christianity, History, Christian Ministry, Evangelism, Missions, Christian Living", "Location": null, "Pages": 240, "Summary": "
China, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq . . .
God is at work. Christians are testifying. The gospel is advancing.
In this captivating travelogue, a veteran missions mobilizer leads readers to experience global Christianity, exploring the faith and lives of Christians living in some of the world's most perilous countries.
The incredible accounts recorded here--stories that span the globe from China to Afghanistan--highlight the bold faith and sacrificial bravery of God's people. Ultimately, this book magnifies Christ's saving work in all the earth and encourages Christians to joyfully embrace their role in the gospel's unstoppable advance!
", "ISBN-13": "9781433540691", "ISBN-10": "143354069X", "ASIN": "143354069X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Divine Comedy: (The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso)", "Author": "Dante Alighieri", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Poetry", "Tag": "LATIN POETRY_TRANSLATIONS INTO ENGLISH", "Location": null, "Pages": 928, "Summary": "The authoritative translations of The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso—together in one volume. Are There Two Wills in God?
Divine Election and God's Desire for All to Be Saved
In this short, theological essay, John Piper builds a scriptural case that God's unconditional election unto salvation is compatible with God's genuine desire and offer for all to be saved. Helping us to make sense of this seemingly paradoxical relationship, Piper wisely holds both truths in tension as he explores the Bible's teaching on this challenging topic, graciously responds to those who disagree, and motivates us to passionately proclaim the free offer of the gospel to all people.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433537196", "ISBN-10": "1433537192", "ASIN": "1433537192", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World", "Author": "Tom Holland", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Church History", "Tag": "History, Europe, Italy, United States, 21st Century, World, Religion, Christianity, Ancient", "Location": null, "Pages": 640, "Summary": "A \"marvelous\" (Economist) account of how the Christian Revolution forged the Western imagination.In This Bestselling Book, John Piper Challenges Christians to a God-Exalting Life
Many spend their lives on trivial diversions, seeking earthly comfort and pleasure above all else. But Jesus said, \"Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it,\" calling us into the eternal purpose and God-exalting life for which we were made.
In this bestselling book, John Piper warns readers of the dangers of an irrelevant life that counts for nothing and calls Christians to the deeper joys, and risks, that matter for eternity. This new edition features a fresh cover, a revised preface, and updated statistics.
Art is all around you.
Yet few of us can effectively explain why certain movies, books, plays, and songs resonate so profoundly within us, and more importantly how they attest to God's character.
Professor Jerram Barrs gives us the three key elements for evaluating great art. He then puts those qualifiers to the test by investigating five of the world's most influential authors--empowering us to better understand the character of God and helping others to know him too.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433535970", "ISBN-10": "1433535971", "ASIN": "1433535971", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Edwards on the Christian Life: Alive to the Beauty of God", "Author": "Dane Ortlund", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Biography", "Tag": "Biography, Religious, Philosophy, Aesthetics, Religion, Christian Living, Personal Growth, Theology, Systematic", "Location": null, "Pages": 208, "Summary": "Jonathan Edwards is widely hailed as the greatest theologian in American history. In Edwards on the Christian Life, Dane Ortlund invites us to explore the great eighteenth-century pastor's central passion: God's resplendent beauty. Whether the topic was the nature of love, the preeminence of Scripture, or the glory of the natural world, the concept of beauty stood at the heart of Edwards's theology and permeated his portrait of the Christian life. Clear and engaging, this accessible volume will inspire you to embrace Edwards's magnificent vision of what it means to be a Christian: enjoying and reflecting of the beauty of God in all things.
Martin Luther's historical significance can hardly be overstated. Known as the father of the Protestant Reformation, no single figure has had a greater impact on Western Christianity except perhaps Augustine. In Luther on the Christian Life, historian Carl Trueman introduces readers to the lively Reformer, taking them on a tour of his historical context, theological system, and approach to the Christian life. Whether exploring Luther's theology of protest, ever-present sense of humor, or misunderstood view of sanctification, this addition to Crossway's Theologians on the Christian Life series highlights the ways in which Luther's eventful life shaped his understanding of what it means to be a Christian. Ultimately, this book will help modern readers go deeper in their spiritual walk by learning from one of the great teachers of the faith.
John Newton is best known as the slave trader turned hymn writer who penned the most popular English hymn in history: \"Amazing Grace.\" However, many Christians are less familiar with the decades he spent in relative obscurity, laboring as a \"spiritual doctor\" while pastoring small parishes in England. In the latest addition to Crossway's growing Theologians on the Christian Life series, Tony Reinke introduces modern readers to Newton's pastoral wisdom by leading them through the many sermons, hymns, and--most importantly--letters that he wrote over the course of his life. Considered by many to be one of the greatest letter writers of all time, Newton has valuable insights to offer modern Christians, especially when it comes to fusing together sound doctrine, lived experience, and godly practice.
Widely recognized as a pillar of 20th-century evangelicalism, J. I. Packer has had a profound impact on millions of Christians living today. Now in his late eighties, Packer still exerts an enormous influence on pastors and laypeople around the world through his many books, articles, and recorded lectures--works that overflow with spiritual wisdom related to the Christian life. In the latest addition to Crossway's growing Theologians on the Christian Life series, well-known pastor Sam Storms examines Packer's legacy when it comes to the Christian and sanctification. Whether exploring Packer's insights into prayer, Bible study, the sovereignty of God, or the Christian's fight against sin, this accessible book offers readers the chance to learn from the best of Packer's thinking on what true godliness really entails.
The importance of Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck to Reformed theology is difficult to overstate. Bavinck's comprehensive four volume systematic theology, Reformed Dogmatics, is a modern classic that has influenced countless pastors and theologians over the past 100 years. In Bavinck on the Christian Life, scholar John Bolt brings the great Dutch theologian's life and work to bear on following Jesus in the 21st century. By practically applying Bavinck's systematic works to the Christian life and looking at the life of the man himself, this book shows the direct connection between robust theology, practical holiness, and personal joy.
John Owen is widely hailed as one of the greatest theologians of all time. His many works--especially those encouraging Christians in their struggle against sin--continue to speak powerfully to readers today, offering much-needed spiritual guidance for following Christ and resisting temptation day in and day out. Starting with an overview of Owen's life, ministry, and historical context, Michael Haykin and Matthew Barrett introduce readers to the pillars of Owen's spiritual life. From exploring his understanding of believers' fellowship with the triune God to highlighting his teaching on justification, this study invites us to learn about the Christian life from the greatest of the English Puritans.
Part of the Theologians on the Christian Life series.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433535055", "ISBN-10": "143353505X", "ASIN": "143353505X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Enjoying God: Experience the Power and Love of God in Everyday Life", "Author": "Tim Chester", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Trinity", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Education, Christian Living, Inspirational, Theology", "Location": null, "Pages": 192, "Summary": "We believe in God, we serve God, we trust God, but would we say that we enjoy God on a day-to-day basis?
In Enjoying God, Tim Chester explores how the Father, the Son and the Spirit relate to us in our day-to-day lives revealing how we can experience the power and love of God, whether we are experiencing good times or hard times; whether we are changing nappies, or stuck on a train.
As we interact more with God and understand how awesome he is, we will experience joy in our service, our witness, our sacrifices and our suffering.
", "ISBN-13": "9781784982812", "ISBN-10": "1784982814", "ASIN": "1784982814", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Escape From Reason", "Author": "Francis A. Schaeffer", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Apologetics", "Tag": "Christian Living, Science & Math, History & Philosophy, Politics & Social Sciences, Philosophy, Religious", "Location": null, "Pages": null, "Summary": "Product DescriptionTake Notes alongside Scripture with this ESV Journaling Study Bible Featuring 12,000 In-Depth Study Notes
The ESV Journaling Study Bible pairs the content of a robust study Bible with extra-large, 2-inch margins that are perfect for writing observations, prayers, and more as you study God's Word. Featuring more than 12,000 study notes adapted from the ESV Study Bible, this journaling Bible also includes nearly 900 special facts, 120 Bible character profiles, 10 topical articles, a glossary of key terms, more than 80 maps and illustrations, and 80,000 cross-references. These and many other features make it the most comprehensive and content-rich journaling Bible available today.
Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God\" by J.I. Packer is a thought-provoking exploration that delves into the profound relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility in the context of evangelism. This seminal work challenges readers to reconsider their understanding of God's control and our role in spreading the gospel. Packer masterfully navigates through complex theological concepts with clarity and compelling logic, making the case that God's sovereignty does not negate the need for evangelism but rather underpins and empowers it. Through insightful analysis and engaging examples, Packer offers both encouragement and practical guidance for believers seeking to fulfill the Great Commission. This book is a must-read for anyone eager to deepen their understanding of God's character and our calling to share His message with the world.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
", "ISBN-13": "9781014789136", "ISBN-10": "1014789133", "ASIN": "1014789133", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus", "Author": "J. Mack Stiles", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Evangelism", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Ministry, Evangelism, Missions, Theology, Apologetics", "Location": null, "Pages": 128, "Summary": "Evangelism is more than a program.
Every few years, churches jump into the latest evangelistic fad. Leaders administrate the new program, and members go on a raid. But picture a church where evangelism is simply part of the culture. Leaders share their faith consistently and openly. Members follow, encouraging one another to make evangelism an ongoing way of life.
Such is the way of evangelism presented by this brief and compelling book. No program here. Instead, it just might give your church a new way to live and share the gospel together.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433544651", "ISBN-10": "1433544652", "ASIN": "1433544652", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Even Better Than Eden: Nine Ways the Bible's Story Changes Everything about Your Story", "Author": "Nancy Guthrie", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Biblical Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Bible, Christian Living, Theology, Christology, Systematic, Eschatology", "Location": null, "Pages": 208, "Summary": "God's Story Will End Better than It Began . . .
Experienced Bible teacher Nancy Guthrie traces 9 themes throughout the Bible, revealing how God's plan for the new creation will be far more glorious than the original. But this new creation glory isn't just reserved for the future. The hope of God's plan for his people transforms everything about our lives today.
Written for individuals and small groups alike, this book will help you understand God's plan for the future of his people--life in a garden even better than Eden--in order to experience the glory of this new creation break into your life even now.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433561252", "ISBN-10": "1433561255", "ASIN": "1433561255", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Work", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Professional Growth, Stewardship & Giving", "Location": null, "Pages": 336, "Summary": "New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet Timothy Keller shows how God calls on each of us to express meaning and purpose through our work and careers.A vibrant new collection from one of America's most talented young poets
Every Riven Thing is Christian Wiman's first collection in seven years, and rarely has a book of poetry so borne the stamp of necessity. Whether in stark, haiku-like descriptions of a cancer ward, surrealistic depictions of a social order coming apart, or fluent, defiant outpourings of praise, Wiman pushes his language and forms until they break open, revealing startling new truths within. The poems are joyful and sorrowful at the same time, abrasive and beautiful, densely physical and credibly mystical. They attest to the human hunger to feel existence, even at its most harrowing, and the power of art to make our most intense experiences not only apprehensible but transfiguring.
What makes for good preaching?
In this accessible volume--written for preachers and preachers in training--pastor David Helm outlines what must be believed and accomplished to become a faithful expositor of God's Word.
In addition to offering practical, step-by-step guidance for preachers, this short book will equip all of us to recognize good preaching when we hear it.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433543135", "ISBN-10": "1433543133", "ASIN": "1433543133", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Family Worship", "Author": "Donald S. Whitney", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Parenting", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Devotional, Family & Relationships, Christian Ministry, Discipleship, Theology, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 88, "Summary": "Many Christian families have never experienced the joy and spiritual benefits of family worship--a practice rooted in history but largely neglected in our day. In this down-to-earth book, Donald Whitney offers parents a practical guide for leading their families in daily worship, walking readers through three crucial elements: reading Scripture, praying together, and singing songs in praise of God's name. He then responds to common \"What if?\" scenarios, such as \"What if the father is not a Christian?\" and \"What if the children are very young?\" Looking to the Bible and church history, this guidebook promises to help parents establish a pattern of daily, God-honoring, spiritually uplifting worship in their homes.", "ISBN-13": "9781433567223", "ISBN-10": "1433567229", "ASIN": "1433567229", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Far as the Curse Is Found: The Covenant Story of Redemption", "Author": "Michael D. Williams", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Biblical Theology", "Tag": "REDEMPTION, COVENANTS, Theology", "Location": null, "Pages": 336, "Summary": "The Christian religion is the historical unfolding of God’s covenantal involvement in this world, the culmination of which is God’s coming into this world in the person of Jesus Christ. Far as the Curse is Found is a retelling of the biblical story of God’s unfolding covenant from creation to new creation. Readers are led to wonder anew at the redemptive work of God in our own history, in our own human flesh. Pastors, students, and those interested in biblical theology are among the many who will gain fresh insight into the biblical story of redemption.", "ISBN-13": "9780875525105", "ISBN-10": "0875525105", "ASIN": "0875525105", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die", "Author": "John Piper", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Christology", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, New Testament, Jesus, The Gospels & Acts, Theology, Christology", "Location": null, "Pages": 127, "Summary": "The most important questions anyone can ask are: Why was Jesus Christ crucified? Why did he suffer so much? What has this to do with me? Finally, who sent him to his death? The answer to the last question is that God did. Jesus was God's Son. The suffering was unsurpassed, but the whole message of the Bible leads to this answer.
The central issue of Jesus' death is not the cause, but the meaning. That is what this book is about. John Piper has gathered from the New Testament fifty reasons in answer to the most important question that each of us must face: What did God achieve for sinners like us in sending his Son to die?
", "ISBN-13": "9781581347883", "ISBN-10": "158134788X", "ASIN": "158134788X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons", "Author": "Thabiti M. Anyabwile", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Church", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Leadership, Christian Ministry, Pastoral Resources, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 176, "Summary": "Every church leader knows the qualifications for elders and deacons that are spelled out in the Bible, but actually finding other leaders who fulfill the biblical qualifications can be difficult.
Thabiti Anyabwile writes from his expertise as a pastor and elder, showing how to identify and reproduce legitimate leaders and willing servants throughout the ranks of the local church. Balancing thoughtful analysis of pertinent passages with thorough application for practical use in a contemporary context, Anyabwile answers the questions, \"Who should we look for to lead and serve in the church?\" and \"What should they do to fulfill their calling?\"
", "ISBN-13": "9781433529924", "ISBN-10": "1433529920", "ASIN": "1433529920", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Finding the Right Hills to Die On: The Case for Theological Triage", "Author": "Gavin Ortlund", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Gospel Doctrine", "Tag": "Religion, Theology, Systematic, Christian Ministry, Pastoral Resources, Christian Church, Christian Living, Leadership & Mentoring", "Location": null, "Pages": 176, "Summary": "\"This is a wise and needed book.\"
-- Russell Moore, President, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention
In theology, just as in battle, some hills are worth dying on and others are not. But how do we know which ones? When should doctrine divide, and when should unity prevail? Just as a medic on a battlefield treats the severely wounded first and then moves on to the less serious injuries, we must prioritize doctrine in order of importance. Pastor Gavin Ortlund implores us to cultivate humility as we prioritize doctrine into four ranks--essential, urgent, important, and unimportant--so that we will be as effective as possible at advancing the gospel in our time.
Published in partnership with the Gospel Coalition.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433567421", "ISBN-10": "1433567423", "ASIN": "1433567423", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Five Points: Towards a Deeper Experience of God's Grace", "Author": "John Piper", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Reformed Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Rituals & Practice, Theology, Christianity, Calvinist", "Location": null, "Pages": 96, "Summary": "Grace is the heart of God to do you good when you deserve it least. But do we really know how deeply we don't deserve it? Only God can reveal that to us. He does it through the Bible. And when he does, the wonders of his grace explode with brightness as never before. These Five Points are about how Christians come into being, and how we are kept forever. It reaches back into times past when we were freely chosen. It reaches forward into the future when we will be safe and happy forever. It reaches down into the mysteries of the work of Christ, purchasing the gift of faith for all God's children. And it reaches into the human soul, glimpsing the mysteries of the Spirit's work as he conquers all our rebellion and makes us willing captives of King Jesus.
Piper believes that our experience of grace grows with our grasp of God's gracious work. He invites us to come with him on this quest.
", "ISBN-13": "9781781912522", "ISBN-10": "1781912521", "ASIN": "1781912521", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship", "Author": "N. T. Wright", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Discipleship", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, New Testament, Biblical Meditations, Christian Living, Devotional, Christian Ministry, Discipleship, Sermons, Christian, Theology, Christology", "Location": null, "Pages": 126, "Summary": "The twelve exhilarating meditations in this volume explore what it truly means to follow Jesus today. Part One outlines the essential messages of six major New Testament books--Hebrews, Colossians, Matthew, John, Mark, and Revelation. Part Two examines six key New Testament themes--resurrection, rebirth, temptation, hell, heaven, and new life--and considers their significance for the lives of present-day disciples.", "ISBN-13": "9780802841322", "ISBN-10": "0802841325", "ASIN": "0802841325", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture", "Author": "Lesslie Newbigin", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Worldview", "Tag": "Religion, Commentary, Christianity, History, Christian Ministry, Evangelism, Missions, Theology, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 156, "Summary": "In this book, Lesslie Newbigin attempts to look at modern Western culture through the eyes of an outsider and to ask, \"What would it mean to confront this culture with the gospel?\" Newbigin looks first at the broad issues raised by any cross-cultural communication of the gospel. He then focuses his discussion on modern Western culture, examining its essential features and the present signs of its disintegration. This leads to the main thrust of the book--the question of how biblical authority can be a reality for those who are shaped by this culture. Newbigin goes on to consider what would be involved in the encounter between the gospel and modern science, politics, and economics. Finally, he discusses the task of the church in bringing about this missionary encounter.", "ISBN-13": "9780802801760", "ISBN-10": "0802801765", "ASIN": "0802801765", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God's Word (Vol. 1)", "Author": "D. A. Carson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Devotional", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Biblical Meditations, Christian Living, Devotional, Meditations", "Location": null, "Pages": 400, "Summary": "In a world that views absolute truth, right and wrong, and salvation as being subject to individual interpretation, the Bible's unwavering proclamations and miraculous stories seem obsolete in modern times. But it is not God's Word that has changed. Indeed, its relevancy and its power to transform lives are intact. What has changed is the number of people who consult it. Now more than ever the need to read the Bible, to understand the big picture of its storyline, and to grasp the relevance this has for your life is critical.
As with its companion volume, For the Love of God-Volume 2, this devotional contains a systematic 365-day plan, based on the M'Cheyne Bible-reading schedule, that will in the course of a year guide you through the New Testament and Psalms twice and the rest of the Old Testament once.
In an effort to help preserve biblical thinking and living, D. A. Carson has also written thought-provoking comments and reflections regarding each day's scriptural passages. And, most uniquely, he offers you perspective that places each reading into the larger framework of history and God's eternal plan to deepen your understanding of his sovereignty-and the unity and power of his Word.
", "ISBN-13": "9781581348156", "ISBN-10": "1581348150", "ASIN": "1581348150", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God's Word (Vol. 2)", "Author": "D. A. Carson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Devotional", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Biblical Meditations, Christian Living, Devotional, Meditations", "Location": null, "Pages": 416, "Summary": "In a world that views absolute truth, right and wrong, and salvation as being subject to individual interpretation, the Bible's unwavering proclamations and miraculous stories seem obsolete in modern times. But it is not God's Word that has changed. Indeed, its relevancy and its power to transform lives are intact. What has changed is the number of people who consult it. Now more than ever the need to read the Bible, to understand the big picture of its storyline, and to grasp the relevance this has for your life is critical.
As with its companion volume, For the Love of God-Volume 1, this devotional contains a systematic 365-day plan, based on the M'Cheyne Bible-reading schedule, that will in the course of a year guide you through the New Testament and Psalms twice and the rest of the Old Testament once. In so doing, D. A. Carson completes the work he began in the first book.
In an effort to help preserve biblical thinking and living, D. A. Carson has also written thought-provoking comments and reflections regarding each day's scriptural passages. And, most uniquely, he offers you perspective that places each reading into the larger framework of history and God's eternal plan to deepen your understanding of his sovereignty-and the unity and power of his Word.
", "ISBN-13": "9781581348163", "ISBN-10": "1581348169", "ASIN": "1581348169", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I?", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Forgiveness", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Old Testament, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, Christian Living", "Location": null, "Pages": 272, "Summary": "Pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller outlines the reasons why forgiveness has to be a central part of everyone’s lives.In one systematic volume, James Montgomery Boice provides a readable overview of Christian theology. Both students and pastors will benefit from this rich source that covers all the major doctrines of Christianity. With scholarly rigor and a pastor's heart, Boice carefully opens the topics of the nature of God, the character of his natural and special revelation, the fall, and the person and work of Christ. He then goes on to consider the work of the Holy Spirit in justification and sanctification. The book closes with careful discussion of ecclesiology and eschatology. This updated edition includes a foreword by Philip Ryken and a section-by-section study guide. Both those long familiar with Boice and those newly introduced to him will benefit from his remarkable practicality and thoroughness, which will continue to make this a standard reference for years to come.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830852147", "ISBN-10": "083085214X", "ASIN": "083085214X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Four Quartets", "Author": "Thomas Stearns Eliot", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Poetry", "Tag": "Fiction, Classics, Erotica, Collections & Anthologies, Literary, Westerns, Poetry, American, European, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Subjects & Themes, Death, Grief, Loss, Love & Erotica, Animals & Nature, War, Religion, Inspirational, Meditations", "Location": null, "Pages": 39, "Summary": "The celebrated, last major verse written by Nobel laureate T. S. Eliot.The words of Martin Luther King Jr.'s \"I Have a Dream\" speech have become enshrined in US history. But after the end of King's generation of leadership, what happened to the African American struggle for freedom? Like the ancient Israelites, the African American community has survived a four-hundred-year collective trauma. What will it take for them to reach the promised land that King foresaw—to be truly free at last?
In this classic historical and cultural study, Carl Ellis offers an in-depth assessment of the state of African American freedom and dignity. Stressing how important it is for African Americans to reflect on their roots, he traces the growth of Black consciousness from the days of slavery to the 1990s, noting especially the contributions of King and Malcolm X. Ellis examines elements of Black culture and offers a distinct perspective on how God is active in culture more broadly. Free at Last? concludes with a call for new generations of \"jazz theologians\" and cultural prophets to revitalize the African American church and expand its cultural range. The book also includes a helpful glossary of people, events, and terms.
Ellis writes, \"It is my prayer that the principles contained in this book will play a role in building bridges of understanding and facilitating reconciliation where there has been alienation.\" With a new preface by the author, this groundbreaking book is now available as part of the IVP Signature Collection.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830848584", "ISBN-10": "0830848584", "ASIN": "0830848584", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Friendship with the Friend of Sinners: The Remarkable Possibility of Closeness with Christ", "Author": "Jared C. Wilson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Friendship", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Personal Growth, Christian Ministry, Discipleship", "Location": null, "Pages": 224, "Summary": "The Bible calls Jesus the friend of sinners, but it's hard to imagine what friendship with Jesus really looks like. We so often don't even know how to do friendship with the people around us, despite all the options we have to connect. So how are we supposed to feel that close to a holy, perfect, and invisible God? How do we see Jesus as the real person he is? And how do we experience true friendship with him when we struggle to maintain true friendship on earth?Pastor Dane Ortlund Explores Jesus's Heart to Reveal His Tender Love for Sinners and Sufferers
Christians know that God loves them, but can easily feel that he is perpetually disappointed and frustrated, maybe even close to giving up on them. As a result, they focus a lot--and rightly so--on what Jesus has done to appease God's wrath for sin. But how does Jesus Christ actually feel about his people amid all their sins and failures?
This book draws us to Matthew 11, where Jesus describes himself as \"gentle and lowly in heart,\" longing for his people to find rest in him. The gospel flows from God's deepest heart for his people, a heart of tender love for the sinful and suffering.
These chapters take us into the depths of Christ's very heart for sinners, diving deep into Bible passages that speak of who Christ is and encouraging readers with the affections of Christ for his people. His longing heart for sinners comforts and sustains readers in their up-and-down lives.
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER• OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER• A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • MORE THAN 1 MILLION COPIES SOLD
“Quietly powerful [and] moving.” O, The Oprah Magazine (recommended reading)
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award, GILEAD is a hymn of praise and lamentation to the God-haunted existence that Reverend Ames loves passionately, and from which he will soon part.
In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. Ames is the son of an Iowan preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition: He \"preached men into the Civil War,\" then, at age fifty, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle.
Reverend Ames writes to his son about the tension between his father--an ardent pacifist--and his grandfather, whose pistol and bloody shirts, concealed in an army blanket, may be relics from the fight between the abolitionists and those settlers who wanted to vote Kansas into the union as a slave state. And he tells a story of the sacred bonds between fathers and sons, which are tested in his tender and strained relationship with his namesake, John Ames Boughton, his best friend's wayward son.
This is also the tale of another remarkable vision--not a corporeal vision of God but the vision of life as a wondrously strange creation. It tells how wisdom was forged in Ames's soul during his solitary life, and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten.
We all wish we could go back.
In Go Outside, Jared and Becky Wilson imagine the advice they'd give if they could travel back in time. Like Solomon in Ecclesiastes, as we get older, we lament and regret the desires and behaviors of our youth. But what if you could avoid some of the pitfalls and pain so many people experience?
After 25 years of marriage and even more years following Jesus, Jared and Becky provide vital words of wisdom and encouragement to make the season of your youth a time of joy and fruitful investment in the future. You can build your legacy now based on this important biblical counsel. Filled with warmth and personal stories, the Wilsons explore topics such as:
This book includes twenty short chapters that will set--or keep--your story on the right track. Read it with friends and share it with the ones you love.
Sixty-six books written by forty people over nearly 2,000 years, in two languages and several different genres. A worldwide bestseller published in countless sizes and bindings, translations and languages. Sworn by in court, fought over by religious people, quoted in arguments. The Bible is clearly no ordinary book. How can you begin to read and understand it as a whole? In this excellent overview, Vaughan Roberts gives you the big picture--showing how the different parts of the Bible fit together under the theme of the kingdom of God. He provides both the encouragement and the tools to help you read the Bible with confidence and understanding. And he points you to the Bible's supreme subject, Jesus Christ, and the salvation God offers through him.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830853649", "ISBN-10": "0830853642", "ASIN": "0830853642", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "God's Grace in Your Suffering", "Author": "David Powlison", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Suffering", "Tag": "Music, Religious, Hymns, Religion, Christian Living, Death, Grief, Bereavement, Inspirational, Self-Help", "Location": null, "Pages": 128, "Summary": "Where Is God?
There are never quick fixes or easy answers when it comes to suffering. But even when we can't immediately see God's hand--when the struggle is hard and painful--he is working. Weaving together Scripture, personal stories, and the words of the classic hymn \"How Firm a Foundation,\" David Powlison brings an experienced counselor's touch to exploring how God enters into our sufferings, helping us see God working in our own particular struggles--and discover how God's grace goes deeper than we could ever imagine.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433556180", "ISBN-10": "1433556189", "ASIN": "1433556189", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "God's Healing for Life's Losses: How to Find Hope When Your're Hurting", "Author": "Robert W. Kellemen", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Suffering", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Death, Grief, Bereavement, Christian Ministry, Counseling & Recovery", "Location": null, "Pages": 128, "Summary": "Subtitled \"How to Find Hope When You're Hurting,\" the book provides real, raw, honest and hopeful conversation about suffering, loss and grief from a Christian perspective. The author is a seminary graduate as well as a trained counselor and educator, and the text of this 114-page gift-sized hardback reflects a solid underpinning of biblical truth and Trinitarian theology to its practical advice and keen insights. The book is endorsed by GriefShare, an organization which conducts Christ-centered grief support groups in thousands of communities. The author, Robert Kellemen, served more than a dozen years as chair of the Master of Arts in Christian Counseling and Discipleship department at Capital Bible Seminary, where he is now professor-at-large. In his three pastoral ministries, Kellemen has ministered to hundreds of grieving parishioners. He is also founder and CEO of RPM Ministries.", "ISBN-13": "9780884692706", "ISBN-10": "0884692701", "ASIN": "0884692701", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life", "Author": "John Calvin", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Discipleship", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Devotional, Inspirational, Christianity, Calvinist", "Location": null, "Pages": 96, "Summary": "In this classic devotional, John Calvin urges readers to apply the Christian life in a balanced way to mind, heart, and hand. Rather than focusing on contemplative otherworldliness, the book stresses the importance of a devotedly active Christian life.Meeting the Man of Sorrows Where We Need Him Most
We all long for a life worth living. So when we receive news of a frightening diagnosis, suffer heartbreaking loss in our family life, or get trapped in a cycle of our own sin, we might wonder about God. Where is he when we need him most? With wisdom from Isaiah 57:15, Good News at Rock Bottom helps readers discover that Jesus is hard to find in the comfortable lives we prefer. Instead, he meets us at rock bottom--where he is waiting for us with open arms.
With grace and empathy, author Ray Ortlund opens a door for readers to go deeper with God and get closer to faithful friends when life is hard to bear. You will discover that, at rock bottom, Jesus is more satisfying than any comfortable life without him.
While pastoring for the past fifteen years, Jared Wilson has become known in contemporary evangelicalism for his passionate, gospel-centered writing and teaching. Following Wilson's well-received publication of Gospel Wakefulness, he writes Gospel Deeps as a \"next step\" to establishing the need for astonishment, which begins by looking at the astonishing things God has done in and through Christ. Wilson holds up the gospel like a diamond and examines it facet by facet, demonstrating the riches of its implications. This book serves as a valuable contribution to the emerging canon of gospel-centered literature, in the spirit of John Piper's Pleasures of God and Tim Keller's emphasis on a \"robust gospel,\" and continues in the glory-reveling legacy left by Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, and the like. The distinctiveness of Gospel Deeps is found in Wilson's winsome and frequently ecstatic writing voice, as well as his unique approach to showcasing the gospel's beauty.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433526404", "ISBN-10": "1433526409", "ASIN": "1433526409", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Gospel People: A Call for Evangelical Integrity", "Author": "Michael Reeves", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Gospel Culture", "Tag": "Religion, Christianity, History, Theology, Ecclesiology, Christian Ministry, Pastoral Resources, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 144, "Summary": "A Biblical Case for the Importance and Goodness of Being \"Evangelical\"
The term evangelical is often poorly defined and frequently comes with cultural and political baggage. As the label has become more controversial, many Christians have begun to wonder if they should abandon it altogether.
Michael Reeves argues from a global, scriptural, and historical perspective that, while it's not necessary to discard the label altogether, Christians must return to the root of the term--the evangel, or \"gospel\"--in order to understand what it truly means. He identifies the theology of evangelicalism and its essential doctrine--the Father's revelation in the Bible, the Son's redemption in the gospel, and the Spirit's regeneration of the heart--calling believers to stand with integrity as people of the gospel.
The ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible is designed to help readers see Christ in all of Scripture, and grace for all of life. It features book introductions, gospel-centered study notes, and a series of all-new articles--written by a team of over 50 pastors and scholars. This content explains passage-by-passage how God's redemptive purposes culminate in the gospel and apply to the lives of believers today. Readers will be challenged to see how the message of the gospel transforms from the inside out.
Do you ever feel like your desire for God is waning? Are you numb to the routine of church? What does it mean to be truly awakened to the wonder of the gospel?
Jared Wilson contends that we must be regularly engaged and engaging others with the good news of the sacrificing, dying, rising, exalted person of Jesus Christ. Wilson reminds us of the death-proof, fail-proof King of kings who is before all things and in all things and holding all things together, and of the Spirit's power to quicken our hearts and captivate our imaginations. The message of Gospel Wakefulness will make numbness the exception (rather than the norm) and reawaken us to the multifaceted brilliance of the gospel.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433526367", "ISBN-10": "1433526360", "ASIN": "1433526360", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Gospel-Driven Ministry: An Introduction to the Calling and Work of a Pastor", "Author": "Jared C. Wilson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Church", "Tag": "Christian Living, Bible, Churches & Church Leadership, Ministry & Evangelism, Worship & Devotion, Sermons", "Location": null, "Pages": 256, "Summary": "From the beginning of his ministry, Jesus called and equipped individuals who would serve his community of followers. These \"shepherds\" are called to preach, pray, and care for the needs of God's people. But what does it mean to be a pastor? And what is the nature of this ministry, according to the Bible?
In Gospel-Driven Ministry, Jared Wilson begins by looking at the qualifications for the pastorate, addressing the notion of a call to ministry and how an individual--and a church community--can best identify the marks of maturity and affirm a call. In each chapter, Wilson looks at one of the core practices of pastoral ministry, including:
In addition, Wilson provides practical resources including theological insights on baptism and the Lord's Supper, guidance for wedding and funeral sermons, outlines for leading elder and deacon meetings, tips for interviewing new pastors, questions to ask at ordination, and advice on knowing when and how to leave a pastor role. This is a comprehensive, practical guide to pastoral ministry that prepares new pastors and equips those currently serving for long-term, healthy ministry.
A companion streaming video study is also available.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310177258", "ISBN-10": "0310177251", "ASIN": "0310177251", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners", "Author": "John Bunyan", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Biography", "Tag": "Self-Help, Christian Living, Biography, Bible, Protestantism", "Location": null, "Pages": 172, "Summary": "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, or The Brief Relation of the Exceeding Mercy of God in Christ to his Poor Servant John Bunyan is a Puritan spiritual autobiography written by John Bunyan. It was written while Bunyan was serving a twelve-year prison sentence in Bedford gaol for preaching without a license and was first published in 1666. The title contains allusions to two Biblical passages: 'Grace Abounding' is a reference to Romans 5:20, which states 'Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound' and 'Chief of Sinners' refers to 1 Timothy 1:15, where Paul refers to himself by the same appellation.
", "ISBN-13": "9781644398906", "ISBN-10": "1644398907", "ASIN": "1644398907", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Hannah Coulter: A Novel", "Author": "Wendell Berry", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Fiction", "Tag": "Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction", "Location": null, "Pages": 264, "Summary": "Wendell Berry’s seventh novel and the ninth book of the Port William Membership, Hannah Coulter is a fictional memoir of one woman's journey through life and a celebration of rural America\n\nHannah, the now–elderly narrator, recounts the love she has for the land and for her community. She remembers each of her two husbands, and all places and community connections threatened by twentieth–century technologies. At risk is the whole culture of family farming. But her hope is redeemed when her wayward and once lost grandson, Virgil, returns to his rural home place to work the farm.", "ISBN-13": "9781593760786", "ISBN-10": "1593760787", "ASIN": "1593760787", "Genre": "Literature & Fiction", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "He is There and He is Not Silent", "Author": "Francis August Schaeffer", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Apologetics", "Tag": "Philosophy, Epistemology, Religion, Christian Living, Devotional, Inspirational, Theology, Apologetics, Christianity", "Location": null, "Pages": 100, "Summary": "Why should you believe in God?This biography of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German theologian and religious reformer, provides a detailed look at his role in the Protestant Reformation. Bainton argues that Luther's struggle to reform the Catholic Church stemmed from his belief in the primacy of scripture and his conviction that salvation was achieved through faith alone, rather than through good works or the Church's sacraments. Drawing on Luther's own writings and contemporary accounts, Bainton paints a vivid portrait of one of the most significant figures in Christian history.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
This work is in the \"public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
", "ISBN-13": "9781021177773", "ISBN-10": "1021177776", "ASIN": "1021177776", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Holiness", "Author": "J.C. Ryle", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Holiness", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Theology, Soteriology, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 449, "Summary": "Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots' is perhaps J. C. Ryle's best-known and, arguably, best-loved book. Although many things have changed since 1877, when this book was first published, one thing remains the same: 'real practical holiness does not receive the attention it deserves.' It was to remedy this attention deficit, and to counter false teaching on this most important subject, that Ryle took up his pen.A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • A NEW YORK TIMESE NOTABLE BOOK • WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE
A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A LOS ANGELES TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
“[Robinson's] prose is our flight out, a keen instrument of vision and transcendence.” —O, the Oprah Magazine
Hailed as \"incandescent,\" \"magnificent,\" and \"a literary miracle\" (Entertainment Weekly), hundreds of thousands of readers were enthralled by Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. Now Robinson returns with a brilliantly imagined retelling of the prodigal son parable, set at the same moment and in the same Iowa town as Gilead.
A luminous and healing book about families, family secrets, and faith from one of America's most beloved and acclaimed authors.
The Reverend Boughton's hell-raising son, Jack, has come home after twenty years away. Artful and devious in his youth, now an alcoholic carrying two decades worth of secrets, he is perpetually at odds with his traditionalist father, though he remains his most beloved child. As Jack tries to make peace with his father, he begins to forge an intense bond with his sister Glory, herself returning home with a broken heart and turbulent past.
Home is a luminous and healing book about families, family secrets, and faith from one of America's most beloved and acclaimed authors.
Everyone wants to be happy, and we all pursue happiness in different ways. Some people are thrill-seekers; others are homebodies. Some people are loners; others love big families or communities. Some people express things creatively; others consume what is created. Some sing; others listen to music. Whatever we find happiness in, we are united by our desire for work that matters and relationships that fulfil.
As Christians, we often fall into the trap of basing our hopes on earthly things, even when we know they only make us happy for a short time. But how are we to experience happiness in this life? How do we avoid expecting too much of earthly things and being disappointed, or expecting too little and becoming cynics?
In this book, recovering cynic Barnabas Piper helps us to throw off both the unrealistic expectations that end in disappointment and the guilty sense that Christians are not meant to have fun. He shows how having a clear view of the reality of the fall and the promise of redemption frees us to live a life that's grounded, hopeful and genuinely happy.
The process of sanctification is personal and organic--not a one-size-fits-all formula.
Many popular views try to reduce the process of Christian growth to a single template. For example, remember past grace. Rehearse your identity in Christ. Avail yourself of the means of grace. Discipline yourself. But Scripture portrays the dynamics of sanctification in a rich variety of ways. No single factor, truth, or protocol can capture why and how a person is changed into the image of Christ.
Weaving together personal stories, biblical exposition, and theological reflection, David Powlison shows the personal and particular ways that God meets you where you are to produce change. He highlights the variety of factors that work together, helping us to avoid sweeping generalizations and pat answers in the search for a key to sanctification. This book is a go-to resource for understanding the multifaceted, lifelong, personal journey of sanctification.
Now featuring practical, heart-focused discussion questions for each chapter, useful for individual use, counseling, or in a small group setting.
What does it take for lasting change to take root in your life? If you've ever tried, failed, and wondered what you could do differently, you need to read How People Change. In the book, biblical counseling experts Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp explain the biblical pattern for change in a clear, practical way you can apply to the challenges of daily life.
But change involves much more than just a biblical formula: you will see how God is at work to make you the person you were created to be. That powerful, loving, redemptive relationship is at the heart of all positive change you experience.
A changed heart is the bright promise of the gospel, but many of us wonder if we'll ever see lasting change take root in our lives. When the Bible talks about the gift of a new heart, it doesn't mean a heart that is immediately perfected, but a heart that is capable of being changed. Jesus's work on the cross targets our hearts, our core desires and motivations, and when our hearts change, our behavior changes.
How People Change targets the root of a person: the heart. When our core desires and motivations change, only then will behavior follow. Using a biblical model of Heat, Thorns, Cross, and Fruit, Paul David Tripp and Timothy S. Lane reveal how lasting change is possible.
You don't need to be stuck anymore. In Christ, you are a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come. Includes a foreword by David Powlison.
", "ISBN-13": "9781934885536", "ISBN-10": "1934885533", "ASIN": "1934885533", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "How to Read and Understand the Biblical Prophets", "Author": "Peter J. Gentry", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "How to Read the Bible", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, Old Testament, Prophecy, Prophets", "Location": null, "Pages": 144, "Summary": "A Concise Guide to Reading the Prophetic Books
The Prophetic Books of the Bible are full of symbolic speeches, dramatic metaphors, and lengthy allegories--a unique blend of literary styles that can make them hard to comprehend. How can we know if we are reading them the way God intended them to be read?
In this accessible guide, leading Old Testament scholar Peter Gentry identifies seven common characteristics of prophetic literature in the Bible that help us understand each book's message. With illustrations and clear examples, Gentry offers guidance for reading these challenging texts--teaching us practical strategies for deeper engagement with the biblical text as we seek to apply God's Word to our lives today.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433554032", "ISBN-10": "1433554038", "ASIN": "1433554038", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "How to Read the Bible Book by Book: A Guided Tour", "Author": "Gordon D. Fee and Douglas K. Stuart", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "How to Read the Bible", "Tag": "Christian Living, Bible", "Location": null, "Pages": 448, "Summary": "Reading the Bible doesn't need to be a difficult journey through strange and bewildering territory. How to Read the Bible Book by Book walks you through the Scriptures like an experienced tour guide, helping you understand each of its sixty-six books.
For each book of the Bible, the authors start with a quick snapshot, then expand the view to help you better understand its message and how it fits into the grand narrative of the Bible. Written by two top evangelical scholars, this survey is designed to get you actually reading the Bible knowledgeably and understanding it accurately.
In an engaging, conversational style, Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart take you through every book of the Bible using their unique approach:
How to Read the Bible Book by Book can be used as a companion to How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. It also stands on its own as a reliable guide to reading and understanding the Bible for yourself.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310518082", "ISBN-10": "0310518083", "ASIN": "0310518083", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth", "Author": "Gordon D. Fee and Douglas K. Stuart", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "How to Read the Bible", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, Exegesis & Hermeneutics, Biblical Reference, Handbooks, Bible, Christian Living, Christian Ministry, Pastoral Resources", "Location": null, "Pages": 304, "Summary": "OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD - Get the most out of your Bible.
In clear, simple language, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth helps you accurately understand the different parts of the Bible--their meaning for ancient audiences and their implications for you today--so you can uncover the inexhaustible wealth of God's Word.
More than a million people have turned to How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth to inform their reading of the Bible. This fourth edition features revisions that keep pace with current scholarship, resources, and culture. Changes include:
Used all around the world, this Bible resource covers everything from how to choose a good translation to how to understand the different genres of biblical writing.
Understanding the Bible isn't just for the few, the gifted, and the scholarly. The Bible is meant to be read and comprehended by everyone from casual readers to seminary students. Even a few essential insights into the Bible can clear up a lot of misconceptions and help you grasp the meaning of Scripture and its application to your twenty-first-century life.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310517825", "ISBN-10": "0310517826", "ASIN": "0310517826", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Humility: The Joy of Self-Forgetfulness", "Author": "Gavin Ortlund", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Humility", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Christian Ministry, Discipleship", "Location": null, "Pages": 136, "Summary": "Cultivating Humility in a Gospel-Centered Way
There are many misconceptions about what it means to be humble. Some think that being humble means hiding your talents and abilities or being weak and inauthentic. But the Bible paints a different picture--defining humility as a self-forgetfulness leading to joy and explaining that it is a life-giving virtue that frees you from the restricting needs of your ego.
In Humility: The Joy of Self-Forgetfulness, Gavin Ortlund encourages readers that humility is not just an abstract virtue but a mark of gospel integrity. Ortlund examines humility both on a personal level and in the context of the church, giving examples of ways to cultivate it--including meditation on the gospel and practicing intentional gratitude. Drawing from Philippians 2 and historical texts such as C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity and Jonathan Edwards's sermon \"A Christian Spirit Is a Humble Spirit,\" Ortlund defines humility in light of the incarnation and death of Jesus Christ, casting a vision for a gospel-centered, humble life.
This is a collection of religious hymns and spiritual songs written by renowned hymn writer Isaac Watts. The book is regarded as one of the most influential hymnals in English literature. It includes timeless classics such as \"When I survey the wondrous cross\" and \"Joy to the world\".
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
This work is in the \"public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
", "ISBN-13": "9781019371039", "ISBN-10": "101937103X", "ASIN": "101937103X", "Genre": "Literature & Fiction", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "In the Lord I Take Refuge: 150 Daily Devotions Through the Psalms (Gift Edition)", "Author": "Dane Ortlund", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Devotional", "Tag": "Bible, English Standard Version, Devotional, Religion, Commentary, Old Testament, Poetry & Wisdom Literature, Christian Living", "Location": null, "Pages": 416, "Summary": "Bestselling Author Dane Ortlund Shares Daily Devotions through the Psalms, Now in a Beautiful Gift Edition
The book of Psalms could be called the Bible's devotional. Written with profound feeling, each psalm comforts and consoles us amid the raw experiences of life, revealing how God's people are free to turn to him in times of anguish, pain, remorse, joy, and thanksgiving.
In the Lord I Take Refuge invites readers to experience the Psalms in a new way through heartfelt devotional content written by pastor and bestselling author Dane Ortlund. Previously published as the ESV Devotional Psalter, each reading is short enough to complete in 5 minutes or less and will encourage believers to thoughtfully ponder and pray through all 150 Psalms, connecting each psalm to Jesus Christ. This book features the full text of the English Standard Version Psalms, a large font, and thick, cream-colored paper. All of these features, along with a helpful introduction on how to read the Psalms devotionally, encourage believers to pause and reflect on the riches of each text as they commune daily with the Lord. This gift edition features a high-quality TruTone cover.
Is it ok to be gay and Christian? Does the Bible really say that homosexuality is wrong? Is sexual orientation fundamental to identity?
Author and speaker Sam Allberry has updated his best-selling book to acknowledge the cultural changes in the past decade and has made it more accessible to people who do not follow Jesus. It has also been expanded so that it looks, first and foremost, at the extraordinary claims and promises of Jesus, before examining his teaching on sexuality and the costs and rewards of following him.
As a believer who experiences same-sex attraction, Sam Allberry has written sensitively on this topic. He challenges the current culture narrative and shows that the gospel is good news for everyone, whatever their sexual orientation. In the introduction, he says, \"Above all I want people to how good Jesus is, in this area of life and in every area of life.\"
This book is designed to help both Christians and non-Christians struggling with the Bible's teaching on this issue, whether they experience same-sex attraction themselves or not.
Includes a foreword by Tim Keller and answers to questions such as…
• does Jesus ever mention same-sex relationships?
• aren't people just born this way?
• what should I do if a Christian comes out to me?
• surely, isn't a same-sex partnership ok if it's committed and faithful?
• is it sinful to experience same-sex attraction?
• isn't the Christian view of sexuality harmful?
• aren't we just picking and choosing which Old Testament laws apply?
• can't Christians just agree to differ on this?
• should Christians attend gay weddings?
Isaiah is widely considered the deepest, richest, and most theologically significant book in the Old Testament. It is, without question, a profound statement by God about his own sovereignty and majesty spoken through his chosen spokesman, the prophet Isaiah.
In this accessible commentary on the book of Isaiah, Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. argues that Isaiah imparts a single vision of God throughout all sixty-six chapters. It is a unified, woven whole that ultimately shows that God saves sinners. He saves them from their own self-invented salvations, so that they can walk in the light of his love.
Ultimately, the message of Isaiah offers us a God-centered confidence that enables us to face anything while challenging us to trust God in new ways.
Part of the Preaching the Word series.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433535475", "ISBN-10": "1433535475", "ASIN": "1433535475", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Jack: A Novel", "Author": "Marilynne Robinson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Fiction", "Tag": "Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction, Arborist Merchandising Root, Self Service", "Location": null, "Pages": 400, "Summary": "A New York Times bestseller\n\nNamed a Best Book of 2020 by the Australian Book Review, AV Club, Books-a-Million, Electric Literature, Esquire, the Financial Times, Good Housekeeping (UK), The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Literary Hub, the New Statesman, the New York Public Library, NPR, the Star Tribune, and TIME\n\nMarilynne Robinson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, returns to the world of Gilead with Jack, the latest novel in one of the great works of contemporary American fiction\n\nMarilynne Robinson’s mythical world of Gilead, Iowa―the setting of her novels Gilead, Home, and Lila, and now Jack―and its beloved characters have illuminated and interrogated the complexities of American history, the power of our emotions, and the wonders of a sacred world. Jack is Robinson’s fourth novel in this now-classic series. In it, Robinson tells the story of John Ames Boughton, the prodigal son of Gilead’s Presbyterian minister, and his romance with Della Miles, a high school teacher who is also the child of a preacher. Their deeply felt, tormented, star-crossed interracial romance resonates with all the paradoxes of American life, then and now.\n\nRobinson’s Gilead novels, which have won one Pulitzer Prize and two National Book Critics Circle Awards, are a vital contribution to contemporary American literature and a revelation of our national character and humanity.\n\n", "ISBN-13": "9780374279301", "ISBN-10": "0374279306", "ASIN": "0374279306", "Genre": "Literature & Fiction", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Jayber Crow: A Novel", "Author": "Wendell Berry", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Fiction", "Tag": "Fiction, Small Town & Rural, Southern, Literary", "Location": null, "Pages": 384, "Summary": "“This is a book about Heaven,” says Jayber Crow, “but I must say too that . . . I have wondered sometimes if it would not finally turn out to be a book about Hell.” It is 1932 and he has returned to his native Port William to become the town's barber.Join author and minister David Murray as he introduces you to Jesus through the lens of the Old Testament.
When you think of a son trudging uphill, carrying wood for his own sacrifice because his father has decided to give him up to death, what biblical event does this bring to mind? Is it Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22, or is it Christ's passion in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? The kinship between these two stories is deeper than mere coincidence, and the similarities don't end there. In fact, Murray argues that Christ isn't just present in the story of Abraham and Isaac--he's present on every page of the Old Testament.
In Jesus on Every Page, Dr. Murray guides the reader down his own Road to Emmaus, describing how the Scriptures were opened to him, revealing Jesus from Genesis 1 all the way through Revelation 22. Dr. Murray shares his ten simple ways to seek and find Christ in the Old Testament, diving deep into:
Recognizing Jesus in the full breadth of scripture is important for every Christian. In this step-by-step guide to discovering Jesus in the Old Testament, Dr. Murray provides a framework that will help you start practicing this wonderful way of enjoying Jesus throughout the Bible.
Whether you are preaching Jesus through Old Testament readings or just beginning to discover the reality of Christ in the Old Testament, Jesus on Every Page is an accessible guide to getting to know the Old Testament for what it truly is: full of Jesus.
", "ISBN-13": "9781400205349", "ISBN-10": "1400205344", "ASIN": "1400205344", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Jonathan Edwards: A Life", "Author": "George M. Marsden", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Biography", "Tag": "Biography, Personal Memoirs, Religious, Religion, Christianity, History, Presbyterian", "Location": null, "Pages": 615, "Summary": "2003 Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography"The finest biography of this towering figure. . . . Marsden guides readers through Edwards's profoundly alien world with authority and fluidity."--Benjamin Schwarz, Atlantic Monthly
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is a towering figure in American history. A controversial theologian and the author of the famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, he ignited the momentous Great Awakening of the eighteenth century.
In this definitive and long-awaited biography, Jonathan Edwards emerges as both a great American and a brilliant Christian. George Marsden evokes the world of colonial New England in which Edwards was reared--a frontier civilization at the center of a conflict between Native Americans, French Catholics, and English Protestants. Drawing on newly available sources, Marsden demonstrates how these cultural and religious battles shaped Edwards's life and thought. Marsden reveals Edwards as a complex thinker and human being who struggled to reconcile his Puritan heritage with the secular, modern world emerging out of the Enlightenment. In this, Edwards's life anticipated the deep contradictions of our American culture.
Meticulously researched and beautifully composed, this biography offers a compelling portrait of an eminent American.
", "ISBN-13": "9780300105964", "ISBN-10": "0300105967", "ASIN": "0300105967", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Justified by Faith Alone", "Author": "R.C. Sproul", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Reformed Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Theology, History, Soteriology, Faith", "Location": null, "Pages": 48, "Summary": "Teaching Outline + Study Guide for Justified by Faith Alone", "ISBN-13": "9781567695533", "ISBN-10": "1567695531", "ASIN": "1567695531", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Keep in Step with the Spirit", "Author": "J.I. Packer", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Sanctification", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Christian Ministry, Discipleship, Theology, Pneumatology, Systematic", "Location": null, "Pages": 368, "Summary": "\"If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.\" --Galatians 5:25
Many Christians throughout the years have struggled to understand the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Seeing the potential for learning--as well as for confusion--theologian J. I. Packer wrote this comprehensive guide celebrating an often-misunderstood person of the Trinity. In Keep in Step with the Spirit, he explains how the Holy Spirit acted powerfully throughout creation and history, and continues to move in the lives of believers today, influencing our sanctification, spiritual gifts, and witness. Packer shares examples of the Spirit in the Old and New Testaments, and thoughtfully analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of charismatic theology.
This updated, expanded edition includes an additional essay from Packer on Paul's words in Romans, which emphasize the certainty of hope imparted to believers through the Holy Spirit.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433572807", "ISBN-10": "143357280X", "ASIN": "143357280X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Keeping the Heart: How to Maintain Your Love for God", "Author": "John Flavel", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Puritan Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Christianity, History, Christian Ministry, Discipleship, Pastoral Resources", "Location": null, "Pages": 128, "Summary": "This is John Flavel's classic work on union and fellowship with God. In a comprehensive and helpful manner Flavel helps us understand better what 'keeping the heart' means. He tells us why we should take this commission seriously and speaks about there being particular times when we need to be especially wary of being distracted from our goal. He then shows how we can go on to develop a greater ability in keeping our hearts in tune with God. His advice is timeless, sensitive and profound. Flavel was an English Puritan who became a non-conformist after the 'Great Ejection' of 1662. It was 10 years before he was licenced to preach again, and then only in his own home. His writings, when collected in the 19th century, filled 6 volumes. Flavel's writings are known for their practical nature. He was instrumental in promoting the 'Happy Union' of Presbyterians and Congregationalists.
", "ISBN-13": "9781845506483", "ISBN-10": "1845506480", "ASIN": "1845506480", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Kingdom Through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants", "Author": "Stephen Wellum & Peter Gentry", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Biblical Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Reference, Biblical Studies, Exegesis & Hermeneutics, Theology, Systematic", "Location": null, "Pages": 960, "Summary": "Kingdom through Covenant is a careful exposition of how the biblical covenants unfold and relate to one another--a widely debated topic, critical for understanding the narrative plot structure of the whole Bible.
By incorporating the latest available research from the ancient Near East and examining implications of their work for Christology, ecclesiology, eschatology, and hermeneutics, scholars Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum present a thoughtful and viable alternative to both covenant theology and dispensationalism.
This second edition features updated and revised content, clarifying key material and integrating the latest findings into the discussion.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433553073", "ISBN-10": "1433553074", "ASIN": "1433553074", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Know the Creeds and Councils", "Author": "Justin S. Holcomb", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Church History", "Tag": "Christian Living, Bible, Theology, Worship & Devotion", "Location": null, "Pages": 192, "Summary": "In every generation, the Christian church must interpret and restate its bedrock beliefs, answering the challenges and concerns of the day. This accessible overview walks readers through centuries of creeds, councils, catechisms, and confessions--not with a dry focus on dates and places, but with an emphasis on the living tradition of Christian belief and why it matters for our lives today.
As a part of the KNOW series, Know the Creeds and Councils is designed for personal study or classroom use, but also for small groups and Sunday schools wanting to more deeply understand the foundations of the faith.
This book has everything you need for a full personal or group study experience.
Sessions and video run times:
1 - Introduction (13 min)
2 - Apostles' Creed (20 min)
3 - Council of Nicaea and the Nicene Creed (23 min)
4 - Councils of Ephesus (22 min)
5 - Council of Chalcedon (16 min)
6 - Athanasian Creed (18 min)
7 - Councils of Constantinople (15 min)
8 - Councils of Carthage and Orange (19 min)
9 - Council of Trent (19 min)
10 - Heidelberg Catechism (17 min)
11 - Thirty-nine Articles of Religion (17 min)
12 - Westminster Confession of Faith (13 min)
13 - Second Vatican Council (15 min)
14 - Modern Confessions: Lausanne Covenant and Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (22 min)
15 - Conclusion (8 min)
Streaming video access code included. Access code subject to expiration after January 14, 2030. Code may be redeemed only by the recipient of this package. Code may not be transferred or sold separately from this package. Internet connection required. Void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Additional offer details inside.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310178071", "ISBN-10": "031017807X", "ASIN": "031017807X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Know the Heretics", "Author": "Justin S. Holcomb", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Church History", "Tag": "Religion, Christianity, History, Theology, Christian Church, Blasphemy, Heresy & Apostasy", "Location": null, "Pages": 176, "Summary": "Know the Heretics provides an accessible travel guide to the most significant heresies throughout Christian history.
There is a lot of talk about heresy these days. The frequency and volume of accusations suggest that some Christians have lost a sense of the gravity of the word, while others have little familiarity with orthodox doctrine or the historic distortions of it.
This book has everything you need for a full video study experience.
As a part of the KNOW series, this book is designed for personal study or classroom use, but also for small groups and Sunday schools wanting to more deeply understand the foundations of the faith.
Sessions and video run times:
1 - Introduction: Why Heresy? (7 min)
2 - Judaizers: The Old Rules Still Apply (25 min)
3 - Gnostics: God Hides Messages for the Enlightened (18 min)
4 - Marcion: Vengeful Yahweh versus Gentle Jesus (20 min)
5 - Docetists: The Spiritual Is Good, the Physical Is Evil (14 min)
6 - Mani: God Must Be Freed (16 min)
7 - Sabellius: One Actor and Three Hats (18 min)
8 - Arius: Jesus Is a Lesser God (16 min)
9 - Apollinarius: Christ May Be Human, but His Mind Is Divine (11 min)
10 - Pelagius: God Has Already Given Us the Tools (16 min)
11 - Eutyches: Christ as a New Kind of Being (13 min)
12 - Nestorius: Christ's Divinity Must Be Shielded (16 min)
13 - Socinus: The Trinity Is Irrelevant and Jesus's Death Is Only an Example (18 min)
14 - Conclusion (7 min)
Streaming video access code included. Access code subject to expiration after January 14, 2030. Code may be redeemed only by the recipient of this package. Code may not be transferred or sold separately from this package. Internet connection required. Void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Additional offer details inside.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310178064", "ISBN-10": "0310178061", "ASIN": "0310178061", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Knowing Christ", "Author": "Mark Jones", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Christology", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Devotional", "Location": null, "Pages": 250, "Summary": "From the foreword by J.I. Packer: The Puritans loved the Bible, and dug into it in depth. Also, they loved the Lord Jesus, who is of course the Bible's focal figure; they circled round him, centred on him, studied minutely all that Scripture had to say about him, and constantly, conscientiously, exalted him in their preaching, praises, and prayers. Mark Jones, an established expert on many aspects of Puritan thought, also loves the Bible and its Christ, and the Puritans as expositors of both; and out of this triune love he has written a memorable unpacking of the truth about the Saviour according to the classic Reformed tradition, and the Puritans supremely. Knowing Christ is a book calculated to enrich our twenty-first-century souls, and one that it is an honour to introduce.", "ISBN-13": "9781848716308", "ISBN-10": "1848716303", "ASIN": "1848716303", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Knowing God", "Author": "J.I. Packer", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Practical Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Self-Help", "Location": null, "Pages": 304, "Summary": "
Over One Million Copies Sold
For half a century, J. I. Packer's classic has helped Christians around the world discover the wonder, the glory, and the joy of knowing God.
Stemming from Packer's profound theological knowledge, Knowing God brings together two key facets of the Christian faith—knowing about God and knowing God through a close relationship with Jesus Christ. Written in an engaging and practical tone, this thought-provoking work seeks to renew and enrich our understanding of God.
Knowing God was named by Christianity Today as one of the top fifty books that have shaped evangelicals. With a companion Bible study, devotional journal, and study guide, readers can explore these biblical themes for themselves in this new fiftieth anniversary edition.
Also available: Knowing God Study Guide, Knowing God Devotional Journal, Knowing God Bible Study.
", "ISBN-13": "9781514007761", "ISBN-10": "1514007762", "ASIN": "1514007762", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Knowing Scripture", "Author": "R.C. Sproul", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "How to Read the Bible", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Exegesis & Hermeneutics, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, Christian Ministry, Pastoral Resources", "Location": null, "Pages": 153, "Summary": "The Bible is the written Word of God, and it is treasured by many. But it is also an ancient book about people and cultures very different than us. Thus, while we know we should read it, many of us have a hard time understanding the Bible. In this expanded edition of Knowing Scripture, R. C. Sproul helps us dig out the meaning of Scripture for ourselves. The author says, \"The theme of this book is not how to read the Bible but how to study the Bible.\" He presents in simple, basic terms a commonsense approach to studying Scripture and gives eleven practical guidelines for biblical interpretation and applying what we learn. With a minimum of technical jargon, Sproul tackles some of the knotty questions regarding differences of interpreting the Bible, including
Now with a new preface, Knowing Scripture is a basic book for both beginning Bible readers and experienced students of Scripture.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830844685", "ISBN-10": "0830844686", "ASIN": "0830844686", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Larger Catechism", "Author": "Martin Luther", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Gospel Doctrine", "Tag": "Religion", "Location": null, "Pages": 128, "Summary": "Martin Luther's Large Catechism is an important work of reformed theology. Enjoy this classic work! Produced by Beloved Publishing.", "ISBN-13": "9781631740664", "ISBN-10": "1631740660", "ASIN": "1631740660", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Lectures to My Students", "Author": "Charles Spurgeon", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Reformed Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Personal Growth, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 384, "Summary": "Charles Spurgeon founded The Pastors' College in London in 1856, at only twenty-two years of age. He supervised and graduated over 900 men from the Pastors' College, lecturing once a week. Lectures to My Students is a collection of those lectures and is still today a must-read for every gospel minister. In it you'll find a treasure trove of ministry insight and wisdom. It's full of biblical truth, theological reflection, and practical instruction. To not read it is to go into spiritual battle, as a minister, insufficiently armed. This beautiful deluxe edition includes an introduction by Dr. Jason K. Allen and has been lightly edited for readability.", "ISBN-13": "9781087784465", "ISBN-10": "1087784468", "ASIN": "1087784468", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Les Miserables", "Author": "Victor Hugo", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Fiction", "Tag": "Fiction, Classics, Literary, Historical", "Location": null, "Pages": 1456, "Summary": "The first new Penguin Classics translation in forty years of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece, the subject of The Novel of the Century by David Bellos—published in a stunning Deluxe edition. Winner of the French-American Foundation & Florence Gould Foundation’s 29th Annual Translation Prize in Fiction.\"If you are in ministry, this book is a must-read for you and your ministry team--not just once, but once a year.\" -Paul David Tripp
How do we keep from drifting away from what makes us who we are How do we even know we're drifting
In this provocative new book, Jared C. Wilson discusses the potentials and problems with evangelical departures from gospel-centrality. In a variety of ways, on both \"the left\" and \"the right,\" Wilson outlines these threats from angles sometimes imperceptible at first glance.
As you read Lest We Drift, you will recognize the signs of drift in the faith and teaching, and learn to navigate the five particular dangers prevalent in the church today:
With biblical wisdom and cultural insight, this book will help you identify these potential hazards in your own Christian life and church; becoming better alert to the need to \"pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it\" (Heb. 2:1).
", "ISBN-13": "9780310155768", "ISBN-10": "0310155762", "ASIN": "0310155762", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Let the Nations Be Glad!: The Supremacy of God in Missions", "Author": "John Piper", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Missions", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Ministry, Missions, Theology", "Location": null, "Pages": 304, "Summary": "John Piper's bestselling book on missions draws on key biblical texts to demonstrate that worship is the ultimate goal of the church and that proper worship fuels missionary outreach. Piper offers a biblical defense of God's supremacy in all things, providing readers with a sound theological foundation for missions.Martin Luther is often thought of as a world-shaking figure who defied papacy and empire to introduce a reformation in the teaching, worship, organization, and life of the church. Sometimes it is forgotten that he was also a pastor and shepherd of souls. Collected in this volume are Luther's letters of spiritual counsel, which he offered to his contemporaries in the midst of sickness, death, persecution, imprisonment, famine, and political instability. For Luther, spiritual counsel was about establishing, nurturing, and strengthening faith. Freshly translated from the original German and Latin, these letters shed light on the fascinating relationship between his pastoral counsel and his theology.
", "ISBN-13": "9781773236933", "ISBN-10": "1773236938", "ASIN": "1773236938", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community", "Author": "Deitrich Bonhoeffer", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Community", "Tag": "Religion, Christianity, Christian Living, Theology", "Location": null, "Pages": 128, "Summary": "After his martyrdom at the hands of the Gestapo in 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer continued his witness in the hearts of Christians around the world. His Letters and Papers from Prison became a prized testimony to Christian faith and courage, read by thousands. Now in Life Together we have Pastor Bonhoeffer's experience of Christian community. This story of a unique fellowship in an underground seminary during the Nazi years reads like one of Paul's letters. It gives practical advice on how life together in Christ can be sustained in families and groups. The role of personal prayer, worship in common, everyday work, and Christian service is treated in simple, almost biblical, words. Life Together is bread for all who are hungry for the real life of Christian fellowship.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060608521", "ISBN-10": "0060608528", "ASIN": "0060608528", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Lila: A Novel", "Author": "Marilynne Robinson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Fiction", "Tag": "Fiction, Literary, Historical, 20th Century, World Literature, American, 21st Century", "Location": null, "Pages": 272, "Summary": "A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
\"Marilynne Robinson's LILA is an enthralling meditation on belief, suffering and grace.\" —O, the Oprah Magazine
\"Writing in lovely, angular prose that has the high loneliness of an old bluegrass tune, Ms. Robinson has created a balladlike story . . . The novel is powerful and deeply affecting . . . Ms. Robinson renders [Lila's] tale with the stark poetry of Edward Hopper or Andrew Wyeth. — The New York Times
Grade: A Emotionally and intellectually challenging, it's an exploration of faith in God, love, and whatever else it takes to survive.” —Entertainment Weekly
A new American classic from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gilead, Marilynne Robinson returns to the town of Gilead in an unforgettable story of a girlhood lived on the fringes of society in fear, awe, and wonder.
Marilynne Robinson, one of the greatest novelists of our time, returns to the town of Gilead in an unforgettable story of a girlhood lived on the fringes of society in fear, awe, and wonder.
Lila, homeless and alone after years of roaming the countryside, steps inside a small-town Iowa church-the only available shelter from the rain-and ignites a romance and a debate that will reshape her life. She becomes the wife of a minister, John Ames, and begins a new existence while trying to make sense of the life that preceded her newfound security.
Neglected as a toddler, Lila was rescued by Doll, a canny young drifter, and brought up by her in a hardscrabble childhood. Together they crafted a life on the run, living hand to mouth with nothing but their sisterly bond and a ragged blade to protect them. Despite bouts of petty violence and moments of desperation, their shared life was laced with moments of joy and love. When Lila arrives in Gilead, she struggles to reconcile the life of her makeshift family and their days of hardship with the gentle Christian worldview of her husband which paradoxically judges those she loves.
Revisiting the beloved characters and setting of Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead and Home, a National Book Award finalist, Lila is a moving expression of the mysteries of existence that is destined to become an American classic.
Sauron has returned. . . watch The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 on Prime Video.
Immerse yourself in J.R.R. Tolkien's epic masterworks The Hobbit and the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King) with this stunning four-volume, deluxe paperback boxed set.
In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins is whisked away from his comfortable, unambitious life in Hobbiton by the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves. He finds himself caught up in a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon.
The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo Baggins and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the dwarf; Legolas the elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider. Tolkien's three volume masterpiece is at once a classic myth and a modern fairy tale--a story of high and heroic adventure set in the unforgettable landscape of Middle-earth.
", "ISBN-13": "9780547928180", "ISBN-10": "0547928181", "ASIN": "0547928181", "Genre": "Literature & Fiction", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America", "Author": "Russell Moore", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Church", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Social Issues, Political Science, Political Ideologies, Conservatism & Liberalism, Theology", "Location": null, "Pages": 272, "Summary": "Former Southern Baptist pastor and Christianity Today editor-in-chief Russell Moore calls for repentance and renewal in American evangelicalismGod made you for friendship.
Friendship is one of the deepest pleasures of life. But in our busy, fast-paced, mobile world, we've lost this rich view of friendship and instead settled for shallow acquaintances based on little more than similar tastes or shared interests.
Helping us recapture a vision of true friendship, pastor Drew Hunter explores God's design for friendship and what it really looks like in practice--giving us practical advice to cultivate the kinds of true friendships that lead to true and life-giving joy.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433558191", "ISBN-10": "143355819X", "ASIN": "143355819X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Making All Things New: Restoring Joy to the Sexually Broken", "Author": "David Powlison", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Sexuality", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Love & Marriage, Christian Ministry, Counseling & Recovery, Pastoral Resources, Sexuality & Gender Studies, Self-Help, Death, Grief, Bereavement", "Location": null, "Pages": 128, "Summary": "Sexuality was a part of God's good creation from the beginning. But with sin came a world filled with sexual brokenness. Thankfully, God is always in the business of restoration.
This book offers hope for both the sexually immoral and the sexually victimized, pointing us all to the grace of Jesus Christ, who mercifully intervenes each moment in our lifelong journey toward renewal. Author David Powlison casts a vision for the key to deep transformation, better than anything the world has to offer--not just fresh resolve, not just flimsy forgiveness, not just simple formulas, but true, lasting mercy from God, who is making all things new.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433556142", "ISBN-10": "1433556146", "ASIN": "1433556146", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Making Sense of God: Finding God in the Modern World", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Apologetics", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Biblical Studies", "Location": null, "Pages": 336, "Summary": "We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives?Marriage reveals something of eternal significance. From the beginning, God designed marriage to convey a greater reality--the passionate, unfailing, redeeming love of God for sinners, the eternal romance between Christ and his bride.
In this volume, Ray Ortlund traces marriage throughout Scripture--from the first marriage in the garden of Eden to the ultimate marriage in the book of Revelation--laying out a transcendent vision of marriage that dignifies our own imperfect unions as a display of the gospel. This book offers insight and hope to every married person today.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433546877", "ISBN-10": "1433546876", "ASIN": "1433546876", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Mere Christian Hermeneutics: Transfiguring What It Means to Read the Bible Theologically", "Author": "Kevin Vanhoozer", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "How to Read the Bible", "Tag": "Bible", "Location": null, "Pages": 384, "Summary": "How can we read the text of Scripture well, rightly, and faithfully? Theologian Kevin J. Vanhoozer believes the two greatest challenges in developing a theory of interpretation are, first, the de facto variety of actual interpretations of the Bible and, second, the plurality of reading cultures--denominational, disciplinary, historical, and global interpretive communities--each with its own preferred frame of reference. A cynical observer might say that the one thing Christians have never agreed on is how to interpret the Bible, or even on the meaning of the \"literal sense.\"A forceful and accessible discussion of Christian belief that has become one of the most popular introductions to Christianity and one of the most popular of Lewis's books. Uncovers common ground upon which all Christians can stand together.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060652920", "ISBN-10": "0060652926", "ASIN": "0060652926", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Missions: How the Local Church Goes Global", "Author": "Andy Johnson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Missions", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Ministry, Evangelism, Missions, Theology, Ecclesiology", "Location": null, "Pages": 128, "Summary": "Who is responsible for global missions?
Even though most Christians will never move overseas, the Bible enlists every Christian and every local church in the grand project of global missions. The local church is the engine of world missions. But where should a church begin?
Churches don't need a complicated missions program. They need the Bible and the wisdom to know how to apply it. This book points to Scripture and offers practical steps for training and supporting missionaries, forming international partnerships, sending short-term teams, and engaging the nations both at home and abroad.
Part of the 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches series.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433555701", "ISBN-10": "1433555700", "ASIN": "1433555700", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Money, Possessions, and Eternity", "Author": "Randy Alcorn", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Discipleship", "Tag": "Business & Economics, Personal Finance, Money Management, Religion, Christian Living, Inspirational, Personal Growth, Stewardship & Giving, Theology, Ethics", "Location": null, "Pages": 503, "Summary": "This practical and refreshing theology of money contains topical and Scripture indexes, a study guide, and five helpful appendixes.Spurgeon's Classic Devotional, Carefully Updated with Modern Language and ESV Bible Text Over 100,000 Copies Sold
For over 100 hundred years, Christians have started and ended each day with Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening as a companion. Featuring two brief daily readings throughout the year, this classic devotional emphasizes the importance of abiding in Christ and consistently meditating on God's word. The richness of Spurgeon's biblical understanding offers a look into the heart of one of England's foremost pastors and enduring Christian authors.
In this edition, his lasting message is made even more accessible by pastor Alistair Begg's careful modernizing of Spurgeon's English. Begg, who has a deep love for Spurgeon's preaching and especially for this work, has maintained Morning and Evening's clear passion and commitment to Christ. Along with updated language, this edition uses the English Standard Version as the scriptural text, providing an accurate, understandable foundation for each reading.
Seven years ago, Christian Wiman, a well-known poet and the editor of Poetry magazine, wrote a now-famous essay about having faith in the face of death. My Bright Abyss, composed in the difficult years since and completed in the wake of a bone marrow transplant, is a moving meditation on what a viable contemporary faith—responsive not only to modern thought and science but also to religious tradition—might look like.
Joyful, sorrowful, and beautifully written, My Bright Abyss is destined to become a spiritual classic, useful not only to believers but to anyone whose experience of life and art seems at times to overbrim its boundaries. How do we answer this \"burn of being\"? Wiman asks. What might it mean for our lives—and for our deaths—if we acknowledge the \"insistent, persistent ghost\" that some of us call God?
One of Publishers Weekly's Best Religion Books of 2013
John Newton is famous for his legendary hymn \"Amazing Grace.\" Many have celebrated his dramatic conversion from a life in the slave trade to his eventual work to end it. But often overlooked are Newton's forty years as a pastor ministering to parishioners and friends unsettled by the trials, doubts, and fears of life.
Newton is perhaps the greatest pastoral letter writer in the history of the church. He took up his pen day after day to help others fix their eyes on Christ, which, he writes, is the underlying battle of the Christian life. Through a careful study of scores of letters, Tony Reinke brings together Newton's brilliant vision of the Christian life in one accessible place.
Widely recognized as a pillar of 20th-century evangelicalism, J. I. Packer has had a profound impact on millions of Christians living today. Now in his late eighties, Packer still exerts an enormous influence on pastors and laypeople around the world through his many books, articles, and recorded lectures--works that overflow with spiritual wisdom related to the Christian life. In the latest addition to Crossway's growing Theologians on the Christian Life series, well-known pastor Sam Storms examines Packer's legacy when it comes to the Christian and sanctification. Whether exploring Packer's insights into prayer, Bible study, the sovereignty of God, or the Christian's fight against sin, this accessible book offers readers the chance to learn from the best of Packer's thinking on what true godliness really entails.
The importance of Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck to Reformed theology is difficult to overstate. Bavinck's comprehensive four volume systematic theology, Reformed Dogmatics, is a modern classic that has influenced countless pastors and theologians over the past 100 years. In Bavinck on the Christian Life, scholar John Bolt brings the great Dutch theologian's life and work to bear on following Jesus in the 21st century. By practically applying Bavinck's systematic works to the Christian life and looking at the life of the man himself, this book shows the direct connection between robust theology, practical holiness, and personal joy.
John Owen is widely hailed as one of the greatest theologians of all time. His many works--especially those encouraging Christians in their struggle against sin--continue to speak powerfully to readers today, offering much-needed spiritual guidance for following Christ and resisting temptation day in and day out. Starting with an overview of Owen's life, ministry, and historical context, Michael Haykin and Matthew Barrett introduce readers to the pillars of Owen's spiritual life. From exploring his understanding of believers' fellowship with the triune God to highlighting his teaching on justification, this study invites us to learn about the Christian life from the greatest of the English Puritans.
Part of the Theologians on the Christian Life series.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433539718", "ISBN-10": "1433539713", "ASIN": "1433539713", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "NIV Study Bible", "Author": "D.A. Carson (ed.)", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Study Bible", "Tag": "Social Sciences, Religion, Bible, Christianity", "Location": null, "Pages": 2592, "Summary": "Marvel at the big story and savor each detail
Biblical Theology allows you to ponder the individual stories and themes of Scripture while observing how they all fit together in God’s grand biblical narrative. It answers the question, How has God revealed his word historically and organically? Biblical Theology studies the theology of individual biblical books and select collections within the Bible and then traces out themes as they develop across time within the canon.
With three articles introducing Biblical theology and 25 articles unpacking key themes of Scripture, the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible equips you to follow the progressive unfolding of God’s story. Helpful introductions to books and sections of the Bible combined with 20,000 verse-by-verse study notes will guide you to a clearer understanding of every portion of Scripture.
The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible is printed in exclusive Zondervan NIV Comfort Print® typeface. Expertly designed specifically to be used for the New International Version (NIV) text, Comfort Print offers an easier reading experience that complements the most widely read modern-English Bible translation.
Features:
16 Encouraging Sermons on Human Weakness and God's Sufficiency by Francis Schaeffer
Most Christians take an honest look at themselves and conclude that their limited talents, energy, and knowledge mean that they don't amount to much. Some even ask, Can I really make a difference? Francis A. Schaeffer counters this claim with truth from the Bible, arguing that with God there is no such thing as little people.
No Little People contains sixteen sermons from Schaeffer that explore the weakness and significance of humanity in relationship to the infinite and personal God. The focus of this collection is the lasting truth of the Bible, the faithfulness of God, the sufficiency of the work of Christ, and the power of the Spirit. Readers will be encouraged by the value that God places on each person made in his image to accomplish his redemptive plan.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433573088", "ISBN-10": "1433573083", "ASIN": "1433573083", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books", "Author": "Karen Swallow Prior", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Reading", "Tag": "Religion, Christianity, Literature & The Arts, Christian Living, Literary Criticism, Books & Reading", "Location": null, "Pages": 272, "Summary": "★ Publishers Weekly starred reviewA Practical Devotional Guide to What It Means to Be \"In Christ\"
Followers of Jesus refer to themselves primarily as \"Christians,\" but the New Testament frequently used a more meaningful term: \"in Christ.\" Disconnected from this deeper understanding of the gospel, believers today can miss out on the significance of unity with the Lord and its power to enrich every area of their lives.
In One with My Lord, Sam Allberry examines the doctrine of union with Christ through a rich study of New Testament scriptures. Each chapter is short enough to be read as a devotional, giving believers a fresh lens to view the gospel daily as they pursue holiness, resist sin, build community, and worship God. In a time when people are searching for a place to belong, One with My Lord reminds believers that they have a perfect home in Christ.
A \"reminder of why we read fiction to begin with\" (San Francisco Chronicle), Peace Like a River is Leif Enger's extraordinary debut novel--a heroic quest, a tragedy, a love story, and a haunting meditation on the possibility of magic in the everyday world--with over one million copies sold
Raised on tales of cowboys and pirates, eleven-year-old Reuben Land has little doubt that miracles happen all around us, and that it's up to us to \"make of it what we will.\" Reuben was born with no air in his lungs, and it was only when his father, Jeremiah, picked him up and commanded him to breathe that his lungs filled. Reuben struggles with debilitating asthma from then on, making him a boy who knows firsthand that life is a gift, and also one who suspects that his father is touched by God and can overturn the laws of nature.
The quiet Midwestern life of the Lands is upended when Davy, the oldest son, kills two marauders who have come to harm the family; unlike his father, he is not content to leave all matters of justice in God's hands. The morning of his sentencing, Davy-a hero to some, a cold-blooded murderer to others-escapes from his cell, and the Lands set out in search of him. Their journey is touched by serendipity and the kindness of strangers-among them a free spirit named Roxanna, who offers them a place to stay during a blizzard and winds up providing them with something far more permanent. Meanwhile, a federal agent is trailing the Lands, convinced they know of Davy's whereabouts.
With Jeremiah at the helm, the family covers territory far more extraordinary than even the Badlands where they search for Davy from their Airstream trailer. Sprinkled with playful nods to biblical tales, beloved classics such as Huckleberry Finn, the adventure stories of Robert Louis Stevenson, and the westerns of Zane Grey, Peace Like a River unfolds like a revelation.
",
"ISBN-13": "9780802139252",
"ISBN-10": "0802139256",
"ASIN": "0802139256",
"Genre": "Literature & Fiction",
"Recommended For": null,
"CoverURL": null
},
{
"Title": "Poems and Prose",
"Author": "Gerard Manley Hopkins",
"FormatID": null,
"Format": null,
"Reading Level": "Advanced",
"Category": "Poetry",
"Tag": "POETRY (POETIC WORKS BY ONE AUTHOR)",
"Location": null,
"Pages": 260,
"Summary": "Closer to Dylan Thomas than Matthew Arnold in his ‘creative violence’ and insistence on the sound of poetry, Gerard Manley Hopkins was no staid, conventional Victorian. On entering the Society of Jesus and the age of twenty-four, he burnt all his poetry and ‘resolved to write no more, as not belonging to my profession, unless by the wish of my superiors.' The poems, letters, and journal entries selected for this edition were written in the following twenty years of his life and published posthumously in 1918.
His verse is wrought from the creative tensions and paradoxes of a poet-priest who wanted to evoke the spiritual essence of nature sensuously, and to communicate this revelation in natural language and speech-rhythms while using condensed, innovative diction and all the skills of poetic artifice. Intense, vital, and individual, his writing is the ‘terrible crystal’ through which the soul—the inscape, the nature of things—may be illuminated.",
"ISBN-13": "9780140420159",
"ISBN-10": "0140420150",
"ASIN": "0140420150",
"Genre": "Literature & Fiction",
"Recommended For": null,
"CoverURL": null
},
{
"Title": "Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God",
"Author": "Timothy Keller",
"FormatID": null,
"Format": null,
"Reading Level": "Beginner",
"Category": "Prayer",
"Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Christian Living, Prayer",
"Location": null,
"Pages": 336,
"Summary": "Renowned pastor and New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet Timothy Keller explores the power of prayer.
Christians are taught in their churches and schools that prayer is the most powerful way to experience God. But few receive instruction or guidance in how to make prayer genuinely meaningful. In Prayer, renowned pastor Timothy Keller delves into the many facets of this everyday act.
With his trademark insights and energy, Keller offers biblical guidance as well as specific prayers for certain situations, such as dealing with grief, loss, love, and forgiveness. He discusses ways to make prayers more personal and powerful, and how to establish a practice of prayer that works for each reader.
Dr. Keller’s previous books have sold more than one million copies. His Redeemer Presbyterian Church is not only a major presence in his home base of New York, it has also helped to launch more than two hundred fifty other churches in forty-eight cities around the world. His teachings have already helped millions, the majority of whom pray regularly. And with Prayer, he’ll show them how to find a deeper connection with God.
",
"ISBN-13": "9780143108580",
"ISBN-10": "0143108581",
"ASIN": "0143108581",
"Genre": "Christianity",
"Recommended For": null,
"CoverURL": null
},
{
"Title": "Prayer: How Praying Together Shapes the Church",
"Author": "John Onwuchekwa",
"FormatID": null,
"Format": null,
"Reading Level": "Intermediate",
"Category": "Prayer",
"Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Prayer",
"Location": null,
"Pages": 144,
"Summary": "
What is the role of corporate prayer in the church?
Prayer is as necessary to the Christian as breathing is to the human body--but it often doesn't come quite as naturally. In fact, prayer in the church often gets subtly pushed to the side in favor of pragmatic practices that promise tangible results.
This book focuses on the necessity of regular prayer as a central practice in the local church--awakening us to the need and blessing of corporate prayer by examining what Jesus taught about prayer, how the first Christians approached prayer, and how to prioritize prayer in our congregations.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433559471", "ISBN-10": "1433559471", "ASIN": "1433559471", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Praying the Bible", "Author": "Donald Whitney", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Prayer", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Christian Living, Inspirational, Prayer", "Location": null, "Pages": 112, "Summary": "\"This little book is explosive and powerful.\"
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
When you pray, does it ever feel like you're just saying the same old things about the same old things?
Offering us the encouragement and the practical advice we're all looking for, Donald S. Whitney, best-selling author of Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, outlines an easy-to-grasp method that has the power to transform our prayer life: praying the words of Scripture. Simple, yet profound, Praying the Bible will prove invaluable as you seek to commune with your heavenly Father in prayer each and every day.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433547843", "ISBN-10": "1433547848", "ASIN": "1433547848", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices", "Author": "Thomas Brooks", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Puritan Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Theology", "Location": null, "Pages": 344, "Summary": "Brooks treated the seductive influence and terrible power of Satan in a way greatly more full and suggestive than in the literature of the present day. Brooks lists seven reasons for writing this book. The first reason is enough...Brooks says, \"Satan hath a greater influence upon men, and higher advantages over them than they think he hath, and the knowledge of his high advantage is the highway to disappoint him, and to render the soul strong in resisting, and happy in conquering.", "ISBN-13": "9781800401679", "ISBN-10": "1800401671", "ASIN": "1800401671", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Gospel Doctrine", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, New Testament, Biblical Studies, Jesus, The Gospels & Acts, Christian Living, Christianity", "Location": null, "Pages": 192, "Summary": "The New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet uncovers the essential message of Jesus, locked inside his most familiar parable.How exactly does one become wise? With the overwhelming flood of information and opinion in our times--much of it a mixture of spin, sound bites, and trivialities--it is crucial we turn back to the Bible and pay close attention to the deep insights that have stood the test of time.
Proverbs 1:20 tells us that \"Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice.\" The wisdom of God does not stand aloof, but instead graciously moves toward us, into the world where we live and struggle day by day--offering us her very best, if we will only listen.
Pastor and teacher Ray Ortlund unpacks the book of Proverbs in twenty-one straightforward sermons, providing a biblical worldview on everything from money, sex, and power to that of the daily routines of an average life. Drawing relevant parallels from ancient culture to present day, he helps us understand how the book of Proverbs is practical help for ordinary people going through everyday life.
Most importantly, Ortlund shows how the Proverbs point to Jesus and his counsel for the perplexed, his strength for the defeated, his warning to the proud, his mercy for the broken. With careful treatment of the Scriptures and uncomplicated language, Proverbs: Wisdom that Works bridges the gap between real-life experience and the scholarly depth of many commentaries.
Part of the Preaching the Word series.
", "ISBN-13": "9781581348835", "ISBN-10": "1581348835", "ASIN": "1581348835", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Psalms 1-72", "Author": "Derek Kidner", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Commentary", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Old Testament, Commentary, Poetry & Wisdom Literature", "Location": null, "Pages": 196, "Summary": "'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.' 'Thy word is a lamp to my feet.' 'Search me, O God, and know my heart!' Such phrases leap to mind whenever Christians lift their hearts to God. For many, in fact, the Psalms are the richest part of the Old Testament. Derek Kidner provides a fresh and penetrating guide to Psalms 1—72. He analyzes each psalm in depth, comments on interpretative questions and brings out the universal relevance of the texts. He also gives special help on the psalmists' cries for vengeance. Together with its companion volume (Psalms 73—150), both of which were formerly part of the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries series, this introduction and commentary will inspire and deepen personal worship.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830829378", "ISBN-10": "0830829377", "ASIN": "0830829377", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Psalms 73-150", "Author": "Derek Kidner", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Commentary", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Old Testament, Commentary, Poetry & Wisdom Literature", "Location": null, "Pages": 242, "Summary": "'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.' 'Thy word is a lamp to my feet.' 'Search me, O God, and know my heart!' Such phrases leap to mind whenever Christians lift their hearts to God. For many, in fact, the Psalms are the richest part of the Old Testament. Derek Kidner provides a fresh and penetrating guide to Psalms 73—150. He analyzes each psalm in depth, comments on interpretative questions and brings out the universal relevance of the texts. He also gives special help on the psalmists' cries for vengeance. Together with its companion volume (Psalms 1—72), both of which were formerly part of the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries series, this introduction and commentary will inspire and deepen personal worship.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830829385", "ISBN-10": "0830829385", "ASIN": "0830829385", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Reading Scripture with the Reformers", "Author": "Timothy George", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Reformed Theology", "Tag": "History, Modern, 16th Century, Religion, Christian Church, Theology", "Location": null, "Pages": 270, "Summary": "In Reading Scripture with the Reformers, Timothy George takes readers through the exciting events of the sixteenth century, showing how this dynamic period was instigated by a fresh return to the Scriptures. George immerses us in the world of the Reformation, its continuities with the ancient and medieval church, and its dramatic upheavals and controversies. Most of all, he uncovers the significant way that the Bible shaped the minds and hearts of the reformers. This book shows how the key figures of the Reformation read and interpreted Scripture, and how their thought was shaped by what they read. We are invited to see what the church today can learn from the fathers of the Reformation, and how these figures offer a model of reading, praying and living out the Scriptures.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830829491", "ISBN-10": "0830829490", "ASIN": "0830829490", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope", "Author": "Esau McCaulley", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Biblical Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Exegesis & Hermeneutics, Social Science, Black Studies (Global), Christian Church, History, Christian Living, Social Issues, Sociology Of Religion", "Location": null, "Pages": 208, "Summary": " Christian Book Award® program
Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Finalist
Outreach Resources of the Year
Christianity Today Book Award
The Gospel Coalition Book Award
Emerging Public Intellectual Award
Growing up in the American South, Esau McCaulley knew firsthand the ongoing struggle between despair and hope that marks the lives of some in the African American context. A key element in the fight for hope, he discovered, has long been the practice of Bible reading and interpretation that comes out of traditional Black churches. This ecclesial tradition is often disregarded or viewed with suspicion by much of the wider church and academy, but it has something vital to say.
Reading While Black is a personal and scholarly testament to the power and hope of Black biblical interpretation. At a time in which some within the African American community are questioning the place of the Christian faith in the struggle for justice, New Testament scholar McCaulley argues that reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition is invaluable for connecting with a rich faith history and addressing the urgent issues of our times. He advocates for a model of interpretation that involves an ongoing conversation between the collective Black experience and the Bible, in which the particular questions coming out of Black communities are given pride of place and the Bible is given space to respond by affirming, challenging, and, at times, reshaping Black concerns. McCaulley demonstrates this model with studies on how Scripture speaks to topics often overlooked by white interpreters, such as ethnicity, political protest, policing, and slavery.
Ultimately McCaulley calls the church to a dynamic theological engagement with Scripture, in which Christians of diverse backgrounds dialogue with their own social location as well as the cultures of others. Reading While Black moves the conversation forward.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830854868", "ISBN-10": "083085486X", "ASIN": "083085486X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism", "Author": "John Piper and Wayne Grudem", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Manhood", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Women'S Interests, Theology, Systematic, Christian Ministry, Pastoral Resources", "Location": null, "Pages": 688, "Summary": "A Guide to Navigate Evangelical Feminism
In a society where gender roles are a hot-button topic, the church is not immune to the controversy. In fact, the church has wrestled with varying degrees of evangelical feminism for decades. As evangelical feminism has crept into the church, time-trusted resources like Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood help remind Christians of what the Bible has to say.
In this edition of the award-winning best seller, more than 20 influential men and women such as John Piper, Wayne Grudem, D. A. Carson, and Elisabeth Elliot offer thought-provoking essays responding to the challenge egalitarianism poses to life in the church and in the home. Covering topics like role distinctions in the church, how biblical manhood and womanhood should work out in practice, and women in the history of the church, this helpful resource will help readers learn to orient their beliefs with God's unchanging word in an ever-changing culture.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433573453", "ISBN-10": "1433573458", "ASIN": "1433573458", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Redemption Accomplished and Applied", "Author": "John Murray", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Soteriology", "Tag": "Religion, Theology, Christology, Soteriology, Systematic", "Location": null, "Pages": 215, "Summary": "New issue of a theological classic on the atonementThe Reformation Study Bible, Condensed Edition provides concise, trustworthy commentary in a portable format carefully crafted under the editorial leadership of R.C. Sproul and contributions from 75 distinguished theologians and pastors from around the world. Notes have been condensed from the Reformation Study Bible to offer a more convenient solution for study on the go.
Faithful Commentary
An editorial team of 75 pastors and theologians led by R.C. Sproul
The best commentary from the Reformation Study Bible
Concise & Helpful Study Aids
Over 10,000 verse by- verse notes
Book introductions that reveal Christ in all of Scripture
A Refined Study Experience
Single column scripture for easy reading
Cross References, concordance, table of weights and measures, and more
This Bible features Smyth-sewn binding, one reference ribbon, concordance, 8 pages of high-resolution full color maps, and free bonus resources from Ligonier Ministries with registration.
", "ISBN-13": "9781642892772", "ISBN-10": "1642892777", "ASIN": "1642892777", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Reformation Theology: A Reader of Primary Sources with Introductions", "Author": "Dr W. Bradford LittlejohnÊ", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Reformed Theology", "Tag": "History, Europe, Renaissance, Religion, Christianity, Protestant, Theology, Ecclesiology, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 734, "Summary": "Few episodes in Western history have so shaped our world as the Protestant Reformation and the counter-Reformations which accompanied it. The Reformation tore the seamless garment of Western Christendom in two, pitting king and pope, laity and clergy, Protestant and Catholic against one another. But it was also a firestorm tearing through an old, stagnant, and dying forest, sowing the seeds for a burst of new and newly diverse life.
To understand why the Reformation unfolded as it did, we must understand the ideas that were so forcefully articulated, opposed, and debated by Protestants and Catholics. For Protestant or Catholic believers in this forgetful age, the need to understand these disputed doctrines, and the logic and coherence that linked them together, is all the more imperative. This is what this volume seeks to offer for the first time: a primary source reader focused squarely on the theological questions that drove the Reformation.
Beginning with the first rumblings of conflict in the late medieval period and continuing until the solidification of Protestant confessions in the early 17th century, this collection of thirty-two texts brings the modern reader face-to-face with the key men whose convictions helped shape the course of history. Concise historical introductions accompanying each text bring these writings to life by recounting the stories and conflicts that gave birth to these texts, and highlighting the enduring themes that we can glean from them.
KEY TOPICS INCLUDE: the doctrine of the church, and its relation to the state; the doctrine of the eucharist, and transubstantiation in particular; the doctrine of justification sola fide and the place of works; the meaning of the Protestant commitment to sola Scriptura; and others.
KEY AUTHORS INCLUDE: Marsilius of Padua, John Wycliffe, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Martin Luther, Thomas More, John Calvin, The Council of Trent, Thomas Cranmer, Richard Hooker, Robert Belllarmine, and many more.
THE EDITORS:
Bradford Littlejohn (Ph.D, University of Edinburgh) is a scholar and writer in the fields of political theology, Christian ethics, and Reformation history. He is the author and editor of several books in these fields, most recently The Peril and Promise of Christian Liberty: Richard Hooker, the Puritans, and Protestant Political Theology (Eerdmans, 2017).
Jonathan Roberts (M.A., University of Missouri at St. Louis) hails from Aguascalientes, Mexico, and currently works as a Latin instructor for the Davenant Latin Institute and New Saint Andrews College, and pursues editing and translation projects from the Reformation era in his spare time.
", "ISBN-13": "9780999552704", "ISBN-10": "0999552708", "ASIN": "0999552708", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Rejoicing in Christ", "Author": "Michael Reeves", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Grace", "Tag": "Religion, Theology, Christology, Biography, Biblical Studies, New Testament, Jesus, The Gospels & Acts", "Location": null, "Pages": 137, "Summary": "Christianity Today Beautiful Orthodoxy Book of the Year Finalist
If we want to know who God is, the best thing we can do is look at Christ.
If we want to live the life to which God calls us, we look to Christ. In Jesus we see the true meaning of the love, power, wisdom, justice, peace, care and majesty of God.
Michael Reeves, author of Delighting in the Trinity, opens to readers the glory and wonder of Christ, offering a bigger and more exciting picture than many have imagined. Jesus didn't just bring us the good news. He is the good news. Reeves helps us celebrate who Christ is, his work on earth, his death and resurrection, his anticipated return and how we share in his life.
This book, then, aims for something deeper than a new technique or a call to action. In an age that virtually compels us to look at ourselves, Michael Reeves calls us to look at Christ. As we focus our hearts on him, we see how he is our life, our righteousness, our holiness and our hope.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830840229", "ISBN-10": "0830840222", "ASIN": "0830840222", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Religious Affections", "Author": "Jonathan Edwards", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Conversion", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Church, History", "Location": null, "Pages": 382, "Summary": "In one of the unsurpassed religious masterpieces produced by an American writer, Jonathan Edwards distinguishes between true and false religion by defining a believer's correct affections and explaining their importance. He further identifies the distinction between genuine-seeming and legitimate affections.How 7 Transformational Events in 1776 Paved the Way for Today's Post-Christian West
With dizzying social transformations in everything from gender to social justice, it may seem like there's never been a more tumultuous period in history. But a single year in the late 18th century saw a number of influential transformations--or even revolutions--that changed the social trajectory of the Western world. By understanding how those events influenced today's cultural landscape, Christians can more effectively bear witness to God's truth in a post-Christian age.
In Remaking the World, Andrew Wilson highlights 7 major developments from the year 1776--globalization, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the Great Enrichment, the American Revolution, the rise of post-Christianity, and the dawn of Romanticism--and explains their relevance to social changes happening today. Carefully examining key documents and historical figures, Wilson demonstrates how a monumental number of political, philosophical, economic, and industrial changes in the year of America's founding shaped the modern West into a \"WEIRDER\" society: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic, Ex-Christian, and Romantic. This thoroughly researched yet accessible book offers a unique historical perspective on modern views of family, government, religion, and morality--giving Christians the historical lens they need to understand today's post-Christian trends and respond accordingly.
In every era the church needs revival--certainly today as much as ever. And in the heart of every committed Christian there is the longing for personal revival--to know the quality and depths of spiritual reality, and the presence of God in one's personal life.
This was the deepest desire of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, one of the great 20th-century Bible expositors. It was also the purpose behind this series of messages which were first given on the 100th anniversary of the Great Revival which started in Wales, and swept across England and throughout the United States and to the far corners of the world. As Dr. Lloyd-Jones recognized, it is a rare time in the history of the church when there is a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit-- and a time of special interest of every Christian who longs for revival today.
As Dr. J. I. Packer writes in his foreword, Dr. Lloyd-Jones believed in \"the necessity of revival--that is, a quickening divine visitation--as the only vent that can avert ultimate spiritual disaster. The thrustful urgency of the sermons in this book testifies to the depth of his conviction that without revival in the church there is really no hope for the Western world at all.\"
Dr. Lloyd-Jones deftly draws principles from the lives of Old and New Testament characters as well as expounding some of the great prayers of the Bible. Clearly and forcefully, he presents a masterful exposition of the circumstances accompanying revival in the past, why each generation needs it, and how it will come about today. We must come to the sovereign God, forsake our sin, and wait upon Him for this special, essential outpouring. God, bring us revival!
", "ISBN-13": "9780891074151", "ISBN-10": "0891074155", "ASIN": "0891074155", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Letter to the Romans", "Author": "Douglas Moo", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Commentary", "Tag": "Bible, Religion, Commentary, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, New Testament, Biblical Studies, Paul'S Letters", "Location": null, "Pages": 1027, "Summary": "For more than twenty years Douglas Moo's NICNT volume on Romans has been providing pastors, students, and scholars with profound insight into Paul's most famous letter. In this thorough revision of his commentary, Moo deals with issues that have come into prominence since the first edition (1996), incorporating the latest research and rewriting the text throughout for better comprehension.
Exegetically astute and theologically minded, Moo interacts critically with the new perspective on Paul, highlights the emphasis in Romans on \"practical divinity,\" and traces the theme of the gospel throughout the letter. His Letter to the Romans in this second edition will inform and enlighten a new generation of serious Bible readers.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802871213", "ISBN-10": "0802871216", "ASIN": "0802871216", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus", "Author": "D.A. Carson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Gospel Doctrine", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Theology, Christology", "Location": null, "Pages": 176, "Summary": "How are Christians to approach the central gospel teachings concerning the death and resurrection of Jesus? The Bible firmly establishes the historicity of these events and doesn't leave their meanings ambiguous or open to interpretation. Even so, there is an irony and surprising strangeness to the cross. Carson shows that this strange irony has deep implications for our lives as he examines the history and theology of Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection.
Scandalous highlights important theological truths in accessible and applicable ways. Both amateur theologians and general readers will appreciate how Carson deftly preserves weighty theology while simultaneously noting the broader themes of Jesus' death and resurrection. Through exposition of five primary passages of Scripture, Carson helps us to more fully understand and appreciate the scandal of the cross.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433511257", "ISBN-10": "1433511258", "ASIN": "1433511258", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot", "Author": "Elisabeth Elliot", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Biography", "Tag": "Biography, Religious, Religion, Christian Living, Christianity, History, Christian Ministry, Missions", "Location": null, "Pages": 360, "Summary": "Elliot's account is more than inspirational reading; it belongs to the very heartbeat of evangelical witness, ---Christianity Today. Offering one of the great missionary biographies of the 20th century, Elliot draws extensively on her husband's letters and diaries to recount how he and four others were killed by Ecuador's Huaorani (Aucu) tribe in 1956. 351 pages, hardcover. Hendrickson.", "ISBN-13": "9781619708075", "ISBN-10": "1619708078", "ASIN": "1619708078", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Shepherding a Child's Heart", "Author": "Tedd Tripp", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Parenting", "Tag": "Family & Relationships, Parenting, Religion, Christian Living", "Location": null, "Pages": 215, "Summary": "Shepherding a Child's Heart' is about how to speak to the heart of your child. The things your child does and says flow from the heart. Luke 6:45 puts it this way: \"]¬‚¬]out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.\" Written for parents with children of any age, this insightful book provides perspectives and procedures for shepherding your child's heart into the paths of life.In this revised edition, Dr. Tedd Tripp not only draws on his thirty years experience as a pastor, counselor, school administrator, and father, but he also shares insights gained in many years of teaching this material in conferences worldwide, providing more valuable help for parents.", "ISBN-13": "9780966378603", "ISBN-10": "0966378601", "ASIN": "0966378601", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Silence A Novel", "Author": "Shusaku Endo", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Fiction", "Tag": "Fiction, Historical, Literary, Religious, Christian, World Literature, Japan", "Location": null, "Pages": 212, "Summary": "
Shusaku Endo's New York Times bestselling classic novel of enduring faith in dangerous times, now a major motion picture directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson, and Adam Driver.
\"Silence I regard as a masterpiece, a lucid and elegant drama.\"-The New York Review of Books
Seventeenth-century Japan: Two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to a country hostile to their religion, where feudal lords force the faithful to publicly renounce their beliefs. Eventually captured and forced to watch their Japanese Christian brothers lay down their lives for their faith, the priests bear witness to unimaginable cruelties that test their own beliefs. Shusaku Endo is one of the most celebrated and well-known Japanese fiction writers of the twentieth century, and Silence is widely considered to be his great masterpiece.
\"Simply outstanding. It will confirm, challenge, and deepen your grasp of Christian faith and practice.\"--Christianity Today
Christian scholar and Anglican bishop N. T. Wright's best-known work, written in the tradition of C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity but for today's generation--a rigorous and mind-expanding explanation of the essence of Christianity and why people believe--is available in paperback for the first time.
For two thousand years, Christianity has claimed to answer the mystery of human existence. Renowned biblical scholar and Anglican bishop N. T. Wright--the award-winning author Newsweek hails as \"the world's leading New Testament scholar\"--argues that the Christian faith still holds the answers today.
Like C. S. Lewis did in his classic Mere Christianity, Wright makes the case for Christian faith for modern readers, whether you are a believer, an agnostic, schooled in a different spiritual tradition, or are a skeptical atheist suspicious of organized religion. Using clear, simple language to convey a profound message, he walks you through the Christian faith step-by-step and question by question, and reveals how basic inquiries such as Why is justice fair? Why are so many people pursuing spirituality? Why do we crave relationship? And why is beauty so beautiful? take us into the mystery of God and his plan for us and leave believers with a reason for renewed faith.
Provocative and insightful, with a discussion guide for individuals and groups, Simply Christian offers answers to expand and guide all of our lives.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060872700", "ISBN-10": "0060872705", "ASIN": "0060872705", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Overcoming Sin and Temptation", "Author": "John Owen", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Sin", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Personal Growth, Ethics, Inspirational, Theology, Anthropology", "Location": null, "Pages": 464, "Summary": "John Owen's writings, though challenging, are full of rich spiritual insights. In this unabridged volume, editors Justin Taylor and Kelly Kapic have edited three of Owen's classic works-- Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It, and The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin. They have updated the author's language, translated the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and footnoted difficult or unknown phrases, all without sacrificing any of Owen's original message. These three treatises on temptation, sin, and repentance are theologically robust and insightful while also being accessible to modern readers. Overcoming Sin and Temptation will help a new generation benefit from the writings of this remarkable Puritan. Now redesigned with a new cover.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433550089", "ISBN-10": "1433550083", "ASIN": "1433550083", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", "Author": "Jonathan Edwards", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Reformed Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Sermons, Christian, History, United States, Theology", "Location": null, "Pages": 224, "Summary": "A sermon preached by Jonathan Edwards to his Enfield, Connecticut, congregation in July 1741, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is particularly noted for its vivid descriptions of the torments of Hell and mankind's natural depravity. At the same time, it was also an appeal to man's need for salvation and a reminder of the agonies that awaited the unreformed. Coming during the height of the Great Awakening--a period of religious fervor in the first half of the eighteenth century--the homily was at once regarded by many as the greatest ever given on American soil and vehemently attacked by others as puritanical "fire and brimstone." One thing seems certain: it made a lasting impact on American Christianity.Written by Martin Luther in 1529, the Small Catechism provides a brief, clear summary of God's Word on the essentials of the Christian faith. In question-and-answer format, it explores the Six Chief Parts of Christian Doctrine and includes daily prayers, a table of duties for Christians in their various callings, and a guide for Christians as they prepare to receive Holy Communion. The Small Catechism itself is a timeless confession of the Faith, applicable to Christian instruction in every age.
An explanation designed to help readers understand and apply Luther's Small Catechism has accompanied editions of the catechism since the early days of Lutheranism. However, in the time since Luther wrote his explanation to the catechism, society and culture have changed dramatically. The 2017 Explanation presents a lens to faithfully understand God's Word in the midst of changing times-providing a practical guide for living the daily Christian life. With 374 questions and accompanying Scripture references, the new Explanation provides more biblical teaching and devotional aids than ever before. The Bible text included in the Explanation is from the English Standard Version (ESV).
What else is new with the updated and expanded Explanation?
Now in paperback, the new novel by Leif Enger, author of the million-copy best seller, Peace Like a River, is a lively, big-hearted redemption tale; an unforgettable, picaresque Western yarn.
In 1915 Minnesota, writer Monte Becket has lost his sense of purpose. His only success long behind him, Monte lives simply with his wife and son until he befriends outlaw Glendon Hale. Plagued by guilt over abandoning his wife two decades ago, Glendon aims to go back West on a quest for absolution. As the modern age marches swiftly forward, Monte agrees to travel into Glendon's past, leaving behind his own family for a journey that will test the depth of his loyalties and morals, and the strength of his resolve. As they flee the relentless ex-Pinkerton who's been hunting Glendon for years, Monte falls ever further from his family and the law, to be tempered by a fiery adventure from which he may never get home.
With its smooth mix of romanticism and gritty reality, So Brave, Young, and Handsome examines one ordinary man's determination as he risks everything in order to understand what it's all worth, and follows an unlikely dream in the hope it will lead him back home.
", "ISBN-13": "9780802144171", "ISBN-10": "0802144179", "ASIN": "0802144179", "Genre": "Literature & Fiction", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Sound Doctrine: How a Church Grows in the Love and Holiness of God", "Author": "Bobby Jamieson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Gospel Doctrine", "Tag": "Religion, Institutions & Organizations, Theology, Christian Ministry, Pastoral Resources, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 128, "Summary": "How do you feel about doctrine?
Whatever answer comes to mind, this book will not only convince you that sound doctrine is vital for living a godly life, it will also explain the essential role of theology in the life of a healthy church.
After all, thinking rightly about God affects everything, from guiding us in practical issues to growing a church's unity and witness.
This short, readable book shows how good theology leads to transformation, life, and joy.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433535895", "ISBN-10": "1433535890", "ASIN": "1433535890", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Sounding the Seasons", "Author": "Malcolm Guite", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Poetry", "Tag": "Literature & Fiction, Poetry, Regional & Cultural, Themes & Styles, Christian Living, Bible, Worship & Devotion", "Location": null, "Pages": 144, "Summary": "Poetry has always been a central element of Christian spirituality and is used in worship, in pastoral services and guided meditation. In Sounding the Seasons, Cambridge poet and priest Malcolm Guite transforms lectionary readings into lucid, inspiring poems, for use in regular worship, seasonal services, meditative reading or on retreat.
This second edition includes further sonnets for the Christian year written since the original edition, including a sequence of 19 sonnets on the resurrection appearances recorded in scripture. Immediate, striking, simple yet profound, Malcolm Guite’s poetry resonates deeply and widely across the churches of all traditions throughout the English speaking world.
", "ISBN-13": "9781786225634", "ISBN-10": "1786225638", "ASIN": "1786225638", "Genre": "Literature & Fiction", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures", "Author": "Martyn Lloyd-Jones", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Practical Discipleship", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Inspirational", "Location": null, "Pages": 300, "Summary": "Spiritual Depression is one of the great classics of the modern Church and tackles the big question: if Christianity is such 'good news' why are its followers often unhappy?
Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones was possibly the greatest Christian preacher and teacher of the twentieth century. A medical doctor by training, Spiritual Depression draws together his professional understanding of the mind with a profound understanding of Christian teaching and the Bible.
Spiritual Depression diagnoses the causes of the ill feeling that many Christians experience. It prescribes the practical care that is needed to lift people's spirits and bring them freedom, power and joy. Spiritual health is possible and this book explains how everyone can grasp it for themselves.
", "ISBN-13": "9780551031654", "ISBN-10": "0551031654", "ASIN": "0551031654", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life", "Author": "Donald S. Whitney", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Discipleship", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Inspirational, Theology, Systematic", "Location": null, "Pages": 352, "Summary": "Over 600,000 copies sold!Why Suffering Exists: God's Purpose for Pain in the Life of Job and throughout Scripture
Why does God allow suffering? The pain of suffering can be overwhelmingly mysterious, but the Bible does provide answers. Throughout Scripture, God allows trials in order to accomplish specific purposes in the lives of his people. When faced with suffering they experience spiritual growth; repentance from sin; or, as in the Old Testament story of Job, the chance to demonstrate devotion to God in the face of inexplicable agony.
In Suffering Wisely and Well, Eric Ortlund explores different types of trials throughout Scripture, revealing the spiritual purpose for each and reassuring readers with God's promise of restoration. The majority of the book focuses on Job, one of the most well-known yet misunderstood stories of suffering. Ortlund thoughtfully analyzes the text chapter by chapter, including the doubt of Job's friends, God's response to Job's questions, and the meaning behind important imagery including references to Leviathan and Behemoth. Suffering Wisely and Well shows readers how to deepen their relationship with God during painful experiences in their own lives and how to comfort others who are hurting.
Acclaimed writer and pastor Jared C. Wilson reveals how God has a plan for you that involves doing the ordinary, mundane stuff of life in a supernatural way.
Would it change your life to know that there is a way to live your everyday life supernaturally Most of us would say \"yes,\" and Jared C. Wilson's new book reveals how. For the homemaker wondering how to get through the stress of washing dishes and making meals nobody seems to appreciate; for the cubicle jockey punching her time-card every day wondering if what she does really matters; for the teacher or leader wondering if he is making an impact; for the student afraid of the future; for every believer struggling to get through daily life, Supernatural Power for Everyday People offers the hope of meaning and purpose, and also the promise of power. We can get beyond just \"getting by.\" We can prevail and live a life of far more joy, contentment, and peace than we ever thought possible.
A practical book written in a devotional tone, Supernatural Power for Everyday People shows readers how to rely more fully on the power of the Holy Spirit for growth and satisfaction in their lives.
", "ISBN-13": "9780718097509", "ISBN-10": "0718097505", "ASIN": "0718097505", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief", "Author": "John Frame", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Systematic Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Theology, Systematic", "Location": null, "Pages": 1219, "Summary": "\"Systematic Theology\" is the culmination and creative synthesis of John Frame's writing on, teaching about, and studying of the Word of God. This magisterial opus at once biblical, clear, cogent, readable, accessible, and practical summarizes the mature thought of one of the most important and original Reformed theologians of the last hundred years. It will enable you to see clearly how the Bible explains God's great, sweeping plan for mankind.", "ISBN-13": "9781596382176", "ISBN-10": "1596382171", "ASIN": "1596382171", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Systematic Theology", "Author": "Louis Berkhof", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Systematic Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Theology, Systematic", "Location": null, "Pages": 1048, "Summary": "Louis Berkhof's loyalty to the well-defined lines of the Reformed faith, his concise and compact style and his up-to date treatment have made this work the most important twentieth century compendium of Reformed theology. 'The work seemed particularly important to me', writes the author, 'in view of the widespread doctrinal indifference of the present day, of the resulting superficiality and confusion in the minds of many professing Christians, of the insidious errors that are zealously propagated even from the pulpits, and of the alarming increase of all kinds of sects. If there ever was a time when the church ought to guard her precious heritage, the deposit of the truth that was entrusted to her care, that time is now'. This expanded edition contains Berkhof's Introductory Volume, which was designed to be read together with the Systematic Theology itself.", "ISBN-13": "9781848719941", "ISBN-10": "1848719949", "ASIN": "1848719949", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions", "Author": "Greg Koukl", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Apologetics", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Christian Ministry, Discipleship, Evangelism, Missions, Theology, Apologetics, Systematic", "Location": null, "Pages": 288, "Summary": "Tactics provides the game plan for defending your faith and artfully communicating the truths of Christianity with confidence and grace.
This expanded anniversary edition of the classic book of Christian apologetics includes updates and expansions of existing tactics, as well as the addition of an all-new tactic and a chapter on Mini Tactics filled with simple maneuvers to aid in discussions.
In a culture increasingly indifferent or even hostile to Christian truth, followers of Christ need to be equipped to communicate with those who do not speak their language or accept their source of authority.
In Tactics, 10th Anniversary Edition, Gregory Koukl demonstrates how to artfully regain control of conversations, keeping them moving forward in constructive ways through thoughtful diplomacy. You'll learn how to:
Drawing on extensive experience defending Christianity in the public square, Koukl will not only walk you through effective arguments to defend why you believe what you believe, but he'll teach you methods for engaging in meaningful dialogue and debate.
Step-by-step, you'll learn the tactics of good persuasion and defense, how to identify the tactics of your opponent, and how to build your case, patiently and practically.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310101468", "ISBN-10": "0310101468", "ASIN": "0310101468", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Taking God at His Word: Why the Bible Is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me (Paperback Edition)", "Author": "Kevin DeYoung", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Biblical Apologetics", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Christian Living, Theology, Apologetics, Christian Ministry, Pastoral Resources", "Location": null, "Pages": 144, "Summary": "Can we trust the Bible completely? Is it sufficient for our complicated lives? Can we really know what it teaches?
With his characteristic wit and clarity, award-winning author Kevin DeYoung has written an accessible introduction to the Bible that answers important questions raised by both Christians and non-Christians. This book will help you understand what the Bible says about itself and encourage you to read and believe what it says--confident that it truly is God's Word.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433551031", "ISBN-10": "1433551039", "ASIN": "1433551039", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ", "Author": "Russell Moore", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Discipleship", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Inspirational, Theology, Christology", "Location": null, "Pages": 208, "Summary": "Although temptation is a common and well-acknowledged part of the human experience, few realize the truth behind temptation and fewer still know how to defeat it. Tempted and Tried will not reassure Christians by claiming that temptation is less powerful or less prevalent than it is; instead, it will prepare believers for battle by telling the truth about the cosmic war that is raging. Moore shows that the temptation of every Christian is part of a broader conspiracy against God, a conspiracy that confronts everyone who shares the flesh of Jesus through human birth and especially confronts those who share the Spirit of Christ through the new birth of redemption.
Moore walks readers through the Devil's ancient strategies for temptation revealed in Jesus' wilderness testing. Moore considers how those strategies might appear in a contemporary context and points readers to a way of escape. Tempted and Tried will remind Christians that temptation must be understood in terms of warfare, encouraging them with the truth that victory has already been secured through the triumph of Christ.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433515804", "ISBN-10": "1433515806", "ASIN": "1433515806", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Air We Breathe: How We All Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality", "Author": "Glen Scrivener", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Worldview", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, Biblical Studies, History & Culture, Theology, Apologetics, Christology, History", "Location": null, "Pages": 240, "Summary": "Is Christianity history? Or is Christian history the deepest explanation of the modern world?
Today in the west, many consider the church to be dead or dying. Christianity is seen as outdated, bigoted and responsible for many of society's problems. This leaves many believers embarrassed about their faith and many outsiders wary of religion. But what if the Christian message is not the enemy of our modern Western values, but the very thing that makes sense of them?
In this fascinating book, Glen Scrivener takes readers on a journey to discover how the teachings of Jesus not only turned the ancient world upside down, but continue to underpin the way we think of life, worth, and meaning. Far from being a relic from the past, the distinctive ideas of Christianity, such as freedom, kindness, progress and equality, are a crucial part of the air that we breathe. As author Glen Scrivener says in his introduction: \"The extraordinary impact of Christianity is seen in the fact that we don't notice it\".
This is a book for both believers and sceptics--giving Christians confidence to be open about their faith and showing non-Christians the ways in which the message of Jesus makes sense of their most cherished beliefs. Whoever you are, you'll gain a deeper appreciation for the values you hold dear as you discover the power and profundity of Jesus and his revolution.
", "ISBN-13": "9781784987497", "ISBN-10": "1784987492", "ASIN": "1784987492", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Art of Disagreeing: How to Keep Calm and Stay Friends in Hard Conversations", "Author": "Gavin Ortlund", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Community", "Tag": "Christian Living, Bible", "Location": null, "Pages": 96, "Summary": "In this positive and practical book, Gavin Ortlund looks to the Scriptures to discover a way in which to disagree with others that leads to greater understanding, peace and love--and that shows a watching world something of Jesus.
This is a much-needed message in a society that is losing the ability to disagree well. Whether over politics, religion, culture, or the more everyday issues of normal life, points of view tend to be held with a polarizing intensity. Too often we view disagreements as must-win contests or we simply do our best to avoid them altogether.
Looking to Jesus' example of courage and kindness, readers will be given a framework for engaging in intense disagreements with a love that furthers relationships instead of hindering them.
So, whether you tend to fight or flee, learn how to keep calm and stay friends--even when you disagree.
", "ISBN-13": "9781802541403", "ISBN-10": "1802541403", "ASIN": "1802541403", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Ascension of Christ: Recovering a Neglected Doctrine", "Author": "Patrick Schreiner", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Christology", "Tag": "Religion, Theology, Christology, Ecclesiology, Systematic", "Location": null, "Pages": 120, "Summary": "The Ascension is essential to the gospel
The good news of Jesus includes his life, death, resurrection, and future return--but what about his ascension? Though often neglected or misunderstood, the ascension is integral to the gospel.
In The Ascension of Christ, Patrick Schreiner argues that Jesus' work would be incomplete without his ascent to God's right hand. Not only a key moment in the gospel story, Jesus' ascension was necessary for his present ministry in and through the church. Schreiner argues that Jesus' residence in heaven marks a turning point in his three-fold offices of prophet, priest, and king. As prophet, Jesus builds the church and its witness. As priest, he intercedes before the Father. As king, he rules over all.
A full appreciation of the ascension is essential for understanding the Bible, Christian doctrine, and Christ's ongoing work in the world.
Can you turn to God by your own free will? Are you able to earn your salvation by partnering with His grace?
To these questions, Erasmus of Rotterdam gave an emphatic yes. He was one of the most influential scholars in the sixteenth century, so his word carried great weight. Yet Erasmus did not go unanswered. Seeing that the gospel itself was at stake, Martin Luther wrote a thunderous response that has remained influential even half a millennium later.
This five-hundredth-anniversary edition of The Bondage of the Will recaptures the urgency of Luther's appeal to Scripture. It was this defense of our absolute need for God to deliver us from our captivity to sin that Luther considered his most important book. Take up this Reformation classic and rejoice in the freedom found in sovereign grace alone.
Included in this anniversary edition:
Winner of the Pen/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize
The award-winning translation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic novel of psychological realism.
The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons—the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the whole of Russian life, its social and spiritual striving, in what was both the golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian culture.
This award-winning translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky remains true to the verbal inventiveness of Dostoevsky’s prose, preserving the multiple voices, the humor, and the surprising modernity of the original. It is an achievement worthy of Dostoevsky’s last and greatest novel.
Written in 1630 by the Puritan theologian Richard Sibbes, \"The Bruised Reed\" is a famous Christian devotional book and cherished classic in Christian literature. Sibbes was known for his pastoral care and deep understanding of the human condition, and \"The Bruised Reed\" reflects his compassionate and encouraging approach to guiding people in their spiritual journeys.
The title of the book is derived from a verse in the Bible, Isaiah 42:3, which reads: \"A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.\" Sibbes uses this verse as a metaphor to illustrate the tender care and compassion of Jesus Christ towards those who are broken, discouraged, and spiritually wounded.
The central theme of the book revolves around the idea that Christ is gentle and merciful, especially towards those who feel weak, burdened by their sins, or struggling in their faith. Sibbes emphasizes that Christ's love and grace are available to all, regardless of their shortcomings or failures. He encourages readers to turn to Christ as the source of comfort, healing, and restoration.
Throughout the book, Sibbes explores various aspects of the Christian life, such as the believer's relationship with Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification, the importance of repentance and faith, and the assurance of salvation. He uses biblical references and anecdotes to illustrate his points and provide practical guidance for readers to grow in their faith and trust in God's unfailing love.
Because of its gentle and encouraging tone, \"The Bruised Reed\" has been a comfort and solace for many who sought spiritual peace and direction.
", "ISBN-13": "9781611049961", "ISBN-10": "1611049962", "ASIN": "1611049962", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Canons of Dort: The Decision of the Synod of Dordt on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in Dispute in the Netherlands", "Author": "Synod of Dort", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Reformed Confessions", "Tag": "Religion, Christianity, History", "Location": null, "Pages": 106, "Summary": "The Canons of Dort, or Canons of Dordrecht, formally titled The Decision of the Synod of Dort on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in Dispute in the Netherlands, is the judgment of the National Synod held in the Dutch city of Dordrecht in 1618-19. At the time, Dordrecht was often referred to in English as Dort. Today, the Canons of Dort form part of the Three Forms of Unity, one of the confessional standards of many of the Reformed churches around the world, including the Netherlands, South Africa, Australia, and North America. Their continued use as a standard still forms an unbridgable problem preventing close cooperation between the followers of Jacob Arminius, the Remonstrants, and Dutch Reformed Churches.Narnia . . . where a dragon awakens . . . where stars walk the earth . . . where anything can happen.
Experience The Chronicles of Narnia in its entirety in time for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third movie in the motion picture epic. This movie tie-in box contains the rack editions of all seven of C. S. Lewis's classic stories:
The box features stills from the movie, and each book inside has cover art by Cliff Nielson and the original black-and-white interior illustrations by Pauline Baynes. The journey begins long before the Dawn Treader sets sail and ends long after its voyage, so don't miss out on any part of this definitive fantasy series of our time!
", "ISBN-13": "9780061992889", "ISBN-10": "0061992887", "ASIN": "0061992887", "Genre": "Literature & Fiction", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Church: The Gospel Made Visible", "Author": "Mark Dever", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Church", "Tag": "Religion, Theology, Ecclesiology", "Location": null, "Pages": 208, "Summary": "Christians face lots of practical questions when it comes to life in the local church: How is the gospel displayed in our lives together? What are we supposed to do and believe? Different followers answer differently--even as they preach the same gospel! What should we think about such differences?Along with his Confessions, The City of God is undoubtedly St. Augustine's most influential work. In the context of what begins as a lengthy critique of classic Roman religion and a defense of Christianity, Augustine touches upon numerous topics, including the role of grace, the original state of humanity, the possibility of waging a just war, the ideal form of government, and the nature of heaven and hell. But his major concern is the difference between the City of God and the City of Man - one built on love of God, the other on love of self. One cannot but be moved and impressed by the author's breadth of interest and penetrating intelligence. For all those who are interested in the greatest classics of Christian antiquity, The City of God is indispensible.
This long-awaited translation by William Babcock is published in two volumes, with an introduction and annotation that make Augustine's monumental work approachable. This volume, Books 1-10, contains Augustine's critique of the Roman religious, political, and intellectual tradition explaining that Rome's traditional gods were neither able to provide happiness in this life nor in the life to come.
", "ISBN-13": "9781565484559", "ISBN-10": "156548455X", "ASIN": "156548455X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Cost of Discipleship", "Author": "Deitrich Bonhoeffer", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Discipleship", "Tag": null, "Location": null, "Pages": 320, "Summary": "One of the most important theologians of the twentieth century illuminates the relationship between ourselves and the teachings of Jesus\nWhat can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the laborer, or the aristocrat? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between \"cheap grace\" and \"costly grace.\" \"Cheap grace,\" Bonhoeffer wrote, \"is the grace we bestow on ourselves...grace without discipleship....Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the girl which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know....It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.\"\n\nThe Cost of Discipleship is a compelling statement of the demands of sacrifice and ethical consistency from a man whose life and thought were exemplary articulations of a new type of leadership inspired by the Gospel, and imbued with the spirit of Christian humanism and a creative sense of civic duty.", "ISBN-13": "9780684815008", "ISBN-10": "0684815001", "ASIN": "0684815001", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Courage to Stand: Facing Your Fear Without Losing Your Soul", "Author": "Russell D Moore", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Discipleship", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Social Issues, Leadership & Mentoring", "Location": null, "Pages": 304, "Summary": "DO NOT BE AFRAID\"I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. . . . In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?\" With compelling honesty John Stott confronts readers with the centrality of the cross in God's redemption of our pain-filled world.
Can we see triumph in tragedy, victory in shame? Why should an object of Roman distaste and Jewish disgust be the emblem of our worship and the axiom of our faith? And what does it mean for us today?
From one of the foremost preachers and Christian leaders of his generation, The Cross of Christ is a classic, accessible, and compelling look at the work of Christ. At the cross Stott finds the majesty and love of God disclosed, the sin and bondage of the world exposed. More than a study of the atonement, this book brings Scripture into living dialogue with Christian theology and contemporary issues. What emerges is a pattern for Christian life and worship, hope and mission.
In honor of John Stott's one hundredth birthday, this centennial edition includes an updated foreword by Alister McGrath and a new timeline of Stott's life. A study guide equips individuals and groups to more deeply reflect on and apply the book's message.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830839100", "ISBN-10": "0830839100", "ASIN": "0830839100", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life", "Author": "Barnabas Piper", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Discipleship", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living", "Location": null, "Pages": 176, "Summary": "Curiosity is such a childish word, right?ECPA Christian Book Award Finalist
Your Battle against Porn Isn't about Porn. It's about Hope.
Pornography may seem inescapable, but God can free us from its destructive power. The gospel replaces the dehumanizing lies of pornography with this surprising truth: God created us as royalty. How then can we reclaim our God-given identity to take a stand against--and ultimately starve--the predatory porn industry?
In The Death of Porn, Ray Ortlund writes six personal letters, as from a father to his son. Ideal for individuals and small groups, it will give hope to men who have been misled by porn into devaluing themselves and others. Through Scripture and personal stories, Ortlund assures readers that God loves them the most tenderly in their moments of deepest shame. The Death of Porn inspires men to come together in new ways to fight the injustice of porn and build a world of nobility for every man and woman--for the sake of future generations.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433576690", "ISBN-10": "1433576694", "ASIN": "1433576694", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything (Second Edition)", "Author": "Fred Sanders", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Trinity", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Christianity, Protestant, Theology, Systematic", "Location": null, "Pages": 304, "Summary": "The doctrine of the Trinity is taught and believed by all evangelicals, but rarely is it fully understood or celebrated. In The Deep Things of God, systematic theologian Fred Sanders shows why we ought to embrace the doctrine of the Trinity wholeheartedly as a central concern of evangelical theology. Sanders demonstrates, engagingly and accessibly, that the doctrine of the Trinity is grounded in the gospel itself. In this book, readers will understand that a robust doctrine of the Trinity has massive implications for their lives, restoring depth to prayer, worship, Bible study, missions, tradition, and understanding of Christianity's fundamental doctrines. This new edition includes a study guide with discussion questions, action points, recommended reading, and more.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433556371", "ISBN-10": "1433556375", "ASIN": "1433556375", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God", "Author": "Dallas Willard", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Discipleship", "Tag": "Religion, Christianity, Christian Living, Theology", "Location": null, "Pages": 448, "Summary": "A renowned teacher and writer of the acclaimed The Spirit of the Disciplines, Dallas Willard, one of today's most brilliant Christian thinkers now offers a timely and challenging call back to the true meaning of Christian discipleship. In The Divine Conspiracy, Willard gracefully weaves biblical teaching, popular culture, science, scholarship, and spiritual practice into a tour de force that shows the necessity of profound changes in how we view our lives and faith. In an era when many Christians consider Jesus a beloved but remote savior, Willard argues compellingly for the relevance of God to every aspect of our existence. Masterfully capturing the central insights of Christ's teachings in a fresh way for today's seekers, he helps us to explore a revolutionary way to experience God--by knowing Him as an essential part of the here and now, rather than only as a part of the hereafter.
\"The most telling thing about the contemporary Christian,\" Willard writes, \"is that he or she has no compelling sense that understanding of and conformity with the clear teachings of Christ is of any vital importance to [their] life, and certainly not that it is in any way essential . . . Such obedience is regarded as just out of the question or impossible.\" Christians, he says, for the most part consider the primary function of Christianity to be admittance to heaven. But, as Willard clearly shows, a faith that guarantees a satisfactory afterlife, yet has absolutely no impact on life in the here and now, is nothing more than \"consumer Christianity\" and \"bumper-sticker faith.\"
Willard refutes this \"fire escape\" mentality by exploring the true nature of the teachings of Jesus, who intended that His followers become His disciples, and taught that we have access now to the life we are only too eager to relegate to the hereafter. The author calls us into a more authentic faith and offers a practical plan by which we can become Christ-like. He challenges us to step aside from the politics and pieties of contemporary Christian practice and inspires us to reject the all too common lukewarm faith of our times by embracing the true meaning of Christian discipleship.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060693336", "ISBN-10": "0060693339", "ASIN": "0060693339", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Doctrine of Repentance", "Author": "Thomas Watson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Repentance", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Theology, Soteriology", "Location": null, "Pages": 128, "Summary": "A good case could be made out for believing that 'repentance' is one of the least used words in the Christian church today. In a world that will not tolerate the mention of sin, and in churches where it has been defined only in sociological terms, the biblical teaching on repentance has inevitably been ignored. Knowing what repentance is, and actually repenting are essential to true Christianity. Jesus Christ himself said that if we do not repent, we will perish! It is vital, therefore, to read and study what Scripture has to say about this theme. Few better guides have existed in this or any other area of spiritual experience than Thomas Watson. He was a master of both Scripture and the human heart, and wrote with a simplicity and directness that keeps his work fresh and powerful for the twenty-first century.", "ISBN-13": "9781800402751", "ISBN-10": "1800402759", "ASIN": "1800402759", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story", "Author": "Craig G. Bartholomew", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Biblical Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, Biblical Studies, Exegesis & Hermeneutics", "Location": null, "Pages": 288, "Summary": "The story of the Bible and its account of God's action in the world give meaning to our lives and provide us with the foundation for our actions.In this classic work of spiritual theology, historian Richard Lovelace presents a history of spiritual renewals in light of biblical models. Drawing from the best of different Protestant traditions, Dynamics of Spiritual Life lays out a comprehensive approach to the renewal of the church.
In the first half of the book, Lovelace surveys awakening movements since the Reformation, particularly emphasizing Jonathan Edwards's theology of renewal. He then goes deeper into specific elements of such movements and their significance for both doctrinal reformation and spiritual renewal.
Lovelace examines such practical issues as renewal of the local congregation, ways revivals go wrong, prospects for closing the \"sanctification gap,\" the historical role of evangelical movements in promoting both unity and division, and Christian approaches to the arts. With scholarly and pastoral insight, he offers a powerful vision of renewal that can unify various models across traditions, combining individual and corporate spirituality, social activism, and evangelism.
For over forty years, this well-loved book has helped Christians understand the spiritual movement they are a part of and guided leaders in planting and pastoring churches. This expanded edition features a new foreword by Timothy Keller.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830852888", "ISBN-10": "0830852883", "ASIN": "0830852883", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The End of the Affair", "Author": "Graham Greene", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Fiction", "Tag": "Fiction, Literary, Classics, Psychological", "Location": null, "Pages": 192, "Summary": "\"A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses a moment of experience from which to look ahead...\"The Old Testament of the Bible can feel like a junk drawer--a disorganized collection of important stuff we don't want to lose yet but don't know what to do with. From the Pentateuch to patriarchs and from kings to prophets, it can feel like a puzzle we've tried to put together but wind up putting back in the box because it's too complicated.
The Epic of Eden is ideal for groups and individuals looking for a deeply substantive and profoundly spiritual exploration of the Old Testament. Sandy Richter, a learned scholar and passionate teacher, shows us how accessible the Old Testament truly is and how understanding this majority of the biblical narrative leads to a fresh and deep, renewed experience of the New Testament!
This study guide has everything you need for a full Bible study experience, including:
Streaming video access included. Access code subject to expiration after 12/31/2030. Code may be redeemed only by the recipient of this package. Code may not be transferred or sold separately from this package. Internet connection required. Void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Additional offer details inside.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310179245", "ISBN-10": "0310179246", "ASIN": "0310179246", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Fear of God", "Author": "John Bunyan", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Practical Theology", "Tag": "History, Religion, Christian Living, Devotional", "Location": null, "Pages": 176, "Summary": "Published the year after his 'Pilgrim's Progress', in 1679, Bunyan's 'Treatise on the Fear of God' takes a widely misunderstood and neglected theme, wipes off the grime of confusion, and lets it sparkle. And sparkle really is the word: where most assume that the fear of God must be the gloomy theological equivalent of eating up your greens, Bunyan shows what a delightful and helpful subject it is.From the Foreword by Michael Reeves", "ISBN-13": "9781848718180", "ISBN-10": "1848718187", "ASIN": "1848718187", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Four Loves", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Love", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Christianity, Literature & The Arts", "Location": null, "Pages": 192, "Summary": "A repackaged edition of the revered author's classic work that examines the four types of human love: affection, friendship, erotic love, and the love of God—part of the C. S. Lewis Signature Classics series.
C.S. Lewis—the great British writer, scholar, lay theologian, broadcaster, Christian apologist, and bestselling author of Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Chronicles of Narnia, and many other beloved classics—contemplates the essence of love and how it works in our daily lives in one of his most famous works of nonfiction. Lewis examines four varieties of human love: affection, the most basic form; friendship, the rarest and perhaps most insightful; Eros, passionate love; charity, the greatest and least selfish. Throughout this compassionate and reasoned study, he encourages readers to open themselves to all forms of love—the key to understanding that brings us closer to God.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062565396", "ISBN-10": "0062565397", "ASIN": "0062565397", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Freedom of a Christian", "Author": "Martin Luther", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Reformed Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Theology, History, Soteriology, Christianity, Lutheran", "Location": null, "Pages": 96, "Summary": "Martin Luther's Classic Work, Newly Translated by Robert Kolb
Originally published in 1520, The Freedom of a Christian is one of Martin Luther's most well-known and enduring treatises. In it, the German Reformer examines Christian ethics and how justification by faith alone impacts the liberty of believers. He famously writes, \"A Christian is a free lord of everything and subject to no one. A Christian is a willing servant of everything and subject to everyone.\" Luther also further develops ideas and doctrines that were key to the Reformation, such as the priesthood of all believers and union with Christ.
This addition to the Crossway Short Classics series features a new translation from the original German to English by renowned Reformation scholar Robert Kolb. The Freedom of a Christian reminds modern-day readers that it is ultimately grace that transforms God's people and frees us to love and obey.
There's a strong biblical connection between people and trees. They both come from dirt. They're both told to bear fruit. In fact, arboreal language is so often applied to humans that it's easy to miss, whether we're talking about family trees, passing along our seed, cutting someone off like a branch, being rooted to a place, or bearing the fruit of the Spirit. It's hard to deny that trees mean something, theologically speaking.
This book is in many ways a memoir, but it's also an attempt to wake up the reader to the glory of God shining through his creation.
One of the first commands to Adam and Eve was to \"work and keep\" the garden. Award-winning author and songwriter Andrew Peterson, being as honest as possible, shares a story of childhood, grief, redemption, and peace, by walking through a forest of memories: \"I trust that by telling my story, you'll encounter yours. Hopefully, like me, you'll see that the God of the Garden is and has always been present, working and keeping what he loves.\"
Sometimes he plants, sometimes he prunes, but in his goodness he intends to reap a harvest of righteousness.
For over fifty years The God Who Is There has been a landmark work that has changed the way the church sees the world. Francis Schaeffer's first book presents a wide-ranging analysis of the intellectual and cultural climate of the second half of the twentieth century, from philosophy to art to liberal theology. Arguing that Christians must constantly engage the questions being asked by their own—and the next—generation, he envisions an apologetics and spirituality both grounded in absolute truth and engaging the whole of reality.
\"If we are unexcited Christians, we should go back and see what is wrong,\" Schaeffer writes. \"We are surrounded by a generation that can find 'no one home' in the universe. . . . In contrast to this, as a Christian I know who I am; and I know the personal God who is there.\" In every age, this God continues to provide the anchor of truth and the power of love to meet the world's deepest problems.
Named by Christianity Today as one of the \"Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals\" (October 2006), this redesigned classic is now available as part of the IVP Signature Collection.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830848553", "ISBN-10": "083084855X", "ASIN": "083084855X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The God Who Is There: Finding Your Place in God's Story", "Author": "D. A. Carson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Gospel Doctrine", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Christian Ministry, Evangelism", "Location": null, "Pages": 240, "Summary": "It can no longer be assumed that most people--or even most Christians--have a basic understanding of the Bible. Many don't know the difference between the Old and New Testament, and even the more well-known biblical figures are often misunderstood. It is getting harder to talk about Jesus accurately and compellingly because listeners have no proper context with which to understand God's story of redemption.How does the church portray the beauty of Christ?
The gospel is a theological message. But this message also creates human beauty--beautiful relationships in our churches, making the glory of Christ visible in the world today.
In this timely book, Pastor Ray Ortlund makes the case that gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture. In too many of our churches, it is the beauty of a gospel culture that is the missing piece of the puzzle. But when the gospel is allowed to exert its full power, a church becomes radiant with the glory of Christ.
Part of the 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches series.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433540837", "ISBN-10": "1433540835", "ASIN": "1433540835", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Gospel According To John", "Author": "D A Carson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Commentary", "Tag": "Religion, Theology, Biblical Studies", "Location": null, "Pages": 728, "Summary": "With this acclaimed volume in the Pillar New Testament Commentary series, Carson explains the text of John's Gospel to help you minister the Word of God to others, either by preaching or by leading Bible studies. The commentary will also deepen your understanding of the Gospel in your own life and worship.
Throughout his commentary Carson does the following:
Preceded by a comprehensive introduction treating such matters as the authenticity, authorship, purpose and structure of the Gospel, this commentary on John exhibits the solid evangelical Scripture exposition for which Carson is well known and respected.
", "ISBN-13": "9781789740059", "ISBN-10": "1789740053", "ASIN": "1789740053", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Gospel According to Satan: Eight Lies about God That Sound Like the Truth", "Author": "Jared C. Wilson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Discipleship", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, Christian Living, Theology, Apologetics, Demonology & Satanism", "Location": null, "Pages": 224, "Summary": "Not every lie sounds untrue.
Some lies are repeated so often they seem to be common sense. That's why lies about God are so dangerous. The Gospel According to Satan examines eight lies the enemy wants us to believe and provides eight lies of counterattack against them. The lies include:
Jared C. Wilson reveals why these lies appeal to us, shows how they harm us, and provides ways to counteract them. We can renounce Satan's counterfeit gospel, but first we must see it for what it is.
\"Enumerates the major ways the Devil uses his cunning and calculating ways of luring us off the narrow road of God's grace. We will all do well to read this book and confront the lies we are being sold.\"--Kyle Idleman, senior pastor of Southeast Christian Church and author of Not a Fan and Don't Give Up
\"A unique, compelling, and even witty look at the devil's current greatest hits--lies we urgently need to unmask.\" --Sam Allberry, speaker for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and author of 7 Myths About Singleness and Why Does God Care Who I Sleep With?
\"One of the most thought-provoking writers in the Christian world today... He doesn't just describe the tantalizing falsehoods of our age, he exposes how they've slithered into our hearts.\"--Matt Smethurst, managing editor at The Gospel Coalition and author of Before You Open Your Bible
", "ISBN-13": "9781400212040", "ISBN-10": "1400212049", "ASIN": "1400212049", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Gospel After Christendom: An Introduction to Cultural Apologetics", "Author": "Zondervan", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Apologetics", "Tag": "Christian Living, Bible, Ministry & Evangelism, Theology", "Location": null, "Pages": 224, "Summary": "Even after Christendom, our culture is fertile ground for gospel renewal. We need apologetics for the whole church tailored to this moment.
Since the fall of Christendom, Christians in Western countries can no longer assume their neighbors share basic familiarity with the Bible or even a sense for God. We now face a strange mixture of apathy and antagonism toward the gospel. Some people view Christianity as yesterday's news. For others, it's the source of today's problems. Lately, though, more and more are open to the idea that Christianity may be tomorrow's hope.
Amid these confusing and conflicting shifts, we need apologetics for the whole church and not just for those who enjoy arguing. Cultural apologetics can help uncover opportunities to proclaim the gospel as the only way to fulfill longings for truth, beauty, and goodness. Churches that embrace this approach can be strengthened and renewed as they demonstrate an appealing and convicting way of life that stands out in the world.
In The Gospel after Christendom, scholars and practitioners from the Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics define cultural apologetics, explain its biblical and historical grounding, and demonstrate its importance for the church today. Their diverse viewpoints, united in the gospel, offer a balanced approach that can guide Christians to share the Good News with their neighbors in this challenging but exciting time.
With contributions from:
Winner of the 2019 Christianity Today Book Award in the Christian Living & Discipleship Category
\"This book is going to shake us all up in the most wonderfully destabilizing way.\" --Ray Ortlund, Lead Pastor, Immanuel Church, Nashville, Tennessee
What did God use to draw a radical, committed unbeliever to himself? Did God take her to an evangelistic rally? Or, since she had her doctorate in literature, did he use something in print? No, God used an invitation to dinner in a modest home, from a humble couple who lived out the gospel daily, simply, and authentically.
With this story of her conversion as a backdrop, Rosaria Butterfield invites us into her home to show us how God can use this same \"radical, ordinary hospitality\" to bring the gospel to our lost friends and neighbors. Such hospitality sees our homes as not our own, but as God's tools for the furtherance of his kingdom as we welcome those who look, think, believe, and act differently from us into our everyday, sometimes messy lives--helping them see what true Christian faith really looks like.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433557866", "ISBN-10": "143355786X", "ASIN": "143355786X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Gospel for Real Life: Turn to the Liberating Power of the Cross ... Every Day", "Author": "Jerry Bridges", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Gospel Doctrine", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living", "Location": null, "Pages": 208, "Summary": "The gospel provides for our eternal salvation, but how does it benefit us day to day? Find out from Navigator author Jerry Bridges how the gospel transforms you daily into Christlikeness. Learn more about the character of God and the character of Jesus as you explore this book on your own or with a discipleship partner. Includes study guide with discussion questions.", "ISBN-13": "9781576835074", "ISBN-10": "1576835073", "ASIN": "1576835073", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Gospel-Driven Church: Uniting Church Growth Dreams with the Metrics of Grace", "Author": "Jared C. Wilson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Church", "Tag": "Christian Living, Bible, Churches & Church Leadership, Ministry & Evangelism", "Location": null, "Pages": 240, "Summary": "Many evangelical churches face the problem of the open \"back door\"--even as new people arrive, older members are leaving, looking for something else. Combined with this problem is the discipleship deficit, the difficult truth that most evangelicals are not reaching the unchurched at the rates they think they are. In fact, many of the metrics that we often \"count\" in the church to highlight success really don't tell us the full story of a church's spiritual state. Things like attendance, decisions, dollars, and experiences can tell us something about a church, but not everything.
To cultivate a spiritually healthy church we need a shift in our metrics--a \"grace-shift\" that prioritizes the work of God in the lives of people over numbers and dollars. Are people growing in their esteem for Jesus? Is there a dogged devotion to the Bible as the ultimate authority for life? Is there a growing interest in theology and doctrine? A discernible spirit of repentance? And perhaps most importantly, is there evident love for God and for our neighbors in the congregation?
Leading a church culture to shift from numerical success to the metrics of grace can be costly, but leaders who have conviction, courage, and commitment can lead while avoiding some of the landmines that often destroy churches. Wilson includes diagnostic questions that will help leaders measure--and lead team transparency in measuring as a group--the relative spiritual health of their church, as well as a practical prescriptive plan for implementing this metric-measuring strategy without becoming legalistic.
Most attractional church models can lean heavily on making changes to the weekend worship gatherings. And while some of these changes can be good, thriving grace-focused churches are driven by a commitment to the gospel, allowing the gospel to inform and shape the worship service and the various ministries of the church.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310177616", "ISBN-10": "0310177618", "ASIN": "0310177618", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Great Divorce", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Fiction", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Fiction, Christian, Classic & Allegory, Christianity, Literature & The Arts", "Location": null, "Pages": 160, "Summary": "C. S. Lewis takes us on a profound journey through both heaven and hell in this engaging allegorical tale. Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis introduces us to supernatural beings who will change the way we think about good and evil.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060652951", "ISBN-10": "0060652950", "ASIN": "0060652950", "Genre": "Literature & Fiction", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Heart of Christ", "Author": "Thomas Goodwin", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Intercession", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living", "Location": null, "Pages": 136, "Summary": "The Heart of Christ in Heaven towards Sinners on Earth was first published in 1651, and it soon became Thomas Goodwin's (1600-1680) most popular work. It is a fine example of his Christ-centredness and his mix of theological rigour and pastoral concern. In it he aims to show from Scripture that, in all his heavenly majesty, Christ is not now aloof from believers and unconcerned, but has the strongest affections for them. Goodwin begins with the beautiful assurances given by Christ to his disciples, taking as an example of that love Christ's washing of his disciples' feet (John 13). The heart of his argument, however, lies in his exposition of Hebrews 4:15, in which Goodwin shows that in all his glorious holiness in heaven, Christ is not sour towards his people; if anything, his capacious heart beats more strongly than ever with tender love for them. And in particular, two things stir his compassion: our afflictions and--almost unbelievably--our sins. How we need Goodwin and his message today! If we are to be drawn from jaded, anxious thoughts of God and a love of sin, we need such a knowledge of Christ.", "ISBN-13": "9781800402119", "ISBN-10": "1800402112", "ASIN": "1800402112", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological, and Pastoral Commentary", "Author": "R. Scott Clark", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Reformed Confessions", "Tag": "Christian Living, Bible, Theology, Worship & Devotion", "Location": null, "Pages": 1016, "Summary": "The Gospel in the Catechism
\"Monumental.\" --J. V. Fesko \"Generation-defining.\"--Harrison Perkins \"A full banquet with all the courses.\" --Zachary Purvis \"Invaluable.\" --Ligon Duncan \"A ready guide for every church and family.\" --Matthew Barrett
Christians are bombarded with competing messages, but the Heidelberg Catechism speaks clearly. Its teaching on the gospel and the Christian life is biblical, accessible, and pastoral. Its three-part structure of guilt (law), grace (gospel), and gratitude (sanctification) is framed by the comfort the Christian has in God alone.
In The Heidelberg Catechism, R. Scott Clark reflects on the catechism's theology, piety, and practice. This thorough yet accessible guide to the catechism comments on each of its 129 questions, revealing the catechism's historical and theological context and explaining how it enlivens the Christian faith today.
", "ISBN-13": "9781683598206", "ISBN-10": "1683598202", "ASIN": "1683598202", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Hiding Place", "Author": "Corrie ten Boom", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Biography", "Tag": "Biography, Historical, Religious, Women, History, Wars & Conflicts, World War II, Religion, Christian Living", "Location": null, "Pages": 272, "Summary": "\"Every experience God gives us . . . is the perfect preparation for the future only He can see.\"--Corrie ten BoomWhat does it mean to be holy? Why should we care? And how can we change?
The hole in our holiness is that we don't care much about holiness. Or, at the very least, we don't understand it.
This is a book for those of us who are ready to take holiness seriously, ready to be more like Jesus, ready to live in light of the grace that produces godliness. This is a book about God's power to help us grow in personal holiness and to enjoy the process of transformation.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433541353", "ISBN-10": "1433541351", "ASIN": "1433541351", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Holiness of God", "Author": "R. C. Sproul", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Attributes of God", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Christian Ministry, Discipleship, Theology, Apologetics", "Location": null, "Pages": 240, "Summary": "Over 250,000 sold!The Holy Spirit, once forgotten, has been \"rediscovered\" in the twentieth century--or has he? Sinclair Ferguson believes we should rephrase this common assertion: \"While his work has been recognized, the Spirit himself remains to many Christians an anonymous, faceless aspect of the divine being.\" In order to redress this balance, Ferguson seeks to recover the who of the Spirit fully as much as the what and how.
Ferguson's study is rooted and driven by the scriptural story of the Spirit in creation and redemption. Throughout he shows himself fully at home in the church's historical theology of the Spirit and conversant with the wide variety of contemporary Christians who have explored the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
Foundational issues are surveyed and clarified. Hard questions are explored and answered. Clarity and insight radiate from every page. Here is the mature reflection of a Reformed theologian who will summon respect and charity from those who disagree.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830815364", "ISBN-10": "0830815368", "ASIN": "0830815368", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Holy Trinity In Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship", "Author": "Robert Letham", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Trinity", "Tag": "Religion, Theology, History, Systematic", "Location": null, "Pages": 650, "Summary": "Robert Letham's award-winning The Holy Trinity receives a well-considered update in this revised and expanded new edition. Letham examines the doctrine of the Trinity's biblical foundations and traces its historical development through the twentieth century before engaging four critical issues: the Trinity and (1) the incarnation, (2) worship and prayer, (3) creation and missions, and (4) persons. The new edition addresses developments in Augustine studies, teaching on the Trinity and election in Barth studies, and contemporary evangelical disputes on the relation of the Son to the Father.", "ISBN-13": "9781629953779", "ISBN-10": "1629953776", "ASIN": "1629953776", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get Their Act Together", "Author": "Jared C. Wilson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Discipleship", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Personal Growth, Christian Ministry, Discipleship", "Location": null, "Pages": 240, "Summary": "Too many discipleship books are written for clean, perfect people who know all the right Sunday school answers. The Imperfect Disciple is for the rest of us--people who screw up, people who are weary, people who are wondering if it's safe to say what they're really thinking.The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare is a novel by G. K. Chesterton, first published in 1908. The book is sometimes referred to as a metaphysical thriller.
It is very difficult to classify The Man Who Was Thursday. It is possible to say that it is a gripping adventure story of murderous criminals and brilliant policemen; but it was to be expected that the author of the Father Brown stories should tell a detective story like no-one else. On this level, therefore, The Man Who Was Thursday succeeds superbly; if nothing else, it is a magnificent tour-de-force of suspense-writing.
However, the reader will soon discover that it is much more than that. Carried along on the boisterous rush of the narrative by Chesterton's wonderful high-spirited style, he will soon see that he is being carried into much deeper waters than he had planned on; and the totally unforeseeable denouement will prove for the modern reader, as it has for thousands of others since 1908 when the book was first published, an inevitable and moving experience, as the investigators finally discover who Sunday is.
A Thrilling Classic that Belongs on Every Bookshelf!", "ISBN-13": "9781659553758", "ISBN-10": "165955375X", "ASIN": "165955375X", "Genre": "Literature & Fiction", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Marriage", "Tag": "Family & Relationships, Marriage & Long-Term Relationships, Religion, Christian Living, Love & Marriage, Counseling, Sexuality & Gender Studies", "Location": null, "Pages": 352, "Summary": "“Incredibly rich with wisdom and insight that will leave the reader, whether single or married, feeling uplifted.” —The Washington TimesA Biblical Overview of Each New Testament Book in Light of the Old
The New Testament is the story of how all the promises made by God in the Old Testament were kept--and what that means for us today. The nation of Israel had many hopes: hope for a deliverer, hope for restored fellowship with God, and hope for the world to be put right. The New Testament explains how those promises were kept and how, if we are Christians, they are kept in us as well.
Based on 28 sermons in the early years of Mark Dever's ministry at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, The Message of the New Testament surveys the historical context, organization, and theology of each New Testament book, in light of God's Old Testament promises. Dever's message echoes that of the New Testament--one of fulfilled hope.
A Big Picture Overview of Each Old Testament Book
The Old Testament is the story of God's promises to his people. Below its somewhat obscure surface is hidden magnificent truth about the love and power of God. Throughout its pages the reader can find promise after promise from God, all of which are fulfilled in the New Testament--in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
Based on sermons in the early years of Mark Dever's ministry at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, The Message of the Old Testament explores the Old Testament as a glorious whole so that readers are able to see the big picture of the majesty of God and the wonder of his promises.
Tackle Key Questions from the Past Two Decades in this Fully Updated Edition
Engage with the latest scholarship on the biblical theology of mission and missional hermeneutics with Christopher J. H. Wright's classic text--now fully revised and updated!
Most Christians would agree that the Bible provides a basis for mission. But Christopher Wright boldly maintains that there is a missional basis for the Bible itself. The entire Bible is generated by and is all about God's mission. In order to understand the Scriptures, we need a missional hermeneutic, an interpretive perspective in sync with the beating heart of its great mission.
Wright gives us a new hermeneutical perspective on Scripture through an understanding of:
In this revised edition of The Mission of God, Wright extends his classic discussion to consider the ways that the conversation on missional hermeneutics has developed since its original publication. With fully updated citations and additional chapters focused on gospel-centered holistic mission and on the issue of election and supersessionism, this new edition addresses the questions, criticisms, and insights that have emerged during the intervening two decades.
God's mission is to reclaim the world, and God's people have a designated role to play. Whether you're a pastor, scholar, or student, The Mission of God will benefit your understanding of how the Bible shapes the story and purpose of God's people.
", "ISBN-13": "9781514000045", "ISBN-10": "1514000040", "ASIN": "1514000040", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Mission of God's People: A Biblical Theology of the Church's Mission", "Author": "Christopher J. H. Wright", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Missions", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Bible, Christian Ministry, Missions, Theology, Ecclesiology, Pastoral Resources, Christian Church, Growth", "Location": null, "Pages": 301, "Summary": "What does the Bible say about God's purpose for us, the witness of the church, and our mission to spread the message of the gospel?
Chris Wright's pioneering 2006 book, The Mission of God, revealed that the typical Christian understanding of \"missions\" encompasses only a small part of God's overarching mission for the world. God is relentlessly reclaiming the whole of creation for himself, and each of us fit into that big-picture plan.
In The Mission of God's People, Wright argues that having a strong biblical theology that shapes our thinking and behavior must be in place before answering the call of the Great Commission. Wright first steps back and answers some of the biggest questions of God's story and our place within it:
While answering these essential questions, Wright thoroughly details what the Old and New Testaments teach Christians about being God's people. He addresses questions of both ecclesiology (the theology of the church) and missiology (the practice and methodology of missions) with topics like \"called to care for creation,\" \"called to bless the nations,\" \"sending and being sent, and \"rejecting false gods.\"
____________
Part of the Biblical Theology for Life series, this practical and robust book will help you and your church ground your witness-bearing purpose and worship on the solid foundation of biblical understanding and reflection.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310291121", "ISBN-10": "0310291127", "ASIN": "0310291127", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Mortification of Sin", "Author": "John Owen", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Sin", "Tag": "History, World, Religious, Christian Living, Bible, Churches & Church Leadership, Protestantism, Theology, Worship & Devotion, Devotional", "Location": null, "Pages": 134, "Summary": "In this seminal work, Owen delves into the depths of the human heart, exposing the insidious nature of sin and its relentless assault on the believer's soul. Drawing from biblical truths and his extensive knowledge of Scripture, he fearlessly confronts the deceptions and illusions that hinder spiritual growth, inviting readers on a transformative journey toward genuine holiness.
Through meticulous analysis, Owen demonstrates that the battle against sin is not merely an external struggle but a profound inward warfare. He reveals the crucial principles and strategies for mortifying sin, guiding readers toward a life of victorious sanctification. From the importance of cultivating a deep knowledge of God to the diligent pursuit of repentance and self-examination, Owen's insights illuminate the path to lasting freedom from sin's clutches.
\"The Mortification of Sin\" is not a quick-fix self-help book but a profound theological masterpiece that penetrates the darkest corners of the human heart. Owen's words echo across centuries, challenging readers to confront the sin that lurks within and embrace the divine grace that empowers true transformation. His timeless wisdom serves as a beacon of hope, inspiring believers to rise above the allure of sin and experience the fullness of life in Christ.
Whether you are a seasoned theologian, a weary pilgrim seeking renewal, or simply someone hungering for a deeper understanding of spiritual growth, \"The Mortification of Sin\" offers an invaluable roadmap to holiness. Allow John Owen's profound teachings to reshape your perspective, ignite your passion for godliness, and equip you for the lifelong battle against sin.
", "ISBN-13": "9781611047165", "ISBN-10": "1611047161", "ASIN": "1611047161", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien (a Graphic Novel)", "Author": "John Hendrix", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Friendship", "Tag": "Comics & Graphic Novels, Literary, Juvenile Nonfiction, Biography, History, Europe, Military & Wars, Religion, Christianity, Social Topics, Friendship, Books & Libraries", "Location": null, "Pages": 224, "Summary": "From New York Times bestselling, award-winning creator John Hendrix comes The Mythmakers, a graphic novel biography of two literary lions--C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien--following the remarkable story of their friendship and creative fellowship, and how each came to write their masterworks\"Masterful. . . Effortlessly blending fantasy and reality.\" (BCCB, starred review)
Through narrative and comic panels, Hendrix chronicles Lewis and Tolkien's near-idyllic childhoods, then moves on to both men's horrific tour of the trenches of World War I to their first meeting at Oxford in 1929, and then the foreshadowing, action, and aftermath of World War II.
He reveals the shared story of their friendship, in all its ups and downs, that gave them confidence to venture beyond academic concerns (fantasy wasn't considered suitable for adult reading, but the domain of children), shaped major story/theme ideas, and shifted their ideas about the potential of mythology and faith.
The Mythmakers also shows the camaraderie and the importance of the social/literary circle of friends called the Inklings, and how the friendship of these two great men fell apart and came together again. Hendrix concludes describing how the writings of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien had re-enchanted the 20th century, after two World Wars.
In writing aimed at scholars, adults, and young people, these two tweedy academics altered the course of storytelling and embraced the concept that fantasy writing for an adult audience was an accepted form of literature.
The format is similar to The Faithful Spy: prose interspersed with images and narrative comics. The narration is often conversations between a knowledgeable wizard and a comical lion. Through brisk conversation between these two friends, they explain some of the bigger ideas in an approachable and entertaining way.
Throughout the story, there are \"gateways\" that lead readers to the back matter where certain themes, such as how myth/fantasy evolved or the art of world-building, are discussed more fully. This device keeps the main story flowing quickly and smoothly for those readers not interested in the more academic ideas behind the narrative.
Among the ideas covered in the narrative and back matter:
- Tolkien's world-building
- The \"Theology of Creation\" linking their faith to their writings
- The meaning of real friendship
- Notions of modernity and mythology
- The value of fantasy
- The power of a creative community
- An exploration of the different kinds of storytelling in Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, both relying on \"the Myth\" as a storytelling device, but differing in the use of allegory vs. symbolism
- The creative differences of Lewis and Tolkien: the high standards of Tolkien's fiction and the faster and more immediate approach of Lewis's
- Logos vs. Mythos: Lewis created from images, Tolkien created from language
- The mixing of mythologies
Also included are an author's note, endnotes, bibliography, and index.", "ISBN-13": "9781419746345", "ISBN-10": "1419746340", "ASIN": "1419746340", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians", "Author": "N. T. Wright", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Bible Introduction", "Tag": "History, Ancient, Greece, Religion, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, New Testament, Biblical Studies, History & Culture, Jesus, The Gospels & Acts, Paul'S Letters, Theology", "Location": null, "Pages": 992, "Summary": "
Your ticket from the twenty-first century to the era of Jesus and the first Christians. A readable, one-volume introduction placing the entire New Testament and early Christianity in its original context, written by distinguished scholar and author N. T. Wright.
An ideal guide for students, The New Testament in Its World addresses the many difficult questions faced by those studying early Christianity, including:
Written for both classroom and personal use, this book brings together decades of ground-breaking research, writing, and teaching into one volume. It presents the New Testament books--along with their subjects: Jesus and the early church--within the historical and social context of Second Temple Judaism and Greco-Roman politics and culture.
The New Testament in Its World allows you to recover the excitement of what it was like to live as Christians in the first or second centuries.
Features include:
Also available are Video and Workbook companion resources (sold separately) to enhance learning and experience the world of the New Testament.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310499305", "ISBN-10": "0310499305", "ASIN": "0310499305", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Nicene Creed: What You Need to Know about the Most Important Creed Ever Written", "Author": "Kevin DeYoung", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Gospel Doctrine", "Tag": "Religion, Christianity, History, Theology, Systematic, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 96, "Summary": "Bestselling Author Kevin DeYoung Explores the History, Meaning, and Importance of the Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed is a fundamental text that Christians have memorized and recited in church services and personal prayers for centuries. Despite its deep roots, many believers today recite the creed as a routine, often without fully understanding its meaning and significance.
Part of the Foundational Tools for Our Faith series, this book delves into the origins, theological meaning, and modern relevance of the Nicene Creed. Each chapter provides insightful analysis of key terms and phrases within the creed. By examining the truths the creed affirms and the errors it opposes, bestselling author Kevin DeYoung aims to help readers recite this essential statement of faith with understanding and clarity.
Pastors' kids are often burdened by others' expectations, but there is a wonderful solution, both at home and in the church: grace.
In this revised, refreshed version of Barnabas Piper's best-known book, the author candidly shares his own experiences as son of pastor and bestselling author John Piper, offering a challenge to our churches and to the families at their very heart: how to care for pastors' kids and allow them to find their own faith and identity.
",
"ISBN-13": "9781784984731",
"ISBN-10": "1784984736",
"ASIN": "1784984736",
"Genre": "Christianity",
"Recommended For": null,
"CoverURL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Pilgrim's Progress",
"Author": "John Bunyan",
"FormatID": null,
"Format": null,
"Reading Level": "Beginner",
"Category": "Fiction",
"Tag": "Fiction, Classics, Literary Criticism, European, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh",
"Location": null,
"Pages": 324,
"Summary": "One of the most powerful dramas of Christian faith ever written, this captivating allegory of man's religious journey in search of salvation follows the pilgrim as he travels an obstacle-filled road to the Celestial City. An enormously influential 17th-century classic, universally known for its simplicity, vigor, and beauty of language.",
"ISBN-13": "9780486426754",
"ISBN-10": "0486426750",
"ASIN": "0486426750",
"Genre": "Literature & Fiction",
"Recommended For": null,
"CoverURL": null
},
{
"Title": "The Practice of Godliness",
"Author": "Jerry Bridges",
"FormatID": null,
"Format": null,
"Reading Level": "Beginner",
"Category": "Discipleship",
"Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Christian Living, Personal Growth, Theology",
"Location": null,
"Pages": 320,
"Summary": "Over 600,000 copies sold
Godliness is more than a character trait. This foundational spiritual quality makes the entire Christian life dynamic, effective, and pleasing to God. But how can you develop a godly character? In this sequel to the popular book The Pursuit of Holiness, renowned author Jerry Bridges helps readers establish the foundation upon which godly character is built.
The Practice of Godliness will open your eyes to see how character formation affects the way you relate to God, to yourself, and to others. Great for Christian growth, and practical at any life stage, this book will encourage you to embrace:
This book is not a tired rant.
This book is not a reactionary diatribe.
This book is a gentle manifesto against the status quo.
In The Prodigal Church, Jared Wilson challenges church leaders to reconsider their priorities when it comes to how they \"do church\" and reach people in their communities, arguing that we too often rely on loud music, flashy lights, and skinny jeans to get people in the door.
Writing with the grace and kindness of a trusted friend, Wilson encourages readers to reexamine the Bible's teaching, not simply return to a traditional model for tradition's sake. He then sets forth an alternative to both the attractional and the traditional models: an explicitly biblical approach that is gospel focused, grace based, and fruit oriented.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433544613", "ISBN-10": "143354461X", "ASIN": "143354461X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment", "Author": "Jeremiah Burroughs", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Practical Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Theology, Soteriology", "Location": null, "Pages": 232, "Summary": "Jeremiah Burroughs is worthily reckoned as belonging to the front rank of English puritan preachers. As such he played a prominent part in the Westminster Assembly of divines, but died prematurely before the Assembly's work was concluded. Burrough's writings, some published before and others after his death, were numerous, but The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment is one of the most valuable of them all. Its author was much concerned to promote (1) peace among believers of various 'persuasions' (2) peace and contentment in the hearts of individual believers during what he describes as 'sad and sinking times'. The Rare Jewel concentrates upon this second aim. It is marked by sanity, clarity, aptness of illustration, and warmth of appeal to the heart. 'There is an ark that you may come into, and no men in the world may live such comfortable, cheerful and contented lives as the saints of God'. Burroughs presses his lesson home with all the fervour and cogency of a true and faithful minister of God.", "ISBN-13": "9781800400153", "ISBN-10": "1800400152", "ASIN": "1800400152", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism", "Author": "Timothy Keller", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Apologetics", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Christian Ministry, Evangelism, Theology, Apologetics", "Location": null, "Pages": 352, "Summary": "A New York Times bestseller people can believe in—by \"a pioneer of the new urban Christians\" (Christianity Today) and the \"C.S. Lewis for the 21st century\" (Newsweek).
", "ISBN-13": "9781594483493", "ISBN-10": "1594483493", "ASIN": "1594483493", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Reformation: A History", "Author": "Diarmaid MacCulloch", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Church History", "Tag": "History, Europe, Religion, Christianity, Protestant", "Location": null, "Pages": 896, "Summary": "The National Book Critics Circle Award–winning history of the Reformation—from the New York Times bestselling author of Christianity
Drawing together the many strands of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and ranging widely across Europe and the New World, MacCulloch reveals as never before how these dramatic upheavals affected everyday lives—overturning ideas of love, sex, death, and the supernatural, and shaping the modern age.
", "ISBN-13": "9780143035381", "ISBN-10": "014303538X", "ASIN": "014303538X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Reformed Pastor", "Author": "Richard Baxter", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Reformed Theology", "Tag": "History, Religion, Christian Living, Calling & Vocation, Theology, Ecclesiology, Christianity, Christian Ministry, Pastoral Resources, Preaching, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 176, "Summary": "An Updated and Abridged Edition of Richard Baxter's Classic Text
Originally written in 1656 and endorsed by generations of leading pastors as an essential book on the work of ministry, this abridged version of The Reformed Pastor presents the best of Richard Baxter's timeless advice in simple, modern language that's more accessible to a new generation of church leaders.
In inspiring communications to his fellow ministers, Baxter challenged them to pursue teaching and personal pastoral ministry with an exceptional degree of faithfulness. His words were grounded in the apostle Paul's encouragement to the leaders in Ephesus to \"take heed unto yourselves and all the flock.\" Baxter's advice remains relevant today as Christian leaders face both new and age-old challenges in ministry. With this updated, abridged version of The Reformed Pastor, editor Tim Cooper retains Baxter's passionate message in a modern, simplified style that speaks clearly to today's Christian leaders.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433573187", "ISBN-10": "1433573180", "ASIN": "1433573180", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Resurrection of the Son of God", "Author": "Nicholas Thomas Wright", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Resurrection", "Tag": "Christian Living, Bible, Theology, Arborist Merchandising Root, Self Service", "Location": null, "Pages": 817, "Summary": "Why did Christianity begin, and why did it take the shape it did? To answer this question -- which any historian must face -- renowned New Testament scholar N. T. Wright focuses on the key points: what precisely happened at Easter? What did the early Christians mean when they said that Jesus of Nazareth had been raised from the dead? What can be said today about this belief?This book, third in Wright's series Christian Origins and the Question of God, sketches a map of ancient beliefs about life after death, in both the Greco-Roman and Jewish worlds. It then highlights the fact that the early Christians' belief about the afterlife belonged firmly on the Jewish spectrum, while introducing several new mutations and sharper definitions. This, together with other features of early Christianity, forces the historian to read the Easter narratives in the gospels, not simply as late rationalizations of early Christian spirituality, but as accounts of two actual events: the empty tomb of Jesus and his \"appearances.\"
How do we explain these phenomena? The early Christians' answer was that Jesus had indeed been bodily raised from the dead; that was why they hailed him as the messianic \"son of God.\" No modern historian has come up with a more convincing explanation. Facing this question, we are confronted to this day with the most central issues of the Christian worldview and theology.
", "ISBN-13": "9780800626792", "ISBN-10": "0800626796", "ASIN": "0800626796", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution", "Author": "Carl R. Trueman", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Worldview", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Social Issues, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics & State, Sexuality & Gender Studies, Social Science, Sociology", "Location": null, "Pages": 425, "Summary": "\"Carl Trueman explains modernity to the church, with depth, clarity, and force. The significance of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self . . . is hard to overstate.\"
-- Rod Dreher, from the Foreword
Modern culture is obsessed with identity. Since the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision in 2015, sexual identity has dominated both public discourse and cultural trends--yet no historical phenomenon is its own cause. From Augustine to Marx, various views and perspectives have contributed to the modern understanding of the self.
In this timely book, Carl Trueman analyzes the development of the sexual revolution as a symptom--rather than the cause--of the human search for identity. Trueman surveys the past, brings clarity to the present, and gives guidance for the future as Christians navigate the culture in humanity's ever-changing quest for identity.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433556333", "ISBN-10": "1433556332", "ASIN": "1433556332", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Rise of Christianity: How an Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force ....", "Author": "Rodney Stark", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Church History", "Tag": "Religion", "Location": null, "Pages": 272, "Summary": "This \"fresh, blunt, and highly persuasive account of how the West was won—for Jesus\" (Newsweek) is now available in paperback. Stark's provocative report challenges conventional wisdom and finds that Christianity's astounding dominance of the Western world arose from its offer of a better, more secure way of life.
\"Compelling reading\" (Library Journal) that is sure to \"generate spirited argument\" (Publishers Weekly), this account of Christianity's remarkable growth within the Roman Empire is the subject of much fanfare. \"Anyone who has puzzled over Christianity's rise to dominance...must read it.\" says Yale University's Wayne A. Meeks, for The Rise of Christianity makes a compelling case for startling conclusions. Combining his expertise in social science with historical evidence, and his insight into contemporary religion's appeal, Stark finds that early Christianity attracted the privileged rather than the poor, that most early converts were women or marginalized Jews—and ultimately \"that Christianity was a success because it proved those who joined it with a more appealing, more assuring, happier, and perhaps longer life\" (Andrew M. Greeley, University of Chicago).
", "ISBN-13": "9780060677015", "ISBN-10": "0060677015", "ASIN": "0060677015", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Saints' Everlasting Rest", "Author": "Richard Baxter", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Puritan Theology", "Tag": "History, Music, Religious, Hymns, Religion, Biblical Studies, Biblical Meditations, Christian Living, Inspirational, Devotional, Christian Ministry, Discipleship, Theology, Eschatology", "Location": null, "Pages": 192, "Summary": "A Hopeful Puritan Perspective on Suffering and Death
In the throes of a long illness and confronting the possibility of death, 17th-century theologian Richard Baxter found comfort in the reality of heaven that awaits believers of Christ. During his recovery, Baxter wrote about the afterlife in what would become his best-selling book.
The Saints' Everlasting Rest meditates on what Scripture reveals about heaven, helping believers live an abundant, God-honoring life in anticipation of eternal rest. Baxter encourages readers not to become distracted or discouraged by the temporal as he refocuses their minds on the eternal. Confronting difficult topics including sin, suffering, and fear of death, he also emphasizes God's sufficient grace and how the promise of heaven enriches life on earth.
In this humorous and perceptive exchange between two devils, C. S. Lewis delves into moral questions about good vs. evil, temptation, repentance, and grace. Through this wonderful tale, the reader emerges with a better understanding of what it means to live a faithful life.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060652937", "ISBN-10": "0060652934", "ASIN": "0060652934", "Genre": "Literature & Fiction", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Sinfulness of Sin", "Author": "Ralph Venning", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Puritan Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Theology, Ethics", "Location": null, "Pages": 352, "Summary": "We cannot understand the Christian gospel until we know what sin is. Yet modern secular counsellors urge us to ignore both the word and what it tells us about our rebellion against God and his law. Sadly, the church too often serves as an echo chamber for such cheap and short-sighted wisdom. It's literature spreads the deceptive message that all is well. But it is only when we begin to see our sinfulness that we are able to discover God's forgiveness. Although The Sinfulness of Sin was written three hundred years ago, it remains an oasis of truth in a desert of lies. First published in the aftermath of the Great Plague of London and entitled Sin, The Plague of Plagues, this book gives a crystal-clear explanation of what sin is, why it is so serious, and what we need to do about it. Here is reliable medicine for a fatal epidemic.", "ISBN-13": "9781800402300", "ISBN-10": "1800402309", "ASIN": "1800402309", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Sing! Hymnal", "Author": "Keith Getty", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Worship", "Tag": "Christian Living, Bible, Churches & Church Leadership, Worship & Devotion", "Location": null, "Pages": 912, "Summary": "Hymnal from Keith and Kristyn Getty Highlights the Beauty of Christian Theology Through Worship
Blending music and poetry, hymns beautifully bring Christian theology to life. With each verse, rich lyrics echo the timeless truths of Scripture and proclaim the unchanging message of salvation. For centuries, Christians have used these treasured resources in private and corporate worship, and The Sing! Hymnal now presents the profound beauty of hymnody to the next generation.
Thoughtfully curated by award-winning hymn writers Keith and Kristyn Getty, The Sing! Hymnal hosts a collection of timeless classic and contemporary hymns, created to deepen worship and foster unity among God's people through the power of song. Featuring liturgical readings, psalms paired with popular hymns, useful indexes, and a durable, scuff-resistant cover, this hymnal is perfect for equipping attendees during Sunday morning services.
For more information about The Sing! Hymnal, including the full songlist and downloadable sheet music, please visit SingHymnal.com.
This striking one-volume edition marks the 75th anniversary of Lewis's classic SF trilogy featuring the adventures of Dr Ransom on Mars, Venus and Earth. It includes an exclusive Foreword compiled from letters by J.R.R. Tolkien, who inspired Lewis to write the first volume.
The Space Trilogy is a remarkable work of fantasy, demonstrating the powerful imagination of C.S..Lewis. This new one-volume edition marks the 75th Anniversary of the first publication of Out of the Silent Planet with an exclusive Foreword by J.R.R. Tolkien, on whom the main character of Ransom was largely based.
OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET
Dr Ransom, a Cambridge academic, is abducted and taken on a spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra, which he knows as Mars. His captors are plotting to plunder the planet's treasures and offer Ransom as a sacrifice to the creatures who live there...
PERELANDRA
Having escaped from Mars, Dr Ransom is called to the paradise planet of Perelandra, or Venus. When his old enemy also arrives and is taken over by the forces of evil, Ransom finds himself in a desperate struggle to save the innocence of this Eden-like world...
THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH
Investigating the truth about her prophetic dreams, Jane Studdock encounters the fabled Dr Ransom, who is in great pain after his travels. A sinister society run by his old adversaries intends to harness the ancient powers of a resurrected Merlin in their ambition to subjugate the people of Earth...
When writers write, they are getting in touch with the image of God in them. This is true in some way of all artistry, but writers especially create worlds, characters, histories, and transformation--all ex nihilo (\"out of nothing\").
In The Storied Life, veteran author Jared C. Wilson explores the ins and outs of writers and writing, exploring the myriad ways the craft is more about transformation than simply communication. From decades of experience and with his signature wit, Wilson brings well-earned insight, autobiographical reflections, and meaningful meditations to the topic of writing as a way of life and as a way of worship, showing how the concept of Story--our personal stories and God's grand story of redemption--shapes fiction and non-fiction writers alike.
Chapters focus on topics like:
Whether you're a long-time writer or a beginning author, a daily journaler or an occasional dabbler, The Storied Life will help you improve your craft. It will lead you to think more deeply about the disciplines and dispositions needed to write for transformation.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310155737", "ISBN-10": "0310155738", "ASIN": "0310155738", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Storm-Tossed Family: How the Cross Reshapes the Home", "Author": "Russell Moore", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Family Discipleship", "Tag": "Family & Relationships, Parenting, Child Rearing, Conflict Resolution, FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS, Life Stages, Dysfunctional Families, Religion, Christian Living, Theology, Sexuality & Gender Studies", "Location": null, "Pages": 320, "Summary": "Christianity Today \"Beautiful Orthodoxy\" Book of the Year in 2019.In this fully revised and updated edition, the lauded church historian Justo GonzÁlez tells the story of Christianity from its fragile infancy to its pervasive dominance at the dawn of the Protestant Reformation. The Story of Christianity, volume 1, relates the dramatic events, the colorful characters, and the revolutionary ideas that shaped the first fifteen centuries of the church's life and thought.
From Jesus's faithful apostles to the early reformist John Wycliffe, GonzÁlez skillfully weaves details from the lives of prominent figures tracing core theological issues and developments within the various traditions of the church. The Story of Christianity demonstrates at each point what new challenges and opportunities faced the church and how Christians struggled with the various options open to them, thereby shaping the future direction of the church.
This new edition of The Story of Christianity incorporates recent archaeological discoveries to give us a better view of the early Christian communities. Among these are advances in the recovery of Gnostic texts that have revealed a richer diversity of \"Christianities\" in the first century. GonzÁlez also includes important research done in the past twenty-five years revealing the significant role of women throughout the history of the church.
With lively storytelling incorporating the latest research, The Story of Christianity provides a fascinating introduction to the panoramic history of Christianity.
", "ISBN-13": "9780061855887", "ISBN-10": "006185588X", "ASIN": "006185588X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Story of Christianity: Volume 2: The Reformation to the Present Day", "Author": "Justo L. Gonzalez", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Church History", "Tag": "Religion", "Location": null, "Pages": 560, "Summary": "Beginning with the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, this fully revised and updated second volume of The Story of Christianity continues the marvelous history of the world's largest religion. Award-winning historian Justo Gonzalez bring to life the people, dramatic events, and theological debates that have shaped Protestantism, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy. From the monk Martin Luther, who dared to stand up to a corrupt pope, to the surprising spread and growing vitality of today's church in Africa, Asia, and South America, The Story of Christianity offers a complete and up-to-date retelling of this amazing history.
With new information on the important contributions of women to church history as well as the latest information on Christianity in developing countries, Gonzalez's richly textured study discusses the changes and directions of the church up to the twenty-first century. The Story of Christianity covers such recent occurrences as the fall of the Soviet Union and the return of the Russian Orthodox Church; feminist, Africa-American, and Third-World theologies; the scandals and controversies facing the reign of Pope Benedict XVI; interfaith dialogue; and the movement toward unity of all Christian churches. This revised and updated edition of The Story of Christianity concludes with a thoughtful look at the major issues and debates facing Christianity today.
", "ISBN-13": "9780061855894", "ISBN-10": "0061855898", "ASIN": "0061855898", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Go Outside And 19 Other Keys to Thriving in Your 20s", "Author": "Jared C. Wilson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Discipleship", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Calling & Vocation, Christian Ministry, Discipleship, Theology, Youth", "Location": null, "Pages": 144, "Summary": "We all wish we could go back.
In Go Outside, Jared and Becky Wilson imagine the advice they'd give if they could travel back in time. Like Solomon in Ecclesiastes, as we get older, we lament and regret the desires and behaviors of our youth. But what if you could avoid some of the pitfalls and pain so many people experience?
After 25 years of marriage and even more years following Jesus, Jared and Becky provide vital words of wisdom and encouragement to make the season of your youth a time of joy and fruitful investment in the future. You can build your legacy now based on this important biblical counsel. Filled with warmth and personal stories, the Wilsons explore topics such as:
This book includes twenty short chapters that will set--or keep--your story on the right track. Read it with friends and share it with the ones you love.
How the Story of the Prodigal Son Illuminates Jesus's Genius
When someone thinks of Jesus, \"genius\" is not likely the first word that comes to mind. But when studied in detail, Jesus's teachings and interactions with others combined high levels of knowledge and insight, verbal skill, and simplicity--showing his genius.
In The Surprising Genius of Jesus, Peter J. Williams examines the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15 to show the genius, creativity, and wisdom of Jesus's teachings. He used simple but powerful stories to confront the Pharisees and scribes of the day, drawing on his knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures to teach his audience through complex layers and themes. Williams challenges those who question whether Jesus really was the source of the parables recorded in the Gospels, pointing readers to the truth of who Jesus is and why that matters for them today.
\"Herbert loved crafting language in new and powerful ways. It was for him a way of seeing and savoring and showing the wonders of Christ. The central theme of his poetry was the redeeming love of Christ, and he labored with all his literary might to see it clearly, feel it deeply, and show it strikingly. We don't have a single sermon that he ever preached.... What we have is his poetry. And here the beauty of the subject is wedded to the beauty of his craft.\" John Piper, Introduction
Although George Herbert was a pastor of a small remote church in Elizabethan England, he came to fame because of a small collection of poems called The Temple. In this short but beautiful collection of poetry, Herbert devised 116 new poetic forms to capture his experiences of awe, sorrow, glory, turmoil, repentance, and heart-rending joy, all of it dedicated to God, not man. In this book, we have a picture of the full range of human experience and emotion, felt by a man being sanctified by God and describing it with all his poetic powers.
\"Sir, I pray deliver this little book to my dear brother ... and tell him he shall find in it a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed betwixt God and my soul, before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus my Master, in whose service I have now found perfect freedom; desire him to read it: and then, if he can think it may turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul, let it be made public; if not, let him burn it; for I and it are less than the least of God's mercies.\" George Herbert
", "ISBN-13": "9781947644328", "ISBN-10": "1947644327", "ASIN": "1947644327", "Genre": "Literature & Fiction", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "An Exposition of the Thirty Nine Articles By the Reformers", "Author": "Thomas R. Jones", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Reformed Confessions", "Tag": "History, Religion, Christianity", "Location": null, "Pages": 262, "Summary": "Excerpt from An Exposition of the Thirty Nine Articles: By the Reformers; Being Extracts Carefully and Fully From the Works of Latimer, Ridley, Cranmer, Hooper, Jewel, Philpot, Pilkinoton, Coverdale, Becon, Bradford, Sandys, Grindal, Whitgift, EtcIt is scarcely to be expected that all will utter the same accents - that upon every subject even the Fathers of the English Church will be wholly agreed. And yet there is an almost incredible unanimity Of Opinion among them. The differences which do exist, do not assume the character of light and darkness, but may more justly be compared to that variety existing between different lights, one more and another less brilliant; or, like as one star differeth from another.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.", "ISBN-13": "9781331662327", "ISBN-10": "133166232X", "ASIN": "133166232X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-shift that Changes Everything", "Author": "COLIN. PAYNE MARSHALL (TONY.)", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Church", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 228, "Summary": "
This is a book about the essentials of Christian ministry that is both solidly biblical and radically challenging. Its key idea is that the structures that support Christian ministry (the trellis) very easily swamp the real work of Christian ministry (the vine) - which is one person speaking God's word to someone else, in dependence upon the Spirit. Christian ministry consists not only of this prayerful proclamation, but of training more and more Christians in the convictions, character and skills that make it possible.
", "ISBN-13": "9781875245956", "ISBN-10": "1875245952", "ASIN": "1875245952", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament : with Study and Application Questions", "Author": "Edmund P. Clowney", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Biblical Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, Biblical Studies, Old Testament, Theology, Christology", "Location": null, "Pages": 220, "Summary": "Have you ever wondered what Christ said to his disciples to make their hearts burn on the Emmaus road? Follow Ed Clowney through the Old Testament as he shows how all the Scriptures point to Christ. As you explore Old Testament characters and events, you'll be inspired by the many specific insights they give us into Jesus' character and lordship. Book jacket.", "ISBN-13": "9781596388925", "ISBN-10": "1596388927", "ASIN": "1596388927", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation", "Author": "Michael Reeves", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Church History", "Tag": "Religion", "Location": null, "Pages": 192, "Summary": "Burning pyres, nuns on the run, stirring courage, comic relief.
The story of the Protestant Reformation is a gripping tale, packed with drama. It was set in motion on 31 October 1517 when Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses on the castle church door in Wittenberg. What motivated the Reformers? And what were they really like?
In this lively, accessible and informative introduction, Michael Reeves brings to life the colourful characters of the Reformation, unpacks their ideas, and shows the profound and personal relevance of Reformation thinking for today.
", "ISBN-13": "9781783595297", "ISBN-10": "1783595299", "ASIN": "1783595299", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions", "Author": "Arthur Bennett", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Prayer", "Tag": "Religion, Devotional, Meditations, Prayerbooks, Christian, Theology, History", "Location": null, "Pages": 223, "Summary": "The strength of Puritan character and life lay in prayer and editation. In this practice the spirit of prayer was regarded as of first importance and the best form of prayer, for living prayer is the characteristic of genuine spirituality. Yet prayer is also vocal and may therefore on occasions be written. Consequently in the Puritan tradition there are many written prayers and meditations which constitute an important corpus of inspiring devotional literature. Too often ex tempore prayer lacks variety, order and definiteness. The reason for this lies partly in a neglect of due preparation. It is here that the care and scriptural thoroughness which others found necessary in their approach to God may be of help. This book has been prepared not to 'supply' prayers but to prompt and encourage the Christian as he treads the path on which others have gone before. - Publisher.", "ISBN-13": "9780851512280", "ISBN-10": "0851512283", "ASIN": "0851512283", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Westminster Confession of Faith", "Author": "The Westminster Divines", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Reformed Confessions", "Tag": "Christian Living, Bible, Churches & Church Leadership", "Location": null, "Pages": 56, "Summary": "The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith, in the Calvinist theological tradition. Although drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly, largely of the Church of England, it became and remains the 'subordinate standard' of doctrine in the Church of Scotland, and has been influential within Presbyterian churches worldwide.In 1643, the English Parliament called upon \"learned, godly and judicious Divines\", to meet at Westminster Abbey in order to provide advice on issues of worship, doctrine, government and discipline of the Church of England. Their meetings, over a period of five years, produced the confession of faith, as well as a Larger Catechism and a Shorter Catechism. For more than three centuries, various churches around the world have adopted the confession and the catechisms as their standards of doctrine, subordinate to the Bible.The Westminster Confession of Faith was modified and adopted by Congregationalists in England in the form of the Savoy Declaration (1658). Likewise, the Baptists of England modified the Savoy Declaration to produce the Second London Baptist Confession (1689). English Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists would together (with others) come to be known as Nonconformists, because they did not conform to the Act of Uniformity (1662) establishing the Church of England as the only legally-approved church, though they were in many ways united by their common confessions, built on the Westminster Confession.", "ISBN-13": "9781546489986", "ISBN-10": "1546489983", "ASIN": "1546489983", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance--Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters", "Author": "Sinclair B. Ferguson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Gospel Doctrine", "Tag": "Religion, Christianity, History, Protestant, Theology, Christology, Soteriology, Christian Ministry, Preaching, Presbyterian", "Location": null, "Pages": 256, "Summary": "Since the days of the early church, Christians have wrestled with the relationship between law and gospel. If, as the apostle Paul says, salvation is by grace and the law cannot save, what relevance does the law have for Christians today?
By revisiting the Marrow Controversy--a famous but largely forgotten eighteenth-century debate related to the proper relationship between God's grace and our works--Sinclair B. Ferguson sheds light on this central issue and why it still matters today. In doing so, he explains how our understanding of the relationship between law and gospel determines our approach to evangelism, our pursuit of sanctification, and even our understanding of God himself.
Ferguson shows us that the antidote to the poison of legalism on the one hand and antinomianism on the other is one and the same: the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ, in whom we are simultaneously justified by faith, freed for good works, and assured of salvation.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433548000", "ISBN-10": "1433548003", "ASIN": "1433548003", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Wonder-Working: God Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Miracles", "Author": "Jared C. Wilson", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Discipleship", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, New Testament, Jesus, The Gospels & Acts, Christian Living, Theology, Christology, Christian Ministry", "Location": null, "Pages": 192, "Summary": "Do you believe in miracles?
Walking on water. Multiplying the fish and the loaves. Raising Lazarus from the dead. The miracles of Jesus may be well known, but they're often misunderstood. In The Wonder-Working God, pastor Jared Wilson wants to help us see that there's more than meets the eye when it comes to the miraculous events recorded in the Gospels.
From the humble wonder of the incarnation to the blinding glory of the transfiguration, this book shows how Jesus's miracles reveal his divinity, authority, and ultimate mission: restoring us and this world to a right relationship with God.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433536724", "ISBN-10": "1433536722", "ASIN": "1433536722", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "The Wonderful Works of God: Instruction in the Christian Religion According to the Reformed Confession", "Author": "Herman Bavinck", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Advanced", "Category": "Systematic Theology", "Tag": "Religion", "Location": null, "Pages": 659, "Summary": "110 years after its original publication, The Wonderful Works of God remains one of the finest single-volume systematic theologies ever written. Adapting the magisterial systematic theology found in his four-volume Reformed Dogmatics, this is perhaps Bavinck's most eminently practical work a single, accessible volume for the college classroom and the family bookshelf. Previously published in America as Our Reasonable Faith, this book has had a deep and lasting influence on the growth and development of Reformed theology. It is the publisher s hope that in its new form, this book continues to astonish readers with the wonderful works of God, and provide a deeper knowledge of their triune God--From Amazon.com.", "ISBN-13": "9781733627221", "ISBN-10": "1733627227", "ASIN": "1733627227", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Theological Retrieval for Evangelicals: Why We Need Our Past to Have a Future", "Author": "Gavin Ortlund", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Historical Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Theology, History, Christianity, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 224, "Summary": "Restless for rootedness, many Christians are abandoning Protestantism altogether.
Many evangelicals today are aching for theological rootedness often found in other Christian traditions. Modern evangelicalism is not known for drawing from church history to inform views on the Christian life, which can lead to a \"me and my Bible\" approach to theology. But this book aims to show how Protestantism offers the theological depth so many desire without the need for abandoning a distinctly evangelical identity.
By focusing on particular doctrines and neglected theologians, this book shows how evangelicals can draw from the past to meet the challenges of the present.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433565267", "ISBN-10": "1433565269", "ASIN": "1433565269", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Three Treatises by Luther: An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, & The Freedom of the Christian", "Author": "Martin Luther", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Reformed Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Christianity, Protestant, Theology, Lutheran", "Location": null, "Pages": 267, "Summary": "What man is there whose heart, hearing these things, will not rejoice to its very core, and in receiving such comfort grow tender so as to love Christ, as he never could be made to love by any laws or works? Who would have power to harm such a heart or to make it afraid? For it believes that the righteousness of Christ is its own, and that its sin is not its own, but Christ's, and that all sin is swallowed up by the righteousness of Christ is a necessary consequence of faith in Christ. So the heart learns to scoff at death and sin, and to say with the apostle, 'Where, O death, is thy victory? Where, O death, is thy sting?' (1 Cor. 15:55ff). For death is swallowed up not only in the victory of Christ, but also by our victory, because through faith His victory has become ours, and in that faith we also are conquerors.\" ~From the Freedom of the Christian Luther was not just a firebrand priest who riled up some priests and accidentally started a religious movement. In these three treatises, we get a full picture of what Luther stood for and what he stood against. In his Letter to the Christian Nobility, he explains the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers and calls upon German princes to reform the church, since the Papacy refused to do so. In The Babylonian Captivity of the Church he attacks the sacramental system of the Roman Catholic church and explains that the Lord's Supper is not a sacrifice made to God, but an offering of the promise to the people. He calls for them to feed the people the bread and wine again. Finally, in his inspiring The Freedom of the Christian, Luther proclaims the heart of the Reformation: the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Because God has saved us once and for all from our sins and no works can increase our salvation, we are free to love both God and our neighbor, not from a spirit of fear, but out of gratitude for everything God has done for us. Read these works and be inspired. \"At points, Luther is lyrical, even ecstatic, as he proclaims the benefits of justification by faith alone. Since acceptance by God is entirely a free gift, the Christian is free from the burden of the law and is free to do good works in the proper spirit \"A Christian man is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian man is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all\" (237). ... The three treatises are short reads.... It would not be unfair to refer to them as pamphlets. But they are surely the weightiest pamphlets in Christian history. With this new edition, their power continues to resound.\" ~From Wedgeworth's Preface\"", "ISBN-13": "9781947644687", "ISBN-10": "1947644688", "ASIN": "1947644688", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Through Gates of Splendor", "Author": "Elisabeth Elliot", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Missions", "Tag": "MISSIONS_ECUADOR, MARTYRS", "Location": null, "Pages": 274, "Summary": "The unforgettable true story of five men who braved Auca lances. This edition includes a follow-up chapter that will give readers a unique perspective.", "ISBN-13": "9780842371513", "ISBN-10": "0842371516", "ASIN": "0842371516", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Fiction", "Tag": "Fiction, Christian, Classic & Allegory, Religion, Christian Living, Christianity, Literature & The Arts", "Location": null, "Pages": 368, "Summary": "A repackaged edition of the revered author’s retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche—what he and many others regard as his best novel.
C. S. Lewis—the great British writer, scholar, lay theologian, broadcaster, Christian apologist, and bestselling author of Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Chronicles of Narnia, and many other beloved classics—brilliantly reimagines the story of Cupid and Psyche. Told from the viewpoint of Psyche’s sister, Orual, Till We Have Faces is a brilliant examination of envy, betrayal, loss, blame, grief, guilt, and conversion. In this, his final—and most mature and masterful—novel, Lewis reminds us of our own fallibility and the role of a higher power in our lives.
", "ISBN-13": "9780062565419", "ISBN-10": "0062565419", "ASIN": "0062565419", "Genre": "Literature & Fiction", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel", "Author": "Matt Smethurst", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Biography", "Tag": "Biography, Religious, Religion, Theology, Christianity, Calvinist, Presbyterian, Christian Living, Leadership & Mentoring", "Location": null, "Pages": 240, "Summary": "A Topic-by-Topic Look at Tim Keller's Best Teaching on Christian Living
Pastor and author Timothy Keller (1950-2023) built a lasting legacy in Christian ministry, planting Redeemer Presbyterian Church and cofounding the Gospel Coalition. With sharp biblical insight that has shaped countless church leaders, along with counsel on the Christian life that has stirred and strengthened audiences worldwide, Keller's teaching promises to influence generations to come.
Synthesizing Keller's work topic by topic, each chapter of this book highlights a key aspect of the Christian life--covering his views on prayer, suffering, friendship, vocation, intimacy with God, and more. Written by pastor Matt Smethurst, Tim Keller on the Christian Life draws from Keller's nearly 50 years of sermons, conference messages, and books to share practical theological insight that will galvanize leaders and laypeople alike.
The untold story of the people, the books, the lectures, and ultimately the God who formed and shaped the life of the late Timothy Keller.
Millions have read books and listened to sermons by Timothy Keller. But who impacted his own thinking, and what shaped his spiritual growth and ministry priorities With access to Keller's personal notes and sermons--as well as interviews with family members and longtime friends--Collin Hansen takes readers behind the scenes of one of the 21st century's most influential church leaders.
For the first time, Hansen introduces readers to Keller's early years: the home where he learned to tell stories from the trees, the church where he learned to care for souls, and the city that lifted him to the international fame he never wanted.
This unique biography will allow you to:
The story of Timothy Keller is the story of his spiritual and intellectual influences, from the woman who taught him how to read the Bible to the professor who taught him to preach Jesus from every text to the philosopher who taught him to see beneath society's surface.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310128687", "ISBN-10": "0310128684", "ASIN": "0310128684", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "To the Tenth Generation: God's Heart for Your Family, Far Into the Future", "Author": "Ray Ortlund", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Family Discipleship", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Family & Relationships, Inspirational, Love & Marriage", "Location": null, "Pages": 192, "Summary": "In the midst of family life, most days are too busy to think far into the future. Then once the children are grown, family life can feel like mostly memories, often tinged with regrets. And the future? More worries and fears, laden with unknowns.
But you and your family right now, whatever your ages, whatever you're facing, are living within a much larger story than you might realize. Your faithful efforts today matter. They are how God himself shapes the future. His heart can create in your home a culture of faith that will strengthen your family To the Tenth Generation.
Sound impossible? Ray and Jani Ortlund help bring such unimaginable thoughts down into the everyday ordinary of home and marriage and parenting--even grandparenting. With refreshing honesty and wise counsel, they invite you to experience the greatness that God can accomplish through a Christian family. It can happen, yes, in your family--now and for many, many, many years to come.
Also available, a picture book for children and families: Your Family Is God's Plan: His Mercy from Generation to Generation.
This book answers foundational questions: Who wrote the Bible? What is its message? Why is it thought to be a \"holy\" book? How does one read and interpret it? Best of all, though, you'll broaden your vision of Jesus Christ, the focal point of Scripture. How? By better understanding the geographical, religious, and historical concerns that shaped the world in which he lived. You'll see Jesus as never before: both as a man of his times and culture, and as the culmination of a divine providence that prepared the way for the ministry of the Messiah. Written by renowned preacher, writer, and apologist John Stott, this new, expanded edition includes - Questions at the beginning of each chapter to help you focus - New, up-to-date maps for the chapters on history and geography - An index to help you speedily access areas of interest.
", "ISBN-13": "9780310414315", "ISBN-10": "0310414318", "ASIN": "0310414318", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Understanding the Great Commission", "Author": "Jonathan Leeman", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Missions", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Ministry, Evangelism, Theology, Ecclesiology, Pastoral Resources", "Location": null, "Pages": 72, "Summary": "God means to fulfill the Great Commission through local churches. How did the apostles and the churches of the New Testament obey the Great Commission? By gathering Christians together in churches. The church is God's plan for evangelism, discipleship, and the Great Commission. This connection between the Great Commission and the church dramatically impacts how both leaders and members should think about their work of making disciples. We do it together.", "ISBN-13": "9781433688942", "ISBN-10": "1433688948", "ASIN": "1433688948", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Union with Christ: The Way to Know and Enjoy God", "Author": "Rankin Wilbourne", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Union with Christ", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Professional Growth, Theology, Christology, Soteriology", "Location": null, "Pages": 320, "Summary": "Winner of the 2017 Christian Book Award for New Author
Named one of the top books of 2016 by John Piper's Desiring God ministry
To experience why the gospel is good news and answer life's most foundational questions about identity, destiny, and purpose, we must understand what it means to be united to Christ.
If you are a Christian, the Bible says that Christ has united his life to yours, that you are now in Christ and Christ is in you. This almost unfathomable truth is the central theme of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Yet few Christians today experience or enjoy this reality. Union with Christ reveals the transformational power of this ancient doctrine while addressing the basic questions of the human heart:
The heart of the biblical understanding of idolatry, argues Gregory Beale, is that we take on the characteristics of what we worship. Employing Isaiah 6 as his interpretive lens, Beale demonstrates that this understanding of idolatry permeates the whole canon, from Genesis to Revelation. Beale concludes with an application of the biblical notion of idolatry to the challenges of contemporary life.
", "ISBN-13": "9780830828777", "ISBN-10": "083082877X", "ASIN": "083082877X", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Weight of Glory", "Author": "C. S. Lewis", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Theology, Apologetics, Christianity, Literature & The Arts", "Location": null, "Pages": 208, "Summary": "Selected from sermons delivered by C. S. Lewis during World War II, these nine addresses offer guidance and inspiration in a time of great doubt.These are ardent and lucid sermons that provide a compassionate vision of Christianity.
", "ISBN-13": "9780060653200", "ISBN-10": "0060653205", "ASIN": "0060653205", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "What Did the Cross Achieve?", "Author": "J. I. Packer", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Gospel Doctrine", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Theology, Christology, Soteriology, Systematic", "Location": null, "Pages": 136, "Summary": "A Classic Essay on Penal Substitutionary Atonement from Theologian J. I. Packer
Penal substitutionary atonement--the belief that Jesus's death on the cross satisfied God's wrath against sin--is central to the Christian faith, but frequently debated. Is it just to punish an innocent person in place of the guilty? How can the temporary death of one substitute for the eternal death of many? Why doesn't the cross grant Christians unlimited permission to sin?
In this famous essay, late theologian J. I. Packer analyzes Scripture and the works of early Reformers to defend the truth of Christ's substitutionary suffering and death, the heart of the Christian gospel. Considered one of the most significant short works on penal substitutionary atonement from the 20th century, this careful, concise essay has influenced prominent theologians and is essential reading for students, pastors, and laypeople.
\"God's eternal plan for us involves our body. We can't write off our physical life as spiritually irrelevant.\" --Sam Allberry
There's a danger in focusing too much on the body. There's also a danger in not valuing it enough. In fact, the Bible has lots to say about the body. With the coming of Jesus, \"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us\"--flesh that was pierced and crushed for the sins of the world.
In What God Has to Say about Our Bodies, Sam Allberry explains that all of us are fearfully and wonderfully made, and should regard our physicality as a gift. He offers biblical guidance for living, including understanding gender, sexuality, and identity; dealing with aging, illness, and death; and considering the physical future hope that we have in Christ.
In this powerfully written book, you'll gain a new understanding for the immeasurable value of our bodies and God's ultimate plan to redeem them.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433570155", "ISBN-10": "1433570157", "ASIN": "1433570157", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "What Is Biblical Theology?: A Guide to the Bible's Story, Symbolism, and Patterns", "Author": "James M. Hamilton Jr.", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Biblical Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Studies, Theology, Christian Ministry, Pastoral Resources", "Location": null, "Pages": 128, "Summary": "How Do You Read the Bible?
The Bible recounts a single story--one that began at creation, encompasses our lives today, and will continue till Christ's return and beyond. In What Is Biblical Theology?, Jim Hamilton introduces us to this narrative, helping us understand the worldview of the biblical writers so that we can read the Old and New Testaments as those authors intended. Tracing the key patterns, symbols, and themes that bind the Bible together, this book will help you understand Scripture's unified message and find your place in the great story of redemption.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433537714", "ISBN-10": "1433537710", "ASIN": "1433537710", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "What Is Reformed Theology?: Understanding the Basics", "Author": "R. C. Sproul", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Reformed Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Theology, Systematic, Christian Ministry, Pastoral Resources, Christianity, Calvinist", "Location": null, "Pages": 272, "Summary": "An introduction to the distinctives of Reformed theologyOver 250,000 Copies Sold
What is the gospel? It seems like a simple question, yet it has been known to incite some heated responses, even in the church. How are we to formulate a clear, biblical understanding of the gospel? Tradition, reason, and experience all leave us ultimately disappointed. If we want answers, we must turn to the Word of God.
Greg Gilbert does so in What Is the Gospel? Beginning with Paul's systematic presentation of the gospel in Romans and moving through the sermons in Acts, Gilbert argues that the central structure of the gospel consists of four main subjects: God, man, Christ, and a response. The book carefully examines each and then explores the effects the gospel can have in individuals, churches, and the world. Both Christian and non-Christian readers will gain a clearer understanding of the gospel in this valuable resource.
", "ISBN-13": "9781433515002", "ISBN-10": "1433515008", "ASIN": "1433515008", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "What It Means to Be Protestant: The Case for an Always-Reforming Church", "Author": "Gavin Ortlund", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Reformed Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Christianity, Protestant, Theology, Apologetics, History, Denominations, Christian Church", "Location": null, "Pages": 261, "Summary": "A Powerful Defense of The Protestant Tradition.
Winner of the 2024 Christianity Today Book of the Year Award and Popular Theology category; Winner of Credo Magazine's Award in Theological Retrieval
There's a movement among evangelicals of exploring the more sacramental, liturgical, and historically-conscious church traditions, including Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. This hunger for historical rootedness is welcome--but unfortunately, many assume that this need can only be met outside of Protestant contexts.
In What it Means to Be Protestant, Gavin Ortlund draws from both his scholarly work in church history and his personal experience in ecumenical engagement to offer a much-needed defense of the Protestant tradition.
Retrieving classical Protestant texts and arguments, he exposes how many of the contemporary objections leveled against Protestants are rooted in caricature. He shows how historic Protestantism offers the best pathway forward and to historical rootedness for Christians today.
In his charitable style, Ortlund demonstrates that the 16th century Reformation represented a genuine renewal of the gospel. This does not entail that Protestantism is without faults. But because it is built upon the principle of semper reformanda (always reforming), Protestantism is capable of reforming itself according to Scripture as the ultimate authority.
\"I find it hard to overstate the importance of this book for every pastor/minister, elder, and serious Bible student that I know. . .This book automatically becomes my new go-to resource explaining Protestantism. It is fantastic, and I thank God for it. . .\" --Bobby Harrington, co-founder of RENEW.org and Discipleship.org, founding pastor Harpeth Christian Church
", "ISBN-13": "9780310156321", "ISBN-10": "0310156327", "ASIN": "0310156327", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "When God Comes to Church: A Biblical Model for Revival Today", "Author": "Raymond C. Ortlund (Jr.)", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Revival", "Tag": "Religion, Biblical Criticism & Interpretation, Old Testament, Christian Living, Institutions & Organizations, Christian Ministry, Evangelism, Theology, Ecclesiology", "Location": null, "Pages": 252, "Summary": "In \"When God comes to church,\" Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. explores what the Bible teaches about revival. He explains what God can do to revive his people and what we must do to prepare ourselves for revival. Ortlund's conclusions provide solid guidance for church leaders and lay people who long for renewal and revival from God.", "ISBN-13": "9780801063282", "ISBN-10": "0801063280", "ASIN": "0801063280", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "When People Are Big and God Is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man", "Author": "Edward T. Welch", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Practical Theology", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Living, Personal Growth, Christian Ministry, Discipleship, Theology, Self-Help", "Location": null, "Pages": 216, "Summary": "Five college students pitch a tent by their car one dark night, not realizing they've set up camp by a military runway. They awake from a deep sleep to the shaking of the earth and a roar like mountains falling--the sound of a military transport plane taking off right over their heads. Can you imagine the visceral terror of that moment? For author and biblical counselor Edward Welch, it was a glimpse of what the Israelites experienced in God's presence at Mount Sinai. Our God is a consuming fire. His holiness and relentless love put our sin, our weakness, and our fears in perspective. If we can learn the fear of the Lord--a fear that in Christ is filled with gratitude, love, and devotion--we can break free of the fear of other people that so easily entangles us. We can experience joy in our Christian lives as we need other people less and love them more. This groundbreaking work has helped countless numbers of people to confront their fear of man and live in freedom. The new edition features clarifying additions, new material, and revisions throughout.", "ISBN-13": "9781629958071", "ISBN-10": "1629958077", "ASIN": "1629958077", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Why Bother with Church?", "Author": "Sam Allberry", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Church", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Education, Christian Living, Christianity, History, Christian Church, Christian Ministry, Adult", "Location": null, "Pages": 95, "Summary": "The church is widely viewed in the world at large as being outdated, boring, irrelevant and filled with backbiting hypocrites.
How different that picture is to how the Bible talks about the new family that Jesus has gathered. It is a precious bride, a sparkling jewel, a lifeboat for forgiven sinners that is precious and holy; nurturing and warm; filled with truth, friendship and all embracing, forgiving love.
Sam Allberry understands the collision between these two views, and how, even as Christian believers, we can lose sight of how truly wonderful church is and what a privilege it is to be part of.
In this brief, accessible but thorough guide to church, Sam outlines what church is and why we need it. And how, when we have got it wrong, we can move closer to what a true church should be.
Part of the Questions Christians Ask series: a range of short, simple books designed to help Christians grapple with the contemporary issues.
", "ISBN-13": "9781909559141", "ISBN-10": "1909559148", "ASIN": "1909559148", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Why Does God Care Who I Sleep With?", "Author": "Sam Allberry", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Beginner", "Category": "Sexuality", "Tag": "Religion, Christian Education, Christian Living, Love & Marriage, Christian Ministry, Evangelism, Theology, Apologetics", "Location": null, "Pages": 139, "Summary": "Christians are increasingly seen as outdated, restrictive and judgmental when it comes to sex before marriage, cohabitation and homosexuality. In fact for many people, this issue is one of the biggest barriers for them considering Christianity.
Sam Allberry, author of many books including Is God Anti-gay sets out God's good design for the expression of human sexuality. Readers will be shown that God himself is love and his blueprint for sex is designed to help us to flourish and live out our full humanity.
It is a great reminder of the Bible's teaching on love, sex and marriage and ideal for giving away to people who may see it as a stumbling block for belief.
", "ISBN-13": "9781784982775", "ISBN-10": "1784982776", "ASIN": "1784982776", "Genre": "Christianity", "Recommended For": null, "CoverURL": null }, { "Title": "Why God Makes Sense in a World That Doesn't: The Beauty of Christian Theism", "Author": "Gavin Ortlund", "FormatID": null, "Format": null, "Reading Level": "Intermediate", "Category": "Apologetics", "Tag": "Religion, Theology, Apologetics, Philosophy", "Location": null, "Pages": 240, "Summary": "Outreach 2022 Resource of the Year (Apologetics)Practical Advice for Weary Leaders Who Want a Gospel-Centered Culture for Their Church
Being a pastor is hard. Whether it's relational difficulties in the congregation, growing opposition toward the church as an institution, or just the struggle to continue in ministry with joy and faithfulness, the pressure on leaders can be truly overwhelming. It's no surprise that pastors are burned out, tempted to give up, or think they're going crazy.
While we're quick to assert what the gospel says, we're often too slow to admit what the gospel should do for our churches: reflect Christ's beauty through a godly, grace-filled culture.
In this practical guide, seasoned pastors Ray Ortlund and Sam Allberry help weary leaders renew their love for ministry by equipping them to build a gospel-centered culture into every aspect of their churches. Emphasizing the importance of healthy doctrine, they explain that failing to also nurture a healthy culture can be frustrating, polarizing, and even unbiblical. This encouraging guide features Scripture-focused advice on honesty, honor, preaching, leadership, and mission to support leaders and help them regain a beautiful, Christ-centered vision for their ministries.
![](\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=0060652926&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=thingsoftheso-20\")
![](\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=0143105132&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=thingsoftheso-20\")
![](\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=0812985400&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=thingsoftheso-20\")
![](\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=0735212171&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=thingsoftheso-20\")
![](\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=0060652934&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=thingsoftheso-20\")
![](\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=0147515874&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=thingsoftheso-20\")
![](\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=0060652381&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=thingsoftheso-20\")
![](\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=0060652950&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=thingsoftheso-20\")
![](\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=0060652942&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=thingsoftheso-20\")
![](\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1501139150&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=thingsoftheso-20\")
![](\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=0451529537&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=thingsoftheso-20\")
![](\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=0801018668&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=thingsoftheso-20\")
![](\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=006230125X&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=thingsoftheso-20\")
![](\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1433552434&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=thingsoftheso-20\")
![](\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1781917787&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=thingsoftheso-20\")