New Thoughts (6/3/06-6/10/06)
Before jumping into the text at hand, I want to note something that caught my eye amongst the parallel verses. One of the references was to Romans 8:11, wherein Paul notes that we in whom the Spirit dwells will be given bodily life through that Spirit. This idea of Paul being concerned at all with bodily life seemed rather surprising to me. I don’t recall having noticed this particular point when I was studying that book, and it just seems so out of place.
So, I looked into it a little bit further, restoring some context to the verse. Paul is in the midst of making a point about the law of the Spirit of life and its great value over against the Law of Moses. The whole section, then, is seeking to get our eyes of the flesh and its fleshly compliance to fleshly, legalistic rules, and onto the spirit, an obedience of heart, soul and mind. So, what does bodily life have to do with this argument? Well, if we will look but one verse fore and aft, I think we will understand what Paul is getting at. In Romans 8:10, he reminds us that the body is inherently dead because of sin. Death is sin’s just due, and every man is a sinner. Therefore, every man is a dead man walking. But, as Christ is in us, the spirit is alive. His righteousness has given life to our spirit, which is the connection that this section has to what Jesus is saying here in John’s account. Paul, continues by saying that the same Spirit, the Holy Spirit, Who raised Jesus from physical death dwells in us, and therefore, as Christ gives life to our spirit, the Spirit gives life to our body. Then Paul states his point. Because the body has been seen to by the Spirit, we are under no obligation to the flesh.
The point of bringing up the life of the flesh, it seems to me, is akin to what Jesus was teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. “Don’t be anxious for your life” (Mt 6:25). The reason He gave for our confidence was God’s providence. He knows what you need, and He’s got you covered. Paul says that the Holy Spirit (Who after all, is sent to indwell us by God’s Providence) gives life to our body. The point is the same. God’s got you covered.
Now, for a Charismatic or Pentecostal believer, there’s going to be a natural tendency to look at that text as a proof text for healing in our day. In fact, one could easily twist it far enough to make it a claim that sickness must be a sign of unbelief, since the believer has the Spirit and the Spirit gives bodily life. But, this is not the point. The point is that our bodies need not occupy our attention as much as they tend to. The point of bodily life is made precisely so that we can get our minds off of such concerns and back onto things that really matter.
That said, it is worth recognizing and acknowledging the truth underlying Paul’s words. The Spirit Who raised Jesus dwells in you, dwells in me! As He raised Jesus, so He raises my body, which daily earns the right to die. Praise be to God, I do not get what I deserve, what I earn, but rather what Jesus has made mine by right of His own righteousness. Because He lives, the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in me. Though it seems incomprehensible that such Holiness could bear to abide in this fallen man, He does. I don’t understand it, but I know it to be true. Because of this truth, this body is alive. Because of this truth, this body may even expect the reversal of sin’s effects. It is not, I must acknowledge, a guarantee, but it is a probability. The Spirit is giving life to the body that I only fed on death.
Thank You, Holy Spirit! If there is anything I can take away from that reminder, it is the deep debt of gratitude I owe to You. You have been breathing life into this flesh even as I was inhaling death. You have preserved me when my every action was bringing destruction to myself. Yes, and You have preserved me for a purpose; for Your purpose. Oh, Lord! My Jesus, make that purpose clearer to me, and work upon my will that I may make Your purpose mine own. So, let it be done in me, Holy One, as You have determined it to be. Blessed be Your glorious Name, Jesus, and amen.
The Claim (6/5/06-6/6/06)
What Jesus claims of Himself in this passage is undeniable. There can be no question, after reading these words, regarding how Jesus saw Himself. He is the Son. More importantly, He is the Son who sees the Father. Here, He has already moved His claims beyond anything that anyone else could claim. Even Moses could not make this claim, not on this level.
The claim is a powerful claim. He says that He is the Son. He is the One (the only One) who demonstrates such an absolute likeness of behavior and character to the Father as to be identifiably His Son. There is also, in the claim of that title, a claim of intimacy with the Father. Jesus is declaring that He is in close relationship with the Father, and He does so with each claim we find here. He sees what the Father is doing. He sees them because the Father shows them to Him. In fact, He tells us that the Father has even gone to the length of delegating His unique authority as Judge over all creation into the hands of this Son. The relationship is indeed close, and it is actively pursued by both parties.
There, in brief, is the meaning of sonship. While it must be recognized that Jesus is unique as the Son of God, and ever shall be, it must simultaneously be understood that we who have been made sons by adoption are called to the same sonship. We are called to be sons, not just children. We are called to be intimate companions of God, not just acquaintances. Here’s the clincher: We are called to demonstrate a godly character in our behavior, not just aspire to it inwardly. The man who had lain by the pool of Bethesda aspired to health, but he was never demonstrably healthy. Many would-be Christians aspire to live a godly life, but are never demonstrably righteous. Many can rightly claim to be children of God, yet can not lay claim to sonship with a straight face. This is not as it ought to be, and for those stuck in childhood the call comes out again, “Are you determined?” Are you determined to grow into sons? Are you determined to mature to the point of resembling Him Whom you call, ‘our Father’?
Consider what it means to be Father. I know I have looked at this word before, even as recently as the previous study. Today, however, there are other aspects of fatherhood that are before my eyes. To be a Father is to be the nourisher of the family, to be the protector of the family, to be the upholder of the family’s traditions. The Father is the founder of a people. That is exactly what He has been doing for centuries now. He has been founding a people. He began it with Adam, but it becomes more clear with Abraham. The Father says to His chosen son, “I will make you the father of many nations” (Ge 17:5). In doing so, He has in reality made Himself the Father of many nations. He has, because He made (created from nothing) Abraham the father of nations, Himself become the Father of nations. If we look to Abraham, we must look to Him Who made Abraham. “You are no longer Abram, but are now Abraham, for I have made you.”
How wonderful it is to recognize this! After all, if we could only look as far as Abraham for our nourishment and protection, we would be in trouble indeed. Abraham is no longer in any position to nourish us. He is assuredly passed beyond all possibility of protecting us. The same may be said of our more immediate progenitors. If it has not already come, the time surely will when our earthly fathers can no longer provide, can no longer protect. It matters not how godly they are or were. Their time will pass and we must be on our own. That is, after all, the goal of every parent; to so raise their children that they will be able to survive on their own.
For some, there is more to it than this, there is an earnest attempt to shape those children into sons, into a people of like character. This is what distinguishes a father from other men. We can look around society today and see any number of men willing to procreate, willing to bring forth children into the world. But so few of them have purposed to infuse their own character into the lives they have helped create. In some cases we may think this is for the best, but that is not God’s view. God is the Father. He is firmly committee to the business of infusing His own Spirit into others.
I am borrowing that description wholesale from Thayer’s Lexicon, apart from the capitalization. Even as I retyped that, the full significance of the statement was unfolding to my thoughts. The Father is in the business of infusing His Spirit into His sons. It was not just Jesus, although He was blessed to know this relationship to the Father in a fashion that remains unique in all time. Indeed, it was because of this unique infusing of the Father’s Spirit that Jesus could declare as verifiable truth that He does nothing other than what He sees the Father doing. He is of One Spirit with the Father. How could He be otherwise, Who was of One substance with the Father?
Now, however, I am brought right back to that verse from Romans that I was considering yesterday (Ro 8:10-12). If Christ is in you, your spirit is alive because He is life. If the Father’s Spirit is in you, your body is also alive because the Spirit indwells you. The Father has infused the Spirit, His Spirit in you and in me! This is what Jesus was praying about shortly before the end of His ministry. “The glory You have given to Me I have given to them that they may be one as We are One” (Jn 17:22). That sweet Holy Spirit, though not yet sent forth in full, was already infused. Already, the Spirit of the Father was imparted to those whose hope was in Christ.
I am really liking that word, ‘infused’. The Father does not just try His best to get us to be like Him. He infuses His Spirit. Webster’s defines that as pouring in. He pours in His Spirit. That certainly fits the description of God’s work on that first Pentecost, and it is the same work He continues to do amidst the Church of His Sons. I also note, however, the relationship of the more basic word ‘fused’. This is from the same root, bearing the same sense of pouring. However, there the idea is that things have been ‘reduced to a liquid state by heat’ so as to be ‘thoroughly blended together’. There is the whole point of the thing. By the Father’s work, because of His love for us, We have become ‘joined by melting together’ with the Spirit! In that, we have likewise been joined by melting together with the Father. Is it any wonder, then, that I am hearing those who are experiencing what He is doing in our midst describe a sensation of melting in His presence? He is infusing His Spirit. He is making Sons, founding a people right here in Lowell.
Why should He do such a thing for such as us? What makes us so special? Absolutely nothing. It is simply the gracious way of the Father. Our Lord and King has every right to command what He will of us, and does so. But He is also our Father, and as a father, He gives into the lives of His children. As a father, He is pleased to have His children involved in what He is doing, in Who He is. “The Father loves the Son,” Jesus tells us. It may be a bit surprising to recognize that what He says is not a reference to that agape love that we think of as God’s alone. It is the simple, brotherly love of phileo. He loves His Son as one sharing common interests with Him. He delights in the company of One so like Himself in taste and habit. What strikes me as truly amazing is that He wants to have that same delight in each one of us who are made a son of God. As a Father, He works to infuse His own Spirit into us to the end that He might delight in us as sons, sharing His character and also sharing His interests.
God, who can feel lonely or slighted when You Yourself are so determined to have his company? What greater blessing could I ask of You than to know that You are delighted in me, are melting me together with Yourself; fusing us, joining us together in unbreakable bonds of love? Oh! Let my delight be found in You as well! In this world of so many distractions, You alone are all my delight. Though I pursue so many things, my Father, let all my pursuit be of Your interests. Let all my pursuit be of You.
As Jesus lays out His claim to Godhood, He explains the reason that the Father does as He does for the Son. He does it all so that the Son will be honored on a par with Himself. Do you know, this is every father’s hope for the son that reflects his character. Indeed, it’s a rather unworthy father who does not seek even greater things for his child; and God is no unworthy Father, but a Father worthy of all honor. As One worthy of all honor, He can hardly seek to train up a Son worthy of greater honor, but He can most assuredly raise up a Son equally worthy of all honor, and so He has done.
What, then, does it mean to honor the Father and the Son? To honor means to treat as valuable. It strikes me, thinking on this, that what we consider valuable is distinct from what is merely expensive. When something is valuable, it seems to imply a degree of fragility, a certain need for care in handling. By way of example, I consider the difference between the coffee cup I use daily, and the teacup that generally occupies a display shelf. In all fairness, I don’t think either of these cups cost me much of anything to obtain, yet the teacup is seen as valuable. Why is that? Well, in part, it is because it is old and has some history within my family. Yet, at its time of purchase, it was probably not worth a great deal more than the mug I am drinking from this morning. Somehow, though, that teacup is valuable in my sight, though the mug is of more immediate use. The difference is that the teacup seems fragile. Whether it truly is I don’t rightly know, but it has that sense of fragility about it.
Now, I would hardly suggest that God is fragile, yet, inasmuch as I hold Him to be of great worth, to be valuable and worthy of honor, there is that same sense of fragility. There is something in the way of honor that cannot help but what is valued is also easily lost. Oh! My God is not easily lost, for He is determined not to lose me, as Pastor spoke to us last Sunday. God is determined not to lose me, I have no fear of that. Yet, a relationship is such an easy thing to damage. It doesn’t require concerted effort to do harm to it. The damage is far more likely to come from lack of effort. Divorce does not come through the concerted effort of one party to destroy whatever love was there at the start of the marriage. Divorce comes from lack of effort to preserve and increase that love. It comes from a lack of honor, from having no sense of the great value of that relationship. We fail to notice how fragile that relationship is, and we treat the precious vessel of marriage like it was no more than a utilitarian mug.
We can, if we are not careful, come to treat God with the same neglect. We call this backsliding, but it’s really an issue of honor. We can fail to value His fellowship. We can fail to think about the great worth of His love for us, His extensive efforts to keep us from harm; and so we no longer honor Him. We no longer even think about Him. The heart hardens as we take Him for granted, and over time, we don’t even take Him at all. What sorrow is in His Father’s heart to see such an ungrateful child! What sorrow, and yet what greater determination to restore the relationship that has been so damaged. God is not a man, that He would just walk away from the relationship, that He would simply go off and consult His divorce lawyer. No! Even when we fail to value the relationship He has with us, He continues to value it, continues to think upon that relationship as something of great worth. As such, He does everything in His power (and everything is in His power) to restore and preserve that relationship. He is determined not to lose you!
It is precisely because He is so determined that He has given to the Son all that He has given. He has shown the Son how to do what Dad does, so that we might see Him and honor Him – so that we might understand and acknowledge His great worth. See how much He is worth, Who comes to you doing what I do! See how He acts as I act, how He thinks as I think, how He speaks as I speak! This is My beloved Son, and how could I not be well pleased in Him! He is sent to us with such great and bountiful evidence of the Father’s pleasure in Him so that we can recognize His worth and honor Him; because to honor Him is to honor the Father who sent Him, to honor the Father Whose ways He pursues and reflects.
Now, we cannot pass by this claim of the Father’s love and honor without recognizing that Jesus has just nailed His claims to the door of the Temple for all intents and purposes. If He is to be honored in a way equal to the honor given the Father, it can only be because He is equal to the Father. The most powerful angel of heaven’s host would not dare to make such a claim to honor. The least member of Israel’s twelve tribes knows that God does not share His glory. If, then, this Jesus is to be honored, He must of necessity be God. Such a claim must either be Truth or blasphemy. Even delusion is no grounds for clemency in such a matter. The evidence of His ministry, of His death and resurrection, of His Ascension into heaven before so many witnesses demands the verdict that His claim is no blasphemy, but absolute Truth. He is absolutely God with us. That is the claim and the fact, and to settle it, He announces beforehand the very proofs that will be given to support His claim.
The Proofs (6/6/06)
The most fundamental proof Jesus offers to support His claim is the proof of the power of life and death. This claim is laid out in verses 21 and 22 of the text. The power of life is clearly on display as He declares that He, like the Father, is empowered to give life to whomever He decides shall have life. The power of death, while less clear, is likewise on display. It is seen in the power of judgment. Life and death; this is the power that Satan likes to let on that he has, yet he really only has the power of death. In this, he has very little more than any man among men. Every one of us has the power of death in some degree, and every one of us exercises it in some degree, even if it is only to the extent of squashing an occasional bug. Not one amongst us, though, has the power of life. Oh, a doctor may save a life on occasion, or at least be credited as such, but he has no more breathed life into that one he saved than he caused the same one to come into existence in the first place.
That is really the fundamental claim of the one who gives life, above and beyond all ability at preserving it. He alone, in His triune Godhead, has power to create life out of nothing, to bring forth what has no previous existence, to give substance to the insubstantial. It is this claim to the power of life that really sets Jesus apart among men, particularly as that claim was made with more than words. It was made with powerful proof when Lazarus was brought forth from the grave three days after his burial. Three days had passed. If there had been a mistake about his being dead when he was buried, sufficient time had now passed to leave no doubt. He may not have been dead going in, but he was assuredly dead when the stone rolled back. Yet, that man walked out of his grave! Indeed, he walked the planet for several years thereafter. Why was this such a great offense to the Temple hierarchy? Precisely because it was the proof given to this very claim.
The proof was given, and the claim must be accepted, or the witnesses themselves must become blasphemers. What great sorrow that they opted to become blasphemers, and to seek the destruction of the very Son of God! What great sorrow that we so often make the same choices. God makes Himself manifest and rather than repent, we insist that His testimony must somehow be false. We insist that the very real miracle of God must have been no more than the trick of a hypnotist, and therefore we ignore Him. How much of man’s effort has gone into disputing His proofs even in the last century or so? Mankind is determined to ‘debunk’ God so that they can avoid the need to change. We are temple officials all, determined to occupy the place of worship that is rightfully His. If we will not recognize Him and honor Him as His great worth deserves, we will doubtless find ourselves as rejected as was Caiaphas.
Lord, show me. If, in any way I have been seeking to take to myself the honor that belongs to You, be gracious to me and allow me to recognize that. Be gracious to me and bring me to that place of repentance. God, I would have nothing above You in what I value; no man, no possession, no art. Yes, and if I have raised music to such heights that I have placed it above You, let me set it aside until You are restored to Your proper place in my thinking. Oh! Let everything about my life be about honoring You; my work, my parenting, my marriage, my hobbies. Lord, whatever I do, let it be done for You and because You have wanted it done. In all things, Lord, let Your will be done in me and through me.
The Point (6/7/06)
Father and Son are met in Christ. He Who would infuse His Spirit in His Son has done just that and the Son testifies that He can do only as He sees the Father doing, can say only what He hears the Father saying. Truly, the Spirit is infused in Him, truly He and the Father are One, fused together in common purpose and common will. This is just where I ought to be if I am truly a son of God. Indeed, it is the very thing that Jesus prayed for on behalf of me, on behalf of every believer, but in this I need to think a bit selfishly. He prayed that I would become one with God even as He and the Father are One – fused together in common purpose. He prayed that I would be one who does only as I see that the Father does, speaks only as I hear the Father speaks. He prayed that I would be one whose pursuits were the pursuits of the Father, whose interests were the Father’s interests. He prayed that I might become one in whom the Father delights, even as He delights in Jesus – loving Him and loving me as those who share His interests.
This is where I am supposed to be. This is the sum total of Christianity right here. I am called to be made a son of God, one who walks His walk, talks His talk, wills His will. Paul wrote to the Church that we are to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord (Col 1:10), so as to please Him in every respect. The point was so important that he repeated the message to the church in Thessalonica. Walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and His own glory [!] (1Th 2:12). Make Dad proud. To walk in a manner worthy of another is act in a way that could as easily be attributed to them as to you. It is to act in such a fashion that, were it mistaken for their own act, they would be pleased to have it thought so.
This is the clear expectation of Jesus when it comes to His brothers. Look at the things that He says of us, this One who prayed for our union with the Father. “Here is Truth: You who believe in Me will do the same works that I do. In fact, you will do even greater things than I have done here because I go to the Father” (Jn 14:12). It’s tempting to just stop with that, but the rest of that message needs to remain attached. “Whatever you ask in My name (as representatives of My office), this I shall do so that the Father may be glorified in Me. If you ask Me anything in My name (befitting My office) I will do it.” That’s powerful promise, indeed! But, it comes with a requirement. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (Jn 14:15). Here, too, is the promise of the Holy Spirit, the One Whom the Father has infused into us, joined to us inseparably! What a packed passage that is! But, the point I want to contemplate here is that we who are joined to Him will do as He does. What has been said of Him is what should be said of us, and the reason for it should also be identical: that the Father may be glorified in us. It is, after all, our chief purpose: to glorify God.
We may as well read that as having the purpose of causing God to be glorified. After all, this is what we see Jesus doing. He did not simply go around Israel shouting praises to God. Neither did He simply stay in the Temple singing or dancing. No, He was doing. He was actively pursuing the Father’s agenda, doing the things the Father does in order that people would be recalled to thoughts of what the Father is always doing. “My Father is working even until now...” (Jn 5:17). Think about that! Jesus’ whole purpose in life was to make visibly manifest to one and all just exactly what God is doing all the time. It is that visibly manifest part that was needful. Jesus was healing, bringing life. God is doing that constantly, else we would all cease to exist in a flash. It’s just that He does His work in ways we don’t see, ways we don’t recognize as His working. Yet, it is truly said that in Him we live, in Him we move and in Him we have being (Ac 17:28). The corollary of that is that apart from Him we are dead, apart from Him we are motionless and apart from Him we have no existence. This has ever been and ever shall be true. It is an equally timeless truth that we don’t see His manifest involvement in these functions so we take them for granted. We forget. Jesus came that we might remember and bow down in worship of the Creator once again.
This is the work He did. All those miracles were but manifestations of God’s daily activity in the life of man. His work was to manifest the Father, “and greater things than this will be done by the believer”. How can we hope to do anything greater than that? Honestly, in light of this present line of thought, I don’t think it’s the nature of our works that He speaks of. It seems to me that the point He is making is that when God is made manifest in our lives by our doing as we know He does, the impact is that much greater because unlike our eldest Brother, we do not walk this earth indwelt by the fullness of the Godhead. Yes, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, else we could write the whole thing off as hopeless dreaming. But, we are not so like Christ, so one with the Father, as to claim the fullness of that fellowship.
See, it is already amazing to the point of awe when we see God’s work done in a visible fashion before our eyes by the Christ of God. The impact of this display is still reverberating through our own times and shall continue to do so until He comes for His own. Even then, the echoes of His movements will continue to play out amongst those who remain. If it was so incredible when God came to personally display His works, how much more incredible when men of flesh, weak-willed creatures such as ourselves, are found doing as He would do? What, after all, impresses us so when we consider those we could call real men and women of God? What impresses us about a Mother Theresa, for instance? It is the fact that in her weakness, still God’s ways have been shown. “Greater things you will do.”
Then, I come to another lesson from my Lord. “When they listen to you, they are listening to Me” (Lk 10:16). Likewise, when they reject me, they reject Him and, having rejected Him reject the Father with Whom He is One. But, let me come back to the start of that verse. When they listen to me, they are listening to Him. Perhaps, at least in my case, it were better if I understood that as: when they listen to me, they ought to be hearing Him. Certainly, there are large portions of my daily conversation that I would not have attributed to Him.
This is the problem in a nutshell. My motivation ought to be that He be seen and honored as is His right. My motivation ought to be that every word I speak be worthy of His lips, that my every word would be only an echo of His own. My motivation ought to be that in whatever situation I find myself, my actions would be the actions He would take Himself in that circumstance. This is what it means to walk worthy of Him, to behave in exactly the same way He would, to respond in exactly the same way that He would, to love in exactly the same way He would. This is not anything I can lay claim to yet. I may have my moments. When I recognize a ‘church’ setting, perhaps I manage this. Truly, I can say that in recent weeks I have seen an increase in this regard, particularly on the premises of the church. Conversations are not as distracted, if you will, as they once were. There is a focus on what God is doing in those I am talking to. He has blessed me to have a word for this one, a godly thought for that one, and He has blessed me to hear such words and thoughts from others.
But, what about the workplace? What about the home? Why is there a shift in behavior? Why, when I spend time with my wife, is my focus insistently turned to less spiritual things? Why, when I am dealing with some technical frustration at work, do I neglect my heritage? Why does this tongue so quickly turn to anger and sin when I am not in His house? Oh! How I need to stay mindful that His house is here in me, that He who has loved me so has infused the Holy Spirit into the temple of my heart! How can I dare to think and act differently in one place than in another? Lo! He is with me always.
God! Let me start to live in that Truth! Forgive me, Father, for having made distinctions, for having considered You worthy in one moment and forgettable in the next. Holy One, You are calling me to walk in every moment as I walk in the building I call Your house, to live out in the world the reality that is You. It is not enough, Lord, that I can manage this when I am with a people of like mind. That’s no greater work. Holy Spirit, walk with me this day. I know You do every day, but let me be more aware of Your company today. Let me walk this one day, Lord, in a manner worthy of You. Let this be a day that my words and actions while I’m out there in the world are words and actions that manifest Your glory.
John writes, in one of his letters, that the one who denies the Son cannot have the Father; that the one who confesses the Son has the Father along with the Son (1Jn 2:23). Let me also draw that passage into this present discourse. It is not sufficient to simply say, “I believe in Jesus.” That’s not confession. A parakeet could be trained to do that much, and it would be an utterly empty action. It is clear in the case of the parakeet that words alone mean very little in this regard. It should be equally clear with ourselves. To confess Jesus is no mere matter of words, any more than love consists merely in the words, “I love you.” To confess Jesus is to live Jesus, to act as He acts, speak as He speaks, seek His glory in everything we say and do. To deny Him does not require some overt declaration of unbelief or disloyalty. It does not require some overt swearing of allegiance to His enemies. There is that great quote on DC Talk’s “Jesus Freak” CD – “they confess Jesus with their lips, but they deny Him by their actions.” It is actions that speak loudest, not only in the opinions of man, but in the sight of God.
I must come to that place, Lord. I must come to the point of doing only what I see You doing. God, it is beyond my power (I know, what isn’t?), yet it tears me up to fall so far short of that goal so often. Lord, You have been putting an end to other cases of constant failure in me. I know You are working, but would You speed the day, Holy One, when I can look back across my actions of even the last hour and know that what I have done was pleasing in Your sight? Bring me there, God! Whatever it takes, Father, bring me there! Yes, I’m in the place of dangerous prayer, Lord, and I don’t say this lightly. Whatever it takes, whatever must be removed, shaken, torn away to allow me to come to that place, remove it far from me! Yes, Lord, and I know the answer may come in most unexpected ways, but I know as well that You can be trusted not only to do exceedingly and abundantly more than I can think or imagine in this case, but You can be trusted to keep me mindful of why what is happening is happening. Blessed be Your glorious Name! Blessed be Your glorious Name in manifest fashion in me today!
The Present (6/8/06)
Thinking once more upon the scene into which Jesus speaks these words puts my mind on those who were so offended by Him. We must be clear on the fact that these were not the ungodly and the heathen that found Him so objectionable. It was His own people that were finding Him difficult to take. It was not a competition between gods, it was a problem of preconceptions. The leading factions in Judaism at the time each had their perspective on who Messiah would be, how He would act and what He would do for Israel. Those perspectives are evident even in the thinking of the Apostles. They had been trained to believe that Messiah’s coming would trigger the restoration of Israel’s preeminence as a nation. They were as unprepared for the reality of His visitation as were the Pharisees. In so much as the difference lay in them at all, it lay in the fact that they could look beyond their expectations. They were not so vested in their theories that they could brook no suggestion of error.
The Pharisees and the Sadducees had wildly differing views on just what it meant to be a Jew, and what the faith of the nation was all about. Their doctrinal stances were at variance one with another, as we see displayed in Paul’s trials. Yet, both groups were absolutely committed to preserving their beliefs. They were heavily invested in those beliefs, being the theologians in charge of developing, codifying and promulgating those beliefs. They were used to being the teachers, the experts, and this One Who did not walk in their traditions was making their expertise suspect. This was not to be tolerated. In spite of the appearance they put on the matter, it was not God’s reputation that was primarily of concern to them, it was their own. It has oft been said that God does not really need us to defend His reputation to the culture at large. He is quite capable of working in His own defense. We are far better served by looking to our own ways and seeking to walk in a manner worthy of Him, that would not shame Him were it attributed to Him.
Having said all that, I find it entirely possible that these men who were so worked up over this perceived slight to their knowledge may have been so adept at putting a righteous face on things that they actually believed themselves. They may very well have thought that they were doing God a service, preserving the sanctity of faith and of the Sabbath. Indeed, Jesus delivers just such an opinion of their actions. “They will take you prisoner and persecute you. They will deliver you to the synagogues and imprison you because of Me” (Lk 21:12). “They will throw you out of Church, for there comes a time when they will think that killing you is a service to God” (Jn 16:2).
Let us, then, give these men the little benefit that can be had of doubt. Let us suppose their motive was only to preserve the right worship of God, however wrong their actions were. What I see in light of that perspective is that these men were most to be pitied amongst men. You see, they had their own expectations of Messiah, yet their very expectations and the demands of the holiness of tradition which they placed on themselves precluded them from seeing Him. Think about it! They understood that Messiah must be the Son of God, yet their sense of what it meant to keep His Name holy prevented them from accepting any man who would make such a claim. How was Messiah to come if He could not make Himself known?
The point I am attempting to approach here is that we are in a similar position today. We are in this time of visitation. We are hardly the first in the history of the Church to experience such a time. We are hardly immune to the dangers inherent in such a time either. Such visitations seem always to bring disruption. There will be those in the Church who are so heavily invested in their own doctrine that they, like those who rejected Jesus, can no longer discern between sound doctrine and tradition. I don’t think that there is one denomination out there that does not suffer from this problem. Indeed, even the claim of being non-denominational does not evade the issue. It is just another denomination by another name. We all have our collection of traditions, our collection of matters we consider law which have little to no real Scriptural underpinning. There are things we have given a stamp of sinfulness which people from other areas would not understand at all. Many of these things have more to do with our understanding of health issues and social issues than with our understanding of Scripture, but having made up our minds that they are sinful matters we have discovered this verse and that which can be treated as support for our views.
Likewise, we have our opinions as to what is proper worship, what it means to do things decently and in order. However much our opinions may differ on these matters you can rest assured that we all go back and pull out that word from Paul to justify our thinking. Perhaps we are amongst those who have taken the concept of submission to the extreme, for all intents and purposes having delegated the job of thinking to our perceived superiors. We will claim that this is done to keep things decent and orderly. Perhaps we have our set order of service; insert prayer here, the hymn goes there, and the sermon must fit in this space. Again, though we may well have sucked the life out of our faith, we have done so in the name of decency and order.
The question I am coming to, however obliquely, is this: What are we going to do with God’s visitation? What are we going to do with a God Who chooses to do things that fall outside the bounds of our opinions? Will we be co concerned with preserving our conceptions of decency and order, our traditions, that we reject His legitimate actions as blasphemy? That is exactly what happened here. That is exactly what happened in the Reformation. That is exactly what happened during the Great Awakening. For all that, it happened even with Brownsville. I doubt not that the same can be said of the Welsh Revival. There will always be those who are so certain of their opinions that they cannot accept a change of thinking, even when it is God who is pushing for change.
I know myself well enough to recognize that this danger is one I need to beware of in myself. I have very definite views on many matters of doctrine and faith. I can, if I am not careful, find myself in a place where I simply cannot hear any other perspective on a particular section of Scripture, having studied it myself and come to my own conclusions. There’s a place for such certainty, but it’s not every place. I dare not become so hidebound in my own limited understanding that I cannot accept what God Himself is doing when it differs from my opinion.
There must be balance, though. We must be careful not to overcompensate to the point that we accept everything and anything as being a legitimate expression of holiness. Every revival will, of necessity, attract imitation. The enemy cannot stand to see real godliness, so he will ever and always send a counterfeit to cheapen and distract. Many will not be prepared to discern the difference and will wander off after what is not real. We must not allow ourselves to be in that number. We must be in prayer and in study of God’s Word – open study as free as we can possibly be of our own preconceptions – so that we may discern the reality and declare it as well as discerning the imposters and declaiming them. Paul did not suffer the imposters to speak, even when they spoke in his own support. Jesus did not accept the testimony of demons even when they spoke truly of Him. We must likewise tolerate no imposters in this move. Yet, we must be ever diligent not to uproot the godly in our pursuit of the fakes.
Lord, I pray for discernment in our leadership. I pray that You give them to see every one of us through Your own eyes; that they would be given wisdom beyond their own to know the real and the false. I pray that Your holy boldness be upon them to embrace every real and legitimate movement of Your Holy Spirit upon the Church, and to plainly expose and decry every nonsense of the flesh. Oh, God! I thank You for allowing me to live in such a time and such a place! That You have blessed me with the privilege of being in this place where You are visiting, where You are determined to make Yourself manifest in Your people; thank You! Thank You for counting me amongst Your children, for the change You have been making in me even in recent weeks. Oh, let me be one who walks worthy of Your adoption!
The Big Question (6/9/06-6/10/06)
This verse from my morning Table Talk study really caught my eye given the current state of our local church. “Keep your behavior excellent,” Peter writes, “so that in the very things for which they accuse you as evildoers, they will instead observe your good deeds and glorify God because of them in the day of visitation” (1Pe 2:11). This is, for our area at any rate, the day of visitation. It may be so on an even greater scale, but I cannot say. Here, we are experiencing a day of visitation, though, and as this verse speaks to me, I hear it reinforcing much of what others have been saying around the church. It is a time for us to seek more than ever before to walk in holy array. It is time to walk in a manner worthy of our Lord and our Father. It is time to be manifest as the sons of God. We must behave with excellence, particularly when we are outside of our church services because in this day of visitation, the eyes of the unbeliever will be upon the believer as never before.
As God begins to move in ways which make unbelief more difficult, the unbeliever will be looking for a reason to continue in unbelief. The first place he’s going to look is at you and me, at the believers. If he can look at us and see us as no different than himself, he has found his reason to remain in his unbelief. The call is for us to walk in excellence. If we must have our failures, far better that we should have them amidst our brothers and sisters. The bonds of love that bind the family together can withstand our mistakes as we grow. The strength of belief can weather the failures of the believer. But, an unbelieving world will not be so charitable. It will look upon our failures and attribute them to God.
I recall that study of the angel, where it was pointed out that the angel appointed over a particular church shares in the success or failure of that church to fulfill its purpose in the heavenly economy. If the church is alive, walking in kingdom principles, serving God’s kingdom faithfully; then the angel has done well. If the church has become, once again, a church that will ‘draw near with their words and honor God with their lip service, but remove their hearts far from Him,’ if ‘their reverence for Me consists of tradition alone’ (Isa 29:13) the angel suffers their failures as well as they. What a sorrowful word this message through Isaiah is! God’s dissatisfaction with such a church is not going to sit idly by. “I will deal with this people,” He says. “The wisdom of their wise men will perish. The discernment of their discerning men will be hidden” (Isa 29:14).
I hear a message to the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day in this. I hear, as well, a message for the scribes and Pharisees of our own. Wherever the Church allows real religion to be replaced with mere traditions, we can expect God to do something about it. The greatest sorrow is that His just response shall not be the restoration of these once loyal houses, but their cutting off. Look at the pillars of traditionalism amongst the modern denominations. On the one hand, we have a Catholicism that promotes Islam as serving the same God. How can they even speak such a blasphemous thought? As though the God of Life is to be equated with the murderous devil of carnage! On the other hand, we can turn to the Episcopal church, and see them promoting the idea that God wants sinners in the pulpit, that He has no standards. Oh, yes! Here are bastions of wisdom and discernment!
Our eyes, however, must not be distracted by this. Our eyes must remain focused upon our own house, upon our own blind spots. We must be diligent, then, in this day of visitation, to be continually before the Lord, asking for His wisdom, that we might see ourselves clearly. The heart is deceptively wicked, as we well know. It will cheerfully tell us how well we are doing as we slide our way to hell. It is, by and large, the deceptions of the heart that lead us off the path of righteousness, that make it necessary for our Shepherd to come bring us back in. But, the blinders that might help keep us from getting distracted have a bad habit of covering our eyes completely, so that we no longer see the way before us. Yet, we march on, happily convinced that we are on our way Home, until He comes and clears our sight once again.
Jesus, I pray this morning that You would open my eyes to any misconceptions I have allowed in myself. If I have fooled myself into thinking I am doing better in Your sight than I am, than let me see with Your sight. If I have elevated this church in my thinking above its rightful place, or if I have thought less of another than I ought, here, too, let Your opinion change my own. Lord! In this time, I dare not trust too much in my own thinking. I dare not allow the excitement I feel dispose me towards excusing things that ought not to be excused. I pray for Your wisdom and Your discernment to fill not only me, not only the leadership of this local body, but the whole of the body, that we might see clearly what You are purposing in this hour, that we might recognize, acknowledge and repent of every least sin in our lives, that we might be the witness of Your excellence in this hour.
I titled this last portion of the study ‘the Big Question’. That question comes often in the course of the Gospel accounts, but there is one instance in particular that has my attention in this regard. It comes with one of the great “I AM” statements of Jesus. “I AM the resurrection and the life,” He declares. “That one who believes in Me will live even if he dies. Furthermore, everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die” (Jn 11:25-26). Jesus ends this with a question. “Do you believe this?” That really is the big question. Do you believe?
So, let me explore that passage briefly, particularly the second part. Everyone who lives and believes in Him shall never die. Let me propose that we should read that in this fashion: everyone who lives in Him and believes in Him shall never die. It is said often enough that even the demons in hell believe in Him. It is a select few, prone to madness, who deny His existence as a man. It requires denying a bit too much evidence to be counted as a sane denial. There are fewer, yet still a great number, who believe He was a holy man, and yet they don’t count Him as sufficiently holy as to demand their obedience. There are, as Jesus Himself pointed out, many who will even go so far as to call Him ‘Lord’, and yet they have not lived in any fashion that would suggest they actually considered Him their Lord.
In all fairness, that is probably the more common lot of the Christian throughout history. It is the rare exception amongst professed believers, particularly in this present age, to find one who not only believes in Him as Lord, but lives with Him as their Lord. It is an acknowledgement of His right to command. It is a submission to His command. To live God as Lord is to eliminate all thought of rejecting His demands upon us, to eliminate every hesitation, every procrastination in doing what He says to do. It is a setting aside of our will in pursuit of His. Once again, we come back to the servant spirit, the spirit of the angels, the spirit that was upon Caleb.
The question, however, continues to ring out. It is a question that we must answer, and answer honestly. Do you believe this? Do you believe? Hear Martha’s answer. “Yes, Lord. I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God” (Jn 11:27). I notice she came short of answering what He really asked. I believe You are Who You are. She can get that far. She cannot, though, come so far as to believe the implications of that as He has laid them out. She does not come to the point of saying, “I believe that as I live in You I shall never die.” That’s going to require more proof upon which to build her faith. It is a proof that Jesus will shortly provide, praise be to His Name. But, blessed are they who will believe without having seen.
It’s the big question. Do you believe this? Do you believe God is Who He says He is? That’s great! That’s a fine starting point, and He can happily build on this, but it is not enough. The greater question is, do you believe what He says? He says all things work for your good as you work for Him because they love Him (Ro 8:28). Do you believe that? Do you still believe that when things seem to be going horribly wrong? Do you still believe that as they come to kill you for that belief? Do you still believe you will live, even if you die then? He says that all things are possible for the one who believes (Mk 9:23). Do you believe that? Do you believe that when what He asks of you seems impossible? He says that all things you ask in believing prayer you will receive (Mt 21:22). Do you believe that, or do you simply pray out of some sense of duty? Do you pray believing, or do you pray from a reverence for tradition?
I suspect there are more amongst us than tend to admit it who feel a kinship with that one who cried out to Jesus, “I believe. Help my unbelief!” (Mk 9:24). That is, as often as not, where we find ourselves. We believe and yet we don’t. God is calling us higher. He is calling us to really believe, to believe the whole package. He is calling us to believe in the Him Who really is, not the Him we have imagined for ourselves. It’s time to grow up, to stop pretending that God isn’t responsible for the tragedies of life along with the good. After all, He says they are His doing, who are we to call Him a liar! The problem is not that these tragedies of life make Him a liar when He says all things work for good, nor even when He claims to be the very essence of good. The problem is that we have a pretty limited conception of what good is. We are still children when it comes to defining what is good. What is good, by our definition, is what doesn’t hurt us, doesn’t upset us, doesn’t force us to grow. We are hard pressed to look at discipline and find it good, unless, of course, we are the ones dispensing that discipline. God wants true believers. God wants a people that take Him at His word, a Caleb people, believing He means what He says and seeing things from His perspective. He wants a people determined to live as He says to live, determined to walk as He says to walk, determined to fulfill what He says to fulfill. It requires belief. It requires belief that goes way beyond simply accepting that God is God. It requires belief that lives in Christ, that knows beyond doubt that it is not bread that keeps us alive but the Word of God, every word of God.
Lord, I have to confess that yesterday was not a day reflecting this necessary belief. I cannot begin to explain why my day took the turn it did, why I allowed myself to make such a misery of my work because of a few morning emails. After all, it was not terribly different from any other day for all that. I can only look back at it and see You answering me. If I had any misconceptions about how wonderfully I was advancing in kingdom thinking, this was a day to shatter such thoughts. Jesus, I see that here is an area in me that needs a lot of work. That old cynicism and snide outlook on those around me is still strong, isn’t it? Holy Spirit, come work upon me. Let these things be truly things of the past. Forgive me, my God, for so poorly representing You in my activities yesterday. Forgive me, and let the fruit of repentance be evident in a change of attitude on my part in the coming week. Even in the course of this weekend, which comes filled with activities I would prefer not to be active in, let my attitude, my willing and joyful acceding to doing those things which will bring joy to my family at small cost to myself, be evidence of the work You are doing in me.
