Category Archives: Jesus

A Better Kind of Love

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Love is not what you and I think it is. Or at least not what the culture around us says it is.  In our world “love” is just code for “a positive emotion”. It comes and it goes. You can fall in love with someone. And you can fall out of love with someone. I once read an article about wedding vows the understood love in this kind of way.  Instead of promising to be together “till death do us part”,  the bride and the groom promised to be together “as long as our love shall last”. Yikes!

Christian love is a totally different kind of love. In the New Testament there are a few different words used for “love”. But the most significant and the most often used is the word “agape”. Agape was a common Greek word for love, but early Christians injected new and deeper meaning into it.

When Christians spoke of agape they did not merely speak of an emotion. Agape was not just a way of feeling something toward someone. Agape was not something that could come and go. Agape was not something that could run out.

Agape-love moved the idea of love from a noun to a verb. Instead of love being just a feeling, love was now something more. It was an action.  The action was self-sacrifice.  It was the choice to lay down one’s life for another.

The Apostle Paul speaks of this kind of agape-love when he encourages husbands to love their wives. He writes, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Eph. 5:25) The point Paul is making is that a husband’s “love” for his wife should have little to do with how he feels about her in a given moment. Instead it should have everything to do with his choice to sacrifice his own life (ambitions, time, and career) for the well-being of his wife.

This agape-love is a very different kind of love then what we are used to. But it is the same kind of love that God through Christ shows us. In his letter to the church at Rome the Apostle Paul writes, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”(Rom.5:8)

God had every right to feel a whole host of negative emotions toward us, as we were his enemies. But God made a choice to pursue us, to sacrifice himself for us, to love us. In the person of Jesus Christ, God laid down his life for us. He showed us his agape-love.

God’s love for you is not only a different kind of love, but it is a better kind of love.

God’s love for you is not just an emotion or a feeling, it does not come and go. God’s love for you can not run out. God can not fall out of love with you.

God’s love for you is a choice. It is a disposition. It is through Christ Jesus absolutely secure.

It is for this reason the Apostle Paul wrote the beautiful words of Romans 8:38-39

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

God’s love displayed through Jesus Christ is not like our love. It is a different kind of love. And it is a better kind of love.

 

 

10 Things Jesus Never Said To God The Father

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Last week the 10 Things Jesus Never Said…post received a pretty good response. So here’s another one.

10 Things Jesus Never Said To God The Father…

 

 

 

#10.  I think Joseph knows I don’t look like him.

 

 

 

 

 

#9.  Remind me again, why we didn’t send the Holy Spirit first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

#8.  I feel like I am talking to myself…

 

 

 

 

 

 

#7.  FOR THE LOVE OF…, oh never mind!

 

 

 

 

 

#6.  You’ve seen what happens on a cross…, right ?

 

 

 

 

 

#5.  The food here stinks!!

 

 

 

 

 

#4.  You are REALLY old!

 

 

 

 

 

#3.  This would be a lot easier if you weren’t invisiable…

 

 

 

 

 

#2.  I’m starting to think those Pharisees don’t really like me.

 

 

 

 

 

#1.  I could really go for some bacon…

How accurate do your beliefs have to be to go to heaven?

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On Facebook the other day a friend posted a link to the poem “When I say am a Christian”. The poem was attributed to Maya Angelou. After reading the poem, I was deeply moved and just about to “share” the link. But then my eyes caught a glimpse of a “related article” by snopes.com. I clicked on the snopes’ link and to my disappointment learned that the poem was not written by the late Maya Angelou.

Now the posting from my friend was a harmless mistake. But that got me thinking, what did Maya Angelou actually believe? Did she go to heaven?

Turns out Maya Angelou was part of the Unity Church. You can watch her talk with Oprah about it here. And you can find out what the Unity Church believes here…

If you clicked on the links above,  you many have noticed that what the Unity Church believes about Jesus is very different than what orthodox Christians believe about Jesus.  But does that matter?

How accurate does a person’s  beliefs have to be to go heaven? Or to put it another way, what exactly does a person need to believe about Jesus, in order to be saved by Jesus?

In the Bible

In the Bible, there was one person who surely had a minimal understanding of who Jesus was. Yet we know that  he went to heaven. The man met Jesus the last day of his life. He was one of two criminals sentenced to death, and crucified next to Jesus.

The story takes place in Luke 23:32-43. Luke writes:

32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33 When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots…39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

On the last day of his life the nameless criminal put his faith in Jesus and was promised entrance into paradise.

But what exactly did he believe about Jesus?

At the very least the criminal had three beliefs about Jesus:

1.  Jesus was a sinless man sent from God– Don’t you fear God (v.40)…We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”(v.41)

2.  Jesus was a king Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (v.42)

3.  Jesus was able to save him –“Jesus, remember me…”(v.42)

There was a lot the criminal did not know about Jesus. He didn’t know that Jesus was the second person of the Trinity. He likely did not comprehend the duel natures of Jesus. He likely knew none of Jesus’ parables. Or Jesus’ teaching concerning the Old Testament Law.

In the moments just before his death all he knew was that Jesus was the Messiah (God’s holy “sent one”), the Lord (king over of all) and the Savior (the one who could save him from the consequences of his sin).

This was all Jesus had revealed to him. But it was enough to ignite his faith, and cause a response. It was enough for the criminal to be welcomed into heaven. (v.43)

 What about Maya and us?

I don’t know if Maya Angelou believed that Jesus was the Messiah, her Lord, and her Savior. I pray she did. Because without trusting in the divine authority and saving work of Jesus, we all are like that criminal hanging next to Jesus on the cross- a condemned man about to face the  judgement of God, for the sins committed against God.

But the good news is that Jesus cares about condemned criminals (like you, me, and Maya).  And he is eager to invite even criminals into paradise.  That’s why he has revealed himself to us as the Messiah, the Lord, and the Savior.

For if these beliefs are the only beliefs we have about Jesus, they are enough to cause our hearts to repent.  Thy are enough for us to put our trust in him.  And they will be enough for each of us, on the day of our death, to hear his words, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

 

 

 

Jesus’ Response To Our Post-Chrisitan Culture

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Today there is a widening gap between the Christian worldview and the surrounding culture. This tends to make a lot of Christians nervous. We don’t like that things are no longer the way they used to be. But even in our “post-Christian” culture Jesus still has a way for his followers to not only influence the culture, but to redeem it, and bring people to faith who live in it.

What is Jesus’ plan?

His plan is to engage the “post-Christian” culture in the same way he and his followers engaged the “pre-Christian” culture.

Robert Lewis in his book, The Church of Irresistible Influence: Bridge-Building Stories to Help Reach Your Community,
details this plan well. He writes:

The New Testament church shared many cultural similarity with our own. It too lived in a world filled with skeptics. For a number of reasons, the lifeless gods and goddesses of Greeks and Romans became less and less a prevailing force in the lives of the ancients. As economic prosperity flourished, the souls of every day men and women increasingly descended into a meaningless poverty.

Enter the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, the living proof of God. Enter Christians who embraced the Word and, like their Lord, lived it out in word and deed–proof positive to a once proud and now decaying culture that there was, in fact, a better, nobler life. Proclamation was more a matter of essence–in life and death–than it was an enunciation of words. Believers stood firm, often with great sacrifice, in good works anchored by the exhortations that now flow from the pages of the New Testament:

Let Everyone See Your Good Deeds

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

Love Your Enemies, Do Good to Them

Do unto other what you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even  sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.  But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High , because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. (Luke 6:31-35)

It Is More Blessed to Give

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)

Overcome Evil with Good

On the contrary: “If you enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head”. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.(Romans 12:20-21)

Do Good to All People

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people. (Galatians 6:9-10)

 Created to Do Good Works

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

Do Not Grow Weary of Doing Good

But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. (2 Thessalonians 3:13)

Be Rich in Good Deed

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

 

The method should be clear. They way Jesus and his followers engaged their cultural was by doing good–lots of good.

What was the result of the early church’s relentless focus on doing good for all those around them?

Robert Lewis tells us:

With lives intertwined with proclamation and incarnation, those first believers effectively penetrated the empty hedonism of the ancient world. And no matter how reactive the pagan world–first with skepticism, then with isolation, and finally with the sword of brutal persecution–these bridges of proof, anchored in good works, convinced more and more to walk over into eternal life. It is estimated the early church grew at an astounding 40 percent growth rate per decade.

Quoting historian Michale Green, Robert Lewis then points out:

The link between holy living and effective evangelism could hardly be made more effectively. In particular, Christians stood out for their chastity, their hatred of cruelty, their civil obedience, good citizenship…Such lives made a great impact.

 

Robert Lewis wants readers to understand that we are not the first Christians to live in a culture that does not share our beliefs.  This may be a change that at times is hard to accept. But we have no need to worry. Followers of Jesus can still impact the culture and even call people out of it. The way this will happen in our “post-Christian” world is the same way it happen in the “pre-Christian” world–by DOING GOOD to all those we encounter, and serving the the cities we live in.

This has, and is, and always will always be, Jesus’ response to the culture.

 

 

 

 

 

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Excerpts from The Church of Irresistible Influence: Bridge-Building Stories to Help Reach Your Community
pp. 41-45

 

10 Things Jesus Never Said To His Disciples

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Jesus last supper1.  Excuse me guys, I gotta go do my “quiet time”.

 

2.  If I don’t come back from this…, well, you’ll know what to do.

 

3.  Yeah, I don’t get the Holy Spirit thing either.

 

4.  Oh my gosh, synagogue is boring.

 

5.  You think your Father is mean…

 

6.  You guys are really making me re-think my selection process.

 

7.  So when you heard “follow me”, you took it literally? Well this is now awkward…

 

8.  Did you just called me God? Whoa, careful there. Just a good moral teacher here.

 

9.  I thought about getting a MBA, but becoming a Messiah just sounded cooler.

 

10.  Yes! You have to pay me. What? You think I do this for free?!

 

Is the call to follow Jesus a bait-and-switch?

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Is  the call to follow Jesus a bait-and-switch?

At times it can feel that way.

Yesterday I was talking with my daughters about what it means to be friends with Jesus. At first I told them to be friends with Jesus is to be invited to his party. I was thinking about how Jesus invites people to his wedding banquet (Matt. 22:8-10; Rev. 19:9). But then the famous words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer went through my head,“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

What is the relationship between the invite to the party and the call to die? Is Jesus just trying to entice people?

In his classic book, The Master Plan of Evangelism Dr. Robert Coleman offers us some help. He writes:

Following Jesus seemed easy enough at first, but that was because [the disciples] had not followed him very far. It soon became apparent that being a disciple of Christ involved far more than a joyful acceptance of the Messianic promise: it meant the surrender of one’s whole life to the Master in absolute submission to his sovereignty. There could be no compromise. “No servant can serve two masters,” Jesus said, “for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13). There had to be a complete forsaking of sin. The old thought patterns, habits, and pleasures of the world had to be conformed to the new disciplines of the kingdom of God (Matt. 5:1-7:29; Luke 6:20-49). Perfection of love was now the only standard of conduct (Matt 5:48), and this love was to manifest itself in obedience to Christ (John 14:21, 23) expressed in devotion to those whom he died to save (Matt. 25:31-36). There was cross in it—the willing denial of self for others (Mark 8:34-38; 10:32-45; Matt. 16:24-26; 20:17-28; Luke 9:23-25; John 12:25-26; 13:1-20).

This was strong teaching. Not many people could take it. They liked to be numbered among his followers when he filled their stomachs with bread and fish, but when Jesus started to talking about the true spiritual quality of the Kingdom and the sacrifice necessary in achieving it (John 6:25-29), many of his disciples “went back, and walked no more with him”(John 6:66). As they put it, “This is a hard saying: who can hear it?”(John 6:60). The surprising thing is that Jesus did not go running after them to try to get them to stay on his membership roll. He was training leaders for the Kingdom, and if they were going to be fit vessels of service, they were going to have to pay the price.

Coleman shows us that yes, Jesus calls us as his followers/friends to the party. When we accept this invitation we experience “the joyful acceptance of the Messianic promise”.  But at this point we have not followed Jesus very far. To keep walking with Jesus is to continue to hear his call to give up more, and to die. Why? Because, Jesus wants every follower, every friend,  to not just be a Kingdom watcher, but a Kingdom leader.  And such leadership only happens when we do what our Leader has done,–surrender our desires, die to self,  and become obedient to the will of God.

So we see, the call to follow Jesus is not so much a bait-and switch. Rather it is simply a call to follow him–both to the party and in living like him.

 

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Excerpt from Dr. Robert Coleman’s  The Master Plan of Evangelism pages 50-51.

Dallas Willard – On Being A Student Of Jesus

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Who teaches you? Whose disciple are you? Honestly.

One thing is for sure: You are somebody’s disciple. You learned how to live from somebody else. There are no exceptions to this rule, for human beings are just the kind of creatures that have to learn and keep learning from others how to live. Aristotle remarked that we owe more to our teachers than to our parents, for though our parents gave us life, our teachers taught us the good life….

It is one of the major transitions of life to recognize who has taught us, mastered us, and then to evaluate the results in us of their teaching. This is a harrowing task, and sometimes we just can’t face it. But it can also open the door to choose other masters, and possibly better masters, and one Master above all.

The assumption of Jesus’ program for his people on earth was that they would live their lives as his students and co-laborers. They would find him so admirable in every respect—wise, beautiful, powerful, and good— that they would constantly seek to be in his presence and be guided, instructed, and helped by him in every aspect of their lives…

The effect of such continuous study under Jesus would naturally be that we learn how to do everything we do “in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:17); that is on his behalf or in his place; that is once again, as if he himself were doing it. And of course that means we would learn “to conform to everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:20). In his presence our inner life will be transformed, and we will become the kind of people for whom his course of action is the natural (and supernatural) course of action.”

 

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Excerpt from The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God pp. 271-272

Does What I’m Doing Matter?

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It has been one of those weeks. The kind of week where I feel really busy, but then wonder if any of what I accomplished really mattered. It has been a week without energy. A week that felt foggy. A week that lacked, a certain je ne sais quoi.

Maybe you have experienced that kind of week.

Currently, I’m reading Surprised by Hope, by N.T. Wright, an excellent book for the Easter season. In it, he writes the following passage–a passage which I should probably read every week.

But what we can and must do in the present, if we are obedient to the gospel, if we are following Jesus, and if we are indwelt, energized, and directed by the Spirit, is to build for the kingdom. This brings us back to 1 Corinthians 15:58 once more: what you do in the Lord is not in vain. You are not oiling the wheels of a machine that’s about to roll over a cliff. You are not restoring a great painting that’s shortly going to be thrown on the fire. You are not planting roses in a garden that’s about to be dug up for a building site. You are—strange though it may seem, almost as hard to believe as the resurrection itself—accomplishing something that will become in due course part of God’s new world. Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk; every act of care or nurture, of comfort and support, for one’s fellow human beings and for that matter one’s fellow nonhuman creatures; and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honored in the world—all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God will one day make. This is the logic of the mission of God. God’s recreation of his wonderful world, which began with the resurrection of Jesus and continues mysteriously as God’s people live in the risen Christ and in the power of his Spirit, means that what we do in Christ and by the Spirit in the present is not wasted. It will last all the way into God’s new world. In fact, it will be enhanced there.

I pray you’re having a great week. But just in case your week, like mine, has felt a little futile, let us remember that nothing we do for the Lord is in vain. Our work matters.

Why Are There Martyrs?

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Chris asked, “If God provides for all of our needs, why are there martyrs? How are their needs being met?”

I love good questions. And these are good questions.

For this post we’ll have to work our way backwards. I’ll answer the second question first, because that will in turn answer the first question.

So let’s begin with the answer to the second question by focusing on the notion of “need”. For example, when the Apostle Paul writes, “And my God will meet all your needs” (Phil 4:19a), what is he saying?

Paul, appears to be saying, “With God, you will never be needy.” But that can’t be accurate because, in Philippians 4:12 Paul writes,

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

We see that for Paul there were times when he was clearly in need. So how can he write, “And my God will meet all your needs”?

The answer has to do with Paul’s “secret of being content in any and every situation”. What was Paul’s secret?  The answer is in the next verse,

I can do all this through [Christ] who gives me strength. (Phil 4:13)

Paul is saying that there have been times of need and times of abundance, but because he has Jesus, he has the strength to be content in all situations.

Now, understanding this is important because Paul uses the same logic in Philippians 4:19. The entire verse actually reads:

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

Similar to Philippians 4:12-13, Paul is saying two things:

  1. God promises to meet your needs
  2. But, God will meet your needs through Jesus Christ.

What does all this have to do with our original questions about martyrs?

Everything.

The Apostle Paul understood that Jesus Christ is the only thing you need. If you have Jesus you have everything. Because, as he writes in Colossians, “Christ… is your life” (Colossians 3:14).

Paul knew that Jesus gives you life (John 14:6; 17:3). Jesus sustains your life (Colossians 1:17). Jesus directs your life (Ephesians 2:10). Jesus provides purpose to your life (Colossians 1:16). And Jesus demands your life (Matthew 16:25). Thus to have Jesus is to have no other need. Or as Pastor Tullian Tchividjian famously put it, “Jesus + Nothing = Everything”.

So now let’s apply this to Christian martyrs.

When Christians are killed for their faith (martyred), God actually supplies all their needs. Because God is giving them Jesus Christ. Paul knew this, when he wrote, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”(Phil 1:21). Paul looked forward to death because he knew that after death he would instantly enter into the full presence of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:8). Therefore, he would not lose anything, but instead gain everything.

There is no such thing as a needy martyr. Because Jesus Christ fulfills every need. When we die we get all of Christ. We therefore, lose nothing, and gain everything.

God allows Christians to be martyred, because their deaths proclaim one simple and glorious truth—to have Jesus Christ is to have everything.

Friday Fun

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If you’ve never watched The Colbert Report, here are a couple of things to know about the host, comedian Stephen Colbert. On the show, Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits, and often pokes fun at his guests. The guests know this when they go his show. But in real life Colbert is a practicing Roman Catholic who even teaches Sunday School. The interview below with bible critic Bart Ehrman, is intended to be funny (and it is). But I especially like it because most of Stephan’s arguments are actually valid. Enjoy!

http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:arc:video:colbertnation.com:1a2a488e-ed01-11e0-aca6-0026b9414f30