Basic Sermon Recap: “How to Save the World” John 12:44-50

In John 12:44-50 Jesus claims that he has come to save the world. This invites several questions. What is this salvation and why do we need it? How is Jesus the key to us getting this salvation? What will happen if we don't get this salvation from Jesus? Let's consider these questions in turn.

What is this salvation and why do we need it? The answer to this question comes to us via a metaphor Jesus uses. He describes himself as being light that comes to help those who are in darkness come out of darkness (v.46). Jesus is saying then that people are in effect living their lives in darkness and they need him if they are to find their way out. This is a critical point, and one that's hard for many to realize about themselves. We are too ruled by our senses, by what we see or feel. Thus, it is hard for us to imagine anything different beyond what we've come to already experience. This is why we must pay careful attention to the words of Jesus and ask ourselves, "Could this be possible?"

Jesus tells us for instance in John 10 that he has come so that people might have life and have it abundantly. We should ask ourselves then, is it possible for us to have abundant life, that is, a life with everlasting meaning and purpose? The problem we have is that we've accepted lives with vague meaning and purpose. Indeed, the most basic and important question in the universe is "why am I here?" But for this most crucial question we are content to say, "I'm not sure," or even, "It doesn't matter, I'm just here." Here is evidence of our darkness! Nowhere else in life would we accept non answers like this. When it comes to things like figuring out what's wrong with our cars or figuring out why we're sick, we want answers and demand answers. Yet for the basic question about human existence we remain in darkness. Jesus however cries out to us that it doesn't have to be this way. He has come to give meaning and purpose to our lives. He has come into our darkness so we can be led out and live in the light.

What makes Jesus the key to this salvation? Jesus is the key because Jesus is God (v.44-45). Jesus was not some regular dude. Far too many people believe in a Jesus far short of the actual Jesus. They believe in a Jesus who is nice and good, but nothing more. He never confronts and is content to passively commune with us. He is the equivalent of an overly nice kindergarten teacher. Frankly, he is the kind of Jesus who couldn't save himself out of a parked convertible, much less save other people.

Clearly, this will not work. A people trapped in darkness need nobody less than a God to come in and free them out of that darkness. And this is who Jesus is and what he does – he is God himself acting to save us.

What will happen if we don't get this salvation? If we don't accept Jesus, we will be condemning ourselves to our darkness. At some point, the words of Jesus will come back on us and judge us (v.48). We will realize then that we were hearing not any man's words but God's words. And we rejected them. This means that we rejected God, which means that we will have judged ourselves. At the end, either we will have lives that have been firmly established on the message of Jesus, like a house on a rock, or will have lives established on other things, like a house on sand, with the message of Jesus serving merely as decorations in our lives rather than as the firm foundation of our lives. Lives that are like the house on the rock will last forever before God. Lives that are like the house on the sand will eventually crumble and be destroyed.

This is the future judgment. So if that is the judgment for then, the time to be saved is now. Now is the time to believe and be saved. And if you are saved, then now is also the time to celebrate and praise God because of Jesus. Jesus was who he said was, did what he said he would do, and now lives and rules from heaven because he was who he was and did what he did. That means you are saved now and will be saved then.

Being saved now means living within the light of Jesus. This means being able to see our world with ever growing understanding and being able to live your life with ever growing purpose and joy. You live a life now that will only grow in richness and meaning and depth, a life that will never end but will last forever.

This is the salvation we've been given. Let us take hold of it, cherish it, thank God for it, and celebrate Jesus because of it.

Check out these lyrics from a song called "Jesus is Alive" by shai linne (from the album called "The Atonement"). They are a great way to speak and affirm the truths of our salvation.  

Through faith in Christ, we've been saved from hell
Because He's risen, it means we'll be raised as well
In glorified bodies fit for the new earth
For now, we participate in the new birth
The universal reality of the true church
With resurrection power, watch the Spirit do work!
United with Christ, we reside in His light
Abide in His might, keep in stride as we fight
The pride in our life, the lies and the spite 
 
We strive to be wise as He guides through the night
He'll chide and He'll slice- recognize that He's right
His brightness inside lights our eyes and it's tight
(He) decided to die to wash white all our strife
His life was the price to delight in His wife
He told death "sike" just to rise like a kite
All eyes on the Christ- let's prize Him tonight  
 
For the full version of this sermon download the mp3 from our website.

Basic Recap of Sunday’s Sermon: “Roadblocks to Believing in Jesus” John 12:37-43

Why don't people believe in Jesus? There are two reasons given in John 12:37-43. First, people do not believe in Jesus because God's sovereign righteous judgment has come upon them (John 12:37-43). The rejection of Jesus comes in fulfillment of ancient prophecy (cf Isa 53:1). And this ancient prophecy speaks of God intentionally blinding the eyes and hardening the hearts of unbelievers. And that's exactly what is happening with Jesus here. One of the things God did through Jesus was to essentially seal people in their unbelief as part of his righteous and sovereign judgment upon them (note v.39, "Therefore they could not believe").

The fact that God does this troubles many people. There tend to be two major objections. The first is that it is unfair for God to this. However, to say it's unfair is to assume that God is doing this to innocent people. However, our passage notes that people still did not believe in Jesus even after he did signs before them (v.37). The people should have believed in Jesus even without signs. Being Jews they had over the course of their history a special relationship with God and been given many special revelations of him. Jesus was the high point of God's revelation to his people. But they rejected Jesus, and continued to reject him even with the extra grace of signs being given to them. Thus, God's judgment upon them was fair and just, in keeping with continued rebellion against him.

The second major objection is that God is violating people's free will. In answer to this we should ask why this should be God's concern? If God is a holy and righteous judge, then his judgments are holy and righteous. Asking, "what about free will" is the equivalent of a guy on death row eating his last meal and asking, "What about my dessert? It's not fair for me not to get a dessert!" The guy on death row has been judged and tried and now faces execution because of his crimes. What's fair isn't him getting a dessert, what's fair is him being executed, anything beyond that is grace. Thus, the real issue for us in this matter is whether or not those who reject Jesus can be held responsible for their rejection of Jesus. And the Bible's answer is yes – we can be held responsible. There is some mystery to this, but one example is helpful. Imagine your 5 year old daughter is sitting in her room. She's been rude and doesn't care that she has been rude. In her anger and stubbornness she sits in her room refusing to come out. However, as her parent you are punishing her and have locked her in her room in order to discipline her. This means that she couldn't leave the room even if she wanted. However, she does not, so your punishment coincides with her willful rejection.

This illustration is imperfect, but it is an attempt to get at a biblical truth, namely, that God is righteous and just because he sovereignly judges and condemns guilty sinners in accordance with their willing rejection of him. What we see in our passage is the ultimate culmination of his judgment. God is patient, but he is no pushover. He will judge, and when he judges there will be no escape. This should serve as a huge warning to us then. God will sovereignly judge those who continue to defy him by their sin and he will do so by allowing them to fall deeper and eventually permanently into their sin. Hardened, stubborn unbelief is part of God's perfectly righteous and fair judgment upon human beings. As the New Testament scholar Herman Ridderbos writes, "[God] abandons unbelieving people to themselves, thus confirming them in their evil."

This is the first reason people don't believe in Jesus according to our passage. But a second reason people don't believe, that comes as a kind of subcategory to the first reason, is because any belief that they do have is compromised by a stronger commitment to things other than Jesus (John 12:42-43). There are some who may appear to believe in Jesus. But it is not a deeply rooted belief. It is superficial belief, shown by how little impact their belief has upon their lives. It's a belief in Jesus, but only up to a point. This was the case with the religious authorities mentioned in our passage. They loved the glory of man – the comfort of being accepted by their peers in the synagogue – more than the glory that comes from God – the comfort of being accepted by God because of faith in Jesus. Their real commitment was to their social status rather than to their heavenly status

The very nature of who Jesus claims to be demands a total reorientation of your life. It means a change in habits and choices. It means sacrifice and loss so that you can gain something much greater. Unfortunately, for many people this is all a bit too much. As Jesus tells us in the parable of the sower, there are some for whom "the cares of the world" will eventually rise up and choke out the word of Christ within them.

These are all very stiff challenges to belief in Jesus. In view of these, we might ask then how can anyone believe and be saved? To answer that we look to Ephesians 2:8, which says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God." God's grace to save us is a gift from him, along with the faith to take hold of that grace. The message of the cross is inherently foolish and silly. It is a ridiculous notion, one that we are naturally predisposed to dismiss. That's why we need God to give us this gift of grace and faith if we are to have any hope of understanding this message and believing in it. And fortunately, we have a God who likes to give this gift. We have a God who is patient in judging and abundant in loving and showing grace and mercy to sinners like us.

Practically speaking, this is what makes our prayers matter. No one prays for God to give people only enough insight into the gospel so that they can then decide for themselves if they want to believe. No, we pray that God would snatch people out of the fires of hell, jumpstart their hearts, breathe life into their souls, and plant them firmly in his kingdom! We are right to pray like this and we must pray like this if people are to be saved.

This also is what makes witnessing matter. We must tell people about this message, because we know that God has the power and the will to plant this message into people's hearts if we are willing to them this message.

This also is what makes us know that our faith is real. If our faith depended on our feelings, we would spend parts of every day worried that we have perhaps fallen out of God's kingdom. But our faith is not from ourselves, it is a gift given to us by God, which means it is not dependent on us but on God. And since God is strong and reliable, eternal and unchanging, we can trust that as long as we depend on him our faith will also stay strong, reliable, eternal and unchanging.

For the full version of this sermon download the mp3 from our website.

Basic Recap of Sunday’s Sermon: “Look Up at Jesus” John 12:27-36

We praise certain people because of what they do, with the expectation that they will do even great things for which we will give them more praise. So for instance, a star athlete will get glorified and become even more glorified by society as he does further athletic feats. When Jesus entered into Jerusalem he came with much fanfare and attention. People were already praising him and expecting him to do great things. Jesus however doesn't accommodate those expectations. Instead he challenges their notion of what it will mean for him to be glorified. Indeed, Jesus' concern was not to gain glory from the crowd but to make sure that glory would be given to God. And stunningly, this would happen through his death on the cross.

The passage begins with Jesus looking ahead to what was in store with him at the cross and being understandably anxious but also committed to this purpose for the sake of God's glory (v.27-28). He then unpacks for us exactly how God is glorified in and through his death. First, the cross is shown to be glorious because it brings judgment (v.31). While the world would think that they were judging Jesus, in fact they would be judged by God through Jesus. Second, the cross is shown to be glorious because it means that Satan's unstoppable reign over the world has ended. The death of Jesus meant to the end of Satan's dominion over the world. No longer could Satan keep human hearts enslaved. He must step aside every time anyone looks to Jesus and puts their faith in him and what he accomplished on the cross. Third and lastly, the cross is shown to be glorious because it means all kinds of people will be drawn to Jesus and in him find life and hope. Jesus was lifted up to death on a cross, but this in turn was but a stepping stone to Jesus being enthroned in heaven at the right hand of God (cf Philippians 2:8-9). In so doing Jesus would make it possible for people of all types – no matter the race or background or social status – to be drawn together around Jesus. The cross strips away all pretensions and illusions, puts you there before Jesus, and says, "Look what he did for you. Now live for God through what he did!"

The crowd gathered around Jesus as he said these things unfortunately did not understand what he was saying or simply did not want to understand because they were too tied to their preconceived notions about what kind of person the Messiah should be. Nevertheless, Jesus presses them to believe in him, while they have the time. This remains true today. Jesus is presented before us and we have two choices. We can step closer to him and let his light flood into our lives so that we can see and understand life as we should, being transformed by this encounter so that we are forever connected to that light as "sons of light" (v. 36). Or we can step back from him, retreating further into the darkness and remain confined to the old ways in which we've been living our lives, forever wandering in darkness. These are the choices, and today is the day to make your choice and live forever by it.

Basic Recap of Sunday’s Sermon: “Here Comes the King” John 11:45-12:19

The attention on Jesus only grows in the wake of his raising Lazarus from the dead. It all culminates with the arrival of Jesus into Jerusalem amid shouts from gathered crowds proclaiming him to be the king of Israel. Jesus clearly had some authority to him. He was every much a king. Indeed, he was the king that God promised to send to the world back in the Old Testament. However, not everyone rightly understood what it meant for Jesus to be king nor responded to him as they should. In John 11:45-12:19 we can note three different episodes involving three different reactions to Jesus and his kingship.

The first episode is found in John 11:45-57 and involves the religious authorities of that day. They saw Jesus as someone to resist and kill as soon as possible. Jesus was a threat to their established position. The temple and the nation belonged to them (v.48 – "The Romans will come and take away our place and our nation") and there was no way they would let Jesus threaten this. This is a basic human tendency – to view our lives as if they are completely our own, and to then get upset and hostile if our sense of control over our lives gets threatened in any way. We operate our days like mini kings believing we have the right to rule over them as we see fit, and woe to anyone that challenges any part of our rule in any given day.

Jesus comes in order to rule our lives. He has the right to do so by his very nature. However, he secures his rule first by giving up his life for the sake of his subjects. He is a king unlike any we could imagine.

The second episode is found in John 12:1-11 and involves Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. She saw Jesus as someone to worship and serve. In the midst of a banquet honoring Jesus Mary uses a pound of extremely expensive perfume to anoint the feet of Jesus and then wipes his feet with her hair. All those gathered there were shocked by her act. It was improper for a woman to let down her hair in public back then, and what made it even worse was that she seemingly wasted this perfume on Jesus' feet.

Jesus however recognizes and affirms what Mary does. It was an extravagant but completely appropriate way to honor Jesus. Jesus is a king worthy of such absolute devotion. And again in this episode we see the unique nature of his kingship, for Jesus connects what Mary does to his upcoming death and burial (see John 12:7). What we are reminded of is that Jesus comes as a king who first seeks to serve us by giving up his life for us.

The third episode is found in John 12:12-19 and it involves the Passover crowds in Jerusalem. They saw Jesus as someone who would set them free from their enemies and prosper their nation. As Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey huge crowds gathered to meet him and praise him. Their praises showed their expectations - they believed Jesus was the promised Messianic king who would lead the Jewish nation in a successful revolt against the Roman empire and would reestablish the Jewish nation on the world scene. Jesus for them was all about power. Indeed, for many people, life is about gaining more power and control over life. The goal in life is always to get more. And Christianity sadly is often presented like this – become a Christian and you'll be able to get for yourself a better life.

Jesus however undercuts all this, simply by riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. This act was a fulfillment of prophecies found in Zechariah 9. They speak of a king who comes humble and mounted on a donkey who will cut down chariots and warhorses and bring salvation and peace to the nations. So the crowds were right to acknowledge Jesus as a king. However, he came not to be their political warrior king. He came to be a savior king, who would battle sin and death and give up his life so that by his sacrifice we might find peace and salvation.

All of these episodes give us different ways to respond to Jesus. There is though only one real response to Jesus. It's a response initially modeled by Mary and a response that becomes especially necessary for us as we look back and see who he really was and all of what he did. It comes down to this – Jesus is king, and he is a king who we must respond to in faith and humble devotion. This humble devotion means committing ourselves to Jesus and serving him by giving up our lives for others like he did. The only real cure for us would be kings futilely trying to rule over and gain more control over our lives is to give up our meager kingdoms to God and submit ourselves to his appointed king, Jesus Christ. This is the only way we can be set free to serve others and so experience the full blessings and riches of his divine kingdom.

Basic Recap of Sunday’s Sermon: “Jesus = New Life" John 11:1-44

In the town of Bethany lived a family with whom Jesus was particularly close. One of the members of this family, Lazarus, gets a life threatening illness. And so the family sends a message to Jesus, knowing that if he can come see Lazarus he can heal him. Jesus however delays in coming. Why would Jesus do this? Jesus knew that his delay in dealing with Lazarus' illness would result in God's glory being displayed through Jesus, in a way that would change everyone's understanding about life and death.

When Jesus finally arrived in Bethany, Lazarus was already dead. Martha and Mary, his sisters, had been mourning him for four days. From their perspective, there was nothing else to be done, for death ultimately has the final word on all human beings. We all must pass through the valley of the shadow of death at some point. In many respects we make decisions in life with death operating as the subconscious influence on us. Consider for example how we pursue our various desires and dreams for our lives. We try very hard to shape and control our lives in order to achieve these things. And this is certainly pretty normal human behavior. The problem arises when we fail to fulfill those desires and dreams in the time or manner in which think we should. We end up becoming anxious, depressed, angry. Why? Well, if all of us must eventually die, and leave everything we have behind, then the whole point of life must be to control it and get as much out of it as quickly as we can. If we fail to do that, then our lives will seem like a total waste. We risk coming to the end of lives with a sense that we missed out on everything.

These desperate efforts to control lives that will eventually completely vanish into the grave led the writer of Ecclesiastes to say, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity." He's not wrong to say that, if this life really is all that there is. But Jesus offers something different and better. What he offers is a way to be free from the power of death. What Jesus offers to give to all who believe in him is the one thing that can beat death – resurrection and life! (John 11:25-26). If you have this, then death is nothing to you. Your mortal life will end someday, yes, but the life you gain in Jesus Christ will never end.

Jesus knew this, and he went to Bethany to give Martha and Mary and the others gathered there early evidence that he would be able to give this kind of life to all who believe in him. Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus and with a simple command orders Lazarus out from the tomb. And Lazarus comes out, alive. Jesus' actions here would set the stage for what he would later do – experience death himself by giving up his own life on the cross. In so doing Jesus was able to confront death face to face and bring the divine power of God down upon its neck, forever crushing it and providing the means by which now all who follow after Jesus might also crush death.

How does this new life that Jesus gives believers play out? I would suggest at least two ways:

1. Everything you do now has meaning. Every part of your life resonates with eternal significance.

Faith in Jesus means living a life that will never end. Death is just a door we go through, not a cage we fear will lock us away forever. This means then that the friendships we enjoy within Christian community will never end. They will only get deeper and richer, running all the way through eternity. The worship we offer up to the Lord will never end. It will get more passionate and vigorous until the day we join together into a multiethnic choir spanning across the centuries, dancing and singing together before the Lord forever. Most importantly, our relationship with God will never end. We gain an intimate connection with God when we believe in Jesus and what he accomplished at the cross. This connection with God will never end, it will only grow in increasing love and grace.

2. Everything you do now has hope. Every part of your life looks forward with eternal expectation.

All the things that degrade and deteriorate human life - things like illness, pain, fear, selfishness, envy, bitterness, and worst of all death - all such things can no longer do lasting damage. We now have the promise of forever life with God, which means that all of these things are just momentary afflictions, just minor speed bumps, that God will lead us through until all these things no longer exist. This gives us great hope and confidence as we live right now.

This is what life with Jesus is about. The key here of course is faith. To experience this life means believing that Jesus is truly the one and only Son of God who came into the world to save the world from the power of death.

Some parting questions: Do you have this faith in Jesus? If so, how can you live your life with more eternal significance and expectation? What choices and decisions should be influenced by the fact that Jesus has given you resurrection and life?

Basic Recap of Sunday’s Sermon: “A Special and Holy God with a Special and Holy People” Exodus 19

Israel finally has its meeting with God in Exodus 19. It would be an unforgettable experience. God came down on Mt Sinai accompanied by thick black smoke, lightning and thunder, and raging hot fire. The mountain itself trembled! The significance of this meeting is seen in Exodus 19:4-6. It was at this meeting with God that the covenant between God and Israel would be officially inaugurated. What is outlined for us in v.4-6 are details about what it would mean for Israel to now officially be God's people. These verses are significant ones in the Bible because they will later inform our understanding of what it means for the church to be God's people.

These verses tell us a couple of things about Israel and its role as a people of God.

1. Israel exists because of the special care and attention God gave them. God saw them in Egypt and specifically brought them out of Egypt to himself. (v.4)

2. Israel was God's "treasured possession." Out of all the nations in the earth, God specially choose and cherished them to be his standout possession. (v.5)

3. Israel was specially chosen for a purpose – to be a priestly, holy kingdom. (v.6) In other words, all of the Israelites were uniquely set apart to represent God to the whole world.

What we are seeing with Israel is God beginning to follow through on his promise to Abraham in Gen 12:2-3. Israel was saved out of the nations in order to be used by God to save the nations. Yet almost immediately we see Israel fail in her calling. Before they even left Mt Sinai they began worshipping something else besides God (see the golden calf episode in Exodus 32). Over and over again throughout their history Israel would blend in and be like all the pagan nations around them rather than stand out as God's people.

Their failure to keep to this covenant points us to the need for a new and better covenant. What was needed was an arrangement whereby a people of God could be formed who would actually be able to live up to their calling. What was needed was a new and better Moses who could usher in this new covenant and ensure that God's people would be able to keep this covenant and fulfill their calling.

All that was needed God provided through Jesus. Jesus is the new Moses who through his life, death, and resurrection forms a new people of God that we know today as the church. This is a people from all backgrounds, cultures, and races, who can now not only come near to God but actually be in his presence (cf Heb 12:18-24). In the old covenant, the best we could ever hear was "Don't come closer to God!" This all changes because of Jesus. Through faith in him we experience God's very Spirit dwelling in our midst. Through him the church can now be the new Israel, the new people of God. 1 Peter 2:9-10 says as much by applying the language of Exodus 19 to the church today.

This reveals some key things for us. Your identity as a Christian is tied up with being part of the people of God. You are of a different race (1 Peter 2:9, "But you are a chosen race") with a special commission, to proclaim the excellent work of God that took us and changed us into being a people of God. This work is known as the gospel. It is a work of God that should shine out in our world through our habits, relationships, actions, and words as a distinct witness to the special and holy God who calls people to himself and makes them into his special and holy people. We embody the gospel when we care for those our world commonly dismisses and pushes aside as outcasts, recognizing that God cared for us through Jesus when we were outcasts from his presence. We embody the gospel when reject the cultural trend to justify ourselves by success or money or power, knowing that we are already justified forever by the finished work of Christ on the cross. We embody the gospel when we are unconcerned about being unrecognized, pushed aside or even humiliated because we already have the only glory that matters shining in our lives – the eternal glory of God.

Our aim then as God's people today should be to live lives with a gospel distinctiveness and gospel missionality, praying that by God's grace it would produce a distinctly gospel result, namely, many people finding salvation in this gospel and thus knowing the joy and blessing that comes when you belong to God as part of his people.

Some parting questions: What will it look like practically today for the church to be a chosen people, a holy nation and a royal priesthood so that we might "proclaim the excellencies" of God? What might we do to build churches full of people who live lives with a gospel distinctiveness and missionality?

A Basic Recap of Sunday’s Sermon: “Ministry Planning” Exodus 18:1-27

There are lots of ways we can do ministry – many of them guided more by following the latest trends or our nostalgic desires. The ministry plan that God would want us to follow however is not concerned about trends or our own selfish desires. Ministry is to be about God. Thus God's ministry plan involves telling people about God and then raising up leaders and people who will tell still others about God and be concerned to see everyone lead lives shaped around God's standards.

Exodus 18:1-12 shows the first part of this plan - telling people about God. Moses reunites with Jethro and his family and gives his personal testimony to Jethro of how God saved the Israelites. Jethro in response praises God and commits himself to God (Exodus 18:10-12). Testimonies are a powerful means by which we can tell people about God. What makes them powerful though is the degree in which they highlight how God has worked in your life. For the believer then, any such personal testimony must highlight how God has saved and is saving people through his Son Jesus Christ. The church is God's people today and is a living testimony to God's saving efforts. 

Therefore, any true ministry plan must involve telling people about this God who saves people and explaining how he brought this about within individual people's lives. While Jethro had heard about what God had done in Egypt (Exodus 18:1), Moses still took time to specifically explain to Jethro what had happened and how the Lord had worked in the lives of the Israelites. In all the things we are concerned to do as Christians, we must never neglect this core mission of telling people about God, and specifically telling people about his saving work. (cf Rom 10:14-15)

Exodus 18:13-27 shows the second part of God's ministry plan – discipling leaders and people to live by God's ways. As people are saved they need to learn what it means to be a saved people and to see how God's truths should be applied to their everyday lives. In this section of Exodus 18, Moses is headed towards ministry burnout. All the people are coming to him to know what God wants of them, and he's putting in 12 hour work days just to keep up. Jethro gives Moses some good practical advice. He needs to delegate a lot of the basic parts of his leading. This will involve raising up key people (Exodus 18:21) who can be leaders with whom he can share ministry. Moses will still handle the difficult things that come up, but through these leaders all the people will be regularly led and instructed. 

Raising up leaders is key to any effective ministry plan. Note that the basic requirement for these leaders was that they be honest and trustworthy and most importantly be people who respect and honor God (Exodus 18:21, "men who fear God). This is what we must look for and the direction we must disciple in – towards God-centered character. Having leaders like this will help produce a community of people who are at every level are being guided to shape their lives around God's standards and laws. 

This then in effect is what ministry should be – to tell people about who God is and what he's done, specifically what's done through Jesus. And to then build a community where leaders are being raised up and people are being motivated and guided by their commitment to this God. What can motivate more of this kind of ministry in the church today (as opposed to the many wasted or apathetic ministry efforts of so many churches today)? Only a fresh sense of the gospel. If we have truly understood and experienced God's deliverance through Jesus, we will be sure that in whatever we plan we are telling people about God and working to be a people concerned to shape their lives around God. 

Some parting questions in view of this passage: What does ministry look like in your life? Can you say that at the core of what you do is telling people about God and building a community full of leaders and people concerned to follow God.

(audio of last Sunday's sermon)

A Basic Recap of Sunday’s Sermon: “Going to War with God” Exodus 17:8-16

This post begins a change in the sermon blog. I like writing sermon recaps and summaries, but they do take up a lot of time. And they’re a bit long! All of this adds up to me getting way behind on posting blogs connected to the sermons. So, I’m starting fresh this week. I’m going to try to post what I’m calling The Basic Recap every week, preferably on Mondays. These posts will be short pieces that bring attention to key ideas and thoughts from the last sermon I preached, along with some applicational questions or thoughts. I hope to do a few other posts each week besides this, but that’s all I’m promising for now!

So without further ado, here’s the basic recap of last Sunday:

Following God will mean struggle. The Christian life is not easy. There is regular spiritual threat. It’s a battle for your very soul. And far too many souls today are being slowly devoured. They are sinking into a dark pit as they become consumed by unresolved conflict, bitterness, addictive habits, and selfish motives. Fortunately, we don’t need to face such threat alone. To follow God means having God with us, fighting with us and for us. Our fight and struggle becomes God’s fight and struggle. And because it’s God’s fight, we can have the sure and certain hope that we will know God’s victory over all spiritual assaults.

The short account of Israel’s fight against the Amalekites illustrates this well. God’s people were viciously attacked (cf Deut 25:17-18). Up to this point God had given them immediate successes, with them only having to sit and watch as God defeated their enemies through various plagues and acts of power. Now they needed to fight. But they would not fight alone. As always, God would would be them, and this was physically symbolized by Moses standing on a hill and raising the staff that God had given him over the people as they fought (Exodus 18:9). This is made even more clear in Exodus 18:15, which describes the building of an altar called “The Lord is My Banner.” Israel’s fight and success in their fight was really the Lord’s fight and the Lord’s success. The Lord was the “banner” under which they rallied, fought, and won. The staff raised high, and kept high, over the battlefield symbolized the people’s active, ongoing dependence on the Lord. Their victory was not immediate victory. But it was a eventual victory. Eventually, they would (and did) win. As long as they fought and kept trusting in their God, they would eventually win.

This is the norm for every person who wants to get serious about their faith in God. Things will not be nice and easy. God will not become your personal genie if you decide to take him seriously as your God. The reality is that the fight to save and protect your soul will require great effort. The great comfort we have in this however is that God will rally us and lead us in our fight. The staff we fight under however is different today. Today God has given us the much better and greater staff that is the cross, and a much greater and better Moses to hold it up, his own Son Jesus Christ. Colossians 2:13-15 is especially helpful in showing us how this was done. We were dead, defeated already in the battle of our souls, devoured by our own sins against God. But at the cross, in the death of Jesus Christ God forgave us of our sins and ultimately triumphed over every enemy that stood against us. Thus the cross, and specifically Jesus, serves now as the perfect rallying point for all who want to save their soul (cf Isaiah 11:10).

Final victory will depend on several things:

1. We must recognize that there is a threat.
What would a snapshot of your soul look like? Too few people will admit or even recognize that there is a real battle going on for their soul, and that they are losing it through their regular choices and habits. Like a smoker who continues to smoke, ignoring the steady killing of his lungs, so also do we continue to live blissfully in our sin, ignoring the slow erosion and descent of our soul into eternal darkness.

2. We must rally under the right banner.
There are many good causes to follow and many good self help books to motivate and inspire you. But they aren’t in any way good enough for what’s at stake here. Remember the threat! It’s a battle for your soul! This is why we need divine help. We need Jesus, the only one who can fight and win against the soul destroying power of sin and death.

3. We must be prepared and willing to fight.
There is no such thing as a passive Christianity. The battle imagery we read about in Ephesians 6 is deliberate. It’s not there in order to give kids something to dress up in during Vacation Bible School. It’s there because we need all the pieces – things like truth, righteousness, faith, the gospel of piece, the word of God – if we are to fight successfully. Just going to church to sit and passively participate is not going to cut it. Having a pathetic prayer life will just get you trampled. Having a weak understanding of the Scriptures will mean you mostly running and hiding in the battle rather than standing and fighting for your soul and the souls of those around you.

Always remember what’s at stake. And know that God has given us everything we need – all the courage, strength, and hope we could possibly want. He gives it to us in Jesus Christ. There is no surer banner to fight under than him.

“Understanding Redemption” Exodus 11:1-13:16 (Sermon Summary)

Exodus 12:29-32 marks the end of the cycle of plagues from the previous chapters with one final horrible plague – the killing of all the firstborn in Egypt. This final plague is what finally breaks Pharaoh and causes him to let the Israelites go. Two key rituals are established in conjunction with the sending of this plague – Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (also called the Passover Feast). These rituals were set up to help the Israelites understand redemption, the key concept behind this last plague.

Redemption is the word that the Bible uses to describe the concept that all people rightfully belong to God but God provides a way by which they might be "bought back," or "redeemed." It's a word that captures the whole thrust of the Bible. The basic biblical storyline is that all people faced the threat of judgment and death from God because of our sin against God. But God provides the way for us to be redeemed, and he does so at great personal cost. Passover then is what we call a "type" – it is a foreshadowing model or pattern for the work of Jesus Christ that was to come.

All of this can be seen when we recognize the following major truths that the Passover event teaches.

1. God's right of ownership. All of God's people rightly belong to God (Exodus 4:22). Pharaoh was defying God's right to his people so God sends this last plague as kind of equal measure sort of justice.

2. God's provision of protection. God sends this plague against the Egyptians but the Israelites were also at risk from the destroyer that God was going to send upon Egypt. So God instructs the Israelites to follow the set Passover rituals in order that they might be protected (see Exodus 12:11-13, 23). The key part in all the rituals was the sacrifice of an unblemished lamb. A lamb had to die and its blood shed so that Israel could be saved and ultimately redeemed out of Egypt.

From this we can see that redemption requires two basic things:

1. The need for a substitute. Someone or something must take the place of the one being redeemed.

2. The need for blood. The substitute must die, and explicitly shed its blood, for the person they are being the substitute for. Note the specific mention of blood in Exodus 12:12-13.

 The Passover ritual was not a nice, neat, and tidy family dinner. At its heart was a rather bloody, messy sacrifice. Something is being killed so that others might live. Cf Lev 19:11. Admittedly, all this seems pretty barbaric and primitive. But, to quote RC Sproul, this is so that anyone can understand exactly what's going on here. Redemption comes at great cost, because what Israel was being redeemed out of was not just Egypt but also the threat of death. Death was coming through the streets of Israel, and Israel deserved to experience that death, given the many times already in which they had doubted and turned away from God. However, God acted to protect them, covering them over with a sacrifice. He provided a way for something else to take the death blow that was coming towards the Israelites.

All of this points the way ahead to Christ. In his last supper with his disciples, celebrated during the Passover Feast, Jesus spoke of his body being given up and his blood being poured out for the forgiveness of sins. These are all echoes of the Passover. The ritual of communion, instituted at this last supper by Jesus, becomes the new Passover meal for God's meal and Jesus the new Passover lamb for God's people. Thus redemption in the Old Testament finds its ultimate purpose in Jesus Christ. As John the Baptist says in John 1, Jesus comes as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

This was necessary because all people have rejected God, not just the ancient Egyptians or Israelites. Thus all people deserve death (see Rom 5:12, 6:23). But amazingly, rather than protect his Son Jesus, God willingly gives him up so that he might take our place and so that through him we might become like firstborn sons to God (see Rom 8:32).

 This was God's plan all along, foreshadowed in the Passover rituals. It was to send one Lamb, his own Son, to die for the world. Only Jesus could live the perfect life so that he could be the perfect sacrifice so that a people might be redeemed. Redemption then is about God choosing a people for himself and redeeming them through the substitutionary death of Jesus. His death, and specifically his blood, atones for our sins. It is the power that can destroy the chains of sin around the human heart and free us to be truly children of God. See 1 Peter 1:18-19, Rom 5:9, Eph 1:7, 1 John 1:7. This atonement and redemption is what enables any believer to be fully the person God intends them to be. See 1 Cor 5:6-8.

What are your thoughts about redemption? How do you see the doctrines of atonement and redemption play out within the Christian life?

“God’s Sovereignty & Human Responsibility: Lessons from the Plagues” Part 2 – Exodus 7-10 (Sermon Recap)

God judged Pharaoh by sending the plagues. But how did God do this? By hardening his heart (Exodus 4:21). This raises some troubling questions for us. It seems like God made Pharaoh resistant to what God sent Moses to accomplish. So how much control does God have over human life? How does he exercise this control? Frankly, questions like this are either avoided by Christians or they are answered in ways that basically chop up biblical texts into so many out of context pieces they become devoid of their original meaning. To avoid this, and to instead rightly exegete, or interpret, this passage (and really this applies to right exegesis of any biblical passage), we need to follow two basic rules:

1) See the verses in question in context, both the immediate context and the context of the entire Bible. We want to appreciate what the verses actually say and then put them alongside other verses that speak on the same or similar subject.

2) Let the Bible interpret the Bible. In other words, we have to give great weight to when the Bible references and comments on another part of the Bible. So in our case, what Paul says about the hardening of Pharaoh's heart in Romans 9 should greatly inform our understanding of what was going on in Exodus 7-10.

Looking back then at Exodus 4:21, we need to define some key words. With the word "harden" there are several similar meanings. One meaning has the sense of strength or conviction. So in some passages Pharaoh's resistance is essentially a strong absolute conviction to not let Israel go. Another meaning has more the sense of heaviness or weightiness. So in some passages (ex. Exodus 7:14), Pharaoh's heart is being described as being very heavy, unwilling to even budge. With the word "heart" we are talking about the inner core of a person, the real "you," so to speak. It is the point where your will, your desires, and your motives come together.

Thus, Exodus 4:21 is saying that in the core of his being, Pharaoh will resist God. And God is going to be the one who makes this happen ("I will harden his heart"). God then is in control of Pharaoh's failure to obey God. This is clearly what Exodus 4:21 is saying. And note that this verse is set up as a kind of theme statement for all the other verses that follow after it. God is saying that when it comes to the various miracles (i.e. plagues) he will do - notice that miracles is plural, which means that for all of them – God will be orchestrating Pharaoh's response.

Now when we go through Exodus 7-10, we do see Pharaoh's heart described in several different ways. For the first five of the plagues, it is said that Pharaoh hardened his heart (see Exodus 7:13, 8:15 for instance). With the second five plagues God is mentioned more directly and it is said that he hardened Pharaoh's heart (see Exodus 9:10 for example). At first glance then it appears that what happened was that Pharaoh hardened his heart in the beginning and then afterwards God began hardening his heart. However, this ignores one basic fact – that the whole story of the plagues actually begins back in Exodus 4:21. Before anything started with Pharaoh God makes clear that throughout this process he will be the one hardening Pharaoh's heart. In fact, even when it is said that Pharaoh hardened his heart, the Bible often adds that this happened "as the Lord had said" (see again Exodus 8:15 or 9:35; see also 10:1).

Clearly, if we are being faithful to these passages, we see that Pharaoh's resistance can be directly attributed to the influence and manipulation of God. Naturally this raises a whole host of questions for us. Does this mean then that humans are basically robots? Doesn't this make God out to be some kind of cosmic tyrant? Really, the most basic question we are asking here is what all this says about God and his sovereignty and how that fits with human's responsibility to obey God.

To answer this basic question we must tie in verses from other parts of Scripture. This leads me to assert two biblical facts related to human responsibility and four biblical facts related to God's sovereignty.

Two facts concerning our responsibility:

1. Each person is fully accountable for their sin against God.

See Psalm 51:3-4. David identifies his sin of adultery and a murder cover up as being primarily against God.

2. God is not responsible for anyone's sin. He does not sin and he does not cause others to sin.

See James 1:13 and Luke 17:1-2. However we speak of God and human sin, we should never place the responsibility on God. Nobody will be able to stand before God one day and blame him for their sins. See also Job 34:10. So, when we ask the question, who is guilty of defying God in the case of Pharaoh, the answer is Pharaoh! This is why the Bible speaks of Pharaoh "sinning" (see Exodus 9:34). God cannot sin (for if sin is rebellion against God, how could God rebel against himself), only we can sin. And when we do sin, we are the ones who are rightfully held accountable.

Four facts concerning God's sovereignty:

1. God is all powerful and in control of all things. He is sovereign.

We DO NOT have a passive God. As Mark Dever notes, "Circumstances do not determine God's plan; God's plan determine circumstances." God exercises complete power and control over everything. There are many many examples of this in the Bible, just two would be Exodus 4:11 or Prov 21:1.

2. God will sovereignly judge those who continue to defy him by their sin.

God doesn't just allow judgment. He actively initiates it and carries it out. See Exodus 7:4.

3. God is so sovereign, he is able to use people's sin to judge them for his sin.

This is where it gets tricky. Some would say, how could this be? Can God actually be sovereign in this way and still not be directly responsible for sin. The biblical answer to this is, "Yes!" God is just that good at what he does. Certainly, there is a certain degree of mystery in how all this fits together.

However, the main point here is to see that in God's interactions with Pharaoh he was showing his unique and complete sovereignty over everything, and deliberately at the expense of Pharaoh. Pharaoh was seen, and saw himself, as an incarnate God. He believed he could do anything he wanted. So God exposes Pharaoh by essentially taking away his supposed "will." Pharaoh is not a god at all if his ability to respond and make decisions are in fact completely in the Lord's hands.

God allows things to progress as they do so that the judgment on Pharaoh might be increased. All of this is a natural consequence of rejecting God. See 2 Thess 2:9-12 and Romans 1:28-32. The Romans 1 passage is particularly instructive. It speaks of man having a "debased mind to do what ought not to be done." This shows our accountability before God for our sin and that sin originates within man. At the same time, the passage notes that God "gave them up." RC Sproul describes this as being like leaving clay out in the sun. As clay is left out it will naturally dry out and get brittle and crumble. So also God can give us up to our sin so that we eventually crumble. And it is God's initiative and prerogative to do this, whenever he wants to.

No wonder than the Bible says that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!

4. All God's sovereign judgments fit the crime; they are completely fair and perfect.

God does not sin nor does he cause people to sin. However, God does command, orchestrate and direct sin and sinners to accomplish his purposes. And he does this in a way that is consistent with his character – thus, in a way that is always ultimately good and perfect and right (cf Deut 32:4). As I noted earlier, a big chunk of this must remain a mystery to us. We are not given the full answer to how all this exactly fits together. Nevertheless, we must affirm all of it. And by doing this we can begin to apply this biblical teaching to our lives in ways that will produce rich and abundant thankfulness to God.

We will be thankful…

1. For the greatness of God's mercy.

Romans 9:14-18 gives us the definitive word on understanding the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. In the end, as the passage says, God has mercy on whom he will have mercy. The important thing to see here is that God does in fact show mercy! God could easily not show any mercy at all. God could act as a sovereign tyrant. Instead, he chooses to act as a sovereign dad, showing more mercy towards his creation than we deserve.

2. For the good news of God called the gospel. It is more beautiful and powerful than we realize!

As Romans 1:16 tells us, the gospel is "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." The astounding beauty of the gospel is that God shows us mercy by putting the judgment we deserved for our sins on his Son Jesus Christ so that we might have life. The unbelievable power of the gospel is that it really can does save people. Indeed, how could it not save people, since it was planned and carried out by a God who is completely sovereign?

This then is why we must say that no one can save themselves by their own power. Only God can do it. A heart can't changed unless it is worked on by God, the only expert heart surgeon able to come in and make a hard heart soft and new and able to receive faith and grace. And God has given to believers the task of telling others about what God is able to do to their hearts (Rom 10:14-15).

We are invited to believe in God. But God can harden people if he chooses, which would be a fair and righteous act of judgment on his part. We should not wait for that moment to come. Instead, let us passionately call people to accept God's gracious invitation, and God by his grace will act in saving ways in many lives. And ultimately, in all this God will get all the glory, as he deserves.