Tuesday, March 2, 2010
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?
Monday, February 22, 2010
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?
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?
Monday, February 15, 2010
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)
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)
Saturday, February 13, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
“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?
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?
Thursday, December 17, 2009
“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.
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.
“There is only ONE God: Lessons from the Plagues” Part I – Exodus 7-10 (Sermon Summary)
There are only two main characters in the whole plague narrative: God (with Moses and Aaron being God's agents to do what God commands) and Pharaoh. And the whole point of the plague story is to impress us with one main lesson – that the Lord alone is God, and that everyone must know and accept that he alone is God. See for example Exodus 7:5, 17, 8:10, 22, 9:13-15, and 10:1-2.
In the plagues we see God doing several things to demonstrate his "God-ness." First, in sending the plagues God effectively executes the so-called Egyptian gods. Many, if not all, of the plagues are direct assaults against domains that the Egyptians thought were controlled by their gods. So for example, in turning the Nile into blood, God essentially destroyed the Egyptian river gods who were thought to rule over the Nile River.
Second, in sending the plagues God decreates the world, instead of creating and sustaining the world. The plagues were an unraveling of the created order. In doing this God showed how much the world depends on his sustaining power, and what would happen if God related to the world in a different capacity.
Finally, in sending the plagues God demonstrates his ability to bless and protect people or to judge people as he sees fit. God had complete control over every aspect of the plagues. This was especially shown in how he poured out the plagues on the Egyptians yet kept the Israelites free from them (see for example Exodus 8:23, 9:4-6, 26). Thus, the Israelites was set apart for protection and future blessing while the Egyptians were set apart for judgment and destruction.
Thus, in all this, God established the unique greatness of himself as Lord and God. And this unique greatness we later see in Jesus Christ. Jesus called himself "I am" (John 8:58), clearly identifying himself as the Yawheh of the Hebrew Scriptures, the one true Lord God of the universe. He showed his power over creation by commanding the wind and the rain, turning water into high quality wine, walking on water, and making trees wither on command (cf Col 1:16). Most especially, he showed his power over creation by displaying his power over death. He raised people from the dead and he raised himself from the dead.
And Jesus also protected and blessed some while others he judged. We often miss this aspect of Jesus, this aspect of him also judging people. For while Luke 19 does tell us that Jesus came to seek and save the lost, this only describes the intent of his first appearance in human history. In his second appearance, Jesus will come to judge and destroy all those who continue to defy him. He will come to "tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty" (see Rev 19).
This is the hard edge of the message of Jesus, namely, that his message is not just about saving people and bringing them to God but also about judgment and the warning that ultimately there are only two sides, either being with God or against God. When Jesus comes again we will either be standing with Jesus as part of his royal court and army, celebrating his reign as Lord and King, or we will be bound before him, being thrown into the depths of darkness because of how, like Pharaoh, we continued to defy him and his rightful Lordship.
The story of the plagues should startle us and warn us. Right now is the timee to respond to God and take the flag that is Jesus and plant it at the center of your life. In so doing, we worship God as the rightful Lord God, as we were meant to do, and as he rightfully deserves.
What are your thoughts? What do you think it means for God to be the one Lord God in your life?
In the plagues we see God doing several things to demonstrate his "God-ness." First, in sending the plagues God effectively executes the so-called Egyptian gods. Many, if not all, of the plagues are direct assaults against domains that the Egyptians thought were controlled by their gods. So for example, in turning the Nile into blood, God essentially destroyed the Egyptian river gods who were thought to rule over the Nile River.
Second, in sending the plagues God decreates the world, instead of creating and sustaining the world. The plagues were an unraveling of the created order. In doing this God showed how much the world depends on his sustaining power, and what would happen if God related to the world in a different capacity.
Finally, in sending the plagues God demonstrates his ability to bless and protect people or to judge people as he sees fit. God had complete control over every aspect of the plagues. This was especially shown in how he poured out the plagues on the Egyptians yet kept the Israelites free from them (see for example Exodus 8:23, 9:4-6, 26). Thus, the Israelites was set apart for protection and future blessing while the Egyptians were set apart for judgment and destruction.
Thus, in all this, God established the unique greatness of himself as Lord and God. And this unique greatness we later see in Jesus Christ. Jesus called himself "I am" (John 8:58), clearly identifying himself as the Yawheh of the Hebrew Scriptures, the one true Lord God of the universe. He showed his power over creation by commanding the wind and the rain, turning water into high quality wine, walking on water, and making trees wither on command (cf Col 1:16). Most especially, he showed his power over creation by displaying his power over death. He raised people from the dead and he raised himself from the dead.
And Jesus also protected and blessed some while others he judged. We often miss this aspect of Jesus, this aspect of him also judging people. For while Luke 19 does tell us that Jesus came to seek and save the lost, this only describes the intent of his first appearance in human history. In his second appearance, Jesus will come to judge and destroy all those who continue to defy him. He will come to "tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty" (see Rev 19).
This is the hard edge of the message of Jesus, namely, that his message is not just about saving people and bringing them to God but also about judgment and the warning that ultimately there are only two sides, either being with God or against God. When Jesus comes again we will either be standing with Jesus as part of his royal court and army, celebrating his reign as Lord and King, or we will be bound before him, being thrown into the depths of darkness because of how, like Pharaoh, we continued to defy him and his rightful Lordship.
The story of the plagues should startle us and warn us. Right now is the timee to respond to God and take the flag that is Jesus and plant it at the center of your life. In so doing, we worship God as the rightful Lord God, as we were meant to do, and as he rightfully deserves.
What are your thoughts? What do you think it means for God to be the one Lord God in your life?
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
“But What Happens When People Don’t Listen to God?” Exodus 4:18-6:30 (Sermon Recap)
It can be extremely frustrating when you sense that people are not really listening to you. And it is especially frustrating when people aren't listening to you who really should be listening to you. Parents regularly face this with their kids. Kids should listen to their parents. But many times they don't, and this can be frustrating as we then see them going in directions that we know they will later regret.
However, just because your kids aren't listening to you one day does not mean that you stop being their parent. In fact, the mark of a good parent is when you are able to still lead and guide your children even when they aren't really listening to you. You do so because you are their parent, and that always remains the same, even when they aren't listening to you.
What we have in Exodus 4:18-6:30 is a whole section of Scripture where God is setting things up to save his people, the Israelites. During this process they experience some apparent setbacks and face some major difficulties. The Israelites soon become frustrated and begin to doubt God and even stop listening to what he was telling them.
So what does God do? Well, just because God's people aren't listening to God doesn't make God any less their God. Instead, God makes clear that the situation they were facing would be an occasion for them to see just much God truly is God, and specifically their God. This is in essence the main theme for this section of Scripture – to show that God is the Lord God, and he is the Lord God especially for the salvation of his people.
Some examples of people not listening to God in this section of Scripture are:
1. Moses' failure to circumcise his son (Exodus 4:24-26). Circumcision was a required rite for God's people. It was a sign of the covenant between God and Israel. Moses' failure to obey God in circumcising his son was essentially a rejection of this covenant. God was fully ready to judge Moses for this but Moses gets saved when his wife steps in and does what Moses was supposed to have already done.
2. Pharaoh rejects God's command to let Israel go. Pharaoh saw himself as equal to the Lord (see his sarcastic response in Exodus 5:2). For Pharaoh there is no "thus says the Lord" (Exodus 5:2), there is only "thus says Pharaoh" (Exodus 5:10). Pharaoh reinforces this point by making the Israelites work even harder, forcing them to find straw in order to make their daily quota of bricks (Exodus 5:10-11).
3. The Israelites doubt God in the wake of Pharaoh's actions, even though they had already witnessed several powerful signs that God was with Aaron and Moses (see Exodus 4:29-31). It's as if they no longer saw themselves as God's people but as Pharaoh's slaves, and so their main concern was to make sure that things didn't get worse for them as slaves.
4. Moses again doubts God after all these setbacks. At this point he wonders why God sent him to Egypt in the first place!
God in response shows Moses how none of these setbacks will get in the way of his plans. God is still God, and he is still in charge. Several times in Exodus 6:1-8 God states, "I am the Lord." God is stating that everything that has happened and will happen is meant first and foremost to remind his people and to show the world that he alone is the Lord God. There are also a number of "I will" statements in these verses. God is stating his intention to follow through on everything he's promised concerning his people. He will save and redeem them, he will adopt them as his own people, and he will bless them. All of this will be entirely God's work. God will get the credit for every aspect of their salvation and future blessing.
The Israelites sadly remained discouraged and depressed, even after Moses relayed God's words to them (Exodus 6:9-13). Difficult situations can deeply affect us and often threaten to break our spirit. However, God still speaks. God still gave the charge to Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. He still intended to accomplish his purposes.
In the end, it is all about God. He alone is the Lord God - self-existing, self-sustaining, mighty and strong, able to do all that he wants, even to a supposedly powerful man like Pharaoh. And this powerful, mighty, Lord God shows who he is especially in relationship to his people, and especially when he acts to save his people for himself. He does this even when they don't listen to him and doubt him.
This is the kind of thing God has always done and still does today. God still declares, "I am God. I am the Lord God. There is no other besides me. And I am the Lord God who is still shaping and forming a people for himself." Today the people of God are called the church. And the Bible tells us great things about the church – for example, that we are God's children and that we are God's special possession. But all those things are true of the church not because of any great listening habits on our end. They are true not because we are so much smarter or more spiritual than the Israelites were. No, God's people are made God's specially chosen and blessed people in the same way that it has always happened, namely, through God taking the initiative and acting as God for the saving sake of his people.
See for example Romans 8:28-32. Verse 28 tells us how "all things" are brought together for good for God's people. All things includes all our difficult circumstances. It includes all the times we disobey God and all the times we fail to listen to God. God is able to take all those things and still work out good for us. Why is this? Because we were "called according to his purpose."
Indeed, God foreknew us and predestined us (v.29) so that ultimately we might say, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (v.31). What we are seeing here is God's relentless, dedicated pursuit of his people. There is nothing that can get in the way of God grabbing people for himself. This is why Jesus came. He came because God sent him, so that through Jesus God might forever secure a people for himself, sons and daughters who are siblings with Christ in God's family.
As a believer in Christ, you may at times feel unsure about whether or not you belong to God. You may doubt whether or not God is truly your God and if he has acted to save you. You may feel like God really has forgotten all about you and that he's not really on top of things, especially when it comes to your life. So where can we find the assurance we need? It's Jesus who gives it to us in John 6:37, "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out."
Thus, God gets all the credit for saving us and keeping us saved as his people and him as our God. And thus, we have all the security and assurance we need for our salvation and all the blessings that God promises for those he saves through Jesus. We also have the encouragement and motivation we need in order to really live and stand out in our world as God's people.
Truly, only a Lord God could save a people like us! In fact, the initial failures of Moses and Aaron set things up so that it would be clear that it was the LORD GOD who was saving his people, and it is only the LORD GOD who is able to save his people.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
“God Tells Moses to ‘God Up’” Exodus 4:1-17 (Sermon Recap)
Moses had major doubts about his ability to do what God asked of him during his meeting with God at the burning bush. His doubts are frankly not all that surprising. God regularly asks people to do big, hard things, and usually to do these things means going in directions where we feel weak and inadequate and where there is some risk to us.
Why does God do this? Couldn't he check out how we test out in our personality test and our strength finder quiz and then make sure that whatever he calls us to do lines up with where we feel the strongest and most comfortable? Well, the reason for this is because God is not looking for us to do things because of who we are but because of who he is. In everything he calls us to he wants us to have to "God up." By "God up" I am talking about doing things out of the fullness of the Spirit of God, where the question that constantly drives us is, "How much more can God do through me?" Where the big things that happen in our church and in our city do not make people more aware of how gifted and talented and strategic our church is but instead make people more aware of how gifted and talented and strategic God is! Where the people around us are sometimes dumbfounded that God could accomplish such big and amazing things in and through a humble, simple, even insignificant church like us. In so much of what we do we ask ourselves, "Can I do this? What do I bring to the table?" To get to the level of doing big Godlike things in our world, we must begin to say, "We've got God at the table! So let's go and do as much as he will let us do!"
Unfortunately, our strong natural bent is to become overwhelmed by fears and doubts that lead us to think that we really can't do all that God wants of us. These fears and doubts lead to a kind of spiritual paralysis. This is where Moses is at during his meeting with God. Moses gives three objections to what God wants in Exodus 4:1-17. In his mind these objections should show God that what he wanted of Moses did not fit with his strengths and his comfort level, so it made no sense for Moses to move forward in the direction to which God was calling him.
God though had answers for every one of Moses' objections, answers which we do well to consider when we begin to complain to God like Moses did.
Objection #1 is found in Exodus 4:1 - Then Moses answered, "But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, 'The Lord did not appear to you.' "
God answers this objection Exodus 4:2-8 by giving Moses powerful signs to perform that will validate him in front of his people. However, these signs are given so that the people will not necessarily believe in Moses but believe in God and believe that God is really with Moses (Exodus 4:5). Again, this is all about God, not Moses.
It is interesting to note here that these signs were to be done through the use of Moses' shepherd staff. This would have been an ordinary stick, certainly not the kind of thing you would expect a mighty magician to use. The Egyptian magicians would have had elaborate charms and staffs and they would perform their "magic" through special words and incantations.
God however has Moses use his simple shepherd's staff and then has him do only what he tells him to do, nothing more, nothing less. The emphasis throughout Moses' mission in Egypt will be on God. Moses will be proven to be God's leader not because of any fancy spells or techniques. He will be proven to be God's leader through God's power working through Moses' simple actions.
Objection #2 is found in Exodus 4:10 - But Moses said to the Lord, "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue."
God's answer to this objection is very interesting. God doesn't say, "Man you're right. Let me send you to Toastmasters; they'll help you become a better public speaker. Oh, and here are some great books to read on public speaking." No, instead God tells Moses, "I'm the one who makes people able to speak! For that matter, I'm the one who makes people able to also hear or see!" (Exodus 4:11)
What was God doing here? He was once again emphasizing that doing big things in God's system depends not on us but on God. God makes this point by emphasizing his complete sovereignty over all things. This means then that God has complete control over human life, even specific aspects of human life like hearing and seeing and talking.
In hearing this we may be tempted to think that perhaps God has messed up a bit in how he made us. If he really is calling us to big things, then he should have given us a more engaging personality or intellectual ability or creative skill. We think to ourselves, "God, why did you make me this way? How can you expect me to talk to people about Jesus, or be a leader in my family and in my church, or to be a successful parent, when you made me this way?"
God's answer to Moses here is an answer to all these kinds of personal doubts and excuses. His answer is, "Yes, I made you. So who you are is no surprise to me! Now go and be who I've called you to be and do what I've called you to do, because I will be with you." Notice how in Exodus 4:12 God tells Moses that he will give him the words to speak and that he literally be "with his mouth" so that he can speak these words. God did not say, "Alright, I will take away your weaknesses so you can do what I need you to do." Instead, God leaves Moses' weaknesses in place and tells him to go, but with the conscious awareness that God is with him and that he will need to directly depend on God.
I believe God has designed each of us in uniquely imperfect ways so that have we will have regular opportunities to depend on God. 2 Cor 12:9 says as much. Our weaknesses are occasions for God's divine power to be perfected in us.
This is a new way to look at yourself. Instead of ignoring or being anxious about your weaknesses, you can look right at them and see them as unique, specially designed ways to "God up."
Objection #3 is found in Exodus 4:13 -
But he said, "Oh, my Lord, please send someone else."
There are some who, no matter what is said to them, just don't want to do what God tells them to do. This is what Moses does here. He tells God, "Look, I don't want to do this. Send someone else!" It's possible to focus so much on yourself that your fears and doubts overwhelm you, to the point that you let them become the operational God ruling over your life.
God's response comes in v.14-17. He is obviously angry with Moses. He easily could have wiped the slate clean and moved on from Moses to someone else. Yet God shows grace towards Moses. He encourages him by promising that Aaron will go with him and be Moses' spokesman; Aaron will do the public speaking for Moses. However, it is worth mentioning that Aaron does this only in the beginning; eventually it is Moses that does all the speaking. This is because God's way will always win out in the end, even when we disobey him. It just means that we will miss out on knowing the fullest expression of God and his power working in our lives. Thankfully, God does not let go of his people. Notice in the end of the conversation, in v.17, God says, "Don't forget the staff. Because YOU WILL be doing the signs I've given you." God will still work through Moses, even if he's not still quite ready for the tasks set before him.
God does big things, and he intends to do them through his people, and intends to do them in ways that are often uncommon, surprising, unexpected, and risky. Basically, all the ways that will make it clear that what's happening is not based ultimately on you or me but on him. For if depended on us, the reality is that nothing would ever happen. The Bible describes all people as being naturally sinful, meaning that we naturally doubt and disobey God.
Thus, to expect much of sinners would be like expecting a drowning person to be able to go and save another drowning person. If you are drowning, you'll find it impossible to do anything else but be overwhelmed by your fears and anxieties caused by the fact that you are drowning. It is no surprise then that our doubts and fears and anxieties get in way of much of what God wants of us. All of us have pushed God out of the center of our lives, and by doing so we lost the anchor we needed to stay afloat and so we spend our lives adrift, slowly being suffocated by our sin. How then can God use anyone in this world in any significant way?
Well, God can use us, and it's because God sent someone into the world who never did push God out of the center of his life, someone who was perfectly obedient to God and so never went adrift. This someone was Jesus Christ. Since Jesus was perfectly obedient, he was able to answer God's call to do the biggest thing of all – give up his life - so that his obedient perfect life would make up the difference in our failure to do all that God wants. When we put faith in Christ, we are wholly changed so that we can be free from the downward drowning pull of sin and the constant echoes ringing in our minds that tell us that we aren't good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, talented enough, important enough, or cool enough to do much in this life. This is because faith in Christ brings Christ into our life. And because Christ is the Son of God, that means we now have God in our life. Not just with us, but in us. Faith in Jesus then is the means by which every person can God up!
This makes the ultimate difference for us. Moses had the promise that God would be with him, which was a great promise, and it really was all he needed in order to do what God wanted. But through Jesus, we have the promise of God actually being in
our lives. So now we can truly do all that God calls us to. We can be salt of the earth. We can be God's witnesses. We can be God's ambassadors. We can speak and act with all boldness, even through our weaknesses.
And what people will notice when they interact with us is what they noticed when they interacted with Peter and John. In the eyes of that culture, Peter and John were uneducated, common men. They should not have been able to do the big and bold things they were doing. So what was the difference? The people "recognized that they had been with Jesus." (Acts 4:13)
Embrace all of how God has made you, especially your weaknesses. Bring them to the cross of Jesus; by doing so you are saying, "This can't be about me. It's got to be about you, and it's got to be about Jesus in me for you."
What kind of amazing surprises would God bring about in your life if every day, you took one big weakness or one big anxiety or one big doubt, gave it over to God, and asked him to transform it through Jesus into a big expression of God's power working through you?
It would be something special, wouldn't it?
Friday, October 23, 2009
Revival in Phoenix Part I (Sermon Recap)
Revival is sought by many, but not rightly understood by many. Indeed, what many call revival is in reality just superficial experiences, more emotionally driven and spiritually authentic. In contrast, true revival always brings real long-lasting transformation. As Iain Murray writes in his book Revivals and Revivalism, "Every true revival begins in the church and a proof of the genuineness of the work is that it does not leave believers where they were before. They are filled with new wonder, joy and praise, with a new sense of the privilege of serving God, and with renewed energy that comes from being constrained by the love of Christ." Revival is really happening when people's old selves are being crucified such that they come away living new lives in an obvious and ongoing way.
How might this begin to happen? It will happen as we better understand who God is and who we are. Indeed, the word "revival" implies that someone is going from one state to another state (i.e. from being unconscious to conscious). So also spiritual revival will mean us waking up out of the sleep of moral and spiritual apathy and becoming much more aware of God and ourselves.
What then of God and ourselves should we be more aware? I believe it is one basic truth, namely that God is holy and that we in relation to this God are unholy rebels. To say that God is holy is to say that God is utterly unique and distinct. He is set apart from all things in perfect excellence, goodness, and beauty. God's holiness is the one attribute of God in the Bible that gets repeated three times in a row, to emphasize how much this attribute describes the essence of God. This is seen for example in Isaiah 6:3. Note also in this verse that a connection is made between God's holiness and glory ("Holy, holy, holy is the Lord…the whole earth is full of his glory!") In fact, the Bible regularly makes a connection between God's unique existence as a holy God and this resulting in some expression of glory and praise. See for example 1 Kings 8:10-11, 1 Chronicles 16:9-10, and Revelation 4:8-11. The Revelation passage is especially informative. God is acknowledged as holy and totally unique in his existence (Rev 4:8). Because this is the case, he naturally deserves all the glory and honor. And in particular, everything that he creates should give him glory and honor.
Let's be sure to grasp this point. All created things are meant to point to their creator in some way. The more finely crafted the created thing, the more attention it should bring to its creator. A well written, bestselling book naturally brings praise and honor to its author. Several artistic masterpieces will inevitably bring renown and fame to the name of artist who made those masterpieces.
The Lord God has been eternally perfect in his distinctiveness and uniqueness. He decided to further display his eternal perfection, his holiness, by creating everything in the universe. But then, in particular, he decided to place a unique stamp of himself, his image, upon one being in all the universe – mankind. Man then is God's masterpiece. Our fine and unique craftsmanship should naturally point to the excellence of our Creator.
For example, while all the creations of Leonardo Da Vinci are notable, the Mona Lisa still continues to be an especially potent display of the unique talent of Da Vinci. People are consistently drawn to look at this unique masterpiece in the Louvre museum, and in doing so they are drawn ultimately to give praise to Da Vinci. Here is the purpose then of each human life – to see the evidence of God finely crafting every part of you, and to rejoice in and praise God for your expert design as a masterpiece that displays the glory of your God. We find the most meaning in our lives when we are giving the maximum amount of glory and honor and praise to our holy Lord.
The real horror here comes when we realize that instead of being masterpieces displaying God's glory we instead have become like ugly, broken down clunker cars leaking oil wherever we go. We rightfully belonged to God but have wrenched ourselves away from him by focusing in ourselves through our words, actions, and desires. Doing so has horribly damaged our God-displaying ability. And the Bible makes clear – our God defying and God rejecting ways are nothing less than a direct personal attack against God. As Colossians 1:21 makes clear, we are alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds against God. Romans 5:10 is even more clear, telling us bluntly that we are enemies of God. Sin is not primarily an offense against other people. It is an offense against God. See for example David's view of his adultery with Bathsheba and his subsequent cover-up. He writes that it is against God primarily that he sinned (Ps 51:3-4).
The lie so many people live is that they really aren't so bad, especially compared with other people. God's answer to that in the Bible? We are all bad! "None is righteous, no not one, no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." Sin ultimately makes us worthless! In light of this, the question we should ask is not, "Is it fair for God to judge us?" The question we should ask is, "Why wouldn't God judge us?!" Our worth came from our creation by God but we have totally squandered and wrecked our worth through our rebellion against him. It is as if we were a multimillion dollar mansion that is now falling apart and worth nothing due to our arrogant and foolish misuse of the mansion. The best that can be done is to just bulldoze the whole property.
We are by all appearances living in the days described by Paul in 2 Timothy 3:1-4. These are days when many think of themselves as being good or godly, yet in reality they are far from any true goodness or godliness. There are many who have the appearance of being godly Christians but none of the power of it. Many in the church have a spirituality that is like a well-dressed corpse. There is lot of fancy clothes being worn that bring lots of attention, but the reality is we are admiring a dead person.
What's needed in the church today is real honesty. It's a real honesty rooted in humbleness and an almost desperate need to get past the superficial surface behaviors and instead get to the heart, to see the pride, selfishness, and self-righteousness that's rooted there, and to then kill it. The Bible gives us great encouragement along these lines, for we are told that for those who are humble, who are truly aware and ashamed of their sin, God will be ready to meet them where they are at and bring revival to their hearts (see Isa 57:15). God's word is a crucial and practical means by which this occurs (see Isa 66:2). As we read lots of God's word into our lives, letting it teach and convict us, and then pray God's word back to God in humble prayerful confession, we will find God. For God's word is truth, and thus meditating deeply on his word will us truly understand God and ourselves, and such understanding will always draw God near to us and revive us (see Ps 145:18, 19:7).
And what will God do when he draws near to us as we cry out to him? What will he reveal to us so that we might have revived hearts? What God will do is show us who he truly is. What he will do is show us Jesus. The hope we have that we will experience a true revival within our lives, within our churches, and within our city, comes as we look at God and see how he acted to save us out of sinful rebellion and reconcile us to himself through Jesus (Romans 5:10). As Richard Lovelace writes in Dynamics of Spiritual Life, "The cross is the perfect statement both of God's wrath against sin and of the depth of his love and mercy in the recovery of the damaged creation and its damagers."
More than ever we need God and even more than ever we need Jesus! Any hope we have for revival comes as we put our faith in Christ, linking ourselves to him in his death to give the final deathblows to our sin and living anew in his resurrection and so forever have freedom over the power of sin.
Obviously, these are things only God can bring about. Only God can really change hearts and make them brand new and bring revival. It is this divine action in people's lives that is the foundational step for any true revival.
So, what are your thoughts? What will revival look like in our city? In our church? In your own life?
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