Praising God for the church I serve at

This last Sunday at church we had a wonderful time praising God together as a community of believers. But the reason it was so wonderful was not because I had a such a great prayer time for my sermon, or because I greeted everyone as they came into the church, or even because I preached a powerful message. Or even because we had a wonderful offering.

Let me explain:

• Mike West, our Discipleship Pastor preached a powerful message on Galatians 2:11-14.
  
• The Praise team leader was unable to attend at the last moment because of a birth in the family, but we had a godly young man rise up, take the reigns, and he led the morning praise time. In fact, he did such a great job, you never would have known that He was a last minute stand in.
  
• The projector malfunctioned so we had no slides during the music or the preaching, but that did not cause any problems either. The songs that were chosen for this week were familiar songs that the majority of people already knew very well.
  
• There were friendly outgoing greeters and ushers positioned throughout the foyer and sanctuary.
  
• All nursery and sunday school teachers were present and ready to teach God's Word to their classes.
  
• And of course most of all, God was glorified.
  

For me as a pastor it is a wonderful thing to know that the ministry does not hinge upon me being there and having to do everything. Over the years we have see seen some wonderful godly leaders rise up desiring to use the gifts that God has given them for the benefit of the church and for the glory of God.

I praise God for the community of believers He has given me to serve, and I pray that He continually works in powerful ways.

 

I am no more worthy than Barabbas

How offended are you that the crowds shouted, "away with this man, and release to us Barabbas" (Luke 23:18)?  How ignorant and incompetent did the Pharisees have to be to think that it would be better to have a murderer on the streets than Jesus?  And why would Pilate every grant such a demand?  If Pilate was really concerned with peace and stability over his region, then why would he ever think releasing a murderer and insurrectionist was going to help things?  And it's not like Pilate was unsure if Jesus was guilty, for in Luke 23, three times, Pilate said, Jesus is not guilty:

1.       Verse 4 - "I find no guilt in this man."

2.       Verse 14 - "After examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him."

3.       Verse 22 - "I have found in him no guilt deserving death."

The tragedy of this passage is that when I read it, I am much more aware of Barabbas' sins then my own.  In fact, I can easily read straight through Luke 23 and never think that it was my sins that Christ died for.  I can read Luke 23 and be aghast that a criminal would go free while Christ was crucified, all the while thinking that in some way I am more worthy to have Christ be my substitute than Barabbas was.  Perhaps one reason I fall into this arrogant thought pattern is because I see Barabbas' sins as being publicly offensive and my sins are often more privately offensive, thus in my sinful reasoning they are more acceptable.  Or perhaps, it is because I often fail to remember the awesome Holiness of God and that I stand just as guilty before Him as any serial killer, child rapist, or genocidal maniac.  Roman 5 says, it was when we were weak, ungodly, sinners and enemies of God that Christ came to die FOR US.

This truly is the wonderful amazing news of God's Gracious Gospel.  And while Barabbas' pardon may have been unjust, mine is not.  Jesus Christ became my substitute, enduring the penalty that I should have received, so that God would no longer be my judge but become my Heavenly Father.  Praise God for His Gospel through Christ Jesus. 
 

Marveling at the Words of Christ (Lk 20:26)

The Pharisees hated Christ, they constantly tried to terrorize Him with their tricks and traps. But what I find fascinating is that rather than tripping Jesus up and marveling at their own craftiness, they would marvel at His words. They marveled at the words of the man they hated. They stood in awe of the man they wanted to crucify. They were dumbfounded by His infinite wisdom. If these people who did not know Jesus, did not love Jesus, did not worship Jesus marveled at His word, then how much more should we who do know, love, and worship Him?

 

My Prayer (and I hope you make it yours too):

Lord, help me to marvel at your words. Help me not to be so familiar with your Word that I become arrogant in my thinking and cease to be in awe of You. I desire to humbly enter into your presence that I may sit before you throne of grace and mercy as I read your Word each day. Lord, help me to read slow and meticulously seeking to better understand your truth from every chapter, passage, paragraph, sentence, and word. May I shake each portion of scripture with vigor until I I begin to see and love the fruit that falls from it. Thank you for your Holy Inspired Word that you have given so I might truly know You and worship You. Praise God who ordained salvation in past eternity and His Son who died on the cross that we would have the gospel.

Packer on Adoption

While studying the doctrine of adoption this last week in preparation for the Easter message I came across a great quote by J.I. Packer.

If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God as His father.  If this is not the thought that prompts and controls His worship and prayer and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.  For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood.  "Father" is the Christian name for God. (Hughes, 26-27).

Grace Alone, Christ Alone, Faith Alone

What is meant when we says that salvation comes by grace alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone?

Grace Alone - salvation is God's work alone unconditioned by anything that man does.
Christ Alone - sinful man is only able to stand accepted before God because of what Christ has done.
Faith Alone - salvation is received by faith whereby the righteousness of Christ is imputed (credited) to the believer.

"Made Himself nothing..."

I recently memorized Philippians 2:5-13 and while doing so there was one line that continually stood out to me. 

"who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men."

 Jesus made Himself nothing.  What does that mean?  The next few verses seem to expand on this meaning, He took the form of a servant and He was born in the likeness of men.  So when Jesus became a servant, a man, He became nothing.  Other translations may read, He "emptied himself." 
Calvin writes in his commentary,

"Christ, indeed, could not divest himself of Godhead; but he kept it concealed for a time, that it might not be seen, under the weakness of the flesh. Hence he laid aside his glory in the view of men, not by lessening it, but by concealing it."

What stands out to me is that Jesus came as a man.  He was still God, but His glory was hidden, He looked like you and me.  Jesus in order to be obedient to God and to redeem man demonstrated incredible humility by becoming like us.  I think in too many Christian circles we are not helping one another think deeply enough about God's Word.  We talk about Jesus as a man like we would talk about someone going to the grocery story.  We read these verses like the comic section of a newspaper not paying attention to any particulars.  But I found the more and more I read Philippians trying to memorize these verses, the more powerful these words seemed to become.  I saw that there was great power and awe and wonder built into these words.

When Jesus came to earth He laid everything aside that had been for all eternity magnificently proclaiming His glory.  He humbled Himself in ways we cannot even imagine, in fact I really do believe words cannot even begin to plumb the depths of what it meant for Him to become like us.  We could ponder these couple of verses for a lifetime and have only begun to scratch the service of what it meant when Jesus became nothing. 

But what I find even more incredible than the fact Jesus emptied Himself and came to earth as a man, is the fact that He allowed Himself to be killed by man on a cross (v.9).  It was not enough that He had humbled himself by becoming like us, NO! now he would die as a man by men.  When Jesus laid aside His glory and clothed Himself in humility it was not to be just a little humble or to be just a little obedient, but He went lower than we can ever grasp so that He would demonstrate perfect obedience showing that His love for the Father knows no limits. 

I can think of only one response that is appropriate to the message of these verses and that is found in verses 10 and 11:

"so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Worship!  Face down tongue praising worship is all we can do!  Praise God!  Praise Jesus Christ to the glory of God! 

My prayer is that as Christians (the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, the church) we would read God's Word in a slow meditative way shaking every verse that we come to desperate to understand its message.  May we do so completely dependent upon the power and wisdom of the Spirit, that we would daily be in awe of God and worship Him to the praise of His Glory!    

His Grace is Sufficient, Leave the Thorn Alone!

I was incredibly blessed last week; after church I was invited to lunch with some dear friends.  They took me to little quaint restaurant in downtown Benton Harbor (FYI, a simple gesture like taking your pastor out to lunch speaks volumes on how much you appreciate them).  At some point in the conversation, 2 Corinthians 12 became the center of our conversation.  While we only spent a few moments on it, I was unable to shake the conversation from my head for the rest of the day.  
Here is the section we focused on:


2 Corinthians 12:7–10 (ESV)
⁷ So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰ For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.



This passage is very well known, in fact it may be one of the most popular pauline texts.  In our lunch conversation we talked about the fact, that often the 'thorn' receives more attention than the 'grace.'  Have you ever noticed that?  People always want to know what the thorn was.  I have heard numerous comments regarding the thorn:
Did Paul have some type of horrible eye problem that was disgusting to look at and oozed all over?
Which part of the body was affected?
How much pain was he really in?
Was the thorn physical or emotional?
Was the thorn the Corinthian church?  


And those are just a few of the questions I have heard.  Bottom line, people want to know, WHAT WAS THE THORN!


But is the mystery of the thorn really the point of this passage?  Is the thorn what we are supposed to be focusing on?  Is the thorn the very thing that gives us comfort and strength?  


If we go back to the beginning of chapter 12, we see that Paul begins to describe in third person a vision of a man who was "caught up to the third heaven" (Paul is referring about himself here).  He gives no details about this vision.  In fact he says in verse 4, "he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter."  Paul saw incredible things, but God prevented him from communicating those things to other people.  Now notice verse 7, "so to keep me from becoming conceited..."  Because of what Paul saw, it would be very easy for him to become prideful, arrogant, and boastful.  He had seen things no other person ever had seen before, in one sense Paul was in a very privileged position.  Therefore, in order for Paul not be filled with sinful pride, God gave him a thorn (which in one sense is a gift of grace) "a messenger of Satan to harass [him], to keep [him] from becoming conceited."  The purpose of the thorn is for the humility of Paul (for his good and God's glory).  And we know this thorn had to be painful because three times he prays for God to remove it.  But God does not remove it, but rather he says "my grace is sufficient for you".  God was telling Paul, do not focus on the thorn, but focus on My all satisfying grace that is being lavished upon you.   


God's grace is what is so important.  God's grace is what brings us peace, comfort, and strength.  God's grace is what helps us endure whatever thorns we may be encountering in our own lives.  We are not meant to focus on the thorn but the extravagant grace of God that even when we are weak we are strong.  


I find that our minds can quickly gravitate to the unknown and cause us to ignore the brilliant truths that are right in front of us.  Thorns distract us from God and cause us to look elsewhere.  But it is the all-sufficient grace of God that gives us strength to stand and glorify Him in all situations.  Let us increasingly lean to embrace the Grace of God more in our lives.