Category: Church

Posted on

Which Jesus at Christmas?

There are lots of wrong ways to think about Jesus at Christmas, aren’t there? There’s the sentimental Jesus. This is the view that the baby in the manger is just a nice story. We repeat it because it’s part of Christmas folklore. The Jesus story gives us warm feelings at Christmas time. Sentimental Jesus is very popular. He doesn’t ask anything of you, and he just gives good feelings. We feel warm and cozy thinking about sentimental Jesus.

There’s the view that Jesus was just a good man. He was better than most people and that’s why we celebrate His birth. We talk about Him on Christmas to motivate all of us to be better too. His story might help me think about others at Christmas. Good Jesus is popular too. Good Jesus is good by our definition of good. Good Jesus certainly wouldn’t call anyone a sinner. He wouldn’t demand your repentance. Good Jesus doesn’t judge anybody for his or her rebellion against God.

There’s the view that Jesus wasn’t a real, historical figure. His existence is a myth that grew up over the centuries. Oh there probably was a real person named Jesus, but we’ve mythologized Him—kind of like Paul Bunyan. Well, really, kind of like Santa Claus. Christians just tell some tall tales about Jesus—walking on water, healing the lepers. Those are the types of stories that are told about mythical characters. Mythical Jesus is just a story that we can take or leave. He wasn’t real, but it’s really harmless and even quaint that people still believe in Him.

Hopefully, Christians are not tempted to think of Jesus in those terms. But there’s another wrong way to think about Jesus that Christians are susceptible to. This is Sunday Jesus. Who’s Sunday Jesus you ask? It’s the belief that Jesus was real, but all He asks of us is our Sundays. We give Him a Sunday—and not even all of them. I think He’s fine with just a Sunday once in a while. It’s more of a courtesy, a tip so to speak. We give Him a Sunday and the rest of the week we’re on our own. Sunday Jesus doesn’t make a difference the rest of the week. We sing about Him on Sunday, but we’re on our own on Monday. Well, it’s not that we’re on our own, but that we can ignore Him on Monday.

Sunday Jesus is King in the same sense that most men are the “kings” of their houses. His wife and kids kind of wink and allow the man to pretend he’s in charge. We nod and wink and let Jesus pretend He’s in charge. “King of kings” is more of an honorary title than a real description of Jesus.

Sunday Jesus isn’t Lord either. He doesn’t really call the shots in our lives. Again, I’m giving Him some of my Sundays. If He’s Lord, it’s on those days. It’s not all the time. I determine His lordship, which means He’s not really in charge.

Sunday Jesus doesn’t demand that we become like Him. That’s more of a suggestion. When it works out, if you can without much effort or inconvenience follow His lead, then by all means do so. But only if the cost is low enough, only if it doesn’t disrupt your plans.

Really Sunday Jesus is a shriveled Jesus. He’s a shadow of the Jesus described in the Gospels. He’s a shadow of the Jesus described in the Christmas story.

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Acts 2:36 (ESV)
On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. Rev 19:16 (ESV)

Are you worshipping Sunday Jesus or the real Jesus who is King and Lord and Savior?

Posted on

A Pastoral Prayer

Each Sunday morning I pray publicly for the congregation. My own devotional time, Scripture reading, and Christian reading provide some thoughts each week. I want to pray genuinely and also teach my congregation how to pray. For example, I want them to understand how to confess sin in prayer. Here’s one from a few weeks ago.

Dear Father, Our hearts have so many other loves, but only one is necessary—Jesus. Like Martha we are distressed and moved about by many things, but one thing is needful—time with Jesus. Remind us again this morning of Jesus’ love for us, and help us love Jesus most of all.

God, Ephesians describes you as rich in mercy. Some here this morning may think that’s good poetry but not true in their lives. Some bear more of the marks of a sin-cursed world than others. They’ve been mistreated, betrayed, attacked, diminished, and hurt. And it’s easy to wonder where is the evidence of your mercy in their life. But Father, the evidence of your mercy is your mistreated, betrayed, [and] attacked Son who died for us. And through his death we all know your mercy.

God, we have hearts that are stubborn and hard. Please make us pliable and teachable. We need your truth. You tell us that your Word is a light for our path and a lamp unto our feet. We need spiritual truth to make sense of life and yet we don’t seek your Word and we don’t listen when it’s presented to us. Soften our stubborn hearts this morning. May your truth sung and preached be used by the Holy Spirit to change us.

Father, don’t let our worship this morning to be perfunctory, habitual, dead. Instead may our worship be passionate, fervent, earnest, and intense. We are able to work up excitement and emotion on our own, but only you can give us genuine worship. So banish any thoughts except those that are focused on you. Eliminate any distractions that would keep us from thinking about you. May we be thrilled with you this morning.

Your Word says that people love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. We need to be people that live in the light. First John tells us to walk in the light and it ties that to confessing sin regularly. So Lord, convict us when we hide our sin. We hide it by not admitting we’re wrong to others and to you. We hide it by actually keeping it secret from others. Convict us and let us know the sweet forgiveness that comes when we admit our sin.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Posted on

National Day of Prayer: for the Churches

I was asked to pray in Stevens County’s National Day of Prayer today, May 2nd. When asked, there were still a few subjects left, and I chose our community churches because it seemed one of the easiest in which to talk about the gospel. Here’s how I prayed at a community event in a way that was my attempt to be faithful to Christ.

Gracious Father,

Strong churches help us have a strong community. I’m thankful for those churches that are especially involved in serving our community’s physical needs. There are churches that provide free meals, that help the homeless, that encourage the addicted, that stand for life. Colville is better because of them and we thank you for them.

God, the church is an institution invented by you for the discipleship of your people and for the evangelization of the world. I pray that our churches will faithfully share the gospel. Our county needs Christ most of all. He changes people. He changed the Apostle Paul from a murderer into a missionary.

May those churches that love and share the gospel stay faithful to the Bible message. The good news needs to be known by all in Stevens County. May more and more realize they are sinners and that their sin separates them from a holy God. May they know that You must punish sin; you cannot wink at it or pretend it away since that would violate your nature. May they realize that Jesus was sent to live a perfect life and die in our place. A death that is substitutionary and effective for all who repent and believe. May our churches add nothing to the finished work of Christ on the cross. It is only by grace that we are saved.

Father, we need the words of life. We need the timeless truth of your Holy Word. So especially strengthen the pastors of our churches who labor long at understanding Scripture and teaching it to our congregations. May they preach the truth even if they are opposed. May they continue to be faithful to you.

I pray that our churches would get better at the one anothers of Scripture. The church should be different than the world. It should be a place where we love one another, forgive one another, bear with one another, live in harmony with one another, serve one another, be kind and compassionate to one another, admonish one another, encourage and edify one another, and so many more. Those are supposed to happen in our churches, and I pray they will.

Father, if anyone wants to be your disciple, Jesus said we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow you. May our churches produce more and better disciples of Jesus Christ.

God, you describe the church as a body in 1 Corinthians. It’s a picture that represents how each church needs every member. May our members faithfully attend, serve, and support our churches. If the entire body isn’t there, if the entire body isn’t serving, our local church bodies will limp along.

You also describe the church as a family when you call us the household of faith in Gal 6:10 and when you tell us to treat each other as fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters in 1 Tim 5:1. Lord, families function best when they are not at war with each other. May we give each other grace, may we obey Scripture, and reconcile with each other. May our churches be marked by forgiveness of each other because we know we have been forgiven by God. May our church families be loving families. May we treat each other with the kindness, love, and grace that is the mark of the best of families.

May our churches be truly healthy. Spiritual health isn’t measured by how large our auditoriums are, or how big our offerings are, or how many people attend. Spiritual health is measured by how faithful we are to the Bible. I pray our churches in Colville will be more faithful to Scripture.  

In our Risen Savior, Jesus’ name, Amen

Posted on

Preaching Goliath’s Sword

Once in church while growing up we had a guest missionary speaker. He preached on 1 Samuel 21:9, especially the end of the verse. This is when David comes to Nob and asks if Ahimelech the priest has a sword or spear and Ahimelech responds that they only have Goliath’s sword. David says, “There is none like it; give it to me.”

Probably several ways to go with this narrative in Scripture, but I never expected the way the guest speaker did go. He took David’s statement in 1 Samuel about Goliath’s sword, and he challenged, imagined, and speculated about David. He had Goliath’s sword being too big for David so much so that the point dragged on the ground and left a trail wherever David went. Everyone could see where David had walked. This is not in Scripture.

The missionary stomped around the platform illustrating what this must have looked like. He put his hand on his imaginary sword as if he was David and spoke what he thought David might have said. He imagined David’s mighty men having conversations about how tired they were of seeing David’s big sword. These fictional conversations had them being annoyed because every appearance showed how great a victory David had gotten and how they just didn’t measure up. He speculated that those same mighty men must have realized they needed to go out and get their own dramatic victory. That was really the application of the sermon. Go out and do great things for God.

It was entertaining, gripping, mesmerizing, and attention grabbing. He had lots of conjecture, guesswork, and speculation. Those last three words, while accurate to this sermon, are not the marks of biblical preaching.

You know the problem with this sermon already. Scripture. doesn’t. say. that. It doesn’t. After the sermon was over, we didn’t know much more about what the Bible actually said than before he began.

It was a great sermon that was ruined by Scripture. It seemed he cared more what he could make the Bible say than what it actually said. I guess it “worked.” I remember this sermon, and there are a lot of sermons that I don’t remember at all. But it wasn’t faithful to the Bible.

A homiletics professor related the story of a chapel speaker whose sermon—like the one above—had little relation to the text. One of the professor’s students came up to him after the chapel service and excitedly said, “I couldn’t have gotten that from that passage!” The professor responded genuinely, “I couldn’t have either.” 😉

Genuine, biblical preaching must, it must explain clearly what the passage says. That’s not all preaching does, but without it you don’t have faithful preaching. If your congregation doesn’t know what the passage says by the time you’re done, you’ve messed up.

That’s the type of preaching you should expect in your church. The sermon might not have a great introduction, or a stunning conclusion. It might not have helpful illustrations or specific application. All of those really help a sermon. But if the sermon is mostly conjecture or personal stories, then it’s not biblical preaching.

T. David Gordon in his book, Why Johnny Can’t Preach asks this question, ”Could they [the congregation] answer what was that sermon about and was it based on the text?” It’s a question to consider each time we preach. It is a weighty responsibility to get up each Sunday and essentially say, “thus sayeth the Lord.” We better be sure that the Lord has actually said that.

Posted on

Easy Christlikeness

Some Christians think that because they love those that like them, they are being Christlike. And probably they are. In fact, some Christians outside of Christ would be unkind even to those that like them—they would give evil for good. They are rascals. I was one of those rascals before Christ. That is a change that the gospel makes in us.

But that’s the low hanging fruit of sanctification. Jesus said that even unbelievers love those that love them (Luke 6:32). It’s not that hard.

It’s much more difficult to be Christlike with those that dislike us.

Once I saw a social media post where some friends in a ministry I love were slandered quite unjustly. I knew all the players on both sides of the issue. I’m unfortunately thoroughly up to speed on the attacker (and those that commented approvingly) and on those being attacked.

My response? To think angry thoughts towards the poster. And it was easy for me to excuse. I justified it because of their sinful life.  

But how quickly my thoughts turn to anger rather than love. How quickly I become defensive of the people I love (or myself) with nary a thought of praying for the attacker. In these situations the Spirit has used Romans 12 to convict me many times.

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Rom 12:17–21 (ESV)

This is one reason I know I am far, far from becoming like Christ. I find it very difficult to repay good for evil. I don’t have it in me to love my enemies, but Jesus said that is what I must do.

“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Luke 6:27–28 (NASB95)

The next verse tells me to turn the other cheek when someone strikes me and to give him my shirt after he stole my coat. If I cannot pray for those that mistreat me, I won’t ever give away my shirt.

You cannot minister long and well without some that you have tried to help turning on you unjustly. The Apostle Paul had both Demas and Alexander the Coppersmith, John the Apostle had Diotrephes who unjustly accused him, and Jesus had Judas. You and I will not fare any better than they did if we are faithful in ministry.

So… The Spirit brings me to my knees for confession and repentance. I need Christ to change me. Loving enemies is not natural to me. It is not easy to be Christlike. If it were easy, then I really wouldn’t need Christ, would I?

You will have a Diotrephes someday if you don’t have one right now. Will you overcome evil with good? Will your Diotrephes prove how much you still need Christ to change you?