Category Archives: Eternal Life

Church Today, Eternal Life, God's Standard, God's people, Restoration, Righteousness, Sin

In the Church but not of the Church

Posted by admin on June 30, 2010 at 12:07 pm.

For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things (Phil 3:18-19).

                Every time I read these verses from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, I wonder if the people he describes are among the body of the local church or if they are outside it. Having been in ministry for almost 3 decades, I lean toward them being in the church. Of course, they could be in either place, but he is writing this portion with tears, suggesting that there is a nearer and dearer relationship with these people than would develop with unbelieving people. While I am sure that Paul consciously developed relationships outside the local body, the deeper relationships would grow within it, among people that he was discipling and teaching. These, I would expect, would create more emotion in him if he needed to characterize their lives in this way.

                It’s not much different today. There are people in the church that are Christ’s enemies. Oh, they give lipservice to His Truth, but their lives are so lukewarm that the people of this world cannot see any significant difference in them from themselves. These “Christians” are the ones that are uncomfortable when conversations at work turn to spiritual things. They feel guilty when a friend or co-worker boldly proclaims what these “Christians” say they believe. Sometimes in private, they will try to minimize the things that their bold friend had proclaimed.

                These are the people that Jesus referred to when He said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 7:21). As Paul says it, “Their end is destruction.”

                Often the people Paul describes here will try to compartmentalize their lives – Sunday is for God and the other six days are for the things I want to do. They are reluctant to see their decisions to spend money or to indulge in their favorite pastime or dessert as spiritual decisions, and certainly not sin. After all, they can “worship” God just as easily on the golf course or fishing lake as they can in a church building! Their “appetite” may mean food, literally, or it may mean their favorite indulgence.

                When Jesus wrote to the Church in Laodicea in Rev. 3, He observed that the lukewarm people in that church saw themselves as rich and not in need when they were really poor and blind and naked. They gloried in what really was to their shame. So it is among so-called Christians today who assume the prosperity of their lives must imply God’s favor with them. There is often a smug sense of self-righteousness, a “righteousness” that God tells us is like the rags stained with a woman’s menstrual impurity (Is 64:6), as far as He is concerned.

            How do we respond to such people in the Church? First, make certain that we are not among them! Be sure that sin is confessed and the core truths of the faith are true at the deepest level in our hearts. In addition, we should pray and weep – as Paul did – for these who are our friends whose faith is so shallow and whose hearts are so deceived.

Church Today, End Times, Eternal Life, Evangelism, Iran, Israel, Missions, Scripture, nations

Signs of the Times

Posted by admin on June 15, 2010 at 4:52 pm.

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

                “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (Matt 24:4-14).

                We Christians recognize that God can turn bad news into good news whenever He chooses. That was my friend’s meaning when he sent me an email with a caption: “Maybe there is an escape route to bypass the old folks home or the cancer ward…The pieces are in place.” What followed was an article explaining that the shortest path from Israel to Iran is over Saudi air space and the Saudis will “look the other way” if Israel should use it to take out Iran’s nuclear weapon program.

                We live in perilous times. The Bible is clear that in the end the earth will burn and “the elements will melt in the heat”(2 Pet 3:12). Global warming is probably not in view here, but a nuclear holocaust may be. So Peter tells us to live holy lives and hasten the coming of the Lord (also v.12).

                When Jesus spoke the words quoted in the text above, He was not being an alarmist. He was simply being factual. But He too explained how we should be responding to the signs of the times: we are to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. When the last person has heard, the end will come (Matt 24:14). Actually, this is HOW we “hasten the coming of the Lord.”

                Obedient Christians recognize that the deteriorating conditions of our world create for us the motivation to do evangelism both here and abroad. While some people think that “compassion” simply means helping the poor and marginalized receive subsistence for living and justice in this world, real Christian love will be concerned with what will happen to the human soul when this world ends. Sometimes to get past people’s prejudices about the Christian Gospel, we need to provide basic temporal needs, but it must never stop there. Until they have had an opportunity to hear and respond to the claims of Christ, our job is not done and the relief we provide is inadequate.

Atonement, Eternal Life, Heaven, Jesus, Peter, Repentance, Satisfaction, Sin

Justice, Not Love

Posted by admin on June 4, 2010 at 3:16 pm.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8-10).

                Sometimes changing a word in a familiar passage of Scripture awakens our minds to the truth that is really there. I had a professor in seminary that used to intentionally misquote I John 1:9 for just that point. He would say, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and LOVING to forgive us our sins…”

                My professor’s misquotation highlighted the common misunderstanding in our hearts concerning the basis for our forgiveness. We imagine that God as the compassionate Heavenly Father feels so lovingly toward us when we confess our sins that He chooses to forgive. After all, that always seemed to be the basis for our parents’ forgiveness when we offended them. I know a woman who recalls that at the age of 5 she figured that she would crawl up in God’s lap and He would be so moved by her that He would forgive whatever wrong she had done. After all, it had worked with her earthly father!

                But God does not forgive because He feels sorry for us. If He did He would not be a perfectly holy God. He forgives us because Jesus’ death satisfied His wrath against our sin. Lest I am misunderstood, let me say that He does love us, and He does have compassion for us, and He is moved by our repentance and brokenness. But that is not the basis for His forgiveness.

                Romans 3:26 points out that the purpose of Christ’s atoning sacrifice was that God might “be just (in His character) and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” If He, like the Islamic god, Allah, simply forgave sin capriciously, according to His mood when we happened to arrive at His judgment seat, He would not be just at all – He would actually be UNjust.

                No other religious system in the world offers a way to forgive sin without detracting from the holy character of God. Christianity is exclusive. And that is why Peter could say in Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Apart form Jesus, there is no forgiveness.

Eternal Life, Eternal Son of God, Heaven, Jesus, Passover

Celebrating Passover with Jesus

Posted by admin on March 7, 2010 at 9:07 pm.

When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” Luke 22:14-16

Some might dispute my statement that the central celebration in the Jewish calendar was intended to be Passover and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. By this statement I am not trying to diminish God’s many deliverances of the Jewish people that are celebrated throughout their calendar year. But I am suggesting that the Passover is central to them all. Before He suffered and died, Jesus celebrated it with His disciples.

There was a sense among the ancient Jewish and Hebrew commentators that somehow Messiah would deliver the nation on the anniversary of their deliverance from Egypt which happened the day after Passover. This sense was correct for Jesus died the day after the Passover. Messiah did indeed deliver His people on this day.

Christian theology teaches that the inaugural event of heaven will be the “Marriage Supper of the Lamb.” I can’t quite figure out how it can be an inaugural event in a world without time, but I will leave that dilemma to God. But that event would appear to be comparable, if not identical, to the Passover feast on this side of eternity, and Jesus says in the passage above that He will “eat it again.”

Over the years, as our church has celebrated Passover by pointing to its fulfillment in Christ, we have recognized how completely this event melds the Old and New Testaments together into a single unit. The Exodus was central to the deliverance of the nation of Israel from the taskmasters of Egypt; Christ’s death was central to the deliverance of all mankind from the harsher taskmaster of sin. It is wonderful to celebrate not only with music and message, but to see how even the traditional food and ceremony point to the truth of Jesus’ deliverance of men.

It is even more thrilling to know that what we do each year is just a rehearsal for heaven where Jesus Himself will be physically present!

Christ, Death, Eternal Life, Faith, Gentiles, Jesus, Messiah, Sovereign Lord

Prepared for death

Posted by admin on February 15, 2010 at 2:47 pm.

Luke 2:25-32  Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:  “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

                Probably my favorite character (aside from Jesus) in the Christmas story is the old man, Simeon. He was a faithful and godly man in the midst of a religion of external forms and ritualistic worship. At some point – we don’t know if it was that morning when he woke up or months before – God had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen Messiah. But eight days after Jesus was born, His parents brought Him to the Temple for His dedication and, while there, they met Simeon.

                Simeon recognized the Baby Jesus as the Messiah and “sang” the wonderful hymn that is recorded in verses 29-32, called the “Nunc Dimittus.” (This is the last of four hymns recorded in the first two chapters of Luke and takes its name from the first words of the Latin text.)

                I like Simeon and his song because he has life in its proper perspective. First he recognizes that God has him in this world for a purpose. Once he recognizes Messiah, he can be “dismissed” by the “Sovereign Lord.” His work is done; his next assignment is in a different venue – heaven. We who are “in Christ” should take our cue from Simeon – we are here as servants of God, not those who issue the orders! He calls us to His service and dismisses us when He is done with us – not the other way around.

                Simeon also has a global perspective. While God’s principle place of activity was within the nation of Israel, Jesus was still “a light of revelation to the Gentiles.”It was always within God’s scope that ALL nations would worship Him. Around His throne will be some “from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (see Rev. 5).

                But mostly I like Simeon because he is prepared to die. It’s not a fearful thing; he may not know exactly what death will bring, but he knows the One who has ordered it. And he trusts Him.

                Lots of people today aren’t ready to die. But they can be – if only they follow Simeon’s example, and actively look for Messiah.

Bread of Life, Church, Disciples, Eternal Life, Eternal Son of God, Jesus, Jesus' Teachings, John 6:68-69, Moses, Peter, Uncategorized

Bread Of Life

Posted by admin on January 25, 2010 at 2:46 am.

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69 NIV)

It’s easy to forget in the ministry of Jesus that He also faced the attrition of His following. In John 6, after He spoke so clearly about being the “Bread of Life” many of His disciples left Him. There were several hard teachings in this passage that they stumbled over. Among them,

  • The connection between Jesus and the manna that sustained the Hebrews in the wilderness. As it came down from heaven, so did Jesus. As it nourished them, so does Jesus.
  • That we must “eat” His body and “drink” His blood. These are obvious metaphors that describe the assimilation of His life and teaching into our lives.
  • That what we do with Jesus determines whether or not we inherit eternal life.

 

But it is interesting to read the response of Peter when Jesus asks him if he also would leave. Rather than taking his cue from the crowd that was leaving, Peter chose to stick with the One who would show him the way to eternal life.

We face the same issues in our day. Many people struggle with the exclusive nature of Jesus’ teachings, and so they turn from Him and His Church. Many are unwilling to assimilate His teaching into their lives – the relentless assault of the world’s values is too difficult to overcome – so they turn away from Him. Many in our day struggle with the idea that Jesus is the eternal Son of God – that He actually existed during the time that Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt. These things are too supernatural to believe. So they fall away.

 Peter seemed to understand that following Jesus was not a matter of joining the popular band wagon. He chose between those that followed until the going got tough or until Jesus quit making them feel good and eternal Truth.  He followed because he could trust Jesus’ “words of eternal life.” He became a real “disciple,” not just a “convert.”