Since we are celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior on this Lord’s Day, it’s safe to assume that our communion meditation will have something to do with resurrection. And you would be right, except that I want us to think about what stayed dead on Sunday morning. That’s right, what didn’t come out of that tomb?
Before Jesus died on that terrible cross and was placed in the borrowed tomb, He declared “It is Finished!”, and while we cannot know the exact moment when everything happened, I think it was right around this time that the veil in the temple tore from top to bottom. So in Word and in World we have the evidence that no more sacrifices were needed: Jesus paid it all. So what stayed dead on Sunday morning, when Jesus walked out of the tomb?
Your envy and your hatred stayed dead. That time you took the name of the Lord God in vain, or when you coveted your neighbor’s car, or house, or wife, when you committed adultery – or just cast the adulterous look – these all stayed dead on Sunday morning. When you backtalked your parents, when you violated the Lord’s Day, when you lied about your friend, or your enemy, or a stranger – none of these things survived the cross, and none were resuscitated on Sunday.
The times of being eaten up by jealousy, or consumed by rage, or living for selfish ambition, or when you sowed discord in the church: none of these emerged from the tomb. The proud look, the lying tongue, the hands that are swift to violence, the heart that devises wicked plans, the feet that run to mischief…all these acts met their death in the death of Christ and did not share in the glories of His resurrection. When Jesus came out of the tomb, He was no longer bearing every bitter thought and every wicked deed. These all stayed dead.
Something – or rather Someone! – did come out of that tomb, and with Him came everlasting life, the forgiveness of sins, justification, adoption, sanctification, glorification, and an eternal inheritance incorruptible and un-defilable. These all came out with Jesus, but your sins are gone. You may have lied last week, but that lie died on the cross 2000 years ago. You may be struggling right now. Tempted. Out of control. On the verge. But rest assured my friends, whatever you are struggling with today was dealt with 2000 years ago on an old rugged cross. What stayed dead on Resurrection Sunday were your sins, and the one who bore them to their grave welcomes with you nail pierced hands today.
If I asked you when your greatest moment of worship took place, what would your mind run to? Would you think of a particularly powerful moment in a song service when you felt your soul flooded with love for God? That wouldn’t be surprising, since “worship” in the western church is nearly synonymous with music. This is an unfortunate development, and I want to suggest that your greatest moment of worship did not happen while the lights were dimmed and the chords of modern Christianity were being stroked. I might even go farther and suggest that your greatest moment of worship had no concurrent emotional ecstasy. It might have felt downright horrible.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service (spiritual worship). And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Romans 12:1-2
What is worship? Romans 12 tells us that it is sacrifice. Not the sacrifice of a dead animal, because that was all done away with when Christ came. It is a living sacrifice. It is your sacrifice. Worship is the sacrifice of something dear and precious to you for the sake and for the love of Christ. On a regular basis, it is the daily habit of dying to self and living for God. But on occasion, the offering springs from some deep desire or ambition that drives and motivates you at your core, and the giving up of that thing is like Abraham’s offering of Isaac: it is nearly unthinkable.
When you offer that dream, or that ambition, or that choice, up to God, you are slaying any rival to God that lives in your heart. You are declaring that you do not serve God so that He can enable your deepest desires, but you are serving God because He is worthy. Worthy, from the same root as worth-ship.
Often times this turning away from self comes not only at great personal cost, but at the consternation of those around you. Even those who genuinely love you will probably misunderstand what you are doing. You won’t be surrounded by a myriad of other Christ-followers lifting their voices and hands in praise; you will be alone. It’s possible a close friend or a spouse or a pastor who understands the nature of worship will get it. But the majority won’t. They will not applaud. And God has done this on purpose, so that you will not do it for their applause, but for His.
Your greatest moment of worship came when you turned away from your own feelings, desires, and dreams and made a choice to live for God in a very specific way. You sacrificed personal fulfillment in favor of being pleasing to God. Maybe you told the truth and it cost you your career. Maybe you led your family and your wife left you for the world. Maybe you gave up a blossoming ministry to become and anonymous missionary. It could be something that if told in a story would be utterly banal, but in your soul it was as dramatic as Elijah’s battle with the false god on Carmel. And when you did that, you might not have felt the glory roll through your soul. But glorious it was to your God. These are the great worship moments in the life of the believer.
I am not discouraging you from attending the gathering of your local church this morning and lifting your voice in praise to our great God and Savior. That is good and right and He is worthy. But if your life is not a living sacrifice, stirred up feelings on Sunday morning don’t mean much to God. He is looking for those who worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, not in feelings. He wants your life on the altar. He wants your living sacrifice.
Is there anything we are more likely to misinterpret than trials? Is there anything we are more likely to respond to in an emotionally asymmetric way than adversity? Every instinct we have as human beings is to desire fair weather. Unbridle confidence can spin on a dime and become unbridled anxiety in the face of pain and suffering. We leave our humanity behind and resemble primal beasts that only see in pain a reason to run.
But even a wild creature may be tamed and taught to trust. A dog may sit still while a wound is cleansed if his head rests in the lap of a trusted master. A horse may be calmed by the stroking of a hand that has oft led it and fed it. If we trust God, and we believe that there is some relationship between our trials and our God, then we, too, may learn to rightly interpret our trials.
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
James 1:2-3
God is sovereign over our trials.
No storm has ever arisen that was outside of His controls. All things are working for good because all things must submit to His wisdom and His purpose. The envy of Joseph’s brothers and the Pharisee’s hatred of Jesus were both evil, and yet were both unwitting agents of a greater Good that brought about a greater redemption. History is not being made: it is unfolding according to the redemptive plan of our Creator.
Maybe the reason we struggle so hard to accept that trials are an inevitable part of life is because we have made the mistaken assumption that to be a Christian means to have some level of control over our lives. Or maybe we struggle with the assumption that since God has loved us in an ultimate way, pain must be outside of His plan for us. Instead, we should remember that God’s plan for His Son included great suffering and we are walking in His footsteps. You didn’t wake up to a morning of trials and find God asleep. This is still the day that God is making, and we are to rejoice and be glad in it.
(28) And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (29) For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Romans 8:28-29
God doesn’t bring trails to make you quit.
He brings trials to reveal His Son in you. Like the sculptor patiently chipping away all the pieces that don’t belong, God determined to turn you into the image of His Son. We tend to think that if all pieces do not fall into place then it must be an indication that we are outside of God’s plan and blessing. We misinterpret the difficulties as being indications that we should just give up. We respond with discouragement instead of resolve when the reports are not all favorable.
When a father abandons his family, we don’t think “That guy read the signs correctly.” When a pastor quits praying, we don’t think “There’s a man who has come to grips with reality.” Trials don’t come to make us quit: they come to make us more like Jesus. The emotional asymmetry we experience when life is difficult often arises because of our broken theology: we don’t really believe that God is more concerned with what He can do in me than what he can do through me. Trials are tailor made to expose my weakness and my sin and my immaturity so that I can become more like Jesus.
It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
Psalm 119:71
God doesn’t bring trials to reduce ministry
He brings trials to increase ministry. Part of the reason this one is so hard to see is because we equate ministry with metrics that can be deceptive. Increased church attendance looks like fruitful ministry, but it might not be. A full calendar makes us feel productive, but it might just be busy-ness. We think that long-term gospel fruitfulness can be measured with a snapshot than we can post to social media.
But ministry flows from the things that break us open. Gospel incense is lit by the flame of suffering. The church grows through persecution and adversity. The day of visitation comes following a season of being reviled. Adversity makes us think that our ministry is shrinking, but that simply isn’t something we are capable of deciphering. God’s plan isn’t suddenly falling apart: it’s falling into place.
(8) We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; (9) Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; (10) Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
2 Corinthians 4:8-10
Even a beast may patiently endure when calmed by the touch of their master’s hand. Should not the sons and daughters of God confidently endure their trials, looking for the perfecting of the soul and the doors of opportunity that they bring, when we realize we are held in the nail-scarred hand of the One who loves us?
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Matthew 28:18-20
Before He ascended to be with His Father, Christ gave His disciples their marching orders: to make disciples from all nations. This task has something of the military objective to it. It was a tall order, and from a human perspective one could easily see how a journalist living 2000 years ago would have thought the whole thing a big joke. After all, the Christian army consisted of fishermen, tax collectors, and women. No funding. No army. No existing institutions.
The logistics for launching such a mission would have been incredible: how would they be equipped? How would they be fed? How could such an army be sustained? The odds against Christianity surviving even a generation would have been massive.
But fast forward 2000 years and you won’t find any doubters. Not to say that the mission is complete: we still face a task unfinished. And scoffers and doubters still abound who think that the Church is on the verge of collapse. But what no one can deny is that against all odds, Christ has sustained His Christian soldiers and they have marched onwards, taking the news to every land, wafting it on the rolling tide, singing above the battle strife, and preaching to sinners far and wide that Jesus Saves, Jesus Saves.
God fed the children of Israel for 40 years in the wilderness by giving them manna from heaven. Christ blessed a boy’s sack lunch and fed over 5000 with 5 loaves of bread and 2 little fish. But for His Church, Christ gives us Himself. He feeds us and fills us. He is the Bread that came down from Heaven, and there is plenty to go around. Be it 5000 or 5 million, He is enough for everyone who sits at His table. So come, let us gather around the table again and let the Captain feed us, love us, and strengthen us for the task unfinished.
Sozo Healing (from the Greek σώζω, translated “save” or “deliver” and used 110 times in the New Testament) is described by Bethel ministry as “a gentle, yet powerful, tool for inner healing and deliverance” on their website (links at the bottom of this post). A friend asked me to look into this and so, always looking for an excuse to write, here are my thoughts.
Chesterton rightly observed that the difference between Christianity and Eastern mysticism is observable in their art: the fat Buddah sits with his eyes closed, peering within, while the emaciated medieval Christian mystic stares wildly about him as if in shock. In other words, the Eastern mystic looks within for Nirvana while the Christian gazes about looking for Christ.
Sozo healing certainly has some laudable goals, such as getting to the root of issues hindering your connection to the Godhead, or healing painful/traumatic wounds or memories. I think most Christians would be on board with these in principle, although the phrasing can be a bit off-putting. The issue is that Sozo healing locates the means of attaining these goals in an inward, mystical experience through which one is guided, instead of through faith in the finished work of Christ. In Sozo healing, it is through the imagination and emotional experience that healing is achieved, much like the Buddha finds Nirvana in his meditation.
But Scripture would point us away from ourselves. Peace does not come in turning within, but in looking without. The mistake that Sozo healing makes is the same one that modern psychology makes: they think the cure can be found in the same place as the poison. And while it is true that healing must happen in the places where we are broken, the Healer must not be the stuff of our twisted hearts.
Below are listed 4 goals that Bethel lists on their website, and below each is a Scripture to contrast the methodology of Sozo healing with Scripture’s admonition to look to the finished work of Christ on our behalf. What I particularly want you to notice is the absence of turning to imaginary encounters with God, but instead the continued emphasis of living presently in the reality of Christ’s finished work.
Goal 1 – Get to the root of issues hindering your connection with the Godhead
Col 1:20-22 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (21) And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled (22) In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.
Reconnect with each member of the Trinity and receive a fresh revelation of God’s love
Rom 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (36) As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. (37) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. (38) For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, (39) Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Heal painful/traumatic wounds and memories.
Php 3:13-14 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, (14) I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Experience the life of freedom and wholeness that God has for you
Rom 6:11-14 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (12) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. (13) Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. (14) For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
So, in short, I would strongly advise Christians not to engage in this kind of thing, as it tends to have more relation to the fat Buddha than the wide-eyed Christian.
I’m a couple weeks late on this one, but as we are almost a quarter of a way through another century, I think we need some high and lofty resolutions for the Church. Small changes really can make a difference, but we also need goals that are somewhat visionary: they paint a picture on a grander scale of our aims. Here are 3 resolutions that I think apply not just to my local church, but to the American Church at large.
Resolution #1 – Make Church feel like Church
1Ti 4:13 Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
Church should not feel like a concert. Church should not feel like a theatrical production. Church should definitely not feel like a comedy club. The way we communicate impacts what we communicate. When people leave church, they should feel like they have been to church.
This is not a knock on metal buildings or shop-front places of assembly; this is a call to publicly embrace, without apology, the sober and joyous spirit of those who gather to hear the preaching of the Word of God, edify one another, observe Communion, and pray. How much of your time together as a congregation is taken up in prayer? What’s the ratio of time spent singing to time spent studying the Bible? We know that when we come together, there are certain things that we are supposed to happen. Are these the things that are actually happening, or are they things we “sneak in” amidst a barrage of more sensually pleasurable experiences so that people don’t perceive us as boring?
Christians should feel no shame about the sincerity of their prayers, the joy of partaking of Communion, or the straightforward preaching of Truth. This is who we are. This is what we do. And frankly, spending time in prayer just isn’t as exciting as watching a skit. Listening to a preacher who makes us laugh is more pleasurable than listening to a preacher who helps us see our reflection in the Word.
The problem with making church feel like a comedy club is that at some point, the church will become a comedy club. Adorning the worship of the Lord with all the accoutrements of a concert will eventually make the church feel like a concert. Instead of making an effort to make church feel less “churchy” so that infidels feel comfortable, let’s make church feel like a church so that infidels can tell the difference.
Now you might argue that making church “feel” like church is just the same sort of thing in the opposite direction. That if we start pulling out the old organ that’s been shoved in a closet until Miss Betty dies so we can throw it away without causing a church split, then we’re really just making the church feel like something cultural from the past. And so we can have our comedy club or concert vibe and just do the things the church is supposed to do and then we really get the best of both worlds.
The problem I have with that is it’s a pose and everyone knows it. Let me illustrate. Let’s say that an evangelist goes to some godless New England city and begins to see a bunch of converts come to Christ. And in that neighborhood, there was a night club that all these pagans used to party at and among the converted is the owner of that night club. Needing a place for this burgeoning congregation to meet, and what with the crazy prices of real estate, these new believers move in and get baptized in a hot tub they brought over from Frank’s deck. So there they are with the weird club lighting and the preacher standing behind the old bar with the glass shelves reflecting his bald spot while a bunch of shot glasses grace the cover of the hot tub for Communion. What say I? I say hallelujah and amen. This is clearly a case of the gospel conquering the wickedness of that place and the whole thing is redemptive.
But then another guy comes to town and sees how well this new congregation is doing and he thinks, “This is what these people want! If I want them to come to church, I need to have my church look like a nightclub!” And pretty soon, he’s filled up his night club. Except that it’s filled with a bunch of church members from other churches in the area who left because their church wasn’t doing enough to reach people. This is just a pose. It’s marketing. It isn’t gospel anything. So don’t be that guy. Don’t be those church members.
The American Church has spent this century trying to look more like the world to attract the world, and it not only doesn’t work in general (even without Barna group data, we can all see the direction the culture is headed), it’s pretentious and often obviously so. The attractional model of church is spiritually bankrupt. Maybe one out of every fifty churches that tries to pull off “cool” pulls it off – the rest come across as second rate versions of the same thing the world has. So quit it. Just be a church, and be unapologetic about it. When people drive off, they shouldn’t have any doubts that they just left a church.
Resolution #2 – Put an End to Consumerism
Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.
(1Co 11:17-21)
“The youth department just isn’t big enough”
“ There aren’t enough kids”
“ I don’t like the music”
The church is not a mini-mall. The church is not a buffet. What we have become is the most selfish generation of Christians that have ever lived, and we have done it by accepting the dynamics of consumerism. The dynamics which will leave us with a few large churches with the most exciting youth ministry, the best kids ministry, and the most talented musicians. None of which are particularly impressive to God.
Maybe we should try walking into church like sinners saved by grace. Maybe we should try being a people whose hearts are not captivated by the trappings of the service, but a people whose hearts are captivated by the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, and believe that the power to save the neighbor who came with us or the kids we are raising lies not in the number of gym nights and pizza parties the church hosts, but in the gospel. I would love for my church to have a gym, but we don’t and it doesn’t matter. God’s power to save and transform does not lie in whether or not the church is large enough to have a Starbucks in the lobby.
There actually is a fix to this: don’t accept members into your church who left their last church for no good reason. Don’t accept members into your church until another local pastor specifically asks you to take them into your congregation. Make these juveniles grow up a little. Stop accepting that joining a church has roughly the same significance as joining a gym. We are members one of another for crying out loud.
Resolution #3 – Invite Someone to Church
Generally speaking, unbelievers visit a church because they were invited by someone they know and trust. I don’t have a cute graph for you so you can argue if you want, but I’m gonna stick to my guns on this one. Now many people who are already looking check out churches online before visiting, and I’ve got no problem with that. Looking for a new church home is time consuming and so if you have a way to limit the number of potential churches I think that makes sense. But when it comes to unbelievers (the unchurched), I think they are most likely to come because they were invited.
Now on the one hand, we live in a society where church attendance is declining. But on the other hand, we live in a world where people feel disconnected from one another. They are looking for connections. So invite someone to come see what it’s about. And don’t worry about whether it is “Friend Sunday” or anything like that (although those can be good excuses to invite someone). Trust that the faithful gathering of believers fulfilling the functions of the gathered church (see Resolution #1) is a sufficient opportunity for the Holy Spirit to work in that person’s life.
Inviting others can be relatively non-personal, like physically handing someone a tract or invitation of some sort as you go through a drive through. On the other hand, it could be very personal, like inviting your next door neighbor. And that neighbor happens to know whether you parent your kids, or care for your lawn, or put your trash in others’ dumpsters. But this shouldn’t worry you, because as a Spirit filled individual, your life should be a wonderful testimony to the redemptive power of Jesus Christ.
Another benefit of inviting others to church is that it is a genuine act of hospitality that simultaneously shows that you are not ashamed of being a Christian. A lot of believers are kind of hunkered down right now, sometimes wondering how their employment might be affected if it because known that they are a church attending Christian. Inviting others indicates that not only are you Not Ashamed, you are also Not Afraid. And we could use a lot more Not Afraid in the world today.
And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
Rev 14:6-7
There is a glory to new things. Consider the new fridge you purchase that has extra storage drawers or a built in drink station. Consider the new sweater you buy that is free (so far!) from the stain of children’s sticky hands or the holes left by snags. New things are shiny. New things aren’t broken! New things don’t have cracked lenses. New things have new capabilities. There is a glory to new things.
There was a day when the gospel of Jesus Christ was new. There was a time when the blood stains on the cross were not yet dry. There was a day, as on the day of Pentecost, when the evangelist could be confident that he was bringing not just good tidings, but new tidings of great joy. And it was a glorious time for the church, though a glorious time filled with persecution, death, and loss. God had done a new thing, and it was glorious.
But there is also a glory to old things. There comes a point when the scratches and fading and mechanical obsolescence become – not a reason to replace – but a reason to treasure. There comes a point when the Jeep Wagoneer isn’t a fuel sucking behemoth that needs to go the way of the dinosaur, but the incarnation of another generation’s artistry and engineering. The glory of the old is that it has endured.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is, to man’s reckoning, a couple of thousand years old. It has endured the wars of mankind, empires whose names most of us would not recognize, assaults by every false religion and vain philosophy of man, technological advancements of every age, and yet it endures. It is not old: it is ancient. And its glory surpasses the glory of the towering peaks that outspan the lives of man, or the glory of the sun that daily runs its course with joy. Every failed assault has only served to show that the gospel of the Lord Jesus is an everlasting gospel, and that when post-modernism, humanism, Marxism, and every other -ism have been regulated to the dusty shelves of niche academia, the gospel will be as bright and glorious as it ever was.
But like the double helix of DNA, the gospel is both old and new. It is as old as our Eternal Father and yet as young as the risen Son. It is a two thousand year old foundation for Western civilization, and yet it is as fresh as new fallen snow. Our ancestors died clinging to the old rugged cross, and the old rugged cross is still saving sinners today. Those who are renewed by the gospel and those who make the gospel shine anew in every generation are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.
So come taste anew the old, old story of Jesus Christ, until He comes and makes all things new.
Nathan Writes 