Simeon and Anna: Examples To Help Us Wait For The Second Coming

As Christians think about the second coming of Jesus, we are often confronted not only with the reality of his return but with the question of how we should prepare for it. Every Christian should consider how to wait for Jesus. As we approach Christmas, we are given two wonderful examples of saints who were waiting the Messiah – Simeon and Anna. They, like us, were waiting in expectancy for Jesus but they were anticipating the birth of their King while we are anticipating his return in final consummation. Even though we are waiting for different advents of Jesus, Simeon and Anna stand in history as examples to the church for how to wait well.

 Luke 2:25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

Luke 2:36-38 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

1.     They were faithful.

Luke describes Simeon as a righteous and devout man and Anna as a woman who did not depart from the temple, worshipping and fasting and praying night and day. Both Simeon and Anna are now known in all of history as two people who were faithful in their life before God.  The fact that they were so fervent in their faithfulness in waiting for Jesus indicates that they were aware of the promises of Scripture. They had great conviction in their waiting, and they did not seem to waste that conviction on frivolous debates. They prayed, they worshipped, they obviously studied, they fasted, and they were consistent in worshipping their God who would give them their King. If we are asked how we should wait for Jesus, the primary answer is….in faithfulness.

2.     They were longing for comfort and redemption for God’s people.

While Luke says that Simeon was looking for the “consolation of Israel,” he also notes that Anna was looking for the “redemption of Israel.” Both of these phrases say the same thing. The consolation for Simeon would come in the Messiah bringing about the redemption of his people. In verse 30 Simeon says that his eyes have seen God’s salvation. Surely both Simeon and Anna knew the harsh life of living under the law. As they frequented the temple day in and day out, they knew the reality of their need for a sacrifice to end all sacrifice. They were acutely aware of their need for the Messianic hope as the Savior of the world. Simeon also knew that this great coming would sort out those who would believe and those who would not. Perhaps he knew from the prophets that this Messiah would be despised and rejected by many. Luke 2:34-35 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, "Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed."

Like Anna and Simeon, we await with a longing for the redemption of God’s people, but we await the final consummation on the day of salvation that has already been won for us in Jesus’ first coming and work on the cross.

3.     They waited in the grace of God.

The description we are given about Simeon is that the Holy Spirit was upon him. It was by God’s grace that Simeon had such faithfulness in his wait and such wisdom in his expectation. Also by the grace of God, Anna was described as a prophetess. It seems that she was given a good sense of wisdom about the prophecies concerning the Messiah and would tell people of her expectations. When she saw Jesus, she abounded in gratitude having tasted God’s great grace in new measure. Either way, it seems that Simeon and Anna were waiting in the grace of God relying on his truth and the faithfulness of his promises.

 It is also worth noting that Anna declared to all what she had seen. For us, when Jesus returns in his second coming, we will have no further opportunity to tell others about him. Our opportunity for that is right now.

Regardless of the differences of advents, Simeon and Anna instruct us unto faithfulness, expectancy, a desire to see the full consummation of salvation for the church, and a reliance on God’s grace. We should be thankful for their example and allow this Christmas season to drive our eagerness of Christ’s final return.

Correcting Our Misconceptions About The Second Coming

In Matthew 24, Jesus taught his disciples about the events leading up to his second coming and also a description of that very event. A short time later, those same disciples (ex – Judas) saw him ascend into heaven with a declaration that he would return in the same way. With the church then being established through this apostolic witness, you can imagine that the hope of this return taught by the apostles would be of great intrigue to new believers in Jesus. You can also imagine how easy it would be for early Christians to consider various dilemmas associated with Christ’s return and open a door for confusion and false teaching.

In the New Testament letters, we find that these very dilemmas and provocations from false teachers provide even more context for us to understand the nature of the second coming of Christ. They enable us correct misunderstanding in our own time.  We find this most specifically in the letters of Paul, Peter and John.

Misconception 1. There is a disadvantage to dying prior to the return of Christ.

In a section spanning from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11, Paul is assuring the Thessalonian church that their brothers and sisters in Christ who have already died are not disadvantaged by dying before Christ’s return. 1Th 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. Paul goes on to assure these believers by speaking specifically about the second coming of Christ. He assures them that because of the resurrection of Christ, there will be a resurrection for Christians who have died.  In verse 15 Paul specifically declares that those who are left alive until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who are dead but will be resurrected with them in the air with the dead even rising first. The context of the dilemma about Jesus return clearly sets out the principle that at the second coming of Christ there will be great eternal advantage for both those who have died and those who are still alive. In the early part of chapter 5 Paul also emphasizes (within the same context of the second coming question) that those who are not believers will be surprised by a sudden judgment that they are not prepared for.

Misconception 2. Our persecutors get away with injustice toward us.

In his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul starts by assuring the Thessalonians that the current persecution they are going through will not be in vain. In 1 Thessalonians 1:5-12, Paul assures this church that the worthiness of their suffering is absolutely assured in the fact that those who afflict them will be brought to eternal justice, “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God” and do not obey the gospel of Christ (vs 7-8).  If we think that evil is winning and injustice is being left unpunished in the world, a right view of the second coming means that this is not true and we can continue to count the cost of the gospel knowing there is greater reward in eternity.

Misconception 3. Jesus is taking too long. Did we miss him?

In 2 Thessalonians 2:2 Paul tells the church not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. While in his first letter to this church they were worried about their dead brothers and sisters missing out on Christ’s return, it now seems that false teachers are telling them that they have missed out on Christ’s return. He then goes on to teach the church that Jesus has indeed not yet returned. He tells them that before he does return there will be continued lawlessness and even a great exponent of lawlessness that will first be revealed. They need not worry that they have missed the second coming. 

In his first letter, the Apostle John says much the same thing.  1John 2:18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. John, in the same way as Paul (and Jesus in Matthew 24), tells his readers that false Christs are around and leading up to a great exponent of a false Christ. This helps them know that they are in the last hour.  They are living toward the second coming of Christ.  They therefore need to be ready. 1 John 2:28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. Believers are not like the antichrists, we are like Jesus, and at his return we will be like he is – 1 John 3:5.

Misconception 4: The world just goes on, Christ is not coming at all.

Peter was writing to a group of churches and warned them of the harassment of scoffers who will taunt them about the second coming of Christ. These scoffers would suggest that the operation of this world will continue in the present just as in the past.  In 2 Peter 3:3-13 he tells the church these scoffers easily forget that God has previously judged this world through the great flood of Noah and would one day bring final judgment with the same universal and sudden wrath upon the world. Just because Jesus has not yet come and the time has gone beyond your expectation does not mean he is dragging his feet or that he is not coming at all. Peter then makes the very famous statement that Christians often recite, “with the Lord, one day is as 1000 years and 1000 years is as a day.” The Lord has not forgotten his church and his patience is working so that all of his elect will see the full fruition of repentance. The warning for us is to therefore be ready for the suddenness of his return which is the same type of suddenness as a thief in the night.

These statements in Paul, Peter and John’s writings are just a few of the great testimonies of about Jesus’ return in the New Testament. As we see the context of each of their statements we learn to put away our misconceptions about Jesus’ return and long for the day in which he will judge this world and put all things right. To know the answers to these misconceptions is to live our lives in anticipation of his return. Correcting these misconceptions removes indifference from our life and replaces it with intentional, persevering preparation.

The Second Coming Is Not a Second Rate Doctrine

Too often the consideration of last things has been relegated to the too-hard basket. That’s possibly because over the years we have found reason to debate about the minutiae of the doctrine of Christ’s return rather than encouraging each other in it. Our concerns for times and seasons and sequences of events formed through commitments to systems have somewhat dimmed our unity on matters of the end that are meant to solidify and unify Christ’s Church.

If I were to attempt a list of matters pertaining to the second coming of Christ that Christians must hold simply to maintain the unity of the church, I would suggest the following:

·      Christ is personally and physically yet to return.

·      There will be a resurrection for both the righteous and unrighteous.

·      There is a coming judgment for the wicked that will initiate eternal punishment.

·      There is a coming gathering of the saints for all eternity.

·      There is a final day that will bring the end of death and sin.

·      There will be a destruction (not necessarily annihilation) of the current physical creation.

·      There will be a new heavens and earth.

·      There will be a dwelling of God with his people in sinless perfection forever.

No doubt, even while reading through this list, there are some who may sequence some of these events in accord with their theological systems and millennial views.  I, however, am asking that we step back for a moment and think about the ramifications of the general nature of this list. If we deny these points, we demolish hope. If we deny these points, we weaken our strength of conviction to stand in persevering faith. If we deny these points, we lose all confidence as we inevitably face our own death.

The basic reality of the doctrine of the second coming is that this doctrine (and real expectation) is at the very heart of motivation for the church to continue in this present age. I am in no way undermining the importance of other doctrines. The doctrine of Creation helps us to understand what this world SHOULD be. The doctrine of sin and judgment helps us to understand why this world is currently the way it is. The glorious doctrine of the cross and resurrection is the assurance of atonement for sin and appeasement of God’s wrath. It also makes certain every promise of God. The doctrine of the second coming tells me that there is a final completion of it all that initiates a complete reconciliation of creation, the glorification of the saints, and the final vindication of God’s righteousness. Without the doctrine of the second coming, I am left weak and wanting, wondering if we will ever see an end to sin and suffering.

Well, take heart. Because of the resurrection, even though we have spiritually been raised to new life in Christ, we too will be physically raised on the last day with a great and glorious resurrection body.

Jesus is coming, and this doctrine completes my hope. It’s time for the church to unite and reclaim the precious essential truths of the second coming of Christ.

When Context Defeats Our Theological System

Matthew 24 is one of the most contested chapters in all of Scripture. The reason for this is not terribly surprising considering that the whole chapter deals with the disciple’s question to Jesus about future times and events. It is one of those chapters that is almost impossible to read without bias. So many of us have been brought up developing a bias toward certain positions and systems about end times and when we read chapters like Matthew 24 it is almost impossible to let the biblical authors speak for themselves. The weight of importance increases when we also remind ourselves that these biblical authors wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Who are we to import our own ideas into God’s word?

A great example of our systematic biases comes right at the beginning of Matthew 24 in verse three. The disciples approach Jesus privately with questions. Matthew 24:3 – “As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’”  The debates many love to have about Matthew 24 start in this verse and carry on through the entire chapter.  How many questions are the disciples asking and how do those questions help us to divide up the entire chapter into neat time frames that fit into our own eschatological systems.

Some people believe that the disciples came asking Jesus three questions. One was about the destruction of Jerusalem, one was about the signs of his coming, and the last was about what might happen at the very end. People who see it this way divide the chapter up according to separate eschatological events. This is essential for one particular type of eschatological system that does not fit into the text any other way. 

Likewise, others see only two questions. One was about the destruction of Jerusalem and one about the second coming and the end of the age. These two questions are then used to find only two events in the text with one singular coming of Christ at the end of time.

I am not explaining the theological systems behind this because my intention is to make a greater point. In fact, I used to hold strongly to the two-question view until I was asked to consider the context. The verse says that the disciples approach Jesus privately to ask these questions. They have just heard Jesus tell the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem that their house (the temple) will become desolate and that they will not see him again. As he left Jerusalem, the disciples pointed out the temple and buildings and Jesus essentially told them that it would all be destroyed. Now the disciples privately ask him what we read in Matthew 24:3.

The disciples have no way of knowing whether they are even asking separate questions. They had not yet lived through the Romans sieging Jerusalem in 70 AD. They had not heard of any different eschatological systems that may or may not place a “rapture” before a final coming of Christ. They had no indication that there would even be another 2000 years of history (and you and I have no indication that there will not yet be another 2000 years of history). They could just as easily have been asking these questions thinking that everything was going to happen at once at some near or far point in the future.

A second important note to make about this is that when you seek to harmonize the questions in Matthew 24 with the same accounts in Luke 21 and Mark 13, there is no confirmation that the questions must be divided a particular way. If these divisions were so important for understanding the future, would they not also be important for the same accounts in the other gospels?

The bottom line here is simply this – the context does not have us looking for our neat divisions by dictating that the disciples could know more than they could possibly know. They are just confused about what to expect as they live toward the return of Christ. That’s really no different to you and me. If you keep this in mind and allow the text to then simply speak for itself without importing events that are not outlined in the text of Matthew 24, you get a simple message about persevering in Christ and waiting in obedience for his unmistakable return. It allows us to put away our division debates and long for our returning King as we proclaim his gospel to the world around us. Context, not our systems, makes light of God’s text.

Taking Cover Under The Hen's Wings

This past week I was on the end of recovering from covid while keeping up with three other brothers in Christ who were also fighting it. One of my brothers ended up in a real battle as the virus attacked his lungs, and he developed pneumonia. I felt anguish rise in my heart as I pleaded with the Lord to both restore him to health and calm his heart. At the same time, by God’s providence, I happened to be preparing a sermon starting with Matthew 23:27.  "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

In the middle of Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem, our Savior reveals the nature of his heart. His great desire was to gather Jerusalem to himself like a hen gathers its chicks under the protection of its wings. The sad reality of Matthew 23 is that Jerusalem was not willing, but for the one who knows the saving grace of God in Christ, they have this protection and love. This beautiful image of chicks taking shelter under the wings of a hen is not some baseless platitude from Jesus to a disobedient people. Jesus is revealing the unchanging heart of God for his people.

As Israel was to move into the promised land, God affirms how much he loves those he chose to be his people. Deuteronomy 32:9-11 “But the LORD's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. 10 He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. 11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions.”

In Ruth, a Moabite woman leaves her people to live with her Hebrew mother-in-law and trusts in the one true living God of Israel. As the Israelite, Boaz, receives Ruth, he says, "All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!" (Ruth 2:11-12).

In the Psalms, David sings of the providential care of God. Psalm 36:7 “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.”

Isaiah calls a floundering Israel to put their trust in God while other nations seek to bring their destruction. “Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it." (Isaiah 31:5).

This week my brother was struggling to breath, seeking any type of medical help available, and living in the uncertainty of human outcomes. Yet, he was also securely under the shadow of the all-protecting wings of our God who covers his children like a hen covers its chicks. To be in Christ is to have a confident reality of life that unbelievers can never know. My brother knew that no matter the outcome of his struggle, there is an eternal, all-powerful wing covering his every breath. We can be confident about this because this providential care that comes from God is something God desires to give to his children. It’s a yearning desire. 

Listen to Jesus say it one more time: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem…How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings…”  This sounds like it’s something Jesus truly wants to do.

Well, if you are in Christ, it’s what he is willingly doing for you right now. He’s doing it for my brother right now. Under Christ’s wings…There is no more secure place to be.

A Certain Future Because of the Past

When Christians are in the midst of suffering or anxiety, we often find another brother or sister in Christ ready to come alongside us with the comforting words that Jesus is in control.  They may even remind us that Jesus is on the throne and returning soon. The future is in his hands. While it is sometimes possible for us to use such words of comfort frivolously, we should also acknowledge that these words are true and are not in the category of false hope. We can remind each other of Christ’s control over the future because we have a concrete basis for our faith in such a comment.

In Revelation 5, John recounts the vision of the great scroll with seven seals that no-one is authorized to open. This scroll containing the sovereign victory plan of God has no eligible or worthy recipient to open or implement its content. John was distraught that there was no-one eligible to break the seals of this scroll until an elder from this great throne room scene identified the only possible candidate.

Revelation 5:1-5 Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?" 3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, 4 and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 5 And one of the elders said to me, "Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals."

In Revelation 5:5 we hear a description that makes sense.  A great Lion, and the prophesied descendant of the great king, David, is able to open this scroll. This is exactly who we expect to see opening such a scroll in this vision. We understand something about the intimidating roar of the king of the jungle.  We have seen enough movies to see the great and powerful good king riding into battle to save his people. But…this is not where this description ends. After hearing this description from the elder, John looks and does not see a lion or a great and powerful king – at least not in the normal sense of such a description. Revelation 5:6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.

If we imagined this scene in our mind and didn’t know any better, we might be tempted to lose confidence in the future. We were told of a great lion and king and yet we see a Lamb. Just picture a lamb in your mind for a moment. It’s not ferocious. It’s not what we would call powerful. In fact, most of us would think of this creature as defenseless and helpless. Not only that, but this Lamb is standing as though it had been slain. For a Christian, this picture becomes one of greater certainty than this world could possibly imagine.

This Lamb, described with seven horns and eyes, is the Second in the Trinity who has all power and knowledge and Who’s Spirit is present everywhere. A Lamb is the true and conquering Lion King because of his sacrificial work of atonement and his complete defeat of death and sin having risen from the dead. To die in the appeasement of human sin and to rise from that death is to show the greatest display of limitless Divine power.

John’s confidence is not in knowing exactly what is in the scroll, but in knowing who has authority and power to open it and carry it out. That authority, while described in terms of a powerful Lion and a descendant King, is seen in a Lamb who has brought the complete assurance of a victory already won.  John’s confidence in the future was sealed in Christ’s cross of the past. For John, this was an event he had already witnessed with his own eyes.

When we seek to give people comfort in their distress and we point to Christ’s authority over the future, this confidence is more than a platitude. It is a confidence that has already been determined in the death and resurrection of the Lamb. If the person you are comforting is to take any comfort at all from hearing that Christ is a reigning King, it must first come because they have faith in a slain Lamb who has risen with absolute authority over the future. Without the victory of the past, there is no certainty about the end.

We have a certain future because of the past.

Motivation for Mission: Guilt or Glory?

Is it wrong to have a negative motivation for the most important tasks in life? If we were honest, we would accept that some of our most important considerations are motivated by the potential of negative consequences. In our concern for human life, we prioritize safety. We wear seatbelts and buy cars with airbags because of what might happen if we didn’t have them. We check the ‘used by’ dates on food because we don’t want to get sick. We get lawyers to form legal wording that protects us from financial loss. We are creatures who constantly manage life because of the negative consequences of our Genesis 3 world.

For Christians, we know that the most significant consequence of a fallen world is being separated from God and under the condemnation of his righteous wrath. We know that this is the situation for all mankind outside of Christ and we know that if people do not hear and respond to the gospel, they remain under an eternal condemnation that they have no ability to change. If it were wrong to motivate by a negative consequence, then we should ask ourselves why the Apostle Paul does it. Rom 10:13-14 For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? What Paul is saying here is that if we do not go out with the gospel, the people who do not hear it cannot call upon the Lord and be saved. How will they believe if they have never heard?

We don’t point the finger at Paul because he is putting some guilt trip on us. In fact, we know that for the great missionary Apostle there was so much more to mission than the negative consequences of human sin. As Paul continues in Romans 10, he makes us aware that Jews have indeed heard that gospel. They have had it all along and rejected it. Romans 11 shows us that God has all along purposed to graft into one tree both Jews and Gentiles who repent of sin and trust in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. God is truly in charge of his gospel that goes out to all nations even though originally rooted in one nation. There is one tree of life representing one people of God in Jesus Christ. In Romans 9-11, Paul leaves no doubt that this tree is planted, grown, grafted, and brought to full maturity by God. At the end of Romans 11, Paul makes this clear in one of the most powerful statements in all of Scripture. Rom 11:36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Even when Paul calls us to consider that people will not be able to find salvation if nobody goes to them with the gospel, Paul also shows us that his ultimate motivation for all of it is because every aspect of God’s mission is for God’s glory. Paul may use a negative consequence to move our feet, but he ultimately wants to move our heart because a Christian should be most concerned about what God is most concerned about – His glory. It’s not wrong to say that we need to go to the nations because people need to be saved. It’s just not the highest motivation a Christian can grasp. When it comes to gospel mission, our heart and our feet move best when God’s glory is our greatest motivation. If you feel the guilt of the importance of mission, why not try grasping the glory? God saves for his own glory, and nothing could be more glorious.

Self-Confidence Results in Mission Reluctance

How many times do we hear that we need to have great confidence in ourselves to complete big tasks? Most of us grow up with a message, at least from our culture, that we need to believe in ourselves and step out into the world with confidence. If you don’t believe you can do it, you won’t do it. To achieve big things, you need to believe you can achieve big things. When it comes to the biggest task that any Christian can perform, we are told not to have any confidence in ourselves. In fact, an elevated confidence in self is more likely to see us fail.

Our Big Task:

In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus gave his disciples that great commission. They and all disciples after them are to go out in the authority of Christ with the task of making disciples of all nations. This is a monumental task and the barriers to it are beyond human ability. The task of bringing another human being to deny themselves, turn from their whole paradigm of belief and hope, and put all reliance, hope, and trust in Christ is an impossible mission.

Someone might object to that being an impossible task. Why would Jesus ever call us to an impossible task? We just need lots of training. We need to become experts in apologetics so that we can dismantle the worldviews of our opponents and persuade them with biblical logic. We need to know methods and questioning techniques that guide the lost down a path that is too good to refuse. In short, we need to have lots of training and intense practice. We need strategic goals and cleverly thought-out programs that bring people into our doors.

As we have applied the great commission, especially in the modern context, most Christians have experienced some degree of evangelistic strategies that are purposed to give us more confidence in our mission. While some of this training and even some programs can be helpful, I’ve never seen any of this overcome the general lack of confidence that Christians often exhibit when it comes to our great mission. The more confidence we put in human persuasions, ideas, and strategies, the more we realize that we are inept and even incompetent for the job. Even when there is a seeming show of success and mass attendance, we are still left with the question… “Are these people really disciples?”

There is no amount of confidence we can put in a human being to obtain what can only be a super-human result. The transformation of any single human being from death to life can only be accomplished by One who has all power over human life. When we put confidence in humans or in human schemes for mission, it actually works against our confidence in mission. We find confidence for our evangelistic mission in one place alone – GOD.  That’s why we never see the apostle Paul thanking any human for the work of salvation being wrought in another human. We have confidence because we serve a God who saves.

 Romans 6:17-18 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Human Frailty Helps You Worship

One of my favorite accounts of Jesus’ miracles in the gospels is John’s account of raising Lazarus from the dead. It grabs our attention because death is death, and no human can defeat it. When Jesus raises a man from the dead we marvel at the impossible and grasp the true hope that Christ really can defeat death and give eternal life. Besides the life-giving power of the Messiah, we also see Jesus in complete sovereign control of the whole situation without any stress or anxiety about what he is doing or where he is going. The same cannot be said for us.

In John’s account (John 11:1-16) our focus is turned toward the conversation that Jesus has with his disciples. While the glory of Christ will be magnified beyond understanding in his resurrection miracle, the disciples exemplify human frailty for us all.

1.     We get ill and die.

This is obvious! We all know that the frailty of humanity is seen in illness and death, but while we rely on medicines and treatments, we all know that we face something in our life in this world that is ultimately incurable and will be our demise. That’s a fact of human frailty.

2.     We are finite in power and knowledge.

In verse 4, Jesus says that Lazarus would go through this so that Jesus’ glory might be manifested. Surely the disciples could not possibly understand how Jesus would know the outcome of this situation or how he would reverse it by his power. Our lives are limited in that we live only in the present and have no real power or absolute knowledge over the future. We are finite creatures bound by time and space and cannot control it.

3.     We are pressured by the urgent.

Jesus knew his friend was going to die. In fact, by the time Jesus arrived at the tomb in Bethany, Lazarus had been dead for four days. When Jesus found out that his friend was ill, he waited two more days before doing anything (vs. 6). When we read of this two day delay, we want to ask, “why?” We want Jesus to ride in on a galloping horse doing all he can to get there in time to stop death occurring in the first place. The reason we are pressured by the urgent is because we are subjects of our circumstances. Jesus is able to reverse the consequences of any and every circumstance whether past, present or future.

4.     We are fearful.

The disciples were well aware that Jesus had previous troubles in Judea. The Jews wanted to stone Jesus (vs. 8), but Jesus knew it was not yet his time. Sometimes even in fear we are willing to go to our death for those we love.  It seems that this may have even been the case for Thomas (vs. 16). We are so often at the mercy of others, and it can be a scary thing. Jesus only came under the brutality of men when it was his sovereign will for them to crucify him.

5.     We see a vast difference between illness and death.

To us, even when sick, the difference between illness and death is the difference between life and death. To Jesus, death is every bit as curable as influenza. Jesus described to the disciples that he was simply going to awaken Lazarus. The disciples believed that Lazarus must still simply be sick and sleeping. Jesus had to tell the disciples that Lazarus was indeed dead. For the disciples, to go to a dead man is simply to mourn his death. The opportunity for help had passed. Jesus faces death with the omnipotence due only to God.

When we read accounts like this in the gospels, we should look both at the wonder of Christ and the frailty of humanity. When we see our frailty for what it really is, the glory of Christ shines brighter. Our hope in Christ is strengthened. Our need for Christ is heightened. Our love of Christ is intensified. Our worship of Christ is authenticated.

We have all the need, and he has all the glory.

Following Faithful Christians

In Matthew 23:1-12 Jesus addresses a crowd and his own disciples in the temple courts and basically tells them not to follow the Scribes and Pharisees.  He explicitly tells them not to do what they do and not to seek what they seek. They preach what they do not practice, so do not follow the unfaithful. Surely then, the opposite would be to truly follow the faithful.

In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul says, “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ.”  This is a beautiful statement from Paul.  He doesn’t simply say for the Corinthian church to simply imitate him, but only on the basis of him imitating Christ.  Imitate faithfulness.  Another beautiful example of this is found in Paul’s letter to Timothy and this time the example is Timothy’s mother and grandmother.

2 Timothy 1:5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. Paul doesn’t say that Timothy believes the same dogma.  He doesn’t say that Timothy has merely had the same intellectual ascent and worldview as his mother and grandmother. He says that Timothy has a sincere faith that first dwelt in Lois and Eunice.  I can only imagine the beautiful examples that these wonderful women were to this young man. This was not a case of hypocritical Pharisees teaching excessive rules and not keeping them themselves.  This was the case of two women committed to the truth of Scripture and lovingly living it out as Timothy watched and listened. Timothy experienced the beauty of faithfulness and with his own sincere faith in Jesus became to Paul, a true child in the faith.

Often, especially if you are a parent, it’s easy to forget that the example of faith is the powerful communication of the authenticity of the faith we proclaim. Timothy witnessed this in his mother and grandmother and Paul reminds him of this, twice.  2 Timothy 3:14-15 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

It is not Lois and Eunice who can take credit for Timothy becoming wise unto salvation. That was a work of God’s sovereign grace. Even so, Paul reminds Timothy of the vehicle of God’s grace that he used to bring him into the faith and equip him with the beautiful truth of the gospel and the entire Scriptures as he pastored a church to train them in every good work.

This is the rallying point for every Christian as we seek to honor God as faithful witnesses - To be the faithful servant of the Lord.  We pray that we might follow the faithfulness of the example of these two ladies.  We pray that people may be able to say what we say and do what we do as we proclaim Christ and imitate him.

The Questioning Child

Guest Blog from Ryan Liebert

Matthew 18:1-3

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him among them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you change and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

When I think back to being a child, one thing I remember is how much I longed for the time when I would no longer be a child! There was an anticipation of turning 16 and being able to drive a car. There was a desire for the freedom that would come with turning 18 and legally being considered an adult. And of course, there was a distant hope of a career and the autonomy that seems to follow “growing up.” I thought, “When I’m older, I’ll have freedom, authority, and I’ll be able to do what I want!” However, when Jesus instructed His disciples on greatness, He directed their attention away from self-exaltation and toward the example of a little child. He told them, “Whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” It is this child-like humility that God is seeking to cultivate in His people and is a true mark of greatness. Here are three characteristics of this child-like humility that we should cultivate.

First, child-like humility leads to an accurate view of who we really are before God. When we’re blind to the Lord and His gospel, the result is a pride that grows into deluded self-exaltation. John calls it the pride of life (1 Jn. 2:16), where the motivation to make a name for ourselves and be esteemed by others turns our focus to personal achievement and advancement. The reality is that our self-exaltation does not achieve the righteousness of God and isn’t even a real representation of who we are! Just as Paul says, “For if anyone thinks that He is something when He is nothing, He deceives Himself” (Gal. 6:3). But when God shines the light of the gospel into our hearts, we see the greatness of God. He is the one who breathed the universe into existence, He is the one who is rightly called The Almighty. Under such revelation, we find our rightful place of child-like humility. A child has no pretension of his position in the world. While God’s power is limitless and His greatness unmatched, I am actually very small and insignificant. At the same time, I can look up to such a great God and exalt in Him. Such revelation should stir in us a child-like humility that says with David, “What is man that you are mindful of him?” (Psa. 8:4).

Second, child-like humility turns our mind toward the instruction of God’s Word. We can all think back to the stretch of our lives where we were ignorant of God and of the hope of the gospel. But at the right time, God revealed His Son and His gospel in us. After that, we finally could start to see the boundless mines of wisdom and knowledge that are available to us in Jesus Christ. While pride fools us into thinking that we know better than most or we have little to learn, God’s converting grace changes us into little children who admit they know little but are hungry to learn. Accordingly, we plant at the feet of Jesus and desire to hear any word of instruction from Him. As the Hymn goes, “Blessed Jesus, at thy word, we are gathered all to hear thee.”

And finally, child-like humility leads us to ask sincere questions about God and His gospel. Asking sincere questions has the ability to grow us up in our salvation. Asking questions sometimes makes us feel vulnerable because it reveals the limitations of our own understanding. We typically want to be the smartest person in the room (and often times think we are!). But when the reality of God and His gospel dawns on us, we are met with a Subject of study that can never be mastered. Asking questions about God and the gospel, is a lovely characteristic of child-like humility. A child freely asks questions with no consideration of what it reveals about how he compares to others. What is more, God tells us that He loves to hear our voice (Song. 2:14) and that if we lack wisdom we should ask through prayer (James 1:5). God gives us a church family where, as iron sharpens iron so two church family members can sharpen each other (Prov. 27:17). And God gives us pastors and teachers that are approachable and able to answer our questions if we would simply ask (Eph. 4:11-13).

May God help each one of us to cultivate a child-like humility that makes us great in God’s sight.

Let's Not Reduce Heaven to Sentimentality

Some time ago I wrote a poem that conveyed my thoughts about a husband’s love for his wife along side his longing for heaven. So often when we think about heaven, we can reduce it merely to the sentimentality of seeing loved ones and miss that God himself is our prize and is giving us a glorious reward in Christ beyond our imagination. When we understand the glory of the resurrection, we will still desire that our loved ones will be with us, but we will also anticipate that there is something so much greater. I hope my words somehow inspire some thought. It’s ok to have a loving caring sentiment, but let’s watch out so that we do not reduce God’s glorious eternity to sentimentality. Words inspired by Matthew 22:30.

You’ll Be There As Well.

With tender kiss and warm embrace, contentment filled my heart

I looked upon your restful face, God’s gift of finest art

And as I lay in moonlight’s rule, succumb to heavy eyes

I fell as slumber ruled my mind and dreamt beyond the skies.

I dreamt I stood before my God, with guilt laid bare to see

But Christ stood as my substitute, and He perfected me

I stood beside a cloud of saints, and on my knees I fell

The Lamb was roaring from His throne, and you were there as well.

I sat before the King of Kings, where tables filled His hall

A royal heir at every seat, to hear the Bridegroom’s call

Choirs of angels filled the room as heaven’s wedding bell

The consummation feast had come, and you were there as well.

I walked the garden of The Lord, with not a single care

The river flowed so fresh and clear, and praises filled my prayer

This new creation bares His name, new earth for God to dwell

With all the saints I worshipped Him, and you were there as well.

A ray of light in glory shone, in warmth of life and love

Illuminating from The Son, no need for sun above

I leapt in His great light of joy, with inner blissful swell

Christ is my everlasting light, and you were there as well.

The wolves were playing with the lambs and serpents had no bite

This Kingdom’s wealth is in The Lord, no need for widow’s mite

No sickness fear or sorrow found, no death to bid farewell

For Eden was redeemed at last, and you were there as well.

My heart was bathed in Jesus Christ, and to The Father’s praise

Perfected in The Spirit’s love, to live eternal days

And though my eyes were full on Him, I saw you in His house

And I remembered back on earth, that you were once my spouse

I woke from sleep and rested there, and dwelt upon my dream

The dwelling presence of My God is this celestial theme

For faith in Christ is now my life, His Kingdom my reward

In Him alone I have my home when all will be restored

I looked at you again my love, and knew my final vow

The most I can achieve for you is in the here and now

The best a human can obtain is given all of grace

To love you most comes my desire to point you to His face

My love for you in truth is this, the object of my search

That I will love you just as Christ has loved His blood bought church

And joy in me has overflowed to heights I cannot tell

To think today that when I’m home, that you’ll be there as well.

You Might Be a Zealot if......

First century zealots were a group of people who were intense Jewish nationalists and outraged at Roman rule. There were various conflicts and uprisings led by one main family of Zealots and they all ended in tragedy. Whether the zealots liked it or not, Rome was the power of the day and Caesar was in charge. Zealots were deeply religious and even associated with one of the rabbinical schools of the day. One of the two biggest differences between the two Jewish rabbinical schools of the time was that one school (Hillel) was intensely focused on Jewish worship while the other (Shammai) were intense nationalists and as such focused on the recovery of Jewish national identity. While Jews for the most part were not in favor of Roman rule, zealots were distinct. 

In his famous work, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Alfred Edersheim states how Jesus was completely opposite to the zealots. “Only the Kingdom of which Jesus was the King was, as he himself said, not of this world, and of far different conception from that for which the Nationalists longed.” There in a nutshell Edersheim has described the difference between Christ and not only Jewish zealots but every kind of zealot in history. The difference is one of longing. You might be a zealot if your longing for a particular national identity and geo-political entity trumps your longing for the Kingdom of Christ that is not of this world.

The fact that Jesus consistently avoids a nationalistic pursuit should not be lost on Christians when we read the gospels. It should not be lost on us when we see an absence of this pursuit in the proceeding New Testament epistles. We simply do not see this thrust in the New Testament. Most of all, we don’t see it in Jesus.

Jesus denied Satan’s temptation to give him all the kingdoms of the world. If his desire was to reform a Jewish nationalistic identity, surely it would be easier to take Satan’s offer and avoid the cross. After the display of Jesus’ power in feeding the 5000, the crowd wanted to take him by force and make him their king. Surely, if Jesus desired to reclaim and protect the Jewish way of life, he could have used that supernatural power to go with the crowd and stir the world to overthrow Rome. He is the One who can feed the whole world. Who wouldn’t want him on the throne? If Jesus could but speak so to cause a whole band of soldiers to fall over, surely he would have no real opposition to eradicating Roman rule in Jerusalem. Instead, Jesus rebuked Peter for the use of the sword, healed the ear of one of his captors, and went peaceably to his trial. 

Probably the most explicit statement from Jesus is heard as he faced the Roman Governor Pilate. John 18:35-36 Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?" 36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." If we read this carefully, in verse 35 Pilate describes Israel as Jesus’ own nation. Pilate is talking about the geo-political entity and its religious leaders. In verse 36 Jesus corrects Pilate stating that HIS Kingdom is not of this world. If Jesus was here to restore, reclaim, or reform a geo-political or earthly religious entity, his disciples would right now be fighting to free him. One of Jesus’ disciples, Simon, was a former zealot, and even he did nothing of the sort. The Kingdom of Christ, to which everyone in Christ belongs, is not of this world. For Christ, the way of his Kingdom was the cross, and he made the cross the entry point of his Kingdom for all mankind.

We who are in Christ share Christ’s purpose, and our longing is for his Kingdom which is not of this world. Jesus has led us by showing us a pin-point focus on purpose and destination that all of his disciples must follow. That is not the way of zealous nationalism, but a zealous mission of the cross. If the church loses our way on this, we lose the hope of the gospel. We lose everything. We need to protect ourselves from being zealots and the way to do that is to follow Christ.

You might be a zealot if the name of Jesus is being used for nationalistic reform rather than gospel proclamation. Even so, a Christian is zealous. It’s a missionary zeal for a Kingdom not of this world. John 18:37 Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world--to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice."

God's Sovereignty and Human Responsibility: Awkward!

People have often asked me about how I teach the doctrine of election as it relates to human responsibility. I often say, “When the text clearly states the doctrine of election, I preach it, and when the text clearly states human responsibility, I preach it.” In Romans 9, I preach that God will have mercy on whom he has mercy. In Romans 10 I preach that people must hear the gospel in order to come. I believe that salvation is all of God and all of grace and that every human being is completely and individually responsible before him.

We often find this awkward because these two realities do not have a clear attachment that works easily for the human mind. Some who attempt to attach the doctrines together in a neat little system end up destroying one of them in the process. Sometimes when we read through texts of Scripture and find these two truths in close proximity to each other we sense an awkward tension. Most scholars call this tension a ‘mystery.’ I like this word because it points us to the fact that there is truth beyond human comprehension that can only be known in the realm of God’s transcendent wisdom. On the human level, and outside our ability to fully understand the mystery, it remains a little awkward.

One great example of this is found in Jesus’ parable of the tenants in Matthew 22. In this parable Jesus talks about a group of people who reject an invitation from the king to the royal wedding feast for his son. This first group of people represents the Jewish rejection of Jesus. In response to this, the king sends out his servants to invite anyone and everyone they can find. In this illustration we have a very clear indication that the proclamation of the gospel, while rejected by Jews, is to be an indiscriminate proclamation to the entire world. The hope of the indiscriminate proclamation of the gospel is that all who hear will respond and celebrate the wedding feast of the king’s son. In this part of the parable, we have a clear acknowledgment of the reality of human responsibility before God.

At the end of the parable, Jesus finishes with these words: “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Now we have an awkward tension. In the indiscriminate proclamation of the gospel, Jesus doesn’t say that few agree or accept or choose or decide. He says that few are chosen. In one small sentence, side by side, we see the responsibility of man and the sovereignty of God. Does it do anything more for us than simply present an awkward tension? I hope so.

We can be confident in these words. While we cannot make humanity accept the invitation of the gospel, we can be confident that God saves. We can be grateful for these words. While every single person in the world deserves hell, God extends mercy by his perfect love and wisdom. We can grieve over these words. So many humans hear the gospel and walk in willful rejection of their only hope of salvation. But we can also feel the urgency of these words. God uses the means of obedient servants proclaiming an indiscriminate proclamation of salvation to reach others, so we must mobilize the invitation urgently and globally.

“Many are called, but few are chosen.” It might seem like an awkward sentence, but it is true, and its ramifications are huge.

How Callous Do You Have to Be to Dismiss Jesus?

Hebrews 1:1-6 1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. 5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you"? Or again, "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son"? 6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him."

Why is it that so many people hear Christ and reject him? Why is it that whole religions have broken from Christianity on the basis of making Jesus to be less than who he is? The biblical answer is that we are dead in sin and need to be made alive through the regenerating work of God through his gospel. Even so, when the bible presents Christ to us (all through the bible), we are not given any uncertainty about who he is. The magnitude of our responsibility is multiplied by the magnitude of his authority and glory.

When the human author of Hebrews was introducing Jesus, he immediately made a distinct differentiation between Jesus and every other human and every other created being. Prior to the first advent of Christ, God spoke predominantly through his prophets who were servants of his word to his people. The prophets had mixed responses from the people of Israel and were often persecuted for bringing warnings of judgment to a disobedient nation. When Jesus came into this world as God taking on human flesh, God was speaking directly to us in and through the second in the Trinity – the Son. Not only is Jesus introduced as God’s Son, he is introduced as the Creator of all things and the Heir of all things. In Christ, all things exist and in Christ all things are owned. This separates Jesus from both humans and angels who are created beings of Christ. God never spoke about angels or other humans in the same way he spoke about his Son. Furthermore, God who never shares worship, declares that all, including angels, should worship Jesus.

When Mormons uphold their modern day prophets as God’s ongoing revelation and reject that Jesus is the final and full revelation of God, they callously reject the unmistakable scriptural presentation of Christ. Jesus is clearly the fullest revelation of God as the exact imprint of his nature. All the prophets pointed to him and in his special revelation to us; Christ is the fullest expression of God to us. The prophets have been fulfilled, and in these last days God has spoken to us through his Son. 

When Jehovah’s Witnesses express that Jesus is a created being and not in fact the One True Living God, the clear presentation of Jesus shows us that as Creator and Owner of all things and as the One receiving all worship, we are left without doubt that the Son is God.

When Jews ignore that Jesus is the Lord and Messianic King of the entire Old Testament, they are rejecting every prophecy fulfilled in his coming into this world from birth to ascension. They reject his purification for sins in the fulfillment of sacrifice and the temple and they reject his authority as the resurrected Lord on the throne of the Majesty on high.

I know that we could continue with a great list of religions that reject the reality of who Jesus is.  I know that each of them would have their own attempts to defend their positions.  But…. The Scriptures are clear and anyone reading the bible in the light of its countless declarations that it is the written word of God must at least admit that Christ is presented as the all-authoritative God of the universe and only Savior of the world through the substitutionary atoning work of the cross and that he is the Risen King returning to judge. This is who every human is responsible before. To deny what the Scriptures say about Jesus is to deny who Jesus is.

So I ask…. How callous does one have to be to dismiss Jesus?

Why Can't I Move Mountains?

In Matthew 21:21-22 and 17:20 Jesus tells his disciples that if they have faith (even little faith) and do not doubt, that they will move mountains. I have faith, even if it’s a little faith like the tiny mustard seed, but I cannot move mountains. The disciples proved themselves to be men of great faith. Paul never physically moved a mountain, but if you read 2 Corinthians 11 you will find that Paul’s faith exceeded what most of us would never imagine claiming. His list of beatings and whippings and shipwrecks displays an enormous persevering faith. It seems like most of the disciples became faithful martyrs and John was exiled for the sake of his faith. Not one of them physically moved a mountain – not one inch. There is not one discussion in all of the letters of the New Testament in them even making an attempt to move a mountain or expecting it to happen. In 2000 years of church history, not one Christian with the smallest or greatest amount of faith has ever moved a mountain.

When Jesus makes these statements, we should see them as examples of hyperbole in his speech. On two occasions, Jesus was making a point to his disciples that there are greater works than the physical manifestation of a tree withering or a mountain moving. The problem with us is that we can be easily tempted to think that we must be persuaded by a spectacular sign of our choosing. We can easily be led to be like the unbelieving Jews who “seek a sign” (1 Corinthians 1:22). Unfortunately whole movements within Christianity have made “signs and wonders” a necessity for the proving of faith.

Is there a great work that can be assessed as so significant that Jesus would describe it in terms of a mountain being thrown into the sea? I would say among other things, there is one specific work of God that makes such a wonder pale in significance. Which would you rather choose: to have the miraculous ability to pick up a mountain and throw it into the sea, or to watch a human being dead in sin under the eternal condemnation of God come to regenerating life and reconciliation with the Creator for all eternity? The one-time event of a mountain being relocated seems menial in comparison.

Interestingly, Jesus says prayer is required to do anything, even miracles. Why? Because at the end of the day it is not actually our work. None of us can revitalize a cold dead heart as much as we can throw a mountain. Both are a work of God and considering that he is the God who spoke the entire creation into existence, both are easy for God. If he wills, it happens. The one truth we all must realize in this is that it is only the work of justification that also required God coming into this world, taking on our sin, and experiencing the eternal wrath of God in substitution for us. Anyone rejecting Christ and his glorious sacrifice will be and deserves to be plucked up like a mountain and thrown into a sea. In effect that is what happens whenever the gospel we proclaim is rejected.

Let’s be people, even of little faith, who trust in our God who has both the ability and the desire to save. Let’s live in the strength of his unlimited power displayed so gloriously in the death and resurrection of Jesus our Savior and King.

Mercy Drives Worship

Romans 12:1 – “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

In what many regard as the Magnum Opus of the Apostle Paul, the book of Romans contains one case after another as Paul unpacks the devastation of human sin and the grace of God in the gospel of Christ. For 11 chapters, Paul has revealed the nature of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone ending in the last verses of chapter 11 exploding in praise to the acknowledgment that it is all to God’s glory alone. In chapter 12 Paul makes a statement about the life of the believer based on the character of God so explicitly revealed in the gospel he has so intricately explained. The believer is motivated by the mercy of God to live a life of unrelenting worship. In the fuller gospel context of the entire book of Romans, 12:1 seems to succinctly outline the only proper response to the limitless mercies of God – a living sacrifice of holy, acceptable worship.

The moment Paul uses the word, “sacrifice,” we immediately think of the altar of the temple and animals being slain in hope of atonement for sin. Paul can’t mean that we are going to sacrifice our own bodies as an atoning sacrifice because this is what he has spent eleven chapters explaining that Christ has already fully and finally done. The atoning work of Christ as substitution for our sin is the richest and most glorious aspect of God’s mercy toward us. He alone is our atoning sacrifice. What Paul is saying is that because of God’s mercy, most profoundly displayed in the atoning work of the cross, everything we are and have belong to him. He paid for it. Our lives are completely for him. In Christ we have been made alive to worship God. This is the purpose he originally had for us before Genesis 3 took humanity into a devastating tailspin.

As we think of being a sacrifice, we do consider the mediating work of the temple, but for us it is different. For the Old Covenant believer, the temple was where mediating sacrifice was done and where God was present in acceptance. It was through the temple that the Old Covenant believer could worship God and present total adoration and allegiance to our Creator. In the New Covenant, Christ has fulfilled the temple, atoned for sin, and in him we have direct access to the Father. We become a temple of the Holy Spirit. We are a temple of worship, and that worship is to be based on our new life given to him in sacrifice because of Christ’s sacrifice. It is based on God’s mercy. 

We who were once deemed utterly unholy, displeasing and unacceptable to God, by God’s mercy can now live in a completely opposite manner. We who were once unable to express any kind of acceptable worship have become temples of worship. Because of God’s mercy, worship has become our identity. It’s who we are, and therefore, how we are to live.

Jesus Stands on The Mount of Olives

When Zechariah was prophesying to the returning exiles, he was motivating them to continue with the building program for the temple and city in their worship of God. Under the inspiration of God and through a series of visions, Zechariah gives a message to God’s people to keep going. Part of the motivation of Zechariah’s message was to give them a glimpse of the ultimate victory of God for his people on “that day.”  In the 14th chapter, the day Zechariah seems to be talking about is the final day of deliverance and most Christians would ultimately see this as the second coming of Christ.

On that day, Zechariah says, “his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.”(Zechariah 14:4-5). In apocalyptic images, we have a picture of the Lord coming in final judgment and salvation on the Mount of Olives and his coming is so powerful and awesome that the very mountains spread out in his presence. This is a scene of absolute sovereign power and majesty. The return of Christ will be full of awe and glory.

Why is Jesus depicted as coming on the Mount of Olives?  We can only guess why this is chosen as the arrival destination of the Lord in this vision, but recently something stood out to me with piercing force.  Two thousand years ago this is exactly where Jesus came from in his “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem.

The Mount of Olives stands above the Temple Mount on the other side of the Kidron Valley.  I have stood at a lookout on the Mount of Olives as I looked down upon Jerusalem and the mosque that now stands in the place of the temple. This was once the glorious scene of the coming of Christ on this mountain.  He rode the foal of a donkey from the Mount of Olives toward the great City of the King. The crowd around Jesus threw their cloaks and cut of branches and threw them on the ground before the donkey in making way for the King’s procession. The shouts and acclamations of Hosanna echoed across the valley and the residents of Jerusalem looked up and across.  Shockwaves spread across the city of Jerusalem and the Judean residents demanded to know, “who is this?” (Matthew 21:1-11).

This was not the second coming of Christ, it was the first. In one sense it was a fulfillment without consummation. The King has indeed stood on the Mount of Olives, he has indeed come in victory and the people of Israel have looked up and heard his proclamation. He came into the city with both acceptance and widespread rejection.  They crucified him. Little did they know that their wicked judgment upon the rejected Messiah was the victory of the Lord of Lords and King of Kings.  One day he will return and like Israelites in Jerusalem we will look up and hear his proclamation.  The final day of judgment and salvation will arrive because the day of judgment and salvation has already arrived. On that last day, those who believe in him will be made like him because they will see him as he is. (1 John 3:2).  Others will perish for all eternity?  ….  Who is this? It is the one who brings justice and salvation.  He is the King.

Post 2020, The Church is Still Beautiful.

Let’s face it, 2020 was a difficult year for the church. It seemed to be a year when issues of conscience and preference took precedence in fierce dialogue between Christians – especially on social media. Shutdown mandates, masks, vaccinations, social justice debates, election campaigns and result allegations lit up social media and divided many congregations in a crescendo of opinion among believers about the place of public theology. As I reminisce about 2020, I would simply sum it up as a year that exposed that we all need a healthy biblical balance of grace and truth. And yet…I still say with great confidence that the church is beautiful and God will succeed in the display of his glory in his people.

The Prophet Isaiah wrote for a people who were exiled in Babylon and not at all feeling like a picture of God’s glory. In the midst of their darkness, God gave them this promise: “For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. 2 The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give. 3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. 4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. 5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” (Isaiah 62:1-4). This is quite a substantial promise, and the church can learn a lot from it.

1.     God will not be silent about his glory.

When we think that God does not seem to be declaring his glory through his people, we can be assured that in the course of God’s eternal plan, his glory will be profoundly displayed. This has already happened in its brightest display in the cross, but in Isaiah 62 God says he will display his glory before the nations through his people. We must be reminded that to the Lord, a day is as of a thousand years and vice versa. When we think that God’s glory may be muffled in a seemingly darker period in the church, we can know that God’s beauty is displayed in his way and in his time. Our faithful God has said that his declaration of glory will ultimately come through his people.

2.     God’s glory is not found in our own name.

In exile, Judah was told that their glory would shine through them by a new name. It was not their glory but glory in a name of God’s choosing and doing. While their name was associated with covenant breaking and unfaithfulness, God would give a new name associated with his glory in faithfulness and redemption. The elect of God finds our glory in Christ alone. We may have had a bad year, but Christ never loses his eminence. Our new name is in Jesus.

3.      The Kings of the world will see God’s glory in his people.

There are ultimately two ways that the people of God will display God’s glory to the nations. The first is through the proclamation of the gospel and the second through final judgment as the church shares final victory in Christ. Since Christ ascended, there has never been a time in this world when the gospel has not been preached. It has been preached in bondage and freedom. It has been preached under the persecution of a Roman church papacy. It has been preached in the open and underground. Whatever the time and circumstance, there has not been a time in the last 2000 years when the name of Jesus has not been preached with gospel precision. In every instance it has displayed the beauty of God’s church reflecting God’s glory. One day that beauty will be on full display before the entire world in all of the King’s children.

4.     Christ delights in his bride.

No matter the circumstance, God delights in his children when he sees them through the lens of Christ who ransomed us. God rejoices over us because we are the bride of Christ. The beauty is his, not ours.

It is true that more than once I was a little disappointed with how the church was presenting itself through the 2020 trial. Even so, there were people who heard the gospel during this time and Jesus remained infinitely glorious. In the imperfection of this Genesis 3 world the church doesn't always shine as brightly as it should, but the truth is that God will not be silent about his glory and in his good timing the church will be perfected in Christ before kings, rulers, powers and principalities. Years like 2020 come and go, but Christ is building his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The church is beautiful because Jesus is beautiful.

My Testimony of The Glory of Christ

Normally in my pre-sermon writings I consider some Scriptural theme that will help our church family to prepare for the Sunday sermon. As I considered our topic for this week, “The Beauty of Christ,” I couldn’t help but give my personal testimony about a subject that has become more valuable to me than anything in this world and my undying passion in pastoral ministry.

About 11 years ago, two dear friends who have since become invaluable mentors introduced me to the great Puritan, John Owen, by giving me a copy of The Glory of Christ. Little did I know that this book would be used by God as a powerful instrument of change in my life. The Glory of Christ is a wonderful journey into seeing all the aspects of Christ’s beauty and glory in his character and works, but Owen also talks about the importance of gazing upon the beauty of Christ. For a guy who would often read the bible and look for argumentation, doctrine, information, and any tasty morsel that could be used to show that I was a “bible guy,” The Glory of Christ completely reshaped my view of the Scriptures and my view of myself.

Owen wrote, “No man shall ever behold the glory of Christ in heaven who does not, in some measure, behold it by faith in this world.” This might seem like a simple statement of fact well known to every Christian, but to a guy who was all about dogma, doctrine, and reputation, I had to ask myself a very solemn question: “Do I truly behold the glory of Christ by faith in my life right now?” I was a man who could defend the deity and humanity of Christ. I was a man who upheld the historicity of his incarnation and the supernatural reality of his miracles. I would be quick to proclaim the bodily resurrection of Jesus as essential to the gospel. (Disclaimer: All of these are vitally important and I am not saying we should ever neglect the need to defend Christian orthodoxy.) But Owen challenged me with an enormous question: “You know about the doctrines of Christ, but do you treasure him and how does it impact your life?”

The Glory of Christ gave me a new sense of the exaltation of Christ in all of the Scriptures. I started asking myself questions about the person of Christ rather than simply about the doctrines of Christianity. I gazed upon the beauty of Christ’s pre-incarnate glory. I gazed upon the beauty of Christ’s infinite condescension in his incarnation. I gazed upon his grace. I gazed upon his piercing truth that pinpoints the reality of my heart. I gazed upon his love and his unrelenting mercy. I gazed upon him suffering and dying in my place. I marveled at the perfection of my substitute atoning for my sin. I gazed upon his obedience to the Father in the perfect unity of the Trinity. I gazed upon his perfect holiness in every word and action. I gazed upon his death conquering resurrection, and I couldn’t stop rejoicing that he was the one true all-powerful and sovereign King of the universe – My King.

I reconsidered the way I held every position of doctrine and truth in my life, and it yielded an overwhelming change. I no longer believed in Christ because I could uphold the authority of the Scriptures. I upheld the authority of the Scriptures because I most treasured Christ. This may not seem like much of a change to you, but for me, it was huge. As I gaze upon Christ and delight in his beauty, he reveals my pride, my idolatry, my fleshly motivations and ambitions. When I see his glorious humility, he shows me a new way. When I see his spectacular love and mercy, he shows me a new way. When I see his compassion for the lost, he shows me a new way. When I see his glory in suffering, he shows me a new way. That new way is not just his example, but in seeing his glory in every word and deed I see him and his way as beautiful. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. This now has new meaning to me because the person of Christ is infinitely beautiful. My concern for what people think of me and how people treat me in this world has been transformed. I am no longer anywhere near as anxious for the things of this world because as I gaze at the beauty of Jesus, “the things of earth have grown strangely dim.”

Owen put it this way: “If we regularly beheld the glory of Christ our Christian walk with God would become more sweet and pleasant, our spiritual light and strength would grow daily stronger and our lives would more gloriously represent the glory of Christ. Death would be most welcome to us.”

Doctrine is important, but please, please, please, let it point you to the beauty of Jesus. Gaze upon him!